The weeks following Izuku's birth were extremely hectic and stressful for Inko. With a new reason to live in the form of her son, Inko wasted no time filing for divorce with her husband. On top of that Inko had to adapt to her new sleep schedule, which she dubbed "Baby please just sleep!"

Izuku was not an easy baby to please, though which baby was ever to please? Everything had to be done a very specific way or he would cry. If his blanket was slightly too tight: cry. If he was fed too early: cry. Every little thing seemed to set him off, and it was driving Inko to the brink of insanity.

Despite all of this her life was starting to look up, and it seemed the universe wanted her to succeed. The court system was on her side and made the whole ordeal of divorcing her husband relatively quick and painless. She even got to keep most of her stuff, though that might have been because her ex-husband hadn't bothered to show up to any of the required court dates.

To make things even better, Izuku had finally stopped crying as much due to the help of Mitsuki. With a baby of her own, she was able to pass all of her knowledge on to Inko about how to take care of a child. Inko was forever grateful, not only for the help with the crying but for being the rock that Inko had been able to rely on. Mitsuki had watched Izuku every time Inko needed to do something, and every time she waved off Inko's excessive thanks with a simple "No problem"

Yes things were starting to go her way, and as Inko tucked Izuku in for the night, she couldn't help but wonder as she stared down at her darling boy

"How hard could this whole parenting thing be, I can handle it."

4 Years Later

She couldn't handle it.

Inko had completely underestimated the amount of work that was needed to raise a child, let alone raising a child with no arms as a single mother. There were so many things she needed to do daily. She needed to wake up each morning to make Izuku and herself breakfast (though this was never a problem as Izuku always woke at the crack of dawn.) She needed to help him get dressed while still getting herself ready for the day. This was not even accounting for all the extra steps she had to take to ensure Izuku was taken care of. She had to feed him, wash him, help him brush his teeth (this task was later replaced with an electric handless toothbrush she found online.) Her daily routine was one formed of hundreds of hours of trial and error, and it was exhausting.

Izuku himself made daily life no easier. The boy had boundless energy and curiosity, far more than a normal 4-year-old should have, that led him to question everything he saw around him.

"Why was the sky blue?"

" Why wasn't the sky red?"

" Why do we have to walk?"

To him, everything was a mystery just waiting to be solved, like the world was just one giant puzzle made just for him. To make matters even worse, Izuku was scarily smart. He picked up and understood things at a rate that terrified Inko. It scared her not only because she didn't understand it, but also because she was worried about how much he would suffer socially because of it. She heard nothing but praise from his teachers about his intelligence and ability to understand new topics, but she had also seen how he had interacted with the other kids at school. If they weren't put off by his lack of arms, they were put off by how rapidly he talked and asked questions. He didn't have any friends, well he had one.

Katsuki Bakugou

Inko was very pleased by the fact that Mitsuki's son had become friends with Izuku. They got along great and spent as much of their free time together as possible, which worked especially well for Inko as it kept her son out of the way so she could catch up with Mitsuki. However, there was one thing Inko was not the biggest fan of regarding their friendship. It was the fact that Katsuki had introduced her son to the world of modern-day heroics. Inko remembered the day her son had come home from the Bakugou's talking all about the cool heroes Katsuki had shown him, and how he wanted to be a hero when he grew up. Her heart stopped in her chest and her face fell.'

"Honey could you repeat that?" she was holding on to the slight hope that she had simply misheard him.

"I said I wanna be a hero when I grow up!" Izuku exclaimed, dancing around with giddy childhood excitement.

Inko knew this would happen, she always did her best to shield her son from any information about heroics, knowing that once he had discovered it, it would be all he ever talked about. Heroes consumed the small boy's interest, he constantly asked her to put on videos and news reports about them for him to watch. It was his only topic of conversation, though Inko couldn't complain as it helped him interact with the kids at school better.

An interesting thing Inko noticed as she watched her son was his fascination with the hero's quirks. Whenever he was watching or reading about his favorite heroes, she could hear him talking under his breath about their quirks and how it helped and hurt them in a fight. It scared Inko in all honesty, her son was dissecting the fights with frightening speed and accuracy. She figured that once he got over the idea of being a hero, he would become an amazing analyst. Though she knew that wouldn't happen for a long time

A consequence of his interest in other people's quirk was a sudden obsession with his own quirk.

Before he started dreaming about heroes, he never had much of an interest in his quirk beyond a passing question about what it would be. Now though it was the center of his life. His obsession for it grew even more extreme when Katsuki had found his. Not wanting to be left behind by his only friend, he spent his time trying to figure out what it was. Nothing was off-limits to his imagination, she remembered the day he came crying to her because he had somehow convinced himself that his quirk was knife-hands and he couldn't ever use it. It had taken her a while to calm him down from that one, she had to remind him that it wouldn't be knife-hands because neither her nor his father had that quirk. Once he realized that he bounced right back and started trying to guess again. Though Izuku was happy again, the interaction had awakened a fear within Inko.

"What if he gets his father's quirk."

