Chapter Text
Izuku Midoriya was four years old when he learned what the word "quirkless" meant.
He sat on the tall examination table in the doctor's office, kicking his legs back and forth while he waited. The paper crinkled under him every time he moved. Mama stood next to him, her hand resting on his shoulder. She kept squeezing it gently, like she did when she was worried.
The doctor had taken pictures of his foot. Special pictures that showed the bones inside. Izuku thought that was really cool! He'd asked if he could see them, and the doctor had smiled and said "maybe later, young man."
Now the doctor was looking at those pictures on his computer screen. He had his glasses off and was cleaning them with a cloth. He'd been cleaning them for a while now.
"Is something wrong?" Mama asked. Her voice sounded funny. Tight.
The doctor put his glasses back on and turned to face them. He looked at Mama, then at Izuku, then back at Mama.
"Mrs. Midoriya, I'm afraid your son has the extra joint in his pinky toe. Based on our research, this means he almost certainly will notdevelop a quirk. I'm very sorry."
Mama's hand tightened on Izuku's shoulder. "Are... are you certain?"
"I'm afraid so. He's part of the twenty percent. He's quirkless."
Izuku didn't understand all the big words. But he understood "quirkless." That meant no quirk. That meant no special power like the other kids at daycare. That meant...
"Can I still be a hero?" His voice came out small and wobbly.
The doctor's face did something weird. Sad but also uncomfortable, like he'd tasted something yucky. "I'm sorry, son. I'm afraid becoming a pro hero would be... very difficult without a quirk."
The ride home felt long. Mama didn't talk. She just drove, and Izuku could see her wiping her eyes sometimes. That made his tummy feel all twisted and bad. He clutched his All Might action figure tight and stared out the window.
A kid flew past the car. Actually flew! Wings had sprouted from his back, and he was laughing as he soared through the air with his daddy.
Izuku pressed his forehead against the cool window glass and closed his eyes.
That night, Izuku sat at Mama's computer watching his favorite video. He'd watched it so many times he had the words memorized. All Might's debut, where he saved over a hundred people from a villain attack. All Might was so big and strong and smiling even though the situation was scary.
"It's fine now. Why? Because I am here!"
Izuku's eyes got all blurry. His throat hurt. "Mama... can I be a hero? Even without a quirk?"
He heard a sound behind him—a gasp, then footsteps. Mama burst into the room and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into the tightest hug ever.
"I'm so sorry, Izuku! I'm so, so sorry!"
She was crying. Mama was crying, and it was because of him, because he couldn't have a quirk like other kids. They stayed like that for a long time, and Izuku cried too, even though he didn't want to.
He wanted to be brave like All Might. But right now, he just felt small.
The days after that were hard.
Izuku kept going to daycare, but things felt different now. Before, when kids asked about his quirk, he'd say "I don't know yet!" Now, he didn't know what to say. Some kids still played with him. Others didn't want to anymore.
"My mama says people without quirks are weak," one girl said, not being mean, just saying it like it was a fact. "She says I shouldn't play rough with you because you might get really hurt."
Kacchan, Izuku's best friend since they were babies, started acting weird too. He didn't say Izuku couldn't play with him or anything. But sometimes he'd show off his quirk more, making bigger explosions with his hands. And when Izuku tried to suggest games, Kacchan would say they sounded boring and pick something else.
Mama got him notebooks. Lots of them. "If you want to be a hero, or do something else, you need to learn," she said, smiling even though her eyes still looked sad sometimes. "You need to be smart and good. Those things matter more than quirks, okay?"
Izuku nodded and threw himself into the notebooks. He couldn't write very well yet (he was only four) but he could draw! He drew All Might, and Endeavor, and Best Jeanist. He drew their costumes and tried to write down what their quirks did (Mama helped him spell the hard words).
At night, he dreamed of being a hero anyway. Of finding a way, somehow.
Izuku turned five in July.
