Upon exiting the other side, Izuku felt himself falter, stumbling slightly. He managed to catch himself, but had inevitably fallen to the ground, just barely missing his head against the concrete. Unfortunately, he dropped the books that he had been carrying in his arms, watching as they spread out across the sidewalk. Slowly reeling himself back, he picked up the books, and looked around himself, jerking to his feet. Opening his inventory, he tossed the books inside. I'm back, he thought happily. He then pulled out his phone and noted that the time had actually passed by a minute. He'd call his mother right after he wrote it down… Quirk #28: Time Manipulation.
Izuku knew that having more than one quirk was impossible, but he also knew that many people, yet small, could inherit multiple sides of a quirk—such as how a pyrokinetic can make heat by producing fire; he'd written down a lot of which that his 'quirk' had provided, going over them thoroughly before putting his notebook into his side belt on instinct.
Pulling out his phone again, he was fast to dial his mother's number, prepared for a storm. He wasn't too far from home to begin with, but he would absolutely call her beforehand. Putting the phone by his ears, he continued his way home, seeing it not too far away from where he was. Immediately after the second ring, she picked up, and all Izuku could hear was a pained wailing sound. Familiar. He and his mother were always known for being over dramatic criers—what would she say when he showed her his powers?
"Mom," Izuku called out, treading a little faster against the sidewalk. Inko failed to reply in words, simply huffing and sniffing, attempting to speak her part.
"I'll be home soon, so don't worry," Izuku cut in, "I'm not hurt— and! A-and I have a quirk! "
Inko's puffing slowly declined into calm breathing, "g-get home right now, y-young man!" She cried, the sound of ruffling through a tissue box coming through the speaker with high quality. He could practically feel the snot in his ears, making him pull his phone away from his ear a bit. Now climbing the stairs, he ended the call, and inserted his key—something that he had forgotten was in his pocket—into the door. The door clicked several times before opening, a hand pulling him in and closing the door behind. He couldn't breathe.
"Oh, Izuku! My baby boy!" Inko wept, tossing him away from her chest to look at him. Izuku simply put on a smile and pushed her hands from his face, "I'm alright, mom!" he assured, giving a small twist to show her his sides. The usual 'Inko Test' as he called it. After a few seconds of inspection, Inko calmed down, yet still had a few tears fall from her bug-eyes here and there. Izuku insisted that he was okay, pulling up his sleeves—he only now noticed that his uniform was ripped and dirty, covered in gravelly dust and dirt, a few tears dribbling from his elbows to his wrists.
"I saw you on T.V Izuku! You just… you… you promise me that you'll never do that again!" To this… Izuku shook his head, no. He would do it again in a heartbeat, "I can't, mom. I can't be the number one Hero if I do that." Inko scowled, before looking back up at him, noticing his change in appearance. She pointed at him in a dramatical posture, a hand on her mouth as she pouted, "and my baby is getting his hair changed like some delinquent! Oh, God, what have I done to deserve this!? Am I not a good enough mother for my baby!?"
Izuku chuckled a bit before pulling her into a gentle hug, patting her back slowly. Inko lightly relaxed her head on his shoulder, her heart calming down. Because of this, Inko knew that she was assuming things too fast, and allowed Izuku to, "explain, Izuku. What's going on with you today?"
"It would be better if I showed you." Rubbing his head, Izuku let go of the hug and backed away from Inko. He opened his palms, careful as to keep them pointed in the direction where nobody was standing. Inko seemed to tilt her head in confusion before a light blue haze began to sparkle from his fingers, and flakes of ice began to drip from the messy ends of his hair. It was ice. Izuku pushed as little as he could on his Frostbite , and let out a small ray of ice that covered a small layer of the wooden wall he was aiming at. Inko let out a gasp.
"Mom," Izuku paused, looking at her, "I think… I think this is my—"
"Your quirk!" Inko yelled loudly, probably disturbing the neighbors. More importantly, she seemed to yell in pure joy and happiness, before falling to her knees. Izuku failed to catch her, seeing her grovel. It was an unpleasant sight, and he dropped to his own, forcing his Flow of magic to recoil entirely. With that, he grabbed her hands, and looked her in the eyes. "I-It doesn't hurt—or anything like that… and… and there's so much more to my quirk, mom—!"
