Heroes Never Die by AboveTail ( MHA )

Chapter 1: All He Needs to Know

If asked to sum up the enigma that was Midoriya Izuku, his peers at Aldera Middle School would fail to reach a consensus, but there would certainly be a few frontrunners. "Quirkless weirdo" and "delusional wannabe" were favorites; "fearless basket case", and "weirdly intimidating" were also common. Midoriya himself simply shrugged these labels off—the circumstances of his life had long since conditioned him to ignore the mockery of others as inconsequential. He had been through much worse than some unkind words.

It was this lack of regard for the inevitable jeers of his classmates that allowed him to shamelessly raise his hand when his teacher asked them who planned on aiming for a hero course.

"Don't compare me to the rest of these losers, sensei!" The rough voice of a boy with a shock of spiky white hair and perpetually angry red eyes rose above the clamor of the class.

"Ah yes, Bakugo." The teacher identified the speaker, ignoring the rest of the class' irritated grumbling at the casual manner in which they had just been insulted. "You plan to go to Yuuei, don't you?"

At the mention of the highly prestigious school, the class broke into grudgingly impressed murmurs, and Midoriya couldn't help but let out a quiet snort of amusement when Bakugo took this as an invitation to jump up onto his desk in a fit of unbridled ego, singing his own praises.

Midoriya had no desire to waste his time indulging Bakugo's braggadocio, so he pulled a well-used composition notebook out from his desk and flipped through its pages, refreshing himself on the notes he had taken that morning.

"By the way," the teacher said, "I believe Midoriya is also planning on attending Yuuei."

"Hm?" Midoriya looked up from his notes at the sound of his name. "What's that now?" He looked around at the suddenly dead silent class, and the comically frozen expression on Bakugo's face. "What?"

A few members of the class broke into mocking laughter. Others muttered and exchanged significant looks. Bakugo was less sanguine in his reaction.

It was only by virtue of hard-earned experience that Midoriya didn't jump when Bakugo slammed his hand onto Midoriya's desk with an ear-ringing ~bang~, and scorched its wooden surface with his quirk.

"Forget the rest of these losers and their shitty quirks!" Bakugo shouted in Midoriya's face, "You don't even have a quirk! And you're saying that you think you can hang with me! You don't have what it takes to compete with the best of the best! You'd die in the exams!"

Midoriya wrinkled his nose and waved the smoke from the explosion out of his face. "Pretty sure that damaging school property is against the rules." He said mildly, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping the soot off of his desk, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't do that again, Kacchan."

Bakugo's eye twitched. He didn't understand the way his former friend's mind worked. No matter how many times he beat his ass or made his life a living hell, the utter lack of concern Midoriya showed towards Bakugo's attempts to intimidate him or assert his dominance drove him crazy.

"This shit again…" Bakugo growled. He grabbed Midoriya by the lapel and lifted him out of his chair with one hand. "Your holier-than-thou attitude really pisses me off, Deku! You think you're better than me? You're not! You're just a sniveling little quirkless runt with delusions of grandeur!"

Midoriya let out a long-suffering sigh. "So you say, but I'm not the one throwing a temper tantrum right now, am I?" The class let out a collective hiss at the verbal retort.

"What the fuck did you just say to me, shitstain?"

Midoriya shook his head, "Just stop Kacchan, you're embarrassing yourself."

Bakugo's face purpled. He clenched his fists until the knuckles turned white. "You little…"

Better late than never, the teacher decided to step in by extending his hand and physically separating the two boys. "That's enough, you two. I won't have any fighting in my class, understand?"

Bakugo dropped Midoriya with a scowl. "Yeah, yeah. I got it." He glared at Midoriya. "This isn't over, Deku."

Unfazed, Midoriya smoothed the wrinkles out of his uniform. "I would be shocked if it were."

Once class had ended, Midoriya was lost in thought as he prepared to go home for the day. When he picked up his notebook to put it away, it was unceremoniously ripped from his hands. He suppressed the urge to groan. "Please give that back, Kacchan." He asked, reaching for the notebook.

Posse in tow, Bakugo jerked the notebook away from Midoriya's attempt to snatch it back, and loomed over the smaller boy. After sparing a contemptuous glance at the title of the composition notebook, Hero Analysis for the Future: Vol. 13, he carelessly flipped through the pages before pausing at a surprisingly detailed sketch of Bakugo and a thorough breakdown of his quirk and favored moves.

