Summer came and went, most of it spent on his usual routine. Spending days helping his mom, and nights going around the city, searching for anyone else he recognised. It couldn't have just been his family right? Somewhere out there, they had to be alive. Despite his line of thinking, his midnight travels to Seoul yielded no fruit. Gun-hee, Yoon-ho, Hae-in, no where to be found. Perhaps...they were never born?

Shaking these thoughts from his head, he made his way to the front door, before being stopped by his mother.

"Well, today's the big day honey. I know you must be nervous, but know i'm rooting for you! And don't be discouraged if-"

"Mom, I promise."

She shifted uncomfortably with those words. A small falter in her smile, she felt vulnerable after everything happened. She oh so wish she could just take her kids into her arms and promise them everything was gonna be alright, but that wasn't going to happen after what had transpired.

Years ago, Jin-woo came home from his late travels to find his mom asleep on the kitchen table. Exhausted as ever. After a botched villain raid in the states, Sung Il-Hwan went missing attempting to finish the villains off for good. The next several months were spent trying to find out what happened, to no avail. As if whatever and whoever was involved vanished from existence. It was a particularly bad time for would be criminals on the west coast, stories began to circulate of a vigilante organization who would drag you into the shadows, never to be seen again.

Regardless, it meant his mother had to get a job of her own. Two jobs to be exact, a nice three bedroom apartment in the safe part of the city wasn't cheap. Unlike the other earth, it's not like he could sneak in a gate and take some rare gems. And stealing money didn't sit right with him. And so, his quest to become a hero was just that much more important, this wasn't about just fun anymore. He had a promise to keep, to support his family and put his sister through the best colleges around.

Seeing the look in his eye, the same his father would have when it came to hero business, she gained back her positive mood and smiled warmly at him, knowing he, and by association they, were going to be just fine.

He probably wasn't dressed for the occasion after all…

Within the massive room that was the UA auditorium, he decided to take a quick peak at the competition. Everyone seemed to be kitted out in high grade sports wear at best, and at the very least some sort of flexible, track wear. And here he was in a black hoodie and some jeans, all ready for a sunday drive to the local grocery mart.

"Excuse me Sir! It says here that there is 4 types of enemies! Is that to be believed as a mistake? We are here on the basis that UA has only the highest of standards of excellence!"

'Talk about high strung'

"Ah, good eye! Don't worry young man, I was just getting to that. You see that fourth enemy type is something special. You get zero points for it and in all honesty it's probably a better option to just run! It goes crazy in close spaces!"

"Thank you very much, I apologise for my outburst!"

All things considered, this should be easy. But he knows better than to underestimate his opponents. He isn't here to slack off and take his time, he's here to become a hero as fast as possible, with as much superiority as possible. He quickly remembered his time as a guild leader. There was no need to hold back. Taking entire dungeons by himself, proving himself more than a match for already established guilds, pounding Thomas Andre to a pulp which the entire world found out about. Hiding his power was not his forte, he didn't care about the feelings of those around him, not anymore.

And so when all the examinees were herded into different areas, he completely phased out all the looks and chuckles directed at him. Thanks to his higher than average strength score from all the work the past few years, he had a really toned body and good height at 5'11, not bad for a 14 year old. But his baggy clothes and silent demeanor portrayed him as sheepish to those who didn't recognised him. And since Bakugo was the only other person from his school here, it seemed like everyone counted him as a non factor.

"STAAAAART!"

Gone.

That korean kid who was just in front of them seemed to phase out of reality the moment the gates were barely beginning to open. And what awaited them was something out of a monster flick.

Like a black hole that grew and consumed the light of everything around it, his shadow similarly grew to monstrous proportions, and from it rose a legion of...things. Dozens of dark knights all climbed out of the ground like a fantasy game, and marched around in squads, dividing and conquering portions of the city. those who had the speed and power to really carve out a frontier of their own could make points, such as that loud kid from earlier. But overall, it was a massacre.

Minutes ticked, and it became difficult for nearly anyone to even find points anymore. Wherever they went, they ran into patrols of shadowy figures hunting for the same metal prey they were. A five minute warning was called out, and yet only a small handful of people got any points at all. Those who were shut out walked a slow pace back to the front gates, filled with failure.

Jin-woo watched from above. While a small part of him felt bad, they knew what they were getting into. He wasn't going to hand out points to make others feel a bit better about themselves. He had a family to feed.

Without warning, the ground began to shake akin to a strong earthquake, and a large plume of smoke rose through the air. A few buildings around were toppled like jenga towers. And as the debris spread, it became clear this was that zero point robot they talked about.

'Is it worth fighting?'

Judging by the size and makeup, it wouldn't be too hard, but it would take effort he didn't feel the need to waste. He got his points, and that's all he needed. Aside from that, he was free to leave, until-

"H-Hey! Someone! I'm stuck! My leg is stuck!"

