All men were not born equal; that was a truth Izuku Midoriya knew all too well.
It all started when Izuku was young. He was sitting in his room, geeking out about heroes as usual, when suddenly he could hear seemingly everything that happened in the entire city.
He screamed in shock, curled up into a ball and clenched his hands over his ears. It was all too much, it overloaded his senses. By then, his mother had entered his room and was asking him what was wrong. He said, "The noise is too much, I can't stand it!"
Biting her lip and kneeling next to him, his mother said, "Just focus on me honey. Think of me as an island, away from the sea of noise."
Izuku tried doing what his mother said and was finally able to get some respite from the deluge of noise. After getting over his shock, Izuku was ecstatic; he finally had his Quirk! It wasn't the strongest Quirk in the world, but it was his Quirk nonetheless, and he was already theorising how it could be used for hero work.
His mother, however, did not share his relish; she actually looked fairly worried. Izuku asked her "What's wrong Mum? You look worried."
His mother only replied, "It's nothing, honey. Congratulations on getting your Quirk."
If that were it, everything would have been fine. But things didn't end there. A few days later, he started being able to see through walls, and before long he discovered even more amazing powers.
All told, he had at least eight different abilities: super hearing, x-ray vision, heat vision, super strength, super speed, near invulnerability, flight, and super breath.
That was when his mother finally told him the truth: he was an alien, a being from another planet. She had found him as a baby when his pod had crashed next to the road she was driving on. She couldn't stand the thought of him being taken and experimented on by the government, so she had taken him in and raised him as her own.
This revelation only served to bring Izuku and his mother closer to each other, but there was one thing that was contentious between the two. Despite, or maybe because of, his alien origins, Izuku still wanted to be a hero. Inko, however, thought being a hero would be much too dangerous.
On another note, Izuku and his best friend Katsuki Bakugo had a huge falling out. It had started when Bakugo first got his Quirk; he had started to get more and more arrogant and aggressive, which Izuku didn't like.
It finally came to a head when Izuku saw Bakugo and his cronies bullying another kid. Seeing this, Izuku couldn't help stepping between Bakugo and his intended victim. "Stop it Kacchan, can't you see he's crying? I won't let you keep hurting him, even if I have to stop you myself!" Izuku exclaimed, standing resolutely in front of the crying boy.
Bakugou replied condescendingly, "So... you, Deku, the Quirkless, noodle-limbed, weakling.., are going to try and stop me? I'd like to see you try," finishing his statement off with a flat voice.
Izuku said, "Actually, I just got my Quirk. That doesn't matter though; even if I still didn't have a Quirk, I'd still stand up for this kid because that's what a hero would do! Plus, if hurting innocent people is what you're going to do with your Quirks, you don't deserve them!"
After Izuku said that, the rage on the three bullies' faces doubled and Bakugo screamed, "That's it, get ready to explode until you die!" As he finished speaking, all three lunged towards Izuku.
Bakugo, as always, started with a big right hook, believing that beating Izuku would be incredibly easy. This time was different though; Izuku wasn't powerless anymore.
To Izuku, Bakugo's punch looked like it was occurring in slow motion. Izuku decided that he would try his best to only block and dodge without hitting back since he still couldn't control his strength as well as he would have liked. As much as he loathed what Bakugo was doing, he still didn't want to seriously injure him.
With that thought in mind, Izuku quickly evaded Bakugo's punch. Bakugo looked extremely shocked that Izuku had dodged his hit and, while swinging his next punch he said, "How the hell are you dodging, you damn Deku!"
Izuku dodged the attack and replied "I've noticed you always start out fights with a big right hook. You also tend to telegraph your attacks." As he finished speaking, he heard the guy with long fingers coming up next to him and trying to entangle him with his tendril-like fingers.
Izuku was able to dodge, but he had no time to relax as the final boy dived down from the sky and tried to punch him. Seeing that he couldn't dodge this attack, Izuku caught the boy's fist. This, however, gave Bakugo the chance to hit Izuku with an explosion.
