Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Izuku woke with a start, green flashes enveloping him and his breathing coming in ragged gasps. The movement ached in his shoulder, but he ignored it and sat up. Glancing around using the light from his Quirk, he realized he was in his room. Izuku deactivated his Quirk, his breathing still shallow.

The room was plunged into darkness, and while Izuku would normally have had no problem with that, right now he couldn't remain without clear visibility. He fumbled around his desk until he found the switch for his lamp, which he flipped on. Blinking at the sudden light, he ran a hand over his face, finding it damp, almost sticky with sweat.

Another nightmare.

It had only been two days since the USJ attack, yet Izuku had more nightmares during that time than he had since discovering he'd traveled back twelve years. Izuku could only sleep for two or three hours at a time before inevitably waking up from a nightmare far too realistic for his liking. He sat motionless in his bed, waiting for his breathing to stabilize.

Why were he having these nightmares? Everyone else had survived, just like last time, so why? It wasn't even the first time he'd been so badly injured. It had mainly happened in his first life rather than his second, but Izuku couldn't tell the difference. For him, this second timeline was just a distorted extension of the first. He was practically still the same person, despite the changes that had occurred. So he didn't understand why he was having nightmares. Or rather, he didn't understand why his nightmares were so violent.

In his first life, after each attack or encounter with villains, Izuku had nightmares, but none of this intensity. And they hadn't lasted long, a few days at most, until routine resumed and they stopped on their own. Only to be replaced by new ones.

Izuku sighed. This wasn't a healthy situation, he knew that. Especially since he'd taken basic psychology courses to better understand Quirks, particularly mental ones. And since the USJ, Nezu's suggestion to go see Hound Dog had been nagging at him, but… he felt like he couldn't go and tell the hero the whole truth. It wasn't even a question of trust or about the traitor at Yûei, it was just that… Izuku wasn't used to asking for help.

He was the one who provided help, not the one who asked for it. Even when his presence or willingness to help was neither desired nor required. He wanted to be a hero, and a hero was someone who helped others, not someone who demanded it.

His entire existence was based on this principle.

Even when he first met Nezu and All Might in his second life, Izuku considered it as help from him, not a request for help. Looking back, he realized it was the two of them, that he couldn't have helped if they hadn't helped him in return. But it was special; it was Nezu and All Might, after all. The smartest person in the country and Japan's Number One Hero!

Izuku couldn't make up his mind, his thoughts looping endlessly in his head, over and over and over again. He had nothing to occupy his mind, nothing to try to escape or at least distance himself from this uncertainty that clung to him. Suddenly, he felt cramped. Too tight inside, both mentally and physically. His room too small, his house too tiny.

With a gasp, he threw off the covers and left his bed. He had to get out; he couldn't stay locked up. He took just enough time to scribble a note for his mother on a sticky note and stick it on his door above his All Might sign before heading to the entryway to put on his shoes, the keys in a randomly placed sweatshirt pocket. He left the apartment quietly and leaned against the railing of the building's exterior hallway. He let the cool breeze blow on his face and play with his hair, drying the film of sweat from his nightmare.

Izuku felt an improvement, but it wasn't enough. Without thinking twice, he headed for the stairs, but instead of going down, he went up. He had never been on the roof of his building, or even on a roof at all, excluding his encounter with All Might in his first life, of course. Heights had never really appealed to him, but he wasn't afraid of them either. He was just relatively indifferent to them. Even though… he had never forgotten Kacchan’s words.

Izuku shook his head to clear that particular memory. He wasn’t going there for that. Never.

Pushing open the door leading to the roof, Izuku stopped in the doorway. Before him, the sky was tinged with pink and orange on one edge of the horizon, surrounded by the dark blue of the late night, all slightly softened by the morning mist. The lights of the sky and the city reflected on the roof, which was covered with a thin layer of water. Izuku hadn’t noticed that it was almost dawn or even that it had rained. He really needed to pay more attention to his surroundings.

He moved forward slowly, making sure to leave the door wide open first, until he reached the middle of the roof. It was better. More space and fewer physical limitations. The fresh air entered his lungs with a certain relief, clearing his head a little. Looking up, he could still make out a few stars, including the moon. It was peaceful. So much more peaceful than what he felt, than what he was experiencing. Izuku lay down, ignoring the sting of the cold water against his skin as it soaked through his clothes. He raised his knees slightly for better positioning, then didn't move, remaining there to watch the morning sky change colors.

