Chapter 2: Rise From the Ashes
Izuku felt nothing but pain. In fact, pain was the thing he had become most familiar with over the years. For the last half-decade, Izuku's mother had, in no uncertain terms, beaten the dogshit out of him five days out of the week. He had undergone ruthless physical training in combat, stealth, cardio, weight training, a bit of gymnastics, and even parkour for when it would inevitably become necessary.
And Izuku loved every minute of it.
At age 5, Izuku was started off with something relatively light: dodge training. Inko called in a favor that an old associate from her time as a pro owed her, and she managed to secure a small training room in the city as well as a frightening amount of small, rubber balls. Izuku's objective was simple: dodge the oncoming projectiles that his mother would launch at him with an unsettling grin. It seemed simple enough until he realized that his mother had impeccable aim and the arm of a major league pitcher.
What she did not tell him was that she'd be yoinking the balls behind him back into her grasp with her quirk, and he'd have to dodge those, too. It doubled as training in situational awareness.
Strangely, Izuku would occasionally feel an unnatural heat in his body, usually congregating in his chest. When that heat made its appearance, Izuku felt as if the world had slowed down a bit, and the balls were suddenly easier to dodge. Those strange bursts didn't last for very long, usually for a few seconds at most, and he tended to feel even more worn out in the aftermath. He chalked it up to bursts of adrenaline until he had further information.
He didn't notice the sparks and flickers of yellow that appeared in his hair when the phenomena happened, but his mother had, and she made note of them every time they did with a vindicated grin. She wouldn't tell him what she was smiling about, though.
At age 10, Izuku learned firsthand what it truly meant to be quirkless, regardless of his suspicions of the accuracy of his status. This lesson came in the form of two distinct incidents happening on the same day, one being more pleasant than the other.
The first incident began with a regular day at school for Izuku; that was, if regular involved him jumping in front of his sorta-friend, Katsuki Bakugo, before the explosive blonde could continue tormenting another boy cowering on the ground. Izuku would have liked to believe that it wasn't a regular occurrence, but…
"The hell are you doing, Deku?!" the ash blonde growled at him with eyes filled with more annoyance than anger.
"You can't just beat people down like this, Kacchan!" Izuku responded with a tinge of exasperation. "You've made your point already… whatever point that even was to begin with."
That, in Izuku's estimation, may not have been the right thing to say.
"Oh, really?" Bakugo growled in a low, dangerous tone. "You think you're better than me, huh? What the hell can you even do about it, you quirkless Deku?!"
Izuku didn't particularly want this to end in violence, but he knew that it was becoming unavoidable. A quick glance around showed that they were beginning to attract a crowd of other students, and he saw a teacher wander over to see what the ruckus was about. By then, the kid who was previously cowering had long since made his escape while Bakugo and company were distracted, so all the teacher saw was Bakugo and two others surrounding the unsettling kid who didn't have a quirk. So, he did what any other reasonable adult would do in that situation.
He turned around and walked away.
'Thats… that's gotta be illegal, right?' Izuku thought with a deadpan frown. He didn't dwell on it, however, as he had a more pressing issue to deal with in the form of a pissed off Bakugo and his two lackeys making their way toward him. He really did not want to fight them, but it seemed inevitable. He just hoped his mother wouldn't be too upset with him.
"If I have to stop you myself, that's exactly what I'll do," he said with a measure of conviction that took Bakugo slightly aback. "It's what a hero would do."
And that, Izuku learned, was definitely not the right thing to say.
"You looking down on me, you shitty, worthless nerd?!" Bakugo almost screamed. "Guess I'll have to finally put you in your place and remind you of the goddamn pebble you are!"
And without any further preamble, Bakugo threw a right hook at Izuku, his fist crackling with small explosions from his quirk. Resigning himself to his fate, Izuku quickly sidestepped the punch and snapped a firm hold onto the blonde's arm, flipping him over his hip and slamming Bakugo to the ground with a thud.
Bakugo was frozen; Deku, the weak, defenseless nerd, had actually reversed his attack. Deku could actually defend himself. It was a shock to his system and caused him to freeze and only stare up at the boy above him, and he did not like what he saw.
Meanwhile, Izuku has felt the world slow down once again. The familiar heat was making itself known in his chest, but it also felt like twinges of it were spreading throughout his body. That was certainly new; he'd think about that later, though. In his periphery, he saw several grotesquely long fingers lunge for him at a crawling pace. Sidestepping once more, he seized the boy's long fingers and employed one of the tactics his mother had drilled into him: ruthlessly attack joints if your opponent was dumb enough to leave them exposed.
And with a pop that made everyone in the area wince, that was exactly what he did.
He still could not rest, though, as his final opponent was trying to lunge at him from his other side. The portly boy with minimally effective wings tried to use the barest of glides his quirk allowed to get the drop on Izuku. The heat in his chest left him, but the heat in the rest of his body remained. Turning around to face the winged boy head on, he swung his arm out to clothesline the boy and kill any momentum he had.
That was the intention, anyway.
What actually happened was that the boy slammed into Izuku's arm as if it was a wall, and Izuku inadvertently launched the larger boy into the crowd with the follow-through of his swing.
