Author's Note: This is the libel payment that I owe Gentrychild following the court case "Katydid Vs. Gentrychild: The Fandom Fight of the Century." The terms of the deal never said that I couldn't combine all three ideas into one fic! Take that!
"The Truth is Rarely Pure and Never Simple" is an Oscar Wilde quote. How suited for the fae, who deceive without telling lies.
I wrote this story for 2023 Dad for One week. Each chapter will correspond with one prompt, and I will post a chapter a day until completion. As in my other fics, Kaiji is the Second One for All user and Sanzou is the Third One for All user.
Chapter One:
Everyone at Aldera Middle School knew that Izuku Midoriya had a quirk. However, no one could say quite what it was. Midoriya had ears with pointed tips and beautiful nearly-translucent butterfly wings capturing a hundred shades of green, but no other signs of an animal mutation. Aldera's principal would swear that the Midoriya boy had been registered on the first day of school with a plant growth ability. Then he'd spotted Midoriya talking to a crow on the school rooftop. When he'd gone to check the boy's file again, it said "Nature Affinity" so he assumed he'd remembered wrong. The principal might have complained about the vague description, but Midoriya's parents had paid a hefty sum of money to enroll him quickly. There had been some fuss about Midoriya getting expelled from his last forty-nine schools. The principal had been paid too much money to remember.
Izuku Midoriya's homeroom teacher believed he could communicate with plants and animals, a very strong ability. But a couple times the teacher noticed the boy levitating his pen to his hand. The wind around him died away when his teacher looked at him. The Midoriya boy moved unnaturally fast and gracefully, and his gaze was a bit too sharp. Normally the teacher would have favored a student with a strong potential for heroics, but he found the boy unnerving and disliked his wings.
The other students would bring their dying houseplants to school. Midoriya could cure a plant with a single touch, as long as it had even the smallest spark of life left in the brown leaves. However, he always insisted on being paid. The prices weren't high: he would do it for a pencil or a stick of pocky. Midoriya said that it wasn't good to owe favors, with a smile as if he was sincerely trying to help out his fellow students by charging them. The other students went along with Midoriya's eccentricities because he was very helpful to have around, and a very amiable boy, always ready to lend a hand.
Sometimes the students and occasionally a teacher brought their pets to school to talk to Midoriya, out of curiosity or to correct ill behaviors. Usually Midoriya played along with a smile. Dogs barked at the mailman less after talking to him, though he could do nothing about begging for scraps at the table. In one case he frowned and told a girl very sternly that her nervous rabbit was very lonely and needed another for company. Rabbits did not fare well left in a cage alone. Something about the look in his eyes, white pupils faintly glowing, made her run to the nearest pet store and buy a second rabbit that very afternoon.
A teacher from another class brought in a cat with a limp, who kept her tail tucked in and avoided human contact. According to the teacher, Midoriya's healing services were cheaper than a vet. The cat had a broken leg. Midoriya whispered something to her, then she leapt into his arms and clung to him. After that, there was a public scene where an angry Midoriya refused to give the cat back to the teacher. The principal had to come and insist. Yes, the cat did look in bad shape but there was no proof of abuse. Midoriya asked the teacher three times if he was sure he wanted his cat back, then whispered something in her ear again. She leapt out of his arms with her leg healed. The next day, the teacher was found dead in his home with his throat ripped out. The paw marks around his body looked like they belonged to a lion or tiger. The cat was never seen again.
Midoriya's homeroom teacher was secretly a member of the Creature Rejection Clan, and he considered it his duty to spread his beliefs to young, impressionable students. He'd found fertile ground in Aldera Middle School, where strong quirks were prized and the weak were trampled. It hadn't been too hard to find excuses to criticize and beat down every student in his class with a mutation. He'd also slanted his history lessons to make those with mutations look more responsible for the early chaos during the dawn of the age of quirks.
Though the new student, Midoriya, had been very annoying on that subject. He would correct the teacher whenever he said anything not completely factually accurate. Though Midoriya had only been at Aldera for two months, he found mistakes on a regular basis. The teacher had already been predisposed to dislike Midoriya because of his wings. Although wings were not the ugliest of mutations, Midoriya still couldn't be called a proper human. He ought to keep his mouth shut around his betters.
Looking through a sheet of papers, the teacher said, "Everyone has turned in their career plans. Excellent! I see you all want to become heroes." Laughter greeted this statement. Only Midoriya had written "vigilante" instead, but the teacher looked for a weaker victim. "Watanabe, of course, is simply not qualified for hero work with such a pathetic ability."
