Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It's over, I did it. New power flows through me like I've never felt before, It's like the energy rush after absorbing a foe but more. And in a way that is what this is, I simply absorbed my foe, it is simply that my foe was so much more than I could ever be. I did it, but for whom did I do this for I ask myself.

Aven my core seems to whisper, almost hidden beneath the thrum of new energy, so small yet so significant. I feel a connection within my core, solid yet strained. The connection pulls me, my body moving almost automatically to where the connection lies, and as I come to see just who is on the other side of this connection I see a fading body, barely holding together as it is.

My core seems to stutter as memories flood my vision, I see a battle ending in a mutual loss, I see a encounter ending in one-sided rage, I see a second encounter ending before it could begin and a final fight were a agreement was made, then I see our battles, facing a foe of ice and blade, a foe of lightning and spear, a foe of fire and wind, and a foe of great near perfect power.

I seem to snap back into my body as I fall to one knee, the power within me swirling with a want t- no, a need to do something to save this one, whom has helped me reach heights I could never have dreamed of, who was there when my body failed to yield to my own command, who was there at the end of it all taking the hit that was meant for me, and now they lie dying, the power swirls within me as I raise my hand, and as I bring it down onto the dying body of the only one whom I could call my friend.

The world filled with green that turned to white before I knew any more.

Izuku awoke with a jolt, shifting upright from his bed and clutching his chest as he looked around the dark room, trying to find any hint that what he just experienced wasn't real. Eventually Izuku calmed his breathing and stopped clutching his chest, as he shifted in his bed he reached for his phone, unplugging it and turning it on, grimacing at the bright light it emitted before looking at the time.

"5:37 A.M." he sighed, already mourning the lost sleep.

As he looked again hoping the time was wrong just this once, he noticed an alarm, for 5:46 A.M. and blinked confusedly, before realizing that today was the day of the meteor shower he had been looking forward to. Excitedly, Izuku quickly hopped out of bed and started putting on his shoes, before snagging a green hoodie, knowing that even in the late days of spring it could still get pretty chilly, and quietly heading up the fire escape to get to the roof.

As he slowly climbed up the seemingly endless stairs Izuku thought back to the strange dream he had and the even stranger ending it had, normally his dreams consisted of suddenly gaining a quirk only to be ridiculed even further, or being used as a stepping stone for Kacchans path to UA. However this dream was different, not only was it longer than any other dream he could remember, it was also more detailed and vivid, even now a few minutes after he woke up he could still remember most of the dream, where before he would only recall the vague idea of what the dream was about.

Shoving these thoughts to the side, Izuku reached the roof and sat down in the middle of the roof before gazing up at the stars, it was nights like this that reminded him of why he took up stargazing. The sheer beauty of the world on display, seemingly endless and all encompassing, everything seemed so small compared to it. Looking at the stars helped him forget about the bad things in the world, like him being quirkless, or Kacchan hurting him again.

The buzzing of his phone brought Izuku out of his trance, as he silenced his alarm and looked back up at the stars, he couldn't help but think what it would be like to be one, strong and bright, shining even in the darkest of places and giving many the strength to go on.

"It must be nice to be depended on." He glumly thought as he looked at the time again. 5:49 A.M. before looking back at the stars above, deciding to pass the time until the meteor shower by trying to locate as many constellations as he could.

About 4 minutes into his constellation finding spree, Izuku noticed a star that was brighter than the others, as he turned to look at it he noticed it glowed a rather brilliant green, seemingly bathing his surroundings with a green light, as he squinted his eyes to look at this star better, he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of déjà vu that he just couldn't shake.

As he tried to focus on the green star Izuku noticed that it was in fact getting brighter, now to a point that he had to squint from the brightness. As he covered his eyes and tried to get a better look at the star he saw a trail of sorts from behind it.

‘It couldn’t be the meteor shower could it, I thought it wasn’t for another couple minutes?’ Izuku thought as he had to shield his eyes from the starlight.

Getting one last good look at the star he realized that, indeed, that was a trail just like a comet or meteor before it seemed to grow nearly double in size.

Gasping Izuku ducked his head as the possible meteor passed not that far from his head, he saw some odd green particles flutter in the wind before fading, as the light from the meteor dimmed down he got up and rushed over to the edge of the roof before trying to find where the meteor had gone.

After a little bit of looking he saw a faint green glow near the water, after a bit of thought Izuku realized that that was dagoba beach. As he came to this realization the green glow intensified for a moment before it was abruptly replaced by a red and blue glow that nearly rivaled the green glow in brightness that eventually dimmed down into nothing.

As Izuku looked over at dagoba beach he barely noticed the meteor shower over his head, only realizing it happened because a stray meteorite passed in his peripherals, this shook him out of his stupor and he quickly went back down the fire escape, popping back in his room to grab a few other things before snagging the house keys and leaving a note for his mom about where he’s going, hopefully he will be back before then but it pays to prepare.

As Izuku jogs down to dagobah he thinks about the meteorite he saw, he didn’t recognize it in his research which only excited him with the idea that it could be entirely new, maybe it would prove that quirkless people weren’t useless after all.

As he was thinking that Izuku finally reached the boardwalk for dagobah beach, he was surprised at the amount of trash present on the beach and worried he wouldn’t be able to find the meteorite before he had to go back home.

About 10 minutes into his search Izuku thought that maybe the meteor didn’t hit dagobah and instead hit the water, it would explain why he couldn’t find it in the rubble and junk that covers the beach, as he approached the water a bright flash of light appeared of to his side, as he turned to look he found himself staring at the tip of a shining sword. 

Looking at whoever is holding this sword their body seemed to be vaguely female and entirely composed of a white light similar to their sword, the oddest thing about them was that the spot where their face would be was instead a bright blue light that reminded him of something he couldn’t place at the moment.

Taking a step back Izuku couldn’t help but ramble on his observations, mumbling as he stared at the sword that was just a few inches from his neck, the person seemed to perk up slightly at the sound of his voice before lowering their blade, this allowed Izuku to realize that they also have a shield.

As Izuku was reeling from the possible near death situation, the person’s face light seemed to pulse before a small wave of blue light came from it alongside a semi high-pitched tone. After a few seconds another tone emitted from the water similar to the white person's tone but in a lower pitch, as Izuku turned to look he was almost shoved aside by the white person as they ran to the water. After a few seconds of deliberation Izuku followed behind them.

