Hopes and Dreams (Part 2)

Izuku Midoriya. What was he to Akane?

Nobody special honestly. He was just a poor fool letting overs step over him as they liked. He seemed pathetic for her.

That would have been her entire opinion about him, wasn't there that particular bit about him.

He was quirkless boy, but more importantly, his dream was to be a hero. That useless twerp might have been not much, but he always held onto that dream of being a hero.

It was a beautiful sight to observe, and so Akane chose to pull him out of harm's way, whenever it was possible for her to not seem suspicious when she did that. She observed him for that year and watched how the boy always vigorously held onto that single dream of becoming a hero.

She observed him watching the newest hero news from his phone. She observed him stopping in front of television shops to look at the televisions displayed, that showed the news, once again about heroes. She observed him observing the heroes from afar whenever someone was rampaging around. She even observed him in class when he was sketching in his notebook, writing in new information about, who would have thought, heroes.

It was fun for her, knowing that she might be not the only one that tried so hard. She was happy that someone else tried to struggle against fate like she did.

She imagined what he did for training, what his aspirations to become a hero were, if he would change physically in the future.

She was interested in him, not as a love interest, but as a fellow sufferer trying to turn the tide. Well, that was gone now. Instead it was replaced with an indescribable feeling of anger. Anger and disappointment to be exact.

She stood there, not knowing were exactly these feelings were coming from, but she couldn't really control it. She felt anger, resentment, for a moment she even lost it.

She even grabbed Izuku by the collar and dragged him up into the air. Of course, he started to panic, of course he was scared, but the most important thing was that he felt the big amount of grieve and suffering from the person in front of him.

He wanted to say something, but the atmosphere that was currently around Arata didn't really let room for stuff like that. So, he just silently hoped that things would resolve themself. He just hoped that Arata wasn't someone reasonable.

After a moment of intense anger, Akane felt something connect inside of her. She calmed down after that again and let Izuku touch ground again. That didn't mean that she was calm though. She was still angry, she was still off put, but she didn't feel like beating the crap out of the boy.

After that she dusted off the boy's clothes and hers, before turning around to go away. But before she stopped shortly to give him some advice.

"Midoriya. This is some well-meant advice, take it as you want, but I don't care if you will or won't listen to it, did I make myself clear?"

The boy was surprised that Arata stopped to say something to him. At first, he didn't want to listen at all, but the tone of his voice was different from anybody else in his life that talked about his dream of becoming a hero. It showed care, worry and a tiny hint of affection.

Izuku nodded his head, wanting to genuinely hear Arata's advice.

"You really want to become a hero, right Izuku?"

He nodded once again.

"Give up on it. You won't make it. There is no chance you will. Not with that attitude of yours."

Izukus' world shattered with just these 20 words. Once again, he heard these words. Once again, his dream was kicked into the mud. Once again nobody supported him and his lifelong goal. Once again, he was ridiculed of his dream to become a hero.

Why? It was simple, it was because he was quirkless, wasn't it? He had enough, he had enough to constantly listen to the words of everyone to discourage him.

Once again, he was reminded how unfair the world is. It reminded him of the past. On that fateful day where he was told that he doesn't have a quirk and won't get one. He was watching his favorite scene once again. The one with All Might, saving countless people from that fire.

The fire that was created after he fought All for One. It was a video that he admired to this day; it was a video that showed him that hop was always there. On that day he once again watched that video. Hope bloomed inside of him, hope that let him say one innocent tiny question.

"Heroes are really cool, aren't they? Maybe, one day, I could become like that too."

But his hopes were shattered in the same instant it bloomed.

"I'm sorry, Izuku! I am so sorry!!"

His mother hugged him from behind and apologized to him. Instead of words of encouragement came words of forgiveness. Not even his mother believed that he could become a hero like this, but his decision was already clear for him.

He will become a hero!

Visions of him getting bullied appeared.

He will become a hero.

Visions of him getting laughed at appeared.

He will become a hero?

Visions of him getting ridiculed appeared.

He will become a...

Visions of him being discouraged by important people in his life appeared.

Will he become a hero?

"WHAT DO YOU EVEN KNOW ABOUT ME TO SAY THAT!"

Suddenly ten years of frustrations came bursting out of him.

"I DREAMED OF BECOMING A HERO SINCE I WAS A LITTLE KID! I DREAMED OF BECOMING ONE SINCE I WAS THREE!"

A decade, ten years, 120 months, 521 weeks, 3652 days, 87.648 hours, 5.258.880 minutes, 315.532.800 seconds of pure frustration busted out.

"AND ALL OF YOU THAT HAVE A QUIRK THINK THAT YOU ARE SO MUCH BETTER; BECAUSE YOU HAVE SOME FLASHY GIMMICK TO SHOW!"

Arata turned around, giving Izuku a very angry glare.

"LET ME TELL YOU! YOU PEOPLES WITH QUIRKS All just have an overinflated ego!"

Arata slowly walked towards the very loudly screaming boy.

"You aren't better than us quirkless."

He now stood in front of him.

"I will..."

Izukus words died down with Arata basically standing in hugging distance in front of him. He gulped very loudly seeing the very enraged boy in front of him. He was scared of what would happen to him now. Arata with his red eyes out was very intimidating after all.

