HalfafanD: And BOOM! Just as promised, another chapter fresh off the keyboard. Get 'em while they're hot!
As I explained previously, last chapter contained the basic setup for the reveal, and now we'll be going into a bit more detail. So let's continue on! Enjoy~
But a small warning before we get started. Remember how I said this was rated T for slight mature themes. Those come into play here. Just a heads up. Ok, now you can go.
Disclaimer: My Hero Academia belongs to Kōhei Horikoshi. I don't own anything.
Like All Might Like Small Might
"Because," Inko sighed. "Hisashi was never your father."
The world stood still.
. . .
"...What?"
His mother clarified. "Hisashi, the man I married, isn't your biological father."
"You..." Izuku grasped for words. "...cheated?"
"No! Of course no-" Inko quickly calmed herself. The last thing she needed was to get upset. She couldn't exactly explain things very well if she was balling her eyes out. She breathed deeply. "I never, nor have I ever, cheated on my husband. I would never do that, to you or Hisashi."
Izuku blinked. This wasn't making any sense. "But you just said that I'm not related to Dad. So how...?"
His mom hesitated. Trying to find the right words. Eventually, she settled on a question. "Have you ever heard of a sperm bank?"
"Sperm bank?" He parroted, flushed. "Like, a guy stores his... in a bank?"
Inko nodded. "It's not unheard of. There are many men and women who want children, yet are unable to make them. It could be anything from having some kind of disease preventing it or just simply being infertile. Your father was one of those people."
Her son nodded, prompting her to continue.
"When we decided to have a baby, we originally tried to have one ourselves. But no matter how many times we tried, I never got pregnant. It wasn't until we each got a check up did we find out that your father was infertile. So we went to the bank to purchase a sperm sample and have it inserted so that I could give birth to you. It was Hisashi's idea. He really wanted to build a family with me."
"If he wanted a family so badly, why did he leave?"
She sighed. "I don't know. When I was still pregnant with you, he was fine. He was as happy as any new father could be. But when you were born, he... changed. He started distancing himself, becoming angrier. He wouldn't help at all when it came to taking care of you and whenever I gave you attention he would start yelling. I think... I think he was jealous of the fact that you weren't his kid biologically, yet you were mine. And since I was giving you more attention than him, it only added fuel to the fire."
Izuku's head lowered, his eyes downcast. "So it was my fault he left you."
"No. It's not your fault." She hugged her son again. "Hisashi was a lonely man looking for companionship. I won't say too much on the matter, but he had a rough life. So when he met me, he decided to step up and become a better man, a family man. Someone who would shower his child with all the love in the world. But when he saw you, someone who was my son, but not his, he felt like you were stealing that companionship he held with me from him."
"Oh." Izuku mumbled. Still felt like his fault.
"I'm not saying what Hisashi did was right, but I think I finally understand what was going on in his head when he decided to leave. He's been hurt a lot over the years. And seeing my love for you made him jealous from the lack of it from his own mother."
Izuku stayed quiet.
"I'm sorry I never told you. Part of the reason was because I was worried you'd blame yourself. What Hisashi did was his choice."
"It's ok, I'm glad you told me." Izuku assured. He then paused. "Wait, what was the other reason?"
Inko sucked in a breath. She looked at her son before gazing off into the direction of her room. Making up her mind, she stood up. "Wait here."
Izuku waited patiently in the chair, his mind reeling. So, not what he had expected. He honestly thought his dad had cheated or something. Or that his dad was some shady villain who got arrested. The young hero shook his head. Maybe he been reading too many of Kaminari's super hero comics.
His mother walked back out into the kitchen. Once again sitting down, she handed over a large envelope. "When your father and I applied for a spermatozoon, we had to fill out the necessary paperwork. These are the files detailing the sample we used. There was only the one, so you were the only child born from it. I saved them thinking you might one day ask me about them."
He nodded, gingerly slipping the papers out of the packet. Flipping through a few, he skimmed the pages.
Sperm Sample #674574898573
Donor Name: Yagi, Toshinori
Age: 31
Blood Type: A Gender: Male
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Quirk: Quirkless
. . .
Quirkless, he read. Quirkless. His father was quirkless.
Oh... that's what she meant.
