"Deku". Translated, it roughly means "useless person", and if it was applied to someone, one could easily assume that that person was, indeed, useless. In an age where 4 out of 5 people were born with a Quirk, or a superhuman ability, superheroes dominated the streets and skies. These Quirks dominated every aspect of life... for those who had them, at least.

Izumi Midoriya was no stranger to this world. Her Quirk had manifested very early, but...

"All you're good for is being a punching bag, Deku!" A blond-haired boy grinned as he punched a fist into his own open palm, tiny flames shooting out. A green-haired girl, probably no older than six, was sprawled on the floor in front of him. Her arm was red and blue with a burn and a bruise, but as the moments ticked by, these colors gradually retracted into the light pink of fresh skin.

Izumi's Quirk was Regeneration. Her body produced stem cells and red blood cells at a highly increased rate, and could heal most minor wounds within a matter of minutes, although it left her incredibly tired afterwards. The girl groaned as she got to her feet. "Just... go away..." She huffed through labored breaths. Another kid, who had been leaning against the wall behind her, started running away.

The blond glared at the retreating figure of the boy before turning back to the girl. "You're so annoying, Deku," he clenched his jaw.

"You shouldn't hurt people, Kaachan!" Despite her fatigue and the sweat raining down her face, she still held two shaking arms out in front of her.

'Kaachan' rolled his eyes. "What are you going to do? Stop me? Go ahead, punch me." He stepped closer and closer to the girl, who held her ground, but made no move to hit the boy.

"All... All Might would never hurt anyone!" Izumi exclaimed.

The blond rolled his eyes again at the sentence. "Right... how does he beat up villains, again? The power of love?" The girl had no response, and the boy scoffed. "You know what, Deku? You're not entirely useless. Punching bags are good for making others stronger. So... just... stay... DOWN!" Kaachan pointed his arm at the girl and activated his Quirk, which caused an explosion that sent the girl flying, her emerald eyes rolling back in her head as she flew.

She landed on the other side of the short wall and rolled down the hill, her body smoking as she came to a stop. A group of boys who had surrounded the blond back at the top were cheering, while one seemed hesitant. "That was a little powerful, Katsuki..."

Katsuki Bakugo stared at the boy indifferently. Finally, "She'll be fine. She always is," came his flippant reply. Indeed, already, the girl was already pulling herself to her feet and stumbling up the hill, still healing, and with smoke still coming off of her body. She stumbled over the wall, nearly faceplanting, but smiled while huffing.

"You're so strong, Kaachan!" The blond growled and turned away, starting to walk.

He heard a loud thump behind him and hesitated for a moment. But... no. He squared his shoulders and kept walking. All she was there for was to make him stronger. Because he was going to be the strongest, make no mistake about it.

And, so, Izumi Midoriya laid facedown in the courtyard for hours until a teacher finally saw her and woke her up. Her entire body had healed by then, and she just laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of her scalp. "Sumimasen! I must've fallen asleep!" The teacher looked at the girl sadly. Everyone could see what was going on, but they couldn't do anything unless she came to them first.

On her way home, the girl saw the news playing outside a store. "It's okay now, because I am here!" She smiled at hearing those words. The famous catchphrase of the greatest hero in the world... All Might! He was duking it out with another villain! Izumi hurriedly grabbed her notebook out of her backpack. The corner was singed slightly, but that was okay, because... it was hers.

She flipped a few pages in. The first half of the book was entirely reserved for All Might, and she was nearly halfway finished with filling it up. She stared at the screen. For a few moments, everything was still. Then, as she stared, such a minute detail occurred that nobody else probably paid it any heed. All Might's left heel slid outwards about ten degrees. In that instant, Izumi saw everything that was about to happen.

"He's going to jump in two seconds off of that half-broken bar to his right to hit that villain in the back," she predicted. Two seconds later, she was proven right.

"In a sudden burst of speed, All Might has disappeared! And he's back, just in time to knock the villain into the ground! This villain is..."

"Hey, nice guess, girlie!" Another man who was also watching the broadcast smiled at her, giving her a thumbs up, and a few others agreed. She blushed, but was inwardly slightly annoyed.

'It wasn't a guess...' She thought to herself. Outwardly, though, she smiled at the sight of the villain being taken into custody. "It's all right!" All Might could be heard shouting. "Because... I am here!"

