Growth

Rei and Izuku held one another as they slept, wrapped in the warm confines of her tail. Their expressions were peaceful as they simultaneously experienced a rare moment free from the harshness of their reality. In their dreams, they could pretend, however briefly, that they'd never had to go through any of what put them in this situation. Izuku could still smile and play with Kacchan, and Rei had the loving family she'd been denied.

It had been nearly three weeks since the two met in that alleyway. Since Izuku's world crumbled around him, and Rei had come along to pick up the pieces and take him home.

Luckily, those weeks had been some of the easiest that Rei had seen since she'd run away, despite now having a second mouth to feed. She'd been right when she figured that the disappearance of that man would mean that she could eat a little better. With no reason to fear for her safety, she was able to search and scavenge to her heart's content.

As a result, she'd been able to stave off the hunger almost entirely; something she hadn't even been able to experience when she was living with her parents. It was almost surreal, to not have that constant ache eating away at her. Izuku was kept fed as well. He'd been hesitant at first, and it took him a few attempts to stomach the discarded food, but hunger was a strong motivator.

On top of that, she'd been incredibly lucky to find a pair of shoes and a shirt for Izuku to wear. The shoes were a little big and the shirt looked more like a dress on him, and both were in a less than stellar condition after sitting in a dumpster, but it was better than nothing. He needed shoes; he was already lucky that he hadn't cut his feet on something already, and he needed something more than the All Might pajamas she'd found him in. She already knew that the winter months would be hell on both of them, so the more they prepared now, the better.

Aside from having better luck with the dumpsters, Rei would also admit that she was happier to have Izuku with her.

As horrible as his situation was, and sad as it made him – which was painfully clear to her –, she was happy to no longer be alone. Having him around added some color to her bleak existence. He followed her everywhere she went – which was as much about his safety as it was about her not wanting to be alone –, moving around their part of the city in search for food. He babbled almost constantly about whatever caught his interest, which was usually quirks. He would go on and on about any quirk he could think of, whether it was a hero's, a random person that they happened to see, or even hers, which was one he came back to more than once.

Oddly enough – but also understandably if she thought about it –, he never talked about his own quirk, seemingly preferring to ignore it altogether. He had barely shown the claw quirk that she knew he had. And she didn't even know what the other quirk was. The one he'd apparently stolen from his mother. It was concerning, and she'd told him more than once that it wasn't an evil quirk, but she wasn't about to force him to do anything. She knew well enough about not wanting to relive certain memories.

It was almost like having a younger sibling. The one she'd always wanted and simultaneously hoped would never come. Because obviously she wanted a younger sibling. Someone to look up to her and someone for her to play with and teach things. But at the same time, she'd always hoped that her parents would never have another child. She didn't want anyone else to go through what she had.

But now she had Izuku, who would hopefully never have to deal with her parents and who was lucky, in his own way, to have gotten away from his own parent in time. And if she had her way, he would never be hurt again.

Rei shifted in her sleep, holding Izuku a bit tighter. Both of them sported small smiles as they slept on.

---

They were awoken from their sleep, rather abruptly, by a sudden vibration all around them, one that seemed to affect the entire building.

Both of them were fully awake almost immediately. Izuku clinging to Rei as she straightened up, thrown into action by whatever was happening.

'An earthquake?' Her mind automatically supplied. She'd felt them before, always shaking the house, but something about this felt different.

Just as she was about to move, to investigate or run, or to do something, the shaking stopped. Frozen in place, she waited, and listened, hoping that whatever had just happened would stay away. But, just as she was a split second from relaxing, and just as Izuku opened his mouth to speak, it returned.

The vibrating started back up again, only this time it felt like the entire world was shaking around them. At the same time, she noticed the noise that accompanied it this time. It was loud, blocking out just about everything else, and brought to mind the one time she'd seen a hero fight someone in person. She had watched the hero throw a villain through a wall.

This noise was just like that, only it sounded about a million times louder.

It was the sound of walls collapsing.

Fear clenched at her heart, her breath catching in her throat as her mind made the connection. Holding Izuku tight to her chest, she dashed from the room. As she moved, the shaking only increased. She could just barely hear the sharp crack of glass breaking over the cacophony of noise, all while bits of the ceiling started to fall all around them.

She reached the window just as a wall behind her exploded, sending debris flying across the room, some of it peppering her back. By the time she made it onto the fire escape, the shaking had paused again. She had just enough time to see the crowd of people in bright orange vests and hardhats standing in the street in the early morning light when it started back up.

Before she could try to make her way down to the ground, the fire escape began to shake and rattle beneath her. Already unstable enough under normal circumstances, the shaking and her added weight obviously weren't helping the situation. She grasped at the handrail, attempting to keep steady. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers when she felt it disconnect from the building and start to fall, and she heard Izuku cry out into her shirt.

Making a split-second decision as it toppled towards the ground, she threw herself forwards, all but flinging herself into open air, keeping her arms wrapped tight around Izuku as they fell.

