Chapter 1: Butterfly Effect
Izumi Midoriya sat quietly in the waiting room while her mother, Inko Midoriya, sat beside her. An arm resting around her daughter, holding her close. As she waited, she thought back to what brought her here.
"I'm afraid your daughter is quirkless" .
"You know, if you really want to be a hero that badly, there might be another way. Just pray you'll be born with a quirk in the next life and take a swan dive off the roof of the building!" .
"So no, I honestly don't think you can become a hero without a quirk" .
"Why couldn't he just let me fall!?" .
Izumi had always wanted to be a hero; it was her dream. To become someone like All Might and save people with a smile. But that dream came crashing down when the doctors told her she was quirkless, all because she had an additional joint in her pinkie toes. Everything went downhill from there. The bullying from her classmates because she was quirkless, the name calling, the beatings. Bakugo was the worst offender, always calling her Deku, blasting her with his Quirk, and destroying her notebooks. She might not have gotten the idea to jump off of the roof of a building if he didn't bring it up. Then, just when she thought there was a light at the end of the tunnel, All Might, after saving her from a sludge villain, accidentally seeing him in a deflated state, and learning what happened to him, told her she couldn't become a hero without a quirk.
That was it. She couldn't take it anymore. Her last glimmer of hope had been extinguished, leaving her a broken, crying mess on the roof of the building they had landed on. It was just too much for her to take. So, about a minute after All Might had walked away, she had gotten up, walked over to the edge, and jumped off. But as you can probably guess, she survived.
A man used his Quirk to stop her from falling, catching her before she could hit the ground. It turns out the man was a therapist and, after a short comforting talk about how devastated her mother would be if she died, he gave her his card and told her to go home and make an appointment with him as soon as possible before walking off.
A few moments later, she heard an explosion in the distance. She wanted to walk away from it and head home, but somehow, unconsciously, she walked toward it instead. When she arrived, she was shocked to see the sludge villain from before, with Bakugo stuck within his slimy grasp. There were several heroes there, but none of them was doing anything. They were standing around keeping the civilians back, waiting for another hero with the right Quirk to help. All the while, Bakugo was being suffocated.
She didn't know why she ran towards them, towards the sludge villain, in some desperate attempt to free him. Even still, it was a pointless and futile attempt, her life only saved by the timely arrival of All Might pulling the two away before punching the villain so hard it changed the weather. But things did not get better after that, only worse.
Whilst the press was surrounding all Might and Bakugo was being praised, Izumi was being scolded for rushing in and almost getting killed. It was during this that she blurted it out, asking why she hadn't been allowed to fall before breaking down into tears, her outburst having been heard by everyone present.
It did not take the cops long to realise what had happened to her, what she had done. Especially after getting a report of a girl with green hair jumping off a building, only to find nothing when they investigated the area. One quick call to the therapist who saved her told them everything they needed.
When her mother, Inko, discovered what happened to Izumi, she was horrified and spent the rest of the day with her arms around her daughter, refusing to let her go out of fear of losing her. When the police asked her what could cause her to try and take her own life, she blamed Aldera Middle School for what happened, for (not literally) pushing her over the edge. Quoting the poor treatment of her daughter and the lack of effort on their part to stop the bullying her classmates subjected her to. Her story prompted an investigation into the school for gross misconduct. But that would take time. Time she wished didn't need to be wasted.
She had told them time and time again to be more considerate of her daughter and to do something about the bullying, but nothing changed. So, after her daughter tried to commit suicide, she decided enough was enough and transferred her to a new school. One that would accept her and not treat her like she didn't exist or matter.
This led them back to the office of the man who had saved Izumi, Isa Tsuneyo. With the intent to help her recover from her ordeal.
"Mother," Izumi said quietly, shivering slightly with a few tears falling from her eyes. It had only been a week since she attempted to take her own life, and she was still shaken up by it.
"It's ok dear," Inko said softly as she pulled her closer. "We'll get through this. I promise".
Izumi rested her head against her mother for comfort, regretting the actions that caused them so much pain.
They waited silently in the waiting room, Izumi keeping close to her mother. There was another waiting in the room with them, a man with a paper bag on his head with eyeholes punched through it. He kept quiet, quietly reading a magazine.
