The world rushed up to meet him. He gently closed his eyes and waited for the plunge. For a split second, with the wind in his hair and the sun beating down upon his bare back, he was content; weightless.

Splash.

He surfaced from the cool water a moment later, pulling his unruly green hair out of his face, before making his way inland. The feeling had gone just as soon as it had come, and the weight of reality set in on Midoriya Izuku once more.

He was quirkless.

That's what the doctor had told him and his mother a few days ago; that his body was incapable of manifesting powers, unlike eighty percent of the population. In a society full of people with abilities, this actually made Izuku stand out in a way.

It meant that he was an outlier, an oddity. It meant that he was special, or so his mother had reasoned on the otherwise silent ride home. Even at the age of eleven(1), a mere year after his powers should have shown, Izuku knew otherwise.

What it really meant was that his dreams of being a hero were shattered.

For there never existed a hero who was quirkless. He'd searched for such a thing for the past year, ever since his classmates quirks began revealing themselves. While others began sprouting wings or turning invisible - or created explosions - he had scoured the internet, delved deeply into blogs he couldn't remotely have been allowed on, even asked the occasional hero on the street about the possibility. He'd searched and searched for an answer to the unspoken question.

The results had been the same at every turn. All the while, he tried to bring his powers out of himself forcibly, often ridiculously, but to no avail. A year may as well have been a lifetime to the ambitious boy. No such hero ever existed and as it stood, so such hero ever would.

A deep depression settled on the usually undaunted boy. He didn't bawl his eyes out, he didn't tear apart his room. There was no tantrum or break down. Instead, he'd simply stopped smiling. Steadily stopped eating. And then stopped sleeping.

Which is what brought him to where he was now. His mother, Inko, had grown beyond concerned at the unhealthy turn he'd taken. After a brief consultation with the same doctor who'd delivered his diagnosis/sentence, she had decided to take her son to the lake for a bit of a getaway during the winter holidays. A calming location, far away from most heroes and his quirk-gifted classmates basking in their newfound abilities. The change had remarkably pulled Izuku out of his funk, if only just, but the depression was still there, waiting.

Izuku was rather self-aware for a child. He knew the toll his sudden change was taking on his hard working mother, both emotionally and financially - as they couldn't afford a place like this even for a month - and tried to curb it as best he could. He attempted to distract himself with other things, anything, in the hopes of willing himself better.

He explored the wilderness around the home they had rented for the month, leaping in and out of the dead leaves piled around the lakehouse. When his mom wasn't around, he took to jumping off the modest bluff a little ways down the shore, the cold water always serving to wake him up and clear his thoughts, though it worked less and less the more he did it. Slowly but surely, the darkness crept back, and every night he returned to that deep hole; a place filled with his fears and thoughts and anger.

He couldn't imagine a future where he couldn't save people, but right now he needed to save the person he cared for the most - his mother. And so he kept it all to himself and made an effort to smile around her, help her with the various chores and shopping and meal prep, and even began talking about his hopes of being a doctor or someone else who could help people in a different way.

Ironically left unsaid was that most doctors had a healing or medically-relevant quirk.

Izuku let out a cold, shuddering breath as he toweled the rest of his body off, his dripping hair left to dry in the setting sun. He looked out over the still lake and acknowledged how beautiful it was.

The sky was a lovely palette of colors, descending from the dark blue of approaching night to a pale purple that hugged the horizon. Large, puffy clouds hovered like pink and orange mountains, their reflections in the water still as stone. The wildlife around the lake began their nocturnal well-to-do's and greetings as the animals of the day said their own farewells. And the wind… The wind danced between the trees to a whistling tune, not unlike a lullaby.

He liked all of these things, none of which you would typically find in the city, but the wind here was by far his favorite. It soothed him on a different level... He couldn't really describe it.

As the sun dipped lower still beyond the distant shoreline, Izuku let out a sigh at yet another day gone by. With his hair still dripping wet, he began the walk home in the growing darkness.

