Chapter 2: A Spark
Izuku's fingers felt like falling off. With a shaky step forward, the three boxes he had been carrying wobbled, threatening to topple at the slightest disturbance. Perhaps it was a bit more weight than he could handle, but the adrenaline coursing through his veins as he entered his new room clouded his judgment. Getting these boxes to the right apartment had been a trek he was ill-equipped for, and the stairs had only delayed the process, but he was determined. After all, inside the boxes were his most prized possessions, his All Might memorabilia collection. These items had to be unpacked first — they were his centerpieces. Every square inch of his room had to be covered as effectively as possible with hero merchandise, ensuring his room reflected his determination to become a hero. He had to be strong, just like All Might. What better way to motivate himself than with the man he aspired to be?
Finally reaching the middle of the room, Izuku bent down to delicately drop the stack of boxes on the ground, but his tired fingers slipped out from under the largest box, sending them into free fall. The clash between the boxes and the wooden floor paneling climaxed with a thunderous bang. The sound ricocheted off the walls, prompting his mother's soft voice to call over to him from the other room, "Izuku, is everything ok in there?"
Izuku scrunched his eyes, "Yeah Mom, just dropped something. It's fine though."
Izuku looked down at the boxes below him. They didn't appear to be damaged, and the two larger boxes landed upright. The smallest of the boxes was flung a small distance away, but nothing delicate was in that one, so Izuku didn't worry about it. Looking up, Izuku got his first non-obstructed view of the room. It was rectangular and spacey, but still smaller than his old room. There was a window along the opposite wall from the door, where he could see the silhouette of downtown Musutafu. 'I wonder if I can see UA from here…' Izuku shuffled along the wooden floorboards to the window and craned his neck to the right. 'Yup. There it is.' Compared to a majority of the buildings in Musutafu, the towers of UA stood tall and powerful. It was a symbol of peace in its own way. The four towers represented the four pillars of hero society, and the sky bridges connected them resembled the unity between them. It really was an architectural marvel, not to mention all the satellite buildings on campus. 'It's probably only possible to have such a large structure because of Cementoss. If All Might was the Symbol of Peace, then Cementoss had to be the Backbone of Hero Society, with how much of Japan's infrastructure is tied to his work.'
Izuku lost himself in the thoughts of the heroes that the school had produced before he heard a knock on the door behind him and quickly whipped his head around. Inko stood in the doorway, with a small box under her arm. The three years after Hisashi's death had not been kind to her. Although she always presented herself with a smile, the bags under her eyes were now permanent features and the Crow's feet had grown in severity. She also had begun gaining weight after Hisashi's death as a result of an unhealthy coping mechanism. It hurt Izuku to see her this way, but if there was a way to save her from her depressive state, he hadn't found it yet. A glance at her moving lips reminded him that she was saying something, and he focussed on her words, "-ou still have plenty of boxes in the truck downstairs. Try to bring up the smaller ones. Uncle Masaru is coming over in a bit to help out with the larger items, but you should grab what you can before he gets here. It would be rude to have him do everything for us."
"Alright. Did you know you can see UA from my window? How cool is that?!" Izuku gushed excitedly as he speed-walked across the room to his mom before slipping by her and shooting down the stairs to where the moving truck was parked. Their apartment was on the second floor, thankfully, so going to and from wasn't the most difficult thing in the world. There was an elevator on the interior of the apartment building, but their apartment was right next to an exterior flight of stairs, and it was much quicker to carry the smaller items up that. When Izuku got to the bottom of the stairs, his mind wandered back to what his mom had said. 'So Uncle Masaru is coming over, huh? '
Izuku hadn't seen much of his 'uncle' in the past few years. He overheard a conversation a year or two ago between his mom and Uncle Masaru where Uncle Masaru claimed to see "more and more of Hisashi in Izuku every day," and that it was painful to watch his best friend's kid grow up without his father. Ever since, he hadn't been coming around as often. 'I just hope he doesn't bring Kacchan,' Izuku thought to himself as he picked out a couple of boxes from the truck. If there was one thing he didn't need today, it was Kacchan's fake kindness. It was a disguise that he adorned whenever either of their parents were around. It was one thing for Kacchan to beat him behind the school or in some random nearby alleyway, but to also come into his house and pretend that they were best friends was utterly detestable.