They hit the ground with a mighty thud, her tail absorbing the impact far better than a normal pair of legs could. She still felt it, the pain rocketing through every inch of her tail at once, but had no time to think about it as the rest of the fire escape fell.

Rei tucked herself around Izuku as it crashed down around them, the heaps of iron throwing up dust as they landed. For a split second, she thought that they would get through it without anything hitting them. But just as that thought passed through her head, she felt an even greater pain drive through her, originating from her tail, making her cry out at the sheer intensity.

Looking back, she saw where a metal bar from somewhere on the structure had landed across the tip of her tail, backed by however many hundreds of pounds had fallen with it, cleanly severing the last several inches. She swallowed back the bile that rose into her throat at the sight.

It wasn't the pain that disturbed her so much; she was well accustomed to pain, as a result of her treatment at the hands of her father. But even still, despite having seen her own blood before, there was something so very disturbing about seeing herself mutilated in such a way.

She felt lightheaded.

Shaking her head in an attempt to clear the away the encroaching fog, and ignoring her heart thundering away in her chest, she looked down to check on Izuku, who she could feel trembling against her. His eyes were squeezed shut, and she could practically feel how terrified he was, but he at least seemed unharmed.

"Hey!" She heard a voice call out. Looking up, past the cloud of dust and the mangled pile of metal, she saw that several of the gathered people were looking over at her.

"You gotta get out of here!" One of them shouted. "It's not safe! We're taking the building down!"

He pointed up at the building she'd just fallen from. Following his hand, she could see chunks missing all up the side, where the fire escape had torn pieces off when it collapsed. She could also see where the building seemed to be visibly rocking, clearly unstable and ready to fall at a moment's notice.

A few of the people took a step towards them, clearly hesitant of the building's impending collapse. Rei responded by hugging Izuku tighter to herself and moving away from their approach. Already afraid and in pain, their actions did nothing but make her panic worse. She knew she couldn't trust them. Adults never did anything good. And now they were destroying the one place she'd finally felt almost safe.

Before any of them could take another step, she turned and darted away, moving into one of the nearby alleyways. Ignoring the pain radiating from her tail and the panic that was attempting to drown her, she ran.

Barely a few minutes later, she heard the resounding noise of the building collapsing. She had to choke back a sob at that, and resisted the urge to look back in that direction. Not only was that the first place she'd felt some form of safety since she ran away, but they hadn't even had time to take any of the food they'd stockpiled or the scant few possessions they'd found. It was all gone.

She attempted to push back the fog that once more threatened to take over. She needed to find somewhere for them to stop. Izuku was still clinging to her shirt, trembling and with his eyes shut, and had yet to say anything. On top of that, her entire body still ached from the landing and from the debris landing on her. And she was feeling like she was about to be sick. Not to mention her injury was still bleeding. She didn't even know where to start with that, but she needed to do something.

She had to force down another sob. Why had this happened to them?

---

By the time Rei finally stopped, the sun had risen high into the sky. She'd stumbled across a small courtyard sitting between a few buildings, almost completely enclosed by them. It wasn't ideal, with as exposed to the elements as it was, but it was hidden, and what few plants there were-were overgrown, meaning that it was likely abandoned or forgotten.

She moved to a corner, her movements sluggish as she slumped against the wall, her tail coiling around them. Setting Izuku down next to her – at some point he had fallen back asleep, exhaustion catching up to him as soon as the panic faded – she shifted to inspect the wound on the end of her tail. It was still lazily dripping blood, and every little thing, every movement or brush of air against it sent a fresh wave of fire through her.

Watching as blood dropped to the ground, she struggled to recall what she was supposed to do. Not many of the injuries she'd received before actually bled. They usually just left bruises. Wasn't she supposed to cover it with something to make it stop? That sounded right.

Decided that-that was the best course of action, she removed the jacket she was wearing, fingers fumbling at the zipper, not fully obeying her. She did her best to wrap the garment around what was now the tip of her tail.

Once she was satisfied – though, she had no way of knowing if she even did it correctly – she just sat there staring at it, swaying in place. Although her heart had long since calmed down, her head was still swimming. The fog that had been threatening to overtake her hadn't left, and now that she wasn't moving, she could feel herself losing the fight against it.

Her eyes drooped, the rest of her following suit. She all but collapsed next to where Izuku was sleeping, unconscious before she was even fully settled.

---

---

Izuku hummed to himself, a small smile decorating his face as he clung to Rei's arm. The pair were standing in line at an ice cream truck, waiting for their turn to step up.

It was Izuku's fifth birthday, and Rei had managed to scrounge up just enough money to get him a treat.

It had become much more difficult for the two of them to get by on the streets after their previous home was knocked down. For the better part of a year, they'd wandered the back streets and alleyways, trying to find some place they could stay. They hadn't been able to find anywhere for the longest time. Everywhere they tried either didn't provide enough protection from the elements or wasn't safe enough for two children to linger around.

