Chapter Text
"You think I'm gonna have a quirk like Dad Mommy? or maybe I can have one like yours where I can lift stuff with my hands, OOH! OOH! Or maybe I can have a super powerful strength quirk like All-Might!"
"We’ll find out soon sweetie."
This is where it all started...well, now that I think about it, it's how it starts for almost everyone.
I was in the waiting room of the doctor's office with my mom, ecstatically awaiting the results of my quirk assessment test. I spent roughly half the day at the clinic getting work done on me as part of a quirk assessment test to discover which power I was gonna develop in the future, and I was hopping in my chair with a smile as big and bright as the All-might action figure in my hand. I was probably happier that day than every Christmas and birthday I previously experienced. It was the day I was going to discover what quirk I was going to develop between my parents and the kind of hero I was going to become.
Yeah...A hero. That's what I wanted to be ever since I was young. When I first saw heroes on TV fighting crime and saving the day, I thought it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen, and there was no one I admired more than All-Might. I want to be just like him. a hero who saves the day and fights villains with a smile on his face. I honestly can't think of anything else I want to be.
Eventually, one of the nurses came into the waiting room and asked for my name. I ran up to her and greeted her with what she said was the biggest smile the nurse had ever seen. Me and my mom followed her to an examination room where I didn't wait long for the doctor to give me the results.
At the time I didn't know what I was gonna get. When two people with different quirks get married, their offspring normally get a quirk that belongs to one of the parents, or in a rarer instance, a combination of both. My mom had a quirk that let her float small objects toward her hand, kind of like telepathy. With a quirk like that, I could be a support hero and do rescue work. My father on the other hand has a quirk that lets him breathe fire. He works overseas a lot to financially support me and mom, so I rarely get to see him. But his power gives me a better chance of becoming a hero who fights villainy. I'm pretty sure one of the top pro heroes in China is a hero with a fire-breathing quirk, so I had options depending on which straw fate would draw from me... Well, that's when I learned the hard way that life doesn't always go the way you expect it.
"I'm sorry kid it's not going to happen."
Those words sat in the back of my head, for weeks, like a traumatic event, which...well. It was. Turns out there was a secret third straw that destiny drew for me that I had never thought would happen until that moment.
I was quirkless. For the rest of my life, I was going to be like the 20% of the population without superpowers.
I was frozen in my chair with a look of shock as if he saw a ghost. I was so devastated I didn't even notice I dropped my action figure. Because of my reaction, I didn't fully process what the doctor told me until my mom had to give me a recap after the visit. I have some bone mutation in my foot that's the same genetic mutation that 20% of the world possesses. The ones without powers.
Months went by after the checkup and I still didn't want to accept what that Doctor said to me. What's worse was that the others in the neighborhood eventually caught wind of the news, along with those I went to school with. Eventually, the kids I grew up with and those I developed a friendship with slowly began to distance themselves from me. The biggest of my friends was Katsuki Bakugo, or Kacchan as I call him. Anyway, he eventually severed his relationship with me due to the belief he had that those with no quirks were nobodies who couldn't amount to anything. He even rallied some of the other kids in the neighborhood against me and bullied me. At times, they even got physical.
It didn't take long for my mom to notice the hard time I was having with my quirkless existence. Being the mother she was, she couldn't just sit idly by to shoulder the burden I was given. So, one night, a bout a year or so later when it was dinner time, she had an idea of how to cheer me up.
She started by making me my favorite food at the time. Store-bought All-Might-shaped Macaroni and cheese with miniature turkey meatballs. God, I miss that Mac & Cheese. Apparently, the company that produced it was based in America and stopped shipping it overseas for some reason...
Sorry, got off-topic. A-anyway, I sat down, and enjoyed my dinner, shoveling small spoonfuls of cheesy mac and meatball slices into my mouth until my mom eventually made an offer.
"Hey Izuku, This upcoming weekend, how would you like to go on a vacation? You know. Get away from the city for a while and relax?" For the first time since dinner started, I looked up at my mom, as she smiled at me.
"I…I guess that would be ok. Where would we go?" I softly asked as I took another spoonful of macaroni.