The worst part of it all was that Izuku still respected him. Izuku wasn't blind. Kacchan was an asshole, sure, but he was a powerful asshole. One that was a shoo-in to any hero academy in the country. Since they were kids, Izuku had started to take notes on Kacchan's quirk. It was a nitroglycerin-like sweat that could produce substantial explosions, and as far as Izuku could tell, with enough training, there was no clear upper limit on the explosive potential. The only drawback to its explosivity was that its output was limited to the pores in Kacchan's hands, which, in turn, limits the volume of substance that can be expelled at any given time. The greatest piece about the quirk, though, is that nitroglycerin is stable at room temperatures and only becomes explosive when exposed to great enough temperatures or pressures. That means that the substance that Kacchan creates can be stored and used in various aspects, making the quirk not only powerful but versatile.
As dynamic as the quirk is, it could still be exploited. Nitroglycerin is a highly reactive compound that can create violent chemical reactions if exposed to elements like ozone or acids such as hydrochloric acid. If a villain had a quirk that could conjure various gasses, then there's a possibility that they could manually ignite the substance, turning Kacchan's greatest strength against him. Of course, Kacchan has increased resiliency to the blunt force trauma that explosions cause, so just utilizing the sweat at the surface of his skin would be a losing battle. If a villain got those gasses beneath his skin or into his blood, however, then the stability of the substance would be compromised and cause catastrophic damage to Kacchan from the inside-out, with a high likelihood of being lethal.
Izuku shook himself back into the world of the living with that last morbid thought. Perhaps he had been reading too many of his dad's research papers. Izuku immediately stopped that train of thought, 'No. He left those to you to use. To become a hero. His knowledge of quirk analysis is his best and last gift to you. Don't disrespect it.'
He carefully set down the two medium-sized boxes labeled 'Dad's Research' next to the three boxes he had brought up previously. He stared at the two boxes for a moment before looking out the window to the skyline of Musutafu. As if guided by a higher power, he made his way back to the window and locked his eyes on the towers of UA.
'Dad. These last few years without you have been the most difficult of my life. Mom has spiraled without you, and I worry about her constantly. I try to help wherever I can, but there's only so much I can do and I don't know how to get her to her old self — if that is even possible. I'm watching after her, just like I promised, but I don't know if I can truly help her. Not like you could. I hope you're somewhere watching over her too. She needs you now more than ever.'
Izuku didn't know when he started crying, but his view of UA was now distorted and blurry. The watery film over his eyes only got thicker as his mind wandered further, 'Kacchan's bullying died down when you died, but lately, it's been coming back worse than ever. More physical than ever. And the school never did anything about it, only praising him like he was a perfect angel, and I was just wasted space that deserved it. I imagine it will only get worse soon once I enter middle school at Alderra, but I'll keep strong, just like you always told me to. Just like All Might. No matter what happens between me and Kacchan, I will find a way to get into UA and become the hero you always believed I could be. I miss you, Dad.'
He was dying. That's what this was. As if the universe didn't get enough satisfaction from making him quirkless, it also wanted to entertain itself by giving Izuku the worst illness ever known to man before killing him. Izuku lay on his soaked bed comforter, staring up at the ceiling light, willing it to finally whisk him away and end his suffering. Besides the occasional flicker, the light did no such thing. Downcast and in pain, Izuku thought, 'Damn. Still just a regular light. Not THE light. Guess you'll have to wait a bit longer, Dad.'
Izuku struggled to sit himself up against his headboard. His sheets were a mess — drenched with sweat, tangled, and kicked to the edges of the mattress. He was certain that he had never felt hotter in his entire life. His body was burning as if someone was constantly taking a clothing iron to his skin. It had been like this for two days now. Any food he tried to eat would just be thrown up, and he swore the water he drank would just evaporate in his mouth. His mom was worried sick over him, but even she had other responsibilities than to force food down his throat. And if the blistering warmth he felt wasn't enough, underneath his burning skin was the most excruciating pain Izuku had ever felt. His bones had to be breaking themselves over and over with the amount of pain he was feeling. It didn't make any sense to him. There were no common illnesses that he knew of that caused fevers and body aches this bad. AND he was up-to-date on all of his vaccinations, so unless it was an odd strain, he doubted it was something common. His first thought was some form of cancer that had been dormant decided to wake up and wreak havoc, but his online searches didn't seem to line up with any of the skin or bone cancers he had seen.
