Izuku is special.
Inko knows this. He's cute as a button, sweet as anything, and he's always so honest, open and well-behaved that other parents are jealous of her good fortune.
More than anyone else, Izuku is someone that Inko can trust.
But she is still his parent. It's her job to make sure that he isn't picking up bad influences, or getting himself hurt. So despite her immense trust for Izuku, she follows him wherever he goes. Never overtly, and she rarely does more than watch, but she knows what Izuku's life is about.
Is he doing alright at school? Of course he is! His note-taking has almost become obsessive at this point; he wants to know as much about the world as he can cram into his head.
Is anyone picking on him? Well, Katsuki's getting a little cocky with his new quirk, but he still likes Izuku. She'll need to keep an eye on that one - it's starting to seem like he cares more about quirks than the people attached to them. But for now, he and Izuku are on good terms.
Is he looking at things he shouldn't online?
As Inko scrolls through Izuku's internet history, she notices something and pauses, frowning to herself. Now why would he be searching for 'provate [sic] parts'?
And the next page on the list is an image search of the same thing.
She knows that she should expect the worst from this information. Someone older at school must have corrupted him, showed him something they shouldn't, she should be thinking. But she can't bring herself to. Everything Izuku does is borne of his passion and goals - just look at his All Might collections, or his non-stop talking about quirks, or his two notebooks, still open on the computer desk!
So for now, she trusts him and moves forward. Gather facts, and form a conclusion at the end.
She follows his path through the web pages. It looks like the first picture Izuku picked was of female genitalia, very simply drawn but recognisable nonetheless. It leads to a wiki article which assuages some of her niggling worries. He's just being Izuku again, learning as he draws breath.
She notes that Izuku spent a lot of time on the article but didn't scroll down very far. She doesn't blame him - a lot of the language is far above what a five-year-old could be expected to understand. Instead, a hyperlink to 'simple wiki' is purpled out in the page's sidebar. She clicks it.
Izuku has read this new page properly.
On a hunch, Inko turns her attention to '0th Notebook' on the desk - the one Izuku has saved for his own quirk - and flips to the first page in the booklet.
'Girl Parts' is underlined at the top left. 'Quirk?' is scrawled on the top right.
As she reads through his observations, her brow begins to crease.
Inko wants to cry.
Izuku was dead-set on becoming a hero with an awesome quirk. But the one he got was... turning into a girl?
It seems too cruel that Izuku, the kindest, smartest person she's ever known, would be gifted the least combat-applicable quirk possible, when he wants so badly to be a hero like his idols.
And yet Izuku himself doesn't seem to mind. He's just as carefree as always.
She can't tell if he isn't aware of how... weak, for lack of a better term, his quirk is; or if it hasn't occurred to him that he won't get a chance to re-roll his quirk.
Either way, she needs to let him down gently.
Blinking through the blurriness in her eyes, Inko makes a call to the doctor.
"It's odd," the doctor tells them. "He's long past the age at which a quirk would manifest, and yet his toe doesn't have the extra joint to identify him as quirkless..."
"But what does that mean for him?" Inko asks. "He's wanted to be a hero for as long as he can remember!"
The doctor shrugs, eyes falling pityingly on Izuku. She hates having those eyes directed at her son, but in the end, this will be the best for him, so she endures it. "I'm sorry to say that probably isn't possible. Izuku likely has what's known as an invisible quirk - one so obscure, difficult to activate or with so little usability, that it's impossible to identify. Ninety-nine times of a hundred, having an invisible quirk is as good as being quirkless in a combat situation."
Inko's eyes well up immediately. To hear that from the doctor himself makes it so much more real.
Her son's eyes stay dry.
Instead of the tears she expected, he ducks his head. He's frowning at the floor, but it's clear that this isn't anger - his mind is working away. And when he looks up, the fire burning in his eyes is one that Inko regrets ever trying to extinguish.
Later, Inko reflects on the meeting with a wry smile.
After all is said and done, who would Izuku be without his unwavering spirit?
Inko wants so dearly to be a part of this new part of Izuku's life.
But after calling the doctor like that, she can't bring herself to tell him that she'd already known about his quirk. That she'd tried to quash that fire. She knows it's silly, that should she sit him down and explain her reasoning, he'd forgive her immediately and life would continue.
