It was a hot, summer day afternoon, with few clouds in the sky. Most of the people were doing their usual daily routines: Shopping, having a date, hanging out with friends, just having a good time in general. But this couldn't be said about the young Izuku Midoriya. He was standing in the middle of a playground with teary eyes and he was wearing a slightly green shirt, dark green shorts, white socks, and his signature red shoes. But he wasn't the only child on the playground. There were other four children around him.
One of them was behind him, kneeling on the ground with both of his legs and holding his right arm, crying in pain. The other three were in front of them, with the child in the middle a little bit closer to Izuku. From Izuku's perspective, Tsubasa, the plump small child with a tank top, green shorts, and sandals, was standing on the left side, while the other kid on the right side was wearing a blue baseball, a yellow jacket with a blue shirt under it, light blue shorts, and brown shoes. Finally, in the middle of the group, there was the spiky-haired Katsuki Bakugo, Izuku's best friend and number one bully.
"That's mean, Kacchan. Can't you see he's crying?" Izuku said with his young, trembling voice while shakily taking up a fighting stance, preparing for the upcoming "battle, "If you keep going, I-I-I'll never forgive you!"
The three boys weren't even phased by this, just activated their Quirks, with Tsubasa sprouting two red, dragonic wings and raising into the air, and with the other kid lifting his left towards the sky and extending all of his five fingers on it.
"Even though you're Quirkless..." Katsuki started, hitting his right hand to his left palm, creating a small explosion as his right hand landed, "You're pretending to be a hero, Deku?" Katuski finished with a big, cocky smile on his face.
That was the main reason why Izuku was bullied in the first place. His Quirk hadn't come to the surface since he turned 4 years old a few weeks ago and, although it didn't mean he was Quirkless, it didn't stop Bakugo, who became more cockier and cockier after he got his Quirk, and his buddies to bully him because of his possible weakness.
The young green-haired boy stepped back in fear as the three kids charged toward him and started to beat him to the ground. After they finished their little beat-up, Bakugo and his friends got bored and left the playground, leaving Izuku lying on the ground full of bruises all over his body. After the kid who he tried to defend left as well, he stayed on the ground until sunset, then managed to stand up, and with some of his injuries still visible, he decided to walk back to his home while looking down at the ground sadly.
After some time, he reached the same apartment he always came home to every day, slowly went up the stairs, and got in front of its front door. With his tiny right hand, he grabbed the door handle and pushed it down in order to open it. After he opened it, he stepped inside and entered his home fully, closing it behind him. Hearing someone opening and closing the front door, Inko spoke up from the other room to greet his son.
"Welcome home, Izuku! Did you have fu-?" Inko asked kindly as she stuck her head out the doorway leading to the other room, but quickly stopped in her words when she saw how Izuku looked.
"Hi, mommy." he said dejectedly as he raised his head and looked at his mother.
"IZUKU!" she exclaimed worriedly as she rushed to her son who was covered in bruises, "What happened to you?! Are those bruises?!"
"I-I fell when I was playing with K-Kacchan at the playground." he replied, feeling a bit bad for lying to his mother.
Inko let out a sigh and calmed down her nerves and looked back at her son, "Be careful next time, Izuku. I don't want you to get hurt." she suggested.
"Okay." Izuku replied with a sad voice.
"Now come, dinner is almost ready. It will be your favourite." she said, smirking as she said this thanks to her already knowing how her son was going to react to this statement of hers.
Hearing this, all the sadness Izuku had instantly vanished and his face lightened up with happiness and joy, "It will be katsudon?!"
Inko giggled at her son's behavior, "Yes, yes it will be katsudon. But before that, go wash your face and your hands." she advised.
"Okay, mommy!" Izuku answered excitedly and run towards the bathroom door which he fastly opened and closed behind him, while the whole scene was observed by his smiling mother. After entering the bathroom, he headed to the washbasin and stepped up on the white step stool to reach its faucet and open it, letting the water to flow from it. Firstly, he washed the remaining dirt and sand off of his tiny hands with a little amount of soap, just as his mother taught him, then proceeded to clean his face using a little bit of water. After this, he closed the faucet and reached out for the All Might towel next to the washbasin to wipe the water away from his hands and face. But little did he know, the next thing he was going to see will make him both scared and surprised.
When he took the towel off of his face and looked at the mirror, which was over the washbasin, the thing he saw was not his own reflection. Instead, it was a small, shadowy figure, resembling a young child just like him. The figure didn't possess a mouth and its whole body was pitch black, similar to a shadow. It possessed fluffy hair just like the one Izuku had, with the only difference being that it was also pitch black, just like its body. It also had two small puffy deer ears and two tiny, undeveloped deer antlers between them with the same color as its body, hair, and ears, which were pitch black as well. The only two things that were not black were its jungle green aura that surrounded its body and its jungle green eyes that he kept closed at the moment.
In fright and confusion, Izuku was too scared to move and froze in place when he saw the shadowy figure in the mirror. For a few seconds, nothing happened until suddenly, the shadow opened its jungle green and stared back at him, revealing that its eyes only consisted out of two jungle green scleras. Thanks to this unexpected move, Izuku fell off from the step stool, hurting his butt as he hit the floor.
"Ouchie!" Izuku said while rubbing his butt from the pain. But in quick realisation, he put both of his hands on his mouth as fast as he could. And he had a good reason for that. What if that thing heard him? What if it will come out of the mirror? And what if it will hurt him and his mom? These were three main motives why he was too frightened to check if that ghost-like entity have vanished or not. But at the same time, a strange kind of curiousness and excitement due to one simple thought: What if his Quirk had been finally activated?
With these thoughts inside his little innocent kid head, he took as much encouragement as he could, slowly stood up from the floor, stepped up on the step stool, and before he could look at the mirror, he closed his eyes from the fear of the shadowy ghost still being in the mirror. He waited for a few seconds, then slightly opened his right eye to take a peek at the mirror. The entity was still in the mirror. He immediately closed his right eye as he saw the ghost-like shadow. He waited a few seconds then opened his right once again, now fully. The shadowy figure looked back at him with its right eye closed and its left eye open.