This was the first time he had ever left the safety of his room, his sanctuary. Normally, when he felt like moving, going out, he would walk or run around the neighborhood, but that was now forbidden because of his injuries. Well, he could probably go for a walk without worry, but he didn't want to. He just wanted to… get out, away from his room, away from his nightmares. Away from…

Away from his failure.

His breath caught in his throat, and his eyes stung. Everything he had done since returning to the past had been for nothing. In fact, it had only made things worse. All Might had still been injured by All For One, and now barely had an hour of One For All left, Kacchan wasn't part of Class 1-A with Kirishima, Mineta wasn't a student at Yûei, his class hadn't managed to escape from the USJ, Izuku had once again been the only one injured during the attack, and Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and especially the Nomu had managed to escape.

Izuku had failed.

Tears flowed, joining the icy puddle in which he lay. He hadn't chosen to return to the past, but he had chosen to use this situation to make things better, to help people. To prevent All Might from being injured so badly, to prevent his classmates from being traumatized by the USJ attack, to prevent the League of Villains from kidnapping Kacchan and escaping, to save Eri sooner, to prevent Nighteye wouldn't having to die, to prevent the FLP from gaining so much power and a civil war from erupting.

Izuku had failed at half of these things. And he was also failing at the other half.

‘Why?... Why did I fail?’

How could he be a hero if he failed at everything he tried? Was everyone right? Couldn't he be a hero?... But he had One For All now, and he controlled it better than in his first life; mainly because he'd received it much earlier and knew what to expect and how to avoid blowing himself to bits, so... so he should be able to be a hero.

Izuku was a student at Yûei, in the Hero Department. He had succeeded, despite what everyone around him might think, he had managed to get in, to become a hero-in-training, to help and save people, to fight against powerful and dangerous villains, to stand up to All For One himself! And... he had been sent back to the past. A past where he was none of those things, where he was weak, stupid, Quirkless, and incapable of doing anything.

Yet... yet, things had changed, hadn't they? He started training physically much earlier, gradually learning to fight, his mother was less worried about him and supported him before he entered Yûei, Shinsô was in Class 1-A, Nezu and All Might believed him when Izuku told them his story and helped him-

They helped him.

Izuku had been helped ever since he went to ask them for help.

The eyes to the sky, his tears flowed more freely, his throat tightening in a painful knot. He was being helped. How could he not have understood before? He had always been helped since he threw himself against the Mud Villain to save Kacchan. He was helped because he helped others.

Well, it wasn't the first time he'd done it, but… it was the first time he'd been seen, looked at as someone who had helped others, not as an obstacle or a burden. It was the first time Midoriya Izuku had been acknowledged. The first time he'd been helped in return.

He cried for a moment, turning to his good shoulder and curling into a ball, releasing all the pent-up emotions that had been clouding his judgment. He'd always been a fountain of tears; it was something genetic on his mother's side, and Izuku sometimes wondered if one of his ancestors had a Quirk that allowed them to create water, given the sheer volume they could produce. When his eyes became a little drier, when it was a little easier to breathe, he realized he was completely soaked and his body was numb with cold. He had lain on that roof for too long.

It was difficult for Izuku to get up and go home to take a shower, managing it only with the slowness of a snail. Luckily, his mother was still asleep, so he threw away the sticky note as he entered his room before forgetting it existed and causing her even more worry.

When he went back to bed, Izuku had made a decision. He would go see Hound Dog.

Even heroes need help.

Anxiety was slowly eating away at Inko. She knew the path of heroism was dangerous; she saw it enough on the news every day, but somehow she had thought Izuku would be safe from all of that for a few more years.

She had been wrong.

The call from the school informing her that her son had been hospitalized following a villain attack had been the most horrific and terrifying moment of her life. Yet, she felt something break inside her when Izuku assured her, with a tired and apologetic, but still bright, smile, that he was fine. How could he say that with such conviction? No, he wasn't fine. He had just undergone surgery because his shoulder had been affected by a disintegration Quirk after experiencing a hostage situation in a place where he should have been safe!

In what world could her beloved son possibly be fine after that?!

Nezu may apologize personally and agree to cover, on behalf of the school, all medical expenses related directly or indirectly to the attack, Inko remained angry. Angry, worried, and helpless. All she wanted was to take Izuku out of Yûei and put him in a regular school near their home. But she couldn't. She knew that only a total disability would force her beloved son to give up heroism, and even then, sometimes she doubted it. He had spent his entire life wanting to be a hero despite lacking a Quirk suitable for such a risky profession, so there was little chance that Izuku would let injuries, however serious, prevent him from fulfilling his dream.