But this is Izuku's quirk - his power, his responsibility, and his discovery. The moment she tells him that she knows, she'll be taking his choices away from him.
He doesn't deserve that.
And neither does she.
So she bottles up her questions, her worries, her doubts. She can deal with them some other time.
Right now, Izuku's dream is waiting for him. And who is she to deny him?
Izuku's quirk is scary, Inko reflects, face ashen.
When he'd crawled into the kitchen, almost literally dead on his feet (not that he was able to stand up anyway), she'd stayed calm and gotten him some water and easily-digestible food, and sent him to lie down on the couch. She knows the symptoms of starvation and dehydration when she sees them, after all.
Izuku's been a girl for a week. She can only tell sometimes, like when he's at the table and sitting with his legs crossed in a different way, or when he's walking with more of a bounce to his step than usual, but those small moments are enough to know that he's staying as a girl.
So when Izuku, most likely male, stumbles in struggling to so much as exist, Inko knows that it's something to do with his quirk. She can only guess, but she thinks it's likely that the form he's currently in is the one that gets all the nutrients. So when he stayed as a girl, his male form was starved to near-death.
Scary.
Over the next months after Izuku's recovery, Inko watches him closely. He's clearly figured something out, because now his male and female form eat half of each meal each.
But he's still losing weight, so she doubles his portions. And the paperwork to get income support for this unexpected quirk is well worth the reward of seeing Izuku properly healthy for the first time since he got his quirk last year.
She still follows his internet history.
He's been delving deeper into the internet recently, spending more time online. LGBTQ+ websites become more commonplace as time goes on, but she can't tell what exactly he's been learning from them. There's so much information on each page, some of it only vaguely relating to what Inko knows of Izuku's quirk, that she can't get a clear idea of what he's looking for. Sometimes she wonders if his interest on this subject might eclipse that of heroics.
His trail branches ever outwards. First transgenderism, then sexuality, queerness, pride flags, and then before she knows it he's pursuing subjects that escape her (admittedly limited) knowledge. Pronouns, hormone therapy, dysphoria, and all manner of subjects are all explored. And as he goes further, she follows him on his wild ride, forming her own conclusions and doing her own extra research while never knowing what Izuku is taking away from all this.
But she's glad. This is something that Izuku can fall back on when Katsuki gets him down - which still isn't very often, since Izuku has a head three feet thick and Katsuki at least has a little respect for his unknown quirk. But whenever Izuku seems down, all it takes is a few-hours-long computer session to get him back to his thoughtful, happy-go-lucky self.
Inko's glad that Izuku has this outlet, she truly is... but he keeps silent about the subject. Whenever someone mentions their daughter being a 'girly girl' or a 'tomboy' - or anything relating to gender expression, really - his ears perk up and he gets this contemplative look; but he never actually says anything.
It'd be nice, she thinks, to get some insight into his mind.
And then one day, he leaves a pile of notebooks on the computer desk.
Honestly, she hadn't expected him to forget these again. The last time was more than four years ago, and even back then it had been a fluke - although she hadn't realised just how lucky she'd been to get a glimpse of that book at the time.
Inko grasps the air, coaxing the pile towards herself. There are three separate notebooks, and they're all part of Izuku's new 'Hero Analysis' series: the familiar All Might-themed (in both coloring and content) No. 1; No. 3, the latest of his works, which seemed to be about a hero called Eraser Head; and the coveted No. 0, for Izuku's own quirk.
She cracks No. 0 open to a random page, and is greeted by an oddly colored Pride flag, powerfully recreated with felt-tips. It's been so long since Izuku researched the flags that she would have to rack her brains for the meaning - if Izuku hadn't already provided some helpful notes in pink pencil, on top of each color.
It's the Non-binary Pride flag. Yellow for genders outside male or female, white for multiple genders, purple for combinations of male and female, and black for the absence of gender.
Even after all these years, Inko isn't certain how someone can be multiple genders, but she supposes that's just because she isn't one of those people herself - just as she can't imagine how someone could dedicate their entire lives to a single passion.
In both cases, her son is living proof that these kinds of people exist.
She flips to the next page, half-expecting another set of bright stripes, but a quick search indicates that the Non-binary flag is the only one in the notebook. In fact, there are several small doodles across the next few pages, of various animals, all using the yellow, white, purple, black color scheme of that particular flag.
