Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

14 year old Midoriya Izuku dreamed of being a hero. Quite literally dreamed- he was asleep for the moment.

This wasn’t abnormal for him, though the type of hero he was dreaming about being was probably a little different from his usual All-Might inspired dream powers.

To be more precise, young Midoriya dreamed of flying- Bursts of light, and flickering candle flames. He dreamed of big blue skies you could swim through like water, and cozy caves by the sea. He dreamt of a world that was silent and tragic and tranquil. Of flying cryptid machines that glared with red eyes with black chiton bodies, clanking like automotons, and glowing gold butterflies that dissolved into pixie dust and felt like his mother’s kiss.

It was a mess certainly, and like most dreams didn’t mean much of anything to the waking world.

Except -

When Midoriya Izuku woke that day, well rested and content, everything was pretty normal. From his tousled green curls to his toes he was absolutely—

Uh

Well weird actually now that he was looking- his hand had black, um soot? No, it kind of sparkled? Like— uh staring at the stars like the time the Bakugous took him camping at Kamikochi— only, was that his skin? Had he been effected by a quirk?

Maybe it was his quirk. …

That’s ridiculous. Izuku was quirkless. He was ten years too late for a quirk. He had the toe joint! Taking a deep breath, Izuku tried to calm himself. Maybe he was still dreaming?

He scrabbled off the bed deciding to check himself in the bathroom mirror, noting absently that his feet also looked passively like the night sky and tried to not trip over himself wondering if he even still had joints in his toes as he opened the door to see—

Something mom shaped that sent a shiver down his spine. He stared at it. It looked vaguely like his mom? Her height and hairstyle the scrubs of her nurse’s uniform, all recognizably his mom and yet, it was outlined in a dull washed out grey. And did he mention, it didn’t have a face?!?

The mom-shaped blob stared back at him. His breath hitched and he tucked away the part of him that wanted to run. This didn’t make sense.

He tried and failed to mask his horror at the sight of the formless face, just the hint of where the eyes and nose and mouth should be-

A bell chimed close by.

Loud and distinct. From the mom shaped blob, a golden light like an expanding forcefield of golden light originating from the chest and dissipating as it expanded outward. The blob reached for him. He panicked. His back hit the wall.

Another chime. Another burst of expanding golden light.

The blob touched his shoulder. Suddenly and without warning, fire erupted from the point of contact and washed over the mom shaped blob, and everywhere it touched color and form leached back into it until it was his mom standing there. Her eyes staring surprised but worried, but no longer a blob, but a human being.

Izuku burst into relieved tears.

Grasping his hand his mom pulled him into a reassuring hug.

“Izuku baby, everything will be alright, sssshhh sshhhhh—“ she rocked him back and forth swaying in place.

It was obviously Izuku, Inko was sure of it. The same curls, the same build, the same tears—

But snow white curls instead of green. The same all might pajamas he had gone to bed in but the colors similarly were completely washed out of it. His skin was black and his tears glowed like diamonds!

And on his face was a mask. It was practically featureless but looked like a facsimile of Izuku’s most common wide-eyed enthusiasm. Like his clothes it was a washed out beige. But the eyes glowed gold.

Inko held her child and wondered.

Chapter Text

Hesitating slightly Inko gently tugs at the mask covering her son’s face.

It bursts into fragments of light as mother and son both flinch from the small explosion.

To Inko’s great relief, her sons face looks back at her. Altered yes, skin that inky black that somehow glows, but also glowing were his green eyes and freckles. She smiled.

She could deal with this. It was fine. It was still her son. He was fine.
A measured breath, a smile.

“Mom..?”

“Oh Izuku sweetie you’re beautiful!”

Inko watched in fascination as a glowing pink blush covered her son’s cheeks. Ooh boy. That was going to be hard to hide. Her son, with his heart on his sleeve. And now all over his face. She hid a chuckle.

Standing up she brushed off her scrubs and pulled Izuku to his feet.

“Well this day started off interesting! A quirk at your age!” Izuku looked startled and the. Stared at his hands.
“You really think..?” He peeked at her.

“Oh honey no way this is a quirk effect from someone else. It’s a little too complex! But no worries about that now. I’m going to make some pancakes and call us in sick ok sweetie?”

Izuku hesitated, unsure.

“But school-“
“Can be made up! We don’t know enough about what’s going on to go in today, you might hurt someone on accident! Or yourself. I see early quirk accidents all the time at work, we can do this but we should take you in to see a quirk counselor pronto and i’ll have to register you before you’re allowed back in class.”

Her little anxious ball of fluff leaned against her and she pulled him into a hug.

She pushed him gently in the direction of his room. “Go get dressed and brush your teeth, pancakes will be ready before you know it!”

***

Izuku stared at his closet unsure. His clothes were gone.

Also, um. There was a glowing person? In his closet? He darted a look at his bedroom door and turned back to his closet. He had already tried to get their attention, but the kid? Person? Hadn’t even twitched.

They looked kinda how he thought the first quirked person might have, he thought. All glowing gold like that.

Maybe he should tell his mom? They looked like a kid, so uh. Maybe he should just-

As his hand touched their shoulder they imploded and a small but intensely glowing light hit him in the chest making him feel warm. All his hair stood up on end and a shiver went down his spine.

What the heck—

Wide-eyed he stared at his closet. It was empty. Completely empty.

He narrowed his eyes. There was something—

Where the glowing kid had crouched (hallucination? Illusion?) with their face hidden in their knees were small glittering lights, barely a shimmer. Almost like a reminder that the kid had been there.

Taking a deep breath, Izuku closed the closet door and turned around. He could- deal with that later. A few moments and he was in the kitchen.

His mom was mixing batter with her phone pressed to her ear with one shoulder. She was still in her scrubs.

“…yes, thank you, I’ll make sure they’re signed before he comes back- if you could give the work to Bakugou Katsuki to bring him i’ve already cleared it with his mother…”

Oh. Great. Kaachan- what would he think of Izuku’s new quirk? What even WAS his quirk? Transformative obviously, a mutation type? But— he definitely is emitting something, with the light, and some sort of area of effect, his clothes were all gone! Which, he’s never heard of a quirk effecting someone’s belongings like that-“

“…-ku did you say your clothes were gone?”

Startled, he looks up to see his mom in front of him. Smiling

“What’s with the cape then? Completing the outfit?” She teased, pulling up the edge of his all might sheets which, yes, were now tied around his shoulders like a cape.

“Uh, yeah? And, I didn’t do this..?.. I didn’t even notice…”

“I think that glowing thing on your chest wasn’t there either earlier. Did something happen?”

“Um..yeah?, there was a glowy kid in my closet that just dissolved when i touched him?”

A beat, and then his mom shrugged.

“The mask did that too, earlier” she turned towards the stove.

“Mask? Was that when you touched my face and a light exploded?” He asked, as his mom poured batter onto the griddle, dropping chocolate chips on top.

“Something to keep in mind for the quirk doctor. We have an appointment in an hour so we’ll have to hurry after breakfast.” She hummed and flipped the pancake.

“We can take a look at your closet before we leave but you should probably wear this anyway since your quirk did something to your clothes” she finished, topping off the pancakes with a healthy dose of syrup and some powdered sugar and putting it in front of her son.

“Don’t worry too much right now. We’ll figure this out.” She ruffled his hair- a stark snowy white just like his father, and she kissed the crown of his head and went back to cooking.

They would figure this out.

Idly, she thought back to try and remember the specifics of Hisashi’s quirk— he had always maintained it was simple fire breathing and refused to go into details but, well, she had seen his skin deflect a knife once while he helped her cook on their anniversary. There were a few other incidents, nothing like concrete evidence but, well, uncommon and multifaceted quirks were often hidden to protect their wielders. And it’s been years since Hisashi went to America.. she missed him so much, maybe she should call him—

Chapter Text

Sitting side by side at the doctors office the Midoriyas waited to be called. The drive over had prompted a few new observations of Izuku’s quirk- strangers and even neighbors that Izuku had talked to before were all those semi-familiar grey blobs his mom had been before.

He couldn’t understand a word spoken by the intake nurse, or the patients. He could however see and understand everything that was recorded- the news was playing on a tv in the corner, playing back information on a hero fight that had happened in Tokyo late last night, though the main story seemed to be glowing figures dotted all across japan.

Most were like the kid he’d found in his closet. Some were blue, and others were an array of rainbow colors. Nobody knew what they were yet but the adults were more defined. There was already some sort of cult following that had sprung up claiming the glowing figures were the apocalypse, or had healing powers. Someone claimed they were the work of aliens.

Gladly, Izuku could discount it as related to his quirk- no way a quirk was so widespread as that.

It was probably some sort of quirk boosted technology.

A blob entered the waiting room from the back holding a file and honked. A golden light expanded with the sound and dissipated. He’d noticed the noises people made weren’t for each word, but seemed to come at the end of each expressed thought. If he focused he could even hear a chime underneath his mom talking, which he had excitedly told her about.

He was pretty excited to have a quirk, even if he hadn’t really seen anything about it that made it great for hero work, just made him look weird and show up to the doctors in his washed out pajamas.

But at least he wasn’t a quirkless Deku anymore!

A small part of him was mad that he wasn’t quirkless anymore and it was confusing. He felt a little sad and wondered why, and he thought about all the other quirkless kids and the names people had called him and promised he’d never forget-

A hand on his shoulder.

Flames burst into being where the hand touched him and enveloped the person behind him. The grey blob flinched and tried to pat down the flames but as they solidified into the normal view of a nurse with a fox mutation, Izuku noticed she wasn’t burnt at all.

“That happened with mom too! I’m sorry! Uh- but I don’t think it hurts people…?” He trailed off.

The nurse stared at him and then turned to face his Mom and honked again.

Izuku furrowed his brows at her.

His mom looked at him and the nurse and asked him “can you understand her now sweetheart?”

He mutely shook his head.

The nurse scribbled on her clipboard and gestured at a scale before she honked again.

“She wants you up on the scale sweetie.” She told him, “I couldn’t hear him at first either but we can talk now! But it happened at about the same time as we could see each other. Also he says he can see people on tv normally.” She explained to the nurse.

The nurse checked the scale and wrote something down before taking out a pen light and flashing it in his eyes. Oddly enough he didn’t feel the need to flinch. She did this for a little longer than necessary before scribbling something down.

She pulled a pressure cuff up around his arm and stuck a monitor on his pointer finger, honking at certain points while his mom nodded and smiled.

The cuff expanded and then let loose. The nurse honked again.

“She says she can’t get a reading on your blood pressure so she’s going to try it with a stethoscope.”mom translated.

“Ok.” He agreed. The nurse took the monitor off his finger as well as the cuff. She put the stethoscope on his chest first, pulled it off, stared at Izuku, put it back and then distinctly giggled.

“Oh I heard that.” Izuku said dumbly, wondering if he should be offended or not. Maybe he was dying.

The nurse honked, and pulled something out of a drawer.

“She says,” Inko translated, “that your heartbeat is different from normal so blood pressure probably won’t work, but she wants to get a reading of your heartbeat for the doctor. “

After getting hooked up to the monitor the nurse pointed at the readout and honked. His mom was staring in fascination, “that’s bizarre.” She mumbled, squinting now at the monitor “actually that sounds almost familiar?…do you mind if I take a printoff? Thanks” before she took over the machine herself.

“What’s wrong?”

Inko hummed “nothing at all sweetie just a little different than normal. It’s probably a side effect of the mutation.”

“I-I don’t understand how I got a quirk like this at all mom? It’s not anything like yours or dad’s!”

