A week later, Haruto was playing with blocks in Izuku's apartment when Inko and Izuku came back from the doctor.
He knew immediately that it was bad.
Inko's eyes were red-rimmed, her smile too forced. Izuku walked in slowly, clutching a piece of paper, his face completely blank.
Haruto's mother, who'd been watching him while they were gone, stood up quickly. "How did it go?"
Inko's smile crumbled. "I—excuse me."
She disappeared into the bathroom. A moment later, Haruto heard the sound of muffled crying.
His mother looked torn, then knelt down to Izuku's level. "Sweetie? Are you okay?"
Izuku didn't respond. Just stood there, staring at nothing.
*Oh no.*
Haruto carefully set down his block and walked over. Up close, he could see Izuku's hands shaking, could see the paper trembling.
It was an X-ray. Of a foot. With text Haruto couldn't read from this angle but knew anyway.
The extra toe joint. The marker of quirklessness.
"Izuku," Haruto said quietly.
Izuku's eyes focused on him slowly, like he was coming back from somewhere far away. "I don't have a quirk."
The words were flat. Empty.
"The doctor said... he said I don't have a quirk. I'm quirkless. I can't be a hero."
Haruto felt something crack in his chest.
"Izuku—" his mother started, but what could she say? What could anyone say?
"Can you..." Izuku's voice was so small. "Can you leave? Please? I just... I want to be alone."
"Of course, sweetie." Haruto's mother gathered their things quickly, shooting worried glances at the bathroom where Inko was still crying. "Tell your mother I'll call her later, okay?"
Izuku nodded mechanically.
Haruto didn't want to leave. Wanted to stay, to say something, to fix this somehow.
But he couldn't. There was nothing he could do. Nothing he could say that would make this better.
So he let his mother pick him up and carry him out, looking back over her shoulder to see Izuku still standing there, holding that damning X-ray.
The door closed.
---
In the hallway, his mother stopped and set Haruto down, crouching to his level.
"Haru, sweetie, I need you to listen to me." Her voice was serious. "Izuku is going to need his friends now more than ever. Some people are going to be mean to him because he doesn't have a quirk. I need you to promise me you won't be one of those people."
*Are you kidding?* Haruto thought. *I'm going to break anyone who's mean to him.*
"Promise," he said out loud.
"Good boy." She hugged him tight. "You're such a good boy."
*Am I though?*
They went home in silence. His mother kept checking her phone, clearly worried about Inko but giving her space.
Haruto sat in his playpen—another indignity—and thought about Izuku's face. That blank, devastated expression.
He'd known this was coming. Had prepared for it, even. But seeing it actually happen was different than knowing it would happen.
*This is necessary,* he reminded himself. *Izuku needs to be quirkless to receive One For All. This is how the story has to go.*
But that didn't make it hurt less.
And the worst part? Haruto knew what came next. The bullying would start. Bakugo would get worse. Izuku would spend years being told his dream was impossible.
Years that Haruto would have to watch, unable to interfere too much without disrupting the timeline.
*I hate this,* he thought viciously. *I hate all of this.*
His mother's phone rang. She answered immediately. "Inko? Are you—yes. Yes, of course. We're here if you need anything. Anything at all."
A pause.
"How's Izuku?"
Another pause, longer this time.
"Oh, honey." His mother's voice cracked. "I'm so sorry."
Haruto listened to the one-sided conversation, piecing together what had happened after they left.
Izuku had cried. Had asked his mother if he could still be a hero. Had been told that some dreams were impossible.
*Not impossible,* Haruto thought fiercely. *Just harder. So much harder.*
When his mother hung up, she looked exhausted.
"Poor Inko," she murmured. "Poor Izuku."
She looked at Haruto, and something in her expression shifted. "You'll be a good friend to him, won't you, Haru? Even though he doesn't have a quirk?"
"Yes," Haruto said firmly.
"That's my boy."
She went to make dinner, and Haruto was left alone with his thoughts.
Izuku was quirkless now. Officially. The timeline was progressing exactly as it should.
Which meant everything else would follow. The bullying. The self-doubt. The meeting with All Might. The sludge villain. The training. UA.
All of it.
Haruto just had to wait.
Wait and watch and prepare.
*The greater good,* he reminded himself. *I'm doing this for the greater good.*
But the greater good felt pretty terrible right about now.
---