Yes, that was certainly a new development.
While Izuku was stuck contemplating what exactly happened amidst the deathly silent and awestruck crowd, Bakugo was focused on what he had seen. Particularly, he was stuck on the small flames that protruded from Izuku's hair for mere moments at a time, one yellow and one green.
'Deku's got a fucking quirk… and he's been lying about it!'
While Bakugo silently seethed at the perceived injustice, the teacher from earlier had finally returned to handle the ruckus. However, he was met with a silent collection of children all staring in tangible wonder and fear at Izuku.
"Midoriya, what have you done to these boys?!" The teacher immediately accused with a stern glare at the young green-head. A part of Izuku wanted to flinch and cower at the glare he was receiving, but a larger part found the man horribly lacking in intimidation factor compared to the frightening taskmaster that was his mother. However, the older man did not even give Izuku a chance to speak before he quickly disregarded him entirely.
"I don't want to hear any of your lies," he said before turning to a bystander. "What did Midoriya do to those boys?"
Said bystander, a brunette with a heavy chameleon mutation, looked as if he was about to speak before one of his eyes fell on Izuku. The chameleon boy subconsciously flinched at the gaze, regardless of how nonthreatening it actually was.
"Um, nothing," he quickly answered. "He did nothing."
The teacher raised an eyebrow, not terribly convinced. "Oh, really?" He asked, now turning his gaze to the crowd at large. "Did Midoriya truly do nothing?"
The choruses of "yep," "yeah," "uh-huh," and "I'm not a rat" surprised the teacher. It was very unusual for anyone to go to bat for the little, quirkless weirdo, much less an entire crowd of bystanders who had clearly just watched a fight. Realizing he couldn't reprimand him without any proof, he scanned the area to find even the smallest thing to pin on the boy. His eyes landed on one of the students on the ground, clutching his fingers as if they had been broken. A cruel smirk finally finding its way onto his face, he walked over to the boy and kneeled down beside him.
"Did Midoriya do this to you?" He asked as gently as he could manage.
The boy briefly looked up at the man through the pain before his gaze flickered to the aforementioned boy, and he immediately clammed up.
"I-I fell," he quickly stuttered out before shutting his mouth again.
The man was now positively beside himself. He could not fathom what the hell the boy had done to command such… fear? Was it fear coming from the other children? It certainly wasn't respect or anything positive in nature. The man made a mental note that Midoriya needed to be watched by the faculty and potentially some other parties.
Before he could travel any further down that thread, the boy of the hour hesitantly stepped forward. Izuku weathered the weary and fearful looks of the other children as well as the heated glares from the teacher and Bakugo before stopping in front of the kid whose fingers he, as his mother would say, forcefully readjusted.
Izuku didn't know what exactly compelled him to step forward, but he could feel an even newer sensation of warmth, this time in his palms. This time, he couldn't ignore the faint pink glow they sported while everyone took notice of the small flickers of pink flames that sprouted from Izuku's hair. Bakugo was again reduced to a snarling rage as Izuku kneeled down and took the injured boy's fingers into his hands, allowing the warm, pink glow to bathe over the kid's fingers. Within seconds, the previously broken fingers reset themselves and straightened back up, looking no worse for wear.
The crowd of onlookers had assumed that they could not have been any more surprised by the day's events, but the blatant display of a quirk from the quirkless kid after he had handily defeated the class tough guy and his cronies was a little much for those in attendance. Many had decided to just walk away from the scene to process everything somewhere else, while many others, such as the chameleon boy, made mental notes not to mess with Midoriya, lest they get their fingers broken, as well.
Bakugo's two cronies scampered away to lick their wounds and think about their life choices. Bakugo, on the other hand, had festered into vicious glowering, trying to will the green-head to melt with his glare. It wasn't yielding any success, which only served to strengthen the blonde's glare.
The teacher, meanwhile, had a notable glimmer in his eye as if he had come to a profound realization.
"Midoriya, detention after school for quirk usage during school hours," was all he said before walking away from the scene.
Izuku, stuck in the reverie of his mom apparently being correct about him being a late-bloomer, was ripped out of said reverie when he processed the teacher's statement.
"ARE YOU FU-"
Izuku could only sigh in a mixture of frustration and resignation as he walked home from school after his detention. He was looking forward to giving his mother the news, although, he was curious as to how it would affect his training. His mother had specifically not accounted for quirk usage in any of the combat and movement training they had done, so he supposed that she would figure out ways to incorporate his quirk in the routines and stances in a way similar to her own fighting style.
Of course, that would have to come after they figured out exactly what his quirk even was.
He was certain that the warmth he periodically felt during training had something to do with it rather than just being adrenaline, and he at least knew that he could heal people's injuries with whatever caused the warm sensations in his palms. Maybe his quirk was similar to Kacchan's in that way.
Speaking of which…
"DEKU!"
He had sensed a presence waiting around the school when he left, and the presence followed him on his path home. If it weren't for the shock of ash blonde in his periphery whenever he glanced over, he would've been worried and taken a different route.
Stopping and turning to face his sorta-friend who had been following him, he took stock of the absolutely livid snarl his face contorted into. 'This is probably about my quirk' he thought with a sigh.
