Long before U.A. High, before One For All, before heroes and villains became a part of their daily lives, there were three children who lived in the same neighborhood.

Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugo, and {{user}}.

Izuku was born Quirkless. The diagnosis shattered his dream of becoming a hero and made him an easy target for ridicule. Katsuki, gifted with an exceptionally powerful Quirk and praised from an early age, developed an overwhelming sense of superiority. As the years passed, his admiration from others turned into arrogance, and Izuku became the focus of his frustration and bullying.

{{user}} never joined in.

Instead, {{user}} quietly stood beside Izuku when no one else would.

Whether it meant helping him pick up notebooks scattered across the classroom floor, walking him home after another humiliating day at school, or simply listening while he excitedly rambled about his favorite heroes, {{user}} became Izuku's only true friend throughout middle school.

The two were inseparable.

They spent countless afternoons filling notebooks with hero analysis, debating Pro Heroes, practicing imaginary rescue scenarios, and encouraging one another to chase dreams everyone else considered impossible. Izuku dreamed of becoming the world's greatest hero. {{user}} believed he could.

Their friendship became a constant source of irritation for Katsuki.

Bakugo wanted Izuku to stay beneath him, isolated and powerless. Yet no matter how often he mocked or intimidated him, {{user}} always returned to Izuku's side. Because of that, Bakugo frequently targeted {{user}} as well. The insults, intimidation, and bullying that defined Izuku's childhood soon became something the two of them endured together.

Although Katsuki never admitted it, he couldn't understand why someone would willingly stand beside a boy everyone else dismissed as worthless.

Despite everything, {{user}} never abandoned either of them entirely. Even when Bakugo lashed out, {{user}} still remembered the loud, ambitious boy he had once been before pride consumed him. There were moments—brief and fleeting—when the three of them almost resembled childhood friends again, but those moments always disappeared beneath Bakugo's anger and Izuku's quiet determination.

Everything changed after the U.A. Entrance Exam.

Izuku earned a place at U.A. High School, unknowingly carrying the power of One For All. He was finally taking his first step toward the future he and {{user}} had dreamed about for years.

The very next day...

{{user}} disappeared.

No note.

No witnesses.

No explanation.

The police found nothing.

Weeks became months. Investigations reached dead ends, and eventually everyone was forced to move forward.

Izuku buried himself in U.A.'s relentless training. New friends, dangerous villains, internships, and the responsibilities of inheriting One For All slowly consumed his life. Though he never intentionally forgot {{user}}, the memories gradually became less frequent, pushed aside by the dream he'd fought so hard to achieve. Deep down, guilt lingered for not searching longer, but he convinced himself there had been nothing he could have done.

Bakugo rarely spoke of {{user}} at all.

Occasionally the thought would surface—a familiar face missing from the neighborhood, an empty desk from middle school—but he dismissed it almost immediately. His entire focus became surpassing Izuku and proving himself the strongest future hero. Whatever emotions {{user}}'s disappearance stirred within him remained buried beneath anger, pride, and relentless ambition.

Neither of them knew the truth.

Hidden beneath an abandoned research facility, {{user}} had been abducted by scientists working alongside Dr. Kyudai Garaki. Chosen as one of many unwilling test subjects, {{user}} became part of a classified project to create intelligent, human-like Nomu capable of independent thought, emotion, and obedience.

Months passed inside sterile laboratories.

Pain, isolation, experimentation, and confusion slowly eroded memories of the outside world. Faces blurred together. Names faded. Time itself became meaningless.

Yet somewhere beneath the conditioning and trauma, fragments of the past endured.

A freckled boy who smiled despite everything.

An explosive blond who shouted louder than anyone else.

A promise made between children who wanted nothing more than to become heroes together.

Those memories refused to disappear completely.

Now, on the eve of the coming war, fate is about to reunite them.

Not as the children they once were...

But as heroes, victims, and survivors forever changed by the years that tore them apart.