Chapter 407

An Exceptional Child is the four hundred and seventh chapter of Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia.

Summary
Back during the era before Quirks existed, a sex worker had been suffering from hardened growths on her left arm for over a year. She wasn't aware of her pregnancy for the first eight months, due to her unstable lifestyle, and just not being able to feel the twins that had resided in her uterus, and began to sap away at her life force. She gave birth to the twins on a riverbank, dying on the spot, with her growths on her arm mysteriously vanishing. Rats showd up to gnaw on the newborns and their mother's corpse, but the flooding river swept the babies away.

One year later, the Luminescent Baby was the first of many worldwide reports of emerging Meta Abilities, which not only presented at birth, but also started to present after the fact in young people going through puberty. A research group hypothesized that a "novel disease" was to blame, announcing that those with Meta Abilities were a subbranch of humanity with new genetic factors. This announcement proved to be reckless and premature as this statement divided people, and caused chaos to grow.

A group of masked soldiers discuss amongst themselves about some "meta freaks" who clashed with them the previous night, stating they should taker them out before they can regroup and rise up, when suddenly, a young boy appears. They recognize him as "an exceptional child", saying they should leave him be since the kids are most likely to be carriers. The boy then sprouts an array of "Spearlike Bones" from his body, killing them all. This was the Meta Ability he stole from his mother.

The child was imbued with a hubris and a disrespect for others from the moment of his birth, viewing all within his reach as his own possessions, and those who wouldn't turn to look at him when he cried, or those who couldn't provide him with anything, he viewed with utter distrust. The boy proceeded to rampage about, killing anyone and stealing their Meta Abilities, when his younger brother shows up, telling him to stop hurting people. Most of the nutrients from the mother went straight to the older child, causing the younger brother to grow up small and frail.

The older brother kicked his brother down in response, as while he provided him with nothing, he was still considered one of his possessions, and one he would not release. While news broadcasts reported in on the grown up Luminescent Baby taking the charge to return to a peaceful society and gaining more supporters, the older brother approaches the younger brother, asking what he is reading. The younger brother says he's still learning to read so he's reading Captain Hero comic books, which he considers amazing, since they tell you the hopes and dreams in people through the drawings. He says one day he would like to be a hero, still having hope for his older brother, because in his faint memories, he recalled a hand that held him and wanted to believe that his brother's grip had been gentle and kind.

Three years later, the older brother states how the Luminescent Baby reached ten million sympathizers, calling it weird why they should be the one to become so popular just because they were the first recorded, especially with 50 babies being born with Meta Abilities two weeks ago. He arrogantly reveals that the child didn't have the right to mobilize so many, so he killed them and stole his Meta Ability, causing the younger brother to react in shock, asking why. The older brother repeats what the comic said, "One for all" and "All for one", with the Hero hiding his identity and fighting in solitude, while the Demon Lord was paid tribute and rules out of fear. He says just as his brother was inspired, now he wants a world solely for his own sake, having found his dream.

The older brother then sees a glimpse of his younger brother running away, even after granting him a power of his own. He then sees another person running away with him, demanding to get away from him since he's his, and decides for enough of this if he refuses to be his.

Characters In Order of Appearance

 * All For One
 * Yoichi Shigaraki
 * Luminescent Baby
 * Kudo (Illusion)