"Hi Kac-"
"WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU GET OFF LOOKING DOWN ON ME, HUH?!" Bakugo interrupted Izuku with violently crackling palms. He grabbed the scruff of Izuku's gakuran and pulled the boy into an adjacent alleyway before roughly tossing him into it.
"Looking down on you?" Izuku ventured in confusion as he stood and dusted himself off. He hadn't been looking down on Bakugo at all. Sure, he thought the boy was an asshole more times than should be necessary, but he didn't think any less of him, especially not in comparison to himself.
Up until that afternoon, Bakugo had a quirk and Izuku didn't, and that automatically made him superior to Izuku in the eyes of society. Izuku was well aware of that.
"You've been hiding your shitty ass quirk all this time to laugh at me behind my back, haven't you, you shitty fucking Deku?!" Bakugo interrupted Izuku's internal musings with more screaming.
Izuku was perplexed; that was more vitriol than Bakugo had ever spewed to anyone. Where did it even come from?
"You think you're so fucking cool that you have some shitty quirk to heal the extras?! You're a fucking pebble in my path to greatness, a worthless fucking scrub that needs to remember his goddamn place! You hear me, fucking Deku?!"
Izuku had begun to suspect that the teacher had gotten to Bakugo sometime before they left. The things he was saying were absurd, and Izuku knew that nothing productive would come from the conversation should it continue.
"Sure, Kacchan, I'll stay out of your way," Izuku dully said before brushing past Bakugo and continuing on his way home. He didn't mean to come off as dismissive, but he wanted to placate the angry blonde, and he wouldn't dare grovel or cower to his attempts at intimidation to do that.
Unfortunately, Bakugo took that as another slight against him from the boy he believed was acting above his station to personally insult him, and his temper that was already hanging by a thread had been lost. He roughly grabbed Izuku and launched him deeper into the alley before igniting his palm and blowing the boy back even further. Bakugo was seeing red, and he would be sure to remind Deku of his place in way that he'd never forget.
Izuku, on the other hand, was not in the mood for this shit. Bakugo had already tried to attack him earlier that day, and that became a whole thing that landed him in detention with a teacher who clearly hated him and probably put Bakugo up to this very encounter. He watched Bakugo approach with a vicious gleam in his eyes that promised nothing but pain, and he could already feel his body rapidly heating up again. However, it was much greater than normal, as he could see thin wisps of smoke steaming from his skin.
When Bakugo took a step within a yard's distance of Izuku, something within him snapped, and the familiar warmth became a shocking yet comfortable haze of heat that washed over the entire alley. What followed was an explosion of vibrant colors, turning the dank alley into a mosaic of flames kissing every end of the rainbow. Bakugo was momentarily pulled out of his rage by the sight of his classmate standing in front of him wreathed in flames of every color. His normally green hair was spattered with the colored tips of flames moving to the beat of their own drums. His breath hitched at the way Izuku's eyes glowed a threatening shade of green.
Bakugo, for the second time that day, had frozen.
He could do nothing but watch in alarm as Izuku slowly raised his right hand and pointed his palm at him. The way Izuku's violently emerald eyes narrowed with contempt at him made his stomach drop, and he truly did not know if he would make it out of that alley in one piece.
In an instant, a bright flash erupted from Izuku's palm, and Bakugo clamped his eyes shut in a vice grip, awaiting the inevitable burns to wash over him.
But they never did.
He waited at least 5 seconds for something to happen, only opening his eyes to assess the situation when it was clear that nothing would be happening. Izuku was gone, the only evidence that he was even there being the glossy rainbow burned into the concrete where he once stood.
Bakugo took a moment to catch his breath before quickly leaving the alley and making a beeline for his home, pushing past the nosy extras who came to investigate the explosions.
Izuku sat on the fire escape of one of the buildings looking down at the alley. He would've given himself a rightful pat on the back for using a fake blast as a diversion to make his escape up the walls and out of the sight (his mother would be so proud), but he was still reeling from the, he supposed, true activation of his quirk.
He stared down at his right hand, eyes fixed on the beautiful fire that encased it. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before; Endeavor's powerful, sun-like flames were one thing, but the malleable stained glass portrait in his hand was breathtaking. The warmth and inexplicable bouts of speed and strength now also made a great deal more sense.
Putting the flames out, he hurried up to the roof of the building and down the fire escape on the other side to book it home and show his mother. She was right all along about his quirk, and now, a whole new dimension had been added to both his arsenal and the kind of training they could do together.
Finally arriving at his complex, he bounded up the stairs and giddily reached for his front door, practically throwing himself inside in his excitement.
"Mom, you were right! I have a-"
He paused at the sight of two policemen and a man in a beige trench coat in his living room. His mother was sitting on their couch and looked more exhausted than Izuku had ever seen her.
"Izuku, welcome home, honey," his mother said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
"What's going on?" he questioned, carefully examining the police in his home. Said policemen and the man in the trench coat looked to Inko, and she nodded. Taking that as his cue, the man in the trench coat looked back toward Izuku.
"Hello Midoriya, I'm Detective Tsukauchi. We were only here to verify the events of what transpired here earlier today. It's a blessing that you weren't home for it."
