Chapter Text
“Sorry kid it’s not gonna happen”
Those words ought to have been the death sentence for Midoriya Izuku’s hero career. How could someone quirkless stand up against evils with superhuman power? The poor boy’s dream was dead. Or at least that’s what Midoriya Inko thought as she comforted her crying son in front of that All Might video that inspired him so much. But for Izuku, there was one thought, one question that rose to the surface among his sea of grief.
‘What’s Dad gonna think?’
Izuku’s relationship with his father… Let’s put it this way:
If Hisashi said he believed Izuku could do something, Izuku did it.
It was a relationship free from doubt and skepticism. Izuku adored Hisashi; and Hisashi adored his little green ball of sunshine just as much.
So once the tall, black haired, blue-eyed man entered his home and heard the soft sound of sobbing, he immediately dropped his suitcase and ran into Izuku’s room.
"Did Izuku get hurt? No, no obvious signs of physical injury. Maybe he doesn’t like his quirk… but Izuku loves quirks! It obviously isn’t a mutation type or else there would be obvious signs." Hisashi picked up his son, rocking him back and forth as he continued muttering.
"Unless it was a very subtle mutation. Perhaps enhanced senses. Maybe sensory overload made him cry. But then Inko would try to be quiet for him. Maybe his quirk is a transformation that scared him. Then why is Inko crying? Any kind of simple emitter, even a weak one would have my son beaming. Or maybe…"
Izuku broke his Dad out of his mutterstorm “Hey Dad?”
“I-I’m here Izuku” comforted his father after a second of surprise. “Tell me what I can do to help? What’s wrong my sunshine?”
“Can I still be a hero, even without a quirk?”
‘Oh’
Hisashi stopped moving for a brief moment. He knew the answer he wanted to give, the answer his son longed to hear.
“Izuku, look at me…” The boy responded by pulling his face off of his father’s shoulder.
He knew there were risks to being a hero. But there were also risks to letting Izuku fall into desperation and despair. Hisashi, of all people, would know.
So a father stared into his son’s eyes and said with utmost determination, “Yes… Izuku yes, you can be a hero. If that’s really what you want, with your golden heart…” Hisashi poked the crying boy in the chest, making Izuku let out a wet giggle. “...and your brilliant mind…” Hisashi then kissed the top of his son’s head. “...You’ll save so many people.”
Izuku dove headfirst into his father’s shoulders. “T-Thank you *hic* s-so much!”
“But, Hisashi!”
Her husband put a hand up in a gesture to stop and mouthed ‘later’ to his concerned wife.
For a few minutes, the businessman enjoyed just holding his son, relaxing from a long day of dealing with nonsensical Australian time zones. Izuku in turn, enjoyed the quirk-enhanced warmth of his father's chest. Eventually, he put Izuku down and cleaned his face with a handkerchief.
“Now Izuku,” Hisashi said seriously while wiping up the last bit of fluid. “Being a quirkless hero will be hard. You’ll have to be strong, but also smart. A good example of what I’m expecting is something like Sir Nighteye.” Izuku’s face lit up at the mention of All Might’s sidekick. “His quirk’s a secret, so it’s almost like he doesn’t have one does he?”
“Yeah!” shouted Izuku, somehow now excited after crying so much. “Even if I have to play sidekick, I’ll still be a hero!”
Hisashi ruffled his boy’s hair. "That's the spirit Zuku, why don’t you watch some videos of Sir Nighteye while I talk with your mother.”
The boy nodded seriously and started chanting the hero’s name as he marched off to complete his mission.
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Now behind closed doors, Inko spoke freely. “Look, Hisashi, I don’t want to crush our son’s dreams any more than you do, but it’s our job to keep him safe! Izuku just stayed frozen on the ride back from the doctor’s office. He was so heartbroken. When I went to check on him after a while he asked me the same question he asked you and… I wanted to say yes… so badly… but he just won’t be able to do the things the heroes on the TV do! You’ve seen the news articles about heroes dying. I don’t love him any less because he’s quirkless but it does make me worry… a lot.”
