"Dagobah Beach… Haven't been here in a while," Izuku muttered, staring at the trash-covered stretch of sand. It looked about the same as last time, although there might've been even more garbage piled up, if that was possible.

It's the perfect place to train this new Skill.

[Dominator's Touch] activated

A rusty microwave was surrounded in a swirling green aura, and with a flex of his fingers, was compacted into a ball of scrap.

"Okay, so I need to actually focus on compression- it doesn't happen easily enough to be thoughtless." He held out his left hand now, both glowing with wavy emerald auroras. A broken coffee maker joined the spherical microwave. "Can I control more than two objects?" He pointed his right hand at another piece of junk, but as soon as a tire began to glow, the microwave dropped back to the sand. "Hm…"

He tried again, this time with his left hand, to no avail. "Maybe not? Or maybe I can't pick up more objects if I'm already holding something. I might be able to grab them all at once?" Green surrounded a pile of junk, and the entire thing began to float. If he looked closely enough, though, he could tell that the wavy lights weren't wrapped around each individual object, and instead formed an orb around the entire group. "Looks like the pile technically counts as one thing. Good to know." He let everything fall to the ground. "Now, what's my weight limit? Because, if I'm able to crumple metal like it's paper, then I'm assuming it's pretty high."

Izuku glanced around, his gaze landing on a stripped, rusted-out car chassis. "Seriously, how does this stuff even get here?" he murmured, rolling his eyes. Pointing one palm at the chassis, he activated Dominator's Touch. Nothing happened. Furrowing his eyebrows, he tried again. And again. Then with two hands. Finally, the stupid thing began to hover, though it was only a few inches off the ground before it felt like something snapped in Izuku's mind, and it fell back to the sand heavily.

"Urk!" Izuku cried, a hand flying to his face, which was suddenly warm. A hot liquid streamed onto his palm. Izuku glanced down to find his fingers stained crimson. Violent shivers wracked his spine, and he forced himself to look away. The teen hurried over to the surf, kneeling at the edge to rinse his hand in the salt water, bringing a few handfuls up to splash on his face. The water turned a bit pink, before dispersing into the tide and removing all traces of his nosebleed.

"Note to self; don't overdo it," he whispered, trying to calm his racing heart. Luckily, he was able to regenerate pretty quickly, so the bleeding stopped in less than a minute, but he was still slightly on edge. "I'll need to increase my proficiency. Dominator's Touch is only at Level 1 right now. Maybe my weight limit will increase as the Level does?" he rambled quietly, trying to ignore the metallic scent overwhelming his senses.

"Excuse me, are you-?"

Izuku screeched, leaping a solid five meters in the air, landing in a handstand to face the person that'd snuck up behind him.

"-Alright?" the man finished. "M-My apologies, young man, I didn't mean to startle you so badly!" he cried, bowing.

"Ah, it- it's fine!" Izuku said hurriedly, flipping back to his feet. "I just wasn't…"

Tall, thin as a rail, floppy yellow-blond hair, and piercing, shadowed, electric-blue eyes.

That's All Might.

"...Paying attention."

All Might's skeletal form coughed into a fist, no doubt hiding the spurt of blood. "Still, it was rude of me. Although, it's rare for me to find anyone else here."

That's All Might.

"May I ask what brought you to this trash heap?"

...Does he not recognize me?

"I… Um, I'm just training," Izuku lied. "I thought it would be fine, since there's nobody else around, but- I'll just go. Sorry."

All Might waved his hands. "No, no, there's no need for that. I was the one intruding. So, you were training? Might I ask what your Quirk is?"

I don't have one. You already know that.

"It's, uh… Telekinesis. Or, something like that."

All Might raised a brow, but didn't comment. "Sounds impressive. Any particular reason you're practicing with it?"

You should already know.

"I wanna… Go to U.A. And become a Hero." All Might nodded, like he believed it without a second thought.

"May I see a demonstration? I find myself curious that you would need to come all the way out here to train- are there any serious drawbacks to your Quirk?"

Izuku swallowed dryly. "N-No. It's… Pretty standard. Ya know, move stuff with your mind," the teen said, chuckling nervously. He held out a hand, letting Dominator's Touch flow through the air and wrap around a piece of scrap metal, levitating it and throwing it deeper into the landfill.

"Well, with a Quirk like that, there's no doubt you'll go far. You will be a great Hero," All Might said with a gaunt grin. "Anyways, there's a few errands I need to run, so I'll be going now. Perhaps we'll meet again, young man."

Izuku said nothing, just watching the Symbol of Peace walk away.

With a Quirk like that-

He managed to hold it together until he got home. Slamming open the front door and ignoring his mom's startled shout, Izuku rushed towards the bathroom, throwing himself down in front of the toilet just in time for bile to spill from his mouth.