Inko cut back in before Izuku's worry could start to overtake him. "Your father came home."
That was… good? Bad? Izuku wasn't entirely sure given the context of their current situation. He hadn't seen his father since shortly before his diagnosis. As far as he knew, his father worked overseas and sent money back every month.
"Is he okay? Did he do something?" Izuku hazarded.
Inko let lose a mirthless chuckle. "Oh, he did something, alright. He came back with the intention to kill you for being quirkless."
The room was engulfed in a silence that was equal parts heavy and awkward. No one said a word as Izuku was left to process that fun little nugget. He opened his mouth to speak, but he closed it, not finding the right words. He repeated the process for several minutes until he uttered the only thing that came to mind:
"Would you believe I just awakened my quirk?"
Chapter 3: Enter, the Rat
"Would you believe I just awakened my quirk?"
The tension in the room shattered like glass as his mother couldn't help the small smile and chuckle that escaped her. The two officers and detective in the room appeared to relax as well, although there was an air of curiosity around them regarding the boy that was apparently a late-bloomer at the most hilariously convenient of times.
"I thought that was already a foregone conclusion, Izuku?" Inko asked with a smirk.
"What do you mean?"
"You're 10 years old with the brain of a college student," she replied, maintaining her amusement. "Even if those sparks in your hair turned out to be nothing significant, I think we can safely say that your brain power certainly isn't natural."
"Wait, the sparks in my hair? I just found out about those today. You knew about them?"
Inko raised an eyebrow at her son. "You didn't?"
Izuku was sliding further into incredulity the longer the conversation went on. His mother knew about the sparks in his hair that he could now surmise were connected to the warmth he felt on occasion. His mother was straight up telling him that she knew about them and hadn't mentioned it. Sure, both she and he were highly suspicious about his quirk status given the evidence at their disposal, but she proceeded with his training as if he didn't have one. Being dubious is one thing, but she had verifiable proof of the contrary. Why hadn't she said anything?
"I didn't want you to become complacent," she spoke up. Izuku was taken aback at first until it dawned on him that he likely muttered that whole thing aloud without realizing... again. Shaking off his embarrassment and ignoring the amused smiles of the police and detective, he fixed his mother with a frown.
"You thought I would become complacent if I knew I had a quirk?"
Inko's face softened. "Izuku, the basis of your training was to prepare you for the arduous task of becoming a pro hero without the use of a quirk. If the extent of your quirk was enhanced intelligence and sparky hair, that objective wouldn't have changed, but your motivation to improve despite lacking a quirk may have been truncated, even if only subconsciously." Her smirk returned. "Besides, I've been teaching you to use your brain in a fight, and going by how scuffed your gakuran looks, it seems to be coming in handy."
Okay, Izuku could concede that point. He didn't have to like it, but he did understand.
"If I may interrupt," Detective Tsukauchi spoke up, not wanting to ruin the, frankly, entertaining discussion between mother and son but still needing to conclude his business there. "Had your husband, er, ex-husband now, ever expressed any overtly or suspiciously quirkist sympathies before today?"
'Ex-husband?'
"What do you mean by, 'ex'?" Izuku hesitantly queried. If his father truly returned with the express intentions of killing him, he'd understand why his mother would preemptively declare him as her ex-husband before even filing for-
"Oh, honey, Hisashi doesn't exist anymore," Inko softly answered.
'...Okay, what?'
He quickly composed himself and locked eyes with his mother. "You mean… he's dead?" Izuku couldn't decide on feeling relief or grief at the revelation.
"A little more than dead," one of the police officers mumbled just loudly enough for everyone to hear. His partner elbowed him in the ribs and shot him a glare, to which he shot a deadpan stare in return. "Am I wrong? What would you call someone literally being torn apart by their atoms and then dispersed into the open air?"
"Yeah, but you could at least be tactful about it," the second officer hissed back. "The kid just lost his father!"
"A father who was trying to kill him," the officer maintained his deadpan. The sound of the detective clearing his throat and the venomous glare he was shooting them ended the bickering before it could continue any further.
Meanwhile, Izuku had effectively blue-screened at the details of his fa- at Hisashi's death. His bewildered eyes met the green of his mother's in a silent conversation between the two. She solemnly nodded to confirm that he did indeed hear them correctly.
"You… you atomized him?" he finally managed to get out.
"He was threatening you."
Izuku waited for any further explanation, but one never came. "Um, right."
He knew she was ruthless, especially during training, and he knew of her past as an underground pro hero, but that newest bit of information only confirmed one thing to him:
His mother was fucking terrifying.
He was thankfully saved by the detective rising from his seat and speaking up again. "I think we can conclude things here, for now. We've gotten all the information we need, and you no doubt want to spend some time with your son. Thank you for your time, Mrs. Midoriya; we'll contact you again if we need to go over anything else."
With a bow, the detective left with the two policemen in tow, leaving the Midoriya duo to themselves in their living room. Izuku sighed and melted into the couch next to his mother, and he leaned into her touch when she softly ran her hand through his hair.
"How are you feeling, son?" she asked with a hint of trepidation.
