Disclaimer: The following is a nonprofit fan-based parody all rights reserved to Brandon Sanderson and Horikoshi Kohei. Please support the official releases.
As Izuku climbed the stairs that led to his apartment, he couldn't help but grimace at the gnawing pain he felt in his stomach.
"Why am I so hungry?" He asked, "I didn't think I had that small of a lunch."
"It probably has something to do with what Valor did to make the bond work." Sera said, "When you were using the light it felt different than normal."
Izuku paused and looked askance at her.
"What do you mean? Have you done this before?"
For all the time Izuku had known the small being he had assumed that she was young. She would constantly be in motion observing the world around her and looking with intense interest at the people she came into contact with. All of that, along with her bright bubbly personality, seemed distinctly childlike to him. Her comment just now, however, sounded like she had bonded with someone else before. He couldn't help feel a slight twinge of jealousy but that quickly left and was replaced by interest.
"Um." the spren said, a finger touching her chin as she thought, "I think maybe? You have to understand that when spren like me come into the physical realm from the cognitive realm without a bond we start to lose our ability to think and remember. That was what I was like when I found you, but after we started to bond, I began to find myself again. It took a while because this isn't my original world, that is why I was with you for years before I could speak to you."
Izuku's mind raced with the information she had shared. Cognitive realm? What's that? Putting those thoughts aside until he had the chance to write about them, Izuku focused in on something else her commentary had implied.
"Sera, how old are you?" Izuku asked.
The spren's face took on a shocked expression.
"Izuku, how dare you. I would think you knew better than to ask such a question of a lady," she said before folding her arms and turning her back to the boy.
Izuku, of course, began to sputter and apologize, his face going red. But his usual flustered reaction was interrupted by a loud growling from his stomach which made the boy curl in on himself in pain.
"So hungry," he said with a miserable expression.
The spren turned back to her bondmate with worry on her face.
"We need to get you home so that you can eat." she said, "As I mentioned, I think Valor somehow changed you so that you can produce investiture by burning food or something."
"Ok," Izuku said weakly and finished his trek up the steps to his front door.
He reached into his pocket for his key but as he fished around for it the door flew open to reveal the teary-eyed face of his mother.
"I-I-IZUKU!" as she cried out his name Inko lunged forward and grabbed her son around the neck, dragging the boy into a desperate embrace.
"Izuku, you were on the news. They were talking about a villain and a hostage and you were there and you were getting attacked and you started glowing and I was so worried I didn't know what to do... " as Inko spoke and cried her words devolved into unintelligible wet blubberings.
When Izuku felt his mother's tears on his shoulder he knew he had to do something so he wrapped his own arms around her and hugged back saying into her ear,
"I'm ok mom, I'm safe at home."
Inko had been planning out tonight's dinner and wondering when she would need to go shopping next when the show she had turned on for background noise had switched to a news bulletin. There was apparently a villain attack in a shopping center a few minutes' walk from her building. She shuddered slightly at the thought of a villain so close to her home but she trusted the heroes and police to resolve the issue. She froze however when she had heard the newscaster mention a young man had been captured.
It was a common fear for parents in the modern era of heroes and villains. Just as with car accidents, when you hear that a child the age of your own is involved, you can't help asking the question, is it them, and dread that the answer will be yes. Her eyes glued to the screen watching apprehensively for any sign of who the hostage was. When the news mentioned something about issues from the hostage's quirk she had breathed a sigh of relief, but then she noticed the explosions on-screen and saw flashes of spiky blond hair. Inko ran to her phone and quickly searched her contacts.
When Izuku had been younger Inko had come to know the Bakugous well, often spending time talking with Mitsuki while the children played nearby. When they had moved away to a bigger house their meetings had lessened, but the boys had still been friends so they saw each other regularly. Then the boy's relationship had soured causing them to lose touch further. Now, Inko only ever saw Mitsuki at school events, but they kept each other's contact information just in case.
The phone was answered on the second ring.
"Inko?" the woman's voice said in slight confusion, "Hi, this is a pleasant surpri-"
"Turn on the news," Inko interrupted.
"Huh?" there were slight sounds as the other woman seemed to stand up, then Inko heard quiet voices as the TV turned on, "I am not sure why you would want...me...to…" the woman trailed off, "oh my god."
Inko listened as the other women tried to deny what she was seeing,
"No, no, no, no, no, no, he'll be fine, he is strong, he is always saying he will be the strongest, he... What?"
