Chapter Text
Izuku waited with bated breath; this would determine a lot moving forward, how he would go about telling mom about his quirk because he was going to tell her. How he would train, how much he would trust his quirk. It would set the bar. It was quiet for a moment as mumbling filled his head. No words were distinct and no one stepped forward to answer his questions until...
A faint sound of what Midoriya would describe as foliage sounds in his head. He quickly realizes he should grab a notebook or something and scrambles to do that before someone starts speaking. He doesn’t quite make it in time for the first answer but he doesn’t miss any information so it all works out.
“Mamadoriya’s quirk is attraction of small objects, which raises the question of how small. Like, could she pull apart atoms? Because that would be pretty cool.” Izuku writes that down as an unexpected quirk analysis he should really ask mom about. He knew how big and how much control she had but not how small. “Her maiden name is probably Akatani. Or maybe Aizawa.” his brows furrows. He wonders where those come from. Maybe he should look into those surnames. He is sure they aren’t family but maybe he could learn more about the voices or these 'other hims' they refer to.
“Your old man's quirk is firebreathing and he works on I-island with David Shield making Support items. Which is awesome. Mr. Shield worked with All Might at one point. You’d probably get along with his daughter, she's pretty cool. It would also be Really Fun to introduce her and the pink-haired one to each other. Maybe not for anyone else. But they’d definitely enjoy it and we’d definitely like seeing it. You’d get some really good support gear from it too, and with your knowledge of quirks your inputs could help them out a lot too.” Izuku considers this question. While his dad does have firebreathing and does work for David Shield he was tasked with being the head engineer in America. Something about expanding networking and getting access to more niche materials that American engineers were developing. So not quite. And wouldn’t it be weird to be introduced to Shield’s daughter? He could maybe ask dad about her and see why the voices think he should meet her.
”Extended family can be. Iffy. Depending on the universe. You usually don’t have extended family. Though if your ma’s maiden name is Aizawa she has a younger brother somewhere not so very far away.” That follows with what the voices said previously. Really it just makes him wonder about these 'other hims'. Who might they have known growing up? What was he missing out on? Granted he wouldn’t trade his aunt Shiretoko for the world.
”You were probably diagnosed when you were around 5.” okay yeah that was correct. ” I’m pretty sure your ma’s a lawyer in this world.” another correct answer.
”Your all-time favorite hero is All Might (it’s pretty universal in most worlds) and Eraserhead will definitely become one of your favorites after a while. Unless someone else mentions why I’ll keep it a surprise. It’s also the purple boi’s favorite hero. ;)” another correct answer. He heard of Eraserhead but hasn’t given him much thought until now. However, the voices keep coming back to him. He should really look into it.
“You should probably ask your ma about Endeavor. And maybe look into it yourself. I’m not asking you to do anything about it, but he’s definitely not a good person. Along the same vein, once it doesn’t feel awkward to do so, can you please make sure to give his youngest a hug for me?” Izuku never had any strong feelings for Endeavor. He preferred the heroes that seemed to like people but Endeavor was good at his job so he hadn’t really cared. This however might affect his opinion. He knew Endeavor had children but he recalls that really only the youngest was ever mentioned by Endeavor in interviews.
“Unless or until you get to UA, your teachers are pretty much unnamed side characters. Bakugou isn’t all that wrong to call most of them ‘extras’. Also, has Tsubasa disappeared yet? Make sure not to trust his grandfather. At all.” Alright so the voices didn’t know or care about his current or past teachers but his future ones they did. That was important. It might explain why they hadn’t really been present until this exact moment. And he bit his tongue against his words to tell the voices Tsubasa had moved in with his Grandfather last year when his parents died in a villain attack and as such went to a different school. This however did seem concerning. He made a note of it.
”Your online usernames probably fall along the lines of ‘mightyhero’ and ‘smallmight’ ” nothing specific but in the right vein. Then again he had so many 'All Might'-based names floating around in his head from when he was a child. “I’m pretty sure that filled in everything you asked. So. Uh. Bye?”
Midoriya writes everything down looking over his notes with interest. The sound of rustling leaves fills his head again and he can not help the mumbled. “Is there a bush in my head?”
