Guys... I'm so happy to have received 200+ views! Thank you for your support and I hope that I won't disappoint you in the future.
Well, most of this chapter is from the first, second and third episodes and there's barely anything new but it still has some important stuff in it, so don't skip it completely. It'll be extra long because I don't want to rewrite canon scenes (like in this chapter) in the next one as well and because I've written down almost every detail from the episodes for the introduction scenes. I'll try to prevent doing this in later chapters if I can.
Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia and any of its characters, these belong solely to Kohei Horikoshi.
9 YEARS LATER
A young and frail green-haired teenager was happily running around the streets. He impatiently waited for the signal to turn green so that he could cross the road and watch the heroes dealing with the villain in action. As he neared the site of action, Tatooin Station, he couldn't help but marvel at the gigantic size of the villain. The villain suddenly waved his arms around (as he was in the middle of dealing with a hero) and hit a tower (that was located at a place several metres above ground and the spectators). The force resulted in the tower breaking off and falling down. Right before the tower could hit the ground and cause massive damage to the road and to the people located nearby, it was caught by a sturdy hero – Death Arms. As a citizen narrated Death Arm's speciality, another hero Backdraft made his appearance and formed a barrier to ensure the citizens' safety. The excited teenager tried to make his way past the crowd to obtain a better view of the scene but miserably failed. While trying, he heard some of the people gossip about the villain who was apparently a purse-snatcher.
The teenager froze as he heard this. His happy and curious demeanour disappeared, he stood there for an entire minute before letting out a shaky smile. With renewed vigour, he made his way through the crowd. As he neared the barrier (formed by Backdraft), he asked no one in particular, "Who is fighting?" He perked up as he saw a hero covered in wood and started rambling about his deeds whilst the hero dealt with the agitated villain (who tried to intimidate the former with his size).
A man standing next to the teenager guessed his fanboy status from the former's excellent commentary, embarrassing the teen. Before the hero in action, Kamui Woods could deal with the villain with his special move Pre-emptive Binding Lacquered Chain Prison, a beautiful gigantic lady (who was even more gigantic than the villain) kicked the villain while screaming, "Canyon Canon" which shocked everyone present (including the heroes). Suddenly, a bunch of male photographers and reporters appeared and started taking pictures of the female hero, Mt. Lady, who had just debuted. As the crowd dispersed, the teen noticed the damage that had occurred because of the scuffle and began taking notes of Mt. Lady while calculating the possible drawbacks and advantages her quirks offered. The man who had praised the teen's commentary was amazed and exclaimed about how he was sure that the teen would definitely become a hero.
This broke the teen from his thoughts who gave the man a bright smile and shouted out, "I'll definitely do my best!" Before the teen disappeared, the man surprised him with a question, "What's your name kid? I would like to know the name of a future hero." The teen answered, "My name is Midoriya Izuku, sir and I'm really sorry but I'll have to hurry back to school." The man laughed and nodded his head while Midoriya ran as fast as he could.
In a classroom in Aldera Junior High School, a teacher was seriously advising the children present about the importance of their future. However, before the teacher distributed the handouts (which were essential for noting down potential senior high schools), the students began activating their quirks and started cheering and the teacher threw the handouts in the air whilst happily announcing that he already knew the children would all become heroes with their excellent quirks before sweetly reminding them about how using their quirks inside school grounds was prohibited.
The excitement died down when a voice called the teacher out, "Sensei! Don't lump us all in the same group. I'm not gonna be stuck at the bottom with the rest of these rejects!" The voice belonged to a well-developed blonde teenager. The other kids angrily started screaming, "That's uncalled for, Katsuki!" Katsuki mockingly half-screamed with his legs on the table, "You all should shut up like the extras you are!" The teacher decided to interrupt the commotion by announcing the blonde, Bakugo Katsuki's decision to join U.A. High School in front of the entire class. This announcement stunned all the students present into silence as they all knew that the national high school was in the top 0.2% and had a really low acceptance rate.