"Punch me."

"What?"

"Punch me, as hard as you can. If you don't you will regret it."

Izuku listened to Aratas demand. He almost wanted to ridicule him.

"You probably have a body strengthening quirk! How the hell else would you have survived Kacchans explosions? I will probably just break my wrist punching you, so why the hell should I even try!"

Was what was going through his head, but it was obvious that he couldn't say that. Arata would kill him for sure if he did that. So, he caved into his demands and prepared to throw his strongest punch out. A broken wrist is better than being dead after all.

So Izuku took a few steps back, pulled his fist back and ran towards Arata to give him the strongest punch he could possibly dish out.

He closed his eyes, already expecting the pain that would come along with a broken wrist...

...but it never came. Instead he felt the object he was punching giving in. He opened his eyes slightly, just seeing a guy that was affected by his punch. After the punch was over Arata tripped and fell on his butt. It looked like his face would get a bruise from the hit.

Izuku was confused at the sight in front of him. He wasn't expecting that at all. He expected everything else other than THIS. It felt like, it felt like...

...it felt like he was punching someone that was in the same position as him. A quirkless.

"Surprised? I bet you are? After all, I would just fly away like that if I don't brace myself for impact."

Arata stood up as if nothing happened just now, he rubbed his cheek and seemed mostly unaffected by Izukus punch.

"Though, if I would have braced myself, your hands would be broken right now."

Izuku looked at Arata with big eyes. He couldn't believe what he just heard now.

"H - Ho - HOW could you have possibly withstood Kacchans explosions if you were quirkless!"

"Didn't you listen to me? I braced myself. You know held my breath and flexed my muscles to their hardest state. This is the moment when a human is their most invulnerable. Of course, doing that wouldn't be enough, so I trained to get my body this strong."

Izuku really didn't want to believe that the strong Arata was quirkless, but after a moment of thinking he realized that there was truth to his words. He never used any flashy moves, he wasn't really that fast, he just simply defended and countered Katsukis attack.

"What kind of training did you go through?"

"Oh, you want to know?"

And so Akane started to list off the list of her everyday training regime. Izukus words were stuck in his neck. He really felt pathetic right now. He always spouted of becoming a hero, but now that he listened to the only other quirkless he knew off, his words were just stuck in his throat.

What did he try all these years? What did he do all the years to become a hero? Absolutely nothing. Of course, there were the day where he was out, training a bit. But he was almost always caught by Katsuki and his gang, bullying him for training. But he realized how foolish he is. He said that nothing was ventured, nothing gained if he didn't try to go in UA. But just now he realized how hypocritical his words were.

All these years where he could have done something, he did nothing. He never ventured, so he never gained and now he was standing in front of another quirkless guy his age that trained so hard every day, so that he could keep up with the kids with quirks. That guy didn't even try to go to UA! He probably just trained so hard so he could have the same chances as everyone else.

Izuku really felt pathetic right now.

"Izuku, though I really understand your desire to become a hero. You must understand that you won't get far with that mindset of yours. You'll get killed the moment you would go into duty. So please, just stop before it's too late. Your life is so much more worth than just trying to uphold and ideal that you won't be able to fulfill in any shape of form."

Izuku nodded. He heard Aratas words clearly. He understood clearly that he won't get anywhere with what he did until now, but it was already too late for him. Izuku already gambled everything of his life to become a hero. If he would give up his dream now, he would lose everything that defined him.

Izuku just nodded and smiled at Arata. His words really were meant kindly, but sadly the came too late.

"Arata, I am sorry. But I don't think I can give up on this path. This dream of mine. This dream of becoming a hero is everything I have, everything that defines me. I think that I will lose a big part of me if I gave it up now. Though, I am very thankful of you worrying about me though we barely know each other, but as already said, I think I need to ignore your kind meant advice."

Izuku turned around and gave Akane the biggest smile he could give. With the sun shining in the background shining on his head it really was a heartwarming sight to behold. Akane just stood there and shook her head.

"Well, follow your heart. But never forget. Don't regret your decisions, because you won't be able to change them after you took them."

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At the UA headmaster office:

The director of UA, Nezu. A strange animal that manifested a quirk was currently looking through documents. Suddenly the door was slammed open.

"Holy mother of Christ! Hisho-san, didn't I already tell you more than often enough that you shouldn't slam the door like that."

The secretary was a woman with eye bags under her eyes, square glasses with a black frame, long wavy black hair, wearing a white blouse with black dress pants, black suit west, a red tie and black high heels.

She just looked at Nezu and showed him her middle finger.

"Five damn minutes! I had to wait five damn minutes for the coffee machine to make me some coffee! Four minutes too long for me!"

She put the cup down onto the office desk and walked out of the room again. She seemed a bit tilted.

She pulled her phone out and looked at her screen. It was F/GO and she was currently was looking at her Skadi with 8/2/8 on her skill level.

"48 Voids Dust to bring it up to level 9, are you insane DW!"

She turned around, noticing you. The reader.

"What? You thought that I didn't have a vessel here? Now go away, I am currently grinding dust. Oh! And btw, you all should be excited for the next chapter! Akane will give All Might a bit of her opinion."

"Hisho-san!"

"Wait! I'll come you damn mouse thing!"