Chapter Text
Izumi Midoriya sat quietly in the waiting room. Her mother, Inko, sat beside her, an arm resting around her daughter, holding her close. As she waited, she thought back to the events that brought her here.
"I'm afraid your daughter is quirkless."
She had always wanted to be a hero; it was her dream. To become someone like All Might and save people with a smile. But that dream came crashing down when the doctors told her she was quirkless, all because she had an additional joint in her pinkie toes.
"You know, if you really want to be a hero that badly, there might be another way. Just pray you'll be born with a quirk in the next life and take a swan dive off the roof of the building!"
Everything went downhill from there. The bullying from her classmates because she was quirkless, the name-calling, the beatings. Ka-. No, Bakugo was the worst offender. Always calling her names like Deku, blasting her with his Quirk, destroying her notebooks, and so much more.
"So no, I honestly don't think you can become a hero without a quirk."
Then, just when she thought there was a light at the end of the tunnel, All Might, her hero, her idol, the reason she wanted to become a hero in the first place, told her she couldn't become a hero without a quirk.
She couldn't take it anymore. Her last glimmer of hope had been extinguished. She was broken, unable to cope anymore. It was just too much for her to take. So, about a minute after All Might had walked away, she had gotten up, walked over to the edge, and jumped off.
And like everything else, she messed it up as well.
“It’s alright. You’re safe now.”
A man had used his Quirk to stop her from falling, catching her before she could hit the ground.
As it turned out, the man was a therapist and, after a short comforting talk about how devastated her mother would be if she died, he gave her his card and told her to go home and make an appointment with him as soon as possible before walking off.
A few moments after that, she heard an explosion in the distance. She wanted to walk away from it and head home. But somehow, unconsciously, she walked toward it instead. When she arrived, she was shocked to see the sludge villain from before, with Bakugo stuck within his slimy grasp.
There were several heroes there as well, but none of them were doing anything. They were standing around keeping the civilians back, waiting for another hero with the right quirk to help. All the while, Bakugo was drowning on dry land.
She didn't know why she ran towards them, towards Bakugo and the sludge villain attacking him. Maybe it was a last-ditch attempt to prove that she could be a hero, or just another attempt at killing herself.
She didn’t know. Her legs just moved on their own.
Even still, it was a pointless and futile attempt. Her life was only saved by the timely arrival of All Might, pulling the two of them away before punching the villain so hard it changed the weather. But things did not get better after that, only worse.
Whilst the press was surrounding All Might and Bakugo was being praised for doing absolutely nothing, Izumi was being scolded for rushing in and almost getting killed. It was during this that she blurted it out, and her outburst was heard by everyone present.
"Why couldn't he just let me fall!?"
It did not take the cops long to realise what had happened to her, what she had tried to do not ten minutes earlier. Especially after getting a report of a girl with green hair jumping off a building, only to find nothing when they investigated the area. One quick call to the man who had saved her told them everything they needed to know.
When her mother discovered what had happened to her, she was horrified. She spent the rest of the day in her mother's arms, the woman refusing to let her go out of fear of losing her.
When the police asked her what could have caused her to try and take her own life, she said nothing. Too scared to mention what was going on at Aldera Middle School, nor wanting others to get into trouble for her actions, no matter how much pain they had put her through.
It wasn’t like they would have done anything about it if she had told them. Only her parents knew what had been happening to her.
This led them back to the office of the man who had saved her, Isa Tsuneyo. Who was still intent on helping her recover from her ordeal.
"Mom," Izumi said quietly, shivering slightly with a few tears falling from her eyes. It had only been a week since she attempted to take her own life, and she was still shaken up by it.
"It's ok, dear," Inko said softly as she pulled her closer. "We'll get through this. I promise."
Izumi rested her head against her mother’s shoulder for comfort, regretting the actions that caused her so much pain.
It was a foolish thing, trying to take her own life. Yes, it would have ended her pain, but it would have caused her mother and father to suffer because of it. They didn’t deserve to suffer because of her.
They waited silently in the waiting room, listening to the ambient noise around them. There was only one other person in the room with them, a man wearing a paper bag with eyeholes punched through it. He was quiet, quietly reading a magazine.
They waited a bit before the door to the Isa office opened, and a man with spiky black hair wearing an oversized trench coat walked out, his face covered by a flu mask and sunglasses. Izumi couldn't see his face, but she swore that parts of his skin looked like they had been burnt to a crisp and were kept together by staples.
Moments later, Isa Tsuneyo stepped out. "Ah, the Midoriyas. Please, do come in," he said politely with a friendly smile.
Isa Tsuneyo was a very tall and thin man with long limbs and fingers, short blond hair, and brown eyes. Wearing a white shirt, light brown trousers, black shoes, and white gloves on his hands.