Bakugo's lip curled up into a sneer. "Still stalking me? You fucking make me sick, Deku."

"I'll make sure to note that in your file." Midoriya replied evenly. He extended his hand. "My notebook, please."

With a scowl, Bakugo slapped his palm onto the notebook, marring it with a mini-explosion before he tossed it out the window. "Go get it yourself, loser."

"That was uncalled for." Midoriya frowned, staring out the window. He turned his gaze back to Bakugo, "What is it you want from me, Kacchan?"

"Don't even think about applying to Yuuei, Deku." Bakugo growled.

"I don't see how my choice of school is any of your business, Kacchan." Midoriya replied, moving to push past Bakugo and retrieve his notebook. "Now, if you don't have anything else to say, I'm going home."

With a snarl, Bakugo gave Midoriya a hard shove and sent him stumbling into a wall. "Don't you fucking brush me off!" He warned, "It is my business! I want the shine of being the first and only student from this shit school to go to Yuuei, and I won't let your quirkless ass try and ruin that for me!" Bakugo grabbed Midoriya by the shoulder and smoke rose from between his fingers. "Don't apply, or else."

"Or else what?" Midoriya asked, his tone daring Bakugo to act.

Bakugo's eyes narrowed. "I'll ki—"

"You'll kill me?" Midoriya interrupted. "Is that what you were going to say?"

"Shut up!" Bakugo growled, irritated at being called out.

"You'll have to, if you want to stop me." Midoriya paused. "Are you prepared to go that far, Kacchan?"

"Don't—" Bakugo angrily spat before the words dried up and died in his throat. Something about the look in Midoriya's eyes sent an involuntary shiver down his spine. Those eyes were completely free of hesitancy, fear, or compromise. They were the eyes of a true believer.

'He fucking means it.' Bakugo realized—he would never admit it, but the sheer level of conviction possessed by Midoriya intimidated even him. It was a big part of why he hated him. 'I think…I think I really would have to kill him.'

"That's what I thought." Midoriya scoffed before knocking away the hand gripping his shoulder without resistance. After gathering his things, Midoriya walked to the door of the classroom and stopped at the threshold. "We aren't little kids any more Kacchan…get over yourself."

Temper flaring at the barb, Bakugo whirled towards Midoriya with mini-sparks popping in his palms, but the smaller boy was already gone.

"SHIT!" Bakugo cursed. He slammed his hands onto the nearest desk hard enough that the sound of the impact was deafening in the empty classroom. "Who does that cocky little fucker think he is?"

His friends exchanged bemused glances. "I don't see why you keep bothering with him, Kacchan." The taller of the two said, "Everybody knows that he's got some screws loose. Let's go hit the arcade to blow off some steam."

Bakugo let out a huff. "…Fine."

(10 years earlier)

"He has a what?" Midoriya Inko asked the pediatrician. Unlike the other children in his age group, Izuku had yet to manifest a quirk and she was concerned that something might be wrong. To make matters worse, Izuku had been suffering from some sort of mental breakdown. She often found him sobbing inconsolably or staring into space for long periods of time. Whenever Inko asked her son what was wrong, he would simply gaze at her with a haunted expression, repeating the same phrase over and over again.

"Mommy, please make it stop."

"A aberrant quirk." Dr. Tsubasa patiently explained. "It's pretty rare, but it happens on occasion. Normally, people either inherit one of their parent's quirks, or some combination of the two. The fact that Izuku hasn't displayed any signs of you or your husband's quirks made me initially suspect he was quirkless, like roughly 20% of the population." He tapped on the screen displaying an X-Ray of Izuku's tiny foot. "However, as you can see here, Izuku lacks the extra joint typical of a quirkless person, so that possibility has been ruled out. That's why I believe his quirk may be something entirely different from…" Dr. Tsubasa paused to check his notes, "telekinesis or fire breathing."

This broke Izuku out of his near catatonic trance. "Does that mean I can still be a hero, like All Might?" He asked in a small, hopeful voice.

Dr. Tsubasa smiled kindly and ruffled Midoriya's hair, "Depending on the nature of your quirk, I don't see why not." He scribbled something down onto a pad of paper and handed it to Inko. "This is the name of an excellent Quirk specialist who deals with cases like this. With her help, you should be able to find out the nature of Izuku's quirk in no time."

Inko sighed with relief. It wasn't exactly the answer she had been looking for, but it was a start. "Thank you so much Dr. Tsubasa, this is a huge load off of our minds."

