The Dragon Blade

The Attack of the Slime

"Speech"

Thoughts

"All-Might Speech"

"I'm Sorry Izuku, I'm Sorry." My mother sobbed while holding me as All Might's booming laughter played in the background.

Even my, mother thinks I can't be a Hero, what chance do I have? I don't have a quirk and I don't have any skills; how can I be a hero without a quirk? Everyone has a quirk, and everything needs a quirk, I can't be a hero and I just have to face the facts... I will never be a hero, not now, not ever, not in this lifetime.

The thoughts swirling around his head pulled him into a depressed cycle, his world crumbling before his eyes... along with his dreams. The thoughts offered no comfort, no relief, no respite, they only pulled Izuku further and further into the cycle as he closed his eyes and felt like the ground was about to swallow him whole. He felt as if the thoughts would never end, and he just wanted it to all end, everything... he didn't want to live in this world anymore, not when it would be worse than death without a quirk. He knew what his future held, working in dumps, scrounging for food... the world was not kind to the quirkless... Izuku didn't know what to do, his dreams were in pieces and now it just felt like his mom was stomping all over them instead of putting them back together, he had no future and he just wanted to die

Izuku opened his eyes and looked at his All Might toy on the ground, thinking of how he failed his idol by being weak and not being able to become a hero.

I'm sorry All Might, I can't be a hero, not even a person, in our superhuman society.

Izuku looked away the toy in shame to to see posters that littered the walls of his room, all of them for his idol, except for one, this poster was special as his mother and he had found it in a pawn shop. It was an old-school movie poster and he had immediately fell in love with it cause it looked so cool!! He immediately begged his mother to get it and the CD with it and it became one of Izuku's favorite things to watch, just after All Might's debut. The poster was for a movie called 'Enter the Dragon', and it was an old school Martial Arts film.

As Izuku looked at the poster he thought, Hmm... Martial Arts... Even if I can't be a hero I can make sure no one ever walks over me, I've seen it before from Kacchan, people only train their quirks extensively, a body has weaknesses, and quirks are just extensions of a body.

Izuku struggled out of his mother's embrace, growing more confident in his plan... he could help people this way, and that's all Izuku wanted and even if he couldn't, he could help himself. Wiping his eyes, Izuku looked at his mother with a fiery determination shining within them, comparable to the fabled fiery attitudes of Dragons.

Looking his mother in the eyes, Izuku asked firmly, "Can I get Martial Arts lessons, then? I want to grow strong so that I can still be a Hero, even if I'm not going the strongest, I can still be strong, I can still protect myself and others r-right? " A twinge of doubt, returning from earlier.

Inko Midoriya did not want to send Izuku to Martial Arts, but she knew that her son needed this, he needed a dream to hold onto, something tangible like Martial Arts training would help him get past this bump and it would be a welcome exercise, and sport that he could learn and excel at which would help him develop into a fine person. The fact that it also gave Inko a way of knowing that he would be at least able to defend himself from most villains, was only a bonus.

But the thing that truly pushed her to do it was the look in her son's eyes, a fire that proved he would be a hero, quirk or not. However, that was outweighed by the look of fear behind the fire that made her maternal instincts just scream out for her to help him. Inko knew she could not just apologize and cry, that wasn't what her son needed.