章 72: Hopes and Dream (Part 4)

After Chara eliminated that slime villain, Akane immediately ran towards the direction where she put her soul markers on. She wanted to know what would happen.

But once on site Akane felt heavy tension. She peaked out from her hiding place where she was surprised with the sight in front of her. A dissolving All Might. Seeing this, countless thoughts ran through her mind.

Theories ran through her mind, data that she read about him, timeline of order what he did during all the years he was in duty, when his condition had to be inevitably published to the public, what she needed to do to keep her family, her friends save...

...but there was this one thought that always ran in the back of her mind.

"Why did he continue to work with this kind of wound?"

But she already knew the answer. Because Japan depended on him, because he was the symbol of peace he couldn't show weakness, once he did, unrest would start. Akane felt unrest knowing that the symbol of peace isn't in a state to work.

But he had to keep going. In this moment Akane decided to reassess her goals. She wouldn't just become a hero to show everyone that everyone can become one if they just try hard enough, she would become the number one so she can change the government from within.

Not only are they failing in keeping the city crime free, but the present peace was only held on a lifeline, a lifeline which was slowly snapping.

"Chara, how are your plans in bringing awareness to the, basically ghettos at this point."

"My gut tells me that today something will happen."

Akane nodded, she wanted to think, but suddenly she felt a strong knot in her stomach. She knew that feeling, she didn't know from where, but she knew about it very well. It was the feeling of giving up, it was a feeling that neared emptiness, emptiness of oneself. She had only one thought of where it could come from.

She turned around and listened in to the conversation again.

"...being a hero isn't possible without a quirk..."

She was speechless. She couldn't believe how rough he tried to end the boy's conviction. She understood why he said that, after all he was a hero, he couldn't let a weak boy jump into the whirlpool that he was about to jump in.

But in this way? Akane at least tried to take the boys feeling into account, his mental state, that he wouldn't jump down a building with the next best opportunity. 'Don't let him go yet! Don't let him go yet!'

Akane prayed inside her mind that the number one hero would notice the mental state of the boy. She hoped that he would notice it and try to stop Izuku for a moment, to give him a new goal, some good advice, anything that might stop the boy from walking to his demise.

Akane could feel that he already gave up, but she still had the hope that All Might will stop him. But it didn't happen.

"YOU BIG ASS MORON! ARE YOU EVEN AWARE OF WHAT YOU JUST DID?!"

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All Might was surprised by the sudden shout he was hearing. He was also surprised that he and the boy weren't alone on the roof, but what most surprised him was that the person in front of him was crossdressing.

"What are you looking at me so weirdly? Never seen a crossdresser?"

The person knew that he knew?

"That's not the point here. Do you even know what you just did, All Might?"

He flinched at the mention that he was All Might, so the girl knew. He wanted to say something about that, but...

"You are going to say, 'I don't know who you are, but could you please be silent about this? The public isn't ready for this kind of information.', am I right?"

...the girl already knew what he was going to say, at this point he was sure that the girl could read minds.

"Back to my point. DO. YOU. KNOW. WHAT. YOU. DID. TO. THE. BOY."

He shook his head, he didn't know what he did wrong, he really didn't. So, he waited for the girl to continue. He knew it was pointless to talk against a woman, that counted especially for woman that were intelligent and could read your mind. Just like his master.

All Might guessed that the girl was a friend of the boy he just sends away, she seemed strong, knowledgeable, and as if she already knew the boy in and out, just like a childhood friend. He guessed that she followed him out of worry that something might happen to him and now she was here, scolding him. The number one hero.

"TALK! I can't read minds if you think that! I am quirkless after all!"

He choked. She was also quirkless? Why did his gut tell him then that the girl was incredible strong and shouldn't be messed with? But once again he was pulled out of his thoughts.

"Sigh, I am getting tired of this. Can you please stop trying to analyze me, right in front of me? This is the fourth time I am asking this, but do you realize what you just did to the boy?"

"I convinced him that he should stop trying to be a hero, right? If you want to scold me about that, then I am sorry, but I think what I did was the right thing."

All Might crossed his arms and huffed. He might be the role model of most kids, but he sure isn't going to send someone young that had potential to his death.

"You just send him to his death."

He started coughing as he heard these words, the words that said to him that he did the exact opposite of what he wanted. He wanted to scold the girl for joking about a matter like this, but as he saw her his words were stuck in his throat.

She smiled. She smiled a bright beautiful smile. It was so beautiful that the image in front of him seemed like the masterpiece of a master painter. It would have been history worthy, weren't it for the words that came out of her mouth.

"You just sealed the boy's death sentence, All Might."

He gulped, this seemed wrong, all of this seemed wrong, something that seemed so blessed muttered out words that seemed to be the strongest curse for him.

