Chapter Text
All throughout his life, Midoriya Izuku knew that he was never alone.
Everyone else thought otherwise. His mother, his father, even all the doctors dismissed what he said, but Izuku knew deep in his bones, deep in his thoughts, deep in his soul, that she was always there right beside him.
She started out as simple as his own conscious thoughts, an ever present splotch of red within his vision, seemingly echoing his own feelings back at him.
That had been why the color had become his favorite, even if his mother always fussed over how badly it clashed with the greenness of his hair and eyes. Too bright, too overpowering, and too much of a reminder of his father. And so, out of a desire to not upset his mother, Izuku kept his fondness for red to himself. She would always be there to like it in his stead.
The day he became cognizant of his name, Izuku felt an itch in his mind that it wasn’t right, but he didn’t know how to express it to his mother without making her feel bad, so he put it off his mind.
It was shortly after that he realized something after looking at his red companion. He was “Izuku”, yes, but what about her?
The name bubbled up from the depths of his mind without input, as if it had always been there, waiting for him to stumble upon the right thoughts.
Kurenai, his mind supplied and the splotch eagerly accepted it, Kuu-chan.
Izuku was content. Even if he didn’t like his name, at least she would have hers, as red as the color he always loved.
==
“It might not be the news you may be expecting, Midoriya-san, but the tests we’ve conducted so far prove that your son’s quirk factor has been active for a while,” Doctor Akira said as she adjusted her glasses, “What’s mystifying is that there has been no outward manifestation of his quirk at all. For all intents and purposes, he has an invisible quirk.”
“Has that ever happened before?” Izuku’s mother, Inko, asked, worried, while he sat on another chair beside her, idly swinging his legs.
They had delayed this doctor’s visit because their previous quirk consultant, Doctor Tsubasa, vanished between one day and the next. Izuku had never liked the old man, his eyes held something he couldn’t quite identify at the time but it certainly spooked Kuu-chan. He had also been a bit too quick to declare quirklessness from a single test, the toe-joint one, but even he retracted it once the other tests proving the existence of Izuku’s quirk came back positive.
And now they were here with Doctor Akira, a young woman that seemed a tad bit too overwhelmed. Izuku liked her though, she had red hair.
Doctor Akira pursed her lips in thought for a few moments before answering, “It’s not unheard of, but mental quirks like telekinesis would sometimes prioritize developing the internal structure to support its use first before allowing the user to actually move things with their mind. There’s no physical tells from the scans of his body, but if it’s something like that, then how his mind is developing might tell us more.”
“Well, my little Izuku has always been bright,” Inko said, her focus drifting, “His daycare often says that he finishes his class assignments quickly, and he’s grown fond of heroes and quirks, so I’ve been letting him read up on some of the books we have at our house.”
“We might need to schedule some aptitude tests, then,” Doctor Akira sighed and wrote down something on her clipboard, “Are there any anomalies you’ve seen so far on his mental state?”
Inko hesitated and looked down at her son, who looked back at her with a familiar wide eyed wonder.
She wavered on mentioning but relented, “It’s nothing much, but… my son has an imaginary friend. He always mentions her, but I assumed it was just a phase that he’d get over eventually. Do you think that might be tied to his quirk?”
“We can’t discount it, but I can only ask you to monitor how it goes,” Doctor Akira said and then she looked at Izuku, “Izuku, is your friend here right now?”
Izuku perked up at the question and nodded eagerly, “Kuu-chan’s been there the entire time!”
The two adults followed his pointed finger and saw nothing there. Unseen to both, however, was the vaguely humanoid splotch of crimson sitting on the doctor’s desk, swinging her legs in tune with Izuku. She waved at him happily.
Doctor Akira nodded and made another note before giving her verdict.
“I’ll mark your son’s quirk status as ‘active, but invisible’ for now. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than marking him as quirkless. In the worst case, if nothing truly outwardly develops, then we’ll see if I can at least label it as an intelligence quirk, for your sakes.”
Inko frowned but nodded all the same, “I don’t like it, but it’s the best that we can do for now. Thank you for your time, Doctor Akira.”