Watanabe's antennae drooped. She had a bee mutation that gave her compound eyes, wings, and yellow-and-black fuzz all over. As a result, she'd become the teacher's favorite target. With a sob, she ran out of the classroom.
From the other side of the classroom, Midoriya said, "Watanabe has one of the stronger and more versatile abilities in the class. I would rank it more useful for hero work than yours." He spoke matter-of-factly but with very little respect due toward a teacher.
It was a sore sport for the teacher that his ability only let him extend his arms. He comforted himself that at least he wasn't a creature freak. "Of course you'd say that, Watanabe is your girlfriend." There was nothing like a little romantic humiliation to hurt a teenage boy. The laughter from the class edged the teacher on. "You could command her to date you with your quirk if you're so desperate."
Midoriya frowned. "Watanabe is not my girlfriend and not an animal. Besides, I don't command animals, I only speak to them."
The teacher sneered. "Of course you'd say that, you don't want to scare off your girlfriend." The same joke only drew a few laughs this time.
"Are you accusing me of lying?" Midoriya asked. He spoke in the same even tone, but his green eyes became as hard and cold as the bottom of the sea. His wings had drawn up aggressively.
"It's a joke." The teacher rolled his eyes.
"Then do you retract your false words?" Midoriya persisted.
A strange tension simmered in the air. The teacher's instincts screamed for him to back down, but with the eyes of his class on him, he couldn't do it. "You're not as smart as you think you are, Midoriya. You keep trying to correct me about history, but I know far more than you. Everything I say is true!"
Midoriya leaned back in his seat with a satisfied expression. His wings relaxed. "You have given your word, now we will see if you can keep it."
What the hell did that mean? The teacher snapped, "No more lip out of you, or I'll give you detention."
Midoriya shrugged, expressively silent.
The teacher resumed his lesson. "Mutants are unable to live in modern society and better off in their own separate commune. In fact, I only promote this separation out of kindness." He kept expecting Midoriya to interrupt as usual. But Midoriya remained silent. Perhaps the brat had learned to keep his mouth shut. The teacher's face itched.
"It's been scientifically demonstrated that those with animal mutations lose some of their human intelligence—" The teacher itched at his face harder. Why did it just keep getting itchier? Why did he feel something soft under his fingers?
A student gasped and pointed. "Your face! It's sprouting hair!"
Most of the class glanced at Midoriya, who was reading his textbook as if this had nothing to do with him.
The teacher stomped over. With false bravado, he demanded, "Midoriya, stop this nonsense at once." Even under these circumstances, when he could now see brown fur running down his arms, he couldn't bring himself to let go of his pride. He had to appear in control.
"You made a promise not to lie," Midoriya said. "You've already told two lies. I don't recommend a third one." He turned a page in his book without looking up.
"Whatever you're doing, stop it! I'm not afraid of you!" The teacher's words cut off as his nose elongated and his mouth twisted wider.
"That's a lie," Midoriya said calmly.
The teacher fell forward, falling out of his clothes as he transformed into a weasel.
Hysterical students fled the classroom. One of them dragged over the reluctant principal. Sweating, the man took in the classroom with desks overturned, empty except for one green-haired boy still reading. "Midoriya, what's this I hear about you turning your teacher into a weasel mutant?"
"No, he's an actual weasel." Midoriya pointed at the small brown-furred weasel running around in circles and squeaking. "He hardly deserved a lovely mutation in exchange for all his lies. He's still lying even now. I told him that the transformation would wear off if he'd be honest but I'm not sure he's capable of it."
"You have an animal transformation quirk? Why isn't that in your file?" The principal grasped at the only thing that made sense in all this chaos.
"I can honestly say that I do not have a quirk that turns people into animals," Midoriya said with a slightly amused emphasis on the word "quirk."
The principal bellowed, "Even your parents' money isn't worth this! You're expelled!"
As soon as night fell and the building was empty, Aldera Middle School got razed to the ground by a tornado, but not before they added the fiftieth expulsion to Izuku Midoriya's record.
Hanging his head, Izuku pushed open the gate to his family's townhouse. "Sorry, I got expelled again." His initial self-righteous anger had worn off, and now he felt guilty about facing his parents. They'd spent so much money to find even a lousy middle school like Aldera that would take him. He'd been truly trying to fit in this time.
"Surprise!" Three voices chorused in unison. Yoichi, Kaiji, and Sanzou stood below a banner reading: Congratulations on 50 Expulsions.
