Midoriya Izuku lived in what was generally considered a fairly safe neighborhood. Plenty of families with kids his age, as well as older and younger, lived in the area, and everyone seemed to have a sort of pact to protect each other. Kids could roam the streets and parents could sleep easy knowing that someone would be watching their child.

Izuku's mother, Inko, was a little more cautious than many of the other mothers in the neighborhood. She tended to be the one keeping watch on the children while the others relaxed with their wine, chatting about their days. She would keep a special eye on Izuku, and why shouldn't she? He was her son and he was quirkless. The other kids didn't understand that he was fragile, the thought constantly ran through her head, keeping her on guard.

When nothing happened for years, Izuku being six years old now, Inko began to let up. She was still worried, but she began to realize that she couldn't protect him forever. Still, she always brought him with her when she went to the store and she tended to stay close by to wherever he was playing.

This lack of full attention turned out to be costly.

It was a bright sunny day, perfect for the young children to be out and about. They were playing heroes and villains, jumping off of rocks at the local playground and popping out from behind bushes to ambush each other.

Izuku desperately wanted to join in, and he made these wishes very well known to his mother.

"Please?" he whined, pulling at her arm. "I wanna play with the other kids!"

Inko rolled her eyes fondly at his antics. "Fine," she softly told him. "Just be careful, okay?"

A huge smile overtook his face and Inko felt like she had birthed the literal sun. "Thanks Mom!"

He ran off toward the children that were playing in the distance and Inko turned back to her chores, laughing softly to herself.

If she had known what was coming, she wouldn't be laughing.

While Izuku was giggling to himself and skipping along merrily, he didn't notice a white van with tinted windows slowly following behind him. Maybe if someone had been watching, like Inko was often found doing, things would be different. But no one was and the things of that day can't be changed.

The van pulled to a halt next to Izuku and a pair of bulky arms reached out, one arm wrapping around his waist to drag him back and the other covering his mouth to mask the screaming. No one noticed when the van drove away with a new, very unwilling, occupant.

In the van, Izuku was struggling. He couldn't believe what was happening. Sure, he had heard stories of kids being taken off the street, but that's not the sort of thing that could happen to him. He lived with his mom! His mom loved him! How could he be in this dim van with these strange men?

Eventually his struggles slowed down, his young body growing tired. He collapsed limply on the floor where he was dropped, but his breathing was growing faster and faster. He couldn't be here, right? This was all just a bad dream, right?

But it wasn't.

He could hear a few men conversing above him, their voices far too jovial for the crime they had just committed.

"Nice and healthy, fairly light skin," one of the voices said. "I bet that we'll get full price for this one."

"Oh yeah," another voice guffawed. "The American's will eat that up!"

"How much do you think we'll get?" a third voice asked eagerly.

"Probably about 32,000 yen," the first voice answered, and Izuku risked a glance up at his kidnappers.

They didn't look like the scary men his school and mom had warned him about. They looked almost normal? Two of them were dressed like his neighbor's dad, with a baseball hat and sweatshirt. The other one was dressed more formally, with a suit and tie, but Izuku still wouldn't have thought twice if he had seen him on the street. He just looked like a typical middle-aged man that you could find practically anywhere!

And yet here he was.

He smashed his face into the carpet on the floor of the van and rode in silence. He had given up. There was nothing he could think of to do.

He shot up when they jolted to a halt, quickly grabbed by one of the more informally dressed men.

"Come on, kid," he muttered roughly. "Don't make this harder than it has to be."

He was dragged toward the large foreboding doors of what a sign designated as 'The Loving Orphanage.'

Yeah sure, Izuku inwardly scoffed. Loving? Really? He wiggled around, desperately trying to escape before he could enter the building.

"I still have a mom!" he cried. "I'm not an orphan!"

But it made no difference. He was swiftly dragged through the doors and into the building. Once inside, he was grabbed by a large woman who did not seem to understand the idea of a personal space bubble. She instantly popped his, thrusting her way into his space and destroying any type of remaining hope Izuku had held.

"Nice hair, nice eyes, nice skin" she muttered, feeling his face. She stuck her fingers in his mouth, ignoring his struggles. She tasted disgusting, like cigarettes and straight up dirt, but Izuku couldn't manage to spit her fingers out. "Nice teeth," she continued.

She tore her fingers out of his mouth and spun around, keeping a firm hold on his arm, likely bruising it in the process. "Quirk?"

The three men shrugged in unison.

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Idiots. Why do I even deal with these complete numbskulls?" She leaned down toward Izuku, putting her face right in his. Her breath smelled even worse than her fingers had tasted. "Quirk?"

"I'm quir- quirkless," Izuku said quietly, bracing himself. This bracing seemed to have been a good idea, as he was immediately smacked across the face.

"Idiots!" she screeched at the three men, who flinched. "No one wants a quirkless boy." She closed her eyes and took a few deep, steadying breaths. "I can deal with this." She glared at the kidnappers. "Here's your cash, now get out of my sight."

The men quickly left. The money was less than half of what they had anticipated, but that was to be expected. They hadn't known that the boy was quirkless of all things.

Inside the building, the woman slowly turned back toward Izuku with a frightening look taking over her face. "We'll just have to fake you a quirk, won't we?" Her voice was sickeningly sweet. "From this day on, you are an orphan. You can keep your first name, I don't care about that, but your last name is gone. Forgotten. Forget about your life outside of here. You'll be adopted by some nice, charitable American family and live a much better life than you ever would have here." She paused, obviously thinking hard about what she was about to say next. "And you have a weak quirk that makes your hair that odd shade of green."

IMPORTANT AN: Due to several different reasons, this fic, along with all my other ones, will no longer be updated on this site. While I won't be updating here, what does exist on this site so far will remain here. If you want to continue following this fic, or even check out another fic, I will continue to update all fics on Ao3 under the same name, CheshireAsh. Thank you for all your support here!