"Do you remember my old friend Minako? The one you met at my job as a server at the coffee shop? Remember how we went with her to the beaches and rode in those paddleboats? Then we'd feed the pigeons at the local park in the middle of town. And how you kept calling them, Funny Ducks?"
Ahaha, yeah. Funny Ducks. At the time, I called them that, because I thought that the pigeons at the park were ducks but had some kind of quirk that made them look funny. I was a blissfully ignorant kid back in the way. Anyway, I remember cracking a light smirk as my mood became elevated at the remembrance of those memories. I remember Minako. She was…kind of nice. She was one of my mom’s old co-worker friends from her past job as a server for a coffee shop. She was also quirkless like I was. Mom and her kept in touch after Mom left her coffee shop job and sort of became a housewife. Minako later moved to this town to be closer to her boyfriend at the time. I didn't remember the name of the town she lived in though, which was when mom told me it was called Morioh. It was this small town roughly several dozen miles southwest of my home city of Musutafu.
“So, how does that sound Izuku? You wanna go on a little getaway with me and visit Minako?”
At the time, I thought it would be nice to go visit Minako. I thought I could speak to her about what it’s like to grow up quirkless and get any kind of guidance from her I could. Also, I might have wanted to get away from everything happening in my life at the time. My quirklessness, Bakugo’s bullying. It was all just too much for me to handle. So, I happily accepted my mom’s proposal.
The day after, Mom called Minako for the arrangements, asking her if she was free for the weekend and wanted to spend time with her and Midoriya like old times. When she got a yes, she began packing both our bags with everything we’d need for our weekend. Because Minako lived with her boyfriend in a one-bedroom apartment, there wouldn't be any room for me or mom to stay with Minako and her boyfriend. So Mom booked us a motel that was in the town. Mom was planning on taking me during the week she promised, but our getaway was delayed by a week.
Mom forgot that Morioh wasn’t like any other place that anyone could visit as they pleased. Morioh is a unique town in that it is one of the only places in the entire country that is a Quirkless Sanctuary.
Quirkless Sanctuaries are rare locations where quirks are almost entirely banned. Throughout the country, only three of these locations exist, with Morioh being one of them. Anyone with a quirk is not allowed to live in these areas, and those with powers must go through a very strict process to be able to visit one.
Pro-heroes can enter Quirkless Sanctuaries but only those with special certifications. Those with quirks can visit for vacations and business purposes, but must go through the earlier-mentioned process, and can only stay for a brief period. The process involves a background check for criminal history, and to gather information about the individual’s quirk, along with the powers of their family ancestry.
Anyone with a mutant quirk that drastically changes their human physiology like the pro hero Gang Orca, or has a quirk that is deemed unacceptable by the town's council is not granted access to the town. No exceptions. In the case of my mom, however, her quirk of floating small objects toward her hand was ruled as acceptable, and…well…with me being quirkless, I didn’t have to worry about the background check. As such, me & my mom were granted permission to travel to Morioh.
One week later, we were at the train station ready to board. However, before our departure, Mom was ordered by the local police to pick up her quirk nullification bracelet before she could board the train. The bracelet was made with the same tech as the ones used on the prisoners in Tartarus to keep their quirks pacified. So it guarantees that the wearer can’t use their powers if they have it on. Mom had to always keep the bracelet on her, as removing or destroying it would result in a very harsh police intervention and permanent banishment from the town.
With that out of the way, me and mom boarded our train, with Mom making sure she ordered the seats on the side of the train that guaranteed the best view of Morioh when we eventually made it to the town.
Now you're probably wondering why a place like Morioh would be a Quirkless Sanctuary. As me and mom were on the train looking out the window, seeing our home city of Musutafu leaving us, I didn't know why myself, but when I recently did a research paper for my middle school’s hero ethics class, I discovered the reasoning for this law was more tragic than I anticipated.
About three months before we would arrive in the town, A man with an electricity quirk murdered five police officers at a soba shop in the town. He was a man on the run who escaped from the cop's clutches several times over until he was eventually defeated, caught, & jailed. While the crime spree the villain caused was over, the damage they left behind on the citizens of Morioh was done and led to a decision that changed the town forever.