Edda didn’t know what had happened after she tried to save Aven, but right now it didn’t matter as he was close by, she had half a mind to try and fight that green one but she didn’t think she could beat them without Aven’s help, so she had to find him first. Fortunately it would appear that they both ended up somewhat close to each other in this strange place that had her map acting strange.

As Edda approached where she could feel Aven she noticed a strange rushing sound that she never heard before, slowing down and resummoning her sword and shield she slowly crept towards where Aven was, while on the lookout for potential enemies.

As she slowly crept closer to where she heard the strange sounds she finally saw Aven, he was lying on the ground beneath a clear material that reminded her of the water from before. Letting out a silent groan at the problem she tried to ping Aven again to get him to get up but was instead met with silence, on closer inspection it would appear that Aven had fallen unconscious, which was terrible meaning she couldn’t get to him and likely had to face this green one alone, troublesome but not impossible.

As the green one entered her sight she noticed that it’s form appeared rather similar to herself and Aven’s, this both confused her as well as worried her, it’s capabilities were unknown and she didn’t know if she could negotiate with this one like she did with Aven, but she could try at least and if she wasted some time trying to negotiate, well what Aven doesn’t know can’t hurt him.

As Edda was about to ring her sonar she realized that the green one was making sounds similarly to the Old one or Summum. As they were talking Edda could tell the moment they noticed Aven lying under the water, it was almost like they didn’t even realize she was holding her weapons as they rushed into the water, surprising Edda enough that they were now out of her reach unless she used her bow.

Yet even as she prepared to defend Aven she realized that the green one wasn’t attempting to absorb Aven and was instead attempting to get them out of the water, which while odd to Edda, she couldn’t help but think that maybe they didn’t want to fight and wanted to help instead like the Old one. With this idea she dispelled her sword and shield and instead went as close to Aven and the green one as she could without entering the water.

Maybe this place was more peaceful than her homeland.

Chapter Text

When Izuku saw the person under the water, he first noticed that they had no visible mutation that would allow them to survive underwater, he then noticed that they were not moving and all of a sudden he was running towards them almost shoving past the blue-faced (lady?) person before attempting to drag the person out of the water.

Now Izuku wasn’t a strong individual and he knew that, but it seemed this person weighed almost nothing at all with how easily he could pull them out of the water. As he laid them down on the beach sand Izuku started looking the black bodied individual over to see if he could tell if he was alright, before he could do much however, a firm hand grasped his shoulder before the blue-faced person sat down next to him. As he turned to look at them he noticed that their weapons seemed to have disappeared and he briefly wondered where they might have gone

‘A weapon creation quirk? But that wouldn’t explain the light that seems to be their body, unless it’s not a weapon but energy solidified, which would mean that their body is comprised of the same energy as their weapon so does that mean they can feel through their weapon or do they only have control over it in a base sense does it also allo-’. Izuku was cut from his mumbling by the blue faced person reaching a hand to the other's face, as he wondered what they were doing he noticed a faint green glow where the two of them were close to each other.

As Izuku was wondering what the glow was he realized just how close the blue-faced person was to the other as they leaned over the black person, their face seemingly furrowed in slight confusion before they reached their hand to the side of the other's face in an almost tender movement. Before they suddenly reared back and slapped their face prompting a shout of pain from the black person, and a gasp from Izuku.

“WHAT THE HELL EDDA!” The person shrieked after they recovered from the sudden attack. “You couldn’t just shake me awake or something, you ‘had’ to SLAP ME.” they shouted in anguish while rubbing their cheeks.

“Well it’s not like you were actually asleep, I could feel your mind moving idiot.” The blue faced person, who Izuku now realizes must be Edda, said as she shook her head, stood up and crossed her arms, reminiscent of a scolding mother, “plus you responded to my sonar anyways so it’s not like you weren’t aware of what you were doing.” she said vaguely exasperated as she rolled her eyes.

The black person ,who Izuku now notices has many similarities to Edda including a bright light overtaking their facial location only theirs was red instead of blue like her’s, seemed to pout before mumbling “you still could’ve played along you know.”

Rolling her eyes once more Edda placed her hands on her hips before leaning forward again, “Oh stop being so dramatic Aven, did you even look around before you decided to do that.” at this Aven briefly looked around before his gaze settled on Izuku, performing a double take before saying under his breath “there’s another green one?” Izuku doesn’t know what he means by ‘green one’ but based on how he said it it’s probably bad.

‘Are these ‘green ones’ bad people and if so how do I remind them of them is it my green hair and green hoodie but even then it’s two entirely different shades of green so it doesn't make sense unless the green ones are some people who-”. “You talk a lot don’t you?” The sudden declaration knocked Izuku out of his mumble storm as Aven and Edda looked at him with an odd expression that Izuku couldn’t place.

“I’M SO SORRY!” Izuku could already feel his ears burning ”I know my muttering is creepy and annoying I apologize that I started mu-” “Whoa calm down I never said it was bad, you just talk a lot more than who I’m used to, really only the old one and Summum talked to us but even then it was stilted words.” Aven said as he started getting up before clasping his hands together and stretching his body.

“Anyways what should we call you, it would be rather rude for us to keep talking without knowing your name.” Edda said, looking at me with her arms crossed and body tilted in a way to indicate curiosity.

“Oh I’m Midoriya Izuku, I’m 13 years old and I go to Aldera Junior High. What should I call you two?” Silently praising himself for not stuttering over his name he waited for them to properly introduce themselves.

“I am known as Edda.” She said very strictly and with purpose, almost as if she was a knight of old, “And you can call me Aven” he said so casually, it was as if they were already good friends, even though they only met today.

“If I may ask, what are you doing here, Midoriya Izuku?” She leaned in to stare into my face, trying to divine some sort of answer from me. “Did we intrude upon something or were you searching for us.”

“Oh come on Edda can’t you see that this greenie is harmless,” Aven stated as he jumped up to place a hand on Edda’s shoulder "I doubt that someone of his stature could be as dangerous as Summum so relax.” gently pulling her back to give me some space. “I suppose you are correct, however my question still stands, what did you come here for?” She says after a moment of deliberation.

Taking a half-step back to try and get some more space, Izuku tries to organize his thoughts, eventually settling on telling the truth, however embarrassing it is.

“I was just waiting for a meteor shower when I saw a green star that turned out to be a meteor. When it crashed I came over here to try and find it and stumbled upon you two by accident while doing that, sorry if I intruded on anything.”

They both looked at each other for a few seconds before turning back to him, Edda seemed to be a bit suspicious of his reasoning but Aven seemed to be perfectly fine with it.