'It has to be a neurological disorder. The only explanation is that this pain isn't physically real and that something is wrong with my brain, causing my pain sensors to go into overdrive. If that's the case, I can't exactly go to the hospital looking for relief. They wouldn't have an immediate fix.' Izuku squinted his eyes, 'C'mon Izuku, think. If it was a neurological disorder, how would it be- '
Izuku suddenly felt intensely nauseous. His eyes widened with a sense of recognition. If he didn't get to the bathroom soon, he would end up adding vomit as an interior decoration. Quickly swinging his legs off the side of his bed, Izuku moved to get up. His legs screamed with pins and needles and moved like jelly, but agonizing step after agonizing step, Izuku made his way across the hallway to the small bathroom. He could hear the muffled yelp of his mother to his right, assumably from the living room, but he paid it no mind and quickly threw open the door. This occurrence had only become too common over the past few days, but it was never any easier. A sense of dread consumed his consciousness as he prepared himself for what was about to come. Izuku hastily closed the door to spare his mom from as many of the sounds as possible before positioning himself over the toilet. Now, staring at the water beneath him, Izuku willed the bile to come up his throat. 'Just get it over with,' he pleaded to himself.
For a second, Izuku thought some gracious deity had taken pity on him. The tugging sensation vanished. Then like a geyser, it all came back, with a velocity Izuku knew wasn't normal. 'This isn't right,' was all the boy had time to think before his vision was blinded with light.
In a split second, the bathroom went from dimly lit to blinding white, before it subsided to a vibrant viridian green. The warmth that had once contained itself to Izuku's body now filled the room as a concussive blast of green flame erupted out of Izuku's mouth. The reflective porcelain of the toilet fell in pieces to the tiled flooring below, where it bubbled and boiled. Confused and in an unimaginable amount of pain, Izuku tore the shower curtain to the side and turned the water on. He hoped to use the detachable shower head as a hose, but it was useless against the ceaseless jet of flames coming out of his mouth. 'Still,' he thought, 'The shower is completely contained in tile and porcelain, which won't burn like the wood. So if I focus the fire in here, it won't spread as quickly.'
The pain from the flame was little more than a tingle to his mouth and skin, something that didn't go unnoticed. Within a second of watching the flames growing around him in the confined room, he understood what was happening. This was his dad's quirk. This is a quirk! He's not useless! He's not a 'stupid Deku'!
His celebration was cut short when the towel beside him began to catch fire. 'The towels! That's it! ' Izuku thought before he grabbed all the towels off of their racks and used them to pat out the raging flames that struggled to make any headway against the tiled walls of the shower. Clamping his mouth shut, Izuku cut the source of the flames off, but it was only a momentary victory. The flames changed course inside of him and now spew from his nostrils. His shirt was quickly eviscerated by green. Although the fire wasn't stopped entirely, the output was considerably smaller and much easier to direct. With every ounce of energy he could muster, he patted every flame within his reach and then sprayed the entire room using the detachable shower head. The previously smokeless fire had now developed a thick black cloud from the torched material of the towels, which finally triggered the overhead fire sprinkler, dousing the room completely. Relieved, Izuku sunk to the floor of the shower and tried to focus on his mother's screams from the other side of the door, but the harder he focussed, the more distant she became. The more he focused, the more the darkness at the edges of his vision grew. Within a second, the darkness encompassed his world and he felt himself sink into unconsciousness.
For the first time in days, his body didn't ache.