Izuku opened his other eye, and so did the entity. Seeing this reaction from it, an idea popped up in Izuku's head, and to test it, he slowly moved his head left and right while never taking off his from the shadowy being, which did the same moves as him. This little experiment made him realise something that both surprised him and caused him to feel agitated: It was mimicking his moves, just like a normal mirror reflection would do.
As another test, he raised both of his hands in front of him and moved all of his fingers in front of him, while observing the ghostly shadow as it followed every move he did. Then, he lowered his left hand and waved with his right hand to see if it still continued to mirror his movement, which it did. While doing these experiments, he became more and more jumpier and less frightened, even larking by sticking out his tongue and doing some childish dancing, which only consisted out of some wiggling with his arms and jumping up and down. While he was fooling around, the shadowy entity followed his every move, even the tongue-stick-out with its jungle green tongue and the small dancing with its pitch-black arms.
Lastly, he jumped into the air a little bit and while he was in the air, he turned his back towards the mirror and started to count. But instead of copying Izuku's move, the ghost-like shadow came out from the mirror and went closer to Izuku, floating quietly just a few centimeters away from his green-haired head. After counting to ten, with a big smile on his face, Izuku turned around and was immediately startled by the shadowy being's closeness, causing him to fall down from the step stool once again.
"Ow." he spoke after hitting the floor and closing his eyes from the pain. While saying this and keeping his eyes closed, the entity slowly levitated in the direction of Izuku. After he opened his visual organs, he was greeted by that strange being right away, "P-Please, d-don't hurt m-me!" he demanded as he crossed his arms in an X-shape in front of his face. He waited for the upcoming attack to come from it, but to his surprise, nothing happened. Izuku slowly opened his eyes and lowered his arms a little, realizing that the shadowy entity didn't move from its place one bit. The more surprising thing was that it even had an expression on its face full of worry, judging by the shape of its eyes.
The shadow offered its black right hand to the child he had just scared to help him get to his feet, who, by this, shut his eyes even more and raised his arms in front of his face once again. It immediately stopped in its tracks, but didn't pull back its hand, didn't go closer to the small child, and didn't disappear from the room thanks to being concerned for the kid's safety. After all, what kind of shadow it could be if it didn't serve its master right?
Izuku lowered his guard a little bit just like his arms and opened one of his visionary organs and took a look at the being that was floating in front of him motionlessly. After staring at each other for half a minute, still a little bit afraid, Izuku gulped and opened his mouth and other eye and spoke up:
"S-So, y-you won't h-hurt m-me?" Izuku wondered apprehensively as he took his eyes upon the shadowy ghost.
In response, the entity answered with a no by shaking its head left and right and moving its hand towards Izuku closer on the purpose of helping him up. Izuku looked at the black hand with short, black claws on it and after a short amount of time, he shakily extended his right hand and grabbed the shadow's hand. To his surprise, when he touched its hand, the entity didn't hurt him, in fact, after it grabbed his small hand, it helped him to stand up to his feet.
After standing up, Izuku and the shadowy being just stared at each other, with its face still showing a worried expression and Izuku isn't knowing what to say. The ghosty shadow lifted its right arm and pointed at him with its forefinger, confusing Izuku with this act. He became more confused when it closed its index and held up its thumb. It repeated the act the same two times after it saw its master's confusion, until the little Izuku figured out what it tried to say.
"A-Are you a-asking me if I'm okay?" he asked wonderingly.
As an answer, the shadow nodded with its head. Followed by an awkward silence followed until Izuku asked the question which was crucial for him to know the identity of this thing: "B-But wh-who a-are y-you?" he wondered.
To his question, the worried face of the shadow disappeared and it slowly raised its right hand once again with its right index finger, it pointed at our young main protagonist. After that, it turned its wrist and pointed at itself. After trying to understand what it tried to say to him, resulting in Izuku to understand what it tried to tell to its master, "W-Wait, a-are you saying that you're me?"
The shadow shook his in disagreement and repeated its previous act two times, which caused an idea to pop up in Izuku's head, which caused him to widen his eyes in shock and jolt, "A-Are you trying to say that you're my Quirk?!"
The shadow rapidly nodded with its head to Izuku's guess, confirming his idea. Seeing this, every trace of fear had instantly vanished from the young boy and pure furore took its place inside him. The largest, happiest smile he had in his entire life enveloped his face and his eyes shined bright from excitement. He even began to jump up and down in joy like a small child would do who he was, while the shadow with a happy expression on his face celebrated with him as well by flying all around the room, not knocking down anything in the process.
As they celebrated, an idea got inside Izuku's head which involved the person who was the most beloved and important family member at that point of his life: His mother. He quickly stopped in his little jumping exercise/celebration and looked at the shadow with starry eyes, "I have to tell this to mommy!" he said quietly. After he said this, he looked at the shadow who flew around the room in happiness, "Stay here! I'll call my mommy here to show you to her!"
Hearing this, the shadow stopped its flying in an instant and set its eyes upon Izuku with nervousness and panic.
"I'll be quick! Just stay here, okay?" Izuku asked, then ran to the door, opened it as fast as he could, and rushed out of the room, leaving the shadow alone in the bathroom, shaking its head left and right in pure panic.
Meanwhile, at the other side of the house, Izuku went into the kitchen faster than the Flash could and ran next to his mother, who was putting a katsudon in a small bowl, with a large smile on his face. Seeing her little only son in a better mood, Inko couldn't help but smile and greet her little baby boy kindly, "Hello, sweety! Dinner is almost ready! Have you washed your hands?".
Instead of an answer to her question, Izuku answered with something she didn't expect, "Mommy, mommy! I've got my Quirk!" Izuku beamed excitedly. Hearing this, as Inko looked at her only child, her eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and shock, but that shock turned into proudness and happiness alike.
"Really? Can you show me, honey?" she inquired with almost the same amount of excitement her son had at that moment.
"Of course, mommy! But you have to come to the bathroom with me to see it!" He explained while trying not to jump out of his skin from excitement. Then, after his statement, Izuku grabbed his mother's right hand with his right hand and led her in the direction of the bathroom. Although it was strange for Inko that Izuku wanted her to show his Quirk in the bathroom of all places, why wouldn't be strange? But put this thought of hers aside and let her son take her to the bathroom.
