Inko took a sip of her coffee. It was decaf; today was Izuku's first day back to school after getting his Stand (and passing out and getting sick from getting his Stand) and Inko didn't want to risk caffeine with her nerves. Monoma-san had invited her out to a local cafe, since both of their sons were Stand Users now. Izuku and Neito had bonded a bit while they were in observation, due their being new Stand Users and having similar goals to be heroes despite people having told them that they wouldn't be able to. Neito did have a Quirk, but it was a touch-based copying Quirk, so apparently his classmates all thought that it wasn't a good Quirk for a hero. Even Inko thought that that was wrong. It effectively gave him multiple Quirks to work with! And of course, when Izuku heard what it was he immediately gushed about how he could use it and how cool it was.

Inko chuckled at the memory. He'd immediately rapid-fire asked Neito-kun about his Quirk, punctuated with exclamations about how cool it sounded. He'd also been so excited when Bakkuta performed the tests that apparently the doctor she'd went to five years ago simply never did, confirming that he did have a Quirk. Though... they had absolutely no clue what that Quirk could be. Izuku had tried so hard to activate his unknown Quirk, but all he got was a very red face and apparently his Stand shouting 'NOW' at the top of its lungs. The doctor had helped Inko schedule a counseling session for him, one with a counselor that was supposedly especially good at dealing with cases where the Quirk's activation condition wasn't clear.

"Sorry I'm late," Monoma-san said as she sat down across from Inko, carrying her own coffee. "I had a work issue pop up last-minute that I had to deal with..."

"Oh, it's no bother," Inko assured her. "What sort of work do you do, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh, I work for Takeyama Hero Support. It's a combination support and marketing firm for heroes." She chuckled. "We make costumes and support items for heroes, then we also do marketing and design action figures and merch based on the support items. It's actually pretty efficient, to be honest."

"Oh, how interesting," Inko said. "I think I've heard of it before. Do you do the support gear or the marketing, then?"

"I have a more... organizational role. So it honestly kinda ends up being a bit of both." She sighed and drank some of her coffee. "Especially when there's a problem with both..." she grumbled into her drink.

"Is that the work issue you were talking about?" Inko asked.

Monoma-san sighed, rubbing her temples. "Ugh, yes. The support and merch departments had a 'misunderstanding' about a new bit of support equipment we produced for a hero. Now we have to redo a bunch of merchandise because apparently someone doesn't know what a-" She stopped herself, took a deep breath, then had another sip of her coffee. "Sorry, just... annoyed. What about you, Midoriya-san?"

"Oh, you can call me Inko," Inko told her.

Monoma-san nodded. "Alright, then you can call me Tomiko."

Inko smiled. "Okay, Tomiko. I do legal work, usually just consultations. It's... probably not as exciting as what you do, but it pays the bills."

"I see, I see. And what about Izuku's father? If you don't mind me asking, of course."

Inko sighed. "Ghosted me when I told him I was pregnant. Apparently he gave me a fake name, too, because I couldn't find him anywhere after that."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Tomiko winced.

"Ah, it's okay, I'm just a bit miffed at him. And definitely going to sue for missed child support when I find him."

The blonde chuckled. "Well then I hope you get that."

"Thank you. And if you don't mind, what about Neito-kun's father?"

"I suppose it's only fair," Tomiko said with a nervous chuckle. "He... got into an accident, a few years ago. Died a few days later."

Now it was Inko's turn to wince. "Ah. You have my condolences."

"Thank you. It was a while ago, but it still hurts sometimes," she sighed. "To single mothers, I guess?" She raised her coffee mug slightly.

"To single mothers," Inko agreed, raising her own mug. "So how is Neito-kun doing? With his new Stand?"

"He's... a bit disappointed it doesn't have more immediate destructive power, but we think we've figured out how it works and it seems like it compliments his Quirk perfectly." She chuckled. "Though now we have to figure out how to count how many Waltzes he has. I can't see them and there's apparently a kind of a lot, so it's a bit hard."

"Huh, I wonder how common that is..." Inko muttered. "Having a Stand that compliments your Quirk."

"From what I've heard it's not uncommon," Tomiko answered. "I suppose it's because Stands can be based on a person's personality, while the personal nature of Quirks can make them a pretty integral part of a person's psyche." Tomiko then blanched, looking at Inko. "A-ah, not that... Sorry, I mean-"

Inko smiled. "Don't worry, you're fine. I get what you mean."

