SonicMax: You know the Team 6 motto, No Proofreadersdaily. No Regrets.
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The beeping sound from the heart monitor awoke Izuku, with the early morning light creeping through the curtains. It didn't take long for Izuku to figure out he was in a hospital room, with the sound coming from the heart monitor and the faint aroma of medicine being dead giveaways. There were chairs lined against the wall for visitors and a bland painting of sailboats in the ocean hanging above them. He looked over to the clock on the wall and saw that it was a few minutes past six.
Izuku winced when he sat up in his bed, feeling a shooting pain move around his head. He placed a hand on his forehead to soothe his aching head when he felt bandages wrapped around his forehead.
"What happened?" Izuku asked no one in particular as he was the only one in the room. Izuku moved his hand over his forehead, feeling the bandages when he felt a huge pain after his hand moved above his left eye. Then all of his memories came flooding in.
Izuku remembered hearing the woman's cry for help and the man standing over her. He also remembers getting into a fight with the man after he slammed the woman into the wall. He also remembers getting hit by the man's quirk, which explains the bandages. But some things still bothered him about the altercation.
"Why did that last acid ball move faster than the previous ones," Izuku muttered to himself. He didn't understand what happened with his quirk. Izuku remembered being slammed to the ground, so he thinks it might have something to do with it, but he wasn't sure.
The other thing that bothered him was this strange feeling that he had in his heart. It was a burning sensation, but he wasn't in any pain. His heart rate was going at the same speed as it was when he woke up. Izuku didn't know what it was about, but he liked this feeling and doesn't wish for it to go away.
Looking around the room once more, Izuku saw a button to signal one of the nurses. Seeing that he had nothing better to do, Izuku pushed the button to see if he could get any answers from the night before. Shortly after pushing the button, a tall male nurse entered the room.
"We didn't expect you to be up this early," the nurse said cheerfully.
"I usually wake up around this time," Izuku bashfully responded. " Do you know what happened?"
The nurse moved to the foot of the bed, picked up the clipboard attached to it, and read over his file. "I don't know the whole story, but what I do know is you, and two others, arrived around 10 o'clock by ambulance. You have second-degree burns above your left eye and a few bruises but nothing serious."
Hearing that he arrived at the hospital with two other people made Izuku happy because it meant that the woman from last night was safe. But it also meant that the man was also there and that made Izuku worry. The nurse saw the worried look on Izuku's face, so he tried his best to calm his nerves.
"If you're worried about the people that you came with, don't be. They're both fine, but the man has an officer waiting in his room," the nurse said and it calmed Izuku down. Izuku was glad that the man wasn't going to get away with his crime and was going to face justice.
"That's good," Izuku said. The nurse had a surprised look on his face after hearing what the green-haired boy said. Izuku soon quickly realized what he said and began to panically backtrack his previous statement. "I mean as in the woman getting help." Izuku was glad that the nurse smiled after he said that, he didn't want them to think that he enjoyed it whenever someone gets arrested.
A few awkward minutes passed afterward as the nurse checked over Izuku's vitals, never really making eye contact with each other.
"Well, everything looks fine, and you can get out later today," the nurse put the clipboard back to the foot of the bed. "We already contacted your guardian last night, and told her that she can come when you're up, so I'm sure she wants to come and visit you."
"Ok, but can you do me a favor?" Izuku asked, and the nurse nodded his head indicating for Izuku to continue speaking. "Can you wait for a few hours until you contact her? It gets really busy around the orphanage in the morning, and I don't want to inconvenience her."
"We can do that, but you need to promise us that you'll get some rest during this time." Izuku agreed and the nurse left the room, leaving Izuku alone with the sound of the heart monitor lulling him to sleep.
(2 hours later)
If you saw Haru Azumi move, you would have assumed that she had some kind of speed quirk. She weaved around pedestrians, dodged moving cars, and confused everyone as they wondered how a woman her age was moving this fast in a dress.
Haru didn't care what they were thinking or who was in her way because one thing was on her mind, check on Izuku.
Ever since she got the call that Izuku was in the hospital, it was all that she could think about. She wanted to visit him the night of the incident, but all the doctors, nurses, and secretaries told her that visiting hours were over. That annoyed her to no end because one of her kids was hurt and she wasn't allowed to see them.
When Haru started working at the orphanage she took it upon herself to be the mother figure that the children lost or never had. It also helped her fulfill a dream she had ever since she was a little girl.