Once approaching the door of the room, Izuku stopped in his tracks, stepped in front of his mother, grabbed the doorhandle, and looked at his mother, "Okay, here it comes!" he chirped. And with this, he opened the door and extended his arms towards the inside of the room in a revealing manner, "Ta-da!" Izuku whooped. But when he did this revelation to Inko, he was not greeted with the reaction he expected. Instead of utter happiness, he saw traces of confusion and unsureness on his mother's face. Seeing this, he turned his head to take a look at the room and realised: No one was in the bathroom. No shadow-like being in the mirror, no shadow flying around in the room, no shadow in hiding a shelf, it was nowhere to be seen. It had disappeared completely.
Izuku was absolutely shocked upon witnessing this. Where did that shadow go? Why did it go away? Did he accidentally deactivate his Quirk? Or he just imagined the whole scene with himself and the shadow? He just couldn't understand why would his shadow, which claimed to be him, suddenly vanish when he said to it that he will show it to his mother. Maybe it was just too shy to show itself in front of his mother or something else. But truth to be told, he did expect it to be a hallucination a bit. Why? Because why would a weak, worthless Deku like him even deserve a Quirk?
While these thoughts ran through his head, he tried to explain all of this to his only parent, "B-But i-it was right here! I swear!" he stuttered while looking at his mother, trying to process what had just happened and trying to explain all of this to Inko.
"Okay?" Inko answered with a noticeable confusion and a little amount of unseeable sadness in her voice, "A-Anyway, it's time to eat, sweety. Dinner's waiting for us." she said gloomily.
"B-But-" Izuku started.
"P-Please, Izuku. Come. I-I don't want the food to go cold." Inko interrupted, cutting off his son's speech, before exiting the room and trying to hide her sad emotions from her son. Because not unsureness was the only feeling she felt. She was possessed by other three feelings she experienced at that moment: Sadness, pity, and guilt. Sadness, for seeing her little child still being hopeful for something that maybe he can never be. Pity, for him not being able to accomplish his big dream. And guilt for her not being able to provide him with at least her Quirk in order to help him make his dream true.
Shortly after his mother stepped out of the room, Izuku, while looking at the floor with a mixture of regret and sadness on his face, quietly followed Inko to the kitchen. But before he closed the door, he took one last glance at the bathroom, the place he thought he had finally discovered his own Quirk. After that, he headed into the kitchen, sat down on a chair, grabbed his chopsticks, and dug into his katsudon while his mother did the same in front of him at the other side of the table.
After a dinner filled with awkward silence, he went into the bathroom but not for the purpose of checking the room if that shadow had come back, instead, he went inside to take a bath in the bathtub filled with water which his mother prepared for him after she finished her own meal. Once his bath was done, with the help of Inko, he wiped the small droplets of water away from his small body with a large yellow and blue colored All Might towel, and after that, he dressed up in his pajamas, which consisted out of a light red pyjama top and dark blue and white horizontally striped pajama trousers, watched his favourite All Might video three or four times and headed into his bedroom. After entering the room, he went straight toward his bed and lay comfortably on it. Just before he fell asleep, his mother covered him with his warm All Might blanket and gave him a goodnight kiss on his little forehead.
"Good night, mommy." Izuku said as he looked at his mother, who was standing at the doorway, and felt his eyes become heavier.
"Goodnight, Izuku." she responded while looking at her half-asleep son from the doorway, "Sleep well." she finished kindly with a small on her face, then slowly closed the door, letting her child to rest noiselessly in his bed. Once she left his room, he could finally close his green eyes and drift away into the world of dreams. Unbeknownst to him, the shadow appeared in his room, observing him from above with its jungle-green eyes shining in the dark. It felt wrong and guilty for disappointing its master and disappearing without any explanation, but it promised, no it swore that after this one little mistake, it will protect its master and the ones who are important to him no matter what. After all, as a servant and shadow, it's its duty to serve its master, its Overlord perfectly, without any errors. And with this, the night went on as usual, until something really unexpected happened.
It was around 2 AM on the same night. Everyone was asleep in the Midoriya household, even the shadow, who was watching over Izuku in his sleep, shut its eyes down and nodded off one or two times during the night, but it tried its best not to fall asleep. Even though it didn't need any kind of sleep, it was exhausting for it to get used to the world where it began its very existence.
It was about to nod off once again, when suddenly, he heard a noise. It immediately shot its eyes open and looked at its master.
Its eyes widened in shock and terror from what it saw. By looking at its master's face, it already knew why he let out that noise in his sleep. He was in dull pain. Although it didn't seem to cause him that much pain to wake him up, it still disturbed his peaceful sleep and caused the shadow to become panicked like never before. It shook its head left and right in its nervousness, looking for something that could help its master.
While doing this, a larger amount of sharp pain struck Izuku's body, more specifically, his head. Now, this was enough to make him wake up from his dreams and grab his head with both of his hands and hold it from the pain.
"Ow!" he exclaimed as he felt like his head could explode at any second. While he was trying to hold his head in place from the pain, he noticed the end of something floating not too high above him. He moved his vision organs upwards and he was taken aback in pure surprise and shock by the shadow in front of him.
"Aaahh!" he screamed in fright as crawled backwards, accidentally hitting his head against the wall, causing himself even more pain. He placed his right hand on the back of his head and rubbed it at the place he hit his head while the shadow levitated towards him full of fear, worry, and panic. Once the pain from the hit had finally flown off, he turned his attention back to his little surprise visitor again.
"Y-You're back! OW!" he told, flinching from the growing and spreading pain in his head, ears, teeth, and torso. Even though he was excited for the shadow's return, it was hard to focus as the increasing pain in his body began to spread, but he tried, "W-Where have y-you b-been? OW!" he wondered as he tried to ignore the growing pain inside him, now affecting his arms and stomach which he tried to ignore, but to no avail.
He grabbed his stomach in agony and proceeded to make his waterworks begin their job, letting a few tears of misery exit his eyes and roll down on his cheeks. Despite this and his changing teeth, he was still capable of speaking to the shadow.
