Chapter One: I am… Midoriya Izuku

'People are not born equal. That's the hard truth that I learned at the age of four. It was the first and my last hurdle...'

In the dark back streets of Naruhata Midoriya Izuku was bleeding. He had come to the district in hopes of finally nailing down the elusive Silver age All Might Hoodie but had encountered a duo of ruffians harassing a child on his way to the seller. The taller one had a mean look about him with his ripped jean vest, several piercing, and tattoos. His fists were blazing with scarlet flames. The second looked like an eel out of the water with sharp teeth and long neck.

He should have stayed out of it.

'It all began in Keikei city, China, with the news that a bioluminescent baby was born.'

He should have called a hero.

'After that, "Exceptional" individuals began popping up all over the world. The cause was unclear, but as time passed, the exceptional became the Norm. Fantasy became reality.'

He should have kept his head down like the Quirkless loser Kaachan thought he was...

'Eighty percent of the world's population consists of superhumans with special abilities. The world was in chaos and a profession that everyone only dreamed entered the spotlight.'

But how could he aspire to be a hero if he walked away when someone was in danger? How could he live with himself if he hadn't at least tried to stop the stop them?

'Along with exceptional abilities came an explosion of crime and while nations struggled to overhaul their legal system, brave individuals took up the mantle of heroes straight out of comic books. Protecting the people from evildoers! With public support, some of them even acquired the right to serve as heroes in the official capacity. Depending on their performance, they had the potential to earn Government pay, Fame, and Glory.'

Izuku Midoriya wanted to be a hero, no, that wasn't quite right. Izuku needed to be a hero. It was not in his nature to ignore the world around him because society demanded that he be a victim. He had something in his soul that shielded him from the verbal abuse of his classmates and spurred him into action. His soul held the purest of humanities virtues, determination. It was this spark of determination that made push past his own meek form and truly embodies the ideal of the selfless Hero!

But there were a few problems with young Midoriya that even the strength of his determination he could not overcome. Mainly that he was as thin as a reed and with nearly as much muscle. Yet as he tried to crawl away and tears ran down his cheeks like wild rivers, a broad, toothy smile was plastered on his face.

'It was an old clip… there was this disaster a while back but in the aftermath… a certain hero made his debut. All I can remember about it was his smile and the dream that was born from it. I wanted to be a cool superhero like him, saving everyone with a smile.'

"This kid's loaded, Ota, there's gotta be at least fifty thousand Yen in his bag." Shouted the hoodlum that was searching through his school bag.

"For real?" The one grinding his boot into the back of Izuku's head yelled back. "Shit, if he's walking around with that kind of cash he's gotta be rich or something. He got anything else in there, Naga?"

"All Might trading cards, All Might brand granola bar... four notebooks, Hero hotspot guide book." There was a scoff. "Typical nerd junk."

"What about the other kid?" Izuku squirmed, as he had never had to squirm before and all of it in an effort to keep their attention on him. His reward was a swift kick left black spots marring his vision. "This little bug thinks he can play Hero, huh? Why don't you call out for a real hero?!"

As much as Izuku wanted to the chances that a pro-hero was patrolling the back ways of a 'calm' ward like Naruhata were slim to none. Sure, Eraserhead patrolled the area on a semi-regular basis, but he was more of a nocturnal Hero.

'Two joints were all it took to nearly drown that dream. An extra bone in the pinky toe made whatever plans for the future that I held utterly irrelevant because it meant that I was part of the twenty percent of the population that was completely and utterly mundane. Because of this revelation, teachers became apathetic towards me, students mocked my dream, and even the light in my mother's eyes seemed to dim a little'.

"BECAUSE HE DOESN'T NEED TO!" A booming voice came from above, followed closely by a towering shadowy figure jumping off the roof of one of the surrounding buildings. For a split second, Izuku could see he would be a savior as he descended the boy's heart became louder than any drum or even some engines. 'All Might!' His pain-addled mind rationalized, but there was definitely something off...

'I remember the darkness that followed as I watched that clip again. He was Hero that would always save you with a smile, no matter what happened or how bleak the world became. He would come in and save you.'

"'Cause I am Here!" It wasn't All Might Izuku realized as the figure landed atop a large pile of trash. The height and musculature were similar, but the costume was wrong. A black bandana covered the upper half of his face; he wore a black t-shirt and a dusty grey trench coat. Military pants were tucked into his heavy combat boots.

"Who the fuck is this old fart?" Naga asked drooping Izuku's bag. The dark Hero didn't hesitate to slam his brass knuckle fist across Naga jaw, sending him into the air with a brutal uppercut.

