The First Steps of the Future Number One

The 8 year old Chris began to cry as the bullies tormented him. This had been a daily routine for almost a month. Every day after school, the 4th graders would beat up the 3rd graders for any number of reasons. Chris was simply the most recent victim in the vicious cycle. But today was different. Another kid ran up and tackled the ring leader. Chris could not remember much of what had happened, but the 4th graders had run off, shouting obscenities. The small kid who had run up was fighting back tears as he shouted back at them. "You better run!" He sniffled before looking back at Chris and offering a hand. "Are you alright?" Chris could not answer as he took his new friend's hand. His pain had subsided by now. "...T...Th...Thank you…" The new kid smiled. "I'm Jason. You're Chris, from the other class, right?" Chris nodded. "Why were those kids bullying you?" "...I want to be a hero…" "Really? So do I!" Chris began to tear up. "...I'm quirkless…" "So?" *Chris looked up with slight surprise at his newfound friend. Jason, with dirt and bruises covering his face, gave a big smile. "I'm quirkless too! But guess what?! I'm still going to become the number one hero!" Chris couldn't help but smile at his new best friend and his new rival.

The two promising young kids were now very bored seniors on their very last week of school. Jason had his feet up, humming to himself as he stared up at the clock. Chris looked down at his notes on the countless heroes around the United States. The door was suddenly kicked open by a very angry blonde. Most of the class cowered as he and his posse strolled it. Jason leaned his head back to look at him and groaned. "This joker again?" Katsuki Bakugou took his seat at the back of the class. Jason and Chris did their best to ignore the school's infamous bully. However, as the two students have learned over the last decade, trouble always finds them. Katsuki stood up and approached Chris from behind. "UA isn't exactly big on nerds, nerd. Especially if the nerd is quirkless." "They also don't take a liking to bullies with a limited vocabulary." Katsuki's attention was quickly shifted to Jason, who had absolutely no problem with confrontation. The blonde bully stood over Jason. "Picking a fight, you little shit? You wanna go right now?" Jason sighed as he stood up out of his chair. "You wanna do this again? I think I hit you so hard that you forgot how this went down last time we tussled." Chris noticed Katsuki's hesitation. The situation might've dissolved by itself if Katsuki's posse didn't butt in. "You going to take that shit man?" "Oh damn, Katsuki's scared of him." The blonde had heard enough, igniting his hands. "You are a quirkless nobody!" Katsuki lunged forward, going for Jason's face. Without any hesitation, Jason stepped back and slapped the blonde's hand. The hit only fed into Katsuki's momentum, resulting in the explosion backfiring on Katsuki. He screamed, holding his face. The entire class was in awe. Jason smirked, crouching down next to him. "And you're the guy who got his ass kicked by a quirkless nobody." Teachers rushed in and saw the all too familiar situation. Jason stood up and put his hands up in surrender.

The principal looked at Jason and Katsuki. "...You two have never gotten along in the four years you have been here…" Jason shrugged. Katsuki ignored the school official. The old man sighed. "Jason, the reports indicate that, as usual, you acted in self defense. You are free to go. As for you, Mr. Bakugou, this is the fifth time this year you've used your quirk to cause mayhem and attack another student. As such, I must suspend you. Again." The blonde snapped his head to the principal. "...S...suspended…? But… but if I get suspended again, I won't qualify for UA!" The principal gave a sad nod. Jason slowly turned to Bakugou. The bully was tearing up. He stormed out of the school, not to be seen again for some time.

The two young men began the walk to Chris's residence, where he lived with his single mother. "...Well... we now have one less person to compete with at the test…" Jason sighed. "He was a dick, but even I don't think ruining his life dream was an acceptable punishment." They took a short detour through a nearby alley. "I don't know about you, but I'm hungry for some- All Might?" "All Might? Well, the restaurant is a little pricey, but we could-" Jason tackled Chris to the side as the alley shook, dust being flung everywhere. They looked to the source and saw All Might standing up from a superhero landing. Chris nodded his head, now understanding. "Ah… All Might. Wait, All Might?" The boys stood up as they gazed upon the Number One hero in the country. All Might began violently coughing up blood before exploding into white mist. What was left was a skeleton of a man with weird blonde hair. Both boys were frozen in shock. The man looked over at them and was also surprised. "...oh… hello there…" "...All Might…?" "...So you saw…" They nodded. "...Great… what are your names…?" "Jason." "...Chris…" "Nice to meet you two… Well, I need you two to keep this a secret. If villains find out about this, the crime rate will skyrocket back up." Jason addressed the elephant in the room. "All Might, what happened to you?" "...In for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose…" All Might sat on the ground, leaning against the building. "...It was a few years ago… I had gotten in a really nasty battle…" He raised his shirt just enough to expose the horrible scar on the left side of his body. "The battle left me with a damaged stomach, and half of my respiratory organs were destroyed. Basically, I can only do hero work for a few hours a day." Chris put a hand over his mouth in a failed attempt to hide the shock. Jason grimaced. "...Guess it's part of the job…" All Might started to stand up, but Jason spoke up. "Hey, All Might. Settle a bet, would you?" "Hm?" "Is it possible to become a hero without a quirk?" All Might looked down at the pavement, deep in thought. He then looked up at Jason to give his answer. "No. There are too many strong villains out there who will not hesitate to kill you. If you want to help, become a police officer. They get made fun of for just arresting villains, but it's a good profession. Stay away from hero work if you're quirkless." Chris looked down at the ground, having just had his hero tell him to stop chasing his dream. However, Jason smiled. "Then I guess you are just another person I'm going to prove wrong." All Might tilted his head. Jason spoke proudly with a fire in his eyes. "I'm quirkless, but I'm still going to become the number one hero! You just wait and see!"