"I-I thought you w-won't c-come back. OW!" he remarked with a small, painful smile on his face when an even sharper pain struck his whole body, even at the end of his legs. He couldn't take it. It was too much for his little body to handle. He was now in so much pain that he could barely move or speak. But with all of his power, he took a look at the panicked shadow, and with his tear-filled eyes and painful expression on his face, he half-consciously asked the shadow for one single thing: "P-P-Please, h-h-help m-me."
Hearing the request, no, the order, it flew through the door of his room without hesitation and left Izuku, who was now lying on the bed at his side, grabbing his head in a fetal position, inside it. After that, the shadow performed a sharp turn to its right and entered the next room to Izuku's, which was Inko. Once the shadow was inside, it saw the sleeping Inko lying in her bed on her right side, it moved above her and tapped her left shoulder as fast and as many times as it could, causing Inko to wake up.
When she opened her eyes, turned the lights on, and saw the shadow above her body, she screamed in fright, and in defense, she jumped out of her bed and grabbed the lamp next to the bed, using it as a weapon to protect herself from whatever the thing that was floating in front of her.
"Who are you?!" she exclaimed in fright as swung the lamp like a baseball bat in order to hit the shadow in front of her without any success. While attacking the shadow, it successfully dodged every move Inko did, except for one hit, which came through its body, like it didn't have one. This shocked Inko, causing her to stop her attacks, letting the shadow to finally fly to the door of her room and go through it, leaving her inside.
"Hey, come back!" she demanded as she ran to the door. Once she was in front of it, she cautiously opened the door and peeked out of the room. After she lightened up the hall with the switch on the wall next to her room's door and stucked out her head from the room, she turned her head to the left, thus taking a glimpse of the shadow like being entering her son's room by flying through his room's door.
As she walked guardedly to the entrance of her son's room, she was worried for Izuku. What was that shadow-like entity? Why was it here? Why did it fly inside her's and Izuku's room? What if it's going to hurt her little boy? She must stop the shadow from doing this if that's the case. She must protect her little broccoli head from everything that was dangerous for him, no matter what.
At last, with her deliberate steps, she had arrived at Izuku's room. She grabbed the handle of its door and slowly pushed it down until it let out a clicking sound, indicating that she was now capable of entering the room. She opened the door inwards, letting the light from the hallway shine inside and offering her a sight of the room and its insides. And what she saw shook her to her very core.
In the room, she saw the shadow floating over the Izuku, who was clearly suffering and was curved into a small ball of torment. Upon seeing this, her parental instincts kicked in and jolted towards Izuku and the shadow faster than any other person on Earth.
"IZUKU!" Inko cried out as she dropped the lamp out of her hands and ran to her little broccoli-head and kneeled next to him in order to check him, "What's happening to you? Are you alright!?" she asked desperately.
"I-I c-can't move m-mommy! It h-hurts! I-I'm s-scared!" Izuku answered as he struggled to speak due to his mouth and teeth being hurt, "P-Please m-mommy, h-help m-m-me." he craved weakly while tears of pain went down on his face.
Hearing what Izuku asked for, she immediately extended both of her hands and carefully picked him up into her arms, holding him like a mother would hold her newborn child. During all of this happening, the shadow anxiously observed the whole scene, worrying for its master's condition and looking for any chance to help both him and its master's mother.
"You need to get to the hospital." she remarked, then rushed out of the door with Izuku in her arms and the shadow closely following her. Once she was out of the room, she ran towards the living room with the shadow trying to keep up with her. After entering the living room, she turned on the lights and put Izuku down on the sofa leisurely, trying not to cause him any more pain. Then, with the shadow following her behind, she ran back to her room and started looking for clothes for herself to wear outside on the streets.
The reason why she hadn't searched for clothes for Izuku was because if she had put clothes on him, he would have to move and thus, causing himself even more pain. She just planned to cover him in some warm blankets as long as they were out. While looking for clothes for herself and blankets for her little boy, to her surprise, by seeing how she was acting, the shadow actually helped her collect some comfortable clothes by taking them out from her wardrobe and bringing them to her, offering them to wear.
After dressing up, she took a red blanket and ran back to Izuku and covered him with that red blanket, then jolted in the direction of the front door to put on her shoes. After she was done with putting her shoes on, she rushed back to the suffering Izuku, who was watched over by the shadow, lifted him, ran back to the entrance door, and took out her keys in an attempt to open the door. With her shaking hands, she tried to put it into the keyhole, but in her nervousness, she accidentally dropped the keys on the floor. She was about to pick it up, when the shadow grabbed it instead, placed it into the keyhole and rotated it, unlocking and opening the door for all three of them.
"T-Thank you." Inko remercied, then ran out of the apartment, down the stairs, and towards her car, while the shadow closed the apartment's door and proceeded to catch up with them. After they reached the car, she opened the door at one of the backseats, she gently put him down on the seat behind the driver seat and buckle him, when she was about to close the door, the shadow flew into the car, taking the seat next to Izuku.
After the shadow entered the car, Inko closed the door, opened the door to the driver seat, fastly sat on the seat, buckled herself up, put the car key into its place, started the engine, and drove in the direction of Musutafu Local Hospital as fast as she could while struggling to hold her tears back. She needed to get him there. She couldn't lose her little boy, her only living blood relative, the reason why she was capable of smiling, working, and feeling happy in her life since Hisashi left this world. She had already lost her parents and her husband. She could have never let that happen to her son. Never.
After a ten-minute long trip, which felt like ten hours, they arrived at the hospital. Inko despairingly searched for the nearest parking lot, which was found not long after they got there. Once taking the place, Inko stopped the car's engine, unbuckled herself, got out of the car, opened the side of the car where Izuku was, picked him up, took him out of the vehicle, closed that door as well after the shadow exited it and rushed towards the building with the shadow closely following behind.
The hospital was not full of patients, but there were a few who were inside and waited for their turns to be examined. The nurses did their routine jobs, helping patients and doctors when suddenly, the peaceful atmosphere was interrupted by a dismayed woman barging through the entrance and into the building with a green-haired child, who had a red blanket on his body and was clearly in massive pain, in her hands and a shadow like being behind her back. Everyone nearby looked at them, confused by their sudden appearance, but by seeing the child, almost everyone realised what was going on.