“I don't have much knowledge on your current world but I'm pretty sure your mother's quirk is an object attraction quirk, I have no clue on her maiden name, I am not sure what your father's quirk is but I have seen multiple worlds where he has a fire breathing quirk, I am not sure on extended family, most likely four, I know your father works at a support company across seas and I think your mother is a lawyer but I am not sure, and I am clueless on the last questions.” Izuku takes notes on the much shorter but still important answer.
“Alright, interesting you all seem to have varying levels of information, so I guess that provides a baseline for how much trust I can put into any one statement, I would like to hear from one other person to see how much everyone knows, but it seems that the more people who agree on it the more accurate the information is. thank you for answering my questions this is a huge help"
He looks at his notes as other voices start chiming in with information he didn’t need at that exact time but he started writing some things. He yawned and realized how late it was. He set the notebook aside and lay down in his bed closing his eyes. His thoughts that ran a mile a minute which would normally keep him awake for hours get lost in the chatter and random comments from his quirk.
He was almost surprised when he woke up at how quickly he fell asleep. Midoriya grabbed his notebook from last night reading all the notes he had jotted down. He brought it with him to breakfast as the voices started up again.
”So kid, this is me Chaos, don't worry I'm not suggesting arson....right now, I just would like to tell you to look into the laws around vigilantism, you don't have to go into it, but it's useful to have at least ten backup plans you know, and we both know you won't stop till you can help someone, but let me give you the basics, the laws are quirkist as hell, but you can use that to your advantage, after all, vigilantism legally requires you to have a quirk, and if someone attacks you first you have self-defense as long as you don't use any illegal support gear, even then there are ways around that as long as you build it yourself and limit certain things, so have fun with that!” Izuku writes that down without even thinking to do so.
He holds up his pencil as he responds still walking to the table, "I learned a lot of that the other night, the support gear is new information I will have to look into. And backup plans, yeah I can do that, I think, I don't know if I've ever made a backup plan in my life but it seems easy enough, I'll give it a try. Thank you."
”No problem, now then young one, any questions?"
He thinks about it as he writes and before he can think of a question to ask his mom walks in. He closes his notebook as she sits across from him.
“I have to go to work early today but I figured I should let you know dad is looking to come home to visit soon, and I plan to look into self-defense and martial arts training on my lunch break.”
Dad was coming home? Izuku could barely contain his excitement so many questions he could ask. He just needed to figure out how he could let his parents know about his quirk and have them believe him. “Thank you so much, mom. And do you mind if I ask you some questions when you get home?”
“About what dear?” His mom asks as she gets up to make herself a cup of coffee and grab a muffin.
“Your quirk.”
She laughs, “Haven’t you already asked every possible question.”
Izuku is practically giddy. “That’s what I thought too but last night… last night it occurred to me that there was a whole vein of untapped questions.”
She walks up to him plants a kiss on his forehead and makes her way towards the door. “Sounds like I’m in for a long night, but I think it could be fun. I kind of miss when you asked me questions about my quirk.” She opens the door. “Alright gotta run. Love you, sweetie.”
“Love you too.”
The door closes. A crack and slam echo not quite naturally in the house and he turns to look; the door is fine, shut as gently as his mother normally does. “and there goes the door. Anyway hi hi how do?” Izuku is about to respond when they just continue speaking. “Izuku if you want muscles fast then look up carb cycling if you do then you'll be able to get ripped in less than a year.” Izuku again gets cut off before he can say anything. He gets up listening to the voice carefully as he grabs a light breakfast. “I also recommend getting a therapist yourself because there's no way in hel-heck that you didn't get any trauma from getting bullied for so long. I also also recommend getting some good music on a playlist or using Pandora the app bc it's really good for finding music you like. That's all from me for now so cya later”
Izuku swallows, "Uhm okay thanks." He grabs his stuff for school and also grabs his list for Mitsuki. Another day. He could make it through today. He could make it through today.
”Ello! Cactus speaking! Please use they/them by the way. So I heard you asked if there is a bush in your head... Well, to answer your question you could say that your mind for us a huge void where things can appear that we like or things comfortable to have or we can bring something with us. You may hear sounds of them like the bush or the door. Also please refrain from breaking it again! It must have hurt Zuku's hearing! Sorry! Back to the point. Usually, you will hear it only when someone will need it to appear. Oh! One more thing! I'm pretty sure if we wanted we could watch your memories or go inside them. No one tried it yet tho. Feel free to ask more questions and don't forget to eat and stay hydrated.”
