"Come on, Izuku! It's not that far!" Toru shouted across the narrow gap between two garages. With confidence in her stance, she stood on the other side, daring him to take the leap. The space between the garages was merely six feet wide and seven feet high, not a life-or-death situation, but enough to get their hearts racing and maybe risk a twisted ankle.
"I know, I know, just… Give me a second." Izuku responded, his thirteen-year-old self now boasting nine years of experience mastering his Sticky quirk. He took a deep breath to steady himself. Adjusting his shoulders and carefully measuring his moves, he prepared for the sprint ahead. With determination, he burst into action, running toward the edge of the roof. His plan was to leap at the very last moment, soaring through the air like a majestic, gluey eagle, and gracefully land on the other side. Maybe, if he felt fancy enough, he'd add in a roll at the end.
However, just as he was about to take off, a startling realisation washed over him - he had completely misjudged the distance he had to cover. Panic started to bubble inside him as he frantically tried to correct his course. He shifted his weight to his right foot, attempting to make the necessary adjustment, but the move threw off his balance entirely. For a terrifying moment, it felt like he was floating in mid-air, destined to fall to his inevitable death below.
"Ouch-" he mumbled in pain, "I forgot about gravity…" He sighed at his own expense as he felt Toru's gentle tug on his wrist. With his quirk deactivated, he allowed her to pull him back up to the rooftop where she stood.
Trying to stifle a laugh, Toru asked, "Are you okay? I thought that was the last I'd ever see of you."
Izuku chuckled, still feeling a bit sheepish. "I might have been better off if I had just dropped, to be honest, but thanks for the rescue," he said gratefully, glancing over the edge of the roof. "Oh no, I hope my phone is okay!" he fretted momentarily, quickly retrieving the device from his front pocket.
"You were jumping across rooftops with your phone in your pocket?! Don't you keep it in your backpack?!"
Izuku scratched his head, feeling a bit guilty. "I left my backpack on the ground. You know, I can't jump that far with a heavy bag on me. It's just too much weight. We can't all be built like a steam train, Toru,"
He was exaggerating, of course, but Toru had indeed undergone a significant transformation in the past few years. The journey she'd been taking to improve her self-esteem and social skills had ignited a passion for spotlight heroics, particularly bombastic and vibrant heroes like her newfound role model, Mirko.
Toru had developed a genuine passion for emulating Mirko's fighting style and loud attitude. She really admired the hero's fearlessness and how she commanded attention, not to mention how she defied people's expectations based on her quirk. So, in an effort to become a hero that people could see despite her quirk, Toru threw herself into rigorous mixed martial arts and weightlifting training. Through dedication and hard work, she gained impressive strength and agility. Now, she could easily lift Izuku with just one hand, showcasing her impressive progress.
With a playful laugh, Toru struck a heroic pose, flexing her arms to emphasise her newfound strength. "Well, it's a good thing I was here to save your phone too! You gotta be more careful, you know?" she teased.
As she continued to strike poses, Izuku slipped on his quirk-glove to prevent his finger from sticking to the screen and checked his messages. "Oh hey, Mina wants to meet up at my mom's agency. She said she's bringing someone from school with her, what should I text back?" he asked, looking to Toru for advice.
"Tell her that we'll be there! Any friend of Mina is a friend of ours, right?" Toru said, flashing an (assumed) thumbs up. "But you know it's not your mom's hero agency, right? She's still a sidekick."
"Give it a few years, you'll see." He replied with a confident smile.
—
Nine years ago, Inko and her son returned home from a terrible visit to Dr Tsubasa's quirk clinic. There, Izuku had been mocked and insulted, and Inko had (SUPPOSEDLY!) smashed a stapler on the doctor's head. She didn't waste any time in taking legal action against the good doctor.
She thought it would be an easy win, an open and shut case, since Tsubasa had foolishly posted photos of Izuku online (something investigators would later call 'a display of extreme arrogance and carelessness').
But as the investigation went on, they uncovered more and more pages to add to the casefile of Dr Tsubasa. He was involved in everything from malpractice, to illegal quirk experimentation, to multiple criminal gangs across Japan.