The grey two-story townhouse had a traditional sliding lattice door and a gabled roof made of interlocking curved clay tiles. A row of bushes obscuring the small yard from view, as well as more potent magical protections. The trio had hauled a folding table outside and covered it with a two-tier strawberry cake, half a dozen types of roll cakes, mochi, cupcakes, and dango on a stick.
Izuku blinked back sudden tears. "Whoa. I mean, I'm sorry. I screwed it up after you had to bribe the principal to get me in."
"Bah. Money." Yoichi Midoriya shrugged, his wings rippling. "Human currency is nothing but numbers in a computer. We can always create more of it. Compared to the days when humans wanted gold, it's easy." Yoichi was easily Izuku's tallest uncle, with vivid green eyes and white pupils. His hair was naturally white, but it rarely stayed that because it changed based on his whim and mood. Currently, his hair was bright pink. He had beautiful white butterfly wings so translucent as to be invisible unless the sun hit them at the right angle.
His tattoos also changed constantly. Their human neighbors thought that Yoichi had temporary tattoos, which was true for a given value of the word temporary. Currently his white tank top exposed two tattoo sleeves. His right arm was covered in cherry blossoms woven around a clock. If one looked carefully, the hands on the clock moved to show the correct time. The flowers had been slowly blooming for the past couple weeks. His left arm had a tiger and dragon locked in battle, their claws digging into each other. When he waved his arms, a single drop of blood fell from the tiger's injury and struck the ground.
Kaiji slapped Izuku on the back. "You're carrying on the family tradition of getting thrown out of boring places. The three of us have notable list of bans including the dog park, the library, Tokyo Stadium, and the fae realm. You're just getting started on your rap sheet, kid." Kaiji was the shortest but most muscular of the trio, with red hair and a huge scar running across his face. As a human, his skin always looked more ruddy and less ethereal than the other two.
Grinning, Sanzou said, "Kaiji got so banned from the fae realm that even the prison refuses to take him. They put him on the list of natural disasters. There's a kill on sight order out on him." Sanzou had blue-grey hair pulled back in a high ponytail (Yoichi claimed he only wore his hair like that to try and steal the title of tallest one). As an elf, his ears had sharper points and he could retract his wings.
Izuku chuckled and dropped his backpack to the grass. "You're the best dads ever. I'll help you search for a school that I haven't been expelled from—after the party."
"The guest of honor gets the first slice of cake," Yoichi said cheerfully, ushering Izuku to the table. The white-frosted cake was covered in strawberries so each slice had one.
As Izuku cut into the cake, he said, "As much though I appreciate the party, there's a chance the police are about to bust in here and arrest me."
"Already taken care of," Sanzou said. "No one at Aldera will remember your name or face."
"Well-done, Papa." Izuku took a bite of cake. Mmm, the frosting was perfectly light.
Sanzou specialized in illusions and mental trickery, as Yoichi and Izuku specialized in nature magic. Kaiji was the only human in the family, in the know because he'd been taken by the fae as a child and swapped for the changeling Sanzou. Apparently, the trio had met during the incident when everyone had gotten banished. At some point along the way Kaiji had eaten a golden apple that made him immortal, fortunately allowing him to live as long as the other two. Sanzou described this incident as "the least of Kaiji's crimes in the fae realm."
"This is very good." Izuku took a stick of dango. "But I think you made way too much food."
"We're expecting more company," Yoichi said. "Oh! Here they are!"
With a swirl of black feathers, Nana Shimura dropped down from the sky. She was a tengu, a Japanese crow demon. She clapped Izuku on the back. "Congratulations on destroying that hell school Ald-something."
Izuku chuckled, already feeling better. "It was a very dreadful school. I tried hard to keep my head down, but the lessons were frequently wrong and the teachers favored the kids with the strong quirks to a ridiculous degree. Um, I realize it's my own fault for getting expelled from all the good schools."
"Nonsense," Nana sniffed. "Japanese education has gone far downhill. Back in my day we were taught by hermits living in mountains."
Izuku joked, "And you had to climb the mountain in the snow every day, uphill both ways. I've heard it before, Aunt Nana."
She laughed. "All I'm saying is, your principal could benefit from living in a mountain for a bit. Society would also benefit."
"Nana, I'm glad you could make it." Kaiji cast her a concerned look. "We didn't want to trouble you…I know today is the day of your granddaughter's birthday and you wish you could be with her."
"I could use a distraction from thinking about that." Nana sighed. "Let's talk about something else."
