Chapter Text
Izuku came home from daycare more excited than ever. Clearly, he was ready to start gushing the second he walked in the door, but he held back the urge. Sighing, Inko smiled and asked, “So, what happened at daycare today?”
Izuku immediately exploded, “Kacchan got his Quirk today! He can make tiny booms with his hands, and he said it was his sweat blowing up, and he said it felt all tingly on his hands, and he said it made him feel cool, and I thought it looked so cool, and he’s gonna be such a great hero!”
Inko gasped. “Oh, how nice! It sounds like he takes after both Mitsuki and Masaru. I bet they’re both happy.”
Izuku bounced up and down on the balls of his feet. “Mama, mama, when am I gonna get my Quirk? I want a cool Quirk like Kacchan’s!”
Inko laughed and picked her little boy up. “Well, I’m certain your Quirk will be just as cool as his, whenever it does happen to come!”
Izuku squealed and struck a pose in midair. “Me and Kacchan are gonna be the best heroes together!”
By morning, all of that enthusiasm was completely gone. Inko poked her head into her son’s bedroom to find him tossing and turning, feverishly scratching any part of his body he could reach. “Oh, Izuku! Are you alright? What’s wrong, baby?”
“Mama, it itches! Everything’s so bright and loud, and I feel tingly all over, and my head hurts really bad, and I don’t know what’s wrong!”
Inko quickly rushed to her son’s bedside, wincing as she felt how hot his forehead was. “Okay, sweetie, you don’t have to go to daycare today. You can stay home and watch All Might, okay?”
Izuku whimpered as he rubbed at his leg. “Okay…”
Inko rushed to the kitchen and grabbed her phone off the counter, quickly dialing the daycare. “Come on, come on… Hello, Kizu-san? It’s Midoriya Inko. My son woke up this morning really sick, so he won’t be coming to daycare today.”
The attendant hummed, worry evident in her voice. “Oh, poor boy. I’ll be sure to let the other kids know if they ask. Oh, Katsuki’s going to be so upset… He was so excited to tell little Izuku what he named his Quirk. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Katsuki keeps it a secret until he can see Izuku again.”
Inko giggled. “Yes, I wouldn’t be surprised either. Anyway, thank you for understanding, but I have to go make sure Izuku’s alright. Hopefully, I’ll have better news later. Talk to you again!” She hung up and hurried back to her son’s room, pulling back his All Might comforter and gasping when she saw that the sheets were utterly soaked with sweat. “Oh, honey, were you hot all night?”
Izuku nodded with another whimper. “It feels so bad, Mama! How do I make it stop?”
Inko hummed worriedly. “I don’t know, sweetie, I don’t know. But I’ll call the doctor and ask him about it. Do you think you can eat something?”
Izuku nodded weakly. “I’m really hungry…”
Inko smiled. “Okay, sweetie. Why don’t you put on your pajamas and go to the dining room while I make you some breakfast, okay?”
Izuku nodded and peeled himself out of his bed, slowly walking over to his dresser. Inko hurried back to the kitchen, yanking a cabinet open and digging through it for a bit, before pulling out a box of All Mighty Oats and setting it on the counter. As she stuck a slice of bread in the toaster, Izuku waddled out in one of his many All Might onesies, still feverishly scratching at his chest and back. She quickly handed him the bowl of cereal and a spoon, before ushering him onto the couch. The toaster dinged, and she pulled a butter knife from the block with her Quirk, snagging the butter from the fridge. Checking to make sure the bread was warm and soft how Izuku liked it, she lightly buttered it and hustled the plate to the living room, setting it down on the coffee table.
Izuku weakly glanced up at her. “Thanks, Mama. I feel so bad…”
Inko patted him on the head. “It’s okay, sweetie, we’ll figure this out. Do you think you’ll be okay while Mommy makes a phone call?”
He nodded weakly and went back to his cereal. Inko ran to the front room and pulled out her phone again, scrolling through her contacts list until she found the local doctor’s office. She tapped her foot impatiently as the line rang once… twice… three-
“Musutafu Pediatrics, Akaichi Nagare speaking.”