“Who said he has to be like the heroes on TV?”
“Well, what else is there?”
“Not all heroes are in the limelight. There are underground heroes who work more closely with the police, and strategists like Sir Nighteye. That’s why I encouraged him to watch some videos about that one.”
Inko sighed, a weight off of her shoulders. “So our son won’t be running into burning buildings in nothing but spandex on the regular?”
Hisashi chuckled, “Probably not, but he will be in danger. Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about his safety when I said that. Instead I saw a version of my quirkless father and grandfather. What I’m saying is, you’re right to worry.”
Inko gave her husband a small smile, “You know I can’t help but worry about these things. But you’re such a good, encouraging father.”
Hisashi responded with a faint blush and a small smile of his own, “Well it’s a mother’s job to worry, I’m only able to do it because you’re here to balance me out. Honestly, it’s really important that Izuku knows that we worry about him. Being loved and alive is more important than being a hero.”
“You don’t have to flatter me so much sweetie. I’ll have no problem holding up my end of the bargain. Still, you’ve convinced me that we ought to encourage this dream. Did you see his smile? His relief? That beautiful smile alone will be worth it.”
Inko’s decision was cemented even further when she saw her husband wear the same brilliant smile she was talking about. She would do everything she could to nurture the smiles of both her boys.
Wanting to spoil them after a hard day, Inko happily said, “I’m gonna make katsudon for dinner.”
“Oooh… that’s not as good as butadon but I’ll probably love it just as much since you’re making it.”
“Izuku! We’re gonna have katsudon if that’s ok?”
Izuku burst out of the door holding an All-Might figurine. “Yay! Katsudon! Dad, did you know All Might says that Nighteye is smarter than even him! He doesn’t have many clips of him fighting, but he did fight Savage Croc together with All Might. He uses these little dots! He went ‘flick’ and the bad guy went flying!”
Inko stepped into the kitchen with a much wider smile after seeing Izuku in better spirits. She heard the two quirk fanatics chatter away as she breaded the pork and thought to herself. ‘You’ll be a great hero, Izuku.’
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Izuku felt like he was on top of the world for most of the next day. The way Dad had looked at him made him feel like a fire was lit in his chest. Still, Dad had told him it was going to be hard, and not going to happen for a long time. Izuku was grappling with this feeling of tempered excitement, so much so that he was stuck in his own world when playtime came around.
“Hey ‘Zuku”
There’s Kacchan. He would have an easy time becoming a hero. If he was going to be like All Might, then Izuku would have to keep up in order to be his partner. But still, he would keep his promise to be heroes together.
“Did the doctor tell you what your quirk is yet?”
Ah… Izuku no longer felt like he was on top of the world.
“W-Well, um… I don’t really… h-have one…” Izuku looked down, somewhat ashamed. He couldn’t possibly know the whole truth about quirkless discrimination, but he knew well enough that he was expected to have a quirk.
Kacchan stood dumbfounded for a few agonizingly long seconds before getting mad. “What do you mean?! How are we gonna be a hero duo if you don’t have a quirk?! You-”
Izuku looked up and interrupted him, “I’m still gonna be a hero!” Seeing that the blonde stayed silent after being interrupted, Izuku continued, “My Dad told me so, I can’t be like All Might, but I can be a hero who’s smart like Sir Nighteye. I-I’m sorry it’s not like we hoped, but please Kacchan! Let’s be heroes together! Let me be the Sir Nighteye to your All Might!”
Kacchan looked contemplative for a second, but quickly scoffed and grumbled, “ I don’t know why you would want to be like Sir Nighteye, he never fights or takes the villains down. But yeah, I guess… we can be heroes together.”
Izuku smiled with enthusiasm and put his fist out. Kacchan reciprocated by bumping his fist against Izuku’s.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Later that day, Izuku stood proud when he announced that he was quirkless to the rest of the class.