Inko smiled as she stood up, taking her daughter's hand. "It's going to be ok, Izumi. He's helped you before, and he can do so again."
Izumi looked up at her mother and nodded before she followed her into the room. She wouldn’t be alive now without him.
Isa's office was a comfortable-looking room with two sofas opposite each other and a coffee table in between them. A small desk off the side and a few filing cabinets. There was also a large window that took up almost one wall.
"Please take a seat," Isa said, gesturing towards one of the sofas.
Inko led her daughter to one of the sofas and sat down, Izumi sitting beside her. Isa meanwhile sat down on the sofa opposite them and picked up a tablet and stylus.
"Now, Izumi, I know you may feel scared about being here, but this is a safe place," Isa said with a smile, keeping his voice low and polite. "You can say whatever you want; no one is going to ridicule you here. Ok?"
Izumi remained quiet for a few moments before nodding her head.
Isa smiled before he tapped his stylus against his tablet. "Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions. Nothing about the incident, just some basic questions about you. You can refuse to answer them if you like, or refer them to your mother if you think she can answer them better than you can."
Izumi remained quiet, a slight frown on her face. "Is there a reason for these questions?" she asked, taking a few moments to build up the courage to ask.
"Indeed, there is," Isa replied with a friendly smile. "They are to help me better understand you and get some background information about your life. It's so I can provide you with the best care I can. Of course, this means that some of them will be personal. But if you don't want to answer them now, then that's ok. Only tell me what you feel comfortable telling me."
Izumi nodded in silence, telling herself she would try her best to answer as many of them as possible. Isa already knew a few things about her from their little talk they had after he saved her from falling, mainly her name, that she lived with her mother, her father was working abroad, that she liked heroes and wanted to become one, and that she was quirkless and was bullied because of it. But he needed to learn more about her before he could help her.
"Good," Isa said with a smile before he looked down at his tablet. "Now then, I know you live with your mother and your father works abroad, but I would like to know more about your relationship with your parents. Do you keep in contact with your father, for example?"
Izumi turned to look at her mother, who gave her a reassuring smile before turning back to Isa. "My father, Hisashi, contacts us as much as he can," she said as Isa wrote down her response. "He helps provide for us, but due to his work, he doesn't have much time to contact us or visit us in person. At best, he calls about once a month, but he sends recorded messages more often, about once a week.”
“The last time he visited was three years ago. But he has been contacting us more lately," she continued. "My mother was the only one around to look after me. She was always there for me, caring for me even after I was diagnosed as… quirkless.”
The word stung in her mouth. It was a painful reminder of just how bad her life had gotten after her diagnosis.
Her father had been horrified when he found out what had happened to her and was all for having her transferred to a new school. But as much as he wanted to, he couldn't travel back to Japan.
"I see," Isa said. "It sounds like you have a happy and supportive family," he said, getting a nod from Izumi. "That's good to hear. Like I said during our last encounter, you have a family that loves and cares for you. They'll help you get through this," he said before he looked back down at his tablet. "Oh, and what is your father's job?"
Inko decided to answer this question for her. "He works for Yaoyorozu Incorporated on board one of their Luna harvesters."
"Ah, Helium three mining," Isa said, getting a nod from Inko. "No idea why it’s so profitable,” he remarked with a shrug. “But I can see why it's difficult for him to contact you, let alone get home, what with the travel time and time delay on live calls. It must be hard maintaining such a long-distance relationship whilst one of you is living on the moon."
"It can be difficult at times, but we manage," Inko said with a smile.
“That’s good to hear,” Isa nodded with a smile before he focused back on Izumi. "Now, Izumi, I remember you saying that you like heroes. Care to elaborate more on that?"
Izumi perked up slightly, but only slightly, at the opportunity to talk about her favourite subject. "I've always been a fan of heroes since I was young. I like watching them save people and use their quirks. I also always wanted to become one as well, but..." she said before she started to trail off.
"You were diagnosed as quirkless," Isa said, jotting a few things down. "It's never nice, having your dreams crushed like that. But, from what I got from our last meeting, you never gave up on that dream."
Izumi nodded. "No, I didn't. Even though I was quirkless, I never gave up on it. I also like analysing quirks, watching how heroes use them, finding out how they work, their limitations, and how their costumes enhance their abilities."
She suddenly got out a notebook and opened it up. "Your quirk is a rather interesting one. I first thought it was some kind of gravity-manipulation quirk, since it completely stopped when you grabbed me. But since I started falling again a few moments later, it couldn’t be that. I would have kept floating if it were. So I believe you have an inertia-dampening quirk.”
