Cold rain drummed down on the streets of Mustafu. A young green-haired boy stood alone, the rain slowly soaking his clothes and droplets of water running down his face. All around him the cleanup crew had begun removing the rubble that had accumulated during the villain attack, just another day in Mustafu.
Midoriya Izuku slowly wiped down the camera he had started to carry around everywhere in order to better record his hero sightings, and put it back in his bag, careful not to damage it. The villain had been nothing interesting, just a small-time bank robber, but at least he got to update his notes on Death Arms.
To Izuku these moments of Hero watching tended to be the highlight of his day, or at least they had been until a few months ago. He needed to go through his notebooks again, but if he was right and he almost always was All Might's situation was precarious and possibly disastrous. He had been following All Might for months now and the changes he had observed had become more and more obvious. Only a few years ago his output had been consistently at 100%, but now it seemed that his power levels fluctuated, as if his Quirk was causing him pain. It was not unusual for Quirks to have drawbacks most Quirks did, but he had never heard of Quirks developing drawbacks at such a late stage. All Might went to UA the best Hero School in the country, he should have been able to manage any potential drawbacks. Could his Quirk have changed or mutated? it was possible, through very rare. He had managed to collect data for almost every fight All Might had fought in the last twelve years, obsessively studying his patrol routes and collecting all the data he could find, spending hours researching Quirks changes, mutations and anything else that could affect Quirks, combing through countless medical journals, articles and forums in order to find an explanation for All Might sudden alterations, but it was like building a house without bricks. The more he watched the hero the more he had seen the tiredness that marred his face, a tiredness so deep that it seemed to cling to him, to envelop him, causing him to hold himself back to become distracted and to lose the razor sharp fighting edge he once had. He never tried to show it to the public of cause, he was the Number One Hero after all, but Izuku had seen the lines on his face and the rings under his eyes. He was still the best Hero there was, there never could be anyone else, but it still tore at Izuku's soul to see All Might suffer. There had to be a way to help him. He had been ready to go to Sir Nighteye, All Might's former partner and show him his observations and to discuss possible plan of helping All Might, but he knew that someone Iike him would never get close to a major hero like Nighteye and furthermore he lacked substantial data that he would need to make his case. No, he needed to continue his investigations, gather his data and form a full hypothesis before he could confront anyone. He needed to make a battleplan, but it would have to wait until after he finished work.
He slowly made his way through the wet and crowded streets of Mustafu finally arriving at the konbini he had worked at for a year. He quickly entered and made his way towards the back where his co workers were already preparing for their shift.
"Hey Mikumo san" Ayumi, one of his co-workers, was calling to him. Izuku waved back as he quickly put on the apron and prepared for his shift.
Mitkumo Akatani had been the false identity he had established in order for him to get a job and to live a life that was better than the one he was currently living as Midoriya Izuku, Quirkless fourteen year old middle school student with a deadbeat father and an overworked mother. His mother loved him. He knew that and he in turn would give his life for her, but she had to keep the two of them afloat and could not care for him as much as she wanted and he needed her to, so Izuku early on had begun taking care of himself. However he soon realized that being a fourteen year old quirkles teenager made it almost impossible for him to get a job. He had been laughed at, dismissed and even got verbally assaulted once or twice. No one wanted a Quirkless kid, he wouldn't be able to do the most basic tasks after all, at best he would be a nuisance that would lead to more work for his co workers, at worst he would be a danger magnet that was unable to defend himself and no one was willing to take such a risk. So Izuku had decided he needed a new identity, a new life. It had taken him almost half a year to get everything in order. The fake ID had been the easiest to obtain, all Izuku had to do was to call up his contact at Mustafu University, who in turn had put him in contact with a friend who bought and sold ID's without asking too many questions. All he had to do in return was help him with his essay on the Kamino Accords. It had been much harder to actually create the paperwork that would make his new identity seem legitimate. He had begged for weeks to be allowed to accompany Kachan's father to the municipal office for a "project". He had managed to sneak away to gather information after all what kind of damage could a quirkless kid do? Quite a bit as it turned out. After only a few moments he found what he was looking for, a laptop with a yellow post it note containing all the necessary login information. Izuku could have whooped with joy. He quickly took a picture with his phone camera and left before people got suspicious. He returned two more times in order to scout out the database and gather all necessary information. After everything had been finished, he had been able to get into the system through a back door and the stolen login information. It had not been easy, after all he didn't just need to establish his identity,but his mother's and father's as well, but in the end it had all been worth it. Mitkumo Akatani was a 15 year old Junior High school student with an analytics quirk who had just began his first year at Mustafu Junior High. His father had a typing quirk and worked as a salaryman overseas and his mother was a housewife with a low level brain enhancing quirk. They used to live in Hokkaido, but had moved to Mustafu two years ago. When he had been four he had been diagnosed as quirkless, but his analysis quirk had been discovered at nine when he had been able to analyze every quirk in his class.
His identity so established, he began to look for work. It was insane how differently you were received when he was perceived as Quirked. He still got the odd looks and comments about his supposedly weak quirk, but it was leagues better than what he had to endure before.
