Quirkless

No Thanks

"Young man, I have an offer for you!" Seeing All Might was rather shocking. What could All Might want from Izuku? Possibly to scold him for his actions.

"What offer?"

"First, what is your name?" Izuku had to bite his tongue in order to not spit out some sort of sarcastic semi-rude comment.

"Izuku Aizawa."

"Like Eraserhead?"

"Yes, he adopted me when I was five."

"How wonderful! So, young Aizawa, I would like to offer you something that I hope you will accept." All Might then went into detail about his fight with All for One, deflating during that explanation much to his surprise, then about how his quirk works.

"So, your offering me your quirk?" Izuku asked. It was all hard to wrap his head around, but he got the gist.

"That I am, Young Aizawa." Izuku sighed and recollected his thoughts.

"What you're offering me... it's great, really it is! It would open up a lot of opportunities for me, and if I were to simply focus on myself, there would be too many pros to outweigh the cons, so it's not that I'm not grateful, but..."

"You can't accept." All Might wasn't really expecting to be refused, especially since the boy wanted to be a hero.

"I'm really sorry, All Might. It goes against the very reason I want to be a hero. Don't get me wrong, I'm honored that you would even consider me to be your successor, but I just can't. Funny thing is, your part of the reason I can't.

"You're the symbol of hope for everyone. You do amazing things, and I want to be like that too, but I want to be a symbol of hope to other quirkless kids.

"I grew up being called all sorts of terrible things just because I'm quirkless. If it weren't for my family and friend, I'm not sure I would even be here today, but they pushed me to be better. I grew up lucky. There are plenty of quirkless kids who aren't as fortunate as I am. We're called burdens to society and we're treated as if there's nothing useful we can do, so I want to be a hero.

"I want to be a proud quirkless hero. A symbol to kids without a quirk. Proof that society is wrong. Proof that we can do things people with quirks can do. I'm going to change the way society looks at quirkless people.

"Trust me, All Might, I want to accept, but it would be the easy way out. I want to escape the cage society has put me in, and taking your quirk, that would be the selfish way out. It would grant me freedom, but I don't want freedom for just me. I want to utterly destroy that cage. I want to make sure that cage can't trap anyone else. I want to pave the path to freedom for those who don't have one." Izuku finished with his head held up high. He would do it. There was no if it's when. Izuku can't afford to think of failure.

"You were born a hero, Aizawa. Hearing that just makes me want you as my successor even more, but I understand. If you achieve that dream, you will no doubt be the number one hero. I wish you the best of luck, and, remember, if you need anything, I am here."

Katsuki and Hitoshi knew about Izuku's dream, but they never heard it like that. Izuku had always downplayed the shit he got from everyone. They both knew that, but they didn't know the extent to it. They looked at each other and nodded. They'd be paying much more attention to those around Izuku, and whoever so much as looked at Izuku the wrong way, they'd be answering to Katsuki and Hitoshi.

———

Months had past and all three of them had grown much stronger. Apparently Shota's deathly training method works. Who'd have thought that a hero teacher would be able to teach his kids to be heroes? Crazy. Now, it's time for them to pass their hero exam.