Midoriya Izuku, despite being no older than nine years old was familiar with life treating him as chopped liver.

After several years of being bullied, shunned, disrespected, and treated like dirt, he had finally understood that he'd be stuck with his curse for the rest of his life.

Despite just turning seven a few days ago, no one accepted his birthday party invitations. After all, who would want to spend time with a brat who was clinically quirkless?

The now seven-year-old child deemed this to be unfair. Everyone in society is different and had unique things about them. Some more extreme than others like Izuku, sure. But for the most part, everyone was unique. Why was he being bullied for being "different" than anyone else? Especially with everyone having a unique superpower or mutation at this point.

Of course, his mother attempted to explain to him why they were doing it, several times in fact, but Izuku just couldn't wrap his head around it.

The racism, the discrimination-he was tired of all of it, and his seven-year-old imagination could fathom several reasons why he was starting to break down from it. Nearly all of them have something to do with his former friend and now bully, Katsuki Bakugou.

It was obvious that Katsuki never really considered Izuku his friend. Izuku knew that. Everyone knew that even both his and Katsuki's mom were aware of this. But Katsuki, at least at that time, respected Izuku, to a lesser degree than Izuku did of him of course, but still, Izuku could tell he saw him as someone equal to him, someone he could hang out with.

Now that Izuku was publicly listed as quirkless, any respect the blonde withheld for Izuku was completely thrown out of the window and replaced with a grudge, a serious one at that.

Izuku didn't know what Katsuki had against him which made him turn on him, he just knew that him being quirkless wasn't the sole reason. Although, it certainly was a reason most of the other kids picked on him. Still, today wouldn't be an exception from Katsuki's bullying.

"Oi, useless! Who said you could play here?" A loud and offensive voice shook Izuku from the core, as he stopped himself from drawing in his notebook.

"U-Uhm, Kacchan!" Izuku stuttered. "Did I d-do something w-wrong?" Izuku answered the Katsuki in front of him, his shadow covering a large amount of area. "I-I'm just trying to draw."

"Yeah, and who said you could? Quirkless people don't have the right to play whenever they want to, isn't that right guys?" The bully's lackies nodded at his reply. "See what I mean? This is factual you small-brain!"

"K-Kacchan, that's not fair! It's not like you own the playground-"

Izuku was interrupted by a loud boom, with several cracks following afterward. "And so what? Are you saying I'm wrong?" Katsuki inched closer to Izuku's face, snarling at him. "Well?!"

Izuku's will gave into the tension, as he conceded. "N-No."

"Then beat it! This playground is our's!" Katsuki yelled at him, setting off more explosions in the process.

Izuku, not wanting to feel the pain that Katsuki's explosions would bring, ran directly into the forest next to the playground. Hoping that Katsuki and his lackies wouldn't follow him there.

Izuku hated to acknowledge it, but these types of occurrences were beginning to become more and more frequent as time went on. As he walked further and further into the forest, he quickly noticed something.

This is the place me and Kacchan used to play in... Several months had gone by since he was last in this forest. And that was partly due to the fact that he rarely had the opportunity to do so, not when he was swarmed with bullying 24/7.

Either way, he was welcoming this opportunity. It wasn't like he had anywhere else to play. After all, Katsuki and his lackies threatened to beat him with their quirks had he been persistent in opposing Katsuki's logic. So he ended up doing the smart thing. Which was running away before anyone could get hurt.

As much as Izuku hated to admit, Katsuki was growing more and more feral as time went on. At this point, he feared that in the near future, there wouldn't be a day that went by where Katsuki didn't torment him in some way, shape, or form. With his threats and taunts becoming even profane and tear-inducing.

"Why does everyone have to be so mean?" Izuku questioned himself. "Just because I don't have a quirk, doesn't mean I'm suddenly a monster…"

Izuku could feel hot tears beginning to form within his eyes. He was holding the tears back, but only barely. He wasn't sure how much longer they would hold until they started streaming down his face. There must be something wrong with me then. Izuku sniffled as he recalled the fateful day when he was first told by his mother that he was quirkless.