This was thought that plagued her whenever Izuku got to talking about his quirk. Logically she knew that Izuku would be nothing like his father, the boy was too sweet and genuine for that to be a problem, as well as the fact that Izuku couldn't even use his father's quirk if he did get it, but as hard as she tried she could not stop herself from fretting. She knew that no matter what his quirk was he would do amazing things with it, she just hoped it wasn't with the use of Kai's power.

The day that it finally happened came far too quickly for Inko's tastes. She was sitting on her couch reading her current favorite book(some trashy romance novel, but that's not anybody's business), with Izuku sitting on the floor in front of her watching the newest episode of "All Might's Mighty Adventures!", his current favorite show. It had ended with All Might saving the day(As always) and everyone living happily ever after. It was a silly show in Inko's opinion, but there was one thing she loved about it, and that was when they had All Might come on and give a quick message to the children. It was usually something generic like "Litening to your parents is a heroic thing to do!", but she noticed that Izuku always took them to heart. She saw that the number one hero had come on-screen to deliver his message, so she got ready to listen and see Izuku's reaction.

"REMEMBER KIDS, WHILE YOU MAY HAVE A QUIRK SIMILAR TO YOUR PARENT'S, IT IS ENTIRELY YOUR OWN POWER. NEVER TRY TO COMPARE YOURSELF TO THEM BECAUSE YOUR QUIRK IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE! NEVER FEEL BAD IF THINGS THAT WORKED FOR THEM DON'T WORK FOR YOU! NOW HAVE A GOOD DAY AND LISTEN TO YOUR PARENTS!" All Might's voice boomed through the old tv's speaker.

Inko turned to Izuku, as she always did after each message. To try and gauge his reaction. Instead of the usual face of understanding and acceptance she usually saw, she instead was met with his hard thinking face, the face that usually prefaced a terrifyingly intelligent statement that didn't belong in the mouth of a 4-year-old boy. She saw the gears spinning in his head, and it scared her, as his intelligence often did. Even scarier was the sudden look of discovery that came next. Izuku suddenly stood up from the couch, with a little difficulty without arms to balance him and walk over to his action figure displayed on the shelf below the tv (he couldn't play with them of course but he liked to look at them). He stopped in front of a rock he found on the beach one day, which had then promptly made Inko take home because it looked cool. Inko sat in confusion as she watched him concentrate hard on the objection in front of him. Her confusion quickly turned to shock, and then horror as she watched to rock shakily float up a few inches. The rock lost its shape slowly before it took the form of a crude man before settling back down on the shelf. Izuku turned to her with a blinding smile and a look of unadulterated happiness in his eyes as he panted from exertion.

"Mom, I found my quirk!" He exclaimed his tone radiating pure joy, though this faded quickly as he saw the horrified look on his mother's face.

Inko sat there in shock, her worst fears had been confirmed. Her son, her sweet baby boy had his father's quirk. She felt as if she would cry as images of Izuku growing up to be just as cold and selfish as Kai filled her mind. She shook herself slightly and made a promise to not let her son grow up to be like his father. With her thoughts settled she focused on her son and saw that he was crying slightly.

"Oh Izuku what's wrong darling, you just discovered your quirk, why are you crying?"

"Because you looked scared! I must have a horrible quirk, why else would you look scared mommy! Am I a monster now?"

Inko felt her heartbreak as she watched her son's active imagination spiral out of control, making him think awful things about himself. Inko felt like a horrible mother at that moment, because she wasn't able to control her own emotions, she had made her son think he had done a bad thing.

"No no no baby that's not it at all, I was just surprised that's all." Inko said in a soft voice as she wrapped her arms around Izuku.

"Really?" Izuku sniffled out

"Of course dear! In fact your quirk is just like your father's!" Inko released him from the hug and put her hands on his shoulders, turning him towards her.

"Is it really!" The sadness in his voice drained away at the mention of his father.

Inko hated talking about Kai with her son because he believed he had died just weeks before his birth. To Izuku his father wasn't a cold and unloving man that cared about nothing beyond his own selfish desires, but a loving husband that had been taken from the world all too soon. Inko knew that what she was doing was wrong, but how do you explain to a 4-year old that his own father didn't love him enough to stay in their lives. She knew that she had to tell him the truth one day, lest the truth comes out or, god forbid, he runs into him someday once he has grown up. Though she knew this, Inko couldn't do it now, not when her son needed support.

"Oh yes, he used to make little men like you did all the time when we were dating, though he had to touch things to shape them."

It had just hit her that Izuku did not once touch the rock to shape it, in fact it floated up while he was working on it. This helped alleviate some of her worries as it meant that he had inherited some of her quirk as well.

"Wow, that means I am even more stronger than he is!" Izuku cheered out, before giggling excitedly about his newfound power. After a minute though he stopped and turned away from Inko.

"Mom, do you think that dad would b-be proud of me?" He asked, his voice small and fragile

"Y-yes dear I think he would." Inko's heart broke as she had to lie to her precious boy.

"Yes, he would."

