Chapter Text
“Midoriya again? Why am I not surprised…”
“Problem Child was shot during patrol and immediately turned into… this.”
“Has the bullet been analysed yet?”
“Similar to the Shie Hassaikai bullets, it was filled with a Quirk. We don’t know its effects, but the Police Department is interrogating the arrested criminals at this very moment.”
“I will run some basic tests on the kid, but there’s not much I can do… Let's hope it's the classic age regressing Quirk and that it'll wear off with time.”
“Thank you, Recovery Girl.”
I’m afraid there’s no hope for him…
It’s becoming quite rare nowadays but…
Izuku-kun has two joints…
He possesses no Quirk at all
Izuku loved getting up early. Mom would enter his bedroom and shake his shoulders lightly, moving away the warm bed covers. Izuku never gave his body time to get cold—he jumped right into action going through his morning routine as the lovely sound of Mom making breakfast in the kitchen filled the house.
Today even with his eyes closed he could tell something was wrong. Rather than soft golden light greeting him through his All Might themed curtains, artificial brightness hit his eyelids. He couldn’t smell the slightly burnt toasts Mom should be making, and the familiar weight of his many blankets was missing.
What…?
Although he had just rested he was tired, and his body felt heavy. His mind was blurry from dreams and he tried to clear it searching for what he could last recall. He was… sad. But why?
Soft voices murmuring filled the silence, and Izuku tentatively looked around.
“Midoriya-shonen!”
A tall blond man was hovering over him, the ceiling lights behind his head making it hard to distinguish his expression. His skin was pale and he seemed one step away from death. Blood dripped down his chin and Izuku’s breath hitched at the sight. The haziness of sleep promptly left his body but he had no time to properly panic, as another voice rang through the air.
“I think it will be ‘Midoriya-chan’ for now”
On his other side, an old woman in medical attire smiled gently. She was so short Izuku wouldn’t have noticed her had she not spoken.
“she has a syringe in her hair… that’s unsanitary,” Izuku’s brain uselessly supplied. He should probably be centering on more pressing matters like…
Izuku blinked a couple times. “Where…?”
He was clearly in a hospital bed, his body trapped under white sheets, but he had already left the hospital yesterday, right? The doctor had said it wasn’t necessary to keep him there anymore because the results were definitive. The extra joint was proof enough… He didn’t have…
Then what was he doing here?
“Mom…?”
He propped himself on his elbows.
“Hey, careful, Midoriya-chan.” The old lady briefly placed a hand on his chest, preventing him from sitting up. “Your mom is fine, but she isn't here. We need to extract some blood from you as soon as possible. Is that okay?”
Though his head was on the pillow again, he had caught a glimpse of another adult in the room. He was a tired looking man standing nearby, eyeing Izuku with an unreadable face under locks of long black hair. Dressed exclusively in black baggy clothes, Izuku sensed he wasn’t a doctor.
Extract blood… Oh. Maybe he had fallen asleep during the check up? Mom crying and hugging him at home had seemed very real but… Maybe it had just been a dumb nightmare? Yeah, everybody always told him he worried too much for a kid his age. This sure had been just his brain trying to scare him. He wasn’t Quirkless, right?
He shook his head and smiled sheepishly, curiosity slowly replacing sadness. The doctors were still running tests, there was still hope. They were going to see if he had a Quirk by examining his blood?
“How can blood be an indicator for my Quirk? Does this mean that during blood transfusions Quirks are shared too?! If so, there could be a new type of donor called the Quirk donor, except you wouldn't be losing your Quirk, just letting other people have it too. But aren't Quirks a mutation? And-”
“At least we now know for sure this is really Problem Child. He hasn’t changed a bit in all these years,” the black haired man mused.
Izuku looked up at the interruption and then hid his face under the sheets. He was being obnoxious again, wasn't he? He couldn't help it… His stomach turned in familiar knots. When he was confused his anxiety grew, and when his anxiety grew his tummy hurt and he turned very red. He knew this because other kids would make fun of him for that. He usually ended up crying too. He was a crybaby after all.
The sheets were removed from his face by a skeletal hand.
“There’s no need to hide, Midoriya-shonen.” The blonde man’s voice was oddly familiar… It soothed him instantly.