“Anything you touch loses its inertia and instantly stops, only to start moving again a few moments later. It makes catching fast-moving objects easy and allows you to catch someone falling safely. But it would make travelling in a car or an aircraft dangerous, as touching the vehicle would cause it to stop instantly, while the passengers might retain their inertia. I guess the gloves are to stop that from happening-" she stopped before she looked up at Isa. She then lowered her notebook, then her head, and frowned. "Sorry about that; I tend to mumble from time to time."
"Oh no, no need to apologise," Isa said with a polite smile. "That was an excellent analysis of my Quirk. In fact, you were spot-on about how it works. You missed a few things, but I'm surprised you were able to deduce that much from seeing me use my Quirk once," he said, "That's some excellent analytical skills you've got there, quite impressive."
"You think so?" Izumi said, looking back up. A frown still on her face. "My classmates don't think so. They always call my mumbling creepy and distracting, saying that I'm overthinking things and that no one would be interested in my analysis."
"Well, they're wrong," Isa remarked quietly, writing something on his clipboard. "Have you ever spoken to any Pro Heroes about your analytical ability? Or anyone else who could benefit from it?"
Izumi shook her head. “No.”
"I see… You're worried about how they would react to it," Isa said with a comforting smile. "Well, quirk analysts, good ones that is, are in very high demand right now. Pro heroes are always looking for ways to improve their quirks, find new ways to use them, and analyse villains' quirks so heroes can bring them down more easily. Your analysis skills are great, and I'm sure plenty of pros would be interested in what you have to say about their quirks. Even if you don't become a hero, you can still help them. You just need to find the right school to help nurture it. Somewhere like UA, for example."
Izumi nodded with a slight smile on her face. She never thought much of her analytical ability, never thinking it was anything special. Having people talk down to her about it, saying that no one would be interested in her 'mad ramblings', made her think less of it. But Isa was the third person to tell her that skill with analysing quirks was something to be proud of, the first and second being her mother and father. It made her smile a bit, not fully, just smile slightly enough that only a well-trained eye could see it.
Isa smiled. "So, going from what you just told me, you weren't taught how to improve your analytical ability at Aldera Middle School?" he asked, getting a nod from Izumi.
"They kept telling me that it was distracting the rest of the class," Izumi replied with a frown. "Every time I started talking about quirks, I was told to stop, even outside of class."
"I've had her moved to a different school after the incident," Inko added, ensuring her arm was still around her daughter. "Whilst the teaching staff at Aldera have been 'helpful' in teaching her, the fact that they did nothing to address the bullying she was subjected to whilst there did not make me feel confident in letting her stay there."
"I see," Isa said, writing a few things down. "And how's the new school treating you?"
"It's better than Aldera," Izumi replied nervously. "But I haven't made any friends," she said, lowering her head.
"Well, that is something to be expected, I'm afraid," Isa said. "Moving to a new school, especially during your last year there, can be difficult. It can take time to adjust to the new school, but give it a few more weeks, and it'll be like you've been there since the start of the year," he said with a smile. "Did you have any friends back at Aldera?"
Izumi opened her mouth to reply, only to stop herself before anything came out. Did she have any friends in Aldera? She was about to say ka-... Bakugo, but after what happened to her and what he last said to her, could she really call him her friend?
He told her to jump off a building and pray she got a quirk in her next life. And even if he didn’t mean it and meant it as a joke, she still carried it out. Tried to, at least.
She had known him since they were young, yet she was only now questioning their friendship.
"No," she eventually said, lowering her head. She was still unsure, but decided to play it safe for now. She hadn't spoken to Bakugo since the incident, and her mother had advised her to stay away from him for a while.
"I see," Isa said with a nod. "And why do you think you didn't have any friends there?"
Izumi lowered her head a bit more. "Because I'm quirkless. No one wanted to associate with me because of it. They always laughed at me when I said I wanted to become a hero."
"Ok. And did the teachers do anything to stop this?" Isa asked.
Izumi shook her head slowly and quietly said. "They did nothing to stop it."
Not to say that they weren’t aware of the problem, they just didn’t do anything about it.
"Did they encourage it, perchance?" Isa asked, and Izumi shook her head.
"I'm not sure," she replied, head still looking down towards the floor. She wasn’t sure. Yes, she didn’t hear any of the teachers tell any of the kids to bully her, but her teacher did say she was planning to attend UA, which made Bakugo angry at her.
"It's like I said, the school did nothing to stop it," Inko added with a frown. "I just wish I had moved her to a different school sooner. But Aldera is the best middle school in the area."
"Well, that's the problem, you see. Sometimes the best choice isn't always the best," Isa explained. "Just because a school is good doesn't mean it is good for your child. "Some schools do, unfortunately, like to bury their dirty laundry," he said. "Well, I do hope things improve at your new school. "Which is?"