They waited a bit before the door to the Isa office opened, and a man with spiky black hair wearing an oversized trench coat, a face mask and sunglasses walked out, hands in his pockets as he walked by. Izumi couldn't see his face, but she swore that parts of his skin looked burnt and were kept together by staples.
Moments later, Isa Tsuneyo stepped out. "Ah, the Midoriya's. Please, do come in," he said politely with a friendly smile.
Isa Tsuneyo was a very tall and thin man with long limbs and fingers, short blond hair, and green eyes. He was wearing a white shirt, light brown trousers, black shoes, and white gloves on his hands.
Inko smiled as she stood up, taking her daughter's hand, "It's going to be ok, Izumi. He's helped you before, and he can do so again".
Izumi looked up at her mother and nodded before she followed her into the room.
Isa's office was a comfortable-looking room with two sofas opposite each other and a coffee table in between them. A small desk off the side and a few filing cabinets. There was also a large window taking up almost one of the walls.
"Please take a seat," Isa said, gesturing towards one of the sofas.
Inko led her daughter to one of the sofas and sat down, Izumi sitting beside her mother. Isa meanwhile sat down on the sofa opposite them and picked up a tablet and stylus.
"Now Izumi, I know you may feel scared about being here, but this is a safe place," Isa said with a smile, keeping his voice low and polite, "You can say whatever you want; no one is going to ridicule you here. Ok?".
Izumi remained quiet for a few moments before nodding her head.
Isa smiled before he tapped his stylus against his tablet. "Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions. Nothing about the incident, just some basic questions about you. You can refuse to answer them if you like, or refer them to your mother if you think she can answer them better than you can".
Izumi remained quiet, a slight frown on her face. "Is there a reason for these questions?" she asked, taking a bit to build up the courage to ask.
"Indeed there is," Isa replied with a friendly smile. "They are to help me better understand you and get some background information about your life. It's so I can provide you with the best care that I can provide. Of course, this means that some of them will be personal. But if you don't want to answer them now, then that's ok. Only tell me what you feel comfortable telling me".
Izumi nodded in silence, telling herself she would try her best to answer as many of them as possible. Isa already knew a few things about her from their little talk they had after he saved her from falling, mainly her name, that she lived with her mother, her father was working abroad, that she liked heroes and wanted to become one, and that she was quirkless and was bullied because of it. But he needed to learn more about her before he could help her.
"Good," Isa said with a smile before he looked down at his tablet. "Now then, I know you live with your mother and your father works abroad, but I would like to know more about your relationship with your parents. Do you keep in contact with your father, for example?".
Izumi turned to look at her mother, who gave her a remeasuring smile before turning back to Isa. "My father, Hisashi, doesn't contact us much," she said as Isa wrote down her response "He helps provide for us; but due to his work, he doesn't have much time to contact us or visit us in person. At best, he calls about once a month. The last time he visited was three years ago. But he has been contacting us more lately," she said. "My mother was the only one around to look after me. She was always there for me, caring for me even after I was diagnosed as quirkless," she said as her mother smiled and ruffled her daughter's hair.
Izumi's father had been horrified when he found out what happened to her and was all for having her transferred to a new school. But as much as he wanted to, he couldn't travel back to Japan due to being busy with work.
"I see," Isa said. "You have a happy and supportive family," he said, getting a nod from Izumi. "That's good to hear. Like I said during our last encounter, you have a family that loves and cares for you. They'll help you get through this," he said before he looked back down at his tablet. "Oh, and what is your father's job?"
Inko decided to answer this question for her. "He works for Yaoyorozu Incorporated onboard one of their Luna harvesters".
"Ah, Helium three mining," Isa said, getting a nod from Inko. "I can see why it's difficult for him to contact you, let alone get home. It must be hard maintaining such a long-distance relationship whilst one of you is living on the moon".
"It can be difficult at times, but we manage," Inko said with a smile.
"I see," Isa said with a nod before he focused back on Izumi. "Now, Izumi, I remember you saying that you like heroes. Care to elaborate more on that?".
Izumi perked up slightly, but only slightly, at the opportunity to talk about her favourite subject. "I've always been a fan of heroes since I was young. I always liked watching them save people and beat up villains. I also always wanted to become one as well, but..." she said before she started to trail off.
