Inko Midoriya - Origin

If I remember my history books, then the first incident happened in Qing-Qing City, deep in the heart of mainland China.

And it changed everything.

One a random day, apropos of seemingly nothing, and with no external factors that could be identified, the world's most extraordinary child was simply born in an ordinary hospital, yet they were no ordinary child. Instead, they were born a child whose very skin radiated an astonishingly bright light.

At first, no one knew what was happening, local experts panicked, scientists around the world were baffled, but then, it turned out that the baby wasn't the only one. New reports started coming in from around the world, and before the year was out, every country in the world was seeing people born with astonishing abilities.

No one knew where these superpowers were coming from, but these quirks of humanity kept growing, and before long, the supernatural became the totally normal. Around us, our world had changed at its core, becoming a superhuman society, one in which people's dreams seemed to have become reality.

But as these children grew, like in any other time period, some sought to use their gifts selfishly, and with the rise of superpowers came a rise in the levels of criminal activity seen around the world. While the governments of the world were stuck, trying to figure out how to reform their laws with superpowers in mind, how to adapt with the times, they saw groups of courageous people stand up and do what they felt was right. They started fighting back, performing heroic acts to defend their cities against the criminals who used their powers to do harm unto others.

It became an age of heroes.

And in the end, and with overwhelming public support, these heroes who had stood up to do the right thing, found that they had an official place in our society, as a new wave of peacekeepers overseen by the government.

The heroes became Pro Heroes, recognised as celebrities and as their powers grew, and more of them rose up, so too did they grow in fame and popularity. Over time, they did more than help keep society feeling safe, they began forming their own teams, organising themselves into ranks and over time, they even gained their own departments in the world's systems of government.

Those who perform the best are paid the most, and they also gain all of the fame and glory. The careers of a Pro Hero depend on their ability to stay in the spotlight, to keep the people's thoughts on them, and gain the most attention. As long as they reside in people's hearts and minds, they can grow in popularity, and as their popularity grew, so too did the desire to see their likenesses on products and merchandise, and before long, the age of heroes became synonymous with the age of celebrity.

And honestly? I wouldn't say that this was necessarily a good thing.

=== === === === ===

"Inko Midoriya to the Nurses' Station. Inko Midoriya to the Nurses' Station".

With a hum of curiosity, Inko took a few moments to finish her updates to Little Saiken's record, for his most recent visit, before she bustled herself away in search of whoever was at the Nurse's Station, calling for her. It clearly wasn't an emergency, or else they would've used her hospital-issued phone to call her directly, so she felt she was more than justified in not rushing about the hospital.

She'd been a nurse at the Shizuoka Medical Centre for Children for over a year now and felt as though she were finally beginning to have fully settled into her new life.

Leaving the Tattoin Care Centre behind had been a relatively easy decision. Chiyo had been equal parts apologetic and apoplectic, asking her to stay, while telling her that Darla, the nurse who she'd found Senna in bed with, would be on their nastiest cases for the next few months, clearing bowels and whatever associated messes came with them, but she hadn't raised much of a fuss when Inko had told her that she couldn't.

She'd simply written Inko the nicest recommendation letter she'd ever seen, and then wished her well.

A few days later, after a phone call to the Shizuoka Medical Centre, she'd had an interview with their Human Resources Department, as well as their Chief Nurse, and after confirming her payment package, benefits and that yes, she would require use of their in-house day care facilities, she was told that she could start with their team, first thing on Monday morning.

And for the past two (and a bit) years, she'd been their ever since.

She and Izuku had moved into her new apartment, a much nicer one within a nice school district, with two bedrooms and there were plenty of other kids in the area, who he could hopefully learn to play with when he was older. It only had a communal bathroom, which she supposed wouldn't be a problem for a few years yet, as she'd grown used to the site of the various rubber sea creatures that lived in the bathtub, but the apartment did include its own washer-dryer machine, which she was grateful for.

When she turned the last corner, stepping towards the nurses' station, she was surprised to see Ren waiting for her, with a red lotus blossom tucked into her bright green hair, which was a much lighter shade than Inko's own.

"Inko", she visibly sighed with relief, "thank goodness-"

"Is it Izuku? Is everything alright?" Her eyes took a quick scan, not finding her son anywhere and fear seized her in a way that it hadn't since the early days, when she'd first brought him home, "Where's my baby?!"