Izuku listens and his head is so caught up in his thoughts he doesn’t think to reply. “Going into my memories could help you have all of the necessary background information to help guide me to the best of your abilities. However, if you don’t and or haven’t is that a limitation? What is preventing you from doing so is it my own mind protecting itself the way it has previously with you all? Or is it difficult to do? Why does it feel like none of you were with me as a kid? Are all of you new? Did the old voices leave?” Izuku heads out the door and begins walking to school his body on autopilot while his mind races hundreds of kilometers a minute. “If I give you permission could you all go into my memories? Or is it a limitation you all have? Is it impossible? Why don’t you know? Is there a reason this wasn’t tested?”
Maybe because he was so caught up in his thoughts he didn’t realize he had reached the school gates. He keeps his head down and cuts off his muttering slipping into the background. He focuses on his breathing and lets himself be just another body in the crowd. He turns a corner as the voices hiss and whisper about how wicked the school was. He whispers under his breath in words barely audible to himself. “Nin do you think you could quiet everyone again? I’d very much like to focus on my studies without having to worry about how I’ll react to comments and advice given to me?”
“Of course.” The voices dim and become silent. “Best of luck today. You got this.”
Izuku smiles. “Thank you.” the little word of confidence gave him all the energy he needed to get through the day. He could do this.
Lunch comes and the voices come back echoing sentiments that had been silenced during class. The first one seemed to have been cut off from his mumbling storm before school.
”You may refer to me as cat (with they/them pronouns) Your existence is not the original timeline, so we do not have exact knowledge but we do have approximate knowledge of many potential events in your life. That being said, if you learn martial arts please learn how to fight against people using and throwing knives.”
“oh uhm, hi Cat nice to meet you that's useful to know thank you and I will look into knives no promises on actually using them anytime soon though.” Izuku takes a bite of his lunch as he pulls out his notebook after a quick look around to ensure he was alone. He always loved the beginning of the school year since everyone was more caught up in the changes that people didn’t bother tracking him down or holding him up. It left him with a week and a half or so of mostly quietly sitting in the background of everyone’s minds.
”You won’t need it right away, but by the time you’re in high school, there are several people with knives that you could potentially have to fight. And self-defense against weapons is good to know even if you don’t fight people from the original timeline.”
Izuku’s brows furrow instinctively as he tries to parse out what that means. He knew hero school would be a whole different challenge. But why did knives feature prevalently? Who was he facing? Teachers, classmates, or would he be fighting villains already? Then his mind catches on to a piece of information he has been overlooking. “"That's useful to know. Also, I think I've heard 'original timeline' bounce around a little bit. What makes a timeline the original? Is it just the one all of you came from?"
”That is a complicated conversation. I’ll say this, a group of people from our world created the original timeline, and your timeline was created by an individual basing their timeline off of that. To put it in plain terms you are real in your world but are a fictional character in ours. But you’re a beloved character, many people's favorite in your story. Don’t take this as to mean your life experiences aren’t real, because they are real to you, we just happen to be able to read some of your experiences as though you were the protagonist of a story.”
Izuku takes this all in stride much to his own amazement. Then again it felt so far removed from himself. Although if someone created his timeline based off of another person’s timeline. That meant there really were gods out there dictating all of their lives. Maybe it wasn’t these voices but someone was the god of his world, of his timeline. “Oh, so let me see if I understand. My existence at least to you, whatever you are is the equivalent of a character in a tv show, and my timeline is like a spin-off series. So you guys are trying to predict the next episode as much as I am if for different purposes. This- well I feel like this is kind of earth-shattering information and I feel like I should be a bit more worried about what my existence means but that might just be shock. But thank you for telling me; maybe sometime when I'm not trying to figure out how my quirk works you can tell me about some of these other timelines."
“That is the gist, yes, and I’d be delighted to tell you about some of the other timelines, when you are ready of course.” Midoriya smiles at the genuinely nice and helpful conversation he has had with the voices. And it was a conversation. Not just throwing comments at him and leaving for another voice to do the same. And man did a conversation feel good to have with someone who wasn’t family. When was the last time he had a conversation this pleasant with someone not related to him?
