There's a feeling of melancholy in the air as they leave the doctor's office with the official prognosis.

Quirkless.

The word stings Izuku like a thousand razor blades, cutting through him like air. His entire fate, all of his dreams of becoming a hero like the ones he idolized for many years,

gone.

Because of one word.

It's a numbing feeling really, and to understand it all just as he's on the precipice of turning five years old, is something. Izuku always though it would be something cool, like his mother's Attraction of Small Objects or his father's… Well, whatever it was. He didn't know his dad's quirk, he'd never seen him before, but he could only imagine it was cool and heroic and would be why he had to suddenly leave when Izuku turned two. Something too powerful that it had to be kept hidden.

There's a nagging voice in the back of his head that tells him that his father was quirkless, too.

The house is quiet when they finally return. Izuku barely drags himself into the house, the thick word still hanging above him. Quirkless.

"Izuku, honey..." His mother stumbles over her words often, giving him a lost, forlorn look. "How about we get you into your pajamas and we make some Katsudon?"

He nods, but even the thought of eating his favorite food makes his stomach churn.

Can I be a hero, even without a quirk?

Izuku may have been only a few weeks of five when he learned that all men are not created equal, but he was six years old when he learned that there's something else out in the world.

His quirkless diagnosis didn't help him much in his school life, no matter how many times his mom tried to go to the school about the bullying and terrible treatment he was receiving, by both his classmates and the teachers, who would always turn a blind eye towards the violence towards him. They lived in a smaller part of town, after all, and Izuku was the only quirkless one around.

(Well, quirkless child. There were a few elderly people that lived at the end of the same block that Izuku lived on that were quirkless, too, but they were much older than Izuku and he couldn't go out collecting bugs with them or play Heroes Vs. Villains! with them.)

Everyone seemed to abandon him after learning he was quirkless—they were afraid that they would lose their quirk if they hung around him too long, they didn't want to be friends with a "weak, useless Deku".

What a nickname, "Deku". He thought that it was a fun nickname from his friend Kacchan, but it turned out to be a weapon used against him. It became a playground insult for being a baby, for being weak, for being quirkless, and it was thrown at him every. Single. Day. A constant reminder of his unfortunate existence.

Kacchan was supposed to be his friend—they were neighbors, after all, once upon a time, but the Bakugos moved down the street to a more explosion-friendly house after he discovered that he could make explosions with his hands. Their moms knew each other, talked to each other constantly, and expected them to get along, like any mom would.

Usually the playdates with the neighborhood kids end up with Izuku being abandoned, because he can't go to the places they go to because

"You're Deku, you're quirkless! You can only follow us if you ever develop a quirk! No Dekus allowed!"

It left him on the street corners, alone, until he eventually gave up and returned home.

Which was the position he was in at the moment, watching the neighborhood kids flee off in the other direction, leaving him behind, because he can't stray too far like they can, because he's quirkless and weak, and could get himself hurt.

He bites his lip, glancing around at the streets. It's pretty empty in the middle of a late Saturday afternoon. The quirkless elderly couple was taking a leisurely stroll, and a woman jogs past him with a dog on a leash, headphones in, not paying attention to the world around her.

He sniffles, rubbing his nose, before deciding to just turn around and go home, deciding to just play in the backyard of their small complex by himself. His mom was busy, working at home today, he wasn't allowed to wander far from the complex, especially alone.

"Excuse me." A voice calls out from somewhere. Izuku whips his head around until he sees a strange looking man, standing next to a trash can, dressed up like he was going to work. The man's entire face was made of some sort of strange gas, two bright yellow eyes shining through the mist. "I believe I may have gotten turned around. What street are we on?" The man walks a little closer to Izuku, and suddenly, he feels it.

Under him, the ground seems to shake. Not in the literal sense, but something that he can't explain is shaking and is scared of the man and is yelling at Izuku to run. The energy is always present, always at the back of his mind and under his feet, but it has never shaken under him like this before.

He opens his mouth to respond but closes it. He's not supposed to talk to strangers, but the man… Even though something was yelling at him to run run run get out of there run, the man looked lost, and it was Izuku's heroic duty to help him! He responds with the street name.

The man hums to himself, looking around curiously, still lost. Everything is telling Izuku to run still. "Do you think you could lead me in the direction of the nearest gas station?"

There was one on the other side of the road Izuku can't cross without an adult, in the direction he had just came from. It wasn't too far from his house, and it was at the boundary of where he was supposed to go, so it shouldn't hurt. Izuku nods, and as he turns his back to the strange, lost man, there's a hand on his shoulder.