Izuku didn’t exactly know what the problem was, only that it was connected to how he hadn’t ‘gotten a quirk’ yet like Kacchan and the others. It was confusing because he’d thought that he had a quirk this entire time, except no one seemed to believe that ‘seeing Kuu-chan’ was his quirk.
What was his quirk, then?
==
Two years passed and Izuku was still at a loss to the answer to that question.
It certainly hadn’t been uneventful, at least, not when Kacchan got more and more rowdy as his quirk grew stronger. And it was a cool quirk! Explosions were cool and flashy and powerful, except… Kacchan was a bit too rowdy, enough so that Izuku always felt like he needed to step in when it got too far.
Just like today.
“Kacchan!” he cried out as he got to the park and saw the scene before him.
It was becoming a gradually common sight to see Kacchan and at least two of his friends crowding over other kids, with Kacchan playing with his quirk to show how cool it was. But doing it like Kacchan did, towering over another kid, it made something burn within Izuku.
You don’t push people down like that!
“Geh!? Deku, stop ruining the mood!” Kacchan yelled, his palms cracking and popping with miniature explosions.
Izuku stood with his arms spread between Kacchan and the crying kid that Kacchan pushed down, a determined look on his face.
“And heroes aren’t supposed to kick people down, Kacchan,” he shot back.
Kacchan sneered, “What’re you gonna do about it, Deku? Are ya feelin’ like a hero when you don’t even have a quirk?”
“Yeah, what’ya gonna do, quirkless Deku?” the kid standing beside Kacchan echoed the blond’s words, his own fingers stretching unnaturally long.
“I have a quirk!” Izuku cried back at them with a frown.
“If it’ll ever show up at all!” Kacchan crowed, “A useless quirk for a useless Deku, a match made in heaven. In fact—”
He punched his open fist, the explosion generating enough smoke to make Kacchan look intimidating, “Why don’t I send you to heaven right now, Deku?”
Izuku raised his fists and taunted back, “If you can make me, Kacchan.”
And so the ‘fight’ began.
It was a scuffle at most. It’s not like a bunch of six year olds could do much to each other, but Kacchan had the numbers advantage and the quirks advantage. Izuku wasn’t winning this, but he didn’t need to, not when the crying kid from earlier had left after his distraction.
He only needed to endure—
Kacchan’s fist made a solid hit on the corner of his head, just above his shoddy guard, and Izuku staggered back, stunned.
To endure…
Long-fingers kid snuck in a jab at Izuku’s shoulder before he could center himself and he went spinning.
To endu—
From his blindspot came the third of Kacchan’s little gang, a portly boy with a drum-like stomach. He came dashing in with awkward and stiff steps, but it was still too fast for Izuku to process with how off-balance he was.
The boy slammed against Izuku with his stomach, a deep bong echoing in the empty park as Izuku was launched to the air with surprising force and he landed on a heap right at Kacchan’s feet.
“Ya done playin’ hero yet, Deku?” Kacchan growled at him and Izuku couldn’t exactly respond, not with the other boy’s foot digging on his back.
Izuku was a bit too breathless to respond and the delay was enough to get an irritated growl from Kacchan and another kick to flip him onto his back.
Kacchan grabbed him by his shirt collar with both hands and dragged him up to his face.
“I want an answer, Deku.”
Izuku, already tired from the scuffle, grinned instead.
Kacchan yelled incoherently and pulled his fist back. Izuku was already closing his eyes and bracing himself.
Endure it. Endure it. He only needed to endure it.
Even with his eyes closed, he felt Kacchan drive his fist forward. Here it comes. He just needed to brace and—
You can do it, Izukkun!
—Endure i—what?
Izuku definitely felt the fist hit his face and it did hurt a lot. Just… there wasn’t any stinging of broken or damaged skin that he expected after getting hit.
“AGH! What the hell?”
He opened his eyes and gasped.
Kacchan was a few feet away, seemingly having staggered back, and he was holding his fist, now red along the knuckles he had used to punch Izuku.
