Chapter Text
“Well, congratulations, Izuku.” The nice doctor smiled, putting her glasses atop her head. Izuku gripped his All Might figurine tightly, his eyes widening as his smile got wider. “It looks like you have an emitter quirk.”
His mother gasped, tears welling in her eyes as she grabbed onto Izuku’s hand and patted him. She seemed proud and Izuku felt so happy being able to be the one to make his mother proud.
“Do you know which type?” His mom asked.
The doctor hummed. “It seems to need a specific activation, though it shouldn’t be difficult to figure out. Something that will relate to his everyday life, but I can’t see exactly when he would need it to activate and be used, but as soon as that specification is met, he’ll receive something. Possibly a reward of some kind.” She smiled. “You certainly have a lucky quirk, young one.”
She turned back towards his mom and Izuku was holding back a happy squeal. He had a quirk! That was so exciting!
“If he needs help activating his quirk, or the specification seems to be too specific, call this number here. They have a quirk specialist who can help him pinpoint what it’s causing. Now, you can decide to register his quirk today or register it once you know for certain what it does.”
His mother wrung her hands together, taking care to put the business card in her purse. “Let’s register his quirk later.”
The doctor nodded. “Great! And very smart to do so, especially since re-registering takes a few tedious months to do.”
“Thank you.”
Izuku hopped off of the examination table, bounding around on his toes. He was so excited! He could finally hang out with Kacchan again and play heroes and villains without being stuck as a civilian all the time. Maybe he’d even be able to play other games with his classmates too!
He grabbed ahold of his mother’s hand, smiling widely and talking with her all about what his quirk was going to do for them when they got it to activate later. They tried a few things, with Izuku holding his breath for as long as possible, talking so fast it made his jaw hurt, and his mother’s suggestion, to play the quiet game and see if his quirk came in while he was being completely silent.
Surprisingly it didn’t work.
Izuku spent the weekend doing everything he could possibly try and activate his quirk with. He couldn’t help it! He was just so excited and he wanted to show it off to Kacchan as soon as possible!
He raced outside, pulling his mother along as they quickly made their way to the park that Sunday. Izuku looked around, grinning as he did so. It was finally time to tell Kacchan what he had learned!
And! And! Kacchan could totally help Izuku to get his quirk to activate! His friend was so cool and so awesome, Kacchan could probably figure it out in one try!
He grinned, running over to the bench they always meet at, bouncing on his toes as he looked around the playground, looking for Uncle Masaru and Kacchan.
“Calm down, Izuku.” His mother chuckled, watching him bounce around fondly.
Izuku gasped. “I can’t calm down! I’m going to see-”
“Zuku?”
“Kacchan!” He whirled around, smiling wildly when he saw his best friend walking alongside his father, his hands in his pockets.
“Did you wanna play?” Kacchan asked, cocking his head towards the treeline. Izuku nodded eagerly.
“Stay where we can see you two!” Uncle Masuru called after them.
Izuku giggled as they walked away, slipping behind the bushes as soon as their parents were occupied with each other.
“Guess what, Kacchan?”
“What?”
“We found out I have a quirk!”
“Really?” Kacchan raised an eyebrow. “Show me.”
“I can’t! It’s not activated yet!”
“Not activated?”
“Nope!” Izuku explained. “I can’t use it right now cause I don’t know how to turn it on.”
“So…you don’t have a quirk?” Kacchan frowned.
Izuku shook his head. “No, I have one! It just needs something to activate it!”
Kacchan scoffed. “That’s stupid. My quirk came in just fine. What’s wrong with yours?”
“Nothing is wrong with it! I swear!” Izuku defended himself, frowning when Kacchan grinned.
“Yeah right. You can’t even activate it. That basically makes you useless. Like a dekunobou doll.”
“Kacchan!” Izuku gasped, his bottom lip wavering as he struggled to hold his tears in. “That’s mean!”
“I’m just telling the truth!” Kacchan defended himself. “You’re the one with a broken quirk.”
He trudged off, back towards their parents and Izuku sniffed, letting himself cry for a few seconds before wiping his face, trying to make himself stop.
When he got back out, Uncle Masaru and Kacchan were long gone, only his mother sitting on the bench. He raced over to her, feeling so sorry that she had been left alone for so long.
“Izuku,” She said, cradling his face when he was close enough. “What’s wrong?”
