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It had been a long day for the Yagi family. Yagi Inko was the darling wife of the number one hero, All Might. She disguised herself when she was out as All Might’s wife, so they could keep their family life secret, and that involved their 4-year-old daughter, Izumi. To the parent's surprise, she wasn’t a big fan of heroes, while she would always make sure her papa, grandpa, and uncle were doing okay when they came back from work and loved getting their merch. But Izumi’s true love was fantasy and things in the world of fiction, she loved reading magic series. One particular series was her favorite, The Good Witch Azura, Izumi’s love of magic all started when she was but a toddler
The sun was baring down on the two-and-a-half-year-old Izumi, she squirmed on her playmat as her grandmother applied another coat of sunscreen on her chubby cheeks. Her grandmother groaned as Izumi waved her arms around in protest.
“Izumi, you need to stop this, I know it feels yucky and smells terrible but it’s to protect you so you can spend all day in the sun with me,” Megumi smiled as she booped her granddaughter’s nose. Megumi had long blond hair, she had it held up in a ponytail but she had left some hair free to form two long strands that fell down to her waist. To anyone who knew Megumi and Toshi, you could see where the pro hero had gotten not only his hair color but his famous two long strands that would be held up high. Only the family knew how much hair gel it took to keep those up. Megumi smiled as she scooped up Izumi and walked over to a nearby tree, Megumi had a lean frame, which was shown off well with her green tank top and black jeans. Inko had said a few times Megumi should wear more elderly-based clothing, only for her mother-in-law to stare her down, as she had said every time the matter came up.
“I’m not a senile old woman yet, I’ll wear what I feel comfortable in and enjoy myself.”
As Megumi and Izumi approached the tree, Megumi smiled down at her granddaughter. She had been asked to come over as Inko wasn’t feeling the best today and Megumi took up the opportunity to play with her only grandchild instantly. Megumi carefully placed Izumi by the base of the tree and picked up a twig. She waved it around like a wand and booped Izumi’s nose, the toddler laughed and clapped her little hands.
“Now I’ve placed a spell on you, you’ll remain an adorable munchkin forever,” Megumi beamed as she kept up the witch act. It got worse as Izumi’s cheers just made her grandmother spur on with the act. After a bit of playing Megumi saw Izumi pick up a stick and watched as she tried to mimic her grandmother’s moves, this made Megumi smile.
‘She’s so perfect…I’ll break anyone who breaks her heart, be it man or woman,” Megumi's thoughts were interrupted when Izumi booped her on the nose with her “wand”. After a few moments of awkward silence, Megumi grabbed her chest and did the most cartoonish fake heart attack performance she could give. Just as she fell onto the ground, she let her tongue layout to keep up the cartoon act, Izumi giggled at her grandmother and waddled over, the second she was within reach, Izumi tickled her grandmother’s ribcage as the elderly woman burst into a fit of giggles until she gathered the strength to grab Izumi and hold her up in the air.
“The little witch Izumi wins another battle against the evil witch Megumi!”
Since then, Izumi’s love for magic and fantasy grew as her love for heroes slowly diminished, yet she still said she be a great hero once her quirk came in. Nighteye and Gran Torino were happy to start teaching Izumi about working in heroics earlier, of course, Yagi Toshinori aka All Might wouldn’t allow it. Izumi was mixed on it, sure it meant she could spend more time reading her fantasy books, but soon her gramps, uncle, and father started acting strange and said nothing about it. Something at the back of her head was telling her something was wrong, Izumi went and spoke to her mother, and Inko kissed her cheeks and smiled.
“It’s okay Sweetie, your father is just worried, he will continue your training once your quirk comes through.” Inko smiled, and Izumi watched her walk away. So that was what it was all about? Izumi knew her quirk was a little late, her class wouldn’t shut up about it. Nor would his teacher, he heard her mention to another teacher the potential she didn’t have a quirk whatsoever, that he was quirkless. Izumi wasn’t sure why they seemed to act like it was a bad thing. Izumi sat in front of the TV, as her family sat in the kitchen talking. She watched the cartoons her mother put on, but she couldn’t ignore the fact they were all whispering, a shiver told her they were talking about her. Izumi remained silent, but her heart was sinking.