On more than one occasion they'd been forced to run away from overly territorial homeless people that weren't willing to let anyone else near them. One such attack had even escalated to the point where Izuku had to take their quirk. That particular person had-had a strength quirk, and had taken Izuku by the arm. It felt like they would rip it clean off until he – nearly in a panic – grabbed onto the quirk and pulled it to himself.

Afterwards, once they were a safe distance away and had found somewhere to hunker down for a bit, he vomited up what little food there was in his stomach.

No matter how many times Rei told him otherwise, he couldn't help feeling like his quirk was bad. It stole from people, and it was the reason his mom didn't want him. And this time, he'd even used it on purpose to take the quirk.

What's more, is that he could still hear the screams of the most recent victim. He hadn't realized before how much it hurt people. He hadn't noticed it with his mom or the man that had attacked him. But this one…

This one had screamed. It had sounded like he was the one tearing their arm off, instead of the other way around.

It took a few days before he was able to sleep again. Haunted by those horrible screams every time he tried to close his eyes. And even once he could sleep, he was plagued by nightmares consisting of his mom screaming the exact same way. Screaming and crying and then leaving him behind just as she had.

Once he'd finally begun to recover though, and he had a chance to use the new quirk – mostly by accident as he hadn't yet figured out how to deactivate them –, part of him felt excitement at what it allowed him to do. He had, with a single hand, pushed around a dumpster that he and Rei had been digging through. For a brief moment, he'd forgotten all about his problems as he felt the power at his fingertips. At least, until a minute later when he felt the surge of exhaustion that evidently accompanied the use of strength.

Eventually though, after months of searching and never staying in one place for more than a few days, the pair happened to come across Dagobah Municipal Beach. It was covered in garbage and made both of them gag as soon as the smell hit them, but it was exactly what they'd been searching for. There were plenty of larger pieces of scrap, even entire cars, for them to take shelter in or under, there were no end of places for them to hide if they needed to, and it looked like almost everyone else was avoiding the beach like the plague. No one seemed to want to even walk along the sidewalk that bordered it.

That had been almost a week ago. The two of them had found a small area in the dump, surrounded on all sides by large piles to block them from view, and that was almost clear of the common trash that literally covered the rest of the beach. They could actually see sand in that one small spot.

It would take them some time to get used to the smell, but there was a van there that actually completely fit Rei and her tail, meaning that they had somewhere they could sleep that was out of the rain. Hopefully, things would get better for them now that they didn't have to spend half of their time searching for somewhere to sleep when night came.

And now, the two were out in public in a meager attempt to celebrate Izuku's birthday.

He didn't really want to think about his birthday, given that his last one had been the last time he'd seen his mom or Kacchan, but he was with Rei, and he was getting ice cream, so he was okay with it. It had been so long since he'd had something as good as ice cream. He was excited! Hopefully they had chocolate.

Caught up in his thoughts, he didn't notice the people around them that were staring. Either the sight of two very raggedy children, or the smell, catching their attention. Some of them looked at them with pity or concern in their eyes, but others were judging, either of them or whatever had them living in such a condition.

He also didn't notice Rei glaring at each of them until they turned away.

The old lady in the truck eyed the two of them for a moment, something akin to concern in her face as she looked them over, but quickly adopted a warm smile as Izuku told her what he wanted.

A few minutes later and they were sitting in the shade of a nearby tree. Izuku happily eating away at the treat as Rei watched on with a smile. She hadn't found enough money for both of them to get something, but she didn't mind. It was Izuku's birthday, and he was clearly happy, something he'd been in desperate need of, so she was fine.

As caught up in the moment as they both were, neither noticed the man that had stopped to stare at them from across the street, or the way his eyes burned with anger as he did.

Neither noticed the massive snake's tail that took the place of his lower body as he turned to move away.

---

Izuku and Rei dug through a dumpster that sat between the ice cream truck and their new home, sitting in an alleyway just out of sight from the road. They might finally have a steady place to sleep at night, but they still had food to worry about, and they were always on the lookout for things they could use, such as clothing.

Izuku still had on the exact same clothes that Rei had found him in; the pair of, now raggedy, All Might pajamas; and the very few things she'd found for him. The shoes were starting to get small on him, and were beginning to fall apart besides. And Rei was still wearing the bloodstained jacket she'd been forced to use as a makeshift bandage.

In other words, they desperately needed anything they could find.

Rei lifted Izuku up out of the dumpster to set him on the ground. He carried the results of their search in his shirt; two pieces of fruit that were only a little mushy, and a now cold cup of fries. They were just about to get moving when a voice sounded out into the alleyway from somewhere behind them. Izuku didn't recognize it, but he watched as Rei immediately went still, the blood draining from her face.

"So. This is where you've been all this time?" The voice asked, slurring oddly towards the end.

Rei slowly turned around to face the stranger. Izuku peeked around her to look, his eyes widening at what he saw.

It was a man. A man that had a snake tail almost identical to Rei's. It had a different pattern along the scales, and was missing the couple of scars that decorated hers. Hers also ended in a slightly blunter tip and was many times smaller. But, despite the minor differences, the resemblance was there.

