Inko Midoriya sat back and was confused, relieved in some sense, but the confusion was supreme. This was not what she was expecting; she always knew her son was bright, not to mention curious. He loved taking things apart, but he always put them back together, and nine times out of ten, it worked better afterward; there was that one time with the toaster, but they didn't talk about that.
She had expected his quirk to be something like hers or his father's, Attraction and Fire Breath. Maybe some highbred of both, not whatever the doctor explained to her.
"Mrs. Midoriya," he snapped his fingers to bring her attention back to him. "Your son can visually perceive mechanical energy in action. I believe this unique power enables him to instantly recognize the potential and functional uses of any machine or technological device in his visual range." Inko stared at the doctor, seeming more confused.
"He knows what any machine he looks at does and how it functions," He leaned forward, steepling his hands under his chin, his bushy mustache twitching in excitement. "He can be the greatest inventor of the quirk era!"
Inko looked at her son, who was sitting playing with his All-Might figure, "Does this mean I can't be a hero?"
"You could, but…" Inko paused. "You could design things to help every hero in the world; you can make the world better."
"I could still save people?" his words came out slowly. "But more people?"
"Yes," Inko said, maybe a little too quickly, but Izuku was 4, he didn't catch on. "You could save so many more people and heroes as well."
Izuku seemed to be in deep contemplation about the whole situation. Inko felt terrible, but she was very protective of Izuku and didn't want him to get hurt, so if he was in a workshop creating things, what could go wrong?
The God of Fate began to laugh maniacally, plots were hatched, and the unforeseen was ready to be put into motion. How dare she call him out? She would mock HIM! An unforeseen smack up the back of his head made him turn first in anger. There before him was his wife, the Goddess of Love. An immediate kibosh was put on anything evil or sinister. Instead, a new plan was put into motion. She reached and distributed three marks, and with a smile, she kissed her husband's forehead to soothe the pain she had caused him.
Inko suddenly felt hopeful for a future where she had many grandkids; not knowing why she felt this way, she dismissed it as just a passing fancy. "Do you have any suggestions, Dr.?"
"Yes, mechanical, electrical, fabrication, blueprints, anything you can get into his hands and into that brain of his is going to do nothing but benefit him," The doctor's mustache was still twitching. "Yes, let him create."
Inko nodded; taking her smiling little boy's hand, she led him from the office.
"Mom, since I got my quirk, can we have Katsudon?" he asked.
"Of course, anything for my little inventor."
-The Next Day-
"So, what lame quirk did you get?" Kaachan or Katsuki Bakugo asked his "friend/classmate".
"Something about Mechanical Energy…I haven't thought of a name for it." Izuku replied as he wondered what he should call his quirk.
"That doesn't sound like something you can be a hero with!" the boy with the quirk Explosion pointed out. His quirk was perfect for being a hero; he could blow up the villains without a problem.
"No, my mom says I am going to be an inventor, that I can make stuff to save heroes and everyone and stuff," Izuku replied, holding his arms wide. "I can save more people that way she says."
"Yea, how," Kaachan put his hands on his hips. "How would your lame quirk help me?"
Izuku thought for a moment, how could he help Kaachan? Maybe help him make bigger explosions; he likes to make bigger explosions. Kaachan's quirk used his sweat; the more sweat, the bigger the explosion. So he just needed something to collect it. The image began to form in his head, and as everything came together, Izuku felt like he could make the item if he had the stuff.
"Gauntlets," he said. Kaachan looked at him, confused. Izuku grabbed a stick and made a crude drawing of a hand with a big ole grenade around it. "You can store your sweat in the gauntlet. There can be chambers so you can store up for a super mega explosion or just a super one, and we can put a pin that releases the sweat like a real grenade!"
"That would be super cool!" Kaachan said as he was thinking over what Izuku said. A Super Mega Explosion sounded great. "Can you make them?"
"Not now, but if I get the stuff one day, I can!" Izuku said with a smile. "And I can make something for your ears, so maybe they won't hurt when you make the super mega explosion."
Kaachan's ears sometimes hurt from the explosions, "OK then, you make my stuff, and I will be the best hero ever! Even better than All-Might!"
"No one is better than All-Might!" Izuku stated the undisputed fact.
