My name is Saitama, I was born a quirkless kid in a world of superpowered people and that wasn't the last of the handicaps life had tossed my way.
My parents abandoned me when I was born so I grew up in an orphanage the first 14 years of my life. I wasn't the smartest kid in the world either, my grades were always just a pass at best, I didn't like to talk to the other kids or play games, partly because I was introverted and partly because I knew the other kids talked about me behind my back.
They called me the boy with no future because according to them I had nothing to offer to society. Doomed to slave away at a warehouse somewhere for the rest of my life. It was a harsh verdict but I had no rebuttal, I couldn't see a future for myself either.
At fourteen years of age, I was ready to end it all, so when I saw the crowd of screaming civilians running from a rampaging monster while I was on my way back to the orphanage, I did not feel any fear. I was curious to see what kind of monster could have caused so much terror in these people and I walked towards the danger.
The panicked crowd came from an alleyway famous for serving delectable seafood and the smell of the spices and the freshly cooked meat was intoxicating, for a moment I forgot there was a monster nearby. I walked past row after row of abandoned tables, sampling the food as I went.
There was chili crab served with a side of rice deep fried crispy squid rings, braised abalone and lobster.
It was honestly the best food I've ever eaten in my entire life, and thus was a fitting last meal. It would take an entire lifetime for me to actually afford something like that. In the distance I saw what I thought was some sort of mascot, but I didn't think too much of it at the time. A distant scream brought me back to reality.
I walked towards it and what I found was a pile of blood and gore.
It was the first time I saw dead bodies on the street. Two people were piled on top of one another, they seemed to have been cut by a pair of giant scissors. One was cut in half along his abdomen, his intestines spilled out onto the street mixing with the blood that flowed over the pavement and painted it red. The other that lay on top of him had her head cut from her neck. She must have died recently as the blood continued to drain out of the spot her wound.
I didn't know what to make of them when I first saw them. I guess normal people would have screamed or ran away but I just stared breathing in the rich iron smell of blood. As I stood there in my school uniform, with my school tie still around my neck, I thought I should be feeling something, but I wasn't, the corpses on the floor were no different than the lamp post that stood next to them and that bothered me. Because of all my flaws, being a good person was the only redeeming quality that I had. Maybe that was just a lie that I told myself, maybe I was like those serial killers on TV, maybe it was only a matter of time before I went full psycho.
I heard movement behind me, I turned around to see a massive creature maybe two and a half meters tall. It's legs were human but from the waist up it was a red crab.
"Kukuku, why aren't you running from me, little boy? Haven't you seen what happened to the last person I came across?" He cackled quietly after speaking.
"I don't have anything to live for, I have no future, no friends and no one who would miss me if I died. I honestly don't care if you kill me right now."
The Crab raised his claw to my face contemplating whether or not to kill me and I stood still, not moving an inch, not even flinching at the threat of death.
"I'll spare your life because your eyes are dead, just like mine. And besides I have other prey, some big chinned brat drew nipples on my chest WITH A PERMANENT MARKER!"
"The name's crablante, my quirk reached its singularity point and transformed me into a crab. See ya around hechechechec." He cackled softly again as he walked away.
It seems strange now, but I was disappointed to still be alive after that.
I walked off in the opposite direction. A few blocks south a couple of kids were playing soccer at the playground. I stopped and looked at them when I noticed that one of them had a big fat butt chin.
I wondered if that was the kid the monster was looking for but I decided it wasn't any of my business. I was surprised by how heartless I was and how easy it was to abandon someone who might be in danger but then I heard a familiar voice saying.
" There you are!"
I dropped my school bag and rushed over to the kid as fast as I could. Just as the monster attacked I grabbed the kid and got him out of harm's way.
"My ball…" the kid whimpered as he lay on the floor beside me.
"Now's not the time." I hissed, already regretting my decision to save him.
Any reservations the kid had about fleeing evaporated when the monster stepped on the ball and made it pop like a balloon.
"Why did you come to throw away your life when I just spared it?"
"In this age of declining birth rates, I can't just let you kill a kid."
" Guess I'll have to just kill a teenager first then." It said as it started it's assault. I don't know why I suddenly had a desire to live. I still wasn't afraid to die, I didn't think my life was valuable but I just didn't feel like curling up and dying to this abominable excuse for a creature. If he wanted to kill me, he had to earn the right to do it.
