Chapter 1: A Hemorrhage or two

Summary:

An awakening of sorts.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Izuku Midoriya: Age 7

"K-Kacchan stop hurting him! He's not even fighting back anymore!" Izuku screamed out in desperation but saw the devious look on the boy's and his lackeys' faces. There would be no mercy until the bullies were satisfied. The greenette stood shaking before the tormentors, as he was trying his best to hold his position as the human shield, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head followed by this strange fuzziness for a few seconds.

"Stupid quirkless loser thinks he can 'save' this kid! I'll show him, Deku can't do shit!"

Izuku was rather confused when the ash-blonde snarled out basically the same thing again. "Deku, you wanna be a hero! How 'bout we give it a test drive, protect him from THIS!"

Izuku held his head as the pain greatly exacerbated. 'What is going on?' The greenette thought then turned to the kid who was laying on the ground behind him, the same boy he swore he heard talking, but the bullies seemed to ignore it.

"Thank god Deku was dumb enough to distract them for me, I gotta run!" The child then stood before rapidly sprinting away, leaving the helpless child to deal with the three bullies.

As if the previous strangeness wasn't enough, Midoriya then started experiencing a bit of trouble when he attempted to breathe through his nose. It felt like something was pouring out of the orifice, he then directed his gaze to the floor as he heard a small dripping sound, as he did so, he saw red droplets plummeting towards the ground, upon moving a hand to his nose he realized they were coming from him. The sudden developments caused the greenette to scan around him in an attempt to at least discover the cause. The second he did so he regretted it immediately, the voices increased in sound by several magnitudes, not only was there more of them, they were much louder, it was like they were screaming in his head.

It became so painful to the boy, it felt like his mind was ripping itself apart, being stretched out in every direction. The boy almost wanted Bakugo to hurry up and hit him in the hopes it'd knock him out, if only to find relief from the pain. As he held his head in an attempt to find even the slightest bit of relief his manic gaze passed over one of the bullies as he focused on their voice. A brief moment of clarity washed over him as he stared at the red winged teen named Tsubasa.

"What the fuck is wrong with that freak? Is he staring at me?"

Bakugo noticed the obvious pain in Deku's face and it made him stop. He hadn't even hit the nerd yet but he was bleeding from his nose and his eyes were bloodshot, so clearly something was wrong. His confused thoughts were put to an end as Deku started screaming and running away at the top of his lungs.

"AGHHHHHHHHHH! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! WHY ARE THERE SO MANY VOICES IN MY HEAD?!"

Bakugo was so confused he didn't even chase after the nerd. He just turned to his lackeys and wondered if they saw the same shit. Tsubasa just shrugged at him, clearly he had no idea either.

The excruciating pain from before had tripled and Izuku visibly started hyperventilating as the noises assaulted him. 'Why? Why couldn't he make them stop!?' Though, as he got further away from the trio, he noticed something interesting.

The whispers that he used to recognize now belonged to complete strangers. The realization gave him an idea, if he got somewhere without people maybe the whispers would stop completely? Now that he had an objective in mind the boy started sprinting to the closest place that he hoped would have no people. His destination? The forest he quickly concluded, as people were less likely to be around. So after a minute of blindly running through the streets, he took a detour, and changed direction toward his new destination. Though, as he sprinted towards his newfound goal different voices continued to shift and twist in his head. Izuku took it as a good sign he was right about his theory.

" What's wrong with that kid?"

"I should call a hero…. Hmmm? Eh, somebody will help him soon right?""

"He's just a weirdo, I should steer clear of that kid."

"Hmm what should I make for dinner tonight? I think Lasagna sounds good, I'll need to pick up some noodles and sauce then."

As Izuku picked up the pace, newer and different noises bounced around his skull. His head was throbbing, so he held his ears and prayed for them to stop.

