This is the story of how I became the world's greatest hero.
Shin Yamada held his wife's hand as the doctor placed their son in her arms. The baby's eyes opened, and Yamada saw something that made his breath catch.
"He's perfect," Ino whispered. Her fingers traced the boy's cheek, and she smiled when he turned toward the touch. "Hayato. His name is Hayato."
Yamada nodded, unable to speak. He'd built three hero agencies from the ground up, negotiated with the Hero Public Safety Commission more times than he could count, but this tiny person in his wife's arms terrified him in a way no villain ever had.
He thought about his own quirk, accelerated thought, which was the ability to process information at speeds that made him invaluable in crisis management and agency coordination. Ino's quirk, enhanced reflexes, had made her a promising hero before she retired. Their son should inherit something from both of them.
The doctor cleared his throat. "We'll need to monitor his development closely, with both parents having cognitive and physical enhancement quirks, there's a chance of"
"We know," Yamada said. He'd read every medical journal and consulted with quirk specialists. Some children inherited complementary quirks that amplified each other, while others got nothing, or something entirely different; you just couldn't predict it.
"Whatever he wants to be, we'll make sure he can do it," Ino said tiredly.
Yamada squeezed her hand. "Yeah, we will."
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Hayato's first word was "no."
Ino had expected "mama" or "dada." Instead, she got a flat refusal when she tried to take away the All Might action figure he'd been chewing on.
"No," Hayato said, gripping the toy tighter.
Yamada laughed when she told him. "Kid knows what he wants."
"That's not funny, he's going to be stubborn when he grows up."
She was right, but Yamada couldn't bring himself to care. Hayato walked at nine months and started forming complete sentences before his second birthday. By three, he could read at a first-grade level and had opinions about everything from breakfast cereal to hero rankings.
"Endeavor's the coolest," Hayato announced one morning. He was sitting cross-legged in front of the TV, watching a news report about a villain takedown. "Fire is way better than punching."
"All Might is the number one hero though," Ino said, half focused on folding her laundry and watching Hayato.
"Yeah, but fire is cooler." Hayato didn't look away from the screen; Endeavor had just incinerated a villain's escape vehicle. "When I get my quirk, I want it to be fire."
Yamada exchanged a glance with Ino. They'd talked about this before, on how to prepare Hayato for the possibility that his quirk might not be flashy or combat-oriented, or what he imagined.
"Your quirk will be perfect for you," Ino said. "Whatever it is."
Hayato turned to look at her. "What if it's lame?"
"It won't be lame."
"But what if it is? What if I can't be a hero?"
The fear in his voice caught Yamada off guard. Hayato was confident to the point of arrogance most days. He demanded the best toys, the best clothes, and threw tantrums when things didn't go his way, but underneath that, there was this terror of being ordinary and not living up to something.
Yamada crossed the room and crouched beside his son. "You want to know a secret?"
Hayato nodded.
"My quirk isn't flashy; all I can do is think fast, but I've helped coordinate rescues that saved hundreds of people and built agencies that employ dozens of heroes. Your quirk doesn't have to be fire to make you great."
"Did you want to be a hero?" Hayato asked.
Yamada smiled. "Yeah but I realized I could help more people by managing heroes than by being one myself."
"I'm going to be the best hero though, even cooler than Endeavor."
"I know you are kiddo."
Ino shook her head, but she was smiling. She sometimes worried about how he was going to handle failure when it inevitably came, but Yamada insisted that confidence was good. It was better to aim high and fall short than to never aim at all.
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They threw an elaborate party for Hayato's fourth birthday. They rented out an entire play center, invited every kid from his preschool, and Hayato loved it. He would also show his new All Might vs. Endeavor action figure set to anyone who would listen, but his quirk didn't manifest that day. Not even a week later, Hayato started asking questions. When would it happen? Why was it taking so long? Some kids in his class already had theirs.
"Soon," Ino kept saying. "It'll happen soon."
She hoped she wasn't lying.
Hayato hated waiting, he'd been four for three whole weeks, and nothing had happened. He didn't even get something boring like his dad's thinking quirk. Just regular stupid Hayato with no powers.
He was playing in the backyard which wasn't really playing, more like sitting on the grass and throwing rocks at the fence because he was mad. The fence was expensive, his mom said. Hand-crafted wood imported from somewhere he couldn't pronounce but he didn't care so he threw another rock.
"Hayato, stop that," his mom called from the kitchen window.
He threw another one anyway. She'd probably make him come inside if he kept it up, but being inside was worse. Inside, he had to look at all his hero toys and think about how he might never actually be one but then a butterfly landed on the fence post, it had bright blue wings, Hayato watched it and for a second he forgot about quirks and heroes and everything else but then a bird dove from the tree above.
Hayato saw it happening and knew the butterfly was going to die, and something in his chest twisted with the unfairness of it. The butterfly hadn't done anything wrong, It was just there, and now it wouldn't be.
He wanted it to stop, but then suddenly the bird hung in the air, frozen mid-dive. The butterfly's wings were locked in a half-flap and even the grass had stopped moving in the wind. Hayato stood up. His legs felt weird, heavy, and light at the same time. He took a step toward the fence, and it was like walking through water.
He reached the butterfly and touched the butterfly's wing, and it was solid, not soft like he expected, he then put the butterfly in his hands but then his head started to hurt and a sharp pain in his eyes made him squeeze them shut when he opened them again, the world snapped back. The bird finished its dive, but the butterfly was already in Hayato's cupped hands. The bird crashed into the fence post with a confused squawk and flew off.
Hayato stared at the butterfly as It crawled across his palm, wings opening and closing slowly. He didn't know how, but he'd saved it.
"Mom!" He ran toward the house, careful not to jostle the butterfly too much. "Mom, look!"
Ino appeared at the back door, dish towel in hand. "Hayato, I told you to stop-" She saw his face and stopped. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. I saved the butterfly!" He held out his hands. "A bird was going to eat it, but I stopped it. I think I have my quirk now."
Ino's expression went through several changes. Confusion, concern, then something that might have been excitement. "What do you mean you stopped it?"
"Everything just... stopped. The bird, the butterfly, everything and I could move, but it was hard, and my head hurts now, but I saved it." The words tumbled out faster than he could organize them. "Is that my quirk? Can I stop time?"
"I don't know" Ino crouched down to his level. "Hayato, are you sure that's what happened?"
"Yes! Look at the butterfly, it's fine." He was getting frustrated now, why didn't she believe him? "I'm not lying."
"I know you're not lying, sweetie. I just-" She took a breath. "Let's call your father. He'll want to hear about this."
Hayato nodded, still cradling the butterfly. His head really did hurt, a dull throb that made him want to close his eyes but he didn't care, he had a quirk. It wasn't fire like he hoped for but stopping time was even cooler than fire, he was going to be a hero after all, the greatest hero infact.
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A/N: Speedsters go brrrrr