Before the story starts- I'm sure that you are all confused as to why this story seems to have been posted by a different person. That is because I am the original creator of To Be A Hero, and my work had been plagiarized off of ArchivesOfOurOwn and posted here. Here is the link from Archives to show that the story is mine.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14702790/chapters/33976872

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Stars.

They sparkled brightly in the night sky over Musutafu, giving the people of the city a beautiful sight to look up too after a hard day of work. Despite being so late, heroes can be faintly heard as they tried to handle different situations that have been occurring throughout the whole city. It was a time where heroes worked the best they could in order to provide a safe and stable environment for citizens. Saving people from villains, natural disasters, and all other types of dangers was what they did, all while making a living out of it. It's been this way ever since society adapted to living with the sudden appearance of quirks in the world. New laws, new careers, and new people were created from the evolution of quirks, but of course, there were those that abused their new forms for selfish actions that heroes had to stop. Villains performing destructive deeds, heroes coming to stop them while saving civilians, this was the stable pattern the world had to live on.

However, little did anyone know that their world would be changed forever, for better, or for worse.

A flash of white ignited the dark sky like lightning, several people on the city streets cried out in shock and some even crouched down out of panic, the few heroes on the scene looked up into the sky but found no sight out anything else out of the ordinary.

After nearly a minute of inactivity, the simple-minded people of the city shrugged the sudden white flash as nothing more than a hero using a quirk. No one was worried about that flash, as nothing had come afterword for them to be worried about.

But no one had any clue, that as the white flash occurred, a white portal had also emerged over the top of a rather large building, completely out of sight from the people before. The portal surfaced seven feet over the top of the building, making small eerie noises as it appeared. These noises went on for a few seconds before the portal expanded larger and a human being fell out of it, landing onto the roof of the building in a crouching position.

The person stood up straight on his feet and the moonlight shined down on him to reveal his full appearance. He looked to be at a rather young age, with his face containing no wrinkles and having a height of about 5 feet 7 inches. He wore a dark black business suit with golden buttons on it and a white-collar shirt underneath it. He had black wingtip shoes and black socks to go along with it. But what really stood out about this person were the cold, emotionless red eyes that shined in the night along with the long, flowing black hair that went down to his shoulders. His pale skin reflected the bright moonlight as he brushed himself off while keeping a note of the state of his body after his travel. Seeing nothing was wrong, he looked around at the area he was at and discovered that he was within a city, indicated by the tall buildings ahead and the vehicles driving down the streets below.

He straightened out a blood-red tie on his collar before then lifting his right arm up and pulling his sleeve down to reveal an advanced looking watch on his wrist. The watch didn't appear to have any buttons on it, but instead, had a screen with different options on it. He pressed one of the options and the watch projected a holographic blue map in front of him of the city he was in. Along with his current location being indicated by a circular red dot, someone else's location was also being indicated by a beeping green square in the corner of the map. He waved a hand and zoomed out the map more and more until he saw exactly where the beeping green square was. He estimated the distance from his current location to the destination in mind, before then minimizing the map and preparing to leave.

He lowered his arms and marched towards the edge of the building with the intent of jumping, but he didn't make it far before he heard someone land behind him a few yards away.

"Stop right there!"

He stopped in place.

"A flash of light, a white portal, and then a person all suddenly appearing under the same area? It's somewhat too much to be a coincidence don't you think?" the voice behind him asked in a heroic manner.

The red-eyed person turned his head back and gazed at the newcomer from the corner of his eye. It was a man behind him, but his eyebrow raised upon seeing something particularly strange about the man that arrived. His arms, head, belt, shoes, and even knee pads appeared to all be made out of wood. Not only this, but a few wooden branches were slowly sprouting out of the man's right arm, looking as if they can sprout out even more at any moment.

Although the teen felt curious about the wooden man, he wasn't intimidated by him.

"Who... are you?" he finally spoke. His voice was soft, yet there was no detection of any emotion in it as he fully turned his body to face the wooden man.

The hero felt a small sting to his pride, "He doesn't know me at all? I know it may be too much to ask, but I'm sure that my career as a hero would have made me well known by now..." He thought to himself in some depression.

But then the wooden hero got a full, detailed look at the person in front of him, eyes widening by how he looked.

"Wait a minute, he's just a kid? He looks rather young, almost as if he should still be in high school, what's he doing up here?"