"Inko- INKO", Ren reached over, placing her hands on her shoulders, as the blossom in her hair stretched open further, "calm down, Little Izuku's fine, I promise", she smiled, which did nothing to reassure her, "I just need you to come with me".

Without explaining further, Ren turned on her heel and marched off in the direction of the day care centre, expecting (and knowing) that Inko would be less than two steps behind her. She ignored Inko's attempts to question her with an easy smile, borne of working with the children of overprotective doctors and nurses, and led her through the few corridors that separated the children from the rest of the hospital.

Inko blinked in confusion, as she walked past the hole in the wall, before Ren led her into the room fully, where she found Izuku sitting in the middle of the room, surrounded by building blocks, as he cried.

"Oh, Miss Midoriya", Sakura, an elderly lady, who was one of the day care minders smiled at her, but Inko could see the tension behind it, "thanks goodness".

"Oh, Sweetie", Inko scooped her baby up without a second thought, letting him rest against her, as he quieted at her touch, nestling in, "what's all that noise for?"

"Well", Sora, a member of the hospital's maintenance staff, who she just realised was also there, vaguely recognising him from their rounds, "as you can see, there was quite a bit of damage to the wall", he gestured with a nod of his head, "both to this one, and the one in the corridor", he ran his hands through his hair, "and we thought it was best we spoke with you as quickly as possible".

"Oh, did the noise upset you", she settled Izuku on her hip, now that he seemed to have quieted completely, she gave the rest of them her full attention, "will you need to pause day care for a few days then? Do you need help contacting other parents? I'm on shift, but I'm sure I can make some time to help, if you need it".

"Ah", Sora cleared his throat, "I'm sorry, but what we needed to ask you about was the damages".

"Oh", she blinked, "well, I don't know much about walls, but if I can help, I will".

"Oh, well that's not… I mean…"

Ren chuckled, "I told you she didn't know".

Sakura nodded, "We both said it", she pointed out.

Inko blinked, confused, "I'm sorry, but know what?"

"Miss Midoriya", he dipped his head in a pseudo-apology, "your son is the one who caused the damage".

"What?" She spluttered, shifting Izuku into a firmer grip, "Don't be ridiculous. He's just a baby. He won't even turn three for another few months".

"Yes, well, it appears then, that his Quirk came has come in early", he shrugged, eyeing up Sakura and Ren, "I'm told that it's not unheard of".

Sakura shrugged, "It's not common, but I wouldn't say it was extremely rare either".

"My Izuku did that?"

"Threw a building block clean through one wall and halfway through the other", Sora confirmed with a nod, trying his best to not look too impressed by that fact, "and it's still there", once again, he ran one of his hands through his hair, "I've called for a hammer and a chisel, see if I can't pry it lose… it's, well… it's pretty much stuck in there at the moment".

"Oh".

=== === === === ===

Shizuoka Medical Centre was, Inko was relieved to find out, fully insured against minor accidental damages resulting from Quirk use within the building's boundaries, with a special circumstances clause included for the use of Quirks within their day care facilities, where their patients were even younger than the usual faire that temporarily resided within their walls. The only snag they encountered, was that they apparently weren't covered for damages caused by unregistered Quirks, which Izuku technically was.

It was a nasty loophole in their insurance documentation, and Inko feared that she was going to have to pay for both walls to be repaired and repainted, (not to mention all of the commotion it would have caused), but their argument against the hospital apparently lasted until the centre's chairman called their broker, reminded him that they were a paediatric centre, and threatened to cancel all of their existing contracts and recommend that others do the same, if the situation was not properly resolved. Less than a half hour later, he received a return call, which ended without Inko having a hefty bill to pay.

She did, however, donate several new sets of toy blocks to the centre, made of either rubber or foam, which Ren and Sakura received in good humour.

It also made for a funny anecdote for them to share around the coffee carts.

A few days later, when Inko brought Izuku back in for his Quirk registration, the walls had been freshly plastered and painted, without seemingly any traces at all, had it not been for the faintest scent of fresh paint.

Inko had been allowed to take the weekend off to look after Izuku, as had most of the staff who were left unable to use the day care facilities, and she'd spent most of that in a blind panic.

She'd been left no choice but to set up Izuku with a Quirk Determination Exam, which she set up with Doctor Tsubasa.

