Hey there! Welcome to my fic!

This fic is a request from Shiranai Atsune on . I hope you like it and my idea in general.

To start off: if 20% of the population is quirkless, that means 25,372,060 people alone in Japan. That's a lot. So like, I'm genuinely curious why they're so discriminated against...? Also, 20% is 1/5 and 1 in 5 people is quirkless, so why was Izuku the only quirkless one in his class? Am I the only one confused about this?

Anyways: Have fun reading this chapter!

"Well, I think that when all is said and done, you were great, you know."

Izuku Midoriya's gaze wandered from the pavement to a pair of nice, fancy leather shoes in front of him, then to the man standing in said shoes. He was what one would describe a typical middle-aged businessman, except he didn't have that apathetic aura and actually looked good in his suit. The blue light of the sirens surrounded him like a cold fog, but he radiated nothing but warmth when it came to body language. One arm folded over his chest, the other held out towards Izuku, back bent and leaning down towards the kid in the most non-threatening way possible.

"Excuse me?" The boy blinked at the man with a questioning look, glancing at the crowd of civilians still lingering around, watching the pro-heroes collect the last few pieces of the defeated sludge villain. Most of them paid him no mind, and he was more than okay with that. He's already gotten a talking from the heroes ten minutes prior, he would've preferred dealing with his whole word crashing and burning on his own.

"You heard me. You'd make a great hero." The man smiled. There was something off about his smile, about his perfectly white teeth and neat shave, although Izuku couldn't quite put his finger on it yet. "Mind if I take a seat?"

It took Izuku a few seconds to comprehend that the guy did, in fact, want to sit on the side of the road, next to him. A good kid probably wouldn't have agreed to it. A good kid would've stood up and run to the heroes screaming 'stranger danger' or at least gotten the hell out of there in his place. But he wasn't a good kid apparently, now more than ever, just because he risked his life to save a friend. Isn't that what heroes do? Risk their lives to save others?

He slowly nodded and watched as the man took a seat. "I'm quirkless, so, uhm, probably not." The awkward laugh he let out after he said that pained him; he would have to accept and live with that fact the rest of his life, starting today. All Might himself had said it – he couldn't become a hero.

"But you want to be one, don't you?" Black eyes stared right through Izuku's soul, seeing right through him, reading him like an open book. A mind-reading quirk, perhaps? "Why?"

"I… Uhm, well..." Izuku started rubbing the back of his neck, averting his gaze from the businessman, going back to staring at the wet pavement. "I guess it was some stupid childhood dream I wasn't ready to give up. But I'm over it now. I think."

It felt weird to share all this information with a total stranger, but it wasn't necessarily a bad kind of weird. Just the unfamiliar kind, Izuku guessed. Bizarre. He didn't trust people enough to talk about his feelings. They usually ridiculed him for being quirkless, and he'd go out of his way to hide that part of him as long as possible.

"Yeah, but why did you want to become one?" The man repeated his question.

The sad part was that he still knew the answer without missing a beat. Despite having sworn that he had given up on that ambition, it still lurked in him below the surface. "I want to save people with a smile on my face. Give people strength and assure them that everything will be alright, that they don't have to be afraid anymore."

"But you can do that without being a pro-hero, too." Izuku felt the warmth of the man's breath next to his ear. It had the faint smell of coffee and peppermint.

"I know, I could be a police offi-"

"People aren't born equal, but they're born with the ability to change things. One might say that only those who have power can bring change, but that's untrue. The determined have a great advantage, they have a hunger that can't be quenched until they get what they want. The determined have what it takes to lead a revolution. They will fight and win in the face of adversity. You are one of the determined ones, right?"

Izuku focused on the siren of a police car, let his face be illuminated by the blue light. It was getting dark, he should probably be on his home at this point. "I don't even know who you are. And I won't go against my morals to get what I want," he said, his voice quiet but unwavering.

"My name is Hakaru Go." The man, Go, smiled nonchalantly. His smile appeared not charming but obnoxious now, a kind of overbearing that reminded Izuku of Katsuki Bakugou. "And I never asked you to go against your moral code. I'm afraid you misunderstood me there. You see, I don't want you to become a villain or anything. I'm offering you to become a hero."

The small apartment was quiet and dark. As soon as Izuku opened the door, the familiar smell of his mom's cooking hit him. A small, ghost-like figure exited one of the bedrooms and quietly floated across the room with light steps to get to him. "Welcome home, sweetie. Are you hungry?"

Izuku hugged his mom as a greeting and nodded. He was tired and worn down from the day's events, but he wouldn't miss an opportunity to be with his mom.