Mom smiled “Well, not exactly because Hisashi could breathe fire, and you use fire sometimes too right? Let’s let the good doctor run his tests- these guys specialize in this stuff. It should give us a great starting point ok?”

“O-okay…” he mumbled, obviously still unsure but willing to trust his mom.

She handed a second printout to the nurse who slipped it into the folder she was carrying. The nurse honked once and left the room.

Inko looked at her son and sighed. “To be honest Honey, I’m not sure what your dad’s quirk actually is. He could do more than breathe fire. I think he was hiding a multifaceted or mythical quirk. We just have to wait and see.”

“Oh.” That made more sense. He did use fire to see people? Which sounded more like a mythical based quirk, but those were super rare! Like Ryukyu! She could turn into a dragon and the conservation of mass didn’t effect her at all. Those kinds of quirks always defied expectation.

Izuku loved quirks- always had. He loved taking them apart and figuring out how they worked. He wished he had thought to bring a notebook with him but he’d been so overwhelmed this morning and it hadn’t felt real—

This had a mutation aspect clearly. The black might be carbon fibers or something else. He hadn’t felt any problems with temperature or changes, like when his bedsheets became a cape- he hadn’t even noticed. He hadn’t noticed wearing a mask either, but his mom had managed to make it combust? By taking it off his face-

“Hey mom do you have a mirror?” Maybe if he could study himself- “I didn’t get the chance after that glowing kid showed up..”

“Sure sweetie.” She handed him her compact mirror from her purse.

Looking at his own face was bizarre. Because it was his face but … not?

The difference in color changed the planes of his face pretty drastically. The whites of his eyes were such a dark dark grey they were almost black though they had a hint of color to them. The iris was green as always but seemed to glow. And the pattern of his freckles hadn’t changed per se, but they looked almost more designed now that they glowed and showed the diamond shapes more clearly.

Also, his hair was WHITE. Like, really white. He looked at his mom, who was watching him with a smile. He tugged at his hair in question.

“Same shade as your father.” She seemed sad and happy at the same time.

Izuku didn’t really remember what his dad looked like. He called on holidays and stuff, and after one phone call when he was 8 Izuku was pretty sure he hadn’t left because Izuku was quirkless, but there weren’t any pictures or anything of him in the house and he never visited in person or did video calls. Something in his stomach clenched. He felt queasy maybe.

He didn’t know how to feel knowing he had something in common with his dad. He had always had green hair, like his mom. Maybe the white hair wasn’t directly related to genetics- maybe it was more like photo bleaching?

A knock sounded from the door and a burst of light like when people were talking burst through the closed door in a half circle like the door didn’t exist.

“Yes, please do.” Said Mom. “We’re ready.”

The door opened and the nurse was there with another blob, apparently the doctor. The blob said something and mom started explaining everything they’d noticed so far. The doctor took notes and when mom finished the blob turned to the nurse who said something and then the doctor held out their hand to Izuku.

He shook it, and as fire danced up the doctor’s arm, Izuku was able to see that it was a woman with pink hair and no discernible mutations or quirk effects. Her ‘voice’ was more like the chimes his mom had, but slightly deeper.

The doctor spoke and the his mom answered, “well I pulled him into a hug? He was crying and his tears were glowing he was really obviously upset- but then we could hear each other. It’s the only difference I can think of. The flames only seem to happen at first.”

The doctor seemed to nod to themselves and then opened their arms.

Like she wanted a hug?

“Go ahead sweetheart, we’re just checking activation requirements. Otherwise communication is going to be pretty hard for you. “

Shrugging, and blushing a bit, Izuku hugged the doctor. She seemed nice, he thought. Patient. Maybe a plant person.

“Hello there Izuku.” She said.

“Um. Hi?”

“Perfect. We’ll check if a hug is the specific requirement later, but for now this works. If you could hug Nurse Kimi-“

The nurse with the fox mutation stepped forward. They hugged. Izuku got a sort of sense for a popular song that had come out recently, and leather?

“Um, this might sound weird but do you like Cha Cha Marigold?” Nurse Kimi looked surprised but nodded.

Turning to the Doctor, “and you like um- ..plants?”

The doctor smiled. “Yes I do. How extraordinary. Contact must give you a sense of people somehow. I’m a hobbyist gardener. It goes well with my quirk, which lets me grow flowers.”

She made another note “we’re just going to draw a little blood before we go onto the trials for different aspects. This quirk is certainly unique, to include your clothes and the mutation as well as empathetic responses.”

Mom chimed in “ his father I suspect has a multifaceted quirk, but he’s always refused to talk about it.”

“As he should” the doctor sighed, “these sorts of quirks are very commonly targeted for trafficking. While he’s still a bit young for it I would ultimately suggest something in the hero industry for him, support or something if he doesn’t want to be a hero because he’s going to have a tough time hiding it and a media presence in the public eye will deter most unsavory characters. Self defense is an absolute minimum.”

The nurse wiped his arm with an alcohol pad. Izuku didn’t like needles but if he didn’t look he was okay. He breathed remembering to relax his muscles so the needle wouldn’t tear muscle or anything like his mom had taught him.

“I’ve got some pamphlets for different self defense and quirk gyms in the area, we’ll go over the list when we do the end summary.”

A chink sound and the nurse held a broken needle up for the doctor who nodded. She pulled a tray from a higher shelf down while the nurse picked up the broken needle from the floor and washed her hands.

“Now, since your skin broke the needle that means your new quirk put you on the invulnerability index so we’ll try these scalpels here made of different materials to make a very very small cut. This is important in case you have blood loss in the future or need an IV. Alright?”

Izuku nodded though he was anxious. Not being able to get an IV was bad, right?

Some of the scalpels were metal but a lot seemed to be made of stone, and a few were made of wood. None of them cut Izuku.

Drawing a clear blade across his upper arm, and then his cheek and only making a weird musical sound in result, the Doctor sighed.

“Well at least he’s not likely to be stabbed.”

“So he won’t be able to get an IV if he needs it?”

“There’s other ways to get things into the system, but slightly less pleasant, catheter plugs and suppositories, feeding tubes though we prefer not to.”

“It’ll be interesting since we can’t draw blood and his mouth is similarly indestructible, he likely is all over.” She continued, “I don’t know what that will do to his nutritional intake and it’s too soon to know if he’ll have issues with anything yet. I’m rather glad you’re in medicine. I have some supplementary guides for non human nutritional issues that you should read.”

She added a few more pamphlet’s from a drawer to Izuku’s bulging file.

“Cravings will probably be our best bet. Just be honest about what you’re craving alright?” This she said to Izuku who just nodded.

“Right.” The doctor stood. “We’re going to move to a testing room now.

Over the course of the next four hours (with a short lunch break in the middle) Izuku was put through a barrage of experiments. He was doused in different liquids and chemicals which all dripped off without residue, he held his hand over a flame until it burned- (it didn’t) and at one point had climbed into a fireplace, clothes and all which seemed to be similarly invulnerable. He had lost his shirt when he’d taken it off, it had dissolved into light much like the mask he hadn’t noticed .

He couldn’t take off the sheet cape. At one point he was told to jump off a block and attempt to fly and he sort of flapped with the sheet like it was a set of wings. He had gained altitude! But he had felt wrecked after, like he was exhausted and he’d turned dull. This had given everyone the opportunity to see the effect of a hug, which had not only perked up him but also his mom. And then after also the Doctor and Nurse Kimi.

The effect was visual, like a glittering ripple over a body.

Izuku could also do the little speaking lights without talking if he focused which similarly gave the people around him a little boost. And when he tried flying again he had landed in the fireplace which also gave him energy.

He was not telekinetic like his mom, nor could he breathe fire so his quirk was technically a mutation rather than a combination. Though they knew that.

They left the office with a whole bag of fliers and recommendations, a meal plan for the week that they were told to ignore if anything happened, and a preliminary quirk registration form that labeled his quirk as a mutation type with emitter aspects and the possible capability of flight.

Doctor Kana as he’d learned her name was had suggested not adding his invulnerability to the registry. It would be obvious to observers if he was put in a situation that required it but was also a really good ace in the hole against possible kidnappers.

Izuku hadn’t been hungry when they got home, but had willingly sat next a bunch of lit candles while munching on bao. Fire seemed to give him energy so Doctor Kana had recommended having some lit around the house.

They were hanging out now, just waiting on Kaachan to get there from school. Izuku was a but anxious but not nearly as much as he’d thought. It would be different now right? He had a quirk. He was just worried—

Chapter Text

Bakugo Katsuki descended on the Midoriya home like a storm. He barely knocked as he let himself in and switched out his shoes- he paused only a moment when he noticed the upgraded orange house slippers that were obviously for him, though he hadn’t been to Izuku’s house since they were both 6. That was half his life!

“Auntie! Mom said Izuku got his quirk! Fucking finally!”

“Language!!” Inko said as she came out of the kitchen. She was smiling. Izuku’s mom was the coolest and nicest. He handed her the packet of schoolwork for Izuku.
“Where is he?”

“His activation requirements to talk have a fire component. So you should take a shower before you two talk yeah? I left a gallon of acetone in the bathroom, and a bag for your clothes. I haven’t forgotten how to wash them.”

Katsuki nodded his head and headed to the bathroom. Hopefully he wouldn’t need to worry about it every day but nitroglycerin was really volatile around fire, electricity and acids.
It’s one of the reasons Izuku was still sat next to him at school- he couldn’t set off Katsuki’s quirk even on accident. But he guesses that’s changed.

Hopefully he wouldn’t get sat next to an extra that pissed him off.

He had specifically formulated laundry soap that broke down his sweat so it wasn’t an unstable bomb, but his clothes were way too expensive to risk leaving them soaked in his sweat.

He hated using acetone because of the smell but it worked in a pinch.

In the bathroom he dumped half the acetone into the cement bowl to the side of the shower. He took his clothes off and dunked them quickly in the acetone and turned on the shower to rinse them. Taking the gua sha out of his bag he rubbed it into his palms over the bowl of acetone as nitroglycerine squeezed out of the glands in his hand.

He had a special license to let off explosions through the day because it was the safest way to bleed off the explosives but in cases like this where he needed to drain his hands it was better to dilute and burn the excess. He opened the window above the bowl and turned on the fan before using his hand to ignite it.

The fan vacuumed smoke out the window into a specialized ventilation carbon capture system which was installed way back when he was 4 by his parents so he could keep visiting. It hadn’t cost much because of the government’s subsidies for dangerous quirk mitigation laws, but it was probably the only apartment that had one on the block.

He grabbed a washcloth grimacing and used the acetone in all the usual danger areas- pits groin, the area his mom called tramp stamp lane and the backs of his knees where he sweat the most.

He had started sweating more recently and the quirk doc said it would probably get worse as puberty went on.

He’s glad he wanted to be a hero. There wasn’t much chance he could work in an office or something with his quirk.

He dragged himself under the spray of the water, scrubbing his palms extra hard and then wringing out his clothes and putting them in the bag auntie left him.

On the counter was a pair of sweats and a shirt that looked like it’d fit but it was made of cotton, so it wouldn’t last long once he started sweating again.

He slipped the door open.
“Auntie!! These are cotton!”

He heard something like bells and auntie yelled back- “it’s fine! It’s just till your clothes are washed and dried!”

He grumbled pulling them on. He hated when the clothes he wore disintegrated. But it happened.

He was lucky his parents were fashion designers for quirks like his. Though his mom had probably started the company out of self preservation. Glycerin was less combustible but more sticky. His house had separate washers for each inhabitant.

