Chapter Text
Their soul-child’s name was ‘Izuku’, ‘Midoriya Izuku’ specifically. Born to Midoriya Inko and Shigaraki Hisashi.
He had grown up never knowing his dad, only being told that the reason he was not in his life was because of his mother’s fear for her son’s safety after learning Shigaraki’s true identity as a villain. She never explained to what extent.
Five months after turning eleven, Izuku sought him out anyways, his father absolutely ecstatic to meet the boy. Things took a harsh turn when All Might appeared to take Izuku’s father into custody, apparently having been rivals for decades. All Might did not let Izuku’s father send away Izuku to safety, calling the boy ‘Villain Scum’.
In the middle of the battle, Midoriya appeared to attempt to take her son away to safety, only to be fatally wounded by one of Shigaraki’s blasts at All Might. Izuku had also been minorly injured by a piece of debris that hit him after All Might attempted to hit Shigaraki while he was distracted by Midoriya being injured.
Izuku immediately ran to his mother as All Might refused to let Shigaraki get to Midoriya, the villain apparently begging the hero to let him heal her. Shigaraki wounded All Might in a near career ending way after Izuku screamed in anguish, feeling his mother’s heart stop beating.
All Might was left unable to move as Shigaraki walked to Izuku and Midoriya, Izuku clutching her as he sobbed. Shigaraki attempted to touch her, but was stopped by Izuku screaming.
“You killed her! Don’t touch her!”
Shigaraki stumbled away, equally as harshly injured by All Might due to his refusal to fight the man for the sake of keeping his son safe. Izuku was left with his mother’s dead body and a hero who spent the few breaths he could manage attempting to interrogate the ‘good for nothing demon spawn’. No amount of begging could make the man stop as Izuku grappled with his new reality.
~§~
Hizashi held Izuku’s right hand, the boy having cried himself back to sleep after explaining everything to Tsukauchi. The detective spent ten minutes before the explanation assuring Izuku that they need to only know what happened, not what Izuku might or might not know about his father. As Hizashi would be the guardian in charge of his safety, it would only be at Hizashi’s permission that any interrogation could ever happen.
“And I won’t fucking let them,” Hizashi assured, anger filling them as they look Izuku in the eye, “You never will have to answer any questions they might have about him if I can help it.”
Hizashi and Tsukauchi sat in silence in the hospital room, Tsukauchi glaring at the audio recorder as if it personally insulted him. Hizashi understood the feeling, struggling not to throw away the boy’s All Might pin away when the nurses gave Hizashi Izuku’s personal belongings after he had been brought back from the minor surgery to get the debris out of his side.
“All Might has always given shit reports of battles he’s been in,” Tsukauchi finally explained, quiet enough not to disturb Izuku but loud enough for Hizashi to hear, “This one was equally bad. Essentially just that he had found the location of his rival and had attempted to take the chance to hunt him down and bring him to justice, only for the villain’s ‘brat’ and ‘mistress’ to get in the way. He’s demanding we interrogate Midoriya,” he explained, his voice full of anger and disappointment, turning to meet Hizashi’s eyes, “I’m worried he’ll go to the HPSC about it. Please make sure to not leave the kid’s side in case they do try.”
Hizashi nodded, worry filling them as they assured the detective, “They’d have to literally kill me to get me to leave this kid alone long enough for them to try.”
Tsukauchi nodded, relaxing a bit before smiling suspiciously to himself.
“What?” Hizashi asked, their eyes narrowing.
“Parenthood looks good on you, that’s all,” Tsukauchi assured.
“I’d hope so,” Hizashi muttered, turning to look at the kid, “I’ve been taking parenting classes since I got the mark. I knew it was unlikely that I’d get him for years because of how young I was, but I wanted to make sure I was ready to take care of him however he’d need me.”
“Sounds like you’re prepared for him, as much as you might be feeling like you aren’t despite everything,” Tsukauchi assured, Hizashi hearing him stand up, “Remember, you were chosen because you were who he would need. Not some parenting lesson about how to care for a kid who’s gone through a traumatic event. Be who he needs, not who you should be.”
Hizashi felt a weight lift in their chest, Tsukauchi successfully calling out their insecurities and assuring them in practically the same breath. Shouta was right.
Tsukauchi was some sort of witch.
“I’ll be heading out now. If either of you need something, you are free to call me,” he assured.
“Thank you, Tsuka,” Hizashi smiled at the detective, feeling weary from the night’s events, “For everything.”
The detective nodded before heading out the hospital room door.
Not even a minute later, a window in the room was lifted, and an anxious looking Shouta entered.
“Why couldn’t you have come in the door like a normal human?” Hizashi joked, attempting to calm their friend with it. They stood up, moving towards the man.
“Patrol,” Shouta explained, his eyes looking a bit distant despite them being glued to Hizashi’s chest, “Happened- Needed- Help?” the man asked.
