- Chapter 1 -

What was the thing that kept you connected to life from the beginning? It may sound like a silly question, but when you look around, you can see many things that keep you connected to life. Your family, relatives, friends, and many more.

Isn't it fun to live with them?

But if you were in my place, you wouldn't think so. I had a terrible family. My father drank from morning till night and then took his anger out on my mother and me. Every day when I went to school, I had to cover up the bruises with bandages.

My mother also worked to make ends meet, but I was the one who suffered the most under her stress. I never received any love from my family. My father spent all the money on alcohol, so most of my school supplies were missing. The school I went to was not a great place anyway.

It was a place where teenagers who started smoking and drinking too early came to hang out or fight with each other. The teachers were there just to take money. They didn't teach anything.

We had only one teacher who tried to teach us once, and he was a very good person, but his patience only lasted for three months. After that, he resigned and left. It was definitely an unnecessary place for a good teacher like him.

I could never forget his last look when he left. He looked at me and a few other students with pity in his eyes, as if he felt sorry for us for being there, and left. Maybe he was right. I could never put myself in the same category as the others.

They were too stupid for me. I didn't have much to do with cigarettes and alcohol either. These people couldn't even do simple addition or subtraction.

At least I wasn't bullied at school because they were too busy to bully me. They were dealing with their own business in school toilets, dark corners, janitor rooms, or storage rooms. I usually sat in my seat all day and read the manga I barely managed to buy by hiding the money I took from my father.

While reading each one, I couldn't help but think how it would be to live in such a world.

Fighting with knives against giants, working among ninjas, or gathering my own crew and sailing into the sea full of endless pirates, and many more. While creating each universe in my mind, I felt like I was living there and I was happy.

Even though I knew it was all just a dream.

It was just fun to imagine, and it managed to take me away from the life I was living, even for a little bit.

I promised myself that I would read every manga that came my way when I had the chance to leave my family and live comfortably by doing my own thing. I was still hopeful.

Until something shattered my hope.

"You have stage 4 cancer..."

I never expected anything in my life to hit me so hard. When I learned from the doctor that I had only three months left, that tiny speck of hope shattered into pieces.

I already knew that my father would give up on me when he heard about my illness, and I wasn't surprised when it happened. He didn't even want to spend money to find out if I would recover or not.

I never even thought you cared about me. I had hoped that with only three months left, I might receive some love from my family. That was the only thing I wanted before I died.

But no, they acted like nothing had changed. I've given up all my hopes and dreams now. I stole the money my father set aside for alcohol every day and bought myself manga. The last three months of my life were spent stealing money, reading manga, and getting beaten.

At the end of the three months, with a deep sense of bitterness in my heart, I closed my eyes to this life.

--

"Oi! Kacchan! Kurakki! Wait for me!" yelled a curly-haired green-haired child.

"Hah, you'll see me in your dreams, Deku!"

"The Last One Standing Will Freeze in Place!"

Breathless, Izuku looked at the two children running in front of him. Both appeared to be three years old. The one in front had spiky yellow hair, while the one running behind him had long black hair that waved in the wind as he ran.

"But I'm not as fast as you guys..."

Izuku had met these two at the beginning of the year. Their houses were close to each other, and their mothers were friends, which allowed the three children to become friends. Izuku found Kurosaki's warm and friendly attitude, as well as Katsuki's explosive personality, to be very interesting. He was happy to consider them his closest friends.

Right now, they were running towards Kurosaki's house. Kurosaki's mother, Mikoto, was quite skilled and often made shaped ice candies for the three children. Of course, the race was necessary because the first one there got first pick.

Izuku finally pushed himself and managed to get to Kurosaki's house. When he arrived, the two children had already taken their ice candies and were eating them in the garden. Izuku took his ice candy and sat down next to them, feeling heavy and tired.

At that moment, a conversation about All Might was taking place between the two boys.

"Oi! I'm telling you, All Might is the strongest. Even if ten thousand people attacked him, he wouldn't lose!"

"No, I think All Might couldn't fight against ten thousand people. Besides, you know those people attacking him have powers too. If they work together, they could beat All Might."

"Ugh! Accept that All Might is the strongest, or...or I'll kill you! Got it?!"

"Ha, come and try it then! I'll never accept it!"

When Izuku saw the two children wrestling with each other, he couldn't help but roll his eyes. These two were usually like this. There was a wrestling match every day.

Kurosaki was putting forward strange thoughts, and Kacchan was linking them all to All Might.

As he continued to eat his ice candy, he wondered how long this would continue.

That day was a fun day for all three of them...

--