In this world, 80% of the population has superpowers. We call them quirks, but you can call them whatever you like.

Most of the quirkless civilians are adults and elders, because less and less are born powerless every year.

Some kids have defensive quirks, some have quirks that can suppress enemies, some can easily kill and others are gentle and contemporary.

Hitoshi Shinso's quirk isn't much good for fighting. Well...he doesn't have a quirk.
He sometimes tells people that his quirk is a secret, or that he chooses not to use it.

But when kids are young- quirkless or not- they all look up to heroes, fighting for justice. Almost every child would look up to the number one hero All Might. Almost every child wanted to be All Might. Almost.

Hitoshi Shinso didn't want to be like All Might, not after he came upon the realization that no matter what he did...he could never be like All Might.

It's cruel to let a child keep dreaming of something that will never come true.

When Shinso turned 6 he continued to believe All Might was the best hero. But that year he stopped wanting to be All Might.
There was someone else that he wanted to be.

April seventh, he turned on the TV, the news channel as usual.

Today, it started with news of All Might's latest victory against a whole mob of villains. It was amazing, yes, but it was no surprise. All Might always won.

After that, came the news of an armed robbery on third street. It was a live broadcast, a female reporter queried about who would step up to protect the civilians, though she sounded more professional than concerned.

Of course she was, the only point of live broadcasts was to roll the dice on what hero would show up, to give your repetitive channel some variety.

The reporter turned around as her camera man pointed behind her excitedly.
All Might for sure, Shinso thought.

But this time, a much smaller shadow crept from an alleyway. As this mysterious man came into the light it became apparent that he was young, twenty or so. He had fairly long black hair and a large gray scarf wrapped around his neck.

This man wore all black and Shinso was sure he must be a villain.

The camera focused on him but in seemingly seconds he was gone. The camera moved rapidly trying to find him and when it focused again Shinso leaned forward towards the screen (even if his mother always told him 'don't sit so close to the TV!') because this man wasn't using his quirk, or at least no flashy quirk that Shinso could see.

Instead, he was using his scarf like a lasso, bonding multiple villains together and tugging towards him to give himself a clear kick to their chests, winding them easily.

Shinso waved over his mom, who was in the next room.
"Mom!" He called out.

The blue haired woman ducked her head into the room.
"Hmm?"

Shinso pointed at the screen where this strange new hero stood with four unconscious villains tied up in his scarf-like weapon.
"Who's that?"

Shinso's mom looked at the TV for a few seconds before shaking her head and admitting.
"No idea. I don't think I've ever seen him before."

Instead of going back to her laundry, the woman sat down on the couch to watch too.

The hero laid the villains onto the ground and unravelled his scarf, repositioning it on his neck.

The reporter ran up to the man in black, bombarding him with sudden questions, eventually ending them off with
"What's your name?"

The man took a nervous step back, looking uncomfortable.
Suddenly a loud voice from somewhere offscreen yelled
"It's Eraserhead: the erasure hero!"

"I never- ugh- fine." Mumbled 'Eraserhead' looking in the direction of the yell.

When he turned back to the camera he repeated
"Eraserhead."

Shinso's mother let out a short laugh at her son, almost glued to the screen.

Shinso would quite often watch the news, but since Eraserhead's first appearance he watched it everyday, waiting for more.

Eventually, the man started appearing more and more.
Shinso was astounded. If Hitoshi were older, there would have been a long time spent, researching this hero. Finding out who he really was. But to a six year old...it was a near instant adoration.

Young Shinso was surprised that despite their obsession with pro heroes none of the students in his class paid any mind to his favourite.
Did they not see him?
Defeating villains with a modest quirk and a personalized weapon?

"He doesn't care about a single person he coincidentally saves. How could anybody ever want to be like him? He's practically a villain!" Said a kid at school a few years later.

Shinso punched that kid.

Another thing kids seemed to love to hate about Shinso was his desire to get into U.A.
'A kid without a quirk can't get to U.A.!' They said.

But Shinso always thought it wasn't the quirk that mattered, or the lack of it.
It was the dedication and wish for justice in the world.

Other quirkless kids Shinso had met were too different for him to get along with.

Every child without a quirk got bullied, but they all seemed to become sensitive, nervous and timid.

Shinso wasn't like this.
Because he wasn't just going to let it happen.
If someone thought they could beat him up outside the school Shinso would love to see them try, those middle school idiots never expected him to be as strong or smart as he was, they didn't expect him to purposely fall into adult's range of sight whenever he was hit.

And if Shinso ever did win a fight, it would be even more shameful for the sore loser.

Shinso had learned over his years of being bullied that he didn't have to make himself an even funner target than he already was.

Hitoshi Shinso had no plans of being the number one hero, that was just unrealistic child's play for a quirkless reject. But he wanted to be a hero as much as the next kid did, in fact he wanted to be a hero more.

Perhaps because we all want what's farthest from our reach.