Tomiko let out a relieved sigh. "Right. So as I was saying, I think that that's especially true for pro heroes and people who want to be pro heroes, since..." Tomiko stopped herself and thought for a moment. "A lot of people, and honestly a lot of hero schools it seems, place a great deal of importance on heroes' Quirks, for better or worse. My son has, unfortunately, been a bit of a victim of that mentality, as his peers tend to tell him he can't be a good hero with a Quirk that needs other people's Quirks to work..."

"That's terrible!" Inko said.

Tomiko nodded sadly. "It is. I've tried to talk to his teachers about it, but they don't think they can do anything about it." She grumbled. "Or they just don't want to try hard enough."

Inko's mouth twitched. "Honestly, I'm worried Izuku has been facing something similar, though he hasn't directly told me about anything like that. He's just been... so withdrawn."

Tomiko copied Inko's frown. "Yeah, it's... not great. So how is Izuku's Stand?"

"He's actually really excited about it," Inko said, grateful for the change of subject. "I think part of it is that... well, the fact that he's thought he was Quirkless for most of his life, so now that he has a power, he's been testing it out rather enthusiastically." She laughed. "He always liked speculating about other people's Quirks, I remember this one time he got really curious about how mine worked and had me test out every little exploit he could think of in how it worked. Honestly, I learned a lot from that. But now he has a power of his own, he can just do all that testing himself. I walked in on him frying an egg in midair somehow with his Stand this morning."

"Oh, so it's definitely fire-based?" Tomiko asked.

"Kinda?" Inko shrugged. "It also has some sort of heating telekinetic effect, but apparently the Stand itself has fire on it and he can actually burn things with those if he wants, though only if he wants to, luckily. He showed me a drawing he made, I guess he would've had to balance the egg on his Stand's wrist or maybe used that cape..."

"Huh, that's interesting. It sounds like it's a pretty versatile Stand."

"I'm glad, honestly," Inko said. "I know... I know I probably should've tried to be a bit more supportive of Izuku when we thought he was Quirkless and he still wanted to be hero, but..." She clenched her fists nervously, sighing. "I was always so... scared. Scared that he would've gotten himself hurt, that he would be at such a disadvantage. But now he has his Stand, some sort of invisible ghost power that can... well, the things he did to test out his powers certainly helped me with my worries. Honestly, having seen him punch through a tree, now I'm kinda worried that he might need to learn how limit his power so he doesn't hurt the villains too much, if anything," she chuckled as she said that last part. "And apparently he does have a Quirk, he just hasn't learned how to use it yet."

"Yeah, I get that," Tomiko nodded. "While I still think Neito can be a hero with his Quirk, the fact that it needs him to touch someone else with a Quirk before he can use his has always given me a bit of worry. With his Stand he has more options, and I've heard Colony Stands can be really hard to counter."

"Why is that?" Inko inquired.

"It has to do with how the whole 'damage to the Stand reflects on the user' thing works," Tomiko answered. "Colony Stands, despite being in multiple parts, are still only one Stand, so even if you smoosh one part of, say, a fifty-member Colony..."

"The user only feels one fiftieth of that damage," Inko guessed. "You know a lot about Stands. Is that because you work for a support company?

"Right on both," Tomiko nodded. "Not everyone in Takeyama knows about Stands, of course, but we have information about them for when we have a Stand User client. I checked up on our notes after I learned Neito was a Stand User, too."

"Is that... something you're allowed to do?" Inko asked.

"Oh, yeah, there's not really any restrictions on it. Well, unless you're talking about our information on the specific Stands of our clients, which I didn't touch. Honestly a lot of it's probably just what a Stand User would eventually pick up from experience. I'll send you an email about it later, you and Izuku should probably know it since he has a Stand too."

Inko smiled. "Thank you."

ゴゴゴゴゴ

Midoriya Izuku grit his teeth, staring at the adoring faces of the classmates that would only jeer at him a week ago. If there was any doubt in his mind that his entire school hated Quirkless people, the events of his first homeroom class back from Bakkuta had thoroughly obliterated it. He managed to bury down his frustration, keeping himself from shouting at the people who suddenly wanted to be his friends without apologizing for or even acknowledging how they'd bullied him, but unseen to everyone else (hopefully) his Stand yelled that frustration out, fire-hair flaring.