"He was... quirkless." Izuku mumbled, never taking his eyes off the file.
Inko nodded. "Even back then, times were hard. This sample was the most we could afford. We didn't even know what the odds of you getting a quirk were. But even so, we wouldn't change it for the world. We didn't care that you might end up quirkless."
She placed a hand on his shoulder, signaling him to look up at her. Both their eyes started to shimmer. Tears beginning to form.
"We loved you. I love you. Quirk or no quirk."
That did it. The dam broke, both mother and son sobbing as the two hugged it out. They remained like that for the next few minutes. They're hearts bleeding out for each other.
Izuku wiped his eyes with his shirt, his mother doing the same with her sleeve. A few sniffles later and the two were able to form coherent sentences again.
"Thanks." He said smiling. "I needed that."
"Anytime." She then glanced down at the files.
He looked down at them as well. "...Is it alright if I take these."
Inko nodded. "Of course, Izuku. I have no use for them anymore. They're yours now. Just don't loose them, alright?"
Izuku nodded before taking a glance at the entrance. "Mr. Aizawa's probably been standing out there for a while."
"Yes, best we not keep him waiting."
The two quickly cleaned their faces of tears before walking up to the door. Once he had his shoes on, Izuku opened the door, revealing the hero on the other side.
He looked over his student. "Ready to go?"
Izuku nodded. He turned back to his mom. "Guess I'll see you at open-house."
Inko nodded, beaming. "I'll definitely be there. It was nice to meet you Mr. Aizawa. You two take care."
"You as well." The man returned the sentiment. "Let's go Midoirya."
As Aizawa turned to start his trek down the stairs to car, Izuku gave one last look to his mom.
"Bye, love you."
"I love you too, Sweetie. See you soon." She then closed the door and locked it, leaving Izuku to catch up to his teacher.
He rushed down the stairs and walked up to the hero as he opened the car door. Though it was when he reached him that Aizawa paused and turned to face him. He then held out his hand. Izuku looked down.
It was a packet of tissues.
Midoriya looked up at his teacher, confused.
Aizawa's expression remained unchanged. "I figured you'd need it." The rest was left unsaid.
Taking the packet, Izuku couldn't help it. He laughed.
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...Maybe he shouldn't have brought the files with him after all.
By now, both Midoriya and Aizawa had arrived back at school. And the young hero decided to head up straight to his room to get some studying in before dinner. But no, instead Izuku spent the past hour pouring over the documents like the little creeper he was.
How many times had he read everything? He lost count.
His fingers traced the donor's name.
"Yagi Toshinori." His mouth tried out the name. "Toshinori."
It sounded so noble, heroic. But also so normal, so plain. It was a very common name. The surname as well. It honestly sounded like the perfect name for what seemed as an average quirkless man. A perfect name for his biological father.
He'd read every word and letter in these files. And yet he still knew nothing about this man. Hisashi might've left them, and he had come to terms with it. But there was still another father of his out there that he knew next to nothing about.
He wanted to know this man. What made him his father? How did he take after him? Where did the man grow up? How big was his family? What was his history? Izuku wanted to get answers to all those questions.
But... was that even a good a idea?
This man donated his spermatozoa to a sperm bank. Surely that meant that the man had no intention of starting a family of his own. He probably needed money and didn't even care about Izuku.
A series of knocking interrupted his thoughts. "Deku? Are you in there?"
Izuku jumped. Uraraka! What's she doing here?!
"Uhh... yeah! C-Come in!" Came his hasty response. He quickly yanked open a drawer and stuffed the papers inside. By the time he managed to slam it shut, the door opened.
"Hey," The gravity girl greeted. "I just wanted you to know that dinner's all set up downstairs."
"Oh, sure thanks. I'll be right down."
"Right..." She made a move to leave, but paused. "Um... about yesterday, we didn't... make you uncomfortable or anything talking about your dad, did we?"
Deku did a double take. "What? No! Of course not! What gave you that idea?!"
"It's just... you were so quiet today. Yesterday too. And we didn't even see you after class ended. And when you came back you just went up to your room. So everyone's kind of worried."
