By Chance

It was recess time for the children of Musutafu Pre-School, all the kids were playing in groups and having a great time.

All but one little girl, with messy light green hair tied up with a rabbit ear scrunchie and large soulful teal eyes, stared longingly at the other children. She held her strange patterned bunny doll tighter as a group of boys made their way to her.

Trying to back away, the young girl bumped into a tree that had been near her. She trembles slightly as they drew closer. Sliding down the tree landing on her butt. In doing so making her antagonizers laugh.

"Stupid Saki! Can't even walk right!" Commented a boy with bright red hair.

The third in the group merely laughed at the other boy's words while the leader glared at her disdainfully. "You probably don't even have a Quirk."

"I-I do too, H-have a Quirk!" She stuttered. Saki holding her poor bunny for dear life, praying that the boys would just leave her alone.

The Third boy nudged the leader. "Oh yeah! I heard from the teacher that she has some sort of 'nightmare' quirk."

The second boy gave a nod in agreement. "Yeah! I heard that she made some monster come to life and scared all the kids during nap time!"

Saki's lip trembled at the mention of "The horrid Nap-mare" incident. Taking what courage she had left, the little girl ran off into class, hoping to dodge the other kids till school ends for the day.

-----

To Saki's luck, she was able to be scarce...

That is until she was waiting for her brother to pick her up.

Saki was just talking to her bunny while waiting for her brother to pick her up when said doll, was ripped from her hands.

"Aw, poor baby Saki needs her dolly!" The leader from her recess torment sneered as he held her beloved doll hostage.

"Give me back Mighty!" She cried. Trying to reach for her doll. While being tiny was usually a very cute characteristic, but at this point and time, Saki was using many bads words in her head as she tried to save her stuffed friend.

The second tormenter arrived and they started to toss the doll over her head back and forth to one another making commented like.

"Here ya go!" "Almost!" "Not high enough!" "Jump baby! Jump!"

It went on for a few long minutes tears of frustration began to fall. She just wanted her doll back! Her brother wasn't going to be there anytime soon and she would get in trouble if she used her quirk. So there was no way for her to have a hero save her little friend.

She cried, even more, when they began to fight over it. Tugging the poor bunny back and forth, arguing on who would throw it next.

"What do you boys think you're doing?"

A shadow fell onto the group of children. The two boys froze and looked over to where the voice came from, and they found a scary looking blonde man who was glaring at them.

"It's a monster!" They cried and threw the doll into the air, running for their lives.

Saki, on the other hand, was more concerned about her bunny, then about the skinny looking stranger. "Mighty!" She cried, trying to reach for the doll as it flew over her head.

The blonde man easily caught the doll and held it out to her. "I believe this is yours, little miss."

She gave him a bright smile and grabbed her beloved stuffed doll. "Thank you, mister!"

He laughed at her joy. He then noticed a slight tear on the doll's left arm. "It seems like your little friend has a battle wound."

She quickly looked over the doll and found the tear. "Can you hold him a minute please?" She asked the man.

Unable to deny such polite cuteness, the man agreed. He watched as she dug through a familiar-looking backpack and found a kerchief. She then turned to him and the doll and wrapped the cloth around the area where the tear was.

"Poor Mighty. Don't worry! Nii-san will fix you!" She then held her bunny much more gently than before and looked to the man. He was tall. Taller than her Nii-san. His hair was blonde and wild looking. His clothes were super baggy and he seemed tired. He was also very skinny. Like he didn't eat enough.

She tilted her head and commented. "You don't look like a monster. It was really mean of though meanies to call you that. You were just helping me!"

The man chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I get that a lot. I'm quite used to it by now."

Her face was comical. "But that's not nice! You need to think better about your self. You look nothing like a monster!"

His grim smile softens to a real one at the young girls reply. "Not a monster you say? then what am I?"

She scrunched up her nose in thought making the man chuckle quietly.

"I got it!" She jumped with excitement. "You're a sunflower!"

He blinked. "A sunflower?" He parroted.

"Uh-huh! You're really tall like one! And your hair looks like the petals and your smile is bright like it!" She then gave him a concerned look. "...though you look like a summer sunflower that hasn't been watered in a long time."

He was touched. Not only by her description of him but by her worry. "Thank you for your worry, little one, but I'm fine."

She gave him a tiny intense glare. "Promise?"

He laughed. "Promise."

She gave him a huge smile in return. "Oh, By the way, my name is-!"

"Saki! What have I told you about not talking to strangers?" Said a young male's voice.

Both turn to find a male teen in a high school uniform. The uniform had dark teal pants, grey blazer, white dress shirt, and a messily done up red necktie. The teen wore a pair of red sneakers with it. The young man had messy dark green hair with equally green eyes and freckles on his face.

Both the man and the boy blinked at one another.

"YOUNG IZUKU?!"

"ALL-UM, SENSEI?!"

Saki looked from one to the other. "Izu-nii, you know Himawari-kun?"

The look on Izuku's face was that of comical horror. "Hima-? Saki! You can't call him that!"

The name gave a surprised cough. Which ended up having blood come up as well.

Saki, the dear child she was, quickly dug through her pack once more and hurried over with another kerchief and a bottle of water. "Here Himawari-kun! This will help!"

He gave her a nod of thanks and wiped his chin of blood and took a swig of water to wash the metallic taste away.

"Thank you, Midoriya-chan. That helped a lot." He replied.

