The news from the doctor was devastating. Izuku Midoriya will never get a quirk, he was doomed to be Quirkless. His lofty dreams of a path of heroism were quashed before they could even take off because he will never be able to become a hero without one. For it was the unspoken law of this world. He wanted to forget, to deny, to escape reality and dive back into his fantasy where he would become the greatest hero. But not even his favorite video of All Might could pull him out of his despair, and what he wouldn't do to have somebody to hold him close and tell him everything will be okay. Instead, he ran out of the tiny apartment, he needed to get out of that suffocating space. The echoing words of apologies from his mother filled his head as he bolted away from it all.

With no place in mind, Izuku ran blindly with tears clouding his vision, away from the grim reality he didn't want to believe. He ran past dull streetlights and bleached buildings, and soon the grey landscape of the city gave way to one that was green. The Quirkless boy had run to the nearby forest with a large creek, a place where he and his friends would go hunt for bugs. Yet, he did not stop at it and kept running past that body of water deeper into the forest. He ran and ran and ran, until his little legs could run no more, and this was when he finally let himself drop. Izuku would cry in earnest whilst deep in the woods, mourning his future before it even begun. Yet, he would not cry for very long because his anguish was interrupted by the sound of splashing water. Izuku rubbed the tears out of his eyes, and he saw that his sprint had taken him to a large pond. "Strange, I don't ever remember that being here". However, the Quirkless boy inferred that it was a landmark that he and his friends never found because none of them ventured this deep into the woods.

The pond itself was something Izuku had never seen before, even in the books that were at his preschool. This pond was clear to the point that it looked like glass while its banks were devoid of any vegetation. The banks themselves were not encased in mud, but rather seemed to be solid stone. These features gave the pond an almost artificial look that made it seem alien compared to the surrounding forest.

Yet, the unnatural look of the pond had only briefly caught the attention of the green haired boy, instead his attention was focus upon a dark shape below the waters' surface towards the center of the pool. It was massive, like an All Might sized ink blot was just below the surface. Despite the clear water, Izuku was unable to discern any definite shape or feature that could make it appear more than just a blob.

"What is that thing?", Izuku thought to himself

Izuku moved closer to the waters' edge in an effort to get a clearer image of the blob. The action of the Quirkless boy seemed to cause a reaction as an eerie silenced seemed to fall upon the forest. It was as if the presence of something had quietly silenced the denizens of the Mustafu forest. Izuku felt his skin crawl and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he became overwhelmed with a primal fear. He was overwhelmed with an urge to run away, but at the same time his fear had rooted him in place. The green haired boy locked his eyes with the blob as he began to shake uncontrollably.

"I am being watched." Izuku stated in his thoughts

The mere mention of those words in his brain seemed to be spurred something in the blob, as the silhouette seemed to stare back at him with unseen eyes. Izuku wasn't certain whether he was staring down a dangerous predator or a friendly giant. However, before Izuku could determine possibilities of the silhouette's identity, it decided to confront him first by very suddenly swimming towards him.

The action startled Izuku causing him to fall back on his rear, he instinctually began to scoot backwards away from encroaching silhouette. But his minimal efforts to escape were stopped by a tree that he had backed into. Izuku could feel his heart trying to escape his chest as its beats nearly drowned out the sound of the moving water. He closed his eyes and looked away, hoping that this was all just a bad dream. The sound of the disturbed water disappeared, but he kept his eyes closed…

Heroes must be Brave, Heroes must be Brave, Heroes must be Brave"

…After what seemed to be hours, did he dare open his eyes.

The figure was shaped into a form that vaguely matches the description of a mermaid, like a half human torso and a fish tail for legs. However, that's where the figure diverges from that popular image of a mermaid. Its tail was muscular and tough looking when compared to how fragile a mermaid's tail looked and was easily the length of human being while matching the width of the torso. The tail itself looked like it belonged to a lamprey or some other scavenger fish rather than something akin to a normal fish. The torso was covered by some sort of white robe-like tunic, complete with a bulky hood and loose oversized sleeves that stopped at the elbows. Despite being concealed by the tunic, the torso displayed signs that the figure was female. The stranger's arms were long, nearly reaching the ground, and they ended with a pair of spindly human-like hands with four clawed fingers on each one. The most striking feature was the head and face of the woman. She had no mouth, nose, or ears; instead, there was two diagonal slits that ran across the center of her cheeks. The only other feature her face possessed was a pair of bulbous almond shaped eyes that were as dark as obsidian. She had no hair and instead had a mane of tentacle-like appendages, each the size of a forearm, littered where her hair would be.

She carried as sense of weightlessness as many of the loose features, such as her robes and 'hair', floated in the air like they were under water. In fact, the tail that served as the stranger's legs didn't touch the forest ground, but also floated above the ground like it was in pool of water. She was noticeably bulkier than the average person, and a great deal taller. She was easily three heads taller than his mother, making her significantly larger than most people or animals. In Izuku's case, the stranger was practically a giant.

In Izuku's short life, he had seen all manner of quirked people, but none of them compare to the being floating right in front of him. He could spend hours trying to learn about what possible quirks had resulted in the unique appearance of stranger. However, he could've wished it weren't in a situation where said stranger wasn't giving him the impression that he was a deer that had been cornered by a very hungry tiger.

Izuku was shaking even harder than before as his eyes began to water, while suppressing his compulsion to scream. His eyes never left the giant figure that dominated his view, inferring that if his eyes ever left, he would be attacked. It was yet another standoff between the two and once again the standoff was broken by the stranger. The fish woman slowly outstretched on of her long arms towards Izuku, reaching out to him. Izuku flinched and instantly shut his eyes as he began to hyperventilate. His brain screamed out in desperation, trying to get his body to do something, anything. But fear had clamped down on Izuku like a pair of jaws, leaving him paralyzed against the incoming hand. He stammered a final plea against the stranger.

"P-Please! D-Don't h-hurt m-me!" Izuku begged

But whoever or whatever the stranger was, they never made a sound to address his pleas for mercy. Izuku vainly raised his arms up defensively in a desperate attempt to protect himself from the oncoming grasp.

But he would never feel pain. He would feel a warm touch on his head, it was gentle and affectionate like how his mother would touch him. Izuku opened his eyes to see that the stranger was gently ruffling his hair. He stared back at the stranger with confusion in his eyes as his arms dropped, surely this stranger had ill intent. Why would they do a gesture of affection? However, his assumption would be quashed nearly instantly by the stranger, as if she had heard the thoughts of doubt in his head. The stranger pulled her hand out his hair and slowly leaned down towards Izuku's height level. The young boy gasped in surprise, once the stranger's face got closer. Despite having few facial features or any sign that that said face could express emotion; he could somehow feel that the stranger was radiating a large and friendly smile. The stranger lifted her long arm out again, outstretched with her hand in the gesture of a handshake. Though hesitant at first, Izuku raised his own hand and grasped the stranger's offered hand. It was warm and irradiated a soothing feeling that made all the anxiety in him wash away. It was like he had never felt fear in the first place, or the fact that the worst day of his life occurred today. A smiled formed on his face, and shone it back at the stranger, replying back to her stoic face that was smiling back. His smile seemed to make her 'hair' flutter like the limbs were giddy with happiness. It was at that moment that Izuku had made a friend. A rather large and strange friend, but a friend none the less.