Doctor Tsubasa was an older gentleman, not much older than her mother, but still a far cry from the generally younger women who ran the day care centre under Sakura's guidance, but Inko had been around long enough to know the difference between a doctor who was too old to practice, (and refusing to retire), and a doctor who remained at his post simply because he enjoyed his work.

They were led through to his office, which had walls lined with posters of Pro Heroes striking various poses, and Izuku was clearly fascinated by them, shaking his body, as his hands and feet did their best to help him mimic the poses.

Doctor Tsubasa chuckled, his bushy moustache twitching as he did, which caused Inko to smile at the sight it made, when paired with his overly large spectacles.

"Right then", he flipped open her son's file, his finger tracing the words as he read them, "let's see what we have here then", he took a quick glance at the information, nodding to himself as he went, "ah, here we are, one Izuku Midoriya, here to see little old me for a Quirk Determination Exam and the subsequent registration paperwork. Male, aged… oh, wow, just two years and ten months", he looked up at her, his eye wide behind the large circles that were his glasses, "an early activator, hmm", as if response Izuku looked up at him, waving his favourite stuffed toy in acknowledgement, "it also lists your occupation here and says that you're a paediatric nurse. Do you work at this hospital?"

Inko nodded, "I do, yes".

"Well, normally I'd say it's a little early for you to come in for a QDE, but chances are you'd know that. Would this, by chance, have anything to do with the recent damage done to the fourth floor?"

Inko's wince was all the response he needed.

"I see… could you tell me what happened?"

"Well, I wasn't there at the time, but according to his day care teachers, he was using the blocks to spell out the word, 'DOGS'-"

"Dogs!" Izuku chimed in, waving his favourite plush toy, Mister Doggo - a bright white plush dog that he'd fallen in love with when Inko had taken him to his first winter festival, and refused to part ways with ever since.

Doctor Tsubasa chuckled, ruffling his green locks, which were identical in colour to hers, and Inko found herself able to relax, "-but another child wanted to use the block that had the letter 'S' on it. He tried taking it. Izuku tried taking it back. They snatched at it, and when he got upset with the other boy, he threw the block away", she sighed, "it went clean through the day care's wall and got stuck in the corridor. Do you know Sora, the maintenance worker?"

Doctor Tsubasa shook his head, "I know the name, but other than that, no".

"Well, he had to call for a hammer and chisel to help him get the block out, it was that well embedded", she ran her hands down her face, "and then day care got rid of all of the blocks. I donated some plush ones though, so…"

"Well, based on your description, we can safely say that your son has a superstrength Quirk of some note - and an uncommonly strong on at that too. Your own Quirk would be?"

"Minikinesis", Inko told him, "I can attract small objects", she moved to grab his pen, reaching out and pulling back, and after a few moments, the pen in his breast pocket began to float over to her open hand in a jerking motion, "it's nothing special, but useful enough on its own, I suppose".

"And the boy's father?"

"I only remember that he could breathe fire", Inko told him, repeating the lie that she'd and her mother had come up with, months ago. Elemental Quirks were a dime a dozen, and while the really powerful ones, like Endeavor's, were rare, there were almost a one hundred percent guarantee that you could walk into a crowded room and find at least a half dozen people who could manipulate the earth, wind, fire or water.

"That's quite the mutation then", he murmured, leaning forwards as he examined the boy, who looked up at him with equal interest, "well, before we start, I just need to check - he's had his shots?"

"All up to date", Inko confirmed, having faked the results herself.

"Right, so, we'll start with his x-rays, and we'll get full body just to make sure that there's no physical mutations we're currently unaware of. We'll take his latest measurements, height, weight and so on, check that he's growing normally, before we run some auditory and visual tests. Everything else can be covered during his general check-ups", he tapped his pen against the file, "and if you like, we could take a blood sample. See how that checks out".

She shook her head nervously, almost frantically, "Oh, no that won't be necessary. No blood please, thank you".

"Are you sure? Other than a small prick, I can assure you that it's quite painless".

"I'm sure".

"Ah… well then, assuming that all comes back as standard then, we can register Izuku's Quirk as superstrength today and that'll be all there is to it. Would you like to get started?"

Inko smiled, relieved, "Yes, thank you".