Snapping out of his gloomy thoughts he quickly washed his hands and started unpacking the boxes of groceries that were stacked outside. He liked unpacking things, it gave him time to think and to solve the All Might problem that had been plaguing him the whole week. His declining health and his changing quirk could have terrifying consequences for the rest of the Hero Society. All Might had been the Number One Hero for as long as he could remember he was the foundation on which the modern Hero Society was built, for him to retire well that was terrifying indeed. Izuku could not imagine a future without All Might. His case research indicated that the general public hadn't noticed yet and that All Might`s secret was safe for the moment at least, but it was only a matter of time until people would notice that his presence had decreased, until now Might Tower had always explained it away through various cases he was engaged in, but his name never showed up in any of the official press releases. When he appeared he was still his amazingly cheerful self, always winning every fight and saving everyone with a smile, but something about him was different about him. Izuku couldn't put his finger on it, all he had was theories and casual observations, but no hard facts. There were so many causes That could have led to this decline, maybe someone close to him had died, maybe All Might was sick, maybe his Quirk had somehow changed, there were too many variables to put up a hypothesis. However, Izuku is a detective at heart, and when presented with a mystery surrounding one of his favorite heroes he just has to dig further. It was clear that he needed more information, but how? He could hardly show up at All Might's agency in Tokyo and ask them what was going on. There were rumors going around on various Hero Forums that All Might would be teaching at Yūei next year, but as of now none of the rumors had been officially confirmed. He was out of options and he needed a new strategy quickly.
The vibration of his phone snapped him out of his thoughts. He chanced a quick look, just in case it was important, but it was just his mom telling him that she was working late again and that his dinner was in the fridge. He hurriedly checked Twitter, just to see if there were any new Hero Sightings and nearly dropped his phone in excitement. Sir Nighteye had announced an under eighteen All Might Photo contest. The winner would receive 70.000 Yen, a bunch of All Might merchandise and an exclusive interview with All Might himself. It was the perfect opportunity to both surreptitiously gather information and to talk to All Might privately about his observations and to maybe devise a strategy, not that he put in much hope that All Might would listen to someone like him. Maybe he could even get an autograph or even a hug from him and wouldn't that be the highlight of his lonely miserable life. Izuku could have laughed with joy. There was no way anyone could stand a chance, they may have better photo equipment and experience, but unlike them he had been doing this ever since he had been old enough to carry a camera. Some had called it stalking, but he preferred to see it as a chance to hone his natural talents.
He had always been a precocious child, but unlike his peers his interest in heroes had never been fostered, but rather derided as an obsession with a part of society that he would never be able to participate in. However, that's not why Izuku loved Heroes. They always stood up for what was right, they helped people who were forgotten by society and they made people feel safe no matter the danger. He had wanted to be a hero for so long, to save people with a smile just like All Might, much to the derision of his teachers and classmates, but that never stopped him collecting as much information as he could categorizing and analyzing any and all information on heroes he could find. His mother, perhaps as an apology for the many times she was gone had always encouraged him in his pursuits, buying him piles of notebooks, pens, mystery and detective novels, books on Heroes, quirk theory, the history of quirks, coding, forensics, photography and even advanced medical textbooks. She even signed him up for self defense classes when he asked, after all he had no Quirk to defend himself so he needed a way to make up for his deficiencies. He had hoped that people would stop treating like he was made out of glass, but his mom just had that sad smile that she always had when he talked about Quirks and hero stuff and Kachan just laughed when he told him about his classes, but at least he didn't get angry so that was good at least. On his eighth birthday she had gifted him a digital camera after his old disposable camera that he used to record hero fights had broken during one of his trips. When he was eight she had sent him to science camp for three weeks, even though it had put a serious strain on their finances and had led to his mother going to bed hungry more than once and he would be forever thankful to her.
Despite being the youngest person at camp, he nevertheless eagerly drank in any information he received, from lectures on scientific theory and Quirk science to hands-on scientific experiments. It was as if something had awakened in him and suddenly his quirk analysis had gained a whole nother dimension. Dr. Mouri, one of the camp counselors, had quickly taken him under his wing, teaching him about lab safety and letting him assist in various experiments. Dr. Mouri had even taken an interest in his Hero Analysis and had offered several tips for improvement that were quickly implemented. To him her encouragement had felt like a balm on his soul. She knew he was quirkless and never treated him as a loser or as if he was made out of glass. Dr. Mouri had believed in him, encouraged him in ways that not even his mother had, and he had, for the first time since he was four years old, felt complete. When the time had come to leave he had cried, why could he not stay here forever, pretending that he was just a normal child, but as he had learned the world was cruel and he soon returned to the familiar taunts of his classmates, his constant chore of avoiding Kachan's explosive temper and the sadness that seemed to surround his mother, that he knew was not just because of his father absence. However what he learned with Dr. Mouri as well as her kindness towards him would stay with him forever and continued to encourage him to strive towards his goal. Izuku smiled grimly. Even if he could not be the hero he had always dreamed of as a child, this was something he could do. He would find a way to solve this case. He had always known that he was an amazing Hero, but in the last few years he had seen the power of the symbol bringing hope and stability where there was chaos hopelessness and crime. Japan needs All Might Izuku is sure of it.
Notes:
Note: I hope you like the first chapter. Constructive Criticism is always welcome. I would like to thank redrobin198, katydid and Wolfhunter1425 for inspiring me with their awesome fics. Go find their fics, you won't regret it. Also many thanks to Marv Wolfman, George Perez (RIP) for turning me into a comic book fan and for motivating me to write Superhero stories.
The next chapter should be pretty soonish, but after that I can make no guarantees. I hope you enjoyed it! Leave a comment if you wanna, and have a great day Byeeee