I'd heard that All Might had eventually come to save Kacchan and blow the Sludge Villain into bits, showering the site with its remains. He'd said his famous catchphrase: "It is fine now. Why? Because I am here!" as he defeated the villain with just one punch.

Everyone had praised All Might, had worshipped and honored him like everyone so blindly does. And he'd just stood there, smiling with that 'heroic' air around him, taking all the glory after he'd shattered my dreams so easily.

I used to think his smile, his catchphrase, everything he stands for... I'd thought it was so cool and inspirational.

I'd spent hours as a kid sitting in front of the TV, awed by his strength and apparent invincibility. With just his smile, he could turn around any situation; with just his catchphrase, he could convince everyone that everything would be okay; I thought he could do anything... I thought that if I believed in him, I could do anything.

Obviously, I was wrong.

After that day, my world has been crumbling onto itself, a worse feeling than when I'd found out I wouldn't develop a quirk at just four years old.

Before, when I'd so shamelessly filled my room with All Might posters and figurines and onesies, I hadn't accepted the destiny I'd been given-- to live a useless, boring life and die an entirely normal death. But now, with the truth right in front of me this whole time... now I understand.

I am worthless. Kacchan thinks so, my classmates think so, my teachers, even All Might.

That's when I realized, as I sat at my wooden desk, that my room was still full of his merchandise.

From the ceiling to the floor, there was not one empty space that wasn't covered with a poster of All Might flexing his muscles, or a small figurine of him, or American-style curtains, or.... God, I'm starting to get sick just looking at all of it.

I quickly stand from my seat and start with the posters. Digging my fingers underneath a banner of that annoying smile of his, I tear it off the white wall and rip it into two, then four, then eight... I keep tearing at it until it's in a million pieces on the floor, giving the impression that a paper shredder had gotten to it.

Somehow... pleased, I go to the next one, shredding it and crumpling it, then the next one, then the next one, and then the next one.

My breathing starts to get labored as I go to the figurines, seething as I rip off All Might's head, hissing as I kick the remains across my tattered room.

My heart was aching, breaking, as the curtains came next, hauling it off its rings and thrashing it in my trash can. I couldn't breathe as I stood on my chair to reach the higher posters, my eyes blinded by tears, sobs forcefully ripping through my throat, my arms shaking to the point of not getting a steady hold on the flyers.

I grasped at my chest, trying to get one good breath in, but then I lost my stance on the swivel chair and fell to the floor, sending a resounding thud through the small apartment.

I heard rushed footsteps coming-- "Izuku??" My mom gasped at the sight of my ruined room and rushed to me on the floor. She held me as she tried to calm down my breathing and crying.

Clinging to me and rocking me back and forth on the floor of my destroyed room, I can't help but be reminded of that time when I'd just found out I'm quirkless and was rewatching All Might's rescue video.

"Can I be a hero too?"

Even then, she'd clung to me as she did now and sobbed.

"I'm sorry, Izuku!"

But that's not what I wanted to hear...

Back then, what I wanted you to say... the words I wanted to hear were...

Well, it doesn't matter anymore.

                         ———————————

Days passed without time going by.

There was nothing left for me anymore, nothing to live for... it felt like the thin thread I was so desperately hanging on to had just snapped. Each day was the same with nothing interesting to differentiate between them.

Junior High was as unbearable as it's always been; Kacchan and everyone else either ignored me or bullied me.

I'd stopped writing in my Hero Analysis Notebook since there were no fights for me to be interested in. I'd stopped watching those All Might clips online. I'd stopped staying up late at night, dreaming of my hero costume. I'd just stopped having hope.

I couldn't handle it anymore.

That day in my room was it for me. I have so much pain and hatred, anguish and heartache, for everything and anything in this world-- and it's so overpowering that I can't sense anything else.

In the darkness of midnight, it's the only thing I can feel as I lay in my bed, horrorstricken by nightmares. It's all too much for me-- I can't afford to feel like this-- I don't want to feel like this anymore.

I hate everything in this life, this world made of quirks, where if you don't have one you don't have any worth.

It's not fair.

What about those like me, who are also quirkless? Or even those who just have 'inferior' quirks? Even then, you'd get bullied, humiliated, harassed.

There's no winning in this rigged, messed up game. This world built on power is not made for the powerless-- there's no surviving for us here.

Why does it have to be this way? Why can't we all accept each other as we are? Why do people feel the need to bring me down when they already know that I'm powerless against them?!

I don't get it, I don't get it, I don't get it, I don't get it, I don't get it, I don't get it!!

Then suddenly, that feeling of superiority from what must've been three weeks ago now re-entered my head.

It was when Kacchan was near death, fighting for his life against that Sludge Villain; when he'd looked me in the eyes and I could tell he was trying to scream: Someone help me.

I'd reveled in the power that seemingly came rushing into my body, my hands, my feet, my head. It made me dizzy as if I were on some high. As if I was actually worth something, powerful, important, known... I've never felt anything like it before.

My head's racing from just thinking about the sensation.

I held my head in my hands as I sat on my bed after just returning from school. I check the date on my phone: Thursday 3:35. I forget it as soon as I turn it off.

Laying back onto the mattress, I simply close my eyes, and I keep it closed. Maybe if I do that, if I try to blind myself to everything around me, I might forget about the newest taunt thrown at me in school. It's not like it was any different compared to the other teases I've been told, but today, for some reason it really resonated with me.

Thinking back to that moment, I replay the scene in my head:

Kacchan and his two sidekicks threw me against the wall just after class had been dismissed for the day. I just wanted to leave as quick as possible, but ever since his encounter with the Sludge Villain he'd been especially going out of his way to torment me.

Whenever Kacchan bullied me, he'd either jokingly insult me or push me around at times with his explosion quirk. But now I can see that's not the case.

He seemed to be taking this personally as he grabbed my yellow backpack and exploded it, thrashing it on to the grass and stomping on it aggressively.

He'd done it with such fervor and hatred that his two goonies looked a bit concerned.

"You don't deserve shit, Deku!" He screamed in my face, his red eyes bold. "You'd die in the real world! It's surprising how someone as pathetic as you survived this long!"

The one with the finger-extension quirk latched his hand onto Kacchan's shoulder. "Hey, don't you think you're going a bit too far...?"

Tsubasa also stepped forward, "Yeah, we don't wanna get in trouble or anything..."

Kacchan only slapped his hand away, "Shut up you fucking extras!" He turned his wide eyes to me, "You should do what I told you before, Deku! Nobody gives a fucking shit about you, so why don't you kill yourself, huh??"

He'd violently grabbed me by the chin and forced my head upwards to the school's rooftop. "It's easy! Just take a swan dive off there, you worthless bastard!"

... And for some reason, his last statement stuck with me.