They didn’t take it very well.
“What!”
“You’re kidding”
“So much for being a hero”
“Settle down, be nice now…” The daycare attendant urged. “I’m sure this is hard for you Izuku. I’m sorry you can’t pursue your dream of heroism.”
The normally well-behaved student surprised his caretaker by stomping his foot. “It’s not like that!” he protested, “Daddy and Kacchan said that I can be a hero, so I’m going to do it! Even… Even if it’s hard!”
The caretaker put on an awkward smile and gently patted Izuku’s head. “Well… good luck with that I guess…”
‘It’s not my problem if his parents are delusional’ she thought.
After that, the kids started heckling the more popular Katsuki. They wanted to know if he really thought Izuku could be a hero.
“Shut up! Nobody’s gonna be as great of a hero as me! But the rest of you are just as useless as Deku! Don’t get any big ideas. Sidekick trash is still sidekick trash!”
The rest of the day was lonely for the two friends. The whispered comments and looks of confusion hurt Izuku. Kacchan wasn’t terribly nice either, but at least he didn’t shun Izuku.
During pickup, Izuku overheard his caretaker whispering to his mom. “You really shouldn’t encourage him to be a hero without a quirk. It’ll only end in tragedy.”
Inko looked affronted and simply replied, “My husband and I will raise and encourage our son however we want to.”
Izuku’s joy had dwindled, but his spirit was not diminished. Hisashi was already home when Izuku arrived. He was going to be up really early the next day for a meeting with a client in California, so Izuku was hesitant to bother him.
Nevertheless, the small verdanette went up to his father and asked, “How can I start training to be a hero?”
Naturally, this prompted Hisashi to spew forth a mutterstorm.
“I could always teach him in the ways of my job as a quirk analyst. I don’t usually analyze heroes but I know how to. This would also help him if he decides to go into the business world of quirk-permits like me. So that’s his mind down. I know he’s got the spirit and determination for it but it might be good to build that up. Maybe with a sport? Martial arts, weapons, or another solo sport would probably be best. I used to do gymnastics in my youth, but I was never very good at it. Even if he’s not good at it that’ll build determination.”
Hisashi pulled up a new tab on his computer.
“It looks like a lot of dojos do quirked sparring. Gymnastics is still mostly quirk free at a professional level. Plus, Izuku needs good physical strength and men’s gymnastics is all about strength and flexibility. He’ll probably get his own unique weapon or support item as a hero student so until then focusing on unarmed combat would be best and gymnastics is really good for that. Plus, he ought to focus on dodging attacks so flexibility is really important. He seemed more interested in support and investigative heroes than the underground. Besides, he’s too innocent and bright for underground heroics. But he seems really smart already, even able to keep up with my mutter when Inko can’t.”
“That’s true Papa!”
Hisashi was startled out of his mutterstorm but still clapped his hands in conclusion. “Ok, I think we ought to enroll you in gymnastics soon. For now, I’ll start teaching you analysis and how to think critically. I won’t give you any assignments like school will. Instead, I hope you take enough interest in my work to analyze on your own time. What do you say buddy?”
Izuku jumped up and down with renewed energy. “Yeah! I promise I’ll prove myself!”
His parents laughed and played with him for the rest of the afternoon, but Hisashi had one more thought he hadn’t revealed.
‘Building up his confidence is essential when he’ll be facing quirkless discrimination from everywhere but home.’
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Inko wasn’t quite sure Hisashi had fully thought out his decision to teach Izuku quirk analysis. It was scary enough being the mother of a boy who was friends with someone as volatile as Bakugou Katsuki. Add on to that visions of her son participating in hero vs. villain battles, it filled her with equal parts pride and worry. Speaking of villain fights, Izuku was really getting into watching them. By now he nearly had a whole notebook full of crayon drawings of hero costumes and notes on their quirks. Her husband had sat with him and walked through some basic analysis skills, making sure he took notes on the quirks of both heroes and villains (even though the heroes were “super duper cooler” and the villains were “mean and scary”). Hisashi even let Izuku sit with him on the rare occasion that he did some analysis work for pro-heroes.