Bakugo calmy and swiftly jumped on the table whilst mocking the students about their 'extra' status. He stunned his entire class into silence by announcing, "I aced the mock test! I'm the only one in this school who could possibly get into U.A. I'll definitely surpass All Might and become the top hero! My name will be inscribed on the list of top earners!" His excitement (which visibly grew with each sentence) was broken by the teacher's question, "Oh yeah, Midoriya wanted to go to U.A. too, right?"
Midoriya, who'd kept his head down during the entire interaction suddenly stiffened and slowly raised his head only to meet his classmates' mocking expressions as they laughed at his choice while screaming, "Huh? Midoriya! No way!" "You can't get into the hero course just by studying!" At that statement, Midoriya timidly stood up from his seat and meekly protested, "Th-they got rid of that rule! There's just no precedent…" but was interrupted halfway due to an explosion that broke his desk in half. The culprit of the said explosion, Bakugo, insulted poor Midoriya, "Hey Deku! You're below the rejects and extras! You're quirkless! How can you even stand in the same ring as me?" The weak boy tried defending himself, "No, wait, Kacchan! It's not like I'm trying to compete with you or anything! Believe me!" His face softened as he explained, "It's just that it's been my goal ever since I was little. And well… I won't know unless I try…" He was once again interrupted by the blonde who angrily demanded, "Whaddaya mean unless you try?! Are you taking the test for fun? What the hell can you do? You're quirkless!"
Midoriya sadly looked at the ground as he heard these words. 'What would you have me do, Emi? How would you deal with this situation? How would you prove and convince everyone that being quirkless isn't a curse? I'm sure these guys wouldn't say anything like this if you were here. They would've treated the quirkless with respect and wouldn't dare demean him with these hurtful words. Oh Emi-nee, things would've been so different if... I so dearly wish you were here with me right now and not so far away!' Izuku sadly thought, whilst his fingers moved towards his All Might themed necklace his sister made for him all those years ago.
As school ended and students began leaving the classroom, Izuku began checking his phone and realised that the incident with Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady was all over the news. "I want to hurry up and go home so I can write it down in my notebook", he mumbled to himself, staring at his notebook which was suddenly taken away by Katsuki. The blonde spoke in a normal and threatening tone, "I'm not done talking to you, Deku." "What's that Katsuki?", asked one of the blonde's friends. Katsuki showed them the cover page of the book, which had the words 'Hero Analysis For The Future, No.13' written on it. The friends laughed at Midoriya as they realised what the book was probably about. Midoriya hastily stood up and softly demanded, "I-it's fine, isn't it? Give it back!" Katsuki expressionlessly exploded the notebook and tossed the slightly burnt and blackened notebook out the window, earning a soft cry of "What?! That's mean" from Midoriya. The blonde proudly harrumphed and spoke, "Most top first-string heroes have stories about them from their school days. I want the shine of being able to be called the only student to make it into U.A. from this mediocre junior high school. I mean, I'm a perfectionist."
He suddenly threatened the sad and trembling Izuku by putting his hand on the latter's shoulder and slightly burning his uniform by activating his quirk; and continued with a dangerous smile on his face, "So anyway, don't apply to U.A., got it, nerd?!" Katsuki and his friends made some more jokes at Midoriya's expense and before they left, the blonde spoke with undisguised venom and disgust in his voice, "If you want to be a hero that quickly, you better pray that you'll be a hero in your next life and take a dive off the roof." Izuku felt a mixture of complicated emotions at the words and heard one of the other guys laugh and further comment, "It's okay, Midoriya. Even if you do something like that, I'm sure your stupid sister..." but was interrupted by Katsuki who sneered, "We don't need to waste any more time on him. Let's go."
