Chapter Text
Four-year-old Izuku Midoriya could easily be described by a few simple words. Energetic, selfless, loving, and an absolute gremlin.
Said gremlin was currently bunny hopping around his mother with his All Might action figure, waiting anxiously for her to set up his favorite video for him to watch.
“Mama, mama! C’mon c’mon!” Inko Midoriya simply finished putting the last of their dishes away for the night and chuckled at her son’s energy. One would think that after watching the same video over and over you’d be bored of it, but not her little Izuku. He was absolutely enthralled with hero’s and watching them in action, especially the number one hero All Might.
In fact, Izuku has been watching even more hero videos lately. Inko figured it was because it was nearing his 5th birthday now and he was eagerly anticipating his quirk. Mitsuki’s son Katsuki had recently gotten his quirk, explosions. Inko would admit it was a strong quirk and would be well suited for heroics.
She knows that the boys were hoping that they’d be able to open a hero agency together when they were older. She smiled thinking of what the future might bring.
“All right Izu! I’m coming.” It was easy to set up his video, Inko had just placed a bookmark on it because Izuku loved it that much.
She walked back towards the kitchen to get herself a drink and smiled contently listening to her son recite the video word for word.
“Mama?” Inko looked up from her dinner plate to her son. She’d picked him up from school and instead of the energetic bunny she was used to she was instead met with a quiet boy who kept his head down. Inko had tried to gently question her son to see if he would tell her what was wrong, but Izuku would just shake his head and say everything was ok.
“Yes sweetie?” Inko smiled reassuringly at her son.
“... Is being quirkless bad?” Inko’s face went blank at the question. Quirkless? Why was Izuku asking about quirklessness?
“No sweetie, being quirkless isn’t a bad thing. Quirkless people are the same as those that do have quirks… What brought this up?”
Izuku poked at his veggies as he thought of an answer. His mother waited patiently for him to think of his answer, it wouldn’t do any good to rush the boy. Although, Inko hoped he wouldn’t give the answer she was thinking of. If Izuku did, then Inko would have to have a few words with multiple people.
“The other kids… they called me quirkless. Because I still haven’t gotten my quirk yet. Even Kacchan hasn’t wanted to play with me.” Izuku put his fork down once he finished speaking. Dinner wasn’t any concern of Inko’s anymore, her baby was being picked on and that made any hunger Inko felt vanish only to be replaced by a white hot fire in her belly.
If Inko didn’t let her poor excuse of a husband bad mouth her baby she sure as hell wouldn’t let some bratty children do it either, especially since one of those brats was her best friend’s son.
“Izu baby, it’s only been a few months since your birthday. We don’t know if you're quirkless or not but even if you never get a quirk I will always love you. You know that right?” Izuku’s eyes watered at the question. Of course he knew his mom loved him, but he also felt as useless as the other kids insisted he was.
Inko pushed her seat back and walked over to her son’s chair. There, she knelt and gently took one of his small hands into hers while using the other hand to gently grip his chin and have him look at her.
“Izuku, whatever those kids have been telling you. They are wrong. I love you, and you are so smart and talented. You have so much potential ahead of you. If it will help you feel better, would you want to go see a quirk doctor? They might be able to see what’s going on, ok?”
Izuku’s lip wobbled as he nodded his head and scooted forward to wrap his little arms around her neck looking for a hug. Inko didn’t hesitate to encase him in her arms and stand with Izuku cradled to her front. She gently rocked from side to side and hummed a lullaby as she pet her son's curly locks.
It didn’t take long for the little boy's sniffles to stop as he drifted off, comforted by his mothers warmth and the safe feeling she provided.
“So, we have good news, and then slightly bad news. What would you prefer to heard first?”
Inko and her son sat across from a quirk specialist. It was a young woman with a x-ray quirk.
“What do you want to hear about first baby?” Inko leaned down slightly to her son and waited for him to decide what he wanted to hear first. “Good news first,” he said.
The doctor smiled at the boy. “Alright. Well the good news is that you do indeed have a quirk. From what we can tell it’s a new mutation, different from your parents' quirks.” Izuku beamed at hearing that he did have a quirk. He wasn’t a Deku! Then his smile dropped as he asked why his quirk hadn’t shown up yet.