I kept dodging and dodging until eventually I slipped up. The first hit from his right claw busted up my lip and wobbled my knees. His left claw hit me in the chest, sending me flying like a tennis ball. I slammed into a wall and fell onto a pile of trash bags at my landing spot. My vision was blurry but I was still conscious when I landed. My heart was pounding, I could feel the adrenaline being pumped through my veins. I was two steps away from the doors of death, it was exhilarating, maybe even a little addicting.
My vision cleared and I saw the monster approach the terrified child. I picked up a rotten egg from the trash bin and threw it at his head to get his attention.
It worked and the crab turned around to face me.
"When I was a kid I wanted to be a hero. A hero that can send rotten villains like you flying with one punch! I don't care if I don't have a quirk! I am going to kill you! BRING IT ON!"
" Some hero you are, you don't stand a chance against me!"
I took off my school tie as he approached me.
" Prepare. To. Die." Crablante said as he brought his claw down on me with all his might. I managed to sidestep and leapt on top of his claw before jumping again over his head and getting my tie around his eye. I landed on the other side and pulled his eye out of his socket, killing him.
As I stood over his corpse, triumphant with the ecstasy induced by the adrenaline still flowing through my veins, I realized something. I didn't have to just throw my life away. If I was going to die, I might as well die protecting someone else who still had a will to live. And that is how my journey to becoming the strongest hero began.
I started training regularly and changed into my tracksuit before going on a 10km run every single day after school. I would fight any monsters or villains that crossed my path along the way. Washing the blood from my tracksuit at the end of the day became a regular chore.
At school, the adults were beginning to have a much harder time handling me. I stopped being the docile simpleton and became what they would label as a problem child. I stopped forcing myself to be nice and never backed down from a fight. I was expelled from four schools that year before finally getting posted to Alderra junior high school.
Alderra junior high was a modest neighborhood school an hour away from my orphanage in city Z.
I arrived on the first day of school dressed in it's black uniform and mingled with the herd of students streaming into the school entrance. I found my classroom on the second floor and took a seat at the back. As usual no one had noticed my arrival. It seemed that no matter how hard I tried I always blended in with the background. With my black hair and brown eyes I was the most normal kid in the entire room.
The teacher finally arrived 5 minutes late and introduced me as the new student.
" Good morning ladies and gents, today we have a new student. Stand up and introduce yourself to everyone."
I stood up straight as an arrow and spoke to the class.
" I am Saitama, I am an orphan, my hobbies are running, doing push ups and squats." I omitted the evenings I spent fighting monsters and villains as even to myself it seemed like a boastful thing to say." I am quirkless." That statement caused the students in the classroom to make noises that indicated their pity, I was sick and tired of hearing it.
"Listen here, I don't need your pity, half of you here have quirks that are as useless as pubic hair and the other half of you have quirks that only make you look ugly, you don't have the right to look down on me!"
All the kids went silent, some of them whispered their disgust at my outburst. One kid with spiky blonde hair and red iris in his eyes was laughing.
He turned around and looked me in the eyes.
" You're all right for a quirkless bastard Saitama." He said.
At lunch while eating my cup noodles that I had packed for myself I was pleasantly surprised to be joined at the table by someone with curly black hair with green highlights.
"Hi…" he began meekly. He took out his own meal as he sat down, home cooked fried rice kept warm in an insulated lunch box.
I eyed it jealously before greeting him in return and directing all my attention on my own meal of instant noodles.
" You can't talk the way you did this morning if you want to make friends."
I didn't take my eyes off the noodles when I replied, " I don't want to make friends."
" You have to learn to play nice or they won't leave you in peace, as a fellow quirkless student I feel it's my duty to give you some advice."
I sat up and looked at him. He was looking down at his food and twiddling his thumbs nervously.
"I remember when I used to be like you, avoiding conflict at the cost of my own mental health, but then I realized something, I can do anything they can even if I don't have a quirk."
"Oh you know that's not true, there are people here who can make explosions with their hands."
"Really all it takes is some bravery, most of these kids will stop picking on you as soon as they realize you're ready to fight. A punch from me will hurt just as much as a punch from any of them."
"That all sounds good in theory but in practice it's a lot harder to pull off."
"Then I guess we can agree to disagree."
"I guess you won't listen to me. My name's Izuku Midoriya."
"And I'm Saitama."
"Yeah I remembered from the introduction." Midoriya said
We shook hands.
The period after lunch break had us fill out a survey about our preferred highschool and field of work. I had no idea what to write so I just copied from my neighbour. The teacher collected back the survey forms.