"Help! Please, someone, help!" Inko implored in a desperate attempt to get someone's attention which, after a few seconds, succeeded.
"What's the situation?" a doctor inquired as he walked towards Inko. His appearance was interesting to say at least. He had grey skin, six arms, four eyes, and two antennae on the top of his head. But in the world of Quirks, this look was quite usual. He was wearing a white coat with a white shirt under it and a black tie on his neck. He also had white jeans and black shoes on his feet.
"My son is in constant pain and it won't go away! Please, help him!" she demanded worriedly, fighting against her tears. The doctor took a look at the suffering Izuku and knew one hundred percent that she wasn't lying.
"Quick, follow me ma'am." the doctor advised, then looked at a nearby nurse, "Akari, bring painkillers and infusion to my office in an instant!" he ordered with determination in his voice.
"Yes, sir!" the nurse responded, sharing the same tone as the doctor, then rushed deeper into the building of the hospital, possibly towards the room where they kept the medicines. With this, the doctor ran off into the hallway on the right and jolted towards his office while Inko with Izuku in her arms and the shadow tried to keep up with him.
Two minutes later, they arrived at the doctor's office, which the doctor unlocked instantly as they got there, letting himself, Inko, Izuku, and the shadow in. His office was an ordinary one and looked similar to the one Inko and Hisashi were in almost five years ago, but Inko didn't care about it. She just wanted the thing that every mother wanted most: She wanted her child to be safe, healthy, and not to be in danger.
The doctor quickly sat on his chair with small wheels on its leg and proceeded to roll next to the medical bed that was in the room and on which Inko lay Izuku. Once he was next to the bed, he grabbed a stethoscope from his desk and readied himself to examine the little boy.
"What happened?" the doctor asked with concern in his voice as he put the eartips of the stethoscope into his ears and placed the diaphragm on Izuku's chest in order to check his heartbeat, which was rapid.
"I-I don't know! I-I was sleeping in my bed when t-this... thing appeared in my room and led me to my son's room a-and then, I found him like this!" Inko answered while pointing at the shadow and shaking like a leaf thanks to her nervousness and worriness.
"Then, madam, I guess you can be grateful for your Quirk that he found him early before something even worse would have happened to him!" he remarked as he unplugged the eartips of the stethoscope out his ears and gingerly grabbed Izuku's left hand with his own left hand in order to check it for possible injuries, causing Izuku to wince in pain.
When he touched Izuku and it made him to let out that voice of pain, in a blank of an eye, the shadow flew to the doctor and grabbed his, surprising both him and Inko with its sudden movement. The doctor looked at his grabbed hand with confusion and when he did, he realised something: The shadow's hand was not the same.
In the place of a jungle green aura around its hand and short claws at the end of the fingertips, now were a glowing red colored aura and knife-sharp talons. The doctor slowly looked up and when he looked up, he instantly knew the simple purpose of the grabbing: it was a warning.
What he saw at that moment was not the small, timid, faint-hearted, jungle-green-eyed, young child-like shadow from before. It had the same height as before, but the rest of its appearance had drastically changed. The tiny deer antlers on the top of its head had become elongated, similar to the proud head accessory of an adult male deer, with the little difference of being pointy and sharp at the end, like the end of a blade. Its jungle-green eyes had an illuminating red color as its aura and glanced at the doctor with its illuminating eyes, looking down into his very soul through his eyes in an attempt to deter the doctor, which was successfully accomplished.
But the shadow had one last surprise for the doctor. When he looked up and saw the shadow, the place where its mouth was supposed to be cracked up, revealing a red mouth full of pitch-black, razor-sharp teeth and a strange, red-colored, luminescent, saliva-like liquid in it, dripping to the floor from its mouth. If this couldn't terrify the doctor, nothing could.
"Um, ma'am? C-Could you ask your Quirk to calm itself down?" the doctor requested as he continued to look at the shadow with fear he tried to hide.
"B-But it isn't m-my Quirk." Inko responded, still being a trainwreck of emotions.
This remark from Inko got the doctor's attention. If this scary shadow was not the madam's Quirk, then what it was? Shortly after this thought of his, an idea popped up in his head. But to prove his hypothesis, he needed to examine Izuku in much more detail. He looked at his left side to take a glance at the fingers of Izuku, and to his jolt, there were short claws at the place of his nails, proving his thought. But just to be one hundred percent sure about his idea, he leaned to the left to see the worried mother and ask her a simple question.
"W-What's the little one's name?" the doctor inquired as he tried to ignore the glaring red eyes of the shadow glancing at him.
"I-Izuku. Izuku Midoriya." Inko replied.
Hearing her answer, the doctor leaned back to his original position while the shadow followed his movement with its head, then looked at the suffering child on the bed.
"Izuku, if you don't mind, would you open your mouth? I just want to check something." the doctor asked in a kind manner.
Izuku didn't answer the request of the doctor, just weakly opened his mouth, but not enough wide. The doctor stood up from his seat, grabbed a wooden medical disposable to open Izuku's mouth wide enough to look into it, and leaned towards Izuku to get a closer look at his teeth, but as he did, he was immediately greeted by the shadow in front of his face, looking into his eyes aggressively. The doctor tried to not show any kind of fear to the shadow, put up a serious look on his face, and glared back at the shadow.
"I won't hurt him. I promise." the doctor assured with a serious tone.
A few seconds passed, then flew out of the way and back next to Inko, reverting back to its original form once it got next to her. After that, realising what it had just done, the shadow flattened its black deer-like ears and quickly flew behind the back of Inko in its shame and grabbed her right shoulder with both of its hands, observing the whole scene from there.
Inko was utterly surprised to see the shadow act like that to say at least, but she shook that feeling because, at that moment, Izuku's safety was far more important. After the shadow was out of place, the doctor could check Izuku's teeth at last. He put the medical stick into Izuku's mouth and slowly pushed his jaw downwards with it in order to make Izuku open his mouth enough. Once Izuku's mouth was fully opened, the doctor looked inside, hoping for both finding the cause of Izuku's suffering and another proof for his theory. And what he found was quite...interesting.