Mama made his favorite dinner(katsudon) and got him an All Might cake. Some kids from daycare came over for a party. Kacchan came too, though he spent most of the time playing with the other kids who had quirks, showing off the new tricks he'd learned with his explosions.
"I'm gonna be the number one hero," Kacchan announced, making sparks dance across his palms. "I'm gonna beat everyone and be even better than All Might!"
"That's wonderful, Katsuki!" Mama said, but Izuku could hear the tightness in her voice again. The voice that meant she was worried about him.
After everyone went home, Izuku sat with his new presents—more All Might figures, some books about heroes, and a special notebook with All Might on the cover. He opened it to the first page and carefully wrote at the top, tongue poking out in concentration:
"HERO NOTEBOOKS BY IZUKU MIDORIYA"
(Mama had to help him spell "notebooks" right, but he was proud anyway.)
Under that, he drew All Might with his big smile. Then he wrote, in his scratchy five-year-old handwriting: "I'm gonna be a hero. I promis."
Three months later, everything changed.
It was a normal Wednesday afternoon. Mama had picked Izuku up from daycare, and they'd stopped by the park on the way home. Izuku liked the park. There were usually other kids there, and even if some of them didn't want to play with the quirkless kid, he could still have fun on the swings.
He was on the swings when he heard the shouting.
"Give it back!"
Izuku turned to see three bigger kids, probably seven or eight years old ,surrounding a younger boy. One of the big kids was holding a toy robot above his head while the little kid jumped, trying to grab it.
"What's wrong? Can't reach?" The big kid laughed. "Maybe your quirk can help! Oh wait, what even is your quirk? Making toys disappear? That's so lame!"
The other big kids laughed. The little boy's eyes were getting all red and watery.
Izuku's tummy did that twisty thing again. But this time it wasn't sad-twisty. It was angry-twisty.
That wasn't fair. They were being mean for no reason. That's not what heroes did. Heroes helped people who were in trouble!
Before he could think about it too much, Izuku jumped off the swing. His legs felt wobbly, but he made them move toward the big kids.
"H-hey! Leave him alone!" His voice came out squeakier than he wanted. "You shouldn't take people's toys! That's... that's villainous behavior!"
He'd heard that phrase on a hero show and thought it sounded really serious and grown-up.
The three big kids turned to look at him. One of them, a girl with pink hair, grinned in a not-nice way.
"Aw, look. Another baby wants to play hero." She cracked her knuckles, and Izuku saw her skin turn hard and gray like stone. "You gonna make us, shrimp?"
Izuku's heart was beating really, really fast. These kids were bigger. They had quirks. He didn't. But the little boy was still crying, and the big kids still had his toy, and it wasn't right.
"Yes," Izuku said, even though his legs wanted to run away. "Give it back!"
The girl with the stone skin quirk shoved him. Hard.
Izuku flew backward and hit the ground. Pain shot through his palms where they scraped against the rough ground. His eyes stung with tears, but he blinked them back and tried to stand up.
"Stay down, quirkless loser!" the boy with the toy shouted. "You can't do anything! You're useless!"
"I'm not useless!" Izuku shouted back. Something hot and desperate was building in his chest, like a balloon getting too full. "I'm gonna be a hero, and heroes don't let bullies hurt people!"
"You? A hero?" The girl laughed. "You don't even have a quirk!"
"I don't care!" The balloon in Izuku's chest was so full it hurt. "I don't care, I'll find a way, I'll-"
Something happened.
The air around Izuku started to feel weird. Tingly, like when his foot fell asleep but everywhere. There was a sound—not a loud sound, more like a hum that came from inside his own head. And then, between one blink and the next, something was there.
It looked like an egg at first. A smooth, green egg floating in the air right next to Izuku's head. The bullies stopped laughing. They stared.
The egg cracked.
