- This fic is inspired by a certain one-shot manga by Komi Naoshi (the mangaka that created Nisekoi). If you haven't read it, I'd suggest not to read it until after you're done with this, since reading that would kinda spoil how this fic will go. If you have already read it, then you probably know how this is going to end, but I still hope you enjoy reading.
- This was actually supposed to be a one-shot, but when I started writing it everything became extremely long, so I eventually decided to just split the story up into multiple chapters.
- The OCs included in this fic are minor characters that are really only there as easter eggs and references to other works, as well as adding a little bit of world-building. Don't worry about having to remember too much about them.
- This is my first attempt at writing fluff and romance, so if everything is super corny and cringy, please forgive me.
- The introductory part of this fic is… kinda long, and might not feel like a romantic fic at first, but I believe you guys can get through it!
- I've included these things: '[1], [2], [3], etc.' They're basically signs that I've written footnotes for stuff mentioned inside the paragraphs those signs are written in, which will be located at the end of chapter A/N.
Izuku's legs swung back and forth animatedly as he waited for the doctor to come back from wherever he had gone off to. A seemingly infinite well of energy was simmering inside him, begging to be released through the juvenile action of running around the room.
His mother told him to behave himself though. So instead, he sat on his chair and played around with his brand new All Might action figure. Izuku remembered his father mentioning something about how it was 'very rare' and that he should take very good care of it. His dad was just being silly though, since he should've already known that Izuku would treasure any gift he got from him.
Time seemed to pass by at a rate slower than a trailing snail, and relentlessly badgering his mother by miming All Might's signature smashes at her with his figurine finally paid off, Inko smiling down at him as she assured him that the doctor would be coming back soon with his lab results. He didn't fully understand her explanation about the science of it all, but that was fine.
All Izuku knew was that he would finally learn what his quirk was, and that was all that mattered!
It felt like an eternity before the egg-headed doctor returned to the room, carrying with him an array of varying papers. Izuku couldn't read the tiny print from his position, but that didn't stop him from leaning forward on the edge of his seat in a vain attempt to do so.
The doctor plopped down into his own chair, splaying his files out on the desk next to him. Izuku had no way to tell what the doctor was thinking, since his glasses - whose bulky frame resembled goggles more than glasses - and mustache covered up most of his face. He was sure the doctor was happy though. Why wouldn't he be? Izuku's quirk would finally be revealed!
"It's best that you give up, kid."
"H-huh?" Izuku's young mind couldn't comprehend what the man in front of him just said. What was he supposed to give up on? Wasn't he supposed to tell him what his quirk was? Why did his mother look so agitated? These questions raced through his mind, but he didn't find an answer for any of them. His mind was in such disarray that he didn't even notice his prized All Might figurine clattering to the ground below.
"Doctor! Do you mean there's something wrong with Izuku?" Inko instinctively went to comfort her son, patting Izuku on the back while she used her free hand to pull his fallen toy towards her.
The doctor hummed indifferently, murmuring something unintelligible under his breath. Izuku couldn't make out anything he said, but his mother seemed to hear everything just fine, if the way she suddenly stiffened up and glared at the doctor was any indication. Noticing the irate matriarch's glare, the doctor quickly covered his mouth and reached over to pick up one of the files on his desk.
What Izuku initially thought to be a piece of paper turned out to be a picture of a foot, albeit one with only the bones visible. A niggling part of his brain supplied a memory of his mother calling it an x-ray, explaining that it was supposed to let people see inside your body. It sounded a lot like some form of quirk to Izuku, so he was absolutely engrossed by its applications. He even did his best to memorize what the pictures of x-rays were called, and boy was that a real tongue twister for him. He wasn't too fascinated at the moment though, not when he was still trying to decipher the doctor's earlier words to him.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're a fourth-generation, correct? I'm talking about your quirk, of course…" the doctor trailed off, putting his focus into slapping the roentgenogram onto a whiteboard above his desk. [1]
Inko's anger quickly subsided, replaced by a look of confusion and wariness. "Well, yes… my quirk lets me pull small objects towards me. And my husband can breathe fire as long as he's in the right mood."