Having a Stand was interesting. He could see through its eyes, feel what it felt, and control it as if it were his own body. The Stand didn't really seem to have a mind of its own, just an extension of his own mind that sometimes seemed to act on his emotions or subconscious thoughts if he wasn't focusing on it, so it was like having a second body that was a flaming ghost with superpowers nobody else could see. And that meant that its rage was just his own rage that he was holding back from letting out in the body that everyone could see.

It started when his homeroom teacher, who never really seemed to have the time of day for him before, eagerly greeted him, welcoming him back from the hospital and asking him how his Quirk was. That had thrown him off guard. Mom told him that the school had been informed that he wasn't actually Quirkless, it was part of his medical information, but she'd also said that she told them not to ask him about it or acknowledge it until he was ready. And with him not actually knowing what his Quirk was, just having a more esoteric power that none of his classmates would know about, he certainly didn't feel ready. But with that question, the entire class's attention was suddenly on him. And in that moment, fearing they'd go back to hating him if he didn't demonstrate any sort of superpower, he panicked and stretched the truth a bit.

He didn't lie, technically, but he used his Stand to show off something that looked like a Quirk and only referred to it as his "power," not a Quirk or a Stand. He picked up a pencil with his ethereal green fingers, telling the class that he had a telekinesis-based power, then mentioned that he could also launch it away from him but didn't because that would make it heat up like it was on fire and that was probably dangerous. His classmates showered him in compliments, telling him how cool it was and how he could totally be a hero with his new power.

"Why didn't you realize you had such an awesome power, then?" one of his classmates asked. Yubi, the boy who could elongate his fingers.

"I uh... My mom went to a doctor, when I couldn't figure out how to activate it originally when I was four," Izuku said. "The doctor apparently thought you couldn't have a Quirk if you had an extra toe joint, and we only recently learned that that's not true. And it's a bit... not hard to activate, really, but finicky in a way that I wouldn't have just stumbled upon, since I thought I was Quirkless."

"That doctor's a total quack!" Yubi spat out. "I've got the extra toe joint and I still have a Quirk!" He demonstrated, elongating his fingers. "You should sue the pants off that guy!"

"I think Mom's looking in on that, actually..." Izuku muttered.

"Good!"

"So what was that thing where you collapsed, then?" another classmate asked.

"I guess it was like a buildup of energy or something, and my body didn't release it properly?" Izuku said uncertainly. The doctors had said that his Stand had been too much for his body and mind to handle at first, right? "So hopefully that shouldn't happen again."

It was bittersweet, Izuku thought, as his Stand invisibly glared at yet another classmate that was trying to act like his friend despite having called him worthless not even a week ago. His classmates were finally being friendly with him, they weren't insulting him or calling him useless, but... He couldn't enjoy it. They hadn't apologized to him, they hadn't told them they were wrong to call him useless. All they saw in him was a Quirk that didn't exist. Well, at least one person wasn't suddenly trying to befriend him without apologizing for what they did, for what that was worth...

"Aren't you guys forgetting something?" Kacchan grumbled. He hadn't joined in with the classmates, and if anything had seemed to get even grumpier the more they showed interest in Izuku.

"What, you jealous?" one of the classmates asked.

"Tch, like hell," Kacchan scoffed. Izuku couldn't see his hands from under his desk, but he could feel the fact that they were clenched. Were they trembling? Izuku couldn't tell. Kacchan was angry, but... he was glaring at everyone but Izuku. He snuck glances when he didn't think Izuku was looking, his expression a bit softer than anything Izuku had seen on him in recent years and definitely a lot softer than the look he gave the others, but Kacchan couldn't see Izuku's Stand's fiery eyes on him.

To be perfectly honest, Izuku didn't know what to make of it all. His Stand's fierce flames eventually calmed down to a lower simmer, and Izuku sighed and relaxed a bit as the class calmed back down. They were still friendlier with him than he was used to and wow that was a bit depressing to think about actually, but they had to get back to what they were there for. Which was (supposedly) learning. Izuku readied himself for an uncomfortable day.