And another.

And it feels like there's a vortex behind him, sucking him in like a vacuum. He turns, and sees the man's grin. An evil grin.

Villain—

Izuku screams, but no one can seem to hear him. He pulls away at the last minute, out of the grip of the strange man, the strange villain, trying to gain his trust and take him when he wasn't looking, and he falls to the ground, and a sharp pain rockets through his elbow.

"Come with me quietly—"

"N-No—" Izuku pushes himself off the ground, backing up from the man. He stands threatingly tall over Izuku, and he just needs to get out of there, so he turns and runs in the opposite direction.

He wishes he had some sort of quirk that would help him. Teleportation, maybe, to get him out of this situation and away, at the complex's backyard or in his room where he was safe. Invisibility to disappear from view so the man couldn't see him. He prays to whatever he can to get him out of there, please, he didn't want to go with this strange man, he never should've stopped to talk to him.

Suddenly there's a pop! and the world around him faded from color.

He skids to a halt, startled by the sudden change. Was this from the man's quirk? Did he get taken? It was weird to see everything void of color, like an old photo that his mom had of his dad from long ago. Izuku turns, to see the man, too, stopping, looking around, confused.

Izuku was right in front of him, and couldn't be seen.

His heart drops for a moment, and he realizes that another quirk has taken effect on him. With his lack of quirk, Izuku began to study the quirks of the people in his neighborhood and his school, but no one had a quirk like this.

Was it his quirk? Did I do this? He glanced down at his hands, which were the same peachy color that they normally were, contrasted against the grey of the sidewalk and the world around them. The man seems to pass right through him and sighed, resigned, before walking down the road and disappearing from view.

I have a quirk.

He had to get home straight away! Izuku's mom was going to be so excited, because he has a quirk, unlike what those doctors said about the bones-or-whatever. He has a quirk, and he can be a hero now, and nobody will call him Deku again!

Another realization hits him, though, as he looks around.

He got turned around. Took a wrong road in his attempt to flee from the man.

He was lost.

After an hour of wandering around, aimlessly and lost, Izuku realizes that no one can see or feel him, and he can't feel anyone else. He can feel the same energy under his feet,like he always does, and he can feel something in the air that makes the hair on the back of his neck stand on its end, but he can't hold anything or touch anything that's colored grey.

Which was everything.

"I-Is this it?" He mumbles to himself, his lip quivering. He wanted to go home, but in that attempt, it seems like he got even more lost than before. Nobody can see or hear him or help him, as if he didn't exist. Maybe the man did take him and he was stuck in some sort of dream?

His elbow was still skinned and he felt the sting of it with his heartbeat. No, he couldn't be in a dream, it was too real. It was real. Maybe this was some kind of different world?

Could his quirk teleport him to a different world? Some sort of mirror world?

He didn't know anything, and oh, look, his eyes are blurring with tears. He just wanted to go home and see his mom again, he just didn't want to be alone and forgotten in a world like this. If this was indeed his quirk, then, then…

He can't fathom it. He stops right where he is and starts crying. He doesn't know how long he cries but it just keeps coming out, because of course the universe would deem it right that he would have a quirk like this and he would be one day, eventually, forgotten, a useless quirk for a useless boy—

"Oh my god." A voice says.

Unlike the others ,he's heard while in this weird dimension, which are muffled and quiet, this one is almost piercing, and Izuku flinches at the sound of the voice. He glances up, and sees someone in color.

They were much taller and skinnier than any other human Izuku had ever seen. Long, dark hair curled around a round face, and a wide-brimmed, pointed hat slouched off their head. They wore a large white shirt that neared their knees, some kind of strange belt, and a purple robe. Not as weird as some adults Izuku has seen, but definitely unique enough that he has to blink again, and he nervously whines as the person leans down and looks at him.

Their eyes look like the nighttime sky, but not the dark blue with pale white dots, but like the pictures he's seen of space on the TV, and he's momentarily transfixed by them.

"Hey—hey, it's okay, kid." They squat down, and don't even flinch as people pass through them. "Is it okay if I touch you? Help you up?"

Izuku nods, mute at the sudden stranger's appearance. The stranger reaches an arm out that Izuku gladly took, solid and warm unlike all the other cold people that have passed through him.

"There you go." The stranger gives him a warm smile. "What's got you so down?"