He stomped out of the bathroom in his house slippers and threw his clothes in the washer as he passed. It already had specialized soap (not his normal brand but it’d do) in the bay so he let it run.

He turned into the kitchen and there was Izuku. He looked weird and grey. Katsuki reached out and poked him.

Fire raced up his arm and over his clothes, but was gone just as fast. Izuku still looked fucking weird but less like a weird doll.

“The fuck nerd. What even is your quirk?”

Auntie cleared her throat.

“Sorry.” He huffed, looking away. A bell sounded. He looked at Izuku with his colors all inverted, black skin that made his freckles really obvious and glowing eyes and his hair a brilliant white that almost hurt his eyes.

“Say something!” Katsuki growled, only for auntie to tsk at him. “He has to hug you if you want to talk.”

“Haaah?!? You’re joking!”

She just smiled at him. Nerd was already next to him with his arms open. Briefly he contemplated not doing it. He’d never have to listen to the nerd mumbling again…

He sighed and pulled the nerd into a hug.

“Kaachan…”

He let him go. He was crying. Katsuki hit him in the shoulder for it but he didn’t even sway, just made a sound like a bell being hit. Katsuki blinked.

“I’m invulnerable!” He chirped looking excited.

“But you can’t fucking talk to people without hugging them first? I’m jealous. Sounds nice.”

“Ahh but everyone looks like blob men! It’s so scary! But! I think I can get around it with my phone or something, I can see and hear recordings no problem.”

“Tssch.” That wasn’t bad. Invulnerability was a pretty cool quirk but it didn’t explain- “where’s your shirt nerd. And why are you wearing that embarrassing bedsheet like that?”

Green eyes went wide and Izuku’s smile was blinding. “Kaachan!! I can fly!” He flapped the sheet once and floated to the ceiling as Katsuki blinked at him. Flying and invulnerability? That’s fucking OP.

But he looked grey now. He fell backwards into some candles sitting on the table and Katsuki rushed forward only to see the candles go through the nerds body, while he brightened up again.

“Fire and hugs recharge me! It’s really tiring right now, but I can probably learn to go farther later!”

He already had ways to work against his drawback. Which was good. He squinted at Izuku who was bouncing around the room. “If you’re like, fire related like your dad is water going to like kill you or something?”

“Nope! I can swim! And I took a shower! My clothes are invulnerable too but I can’t find them when I’m not wearing them and I can’t take off the sheet!”

“Haaah?!?” He grabbed the nerds hand and pulled him towards his room. “How do you not know where your clothes are moron? You have a closet!”

“They disappeared! And there was one of those glowy people in my closet!”

“How’d you get rid of it? We got one in our house too. A detective came to look, mom said it was because it was the only one in a private residence.”

“I— no? I just touched it and it dissolved?”

“That doesn’t make fucking sense nerd, nobody’s been able to make them go away.”

They looked at each other.

“No way your quirk made those they’re all over the country.”

The nerd looked panicked.

“There’s hundreds…” Katsuki blinked, wonderingly. “How powerful would your quirk have to be to project all over Japan?!”

“Ahhh no way that’s me Kaachan!”

“Well nobody else can touch them and they showed up the same time as your quirk!” He closed his eyes. “Also they’re mostly in places you’ve definitely visited, for like tourism for a weekend or something with auntie. If you had been pouring your quirk all over Japan it would make sense why it didn’t show itself when it was supposed to.”

The nerd collapsed in front of the closet which was, in fact, empty.

“Also all the older looking ones were real people you know? They keep finding out who they were and posting them on a list online. Most of them died or were buried here in Mustafu.“

He peered at the empty closet, unsure how to deal with this theory.

“We don’t know that for sure it was me?” Izuku grumbled, more out of denial, obviously. Katsuki smirked.

“So you’re going to be a hero after all huh?!”

The nerd smiled “yeah!!”

Obviously. An overpowered quirk like that- people would notice. Izuku- invulnerable or not, was in probably more danger now than ever. Katsuki refused to sigh again.

He dragged Izuku in front of the empty closet.

“Ok your clothes are probably somewhere. Try to think about something different to wear, like a fucking shirt you weirdo.”

He watched as Izuku blushed neon pink like an anime girl. This quirk was fucking broken.

The nerd hemmed and haahed in front of his closet before suddenly jumping backwards, an honest to god exclamation point hovering momentarily over his head.

He stepped forward “what happened? I don’t see anything.”

“It’s a display? Like a game menu? Or an inventory I guess.”

“Your quirk is ridiculous. Can you see your clothes?”

“Yeah! Just give me-“ he moved his hand like he was scrolling through and pressing on something. Suddenly he was wearing his school uniform. It looked normal.

A few motions later and he was wearing shoes.

And his All Might sheet as a cape which was ridiculous.

“Can you get rid of the cape?”

“Uhhhh, “ Izuku scrolled through a few menus, before blinking and suddenly his sheet was replaced by a scarf Katsuki remembered from like, years ago. It was green and humongous on him but it was better than a bed sheet.

The nerd flapped once to try it out and gained just as much altitude as before, hitting his head into the ceiling to the clamor of a bell.

Katsuki grabbed his hand and he perked up again. Grumbling he said”you’re going have to figure out how to increase your stamina nerd.”

Izuku just nodded, letting go of his hand. He stepped back up to his closet and was suddenly wearing his dorky ‘Sweater’ t-shirt and jeans with house slippers.

He walked over to his desk and picked up a notebook handing it to Katsuki. It was titled ‘Hero analysis for the future v. 5’.

He rolled his eyes and flipped through real quick. It was just five pages, mostly bullet points.

“You sat in a fireplace?” He asked incredulously.

A hum in response. He wouldn’t interrupt his reading until he was done. Even after all this time it was like they never stopped talking. He would probably have to apologize but the nerd would never ask him to.

That was a problem for future Katsuki. He finished the last page and put it down thinking. He nodded and grabbed the nerd.

In the living room he yelled for auntie. “We’re going to the park real quick”, he said as he put on his shoes. Izuku’s ugly red sneakers just appeared on his feet.

“Dinner will be ready in half an hour! Don’t forget the new quirk note from Doctor Kana! And - oh! Honey you figured out where your clothes went?”

“Kaachan figured it out. It’s a heads up display, like a video game!”

Auntie hummed. “I’ll text the doctor. Be back for dinner alright? We don’t want Katsuki-kun streaking through the neighborhood again.”

Katsuki resolutely ignored how his neck turned red as the nerd giggled and they started out the door.
He grabbed his hand. “We’re going to the park. There’s one of those glowing kids there. We should see if you can get rid of it.”

Izuku nodded, smiling. Katsuki ignored the feeling in his gut like guilt that he turned away from this. What an idiot.

(He resolutely ignored that the idiot was him.)

Chapter Text

Izuku practically skipped down the road by Kaachan’s side.

He had been worried Kaachan might hate him but even without the emotions that glowed over his face whenever he felt something, the hug they’d had so they could speak- worried, guilty, insecure, protective and spicy curry made with love, made it feel like Izuku knew Kaachan even better than before.

Holding hands prolonged the feeling. Like being quirkless had never come between them at all. It was a new beginning!

And he wasn’t even wearing pajamas anymore!

Already he could see the park. Standing on top of the fountain staring up at the sky was the same golden kid that had been in his closet, if a bit more obviously see through in the sun.

At the bottom of the fountain, still holding Kaachan’s hand, he flapped to gain height. Kaachan cursed, but Izuku barely noticed, too focused on slapping the foot of the glowing kid.

Like the last time, it imploded into a little light that raced towards his chest. Immediately he felt better. He blinked and coasted towards the ground.

“Nerd you just flew with me! Like Peter Pan!”

“Uhh.. I guess so? It didn’t feel like you weighed anything…” he laughed awkwardly “I guess I forgot, sorry Kaachan!”

“Fucking- Don’t apologize!” He hit Izuku over the head but it didn’t even hurt, just made a sound like a bell. “Don’t you get it? You can fly with other people! Like for rescue!” Kaachan was pulling at his hair, looking frustrated but he felt, excited? “Like Superman!- like-,” he stopped and letting go of Izuku’s hand grabbed his face so they were nose to nose. “How strong are you?!?”

“Kaachan, what-“

“Like, you just flew with me like nothing can you bench press me?”

“Aaahhhh, I think so? The doctor said I was really strong, but they’re not sure because it seems inconsistent based on how heavy I think things should be?”

Kaachan squinted at him, confused.

“Ahh, like, hmmmm- she told me that this one rock was really heavy and I couldn’t pick it up but she showed me a similar one she said was styrafoam so that we could see if it was size or weight and they were exactly the same type of rock weighing the same, but I could pick it up easy because she lied!”

Izuku walked over and picked up Kaachan, setting him so he sat on Izuku’s shoulders. “See? Kaachan’s so athletic so this is easy!”

Angling his head up he caught a blush on Kaachan’s face. He was embarrassed! But Kaachan was really strong, Izuku had heard him mention his strength training routine.

Izuku was always in awe by how much effort Kaachan put into being a hero. He wished he could have been going to a gym before too but they usually couldn’t afford insurance rates to include quirkless customers.

But he had a quirk now! And he could be a hero! The Doctor even said he should! And he could open a gym for quirkless people!

A loud gong sound jarred him from his musings

“Fuck- ow!” Uh oh- Kaachan…

“Oh no, Kaachan I’m so sorry!” He wasn’t used to walking around with someone on his shoulders he had totally forgot he was there-
“I’m fucking fine Deku, it didn’t even hurt-“
He paused

“Fuck I didn’t mean- stop fucking crying fuck.” Izuku cried harder, Kaachan was apologizing-

Sort of. Honestly he still hadn’t had time to stop and think about anything yet. But his childhood friend turned tormentor had come straight back as soon as he’d shown a quirk and had fit into Izuku’s life seamlessly- but he’d just called him ‘Deku’ again-

He climbed down in front of Izuku. They were in front of the apartments already. “It didn’t actually hurt I just thought it would, ok? So stop fucking crying.”

Izuku stared at him. “Kaachan didn’t get hurt when I slammed his head into an awning?”

“No- I’m fucking fine, I just said-“

“Are people invulnerable when I’m carrying them?” He mused aloud, completely ignoring Katsuki’s bemused face. It would be a great way to keep civilians safe in case of a fire…”

“Nerd.”

“Ahhh..?”

“I’m not volunteering for that test.”

“Ahhhhhhhh.”

Fair enough.

****

Upstairs in the apartment, Izuku used his inventory to switch back into house shoes as Katsuki put on his his Orange guest shoes.

Katsuki shook his head. This quirk was weird as fuck. It didn’t make sense. His head really had slammed into that awning. It should have hurt.

The English term ‘ had his bell rung’ sounded pretty accurate. Like someone had taken one of his drumsticks to a huge wind chime.

He knew drums pretty well, and the nerds quirk was beyond weird and oddly musical on top of it.

Auntie was sat at the table on her tablet, scrolling through something. When she looked up she zeroed in on Katsuki.
“Can I get your opinion? It’s a fashion thing, I can ask your mother for like his general wardrobe but I was thinking something like this for his school uniform?”

She handed him the tablet and Izuku peered over his shoulder curiously. On the screen was a sort of cape. It was close to the color of their uniforms but he shook his head.

“No way auntie. It’s going to clash and it’s a totally different style. “ he squinted at it and thought for a second. If the nerd had to wear a cape for his quirk- he said he couldn’t take it off but could change which he was wearing, and a scarf could count…
“Izuku switch to your uniform.”
Startled, Izuku blinked and then opened the menu quickly scrolling through his inventory for his uniform, before it materialized where the t-shirt and jeans had bean.
Katsuki stared for a second before tugging on a shoulder. “Can you make the uniform jacket your cape? Maybe if you just pulled your arms out of the sleeves? It’s already too big on you.”

