"-so if I trace the route to here, then he should be exactly here at 2:34, unless he finds something along his patrol. Then, once he hits there, the easiest place to catch his attention is right here and, so long as there's no distraction, he'll be right there in less than a minute and a half. But if he takes this route instead-" It had taken him nearly two months to get enough data for this Hero. Two months of scouring the deep web and villain informational spots, two months of on foot information gathering, two months of falling off roofs, of tripping in alleyways, of running away from gangs intent on harming him, of searching until he finally felt confident that he was able to track this Hero.

Midoriya Izuku was 4 when he learnt that not all men were created equal.

But he was 12 when his idol ruined his dreams.

"I'm sorry kid, but I just don't see any feasible way for you to become a Hero without a Quirk." Was Izuku accustomed to the Quirkist comments he heard all the time? Yes, but they always stung to hear. Would he have rather heard something like that from the Number One Hero? Yes . Anything but an apology. It was too much like that day.

"I'm sorry, Izuku! I'm so sorry!" He had run away, crying, after he escaped from her hug.

The building had crashed down in front of him when he came back, police lights and tape keeping people back from the remains of a villain fight out of hand.

"Excuse me, my mom, where is she? She's supposed to be here, her name is Midoriya Inko, can you help me find her?"

There had been a search before a police officer had taken him to the station, clearly uncomfortable after she had been part of a whispered conversation.

"Sorry kid, but your mom is... well, she went to meet your dad."

"So she's in America? Why'd she leave me here?"

"Oh. Oh dear. Er, well, kid, um..."

"Just tell the worthless shit his parents are dead."

"Izumi!! That is not how you tell a child, Quirkless or not, that their parents are dead!"

"My mom and dad are... dead?"

"Fuck. I'm so sorry, Izuku-kun."

Izuku hated apologies. He had gotten a total of thirty-two in that one day, he remembered each one vividly from the uncaring "sorry kid" that the rude doctor had offhandedly tossed to him to the "I'm sorry for your loss, Midoriya-kun." that the social worker had clearly practiced with how bored she sounded.

The day of Inko's funeral, when she was buried next to a Midoriya Hisashi that Izuku had never seen the tombstone of before, he had received one apology. Bakugou Mitsuki had walked up to him, reached out to his catatonic form as if to bring him in a hug, before stopping and, looking away, whispered in such a broken voice "I'm so sorry Izuku. I... I wish I could've done something." Izuku had learnt later that Mitsuki had been on the phone with Inko when the building collapsed, trying to calm her panicked friend and rationally walk her through the places Izuku could've run to. Inko's last words were to "tell Izuku I'm sorry... and... I love him..." on that day. So yeah, Izuku hated apologies. They were connected to every bad event in his life. First, when he found out he was Quirkless. Then, when his mother died, and he was taken to an orphanage with nothing but the clothes on his back. Finally, every single time he had been told he couldn't do something because he was Quirkless.

He was fed up with it. He had been living life just like everyone else so how in the hell was he supposed to believe he couldn't do something a Quirked person could easily do?

Make explosions, like Kacchan? There were grenades for that.

Water manipulation, like Backdraft? There were hoses, water bottles, SUPPORT ITEMS that could mimic that.

Super strength, like Death Arms or All Might?

Support items, again, and if he needed to, Izuku could use some sort of modified hydraulic press.

Fire manipulation, like Endeavor? There were flamethrowers for a reason.

Point is, a Quirk was almost too easily copied or neutralized or turned against you . Weapons, however, were a lot handier. Especially if you wore materials to protect against your own weapons.

Izuku had learnt this at a young age as well. So no, All Might did not ruin his dreams of heroism . What All Might had ruined , was his dreams of Daylight Heroes being worth their weight in the pretty words they spout on television. So Izuku turned to his second group on his list. (Yes, he had a list . Daylight, Underground, Vigilantes, and finally

villains. Because obviously, who were really the heroes if everyone told a child that his dreams weren't worth shit compared to their egos?)

His first was actually a former UA student. He had wowed the younger version of Izuku during his debut as a general education student taking first place in his first year sports festival. It had been years since Izuku saw the one v one fights of that particular festival, Izuku wasn't even certain that particular student had gone Pro after graduating, but a stray thread in a Hero Blog had caught his attention.

PurpleKitty05:

Does anyone know of the Underground Hero Eraserhead? I was saved last night by someone that said his hero name was Eraserhead so I was curious if anyone knows about him.