That night, after washing up the dishes from dinner, Izuku had begged off watching television with his mother, unable to force himself through the rather mundane shows she watched, and had instead brought her computer into the bedroom, closed the door, and gotten under the covers.

"Have no fear..."

The LED screen brightened the moment the video played, as two rows of crystalline white teeth instantly illuminated Izuku's face in the darkness.

"...For I am here!"

All Might.

There he stood, larger than life; Izuku's hero. The greatest hero on Earth, almost indisputably. The man who saved countless lives, fought and won dozens of battles, defeated - and often rehabilitated - numerous villains. And all with a constant, reassuring smile on his face. All Might.

Izuku wanted so desperately to be like him.

Ever since he could remember, he'd been bullied, even before his quirk failed to show itself along with everyone else. Whether for his lanky frame, his weird hair, or the fact that he didn't have a father - as kids could often be needlessly cruel - he'd fought to preserve justice. Stood up for himself, and in time, stood up for others going through similar circumstances.

At the age of eight, he'd begged his mom to enroll him in martial arts, claiming it would be beneficial in helping him control his inevitably 'awesome' quirk as well as preparing him for the path of a hero. His mother had acquiesced, unaware of his true intentions and how quickly he would be applying his newfound knowledge of silat and muay thai, the latter having been difficult to find and even harder to get into. Nonetheless, he'd attacked his training with tenacity, just like his idol would have.

But his training had been for nothing. His daydreams and doodles had been for nothing. His draining exercise regime, self-drafted but effective as far as he was concerned, had been for nothing. His intense, singular focus on being the best he could be - all for nothing now that he was quirkless.

His hours upon hours spent in the mirror, practicing his own reassuring smile; less than nothing. Now, when he smiled, it felt hollow. Like a pale imitation of what was on the computer screen. He was nothing like All Might.

As his eyes watered, something he convinced himself was due to staring at the screen for too long, he heard the door open. His mother was there, though his back was to her. She made no move to come in, to reassure him, perhaps thinking he needed space, just as she did every night.

When the door slowly began to close, something took hold of him. A deep seated urgency. Maybe it was the grinning face of a soot-covered All Might frozen on the screen. Maybe it was the salty tear as it burned its way down his cheek. Maybe it was the thought of his mother closing the door on him every night, unable to comfort him despite all she did for him. Maybe all three, but regardless he asked a question into the darkness.

"Can I still be a hero?"

Silence met his question, and his breath caught in his lungs. The light from the hallway was but a yellow sliver now, but the door opened once more before his mother stepped into the room fully and then closed it behind her. Together but alone in the darkness, the silence dragged on.

Shuffling was heard. Izuku turned to see Inko walking around the bed to sit on his other side, her back to him. She glanced - briefly - at the image of All Might on the laptop, and let out a shuddering breath. "It's never been done before, honey. To be a hero, you need a quirk, and a strong one at that."

Izuku felt like he'd been hit in the bread basket by a hammer, the air he'd been clinging on to while waiting for an answer abandoned him the moment he got one. The tear he'd cried was soon joined by others, each of them falling silently and without his consent.

He felt hot and cold all at once. The one person he'd hoped would believe in him, lie to him if need be, but stand in his corner, had instead ended his flicker of hope with a sentence. Worst yet, he had asked for it, knowing what his mother might say but hoping he was wrong.

Izuku's heart broke and he violently gnashed his teeth together to keep from sobbing aloud.

"At least, that's what I would say… but I'm not the only one who has a stake in such matters."

He couldn't see his mother's face, but Izuku didn't understand what she was saying, voicing his confusion through the pain. "M-mother?"

"The choice, my dear Izuku, is ultimately yours. And as far as advice goes, you have more than just a mother's point of view…" Izuku's eyes, brimming with more unshed tears, went wide. "Your father…" Inko paused to gather herself, a strange quiver in her voice. "I know what your father would have said and it's only right you hear it, too."