The explosion burned his clothes but did nary a thing to his skin. After hitting Izuku, both Bakugo and the boy with wings were shaking their hands. The boy with wings asked, "What the hell are you made of? Is that your Quirk?"
Izuku replied, "Uh, as far as I know, I'm made of meat and bones just like everyone else. It's a part of my Quirk, but not the main part."
Bakugo said, "Who cares what he's made of or what his shitty Quirk is, he will never beat me," immediately continuing his relentless assault on Izuku with a jab to his stomach, which Izuku promptly dodged.
This continued for a minute, Izuku dodging, blocking, and sometimes taking blows that actually didn't hurt him at all before Bakugo yelled, "Deku, you coward! Stop dodging and fight me like a man!"
Izuku insisted, "I don't want to hurt you, Kacchan. I haven't gotten a proper handle on my Quirk yet, and unlike you, I don't like hurting people."
Bakugo seemed to be even more enraged by this statement and increased the ferocity of his attacks while yelling, "Damn Deku, don't you dare look down on me! I can take whatever the hell you dish out!"
Izuku, having had enough of Bakugo's attitude, decided to give him what he wanted; he gave Bakugo a light punch right to the chest. Bakugo, having not expected Izuku to actually fight back, flew back a metre or two before falling to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.
Izuku briefly scanned Bakugo with his x-ray vision to check that he was all right. Luckily, Izuku had caused minimal damage, only causing some bruising and not breaking any bones or causing any internal bleeding.
After a few seconds of shock, Bakugo got up, looking more livid than ever. Izuku, noticing that Bakugo's cronies had stopped encircling him, decided it was time to get out of there. The boy he was protecting had already left while Izuku was dealing with Bakugo, and he didn't want to be embroiled in a fight all day. He turned around and ran far enough away that Bakugo couldn't chase him.
When Bakugo saw that Izuku was leaving, he yelled, "Get back here, you coward," but Izuku was long gone by that point. Bakugo scowled and swore that this wasn't the end. He would prove that stupid Deku was nothing but a pebble on his path to greatness.
Izuku walked into his house after the scuffle with Bakugo. "I'm home," he announced.
Inko said, "Welcome home, honey," before coming through the door from the living room and seeing the state of his clothes. She then wailed "My baby, what happened to you?"
While checking his mom checked him for injuries, Izuku replied, "Don't worry Mum, I'm not hurt. Kacchan and I just had a bit of a... disagreement. I'm not actually hurt. My clothes are ruined though."
Inko narrowed her eyes and asked, "What do you mean, a disagreement? This looks like a lot more than a disagreement!"
Izuku replied, "I saw Kacchan and his friends bullying another boy. I couldn't just stand back and do nothing, so I stepped in and tried to stop them. We ended up in a fight. I mainly tried to block and dodge, but they got a few hits in, which is why my clothes are like this. Don't worry none of the hits actually hurt me."
"And you didn't actually hit any of them?" Inko questioned.
"I hit Kacchan once," Izuku said, "right at the end. But I made sure to check if he was all right before I left. He only had some bruising, I swear."
Inko asked Izuku, "Why did you do that? You know you could have seriously hurt him if you weren't careful."
Izuku responded, "I know, it's just what he was doing is just so against everything I believe in, I just couldn't take it. I'm sorry."
Inko said, "It's okay. I'm proud that you at least did it for the right reasons. Just promise me that you won't let this power of yours corrupt you. Keep being my baby boy who wants to help everyone."
Izuku replied, "I promise!"
After that event, Izuku and Bakugo's friendship was officially over. Izuku ceased calling Bakugo the childhood nickname of Kacchan and no longer thought of him as a friend. He reasoned that real friends would never try to seriously hurt each other and he honestly didn't want to be friends with him, given what Bakugo was becoming.
It had been years since that day, he was now eighteen years old and in his final year of highschool. He had grown a lot; he was now the tallest person in his class, and despite never working out, he was extremely built, now having a six-pack and very well defined muscles, also his face was beginning to grow more angular, his jaw and cheekbone were getting more pronounced, but there were still some traces of baby fat left to obscure the edges a bit.