“Yes, Akaichi-san? Midoriya Inko.”
“Ah, Midoriya-san! You seem quite worried, is something wrong with little Izuku?”
“Yes, he woke up this morning drenched in sweat and itchy all over. He says everything seems bright and loud, and his head hurts, but he’s well enough to eat, and I don’t know what’s wrong!”
“Okay, okay, please calm down, Midoriya-san. Now, walk me through what he looks like.”
Inko whimpered and poked her head around the corner, watching her son slowly eat his breakfast. “Okay, um, well, he’s got red marks on his cheeks, but I don’t know if those are from scratches or if they’re a rash.”
“What kind of red marks?”
Inko frowned. “Um, well, they… They almost look like flames, but I could be wrong about that.”
Akaichi-san paused. “Flames, you say? Is there anything else?”
Izuku glanced up at her, and she gave an encouraging smile, only to pause as she noticed something else. “Erm, yes, he has light blue marks near his eyes that I think look like lightning bolts.” Izuku waved back. “And there are darker blue marks on his palms that look like squares.”
Akaichi-san hummed. “Okay, I think he may not actually be sick.”
Inko ducked back around the corner. “Are you sure?”
The doctor grunted. “Not entirely, but mostly sure. I’ve heard these kinds of symptoms from my sister, Mizu. She’s actually a Quirk counselor, and she specializes in early manifestations. Give me a second…”
There was a beep, and a new voice chimed in, “What’s the situation?”
Akaichi-san responded, “Midoriya-san’s son, Izuku, woke up sweaty, itchy, and overstimulated, but with a healthy-ish appetite and strange colored markings on his body. Red on the cheeks, cyan near the eyes, and blue on the palms.”
The newcomer whistled. “In my experience, that sounds a lot like the development of a sentient Quirk.”
Inko gasped. “Really?”
Akaichi-san’s sister hummed. “Yep. The overstimulation is because there’s a second mind practically speedrunning human development, including the senses. Extra input for sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and even temperature. The hunger is because the kid’s got another mind to feed. The itchiness and sweating are part of the overstimulation.”
Inko hummed. “Well, what should I do?”
“Make sure the kid is in a safe place, give him plenty of food and water, and try to take his mind off his senses. Distract him with something, maybe something he really enjoys. With any luck, your kid’s Quirk will fully manifest itself in a little bit, after which the symptoms should mostly fade. You might wanna keep him home for a day or so after it appears, just to be on the safe side.”
Inko sighed. “Okay. Thank you so much, Akaichi-san.”
Akaichi-san, the brother, chuckled. “Not a problem, Midoriya-san. Izuku’s a wonderful patient, I’d hate it if anything bad happened to him.”
His sister interrupted, “One more thing. I’d recommend keeping it quiet that this is his Quirk developing. It could make him focus on the sensory input, which tends to emphasize the discomfort.”
Inko nodded. “I understand. Thank you so much for your help.”
She hung up and walked back into the living room, noticing that Izuku had finished his cereal and was cautiously munching on the bread. “Am I gonna be okay, Mama?”
Inko smiled and walked over, running a hand through her son’s curls. “You’re gonna be fine, Izuku. Akaichi-san told me that it should get better if you get some food.”
Izuku took a big bite of the bread, chewing it before swallowing. “Yeah, I noticed that things felt a bit better after I finished the cereal. Can I have some rice and fish?”
Inko giggled and ruffled his hair. “Of course, sweetie.”
Once breakfast was over, Izuku’s condition had improved slightly. Granted, he fell asleep on the couch, but he wasn’t sweating up a flood, so Inko took that as a win. She spent that morning calling her boss to let him know she was taking care of Izuku for the next couple days, then cleaning up the dishes from breakfast and washing his blankets. At lunchtime, Izuku woke up again and downed a healthy meal, albeit slower than usual. He stayed awake this time, and once the dishes were cleaned, he felt healthy enough to walk to his bedroom and sit in his bed.