The doctor nodded like he was expecting Izuku's mother to say all of that, one crooked finger tapping against the roentgenogram that was now plastered onto the whiteboard with the help of a tiny magnet. "If you have a quirk, it will undoubtedly manifest by the time you're four years old. Of course, there's a very rare number of outliers to that statement, but they're just the exception and not the rule."
His finger straightened out, sliding down the image to rest on a gap between two toe bones. "Take a look here. Numerous research papers over the years from dozens of scientists around the world have unanimously come to the conclusion that our pinky toes have an integral connection to our quirks and how they came to be."
Izuku listened with rapt attention, his interest in quirks overshadowing his previous bewilderment.
"Parts of the human body that we don't use are called vestigial. A common example of this would be our appendix and our wisdom teeth. Both are parts of our body that we could honestly live without," the doctor chuckled as he gestured towards himself, briskly stopping the action once he realized that neither of the Midoriyas found his antics the least bit comical.
"In any case, what I mean is that those body parts have outlived their usefulness. Despite that, they still remain a part of us after all these years." The doctor raised a finger up into the air, the light from the fluorescent lamps hanging above them reflecting off his glasses and shining into poor Izuku's eyes. "However, there is one vestigial body part that disappeared from our biology around the time that quirks started popping up. An extra joint in our pinky toes that served no purpose whatsoever. These days, an average person has two joints in their pinky toe. Do you see where I'm going with this?"
Izuku Midoriya was no slouch at arithmetic. The gold star he had gotten in school just last week was definitive proof of that fact. With that said, it didn't take long for him to count the number of joints visible on the image the doctor was pointing at.
"So Izuku has three joints in his pinky toe? What does this have to do with anything?" Inko asked, staring at the roentgenogram curiously.
"Compared to everyone else whose bodies have evolved and discarded this extra pinky joint, your son did not. His body is that of an older era, one with human physiologies that are unfit for the quirks that reside within us today." Seeing that the patient and his guardian were still a bit confused, the doctor let out a weary sigh and tried to sit up as straight as he could.
"Your son is quirkless. He has no hope of ever gaining a quirk. Like I said before, it's best that he gives up on his dreams to become a hero now, while he's still young," the doctor gestured at the All Might figurine in Inko's hand to emphasize his point, his nose scrunching up the slightest bit as he did so. "There's a very small chance that perhaps the extra toe joint is just a genetic anomaly, but the chances of that are one in a billion."
Izuku didn't remember much of the day after that.
There were hazy bits and pieces where he thought his mom might've argued with the doctor over what he said, although she lost in the end because there was no way to dispute the truth. They had ended up visiting multiple other quirk professionals after that, yet all of them answered the exact same way. If anything, their diagnosis of him became worse and worse with each new doctor, clinic, and even hospital they visited.
Even his dad pitched in, getting a second opinion - though at this point it was more of a ninth opinion - from a doctor he was personally acquainted with in America. Izuku didn't get his hopes up too high though, so he wasn't that disappointed when the results were still the same.
He had no chance. No power. No way he would ever become a hero.
Izuku didn't want to think that he had no chance of becoming a hero like his idol, but Kacchan and his friends sure thought that way.
"Hah? Midoriya doesn't have a quirk? Then doesn't that make him useless? He's a useless Deku!" "Get the hell away from me, Deku! A quirkless nerd like you can't ever become a hero. You'd just die on your first patrol." "Ew, he touched me! I don't want to lose my quirk! I need to go to the nurse!"
He didn't find anything wrong with what they were saying. He didn't have a quirk, therefore he had no power to do anything. He would just bring them all down by staying around them. Being called useless was almost too kind.
His parents definitely didn't think the same way though. His mother had herself quite a fit when he came home with a body slathered with bruises and crude insults written in marker, yelling bloody murder right after his father covered his ears to make sure he wouldn't hear anything. Dad had about the same reaction shortly afterwards, huffing and puffing gouts of fire that threatened to light up their apartment and raze it to the ground.
Needless to say, he wasn't allowed to see Kacchan and his friends anymore after that. They moved to a different part of the city a week later, and he wouldn't see them again for the next few years.