=== === === === ===

"Okay then, the last x-rays are in. His height and weight are close to optimal for a baby of his age. So are his eyes, ears, mouth and nose", he punctuated each organ by tapping Izuku's, which made her son giggle, as he sat on the examination table, "he hasn't said much, but we know he can speak, even if he isn't fluent just yet", he chuckled, "is he a loud crier?"

"Oh, no, not really", Inko said, thinking on it for a moment, "I mean, he cries loudly enough to be heard, but even then, once he got what he was looking for, usually my attention, he would always quiet back down quickly enough".

"A naturally quiet baby then", he shook his head, "lucky you".

Inko giggled, tickling Izuku's foot, "I know".

"No issues sleeping or eating?"

"When he was younger, he sounded like he had trouble breathing when he was sleeping".

"When was that?"

"When he was first here- I mean, just after he was born", she swallowed, "for the first few months, he always sounded like he was struggling to breathe properly, but it was a lot worse when he was sleeping", she blinked away a few stray tears that threatened to fall, "I used to stay awake for hours, just listening to him breathe, because if I didn't-"

"You were afraid he'd stop", the doctor finished for her, looking at her with nothing but sympathy, "but there have been no issues recently".

"Nothing after the first, oh I'd say, six months or so, maybe as long as nine".

"I see… well his scans show us nothing to be worried about, but just to be safe", he removed his stethoscope from around his neck, placing the buds into his ears, "Izuku, can you lift your shirt up for me, please?"

"Yes", he confirmed with a deliberate nod, lifting his bright green t-shirt straight up over his head.

"Good man", the doctor replied, before pressing the flat part of it against his back, "and now, can you take a deep breath and hold it for me?"

Izuku took as much air in as he could, "And now, slowly breath out", before he exhaled in one lung gust.

They repeated the exercise, this time with the stethoscope on the other side of his back, before Doctor Tsubasa sat back down, and told Izuku he could pull his shirt back down.

"Okay!"

Turning back to his compute, as the x-rays that they'd been waiting on arrived in his inbox, he took a moment to read the note from the radiographer, before turning back to face Inko once again, "Well, everything sounds perfectly okay, and there's nothing on his x-rays to be worried about, but there was one other thing of note".

"Is something wrong?!"

"No, no, there's nothing wrong, per se", he moved his mouse to double-click on one of the files, opening it fully on the screen, "but they've flagged a small mutation, see this here", he pointed towards the image of Izuku's foot.

"His foot?"

"Specifically his fifth toe", with a few more clicks, he printed off a copy of the image, and turned in his chair to face her and her son fully, "see here", he tapped it a few times with his finger, "this is the fifth toe, also called the outer toe or the little toe, as you can see, Izuku's toe is made up of three phalanx bones: the proximal, middle and distal".

"Three? Shouldn't it be-"

"Two? Yes, it should. You see, we still have no idea what caused the advent of Quirks. Popular theories suggest that we were infected by a mouse virus, while others speculate that we've simply reached the next stage of the human evolution. There are even some people who believe that Quirks came from aliens", he chuckled to himself, as he returned the x-rays to her folder, "simply ludicrous".

"Yes", she chuckled, wincing at how nervous she sounded, "ludicrous".

"Either way", he turned back to face her, "there were several changes to the baseline human body that came with Quirks. There used to be four additional teeth in the back of our mouths that often-caused complications, which were called, 'wisdom teeth'. We also used to have three additional organs: the spleen, the gallbladder and the appendix".

"I think I've heard of that last one".

"I'm surprised by that, not many people bother to study the pre-Quirk human body. Well, anyway, the spleen helped filter blood to aid the immune system, the gallbladder produced bile to aid digestion and the despite my studies of old texts, the appendix's function remains a mystery. The point is, they were all unnecessary, and disappeared in our more ah, streamlined bodies, for lack of a better term".

"And Izuku has them?"

"No, not at all, you see, there was only one additional change".

"The toe", Inko guessed.

"Indeed. The distal and middle phalanges fused together and became a single phalanx. I simply find it odd that Izuku has three phalanges, despite no other change. Were it not for that, I'd tell you that he had a perfectly baseline human body".

"Is that bad?"

"Bad? No, not at all", Doctor Tsubasa chuckled, as he ruffled Izuku's hair one last time, "but to a man such as myself, who has spent his life studying Quirks for a living, I must admit that I do find its presence simply fascinating".

"So, there's nothing wrong with him?"