"Since you're all third years, it's time for you to think seriously about your future. I'll..." The teacher was talking, but Izumi wasn't listening. She was too busy working. "... hero course, right?" These words caught her attention. Future plans, huh? "Yes, yes, you all have wonderful Quirks!" Her face soured. You didn't need an amazing Quirk to be a hero...

"Hey, teach! Don't lump us all in the same group! I'm not gonna be stuck at the bottom with the rest of these rejects!" A blond-haired boy sitting a few desks in front of Izumi chortled.

"That was uncalled for, Katsuki!" The rest of the class growled. But... it wasn't untrue. Katsuki Bakugo had an amazing Quirk, plenty of experience, and an innate combat sense and great instincts. He was in a different league. "You all should shut up like the extras you are!" He laughed.

Katsuki wanted to go to U.A.. High School. It was one of the top two high schools in the country, and was highly selective. Not to mention, it was also where the number one hero, All-Might, had gone to high school. And Katsuki wanted to become the best hero, which meant... he had to top All Might.

"I aced the mock test for U.A., which is exactly why the rest of you are all just extras! I'm the only one at this school who could possibly get into U.A." He proclaimed.

"Oh yeah, you wanted to go to U.A, right, Bakugo? Midoriya wanted to go to U.A., too, right?" Izumi blushed in embarrassment and hid her face against the table. Katsuki froze. And then... everyone started laughing.

"What is she gonna do, Regenerate them into submission?" One of them asked. Izumi pressed her face against the desk in shame.

"Huh? Midoriya? No way!" They laughed.

"You can't get into the hero course just by studying," another exclaimed.

"Q-Quirks aren't necessary!" She rebuked quietly, but nobody seemed to pay much attention to her.

Suddenly, an explosion sounded out, and Izumi was flung out of her desk. "Hey, Deku!" Bakugo shouted, a vein throbbing by his temple. "You're one of these rejects, too! You might as well be Quirkless!" Quirkless was the term for the 20% of the population born without a Quirk. "Just get out of my way!"

"W-wait, Kaachan!" She exclaimed, backing up until she hit the wall, holding two hands out to shield herself. "It's not like I'm trying to compete with you! We can both get in!"

"Whaddya mean, 'We can both get in'? I'm the only one at this school strong enough to get in there. A reject like you couldn't possibly-"

"Bakugo, that's enough!" The teacher interjected. Bakugo stopped letting flames fly out of his hands and went back to his seat. But, to Izumi, the baleful glare of one of her idols hurt much more than any embers ever could.

The end of the day came, and Izumi was still shaken from the earlier events. She made to put her notebook away into her backpack, but it was snatched up by long, pale fingers. "We're not done talking yet, Deku." Katsuki growled.

"Hey, Katsuki, what's that?" One of the boy's lackeys asked, seemingly uninterested. Katsuki simply held it up. "Huh? "Hero Analysis for the Future"?" The end of the sentence turned into a giggle. "Seriously?" He asked.

"Midoriya..." The other lackey spoke, condescendingly, merely shaking his head.

"What? It's nothing! Please give it back!" Izumi yelled, her voice raising an octave as a tear leaked out of her eye. Bakugo's hand that was holding the notebook suddenly erupted into flames, and then went out just as quickly. The whole exterior of the notebook was charred, now. Another tear leaked out of Izumi's eyes, but she could do nothing to stop him from throwing it out the window. Izumi didn't know if it was intentional or not that the trajectory, no doubt, led directly into one of the fountains outside.

"Most top first-string heroes have stories about them from their school days," Katsuki started. "I want the shine of being able to be called the only student to make it into U.A. from this mediocre city junior high school," he explained to a trembling Izumi. "I mean, I'm a perfectionist. And, I'm perfect. U.A. is the only logical place for me."

Suddenly, he stepped forward, placing a hand on Izumi's shoulder before she could react. Instantly, her blazer started smoking as Katsuki applied heat. "So, anyway... don't apply to U.A., nerd." He sneered, pushing the girl to the ground. She hit her head on one of the desk legs, but that didn't really bother him. She'd just heal, after all.

