Izuku walked home from the park, covered in dirt, bruises and burns on his chest. As he walked into the apartment complex in his hometown of Musutafu, his thoughts were only on two things: Why wasn't I strong enough to defend that other boy? Why does Kacchan have to be this way? A four-year-old Izuku Midoriya just couldn't understand how Katsuki Bakugo could turn on him when they had been best friends since they were in diapers.
As he walked back into the apartment shared with his mother, he was shocked to see her in conversation with another woman. "Oh! And this must be your son! Izuku isn't it?" The woman before him stood tall with long, straight, black hair, and piercing blue eyes. A beauty mark rested just below the right of her bottom lip.
"Ah, yes that's him," his mother said with a curt smile. "Izuku, this is Miss Aki Eventide. She's moving in next door with her three sons. Oh, goodness! What happened to you?" Izuku looked down in both shame and embarrassment. He didn't want her to worry more about him than she already did, so he told a lie.
"I fell off the jungle gym at the park. I'm fine, Mama." He knew she couldn't see the burns on his torso, so he put on a fake smile and looked up, hoping to reassure her. He ran to his room quickly to change clothes, and when he was out again, his mother and the Eventide woman were still talking.
"Izuku, I have something exciting to tell you! Miss Eventide and her sons moved here from America! Would you like to go meet them?" Izuku's eyes immediately brightened. America? That was where All Might first debuted! He'd watched countless videos online about the number one hero's exploits in America. He'd even taken to learning English in order to understand what many of the videos were saying.
"Oh my gosh! Were you a hero there? Did you ever work with All Might? Where did you move from? Is there-" Izuku went off on one of his mumbling tangents, slowly becoming quieter and succumbing to his own thoughts. The two mothers just stared and chuckled lightly.
"Does he get like this often?" Miss Eventide asked, wonder in her eyes.
"Oh, yes. It's something he had picked up from his father," Inko answered with a sigh. Yet, her pleasant smile still remained. First appearances are everything.
"Don't worry! My boys each do something similar. Their father was quite a character!" Miss Eventide laughed. Izuku snapped out of his mumbling at hearing her laughter, and continued to watch the two matrons intently, hearing how the Eventide patriarch wasn't in the picture anymore. Just like my dad. "Well, shall we go meet the boys Izuku? I'm sure they'll enjoy making a new friend so soon." Izuku looked up to his mother nervously. He was never the most social person. He only made friends with Bakugo because their parents had put them together since birth, and look where that got him.
Inko Midoriya wasn't ignorant. She saw the scrapes, the bruises, the tattered clothes (thankfully for Izuku she never saw burns). She knew her son was being bullied; Being quirkless made you an open target. She tried her best to make sure, at least, he always had a surplus of clothes. The preschools wouldn't do anything about it. Even after voicing her concerns to them, she was just brushed off. Nobody cared about the quirkless boy. "Would you like me to come with you, honey?" she inquired. Izuku eased a little, giving a nervous nod.
"Oh, absolutely! I'd love for my boys to meet you too, Miss Midoriya!" Aki replied cheerfully, walking out the door and down to the next apartment. Inko and Izuku followed her to the door of her apartment, a few brown boxes stacked outside. "Okay. Wait here for one minute while I make sure they're not getting into any trouble," Aki said with a smile on her face. The mother and son duo waited outside a few moments longer when Aki opened the door once more and waved them inside. Izuku gripped his mother's hand tightly.
Inside, three boys stood shoulder to shoulder in the living area. They all looked exactly the same with very subtle differences. The boy on the left had pale skin, red eyes, and ash gray hair down to his eyebrows. The texture of said hair looked to be about the same as Izuku's but not as tightly curled, cascading down in waves. He was dressed in shorts and a plain blue t-shirt. The boy in the middle looked almost exactly the same. He had inherited his mother's beauty mark, and was dressed in a small suit. The whites of his eyes were black. The final boy looked exactly as the first, wearing a red shirt instead of blue.
