"Hey, Kid!" a man called out to a small green haired boy. "You okay?" looking up at the stranger, the kid wiped his tears before trying to say something, but chocking on his words. "Oh Jeez!" the man looked on in panic, before looking through his pockets. Pulling out a small packet of tissues, he handed it to the kid. "Here, blow your nose and sit down. Take a deep breath." The kid looked up for a moment, before doing as he said. Sitting down at the beach, the two sat in silence as the man stared off at the horizon, while the kid sat there occasionally blowing his nose.
"… Thank you." The kid said, hugging his knees and looking at the sand beneath them.
"Look, this might be easier to do, since you don't know me. But I think, I genuinely think you should at least talk about your problem." The man sighed. "I might not have the answers for you, but I could help you figure things out." the man sat there next to the kid in silence, not pushing any more than he wanted to. Sure, he was worried when a small kid suddenly appeared in front of him, crying his eyes out, but the kid was a stranger, and he wasn't really supposed to be there in the first place. As the sun began to set, the man let out another sigh, before getting up. "Look, I understand you need time, but… It's getting dark. You should head home for the night. I'm going to be here again tomorrow, if you need someone to talk to." He patted the kid's head.
"I… I want to be a hero…" the kid said. "But… but my hero said it was impossible. He-," the kid looked up, tears pouring out his eyes, "He said someone like me can't become a hero!"
"Someone like you?" the man looked slightly confused. "You know what, come here." He helped the kid up and moved to the bench on the roadside. "Okay… what did you mean by, 'someone like you'?"
"Someone useless! A Quirkless person!" he half-shouted, looking up at the man. "I… I…"
"I'm not gonna lie, being quirkless does make things a little harder." He chuckled. "But that doesn't mean you can't do anything, you know." The boy stopped, staring in confusion at the man. "Can you tell me how he said it?"
"Wh… what?"
"How did he say you can't be a hero? Did he laugh? Did he look confused? Did he look concerned?" the boy looked at the man for a moment, before looking at the ground. The child seemed to freeze in position for a minute, before looking back at him.
"He… I… I think he looked worried." He replied.
"There you go." The man smiled. "I'm not exactly caught up on things here, but heroes are here to help people. They're here to make sure nobody gets hurt, and get the help they need, right?" the boy nodded. "Sometimes, the way to do that is to stop people from doing dangerous things. Sure, they probably could've worded it better, but the problem remains… If you don't have anything to protect yourself with, you'll end up getting hurt." The man stood up, stretching. "Tell you what. How about I give you a quick training session? You're pretty scrawny, so you're not going to last long at a situation. Let's get you bulked up, find your shtick, then you can go back to your hero, and ask again. Only this time, you won't be a tiny, scrawny, starstruck little kid, but one who's strong, determined, and prepared. How does that sound?" he grinned at the kid, who looked up in shock and confusion. "… Kid?"
"Ah! Please! Please teach me!" the kid jumped to his feet, looking up at the man. "I'll do my best!"
"Alright. First things first… You need to go home." He man looked around, the sun had dropped below the horizon. "I'm not interested in being called a kidnapper." The kid looked around as well, noticing it was already getting dark.
"Oh! Mom's going to be worried about me! I need to go home! I'm sorry!" the kid began running in place, as if waiting to be let leave.
"Well don't just stand there, go home!" the man shoo'ed the kid. "Just come here tomorrow, morning if possible! And bring your mom so I can explain things to her first!"
"Right! I'll see you later mister!" the kid said running off. With a chuckle, the man watched as the kid ran off, still careful around the streets despite his hurry. As the kid left his sight, he walked back to the beach and sat down, looking off in the distance. 'Well… that was weird… but I think I know where I am, at least.' He thought, looking down at his hand. With a sigh, he laid down and stared at the stars, his mind wandering a little. 'Midori…yama? Midoriya? Eh, that kid and All Might are different from the comics I've read… Just hope things aren't that different, else things might end horribly.' He placed his hands under his head, closing his eyes. As sleep slowly took over, a small thought passed his mind.
'Why the fuck did I call out to him?'
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"Mister!" a kid shouted, bringing his focus back. "I'm here!" he turned to see the green haired kid and… a pale blonde kid? Wait, why's the bully here too? And both their mothers!? "I thought I'd be here before you!"
"Well, kind of hard to do that." The man chuckled, messing with the kid's hair. "I've been up since four!" he grinned at the kid. "So… Is this your stepbrother or something?" he asked looking at the second kid.
"WHO'D WANT TO BE RELATED TO THIS WORTHLESS- OW!" the kid was stopped mid-sentence by his mother, who slapped the back of his head. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?"
"SHUT UP! WE'RE HERE TO TALK TO THIS MAN!" the mother shouted back, before turning to me with a casual smile, as if they hadn't just yelled at each other. "I'm sorry, I was at Inko's place when Izuku came home and told us about you. I'm just worried that you might be up to something Izuku, so we came as moral support." She said, smiling all the while.
"Inko… Ah." The man slapped his head. "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm…" he stopped for a moment, before shrugging. "… Eh. I'm Argent Cross. As you can tell, it's a foreign name, so Cross is my last name." He said while bowing to the parents slightly. "My friends call me Silver, as a play on my first name."
"I'm Midoriya Inko, and my son is Midoriya Izuku." The green haired woman replied, bowing slightly. "This is my friend, Bakugo Mitsuki and her son Bakugo Katsuki." She said, gesturing to her friend.