Izumi was taken to the doctor a few days later, Izumi was silent throughout it all as she read the first Good Witch Azura book, her mother looked worried. The doctor knew of Izumi, while the media didn’t. All Might kept Izumi’s existence a secret. The doctor looked over the X-rays he had taken of Izumi’s feet and sighed.
“I am sorry to inform you that your daughter is quirkless.” He said, finally, as if he was giving the news that someone had just died. Izumi, still reading her book couldn’t understand why being quirkless was such an issue, she watched as tears sprung to her mother’s eyes.
“How is that possible?” Inko asked. “His father and I both have quirks?!” Inko cried.
“By the age of four, a child should manifest either one of his parents’ quirks or a composite of the two, or in rare cases. The child would gain a whole new quirk,” the doctor explained as he pulled out the x-ray of Izumi’s feet and placed them on a board.
“However, early quirk research discovered one important finding. It has to do with the presence or absence of the extra joint in the pinky toe.” The doctor pointed to Izumi’s x-ray. “Humans have no need for parts they don’t use, see. Izumi looked up at her mother, who was crying as if she had died right in front of her, she frowned. Was being quirkless bad?
According to her family, this news was on the same level as losing a loved one. Izumi had been put to bed early that night but before she could fall asleep, she heard talking from the living room. She snuck through the dark hallway quietly as she clutched her white owl plushie her granny Megumi had gotten her on her second birthday. As she reacted to the staircase, she peeked around and saw her mother, father, uncle, and grandpa sitting around the dining room table.
“So what’s the plan?” Gran Torino asked, his voice filled with concern as he messed with his beard.
“She would make a good candidate for One for All, we won’t be working blindly and already have a relationship with the user than a random student,” Nighteye explained, Izumi was confused.
‘One for All, what is that?’
“No… I… I can’t do that to her, I would rather she remain hidden and safe. We’ll dissuade her from becoming a hero. I'd rather her be a normal girl and I’m sure we can dissuade her,” Toshinori said, he smiled as Inko slid her hand into his as she smiled.
“She’s a good and sweet girl, I know she’ll listen,” Inko nodded.
“ I hope so. Without a quirk, being a hero wouldn’t be safe, even letting the public know about her, you may as well paint a bullseye on her with her hold a sign saying she’s your weakness,” Torino explained. Izumi clutched her owl and quietly ran back into her room as she cried into the pillow. She cried herself to sleep that night.
Izumi groaned as the sunlight slowly crept into her room, after failing to block the light with her witch blanket, she groaned and got up. The memories of the previous night flooded back to her as she clutched her plushie. What her family said, how being quirkless meant she had to remain hidden like an unwanted child, it reminded her of an old book series her gran had read to her on her last few visits, how the boy in the story was hidden under the stairs just because his stupid aunt and uncle saw his as strange.
Would her parents do that to her?
Izumi pulled her owl closer to her chest, before reaching over to a table next to her bed and grabbed a picture of her with her grandmother Megumi. She remembered how Megumi would laugh off words of discouragement from her son and daughter-in-law, Izumi remembered the time her dad had almost had a heart attack when his mother promised to get Izumi a venomous snake for her birthday.
Izumi giggled as she recalled that day with glee, but then it hit her, her grandmother was quirkless too, yet look at her. She was happy, and lively and did what she wanted with a smile and she didn’t have to hide, so why should she? Izumi gripped her owl plushie as she made up her mind, She be just like grandma Megumi and be a hero.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple
The change was slow in some areas and quick in others. At school the second one of the teachers heard about Izumi being quirkless it spread like wildfire. Now Izumi’s classmates would tease her for not having a quirk, for her love of non-hero topics like magic and fiction that didn’t relate to heroes. Then came the more physical stuff, while no one outright hit her, she found her stuff messed with, placed up on high shelves, or defaced. Anytime she went to the teachers they would just shu her away and tell her to stop lying and seeking attention, how she was disturbing the class.
Izumi was furious, the thought she did this to herself just to get attention made her sick.
Then came the changes at home.
Izumi may have only been short of five years old, but she could feel the difference in how her parents spoke to her before they were happy, supportive, and fun. But now they were colder, critical of everything she did, and distant. Such as this morning, usually a yagi breakfast was fun and a good way to start the day, now the family sat in silence as Izumi poked at her eggs. It took a solid ten minutes till Inko broke the silence.
“Izumi, why aren’t you eating your breakfast?” She asked in a colder tone than usual, Izumi just shrugged.
