The first thing I was greeted with when I went home was my parents' arms being flung around me and the sound of heavy sobbing from my mother and whimpering from my father. 

"You did it! You did it, I can't believe it." I noticed my mom's voice was hoarse. My dad placed a hand on my good shoulder and wiped his eyes, looking at me with the biggest smile I'd ever seen, maybe even larger than All Might's.

"Kiddo, you got it. You ranked top three, and I couldn't be more happy or proud of you. Your mother was screaming inside all day while she watched you compete and fight. She lost her voice, which is unfortunate," he chuckled, kissing his wife on the forehead, and looked back at me, teary expressions lacing his features. "I can't express it in words. I just want to go to the top of a cliff and yell 'My kid won!' You know?" He gave a loud laugh and sniffed, rubbing his nose. 

"I didn't win." My voice was quivering as I said it, lip curled up in disgust. "But I didn't win. I didn't because I don't have an advantage. I don't have that confidence, that determination, that drive! A quirk! And I'm not saying it's your fault, it's just that..." I gasped for air, my throat closing up.

"If I just tried a little bit harder, if I pushed myself like a real hero, I would've made it. I would've made it to second place. I can, I-I can..." Soft coughs started to fly out of my mouth, a burning sensation coming to my nose. 

"Can I? Can I still be a hero?" This felt so familiar. Hopelessness. 

"Even if I'm so pathetic," I spat, crunching my fingers against my palms. "I want to be one, I want to show everyone everything I have to offer. But just like that, because someone has something I don't, it's gone. My work is gone, everything is gone, like dust in the wind." 

"Honey." My mom placed a gentle hand on my head, holding it close to her. "It's hard. We wouldn't know, but we do know that it's hard to be a hero. As for us..." My dad clasped my hand and softly murmured to me. 

"We sure are proud to be your parents (Y/N)." 

Somehow, every thought faded away, melting into a big puddle on the floor, flushed down a drain. This warm feeling spread across my face, up to my ears, down to my feet, pooling in my chest. Suddenly, tears started to well up in my eyes.

Proud to be your parents.

I started to cry, blown away by my father's touching words, tears flowing steadily down my rosy cheeks, my hands coming up to wipe them away, chest heaving with sobs. Someone was proud although I wasn't. How could I have been so blind to not even see that they were watching at home, to cheer me on? It was a tender moment, one that didn't usually happen often in this house. 

"Thank you Dad, Mom. I love you so much."

__

"Wait! (L/N) (Y/N), right? You did such a good job in the UA Sports Festival! Congrats on getting third place!" I smiled awkwardly and thanked them, clasping my hands together subconsciously, not expecting people to gather around and ask for pictures and point out who I was, congratulating me. 

The feeling of guilt had long been scrubbed away by a hot, home-cooked meal by my parents, and lots of hugs and kisses from them, no matter how much I tried to squirm away as a joke. 

"Yeah, thank y-"

"You might all think that (L/N)'s so great, but they treated their opponents like trash." I noticed a person in the crowd who had their arms crossed, smirking. They had a black bowl-cut, messily done, a white shirt covered with a green plaid robe, sandals and socks, and droopy eyes accompanied by these large, fat lips and a very round, pressed down nose.

People made a circle around him, the train's sound louder in the quiet atmosphere that just brewed. The blackette smirked and pointed a finger at me.

"I'm just saying, they didn't use their quirk to defeat them at all. (L/N) is just a self-centered attention seeking little kid who thinks that they're the best, and better than everyone else. It's not fit for them to be calling themselves a hero, or whatever," the person scoffed, smirk growing wider and wider with each sentence. A man rushed forwards and held him by the collar.

"Oh yeah? Well they did win the title of third place, alright? They could probably beat you into a pulp right here and now!" Everyone looked at me in interest, eyes gleaming on whether I would spring into action. I sighed and looked at the quivering man.

"No thank you. You can say what you want. It's okay." 

"Oh." The man let go of the other's collar and backed away onto the side of the bus. I kept silent for the rest of the ride to school, and got off at my designated spot. 

He's right.

It's going to be harder, alright.

__

"Our homeroom class will be on Hero Informatics today." Everyone gave into a silent panic, wondering if there was going to be a test or not, and cursing under their breath, imagining the last trial we had.