Izuku shook his head, banishing the tears dripping down his cheeks with his balled-up fists. He refused to talk and so, with a sigh, Inko grabbed him and walked them back towards their house. They ate in silence, they watched an All Might movie in silence, and Izuku went to bed completely silent.
Izuku trudged to school the next day, not as excited as he used to be. He promised his mom multiple times that he was okay. Kacchan was right, like usual. Izuku was just blowing it all out of proportion and being a cry-baby about the silly name calling.
Still… it kinda stung when he thought about it.
Izuku shook his head, determined to think about something positive before he walked through the primary school doors. He squeezed his mother’s hand as they jogged across the street, looking around. He smiled, watching as the tree leaves swayed with the wind and how people were walking on the sidewalks, all doing different things.
It was really cool watching as a woman with fox mutations walked past them, talking on the phone as she breezed past them. Quirks in general were really cool to watch in action.
Maybe Izuku would get his at school today! Especially since he’ll be around more people and more new things!
Izuku skipped, beaming up at his mom when she gave him a kiss before letting him run towards the school doors, grinning the whole way. He quickly changed his shoes and made his way into his classroom, sitting down with the other early kids who got dropped off before classes started.
“Hey, I heard Zuku didn’t even get his quirk yet?” One of the boys with a really long neck, Ito, taunted, walking up towards Izuku.
He frowned. “I have one!”
“Oh really? Show us.” Ito crossed his arms, tapping his foot to show his impatience.
“Well…I can’t do that. It needs to be activated first.” Izuku corrected the boy.
His friend, the boy with a comic head, stood next to Ito with a grin. “Really? It’s like you don’t even have a quirk to begin with.”
Izuku’s jaw dropped. “Yes I do!”
Kacchan, who had been silent up until then, turned around in his seat, smirking as he crossed his legs and sat in his chair with his arms resting behind his head. “You know, since you can’t even work your quirk, maybe you are a walking dekunobou, eh?”
“N-No…!”
Kacchan tsked. “Ah-Ah. I can’t hear you, Deku. ”
Izuku’s eyes filled with tears, rubbing them away as best he could before he closed his eyes, nearly gasping with what he saw.
1
Izuku opened his eyes, actually gasping when he saw the number 1 in the corner of his eye. Kacchan frowned at him, but Izuku didn’t pay him any attention. He was fascinated with what was happening.
Maybe this was his quirk. He wondered what the number meant. What it might represent. Maybe it was a counter to something, or for something. But what?
“What are you mumbling about, Deku?”
2
Izuku grinned. “I think I just got my quirk!”
“It’s wrong to lie.” Kacchan crossed his arms over his chest, frowning at Izuku. “Heroes don’t lie.”
“I’m not lying!”
“Then what is it?”
“I don’t know!”
“That’s so stupid! How would you not know?! ”
Izuku shrugged, feeling giddy. “I just…don’t know! I'll tell you as soon as the doctors say what it is though!”
“Tsk. I don’t care either way, Deku.” Kacchan turned around, just in time for the bell. “Your quirk is still useless no matter what you think it is.”
Izuku ignored Kacchan, focused on the number sitting in the corner of his eye and wondering what it meant, even as the teacher began class. It took forever before school was finally let out and Izuku raced out of school as fast as he possibly could, running towards his mother as he completely ignored his teacher’s calls. They didn’t matter to him right then. He needed to get to his-
“Mama!” He yelled happily, diving into her arms, giggling as she spun him around and placed him on her hip.
“Hey, buddy.” She smiled, kissing his forehead. “How was school?”
“Mama, I think I got my quirk!” Izuku squealed, bouncing a bit in her arms. “I can see numbers in the corner of my eyes and it only happens when people talk to me!”
“Oh? How very exciting, Izuku.” She sounded genuinely surprised, like she hadn’t expected it to be so easy. “Well, I suppose that means we’re gonna go see another doctor this weekend? Are you excited?” She set him down and Izuku ran around her legs before holding out his hand dutifully, letting her take the lead on the way home.
“Am I?!?!” Izuku answered, bouncing up and down. “I’m more excited than All Might is! I wonder what my quirk even means! ”
She chuckled, crossing the street and nodding along to Izuku’s eager rambling.
The week flew by, with the numbers steadily climbing up whenever Kacchan and everybody else used that nickname instead of his real name. He paid his peers and teachers no mind as he thought long and hard about what the numbers might mean for him. He had a few theories, but his mother told him he needed to double-check with the doctor first before he suggested anything.