Izuku exhaled, feeling as though he was releasing all of the events of the day. "In a word? Exhausted."
"That's certainly understandable," she said with a soft smile. "Why don't you tell me about your quirk?"
It was as if a switch was flipped within the boy as his eyes lit up with excitement. He practically launched off of the couch and started moving the coffee table and any other wooden piece of furniture a healthy distance away from him. Standing in the middle of the room, he reached for the familiar warmth inside of him, and he ignited in a pillar of multicolored flames.
Inko was mesmerized at the sight. She hadn't anticipated his quirk to be so…
"Beautiful," she mumbled aloud without taking her eyes off of him. Izuku preened at the praise, and his flames began to take on a crimson hue across the board. That was surprising enough to the duo, but the resulting increase in temperature alarmed them. Izuku panicked when he saw the footprints he was burning into the carpet, and he quickly cut off his quirk.
He had no idea what had happened. When he first awakened the quirk, the flames were brilliant and powerful, but he was also actively projecting them to keep Bakugo at bay. They weren't burning nearly as brightly just then, but they transitioned to a solid red when his mother complimented them, and they felt even hotter than they were earlier that day without even increasing in size. Were the flames tied to his emotions? It seemed like too much of a hair trigger to be the case, and why transition to purely red when he was feeling happy? Could he access other colors individually? Would it make a difference? The red flames were demonstrably hotter than the multicolored fire; would that be the case with the others?
He was snapped out of his thoughts by his mother struggling to suppress her giggle fit. It immediately dawned on him what happened.
"I said all of that out loud, didn't I?" he asked with a sheepish scratch to the back of his head.
"Mhm. You really are my son," she said with a warm smile, noting the white embers wafting from his hair. The smile then tightened into a thin line. "There was one thing you said, though, about projecting your flames to keep Bakugo at bay. What did you mean by that, exactly?"
Izuku, now knowing his mother could literally atomize a human and sensing potential danger, told her about everything that happened that day. He told her about the initial scuffle with Bakugo, he told her about his teacher's blatant bigotry, he told her about Bakugo hunting him down and his suspicions that the teacher orchestrated it, and he told her about his quirk's activation.
The blankness of her face after he finished deeply unsettled him. He could see a ravenous fury in her gaze that contrasted with the careful nothingness, and it had him sweating bullets. It may not have been a very heroic thought, but he was just glad to not be the target of her wrath and prayed for a quick demise to anyone that was.
Across town, the teacher in question was reading a copy of Meta Liberation War in his study when a chill ran up his spine. For the briefest of moments, he felt as if the eyes of the Grim Reaper itself were bearing down on him.
'Probably Midoriya's fault. The principal is already on the ship, but the sooner I can get the rest of the faculty on board with Destro's ideals, the better.'
Back in the apartment, Izuku was nervous about what his mother would do to anyone who had even accidentally wronged him in his life. "Um, mom? Y-You're not going to tear Bakugo apart and then reassemble him into a pig or something, right?" He truly hoped he did not doom his sorta-friend (was that still even applicable?) to a horrible fate.
"Hm?" Inko was broken out of whatever unholy machinations she was conjuring in her mind. "Oh, no, I'm certain that Katsuki learned his lesson and won't be bothering you for a while. Besides, I can't reassemble someone after taking them apart, there's no going back for them. Anyway, I'll be sure to have a talk with Mitsuki about him soon."
Her eyes darkened and the bloodthirsty grin she usually reserved for training made its way back onto her face. "I'm more concerned with your teacher who thought it acceptable to put my baby in harm's way."
And then, in a flash, her grin disappeared and the bloodlust vanished alongside it, and she was back to sporting the loving smile he was familiar with. "You mentioned being able to heal someone's fingers after they were 'forcefully readjusted.' The color was pink, right?" At his nod, she hummed and stroked her chin. "Going by the yellow embers you sported when dodging and the white embers that appear when you're thinking hard over something, it's likely that your flames each have individual properties to them, and they come together to create an inferno that functions similarly to… Endeavor's."
The way she spoke Endeavor's name with such utter disdain surprised Izuku. He didn't know that they knew each other. It was also possible that she just knew of him and disliked him for one reason or another. He wouldn't really blame her if that was the case. Questions for later, though.
"For now, freshen up and get ready for dinner. I'll make you some more celebratory katsudon for awakening your quirk!" Inko declared and darted into the kitchen.
Izuku sighed; he was more than familiar with the katsudon bribe. 'Guess Endeavor is a sore subject for her.'
The next morning, Izuku rolled out of bed to prepare for the usual light spar and informatics training that happened on Saturdays. However, a knock at their door surprised them, as Inko wasn't expecting anyone that day. Opening the door, a short, white-furred animal in a suit stood on two legs in front of her with a smile.
"Nezu?" Inko asked in shock.
"Mrs. Midoriya, how lovely it is to see you again!" Nezu chirps. "Or, shall you return to being Ms. Akatani, given that the remains of your husband have likely entered the lower atmosphere?"
Inko's eyes widened before narrowing at the animal of indeterminable origin. "How did you find out about that already? It literally happened yesterday." She paused, and then she slumped in resignation. "You know what, of course, you found out about it. You're Nezu."