Seeing that the person resembled a teen, Kamui partially retracted the wood on his arm, but not entirely as he was still cautious. "He looks very young, but even if he is just a kid, I can't just ignore the fact that he managed to appear on this building without setting off any alarms. And that white flash and circle indicate that he might've used his quirk to get up here..." He held his other hand over his chest and introduce himself.

"I am Kamui woods, professional hero, and perhaps I was just mistaken about you earlier so let me ask you: Were you, or were you not the one who caused that flash of light and white circle to appear in the sky?"

The teen was silent for a moment before responding, "Yes, that was me, but what of it?" He looked around the roof and examined the state of it, "I don't appear to have caused any damage."

Kamui squinted his eyes out of suspicion towards the teen, "He doesn't seem to realize the panic he's caused by that flash. By the looks of it, he doesn't even know where he is right now. I may have to bring him in just to talk, but I have to be cautious though, he looks rather odd, for all I know he could be a villain acting naive."

Kamui sighed and retracted the rest of his wood back into his arm, "Listen kid, I don't know if you know, but this is a private building that isn't supposed to be accessible to just anyone. Yet, you're here right now without even setting off a single alarm and avoiding the sight of anyone that could see you come up here."

"If no one saw me appear here, then how did you see me?" The teen asked, his cold emotionless gaze staring at the hero.

"I just happened to be traveling back by building before I saw a random white circle appear above here. If that wasn't strange enough, I saw someone come out of the circle."

"Is that really a problem?" the teen asked, tilting his head to the side.

"It's not a common thing you know. So I'm afraid you'll have to come with me just so we can get things sorted out." Kamui said as he began taking steps towards the figure.

The teen simply turned his back to Kamui and looked down at his watch. "Sorry, but I'm not wasting my time with you. I have to be somewhere."

Hearing this, Kamui narrowed his eyes as he got closer, "It wasn't a request kid, you're coming with me." He raised his right arm and stuck it out in preparation for capturing the person if he did resist, getting ready to sprout branches from them.

However, right as he was getting near, the teen spun his head back to Kamui and his eyes flashed in an intimidating blood red. Kamui froze and his eyes widened from the look the person had in those eyes. That cold expression, it was the threatening look of someone who could kill in a single moment. Kamui felt his soul being stared upon, he felt it threatened. His whole body felt cold and he saw his life flash before his eyes.

"He's dangerous!" Kamui didn't hesitate after that chill and thrust his right arm forward, expanding as much wood from it as he could in an attempt to surround and bind the teen.

As the wooden branches neared him, the teen closed his eyes and simply let out a disappointed sigh, "How predictable."

In an instant he vanished from Kamui's eyes, leaving only a kick of dust behind as Kamui's branches passed through, missing him entirely.

Kamui's eyes widened in shock, "What the-!?"

He didn't finish as he heard a whoosh behind him. From the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow behind him with two red eyes glowing coldly.

"Too slow." the teen whispered in a menacing tone.

"He teleported!? Is that his quirk!?" Kamui leaped away from him and gave more space between himself and his target as he landed farther away. "I won't let you escape!" he shouted as this time, he pointed both of his arms out and expanded out more wooden branches than before everywhere in front of him, giving no sign for the teen to be able to escape.

"He can't escape this!" Kamui thought confidentially as the wood completely covered any sight of the person.

The teen watched as the barraged of wood nearly enveloped him in a wave of the sort, but he simply opened his palm and something formed in it. "How boring."

In a split second, several sharp slashes were heard, echoing in the silent night. They occurred so fast that each slice was like a blinding white flash to Kamui's eyes.

"Huh? Wh-What... just happened?" Kamui had to blink several times for his mind to process what happened. He saw wood flying past him in all directions and looked ahead only to discover that the wood he emitted had been sliced apart nearly all the way up to his arms.

Ahead of him was a menacing red aura and matching red eyes of the boy he had just attempted to capture. He looked as if he hadn't moved throughout the entire attack, yet in his hand was something new, a small dagger that Kamui hadn't seen there before.

"I-Impossible! In such a margin of time, he completely cut through my attack without even moving!? He-"

Kamui's thoughts were halted when he felt a cold blade press against his throat, making him completely freeze. He blinked as his eyes looked down to find the person standing right in front of him with his dagger pressing up against his neck threateningly. Kamui didn't move at all, he feared that if he moved now, then his hero career would halt, permanently.

"Just... Just who are you?" Kamui somehow managed to utter out, keeping his gaze onto the teens red eyes.