"T-There was a strange man and I thinkhetriedtokidnapmeandItriedtorunawayandthenthenextthingIknowIendedupinthisweirdplaceandIjustwanttogohome—"

"You—" The stranger somehow follows Izuku's nervous prattling, and pauses for a moment, absorbing it all. "—You ended up here?"

Izuku nods, and the stranger leans down and looked closer at them. They were much, much taller than Izuku could ever hope to be, and dark hair, messy and curly like his own, falls in his face as he looks over Izuku. "What's your name, kid?"

"M-Midoriya. Izuku." He says, and the stranger's eyes widen in shock. "I- I'm sorry if I'm not supposed to b-be here—"

"You're fine." The stranger rests their hand on his head gently, as if to calm him down. "Let's just get you home, okay?"

Izuku nods. "But- I don't know where m-my home is."

"It's okay." The stranger smiles. "I know where it is, here." They reach their hand out, and Izuku takes it slowly, looking up at the stranger with wonder wide in his eyes.

The stranger introduces themself as Ayumu with a big smile. "Call me Ayu-san, please."

Izuku nods. Ayu-san's large robe flows behind them as they begin walking in the direction that Izuku thought that he'd run through earlier, and pulls foreward as they walk through people without flinching, until they arrive at the road Izuku's not supposed to cross, but on the other side of it.

The night has fallen already, and the sound of cicadas has filled the air. Ayu-san doesn't even bother to look both ways as he and Izuku walk across the road, and doesn't even slow down as a car barrels down the street towards them

and through them like they were nothing.

Even though Izuku had thought this quirk was terrifying at first, being with someone seemed to make it better. He couldn't explain why, suddenly, he trusted Ayu-san so much, but there was something about him that felt familiar…

Like the energy that flowed under the earth! That's what Ayu-san felt like. They found the front door of Izuku's house without any guidance, and they must be a friend of Momma's, because why would they know where I live?

As they near the front door, Ayu-san releases their grip on Izuku's hand, and squats down to him again, looking at him with those space-eyes. "Okay, I'm gonna blink us out of this place, it's gonna feel a bit weird."

Izuku nods. Today was a weird enough day as it was, his brain figures. Might as well happen, at this point. Ayu-san takes both of Izuku's hands and closes their eyes, deep in contemplation.

Pop!

Color rushes back into the world around them, and so did warmth and energy and Izuku felt tears begin to well up because it wasn't the cold, grey world anymore. It feels like Ayu-san got even more vibrant as the color returned, and Izuku could see golden threads dancing through the purple robe that they wore.

The front door suddenly opens, and there stands Izuku's mom, holding a phone in one hand and clutching her sweater over the other. She drops the phone, long forgotten, as she glances at Ayu-san, before at Izuku, and cries, "Izuku!", barreling down to give her son a hug.

Warm. Home.

Ayumu wasn't expecting this when they woke up for the day.

To start off with, it was one of the they days, and even thought their wardrobe of loose, long clothing never changes, they could tell when the sun hits their face that, yup, it's a gender-out-the-window day.

And then, sometime in the late afternoon, they felt it. No, not it. Them. Magic flowed through the earth and Ayumu felt it, and this person was somewhere nearby. The shop was slow on Saturday afternoons and no one would notice if it closed a bit early, and Ayumu quickly cleaned up a few stray books and hung the closed sign up before Blinking out of existence to find the source of the sudden change in the leylines.

Not too far away, they found the crying form of Midoriya Izuku, in the ether, of all places. Ayumu hadn't seen Izuku for almost five years now- or was it six?—after he was born.

Even without hearing his name, Ayumu knew exactly who it was. The messy hair (though, a greener shade than their own) was a Midoriya-family trait, if they were anything to come by, with the long mop, they consider their own hair.

Ayumu hadn't expected Izuku to show up like this, and in the ether, of all places.

Magic was a fickle thing sometimes. It could take decades, maybe even a century, to show up in a person, and it seemed to have not taken too much time with Izuku, at only six years old.

Luckily, they knew where Inko-san lives, and it's no trouble returning Izuku to the right place, the only trouble is what comes after.

Ayumu was always a big fan of their brother's choice of Inko-san. She was rather humble and…simple, which was in good contrast to the magic abilities of the Midoriya family, after all. And Inko-san—no, just Inko, she's drilled into their head before- was charming and sweet among other things (unless you did something bad, and Ayumu would rather not think of the time they crossed her fury), which is exactly what Hisashi needed.

Shame what Hisashi did to himself but testing Mother Magic never went well for anyone.