The first red flags popped up right away, and in quite a spectacular way. When the lawyers couldn't find Tsubasa at his house, they went to see his daughter, her husband and their son. They brought along an intern with a quirk that could calm people down if things got tense, but they didn't expect that the intern's quirk would also undo a long-lasting brainwashing quirk that had been used on the family. They had no clue who Dr Tsubasa really was.
The case was handed over to the Villainous Quirk Use team at the Musutafu precinct, who had a criminal investigation and a search warrant to work with. What began as a simple malpractice suit was turning into a nationwide manhunt.
The doctor's computer revealed that Tsubasa was already planning to move to new places and adopt new identities, with a single email addressed to a 'Giran' pointing their way, and a pile of fake passports and medical licences under names like Dr Stein, Dr Ivo, Dr Garaki, Dr Bamuse, Dr Retorius and more.
Every place the doctor claimed to come from had ties to a number of unsolved missing persons cases, all of whom had disappeared near clinics where Tsubasa was working, connecting him to a huge criminal network that Inko wasn't allowed to know about. At one point she could swear she saw All Might himself lurking around the precinct and at a trial.
Inko was overwhelmed by the whole situation, she'd only wanted to get justice for her son and had accidentally stumbled on a massive conspiracy! As the trials continued, eventually Tsubasa was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment in Tartarus for his crimes.
With the police fearing for her safety, Inko reluctantly agreed to have a hero bodyguard and escort, but with a firm request that they protect Izuku from a distance. Hagakure's dojo, fortunately, was a designated hero agency and doubled as a secure location
The bodyguard assigned to her, Death Arms, was a newcomer to the hero scene, chosen mainly due to his agency's proximity to the Midoriya's apartment complex. Inheriting a sum of money, he ventured into hero work, although it didn't come naturally to him. Regrettably, he sucked at it.
The first major issue came when Inko, trying to live a normal life, ventured out into the city centre for some shopping. Death Arms, feeling hungry after the long walk from the apartment, became so absorbed by a hot dog vendor's menu that he failed to notice the masked man dragging Inko into an alleyway with some piano wire.
The man sent to attack her clearly needed to do more research into Inko's quirk, Attract, as it turned out piano wire counted as a small object. Unfortunately for the attacker, so did teeth. Inko had already knocked him out with the blunt end of an umbrella by the time Death Arms appeared, holding two half-eaten hotdogs.
Since she had used her quirk in public, the police had to give her a formal warning and a demand that she not do it again. She tried to say that it wasn't her fault, but her bodyguard's, but the police wouldn't listen and held her accountable. Death Arms, to his credit, promised to do better.
Death Arms, to his discredit, did not do any better. In less than a week, Inko had to defend herself again, this time by knocking a criminal's head against a wall. She also managed to take down two more villains by getting them entangled in a bicycle wheel.
Things got even messier when she had to deal with a fifth person who tried to rob the bus she was on. They weren't even targeting her specifically that time, but he got thrown through the bus's emergency exit for his troubles.
After the 8th similar such incident, Inko was given an ultimatum: either she stops fighting villains, or she risks getting arrested for vigilantism and sent to a year long rehab program culminating in a provisional licensing exam.
Inko decided to take the chance and go through the program. It was a tough year, with lots of challenges both physical and mental, but a year later The Kind Hearted Hero: Green Magnet had her licence.
Two years later, Green Magnet became a sidekick at the Ryukyu Agency, eventually rising the ranks to become head sidekick.
—
Inko lounged comfortably in what the agency referred to as the "Civilian Safety Zone," but which most people simply called 'the seats outside the agency.' She was donned in her striking hero costume - a green leotard with white and gold accents, a green domino mask on her face, and a practical white utility belt at her waist. Enjoying the pleasant ambiance, she savoured her iced tea at a table shared with Mina and a dark-haired boy.
As they were having a nice conversation about their schoolwork, their relaxed mood was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a man rushing past them, clutching a red purse to his chest and glancing back as if he was being chased.
Inko hesitated at first, not wanting to make any assumptions. After all, it might actually be his bag. When a voice cried out, "That man stole my purse!" her instincts kicked in, and she sprang into action.
