Chapter Text
She was 4 when she had her first distinct memories.
A toddler with her brown hair in pigtails was looking out the car window as the scenery went by with a moving truck behind them. Both her parents in the front seats talking amongst themselves with the radio playing the background. After what seemed like hours the car pulled itself into the driveway of a modest two story house and she was let outside the car by her mother.
The woman was of average height for someone in her thirties with shiny silver hair standing out as she smiled to her daughter.
"Don't go too far dear," she says, gently pushing her out of the way of a person from the moving company, "be back here soon as we'll need to set up your room once these gentlemen finish unloading the truck."
"Ok Mummy!" With a wave the little girl was gone her legs carrying her as fast as she can at her age down to a park she saw on the way to their new house.
"Are you sure it's fine to let Maya wander off on her own?" A man with glasses and brunette hair asked as he walked up to his wife frowning at the little girl getting smaller in the distance.
"It is, after all that's why we moved in the first place. To make sure we never get found and so she can grow up with us around."
~
After running to the park Maya saw a few boys similar to her age kicking a ball around. Slowing down to stare at them she never noticed that said ball they were playing with was heading in her direction.
"Hey look out!"
Blinking, the dark violet eyed girl, let a little gasp as she threw up her hands to hit the ball back at them. When it hit her hand it just bounced of coming to stop at her feet.
"Are you alright?" A greenette came up to her and asked, he was followed by a spikey haired blonde with crimson red eyes that seemed to hold a mini glare wherever he looked. "You should of just caught the ball."
"Sorry, it startled me," she shyly apologised as she looked down to pick up the ball. "Here."
"Are you new here? Kacchan and I always come to this park and haven't seen you before," big doe eyes looked at her curiously.
"Yeah, Mummy and Daddy and I just moved in the area," she murmured, "I'm Maya Arashi."
"I'm Izuku Midoriya, and that's Kac-"
"I can speak for myself Deku, I'm Katsuki Bakugo," the ash blonde toddler buffed out his chest, "I'm gonna be the next number hero next to All Might!"
Midoriya looked put out by the nickname slightly, but he just looked at the girl and continued. "Have you gotten your quirk yet?"
"Not yet, I only just turned four recently so I'm still waiting," Maya smiled at the blonde, "Have either of you two?"
"Nuh uh"
"Nope, but just you wait cause my quirk will just be as amazing as me!"
The three continued to talk for a little while before they started playing, soon after it was nearly dark when they decided to head home.
"I'm the other way but I'll see you guys soon! Bye Kacchan! Bye Arashi!" Midoriya waved as he ran off in the other direction to the two.
After Midoriya ran off the two remaining toddlers started to walk in the other direction. They continued to walk for a little bit until Maya saw her house, the moving truck long gone.
“This is my house”, she admitted shyly, “I’ll see you around Bakugo, maybe we’ll be going to the same elementary school.”
"Whatever pig tails, see you later."
"Pig tails-?"
Before she could question it, the blonde had turned around and ran towards his home only a few houses down. Maya continued to stare after him long after he had disappeared before heading towards her new house where her parents were most likely cooking dinner waiting for her.
Well whaddya know, my first two canon characters.
~
"Mummy, Daddy guess what?! I made some friends!" Maya exclaimed as she ran into the kitchen where her father was cooking dinner and her mother putting away utensils from the box.
"Really darling that's amazing! No wonder you were gone for so long, I was starting to get worried," her mother, Aiya, laughed as she went over to fix her daughters short pig tales that were getting loose from running around. Her father, Mizuto, looked over at them both from his place at the stove.
"Are they boys?"
"Mhm! One's named Izuku Midoriya and the other is Katsuki Bakugo, they want to be heroes when they grow up!"
"I think we met the Bakugos just before, they are a lovely couple."
Dinner was ready as the family set up the table to sit at as they ate. Both adults let Maya babble on about her day and what she did with her new friends until the conversation steered to what they weren't expecting.
"I think I want to be a hero," Maya announced, she looked at both her parents as they stopped eating and shared a what they thought was a discrete glance.
"Why's that honey?" Mizuto asked gently at the girl in front of them.
"Well Bakugo says he's gonna be number one and I wanna become a hero too just like him! Plus it seems so cool and fun, just like the heroes we see on TV sometimes."
Liar.
"It can be a very dangerous job honey, we don't want you to get hurt. The world can be a very dangerous place out there for you if you choose this path," her mother continued, "plus we just have to see what quirk you have."
Maya nodded smiling brightly at the two before dropping the subject and eating the rest of her food on the plate. Once again both parents shared a look that held remnants of a grimace, as if hoping it's just the phase children go through like everyone else did.
~
"I'm sorry to say this but your daughter is quirkless."
"Quirkless?"
Maya was sitting on a chair between her parents staring at the female doctor in front of them, a sympathetic smile on her face. Her Mother beside her had tears in her eyes at the statement, while her father was only frowning. "Are you sure that's not a mistake?"
"Yes, my wife and I are fourth generation quirk holders with myself being able to have minor metal manipulation and her being able to change people's looks," he added. "Surely your tests are wrong."
"Unfortnuately not, it’s interesting though,” the doctor mused, flipping through a few of the charts. “There’s only one joint in the pinkie toe like the average Quirk user, but still your daughter still doesn’t have a Quirk. However it could be due to what we saw in the x-ray, with only her left pinkie toe having a double joint but her right only has one, it's truly intriguing, I've only had at least one or two with the same predicament in my career."
"So can I get a quirk even with my joint there?" Maya chimed in, staring intently at the screen.
"Only a few have been recorded to ever get a quirk as a late bloomer, so your chances are nearly impossible, probably thirteen-percent likely. The other couple cases I've seen like this also never developed a quirk in their later years" the doctor hummed, looking up from her chart to stare at Maya's parents. “What potentially happened was that both of you carry a recessive quirkless gene. While it was only a twenty percent chance, Maya got both of those recessive genes resulting in quirklessness.”
The world was cruel.
"I see... thank you doc, we'll be going now."
The drive away from the hospital was sombre, her father kept glancing in the revision mirror to check his daughter, and her mother just kept her eyes glued of her hands occasionally looking up to turn around and look at Maya as well. Both adults expected the child to be nearly in tears at the thought she wouldn't be like others around her, but all the saw was a neutral face looking out the window next to her.
Later that night after they all got home, it had been quiet. Not much had been said by her parents as they went on with their business. Maya could tell they were upset by this, even more so then she had been. It didn't change her goal though, it only made it harder.
"Can I take martial art classes?"
Her parents stopped what they were doing to look at her, confused by the determined look on their daughters face. Each parent shared a glance.
"And why's that honey?" her mother asked gently. "That's awfully sudden of you."
"Because being quirkless doesn't change anything, I'm going to become a hero," she answered. "Even if it means I have to put in more work than other people, no one is going to decide for me what I can or can't do because I don't have what they have!"
"Maya it's impossible to be a hero without a quirk, plus this was sprung outta nowhere," her father argued. "I hate to kill your dream but this society will throw you down over and over because your quirkless. There's never been a quirkless hero, it's just unthought of."
"Well I'm going to be the first! I don't care if others have quirks."
Purple eyes shone with determination as the toddler stared back at her parents worried faces.
"I'll do it to spite them."