"You just watch Deku! I will be!" Kaachan said, striking his best All-Might pose.
"No more Deku! I have a quirk; I won't make your stuff if you call me Deku!" Izuku turned his back on Kaachan.
Kaachan wanted to protest, but he wanted those gauntlets…"Fine, no more Deku! BUT YOU BETTER MAKE ME THOSE HAND THINGS."
-Home-
"Hisashi, that is what the doctor said…HOW DARE YOU! FINE, YOU WANT A PATERNITY TEST, YOU CAN HAVE ONE!" Inko slammed the phone down. "I WONDER WHY I MARRIED THAT MAN!"
Inko took a deep breath; she needed to calm down. She was looking at possible schools for Izuku to attend when he got a little older that would specialize in the kind of thing he would be doing, and they weren't the most expensive thing she had ever seen, but it wasn't going to be cheap. They said he would need a workshop and couldn't have that living in an apartment. They were going to need a house, something that had a shed or a garage he could work in.
"I wonder if inventors make any money?" she mused, then laughed. It was not like her little Izuku would make something that would change the world anytime soon; he was 4.
The God of Fate giggled into his hands before his wife would notice he just gave things a little push. That would teach this mortal to mock him.
-Izuku-
Izuku was lost; he wasn't sure how he got lost, but he was lost. He didn't know where to go or what to do, so he started to cry. He was, after all, just four years old, and all around him were broken things, cars, and pieces of things, like he could make a washing machine that washed and dried clothes so you didn't have to put them line outside. It would save so much time. He stopped crying. He started looking at the broken machines; slowly, he walked over to a broken washing machine; he could do it; he would need to take this piece from here.
"What are you doing?" a voice rang out, making him jump.
He spun around, ready to scream for his life. Instead, he saw a girl his age; she was a relatively short girl with salmon-pink shoulder-length hair styled into thick dreadlocks and swept to her right side. Her eyes are wide and sloped upwards, with notably long upper eyelashes. The irises are green-yellow with a cross in the center, giving them the appearance of scope lenses. She wore a pair of goggles, overalls, and a t-shirt on her head.
"N-Nothing, I got lost, and I was scared, but then I was looking at this washing machine and wondering if I could make it was and dry clothes…kind of stupid," He looked down.
"No, that is kind of cool; it would be cooler if it had laser guns and maybe a rocket launcher!" she moved closer to him.
"But it's a washing machine?" he was baffled.
"Yeah, but it could also…like defend the house in case someone comes in to rob the place you would wish your washing machine could fight!" she was even closer now.
"I mean, keeping your home safe is important," he kept looking at her. He tried to look away, but he couldn't see anything. Her eyes were mesmerizing, and he noticed she was also staring at him until he looked away.
"I win!" she proclaimed.
"Wait…Win…?"
"Yeah, we were having a staring contest, and I won!" she put her hands on her hips. "Undefeated Grand Champion of the World!"
"BUT!" He began to protest.
"Nope, it's done. You can only challenge the champ once a day, then the rules," she proclaimed, looking at the washing machine. "Where do you live?"
Izuku recited his address, "Nope, I have no idea where that is, but I am sure my dad does. He knows where everything is!" She grabbed his hand and began to tug him along.
"Wait, I don't even know your name!" she was surprisingly strong.
"Oh, I'm Mei!" she didn't look back or stop moving.
"Izuku," he managed as she led him through this maze of parts and broken things, past piles of all kinds of stuff. He knew it all, though, what it did, how to fix it. He could do a lot here till they came around a hill of televisions, and he saw the lights of a house. As they got closer, a woman with the same hairstyle but red went into the doorway.
"Mei, what did you find now?" the woman called as she wiped her hands on an apron.
"He was lost and wanted to play with the washing machines. He says he can make one that washes and dries like those fancy ones on TV. I asked him where he lives, but I have no idea where that is, so I was bringing him to Daddy." Mei said with a hint of pride in her voice.
"That is a good idea; why don't you take him to your daddy then." The woman smiled at Izuku. "Don't worry, young man. Her father may look big and scary, but he is a teddy bear."
Izuku just nodded as he was pulled along again; now Mei's father looked nothing like a teddy bear; the man was a giant and as wide as the door frame. Izuku watched him turn sideways to get past a door; he wore a pair of overalls like his daughter, his voice as deep and booming.