They never spoke of him, Midoriya Hisashi. The man who had married Inko and together conceived Izuku with her, shortly before his sudden departure from the country. His mother only ever told him that he'd died when he was but a boy. Any further attempts to get information on him had been gently but firmly rebuffed, Inko stating he wasn't ready.

Was this his consolation prize? Learning about his past only after his future had been tragically rewritten? Either way, Izuku would be lying if he said he was anything other than transfixed as he stared at his mother's back.

"First, understand that your father was a complex man, full of contradictions; a simpleton with a hidden depth. A rambunxious, fierce individual, who only loved as strongly as he fought, indifferent to the many things that others found important, like a steady career or a stable lifestyle. Throughout our time together, he was what one would consider beyond society's express desires…

"I sometimes found myself wondering how we ever came to fall in love, but he had a way about him that was as endearing as it was frustrating. One thing that I couldn't deny was that he was consistent, always, and moreover, consistently a good man."

"Was he a hero?" Izuku could hear his mother sniffling, but he was too enraptured to properly comfort her as she continued, eager to learn about the missing part of their family.

"In his own way, yes. In many ways, yes. And in others... no."

Izuku was confused, and Inko must have felt it as she finally turned her head to gaze at him and the two stared at each other for a moment, both green haired and crying. His mother laughed as she wiped a tear from first her eye and then his.

"How do I say this… your father, Izuku… was a vigilante."

Izuku felt his heart stop. His father… a vigilante. An outlaw hero, unregistered and violent. He didn't know whether to be ashamed, horrified, or oddly proud, and so settled for speechless.

"Unlike most of the vigilantes you've heard about from our countries past, your father wasn't homicidal or corrupt or recklessly untrained. He was more than capable of restraining himself and handling the tougher villains, even if he got a little carried away with property damage on occasion."

His mother smiled at a distant memory and Izuku couldn't help but join her.

"He simply felt that being a licensed hero meant you were removing your autonomy, you fundamental right to decide for yourself. With registration, you lost your ability to choose who to save, when and how. If a call went out for you to save some corrupt businessman from a rightfully angry mob of employees, for example, you would have to do it despite your own beliefs, as you are a paid employee of the government. Hisashi disagreed with this, fearful of how far that line could be pushed in a potential police state. Besides, no man ordered him around. He was - as he loved to claim whenever we'd get into an argument - a free man."

Inko rolled her eyes, but Izuku could tell it was fondly.

"But… we don't have a government run hero system," Izuku cocked his head to the side.

Inko patted the back of his hair down. "Not anymore, no, but we did... and things were far less certain back then. That's why we had so many vigilantes in the first place. Eventually, however, new hero reforms were put in place. That, along with the deportation or imprisonment - or sometimes deaths - of so many unregistered heroes, made vigilantes become a thing of the past. More and more people saw the benefits of being a licensed hero in a society where heroes govern themselves, free from the direct influence of the government, though working together. It made for a safer and better world, but it was a bloody time getting there."

She nodded at the image of All Might on the laptop. "He played a big part in securing the bright future of heroes."

Izuku knew none of this, as their history classes had breezed over the vigilante era of heroes, quirks having only been around for a few generations(2). He felt blessed to live in a time where heroes weren't mere puppets of the government. He felt his pride in All Might grow even further, but more than that, he felt proud of his father - a pioneer of heroism, even if he was a vigilante.

"So dad... what was he called?"

His mother smiled at him, a gentle, nostalgic smile.

"He was known in our region as the Twilight Dragon, and made a name for himself at a time when vigilantes were at their peak, slowly being hunted down and prosecuted for not being registered. His quirk was a powerful one; Breath of Fire. It allowed him to breathe fire from his mouth and then manipulate it with his hands and other limbs. He could even coat himself in the flame, and when combined with his katana, it made for an intimidating site. Your father was, first and foremost, a swordsman."

'S-so cool,' Izuku thought, eyes wide. A flaming swordsman. Izuku could scarcely believe he was the son of such an amazing man. "Dad was pretty strong, huh?"