Izuku begrudgingly agreed with her.
They walked into the slightly cold clinic that weekend, cartoon trees and children painted on the walls and along the ceiling. Izuku faced forward, willing himself to not get distracted. Check-in was quick, although the wait felt like forever until some lady came out from behind a door and called, “Midoriya?”
They made their way back to the room quick enough and there, the doctor came in and hunched down in his chair, not paying much attention to Izuku until they ran a few tests. One on his brain and another on the back of his neck.
That’s when the doctor let him sit up and placed the images behind him, clipped up onto some white line.
“With what we know, I think it’s safe to say young Izuku here is capable of collecting money.” The doctor spoke, sounding a bit in awe.
“Money…?” Izuku asked, tilting his head.
“Yep!” The doctor beamed, turning his laptop screen towards the two of them. “This right here, that’s a routing number. It seems as though your brain is hardwired to be connected to a bank account, which you’ve been adding money to."
His mother gasped, staring at the screen in concern. “His…his brain?! Oh my gosh, my poor baby. What is in his brain exactly?”
The doctor chuckled nervously as she glared at the man. Izuku stared at him and kicked his feet back and forth, smiling at the man, who looked increasingly nervous.
“R-Right, well, ma’am. Here, it shows that little Izuku here was born with an extra piece connected to his brain stem, down here by the back of his neck. That has always been connected to an inactive bank account. Well, it used to be inactive. Apparently, whatever was the trigger for his quirk to activate is also the trigger for him earning approximately 1 USD, or better known as almost 135 yen. Every. Single. Trigger.”
Inko’s jaw dropped.
Izuku grinned. “So I can make money? Just like mama and papi?”
“Right.” The doctor smiled at him, nodding towards him. “But, Izuku, I need you to think really hard for this one. Do you know what triggered the numbers to start rolling in and what keeps causing it?”
“Deku!” 4
“Your name is Deku now. Don’t act like you’re not.” 8
“Don’t look at me, Deku!” 15
Izuku shook his head, his smile firmly in place. “Nope!”
The doctor sighed. “Okay. Well, we’ll keep working at figuring it out. Besides that, it seems as though it’s time to name your quirk. What do you like better: Money Counter or-”
“No.” Inko shook her head. “No. Those records are public, aren’t they? He’ll be in unnecessary danger if we advertise him as an easy cash grab.” She hummed to herself, snapping her fingers when she lit up. “Oh! I’ve got it! What if we called the quirk ‘Notes’ instead? As in banknotes. How does that sound?”
Izuku smiled wider. “I love it!”
The doctor looked disappointed, but wrote it down and signed his name without any complaints. “Then, that’s all Midoriya. I’ll see you both for his physical exam in a year or so.”
Inko nodded. “Yes. We’ll see you then.”
Izuku smiled, waving his goodbyes to the doctor with a staring problem.
“We are never going to him again.” Inko muttered under her breath as she opened the front doors and guided Izuku out of the office. Izuku hummed to himself happily, secretly delighted his mother didn’t like that guy either.
He seemed weird.
The next time he had school, Izuku was excited. He had a confirmed quirk and couldn’t finally tell Kacchan what was going on! He raced into school, a bit sad when he Kacchan surrounded by his…other lackeys…but that was okay! He was sure he could tell him during recess!
Except… that wasn’t what happened.
He had seen Kacchan being mean to some kid and Izuku frowned, stepping in front of him, not understanding what was going on or why Kacchan was being so…so… mean.
“Hah?!” Kacchan’s hands sparked and Izuku glanced down at them, furrowing his eyebrows. “What are you doing here, Deku?”
43
Izuku grinned, keeping his fists tight. “It’s not nice to bully people, Kacchan!”
The kid behind him groaned, rolling over and huffing, like that simple movement took a lot of effort.
“I am a hero.” Kacchan smirked, aiming his hands right at Izuku. “I don’t need to be nice to people like you, Deku.”
44
Kacchan’s hands sparked and Izuku turned around, grabbing the other kid and moving them quickly to the other side of the tree, hearing Kacchan curse when he couldn’t see them anymore.
“Anyone who runs from a fight is a loser, just like you Deku!” Kacchan yelled out before stomping away.
45
Izuku’s eyes filled with tears as he listened to his friend turn his back, ignoring the other guy who had moved away scrambling to his own group of friends, leaving Izuku all alone.
How annoying.