"That I am!" the creature agreed with grin that just bordered on predatory.
"I'd ask you why you're here," Inko began before stepping aside and motioning for him to enter, "but the fact that you tracked me down and came in person means that you have a good reason, and I probably won't like it."
Nezu's smile faltered as they entered the living room. "You're correct, unfortunately. I wish we could have met again under better circumstances, but alas, it is not to be."
Inko sighed and nodded, turning her head to her son who was attempting to be inconspicuous and eavesdrop on them without being seen. "Izuku, come meet an old acquaintance of mine."
Izuku blanched at being detected, and he dejectedly meandered into the living room while his mother mirthfully shook her head.
"Izuku, this is Nezu. We worked a few cases together when I was still active," Inko explained to the boy who had already set his analytical gaze onto the furry creature, who in turn had given Izuku one of his own.
"Why, hello, young Midoriya! Am I a mouse? Am I a dog? Am I a bear?"
"You're a chimera, although the specifics of what animals compose your DNA is a bit tricky. Your snout is too pointed to be that of a dog or a bear, but your paws and tail aren't reminiscent of mice, at least none that I'm familiar with. Even so, your general appearance does suggest rodent of some kind, but that could also just as easily be a marsupial's appearance. That would explain why your tail has fur and isn't bushy, but it still wouldn't explain the nature of your paws."
Izuku only paused to accept the cup of tea handed to him by his mother, who had taken the opportunity afforded to her by Izuku's mumble-storm to make tea.
"…Then again, I suppose you wouldn't be much of a chimera if the lion's share of your DNA came from a singular animal…"
"Hmmm, not necessarily true, but you are certainly on the right track- oh dear, your hair has combusted," Nezu commented before taking a sip of his tea. "Oh my, you remembered my favorite blend after a decade, how lovely!"
"You've saved my life- directly or otherwise- on several occasions," Inko softly responded. "You're also one of the few people in heroics that I trust implicitly. It's the least I could do."
Izuku had abandoned his muttering about Nezu's species when he pointed out that his hair was on fire. He reached up to investigate, and he found pure white flames in his hands that quickly died out. His head ached a tad, and he was certain that it was part of his quirk, but he filed it away for the moment.
His mother had just mentioned her time as a pro, and she never went into detail about that around him. He still didn't even know why she retired in the first place, but he had been able to gather that she retired shortly before he was born.
'Something must've happened or had been happening for a while before I was born to make her so…jaded. Her hatred for Endeavor feels almost personal, so maybe that has something to do with it?'
"So, Nezu, what's the crisis?" Inko finally asked.
"I don't believe it has reached crisis levels as of yet," Nezu began with a thoughtful hum, "but I've recently come across evidence pointing towards the reformation of a long thought dead terrorist ideology; it was thought to be dead on an official capacity, at least."
Inko frowned. "A terrorist cell doesn't sound like something you'd contact me for."
"It does when it involves the reason your now departed husband returned to attack your son," Nezu solemnly replied.
Inko's gaze hardened into stone. "So that's what the bastard was talking about, then."
"What do you mean?" Izuku hesitantly inquired.
Inko sighed. "Hisashi was content with staying out of our lives when I informed him of your diagnosis. For years, I didn't even want to tell him that I was training you despite your status, but I felt he had the right to know. So, I called him and got him up to speed. He hung up on me the minute I made it clear that I supported you following your desires despite your quirk status, and I didn't hear a word from him after that. That was two weeks ago.
"Yesterday, when Hisashi showed up, he went on a rant about the quirkless being un-evolved blights on mankind and that we should all have the rights to wield our 'meta abilities' freely, and having those without 'meta abilities' around only fills the need for laws restricting peoples' freedoms. He then said that he 'wouldn't stand for having a null rise above his station.' It was around the time he spat a fireball at me and tried to break down your bedroom door that I… handled him."
"Oh…" was Izuku's simple reply. He did not know what to say to that.
"He was abrasive and rather opinionated when I met him, but blatantly spouting heavily quirkist sentiments is a new development. Although, maybe I shouldn't be surprised since he did back out when he thought he had a quirkless son. True colors, and all that."
"It's the terminology you say that he used that worries me," Nezu stated. "It's straight from Destro's Meta Liberation War and the movements it spawned."
"I thought Destro wrote that book after he was imprisoned?" Inko asked.
"He did, and the bulk of his army was rounded up either and imprisoned or killed- officially, anyway- but many of the sentiments surrounding quirk liberation in his biography remained in a portion of society. That portion has only grown and festered over the years.
"While not outright supporters of Destro, there are several factions that align themselves with the basic premise of the original Meta Liberation Army. For the moment, they're small pockets of pro-quirk activists, small-time villains, and terrorists leading indoctrination campaigns to bolster their numbers."
"And you think Hisashi fell victim to one of those?"
"It is a possibility, I'm afraid."
Inko sighed once more and ran a hand through her hair. "Just great. Things can't ever be so simple." She paused, and she refocused her gaze onto the chimera. "So, a collection of potential terrorists and cultists are festering around the country. That does sound concerning, but I wouldn't imagine it would be alarming for you."