"Not a single thing", he handed her a copy of his paperwork, "in fact, there are no issues whatsoever. I'd like you to come back and see me on his fourth birthday for a re-examination, or sooner, if you notice any changes, but until then, you can use what I've given you to register his Quirk as, 'Superstrength', and that should cover any issues you may have had with him being unregistered".

"Really? That's everything".

He nodded, "Initial registration usually is. Now, I'm sure that you're aware that most schools ask for you to have your child take an updated QDE before entry?"

"I am".

"Well, that's because Quirks are difficult to diagnose in children. They have difficulty realising what's considered baseline normal, so we ask them more questions and have them take longer tests when they're older. I expect that Izuku will need his overhauling when he's older".

She blinked several times, "What do you mean?"

"While I've listed his Quirk as 'Superstrength', I feel that it's most likely a mutation based on your own. It's most likely an advanced form of telekinesis, so congratulations, I suppose".

"Oh… I hadn't considered the similarity".

"Quite alright, after all, that's what I'm here for", he chuckled, "after that, there's only one question left".

"What's that?"

"Well, Izuku", he reached over to the glass jars he kept on his desk, "would you like a red Endeavor lollipop, or a blue All Might lollipop?"

Izuku bent his head down, as Mister Doggo whispered in his ear, and he nodded in response, "All Might!"

"He loves All Might", Inko said with a sigh, seemingly resigned to forever seeing the man's grinning face in her home.

"A fine choice", Doctor Tsubasa agreed, though, just for a moment, Inko could've sworn that there was a hint of distaste in his eyes, as though he were remembering something that smelled bad, but then, he looked back up at her, and it was gone.

She didn't blame him.

Between Izuku and the children's wards, she saw All Might almost everywhere she went. If she kept a jar with his face on, in her office, she'd be sick of seeing him too.

=== === === === ===

Of course, registering Izuku's Quirk wasn't the only hurdle they faced.

They'd taken a few days off, Inko from work and Izuku from day care, before returning on a Monday morning. Her shift went as normal, with no complications, but Izuku was noticeably subdued when she went to pick him up. Trudging over to meet her hug, with Mister Doggo trailing in his grip.

"Hi Sweetie", she said, as Izuku let himself be lifted up, settling into her arms, as Sakura made her way over, pausing to chat with another parent for a moment.

"Hi Momma", he replied, but his tone sounded so sad that she knew something had to be wrong.

"Did you have fun at day care?"

He shrugged and said nothing, but clutched Mister Doggo to his chest tightly, as Sakura finally reached them.

She smiled sadly, which bothered Inko more, as she lowered her voice, "I think he was feeling a bit left out".

Izuku shifted in her grasp, but otherwise did nothing, and Inko lowered hers to match, "What do you mean?"

"None of the other children have their Quirks yet, and I think they were a little bit afraid of him", Izuku shifted again, clutching Mister Doggo even more tightly into his chest, "I had to put one in a time out for trying to take the new blocks away from him".

"Oh, Izuku", she murmured, but he turned his face away, "I think we should go visit Grandma", she decided, happy that she had the next two days off, "okay? We can go see Grandma and Sherubi".

He perked up at that, always happy to be able to play with a dog, before lowering himself back down, almost immediately retuning to looking as downtrodden as any two-year-old could manage. Sakura smiled, patting her on the shoulder as they left, and Inko resolved to visit her mother in the morning, hoping that whatever it was, they would both help Izuku get back to normal in the morning.

=== === === === ===

"Grandma!"

Inko smiled, as Izuku shot across the front of her mother's garden, until she swooped him up, making exaggerated groans as she did, while Sherubi ran around her heels excitedly, jumping up and down, before realising she was there as well, and racing over to run circles around her.

She paused for a moment to scratch behind his ears and rub his belly, before he decided that he'd been greeted properly and returned to the source of all the noise.

She made sure that the car was locked, before following her mother inside, who was busy tickling every inch of Izuku she could get her hands on, to pay her much notice, but she found she didn't much mind. She felt a need to speak with her mother, and while she did feel that it was urgent, Izuku was laughing for the first time since she'd picked him up at day care, and she didn't want to stop that just yet.

Changing her shoes for house slippers, she went upstairs to use the bathroom, and by the time she had come back down the stairs, her mother had already given Izuku a juice box and a biscuit and was now watching him and Mister Doggo run around with Sherubi, using the expanse of fields at the back of the house.

