August 23, 2164

Izuku Midoriya sometimes wondered whether he was a curse. He wondered sometimes whether he was a bad person. Everybody else seemed to think so.

Tears pooled in his eyes as he remembered the day his life had crashed.

"I'm sorry, he's quirkless."

Izuku's excitement died down, his nervous hands stilling. Beside him, his mother Inko Midoriya, took in a deep breath.

"A-Are you sure?" She asked the doctor, desperate to be told this was just a prank. As ridiculous as the idea seemed, it was preferable to what was being told. The man just gave her a pained look and took out two sheets of X-Rays.

"Through years of research, we've managed to discover that a Quirk, or the inherent lack of it was chromosomally tied to the presence of an extra joint in the toe. In other words, people without Quirks have an extra joint."

The silence was palpable, bearing down the mother and son duo. Although Izuku didn't quite understand what the man was telling, he got the gist of it. He wasn't going to be able to jump into burning buildings like All Might, be a combat Hero like Endeavour or rescue people like Backdraft. He wasn't even going to be a sidekick. He was never going to be a Hero.

Inko was about to speak once again, grasping at straws desperately to avoid the truth in front of her, before being cut off by the doctor.

"My Quirk allows me to check whether the patient has a Quirk. I rechecked twice. Your son is Quirkless."

Izuku rubbed his eyes, willing himself to not cry. He was safe within his house, safe within his room. However, the outside was a very different thing. He didn't know when his relationship with Kacchan had degraded.

Sure, they fought before, but he had never beat him up. Never used his Quirk on him. Never left him burn marks as he gasped in pain. Never made him feel the iron in his blood as it flowed down his body.

And the scariest part was that Izuku never understood what he had done.

What had angered Kacchan so much? He refused to believe it was his due to his lack of Quirk. There had to be something, something else.

His mind took him back to the day, showing the part which he wanted to bury, but was never able to.

It was eight in the night. Three hours after his test for a Quirk and the eventual discovery of his inherent lack of something that almost everybody had. Izuku retreated into his room, not talking to his mother or thanking the driver like he usually did.

He kept his eyes on the computer screen, the screen showing the same video it had been displaying throughout his life. The man recording showcases his disbelief at the existence of a man who defies all odds. Sometimes Izuku wondered whether the man thought he was hallucinating. Whether the man wondered, that in his desperation to be saved, he had conjured up a muscular, blond Hero who would eventually become The Symbol Of Peace.

And then the statement, the statement that would become his signature boomed out from the fire.

"Don't worry! Why? Because I am here!"

And that was the beginning, the rise which eventually saw one man stand above everyone else.

The door behind Izuku creaked open as his mother tentatively stepped inside.

"I-Izuku?" She said, unsure of what her son was doing. Unsure of how her son was coping.

Izuku turned slowly, his emerald eyes dull for once. Tears pooled in his eyes as he looked back at his mother. Her heart broke as she saw her beautiful baby in such pain. He pointed towards the screen and asked in such a low voice that she struggled to hear what he said.

"Can I be like All Might? Can I be a Hero?" He asked, a ray of hope struggling to shine through his despair.

Inko cried out and hugged Izuku, not able to tell him outright, not able to tell him to his face that she thought he would never be able to be a Hero.

And as oblivious as children were supposed to be, Izuku realised what his mother meant when she hugged him and cried for him. And his heart broke into pieces as he realised that not even his mother believed in him. He let the tears flow. He let the dam break. And though his mother thought he was crying because he was Quirkless, a part of her knew that Izuku had understood her gesture.

The duo had cried until there were no tears, their emotional capacity exhausted. Izuku had fallen asleep, the revelations of the day leeching his strength.

For a minute, cocooned within his mother's warm embrace, he had thought that everything would be fine. That no matter what, he would be safe as long as his mother stood by him. It would only be in his slumber that the actual weight of his mother's actions would hit him. She didn't believe in him. Nobody did.

And that was when Izuku understood what it meant to be lonely.

Izuku sighed in frustration as he saw Kacchan and his cronies follow him. He held out hope that if they didn't see him, maybe he could escape for once. Of course they spotted him the very next minute. Sometimes he wondered whether the universe loved destroying his hopes. Knowing his luck, it most probably did.