Izuku's ears pricked up. He'd never known that Nana had a grandchild but it seemed like a sensitive topic and now wasn't the time to ask. Yoichi's hair had streaked blue just at the brief mention, though the pink was already coming back.
Sanzou handed Nana a roll cake. "I made your favorite matcha flavor."
The gate flung open, and Banjo cried, "How could you get the party started without me?" The oni had bright red skin and horns. The black and white spiral tattoo on his neck had been drawn by Yoichi, who ran a tattoo parlor for magical creatures on the lower level of the townhouse. Although Izuku knew that his three fathers' real vocation was vigilantism. The guests today were all fellow vigilantes, with Nana as the sole official hero.
"I brought a gift," Banjo said, handing a wrapped package to Izuku.
"Oh! You didn't have to." Izuku flushed, arms straining under the weight. "This isn't a party for a special occasion—I just got kicked out of school."
"Then my gift will help you," Banjo declared before falling on the food table and devouring half of it. No wonder Izuku's fathers had made so much, if they'd invited Banjo.
Izuku pulled off the red gift paper. It was…a hammer? Did Banjo expect him to destroy his next school too?
A four-inch tall pixie with black hair fluttered off Banjo's shoulder. En whispered, "Banjo doesn't understand the difference between human school and military training. He thought you'd need a weapon. It's made of silver, no iron."
"That's very kind of him," Izuku said. Like Sanzou and Yoichi, he wore a charm under his shirt that allowed him to touch cold iron without being burned. Such measures were necessary to survive in the modern mortal realm. Proximity to iron still weakened his magic. Raising his voice, Izuku called, "It's a beautiful hammer, Uncle Banjo. Perhaps you can teach me to use it."
A pure white cat strolled out of the bushes. Even without the tang of magic in the air, Izuku would immediately recognize his uncle Hikage. Kneeling down, Izuku petted the bakaneko, a cat demon. "Would you like some milk, Uncle Hikage?"
Hikage said, "Yes please, and I'll take some tuna if you have it." Although Hikage spoke in meows, Izuku could understand perfectly.
Izuku went to the table. "Do we have any tuna?" He spotted it next to a flower cupcake. "Never mind."
Kaiji snorted. "Of course we have tuna, we knew that Hikage's antisocial ass couldn't be bothered to turn back into human form." As a human in a family with three fae, Kaiji was the only one who possessed the ability to lie, but it was a running family joke that he was actually the worst at deception. He was certainly the worst at tact.
"Dad!" Izuku hissed, elbowing his human father as he poured the milk.
Hikage told Izuku, "Your father is just salty because he used to have a phobia of cats, before he gave himself exposure therapy until it was mostly gone." Izuku giggled as he set down the tuna and saucer. He hadn't heard this story before.
"Hey!" Kaiji shouted. "I know you're mocking me! Even if I don't naturally speak cat, I've been around you enough to pick up on that tone of meow."
Laughter filled the yard. The magnolia flowers perked up and grew, as plants often responded to Yoichi and Izuku's moods. Izuku had to take a deep breath to stop the grass from growing too high. The sun shone a bit brighter overhead. On Yoichi's neck, a fanged grin and two blue eyes blossomed from his skin and winked. The Cheshire Cat tattoo appeared in random places all over Yoichi's body, usually when he laughed.
Nana attached her phone to a speaker and started playing music. Both fae and tengu loved to dance. Soon the party was in full swing. Izuku danced with everyone in the family. Since Nana was so much taller, he rested his palms against hers. En danced in the air with Izuku. They both flitted and circled each other, rising above the bushes.
A century ago, the fae wouldn't have flown where humans might see them. Izuku would have needed to hide his wings under an illusion spell whenever he went out. But since the dawn of the age of quirks, no one batted an eye even when Izuku used magic in front of them. It had become a golden age for fae and yokai (aka Japanese demons). The wild fae, who were at the bottom of the food chain in the fae realm, had mass immigrated to live in human cities.
Sometimes Izuku wondered what the fae realm was like. But according to his parents, he could legally only visit the fae realm alone after he turned eighteen. They'd warned him that his family had a certain notoriety there and it was a dreadfully stuffy place anyway. Apparently he wasn't missing out on anything.
Izuku's new school was halfway across Japan, so his fathers had spent a week crafting a fairy ring that he could use to teleport over. Izuku felt sorry for the trouble, but Yoichi had assured him that it was worth it, because his new school was one of the top ranked academically in Japan. That would be a welcome breath of fresh air after Aldera. This time, Izuku was determined not to get expelled.