By sheer coincidence, Morioh had the largest population of quirkless civilians per capita in all of Japan. About 68% of its population before the laws enforcement were quirkless, so when word spread that someone with an electricity quirk was loose in the town and would strike again after murdering several officers, fear quickly spread amongst the town’s residents, & quirk discrimination was at an all-time high in the area. The mayor of Morioh would eventually make a drastic call. The mayor would draft a law that would make Morioh one of the very few locations in the country that would become a quirkless Sanctuary. The news of this matter was talked about in the news for days, which only fanned the flames of Hysteria in Morioh as protests and arguments in the town became commonplace leading up to the vote, when election day came around, the bill would be passed with a 53% vote. You can imagine what happened after this.
Those with quirks were scared and outraged, news media across the country picked up on the story, fights broke out, people got hurt, quirk discrimination & hatred among the quirkless rose, and pro-heroes were even dispatched to quell the outrage of the town’s folk, but most of the heroes except for 3 pros with visitation privileges were forced to leave.
It was a dark time for the town, but after a month and a half, the dust settled and things mostly returned to normal. Eventually becoming the Morioh that I saw through the window of the train, knowing we were almost there. Looking at the town from the distance we were at, you could tell it was a drastically different view compared to that of Musutafu but was exactly as I remembered it from my younger days.
There were barely any skyscrapers in the town, lots of open fields, and for some reason, the town had a sense of tranquility to it. Back in the city centers where I was raised, most citizens would worry about being mugged by villains, their stores being robbed, or even have crippling anxiety over their homes getting destroyed by a villain with a gigantification quirk. All the while hoping a pro hero would come and save the day. But here, it was like I didn’t have to worry about any of that. There was this unique sense of peace in the town. It made me realize just how different life was outside the major city centers.
As we approached, Mom scooched closer to me and played a brief game of Eye-Spy with me before we reached our destination.
As the train began to slow down on its approach, I remember my stomach growling, which my mom was quick to catch as she reacted with a smile.
“You hungry Izuku?” Mom questioned me as I looked away from her with my cheeks red with slight embarrassment. I didn’t verbally respond to her, but she knew me better than anyone and took my silence as a yes.
“Well, I remember there being this really nice cafe not far from the station. What do you say we go there, have a quick bite, and head to the hotel right after?”
I responded with an “OK” as I took my mom’s hand and she led me out of the station toward the crosswalk, where the café she mentioned earlier was just across the street. It seemed like this day was going to be a nice peaceful escape for me to relax and get my mind off all the angst I’ve been feeling for the last few months…
…at least that’s how it was supposed to go. There was no way that me or my mom could have known, but this seemingly peaceful day would harbor an event that would change my future for the rest of my life.
Midoriya and his mother sat peacefully inside the café, taking in the familiar sight of the café’s interior. It didn’t take long for a waitress to come by and take their order. Inko ordered a decaf coffee with milk and sugar, while Izuku opted for a muffin and the smallest size of orange juice the restaurant offered.
Mother and son looked at one another as Inko noticed Izuku’s expression change to a smile. A good sign from Inko that her son was starting to cheer up from his several-month-long slump over being quirkless. Inko took the opportunity to brainstorm ideas for recreation for the day.
However, unbeknownst to the Midoriya’s, destiny had other plans.
High above the sky that day, a tense elderly man trapped inside of a Polaroid photograph was gliding above the buildings, tightly gripping a golden arrow that he pointed towards the ground, hoping to find a person of interest. This man's name was Yoshihiro Kira, the father of the explosive serial killer, Yoshikage Kira.
In the spirit of given context for the situation, Yoshikage Kira is a Morioh resident who works as an employee for the Kame Yu department stores in town and follows a very strict daily routine. He’s also not married.
However, it was earlier discovered by a late high school student that the quiet, hard-working Kira was a psychopathic serial killer with a long list of murders under his belt, mostly consisting of women with soft hands. He's never had any trouble in dealing with problematic people in his life until he came across a group of stand users that have been investigating a bizarre disturbance in the town involving supernatural phenomena and missing people cases with little traces of their whereabouts.