"Oh." Ok, so maybe in his haste for answers he went a bit overboard. He needed to start paying more attention to stuff like that. "Sorry, I guess I forgot to tell you. I went to see my mom today. I had asked the teachers if I could go and Mr. Aizawa drove me over there."
Uraraka blinked. "Why didn't you just wait. You said she was coming to the open-house right?"
"Well yeah, but when you guys asked about my dad, it made me realize that I knew next to nothing about him. I knew I'd be digging up old wounds but I felt as though I should at least know why he left. So I went to visit to ask her."
"Oh. I suppose that's not the kind of thing you can talk about in public." Ochaco nodded. Fully understanding. "Did you get what you wanted?"
For a moment, Izuku glanced at the drawer hiding the documents he stashed. But he shook his head and smiled.
"...Yeah, kind of."
The brunette nodded happily. Her smile so bright, she could blind kittens. "Good, I'm glad! Well, I don't know about you, but I'm starving! So what are we waiting for?"
"Right!" Izuku then proceeded to follow his classmate down to the common space.
The rest of the evening consisted of eating Sero's delicious cooking, Bakugo's loud yelling over the regular chatter, and Todoroki slurping noodles. Izuku, calmly eating next to what the class had dubbed 'the Deku Squad', watched as he listened to Iida and Uraraka fill him in on what he'd missed on his impromptu trip.
The greenette smiled. This was nice. Maybe he was overthinking about this whole dad thing. He was perfectly content with just his mom and they've been just fine over the years. And Izuku had made so many friends already.
His family was right here.
There was no need for him to stress about his mystery father. His brain was just taking in the new information, that's all. This will all blow over in no time. He had everything he needed right here. This was perfect.
"Stop stealing my fucking food, Dunce Face!"
Yep, just perfect.
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This was not going away.
Izuku moaned in despair as he slammed his head into the desk. It had only been a day since his talk with his mom and his mind was still spiraling out of control.
"Midoriya? Is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" Ectoplasm inquired. "Perhaps you know the answer to this equation."
His fuzzy green head quickly sprung up. "Uhh... no sensei. Sorry Mr. Ectoplasm."
"I can understand mathematics being dull enough to put one to sleep." The hero commented, gesturing his head to a certain electric blonde dozing on his desk, drool seeping out.
Jiro, taking notice, launched her earphone jacks right into Kaminiari's ears. The boy sprang up, startled. "Huh?! What'd I miss?!"
The class fell into a series of giggling and light chuckles.
Ectoplasm turned back to freckled student. "Just be sure not to fall behind. Math might be boring, but it's still important."
"Yessir."
"And Kaminiari, pay attention. Or I'll personally form a clone just to monitor your work."
The other boy blinked, utterly confused. But Ectoplasm forming a clone just to make sure he stayed awake translated to being in trouble so...
"Yessir!"
"Good, now can anyone tell me the simplified expression to 2(x-9)6(-x2)4x?"
A single hand rose.
"Yes, Yaoyorozu."
"-6!"
"Correct." He then casted a look around the class. "I expect you all to be attempting to solve these as well. I can't keep calling on Yaoyorozu all the time. Eventually I'll have to pick someone else."
Some of the class broke into a nervous sweat. "Yes, Mr. Ectoplasm."
"Just do your best, even if you're not confident in your answer. There are no wrong answers in this class. If you always get the right answer, you never learn anything. Our school motto applies to more than just heroics."
"Yessir!" The class resonated.
And with that, their teacher nodded and the lecture carried on. Izuku tried his best in taking notes. But his mind kept asking new questions about his mystery dad.
Making sure his teacher wasn't looking, Midoriya quietly slipped a piece of paper out from under his notebook. A paper was that was already filled apparently. For written on it, was a chart listing the pros and cons of pursuing the identity of his biological father.
Pros
-Finally learn who my father is
-Answer questions about Dad
-Gain new father-figure
-Expand family
-Get closure
-Learn about myself
Needless to say, most of the pros covered him getting the many questions he'd been asking himself get answered. The cons on the other hand... they were a bit more out there.
Cons
-Dad might not care about me
-I might get kidnapped by him
-Might dictate how I live my life just because I'm his son
-Make Mom unhappy
-Might only care because I'm famous and a hero in training
Izuku frowned. He was well aware that his overthinking tended to be a bit hyperbolic, whenever he expressed his concerns on something. And this was no different. It seemed so ridiculous on paper. Which was why he formed the list in the first place.
