Archive of Our Own ^beta

Izuku Midoriya grunted in exhaustion, laying on the ground of Dagobah Beach and staring into the sky.

He had been training to become All Might’s successor for about a week now and it was already incredibly exhausting and taxing. He was pretty sure some of the muscles that were currently hurting had spontaneously come into existence for just that purpose.

“That should be enough for today.” All Might smiled brightly, even in his decrepit form Izuku couldn’t help but feel inspired by his endlessly bright smile.

A pleasant silence took the scene for a minute before Al Might decided it was time to make some small talk...well serious small talk. “So, young Midoriya. I have a question or two, if you do not mind. What is your family like?”

Izuku blinked a bit as he sat up, everything still hurt a lot. “Uhh. W-Well. I mostly live with my mom. I barely see my dad, he works overseas.” Izuku stammered a little, honestly wondering where that question came from.

“Any other relatives? Anything you think might be worth knowing about them?” All Might continued asking gently.

“Uhm.” Izuku paused, thinking about it for a while. “N-Not really? What’s this about?”

All Might paused, he knew it was incredibly early for this sort of thing but he also knew what being a hero was like. “Well, young Midoriya, the reality is that many villains go after hero’s families, some the direct way, some through more unconventional methods. Smear campaigns, questioning someone’s heritage, that sort of thing. The more you have these facts internalised and the more you know about your family and yourself, the less open you are for them to come after you. So if you have anything, anything at all that might stand out for your family that you know of? It helps you prepare for that eventuality.”

Izuku thought a while about this. “I-I think I know something.” Izuku mumbled eventually. “Mom said a while ago that I’m the only quirkless member of our family in five generations. Everyone before me had a quirk of some kind.”

All Might blinked at this, tilting his head. “Are you certain?” He asked with a serious tone in his voice.

“Y-Yeah. I-I think it’s part of the reason she’s so sad all the time.” Izuku stated glumly, “She couldn’t believe I was the only one so unlucky in our family.”

All Might paused for a long while, contemplating this. “Young Midoriya.” He said finally, “I’d like you to meet a friend of mine. Could you bring anything about your family that you know, quirk registrations, where they used to live and so on? It would really help with this.”

Izuku blinked. “S-Sure? I think. What’s this about?”

“You’ll see.” All Might answered brightly.

As Izuku left, All Might scratched his chin slightly, if his suspicion about the young Midoriya was correct, then perhaps he’d have to look for a different successor after all.

When Izuku came home that day he tiredly paused in the door to the apartment, genuinely wondering what All Might was getting at with his questions. What was the point of knowing Izuku’s family history?

“Hi mom.” Izuku called tiredly.

“Oh! Is everything okay? You look worn out.” Inko answered, looking concerned at him from the kitchen.

“I’m fine mom, just trying to work out a bit.” Izuku smiled as he flopped on the couch.

“U-Uhm. Mom?” Izuku began, trying to think of a way to breach the subject that All Might had asked of him.

“Do we have anything about your grandparents? Like what quirks they had?” He continued before Inko could ask.

Inko paused, frowning slightly. “I think so. Why do you want to know?” The question was pointed like a needle, she knew that didn’t come out of the blue.

“W-Well I just thought I should know about them. I keep looking into heroes' quirks but I’d like to know what ours are like too.” Izuku lied as smoothly as he could manage, which given his guilty face, the nervous smile and shaky voice was about as smooth as a hedgehog.

Inko raised a very curious eyebrow for several seconds before eventually sighing, who knew what her son was getting himself into?

“There should be a shoe box in the storage closet.” She eventually conceded. “But if you take anything from there, put it back. Those documents are hard to get again!” She grumbled.

“O-Okay! Thanks mom!” Without waiting for dinner, Izuku rushed to the storage closet and started looking for the shoe box in question.

Inko shook her head. She wanted to believe in her son, she really did but she couldn’t help but feel like he was wasting his time clinging to straws. What use could he possibly have in their family's quirks?

She sighed, if it made him happy, she’d indulge him. That was, she felt, the least she could do.

A few days later, on a Saturday, Izuku was ten minutes late to his training with All Might. He was rushing and far more out of breath than he thought he would be. Muscle cramps had been annoying him for the last few days, the breaks had barely helped.

