Chapter One

"No, someone without a Quirk can't be a hero."

Those words looped though Izuku's brain as he dragged himself home from the worst day of his life. First childhood friend turned chief bully Katsuki Bakugou burned his hero analysis book No. 13, before throwing it out the classroom window and telling him to jump off a roof if he wanted a Quirk. Then on his walk home he got attacked by a slime villain and almost killed. Saved at the last minute by the world's number one hero and his lifelong idol, All Might, before getting his autograph in his salvaged notebook you'd think his day would get better after that right? Wrong. Izuku had latched on too All Might's leg as he leaped away, NEEDING to ask him the question he had asked himself since he was diagnosed as Quirkless ten years ago.

"Can someone without a Quirk, become a hero like you?"

That was the question Izuku asked his idol as they stood upon a rooftop, All Might preparing to leap away again. He stopped and turned to the fan boy, contemplating his question… before disappearing in a cloud of smoke leaving a thin skeleton of a man in his place, coughing up blood. Having seen his true form Izuku learned of the injury he obtained fighting a powerful villain seven years before that left the symbol of peace minus his left lung, stomach and able to work as a hero for only three hours a day. The man then left Izuku alone on the roof after shattering his dreams.

'It's alright,' Izuku thought on his way home. 'Everyone else has said the same thing all my life. It shouldn't matter that the man I looked up to told my dream is impossible, that I need to be realistic, that I was a fool thinking I could be like him…' Izuku shook his head at that point, knowing full well that All Might said no such thing. 'At most he implied it.'

As he was about to leave the rooftop, an explosion went of in the distance. Getting to the source he found that the sludge villain from earlier had fallen out of All Might's trousers and gotten out of the soda bottle that caged him. He heard from the other on lookers that couldn't intervene because he had a hostage and they needed to wait for someone with a more suitable Quirk to show up while they ran crowd control and tried to get the fires under control. Izuku made his way to the front of the crowd and saw who the hostage was. Katsuki Bakugou. Kacchan. His fear filled eyes met Izuku's… and before he could think Izuku had thrown his backpack at sludge villain before clawing desperately to free his ash blonde haired friend (torturer).

"What the fuck are you doing!?" Bakugou yelled, his mouth having been freed allowing him to breathe when something from Izuku's bag hit the villain in the eye.

"I don't know! My legs just started moving on their own!" was Izuku's honest reply. When the villain took a swing at the two boys, All Might burst on to the scene in his full muscled heroic form, grabbed the boys in one hand and swung his other fist at the villain with a yell.

"DETROIT SMASH!"He roared, as he scattered the villain's liquid body and caused the sky to rain with the power of his punch. No one noticed the blood drip from his mouth. Afterwards as the police gathered the bits of criminal, and All Might talked to the press while Izuku was chastised by Pro-Heroes Death Arms and Kamui Woods for being needlessly reckless and running in to save someone without a Quirk.

'Even though I tried to do their job for them, the hypocrites.' Izuku shook that thought away. As he was being told off, the other heroes on scene praised Katsuki for his powerful explosion Quirk and lasting so long in the villain's grip. They told him what a great hero he'd be, that he should join their agencies.

'Even though his lack of calm and control made him set half the shopping district on fire,' thought Izuku bitterly. 'Even though he isn't fit to be a hero, the bastard.' Izuku slapped himself at that, knowing he shouldn't call Kacchan things like that (even if it was true).

"Oi, Deku!" A familiar voice called from behind him. He turned around to see the Bakugou boy storming up too him.

"K-Kacchan?" Izuku stammered, some small part of his brain telling him that the boy doesn't deserve to be called by that childhood nickname. "W-what is i-it?" he asked. The blonde boy stopped a few feet in front of him, his sharp red eyes no longer showing fear as they were earlier, instead the anger that was normal for him.

"I want to make some things clear!" he snapped. "I wasn't afraid back then! I didn't need help from anyone, specially you! Your nothing but some worthless, Quirkless Deku, you got it!?" He turned and stamped off before Izuku could answer. Deku. A word meaning useless. A word that had been used to insult the green haired boy for a decade since the other kids at school learned he was Quirkless.

'Well if I'm so useless, than I'll just leave you to die next time.' Izuku didn't shun that thought. He turned to resume his trip home, only to be stopped by an eight foot tall wall of muscle.

"There you are!" Said All Might in his hero form, his blonde hair standing in it's signature V shape. "I was hoping to catch you!"

"All Might!?" Izuku exclaimed. "How are you here? Last I saw, you were surrounded by the press."

"HA HA HA! It was easy to get away from them! Why? Because I am – Bleugh!" The man was interrupted as he spat out blood and deflated into his true form in a puff of smoke. He wiped his mouth and resumed his conversation. "I came here to give you an apology, a correction, and a suggestion."

'This should be good,' thought Izuku.

"Back then when that boy was being held hostage. When all the heroes – even myself – could do nothing but watch and hope, the Quirkless boy rushed in to help."

'A hero needs to be prepared to risk their life. That's what you told me, right?' Izuku couldn't help but feel like All Might had been a hypocrite, just standing there after saying such a thing.

"When you did, am I right in thinking your body moved before you could think? The best heroes had such a moment in their origins." Izuku clutched his chest as he remembered everything that he'd suffered over ten years.

"You should probably give it up." The doctor telling him he was Quirkless when he was four.

"I'm here now to say…" All Might continued.

"If you want to be a hero, take a swan dive off the roof and hope you get a Quirk in the next life!" The torment from other students, never being stopped by the teachers who saw everything.

"…Midoriya Izuku…"

"It's not wrong to dream kid, but you have to be realistic." Having his idol telling him it can't be done.

"…you can be a – " It was all too much.

"Shut up," he said just loud enough to be heard by All Might.

"Uh?" The hero seemed confused. "What did you – "

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Izuku yelled at the top of his lungs, shoving All Might with all his strength. He struck the man on the scar where his stomach was, sending pain though his body. Combined with the surprising strength of the blow the hero fell back on his butt, shocked at the random attack.

"Ouch. Midoriya, what was…" He stopped short as his blue eyes looked up into Izuku's own green orbs. And saw the fury held within.

"Don't you DARE talk too me!" Izuku commanded, a lifetime of pain and despair turned into fury and hate. "First you tell me my dream isn't realistic, then after I risk my life to save the ungrateful arse hole whose tormented me all my life, you decide to say otherwise? Well to hell with you! Whatever your suggestion is, STUFF IT!" All Might actually crawled back slightly afraid of the hate being sent at him by the fourteen year old boy.

"But– but my boy, I…" He was cut of by Izuku again.

"QUIET! You told me to keep you secret, remember? Well if you ever try to offer me anything again, then the whole world will know that the symbol of peace is a cripple. Got it?" And with that last ultimatum Izuku stormed past the hero on the ground, leaving him with only one thought.

'Shit. I've messed up big time.'