“Well I guess that makes sense all things considered, ”Aven stated "we probably made an impressive meteor for you to come over here and find us.” He seemed oddly proud, but that would only make sense if he was in some way or form responsible for the meteor and Izuku didn’t know of any quirks that could do that.

“What do you mean you made an impressive meteor? It’s not like you created the meteor cause that would mean that you probably had a quirk that could manipulate astral bodies but such a quirk would be highly sought after by the HPSC or other heroes but there's a chance that you weren’t registered and instead were raised in secret but that would mean th-mumble mumble mumble.”

Aven wasn’t quite sure what to make of the kid, it’s obvious they were young but they were rather smart, making those correlations from something so small, but it was concerning how close to the truth they got from something so small.

It almost caught him off guard when Edda asked “Do you believe we can trust him?” She usually doesn’t like using sonar to speak.

“He’s got a good head but they don’t seem dangerous, on top of that I can’t even tell what type of core he has, which to me just makes me not want to fight him.” It was simple enough to respond back using sonar, we both got a lot of practice when we spoke with the old one.

“And to top it all off I can’t use the map, so we are stuck in an unknown place without any knowledge of what happened to us.” It was second nature to feel the exasperation coming from her just by how unpolished her speech was.

“Couldn't we just ask the kid? He seems nice, and who knows he could be like the old one, with knowledge we need that we couldn’t get elsewhere.” It was a simple enough conclusion to Aven, but he knew that Edda prefers hard facts over guesstimates.

Fortunately it would seem she’s willing to compromise in this scenario. “It does seem like the best course of action, very well we shall ask him, once he concludes this muttering.” It seemed reasonable enough to wait, so with a quick nod he turned back to the kid who was still muttering but had moved on from an ‘astral quirk’ to something about chemicals and minerals.

“Not that what you're saying isn’t interesting but do you think you could answer some of our other questions, kid?”

“Wha-oh, I'm so sorry I was muttering again wasn’t I.”

“Again kid, never said it was bad, just wanted to get you back on track.”

“Oh um right, so what did you want to ask me?” It was hard not to see the curiosity in his expression.

“Mainly just where are we as neither of us recognize this place, but we might have some questions afterwards if you got time.”

“Right, that makes sense with what you told me, so um- we are currently at Dagobah beach, it used to be pretty nice but it started getting polluted a while back and now it’s an unofficial trash heap, nearby is the Mustafu district where me and my mom live, we moved not so long ago after a villain attack destroyed our previous home. Is there anything else you want to know?” The kid seemed rather excited to answer our questions.

“Well I don’t have anything at the moment, what about you Edda, got any questions for the kid?”

“Nothing that cannot be answered in time, however I am curious about the individual you called ‘mom’, is this individual of major importance to you?” Leave it to Edda to find a fancy way to ask for the most random thing.

“Oh mom’s great she helped raise me and-, oh no,” the kid grabbed something from his pocket, after a little while he grabbed the top of his head,”Oh no I-I gotta go I completely forgot the time and mom’s gonna wake up soon and she’s probably gonna panicthati’mnotthereandsosorrybutigottago.” the kid dashed off past the mounds of junk, soon after Edda started following so I tagged along. Let’s just hope the kid doesn’t mind.

Chapter Text

Izuku was going to be in so much trouble if he doesn’t make it back soon, he knew that mom prefers to rise with the sun and he could already see the sunlight touching some nearby buildings, if she wakes up and doesn’t find him either in his room or around the apartment she’s going to freak out, it was fortunate that today was a saturday or else he would also have school and Kacchan to deal with after this.

Nearly running up the stairs but slowing down to ensure he doesn’t injure himself Izuku couldn’t help but feel like he forgot something but quickly shoved it aside as he rummaged in his pockets for the house keys, finally finding them he yanked them out and jammed them in the keyhole and unlocking the door, yanking it open and tensing for the oncoming panic love storm.

“Oh Izuku dear, I thought you would be out for a little while longer, I didn’t even have time to start breakfast.” Blinking his eyes in surprise, he expected his mom to flutter around him like he was made of glass like she always does. Instead she was in the kitchen grabbing various foods and cooking utensils.

“Wait, you knew I was out?” Did she wake up early? Or did she see me leave or something, maybe sh-

“Well I saw your note, I thought you’d be back a little after sunrise.” She was still grabbing some produce and spices from the cabinets. Izuku took this time and looked over at the door and saw his note still hanging on the wall, yet again he could feel his ears burning.

It was as he was looking at the wall by the door that he noticed a slight glow come from the doorway. Confused, he walked over and looked out the hallway to see those two people(?) from the beach. When they spotted him they waved at him before walking to their apartment door.

“Hey kid, where are you going in such a hurry?” Aven said before entering a combative stance, “You got a problem you need us to handle.” 

Edda shook her head and placed her hand on his shoulder, “Midoriya Izuku had stated earlier that he had to go back to his mom and that they were possibly worried about him, it is not that large of a conclusion that here is where they reside.” 

At this he sags as if he was a puppet and his strings were cut. “Why do you have to make everything so boring, Edda?” 

She tilted her head as if she was admonishing him, but Izuku could hear the light teasing in her voice(?) “It is only boring because you lack the mental faculties to draw the proper conclusion from such information.” Aven acted as if he was shot, flailing his arms and falling flat on his back, it was hard not to laugh at this show.

“Izuku dear, who’s at the door? Is it a friend?” He turned to look at her and saw her starting up the stove, an array of different foods and spices set out on the counter. “If it is then please ask them what they would like, I’m willing to cook up enough for them as well.” 

It seemed like such a simple thing to ask but Izuku couldn’t help but think about all the ways it could go wrong, maybe they wouldn’t want a home cooked meal or maybe they have a special diet because of their quirks and think we aren’t accepting of their needs or mayb-

”You good kid? A hand on his shoulder knocked him out of his head, turning he saw Aven set his hand on his shoulder and was looking rather worriedly at him.  “You look kinda worried.”

“It’s nothing, just my head getting to me, you don’t have to worry about me.” It was almost second nature to deflect this away. “But are you ok kid?” The sheer sincerity from his voice was surprising, but he couldn’t help but feel like maybe it was a trick of some sort like how Kacchan did in middle school.