Springing into action on this occasion took little more than a wave of her arm, she manipulated the mugger's shoelaces, causing him to trip and face plant into the unforgiving concrete. As her co-workers from inside the agency rushed out to apprehend the would-be thief, they quickly verified the owner of the purse and returned it to its rightful owner.
Inko shook her head in disbelief, muttering to herself, "Why would someone be stupid enough to run straight past a hero agency?" She chose to ignore the gleeful grins on the faces of the kids at her table, who were clearly impressed by her quick heroics.
"Dude, that was so manly!" Kirishima, the black-haired boy, exclaimed with genuine enthusiasm. But then, realising his mistake, he quickly corrected himself, "I mean, womanly! ...Personly!"
Mina playfully rolled her eyes, trying to act nonchalant, but deep down, she was fangirling just as much as her friend. "You doofus," she teased Kirishima, "Izuku's mom- I mean, Green Magnet is used to stuff like this. That was nothing for her!"
Just then, Izuku's voice could be heard approaching the table, and Toru followed close behind him. "Are you beating people up again, mom?"
Green Magnet grinned and shook her head, "Well, just a minor purse snatcher," she replied with a wink. "No biggie."
Kirishima, eager to introduce himself, extended his hand to the two new members of the table. "Oh hey! I'm Eijiro Kirishima, Mina's friend from school," he said warmly. "Your mom is super cool! I can't believe I'm friends with a hero's kid."
Izuku was a little taken aback by the immediate declaration of friendship, it wasn't every day someone proclaimed friendship so openly. Still, he wasn't one to shy away from making new friends, especially ones as genuine as Kirishima. Izuku accepted the handshake with a smile, "Izuku Midoriya, nice to meet you," he replied.
"And I'm Toru Hagakure! Nice to meet you too!" Kirishima tried not to wince as she shook his hand a little too tight.
Mina couldn't contain her joy at seeing her friends getting along so effortlessly. "I knew you guys would hit it off!" she said triumphantly.
Excitement bubbled in Kirishima as he turned to Izuku. "So I guess you're gonna be a hero like your mom, huh, Midoriya? Dude! You could get into UA on recommendations!" he exclaimed.
Joining the conversation with a smile, Inko added. "I can't give recommendations; I'm still unranked as a sidekick. And thank goodness for that. Award shows are bad enough when you're just in the audience," she remarked before taking another sip of her tea.
Izuku laughed, "I am gonna get into UA. I decided that when I was 4 years old! But I wouldn't want recommendation admittance anyway. I'm getting in on my own merits."
"Now that," Kirishima said, pausing for dramatic tension, "Is super manly. Hope we get in the same class, bro!"
"You should come train with us, Kirishima!" Toru suggested eagerly.
"Hell yeah! I'm in!" Kirishima replied, clearly excited at the prospect.
Just as the conversation was flowing, Inko's earpiece trilled, prompting everyone to pause. They waited patiently for her to listen to the message. After a few moments, she put her drink down on the table and sighed, "I've got to go. There's been a crash." She turned to Kirishima with a warm smile. "It was lovely to meet you, Kirishima, and good luck with your training." With that, she swiftly stood up and ran off down the road, calling out halfway, "And no public quirk use!"
"That's easy for you to say!" Toru shouted back.
—
Kirishima glanced around the park, where he and his new friends had set up some makeshift obstacles out of traffic cones and wood, wiping the sweat from his brow. He turned to Izuku, who was busy scribbling some notes in a book. "So, what's the UA entrance exam like, anyway?" He asked, curious.
Looking up from his notebook, Izuku stuck the pencil to the back of his arm and answered to the best of his knowledge. "They change it around every year, but even then everyone is under an NDA not to discuss it. That doesn't stop everyone though, little snippets of information break through from time to time."
Mina, who had just finished marking out a training ring with some stones, joined the conversation. She twirled her pink hair around her finger and tilted her head. "What was it last year, again? Simulated landslide?" she recalled, trying to remember the rumours she had heard.