So is that how Izuku identifies, then? Nonbinary? She supposes that he's probably part of the purple section, given his quirk.
There's a note on the previous page: 'pronouns depend on current form - use 'they' when talking about me overall'. So Izuku calls... themself(?) 'he' when he's a boy, or 'she' when she's a girl.
She wonders again how anyone could possibly be comfortable using different sets of pronouns, but she squashes the thought. She's Izuku's mother, and he doesn't need someone to judge him like that. He needs someone to- wait.
They need someone to support them.
That'll take some getting used to, but she'll bear it for Izuku.
So lost in her thoughts is she, that she almost forgets about Izuku's open notebook. But eventually she turns back to it, flipping to yet another random page. It's the pride flag again. That page is much thicker than the others, so that makes sense. She flips it again.
Finally, some details!
Izuku must be a genius.
There's no way of getting around that, even had she wanted to. If he applied to any of UA's courses besides the Hero course, he'd easily pass their exams.
They. If they applied.
But still. Izuku has a quirk with a single effect: turn into a girl and back. And yet he's - they've done so much with it, and thought of so much more to do, that Inko can't even say it's a weakness anymore.
It starts off fairly tame: swapping clothes whenever they switch between male and female. But then it goes on to suggest storing items in the same way, and there's a big check-mark next to that, so clearly it worked.
Then it mentions training, and separating different types of training for each form; that explains where they've been going for hours each day, then. But there's also a section that mentions how injuries and exhaustion don't pass between forms, so they could outlast opponents easily, and come out with fewer injuries per form. It even mentions how sneak attacks are much less effective against Izuku.
And then there are a few other suggestions: disguise, immunity to certain quirks, teleportation?! How would that even work? Not that it matters, because that half-check-mark with 'need more practice' clearly shows that it did work!
She re-amends her previous thought: If they applied to any of UA's courses, they'd easily pass their exams.
Izuku must be a genius, and Inko couldn't be prouder.
Izuku's twelve when they hit puberty as a girl. Inko vividly remembers noticing, because she comes home blushing to the roots of her hair, a hand clutched protectively over her chest. The other hand is bright red. If she had to hazard a guess, she'd say that someone inadvertantly touched her chest.
Which leads Inko to notice the slight bumps under Izuku's shirt.
It pains her to do this, but she mentions noticing a difference in Izuku. It's only a half-truth - she's been able to tell Izuku's current gender for a good year or two now - but it has the desired effect.
Izuku changes into a boy, and from that moment Inko doesn't see her as a girl again, except out of the corner of her eye. It's necessary though. If Izuku doesn't realise the difference between their two forms, they're likely to be caught by someone else in the future. This way, they'll be more careful from the get-go.
It still hurts.
But even as secretive as Izuku is (as we both are, a voice calls from the back of her mind), she can still help. She can still be there for them.
And that starts with making her comfortable, she thinks, browsing the web for sports bras.
She's used to Izuku changing gender every other moment during a haircut. She's told the hairdresser that it's probably some kind of deja-vu quirk, which causes their body to periodically rewind, repairing any changes made. The dresser believes her and is careful to get everything.
This time, Izuku doesn't change. From the way he shuffles in his seat, his male form is the one getting the haircut, and his female form is going without.
Izuku's smile when they're finished is filled with mischief, a strange look to see on her child. But she thinks she knows what's going on.
She starts brainstorming girls' names, because Izuku is terrible at naming things, and that includes herself. That she wants to have a little say in their life is neither here or there.
Izuku's training is picking up, and their grades are dropping noticeably. Still, they're well on track for completing the written test, so Inko's glad they're focussing on the practice exam.
She can't overstate (or overthink) how proud she is every time she sees him. She hugs him even more often than usual now, and while she can't really get an accurate assessment of his build through his increasingly battered uniform, she can tell that all the training has done him a world of good.
She can't get any kind of assessment on her, but she imagines that Izuku's girl form is just as well-off, from the glimpses she gets during meals when Izuku thinks she isn't looking.
Izuku didn't win the quirk lottery, Inko will readily admit. But when you can take two-thousand yen, invest it and get hundreds of millions in return, the lottery doesn't seem all that important anymore. And metaphorically, that's exactly what Izuku's done.
Inko's so proud, and she's not sure she'll ever get over that.
Not that she wants to.