Sadly, his father had to leave for America shortly after that. He was only in Japan on leave, after all. Izuku almost didn't accompany his father to the airport, refusing to acknowledge that his dad was leaving again.
"I promise I'll be back again on your birthday next year. I haven't broken any of my promises yet, right?" Hisashi smiled down at his son, wiping away the steady stream of tears with the sleeve of his shirt.
"Do you really have to leave?" Izuku looked up, unintentionally flashing his father with every child's deadliest move: watery puppy eyes.
Hisashi clutched his chest at the adorable sight, his will slowly crumbling. He didn't really want to leave his family, especially when his son was still trying to adjust to his new outlook on life, but the sizable income he received from his job was vital to the health and welfare of his loved ones. Not being able to see his son would definitely put a hole in his heart, but at least now he could afford to put Izuku in a private school that would hopefully act kinder to him.
"It's for the best, my little bushling." Izuku's puppy eyes didn't let up, so Hisashi decided that it was time for him to impart some of the old Midoriya wisdom. He wasn't sure how much Izuku would remember of the things he would say, but he'd just cross that bridge once he got to it.
"You know, your grandfather used to tell me something back when he was still around. It's a saying he heard from his father, which he heard from his father before him."
Izuku's puppy eyes finally ceased, replaced with the same intelligent sheen that Hisashi's eyes often sported whenever he was excited. "What did he say?"
Hisashi stood up straight, thumping on his chest and coughing a few times like he was about to announce that the planet was in imminent danger. "Ahem. He used to say that life is like an onion."
"An onion?"
Hisashi nodded seriously, booping his son on the nose as he did. "That's right. When you peel off an onion's layers and chop it up, it's inevitable that you'll end up crying."
"But what if the person peeling the onion had some sort of quirk that lets them see without opening their eyes? Then they wouldn't have to cry!" Izuku exclaimed triumphantly, giddy in the same way all kids are when they successfully poke a hole in an adult's wise words.
He was rewarded with a mock frown from his father for that, his downturned lips quickly morphing into a lopsided grin. "Well, this saying comes from way before quirks were around, so I hope you can forgive it for not being very accurate anymore," Hisashi winked at Izuku as the two giggled conspiratorially, gaining a few wayward looks from passing strangers on their way to catch their flights.
Once the father-and-son duo finally caught their breath, Hisashi continued, "As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted-" Izuku looked away and whistled innocently, "life is like an onion. We traverse through it the same way we peel off the many layers of an onion, and this causes us to face hardships and come to tears. Some are born luckier than others, with their quirks or their riches. It's the same as using a towel to cover your face or looking into a bowl of water while peeling and cutting away at the onion."
Hisashi led Izuku to a nearby bench as he spoke, letting his son sit down on his aching knees because he knew the little tyke absolutely loved it. "However, even without these gifts and tools, you can still cut an onion. In the same way, even if you don't have a quirk, you can still become a hero."
Izuku's jaw hung open once his father finished, eyes wider than Hisashi had ever seen them as his son looked up at him in awe.
The reaction was understandable. Not even Inko had told Izuku that he could be a hero, only opting to comfort him with apologies and platitudes. Hisashi was probably the first person to tell his son that he could be a hero ever since he was diagnosed as quirkless.
Their heart-to-heart was abruptly ended by an electronic voice roaring to life from one of the multiple speakers above them, announcing that Hisashi's flight was now boarding.
"I need to go now, Bushling." Hisashi pried Izuku off his knees with a considerable amount of effort, chuckling at the sight of his son clinging to his legs. "I want you to remember what we talked about here today. Can you do that for me?"
Izuku nodded so fast Hisashi was sure his leafy little head would fly right off. The puppy eyes seemed like they were about to make a comeback, so Hisashi stomped on his aching heart and turned around, making his way to the assigned gate like a prisoner heading for death row.
He probably would've made it there in record time too if it wasn't for the green gremlin that ambushed him from behind to leave one last hug.
"I love you, Dad."
Hisashi didn't turn around. He wasn't sure he would be able to leave if he did.
"I love you too, Izuku."