Although Izuku did not need to hide his butterfly wings or pointed ears in modern human society, he still had three issues to be cautious of when interacting with humans.
First of all, fae couldn't lie. Most of the time this posed little problem, because no one was going to ask Izuku if he was secretly a fairy. Besides, he could always toss off a sarcastic "yes" and pass it off as a joke. He sometimes risked causing offense because white lies were the basis of human manners, but his parents had taught him how to equivocate and avoid questions. Instead of "nice to meet you" he'd learned to say "it's a pleasure," a handy phrase that left it ambiguous as to what "it" referred to. After all, Izuku took pleasure in thwarting the human language. When asked "how are you" he had a range of humorous responses to avoid every human's favorite lie, "I'm fine." In a lighthearted tone to avoid offense, he could say "My lawyer has stated that I don't have to answer that question" which was technically true because Hikage had a law degree. "My psychiatrist says that I shouldn't discuss it with strangers" was also technically true because En had taken an online therapy course once. "I still have a pulse" usually won him a smile or a chuckle. He found that replying, "Depends, is it Friday yet?" was always well-received by humans, and questions were never lies.
Secondly, the touch of iron burned Izuku unless he wore the charm Yoichi had made for him. Since iron was everywhere in modern human society, he counted himself fortunate to have a solution. He kept his charm on a silver chain under his shirt and checked regularly to make sure it was still there.
Thirdly, any promise that someone else made to Izuku became binding and vice versa. If he carelessly said "let's always be friends forever" then he'd be stuck to a human for the rest of both of their lives. Izuku could avoid making promises himself but could not control other people. Every single time a human said "thank you" they put themselves in Izuku's debt unless he asked them for something to discharge the favor. This last one posed the greatest challenge, because humans thanked each other for everything from life-saving to holding the door open. Fortunately, he could easily release them from their promises. Izuku had formed a habit where every night before going to bed, he would recite, "I free anyone of any obligations they made to me today." This was much easier than trying to keep track of who had thanked him every day.
Izuku headed downstairs wearing his new uniform: a tan suit jacket with matching pants. His black loafers clicked on the wooden floor.
Yoichi knelt down before a circle of mushrooms growing through the living room floorboards. He waved his hand, and glowing blue spots appeared running down the mushrooms. Without looking up, he said, "I tested it earlier. You'll come out behind the tool shed at your new school. No one is there at this time of day, the gardener comes by earlier in the morning."
"Perfect." Izuku hugged Yoichi. "I appreciate how much time you put into this." It was polite for fae to acknowledge the value of a gift even if they did not say "thank you."
Yoichi rose, kissing his son on his cheek on his way up. "I hope you have a lovely time at school. Don't be afraid to get expelled again if they deserve it."
Izuku snorted. "You probably have a bet with my other fathers about how long I'll last at this school."
Recoiling, Yoichi placed a hand over his heart. "Would I do that?" His lower lip wobbled. Also, his hair flashed mischievous purple, a tell.
Izuku raised his eyebrow. "Don't pull that trick on me, Poppa. You're the one who taught me how to deceive without lying." Izuku stepped into the circle and teleported.
The air shifted, becoming hotter and more humid. Izuku stood on woodchips with a shed to his right and a chain-link fence to his left. A boy with half-red, half-white hair had one leg over the fence. They stared at each other with mutual faces of "busted."
Izuku had been caught on his very first day of school. Surely even Yoichi hadn't bet it would happen so quickly! Taking deep breaths, Izuku tried not to catastrophize. He could pretend to have a teleportation quirk. It wouldn't be the first time Sanzou had to sneak into a school and change his quirk registry. But what ability name could theoretically combine teleportation with his nature powers? It tended to be difficult to hide how plants reacted around Izuku. Plus how would he explain that he could only teleport to exactly one location? Oh, right, what if he pretended to have used someone else's teleportation quirk? Izuku opened his mouth, already planning how to phrase "My father used his ability to send me to school" in a way that wasn't technically a lie.
Before he could speak, the boy pointed at the ring of mushrooms around his feet and asked, "Are you a fae? Awesome! I'm a yuki-onna." He grinned and the white half of his hair covered with frost. His skin seemed to glow like moonlight, frost crystals dancing around him. He had heterochromatic eyes, and the grey one glowed. "My name is Shouto Todoroki."
