"Where are your parents, Kid?"

He looked towards where the sound originated and found a costumed man standing on an antenna. Yellow-haired, masked with gold and copper accented gears and pipes, a copper-black patterned leather vest and cargo pants, a white long-sleeved shirt, and mechanized gloves and boots.

The man dropped from the antenna, and he could see how short the man was. The man was a centimeter or five taller than him and nowhere near an adult's height.

"They, they… they don't care," he said with a tinge of bitterness.

The man responded with a hum and then said, "And why are you here? Don't think I didn't see you going beyond the fence there."

"I want to get a closer view of the city, that's all," said the boy.

The man moved in an instant to sit on the ledge and looked down from the roof of a 30-story building. "Great view, isn't it?" said the man. "One that would lead you to hell with one wrong step, if I do say so myself." The man took one foot into the air and fell.

A gasp came from the boy. Someone just fell from the building in front of him! The boy leaned over the fencing to see if the man survived or not.

He found… nothing. There were no red splats of the man, no pedestrians taking pictures of it, and no distressed study touring students. The man disappeared as fast as he appeared.

"Do tell me, why do you want to go to the lower management so badly?"

A voice from the boy's side made him jump and fall onto the roof's flooring. The man fell, and in a blink, he was right beside the boy. A teleportation quirk, perhaps? That means the boy couldn't outrun the man and would have to—

The boy stopped his thoughts as the man took offense at the loud, passing helicopter. The helicopter folded like an origami into a cube the size of a football. The folded helicopter floated to the man's palm without any resistance from gravity.

The boy scooted back, giving him space from the monster. He saw the helicopter folding, along with its pilot and cameraman still alive. He could see their blood dripping from the cube.

The man threw the cube from the building and took steps towards the boy. "Again, why do you want to die?" The man's mask got close to the boy's face. "I could do it FOR you. Just tell me why."

The boy's spine shivered, and goosebumps rose. The man was the closest a villain ever got to him. It is usually thieves that steal his food stock and bullies that he encounters, not a full-fledged villain.

"I-I it's-it's—" The boy's eyes were glancing around for someone to help him or something to grab so he could hurl it at the villain.

The man held the boy's chin up with a finger, so their eyes would meet each other. "Come on," whispered the man to the boy's ears.

"I'M QUIRKLESS ALRIGHT!" shouted the boy with all his lungs could manage.

"There we go." The man released his chin and stood. "Wasn't so hard was it?" Then the man looked over in the distance and sighed.

The boy faced the same direction and saw a flaming man along with a tail of smoke coming their way. He's saved! But there's only one that could both burn and fly... Endeavor… highest collateral damage. He hopes he won't be a collateral.

Endeavor got closer and closer. When he was close enough to be heard, he stopped and shouted. "Surrender villain!"

"Does that ever work?" snarked The villain.

"Flash-fire!" Endeavor took a stance and readied his move, "FIST!" He launched a fire from his fist at the villain.

The boy was filled with renewed hope that he'd be saved from this villain, and he was in awe at seeing the hero's move firsthand.

That was… until the villain stopped time. There were chiming bells and then a gong noise. Along with the gong, everything except him and the villain has gone monochrome. The flames of Endeavor were washed from the bright orange light of hope to the grays of despair.

The villain squatted next to him, ignoring the frozen world. "You're quirkless, so what?"

The boy's eyes flickered between the frozen flame that was a breath away from the villain and the villain. He'd get killed if he didn't answer!

So, the boy shouted everything wrong with the world: "I—I EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING IS WRONG! Everyone thought that I was NOTHING! My PARENTS threw me AWAY after they got what they wanted! I have scars EVERYWHERE! They all wanted me to DIE! All because I'm QUIRKLESS! You, too, don't you!?" said the boy until he was red-faced.

"Whoa. Breath there, boy," said the Villain. "You know, why don't you solve those problems, do it the old-fashioned way?"

"The old-fashioned way?" repeated the boy.

"Yeah! The old-fashioned way!" A variety of guns popped into existence, floating around them. SMGs, shotguns, machine guns, rifles, handguns, rocket launchers, and missiles. "Guns!" Admittedly, the last two weren't guns, but the boy got the point.

"G-guns!?"

"Absolutely! Look at this bad boy here." The villain floated a sniper rifle to him and grabbed it. "—is Sako TRG 22 A1." The villain inserted the magazine into the gun's barrel and aimed at Endeavor's sidekick that's jumping on the roof, way behind the hero. "This is my first time, so let's take this bad boy for a run!" and pulled the trigger.

"NO!" shouted the boy as he stood and ran to stop the villain from harming the sidekick that wore a horned happuri.

The rifle fires and exits the barrel, but when the bullet has exited it, the bullet slows to a stop until it's the same monochromatic color as everything that froze.

"Don't worry about the sidekick," said the villain. "He'd die in an instant! That's what happens when a bullet strikes their head at light speed."

The villain continued, "Have you ever asked a hero for help? And did they?"

"Y-yes!" the boy shouted. Of course, he had. He had told a hero that his classmates bullied him, but the hero had believed his bullies more because the bullies told the hero that he was exaggerating things and that he was quirkless. The hero even took a glance at his red shoes, patted him on the head, and left! "No," he said, downcasted.

"So, why did you want to stop me from killing the sidekick?" The villain waved the guns away. "I bet you've even thought to kill them."

"Y-no! I don't want to be killed because..." The boy doesn't have any good reason for sparing the sidekick that he believes in. If he asked the hero to save him from his bullies, the answer would be the same. He was sure of it. He had gone to three different heroes, and they did. Not. Help.

He mostly solved his bullying problem by fleeing the school after the teacher had dismissed the class. Sometimes even from the window. His class was on the first floor, so it was safe.

"Uh-huh," said the villain, who knew he had won the bet. "Want to be my sidekick and kill everyone?" The villain extended an arm to the boy.

"Huh!?" The boy unintelligently responded. The request to be the villain's sidekick came out of nowhere, and suddenly he thought that he heard it wrong.