He narrowed his eyes, "Who am I?" he repeated. "I'm someone simply trying to figure what was is that he's lost. And right now, I don't need any 'heroes' intervening with that."

Still holding his blade against Kamui's neck, he raised his other hand and waved it, causing his eyes and aura to turn blue this time.

"What's he doing now?!" Kamui wondered, completely petrified.

Kamui then felt the blade get removed from his neck, yet his whole body also became surrounded in a blue aura that stiffened his body.

"Wh-What is this? I can't move!" he uttered as his body failed to move anywhere. His eyes manage to move around in their sockets so he looked down the best he could and found himself floating above the ground with the same blue aura the teen currently had as he raised his hand.

"If you're worried, let me reassure you by saying that you won't be hurt, but I'm going to send you somewhere where you don't follow me." he positioned his hand into a finger flicking position and aimed Kamui towards the ocean.

Kamui noticed this and panicked, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a moment! Maybe we can talk this out-?!"

"Have a safe flight." the person interrupted before flicking his finger. Kamui was then sent flying off the building and soaring through the air.

"WHOOOOOOOOOOAAA!" Kaui yelled as the aura around him disappeared and he now flailed his arms in the air.

The teen watched as Kamui flew all the way to the beach, and 'safely' splashed into the water.

"He'll be fine... maybe."

Turning in the opposite direction, he jumped high off the building and caused many alarms to finally erupt behind him from getting into range on the outside. He ignored them and landed onto another building farther away, then setting a running pace.

He jumped across another rooftop and noticed a long clothesline connecting two building's roofs. He jumped and performed a front flip before lightly landing onto the clothesline, then using the rope to run across to the farther building with light steps.

He continued to travel from building to building while occasionally glancing down at his watch to see what direction he had to go. Soon he got out of the city and ended up at a high school of the sort with a gate that had a logo combining a U and an A. There weren't many other rooftops, so he hid among the shadows and carefully avoided any encounters with civilians passing by.

He finally arrived in a neighborhood where he jumped up and easily pulled himself up to the top of a utility pole. He stood up and looked ahead in the distance of the direction that he intended to go, planning a route to take in his head. He jumped off the top of the utility pole and landed onto a rooftop, then proceeding to jump from rooftop to rooftop towards his destination. Along the way, he passed by a skeleton looking a blonde man who was walking with groceries in hand and then landing atop of a household where he heard an angry teen shouting with some forms of explosions occurring.

"What is with this area? Perhaps I should look into more of these people to discover exactly what type of world I got myself into."

In his traveling, he occasionally stopped by a house that still had their lights on and peek inside out of curiosity. Nearly every house he witnessed had people demonstrating a special power of the sort. A frog looking girl using her tongue to grab her sibling running, a purple-haired girl using an earphone jack to insert to her computer and listen, and there was even a brown-haired girl who was making some clothes float in her room as she organized them. Every power he saw was different in some way from the others, no two were the same.

"This place isn't like the others..." he thought as he hopped to another roof and continued making his way to his target.

He looked down at the map and saw that he wasn't that far away from his destination. He landed on a tiled roof and glanced at the area ahead to see where would be the most likely place for his target to be. He saw an apartment complex and discovered that currently there was light coming from only one window, so he pressed something on his watch and scanned the entire building in order to find the exact location of his target. His watch beeped and gave him results. Conveniently his target was within the one room of the apartment complex that had lights on.

He leaped in the air once more and ran along another roof before jumping to an upper floor of the residence. He landed with his hands grabbing the railing and threw himself over it, quietly landing on the balcony next to the lit room and placing his back against the wall next to the window to keep hidden. He carefully peeked inside and saw a boy inside. He slightly lifted his arm up and allowed his watch to scan the room and sure enough, that person was who he was looking for.

"Hm, such a plain-looking individual is the one I'm after? How disappointing..." He muttered to himself. He looked around the room and noticed plenty of merchandise of a certain blonde and muscular hero. "It seems that someone has an obsession..."

He stared at the boy from the window and focused his eyesight more onto the notebook that the boy happily wrote in while muttering a storm away. After a few minutes of writing, the boy closed the notebook, and as he did, the mysterious person caught a name on the cover. He then turned his head away from the window and looked up into the starry sky.

"Let us see if you're worth to let live..." the lights of the room next to him then shut off, leaving the nearest light source to be the teen's own red eyes.

"Izuku... Midoriya."