Izuku gasped with delight. "Yes, I am! I'm called Izuku Midoriya." The phrasing was deliberate—all fae used fake names. Names had power. "Nice to meet you." He reveled in being able to say that because, for once in his life, it was completely true.
Izuku had never met another magical creature his own age before. Most of those with magic were immortal, and reproduced rarely. Those precious children were carefully guarded away from the human realm. Shouto seemed equally delighted to have a classmate he could share his secret with. When the school bell rang, the two of them quickly exchanged phone numbers and a promise to meet at lunchtime.
After fifty schools, Izuku had been through the new student drill often enough to do it on autopilot. He barely paid attention to his morning teachers, already eagerly anticipating lunch.
Shouto and Izuku met to eat behind the toolshed, out of the way of everyone else.
"What brought you out here this morning, anyway?" Izuku asked.
"I was late and taking a shortcut," Shouto admitted. "How about you?"
"The ground here is good for growing mushrooms." With a flick of Izuku's will, the grass grew thicker to provide them a comfy place to sit down. Shouto's eyes widened slightly. Izuku basked in his success. Shouto had a handsome face (especially because of that dashing scar), a cool demeanor, and power. Izuku instinctively wanted to impress him.
Shouto sat down. "Th—" He stopped himself. "Wait, it's rude to thank a fae, isn't it?"
"I don't mind." Izuku chuckled. "It's less that it's rude, and more that it's dangerous. I could use your thanks to claim that you owed me a favor. Not that I would, of course."
"Oh. I thought it was a slight," Shouto murmured as he opened his lunchbox. He had a convenience store sandwich, an apple, and carrots inside.
Izuku's lunch had been prepared by Sanzou, the best cook in the family. The bento box had six compartments inside, containing sushi, shrimp tempura, a small pork cutlet on rice, vegetables cut into cute shapes, steamed egg custard, and a black sesame cookie for dessert. Shouto cast a longing glance as he bit into his cold sandwich.
"You can have some, if you'd like. I've got plenty." Izuku offered a piece of sushi.
"Th—how kind of you." Shouto's eyes lit up. "Would you like some of my lunch?"
Izuku had plenty of food, but he accepted an apple slice to complete the bargain. Exchanges were politer than favors.
Dabbing his mouth with a napkin, Shouto said, "You're probably wondering why I'm not a girl."
Izuku hadn't been, actually. He knew that yuki-onna meant snow woman, a race of all female ice spirits. As a fae, Izuku struggled with the conception of gender being so binary. Fae had fluid gender identities and bodies, switching it around depending on their mood that century. During puberty, Izuku had changed his mind a couple times before settling on boy for now. Izuku was aware other races tended to pick one gender and stick with it, but he hadn't remembered that until Shouto had brought it up.
Shouto continued, "I'm half-human. My father used to be a hero before he took a leave of absence to look after us kids. I have both yuki-onna powers and a quirk." He raised his left hand, and fire glowed around it, his blue eye seeming to burn. "I have everyone at school convinced that I have a Half Hot, Half Cold quirk."
Izuku laughed. "Humans will believe the most ridiculous things! At my last school I used a dozen different powers, and people still thought it was all one quirk."
"I used to go to school up in the mountains where it didn't matter because everyone knew," Shouto said. "I convinced my parents to let me go to school here so I could meet kids my own age and get in touch with my human heritage, but it was actually to look for my big brother."
Izuku hmmed, his wings perking up with interest.
"When I was young, there was an accident. Our house burned down and I got this scar." Shouto touched his face. "I don't remember much about how it happened. My oldest brother, Touya, died in the fire. Or at least my parents said so. On an online conspiracy theory forum where I hang out, I found pictures of a petty criminal in the mortal realm who looks a lot like Touya. I told my parents, and they got weird. My dad can't lie for his life, it makes his whole face turn red. They're definitely hiding something from me." His jaw set with determination. "I'm going to figure out the truth."
"Whoa, that's awful," Izuku said. "I can't imagine my parents lying to me. Because they can't, of course. They're fae. It must be difficult if your own family can deceive you."
Shouto pulled out two pictures from his wallet, one of little boy with red hair, and one of a scarred punk with black hair. "Have you seen a man who looks like either of these pictures?"
This must be Shouto's true purpose for spilling his tragic past to someone he'd barely met. Either that, or Shouto was a chronic over-sharer. Izuku took a close look at the photos. "I'm sorry, I haven't seen him. I could help you investigate local villain reports. If you text me those pictures, then I'll post them on some hero fan servers. Hero fans are amazingly up-to-date on villain information."