Izuku couldn’t help but shiver slightly as he finally screeched to a stop at the beach. Even as warm as it was a minute ago he just felt cold, like he had just come out of water.

“Young Midoriya!” All Might called from nearby. “Good to see you’re here. Are you okay?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at the still very out of breath boy. Yeah. Something was up.

“I-I’m fine. Just tired.” Izuku stated simply.

All Might didn’t say anything but he knew the boy wasn’t correct about that statement.

He was surprised, how could someone who analysed people’s quirks for a hobby and knew even some random one off villain that All Might had fought for all of five minutes not look at themselves in wonder of what was happening to them?

Was it some kind of ‘can’t see the forest for the trees’ situation?

All Might smiled after a few seconds “Alright. You good? We’re taking the bike route up there,” he pointed up the stairs nearby, “for the next few miles. My friend is about thirty to forty minutes walk away from here. We’re not running, mind you. It seems you’re out of it today anyway.”

Izuku sighed. “I-I’m fine. Just stressed out.” He lied, again about as smoothly as he usually did, which convinced absolutely no one, least of all himself.

All Might chuckled. “My boy if I learned anything, it’s that accepting you have limits is the hardest thing to do. Come on. A bit of a scenic walk is worth taking from time to time.”

The two of them walked in silence for a while before Izuku couldn’t help but ask: “I-Is there a reason other than me being tired why we’re walking?”

All Might chuckled sadly. “Young Midoriya. Do you know how little time I spend just enjoying the scenery?” He asked rhetorically.

He shrugged. “This is something else you need to learn now before you start: Enjoying the little things. The higher you are in the rankings, the less time you have for yourself.”

Izuku blinked a while as they kept walking. It was strangely cathartic to know that even All Might wasn’t just endlessly saving people. It was a sobering reminder that he too was a person, someone who needed some time off, however small it may be, to just take a breath.

They continued their little journey in silence, walking along the coast line before eventually turning in near a small town.

“Welcome to Ixion Town. You probably never heard of it, few people have actually.” All Might vaguely motioned around. “Quiet little area, as a place like it wants to be.”

They walked through the winding streets to a small apartment complex. Before Izuku could ask what they were doing here, he noticed the massive amount of cameras looking at everything. Just as fast, the cameras were all looking at them.

“You’re on time. Given margins.” A tinny, quiet and slow, voice chimed in from somewhere close by.

“Hello, Mr. Bracket.” All Might announced simply, taking his cellphone out, it had seemingly turned on to show a red, mechanical, eye looking at him.

“All Might.” Mr. Bracket greeted simply. “I shall. Let you two in.” With a little noise the front door opened.

Izuku couldn’t help but shudder slightly. The man on the other side of this conversation sounded stilted, almost a little alien to listen to. It was as if he didn’t talk to people much so much as talk at them.

“I have to say. When I got your message I was expecting more,” the man’s voice paused like an audio reco- “urgent matters.” -rding.

“I would apologize Mr. Bracket. However I assure you, this is important.” All Might answered simply, still holding his phone in front of himself.

“You always, always say that.” The red eye seemingly rolled in the phone, as the slightly tinny and tired voice drawled on.

“Have I ever lied?” All Might asked neutrally.

“No, no. No you have not. You are one of the few, few people who never lied to me.” Mr. Bracket’s tired voice continued. “So I shall. Give you the benefit of the doubt here.” With that the phone shut off.

“I-Is...Is ‘Mr. Bracket’ okay?” Izuku asked innocently. “He sounds so depressed.”

All Might laughed. “Trust me, my boy, he is quite alright. Given a value of ‘alright’. There are very few people like him out there and even fewer who are as,” he paused to find the correct word, “reasonable as he is.”

“I personally prefer the term: Agreeable.” The drawling tones continued as they walked through the apartment complex.

Izuku noticed just how clean the place was.

Not clean in the usual way but outright sterile. The walls and even the ceiling felt almost clinically clean, as if someone regularly bleached the entire place.

“Come in, come in. Do wipe your shoes, no need for filth in this place.” The voice drawled as suddenly a door opened into the wall on the right.