This group led by the stardust crusader Jotaro Kujo eventually uncovered Kira’s murderous tendencies and attempted to put a stop to him. Due to Kira’s under-the-radar approach to dealing with problematic people, he was outmatched against the Joestar and was nearly defeated in the conflict. Unfortunately for Jotaro and his group, Kira was able to escape and go into hiding by taking up a new identity.
Assisting in Yoshikage’s wrongdoings was his father Yoshihiro Kira, who also lived in the town. Yoshihira had a deep parental care for his son, not at all fazed over his murderous tendencies, and was willing to do anything in his power to protect him.
After a failed capture attempt by the Joestar group, Yoshihiro escaped his home with a special arrow he had acquired that could give people a Stand.
Stands are fighting spirits the user can summon at will for any number of various tasks.
Stands can only be seen, and damaged by other stand users. They even possess quirk-like powers that could rival or even surpass the strongest of pro-heroes whose deeds of heroism dominate the newspapers and TV channels. However, there was a catch.
The arrow can only work on a target the arrow itself chooses. Once their victim is chosen, the arrow itself will stab them. Should the victim have a strong enough will to survive the impalement, they are given a stand ability.
Using this arrow, Yoshihiro went on a mission to recruit as many stand users as possible, hoping someone in Morioh would have a stand capable of defeating the Joestar group, so his son could come out of hiding and continue pursuing the quiet life he desired.
However, Yoshihiro’s search was currently not getting the results he had hoped for. It had been roughly 15 hours since the arrow pierced its last target, and he was beginning to get anxious that there was no one left in town that he could use the arrow on. The elderly man began getting intrusive thoughts of his son's identity getting compromised and losing his life to the stand users who were hunting his son down.
“NO!” The man yelled to himself as he shook the thought from his head. “I cannot lose hope. There MUST be someone left in this godforsaken town. Just hang in there my son. This is not the end.”
After hours of scouting the town, Yoshihiro felt a magnetic pull on the arrow as it changed its flight direction, sending the man toward the train station. His eyes widen in excitement as he finally catches a break. Like a fisherman who spent hours out in the water with no luck in getting a catch, only for a nice, heavy fish to swim to his hook and finally take the bait. Kira’s eyes widened in excitement as his patience was finally rewarded.
“Yes, YES! Finally!” He yells with a rush of excitement as he and the arrow flew down to street level as the arrow starts to slow its pace.
Within a minute, the arrow guides Kira to its intended target. A young green-haired child sitting inside a cafe, eating a muffin by the window. He grinned in devilish excitement at the anticipation of summoning a new stand user. He also noticed a woman sitting on the other side of his table sipping her coffee, deducing the figure to be the boy's mother but of the two identities, the child was the one the arrow wanted.
The elderly man had no morals when it came to whom he would use the arrow on, considering one of his most recent victims was a young child with an unusual obsession with challenging strangers to games of rock, paper, scissors. However, he had to think about the situation carefully. As desperate as he was to find new stand users for his cause, he understood that if the arrow pierced the child, especially with his mother by his side, situational consequences were guaranteed to follow.
He thought about how to approach the situation. He had to utilize an opportunity where the boy would be alone from the mother, strike while the irons hot, and make a clean getaway for another target.
Maybe he could wait for someone to open the door to the restaurant, slip in, and wait for one of them to use the bathroom and attack from there.
That seemed like the most plausible idea to the elderly man, but before he could move, he noticed the tables waitress at the table giving a black checkbook to the mother, giving the impression they were paying their check, meaning they were going to leave soon.
That was when a change of plans was hatched. He would wait, for mother and son to leave, and wait for a chance for the two to separate.
Kira hid behind a nearby flowerpot, arrow in hand like a hunter ready to stalk his prey.
After a couple of minutes, Izuku and his mother walk out of the café, side-by-side as they head down the street, with Yoshihiro not far behind. Inko took the time to look around the town, admiring the peace as everyone was going about their day. Being in a town without any kind of quirk-related chaos put Inko in a state of ease.
“You know Izuku,” Inko stated, “I remember back when I was your age, how my father would-”
She stopped for a moment as she looked down to her side, noticing her emerald-haired son was not present.
“I...Izuku? Izuku!?”
She looked back to find her child a meter away, looking into the window of a store, not realizing that Yoshihiro was a split second away from attacking Izuku as Kira, noticing Inko walking to izuku, pulled the arrow away just before the head made contact with Midoriya’s leg.
“OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD WOMAN!!”
Kira angrily snapped as he retreated into an alley next to the store Midoriya was looking into. Kira's elderly teeth grinded with hate toward the mother for ruining his chance. He tightly gripped his arrow, waiting for another chance to pounce as Inko noticed the store Midoriya was looking into was a TV store.
The TVs facing the street were reporting that All-Might had defeated a building-sized villain with a single blow as the local news was getting a shot of the #1 hero flexing his muscles and doing his signature laugh, signaling his victory as a roar of thankful cheers from those in the area thanked the man.
Inko smiled, understanding the reasoning for Midoriya leaving her side. however as she looked down at her son, she noticed him start to tear up. An unusual sight since anytime All-Might was on screen defeating villains, Midoriya had a bright smile with ecstatic energy in his eyes. That's when she took out a handkerchief from her purse, kneeled down, and wiped her son’s tears
“Izuku, sweetie what’s wrong?”
The boy needed a few seconds to compose himself before he could answer his mother.
“Mom? I- is it possible for someone without a quirk to become a hero? Someone who can save lives and do so with a smile on their face? Like All-Might?”
Inko paused for a moment, slightly taken aback by what the boy said.
At first, she felt a tad upset about Izuku bringing up quirks and pro heroes. She had hoped that this weekend would help Izuku get away from the angst he felt about never gaining A quirk, but then the mother remembered that Superheroes were her son’s entire world, and it would be next near impossible to have her get away from that.
No matter how she sliced it, her son was still noticeably upset that he’d never develop a quirk, and knew she had to be careful about how to respond to her son as she didn’t want to say anything that would open old wounds.
It didn't take long for Inko to come up with a response as she knew that not having a superpower was not the end of the world.
“Of course, you can sweetie.” She said softly. “There are jobs and careers out there where you can help heroes and other people. Whether you have a quirk or not, you can still be a hero.”
Inko held her child's head up so she was looking right into his eyes.
“Izuku listen to me. I'm so sorry. If I had a magic wand I could wave, I would give you the best quirk this world could offer you, but I can’t.” She spoke fighting back tears in her eyes. “But that doesn’t mean it's the end of the road. You can be a police officer, a firefighter, a search and rescue person helping with disasters...um….help out a hero at a hero agency, maybe as a dispatcher. It’s a job where you notify pro-heroes that theres trouble and you send them out to save the day. There are many things you can do to help people’s lives Izuku.”
Inko reached into her purse for a handkerchief to wipe the tears from her son's face.
“Look, sweetie. No matter what happens, I’ll help you in any way I can. I will always love you and support you throughout your life, no matter what happens.”
Izuku looked up at his mother’s face and gave her a big long hug. One that was long enough for a certain grumpy old man in a Polaroid to be on the brink of losing his patience.
“Thanks, mom.” Right as the child spoke those words, he looked back at the television with All-Might facing the television screen with his smile and gave a thumbs up.
“Your welcome sweetie,” she said as he put the handkerchief back in her purse and grabbed Izuku's hand as she stood back up. “Now then, what do you say we head to Minakos?”
“Okay, mo- AHH!!”
As Inko turned her head toward the direction she would walk, her son's words were cut off by something piercing his back, causing him to shriek in pain. Inko quickly glanced back, not seeing the Polaroid photo flying by her ankle. Yoshihiro had lost his patience and stuck his target, causing the greenette to tense up and become unresponsive.
Izuku?? I- IZUKU!?!?!
Izuku was unresponsive as his eyes became lifeless and his body fell to the floor. She gasped in utter horror as he noticed the golden arrow sticking her son in his lower back as blood began to pool from the wound.
AAAAHHHHHH!!!! IZUKU!!!! OH MY GOD! NOOOOOOO!!!!"
Inko's screams of terror were heard down the block as citizens on the sidewalk heard the disturbance, and saw the lifeless Izuku. And immediately sprang into action to help.
One person tried consoling Inko to no effect, another immediately ran to the nearby payphone and called 911, another ran to the cafe that the Midoriya’s ate at to see if anyone was a doctor and could help while asking the servers to call for an ambulance.