"We will be choosing our hero names today." We all gave a collective sigh of relief and sprang up, terribly excited to choose something that would fit us. 

"This has a lot to do with the Pro-Hero draft picks, and because you are only first years any offers can be taken back before you all graduate. The teacher stepped out of the way to reveal the board, now littered with names and the number of hero offers each person got. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest once I saw the number of offers that I had.

That for doing nothing? For not having a quirk? 

"3201? (L/N)-san that's crazy!" Denki exclaimed. "And that's only third place! 4123, and 3556? Man, now I feel so useless!" Trying not to think about the negative, I took shallow breaths, attempting to calm my rapidly beating heart. 

At least my parents are going to be happy.

I tuned out most of the conversation, except when where Mineta pointed out something pretty important.

"Midoriya-kun. You don't have any offers. It's maybe because of how reckless you were when you fought." I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at the dumbstruck boy, spacing out and looking at nothing. 

My attention snapped back to the front of the classroom when Aizawa announced something important. 

"You all will all spend a week interning with Pro-Heroes," our teacher explained, crossing his arms. "They will train you and you'll be working with other students from this school and others, who have also been recruited by the heroes.

"It's important that you choose a hero name that describes you well, since it will be your alias for the rest of your life. A teacher has come to help you with that, so please show some respect." Everyone wondered who it might be; when they walked in, jaws dropped. 

"I will be the one that approves of your names," Midnight informed, smiling and carrying her whip, winking. I snickered as most of the guys' faces lit up with red, muttering about her costume. The female staff handed out whiteboards and dry-erase markers, talking about how we must present our hero names to the class. Oh damn.

Aoyama went up first, that radiant smile on as always.

"My hero name will be-" He presented his board with dramatic flair, treating the class as more of an audience than anything. "I can not stop twinkling!" Everyone sighed sweat-dropped, thinking that it was a ridiculous name, but actually quite fitting for the flamboyant male.

Midnight thought for a moment, then finally said something. "Why don't you just change it to 'Can't Stop Twinkling?'" Aoyama flicked his eyes to her and smiled.

"Fantastic idea, mademoiselle!" I could feel the class' thoughts.

"If this is going to be like this, what's the purpose of even choosing names?" Mina went up next, and presented her idea of "Alien Queen," based off the villain from Ridley Scott's movie franchise. Midnight immediately shuts it down, saying that it was not appealing enough, especially for a girl like her.

Tsuyu was next, and chose the title: "Rainy Season Hero: Froppy." Everyone seemed to lighten up after hearing this, and started to chant her new chosen hero name. I smiled and cheered along with the class, encouraging a small smile to spread on our friend's beautiful face.

Everyone else went up, from aspiring names, such as "Red Riot," to more playful and beautiful names like "Anima," "Uravity," "Chargebolt," and "Grape Juice." But then Bakugo had to ruin everything by slamming his board down and growling, "King Explosion Murder." I rolled my eyes, a smile still spread on my face.

Now it left me, since Shoto, Tenya, and Izuku had already went I thought about something, anything that would describe me in one or two words. I started to space out, closing my eyes in concentration. 

"You were amazing out there, sweetheart." I looked up at my mom, a smile gracing her facial features and a hand reaching out to the crying toddler on the ground.

"Everyone has something, but I don't!" I shook my head, wanting to reach out, seeing myself and the oh-so-distant memory. My mother crouched down, placing a hand on my head, eyes crinkled closed in a comforting smile. 

"You're my hero. You're the first of your kind. Version A. The first quirkless hero." 

I snapped back into reality, someone tapping my shoulder.

"(L/N)-san. You kind of spaced out there for a second." Tokoyami's deep voice rang through my ears as I felt all eyes on me. I didn't notice hot tears were running down my warm cheeks. I wiped them away and furrowed my eyebrows, immediately knowing what to write as my hero name.

I raised my hand and was ready to notify the class of my alias. Midnight nodded at me, gladly inviting me up. I clutched the board near my chest, putting my heart into the name. I turned around and smiled, actually a bit nervous.

"Show us the board! I can't wait any longer!" Mina squealed, slapping her hands on her desk. I took a deep breath in and turned it around, looking at everyone's reactions. Eyes widened, some gasped and some just kept quiet in complete and utter disbelief.

"Quirkless Hero: Version 'Ae' A."