When he did so his hands became wet, he pulled back his hands and examined them, they were both covered in blood. 'Great I'm bleeding from my ears now.' He NEEDED to escape, to hide, to find the silence he so desperately craved. The playground where he and Kacchan played had never looked so inviting before, this was especially true since the boy's recent behavior would be described as cruel at best and nightmarish at worst. The forest was just beyond it, he only needed to run a bit further.

As he sprinted by the trees and got deeper and deeper into the forest, the voices were finally getting more and more distant. Eventually he heard nothing other than the sound of the trees rustling and leaves falling, realizing he was safe now the adrenaline wore off and the pain returned tenfold. The boy just collapsed into a ball on a pile of leaves and dirt, sobbing to himself as blood leaked from his nose and ears.

Izuku laid there for several more minutes before the headache started to recede and he could finally try to think about what just happened to him. He'd just heard voices, like actual voices in his head, people weren't talking but he could hear things, which Izuku knew wasn't a good thing. That usually meant someone was going insane, but when accompanied by the pain and blood loss, he had started to reach another conclusion. One thing that could put all the pieces of the event in place as he went over them.

He could read minds ...

That was the only logical conclusion he could come too. His quirk had just come in!

...And it almost broke him within five seconds of its use. Could he even turn it off? It certainly didn't feel like he could. The greenette had read a few reports where a person's quirk kicking in broke them due to the toll it had on their body, especially if it's a volatile one. His mind briefly flashed back to a memory of Kacchan burning himself with his quirk on accident, but that was nowhere near as bad as what just happened.

Izuku sighed, then quickly glanced over his body to see if there were any other wounds, thankfully he found none. He was just covered in dirt and the remains of a few leaves. The first thought the newly quirked boy had was to go home and deliver the good news to his mother. The second thought was him remembering what drove him to coming here in the first place.

'How do I deal with the voices?' He remembered how disturbing the whole experience had been. He pondered for a bit but nothing came to him. Though he did remember how holding his hands over his ears seemed to have slightly helped earlier. Deciding he needed to get it over with, he couldn't stay out here all night; he just slammed a thumb in each ear and started sprinting out of the forest. As the voices started to return he knew this was going to suck and increased his pace..

'Where is that boy running to?'

'Why is he in such a hurry?'

'WHERE DID ALL THAT BLOOD ON HIS SHIRT COME FROM?!'

'Why is he covering his ears?'

'I-I can't believe it, I finally have a quirk!' The fact elated the boy but then he felt the pain start coming back and double timed it. Izuku felt kinda woozy and grew slightly worried about the sheer amount of blood he'd lost. 'I hope I make it home…'

Inko considers herself to be a fairly calm woman most of the time, but there is an exception to the rule, a humble soul who can single-handedly make her lose all her composure, her son. She still laments the day her baby boy discovered that he was part of the vast minority of the population, that her son was 'quirkless'. As if it were some disease that made her son less than human. If the woman was being honest with herself, a part of Inko wanted to blame her for what happened to her son. The older Midoriya didn't give her son a quirk, something almost every parent passed down.

She caught it when Izuku was young, she used her quirk to bring over a spatula, upon doing so she heard a slight whimper and turned to see her son. His eyes seemed to glaze over for a bit. That empty look caused the woman to never use her quirk again when the boy was around. She'd dare not deepen the mental wound that her son already suffered from. The light in her son's eyes had slowly dwindled over the years, that much was obvious to her. He was still ambitious in achieving his goal of becoming a hero, quirk or not, but she could never really tell if the boy was happy with his life. It'd been so long since she saw a genuine smile on his face. If she ever found a way to do it, she'd jump on it instantly. He was her entire world, the reason she's alive, her life's sole purpose was to raise him, look after him, and above all else, protect him.

The woman of the Midoriya household was cooking dinner when the front door of their apartment slammed open. This was immediately followed by her son shouting "I'm home!"

Inko turned to greet the boy, only to meet the apple of her eye with his thumbs jammed in his ears and blood covering his shirt and nose. "OH MY GOSH IZUKU, WHAT HAPPENED?!"