All Might barely stopped, wiping his shoes at the stone grey, perfectly flat, welcome mat. Izuku followed and did the same, now thoroughly confused.

The room they had entered looked about as sterile as physically possible. Everything was a slight, hospital-like, off-white. The smell in the air didn’t help this perception as it took Izuku all his strength to not cringe in on himself, to his confusion it was the smell of cold cigarette smoke.

“Come in, come in.” The voice, now not tinny thanks to being in the actual room with them, drawled on. “I expected you a bit sooner, old friend.”

As they stepped through the hallway and into the room itself Izuku was...slightly baffled at who he saw.

Mr. Bracket was about thirty years old, at best, Izuku figured. His face was thin and his eyes looked tired and sunken in. His hair was pitch black and he was wearing a very clean looking white suit with a thin, unlit, cigarette in his mouth. Floating around him were small red eyes, like mechanical cameras of some kind.

“Ah,. You must be the… young man All Might mentioned.'' The man seemingly wrung for word for several seconds as his mechanical eye bots flew over to Izuku in a certain distance away from him in a circle, Izuku realised it was just out of arm's reach.

“I apologise, Royce, I figured I should bring him here now before we let things progress too far.” All Might smiled.

“It’s fine. Just fine.” The now fully named Royce Bracket stated neutrally. “I was, hoping, for something like this.”

Izuku looked nervously at the eye, things floating around him. “W-What are you doing?”

“Confirming and…. or debunking possibilities.” Royce drawled, either not noticing or acknowledging Izuku’s discomfort.

“I specialise in seeing, and knowing, things people miss. The obvious, missed by the oblivious.” Royce stared at Izuku in the same way one might stare at someone they were going to dissect. From a certain perspective that impression wasn’t even incorrect.

“Well. Young Midoriya, do introduce yourself!” All Might smiled simply as the eye cameras retreated back to Royce.

“W-Well. I’m Iz-”

“IzukuMidoriyaAgeFourteenGoingOnFifteenYourMotherIsInkoMidoriyaYourFatherHisashiMidoriyaYouWereDiagnosedQuirklessAtAgeFourHaveHighGradesInTheoreticalSubjectsInSchoolButNearFailingInAnyPhysicalTasksYouSpendSixOutOfSevenDaysResearchingHeroQuirksAndSpendSundayOnForumsHopingToFindOutMoreAboutTheScienceBehindQuirks.”

Royce had cut him off so thoroughly that Izuku was more impressed that the man could talk as fast as Izuku himself could mutter.

“Hm. Unusual. You only visited one doctor about your quirk. Not more. Why.” Royce returned to his usual drawl, almost giving Izuku whiplash from the change of pace.

As Izuku opened his mouth to answer Royce already spoke again. “Obvious mistake, likely made in distraught. Happens a lot.”

It took Izuku a second to realise that Royce wasn’t staring at him directly but rather at Izuku’s shoes.

“Understandable reaction, pinky toe joints. Logical reaction judging public knowledge, illogical by current knowledge of the science community. A mistake, not on your end, or deliberate? Likely deliberate, genetic history should have shown discrepancies.” Royce continued, ignoring the wide eyed look Izuku gave him and ignoring All Might’s slight glare.

All Might had really hoped that Royce had learned some tact over the years. All Might himself was no expert on tact but Royce was a wrecking ball at best and a nuke at worst.

Royce paused for a short moment before focusing on Izuku’s face but not on Izuku’s eyes. “Have you got any information on your ancestry?” he asked, his voice dispassionate, almost toneless.

“Y-Yeah.” Izuku eventually stammered out, taking his backpack off and pulling out a relatively new notebook. He had copied just about everything about his family tree into it.

It didn’t take longer than a second for the mechanical eyes to somehow pick the notebook out of Izuku’s hand and look through it.

“Very organised physical information. Chronological, decent preparation. Could be a good analyst, if properly educated… and hand writing is cleaned up.” Royce drawled on as the eyes read through the book.

Izuku was kind of agitated now, what was this man doing? Why had All Might brought him here?

Royce tilted his head for a while. “Unlikely. Highly unlikely. Not impossible. Still, very unlikely.”