He was on his way to school one day when he came upon a villain fight. He walked through the crowd before emerging in the front of the crowd and asking "Who's fighting," before answering his own question with a smile on his face. "Oh, it's Kamui Woods! The new up-and-comer!"
The man next to him said, "A running commentary, eh, kid? Are you a fanboy?"
Izuku blushed and said, "I guess."
Kamui woods had now swung to the top of the train station, Izuku heard him saying to the villain, "Illegal use of abilities during rush hour, as well as robbery and assault? You're pure evil." Izuku thought that was a bit of an exaggeration, but he guessed Kamui was just playing up his role.
As Izuku watched, Kamui launched himself backward and threw his hand out. Izuku recognized the pose; the hero was about to unleash his super move. The man next to him continued to shout encouragement to the "tree man," and Izuku couldn't help getting excited. 'Here it comes; it's his—'
"Pre-emptive Binding: Lacquered Chain Prison!" the hero shouted. Tree branches grew from his arm and shot toward the villain, ready to ensnare him.
"Canyon Cannon!"
Before the branches could reach their target, a giant woman smashed into the villain, sending him crashing to the street below, where he reverted back to his normal size.
When the woman landed, having defeated the villain, she said, "Pleased to meet you all! You can call me Mt. Lady! Today's my debut!" The reporters on the scene seemed enamoured with the new hero's assets, and of course, she got all the credit for defeating the villain, even though Kamui Woods did most of the fighting. Izuku could see Kamui still on top of the train station looking very dejected.
Izuku pulled out his notebook, titled "Heroic Analysis for the Future: Volume 13" and began brainstorming Mt. Lady's strengths and weaknesses, as well as the limitations of her Quirk.
The man next to Izuku saw that he was taking notes on the new hero and said to Izuku "Taking notes? I guess you want to be a hero yourself. Good luck!"
Izuku responded, "Thank you, I'll do my best!"
When Izuku left the scene of the fight, he noticed that he was late for school. He debated with himself for a good second before he started running there using just a tiny bit of his super speed, just enough to make him as fast as an Olympic athlete. Thankfully, he managed to make it there on time and without being reprimanded.
Later on in the day, the teacher said, "You guys are all third years now. It's time to start thinking seriously about your futures! I would hand out these future career forms but, I assume you all want to be heroes." He punctuated his sentence by throwing the forms in the air.
The students, with the exception of Bakugo and Izuku, all got excited and started using their Quirks. "Yes, you all have wonderful Quirks. But you know it's against the rules to use them in school," the teacher chastised.
Any further chastisement was cut off as Bakugo declared "Teacher don't lump me in with these losers! As if I had anything like their crappy Quirks."
The other students got incredibly offended by what Bakugo had said. One of the students said, "Get over yourself, Katsuki!"
Bakugo retorted "Shut up! Extras should act like extras!"
The teacher then said, "Ah, Bakugo, you, of course, must be aiming for UA University"
One of the other students questioned "That national school? The cutoff this year is seventy-nine, right?"
Another student said, "I hear they barely accept anyone!"
Bakugo jumped up on his desk and said, "Ah, the stupid chattering of extras! I aced the mock exams! I'm the only one here with the stuff for UA! I'll even surpass All Might and become the best hero out there! Not to mention I'll be one of the richest people in the world!"
The teacher then asked, "Oh. You're also going for UA, aren't you, Midoriya?"
When the teacher said that, Bakugo's expression froze as all of his classmates turned towards Izuku. One of the other students said, "That makes sense. Midoriya's Quirk is even more stupidly powerful than Katsuki's."
Another student replied, "Yeah, and he's probably the smartest person in the entire school."
After hearing the students praising Izuku, Bakugo's face went from frozen to livid in less than a second. "Deku!" he growled before trying to blow up Izuku's desk. Izuku, however, was able to see Bakugo coming and caught his wrist before it could get below the level of everyone's heads.
