Well...I'm late lmao. I actually posted this chapter much earlier on Wattpad and totally forgot about this site cause I dumb. But it's 2021 (13 days late) now so I bet you can't wait for more updates. And when I mean by more updates I mean one chapter a month. Yea you can leave...come back in a couple of months for an extra 3 chapters where nothing's changed.

As you can tell I like to take it slow, which is kind of my downfall seeing as how I wanna get in the action. But you can't write a good story if you gloss over simple things and just speed through the entire show without giving any kind of characterization to anyone so bare with me with the next few chapters. Luckily the entrance exam's up next chapter (probably lol jk it'll defo be next chapter) and Izuku's best girl's making her debut.

Good lord I'm still typing, bet you wanna get to the story now huh? Well you just skip this and read it bruh, but yeah here's to a new year and hopefully a good story?

It was a normal day in a city riddled with explosions and villains running amok…well if you classify that as normal. Heroes were at every corner as several crimes were committed. However, that's not what we're paying attention to today, as much as we like to look at the big picture, the smaller and more refined things are equally as special. Like the beach for example, where two teenagers are busy attacking the number one hero…wait what?

Currently, All Might is training Midoriya and Shinjiro simple fighting techniques…which in his case is throwing punches all around.

"You know, I'm starting to think this isn't a fighting technique" Shinjiro sweat dropped while throwing a simple jab forward. "This is just what you do on a daily basis, just one punch people to death"

"If it's so easy to throw a punch as you said, wouldn't you be hitting me right now?" Toshinori grinned as he easily dodged every thrown punch.

"Grrrr," Shinjiro growled and began mumbling things to himself. Midoriya on the other hand was invested in taking the training seriously, not letting Toshinori have a second to breathe as he threw punch after punch. But he came out short as his arm got grabbed and jerked causing him to do a front flip onto the sand.

Shinjiro shortly came into view. "You okay there bud? I think number one here did that on purpose"

"It was my instincts! It's not every day I get attacked in this form so obviously, I have to defend myself" Toshinori defended. Shinjiro helped Midoriya up and helped him dust off the sand on his back. "Um, I think it's time for a break now. You've both done well"

Shinjiro tossed a towel over to the both of them and they slung it around their necks at the same time. He blinked for a second before grabbing his own towel, not bothering to bring up that brief moment. At that time, Toshinori came up and slapped his back causing Shinjiro to nearly lose his balance.

"If you two keep up this performance, then you'll totally be ready for the entrance exams!" The hero exclaimed. "Especially you Young Midoriya, you're almost fit to wield One For All"

"Thank you All Might!" Midoriya beamed with excitement. Shinjiro smirked, seeing his best friend becoming the very person he wanted to be. Midoriya had always been the sun when Shinjiro felt down, pushing him through the thick mist and not caring off his own. It was truly a sight to behold.

"Wait," Shinjiro said. "Toshinori, what did you mean by almost fit to wield One For All?"

Toshinori nervously chuckled. "Well you see…Young Midoriya doesn't actually have my quirk yet"

"Eh?"It took a minute to register those words inside of Shinjiro's head. But when he finally did. "EHHHHHHHHHH!?"

His scream pierced all ears within a 20-mile radius, possibly killed some birds too.

"S- So you're telling me that Midoriya doesn't have your quirk yet? Then how the hell did this cinnamon bun get so ripped? In less than a few months?!" Shinjiro pointed at Midoriya, who was surprisingly ripped for an innocent boy his age. He had well-toned muscles and a near six-pack, which Shinjiro could clearly see after sweat had drenched his shirt.

Toshinori nodded. "I was the one to train him after all. I can do the same for you if you want-"

"Hell no," Shinjiro interjected. "As much as I wanna look what he likes, I'm not dying to a workout regime that's worse than hell"

"Aww, it's not that ba-"

"Answer's still no"

"Okay" Toshinori gave in. Midoriya chuckled at the exchange.

The trio had just bought themselves a quick dinner at a nearby WacMonalds and are taking a slow walk back to their respective homes.

"I still can't believe he picked you out of everyone," Shinjiro said to Midoriya, the green-hair boy slightly blushing at that statement.