It was all part of their plan to help Izuku get a head start in hero training. And it was working quite well. Except… they were also encouraging all the curious impulses of a 5 year old.
“Mommy, can you attract things one atom at a time?”
“I don’t think so dear.”
“What about one molecule at a time?”
“No honey.”
“But they’re small!”
“Yes Izuku.”
“And your quirk is called attraction of small objects.”
“I know sunshine.”
At least he was being confident in his questioning.
Never let it be said that Inko didn’t love her son, but he was asking so many questions that she had no idea how to answer. And it was only going to get worse because her husband, being the smart, wonderful father that he was, took it upon himself to teach their child theoretical physics.
“Maybe she has to see an object to attract it? Or maybe she has to grab onto certain states of matter? That would explain why she never used her quirk on liquids or gases. She’s probably not using a gravitational field but maybe she uses something else like the electromagnetic force.”
Oh but his mumbling was just so adorable. He looked so much like his father with one hand covering his upper lip and another on his chin rubbing nonexistent stubble. He was already displaying the same intelligence that was used to support their family. Inko simply couldn't resist scooping her little green ball of optimism up in a hug and rubbing their cheeks together. Even if it made him sputter and flail his hands in the air.
“Moooom! Put me dooown! I need to go write stuff down in my notebook!”
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Hisashi was tired.
That wasn’t anything new. He had been working odd hours as long as he’d been a quirk analyst. His company didn’t get a lot of business in Japan due to the restrictive nature of their quirk-regulations. However, there was a market in foreign countries, specifically America and Australia, for expertise in quirk law and quirk analysis. This meant he was able to provide for the entirety of his family’s needs but at the cost of numerous business trips and conference calls at odd hours.
At the moment, he was supposed to be having some Aussie beer to celebrate a successful deal with his peers. However, his family demanded his attention first.
Izuku had apparently gotten into a fight after school. Inko was mad with worry and could barely get out that apparently the culprit had been the Bakugou brat that Izuku tagged along with. Hisashi calmly asked to speak to Izuku to get his side of the story.
“Izu, what happened?”
His son sniffed and weaved a tale about how an older student was mocking him for his quirklessness when Katsuki attacked the student with his quirk. Izuku jumped in to defend the defeated bully.
“And then Kacchan told me to stop looking down on him. I tried to tell him that I wasn't, but I was busy using gymnastics to dodge. It was scary but it felt really cool. He only hit me when I got mad, but I also punched him in the face.”
While Hisashi was proud of his son for doing well in a fight, he knew the responsible thing to do was scold such violence. “You know that wasn’t the best solution. Have you made up with him yet?”
“Yeah, the teachers were really mad at me. But me and Kacchan-”
“Kacchan and I…”
Hisashi could tell Izuku nodded over the phone, “Kacchan and I both said sorry and made up. The teachers tried to tell him something too, but he got mad. Honestly, it’s not that bad. He’s really rough but I’m still thankful he defended me from that bully.”
Hisashi sighed, “I’m proud of you for standing up for yourself, but don’t forgive someone if they don’t prove themselves worthy of it. And try not to get into any more fights, you’ll worry your mother and me.”
“But how do I avoid fighting when everyone’s so mean?!” Izuku was starting to get emotional.
“You did pretty well in that fight. You dodge what you can, stand up for yourself, and learn to fight back as a last resort. Stand proud, you’re already becoming a little hero Izuku.”
Hisashi could tell Izuku was crying, but he let it be. Perhaps he could curb that habit when Izuku was older; but for now, Izuku was developing into a fine young hero. And that, in turn, inspired Hisashi to push past odd schedules and inexperience to be the best father that he could be.