Chapter Text
It happened when Izuku was five years old. A year after his quirkless diagnosis. He was waiting with Kacchan for their mothers to pick them up from daycare. He didn't hear about the attack until he was picked up, not by his mother, but by a police officer with a cat head. Officer Sansa told him that his mother had been caught up in a villain attack and had been badly hurt. It was confusing for the little green-haired boy. He asked if his mom would be okay. He didn't get an answer. Much like when he asked if he could still be a hero without a quirk and the only thing that he was told by his mother was that she was sorry.
He stayed at the police station with fat tears rolling down his cheeks. He saw policemen bringing people who were in handcuffs and those who weren't. Hours passed before someone new came to pick him up. It was his Auntie Mitsuki, Kaccan's mother. She was crying. He had never seen the blond woman cry before. Kacchan wasn't with her so he had no one other than Auntie to comfort him.
She brought him to her house but he doesn't remember ever leaving the police station. He stayed with Kacchan in his room until they could figure out what to do with him. While the two boys were supposed to be sleeping, Izuku felt as if someone was watching him. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. They were still puffy from crying and sleeping. He looked around the dark room, barely lit by an Endeavor nightlight. He spotted a familiar silhouette standing by Kacchan's bookshelf.
"Mommy?" He asked, sleep still heavy in his voice.
"Baby? You can see me?" She asked, just as confused as her son was. He nodded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Why couldn't he be able to see his mother? "Oh, sweety," she said, walking over to the bed where Izuku was. She reached out as if she wanted to touch him. But she was clearly hesitating.
"Mommy, what's wrong? The kitty policeman said that you were hurt in a police attack?" He said. She didn't look hurt. She looked just the same as she did that morning when she dropped him off. The same pink cardigan over a white button-up, and her knee-length dark blue skirt. Her hair was halfway pulled up in a little bun at the back of her head, with the rest of her hair handing down just past her shoulders. Her bangs framed her face the same way that it always did.
She sighed heavily before placing her hand on top of his tiny fist. Or, at least she would have if it hadn't gone right through him. It was so cold. He gasped and pulled his hand to his chest in shock. Inko didn't seem surprised, however. She sighed again before pulling her own hand back.
"Sweety, remember when Grandma had gotten sick a little while ago and she had gone to sleep and never woke up?" He nodded. She had explained to him that grandma had gone asleep and hadn't woken up again. That she would never wake up again. He didn't understand it very well but knew enough to know that grandma couldn't come to visit him anymore and he wouldn't see her again. "Well, like grandma, after the villain attack, I had gone to sleep, too. I woke up, but I was different. No one could see me the way that I am now. I saw myself sleeping, but I wasn't..." She trailed off to try and find a way to explain this to her young son.
"You're a ghost, mommy?" He asked. He had heard ghost stories from Kacchan all the time when they have sleepovers. Normally those stories were scary and caused the young boy to stay up way later than he should have, a flashlight in his hands, looking for anything that could pop out and scare him further. But this was his mom! She wasn't scary. She could never scare him. She loved him. Inko chuckled softly.
"Yeah, I am. I'm so sorry baby. I would never leave you if I had a choice. You know that, right?" Izuku nodded, his wild curls bouncing with each movement. "Now, how about you go back to sleep? We'll see if you can still see me in the morning, okay?" Izuku yawned as if he just remembered how tired he was. He nodded again as he laid back down next to Kacchan, who surprisingly hadn't woken up with all Izuku's talking. Inko tried to tuck her son back in but was unable to get enough energy to move the blankets back into place.
"It's okay, mommy, I'll do it." He pulled the blanket back up to his chin and snuggled in for the night. She bend down and pretended to kiss her son on the forehead. While Izuku couldn't feel her lips, he could feel the cold air of where they were supposed to be. He seemed to understand and appreciate the gesture. He smiled up at his mother and blew her a kiss. She caught it and placed it on her cheek. "Night mommy."
"Night Sweety, I'll see you in the morning." She left the hopefully unspoken. He didn't need to know that she might not be there when he woke up. She was just lucky that she was able to get this short amount of time to see him as it was. As she laid there in a pool of her own blood, she thought of all the things that she would miss if she had indeed ended up like this. Who would have thought that she would find herself standing above her own body as it laid in a hospital bed, the heart monitor flatlined, indicating her death. The last thing that she remembered was that she had begged the young, blond hero, with his hair up like a cockatoo, to find her son and make sure he was taken care of if something was to happen to her.
Thankfully, Mitsuki was able to take him in. But who knew how long her son was able to stay here. She had overheard at the hospital that her son may be placed into the foster care system. If she could cry, she would. But the most her ghostly apparition could do was take a shaky breath as she sat down at the children's plastic table and watch her son sleep.