"What can you even do?!"

"I AM HERE!"

"You… looked like you needed saving."

"You can be a hero!"

"EAT THIS."


"huff, phew, I made it in time…" Midoriya said exhausted. He looked around in amazement at his surroundings. Plenty of students, wearing middle school uniforms from across Japan milled about, hoping to gain entrance to the golden gates ahead of them, and he was one of them.

Ten months. Ten long, agonizing months of training and studying to get here. Working himself to his limits to become the perfect vessel for One for All. Learning everything that was needed to become the successor to All Might, the Number One Hero. Izuku Midoriya stood at the gates to U.A. High School, ready to take his first step toward becoming a hero.

'There was no time to test out the power that All Might gave me!' He fretted. 'I ate that hair, but did it really do anything? He said it needed time to digest for the quirk to transfer-'

"Move aside, Deku!" A familiar voice yelled out behind Izuku, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. Swiveling at breakneck speed, he came face to face with the angry face of Katsuki Bakugo.

"Kacchan!" Izuku yelped, using his childhood nickname on instinct. 'That was a mistake.' He realized, as Bakugo's face immediately curled in frustration.

"Get out of my way, or you're dead." Bakugo repeated, walking towards him.

Izuku immediately tried to backpedal, scrunching his arms up randomly, waiting for a strike. "M-morning. L-let's both do our best…"

Only for Bakugo to just swerve around the panicking teen, not saying another word as he walked towards the school. Izuku could here the mutterings of some of the students nearby, who recognized him from the sludge villain incident. He was surprised Bakugo didn't snap at any of them.

'He must be focused on the Entrance Exam.' Izuku thought, before realizing that he was the one losing focus. He mentally berated himself, trying to psych himself up. 'I gotta stop freezing up instinctively like that. It's not like before, just remember the past ten months and move forward!'

'My first step towards becoming a hero!' Izuku Midoriya cheered in his head, gripping his backpack, and taking a step forward. Unfortunately, he hadn't stopped shaking from his previous encounter, and he immediately tripped over himself. Falling forward, he stared at the ground in horror. 'Whelp, this is it!'

*SLAM*

"…ughhh." Izuku tried to pick himself up, but immediately threw a hand to his head. "GAH!" It felt as if someone had stabbed a knife into his head. He didn't think he hit it that hard when he tripped, but it was taking all his willpower to not scream in pain. After a few moments, the pain faded in his head, replaced with a different, more uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. 'Why isn't anyone helping me?' he annoyingly wondered, clutching his chest in pain. Glancing around answered that question rather easily, as there wasn't anyone around to help him.

"Where the heck did everybody go?" He asked himself out loud. Slowly standing up, he took another look around, trying to figure out what had happened to the crowds of students here to take the Entrance Exam. 'Wait… the Entrance Exam?' Izuku took out his phone tepidly and looked at the time and nearly threw his device in shock. "Crap!"

Izuku immediately took off in a sprint toward the main building of U.A.'s campus. 'Five minutes?! I've been sprawled on the ground for five minutes?!' he thought in horror. The orientation for the Exam was going to start any minute now! He rushed through the automatic doors and followed the signs put up pointing toward the auditoriums. "Auditorium 3, auditorium 3, where is… there!" He skidded to a stop in front of the door and opened it slowly just in case they had started early.

"Um, sorry I'm… late?" He started to apologize, only to finish speaking in confusion. He peered through the doors, only to find no one inside. Poking his head in to get a better look, he felt even more confused. "Did I get the room wrong?" He walked back into the hallway and checked the other four auditoriums in the hall, only to find that they were all equally empty.

Izuku could only come to one conclusion. "Don't tell me they already started?!" Running in the direction of the 'This way to the Exam' signs led him to a line of changing rooms labeled with different number and gender signs. He ran into one of the male changing rooms, and threw down his backpack, pulling out his worn out tracksuit. He was midway through unbuttoning his uniform's vest when he froze, his mind suddenly moving a mile-a-minute. 'Something's not right…'

He stopped changing and began to study the changing room, putting a hand to his chin as he started muttering. "There should have been dozens of people that had changed in here, but there's no bags or clothes anywhere. It's unlikely they put all their clothes away properly and there isn't a single lock on these lockers. It's unlikely this room wasn't used if the Exam has started, so the only conclusion is that… the Entrance Exam hasn't started yet?"