"I've had some of my employees and some other unaffiliated heroes go undercover in a few of those cells, and they all came back with information that suggests a common thread between them: a singular benefactor sponsoring each cell," Nezu responded.
"Anyone of note?"
"Potentially too much note."
"How so?"
"They all led back to disposable shell companies of Detnerat."
And with that, Inko was stressed. Her stress level had steadily been climbing over the course of the conversation, and the revelation that quirk supremacists were being funded by the already shady lifestyle support company worth billions didn't help matters one bit. However, something else stuck out to the former pro hero.
"Earlier, you specified that they align with the ideals of the original Meta Liberation Army… Is there another Meta Liberation Army that we should know about?" Inko hesitantly ventured.
Nezu did not immediately respond, choosing instead to take a sip of his tea. Inko did not like that at all, as it was one of the creature's tells that he was stressed as well. Anything that had Nezu stressed was a high priority threat that needed to be dealt with.
"I have my suspicions," Nezu carefully started. "There has been a notable presence of Detnerat within Deika City as of late, and the CEO himself has spent quite a bit of time there. Not enough time to draw suspicion, but enough time to draw a few disturbing conclusions if you know what to look for."
"Deika…" Inko tried to jog her memory. "That's the weird city up in the sticks, right? Tens of thousands of people there who tend not to move out to anywhere else…"
Inko paled.
"Potentially tens of thousands of isolated people living within an MLA indoctrination camp," Nezu answered with a solemn nod. "An army being gathered right under our noses."
A heavy silence followed as the horrifying implications were readily apparent to all occupants, Izuku included. His brain was in overdrive trying to account for any and all possibilities and any ways to prevent a war from starting. His thoughts sped up, and he started running through several ideas, theories, and plans at a ridiculous pace.
"Young Midoriya, your hair has combusted again."
Izuku did not flinch this time, as the white flame encompassed even more of his hair. Inko was mildly alarmed while Nezu was curious at the development. Izuku, paying no mind to either, mentally rewinded several instances at his school where the adults openly praised strong quirks and promoted a "might makes right" mentality while shunning and paying less attention to those with weaker quirks or anyone deemed to have less potential.
How they treated him, the only quirkless student, went without saying.
Looking up, the white hot fire sitting atop his head flared a brief moment before Izuku met the gaze of the two adults.
"I think our school district is one of these indoctrination zones," he bluntly stated.
Inko's eyes widened at the declaration, and Nezu hummed in consideration.
"How did you come to that conclusion, Midoriya?"
"One of my teachers likely put a student with a strong quirk up to assaulting me after giving me detention, yesterday. It was, ironically, why I wasn't home for my fath- Hisashi's return."
Inko's eyes widened even further as it sank in for her as well. "You believe that man is part of this whole operation?"
"He's a cog in a larger machine, but yes. I've caught glimpses of what's in his and others teachers' desks, and I might have seen a copy of Meta Liberation War in one or two of them, but that might just be confirmation bias at work. I can't say for sure.
"What I can say, however, is that in instances where I'm sent to the principal's office for one fabricated reason or another, I've seen some of the things he has on display. I doubt he keeps anything truly incriminating in his office, but he does have a strange mask that only goes over your eyes on his desk. I asked him about it once, and he said that it was a memento of an old revolutionary he studied in graduate school. He didn't explain any further, but he likely believed that a child as young as I am wouldn't ever be able to put the pieces together, so he didn't seem too bothered about letting that much slip."
"Can you draw the mask?" Nezu asked.
"Yes," Izuku answered. "I'll go grab a notebook before whatever is going on with my quirk dies down and I get the worst migraine of my life."
He left to his room, and in no time at all, he returned with a notebook and quickly began sketching away. Nezu tilted his head to read what was written in the cover, and the phrase "Hero Analyses For the Future Vol. 8" grabbed his attention. Izuku looked to be finishing up, so he elected to put a pin in that thought for the moment.
Upon finishing, he handed the notebook over to Nezu, and sure enough, it was Destro's mask exactly as it was printed on Meta Liberation War. He and Inko shared a glance and had a silent conversation.
Izuku, meanwhile, immediately felt the effects of his quirk when the white fire on his head finally petered out, and the searing migraine came in with an ungodly vengeance. He slumped over on the couch and clutched at his head, causing his mother to leap from her seat and rush to his side.
"Izuku, are you alright?" she worriedly prodded.
"Yes," he managed before taking a breath. "I just… need to… not think for a bit."
"You overexerted your quirk," she fretted over him while Nezu took a look through the rest of the notebook, a growing look of intrigue developing on his face. The young boy had detailed analysis of pro heroes and their quirks, including their strengths, weaknesses, how they could cover those weaknesses, and what improvements they could make with their quirks or support gear to think about trying out. A disturbing smile twisted onto the animal hybrid's face.
Inko momentarily stilled, feeling the unrestrained glee in her comrade. That was never a good sign, and turning around to see her son's Hero Analysis notebook in his paws made her heart drop.
'Dear God, please don't let him turn my son into a mini-me.'
When Izuku managed to get back to a sitting position, Inko sat down next to him and ran her hand through his hair before focusing back on the chimera who sported a chilling smile.