"Y'know, if you want to be a hero so badly," Katsuki said, "there is an easy way to do it..." He started as he began to walk out of the classroom. Izumi perked up slightly. "Believe that you'll be born with a better Quirk in your next life and take a last chance dive off the roof! Or will your stupid Regeneration ruin that, too?" He laughed ruthlessly as he left the class, the last comment finally making her let the floodgates loose.

A few minutes later, once the headache from hitting the metal deskleg subsided, Izumi made her way downstairs and out of the school. On her way out, her expectation was confirmed - her notebook had landed in the fountain, and had some koi fish nibbling on it. "Shoo, shoo..." she said half-heartedly, splashing water on the fish to get them to leave the book alone.

As she picked it up she noted that, indeed, all of the pages were either burned or waterlogged to oblivion. It didn't matter too much, since all of the knowledge in it had already been ingrained in her head, but the destruction of something that was hers was still saddening.

Still, on her way home, she took a different path than she normally did so she could buy a replacement. As she walked under an underpass, though, she noticed something... off. She turned around quickly. A mass was forming out of one of the sewer vents! 'A villain!' She gasped. She briefly contemplated fighting, but the words from earlier replayed themselves in her head. 'They're right... what am I going to do, Regenerate them into submission?' So, she started running as fast as her legs would take her.

She didn't make it far, barely even outside the tunnel before she was overcome. The mass started swirling around her body. "Fufufu..." the villain chuckled. "A medium-sized disguise, and cute, at that! Don't worry about struggling... I'm just taking over your body! It'll only hurt for about 45 seconds, you'll feel better soon..." The villain chuckled again. Izumi's screams were muffled by the liquid composing the villain's body, and her struggling had minimal effect.

'I... can't... breathe...' She thought. She tried to pull the liquid away from her mouth and nose, but there was nothing to grip. All of the sudden, her ears popped as the air pressure shifted.

"It's alright now, young lady... I am here!" A muscular man stamped his foot hard enough to send shockwaves rippling throughout the ground. The villain attempted to attack the man faster than Izumi could blink, but he still dodged it. He ducked under, and finally, after her eyes had adjusted to the sunlight, she realized who the hero who had come to save her was... All Might!

"Texas... Smash!" He yelled, throwing his fist forward. The wind pressure created by the strong motion was powerful enough to blow the liquid off of Izumi's body without even hurting her in the slightest. Izumi fell to the ground, and the hero quickly rushed over to her. "Hey, hey, hey, hey," he said, patting her on the cheek until she broke out of her awed stupor. "Ah, there we go!"

"A... All Might!" She exclaimed, still too dazzled from the back-to-back events of nearly dying and being rescued by the strongest man in the world who happened to be her idol.

"Sorry to get you involved in my hero fighting! Usually I don't make such sloppy mistakes, but I was in high spirits on my day off and this villain originally slipped away from me." He held up a capped bottle in his hand, which contained the condensed body of the villain. Izumi hadn't even seen him collect it! "But you were a big help, thanks!"

"O-of course..." Izumi replied, unsure of what else to say.

"Alright, well, off I go to deliver this guy to the police! Thank you again for your help, citizen!" He flashed her a thumbs-up, which finally brought Izumi entirely out of her own head.

"Wait, already...?" She couldn't believe he was leaving so soon. Her childhood idol, in person!

He nodded. "Pros are constantly fighting against villains and time!" He exclaimed. He started preparing for a jump.

'Wait' she wanted to say, but nothing came out of her mouth. 'There are still things I want to ask!' She saw his feet adjust as he bounced back and forth, determining his angle and target location. She knew she only had two seconds, so she did the only the she could... As he extended his legs to make the jump, she grabbed on.

He quickly noticed. "Wait..." He craned his head to look around at the girl on his leg, surprisingly not screaming her head off. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!" He exclaimed, pushing her gently as if she was a teething dog. "Let go! I appreciate your support, but this is too much!"

"If I let go, I'll die!" She exclaimed, her voice barely loud enough to be heard over the wind. All-Might considered this and quickly stopped pushing her.

"That's true..." A drip of blood fell out of his mouth, and too soft to be heard, he whispered, "Shit..."

Their course was quickly adjusted, and they came to a stop on top of a building's rooftop-courtyard.

"That was scary..." She murmured. Her Regeneration did nothing to stop her queasiness from the high-velocity travel.