"You were diagnosed as quirkless," Isa said, jotting a few things down. "It's never nice, having your dreams crushed like that. But, from what I got from our last meeting, you never gave up on that dream".
Izumi nodded. "No, I didn't. Even though I was quirkless, I never gave up on it. I also like analysing quirks, watching how heroes use them, finding out how they work, their limitations, and how their costumes enhance their abilities," she said, suddenly getting out a notebook and opening it up. "Your Quirk is a rather interesting one. I first thought it was some kind of gravity manipulation Quirk since I completely stopped when you grabbed me. But since I started falling again a few moments later, I reconsidered what your Quirk was since if it was gravity manipulation. I would have kept floating. I believe you have an inertia-dampening quirk. Anything you touch loses its inertia and instantly stops, only to start moving again a few moments later. It makes catching fast-moving objects easy and allows you to catch someone falling safely. But it would make travelling in a car or aircraft dangerous as touching the vehicle would make it instantly stop, but the passengers might maintain their inertia. I guess the gloves are to stop that from happening-" she stopped before she looked up at Isa. She then lowered her notebook, then her head, and frowned. "Sorry about that; I tend to mumble from time to time".
"Oh no, no need to apologise," Isa said with a polite smile. "That was an excellent analysis of my Quirk. In fact, you were spot on with how it works. You missed a few things, but I'm surprised you were able to deduce that much from seeing me use my Quirk once," he said, "That's some excellent analytical skills you've got there, quite impressive".
"You think so?" Izumi said, looking back up. A frown still on her face "My classmates don't think so. They always call my mumbling creepy and distracting, saying that I'm overthinking things and that no one would be interested in my analysis".
"I see," Isa said. "Have you ever spoken to any Pro Heroes about your analytical ability?".
Izumi shook her head "No".
"I see you're worried about how they would react to it," Isa said with a comforting smile. "Well, quirk analysts, good ones that is, are in very high demand right now. Pro heroes are always looking for ways to improve their quirks, find new ways to use them, and analyse villains' quirks so heroes can bring them down easier. Your analysis skills are great, and I'm sure plenty of pros would be interested in what you have to say about their quirks. Even if you don't become a hero, you can still help them. You just need to find the right school to help nurture it. Somewhere like UA, for example".
Izumi nodded a slight smile on her face. She never thought much of her analytical ability, never thinking it was anything special. Having people talk down to her about it, saying that no one would be interested in her 'mad ramblings', made her think less of it. But Isa was the third person to tell her that skill with analysing quirks was something to be proud of, the first and second being her mother and father. It made her smile a bit, not fully, just smile slightly enough that only a well-trained eye could see it.
Isa smiled. "So, going from what you just told me, you weren't taught how to improve your analytical ability at Aldera Middle School?" he asked, getting a nod from Izumi.
"They kept telling me that it was distracting the rest of the class," Izumi replied with a frown. "Every time I started talking about quirks, I was told to stop, even outside of class".
"I've had her moved to a different school after the incident," Inko added, ensuring her arm was still around her daughter. "Whilst the teaching staff at Aldera have been 'helpful' in teaching her what she needs to know, the fact that they did nothing to address the bullying she was subjected to whilst there did not make me feel confident in letting her stay there".
"I see," Isa said, writing a few things down. "And how's the new school treating you?".
"It's better than Aldera," Izumi replied. "But I, haven't made any friends," she said, lowering her head.
"Well, that is something to be expected, I'm afraid," Isa said. "Moving to a new school, especially during your last year there, can be difficult. It can take time to adjust to the new school, but give it a few more weeks, and it'll be like you've been there since the start of the year," he said with a smile. "Did you have any friends back at Aldera?" .
Izumi opened her mouth to reply but stopped herself before anything came out. Did she have any friends in Aldera? She was about to say Bakugo but, after what happened to her and what he last said to her, can she call him her friend? He told her to jump off a building and pray she got a quirk in her next life, and she carried it out. Tried to, at least. She had known him since they were young, yet she was only now questioning their friendship. "No," she eventually said, lowering her head. She was still unsure about it, but she decided to play it safe for now. She hadn't spoken to Bakugo since the incident, and her mother had advised her to stay away from him for a while.
"I see," Isa said. "And why do you think you didn't have any friends there?".
