Chapter Text
As a teenager, Izuku’s first memory of Heroes was watching that debut footage of All Might from before he was even born. The then not so well known hero with civilians piled on his back and under his arms as he climbs from the rubble, cast by the surrounding fire of the villain attack as he just smiles—but to a nearly five year old Izuku he remembers even further.
Of being just barely two, over half a lifetime ago, carried in the arms of his mother during a day trip to tokyo as he points towards a man leaping through the sky. Of parents answering with that hero’s name, of going home that day and insisting to look up “Ahma!” to the computer, of his father finding that same video, of the awe, the wonder in his eyes, and of course his mothers scolding for showing their son something so scary.
The feelings invoked from that video have persisted, blending together in his future adolescent mind that he fails to remember its exact origin even after his mother’s recollection. But right here, right now, he remembers that man jumping through the sky like he’s flying clear as day.
He wants to be a hero when he grows up.
“Mum… am I ever gonna get a quirk?” He asks, lingering in the open entrance to the kitchen where his mother stands, previously drying some dishes. The drawer closes itself, and floating cutlery suspended by their wooden handles stop their leisurely drifting to be placed back down on the counter.
Her expression turns to worry as she drops the tea towel on the counter and makes her way over to him. “Izuku, baby, why do you ask that?”
“Because I'm nearly five and I haven't gotten my quirk! A-and the kids at school keep asking if I’ve gotten one yet—and Kacchan…” He can’t bring himself to repeat what Kacchan said to her.
She picks him up, balancing him on her hip, quickly welcoming her embrace. “Honey, you’re not quirkless.”
The way she says it like a fact has him peering up at her, almost begging her to continue, to reassure him he won’t be as helpless as Kacchan says he is. She stares down at him with a small closed smile. “You wanna know how I know?”
“Yes,” he answers with all the seriousness he could muster.
She gives him a cheeky grin. “Because I can see you quirk.”
His eyes widened, unshed tears almost sparks in amazement. Small hands clash around her shoulder as he asks almost desperately, “How? Do you know what my quirk is? Is it that obvious?”
Almost theatrically, she starts to explain. “You know what my quirk is?”
“Animate! It lets you move living things around you—with your mind!” She can only move things if they're super close to her, but it’s one of the coolest quirk he knows.
“It sure is, and the coolest thing I’ve figured out is how to sense living things around me.”
“Whoa…” All he can think is “so cool…” before a memory resurfaces. He narrows his eyes at her, face scrunching a bit. “Is that how you could tell I wasn’t in my bed that one time?”
She giggles at his pout. “Maybe, but I bet you're wondering how that lets me see your quirk right?” He nods, the suspense is killing him.
“When I use my quirk I can sense you, but I can also sense something else somewhere around—here,” she points at his head, and her eyes go soft. “Just like your Dad.”
He freezes. Dad still felt like a touchy subject (to him at least). It’s been over a year since his passing but it still felt fresh. He remembers sitting in his lap in “His” office, despite the only thing “His” in there was the computer he built himself, researching whatever question or hero Izuku felt like looking up that day. Mum’s in charge of computer time now, and “Dad’s office” turned into “the computer room”, but the desktop is still a picture of Izuku and Mum in the park the man secretly took himself.
“Do you remember your Dad’s quirk?” She asks him, snapping him out of his thoughts.
He could never forget something like that. “Diagnostic but he nicknamed it BIOS for some reason. It’s—isn’t it just a health detecting quirk?” Or maybe he did forget, because he doesn’t know why it would have “something else” inside Dad.
“You’re right, and BIOS is a computer thing that does something similar to his quirk but he changed the ‘basic’ to ‘biological’, the dork,” she snorts. “It's just how it does the detecting that matters. He had these ‘cells’…” Her free hand rotates in the air as she finds a way to describe it.
“They were like these tiny living robots, they’d go into other people and find out everything they can, and when they were done they’d go back to him with all the information they found. For whatever reason they were different enough from him that my quirk picked up on it, and that’s what I'm seeing in you.”