"WHO ARE YOU? AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY LITTLE MEI!" he bellowed. He did not, but as something had just blown up, his ears were still ringing, and he couldn't hear right, so he wasn't even aware he was yelling. Izuku's bottom lip began to tremble. He had never been yelled at before, except for the time with the toaster, but he would rather forget that.
"I-I-I AM SORRY SIR!" He began to panic. "I got lost somehow and ended up by the washing machines, and I just want to go home, but I am lost," tears started to form in the corners of his eyes, gaining in size rapidly as her father began to panic. "And Mei pulled me over here….and…she said you could help me get home…" tears began to fall. "I just want to go home to my mom…..please don't eat me!"
Mei hugged Izuku tight, looking at her dad, "YOU CAN'T EAT HIM DAD!"
"WHY WOULD I EAT HIM!" her father was confused and getting flustered at the boy crying and the look his daughter was giving him.
"HE IS GOING TO EAT ME!" IZUKU YELLED.
"I WON'T LET HIM EAT YOU!" MEI GRABBED HIM AND STARTED TO RUN.
"I DON'T WANT TO BE EATEN," HE FOLLOWED AFTER HER.
"I AM NOT GOING TO EAT HIM; WHY WOULD I EAT HIM? DOES HE EVEN TASTE GOOD!" HER FATHER WAS NOT HELPING.
"HE WANTS TO KNOW HOW I TASTE! MEI!" they blindly ran right into her mother.
"WHAT IS GOING ON!" SHE YELLED.
"DAD WANTS TO EAT IZUKU/HE WANTS TO EAT ME!"
"I DO NOT!"
It took her 10 minutes to calm everything down and convince her daughter and this poor boy that he would not be eaten and that they would walk him home this very second.
Inko was outside her apartment building, looking up and down the street frantically, hoping to catch any sight of her darling little boy. He was late coming home from school; he was never late. She didn't expect to see a tow truck pull up with the words Hatsume Towing, Wreaking, and Repair.
When the door opened, a woman with red dreadlocks stepped out and helped her son out the back; Izuku ran over and wrapped his arms around her legs. "Your son seemed to get somehow lost in our salvage yard," the woman said quickly. "My little girl found him, and after a small misunderstanding with my husband, we brought him home to you."
"Small misunderstanding?" Inko's head tilted to the side. She said the driver's side was open, and a man walked around the truck.
"I am very sorry, ma'am, I may have scared your son. And things escalated till my better half could make sense of everything and calm him down." He extended an extra-large skillet known as his hand. "I'm Daiki and my wife Hana." Inko shook his hand; he was very gentle. "Mei, come say high!"
A little girl about Izuku's age said, "Hello, my name is Mei Hatsume. It is very nice to meet you, bow." Inko smiled as the girl very carefully said each word and said the word bow before she bowed.
Hana stepped forward and handed Inko a card. "This may be a little forward, but our daughter and your son got along well today. I would very much like to arrange a play date for them."
Inko smiled, taking the card. "I will call you later; thank you so much for caring for Izuku and bringing him home safe." She watched as the strange family climbed back into the tow truck. She couldn't help but think how cute it was when Izuku and Mei waved to each other. Once they were out of sight, she got the long story from her son.
He was four years old, after all.
They ended up having a play date the following week.
Then, a play date the following week, the week after, and so forth. Soon, Izuku was coming by the junkyard every day. He and Mei would explore the junkyard as they would talk about all the beautiful things they would build and how they revolutionized the support industry; not they were children, they spoke of building fantastical things they saw on television in their cartoons. Robots were on the top of the list, big ones, maybe even ones that transformed.
Of course, Mecha and Powersuits were not far behind; for crayon plans, they were very detailed. The two children's bond grew, drawing the parents together as their children wanted to spend every moment together. In truth, it allowed the mothers to pool resources together to enrich their children's lives and their thirst for knowledge.
Inko had never been so grateful for her son getting lost and meeting the Hatsumes. They were such friendly people. Daiki and Hana were just good; they cared for and loved their daughter, and what was important to her became important to them. Izuku had become just that. After Inko submitted the proof to her husband that he was, in fact, Izuku's father, he quietly accepted a permanent post in America, and the two separated.