She fixed herself a cup of tea, pouring a fresh one for her mother, before joining her at the door, just watching Izuku and his two favourite dogs run around.

Inko didn't know how long the two of them stood there, watching it happen, but it was long enough for the two of them to finish their tea and set the empty teacups down.

"So, what is it?"

"I'm sorry?"

Ima rolled her eyes, as she turned to face her daughter, "What's bothering you. You usually don't call me randomly and all-but beg to be allowed to come and see me - and by the way, so long as you bring my grandson, you don't need to ask - but nevermind that. Tell me, what happened?"

Inko sighed but truly wasn't surprised that her mother had figured out that something was wrong; not only was it obvious, but she wasn't stupid either.

"His Quirk came in - Izuku's, I mean".

Ima blinked, "Oh".

"Yeah".

"He has a Quirk?"

"He does".

"You're sure?"

"I am".

"But…"

"I know".

"How?"

"I don't know".

"Well… oh".

"Yeah".

They watched Izuku and Sherubi race around for a few moments longer, stood together in silence, before Ima chuckled to herself.

"You should be grateful then. Whoever sent him here was either a complete genius, or extremely lucky".

"I know that I should be grateful", she wringed her hands nervously, "but I'm still worried-"

"Welcome to parenthood", her mother muttered dryly.

"Sorry", she swallowed, "it's just… won't he stand out?"

"Doubtful", Ima shrugged, "what's his Quirk?"

"Apparently, he's really strong. He managed to throw a toy block threw one wall and into another", she sighed, "I had to have them examine him. We registered his Quirk as 'Superstrength', but they know mine and I listed his father as having a firebreathing one-"

"Smart", Ima nodded, "fire Quirks are everywhere".

"-that's what I thought", Inko agreed, "but neither of them lead to superstrength. It's too obviously different. Someone will know something's up".

"Psh", Ima waved away her concerns, "random mutations pop up all the time. I remember fifteen percent of all Quirks being mutations".

"Twelve-point-eight seven percent", Inko corrected.

"And Quirkless are at what? Twenty?"

"Twenty-point-one three, but that's overall. In Izuku's generation, it's now less than nine", she sighed, "and those are the worldwide numbers. A few of the Nordic countries still have numbers that are much higher than the rest of the world, but just in Japan, it's now under three percent in his generation, and that's taking into account rural areas, where the numbers are always a bit higher too. Tokyo reported less than fifty births last year. Yokohama, Osaka and Nagoya each had less than twenty", she shook her head, "Sapporo and Kawasaki both reported none".

"See? Having no Quirk would've made him stand out far more than having one. Even a mutate between generations is easier to explain, because last I checked, no one knows what causes them, unless that's changed?" Inko shook her head, "Whoever chose to send him must have been beyond clever. Even 'genius' is too small a word".

"What do you mean?"

"A body that's at least externally identical to the human body, capable of eating our food, drinking our water, breathing our air and has its own form of a Quirk to go along with it".

"It's not just externally".

"What isn't?"

"His body. All of his bones and organs line up with our as well. Or at least, they look like they do. They took x-rays as part of his QDE, just to see if he had any mutant properties, and when I thought about getting them, I thought, 'that's great', because I could pass any differences off as part of his Quirk, make them list it as a mutation".

"Smart thinking".

"Well, with only a single exception, he has a perfectly baseline human body. Same bone structure, same organ layout".

"Remarkable", Ima mused, "and as I said, simply genius", she turned to face her daughter fully, curiosity played out across her face, "what was the exception?"

"His small toe".

"His toes?"

Inko smiled softly, "Just the one, or two, I suppose. He has three phalanges in his small toes".

Ima blinked several times in succession, "That's it?"

"That's it", Inko confirmed.

"But everything else?"

"Perfectly in line with our own", she shook her head, "sometimes, I wonder if I dreamed up the entire ship. If I hadn't seen it crashing for myself, I don't think I'd believe it".

"It is fascinating", Ima agreed, as she watched Sherubi tackle Izuku, licking his face and covering him in slobber, as the boy erupted into giggles, scratching at the dog's ears and belly, "but it also tells us that whatever physical differences exist between us and the boy can probably only be found on the cellular level".

Inko smiled as she watched her son play, "That makes sense", she mused.

"It also means that it's all on you".

She frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Whoever sent him here, must've known that he would be able to blend in. Yet they sent him here, alone, and other than that thing we've shoved into the old barn, there's nothing about him that screams, 'alien', at you. Either they had no chance to include anything, or they simply didn't want to. There are a few symbols etched within the thing, but unless he was born with knowledge, which I doubt, there's no way he can learn to read them. Unless you decide otherwise, all Izuku will ever know will be us. Whatever he little he can learn about who he is and where he comes from, is all going to be on you".

"Not you?"

Ima shook her head, "No, that's not my place. I'm his grandmother, not his mother. I had my go", she smiled, cupping her daughter's face for a moment, "and I raised a good girl, who became a brilliant woman-".

"Mo-om".

Ima just continued to smile, "You're old enough now to make your own decisions. Your own choices, and I'm sorry, but as scary as it is, being a parent means making choices for your son too".

She looked over to where Izuku and Sherubi were rolling about, getting filthy and covering themselves in mud, "I don't know if I'm ready for that".

"No mother is. Hell, no parent is. All we do is guess, and then we fret and then we worry, and after all that, we realise that all we can do is make it up as we go along. You can ask for advice, take help when its offered or go it alone, but in the end, as the parent, it's all your decision".

"But you'll be here to help?"

"Well, naturally dear".

=== === === === ===

Author's Notes:

Welcome to the first part of the first volume of our story, appropriately titled Secret Origin and Last Son respectively.

While some parts of what you've seen and are about to see may be based on the Superman story of the same name, please note that I'll be looking to all aspects of the Superman canon for inspiration, as well as a healthy dash of my own inspiration, but I do hope that you all enjoy the ride, as we take a look at Superman-Deku's early years.

The first volume, which is planned to have seven parts, is intended to stretch from Kal-El's arrival on Earth, all the way to the end of the first semester and summer camp at U.A., but Izuku's journey might not be quite as linear as you may be imagining, but off we go!

The title of our story, 'GREEN SON', is taken from the story 'Superman: Red Son', which featured a version of Superman that landed in the USSR. Green is a reference to Inko herself, as this time, Superman lands in Japan.

A fun fact for you all: this chapter was initially titled, 'Izuku Midoriya - Origin', but I changed it at around the halfway point, when I realised that this entire chapter had very little to do with Izuku and was instead all about Inko and her choices. Of course, Little Izuku features, but this little part is the story of how a young woman chose to raise the baby who will one day go on to become the world's greatest hero. Much like Jonathan and Martha were to Clark, Inko is a big factor in who Izuku will one day become, and in fact, I would go as far as to say she is the biggest factor, and I certainly didn't want to gloss over that, so we started with a chapter mostly dedicated to her.

If I'm wrong, please correct me, but Kryptonian biology and physiology has never been examined overly much in the Superman comics or extended media, so when I was preparing for his Quirk Determination Exam (QDE), I realised that I could add a few head-canon elements of my own.

There's no mention of Superman's skeleton being any different from any humans, at any point, and as a child, I would assume that Clark had an x-ray or a health check-up, so I kept the extra toe joint, but I also decided to continue the streamline of the human body, by also removing the appendix, the gall bladder and the spleen. Quirks have advanced human biology, to the point that these are no longer required in the body, and as a more advanced species, both in terms of technology and evolution, it makes sense to line them up with a Kryptonians' body, to match.

As for names, the Hospital's day care Facility is ran by two women:

Ren (蓮), which is a Japanese name meaning 'Lotus', and fittingly, her Quirk is that she can gently grow and regress plants that she touches. She wears a lotus blossom in her hair, which she keeps in permanent bloom.

Sakura (櫻), who is the elder of the two and a retired teacher, once had bright pink hair, though it has started to fade with age and is now caught halfway between pink and white, and her Quirk allows her to calm people down by making skin-to-skin contact with them, though for reasons unknown to her, it doesn't work on Izuku so she likes to keep an extra special eye on him at day care.

And for those of you, who haven't seen it by now, 'Green Son' forms part one of the series, 'The Deku-Verse', (additional details may be found on my profile page), and is the first part of what I'm planning of an eight-part series, (though please be aware that each one runs independently of each other, and the others are not required reading in order to understand this one). 'My Vigilante Academia', has already started being posted, and will explore another of Izuku's multiversal counterparts; this time as an adult Izuku returns home after years away to become the Dark Knight. Please check it out!