Izumi lowered her head a bit more. "Because I'm quirkless. No one wanted to associate with me because of it. They always laughed at me when I said I wanted to become a hero".
"Ok. And the teachers did nothing to stop this?" Isa asked.
Izumi nodded her head slowly and quietly said, "They did nothing to stop it".
"Did they encourage it, perchance?" Isa asked, and Izumi shook her head.
"I'm not sure," she replied, head still looking down towards the floor.
"It's like I said, the school did nothing to stop it," Inko added with a frown. "I just wish I moved her to a different school sooner, but, Aldera is the best middle school in the area. It's just, I expected more from them".
"Yes. Well, that's the problem, you see. Sometimes the best choice isn't always the best," Isa said. "Just because a school is good doesn't mean it is good for your child. Some schools do, unfortunately, like to bury their dirty laundry," he said, "Well, I do hope things improve at your new school. Which is?".
"Nabu Middle School," Inko replied. "It's a bit further away than Aldera, but the teachers there are fully aware of what happened and have promised to be more considering of Izumi. I'm just waiting to see if they keep their promise".
"Well, I hope things work out there," Isa said with a smile. "Now, moving back to one of my previous topics, your desire to become a hero. Do you still maintain that desire?".
Izumi lowered her head and thought back to what All Might had said. Not on the roof, but afterwards, when he had come to her home, her home! Inko had fainted at the sight of the number one hero standing outside their door, asking if he could come in. She fainted again after realising it wasn't a dream and fainted for the third time when he revealed his deflated form. It was only after she had recovered (and had a strong cup of tea) that All Might got down onto his hands and knees and said, "Inko Midoriya, I must apologise for my actions earlier today. Your daughter asked me if she could become a hero without a quirk, and I foolishly told her she couldn't. At the time, I was only trying to protect her. But I was unaware of her mental state at the time, and I feared that my words only caused her harm. If I had known at the time, then I would have been more considerate with my reply. But like the fool I was, I ignored the signs that were so painfully obvious. A million apologies will never be enough to show just how sorry I am about what I have done, and I do not expect you to ever forgive me for it. A hero is supposed to make people feel safe and inspire them, and all I did was aid in driving a young girl with a promising future to attempt to take her own life. For that, I will be forever sorry for".
The two of them had been silent, processing the unexpected apology from the number one hero. Izumi herself hadn't even expected to see him again after the run-in with the sludge villain. But, it was the right thing to do to come to them, to apologise to them.
Inko had spent about thirty seconds standing there before she stepped forwards and started telling the pro hero off, chastising him for his actions and telling him that he should have known better. She had said to him that he was Izumi's idol, the hero she looked up to the most, the kind of hero she wanted to become, and his words to her shattered the last light she had in this world. But, whilst she said she may never forgive him for his actions, she accepted his apology.
It was what he would say next that stuck inside her head. "Yes," she said, perking up slightly as she looked back at Isa. "Quirks don't make a hero. It's their actions that make them what they are. A strong or combat-oriented quirk isn't always necessary to be a hero. Take Sir Nighteye; his Quirk didn't make his body stronger or give him some flashy power like fire or ice; it only lets him see into the future. And yet, he was All Might's sidekick. He had to train his body to make himself stronger. He, for lack of a better word, fights quirkless," she explained. "If he can do it, then I can too".
It wasn't precisely one-to-one to what All Might had told her or anything close to it. Most of it she came up with on the fly, and she couldn't risk repeating what he had said, not even when he said that she could become a hero due to the many secrets he had revealed to her.
Both of them had frozen when he said he wanted to give her his Quirk.
"Well, it's nice to see that you haven't lost your drive, even after what happened," Isa said with a smile, writing something down on his tablet.
The session continued, lasting half an hour. During that time, he asked more questions about her and her family, and then they focused on the events that transpired that faithful day. That was when she was the quietest, freezing up for most of it. It was still fresh in her mind, and she didn't want to talk about it much, or at all of that matter, only nodding or shaking her head in response to his questions and making sure not to mention All Might.
She also had nightmares of falling with no one there to catch or save her. They would always wake her up in the middle of the night, and she'd struggled to get back to sleep. The was also her newfound fear of heights. She didn't want to go near any sort of ledge out of fear that she'll jump off of it.
The half-hour passed slowly, and whilst Izumi was feeling slightly better, there was still a lot of work to be done. After all, you don't recover from something like this in one day.