"Oh, my." the doctor remarked in amazement.
"A-Are those, sharp t-teeth?" Inko puzzled in shock and worry.
There were sharp teeth indeed. At the back of his mouth, he didn't possess the normal grinders that humans had. Instead, he had pointy, razor-sharp teeth as moral teeth while the rest of his teeth were still untouched, indicating that the grinders had transformed earlier. This revelation proved the doctor's theory, making him finally know why his teeth changed and what caused this small boy to feel this immense pain: He was getting his Quirk.
"Yes, they are." the doctor reassured as he removed the medical stick from Izuku's mouth, letting him close it.
"S-So doctor, w-what's happening to my son?" Inko asked solicitously.
"I believe that your son's getting his Quirk." the doctor replied casually, like it was nothing.
"W-What?" Inko questioned in utter shock.
"Yes, ma'am, you heard me correctly. And as far as I'm concerned, it's a mutation Quirk" the doctor explained while Inko listened to him in silence, "But you don't need to worry. We're going to give him some painkillers and infusion to make his transformation more bearable, but he has to stay here overnight. We'll take care of him." he assured.
"O-Okay." Inko responded, saying the only word that could come out of her mouth due to her still being in shock and experiencing a particular emotion aside from worriness and nervousness: remorse. How could she doubt her own son? What kind of was she just by thinking that? How could she call herself a mother from now on? She had to apologise to him. But what if he didn't forgive her? What if he was so angry at her for not believing him that he'll forgive her? But, she had to try.
She snapped out of her thoughts when suddenly, the door got opened by a nurse, who identified herself as Akari, bringing painkillers and infusions inside on a rolling cart. Both Inko and the doctor looked at the nurse and the doctor adopted a smile.
"Akari! Just in time!" the doctor remarked, "Quick, give painkillers to this lucky boy here! He's getting his Quirk and it caused his body to transform!".
"Oh, poor thing!" Akari stated as she rolled the cart next to Inko and the bed, "Don't worry darling, it will be over soon!" she assured while putting up an infusion.
"Couldn't say better, Akari, couldn't say better." the doctor added, then turned his attention to the only mother in the room, "You can rest now ma'am, we'll you know when his transformation is finished. You can wait at the reception near to the entrance or-." the doctor started.
"I-I'll wait there!" Inko cut off the doctor and replied without hesitation, unknowingly sharing the shadow's decision.
"Alright, do as you wish." the doctor said, then turned his head to the right and focused his attention back on Izuku. Once they finished speaking, Inko proceeded to turn around and head towards the door in order to get out of the room. But when she was about to rotate her body, the shadow flew out from behind her and floated over Izuku, guarding him from anything that could possibly hurt him while not interrupting the nurse's and the doctor's work. Inko, truly not knowing how to react to this after everything that happened on that night, fully turned around and headed to the exit. Before she got out of the room, she turned her head and took one last worried look at her son, surrounded by the two medical workers and the mysterious shadow, and exited the room, closing the door behind her.
After she left the room, with her normal steps while staying silent, she reached the reception and took the nearest seat right next to the hallway. Once she sat down, she felt like her body had turned off. She could feel her eyelids heavier and her body become more relaxed. She knew she had to stay awake for her son, she tried to do it with all of her remaining, but her body said otherwise. That day was just too much for her, she needed to rest. With the last of her strength, she blinked one more and thought about Izuku's safety, before closing her eyes and falling asleep, tilting her head a little bit forward in the process.
"Inko Midoriya!" someone said in a casual but at the same time kind tone, tapping Inko's right shoulder gently.
Inko was woken up by this gentle touching. She drowsily opened her eyes, letting the light enter her visionary organs. After she opened her eyes, she came to the conclusion that it was now daytime, surprising her in the process. She blinked a few times to fully wake up, then looked around, searching for the one who tapped her.
"Inko Midoriya!" the person repeated. Hearing the voice from her right side, she moved her head to the right and saw Akari, the nurse who had brought the painkillers and the infusions to Izuku. After she set her eyes upon her, Akari opened her mouth once again and proceeded to speak, "I'm sorry for waking you up madam, but I should inform you that your son's transformation has finished." she reported bonnily.
"What?!" Inko questioned as she widened her eyes in shock and worry, "Where is he now? Is he okay?".
"Don't worry, he's fine now. He's in room 12 on the first floor." Akari responded with a small smile on her face.
"C-Can I see him?" Inko asked unsurely.
"Of course! Just use the elevator, then turn left and third on the right. You can't miss it." the nurse guided as she pointed at an elevator which was, from Inko's perspective, at the right side of the reception. How did she not notice it earlier? Maybe she didn't see it because of her stressness or her tiredness, but it didn't matter. After seeing the elevator, Inko looked back at Akari and said the following:
"O-Okay. Thank you." Inko answered as she bowed to the nurse in gratitude.
"No problem! Have a nice day!" the nurse said happily as she went away to do something else, probably continuing her shift. With this, Inko turned to her right and walked to the elevator. She pushed the down button at the panel and waited a little, until the doors opened, letting her inside. Once she stepped in, she pressed the up button, making the machine close its doors and take her up to the next floor. With a short, tinkling sound, the doors opened in front of her, allowing her to step out of the cabinet of the elevator and start her way to the room where she was told to go if she wanted to see her son.
On her way there, tons of thoughts ran through her head: What are her son's abilities? How he looks now? Will he face discrimination thanks to his appearance? Did Alastor have to do with any of this? Was he the one who made her little boy suffer, or it was just due to his Quirk coming to the surface? But the truth was, all of this didn't matter at that moment. All that mattered at that moment was that Izuku was her only child and she didn't care how he looked like, or what was his Quirk, or if that deer demon had to do with any of this. Izuku was still her son and she will always love her little broccoli head and always help him, no matter what she had to do or how big of a sacrifice she had to do.
As she thought over these questions in her head, she arrived in front of the white door which separated her and her son. She grabbed the handle and with a sigh, she pushed it down, opening the door and stepping inside.