Inko quickly moved the computer to his bedside, setting the monitor and keyboard on his lap. “Do you want me to pull up that All Might video again, sweetie?”
Izuku took a moment, then slowly shook his head. “No thanks, Mama. Everything’s still a little loud, and I think the shouting would be too much right now.”
Inko smiled softly and carefully removed the monitor and keyboard from his lap. “That’s okay, sweetie. Do you need anything?”
Izuku reached up and grabbed her arm. “Can you… stay here?”
Inko pulled over the chair from his desk, setting it next to his bed. “Of course, sweetie. I’ll be here as long as you need me.”
Izuku smiled and leaned back against his pillows, staring at the All Might poster on the opposite wall. “Do you think All Might ever got sick like this, Mama?”
Inko frowned. “I don’t know, sweetie. I’ve never seen him get sick, but I don’t know everything about him. I bet he got sick before he was All Might, though.”
Izuku paused. “But he’s always been All Might, hasn’t he?”
Inko smiled. “Well, he had to be someone before he could be a hero, didn’t he? It’s not like he was born throwing Smashes and saving people from burning buildings.”
Izuku giggled. “That’s true.”
They sat in silence for a few seconds.
“...Mama? What did the doctor say was wrong with me?”
Inko paused. “Don’t worry about that, sweetie. He told me everything that I needed to do to help you feel better, and that’s what I’m doing. You’re gonna be okay, honey.”
There was another pause.
“...Izuku?”
He groaned and grabbed his arms, curling in on himself. “It’s starting to hurt again, Mama. But I don’t feel hungry this time.”
“Okay, sweetie, do you want me to call the doctor again?”
Izuku suddenly grabbed her arm. “No, don’t go!”
He winced again and clutched at his stomach, curling in on himself further. Inko reached a hand out, only to pause when she noticed that his hair was shifting. The windows were closed, there was no breeze through the apartment, but Izuku’s hair was definitely moving. “Sweetie?”
Izuku gasped, and there was a flash of rainbow-colored light. Inko turned away and covered her eyes, blinking as spots clouded her vision. After a few seconds, the light faded, and she lowered her arm. “Izuku, are you… okay?”
Her son’s curls were now a shimmering, metallic color. She couldn’t exactly call it silver - it was almost like a mirror or a prism. Then she heard a warbling sound from above, and she glanced up, gasping. “Izuku, look!”
Her son glanced up and gasped at the eight tiny squid-like creatures floating above the bed. They all had a large head and three tentacles coming from the bottom, but each one had a unique color and minor variations on the base design. The white one had a singular eye and two antennae on top. The cyan one had two eyes and tentacles shaped like lightning bolts. The red one had three eyes in a triangle and a head shaped like a flame. The orange one had two eyes stacked vertically, knobs on the ends of its short tentacles, and a cone-ish head. The yellow one had one eye and a triangular head with moving stripes. The green one had a single eye, tentacles like the orange one, and a short head. The blue one had three eyes in a row, a cubic head, and blocky tentacles. The pink one had a single eye and five spikes spaced around its head.
She and Izuku blinked. The squids blinked back in unison. Izuku slowly lowered his gaze to his now unblemished body, staring at his hands. “...I don’t feel funny anymore.” He glanced up and fingered a lock of his prismatic hair. “My hair looks weird.”
The squids all exchanged glances, before the white one floated down to hover in front of Izuku’s face. It let out a warbling noise that sounded like gibberish to Inko. “What was that?”
Izuku blinked. “You didn’t understand it? It asked me if I was a friend.” He turned to the squid. “Yeah, I’m a friend. Who are you?”
The squid tilted its head curiously and warbled again. Inko frowned. “It still doesn’t make sense to me.”
Izuku hummed. “It said that it didn’t know. That it wasn’t one second and then it was the next. Or something like that.”
A smile slowly stretched over Inko’s face. “Izuku?”
“Yeah, Mama?”
“I think your Quirk came in.”
Akaichi-san was more than willing to see them without an appointment, and even called in his sister to look at Izuku. There had been some confusion getting all the squids into the car, and they’d drawn some weird looks in the waiting room. But Izuku didn’t care - he finally had his Quirk! And it was sentient! It was like he suddenly had a whole bunch of new friends!