"Didn't you hear Mr. Smith telling us not to use our Quirks in class, Bakugo? Or do you think the rules don't apply to you?" Izuku admonished.
Bakugo tried freeing his hand to no avail before declaring, "Who cares about the stupid rules? You won't even fully utilise your Quirk, yet you think you can rub shoulders with me?!"
Izuku replied, "I don't fully utilise my Quirk because I know what kind of damage I could do if I don't hold back, plus I'm not trying to compete with you. I don't even know why I put UA down; I know I could never go there. It's just, I've always wanted to be a hero"
Izuku was telling the truth when he said that. He knew he could never go to UA. He had somehow managed to pass off his super strength, super speed, and near invulnerability as a Quirk all these years. But that was only because he used them very rarely and never used any of his other powers in front of other people. If he got into the hero course at UA, he'd not only be encouraged to use his powers, but it would be a necessity, which was a disaster waiting to happen.
It would just take one slip-up for him to accidentally use one of his other powers in the heat of the moment, and then people would start asking questions, questions he couldn't afford to answer.
Plus, would it really be right being a hero while not showing most of his powers? What if, one day, he had to choose between saving someone's life and keeping his secret? He knew that he'd choose the innocent life any day of the week, but the split-second delay such a decision would cost could have massive consequences.
The final reason he couldn't go to UA was that he was pretty sure his mum would never allow him to enroll in a hero school, even though he was nigh on invulnerable.
So no, he could never go to UA. But he just couldn't help thinking that this power was given to him for a reason, and that he should be using it to help people, which is why he had subconsciously written down UA as his school of choice.
Meanwhile
A villain had just stolen a woman's purse. "Catch me if you can!" he taunted as he got away. After the villain had left, the people on the scene started a conversation.
One person said, "Someone's bound to show up."
Another person replied, "This guy must've been inspired by the chaos this morning. Lots of people out there who just can't control their Quirks, I guess."
A final person said, "There's no end to them."
None of the people noticed a tall lanky blond man in the background suddenly buff up considerably. The man put a big smile on his face and said to the people, "Yes there is. Why, you ask? Because I am here!"
At the end of the day, Izuku was grabbing his notebook so that he could leave before someone attempted to wrench it out of his grasp, that person being, of course, Bakugo. Izuku was able to avoid Bakugo's outstretched hand and safely put his notebook in his bag before Bakugo declared "We ain't done here, Deku."
Izuku questioned, "What do you want, Bakugo?"
Bakugo said, "You see, the best heroes out there, well, they showed signs of greatness even as students. I'll be the first and only hero from this crappy public middle school, the first to win the honor of becoming a student at UA university! Guess I'm just a perfectionist."
Izuku took time to think of how conceited Bakugo was before Bakugo continued, "In other words… Don't you dare get into UA, nerd!" while reaching out to try and burn Izuku's shoulder.
Izuku however, once again caught Bakugo's wrist, an ominous red glow in his eyes as he said, "It's none of your business whether or not I get into UA. You are not the centre of the universe and you can't control my life!"
Bakugo shivered before blustering, "You'd never be able to pass the exam anyway!" And walking away
Izuku walked home from school while thinking. He knew he shouldn't have blown up at Bakugo like that; it's just there was something about him that really pushed Izuku's buttons.
Izuku was so lost in his thoughts that he nearly didn't hear someone emerging from a sewer drain and trying to attack him as he went through an underpass. Luckily, he was able to react in time to dodge out of the way of his assailant.
He looked up and saw that the person who attacked him was seemingly entirely made of slime. "A medium-sized body for me to hide in, and he has a good Quirk too," Izuku heard the slime say to itself.
Izuku said to the man, "Stay back! I don't want to have to hurt you!"
The villain responded, "You can't hurt me anyway, I'm made of liquid. Don't worry though, I just want to hijack your body. It will only hurt for forty-five seconds, then it will be all over." He lunged at Izuku as he finished speaking and tried to ensnare him with his slimy body.
Izuku was having none of that, however. He took a deep breath and started blowing fast winds towards the villain. The villain couldn't make any headway against Izuku's breath, but he was very persistent. He believed if he could last until Izuku ran out of breath then he would have free reign to take over Izuku's body.