"You shouldn't have grabbed on!" All Might exclaimed. "Good grief... if you talk to the people downstairs, I'm sure they'll let you down. I seriously am outta time, so I really must go." He said without looking at the green-haired girl.

"Wait!" She finally worked up the courage to say.

"No! I can not wait!" All Might refused.

"But..." She paused for a moment. "I need to know! Can even someone without a decent Quirk be an amazing hero like you?" All Might didn't answer, and Izumi looked down, embarrassed. "My quirk is Regeneration, but... it's not really that powerful." She admitted. The hero still said nothing, so she continued. "All my life, I've wanted to be a hero, and I've wanted to help people, but... I don't know how to. I can only really regenerate my own body, and even then, it's nothing crazy." The teen's green hair slightly covered her face, casting a light shadow.

Suddenly, she looked up. There was steam coming off of the figure in front of her, and as it flitted away... "What?!" She exclaimed in shock. The man in front of her, who had previously been All Might, was now... a very, very frail man. He might've had less muscle than she did! "You're deflating!" She accused. The man stared at her, waiting for her to go on.

Instead, she waited. "Explain," she demanded. The blond-haired man raised an eyebrow, but sat down against a railing. 'Nana... she reminds me of you,' he thought. He started where he thought was most important.

"Now that you've seen me like this, young lady, make sure you don't write about it online, even accidentally." He lifted up his shirt, revealing a deep impact point surrounded by massive bruises and hemorrhaging. "It's an injury I got from an enemy's attack five years ago. Half of my respiratory organs were destroyed, and I lost my whole stomach. I've become emaciated from repeated surgeries and the aftereffects. Right now..." He paused and sighed. "I can only work as a hero for about three hours a day."

"I see..." Izumi murmured.

The hero nearly scoffed. "The most powerful man in the world reveals he's dying to you, and all you can say is 'I see'? Interesting."

Izumi frowned. "No, but... it makes sense. I've idolized you ever since I was a child, even before I got my Quirk. You've... slowed down recently. Today, after shifting your feet, you took nearly three seconds to make your jump, and you didn't jump nearly as fast. I was able to grab onto your leg, and wasn't flung off by the air vacuum forming behind your body. Five years ago, your biggest fight was Toxic Chainsaw... But he never landed a hit onto your lower torso."

All Might was taken aback, but quickly regained his composure. "You're well-informed," he remarked. "You're right, it wasn't during my fight with Toxic Chainsaw. It was a different fight, one I requested not be made public to the world." Suddenly, he straightened his back and clenched his fists. "I will save people with a smile!" He proclaimed. "The Symbol of Peace cannot be daunted by evil."

'So, for appearances, he's been hiding his injury?' Izumi surmised. 'That must mean that he's aware of how much of an effect he has on the world! Since his debut, crime has dropped by over half!'

"I smile to show the pressure of heroes, and to trick the fear inside of me." Izumi gasped. "Pros are always risking their lives. I cannot simply say, "You can become a hero even without a good power."." Izumi smiled sadly, but it wasn't like she hadn't seen this coming. This was the real world, after all... One couldn't simply 'wish' enough to be the strongest. They had to work for it. Despite that... tears trickled down her face. She turned to the side. She didn't want the man... this man, her idol, All Might... she didn't want him to see her cry.

"I... understand." She spoke softly.

All Might watched the girl cry. He wished he could say otherwise, but the fact of the matter was that she would be more of a liability than an asset to others. "If you want to help others, then you could also become a police officer." Even as he said it, he knew how sarcastic it sounded. Police officers were almost obsolete, and police stations seemed to more often just receive criminals with gift wrap and a bow at their door, and the girl no doubt knew it. "It's not bad to dream. But, you also have to consider what's realistic." The hero opened up the door to the stairwell and started walking down.

As the door closed behind him, an explosion sounded from across the city.

Izumi approached the source of the explosion. Maybe what she needed to fix her mood was another hero analysis. When she got there, though, there was no such analysis to be had. The villain was the same one as before, and there was nobody with the skillset to take him on! For a second, she thought about All Might! But... hadn't he already reached his limit? He could only be a hero for three hours a day!

She intended on just walking away. But, then, she saw... In the middle of the blob... Kaachan! For a second, she couldn't think about anything, and her feet moved without her command. She rushed into the path of fire leading into the alleyway, throwing anything that she could find at the villain. Her notebook, her bag, anything! She wasn't doing much other than just annoying him, that took his focus off of Kaachan, letting him get his nose free to breathe for a second. And that let him last just a little bit longer, so maybe she hadn't been in vain!