"Think nothing of it. I can't wait to hear what our future number one hero's quirk turns out to be."

(Present Day)

'Quirkless, huh?' Midoriya mused as he walked underneath a bridge on his way home; thinking of the most common insult hurled his way by Bakugo. It had been years since he had bothered to correct anyone about that misconception. 'Sometimes I wish that were the case.'

Despite nearly a year of poking and prodding by specialists and quirk counselors, neither the effects nor the true nature of Midoriya's quirk were ever officially discovered. Officially, Midoriya Izuku's quirk was registered as "Unknown", a designation that had caused people to erroneously write him off as essentially quirkless his entire life. Unofficially, Midoriya thought the so-called experts were idiots. While the true nature of his quirk still eluded him, he understood its effects all too well; the only problem was they were impossible to prove. Officially, that is.

Midoriya shook his head. There was no point in dwelling on it. He continued to hold his notebook at arms length, shaking it in an attempt to speed up the process of drying it out after he found it in the Koi pond at the school. He flipped through the pages. The ink had only slightly run, so it was still legible if you squinted.

'You know, even after being blown up and soaked, it's in surprisingly good shape.' Midoriya smiled sarcastically. 'Today must be my lucky day.' Almost as soon as this thought passed through his mind, Midoriya was assaulted by the rancid odor of sewage behind him.

"Ugh," he wrinkled his nose, "did a septic line get backed up or something?" He felt something slimy touch his ankle and he spun around to see a massive pile of sentient sludge staring at him.

"Look at what we got here," it burbled, "a perfect skin suit!"

"...Nope." Midoriya said, and immediately turned to run. He didn't get far before he was enveloped by the sludge and dragged back over.

The sludge grinned. "Sorry kid," It said, "But I didn't expect that guy to be here in town. I'm going to need to borrow your body for a while." Midoriya gagged as a tendril of sludge forced its way into his mouth and down his throat. "I promise it will only hurt for a second!"

Midoriya clawed at the viscous material of the villain's body, but couldn't get a hand on it. Unable to breathe, he felt his vision fading as his oxygen-starved brain began to shut down.

"TEXAS SMASH!"

Just before his consciousness slipped away entirely, Midoriya heard a very familiar phrase, shouted out in a deep and booming voice that he had heard thousands of times before. 'That sounds like…'

The world went black.

HEROES NEVER DIE

~Slap slap slap slap slap~

The first thing Midoriya noticed when he came to was that his mouth tasted like straight-up garbage. Also, there was something lightly hitting his face, and he wished it would stop.

"Young man, young man!"

"Ungh." Midoriya moaned before opening his eyes. "I'm alive? What happen—All Might!" He exclaimed, composure completely shattered at the sight of the smiling visage of his idol, standing close enough for him to reach out and touch.

All Might let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness!" He exclaimed, "I thought we lost you there for a second!" He let out a boisterous laugh, "I didn't mean for you to get caught up in my justice-ing!" He held up two soda bottles crammed full of the sludge from before. "No need to worry now!"

Ever the fanboy, Midoriya scrambled to find something to write on, and snatched his now perfectly dry notebook off of the ground. "Can I please get your autograph?" He flipped it open to see All Might's signature already blazoned across two whole pages. "You already gave it to me?" He shrieked, before bowing deeply, "Thank you so much!"

"You're very welcome!" All Might said with a laugh. "Now I must be off! I have to get this villain to the police!"

"N-now! Can't you stay a moment?" Midoriya pled, "I still have so many questions!"

"No!" All Might insisted, "Justice cannot wait! I appreciate all of your support!"

"But I just—" Before Midoriya could finish his sentence, the number one hero was gone, sailing through the air with incredible speed while Midoriya stared on with an extended hand and his jaw hanging down. "I just want to know if I can be like you someday."

Midoriya let out a sigh. It figured that when he finally got to meet his idol, he would leave before he could ask him the questions that had been haunting him for years. He stuffed his signed notebook into his backpack and trudged through the streets, downcast. He wanted to give himself some time to reset his emotions before going home, so he decided to circle the block a few times to clear his head.

He had just completed his third lap when he was snapped out of his depression by the sight of a small boy chasing a ball into the road, completely oblivious to the grey car approaching him far too quickly to stop in time.

Midoriya's legs moved on their own. They propelled him into the street, where he pushed the child out of danger. For a brief moment, he was relieved, then his brain caught up—and he realized he was now directly in the path of the car instead of the child.