With a Quirk like that…

His convulsing intensified.

You will be a great Hero.

There was nothing left in his stomach, but he couldn't stop dry-heaving.

I'm sorry to say, but without a Quirk, you cannot be a Hero.

He wasn't sure whether he was retching or sobbing anymore. Probably both.

Maybe you should take a swan-dive from the roof and hope for a Quirk in your next life!

Quirk, Quirk, Quirk- why is it always about a Quirk!? Does who I am not matter!? This power isn't even mine- it's from the System!

"Izuku? What's wrong?"

Does that mean I'm still worthless?

"Izuku!?"

No matter how strong I become with this borrowed power…

Warm arms wrapped around his head, pressing his face into his mother's stomach, heedless of the tears, snot, and vomit being smeared on her cardigan.

Will I always be weak?

Weeks passed. School started back up. Izuku was awarded more and better dungeon keys for completing the Daily Quest. Most of the time, he sent his Shadows to do the work for him, both because it was so much faster with his entire army fighting to clear the dungeon, and simply because he couldn't work up the motivation to fight by himself. The only time Izuku stepped in these days was during the Boss fight, but really, he didn't even need to do that.

Igris (name shortened from Blood-Red Commander Igris, because that was far too edgy) was the strongest of Izuku's Shadows. He looked exactly the same as when he was the Boss of the Job Change Dungeon, but his armor was now black, the lines between the plates glowing with an emerald green light. He was an Elite Knight at Level 11. There was also Sho the Winter Shogun (A/N: Winter Shogun from Konosuba, but with a black and green color-scheme), a large samurai wielding a blade of pitch black- a stark contrast to when it was a being of pure white, back in that Snowy Mountain Dungeon- who was an Elite Knight of Level 5. Between those two, dungeons B-rank and below were a breeze. A-rank was only slightly more difficult, and Izuku had to put in some effort for those, but overall, nothing he couldn't handle.

It was undeniable that he'd gotten stronger. But, this wasn't his power, so Izuku felt nothing as he Levelled Up. Not pride, not joy- nothing.

Life went on.

"Izuku?"

"Yeah, Mom?"

"…If something's bothering you, you can always talk to me. You know that, right?"

Izuku blinked, and Inko felt her heart break a little bit. "Everything's fine, Mom. "I'm gonna head to school- I have monitor duty today. Bye."

She waved her son out the door, and sat down heavily on the living room couch. Something had happened to her baby. So many things had changed, ever since that day when the hospital called, saying he'd been found on the beach, covered in so much blood it was like he'd fallen in a pool full of it. Inko had three consecutive panic attacks, and probably would've had more if the kind man that found her son, Yagi-san, wasn't there to distract her with idle conversation.

His dramatic growth spurt nearly gave the woman a heart attack. But, it didn't seem to be the result of anything untoward. In fact, Izuku had been happier than he had been in years. He was exercising, and smiling more, and spending time with Inko rather than holing up in his room, watching Hero fights on his computer.

But… There were a few things that Inko still didn't really get. How did he grow so much within a few days of being discharged from the hospital? Inko was sure it wasn't steroids, but… Maybe his Quirk had finally developed, after being thrown into some life-threatening situation he couldn't remember? If that was the case, though, why wasn't he shouting it from the rooftops? Inko knew her son- or at least, she thought she did- and knew that one of the greatest disappointments of his young life was having a second joint in his pinky toe. If one of his biggest barriers to fulfilling his life's aspiration of being a Hero were to suddenly disappear, wouldn't he have at least told her? Or…

Were they not even that close anymore, despite how much time they'd spent together recently?

It made sense, in a way that squeezed the air from her lungs. After Doctor Tsubasa cruelly shattered his dream, Inko had been the first to stomp upon the remains. She hadn't supported him in his time of need, hadn't told him when he asked, tears rolling down his tiny face like a waterfall, that he could be a Hero, even without a Quirk. And… Why had she thought that? There were plenty of Heroes whose Quirks didn't turn them into another All Might.

The Wild, Wild Pussycats came to mind. Of the four-person cat-themed squad, only one could be considered a powerhouse due to their Quirk; Pixie-Bob, with her Earth Flow. Ragdoll's Search and Mandalay's Telepath were purely mental, lacking in obvious combat applications. Tora's Pliabody just made him more flexible. His strength had been built through years of hard work, not because of a Physical Enhancement Quirk. And despite all that, they were in the top 50 of Japan's Hero Billboard Chart- 32nd, if Inko remembered correctly.

Izuku could always have been a Hero; Inko had just been too blind to see that. Not anymore, though. She'd support him, now, like she should have for the past ten years.

She'd also be going to poke around his room real quick and see if she could find anything potentially incriminating, because seriously, nobody grew that fast randomly (and where'd he get the money to buy her that dress for her birthday? Was he maybe not taking drugs, but instead selling them?).