Haru always wanted to be a mother, someone to look up to, someone to go to when they're hurt or scared, and someone to rely on. While everyone else had dreams of being heroes and stopping the bad guys, Haru wanted to be a mother to prevent future villains.
But her dreams were extinguished before they could ignite.
After Haru graduated from college she, and her now ex-husband, tried to have a baby. Her train of thought would be that she would stay at home and take care of her child while her husband would provide for the family. But after a year of trying and all the tests coming back negative, Haru decided to see a doctor and check to see if everything was alright. After a quick examination, it didn't take long for the doctor to figure out the problem.
She is infertile.
Hearing that word was the most heartbreaking thing she ever felt. Haru couldn't believe, more like didn't want to believe, that her dream ended before it could even start.
Haru didn't know what to do with herself. All her life she wanted to be a mother, and now that can't ever happen.
Haru isolated herself, never went out or talked with anyone, not even her husband or her family. She felt like a failure, she couldn't do something that almost every female could do. She hated herself for it.
She and her husband then started to argue.
Haru didn't know why, but after some time passed she began to believe that it was her husband's fault that she couldn't get pregnant. She believed that nothing was wrong with her and that her husband was the problem and she believed it. So Haru did the only thing that she thought was right.
Haru started cheating on her husband.
Sleeping around with random men she met at bars, parks, cafes, anywhere she could find someone for meaningless sex. Haru knew what she was doing was wrong, but she didn't care as long as she got pregnant. But no matter how much Haru tried, she couldn't get pregnant.
Then her husband caught her.
One night, during her weekly escapades, her husband walked in on her. He was so furious, that he put a couple of holes in their bedroom wall and threw the random man out their second-story window. Haru still remembers how red his face was.
The fight that happened afterward was their worst and final one. Words were said that she wishes she can take back. Haru even remembers there were some times when it looked and felt like her husband would hurt her, but he always backed off.
And then when it neared the end of their fight, Haru said something that she still regrets to this day.
Haru's husband started to calm down and began packing his suitcase.
"What are you doing?!"
"I'm leaving, and when I come back in the morning I want a divorce!" Haru's husband forcefully slammed the suitcase lid shut and stormed to the front door. "I hope that he was worth throwing away five years of marriage." He slammed the door and made his way to his car.
Haru chased after him, blinded by anger, catching him as he just opened the driver's side door.
"Well, maybe I wouldn't need to throw away those five years if you were able to do your job as a man and get me pregnant!" Haru seethed. "And just to let you know, there were a lot more men before him!"
Not wanting to tolerate any more of his future ex's shit, he drove away.
After signing the divorce papers, Haru never saw her ex-husband again. But she didn't care, she saw it as a good thing because now she didn't have to worry about someone catching them.
But as time went on, and nothing changed, Haru grew to accept that she wouldn't get pregnant. She would be lying if she said that she was fine when she came to terms with it, Haru swears to this day that she was the sole reason that the stock for tissues and ice cream rose. Nonetheless, she came to terms with it and began to look up other ways to become a mother.
Going at it the natural way won't work and a donor definitely wouldn't work, so there was only one option left, adoption. Haru hated herself for not thinking about it earlier, adoption, maybe it was because she wanted to feel that bond that mothers have with their newborns, or maybe she wanted to bring something into the world that was a symbol of her's and her ex-husband's love.
Whatever the reason was, Haru didn't care, but what she did care about was becoming a mother. So to say that she was excited when she arrived at the orphanage would be an understatement.
Now, Haru knows that she wouldn't be able to adopt right away, having to go through multiple interviews and background checks, but she was excited that she was one step closer to her dream.
Arriving at the orphanage, Haru noticed that the building and the surrounding area were pretty dull. Wilting flowers, dead grass, and the building itself was just a plain gray building with dirty windows. Haru felt her heartache by seeing the state of the property and building but held hope that the interior would be better.
It wasn't.
The wallpaper was old and peeling, the furniture was either breaking or broken, and there was a strange odor. Haru felt like crying when she saw the living arrangements the kids had to go through daily. And when Haru thought it couldn't get any worse, the caretaker called for the children.
If Haru felt like crying when she saw the children's environment, she wanted to cry when she saw the children. Some had bruises, others were sick, and they were all filthy and wearing tattered clothes. Looking over them, Haru noticed they all had miserable looks on their faces, pleading with her to adopt them.
"Any of them catch your eye?"