ゴゴゴゴゴ

Izuku leaned against a railing overlooking a lowered path, an area a bit away from his school and on the path home. His Stand manifested next to him, squeezing on the rail in his anger with enough pressure to make it shudder. Izuku took a breath, concentrating and stopping it before it could destroy public property. "You ever feel like hitting something?" he asked the familiar feeling behind him.

The boy guffawed. "Fuckin' hear that. I'd offer my punching bag, but..." Izuku felt Kacchan lift a hand to awkwardly scratch the back of his head. "I probably shouldn't try to be all buddy-buddy and pretend nothing ever happened like the rest of those assholes."

He still didn't turn around, at least with his real body, but Izuku had his Stand turn around so he could see Kacchan. He looked almost... nervous. "I think I'd probably destroy it."

Kacchan raised an eyebrow, but didn't question it. He took a deep breath, in then out. Another, in then out. "Listen, I'm... sure this is probably too little too late, but... I'm sorry. I was a jerk to you. We all were. It shouldn't've taken you almost dying for me to realize that, but..." He sighed. "I'm just an asshole."

Izuku laughed. "You know... I think you're the first of my classmates to do that. Apologize, I mean."

"Yeah, they're all assholes too. I'm not saying I'm not, but I guess I'm just the only one who actually realized it. Or has the guts to admit it. Listen I'm not..." He sighed. "I'm not gonna try to be your friend again or anything. Probably exploded that bridge pretty well a long time ago. I just... Basically got told that I was a major jerk to you like a lot and thought you deserved an apology." He growled, glaring in the general direction of their school. "Hell, you deserve more than one apology, but I'm apparently the only one who noticed."

Izuku turned around so Kacchan could see his face. "Thanks, Kacchan." He rubbed his eye, feeling a tear start to form. "That... Means a lot to me, actually."

Kacchan bit his lip, but took another deep breath and nodded. For some reason, it looked like some weird golden sparks danced on his hands for a moment. "Right. I should... I should probably go, then." He turned around, starting to walk off.

Izuku hesitated for a moment, then said, "Wait."

That stopped Kacchan. He turned around, raising an eyebrow.

Izuku clenched his fists. "Do... do you wanna know a secret?" he asked softly.

"Uh... Okay?"

Izuku laughed quietly to himself and took a few steps forward, bringing Kacchan into his Stand's range. He moved his Stand in front of him and put its hand on Kacchan's shoulder. "I still don't know what my Quirk is..."

Kacchan's brow furrowed as he stared at the spot Izuku's Stand was touching. He brought his hands up, feeling the invisible forearm attached to the hand. "That's an arm," he said. "If your Quirk is telekinesis then there's no way you've already practiced enough to somehow make an invisible arm."

"Do me a favor and look up... probably something like 'Stand weird ghost' or maybe 'Stand pro hero,'" Izuku said, removing his hand from Kacchan's shoulder.

"No idea what that means, but I'm guessing it's related to what you're trying to tell me..." Kacchan took out his phone and typed what Izuku said in. His confused frown deepened as he tapped on the first link. "The fuck is..." After reading for a bit, he rubbed the bridge of his nose and just... blinked and stared at the sky. "A small part of my brain is telling me that you somehow set this all up as some weird prank, but the actually rational part knows that that's the asshole part and also there is literally no way you could or would set this all up to fuck with me."

"I uh..." Izuku started to say, but trailed off when Kacchan held up a hand.

"Gonna need a minute; this is like the second time this whole week my entire worldview has been shattered and this time it's 'ghosts are real and give people superpowers apparently.'"

They stood in awkward silence for a few moments, Kacchan staring at the clouds and occasionally raising his phone above his head so he could reread some of whatever article he found about Stands.

Eventually Kacchan's head snapped back down to look at Izuku. "Right, gonna process the rest of that later. So you... don't actually have a Quirk, but instead a sorta psychic power that only other people who also have that psychic power can see?"

"Uh, I do actually have a Quirk, I just... d-don't know how to use it so when the teacher asked me about my Quirk I kinda panicked..." Izuku bit his lip, feeling more unsure as he explained himself. "Sorry for lying..."

Kacchan sighed, clenching his fists. "Honestly, I don't think I can blame you... So you don't have any idea what your Quirk is?"