MouseDogBearPrincipal:

Try looking up the 1st-year winner of the Sports Festival in UA of 11 years ago.

PurpleKitty05:

!!!! Oh my gosh, he's so cool!! Thanks!

It had taken Izuku a bit of searching but he had found the old video, that Inko had previously recorded for him, realizing only then that the teen he had loved watching so much had won the sports festival in the same year Izuku had been born. But he had been in the middle of compiling the data for the Daylight Hero named Snipe.

But after meeting All Might, who was the number one fucking Daylight Hero, Izuku just decided to look at his next group and cross off all Daylight Heroes. Typically, when one is popular with a large number of people, it is the popular opinion that is spouted by that one. So until a Daylight Hero proved otherwise, it was extremely safe to assume that all Daylight Heroes thought the same. A Quirkless person will be useless in heroics.

Izuku knew otherwise. There were support weapons for a reason and the Pre-Quirk Era had their own version of heroics.

Izuku stood under the light on top of a building that he had climbed, hugging the book of information he had compiled for his current target, and waited until he saw the shadow before tilting the small mirror he had brought with him. He wasn't quite sure this would work but he had calculated the angles and knew the Hero would see the flashing from his position jumping across the buildings. He just hoped the Hero would stop for him. He didn't feel relieved when the man stood carefully on the same roof as him, hair levitating as his head turned the slightest bit from side to side. It took a few seconds as the Hero warily walked towards him, stopping several feet away and taking a stance to easily escape in.

"Kid, what are you doing up here?" The man's voice was gruff, just as tired as Izuku thought he'd sound based on the crazy schedule the man kept.

"Waiting for you." Izuku knew that sounded bad but he couldn't care less, he hated lying almost as much as he hated apologies. He couldn't tell if he hated lying or being treated like glass more. "I have information for you."

"And what information do you have?"

Izuku met the red eyes through the goggles the man wore, realizing the man was still using his Quirk on Izuku - which, honestly, made sense. Izuku couldn't fault the man for his wariness, it's not like his Quirk told him if the person was Quirkless. He doubted the Hero would believe him if he told Eraserhead that his Quirk wasn't doing anything for him. "Information for your... current investigation, I suppose." Izuku could feel the raised eyebrow.

"You're, what, 7? How do you know about my investigation and what information could you even provide about this case?" Izuku ignored the comment on his age. Being 12 didn't make it any more believable and, if he needed to make a quick escape, it was better for the Hero to underestimate him.

"I looked the stuff up and got information. You'd be amazed how many people will talk to someone that looks 7 years old ."

"Uh huh. So, I'm assuming you want something from me since you aren't handing it to me."

"Would you have taken it if I had?" The silence was answer enough. "I had a question. I will give you the information any way you answer but I do want an answer before I hand it over."

"Even if it's an answer you don't like?"

"Yes. Otherwise, my stopping you could be reported as an obstruction of justice. Regardless of how much I stick my nose in others' business," the Hero's hair stopped floating as he snorted at the statement, "I don't particularly want that report on my record." The hair was floating again, Izuku idly wondering what a Quirk being erased felt like.

"I see. Then, what is your question?"

"Can a Quirkless person become a Hero?"

"What?" Izuku could tell the man had responded more out of reflex than because he hadn't heard him but he repeated himself anyways.

"Can a Quirkless become-" the Hero cut Izuku off.

"No." Izuku nodded, not the least bit surprised, before setting the book on the ground and walking towards the edge of the roof. The man groaned. "Kid, stop, that's not what I meant!" Izuku turned in time to see the man push his goggles up, though he looked more like he wanted to pull his hair out. "I meant no as in that's not what I'm questioning!"

Izuku stared at the frustrated and stressed Hero, who was now rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. "What do you mean?"

"God, what would Hizashi say... fuck." Izuku blinked at the muttering from the Hero. "I was wanting to know," Izuku could hear how carefully the man was speaking each word - as though afraid of saying something wrong, "if you had gathered this information, found out where I'd be patrolling, climbed this building, and got my attention just to ask that illo- that question."

This was far from the most difficult one but "yes. Does that bother you?"

"Yes. It does 'bother' me." The Hero was looking at Izuku again, this time without a Quirk - though if that was because he knew Izuku was Quirkless now or if he'd decided that Izuku was not a threat was undetermined. "Where are your parents?"