“Yeah I’m fine, do you two want anything to eat? Mom’s making breakfast.” Show a smile so they don’t question it, mom doesn’t need that stress. “We shouldn’t stay, we have buis-” “C’mon Edda, they offered and it would be rude to decline right~? ” 

“... I so dearly despise it when you use my manners against me. Very well we shall stay but we must be leaving soon.” 

“Alright, go on and head over to the living room to talk while I let mom know about this, talk to you soon.” 

“See ya kid!” Aven shot back.

“See you soon, Midoriya Izuku.” Edda stated, bowing all the while.

“So did you feel it Edda?” The anticipation was killing me.

“Feel what exactly?” She stated in her usual way.

“The other cores, they’re close but muted, almost like they are hiding or something.” He started feeling it when he entered the odd structure, various cores not quite like the ones they faced before but still so similar.

“Ah that, then indeed I have felt it, to me it seems so similar to the other green cores we faced and yet so fundamentally off.” she shifted to a pose that indicated deep consideration on the topic.

“But we both know that if it was another green that they wouldn’t bother to hide their presence, even the weakest green we faced was still a challenge.” He knows this well, the trial of memories doing well in solidifying just how powerful each core was, as well as showing them both just how far they have grown.

“Indeed, which could mean that this core is new and relatively weak, or that they are hiding from something more terrifying.” The conclusion seemed obvious when she said it yet the process of making the conclusion still eluded Aven.

“But what could they possibly be hiding from? We took out Summum and absorbed him, we both know that we are possibly the two strongest cores out there yet we hide our presence incredibly well, and anything that strong would’ve been easy to detect for us.” It just didn’t make sense to him, they already faced anything that could be a threat out there.

“Indeed it just doesn’t add up, how cou-”

“Hey guys, wanna finish our talk?” The sudden interruption nearly startled Aven into combat, it was still strange how he couldn’t even sense the barest wisp of a core from the kid.

“Well we were talking about something, but it can be handled later, what do you want to talk about now?” It was best to move away from the topic, if it can’t be handled right now move around it and try again later.

“Oh-uh, well I was wondering something, you both seem pretty similar not to mention your quirks,” Again with that word, what is a quirk and why does the kid seem so excited whenever he talks about it. “ It just made me think about your possible relations with each other,” wait, was the kid saying? “ And I wanted to ask if you were siblings?”

The question seemed so simple, as well as the answer, even a half blind core could tell that Edda and Aven weren’t siblings, and judging by the look on Edda she was thinking something similar, but he knew that if she told the kid that, her answer would be harsher than the demon's fist.

“No, not at all, we just travel together primarily.” A gentle nudge to Edda to be nice about this.

“Indeed, we simply travel with each other because it is easier to do so than it is alone.” It seemed that my hint worked well, it was easy for her to fall back into her formal teachings when greeted by a problem she doesn’t understand.

“Before you ask your next question I have to ask, what’s a quirk?” A harmless question that should be easy enough to answer, but judging by the kids face he judged wrong.

“You don’t know what a quirk is!?” He reels over to look at Edda, “But then how did you make the sword,” he turns to me with shock in his eyes, “How are you two composed of pure light if not because of your quirk?”

“I can create the sword because it is a part of my combative technique, just as Aven utilizes martial arts in his combative technique,” it’s easy to feel the sword form even without looking over, “my sword is formed from the energy within me and as such I can control it as easily as you could control your own body.” she turns slightly to me and I know she wants me to talk as well.

“My combative technique is my martial prowess, I don’t form a weapon as much as I shift my body into a combative form,” it’s simple enough to shift my hands into claws but by the look in the kids eyes I might as well have beat Summum solo without techniques, “we both shape the energy within ourselves to allow us to battle, but we have never heard of this ‘quirk’ could you please explain it to us.”

The kid is obviously overwhelmed but he tries to hide it behind a smile, and it’s just one more tally in a concerningly large list of irregularities that match up with his own past.

“Well a quirk is a power unique to an individual, only they have that power, a different power can be similar but never the same, around 80% of the population has a quirk, it’s never even been thought that someone could have a power that isn’t a quirk.”

“Well that answers some of my questions, but I must ask, what is your ‘quirk’?” The kid seems to shrink in on himself at the question before saying in something barely loud enough to pass as normal speech, says in possibly the most broken voice he’s ever heard. “I’m quirkless.”

The kid talks as if that in of itself was a death sentence, that he expected us to turn on him just because he had no power, it was sickening because he could relate, but there is no powerful teacher here who will give him the strength to continue, no one but him and Edda. 

“Now I don’t see why that seems like such a bad thing, it just means you gotta overcome that with technique and skill as we did before, and if you’d be willing I wouldn’t mind teaching you some of my techniques, I doubt that Edda would mind either.” He knew from one of the few talks they had on their journey that she had wanted to pass her techniques onto someone as her master did to her.

“Indeed, it would not be an issue to teach you some of the finer arts of combat, those before know that Aven would only teach you his techniques and not what you would need to learn.” and while that was true she didn’t have to say it like that.

The kid looked like he was either going to burst into tears or jump with joy at our declaration, and it wasn’t hard to put himself in their shoes, always told they were nothing but a stepping stone for others.

And with a voice that could only be described as broken, the kid said. “ You would? ” and it wasn’t that hard to pull him into a hug, soon after Edda joined in and the kid really started crying, but even though they seemed so sad Aven knew that it was happy tears.

“Now while I would love to let this continue, Breakfast is getting cold.”

Oh right.

Chapter Text

Dagobah Beach: Aven

After the mishap with the mom we managed to convince her to let the kid come with us to hang, personally it seems like they allowed it cause she thought Edda would handle us. The walk back towards Dagobah was quiet but nice as I put together a basic training schedule for the kid. Stepping onto the shifting sand of the beach I slipped into a jog to get some distance for a basic combat stance.

“Alright, so if you want to be a hero then you need to know how to fight, not every situation can be solved by talking it out, so let’s see what you got to start with and we can work from there, so dukes up!” Shifting my hands into claws I could feel the residual energy of fire and wind crackling just under the surface, eager to rend any foe apart with just a swipe of my hand. That would be advanced combat however so I had to hold back on that for now.

The kid seemed to freeze for a second too long before raising his hands in a loose stance before taking a moment to shift his feet a little. All in all the stance was about as bad as could be without intentionally wrecking it, this kid is going to need a lot of work done.

“No, no no, not acceptable, no, hands down let’s work on your stance.” dispelling my claws and walking over to fix this atrocity, I could see Edda smirking from the sidelines, probably realizing just how much work I’ve got to do for this kid, fortunately I’ve got an expert in combat stances right here. “Hey Edda come over here and help out the kid will you?”

