Chapter 1
Prologue
Sometimes, he wondered if he’d made the right choice by pushing back for so long getting a successor.
Maybe he was just being too picky. There was that boy who could make himself intangible and who had caught the eye of both UA’s principal and his own sidekick, Sir Nighteye. But although the boy was nearing perfect from what they told him, he still felt reluctant. There was something missing, even if he didn’t know what it was.
Or maybe he was being too selfish. He’d had a perfect choice living under his roof for years now; the only one he’d seriously considered since looking for a successor became a necessity. But he had rejected the idea for a simple ―and in his mind selfish― idea.
He didn’t want her life to be like his.
Not that he was complaining about the life he’d had because he wasn’t. He’d lived as he’d wanted to, he’d embraced the life of a Hero and became the Number One, the Symbol of peace, the pillar that he’d set out to become in his youth.
That didn’t mean he was blind to all the things he’d given up to make that dream a reality. Or all the pain and sacrifices he’d endured.
Unconsciously, his hand rested over his old injury, the one that was destined to put an end to his career. He didn’t exactly regret getting it, but he resented the consequences it had had. Or at least he’d used to resent them.
Now even that feeling was gone, having disappeared over time as his action-time dwindled and another task took over his life.
Raising her: his daughter.
Before that, all his focus had been on his career, on being a Hero. And when he couldn’t be so all the time anymore, he found out how empty his life really was.
As an orphan, he’d had no family before his mentor found him. He’d never married or had children, for several reasons. He had friends, of course, but most of them were also busy with their own careers.
He was alone. His life was empty, bare.
And then he found her and learnt all that he’d been missing out on. She gave him something to live for other than those few hours when he could still be a Hero.
Was it selfish of him to wish for something better for her? To not choose her as his successor even though he knew ―no, because he knew― she’d be the best this world had ever seen?
Yes, it was selfish.
Was that going to make him change his mind?
Hell, no.
He refused to put the pressure of the world on her shoulders, for that was exactly what the Number One Hero had to endure.
Instead, he dragged on his search. He had moments of doubt, of course, when he wondered if he was pushing his luck, if he was doing the right thing by stalling, if there really was someone else out there who he’d ever feel was worthy of One For All.
But his patience was rewarded when he least expected it and so he took a gamble: Midoriya Izuku would someday be the new Symbol of Peace.