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He watched him throughout the entire day. Ever since Izuku had woken up, the individual was on him like a hawk on its prey. He watched him get up in the morning and do his usual morning routines, even catching a glimpse of who seemed to be his mother wishing him off to school. He saw no other person within the home, making him think that his father was deceased or had left for a reason. Afterword, Izuku went to school without even noticing someone following him from the shadows, his stalker observed that Izuku looked rather nervous for simply going into his middle school, but as Izuku's class began and the person watched it commence from a tree, he soon knew exactly why.

The class was going over their career papers and everyone had chosen the same thing, to be a hero. However, when he heard the teacher mention that Izuku had also chosen to be a hero, his entire class laughed at him and a blonde boy with red eyes, who heard was called Bakugo, even exploded Izuku's desk with a unique power from his hands. They all laughed at him, spoke negatively of him, and that was when he heard something interesting:

His target, Izuku, was quirkless.

"Quirkless?..." he wondered as he watched Izuku get intimidated by the blonde boy. "What does that mean here?" He continued to watch the class all the way up to the school ending that day. Izuku was one of the last people sitting at his desk. However, just when he had nearly finished packing up, Bakugo once again tormented him, this time by exploding Izuku's notebook and flinging it out of the window with a look of enjoyment.

"Hm, it seems that he's a source of bullying... Could it be because he's 'quirkless' that people are deciding to pick on him? So this is their form of discrimination here, how foolish."

There was then one line from Bakugo he picked up.

"If you wanna be a hero that badly, there's a quick way to do it. Believe that you'll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a last chance dive off the roof!"

He squinted his eyes, "He just encouraged a suicide..."

He continued watching Izuku as he went outside and picked up his notebook with tears in his eyes.

"Such pain for someone who's just in middle school to be facing... It appears that due to lacking one thing that everyone else has, he's treated as worthless. If this keeps going on-"

He watched as Izuku gripped his notebook in anger, tears waterfalling from his eyes.

"-then he actually may end up becoming dangerous. After all, many of those who've suffered can always find a way to turn it around and show everyone else what they can really do. But will it be for the good, or for the bad?"

Izuku ran off with his notebook in hand, heading towards the school gate exit in frustration. The person got up from his spot in a tree and climbed it to the top, then leaping onto the school building. He examined the path Izuku was taking and noticed Bakugo walking in the direction of the city that he had just been at the previous night.

"That person, Katsuki Bakugo... He's a source of stress and pain towards Izuku Midoriya. He even calls him by a nickname, 'Deku'." A dagger formed within his palm. "Perhaps if I removed such an evil person from the equation, then it would make this world and Izuku's mental state better."

However, just as he was about to launch toward Bakugo, he noticed that Izuku was getting rather far since he was running. "I'll have to take care of this 'Bakugo' later." He then jumped off the school building and continued to follow Izuku in secret.

He followed him to a tunnel where Izuku halted his walking at the entrance of it. At that point, he looked less angry and more depressed, looking down at the ground and tightly gripping the notebook in his hand. Izuku seemed to have had a pep talk for himself, because the next moment, the boy held his head high and grit his teeth in a determined matter, then cheerfully marching into the tunnel.

"Even though his confidence was just put down just a while ago, he can still find the ability to encourage himself to keep going? How long can he keep that up though?"

He jumped beside the tunnel and place his back against the side of the entrance to keep himself hidden. He peeked his head and watched Izuku walk through the short tunnel with a weird laugh before something came through the holes of the sewer plate. He squinted his eyes as a sludge-like substance with evil eyes came out and grabbed Izuku, pulling him into its body.

He sighed, "I guess he'll have to get himself out of the situation by using whatever special power he has." But as he watched, Izuku struggled and struggled to get out of the slime with only his hands. There was no fire, no transformation, no sign of any type of change to him.

"Is he not going to use his power?"

He kept watching as the sludge villain covered Izuku in his body and had begun to shove slime in his mouth, suffocating the poor boy.

"What is he waiting for?" he wondered out of curiosity.

There was a point where the teen caught sight of Izuku's tear-filled eyes and saw that he was beginning to lose consciousness. That was when his eyes widened in a final realization, "Could it be, that he doesn't have power at all?"

He saw Izuku's arms go limp.

"Tsk!" he formed a dagger in his hand was just to leap into action until-

CLANK!

