Chapter 1: Sparks
Is this really how it ends?
The sludge villain's mass pressed against Izuku's lungs, forcing its way down his throat. Everything was going dark, and all he could think about was how pathetic this was. Fourteen years of dreaming about being a hero, and he was going to die in an underpass because he couldn't even run fast enough.
Guess Kacchan was right... I really am useless.
But as consciousness slipped away, something else flickered in his mind. A story he had found after overhearing All Might one time... One he used to tell himself when the other kids called him worthless. A story about four friends who never wanted to be heroes at all.
About the origin of the power commonly known as Sparks.
We all know about the Glowing Baby- the birth of Quirks in Qing Qing City, China. But do you know about what came after the Quirk Wars ended?
There were four kids in a small town outside Tokyo: Sukui, Pip, Riko, and Jae. Three of them were Quirkless. One had a minor squirrel-type mutation that barely counted. They weren't dreaming of being heroes- the concept was still too new, too strange. Instead, they wanted to be detectives, calling their club SPARK.
They solved neighborhood mysteries. Missing cats, stolen bikes, who was leaving graffiti on the school walls. Kid stuff. Sukui always carried around cookie-shaped shuriken she'd made in home economics- nervous fidgeting, she claimed, but they were perfectly weighted and sharp enough to stick in cork boards. Pip doodled constantly in the margins of his notebooks, little sketches of shields and swords and armor that the teachers thought were just daydreaming, but if you looked closely, you could see the careful attention to proportion and detail. Riko was the one who'd march right up to bullies twice her size, all righteous fury and clenched fists that never seemed to pack much punch- until that day. And Jae... quiet Jae just listened. He was the one kids came to when they were hurt, somehow always knowing exactly what to say to make the tears stop, his hands gentle when he helped bandage scraped knees.
They never imagined their spark would light up the world.
Everything changed on a Tuesday afternoon in October, during their second year at Sakura High School.
A mutant villain- bear-type, massive claws, standing nearly three meters tall with fur that looked more like steel wool- was cornered outside the school gates by an anti-mutant protest group. Someone had called him a "freak," and things escalated when a protester threw a brick that hit him square in the shoulder. The villain's quirk flared in panic and rage- earth-shaking tremors that sent cracks spider-webbing through the school building's foundation. The chemistry lab on the second floor started leaking something that made the air burn your throat and eyes. One of the protesters, a man with wild eyes and a "Humans First" armband, had a quirk-enhancing ability that amplified every power in a fifty-meter radius, turning manageable quirks into disasters.
The bear-mutant's roar shattered every window on the first floor. Students were screaming, running, crying. Teachers were trying to evacuate but the main stairwell was blocked by rubble.
And then four ordinary kids did something extraordinary.
Pip grabbed his math homework- covered in doodles of medieval shields drawn in blue ballpoint pen-a nd somehow, impossibly, his sketch of a massive tower shield ripped itself off the paper. It materialized in brilliant detail just as chunks of concrete rained down on fleeing students. The thing was huge, easily four meters across and two meters tall, with intricate Celtic knots around the edges just like in his drawing. It held against debris that should have pulverized it, each impact ringing like a bell.
Sukui pulled her cookie-shaped throwing stars from her bag- she always carried at least a dozen, made from actual cookies from her grandmother's recipe. In desperation, she hurled them at a steel support beam that was groaning, about to collapse on a group of first-years. The little stars suddenly blazed with white-hot edges as they spun, slicing clean through the beam like it was butter. The metal edges left perfect cuts that still steamed in the cold October air.
Riko saw a girl trapped under a collapsed section of the courtyard wall- had to weigh at least two tons of concrete and rebar. Without thinking, she grabbed the edge and lifted. Strength surged through her muscles, her sneakers cracking the pavement from the force as she raised the entire section over her head like it weighed nothing.
And Jae- gentle, quiet Jae- ran toward the injured instead of away. A third-year girl named Tanaka had a compound fracture, her leg bent at an impossible angle, bone sticking through her uniform skirt, blood spreading across the concrete. Jae dropped to his knees beside her, his hands hovering over the wound. "It's okay," he whispered, tears streaming down his face. "You're going to be okay." And somehow, impossibly, she was. The bone slid back into place, the flesh knitting together, skin smoothing over like it had never been broken. Tanaka stared down at her perfectly healed leg, then up at Jae's green eyes, wide with wonder and terror.
But here's what made them different from every other hero that day: they didn't just stop the villain. They helped him.
While everyone else was running, while the newly fledged pro heroes were still en route, Jae walked right up to the massive bear-mutant- this terrifying figure that had the entire crowd screaming in fear- and started talking. Just... talking. His voice was steady despite the tears on his cheeks.
"You didn't mean for this to happen," he said, standing barely a meter away from claws that could have torn him in half. "You're scared. They hurt you first, didn't they? With that brick?"
The bear-mutant stopped mid-roar, staring down at this tiny human who wasn't running, wasn't screaming, wasn't looking at him like he was a monster.
"My name's Jae," the boy continued. "What's yours?"
"K...Koji," the villain rumbled, his voice thick with confusion and pain.
"Koji. That's a nice name. Koji, I know you're hurting, but these people- they're just kids like me. They're scared too. Can you help me make sure everyone's okay?"
And that's how Koji- who would become The Bear Hero: Roar- spent the next hour helping four high school kids dig survivors out of the rubble, his massive claws gentle as he moved debris that would have taken rescue crews hours to clear.
That was the beginning of the Second Quirk Wave. Emergent Quirks- powers that manifested not from genetics, but from desperate need, from the drive to protect others. Sparks.
Team SPARK became legends. They changed how the world thought about heroes, about villains, about second chances.
And then, five years before All Might would debut as the world's greatest hero, they vanished without a trace.
Present day...
The sludge pressed deeper into Izuku's throat, but now he held onto that story like a lifeline. Team SPARK had been ordinary kids too. Quirkless kids who found their power when it mattered most.
Maybe... maybe I can still...
His vision went black.
My name is Izuku Midoriya.
And someday, somehow, I'm going to find my Spark.
If I survive this.