Prologue

I woke up in my usual way. Not getting enough sleep from a night of reading fanfiction and watching anime. I recently was let go from my job working in a supermarket and I felt like I should take advantage of my free time. However, my family had other plans.

"Michael!" said a loud feminine voice, down the hall from my room.

"Yeah?" I said in an exhausted tone.

"Come in here!" said the female voice.

"Coming." I replied as I got up from my chair to see what she wanted.

Call me lazy if you want, but I just really didn't want to hear or do anything she said. As I walked down the hall, I was thinking "Please don't let it be something for me to do!"

I should probably introduce myself. My name is Michael Branch. I'm 25 years old. I'm 5'10, I have a dark brown crew cut, light blue eyes, my beard is a little unkempt because I keep forgetting to shave (I always tell myself to but I just end up forgetting), I'm a little pudgy, not full-blown obese but I do have a bit of a gut.

I was just wearing a gray shirt that said, "No Work, No Wins." and a pair of solid black shorts. I walked over to the living room and I saw my mom. She was a little shorter than me reaching up to my nose. She had brownish-blonde hair, hazel eyes, wearing a colorful shirt and jeans. She had her shoes on, so I figured she was going out today.

"Yeah, Mom?" I asked.

"I'm going into town today. If you want, I can drop you off so you can walk or something." She replied.

"OK, let me just get ready." I told her. I turned around, went to the bathroom and did what I did to get ready: brushed my teeth, applied deodorant, and washed my face. Afterward, I changed my clothes to a solid white shirt (with a black chest pocket) to protect me from the Southern summer heat, a pair of khaki cargo shorts, fresh pair of socks, and a pair of my black tennis shoes. I got my smartphone, my earphones, my wallet and I was ready to go.

"Alright, I'm ready!" I said.

"What took you so long?" a high-pitched voice said, outside the front door.

"Knock it off." I groaned.

My 11-year-old little sister, she was the princess of the house. Every time I tried to get her to stop doing something that would get her in trouble, she would always either ignore me or make some ridiculous comment that she thought was funny. She had long shoulder-length black hair, dark brown eyes, she came up to right above my belly. She wore a white shirt with pink writing with a pair of blue jean shorts and a pair of black and white shoes.

"Yeah, what took you so long?" another high-pitched voice said.

"You too." I impatiently replied.

That was my 9-year-old younger brother. He was the family clown, always thinking something was funny, even when it was something serious that no one would joke about. I could stand the unfunny things he tried to make funny, but he was a motormouth. Always talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. That boy couldn't stay quiet to save his life. And to top it all off, he was a FULL-BLOWN crybaby. Every time, someone would upset him or he wouldn't get his way, he would cry his little eyes out for like an hour. He had the same shoulder-length hair like our sister, which always made him look like a girl (much of everyone's amusement) and same dark brown eyes. He wore a black and blue shirt with green cargo shorts and a pair of green and yellow sneakers.

"Quit it and get in the van!" Mom demanded, not wanting any negativity to start off the day.

We soon got in, having double-checked everything we needed. Mom started the van and we went off. We went out of the neighbourhood and toward town. My siblings were already arguing with each other about who punched or pinched who. I decided to place my earphones in and listen to some music on YouTube on my phone. I told Mom and she was OK with it. I was never really one for family moments in the car. I looked at my phone and decided on listening to an opening song to an anime I just finished watching: My Hero Academia.

I chose the first season song, it was always epic and it was part the reason I started watching it. As I watched the video, I realized that my school experience was similar to Midoriya's to an extent. I was the runt of the litter, the guy that never fit in with anyone; but I was never the guy that was an outcast of society.

I always kinda wished that I was a part of world like that. You got your own power or Quirk, if you want to get technical, be a hero and always saved the day. Kinda childish, but we all have those kinds of dreams. Besides, I always loved heroes. Marvel, DC, even in anime.

