Fire

I slouched back in my desk bored out of my mind, I had just started middle school and what we were learning was still far too easy for me.

Paying only partial attention to the lesson I was mostly focused my drawing. From all my years of practicing Fuimjutsu which requires absolute perfection my artistic skills were incredible.

I was currently drawing a picture of All Might it was a picture of him fighting a Villain that U saw on the news this morning.

While drawing his abs my eyes wandered to his lower left stomach. It was strange to think that he had such a grievous injury there.

I remember it was the week after he captured the Villain Toxic Chainsaw. There was no news or announcement made but, All Might dropped off the grid for over a month. It was strange how no one seemed to notice that considering how popular he is.

His battle with All For One must have been amazing I just couldn't understand how they managed to keep something like that hidden. I could only assume that a Quirk was involved.

Thinking about All For One, the Nomu, Gigantomachia, and all the other powerful people in the world I compared myself to them and knew I was still far from reaching their level.

I still had years before I had to become a Hero and a Villain but, I still felt that I should step up my training somehow.

I tapped my pencil on my desk wondering what else I could do to get stronger. When the familiar "Ding" of my system grabbed my attention.

Emergency Mission!

Descriptionv Save your Mother from the fire!

Time Limit: 6 Minutes 46 Seconds

Failure Penalty: Mother Dies

I jumped from my seat and sprinted out the door completely ignoring my teacher. I was outside the school and running down the street in less than ten seconds.

My school was about thirty blocks away from the apartment we lived in. It normally takes my mom at least 45 minutes to drive me to school since I went to a nice private school.

Doing the math in my head I would just barely be able to make it if I go all out using Body Flicker.

I quickly did the math in my head if I sprinted at full speed using

I jumped to the top of a nearby building and started running. In the distance I could already see smoke billowing into the sky.

The world blurred bye me as I launched from roof to roof. I was going so fast that I was developing tunnel vision. In the Academy we learned that all functions of the human body increased along with our chakra. So even if we moved at super human speeds our bodies were naturally adapted to it. But, the Body Flicker pushed a Ninja passed that boundary making it too hard for us to react quickly. Which is why it wasn't used in Combat too often.

I arrived at our house with less than a minute to spare seeing it engulfed in flames. The fire department had just arrived but, I could see that they were still getting prepared and wouldn't make it in time.

Readying myself I burst through the window smoke choking my lungs and flame in my face.

Thinking quickly I summon two clones and had them spread through the house searching going to places she might be like her upstairs bedroom or the kitchen.

I didn't have to search long and saw her laying face down in living room covered in blood.

My heart stopped and my mind raced to what I learned in the Academy. I wasn't a Medical Ninja but, was still taught how to check injuries and give basic first aid.

Carefully flipping her over I saw a long slash going across her torso. I panicked but, after observing a bit more I saw that it was fairly shallow. Still she was losing a lot of blood and needed proper medical attention. Picking her up I rushed and jumped out the window ignoring the collapsing building behind me.

As landed on the ground I saw that the fire fighters had just started spraying and even Backdraft: The Firefighting Hero had arrived.

He saw me covered in ash and carrying my mom and rushed towards me. Seeing my the blood on my mom he promised me it would be okay and that he would take care of her.

Watching him rush her the paramedics I just sat down as my adrenaline rush ended, wondering what the hell had happened?

After seeing that wound on my mother's stomach there was no way that it was a normal fire someone had planned this but, who?

My dad was a famous Hero so it wasn't a surprise that people would want to hurt him. But, my mom wasn't weak I knew that from experience not just any random Villain could have done this.

The next few hours were a blur even more so that my trip using the Body Flicker. I vaguely remember someone giving me oxygen and being put in ambulance and taken to a hospital to be checked up.

Then as the sun was going down I was sitting next to my mother's bed as she was on life support.

From what I was told her injuries weren't too serious and she didn't take in too much smoke so it was likely she would recover.

I sat there eating still in shock by the days events. I was so out of it that I didn't even notice someone entering the room.

"Ahem" he cleared his throat.

I looked up and saw a dog faced man in suit looking over me.

"Hello" young man he looked at me solemnly "I know you have had a rough day and most likely wish to be left alone. But, there is something that I feel you must be made aware of even though I have been advised against giving you any more trauma."

"What are you talking about" I asked my voice cracking.

"There's no easy way to say this" he sighed "so I'm just going to come out with, It's your father . . . he's missing."

I sat there stunned by the information before lowering my head hiding the tears.