He takes a moment to digest the information. “Do I have Dad’s quirk then?”
“If you do, there's a couple differences. If it was the same you’d probably have used it by now just by touching someone.” Dad’s quirk was ‘in-vol-un-tar-y’ so he needed to wear gloves or else he’d get stuck to people and then his face would go all blank for a while. Izuku would have definitely noticed if that happened.
She continues, “And yours are in your head. His stayed in his hands when it wasn’t active, but they did go up there when he was using it.”
“When did you see it? How long have I had a quirk?” He asks.
“I noticed it a week ago, but you could have had it for a lot longer. The smaller something is, the harder it is for me to sense. Your Dad’s quirk could get very small when it wasn’t in his hands.”
He huffs. “I’ve had a quirk for a week and I didn’t notice? Kacchan’s gonna make fun of me when he finds out. Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“I was waiting for you to find out on your own first, and I'm sorry for that. Not all quirks are immediately obvious, or are easy to turn on. It’s not your fault sweetie,” she tells him, adjusting him as she cups his cheek. “You might be able to detect people’s health, or you might do something completely different. Whatever your quirk ends up being, we’ll figure this out together.”
“Together?”
She held him a little closer. “Together.”
“Can we find out now? What if we do tests?!” He shimmies out of her grip and nearly falls, but she manages to catch him, placing him gently on his feet. “And we can write it all down like real scientists! I can get my notebook and—”
“Alright, alright! Can do some tests. Do you want me to help you write?”
He flushes in embarrassment. Mum’s the one who’s teaching him how to read and write until elementary school, so she knows exactly where his level is at. “Yeah…”
“Then let's go get your notebook and pencil case sweetie.”
They couldn’t figure out his quirk that day, or the day after that, or the day after that. He was sure it wasn’t just a copy of either of his parents. It also wasn’t the ability to detect people’s health with his mind, nor was it the ability to remove people’s ailments from their body. He couldn’t think of any more combinations after that.
It took a full year before his quirk became apparent. It wasn’t from any of the quirk doctors he went to, nor any of his countless studying and tests. (Even if he figured it out he might have trouble registering it if it wasn’t “obvious” considering he now has a strike on his record from trying to register “Mobile Cells”. He didn’t mean for that to happen, honest!)
OG intro
It was a regular day at kindergarten with less than two months left before they would move onto elementary school. He had been playing tag with his friends, having stopped to lean against the monkeybars to catch his breath.
The running had given him a headache. He’s been getting more of those lately, Sensei had gone on about water being good for headaches and for staying hy-dray-ted during summer. He doesn’t want to let down Kacchan if he quits playing but he doesn’t know how good at running he’ll be right now. As he focuses on breathing he doesn’t hear the footsteps from behind. Hands poke his back as he’s pushed.
“You’re it!”
Izuku falls arms first, palms scraping on the ground. The wind is knocked out of him and his hands burn as he starts to tear up. He hears footsteps run away as he sits up, turning his palm to his face he’s met with only irritated skin and dirt. Trying to wipe the grime away the pain turns sharp, flinching. Though as the seconds pass the pain subsides to aching, peering through teary eyes he sees a swell of red ooze from his hand. He’s startled as it covers the scrape in a thick film, rippling as his hand starts to tingle.
“My quirk… it’s gotta be my quirk” he gapes, wiping away his tears. It’s a deep red, darker than his shoes but no less vibrant. It’s glossy under the sun, he strokes it with his thumb. It’s malleable and he can make out small movements throughout it, like it’s wriggling. His eyes shine in wonder, it feels glossy too.
“Deku!!” He startles, whipping his head around. Kacchan comes running across the playground with a creased face, hands popping with sparklers. “What are you doing sitting around?”
“Kacchan! My quirk, I just got my quirk!” He stands up and runs over to his best friend, a smile gracing his face. He sticks his hand out to show him, but as he looks down there’s nothing to present. Not even a scratch. They both stare in confusion.
“Haa? There’s nothing there Deku!” He narrows his eyes at his hand.
