A meteor smashed into the rocky ground, throwing up rocks and dust around it as it broke the stone beneath it.
No sounds echoed in the void, however. The moon was as silent as it had ever been and would always be.
Countless rocks had hit the satellite of earth and countless more would doubtless hit it in the future.
This time was different, however. Very different.
Had any human seen the scene where the meteor had hit, they would instantly have noticed the pieces of broken metal in the aftermath of the meteorite. The now dozen pieces of broken steel had scratches and bulks from countless smaller stones, telling a tale of weathering the effects of space for countless years.
Now, however, it was broken.
Just beneath the surface, hidden in plain sight, a block of light grey metal had been rendered asunder. No symbol marked it, no bolts or any sign of welding suggested that it had ever been anything other than one singular piece of metal.
The block had been roughly the size of a swimming pool. Inside it had contained something which was roughly the size of a gym ball. A perfectly circular black sphere, so dark it might as well be another part of the black void of space.
If the sphere had been affected by the meteor crashing into and breaking the metal around it, it had left no mark.
The sphere began to rise up from the remains of its prison, and the piece of rock which had burst it asunder.
There were no signs of any obvious propulsion helping the orb to fly. But fly it did.
With no seeming difficulty, the orb escaped the gravity of the moon and began a journey towards the blue planet the moon circled around.
After a controlled descent through the atmosphere, the sphere crashed down in the ocean off of the coast of a large island east of the largest landmass on the planet.
The orb sank into the depths. As the water began to subsume it, cracks began to appear. The pressure of the sea doing what space had not been able to do.
Finally, as the sphere reached the bottom, with one final "CRACK" the sphere broke inward. Had any creature of bone and flesh been inside, they would have been crushed. But out of the now broken sphere, nothing but an inky black substance spilled out into the sea.
...
Hunger.
So weak. Had to find… nourishment. Food. Host.
Yes. Host. Find host.
Darkness all around.
There was life all around. Smaller things and larger things. But no, not hosts. No emotion, just instinct. No food. No nourishment.
Was there no food? Was it… Was… was the… Water. Yes, water. Was the water empty of true life?
No…
There… In the distance.
Yes. Far away, but it was there. Feelings. Emotions. LIFE.
...
The inky black mass, invisible in the darkness of the ocean depths, began to slither, slowly, weakly, but determinedly, to the northwest.
Towards civilization. Towards life. Towards destiny.
...
Izuku midoriya was not having a good day.
His good days were generally the ones where Kachan didn't deign himself to notice him.
Of course, that wasn't the case today.
It had all started with their teacher announcing it was time to lay out their hopes for the future. Unsurprisingly, every single member of the class had announced in some way that they wanted to become professional heroes. Even Izuku had done that, meekly raising his hand.
It could have ended with that, but of course, it didn't.
Kacchan had of course taken the spotlight and declared himself to be on another level as he was wont to do. He liked to do that. Shout his supremacy so all could hear it as if his quirk didn't speak for itself.
As Kacchan was loudly announcing his plans to go to Yuei, someone had muttered something about how Izuku was also planning on trying to get into Yuei.
What had followed was a humiliation from the entire class led by Kacchan as he had destroyed his desk and blown him away with an explosion, then humiliated, threatened, and derided both him and his goals as the class had laughed.
It generally wasn't this bad.
Really, it wasn't.
After the commotion had died down, everything had gone back to normal(other than izuku having to go get a new desk) and he hadn't been humiliated for the rest of the school day.
He really hoped that would be it, right up until the end of the day, when Kacchan snapped up one of his notebooks from the new desk.
"We're not done Deku."
Around them, Kacchan's regular group gathered around. The rest of the class, including their teacher, continued out. Some shot glances at izuku and Kacchan as they headed out. Some had a guilty look on their face, some smugness, some indifference.
Kacchan held up his notebook for his friends to see.
"For the future_Hero Analysis B!" Kacchan said in a mocking tone.
"For the future?" One of his friends replied. Then he laughed. "HAHA, for real? Goddamn Midoriya!!"
Izuku shook, both out of fear and of desperation. That notebook mattered to him. He'd spent the last half-year on it, diligently writing down every single hero or villain quirk he had come across.