"I can take you to meet them but they're on the other side of town."

"What are you doing so far from home at 2 in the morning?!"

"I'm not that far, my home is a few blocks away."

There was a pause, as realization flickered through the Hero's eyes. He sighed, shoulders slumping. "Don't you have school in a few hours?"

"I completed all my available courses and am waiting for the next school year."

"Online schooling?"

"Yes. UA will not take the transcript I would've gotten from the middle school of my district." The man was looking more and more stressed by the second, Izuku feeling his more intrusive thoughts wonder if Eraserhead would suddenly turn grey- haired right in front of him.

"Okay, then if you spent so much effort to talk to me, of all Heroes, then how many others have you asked?" Izuku blinked.

"You would be my 438th Hero." Izuku felt like he had said something wrong, with how the man looked at him.

There was a pause before Eraserhead hesitantly asked another question. "How many of them said no?"

Izuku tilted his head to the side, thinking about the responses. "386 Heroes said no."

"So then 51 of them said yes right? So why would you ask-"

"32 attacked me, claiming I had no right to be alive. The remaining 19 laughed at me before leaving without an answer." Izuku wondered if he could hear a pin drop in the silence that had suddenly appeared. "You are the only Hero I've asked to question me back. It's kind of nice." Even while he said this, the steady monotone of Izuku's voice didn't falter.

"How... how long have you been doing this? Who was the first one to attack you?" Eraserhead sounded wounded, maybe like he was choking on something.

"I started when I was 6 so a little under 6 years." Izuku didn't know how any of this was relevant but he had been taught to answer any questions adults ask him. Even if he didn't want to. "And the first one to attack me was the Number Two Hero, Endeavor, aka Todoroki Enji, when I was 7."

The man looked disbelieving. "You asked that flaming pile of- wait, no, did you ask anyone from UA?"

"Any of the pros? Yes."

The silence came back for a moment. "And? What did they say?"

"All 6 of them had requested to walk me home and treated me as if I were a piece of glass about to shatter. It was... annoying. After Snipe, I gave up asking the Daylight Heroes in UA's employ."

"Did you ask Present Mic? Midnight?"

"Present Mic's schedule is extremely tightly packed so the only way I could ask him is if I were to hack into UA's security to ask him in the school. Since that is about as illegal as bothering a Hero on their patrol, I chose not to since he didn't ever have anything I could assist him with. Midnight, however, is a borderline Underground Hero so I chose to consider her as such. You are the first Underground Hero I've asked." Izuku had talked more with Eraserhead than he had with anyone else since That Day . It was tiring.

"What about Powerloader? Ectoplasm?"

"Ah, I almost asked Ectoplasm but I was tracking him down when something happened. Powerloader spends all the time he isn't on patrol at UA so it was the same issue as Present Mic." Eraserhead looked sort of desperate at this point. "I don't believe I asked any of the teachers for Heroics or Support, if you were going to continue naming them, outside of Snipe. They were all from Business and Management." It was kind of amusing that, even knowing the information, Eraserhead looked worse off than before knowing it.

"You should ask All Might then! Surely you haven't asked him yet, he's always in Amer-"

"I asked All Might about two months ago. Right before I started searching for how to ask you."

The Hero's black eyes narrowed at that. "Okay, first off, how did you ask him? Second, it only took you two months to learn my patrol?! "

"Oh, no, of course not. That only took me a cumulative amount of half a week. It took me two months to compile that information, cross reference, and then verify it." Eraserhead looked shocked. Izuku wondered why that was. "And I asked him right after he saved me from a villain that had caught me by surprise. He apologized. " Izuku's monotone and blank expression changed for the amount of time it took to relay his disgust for the word. "This is the something that happened as I was tracking down Ectoplasm."

The Hero groaned, his hand in his hair again as he glared at nothing. "I am the least qualified to talk to a child about whether they can become a Hero. Especially since you've obviously been traumatized before."

"My question is a yes or no question though." Izuku tilted his head, vaguely confused on why this was difficult for Eraserhead to answer. "Do you, as the Hero Eraserhead, believe that a Quirkless can become a Hero?"

The man sighed, hands dropping back to his side before meeting Izuku's gaze straight on. "Yes, kid. Anyone can become a Hero if they put in the time and effort to become one. Even someone without a Quirk." There was a moment of silence before Izuku did something he hadn't done since he was 4. Since before That Day. He smiled.

"Thank you, Eraserhead."