Blinking in surprise Izuku hummed “could try!” He held an arm out to Katsuki “can you hold the sleeve?”

He nodded.

Izuku paused with his arm half out of the sleeve. “Won’t it fall off if it’s just sitting on my shoulder?”

“You said you can’t take it off. Quirk will probably keep it on there. If not we can just buy you a bigger one and tack it in place or some shit.”

Auntie clapped. “Oh that’s a much better idea Katsuki-kun thank you!”

With both arms out if the sleeves, Katsuki grabbed the scarf and pulled it off where it dissolved into fucking sparkles, like it was totally normal.

Katsuki was not fucking jealous the nerd had indestructible clothing he probably didn’t even have to wash. Fucking game mechanics.

“There. You have to fill out the form for quirk accessibility uniform modifications but it should work. “ he turned to Izuku, “can you still fly?”

Izuku flapped, and the chime of his head hitting the ceiling rang out again. Katsuki smirked.

Izuku wasn’t totally grey like he usually was after flapping about- “can you fly again without recharging?”

Turns out he could. He was grey again though. Hugging Auntie Inko fixed that but he noticed the nerd had two ripples run quickly over his body as the hug recharged him.

“The glowing kids give me a larger flight stamina pool! Like mp!”
Izuku was practically vibrating he was so excited. “Don’t you have your stalker notebooks for this stuff?” A flash of white curls and gakuran, and he was already gone.

Auntie Inko laughed as she set a plate of spicy Katsudon in front of him.

“Dinner first Sweetheart!”

“Thanks Auntie.” He picked up some pork with his chopsticks. Auntie’s food was the best. Izuku was so fucking lucky. He felt a hand ruffle his hair and flinched into his seat. It felt good.

Then Izuku came out with his notebook and they all ate. Like an actual functional fucking family.

He’d missed this.

Chapter Text

Izuku chewed on the eraser of his pencil. He used to chew on his cuticles like a heathen, but he didn’t really have them anymore.

He wrote that under the list of mutagenic alterations even though it kinda fell under the general invulnerability. Or even the fact he didn’t have nails anymore. It deserves it’s own bullet point.

He had had a few days now with a quirk and the giddiness was starting to fade, so he could think.

He had been so swept up in just *having* a quirk, and Kaachan swooping back into his life- and just—

So much changed. So many doors which had been closed for what he and his mom had thought was forever…

He’s been overwhelmed.

And every time he cried, he kept getting distracted by the fact his tears were little glowing drips of blue light instead of water.

He had poked his own eyeball. It hadn’t even felt weird. Every part of him was invulnerable.

Anyway, the fact was, crying wasn’t exactly the release of pent up emotion it used to be and more a distracting reminder of his totally weird quirk.

He wouldn’t ever hate his quirk- but he wouldn’t choose it either. It was— too much. He never would have even thought this up.

Looking back at the new notebook specifically designated for his new quirk, he hummed.

He was trying to summarize the quirk. He had to go back to the hospital tomorrow to see Doctor Kana, and they would go over everything before naming his quirk in the registry, and then he could finally go back to school.

There was just under a year until high school entrance exams. He wouldn’t have much time to figure out how to utilize his quirk for fighting.

Over the week, Kaachan had continued to drop off his work in the evening after school, and they’d been able to knock out 8 more of the glowing kids, with the help of the internet which had quickly created a list of all their locations. Some people had tried to take down the list when they noticed that they were disappearing, but a little diving on the internet showed some people were tracking updates on new locations as well as the ones that were missing.

Most people had already figured out he was in Musutafu.

Him and Kaachan had started taking the train to get some in a cluster an hour away from home to try to throw people off, but someone with the username -ratgod- was tenacious in his online theories.

His mom had been really concerned, but as Izuku was invulnerable now, he had noticed his mom’s worries were fading pretty quickly. She got the weirdest look on her face when he reminded her— a little like bemusement and embarrassment- the worry was like a reflex.

There had been some indications that he was developing a quirk since he’d been younger- despite having to fix his clothes, he didn’t have any scars or anything after years of bullying. So his invulnerability, while way less obvious had to have kicked in sooner. He had thought it was a vestigial fire resistance—

The weirdest part of his quirk though? It was obviously based on some sort of game mechanics. And it was the most complicated game related quirk he’d heard of. It was likely however, that anything close to his quirk would have been hidden and downplayed, as his mom and doctor had already hinted at that they would do for his.

It wasn’t like any game he had played- the inventory had gobbled up his clothes, and he had been able to add a few items- a stuffed all might plush from his silver age line, an ocarina he’d never learned to play, and a fidget toy he usually keeps at his desk at home, but his inventory wouldn’t just pick up anything.

He couldn’t put anything resembling a weapon so far- no kitchen knives, no baseball bats.

He didn’t have a stats menu- nothing like most rpgs where you could bump your stats, like wisdom or charisma- which he tried to not be upset about. He had a cape menu- but it was just a little icon sort of always at the top of his vision that showed how far he could fly —sort of.

The glowing kids powered a sort of stamina stat, but they had diminishing returns. The cape icon was separated into something like pie wedges. The first two wedges had only needed a glowy kid each- and each wedge was one flap of the cape before exhaustion.

But the third wedge had required three on it’s own, and the fourth one had required five! So with ten glowy kids collected he could now flap his cape four times before becoming exhausted. He could get almost five or six if he was flying with Kaachan though- hand holding seemed almost like a hug in that it gave him back energy.

It wasn’t as fast though.

There were 93 glowy kids (according to the internet) spread across Japan, with more probably hidden. The problem was, he didn’t yet have any legal right to use his quirk in public- but also, as soon as the week ended the HPSC would probably tell everyone his quirk is what was causing them in the first place.

There wasn’t anything he could really do about it.

So. He had a quirk. It was game based, but non combative- his fire didn’t burn people, and after a little bit too much curiosity they’d figured out that while it could light stuff on fire, any fire resulting from his was non-harmful to humans. Probably animals too but they hadn’t tested it.

He was invulnerable and sort of super strong, had a stamina based flight power that currently really drains him.

He could fly with people, and they were maybe invulnerable too? But he couldn’t really check that.

He had a partiality to tea and sweet taro buns or red bean buns- though anything homemade made him kind of hum. Homemade had always been better, but he seemed to be able to taste a difference that nobody else could. Factory made sweets tasted like straight up garbage now.

So. Overall, he had a non-offensive gaming quirk with limited inventory capabilities and limited flight.

****

The next day, Izuku walked out of his doctors appointment with his shiny new quirk registration card, which with just that in the summary- naming HIM, Midoriya Izuku as the citizen with the quirk called ‘Cozy Gamer’.

It sure beat his old card which had been outlined in red and had proclaimed NULL in big black letters.

The HPSC had sent a representative and while they were releasing a statement to the press later today that the quirk causing the glowing people had been found and that people could consider the effects non-threatening, they wouldn’t be telling anyone it was Izuku- just that it was a recently emerged quirk, which was a load off his shoulders- everyone would think it was a toddler, and not him. It was kind of embarrassing that people would be lenient because they thought he was a toddler, Izuku swore to himself he’d pick up as many glowing people as possible so it didn’t interrupt people’s lives any more than it had to.

He also had on his quirk registration card a gold edge and a small statement that allowed the use of his quirk in public since it was both always on and had an area of effect impact. He was warned not to go flying everywhere, so he wouldn’t call attention to himself, but it was technically legal.

The HSPC representative had seemed rather interested in his quirk- especially about the activation requirements for communication, but in the end just shook his head and signed the papers needed.

Tomorrow was Friday, the first day of school and the rest of his life. He couldn’t wait!

Chapter Text

Izuku took a deep breath. This was, annoyingly, accompanied by a really obvious musical sound effect by his quirk just in case anyone within five feet may have been unsure of his current mood.

He was just glad people couldn’t see his face, even if they were also grey blobs. He was wearing the mask today- he didn’t know if he’d do it all the time but until he could see some people’s faces it might work out-

“Nerd!!”

Izuku turned, and though he couldn’t actually see Kaachan through the crowd of grey, his assigned name ‘Kaachan 💥’ floated above where his head should be. That was a fun thing to figure out. But it also meant that Izuku could find people he had, for want of a better term ‘unlocked’ even through walls, anywhere in a vaguely visual radius. Because the names still showed up, and they got brighter if he yelled.

It also meant he didn’t have to worry about forgetting people’s names. Or anything else he put up there. There was a character limit of about 30. So he might end up putting birthdays or something on there…

Kaachan came out from the slog of people and brushed their shoulders together with a smirk. He’d stopped being quite so polite over the last week and Izuku could only be relieved. A polite Kaachan was just weird.

He squared his shoulders as they walked to class. One nice thing about his quirk- he didn’t have to leave his shoes in the locker area- no matter how his class reacted, they wouldn’t be able to put tacks in them.

But then, the class had always taken their cues from their teachers.

The classroom when he got there was half filled with ‘greys’. He should have recognized a few based on mutation- but he knew from experience that mutations didn’t show up before he introduced himself—the grey unknowns were all fairly uniform besides height and maybe some clothing.

A few chimed or chirped, but as he couldn’t understand a word it was rather underwhelming. Kaachan sneered at them.

“Yeah he’s got a quirk. It’s fucking awesome so just shut up about it.”

If anything the class got more vocal-

“HAAAAH?!? Did I fucking stutter? It took so long because it’s fucking powerful! His shitty dad lied cause he had some sort of mythical quirk.”

And then -

“No, you can’t fucking post about it, I’ll fucking kill you!, are you stupid.”— that didn’t sound like a question—

And,

“Yeah well he can’t hear you, not until you hug or some shit— It’s not lame, I’m fucking jealous— you extras are giving me a headache.”

Then finally—

“No don’t fucking touch him, were you raised in a barn or something?”

Izuku let himself relax.

Just then, a slightly larger grey walked into the classroom. From the way everyone went quietly to their seats, he guessed it was their Sensei.

He chimed, the golden light expanding out before dissolving in a way that was becoming normal to Izuku-

“Nerd, come on.”

Kaachan ushered him to the front of the class, where Sensei held out his hand as if to shake. Naturally, Izuku takes it.

It is indeed Sensei. And now he’s holding his arms out for a hug. Izuku’s face flamed red with his quirk and he didn’t need to hear the “tscch” from Kaachan to know his classmates were probably laughing.

A quick hug to get it over with and Sensei started to explain.

“Midoriya, congrats on getting a quirk. We aren’t going to make you go through that with all your professors, so we sent in for this tablet. It’s your right under law to have accessibility to learning no matter your quirk so these are available through the government for your use. We were warned you had some form of super strength?”

“Hmn. It’s more like things just don’t have weight anymore when I pick them up? Or it doesn’t matter and it all feels the same. I haven’t— uh, broken anything but some items can get like, eaten up by my inventory.”

“Fascinating.” Sensei stared a second and then smiled wryly “well, that’s good. They’re technically free but replacing items like this is notoriously difficult.”

Izuku was handed a tablet in a rigid case and a small cloth bag which he opened to find a new set of bluetooth earbuds.

“So try not to destroy it anyway ok? We only have you for the rest of your last year so we can’t pull funding for something more integrated. You’ll be watching your lessons through the tablet. The program should give you full audio.” Looking worried he added, “do you do that glowing thing every time you talk?”

“Yes sensei.”