In the van, I was looking out of the window of the passenger seat. Just watching everything pass me by. I felt a jab at my shoulder and turned to see Mom miming me to take off my earphone. I paused the video on my phone, took out my earphones and looked at her.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Look, we're gonna go to the Y and drop them off, then we need to talk." Mom replied.

I didn't like the sound of that. Usually when she needed to talk to you in private, it was never good.

I sighed and said, "OK."

I put my earphones in and resumed the video on my phone, letting my mind wander to better places.

XXXXX

We arrived at the Y and Mom signed my brother and sister in so they can go swimming. With that finished, Mom told me to follow her and we ended up outside and in the van again.

"Michael," Mom started, "do you even know what you want to do with your life?"

This was a question that she always asked ever since my senior year in high school. She worried that I was going to end up not being able to take care of myself and never going out on my own. I never really did think about what I wanted out of life. I was too focused on getting out of school and never dealing with the assholes and the fake pity I got from everyone I met. I didn't even think about college because it would feel like more of the same.

"No, I haven't." I answered.

Mom sighed and said, "I know I've asked this before, but you seriously need to start thinking about what you want. Life's not going to just give you a happy life."

That just pissed me off. She always kept saying that like I was just ignoring her, thinking she'd stop if I did it long enough.

"I know." I said.

"Then, when are going to grow up and go out on your own?" she demanded.

"I don't know." I replied, struggling not to raise my voice.

"That's not good enough!" She yelled, getting tired of the same answers he always gave her. "You need to grow up and figure it out or you're getting your ass kicked out of my house!"

"YOU THINK I WANT TO STAY IN THAT HOUSE?!" I yelled back at her, sick of her yelling at me.

"YOU THINK I WANT TO SPEND OF MY LIFE LIVING WITH YOU GUYS?! I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT I WANT! YOU SAY YOU'RE FED UP WITH ALL MY EXCUSES, WHEN THE FACT IS THAT I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WANT!" I screamed at her, losing my temper that bottled up with her constant questioning.

"DON'T YELL AT ME!" Mom screamed right back at me. "YOU DON'T YELL AT YOUR MOTHER!"

"Forget this." I brushed off. I opened the van door and started walking away.

"DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME!" She called out to me.

I didn't even respond. There was no talking to her when she was like this. I kept walking as I heard her yelling saying that I could walk back home. I didn't care. In fact, I was happy that she wouldn't pick me up, gave me more time away from her.

As I walked through town, I was feeling bad about yelling at Mom like that. I know she was just looking out for me, but she could've went about it more calmly.

BZZT BZZT BZZT

My phone vibrated in my pocket. A call was coming through interrupting my favorite song, "Give It Away" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I took out my phone and saw that it was my stepdad calling.

He and my mom got married a few years after they met and had two kids together afterwards. He was calmer than Mom, but he would get mad only to show that you really fucked up with him. If he was calling, then Mom must've told him what happened. I didn't want to talk to him, if that was the case, but that would just mean more trouble for me later.

I pushed the tab on my earphones to answer it and said, "Hello?"

"What do you think you were doing, yelling at your Momma like that?!" My stepdad demanded.

"I didn't mean to yell at her, she was screaming at me." I replied.

"I don't care what you mean to do, you don't yell at your parents, boy!" He scolded me.

"I don't see why you guys are always saying that. I wouldn't yell if you guys don't yell at me first. If someone's yelling at you, you don't just bottle it in and just brush it off like was nothing." I defended.

"Doesn't matter! If I say, 'You don't yell at your parents', I don't care if your eardrums bleed, you don't do it! You hear me?!" He replied.

I wanted tell him off and call him a hypocrite. But no matter how much I thought I would be in the right, I was never gonna win. So I just grit my teeth and said, "Yes."

"Alright then. I'll be picking you up after work. Just be at the library." He said.

"OK." I answered.

"Alright then, bye." He said and hung up.

I ended the call and turned my music back on, trying to forget the anger and frustration of the conversation I just had. But like always, it just lingered on.

XXXXX

It was a few hours since the call from my stepdad and I still couldn't stop being frustrated from it. I just want it to go away, but I would just hear from him again when he picked me up.