It was in moments like these that Inko hated her son's determination, especially when he felt his own well-being wasn't a priority. It didn't happen often, thankfully for her poor heart, but she wasn't stupid. She knew perfectly well that school hadn't been a pleasant place for her son when he was considered Quirkless, and not just because of the little Bakugo. The fact that he wasn't in his class for once had reassured her.

But all the relief, all the confidence she'd felt at Izuku's first day of high school had shattered, and now, after watching the press conference on TV that morning, she was waiting for a visit from a member of the Yûei staff.

In itself, given what had happened, it wasn't really unusual or worrying, but the announcement hadn't come by phone or email. No, it was Izuku who had told her that someone important from Yûei was coming to talk. That was the first clue that something was up. The second was that she didn't know what they were going to discuss. The third was that Izuku was even more anxious than she was, and that was something to be said because he was taking his injury far too well from her perspective.

So there they were, in the living room, waiting for their guest to arrive. Izuku had refused to tell her who it was, saying it was better if the person introduced themselves. The morning had passed relatively quickly, especially since they had watched the Yûei press conference, but lunch had been a bit slow and tense. Her son was nervous, regularly glancing at her sideways when he thought she hadn't noticed him. And that worried her. What could possibly be upsetting her little boy so much? He was naturally shy and anxious like her, but he always managed to overcome his nerves.

"It must be serious."

This thought worsened her stress. What could possibly be so serious that Izuku was so worried? He hadn't worried about his lack of a Quirk (which they now knew was wrong) to become a hero, nor about having no friends because people were unfair and cruel. He also hadn't worried when his Quirk miraculously activated, cracking every bone in his body, or when he found himself attending university while still in middle school. Not to mention the injury he sustained during the Villains' attack, which required surgery. In fact, Izuku had been nothing but determined where he should normally have been a wreck of nerves, stress, and anxiety, if his normal behavior was any indication.

The doorbell rang in the apartment, bringing Inko relief from the distraction… before a surge of anxiety hit her as she remembered the expected visitor.

Izuku immediately leaped toward the front door, while she stood apprehensively, wringing her hands. She was behind her son in the entryway when the door opened. With Quirks, people's bodies could be any size and build, but to Inko, this man looked visibly ill. He was tall, his hair sticking out in all directions except for two long strands in the front, and above all, he was thin, almost emaciated, in a striped suit three sizes too big, practically swimming in it.

Inko was now more worried about his health than the reason for his visit. Was he eating properly?

"Midoriya-shônen, I'm glad to see you're doing well," the man smiled sincerely. "I was worried when I heard you were going to have surgery."

"I'm fine, Al- Yagi-san," his son assured with his own smile. And this is my mother, Midoriya Inko.

He stepped aside to let the man see her.

"Hello... Yagi-san, is that right?"

"Yes, I'm Yagi Toshinori," he introduced himself with a bow. "Pleased to meet you, Midoriya-san."

Inko returned the greeting and invited him inside. Once Yagi had slipped on slippers and was seated at the living room table with a cup of tea, Inko felt anxiety tighten in her stomach again.

"What would you like to talk to me about, Yagi-san? Izuku wouldn't tell me anything."

Yagi looked at her son in astonishment, who shrugged, a little sheepishly.

“Ah, well… I think first of all I should apologize to you, Midoriya-san,” he said, a little uneasy, his eyes downcast. “I… I did something without asking your permission, under the pretext that it was safer for you and your son, but mainly for me. I was selfish.”

Tense at these words, Inko felt a surge of anger rise within her. What exactly had this man done? And to her little boy, no less, given that Izuku seemed to know about it.

“Could you explain yourself in more detail, Yagi-san?” she asked in a very measured voice. “What exactly did you do?”

Yagi and Izuku shrugged, confirming that her son knew what it was about. And that it had already happened, if she understood correctly. It hurt that Izuku had deliberately kept something from her. Of course, it was normal for him to have secrets — he was a teenager after all — but the reason Yagi was there seemed important. She thought she was trustworthy enough for Izuku to talk to her about this kind of thing, whatever the subject.

"It's about Izuku-shônen's Quirk."

A Quirk that had miraculously appeared three years ago, injuring her son. She narrowed her eyes, suspicious.

"Are you connected to these sorts of… Quirk activation ‘programs’?"