“Well with the communication problems you won’t be called on, and I know you have a mumbling issue, try to reign it in so you don’t disrupt classes okay? And remember you’re excused from P.E. As long as you continue with the quirk gym you’re registered to.”

“Yes sensei.”

Well, that’s not terrible, but kind of expected. He turned around to go back to his seat. The gym Sensei was talking about wasn’t far from his house. It was heavily subsidized because he had both invulnerability and strength listed in his secret more invasive quirk registration and the government provided access to gyms for the common good and safety of the community.

It was a good thing. He didn’t know how his mom would afford all of this otherwise- though she was already enjoying a more positive work environment since his quirk came in.

She hadn’t said anything, but she came home less exhausted and had better hours.

****

The rest of the day went rather similarly. A few people tried to jump hug him- like a few of Kaachan’s lackeys- notably the ones who had formerly bullied him. He labeled them ‘Fingers’ and ‘Extra 2’ out of spite, safe in the knowledge that nobody else could see them. He also found two glowing kids.

He spent P.E. In the library and ate homemade onigiri for lunch, which tasted excellent. The reaction to his fire at lunch had been kind of amusing- he could see about a third of the school now, and been hugged by a few girls who thought he was now ‘really cute’.

Someone had tried to take his mask, but unlike with his mom it hadn’t budged, and Kaachan had chased everyone off so they could eat in peace.

Walking home from school afterwards was a relief.

On one of the corners, across from a convenience shop was one of the glowing figures, the type with faces and clothes that were more defined. This one looked like a man with shaggy hair blown backwards out if his face which looked to be covered in clown or kabuki makeup. He had dark pinstriped pants and a white kimono shirt and calf-high boots. He was crouched, and surrounded by three or four greys. A couple candles and a few trinkets lay in front of him.

“You should see what they do. They’re different right?”

He looked at Kaachan. “Hmn. Yeah. But there’s people.”

“Tcch. Just do it. If they get it on camera it’s no big deal. They don’t show up on film anyway.”

This was true. Izuku himself looked his new normal, not grey through electronics, but the glowing figures all disappeared from cameras or film. Even the light they gave off was missing.

He stepped towards the figure, only to falter when one of the greys pointed his direction and the people that had been surrounding the figure moved towards him. About to run he stopped himself again when one pulled out a candle and lit it with a lighter, holding it carefully in front of him, the flame pointed towards Izuku.

“Wait, Nerd—“

Some part of him had been drawn towards the flame of the candle and he touched it. The grey resolved into a woman of about 20, who smiled widely at Izuku, elated. She dug in her bag and produced a handful of white candlesticks which she shoved in his direction.

The one she had been holding was gone. He went to touch a candle only for all of them to burst into light, like his clothes when he took them off.

“So cool!” She squealed, and Izuku reeled backwards, which knocked Kaachan out of his stupor.

“What the hell! Why did you do that?!”

“He’s the Skykid!” She almost yelled, “we’ve been looking for him.”

“Uh— w-what’s a skykid?” He said ignoring Kaachan hissing questions at him.

She smiled —somehow— even more brightly. “It’s this awesome game that’s been around for ever! I’ve been playing it for years it’s really awesome. Here, I’ll show you!”

“Ahh. Sure.” He said lamely as she went to pull out her phone. “What’s with the candles? I- I had to hug people before to talk to them.”

“Oh! Well it takes six candles to unlock chat in the game so I figured— just in case I met you, you know? And I was right! We’ve been like, staking out the spirits since they showed up, like with the winged light it was so obviously Sky related you know? The company that runs it put out a reward too, there was a whole thing online.” She chewed her lip. “Speaking of do you mind if I grab a selfie, me and the guys? We won’t tell anyone your name or anything- it’s just that we can get a limited cape from the OG first 20 seasons for this. You know? This game’s a legacy game.”

Legacy game meant a game that ran off of worldwide servers that was at least a hundred years old. They were kind of a big deal and membership was moderately expensive so they didn’t overwhelm the servers. Izuku hadn’t heard of this one but as a legacy game a ton of people were sure to be playing it.

He had asked around about a game like his quirk early on but hadn’t gotten a response yet. But that wasn’t surprising really,

“Sure. Uh- what should I put for your name?”

“Oh! I’m Chihiro!, and that’s Kohaku and Sasaki.” By which she probably meant the two people holding out lit candles. He touched the flames and they instantly handed over more candles, which disappeared.

“Hey there, I’m Sasaki. Thanks so much for doing this.” He was more sedate and a little pudgy.

“No problem?uh- just, do you know what happens with the, you called it a spirit- it’s not really a spirit, right?”

The three people blinked at him before the girl exclaimed “Is this your first spirit? No way!” She grinned, before she grew serious and pursed her lips. “Yeah he is sort of. “

Kaachan grunted in question.

“Well that’s Harima Oji, otherwise known as the Peerless Thief, or the Bandit King. He was kind of a vigilante dude during the early heroics industry. He would steal from heroes and oligarchs and stuff and gave it to the poor or people who were harmed by the industry. He has kind of a cult following. We staked him out because he has a two part public name, like the spirits in the game, and he’s the closest to the park where people first noticed the winged light missing-“

“The glowy kids?” Izuku interrupted..

“Yeah! Though people used to call them stars in the beginning. Here, let me airdrop you a game invite!”

“Uh, I don’t think I can afford a legacy game pass—“

“Oh it’s totally my treat, I could never even pay for access to the OG capes, they’re all special event items these days, super hard to get!”

“Ah, thanks then.”

He saved the invite, a little shell shocked.

The three peered at him.

“Can you fly with people?” Sasaki asked, looking hopeful.

“Ah I’ve only tried with Kaachan-“ he hooked a thumb at his friend, “but it’s worked holding hands or him sitting on my shoulders.”

“Oh cool that’s perfect! You guys must be close friends. Can we come with, for the Peerless Thief? Pleeeease?”

“Um, I don’t even know if I can-“

“In game, a single skykid can carry up to seven other people. Though it’s easier with less. If you carry your friend on your shoulders it should be fine.”

“You cannot seriously be thinking about carting around these extras.” Hissed kaachan as he grabbed him away from his new friends.

Izuku smiled crookedly from behind his mask. “Ah, kaachan, I don’t know, I just feel like we’ve known each other a while, you know?” Kaachan raised his eyebrows at him, judgingly. “Plus we can see if they’re invulnerable!”

“I know parkour. Just in case I’ll be on the outside.” Remarked Kohaku, in a surprisingly deep voice for his thin frame. He was standing right next to him.

An exclamation point burst into light over Izuku’s head, and then his cheeks went red.

“That’s adorable. Is it automatic?” Asked Chihiro, clutching her chest. “You have to press buttons in the game and get emotes from spirits.”

“Ahh they’re automatic, yeah.”

“Huh- wonder what spirits give you?” Remarked Sasaki, half to himself.

“Let’s go!”

Grinning back at the exuberant woman he hauled Kaachan onto his shoulders cussing.
The rest split up so Sasaki was on one side with Chihiro and Kohako on the other. Izuku walked towards the spirit.

“Do I just-“

“Ahh- usually we burn them in game?”

“Right.” Izuku breathed. Looked at the spirit and down at himself and ignored Kaachan pulling on his hair. It didn’t hurt anyway.

He walked up to the Peerless Thief and poked its leg with a foot.

His new friends snickered, but the spirit imploded before a light trailed away. He followed it.

Sasaki whooped as their feet left the pavement.

The light flared out and suddenly the street that had been empty filled with people and a caravan of old armored vehicles, all of them a ghostly blue.

On the other side of the street was the Peerless thief, watching from around a corner. He glowed gold.

“Fly through him!”

Izuku paused but as soon as he landed he was fully recharged. More people apparently meant a faster recovery.

He turned and flew through the Thief spirit. It again disolved, and the scene changed to show the armored vehicles being taken down with explosives, pale blue people running around and the Thief slipping in the back of one of the abandoned vehicles.

He flew through them again.

Now the vehicles were empty and the people were shocked, the Thief nowhere in sight. Confused he looked around but saw no gold.

“There!” Pointing to the left was Chihiro, “in that alley!” He flew off. Indeed the thief was up the fire escape and almost to the roof.

And again.

This time he saw the trail over the rooftops.

Here was a scene with a poor family and a young girl, maybe six or seven and the thief was handing her parents something.

The girl had horns.

The next people he came across likewise were given a parcel.

Finally a warehouse, though it must have been demolished since. The area was in reality a blank slab of concrete.

The Peerless Thief was unloading more parcels, somehow— how had he carried it all?

And there, now people were coming out of dark corners and holding guns. The Thief held up his hands but in the next scene he was shot.

He flew through him again, dreading the next scene, but the warehouse disappeared and the trail lead them further away.

They stood at a graveyard. The light led the group to a shrine marked Atsuhiro. A mask that looked like his painted face lay facing up against a plate with incense. It glowed with importance.

Chihiro snapped a picture.

Izuku picked it up, as a short musical score went off.

“That’s the completed sound.” Sasaki remarked, glum.

“Fuck, they just killed him?” Kaachan was shocked.

“The file said he resisted arrest, but—“ Chihiro chewed her lip. “ my uncle’s a detective. I’ll let him know. Maybe they can fix his shrine.”

“Well that sucked.” Remarked Kohaku. “Can we fly back?”

They flew back.

Chapter Text

Izuku adjusted his headset as his assigned moderator pushed a question from chat about it.

“Ah yeah the company sent me this, it’s pretty cool I guess? I can equip it with my inventory, apparently it’s the same as a cosmetic from the game…”

“Ah… thanks ..uh, dust2ash. That’s really kind of you- um, ..” he squinted at the text pinned to the donation “what’s being an irl gamer like? Ah…”

He hummed. “Kinda surreal you know? I thought I was quirkless, everybody thought I was, until I just woke up one day with this quirk. And I haven’t been playing very long, just like this last week- but I’ve had this quirk for a month now, and I’m only slightly ahead on winged light- uh, that’s the in game collection for flying stamina, and that’s the glowing gold kids all over Japan?- but uhh, to get back to dust’s question, some things are kind of different. “

That was an understatement. Because of the information that came out about the peerless thief, Izuku had to have officials present when he did a spirit for the first time, and he wasn’t supposed to do them at all if there was an official investigation ongoing which was a problem because at least six of them were of people who had been identified as missing people- one of which had gone missing only after his spirit had shown up.

“Because of the Peerless Thief, my first spirit, I have like a whole police investigation squad or something… they’re still trying to figure out whether they can even use my quirk as evidence, because of the Chicken Yodeler.”

The Chicken Yodeler was an interesting first foray into police assisted quirk investigation. The spirit was of Takeo Ischi, whose spirit memory had shown him commanding animals to fight off various threats. The problem? He was from the pre-quirk era. He hadn’t had a quirk, just a viral online presence. His ‘memory’ had just been scenes from his various animal themed short films.

And people were saying this was proof that his viral videos were simply recounts of actual battles, and nobody knew enough about his quirk to know if that was even possible.

The spirit had come with a mask that depicted a wrinkled knowing grin with lips pursed. Izuku didn’t wear it. Chihiro said it might be possible to get his lederhosen outfit, with the long black magician’s cape with the use of additional candles but he hadn’t seen it in his inventory. He might have to put candles out himself, or something but he couldn’t imagine a time he’d ever WANT to wear lederhosen.

The computer pinged an alert, the mod bringing his attention back.