It had become apparent that the two wanted different things, and the fact that he doubted Inko so much to ask for a paternity test was the final straw for both of them. It was simple in the fact that Izuku had not known his father. He only had very fleeting memories of him, so his continuing to be gone was not something that he thought of.
It was Daiki who told Inko about the house next to the yard that had come up for sale; it was rundown and in need of a lot of repairs, a definite fixer-upper. Inko looked at it, and in her mind, she saw its potential. And with Daiki and Hana's offer to help her renovate with some sweat equity, she moved on it. The apartment sale was simple enough, and the Hatsume even allowed Inko and Izuku to move in while they started the renovation.
He heard his mom and Mei's mom talking about the trouble of doing laundry and hanging, drying, and folding it; while the use of dryers had increased over time, it was still not commonplace. Izuku was thinking about it when the idea came to him. He and Mei went to work every day after school; they would head out into the junkyard, looking for pieces and scavenging for what they needed. They would talk about it at night after dinner, even when they bathed. Mei never liked baths but would consent to them much more readily if Izuku dragged her to the bath. They were children, so the parents didn't mind.
It was a case of one positively influencing the other; Izuku ensured Mei cared for herself and helped him find his voice about what he wanted and liked. Nothing overly rebellious or anything of the sort, but he learned a mighty word: NO. He could say no to things, and it was okay, and if the kids in his class didn't like that, then he didn't have to be their friend. It was easier once he and Mei started attending the same school when Izuku moved in.
For you see, in a society that revolved around quirks to such an extent, there were more specialized schools for the more support-based ones. While they didn't allow quirk training, some schools would start teaching about mechanical fields much sooner. Some schools catered to those with intelligence-enhancing quirks, etc.
When Inko talked about him changing schools, she had expected him to protest, but all she had to say was that Mei was going to the same school and he jumped at the chance. She had to sit and talk with him to find out that he didn't have friends at this school. There was Kaachan, but they didn't play with him since he wouldn't be a hero. Inko kept her twinge of sadness to herself, knowing that she convinced him he could save more people, creating things that had put him in that situation.
When he told Katsuki, all the boy said was not to forget his arm things. For Izuku, he had a best friend, an absolute best friend who wanted to do the same stuff he did, and their quirks worked well together. With Mei's zoom quirk, she could help find and place the tiny gears that Izuku needed for their invention.
The most challenging part of the project they were working on was the solar bulb. However, after seeing some "broken" solar panels, the invention was improved by cost-cutting power and still providing the UV light that most people felt made their clothes cleaner and more sanitary, which came from hanging the clothes outside to dry.
Then they had to hook it up; they hadn't thought about how to move it, and that was where Daiki came in. He had been watching the children sneak off, and of course, he followed and monitored them. When he saw them start building something, he thought it was cute; then he saw it coming together and questioned if it would work. He was addicted to watching them work together; when he saw them "borrow" some wet laundry, he followed and watched. Of course, the first time, it didn't work, but Izuku smiled and told Mei it was an easy fix, and sure enough, Mei got in there and fixed it super quick. The second time, it worked, and the laundry came out folded and dried.
"Izuku?" Mei asked, staring at their success.
"Yes, Mei?" he responded with a sense of shock and awe that it worked.
"How will we attach it to the washing machine?" she asked quietly.
"We need to cut a hole in the washing machine."
"How we aren't allowed to use the snippers, Dad said?"
"I hadn't thought about that," he sounded defeated.
"Then how about I help," Daiki said, stepping out.
The kids, of course, jumped, worried they were in trouble, but they could tell from the look on the man's face that they were not in trouble. So began phase two, designing a new washing machine to work with their invention. With Daiki's help, they were soon a little band of creators working every day on the creation of the machine. With an adult there, it helped as he could ask the questions children didn't think of, function, aesthetic, and everything else, water sealing the basics. It took a year before they were done. Daiki stood there and was amazed at how it had all come together; the washing machine would sit on top of the dryer/folder, and after the wash was done, it would drop into the machine and be dried and folded. Daiki knew that his little girl was special, but Izuku, to not only conceive of this but build one out of junk, was beyond his comprehension.
