Chapter Text
This story doesn’t start at the age of 4. It starts years earlier. When Inko was pregnant with her first baby, the ultrasounds showed right from the start that their child had an extra toe joint. So they aborted the baby. It was logical—the quirkless were looked down on by society. They struggled to get jobs and the suicide rates were sky high. They didn’t want their son to suffer, so they ended the pregnancy. This child would have been called Izuku Midoriya had he been born. But that name went to the next child they tried—this one lacking the toe joint.
Izuku Midoriya was born, and it was a happy occasion.
Quirks commonly appeared from the ages 4 through 6. It varied depending on developmental stage of a child. Katsuki Bakugo developed fast, almost too fast some may say. He was smart, the top of his class even in pre-school. He was the fastest in all their playgrounds games, the star of all their soccer matches. The only one who could even hope to keep up with him was Izuku Midoyra.
And that was what he did really—he hoped. His determination was admirable from the moment he set foot into the class of three year olds. He tried the hardest, didn’t stop until he was perfect. When he couldn’t keep up with Katsuki in a race, he ran around the playground all recess for 8 weeks, until he could finally beat Katsuki for half of their races. While his effort made up for it, Izuku just didn’t develop as fast as most kids. He was small and weak from the moment he was born. He learnt to walk late, and his speech was still all over the place. He was smart, with an analytical mind but he was still struggling with school work.
Katsuki—or as Izuku called, Kacchan, looked at Izuku as his only friend, and of course, his only rival. When Katsuki got his explosion quirk, Izuku cheered him on. Katsuki didn’t mind this time though. He knew that Izuku would get a quirk eventually, the other boy was just so thin and weak, his body wasn’t ready for it yet.
“You better hurry up and get your quirk so we can be heroes together Deku,” So this time, when Katsuki called him Deku, he meant it as a challenge.
‘Prove to me you’re not good for nothing’
And so Izuku just smiled when Katsuki called him Deku and tried harder.
He knew Kacchan always teased him, but he clearly did so with no mean intent. Whenever the other kids teased Izuku, Kacchan would fight them for him. Izuku would shove past Kacchan, insisting that he could fight them himself. Kacchan was the one to show him how to make a fist, moving his thumb to the right position and showing him how to swing.
They were friends, rivals, and in their imaginations, a hero duo. At the age of 6, when Kacchan had begun to let the compliments and expectations sink into his superiority complex, Izuku had been there to knock sense into him with a spar when Kacchan had started to pick on the younger kids.
Kacchan grumbled and yelled, but at the end of the fight, they both were covered with bruises and they each muttered apologies. Kacchan didn’t stop his bullying right away—these things take time. But over the course of a few weeks, he spent less time taking his anger out on his peers and more on his sparring buddies in the martial arts class they’d signed up for together.
One day in the dojo, when it became clear that they were the best of the entire youth class by a fair margin, they were called up to spar in front of the whole class as a demonstration. Izuku stepped into the ring, eying Kacchan with a challenging grin. Kacchan smirked back. Kacchan was still better than him when fighting with his quirk, even though Kacchan wasn’t allowed to use explosions directly at him, only to create smokescreens and to propel himself forwards. Though when fighting close distance, Izuku was great at sneaking in and clinching, throwing fast kicks. This was going to be good.
“Begin!”
They were off. Izuku made the first move, quickly moving in to kick and backing out. He wasn’t as strong but he was agile. Kacchan struck back with a series quick punches that really stung. They danced around each other for a few seconds, before Kacchan created a smoke screen. The grey smoke filtered out in wisps, stinging his eyes more than actually obscuring his vision. Shutting his eyes tight, Izuku had to force himself to rely on his hearing. He focused on the soft sounds of his opponent’s breathing and the subtle shifts of his feet moving against the mat.
Move! His senses screamed at him.
He ducked to the ground right as he felt a kick coming for his face.
Taking advantage of Kacchan’s unbalance, Izuku swung his leg out, tripping the taller boy, leaving him lying flat on the ground. Then as the smoke cleared, Izuku threw himself over Kacchan, straddling him.
They were incredibly close, their faces almost touching.
And of course, them being 6 and 7, they just started laughing at each other. They laughed so hard that they were unable to fight the rest of the match and their Master just shook her head before lecturing them on controlling their emotions.
