This was the third time Izuku had woken up to see concrete right in his face. The difference was that this time his face wasn't pushed against it. Oh, and the fact that he was currently tied to a chair. That was the part he was having a bit of trouble with. Why face him against the wall? If they wanted to kill him he would be dead, but if they wanted to talk he would be facing them. Talking like this would be harder considering how little sound bounces off concrete corners like this. Understanding materials like this helped in his reinforcement even though reinforcing concrete didn't seem very useful right now. To be honest, reinforcement as he could currently use it wasn't very helpful right now.

He felt like a child in time-out. It was kinda funny considering the fact that the last thing he saw before passing out was a child.

A few moments went by as his head went empty. He ran out of ideas and thoughts to distract himself with and, without a distraction, he was forced to think about his current circumstances.

He was kidnapped by mages.

He was tied to a metal chair.

His hands tied together behind his back.

They were using what felt like zip ties on his wrists along with some kind of small metal cord to attach his restricted hands to the seat. Footsteps behind him every once in a while reminded him he wasn't alone and the whispering he could hear continued longer with time.

Izuku's heart was steady and his breathing was normal. Is this what being in shock was like? Izuku had never really been in a violent situation outside of Bakugou. In his case, however, Izuku could see through his raging facade and what he was really hiding underneath. It helped with diffusing situations in ways that ended with minimal bruises for himself. He was normally pretty calm in situations like those and it felt the same now.

The feeling was cut a bit short as he realized this wasn't a comparable situation and he felt his head overload with information related to kidnappings. He studied crime rates and stats for when he was going to be a hero but being kidnapped and knowing that someone his age and gender only had a fifty-fifty chance of coming home didn't make it any better to live through.

His options were limited to either waiting or trying to get violent, though considering the high probability his kidnappers were mages that wouldn't go very well for him. Maybe he could—

"One job Eri!" one of them yelled out while the other continued her ceaseless giggling. "al..ht... fine! I'll do it myself!" He said as Izuku heard footsteps headed towards him. He braced himself as his chair was turned around and he saw his abductores.

They were basically kids… Well, one looked about his age but the other looked less than 7. The older one was a boy that didn't actually look too different from Izuku. Almost the same kind of hair if you ignored it's jet black colour. Everything else about him was just normal. A simple white t-shirt and jeans with a body that seemed a size too small for his clothes. The look was completed with a smile that didn't fit the atmosphere at all.

"It's great to meet you," He beamed as he waited for a response with any bit of enthusiasm. The kidnapper was awarded a blank stare. "Midoriya right? I'm really sorry to have to do this but I just need some copies of your family research. We failed to register the death of the family head; Hisashi Midoriya. So we're just here to get what we can for the association." His voice had a fake softness to it that was almost convincing. It was like a child playing nice to get extra treats. His diamond-shaped eyes revealed how he truly felt. Maybe with some practice, he could convince some people.

'One at a time,' Izuku thought to himself as he tried to answer and understand. The fact that he knew about magic and Izuku's status as a mage meant he was telling the truth. Though why they sent a child was beyond him. "Why am I tied up?" It seemed like a good starting question.

"So you don't leave before helping us. Also..." He paused and motioned his hands in the air, "Sorry... where are my manners? I'm Yo Shindo and this is my assistant Eri." The facade of a friend was slowly peeling away as he began to lose patience. "Any research papers or images of the magic crest would be great,"

"What magic crest?" Izuku responded only to get a stare from both his kidnappers. "I have his research papers and all that but there was never any magic crest or crests,"

Shindo looked at Eri who gave a kind of half-shrug. "You are the son of a mage correct?" His face turning to disbelief.

'Why does he speak like that?' Izuku thought.

"Yeah," Izuku said like it was obvious.

"So how in the hell do you not have a magic crest?" He was getting a little out of breath as he spoke from the sheer surprise. "I am to believe that you never were never told about nor given your family magic crest?"

He read something about a magic crest a few times but assumed it was beyond his family's ability. Izuku thought about it for a moment before shaking his head.