"Let me guess what your preferred careers are, you all want to be heroes!" The teacher's statement was met with a resounding "yes!" from the classroom.
"Ha! Please, be more realistic. It's like what the new kid said, most of you have quirks that are completely useless unlike mine which I will use to surpass All Might himself and become the next top hero!" The voice cut through steady hum of the classroom.
"Bakugo's so arrogant,"I heard one of the girls mumble under her breath.
"Bakugo also thinks he can get into UA, the most prestigious hero academy in the entire country." The teacher continued
"That's right and I'm the only one amongst you losers who can get inside!"
"There is another student who wants to join UA, his name is… Midoriya Izuku?" I was a little surprised that someone who avoids conflict would wish to have a life of constant battle.
Bakugo was driven to a frenzy in response
"Deku! How dare you dream of becoming a student in UA! You don't even have powers. How are you going to ever save anyone as a hero?" It struck a nerve as I wanted to be a hero myself and though I had no hope of getting into a high end academy, I intended to do my very best to graduate high school with an official hero license. At that point I had already been doing hero work as a hobby for half a year, so I knew that a quirk wasn't necessary to become a hero.
"It's always… been a dream of mine…" Midoriya answered tentatively.
Bakugo began to walk up to a frightened Izuku that was shrinking into his chair more and more by the second.
His hands cracked with smoke.
"Tell me deku, how would you save another person when you can't even save yourself."
I had seen and heard enough. As Bakugo moved his crackling palm towards the face of Izuku I managed to grab it before he could hurt Midoriya. I would be lying if I said there wasn't a small part of me that regretted interfering. Because the moment I grabbed his hand I realized Bakugo was a lot stronger than the average junior high school bully in terms of physical strength.
" How dare you," Bakugo turned around to look at the person who put a hand on him. When he recognized my face, he managed to somehow get angrier.
"YOU! Wait your turn you quirkless bastard I have enough explosions to take care of both of you!"
Ignoring him I asked Midoriya, "is this the peace you wanted when you started to play nice? Where are the friends you made when you need them to stop you from getting bullied, huh?"
"You should have stayed out of this Saitama, Kachan is always teasing me like this." I ignored him and turned to the teacher." And aren't you supposed to keep this class under control?" I realized the teacher was hiding behind the lecturn instead of standing where I thought he was.
"What the hell have I gotten myself into?" I thought as Bakugo blasted me to the left side wall. The buttons of my shirt were busted open and the concrete wall behind me cracked as my back hit it hard.
"And just like that the quirkless tough guy is knocked out. Now it's your turn, scum!" Bakugo continued his maniacal monologue.
My vision blurred and I began to see in multiples.
I sucked in a deep breath and stood up on unsteady feet.
"Oi! you can't get rid of me that easily blondie. You're going to embarrass yourself by acting like some bad ass in front of the class.
You want to be a hero? How pathetic. UA can't possibly be a good school if they accept a bully like you into their ranks. Maybe I should try to get a seat, I'll probably get in because I am more of a hero than you will ever be!"
"Don't look down on me! Die!"
But what? he's the one looking down on us? I cannot begin to explain just how confused I was by his hypocracy.
I heard tables getting flipped as explosions from Bakugo's hands propelled him; leg first towards me at high speed. I ducked beneath him and felt him fly over me. Bakugo was fast at changing direction though and hit the back of my head with his knee. I fell to the floor before rolling back onto my feet. I turned around to punch him but he rolled under my fist and threw a right cross to my liver followed by a ferocious left hook to my face that drew blood. Bakugo moved back slightly, surprised I was still standing. The teacher had evacuated the classroom and the students now spectated the fight from outside.
"You know how to fight without your quirk," I said, smiling with blood flowing from a freshly cut lip. "That's nice to see you're not completely useless without your powers."
" I'm just trying to spare your life, but if you want to see my powers, guess I'll show it to you!"
Bakugo reached for me with the open palms of crackling fire and I grabbed them with my own hands.
An explosion went off that sent me stumbling back. My hands were covered in third degree burms. Bakugo was knocked out of his feet and fell on the floor at the corner of the classroom before getting shrouded in a cloud of smoke from the explosion. The fire alarm went off and the sprinklers turned on drenching me in water.
"And just like that, the blond bastard was knocked out!" I taunted him and let the students outside know who was the one still standing amidst all the smoke.