Ota jumped off Izuku, charging the newcomer with a fire-covered fist. "What the-"The Hero had been moving towards Ota just as Naga lifted into the air. The haymaker wasn't wild, it was delivered almost clinically. The fist made contact with the thug's head sending him into the gravel.

Izuku struggled to push himself off of the ground, so he didn't see the awkward sight of his savior lifting up the unconscious forms of his attackers, prying their jaws open, and pulling out their tongues. Izuku did hear his savior scoff in annoyance before moving closer to his near spasming body.

'I wanted to be like him.'

"Hey, kid." Izuku's savior said in his gruff voice as his large fingers prodded his school uniform's pockets until they found his student ID. "You've got some guts trying to pull what you just pulled but you ain't ready to be a hero yet." There was a long pause while Izuku shifted his body to get a good look at the Hero. He didn't recognize him, which meant that he was either from outside the country or one of the underground heroes that seemed to be on the rise.

'But all my mother could do was hold me close and apologize for things she had no control over. That wasn't what I wanted her to say…'

The man in the bandana was far too old to be New Hero and knew how to fight in a way that reminded Izuku of the veterans of the last generation. "But that can change, ya know, you don't need a strong quirk to be a hero. That crap's got nothing to do with true justice! At the moment when it's clear what's gotta be done, you took action."

"..." At the moment all Izuku wanted to do was that the Hero that had saved him, to thank him for his kind words but to stop him from saying the one thing that he had wanted to hear since the doctor had proclaimed him Quirkless, the words he had wanted his mother to tell him in that dark room...

Yet Izuku couldn't bring himself to stop him.

"Stand up, Kid, and I'll teach you what it takes to do Hero work." His Hero commanded, and Izuku did. It was painful and slow. First, he pushed himself onto his knees, and then he wobbled onto his feet, his body buckling in protest, but still, he persevered. Bloody and crying Izuku stood hunched slightly but proud.

"Good, the name's Knuckleduster, but you can call me Master."

-0-

Nearly six months had passed since Izuku had accepted Knuckleduster's offer to become his apprentice, and Izuku was in twice as much pain as the day he had met the old Vigilante. The Old Man was a brutal trainer and a dedicated teacher. Two ten Kilometer runs, once in the morning and then once again when the sun went down, followed by three sets of one hundred twenty push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups, squats, dips, and ever-increasing goal post in planks. But that was just the tamest Knuckleduster's training program.

The duo would travel to the rockiest beaches with the most powerful waves whenever the weekend rolled around. The purpose of this wasn't immediately clear to young Midoriya. He had been far too skinny at the beginning, but with every visit, he could witness his improvements. The goal had been to turn back the wave, to punch it so hard that it would return into the sea and crash into the beaches of China. It was an impossible goal that Izuku though only All Might could possibly achieve but wasn't that why he was training for? To achieve the impossible dream? To become a hero without a quirk and save people with a smile. If he could not turn back the wave, what hope did he have to become the new symbol of peace?

So on every weekend, may the sun be shining or the winds howling, Izuku stood bare-chested and waist-deep in seawater trying to punch back nature because it would make him stronger, because he would one day break through the wave and tackle the storm.

But he was not strong enough yet. The waves still pushed him back towards the shore. Nature's titanic fury could still send him crashing into the sand. Its white foam would blind him as his lungs struggled to recapture the air that had escaped them, yet he would rise back up fueled by his anger and determination and charge right back into the water.

There were things that could not be fought.

When a storm approached, one was supposed to cower and find shelter, that was what logic and his teachers had taught him since he could understand what fear was, but Knuckleduster had other ideas.

"If ya' wanna be a hero you've gotta charge into the storm or risk letting the people your tryin' to protect are gonna drown." He said with a certainty that fed into that spark in Izuku's heart that made him believe that he could stand against nature and win.

Combat training was… more hands-on than he had thought possible. His Master was not a technical fighter. Knuckleduster relied on speed and overwhelming power to battle his opponents and would instead take the hit than dodge if it allowed him an opening to exploit. He fought like a bare-knuckle brawler but didn't suit Izuku as he was now. He preferred to start of fights with his left fist for a bit of shock before ramming his right just under the arch of the nose. Izuku had seen his Master fight two of the 'pop' up villains that had been causing havoc in Naruhata recently and for all intents and purposes, his Master should have lost.

The two transformation types were monstrous in size and completely covered in muscle, but Knuckleduster had matched them blow for blow. He hit them in pressure spots that would generally make a person go into shock if hit hard enough. Kidney shots and throat punches allowed a Quirkless man to take down villains twice his size. Even as another wave sent him tumbling back towards the beach, Izuku couldn't help but be amazed by his Master's will; and determination.

His Master was like a wave.