“There was! I scraped my hand and this red slime came out. I think it healed it?” He pulls back his hand, trying to feel for something but is only met with just barely ruff skin.
“You sure it wasn’t blood?” He questions, grabbing his hand to look at doubtfully, face screwing up in concentration.
“If it was blood it would still be there!” It was way too thick to be blood, and it was really shiny. It would be really weird blood if it was. As he’s about to object more, he sees kids start to race toward them.
“Izuku got his quirk?!”
“What took so long?”
“What is it? What is it?! I gotta know!”
“Dude show us then!”
Izuku hadn’t thought he was that loud, but it looks like the other kids heard his exclamation of his quirk coming in and came running. He owlishly looks at the small crowd. “Uhh…” he mumbles, not knowing who to answer first.
Kacchan grips his hand harder. “Yeah, show us Deku. It shouldn’t be that hard.”
“Um! I’ll try!” He dutifully closes his eyes, trying to focus on that deep red. He doesn’t feel any more tingling, looking into himself he tries to feel for something. His stomach twists, but he’s pretty sure he’s just hungry. He tries to see it seeping out of his hand again, face scrunching as he wills his imagination into existence.
He feels his arm be shoved away and opens his eyes. Kacchan is scowling at him, almost disgusted. He really doesn’t like that face, but as soon as it had come it’s gone as he huffs in dismissal. “Whatever, it’s a lame quirk anyway. You can’t fight villains with weird blood” The reaction is immediate.
“Weird blood?”
“Aw come on Izuku, we wanna see it!”
“Ewww, blood? That’s gross.”
“That doesn’t sound very cool.”
Izuku scrambles to clarify. “It’s not blood! I think. It was thick and healed my hand. I don’t know how to get it back—but healing is really useful!” Heroes get injured all the time, being able to heal yourself means more time saving people. What if he could heal other people too? It would be so useful!
“Alright kids, why are we crowding around Izuku here?” Sensei crosses the playground towards them, kids part to let her through like tiny fish to a shark. Except Sensei isn't really a shark, nor are the kids fish unless you count Toto who has gills, and she’s not trying to eat any of them.
Kacchan takes charge. “Deku said his quirk came in and healed his hand with weird slime blood,” he says, crossing his arms and scoffing. “Can’t even show us, lame.”
“It’s not blood Kacchan!”
Sensei looks at Izuku, concerned. “Healed? Izuku, did you get hurt? What happened.”
He holds out his hand again for Sensei to see. It hasn’t changed while he wasn’t looking, no blemish to be seen.
“I fell and hurt my hand, but when I looked this red stuff came out. It wasn’t blood I swear! It moved on its own and it was really silky!” He huffed. Kacchan didn’t even see it so he doesn’t know why he keeps saying it was blood.
Akuya pipes up from the crowd, stretching a finger to point at another kid. “I saw Mujin push him over Sensei!” Pointing at the winged preschooler. Mujin almost recoils like he’s been hit, wings flaring.
He looks angrily at Akuya. “What!? You snitch, I only tagged him!”
A stern look crosses Sensei’s face as she turns to him, the other kids looking away to avoid her gaze. “Mujin, pushing people isn’t nice. Now, what do we say if we hurt someone?”
“Apologise. I’m sorry for pushing you too hard Izuku,” he grumbles. His wings move to partially cover his face though just barely, considering their size. It’s really interesting how his wings react to his emotions.
Izuku is quick to reassure him. “It’s okay! I’m not hurt anymore anyway.”
Sensei starts to address the small crowd. “Now why don’t we start packing up to head back inside? Recess is just about over anyway.”
Various complaints ring out, but everyone complies and disperses back to the main building. He follows the crows, right behind Kacchan, only to pause.
“And Izuku?” The teacher says, and he turns back around to look at them. “I’ll call your mum so she can book an appointment at the registration office, Congrats on getting your quirk kid.”
