Can We Be Heroes?

Chapter 2• Two Peas in a Chaotic Pod.

It was a late night friday and Izuku was practicing his shots blindfolded at the shore of Dagobah Beach, the trash-ridden coastline stretching out before him. An ideal place for him to train in secret, away from all interruptions and judging eyes.

The blindfold over his eyes did little to hinder him as he pulled back his bow and released another arrow, hearing the soft thud as it hit its mark.

The darkness, the solitude—it was the only escape he had from his reality. A reality that was nothing short of a living hell.

Izuku's life was what one could only describ as a living hell. Being quirkless had put him and his mother through more than anyone should endure. His father had walked out on them when he was just a child, leaving his mother to bear the sole burden of raising him alone. They struggled to make ends meet, barely scraping by. And now, to make things worse, his mother’s health was failing.

Everything was falling apart. And deep down, Izuku blamed himself for it all.

If he hadn’t been born quirkless, maybe his father would have stayed. Maybe his mother wouldn’t have had to work herself to exhaustion just to take care of him. Maybe she wouldn’t be so sick now.

It was his fault.

He gritted his teeth, drawing another arrow. It was his fault for being so useless. For existing without a quirk. For being a burden to the only person who had ever loved him. How dare he be so useless!

The arrow flew, hitting another target dead center. But it didn’t bring him any satisfaction. No matter how hard he trained, it would never be enough. He couldn’t change what he was.

Quirkless!

The word echoed in Izuku’s mind, louder and louder, refusing to leave him in peace. It was the one word that had haunted him for years, the label he could never escape. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how much he trained, it was always there, ringing in his head like a cruel taunt.

His breathing quickened, the frustration inside him bubbling to the surface. The whispers in his mind grew louder, the insults he had heard all his life repeating over and over like a broken record.

Worthless. Freak. Useless. Quirkless.

“Stop it! Keep quiet! Stop it!!!” Izuku hissed through clenched teeth, his hands letting go of his arrow as he gripped his head in futile hope that he could somehow physically shut out the noise . But the voices didn’t stop. They never did.

They only grew louder.

The pain, the self-loathing, the guilt—it all became too much. His hands tightened in his hair as he let out a scream, a raw, broken sound that seemed to echo across the empty beach. His knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the sand, but even then, the voices didn’t let up.

Quirkless. Quirkless. Quirkless.

His eyes darted wildly, his breathing ragged. Stop, he wanted the voices to stop. He wanted them to just keep quiet. So much so that in a desperate attempt to silence his tormenters voice, he grabbed a stone from the ground and without thinking, he slammed it against his head, the sharp pain momentarily cutting through the chaos in his mind.

But the voices came back, even louder now.

Again, he brought the stone down, harder this time. Anything to drown out the torment, to silence the never-ending taunts that wouldn’t leave him alone.

The world around him blurred as his vision swam, but still, he didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. Again and again the jagged stone made contact with his skull until finally there was nothing to be heard.