At that time, I turned off my phone and started to think about what Mom said this morning.

"Do I know what I want to do with my life?"

That question has always been on my mind since after high school. Despite me telling that I didn't know, I always did know. I just wanted to help people. To be there when anyone needed help with things, big or small, and to always make someone else's day a little better. I felt that way for a long time back to when I was a kid, but I never actually did anything to accomplish something like that. Because every time when I tried to help someone, I was always treated as a nuisance. People saying they didn't need my help or telling me to go away. And as it continued, the more I thought "Why should I help these ungrateful people?". At this point, I could care less about other people's problems. So, when someone asked me for help, I always said that I was busy or I had to go somewhere. If they treated me like that, then they don't get my help. Kind of a dick thing to think, but what goes around, comes around.

I was just aimlessly walking through out town when I suddenly heard a scream.

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!" I turned my head to see a pair of kids, a boy and a girl, on the railroad tracks and it looked like the girl had a foot stuck in the rails. The boy ran off, probably back to his home to get his parents, leaving the girl by herself. I didn't see any trains nearby, so I thought someone would help her ou-

DING DING DING

The guard rails on the tracks lowered and lights were flashing, but that was impossible. I didn't see any-

WHOOOOT WHOOOOOT

I looked back down the tracks and I saw it. A freight train charging down the track and from the sounds of the frantically used horn, it wasn't stopping for ANYTHING.

My eyes wide, heart pounding and mind racing at the situation I saw before me. An out-of-control freight train coming down the track, a girl with her foot stuck on the track and no time for anyone to come back with help in time. As all of these factors caught up to my shocked mind, I knew only outcome could come from this: that girl was going to die.

After that thought played in my head, I suddenly started running toward the girl without a second thought. As my body automatically sprinted to the helpless child, I was thinking "What am I doing? Why am I doing this? What could I possibly do?". None of that mattered because someone had to do something. I didn't care if she or anyone else thanked me, at least I was going to help her.

I reached the little girl and I told her, "I know you're scared, but if you're going to get out of this, you need to stay calm and don't move so I can get you out of here, OK?" She stopped crying and nodded her head.

I looked inside the gap of the rail and that her foot was lodged in there good. I tried to pull it out but instead, I was just hurting the girl.

"OW!" the girl cried.

"Sorry!" I said.

WHOOOT WHOOOOT

The train's horn was getting louder and we were running out of time. As the train kept speeding down the track, the girl started crying again as the fear for her life was settling back in. I was beginning to lose my cool, too. I mean, who wouldn't? I was getting desperate, just tugging the girl's foot out of the track.

As I saw myself doing it, I realized something. Only the shoe was keeping the girl's foot in. When I saw that, I began to start untying the laces and ripping them out of the shoe. When the laces came off, I tried pulling on the girl's foot again, this time her foot was out of the track. She was free!

WHOOOT WHOOOOT

As I heard the horn again, I snapped my head around and I saw it.

The train was just a few feet away.

Time slowed to a crawl. You know how right before you die, they say "Your whole life flashes before your eyes?" Well, it was true. As a gruesome death awaited me, I saw everything that happened that got me to this point. I was bullied constantly in elementary school, the people I tried to help always saying that I should just mind my own business, and all the people I ignored because of my bitterness towards everyone who shunned me. It was horrible. All I wanted to do was to help. I wish things were different. But if this was the end, I would at least save this little girl.

With train's speed, I knew that only one of us was going to make it. So, after steeling my nerves and accepting my fate, I pushed the girl as hard as I could away from the tracks. I turned my head back to the train and the last thought that ran through my mind was

"Well sh-"

XXXXX

Darkness.

That was all I could see. Just an empty expanse of pure black. Apparently, I was lying down on the nonexistent ground. As I checked my surroundings, I was shocked that I was still alive or alive as I could be. I know I died, so does that mean I'm in the afterlife? Because I have to say, it was very bleak.

