Chapter Text
Izumi Midoriya didn't like her life. So she imagined a better one. She dreamt of a world where she had magical powers. By about 4 or 5 years old, she told her mom about it. How if she closed her eyes and pictured it really hard she could change things.
Inko brushed it off as her daughter having a creative mind. That was until she saw it. Izumi insisted she watch. Keeping quiet about her thoughts, she stood silently in the little girls room doing as she'd been asked.
Her daughter climbed onto the All Might themed bed and shut her large green eyes. At first it was silent, and the elder wondered how long this would go on for before Izumi was convinced something had happened.
But then his shoes, the blue ones he complained weren't right because he needed 'All Might red' ones turned red right before her eyes. She picked one up and lifted it to the light.
Yep, it was red. Izumi sat up looking ready to ask a question when she saw the shoe and smiled. Inko put the shoe down and opened his closet pulling out the shoe box. The label said blue.
She walked over to the cork board in her daughter's room and looked at all the pictures then unpinned one looking between it and the red shoes on the floor.
"Is something wrong mommy?" She shook her head with a big grin. "No, honey. Just making sure. Haha." She put back the picture and hugged her daughter.
"Izumi you found your quirk! I'm so happy sweetie." The younger hugged back. "Me too! But I still don't know exactly what it is yet." Inko pulled back slightly.
"What do you mean." Izumi tapped her chin. "Well first I was daydreaming, then I imagined my All Might bronze age figurine had his fist in the air instead of both on his hips and when I opened my eyes it was like I imagined." She explained, pointing to a model of the hero she did remember being posed differently.
Everyone thought I was lying to hide being quirkless. Kacchan started bullying me and calling me useless, a Deku. I would stay in the corner of the classroom or play area. It’s less likely they’d pick on me if I stay background.
"So you can imagine things into reality?" I looked up at Kacchan who had asked the question. I realized my mistake of standing too close to the jungle gym. “I-I guess so. It’s kinda like the power of daydreaming.” That wasn't all the details but it was hard to know specifics without a test. I also didn’t think the other 6 year olds wanted a quirk lesson.
"Then imagine you have a real quirk Deku. Cause just like you becoming a hero. It is never gonna happen." my former best friend sneered at me. Biting my lip, I focused all my energy on not crying as I made my way back to the edge of the playground, always alone.
The kids I used to play with at the park and the kids at school wanted me to prove my quirk. I tried to explain that it wasn't that easy. With everyone watching and the sun in my eyes plus no bed to lie on, I couldn't fantasize hard enough to make anything actually happen.
Years passed and the older I grew the lonelier I felt. School was torment, but at home I could play pretend in my head. The more time I spent doing it the better I got at controlling it. But my goal of becoming a hero never slipped my mind. That's why I started my journals analyzing heroes and villains, even vigilantes.
Even though I should technically be circles. At 10 years old, my mom thought my back looked odd. She convinced my doctor to order x-rays which showed signs of hyper-kyphosis. The first pediatric orthopedist I saw said I was "on the cusp of normal".
A year latter, a female doctor told mom and me that I would need to wear a back brace or have surgery. We agreed to try the brace and she prescribed one to wear 20 hours a day. I went to an orthopedic specialist who built me a custom back brace.
Wearing a big brace covering my torso to school only made the bullying worse. People were constantly staring at me, and some were even whispering. It didn't help that I already had braces because my teeth and jaw were misaligned.
These things combined made mom very worried about anything that could be a medical disorder. A few times complaining that my pinkie toe hurt and cracking it she made an appointment which led to more x-rays. Which proved I have the extra pinkie toe joint.
My body developed to be quirkless but I got a quirk anyway. The doctor said it was pretty rare and it may cause a number of issues because my physical being wasn't built to accommodate for a quirk.
To make matters worse it was hard to really know how my quirk worked because it mostly looked like me sleeping or closing my eyes. So I practiced all the time. I moved from doing it in my bedroom to the living room. Then on car rides I tried it with my eyes open.
I let my focus fall from the world around me. This isn't where I was. I was in a lush green meadow with sloping hills. At the center is a beautiful weeping willow tree and I sit under the shade of it's branches.
It's sunny out, clouds slowly moving across the sky. The air is light and I can sense a soft breeze brush across my skin and hear it rustle the leaves. I can smell the warm freshness of the day. I can feel the fluffy grass and firm ground beneath me.
All through this is the peaceful hum of magic that flows through the whole place. Distantly, I can hear the muffled sound of mom telling me it's time to get out of the car. I open the door pulling my backpack with me then close the car behind me. Other kids are walking by into school. I think mom says "Have a good day." And some people are talking to each other.
It's all just background noise. What's at the forefront of my mind is my dark brown leather boots that lace up to a but above my ankle. Kacchan is in my peripheral vision speaking, probably to me. Which is beside the important part. Which is the puffy legged brown pants I was wearing were cropped and tapered in at the end.
He was waving a hand in front of my face. And the bottom of my cream colored poet's shirt was tucked into the waistband of my pants. The arms were billowing and ruffled at the cuffs. And everyone in eyesight gasped. I blinked and looked around.
People were whispering about me. And not the normal amount of people. Everyone. Kids from all grades and classes, even teachers and staff. They were all talking about me.
"Did his shirt just change?" "Did the quirkless kid do that?" "It was a different before, right?" I looked down and saw that my T-shirt had in fact turned into a poet shirt. "I told you guys I have a quirk!"
The entire week was crazy. Mom got calls from the principal and my teachers. Rumor spread and the entire school was talking about me. Some people were saying it was fake. That I paid another kid make it look like I did it. Then Kacchan went off like a bomb.
"What the hell is going on Deku?" He asked stomping up to me and pointing at my face. "Is it true? Did you use your own quirk and change your shirt? Or did someone else do it?" He looked so angry it was scary. I put my hand up in front of me.
"Uh it's true Kacchan. I used my own quirk." He raised a fist. "You better not lie to me nerd!" I waved my hands frantically, body curling away, preparing for impact.
"I'm not Kacchan. I promise." I shut my eyes and imagined a chili candy in my hand really hard. "What? Chili pop?" I nodded offering it to him.
"S-see I can make or change things in a small area as long as they're not too complicated and I can imagine them in detail." He took the candy and snorted.
"That's so lame. I guess you can make me candy sometimes so you're not such a useless Deku. But it's not cool and powerful like my quirk. In a few years I'll be in UA's hero program. You'll be lucky to get into their general studies course. So don't start acting all high and might just cause you're not quirkless doesn't mean you're not a Deku." I nodded, face dropping.
"Y-yes Kacchan." He waved a hand and walked away. And just like that I was one step up from where I was before. Just barely. All the people who picked on me still did. The stares and whispers continued. They were just a little bit different.
"Why's he always scribbling in that notebook." "He says he's going to UA to be a hero but his quirk is super weak." "Can cripples even be heroes?"
This was also the time I realized I wanted short hair. At 13 I get my first pixie cut and I felt so free with the weight off my shoulders. I worked my hardest at practicing my quirk. And a year later I started developing boobs.
Even though I had been wondering when they would grow and hoping they would get bigger it scared me. Shirts fit weird and it felt like everyone was always staring at my chest. Despite being told to stand and sit up straight for my spine's health, all I wanted to do was curl in and hunch my back, slouching to hide the dysphoria inducing change.
And then the doctor had more bad news.
“The last X-ray we took was on your growth plates. You've stopped growing. Based on your most recent scans your spine has curved to a 70 degree angle. The back brace can't help anymore. You need spinal fusion surgery." I didn't cry, but mom did the second we got in the car.