"Izuku where have you been? I've been looking everywhere—oh, wait, hold on—" She picks up the phone, flinching at whatever voice is on the other side. "-Yes, Mitsuki, let me call you back, he just got home, thank you.—" Inko drops the phone on the ground again and envelops Izuku in another big hug, looking up at Ayumu as he cries into her shoulder.

There's… There's a bit of fear in her eyes. There was a chance. A 50% chance that Izuku could end up like me like his father like the Midoriyas with magic, and this fear was a fear of the unknown. Ayumu can only give her a sympathetic look as Izuku tries to relay his story in sobs through his mother's sweater.

"T-There was a strange man, and he tried to take me, so I ran away, but then I ended up in this weird other world, and no one could see me, and it was really cold and then Ayu-san came and took me home and I'm sorry I won't do it again—"

"Don't apologize, Izuku. I'm just so happy that you're okay." She holds him close, and Ayu-san can't help but feel glad that Izuku has such a warm figure in his life.

Ayumu is so glad that Midoriya Inko exists, even if Midoriya Hisashi doesn't anymore.

Izuku finally calms down after about twenty minutes of crying into his mother's shoulder and drinking almost a gallon of water. He then realizes that after all that water, he has to pee, and bolts up to the nearest bathroom he can.

Inko glances over at Ayumu, a forlorn smile. "So… I guess it's this, then."

Ayumu nods. "He's diagnosed Quirkless, I assume?"

"A year ago, almost to the day." Inko sighs. "I've read every manual on raising a child, and then read every manual on raising a quirkless child. Are there any manuals on raising a magical child?" It's a joke, but Ayumu can feel the worry and fear behind her voice.

"I don't think I have a book like that in the shop." Their bookstore had a lot of books, both for the public and for the few people they trust in the back of the store of rather unnatural circumstances. But no book on raising a magical child. "I'll help you as much as I can."

They don't have a child, and they don't know why they offered, but they were the only magical person in possibly all of Musutafu, and possibly this half of Japan.

Inko nods as she opens the fridge and pulls out a leftover dinner to reheat and sets a kettle on the stove to boil. "Thank you, Ayumu. I don't know what would've happened if—"

Izuku runs back out into the kitchen, finished with his bathroom break, and filled with a new kind of energy. Yup, Ayumu thinks, watching Izuku bound over to his mother, feeling potential energies waving off of him. If this kid wasn't magical, he sure as hell is now.

"Momma! Mom! I got my quirk!"

Inko gives Ayumu a look. The look. How do I explain this to him, Ayumu, help me, is exactly what her glance says, and Ayumu sighs. Looks like they have to give The Talk.

"Not… Not entirely." Ayumu clears their throat. "Izuku, I need to explain something to you." The small boy approaches them cautiously, still not sure where they stand on this apparent stranger. "What happened today… It wasn't because of a quirk. You're still Quirkless." His face fell, and he glance down at his own hands. "Technically." Izuku's face glances back up, a curious expression written all over it.

"Izuku, you don't have a quirk. You have something… Something better." Ayumu gives him the biggest smile they can muster, but all they can think of is how awkward this situation is. "You have magic. Do you feel the energy below you?"

Izuku glances down at his socks, shoes long forgotten at the door, and nods. "I'm not imagining it?"

Ayumu shakes their head. "You are feeling the magic of the world below you. The leylines. There's magic all around the world, and only a few people can feel it, and only a few people have it in them. And we're some of the few people."

His eyes widen. If anything, Izuku looks like a little kid on Christmas after discovering a load of presents under the tree.

"Your father had this magic, as did his mother, my mother. Your grandmother."

The sudden drop of oh yeah hi I'm related to you but also magic seemed to overwhelm Izuku, and all he could say was, "I have an UNCLE?"

Hey there! I don't normally post non-Pokémon fanfics on this account but I figured it would be fun to share my Quirk!Izuku AU that I have. Well, not entirely a quirk, because it's magic, and you'll see later on how magic works in this AU and world... This is like my fourth attempt at a story like this, and I have plenty of other quirk ideas for Izuku, but that's for another time and place!

The first two-three chapters are very exposition-y, sorry, I just want to make sure that people understand the world, I guess? You learn with Izuku, too.

Also, Ayumu is genderfluid, so their pronouns will change a lot, depending on how they feel.

Shipping is up in the air atm, might happen, might not...I dunno what it will be if anything, but that's just another fun part about writing stories on the edge of your seat and not planning anything at all.

Anyway, see ya in the next chapter! I'll try and get it up fast since I'm done with my semester now!