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Inko first heard about quirk soulmates when she was just fifteen years old.
“Isn’t it just so romantic?” her childhood friend Naoko said, pointing to the short snippet in her teen gossip magazine. “I would just love to have a soulmate. What do you think the odds are of finding someone else with a quirk like mine?” Naoko had a sound effect quirk, which she set off now to demonstrate her excitement.
“Hmm, I don’t know,” Inko said, only half listening. “I haven’t met anyone with a quirk like that before.”
“Well, I’m sure it’ll be super easy for you!” Naoko cried to her friend. “You’re sure to find someone else with a quirk that can attract objects!”
Inko frowned a little at the thought. “I want to meet someone I like. I don’t care about their quirk.”
“Ugh!” Naoko groaned. “This clearly says you should care! Come on, Inko, I bet it’ll be love at first sight to meet a quirk soulmate!”
Inko glanced down at the page that Naoko pointed to her. Her friend was riled up over three short sentences, barely taking up a corner of the page. One of those sentences even said romantic soulmates were less common than platonic ones. Inko didn’t understand how she could get so excited over that. So, she just shrugged. “I guess.”
Still, Inko filed the information away in her mind. She didn’t know why, but she had this small feeling inside of her that someday, someday, she would need to know about that strange theory. For some reason, someday.
It just wasn’t that day.
The day she met Hisashi Midoriya wasn’t that day either.
It came to the forefront of her mind, the quirk soulmate theory, just enough to remember it. But she easily cast it aside the day she met her future husband.
It’s just like I said back then, she told herself. I want to meet someone I like. I don’t care about their quirk.
And that was true for her. She found Hisashi’s fire breathing much more mesmerizing than she would ever find her own object attraction quirk. He brought heat and excitement and light into her life, things she had never really known before him. Even his smile was bright as he spoke of big dreams and of the fame and fortune he would find for them.
She didn’t think to question it at the time. She didn’t question any of it. Inko just let herself fall for this man in a way she had never fallen before. She fell swiftly, so swiftly that she might have missed it if she had blinked. They were married a year later with a little one on the way.
When Izuku was born in that hot July, it still wasn’t that day, the day she’d need to pull the strange theory from her mind. But for the first time, she felt she could see the day in the distance.
Inko held her baby boy in her arms, all alone in that hospital room. Hisashi had already started taking the business trips by then, traveling more and more frequently to Los Angeles. Somehow she knew that man would be gone before long, even if she tried to hide it from herself. But she held out hope for her baby Izuku.
“Maybe you’ll have a fire breathing quirk, too,” she found herself whispering to her newborn. “Maybe you’ll be just like daddy. He’ll know and you’ll know and your souls will be bonded together forever. That way, you’ll always be loved.” Inko didn’t know if that’s how quirk soulmates worked, not then. And she knew she would always love her little Izuku, of course. Of course.
Still, she had this dreadful feeling as she sat alone in that hospital room that her baby, even brand new to the world as he was, would have as much trouble finding love as Inko herself. Part of her hoped that he’d inherit her quirk and the two of them would be soulmates. Another part of her knew otherwise. That part of her, that newly formed mother’s intuition, told her that her son would be lonely for a long time.
But maybe not forever.
She began to lose hope that the day she’d need the theory would ever come when she took Izuku to the quirk specialist.
Quirkless.
Hisashi had remained in their lives at that point by a thread, and that word cut the final string.
Izuku cried and cried as he watched All Might’s video over and over again. He cried about being a hero still, his heart longing for that still. And Inko cried with him, only she wasn’t mourning his lost dream, but hers.
She wanted him to be loved, she wanted more love for him than she could give alone, and without a quirk, without a father, what could she do?
She had read a bit more about the soulmate theory after her son was born, or she had tried to anyway. She stumbled upon a scattering of forums, but that kind of searching wasn’t her thing, and she came up short.
Her last little bit of hope, then, came from the depths of the internet, a single stray sentence that could have been completely false and have no basis at all.
“Quirkless people can be soulmates with each other.”
The quirkless population was falling by the year, though. None of the other kids at Izuku’s school were quirkless. Inko didn’t think any of the teachers were quirkless, either. No, only older people were quirkless these days, leaving one last thread for Inko to hold onto that her son would always be loved in that special way.
Maybe he’ll find a new father of his own, someone quirkless to bond with who will love Izuku completely and unconditionally.
She didn’t hold on to much hope that day. But she still held on by a thread.
The single thread of hope grew a little stronger the day Izuku came home with the meal plan.
It was such a strange thing from her boy. Sure, he was thoughtful and took lots of notes on things, but he always trained his mind. Where he got the idea to train his body, so specifically, too, Inko didn’t know, so she had to ask.