The room was an ordinary one. Its walls and roof were as white as snow and it had four medical beds in it, standing horizontally to the wall where the door was and to the wall at the end of the room. Speaking of which, the wall which was at the end of the room had a huge window on it, allowing the patients to look outside, which was exactly what the only patient and a certain someone inside did, because, to her surprise, the shadow was nowhere to be seen. The only person inside was just the small boy who had a hp who Inko knew since she had brought him into this world. He was Izuku.
But his appearance was not the same. Instead of human ears at the side of his head, he had two fluffy, dark green-tipped deer ears at the top of his head, pointing upward. Between his ears, two tiny, black-colored antlers were placed, looking similar to a certain demonic dealmaker. As he was sitting on the bed, the blanket only covered his legs, allowing Inko to take a glimpse at his newly formed deer tail. As she looked at him, she was shocked at how much he resembled the demonic entity she made a deal with almost five years ago. Maybe Alastor did have some connection to this, but not the way she expected.
As she opened the door, hearing the sudden noise, Izuku turned around to see who had entered the room. This let Inko see her son's face, which hadn't changed a bit, aside from the deer ears and antlers at the top of his head. He possessed the same freckles, the same eyes, the same mouth, everything was the same, which calmed her.
After seeing his mother, Izuku opened his mouth to speak with his mother for the first time after his transformation.
"M-Mommy?" Izuku quizzed uncertainly as he lowered his new deer ears, nervous for her mother's reaction.
"IZUKU!" Inko called out as she rushed towards her son and embraced him with the biggest hug she could give, making him shoot his ears upwards in surprise, "I was so worried for you! Are you alright?" she asked anxiously.
"Yes mommy, I'm fine! The doctor helped me a lot!" Inko answered happily, calming her mother and smiling at his mother, then flattened his ears once again and formed a sad expression on his face, "Mommy?"
"Yes, Izuku?" Inko asked kindly.
"I-I'm sorry for worrying you yesterday." he expressed sadly.
"You don't need to apologise, honey, it wasn't your fault. Besides, I should be the one to apologise to you for not believing to you!" Inko confessed, looking down, defeated, "So, I'm sorry."
"I'm not mad at you, mommy!" Izuku expressed, with a small smile on his face.
"R-Really?" Inko wondered, surprised by Izuku's answer.
"Of course! You're my mommy! I can never be mad at you!" Izuku pointed out, his smile growing bigger and wider while straightening his ears. This statement calmed Inko's nerves, allowing her to let out a sigh of relief.
"Then it looks like I'm a safe spot for you, Izuku!" Inko remarked jokingly.
"Absolutely!" Izuku answered with a big smile on his face, chuckling with his mother at silliness with a toothy smile, allowing Inko to take a look at his mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.
"Izuku." Inko said.
"Yes, mommy?" Izuku asked fondly.
"Y-Your teeth." Inko noticed.
"Oh, these?" Izuku asked, pointing at his new, sharper-than-ever teeth, "The doctor said that they look like this because of my Quirk. He said that it will be strange at first but I'll get used to it." Izuku explained.
"I hope so." Inko expressed, smiling. After she said this, a short quietness was followed, until Izuku lowered his deer ears once again and looked at Inko anxiously.
"S-So, d-do you still love me?" Izuku wondered nervously. This sudden out-of-the-topic question had taken aback Inko, but she shook it shortly after her son asked this.
"Why wouldn't I? Why would you think such a thing?" Inko puzzled, confused by the question.
"I-I mean, do you still love me even after I got my Quirk and look like this?" Izuku confessed as he looked at the floor in his sadness. Inko's heart sank by hearing these coming out of her son's mouth. How could he think that? He thought that after he's going to look like she's never gonna love him? Oh no, that would never happen, not in a billion years. After his son's question, Inko crouched down to her son's height and looked at her son with caring eyes, touching his face with her right hand in the process.
"Izuku, look at me." Inko demanded. Izuku acted just like how he was told to do and placed his eyes on his mother, "It doesn't matter how you look or what your Quirk is, I will always support you and I will always love you with all of my heart. Whatever you're going to do, who you will live the rest of your life with isn't matter to me. The only thing that matters is that you feel happy. And if you're happy, I'm happy. That's the most important and that will never change." Inko explained truthfully.
"Do you promise?" Izuku questioned with unsureness in his voice.
"I promise." Inko swore, ensuring her son. Just as she said this, the door suddenly opened behind her, causing Inko to fully stand up and make both her and Izuku to look at the person who entered. It was the doctor. His appearance didn't change, the only difference was that he had a few papers in his hands, full of results about Izuku's Quirk. As he unlocked the door, he noticed Inko in the room, crouching next to Izuku. Seeing the mother of the child inside, he curved a smile on his face.
"Ah, Mrs. Midoriya! Looks like Akari has already told you to come here!" he noted cheerfully.
"Y-Yes, she did." she confirmed, then developing a concerned look on her face, "W-Well, doctor... h-how's my son? Were there any problems?" Inko wondered worriedly.
"No, there weren't. He had cooperated perfectly." The doctor assured, then looked at papers in his hands, which contained Izuku's examination results, "As you can see, his look is quite different from before. And after his examination, we've found out that that's due to his Quirk. His Quirk caused him to grow a pair of deer ears and antlers on his head, develop sharp teeth in his mouth, claws on both his fingers and on his toes, and have a tail of a deer." he listed while the Midoriya's listened to him with interest.
As he explained these changes in her son's look, it was finally the time for her to drop the question that both she and Izuku was curious about, "S-So doctor, what's my son's Quirk?" Inko asked curiously.
"Great question, Msr. Midoriya and I'm about to answer it!" The doctor responded happily, "I ran some tests and examinations during the night regarding your son's Quirk and I have to say, his Quirk is a really unique mutation one. It's called Overlord." he announced.
"Overlord?" Inko puzzled, confused by hearing such a strange name for a Quirk.
"Yes, it's name is Overlord. It allows him to summon tentacles from the ground with a maximum amount of six with just a flick of his hand. However, the more tentacles he summons, the less he can control them. At this age, he can only move two of them with one hundred percent control but eventually, he'll be capable of controlling more of them. It also allows him to bring people's shadows to life and manipulate them to his bidding, but at the moment, he's only able to control only two shadows." the doctor explained.