“Figured you’d ask for my help Aven, first things first is footwork, you should spread your legs a bit more so your body is angled slightly with one side forward and the other back,” the kid does so and the stance at least looks passable, “we will call this the ‘rest stance’ and you should be able to enter and exit it quickly at any moment, the rest stance is meant to be a transition stance, which means that it is meant to make it easier to shift to a different stance, such as a defensive stance or a offensive stance. For now we will only focus on the rest stance.” She circled around the kid and made small adjustments to his stance before nodding to herself and walking back in front of him, “Do your best to memorize this position as you will be using it often in your training. Now let’s work on your weapons, what do you feel would work best for you?”

The kid get’s this look on his face before he perks up and says, “I want to fight like All Might.” seeming very proud of his decision, “and would you say this ‘All Might’ is a fighter like me or Aven?”

The kid looks confused for a moment before he opens his mouth in a little “o” shape, probably remembering that we know almost nothing about this world. “All Might is a brawler kinda fighter, he wins fights by always being stronger than his opponent, we don’t know what his quirk is but it’s assumed to be some sort of strength enhancer because of how powerful his punches are to the point tha-”

“Kid, let’s focus on you for the moment ok?” It was adorable how flustered he got when he realized he was muttering, his hand went to the back of his head and he looked away almost shamefully, he opened his mouth a little bit, doubtlessly to apologize for the perceived slight. “Kid, I keep telling you it’s not a bad thing to mutter, you just need to learn to be aware of it.

“While this is rather intriguing, I would rather we don’t spend all of today talking about others abilities and your own shortcomings, so you wish to be a brawler kind of fighter then?” Leave it to Edda to cut away the surroundings to get to the core, the kid took a moment to register the question before nodding fervently.

“Then the first step is to see if that style works for you, and the only way to determine that is to use it in a battle, so let’s give it a try kid.” It took almost a conscious effort to not manifest his claws as he entered a battle stance, he rarely ever did this if it wasn’t for a personal challenge or a unique core.

It was almost refreshing how the kid stumbled into something resembling a brawlers stance, feet a bit too close to each other and hands too far apart, funnily enough the stance reminded him more like a imperfect hybrid of his and Edda’s styles, maybe he could convince the kid to try them out to see how it goes. Shaking off those thoughts and focusing on the battle spar, as the space between me and the kid decreased by my efficient movements I figured it would only be right to use only basic melee for this spar.

A basic telegraphed swing saw the kid half ducking with a rough guard, the impact carried through and the kid stumbled before making a sloppy strike that was easily blocked, it was only through mental reminder that I didn’t deflect the attack back at the kid. A straight strike made contact with his chest and was followed by a rather slow kick which made contact with the kids legs making him fall and hit the sand hard, a moment was given but when the kid didn’t get up I started to worry, it was clear that the kid had next to no combat experience, his attacks seemed like puppeteering strikes, all form no power, which made sense if his fanatic observations of ‘heroes’ was true. But these observations could be confirmed when the kid wasn’t dazed on the sand.

Dagobah Beach: Izuku

 It was a little hard to focus on anything when his chest hurt just from breathing but his mind was racing with his observations, he was a little sad that he forgot to bring his notebook with him but it was overtaken by his utter shame at how terrible he was at fighting, it seemed easy enough when he watched it but actually doing it seemed like a whole other beast. His vision was soon overtaken by a blackened limb waving above him, a quick look showed Aven waving his hand above him, once I moved to look at him he switched to extending his hand out in a similar fashion that Izuku did to Kacchan when they were young, reaching out and grasping the offered limb Izuku was quickly lifted back to his own feet. It would be cool how easily Aven picked him up if it wasn’t so embarrassing.

“Well I can tell that you don’t have much practice fighting kid, but from what little I saw you might do better with a different form, Edda could expand on that but for the moment could you run me through your thought process so we can help out?” It was odd hearing him so encouraging when he laid me out so quickly.

“W-well I’m not really sure myself, I panicked when you came at me and s-sorta blanked for most of the fight? I really only remember getting hit in the chest before being knocked down, sorry.” I turned away so I didn’t see the disappointment in his eyes when he realized just how useless I am.

“Hey kid look at me,” it felt like my head was weighed down by anchors but I managed to look towards Aven. “blanking in the fight isn’t a bad thing, hell I panicked in my first couple fights to, it’s not something that stops you from fighting, it’s just something you’ve gotta work with, just like with your muttering, we’ve just gotta find a way for you to work with it.”

“He’s right you know, everyone is at least a little bit scared of fighting, if they aren’t then they aren’t lasting long or weren’t trained well, I myself was trained for longer than most warriors live for, simply because my master saw more in me than I did in myself.”

“The next step for this will be to adjust your technique until we find something that fits for you, then we can work on pushing past that blanking. I’m thinking quick but powerful precise strikes that wear away at the opponent until you can defeat them. How does that sound Edda?”

“That does sound like something that may work for his small stature, however we should be prepared to change the goal as new information comes to light, for now we shall work with that.”

“Well you heard her kid, let’s get back to work!” Izuku could feel it as his face split into a grin as he got back into his stance, Edda and Aven tutting and slightly adjusting it until they seemed satisfied and they spared to see what they needed to change, it was a few hours before they decided to call it a day, somehow managing to convince him to practice with some weapons for hero work, they all agreed to meet back up tomorrow morning after breakfast and then he said his goodbyes.

Izuku still had trouble believing what had happened, and it was only because his body was sore from Aven’s and Edda’s training that he knew this wasn’t a dream. How could he think otherwise when suddenly two people show up out of nowhere and want to help him be a hero, they don’t care about his mumbling and seem to enjoy being around him. It’s almost enough to make him cry.

It was going to be a long way to go before I was ready for UA, but now it truly seemed possible instead of a hopeless dream.

Chapter Text

Aldera Junior High: Izuku

10 months later

“-You all want to be heroes!”

The room erupted into cheers and shouts as everyone started making a mess of the room in response to the teachers words, Quirks being used left and right with no regards for the fact they are, in fact, illegally using their quirks, the only ones not caught up in the activities is the teacher, ‘star student’ Kacchan Bakugo and of course me by virtue of not having a quirk to show off.

A few short crackle-pops quieted down the classroom before Bakugo barked out, “Don’t lump me with all these extras, teach, they all would be lucky to be sidekicks to some D-lister.” A few murmurs were quickly silenced by another burst of mini explosions as the teacher reached into their desk and pulled out some other papers.