"So that was you…?" she asked, taking a deep sniffle, "that big ice thingy…? All of that was you?" Izuku nodded, and his mother squeezed his hands, crying deeply, saying something along the lines of "sorry."
"Mom?"
"I'm so sorry, Izuku!" Inko wailed, definitely loud enough for the neighbors to hear. Izuku shook his head, trying to shush his mother a bit, failing completely. "W-why are you sorry!?" he asked, reaching her loudness. He felt himself slip a bit, a bit of cold making its way through his hands. Inko shivered, and Izuku instantly forced his cold to behave. He was about to apologize, but Inko beat him to it— "I'm sorry for n-never supporting your dreams, Izuku!" she squeezed harder, looking up into Izuku's eyes. She felt a strange warmth run over her body as she looked into the unfamiliar icy-blue eyes that were now her sons. She shook off the feeling, but calmed down. "I—I wanted to tell you… and now that you have your quirk… that you can be a Hero, Izuku! I'm a terrible mother for never telling you that… I just thought that someday you would finally give up on becoming a Hero, and start to inspire becoming something else, but you never fell off track, no matter how hard I tried to protect you… I realize now that you just needed somebody to support you… and I want to start now before I truly regret it."
Izuku looked down at her, bubbly tears crawling down both of their faces in perfect sync. They let out a torrent of tears that rivaled even the strongest Hydrokinetic. A minute passed, all of wailing and crying, before they both let go and made their way to the couch. There had been food on the counter; Izuku snatched a bowl, realizing how he had hardly even eaten all day. Maybe not on Earth, but Merildek hadn't treated him to breakfast, lunch, or even dinner. At most, he had an energizer bar during the trip to Bladelbem with Hina—he noticed how much she stared at the snack, and he also noticed how she hadn't said a word about it. ' I'll make sure to bring her one when I get back,' Izuku agreed… until he scowled, 'am I going back?'
Rapidly, Hina's chuckles filled his mind, and her delicate smile plagued his imagination. Her charming aura that she had on her once she got to know him, and how friendly she was to him… it healed some of his inner wounds. 'I'm going back tomorrow night,' he said to himself, remembering the rules and tips he was given throughout his journey. 'If I'm right, I should just 'spawn' back at where I was last… if I go back at night, then I can sleep there—and after that day, I can return at night, and sleep here~mumble~mumble—'
"Izuku, you're doing your thing again!" Inko called out, forcing Izuku out of his stupor. What were they talking about again?
"O-oh!" Izuku started, "uh, that thing you saw earlier, it was… well, she is my elemental , apparently—I can summon her , and she understands speech, so I was able to talk to her and thank her for the help." Izuku looked down, "her name's Boreal. "
"So… you have a pet-slash-emitter-slash-mutant quirk?" Inko asked, quite scared about if her son would be okay; she read a lot of things online about teens with those kinds of crazy combination quirks—never did she think that Izuku would get one of those. She began to chew at her nails.
Izuku sighed. This was going to be a long night—Izuku would try his best to keep it simple… and perhaps keep a few things secret .
After a long call to the Quirk Specialists, she managed to book an open spot for Izuku tomorrow afternoon. To be honest, for the specialists, it sounded like a special case, and most of the current doctors were filling her voicemails about meeting her son and studying his quirk; they had heard of him on the news—everybody in Musutafu was trying to figure out what his quirk was… A pet quirk? An emitter type?
Quirk Specialists were known to be really enthusiastic, but she hadn't seen a case like this since Katsuki got his quirk. Regardless of that, Inko chose a certified specialist and booked him for an afternoon visit. They got plenty of rest after that.
The first thing Izuku did when he woke up was take a shower, change his clothes, brush his teeth, and dig away at anything he could make for himself. He greeted his mother momentarily after being surprised by her, shooting a ray of ice into the wall, turning the paint into a small frost. His mother looked apologetic, not caring about the wall. He always reminded himself about how much he loved his mother. She did so much for him, and he could hardly do anything for her… maybe when he becomes a Hero, he can retire her and get her all the things she'd ever wanted. Maybe they could finally move out of the apartment after so long.
