Chapter Text
Quirks, or as they used to be called, meta-abilities are strange things. Coming out of seemingly nowhere and following no laws of science known at the time, unpredictable at the very least and world-view shattering in the more extreme scenarios. Some positing that they are a result of evolution, others stating it resulted from a previously unknown virus found in rats.
Neither of these are true of course, for these fail to simultaneously take into account animals developing quirks and the fundamental changes to a body having a quirk entails. But with no clear answer to their origins, eventually people settled on an answer they liked and moved on to studying quirks themselves.
That was, of course, what led to the sparkly new field of quirk science. Quirk science, like all fields of science, is held up on the shaky legs of extrapolating the observable, and the occasional tentatively approved theory that works as a load bearing column to a building everyone pretends is not one breakthrough from completely collapsing (trust me on this, however solid you think modern science is, anything that isn’t immediately observable is usually conjecture at best with Very Few Exceptions)
Now this is neither an attack nor a premise to an argument, simply a statement and introduction of concepts that will only matter for the next several sentences. For you see, the point being made here is that while quirk science may have some fundamentals downpat, the important thing to keep in mind is that quirks are, scientifically speaking - unpredictable, and practically speaking - tools to be used by those who hold them. The public view however, has very much settled on the idea that quirk science easily and steadily explains everything that has to do with them, even going so far as to make assumptions from paltry observations to be declared fact. In this, there are three things that the public have decided are indisputable:
First - Quirks are genetic, a child will always have some combination of mutation of their parents’ Quirks; this ignores the fact that the genetics of quirks are more of a side effect of their manifestation as opposed to being the sole reason they develop.
Second - Quirks are everything, a person’s Quirk decides what they will do with life; a complete fabrication of society that becomes obvious when one looks at how people functioned perfectly fine before quirks manifested.
Third (and most drastically) - Some Quirks are evil, existing only for the use of villains and criminals; Mutation type quirks tend to be on the receiving end of this ideal the most despite the fact that both water and kitchen knives should be considered villainous under this assumption.
Is it any wonder then that, on July 15th at Mustafa General hospital, the birth of Izuku Midoriya (who would soon develop a quirk that: has no apparent connection to his parents quirks, has no obvious use, and is a Mutation type quirk that tends to scare those around him) introduced into the world only to be met not with joy, but panic.
“What do you mean he’s fine?! He looks like he has a giant bruise all over his back, how is that fine?!”
The half hysterical words of Midorya Hisashi rang out through half the hospital floor, cutting into the 3 A.M. quiet. His wife, Midorya Inko, looked at the doctor with a slightly-less-upset-but-still- -expectant expression.
“Due to the odd coloration and shape, I can guarantee that it is not a bruise and just natural skin discoloration.” Doctor Fukada mentally crosses her fingers that this will calm Hisashi-san enough to stop yelling. While she is no stranger to dealing with distressed patients, screaming parents are always the worst.
Inko cuts in as her husband opens his mouth again, very much not calmed down with wisps of smoke curling from his throat. “But…what could possibly cause these kinds of marks? I mean, a big purple blotch, these white rings, that strange circle...this can’t possibly be normal?”
Doctor Fukada as well as the nurses bustling about the room give a small, very small, sigh of relief when Hisashi-san closes his mouth and resigns himself to wait for an answer.
“Well,” Fukada begins, “We don’t usually have cases like this here, but vibrant or unusual discolorations like this are usually a sign of a mutation quirk activated at birth, specifically an animal based mutation. I’ll need to run the regular scans just to make sure.”
Now, it is this moment that changes everything and nothing. Perhaps Doctor Fukuda could have handled the situation differently, perhaps that would have changed things, or perhaps all that happened was completely inevitable.
Maybe it was for the batter that she ‘conveniently’ forgot to give baby Izuku a preliminary quirk biology scan. Maybe it was an accident after all, she was very tired from her 15-hours-so-far-and-still-going shift and having to deal with Midorya Hisashi of all people, but all she had needed to do was call over her college from the other side of the NICU who had an organ scanning quirk. Maybe it was for the better that neither Izuku’s doctor or parents knew yet that he had an additional organ directly above his mouth currently developing saline but designed to connect to two teeth yet to come in, that he had a cluster of sack-like organs at the base of his spine sitting dormant but connect to an odd birthmark in the shape of a circle divided into five parts.
Or mayhaps it would have been better if they knew ahead of time, if they were prepared for what was to come, even a little bit. One cannot say, one can only say what has happened, what is happening. For the reality of what happened is this, that Inko Midorya was driven back to her house where her friend was waiting for her; that she happily reported to Mitsuki Bakugao, who was holding an infant of her own, that Izuku is a perfectly healthy and normal newborn boy with only a few strange markings to argue otherwise.
What I can say for sure, is that this maybe-oversight saved, or at least delayed, much grief for Inko at the hands of her husband. A suspicious man and vengeful man by nature that paid very little attention to the science behind quirks, and knew for a fact that neither he or Inko nor any of their predecessors held a mutation quirk, let alone an animal mutation quirk as the doctor had suggested.
While it is completely inconsequential, as Izuku had spontaneously developed a unique quirk independent of his parents, Hisashi was incorrect in his understanding of his own quirk which was, in fact, a mutation type quirk.
Fire breathing, a quirk that replaced his tonsils with combustible gas developing organs, and gave his uvula an addition that could create small sparks.
None of these facts, completely ignored by Hisashi, would stop the inevitable storm that was his ceaseless accusations of Inko’s infidelity. No, all of these things only delayed the shouting, the drinking, the crying, the slap, and the eventual conclusion.
A conclusion that involved Hisashi being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
At a villain attack when a certain number two hero showed up, guns literally ablazing.
An unfortunate combination of quirks that led to Hisashi’s gas developing organs backfiring and exploding, killing him instantly.
A death that would go unpunished, not when the only casualty of the night was the villain himself.
A villain by the name of the Dragon, now known to the police and the world as Hisashi Midorya.
A father that died not three months after the birth of his son.
So perhaps it was for the best, that at such an important moment in time, Doctor Fuyumi ‘conveniently’ forgot to call over her colleague to perform a preliminary quirk biology scan. A ‘mistake’ that allowed the parents of Izuku Midoriya to remain ignorant of the true nature of his quirk. Timing his fathers temperamental rampage at the hospital he was born at just as Endeavor arrived to watch the birth of his ‘weapon’. A strange series of events that will determine what kind of monster Izuku will eventually become, because how could he become anything else, with the quirk he has and what his father was. Or at least, so says society, who deems monsters and villains to be identical in the same breath that they praise heroes for insurmountable structural damage to the cities they protect.
But I cannot say what would happen in any other scenario, with any other quirk, with any other father. I cannot change how society warps science to fix persecution and discrimination. I cannot announce and prove to the world that a monster is only one who does whatever they must to accomplish their goal, for good or evil. No, I am but a simple narrator, and I can do nothing but tell stories of what is and has been.
So tell a story I shall. A story of hope in the face of hate, of determination when the ground slowly shatters under one's feet, a story of adaptation and acceptance of fate, of using what one has to their advantage to accomplish a goal no matter the cost.
Let me tell you the story of the Green Weaver.