Ficool

Chapter 6 - Secrets in the Silence

Rain had started falling not long after Izuku returned from his morning jog, misting the windows with pale streaks and turning the world outside into a blur of green and gray. He liked the quiet it brought. The hush of the city. The rhythm of water tapping against the glass. It made the small apartment feel like a pocket dimension—cut off, safe, if only for a while.

But there was no quiet inside him.

Izuku sat curled on his bed, the grimoire resting just inches away on his desk. It hadn't moved in hours. It hadn't whispered his name, glowed, or fluttered its pages. But its presence filled the room like thunder waiting to crack.

He stared at it, then at the ceiling.

He had schoolwork. He had hero prep to finish. He had spells to decipher, and that one dream he still hadn't shaken—of voices calling his name through a kaleidoscope of red and green light. But his body was heavy, like gravity had multiplied beneath his skin. His thoughts were a storm. He couldn't tell his parents everything—not yet. But the pieces they did know still weighed on them too.

A soft knock came at his door.

"Izuku?" his mother's voice called gently. "Can we come in?"

His throat tightened. He rubbed his hands down his sweatpants, then nodded before realizing they couldn't see him. "Yeah. Yeah, come in."

The door creaked open. Inko Midoriya stepped in first, a cup of tea in her hands, followed closely by Hisashi. They weren't smiling this time. They looked—tired. Worried. Like they had been trying to say something for a while now and couldn't find the words.

Inko set the tea down on the nightstand and sat beside him on the bed, while Hisashi leaned quietly against the wall.

"We thought it might be a good time to talk," she said.

Izuku nodded, eyes falling to the grimoire again. "Is it… about the book?"

Hisashi folded his arms. "Partly. But mostly, it's about you."

Izuku's fingers dug into the blankets. "I already told you how it appeared. I didn't summon it. I didn't even know what it was. It just… showed up."

"And you told us what happened that day," Inko said softly. "The rooftop. The green energy. The voice that spoke to you."

"It called me Matthew," he muttered. "That's not even my—"

"It is your name," Hisashi interrupted gently. "Or… the name that man gave us. Vision."

Izuku swallowed hard. The name still felt foreign, unreal, like a note scrawled in someone else's story. "But I'm Izuku. That's the name you gave me."

"And it's who you are," Inko said firmly, resting a hand on his. "We're not trying to change that."

Izuku glanced at them both. "Then why do I feel like I'm lying just by being here?"

Silence followed.

Hisashi sighed and pushed off the wall, pacing slowly toward the window. "You're not lying, Izuku. But… you are hiding something. Even from us. And it's eating you alive."

"I'm not trying to," Izuku whispered. "It's just… I don't know how to explain it. I don't understand half of it myself."

"Then let us help you figure it out," Inko said. "Whatever this is—this magic, this book, this name—you don't have to carry it alone."

Izuku shook his head. "But what if it's not just magic? What if it's something else—something I'm not ready for? What if I hurt someone by accident? Or worse… what if I find out I'm not even supposed to be here?"

Hisashi's voice was calm but firm. "You are supposed to be here. You are our son. That hasn't changed since the day that man—Vision—brought you to our door."

The memory was still foggy in Izuku's mind. They had told him the story once when he was younger, as a bedtime fairy tale. A strange man made of metal and light appeared through a flash in the sky, holding a small boy no older than a toddler. He begged them to take the child. Told them his name. Said he wouldn't be safe otherwise.

And then vanished.

No one believed them when they reported it. No one could explain the phenomenon. So they had stopped talking about it. But they had never stopped loving him.

"I've seen things," Izuku said at last. "In dreams. Places that don't exist. People who… who look like me, or talk like they know me. There's a woman with red eyes and a red crown made of flame. Every time I try to hear her name, it's like something seals my mouth shut."

Inko gripped his hand tighter.

"The book keeps teaching me things I didn't ask to know," he went on. "Combat techniques, spells, even languages I've never studied. And it—it feels like someone is watching. Like the more I use it, the more it wakes something up. Something… old."

Hisashi exhaled slowly. "And you haven't told us until now because…?"

"Because I didn't want you to be scared of me," Izuku said. His voice cracked. "Because I'm scared of me."

Inko didn't hesitate. She pulled him into a hug, arms firm around his shoulders, as if shielding him from the very thing he feared.

"You're our son," she said fiercely. "And nothing is going to change that."

"But what if I'm not just your son?" he whispered into her shoulder.

She pulled back, cupping his cheeks. "Then we'll love all of you. Whoever you were, whoever you are, and whoever you're becoming."

Hisashi sat down at the edge of the bed. "Izuku, you may have powers we don't understand. You may have come from somewhere we can't explain. But none of that erases the life you've lived here. We're not asking for every secret tonight. We're just asking that you stop carrying this burden alone."

For a moment, Izuku said nothing.

Then he turned toward the grimoire.

It floated an inch off the desk now, glowing faintly—like it had heard every word.

He stood up and walked toward it slowly, heart pounding in his chest. As his fingers touched the surface, the book opened with a soft hum.

A message flickered across the first page in glowing red script:

"The truth is heavy. But you were forged for it."

Izuku let out a shaky breath.

"I'll try," he whispered. "I'll try to tell you everything. Just… not all at once."

"That's enough," Inko said. "That's more than enough."

The rain outside had slowed to a whisper.

For the first time in days, Izuku felt like he could breathe.

More Chapters