CHAPTER 0: Prologue
"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles." - Christopher Reeve
IZUKUThe small child sat on the floor trying to focus on playing with his action figures, but he was relentlessly scratching at his neck. "Mom, It won't… It won't stop itching!" Inko looked down at her poor, poor child, and the gashes and cuts all over his neck. Her son, Izuku Midoriya, was allergic to something that was unidentifiable, but was apparently extremely common in their household. It made the skin around his neck extremely sensitive and itchy. Izuku usually didn't stop scratching at it until he was either bleeding or crying or both.
'If only Hisashi was here to help.' She tried to put on a calm smile and sat down next to Izuku, "Izuku… We'll figure out what you're allergic to soon! In the meantime why don't we sit down and watch some TV?" Izuku barely nodded and sat next to his mother on the sofa. She went to the news channel, where there was a documentary on All Might. "Who is he? The guy's already saved at least one hundred people already and it hasn't even been ten minutes! This is- this is crazy! I can't believe it!" The reporter, who was recording All Might on his debut asked the audience.
The scratching immediately came to a halt as Izuku stared in awe of what was going on the television. The video continued as a younger All Might climbed over a car with an entire family of people mounted on his back as he began to laugh, the recorder of the video screamed, "He's got more!" All Might stomped his foot on the car and said triumphantly, "Fear not citizens, help has arrived! Because I am here!"
Inko looked back at Izuku who had his mouth agape in admiration. He slowly turned his head to his mother and asked innocently, "Mom, who was that?" She looked at her soon and said, "That was All Might's, he's the number one hero. Pretty cool huh?" He nodded quickly and got up from the couch.
"Mom, can I be just like All Might one day?" Inko looked at her child and said, "You can be whatever you want to be, as long as you put your mind to it, Izuku." His smile widened and he raised his fist in the air, "Once I get my quirk I'm going to be just like him!"
Years later…
'That certainly didn't happen…' Izuku thought as he watched everyone in his class activate their quirks. He'd given up hope of ever getting a quirk years ago, but he still held out hopes of being a hero. 'Maybe, just maybe he'd be the exception.' He always told himself that. Ever since that day when he saw All Might for the first time on the television his neck hardly ever got itchy anymore. And he started to zone out when Kacchan went on a spiel about how he was going to be the number one hero and blah blah blah.
He was suddenly snapped back to reality when his teacher said his name, "Oh yeah, Midoriya wanted to go to U.A. too right?" Awkward silence filled the room, and then everybody started laughing at Izuku. He felt humiliated, and for the first time in months his neck became incredibly itchy, "You can't get into U.A. without a quirk!" They said, and he defended himself by saying, "They got rid of that rule!" Katsuki then rushed at him and pushed him to the ground in front of everyone.
"Hey Deku! You're below the rejects, you're quirkless! How can you even stand in the same ring as me?" Kaksuki asked with a cruel, mean look on his face. He panicked and said, "No, wait Kacchan! It's not like I'm trying to compete with you or anything! Believe me!" He raised his hands in the air and backed up slowly. "It's just that it's been my goal since I was little. And well… I won't know unless I try." He said with wavering confidence, which was then completely crushed by Katsuki, "Whaddya mean, 'unless you try?!' Are you taking the test for fun?! What can you do? You're quirkless!"
After the most humiliating experience of his entire life the bell finally rang and everyone but Kacchan left the room. He ignored him though and looked at the news, "The incident this morning is all over the headlines! I wanna hurry up and go home so I can write it down in my notebook." Kacchan never let him be happy however, so he swiped the notebook from his hands "We're not done talking yet, Deku."
Two people walked behind Kacchan and asked, "Katsuki, what's that?" He showed them and they laughed, "Hero Analysis for the Future? Seriously Midoriya?" He stood up and said, "It's fine, isn't it? Give it back!" By now Izuku's neck felt like it was on fire, but he couldn't let Kacchan and the others see even a fleck of weakness. 'Who am I kidding, they probably think I'm the most pathetic person to ever exist.' Kacchan then blew it up, and threw it out the window. Izuku was humiliated, he lost his notebook, and worst of all he was still quirkless.