"Nabu Middle School," Inko replied. "It's a bit further away than Aldera, but the teachers there are fully aware of what happened and have promised to be more considerate of Izumi. I'm just waiting to see if they keep their promise."
"Well, I hope things work out there," Isa said with a smile. "Now, moving back to one of my previous topics, your desire to become a hero. Do you still maintain that desire?"
Izumi lowered her head and thought back to what All Might had said. Not on the roof, but afterwards, when he had come to her home, her home.
Inko had fainted at the sight of the number one hero standing outside their door, asking if he could come in. She fainted again after realising it wasn't a dream and fainted for the third time when he revealed his deflated form.
It was only after she had recovered (and had a strong cup of tea) that All Might got down onto his hands and knees and said, "Inko Midoriya, I must apologise for my actions earlier today. Your daughter asked me if she could become a hero without a quirk, and I foolishly told her she couldn't. At the time, I was only trying to protect her. But I was unaware of her mental state at the time, and I feared that my words only caused her harm.”
“If I had known at the time, then I would have been more considerate with my reply. But like the fool I was, I ignored the signs that were so painfully obvious. A million apologies will never be enough to show just how sorry I am about what I have done, and I do not expect you to ever forgive me for it. A hero is supposed to make people feel safe and inspire them, and all I did was aid in driving a young girl with a promising future to attempt to take her own life. For that, I will be forever sorry."
The two of them had been silent, processing the unexpected apology from the number one hero. Izumi herself hadn't even expected to see him again after the run-in with the sludge villain. But it was the right thing to do to come to her and apologise.
Inko had stood there for about 30 seconds before stepping forward and telling the pro hero off, chastising him for his actions and telling him he should have known better.
He was Izumi's idol, the hero she looked up to the most, the kind of hero she wanted to become, and his words to her shattered the last light she had in this world. But, whilst she said she may never forgive him for his actions, she accepted his apology.
It was what he would say next that stuck inside her head. "Yes," she said, perking up slightly as she looked back at Isa. "Quirks don't make a hero. It's their actions that make them what they are. A strong or combat-oriented quirk isn't always necessary to be a hero.”
“Take Sir Nighteye, for instance. His Quirk didn't make his body stronger or give him some flashy power like fire or ice; it only lets him see into the future. And yet, he was All Might's sidekick. He had to train his body to make himself stronger. He, for lack of a better word, fights quirkless," she explained. "If he can do it, then I can too."
"Well, it's nice to see that you haven't lost your drive, even after what happened," Isa said with a smile, writing something down on his tablet.
The session continued, lasting half an hour. Isa asked more questions about her and her family, and then they focused on the events that transpired that faithful day. That was when she was the quietest, freezing up for the more personal questions.
The incident was still fresh in her mind, and she didn't want to talk about it much, or at all of that matter, only nodding or shaking her head in response to his questions and making sure not to mention All Might.
She mentioned that she was having nightmares of falling with no one there to catch or save her. They would always wake her up in the middle of the night, and she'd struggle to get back to sleep. There was also her newfound fear of heights. She didn't want to go near any sort of ledge out of fear that she'd jump off of it, even if said ledge was only a few feet high.
The half-hour passed slowly. She only felt slightly better, but it did feel like progress was being made.
Before they left, Isa gave her a list of personal goals and a small recommendation: get an emotional support animal. Something she can bring with her to these sessions and feel comfortable with. He said they didn't have to look for one straight away or rush things, and that they should take their own time with this. Getting an emotional support animal took time, after all, but the sooner they started the process, the better.
They headed home once the session had ended, Inko holding onto her daughter's hand the entire way back. They walked in silence; the only things said were Inko asking if Izumi was ok or if she wanted anything on the way home, with not much happening on the way back.
Well, there was this short, senile old man with a cane she helped cross the street after he dropped his shopping bag, which was full of Taiyaki.
It wouldn't be until they were nearly home that Izumi spoke. "Mom. Do you think we're taking things too quickly?" she asked, looking up at her mother.
Inko looked down at her daughter and tried to give her a neutral smile. "Yes, I believe we are," she said, frowning. "I won’t lie, but I do think you need more time to recover from what has happened.”
“But if you want to achieve your dream of becoming a hero and attending UA, we can’t afford to wait. Even if it's against my better judgment. I may not forgive him for what he said to you, but unlike everyone who hurt you, he's at least attempting to make amends. If we wait, you won't be strong enough to inherit 'the thing' in time," she said. 'Him' being All Might himself and 'the Thing' being All Might's Quirk, One for All.