A small creature emerged, unfurling like a butterfly from a cocoon. It was about the size of Izuku's hand, with a round body and stubby little arms and wheels like a skateboard's for legs. Its surface was bright green with darker green patterns that looked like snake or maybe camouflage. It had big eyes, weird bug-like eyes way too big for its body, and a tail that curved up behind it. The tail had a pincer at the tip, though it looked like a musical note depending on how you looked at it.
The creature floated there, turning its head to look at Izuku with those huge, unexpressive eyes.
"What..." Izuku whispered. "What are you?"
The creature didn't answer. It just blinked at him, then turned to look at the bullies.
"What is that thing?" the boy with the toy asked, taking a step back.
"Is that his quirk?" the other kid—a boy with ears like a cat—whispered.
The girl with the stone skin tried to look brave. "So what if he has some weird quirk? Look at it! It's tiny! What's it gonna do, sit there and look stupid?"
But even as she said it, she sounded less sure.
The green creature drifted forward, moving through the air like it was swimming. It approached the boy holding the toy. He held the robot tighter, watching the creature nervously.
The creature reached out one small arm and touched the toy. Not grabbing it, just... touching it. Its finger glowed faintly green for the brief moment of contact.
Nothing else happened.
"See?" the girl said, but her voice was shaky. "It can't do anything! Come on, let's go!"
They turned to leave, the boy still clutching the stolen toy. The little kid who'd been crying let out a sob.
Izuku didn't know what to do. He didn't know what this creature was or how to control it or what it could even-
Wait.
There was something on the toy now. Something that hadn't been there before. A word, glowing faintly green, written across the robot's chest in shaky letters that somehow looked like they were vibrating:
return
The boy holding the toy suddenly jerked to a stop. His eyes went wide. "What... what is..."
The sound started soft. So soft you could barely hear it. A gentle ringing, like a soft bell. But it wasn't coming from outside. Izuku could somehow tell that the sound was coming from inside the boy's head. Or maybe from the toy itself? It was hard to explain.
And the sound was getting louder.
RETURN
The boy's hands started trembling. The robot shook in his grip.
RETURN
"Make it stop!" the boy shouted, dropping the toy. It clattered to the ground. "Make it stop, there's something in my head!"
His friends looked at him in confusion and fear. The pink-haired girl grabbed his arm. "What are you talking about?"
RETURN RETURN RETURN RETURN
The sound was loud enough now that even Izuku could hear it, or maybe feel it? It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, a rushing feeling that built and built and built. The boy fell to his knees, hands over his ears, even though Izuku somehow knew that wouldn't help. The sound wasn't in his ears. It was deeper than that.
"MAKE IT STOP!" the boy screamed, throwing the toy back to its owner.
Izuku looked at the small green creature floating beside him. It looked back, somewhat proud.
The creature blinked once. The glowing word on the dropped toy faded away. The sound cut off instantly.
The boy slumped forward, breathing hard. His friends grabbed him and pulled him to his feet. All three of them stared at Izuku with wide, frightened eyes.
"You're... you're crazy!" the cat-eared boy said. "Come on, let's get out of here!"
They ran, leaving the toy robot behind.
Izuku stood there, shaking. The little boy who'd been bullied crept forward, picked up his toy, and looked at Izuku with huge eyes.
"Thank you," he whispered, then ran off to find his mom.
The green creature floated back to Izuku and settled next to his head, its big eyes watching him calmly. Izuku stared at it.
"Did I... do I have a quirk?" he whispered.
The creature didn't answer. But somehow, Izuku knew the truth.
"IZUKU!"
He turned to see Mama running toward him from the bench where she'd been sitting. She must have seen everything. She dropped to her knees in front of him, hands fluttering over him, checking for injuries.
"Are you hurt? What happened?" Her eyes locked onto the creature, and she muttered. "Is that... is that your quirk?"
"I think so," Izuku said. His voice sounded far away. "Mama, the doctor was wrong. I have a quirk!"
Mama pulled him into a hug, and Izuku felt her shoulders shaking. She was crying again, but this time it sounded happy. "Oh, Izuku. My baby. You have a quirk. You really do!"