Everyone else huddled around the woman shocked, devastated, and grieving for the woman as everyone didn't know what to do besides call for help and try their best to console the traumatized woman.
It took 9 minutes for an ambulance to arrive and take Izuku away. Within that time, the motherly Midoriya was a devastated wreck. The citizens did their best but knew they could only do so much for a mother whose son was bleeding on the sidewalk from an arrowhead to the back.
As the paramedics were tending to izuku and put him into the stretcher, the arrow that stabbed Izuku slid out of his back and plopped to the ground. The Paramedics did their best to prevent further bleeding from the wound as he put the stand arrow to the side to give to the police for evidence.
Yoshihiro who was witnessing the entire episode from behind a pile of trash near the crime scene gritted his teeth in anger toward himself, knowing that because of his lack of patience, and stabbing Midoriya at the wrong time, he was now in a position where there was too much attention in the area, and was in a situation where he’d have to find a way to steal the stand arrow back from the police.
The man had no feelings of guilt over what he had done, not even any feelings of pity toward the mother who had to deal with the possibility of her son dying in her arms. The only thing on his mind was that he hoped the stand that Midoriya would possibly inherit would be just the thing he needed to put a stop to the stand users that were after his son. As Kira patiently waited for an opportunity to steal the stand arrow from the police, Midoriya, and his mother were loaded into the hospital and were on their way to the nearby hospital.
Seconds felt like minutes. Minutes felt like hours.
That's what time felt like to Inko Midoriya. She had no words, or emotions other than heartbroken sadness, emptiness, and sky-high anxiety over the crippling thought of losing her son. A psychiatrist in the hospital was accompanying the mother to make sure she was OK. A police officer was also with her to see if he could find out any additional information about the incident, to no avail.
On the way to the hospital, Inko called Minako and told her everything that had happened through an extremely heartbreaking phone call, and was by her side in the waiting room, supporting her in this dark time.
All she wanted to know was whether her son was going to make it.
It took about 28 minutes of some of the most worrying waiting she had ever done, but eventually, a nurse approached Inko and her company
“Mrs Midoriya?” The woman called out.
Inko looked up at the doctor with heartbreak in her eyes. She wanted to ask if her son was alright, but she was afraid of hearing the worst possible news. The nurse knowing how she felt nodded in understanding as she stepped forward with the news.
“Mrs. Midoriya, your son is awake and well. He's speaking to one of the doctors right now.”
Inko covered her mouth as an enormous amount of relief washed through the woman's body. She immediately got up from her seat and asked the nurse where her son was, with Minako and the psychiatrist remaining seated.
“1-eh-. M- Mam, I-if you come with me I’ll bring you to his roo-“
“WHICH ROOM!? GIVE ME A ROOM NUMBER!”
“Inko relax, You heard her, Midoriya’s ok!”
Minako’s explanation did little to get through to her friend, The nurse was taken aback in fear at the tone of Inko’s voice. Even the Psychiatrist & cop felt intimidated. The nurse timidly told her that Izuku was in room 153, even pointing her in the direction of a hallway.
Inko immediately got up and ran as fast as she could to the room, Leaving the nurse, and Minako just barely able to catch up with her.
As soon as she got to the door, she threw the door open and ran inside, spotting her son sitting up in the bed with a doctor in the room and the TV on. The sight of her child alive once more made her tear up as she ran right to Izuku and hugged him as she cried tears of joy at the revival of her son.
“IZUKU!!! MY BABY!! Oh my god, I was so worried about you! I thought I was never gonna see you again!!” Minako finally arrived at the room with the nurse just behind her as she turned her head toward the doctor in the room.
“Thank you so much! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!! Oh my God, I don't know what I would have done with myself if my little Izuku passed away so suddenly!”
“Ma’am, while it warms my heart to see you and your son in high spirits, we haven’t done anything worth thanking.”
Inko and Minako looked at the doctor a tad confused as to what he meant. The doctor then asked the haired woman and her friend to take a seat and get comfy as he explained everything, but not before he told the nurse that chased after Minako that her presence was no longer needed, and turned off the television as he took a look at the notes on his clipboard.