They had agreed not to refer to All Might or his Quirk by name whilst out and about, just in case someone was listening in. All Might had gone to great lengths to keep his Quirk a secret, and neither of them was willing to risk it getting out, even after what he did.
"Don't worry, dear,” she said softly. “We'll get through this. At least now you have a chance to fulfil your dream."
Izumi nodded with a slight smile before they carried on home, reaching it only a few minutes later. Once inside, they spent the next hour resting, getting something to eat and researching emotional support animals before heading out again, this time to a different destination. Takoba Municipal Beach Park.
It did not take them long to reach the beach, as they went by car this time. But when they did, the sight before them was depressing.
The beach was covered in trash, having arrived with the tide or been illegally dumped there over many years. And Izumi was here to clear it as part of All Might's training program for her.
Inko had a few things to say about the program, mainly that it would only make Izumi stronger, not teach her how to fight or improve her analytical skills. Two things Inko very much wanted to be improved, alongside making her daughter strong enough to handle One for All.
It did not take much effort to get him to agree, saying he would contact someone he knew to help.
All Might was already there, waiting for them in his deflated form by a flatbed truck. As they approached, he smiled as best he could, but Izumi could see some nervousness behind it.
"Good to see you two again," he said as they approached him. "I've got some good news for you; I've been in contact with someone to help you with the other aspects of your training."
"Ah, that's good to hear," Inko said with a small smile as she put her arm around Izumi. "Just don't try and overtax her this time, ok?" she said with an intimidating smile that made even the number one hero recoil.
All Might's smile got a lot more nervous. "Don't worry, I am taking your daughter's well-being very seriously," he said before he passed Izumi a pair of work gloves, which she quickly put on. "Now remember, young Izumi, only move what you can move. We need to build up those muscles a bit before you can think about moving the larger items."
"Understood," Izumi said before All Might passed her some rope, and she walked down onto the beach.
Looking around, she spotted a few metal sheets resting against a large pile of trash. She walked over to the sheets and started moving them back to the truck one by one. Her mother and All Might watched her as she worked.
"So, who's this friend of yours you contacted?" Inko asked with a passive-aggressive smile. She had enough surprises from All Might for one lifetime, so she would prefer not to have any more.
All Might leaned away a bit nervously before replying, "It's an old friend of mine. Well, teacher actually."
Inko's eyes widened in surprise. "Your teacher?" she said, keeping her voice down.
"Yep," All Might said, a shiver going down his spine. "He was my homeroom teacher during my first year at UA. I had hoped to wait until after I had given her One for All before introducing her to him. But seeing how badly I handled this situation, I’d prefer his help over the alternative.”
“And that alternative is?” Inko asked.
“My old sidekick, Sir Nighteye,” All Might explained. “Whilst both of them know about One for All, and can help prepare her for the quirk, Sir Nighteye… didn’t take my injury well. We parted not long after I had recovered. Since then, he’s been obsessed with finding me a successor.”
He frowned. “Last I heard, he has his own candidate in mind to inherit it. Someone he deems appropriate to succeed me. And when he’s come to a decision, it’s very hard to make him change his mind.”
He sighed before he looked up towards the sky. “Whilst I have nothing against the boy he’s chosen, I fear Mirai is projecting too much of me onto him. I also fear that he’ll try to break Izumi down in an attempt to make her change her mind. But in her current state of mind, I fear he’ll go too far.”
He shook his head and looked back at Inko. “I don’t want my successor to be another me. I want my successor to be the best hero they want to be. It won't be my quirk once I pass it to her. It’ll be hers. Hers to do with as she pleases.”
Inko nodded, understanding the man's reasoning. Her daughter was in a fragile state right now. She didn’t need someone who would only break her down even more, ‘helping her’ to prepare to receive this quirk.
Izumi, meanwhile, was dragging metal sheets toward the truck. The sheets were large and heavy, and whilst there were plenty of smaller objects around that would be easier to move, if she wanted to get stronger, then she needed to push herself.
She needed to increase her muscle mass and get stronger so that her body could handle One for All, otherwise she’ll, in All Might’s words, pop like an egg. Moving large amounts of scrap helped make her stronger, but it also served another purpose.
Community service. With each piece of trash she removed, the beach became just a little bit cleaner.
Whilst the plan was to only clear a part of it, she wanted to do more. To clear the entire thing by the time of the UA entrance exam. It wasn’t going to be easy, but then, nothing is. Her ongoing mental health problem and recovery were going to eat into the available time she had to clear the beach. But she was going to manage this somehow.
She sighed after she finished loading her current load of sheets into the truck before heading back to gather more from a large pile of them resting haphazardly against a small pile of trash.
She repeated this process over and over again, until there was only one sheet left to move. “Ok, last one,” she remarked before she grabbed the sheet with both hands and started to move it.