I just wished I wasn't quirkless. I don't want to be stuck with this curse- Suddenly, any thoughts going through Izuku's head were immediately halted, as he heard a noise coming from the river.

"Is someone there?" He tensed himself up and prepared to run, just in case if it was any of the kids from the playground.

The only thing which served as a response was a short and silent cry of pain. Upon hearing it, Izuku concluded the cause almost immediately.

Izuku remembered there being a fallen tree log above the river, which always served as a bridge for him and Katsuki to walk on.

A fall from the bridge into the river wouldn't be anything lethal, especially when Izuku remembered the depth of the water, but if someone happened to be careless when walking on it-

They might be in danger! Izuku rushed over to the river as fast as his legs could possibly carry him, hoping that whoever fell was fine.

As he closed in on the river, the cries became clearer to Izuku, to the point where he could almost pinpoint the gender of the person.

Upon reaching the person, he immediately extended his hand out to them. "A-Are you okay? That fall looked like it hurt." He stuttered as he took in the person's appearances.

From what he could tell off the bat, the person looked to be within his age range. If he had to guess, no older than nine years old. The person also seemed feminine in appearance and had blonde hair.

She's a girl? Izuku felt his cheeks heat up as he inspected the person more closely. Indeed, with her goldilocks-colored hair and smooth-looking skin, she appeared to be female. The girl also wore glasses, giving her a smart and mature look for her age.

Interrupting him from his daze, the girl clenched his hand and attempted to use it as support, but failed. "I-I think I sprained my ankle." She whined.

Another thing Izuku realized about the girl was that she was foreign, he predicted that she was from America, thanks to her accent.

"O-Other than that, are you o-okay?" Izuku asked politely and the girl nodded. "D-Don't worry, I might be able to get my m-mom to help you if we hurry back."

His stutter brought a smile to the girl. "T-That's very kind of you, thank you." She said before checking her surroundings, with her face settling back to a frown. "The water isn't that shallow and the fall wasn't that high, but I suppose I was too careless..." She sighed. "How stupid of me."

Izuku shook his head. "You're not stupid at all!" The girl looked up at him in surprise, the warmth in his eyes and honesty plastered on his face captivating her attention.

"T-The same thing happened to my friend one time. A-Accidents happen." Ignoring how the girl made him nervous, he beamed a smile at her to comfort her.

Something about Izuku's smile resonated within the girl as she returned it, with the same brightness to match. "You're right."

"I-I know you can't walk, so do you mind if I c-carry you?" His cheeks turned an even brighter shade of red as he suggested to help the poor girl.

"You mean like a piggyback? Sure!" She agreed and didn't hesitate to jump on his back, earning a grunt from him.

"Woah!" Izuku stumbled and struggled to maintain the weight. "Y-You're too heavy!" He said as he dared to even take a step forward.

"No I'm not," From the tone of her voice, Izuku could immediately tell that he accidentally angered the girl by commenting about her weight. "It's just that you're not strong enough!" She barked out.

"S-Sorry!" Izuku replied as he forced himself to stand up. Slowly but surely, he started to walk away from the river, and back where he was positioned before he heard her cries of pain.

"D-Does your ankle still hurt?" Izuku asked, changing the subject.

"It really hurts," Her response nearly sent Izuku into panic, as he was still concerned for the girl. But before he could, the girl continued on. "But now that you're carrying me, it doesn't hurt as much as when I fell."

Izuku smiled. "I-I'm glad I could help." The rest of the walk towards the end of the forest was silent, but the atmosphere between the girl and Izuku was pleasant enough to keep both of them in a good mood, despite their current predicament.

"Can I-I ask y-you something?" She hummed thoughtfully, fidgeting with a piece of her, due to being nervous.