That fight was one of the last truly happy memories he would have. Feeling Kacchan under him, their hearts racing and breaths heavy with laughter would stay with him for a long time, though it would be years before he understood why.
The very next day after their spar, Izuku got his quirk. He was 6 years old and 9 months, so it wasn’t completely unexpected as he’d known it was about time. But it didn’t make it any less exciting. Their 1st grade classroom was hot, and all the kids were antsy, not really paying attention to the teacher. The boy in the seat next to Izuku was one of their friends, Tsubasa. The winged boy was playing with his sharpener, when he accidentally cut his finger on the blade.
“Ouch,” he whimpered. Only Izuku heard him.
“What’s wrong?” He whispered.
Tsubasa held out his finger dripping blood. A girl from the seat in front of them turned around, eyeing the blood. Then she smiled mischievously.
“Izu-chan I dare you to lick it.”
Izuku grimaced.
Other kids were turning around too, “Eww that’s gross.”
“Gross things are cool though”
“Yeah Izuku do it!”
“I don’t mind,” Tsubasa shrugged.
So, feeling the pressure of his peers, he touched his finger to Tsubasa’s and licked the blood. It was a minuscule amount, so it was tasteless. It was anti climatic, and the teacher scolded them and brought their attention back to the board. But the hot day was only getting hotter, and 3 minutes later, Izuku really wished for it to cool down. Suddenly, he felt something in his veins, something deep inside him locking into his intent.
Colder. Colder. Colder.
Then Tsubasa screamed. The boy was turning blue, collapsing to the floor with his arms wrapped around himself. The teacher ran forwards, pushing the kids back.
“Izuku—stop—-“ Tsubasa yelled, looking at him.
“Izuku? What did you do?” Kacchan asked him, confused.
“I don’t know how to make it stop—-“
“Izuku!”
Izuku closed his eyes and tried desperately to undo it. He tried grasping for that connection in his veins again. It clicked in, so tried to put in his intent again.
Warmer, but not too warm. Warmer, but not too warm.
Tsubasa was turning back to his normal color now, the shivers stopping.
But now the entire class plus their teacher was staring at him in fear.
“That must be your quirk!” Kacchan said, looking at him—he didn’t look afraid like everyone else though.
He looked impressed.
Izuku felt his fingers shake. He didn’t know what to think.
He just felt numb.
Could he be a hero with this weird temperature quirk?
Tsubasa was sent to the nurse’s office, and he was taken to the office, where his parents were called. They didn’t even ask him what happened, and when he tried to explain, they told him to be quiet.
His father and mother arrive in a rush, both of them in their work outfits. Izuku immediately feels guilty, and the cold expressions on both their faces don’t help.
“Mr. and Mrs. Midoriya, please take a seat.”
Their principal, Mr. Sato looked at Izuku sharply.
“Your son used his violent quirk on a student and almost killed him. Why have you not taught your son to control his quirk yet?”
“Izuku is a late bloomer, Sato-sama. Today must have been the day his quirk came in.” Inko said.
Mr. Sato looked surprised, “I see. These cases are rare but it happens I suppose. Still, the majority of students receive their quirks in preschool. Elementary schools are not as tolerant about quirk usage. I’m afraid I cannot make exceptions for Izuku. You must take disciplinary action against him. I understand he is still young but if he doesn’t learn control soon, he may end up going down the wrong path.”
His father tensed at those words. His mother looked like she wanted to argue, though father spoke first.
“I understand Sato-sama. I will punish him sufficiently and teach him control. This won’t happen again.” Father looked at Izuku with a cold gaze. Colder than anything he’d ever seen before. Izuku felt a chill run down his spine. His father had never scared him before, and it was shocking to see this change in personality. His father was always strict, but he was caring and gentle with him.
They headed into the car, from where they went to Dr. Tsubasa’s office to register his quirk. Sitting in the chair waiting for the doctor to enter was painful, as he registered his parents whispering to each other about him. He couldn’t make out the words but he could see their expressions. Father’s was cold and chilling while Mother’s was sad and disappointed. Today was supposed to be a happy day, but it was turning into one of the worse in his life.
“So Izuku-kun, please explain how exactly your quirk manifested.” Dr. Tsubasa said with a strained smile.
Finally someone asked him to explain. Izuku went through how he licked Tsubasa’s blood, managed to control it and change the temperature of it by willing it to. His parents looked more and more uncomfortable.