Inko Midoriya flashed a feeble smile in return and hurried over into the kitchen.

"I saw the news. Please don't do such a thing ever again, Izuku, I was so worried!" Mom's shaky but soft voice broke the silence like a stone being thrown into water. Her whisper was a quiet echo of her usual tone, a version that pressed Izuku's chest together and made him forget how to breathe.

"I'm sorry, Mom."

"Promise me, Izuku, please. Promise me you won't put yourself in danger anymore, okay?" She placed the food in front of her son already sitting at the table, and repeated "please" once more, just for good measure.

The time it took Izuku to reply was way too much, the pause was one moment too long. Inko knew that, and Izuku knew that too. But neither of them said a word, it was but a silent conversation they had with their eyes. Inko's staring right at her only son, looking for eye contact, her boy's eyes averted, looking at the floorboards. "I… I promise, Mom."

"I love you. You know that, right? No matter what. You're my hero."

"I know, Mom. I love you too."

Inko smiled and brushed away a tear from the corner of her eye. She watched his son eat in silence, watched over him as her smile grew even brighter because moments like these were the only times she could protect him from everything. Where Izuku and her were the only ones who mattered, no pro-heroes, no bullies, no quirks or lack of quirks. Only the two Midoriyas in the small apartment, eating and enjoying each other's company, enjoying the silence. It was bittersweet, really.

"Hey, Mom?"

Izuku was at the brink of tears, she could tell. That's something he had gotten from her, admittedly; another thing Inko felt sorry about, another thing she wished he would forgive her for.

"I don't want to become a pro-hero anymore. I'm thinking about joining a club for quirkless people like me. It just… It seems like a good idea. Maybe I could make some friends and such." He started rambling, absentmindedly pushing around the food on his plate in the meantime.

His mom interrupted him after a while. "I agree, that does sound good. Have you already found one to join?"

"Yeah. It's a pretty big one, it has a lot of members from what I heard." His voice was quiet, but he sounded genuinely excited and happy.

"Oh, well that's great!" Inko looked at the now empty plate of her son. "Maybe you could call your dad and tell him about it. I'm sure he'd be happy to hear from you."

Izuku pretended to think about it for a while, then shook his head. "Maybe later. Thanks for the meal, it was delicious." He bowed and got up, heading towards his room right away. "I think I'll go to bed early today. Goodnight, Mom."

"What are you doing, Izuku dear?" His mom asked, stepping over a pile of All Might posters in front of his room. His room, which looked nothing like his room anymore. The blue-red-yellow color scheme laid littered across the floor, posters ripped from the walls and figurines neatly packed in boxes. "Is everything alright?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah Mom, everything's great. Just decided I want to change things up a bit." Izuku smiled and grabbed another figurine. "Do you think we could sell these? I have some limited edition ones too, those would probably sell well."

"What's wrong with your All Might merchandise? Are you suddenly not a fan of him anymore?" Inko raised her eyebrows confused. Her Izuku wasn't her Izuku without his All Might-adoration. He's been a fan of him for more than ten years now, after all.

"Oh, that's not the case at all. I'm still a big fan of him. I just thought I'm too old for such figures, we might as well give them away."

"Izuku, what's wrong? Not being a pro-hero doesn't mean you can't be a fan of them, honey." She walked over to his bed and sat down. "Is there something you want to talk about?"

"No, Mom, everything's alright, I swear. I actually met All Might yesterday and he signed my hero analysis book. It was... Well, nice, I guess." Izuku assured her, plopping down right next to her and leaning his head on her shoulder. A heavy burden, his conscience, settled in his stomach. Some details could be left out, right? Why would his mom need to know about what All Might had said?

"Was meeting him not how you imagined it would be? Is that why you're acting this way?" So she could see through him as well. The second person today, right after Mr. Hakaru Go. Izuku wondered if he really was this predictable.

"No, not at all, that's not the case! He's even cooler in person, actually. I just…" He had a hard time describing what he was feeling, without reciting his hero's words to his mom. His feelings were blurry and confusing, and he'd formulate it wrong if he were to try to put it in words.

It might've been the fact that he was not on All Might's side anymore. Yes, that must've been the reason. All Might was more or less his enemy right now, and he had to get used to that. You

don't have posters of your enemy plastered on your walls, after all.

Then again, All Might wasn't directly his enemy. He would be a hero, against All Might's advice, against the law, and against his own better judgment. All Might was one of the heroes that disapproved of quirkless people becoming heroes, as he had learned yesterday, and while he wasn't a stuck up hero, he didn't support Izuku's cause either.