He did the best thing he could think of; he took all of Izuku's designs and sat down with the boy and re-drew them in a professional blueprint, and then they took it down to get it patented and registered with the patent office, of course, they demonstrated the whole thing for Inko and Hana who were blown away even when they took the laundry it had the faint order of the outside. The women were already offering their suggestions for V2, with all the things Daiki didn't think of, and of course were no consequences to the children.
"Izuku, could you make them bigger?" Inko asked.
"Like how big?" the little boy asked.
"Big enough for an industrial washing machine?" Inko asked, her finger near her mouth; Daiki and Hana looked at her questioningly. "Hotels, Hospitals, Retirement Centers, they all use massive commercial washers and dryers; now, if they could get folded automatically, it would free up so much time for the laundry person."
"I don't see why not?" he looked up at her. "Do you want me to make one?"
"If you could."
"Ok, Mommy!" he smiled.
The first offer for his invention came about two months after the patent was filed; they held out; the offers came in rather quickly, and they soon sold the rights to the Yaoyorozu corporation for a life-changing sum. The Hatsumes and Inko couldn't believe what was happening.
"We should start a company for the kids to work under?" Hana said, staring at the check with an ungodly number of zeros. "That way, we can put money away under it for them."
"What would we call it," Inko, staring at the same check.
"How about Junkyard Support?" Daiki said.
The kids walked in very dirty from outside, "What's Junkyard Support Daddy?" Mei asked as they were standing in front of the washing machine, stripping out of their clothing.
"We were thinking that could be your guy's invention company?" he replied.
Izuku smiled, "It's funny since we got all the parts from the junkyard. I like it!"
"Works for me," Mei said. The parents just started chuckling as the two children were standing there naked like it was nothing. "We are going to go take our bath before dinner!" they just walked down the hall.
"Would you mind if our children got married one day?" Hana asked Inko.
"I think I can support that," Inko's face broadened into a significant smile.
That was how it started, with a clothes folder and dryer. Mei started calling their creations their babies; it was all Hana's fault. She had offhandedly referred to their projects as their precious babies due to the care they were putting in, and her daughter just latched on to it. Izuku protested, but soon he was doing the same thing. Her father may have fainted when he heard his daughter ask her friend if he wanted to make a baby with her.
Mei was either at Izuku's or her house; most of the time, they were at her place, as she had the junkyard they could raid for their inventions. It was routine; they would come home, do homework, and work on whatever project they fancied; often, it was spent huddled over a notebook, thinking of support gear for whatever new hero had just come on the scene.
The first explosion happened when they were 8; Mei and Izuku came stumbling out of the workshop covered in soot and coughing. The answer had been simple: it was designed to blow up. It just worked a little too well. The inventing became increasingly their lives as Mei and Izuku were obsessed with building and creating. Thankfully, Inko and Hana were right there to reign them in. They had only snuck out of bed once to keep working for the mothers to ground them from inventing and each other for a week for that to never happen again. Skip a meal, and they would face the same punishment; it was an effective tool.
The problem or the wonderful thing about two intelligent, creative children is that one could figure out how to make anything. Even if he didn't understand how he did it, he could make things, and then he had no idea how they did it. Mei wasn't much help in that fashion as she was so dialed into what they were doing that she wasn't sure how they got there. That was how the capture grenade was created; they didn't know how the substance was made or even how it had all come together. They had to take it apart to figure out how they did it.
It was Izuku's quirk; Izuku possesses an innate talent for inventing mechanical devices, further enhanced by his ability to perceive mechanical energy in action visually. This unique power enabled him to instantly recognize the potential and functional uses of any machine or technological device in his visual range. Combined with his and Mei's natural intelligence and aptitude, this skill allows him to conceive, design, and build highly advanced mechanical devices. He could also operate, modify, and disassemble existing technology or create countermeasures.
It's worth noting that Izuku's superhuman talent for invention doesn't necessarily mean that he has a superhuman intellect. Even a genius inventor must consciously work out the theoretical principles behind their inventions and then design them through a series of logical steps. In Izuku's case, however, many of these logical steps are worked out by his subconscious mind, meaning he might not be entirely aware of how he figured out how to create an invention.
The capture grenade would burst upon contact with whatever it hit, causing a white foam to explode and harden extremely fast, trapping whoever or whatever it hit. Thankfully, they made something to dissolve it but couldn't tell you what either substance was made of. After that, Video cameras were installed, and they had to call out what they were doing as an audio log so they could revisit it to see how certain things were done.