Shindo seemed to be losing it the longer this went on. "A MAGIC CREST! THE EVIDENCE AND RESULT OF ALL THE YEARS OF STUDY DONE BY A MAGE!" he screamed. Eri was covering her ears as he yelled, sending specs of spit onto Izuku's jacket and face.

"L-loud," Eri stuttered as Shindo put a hand on her head to comfort her, almost instantly deflating the anger he felt as he rushed to take care of her.

"Sorry, I'm sorry" Unlike everything he said up until now he sounded genuine talking to her. His voice was free of any malice..

Was this what it was like to have a sibling?

"I always assumed crests were created and handed down in those massive mage families." Izuku had a general idea of what the crests could do. They were basically magic circuits that a mage had transplanted onto their body from parents when they were children. It was done in small chunks to not kill the child and monitor the progress until they were about 14. Throughout their lives, they would work and advance the circuit before passing it down to their child. It contained the decades of work and experience needed to execute complicated spells with just a command. Kinda like a spellbook but installed into your body like an extra organ.

"Ok, I'm going to actually check your magic circuits to make sure I didn't break something getting you here. I did hit you with a curse but it's not like it should have done much else besides knock you out. I'll see if there's brain damage," Izuku was going to protest whatever it was he was doing but before he could get a word out Shindo was behind him with a hand on his neck.

Within seconds mana was sent into Izuku's body.

He began shaking.

Shindo looked confused as the sound of zip ties and metal snapping tore through the air as he unconsciously reinforced his arms and broke out of his holdings. His mind and body screamed as he grabbed his head with his hands and yelled out loud. It felt like every bone in his body was shattering and rebuilding itself. Pain flowing through him as his nerves felt overloaded. It was a while before everything felt numb and no more screams could exit his throat. He collapsed onto the ground. His body and brain felt muted as he slowly felt himself slipping further into darkness.

He couldn't feel his tongue. He could only hear ringing and it felt like everything was in television static as he watched the two talk. The concerned little girl came over and it felt like strings pulled and slid Izuku back into his seat as Izuku lost consciousness for the final time today.

Izuku woke up with an ache in his back. He otherwise felt flawless but his back felt odd. It was probably because he was sleeping in a chair. It wasn't the same chair as last night. This was one of those cushy office chairs. He noticed a thin blanket on himself as he looked around. Memories of the last night flowed back into his scattered mind as he tried to figure out what happened.

He stood up. It didn't seem like they tied him back down again. It didn't seem like the duo were anywhere in sight actually. Izuku looked around the area. It seemed like a workshop much like his own. Though the magical specialty clearly wasn't reinforcement as he looked over a large open area with rubble all over the ground along with small pillboxes with various materials in them. They all seemed labelled.

He checked his phone, dead. His mother was going to be worried sick about him. The last time this happened he fell asleep in the shed with Momo. Well, he didn't sleep with her, she was just there as he took a nap and she talked about creating chemicals and such in her body. That day he woke up feeling kinda cold and numb on his cheek. Though he wasn't exactly sure why. She was gone after he woke up though.

He heard footsteps. Were they above him? He was in a basement then. It was actually kind of obvious now that he thought about it. Izuku found the stairs as he slowly made his way up and went towards the door. He took a breath to relax and consider his options. There was a door and nothing else.

It wasn't a hard choice to make.

He opened it and was hit with the smell of breakfast. It was a bit nostalgic actually. It looked like Shindo was cooking as Eri sat on the table watching him excitedly. She turned her gaze towards Izuku and he froze. She seemed a bit confused before she brought a finger towards her mouth making a small "shh" sound, before tapping the seat beside herself for Izuku to join her.

With no other options, Izuku quietly stepped over the warm hardwood, the only sound in the air being Shindo's cooking and his humming of some love song. It was kinda funny as he used his kitchen tools as drums for the parts he was really into. As he took a seat, she leaned over and whispered into his ear.

"Shindo says your dumb and he hates you," She said in a tone that didn't match the words. "He hates the fact that he has to help a useless person like you learn how to actually be a mage."

