Chapter Text
A lot of things changed for Izuku after that day, now that his quirk was finally, actually active.
For starters, after all the relevant tests with a quirk counselor were done, Izuku started to be trained on how to strengthen his quirk… from his own mother!
Shock of shocks, Midoriya Inko was part of a hero course in high school before she transferred out into management and, after graduation, went into college for law. Her “Minor Attraction to Small Things” quirk had never really been updated to what she could actually do, though her strength with it had atrophied over the years of underuse. That said, her old exercises were a good base for Izuku to start improving his just-manifested quirk.
Even his father, Hisashi, congratulated him on getting his quirk, though he did joke that it was fortunate that he hadn’t gotten his fire breathing, the costs of having to replace things due to fire damage was pretty killer and money was pretty tight as it was with what his father sent and his mother’s part time work.
Kacchan had also changed, even for a tiny bit. He still went after the more vulnerable kids that had arguably weaker quirks than him, but with Izuku now with a power of his own, Kacchan spent a lot more time focusing on him instead. The adults that would come across them would find their roughhousing “adorable” and would only give them a slap on a wrist at most for their excessive quirk use. Which, on one hand, disturbed Izuku that they practically had a free pass to use their quirks (to a point), but on the other hand, it was good practice and it kept Kacchan busy enough to stop harassing other kids.
One thing that hadn’t changed, unfortunately, was Kuu-chan’s existence to everyone else that wasn’t Izuku. It was frustrating to keep to their old habits of hiding her existence to avoid the odd reactions they’d get whenever Izuku mentioned her. It was luck or plain ignorance that none of the adults that Izuku knew paid any deeper mind to his constant slip-ups other than to tease him about his “imaginary friend”.
Kurenai herself was frustrated because out of everyone, she wanted to meet Izuku’s mother the most. It was a given since Izuku and her had practically grown up together and she’d indirectly learned pretty much everything from the woman.
The two held out hope that if manifesting Izuku’s quirk was what led to Kurenai’s “evolution” into an actual kid (albeit a ghostly one) from her previous state as a humanoid splotch of colors, maybe there would come a point that improving Izuku’s quirk would allow Kurenai to fully manifest to others.
And so the years went on…
==
“This again, Kacchan?”
Four years passed by and at 10 years old, Izuku was more than a bit put out that Kacchan had kept his awful habit of harassing other kids. The amount of times it happened lessened, of course, but if Izuku wasn’t there to rein him in or keep him busy, Kacchan would seemingly be too consumed by the need to keep himself above everyone else to avoid doing this.
Or the boy simply had a pathological need to bully others. It was either-or for Izuku and he had gradually been reaching the end of his rope.
“What’s it to you, Deku?” Kacchan sneered, throwing back the empty wallet in his hands to the poor kid he and his gang had been intimidating, while pocketing the money he got.
Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, “Kacchan, that’s theft and bullying, are you seriously that blind to not see how unheroic that is?”
“Yeah, duh,” Kacchan shrugged, “But it pisses you off and makes you fight me, doesn’t it?”
Izuku felt his thoughts stutter and his mouth moved before he could think, “Wait, wha—”
“GOT YOU, FUCKER!” Kacchan was on him in an instant, right hand already sparking up for an explosive swing.
But despite the surprise, Izuku was more than practiced enough to summon a force plate in front of him to block the threat.
The explosion rattled him, the sudden noise assaulting his ears despite his personal barrier protecting him, so he was more than a bit surprised when Kacchan lunged low, his hands sparking for another shot.
His first force plate, already damaged, shattered from the double explosion and the second one that he instinctively summoned behind that was already on its last legs.
Izuku stepped back even as Kacchan duly wrecked the second force plate, his mind already racing to find a way to recoup against this sudden assault.
But, first of all, had Kacchan really been pretending to be a cliched bully just so Izuku would step in and they would fight? What the hell, Kacchan? Did asking normally not even enter his mind?
He’s got you there, Izukkun, Kuu-chan popped up to the side of his vision.