The creature watched them both with its big, unblinking eyes. It didn't make a sound. Didn't speak or explain itself. It just... waited for something to happen.
Izuku reached out slowly and touched it. It felt warm and solid, but also kind of fuzzy, like the static on the TV when a channel didn't work. The creature leaned into his touch, and Izuku felt something in his chest; a connection. This thing was part of him. It came from him. It was the manifestation of his desire.
"We need to take you to the doctor," Mama said, pulling back and wiping her eyes. "We need to register this. We need to—oh, there's so much to do!"
She was talking fast, the way she did when she was excited or nervous. Izuku barely heard her. He was staring at the creature, watching the way it moved, the way its surface seemed to shimmer with those snake-like patterns.
A quirk. He had a quirk.
He could be a hero after all.
The trip to the doctor's office was a blur.
Mama held his hand tight the whole way there. The green creature followed them (Read: Floated after Izuku) staying close. When they got on the train, some people stared at it. One old lady smiled and said "what a cute quirk!". A businessman moved to a different car, eyeing the creature nervously.
Izuku didn't care. He couldn't stop looking at it.
The doctor, the same one who'd told them Izuku was quirkless, looked very confused when they arrived without an appointment. But when he saw the creature, his eyes went wide.
"That's... Mrs. Midoriya, is that..."
"His quirk manifested," Mama said breathlessly. "Today, at the park. It just appeared!"
The doctor ushered them into an examination room. He spent a long time looking at the creature, making Izuku move around, asking questions. Could Izuku make it disappear? (Sometimes, but it was hard and made his head hurt.) Could he control where it went? (Sort of. It listened, but also seemed to do its own thing sometimes.) Could it touch things? (Yes, but nothing happened when it did... except for that one time at the park.)
"Fascinating," the doctor muttered, typing notes into his computer. "A late manifestation isn't unheard of, but usually there are signs. Stress or strong emotion can trigger a quirk's first appearance..." He looked at Izuku seriously. "What happened at the park, son? What were you feeling right before this... entity appeared?"
Izuku thought about it. About the bullies, and the crying boy, and the hot feeling in his chest.
"I was mad," he said quietly. "And scared. But mostly... mostly I really, really wanted to help. I wanted to be able to do something."
The doctor nodded slowly. "Emotional trigger. That tracks." He turned back to his computer. "I'll need to update our records and file the proper quirk registration paperwork. Do you know what you'd like to call it?"
Izuku looked at the creature. It looked back at him, unblinking.
He didn't know why, but a word popped into his head. It felt right, like it had been there all along, just waiting.
"Echoes," Izuku said. "Its name is Echoes."
Mama squeezed his hand. "That's a perfect name, baby."
The doctor typed it in. "Echoes. And the quirk type... I'll classify it as Emitter for now, with possible Mutation characteristics given the entity's independence. You'll need to come back for more detailed testing as he gets older and we can better understand the quirk's capabilities."
He printed out some papers and handed them to Mama. Official papers that said Izuku Midoriya had a quirk called Echoes. Papers that proved he wasn't quirkless.
Papers that meant he could be a hero.
That night, Izuku lay in bed with Echoes floating above him. The creature seemed to watch over him like a strange, green guardian. Mama had tucked him in extra tight and kissed his forehead a dozen times before finally letting him sleep.
But Izuku wasn't sleeping. He was thinking.
About the word that had appeared on the toy. About the sound that had built and built until the bully couldn't take it anymore. About how the bully was forced to give it back.
He didn't understand it yet. But he would. He'd figure out how Echoes worked.
Because now he had a chance. A real chance.
"Echoes," he whispered to the floating creature. "We're gonna be heroes together. Okay?"
The creature didn't respond. It just floated there, those big eyes reflecting the glow of All Might nightlight on Izuku's dresser.
But somehow, Izuku thought it understood.