“W-What is?” Izuku asked. “I-I’d like an explanation of what you’re doing.” Izuku grumbled.

“Ascertaining if your quirk doctor deserves his doctorate, with the current information available it is unlikely he does.” Royce replied simply.

“What?” Izuku now asked very clearly, if only because he was about as confused as he physically could be.

“You are the fifth generation of your family, as clarified by your information. It is highly unlikely that all of your family's genetics skipped over you.” Royce clarified, if only just.

“W-Well it did!” Izuku growled. “I’m quirkless--”

“An assumption based upon one doctor's analysis, using outdated, decidedly unscientific, research.” Royce stopped Izuku’s protest cold. “As no official record exists that you have visited another doctor since, I assume that is all that was done.”

Izuku blinked before looking at All Might. “Is...Is this why you wanted me to come here? Because you don’t think I’m quirkless?” It wasn’t an accusation, as much as Izuku’s shaky voice implied it.

He would have given anything to be proven wrong, to have it be told to him that he always had a quirk. Then again, he was also scared of that possibility, because then he had gone through the past ten years for no reason at all. He could have had friends, he could have had people who believed in his future. He could have had a future of his own.

All Might paused. “Yes.” He stated simply. “It struck me as odd that you said your family had quirks for four generations before you. It… well, it seemed strange that you lack a quirk entirely.”

Izuku blinked for a while. “But why? Twenty percent of people on earth are quirkless.”

“Biased, gross overestimation. Government provided, not peer reviewed.” Royce cut in calmly.

“The actual number is closer to four percent. Of which, ninety percent are within the age range of sixty to seventy. The remaining percentile being families specifically aiming to remain without quirks. Not matching your family profile.”

Before Izuku could ask, Royce continued. “A generation is estimated to last between twenty to thirty years. One generation contains on average between seventy million to eighty million people. It is projected that quirklessness will no longer exist within the next two generations. Twenty percent of humanity is, as of the year 2XXX, your birth year: Three billion, four hundred sixty-seven million, eight hundred nine thousand, plus minus several ten thousand. Do you see the discrepancy?”

Royce continued: “I do not consider mis-identification of quirks and gross doctoral neglect into these numbers. The point remains, it is unlikely that you are genuinely quirkless. Your family history, the statistics and obscurity of quirk activation criteria point against it.” Royce tone never left his deadpan cadence.

Izuku froze. Was he actually saying what Izuku thought he was saying?

“Y-You think I have a quirk?” Izuku asked quietly, there was a strange feeling in his chest, a warm, unfamiliar feeling. Maybe it just was the knowledge that someone believed in him? No, he had that with All Might a few days ago and it didn’t feel like this did.

“Given current evidence? Likely.” Royce took the cigarette out his mouth and, smoothly revealing a black, ornamented, zippo lighter from his coat pocket, lit it.

“Conjecture: Your mothers quirk is telekinesis, your fathers is breathing fire. Given simple tests, not hard to find possible oversights." He threw the closed lighter to Izuku, who with more than a little fumbling and startled sounds caught it.

“Open it, light it, focus on it.”

Izuku opened the lighter and tried for several seconds to light it. Eventually All Might took pity and lit it for him and handed it to him. At which point the lighter seemingly turned off instantly, forcing Izuku to try again.

This scene repeated at least nine times.

Royce spent said time, alternating between taking drags from his cigarette, watching the ashes and wondering if these two plebeians would ever notice the pattern… and increasingly forcing himself to not break out into immature giggles because this was the most entertainment he had gotten in the past ten years.

“Perhaps.” Royce stated simply. “You should ask yourself why it works for him but not for you.” He eventually said, if only because the situation had moved beyond funny to sad.

To emphasise his point he took a long drag from his cigarette, watching as the ash and hot air seemingly attracted itself towards Izuku, the smoke and warm air seemingly ignoring All Might entirely.

“...It’s...kind of...cold” Izuku mumbled, still trying to turn on the lighter but it failed every time. “It’s...It’s my...MyQuirk?! ThatsWhyKacchansExplosionsDontHurtMuch!TheHeatIsGoneIJustFeltThePhysicalForceNotTheHeatMyBodyMustBeStoringItOrAbsorbingIt”

“There it is.” Royce deadpanned cutting Izuku’s brewing muttering storm off. “I leave the experimentation and proving fake medicals wrong to you.”