All Might left shortly after that. The two kids kept walking. Jason stopped. "Ah shit, I think I left my backpack in the alley." "...Dude, how do you forget your backpack?" "Well, I'm a bit forgetful and we ran into fucking All Might." "Fair enough. I'll wait here." Jason ran back to go find his property. Chris waited patiently. In that short amount of time, he heard muffled screaming. It was close. He peeked around the corner to see three men pinning what appeared to be another high schooler to the brick wall. "You're telling me that you don't have any money on you?" "I already spent it!" "I think you're a fucking liar!" Their ring leader bared his overly long fangs at the freshman. "You start coughing up money now." "No! No, please!" Before Chris could think, he was there, shoving the vampire wannabe away. One of the cronies raised a baseball bat up. "Bad move, kid!" Chris felt fear grip him as he saw the bat come his way. Then, all of a sudden, a decade of Jason's fighting advice flooded his mind: duck and disarm. Chris dropped down, dodging the swing. Then he grabbed the man's wrist, stopping his ability to swing the bat again. The thug was very confused. "What the actual he-" Chris grabbed his neck and slammed his head into the nearby wall. He lacked the strength to actually knock him out, but the man was out of the fight. The other crony pulled out a switchblade. "You just sealed your fate, dumbass!" The stab forward was almost in slow motion. Chris could see that the man had put his weight into it. Pull. Chris grabbed the man's wrist and used the guy's momentum to throw him into the other wall. A crack was heard. Chris looked down at the man and saw him holding a now broken wrist. He looked back at the ringleader, who had gotten up now. "You think you're a hero?" Chris just raised his arms defensively. The man lunged forward with the intention of biting. No amount of quick after school lessons had prepared him for this. So he improvised. He delivered a powerful uppercut, forcing the jaw closed. The man fell, but was quick to his feet. He held his jaw. "Not bad." The man pulled out a gun. Chris was frozen. He couldn't move fast enough to close the distance between them. He couldn't stop the bullet. All he could do was wait. The man smiled, but then a shadow came over everyone in the alley. The thug looked up and received a powerful punch to the jaw as All Might landed. "Villainy beware! For I am here!" Chris breathed a sigh of relief before checking up on the terrified freshman. Jason rushed around the corner, looking for a fight. His jaw dropped at the scene before him. "...shit…" Civilians began flooding the very cramped area. "It's All Might!" "He saved those kids!" "He's the best hero ever!" All Might hid the blood lining the corner of his mouth and raised his fist triumphantly.

"You're an idiot." Chris turned his head to look at his best friend. "I'm an idiot? That kid needed help!" Jason stopped walking and turned to him. "It was three on one and they had weapons!" "Well, would you have run away?! "Of course not! But the difference is that I've been training for years! You only have the little bits of lessons I give you when you ask for them!" Chris looked away. "...I just wanted to help…" Jason sighed. "...I'm still proud of you, though. Beating two of them and forcing the third to pull a gun out? Holy hell dude. You're a real threat. Maybe I should-" All Might burst out from the nearby alley. "I am-" All Might coughed up blood and immediately lost his buff form. Jason lowered his arms, which had instinctively been brought up in a fighting stance. "...bloody hell, All Might… don't jump out at us like that…" He smiled. "...Sorry…" He stood up straight. "You, Chris, right?" Jason took a step back to get out of their line of sight of each other. "I saw you fight. You ran in without any hesitation to save that kid. Why?" Chris looked down. "...I… I don't know… I just… my legs started moving before I could think… by the time I started thinking, I was already in the fight… I only wanted to help him…" All Might smiled. "...You two are about to learn another secret about me. I used to be quirkless." Both senior students perked up at the revelation. Jason blinked. "I'm sorry, run that by me again." "Yea, I could've sworn you said you're quirkless." "I was. But I was given a quirk by my former teacher: a quirk that allows you to pass it on to another, and grows stronger each time. It's called One for All, and it bestows the wielder with great power. I've been searching the country for quite some time, searching for a successor. I'm even attending UA as a teacher in an attempt to find a successor. But I think I found him." Jason froze before smiling and turning to his best friend. Chris was nearly in tears. "...You… you mean…" All Might pointed to Chris.

"...kid… you too… can become a hero…"