Speaking of Rei, he could see the way she'd begun to shake, ever so slightly. It didn't sit right with him whatsoever.

"Rei." He spoke up quietly, picking up on her distress. "Who's that?"

"Izuku." She responded, voice trembling and eyes staying locked on the newcomer. "You need to run. Run back home."

He didn't move, the fear in her voice making him hesitate.

"Aww. What's wrong sweetheart?" The man asked, the last word being spoken with venom. "Didn't you miss your dear old man? Your mother and I have certainly missed you."

"Run Izuku!"

He startled, surprised by the sudden shout, but finally did as she said. Turning away from the other two, he ran in the opposite direction. He thought he could hear Rei moving to follow him a moment later.

Halfway to the corner that would lead to the road, he heard Rei cry out behind him, making him freeze. It was followed barely a second later by a resounding smack that sounded through the alley.

Turning back, he saw the man holding Rei by her hair so that she was facing him. The entire left side of her face was beginning to turn red.

"Alright, you got me." They said. "I didn't actually miss you. In fact, I'd honestly forgotten that you even existed until recently."

He punctuated that with a slight shake of the hand that was gripped in her hair, making her cry out again.

"Rei!" He shouted out, taking a few steps closer. Who was this person? Why were they hurting her?

"Hm? Who's this then?" They said, finally acknowledging Izuku. "Did you find yourself a runt to take care of?"

Rei grunted in response, grasping at the hand that held her. "Leave him alone asshole!"

A scowl formed on his face almost immediately, and before either of them could react, his fist was impacting against Rei's face. A sickening crunch sounded out, and blood was instantly pouring from her nose.

"I can see that you've forgotten your manners since the last time I saw you." He said. "But it doesn't matter. Pretty soon you won't be my problem anymore."

He pulled Rei's face closer to his own. "You see, your mother and I have been getting pretty low on money recently. But, a friend of mine told me about the business he's been taking part in. Apparently, there are people out there that are willing to pay quite a bit for children, for any number of reasons."

A malicious smile stretched across his face. "I remember thinking to myself; if only a certain waste of space hadn't run off somewhere. Then I might be able to cash in on that. But then, just as I was trying to figure out what to do, I just so happen to find you."

"Now, I imagine most people wouldn't pay too much for you. A lot less for them to work with because of your quirk. But," He grabbed her face with his free hand. "You do still have a mouth, so you ought to be good for a little bit of cash. And who knows? Maybe there are some freaks out there who would pay more for someone like you."

His smile stretched even further. "And the best part of all this, is that my friend said that they have someone with a healing quirk to make sure that all of their merchandise is in good condition. Which means I get to have some fun with you first before you finally get to be useful."

Another fist was flying before he even finished speaking.

---

Izuku stood frozen, watching as the man hit Rei over and over again. He was breathing much too quickly. He had no idea what to do. Rei wasn't moving anymore, and the man was still hitting her.

He was scared, and confused – he didn't understand why any of this was happening. – But, despite that, he felt something else making itself known, burning past the fear and confusion, filling his head. Something his five-year-old mind had not had many chances to experience.

For the first time in his life, Izuku felt anger.

Why was everyone always attacking them? Why was everyone always so mean? Rei was the only person that had been nice to him since his mom left, and now this man was hurting her. She hadn't even done anything to him.

He stepped closer. Part of him realized that he should be scared of them, they were so much bigger than him, and he wasn't very strong. But another part of him realized that he didn't need to be big or strong. He had his own way to fight back.

"STOP IT!" He shouted, running over to the man. "Stop hurting her!"

The man barely glanced at him as he got closer. And once he was close enough, he put his hands on their tail, trying, for the first time since discovering it, to use his quirk on purpose.

And of course, it picked that exact moment to not work.

"What do you want, runt?" They asked, finally looking down at him. "You want to end up like her or something?"

In a flash, the blood-covered hand that had just been hitting Rei was wrapped around Izuku's throat, lifting him into the air. It reminded him of the man that attacked him before he'd met Rei. Only this time he could still breathe.

"Well, if you want to be sold so badly, I won't say no to a little bit more money. There's probably quite a few sick fucks that would want a piece of you."

Izuku grabbed at the hand, struggling in the grip, before halting altogether. He didn't need to struggle; this was exactly what he needed.

Fixing the man with the fiercest glare he could manage – which admittedly wasn't much coming from a child as small as him – Izuku grabbed both hands onto the man's wrist, and squeezed.

Under normal circumstances, this would do just as little as Izuku's glare, but he had a strength quirk burning away beneath his skin. One that put him on par with, if not greater than, most adults.

He heard a sickening 'crunch' from the man's arm as he squeezed. Almost immediately, they were screaming, dropping Rei as they tried to swing their unbroken fist at him, clipping the side of his head. Izuku didn't let up. He reached for that now-familiar warmth in the man and pulled it into himself.

The man's screams grew louder as he stole their quirk, the snake tail beneath them almost melting into them, shrinking away.