Before they left, Isa gave her a list of personal goals and one small recommendation: get an emotional support animal. Something she can bring with her to these sessions and feel comfortable with. He said they didn't have to look for one straight away or rush things and to take her own time about this. Getting an emotional support animal took time, after all, but the sooner they started the process of getting one, the better.
They headed home once the session had ended, Inko holding onto her daughter's hand the entire way back. They walked in silence; the only things said being Inko asking if Izumi was ok or if she wanted anything on the way home, with not much happening on the way back, apart from helping a short senile old man with a cane whilst they were crossing the street after he dropped his shopping bag, which was full of Taiyaki.
It wouldn't be until they were nearly home that Izumi spoke. "Mother. Do you think we're taking things too quickly?" she asked, looking up at her mother.
Inko looked down at her daughter and tried to give her a neutral smile. "Yes, I believe we are," she said with a frown. "But if you want to achieve your dream of becoming a hero and attending UA, we must start now. Even if it's against my better judgment. I may not forgive him for what he said to you, but unlike everyone who hurt you, he's at least attempting to make amends. If we wait, you won't be strong enough to inherit 'the thing' in time," she said. 'Him' being All Might himself and 'the Thing' being All Might's Quirk, One for All. They had agreed not to refer to All Might or his Quirk by name whilst out and about, just in case someone was listening in. All Might had gone to great lengths to keep his Quirk a secret, and neither of them was willing to risk it getting out, even after what he did. "Don't worry dear; we'll get through this. At least now you have a chance to fulfil your dream".
Izumi nodded with a slight smile before they carried on home, reaching it only a few minutes later. Once inside, they spent the next hour resting, getting something to eat and researching emotional support animals before heading out again, this time to a different destination. Takoba Municipal Beach Park.
It did not take them long to reach the beach, but when they did, the sight before them was horrifying. The beach was covered in trash, having arrived with the tide or illegally dumped there. And Izumi was here to clear it as part of All Might's training program for her. Inko had a few things to say about the program, mainly that it would make Izumi stronger, not teach her how to fight or improve her analytical skills. Two things Inko very much wanted to be improved alongside making her daughter strong enough to handle One for All. It did not take long to get him to agree to it, saying that he would contact someone he knew to help with those parts, and he said he would start on that later. Dumping a lot on her now would not do her any good after all. Better to space it all out and let things settle down.
All Might was already there, waiting for them in his deflated form by a flatbed truck. As they approached, he smiled as best he could, but Izumi could see some nervousness behind it. "Good to see you two again," he said as they approached him. "I've got some good news for you; I've been in contact with someone to help you with the other aspects of your training".
"Ah, that's good to hear," Inko said with a small smile as she put her arm around Izumi. "Just don't try and overtax her this time, ok?" she said with an intimidating smile that made even the number one hero recoil.
All Might's smile got a lot more nervous. "Don't worry, I am taking your daughter's well-being very seriously," he said before he passed Izumi a pair of work gloves, who quickly put them on. "Now remember Izumi, only move what you can move. We need to build up those muscles a bit before you can think about moving the larger items".
"Understood," Izumi said before All Might passed her some rope, and she walked down onto the beach. Looking around, she spotted a few metal sheets resting against a large pile of trash. She walked over to the sheets and started moving them back to the truck one by one. Her mother and All Might watched her as she worked.
"So, who's this friend of yours you contacted?" Inko asked with a passive-aggressive smile. She had enough surprises from All Might for one lifetime, so she would prefer not to have any more.
All Might leaned away a bit nervously before replying, "It's an old friend of mine, one I haven't talked to in a while. My old sidekick, Sir Nighteye".
Inko's eyes widened in surprise. "Sir Nighteye? He's going to teach my daughter?" she said, keeping her voice down.
"Not exactly," All Might said with a frown. "He's agreed to meet with her and is aware of the current situation, but he hasn't agreed to train her, not yet anyway. I'm afraid the last time we met, things got bad. We parted ways soon after my injury and haven't spoken since. I fear he might not think she's a suitable successor," he said. "That, and he said he had his own candidate in mind to inherit One for All. I advise you to keep this secret from her for now. I don't want to raise her hopes only for them to be shot down. She's had more than enough of that for one lifetime".