“Oh, I… met someone who’s going to train me to get into UA,” Izuku said.
Inko didn’t know what to make of that. Should she be concerned? Happy? Angry that someone would put that kind of hope into the heart of her quirkless child? She didn’t know.
What she did know was that Izuku seemed more determined than ever, more purposeful than ever. And even if it didn’t work out, as she feared it wouldn’t, she didn’t want to get in the way of her son’s purpose now. Especially not when she was the only person in the world she had ever trusted to love Izuku.
She didn’t know it yet, but that day, the day where she’d pull the soulmate theory out of the recesses of her mind and place it where it belonged, was coming.
Izuku got into UA. He manifested a quirk and got into UA.
In Inko’s mind, it was the miracle of miracles.
She cried tears of joy and relief and support for her son. She made him a costume and ironed his uniforms and did whatever she could do. She felt guilty for how she reacted all those years ago, making her son think she didn’t support his dream when really she was afraid, she was afraid her son would always be lonely. But now, but now…
The part that really stood out to her, though, out of all the unimaginable things, was that All Might would be teaching there starting this year, too. Maybe it shouldn’t have been the most surprising thing. But still, the odds were astronomical to her. The hero that her son admired more than anything, whose face plastered the walls of his room, the man who she knew Izuku secretly wished was his father, would be there. Her son would know All Might personally.
When she had read more about the soulmate theory all those years ago, when Izuku was found quirkless, many people had discussed how it wasn’t something that could be forced. Fate, many of them had said who claimed to have their own bonds. I just knew. It was fate.
Inko didn’t know anything about that, and she certainly couldn’t speak to her son’s experience, and yet…
Even though that still wasn’t the day, the day the word soulmate would come to light, she couldn’t ignore what she knew in her heart as her son got ready to go to UA and learn from his favorite hero.
That day was fast approaching.
A few months later, that day came.
Izuku had been hurt badly. Repeatedly. Inko didn’t know what to do with herself. Why did Izuku have to trade his health for his happiness? Surely there had to be another way.
The villains kept attacking because of All Might’s presence, her boy kept hurting because of All Might’s presence. And as much as she knew her son’s admiration had only grown stronger for the hero, she couldn’t bear the bargain it brought.
He couldn’t stay at UA. He wanted to be a hero, and if things continued the way they did, he would be broken before he could.
But then, everything changed.
Because this was the day.
The day had finally arrived, the day when she pulled the word soulmate from her mind, a word she had held onto for so long, and placed it where it belonged.
At All Might’s knees where he bowed before her.
She cried. She couldn’t help herself. Izuku and All Might must have thought she cried over the stress of her son’s health and safety. And she did, partially. But mostly, mostly she cried because her heart’s wish had finally been granted.
Izuku would be loved. Completely. Unconditionally. By someone other than her.
“You’re Izuku’s reason for living,” she told her son’s soulmate. And although All Might hadn’t quite said it in so many words, she suspected Izuku was his reason for living, too.
She didn’t understand Izuku’s quirk at all. She didn’t understand All Might’s either, no matter how many times Izuku had talked about it over the years. It didn’t matter to her. She knew enough to know that, after so many lonely years, her son had found what she had wanted for him all along, ever since the man who set fire to her life snuffed it out just as quickly.
Izuku had a father.
Part of her had expected them to tell her that day. When she thought about it later, though, she realized that not many people talked about quirk soulmates yet. She only knew about it herself because of her friend’s silly gossip magazine all those years ago.
(How was Naoko doing now? Inko would have to find out.)
So maybe they thought it would be one too many things to explain that day, that day she pulled the knowledge from her mind and put it in its place. That made enough sense to Inko. But then, they didn’t tell her when the study came out, either, and that seemed entirely ridiculous. Still, she didn’t pry. She never wanted to pry as long as Izuku was happy and loved.
Then, Hisashi came back.
Inko scolded herself later for not realizing he might come back. Of course Hisashi would come back if Izuku’s relationship to All Might ever got out. Starstruck since the day they met, how could Hisashi resist using Izuku to get to the Symbol of Peace? She hated it, she hated him for that. Still, an old hurt from long ago lingered just enough to open the door for that man.
How foolish.
So she hadn’t meant to blurt it out to All Might like that, that she knew about his bond to Izuku. She wanted to wait for them to tell her on their own, but he needed to know. He needed to know that he was Izuku’s father, not Hisashi Midoriya.
“He’s your son, too, now,” she said in no uncertain terms.
After she hung up, she cursed herself a bit, wishing she had addressed it differently. But what was done was done. So, she decided after this all blew over, she’d have Izuku and All Might over for dinner so they could finally talk it out.
It hadn’t really occurred to Inko before the dinner that she hadn’t seen Izuku and All Might together that much.