“I’m not hungry…” She replied in a tired tone, Inko just sat there till she let out an annoyed snort and took Izumi’s breakfast away. Izumi turned to her father and like usual he was on the phone, it always had to do with his job. Before Izumi neverminded as her dad would give her small snippets like a villain had escaped or her uncle had found a lead or he would just hand her the phone and let his daughter talk to her grandpa or uncle. But now anytime she asked, he just shushed her and said he was busy.
She looked back towards her mother, emptying the contents of her breakfast into the bin, and just stared until she had gotten through washing it in silence and placed it on the drying rack. As Inko made her way back to the table, Izumi had a thought.
“Mum… is it okay if I go to Granny Megumi after school?” Izumi asked with hope, only for it to be dashed when her mother looked at her.
“No Izumi, it’s too far for you to go alone and I’m too busy to take you up there,” Inko explained as she sorted a few things on the table before sitting back down.
“B-bu-but I’ve done it before! Why is it a problem now?” Izumi asked, confused at this sudden change.
“Because I said so and that’s final!” Inko proclaimed, it being clear there was no leeway in her tone, Izumi just crossed her arms and pouted.
“Not like we do anything fun….” She groaned.
“Don’t give me that attitude young lady, that’s not nice and it won’t do you well in the long run,” Inko snapped back, just as Izumi was going to answer back, she saw her dad look up from his phone with a glare.
“Listen to your mother Izumi,” Toshi said, like his wife, there was no leeway in his tone either, after a tense moment of getting two intense sets of stares from her parents, Izumi let out a sigh and relaxed in her chair, muttering a fine under her breath.
Izumi let out a sigh, the day hadn’t been the best, breakfast with her parents was as awkward as usual, from her dad’s lack of interest and her mother talking about getting Izumi some dolls or dresses for her birthday. Izumi shuddered at that thought, she didn't mind witch attire with a skirt, it was cute or as her grandma said sexy, granted the second she said this, she turned beet red and refused to elaborate on what she meant. Now back to the present, Izumi had decided to stay in the classroom during lunch, she was more interested in reading the next book in the Azura the Good Witch series than watching other kids mess around. Just as she reached an important moment in the story where the villain was about to reveal Azura's true origin, the book was pulled out of Izumi’s grasp. Now looking up, Izumi saw her former friend whom her parents had recently been big on her spending time with, Katsuki Bakugou.
“What you reading now Deku?” Bakugou asked as he glanced at the cover of the book, he gave a look of disgust as he realized it was a fantasy book.
“Give it back Bakugou!” Izumi shouted as she tried to grab her book, mockingly Bakugou kept it just out of Izumi’s grasp.
“Oh, what are you going to do?” Bakugou asked, laughing as Izumi failed to grab her book back. “Use your quirk, oh wait you're a quirkless freak!” He exclaimed, Izumi felt a rage bubble inside her but focused on retrieving the book her grandma got her.
“So what if I don’t have a quirk!?” Izumi asked, It was then Bakugou and his cronies burst into laughter, the chubby one in particular, whose grandfather had diagnosed Izumi’s quirkless. Fell to the ground as he laughed.
“My mum said those without quirks are pathetic, that old bat is right! What makes you so special?” Bakugou asked as he continued to bellow with laughter, Izumi balled up her fists as rage built inside her.
“I’m not a bully like you, my gran says that makes me better than you’ll ever be” Izumi retorted, only for Bakugou to give her a grin that screamed evil to the four-year-old.
“Oh really….” Bakugou chuckled as he held up Izumi’s book in one hand and before Izumi could rect, Bakugou raised his free hand and used his quirk to blast Izumi’s book “Oh whoops, looks like I broke your book”
Bakugou’s and his cronies' laughter filled Izumi’s head as she saw the boy drop the book as many pages turned to ash before her eyes. The rage in Izumi was begging to be released, when she looked back to Bakugou, the boy’s smile set her off.
“THAT WAS FROM MY GRANDMA!!!” Izumi screamed as she pushed the boys away and grabbed the book, only for more pages to turn to dust in Izumi’s hand, Bakugou just laughed.