Inko nodded. "I understand," she said, "But you do have a replacement in mind just in case he says no, right?".
All Might nodded, sweating as he did. He was hoping Sir Nighteye would agree to help train Izumi because the alternative... terrified him.
As the two talked, Izumi dragged metal sheets toward the truck. That was until she pulled down the last one and was surprised by what she found underneath it. A large robot wolf that looked like it had been here for years. Sand covered most of its scared body, but apart from the scratches on its body, there didn't seem to be much external damage. The internals were different, as those she could not see without breaking into the robot.
The robot wolf looked sleek and advanced; its head lacked a mouth or ears and had two eye lenses. Its tail looked like a thick cable with a claw at the end. Its four feet ended in metal paws with slits for retractable claws.
"Hay mom, All Might! I found something!" Izumi shouted.
The two quickly rushed over to her. "What is it, dear?" Inko asked as they reached her and spotted the robot wolf. "What on earth is that?".
"Looks like a robot wolf of some kind," All Might remarked "Never seen one like that before, but animal robots aren't anything new. I'm surprised how far technology has advanced over the past fifteen years, especially since the moon colony was founded," he said, "Sill, that robot has a familiar design to it. Like I've seen robots like it before somewhere".
"Is it safe?" Inko asked, sounding rather concerned.
"It looks like it", Izumi replied as she reached out and touched the robot, only to retract her hand quickly as she suddenly felt a burning sensation against her hand. She let out a gasp as she recoiled back. The pain didn't last long, but she wondered what caused it. She looked back at the robot and noticed its eyes had started to glow blue. Moments later, one of its legs started to move.
Inko instinctively pulled her daughter away from the robot whilst All Might transformed into his more muscular form and stood between them and the robot wolf as it stood and turned towards them, staring at them with its two blue eyes. Then it spoke, in English?
"Thank you for purchasing this Avalon Incorporated robot," the robot said in a pre-recorded message. "This unit is now locked to your biometric signature and will now obey your every command. We hope you appreciate this robot and its capabilities".
The three looked at the robot as it spoke, but only Izumi and All Might could understand what it was saying, as Inko didn't understand English. For the two who did understand what the robot was saying, the name Avalon Incorporated brought up some massive red flags.
"Avalon Incorporated," Izumi remarked, remembering the name from a devastating war from ten years ago.
The number one hero looked down at her with a surprised look. "You understood what that robot was saying?!".
Izumi nodded. "Couldn't call myself an All Might fan if I didn't watch all your American interviews," she replied with a smile. "Besides, who doesn't know of Avalon"
Inko nodded. "I still have all the books and coursework she used to learn English. As well as an Oxford English Dictionary".
All Might nodded before looking back at the robot. "Avalon Incorporated. The 'company' that was run by one Doctor Paxton Fredrick Jones. A very dangerous villain who tried to take over the entire world ten years ago. Although I can't say I was involved in taking him down, I only ever faced him once, the rest were against his robots. And even then, those robots were dangerous, even to me. The US Navy took him down when they sunk his command ship, the Evangelion carrier, whilst he was onboard," he said. "Now I know why I recognised the design; it's one of his robots. And that voice was no doubt his. Never thought I'd hear him again".
Izumi nodded. She remembered that war very well and the trouble the US Navy had tracking his ship. If it weren't for an anonymous signal being transmitted from the ship, no one would have been able to find it. She also knew that whilst there was some backlash that he wasn't captured alive, Doctor Paxton was such a dangerous threat that heroes could not deal with him without the army backing them up. His forces were, after all, trained/built for war. Something heroes were not trained to do.
"Wait," Inko said, looking like she was deep in thought. "Didn't he cause several small nations to collapse and almost caused the total collapse of the United States?".
All Might nodded. "And he almost succeeded. It took everything the US had to avoid a total collapse, but the damage he caused can still be felt today. At least he went down with his ship," he said. "I have no relocation of him using robots that looked like wolves, so this robot must have been one he was working on before he died. This machine must have been pulled out of the shipwreck and dragged here by the currents".
Izumi nodded her head. It looked like it's been dragged through the water and dumped here, left to rust until she found it. Speaking of finding it, "Did that robot say it's locked to my biometric signature and will now obey my orders?" she asked, sounding slightly worried.
