Izuku was alone.

He trudged home, remembering Bakugou's words: If you think you'll have a Quirk in your next life… go take a swan dive off the roof!

He couldn't tell any of his classmates or teachers, of course. They'd take Bakugou's side, tell Izuku that he was taking a joke too harshly. Worse, his classmates might say he deserved it. That Bakugou wasn't wrong. That he should have jumped.

Inko saw the look on his face and the burnt notebook in his hands when he made it home. She offered a hug - she had to fill in as Izuku's best friend.

"Oh, Izuku, what happened?" she asked.

Izuku walked to the kitchen with her. "The teacher was talking about careers and everybody in the class wanted to be a hero. Then Kacchan made fun of me for wanting to get into UA, and after school he burned my notebook and told me to kill myself."

Inko gave a familiar sympathetic frown. "Honey, horrible boys like Bakugou are looking for opportunities to attack you, but he won't be around forever. I wish I could have given you a Quirk to deal with him. Middle school is the worst part of life, so you just have to get through it until you can enter the adult world where you can avoid people like him."

Izuku nodded, noting that she said nothing about Bakugou being factually wrong, or about Izuku's adult life involving heroism. He didn't know why he still bothered telling her about his days. He grabbed an apple from the kitchen counter and retreated to his room.

Izuku would have to rewrite everything into a new notebook eventually, but he didn't want to remind himself of what happened at school just then. Instead, he turned on the computer to catch the latest updates on various hero forums and chatrooms. Usually, seeing all the new hero content cheered him up after a day of being bullied. New heroes, costumes, fanart, speculation, and official merchandise updates were his life outside of school. Since his life inside of school sucked so much, he considered his online life his only life.

That day, though, reading about Mt. Lady's debut just made him sad. His notes on her from his encounter that morning were incomplete. He wanted to write in his notebook about how she had one of the most powerful Quirks and was sure to rise through the ranks quickly, but his notebook was burnt. Plus, he couldn't rise through those same ranks. Mt. Lady was so lucky to have a good Quirk.

Izuku found himself once again drawn to All Might's website, scrolling down to the little "contact" link at the bottom. He'd sent many fan mails over his life. His first mail was poorly-typed gushing over how awesome All Might was, back when he barely knew how to read. Soon after, the doctor delivered the news that he would never manifest a Quirk of his own. He'd sent an email with the question that had come to define his life: could a child without a Quirk become a hero?

No answer at age five, and no answer the hundreds of other times he'd sent the question. Sometimes alternate emails for All Might appeared on the forums, but they all turned out to be roleplayers, scams, or hoaxes. Izuku needed the answer more than ever. He wasn't going to hear it from his mom or dad. He wasn't going to hear it from his teachers. He certainly wasn't going to hear it from the other students. His one hope was to hear it from All Might. If All Might told him he could be a hero, then he would have worth.

Izuku created a new email account in case his old one had been blocked and posed as a parent asking about a child. "My son has no Quirk, but he still wants to be a hero. Do you think he still has a chance?" Short and sweet. He hoped his desperation didn't show through the text and put All Might off. Maybe that was the problem with his messages. He messed around on baby name websites for a couple minutes to find a name to sign with, then sent the email.

After sending, he felt like a bigger idiot than before. A real parent would describe their kid more, or maybe add how much the kid or the parent liked All Might, so the connection was clearer. No wonder none of his messages received responses.

He clicked to All Might's official Facebook account. He'd been warned before about spamming in the comments with his questions, but he didn't care at that moment. A picture of All Might endorsing a new toothpaste began the timeline. Izuku wrote a comment underneath. "Hey All Might, have you seen my other messages? I just want to know if I can still become a hero without a Quirk. My life's had some rough patches lately, so it would mean a lot to me to hear an answer. Thanks, I'm your biggest fan!" All Might never responded to the comments, but maybe fortune would smile on Izuku for once in his life.

Izuku clicked on All Might's Twitter and Instagram last. All Might also never responded to Izuku's comments there. Worse, other people did. They discouraged him by saying he needed to have a Quirk to be a hero, among other awful comments. It didn't matter what some strangers online said, though. Only the greatest hero of all time could tell Izuku for certain. He left his comments, then refreshed his email and the three social media pages again and again.

The Facebook group banned him after half an hour. He knew it was coming, but it still hurt to have that avenue of connection with All Might closed. He felt stuck in a rut: posting again and again on social media sites to talk to All Might even though All Might clearly didn't do social media interaction with the public. All Might retweeted other heroes, police officers, or journalists, but never random fans.

Izuku looked around his room at all his All Might merchandise. Posters covered his walls, action figures sat on every flat surface, and plush toys and stickers rested in his drawers. A cup to hold pencils in the shape of All Might's head stood next to his computer. All Might was the strongest, coolest hero ever and Izuku wanted to be just like him. Part of him wanted to give up on life and accept that he would never become a hero like All Might. But he couldn't lose the hope that kept him going, not when All Might could still confirm it.

Izuku spent the rest of the night refreshing his pages and posting on hero forums to distract himself. Of course, no answer came. All Might probably used a social media team so that he could spend more time on heroism. Izuku's last thought of the night was, I need to do something new tomorrow. My current methods will never work.