He let go, dropping Izuku to the ground as the rest of the tail disappeared, which also sent the man toppling. Izuku watched as he, still screaming, tried to stand, only to fail as his new legs collapsed beneath him, seemingly unused to functioning altogether.

He couldn't watch for long though, as he felt his own legs begin to change. They fused together, tearing through the legs of his pants to join together, all while growing longer and larger around. In moments, his legs had been replaced by an identical – albeit smaller – version of the tail that the man had just had moments ago.

Trying to stand yielded results similar to what the man was going through. The tail didn't move the same way as his legs. It just felt so much larger and more unwieldy than his legs.

A few minutes later, all while the man was still screaming a few feet away, he managed to figure out how to get the tail situated beneath him to try to stand. Right when he was about to attempt to move though, he heard Rei groan from where she was lying on the ground. Ignoring his attempts, he used his hands to half drag himself to her, rolling her onto her back so he could look at her.

Her face was a mess, covered in blood and quickly forming bruises. He could hear her breath barely rattling out of her lungs.

"Rei." He said as he shook her shoulder, willing her to open her eyes. "Rei please wake up. We need to go."

She didn't respond. He felt tears gathering in his eyes, anger forgotten now that the man had been dealt with and in the face of Rei's injuries.

He shook her a bit harder. She needed to wake up.

---

Hizashi hummed a tune as he walked down the street, patrolling the route he'd been assigned by his work study agency. They'd allowed him to patrol on his own, seeing as he was a third-year student and already had a fully functional hero license. At this point it was more about getting live experience while he was still in school than it was about learning anything.

He couldn't wait to graduate, so he could start his own agency. As much as he enjoyed working with Crimson Riot, and as much as he'd learned from the older hero, there were things he would definitely do differently. That, and he pushed the 'manliness' persona way too far sometimes, to the point where it irked Hizashi. And there wasn't much that actually annoyed him like that. It was just in his easygoing nature to not be bothered by much.

He was drawn out his thoughts by the slight crowd of people blocking his path on the sidewalk. They were all staring into an alleyway with matching looks of concern.

He quirked an eyebrow at the sight, and was about to speak up when one of them noticed him.

"Ah!" They exclaimed. "You! You're a hero, right?"

He snapped finger guns at the civilian in response. "Sure am Listener! What seems to be the problem?" He glanced at the alleyway, where everyone's attention seemed to be focused. There didn't seem to be anything there, but maybe it was out of sight.

"There was screaming coming from down there!" The same person answered. "It's been going on for a few minutes now. I think it's a villain!"

"Not to worry! I'll go check it out." He responded. "In the meantime, please go about your business. We wouldn't want any of you getting caught up if something happens."

A few of them actually listened to that, turning to walk away with disappointed expressions. But most just stayed exactly where they were, acting like they didn't even hear him, which he knew was nearly physically impossible. If there was one thing he was aware of, it was how loud he was.

He sighed, turning to make his way down the alleyway. If they wanted to stay, there was nothing he could do to stop them. It wasn't like he could forcibly remove them.

Pausing by the corner of the alleyway, he took a deep breath, ready to use his quirk if need be. In one quick motion he rounded the corner, only to pause at what he saw, the deep breath he'd taken sputtering out of him. He took in several things at once, each one worse than the last.

The first thing he noted, was that there were three people present; one adult and two children. Secondly, the two children had very similar quirks, some sort of snake mutation. The third, was that one of the two, the oldest as far as he could tell, was severely injured. Their face was a mess of blood and bruises, and they were being half-dragged by the younger.

The final thing he noticed, was that the adult wasn't wearing any pants, and although they were stumbling pretty heavily, they were very clearly attempting to move after the children, shouting at them all the while.

"You little shit!" He shouted. "What the fuck did you do!? Give it back!"

Hizashi moved, dashing towards the man. He had no idea what they were talking about, but they were clearly aggressive, most likely drunk, given their stumbling and the slight slur to his words, and was half naked trying to chase after children. None of that painted a pretty picture, especially since he most likely was the one that injured the elder sibling if the blood on his hand was anything to go by.

There wasn't time to attempt to deescalate the situation first. At best, the man was a crazy drunk that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time with a pair of kids, one of whom being already injured. At worst, he was a pedophile who was in the middle of attacking the children and needed to be stopped before anything went further. Hizashi was willing to take the risk to avoid a worst-case scenario.

He couldn't use his quirk in the alley, not without risking harm to the children's hearing, but he hadn't made it through nearly three years at Yueii by relying on his quirk alone.

Once he'd reached the man, he dropped to the ground, sweeping their unsteady legs out from under him and sending them crashing. In one smooth motion he had his legs locked around the man's neck, holding one of their arms back.

Once he was sure the man wouldn't be going anywhere, but still wary of whatever their quirk might be, he pulled a phone from his pocket with his free hand. It was a special phone he'd been provided specifically for heroics. It held a direct line to the police reserved for heroes, and many other functions besides. He quickly dialed that number, bringing it to his ear.

"Hero hotline. How may we be of assistance?" The voice on the other side greeted almost immediately.

