Here comes trouble

One day after Dante's awakening, the mood in the orphanage was quite strange. Why? Because everybody felt that their memories were quite blurred, they all had this weird feeling that they forgot something important. The orphanage inhabitants were not the only ones in this situation, it was the entire prefecture's population that had this weird feeling, albeit the further away they were from the orphanage, the weaker this feeling was, it was even being completely absent from those at the borders of the prefecture.

'Sigh... In the end, I didn't have enough energy to get the desired effect, the only option for me was to nerf the dream. The problem is, even that wasn't enough to completely erase the event from their memories, I could only alter it a bit.'

That's right, yesterday's event caught Dante by surprise. Being unprepared, he was forced to improvise and take drastic measures to try and mitigate the damages as much as he could.

'Seriously, how the hell was I supposed to know that I would awaken during my freaking birthday?! Ain't it suppose to happen months later like in those fanfics?! And why the hell did it have to be so flashy?!! Aargh, I want to die! Please kill me!! Why did I have to get all worked up and start acting like some almighty being?! So cringe!!'

As funny as it sounded, Dante was fully conscient during the full duration of yesterday's events. The words he said, the way he acted... everything was of his doing and he profoundly regretted it.

'When I gather enough energy, I will be sure to erase everything from history itself!'

Other than the embarrassment he felt, Dante knew that his flashy awakening would cause him a lot of problems.

'Sigh... I'm in deep shit now. Since I could not erase yesterday's events from the memories of everybody, I could only alter them, and the results are far from satisfying. This will bite me in the ass at one point, I'm sure of it!'

In what way did Dante alter the witness's memories? The answer was quite simple.

'Masking my awakening was impossible, I could only reduce its impact as much as I could. Now, all the people should only remember me glowing and the ground cracking under my feet. It's still quite exaggerated for a quirk awakening, but it's way better than me acting like some random god out of nowhere. For those outside of the orphanage though, they should only remember a minor earthquake, for those close enough, they shall also remember a show of lights... Sigh, yup, I'm 100% sure that this is going to bite me in the ass!'

Our main character was not delusional, this incident was bound to bring some attention to him, at this point he was just hoping that the backlash wouldn't be too bad.

'And I also have something else to take care of... This three must be waiting for me right now. Sigh, I owe them big for what they did for me and I intend to honor that promise... Alright, time to go see them and cl-'

Just as he was about to go and meet his companions, Dante was suddenly stopped by a caregiver.

"Ah! Dante, I was looking for you! Come with me, important people are here to see you!"

When Dante heard this, he was only able to think one thing.

'Ah, fuck...'

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In the orphanage's director's head office.

Just after sending someone to bring Dante over, the director was finally able to address the people who came all the way here after receiving his emergency call concerning yesterday's events.

"Thank you all for coming all the way here. Please excuse our lack of hospitality, the truth is the staff is still quite affected by yesterday's events."

Seeing how polite the director was, it was clear that the people present had a certain status.

"Do not worry director Sato, from what you told us, yesterday must have been a tiring day for you all, good work."

The person who just spoke was a police agent sent by the nearest police station after they received a call from the director.

"Yes, good work director. Now please, can you explain to us in detail what happened yesterday?"

This person was an agent of the HPSC (Hero Public Safety Commission), he and his junior were sent here by their superior to register a newly awakened child but also to investigate the boy in question and determine if the kid had enough potential to be mentored by them. If what the principal told them was true, they may have found gold this time, after all, if the boy's awakening caused such a strong phenomenon, then the chances for his quirk to be a powerful one were quite high.

That's right, the two agents from the HPSC were here to fish for talents. In today's society, the masses seemed to think that villains' activities were drastically reduced thanks to All Might. The truth though was different, the two HPSC agents knew that everything looked calm only on the surface, and they knew that there was a dangerous individual out there causing mayhem. It was only thanks to All Might that everything was as peaceful as it seemed.