With a series of strange sounds the entire floor Izuku and All Might were standing on moved backwards and the walls seemingly melted away behind them and within less than eight seconds they were back outside the apartment complex.

Before Izuku could ask for his notebook a floating eye robot dropped it into his hands, taking the zippo lighter with it in the process. The entire apartment complex restored itself to normal, as if nothing had happened.

“D-D---D---Did that just happen?!” Izuku asked, genuinely exasperated.

“Well. Yes. Royce Bracket is not a doctor. Just a genius in finding the things other people miss. You now have proof that you have a quirk, young Midoriya. He could have been nicer about it, no doubt.” All Might scratched his chin, sweating profusely at his friend's attitude.

Izuku however wasn’t listening. In fact he had more so asked his previous question out of shock than anything else.

His mind was reeling. Well no, that implied he had a thing to be anchored to. No. The reality was that Izuku was in a storm of doubt about everything he had known. The more he thought about all the crap he had been put through the more it didn’t make sense.

How? How could no one have noticed any of it? Why? Why did no one notice it at all? Even if they didn’t know what it was, someone must have felt something was off right? Whywhyhyhwhwhyhy...-

“Young Midoriya!” All Might’s voice and hand on Izuku’s shoulder dragged him back to reality.

“You were… lost there for a minute.” All Might said, very carefully. “We should get you home. I think we both have a lot to explain to your mother.”

Izuku froze for a second. “A-Are you sure? You said no one shou--”

“Know my secret? Yes. That remains the case. However, I believe your mother would be far more at ease knowing that someone can verify that you always had a quirk and that someone I trust has concluded that. Imagine, for just a moment, how it would look to her if you alone told her you have a quirk now.” All Might assured him.

Izuku thought of this and shuddered. His mom would likely assume the worst, despite her better judgement.

“O-Okay...Thank you.”

“What?” Inko asked, she must have misheard what Izuku and the strange, slightly zombie-esque, man had told her.

It had taken them more than half an hour to get through the introductions to start with because “I see potential in your son as a hero,” while a nice sentiment, was also hard to take seriously when it came from someone who looked like he would die if someone sneezed too loudly.

“I-I know it sounds hard to believe mom! But it’s true: I have a quirk!” Izuku exclaimed, his eyes almost shining.

Inko contemplated what they had told her, if only because Izuku looked so convinced about it.

“Well.” Inko looked contemplative. “How much have you been able to test it yet?” she asked.

“Mom, we literally came here after we got confirmation.” Izuku whined desperately, “I just… know it works.”

All Might meanwhile tilted his head slightly. “I just thought of a way we can test how it works. Young Midoriya said the lighter felt cold when his quirk activated.” All Might explained simply.

“Oh!” Izuku got where All Might was going with this. “So we can just test what it’s doing with a hot drink or something.”

Inko smiled. “Well I did plan for some coffee anyway.”

Izuku could almost hear the doubt in her voice but she was willing to have faith, which was new.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about his mother suddenly having a bit of faith in his abilities if the chance existed that he had a quirk but he was on an adrenaline kick and not willing to let a bad thought drag him down.

So the coffee was brought to the table. Inko almost immediately noticed a difference to Izuku’s usual behaviour. He looked...enamoured(?)...or mesmerised.

On Izuku’s side of things, a strange feeling came to him, it niggled in his head and he didn’t remember ever having it before.

It was as if his body knew where the heat was and felt drawn to it, like a fly to a light source. The warm sensation in his chest from earlier was there again but clearer and stronger.

Izuku cautiously put his hands on his mug, he could feel a strange sensation in his palms and fingers, as if the heat from the centre of the coffee was travelling into his palms. It tingled slightly as he seemed almost a bit too focused for his own good.

Inko tilted her head, not quite parsing what was happening, or the things her son was muttering to himself but stopped when she realised that the top of the mug had a light bit of frost to it.

Izuku, after a few seconds, in which his body seemingly realised that there was no heat it could take from the coffee or the mug itself anymore, looked curiously at the coffee before turning the mug over, its opening squarely against the table.