He put his clothes back into his backpack, put it on, and walked out of the changing room. He checked the changing room next to him to be sure and it was just as untouched, free of any stray socks or stuffed lockers. 'They must have cancelled for some reason.' Izuku thought. He tried to find a teacher or other faculty members to ask about it but found all the halls and room barren of life. He even began searching outside the main building, but after nearly half an hour of exploring the oversized campus, he had no choice but to give up and go home. 'I guess they'll send an email about a new Exam time later.'

Walking back out the gate to U.A., Izuku's stomach was doing flips. After working himself up for what was supposed to be the biggest moment of his life, having to leave so anti-climactically made the butterflies in his stomach all the worse. Walking somberly home and looking depressingly at the ground, he got to the nearby train station before noticing he was the only one around. "What the…?" He stared at the completely empty train platform in bewilderment. It was almost noon in the middle of Musutafu City! There should be hundreds of people commuting or taking a break for lunch, or all the other students who didn't get to take the Exam. The only reason anyone wouldn't be hear at this time of day would be… a villain attack!

Whipping out his phone in a panic again, Izuku saw that he hadn't received any notifications about nearby villain attacks. He had downloaded almost a dozen different 'villain warning' apps in order to watch and analyze hero fights. If none of them had sent anything, then he supposed everything was fine. 'Fine' as in he wasn't about to get killed by a stray villains attack, but it still left the mystery of the empty station. He thought that maybe he walked past an out of order sign, but then a sound came out of the station speakers warning him to step away from the tracks and his train home pulled up, automatically opening its doors. Izuku just shrugged before walking into the train and taking a seat.

Sitting in his seat, Izuku closed his eyes and tried to relax. He'd been wound up all day, from getting All Might's quirk, to thinking he nearly missed the Exam. He just needed to think about the positives of today. He finally had a quirk, and with the Entrance Exam being delayed, he might actually have time to train with it beforehand! His nervousness washing away, Izuku tilted his head forward as he hugged his backpack, quickly nodding off.


"Upcoming stop: Musutafu City Mall. The next stop is: Aldera Residential District. Please watch your step when exiting the train."

Izuku was awoken from his nap by the sound of the train's speaker notifications. Snapping his head up, he rubbed his eye's and looked at the screen above the automated doors, confirming that his stop was indeed coming up next. He shook his head in disbelief. 'I can't believe I fell asleep and nearly missed my stop. I guess it was just so peaceful…'

'Wait, peaceful? Since when was public transit during midday quiet enough for a half hour nap?' He thought perplexed. A quick glance around him revealed that the interior of the train was suspiciously empty. Now that he thought about it, the place was as sparsely filled when he entered as well.

He suddenly lurched as the train slowed to a halt at the Musutafu City Mall's underground station. Upon stopping the train doors opened as usual, but the crowd of consumers and commuters never came. Izuku got up from his seat and looked out onto the platform outside, only to find it as empty as the one near U.A. There was no horde of shoppers, or cliques of young teenagers getting in their last days of summer vacation.

The train didn't share in his confusion, automated systems closing the doors with the standard warnings. The train lurched again as it started accelerating, and Izuku grabbed one of the handrails above him to avoid falling on his face, again. The train slowly tilted upward as it exited the subterranean station and went up above the city streets. As the train chugged along, Izuku looked out its windows for the first time. His eye's widened at the view, and his jaw dropped in shock.

"What the hell?!"

There was nobody around. The sidewalks were free of pedestrians. None of the cars were moving, sitting unmoving in the middle of the streets. As the train continued through the city, the view remained the same. Blocks upon blocks of empty streets. There was nothing moving in sight. Izuku couldn't help but start muttering as he tried to discern the sight in front of him. "Where the hell is everyone?! Is it a villain attack? Does their Quirk somehow make people disappear? That would explain why nobody reported it. If so, is there some kind of criteria that must be met? There must be if I was unaffected. How did it affect so many people?" He was snapped out of his murmuring by a chime coming out of the train speakers.