She gave him another bright smile. "I'm glad! You can call my Saki!"

The man laughed. "I'm Yagi Toshinori. I'm your big brother's teacher."

"Really?! So your teaching Izu-nii to be a hero?!" She cried.

Izuku was hiding behind his hands while Toshinori was laughing at his plight.

"Not just me. But others too."

Saki looked from Toshinori to her brother then pouted. Izuku being the doting brother he was, quickly become concerned about her swift mood change. "What's wrong Saki?"

"Why can't I be tall too?" She complained. This made both males burst into laughter.

Toshinori watched as an expression he'd never seen on Izuku appear. His successor's eyes narrowed and smiled crookedly. He looked downright sly.

"If you were tall, I wouldn't be able to do...THIS!" Izuku then swooped Saki into his arms and onto his shoulders. Saki gave a squeal of delight before she hugged her brother's head and nuzzling her face into his hair. "Soft!"

Izuku turned to his mentor and smiled. "We best get home, Mom will worry otherwise."

Toshinori gave a nod. "Of course. Mind if this old man tags along? Seeing how it's on the way to my home."

"You're not old!" Chirped the siblings, making Toshinori laugh again.

As they walked. Izuku would tell Saki about his day and then he'd ask her, she'd just say it was fine and then ask more about his friends.

Toshinori would add his two cents in when a story Izuku was telling had mentioned him. Eventually, Saki had fallen asleep while on Izuku's shoulders. Giving the older man a chance to speak with his young protege.

"You're a great older brother Izuku." commented the blonde.

Izuku merely shrugged gently, trying not to wake his charge. "To tell you the truth All Might... I wasn't always a positive person..."

The retiring hero lifted a bare brow.

"Six years ago before my mom had Saki, I had almost gone down a very dark path." He quietly admitted.

"You almost became a villain?" Stated All Might. Disbelief in his tone clearly heard by the young man who chuckled.

"No... funny thing was, even in those dark days I never thought to turn that way." He sighed. "No, back then I had been planned on taking my own life."

All Might stopped cold. All motor functions had seized. He couldn't believe that this happy young man in front of him, carrying his sleeping little sister. Had planned to kill himself at the tender age of ten...

"Wha...?'

"The bullying at school had gotten worse, and then my mom started to worry even more. The teachers didn't care, the other kids were worse and I began to worry for my mom's life. My biological father had divorced her because of my Quirkless status. Making her mad dash to find a job in order to sustain us. After five years of that... I began to think, "What was the point?" "Maybe they're right." "Me being a hero was a crackpot dream."

All Might remembers the words he had told him when they had first met. Cringing at the wound he unknowingly tore asunder once more.

"Izuku, I had no idea..." He couldn't finish. He didn't know how to put into words, how truly sorry he was.

A hand was set on his shoulder. Teal met green. "All Might... I forgave you long ago. There's no need to beat yourself up about things of the past. Things you had no control of or knew about in the first place."

The older man gave a small grin. "Thank you, my boy."

Izuku smiled in turn as they began to walk once more. "Now on with my story~ As I was saying, I had begun to believe what they said. I had taken a month to plan it, down to the day." He paused. "Now that I think about it, Mom was most likely two to three months along at that point. So If I had gone through with it, the stress might have caused her to miscarry." Izuku shivered at the thought. "But on the day I had planned to do it, my Mom told me I was going to be a big brother."

He looked up at the sky. "My mind had then begun to worry about my siblings future if I was gone. What if they were quirk-less too? Who would stand up for them? Who would take care of them when My mom had to work?" He smiled at All Might. "That night I burned my plans of ending it all and began my new notes on being a Hero. If I couldn't be a hero to everyone, then at least I could be a hero to my younger sibling. So in a way, Saki saved me."

"I knew you'd make a good hero Midoriya Izuku, but now... I know without a doubt that you'll be a great hero." All Might stated.

Izuku almost went into tears if it wasn't for the fact that Saki was still dozing on top of his head.

They had made it to the Midoriya apartment, and Izuku turned to his mentor. "Would you like to come in for some tea? I don't know how much longer you'd have to walk from here. So..." He looked down at his feet suddenly finding the top of his sneakers very important.

"Tea would be great," All Might replied. "I practically have a new artery system for it."

Izuku snorted. "I wouldn't doubt it."

"Oi!"

The young man chuckled as he opened the door. "Mom! We're home! And we have company!"

"Izuku, you have a cell phone, why couldn't you have used it before you arrived to tell me beforehand?" From another room walked in the Midoriya matriarch. She was short, stout and a kind air about her with lighting green hair in a signature updo mini ponytail. Her green eyes shown with surprise.

"I-Izuku, w-who is this?" She quietly stuttered.

"Mom this is my teacher-" The boy began before he was interrupted by his mentor.

"Yagi Toshinori, Ma'am. It is a pleasure to meet my star student's mother." All Might gave a bow in greeting.

Inko quietly gave a bow in return. "The pleasure is mine Yagi-san. I'm Midoriya Inko, Izuku and Saki's mother." She turned o her eldest. "Why don't you go lay Saki down, Izuku? I'll have the tea ready when you get back."

The young man listened to his mother and went to put his little charge to bed.

The two adults in the room looked to one another. Both seeing the changes the other ended up doing over the years.

"It's been a long time, Toshi-kun..." Inko stated.

"That it has Ino-chan..." replied the crippled hero.