"Not yet..." Izuku frowned. "Honestly, if I had a Quirk, then why did nobody feel it? They had to use some sort of specialized equipment or test or something to-"

"Hold on," Kacchan interrupted. "Why did nobody... feel your Quirk?"

"Yeah, you know that feeling you get in the back of your head when someone's nearby of where their Quirk Factor is in their body?" Izuku asked, gesturing towards Kacchan's hands. "I guess it's because of the supernatural parts of Quirks..."

Kacchan stared blankly at him. "De- Izuku, can you... feel other people's Quirks?" he asked calmly.

Izuku blinked. "Oh. Yeah, in hindsight, that might not be normal..."

"I dunno, seems pretty normal," Kacchan said. He took a deep breath, then started screaming, "IF IT'S YOUR FUCKING QUIRK!"

Izuku winced at the volume but didn't complain. "Yeah, I guess you might be right." He scratched his chin, thinking about it. "It... I don't know, I think it might be more than that, though? Now that I think about it there were times that the feeling changed a bit, but I just assumed I was jealous at the time... I just don't know enough about it, I guess."

"Well at least now you have some idea what your Quirk is?" Kacchan suggested.

"Yeah, there is that. Thanks, Kacchan."

"Don't think I really did much there..." Kacchan shrugged. "So does your Stand have like a name or something? Or like... how does it work?"

Izuku scratched behind his neck, laughing nervously. "Honestly it... might be a bit of a weird name, but when I tried to think of a name it was the only thing I could think of that felt fitting. Don't Stop Me." When he said his Stand's name, he felt the inexplicable urge to strike a dramatic pose... which he immediately used Don't Stop Me to indulge without Kacchan seeing.

"Okay?" Kacchan said. "If you wanna call your magic ghost power thing something weird I don't think I can stop you."

"What are you- Oh!" Izuku laughed. "No, its name is Don't Stop Me."

"Huh," Kacchan said, then nodded. "Yeah, I guess I can get that... Does sound a bit weird if you're just saying it by itself."

"Yeah, I..." Izuku trailed off as he started to hear a series of loud, heavy thumps. He saw a large man with wolflike features barrel towards them on all fours, and something told him to withdraw his Stand.

The wolf-mutant man slid to a stop next to Kacchan, panting heavily. "Stupid... wolves... not being distance runners..." he wheezed. The man had the ears and tail of a wolf, a shaggy mane of grey hair, and claws on his hands and sandaled feet.

"Uh, sir, are you okay?" Izuku asked.

"Dude, we were kinda having a moment," Kacchan growled at the man.

The man, having caught his breath, popped up to standing. "I am now," he said, grinning wide enough to reveal sharp fangs. He clapped an arm around Kacchan's shoulder. "Couldn't shake my tail, but now I've got some hostages!"

Kacchan growled, raising his hands toward the wolfman's face. "The fuck you do! Bet you gotta be pretty weak to sound with those ears!"

"Ah, ah, ah!" But he was forced to stop when the wolf villain tapped Kacchan's neck with his claws. "Wouldn't do that if I were you, kid," the man growled in Kacchan's ear. "Whatever sound Quirk you've got won't debilitate me enough that I can't put my claws in your carotid."

"Kacchan, no!" Izuku shouted, summoning his Stand. It was invisible, so hopefully he could...

The man laughed, looking directly at Don't Stop Me with a cocky grin. "Oh, so you're a Stand User too, kid?" A silvery aura surrounded the wolfman, before coalescing beside him as a silvery humanoid wolf. As opposed to the man, who looked mostly human except with some wolflike features, the Stand looked more like a vaguely human-shaped wolf, with a wolf-shaped head and rather large mouth. The werewolf Stand growled at Don't Stop Me, revealing some very sharp-looking and very large fangs, while the wolfman User tapped Kacchan's neck again. "That ain't gonna work. Now how 'bout you both cooperate with me and we can all leave here without a scratch?"

"Die!" Kacchan shouted, quickly throwing his palm in the villain's face and lighting it up.

"Ah, fuck!" the man cursed, stumbling back a bit at the small explosion right in front of his face, but he didn't let go of Kacchan. He growled, closing his clawed fingers towards Kacchan's neck.