He stopped as the sewer lid completely blasted up and startled the sludge villain, making him turn around with his eyes widened. Within the opening of the sewer, a tall and muscular man with blonde hair came out smiling with his eyes shadowed.

"It's all right now, young man. Why?" he stomped his foot against the ground, creating a small shockwave.

The teen's eyes widened in realization, "That person... that's the same man on all that merchandise Midoriya has within his room. If I recall... 'All Might' was his name."

"Because I am here!" All Might proudly yelled, holding a proud stance.

The sludge villain's eyes became blood red, "ALL MIGHT!" he shot slime-like arms over towards him and attempted to slam into him, but All Might easily avoided the villain's efforts and pulled his own arm back.

"Texas Smash!" He punched the air in front of him and created a powerful shockwave shooting towards the sludge villain. Due to the villain's fluid-like body, he felt himself getting split apart.

"Wind pressure!?" Were his last thoughts before his slime body shot against the walls and rendered him unconscious.

The teen felt the powerful winds all the way from the start of the tunnel, his hair blowing back and he even used an arm to cover his eyes. "Such raw power... I wonder if his abnormal strength is his 'quirk'?"

The aftermath of the fight wasn't much to watch. All Might woke up Izuku and apologized for getting him mixed up with the villain, while Izuku frantically fanboyed to see his number one hero right there in front of him. However, as All Might tried to leave, Izuku caught hold of his leg and blast off into the air with a shockwave he left behind.

"What is that idiot thinking?" He slightly fixed his long hair that was messed up from the shockwaves All Might caused. He then ran and jump onto a few buildings to follow the duo. He was careful not to jump too high or risk being noticed by the hero while in the air, but he made sure to keep sight of them and keep up. He hopped along a shorter assortment of buildings while following All Might all the way up to the point where they stopped.

Instead of also jumping atop of the same building the two stopped at, the person went into an alleyway on the side the building and looked up at the top. He saw a fire escape and easily climbed up it without making any noise, but the fire escape didn't reach all the way to the top of the roof. Once at the highest it could go, he jumped slightly upward and held onto the very edges of the roof and listened closely.

"Even if I don't have a quirk, can I become a hero?" he heard Izuku asked anxiously.

He raised an eyebrow as he listened.

"Can even someone without a quirk be like you?" Izuku's voice sounded shaky.

Out of curiosity, he pulled himself up so that his head barely peeked over the edge of the building and saw Izuku standing straight with his eyes closed while All Might coughed blood in his hand while steaming up.

"What's with him? A condition?"

After a few more moments passed the teen's eyes widened to discover All Might turn into a skinny man. "He's the same skeletal man that I saw last night while traveling."

Obviously, Izuku freaked out when he saw this form of his hero, but All Might showed him an injury he got five years ago, one that caused him problems for his hero career and that only let him work up to three hours a day as a hero. His injury had been caused by a villain, but he said that he didn't wish to make the battle public so that he could continue saving people with a smile without worrying everyone.

He then heard All Might sigh, "Pros are always risking their lives. I'm sorry... but I cannot simply say 'you can become a hero even without power', it's not that easy."

Izuku looked mortified, he tilted his head and looked down at the ground with widened eyes. "I-I see..." was all he could say.

He focused his eyes on Izuku's heartbroken expression, "Even the hero he looked up to for his entire life told him that he can't be a hero."

"If you want to help others, then you could also become a police officer. They're often teased because they get villains delivered to their doorstep, but that is also a fine occupation." All Might walked towards the stairs of the building, but before going down he said one last thing, "It's not bad to dream, but also have to consider what's realistic young man."

After All Might disappeared, the person turned his head and looked to a weak-minded Izuku now, "Now what will you do now Izuku Midoriya?"

Izuku dropped his notebook on the ground and fell to his knees. A small, sad laugh was heard, "Y-Yeah... Even... even a pro hero said so... S-Someone quirkless... can't be a hero..."

"How pitiful..."

It didn't take long for Izuku to finally get up and sadly go down the stairs. After he left, the person finally pulled himself atop of the building and thought about everything he's seen so far.

"So... Izuku Midoriya, a young boy whose only wish in life is to become a hero, has had his dreams shattered. Due to being quirkless, his dream seemed more like a fantasy in the eyes of everyone he has ever met. Bullied and discriminated by anyone around him, no sign of any friends whatsoever, and being told repeatedly that he couldn't fulfill his dream has had given a beating on his self-confidence. But now the question I'm wondering about him is-" He down over the edge of the building at Izuku walking with his down in depression.