Toru nodded, lying on the grass next to them enjoying the sun. "Yeah, remember it was just after that really bad flood they had in Europe?" she said, trying to add some context.
Thinking hard, Kirishima frowned. "So, are we thinking the exams are connected to whatever the big need for heroes is at that time?"
Not sure himself, Izuku shrugged. He closed his notebook and put it back in his bag. "Eh, not really? Honestly I'm not convinced it wasn't just a coincidence." he said, doubting the theory.
A little disappointed, Kirishima sighed. It would have been handy to know exactly what to expect from the exam, but it seemed like it was impossible to predict at this stage. Trying to cheer himself up, he smiled and said "Well, we have another two years to train either way, right?"
Mina grinned, pumped her fist in the air and shouted. "Hell yeah! We got this!" filled with confidence.
Standing in front of Kirishima, Toru was ready to spar. She smiled, and asked him "How good is your hand to hand?" as she loudly cracked her knuckles.
He grinned and flexed his muscles. "Great!" Kirishima boasted, confident in his strength.
Toru gave off a little giggle, and moved quickly. She grabbed his arm and twisted it, using her weight and leverage to easily flip him over and pin him down on the ground.
"...Not great." He groaned, defeated.
Watching the fight, Mina laughed and clapped her hands. "Don't take it personally, Toru could probably get All Might in a chokehold!" Kirishima couldn't tell if she was exaggerating or not.
Victoriously, Toru let go of her opponent and helped him back up, before pointing at Izuku. "I'm nothing compared to Izuku here when it comes to holds," she said.
Their green-haired friend shook his head and waved his hands, trying to seem modest. "Oh no, really, I'm not that good, it's just luck most of the time!"
While rubbing the pain out of his arm, Kirishima looked at Izuku with a raised eyebrow, wondering what kind of strength he could be hiding. "Oh yeah? I'm pretty strong, let me see what you've got," he said, inviting him to spar.
Smiling, Izuku accepted the challenge. "Alright sure, you're on."
—
Moments later, Kirishima gave up and admitted defeat. Izuku had him in a tight hold, his hand touching both the back of Kirishima's hand and the back of his shirt. "Dude! Your grip strength is insane, I can't move my arm at all! What is your quirk, super strength?!" he exclaimed, amazed by Izuku's power.
Releasing Kirishima and smiling sheepishly, Izuku corrected his assumptions and revealed the truth. "It's not strength enhancement, I'm just really sticky. I can climb walls and anything that touches my skin stays there, unless I tell it not to," he said modestly.
"That felt like way more than being sticky, Izubro! Either way, that's an awesome quirk!" he said, still enthusiastic despite losing two fights in a row.
Izuku smiled nervously, "You think so?" he asked. "Most people just think it's kinda gross."
Wrapping an invisible arm around his shoulder, Toru playfully chided him. "How many times until my mom's lessons sink in, Izuku? There's no such thing as a gross quirk!"
Mina nodded in agreement. "Some people say my quirk is gross, but they're obviously wrong, just look at me!" she said, striking a pose.
He looked at her with admiration. "Your quirk is so cool and flashy though, Mina!" he said. "You're going to be such a great hero some day. Even just being able to slide around on your acid is going to make you really popular, people love motion based quirks. I wish I could do something like that."
Kirishima punched a fist into his palm, "We're always finding out more about our own quirks, maybe someday you'll find a way!" He was convincing, but Izuku was still doubtful.
"I'm not sure, I think I can just glue myself to things."
The invisible girl tilted her head and said in a serious tone, "Izuku, I know we've been training together for years, and I can't imagine none of us have ever thought about this, but well… You know you can make yourself varying levels of sticky now?"
He blinked and nodded slowly. "Yeah? Well, sort of. It's basically how I've been able to do things without always needing to wear gloves or getting help from everyone, but there's always a sort of base level of stickiness to me."
She clapped her hands and said eagerly. "Well have you ever tried moving the stickiness?"
Mina looked confused and asked, "Huh? What do you mean moving it? Isn't it just all over him all the time?"
Their rocky friend scratched his chin, "Yeah, I'm not sure I'm following."
Izuku stared at her, stunned. "...Moving the stickiness?"