'Oh shi—'

~Screeeeeeeeech! Kathumpthumpthump~

The world went black.

HEROES NEVER DIE

~Slap slap slap slap slap~

Midoriya tasted garbage, and something was lightly hitting his face.

'This really isn't my day, is it?'

"Young man, young man!"

"Ungh." Midoriya moaned before opening his eyes. "Wha…All Might?"

Midoriya blinked in confusion. 'Did he save me again?' He took a look around. He saw his notebook lying on the ground nearby. Further behind him was the bridge where the sludge villain had attacked him. His encounter with the car had been several blocks further down the road. His heart dropped into his stomach. 'Oh no…not again.'

All Might let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness!" He exclaimed, "I thought we lost you there for a second!" He let out a boisterous laugh, "I didn't mean for you to get caught up in my justice-ing!" He held up two soda bottles crammed full of the sludge from before. "No need to worry now!"

Midoriya groaned. "I'm so sick of this." He muttered, shaking his head; "I wonder how many times I'm going to end up doing this before I get it right?"

"Er…are you alright young man?" All Might asked, nonplussed at the nonsensical muttering and strangely subdued reaction from the boy he had just saved. He was worried that he had been hurt worse than it appeared, and he didn't exactly have time to hang around for an ambulance. "Did you hit your head? Do you know where you are?"

He knew the boy was a fan from reading the notebook that he found lying nearby. The title had caught his eye and so he had flipped through it out of curiosity while he waited for the kid to wake. He had even chuckled when he found the design for a hero costume based on All Might's own. "Young man?"

"Hmm. Yes, yes, I'm fine." Midoriya answered, appearing distracted as he stared off into space, frowning while his mind worked at a million miles per hour.

'I really want to ask him more questions, but…' The image of a car speeding towards an oblivious child flashed in his head. 'No, I need to go.'

"Well then, if you're sure…" All Might hesitantly replied, "I really must go, but please go and get yourself looked at by a doctor. One can never be too careful when it comes to villainy!"

"Mmhm." Midoriya said, absently. "Thank you once again." He paused only for a moment to watch All Might bound away once more. His gaze hardened and he broke into a jog.

Five minutes later, Midoriya stood on a familiar street corner. His sharp, watchful gaze drew strange looks from passing bystanders, but he paid them no mind. He couldn't remember exactly when the incident occurred, so he had to be patient and vigilant. It came as a relief when he finally heard the sound of rubber bouncing on pavement. Midoriya scooped up the runaway ball and handed it to the boy, waving off the thanks of a woman with similar facial features as the boy.

"Listen to your mom. Don't go chasing your ball into the street, okay?" Midoriya told the boy with a smile, ruffling his hair before startling at an unexpected noise.

~POW! Screeeeeeeeeeeech!~

'What?' Midoriya twisted his head to look towards the direction of the sound. His eyes widened at the sight of a familiar grey car, rolling towards him at high speed after suffering a blowout. Acting on instinct, he shoved the woman and the child out of the way of the mass of metal hurtling towards them.

There was a loud crunch, and then the world went black.

HEROES NEVER DIE

~Slap slap slap slap slap~

"Young man, young man!"

"Ungh." Midoriya moaned, gagging on the taste of garbage. He opened his eyes, taking a moment to glance around at his surroundings, and sure enough, there was All Might, his notebook, and the bridge. He was back again.

'Damn it.'

All Might let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness!" He exclaimed, "I thought we lost you there for a second!" He let out a boisterous laugh, "I didn't mean for you to get caught up in my justice-ing!" He held up two soda bottles crammed full of the sludge from before. "No need to worry now!"

Ignoring All Might, Midoriya rubbed his chin and began to mutter under his breath. ''Okay, so my starting point is here, and saving the kid only changed the circumstances that sent me back. This probably means that whatever it is I need to do to move on probably has to do with All Might." Midoriya paused. "Oh my god, I'm tied to All Might!" A goofy grin appeared on Midoriya face for a second before he shook his head, "No, I need to focus. I'll start by asking him a few questions."

"Er…are you alright young man?" All Might asked, visibly disturbed by the nonsensical muttering. "Did you hit your head? Do you know where you are?"

"Yeah, sorry." Midoriya replied sheepishly. He simply couldn't seem to kick the habit of thinking out loud, no matter how hard he tried. "Just ignore everything I said, sometimes I get wrapped up in my thoughts like that." He bowed. "Thank you for saving me."