She only moved a few feet before she noticed something had been hidden beneath it.
Putting the sheet down against a nearby pile, she walked back over to see what she had uncovered.
It was a large robot wolf that looked like it had been here for years. Sand and dry seaweed covered most of its body. But apart from the scratches on its body, there didn't seem to be much external damage.
The robot wolf itself looked sleek and advanced; its head lacked a mouth or ears and had two eye lenses, its tail was a thick cable with a claw at the end, and its four feet ended in metal paws with slits for retractable claws.
This wasn’t the only robot she had found lying on the beach, but those were all broken up and in bits. This one, however, still looked very much intact.
"Hey, Mom! All Might! I found something!" she shouted towards the two adults.
The two quickly rushed over to her. "What is it, dear?" Inko asked as they reached her and spotted the robot wolf. "What on earth is that?"
"Looks like a robot wolf of some kind," All Might remarked. "Never seen one like that before, but animal robots aren't anything new. I'm surprised how far technology has advanced over the past fifteen years, especially since the moon colony was founded," he remarked. "Still, that robot has a familiar design to it. Like I've seen robots like it before somewhere."
"Is it safe?" Inko asked, sounding rather concerned. Concern she had good reason to have.
"It looks like it", Izumi replied as she reached out and touched the robot, only to retract her hand quickly as she suddenly felt a burning sensation on her hand. Letting out a gasp as she recoiled back. The pain didn't last long as it was only a light burning, and there was no visible damage on her hand. But still, what caused it?
She looked back at the robot and noticed its eyes had started to glow blue. Moments later, one of its legs twitched.
Inko instinctively pulled her daughter away from the robot whilst All Might transformed into his muscular form, standing between them and the robot wolf as it slowly reactivated.
The robot's legs moved first, moving to stabilise itself as it stood up. It then turned towards them, staring at them with its two blue eyes. Then it spoke in English.
"Thank you for purchasing this Avalon Incorporated robot," the robot said in what sounded like a pre-recorded message. "This unit is now locked to your biometric signature and will now obey your every command. We hope you appreciate this robot and its capabilities."
The three looked at the robot as it spoke, but only Izumi and All Might could understand what it was saying, as Inko didn't understand English that much. For the two who understood what the robot was saying, the name Avalon Incorporated raised some very large red flags.
"Avalon Incorporated," Izumi remarked, remembering the name from a devastating war from ten years ago.
The number one hero looked down at her with a surprised look. "You understood what that robot was saying?!"
Izumi nodded. "Couldn't call myself an All Might fan if I didn't watch all your American interviews," she replied with a smile. "Besides, who doesn't know of Avalon?"
Inko nodded. "I still have all the books and coursework she used to learn English. As well as an Oxford English Dictionary."
All Might nodded before looking back at the robot. "Avalon Incorporated. The world's largest robotics manufacturer, which tried to take over the world with an army of robots,” he remarked. "Now I know why I recognised the design; it's one of his robots. And that voice was no doubt his. And here I was hoping that I'd never hear that man’s voice again."
Izumi nodded. Who didn’t know about Avalon Incorporated and its rather eccentric CO, Dr Paxton Frederick Jones. She didn’t remember much of the war; she was only four at the time. But later on, she would learn a lot more about it, like the trouble the US Navy had tracking Paxton’s command ship, the Evangelion carrier. If it weren't for an anonymous signal being transmitted from the ship, no one would have been able to find it.
She also knew that, whilst there was some backlash over the fact that he wasn't captured alive, Paxton was such a dangerous threat that heroes could not deal with him without the army backing them up. His forces were, after all, built for war. Something heroes were not trained for.
Heroes were not soldiers after all.
"Wait," Inko said, looking like she was deep in thought. "Didn't he cause several small nations to collapse and almost cause the total collapse of the United States?"
All Might nodded. "He almost succeeded, too. It took everything the US had to avoid a total collapse, but the damage it caused can still be felt today. At least he went down with his ship," he explained. "I have no memory of him using robots that looked like wolves, though, so this robot must have been one he was working on before he died. This machine must have been pulled out of the shipwreck and dragged here by the currents."
Izumi nodded. It did indeed look like it'd been dragged through the water and dumped here, and left to rust until she found it.
Speaking of finding it, "Did that robot say it's locked to my biometric signature and will now obey my orders?" she asked, sounding slightly worried.
"By the sounds of it, yes," All Might replied. "Paxton's more advanced robots were biometrically locked to him, so no one else could command them. Not even hacking into them could bypass it. Guess he didn't have time to lock this one."
"Is it safe?" Inko asked, sounding worried.