"Yes... he was." Inko paused. "He… he had a great quirk, but he was truly strong because of his convictions. He held his belief that a true hero required no payment other than satisfaction that he did the right thing, and that good would always prevail regardless of circumstance. He was fond of the motto - A good deed done in the spotlight is a decent deed, but a good deed done in the shadows, is a great one. That resolve allowed him to against villains and even some heroes beyond his calibre."

Izuku was practically in awe at this point. His father was just too cool, sounding almost unbeatable. So then…

"How did he die?"

Silence filled the bedroom. Inko reached over and closed the laptop, bathing them in the night.

"Your father was strong, Izuku. But he wasn't unbeatable. No one is. Not even All Might, as hard as that may be to believe. His time came, and I would be lying if I said he went peacefully." Tears were streaming down her face now, and Izuku rubbed her back comfortingly, feeling a sadness within himself for a man he couldn't even remember. "But he died fighting to protect bystanders in Canada - where they deported him for being a vigilante - and I know he wouldn't have gone out any other way, except maybe protecting you."

She gave a watery smile to her son, but it broke in a second as a sob escaped, and Izuku thought maybe it was because when she looked at him, she saw Hisashi. Izuku forgot his own pain from earlier and immediately hugged his mom tightly. He had no words of comfort to say, hard as it all was to process, but she clung to his arms nonetheless.

"I just…" She let out a shuddering breath. "I wish he hadn't died alone up there; in the cold, an ocean away. He deserved to be in the sun - he was such a boisterous man. You could hear his barking laugh rooms away." She giggled as she tried to wipe her eyes. "I'm sorry I never spoke of him Izuku. I just-I wanted you to follow your own path, free of his shadow and influence. His convictions killed him, and I didn't want that to happen to you. I couldn't stand the thought of losing you! Forgive me!"

Izuku, his throat clenched, could only nod into his mother's back. He couldn't be mad at her, not for this. She only had his best interests at heart, and even he could admit that if he had known his father had been some amazing vigilante when he was younger, he may have followed a similar path, regardless of the differences in his world from his father's.

"But now…" His mother sniffed before turning to look him square in the eyes, something shining beneath the tears. "Now I see that you are your father's son… your father's and mine… and you would have found your own path regardless."

What was that look in her eyes? Izuku couldn't place it.

"But mom… I don't have any quirks. I'm not like you. I'm definitely not like him." The dark thoughts threatened to swallow him whole again, but Inko grabbed his arms and held him tight, forcing him to look her in the eyes once more.

"Yes. You are. More than you can ever know. So you don't have a quirk. Your father would not have let that stop him from doing what he loved: saving people. Making a difference, that is your goal. It will be tough, it may be suicidal, and a strong part of me rages at this very moment against the mere thought of you doing something so reckless, but I can't stand in the way of your destiny - your path. Like I said, it's yours to pave."

That look in his mothers eyes. What did it mean?

"If you want to be a hero, Izuku…"

Emerald eyes widened...

Two weeks later found Izuku running at a fast but steady speed, following the shore around the lake. He was back on his training regiment from before his bout of depression. In fact, he'd even increased the difficulty of it, more eager than ever to grow. The talk with his mother had rekindled his inner fire, now a roaring furnace, and he saw no end in sight.

So he didn't have a quirk. So all heroes before him had one. That just meant he'd have to be the first one to break the mold, didn't it? The darkness was gone, and the old Midoriya was back, inexplicably optimistic.

He had also resumed doing his stretches, his katas and various martial arts practices. When he wasn't training or exercising, he would often be holed up in the house, a stack of growing notebooks around him and his mother's laptop, as he continued to research various heroes with lackluster abilities who overcame their deficiencies with creativity and skill.

Martial arts users, technological wizards, and all around clever individuals who took on superior enemies with more impressive quirks. He would follow in their footsteps and build off of them, combining all of their strengths to even the deck for him. If he could help even one person with a learned skill, then no avenue was not worth exploring.