“Now then. Mrs. Midoriya.” The Doctor began. “I looked up the history of your family quirk tree, and based on what I was able to find, your son here was diagnosed as being quirkless. Is this correct?”
“Uh, y-yes, about two years ago I believe.” She said in confusion. “Why do you ask?” The doctor took a breath before explaining the situation.
“Well Mrs. Midorya, as soon as we brought your son into the emergency room and had the triage nurse look at him, the gash on his back where the arrowhead pierced him was in the process of healing itself. In fact, his injury was completely healed within 30 seconds of the nurse seeing him. It’s as if your son here developed a quirk that allows him to heal his own body from physical damage."
Both Midoriya’s couldn't believe what they heard from the doctor. Even Minako was taken aback. The green-haired quirkless Izuku somehow survived an injury that could be fatal to a boy his age without the proper powers to survive the attack. To Inko, she just sat there. Confused, not knowing how to process what she heard.
“I-…W- What!? B-b- but that’s Impossible!" she stammered. "I- I thought Izuku couldn’t-… I-“
“Wait, m-mom!” her son interrupted, sitting stright up from the bed. “D- does this mean that I have a quirk!?”
“Well, that’s the strange thing Izuku. You don’t." The doctor Answered. Causing Izuku's brief hopes to be extinguished.
“Now, despite popular belief, it's not impossible for a person to develop a quirk after the age of 4 to 6. There are instances where people have developed quirks as late as their 20's, but it’s extremely rare for that to happen. We thought your son could be a slightly late quirk-bloomer. So, after the gash healed itself, we ran several tests on your son, including another quirk assessment test with blood samples, x-rays, the whole nine yards.” The doctor looked down at his clipboard with his lab results for the green-haired child. “After we were finished, we couldn't find any biological signs that your son had any kind of quirk. Even the needle puncture we did to his arm for the blood test showed no quirk-related signs of regeneration. I understand that this is confusing to you all, and well you are not alone. I’ve done numerous quirk assessment tests in the past, but even I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Inko thought for a second trying to piece together everything the doctor told her. She had so many rushing thoughts in her head she had no idea what to say.
“I- I don’t understand... I thought…I thought my son was going to…die.” Inko anxiously muttered. “He was shot by a bow and was lifeless when the ambulance took him. And one hour later he's acting as if nothing happened to him? How? How is that possible if he doesn’t have a quirk? Did someone use a healing quirk on him? I Don’t-.”
Inko was clearly damaged. The vision of seeing Izuku's lifeless body on the sidewalk was something she won’t forget for a long time and was sending her closer to a panic attack the more she spoke about it, even with Minako trying her best to comfort her.
“Yes well…I'm incredibly sorry for the horrific experience you went through.” The doctor said soft spoken. "But to answer your question, No. None of the paramedics or hospital staff who aided your son possess any healing quirks. I mean, as absurd as it is, healing quirks aren’t allowed in Morioh. We do occasionally get a straggler or two that sneaks into town though. So the only possible explanation I could come up with, was that someone with a quirk that could heal injuries was in the right place at the right time, saw your son in distress, and helped him. Otherwise, your boy somehow healed himself from a wound that would easily kill a child his age…but since he's quirkless, that shouldn't be possible....All that aside, your son seems to be fine and healthy. So he can be released from the hospital within the hour. Can you get out of bed and stand up son?”
“Huh? Oh sure.”
The young Izuku flipped his sheets off the bed and stood up as healthy as can be. Inko's eye began to tear up once more as she kneeled for another prolonged hug. Minako looked at her old work friend, with a heartfelt smirk at the sight of mother and son reunited. The doctor finished by stating that he would file the report of what happened here to Inko's personal doctor, and implored her to keep in touch with them should anything with her son change.
“Thank you. Thank you so much, doctor.” Inko said looking up at the doctor.
Afterward, Inko spent the next 9 minutes talking to the Morioh police, telling them everything she knew about the incident, and went on their way. Minako split from the Midoriya’s for the moment and headed back to her boyfriend's house. The officers gave Inko and Izuku a ride to their hotel as she became fearful of walking the streets, knowing the person who put Izuku in the hospital was still out there and fearful they might strike again.
