Burnt to Ashes - Kenichi Todoroki

Ryker's Origin

I felt weightless.

Today, I knew I had acquired my quirk. It all started when I asked to go outside.

"Ryker Cullivan! You better be back in here by 5:00 for dinner or ima come outside and whoop that ass of yours!" I skipped out the door, waving goodbye to my mom. I was going to visit Mina; she was my neighbor and a close friend of mine. She had already gotten her quirk, and it was so cool! I had hoped that my quirk was as cool as hers.

"Ryker!" Mina waved to me from across the street. "Let's keep trying to figure out your quirk!"

"Yeah!" I ran across the street to meet her. "My parents quirk's are so cool, so I hope I'm not quirkless! I want to be a hero, I'm going to be the greatest hero in the entirety of Japan!"

"Not if I become it first!" Mina playfully pointed out. "I'm going to move to Musutafu and attend one of the best hero schools ever; UA! Maybe you'll be the best hero of Chiba!"

I stuck my tongue out at her and ran into Mina's backyard, her following close behind. As I got to the very back, I looked at the things we had set up to train my quirk that hopefully would come out soon. "So I have the possibility of getting a strength quirk like my mom, or a plant control quirk like my dad! They're really cool heroes so that means if I get one of their quirks I'll be cool, too!"

"Here, try growing this strand of grass." Mina pointed to a tiny strand of grass that was just barely bent.

I kept my eyes locked on it, making a bunch of weird hand motions. "It's not working!"

"Keep concentrating!" Mina ordered. "You're not staying focused enough!"

I did it for a whole minute, but I got no results. "This is obviously not working. Maybe I'm going to be quirkless forever."

"Well, we haven't tried super strength!" Mina pointed out. "Try punching a hole through this board of wood!"

"But anyone could do that if they knew karate!" I laid down on my back with my limbs spread out. "It's taking forever, why can't I just get a quirk and be cool!"

"But your parents took you to a doctor and they said you would eventually develop a quirk, right?" Mina asked. "You just have to keep trying! Now, punch a hole through this board!"

I tried to punch the board, but missed. A weird feeling ran through my body, and as I looked down, I realized I was floating. "AAH, WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?"

Mina let out a gasp. "That must be your quirk, Ryker! You can float!"

But that makes no sense! My parents can't float, someone must be making me float! "I shouldn't be able to float!"

Mina put her finger to her chin. "Maybe it's one of your grandparent's quirks that you inherited. That can happen to some people y'know! Do you know how to come down?"

"I don't think so-" I started panicking. If I couldn't get down, how was I going to get back at 5:00?

"I'll go get a rope and try to get you down!" Mina rushed into her house as fast as she could, leaving me floating higher and higher. I stared at my hands and realized there was pink dust covering both of them. What could this be?

Mina came back with a rope and threw it to me. I grabbed ahold of it, and she pulled me to my house, where she rung on my doorbell.

And now, I'm stuck in my living room, head against the ceiling.

"You really got a flying quirk?" My mom grumbled. "That didn't come from my side of the family, I know that much."

"It's not a flying quirk." My dad sat down on the couch, examining me. "That's my mom's quirk, Fairy Dust. There are a lot of rare instances when it comes to quirks, like animals developing quirks and quirks so strong that they're apart of the 0.001% chance of inheriting them. This...."

"This what?" My mom crossed her arms.

"He inherited a stupid, useless quirk to become a hero with." My dad finished. "Ryker, your brothers inherited our quirks, and Ace even inherited both. How do you expect to live up to our family's hero standards with a quirk like that?"

"I can still be a hero. At least I'm not quirkless, right?" I awkwardly laughed, trying to lighten the mood. Couldn't they be proud of me? I finally got a quirk, and it seemed so cool!

"It's not 'cool', that quirk is a burden to have. Not only does it take years and years to master, it's useless anyways." My dad snapped. "My mom's one of the only people in our family who couldn't become a hero because of that quirk. I was hoping her bad genes didn't get to any of you."

My parents obviously weren't too happy that I got a 'useless' quirk. But ultimately, that gave me a new goal;

I was going to be a hero, even with a quirk like mine.