Towards A New Dawn

Chapter 1 - A Fateful Decision

Cold rain drummed down on the streets of Mustafu. A young green haired boy stood alone, the rain slowly soaking his clothes and droplets of water running down his face.

All around him the cleanup crew had begun removing the rubble that had accumulated during the villain attack, just another day in Mustafu.

Midoriya Izuku slowly wiped down the camera he had started to carry around everywhere in order to better record his hero sightings, and put it back in his bag, careful not to damage it. The villain had been nothing interesting, just a small-time bank robber, but at least he got to update his notes on Death Arms.

To Izuku these moments of Hero watching tended to be the highlight of his day, or at least they had been until a few months ago. He needed to go through his notebooks again, but if he was right and he almost always was All Might's situation was precarious and possibly disastrous.

He had been following All Might for months now and the changes he had observed had become more and more obvious. Only a few years ago his output had been consistently at 100%, but now it seemed that his power levels fluctuated, as if his Quirk was causing him pain. It was not unusual for Quirks to have drawbacks most Quirks did, but he had never heard of Quirks developing drawbacks at such a late stage.

All Might went to UA the best Hero School in the country, he should have been able to manage any potential drawbacks. Could his Quirk have changed or mutated? it was possible, through very rare. He had managed to collect data for almost every fight All Might had fought in the last twelve years, obsessively studying his patrol routes and collecting all the data he could find, spending hours researching Quirks changes, mutations and anything else that could affect Quirks, combing through countless medical journals, articles and forums in order to find an explanation for All Might sudden alterations, but it was like building a house without bricks.

The more he watched the hero the more he had seen the tiredness that marred his face, a tiredness so deep that it seemed to cling to him, to envelop him, causing him to hold himself back to become distracted and to lose the razor sharp fighting edge he once had. He never tried to show it to the public of cause, he was the Number One Hero after all, but Izuku had seen the lines on his face and the rings under his eyes. He was still the best Hero there was, there never could be anyone else, but it still tore at Izuku's soul to see All Might suffer.

There had to be a way to help him. He had been ready to go to Sir Nighteye, All Might's former partner and show him his observations and to discuss possible plan of helping All Might, but he knew that someone Iike him would never get close to a major hero like Nighteye and furthermore he lacked substantial data that he would need to make his case. No, he needed to continue his investigations, gather his data and form a full hypothesis before he could confront anyone. He needed to make a battleplan, but it would have to wait until after he finished work.

He slowly made his way through the wet and crowded streets of Mustafu finally arriving at the konbini he had worked at for a year. He quickly entered and made his way towards the back where his co workers were already preparing for their shift.

"Hey Mikumo san" Ayumi, one of his co-workers, was calling to him. Izuku waved back as he quickly put on the apron and prepared for his shift.

Mitkumo Akatani had been the false identity he had established in order for him to get a job and to live a life that was better than the one he was currently living as Midoriya Izuku, Quirkless fourteen year old middle school student with a deadbeat father and an overworked mother. His mother loved him. He knew that and he in turn would give his life for her, but she had to keep the two of them afloat and could not care for him as much as she wanted and he needed her to, so Izuku early on had begun taking care of himself. However he soon realized that being a fourteen year old quirkles teenager made it almost impossible for him to get a job. He had been laughed at, dismissed and even got verbally assaulted once or twice. No one wanted a Quirkless kid, he wouldn't be able to do the most basic tasks after all, at best he would be a nuisance that would lead to more work for his co workers, at worst he would be a danger magnet that was unable to defend himself and no one was willing to take such a risk. So Izuku had decided he needed a new identity, a new life.