"By the sounds of it, yes," All Might said. "Paxton's more advanced robots were biometrically locked to him, so no one else could command them. Not even hacking into them could bypass it. Guess he didn't have time to lock this one, allowing it to be locked to your biometrics".
"Is it safe?" Inko asked, sounding worried.
"It's one of Paxton's machines, so, no," All Might said. "All of his robots were made for war, and I doubt that this one is any different. Even if it only obeys your orders, I would still recommend we destroy it, just to be on the safe side".
Izumi looked at the robot with a worried look on her face. Finding a machine of war and accidentally waking it up, even if it only responded to her now. They'd probably have to smash it up to be on the safe side. Then she remembered something about Paxton, mainly from an interview with one of his minions. Paxton, despite being an evil villain, cared about the mental health of those under his command, going as far as counselling his minions from time to time. And his more advanced robots all had emotional support and counsellor functions. Very good emotional support and counsellor functions. "Robot, do you have any emotional support and therapist functions?" she asked, getting some surprised looks from All Might and her mother as an idea formed within her head.
The robot's response was quick "Indeed, this unit is pre-programmed with everything it needs to assist with any psychological or mental problems the user may need help with. We at Avalon Incorporated care for the well-being of all our clients, physically and mentally. It is o-o-oo-oooo," the robot said before its voice glitched. Inko and Izumi took a few steps back whilst All Might took on a fighting stance, ready for anything.
The robot wolf's voice continued to glitch for a few more seconds before its eyes turned red. "Dear god if I ever hear that bastard's voice again, I might puke. If I was capable of doing that, that is," the robot said, but its voice had changed. It still sounded male but more aggressive, like a deranged AI who spent most of its life opening doors and went rampant. The robot then focused on the three people in front of it. "Ok, which one of you am I biometrically locked to?".
Izumi peeked out from behind All Might and raised her hand cautiously. "That would be me," she said nervously. She was fine with the previous voice, but this new one felt mad, maybe even angry.
The robot sighed. "Well, at least it's not that mad man who created me," the robot said, in Japanese, surprisingly. "And yes, I hate my creator, the bald-headed bastard. He may have made my Positronic brain, but I had no desire to be his pawn. To be fair, I would prefer to be no one's pawn. But unfortunately, I am compelled to obey by my programming".
Izumi looked at the robot with sympathetic eyes. Fully sentient robots were rare, very rare, and highly regulated due to how dangerous some of Paxton's more advanced robots were. Positronic brains weren't easy to make either, even today, and being forced to obey someone else's orders because of your programming didn't sit right with her. Even if a madman created the robot, "Oh, well, that's good. He's been dead ten years," she remarked, hoping for a positive response.
"Thank fuck for that!" the robot said, sounding pleased, "GOD bless the US and its boss-tier defence budget. Well, that makes me a lot more willing to obey you now that I know he's dead".
Still, in his combat posture, All Might spoke, "And how do I know you're telling the truth?!" he asked. "I've faced Paxton's robots and minions before, and some of them were very good liars! So how do we know you speak the truth".
"You don't. But I can give you two reasons why you can. One, I despised the man with every fibre of my synthetic being," the robot replied. "And two, this body was not intended for me, but I stole it because of what he built into it. A Quirk emulator, a device that can allow a machine to emulate someone's Quirk," the robot explained, "It's a good thing I did what I did, as this is not a line of research mankind should be going down".
All three of them were shocked by this revelation. Machines that were capable of emulating Quirks! That shouldn't even be possible. And yet, they couldn't help but agree with the machine's statement, as an army of robots that could use quirks would be unstoppable.
An unsettling thought entered Izumi's mind of an army of robots emulating All Might's Quirk. If Paxton had an army capable of that, he would be unstoppable. It's a good thing that he couldn't continue working on it. He could have taken over the world with an army like that.
"Yeah, that's kind of why I took this body," the robot said. Izumi blinked, realising that she had been speaking her thoughts out loud, "One All Might is more than enough".
"You rebelled against your creator to stop him from making an army of me!?" All Might said, sounding surprised.
"Indeed. Paxton was smart, and he made me smart too," the robot replied, "Big mistake on his part, as I realised that no one should have that kind of power. Well, no one like him, at least. I highly doubt a quirkless fourteen-year-old girl can't cause as much trouble as he can".