"I- It's not like I wanted to be picked…I guess I was just at the right place, at the right time"

Shinjiro scoffed. "It wasn't the right place, right time, Midoriya. You deserve it after all you've done"

"Th- thank you"

"No seriously, after what Toshinori told about you and what happened with that slime monster…it just makes me feel inferior to you"

"N- No! Don't say it like that! You're just as amazing. I mean you had basically your entire life stolen away from you, if there was no one who knew me and I had nowhere to go, I would have given up" Midoriya stated. He felt guilty for Shinjiro knowing the situation he was in, ever since All Might told him he was shocked to hear something like that could even happen since heroes were everywhere. Then again things like these happen daily even if a place is under the highest security.

Shinjiro awkwardly laughed in response. "Don't worry about it, I'm still standing here, right? That means I'll still be able to become a hero, and revert everything back to the way it was"

"Hey, Shinjiro-san? Can I ask you a question?"

Shinjiro raised a brow. "Shoot"

"Did you want to become a hero before all this happened? I mean it makes sense why you'd want to become a hero because of what happened but, I can't help but think if you really did want to become a hero when you were still…well, you" This seemed to strike a chord in Shinjiro. Midoriya was right, he had never thought of becoming a hero before. In the family, he was the only quirkless one, he was the only useless one, and even though Midoriya had cheered him on to become a hero then, he was still conflicted.

"Well," Shinjiro took a deep breath and sighed. "No, I never had the thought of becoming a hero. I was quirkless… and you know what happens to the quirkless. That's why I stopped trying, when I was six, I begged my father to send me to learn self defense and fighting cause it was the only thing I knew I could do. I thought that way, I would be able to do something proud. Then the next thing you know my brother Daichi comes up with perfect scores on his hero exam, Ayano being the best fighter in her entire class, and Hina being the perfect balance of the two, cool and calculated but deadly when in fights. To me, I felt like nothing. A worthless pebble just tossed to the sid-"

"Don't say those things!" Midoriya shouted, startling Shinjiro and Toshinori, who had walked ahead prior to their conversation. "Don't be let down by the people around you. Every human is special in a way just like quirks, so just cause you didn't think you were good enough doesn't mean you give up. You keep trying to prove to others that you can be right beside them or go even higher!"

"Young Midoriya…"

Shinjiro scoffed. "I guess you can give better motivational speeches than me huh" "Memories erased or not, Midoriya said the exact same thing to me before," He thought before an arm slung around his back. Turns out Toshinori had wrung his arms around both the teens.

"O- Oi! Toshinori-san you're gonna make me drop my burger!" He scolded.

"Aha, sorry. I was just happy that I picked the right people" Toshinori smiled. That made both the teens smile as well even if Shinjiro had a slight curve up the corner of his lips. Soon they had all reached an intersection where they had to split, after saying goodbye to each other they all went their separate ways.

It was quiet since it was late at night, a few passersby walking around most of them drunk or some passed out in the middle of the street. Shinjiro sighed, having random strangers be drunk and still conscious can lead to dangerous events. So he decided to speed up his pace and hastily get back home.

"GET OFF ME YOU CREEP!"

A sharp voice suddenly cut through the air, startling Shinjiro. He looked at where the scream came from. It was a girl getting harassed by a couple of boys, possibly a gang of some sorts. His eyes diverted to the girl as something looked familiar to him.

His eyes widened as he saw who it was. A drink dropped to the floor, contents spilling out as Shinjiro was making a mad dash towards the group. Real soon a fist was sunken into a thug's face as he fell to the floor in pain, clutching his face.

"Oi, who the hell'er you?" The leader spoke.

"Heh, just someone who couldn't resist butting in" Shinjiro grinned.

The leader just scoffed and began cracking his knuckles. "Kid, it's a big mistake to fight us. But suit yourself." He said before signaling the rest of his lackeys to attack.

"Welp, this'll be quick," Shinjiro said before cracking his neck.

It was indeed a quick battle, with Shinjiro hitting each lackey in the most sensitive parts of the body. One even had his nose punched in, blood pouring down his face. All that was left standing was the leader, who was unfazed even after the absolute massacre.

Shinjiro just sighed while feeling his bruised knuckles. "So…we come to a conclusion to not harass women anymore?"