"Upcoming stop: Aldera Residential District. This is the final stop on the line. Please watch your step when exiting the train."

Izuku looked ahead and saw his stop slowly approaching, the station just as empty as all the other ones he'd seen. He didn't know what to do. 'Is it safe to even leave? If this is a villain attack, there's a chance I'll be targeted. Should I make a sprint for the apartment. I should be able to get there in a couple minutes if I sprint it. If only there was some way to check if-'

Izuku slapped his forehead. He had a phone, he could just call someone! He pulled his cellular device out and dialed 119. He then put it to his ear and waited. As the phone rang, the doors to the train opened. Izuku took a chance and exited, huddling behind a pillar. He'd rather be able to run away then be trapped on the train. His phone continued to ring in his ear for longer than he knew it should for an emergency line and hung up. 'Damnit! Who else can I call? The only people in my contacts are All Might and my Mom…!'

"Mom!" Izuku immediately bolted out of the station, caution thrown to the wind as he ran down the empty streets. 'It can't be! Please, don't let it be!'

He sprinted as hard as he could, cutting across the currently unused roads for any shortcut he could get. Approaching an apartment building, he ran up the stairs to the third floor with ragged breathes. Lungs begging for air, Izuku's body was shaking by the time he reached his family apartment. Not stopping for a second, he fumbled with his key and unlocked the door. He violently pushed the door open, not even stopping as it slammed into the wall hard enough to leave a dent.

"MOM! Mom are you here?! Please say something!" Izuku yelled as he ran through the house. He began flinging open doors, checking every corner of the house. Eventually, he found himself back in the kitchen in the center of the apartment. "Mom! Where are… you?"

Looking at the kitchen counter, Izuku could see that someone had been in the middle of cooking a meal. The radio was on but was playing nothing but static, the fridge was wide open, and there was chopped up food laid about across the counter. He recognized that it was the same prep his mother did whenever she made Katsudon. He thought back to this morning before he left to get One for All. The image of his mom standing at the door, her words echoing in his head.

"I'm sure you'll work up quite the appetite after that Exam. Don't worry, I'll have a surprise waiting for when you get back!"

"No…" Izuku fell to his knees. What was he supposed to do now? What the hell is going on?!

The static of the radio suddenly ceased, replaced with the sound of a warning siren, like for when an earthquake or tsunami hits. "This is a national warning. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill." A professional voice spoke out. "Roughly an hour ago, a vast majority of the population has vanished under currently unknown circumstances. However, we believe it is not the result of a villain attack. For any that can here this message, please remain calm, stay inside, and wait for instructions from your local authorities."

As the message repeated itself, Izuku jumped up and ran into his room. He booted up his PC and opened a dozen tabs, searching the trending tabs for every site he could think of. He quickly found that the situation was happening all across Japan, but that wasn't all. There were links in foreign languages, leading to pictures and videos of empty streets all over the world. Time's Square, Niagara Falls, the Eiffel Tower, almost entirely void of life.

'But not entirely.' Izuku realized. Someone had to be posting these, and there's clearly enough people around to report on this worldwide. 'There has to be something linking them, anything!' He triple-checked the media posts, dived into the profiles of the posters, looking for any correlation between them. Using translation software to read any pages not in Japanese, he began writing down information about each active user on one of his many empty notebooks.

After twenty minutes of scribbling down whatever he could find he looked over his notes. Glancing between the pages, he couldn't notice anything similar about the various active users. Different race, gender, age, location. There didn't seem to be anything strange about them. They were all completely ordinary people!

"Wait…" Izuku mumbled. He flipped through his notes with a new perspective. Maybe it isn't what they all have, but what they don't. He felt like an idiot for not noticing it before, being so obsessed with them. He double checked the profiles, and his theory was quickly confirmed.

"The only people left… are Quirkless?"

Next Chapter: Becoming the #1 Hero (By Default)