But more than that, it was his work, his efforts, his only real step on the road to his dreams. His books were the only thing he had ever made that he felt real genuine pride in.
He had to get it back, he should snatch it of Kacchan's hands and run as fast as he could.
Instead, he weakly said, "Give that back, it's mine." God, he sounded whiny.
Kacchan simply put the notebook between his hands and blew it up with an explosion.
He let out a loud yell of "AAAHH!" in shock, and as Kacchan simply threw the charred and burned remains of half a year of Izuku's life out the window, all the protest he could muster was a weak "You…."
Kacchan snorted.
"You know what they say about all the top heroes Deku? What they all had in common?"
Rather than waiting for Izuku to give an answer, he continued.
"They can all say this about their school years: I came from an average municipal middle school, and I was the first! the only!"
"And I wanna make sure the term "Yuei Graduate" maintains that same level of gravitas. I'm a perfectionist by nature you see."
"So what I'm saying…" Kacchan stepped forward with a smile and put his hand on Izuku in a way that could have been friendly if not for the steam rising from it. Izuku's eyes fixated on it, and his body shook in fear. He had been burned too many times by that flame not to fear it.
"Forget about Yuei, you little nerd."
Izuku's mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. He tried to speak, but he couldn't. All he could do was breathe, take heavy breaths desperately trying not to cry.
Then, with no warning Kacchan retracted his hand and walked to the door, leaving Izuku standing there, still breathing like he was about to have a panic attack.
"Aw, man… As usual, he can't talk back."
Izuku choked.
"Just leave him. He's such a sad sack, that even now that he's a senior, he still can't face reality."
Kacchans words stung in the way his words always bit so much deeper than all the rest of the class.
"Ah, but Deku, if you really want a quirk so badly, there is an easy way you could get one."
What?
"You could jump off off the roof! Maybe, if you're lucky, you'll be born with a quirk in your next life!"
It was too much.
Izuku snapped, and spun around wanting to yell at Kacchan to shut up or… or… or anything really.
Instead, his mouth remained shut as Kacchan glared back at him menacingly while casually setting off an explosion in his hand.
"Got something you wanna say?"
Izuku didn't, and this time, he actually began crying.
Kacchan's laughter echoed in his ears long after he and his posse had left.
...
A while later he fished what was left of his notebook out of the school fish pond while muttering to himself.
Goddamned moron. If he actually had jumped off of the roof, then it'd be instigation of suicide. Don't joke about shit like that.
Part of him cursed himself for not having the courage to say that to Kacchan's face. Another part desperately tried to convince himself that it was just a joke. Kacchan couldn't seriously have wanted him to kill himself… Could he?
As he finally fished out the notebook he steeled himself and looked over it.
As expected it was completely and utterly destroyed. Nothing of his writing remained, after first being blasted, then dumped in the water. He had expected as much. Yet it still hurt seeing it for himself.
He sighed, then after drying it the best he could, he put it in his bag. The smart thing would have been to throw it away. Yet he couldn't bring himself to.
As he walked out of the schoolyard, he considered what he was going to do. Part of him wanted to just head home and pretend today hadn't happened.
Another part wanted to go out and look for more hero and villain battles. Maybe start on a new book. Pretend today hadn't happened.
That was all he could do.
He refused to give up on his dreams. He just refused. He'd find some way to become a hero. Even without a quirk.
So, ignore what everyone said, and keep moving forward. Just like always.
He was about to head out back into the city when he heard his phone ring.
He quickly fished it out and saw it was from his mother before he answered.
"Yeah, Mom it's Izuku."
"Izuku, baby. Sorry to call and drop this on you this suddenly, but something just came up, and I'll need to head out for a day or two. Could you pick up some food and medicines for me while I'm gone?"
"Of course! I'll have it for when you come back!"
"Thanks, baby, you're a lifesaver. I'll send over a list. I'll see you soon dear, love you!"
"Love you too mom."
They hung up.
Half a minute later he got a list of supplies he needed to pick up. Well, the apothecary was the farthest away, so that's where he would head first. No sense lugging around two big bags of food through the entire city.