"My name is Present Mic." He announced. "I've apprehended a criminal. For public nudity, suspected physical assault of a minor, and potential sexual assault of a minor. Please send a patrol car to my location to retrieve them."

Luckily, he didn't need to provide his location to them. A feature of the phone was that it had a tracking feature specifically for this situation. As soon as he'd given his name, the person that answered would have tracked the phone.

"Received. An officer is en route to your location. Is anyone in need of medical attention?"

"The criminal has a suspected broken wrist." He answered, glancing at their mangled right hand. "As for the children," He glanced back at them-

They weren't there. Shit, they were gone.

"At least one child is injured, but they're both gone. I can't pursue without releasing the criminal."

"Copy that, sending an alert to all officers and heroes in the area. Please provide a description."

"Two children, male and female. The boy is probably six and has green hair, the girl is probably ten and has light blue hair. They both have snake tail mutation quirks. And the girl has extensive bruising to the face."

"Received. An alert has been issued. Please stand by for an officer to retrieve the criminal."

Hizashi returned the phone to his pocket at that, adjusting his grip on the struggling man. He grimaced as he took another look around the alley, confirming that the children really were gone. As soon as the man was dealt with, he'd try to follow after them, if for no other reason than to get them medical attention.

He got the feeling that he just missed something really important. Or that something major had just slipped through his fingers.

---

Izuku was lying next to Rei, who was settled in the van back in their little sanctuary at the beach, doing his best to curl his new body up.

As soon as the two of them made it back, he'd promptly all but collapsed next to her, the strain from using the strength quirk to move her having utterly exhausted him.

Now it was a few hours later, and she still hadn't woken up. He hoped she would soon. He was worried about her.

He was just beginning to drift back to sleep when he heard it. Rei was shifting in her sleep. With a groan, she cracked an eye open, looking over at him.

"I- Izuku?" She started, the word difficult to understand because of her swollen face. He resisted the urge to hug her, not wanting to disturb her injuries any further than they already had been.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

She sat up, struggling the entire way. "I think so. I'll probably live."

After a few moments of Rei checking herself over in silence, Izuku spoke the question that had been on his mind.

"Who was that man?"

She paused at the question, either thinking the answer over or just pausing as it brought back memories of the event.

Rei touched a hand lightly to her face, bringing a wince of pain, before sighing. "That, was my father Izuku."

"That was your dad?" He asked, receiving a nod in response. "But he was hurting you. Why did he do that?"

She sighed again. "I… don't have a very good family, Izuku. That's why I was all alone before I met you. My family would hurt me sometimes, so I left them."

Her mouth was open to say something else, but then the rest of her memories of the even seemed to return, as she realized where she was.

"Actually, how did we get away from him?"

He shifted around nervously, before pointing at the tail that had replaced his legs. "I took his quirk."

Her eyes widened at the sight, as if she hadn't noticed it until that moment. Which was understandable. With the way the two were almost wrapped around each other, it was difficult to differentiate between the two.

"You…" She tried to speak as she stared at his tail.

"I'm sorry!" He blurted, tears already beginning to fall. "I shouldn't have taken it, but he kept hurting you and I didn't know how to make him stop and-"

His rambling was cut off as Rei wrapped him in a hug.

"Thank you…" She said, voice wobbly. A glance at her face showed that she had her own tears beginning to roll down her face.

Words could not describe how much utter relief Rei felt in that moment. She would always be afraid of her father, quirk or no; just the thought of him made her nervous and put her on edge. But now, despite that fear, she knew that he couldn't hurt her anymore. That weight that had been bearing down on her from the moment she was old enough to comprehend what her father was doing, had finally been lifted.

"You- You're not mad?"

"Of course not. You saved me Izuku."

She squeezed him tighter. "You're my hero."

That was all it took for Izuku to start crying for real. Hugging her back as the tears fell full force.

---

Once the sun was beginning to set, and the two had been able to calm down, Izuku realized something. Neither of them had good parents. Or at least, according to Rei; he still wasn't too sure what to think when it came to his mom. But either way, neither of them had any family. They didn't have anyone but each other.

"Hey Rei?" He started.

"Hm?" Came her response, cracking open an eye from where she'd been lying down.

He hesitated for a moment, before speaking what was on his mind. "Since neither of us have families, can we be family?"

She opened her other eye, sitting up to look at him. He watched her expression, nervous about her response, but after a moment her face lit up in a smile. As bright as she could manage at the moment.

"Of course we can!" She exclaimed. "We can be brother and sister! And you can even use my last name if you want."

"Really?" He asked, only to receive a nod in response "Okay!"

Rei scooped him up into a hug, ignoring the twinge of pain from her face, and he snuggled into the hold as she lowered them back into a lying position.

They both fell asleep shortly after with matching smiles, Rei's being especially bright as she held her younger brother, Izuku Etsumi.

---

---

Izuku shivered, wrapping his arms around himself in an attempt to preserve as much heat as he could. Rei sat huddled against him, not faring any better.