"Plastic loooovvvveeee!" Shindo sang out as Izuku noted the song and tried to tune him out.

"Why does he have to help me, I'm already a mage" Izuku whispered back. He didn't really know why he was whispering with her same tone but her behaviour was infectious, "also why does he hate me?"

"Because you don't have the complete magic crest and because you never learned how to use your magic circuits" She pronounced all the words perfectly like she was much older. He wasn't sure what she was talking about. He was confident enough he had mastered whatever basics he needed from magecraft to make it work. It actually felt bit insulting, but before he could whisper his retort back.

"You're lucky, your mom's in the phonebook," Shindo stated. Roughly tossing two plates of pancakes on the table as his demeanour changed from a happy tune to a serious glare. "You're spending breakfast with us, I called your mom. You slept over at a friend's house last night,"

Izuku stared at the plate of pancakes as he realized his last solid meal was some sub-par ice cream. He picked up the fork. "Thanks for that" He wasn't exactly sure if he was in danger or not but from everything he's seen, it seemed like we weren't going to hurt him. Though he could barely remember last night.

"So here's the deal" He started. "Last night when I tried to check your body for damage, I sent mana into your magic circuits and they opened up for the first time." It seemed like Shindo hated the fact that he had to say those words. By saying them it made them feel real.

"But I thought you had to make magic circuits every time you did magecraft?" Izuku took a bite of his pancake. "I always just made circuits to reinforce things."

Shindo put down his fork and took a deep breath. "Magic circuits are not something you need to create every time you do magecraft. Our ancestors did that because they had to." He was doing everything in his power to keep himself composed and the fearful stare from Eri was frankly the last thing holding him together. "Magic circuits are like a system in your body. Much like the nervous system except they are specialized for moving around mana. It seems you never actually learned how to activate them and such you ended up converting or 'reinforcing' your nervous system to carry dangerous mana."

Oh. Everything made so much more sense now. "So you opened them up and that caused all hell to break loose?" He always thought that magecraft was needlessly hard on his body. It made sense that he was just doing it wrong. Izuku looked over at Eri to see her reaction to this only to see her hands on the table and face pushed into the plate. As she tried to eat the pancakes with no hands for some reason. She looked kinda like a kitten as she struggled to move her hair and eat at the same time.

"Eri, the fork," He said a little embarrassed. Shindo cooked pancakes to 'make his guest feel safe' as Eri suggested but it seemed like she didn't actually know how to eat them. She just read about them being calming.

"But yeah that's the gist of your problem. I'm the unlucky guy that has to now help you actually learn to use your family magecraft. It seems like your father was a decent enough mage and was in the process of having his magic crest transplanted onto you. You currently only have about half of a magic crest. To complete my job here I need to transplant the full crest and make a report on what it does."

Izuku raised a finger to ask a question.

"Yes, we have to dig up your father's body. Over the course of the next 4 years, I'll have Eri here implant the rest of the crest. It won't be too painful, she was basically made for this." He motioned towards the girl holding the pancake in her hand and taking a bite out of it like it was a cookie and she was the cookie monster.

"Ok, Ok, Last question." Izuku started "Why would the association send you and her?" Eri looked up from her pancake cookie. "Why not an adult?"

"Well, first of all, this job wasn't supposed to be this complicated. Second of all, I'm pretty much disposable to the association. I'm a younger sibling so I won't inherit the family crest or specialty magic." His face seemed a bit more introspective as he spoke about his condition. "I only really exist to marry some female heir with a magic crest and help her continue their family legacy. So what I do until that point doesn't really matter." Izuku caught another genuine look on his face before Shindo covered it back up with a scowl.

That actually hit Izuku pretty hard, he heard from his mother a few times how hard it was to get married to Hisashi considering the pressure for him to marry another mage and optimize his future children for magecraft. "So you're here to explore right? Live life as you want before your future takes hold," that was how his mom described his father. In the case of Izuku's dad, it ended with a love he chose. He wondered if Shindo would get that choice.