She had known they were bonded for months, but Izuku had moved to the dorms shortly after that. It was an odd realization, the realization that she didn’t know her son’s father very well. But no matter. She was correcting it now.
She couldn’t help but notice their similar mannerisms. All Might was exceedingly polite and helpful, to the point where she had to shoo him away, much like she had done to her own son as he grew up. Their fidgeting was similar, too. So similar, in fact, that she couldn’t remember if Izuku had always fidgeted like that and All Might got it from him, or if it was All Might’s fidgeting that Izuku learned to copy. It didn’t matter.
What really got her, though, the thing that made her break down in the middle of dinner crying, was the way All Might looked at her son.
Izuku had done most of the talking throughout the meal, as was customary for Izuku. He muttered about school and heroes and quirks and friends and so many things that filled Inko’s heart with joy. Her son was happy. So, it wasn’t too difficult to steal glances at All Might as he sat beside Izuku, but she was surprised with what she found.
She thought she would catch his eye at some point. She thought she would see him looking back at her from across the table with some parental understanding, a shared look that said, There he goes again. But she didn’t. She didn’t.
Instead, he never looked away from Izuku.
All Might, the Symbol of Peace, the number one hero, the man whom Izuku had admired from afar for years, watched her son as if he were the most precious thing in the world. The affection, the love, the devotion he had in his eyes while watching Izuku talk incessantly choked Inko up. With the look in that man’s eyes, with the way he watched her son, all her dreams, the secret dreams she had locked away had truly been answered.
“Mom, are you okay?”
All Might turned away from her son for the first time that night to turn towards her in worry, but she shook her head. She didn’t want All Might to turn away. She wanted All Might to look at her son like that forever.
“I’m sorry, Izuku, I’m okay, I promise. It’s just…” They both waited attentively, but she didn’t have the words. She never had the words like her son did. So instead, she stood, walked around the table, and hugged All Might. Her son’s true father.
“Thank you,” she cried. “Thank you for loving my son. That’s all I ever wanted for him, to be loved.” She felt All Might pat her shoulder as she sobbed, she felt Izuku’s hand on her own, which she grabbed and squeezed tightly.
Eventually, she managed to pull herself away, slightly embarrassed but mostly too happy to care. She returned to her chair and squeezed her son’s hand again as he offered it to her from across the table, wiping away happy tears with her free hand.
“I apologize, I didn’t mean to startle you both. It’s just nice to see is all.” She looked up again to see Izuku and All Might smiling at her, then at each other. Izuku, still holding his mother’s hand from across the table, leaned into All Might’s side slightly, and All Might readily brought an arm around her boy. She let go of Izuku’s hand so he could enjoy the embrace and she could properly wipe her tears away.
“Anyway,” she said after she composed herself a bit more, “I just wish you had felt comfortable telling me sooner about your bond. Is there a reason you didn’t?”
Izuku blinked a few times, then frowned.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t really know how to explain it…”
“Well, it’s no matter. I thought you would have told me when All Might first made his home visit before you moved into the dorms, but at least we’re talking about it now.” Inko glanced up after dabbing a few more tears away with her handkerchief and found the two sitting up straight, staring at her incredulously.
“What is it? Did I get something on my face?” Inko wiped her cheeks a little to check.
“You… You knew at the home visit?” All Might asked.
“Well, sure,” Inko said, still confused. “Why else would you have said those things about Izuku if you weren’t bonded to him in some way?”
The two stared at her a little longer, then looked at each other, then looked back at her.
“Mom… we didn’t know until a few weeks before the article came out.”
It was Inko’s turn to stare at them in confusion. Then, after a beat, all she could do was laugh. Because there it was, yet another thing that her son and his bonded father had in common.
They could be so smart but miss some of the most obvious things.
When it was time for Izuku to graduate and officially go out into the world, he told Inko he planned to live with All Might, the man she now knew as Toshinori.
“You could live with us, Mom. There’ll be a lot of space, and you won’t have to work anymore.”
“No, no, baby,” she said, gratefully patting Izuku’s hand as her son and Toshinori tried to persuade her. “As much as I love you, I think your dad deserves some one-on-one time with you now. Besides, I’ll come to visit all the time.”
And she did. She came a few times a month, always happy to find her son happy and loved, always happy to see Toshinori watch her son with such affection, an affection that never wavered. She considered staying sometimes, living with them, mostly because she worried about poor Toshinori’s health and didn’t want her son to have to fuss. But he seemed alright for the time being, and she’d be ready for them if and when they needed her.
But truthfully, she hadn’t told them the other reason she didn’t live with them yet, a reason she had pulled out the day All Might bowed before her but thought she’d never need again.
Truthfully, she had met a man. A man with a quirk much like her own.