"S-Sure, I don't mind," Izuku responded, trying to balance her weight and his natural curiosity about what she planned on asking him.

"Why are you helping me?" The girl inquisitively asked.

"Hm?" Izuku paused, not fully understanding what the girl was trying to say. "I-I'm not sure what you mean?".

"Let me rephrase it," she said in a mature, and polite manner. "Why are you helping me back to the park? Especially when you could just leave me in the river and get a grown-up to help. Why go through all that trouble just to save one girl?"

"W-Well, it's not t-troubling! I can handle your weight-"

"Clearly you can't! Your joints are shaking and I can tell you're getting tired." One of the key traits Izuku suddenly realized about this "girl" was that she was perceptive, way too perceptive for her age.

She's smart! Izuku thought. "W-Well, I guess the best way I could explain is that I just started r-running on instinct."

The girl smiled. "So, it was like your body acted unconsciously?"

"I think the better term would be that my body moving on its own." He said, before grunting, as he felt his arms giving out under her weight.

"Hey, are you okay!" The girl asked him, being concerned for his well-being. "You don't have to push yourself so hard. If you want, you could leave me here and go get an adult to help-"

"N-No!" Izuku refused. "T-That would take longer. You need help as s-soon as possible."

"But what if you injure yourself?! It's not worth the risk-"

"Yeah, what about i-it?" Izuku forced himself to continue on. "Even if I end up injuring myself, saving you is worth the risk!"

The girl's mouth remained silent, as her eyes grew fixated on Izuku's form. His arms and legs were shaking, indicative that his body was reaching its limit, and his sweat was starting to make his hair stick to his skin.

As the girl stared into his eyes, a look that she could only pinpoint to be pure and raw determination gazed back at her. "D-Don't worry, I w-won't give up," Izuku said.

It was at this moment that she suddenly realized that even if his arms were to somehow break, right now, he would still try to carry her to safety.

"W-Would you truly do that for me?" she asked, curious about his morals.

"T-Truly!"

The girl truly didn't have anything left to say about what drove Izuku, as she was too awestruck to comment on anything.

This is something a hero would do, she thought.

As Izuku neared the end of the forest, he could feel his legs giving out under the girl's weight. By no means did Izuku consider her to be heavy for her age, it's just that there's only so much that the body of a seven-year-old could accomplish.

Izuku was running on fumes, and he was aware of that. Any moment and his legs could collapse, but he had to keep on moving, at least until he'd reach his mother-

"Papa?" Suddenly, all of the tension within Izuku's muscles faded away as Izuku stared at the figure in front of him.

"Melissa?" The man in front of him exclaimed. "What are you doing on this boy's back?" He asked. From the way the girl referred to him, Izuku could only guess that he was the father of the girl.

"I-I accidentally sprained my angle when playing in the forest, so he offered to piggyback me to safety."

Throughout the entire conversation between the daughter and father, Izuku remained silent. As he feared it wasn't his business to interrupt them.

The man quickly turned his attention to Izuku after making sure his daughter was safe. "You carried her all the way from the forest, to this park, yes?"

Izuku nodded. "Y-Yes, sir," he choked out. "She fell down into a river. I found her and offered her help."

The man smiled at Izuku. "What you did today is something that I can't thank you enough for. If you hadn't found my daughter, who knows what would've happened. The most likely scenario is that she would've aggravated her injury even more."

"I-It was nothing. I just felt the need to help her out," he paused. "She'll be okay, r-right?"

The man chuckled. "Hopefully yes, and thanks to you. It's just a sprained ankle so it shouldn't be anything major. But still, what you did today was very brave of you to do."

The man knelt down to Izuku's level and took out a few hundred yen bills, accompanied by one thousand-yen bill. "It's nothing much, but I hope you'll be able to buy something for yourself."

Sitting back up, the man walked over to his daughter and held her up. "Ah, I forgot to ask. What's your name kid?"