“Then you shouldn’t have brought it to school,” he exclaimed, before he could get back to laughing though, Izumi pounced on him. Before the blond boy knew what was happening, Izumi threw a punch into his cheek. This advantage didn’t last as Bakugou’s lackeys were quick to try and restrain Izumi, lucky for the girl she remembered a trick her gran taught her and quickly delivered a kick into the chubby boy’s private parts, as her gran told her, Izumi’s opponent crumbled to the ground. Just as she heard Bakugou growl as he got up and prepared to use his quirk, the classroom door flew open, and in the doorway stood the children’s teacher.
“Break this up right now!” The teacher cried out, quickly Izumi pulled her arm out of the other boy’s grasp as the teacher made his way to the kids.“Izumi what is the meaning of this?!?”
“Bu-but Bakugou destroyed my book!” Izumi stuttered in response, the teacher only glared at her, like she had been caught breaking a window.
“Nuh ugh!” Bakugou replied Izumi saw the blonde boy give her a wicked grin before the teacher faced him. “Izumi wrecked it earlier and tried to pin it on Bakugou just because of his quirk!”
“Yeah! I even heard her talking about it earlier!” The other cronies exclaimed as he helped the chubby one back up, clearly catching up with Bakugou’s idea to mess with Izumi.
“Stop lying!” Izumi screamed, balling her fists tight, ready for a fight. “Why would I bother with you idiots!?!”
“ENOUGH!” The teacher screamed, this brought the conflict to a complete stop, even Bakugou stood at attention as the teacher stared the four kids down. “Izumi I’ll be calling your parents and I expect you to apologize to Bakugo!,” The teacher proclaimed, leaving Izumi in shock.
“Bu-” Izumi tried to speak back but the teacher gave her a cold glare in return.
“I don’t care what you have to say, clearly you wanted some attention and figured you mess with the Bakugou just because he’s popular,” the teacher explained, this made Izumi’s blood boil, as she saw Bakugou and his cronies silently laugh at her getting blamed and them getting off scot-free.
After her teacher had decided Izumi had gotten a thorough enough scolding, Izumi was left to return to class. The rest of the day went like usual sadly, with Bakugou and his cronies messing with her, and lo and behold, the teacher ignored this the whole time. Izumi let out a sigh as she walked out of the school, she thought about taking the long way home but a stern voice voice got her attention, to her surprise, her mum was at the school front gate and she looked angry. Izumi slowly walked up to her mother, the entire time feeling the cold glare from her mother. When she reached her there was no explosive reaction or anything, she just let out a clearly annoyed fueled sigh and turned around, and started walking away. Izumi only briefly heard her grumble “We’re leaving.”
The walk home was tense, Izumi tried to strike up a conversation with her mother several times, and yet all she would get was a cold glare that made her stop in her tracks. After what felt like an hour when in reality it was only twenty minutes. Izumi and her mother made it home. As Izumi closed the door and took her shoes off, she saw her mother let out a long sigh and as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Ok Izumi…” She said after a long moment. “Care to explain what made you think starting what you did with Bakugo was a good idea?”
“Bakugou started i-” But before she could finish Inko turned on her quickly and somehow glared at her with more malice than before.
“Don’t lie to me, young lady!” Inko shouted, Izumi flinched at her mother raising her voice. “Your teacher called me and told me what happened, I can’t believe you started a fight with your best friend over a stupid book”, Inko pinched the bridge of her nose again as she let out a groan, Izumi the entire time just stared at her mother.
“But I didn’t do anything! Bakugou destroyed my book and he’s not my friend, he’s nothing but a bully!” Izumi screamed the anger from having to take the bullying from Bakugou, the frustration from her teachers ignoring all the bullying, and the sorrow of her parents' change in attitude towards her since she was diagnosed as quirkless bubbled up to the surface for a brief moment and fueled her.
“THAT’S ENOUGH!!!” Inko screamed, it echoed through the house, stopping Izumi and causing her anger to fizzle away like a small flame as a huge gust of wind blew it out. Inko now looked at her daughter with a wave of almost pure anger. “I won’t take this lying in my house and from my own daughter, your attitude has been nothing but poorly for months, I don’t know where it came from but I’m stopping it now! You’ll apologize to Bakugou and your teacher tomorrow for your awful behavior, and if you don’t I’ll just get your father to handle this. After that, I’ll be making sure this doesn’t happen again.”
When Izumi looked at her mother, she could tell this was for real, not a joke or her mother letting her emotions take control for a brief moment where she apologize later for this lapse in judgment, Izumi felt tears start to flow down her cheek, Inko saw this and scoffed.