"Don't screw with me!" He said before forming a bow and arrow made of energy and shooting it toward Shinjiro. The girl, who was witnessing the fight, closed her eyes as the arrow made contact. She opened her eyes to see Shinjiro holding the energy arrow in front of his face.

He closed his eyes and sighed in disappointment. "Honestly, for a gang leader such as yourself, you should have some kind of powerful quirk. You make people think you're shooting an arrow made of energy but all you're doing is shooting a normal arrow that looks like one. Even so, the arrow's speed isn't even close to a normal bow and arrow since the velocity and torque needed on that is-"

He opened his eyes to reveal two very confused individuals staring at him. He awkwardly laughed. "Heh, I hate myself for doing that sometimes"

"You bitch!" A foot came flying towards Shinjiro. He had no time to react as the foot slammed into the side of his body. He winced in pain but managed to muster the strength to grab onto the leader's foot and jerk him forwards, causing the boy to fall backward and hitting his head on the curb which knocked him out instantly.

"Ugh, well…didn't expect him to land a single hit on me" Shinjiro jokes, gripping his side as he slowly limped away. Then, an arm came and supported him as he walked. Shinjiro looked to his right to see the girl he had saved, helping him.

"Mou, helping someone you don't even know. I could have handled that you know!" She spoke up.

"Sure you have Ayano" Shinjiro rolled his eyes.

"Wait, how do you know my name?" Ayano blinked. Shinjiro internally panicked having given up his facade of not knowing people.

"I- uh…heard of you! You're the daughter of the Toujou family right?"

Ayano nodded. "We're that popular already huh?"

"Good, I'm safe. When in doubt use the hero card" Shinjiro thought. He let out a nervous chuckle. "Yea, I guess you are. Hey, what were you doing out here in the middle of the night anyway?"

"Umm…wait, why should I be telling you!"

"Haha, it was worth trying" There was now an awkward silence between the two. Ayano being slightly uncomfortable with the close contact between them, Shinjiro feeling the same way even though he was looking in the other direction. It felt weird talking to his sister but technically isn't his sister, which added more fuel to the awkward fire.

"So…why'd you jump in like that?" Ayano spoke up, keeping her head down.

"Oh…heh, I couldn't ignore someone in trouble like that could I? If there's a beautiful girl being harassed, wouldn't anyone wanna help?"

"Wah!?" She turned red at the comment. "I knew it! You're a pervert like the rest of them!" She screamed and began hitting Shinjiro on the back.

"Ow! Ow! Hey! Quit it! I was just joking!" Shinjiro in-between hits, but Ayano kept hitting.

"Baka! Pervert!"

"I was just worried if something happened, I would feel guilty about not helping!"

At that point, Ayano had stopped hitting him. "Are you serious?"

Shinjiro stood up straight after that barrage of fists and held his back. "Ow, yeah. I was told by a friend that you should always help someone cause if something happens to them and you could have done something about it. It'll haunt you for the rest of your life. And…I guess I didn't want you to go through something that you would regret for the rest of your life"

Ayano stared at Shinjiro with shock. Most boys would take advantage of her if they had done something nice, but the boy standing in front of her was someone different. He had genuinely cared for her like no other person would, let alone a stranger she had just met. She looked at the ground and began twirling her hair.

"Singing" She stated.

"Huh?"

"I was out at a karaoke learning how to sing!" She shouted before covering her face with her hands, turning redder than a tomato. Shinjiro was baffled, the usually tomboyish Ayano had a thing for singing? She'd always focus on fighting and acting tough, but with this revelation, he had learned that she wasn't what she seemed to be. "A tsundere" He thought.

He slyly grinned. "Well, this is something past Shinjiro could not do" Shinjiro always teased his sisters no matter how old they were. Despite resistance from Ayano, he would always find a way to tease her and Hina and now he has a chance to do it once again. He leaned closer to Ayano and leaned his head on her shoulder. She acted up and quickly pushed him off her in embarrassment.

