Kaleidoscope by DripBayless (MHA)

( Summary:

Izuku Midoriya wants nothing more in this world than to be a hero. His mother, a former pro hero herself, decides to put her disillusionment with heroics aside to help him achieve his dream. Absolutely no one could have imagined that he'd develop a quirk that may potentially make him more powerful than All Might himself.

Also on FFN. Tags will be updated as the story progresses. )

Chapter 1: "Can I be a hero, too?"

Inko Midoriya was a great mother. She would never claim to be a great person, and she would certainly never claim to be a hero, but she always strove to be the strongest pillar of love, care, and support that her darling little Izuku could ever need.

So, it naturally made the predicament she was currently in that much more tenuous.

Izuku had been diagnosed as quirkless earlier that day. She had her suspicions about the diagnosis primarily because her estranged brother had been a late-bloomer, and the idea of judging potential quirk status on the presence of a toe joint (which in and of itself already had insidious implications regarding genetic superiority) was always ridiculous to her. Regardless, however, her son was crushed, and the ride home was nothing short of melancholic.

Izuku sequestered himself in his room, and Inko gave him the space he nonverbally requested. After a little while, she made her way to his room to check on him, and her heart constricted at the sight. Izuku was watching his favorite video of his idol, All Might, rescuing dozens of civilians from a burning building with a triumphant smile.

It was a kind of smile that she was experienced enough to know was fake, but her son didn't know that. All he saw was the immutable confidence of an unstoppable and unwavering paragon. Inko supposed that was the point, but it only served to embolden the jaded feelings she had towards the glitz and glam of the hero industry hiding the horrible underbelly that lay underneath.

No, she wasn't going to travel down that tired rabbit hole again. Her son needed her, and she would be there for him.

Hearing her come in, he looked back at her with tears threatening to pour from his eyes. In a tone that was much too broken for any child, he asked, "Can I be a hero, too?" while pointing to All Might in the video.

And that was the core problem, wasn't it?

How was she going to tell her son that she couldn't support him? How was she going to explain to her son that she didn't believe that he could, not because he was quirkless, but because she didn't believe in heroics anymore? How could she properly articulate that she wanted to keep her son as far away from heroics as she could because she had already seen the worst of what that part of society had to offer, and she wanted, no, needed to spare her child from it all?

How was she going to keep her dear Izuku from becoming as jaded as she was?

He could probably see the consternation on her face, because his own face sunk and the tears began to fall. Refusing to see her son fall into such despair, she made her decision. It was a decision she would either come to regret later on or potentially look back on fondly, but she would leave that to Future Inko.

She quickly made her way to her son and wrapped him in the warmest embrace she could manage, running her hand through the soft, wild curls that she loved so much while whispering quiet assurances to him. It was now or never.

"Izuku, look at me," she softly began, wiping away the tears from his face with her thumb when he complied. "You are a kind, courageous, and brilliant boy with a heart for helping anyone and everyone in need. I truly believe that you could become a fantastic hero."

Izuku froze when he heard that, and he could only stare at his mother with wide and hopeful eyes. Inko could also see suspicion in those eyes. His gaze was searching, taking in every detail on her face while his brain was hard at work running over each of her words along with the tone she said them in. She could tell that he really wanted to believe her, that he really wanted to grab onto the hope burning inside of him and take it as far as it would go. However, she could also tell that something was stopping him.