Izuku came home that afternoon to find his mother sitting on the couch, staring at the hallway intently, like she was waiting for him.

"I'm home?" he said, confused as to why her gaze was so intense.

"Welcome back, Izuku," Inko greeted automatically. "I want to apologize, because I searched your room while you were gone to see if you were taking drugs. I understand that it's a breach of privacy, but you've changed a lot in the past few months, so I believe it was a valid concern."

"Uh… Okay, I guess? Find anything interesting?" A part of Izuku's mind was shocked that he was taking this so well. The other part was just curious.

"No, which I'm grateful for," Inko said. "Although, just to be sure, you aren't doing drugs, right? Not steroids, or Trigger, or anything like that?" Izuku shook his head, and the woman breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good."

"...Right," Izuku said dumbly, pointing in the direction of his bedroom. "So, I'm gonna go do my homework-"

"Izuku." The teen snapped his jaw shut. "You're going to be a great Hero."

"Eh?" Was he hearing things now?

"I should've told you that, so long ago." She rose to her feet, taking a step towards him. In their small living room, that meant she'd covered about a quarter of the distance between them. "I should've ignored what Doctor Tsubasa said, because he was an asshole." She took another step. Izuku jolted at her language. "What kind of man would call a child hopeless, right to his face? A man whose advice I should have ignored." Another step. "All you wanted to do was save people. It's all you ever wanted to do." She stood right in front of him now.

"You don't need a Quirk, because you've always had the heart of a Hero. And that means more than any Quirk could. You're going to be a wonderful Hero, and this time, I'm going to do my best to help you get there."

Saltwater pricked the corner of Izuku's eyes, and within moments, crocodile tears were rolling down his cheeks as he fell to his knees, wailing. Inko crouched down in front of her son, wrapping her arms around him, and he buried his face in her shoulder, barely muffling his raucous sobs.

"It's okay, baby. Let it out- I'm here."

His crying redoubled, but Inko just held him tight, whispering reassurances into his ear and running her fingers through his hair. It took a long five minutes before he was able to calm down, but when he did, he separated himself from his mother.

"Oh, god. I got snot all over your shirt," Izuku despaired, making Inko chuckle.

"It's fine. I can just go change."

Izuku wasn't exactly in the best state of mind at the moment, so he didn't see any problem in using Dominator's Touch to bring over a box of tissues. He pulled one from the box, then set to wiping at his mother's sleeve, heedless of her astounded expression.

"...Izuku?" she choked out.

"Yeah?" he replied absentmindedly, scrubbing a bit harder.

"What did you just do?"

Izuku blinked. Glanced at the box now in his hand, even though he hadn't gotten up. Paled dramatically.

"Good question."

They talked, and talked and talked long after the sun went down. Izuku did his best to explain the System without getting into all the gorey details (he completely skipped over how it all started, because he wasn't ready for that), and it seemed to go well enough, because Inko only cried twice. Plus, he hadn't gotten any alarms about being punished for revealing the existence of the System. Maybe it was just because it was his mother, though. He definitely wasn't going to be testing it by shouting about his borrowed power from the rooftops.

"So… You're going to use these new abilities to help you pass the U.A Entrance Exam?" his mother clarified once his word vomit stopped. Izuku paused, opening and closing his mouth a few times.

"I don't know," he finally admitted. Inko spasmed.

"You don't know?" the woman asked, sounding scandalized. "Izuku, this could really help you out! I know I said that even without a Quirk, you'd be a great Hero, but with one, you could become even better than All Might! Think of all the people you could save!"

"Really? Even though it's not my power?"

Inko's eyebrows furrowed awkwardly in confusion. "What does that even mean?"

"This power… The System's giving it to me. It doesn't come from me. So does it really count as my own ability? Wouldn't it be cheating if I used it to pass the exam?"

Inko fixed him with her flattest, most unimpressed stare, making Izuku squirm under her gaze. "Izuku, that's dumb. If I gave you an All Might figurine for your birthday, is it still mine?"

"...No?"

"Then since the System gave you this power, doesn't that mean it's yours now?"

"...I guess?"

Inko nodded with finality. "Good. No more of that, then, you Prince of Nonsense," she said fondly, reaching up and ruffling his hair, pulling half of it out the tie. "You just go knock everyone off their feet at the Entrance Exam, you hear me?" she asked sternly, though Izuku could see the glimmer of amusement in her jade eyes.

"Roger!" Izuku replied, snapping off a salute. They both laughed, and hugged gently. "I'll use my power, and become the greatest Hero in the world," Izuku whispered, though a part of him didn't believe him. Not yet, anyways- it'd come around.

"I know," Inko replied simply.