The woman dropped her apron and ran over to inspect him for injuries, thankfully she found no noticeable ones. Which confused the woman as he was clearly bleeding from somewhere. "What happened Izuku? Are you okay? You're bleeding from your nose. Did you fall? Does it hurt? Where's the first aid kit? Wait, that's a lot of blood, I should call an ambulance!"

The muttering spree his mother went on was accompanied by her incoherently screaming in her mind, a fact that only made Izuku wince further in pain as his head throbbed. The woman didn't even notice as she'd already turned and started running towards their home phone. Izuku was after the woman quickly, hoping to stop her before she could make the call.

Inko'd only got the 1 of 119 in when she felt her son tug her arm. She was about to ask why he stopped her but Izuku interrupted her before she could do so.

"I'm fine mom." Izuku paused for dramatic effect.

"It was just my quirk!" Honestly, the fact the boy could say 'my quirk', was still quite a bit foreign to him but the two options were either the aforementioned quirk or ... schizophrenia. So Izuku went with the more positive one. "My quirk finally came in Mom! Can you believe it? I'm not quirkless!" The fledgling greenette then suddenly felt a tad wobbly standing up, at first he was just a tad woozy. But then it got weirder, like everything was getting further away, his vision was becoming ... further away? It was like a black tunnel was consuming his vision.

'My son has a quirk!?' Was the last thought the younger midoriya heard before he promptly fell over.

Inko was about to inquire further about the details of what happened but as if on cue the rag-doll body of her son fell and she dove to catch him.

"IZUKU!" The woman screamed as she frantically dialed emergency services.

Izuku slipped in and out of consciousness as he felt himself being moved, his body being lifted into something, only brief flashes came to him as the world whizzed by for some time. He couldn't even be sure how much time had passed but eventually he felt his body starting to lean more towards the waking world rather than the sleeping one.

The boy uncomfortably opened his eyes, blinking a few times, vision still a bit hazy but within a few moments his pupils managed to adjust. As his eyes focused for the first time he saw a plain white ceiling along with some sort of weird bleach scent.

'This isn't home'. Was the first thought Izuku had as he sat up. He glanced around the room and found his mom asleep in a chair while she rested her head on the unfamiliar bed he found himself. The piece of furniture was white with these greyish handlebars covering the sides, the sound of continuous beeping reverberated throughout the room. The offending object being a machine to his left, he noticed an IV needle in his forearm and came to the logical conclusion that he must be at a hospital.

His mother apparently felt the stirring of her baby boy and she shot up from where she had dozed off. She stared at him for a brief moment before jumping at the boy and pulling him into a hug. "Izu I'm so glad you're okay! I was cooking and then you just came stumbling into the house covered in blood, ranting about your quirk before passing out! Do you know how worried you made me?!"

Izuku just silently stared at the woman, focusing her with an intense gaze, he was confused because he couldn't hear the sounds anymore. 'Maybe I really did just have a schizophrenic episode?' The boy thought. He quickly pushed that grim thought aside as the bearlike grip of his mother got a bit suffocating. "M-mom I'm okay, please l-let go. You're crushing m-me..." The greenette barely wheezed out.

The woman realized what she was doing and eased herself off of him. "I'm sorry Izuku I was just so worried about you... The doctors had to give you multiple transfusions because you didn't stop bleeding. When I told them your quirk came in they gave you some quirk dampeners and the bleeding stopped almost instantly."

Izuku sighed in relief when he realized he wasn't insane, just on drugs. Though he was also simultaneously intrigued about these 'quirk dampeners'.

The woman was about to inquire about what happened, however before she could, a man with bags under his eyes stumbled into the room. The man looked in his 30s with burgundy hair, lean yet somewhat fit figure, he was sporting a blue shirt with the stethoscope flinging about his neck, with black pants and an official white coat to top it off.