“He’ll definitely need help controlling it. It would help to find someone in the family who has a similar quirk. Whose family does this power run through? What are your quirks Mr and Mrs Midoriya?”
Mother looked uncomfortable, “I can move small objects towards me and my husband can breath fire—“
“I’d rather continue this conversation away from my so—away from him.” Father said.
Izuku was confused. Why didn’t his father call him his son—oh. Izuku’s felt vaguely numb. He wasn’t his son.
“He’s still our son Hisashi—“
“Midoriya-san. Who exactly is his father then?” Dr. Tsubasa cut in quickly.
“I don’t remember who—they drugged me the entire time. Oh god, I never thought he was the father, I swear, I thought it was you Hisashi—“
Father put a stiff hand on Mom’s shoulder, stopping her from rambling further.
“The rapist was a villain. That’s all we know. They took Inko to humiliate me and teach me a lesson since they were upset about me taking down members of their party.”
The words hung heavily in the air. Izuku’s lungs stopped working for a moment. His young mind took a while to comprehend the words. Rape. His mother was raped by a villain. He didn’t really know what that meant but it was bad. Then a realization slammed into him and he felt like he’d been punched.
“I-I’m the son of a villain. I have a villains quirk.” Izuku didn’t realize he’d said it out loud until the entire room turned to stare at him.
They didn’t deny it.
“Well, moving on from that.” The doctor coughed nervously, “You will have to learn to control it Izuku, and I’ll be honest, with such a dangerous quirk it won’t be easy. But first, let’s check exactly what your quirk does.”
Izuku was told to consume the blood of a lab rat and try to create a connection with it. It came to him easily.
“I’ve got it.”
“Try changing it’s temperature, but only a small percentage.”
He willed it to cool down, just a little. But he went too far and the rat turned blue before collapsing, not moving.
Izuku jumped, staring at the dead rat. His parents stared at him in horror.
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s ok, I have more. No harm done”
The next rat, Izuku formed a connection, but he was too scared to change it’s temperature. Instead, his too fast mind wandered. He wondered what color a rat’s blood was, and suddenly, the rat’s blood was outside of it’s body, pulling through the cut he’s made and the blood was suspended in the air.
“Wow.” Dr. Tsubasa had a strange expression, “Izuku try to move the blood through the air.”
He visualized where he wanted it to go and it followed. Then he tried to solidify it into a sword, and it did. He grabbed the blood red sword, and it was completely solid. Izuku stared, a million thoughts rushing through his head. But one look at his parents dampened his excitement.
“So from what I can tell, you have the ability to exert total control over the temperature and the movement of blood if you consume it. I will report this in. Mr. and Mrs. Midoriya, your son has two options right now. With a quirk like this he could avoid using it for the rest of his life, since it’s incredibly dangerous. Or...he could completely master it and put his quirk into good use. The medical profession would be perfect for him.”
“I’m going to be a hero.” Izuku spoke up, without even thinking about it.
“Izuku honey, I don’t—“ Inko started.
“Actually, that’s a good idea. I’d love to see the look on that Villain’s face when he realizes that his bastard son is a hero.”
Izuku squeezed his eyes shut at the tone of his father’s voice. He did want to be a hero but the reasons his father had were just...spiteful. His father was just using him for revenge. He blinked away tears.
He didn’t hear anything else said during the appointment until the very end.
“—bring him here twice a week and I will help train him. When you’re at home though, please try to teach him control.”
Any other day, Izuku would be thrilled to have a qualified quirk expert work with him. Only the most powerful quirks required training. Kacchan had grumbled about having to see one, but it was clear that he had been proud of it too. But today, with the realization that he was the son of a villain—a rapist?—What exactly was that? It didn’t sound good—he couldn’t bring himself to enjoy it. He’d almost killed one of his friends—Tsubasa. Everyone was afraid of him.
His father hated him.
When his tears started to fall, neither of his parents said anything.
He cried in silence curled up in the back of the car. His All Might themed booster seat did nothing to console him.
When even All Might couldn’t help him, nothing could.
When he got home, father sent him straight to his room without dinner as punishment. He lay awake in bed alone, crying until exhaustion sent him to sleep. This was the first time he was sent to bed hungry and without a goodnight kiss.
But it wouldn’t be the last.