"-What path will you take now, Izuku Midoriya? Let's find out."

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Izuku Midoriya walked down the city sidewalk looking into his burnt notebook in depression. So many things that people had said before went through his mind once more, especially after his encounter with All Might.

"He still can't face reality, even though he's already in his third in junior high!"

"It's time for you to think seriously about your future!"

"You have to consider what's realistic."

He closed his notebook and let out a sad sigh.

"Even a pro hero said it..." He felt water blurring his vision and he wiped his eyes, "Don't cry! You knew, didn't you?!" The world darkened around his mind. "You knew! That's why you were trying so desperately! You were averting your eyes, not looking at reality!"

His idol, no, his hero, had told him that he couldn't become a hero without a quirk, crushing a part of Izuku's spirit that he had been trying to keep together for so long.

He sighed, "Can I really not be a hero?"

This question echoed through Izuku's mind as he passed by a small, dark alleyway. But just as he nearly passed it, a hand reached out from the darkness and covered Izuku's mouth with another hand grabbing his arm.

"Mmph!?" Izuku's eyes widened and he didn't even get a chance to scream as he was suddenly pulled into the alleyway and was slammed by the front against the wall. A hand pinned his arm behind his back and Izuku felt a cold blade of the sort get placed on the back of his neck, making his blood turn cold. The only thing he could see in the corner of his eye was some long black hair. He was too afraid to even try looking back more with a blade behind his neck.

"You scream, you die." A cold voice threatened behind him.

Izuku went pale and didn't even attempt to struggle out of fear. He simply managed to perform the smallest of nods and complied.

"Good. You may not have noticed, but I've been watching you for a while" the voice said behind him.

Izuku blinked in shock, "W-Watching me? Why me? Wait, if he's been watching me for so long, then does that mean-!?"

The person interrupted his thoughts, "Such a secret, but important conversation to conveniently come upon, I'm sure that many people wouldn't like to know that such a hero has been keeping secrets like that from them."

Izuku felt his stomach drop, "H-He knows... He heard everything. Did I just... release All Might's secret to the world?" Izuku felt horrified, disappointed, ashamed, so many bad feelings of guilt just plagued his mind at that thought.

"Now I don't get exactly what's going on, but currently I don't have anything against that hero. Rather, I have business with you instead."

"Wha-Me!?"

"All I wish for you to do is to answer one question I have. Answer it truthfully and you'll be alright, after all-" Izuku felt the blade pressed up more behind his neck, "-depending on your answer, you may not end up unharmed. Understand?"

Izuku felt absolutely terrified, he was basically shivering down to his spine and sweat frantically went down the side of his head. "Wh-What did I do? What does he wanna ask me? Wh-Why is my luck so bad today?"

"I'm going to remove my hand from your mouth, just answer my question and everything will be fine, alright?"

Izuku slowly nodded his head once more in confirmation.

He removed his hand from Izuku's mouth and move closer to his ear, "Your lifelong dream is to become a hero, you've studied them, admired them, desired to become one of them. Yet, every person you've met discriminated you and told you that it was impossible for you to become one due to being 'quirkless'. Yet, you've been holding on to that dream for so long with hopes of somehow being able to become one. A boy without power trying to become a hero, it wasn't until your life long hero, All Might finally told you, that you've finally realized that your dream wasn't achievable."

Hearing all of this once more, Izuku had gone from being scared to partially depressed. "I know that... But where is he going with this?"

"So now that you've realized how futile it is to become a hero, let me ask you, Izuku Midoriya-" His eyes glared in a serious matter, "-what path will you be taking now?"

Izuku repeated that question in his mind, "What... path will I be taking?" His mind shot back to his entire childhood, remembering just how much he wished to become a hero growing up. He felt tears beginning to form in his eyes as he thought back to first learning that he was quirkless. He remembered on that same night when he asked his mom if he could become a hero, she only apologized again and again and again, giving no hope to the boy whatsoever. He clenched his hand and thought about Bakugo and all of his classmates bringing Izuku's dream down several times. He felt angry, he wanted to do something, to say something, but he knew that whatever he said wouldn't matter. All Might saying he couldn't become a hero, he had felt a part of his spirit break at that moment, he was heartbroken, betrayed, miserable, but despite all of this...

He still knew what he wanted to do.