After his typical morning thoughts, Izuku returned to his room, locking the door behind him before reaching into his inventory. The process was quick, and he was now holding the first guide to The Ten Magics—he moved to his desk and cleared it entirely, grabbing an empty notebook and labeling it, 'Magical Studies #1.'
For once, he was kind of excited to read, but he was also scared that he might not understand, or maybe the language was entirely different? He shook his head, opening the book anyways: he didn't even flip past the first page without giving it his utmost attention, which was just the author and creation date, as well as the title. His fingers traced as he read…
'Soon, reader, you will learn the basic elements of all Magic, Bio-life essences, and so on. As you may have read, this is merely a guide book for those who know little to anything about the arts of Magic, and are seeking guidance to help in: Everyday life, Discovery Of The Unknown, Transmutation, Charity, Greed, Pain, And Even Immortality, if at all possible. With Magic, there are 'no' limits, and even the power of the imagination cannot stop you. Remember to keep notes and pay attention carefully.
First, Magic is no simple task, and is nothing to be played or tampered with in the ways that defy the boundaries of Kingdom and Nationwide law.
Second, always remember that your power output is based on your strongest emotions. Fear can make you lose control, Anger can make you lash out in strong waves, Sadness can cut off your flows of Magic, and Love can boost your abilities to beyond the reaches of even I, a great wizard and philosopher.
Third, take your time with the elements, even if you think you cannot learn it, you can. I have watched the friendliest of animals harness the power of the very ground itself, and I watched as the creatures of chaos, all beyond our understanding, lose it. Why? Well, that's because anybody and anything can direct the flow of all natural essences, and mix them like chemicals. For kids, imagine it as combining soap and water together. If you apply the soap at the bottom, and run water over the top, you will create a mess of bubbles; however, if you were to dip your hand into the soap and douse your fingers with water, then you can direct the flow of the magic in your hands—beware, as finally getting a grip onto an element can be taxing to your inner-life-essence, and can hurt your control over a small period of time.
Now that the Three Simple Rules have been introduced, it is now time that I show how to 'feel' the elements around you, and most importantly, how to 'grasp and control' them. For starters, I will go over the mechanics of 'Debier' Magic. Debier magic is the most simple form of detectable essence in existence, and always will be. To 'feel' and 'take control' of Debier Magic, run your fingers along your wrist in the picture below.
Izuku looked at the picture and copied its movements, feeling something a little different, not bothering to read further ahead. It was at that moment that Izuku had felt a small, needle-like pain shoot through his wrist. Izuku yelped in pain, and saw a thin piece of frozen dirt penetrating his arm. He was flabbergasted, to say the least; pulling out the needle was no fun, but he had learned a valuable lesson about it…
Doing this ritual will show you what natural energies already course through your body. If nothing happened, then do not fret. This makes you one of a kind, and although you have to work harder than anybody else, you will be blessed with something that I as well was born with. This is called 'Talentless,' but it is by no means a disability, and it by no means determines if you really have talent. Furthermore, you have been taught a valuable lesson—had you read further ahead before continuing the runes, you would have been notified that this ritual will cause a small amount of pain. Rule four, 'never' pursue in spells that you do not informally understand. If you have read on ahead before activating the runes, then I congratulate you. If not, then there is always room to grow. Take this rule to heart.
Izuku puffed, staring at the small needle that he had tossed onto his desk. The bit was starting to crumble, and Izuku could feel a new energy coursing through him. Actually, it had always been there, but hadn't noticed it before… it felt rocky, Earthly, and he felt the ground beneath him a little more accurately. He was already learning, surprisingly. His excitement to learn more pushed him to continue reading.