For the first time, Shindo smiled. It was small but it was there. "Yeah but it's not like it was hard. I'm allowed to do anything but die," he chuckled with a tinge of pain.

"So what's up with her?" Izuku said, pointing at the small child with half a fork down her throat, on the bring of choking. Shindo just shook his head with a look that begged Izuku not to ask. In any case, his mind felt full of almost too much information except one key part.

"Is this your house?" Izuku asked, seeing around. He doubted the association was footing the housing bill all the way from England. It looked lived in and warm. It felt like the opposite of Shindo's lab and Izuku's shed.

"Oh, I hypnotized the couple here to make them think we're their children." He didn't make eye contact as he took the last bite of his pancake. It seemed he knew this was less than moral, "They always wanted children but could never have any. I used basic suggestions to make their wishes come true" Izuku's face spoke for itself on how insane this was. He knew Self-hypnosis was a thing and knew how to do it for magecraft and spells. But the idea that anyone would do this was, frankly speaking, insane. He knew the association would hypnotize people they couldn't kill to hide magecraft. Well compared to that this seemed reasonable in their playbook.

"What's that look mean? They won't even remember us when we're gone and plus Eri can finally see what it's like to be a real girl." Shindo seemed comfortable with this but then again mages didn't seem to be the best of people when morals were involved. Wait what did he mean by real—

"Oh, I should mention. I need you to swallow this gem,"

Izuku stared at the gem in silence as he wondered if he was being serious. "This gem has some magical energy stored in it so all you need to do it ingest it and over the course of the next few days, it'll start to help open your circuits slowly," Izuku looked down at it. It looked like a pill for horses got turned into a gemstone. He wouldn't have been surprised if someone could propose with a jewel like that.

"Can I chew it at least?" he asked sarcastically

"No," he answered seriously

Izuku felt really warm right now. A phone call later he learned that this was normal. It was the main side effect outside of minor bowel issues. But it was a strange sensation feeling power slowly start to pour into his body. He could almost trace where the gem was in the stages of digestion based on the mana coming out of it.

Shindo also mentioned he was going to have to learn how to activate his circuits using some kind of a trigger. Shindo said that usually, mages imagine some kind of action or event happening to them to activate their circuits; apparently some people even need something physical like being out of breath or injured. For Shindo, he imagined his insides being ruptured. Eri imagined being stabbed in the heart with a needle though she says her trigger has changed and refused to tell him. Shindo taught her what a secret was and this was her first one. He sounded a bit proud as he talked about it actually.

Izuku laid in his bed looking up at the ceiling trying to figure out what would 'trigger' his circuits. Normally it just felt like pain as he 'created' them. It was something akin to an electric shock. But that wasn't going to be comparable to the feeling of stimulating his circuits. He had to move away from that feeling if he was gonna activate his circuits.

Izuku sat himself up and grabbed his phone to text Momo. She would probably be able to think of something charming but functional. He stared at his phone for a moment before tossing it aside. He couldn't talk to her about this ever... if the mage association found out then they would likely kill her. They would use her as an example as it's been years since the last one.

He stood to look at the calendar on his wall. It had pictures of various hero's on it and the month of February had some young woman hero making a kiss towards the observer. Frankly, it bordered on inappropriate but the month was short anyways.

The countdown of four years to UA had begun.

He heard Bakugou wouldn't be going to his high school which was a decent relief but he doubted he could relax about getting into UA. Izuku had to spend this time creating a 'quirk' for himself so he could take the recommendation exam with Momo. For some reason, she was coming up a lot in his mind today. He shook away the thought and forced himself into bed.

Because of the heat, he kept tossing and turning but after a few moments, he felt at peace. Finally some sleep.

Then he felt the bones in his finger shatter.

Authors note

I hope this chapter was enjoyable. It's a bit hard trying to find the balance between information and story so I hope I was able to mix them in ways that are interesting. The next chapter will have a bit more Momo so get excited about that.

Comments+speculation are appreciated.