"There's a 'but' to this, isn't there…"

And there it was. She loved and hated how smart her son was at the age of 5. He was, frankly, unnaturally smart, a trait he likely got from his grandfather on his father's side. Apparently, Hisashi's father had a ridiculous intelligence quirk that was practically a complete brain mutation, and he passed part of that mutation on to Hisashi alongside weak, mildly uncontrollable fire-breathing from Hisashi's mother's dragon quirk. It was a little unprecedented for quirks to interact like that in offspring, and it added to her suspicions about Izuku's quirkless status because Hisashi clearly imparted a lot of that intelligence onto his son. She wished her side of the family was that cool. She could vaguely remember her biological mother being able to float before she had to give her and her brother up for adoption, and she had no idea how "attraction of small objects" resulted from floating and minor telekinesis. Quirk science was weird, so there was no telling exactly what quirk factors could have come together in Izuku (if any) and how they'd even express themselves if they had. She'd have to research more on the subject-

She felt Izuku's hand softly caressing her cheek, bringing her out of her internal ramblings. She sheepishly grimaced, knowing she had gone off on another one of her mental tangents. Her son, having mumble-storms of his own for as long as he could talk (they were no doubt genetic), only softly smiled with more patience than any 5 year old should have. Smiling back, she picked him up and carried him out of his room and to her own bedroom. Izuku, while clearly confused, said nothing as Inko sat him down on her bed and walked towards her closet. She reached for the door and hesitated, having seconds thoughts about going through with her plan.

She couldn't have any second thoughts. She was doing this, and she was going to see it through.

Pushing forward, she slid open her closet door and moved the hanging clothes to the side before reaching for the wall behind them and pushing on a secret panel. Part of the wall caved in and revealed another compartment within, and she stepped to the side to show Izuku an old hero costume hanging in the space where the wall previously stood. It was a simple black spandex suit with a green 'V' on the torso, accompanied with boots, gloves, and a mask in the same shade of green.

She turned to her starstruck son who was looking at the costume and with a mix of incredulity and wonder. She smiled sadly as his eyes finally fixed on her.

"You're a pro hero?! But I've never seen you go on patrol! Are you an underground hero? How do you fight criminals? You have such a fantastic quirk so I suppose it does make sense. Even if you couldn't move people with your quirk, you could easily attract and manipulate small, heavy objects around to direct them in combat or rescue operations-"

"Izu, breathe," she instructed with a more genuine smile. When he stopped his mutter spree, she sat down on the bed next to him and readied herself for the conversation that she never wanted to have.

"To answer your questions, yes, I was a pro hero. I was underground, so I wasn't too popular with the general public, but I made a decent name for myself in underground circles. You're on the right track about how I used my quirk for both combat and rescue operations, but I mostly used my quirk to supplement my hand-to-hand combat.

"I'm showing and telling you all of this to answer your 'but' question from earlier. I truly do believe that you can become a hero…"

"But?"

"But I don't think you can become a hero like All Might."

She could see the pain and hurt in his eyes before they gave way to a pleading ferocity. "But All Might is the greatest hero!"

"That's… mostly true," she began, "and that's part of the problem. All Might is like a god amongst men. He sets an impeccable standard for heroes everywhere, one that most people may not be able to attain because they're just not as absurdly powerful as him. Are you following so far?"

At his nod, she continued. "All Might can do things that most heroes could only dream of doing, and that's with quirks of their own. For now, you don't have one of your own, and that will make your journey to becoming a hero significantly harder. You will have to work at least twice as hard as everyone else just to catch up with them, and even then, you may only receive less than half of the credit when the job is done."

Inko wasn't going to pretend that Izuku wouldn't face any discrimination for being quirkless. It was something that he was better off knowing right away then finding out later in a less favorable manner.

She paused to ensure that he was still paying attention. When she confirmed that he was, she pressed on. "It will not be an easy task, Izuku. You will have to dedicate a sizable portion of your time and energy to training and preparing for this, both physically and mentally. There's also no real guarantee that it will work out, and that's even with a quirk."

She sighed. "There's the elephant in the room that you currently don't have a quirk, and while that may seem like a death sentence, it isn't in the grand scheme. Not everyone has a combat-applicable quirk, so those heroes that don't must work around that limitation to keep up with other heroes that do as well as villains with powerful and dangerous quirks. You'll need to know how to defend yourself, how to combat any potential enemy, how to prepare for any and every situation, and when to take a step back and call for help."