"Are you trying to run from us Deku?" One of Kacchan's friends asked him. He wondered when they devolved into mindless minions. He remembered the time when the used to go the hill nearby and act as a Hero patrol. Sure, even then Kacchan was the Hero and they were his sidekicks, but at least they would laugh together. They would tease Kacchan when they picked him up, seeing his hair ruffled up by his mother.

He was still reminiscing about their history when he heard Kacchan speak.

"Enough of this. My hands have been itching since that bastard assigned us extra work. I need to get some hits before going home."

Kacchan snarled and Izuku felt the glow that had him backpedalling. The glow increased and soon Izuku was flying back. His chest burned from the impact, the pain made worse when his back landed sharply on the tarmac.

He grunted as his friend pulled him up once again, the orange glow taking over once again. Izuku felt pain blossoming over his arm and as he gasped, all he could think was one thing.

Why?

It was two days after that Izuku broke. The sun was setting on Mustafu as Izuku rushed back home. He had gotten too busy taking notes. It was a hobby of his. If he wanted to become a Hero, he had to know how Hero's worked. He had a small smile on his face as he labelled the notebook.

Hero Analysis for the future #1.

He had decided that this would be his own project. He wouldn't tell anyone. Definitely not Kacchan. If he got to know he would end up burning it and then throw it down the toilet for good measure.

He groaned as he spied the figure of the person he had been thinking about. If it was even possible, Kacchan looked even more pissed than usual. He didn't know why and he certainly wasn't going to stick around to ask. He tried to take a quick u-turn but his movement caught the blonde's eye. He grinned at him the same way a shark grins at a fish.

Izuku decided that for once, he didn't want to get beaten up and ran. He knew that if Kacchan caught him he would pay even more. With that thought, Izuku pushed himself and ran faster than he ever had. He took a left off the main road and went into the confusing alleys that were found in every city on Earth. He heard the pounding of steps behind him, a cry of 'Deku' that chilled his bones. He took another left and almost screamed in frustration as he realised it was a dead end.

He took huge breaths, oceans of air going into lungs and still not calming his racing heart. Kacchan swung around the corner and gave a feral grin as he realised Izuku had nowhere to run.

"Trying to run Deku? You just gave yourself a death sentence."

Before Izuku could even respond, his breath was taken away by the biggest blow he had ever received. He felt pain spread over every nerve ending, lighting them up. He gasped in agony as he felt the place where a big bruise would definitely form. Kacchan pushed him up against the wall and applied pressure to his arm once again, all while activating his Quirk.

He bit his lip, vowing to himself to not give his friend any joy. Before Kacchan could ramp up his torture, both of them heard the footsteps. A person in a red and white costume turned around the corner and looked up from his phone, seemingly confused why there was a dead end here. Sweat lined his face, still breathing heavily. It was obvious he had been running to somewhere.

Izuku instantly recognized the Hero. Currently No. 29, Hero StarShot. His Quirk allowed him to accelerate any object smaller than 30 cm. All he had to do was touch it with any part of his body and it would accelerate in an instant. He was an up and coming Combat Hero. The drawback was the more he accelerated, the more his body hurt. Based on which part of his body accelerated the object, the more objects he accelerated from there, the more it ached.

Izuku saw as the Hero's eyes saw Kacchan pushing him against the wall, the bruises that were visible, the blood running down Izuku's face. Hope swelled within him. And as soon as he entered the dead end, he swiftly turned back and began exiting.

Both Kacchan and Izuku looked at him in disbelief. Both of them saw StarShot looking at Izuku. Kacchan couldn't help himself and asked the Hero before he could leave.

"Hey! Where ya going? Isn't this your job?" Kacchan quickly shut his mouth, cursing under his breath as he realised that he was basically inviting punishment.

The Hero merely looked back and said, "I have more important things to do."

After saying his part, he left. Both Izuku and Kacchan waited until the footsteps faded away, partially convinced that it was some bad prank and the Hero would return and do his job. That StarShot would come and rescue him.

Kacchan suddenly laughed out loud before blasting him once again.

"You hear that Deku? Even the Hero thinks you're worthless."

Izuku couldn't respond, his heart constricting his breathing. So when Kacch-Katsuki blasted him once again, he didn't notice the tears running down Izuku's face.

The tears that signified the moment when Izuku gave up.