That brought Haru out of her trance. She couldn't believe those words came out of the caretaker's mouth. Haru felt disgusted that the caretaker was treating this like she was shopping for a dress or car like these kids were nothing more than objects that they wanted to get rid of.
"Excuse me?" Haru asked, hoping that she misheard the caretaker.
"I asked if any caught your eye?"
It hit Haru that she couldn't adopt any of the children in front of her, knowing that this is how they live daily. So Haru did what she felt was the right thing to do.
Demand to become one of the caretakers.
It wasn't hard, the caretaker that was showing her around quit after she demanded the job.
The hard part was gaining the children's trust. She first sold anything that she didn't need or use like clothes, jewelry, and old kitchen appliances. She then used some of the money to renovate the building with a fresh coat of paint, some flowers, and new wallpaper. Haru then spent the rest of the money on new clothes for the children and some food as well. After spending the rest of her money Haru gave the children something that money couldn't buy.
Love.
Haru knew that if any of the children were going to trust her, and any adult that will adopt them, they need to know what love is. Whenever a kid got hurt, Haru was there to make them feel better. If a child wanted seconds for any meal, Haru would never deny them. And if any of the children needed to let their emotions run wild, Haru was there to give them the biggest hug she could muster.
Even though Haru was never their real mom or adoptive mom, she took pride in being their temporary mom.
Then something changed when Izuku came to the orphanage. In all her years working at the orphanage, Haru never expected a quirkless kid to be dropped off at the orphanage. Now, Haru knows that 20% of the population is quirkless, but a majority of quirkless people are either in their late 40s or older. Haru was surprised that someone so young could be quirkless.
Haru still remembers when she got the call.
Getting a call from the police was the last thing she expected when she woke up that morning. She was also worried as well, thinking that one of her children got into any trouble. To her shock, she was told that a young quirkless boy would be temporarily taking inhabitance at the orphanage.
Hearing that a child will temporarily stay in their care broke Haru's heart because there were multiple times when kids were dropped off at their front door and were told they were staying "temporarily," but then ended up being eligible for adoption because mommy and daddy abandoned them.
But this case was different.
This was the first time Haru would be taking care of someone who's quirkless. Now, she knows how people with mutation quirks are treated, she doesn't even want to think how the quirkless, let alone a kid, are treated. She didn't know how she'll handle taking care of a quirkless kid.
But Haru made a promise to herself that no matter what type of quirk, emitter, transformation, mutation, or quirkless she will always treat them like every child that she takes care of.
Haru had it all planned out for when Izuku arrived. She would have all the children playing in the backyard so he wouldn't get overwhelmed, have the other two caretakers anywhere else other than the orphanage, and give him a tour of the building.
But when Izuku arrived, Haru had to set her plans to the side because when she first saw Izuku she saw a heartbroken, empty boy. Now, she knew what happened, some of the children went through worse, but Izuku was quirkless and she didn't know how his home life was. But seeing his mental state, Haru assumed that it wasn't horrible.
After the tour of the orphanage, Izuku wanted to take a nap. Haru didn't think it was good to sleep so close to dinner time, but knowing what the young boy went through she didn't have the heart to tell him no.
After putting Izuku to bed, Haru made a promise that Izuku wouldn't face any discrimination at the orphanage and that he would have a great childhood.
And that's how it was for the past eight years.
Now there were some hiccups along the way, bullying, discrimination, and forced labor but never once was Izuku unhappy.
And when Haru got the call that Izuku was in the hospital she was terrified. She was scared that Izuku was seriously hurt or worse. But she was also confused as to why Izuku was out so late when she was certain that he was at home doing his homework. Haru didn't know the reason why he was out late, the only thing she did know was he was in the hospital.
After arriving at the hospital, Haru rushed to the front desk, scaring the receptionist a little bit.
"Where's Izuku!" Haru growled, her voice becoming distorted
"I-i'm sorry?" The receptionist stammered, cowering into her seat.
Seeing that she was scaring the receptionist, Haru calmed down and put a friendly smile on her face.
"I'm sorry. I'm here to visit Izuku Midoriya. I'm his guardian, Haru Azumi," Haru explained.
Still freaked out by the woman in front of her, the receptionist quickly typed away on the computer.
"H-he's in r-room 214 in the C-wing."
"Thank you."
Haru quickly rushed off to Izuku's room while the receptionist went on an early lunch break.
It didn't take long for Haru to reach Izuku's room. She could hear his heart monitor through the door, which was slightly comforting as it sounded normal.
She took a deep breath and slowly opened the door.