He felt cold. Very cold. Izuku felt his body scream at him that he needed to find warmth. Or that it needed to produce warmth. He couldn't tell. His body was begging him to do something, anything. He imagined a nice steamy bath. How the heat of the water would go up to his clavicle, but somehow still bring the comfort of warmth to his face. He felt as if he could lay in the warmth of the bath forever, without a worry in the world. He could sink completely into the water and experience pure bliss. If he ever felt too warm, he could simply lift his feet out of the water to feel the rush of cold that the air provided. Something about that thought was peaceful before it quickly devolved into one of panic, 'Wait, why can't I feel my feet? '
Izuku's heart skipped a beat, the realization striking him with surprise. He tried to move his feet again. He couldn't even feel his feet, much less move them. Panic rose in his chest and he felt his breathing grow unsteady. He knew his feet were there. He didn't understand how he knew, but it just made sense. His feet were there — he just couldn't feel them. The panic now had his adrenaline coursing through his veins. Making a quick personal once over, Izuku realized it wasn't just his feet. He couldn't move anything. It was also at that moment he realized he couldn't even feel his eyelids. His eyes were closed. He couldn't see. 'Am I dead? '
Izuku immediately rejected that idea. 'No. If I was dead, I'd either be in some afterlife or the neurons in my brain wouldn't be firing, so I wouldn't be able to think anyway. This is something different.' The panic that had welled up in his chest had now been transformed into a primal fear. Instinctual fear. Something was horribly wrong with him. He just had to find out what. What was the last thing he remembered? The question was simple enough, but it was difficult for Izuku to find an answer. He couldn't remember. He could only recall the feeling of warmth on his skin. The distant twinge of pain. 'Pain,' Izuku thought, 'That's it. I need to remember the pain. I need to feel it. I need to use it to come to my senses.'
He thought of that elusive ache, forcing it to come back to the edges of his consciousness. It started slow, like a buzzing numbness. The feeling continued to intensify until it became a dull throb. It trepiditously spread throughout his entire body. He could feel again. The throb grew into an agonizing sting beneath his skin and then a torturous burning sensation. When sensations spread to his fingers, he finally got a response. It twitched. His pinky finger twitched. Izuku's heart leapt into his throat as he flexed his finger again, and then after a couple of flexes, his entire hand moved. It would only be a matter of time until Izuku had full control of his body. 'My eyes,' Izuku thought, 'I need to open my eyes! ' With a colossal effort, he focused on the pain in his eyelids and commanded them to open.
The light was searing. Even through the small slit he managed to create, the light was all-encompassing and gave no hint as to where he was. 'Maybe I am dead after all.' Izuku pondered before willing his eyes to open more. It was painful. The brightness caused sharp pains to erupt behind his vision, but he needed to know where he was. What was happening to him.
Finally, the disorienting light receded, and he could make out the blurry outline of a face staring down at him. Facial features were shifting and swirling around the face, making their expression indecipherable. He saw a mouth moving before words hit his ears, "-hear me? Do you know where you are? Can you-"
Izuku was then overwhelmed as a wave of realization rolled over him. The bathroom. The fire. The quirk. His dad's quirk! His quirk? He didn't know. He felt nauseous. And like he had been run over by fifteen semi-trucks. He focussed on the mouth of whoever was in front of him, "Do you know your name?" The person turned away, looking somewhere he couldn't quite piece together, "Doctor, he seems to be waking up. He hasn't been able to make an intelligent response yet, but his vitals are increasing rapidly. His heart rate is 118 bpm, so something is happening in that head of his."
'Hospital? Was he in a hospital? He had to be. He must have sustained some sort of injury from the fire. C'mon Izuku focus. Wake up. Find out what's happening!' The world then was infused with sharper colors and textures. The face of the speaker then materialized into a stable expression. It was a woman. She had big gray eyes and brown hair. Her eyes were scrunched together in worry. Her brown hair was tied into a ponytail. She had to be a nurse if her white clothing had any meaning to it. He then looked at the rest of the room. Yup, definitely a hospital. His eyes flickered to an older man with short, wispy white hair. He wore a stethoscope around his shoulders and was moving his mouth, but the words were slurring together. He held a clipboard dense with papers, all presumably about him. Izuku honed in on the man's words. "-you speak to me at all?"
He wanted Izuku to respond. Izuku could do that, right? On the first attempt, Izuku's mouth only released a small squeaking sound. 'That isn't right,' Izuku thought before he tried again, "Wha-What happened?"
The doctor's eyes lit up with delight before he turned to the nurse and quickly commanded, "Go notify his mother that he's awoken. He seems to be regaining consciousness with his mind intact." The doctor turned back to Izuku, "My name is Doctor Ito. Can you tell me your name?"