His mother had always said he had a bleeding heart for others, and he couldn't disagree with her. Now, however, he had something to prove on top of helping others. Not just to himself, but to the Twilight Dragon, wherever he was in the heavens. His father had died holding on to what he believed in, his purpose - his dream. Izuku was not about to just give up on his without a fight.

With these thoughts in mind, the eleven year old picked up his pace. The lake was beautiful, but long, and he'd been out jogging for some time already. His body was at the risk of being run ragged, his muscles burned, but he forced himself to keep his breathing steady, the consistent flow of oxygen paramount when exercising.

As he neared the latest bend, he observed how cold it had grown in the past two weeks. Icicles dripped from the nearest branches, as long as his forearm. Snow dusted the tops of the trees and the edges of the shore, and the forest floor was constantly wet during the day. Several nights ago, it had gotten so cold that the lake had frozen up in its entirety, with the occasional brave soul playing on the ice during the day. Despite how fun it looked, Izuku doubted it froze very thick and didn't want to risk it himself.

The same could not be said for the two girls currently sliding on the ice, their laughter filling the chilly clearing with joy.

"Itsuka(3), wait up!" said one girl, blonde hair tied in pigtails, racing to catch up to her partner who had slid ahead of her by some distance.

"You'll have to catch me!" cried the other girl, 'Itsuka', who had long flowing orange hair and wore a thick blue jacket.

Izuku continued to run as he watched her approach the center of the lake, slipping and sliding on the ice, giggling all the way. Her friend struggled to keep up, but the further they got from the shore, the less she laughed. A thick branch stuck up from the ground and Izuku did a slight jump in time with his run to leap over it. When he turned back to the girls, however, his heart nearly stopped.

There was only one girl standing on the surface of the lake. The other was nowhere to be seen.

"ITSUKA!?" the blonde girl cried, running towards where Izuku could see a hole had formed at the center of the lake before sliding backwards fearfully when the ice she stood on began to crack. She changed tactics, looking around the lake for any sign of aid. "HEEEEEELLLP! SOMEONE PLEASE!"

No one responded but the wind.

Izuku, already tired from his run, didn't even consider what he was doing, allowing the momentum of his feet to carry him towards the screaming girl. By the time he came to his senses, he was halfway across the lake and without the slightest plan. His mind raced; why hadn't she come up? Had she fallen in and swallowed water, unable to breathe? Or had the current under the lake been strong enough to pull her under the ice and away from the breach. The second thought spelt disaster for anyone trying to help her, but neither scenario was good.

Regardless, he didn't slow for a second as he simply took off the winter jacket he'd been wearing and tossed it aside as he neared the hole. Ice under his feet began to crack warningly, but he pushed on. He had but a split second to see the tear stricken blonde girl look up at him in surprise, acknowledge the now belated presence of several people approaching from the far side of the lake with urgency, and take a breath before he leapt into the abyss.

The plunge immediately stole the breath he'd just taken. The water was… beyond cold. He felt like he was being poked by a thousand needles and rubbed down by sand paper. His scream escaped him before he could think, the pain so overwhelming, that he only just managed to save a portion of air.

Forcing his eyes open in the blackness of the lake, he saw no immediate sign of the girl and as panic set in, he reasoned to himself that he'd surface for another breath before forcing himself down again to search properly. Part of him doubted he could force himself to come back down into the painful embrace of the water again, but that point was moot as Izuku looked up and his eyes widened in horror.

It was exactly as he feared; the hole was no longer above him. Already the light from the outside world faded, he noticed, as he was pulled by the strong current further inland to where the ice was thicker. The only illumination was a dim, blue glow from above as the sun's rays struggled to break through the layer of ice.

He was alone, adrift in the darkness, and panic overtook him.

He was going to die.

He'd been foolish, diving in to save a stranger, so eager to prove he was a hero -

'No! It wasn't that..', he corrected himself.

He had just wanted to help the girl. To save her.