There were drops of water falling onto the floor, "I-I-I still want to become a hero, no matter what." His voice was cracking as he sobbed, "A-All I want is to be able to do is save people with a smile, I don't want to give up on that dream. It's all I ever wanted." Izuku said truthfully.

The person stared in wonder at the boy. Despite being treated so terribly and even though his dream seemed like a fantasy, Izuku still had the will to go on with it.

He sighed, "I see... You really are an idiot."

Izuku sniffled.

"Yet... it's admirable."

Izuku perked his head up, he felt the hand on his arm let go and the blade on his neck get removed. He immediately turned around at an attempt to get a view of his attacker but to his surprise, there was no longer anyone right there.

"Wh-Who was that?! They already left!?" Izuku muttered as his eyes frantically looked around for any indication of his assaulter. Having discovered that there was no one around, he sighed in relief. "Guess he's gone... I don't think I should bother reporting this to police, they won't have any leads to go on." he thought as he readjusted his backpack and wiped his eyes of the remaining tears. He left the alleyway with his head down once again.

"Who was that guy? Why was he spying on me for so long? Is he still-"

Izuku didn't get to finish the thought as a sudden explosion occurred in the distance and shook the ground. Izuku's eyes shot up and he saw smoke ahead in the city.

"That explosion..." Izuku ran in the direction of the smoke and came upon a crowd of people attempting to look into an alleyway, from which was the source of the big clouds of smoke. Izuku noticed several different heroes on the scene, from the wood hero Kamui Woods wrapping up civilians to save, to Backdraft the firefighter hero who was attempting to put out the fires caused by the explosions.

"They seem to be struggling..." Izuku worried. He peeked through some civilians to get a better look but his eyes widened in horror to recognize the sludge villain as the one that he had encountered earlier that day. "Wha-What is he doing here?! Didn't All Might capture him?!" Izuku placed both hands over his mouth, a new terrible thought coming to mind. "D-Did he escape... because of me?"

As he worried, little did he know that the number one hero himself, All Might, was only a few feet away from him but in his skeletal form due to spending too much time in his hero form. He didn't notice Izuku near him either since he could only stare in similar despair and anger at the sludge villain causing destruction in the alley.

"Damn it! Why am I so pathetic!? I can't even save one boy!" Toshinori, thought to himself as he punched the wall next to him out of anger, not even making much of a dent in his skeletal form.

As this was all happening, someone was examining the situation all the way from the top of one of the buildings connecting the alleyway. The sun gleamed over him, making him a silhouette with two glowing red eyes watching the entire scene below.

"Hm, it appears that the villain somehow managed to escape the confinement of All Might. So much for a professional hero..."

He then looked down at Izuku once more, "Although you say that you desire to be a hero, what could you do? How far are you willing to go to prove it?" he muttered.

Izuku stared at the devastating sight in front of him, wondering what would happen and if the heroes didn't stop the villain.

But then the villain turned his body and Izuku's heart dropped.

He saw his lifetime bully, Katsuki Bakugo, being held captive within the sludge villain's body with water in his eyes from suffocating.

"Kacchan!?" Izuku screamed in his head in horror.

He then heard Death Arms yell out to someone "Hey kid stop!! It's too dangerous!"

Izuku wondered who Death Arms was calling out to before realizing that he was currently running toward the sludge villain as if his legs had minds of their own.

"What the hell am I doing?!" He screamed in his head as he ran up to the villain.

The teen watching from the roof and squinted his eyes at the sight of Izuku running despite not having any powers.

In the crowd stood Toshinori, surprised, speechless, and stunned from what he saw. Out of anyone that could've run towards such a dangerous scene, the quirkless boy that he encountered earlier was the one to do it.

Izuku, on the other hand, was completely freaking out, "Crap, crap, crap! I ran in here, but what do I do!? I'll just get killed! Think Izuku, think!" His mind flipped towards three sections of the notebook in his mind, "I gotta obscure his sight!" He gripped onto a strap of his backpack and flung it upward towards the villain's eyes.

The sludge villain saw Izuku running towards him and felt fueled with anger, "YOU!!" the sludge villain screeched. However, before he could react and go for Izuku, he got hit in the eye by some of Izuku's school materials flying from his open backpack.

"AARRGH!!" the sludge villain yelled as he closed his eyes and winced from the sudden pain.