As Izuku was left alone, he felt rage take over his senses and let out a soft yell of frustration. His sister wasn't stupid. It was the other guy's fault for getting beaten up by her when they were kids (even though she was quirkless when she beat him). He felt so weak. He wasn't even able to protect her honour or fight back on her behalf. He didn't know if he should feel hurt or grateful to Kacchan for finishing off the matter before things got too ugly. Judging from his tone and his hurtful words earlier that the blonde never used before, he guessed that Kacchan still blamed him for Emiko's absence. He had promised her that he wouldn't let the blonde know the reason for her departure but the other boy somehow found out. Their friendship had already been rocky after Emiko left and Kacchan knowing the true reason just made it worse. They were still friends... at least on Izuku's side but he didn't know about Kacchan's side.
Izuku sighed and made his way down the building, where he saw some fish trying but failing at nibbling his notebook which had landed in a fountain. He thought about those moments when he would watch videos of All Might saving people from disasters with his sister sitting beside him and imitating All Might's famous laugh while squealing, "It's okay 'Zuku. Why? Because I'm here!" Emiko had never wanted to be a hero, claiming that she wouldn't have time to save her twin if she had to save other people. Izuku would then argue about how they could be the awesome sibling duo or twin duo and theorised about their quirks. Emi would always listen to him with rapt attention and a huge smile on her face. Inko would give her kids a warm look (from behind where she assumed her kids didn't notice) before resuming her work.
His dreams had ended, however, when his mother took him to the doctor, a few months after Emiko had departed to live with their father. The doctor had informed them about he was quirkless due to the increased number of joints in his pinky toe. Izuku had been shocked the entire day and had rewatched All Might's debut video countless times before finally breaking down and asking his mom if he could still continue his dream. Inko sobbed at the scene and immediately rushed to hug him whilst repeatedly sobbing her apologies. Deep down, he wondered if he had failed his sister who was expecting him to become stronger. Emiko would be so disappointed if she ever found out about his quirklessness. While Emi herself hadn't manifested her quirk at that point, he knew she would wield an amazing quirk. Even a weak quirk would've made him immensely happy, he didn't need an exceptionally strong quirk to be a hero anyway.
As Izuku recalled the past whilst walking home, he suddenly encountered a sludge villain who planned to use him as a shield. The villain caught Izuku (who tried his best to run away) and wrapped him with its sludge body whilst creepily reassuring Izuku with, "Don't worry. I'm just trying to take over your body. Calm down. It'll only hurt for about 45 seconds." Izuku tried to remove the sludge covering his nose (which was blocking his air supply). Seeing his futile efforts as the sludge slipped through his fingers, the villain spoke, "You can't grab me. I'm fluid! Thanks for your help. You're my hero. I didn't think that had come to this city." Izuku felt his strength leaving his body due to lack of oxygen and nearly lost consciousness while wondering if he was dying and silently begged for help. Suddenly, he heard a voice that said something along the lines of, "It's all right now, young man. I'm here!", "Texas Smash!", a loud bang, another voice that choked out a confused, "Wind pressure?!" and a loud splat; before briefly losing his consciousness. The last thing he saw before blacking out was a figure that looked like All Might and mumbled, "All… Migh…"
Izuku slowly became aware of his surroundings when he felt a hand continuously and softly slapping his cheek. Said person was calling him out with multiple 'heys' and brightened up with, "Oh good!" as he opened his eyes. He felt his brain freeze and screamed while crawling backwards and away from the figure, not because of fear but because he couldn't believe his luck. It was his idol! The hero not only he, but probably almost every child aspired to be like! It was All Might in the flesh!
"I'm glad you're all right. Sorry 'bout getting you caught up in my villain fighting. I don't usually make mistakes like this, but I was in high spirits on my day off in a new place. Ahahahahahahaha. But you were a big help. Thanks! I captured him safely!", All Might tried to reassure a confused and extremely excited Izuku by showing him two transparent bottles that contained the sludge villain. As Izuku rambled about how different his hero looked in person, he frantically searched for a piece of paper to obtain his autograph. He found his partially burnt notebook and opened it, only to find out that All Might had already given him his autograph. Seeing this, Izuku repeatedly bowed to All Might while rambling, "Th-thank you so much! It'll be an heirloom! A family treasure!"