"Uh, Izuku Midoriya?" 'Why did I say that like a question? ' Izuku pondered, 'That is his name, right? '
"Perfect. Young Midoriya, you are at Central Hospital. This may come as a shock to you, but you've actually been here for the past three weeks! How are you feeling?"
That statement from the doctor shocked his brain into gear. The wheels in his head instantly began functioning at full capacity. Izuku sat up straighter in his bed, looking at the doctor with wide eyes before frantically asking, "Three weeks? How? There's no way I've been stuck here for three weeks because of a little fire! Where's my mom?"
The doctor put aside his clipboard and grinned widely at Izuku. "Ah! So you remember what happened, that's great news! As for your mother, I'm sure she will be here soon. I had a nurse contact her a few minutes ago." He paused and started examining Izuku's eyes, "And it wasn't the fire that landed you here for three weeks. No, the fire was entirely taken care of by your brave efforts. Your mom found you passed out in the shower with scorch marks everywhere and the toilet half-melted. Whatever you did to stop the fire worked. You likely saved that entire apartment complex."
Izuku humphed, "More like put the entire apartment complex in danger, and then saved it from myself."
The doctor waved a free hand haphazardly, "To-mate-to, to-matt-to."
The doctor took a seat on a stool beside the bed. 'When did that stool get there? ' Izuku wondered. The doctor excitedly began speaking again, "Now, let us get to the fun part. The reason you have been cooped up here for three weeks is that you have been in a comatose state since the incident. Which, turns out, was a good thing."
Izuku responded, "Doesn't feel like a good thing. I feel like I've been run over by twenty 16-wheelers." Izuku paused and thought about the doctor's words more, "How is someone being in a coma ever a good thing? That seems wrong."
The doctor's cheery smile morphed into a mischievous one, "Well, normally you would be correct. Comas are generally a very serious condition that is heavily linked with severe brain damage. In your case, however, your own body seemed to purposefully put you under to prevent you from experiencing severe pain."
Izuku was about to interject, but the doctor continued, "You see, you had an extremely traumatic quirk activation. Your body in the past three weeks essentially went through a metamorphosis period. Your insides were completely rearranged and molded to fit your quirk's needs. It was a dramatically violent process, but it appears like your body knew what it was doing. Midoriya, I don't know if you've noticed this yet, but look down at your hands."
'My hands? ' Izuku thought. He weakly raised his right hand from under the thin blanket. Everything appeared normal until his eyes focussed on the base of his palm. There, slightly below the center, and flush with the rest of his forearm, was a dark hole about two and a half centimeters in diameter. 'What the fuck?! '
Izuku's breathing hiccuped as he raised his left hand. This one had it too. He raised his right hand to his face. It was less than a hole and more of a tube that went deep into his arms. He frantically looked at the doctor, but it was clear by the expression on his face that he didn't know any more than Izuku did. The doctor jotted something down on his clipboard before speaking, "Those holes, if I had to guess, are some sort of exhaust pipes or tunnels for your flame to travel through. Your file makes it clear that your father only had fire breath, so it seems like that gene has mutated quite a bit. Your father also never went through anything quite as intensive when he first discovered his quirk, so there have to be some significant alterations to the base function of the quirk as well. You may also take notice that your fingertips have also changed. Fingertip alteration is typically a sign of a 'five-point-quirk' where-"
Izuku stopped listening. 'My fingertips? What's different about my-? Oh.' They were almost indistinguishable from normal fingertips, but they were now much more porous. The skin on the finger nubs now presented a grid pattern so small that if you didn't focus on them, they appeared normal. Izuku looked back up to the doctor and tuned back in, "-our case, I believe that you will be able to secrete something. What that something is, I'm not sure. So essentially, if my hunch is correct, you will have a two-part quirk. Fire generation and some sort of substance secretion. Whether or not you will be able to control your flames is to be seen, but regardless of that, it seems like you've developed a pretty powerful quirk."