"Yeah, um, how can I explain it… Okay! So you know I have a little bit of light manipulation as a side effect of my invisibility?" She demonstrated by making a pinprick of light glow where her hand should be, then made it travel down to her elbow, then back up again. To the others it just looked like a beam of light floating in mid air like a firefly. One of Izuku and Mina's favourite tricks. "Can you do that with whatever is stuck to you?"
Mina bent down and picked up a stone around the perimeter of their training ring and handed it to Izuku. "Here, try it with this."
He shrugged, and glued the stone to his arm. Concentrating hard on the area of his arm, the stone slid ever so slightly then fell off again. He smiled, "I think I get the principle idea behind it, but I definitely need to practise some more. Thanks so much for the idea, Toru!"
She gave him a big pat on the shoulder, making his knees buckle a little. "Don't worry about it, you can repay me when we're all pro heroes!"
The pink girl clapped her hands and said, "Okay let's get back to training! Kirishima, how fast can you run?!"
"Huh what?! Why do you ask?!"
Izuku gave him a sinister smile. "Five second head start."
Kirishima looked around panicked for a moment, smiled and broke off into a sprint.
—
When Izuku got back home that afternoon, his mom still hadn't made it home. It was probably the hardest part of having a pro-hero mother, and was the main reason she'd stayed a sidekick. Still, despite the occasional day where he had to cook for himself, Izuku was immensely proud of his mom.
Right now he was sitting on the living room couch with a determined look, staring at a marble glued to his arm. With a furrowed brow, he watched the marble gently ascend to his wrist before it fell off. Every time he tried this new trick it felt like he was one step closer to figuring it out!
He stuck the marble back on his arm as his mother wearily walked through the door, looking a little worse for wear and absolutely exhausted. "Hi sweetie, sorry I'm late,"
"Hi mom, how was work?" Izuku asked as he got up to give her a tentative hug, trying to avoid all the dirt on her costume.
"Rough! That crash I got called to ended up being a 12 car pileup." She paused to bend down and undo her boots, "Someone's quirk activated from road rage, spikes came out of their feet straight through the truck and into the road, and they flipped."
"Like they flipped out? They went crazy?"
"Nope, they flipped. The whole truck, just…ptchooo splat" She mimed with her hands.
"Oh wow! Was everyone alright?"
Inko ruffled her son's hair, difficult now that he was almost her height. "Don't worry, everyone was fine, just a little banged up. I'm absolutely exhausted though, I think I overworked Attract again."
Izuku sighed, sometimes he wondered who the real parent was around here! "You know you're only supposed to attract small things mom, what did you use it on?"
She shook her hands and give an unconvincingly bashful smile, "Nothing that big, I swear! …A car door, but it was already off its hinges! I was just moving it out of the way!"
"Mom! That's really big!" Izuku exclaimed with concern, before adding "...Kinda cool, though."
"Yeah, it totally was." She chuckled. "So what was that you were doing with the marble?"
"Oh! It's an idea Toru had earlier about my quirk. I think there might be a way to make things travel around me using my stickiness." He showed her by making the marble roll up his arm again.
"That's really interesting, I didn't know you had such good control over it! You're getting better every day."
"You really think so? Thanks! I was thinking if I get really good at it, I could cover my arms with weapons and travel them to my hand when I need to use them."
"That sounds like a good idea, you could carry a lot more first aid supplies as well. Plus, I'll bet climbing walls will be a lot easier if you can slide up them. Well anyway, I'm gonna hit the hay. Goodnight, sweetheart." She kissed him on the forehead and headed to her bedroom.
Izuku stood there for a moment stunned by the inadvertent suggestion. Could he really use it to slide his entire body? There was no way he could go to bed without trying it out, at least a little.
With his socks off, he stood on the cold linoleum of the kitchen floor, concentrated hard, and for a few brief moments slowly slid across the floor before he stumbled.
Excited at this newfound aspect of his quirk he almost cheered out loud, before remembering his mom was trying to sleep. He slapped his hands to his mouth with a huge grin forming under them, then quietly said to himself, "...Snail style."