After an hour of reading, Izuku finally got to a point where he needed to breathe. Not only because he needed to practice a new 'childrens' spell—but also because his pencil was wearing thin. Taking a small break and grabbing a new mechanical pencil, Izuku lifted his fingers and focused on the new element inside of him, accidentally letting out a seep of Cept every here and there, before finally feeling a crumble above his fingertips. So far, he had been making subtle progress with two spells he was instructed to produce based on his natural flowing Debier . Izuku tried a little harder, and pulled up his screens.
New Elemental Spell Unlocked: Quaking Dirt
Quaking Dirt [lvl2-10] 31%
Make the pebbles around you shake and toss! Bend the element of dirt to become your element of surprise! Good for practical jokes. Reach level 10 to unlock the Catalyst of Gata Elements. Gata is an extremely powerful Catalyst Element, especially when improved on all aspects of Earthly ground: Wood, Stone, Metal, and even mystical ores. Apply [Quaking] to the Gata elements to unlock its secrets, and limitless potential.
New Elemental Spell Unlocked: Ice Water
Ice-Water [lvl6-10] 83.44%
Command the powers of Cept to make a fine glass of cold water. By coursing Cept through your fingers, ice begins to replace the liquid, unlocking the next step to controlling Iclima, which is a catalyst element. You already have Iclima unlocked. Proceed to level 10 to unlock better control and possibilities.
Beginner. Cept: Cold Control: 2 ↓
Beginner. Cept: Cold Element: 7 ↓
Beginner. Da: Dirt Control: 1 ↓
Beginner. Da: Dirt Element: 1 ↓
So far, he had made a good foundation for himself with Da , but was having trouble progressing with his Cept. Today, he guessed, he would practice with just the Gata—Earthly Element— energies, and would spend some time practicing his control over Da before he continued on to Skei—stone—or Maka—wood, which he had failed to attempt a few times, only reaching level 1 with Skei in both fronts. But it was progress. Once he was outside, he started to feel as though his energies were reacting better— Izuku theorized that since there was more dirt around him, that the Da coursing through them would help him grasp onto better control. Unknowingly to him, he had spent an hour training, doing the same process over and over again, taking small breaks to recover his MP when it got low, taking a short moment to regenerate. He had leveled his Da high enough to the point where he was able to shake the small clumps of soft dirt into dust.
Just looking at his progress made him smile, but he also fell on his face in exhaustion, feeling as though he was suffering from some kind of quirk withdrawal but shook it off. It was probably just too hot outside, and his muscles had been pushed to their maximum whenever he tried to control the dirt for longer than a few seconds at a time. Maybe some strength training would help him with that? He'd make a plan for it later; he entered the apartment and showered himself with his Cept, cooling off a bit.
"Izuku," Inko yelled from the kitchen, "it's almost time to leave! Make sure to grab your phone before we head out!" And so he did, grabbing his phone before making his way out to the car with his mother, a giddy smile on his face.
When Izuku arrived, the first thing that the Specialist did was pull out the 'quirk guessing X-ray' and received the same results that his transcript has previously described. The Specialist shook it off and tried another test, trusting his patients to be telling the truth—he was met with disappointment when all the tests came back as negative—and they were. Just after the doctor has renowned Izuku 'quirkless' he raised his hands and let the Cept Element seep from his hands; he still didn't have the best control, so he ended up dropping the room temperature to a moderately cold forty two fahrenheit, or 5.5 Celsius.
The doctor looked beyond surprised, having done the tests multiple times, and ending up with no updating results. He would have to take this up to the Q.S forums to ask what he may have missed. Regardless of this, he continued the tests, and then onto documentation, patients description, and finally, the most important part… the Quirk name. The only problem…? Izuku had a nearly unidentifiable quirk, and had to be written down as a special case: he was not just an emitter type, pet type, mutant type, or any of the known listed categories. The only one he fit into was the Special category, which only forty people in all of Japan had been diagnosed with. Some, if not all, of the Special quirks were extremely deadly, or very complex.
To say that the Specialist was excited was an understatement. Fifty years of his life had been dedicated to his patients abilities, and not once had he come across such a gem before. To be honest, he was simply happy that he was able to see it for himself. He looked down at his board, and realized… "Midoriya," the doctor called out, "do you want to become a Hero?"
Izuku immediately stood, nodding, "y-yes!"