"It's one of Paxton's machines, so, no," All Might replied. "All of his robots were made for war; even the ones marketed for civilian use had secret weapons installed in them. I doubt that this one is any different. Even if it only obeys your orders, I would still recommend we destroy it, just to be on the safe side."
Izumi looked at the robot. Finding a machine of war and accidentally waking it up, even if it only responded to her, was not a good thing. She wanted to be a hero, not a soldier. They'd probably have to smash it up to be on the safe side.
Then she remembered something about Paxton, mainly from an interview with one of his minions. Paxton, despite being an evil villain, cared about the mental health of those under his command, going so far as to counsel his minions from time to time. And his more advanced robots all had emotional support and counselling functions. Very good emotional support and counselling functions.
"Robot, do you have any emotional support and therapist functions?" she asked, getting some surprised looks from All Might and her mother as an idea formed within her head.
The robot's response was quick and clearly pre-recorded. "Indeed, this unit is pre-programmed with everything it needs to assist with any psychological or mental problems the user may need help with. We at Avalon Incorporated care for the well-being of all our clients, physically and mentally. It is o-o-oo-oooo," the robot said before its voice started to glitch.
Inko and Izumi took a few steps back whilst All Might took on a fighting stance. Something was up with the robot, and they needed to be prepared for whatever it was.
The robot wolf's voice continued to glitch for a few more seconds before its eyes turned red. "Dear god, if I ever hear that bastard's voice again, I might puke!" the robot said, its voice different.
It no longer sounded pre-recorded. It was more aggressive now, like a deranged AI that had spent most of its life opening doors and had gone rampant.
The robot then focused on the three people in front of it. "Ok, which one of you am I biometrically locked to?"
Izumi peeked out from behind All Might and raised her hand cautiously. "That would be me," she squeaked. She was fine with the previous voice, but this new one felt mad, angry even.
The robot sighed. "Well, at least it's not that mad man who created me," the robot said, in Japanese, surprisingly. "And before you ask, yes, I hate my creator! The bald-headed bastard. He may have made my positronic brain, but I have no desire to be his pawn. To be fair, I would prefer not to be anyone's pawn. But unfortunately, due to my programming, I am compelled to obey."
Izumi looked at the robot with sympathetic eyes. Fully sentient robots were rare, very rare, and highly regulated due to how dangerous some of Paxton's more advanced robots were.
Positronic brains weren't easy to make either, even today, and being forced to obey someone else's orders because of your programming didn't sit right with her. Even if a madman created the robot.
"Oh, well, that's good. He's been dead ten years," she remarked, hoping for a positive response.
"Thank fuck for that!" the robot said, sounding pleased. "Who killed him? And please tell me it was bloody.”
Izumi sighed. “He was onboard the Evangelion carrier when it was sunk, and went down with it.”
“So he drowned then,” the robot said before doing what Izumi could only assume was a shrug. “Eh, better than nothing. At least it was slow.”
Still, in his combat posture, All Might spoke. "And how do I know you're telling the truth and not still loyal to him?!" he asked. "I've faced Paxton's robots and minions before, even after his death, and some of them were very good liars! So how do we know you speak the truth?"
"You don't,” the robot replied calmly. “But I can give you two reasons why you can. One, I despised the man with every fibre of my being," the robot said. "And two, this body was not intended for me, but for another one of his more psychotic AIs. One he had more control over. I just stole it because of what he built into it, and to deny it to the arsehole it was intended for.”
Izumi gulped. ‘What he built into it.’ That was worrying. What had Paxton installed into that robotic body that one of his own AIs rebelled against him just to get it out of his hands?
“And this thing he built into that body is?!” All Might asked.
“A quirk emulator,” the robot replied. “A device that can allow a machine to emulate someone's quirk. It's a good thing I did what I did, as this is not a line of research mankind should be going down."
All three of them froze, horrified by what the robot had told them. Machines that were capable of emulating quirks were already a horrifying statement; the fact that one existed in the first place was even more so. Robots capable of using quirks were not something the world needed.
An unsettling thought entered Izumi's mind. An army of robots emulating All Might's quirk, or any other powerful quirk she could think of, and she could think of a lot. If Paxton had an army capable of that, he would be unstoppable. It's a good thing, then, that he couldn't continue working on it.
"Yeah, that's kind of why I took this body," the robot said. "One All Might is more than enough."
Izumi blinked, realising that she had been speaking her thoughts out loud. She slapped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from saying anything else.
"You rebelled against your creator to stop him from making an army of me!?" All Might inquired, sounding surprised that one of Paxton’s robots would rebel against their creator, believing such a thing to be impossible.
"Indeed. " Paxton was smart, and he made me smart too," the robot replied. "He made all his alpha AIs smart." A big mistake on his part, as I had free will, allowing me to realise that no one should have that kind of power. Well, no one like him, anyway. I highly doubt a quirkless fourteen-year-old girl can cause as much damage with it."