"He's awoken?!" The doctor had gotten a warning from his office when the boy's heart rate spiked on the EKG. He noticed him sitting there calmly, safe and seemingly unharmed. "Ahem." The medical official let out a cough to gather his composure and began. "Sorry we just thought you'd be out longer. My name is Dr. Takihara, I'm not going to lie Mr. Midoriya, you had us really scared there for a bit. I don't suppose you can give us any details on what happened, can you?"

Izuku looked at the man, unsure of what to say. 'My quirk came in and I started hearing voices before passing out from blood loss.' As soon as he thought that, he'd realized that's what a crazy person would say. Izuku noticed both the adults were looking at him expectantly, clearly waiting for an answer.

"Um I think my quirk came in and the physical backlash knocked me out...?." Izuku pondered out loud, minus the hearing voices part.

"Hmm..." The doctor paused in thought. "I suppose we'll have to get you a quirk counsellor pronto then. It says here you don't have a quirk but I suppose you're just a late bloomer then." He set down the 'quirk-registry' file he was holding on a nearby counter. "Well I'd say congratulations but with this level of self harm, we'll probably need to keep you on quirk dampeners for the foreseeable future. By the way, according to what happened to you, what would you guess is your quirk Mr. Midoriya? If we have a rough idea of what we're dealing with it'd be much more feasible to handle it." The man then moved to pull his patient's clipboard off from where it was attached to the bed.

Izuku knew this was bound to happen but he wanted to tell his Mom first... 'Oh well, it's going to have to happen eventually'. "I think I can read minds? But I couldn't turn it off, when I was away from people in the forest they stopped. Maybe the range is limited?"

Izuku watched the smile slightly drop from the man's face, the air seemed a tad bit colder. "I see."

Inko just tilted her head quizzically. "Are you sure Izu? That's nothing like mine or your fathers quirk."

"She's right." The man picked up the file again to confirm her statement, before turning back to the elder Midoriya. "It says here your husband breathes fire? And you can telekinetically pull small objects towards you?"

Inko gave him a nod, confirming what he said.

"Hmm, how intriguing, If you can actually read minds... maybe it's some mutation of your telekinesis Mrs. Midoriya. Though there is one thing I must mention that's strange. You see, we ran some tests on you Mr. Midoriya, to see what your quirk might be doing to your body. We couldn't find the presence of a quirk factor, that, and you have the extra toe joint. All these things seem to confirm the prognosis of your original doctor." The doctor then tapped his head with his pen. "Then again the bleeding didn't stop until we gave you those quirk dampeners. What a strange occurrence, I don't suppose you'd be willing to undergo some tests for science. You seem like a truly interesting specimen to study."

Inko's brows furrowed and she grew slightly angry at that moment. "You will NOT be using my son like a lab rat!"

Izuku didn't particularly care one way or another. He just wanted his quirk back. "Um Doctor, how long until these quirk ... dampeners wear off?"

"In an hour or two, we can test if that is truly what caused your 'episode' then. In the meantime are you hungry Mr. Midoriya? I can have the nurse bring you something. You seem stable enough for the time being, given you held this conversation normally." The doctor finished by putting the clipboard back against his patient's bed.

"Well, in the meantime I suppose I'll let you two talk while I go check on the blood of yours. Toodaloo." Dr. Takihara completed and waved his hands as he walked out of the room.

While Inko would still not condone any experiments done on her son, she was content with the fact that her son would finally be his cheerful self again… after three painful years, he'd be truly happy again. She reached to the side of his bed and pulled her son in for another hug. "Izuku I'm so happy for you, you have such a blessing."

Izuku returned the woman's hug with tears in his eyes. "R-really?"

"Yes honey, it's nothing like your fathers or my quirk but it's a gift all the same."

Izuku just broke down further into his mother's arms, it was finally happening, something he had longed for all this time, a quirk, and his mother's faith in him, he felt whole again, like the missing piece...wasn't missing anymore. But as he did so he started hearing something staticy, akin to a radio that wasn't tuned to the right station.