When he lifted the mug up, a perfectly frozen coffee cylinder remained as if it always belonged there.

Inko blinked for a long time. “You…. You have a quirk? But-But how?” Inko asked, genuinely disturbed.

“I know the doctor could have been wrong but how was it not active until today?!” Inko cut her son's explanation off, she wasn’t that dense that she hadn’t considered that possibility already.

“Well Mrs. Midoriya,” All Might began, “I have a theory. I have dealt with many, many people at my job.” He continued, not a lie as such. “Many of their quirks changed given circumstances. Some became stronger in certain situations, some weaker. Something I have encountered is that: People who have dealt with certain trauma can either not at all or at least only partially use their quirk.”

Before Inko or Izuku could ask what he meant he simply smiled and continued. “Correct me if I am mistaken, but Young Midoriya had only been to one quirk doctor as a four year old boy. A doctor who, callously or not, affirmed that he didn’t have a quirk.”

All Might rubbed his hands slightly. “Given our society, such a statement is hell for a child.” He paused and shook his head lightly before getting to his point: “There exist various terms for conditions such as this. T.I.Q.F or P.Q.F are some. That is ‘Trauma Induced Quirk Failure’ and ‘Psychological Quirk Failure’. Both refer to similar situations.”

“They refer to one's inability to activate one's quirk in certain or any situations, depending on severity. Given your son’s situation, of a young child being told they have no quirk by an authority figure, it would not surprise me that he subconsciously accepted that he was ‘quirkless’ and thus could not activate his quirk until someone who had similar authority told him that he had a quirk.”

Inko blinked for a while, raising a curious eyebrow for a moment. Okay then, she thought, she’d play along. At least until Izuku was out of the apartment.

“Well then!” She exclaimed suddenly, making both men jump. “You know a lot of people, Mr. Yagi. Is there a doctor who could get Izuku’s registration changed? The sooner the better.” She asked in such a sweet tone that if All Might had been diabetic he would have died by the second word.

“Y-Yes. I was going to ask that he see two friends of mine later today. I had preemptively asked my friend to schedule a visit today. If everything goes well, he will leave that office with a signed quirk registration and all the credentials he needs.” It wasn’t a lie, All Might had done that, because he believed that Royce would find something.

“Well Izuku then you should go to meet these doctors! I think Mr. Yagi and I can wait until you come back.” Inko exclaimed, a bit too happy for Izuku to believe that she was actually as glad about the situation as she claimed.

Nevertheless Izuku took the card that All Might handed him, which was for one “Grant and Asher Kendrell”, leaving the two of them to whatever discussion his mother wanted to have. He had the sinking feeling he didn’t want to know the details.

The door barely closed before Inko Midoriya’s demeanour changed, gone was the soft, almost plushy -like woman who stammered about as much as her son and looked as close to close to fainting as just talking to him.

Instead, her voice had an edge like a straight razor, a face like a seasoned interrogator and eyes like pin pricks aimed at his. “So. Mr. Yagi, who are you really?”

Her question was about as direct and to the heart of what she wanted to know that he knew there wasn’t any way out of this. He was either going to tell her the whole truth, or he would have made a great mistake coming into this apartment.

With a sigh and a burst of steam he turned into his usual heroic form. “Does this answer your question?”

To his surprise, she didn’t even flinch or act surprised, instead looking curious. “No. But it will do for a start. We have a decent amount of time until Izuku is home. You can explain yourself until then.”

All Might, no, Toshinori Yagi, knew what this was. This woman, Inko Midoriya, was like a scalpel.

He could either tell her everything she wanted to know, or she would proverbially cut the information out of him if she had to.

A part of himself wondered just who the Midoriyas were that they could be like this. What created a family like them.

Wide eyed, helpful, idealists, whenever possible.

Laser focused warriors, when necessary.

Fortunately Sunday was a warm bright day so Izuku, after a long, looooooooong conversation with his mom when he came back from the quirk doctor that All Might had sent him to, was out here to train.

Well not train, more so figure out some things about his quirk. Izuku already felt different, felt more at peace with himself. Even as he stepped on the sand he could feel the warmth of the world around him, as if his quirk knew it was there just as much as he did.

