Chapter Text
Izuku Midoriya sighed before glancing up at the giant bird that was standing in front of him. The creature had seen him walking down the street unbothered, unlike the crowds of fleeing people, and had approached. It peered down, its feathery body towering over him as deep black eyes bore into his own.
"Foolish human! You dare to stand before the mighty Harukawa, the avian terror of this world?! Your kind has plagued the skies for long enough! I, who soared above the mountains, fear no one. You who seek to stop me shall fall like the feathers from my wings!"
Why did all the monsters he encountered feel the need to deliver long, dramatic monologues? Izuku thought, zoning out while respectfully waiting for the speech to end. Suddenly, Harukawa's voice dropped to a menacing tone. "Prepare to—"
"Yeah, yeah, enough!" Izuku interrupted, snapping back to reality. He formed a fist and threw a weak punch that sent the massive bird flying backward before it crashed to the ground with a thud.
Izuku stared at the now-defeated Harukawa with a look of dismay, dropping to his knees holding his head in between his hands, as he yelled.
"No it can't be, not again…it only took one punch?"
Three Years Earlier
Izuku had always wanted to be a hero.
The dream had been etched into his heart for so long it had more or less become a part of him. As a kid he would spend countless hours with his eyes glued to the television screen, watching videos of All Might saving people from the brink of disaster. The thought of being a hero echoed through his dreams long before he understood Quirks—or the fact that he didn't have one.
That day though he hadn't been thinking about heroes or long forgotten dreams; he had been focused entirely on stretching his limited budget at the local supermarket. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead as he rifled through rows of discounted items, carefully inspecting each price tag.
Whilst inspecting a pack of slightly bruised bananas, he calculated in his head how much he had left to spend.
As he moved to place the bananas in his cart a deafening crash echoed through the store. He looked around, confused. He watched on as he saw hordes of people abandon their shopping carts and flee toward the exits.
What was happening?
"Is someone attacking the store?" he muttered aloud.
As if to confirm his words another crash resounded through the building followed shortly by a high pitched scream. Without thinking, he pushed his cart of discounted goods aside and ran to the front of the store where the noise was coming from.
As he approached, he found himself face-to-face with a sight that he had only ever seen from behind the relative comfort of a screen.
There it was—a massive reptilian-like creature with scaly green skin and glowing yellow eyes: a Mysterious Being, or as they were more commonly referred to as, monsters.
What the hell?" Izuku whispered, taking an involuntary step back. His heart raced as he tried to gather his thoughts. What should I do? What can I do? I'm not a hero—I'm just some quirkless kid!
"Ahahaha! Look upon your fate, pitiful mortals!" The creature bellowed, its voice deep and gravelly, resonating throughout the store. "The day of reckoning has come! Prepare to die!"
Panic erupted as more shoppers scrambled toward the exits, but Izuku found himself frozen in place. In a matter of seconds, the creature's gaze shifted toward a young man who had stumbled, his eyes wide with panic as he tripped over a fallen stack of cereal boxes. The monster's predatory instincts kicked in, and it lunged forward, towering over the unfortunate bystander.
"Get away from him!" he shouted, his voice wavering but filled with determination.
He was ignored and watched as the guy whimpered, backing against a shelf, knocking the boxes on it to the ground. Then, just as the creature raised its clawed hand to strike, Izuku acted on impulse. He grabbed a nearby shopping cart and charged forward, swinging it with all his might. The cart crashed into the monster's side, causing it to falter momentarily.
"Run!" he shouted in the vague direction of where he knew the man was unwilling to take his eyes off his target even for a second, "I'll distract it so get out of here for now!"
He felt someone scrambling upright and darting for the nearest exit. Izuku's heart raced, but there was no time for second thoughts.
As the chaos of the supermarket unfolded around him—the shouts of other shoppers, the beeping of the store alarms, and the terrifying growls of the monstrous creature—he felt an odd moment of clarity pass over him. A flicker of memory danced across his mind, and he couldn't help but laugh.
The monster, who had been watching the scene unravel with the same disinterest as you would when watching a badly acted movie, stared at him confused before then growing angry.
"How dare you? Laughing at me?" the being roared, muscles tensing as it turned its full attention towards Izuku.
Izuku stopped laughing and with a grin looked up at the reptile. "I just remembered. You look like the villain in an anime I used to watch."
He moved to doge the punch that had been thrown at him in response.
The fight, if you could call it that, ended as quickly as it had started. And as Izuku lay on the floor minutes later, broken ribs digging deep into his sides and blood pooling beneath him, he felt something stir within him. For the first time in a long time he knew exactly what he wanted to be: a hero who could send villains flying with a single punch.
In the back of his mind, as he began to drift into unconsciousness, he could hear murmured news reports gathered on TVs, commentators discussing the monster attacks plaguing Z-City. "Numerous attacks from Mysterious Beings have left the city on high alert as..."
Days later, he awoke days later in a hospital bed with his mother asleep in the seat nearby. Turning his head, he spotted a television mounted in the corner, still flickering with the familiar animated colors of "The Heroic Chronicles." the same anime that he had watched as a kid.
The episode currently playing was about the main character, an overwhelmingly powerful hero called Saitama, revealing his training routine of a 10km run along with 100 pushups, sit ups and squats to a disbelieving Carnage Kabuto. It probably spoke to how utterly lost in the world of fitness he was that he decided that it had been a good enough training plan and followed through with it himself.
But it worked.
Three years later he had achieved overwhelming power, and was the hero he had dreamed of becoming.
"So why am I still not satisfied?"
He continued on his walk back home as the question echoed in his mind. Each day he felt his emotions grow more and more distant. In exchange for power perhaps he had lost something essential for a human being?
He reached into his pocket looking for the key to the apartment before finally finding it and pushing the door open.
It was empty which wasn't surprising. His mother had been working later and later shifts lately. Monster attacks had been increasing in recent years and with the destruction of the next nearest hospital it would make sense that as a nurse her services were in demand.
Taking his shoes off, he placed them near the door and stepped inside. Quickly taking off his coat and dropping his bag to the floor he made his way to the kitchen. He hadn't eaten all day and was just now remembering how hungry he was.
After washing his hands he looked through the cupboards only to see an overwhelming amount of nothing.
"Seriously? We only have noodles left?"
It was a depressing reminder that he should really go to the shops soon. After a quick boil of water, Izuku prepared the noodles. As he waited for them to cook, he pulled out a chair and sat down at the small kitchen table. He had a few moments to reflect amidst the simmering pot before the meal was done and he wasn't bothered to stand and wait right now. He had too many things that he needed to think about.
What had he truly wanted to achieve? He had power now, but..
The kettle shrieked, pulling him from his inner musings, and he stood up to drain the noodles. Just as he finished, he heard the click of the front door opening. His mother had probably just returned from work.
He waits a moment expecting the sounds of footsteps but there are none and he turns around peeking at the door but nobody is there and the door is closed. Weird, but he doesn't think much of it the walls in this apartment are like paper and he could have easily mistaken the sound of his own door opening with any of his neighbours. His crazy workout schedule had not given him super hearing after all.
Later at night, after having had dinner and watching TV with his mother when she had come back an hour or so later, Izuku tried not to think about how he could feel eyes watching him.