“Ah yes Bakugou, you’ve applied to UA correct?” whispers and murmurs started up again as new fuel was added to the fire, some talking about the difficulty of the entrance exam while others moaned about him only referring to them as extras. “Course I applied to UA, it’s the only school that will let me reach my full potential.” Yet again cue the murmurs, students talking about his cockyness and how hard it is to get into UA, as if Bakugou didn’t already know.

“Midoriya, you want to go to UA as well, correct?” The teacher says casually as if he didn’t just paint a target on my back the size of Texas. Almost immediately whispers and exclamations bubble up, mostly about how I would only drag UA down or how I would have a better chance of being a garbage man, all punctuated by Bakugo trying to burn a hole into my head with his eyes. All things I have heard and experienced before and have learned to ignore, they don’t know how long I have trained for this, how much effort I have put into being able to go to UA, how much effort Edda and Aven have put into getting me ready for whatever UA might throw at me.

I am a little surprised that Bakugo doesn’t do anything more than stare a hole into my head, if this had happened in some other time where I hadn’t met Edda and Aven and gained some confidence, there was a high chance Bakugo would try and blast me in front of the teacher. But right now? After ten months of training and actually seeing results in my occasional ‘fights’ against bakugo, it seems I have earned a begrudging respect of sorts, either that or he has stepped back to better analyze and tear me down, it’s probably the second one.

“UA has no rules or conditions against a quirkless individual attempting the tests, if you have a reason for me not to try other than I am quirkless I would love to hear it, otherwise you should focus on your own future.” The words almost seem foreign to me, but I’ve gotten used to the confidence that comes with Edda and Aven’s training, and by the stunted murmurs of the class, they have too. Eventually the teacher calls for quiet and the day continues.

The school day soon comes to an end, I pull out my training notebook to look over what we planned for today, looks like Edda wants to touch up on my improvised weapon skills and Aven wants to start teaching me battle tempo, both skills that will help a quirkless kid like me get into UA. Having the training schedule in front of me really hammers in how peculiar things have been since Edda and Aven showed up, before he wouldn’t dream of staying any later than absolutely necessary to avoid potential conflict with Bakugo (not that it ever worked), but now he can get totally engrossed in his training notebook and not worry as much about things like that. Or how Bakugo and some of his goons have closed the classroom doors and look like they wanna start something.

Sighing to myself I quickly put away my training notebook, knowing that if Bakugo found it he’d try to destroy it in an attempt to figuratively crush my dreams, putting it away in my yellow backpack I stand up to face Bakugo and his goons.

It’s somewhat sad that I don’t flinch when he slams his hand on my desk and does some minor detonations to try and intimidate me, but Edda and Aven have already trained me to predict and not flinch at various attacks, and after all Aven’s fire is somewhat similar to Bakugo’s explosions, especially when he focuses the attack.

“You’re not going to UA Deku, I don’t know what nonsense has gotten in your head but UA would never accept a quirkless freak like you when they could have me, the next number 1 hero instead.” Bakugo spits out like someone skimped on the spice of his lunch.

(Take a deep breath Izuku) “UA has specifically stated in many addresses that they are accepting quirkless individuals to attempt any of their courses entrance exams, if I don’t belong in UA then they won’t let me in. If there is anything else you want to sa-” I am cut off by another explosion as Bakugo leans in to yell at me, “You shouldn’t even try the exam, UA doesn’t need a worthless excuse for a human being like you to sully their halls! If I see you at the entrance exam I’ll explode you so badly they’ll have to send you home.” His face is a couple centimeters from mine, his blood red eyes glaring at me as if to dare me to say anything against the great Katsuki Bakugo. Before I can even retort he continues berating me. “Quirkless trash like you shouldn’t even exist, but if you want to attend UA, why don’t you take a swan dive off a roof and pray for a quirk in your next life. Maybe then you’ll actually be worth a shit.” He doesn’t say anything else as he takes his leave, palms crackling with barely restrained explosions, the other goons laughing as they follow behind him adding nothing to the conversation and only acting as blind yes-men.

It took a little for what Bakugo said to really sink in, but after it did I laughed a little to myself, if I actually did take a swan dive then the school would be investigated to see what could have pushed me over the edge and it would dredge up all the nasty little secrets about Bakugo’s less than heroic behavior, thus causing him to be blacklisted from any hero school worth their salt and likely earning him an extended stay in juvie. It’s sort of funny how little Bakugo worries about his future outside of ‘tear down everything standing in my way of becoming the number 1 hero’. Grabbing his bag and heading out and along his normal path towards Dagobah beach, the weather is clear enough for Edda to be out, it was weird when Edda showed him how she couldn’t be in water or else she would just disintegrate but it was easy enough to get used to once I started thinking of it as a quirk drawback.

Crossing through a small tunnel I heard something rushing through the sewers, turning to look I was granted with the sight of some sort of sludge surging up from one of the manholes, an eye rolled around for a second before locking on me, a mouth managed to form from the sludge before saying in what has got to be the raspiest wet voice I’ve ever heard “You’ll make a perfect skinsuit for me to hide in kid.” before surging towards me, it’s fortunate that Aven’s training specializes in being battle ready at a moments notice, I managed to dodge the first surge but the villain swipes a couple tendrils of the sludge at me, thanking my somewhat lean body type as I do my best to dodge around the swipes, but without some way to fight back it’s only a matter of time before I manage to get captured. The point of dodging his attacks though is to delay him for whatever hero might be chasing him to arrive, because with his very obvious and over the top quirk paired with the fact he wants to use me as a skinsuit means he needs to hide soon before any heroes show up. 

A tendril managed to catch my foot and starts to reel me in just when the manhole cover bursts upwards, the villain seems to freeze as his eyes turn over to look at the hero that just entered the seen, with my current position I can’t see which hero it is but the booming voice let’s me know immediately which hero has come to take this villain to jail.

“Have no fear. For I am here!” All Might's signature phrase lets me know just how screwed this villain is. Said villain tries to do something, again I’m at a bad angle to see it, but All Might cuts through it all with a mighty “Texas Smash!” the force of the attack blows the villain apart, my recent training telling me that if that attack was used on a less fluid villain it might’ve caused a lot more than minor confusion and weakness, it’s fortunate that when the villain reeled me in I was close to the ground, the wind pressure only pushing me back a meter or two instead of blasted against the tunnel walls like the villain was.Taking a moment to get myself back upright and brush off any remnants of the sludge that wasn’t blown away by All Mights punch.