All Might let out a laugh. "Think nothing of it, my boy! I must be off now. This villain won't deliver itself to the police, after all!"

"Please wait just a moment." Midoriya said. "I've got questions that I need to—"

"No!" All Might firmly denied, "Justice cannot wait!"

"It will really only just take a moment!"

All Might ignored Midoriya and crouched in preparation to leap away. "I appreciate all of your support! Farewell!"

'Damn it, he won't listen! If I don't do anything, it will just end up the same pattern all over again.'

In a panic born of desperation, Midoriya dashed forward and grabbed hold of All Might's pant leg just in time to be jerked into the air with enough force that he very nearly lost his grip. After adjusting his grip, Midoriya looked down and immediately regretted it. They were very high in the air.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" All Might exclaimed, pushing at Midoriya as they flew through the air, "I realize that you're a fan, but this is too much! Let go!"

Midoriya clung on even tighter, "If I let go now, I'll die!" He shouted over the wind. 'Though it wouldn't be the first time.' He wryly noted.

All Might stopped trying to pry Midoriya from his leg. "Ah," he said, suddenly remembering that most people couldn't survive a fall from several dozen meters in the air. "I suppose you have a point there. Hold on tight and close your eyes and mouth."

As he looked for a nearby rooftop to land on, All Might coughed into his hand and winced at the sight of blood. 'Shit…this is bad.'

Once they had landed, Midoriya had to take a few moments to calm the furious pounding of his heart.

"Okay, wow." Midoriya slapped his cheeks and ran his hands through his hair while taking several deep breaths, "That was actually scary, even for me." He paused. "I kinda want to do it again."

"That was incredibly reckless!" All Might chastised Midoriya. "You're lucky you weren't killed! Now, I must go!"

"Wait!" Midoriya cried. 'If that didn't kill me, I must have done something right! I have to keep pushing!'

"I cannot wait!" All Might turned to leave.

'I have to say something, anything!'

"Can someone without a quirk become a hero like you?" Midoriya shouted, voice tinged with honest desperation.

That made All Might pause mid-step. He looked back at Midoriya. "…Without a quirk?"

Midoriya nodded. 'Well, technically I have one, but I can't use it for hero work, or anything really. I don't even know how it works.'

Of course, Midoriya didn't say any of that. All Might wouldn't believe him. Nobody ever believed him. Who would believe that he occasionally got trapped in time loops that endlessly killed him until he correctly performed an unknown task? He barely believed it himself, and he was the one it was happening to.

"Supposedly I have one…" Midoriya admitted, "but my quirk never manifested, so people have always picked on me..." he paused, "well, that might not be the only reason…but maybe that's why I think that saving people is the coolest thing that someone can do." Midoriya smiled sadly. "The way you save others with a fearless smile, that's the kind of hero I want to—WAAAAAGH!"

For the second time that day, Midoriya's normally unflappable composure was utterly shattered when All Might disappeared into a cloud of smoke with a ~poof~. When the smoke cleared, standing where All Might had been just a moment ago was a sickly looking man so frail and emaciated that he looked more like a skeleton than a living person.

"Wha—who are…where's All Might?" Midoriya stammered.

The man pointed to himself. "I'm All Migleeegh!" His words were interrupted by an eruption of blood from his mouth.

"No way!"

Midoriya was silent as the emaciated All Might told him his story. He told him about a secret battle with a villain six years prior, and revealed the grievous injury he had suffered during the fight, as well as his new physical limitations. Then, he explained the reasons why he worked so hard to keep it all a secret.

"A symbol of peace must never be daunted by evil." He told Midoriya, "You said that I save people with a fearless smile…well, the reason I smile is to hide the pressure and the fear that I battle with constantly. Even when they possess powerful quirks, heroes must always be willing to risk their lives. You ask me if someone can become a hero without a quirk?" All Might shook his head. "No, I can't say that you can."

Midoriya was utterly silent as he took in this answer.

All Might pulled himself to his feet with a grunt. "If you want to help people, you can always become a police officer. People might look down on it, but it's an honorable career. It's good to dream, young man…just try to be realistic."

At this, Midoriya let out an involuntary bark of laughter. It was an angry, bitter sound that was utterly bereft of joy or any other positive emotion. He had no idea how else to react to the sheer level of irony in All Might's admonition.

"Heroes have to be willing to risk to risk their lives, huh?" Midoriya repeated, "Be realistic? That's rich."