Inko took Izuku to the doctor's the next week, after sending in some DNA samples to be tested, to fully figure out and officially register his quirk. The car ride there was filled with Izuku thinking out loud about all the possibilities of his power while he practiced on the small assortment of items from around the house that Inko didn't mind getting rid of. She didn't know what to expect from the visit, but she was nervous nonetheless. Looking back to check on Izuku, she couldn't help but smile lovingly at him as he messed around and tried new things with his quirk.

They arrived at the clinic faster than expected, and only had to wait a short while before seeing the doctor. They sat in his room for a few minutes with Inko desperately trying to calm Izuku down. The door opened and the doctor stepped in. He was a relatively short and portly man with a bald head and a large brown mustache. He sat down with a sigh before reaching his hand out to greet his patients.

"Hello my name is Doctor Garaki, and it says here that your son's quirk manifested last week and seemed to have elements molecule manipulation as minor telekinesis. My what a strong quirk, may I ask what your's and the father's quirks are." He said flatly as if he was done with the whole thing,

Slightly taken aback by the doctor's seeming lack of care, Inko responded to his question. "Um, well, I have the ability to attract small objects, and his father could manipulate the molecular makeup of anything he touched," Inko hated talking about Kai's quirk, it made her feel dirty remembering all the things he had done with it to woo her.

"Hmm interesting," Garaki muttered under his breath as he wrote something down."He really married below his class aye."

Inko having heard what he said became annoyed as it seemed Izuku's doctor shared the same views as her coworkers.

"Excuse me what di-"

"Moving on to the test results, it looks like your son will be able to control the molecular makeup of anything in a 1-foot radius around him. A pretty powerful quirk for somethi-someone this young to have."

Even though she couldn't see the doctor's eyes, she knew that they were staring at Izuku's lack of arms. Twice now this doctor had belittled her family and she wouldn't stand for it, but as she was about to say something Izuke spoke for the first time since entering the office.

"D-do you think I could become a hero with this power." The poor boy asked quietly, the need for validation in his dream causing him to tear up slightly.

"With this quirk, most definitely, but with your condition, the chances fall considerably. So while I won't tell you to give up on your dream, I will tell you to have more realistic ones in the future."

That was it for Inko, grabbing her purse she stood up suddenly, slightly startling the others in the room. She looked to her son who was crying silently on the bench, before turning to the doctor that made him cry.

"Come on Izuku let's go home, I'll make you your favorite food for dinner alright."

" *sniff* O-ok mom." He slide out of the chair and wobbled over to his mom.

"Thank you, doctor, we'll be leaving now." She said, her voice dripping with rage.

"Would you like to schedule the nex-"

"No, I've decided that this is not a good place for us and will be finding somewhere else of his quirk counseling, now goodbye." With her rant done she strode out of the room with Izuku tailing behind.

The drive home was dead silent, a complete 180 from the car ride to the doctors. Inko sat in the front with her eyes trained on the road, while Izuku sat silently in the backseat with his head hung. They arrived home shortly and went inside to eat dinner and get ready for the next day, or bed in Izuku's case. They ate in silence, the tension in the air hung like a dark cloud over both of them. Inko helped Izuku get ready for bed like she always did, but tonight he wasn't talking about what had excited him that day at school, or what new hero had debuted, but tonight there was nothing. Inko didn't know what to say, she had always told her son he could be anything he wanted, but now she wasn't sure. As much as she hated it, she found herself agreeing with Doctor Garaki. Izuku's quirk was amazing, it would be great for any hero to have, but with his lack of arms, she didn't know. Setting her thoughts aside she went to tuck her son in. With a kiss on the head, she got up to leave. Before she could get to the door, she heard Izuku speak up. From his tone of voice, she knew it was important.

"M-mom, do you think that I can be a hero?"

He sounded so small and fragile in that moment, and Inko hated it. She knew that her answer would define the kind of relationship she had with her son in the coming year. Setting her earlier thoughts aside, she smiled as much as she could and turned to him.

"Yes Izuku, I think you can be a hero, I know you can be a hero even."

God she wished she could believe her own words.

Doctor Garaki sat at his desk looking down at the test results of all his patients that day. Most of them were nothing interesting, but his eyes kept returning to one.

Izuku Midoriya

The boy's quirk was nothing short of incredible. The ability to shape the world around him with nothing more than a thought was something truly amazing to think about. He had tried to crush the boy's dreams in the hopes that his master could take the quirk for himself one day, but he had a feeling his attempt was in vain if the mother's reaction was anything to go off of. In reality that lack of arms could be overcome quite easily with the boy's power, it might even help him master it quicker.

"Well, there is nothing we can do about it now." the doctor mused to himself as he picked up the phone.

He dialed a number and waited for a moment before someone spoke through the phone

"What do you have for me doctor?" The voice was smooth and deep.

"Izuku Midoriya master, I believe his quirk would be a boon for our cause." The doctor always was nervous when speaking to his master

In a secluded location many miles away, a man in a suit let a large menacing smile fill his face.

"Well then, I guess ill just have to look out for him, won't I?"