"He's going to claw Kacchan's throat!" Izuku thought with horror. In that moment, he felt something in the wolf mutant's Quirk Factor. A feeling that he'd felt before in other people's Quirks, but always dismissed as jealousy and wishing he could have a Quirk like them. But... if sensing Quirk Factors was part of his Quirk, then this might be too! He yanked on that feeling, grabbing it and pulling as hard as he could in the hope that it would save Kacchan.

Izuku felt a shift in his body as he activated his Quirk for quite possibly the first time ever, but he was more focused on the wolf villain. His fingernails dug into Kacchan's skin, but failed to... fingernails? The man growled, baring suddenly mutationless teeth as his suddenly mutationless fingernails failed to pierce through Kacchan's skin. His wolf ears and tail had disappeared, and he even seemed to have gotten shorter. Actually why did Kacchan look a bit shorter as well?

Realization dawning on him, Izuku looked down at his own hands. His own newly clawed hands. He flicked a pair of wolf ears he didn't have before, noticing how his sight, smell, and hearing had suddenly become sharper.

Oh.

That's what it was.

ゴゴゴゴゴ

Stand Name: Don't Stop Me

User: Midoriya Izuku

Namesake: Don't Stop Me Now by Queen

Dub Name: Nonstop

Type: Close-Range

Stats:
-Destructive Power: A
-Speed: A
-Range: C
-Persistence: A
-Precision: B
-Developmental Potential: A

Appearance: Don't Stop Me is a dark green humanoid figure of Izuku's build with hair, eyes, vambraces, and a cape made out of emerald fire. Don't Stop Me's body has a black tiger stripe pattern and it has two horns of the same 'material' as its body on top of its head that are slightly reminiscent of All Might's signature hair. Don't Stop Me's flames will become more or less intense depending on Izuku's physical and emotional state.

Abilities: Don't Stop Me is capable of wreathing objects and even people with an aura of emerald flames by touching or hitting them. This flaming aura does not damage the object, instead causing it to accelerate in a direction chosen by Izuku at potentially high speeds. The flaming aura also heats up and damages any other object that touches it as if it was real fire, though Izuku has some control over the temperature. The flaming aura has a much higher range it can travel away from Izuku before losing power than Don't Stop Me's effective striking range, though he may only change the direction of the motion with a direct touch from Don't Stop Me. While Don't Stop Me is immune to the burning effect its own fiery aura, it can still burn Izuku if he touches an object under Don't Stop Me's effect. Moreover, the flame effects on Don't Stop Me's body are capable of burning things like real fire if Izuku wants them to.

ゴゴゴゴゴ

A/N: Was not originally planning for this chapter to be a cliffhanger, but it was getting pretty long. Or I guess maybe I just make short chapters? Honestly I don't know, I usually have chapters around 4000-5000 words because that sorta tends to be when I think 'yeah that's a good chapter length' though sometimes I will go over if there's like a really big scene that I don't wanna chop in half (in a non-cliffhangery way). I mean I guess I should probably compare/contrast with other people's chapters but eh it's probably fine. Where was I? Right, cliffhanger. Didn't originally plan on making this a cliffhanger but it was getting kinda long compared to my other chapters approaching a spot that I felt was a pretty point to leave off at. Plus this way I only have one Stand stat card thingy on this chapter. I mean we didn't really see much of Don't Stop Me's power, but there were some mentions so you get this to chew on 'til next chapter. Which honestly might be sooner rather than later because while I'm going to try working on some of my other fics I'm still feeling Inspired with this...

I feel like it might be pretty obvious now who the man with the arrow I mentioned in the first chapter was...

Also honestly Stand senses are kinda weird. I think it might be on a Stand-to-Stand basis, from what I remember? Star Platinum is supposed to have enhanced senses or something, and I remember at one point Jotaro summons it specifically to see out of its eyes. Similarly, Koichi uses Echoes ACT 1 for recon at multiple points in DiU. Meanwhile, I remember in the Ebony Devil episode Polnareff had trouble fighting because he couldn't see what Silver Chariot was fighting. Or heck maybe that's just Early Episode Weirdness, though I think Gwess also wasn't entirely aware of what Goo Goo Dolls was doing but at the same time GGD seems to sorta have some Automatic Stand elements despite being considered Long-Range and not Automatic?