He doesn’t get a chance to finish that thought as someone else chimes in, calm and collected with an edge to it that he recognized from mom. Pointed and deliberate in the way he knew to be leading. “Hey, kid, just something to always keep in mind. Whenever the advice some of these other yahoos give you sounds... wrong, stop, and think. Does this advice help others? Or does it hurt others? For example, getting the yappy pomeranian boy anger management not only helps you, as he won't be attacking you, it also helps HIM, as it will help him calm down, and be a more effective hero. Burning down a school? That hurts others. Asking your mother to have some of her Private Detective friends look into that school to see if there's a pattern? Well, now, THAT can only HELP, can't it?”
Izuku stand corrected this wasn’t leading. This was simply politics. “I mean I appreciate the sentiment but well it sounds like you have an agenda and I may not be able to realistically set it in motion. For one my mom will ask questions about what brought this on since I have never previously asked her to do it and it's my third year now. So unless you have a way to explain to her what you are and why you think it needs to happen I'm afraid I'll just have to settle with trying to convince Mitsuki to get Kacchan some help with anger management.” He refutes, to the best of his ability with as much kindness as his body held, the argument presented to him.
”Eh, fair enough. Just remember the first part - does the advice or suggestion help, or does it hurt.”
“What I-” Izuku is confused he just said, “oh I see what you did. Don't worry though it was a huge help. Thank you.” it was a way for him to parse through the advice given to him without having to dig into legality and morality. Did it help or hurt? Simple. Effective. Even if it did come with an agenda attached.
“smol bean,
don't listen to skeletons on roofs
erasure is fine
purple and green is best ship
red and white needs help
pink is a gremlin
stain is right”
“Uhm that's a lot of weird riddle-y advice that leaves me concerned after the last one.” Izuku could feel anxiety creep in. He didn’t know much about stain but the parts he had heard weren’t pretty.
“Sup, Sage here always remember THINK for yourself, anyone can push an agenda on you and not all information is correct. Therefore ‘trust but verify’, if you can trust the source that is.” He felt a gentle pressure land in his hair as if the air had thickened to molasses before it went back to being normal air. Comforting and bizarre.
He breathes. He had just talked about this. The riddle just threw him off he didn’t need to listen to advice if it didn’t help him, especially if it actively harmed him or others.
He is about to thank Sage but someone speaks first. “He can’t trust you either, you may be pushing your agenda on him by fluffing him up till your the only one he listens to.”
He can’t confirm or deny that accusation but he feels the need to defend Sage as well as the other incredibly helpful voices. He didn’t blame them for agendas even he had one he was pushing, that of becoming a hero. It was simply a matter of how much he let that affect him, and weighing it against how much it helped. “I see your point but I also don't think I can live not trusting anyone. Trust is something you give and take. I choose to trust you all for the most part and I might see reason to remove some of that trust or take that trust with a grain of salt. So thank you for your concern but that overly suspicious nature will only have me running in circles and doing nothing, and trusting no one."
The voice has nothing to say to that but he can feel skepticism and a sort of agreeing to disagree emotion. He didn’t care for it but he really could see where they were coming from. He appreciated them trying to help but some help was more of a hindrance.
He packs up his lunch as the bell rings. He doesn’t even have to ask Nin before the voices quiet of their own accord, or maybe through Nin’s influence, he can’t be sure.
He finishes out his day. He walks home taking the long road home. Stopping at the Bakugous on his way. Mitsuki worked from home so there was no concern about her not being home. He worries that Kacchan will answer the door. Although if that happens he supposes he could just say he was on an errand for his mom.
He doesn’t have to worry though as Mitsuki opens the door. “Oh Izu, Katsuki isn’t home. I can let him know you stopped by though.”
“Uhm no that’s okay I actually came to talk to you.” Izuku always respected Mitsuki but he always found that he avoided her when the parents met up. Mitsuki had been nothing but kind to him but she always was too brash for him.
The voices offer him light encouragement and some push him with a force he is uncomfortable with. A lot hiss for the voices to be quiet and let this play out. Mitsuki can see how uncomfortable he is and invites him in. “can I get you some tea?”
“No that’s quite alright.” he sits down in a house he remembers from his childhood and notices how much but at the same time how little has changed. Mitsuki sits across from him and he tries to figure out the best way to start.