Unlike what Hisashi thought would happen, Izuku remembered every single word uttered in that conversation like it was hardwired into his memory. Izuku took his father's advice to heart and marched onward to achieve his dream. It didn't matter if he wasn't born with a quirk, that just meant everyone else had a bit of a headstart on him. And everyone knows that the best way to beat someone who has a headstart on you is by catching up to them and then leaving them in the dust.
That's exactly what Izuku did.
The new school he ended up at wasn't devoid of bullies and quirkists, the world can't become perfect overnight. Compared to the classmates from his old one though? These new people were absolute angels.
The most they would do was sneer at him or look at him funny, and most of his new peers actually treated him neutrally. Some even acted like he was a fragile glass on the verge of breaking, which - while very kind of them to look out for his well being - was also really annoying after the first week.
His father used to brag all the time about how he had a gifted mind, so Izuku decided to put that to the test. He went above and beyond the duties of a normal boy his age, studying material one or two years above his level. It miffed quite a few of his classmates when they got showed up by the quirkless kid once their grades came out, but they let it slide since they still had him beat in PE.
Which was why Izuku begged his mother to let him enroll in martial arts classes a few years later.
It took a while for Inko's defenses to get worn down from the relentless attack, but Izuku kept at it and tore the wall apart brick-by-brick every single day. After nearly a month of him pleading for her to let him join a class, she finally admitted defeat.
His mother did have one condition he had to uphold though: she shouldn't see a single bruise on his body once he came back home.
That was a promise he broke within the first week of training.
On the bright side, he was now the top scorer in physical activities too. The aforementioned classmates that were previously miffed ended up evolving into being pissed, and a very awkward meeting had to be held after Izuku beat the living snot out of someone that had tried to fill his bag with spoiled milk. Izuku was sure he was about to get expelled or something along those lines, but his father must've had friends in high places, because he got off with only a slap on the wrist.
The end result: the bullies got a month of detention and he had to write an essay on why violence was never the answer. Izuku was very tempted to point out that heroes seemed to think violence was a very viable answer to a lot of situations, but he managed to keep his perfectly valid opinions to himself and completed his penance in record time.
So that's how Izuku spent most of his childhood years; studying advanced topics, immersing himself in various different fighting styles, and occasionally toppling any bullies that thought the quirkless kid was easy pickings.
And now...
"Yo, Deku! We're heading to the arcade, you coming or what?" Poppo yelled out, his boisterous voice echoing off the empty classroom's walls. Class had been dismissed a few minutes ago, and Izuku realized he had been staring off into space ever since.
The cool afternoon breeze wafted into the classroom through the open window, shaking Izuku out of his brief trip through memory lane. He glanced up, spotting his group of friends waving at him from the doorway.
"Sorry, but I think I'll have to pass today," Izuku replied as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.
Satsuki, always the responsible one, bopped Poppo on the head. "He's training hard to get into UA, you numbskull. Stop trying to distract him!"
"Ack! Alright, I get it already. Stop hitting me!" Poppo left his post at the doorway and started running around the room, Satsuki hot on his tail as she chased him and whacked him over the head repeatedly with her rolled up math textbook.
Seeing his friends' childish antics lightened Izuku's mood considerably, the teen already forgetting what he was thinking about. The past was the past, nothing anyone could do to change it anymore. Unless maybe they had some sort of time-travel quirk, but what were the odds of that?
"I wanna stop by the konbini to grab a snack before we go, so you two should hurry up," Jugo grumbled as he leaned against the doorframe, the large 'S' on his blue sweater wrinkling thanks to his slouched stature. [2]
Jugo, Poppo, and Satsuki were pretty much Izuku's best and only friends.
Not that Izuku was unpopular, mind you. He just had a hard time connecting with his other peers, especially once they learned about his 'disability'. There was also the fact that he had a history of beating people up, so his reputation definitely caused a rift between him and any friends he could've possibly made.
They didn't bully him or make fun of him - like a certain childhood neighbor he would never forget - but an awkward tension always hung in the air whenever he ended up getting into any interactions with them.
The trio that ended up as his closest buddies were the few outliers to this.
"Alright sure, let's go. But only because I'm scared Jugo will eat us if he doesn't get his fix soon," Poppo amended with a cheeky smirk, his head bobbing as it evaded one last strike from Satsuki.