Izuku paused in between the piles of incredibly warm metal trash, he still intended to clean this place, he could sense that it was different than it felt the days before. He could feel the heat radiate from a wrecked car but it was entirely alien to how it had been like before.

Cautiously, as if trying to avoid a burn he put his palm on the wrecked car’s hood. It didn’t feel hot, it felt pleasantly warm at best. Yet it certainly was a sweltering hot metal frame that looked close to glowing.

He focused on the car and could feel the heat move as the heat seemingly snaked up his arm and into the rest of his body, a pleasant warmth spreading through him. The car slowly began frosting and Izuku could even hear it creak like it was going to bend in on itself.

He wondered briefly where his quirk started taking the heat from, the outside or the inside? Then he shook his head and continued experimenting.

Small objects? Worked. Big objects? Worked but seemed to take longer. Sand? Worked but it took a bit for him to drain more than singular sand grains at a time, how he could tell it was only one at the start he wouldn’t know.

He felt strange, warm, not feverish but he could tell he was warmer than he felt at any other point of his life. He kept wandering around and draining the heat out of the trash piles, if for no other reason than to see what else would change if he kept draining heat from things.

Eventually he stood out in the open, seeming a bit mesmerised with his own palms. He could feel the heat and energy course through himself, like a strange, tingly, river of sparks.

“Ah there you are, Young Midoriya.” All Might called to him, ripping him from his own introspection.

Walking alongside All Might to him was a rather large man who looked almost a bit like an over-sized matryoshka doll with a wide smile on his face.

“Fatgum?!!” Izuku almost squeaked in such a high pitched tone that it was hard to hear, his hair standing in all directions.

“Hahah! Yes, that's me. I’ve heard a few things from All Might here.” Fatgum motioned to All Might for a moment. “So you’re a new hero hopeful who could need a bit of help huh?”

Izuku froze, puzzle pieces in his head clicking together, before looking at All Might questioningly. “U-Uhm. Not to be rude but I thought you would train me?”

All Might raised a placating hand. “Midoriya, I want you to understand that I only know so much about quirks. Your kind of quirk specifically is one that I am not particularly good at teaching. You remember what we spoke of yesterday?” He asked as if to try and confirm that Izuku knew what he wanted to hear.

“Y-Yes of course!” Izuku answered. They had spoken about Izuku not being given All Might’s quirk, because All Might had no idea how his own quirk would interact with it, if at all. All Might did not want to risk Izuku’s quirk somehow doing something really bad if it interacted with his own.

So instead All Might had offered to find a way to still help him. That was why he had asked Fatgum to be there.

“Say kid, All Might here said your hair is green. Same for your eyes. There a reason your hair looks blue-ish? Also your eyes aren’t green either now that I see them.” Fatgum chimed into their somewhat cryptic conversation, pulling a candy bar out of his pockets and chowing down like it barely existed.

“Ehh? I…. don’t know?” Izuku looked at himself. Aside from the warm feeling in his body, he didn’t look any different aside from his hair and eyes apparently.

He had hoped for some volcanic looking skin or glowing veins or something but no such luck. “I’ve been trying to figure out some things about my quirk all day so… maybe that’s how it’s visible?”

Fatgum paused, “Hmm, maybe you can keep draining heat from things and we’ll see where it goes.”

“I’ll leave you two to it.” All Might smiled before he saluted slightly and leaped away.

“Well kid? Let’s get to it, unlike everyone else, you’re behind several years, you’re gonna need any experience you can get.” Fatgum mused. “I don’t have forever either, I have a job to do after all so let’s continue. We’re gonna see if you have an upper limit, just keep draining things until it starts getting uncomfortable.”

Izuku nodded quickly and started on that.

A few minutes later he paused as the warm sensation suddenly went away.

Izuku looked around and Fatgum blinked at him, or more specifically the floor around Izuku’s feet.

“That wasn’t there before was it?” He asked, motioning to the ground around Izuku.

In a circle around his feet, was a blue fire-like...substance(?) like a puddle around him, as if there was a visible heat haze emanating from his feet.