“This is important isn’t it?” he nods, “don’t worry about my feelings I can take it, I have to put up with my son so I don’t think anything you say can faze me.”
“This is about Kacchan actually?”
“Katsuki?! What the hell do you have to say about him?!” it wasn’t angry just confused. That didn’t change how loud it was though.
“Did you know that your son has been bullying me for the past decade as well as plenty of other kids?”
Her brow furrows but she is uncharacteristically quiet. Izuku takes that as his cue to keep going. “He’s temperamental and it’s not just hurting me and others it’s hurting him in the long run.”
“Why haven’t you said this before? What the hell changed after 10 years of putting up with that? He didn’t break anything, didn’t tell you anything he couldn’t fucking take back did he?” Izuku knew her words were chosen carefully to avoid having to put words in his mouth. And certainly to avoid putting ideas in his head. He appreciates it, no one ever put in the effort to avoid the topic, most actively look for opportunities to say it to him.
“No he hasn’t said anything like that, but I walk home with bruises and burns more often than not now. As for what changed, someone who cares about me and my future pointed out his behavior and said I should cut myself off from him. I didn’t really want to do that though because Kacchan was my last friend. In the end, I settled for trying to convince you to get him into anger management therapy.”
She looks sad, dejected like she suspected this but never had any proof. She nods, “yeah alright.” she pauses he prepares to give her more reasons but he cuts himself off when she looks about ready to speak. “You’re a good kid you know. Looking out for my brat of a kid when you had every reason not to. I’ll see how quickly I can get that to happen. I’ll leave your name out of it but now I have something concrete to say he needs to go. I should have done this a long time ago but Katsuki skipped out and said he didn’t need some dumb therapy.”
“If it helps convince him, nearly every hero sees a counselor and or a therapist at some point in their career and many of them see them regularly.”
Mitsuki smiles, “you know I think it just might.” she gets to her feet and walks Izuku to the door. “Best you get going before Katsuki gets home.”
He stands on the threshold of the house and turns to look at Mitsuki, “thanks for hearing me out.”
Mitsuki laughs, “thanks for ratting out my kid.” she winks. “And let me know if he gives you any more trouble.”
“Thank you Mitsuki.” he bows slightly. The door closes as he walks away. He feels lighter in a way he hadn’t expected. He smiles and continues walking home.
He gets home with barely anything of note, continues his research, and writes in his notebook about everything he has learned. Then to relax he pulls out one of his hero analysis notebooks and starts working on a new one.
”You may not think so, but your notebooks have the potential to be dangerous in the wrong hands you should probably look into transcribing them into a code. You could even come up with several codes and show them to your mom or someone else to have them try and break your code. ”
He looks at his notebooks and sees nothing but a hobby. “Are they really that powerful? I mean it's just a hobby. Not to say I'm opposed to coding them; I think that's an incredibly valuable skill and a really good idea. You just make it sound like the fate of the world rests on me learning to code."
“Information is power, and you have great observational skills along with the ability to put those observations into a cohesive easily understandable format. That is not as easy as you would think. Even if someone notices some of what you do they may brush it off as unimportant or immaterial. Also, not a lot of people put in the work to improve their analysis skills so they tend to miss things, but you have been working and improving your analysis since you were very young. Honestly, if you wanted to you could probably find a pretty good job as an analyst if you wanted. As for the fate of the world resting on it, that is not the case but, a lot of the heroes in your notebooks could be in serious danger if someone with ill intent got their hands on them, especially Underground heroes. Any information you have, in the wrong hands, is power over the heads of whoever that information is about. That is where my worry lies. I think it better that you live your life with as few regrets as possible. I don't want this to become your regret in the future.”
“Alright I will try this if you are so sure. Thank you ForestShadow." He looks up some codes for a bit before he decides to do his homework.
Mom gets home and after dinner, he has an amazing conversation about how small the objects she can pull can get.
She ends up telling him that she doesn’t think she can pull something as small as an atom but that her quirk is not reliant on sight but sight helps a great deal since she has to know what she is pulling on. And the easiest way to know something is there is to see it.
It’s a wonderful night and Izuku smiles as he realizes his quirk might just be the push he needed to realize his dreams.