He'd been going back and forth on this idea for hours. Should he try and find his biological father? Or should he just let things be? He had hoped by writing a list of pros and cons, he could finally come to a decision.
Though all this told him that his imagination came up with some pretty crazy hypothetical scenarios. But not unheard of, which unfortunately still left him on the fence.
Maybe if he talked about it with someone. His class perhaps? Izuku shook his head. No, he'd already told his class about his father, or lack thereof. He couldn't just pull a one-eighty like that so soon. And Mr. Aizawa would just tell him he's just thinking too much on it... which, wasn't wrong. The other teachers were also out as well as any friends he made outside of class; they barely even knew the situation.
What about All Might? His mind helpfully suggested.
Izuku blinked. Would that be ok? As the inheritor of One For All, Midoriya already had plenty of in-depth talks with the retired hero, both about himself and All Might. Surely his mentor would give him at least some insight to help him come to a decision. Of course, he also didn't want to be a bother.
The boy glanced at the clock adorning the wall.
Maybe at lunch. It's not like he hadn't had lunch with All Might in private before, this way he could talk with him without it looking suspicious. After all, this was only something he found out recently, he wasn't exactly ready to broadcast it just yet. Especially when it pulled up even more questions about his quirk.
Izuku clutched his hands, fists forming. Yes, as soon as lunch hit, he'll go ask All Might to talk with him. And maybe finally he can decide on what to do.
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"Alright my boy," All Might smiled. "Why don't you take a seat there. I'll make us some tea."
Izuku nodded, doing just that.
All Might usually had his lunch in the teachers lounge with the other heroes. But on occasions he'd eat with Midoriya in one of the small offices. This happened a couple times. Like when discussing plans for the sports festival, or when telling the story of All For One. But more often than not, it was a way for them to converse about both each other and One For All in peace. Can't risk anyone overhearing something like that after all.
Normally it was All Might scheduling these meetings, as Midoriya was often too shy to ask himself. So imagine his surprise when as he walked down the hall from the cafeteria, his successor approached him, requesting to talk.
He just hoped it wasn't anything bad, the boy went through too much trouble as it is. Maybe questions about applying One For All twenty percent into ranged attacks? Or maybe about the gloves he had asked Hatsume to make. Either way, All Might will do whatever he can to help give him the guidance he needed.
The tea now made, the elder placed the small cups next to their respected lunches, before taking a seat himself opposite of his protégé.
"Now, what was it you wanted to talk about?" The man asked to start the conversation. "Do you need some help coming up with ideas with applying Shoot Style in range?"
"Oh, no." They already had after school training for that. "No, this is about... something else."
The man raised a brow, the tea cup held under his lips giving the image of a wise sensei. He put the cup back down. "You're not in trouble, are you?"
Midoriya shook his head. "No, everything's fine. The festival planning is going great, and things have been okay with One For All. It's just..." He trailed off, attempting to find the right words.
"Just..." All Might encouraged.
"...You remember how I had asked you if you could take me to see my mom?"
"Yes, and Aizawa offered to take you. Makes me wonder if he took a shine to you like I did." The man laughed. "You mentioned it was a family matter."
Izuku nodded. "Yeah, I wanted to ask her about my dad. See, he left when I was barely old enough to remember him and my mom never really talked about him. All I knew was that he had a fire quirk. During class everyone was talking about their families and their dads and it made me want to ask her about mine. I, felt like I deserved to know."
"Which is why you wanted to see her so bad." All Might concluded. If it were him he would've tried to keep that conversation private too.
Another nod. "I just, wanted to know."
Now it was All Might's turn to nod. He could understand that. "What did she say?"
"...That my dad isn't my dad."
...What?
He must've voiced his thoughts, because Midoriya continued. "The man my mom married, he's not my biological dad."
The teacher blinked. "She didn't... cheat, did she?" He didn't want to believe it. When he first met her, she seemed like such a nice woman. Reminded him a lot of Nana. She never came off as the unfaithful type.
Izuku must've realized the implications behind his vague explanation, because he immediately started backpedaling. "No! No, no, no, no! It wasn't like that!"