When she heard the other woman's confusion Inko rushed back to the screen to see what was happening. It took a while, but eventually, she recognized the green-haired boy running straight for the villain. The phone slipped from her numb fingers and fell to the ground, the jolt causing the device to shut off. She watched in stunned silence as her son frantically dodged the attacks of the villain. Fear gripped her heart when the palm of the Katsuki was leveled at her Izuku and a scream tore from her throat at the enormous explosion that covered where the boy stood. Her eyes filled with tears as despair filled her chest. She stared at the dust cloud on screen, her mind unable to process what she was seeing. Her son, dead at the hands of a villain just as she had feared deep down from the moment she researched quirkless heroes. A hand reached out to the screen unconsciously, as though she was trying to reach through the television to pull her baby to safety. As she continued to watch, however, her eyes widened in shock. The cloud of smoke and dust blew away and there was her boy, standing resolute, and he was shining.
Dumbfounded, she stared as Izuku flew at the villain and seemed to effortlessly pull the liquid mass of evil off of the other boy and throw it away. As he stood victorious next to the rescued hostage, a new feeling bubbled up in the mother's heart. She had gone through such a rollercoaster of emotion that she couldn't place it but it felt bright and warm, like the light rolling off of Izuku. Suddenly, the light around her son winked out, and the villain lashed out once more. The appearance of All Might ended the issue, and the rest of the bulletin focused on the last-minute appearance of the number one hero.
Inko stood still for a moment after everything ended unsure of how to feel. She was emotionally exhausted from the whole situation, so her body seemed to go on auto-pilot as she picked up where she left off preparing for dinner. She was woken from her trance, however, by the muffled sound of a voice outside the door and what sounded like the jingle of keys. Moving with a speed that didn't fully match her stocky frame, Inko bolted to the door and threw it open. At the sight of her son, she clamped her arms around his neck and blabbered out what she had seen before devolving into sobs until he reassured her that he was safe. Inko began to calm down at his words, her sobs turning into deep breaths as her tears slowed. She continued to hold her son, reassuring herself that he was indeed back home and well.
They stood there for a moment just holding each other until it was ruined by a loud growl from Izuku's stomach. Inko immediately held her son out at arm's length and stared with wide eyes.
"My word Izuku, did you skip lunch?" she asked.
Izuku bashfully rubbed the back of his head as he replied.
"No, but I am really hungry. Is dinner ready by any chance?"
Inko dutifully marched her son into the house and sat him at the table determined to fulfill her sacred motherly duty of making sure her son was well fed. Walking to the fridge she grabbed a plate of leftovers from the night before and placed them in front of him as she went into the kitchen to finish preparing tonight's dinner. When she looked back into the dining area she was shocked by what she saw.
Izuku had never been a very big eater. Yes, he had a healthy appetite, but he ate at a slow pace and was normally done after a single serving. His eating habits were evidenced by the boy's skinny frame that was quite reminiscent of his father when he had been Izuku's age. Now, however, Inko watched as her son voraciously consumed everything on the plate she had placed in front of him. He almost didn't seem to be chewing as the food disappeared down his throat. Looking up to meet his mother's eyes Izuku blushed and stopped eating.
"A-are you still going to be hungry honey?" Inko asked
As if in answer, Izuku's stomach grumbled once more causing the boy to blush harder in embarrassment.
"Yes," he said quietly.
"Ok," Inko replied and turned back to finish her cooking. A few minutes later she walked to the table carrying a platter with chicken and vegetable stir-fry. She then went back and grabbed the rice cooker to bring it to the table and by the time she had arrived Izuku was already serving himself some of the food onto the plate that he had emptied. Inko served a bowl of rice and offered it to him which he accepted with a thank you. Izuku then sat and waited until she had served herself before saying a quick 'itadakimasu' and digging in, though at a pace that was much closer to his regular one.
"Izuku, is everything alright?" Inko asked.
"O-of c-c-c-course," Izuku responded nervously, "why do you ask?"
Inko gave him a flat look before continuing, "Because you have already eaten more than you normally do, then you served yourself a serving twice as large as I would expect, and you haven't even stopped eating during our conversation."
Izuku's chopstick froze halfway to his mouth, and he looked chagrined. His eyes darted around like he was looking for a way to change the topic but eventually, he sighed and looked at her.
"Mom I am not sure how to explain this really," He began to speak but he was cut off by the sudden appearance of a small blue girl that glowed slightly appearing in the air between them.
"Then let me take over Izuku," the small figure said brightly, "Hi Mama Midoriya, I am Sera and I am Izuku's quirk freshly activated today."