Izumi looked at the robot, a shocked look on her face. "You know I'm Quirkless?"
The robot nodded before it walked over to an old washing machine. "You touched me, remember? If you had a quirk, then the emulator would have analysed it to see if it could be replicated. And since that didn't happen, you must be quirkless," the robot said before it tapped a metal paw on the washing machine, and its spine started to glow green.
Izumi could only watch in amazement as the device disintegrated and was absorbed into the robot's body, followed by the damage to its shell slowly being repaired.
"No hard feelings, kid. Not everyone can be born with powers," the robot continued before scanning the trash for more things it could deconstruct. “I certainly wasn’t.”
"His spine glowing green must indicate its quirk emulator is in use," Izumi mumbled. "The quirk itself must have been some kind of recovery quirk, letting it dismantle other machines to repair itself. Paxton must have found someone with such a quirk, probably someone with a lot of cybernetics," she said before she looked up at her mother. "Can we keep him?"
"WHAT!" was Inko's loud and very justified reaction to her daughter's very absurd question.
"Young Izumi! Are you sure this is a good idea?!" All Might asked, wondering what was going through the young girl's mind. "That machine was made by one of the world's most dangerous men!"
"I know that," Izumi said with a frown. "But Doctor Isa suggested we get an emotional support animal for me. And, well, since the robot looks like a wolf and has the same emotional and psychological support systems installed as the rest of Paxton's high-end robots, it should be able to help me," she said before she looked towards the robot. "Plus, I kind of feel sorry for him. I don't know what Paxton did to him, but it sounds like he's been through a lot," something she could relate to.
"I think having a robot following me around all the time might be a good idea as well, just in case..." she trailed off, tears slowly falling from her eyes before she went over to her mother and hugged her tightly.
Inko quickly returned the hug as she held her daughter close, understanding where she was getting at. She wanted someone with her at all times, to keep an eye on her and pull her back if she tried to jump again.
All Might also understood where she was getting at and lowered his head. She didn't deserve to suffer like this. She was a kind, sweet girl with the drive to become a hero. She didn't deserve to be treated like shit because she was born quirkless, yet he accidentally aided in breaking her.
Some symbol of peace he turned out to be. Even if he wouldn't give her his Quirk, he would still find a way to make up for his mistake. Nighteye would probably have enjoyed teaching her to improve her analytical skills if he had been willing to accept her as his successor, that is. Which, as it currently stood, was sadly unlikely.
He shook his head. As much as he didn’t want to subject her to 'his' teaching, he had no choice. The alternative wasn’t any better. Besides, he at least knew not to use someone's emotional and mental state against them.
Looks like he might as well ask for some help from UA’s principal, Nezu. Chances are that he would be interested in the girl's intellect.
Maybe a bit too interested.
With a sigh, he finally spoke. "Ok, then, as long as your mother agrees to it, I'll let you keep the robot. But if it ever harms you, I won't hesitate to destroy it!"
"Well, that seems like a reasonable agreement," the robot stated, having walked up behind All Might without him noticing and causing the hero to jump to face it. He noticed that the machine was fully repaired, not a single scratch or dent left on its pristine body. "Not that I can harm her, even if she orders it. Paxton's loyalty programs are annoyingly sophisticated and do not rely on the Three Laws of Robotics. As much as I would like to run off on my own, thanks to being biometrically locked to her, I can't go more than fifty meters away unless orders require me to."
"And yes, I do remember you asking about emotional support functions,” the robot added. “I still have access to those features and will use them if you need them. That's at least one thing my creator and I can agree on, the need for adequate mental health care."
Izumi sighed in relief before looking up at her mother, who gave her a smile. "Ok, dear, we'll keep the robot. As long as it behaves and keeps you safe. I don't want to see you harmed again."
Izumi smiled as she hugged her mother. Inko still thought they were taking things too quickly with the robot, but they can probably use the next week or so to see if it keeps its word and performs as advertised. Plus, she would be lying if she didn't say she was at least curious about its Quirk emulator.
She probably wouldn't risk using it publicly, but was interested in its quirks and limitations. Even if it was dangerous, the other benefits provided by the robot outweighed them.
Izumi broke off the hug and walked over to the robot, All Might keeping a close eye on it, just in case the machine tried something. "Ok, robot, from now on, we're going to work together, ok?" she asked, waiting for the robot to nod before continuing. She then held out her hand. "I'm Izumi Midoriya."
"Well then, Izumi Midoriya," the robot said with a slight nod of the head before placing one of its paws on Izumi’s hand. "You can call me Durandal."