"I would be most grateful," Shouto said solemnly. "I asked a couple people for help so far minus the yokai part. But they all looked at me funny, then left."
…A chronic over-sharer, then.
"How did you come to this school?" Shouto asked.
"I got expelled from all the ones close to me." Izuku shrugged. "At my last school, I turned my teacher into a weasel. He was already a weasel in spirit, I just made it official. Except that's an insult to honest weasels."
Shouto's eyes widened. "Were your parents very angry?"
Izuku laughed. "They were proud, actually."
"Whoa." Shouto's eyes got even wider. "I wouldn't dare face my mother if I froze a teacher."
Izuku felt a special glow from impressing someone he wanted to impress. He sat up straighter.
Shouto asked, "What court are you from? For animal transformations, I'm guessing spring or summer. But I hadn't heard any of the courts had produced a prince recently. Are you incognito?"
The fae realm was divided into four courts where the seasons never changed from spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Each court was ruled by a monarch of great and terrible power.
Snorting, Izuku said, "I'm no royalty! I'm merely a common wild fae."
Shouto gasped. "If you could say that without any equivocation, then…you actually believe it."
A sinking sensation filled Izuku's stomach. "What does that mean?"
"An ordinary wild fae couldn't turn a human into an animal. Even a stronger fae couldn't manage it in the human realm, with cold iron everywhere."
"What makes you so sure? You didn't even know why it's dangerous to thank a fae." Izuku's voice rose and his wings unfurled defensively.
"The thing is…it's not dangerous, usually. It's considered rude precisely because the lesser fae see it as someone looking down on them, taunting them with a favor they don't have to keep. Most fae can only bind someone if they specifically make a promise. Only royalty can turn even a generic thanks into an oath." Shouto sounded nervous and maybe a little pitying. It made Izuku's stomach sink even further. "Sorry," Shouto whispered, hanging his head.
Shouto could be lying. A yokai could lie as easily as a human. Izuku had nearly convinced himself of it, except that tiny apology sounded so sincere.
But Izuku's parents couldn't lie. Except for Kaiji. Izuku wracked his brains, and yes, Kaiji had been the one to sit Izuku down and tell him about the courts and that his family were wild fae. How dare his fathers use Kaiji to lie to Izuku? How dare they take advantage of Izuku's unconditional faith in everything they said? Now Izuku had been humiliated by knowing even less about his own people than a yuki-onna. Had his parents deliberately isolated him from other fae to stop him from learning the truth? Everyone at the party must have known, but they'd all kept it from him. Everyone in Izuku's life had been lying to him!
"Maybe I shouldn't have said anything," Shouto mumbled. "I'm sure your parents had a reason. I know my parents are trying to protect me by keeping me away from Touya, I just don't agree with them."
Remembering how just moments before, he'd bragged that his parents would never lie to him, Izuku's cheeks burned. He leapt to his feet. "I need to make a call."
Flying over the fence, Izuku found a spot of forest too distant to be overheard. As soon as he landed, the grass withered around him. Overhead, angry black clouds formed. Izuku called his home number.
Yoichi picked up. "Izuku, are you enjoying school?"
"Am I a royal fae?" Izuku demanded.
Silence came from the other end. That silence was an answer in and of itself. Fae had great difficulty getting around direct yes or no questions.
"What court did we come from? Why did you lie to me?" Izuku's wings flapped so hard that he started to rise off the ground in his agitation.
"I'm sorry," Yoichi whispered. "H-how did you realize? Please, this might be very important."
Izuku snarled, "A yuki-onna attends my school. It turns out that any yokai can look at me and figure it out in a few minutes! But you left me in the dark!" Hurt teenage pride bubbled up in his voice. He'd been made into an utter fool.
"Oh, phew, not a fae," Yoichi muttered.
Izuku shouted into his phone, "If it's so important that other fae don't know, then why didn't you tell me? I can't keep a secret if I don't know what I'm supposed to conceal!"
"I'm sorry," Yoichi repeated. "We agreed to tell you when you turned eighteen. I wanted to tell you sooner. But Sanzou said that he never wanted to know about his biological parents and as a teen he wished he'd never even found out about being a changeling. Since he's the closest we have to someone who was adopted, I deferred to his judgment. Even though the human books said we should tell you."
"I'M ADOPTED?!" Izuku shrieked. He shot up in the air, banging his head on a tree branch, then fell down with a curse.
