You thought this story was dead, huh? Kinda thought so too and I'm really sorry about that. I started working part-time - still over 30 hours workload and additionally I'm writing my master thesis - so you can guess it. I'm hardcore procrastinating right now, resulting in this.

Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny: they have only shifted it to another shoulder.

- George Bernard Shaw

The Mighty Hero - The Carnage of Hope

"Stupid Deku!"

If that was supposed to make her feel offended, Bakugou didn't know her very well. No one here really did, did they?

She hummed noncommittally and took care in closing the latches on her backpack – her notes safely stored and out of reach of nefarious people with a severe case of bitch face.

"Oi!", he screamed next and this time Izuku spared him a glance, smiling guilelessly and tucking a strand of shortish green hair behind her ear.

"Yes?"

"Are you fucking serious?!" Izukus' eyebrows drew together, and she stood when a fist violently descended onto her desk. The loud boom almost swallowed his first words, but she heard him scream about being the first of their school to enter Yuuei.

And wanting to be the only one to even try.

Izuku felt something cold into her bones and she shifted into a stance of false relaxation, muscles loose, eyes blank.

How could someone be so selfish? If she was interested in this stupid, childish hero-school everyone was so very enthused about, she would never try to make it harder on anyone that would try to live their dream. How could he?

She didn't want to answer him, so she kept her mouth shut, eyes still carefully blank.

"You got no spirit at all, you know? Stupid Deku. You're like a fucking dumb cow with those dumb, vacant eyes."

He laid a hand on her shoulder and she calculated the time and area she had at her disposal to make him stop.

"And dumb cows don't go to the entering contest of Yuuei!"

With that, he pushed her away and while she did stumble slightly, she regained her footing almost immediately, silently berating herself that she didn't manage to shift her centre of gravity fast enough.

Bakugou and his lackeys turned and-

"I forgot. There is a way for you to become a hero actually-"

Her heart leaped for a shameful second.

"You can jump off the roof and if you believe hard enough, you might even have a quirk in your next pathetic life."

Something ugly and angry reared its head in her heart, something hurt and violent and full of rows of sharp teeth and furious black eyes and for a second her vision narrowed down on his head and she felt herself losing control-

She was two steps away from him when she forced herself to stop, forced herself to calm down, because in the grand scheme he did not matter. He was a peon on a board of big players – one of which she herself would be soon.

"Huh, you got something to say, Deku?", Bakugou turned the slightest bit and Izuku blinked.

"No. No I don't.", she whispered, voice raw. She wanted to hurt him.

She was wandering outside, frown on her face, backpack firmly strapped on and steps light enough to make nary a sound. A breeze whispered through her hair and she absentmindedly noticed that some idiots had thrown a plastic bag full of empty bottles into the small koi pond behind the school. If her path would have taken her straight home then she wouldn't have bothered going this way, but as it stands, she was on her way to a meeting with the revolutionary part of her family.

Which brought her to the initial reason a frown was marring her face, eyes thoughtfully caught on the bobbing bottles. They'd caught wind of a human trafficking organization – which in itself was a worrying thing anyway, but the real catch was that they were taking the victims to an underground facility, military with machine guns protecting entrances and barbed wire with additional video surveillance leaving even the most curious people to take their leave.

Yūbōna got one of their brothers inside, Ben, if she recalled correctly. He was a European that was abandoned by his parents during a business trip in Japan and only recently joined the revolution. They haven't heard from him in the last two weeks, no relayed messages by his minor messaging quirk having reached their destination. And that was worrying. While Ben was new, he already had two undercover missions under his belt and had been a flawless spy, providing them inside information in first the police as an attendant and next in a mafia led restaurant.

Her eyes focused.

She was sure she heard-

BANG

With a horrible screech, the manhole cover to her right exploded outwards and hit the tunnel overhead, causing debris to rain down on her.

"Invisibility cloak size S…", a voice gurgled and in another life she would have looked behind her in fear, would have been caught right ahead, would have been used as a puppet and probably murdered by this vile piece of garbage-

But in this life – she was the leader of the Yūbōna, the one that sparked hope in her peoples' hearts, the one that started the drums.