“Curious, seems like your body is somehow venting the heat out. Surprisingly, it doesn’t seem to be hurting you or damaging your shoes in any way. That’s pretty lucky, most other quirks wouldn’t be so nice about it.” Fatgum smiled, casually pulling out a pen and eating it.

“I-It did that yesterday at the doctor's office too very briefly.” Izuku muttered. “I thought I imagined it, it was only there for a second or so.”

Fatgum tilted his head. “Can you pull the haze back in? Or do anything with it? Try it on one of the car wrecks.”

Izuku nodded and focused briefly on the haze, feeling it flow back into him. This time it started to hurt.

“Owowwow!” Izuku waved his hands frantically, feeling the heat suddenly burst away in a near invisible burst forward.

The haze travelled straight ahead on the ground and right above it at the height of Izuku’s hands a hole melted into the car wreck he had aimed at… well, he hadn’t really aimed but it was enough.

Fatgum whistled. “Nice one. Looks like you got yourself a move, now we just gotta get you to a state where you don’t accidentally melt people or yourself.”

Izuku nodded again before wondering if his next idea worked, if pulling the haze back in worked maybe pushing it away wouldn’t?

He pointed his hand at the car wreck this time focusing on wanting the heat to go into that direction.

With a ~Fwoosh~ sound the same thing as before happened though far more focused and without being painful.

Izuku noticed that while the burst of heat went straight ahead the haze at his feet disappeared.

“Huh. Guess that’s different, it didn’t melt the metal this time but did scorch it.” Fatgum observed.

“Did the same thing with the haze at your feet though. Better stick to the second one until you learn at school how to deal with the first one.” He mused.

Izuku nodded, he was still feeling very numb. Like he would wake up any second now and be told he had hit his head.

He had a quirk.

He. Had. A. Quirk.

“Now ya gotta figure out the specifics of this whole thing, I think.” Fatgum chimed up. “You know ya can store it, ya know it has an upper limit when it starts doing things on its own, now you gotta figure out how you can make it do that without reaching that limit.”

Izuku nodded very enthusiastically this time.

He started draining heat out of things again but made sure to stay in the ‘warm feeling zone’ this time.

Then he tilted his head, his dad’s quirk was related to breathing. So maybe his normal trigger to make the heat become the haze had something to do with that?

Or with doing the opposite?

Izuku focused, closing his eyes and stopping his breath.

A moment later with a ~Fwosh~ the haze appeared around his feet again.

“There ya go. Wonder why All Might wanted me to help, ya do this just fine on your own.” Fatgum laughed, “Nah I know why I’m here, as long as you got me around doing this, no ones gonna make a fuss.”

Izuku paused slightly, focused on the haze on the ground before holding his left hand skyward. The haze gathered off the floor into an orb above his palm before with a throwing motion it flew into the car wreck and after a short second exploded rather violently.

Fatgum blinked rapidly. “Okayyyyy. Note for the future: Don’t do that unsupervised or without further training because that’s gonna kill someone if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Y-Yeah.” Izuku stammered, he did not quite parse that he had this much power on his hands.

When Izuku went to school that Monday morning the first thing he did was hand the principal the changed records he had received.

Izuku had never seen someone’s face pale so fast and yet return to colour just as quickly.

He also brought a copy of the same information to his homeroom teacher, taking care to be the first one in class.

The look on his teacher's face was even better than that of the principal's. He really couldn’t imagine what could ruin a day like this.

“The fuck are you smiling about, Deku?!”

Ah right. Katsuki could possibly do that.

Izuku tilted his head, putting his left hand on his desk, causing it to slowly frost over and raising his right hand, a blue hazy orb appearing above it. “Does that answer your question Kacchan? Or do you need me to spell it out for you?”

Was Izuku being a little cocky? Yes.

Was he probably going to catch a beating for this? Also Yes.

Was it worth it? Absolutely.

“You little—”

“Bakugo! Sit the hell down, boy. I won’t have you attack a peer in this classroom.”

There was a collective blinking from every student, it was probably the first time the teacher had actually stood up for Izuku.

With a low growl, Katsuki spun around and sat down.

Izuku blinked but eventually just smiled.

It was nice, he thought, to finally get some respect.

Quirk: Pyre

Type: Emitter

Quote: “Your inner enlightenment brought to life”