"So, with all of that distressing information in mind, what did you need of me, specifically?" Inko questioned.
"For now, I'm gathering allies and getting them up to speed. For the moment, I cannot be certain which pros are or are not sympathetic to the MLA's message, but I want to be prepared in case I need to create another war council anytime soon."
"Does the Commission or the national government know about any of this?"
"The Commission is, to my knowledge, aware of the existence of a reforming MLA, but directly attacking Detnerat and all its connections would do considerable damage to the Japanese economy, so there is a tentative stalemate in place. The national government is not aware of any of this, otherwise the JSDF would be storming Deika City as we speak."
"Should we…" Inko ventured with hopeful gleam.
"I wouldn't recommend it. It would likely plunge the nation into a civil war that society isn't ready for, regardless of who comes out on top," Nezu verbally responded before sparing a glance at Izuku. The boy was still nursing his migraine and had his eyes closed, but he was clearly listening. Nezu silently signed to Inko in an old code developed on the field:
'Supervillain attack. All Might out of commission. Duration indeterminable.'
Inko's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, and she nodded in understanding. Things truly just could not have been simple. Exhaling, she pressed on. "Anything else?"
Nezu's smile returned, and Inko already did not like where this was headed. "I would like to offer you a job at UA, of course."
Izuku's eyes shot open at the animal hybrid's declaration, and his mouth was left agape. Inko wasn't fairing any better.
"…Excuse me?" she choked out.
"Did I forget to mention that I am the principal of UA?" he cheekily responded.
"Yes, that may have slipped your mind, dear friend," Inko responded through gritted teeth.
"It was a development that occurred during your absence from heroics," Nezu began. "It's my way of shaping future generations of heroes away from the Commission's influence, and, hopefully, to create less situations where fantastic heroes like yourself become too disillusioned with the ugly truth."
Inko's glare softened, and she took a minute to gather the right words to respond to Nezu. "To do that, you'd have to clean up the ugly truth that's hidden away."
"Oh, don't fret, taking down the Hero Commission is next on my list after the MLA," Nezu happily responded.
Inko couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her. "Never change, Rat."
"I also presume you will be pulling Izuku from his current school, given the knowledge that it is likely an MLA indoctrination center," he continued. "Might I suggest my services in handling Izuku's schooling personally until he's old enough to take the UA entrance exam?"
Inko did not need to look at her son to know that he had practically melted at the offer. She refused to look in his direction so that she wouldn't fall victim to the puppy eyes that he'd almost certainly be wielding against her. She would not fall victim to it; she would not.
She would NOT.
Goddamn it, she did.
Concurrently, Izuku was doing his very best to contain his excitement; he really did not want to accidentally activate the red flames of his quirk and torch the apartment. Throwing his best application of the puppy eyes with tears included, he silently pleaded with his mother to take the offer.
She didn't even need to look at him to fall victim to his efforts if her resigned sigh was any indication.
"If I say yes, will you ensure that my son is in good, capable hands?" Inko asked. She knew that she didn't need to ask that, as Nezu was probably the most capable person(?) she knew for this task. She just needed confirmation for herself that reentering the hero-sphere was the right decision.
"Of course," Nezu assured. "A mind as brilliant as his truly deserves the best cultivation possible."
"You just want to groom him to be your successor for your world domination plots."
"I will neither confirm nor deny that statement."
"Ugh, fine, I accept."
"HELL YEAH!" Izuku shouted, speaking up for the first time since his quirk deactivated and launching himself at his mother for a vice grip of a hug. Gladly returning it, she shot her guest a curious glance.
"What would I even be teaching?"
"I've been thinking of creating an underground heroics course for the 2nd and 3rd years interested in going that route. We already have the space in the building, and, with you on board, I'll have an instructor for it. You won't begin until next school year, so you'll have this time until then to earn your certifications," Nezu explained.
Inko nodded, wrangling her positively hyper son who was going on and on about attending UA, studying under the principal himself, and potentially learning from his own mother in an official capacity.
That was until something dawned on him. "Wait, what does this mean for my training?" he asked, slightly worried that the new routine would throw off his training schedule.
"Your current training should not be hampered," Nezu answered. "In fact, you will have more opportunities to train even harder since you'll have access to UA's training facilities."
Izuku brightened at this initially, however, a chill crawled up his spine when he glanced at his mother. The vicious, toothy grin she was sending his way made his blood run cold, and for a single moment, Izuku wondered if he made a mistake.
"Well then, I'd like to humbly welcome you to our UA staff, Verdant," Nezu said after getting up from his chair and extending a paw.
Inko flinched at the use of her hero name before sighing and shaking Nezu's offered paw. "I suppose I have to get used to hearing that name again. One condition, though."
"Name it."
"I get to deal with Izuku's teacher personally."
"Only if I get to knock the school building down with a wrecking ball after flushing out the vermin."
"Deal."
The soft sound of snickering made her turn to her son with an annoyed glare.
"Verdant? Really?" Izuku managed through giggles.
"It was original at the time!" Inko defended. "And you have no room to poke fun, Mr. Small Might."
"Touché," Izuku conceded with a smile.