"I-I know there isn't anything I can say that would make this better but, if there's anything I can do-"

"Please just let me be alone for a while" said said trying to stop myself from sobbing.

"As you wish" he said before leaving me by myself.

I leaned over grabbing my mom's hand and crying into her bed.

I know that they weren't technically my original parents but, I never actually knew my parents in that life it was always just me and my grandfather. He never even told me about them no matter how much I asked.

So it wasn't an exaggeration to say that I really did love them after being raised by them for over a decade. And the shock of losing the only people in the entire world who I could consider family.

For the rest of the night I just sat there quietly sobbing until I finally fell asleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Beep, Beep, Beep" my alarm blared waking me up.

Sighing I silently stretched before jumping to my feet. Making a hand sign I created a single Shadow Clone.

We both got on with our different routines. I got dressed in my training clothes while he put his school uniform on and combed his hair. I'd stopped going to school myself and was sending my clones instead.

Taking a deep breath I transformed into an average looking adult and stepped outside to begin my morning run. I each step was a struggle as I was still getting used to the weights around my legs.

It has been six months since the fire and I had finally settled back into a routine.

I would begin with a ten mile run to the nearby beach the same one that was covered in junk from the show. Once there I would move the junk around using it as resistance to work out the rest of my muscles as well as targets for my punches and kicks. Though I never actually cleaned it since that was Izuku's mountain to climb.

Once I got home I would practice with my Seals and Jutsu doing my best to master them. And finally as the sun was going down I created another clone and had it dressed it up in a black cloak with an Anbu mask, not the cat one though as I thought that was a bit too obvious.

Recently I had started sending them out as vigilantes. It started when I was jumped during one of my morning runs. The guy was an amateur and I easily knocked him out but, as soon as I did I saw something shocking.

Weak Thug Defeated

Reward: 300 Points

It was incredible because before that I could only make 20 Points a day! Ten from my training and ten from the Academy. So that one random criminal was worth 15 days worth of Points!

So ever since then I've been sending out my clones dressed in clothes I bought from the system. My goal was to stop as many crimes as possible to farm Points.

I used clones because I wasn't confident enough in my strength and didn't think I could escape from any Heroes if I was caught. By sending clones I didn't have to worry about that because they would just dispel themselves if they were in trouble.

So far I'd stopped 43 muggings, 18 robberies, 3 attempted rapes, and one Jay walker. Defeating over 80 bad guys and making more than 25,000 Points. I hadn't spent them yet as I was saving up for something important.

People had already taken notice of me and I had already run into several minor Heroes. Because of my black hood and how I always disappeared in a puff of smoke people had taken to calling me the Phantom.

Options were mixed about me with most saying I was scourge and needed to be brought to justice. But, a lot of people actually supported me since crime in the area I was working was bad and they were glad for anyone helping keep the streets clean. Especially when I never killed and took people out with as little injuries as possible.

Recieving the memories of my latest clone and how he didn't stop any crimes but, stopped a family from being run over by a car I sighed.

Looking over to the picture I had sitting nearby I saw my family on a trip to an amusement park we took a couple years ago.

Thinking about my family made me depressed because the wounds were still fresh but, it wasn't to the point I would start crying again.

After that first terrible night I was taken to social services to be looked after me temporarily. It was explained to me how my father just disappeared, no one knew what had happened and it was like he simply just ceased to exist.

I waited every day for my mother to wake up and hopefully explain what happened but, as the days passed we all realized that something was wrong. The doctors did a more thorough check and found something strange. No matter how much time passed her wounds did seem to heal in the slightest.

It was theorized that it was the effect of a Quirk and all manner of treatments were tried and even Recovery Girl was called in to try and help but, nothing worked. Her life wasn't in any danger but, she wasn't getting better either.

When it was determined she wasn't going to be waking up anytime soon, I was put up for adoption.

Not wanting to be taken by someone I put my fake identities to use and adopted myself. I made sure to wait a month or two for the attention around me to die down, since my parents were decently famous and what happened to them was big news and by extension I was big news.

Even then I had to sneak into the Social Services building and do some finagling to get it put through.

I didn't have to worry about money as much as I thought I would since my parents were good with money. And seeing as they were both Heroes they had their wills made long ago, and I was now receiving a nice chunk of money every month.

There was also a life insurance policy my dad took out on himself but, the insurance company was refusing to pay it out on the grounds that my dad wasn't dead and was only missing.

I didn't fight it since doing that would be the same as admitting to myself that he was dead, and I wasn't ready to give up just yet.