Izuku was determined to overcome him.

Naruhata taught Izuku how to fight in its own way. The criminal element there was… diverse, to say the least. While the Yakuza were pretty much irrelevant in the grand scheme of things a few Clans, Houses, and Families were still operating because in some parts of the ward they had woven themselves so finely into their communities that uprooting them would cause more problems than they would solve. The Triads were a relatively new presence Tokyo in the sense that a new one seemed to sprout from the ashes of whichever group the police and Heroes had dismantled.

Both groups had a myriad of fighters that were as brutal as they were skilled, which helped Izuku a lot since Knuckleduster was a more hands-on teacher.

The main difference was that the Triads were known for pushing drugs, while the local crime groups were more into profiteering and racketeering now that the government had established laws that restricted public Quirk use … or at least that was Izuku's understanding of it. The Yakuza had been gutted early on with only a few of the principal families, alliances, and gangs surviving All Might. Those that were still around were either still scrapping by the skin of their teeth or were working for Villains.

All the evidence that Knuckleduster managed to beat out of the black-tongued villains pointed to an established group using Naruhata as a test bed for a drug that Knuckleduster called "Trigger." Every waking moment that wasn't dedicated to training was directed to cracking the chain of supply of the Quirk enhancing drug before the situation became so large that the Pros would need to be called in or the Villains achieved their goal... whatever those were.

The problem with that theory was that it would that the risk versus rewards of pushing a drug like "Trigger" just didn't add up to Izuku, not when it increased pro hero surveillance in the area that they were trying to push it. Another problem that Izuku had was that his Master wasn't very invested dealing with the source of the problem as he was of uprooting the local dealers… that was proving to be another problem in upon itself.

There were so many problems buzzing around inside his head that the young Hero to be didn't notice the looming shadow hidden beneath the waves until a fist shot out towards stomach. It was fortunate that the fist wasn't covered by the iconic brass knuckleduster as it sank into Izuku's stomach. He shifted his weight to avoid the worst of the unexpected attack, but then the white foam crest of the wave came crashing down just as he moved back.

…

Koichi, his new Senpai, was waiting for him when he washed up with a small towel. There was something refreshing about Koichi. He was kind of cynical but he nice about it. He worried about Izuku, in a way that no one but his mother had really ever shown, and would often follow the pair when Knuckleduster decided to oversee Izuku's beach training. Koichi was almost as big of an All Might fan as Izuku and shared a passion for helping, so it was pretty easy to talk to him unlike with Master.

"I tried to tell you that he'd snuck into the water, but you were kind of too focused…" Koichi apologized with a bashful smile. He was kind of expressive but nowhere near as expressive Izuku himself. When he was embarrassed, he'd scratch the back of his head when he was pumped, his half-lidded were open and aware… and he had a fantastic Quirk.

It wasn't strong like Bakugo's. It wasn't destructive or flashy. No one would associate with a Pro, but it was. Slide and Glide wasn't what it seemed, Izuku was sure of it. There were far too many inconsistencies for it to be such a simple Quirk.

"Thanks for trying, Senpai, but I'm pretty sure that Master has a perfectly good reason-"

"You're letting your guard down when you hit the wave," Knuckleduster shouted as his muscular form rose from the sea. He wasn't wearing the black bandana that he used for a mask. The jagged scar that rand diagonally across his face looked red when left exposed to them too long, this only added to his intimidating visage but it didn't stop people from staring at the older Vigilante… especially the college aged girls that completely ignored his scrawny Senpai. "If you wanna charge an opponent you've gotta be both explosive and aware of the world around ya'. 'Cause you ain't All Might and people can stop you easier than most."

He paused as Koichi threw him a can of beer, which he snapped out of the air without looking away from Izuku.

"Be prepared for the worst, kid, and I'll make a hero out of you."

-0-

School life hadn't changed… no that was a lie. He had changed and so had the way he looked at those around him. While people didn't see him, didn't notice the bruising or the occasional limp one thing had changed.

It was expected of a 'Quirkless loser' to be put in his place now and again. They were apathetic towards it, Izuku knew that, and he appreciated it now more than ever. Their apathy was not born out of cruelty, which was a small comfort; it came from a lack of empathy towards his situation. They were born with amazing Quirks; thus, they could not walk a mile in his shoes, nor could they understand his dream.

'Those born in the light do not know how to live in the shadows. That's why I wanted to become a hero, to help those that were born in the darkness and lift them into the light… but I was naïve back then. I didn't stop to consider that the light could be so blinding.'

He wanted the strength to fight the storm and slowly but surely he was getting there yet he couldn't help but feel delusioned with his classmates. They weren't good people but they wanted to be Pro-Heroes. It made him slightly bitter as he heard them judge his dream, especially Kaachan.

