He must have blacked out one point from the excitement.

The repeated proddings of his cheeks opened his eyes and the world of darkness gave away to a world of clouded light. A familiar face was in front of him, its features strong and prominent. Blurred creases on the skin gradually narrowed down into solid wrinkles, and a pair of eyes burned with unquenchable flame. Two rows of porcelain straight teeth moved alongside his mouth and a soundless inquiry floated out from within.

He couldn't hear anything. Not yet at least.

"...Hey…"

"Hey…"

The figure slowly became clearer. The world in front of him became more vivid. His thoughts became more coherent. Ironically, it was because of his realization that it was All Might talking him that he nearly blacked out again. But he managed to collect himself, somewhat, and scurried away like a fool instead.

In front of the backdrop of flourishing cherry trees, the symbol of peace talked, his golden hair reminiscent of the very sun that brought life to all.

"But, you were a big help. Thanks."

But he was too awestruck to realize what was going on. The bits and pieces of the conversation that his brain managed to process were all eclipsed by the thought that it was All Might standing in front of him.

Him? Being a big help? That wasn't something he expected to come out of All Might's mouth.

"I captured him safely!" The hero lifted up two bottles of Torrent with his trunk-like arms. Inside of the bottles were the body of the villain that assaulted him before.

Ah, he could feel himself blushing.

The thought of getting an autograph shook him from his hopeless stupor and he quickly scrambled around looking for a notebook. He finally found it, laying by the side of the road, cover dirtied from accumulated abuse, his thirteenth notebook.

With an almost perverse fervor he flipped through the notebook as he looked for a blank page to house All Might's autograph. When he reached a certain page, all the admiration and appreciation he had for the hero came rushing back to him. He was now looking at a two page spread that comprised of All Might's name and a cartoonish drawing of his iconic look.

He bowed repeatedly and promised to make the autograph a family heirloom. In response, All Might gave him a thumbs up to acknowledge his enthusiasm.

His words and actions must have seemed silly to a hero like All Might. But he didn't care. He wanted to bask in the moment. To enjoy it. To leave a good impression so that, if by chance, they bumped into each other on the street again, he could perhaps act all cool and be all buddy-buddy with him.

A sense of longing panic overcame him as he watched All Might crouch down, preparing to leave. He didn't want to say goodbye right here. Not when there was still so much he wanted to say. Without a second thought, he wrapped an arm around All Might's legs. When All Might jumped, he flew as well.

They soared across the Mustafu skyline together, him as the unwanted passenger, and All Might as the unwitting carrier. Like any sensible hero would when they see that a civilian had latched onto them, All Might tried to shake him off, to separate him from their dangerous profession. But like any other boy who had hitched a ride a hundred of meter above the ground, he held on with all his might.

"If I let go right now, I will die!"

That seemed to have gotten All Might's hand off of his face. Now if only he could wrap his other arm around All Might's leg as well then he wouldn't have to worry about falling.

Izuku squirmed until he was in position. Ha...there. Now I don't have to...

All Might deflated like a balloon.

They crashed landed onto a rooftop together. All Might was covered in a blanket of mist while he lied a couple of feet away, breathing his pain away.

Once the dust lifted, what stood in front of him was no longer the All Might that he recognized. Rather it was a emaciated skeletal being with sunken cheeks and eyes too dark to inspire hope.

What followed was a harrowing dose of reality. Something that he hated. All Might explained to him the danger of his work, the wound that he sustained from an undisclosed fight against a powerful foe, and his crippled existence.

But even with all that, somehow he still managed to muster up the courage to ask the question that had been gnawing at him since he was five.

"Can someone without a quirk be a hero as well?"

At that point, it wasn't a question that warranted an answer, but his hero answered it anyway.

After all was done, he was left with a solemn advice to look into a career as a policeman and a destroyed self-esteem.

He always hated to be reminded of reality. Even more so when it came from the man that he idolized the most. He felt sadness, betrayal, but most importantly, self-pity.

The realization that all road lead to failure was such a terrible feeling. But yet the feeling that success was impossible was strangely liberating. It was like he no longer needed to try anymore.

As Izuku walked on the streets he tried to cheer himself up. Perhaps being a policeman wouldn't be that bad. He just wanted to help people. Whether or not he gained fame from helping others shouldn't matter.

With a look of steeled resolve across his face, Izuku took a step forward, this time with more purpose than he had before. He would abandon his childish pipe dream of becoming a hero and set all of his energy into training to be a police man instead. When he got home, he planned on doing push ups and build up his body strength.

That was his plan and continued to be his plan as he made his way through the streets of Mustafu. But a distant explosion lead him off course.

Out of a force of habit, he wandered to the scene of the incident. The place resembled hell on earth.

Window shattered. The stands of the street vendors trashed. The surrounding area was dyed in a light orange by the flame bushes that littered the floor. Panicked screams floated in the air in an endless cycle.

Then, there in the center of it all, was Kachan, entrapped by a villain that should have been in All Might's custody.

It didn't take him long to figure out that he was the one responsible for the current situation. If he hadn't interrupted with All Might's work, then All Might would have never lost track of the villain wreaking havoc right now.

For what felt like an eternity, he stood amongst the rest of the gathered crowd as they watched uselessly from the sidelines. No one knew what to make of the situation. Not the adults around him, not the heroes on the scene, and certainly not Kachan.

Then when a familiar look crossed Kachan's face, he knew he had to take action. The look of helplessness had called his body to action and he moved before he could stop himself. It wasn't an expression that he commonly associated with Kachan, but the fact that he showed it, it meant he needed help.

He pushed through the crowd of adults and charged forward. The villain saw him coming and attacked.

Filthy slimes rushed past him as the information of his notebook moved to the front of his mind.

Everything was telling him to head back. From the putrid movement of the slime as it twisted itself on Kachan's body, the spiteful glare of the villain, the panicked calls of the onlooker, to the tortured agony on Kachan's face, everything screamed of danger. But there was no way he could back down now

Finally, he leapt. His body soared through the air, past the rampant embers of Kachan's explosions, past the doubts of others around him, and past his own self-pity. He reared his right fist behind him. His body seemed to move instinctively.

Smash!

He threw his punch. The villain's head reared away violently and his fist ached furiously. Yet, somehow, like before, he could touch the villain despite the villain being made of slime.

Gravity kicked in and he dropped to the floor shortly afterwards. The villain was now glaring at him, not pleased with what he had done. It was at that moment that Izuku braced himself for what was to come. When green slimes rushed towards him and covered his field of vision, the boy closed his eyes and prepared for death.

But the impact never came.

He opened his eyes again. Blocking the hit in his stead was All Might, half of his body covered in the offending slime that had brought everyone so much misery, while the other half was shrouded in steam.

With a single punch, the villain was gone, an mighty air wave shot skyward and summoned down rain.

All Might had saved him once more.