“Well. From what we can tell your quirk is a technological related quirk. We aren’t sure exactly what it entails, but our best guess is that either your body or your mind isn’t quite yet ready to handle your quirk.”
Inko fidgeted a bit. “Is his quirk going to harm him? When should we expect it to come in?”
The doctor smiled complacently at the worried mother. “Don’t worry ma’am. My colleagues and I don’t believe his quirk is harmful. Rather that it just needs extra time to develop, that’s all. I’d give the rough estimate that his quirk should appear within the next year and a half at the latest. It could also come sooner than that, we aren’t sure.”
“Alright doctor, thank you for your help.”
Izuku watched silently from his seat on the bench as the other kids all played heroes and villains. Kacchan of course was the hero leader and was quickly scaring the other team into surrendering.
Even after Izuku had gone to the quirk doctor, been told that he did have quirk, and then told all the other kids that he wasn’t quirkless, he was still an outcast.
“The Deku is probably lying!”
“Why would his quirk come late?”
“Sounds like a stupid excuse to hide the fact that he’s useless!”
Izu looked down at his shoes as the others moved to play on the playground equipment. He really didn’t understand why the other kids had to be so mean. He had a quirk, he was still the same boy as before, so what was the issue?
“Hey Deku!” Izuku had unfortunately gotten used to being called Deku, as such he looked up when the name was yelled.
“Still lying about having a quirk?!” Kacchan was stomping over to him while his hands gave off small pops to scare him. Izuku rubbed the inside of his wrist, the most recent spot where Kacchan had singed his skin.
“I’m not lying Kacchan… I do have a quirk. It just needs more time.”
“HAH! As if I’m gonna believe that stupid excuse. Just admit that you’re a stupid Deku already!”
Izuku saw the fist fist coming towards him. He saw the other boys that always hung around Kacchan laugh and watch this happen. He saw that the teacher who was supposed to be watching them wasn’t outside anymore.
Izuku saw that no one cared what happened to him, and then he felt the heat.
“This isn’t ok Mitsuki! Katsuki has to learn to respect others and especially learn that it isn’t ok to harm someone like this! Izuku not only has bruises, but burns on top of everything! It’s been 2 hours since school let out and he hasn’t said a word to me. This needs to stop!”
Inko was currently pacing back and forth in her apartment’s living room as she yelled into the phone to her best friend. She’d gone to pick Izuku up from school only to find her son’s cheek, arms, and neck covered in bandages. She was furious as she hadn’t been called to notify her that her son had been injured. When she’d gone into the front office to question and demand answers she’d been told that her son had gotten into a fight with the other kids and fallen off the slide.
Inko though knew better and could see straight through the lie. Yet she was too angry to continue to deal with these people at the moment. She instead chose to get her son home where she could check him over and hopefully get the actual story from him. Of course though, Inko had failed to get her son to utter even a peep.
She’d unwrapped all his wounds to check them over before re-wrapping them and letting him simply go to bed early. Thankfully the school had at least done basic first aid on her son and treated the burns.
“I know Inko, I know. Masaru and I are gonna talk to our brat again. I can’t believe he’d continue to act so stupid when we’ve scolded this kind of behavior multiple times already. I don’t know what I can do that will get through to him.”
Inko took a long breath in before exhaling and dropping back onto the couch. She rubbed her eyes tiredly. Why did her little bunny have to go through such cruel things like this.
“Inko, I swear I’ll do what I can to try and knock some sense into Katsuki. I hate that little Izuku got hurt just as much as you do, especially since it’s my brat that did the harm.”
Inko sighed again. “No no Mitsuki. I don’t blame you. I just don’t understand why no teachers have bothered to try correcting the kids' behavior at all. I even went into the front office to see why they hadn’t even called me and they lied right to my face. This has been an ongoing issue now and I’m at my wit’s end.”
“I understand Inko.” She heard Mitsuki sigh. “What are you gonna do now?”
