Chapter Text
Hisashi sat before his computer screen and stared at the email. People were always the same. They were the same disappointing bunch they had always been. He was sick of it. Sick of them always demanding more then they deserved, more than they were worth.
Maybe he would need to go find this man and speak to him in person. Make him see just how foolish he was being. Hisashi loved that part of the job.
The sudden buzz of his phone drew his attention. The face on the screen was one he had not seen in years. The smile in her eyes made his heart ache.
“Inko?” he answered breathlessly. He thought he could hear crying. “Is everything okay?”
“No,” her voice shook on the other side of the line. “No, it is very much not okay.” The next words caught in her throat as a sob took their place.
“What is it Inko?” he asked, his free hand clenching into a fist. He heard the wood groan from the pressure.
The words burst from her through the tears. “He’s gone,” she cried. “Izuku-he-he-he ran away. I’ve searched for him all day but he’s just-he’s just gone.”
Hisashi was out of his chair and halfway to the door. “Inko I need you to breath,” he coached her as he grabbed his coat. “I promise you I will find our son, but I can’t do it without you.”
Inko’s sobs quieted and her rapid breathing slowed.
“Good,” he said softly. “Now Inko I need you to tell me everything.”
Izuku sat in the dirty alley all alone. He held his knees close to his chest and cried as he had for hours. His tears no longer fell but he didn’t care. How could he care about anything now?
Izuku’s entire world was falling down around him. He was quirkless. His friends had turned on him the second they found out. And worst of all his dream was nothing more than a hopeless fantasy. He couldn’t be a hero without a quirk. Even his own mother had given up on him.
Well Izuku wouldn’t give up. He couldn’t give up. He was going to find a way. He had to find a way.
“Izuku?” a deep voice called.
Izuku’s eyes shot up. Standing at the entrance to the alley was a man. Izuku couldn’t make out who it was, the sunlight was making him little more than a silhouette, but Izuku shrunk further into himself all the same.
Now he was going to have to go back. He was going to have to see the same tears in his mom’s eyes. Tears he had caused. And new tears too. He caused those as well.
“Izuku,” the man said. An arm draped around his shoulders. It was warm and kind. “Izuku it’s okay.”
Izuku clutched his knees and shook his head.
“It is,” the man assured him.
“You don’t know that,” he cried. “You can’t know that,” he said softer.
“I can,” the man said kindly. “Because I’m here. And I would do anything for you.”
Izuku looked up at the man. He had the same kindly smile Izuku had seen in the photo, the same messy curls that Izuku had.
“Dad!” Izuku cried and latched onto Hisashi’s shirt desperately.
“Hey kiddo,” Hisashi chuckled. Izuku felt his dad ruffle his hair. “It’s been awhile.”
“Dad everything’s gone so wrong,” Izuku told him. “I don’t know what to do.”
“I heard bud,” Hisashi told him. “Your mom says things have been pretty hard.”
“You talked to mom?” Izuku asked in shock. He looked up at the kind smile on his face, never letting go of his shirt.
“She called me,” he explained. “Said she was worried about you. She asked me to find you.”
“Oh,” Izuku deflated. His gaze turned to the concrete floor and he leaned away from his dad. It hurt to hear he had made mom worry. She didn’t deserve that.
“It’s okay Izuku,” Hisashi assured him once again as he pulled Izuku back into his side. “We understand how hard all of this must be for you.”
“No you don’t!” Izuku snapped at him. “How could you? You have an amazing quirk. You can breathe fire! Kacchan can make explosions. I’m nothing.”
“Whoa,” Hisashi soothed him rubbing his arm. Izuku hated how much just the touch helped. “You aren’t nothing. You are my son, and that makes you the most important person in the world.”
Izuku was sobbing again. He buried his face in his dad’s shirt and held on like it was the only thing that could stop all this hurting. He sat there and cried for what felt like a long time. Just happy that someone was there who loved him. Finally, the crying stop and Izuku sat back up. He was still leaning against his dad, but he wasn’t lost in his shirt anymore.
“Izuku did somebody tell you that you’re nothing without a quirk?” Hisashi asked. His tone was different. It wasn’t angry like when mom scolded him for staying up late and trying to sneak onto the computer, but it wasn’t the same warm tone that he had had before.