Izuku had never fussed about which of his three parents were biologically related to him. It didn't matter. Sanzou was his Dad, Kaiji was his Papa, and Yoichi was his Poppa. Izuku had assumed that Yoichi had probably given birth to him, because for the first ten years of Izuku's life, Yoichi had been in a female mood and gone by Mama. (Hence why, after Yoichi decided to switch, he'd gotten the last pick paternal title.) Also, Izuku and Yoichi clearly had the same powers. Izuku could honestly say that he didn't care if he was biologically related to his parents or not, but he couldn't stand being lied to again.
"I didn't say that you were adopted," Yoichi said quickly.
"You implied it! Tell me right now: am I adopted?"
Slowly, Yoichi said, "I'm biologically related to you."
"But you're not my father or you would have said so! Don't you dare lie to me again!" Izuku's voice filled with tears. Sometimes he hated being an easy crier. He wasn't sad, he was angry.
Yoichi gulped audibly. "Izuku, I can't tell you the truth. I made a promise to your other fathers that I wouldn't. I want to tell you. I'll go to them and persuade them right now. As soon as they release me from my oath, I'll tell you everything."
Izuku breathed heavily, holding back his tears. It wasn't good enough, but it was all he would get. "I have the right to know," he said hoarsely.
"You do, and it might be dangerous for you to not know why this must be secret. I'll tell you soon," Yoichi pleaded. "I'm very sorry."
Izuku couldn't say it was okay, because he couldn't lie. He hung up.
After wiping off his face, Izuku flew back over the fence. Although the lunch period was over, Shouto still waited for him with a concerned expression. "You should go to class," Izuku said flatly. "I don't think I can." School was the last concern on his mind. He could plead sick. With the current condition of his stomach, he'd barely need to equivocate.
Shouto said, "Since you offered to help me find my brother, I tried to think of a way to help you. If we're playing hooky, then want me to take you to visit the fae realm? We could easily find someone there to reveal what court you're from."
Izuku gaped. "I thought I couldn't enter the fae realm until I turned eighteen."
The expression on Shouto's face said it all. Yet another lie. The last remaining thread of Izuku's temper snapped. He knew his parents probably had a good reason to forbid him, and he didn't care. It would serve them right if he disobeyed them. "I accept your offer. Let's visit the fae realm."
OMAKE TIME!
Omake: Katsuki Bakugo is Not at Aldera But If He Was…
Katsuki: I've met a rival with a quirk as strong as mine.
Izuku: I can truthfully say I do not have a quirk as strong as yours.
Katsuki: False modesty, eh? From now on, we're competing to get into U.A.
Izuku: I have no interest in becoming a hero, too many rules. I'm going to be a vigilante like my parents.
Katsuki: Hey! Are you saying that being a vigilante is harder than being a hero? Are you telling me that I need to become a vigilante to defeat you?
#
Omake: Shouto the Oversharer
Shouto: I'm looking for my villain older brother…though legally only using a quirk is considered villainy, not magic, so maybe he's half a villain. Whoops, forget you heard me say anything about magic or not being human.
Classmate: Why are all the hot ones crazy?
Shouto: Someday I'll meet a fae prince who likes my inability to lie.
Author's Note: For Dad for One week, I'm collaborating with the amazingly talented artist Possiblycringe (tumblr) / BucketOfMud (Ao3) / Popsicles (discord). Many thanks for the collab and for betareading this fic. I had fun working together! The beautiful art for this chapter shows Izuku's painful moment of realization that Kaiji, a human, lied to him in the past. I just adore his stunned expression. Delete the spaces to get the link:
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possiblycringe/722494125176406017/it-is-dfo-week-and-i-am-once-again-collabing-with
Dad for One week 2023 has the theme Lord of the Rings. Day One's prompt: "Well, my little fellows! You shall come home with me!" That Tom Bombadil quote sounds way more sinister in a Dad for One fic. Although in this chapter Shouto invited Izuku instead of All for One. Neither of them have any idea how dangerous it is for Izuku to go home.
Shouto's family situation is not the same as canon and his mother didn't give him his scar, but more on that later. For anyone wondering about Katsuki Bakugo, he's not at Aldera because he's not human.
Fae don't like lies. Izuku was raised in the human realm, so he knows that humans aren't being rude when they tell white lies and he doesn't see one culture as being innately better than the other. Even so, Izuku always appreciated that he could come home and know that no one would lie to him. So for Izuku, discovering that his other two parents used his human parent to deceive him was a very big shock.
I promise All for One will show up soon! This is Dad for One week, after all.