Nonetheless, he knew he'd been an idiot and now it would cost him his life. Some hero he was… As the air left him, he had one thought on his mind: what would his mom think?

An image of her crying over his dead body flashed, and his heart clenched at her broken form. He couldn't allow that to happen. The anger that he'd ever let his mother down, after all she'd done for him, drove Izuku to stave off the panic and fear, if only just, and work on a solution.

He tried stopping himself along the current, swimming up to find purchase on the underside of the ice, but to no avail. The friction did work on slowing him down, however, and then he saw her.

The girl.

She was floating, motionless, only a little ways away from him. He would have missed her if not for her orange hair; bright and vibrant even in the nebulous waters of the lake.

He swam towards her, agonizing over how his lungs burned from the strain. As he gripped her, he didn't bother to check her pulse, knowing it would be for naught if they didn't find a way out and now. He noticed her hands had swollen up into massive fists. Her quirk, he realized. They looked bruised and bleeding… how..

Izuku's eyes widened. He searched the ice above them desperately. The current had slowed, allowing him to tread with her in place. As spots began to appear in the corners of his vision and he felt fuzzy, he saw it - cracks in the ice!

'Atta girl,' he thought. She'd used her quirk when the current slowed to try and break through. Only she hadn't made it before her air gave out.

He pushed towards the ice with her in one arm. Arriving took longer than expected with the added weight, and he truly felt breathless.

Crack!

Crack!

He punched the sunken in ice as hard as he could. The spiderweb fractured further out, his hands bloodied, but the ice didn't give.

His lungs burned. His vision spun, the dizziness taking hold. He screamed a final time, desperately hammering at the ice with his back and fist.

But then it was gone. His air. His strength. His fight.

The girl slipped from his hands to float gently beside him, her descent into the darkness slow. He sputtered out nothing as water rushed into his lungs, his face panic stricken, the sensation unequivocal. He had failed, and his body greedily swallowed up his recompense.

The blackness took him, completely, and he saw no more… But he heard something.

A voice in the water.

"If you want to be a hero, Izuku…"

Emerald eyes widened.

"...then be A HERO!"

The words he'd wanted to hear all his life, laid bare before him. The world blurred and swam back into view beyond his mother's eyes. They shone with absolute conviction, the likes of which he'd never seen on anyone before. She believed in him!

No one noticed as an unseen breeze rushed into the room, fluttering the curtains and tussling his hair, but in that moment, Izuku's world changed forever.

"Be the greatest HERO you can be!"

"AAAGGGGGGHHHHH!"

The air burst from his very being, filling his lungs and purging the water from within before expanding in a small dome around his body. It wasn't going to last. With seconds to spare, Izuku clung onto the power within - whatever it was - and channeled it into a turbine of force pointed above him. The ice exploded outward, and sunlight bathed him in its pale promise. However, his energy was spent.

He looked down at the girl sinking to the lake floor, and with a final herculean effort, he pulled his hands up, a tether of wind reaching down to encircle the girl and bring her up to his reach like a tornado. As soon as he grabbed her enlarged hands, his power gave out, and with it his breath, but they were there.

The current no longer a factor, Izuku rose to the surface clutching the girl, his vision swimming once more when he broke the surface.

Air.

He felt rejuvenated the moment he came into contact with it. A gentle gale caressed his face, the harsh cold reminding his body that it was alive. With some difficulty, and after many deep breaths, a still dizzy Izuku lifted the girl onto the surface, careful not to break the compromised ice surrounding them, before circling to another spot and pulling himself up.

Having learned basic CPR in a pre-hero course in middle school, Izuku began applying the steps to the girl, careful to keep her elevated properly and his chest compressions in time. On the third try of clearing her airways, she sputtered and coughed out several cups of water before passing out, though her breath remained steady. Izuku nearly cried in relief.

She would be his first kiss, he reflected.

He was running beyond empty, but he didn't dare linger on the lake for a moment longer, gingerly pulling the girl with him to the not-too-distant shore. Once there, he put her down - somewhat heavier than intended - as his muscles gave out on him and he fell beside her.