It was like the scales around Izuku's eyes had fallen off and the shining star that he had so desperately clung to was quickly fading. Bakugo Katsuki had once been someone Izuku could have called friend once upon a time, and when that became unattainable he wished to at leas bask in the glow. This became difficult as Izuku's former friend's sense of self grew, so did his power. Basking in the glow became hazardous, especially when Katsuki determined that he needed to prove his superiority to the world. Those that wanted to coast off of his future success fostered his arrogance in hopes that he would drag them along once he graduated from U.A.

"Victory defeats character, while defeat fosters will." In other words, a person learns more from losing than they do from winning, Katsuki was a natural fighter and he trained with an intensity that made others pause awe. But he didn't struggle, he didn't push himself to the extremes that Izuku and Koichi pushed themselves towards because he already believed himself to be the best. Few people acknowledge effort without a witnessing the end result and fewer still did so if the person is Quirkless.

Failure and defeat were the best teachers yet they both strived not to feel the sting of loss but they were better for them.

Six months had passed since first encountering Knuckleduster and the physical differences were noticeable. He was significantly taller than he had been six months ago, mostly due to a combined effort of his mom and the ever watchful Koichi keeping him fed and watered and his progress was staggering yet no one seemed to notice and as much as Izuku didn't mind that they were looking over but the preferential treatment was becoming blatantly obvious to the aspiring hero. Other students were being looked over for seemingly 'weak' Quirks.

So many people with useful abilities that dreamed of being useful to society were cast to wayside to pander to the few that would have the highest chance of bringing the school some semblance of glory when they eventually threw together a memoir and mentioned where they cam from. Water quirks that could help deal with flood zones instead of dousing fires. Strength based Quirks that couldn't break through wall but that could be grown to help reinforce structural weaknesses.

So, on and so forth. Recommendations wouldn't be given when entrance exams rolled, and those useful students would eventually have to give up on their dreams because they were not supported by the relevant authorities.

All around him was wasted potential, dead-end dreams, and a growing sense of apathy among his fellow students. It was infuriating to a degree that made that it made him recede further into his studies, both as a student and as a vigilante. The system would need to change on its own eventually, or when Izuku finally became a hero he would change.

Stratagems and theories meant to tackle the growing presence of 'Trigger' littered the edges of his class notes. His shift in behavior was drastically more notable in Hero Analysis for the Future Vol. 10. In Volume 9, his notebook was filled with sketches of heroes, their Quirks, and how to better improve upon them… in Volume 10, on the other hand, for each hero e recorded there was a page that was dedicated to overcoming similar Quirks. Because for every Death Arms there were a dozen weaker versions of him running around.

Potential allies became jotted down as potential combatants. His analysis became more surgical and with every whispered insult he wished to be outside. Fighting crime, learning practically, and becoming stronger.

Izuku would turn back the wave one day… he had too.

-0-

For months Izuku trained and studied till he was barely able to stagger his way back home. His tired mind never registering the soft hands that would guide him back to his room when he limped into his house or the tears that fell quietly from his mother's eyes as she threated about the well being of her only son. Midoriya Inko was not blind, nor was she ignorant of her son actions, but she couldn't bring herself to interfere. She had failed him as a mother for so long… how could she stand in the way of her son's dream? Especially now that there was actual light behind his eyes and smile.

No, she wouldn't stop Izuku, but how could she help him?

There was a way yet she hesitated because the damage it could do to her son had the potential to be immeasurable, both physically and psychologically. It was why she paced around the table late at night with a small pager in one hand and a flip phone in the other.

Izuku was like a koi fish swimming up a waterfall.

He needed her help.

She couldn't afford to hesitate any longer.

Inko pressed the send to the pager, and after a few tense minutes in the dark, her phone began to ring. She didn't hesitate to pick the call up.

"Yo, Nee-chan." A gruff baritone voice greeted her as if it hadn't been over sixteen years since they had last directed a word to each other. "What'cha need?" But then again Yonenaga Rojiya wasn't one to hold her choices against her. Rojiya was a free spirit that was born in the wrong country and in the wrong century. He would have been at home in those old west films she used to watch when she was much younger. He had always been kind to her, and she hoped that he could do a favor for an old friend.

Maybe he could help her little Koi become a Dragon.

-0-

A/N: Hello and welcome to I Am.. i was inspired to do after reading a few great fics and after reading Tom Kings' Batman Run. I love Bane and i love Izuku.. both make great heroes and after reading a handful of fics where Izuku basically becomes comic book heroes i wanted to make a heroic Izuku modeled after the second greatest threat to Batman.

Please drop a review or Pm with any questions