"Okay!", All Might replied with a thumbs up and followed, "Well, I need to take this guy to the police. See you again on the other side of the screen!" Izuku felt his excitement die down, "Wait, already?" All Might seriously replied, "Pros are constantly fighting enemies and time." Izuku froze, while All Might wasn't wrong, there were still things he wanted to ask the top hero about. As All Might took a giant leap, he felt Izuku clinging to his legs in mid-air. "Hey-hey-hey-hey-hey! Let go of me! Your fanaticism is too much!", All Might exclaimed (in irritation and awe) while trying to get rid of Izuku who replied with an almost incomprehensible, "If... I let… go now… I'll… I'll die!" The teen couldn't speak properly due to the wind pressure pushing his lips back and exposing his gums. All Might realised how foolish his request had been and agreed. Seeing this, the teen barely managed to speak, "I have… a lot of… things… that I… want… to ask you directly!" All Might reluctantly consented to his fan's request and landed on the roof of a building.
On the roof, All Might told Izuku about how the people inside the building would let him go down if he asked them nicely. Izuku asked the hero to hear him out, but the latter denied him, the reason being he was seriously out of time. The teen thought about the doctor's words and nearly gave up before remembering his sister's bright smile. He shouted out, "Even if I don't have a quirk, can I become a hero? Can someone without a quirk be someone like you?" All Might paused at his question and faced the teen while wondering aloud, "Without a quirk…" The teen continued rambling, "Almost everyone told me that I couldn't become a hero without a quirk and I'm constantly made fun of because of this…" unaware of the transformation of his hero.
When he did look at All Might, all he saw was an extremely thin man (with hollow and sunken cheeks and blonde hair loosely fanning his face) who shared some features with the extremely muscular blonde hero. As All Might explained his circumstances, he finally answered the teen's question seriously, "I cannot say that you can become a hero even without powers. If you want to help other people, then you could also become a police officer. They're often teased because they get villains delivered to their doorstep, but that is also a fine occupation. It's not bad to dream. But you also have to consider what's realistic, young man" and made his way down the stairs.
Meanwhile at the same time, in another area of the city, Katsuki was walking along with his 'buddies'. "Hey Katsuki, aren't you and Midoriya childhood friends? Weren't you a little too mean?", one of them asked but was immediately countered by another, "Huh? Weren't you a little mean as well? Everyone knows Midoriya's sister is a sore spot for him. I know you're still upset about how she kicked your ass even when she was quirkless as kids but it's really uncool to mention-". He was rudely interrupted by Katsuki who blasted off the tin can present in his hand and hissed, "It's that Deku's fault for getting in my way. He's dreaming like a kid! Just watching him pisses me off!" as he recalled his earlier conversation with the wimp. The explosive blonde kicked a bottle that contained some greenish and sluggish liquid. "Forget about him. Let's visit that arcade in front of the station. I heard there's a lot of prey there", his friend, the one who'd insulted Emiko, snickered with a lewd grin on his face. Katsuki remembered green eyes with a blindingly bright smile and felt disgusted. He yelled, "What?! If we get caught, it'll end up on my record!" Suddenly his friends looked behind him and cautioned him with a 'hey, look out!' but it was too late as he was captured.
A crestfallen Izuku decided to head his way home. He heard some explosions and saw smoke rising from a distance. "A villain!", he realised. But what could he do, he anyways couldn't help anybody out without a quirk. He decided to head home and finally give up on his dream. He felt his tears fall as he thought about his cherished dream and his sister's expectations. He couldn't do anything for his sister. 'You tried so hard to become a hero because a part of you always knew you'd have to give up eventually. You were just averting your eyes from reality', he internally reasoned out.