The first time she'd heard about them was when she was still in elementary school. One of her classmates had been taken there by his parents because, at eight years old, his Quirk hadn't yet activated. When he returned after summer vacation, he could use his Quirk, which allowed him to fire lasers from his eyes, but he seemed to be in pain every time. In the end, he only used it during Quirk training classes, grimacing in apprehension.

This had deeply affected young Inko, who had never before imagined that using her Quirk could cause her pain. So when some people approached her about Izuku and talked to her about these programs, she curtly dismissed them. Trying to activate a Quirk that wasn't there was the surest way to kill her little boy. And even now, she didn't regret her decision, because otherwise, Izuku would have seriously injured himself every time he used his Quirk.

“Wh- Good heavens, no!” exclaimed the man, his eyes wide. “I don’t like these programs at all. Forcing activation when the body isn’t ready is dangerous.”

Inko calmed down slightly. Good, Izuku hadn’t been semi-tortured to fit the mold of the norm.

“In that case, at the risk of repeating myself, can you explain what you mean when you did something without my permission regarding my son’s Quirk?”

“I… Yes. Actually, I should introduce myself properly for that.”

Before she could even blink, Yagi stood up and a cloud of smoke billowed from his body, revealing someone else. Someone she knew simply from entering Izuku's room every day. She froze, her mouth half-open in astonishment.

"Please excuse my incomplete introduction earlier. I am Yagi Toshinori, also known as the hero All Might."

The man, the number one hero, Izuku's idol, bowed respectfully to her at a right angle.

Inko… Inko didn't know how to react. She had seen heroes from afar and on the street before, but she had never spoken to them, let alone had one come into her house. Part of her brain knew and acknowledged that they were just ordinary people, but another part found it mind-boggling, almost impossible. She remained motionless and speechless with shock.

"Mom, are you okay?"

The question made her move enough to look at Izuku. Who wasn't shocked, impressed, or excited at all.

He knew.

Her little boy knew All Might's civilian identity. Panic and irrational fear seized her. This was dangerous! If anyone found out, Izuku would be in danger!

"I... Who knows?"

"What?"

The hero seemed surprised, standing up, but Inko barely glanced at him.

"Izuku, who knows you know the civilian identity of Japan's number one hero?" she insisted, placing her hands on her son's shoulders as she leaned across the table.

"Oh, uh... Nezu and Recovery Girl. Gran Torino too, he's a hero and All Might's mentor. And… maybe someone else, but he’s a hero too, so there’s nothing to worry about”, he added, waving his hands in front of him.

“Um, I’d add Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa. He’s been a friend and confidant for several years,” All Might added quietly, sitting back down.

Inko took a long, deep breath. Okay. Everyone who knew Izuku knew All Might’s identity was also a hero or a police officer. Okay. Izuku wasn’t in danger.

“Very well,” she said, turning back to the hero. “I won’t say anything about your identity either, All Might.”

He sighed with relief and was once again enveloped in smoke, making way for Yagi.

“Thank you, Midoriya-san. And so… uh, the reason I’m here is related to my civilian identity. I… My Quirk is special, you see.”

He began to tell a story. A story about two brothers and their Quirks that seemed completely unbelievable to Inko, but also quite frightening. It defied all logic regarding Quirks, even though at first glance it seemed that Quirks didn’t have any. But the human body has its limits, even when transformed by the powers granted by Quirks.

“I know it’s very hard to believe,” Yagi said, as if he had read her thoughts. “But it’s very real, and

my Quirk… I didn’t get my Quirk at birth.” Inko was once again frozen by the man’s words. With the story she had just heard, she was quite afraid of what he would say next. And especially, how did Izuku have to do with it?

“The Quirk is called One For All, and I inherited it from my master, who was the seventh holder of the Quirk, who herself inherited it from her predecessor, and so on. The first holder is, as you must have guessed, the second brother in the story.”

“You… you have a… transferable Quirk?” Inko breathed hesitantly.

Yagi made a strange face before answering her.

“Yes and no. I… I no longer possess the Quirk. I gave it away.”

Inko’s eyes instinctively fell on Izuku, who smiled awkwardly, hunch his shoulders.

“I’m the ninth,” he confirmed in a small voice.

Something inside Inko hurt, terribly. It spread throughout her being, in waves, as she grasped the implications and consequences of this confession.

Izuku was born Quirkless. Izuku had a Quirk that wasn't his own. Izuku had agreed to receive a Quirk without telling her and had kept it a secret.

She took a sharp breath, as much to suppress the tears she felt welling up in the corners of her eyes as to stem the tide of betrayal that pierced her to the core. It had been three years since Izuku had his, no this Quirk. Three years since he'd obtained it and hadn't told her. Then a thought squeezing her heart.