Izuku and his mum sit in a doctor's office that weekend. He knew every kid needs to go there to write your quirk down because Kacchan told him when he went for his quirk, but he hadn’t realised how busy they are. It makes sense, there’s a lot of kids in the world and a lot of quirks to write down. He can count eight other kids in the waiting room with him, he thinks two are twins. Which is super cool! He heard twins can get special quirks where it works in pairs. Mum didn’t want him bothering them though, they seemed nervous.
He hasn’t seen his quirk since it came in, and it’s been days. He’s tried everything to get it to come out but nothing’s worked! Imagining it hadn’t worked, pushing it out hadn’t either, he tried doing hand motions like his mum but nope. Nothing. His stomach grumbles as he sneakily grabs another biscuit from his pocket. He’s been extra hungry lately and Mum’s been packing more snacks for his lunch, though he’s pretty sure she wouldn’t want him getting crumbs on the doctor's floor…
“Izuku.”
Like a deer in headlights he freezes, he’s been caught. He swiftly shoves the biscuit in his mouth and starts chewing.
“What do you have?”
He chews faster.
“Midoriya Izuku?” calls a voice from across the room, and Izuku turns to look, and spots a man wearing a dress shirt, plain pants and a white coat at standing the entrance heading down towards the main offices.
It's the doctor, he’s saved! He quickly gets and waves his hand at the man. Mum sighs behind him.
They both follow the doctor down the hall, after a couple doors the doctor stops and steps inside a room. The first thing he notices is that it’s kinda small, Kacchan mentioned his was big, with fireproofing and a safety wall. There's some cabinets with a computer on one wall, a couple chairs, some machines he doesn’t know what to call hung on the wall, and what he thinks is a bed. It's plastic and doesn’t have sheets. Weird.
The doctor is already at the desk while they move to their seats, papers in hand. “Now Midoriya-san, it says on the intake paperwork that Midoriya-kun here has manifested a healing quirk?”
“Yes, he was at school and grazed his hand. I hadn’t seen it myself though.”
“Of course. Now, Midoriya-kun.” The doctor turns to face him, he straightens his back at attention. “What can you tell me about how your quirk manifested?”
Izuku starts recalling that day. “Well, it was recess and me and Kacchan were playing tag. I fell and grazed my hand, but when I looked this red slime came out and covered it all but Kacchan kept calling it blood. After that the graze was gone!” He showed his hand for emphasis. “It was super smooth and shiny! But I haven’t seen it since.” His hand falls, slightly dejected.
Humming affirmatively, the doctor asks. “Have you been injured since?”
“No…” he responds. He’s fallen but hasn't gotten any cuts or scrapes. At least he doesn’t think he has. Sometimes Mum asks him where he got a bruise and he can't say because he hadn’t noticed, but bruises are different.
“Well that makes sense, if it’s a healing quirk it would only activate if you need healing,” The doctor says, nodding along. He supposes that makes sense, but it doesn’t mean he has to be happy about it. He wants to show it off to Kacchan!
“Now, registering a healing quirk can be a tad difficult.”
Mum quickly responds. “Difficult? What do you mean?”
The doctor makes a slight grimace.
“Typically for a legal registry to be made there must be some sort of witness of quirk use for us to verify. Healing quirks in particular can have a doctor unassociated with a registry office sign a witness statement if there were obvious signs of a healing quirk, particularly in cases where there has been a substantial injury or if the quirk can only heal substantial injuries. Since Midoriya-kun hurt himself at school, and the quirk can heal minor injuries, the only option here is to essentially cause injury for me to witness it.”
Izuku snaps his head to the doctor while Mum looks on in concern. The doctor consoles them. “It would only need to be something small, usually a slight cut. No more than a centimetre at least. Testing limits on any quirk is not something we do for quirk registry verification, so it would be no more than that I assure you.”
Mum visibly relaxes at his words, but Izuku can only ask, “Um… you gotta cut me? What about the other option?”
He’s had a couple cuts and scrapes before, but he doesn’t know if he could just sit there and let it happen. Maybe he shouldn’t have eaten before this.
“I’m sorry Midoriya-kun, there's not many ways to see a healing quirk in action. You’d have to wait to get very hurt and that could take years, but don't worry. The cut will be really small so it’ll only hurt a tiny bit.”