They had to start a revolution, Hakaru Go had said. An uprising of quirkless people, quirkless kids and quirkless adults, who all wanted to be heroes but had their dream stolen from them, who were robbed by an unfair society. 20% meant one-fifth of the population. One out of five people was discriminated against because they didn't have a superpower. Was that justice?

Heroes weren't defined by their powers. Their actions and their legacy, those were the things that made them heroes. You could be the most powerful human on the planet; as long as people disliked you, you were a villain. By that logic, beloved lawbreakers could be heroes too, if they broke the right laws and charmed the right people. Izuku clearly remembered every word Hakaru Go had said yesterday and agreed with all of it. Mr. Go's words were like water in the desert, you desperately craved to get it and couldn't get enough once you experienced it once.

"...You just what? Izuku?" His mom put a shaky hand on his head, fingers running through his green locks.

"Never mind, Mom. Maybe I'll tell you later. I have to go now, I think. My first meeting with the group is today, I don't want to be late." Izuku jumped up from the bed, gave his mother a hug and hurried out of the room after saying goodbye.

He had lied. Izuku still had plenty of time to get to the meeting point. An hour, to be precise, if he didn't subtract the time he needed to walk to the small restaurant their first session would take place in. It was about three miles east from his apartment, he would be too early, even if he changed his route now or went to grab something to eat first.

Eating was out of the question, though. Not only because they'd probably eat at the meeting, but also because Izuku was pretty sure whatever he'd eat wouldn't stay in his stomach for longer than then minutes. Nervousness came over him and covered every inch of his body like a second skin, excitement prickling in his fingertips. He was on his way to becoming a hero. On his way to fulfill his life long dream, a wish he'd thought was irrational and impossible to achieve. So what if he wouldn't be an official hero, a professional one? He wouldn't get money for it, sure, but that's not why he was in it in the first place.

And, unlike most heroes, he'd genuinely achieve something. He'd change the world, change society for the better, convince All Might and all the others that he, and all of the quirkless population, could become heroes. That they weren't weak or any less of a human for one extra joint in their pinkie toes.

A voice in the back of his mind interrupted his train of thoughts. All Might's loud tone, the one that'd make villains tremble and retreat, the one that could calm civilians just by saying his signature three-word-sentence. The same voice was telling Izuku right now that what he was doing was illegal. That he was on his way to becoming a criminal.

No matter how much Izuku respected All Might, he couldn't bring himself to care. He had hit rock bottom yesterday, with the assistance of his idol no less, and if anyone were to take his last resort, his plan B away from him, he'd be reduced to an empty shell of his former self with no idea what to do with himself.

There was no other option. Not all men are created equal, but that was supposed to change. Izuku would help the revolution, he'd lead it. And no matter how one looked at it, sacrifices needed to be made for a revolution.

He hurried past an auto body shop and turned left at the crossroad. Barely thirty feet away stood a small 'cafe and restaurant', old and worn down. A yellow sign above the entrance advertised a 'buy one get one free' sale with neon blue letters that didn't go well with the background color at all.

Taking an unsure look at the hand-drawn map between his fingers, Izuku assured himself he was in the right place and made his way to the run-down building.

A bell sound alerted the owner of his presence as soon as he stepped over the doorstep. Two older women hurried to the counter from the back. The taller one studied him for a few seconds, looked him over, perhaps tried to figure out what a fifteen-year-old was doing in a place like this. This part of the city wasn't infamous for being a good neighborhood, it was no place where middle schoolers usually spent their days off. She raised a wary eyebrow and turned to her friend.

"Are you here because of that TPS thing?", asked the shorter and admittedly rounder one. She gave Izuku a generous smile and walked out from behind the counter to stand face-to-face to him.

"I'm sorry?" Izuku cautiously took a step back, but before he knew it, the woman had already grabbed his shoulder and was gently pushing him towards one of the chairs.

"Hakaru-chan used to jokingly call it Tall Poppy Syndrome, you know, since it's ironic... Its official name is The Phantom Syndicate though. You are here for the meeting, right?"

Before Izuku could understand what was going on, the first woman had already joined them at the table.

"Akiara, let the child confirm it first before you tell him everything. So, did Hakaru Go invite you here?" The woman crossed her arms over her chest, looking at Izuku with unmistakable skepticism.

"...Yes, he did. I'm here for the meeting." Izuku gulped. "I'm sorry I'm early. My name is Izuku Midoriya, it's a pleasure to meet you."