"What?" All Might turned and flinched, taken aback at the burning conviction, the utter certainty that he saw in the eyes of the 'quirkless' kid he had so thoroughly rebuked. He had a sensation not unlike an electric charge run up and down his spine and the hairs on his neck stood on end.

"You think that this is the first time someone has told me something like this?" Midoriya shook his head. "You wouldn't understand, but my life is always on the line, whether I like it or not." He walked forward, pushing past the emaciated hero and began to make his way down the stairs. He stopped and turned his head to stare down All Might one last time. "And I'm going to be a hero, whether you like it or not."

All Might opened his mouth, and then closed it, saying nothing. 'That kid… Midoriya Izuku.' He recalled, thinking of the name on the notebook he flipped through earlier. 'Judging from those notes, he has clearly got a keen analytical mind, and for being so small, he has an unusual amount of presence…an uncanny natural charisma. If he had the power to back it up…'

All Might shook his head, banishing the thought. "What am I doing? I need to get this guy to the police!" He patted his pockets. "Eh?" In a panic, he patted them again, and his face paled. The bottles were gone. 'I must have dropped them during the flight over here!' All Might heard a boom in the distance, so he rushed to the nearest window and saw a plume of smoke rising several blocks away. 'Oh no…'

HEROES NEVER DIE

Once he had safely left All Might's line of sight, Midoriya let go of the tight emotional control that had been holding him together. Tears welled in his eyes and his chest constricted with frustration and sorrow. Having his dreams and goals spat on by a bunch of jerk teenagers was one thing; hearing the same thing from the one man he admired most pierced straight through his emotional armor. It wounded him deeply.

Midoriya didn't know whether he was angry, or sad, or some mixture of the two. All he knew was that it hurt. 'I don't know why I thought he would be different…Damn it. Damn it! Damn it!'

Distracted by the whirlwind of thoughts and feelings surging through him as he wandered the streets, Midoriya barely noticed when he plowed straight into a small child, knocking them over and skinning their knee. Mortified, he immediately began to apologize.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so—" His eyes widened—it was the boy from before, the one with the ball. "Sorry." He glanced around—he hadn't even noticed that he had arrived at the street corner where the accident was supposed to happen.

"Honestly!" The boy's mother scowled at Midoriya as she helped her crying son to his feet. "You need to pay better attention to where you're going!" She pointed to her child's bleeding knee. "Just look at what you did!"

A boom sounded off in the distance, and Midoriya turned his head towards the noise just in time to see the grey car speed past them without incident. The runaway ball had rolled across the street and came to a stop in a bush. Midoriya let out a sigh of relief. The boy and his mother were safe—for now at least.

"Excuse me!" The woman scolded him, "Are you even listening to me?"

"Yes. I'm very sorry." He bowed to the woman. "That was careless of me. Hold on one second, I have something for his knee."

Midoriya took off his backpack and dug through it until he found a small red case with a cross on it. He opened up the case and pulled out an antiseptic swap, gently and expertly dabbing the scraped knee before placing a bandage on it. He turned to the mother. "You'll probably want to clean it again when you get home, but this should help for now."

The woman blinked. "Not that I'm complaining," she said, mollified by Midoriya's actions, "but why is a junior high student carrying around a first aid kit?"

'I've had to learn to be prepared for the worst.' Midoriya thought.

"I'm, uh, pretty clumsy, so I fall down a lot." Midoriya said, "It saves time."

"I see." The woman replied. "Just be more careful, all right?"

Midoriya nodded, once again struck by the irony of the situation. "Yes ma'am. Will do."

He watched the woman and the child walk away together, hand in hand. They would never know what would have happened if he had not been there, but that was fine. He knew, and that was enough for him.

~Boooooom~

Another explosion rang out, and when Midoriya saw the pillar of smoke rising in that direction, he broke into a run, heading towards the danger as quickly as his legs could carry him. He didn't know what the situation was, or how he could possibly make a difference, but he knew that someone, somewhere, needed help. And that was all he needed to know.

AN: So, a new story is beginning. This Midoriya is quite a bit different than the one from canon, but I will try my best to flesh out these changes in a way that makes sense. Midoriya's "quirk" is going to be very interesting to work around. I won't give away exactly what its rules are just yet, but feel free to guess. Please let me know what you think with a review.

For those of you following my other story, Semper Fast, I will try and get the next chapter out in the next couple of days, a week at most. This plot bunny wouldn't leave me the F alone, and so I simply gave in.