"You might be wondering, 'How could I have sent this boy to death? I just stopped him doing something foolish!', the answer might surprise you a bit, but it's very simple. Are you aware of what we quirkless have to go through in our life?"

He looked at the girl again, he shook his head. He didn't know.

Akane sighed. She should stop emitting this aura of dread that she maintained. All Might didn't say the words he said out of hate or any other dark emotion. He said them because he was a fool, he was a naive fool that thinks that just because of his presence everything is doing good. He wasn't wrong, but his presence doesn't have that strong of an impact.

It only made things all right, not good or exceptional, just normal.

"You are kind of a fool, All Might."

All Might looked up at the girl again. Nobody ever said these words to him. No, only one person did it, and she is long gone. His master regularly called him a fool. He couldn't believe that after all these years someone would call him that again.

"What do you think about you being the symbol of peace and all? Do you really think that everything is as peaceful as it seems? Just because you are here and All for One is locked away?"

He was surprised at the girl's question. All Might never questioned his title of being the symbol of peace, it just was there one day and he was proud of it. Proud that he was the symbol the people admired, proud that he was tasked to be the protector of Japan. He never thought more about it.

"I am sorry to say this, but it isn't. People still suffer under the heel of others and being crippled in any way, shape or form is basically an invitation for them to step on us. Especially if you are quirkless, having no quirk is basically the same as being inferior to them, for them. They think that because we are quirkless that we are under them a step in the process of evolution."

Akane sighed, memories of her being mistreated surfaced.

"If you are a weak quirkless you are being treated as a punching back. You will get stepped over and over again, simply because you are the weak quid that isn't able to retaliate. Especially the adults aren't really helpful, they act like they understand our pain, they act as if they would care about us, but at the end we couldn't be more worthless in their eyes. Heroes are the big trend these days, what use will be a kid that can't be one. We are crippled, we don't have a handy ability that could help us. Imagine having to write quirkless down in your resume, everyone asks what kind of quirk you have, after all it determines the worth of you, your rank in the company, society, about how handy you will be when necessary. A quirkless, what a joke. Of what use will you be? What can you do? Oh, you are quirkless? Really?"

She almost had to chuckle, the doubt that everyone gave her for saying that she is quirkless. This is getting ridiculous.

"If you are a strong quirkless, nobody will actually believe you that you are really quirkless. Take that idol, Seigi Akane or whatever. Performing in front of her fans, writing music, giving interviews and more than once did she tell us all that she doesn't have one. A quirk that is and look at the reaction of the audience. Is she really quirkless? Doesn't her quirk help her see? Doesn't it help her music? Wasn't her quirk 'insert any quirk here', because 'insert some theory here'? All of that stuff is posted all over the internet. I can't imagine it being any better in real life for her. People think that her being quirkless is just an image the company is trying to sell, what a joke."

Akane looked at All Might again.

"Do you understand now? If not, I am spelling it out for you. We quirkless only have our goal and that is the point we are trying to reach one day with all our might. We don't get opportunity, we don't get chance, we only have ourselves and our hard work. Now imagine if your life goal is taken away from you. Everyone is telling you to stop pursuing it, your dream, only thing that keeps him away from sanity, taken away and not just from anyone, taken away by your role model. The one that you try to reach one day, that you admire with all your heart, he just told you that you talk smack, that you talk about an impossible image that you won't reach no matter what. Imagine that. Your HOPES crushed by the person that you always looked up to, your DREAMS shattering because they are impossible. Nobody believes in you. Nobody will believe in you."

All Might listened to the girl's words. He put himself in the shoes of the young boy, he remembered the days were he himself didn't have a quirk, he thought about it. Would he be able to move forward if everyone continued to discourage him? If his master didn't appear on that day, how long would he have been able to move forward, he wondered about these things.

Suddenly an explosion was heard. He turned around, seeing that it was devastating. He transformed and was about to jump towards it, but he suddenly saw the girl jumping down from the roof.

His heart sank skipped a beat seeing this. He panicked and looked down, but all he just saw was a girl skillfully parkouring down to the street. Once at the ground again, she turned around towards All Might and just stretched her tongue out, while holding her hands above her head, making peace signs with them.

She then ran away with incredible speed. To say that he was speechless would be an understatement.

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At the place of the explosion:

A certain secretary walked out of the grocery store, looking really pissed off.

"Oh great, did I have to be in the area of action?"

She turned around and saw a little girl sitting in the middle of the street, crying. Suddenly a boy bumped into her and the bags fell out of her hand. The groceries were now on the floor. The secretary sighed.

"Wait, wasn't that just Izuku?"

Indeed, it was the boy. It wasn't that surprising for her though, her quirk involved breaking the 4th wall after all.

The secretary just shrugged, picked up her groceries and blatantly walked through the background of the scene, giving absolutely no piss to the situation that's happening.

"Damn mouse thing, whatever. Made me buy his groceries. Being his secretary is a joke."