Glancing over at what All Might was doing I see him collecting the main chunks of the villain in to empty soda bottles, his speed making quick work of the mess, somewhere in the back of my mind I wonder if he ever uses his quirk like that to clean his house as I grab my backpack and fish out my autograph notebook and one of my pens, I wait for him to finish collecting the villain and tightening the caps on the bottles before going over to talk to him (I should be going straight to Dagobah but when am I gonna get this chance again?). “All Might, I know you’re probably busy and what not but could I get your autograph?”

He seems almost shocked for a moment that I am here (heh), almost like he expected whatever civilian that got caught up would be injured or incapacitated in some way, he recovers quickly and says in his trademark booming voice “Of course young lad! I am more than happy to give you an autograph,” he takes the pen from my hands and goes to write on the notebook. He pauses for a moment, likely looking for a good spot to put his autograph. The notebooks can get pretty messy at times but the page is mostly clear with a formatted design so he can write about whatever hero signs his book, but he soon finds a spot and signs the paper with big and bold letters ALL MIGHT.

“Right, there you go, if you have nothing else to say I have to get this villain to the police. Perhaps we will see each other again, young one!” He begins walking towards the other side of the tunnel, likely to get space to jump away. Izuku knows that he might never get this chance again, he could ask his hero idol a question that has been plaguing him since he was 5, maybe it was the confidence he got from Edda and Avens training or maybe it was just emotions bursting forth, but he called out loud and clear, “Do you think a quirkless kid like me could be a hero?”

All Might stopped halfway into the sunlight, the angle of the sun in the evening made it so that his shoulders and face were still shrouded in shadow, he turned his upper body to look back at me, his face still shrouded in darkness. “You're quirkless?” he said, surprisingly quiet for someone that large, a small nod is my only response. All Might takes a second before he speaks in a quiet tone, “I don’t believe that a quirkless person could be a hero, the job is simply too dangerous even for those of us who have rather powerful quirks.” he pauses before continuing in a slightly more energetic tone, “However there are many ways you can help the world without being a hero, you could be a police officer or a doctor, your choices are nearly limitless, you just need to ensure your goals are attainable and realistic. Now I truly apologize but I must be going now.” He turns back around and steps into the sun before crouching down and preparing to jump.

Izuku watches in slight awe as All Might leaps away before returning to his route home, excited to show Edda, Aven and his mom the signature. For while his idol may not share his belief that he could be a hero, Edda and Aven most certainly wouldn’t let him give up just because everyone else thinks he can’t do it, he’ll get into the UA hero course, graduate and show once and for all that people like him can be heroes.

It’s strange when Izuku thinks about it, 10 months ago seems like such a short time, but so much has happened it feels like 10 years, after Edda and Aven showed up and decided to help me achieve my goal Inko has been helping them adapt to a world wholly unfamiliar to them, she tested them on some knowledge and found that while history and social studies is lacking (due to obvious reasons), they are both rather well versed in math, biology, science, art, physical education and even music. She managed to get them assigned some supplementary classes to cover those they have trouble with and even managed to get them both a job at a nearby place, while they don’t make enough money to handle themselves they do make enough to get better training gear than whatever junk they can find at the beach, although we still use the trash more often than not to help situational awareness and adaptability.

So far Edda has been focusing on battle analysis, fluid combat techniques and some weaponry like her sword and shield, bow and even her axe at times. Meanwhile Aven focuses on parkour, martial arts and how to properly take a blow with them both touching on minor things here and there, it’s a lot more than Izuku has ever done, but that won’t stop him from giving it his all, he’s going to have to get used to that if he ever wants to become a hero.

Izuku is startled out of his thoughts by a loud explosion, because of his experience with Bakugo, he can roughly guess the direction, he pulls out his phone to shoot a quick text to Edda and Aven that he might be late to training and turns to head over to the explosions origin, hoping to find a villain fight to watch, it’s been a while since with his training he hasn’t had much time to go watch villain fights.

Heading through an alleyway Izuku can feel the air heating up around him, the villain must have caused a fire, as he steps out of the alleyway he sees a large crowd of people watching from behind some police lines, using his lean body and training, Izuku squirms his way to the front to get a better look, the first thing he sees is a couple heroes standing just ahead of the police line, seemingly distressed and mumbling about how they aren’t able to do much against the villain, a little more pushing and he’s against the police line and granted a full view of the villain. When he does his breath catches in his throat from surprise, it’s the sludge villain again, he must’ve escaped from All Might during his leap, but the sludge villain isn’t why Izuku is so shocked, instead it’s the hostage in the villains grasp that surprised him.

Bakugo is stuck in the villains clutches, letting off explosion after explosion in panic, doing less damage to the villain because of the angle he’s held, instead his explosions more so preventing the heroes from actually moving in and saving him.

Izuku finds himself thinking back to a random hyperfixation he had about the human lungs, the fixation passed but he still learned a decent amount, mostly that the average human can hold their breath for 30 seconds to around 2 minutes, judging by how long it took him to get here from that first explosion, Bakugo is nearing his limits, it’s with this revelation that Izuku finds himself rushing towards the villain, the shocked gasps of the onlookers and heroes behind him ignored as his training kicks in.

First things first get a weapon, doesn’t matter if it is a rock or a metal pole, having a weapon is a lot better than having no weapon, fortunately one of the nearby street signs was uprooted by the explosions and is propped up at an angle, grabbing it securely and hoisting it behind him, Izuku is struck by how oddly similarly it weighs to Edda’s axe, albeit less balanced. Shaking those thoughts away he makes his move towards the villain, finally getting his attention the villain sends a tendril to whip out at him in an overhead strike, Edda’s teachings ring out in his head.

“With a weapon like this you won’t be able to start and stop your momentum on a dime, and you shouldn’t try to. What you need to do is to keep moving, carry your momentum and don’t slow down even a bit. Because if you slow down you’ll leave yourself open for counterattacks, so when you wield something like this you HAVE to keep going.”