“Ah! Um.. so we left off in crow’s nest?” His avatar, with a special streamer’s banner [Skykid_irl] hung over his head flew to where he left off, and as had happen before the last time he’d streamed, he was swarmed by the few people in the server. Thankfully the server held only up to 8 at a time in any area, and with him and his three friends (Chihiro, Kihaku and Sasaki), that left only four spots for people to be… weird. Toggling to his special streamer chatbox, he typed out a ‘hello, sorry nothing to see here 😅’ into the in game chat and hit send. His stream chat blew up, and the people in chat spammed a few emotes, took a few selfies, bowed and then, left him alone.

“Ahh, everyone has been so nice to me, is that normal?”

Chat assured him it was.

When Chihiro (or rather Melissa, as he’d found out) had produced her evidence to the ‘That Sky Game’ company, they’d sent a representative straight away. Some IT guy who had done something to his new game account. Made it so he was a recognized streamer, and also given him an entirely new gaming setup, no strings attached.

They were very, very interested in him as the representative/IT guy, apparently one of the games coders- said, though they wouldn’t be talking to him officially for at least two months. The guy, Saito, had said over and over that they only wanted to help, and that they were honored in his interest in the game. He had seemed politely interested in his dreams of joining heroics, and had mentioned that of the 16 Million or so current active players, a good chunk of I-island played as a matter of custom and status.

It was apparently a popular game among people who just wanted to do mindless tasks to give their brain time to process. Thus, inventors.

And as a Legacy game, it gave it more gravitas than just being a gamer. Or something. It seemed a little odd and Izuku was still digging through a boatload of accumulated information about the game his quirk seemed modeled after-

An alarm sounded.

“Ahh. Thanks guys, but I have to do my homework. Thanks so much for playing with me, I really appreciate all your suggestions and stuff!”

He wasn’t lying either. While his name was still being hidden, (and his precise location as well as the location of the peerless thief) the fanbase and players of the game were both super respectful and overwhelmingly supportive of Izuku’s forays into the game, as well as his new ability.

It was enough to give a quirkless kid whiplash.

Though there were a few things he couldn’t do in game.

He was indefinitely barred from Eden, the final area. It was the only area where skykids could be in danger, though for some reason the details of the level were completely missing from online. Not even just the lore, but players barely discussed it, and never in particulars, citing only “spoilers”.

If he asked his chat, which he’d only streamed three times-they just said something about ‘PROTECC THE MOTH’ which was the game word for a new player, and some very confusing assurances that he didn’t have to worry about it.

His mom was back to worrying since official game merch, like his headset integrated with his quirk seamlessly when introduced. But mostly she was worried about what the company wanted from him.

With his streaming headset on at school he could speak to everyone around him like normal but could still mute people who weren’t talking to him directly or outside a certain radius.

If he didn’t set a radius, it was ridiculous. Also, he got all those conversations with ‘closed captioning’.

It made taking notes easier at least.

Everyone was kind of worried about it. While he’d automatically been friends with Chihiro/Melissa because she’d sent the invite, when he’d logged on the first time she’d gone to introduce her friends again only for them to already be logged as friends to his brand spanking new account.

Thankfully that had been the only correlation so far- his light and the spirits he encountered in game had no effect on his own and he didn’t get capes or other cosmetics in his own wardrobe.

But for that reason he hadn’t made any in game friends and the tech/coder had disabled the feature on his account. He couldn’t offer and nobody could offer it to him. It was nice of them. It would be incredibly awkward to just come across a random player in the street-

When he played stealth, off stream, he just pretended to be shy or standoffish. It wasn’t rare for some players to refuse friendship with strangers.

He was still kind of flumoxed about the streaming itself- the game company even paid someone to moderate his streams and gaming experience. In theory if anyone harassed him the mod could just dump them out if his stream, or the game, or both. He hadn’t had to in game but the stream chat had already blocked a few people.

Also apparently he got to keep any revenue from the streams. Apparently even if he signed a contract with them they completely accepted it at his own work as a content creator. The free moderator to them was just an investment. For what exactly nobody seemed to know, but the tech guy had seemed to have a few ideas. He wasn’t quite willing to share yet. Saito had ruffled his hair and told him they’d see each other at the official meeting.

He’d been nice. At the initial meet and greet with him and his mom at a local cafe, he’d forked over a ton of candles in a box. Some had looked different- bigger, darker, like pillar candles. He hadn’t said anything at first just put his hand up for a fist bump that Izuku had instantly returned to the feeling of ‘protective, pride-of-good-things, tidy, movement.’

Izuku liked him. He thinks he might be a little too trusting of his friends he makes through his quirk- but it’s hard not to when he has such a sense of who they are through any touch.

Izuku didn’t actually have homework, he was done ages ago, since nobody tried to destroy it anymore and he was graded fairly. It stung but was in the end, useful.

His mom had sat him down and they’d decided how long he would stream. No more than twice a week, for no more than three hours if his homework was done. Today was a special case though.

He was thankfully still allowed to go out for ‘winged light’- the glowing kids, or ‘stars’, and he did that most days right after school. Him and Kaachan had taken the train to Hosu last weekend to gather some there, though they’d missed a few, unable to find them. They’d added another nine to his tally, which gave him another wedge.

Detective Tsuchauchi had called his mom and scheduled another spirit which was tonight- they didn’t expect trouble with this spirit, he was a UA student hero hopeful who had died during a workstudy years ago without any expectation of foul play, but they were erring on the side of caution. So at night, with a hero escort.

He kissed his mom on the cheek, and rushed out the door with a steamed bun between his teeth. He had a train to catch.

Chapter Text

Shouta clutched at the flowers in his hand, trying to simultaneously keep from crushing them or vibrating out of his own skin. Zashi was hovering nearby but not touching while Tsukauchi turned his back, giving them time to get at least an act of professionalism going.

That was the deal. Taukauchi was a good detective and Shouta had worked with him for years but he knew this was his weak spot. It ruined his life every year on the anniversary and it was why he didn’t drink more than a shot of liquor at a time even at celebrations.

Zashi had been His friend too but he hadn’t been there. He hadn’t heard the voice that everyone said was a hallucination. He hadn’t seen it. He hadn’t caused it.

The deal was he had to keep it together. Keep it professional— for the kid. Or he had to give the preliminary investigation to another hero. And Shouta would never know- or at least never see- the truth.

He’d heard of the case for the old vigilante, how the evidence they’d found corroborated what the quirk echo ghost had found. It wasn’t released to the public yet but would be as soon as they figured out what the heck the chicken ninja thing was about.

He took a deep breath. Nodded.

Zashi squeezed his shoulder once to ground him and he nodded again, straightening his spine. And just in time.

With the flap of cape the kid was there, a semi formless grey outline against the darkening alleyway that held the echo of his friend- the place he’d died.

Tsukauchi and the kid talked back and forth for a bit, light blasting from the kid every few seconds as he threw his arms out in emphasis. The detective rolled his eyes and nodded, some sort of concession.

The kid waved an arm in the air in front of him and the silhouette around his head grew spikes and a microphone.

“Hello. So uh— Detective Tsukauchi said it wasn’t really an issue but I wanted to make sure you knew— uh, that with my quirk, if we, um initiate the friend- status so we can talk and stuff, I would be able to sense your exact location if it were within a certain area, even through walls and stuff. “

He and Hizashi shared a look. That might be an issue if the kid was near enough to tell they lived together.

“How long does it last?” He asked, staring Hizashi in the eyes as Tsukauchi repeated the question.

Zashi stared levelly back as the kid said “indefinitely, as far as we can figure. It even works online, at least, inside the game my quirk is built on, and uh— text conversations. My quirk automatically labels those with whatever handle I assign to the person, not like real names or any invasive information gathering, just uh- you wouldn’t be able to prank call me?”

Shouta nodded to himself and his husband nodded as well. That hadn’t been mentioned before but like hell he was backing out now, and neither was Hizashi.

“If you promise to not use any information you may learn to yourself about us, anything about our families or-“

“Come on,” Tsuchauchi interrupted- “he promises not to use anything he learns about you against you or your families.” The kid nodded his head vigorously to show his agreement and Shouta sighed and nodded again holding his hand out for the box of candles.

“The kid’s practically a ray of sunshine,” the detective continued to mumble as he handed it over with a lighter. “Doubt he has a malicious bone in his body-“ the detective jerked and stared in the direction of the kid and asked “do you even have bones?”

The grey outline shrugged.

Shoving the lit candle end towards a child went against his nature but he was ready to get this over with. Shouta was exhausted.

In his other hand he held out five more white chime candles, (the bare minimum and most cost effective way to trigger the kids quirk for communication according to the experiments that the Musutafu police department had conducted) while Hizashi did the same.

As the candles were consumed by his quirk, and the grey outline resolved into a dark skinned and honestly adorable floofy haired child, Hizashi asked “How do you not know if you have bones?.”

“Ah! Present Mic! Um, well- I’m kind of on the invulnerability index, so I can’t feel them, and the doctors can’t see them, or anything past my skin, even with Xray or thermo-imaging, but my body has like, joints, or— um, joint-like movements so we think so?” The kid blushed, and glowing honest to god pink anime blush onomatopoeia dusted his cheeks, showing he was, ostensibly, embarrassed.

Hizashi stared. “You didn’t recognize me? Even with the hair?”

“Oh! No, well— I did as soon as I saw you, but my quirk doesn’t show any identifying features at all, even mutations until we’re acquainted - which can be um, the candle thing or direct touch. Before we figured it out I had to go around hugging people—“

Shouta wrinkled his nose at the thought.

“Yes! Exactly, it was so awkward.”

“So,” Tsukauchi interrupted again “as a reminder, Izuku here is going to fly us through the memories. They can get quite some range on them and the memories reset to the beginning if we don’t complete the whole thing in time so this is the best way.”

They’d already gone over this in the briefing- him, Zashi and about a dozen other heroes were tapped to play babysitter so the kid could go through the different spirits in Musutafu, but looking at him now, it was hard to believe the kid could fly with even one grown man let alone half a dozen like the pictures had proven. He understood why the detective was being redundant even if it was annoying.

As the resident roof hopper, he was going to be on the outside, in case of an accident that required his capture weapon to grab a handy streetlight or something.

He took his husband’s hand and the kid took Tsukauchi’s and Hizashi’s. And with a flash of cape they were barreling straight over the flowers he’d set down earlier and straight through the ghost of his former best friend.

A flickering light raced out to encompass the area before resolving into a battlefield.

A reoccurring nightmare traced in blue light. It was so achingly accurate. He could feel his pulse where his husband’s hand and his met he was squeezing so hard. Hizashi squeezed back just as hard.

They jumped again and there was Oboro again, pushing the children away and leaving no cover for himself, as lights showed Shouta’s younger self trying to stay alive, his posture showing he was dangerously distracted—

And again, the rocks coming down. Crushing—

“Wait, that’s not right.” Hizashi said and the kid— Izuku paused as everyone processed the memory.

There was the rubble that had crushed his friend, and there was Oboro, standing next to it, a little battered but alive, coughing into an elbow as dust settled around him.

“Do the next one.” Shouta said, and Hizashi wasn’t the only one to cut him a look but nobody said anything as they flew through the coughing ghost.

In this one the dust hadn’t quite settled but the memory focused on Shouta’s fight, while Oboro shouted encouragement from the sidelines.

“I did hear him.” Shocked, Shouta murmured a truth he’d stubbornly held on to even if he’d stopped saying it aloud.

Tsukauchi cleared his throat. “We don’t know for sure how this works, it could be that your own memory is effecting this.”

“I don’t think so.” Was the kids rebuttal.

Everyone looked at him. “The memories aren’t even half done- there’s, uh- a lot left. We should keep going.”

Next to him Hizashi grit his teeth before, “you got it Little Listener, ready when you are!”

