Ichiro felt a strong clean smell enter his nose abruptly. His consciousness slowly returned to him, allowing him to start thinking. Doctor's office smell. Why am I in the doctor's office? He opened his eyes to a bright light. Ichiro shielded his eyes for a moment, letting them adjust. Now that he could see more clearly, he could get a good look at his surroundings.

He was laying down in a hospital bed under a thin green blanket. On his right side he saw two bags with fluid in them, and there were green curtains completely surrounding his bed. His mother sat on a bench in the corner, watching something on the television hanging on the ceiling.

"Mom?" He asked. His mother looked over to him with a relieved look on her face.

"Oh thank goodness, honey, you're awake." She sighed, "the doctors said not to worry but you know how I get when you're hurt. Baby, my heart couldn't handle it if something were to happen to you."

"What happened?" Ichiro asked, trying his best to remember the events of the day. His mom frowned.

"The school told me that you were in a fight and that you beat some kid up? Then apparently you passed out with a temperature as cold as ice." She explained. Ichiro squinted his eyes, the memories coming back slowly. He remembered Bakugo's explosions, a feeling of power over the flames, his fire breath, and then the feeling of dizziness that followed soon afterwards.

"Where's Big Brother Izuku?" He asked, looking around.

"He's still at school, I rushed over to the hospital as soon as I heard

that you were here. He has school work to do and the doctors said that it wasn't necessary for us all to be here. Honey, how could you get into a fight like that? Please don't do that ever again, my heart can't take it." Ichiro felt a pang of guilt well up inside of him.

"I was protecting him from the meanies mom." Ichiro said, trying to justify himself. "These three meanies were beating up Big Brother and I couldn't just sit there and watch."

He was prepared to say more when suddenly the curtain parted to reveal a man dressed in a white coat. The man had a round face with a short and stout stature, he wore two giant spectacles on his face that completely covered his eyes, looking more like googles than glasses.

"Ah, it seems that you're finally awake, Mister Ichiro Midoriya. My name is Doctor Kyudai Garaki." He introduced.

"Oh Doctor, thank goodness you're here. Will my son be ok?" His mother asked immediately.

"Yes, he will be just fine. There is no doubt about that. Though I do have some questions for the little one here." The doctor said, turning back to Ichiro. "Before you lost consciousness, what is the last thing you remember, Mister Midoriya?"

"Um, there was this really mean explosion kid beating up Izuku. So I rushed in to stop him… and I felt…" He trailed off, not really knowing the right words to describe the sensation he'd felt.

"Power?" Doctor Garaki guessed, "a sensation like a surge finally being set free?" Ichiro found himself nodding, yes that was exactly what it had felt like.

"I remember breathing fire after that, and then… I felt dizzy."

"Hmm, I see." The doctor said, turning back to his mother. "We ran some tests while he was still unconscious, and it seems that Ichiro has developed his quirk." His mother's eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh baby, I'm so happy for you!" She said, embracing Ichiro in a hug. They embraced for a while, before the doctor cleared his throat to bring attention back to himself.

"We're calling it 'Ghostly Pyre' due to how it creates green flames. Basically, it allows you to breathe green fire and then control that fire. You can control fire that you didn't create, but it will be much more difficult. The reason that you collapsed and have slight amnesia is due to your quirk's backlash." Ichiro considered the doctor's words over in his mind. So I can breathe fire like daddy, but…

"But that's not how mommy and daddy's quirks work." He pointed out. Doctor Garaki reached over behind his bed and brought a stool over.

"What are you and your husband's quirks, Mrs. Midoriya?" He asked, taking a seat.

"Oh, well they're nothing special, I can pull small objects towards me, and my husband breathes fire." She said, putting a hand on her cheek.

"Well that certainly explains it." The doctor said, "Ichiro has a combination of them both!" Both Ichiro and his mother looked at the doctor dumbly. "He has your husband's fire breath and your minor telekinesis, just a little bit of a mutated version of your quirk." He explained.

"I didn't even know that was possible." His mother said, "I mean, aren't kids supposed to get a copy of only one parent's quirk?"

"It's a little rare I must admit, but definitely not impossible." Doctor Garaki explained. "You see some kids develop combinations of their parents' quirks and some develop mutations of those quirks. Ichiro just has a mutation of your quirk and his father's quirk."

"Wow," His mother breathed, "that's incredible. Honey, I'm so proud!"

"Now, there are some stipulations to this that you need to be aware of. Due to the… destructive nature… of Ichiro's quirk, I would recommend that he attend group therapy classes. In these classes, Ichiro would attain a basic level of control on his quirk in order to prevent it from going out of control like we saw today."

"Therapy?" His mother asked, "Doctor, are you sure he really needs that? I mean, no one has control of their quirk when it first awakens." The doctor shifted in his chair, reorienting himself.

"It has been proven—in recent studies—that those who have more

naturally destructive quirks are more likely to go out of control. In response to this, the government of Japan has started a public service to provide therapy to such quirk users. The therapy is meant to reduce the amount of quirk related accidents in society." The doctor explained.

"I've never heard of anything like that Doctor."

"Well, it was only initiated two years ago." The doctor explained.

"Oh wow, and you really think that these classes are effective?"

"Absolutely." The doctor confirmed. "Of course, whether or not he takes this class would be entirely up to you as his mother. This paper has all the information about the therapy sessions. I strongly encourage you to sign him up for these classes." Doctor Garaki pulled a slip of paper out of his coat pocket and handed it to his mother.

His mother briefly skimmed the details before looking up. "I'll consider it Doctor."

…

When Izuku had returned to the fight with the teachers, they'd found his unconscious brother and a charred Bakugo lying on the ground. The smell of burnt flesh permeated the air, infiltrating his lungs like some sort of parasite. He then watched Bakugo and Ichiro get shoved into the back of an ambulance and driven away to the hospital.