'But All Might is but a single person, for how long can he shoulder everything by himself? And even if he manages to shoulder everything until his retirement, nothing guarantees that someone will be able to do the same after him! That's why we need to find as many promising new seedlings as possible and groom them to become the next pillars of our society!'

Just as the director was about to answer him, someone knocked on the door, and then the caregiver that was sent to fetch Dante entered the room with the latter in tow.

"Director I have brought him."

The moment Dante entered the office, all eyes instantly focused on him.

'Ah, shit?! A day?! These people are way too fast! What's wrong with this world's efficiency?! Oi, nobody will blame you if you slack off a bit you know!'

Upon seeing that the boy was panicking, the adults finally remembered that the boy was only 4 years old, the poor kid probably didn't even know what was happening.

"Ah, you are here Dante-kun, come! You see, these kind people came here to see you, they have some quick questions to ask you and then they will register your quirk. After that, you will be free to go play with your friends."

To the adults, it seemed that hearing this calmed the boy a little, they watched him as he sat down and prepared to answer the questions they had for him. Little did they know that the boy was not as calm as they thought.

'Alright big boy, now's the time to bring out the Dicaprio within you and lie the hell out of this situation! Huff... All right, calm down, if you follow the plan, everything should be alright!'

For the next ten minutes, the police officer and the two HPSC agents asked Dante multiple questions. At first, the questions were quite mundane, like how do you feel? Did you have trouble sleeping? Are you hurt anywhere? Etc. After a couple of questions like that, they finally felt that they had done enough foreplay and finally started asking questions about the incident itself. Do you remember what happened yesterday? What happened? Were you conscious at the time? What is your quirk? The adults went on and on and on and Dante played along, acting like a cute little kid and he naively responded to every question.

After asking all the questions they had, the two HPSC agents then took Dante into another room where a quirk testing device was already prepared, letting the police officer and the director alone.

"Well, looks like I'm not needed here anymore director. I shall head back to the station and report everything to my superiors. If anything abnormal happens, please call us immediately. A quirk awakening that causes an earthquake... this may attract some unwanted attention, soon we will send you some agents just to make sure that no problem occurs."

"Alright, thank you, officer, let me accompany you to the exit."

That's right, the authorities weren't stupid. The awakening of a quirk and an earthquake on the same day? Without even mentioning the commotion the awakening caused, the probability of it being a coincidence was low... they had to be related, and that's why agents were dispatched as fast as possible.

Half an hour later, the two HPSC agents finally came back with Dante. Just as director Sato was about to say that they took quite a bit more time than usual, he suddenly remarked that the two agents' expressions were weird. Intrigued, he went and asked them the reason for such an expression, and their answer greatly surprised him.

"What?! The device wasn't able to identify the quirk?! How is that possible? I never heard of anything like that before! What do you think may be the reason?"

Seeing the stunned director, the two agents could only smile wrily, they too had never encountered something like this.

"We tried multiple times but the results stayed the same. We even tested the device on ourselves just to check if it was working correctly but..."

The truth was that the two agents were feeling mixed emotions right now. They felt confusion because of this never before seen situation, but they also felt excitement for the very same reason, they felt more and more that they may have found gold!

'An awakening that causes an earthquake, the device incapable of determining his quirk... Maybe I'm exaggerating, maybe I'm thinking too much, but my intuition is telling me that this kid is special! We must take him into our ranks!'

Although the device wasn't able to determine the kid's quirk and the kid seemed to be incapable of explaining what his quirk was and how it worked, the two agents were not discouraged.

"I think that will be it for today director Sato, we won't take any more of your time. I reckon that some of our agents were supposed to come in a few months to register the new quirk holders, at that time we will come again to check on Dante-kun."

Seeing that the agents were about to leave, director Sato got up and escorted them out under the eyes of Dante who was given the go to go play with his friends, little did they know that the boy was furiously thinking.