Inko sat frozen, her eyes wider than they had ever been in her life. Her chopsticks fell from her fingers and she suddenly felt lightheaded. Her vision shrank to a point and soon blackness overtook her.
"MOM!" Izuku yelled as his mom began to slump to the side. He moved to catch her and instinctually burned some of the food he had just eaten to give himself the speed he needed to get to her and the strength to hold her up with ease. Cradling the unconscious form of his mother, Izuku shot Sera a glare.
"Really Sera?" Izuku asked accusatorily.
"What, how was I supposed to know she would faint at the sight of me." Sera shot back in protest.
"She's my mom," Izuku said back.
Sera opened her mouth then stopped and contemplated that fact.
"Yeah, your right." She finally admitted looking dejected at what she had done.
Shaking his head exasperatedly, Izuku lifted his mother. The light floating off of him in whisps making the task easy for him. He carried her to the living room and laid her on the couch gently. Looking her over and seeing no injuries, Izuku elevated her feet just in case. Standing back up Izuku sighed and in doing so finally noticed that he was shining once more. Holding up his hand Izuku stared in awe at the light curling off of his fingers.
"What is it?" Izuku wondered aloud.
"It's investiture," Sera answered, she floated next to Izuku's head staring at his hand with a fond expression, "It is the force that powers our bond and allows you to use your abilities."
"So is it magic?" Izuku asked.
"Just as much as quirks are magic," Sera said.
"But quirks are biological in nature," Izuku responded thinking about all the study he had done into the nature of quirks over the years.
Sera gave him a deadpan look as she responded, "Sure, there is a completely biological reason that Katsuki can psychically tell his sweat to ignite."
Izuku froze at the response. It was true that scientists all claimed there was a biological explanation for quirks, but in all honesty, there were too many unexplainable phenomena where quirks were concerned for their claim to be true. Izuku kept staring at his hand as he pondered this new information.
"So, quirks are all powered by investiture as well," Izuku stated.
"Yep, it is like Valor said, everyone who has a quirk has a little bit of her power. That bit of power interacts with them in some way determined by their biology to power their specific quirk."
"How can you know so much about quirks?" Izuku asked, puzzled by the spren's apparent understanding.
"Well," Sera paused to think of how best to explain, "I am kind of drawing conclusions from what Valor said earlier, also I can kind of see quirks through my connection to the cognitive realm. Even though I am present in the physical realm, all spren have the ability to somewhat bleed through the barriers between realms though we can only cross over at specific points like a perpendicularity. Unless you are an inkspren, or a cryptic," waving hand her hand as though she were brushing away a pesky thought she continued, "I am getting off-topic, anyway, through the cognitive realm I have a limited view at the cognition of people and I can see the piece of Valor that has been grafted on to their soul giving them the power of a quirk. You didn't have one which was one of the things that drew me to you and made me theorize that forming a bond with you might be possible. Your other qualities just cemented my decision to try and bond with you."
Izuku blinked at the long explanation and again was interested in the fact that Sera apparently sought him out all those years ago. But he was distracted by something else about how she spoke.
"Sera," Izuku said, "you sound different."
The spren looked at him curiously and tilted her head, "What do you mean?" she asked innocently.
"When you were talking just now," Izuku clarified, "You were using a much more advanced vocabulary than you usually do, and the way you spoke was much more analytical than normal."
"I was?" the spren said, "I was, I-I…"
The spren paused and seemed to concentrate like she was trying to mentally grasp something before she shook her head and looked at Izuku with a haughty expression,
"Of course I was using big words, I am extremely intelligent and articulate. You just never listen to me well enough," The spren said before turning away from Izuku in a huff.
Izuku watched her carefully. Sera was back to speaking in the way he was used to but looking at her closely Izuku could see her shoulders dipped slightly in disappointment, and something told him it wasn't directed toward him. She had obviously been trying to hold onto a thought that had slipped from her fingers. His mind flashed back to what she had been saying right before they had come inside, that spren lost themselves if they weren't bonded. Now that their bond had truly begun to develop maybe Izuku would get to finally see who the true Sera was. Smiling gently Izuku spoke,
"I am sorry Sera, I will try to be a better listener in the future."
She peered at him over her shoulder then turned back to him and smiled brightly. They were interrupted shortly thereafter by a mumble from Inko.
"Izuku?" she said groggily as she came back to consciousness, her hand reaching out blindly.
"I'm here mom," Izuku said reassuringly, grabbing the reaching appendage, and holding on tightly.
"I had the strangest dream that you were shining and there was a little blue gir-" the woman stopped speaking as her eyes opened and focused on Izuku's face. "Oh my heavens, it was real."