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you two. And your children, of course." He smiled at them, 'well… one of the kids, at least.' He thought. "Now, as I've explained to Izuku, if it's fine for me to call you that." He looked over, as Izuku nodded. "Right. As I've explained to Izuku, dreaming on being a hero while not having a quirk is hard, but not impossible. Right now, there are many heroes whose quirks are a bit… questionable." He struggled finding the right word. "For example, Compass kid's quirk is literally just helping him point somewhere. It can help when you don't know where something is, but that can be overcome with some mental prowess, and some deductive reasoning. So, for now at least, I want Izuku to train his body and mind. If he has good strength and stamina, he should be better than some heroes who are clearly out of shape, just by virtue of being able to last longer than them. Next, this part is a bit hard for me, is for him to train his mind. The faster he thinks, the better he'll be able to handle things that pop up out of nowhere. For now, I'm thinking of training his body and prepare him for sudden occasions."
"Oh? How are you going to do that?" Mitsuki asked.
"The basics. Running, and I'm going to occasionally pass him an object by throwing it at him, and he has to catch it or else he has to repeat the lap." He pulled out several small golf balls. "This is just the start, but… he's a bit scrawny, so I think this should be enough for a while."
"Why would you waste your time with something pointless?" Katsuki spat out, glaring at Izuku. "He's not going to be able to last as a hero anyways. Why bother?"
"Because this is also useful when doing things other than being a hero." He looked at the small hothead. "How about you join in the practice? Maybe you'll learn a thing or two?" he looked over at Mitsuki. "Unless… you're scared that Izuku can do things you can't?" Mitsuki shot a surprised look at Argent, before a knowing smirk as his son blew up again.
"WHAT!? FINE! I'LL SHOW YOU I'M BETTER THAN THAT USELESS WASTE OF SPACE!"
"Is that so?" he smiled at the two kids. "Alright. I've already marked two points, at each end of the beach with a small flag. You're going to be running from flag to flag, back and forth, ten times." He said, juggling the golf balls he had. "While you do that, I'm going to be tossing these at you at random times. If you drop them, or get hit by them, that's one extra lap."
"Hah! That's too easy!"
"And no quirks." Katsuki snapped his head back at Argent. "If Izuku's doing this without a quirk, then you're doing it to." He smiled. "Unless… you're scared." And again, the small dynamite exploded in rage.
Just like he said, the two ran up and down the beach, adding a lap every time they failed to grab the golf ball, which ended up with Izuku having to run 31 times back and forth, and Katsuki running 32 times. Which, of course, made him angrier to no end. By the time they finished, including the breaks, it was already time for lunch. "I know I did this, but… are you two okay?" Argent looked down at the two kids, panting while lying on the sand. The two merely panted, unable to catch their breath enough to reply. Somehow, Katsuki didn't have enough energy to even glare back, something he didn't think was possible. "To be honest, I was thinking about training you two in some self-defense, but I'm pretty sure you'll just collapse before letting out a single punch."
"You really were serious about training them." Mitsuki said, looking down at her son. "I'm surprised he even agreed to the training."
"Well… let's just say I know what buttons to press on people." Argent chuckled. "But, it should be about time for lunch. You two can head back… I don't think we can get any more training out of these two." He bowed to the two women. "Thank you for letting me train them. And especially for putting your trust in someone you've never met before. I'll be somewhere nearby the beach every day, but I don't think they'll have the energy to train again tomorrow. I'll still be here, if they want to push themselves."
"We'll be here, then." Inko smiled at him, as she picked up Izuku. "Why don't you join us for lunch? Seeing on how you're using your time to help our sons."
"Really? I don't want to impose."
"It's fine. I'm sure my husband would love to meet you to." Mitsuki said, picking up Katsuki.
"Oh… Then… if you don't mind." he looked over at the balls on the ground. Appearing over every single one of them, a disembodied hand appeared, looking like they were made of mist. Picking up the balls, he gathered them in his hands and put them away, before turning to the two women. "Alright. Please, lead the way."
Talking with the two parents, and later also Izuku once he had enough energy to do so, Argent noticed the world he was in was slightly different than the one in the comics. For one, Izuku and Katsuki were still in their first year of what could be called middle school. Second, apparently the meeting with All Might was a complete coincidence, and he happened to be nearby when Izuku encountered him. What happened was like in the comic, but with a different outcome due to the lack of villain. As they talked, the four of them were surprised to hear about Argent's lack of domicile, as well as lack of actual income. He's been getting by with doing odd jobs at stores here and there, while sleeping at the once trash pile beach. The reason it was cleared, was because of him, though that also meant that he had to wake up early to avoid being detained for sleeping on public property.
"Um… I know this is a bit weird, but… would you like to stay with us?" Inko asked, causing Argent to choke on his drink.
"What?" he looked at her, then at Mitsuki who showed the same concerned look. "I'm grateful for the offer, but you don't even know me. I don't think I can do that."
"Well… It's clear to us that you're serious about helping…" Mitsuki added. "And… I can use that as an excuse to hang out with Inko, to keep an eye on you."
"But-"
"No buts. Please, at least until you get a place of your own?" Inko looked at Argent, placing a hand over his.
"I… Izuku, please talk some sense into your mother." He turned to the green haired boy, before noticing a look in his eyes.
"I think that's a great idea. That way, we can train even sooner!" Izuku said, body trembling from the muscle pain.
"Then you need to tell me when you're going to train!" Katsuki shouted, also trembling from muscle pain. "I'm not letting you get ahead of me!"
"Then it's settled! You can stay with us until further notice!" Inko smiled brightly, as Argent let out a small groan, resting his face in his free hand.