His hand felt glued to his husband’s as they sailed through the rest of the memories in a blur. It got to the point that Shouta didn’t know if the swooping in his gut was from the flight or the horror of what he was seeing.

A kidnapping right behind him, his friend struggling and gagged, a hand thrown out in his direction but at a turned back, a younger version of himself oblivious to what was really happening.

The body double manifested under the rubble, the weird force field that led to a few minutes of continuous flight and a rushed explanation to hospital staff as they descended into the basement to see just a glimpse of the pain Oboro had suffered, if only Shouta had had the god-damned good sense to turn the fuck around.

Afterwards, at the shrine he and his friends visited once a year, the kid let them go to pick up a mask that stole his breath like a punch to the gut.

It was Oboro’s closed eyed smile, the nasal strip across the nose and teeth bared.

The mask disappeared instantly.

“Ahh, Eraserhead sir? Are you alright?” Shouta stared at the kid incredulously.

“Are you?”

The kid leaned back and looked confused. Shouta was confused the kid was confused and so was his husband. Tsukauchi just sighed.

“That was some kind of traumatizing stuff lil’ Listener, we didn’t know it would be that bad, or we might’ve pushed it till you were older or-…”

Hizashi trailed off and Shouta immediately dropped his hand from where he’d suddenly dig his nails in. There was no way Shouta would have waited even if he’d known. This was going to be a bitch and a half in therapy, but he Knew now.

The ridiculous child smiled brightly at them as he shook his head, an edge of empathy in his glowing green gaze.

“Ah no, it’s fine. I’m just glad he can get justice now.”

The detective shook his head “this was years ago, there’s no telling who was involved, or where to start. It’s going to take some serious investigation to figure this out.”

“But that was Dr.Tsubasa!” Shouta felt cold. How could this teenager know such a thing? What possible connection could a teenager have with that sad excuse for a human being that had tortured and executed his friend?

“He worked here before as a quirk specialist. He was actually the guy that misdiagnosed me. Mom’s been trying to track him down to file a lawsuit— though I guess that’s a little redundant now…” he trailed off into a mumble.

Tsukauchi ran a hand over his face in exasperation before shrugging apparently unable to mourn the lack of real police work needed to find the perpetrator.

“Yeah ok, let me get you home and we can talk to your mom—, uh, you guys okay getting home from here?” The detective asked, unwilling to drop the pretense that he may not know that their apartment was just a block down the road—

“Yeahhh!” Hizashi was all smiles, though he could tell they were 100% his hero persona in play.

The detective nodded and ushered the kid along.

“Bye Mic -sir, Eraserhead -sir!” The child waved over his shoulder as Tsukauchi carted him away until they rounded rhe corner.

Hizashi hummed.

“Did we ever tell that lil’ Listener your hero name Shou?” He asked, and Shouta blinked because hey, they hadn’t.

They paused, before turning to ascend the stairs to the exit. My mutual unsaid decision they turned towards the cat café across the street. Shouta deserved cake. And cuddles.

Chapter Text

Izuku stubbornly refused to chew on his pencil eraser- it was his last one, because he’d chewed through the rest.

Trying to distract himself he looked around the classroom. About 3/4 of his class was visible if not audible- of the entire school minus his homeroom teacher and Kaachan only four people could talk to him that he could hear without his tablet or headset, and if he beeped (called, he reminded himself, the name for the action was a call) he new he could watch their name indicators bustle around for a few seconds.

They faded thankfully after a few seconds. He’d floated the thought of maybe making a few more friends but his mom had hesitantly and gently tried to dissuade him. The other kids at his school had bullied him after all- and he wanted to explain that it was different now because he had a quirk, but something in his mom’s expression had him pulling it back behind his teeth. She still looked at Kaachan with an odd expression when he was over. He hadn’t said anything about it, because the whole thing seemed unstable. Mom just kept muttering about how he’d make more friends at High School.

The bell rang, and he packed up his bag, stowing it in his inventory, giving a nod at Kaachan who nodded back and turned back to his lackeys. He’d meet him at the arcade later, as planned. He had kind of a hard time being in public these days- word had gotten out about the spirits and the winged light, so a lot of people recognized him, if only as the late bloomer that bended reality. But a few businesses- notably the ones that had also been kind to a nervous quirkless kid, were more than willing to show anyone who got rude at Izuku the door.

He had been briefly mentioned in the local media, and there were more discussion boards than he could count about him at this point- he was a minor celebrity.

He was really really glad his quirk included invulnerability. It really helped his anxiety knowing that people couldn’t just hurt him, even if they wanted to. He’d seen a video of himself walking through the side of someone with a huge mutation quirk- if he wasn’t friendly with them, it was almost like they didn’t actually exist.

He hadn’t even noticed it happening and wouldn’t even know about it without internet memes.

So when Izuku was stumbled upon on his way home that day by a particularly clingy slime villain, he didn’t notice at first. He only had a split second to notice the grey person coming towards him had black crumbly bits stuck to their body, which he’d never seen before with a flash of fire he was suddenly half enveloped by green slime.

He felt weak, and noticed his cape slowly being drained of power, as well as his fire lingering on the villian.

“Stop struggling! It’ll all be over soon!”

Wide eyed, Izuku froze for a second before leaping upwards with all the power he had left, a measly flap and a half. It was enough to get him to the top of the bridge and he clung so he wouldn’t fall back down. The bridge was grimy and he could feel the grit of it, the smooth stone where his foot kicked out for purchase, a slight wind in his hair. Looking down, he saw the villian extending their body upwards trying to grab him. He swung his foot just in time to keep from being grabbed to the inarticulate cursing below.

Suddenly, a second person popped out of the sewer and the slime villian turned towards them.

“Fuck you!”

So maybe a hero? Not one he’s met yet either. As he thought about it he saw the figure gesture with one hand and suddenly the slime villian below was a smear across the ground. Izuku let go of the bridge in shock.

He fell to the ground in a fluttering uncoordinated heap. He looked up to find the new grey (maybe hero) right next to him reaching for him, beeping. He scrabbled backwards, unwilling to be surrounded by a stranger just then.

The grey flinched backwards themself, and looked vaguely conciliatory but still crept forwards, beeping.

Izuku retreated again and the grey straightened. Quickly, Izuku brought up his inventory and donned his headset.

“Um, whoever you are I can’t see you right now. I can’t hear you either, but if you give me a second I can grab my tablet, um—“ he did so and bringing it up promptly dropped it to the ground, where it shattered into motes of light as it went back to inventory.

“A-All Might!!?” He hyperventilated a little, still in shock. He was honestly surprised he didn’t faint. “Ahh sorry, um. I can open up conversation if you want to, but uh, you should know as a pro-Hero, I would be able to track you anywhere in a certain radius after that, so-“ and here he despaired because though he had a few Pros on his radar these days, they weren’t All Might! Quickly he grabbed his tablet from inventory, to see All Might sadly shaking his head. Izuku slumped and couldn’t hide the despondent musical effects his body made as he did so. “Ah that’s understandable, uh-“

And here All Might was gathering the villian into a soda bottle, “can I get an autograph?” Which made the Hero smile his signature smile, wipe his hands on his pants and pull out a small biro from his pockets with a flourish, quickly signing it and trying to hand the page to Izuku directly.

“Ah! Don’t touch me!” He scrambled back. “Ah sorry,” he added when his favorite hero looked vaguely insulted “touch would start the tracking we’re trying to avoid! I didn’t mean- you’re my favorite hero! I- just-“

All Might smiled at him and folded the autograph into a paper airplane that he floated in Izuku’s direction. He had to jump up to grab it out of the hair, and noticed embarrassingly that a few small pink hearts had escaped him. And then neon blush marks from the embarrassment.

When he looked through the tablet, All Might was laughing. When he saw Izuku’s attention was on him he made a serious face and a shooing motion, so Izuku bowed and took off towards the Arcade he was meeting Kaachan at.

Chapter Text

Because he had used up his stamina to get away from the slime villain, Izuku ran to the arcade instead of flying part way there.

By the time he got there, things had made a turn for the worse.

Before he ever got near the arcade, he saw something he had hoped never to see in real life- the s.o.s. Signal from the game that showed someone was dying. A red ominous pulsing light with a moving symbol depicting a breaking shield. And when he called out, hoping to find ‘Kaachan 💥’, it was, concerningly— floating right above the distress signal , along with another title almost overlapping it—‘Slime 🦠 Villain’ that he’d assigned just ten minutes ago.

He rounded the corner into a sea of greys. Fire was sparking off several buildings and smack dab in the center was Kaachan, being enveloped by the same villain that had attacked him earlier. What had happened? Where was All Might? How had the slime villain gotten away?

Also— Why Wasn’t Anyone Doing Anything?

Unable as well as unwilling to wait for pros to show up to do something while Kaachan caught his eyes, looking scared out of his wits, Izuku charged toward the duo.

Kaachan’s eyes widened as Izuku stretched out a hand, and flailing as best he could, managed to grab it.

Izuku’s stamina refilled instantly as he took off as soon as he had a hold, pulling Kaachan almost effortlessly from the Slime Villian’s disgusting clutches.

“Fuck.” Kaachan hacked as they landed on the other side of the crowd of people. Two greys in particular came running towards them, and Izuku pressed his fire into Kaachan’s chest. The Fire didn’t immediately fade, but sparked against it like burning darkness in game. Izuku didn’t know what his quirk was doing, maybe helping purge a possible infection? If he was doing something medically relevant maybe he should stop but he already knew his fire didn’t hurt people…”

“It’s fine nerd.” Izuku looked up to see red eyes, “I feel a lot better, yeah? Thanks or some shit.”

Izuku tried not to blush and failed.

One of the greys grabbed Izuku and recoiled as the fire ran over them- a feminine face with a minor snake mutation in the eyes and scales across her cheeks and going up into her dark green and black hair which was tied back into a sensible bun.

Kaachan cursed as Izuku dug some candles out of inventory and pressed them against the EMT’s jacket where they exploded into light.

“Woah,” she said, standing very still, serpentine eyes flicking between them.

“His quirk has a touch based activation requirement. You’re like, fucking friends now or some shit.”

The EMT quirked a smile “ok. We can talk about that in a bit- unless there’s an immediate problem?”

“No ma’am” Izuku shook his head as what was probably another EMT hung back and chimed.

“Involuntarily quirk activation, touch based.” She said to the other EMT and then “my fault.” She added wryly.

She gestured at Kaachan. “You handle sparky over here.”
She turned towards Izuku. “Any injuries to report there hero?”

Izuku blushed. “No- I-I’m uh. Invulnerable mostly?”

She levered an eyebrow upwards.

“Um, I think I am a little susceptible to pollution? And he drained my uh, stamina or something earlier.”

“…earlier.”

“Uhh- yeah, um- All Might saved me! But um, he put the villian in a soda bottle, I know it’s the same villian because he touched me and I can see him.”

“So you’re friends with a villian? Because of your quirk?” She looked concerned.

“Ah, just until I get home! I think I can block him…”

A confused look.

Izuku slapped himself on the forehead and pulled his backpack from inventory, digging out his quirk registration card and handed it to the EMT.

“Ah.” She said. She took the card and wrote something on her clipboard. “Any other symptoms? Problems breathing, any pain?”

“No- uh, no pain since my quirk came in at all, actually. I just was low on energy.”

“And you say All Might had the villain?”

“Yeah, about 15 minutes ago..?”

She spoke into her radio “someone ping All Might, one of the kids said the villain was in his custody earlier.”

She looked back towards Izuku, “so how is your quirk affecting your friend and me?”