Seeing that he was hanging off her every word, she gave him a warm, challenging smile. "Luckily for you, you happen to have a retired pro living in your home that will happily train her son into the ground until he's the best damn hero this city has ever produced."

"You said a swear!" Izuku said with a smile forming onto his face that was positively infectious. She knew she made the right decision as she watched Izuku's hope return and the light in his eyes brighten in real time.

"Are you ready for the sheer amount of hard work that you will have to put in to become a hero without a quirk?" She asked her son with a deadly serious tone before kneeling down to directly meet his gaze. "It's okay to say no, honey. No matter what you do, no matter what you decide on, no matter what path you take, I will always love you and be in your corner to the very end. You have my unconditional support, always."

Izuku teared up again at the declaration, but they weren't pained tears like they were before. Inko could see a steely determination form from the hope in those watery eyes of his, and she had all the answer she needed. She knew that she would soon have to test his resolve, but for now, she knew she made the right decision.

"I'm gonna be the best damn hero this city has ever seen!" her son declared.

"You're goddamn right you are!" She answered with equal fervor before pinching his nose shut. "And no swearing!"

The two fell into laughter, and Izuku leaped into his mothers arms to give her the tightest hug he could.

"Thank you, Mom," he muttered.

"Of course, my little Izu," she responded. She felt him go still in her embrace for a moment before pulling away to gaze curiously at her.

"You said a few times that I don't currently have a quirk, as if that might change. What did you mean by that?"

Inko could see the gears working in his brain even before she could give him an answer. He was probably already onto a few lines of thought and just wanted a potential nudge in the right direction.

"Well, it's possible that you're a late bloomer or that you have a quirk that's more latent in nature than other quirks. I'm sure you've noticed that you're considerably smarter than everyone around you at your preschool."

And he had definitely noticed if the way his eyes suspiciously could not meet hers in embarrassment was any indication.

"The other kids just call me weird. I notice that I sometimes make the adults uncomfortable when I'm around them. I just figured I was ahead because you used to let me sit on your lap while doing work on the computer."

"Children should not be able to use and navigate the internet as well as you do, Izuku, nor should they be able to proofread and spellcheck official documents," she said with an amused smile. Izuku's reddening cheeks were icing on the cake. However, she could feel the heat coming off of his face at his blush as if it were a fever. As quickly as she noticed it, though, it went away. She filed it away for later.

There was also the fact that she'd sometimes notice faint, white wisps coming from Izuku's hair when he was really concentrated on something, but that could have just been her imagination. She'd keep a close eye on it nonetheless.

"Anyway," she continued, "I'll have to do a bit more research on quirk science and investigate some things in our family before I can give you a definitive answer. For now, I'll handle your training without any quirks in mind."

"Okay, Mom," he replied before his eyes lit up again. "Why did you retire, anyway?"

She should have expected that question. She tried to brush over the fact that she no longer did hero work and put the idea of her training him into his head as quickly as possible so that he'd focus on the training and not the other details, but she should've known better. Her son wouldn't just miss details like that, unfortunately; she'd be sure to immerse him in the world of informatics and investigation as part of his training.

"Another time, sweetie," she said with a grimace. "How about I make you some katsudon to celebrate your training?"

Izuku's eyes narrowed at her, but he reluctantly accepted the bribe to drop the subject, at least for now. She knew she wouldn't get off that easily, though. She'd have to come clean about everything later on, but she would hold out for as long as she could until he was old enough to handle it. For now, she'd sharpen him into a blade ready to deal with the most dangerous parts of heroics, both both villain and "hero" alike.

This is an idea I've had for a long while that I've finally decided to explore. Izuku will develop a quirk, if that wasn't obvious, and Inko will play a significant role later on. Neither of them will have One For All. More info into what his quirk actually is will be in the next chapter. Thanks for reading.