"Boys, this is Miss Inko Midoriya and her son Izuku. They're going to be our next door neighbors. Inko, Izuku, from left to right, this is Keisuke, Kaibun, and Noriyoshi. They're my triplets!" The three boys looked at Izuku, expressionless at first. After a moment, they all smiled simultaneously, if only acutely. A small grin spread on Izuku's face, letting his mother's hand go and stepping forward slightly. As soon as he set his foot down he was subjected to a flash of red and black. Blinking his eyes to clear them, he looked up to see Kacchan in the room, running right towards him, an attack ready! Izuku cried out in fear and fell back down onto the ground, scrambling back towards Inko.
"Yoshi, close your eyes!" Aki shouted in distress. The third Eventide boy's whites of his eyes had turned black, just like the second son's. His eyes snapped shut, and Kacchan disappeared. "Izuku I am so sorry. It's Yoshi's quirk. He brings out someone's worst fears, but only in their mind. Anything you saw wasn't real. Are you alright?" Izuku blinked more spots away from his eyes. He stood shakily, giving another nod, this time even more nervous. Inko looked on, a little worried about her son; Noriyoshi opened his eyes, white again, regret on his face. The boys all gathered in a circle, looking each other up and down. Izuku reached his hand out tentatively to the first of the Eventide triplets, Keisuke, and he reached back to shake hands. When their hands finally touched, they warmed up to each other after a moment.
"Hi. I'm Keisuke," he said in a small, raspy voice. His smile grew.
"I-I'm Izuku," the green-haired boy replied. He moved on to the next son. The suited boy. They shook hands, this time not as scared.
"Kaibun, but you can call me Kai," he kept his face composed, only the small smile remained on his face. Finally, Izuku turned to stand in front of the last of the Eventide children. Noriyoshi's hand stretched out, Izuku's did not. The last child's hand drew back in toward his chest.
"S-s-sorry. My quirk is still new. I'll try not to let it happen again," he said looking down at the floor. Izuku looked at the boy, and finally reached his hand back out. Noriyoshi looked up to see a small smile on his face. He took Izuku's hand and shook it. "You can call me Yoshi. If you want, that is!"
"K-keisuke, Kai, and Yoshi. It's nice to meet you all." Izuku looked at the three boys wondering if he had finally made a few friends. The boys all nodded.
"So... what's your quirk?" It was the first of the triplets that spoke up. It was now Izuku's turn to look at the ground.
"A-actually, I-I'm qu-qu-quirkless." There was nothing but silence in the room for a moment. He felt a hand on his shoulder. The first Eventide triplet spoke up again.
"Hey, that's alright! We've all got pretty weak quirks too. You already know Yoshi's. I can take light from any source and emit it back out as a warm glow. Then I can also release a shadowy cloud from my body, but I get really cold and start to turn gray. It's really painful."
"Yeah, and I can manipulate any dust-like material. Well, except for sand," said the middle Eventide child. Izuku looked around at him. Was he finally being accepted for being quirkless? Was he going to make friends for the first time since Kacchan? His smile widened brightly.
"Wow! Is there anything else you can do with your quirks? How long can you hold your shadow outside of your body? Can you control spices like salt or pepper, Kai? What about you Yoshi? Can you control what people see in their minds? Is there any other benefits to your quirk besides the mental effect of the target? I wonder what would happen if-"
The two mothers looked on in shock, Aki staring with a smile on her face as she saw her boys with their new friend; Inko with tears in her eyes as she saw her son interacting with his companions, and not being judged for his quirklessness. Perhaps his future was brighter than she thought...
A/N: Hi all! Thank you guys so much for reading! This is my first actual fic I've uploaded and I'm super excited to get more chapters out for you! I am in a bit of a quandary however, and that's with the setting. I'm torn between keeping this as a high school fic, or going with a college AU. Let me know in the reviews what you guys would like to see! Thank you guys again, and I'll see you in the next chapter!