'Shit! They know there is a connection between my awakening and the false earthquake! Sigh, I knew this would not be enough to fool them... The only positive thing is that nobody realized that their memories were altered. Starting today, I will need to be extra careful, I can't show anything related to my quirk, if I can keep it up long enough, they will forget about me one day or another!'

Although a bit pissed that he met an obstacle so soon in this life, Dante was not discouraged. Was this not what he wanted? What's the point of an adventure without difficulties? He just needed to persevere a little bit and he would be able to turn the situation around!

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While Dante was thinking of ways to take care of this mess, the two HPSC agents were currently on their way to report their findings to their superiors. Both agents were quite excited by the possible new seed they just found, a remarkable one at that. It's just that the two of them weren't excited for the same reason, the junior agent who stayed silent most of the time in the orphanage had a completely different reaction.

'Who would have thought that this seemingly uninteresting mission would lead me to such a surprise! I'm not sure if this kid's quirk is as good as we think it is, but I'm sure that person will be interested! I need to contact him as fast as possible!'

Without Dante's knowledge, his quirk awakening would soon lead to events that would greatly impact his future, events that he sure would not like.

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While multiple parties were plotting against him behind his back, little Dante was finally able to meet his three partners in crime in their headquarters aka their bedroom.

"Before you say anything, Hayato, Ren, and Kioko... I want to thank you, guys, for your help... You... You all paid a great price to protect me. I will never forget it".

That's right, before anything else, Dante wanted to sincerely thank his three friends for the help they provided him in his time of need. If they were not there, things would not have progressed nearly as well as they had now.

"What are you saying Dante-kun? We are friends! And friends help each other, I saw it on the tv!"

"Un! Hayato is right Dante-kun! I want to be a hero like All Might when I grow up! How can I be a great hero if I can't even help my friend?"

"Dante-kun... friend... So...I help."

Hearing his three friends' sincere and almost naive answers, Dante couldn't help but cry.

'Children are pure...'

The reason why Dante was so touched, especially after hearing Ren talk about his dream of becoming a hero, was because this child that had already lost so much, this child that had no family to call their own... This very child decided to sacrifice for him... one of the few things left they had for themselves... their dream.

What was Hayato's dream? Become a hero to protect his friends.

What was Ren's dream? Become a great hero and protect his loved ones and the masses from the villains.

What was Kioko's dream? Protect the friends she valued so much, the friends that accepted her as she was.

Right now you are probably wondering: How come they sacrificed such an abstract dream? Can't they just do it? Does it mean that they do not want to do it anymore? Did the sacrifice change their personality? Well, to answer all these questions, let us all answer another one: How do you protect someone in a world where your enemies have superpowers?

'Forsaken Dream... An ability I hoped to never use... An ability that can only be activated upon someone after the target has given its consent. Forsaken Dream... The ability to sacrifice an aspect of the target that is closely related to the target's dream...'

Now let's get back to our previous question: How do you protect someone in a world where your enemies have superpowers?

The answer to this question is: By having a superpower of your own.

So what did these children sacrifice?

They sacrificed the only thing that could make this dream a reality... They sacrificed their quirk.

...

...

...

They, who were only 3 years old.

They, who had their family robbed from them from the beginning.

They, who had nothing left but their dream.

Dante couldn't stop himself from crying. Until now, he had only considered them as children a bit more mature than the rest, he had only considered them as amusing children that would make his life in the orphanage a bit less boring.

But now... Things had changed.

"Starting from today... we are family."

He didn't bother to explain how he would repay them, they didn't bother to ask either, they didn't even expect to be paid back, they were 3 years old after all, they only wanted to help their friend.

Although none of them spoke, there was a weird understanding between the four children, a weird trust that allowed the three 3-year-olds to endure the loss of the quirk they were waiting for but would never see.

Something was telling them to wait... something was telling them it would be worth it.