As he looked around, he saw that a crowd had gathered around an area full of heat and smoke and wondered if this was where the explosions he'd heard had occurred. He struggled to ignore the scene, a part of him rationalising that he wouldn't be able to let go of his childhood dream if he didn't start ignoring heroes and villains but his feet carried him towards the crowd anyways. He froze as soon he saw the villain and realised that it was the same sludge villain that had attacked him. He also realised that he was the reason the villain was free (since the bottle containing the sludge villain must've fallen off from All Might's pocket when he was clutching the hero's legs) and felt guilty as people wondered why All Might hadn't dealt with the villain. He marvelled at how the victim didn't suffocate and thought about how he'd blacked out within a few seconds. As his eyes locked with the victim's, he instantly recognised those red eyes that were pleading for help.
He would think a lot about this defining moment in his later days, but as soon as he realised Kacchan was in trouble, he ran towards the villain without thinking about his safety and ignored the commands of the heroes present. He remembered a rule in one of his notebooks and tried distracting the villain by flinging his bag across his eyes. The action allowed the villain to free Katsuki's nose, enabling him to breathe for a few moments. The blonde looked at the other dazedly and asked him, "Why are you here?" to which the latter replied, "I don't know. My feet moved on their own. You looked like you were asking for help…" Izuku stood and wondered about his next course of action unaware that the villain was ready to kill him.
He was, however, saved by All Might who felt pathetic about admonishing Izuku and not doing anything himself whilst proceeding to defeat the villain with one of his more powerful moves: 'Detroit Smash' which also ended up changing the weather. Izuku was heavily scolded by the heroes for his foolishness which could've led to his death. He didn't notice his blonde classmate giving him a complicated look as he patiently listened to the heroes. He had to leave the site as it was getting late but felt bad about not being able to apologize to All Might in person as the latter was busy with the interviewers. He decided to leave a message on his home page even though the probability of the pro-hero noticing the message on time was extremely low.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud yell 'Deku'. Izuku turned around to see his blonde friend who hissed with apparent shame and anger, "I never asked for your help! And you didn't help me! Got it?! I was fine by myself. You're a quirkless failure playing without a full deck! Don't think you can look down on me! Are you trying to make me owe you?! Don't look down on me! You damn nerd!" The blonde immediately turned to go home when Izuku called him out, "Wait Kacchan!" Katsuki angrily 'huh-ed' before glaring at him. Izuku fidgeted while he nervously mumbled, "Consider us even. I wanted to thank you for interrupting your friend when he mentioned-" but was interrupted with, "I didn't do it for you, stupid nerd" and the blonde continued towards his home.
Izuku stared at the departing blonde's back and thought about his pride and the brief expression of pain on his face when Emiko's topic came up. He had never truly understood the extent of Katsuki's feelings for his twin. In the past 9 years, Kacchan had never had a girlfriend, in fact, he didn't even try dating anyone, claiming that romance was a waste of time and energy. Kacchan had always hated looking at Izuku's face, probably because Izuku reminded him too much of Emiko. Though Emiko was extremely beautiful and Izuku was just... average. While the twins looked quite different from each other, they also shared many facial similarities.
He was brought into reality by All Might's reappearance who had sneaked his way past the reporters. "Young man, I've come with thanks, a correction and a suggestion. If you hadn't been there… If you hadn't told me about your life… I would've turned into a guy with a bodysuit. Thank you." Izuku felt shame creeping up and quickly refuted, "I'm sorry. It was my fault. I got in the way of your work. And I shouldn't have said those things… even though I'm quirkless…" He was interrupted by All Might, "I was able to act because the quirkless you interfered. All the top heroes have stories about them from their school days. Most of their stories have one thing in common: their bodies moved before they had a chance to think."