That wasn’t what made Izuku gasp, though, but the scintillating light that spread all over his sight. It was bright blue right between his eyes, where Kacchan’s fist definitely hit, and it faded into shades of green and eventually to nothing outside the ‘impact zone’.
Izuku looked down on his hands and he noticed an almost unseen scale-like pattern wrapping around a centimeter off his skin, rippling the sunlight imperceptibly.
“DEKU!” Kacchan yelled with an accompanying bang from his hands, “Is that your quirk!?”
He almost said no out of habit, but stopped himself as the feelings sunk into him. This barrier… it was his quirk, wasn’t it?
“ANSWER ME!”
Izuku barely widened his eyes in time as Kacchan was suddenly in front of him, already punching. The diminutive fist slammed into the bright blue spot in front of his face… and it barely stopped it as Izuku was quickly reintroduced to Kacchan’s fist.
He tumbled to the ground, limp.
“Hah!” Kacchan cheered, “Not even two hits! If that’s your quirk, then it’s still useless. A Deku will always be a Deku!”
Izuku laid on the ground, still processing everything that’s happened so far. It hurt, not just the hit to his face, but the insult, too. Except… that wasn’t everything, was it? This barrier, this… this Safeguard, it wasn’t the entire quirk. If what Izuku knew about his situation was true, after all the things he’s read about telekinesis quirks, then something as simple as a skintight barrier shouldn’t have taken an extra three years to manifest. There was more—
Get up, Izukkun, get up. You have to get up.
He had to get up. He had to see this through. He could feel parts of himself that he never knew were there finally waking up to stretch its legs.
Kacchan’s laugh stuttered to a stop as Izuku stumbled to get up.
“A hero… never gives up, Kacchan!” he declared while trying to give a shaky smile.
“You—!” Kacchan seethed, “That’s my line, Deku! This is the end!”
As he stepped forward, palms lighting up to give Izuku the explosive ending he deserved, things finally clicked into place.
For a brief moment, Izuku saw a familiar flash of red standing behind the other boy.
The park is quickly enveloped with smoke following the twin booms of Kacchan’s explosions. Everyone was blinded for a while by it and as for Izuku…
“That’s—!”
He felt more than heard the sound of cracking and shattering glass in front of him. Even if he couldn’t see it right now, he knew what was in front of him in his mind’s eye.
Two floating panes of glass, except they were planes of greens and blues, similar to the barrier that covered Izuku. Telekinetic shields. Force plates.
Kacchan’s explosions all but shattered them, but they mostly held and were already on the mend, the cracks and broken parts regenerating with the bright blues darkening into greens. Izuku himself was partly illuminated in greens, his skintight barrier having taken the remnants of the blocked explosions’ force.
Izuku grinned, a feral confidence blooming inside him.
“I’m still here, Kacchan.”
“Dekuuuuu!”
And the ‘fight’ was on.
==
Izuku still lost, too new to his quirk and too ignorant of his limitations, but he gave it as best as he could before he was finally pinned down and beaten.
There was something approaching respect in Kacchan’s eyes as he left, because Izuku wasn’t just a powerless interloper anymore, but Izuku was a bit too exhausted to figure out what that meant.
But he wasn’t too exhausted not to notice someone suddenly appearing and crouching beside him. A girl, for some reason, and she wore an ensemble of red clothes that matched her messy red hair that could compete with his own and pink eyes that bordered on white with how pale they were.
“That was pretty cool, wasn’t it, Izukkun?” she asked and Izuku suddenly knew who she was.
He grinned, “The coolest, Kuu-chan.”
Kurenai giggled and Izuku did too.
Despite the bruises and the pain, for Izuku, today was the best day of his life.
==
Quirk: Safeguard
Description: A telekinetic defensive quirk! Izuku has a passive skintight barrier protecting his body and can summon telekinetic shields to defend himself! He can still feel pain if his personal barrier is hit, but it nullifies almost every form of damage! Taking hits with his shields energizes him, so even if they’re shattered he’ll still be raring for a fight. An enduring quirk for an enduring hero!