'...rently ... kid ... ... minds what .. freak.'

Izuku blinked twice as the words settled in his mind. "What?"

Inko was confused by her son's sudden reaction. "Hmm Izu? What's wrong?"

Izuku didn't even bother to focus on his mother as more of the staticy words were tossed around in his skull.

'Yeah ...gine... living ..it.. someone like th... you wouldn't know ..hen he's listening to your thoug..."

The increased clarity of the words made Izuku think that the quirk dampeners had worn off much faster than intended, however he wasn't really focusing on that at the moment. Suddenly he felt like crying for an entirely different reason. In retrospect it made sense, there were quirks that were 'undesirable.' Izuku was pretty certain the ability to read somebody's mind against their will was included on that list.

Inko noticed the sudden change in her son's behavior and started to worry, especially since he wasn't answering her. He was just blankly staring at the wall next to the door with a hint of a tear forming on of his left eye.

'Good thing h... on those ...ampeners who ...ows when he cou... be listening ...nestly I wou... even go in the... with tha... freak otherwise.'

'Freak.'

A woman's voice he hadn't recognized used that word twice now and it was directed at him. Izuku was right, people wouldn't like his quirk. Izuku was cursed wasn't he? He was a freak, quirkless or not, he finally got a quirk and of course nothing changed. He just went from quirkless freak to to a 'normal' freak.

"Nothing mom..." Izuku let out weakly as he'd realized she'd been talking to him for the past few minutes.

Then the nurse who was outside suddenly opened the door to the room and entered with a tray in hand. "Mr. Midoriya right? I brought you some food like Dr. Takihara told me to. Name's Candice by the way, it's nice to see you're looking better than earlier."

'Ugh, just take this food so I can leave quicker. Who knows when those drugs are going to wear off.'

Izuku just stared at the woman silently. His gaze affixed to her, staring through her very soul. The woman looked like a foreigner, with facial features and her name akin to some americans but her accent and fluent Japanese suggested otherwise. She was pale, had smooth blonde hair pulled into a single ponytail, wearing a traditional nurse's clothes and a rimless frame of glasses for her eyes. The lenses weren't quite thick, indicating that she had a decent eyesight.

'Great now the freak just stares into empty space at me.'

"Mr. Midoriya are you alright?" Candice smiled warmly at the boy but now that Izuku was looking for it, he could easily see how fake it was.

Izuku snapped out of his thoughts quickly realizing how weird that must've seemed to anyone watching. "Oh sorry I just zoned off for a bit." He rubbed the back of his head trying to distract himself and keep the tears down, he was used to it. He could take it, just like he always did. The word 'Deku' suddenly came to the front of his memories.

'Right. Whatever.'

"Well here's your food. Have a nice day Mr. Midoriya." The blonde said before quickly setting the tray down and departing.

The smile never once left her face Izuku realized. He just weakly turned to his mother. "Mom am I a freak?"

Inko's eyes widened at the sudden question from her son, who had no idea what brought that on. "What do you mean Izuku?"

'Who hurt my baby, Was it that nurse? That BITCH!'

Izuku lightly chuckled at the protective rage leaking from his mother's thoughts. "Nothing. Thanks Mom. I appreciate it, I appreciate everything really." Izuku then pulled his mother back in for another hug.

"Izuku, you're scaring me, please tell me what's wrong. Though I don't mind getting more hugs from you." The woman added giving him a warm smile and putting a comforting hand on his shoulders.

Her inner voice just repeated the same.

"Really, it's nothing Mom. I just... needed to hear what you just thought. It made me smile a bit."

"Oh Izu dear is your quirk back?! Let's call them back in immediately!" Inko quickly started to move for the call button but her son grabbed her arm. "Izuku?" The older greenette asked as she turned to look at him.

"Umm Mom, can we not..." Izuku weakly muttered.