Izuku had acted on instinct up 'til that point, but now that the quiet came, so too did his thoughts. The first being, he was alive. The second, he couldn't even begin to process…

"I-I have a quirk," he whispered to no one, his face disbelieving.

He looked around, sure that someone else with a quirk had saved them and that he'd imagined the strange feeling of control over the vortex due to his oxygen deprived state. But no one else was around, the group gathered at the center of the lake still unaware of their escape as they argued around the breach point.

It settled on him. He had a quirk - a wind(4) quirk - and he'd used it to save not just himself, but someone else, too.

He. Had. A. Quirk.

His first thought, irrationally enough, was panic. He'd just used it in public without consent or a license. Further, he'd used it to do, well, hero stuff. He wouldn't have possibly gotten in trouble for his act of heroism, but he wasn't thinking clearly and so Izuku panicked and stood on shaky legs.

He saw the people on the lake notice their presence, and though he couldn't make them out - which meant they couldn't make him out either - they began running towards them within moments. He had to go.

He checked to see that the girl was still breathing. She shivered in her sleep, but he was sure the approaching adults would take care of her before hypothermia set in. He didn't fancy being discovered peeling off her clothes himself.

Already the adults were closer. He turned to leave when a voice caught him unaware. It was soft, and fragile, not at all like the boisterous one he'd heard five minutes - and what felt like a lifetime - ago.

"..thank.. you.."

Green eyes stared up at him, bleary and moist with tears. Izuku couldn't think of anything to say, no heroic comment came to mind and so he settled for…

"You're welcome."

She smiled and closed her eyes, and he used that moment to flee the scene. A strange feeling came over him, euphoric, as he ran from the girl. His hands tingled, a pleasant chill went down his spine. Perhaps it was from the hypothermia threatening to settle in, but he knew it was more than that. A memory came to him.

"...but I can't stand in the way of your destiny - your path. Like I said it's yours to pave."

Looking back at that night two weeks ago, Izuku now knew what that look from his mother was. It was love. It was acceptance. More than that… it was unequivocal pride.

A pride he couldn't help but now feel himself.

Letting loose a megawatt smile, tears in his eyes for what he vowed would be the last time, Izuku ran even faster, an uncontainable energy to his every step. He'd saved himself, and more importantly the girl. He vowed she would be but the first of many. For he was going to be a great hero even without a quirk. Now that he had one of his own, an amazing one at that, he was going to be so much more.

He was going to be the greatest hero of all time.

With a childlike whoop, he bobbed in and out of the trees leading to the lakehouse, an ethereal, calming breeze following in his wake, as he disappeared into the woods.

Chapter three of 'A Dream from Darkness' will be uploaded soon. Just had a very quick plot bunny, one admittedly explored before, and I had to exorcise it the only way I knew how. More to come.

Author's Notes:

(1). Changed the standard time for quirks being revealed to the age of ten, including physical alterations. Almost like a coming of age, or magical cores being stabilized like in the Harry Potter fanon. This allows kids to experience a good portion of their lives as quirkless prior to getting their powers, which makes them appreciate getting them all the more, as well as allowing those with physical mutations to recall what it was like 'being normal'. This of course alters the origin story of quirks being discovered by a glowing baby in China. Simply change it from a baby to an ten year old, and the story remains intact just fine.

(2). The creator isn't clear as to how long quirks have been around, as the current story's year is ambiguous. With One-For-All cycling through eight individuals, it suggests quirks have been around for assumably a hundred years or more, though the technology and clothes in the show contrast with that theory, as they don't reflect such a huge time jump from 2016. I'll likewise remain ambiguous with the timeline, until things are further fleshed out in canon.

(3). Itsuka Kendo is the leader of Class 1-B in canon. There will be developments on thar front.

(4). Some people inherit a single parents quirk, others both, and others a combination of their parents powers. Others still are born with completely different quirks altogether. Midoriya is one such case.