Not the time, Kuu-chan!, he retorted as he threw up two more force plates, only for them to be destroyed by back to back full force detonations.
It wasn’t even 10 seconds and he was already down half his entire arsenal. At least, for the next 30 seconds, but it looked like Kacchan knew that, which was why he was all but blitzing Izuku because his force plates could normally withstand at least a single one of Kacchan’s regular explosions and Izuku would swap them out to let them regenerate while he bashed Kacchan with his ‘fresher’ force plates.
Izuku’s personal barrier wasn’t as strong as his force plates and could still transmit pain even if the attack never touched his skin. He could power through at least 2 explosions with his own pain tolerance, but Kacchan also knew where to make hits hurt and almost fold him over with a single hit. He wanted to avoid that at all costs.
With a simple moment of distraction, Kacchan turned what would normally turn into an endurance match where he would lose due to his resistance to his own explosive recoil finally giving out on him and forcing him to concede if he didn’t want to injure himself, to a blitz where Izuku would get knocked on his ass in moments and probably get beaten black and blue.
If Izuku wanted to avoid losing his so-far unbroken winstreak, he needed to recoup, now.
Through the cover of the smoke of Kacchan’s own explosions, Izuku called up three of his remaining force plates and, after pressing them together, merged them into one giant wall of force. It was a technique made by complete accident, originally from an experiment to layer force plates together, and it had the bonus of increasing the durability of the resulting force plate with the number of force plates merged together.
Kacchan saw the bait for what it was yet bit it anyway as he sent another twin explosion towards the fused force plate… only to barely damage it in return.
In the short moment where he was gaping at the lack of damage, Izuku launched his fourth and final force plate through the active fused plate, the telekinetic construct smoothly slipping through its larger companion as if it wasn’t there, to smash against Kacchan’s gut.
While Izuku can’t move his force plates beyond the speed of his own unenhanced punches, getting gutpunched by a solid 20cm x 20cm plane of telekinetic force was its own league of hurt.
Opening made, Izuku broke off from Kacchan, his shields set in front of him if the other boy recovered faster than expected. His internal timers for his shattered plates continued to tick down, 25 seconds until he could bring them back on field.
He took the chance to take a glance of his surroundings. It was lunch break so there was already a small crowd of students building up on the edges of the schoolyard. This was a frequent sight in Dantooin Elementary, but Izuku wished it wasn’t. The only reason why they never really got in trouble was because of how much each of them avoided damaging their surroundings, Kacchan with his care for directing his blasts away from any infrastructure and himself for always corralling him into open spaces.
Like always, it felt off for Izuku that the adults only seemed to encourage their ‘roughhousing’. They should be scolding them for excessively using their quirks… right?
“What are you looking at, Deku?”
Izuku snapped his attention back to Kacchan, who was now standing with his feet braced on the ground and one of his hands cupped over a sparking palm.
“You should keep your eyes on me, because I made this special move just for you and your shitty shields!” Kacchan yelled as he squared his shoulders, “Eat this, my AP Shot!”
In an instant, Izuku recalled the research he’d done on the possibilities of how Kacchan’s quirk could be improved. How shaped charges could improve the other boy’s range and, more especially, penetration power.
An almost solid beam of heat and explosive force shot out from the narrowed space of Kacchan’s cupped hand but Izuku was already moving. He wasn’t fast enough, even if could see everything that was happening.
The fused plate crumpled against the condensed explosion before shattering into glass-like shards. His last force plate behind it barely stood a chance, though Izuku managed to angle it just in time to divert its path. Izuku was turning away but he could see that it would barely be enough.
Heat and pain seared through his right shoulder’s nerves as the attack crashed through his personal barrier and only his barrier, leaving his skin unmarked even as the yell ripped out his throat out of reflex.
He staggered to the side, clutching his stinging shoulder, and it was only the sound of shifting grass that made Izuku look up just in time for Kacchan to sock his face.