Inko put two and two together and was one answer away from pulling that blondie's head off. "Alright Izuku, you're going to tell me right now and you're going to be honest with me. Did one of them call you a freak in their mind?"

Izuku only responded by sucking in a gasp which came out as a sigh.

That response was the only thing Inko needed for an answer; she was going to destroy that nurse who just came in here.

'Nobody gets to hurt my babies feelings. No one! That stupid harlot Candice will pay! '

She was stopped once more by her son tugging on her arm. "M-Mom it wasn't just her. P-Please can we pretend that I just don't have a quirk. If it gets out that I can read minds it'll just get worse. I don't want the people at school to know."

Inko paused for two reasons, first her boy just confirmed his quirk was real because she hadn't said the woman's name out loud and second because he was right. People probably won't take kindly to her son's gift. Children can be so cruel and her son wasn't the best at hiding how much he was already hurting for being quirkless, this could easily make the situation worse.

"Just you calling it a blessing is enough Mom, that's all I need. Really." Izuku let go of his mother's arm as he leaned back on the bed.

Inko paused for a bit and deliberated, after a pleasant pause she sat back down beside her son. "If that's really what you want Izu. But shouldn't we be worried about any additional nose bleeds from your quirk?"

"I think I can kinda mute it with headphones or something. Earlier I tried plugging my ears and it helped? Kind of? Also I don't seem to be getting a nosebleed right now. Maybe it's because I awakened my quirk in such a populated area?" Izuku wondered out loud.

"I suppose, but if anything happens Izuku we are taking you to a specialist. I'm not letting you harm yourself just because people might judge you for your quirk. Also we need to come up with a story about what happened."

'Considering out of the three people whose minds I read, sixty six percent said I was a freak, it's not a 'might' Mom, they will judge me.' Izuku thought to himself. "Okay, I agree. As for a story we can just say it was a villain attack or something?..."

"Izuku I highly doubt they're going to believe that." Inko retorted.

"Well do you have any better ideas Mom?" Izuku countered.

'Not really, but I'll think of something.'

"Not really Izuku but I'm sure I'll come up with something." Inko spoke while lovingly placing her hand on top of his forehead..

Izuku melted into the comfort, but he also really needed to find a way to turn his quirk off, listening to people talk twice was weird.

Izuku ate his food quietly while they waited for the doctor to return. After an hour the man still hadn't shown back up. Izuku decided to waste some time watching T.V., pretty much anything to alleviate the boredom he was currently experiencing.

His Mother on the other hand had been brainstorming for a plan better than 'my son is a schizophrenic.' Honestly the way her mind was so rapidly firing was beginning to stress him out and he couldn't even block out her voice with a different one. She was the only person in his supposed range, not to mention he had no idea what that even was yet. On the bright side he'd been using his quirk for the past thirty minutes and no nosebleeds happened, so that was a plus.

Izuku heard the doctor's mind before he even entered the room. That made Izuku theorize that solid walls seem to cut off his quirk, not entirely since he could still hear the man, but it definitely affected the range by a large margin.

'Whelp let's get this over with quickly.' Izuku swore he heard the person sigh with their thoughts, which he didn't think was possible but hey it's his first day being a mind reader, so who knows.

The door opened a few seconds later and Dr. Takihara stepped in with nurse Candice behind him. Izuku felt his mother tense in silent rage when she made eye contact with the two.

"Hello Mr. Midoriya, are you feeling alright?" The doctor gave a small smile at the boy who was quickly learning what was and wasn't a real smile. The way it didn't reach the eyes of the person wearing it was a dead giveaway.

Izuku tried to give a fake smile back, learning from the man's failure. "Yeah! Though I haven't been able to hear thoughts this whole time..." Izuku faked being disappointed at the thought for the man and looked down on his feet with a defeated expression plastered on his face.

'Thank god. What if he found out I was cheating on my boyfriend or something and told him.' Candice thought to herself.