Setting his foot on a large hunk of rubble Izuku pushes off, stepping to the side of the attack while keeping his forward momentum, the villain sends another tendril but this one is sent directly to him like a spear, by swinging the sign around he uses the flat metal part at the top to take the brunt of the attack, sending the sludge spraying off to the sides, this repeats for a little bit before the villain eventually realizes that his attacks aren’t working and swings a couple tendrils to try and box him in, going back would be counterintuitive, going left or right won’t work and going straight won’t either, thankfully Aven tends to train Izuku on many obscure scenarios, so he has an idea of what to do. He plants the signs bottom end into the ground like a pole vault, the sudden shift translates his forward momentum into upwards momentum, added on by the fact he pushed off the sign with his full strength and he must’ve gone up a good 7 some feet, easily making his way to his target.

Taking advantage of the sludge villain's shock, Izuku reaches forward and firmly grabs his target, the obvious weak point of the sludge villain, it’s eyes. With a quick squeeze the villain screeches in agony and releases Bakugo in it’s thrashing, accidentally pushing him away as well, rolling when he hits the ground Izuku is treated to the heroes rushing the villain now that the hostage is out of the way, soon subduing it with how much pain it is in, one of the heroes approaches him and asks for the villains eyes back, which he gladly gives, glad to let go of the slimy orbs, said hero goes to help the police arrest the villain, while another checks up on Bakugo, in classic Bakugo fashion however he simply yells that he didn’t need help and straight up growls when another hero suggests he visit the EMTs to ensure he’s alright, it’s funny to watch as he is almost dragged to the EMTs to do a checkup on him.

“That was rather brave of you kid,” Izuku doesn’t flinch at the sudden voice but he does turn to face them, finding a hero he recognizes as Death Arms. “how did you know that would work? Is your quirk analysis or something?” he resists rolling his eyes at the hero, of course they think he has a quirk and it helped him beat the villain, how else could he have done so.

“The eyes are incredibly sensitive due to the requirements needed for properly observing light, while with most people their eyes are set in their skull, the villains eyes were rolling around in their sludge, it wasn’t that big of a conclusion to say that it’s one of their weak points. And to answer your other question, I don’t have a quirk.” Cue the sudden shift to concern.

“You don’t have a quirk!? What were you thinking doing something so dangerous? You could have gotten hurt or worse!” The hero seems torn between scolding and fretting, a slightly different reaction than Izuku is used to but still the same old worry.

“Oh so it’s brave when I could have had a quirk, but reckless when you found out I didn’t? Gotta love the double standards.” The hero steps back a little bit, likely surprised from the vitriol being spewed by this quirkless civilian, ”Unless you have something meaningful to say that I haven’t heard my whole life then I will be going.” It was probably very rude of me to do that, but the training that Edda and Aven put me through did more than just make me capable in a fight.

None of the other heroes make a move to prevent me from leaving, after all I hadn’t even gotten hit by the sludge villain so they can’t hold me for possible injuries, and as I didn’t use a quirk to enact justice I can’t be charged for vigilantism even if they tried, not to mention any police report on my perspective of the incident would be over in two minutes, dipping into a nearby alleyway to get back onto my path home, pulling my phone out to send a text to Aven and Edda with a quick explanation about what happened. Seemingly waiting for me to put away my phone, Bakugou stomps out of the alleyway, glaring at me like he thinks his quirk is sight activated, even before he opens his mouth I can tell what he is going to say.

“I didn’t need your help deku, I was just fine on my own!” It’s almost reassuring that he’s back to his regular old vitriol, that just means that he’s overall pretty fine. And while he could definitely do with taking some rest to process the stressful situation, that isn’t my problem. And judging by how he just turned and left, he also figured there wasn’t anything more to gain from this conversation.

Pausing for a few seconds to watch my childhood friend bully walk back into the alley he came from before continuing my path to Dagobah, I am once more interrupted a few streets down. This time by none other than the numero uno hero himself, All Might.

“I AM HERE, to talk to you about that villain attack. It wa-” If this was the izuku from a year ago, he would promptly die of mortification for even considering doing what I am about to do, but given my tolerance for unexpected things is reaching it’s limit, I’d like to think that I am at least somewhat justified when I said, “Shut it.”

As expected this response shocks All Might into a stuttering silence, as he coughs and chokes on air I take this opportunity to elaborate on why I am in such a bad mood. “If you're here to tell me off for saving Bakugo then you can save your breath, being a hero is dangerous work, doesn’t matter if you have the strongest quirk in the world or no quirk at all, all it matters is being able to do the right thing at the right time and to keep doing it until you can’t any more, I’m going to U.A. and I am going to get in the hero course, so unless you have something constructive to say, I’m leaving to go train with my friends.” And I’ll be honest in hindsight, had it been literally anyone else who was there, I would’ve just kept walking, but maybe it was the adrenaline rush for talking back to the number one hero, or maybe it was just to see the look on his face, but for whatever reason I looked back after passing him, and I saw him coughing blood into his hands.

Now understandably I panicked at the sight of the number one hero coughing up blood like he’s a water feature someone slipped a packet of food coloring into, and it’s only fortunate that I have a medical kit in my backpack for situations like this, and while it may have started as a way to handle injuries before mom could find out about them, Edda and Aven showed me the virtues in being able to tend any basic wound I came across. It didn’t amount to much when all I did was grab a roll of gauze and antiseptic wipes and hover around All Might as he seemed to - no scratch that, as he deflated before my very eyes. In the end, and punctuated by a mysterious cloud of smoke, the great and powerful number one hero stands before me, looking more like an emaciated corpse of a man instead of the towering powerhouse I knew him as.

“Oh shi-oot, are you ok? Do you need me to call an ambulance? Do you need water? Was this my fault, oh no it’s my fault isn’t it, you were just fine until I surprised you, you were probably hiding this injury from the public and I just happened to stumble on it in the worst wa-” I am shocked into silence as a rough hand sets itself on my shoulder, the man that stands before me looks as if a stiff wind could put him into retirement, and yet he somehow holds himself with an air of power that feels just like late nights at the computer, watching All Mights debut while his mother apologized for something neither of them could control.

Cough “Rest assured young one, “cough”, it was nothing on your end that caused this. I should’ve been better prepared for such a response after seeing how you handled the other heroes, you are correct however, I was indeed hiding this injury from the public, I didn’t expect you to be able to determine that from such a short interaction. But rest assured I did not come here with the “cough“ intention to reprimand you for your actions, in truth your heroic act reminded me of someone dear to me, and after seeing how well you handled yourself against the villain, I have come with a proposition.” He now takes the opportunity to stand tall, or at least as tall as he can right now. “You desire to be a hero, and you have the drive to do so, so it is with great honor that I offer you this sacred torch. Do you, young hero, wish to be my successor?”