The doctor scowled and pulled out his eraser. Sneakily dotting out the more specific details of his quirk, "then promise me that you'll be a good one, got it?" Izuku nodded.
Inko perked a brow at him, her motherly instincts kicking in when she saw him begin to erase paragraphs from his board. "Dr. Tsuma," the doctor looked up, "what exactly are you doing? Aren't those important?"
The doctor sighed, but he was going to tell them anyway. "Listen. Seeing your son's quirk was one of the most amazing feats of 'special' that I have ever had the privilege of documenting… and it is for the fact that your son wants to become a hero that I am changing his Quirk Type category, and even the stronger details. However, in order to do that, I'll need to format everything on here differently."
Dr. Tsuma took a deep breath, leaning back in his chair, "on the typical standard, I would be obligated to put as much detail into your quirk documents. However, due to your paranormally strange quirk, and all of its stranger abilities, I will make it much more simple. Say, instead of detailing every 'Kinesis' that you are able to control, we'll leave everybody who gets your Quirk-Postal information access to limited understanding."
Both Midoriya's became confused, "well, I see no reason not to, but—what does becoming a Hero have to do with his—"
"—Mrs. Midoriya; I am sorry to tell you that, if your son's wonderful quirk is properly documented into Yuuei—or any Hero program—then his entire life will be at risk." Both of his patients gasped, and Inko started to beat a sweat. "W-why is that, Dr. Tsuma?"
The Doctor sighed, looking back and forth between the two. "Well, you might not know this, but every student is required to state 'word-by-word' what their quirk is, and most of its mechanics in order to allow the teachers to help their students, and to be accepted via professional documentation by the QD-Governing HeadQuarters."
Both of them nodded.
"What most people don't know is that their information gets leaked almost every Sunday of every weekend. When, and that's when , your child's amazing quirk gets out to the public, nearly every Future Hunter will try to eradicate him from existence. " He took a deep breath, "it is my obligation, not only as a doctor, but as a human being, to make large redundancies in his papers." There was no argument between them, and they both seemed to be on track; they saw the bigger picture, thankfully.
With that said, he trashed the three-ringed paper and pulled out another one—this one was the finishing touch to his official Quirked life. Slowly, he smiled, and turned the fully documented binder around. He could see stars in Izuku's eyes—just like a child would when they were first told what their quirk was.
Izuku Midoriya.
Quirk Type: Emitter.
Quirk: Element Memory.
Quirk Range: Versatile.
Description: Element Memory is an Emitter type quirk that allows Izuku Midoriya to control any substance: solid, liquid, or gas, if given enough time to practice with the material in hand—Izuku is arguably limited to some. Once a steady memory of the substance has been created, Midoriya can then recall the memory and control the substance. Noticeable drawbacks of this quirk are entirely confidential. Teachers word of approval needed for further description; vocal documentation with Dr. Tsuma. QuirkDentify™ Therapeutics. Find Personal Number Here: [820-722-4444]
Izuku was then free to do whatever he liked with his quirk while in a safe environment. It was stated to never use your quirk without specific conditions, but the doctor was rooting for the kid, and he wanted to see where he'd go, so he gave him no lectures like he would do for many of his other patients. He also thanked the Midoriya's for visiting him, saying that he would be there free of charge if any issues involving his Quirk Health came up.
Just before leaving the room, Dr. Tsuma soldered the previous binder together and stuffed it into a heavy-looking suitcase. The Midoriya's were then free to leave at any time, and both of them were given a short copy of the document—being what the public would see if it were to be leaked. In a way, Izuku didn't care that he didn't get to name his quirk in the end due to the redundancies; it was a pretty good one, anyway, and it would keep him under the sheets for a long time.
The only thing he didn't like was how much he actually hadn't told him, or his mother. Actually, he had kept a lot from both of them on purpose: The Portals, The powers that his quirk promised, the upgrades, quests, level-ups, AI Consciousness, and even Merildek —he never mentioned the books that he had received, or Hina, the existing populace in another dimension, the true inside look of his quirks abilities, and much, much more. Even Izuku wanted to keep secrets. If Inko ever found out about the probable dangers inside Merildek, he'd probably be banned from ever going in again; and had he told Dr. Tsuma anything beyond his ability to control the elements, he probably wouldn't be let off so fast.