Izuku was at a loss for words and according to the increasingly rapid beeping to his side and the weight growing on his chest, he was getting overwhelmed. The doctor glanced at the machine next to the bed before sighing, "It looks like all this excitement may be a bit much for you right now. I'll let you get some rest before your mom gets here. I'll be back in as soon as you two are ready. We have a lot to discuss. Especially since developing a quirk at the age of twelve is unheard of. Many doctors will like to hear your story."
The doctor stood up and made his way to the door as Izuku watched him breathlessly. The doctor turned to face him when he reached the doorway, "Congratulations on your quirk, Midoriya."
As soon as the door shut behind him, Izuku felt the sting in his eyes before tears once again blurred his vision. ' Maybe the universe isn't out to get me after all. '
He was wrong. So wrong. The universe was absolutely out to get him. He finally was gifted a quirk but was doomed to die soon after. Strangled by his own mother. Izuku coughed, "Mom, let go! You're squishing me! My body isn't exactly healed yet!"
Inko had him in a deathly bear hug and was refusing to let go. Izuku could feel the shoulder of his hospital gown get increasingly damp. He had to end this embrace before she broke his already fragile bones. Ever since he woke up, Izuku's body felt as if he had just run a marathon with zero training, and now the pressure on his sore muscles jolted him with searing pains. He weakly swatted the underside of his mom's left arm, "Mom, get off me. It hurts."
The prospect of hurting her son was enough to get her to reluctantly release her grip and move backward. Taking a chair that had been on the outskirts of the room, she positioned herself as close to the bed as possible and held up Izuku's right hand by the wrist. "Izuku, I was so scared you were never going to wake up! After I found you in the bathroom, you looked so… I couldn't afford to lose you too. Then you didn't wake up, and I was terrified! Only to be told by some doctor that your insides were melting you from the inside out, as if that would calm me down! That it was some type of quirk awakening. The scorch marks in the bathroom should've been a clear sign, but I just didn't think-"
"Mom, I'm okay." His interjection stopped her rambling in its tracks. An uneasy silence followed as she took inventory of her son. Izuku eyed the hand his mom was currently holding. Her eyes were fixated on the hole that now encompassed a substantial portion of his palm. Similar to his first instinct, she was attempting to look as far into it as she could. When she spoke again it was just a whisper, like her mind was elsewhere, "The doctors showed me this a few days ago when you left critical condition. I find it hard to believe that you could develop a quirk so late." Her gaze then turned to her son's eyes, "Did you know that they had to practically put you in a furnace? Apparently, they have a specialized room for fire quirks, since they are so common. I was told that people with fire quirks often need environmental heat to reach the internal equilibrium they need to recover. You ended up hogging the room for two and a half weeks."
She let go of his hand and moved her hand to his face, cupping his cheek. "I was so worried, Izuku. The doctors… They said some horrible things were happening inside of you." She then donned a small smile as she released a small chortle, "You are going to have such a kick figuring out what your quirk was doing to your body. The doctors haven't told me much, but they explained to me that your entire body melted and then rearranged itself. The doctors theorized that the reason it was happening now was that if you were any younger, you'd die from the procedure. Something about you entering puberty. It all goes way above my head, but I'm sure you'll figure it out. I'm just glad that you're ok."
Izuku's eyes were wide. 'My entire body melted and then rearranged itself? That's ridiculous.'
Sure, quirk activations weren't always the most gentle, but they never essentially kill the user and then revive them. But he was here, wasn't he? He had tubes in his arms and, unless his entire life had been one big coma dream, that was new. And the doctors think something about puberty triggered it. If there was an internal delay in his quirk activation, it would make sense to use puberty. The evolutionarily proven process of pumping new chemicals and enhanced hormones would be an excellent trigger system. It would also ensure that it would only be carried out once the body was developed enough to handle extreme changes in body composition. 'Ok, so I'm definitely not dreaming. I would never think of using puberty as a carrier system for a quirk activation.', Izuku reasoned.
"Mom, I…" Izuku didn't know how to begin, "I have a quirk." By speaking those words, it was as if Izuku was acknowledging his new reality. That it wasn't some fantasy his mind conjured.
Izuku's voice raised with excitement, "Mom! I have a quirk! I'm not quirkless! And it's a fire quirk too! Those are so versatile!" He started bouncing in his bed, his energy unable to be contained, "Mom, I can become a hero with a fire quirk. I just know I can! I'll be a hero like All Might!"