Hizashi quickly leapt into action, pulling Shouta to the ground before he hyperventilated enough to pass out. They held his gloved hands as they encouraged him to follow their breathing.
Shouta was mostly breathing on his own when Hizashi saw the cause of the man’s distress. A red band encircled the man’s left wrist, looking suspiciously like the man’s capture weapon with small black branches of apples poking out.
Shouta had a soul-child that was born the night that Hizashi found their soul-child. What a fucked chance of timing.
“No fucking way,” Hizashi muttered, their hand letting go of Shouta’s to touch the soul-band.
Shouta flinched away, pulling his wrist to his chest protectively. An instinctive reaction Hizashi remembered they also had. Shouta realized what he did and attempted to stutter out an apology.
“No,” Hizashi stopped him, “I did that too, remember? It wasn’t because I didn’t trust-“ their breath failed for a moment before they continued, “It wasn’t because I didn’t trust him-“ Shouta inhaled sharply, “-but because I felt just instinctively like I had to protect it. You guys waited until I was ready to let you touch it. I can wait ‘til you’re ready too.”
Shouta nodded, his voice failing him as he went to explain himself.
“Let me guess,” Hizashi started. “It formed and you panicked, tracking my location to help you calm down?”
Shouta nodded, his eyes glancing towards the hospital bed.
“Ah,” Hizashi uttered brightly, glancing themself before turning back to Shouta, “A funny coincidence,” they explained, letting go of Shouta’s other hand and holding up their left hand, causing Shouta’s eyes to widen.
He stood up quickly, helping Hizashi up as well. He glanced at Hizashi, them recognizing it as a request of permission and quickly granting it with a nod. Shouta softly walked to the left side of the bed, looking accross at Izuku’s right wrist, seeing the yellow bar line with hand drawn music notes in green coloring along with a green braid with white, blue and grey streaks.
“He said his father has white hair, which explains the white in his soul-mark. I think the blue represents his mother. She was wearing a blue cardigan,” Hizashi explained.
“What happened?” Shouta asked, his words slightly stuttering before he cleared the last of his panic out of his throat.
Hizashi frowned while looking at the kid, before saying, “I’ll tell you the full story if he’s okay with it. Barebones, his mom died in the middle of his father - a villain - and All Might - an ass - battling because she was trying to get Izuku out of there. His dad is MIA. Ass thinks kid was working with the man.”
“Was he?”
“Nope. Never met him. Wanted to. Ass ruined it.”
“Asshole.”
“Exactly.”
Neither noticed that Izuku had started to wake up, looking between the two of them with wide eyes.
“What is happening?” Izuku whispered, startling the two, “I met all three - well now two - of my favorite heroes on the same night? What the heck?”
“Awe, come on,” Hizashi tried, double checking whether or not what Izuku said earlier was a fluke, “Not four - well - three favorite heroes? What about Present Mic?”
Izuku looked at Hizashi blankly, blinking before tilting his head.
“You are Present Mic. I said that earlier,” Izuku stated, before an anxious energy filled him. Hizashi was worried the kid was about to have a breakdown about the events that had taken place earlier that morning, but then he started rambling, “Should I be saying that so matter of factly? I should refer to you as the persona you’re in right now, right? To make sure no one else can find out? Because I wasn’t supposed to know you even existed, I just found out by accident and-“
Shouta interrupted Izuku’s rambling by dumping his capture weapon into his lap, successfully distracting the kid as he jerked his arms up in surprise.
“Don’t freak out too hard,” Shouta assured. “Sure, it’s worrying that a kid figured it out, but that just means they need to tighten up loose ends. They were just seeing if you accidentally assumed they were their daylight and not their twilight. Good?”
“…good,” Izuku agreed, his hands still lifted above the capture weapon, “Can I play with it?”
“Go nuts,” Shouta stated simply before turning to Hizashi, “Make sure to call Nedzu at a reasonable hour. He’ll want to know how a child figured out his own suggestion.”
Hizashi felt their heart drop into their stomache, “No way. Nedzu might teach him world domination or something. I’ll tell him in like two weeks to make sure the kid is settled.”
They both felt Izuku freeze, seeing out of the corners of their eyes as reality set in again for the boy. Moving desperately, he grabbed his right wrist to look at the braided soul-band.
When Izuku woke up in the ambulance, he started screaming in fear that his mother’s soul-mark would disappear. The paramedic very carefully helped Izuku see the soul-band and reassured him that unless he wanted to forget her, his soul-mark would never disappear. That soul-bands are very attuned with the wants of the owner, and could come and go as the owner needed them too.
As a teenager, Hizashi remembered doing research and finding out that soul-marks were often well aware of the people connected to it, and for their safety could hide if it needed to. The fact that a parent could see their biological child’s soul-mark to their soul-parent meant that it was more likely that they would not always be there for their child, encouraging them to enjoy their time with the kid.