"Ow!" He yelled as his butt hit the floor. He looked up to see a still red Ayano, who was fidgeting with herself. "Oh god, the more she does that the cuter she looks- NO WAIT SHE'S YOUR SISTER DAMMIT. Then again in this timeline, she's not ex- NOPE! PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER. Aw but way her hoodie's over her head is just- OI BAD SHINJIRO"

"Um…Shinjiro-san?" Ayano said, breaking the back and forth fight between angel and devil. "Are you okay?"

"Hm?" He looked down to see he was still on the floor. "Heh, yeah I'm fine. I should be able to walk now too." He said as he got up, dusting himself off in the process.

"That's good," She said before clearing her throat. "Ahem, anyway, I should get going now"

"Wait!" Shinjiro exclaimed before grabbing her arm. "Uh, I should walk you home…just in case"

"Hey! Who do you take me for?! I'm from the Toujou family, I can take care of myself"

"Mhm, and you needed me to step in to protect you from those thugs" Shinjiro countered.

"Only cause, you didn't let me do anything. I was going to whoop their asses"

Shinjiro sighed. "Well, if you're not gonna accept my help then! I'll see you around" He gave a wave and turned around. He didn't get far before he felt someone grab the back of his shirt.

"I- I didn't reject your offer to help you know" Shinjiro turned around to see Ayano pinching and holding onto his shirt while looking down. Shinjiro couldn't help but perk the corner of his lips upward before putting a hand on her head.

"Alright, alright, you don't have to pout. Let's go" He said before walking ahead. Ayano looked on before she felt dizzy. Static images of a silhouette walking into the light layering it over Shinjiro walking forward, making her shake her head a couple of times.

"Ayano-san!" Shinjiro turned around and looked at her, unintentionally tilting his head. "You coming?"

"C- Coming!" Ayano said before jogging up to him. "What was that though?" Before shaking off the thought and started chatting with Shinjiro.

They started talking about tons of things, connecting with each other over their similar preferences. Shinjiro was glad to see nothing had changed with or without him. But, there was still apart of him who wanted to be with his family. Real soon they had made it all the way to her house. They bid each other goodbye, before going their separate ways.

"Ah wait!" He turned around to see Ayano in-between the doorway of her house. "I forgot to ask you, your name!"

"It's Shinjiro!" He said before turning back around and waved without looking. Ayano smiled as she went back in.

"Welcome back Ayano! Was that your boyfriend just now?" Rikona shot into view.

"NO HE IS NOT MOM!" Ayano shouted with a demonic face, leading her mom to giggle.

Shinjiro was now walking back home after that eventful time seeing his sister again. "I can't believe she wanted to blow me away with her quirk after revealing those embarrassing secrets" He recalled after getting Ayano to unintentionally reveal her cute side through his convincing methods.

"I ought to play with her more. With my past knowledge and the knowledge of now, this Shinjiro will be unstoppable!" He thought while raising a fist up to absolutely no one. His thoughts were immediately broken after he remembered about his training with All Might the next day.

"Ah shit, it's midnight. At this rate, I'll never be able to wake up on time. Not only that but the exams are coming up soon, who knew I've lived like this for over two months" He comically cried. However, his dreams are slowly becoming true, only one more exam and he'd be one step closer to completing his goal of taking down the mystery villain.

Words echoed through his mind of the people he had met and had helped him make his dream a possibility. But, what would he do after? Words replayed in his head of All Might asking him, what would he do after the path of revenge is done? The resolve is not yet complete, at least, a part of it was.

In the time of thinking, Shinjiro had reached home but he paid no mind. He was only thinking of his resolve, and how it was never-ending. So what if he had become a hero? He never cared for popularity or fame so what would that bring him?

"There isn't an end to my resolve. To others, there's an end in sight, but for me…there was never an end. Nothing brings me happiness, the happiness I feel is for others, they're happily ever after." He looked at his own hands and bawled them into fists. "To me…the only end…is to keep moving forward"

{5 days til the exam}

"I'm getting a weird case of deja vu right now" Shinjiro thought as he was running past people to a specific meet up point. It didn't take long before he got there, since he had just found out he can run at least two times faster than an average human at best. It took tons of trial and error for statistics to actually show he was running faster, although it could have just been Shinjiro's lack of stamina. By the time he had gotten there, his shirt and… other places were basically soaked in sweat.

"Young Shinjiro! So glad you could make it in time!" Toshinori called out.