The winter months had rolled around again, and this time around was worse than the first they'd spent together. Neither of them could have predicted that winter on the beach would be so much worse than within the city. The constant wind blowing in from the ocean had turned ice cold, and was barely blocked at all by the debris that surrounded them.

Reaching his hands out, he lowered them towards a small pile of wood and paper that they'd gathered from the garbage around them. As he did, a series of small flames, like those produced by a cigarette lighter, sprouted across his fingers.

It took him a few attempts, between the wind blowing them out and him losing focus more than once, but eventually he was able to catch some of the smaller bits on fire. They both hastily held their hands out towards the growing flame, desperate to absorb any heat that they could from it.

Soon enough, with the two of them gradually feeding more fuel into the flame, they were able to stave off the worst of the shivering. They were practically coiled around the small fire, with it sitting in the middle of their tails.

That was the most recent quirk he'd taken, from a situation not unlike the ones that had gotten him his others. Someone had attacked, and he'd taken their quirk. It just so happened that this quirk was quite literally saving them right now. Neither were really sure if they were going to survive the winter until he acquired the quirk.

Sighing in momentary relief as the fire chased away the cold in their bones, they snuggled up closer to each other. They could only hope that this winter would be a short one.

---

---

Izuku struggled to catch his breath as he released the face of the man that had tried to grab Rei, his own attacker lying a few feet away. The two of them had tried to take he and his sister away. He wasn't sure why. All he knew was that they had appeared out of nowhere to attack them, both of them wielding knives.

The first had fallen as soon as Izuku laid a finger on them. He'd gotten better with his quirk as he got older – he was six years old already – and had even learned how to make it hurt less, so that they didn't scream so much. He took their quirk the instant he made contact, earning a cut along his arm for his trouble. The second fell when Izuku grabbed them from behind and threw them away from where they'd cornered Rei, strength quirk working wonders. He'd grabbed their face where they lay on the ground and took their quirk too.

He wasn't too sure what the quirks were, but his breaths now seemed much deeper than usual. He'd already had to get used to the snake tail giving him grater lung capacity – Rei had told him that it gave them a whole extra lung that was larger than both of their normal one's combined – but now each breath seemed even deeper, taking several long seconds to complete.

The other one wasn't so obvious, but he could feel it burning under his skin. He'd gotten better at feeling the quirks he took, and had even learned how to deactivate them when he didn't need to use them. He focused on it, and startled when, a moment later, the cut along his arm started to pull itself closed, cutting off the steady flow of blood that had been seeping from it. A healing quirk then.

Turning away from the fallen attacker, he moved back over to where Rei was still standing a few feet away. She put an arm around him as they moved away to continue their search for food.

At this point, the two of them had been attacked so many times for no reason at all, that it hardly fazed them much anymore, especially since Izuku was getting to the point that he could deal with them with relative ease.

---

---

An eight-year-old Izuku walked down through the alleyway alone. Rei had turned fourteen recently, and had managed to get a job in a restaurant in an attempt to earn some money for the both of them. She'd even convinced a nearby gym to let them use the showers there so that she could wash away the stench of garbage.

Neither of them particularly liked the idea of him being left on his own as she went to work, he'd very rarely been apart from her since the day she found him, and he still felt uncomfortable in his own skin from the last time it had happened; that quirk almost felt suffocating as it sat in his throat. But it was for the best. She was earning money. Money that could be used for proper food or clothing. He could deal with a little discomfort in exchange.

He was pulled from his thoughts by movement off to his side, one of his newer quirks picking up the motion, making him pause. Looking over, he saw a man emerging from the shadows, studying him with an odd glint in his eyes.

"Hey kid." They started, a less-than-savory grin on their face. "What're you doing out here all on your own?"

Izuku stayed silent, watching impassively as the man approached.

"You look hungry. I've got some food if you want it. Nice and warm. It's just back this way," He pointed over his shoulder in the direction he'd come from. "I'll let you have some if you follow me."

Did the man think Izuku was an idiot? He must if he thought something like that could lure anyone anywhere.

"C'mon kid." They continued. "It's just back this w-"

Izuku didn't let him finish. Propelling himself forward with his now two strength quirks. He impacted the man's chest, sending him crashing to the ground, where the weight of Izuku's tail held him in place. He grabbed at the man's face, pulling on the familiar warmth as soon as he made contact.

As soon as the quirk was pulled into him, the man slumped to the ground, unconscious. But Izuku barely even registered that.

His mind was on fire as the new quirk settled in place. He'd had headaches before, but this felt so much worse as it burned through him, consuming his mind. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying his best not to cry out.

After several minutes of standing in place, struggling to deal with the pain, it began to fade away. Once it had all but vanished, and he opened his eyes again, he almost gasped out loud at what was left after the pain.

It was like a switch had been flipped, and for the first time in his life he was actually seeing.

Intelligence quirks were, generally, the least understood of any other. There were so few people around that actually had one. And beyond that, they were always active from the moment of birth, meaning that there was no way to study the effect it had on someone.