If they couldn’t, well it was better as a reassurance to the child that someone out there one day that would save them. It only disappointed Hizashi that they never got to have the reassurance that someone would be out there to save them. They were glad to be able to be there for the kid, but couldn’t help but be jealous of Izuku’s ownership of a soul-parent.
I need to talk to my therapist soon.
“Why didn’t you leave me?” Izuku asked, his body being racked again with sobs, his tears being refilled with the help of the saline being given to him after his surgery.
“Because I couldn’t just leave you to slowly bleed out,” Hizashi explained, sitting next to Izuku on the bed, “Even if you weren’t my soul-kid, I wouldn’t in good faith be able to leave any kid in that situation with any quirk status to just die,” they noticed Shouta, who had backed up to give the two space, narrow his eyes in confusion before realization quickly hit him, “You deserve a chance to have a life still. I wanted to give you that chance.”
They held Izuku’s right hand with their left, giving him quiet reassurance as the boy stared at the three soul-marks.
“She was the only one who cared,” Izuku cried while staring at the marks, “She loved me so much. She did everything for me. I know she warned me that one day she wouldn’t be able to be there for me, but I didn’t think it would be my fault,” he sobbed, curling forward despite the bandages on his side, “It’s all my fault. My dad got hurt because of me. He probably thinks I hate him but he tried so hard to get to her. He wanted to save her but he couldn’t. She wouldn’t have gotten hurt if I listened to her. My dad would have fought back had I not been there. It should’ve been me-“
“It’s all your fault. You’re the reason he’s dead.”
“Izuku,” Hizashi stopped him, shaking the memory from their mind as they struggled for words. “I know you’ll never believe me, but I promise that it wasn’t your fault. While you are right that things could have been avoided, I will give you that. The fault is not on you for such a small action, though. All Might definitely should have let you be taken to safety. For children so young we are not supposed to be so violent. All Might’s decision was a personal one that was caused by a rivalry older than you are. You are not at fault for bad blood.”
Anger filled the kid’s eyes as he sobbed, “I hate him! Why wouldn’t he believe me?! I looked up to him for being such a great hero and he hurt my mom just because he was mad? He’s worse than Endeavor!”
“Ruin his life,” Shouta blurted, an action that rarely happened with the man that subsequently caused Hizashi to look at him in shock. Izuku, meanwhile, was looking at him curiously as the man continued, “If you can’t find a reason right now to stick around or to want to stick around for the sake of yourself, then do it for the sake of bringing your mother justice. Ruin that fucker’s life.”
Hizashi looked at Izuku, seeing resolve build in his eyes, followed by a wave of pain.
“I miss her,” Izuku cried. “Why do I have to lose her to gain more? It’s not fair!”
Hizashi pulled Izuku into their lap carefully, holding the boy tightly to their chest as he sobbed.
“It’s not fair. I’m sorry, Izuku.”
Izuku cried himself to sleep again, something Hizashi hoped would not become a habit. While Izuku more than deserved to cry his heart out, he also deserved restful sleep, and they hoped he might one day get that.
Shouta settled himself in a chair by the bed as Hizashi settled themself against the back of the bed, still holding Izuku to help him sleep.
“I saw,” Shouta said quietly, “Are you planning to tell her?”
Hizashi felt a pang in their chest, knowing what they wanted to say. Knowing what they felt they should. Guilt started filling them.
“I don’t want to,” they answered honestly. “I…don’t think I should let him be around her…but-”
“But you feel guilty because you think she’s right-” Shouta pointed out, “-and that you shouldn’t take away the kid’s connection to a potential aunt.”
Hizashi nodded sheepishly.
“I have a compromise then,” Shouta started, looking sternly at them, “I will tell her because you don’t have time to while taking care of him. If she says something fucked to me, then you don’t let her interact with him.”
Hizashi wanted to protest, but recognized that Shouta was right. What was the likelihood that she wouldn’t talk badly about them in front of him? It would cause Izuku too much distress. Whether he believed her or not, it was not good for Izuku to be put in that situation.
“Okay,” they agreed, softly brushing Izuku’s hair with their thumb. “I still feel like it was my fault.”
“None of us had been trained enough for such a bad battle,” Shouta pointed out. “Me beating the villain in the first place was a feat that countless hero fronting news sources pointed out as unusual. Our interning hero had been put on probation after the fact because he was legally at fault for Oboro’s death. Multiple things could have been done and should have been done. The villain reflecting your quirk is not something that you are personally at fault for.”
“I still feel like I should have been better,” Hizashi whispered, feeling their own tears well.
“Well, if Nemuri knew the whole story, she’d be more mad at me than you,” Shouta pointed out. “If I had checked on him, he might have survived. I was close enough to try and rescue him, but didn’t have the instinct.”
”That’s not your fault, though!” Hizashi exclaimed, getting a pointed look from Shouta. “Okay, rude. You are right though. She isn’t safe for Izuku.”
“I will make sure personally. We’ll see, though.”
“Thank you.”
Shouta smiled softly, sending a warm flush across Hizashi’s face.
“You’re welcome.”