Something burned up inside him as he saw Kacchan’s gleeful face. A feral, stubborn need ignited inside Izuku and he forcefully slammed a foot, already in the air due to his off balanced position, right back onto the ground.
He twisted along Kacchan’s punch, giving himself the extra torque he needed as he retaliated with a brutal punch to the other boy’s gut.
The next few moments were spent with the two backing off from each other, Izuku glaring while Kacchan looked smug.
Seeing, and feeling, the results of what he just did, Izuku felt something inside him snap.
“What the hell is that look, Kacchan?” he hissed out, his insides burning.
The acidness in his tone made the other boy blink, but Kacchan interpreted it differently, if the widening grin was any indication.
“Did that hit to your face rattle your brain, nerd?” he taunted, “I’m just enjoying the look on your face now that you know you can’t hide behind those shitty shields forever. Overcoming everything with your own power, that’s what it means to be a hero, Deku, not your babying of these extras that need to be taught their place.”
“And from where I’m looking, you’re nothing but a two-bit thug that’s on a powertrip because of his quirk. I don’t know where you’re getting at, Kacchan, but I know being a bully doesn’t make you a hero,” Izuku retorted, “And I thought you just said you were only doing this just to get my attention. Are you not capable of being normal and just asking me to spar with you?”
“Tch, as if I’d bother asking a loser like you for help. You’re a nuisance that’s done nothing but look down on me even since we met and you’ve gotten worse since you got your quirk. Nothing but a brick wall to get through,” he clenched his fist towards Izuku, sparks of flames surrounding it, “but now I’ve got your number, Deku! You’re nothing but a pebble on the road for me from now on!”
The burning inside Izuku went out. No, more specifically, it was drowned out by the sheer confusion he felt from the mess that spewed out of Kacchan’s mouth.
“‘Looking down on you’? What, that’s, you—” Izuku tried to make sense of it, his mind flashing past every previous encounter he’d had with Kacchan, until he remembered that day, “The river? That’s what you’ve been hung up on all this time? That’s, that’s—”
That’s incredibly dumb, Kurenai spoke up beside him, echoing his thoughts, That’s so so dumb. Have we really been at this for so long because of that?
Izuku didn’t know. He didn’t want to know, because he wasn’t sure if he could process it without screaming in frustration. All this time, all this ‘roughhousing’, all because Kacchan thought that a ‘quirkless’ person reaching out to him was some sort of unforgivable sin to his pride.
The confusion inside him was washed away by the burning emotion underneath it. A clarity settled onto Izuku as he finally grasped what he had been feeling this entire time.
Rage. Hot, boiling, burning rage.
He should turn away from this. He had to turn away from this. Losing yourself into anger was the prime way of going too far.
But a gentle touch on his elbow stopped his spiraling thoughts. Kurenai stood beside him, incandescent in anger even if no one else could see her. His own reactions didn’t betray her presence, he’d already gotten too used to not give away her existence just to avoid uncomfortable questions.
Let me.
With the offer came a sense of connection, an evolution from before. Realization came through, of many things.
Izuku surrendered himself and Kurenai came forth.
The schoolyard was bathed in crimson light.
==
Midoriya Inko knew that something had gone too far when she received the call from Dantooin Elementary for a disciplinary meeting about her son. It was all but an open secret that kids with flashy and heroic quirks had more leeway with how they used it in school, especially at the age where it was more forgivable for them to ‘play around’ with their powers, but that leeway was only given if those same kids showed care in how they used their quirks. Once the signs of obvious instability to others became known, the adults (and therefore the children) would tar the perpetrators as troublemakers or delinquents with ‘risky’ quirks.
A condemnation of being labeled a ‘future villain’ in all but name.
But Inko knew her son, knew how much he worked on his ostensibly ‘defensive’ quirk to not only protect others, but better protect himself too. She’d heard of her frequent scuffles with Katsuki and knew that he listened to her words of caution, of not being the instigator of the fight to avoid punishment for wanting to stop Katsuki from bullying others.
