2 Chapter 1

Pain.

Heat.

A single gunshot.

All three experiences plague young Izuku Midorya's mind, rattles his brain, even. He tries to sleep, but the combination of sweat, and migraines prevent him from doing so.

After all, he just lost his mother to a robbery just the other night.

The police tried to crack the thick shell 7 year old Izuku placed. Soon enough, they resigned from their efforts.

Izuku can't stop thinking about the hopeless efforts the police utilized when they found him and his mother, and ended up failing in the end.

When the stoic detective tried to question the boy, all the seven year old could remember is the villain groping his mother, threatening to kill her only child, so the man could have his way with her.

it made Izuku sick.

Izuku thrashed at the man, only to be backhanded and thrown into a trash can.

He heard the screams of his mother, trying her best to be released, but to no avail, absolutely no one showed up to help her, to help him.

Izuku cried, hoping for a chance that All Might, his hero, could swoop in and save the day.

There was no All Might. There was no saving his mother. There were no heroes that night.

He remembers the villain's laughter, knowing he got his way.

Izuku regretted not doing anything but crying.

His mother paid the ultimate price for her son's safety, for his life.

Izuku swore that he would become a hero.

To be a hero for all the other boys and girls who are taken away by villains.

To be a hero so parents aren't separated from their babies.

So no woman or man could be taken advantaged of.

Ever.

Izuku's pain didn't just stop at his mother's death. He was left at an orphanage, having no other relatives to claim a quirkless child as their own.

Izuku experienced first hand what discrimination looked like.

The other children with quirks of their own avoided him like he had leprosy. They all called him names. They all threw things at him. They pointed, they laughed, they got physical.

He had no heroes to save the day then.

The adults were just as bad.

Looks of pity were a given whenever he walked in the courtyard. The hushed whispers plagued him. He hated it. He despised it.

The courtyard he was in wasn't fancy by any means. it wasn't a big area, nor was it so small that groups of children couldn't fit. The courtyard was filled with grass, flowers, weeds. Izuku assumed this had to do with someone who had a quirk that altered foliage. The tables and benched sprawled around were wooden, but had a homey feel to them. it was like going to a local park.

While the children played, the boy sat under the safe feeling of a tree, writing in his notebookz content with his lonesome.

While he had no quirk, he did enjoy thinking and fantasizing about other quirks.

He secretly knew the weaknesses and strengths of ever child he encountered in the orphanage. He knew what made them tick, what made them scared, and what made them vulnerable.

They just didn't know it.

"Do you know why you're here, Quirkless?"

The green haired boy flinched under the stoic gaze of his handler, the owner of the orphanage.

He had just come back from his room, wrapping gauze around the cuts and scratches his fellow mates had "gifted him". One particular patch of gauze was seeping with blood.

Izuku knew, by heart, that any action against the children with quirks were to be punished. Izuku knew that their advantage was that they had power, whilst he had none. The other children made sure he knew.

"Y-yes." He cursed himself for his nerves. He had been in the same chair he was currently in at least 20 times now, mostly for accusations against him.

The handler looked down at him, a scowl spreading across her aging face. the handler ran a hand through her greying hair, amusement long abandoned her hardened gaze. "And what god forsaken reason of an excuse do you have now, quirkless?"

it was no secret that this lady hated the quirkless. in her eyes, their backbones as existent as their kind, only 20% of the population was quirkless, dwindling even now, to lesser numbers. She hated everything weak. Her pride came at the fact that her feedback with the children was that she raided "only the best behaved, most powerful, and most intelligent children that were to be adopted.

She especially hated the child in front of her.

For the life of her, she just could not get rid of him, at least until today.

She hated his pathetic mumbling, his curious sparkles his eyes gave off, his weak form, and his unbearable nervousness. She expected him to be strong, but it wasn't often that drops of tarnished water spilled from the cracks.

Before Izuku could continue to justify his actions, his handler cut him off.

"Broken limbs, burnt clothing, bruises, black eyes, and loose teeth. All on the other children?" Izuku looked down, his eyes not daring to match hers.

"Quirkless, you do know the saying, correct?" Her gaze hardened more now, if possible.

In contrast to the hardening of his handler's gaze, Izuku shrunk in his chair even more so, scared of what the lady in front of him would do.

"Then speak it."

He squeaked, his tone quiet. "The quirkless have no place in the world. They don't belong with the beauty of those with quirks". Izuku managed to get it all out without stuttering. He hated this. He just wanted her to leave him alone. He just wanted one day without her or the other children scarring him mentally and physically. He needed out.

She was going to grant him his wish.

"Very well, quirkless." Her tone was a whip, and he was the cowarding lion. "You are to pack your bags, and bring everything you have to the front door. You're leaving us, today. no weak willed child will ever have a place in the world, not even in this orphanage, where you mother dumped" He flinched at her harsh words, but at the same time his body brought to attention. Was he really leaving this place? Maybe to a family?

"Did I stutter? Go, now! you have twenty minutes. do I need to lessen it?" Her tone was sharp, and void of mercy.

Izuku did not need to be told twice.

The boy sighed. Of course he would have been kicked out with nowhere to go. Not even five minutes passed when the other children started messing with his things.

He was promptly thrown out when the children pretended he was attacking them.

He ran a hand through his hair. Determination in his eyes. through the three years he was at the orphanage, he had secretly studied several martial arts through books he had collected. He even found some old comic books, about a quirkless man who went toe to toe with the strongest man of their earth, using nothing but his mind and wit. He became obsessed with the vigilance of the quirkless man, even if he was fictional.

This misfortune actually spearheaded the story you are about to read.

This story is about a boy who, against uneven odds, became the best respected vigilante turned hero.

His name?

Izuku Midorya.

Quirkless.