“N-no,” Izuku answered and shook his head nervously.
“Izuku you aren’t in trouble,” Hisashi assured him. “I just need to know if somebody tried to hurt you.”
Izuku looked up at his dad. His face was very serious, no trace of the smile that was there earlier, but he wasn’t scary. Izuku looked back at the floor. “Kacchan said I couldn’t be a hero without a quirk,” Izuku confessed, his voice trembling with shame. “And mom doesn’t think so either. But I’m not useless. I’m not nothing. I can be a hero without a quirk, right dad?” Izuku looked up at his dad with the last bit of hope on the line.
Hisashi looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well you’re my and your mother’s son,” he nodded. “Quirk or no quirk, I doubt there’s much you can’t do if you put your mind to it.”
Izuku felt his cheeks pull up into a smile for the first time in days. He flinched a little as motion tugged on the tender flesh of his cheek. Hisashi’s eyes darted to the mark, the burn from where Kacchan had hit him. His face darkened for a moment before returning to its natural calm expression.
“You know you I just thought of something,” Hisashi mused with the hints of a smile on his face. “Did I ever tell you about my brother?”
Izuku shook his head. He had never heard any of his dad’s stories. He didn’t even know he had a brother.
“For a long time, we thought my brother was quirkless,” his dad told him. “It wasn’t so rare back then, so we didn’t think much of it. But one day after years and years we found out that he did have a quirk, it was just so subtle and unexpected that he had never figured it out.”
“So-so I may not be quirkless?” Izuku asked in disbelief. “But the doctor-“
“Doctor schmocter,” Hisashi laughed with a wave of his hand. “Quirks aren’t so easy to understand with science. There’s a little bit of magic to it and science was never very good with accepting that.”
“So what do I do?” Izuku needed answers. If there was a chance that he did have a quirk, then he was going to see it all the way through.
“Take my hand,” Hisashi said as he offered it to Izuku. Izuku took it without any hesitation. “Good now close your eyes.”
Izuku closed his eyes. They sat in silence for a moment, Izuku peaked out of one eyelid.
“Uh-uh,” Hisashi shook his head with his eyes still closed. “No peaking Izuku. Just focus on breathing for a moment.”
Izuku closed his eyes and focused on the in and out of his breathing. Deep breaths in, and out. In, and out.
“Good,” Hisashi serenely said. “Now I want you to feel around with your mind. Just look around and see what you find.”
Izuku began reaching out, trying to grab at the empty void. He felt like he would never find anything but the endless emptiness. He was just about to give up, when he felt something. He grabbed onto it. It felt like he was trying to grab a gust of wind.
“I-I feel something,” Izuku told his dad.
“Good,” Hisashi said proudly. “Now I want you to pull it towards yourself, pull it until it’s right at the very core of your being.”
Izuku pulled the wind towards him. It resisted him though. It was like it didn’t want to go anywhere, it just wanted to be where it was. Izuku pulled with all his will though. Slowly the wind moved into place, right at the very center of his chest.
Izuku gasped as it snapped into place. Suddenly the wind wasn’t just in his mind, it was in him now. He could feel it like a swirling storm trapped in his chest.
“Well?” Hisashi prompted him. “What does it feel like?”
“Like wind,” Izuku told him in awe.
Hisashi laughed. It was a deep and happy laugh. “Why don’t you try it out?”
Izuku quickly got to his feet. Was his dad right? Was this a quirk? Izuku held out a hand and stared at a can on the other side of the alley. He tried to summon it to himself. He tried reaching out the same way he had earlier. No matter what he tried though the can sat unmoving on the other side of the alley.
“Izuku haven’t you checked if you had your mom’s quirk before?” Hisashi asked.
Izuku squeaked and quickly put his hand down. He nodded.
“It’s okay,” Hisashi chuckled. “Just listen to your body. Don’t try to tell it what to do, let it tell you what to do.”
Izuku closed his eyes and felt the wind that howled in his chest. It was so strong, so overwhelming, he didn’t know what to do with it.
“Breathe Izuku,” his dad reminded him. “Just do what feels natural. It doesn’t have to make sense. It just is.”
Izuku took a shaky breath. Then another. He listened to the howl of the storm. He bent his knees and jumped.