Izuku felt his chest grow heavy with an unnamed emotion and thought about his mother's apologies when she found out about his quirklessness and his sister's absolute confidence in him. Emiko would be so proud of him. She'd always told him what the others avoided; the words he'd wanted to listen from his mother's mouth that day. The same words that now came out of All Might's mouth as well, "You can become a hero." Izuku sobbed loudly as he clutched his extremely heavy chest and knelt down. He could finally face Emiko without any regrets and silently thanked All Might a million times.
"You can inherit my power", All Might declared seriously which stunned Izuku. Izuku didn't expect those words at all and slowly repeated the words. The hero laughed heartily at the scene, "What's with that face? It's just a suggestion. The real show starts after this. Listen, young man. You need to decide whether or not you will accept my power!" Izuku confusedly stared at the hero and wondered what his words meant. All Might clarified, "I'm talking about my power, young man. The tabloids call it 'superhuman strength' and a 'boost', and I constantly dodged the question with a funny joke during interviews. Because the Symbol of Peace, All Might, had to be a natural-born hero."
Izuku knew this was important. He was finally learning about All Might's quirk, a quirk that was discussed at least once every day, one of the world's most mysterious and heavily sought-out after quirks. As All Might explained his quirk, One For All, Izuku wondered why the former was willing to pass on such great power to somebody like him. All Might reassured the teen of his inherent heroism and convinced the latter (though Izuku didn't need a lot of convincing) to accept his powers.
"I'm home", Izuku softly announced as he entered his house which was devoid of any family pictures (as half of the family wasn't even present in Japan). He was surprised as his mother didn't appear to greet him as she usually did. In fact, he had expected her worried and slightly angry countenance to greet him as he was usually never late without at least informing her in advance. But he was too tired to dwell on that fact as he kept his shoes inside the rack. He freshened up a bit and changed his clothes after which he saw his mother's surprised expression. "Where were you Izuku?", his mother questioned him calmly which shocked him. His mother wasn't this calm usually. Did something happen? He wondered if informing her about the villain incident was wise and ultimately decided to keep it to himself. His mother could be extremely overprotective, which was suffocating at times.
He gave her a tired smile, "No okaa-san. I had some work to do in school. You know, the teachers are really worried about us since we're in our third year and everything." His mother looked satisfied and heated up his meal. Izuku finished his meal and went inside his room to study. He told his mother he wouldn't be having dinner as he was too exhausted. His mother absently nodded and he once again wondered what had happened before dismissing the matter as it might've most likely been related to her work or his dad. He stared at his books and thought about everything that took place. He had seen his favourite hero who had saved him from a monster, indirectly caused the monster to escape due to his fanaticism, tried to save Kacchan, nearly died in the process and finally received All Might's offer to accept his quirk and become a hero.
A few hours later, as he prepared his bed, he took out a photo from his secret drawer and hugged it. He happily and softly announced everything that had occurred earlier. "I can finally face you. I don't have to be ashamed anymore. I can finally be the hero that you had always believed I would become one day. If only you were here with me… But now that I'll become a hero, I'll make sure to catch that villain that ended you! Please bless me and always look after me from above as you've done so. I will always love you forever, Emi-nee-san", he choked out and silently wept as he carefully hid the photo once again.
Author's notes: I'm seriously beat. This chapter was really long. I have a newfound respect for authors who manage to write one-shots that have more than 10k words. And some of them have more than a 100k. I really have to salute you guys. Also, one thing to note guys, for those of you who don't know, Sensei means teacher in Japanese. And I think that's it… I'll try my best to avoid writing the canon scenes so precisely next time (because this was pretty boring... rewriting some of them might be fun though, do tell me what you guys think) unless there's a change in said scene. But I can't make any promises! Please do leave your comments and tell me how you found this chapter! Since this chapter is unbeta'ed, there might be... a lot of mistakes. Anyways, I'll see y'all next time!