A flood of relief washed over the taller woman, while the one supposedly called Akiara got even more excited.

"Don't mention it! Hakaru-chan- I mean Mr. Go will be pretty early as well. Would you like a drink in the meantime, Midoriya?" Ms. Akiara quickly grabbed a menu from the counter and handed it to Izuku, who politely declined and put the menu in front of him. "Oh, and we should probably introduce ourselves too, huh? I'm Akiara Suzuki and this is my sister Hekima. It's nice to meet you too."

"So, Midoriya, you'd like to become a vigilante, right?" Hekima Suzuki asked. She had gone back to behind the counter and was now reading something, not paying much attention to the others. "Why?

"I want to become a hero. The kind that All Might is, saving people with a smile on his face." Izuku mumbled, his subconscious still expecting to receive backlash despite knowing that he was in a safe space here.

"Oh, look at you, speaking just like Hakaru used to back in the day! You're like a younger version of him, I swear." Aikara giggled and brushed a gray lock of hair out of her face.

"What's Mr. Go like?" The words came out of Izuku's mouth before he could stop himself. He had only talked to Hakaru Go an hour or so yesterday, and he, being tired and disoriented and unsure what to do, didn't think all too much about questioning the man's intentions.

The sound of a small bell welcomed another guest to the restaurant. "Why don't you find out yourself, kiddo?" The businessman from yesterday stopped at the entrance, stance wide and hands resting on his hips. "Though, as a starter, I guess I could give you three words to describe myself: determined, smart, adaptive. I'm 39, work as a police sergeant and founded TPS two years ago."

Izuku's eyes widened and he leaned back so far that he almost fell off his chair. If Go was a policeman, he would be able to arrest him any time for wanting to become a vigilante, right? Had he been tricked?

"Oh, don't worry. My police rank is merely a convenient way to keep us informed about what the police know. I have no loyalty to the police whatsoever." His fear and surprise must've been obvious, for Mr. Go was already on his way to give him a pat on the back and calm him down. Or put him in handcuffs, who knows.

In the end, it did turn out to be a comforting gesture. Afterward, Go sat down at his table and grinned at Izuku while Aikara left to make coffee for him. "So… What's your name again?"

Could he really trust this man? His mental state yesterday had clearly not been the best, it was logical to conclude that his decision-making skills hadn't been either. Still, the warm aura of Go was still there, today even more than last time. "It's Izuku Midoriya." He responded quietly, as if that would make a difference.

"Well, Izuku Midoriya, let me tell you, you have talent. Your fight yesterday was genuinely fascinating." Go played with the cuff of his suit while talking, never making eye contact longer than a second. "You'll be a valuable member of The Phantom Syndicate if you decide to join. You'd make a great hero."

"How many members does the group have, and how does it operate?" Izuku wanted to know every little detail first, he didn't want to rush into something he wasn't ready for let alone something illegal he wasn't ready for.

"Oh, I like your carefulness. That's a good quality to have in organizations like these. There are currently 96 members, but I'm sure that after a short, one month training period, you'll climb the ranks faster than anyone before you. We haven't made our official debut yet, we're currently staying on the down-low, in the shadows. Once we actually start working, everyone will have a chance to prove themselves, including you." Deep down, Izuku knew that was a manipulation tactic, but he didn't care. He had already decided to join when he had left home earlier this day. Becoming a hero and showing All Might it was possible was more important than anything else. "The Phantom Syndicate will take requests from anybody – we'll fulfill every wish, no matter how

big or small. Don't get me wrong, we're not assassins, that's not what I mean. By requests, I mean the kind of heroism Robin Hood had – steal back what got stolen and get revenge for everyone who gets treated unfairly in this society. We don't keep much of the money for ourselves, so there's no reason to call our actions morally wrong. We're in the right, we'll help others, we'll save them. You can have everything a hero has – popularity, good karma, whatever. So, I'll only ask you once: Will you join?"

Izuku reacted to the hand being offered him right away and shook it with no hesitation.

"You'll need a hero name." Go said with a satisfied smile, wrinkles forming at his eyes. "And a costume. One where no one can recognize you, preferably."

The same smile was visible of Izuku's face, and he had the same glint of enthusiasm in his eyes as always when he talked about heroes. He himself was going to become a hero now, after all. "I think I want to be called Deku. It's… It's a sort of childhood nickname of mine, it motivates me in a way."

"Deku? Isn't that an insult rather than a nickname?" Go raised his eyebrows, but didn't press on when Izuku didn't reply. "Well, alright then, Deku. Welcome to the team."