They only had to wait a little bit before the nurse at the front desk called them up. “Doctors Akaichi will see you now.”
Mom led him to a room at the back of the doctor’s office, and Akaichi-san brightened when he saw Izuku. “So, how are you feeling, little man?”
Izuku beamed. “I feel great! It’s so much better when I’m not all itchy, and I’ve got new friends!”
The doctor’s sister giggled. “Well, why don’t you hop up on this table so we can take a look, yeah?”
Izuku complied, barely even flinching as they went through the typical doctor checkups. The whole time, the squids were floating near the ceiling and watching with a mixture of expressions. The yellow and orange ones were the most nervous, while the white and green ones seemed more curious than anything else.
Akaichi-san stepped back and removed his stethoscope from his ears with a grin. “Well, you’re the picture of health, little man. Now, why don’t we talk a bit about these new friends of yours?”
The white one floated down and warbled, “Is it gonna hurt?”
Izuku shook his head. “No, Akaichi-san’s good about that. He’s not gonna hurt you.”
The Quirk counselor frowned. “Hmm. Never heard a Quirk speak in a language only understandable to the user. But stranger things have happened, I guess. Now, while it’s not unheard of for a sentient Quirk to just exist, more often than not it carries some unique abilities of its own. Going off the… multifaceted nature of this one, I think it’s likely that each one carries its own unique power. Unfortunately, this room isn’t the best place for testing, so let’s hold off on that for now.”
The blue one yawned and floated down towards Izuku’s head. “Staying up high makes me tired.”
The squid landed on his prism-colored hair, and there was a flash of blue light. When it faded, Akaichi-san blinked and grabbed a nearby hand mirror, showing Izuku that his hair was now the same blue as the squid. Izuku blinked in surprise, then glanced down at his hands. “It feels tingly under the skin. Not a bad tingly, like an itch, but still tingly.”
The white squid floated down, cautiously laying a tentacle on Izuku’s head. Nothing happened, and it floated back an inch, laying one tentacle against the bottom of its head and supporting it with another. “Only one at a time.”
Izuku inched himself off the table and landed on his feet, only to leave cracks in the floor where he fell. Everyone gathered blinked, and then there was another blue flash. The blue squid spun backwards through the air, quickly regaining its balance. “Wow. That felt weird.”
Izuku glanced up, confirming that, indeed, his hair was back to looking like a prism. “So my hair reflects the color of the squid I fuse with?”
The white one glanced at the red one and jerked its head at Izuku. The red one nodded and floated closer, tapping Izuku’s nose with a tentacle. This time, the flash of light was red, and the feeling in his hands felt a lot warmer. Another check of his hair revealed that it was now a brilliant red. Izuku clapped his hands together, and fire burst from the point of impact. Another red flash, and the red one flew towards the ceiling to join the others.
Akaichi-san’s sister smiled. “Well, while this has been fascinating, I think we’ve seen enough to conclusively put down an official description for your Quirk registry, kid. I already brought the forms with me, so just give me a second here…”
The woman pulled some papers out of his lab coat and grabbed a pen from a cup on the counter. As she began writing on the papers, Izuku hauled himself back up onto the table, and the other squids settled down a little bit away from him. “...So, are we still friends?”
The white one nodded. “Of course. Even if we didn’t want to be friends, it’s not like we could leave you.”
Izuku smiled. “Okay.”
“And… done!” The Quirk counselor turned on her heel and walked over to Izuku, handing him a clipboard with a bunch of pages in it. “Here ya go. Everything’s all filled out, except for one thing. It’s customary in my line of work to let the kid have a go at naming their Quirk. Granted, I won’t let you name ‘em just anything, but your input is key.”
Izuku took another look at the squids. Now that he was really looking at them, he could see little flakes of color shooting off every now and then. It was like that English word Mom had said to him a while back. Oh, what was it, again? Oh, right.
Izuku smiled and met the doctor’s eyes. “Wisps.”