"I'm going to need to take a bit of blood for another sample. If that's alright with you little Midoriya. If you're good for me I'll give you this lollipop afterwards." Candice retrieved the thing from the pocket of her coat.

Izuku went back to smiling but decided to keep that little nugget of information in the back of his mind. Hospitals have directories after all. "Really?! Mom can I eat it?"

Inko watched her son's sudden shift in behavior, it was clear that he was playing everyone in the room, how naturally it came to her little boy was frightening her a fair bit. "O-of course Izuku."

Izuku smiled at his Mom. "Okay, I'm ready whenever!" Izuku held his arm out for the woman who'd approached him with a needle.

'Fine by me, the sooner I get out of this room the better. Shawn should be here soon too.'

A thought then occurred to Izuku, something he hadn't realized before this very moment. He was putting on a mask, something he hadn't thought about before but now that he could read minds it was clear as day, people wear masks, constantly. They slide them on in whatever way makes them appear more genuine or perceived to be liked. Just like what the greenette was doing to fake out the doctors.

Everyone... everyone lied. 'I-I think, I just lost my i-innocence.'

For some reason this revelation shocked Izuku to his very core, there was something fundamentally wrong about being able to prove that humans, at their very basic nature, were liars. This singular thought brought about a drastic change to the boy, his already low faith in humanity thanks to people like Kacchan was only slipping further. Everybody lies, and I'm the only one who will know the truth for certain.

A certain detective in some other part of Musutafu sneezed loudly.

The boy was so deep in thought that he hadn't even realized the nurse had finished taking his blood and was holding up the lollipop from earlier. He quickly shifted back to his 'bright' mask and gleefully took the thing. Thankfully nobody noticed his moment of shock where he'd briefly lowered the disguise. "Thank you!"

"Your welcome. I'm going to leave you with Dr. Takihara now. Hope the rest of your day goes better little Midoriya!"

'Good riddance freak.'

Izuku watched her leave with an emotion he wasn't quite ready to place. He was violating her privacy on a basic level, he knew that. He was doing something that would probably be considered unethical at best, and downright illegal at worst. She wasn't wrong but it still hurt. The doctor broke him out of his reverie.

"So Mrs. Midoriya, I ran another test and still no quirk factor. I was wondering if I might speak to you in the hall for a bit?" The man in the white coat asked with that fake smile he was always wearing.

'Poor kid likely has some kind of mental illness. That's the only other possible explanation besides a quirk, but even I haven't heard of something that could cause what happened today. His mother is probably going to cry when I break the news to her, quirkless and delusional, the world really wasn't cutting this kid any breaks.'

Inko looked between her son and the doctor. Her son looked like he was having an invisible staring contest with the man, more proof that his gift was real and not some delusion, how she hated having to do this.

"Of course Doctor." Inko stood and went out the door that the man held open for her, followed shortly by him.

Izuku noticed they were in range of his quirk as he continued to hear what the pair were thinking through the door. It was hard trying to listen to two people's brains at the same time and decided that it really didn't matter in the long run. He already knew what they were talking about, so he just laid his head down and let them become whispers rustling about in the background. There was no need to stress his quirk further, lest he suffer another attack.

The vaguely human whispers bounced around in the boy's head. He did his best to drown them out but was having a hard time as he stared at the TV. There was a battle between heroes and villains on the screen, it seemed a major raid was in the progress. On the scene, Edgeshot was weaving his way around a gigantified villain. Though the footage got choppier seconds later as it seemed the reporter had to evacuate due to safety concerns. Izuku sighed as the whispers got louder, he turned and saw the door opening. The pair entered the room and his mother gave him a subtle wink and then started to think loudly.

'Hey honey, play along okay?'

Izuku just nodded at his mother.

"So Midoriya, I am afraid I got some bad news but don't worry everythings going to be alright okay?" The doctor 'spoke' first.

"W-what's wrong mom?" Izuku added a stutter to help sell the performance. 'Funny' he thought, he had to fake his usual speech patterns instead of it being genuine for once.