His perception and hearing made out a voice within the deafening sound of the machine and falling buildings. And it didn't betray him, there was a little brown haired girl, her legs trapped underneath debris, broken by the looks of it. The single moment of surprise cost him only a miniscule of a second, but that was enough for the damn metallic monster to send a fist full throttle right down upon her.

'Damn it, no choice now! Sprint!'

With a rush of speed, he closed the gap in an instant and braced his arms forward as the bus sized hand came upon them, then it stopped. Peeking out from her shaky hands, the girl saw something that nearly left her jaw hanging.

this single kid, was holding back the robots fist with his bare hands. They shook and quivered just slightly under the many tons of weight they now held up, but kept the towering construction at bay.

'Tch, If I simply throw it to the side, his momentum will crush the girl. With her broken legs i'd rather not risk doing more damage than I have to, in that case, i'll have to go flashy'

Steeling himself, realising the bot was going to throw its other fist down any moment, uttered a single phrase.

"Rulers authority." And like a jedi out of star wars, began to lift the robot in its entirety into the air, before dropping his hands sharply, the mechanical menace coming down with a speed and force that crushed it to spare parts. The exertion left the korean breathing a bit heavier.

'Good to know, rulers authority still lets me use it the same way, but because of my weaker stats, i'll have to watch my mana consumption when using it on larger enemies'

When he helped the girl up and saw her face, along with the faces of pretty much everyone else, he scratched his head sheepishly for a moment, remembering that he didn't really like being the center of attention.

'Guess I overdid it'

Within the spectator rooms of UA, the teachers gave a standing ovation to this young boy. It has been a long time coming since they last seen such a strong showing.

"What do you think, Aizawa?"

"Raw potential can be a good thing or a bad thing. Even All Might had to be taught once."

"Oppaaaa! It's here!" cried out a high pitched voice.

Jin-woo came out of his room to see his cute 7 year old sister with a package from UA. While normally he wouldn't be nervous at all, since he knew he passed. However would there be something special? Preferential treatment? Maybe a chance to skip highschool altogether? He was used to the higher ups making life easier for him in the form of Go gun-hee essentially just bending laws as a way to keep him in Korea. He preferably would want to get something similar here.

Placing his hand on her head and ruffling it slightly, he took his package and went back to his room. Inside, was a dark disk of sorts. To him it looked like a high tech hockey puck, until it activated and lights turned on all around. It began to play a hologram.

"I am here as a projection!"

'All Might? Why is he with UA? I need to read more news…'

"Actually, I came to this town to work for UA! For a singular purpose, to find special alumni just like you! Young Jin-woo, don't think I didn't recognise you! You were there during my search for the sludge villain! You managed to defeat him all on your own despite being a junior high student. I told you then that your time to shine would come, and here it has! Young man, you have set a new record for the UA entrance exam, a whopping score of 194! Even higher than my own!"

Jin-woo still managed to crack a smile at himself, how petty, with time he could rule the world if he wanted and here he was feeling giddy over beating a mere target practice record.

"And it only gets better from there, you see, those 194 only took into account your villain score. But you pulled quite the spectacle didn't you! We here at UA believe there is more to being a hero than beating up bad guys, which is why there is hero points!"

The screen cut to a table with a list of scores on it. This time with two per person, one under "villain", and one under "rescue". His villain score was 194, but his rescue score was a cool 60. Guess by destroying that thing at the end, he must have saved a good amount of people.

"Prospects of your caliber only come around once in a generation young man, which is why I personally come to you with an offer I think you'd like. In the package there should also be a set of contact info. I'd like to meet you again! Welcome, to your hero academia!"

'What a dump'

The info was just a number and instructions to text it and wait at the Takoba beach. Which was essentially the cities trash disposal site. Disgusting.

"Yo!"

"All Might."

"I see you got my message. I'm glad to meet you again!"

"You said you had an offer for me?" This was the only reason he came. What could the top hero have for him? In all honesty he thought it was going to be a shot at being his sidekick or something, which is why he didn't have his hopes up.

"I already said that I came to this city to work at UA, that much is true, but I admit there's more to it. You have to agree that everything I say will stay between us, is that alright with you young man?"

"I understand." Now he was interested.

"Well, the truth is, i've begun to understand i'm not going to be here forever. Hero work is taking its toll more than ever on me, and I need to take measures fast."

"Huh? You look just fine to me."

"Hahaha! Yeah, that means i'm doing my job!"

"Hm?"

"Sigh, let me show you something."

Jin-woo watched as smoke began to bleed out of All might's muscles. What the hell was going on? He was getting smaller and smaller! Not just that, his power was fading, it was insane! After it cleared, all that was left was a skinny blond who looked more fit to be a chem junky.

"Yeah, trust me I get that look a lot whenever they see it for the first time. Truth is kid, it's my job to be the symbol of piece, but a symbol is more than just being the strongest. It's being a shining beacon to civilians and heroes, a daunting warning for villains. But what symbol can I be if people learned about this."

Jiin-woo's face hardened as the skeleton of a hero lifted up his shirt and revealed a deep, nasty looking scar where his innards should be.