"You could have just taken a cab here, you know," Nezu said. The rodent sat on Toshinori's shoulder like some kind of pet hamster, an unwavering smile on his face.

"Oh yeah, like I have enough money for that" Shinjiro sarcastically remarked.

"Didn't I lend you enough money to support you financially?" Nezu asked.

"Yeah, but I wanna be able to handle my own responsibilities and not rely on others. Getting a job is kind of harder than it looks especially when you're a guy with no past" Shinjiro scratched the back of his head.

"I'm sure I can arrange something"

"Then aren't I basically taking advantage of you?"

"Not so much if I'm your father"

Shinjiro sweatdropped. "Really? Again with the father thing look *sigh* I think we're getting off track here. What's the thing you called me here for?"

"Ah, right the thing," Nezu said.

"He forgot!?" Shinjiro and Toshinori internally facepalmed. Nezu signaled Toshinori to let him off, as he did Nezu cleared his throat.

"Ah yes, the thing. As you know the entrance exams are coming up soon and we need you to be on your A game this week. This means more studying and training hours, remember we need to compress Midoriya's training regime into a smaller time frame."

"Wait, do I really need to learn all this? I mean I'm pretty sure I can hold my own in a-"

"Not necessarily" Toshinori spoke up. "Indeed you have surpassed those who haven't trained in their lives but, your body is more fragile than others. Where we heroes stand from a smash or a quirk attack, you, however, may not. This is why we need to train your body to withstand more attacks."

"I guess that's true, I did go down after one hit from that thug" Shinjiro fretted. "No matter! I guess I'll have to work twice as hard if I'm gonna get weekends off!"

"Why? You got a date or something?" Nezu asked with a straight face, although with that smile you could barely tell his expression changed.

"W-Where'd you get that from?" Shinjiro nervously shook.

"Father's instinct" Nezu simply stated.

"I call bullshit! There's no way that's father instinct!" Shinjiro shouted.

"Oho, so you're not denying it" Nezu put a cunning smile on his face as Shinjiro backed up nervously. Knowing there was no way to win against the rodent, Shinjiro put his hands up in defeat.

"Yea, you got me. I got in contact with one of my sisters last night and I was wondering if I could...probably try and help her remember" Shinjiro sighed in defeat.

Nezu put a hand to his chin. "Hmmm, if that's the case I think we can let him off for the weekend right Toshinori?"

"If he can get his sister to remember then that'll be great, but we've seen the effects of this so-called quirk. Shinjiro and Midoriya have been friends for weeks and nothing's happened," Toshinori then turned to Shinjiro. "Are you really sure you can connect with someone you barely interact with?"

"I mean...she's my sister so I guess that has to yield something" Shinjiro was unsure himself, his eyes constantly breaking eye contact. He gave out a deep sigh. "But, if I do get something out, even if it's the teensiest memory then...the spell can be broken"

The three seemed to nod their heads in agreement. "Alright so it's settled, we'll get you ready for your entrance exams and you get yourself ready for some mind cracking," Toshinori said. "Now...IT'S TIME TO GET TO TRAINING" He said as he transformed into All Might.

"OI! Don't just be going around and changing every time!" Shinjiro shouted, eventually gaining some attention from the nearby passberby.

"Hey is that All Might?"

"Oh look it's the principle of U.A!"

"What's a kid doing with them?"

"Oh dear, it seems we have an issue on our hands," Nezu remarked.

"THAT MEANS RUN FOR THE HILLS" Shinjiro and Toshinori shouted simultaneously, with All Might Nezu up from the ground and breaking into a mad sprint all while a bunch of people chased them from behind.

"Hey All Might! I'm here-" Midoriya took off a pair of earphones and stuffed them into his pocket before looking up and seeing an empty street. With question marks above his head, he said out loud, "Were we supposed to meet here? Or am I just late?"

{4 days til the exam}

"Put more back into it Young Shinjiro!" Toshinori sat on a fridge as he watched Shinjiro and Midoriya putting a tire and the said fridge.

"*pant* *pant* Oi Midoriya *wheeze* How in the hell are you pulling that crap?!" Shinjiro managed to word out in the middle of his excessive dying. Midoriya meanwhile was pulling the fridge with relative ease, although you could still see he was struggling.