There was a myth that sprung up in the early twenty-first century, that humans only had access to a very small portion of their brain. Now, that myth had been disproven fairly quickly, but there was another very similar line of thought that actually held some truth to it.

While Humans made regular use of every portion of their brain, that did not mean that they even came close to using it to its fullest potential. The human brain, if used to the fullest of its capabilities, had the potential to rival the greatest computers. But most of the time they couldn't. The countless connections and electrical signals that ran through the brain created a jumbled mess that was almost too complex for its own good. Memory was fallible, connections being lost constantly, and so much time was lost just trying to process information.

Intelligence quirks, though, served to remove those limitations. If there were a proper way to study them, people would realize that the quirks didn't outright increase intelligence, but merely performed very simple actions such as increasing the speed or accuracy of the electrical signals sent through the brain, or give one perfect access to every memory their brain stored. They, in general, increased one's capability to think.

The biggest part of these quirks, however. And something that could never be discovered through normal means, was that each of these quirks compounded upon the preexisting mental capacity of the user. Meaning that the smarter a person already was, the greater the effect that an intelligence quirk would have.

So for someone like the man that attempted to lure Izuku, who was far below an average level of intelligence without the quirk, it raised them to the point of everyone else around them. But for Izuku…

As young as Izuku was, it had always been clear that he was above average. He'd learned to speak first, even before Kacchan, who was six months older. He'd learned to read first, before any of the other children his age. And despite his age, he'd always shown a greater level of comprehension than what was to be expected of him.

This quirk took that already above average level and propelled it upwards. It was as though he was blind before, and now he could see for the first time in his life.

For the longest time, Izuku just sat there, frozen as his thoughts raced at unprecedented speeds. There was so much, he barely knew what to do with any of it.

Everything, from the quirks he had in his chest, to the criminal that was lying beneath him, to the street below him. Every bit of raw data available to him was being received and processed all at once.

Eventually, his mind broached the subject of his and Rei's situation. In mere seconds, a plan had begun to form in his head. One that, while still imperfect – an increased capacity for thought could not fully compensate for a straight lack of knowledge about something after all – could potentially work to get them off the beach.

A smirk grew on his face. He knew what he needed to do.

He needed to become smarter. And he needed to get stronger.

---

---

Everything changed for the pair with Izuku's acquisition of the intelligence quirk. Everything that they needed to do became clear to him.

Not that things immediately changed or improved of course. Time was still needed to put everything into motion, but that was all that was needed. It was only a matter of time.

Rei continued to work her job at the restaurant, mostly clearing tables and cleaning dishes, bringing in a meager, but steady, supply of money. She even took on a second job as a shelf-stocker at a grocery store as soon as she could in order to bring in even more. She was working from before sunrise to after the sun set, and was asleep almost as soon as she got home, but they were no longer eating garbage and were able to afford clean, properly fitting clothes.

Meanwhile, Izuku spent all day at the nearest library. From the moment it opened, to the minute it closed, he was there pouring over every educational book he could get his hands on. Math, science, history. He read through each book he could, practically absorbing their contents.

After some time doing this, he learned about the existence of online education. He immediately began to burn his way through everything it offered, clearing weeks' worth of work in a matter of days. Within a year, he'd already worked his way up to a high school level.

At around the same time, they finally managed to secure an apartment to live in. Rei had been saving as much money as she could over the year, and the moment she turned fifteen – technically a legal adult by Japan's standards – she had used it to rent the cheapest apartment they could find.

Another year, soon after Izuku's tenth birthday, and he finished the last of the work he needed to complete high school, and moved on to the next level. By this point, with a decent place to sleep and proper food in their bellies, Rei was able to use what little time she had to start going through school as well, with Izuku walking her through everything.

While all of this was happening, Izuku was spending every second of free time he had either walking the streets under the guise of a weak, vulnerable child to lure in criminals that he could take quirks from, or looking into quirk analysis. Both yielded promising results as time passed. He slowly accumulated more and more quirks, gaining strength and experience all the while, and he began to grow quite skilled in his analysis.

It wasn't long before he figured out how to offer his services online, analyzing the quirks of anyone willing to pay him. Every little bit of money he earned eased the strain from Rei, if only slightly.

Eventually, a month or so after his eleventh birthday, he finally was able to register officially as an analyst, having acquired the necessary college degrees in quirk sciences and general analysis, and already beginning to work on a few more. His reputation quickly grew to the point that Rei was able to back down to only one job, then eventually not having to work at all, allowing her to focus solely on her education.

Around the same time, now that he had a few quirks that could serve to disguise his identity, he also decided to take to the streets as an actual vigilante. To actively pursue criminals rather than waiting for them to come to him.

He never stopped. Not for a moment. Every second of every day, if he wasn't sleeping, he was doing something to improve upon their situation. Educating himself or Rei, analyzing quirks to pay for everything, or fighting criminals and stealing quirks to grow stronger.

The world had done its best to beat the two of them down, but now he was turning the tide.

He never, ever stopped.

And he never, ever would.