“Uh, it just lets us talk right now. Um. The fire might burn away uh, pollution? Or um, germs maybe? I don’t know exactly the game mechanics are a bit— But it doesn’t hurt people! Or animals! Or uhh, any plants we tried though in game there’s some but I don’t think they’re real..”

“In game, so like- that thing with your backpack was an inventory?” He nodded “So what do I have to look out for with this quirk?”

“Ah- well it’s indefinite but um, if I yell and you’re within - half a kilometer or so? Uh- i will know where you are.”

“That’s it? And it won’t broadcast that to anyone else right?” He waved his arms “No! Just me! Because we’re friends. And um, if we’re close but I can’t hear you I might see what you’re saying as like, a text box. And if you randomly text me from whatever phone I’ll always know it’s you.”

She blinked.

“Alright then.” She hesitated and then seemed to dismiss the thought. She looked up towards her co-worker and she nodded.

Handing back his Quirk license she said, “Your friend is okay, and I guess since we’re friends you should know I go by Nagami, alright? Don’t abuse my trust, but if you do get hurt and I’m nearby don’t hesitate to come to me alright?”

Stunned, Izuku could only bow. Nagami ruffled his curls and let him go. Another grey was coming towards them but Nagami-san stepped between them and Izuku ducked low and brought his head up between Kaachan’s legs so he was sitting on Izuku’s shoulders cursing.

He took flight. Kaachan laughing as they flew away.

***

Three days later, a thin man in a suit stalked down a sidewalk near the Midoriya residence, notepad in hand as he checked the building numbers as he walked by.

Coming to his destination he straightened his clothes before ringing the bell.

Midoriya Inko, the boy’s mother opened the door.

“Pardon for the intrusion Miss Midoriya,” he bowed slightly “I am the Pro Hero Sir Nighteye. I’m here on behalf of Might agency about the situation that your son and his friend was involved in last Thursday.”

“Oh!” She seemed to pause. “Can I see your license please?” Sir smiled “a reasonable precaution.” He handed over his license and the woman relaxed, waving it under a light near the doorway he was surprised to see the black light reflect the authentication seal embedded in the license. Few people bothered with such a security feature even among pros. He had one installed at every entranc eto both his home and agency, of course, but it was still rare to see in general.

“Please come in,” Midoriya invited, pointing out some house slippers for his use, a sedate steal grey still in the packaging.

The door closed behind them.

Chapter Text

The small home was frugally furnished but well loved and cared for- spotlessly clean but in the way that reminded him of home rather than acrid chemicals.

“Is the boy not at home?” He asked the empty living room, and turning towards the small kitchen caught the boy’s mother pursing her lips before her expression smoothed out into an impressive mask of genteel traditional hostess.

He had underestimated a mother in her home only once- and had the scars to prove it. Mirai refused to let his muscles tense but it was a difficult task.

“He’s streaming his online game at the moment.” She slowly and meticulously gathered the items for tea. “Do you have a preference?” She gestured at the tea service.

“Chamomile if you have it, thank you.” She smiled and he let his hand curl into a fist out of sight under the counter as he smiled back.

The tea she took out was loose rather than in a bag. She put a teaspoon in a teaball in the shape of All Might’s head. His eye twitched so he didn’t break the atmosphere asking about its origins- he’d never seen this particular cutlery-

“It’s a gift from my son, a special Mother’s Day gift set from six years ago.” She poured the not quite boiling water into his cup and then hers- a chai, if he wasn’t mistaken.

He tried to not twitch “your quirk is listed as minor telekinesis?” She smiled again without answering verbally, and Mirai tried not to think about the high amount of quirks that were obscured in the registry for the perceived safety of their owners rather than the general populous. There was the chance she also had some minor telepathy, or it could have been intuition. It was unfortunately beyond rude to ask.

Mirai cursed social niceties in his head for what must be the thousandth time.

His hostess took a dainty sip that seemed to be pointed.

Luckily for him, he was absolute pants at social ques.

“So what brings such an illustrious hero to our home?” She picked up a knife and started delicately cutting cheese- but she wasn’t looking at her hands.

“Just some follow up questions pertaining to the investigation—“

“An investigation?” She paused in her cutting, “I was told the case was closed. What is there left to investigate?”

The cheese was shaped like bunnies. So was an array of apples and small sandwiches. She arrayed them on a tray as he tried to think of what to say- she was right after all, this was far from anything official, and despite the fact he was here on Behalf of All Might, Yagi had only asked him to look into the boy as a possible successor.

The only reason he was even willing to think about this strange child over Mirio was the notes from the EMT that had processed him at the scene, which had mentioned the kid having a maxxed invulnerability rating which hadn’t been listed in his generally available quirk registration at all.

“Simply as a curtesy to one of the on scene pros, All Might was interested in his quirk expression. I was as well when I saw your own was a minor telekinesis and his father’s a minor pyrotechnic. It’s a rare mutation.”

The woman stared at him and he could feel his body tense the longer she went without blinking.

A door in the hallway burst open, and the other boy, Bakugou came to an abrupt stop at the doorway to the kitchen.

“Aunty…?” He asked, sidling into the kitchen so he never gave Mirai his back- and shifted slightly so he was ready to intervene, a curious reflex.

“Sir Nighteye was just leaving.” She handed the child the plate of snacks and he looked between them before snorting and turning to leave the room, back no longer protected.

Mirai clenched his teeth but nodded, leaving behind his half drunk tea and turned towards the door.

This had been a waste of time, but he had estimated a low chance of success anyway.

He changed into his shoes and left, unescorted.

And very glad to have left the premises. She had understeeped his tea.

But he had a lead, that the kid streamed online. Perhaps he could learn more from that. Though in his experience streamers were usually the more narcissistic type.

And though he didn’t know it, Bakugou Katsuki watched him from the window as he walked to his car and drove away, smirking.

Chapter Text

On the screen, the subject of debate sheepishly rubbed the back of his head before sipping from a large water bottle off the desk in front of him. “Okay guys, I think i’m going to disable water for the rest of the stream today. If I drink anymore today I might explode.” The kid folded his hands in front of him on the water bottle, resting his chin on top of them. In the upper corner of the screen five game avatars holding hands flew through a set of obstacles, and small balls of lights followed them. The boy didn’t move a muscle to control them. “Let’s see— uhhhh, RiotRock is asking what it’s like growing up as a late bloomer- did I get made fun of for having an unexpressed quirk?” The kid closed his eyes for a moment, looking pained. “ Okay, so like- yes, I’m a late bloomer, technically. And I understand why you’d think I would grow up as someone just not knowing their quirk! I totally get that. I’d assume that too, but here’s the thing— I may be technically a late bloomer, But I was diagnosed Quirkless when I was 4.” The chat on screen became very active, many exclaiming in disbelief, which was understandable. The boy very obviously had a quirk, even if it had come late. “Okay shut up a second and let me explain.” The kid pinched the bridge of his nose as if to hold of a headache. It looked odd against his midnight sky skin. “I had a primordial body. No— I did not get a genetic test, I was diagnosed before it was a thing. At the time I went in, the pinky toe joint and vestigial organ imaging was enough to diagnose.” He suddenly looked furious. “OKAY NO— Mods, Zeeker87 needs blocking. And If I see any Meta Liberation crap from any of you you’re going to follow them.” He tried to read the comment but it was already gone. “Just because I have a quirk now, doesn’t mean I think people without quirks should be ETHNICALLY CLEANSED, that’s a stupid that defies logic, I swear.” A huffed laugh came from behind the white haired boy and he rolled his glowing eyes so hard it looked painful. “Anyway. As I was saying—“ He paused here to throw a plush all might behind him, probably for a whispered comment eliciting more huffed laughter. “As I was SAYING!” The kid rolled his shoulders “I grew up, functionally and socially quirkless. That means that I got death threats. I was treated— well. I don’t know if any of you have any experience from any side but a lot of people, like the dearly departed Zeeker for example, a lot of people are out there that think we, because honestly in a lot of ways I still feel connected to being quirkless— are lesser. That we are fragile. That we don’t belong in society anymore, despite being born into it.” The kid looked weary. He looked back at the camera and smiled. “People thought a lot of things about me that weren’t true— and not just because I eventually got a quirk. They weren’t true because they were ignorant remarks made by ignorant people. But we can all learn. A quirk is a tool. Not everyone has them- 20% means 1 in 5 people in the world doesn’t. Over a third of all quirks are Mutant. Over 90% of those that remain are considered non-combatant type, which don’t immediately led themselves to Flashy limelight Heroics. And of the people who do go through Heroics schools, who get the training and the work studies, most wash out in the first five years, if they don’t get stuck as side kicks.” a breath “And Hot take here, but people who get to use their quirks in mundane life are even less, and are more reliant on nepotism and connections than merit.” He stared down the camera. “Most of society doesn’t even use their quirk if it’s not passive. Most of them aren’t relevant in society anyway as we are. So why should it matter if someone has a quirk in the first place? They’re not weaker or less intelligent. They- We, aren’t less for not having a quirk, or a weak quirk. “ He looked to the side of the desk, and a scoff is heard from behind him. “ I have a strong quirk now. Or I guess, It’s always been under the surface. And in hindsight some parts started popping up awhile ago. But I don’t consider myself better than I was before knowing it existed. The only difference between then and now is how people treat me, and that’s completely down to their own experience, knowledge or ignorance.” “Trigger warning for suicide talks here, but I thought about it. I hung out on a few rooftops.” A blonde head popped onto screen for a second before scowling and hunching back out of view. “It’s a reality a lot of Quirkless people have to deal with and i’m no exception. So Yes RiotRock. It was difficult growing up without my quirk. But I was pretty blessed with my mom, who despite statistics didn’t hurt me, starve me or abandon me. I was so privileged to be loved in this world. It makes you wonder how many other mythic level quirks never knew they had them. Who never lived long enough to know.” “I don’t mean to bring the mood down. I know this is a feel good game I’m playing, and a lot of you didn’t come here for that, but that’s my origin story; So it had to be said. “ A hand came up and tapped the screen, pausing the recording. “He’s perfect.” The Man stated. He looked up at the room of people, taking in their expressions. “He’s moral, and generally happy go lucky despite his origins. He’s not likely to get a huge ego. He’s a fanboy himself so we won’t have to explain a lot of the industry, though we might have to push with Might Agency for a line because this kid’s room is practically a shrine to the man, but the kid has shown intelligence, discretion and empathy, not even mentioning his quirk which would have connected us anyway— and already has.” He stood, pacing towards the wall where several monitors listed key information- flying habits, spending habits, acquaintances, police contact. A whole six feet of space was dedicated to what he wore on a daily basis with a large in depth mock up of the gakuran he wore to school as a potential in-game outfit. a few concept sketches showed mock ups of other outfits- a UA Sports festival Gym outfit, and school uniform; a line of three different umbrellas; and on one side, the line of All Might cosmetics that had been submitted and then turned down by Might Agency for ten straight years, updated every four months for relevancy. “He aligns with our stated values and inclusivity. He has dreams of being a hero. I want to help him get there, and I want him wearing our Merch the whole trip to the top and beyond. We have one of the largest and most influential client base in the world, and his fate is intertwined with ours. At this point his personality is just and incredibly lucky bonus. “ ーー In another part of Japan a laptop is closed and a text is sent. A decision is made. In another yet, a child with skin like the gap between stars sleeps sprawled across his best friend, and dreams of being a falling star. It makes him feel safe. In a room above a bar in Kamino, a young man not yet debuted as a villian chews on his cuticles as he contemplated the boy that looks so familiar and yet so strange. The rest of the world keeps spinning.