He'd been told by the teachers that his mother had been contacted about everything that had happened. Though he couldn't get that dreadful feeling of concern out of his chest. He found it hard to focus on his schoolwork, he didn't want to eat by the time lunch came, and he felt himself struggling to answer the teachers' questions. By the time he got out onto the streets, he could barely focus on walking.

Izuku sighed as he approached his apartment, with nothing but his own thoughts to accompany him. If there's any sort of God listening, he prayed, please… let me be a hero. I hate causing other people pain. Ichiro and Bakugo got hurt today because of me. I just want to protect people instead of hurting them. He replayed the events of the day again in his mind, a perfect imprint of everything that had happened. "Go get the teachers with Taro, big brother" Izuku remembered hearing those words and shamefully abandoning Ichiro to fight Bakugo all on his own.

What kind of hero abandoned those that they cared about? Who was he kidding? He couldn't be a hero acting like that. He'd taken the first opportunity presented and escaped. Izuku beat himself for the cowardly act as he opened the door to their apartment. If God had heard his prayer, then he had no obligation to answer it for someone like Izuku.

"I'm home," He called in a dreadful voice as he took off his shoes and set them aside on the shoe mat. The hallway to their apartment had a long rug that ran across the floor and various pictures of Izuku and Ichiro on the walls. The door to his mother's room was on his left and the door to their room was on his right. At the end of the short hallway, sat the common room on the left and the kitchen in the back. Their table for four sat on the right side of the common room. The common room had a green couch, a few bookcases, and a television.

An unexpected scene greeted Izuku as he walked into the common room. Ichiro and his mom were sitting at the small coffee table looking over some papers. Ichiro turned around with a smile when Izuku walked in.

"Big brother!" He shouted happily. "I got my quirk today!" Ichiro went up and hugged Izuku, who didn't return it immediately. Ichiro perked up at him. "Is something wrong Izuku?" He asked.

"No… everything is perfectly fine. I'm glad you're safe, Ichiro and congratulations." He said blankly. His mother perked up from the table.

"Honey? I heard that the kids at school today were beating you." Izuku looked at his mom, scared. What had Ichiro told her? He'd worked so hard all these years to make sure she never found out. Izuku felt a small tear beginning to pool on his cheek.

"I… I'm sorry mom." He choked. "I… I didn't want to worry you." His mom got up and walked over to him. She knelt down and wiped his tear away.

"Oh honey. Don't be sorry for it." She said calmly. "I've been on the phone with your principal. They're going to make sure you don't get bullied anymore." Izuku looked at his mom's smile in shock. He'd expected her to be angry, sad, shocked? Anything but whatever this was.

"I… I love you mom." He said quietly. She lightly stroked a hand through his hair.

"Don't worry dear, mommy's got it taken care of. Now how about I make some Katsudon to cheer you up?"

"That sounds great."

…

Later that night, around 10 o'clock, Izuku sat in his bed still awake. Ichiro was safe, he knew that for certain, but what about Bakugo? Nobody had mentioned him all afternoon. Does Ichiro care about Bakugo? Or has he forgotten Bakugo even existed? Does mom care? Why am I the only one who seems to care about the state that Bakugo is in?

He sat up from his bed frustrated. There was nothing he could do to check on Bakugo, as he didn't have a phone yet and he doubted Bakugo did either. I should've done more, I should've tried to do something more to diffuse the situation. He felt the guilt of it all building inside of him. What could he have done differently? On the other side of their room, he heard shifting covers.

"Big Brother Izuku?" Ichiro's voice asked in barely a whisper.

"I'm awake." Izuku whispered back.

"Is something wrong?" Ichiro asked. Izuku didn't respond for a long time.

"Do you care, Ichiro?" He asked.

"About what?"

"About Bakugo." Izuku said finally. "About what you did to him." Ichiro fell silent, confirming Izuku's suspicions.

"I… He was being mean to you Izuku." That got his attention, Ichiro almost never just called him 'Izuku'. "And if I had to go through it all again, I wouldn't have done anything differently. I will always protect you from the meanies, Big Brother."

"But why?" Izuku blurted out. "Why do I have to be the one causing other people pain? Why do I need to be protected? Why don't you care about the pain you caused Bakugo?"

Ichiro was silent for a long time. The silence pierced the room with eerie tension.

"Because you're quirkless…" Ichiro finally said, in a meek voice. "I have to protect you because you're quirkless, and that meanie was hurting you."

"But you were quirkless as well, you didn't have your quirk yet." Izuku pointed out.

"Yes…" Ichiro said. "I just… I didn't want you to get hurt."

Izuku felt a pang in his heart. Ichiro was so genuine with him, and so nice, so honest. "I will use my new quirk to protect you from all the meanies." Ichiro repeated. "And once I learn to control it better, no one will ever mess with you again. Now go to sleep big brother, it's night time." Izuku heard Ichiro's covers shift again in the darkness. Izuku felt a small inkling of a tear streak down his face.

A.N.

Well Izuku isn't too happy right now is he? Oh well, at least Ichiro is safe am I right? By the way the next chapter will probably be the ending to this first little introductory arc we have going on here. After that we're gonna do a time skip to the beginning of the actual MHA story, but there's a few more things I need to set up and cover before then. Depending on how long the next chapter is I might have to split it up into two sections, but we'll see. Oh and also, I will be using a lot of OCs for Ichiro's friends and just other people his own age, so I'd love to hear what you guys think of them as they get introduced. I'll try my best to make them interesting in their own ways. Anyway, I'm done talking. Have a great day, and I'll see ya'll next chapter. :D 3

-Nick