The wind blew past his face. The wind didn’t stop though. Izuku opened his eyes. He was still flying upwards, rushing into the air. Flying, he was flying!
Izuku felt a nearly hysteric giggle rip its way out of his throat. He couldn’t hear it leave his lips though. The roar of the wind was too loud in his ears. That same wind that was inside him now.
Izuku kept flying higher and higher. He wasn’t stopping! He needed to stop! He shut his eyes and closed himself off to the wind inside of himself. He slowed to a stop high above the streets. He looked down and the cars were so small they looked like ants; he couldn’t even see his dad.
Suddenly the street was getting closer, the cars bigger. He was falling. Izuku waved his arms around in a panic. He was going to be a splat on the street. In a panic he reached for the wind within him again. He slammed to a dead stop, not ten feet off the ground.
“That was close son,” his dad laughed below him. He held up his hands. “Go ahead and drop, I gotcha.”
With a sigh of relief Izuku let go of the wind and fell into his father’s outstretched arms.
“That was amazing,” Hisashi smiled at him. “I’m so proud of you.”
“I can fly!” Izuku giggled into his dad’s shoulder.
“You can fly,” he confirmed with a laugh.
“Is this what your brother could do dad?” Izuku asked.
“Oh no,” Hisashi shook his head. “My brother was different-“
“Excuse me,” a voice called from the mouth of the alley. “Are you the ones who just flew into the air.”
“Yes!” Izuku said through a big yawn. He shook his head and tried to clear away the tired feeling. “Isn’t it amazing!”
“And illegal,” the man pointed out.
“Oh,” Izuku murmured and shrunk back into Hisashi’s arms.
“Relax young hero,” Hisashi stepped in. “My son just discovered his quirk. It wasn’t intentional.”
Izuku perked right back up the second Hisashi had pointed out that this guy was a hero. The hero was wearing black clothes that didn’t look too heroic, but he had a scarf and goggles that stood out as some kind of hero garb, though Izuku wasn’t sure what it was for. Izuku didn’t recognize him so he must be an underground hero.
“All the same it was incredibly dangerous,” the hero scolded them.
“Yes, yes,” Hisashi dismissed him as he walked past and out of the alley. “Now if you don’t mind, we’ll be on our way.”
Izuku’s dad turned and began walking down the street and away from the hero. Izuku strained to see over his shoulder and catch even one more glimpse of him. It was the first time Izuku had seen a hero after all. It wasn’t anything like what he expected.
“Dad did you recognize him?” Izuku asked as he rubbed his eyes.
“No,” Hisashi shrugged. “Just some new hero wannabe I imagine.”
“I wanna be a hero,” Izuku told him resting his head on Hisashi’s shoulder.
“You can be anything you want to be,” his dad soothed him. “Get some sleep son, we’ll talk more in the morning.”
Izuku just nodded and closed his eyes. Falling asleep to the rythmic rocking of Hisashi’s cadence.
“Where was he?” Inko asked in a whisper as Hisashi put Izuku down on the couch.
“Not too far from here,” Hisashi told her as soft as he could. “I found him crying in an alley by that Indian restaurant you like to get takeout from.”
“He was so close,” Inko murmured as she brushed the hair out of his face.
“I think he was trying to come home,” Hisashi guessed. “Maybe he got lost or maybe he just couldn’t face you. He was pretty shaken up.”
Inko turned so suddenly Hisashi thought she was going to slap him. Instead he found her facing him with tears in her eyes, she had always been quick to cry. “I did something horrible,” she whispered. “He needed me and all I could do was apologize to him.”
Hisashi grabbed Inko’s shoulders, tried to ground her to reality. He wanted to pull her into a hug, but maybe that wasn’t his place anymore. “It’s okay Inko,” he assured her. His words didn’t help though. Inko just shook her head and let the tears fall. “It’s okay. He’s going to be okay.”
“How?” Inko cried. “How can any of this be okay?”
She needed to know, he just feared how she’d react. “Inko,” he sighed. “He’s not quirkless.”
“What do you me-“ she started before quickly cutting herself off. “No,” she realized. “He can’t. He can’t have your quirk.”
“I’m sorry Inko,” Hisashi told her. “I let him pull one from me to make sure. Izuku has All for One.”