"Well the good news is we're free to go home." Inko then turned to the doctor. "Do you mind if I tell him there?"

"No, not at all. It might be easier in fact. But we would like to do a final check up before we release him. Is that fine with you?"

"Absolutely."

"M-mom you're scaring me."

"Don't think about it right now Izuku, let's just get you home for now okay?" Inko said, silencing the boy.

The doctor's fake smile fell a bit as he thought. 'Can't believe I called the kid a freak or that living with him would be a nightmare. When had I become so callous towards my patients. God I need a drink.'

'Well at least he's reflecting on what he did' The recently self dubbed 'Mind-Reader' thought. "Okay Mom." Izuku gave one more fake smile.

The final check up was easy enough, just some basic readings, and another MRI to make sure no permanent brain damage had been done. With all that taken care of, they were led out of the building after getting a prescription for aripiprazole . Which Izuku had no idea was for but assumed it to be medicine that treated some kind of mental disorder. He only suffered a mild headache on the way through the halls. Whatever had happened to him earlier in the day probably wouldn't happen again as long as he managed to keep the voices somewhat under control. It seemed to help when he specifically picked out one voice to listen to as he walked as well. It drowned out the others in exchange for making that one louder.

Once they were safely out of the building and back into his mothers car they both let out a sigh of relief. "Izuku I never want to have to lie like that again, and young man, don't think I didn't catch you using your quirk to lie to them. You should be ashamed, I would've said something sooner but we needed to get out of there as soon as possible."

Izuku lowered his head at the reprimand. "Sorry Mom but they were saying some really rude stuff to me, plus it's not like I can turn my quirk off."

Inko just sighed and spoke with her usual softness again. "I know Izu and we'll work together to get it under control okay? Just don't do that again. Lying is a slippery-slope, you can't go back once you've fallen in it."

"Yes Mom." The boy answered with a defeated tone and imprinted those words of wisdom in his mind.

There was silence in the car as they drove until Inko decided it was time to talk about the elephant in the room.

"Izuku I wouldn't tell anyone at school about your quirk either. In fact I wouldn't tell anyone, I don't know what hurtful things the doctor and that nurse thought about you but children are very cruel to those they consider weird, or different.."

'Especially Kacchan.' The boy thought to himself. "Yes Mom I know."

"Good. But don't let that make you think your quirk is anything other than a blessing, you hear me Izuku?. You're going to make such a fantastic hero with it. I know how you think about quirks Izuku, you've shown me your two notebooks so many times on the subject after all. Maybe some of your thought processes have rubbed off on me over the years, who knows. Just think, you can find trapped civilians in rubble, interrogate villains, you can find the bad guys through walls, there are endless possibilities, you're going to be great." Inko smiled warmly at her son.

The younger Midoriya looked at his mother's bright smile and started crying again. "Thanks Mom -sniff- I love you so much. You know that?."

"Of course my little Izu. Now why don't we try and figure out how exactly your quirk works. Maybe we can find a way to turn it off or lower it's strength. We can't let what happened today happen again."

"That sounds like a good idea Mom. I did notice putting my fingers in my head helped and I couldn't hear properly through walls. Maybe some noise cancelling ear phones could work?"

"There's the smart and talented Izuku Midoriya I know. We'll pick some up on the way home for you to try out." Inko smiled as they continued driving in silence for the rest of the trip.

Well it was silent for Inko, not as much for the young 'Mind-Reader' who had to keep listening to his mother's worries. He'd have to dispel those for her, so what if he had bullies, so what if his gift was the quirk of a freak, he HAD a quirk. That was all that mattered, well that and the blessing that his mother loved him, just those two facts would be enough for the fledgling greenette.

Notes:

This is a fic me and Gtmdhwn have been working on for a bit. It's our first attempt at a collaboration. Hope you all like it, please post anything you think at the bottom! :D

P.S. We both have more works if you like our writing, check our individual profiles if you're interested!