Once again, a patent and check soon followed after it was figured out. This was their lives; the parents took a tiny bit of money but put the rest away for their children's future when they were 10.
Then Mei said it. "Izuku, let's make a robot!"
As he was prone to do whenever she asked him for something, "OK, Mei. How big?"
"I think we should make a small one first. Like one that can do stuff around the house, then we can make one that is super cool and can fight and stuff," Mei said, jumping up and down excitedly.
"Ok, Mei," like clockwork, he responded. They were ten
At eleven, the Everyday Vocational Automaton came online, or E.V.A. Inko and Hana nearly fainted at the unveiling, and Daiki just sat dumbfounded.
"How?" was all he said.
"You are going to have to check the tapes?" Izuku shrugged.
"Why don't you invent a scanner that creates blueprints of what you make?" he said dumbfounded.
"I hadn't thought of that?" Izuku said sheepishly.
"Next project?" Mei said, smiling.
"Next project!" he said, and they just walked back in, leaving the E.V.A. sitting there. Now E.V.A. was round, kind of like a trash can, and had arms that extended out, allowing it to do household tasks; it had a computer screen that displayed a set of eyes and had a robotic girl-sounding voice; it sounded like an old movie the kids were watching about a trash robot and space robot.
E.V.A patent was submitted, and once the blueprints were finalized, the kids used it for their final project in school, blowing away the competition; they went on to win the prefecture and then nationals. This earned them a trip to I-Island, and the two children were over the moon at the thought of going to the center of technological innovation. The announcement that first place at the national would earn the trip got them to submit EVA for competition. Of course, there was a lot of question about how two children had done such a thing, but thanks to the video, they were able to submit it immediately and shut down accusations of cheating.
Inko was sitting down with Daiki and Hana, "I think we should look into making these ourselves."
Daiki whistled, "That would be a lot of work; how would we even set up a plant to do it?"
Hana closed her eyes, thinking. "This is going to be huge, like a game-changing invention. We are talking about a household robot capable of doing chores and helping around the house. I heard the kids talking about making it look prettier, and then Mei started saying how it should be able to fly."
"And I bet without missing a beat," he said. "Ok, Mei," Inko added with a small laugh.
"You know it," Hana said without missing a beat. "I know that it is his quirk that allows these things to be done and the material he has, but it is crazy."
"Maybe the Yaoyorozu Corporation would want to collaborate more, with the kids getting a percentage off every unit sold?" Daiki said, leaning forward. "There is going to be a lot of legal questions about these things being made and sold, and we frankly don't have the knowledge or the connections to handle that."
"We can talk more about it later; we have to get packed for the trip to I-Island," Hana said, getting up from the table.
-I-Island-
If there was a definition of paradise, this may have been it for the parents and the children. They stepped off the plane, happy to see a woman holding a sign with their names. The woman's name was Cece, and she was there to take them to the hotel and get them familiar with the itinerary.
They would present EVA in the main hall and on the expo floor; it was a three-day event, giving them four days to enjoy the island afterward. The kids were more excited about walking the floor; Izuku was bouncing in his chair with such excitement it was a concern that he might catch fire. The people of I-Island didn't know what had been unleashed in their midst. Combined with Mei's curiosity, the two kids were about to explode.
The problem was overload for Izuku, as they found out on the way to the hotel, with all the technology around them, things that didn't exist in Japan, his quirk was filling his head with all information about everything he was seeing. Mei noticed before anyone else and pulled him away from looking out the window, alerting Inko that he didn't look well. The bloody nose from the overload took them over an hour to calm down.
Inko and Hana smiled from the doorway as Izuku was lying in his bed with Mei curled up next to him, holding his hands, telling him it would all be okay. They would have to take it slow at the expo.
For Mei Hatsume, Izuku was her best friend and partner, one of the most important people in her life. They were going to revolutionize the world together. Every day was the best because they were together; he had helped stop so many of her babies from blowing up, thanks to his quirk. Seeing him hurt bothered her, as nothing could do about it. She drifted off to sleep holding his hands; he had fallen asleep, and out of habit, she had begun to match his breathing and soon was racing to meet him in dream land.