Izuku smiled brightly, literally because he was still full of light, and spoke, "I got my quirk mom."
Inko was uncertain at first how to respond, but after seeing the joy on Izuku's face she could only give one response,
"I'm so happy for you."
The remainder of the evening passed much more calmly. When the small amount of light Izuku had generated in reaction to his mother's fainting spell finally ran out, Izuku felt hunger once again gnawing at his belly. Though thankfully it was much less intense than the vacuous sensation in his gut after first awakening his power. His mother and he had sat back down at the table to finish eating, Sera floating around above them contentedly. As he ate, Izuku watched his mother as her eyes couldn't help but trace the path the small blue girl was traveling.
'"So," Inko finally asked, "What is your quirk?"
Izuku pondered for a moment about how to explain it believably.
"I can burn calories I eat to fill myself with an energy that gives me enhanced speed and strength. I can also use it to adhere matter to other matter," Izuku said, hoping that it made sense.
"Uh-huh," Inko replied distractedly, "and how does that relate to the small blue fairy following you around. Did you make it? Is it alive?"
Izuku was tongue-tied for how to respond to that.
"Well first off," Sera said, taking the opportunity to speak, "I am not an 'it', I am a beautiful and elegant lady, as you can see. And secondly, I am completely autonomous from Izuku. But our bond is the means by which he can access his power." As the spren spoke she floated down and seemed to sit on the air near Inko, giving the woman a friendly smile as she did.
"Oh," Inko said, "I see," she was clearly still confused but she shook it off. She continued speaking, though now she addressed the spren directly, "So how did you know that I was Izuku's mother if you were only awakened today?"
"I have actually been around for a long time, I first started following Izuku around back in elementary school," Sera explained.
Inko's eyes widened in shock, "What? Izuku has known about you all this time and never told me."
"I know it is shocking," Sera said in commiseration with the woman, "he even has pages and pages in his notebooks dedicated to writing down facts about me and he never once tried to show you."
"Oh, what a cruel son I have," Inko said in mock sorrow, "making me worry unnecessarily while all this time he kept you hidden from me."
Izuku on the other side of the table blushed at the teasing from the two women and looked away as he continued to eat.
"You make me wish you were still invisible," he muttered.
Inko and Sera shared a look before giggling at the boy's sullen expression. The rest of dinner was mostly silent as the Midoriya family finished eating. When the plates were empty Izuku stood and helped his mother clean the dishes before excusing himself to go to his room. As he left the kitchen however his mom stopped him.
"Izuku," she said looking into his eyes, "I saw you on the news. I saw that you ran into that situation to save Katsuki even though you two are no longer friends. I was so terrified, and when the explosion happened, I thought I had lost you."
Izuku looked away from his mother ashamed that he had made her so afraid and dreading that she would no longer allow his dream of being a hero.
"But," She continued, turning the boy's face back to her, "then I saw you shine. I saw a hero on the news today who made me feel safer than even All Might."
Izuku's eyes widened and he felt tears prickle in their corners.
"Do you still want to be a hero?" Inko asked
Izuku nodded, not fully trusting his voice.
"Then I am rooting for you 100%," Inko said.
The two shared a final embrace before Izuku walked to his room. Closing the door Izuku looked at the memorabilia spread throughout his room. So much had happened today that a part of him just wanted to fall asleep, but he pushed away his fatigue and reached into his bag pulling out his journal, now charred from the treatment it had received from Bakugou that afternoon. Walking to his desk he opened it to the page after the signature he had received from ALL Might, and wrote at the top in bold lettering, "TRAINING PLAN."
"Sera," he said looking at his partner who was floating beside him watching the notebook, "if we plan to be heroes, we have work to do."
The Spren smiled fiercely before throwing her hands in the air and shouting,
"Let's do it!"
AN: I wanted to make a small note here about the length of this chapter. I was writing it fully intending to add more but when I got to this point it felt like a proper end to the scene. I have continued writing however and am currently working with my beta to get chapter 3 ready to go, so expect it soon.
Thank you so much for your support of this story, I was terrified that it would just be ignored due to it being the only story of its kind. I am so happy with the response I received from all of you and hope you aren't disappointed as the story progress
I would like to offer a special thank you as well to users: theglassesman22 and Masterx01 they gave me wonderful tips about formatting errors that I had missed while uploading the chapter. I truly appreciate all reviews and welcome criticism.
With all that said thank you for reading chapter 2 of this work.
Beta reader credit to ACreativeMindAtWorkHere for being a wonderful partner in bringing this story to life.