Making Katsuki stop was, sadly, a hopeless process because Mitsuki fully believed that Katsuki was just horsing around. As much as Inko and Mitsuki were friends, it was a bit of a sour note on her end that Izuku was always on the other end of Katsuki’s explosions, even if she was confident that Izuku could protect himself with his quirk. She didn’t really want to entertain the thought of what things could’ve been if Izuku never manifested his quirk, the time he’d always returned with scrapes and bruises after a trip to the park had been a low point for her.
So, armed with that knowledge, Inko was fully confident that this meeting was likely one where Katsuki had finally gone too far, though her confidence was marred by the worry that Izuku might’ve been hurt badly for the teachers to have finally stepped in. Safeguard was a strong defensive quirk, but Katsuki’s Explosion was lopsidedly strong due to its combat-only aspect.
Entering the principal’s office, Inko took a quick glance to survey the situation.
Principal Narita was in many ways anxious, but he and Mitsuki were having a laugh, which defused the situation greatly if things weren’t serious enough that the two were being casual.
Mitsuki herself had no tension in her shoulders, though she kept Katsuki close to her side and he was seated in a way that would keep her in-between the “other party” of the meeting, probably Narita’s idea to avoid any provocations between Katsuki and Izuku.
As for Izuku—
Inko paused as she met the decidedly pink eyes of someone who looked like Izuku but was red in place of his normally green colorations.
Oh dear.
“Ah, Midoriya-san!” Narita called at her with a cheer, “Apologies for the urgent meeting but something came up during a scuffle between Bakugou-kun and Midoriya-kun that necessitated your presence here,” he waved towards the Red Izuku, “Your son has undergone a Quirk Awakening.”
“It’s pretty badass, too, from what I’ve heard,” Mitsuki added with a grin, “though I think Katsuki here didn’t appreciate it much. It’s all cool on my end, Incchan.”
The woman ruffled her son’s similarly spiky hair, earning a grumble from Katsuki and Inko’s first look at his state. His rather black and blue face from the bruises all over it and, from what Inko could peek at the edges of his roughed-up uniform, a lot more bruises out of sight.
Red Izuku decided it was the best time to wave at her with a blindingly bright grin.
“Hi, Ma!”
Oh dear indeed.
==
The meeting itself was a formality since it was an unprecedented event to have a Quirk Awakening in the middle of a schoolyard scuffle. Apart from a small chat between the adults, the only punishment given was an awkward apology from Katsuki to Izuku, who magnanimously accepted it with an overacted air of a snobby aristocrat.
There was the request to have Izuku’s quirk registry updated, but that would have to wait until after the relevant tests were made. From the comments of the bystanders, it had seemed like Izuku suddenly went on a rampage against Katsuki, blasting out red bursts of energy while ‘acting like a berserker’.
It was a bit hard to match that description to how painfully adorable her son looked at her with wide pink eyes. Or how expressive he was compared to how taciturn he was before. There were some guesses that she had in mind, but she’d leave it to the quirk counselor to puzzle out the specifics.
“Let’s go home, Izuku,” Inko said to him with a smile.
A troubled look flashed through her son’s face for a moment, before he set his expression to one to determination, “Kurenai.”
That gave Inko pause.
“When I’m like this,” he waved at his own changed looks, “call me ‘Kurenai’, Ma,” he grinned, “Or ‘Kuu-chan’ if you want, Izukkun always calls me that.”
That was… one of her guesses confirmed, in a way. Perhaps Doctor Akira had been onto something about ‘a secondary mind to offload and support processing issues’ when Izuku’s ever present imaginary friend was discussed.
“Okay, Kurenai-chan,” she said, “So Izuku was never wrong, I see?”
“Yep, yep!” Kurenai replied with several nods, then he suddenly perked up, “Oh, when I’m like this, I’m also a girl! That’s important.”
Inko blinked, “I… see?”
==
Later that night, after Kurenai seemed to exhaust her never ending energy and nodded off to sleep, Inko held her phone in hand, debating whether to do this or not.
But, knowing how deep the changes her son had and how it was related to his quirk, this was her best route for answers.