It would not end here.

She fell forward, tucked into a roll, sprinting further into the darkness of the tunnel. She heard a curse behind her and liquid sloshing on the ground, gaining fast.

Liquid.

Which meant most physical attacks would not work, although most quirk users that could change their molecular level to such a degree as to change to gas or liquid had at least one part of their body in a solid shape to anchor them to this plane.

She calmly grabbed her trusty knife and pivoted on her heel. Brown liquid roared at her with incredible speed – a grotesquely large mouth with rotten yellow teeth and one big eye greeted her sight.

Ah. There it is.

The eye, that is.

The massive form of the villain almost took the whole horizontal space inside the tunnel, but a small sliver of empty space gaped at his right side. She tucked and rolled, managing to avoid the frontal attack.

The villain changed direction, a sneer curling his giant mouth.

"You're a feisty chick? Huh? Well, I would have made this a little less painless for you, you being a cute little girly and all, but now you've gone and annoyed me."

He bared his teeth, his eye narrowed.

In her head, the drums started pounding – and she smiled.

"Don't fear, little schoolgirl! Because I am here!" – another voice boomed behind her, the sound echoing through the tunnel.

A presence soared over her, radiating heat and light and- oh.

This was-

Her breathing hitched.

All Might leaped at the villain and roared a violent "Texas Smash" at the face of the villain, his fist not even touching him before he got rendered into a giant mess covering the inside surface of the tunnel.

This was-

A gleaming blond head styled rather peculiarly turned to her. His eyes were squinted, teeth flashing in a million-dollar smile.

"All Might.", her voice was hushed, eyes wide. This was the reason – he was the reason she'd had those hopes, those dreams all those years ago, to become one of them.

To become a her-

"Haha! I'm glad you're alright, little girl! Normally he shouldn't have even gotten near you, maybe I'm getting a little rusty around the edges, although it might also be because of this new land I found myself in!", he rambled, booming another laugh.

He started gathering slimy pieces of the villain into soda bottles, all the way rambling on and on.

Her heart was in her throat.

"So then, I will take my leave! Thank you for being such a good damsel in distress! Couldn't have been easier getting to him that way!"

Something dark twisted in her heart.

"Hope you follow me on TV and continue to support me!"

There was one thing-

She needed to ask-

She needed to ask him-

"Stop.", she commanded, eyes blank, head pounding and a small treacherous hope clawing at her throat.

"Well, listen here, little girly. I really have no time talking all day with people on the bottom of the social ladder – got no time to lose fighting evil and all that."

Bottom of the social ladder? Did he really just say that? Did he really just put her several feet beneath him just because she wasn't one of them? Did he know she was-?

He started crouching, muscles rippling, readying himself to take off.

"I'm quirkless.", she said, voice hard. All Might eased his stance, turning to her again. His brows were furrowed, a confused twitch on his cheek.

She wasn't sure if she should ask- her very being rebelled against showing weakness in such a way. But maybe, maybe he was different.

This was All Might, maybe he-

She swallowed, clenching her fists and noticing she was still clutching her knife – that made her relax, even if it was just a tiny bit.

"Hypothetically, is it possible to become a hero without a quirk?", before he could answer she tacked on: "Is it possible to gain the same high status as someone with a quirk – to leave the bottom of the social ladder?"

Unbidden, the last part came out as a sneer, her eyes spitting violent hellfire.

All Might looked serious, pondering for a moment, before he said, quite simply:

"I don't believe that it's possible for a quirkless person to become a hero."

The small, quietly, shamefully nurtured blossom of hope, reserved for the dream she'd had before crumbled, leaving a gaping void and she felt-

"Heroes risk their lives, every single day, to save you and your family.", his voice was stern, almost disappointed.

"Risking your life without a way to defend yourself would mean also risking your teams life!"

Her teeth clenched. She felt-

And then he laughed, almost deprecating in her ears.

"And well, being quirkless doesn't mean you're at the bottom of the pond, doesn't it? You're being pretty dramatic there."

With that, he launched off.

She felt a blinding, roaring hate take place in her heart.