"Oh, my." Inko said in surprise while Izuku was listening to the doctor's words with sparkling eyes, filled with excitement.
"Speaking of shadows, he can also teleport within the range of ten meters with the help of his little shadowy friend." the doctor continued.
"Who?" Inko wondered in confusion.
"It." the doctor clarified, pointing at Izuku's shadow on the wall. Just as he did this, Izuku's shadow suddenly shifted and revealed itself to be the same small, pitch-black-bodied, jungle-green-eyed shadow from the previous day, floating next to Izuku with flattened ears and a defeated look, not daring to look at both of its master and its master mother.
"Oh." she gasped in surprise.
"With its help, he can teleport to its location if it's in the range I mentioned earlier but the sudden place-changing can cause him some side effects such as dizziness, nausea, and maybe even vomit if he repeats this act a lot in a short amount of time. He can also see through its eyes by it sending mental pictures of its surroundings into his mind, thus offering him to see what it sees. The shadow is also a kind of companion for him, a protector that can fight and protect him." the doctor finished.
"Oh my, that's quite a mouthfull." Inko remarked.
"This is awesome! I can be a hero just like All Might!" Izuku beamed with joy, wiggling his deer tail in excitement.
"Yes, I think you can be a hero." the doctor confirmed, looking at Izuku with a smile on his face.
"Do you hear this, shadow? I can become a hero!" Izuku bubbled as he looked at his shadowy companion. However, the shadow wasn't as cheerful as it was in the bathroom the previous day. With a face of regret and guilt, it just simply nodded slowly, agreeing with its master. But this change didn't go unnoticed, resulting in Izuku forming a concerned look on his face, "What's the problem, shadow?" Izuku inquired worriedly.
In response, the shadow raised its pitch-black hand and pointed at itself, then at the door of the room, then at Izuku. First, none of them understood what it tried to explain, so it repeated the act two times, until Izuku finally understood what it tried to say.
"You're saying that you feel bad for leaving me in the bathroom?" Izuku wondered apprehensively, while both Inko and the doctor was taken aback by how fastly he understood what it tried to express. As an answer, it nodded tardily. After that, the shadow pointed at Izuku once again, then shifted the colors of its eyes and outlines to red, extended its antlers and claws, looking like when it browbeat the doctor, with the exception of not having its red mouth, and adapted an angry expression on its face. It also clenched its hands and lifted its arms, imitating the posture of someone who was really angry and was about to proceed at rampage to calm down. Once it did this, the shadow changed back to its original form and pointed at itself again, making Izuku realise another thing.
"You think that I'm mad at you because of that?" Izuku questioned, hitting the nail on the head. Yet again, the shadow nodded with its head, confirming Izuku's guess, "You dummy, I'm not angry at you!" Izuku replied, catching the shadow off guard with his answer, causing it to look at its master in surprise and tilt its head in confusion, not understanding why he isn't mad at it for letting him down, "You're my friend, of course I don't hate you! And I think mommy isn't either, right mommy? Izuku noted, now focusing his attention on Inko.
"Right." Inko assured, smiling at her son.
"Hear this? She isn't mad at you!" Izuku pointed out, then spread his arms, offering a hug for the shadow, "Now, come here!"
All that regret and remorse the shadow felt vanished in an instant and the shadow shifted back to its cheerful itself, making a joyful expression on its face with the help of its eyes, straightening its ears and wrapping its body around Izuku's body, hugging him on its own way. Izuku was surprised by this, but he quickly shook it off and chuckled at his shadowy friend's behavior, while Inko and the doctor observed the wholesome moment.
"Is there any other we need to do, doctor?" Inko queried.
"No, there isn't. You're free to leave." the doctor answered.
"Thank you very much, doctor. For everything." she thanked him gratefully.
"My pleasure." the doctor replied.
"Say goodbye to the doctor, Izuku." Inko requested.
"Bye, doctor!" Izuku said happily.
"Bye, Izuku!" the doctor responded.
With this, Inko grabbed her son's right hand with her left hand and helped him down from the hospital bed, then both of them started to walk towards the door of the room. Once she, Izuku, and the shadow reached it, Inko grabbed the doorhandle, moved it downwards, and opened the door. And thus, the trio stepped out of the room, closing the door behind them as they left. But unbeknownst to all of including the doctor, their whole conversation was heard by a fifth individual, by a certain deer-based dealmaker demon.
In Hell, after hearing the full conversation, the Radio Demon, who was sitting in his armchair, turned his head awya from the special red old-fashioned radio of his that was next to him on a one-legged table and looked at the fireplace in front of him, observing the flames with his red eyes and his gold-teethed, wide, well-known smile on his face.
"The time has come." Alastor announced, summoning a piece of paper into his left hand and a 1920s vintage pen into his right and began to write his letter. For who, you might ask? For his little boy and his deal partner of course. For four years, he was not present in the life of his son. But it's about to change. It's about time for him to finally meet his own little boy for the first time and vise versa. How will it go? What's going to happen? No one knows. But one thing's for sure:
It will change both of their lives forever.
I'm so, so sorry for the wait guys, there it is. The second chapter. I hope it was not a disappointment and was not a downgrade for you and to the previous chapter. I also hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you didn't, feel free to write it down what you didn't like about it. Also, I have a question for you: What name should the shadow have? Share your suggestions if you want! And also, I've scheduled to release a chapter per month for this, except when it's summer, because in summer, I'll try to upload a new chapter in every one or two weeks, depending on the lenght of the chapter.
P. S.: I have two other crossover story ideas in my mind: One about My Hero Academia where Izuku's life would be a little bit darker and 'inkier' and one about Avatar: The Last Airbender, where an original character's life has become 'symbiotic' with a certain black alien goo and as the member of Team Avatar, he has to help his friends fight off some old and new enemies, all the while he must find his little sister and maybe, also find love in the process. I hope you'll like these stories too.
That's all for now. Have a nice day(or night), and stay healthy! Peace!