I got up off the ground(?) and started walking to wherever I could. If this was the afterlife, maybe I could find another soul inside this place. Hopefully.

I keep walking for what seemed like hours. Eventually, my legs got tired and stopped to sit. Nothing. Not a person or even a single object here. I was beginning to get scared.

"Am I in Hell?" I thought. Was this it? Was I doomed to spend the rest of eternity in this desolate abyss? For the first time in I-don't-know how long, I was crying. I was as scared as that girl was. The girl! As I remembered her, I sighed in relief. After all, I didn't find anyone else in here so she must've survived.

"Was it worth it?"

"What?" I said. Who was that? No one else was here. Who could've asked that?

"Was... it... worth... it?" the voice asked again, this time slower as if I didn't hear it the first time.

As I heard the question more clearly, I asked that question to myself.

"Was it worth it? Was it worth sacrificing myself to save that one little girl's life?" I thought as I began questioning my actions. I didn't know that girl. She was just another person to me. If that train didn't come, I would've just let someone else save her. After all, she would've had plenty of time to be rescued. But that's not what happened.

As I recalled my last moments, I also remembered the emotions I felt when I did it.

Sadness.

Fear.

Determination.

Happiness.

I did it. When I felt that last emotion, I realized I just achieved my dream. Even if it was only once and for a short time, I finally became what I always wanted to be: a hero.

So I stood up and looked into the abyss and said without hesitation "Yes, it was totally worth it."

"Glad to hear it." the voice replied. When I heard it a third time, I realized it was a deep, masculine voice that said it. Like hearing the voice of God.

"Would you like another chance?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"I saw what you did for her." he explained. "Regardless of your past and your own safety, you saved that girl. In reward for your bravery and altruism, I wish to give you a second chance. Only not in your own world. I shall send you to a world where your selfless deeds would be better appreciated. A world where you can accomplish your dream and make it reality. A world where you can be a hero."

I just stood there wide-eyed. 'A world of where I can be a hero?' Can this be real?

"However..."

I snapped out of my thoughts and back at the voice.

"You should realize what you're getting into. Know that in this, no, in any world of heroes, there are many dangers that await you if you accept. Many villains also tread in this world and if you make yourself known, these dangers will inevitably find you." he warned.

I gulped as I now realize the gravity of this situation. He was right. No matter what world heroes came from, there were always villains who could very well kill me if I took this offer.

"So what do you say? Will you accept my offer and fulfill your dream? Or reject it and settle for the afterlife?" he asked.

I stand with my head looking down as I thought about his offer. I was still scared about the villains. I didn't want to die again. As the idea of villains plagued my mind, the idea of heroes soon came into it. I thought back to the girl and the train and I realized something. I could help more people just like her. I could prevent more disasters that could end up killing even more people and they would just shower me with their thanks. Of course I wouldn't do it for the fame, but it would still feel nice to have some positive feedback for a change.

"Well, what say you?" the voice asked.

With the same determination as I felt when I push the girl to safety, I could only say one thing.

"I accept."

"Very well, then." he acknowledged.

As soon as he said that, a bright light shined before me. I had to cover my eyes to see what lied beyond it.

"Go." the voice commanded.

I started walking towards the light. It kept getting brighter and brighter until all I could see was white.

This is my first story. I have to say I'm excited to see what you all think about it. I've been reading fanfiction since 2016 and I always wanted to write it. I just haven't had the means to do it. I don't have Doc Manager so I'll be using the copy and paste method. I've been told it might mess up my formatting, but I'll just have to see what happens and deal with it then.

I love My Hero Academia. I only started watching about a month or two ago, so I'm not confident this will be a good story. But I hope you will all convince me otherwise. About updates, I'm using a neighbor's laptop, so I don't know when I'll be able to do Ch. 2. If you do decide to fav/follow, I appreciate your patience with me.

One last thing, I want to give a quick shoutout to Yung Warrior for listeing to my ideas and giving me the confidence to get out the fanfiction world. Thanks man!

NO FLAMES!

See you in the next chapter of Same Dream, New Life.