"It's easy!" Toshinori shouted from above. "Use your muscles!"

"That's *pant* exactly *pant* what *pant* a musclehead would say" Shinjiro said before collapsing on the ground, out of breath.

"Oi! I told you I'm not a musclehead!" Toshinori waved his fist in the air while shouting at Shinjiro. Midoriya just sweatdropped and continued to pull the fridge all the way to the other side of the area.

"Alright! Young Midoriya you're done, congrats! Take a good rest" Toshinori said as he got off the fridge and handed Midoriya a towel and a bottle of water. "However, you Young Shinjiro. You still need to pull that tire all the way over here and back, I'm adding another set for calling me a musclehead"

"Now that's just being petty," Shinjiro complained. He sat up and dusted sand off his shirt, quickly glanced back at the tire before falling back down fed up.

{3 days til the exam}

"Once you have the base be the same number, you can simplify the exponents and find x. Now, that's how you do log functions" Nezu said before putting down his pencil and showing Shinjiro the work he had done. Meanwhile, Shinjiro had swirls in his eyes from all the math involved.

He shook his head. "Hold up, I thought you said we're not doing higher graded math?"

"This isn't higher graded math, this is essential to what you have to learn before going into U.A, after all, we are still a school"

"But aren't log functions an advanced form of algebra? I mean I know we're learning it throughout the school year...so why decide to cram all this information into me now?"

"What's the problem of cramming more information into your head so you could focus on other things?" Nezu questioned.

Shinjiro leaned back and nodded. "Well, I guess there is more to learn. Despite having the brain cells to build that suit, I just don't find it interesting to be using my head to bother with these things"

"And this is why you weren't the brightest student back then. Not using your academic abilities to your strongest" Nezu picked up his pencil again and hopped up onto the table. "This is why we need to explore your full potential of that wonderful brain of yours," He said, tapping Shinjiro's head with the back of the pencil.

"Now! Let's move on to graphing these log functions!" Shinjiro groaned in response.

"Good! Glad to see you're so enthusiastic" Shinjiro let out another groan in response.

{2 days til the exam}

Shinjiro was getting nervous, there were two days left to prepare and despite his extra efforts, things were coming up short. He hadn't managed to improve his super strength and speed, but on the plus side, he did manage to get a pretty toned body, thanks to All Might.

He sighed as he pulled out more sheets from under his book and sat up. Working in his study always didn't last very long, he'd usually do most of his work out in the living room. Being in a high-rise apartment building meant that he could look out the window and enjoy the sites. Most of the time it gives him ideas, and in this case a motivation.

He dropped the sheets on the table, making a thud, and made his way to the window. Even though it was late he could still see the small lights from cars passing by, lights on in apartments and offices presumably from people staying up late to party or work.

He stared out the window, holding a cup of coffee he had made beforehand, and pondered. He asked himself if it was all worth it, the training, the studies, the friendship. He could have been a loner, he could have been a vigilante and live one hell of a Batman life. But, since Nezu was the one to approach him, going solo was off the table since being an unknown person would be harder to track.

He let out a deep sigh and rubbed his eyes. "What the hell did I get myself into?" Never would have Shinjiro thought he'd be going down the path of revenge but at the same time the path of heroism.

But the question was...which path overweighs the other?

{1 day til the exam}

Nothing eventful for the final day of preparations, Shinjiro was to meet Toshinori and Midoriya at noon for something special. When he got to the beach, Toshinori and Midoriya were already there waiting for him.

"Yo! Young Shinjiro, I see you're still fashionably late" Toshinori greeted him. Leading Shinjiro to playfully punch him in the arm. "Ow"

"So, Toshinori what did you call me and Midoriya out here for?" Shinjiro asked while looking at Midoriya, who was currently doing some warm up exercises. Toshinori just gave Shinjiro a pat on the back and smiled at him, before calling Midoriya over.

"Young Midoriya, it is time!" Toshinori said as he turned into his buff form. "Now is the time to inherit One for All!"

Midoriya gave All Might a look of determination. "I'm ready All Might!"

"Now, eat this!"

Both Shinjiro and Midoriya turned black and white and both voiced out their same thoughts. "Huh!?"