All Might gave a sigh of relief. "Don't scare me like that, kid."
"Sorry." He muttered.
The symbol of peace then cleared his throat. "So, you were saying?"
"R-Right. My mom said that when they decided to start a family, they found out that Dad was infertile. So they put in a request at a sperm bank so that my mom could give birth to me. Afterwards, Dad began to resent me so he left."
The symbol of peace gave a cough of surprise. He, honestly wasn't expect that. At least his mouth wasn't bleeding this time.
His cheeks flushed slightly. "Uhh... we don't have to talk about this if you don't want to."
Izuku shook his head again. "I want to. I've been sitting on this information for over a day and it's driving me crazy. I just need to talk about it to somebody." he then looked sheepish. "That is, if I'm not being a bother."
His blue eyes widened. "No! Of course not. You're never a bother, my boy."
In fact, All Might felt touched that Midoriya trusted him enough to confide in him with these matters. He may no longer be the symbol of peace, but he could still be there for him, in his own way.
So the retired hero gave him a small smile in reassurance. "Is that why you wanted to talk? Because you feel guilty for your father leaving you?"
This time, Izuku shrugged. "Not... exactly. I've already talked about that with Mom."
All Might blinked. "...Alright then. What is bothering you, my boy?"
"Well, when my mom told me the truth of who my dad was, she showed me files she kept of the sample she used. So, I've been looking over them. And I want find out who he is, my biological dad that is."
Ah, so that was the reason. "What did the file say about him?"
"Just his description. Things like hair and eye color. His blood type too. The only real info I got was his name." Midoriya explained. "Someone named Toshinori Yagi."
. . . !
All Might broke into a series of coughs, blood spattering all over. Well so much for that.
HalfafanD: And there, done. How's that... was it too sappy? I feel like it's too sappy. Especially in the beginning. I mean it picks up again later, but you know. Part of me wants to cut something, but I feel like if I take too much out, I'll lose a lot of that emotion between Inko and Izuku, especially since both of them are notorious for crying. Are we sure that's not Izuku's quirk. If it is it should be called 'Tears Spout'. LOL!
And I'm glad I wrote in a little extra for Aizawa both here and in the last chapter. It wasn't there in the initial outline. Though I was working off bullet points. I know this story's mainly about Izuku and All Might, but I think both Aizawa and Present Mic deserve some love too. Same goes for a lot of the teachers and other characters. It's as Toru said, Izuku is everyone's precious cinnamon roll and they all must protect him!
I did think about having a moment where Aizawa talks to Izuku about Bakugo. But I nixed it in the end 'cause it didn't fit. Maybe some other time, but then I'd have to bring it up again. I love the idea of Midoriya talking to his teachers about the bullying he suffered but it feels like too much to add to an already packed story. I don't know.
But back to what I was saying, what do you guys think? About the details, I mean. I felt like I used the word sperm too much, but I tried to look up official terms and synonyms but my my options were extremely limited. But other than that, how was the new fresh take on Midoriya's father being ALL Might?
Speaking of All Might, let me be the first to say that his age in this chapter is on purpose. We actually don't know his age. The manga never answered this and when asked in the anime, All Might just started coughing to try and brush it off. So working off of the supposed theory that All Might is in his mid-forties (45 ideally), I did the math by subtracting Izuku's age and bam! He'd have been around 31 when those documents were filed. So there you go.
I also didn't want to change a lot of the main story because those things are what make Izuku such a strong character. That's why I took this route. Which, by the way, congrats to Jewelo8 for guessing correctly. Though they did have other speculations, artificial insemination was their first guess so I counted it. Lot of other people guessed drunken one-night stands or something along those lines, which was what I expected. But I was pleasantly surprised that one of my first reviewers got it right on the first try.
I am a bit worried though about how I rated this T despite the mature themes. But it's only really the sperm bank part that's really M rating-worthy. And it's not like I'm having that encompass the whole story, just the 'All-Might-is-Izuku's-Dad' part. So I thought T was the way to go. If you think I should change it let me know.
Okay, I gotta stop. Otherwise I'll never end this chapter. Please leave a review and tell me what ya think. Love to hear feedback. No flames please. And I'll see ya next chapter!