That was not to be, however, as after a few seconds of this stalemate the sewer grate that the villain had come out of was punched out from below and through it came a buff blond man with two long protrusions of hair on top of his head. This was All Might: the Number One Hero and Symbol of Peace.
All Might briefly took in the scene before saying, "Fear not, kid, I am here!" He threw a massive punch while yelling "Texas Smash!" The air pressure of the punch scattering the villain all over the place, somehow not killing him. Izuku himself was fine thanks to his near invulnerability
Instead of looking relieved, as most people would upon seeing All Might, Izuku seemed worried about the man. That was because before All Might appeared, he had scanned underground with his x-ray vision to see who had punched the sewer grate and had seen something unnerving.
All Might saw how uneasy Izuku was and said, "You can relax now, young man; thanks to your help, I have now captured the villain." He held up two drink bottles that he had somehow contained the villain in before continuing. "Sorry I involved you in my villain hunt; mistakes like that aren't my style, but I'm a bit unfamiliar with the area. Plus, today's actually my day off."
"Thank you for saving me, but are you all right?" Izuku asked.
All Might responded, "Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?"
Izuku stated, "It's just I can see through most physical obstacles and I noticed you have a pretty bad wound on the left side of your chest. I thought for a second you might be an imposter, since I've never heard of All Might having a wound that bad, but I decided to give you a chance to explain, since you did save me."
All Might looked shocked before he spat out some blood and some sort of smoke or steam covered him. When the steam cleared, instead of All Might standing in that spot, there was a lanky blond man with sharp, angular features and long limbs. His neck was long and his eyebrows absent. Also, his distinctive tufts of hair were no longer standing upright; instead, they trailed downwards over his face.
Izuku asked, "So, you are a fake?"
All Might said, "I assure you, I am All Might. You know how people try to puff up their chests to impress people at the pool? It's kinda like that." That explanation gave Izuku an interesting mental image, to say the least.
All Might continued, "You've seen the real me, kid, but don't write about that wound you saw on the internet, okay? Five years ago, an enemy did that to me. My respiratory system was nearly destroyed, and my stomach was removed. I've wasted away because of the after effects of those surgeries. I can only do my hero work for about three hours a day now."
Izuku asked, "Five years ago… Was that when you fought Toxic Chainsaw?"
All Might replied, "You've done your research, kid, but no, that punk couldn't do this to me. This was never made public. That is, I asked that it not be made public. A Symbol of Peace that saves people with a smile must never be daunted by evil."
Izuku took that in for a few seconds before gaining a determined glint to his eyes. He said, "Wow, just wow, that's a lot to take in. I originally wanted to ask you a question, but the answer to that question is irrelevant now."
Yes, that was right, the answer to the question was irrelevant. Could he be a hero? Should he be a hero? It didn't matter. If there was someone out there who could do that to All Might, of all people, then the world needed someone as strong as Izuku around to combat that threat.
Izuku declared, "I've decided!"
All Might inquired, "What have you decided young man?"
Izuku responded, "I'm going to be a hero, one even greater than you!"
All Might had to admit to himself that he liked the determination in this kid's eyes. 'Maybe he's the one' he thought before correcting himself. 'No, I don't know that yet, but he's definitely one to watch.' He then said to Izuku, "I look forward to that day, young man. Right now, however, I should probably be getting this ne'er-do-well to the authorities. I'll see you on the flip side, young man!" He turned around, bulked back up and jumped away.
As All Might was jumping away, he realised two things: the first was that he never got the boy's name, and the second was much more important. 'Wait, he said he could see through solid objects, but wasn't he using his breath to blow back the villain?' His face turned grim before he thought, 'I hope I'm wrong about how he got his powers, because if I'm not—' At that thought, All Might's fists clenched
Izuku, unaware of All Might's parting thoughts and with his determination reignited, was walking home, ready for perhaps the greatest challenge on his path to heroism: convincing his mother to let him go to a hero school.