Poppo was sort of like Izuku's role model. The free-spirited blonde was the one that taught him how to ignore all the naysayers and negative influences around him, and to just focus on living life to the fullest. It also helped that he was an occasional accomplice in Izuku's quests to beat up bullies.
"You should really learn some manners, Iijima-kun," Satsuki huffed, stowing away her textbook for later use. Almost as an after remark, she added, "You can't say such things no matter how true they are."
Aren't you the one that needs to learn their manners? all three boys thought simultaneously.
The room's temperature suddenly dropped right after that, the three boys tensing up as they remembered that the cobalt-haired demoness among their ranks had a mind-reading quirk.
"Scatter!" Izuku shrieked as he shrugged on his backpack and rushed out of the room, Jugo hot on his tail. Poppo took to the skies, transforming into a pigeon and flying out through the window before Satsuki could bean him with a textbook. Running away wouldn't save them from Satsuki's wrath, but at least now they could catch a quick bite before their imminent doom.
"I still have no clue how you're able to eat that much and still stay as thin as a twig," Poppo said in between bites of his yakitori, swinging the stick of chicken around in the air like a maestro conducting an orchestra.
Jugo answered with a shrug, choosing to use his mouth to eat the gigantic collection of ikayaki gripped in his hands instead of wasting it on something as mundane as talking. Seeing that their resident glutton wasn't about to reply anytime soon, Satsuki decided to explain on his behalf, "Jugo already told us this before. Were you seriously not listening?"
Poppo cleaned off the last of his yakitori, using the need to dispose of his trash as an excuse to avoid answering Satsuki's question.
Since Izuku didn't often get the chance to talk about quirks without bringing the topic up himself, he quickly inserted himself into the conversation. "Jugo's quirk is really amazing! I mean, he can eat anything and convert it into energy! That has so many applications for heroics, especially in rescue work…"
Poppo, finally back from throwing away his trash, butted in as well, "You sure about that, Deku? Jugo looks dead on his feet everytime we see him, so that energy you're talking about doesn't seem to be around here anywhere."
The resident maverick of their group actually made a pretty good point, and they all turned to look at Jugo, who had just finished stripping the sticks of their meat. Jugo looked up at them in confusion, as if he just noticed their presence. "My quirk isn't all that good, you know. My body processes food so fast that I have to eat about five times as much as you guys do. If my dad wasn't who he is we'd have gone bankrupt years ago."
"Still better than Iijima-kun's quirk," Satsuki sniped. "He just turns into a flying carrier of disease and bird droppings."
"Hey, I take offense to that!" Poppo exclaimed with the fakest insulted tone Izuku had ever heard.
Their afternoon soon devolved into joking snipes at each other, with the occasional slap to the back of the head from Satsuki to keep them from getting too rowdy. Izuku eventually had to part ways as well, heading over to his secret 'community service' to train and keep his body in shape. Today would be the day that he would conquer the wrangled van carcass he had spotted months ago, and he wasn't about to let anything get in the way of him cleaning that up.
Maybe if he wasn't so focused on hauling the van out of the beach, Izuku would've noticed the news report about a sludge villain holding a kid hostage playing on multiple television screens on display in the store right next to him. In the end, he wouldn't learn about what happened until his mother tearfully informed him about the situation once he got back home later that night.
[1] - Roentgenograms are what you call x-ray photographs. That's a bit of a mouthful though, so I'm still gonna call them 'x-rays' for the rest of my foreseeable future.
[2] - Konbini, also known as convenience stores. Just thinking about these makes me hungry.
That's everything for this chapter! I am aware that this doesn't read like a romance story at all so far, and you guys will have to read all the way up to Chapter 3 before it starts to feel like one lmao. If this wasn't what you were expecting, you really should've skimmed over the tags a bit.
Next chapter, we get to take a tour of Kyoto, as well as peer into Izuku's backstory!
This fic was created for a Valentine's Event in the BNHA Fanfic Community Discord server! Interested in joining to see what chaotic shenanigans we get up to? Join through this invite today! : S9j78DHg5K