He looked away from his mother and to his hand that wasn't being held, "All Might… I can attempt to get into UA now!"
He clenched his fist. It felt no different from what it had before his coma. The fist unclenched, his fingers flexed. He wanted nothing more than to test his quirk, but with no control or training, he refrained. His bathroom was already in shambles. There was no need for a repeat. Izuku turned back to his mom, "Can we talk with Doctor Ito now? He saw me change while in the coma, right? I bet he has all kinds of theories and things to say about my quirk!"
Inko sighed, "Already? I just got here, honey. Don't you want to rest up a little? I haven't even told you about how upset the apartment management is with us."
Izuku groaned, "That can wait. I've been asleep for three weeks, so I'm more than rested up. C'mon, please?"
His mom only raised a slight eyebrow. She wasn't convinced. Izuku grinned as he thought of a plan, "Mom, consider this. The sooner we talk to the doctor, the sooner we can go home. Maybe eat some katsudon in celebration!"
Finally, his mom relented, leaning back into her chair in defeat. "I'll go ask a nurse for him." As she got towards the door, she turned back to Izuku with a twinkle in her eyes, "No going into a coma while I'm gone."
Inko looked at her bagged eyes in the mirror. What was she doing? Her son was in his hospital room celebrating finally getting a quirk, and here she was having a breakdown. He was happy, so couldn't she be happy too? Izuku deserved this after everything that had happened to him, but that didn't change how she felt. Her son had a quirk. A quirk that was capable of breathing green flames.
She knew for a fact that it wasn't her husband's quirk. For one, her husband never had sizable cavities in his hands. He also never went comatose when he first gained his quirk. Nor did his flames have the capability of melting through porcelain effortlessly or the vigor that Izuku's flames seemed to have. Whatever her son had, it was a much more intense version of Hisashi's. And if there was a change in the flame's power and output methods, then there must also be a substantial change to the core of the quirk. There was no way that a quirk would evolve so efficiently, but fail to rectify the blight that killed its predecessor, right?
She wasn't so sure. If Izuku's flames originated from inside of him like Hisashi's had, then there had to be a compound that protected his internal organs from the heat. And if Inko learned anything from her husband's autopsy report, it was to not trust random substances your quirk creates. 'I should get him tested. If I know what killed Hisashi, there may be a way to search for it in Izuku.'
Inko turned on the faucet and cupped her hands, filling them with water before splashing her face. 'No, that would cost too much money. I've already spent a good portion of the money from the sale of the house. And if Izuku is dead set on becoming a hero, that won't be cheap. And even if I could afford the testing, there would be no way to definitively tell whether the substance inside Izuku would decay like Hisashi's had. No matter how close the substance is to known compounds, it is still a new material with its own properties.'
She hated the situation she had been thrust into. Her baby had dreamed all of his life to become a hero, and now he finally had the power to do it. Why did it have to be so much like his quirk? Was her quirk not enough? Were her genetics that weak? And why did it have to happen now, almost an entire decade after it was supposed to? If Izuku developed this when he was four, then he would've never had to deal with the pitiful looks or the discrimination. It wasn't fair for him to be snubbed for so long. She and Hisashi had shielded him as much as they could from the harsh scrutiny society had for him, but she wasn't dumb. She knew how mean kids could be, and she doubted he could avoid the harsh looks or verbal abuse in school. Her heart ached in remorse as she imagined her little angel being made fun of by other children.
That didn't matter now, though, did it? He had a quirk now. A flashy quirk that could fulfill his dream of becoming a hero. Izuku was the happiest he had been since Hisashi passed. How could she deny her son the happiness he deserved by soiling it with the tragedy of his father? If she told him the truth now, he'd become resentful and distrustful of his quirk. He may even swear off using it entirely, then he'd never make it as a hero. 'No. I still can't tell him.' She decides. 'I'll just have faith that the quirk has changed for the better. I'll support Izuku's dream of becoming a hero no matter what. If I have a limited time left with him, then I'll make sure not a single moment is wasted.'
Inko wiped the remaining water droplets off of her face before fixing up her hair. She put on a smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. 'It'll have to do,' She thought as she turned and made her way back to Izuku's room.