Toshinori could only watch in terror, "This kid is gonna get himself killed! He... He..." his eyes then widen as he recalled his own experiences before becoming a hero. He remembered the stories of the best heroes and compared the similarities to what Izuku was currently doing. Remembering what it meant to be a hero once more, Toshinori felt himself getting more determined than ever and began buffing back into his muscular form, luckily, everyone was too focused on Izuku running to the villain than to notice him.

"I can't sit here and watch!"

In the meantime, Izuku leaped to the sludge villain and went right to attempting to free Bakugo by scooping up chunks of sludge and throwing them aside, sadly not succeeding. During that time, Bakugo managed to free his mouth from the sludge and glared at Izuku with rage in his eyes.

"DEKU!? What the hell!? Why are you fucking here?!" He yelled at him.

Izuku had tears in his eyes as he looked at Bakugo with a sad smile, "Well, you just looked like you were asking for help!" he said in a cracking voice.

The person above had a realization, "So he's one of those types of people. The kind who would be willing to endanger his own life for the sake of even one other person. A true hero."

"Pathetic... Pathetic!" Toshinori shouted to himself, turning back into All Might.

By this point, the villain had recovered from the pain in his eyes and looked down at Izuku with blood-red eyes, his pupils shrinking in pure anger.

"YOU BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU!!" Yelled out the villain as a large, sludge hand came out and overshadowed Izuku and Bakugo, mere seconds from overtaking them entirely.

The teen on the roof stood up and nearly jumped down to stop the attack.

However, from the corner of his eyes the blonde muscular man that he had seen before jump towards Izuku at vanishing speeds, actually surprising him a bit.

"He's fast..."

The villain's hand collided with something, causing another explosion to occur, many of the crowd gasped in shock, thinking the worst had happened.

Izuku shielded his eyes from the smoke, but when he opened them, he was shocked to see his hero, All Might, right in front of him with his hand in the sludge and protecting both him and Bakugo.

"I really am pathetic... Even though I admonished you, I wasn't putting what I said into practice!" He raised his fist back and forcefully pulled off the slime that was on him. "I've found him Nana! I've finally found him!"

"ALL MIGHT!" the sludge villain shouted in rage as he prepared for another attack to swallow All Might whole.

But All Might had already begun moving his fist forward as his eyes shined an inspired blue, "DETROIIIIIT SMAAAAAAASH!"

The moment his punch connected to the sludge villain, a giant shockwave blew the entire villain away, his slime body spreading all over the alleyway. Intense winds put out all the fires in the area while also nearly blowing back many civilians if it wasn't for Mount Lady using her arms to protect them.

The smoke cleared, revealing All Might standing proudly in a now fire-free area. After a moment for people to process exactly what had happened, they erupted with cheers for him for his heroic act.

"I found my next successor." All Might thought proudly.

The red-eyed person kept watching as the heroes began to clean up the area after what had happened. He recognized the same wood hero that he encountered the previous night, but also took into account the many other heroes around. "Interesting... So everyone has a special power that is called a 'quirk', which has allowed for a new career choice of 'hero' to develop in this society, yet-" his gaze turned over to Izuku now, who was currently getting scolded by the pro heroes, "-you don't have one. Why is that?"

He watched as Izuku bowed apologetically in front of the heroes and then ran off in the direction of his house.

"Izuku Midoriya, you are definitely worth to let live for the sake of others. It will be difficult for me to make you into something greater, but I will try to make it so that you can succeed in your dream while also helping me achieve my own goal..." He spoke out.

The sky was beginning to glow orange as the sun was setting, people moved along the street away and away from the crime scene. The person noticed Bakugo look around to discover that Izuku had left and shrugged off the heroes as he ran after the boy with an enraged look on his face.

"Could he really be angry at Midoriya for trying to save him? How vexing..."

He then noticed All Might looking around in shock to see that the broccoli haired boy he chose was no longer around. He apologized to the media and then blasted off at fast speeds into the sky, jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

"Hm, that hero... He's indeed powerful, even if he has the major drawback of the limit on his power. However, I noticed that look in his eyes before he saved those two from that monster, he was inspired by that boy and judging by how he looked when he rushed off, he must be going to find him..."

He then jumped off the rooftop and went along to also follow the direction that Izuku took.

"What could he want with him this time?"

Little did this mysterious being know, that on that day, by formally meeting not just Izuku, but All Might as well, that he would be starting on an adventure that would change his entire life. Everything he knew before, everything he didn't know, everything that he remembered, that was all going to change due to taking the same path as the emerald haired boy.

And so began the adventure begins.