The doctor turns to grab a bowl off the shelf. “You’ll even get to pick out a lolly afterwards!” He says, and lowers the bowl to show it full of lollipops, snack size candy bars and various other sweets. Izuku still feels a bit queasy, but can already feel his mouth start to water.
The doctor puts the bowl down to reach into a cabinet, and pulls out a plastic wrapped something. The doctor shows him some sort of knife with a long handle and a small triangular blade in plastic. It’s the weirdest knife he’s ever seen, but he’s only seen knives at home so he guesses doctors must have special knives that help with cutting off casts and stuff.
“Now Midoriya-kun, this is called a scalpel. I’m going to use this to make a very small cut on your arm so we can see your quirk, is that alright?” He eyes the “scalpel” warily, but nods.
The doctor puts down the scalpel and moves towards him. “I'll need to roll up your sleeve so I can get a clear space for the cut, do you want me to do this on a specific arm?”
His brows furrowed as he thought. The graze happened on his left, so it’ll probably work if it’s on the same arm right? He mumbles out a quick “left”. After the doctor rolls up his sleeve, he turns back to put on some gloves and unwrap the scalpel.
Mum starts rubbing his shoulder. “Sweetie, do you want to hold my hand?”
He gives a hard nod, and she takes hold of his left. She gives a little squeeze and smiles at him. Mums are the best.
He turns back to look at the doctor as he walks towards him, scalpel in hand. “Just imagine how good that lolly will taste after it’s done,” he tells him, giving the boy a small smile as he gently takes hold of his arm. “You can look away if you're feeling nervous.”
Shuffling in his seat he quickly shakes his head. “Nuh uh, I wanna see my quirk again,” he says. He isn’t about to miss this, he’s been trying all week to see it again!
“That’s alright Midorya-kun, just hold as still as you can.”
The doctor starts to move the scalpel towards his arm, inching closer and closer. The gleam of the metal from the overhead lights almost feels sinister, but it’s not a villain. It’s just a weird knife. He's five and it’s the only way to prove he got his quirk since he can't make it come out. He feels some sort of tension, like a rubber band pulled taut over a finger.
Despite what he said he clenches his eyes close just before the scalpel reaches his arm. He feels it pierce his skin with a sharp pain and it begins to sting. He snaps his eyes open to see the scalpel is already gone, the cut barely the length of his fingernail as it wells up with blood. Tears fill his eyes as Mum gives a big squeeze to his hand again.
A second passes and he worries nothing will happen but there! A deep red seeps from the cut and surrounding skin, differentiated by its texture and movement. It covers the small wound as it glistens, and moments later it seeps back into his skin leaving no cut or blood to be seen. The tension eases in his chest.
“There we go Midoriya-kun! I can see why your friend called it blood, it has a very similar colour.”
“Good job being so brave for the doctor honey.”
Izuku doesn’t stop crying, but there's a smile on his face. “My-my quirks s-so cool! It doesn’t e-even hurt anymore.” All he feels is a bit of tingling, but that might just be from his quirk phasing through his skin.
“Right you are bud! Now lets pick out that lolly huh?”
After carefully choosing a caramel filled sweet, Mum rubs his shoulder to get his attention from the sugary goodness. “Izuku, why don’t you wait outside while I talk to the doctor about some grownup things?”
The doctor gives her a curious look while he just nods, Mum opens the door for him, pointing down the hall towards the waiting room. The receptionist waves at him as he makes his way inside and sits back down in his still empty seat. Some of the kids he saw before heading to his appointment are gone, and he doesn’t make an attempt to talk to any of them before his Mum eventually comes back, doctor in tow.
The doctor gives a small wave as they head out to the door.
“Congrats on the quirk!”
“Thank you!”
“Izuku, your new I.D came in the mail. You wanna see it?”
“Yes! Let me see let me see! Can you read it to me?”
“Sure sweety. Here’s your name, but I bet you already knew that, and then your quirk name: Liquid scab—“
“Scab?!”