"You again!" The villain screeched. Indeed, it was the same villain from earlier! She didn't have a chance to think about the implications. "Wait, does that mean-"

The air pressure shifted. "Detroit... Smash!" A column of wind shot through the alleyway, instantly putting out all of the fires and blasting away the villain without even damaging any of the buildings beside it. Izumi's eyes widened. Did that mean-? The wind shot up as a cyclone into the air, dissipating after a few seconds. All Might huffed, once again back in his more well-known form, with steam coming off of him.

For a few moments, nothing moved. Then... rain started pattering down. A once cloudless sky had now developed a full storm in just a few moments! 'Was the air pressure from his punch so strong that he caused a fluctuation in the weather?' Izumi analyzed as fast as she could noting the upward motion of All Might's fist as he breathed heavily. Then... the cheering started.

"It is alright now, because..." All Might breathed in heavily and raised a triumphant fist into the air. "I am here!" The roar of the crowd grew even louder.

Izumi was walking home after the incident when a voice called out for her. "Deku!" Katsuki shouted out to her, apparently having had run a while to catch up to her as he took a moment to catch his breath. "I never asked you for help!" He shouted.

Izumi was shocked. He was... mad that she had tried to help him? "And you didn't help me!" He made sure to clarify. "Got it? I was fine by myself!" He glared at her, although she could easily see he was still shaken from the event. As though an instinctual response, though, she shrunk back and nodded.

"Yes, Kaachan..." She murmured, looking down.

"You'll never be a hero! You're a failure! Don't ever think you can look down on me!" He growled.

"I... I wasn't-"

"Don't look down on me!" He repeated, making sure she couldn't get in a single word edgewise. "You damn nerd..." He muttered as he calmed down slightly and slunked away, leaving a sniffling Izumi in his wake. She wiped her nose with her sleeve, though. It wouldn't be good if her mom saw her crying. She was always so worried about her, anyway, she didn't need to add on to that!

As she turned around to continue on her path home, for the time time that day, the air pressure changed. "I am here!"

"A-All Might?" She shrieked, but quickly clasped a hand over her own mouth. It wouldn't be good to draw attention to him here. "Why are you here? You were surrounded by reporters until just now..." She had seen him doing a quick interview on the television while she had been walking home.

The hero laughed. "Getting away from them was a piece of cake," he exclaimed. "Why? Because I am All Mi-" He made to strike a muscular pose, but he spontaneously deflated again and spat out a bit of blood. He quickly recovered and wiped his mouth with his arm.

"Young lady," he started, looking straight at Izumi. "I come with thanks, a correction, and a suggestion. If you hadn't been there... I would've turned into a guy in a bodysuit who was all talk. Thank you."

Izumi thought to made a snarky comment, but instead said, "It was my fault in the first place... I got in the way of your work... No doubt, you lost the bottles when I clung onto your legs like a fool..."

"And yet, it was none other than foolish you at the scene that I was able to act." Izumi's eyes widened. "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." Izumi gasped. Just as she had! "And you, with the talk we just had, with you accepting your reality... there is no way you would have consciously come to the decision to run at the monster who just minutes before had apprehended you, which leads me to believe... Your body moved without giving a chance to think!"

"Y-yes..." She whispered, although she knew the man heard it.

He nodded. "I was wrong, before. You can become a hero. A good Quirk does not make you a good hero. What makes you a good hero... is a great heart!" He exclaimed, raising his fist in the air. Izumi fell to her knees, suddenly overwhelmed by an outpour of emotions...

"Thank you!"

Character Analysis:

Izumi "Deku" Midoriya
Gender: F
Age: 15
Quirk: Regeneration - Her body constantly supplies stem cells and red blood cells and can quickly heal most minor injuries!
Power Level: 1.7

Katsuki "Kaachan" Bakugo
Gender: M
Age: 15
Quirk: Explosion - His body can excrete nitroglycerin-like sweat, and he can ignite it at will to create explosions of various sizes.
Power Level: 3.6

? "All Might" ?
Gender: M
Age: ?
Quirk: ?
Power Level: ?