“Don’t think crying will get me to change my mind.”
Izumi having enough of this turned around and ran up the stairs to her room, as she passed her mother. For a second she thought she heard her say something about this upsetting her plan. Izumi pushed this out of her thoughts as she ran into her room and buried her head into her pillow and reached for her owl plushie. Once the brown owl was in her grasp, Izumi let the damn break and the tears flooded out.
Izumi sniffled as she made her way home, it had been a month since her fifth birthday and her life was getting harder. Bakugou's bullying had gotten worse since she tried to stand up for herself, she rubbed her still-sore arm, but it didn’t help her parents seemed to have this idea they were friends. Even before Izumi was diagnosed as quirkless, she found Bakugou mean, didn’t help he laughed at her love for fantasy.
Izumi groaned as she opened her front door, but when called out for her mum, she was met with her voice echoing through the house, a little frightened, Izumi slowly walked through the house, as she went through the house, her fear continued to grow, after ten minutes, she found the house to be empty and nothing there to say where her mum or dad had disappeared too.
She jumped when she thought she heard a sound upstairs, fear gripped her heart but she pushed it down the best she could as she ran over to the house phone, she grabbed the phone and quickly ducked into a nearby cupboard. Acting on instincts, Izumi called the one person she knew would pick up immediately
“Hello, this is Megumi Yagi,” Izumi’s fear was lessened at the sound of her grandmother’s voice.
“Grandma…” Izumi whimpered
“Izumi… what’s the matter? Did you finish the book I got you already?” Megumi asked casually, Izumi bit back a yelp when she thought she heard another noise from upstairs. Not well enough as she heard her grandmother stop what she was doing, seemingly now giving her granddaughter her full undivided attention.
“Izumi, what’s wrong? Are you sick or is that little demon spawn messing with you again?” Megumi asked, her tone making it clear she was worried.
“Mum….and dad….. They aren’t home…..Grandma, I’m scared…” Izumi forced the words out, her fear taking control over her, she heard what she thought was her grandmother grabbing her keys and opening a door.
“Don’t worry little witch! I’ll be there so fast, you’ll think I’m a speedster,” Megumi said in her best calming voice. “Until then, stay on the phone, how was your day?”
After ten minutes of talking to her grandma on the phone, Izumi heard the front door open and someone rushing into the house, a few seconds later the cupboard door creaked open. To Izumi’s relief, it was her grandma, she was panting, sweating, and red from her run. She was quick to scoop up Izumi and get her outside. She grabbed the phone Izumi was holding and just tossed it to the ground, clearly not caring for it now she had Izumi in her grasp.
“Ok since my son and your mother have clearly left you home alone,” Megumi said, her voice laced with anger that was clear in her tone as she locked the front door and walked down the path. “I’m taking you home till they come back, where I’m so having a word with them.”
Izumi buried her head into her grandma's chest as she soothed her wild hair, something Inko had said needed to be fixed recently to make Izumi seem more normal. The walk back to Megumi's house was peaceful, the grandmother and granddaughter remained in mostly silence, and the only words being said were Megumi's soothing words. Once she got back to her grandma's house, five miles away. Izumi was taken into the room Megumi had set up for her whenever she stayed over, the room was covered in fantasy series, from bookshelves with many fictional series, the ones Izumi couldn’t read yet being kept on the top shelf. Posters from some of the magic films Izumi loved and at the foot of her bed, a toy chest filled with magical creature plushies. As Megumi got Izumi a change of clothes, Izumi opened the chest and pulled out her two favorite plushies, a white cat plushie, and a purple snake plushie.
After getting changed, Izumi helped her grandma with making dinner and then sat down in Izumi’s room. They watched some cartoons, mostly one series that followed a girl trapped in another world that was inhabited by frog people as she tried to find a way home and beat the main evil of the world. Before Izumi knew it, she was starting to feel her eyelids drop as she leaned more into Megumi's side, the grandmother let out a chuckle, carefully she moved off Izumi’s bed, and grabbed two of Izumui’s favorite plushies and placed them on each side of her.
“Sweet dreams little witch,” Megumi whispered softly as she kissed Izumi’s forehead.
“Night grandma…” Izumi wheezed as sleep took her, the last thing she saw was her grandmother holding up her phone and her expression darkened.