Inko thought for a moment. What could she do? She could always try the police, but she’d been hesitant to go to them. Don’t misunderstand, Inko loved her son and treasured him greatly. She cared more about him than herself, but she knew how society viewed quirkless people. She was worried that involving the police would be a pointless waste of time or even worse, it might even leave a black mark on her son. The last thing she wanted was her son to have a biased mark put on his file by some corrupt judgemental officer.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but what if I just pulled Izuku out of school? I’ve found some online class offerings that he wouldn’t have any issues taking. He’s obviously smarter than he lets on and that school has been holding him back if I’m being honest. I can change my work schedule to work early mornings only and then homeschool him in the afternoons?”
“That’s a little bit of a weird schedule don’t you think Inko?” Another sigh.
“How about this. Katsuki will be at school during the day. Why don’t you pull Izuku out of school, and then you work the morning shift. While you work Masaru and I can watch Izuku and help him with his schooling. Then, you can pick him up once you're done with work. Sound good?”
“But Mitsuki would Izuku be ok if he ended up being around Katsuki if I can’t pick him up right away?”
“I would never allow any kind of harm to happen to Izuku in my own home. Katsuki would only be around him for a short amount of time before you came anyway and Masaru and I would watch them. Think about it Inko, this would work out well for you and Izuku. Masaru and I already work mainly from home anyway so you wouldn’t be inconveniencing us.”
There really wasn’t anything wrong with Mitsuki’s idea. It would help ease her worry about Izuku’s safety while at school and he’d be able to study at his own pace. Inko bit at her lip in thought, at the very least she could try this schedule out for the rest of this year and if it didn’t work then she could figure something else out later.
“Ok Mitsuki. Let’s do it.”
It had been 2 weeks now since Izuku had been pulled out of school, and Izuku was definitely much happier with his new schedule. Turns out the little broccoli boy was way ahead of his age group and now that he was being home schooled he was able to study at a faster pace. He was currently taking classes that were closer to the end of elementary school.
Currently Izuku was on a lunch break and as he munched on a sandwich auntie Mitsuki had made for him he also wrote in a notebook he’d started. He thought quirks were amazing and he always wanted to analyze them as much as he could. He even tried to make some doodle sketches for support item ideas he’d come up with. He was currently working on an entry for a new rescue hero that had debuted recently. Her hero name was Spots, the axolotl hero. It was pretty self explanatory. She had an axolotl mutation quirk and specialized in water rescues. Izuku had found a few videos of her and written notes on strengths and weaknesses she could improve on. She also didn’t currently use much support gear so Izu was working on some item ideas.
He finished his sandwich just as his auntie’s phone rang. He heard her shuffle about in the kitchen and she answered her phone but he quickly tuned out her conversation as eavesdropping was rude and he was more focused on finishing Spots entry.
Izuku’s focus was broken when he heard a loud sob from the kitchen. He turned his head towards the sound and saw his auntie leaning against the counter with the phone still in her hand.
Izuku slowly put his pencil down and then quietly shuffled over towards his aunt.
“Yes… yes I understand. Thank you, please call me if anything changes.” Mitsuki hung up and leaned forward to rest her head in her hands as she cried silently.
“Auntie Mitsuki?” Her head snapped up and around as she heard her nephew's voice. Izuku had a frown on his face as he looked at her, she was still crying and he’d never seen her cry before. Auntie Mitsuki was always a tough lady who defended her family like a dragon. His mama had asked once why he compared Mitsuki to a dragon of all things. Izuku simply said it was because dragons were super strong and were never scared of anything.
Yet now auntie Mitsuki looked scared, and that scared Izuku.
“Izuku honey, come here please.” Mitsuki went down onto her knees and opened her arms for the little boy. Izuku hesitantly walked into her arms and let her hug him tightly. He closed his eyes and snuggled into her neck as she pet his hair.
“Izuku. I just got a call from the hospital.” Izuku looked up at her confused.
“Is mama gonna be late picking me up?” He questioned. Why would auntie cry if mama was just gonna be a little late.
“No Izu. Inko is… She…”
Izuku listened to his aunt explain. He felt as his eyes grew big and tears began to fall down his freckled cheeks. He felt his breath get caught in his throat as he hiccuped and fell forward to grip his aunt’s shirt. Izuku felt himself fade to the back of his mind as Mitsuki tried to comfort the little boy wailing in her arms.
Yet what could she do? Izuku didn’t want her right now. What he wanted was his mother and yet…
“Izuku, your mother got caught in a villain attack at the hospital. She’s in a coma.”