All men are not created equal.

Physically, at least. Mentally, spiritually we're fundamentally the same.

This is a fact only exaggerated with quirks: power became measurable and equality paid the price.

Make no mistake though, had I gotten a quirk myself I would not be waxing poetic about this; I'm not much better than them in the first place, after all.

"All men are not created equal."

That was what the doctor said to me when starting to break the bad news to me and mom.

"Some are created even less equal than others."

That's what I mused to myself when my former friend jumped me with his friends after I jumped in to help one of his victims, and got jumped myself, with the kid leaving the second he realized he wasn't the target.

Which is fair. I mean 2v3 isn't fair when all of the three have quirks, usefulness be damned.

Oh yeah. I'm quirkless by the way.

It's a shame, but not much I can do about it. To be honest, it's kind of admirable, when you think about it: I somehow manage to get the lowest roll in life again.

I mean, my dad is straight-up gone (mom says overseas work, but forgets I have ears to hear the arguments they have and occasionally the cries they share, if he's answering at all) we're poor as hell because again, dad went and left before the divorce court could even be called, and mom is depressed, because we are poor, because Hisashi is dead in the water, at least to us.

Well, it's not all bad. We have an ok apartment (finally got the mold out yesterday, and dried it out to boot, so we'll be doing better than before in any case), and we've been able to afford meat ever since mom fully separated her savings from dad's. Like, we're making enough to live, which is bare minimum, but hey, I'm trying to find reasons to find reasons to keep on doing that, so shut up.

And I still have hope to be able to live comfortably in the future and rub it in Hisashi's face. By this, I of course mean becoming a hero. Well, I don't mean a hero.

I actually mean the hero. The one his new children or grandchildren, whatever, will idolize.

Now you might be asking, Izuku, how the hell are you going to do that without a quirk?

And to that, I say just because it's never happened, doesn't mean that it can't.

At least, I say that.

Truth be told, I don't know if I could anymore. I feel like it should be possible, but I get less sure as I see more of the carnage the villains seem capable of. From destroying a street with relative ease, to threatening a city, I wonder if I wouldn't just be a liability.

And is it just me, or have quirks gotten stronger in the past few years?

I need to be reminded of the possible, or at least the impossible. I need to have someone rekindle the hope for me that's losing flame.

Which is why I'm here, currently, at this All Might meet and greet. I've currently been waiting in line for several hours, and I'm finally tenth in line.

Now I know what your going to say, and I tell you, I did set up camp next to the venue, but someone moved me in the night. Dang telekinetic people, I thought we couldn't use quirks in public areas but everything goes at night, huh?

Anyways, I'm at eighth now. Apparently the two at the front were together, so that's nice. Look, just pretend that your not looking at me right now. I see you on the roof, with your pen, writing down everything I'm-huh? what's that?

Shut up and go back to reality? Ok, sheesh.

Another person left the line. Then another, and another. As I got closer, I got more and more anxious. There were no cameras there, except the newspeople, which had left per his request, and the excited fanboys/fangirls taking a picture or two.

Said the ten year old who had forced his mom to camp out with him, but I feel like my age gives me an excuse in the matter.

However, it seemed like mom was nearing the end of her patience. I gave her a begging look.

"Mommy?"

Inko looked down at me. "Yes, dear?" She said, thin facade cracking under the sheer exhaustion she no doubt felt. She never liked lines, and I imagine she liked camping less, and the same things had happened to us in a negative way from yesterday night to what was stretching to be afternoon today.

"I know that you're tired,"

"You don't say." Another crack in the facade of being ok with the situation. Her eyelids were also slowly closing.

"But on the bright side, we just have one more person, and then we can-"

BOOM.

Panic quickly ensued from there, as you would imagine. All might jumped up, far above our heads, presumedly to search the area, and another explosion occurred, this time from the side.

My mom grabbed me and started running. We didn't make it far before another explosion occurred right in front of us, sending us flying.

I don't remember much after that, mostly just the feeling of blood on my face and a bottomless well of despair filling me. I tried twisting to see mom, but even moving my face hurt, a different pain from any of kac-bakugo's blasts.

It felt scarily permanent, a scarring.

I cried then, the tears washing the blood out of my eyes. My vision didn't improve though, but for the sake of my mental state, I had to believe that it was because it was swimming, or that I still had blood in my eyes.

A shout, then dust landing in front of my face, and my remaining vision went, my consciousness following.

I woke up in a void.

Well a void in the sense that there was nothing there except for me, and that it was apparently formless.

There was an eye plastered in the backdrop that seemed to follow me, or at least it looked like one. So, not a void, exactly. More like a room in which everything is the same color except for a mural on a wall.

Speaking of which, I ran into a physical curved wall, so less points for you, infinite void. Fraud's not infinite or a proper void.

Wait.

How did I know what this was called? It's literally the first time I've seen this ever. So how did I know what it was called?

"I found you!"

I whipped around in fright, which quickly gave way to slight embarrassment when I realized it was just a person.

"Who are-"

"No time, you're waking up, we'll talk later!"

"Wha-?"

...

A blinding light filled my vision. So at least I'm not blind , or dead for that matter. Still, it took a minute to start seeing again.

My face hurt, the top half at least. The rest of my body was just groggy, and after a few minutes, I was able to straighten myself in the hospital bed.

Looking around I saw an iv drip, a view outside that showed the wards, All Might walking over to me, a clothes r... wait.

"All Might?!" I semi-shouted. I would've actually shouted, but my lungs suddenly seemed to remember pain, and the volunteer died as it was rising. I didn't jump back in my chair for the same reason, just applied to my legs and muscles in general.

"YES, IT IS I- oh are your ears hurting you as well? I can talk normally if you want me to."

"Oh please do, my head really hurts right now."

All Might pulled up the chair I assumed he was sitting in. Had he been waiting for me? How long had I been-

"What ... what happened?"

All might sat down next to me. "A villain by the name of Bites the Dust. He must have been trying to make a statement. His quirk is that he can turn anything into a 25-25 inch bomb, as long as it's not bigger than, well, 25-25."

"Did you catch him?"

All Might slowly shook his head. "The way the bombs work is that they go off after 12 hours automatically. They were too many people to pinpoint him, assuming he was there at all; he's more of a demo man, and other villains haven't seen him allegedly.

"We'll find him though. We weren't pay attention to him before, but now that he's in our sights, rest assured it's a matter of time."

My head had cleared up a bit by the time he had finished talking. "And my mom, is she-"

"She's alive. Her back is injured though. We tried, but her spine was too far gone. She'll never walk again, unfortunately."

"I see," I said, breathing a sigh of relief. At least she's alive.

"I was visiting victims, and remembered that you weren't able to ask your question. I figured it was the least I could do, so I waited for you to wake up."

My heart skipped a beat. He really is how he acts on television! I can't believe I'll be able to ask him my question! Oh man, I'm gonna be so cool when I get back to school!

Eyes lit up, I asked, "Can I be a hero, even without a quirk?"

All Mights smile died.

I knew why it did, even before he opened his mouth. It still hurt though, when he grasped my shoulder gently and said those words to me.

Those six insignificant, almost innocent words, if not for the blood of my dreams on them, the truth of an uncaring world I couldn't escape.

"All men are not created equal."