"M-Midoriya Izuku."

"Midoriya?" The man chuckled. "Well, it's a fitting name I suppose, given your hair." The man's daughter-Melissa giggled at his joke, with the man picking up his daughter and beginning to walk away.

"And Midoriya," Izuku once again turned his attention to the man's face. "With your braveness, I bet you'll make a fine hero. Keep up the hard work kid."

After the man left, Izuku stood in the same position for several seconds. Thinking about the implications of the man's words. He doesn't know that I'm quirkless though. He frowned. I bet if he knew, he'd say something different.

Multiple scenarios about how the man would react if he knew he was technically, clinically quirkless played through Izuku's head. And none of the scenarios ended with the man complimenting him.

"Well, he did give me money, so maybe I should be optimistic about him?" Izuku's moody frown turned into a small smile, as he stared at the thousand yen bill within his hands. "He and that girl were nice, maybe they're not like all of the others around me?"

"Hey look! It's that quirkless loser!" Izuku's head turned to the direction of where he heard the voice. "Let's teach him a lesson this time!"

He panicked, before immediately pushing the money into his pocket, breaking off into a sprint before the group of children could catch up to him.

Life sure loved giving him lemons, did it?

If David could accurately pinpoint one of the most frightful, and fearful days of his life, today would certainly be a candidate.

He had lost track of Melissa-his baby girl. The girl his wife had entrusted him to care of after she had passed away.

And sure, he wasn't a perfect father figure, he was sure of that. No one was, but he couldn't shake the dread of realizing that for the first time in his life, his kid chis kid could be in grave danger ould be in grave danger.

He knew that nothing bad could happen to Melissa, at least nothing life-threatening. The girl was terribly smart for her age, if not too smart.

David raised her to always utilize her common sense, to stay away from suspicious people and strangers, to not go into dangerous places or alleyways. It wouldn't be a stretch for him to assume that she was probably fine.

But still, David was a protective father. If it was revealed that Melissa accidentally injured herself while exploring, with a scrape or something even more lethal-David wouldn't be able to handle the situation without seeing himself in a self-decrypting light.

This would've happened had it not been for the boy that helped her get back to the park. David had nearly collapsed on his knees and thanked the Gods upon realizing that Melissa appeared to be safe.

But of course, it wasn't the Gods who guaranteed her safety, it was the boy he brought her back. With the kid's name being Midoriya.

Of course, Melissa was injured, but for the most part, she was fine. She even admitted that the boy helped her to the park via a piggyback. Which must've been excruciating for him, given the amount of strain that would put on his body.

The kid was gonna be someone great, David knew that much. He just didn't how great.

As David walked home with Melissa on his back, he chuckled to himself as he thought of a silly idea.

Who knows, maybe he'll end up succeeding Toshi? He thought. "What a funny thing that would be."

Authors Notes

This is where the story ends, at least until I post another chapter. This chapter sort of heeds the promise I made to myself when creating this story; to develop Izuku and Melissa's relationship better than in my previous fic. Of course, this is only a teaser of what's to come. There will be many more chapters describing and developing their relationship, but for the most part, I plan on having Izuku forget about Melissa after one or two more chapters.

I apologize for how short this chapter is. I couldn't really envision it being any longer than let's say, 4,000 words. This is just something I'm inconsistent on; chapter length. But don't worry, I doubt most of the chapters I plan on posting will be anything less than 2,000 words. There might be some exceptions here and there, but 80% of the time you guys can accept something worthy of your time.

And a little side note; any grammar errors or mistakes will most likely be fixed after this chapter is posted, and I re-read it. So don't worry, in case if there are any. I'll probably even add more text and scenes to the story if I feel like it.

That is all I have to say for this Author's note. Once again, I appreciate all of you taking time out of your day to read this work of mine. It kind of warms my heart honestly. Until the next chapter, goodbye!