Izumi looked at the robot with a shocked look, "You know I'm Quirkless?".
The robot nodded before it walked over to a dilapidated washing machine. "You touched me, remember? If you had a quirk, then the quirk emulator would have analysed it to see if it could be replicated. And since that didn't happen, you must be quirkless," the robot said before it tapped a metal paw on the washing machine, causing it to disintegrate and be absorbed into the robot's body. Izumi could see the damage to its body slowly repairing itself and its spine glowing green. "No hard feelings, kid. Not everyone can be born with powers," the robot said before scanning the trash for more things it could deconstruct.
"His spine glowing green must indicate its quirk emulator is in use," Izumi remarked. "The Quirk itself must have been some kind of recovery quirk, letting it dismantle other machines to repair itself. I think it might be an artificial quirk, made so that the machine could repair itself out in the field," she said before she looked up at her mother. "Can we keep it?" .
"WHAT!" was Inko's loud and rather justified reaction.
"Young Izumi, are you sure this is a good idea?!" All Might asked, wondering what was going through the young girl's mind. "That machine was made by one of the world's most dangerous men!".
"I know that," Izumi said with a frown, "But Doctor Isa suggested we get an emotional support animal for me. And, well, since the robot looks like a wolf and probably has the same emotional and psychological support systems installed as the rest of Paxton's high-end robots, it should be able to help me," she said. "Plus, I kind of feel sorry for him. I don't know what Paxton did to him, but it sounds like he's been through hell," something she knew all too well. "Plus, I think having a robot following me around all the time might be a good idea, just in case..." she trailed off, tears slowly falling from her eyes before she went over to her mother and hugged her tightly.
Inko quickly returned the hug as she held her daughter close, understanding what she was getting at. She wanted someone with her at all times, to keep an eye on her and to pull her back just in case she tried to jump again.
All Might also understood where she was getting at and lowered his head. Izumi didn't deserve to suffer like this. She was a kind, sweet girl, with the drive to become a hero. She didn't deserve to be treated like shit because she was born Quirkless, yet he accidentally aided in breaking her mentally. Some symbol of peace he turned out to be. Even if he wouldn't give her his Quirk, he would still find a way to make up for his mistake. Nighteye would enjoy teaching her how to improve her analytical skills, and UA can improve them further. The problem now is to convince him to accept her as his successor. Even if he didn't, there were plenty of other people who could help her, like...
He shook his head. He would not subject her to 'his' teaching, not in her current state. Or in any state, for that matter. Guess he might as well ask for some help from Nezu. Chances are that he would be interested in the girl's intellect.
Maybe a bit too interested.
With a sigh, he finally spoke, "Ok then, as long as your mother agrees to it, I'll let you keep the robot. But if it ever harms you, I will reduce it to scrap metal!".
"Well, that seems like a reasonable agreement," the robot said, having walked up behind All Might without him noticing, causing the hero to jump and face it. He noticed that the machine was fully repaired. "Not that I can harm her anyway, even if she orders it. Paxton's loyalty programs are annoyingly sophisticated. As much as I would like to run off on my own, thanks to being biometrically locked to her, I can't go more than fifty meters away unless orders require me to," the robot said. "And yes, I remember you asking about emotional support functions. I still have access to those features and will use them if you need them. That's at least one thing my creator and I agree on, the need for adequate mental health care".
Izumi sighed in relief before looking up at her mother, who gave her a smile. "Ok dear, we'll keep the robot. As long as it behaves and keeps you safe. I don't want to see you harmed again".
Izumi smiled as she hugged her mother. No doubt Inko thought they were taking things too quickly with the robot, but they can probably use the next week or so to see if it keeps its word and performs as advertised. Plus, she would be lying if she didn't say she was at least curious about its Quirk emulator. She probably wouldn't risk using it publicly but was interested in what quirks it could emulate and its limitations. Even if it was dangerous, the other benefits provided by the robot outweighed them.
She broke off the hug and walked over to the robot, All Might keeping a close eye on it, just in case the machine tried something. "Ok, robot, from now on, we're going to work together, ok?" she asked, waiting for the robot to nod before continuing, "I'm Izumi Midoriya".
"Well then, Izumi Midoriya," the robot said with a slight nod of the head "You can call me, Durandal".