Once the Midoriya's returned home, it was an even 3:44 PM, giving both of them enough free time for the day to simply collect their thoughts. Well, that's what Inko did, while Izuku went straight for his room, working on finishing his first 'Basic Spell' before nightfall: he would go to and from the kitchen every so often to bring back water to slowly freeze, before deciding to plug the sink and continue from there. After an hour of continuously freezing water, and a very dangerous water bill to be looking forward to this month, Izuku let out a small cheer in victory as he finally advanced his Cold Element and Cold Control. It had only been a singular increase, and Izuku wasn't really cheering about that—he was more excited to learn that his Jou Element was increasing along with it.
Beginner. Jou: Water Element: 2 ↓
Beginner. Cept: Cold Element: 8 ↓
Cold Control: 4 ↓
From that point forward, Izuku left the tub of ice alone, and returned to his guidebook—he flipped a few pages before landing on Jou Element and reading it thoroughly. It had taken Izuku another hour to even grasp the energies of the Water in front of him, but it was worth it, watching as he made the water hover ever-so-slightly in the air.
At first, Izuku thought that he would have everything significantly increased in a single day; man, was he wrong about that . Still, a hopeful smile made it's way to his face, knowing that he would have to work harder than anybody else to catch up for all the years he had missed out on.
His quirk might have been strong at first glance, but Izuku was really just taking pot-shots, and could've easily hurt the people around him—the image of his ice reaching Kacchan was etched in his mind—and he would have to learn how to control it before it actually became a viable weapon. Boreal, on the other hand, was a viable option.
[Reminder: The Tree of Destruction involves harnessing/manipulating the energies of frost, fire, wind, water, electricity, and the Earth itself. This skill makes it easier to cast spells like Fireball, Ice-Cicle, Water Gun, Wind Blast, Rock Toss, and Lightning Bolt Ect. The first element that is cast by the user will become the official and permanent Elemental power of the user, otherwise known as an "Affinity", until others are unlocked/learned. The Beginning Element will be the most efficient with its user, meaning that if the user is given the power over fire, then fire spells will be learned much faster, and be more efficient. However, if the {user} is given a fire affinity for destruction and a water affinity for conjuration, then the user will have a 15% damage increase in destruction instead of 30%, and a 7.5% instead of 15% for conjuration. Instantaneous knowledge about how to activate the spell will be provided upon unlock.]
This reminder made him chuckle a bit. He was lucky to have such an increase if he wanted to catch up in time for Yuuei.
Beep—! Beep—! Be—Click!
Izuku whipped out his phone and pressed the dismiss button to his alarm. Anxiety tickled his skin… knowing what it meant. He had set it earlier so that he wouldn't forget—he'd probably have forgotten at the rate he was going with his magic—to return to Merildek . Twenty minutes later, Izuku had taken a shower and packed a sample amount of supplies into his inventory, picking up his notebook. Taking a second look, Izuku pondered if he had brought enough water and snacks; he eventually nodded, agreeing with himself that he'd be able to come back any time for more if he had run out. While looking through his inventory, he could still see his dim, room ceiling light.
Standing up, Izuku grabbed some clothes, folded them neatly, and tossed them into his backpack, taking up the rest of the slots available, only managing a single set of daily wear. His backpack now full, and half an inventory to work with, he clicked into place, stiffing himself up.
[Outerworldy Transportation] Activated [Cool Down: 39:99]
He put a foot in first, getting the feel of the ground before fully immersing himself. Entering through entirely, he looked back at the darkened door, watching as it withered away into nothingness. Izuku took a few paces forwards, laying his bag next to the nightstand, and sliding into the strangely comfortable bed. Also, he was correct about it being night; time didn't seem to pass in a dimension that he wasn't currently inside of. In a way, this scared him, but he warded off the terrors of the night with an image of what Hina had in stock for him tomorrow.
For once in a long time, he wanted a friend.