A hand grabbed my shoulder. Bakugo was a lot closer than I thought he was. He got under me and judo flipped me over his shoulder and onto the floor. He put his right knee on my chest and prepared for an explosive ground and pound
"Die!"
"Die!"
"Die!"
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The explosions shook the school.
My ears were ringing, my shirt was shredded and I was burnt in a hundred different places, but I was still conscious. My adrenaline rush prevented me from feeling any pain, it might even be an undiagnosed quirk I have. I mean how the hell was I supposed to know?
Bakugo stood over me, victorious. He was saying something but I couldn't hear it with the ringing in my ears. His hands were bruised from the effort. He had used his physical strength to keep his hands steady while using his quirk on me.
I smiled and got to my feet. Bakugo stopped talking and stepped back in shock.
"Your punches hurt me more than your useless quirk." I told him
Bakugo said something I couldn't hear and prepared to attack when he stopped and turned to look at the classroom door. The principal was standing there.
I was sent to the nurse's office where she patched me up and loaned out a second hand uniform to wear until I had to return it tomorrow.
Afterward I went to the principal's office to be judged.
The principal invited us in and asked us to take a seat at the two Ergotune classic's that were meant for visitors.
What happened? The principal asked me
"Bakugo was about to hit Midoriya," I told him.
"I was just trying to give him a reality check!" Bakugo growled.
"Did Bakugo hit Midoriya?"
"What do you mean?"
"Did he physically hurt Midoriya?"
"No, I stepped in before Midoriya could be hurt."
"How did you step in exactly?"
"I grabbed his hand."
"Grabbing the hand of someone else can be considered a physical altercation in some courts of law. That aside, don't you see how this escalated the situation?"
"You need to understand how to de-escalate tense situations if you want to be a functional member of society…"
I began to zone out. I couldn't believe I was the one getting lectured for this fight, didn't we both have at least equal blame?
"Young man! Are you even listening to me? If you don't heed the advice of your seniors, you'll end up dead or in prison because you keep getting into fights."
Bakugo's mother arrived at the principal's office right on time. But my caretakers were running a little late so they decided to begin without them. She looked like a carbon copy of her son, except older and more feminine. One of them was hard enough to deal with, I didn't know if I had the strength to tolerate two of them.
"See Miss Katsuki, Bakugo was teasing Midoriya when Saitama got offended on the other student's behalf and grabbed his hand, unfortunately escalating the situation to a full fight.
"I think Saitama owes Bakugo an apology."
"Do you think I don't know what you're doing? I am a quirkless kid, with no parents and not very bright. I have no future so you're just going to throw me under the bus, because Bakugo is a star student and you need him to graduate in your school to bring up your own rating."
"I would learn to control my tongue if I was in your situation." The Principal said sternly.
"So what do you expect me to get on my knees and beg you to reduce my sentence? You and this entire system are the same as Bakugo, the only difference is he says out loud what you're all thinking quietly. Hell will freeze over before I apologize to this arrogant loud mouthed dipshit!"
"Calm down young man. No one is getting expelled today." Bakugo's mother spoke with a voice that was assertive, calm and eloquent, not remotely like the angry screeching I expected from her. She stood between me and Bakugo and put a hand on each of our shoulders.
"I don't know this young man on my left, he might even deserve the beating my son gave him," I beat him up, what is this woman thinking.
"But I do know my son and I know that he bears at least partial responsibility for any fight he's involved in. If you're going to expel Saitama, you'll have to expel Bakugo as well."
"But Miss Katsuki you can't be serious, Bakugo has a bright future ahead of him, if we get that on his record the best schools in the country might not consider enrolling him."
"Then that's the price he'll pay for his behavior and maybe he won't behave the way he does now if his actions had consequences."
"Well you drive a hard bargain miss Katsuki, I wouldn't want you to throw away the potential of a star student over some minor scuffle.
Well then you'll both serve detention for the rest of the week, another fight like this and I will expel both of you."
"Ok, may I leave now?" I asked the Principal, he nodded a reply and I went on my way.
"I think you owe my mother a thanks, scum!"
"I suppose I do, Thanks."
"Stop getting agitated about everything, it's not a big deal!"
"Damnit woman I'm defending you!" Bakugo looked like a mad badger.
Sometimes I wonder why I want to be a hero in such an unfair world. I see people like Bakugo everywhere. Entitled brats who think their powers make them superior to others.
Never mind, I don't care about saving people. I want God to come at me with everything he has. I want him to finish what he started.