Afterwards, me and mom spent the weekend in Morioh with Minako and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend Satoru was a little mean, but I had fun regardless. We went to the lake and went swimming, had dinner at this nice restaurant, went to a couple of museums in the town. ...and yes we did make time to feed the ducks by the water.
Unfortunately, this would be the last time I would ever see Minako. About four days after me and mom took the train back to Musutafu, both she and her boyfriend were reported missing by the police. I would come to learn at a later time that Morioh had a dark history of men, women, and even children going missing via mysterious circumstances.
Was it ghosts? A serial Killer? Someone hiding in the town with a quirk like that guy who killed those five cops? No one knew…but with me almost dying from that arrow shot, and Minako’s disappearance, I can understand why Mom never wanted to return to Morioh, and why what happened that day would haunt her for years to come...
THE MORNING IS HERE! THE MORNING IS HERE! THE MORNING IS HERE!
Izuku eyes cracked open as he yawned loudly, turning off the alarm from his prized All-Might-Shaped alarm clock as he got up out of bed and stretched. He could smell eggs being cooked from the kitchen, an indicator that his mother was making breakfast. Midoriya turned on the radio by his desk as he went to his closet to change into his school clothes. The radio was playing Present Mic’s "Put Your Hands Up" Radio Show, a radio show that the greenette listened to almost daily when he got outta bed.
As Midoriya put on his clothes, the voice hero informed his listeners that starting this month, he would soon begin his new job as an English teacher for the esteemed UA High, one of the greatest hero schools in the country. That was the dream of the 14-year-old Izuku Midoriya.
Midoriya recently did some research and discovered that UA High recently dropped its requirement that only those with quirks could be allowed into the hero course, giving Midoriya some hope that he could one day be a pro hero. But there was one hurdle that held him back from the pack.
He was powerless. Quirkless.
He knew that he would be at a great disadvantage as UA only accepted some of the most gifted students in the country, but Midoriya was ambitious, and never gave up on his dreams. He started his last year of middle school roughly 2 months ago, and knew that the time would come when he had to make his decision on what high school he would be attending. He had to remain strong, get good grades, and press forward, as his dream of attending the school of his dreams...
…But first…His stomach growled. He was hungry.
He joined his mom for breakfast, ate his meal, packed his bag, made sure to stay updated on the latest news about his favorite Pro-Heroes, & was about to leave for school. However, before he could leave…
“Hey Izuku?” His mother said as her son was about to leave the door.
“Yeah, what is it Mom?” Izuku asked. Her lips started to quiver a bit as she looked up at Izuku’s eyes. Izuku noticed that something was slightly off about his mother as if she was about to tear up over something.
“M-mom what's wrong? Is something up?” She took one step towards Izuku.
“It's well…. I'm sorry, I- it's silly. I just-“
"Mom. What is it?" She swallowed the lump in her throat as she answered her son.
“I just…I had a nightmare last night about what happened to you in Morioh all those years back and well...it just made me upset is all.” Izuku remembered the event she was referring to. and how it likely messed her up on the inside.
“Mom, again?”
Izuku took a brief pause, and sighed at his mother's woe. This was not the first time that Midoriya had this conversation with his mother. He knew his mom was in a sensitive mood right now and decided to just tell her the same thing she told her before.
“Look. Mom. We talked about this several times. That incident was six years ago. It was just a situation where we were at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Look, I know it hurt you to see me like that, and i'm sorry for what happened, but I’m alright now. OK? I mean, I'm definitely not planning on going back to Morioh, if ever. So you don't have to worry about me getting attacked by any bow wielding psychos, alright? ...I- I really don't know what else to say about this.”
Izuku's mom looked at her child, gave him a nod, and squeezed her hands to alleviate some of her angst. She than her son a loving hug, with her son returned the affection in kind.
“Ok.” She said softly as she let go of her son. “Have a good day at school sweetie.”
“You too Mom. I’ll see you later today.”
Izuku headed out the door and down the steps of the apartment complex on the way to the train station, all while his mother watched her son leave her sight from the balcony of her complex, her complexion showing light signs of worry to it. The mother sighed and headed back inside. She made some green tea and decided to call up her old friend Mitsuki Bakugo to see if she was free for an early day walk in the park to calm her mind.