"If... if you hadn't been injured during the attack, would you have told me?" she asked, her voice choked with apprehension.

"Yes," her son assured her, looking her in the eyes. I had planned to wait a week after school started, to… to wait until I was settled in with the school. I… I didn’t think… I’d get hurt in the meantime.

The tears she had been holding back streamed down her cheeks, while her throat tightened painfully.

“You deliberately wanted to wait until you were at high school to tell me?”

“I’m sorry, Mom! I didn’t really mean to hide it from you,” her son panicked when he saw her crying. “But it was an important secret, All Might’s secret, and… and I… I was afraid that… you’d refuse.”

The end of his explanation was almost whispered, but she heard it perfectly.

“You think I would have refused to let you have a Quirk?” she exclaimed, shocked by his reasoning.

She didn’t understand why Izuku had thought that way. She loved him no matter what, and his Quirk wasn’t a condition of her love, but she was very aware that her son’s life would be easier with a Quirk.

“I… Not a Quirk, exactly. Just… just this one Quirk,” Izuku confessed sheepishly. I know you're not too keen on me being a hero because it's dangerous, and I was afraid you'd refuse to... to keep me safe.

Inko crumpled her hands violently, bringing them to her chest at the sound of these words. She hadn't realized her apprehension about her son becoming a hero was so obvious; she'd tried so hard to hide it from him. But it seemed she'd failed. Had she herself led Izuku to distrust her to the point where he believed she would say no?

...Would she have said no?

She found herself imagining the meeting with Yagi and her twelve-year-old son, just before he started middle school. After hearing such a story, would she have said no? To be honest, she didn't know. Perhaps she wouldn't have believed anything Yagi had told her because of the lack of evidence. The idea that someone could take and give back Quirks was unimaginable, so the idea of ​​someone being able to pass on their own Quirk was unthinkable.

Her brows furrowed, a doubt creeping into her mind.

“You said Izuku’s Quirk came from the second brother,” she began slowly, turning to face the man. “What about the other brother?”

Yagi squirmed, and it was quite a sight now that she knew it was All Might.

“He’s still alive,” he said, defeated. “I didn’t think he still was when I passed One For All on to Izuku-shônen. I fought him about five years ago and thought I’d finally defeated him. But… I realized that wasn’t the case during the attack.”

Her blood ran cold. The first brother in the story, the one who cared nothing for the lives of others, the one who wanted to reclaim his brother's Quirk by any means necessary, was still alive. A Quirk now possessed by her little boy.

"Does he know about Izuku?" Inko asked, her heart pounding with fear.

"No," Yagi assured her quickly. "He must suspect I might have passed it on, but if so, he doesn't know who, and I'll do everything I can to keep it a secret."

"But... a man like that, he'll find out eventually, won't he?"

Yagi lowered his eyes, his face grim, giving her his answer.

Silence filled the living room. No one looked at each other, and the neglected tea must have gone cold by now. After a long moment, Inko finally stood up.

"I don't really know what to tell you, Yagi-san. I'm angry that you and Izuku hid something like this from me, but that won't stop me from keeping your secret. However, I'll need some time to process everything and decide what to do."

"Decide what to do?" the man repeated in astonishment.

"Mom," Izuku said, his eyes wide, having understood.

"You're a minor, Izuku," she stated firmly. "Even though Yûei has a kind of legal authority over its students because of its status as a hero school, you received your Quirk before you even entered. My decision takes precedence."

“Midoriya-san, you mean…”

Inko sighed, her hands still twisted together, though her grip was firm.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Like I said, I need time to decide.”

Yagi looked as if he’d swallowed a whole lemon, a guilty glint in his eye, while Izuku lowered his head, tucking it into his shoulders.

“I… I understand,” the man conceded. “But for what it’s worth, I think that even without a Quirk, Izuku-shônen can be a hero. So whatever your decision, I hope you’ll let him stay at Yûei”

Out of the corner of her eye, Inko saw her son straighten up, tears streaming down his determined face.

She knew. She knew it was too late to make any decision on the matter. She could only accept the facts. Izuku was in the hero course at Yûei High School; he couldn't suddenly find himself without a Quirk for no reason. And even if she did find a reason for his sudden Quirklessness… it would only put him in even more danger than he already was.

But that didn't mean she would share her thoughts with them right away. She would have liked to have a choice, or at least be informed from the start. So taking a few days to process the whole situation and deliver her false verdict was all she could do in retaliation.