Tapping on the name of ‘Toga Hisashi’, she called her erstwhile husband.
A few rings later, he answered.
“Bwuh? Inko? Why are you calling at… 7 in the morning?” he sleepily rasped out.
“I need your help, Hisashi,” she said it straight out, “I need the Toga’s expertise on body transformation quirks.”
A beat of silence followed her words, then an explosive sigh sounded from the other end of the call.
“Fuck.” he said in English, “If I didn’t know you hated drinking, I would’ve thought you’re drunk right now, Inko,” he took a breath, probably centering himself, “What happened to Izuku?”
“He had a Quirk Awakening earlier,” Inko said and she paused to let him process that for a moment, before continuing, “A transformation component that flips his quirk’s defensive properties to full offense, but he turned into Kurenai in the process.”
“Kurenai? The imaginary friend?” Hisashi groaned, “I was hoping that wasn’t the case. I guess it was a pipedream to hope things would be simple when mind and body quirks mixed.”
“Mhmm, I’d been hoping that I’d only need to worry about my own side, but it looks like your blood bred true after all.”
“Don’t remind me,” Hisashi grumbled and sighed, “It’ll take a while to set up and I’ll give what advice I can, but I doubt that my own experience is worth much outside of the basics.”
That much was true, unfortunately. Hisashi’s ‘Fire Breath’ was a bit of a misnomer because he could transform to a larger, partially draconic form to send out larger blasts of fire, and it was not the type of transformation that would have the same concerns as a full body sex change.
But it wasn’t the only type of transformation quirk available in Hisashi’s family.
“What do you need to do?” Inko asked.
“The main branch hates my guts, that much you know.”
“Yes,” Inko nodded along, knowing that the reason for his estrangement lied with his marriage to her, a no-name orphan, and his own ambitions and work as a support hero as part of an American intelligence agency.
“But they don’t hate my brother,” Hisashi said, “Unfortunately, he hates them. So it’ll take a while to convince him. I might need Izuku to visit to persuade them.”
That much was a given, but something pinged in Inko’s instincts.
“There’s more, is there?”
A pause, hesitation, then a sigh.
“Aniki is married to one of the branch families,” he elaborated, “Healer types, but with a lot of emphasis on blood manipulation, also absolutely nuts. He’s stuck with a marriage contract, and yes that’s still a thing, since he’s the heir. Thing is, he would’ve broken it off early on if not for some sketchy stuff where the wife got pregnant with his child… without his knowledge.”
“That’s…”
“Yeah,” Hisashi’s voice was dull, “It’s why I got out when I could. Aniki’s got a daughter, last I heard, but it’s been… rough.”
Inko could already feel the headache forming at those words, “He’s trying to get her out of their house and I just handed you the excuse to get yourself involved, did I?”
“Sorry,” he apologized, “It’s just… Aniki loves his girl to bits, but he can’t act against the wishes of his wife. The contract has him by the balls.”
“It’s times like this that I’m glad you’re in America, Hisashi,” Inko said sweetly, “because then I wouldn’t need to act on the urge to strangle you with my quirk.”
“And it’s times like this that I agree with you, dear,” Hisashi replied with an awkward laugh.
“Get to setting up that meeting, Hisashi,” she said, “I’ll see what I can do on my end.”
“Aye aye,” he said, and then hung up.
Inko set the phone aside and cradled her head in her hands.
“The things I do for my family,” she whispered to herself, knowing full well the lengths she would go to keep this slice of happiness alive, after her own life of crushing loneliness.
After a few more moments of contemplation, she got up to prepare some coffee. She had several long nights ahead. She needed to research as much as she could if she was going to be roped into an esoteric custody battle.
==
In Izuku’s room, Kurenai snuggled deeper into the comfort of her blanket, content with the temporary freedom she had gained. She’d hand off control back to Izuku, who had been allowing her to experience life as an actual living being, once the next day arrived. For now, she would luxuriate in life’s simplest pleasure of sleeping on a comfortable bed.