“You can try and get up now if you want,” the old lady said.
Izuku complied and sat up, leaning his back against the cold wall. From this position he had a better view of his surroundings: he was apparently in one of the many beds of a patient room, the curtains at the sides of his space concealing the possible presence of other doctors or sufferers.
His instinct screamed at him that something was very wrong.
He searched for the most logical explanation to his memory holes. He knew for a fact that he had come to the hospital in the evening with Mom for an appointment with the doctor because she was worried about him being the only kid at school still without a Quirk. Izuku had felt excited all morning, imagining the doctor would maybe find a way to make his Quirk manifest faster. And then he would be spitting fire! Or moving objects all around! Or both, or something different, anything would be cool! He would show Kacchan how strong he was and they would play-fight and his classmates would stop looking weird at him.
But that hadn't happened. The doctor had made a radiography of his left foot and then… Then…
It’s becoming quite rare nowadays but…
He possesses no Quirk at all
That doctor was none of the persons currently examining him. Mom was nowhere in sight either. ( “Your mom is fine, but she isn't here” ). But he was still in the hospital… What was going on? Was he dreaming now ? Something didn’t add up-
“Midoriya-chan, please, take deep breaths,” the short woman reminded him. “If you keep like that you’ll asphyxiate.”
Izuku shut his eyes tight and focused on not choking. In and out. He shouldn’t get so worked up, there were professional doctors right by his side and sure nothing really bad could happen like that.
“Are you scared of needles, my boy?”
Izuku shook his head. He inhaled sharply one last time before focusing his gaze on the three adults.
The man in dark clothes moved. He had been quiet, but now he was looking intensely at the other man. “All M- uh, Yagi. I think it would be better if you exited the infirmary,” he said. He was a bit scary.
“Why-?”
“I agree with Aizawa. You are not… qualified to treat this patient right now,” interjected the woman. “I’m sure you understand.”
The tension was obvious in the silence that settled, and even if Izuku knew this had nothing to do with him it still made him upset. He started fidgeting with his thumbs while the grown-ups had a wordless argument. Finally, Skeleton Man (Yagi-san?) made his way towards the door and disappeared behind the curtains. Tired Man, Aizawa-san, quickly took his place next to Izuku.
“Midoriya, what’s the last thing you remember?” he asked calmly.
And that was quite the problem, wasn’t it? Izuku wasn’t sure what was real and not.
“M-Mom and I came here to know if there is something wrong with my Quirk,” he managed to answer.
“‘Here’ where?”
What a dumb question.
“The hospital.”
Aizawa-san and the woman exchanged glances.
“Midoriya, what hospital exactly?”
Oh. Well. Huh, he wasn’t expecting that. He observed again the woman clearly dressed in a medical attire and the rest of the room full of medical supplies. The hospital they were in right now?
“Um, the Musutafu Hospital. Isn’t this it?”
“Hmm… No”
His skepticism might have shown on his face because the woman struggled to explain herself a bit better:
“I am a doctor, but you are currently in the U-”
“In your school’s infirmary,” the man interrupted. Again, more meaningful looks were exchanged. Whatever they were trying to keep from him, they were doing a bad job if a four year old could tell something suspicious was up. Could they be… villains?
Izuku’s heartbeat picked up at that.
“This is not my school’s infirmary. You are lying.” He had been in his school’s infirmary enough times to have it memorized by now.
He looked around again. Aizawa-san was on his left and the woman on his right, but he could still try to escape by rolling to the feet of the bed, provided they didn’t catch him with their long adult-sized arms (at least in Aizawa-san’s case).
Aizawa-san sighed as if he read his thoughts. “I understand why you may doubt us, Midoriya. But right now I’m gonna need you to trust us just a bit more, alright?”
Izuku didn’t move. Aizawa-san’s eyes were black, blood-shot and adorned by presumably weeks-long eye bags. Still, they softened a bit looking at the child before him.
“We have reasons to suspect you are suffering from amnesia. You were explaining how your mother and you went to a hospital to test your Quirk. Could you please elaborate?”
Elaborate how ? Izuku was struggling to have a single coherent thought, how did these strangers expect him to collaborate?
“Why would there be something wrong with your Quirk to begin with, Midoriya-chan?” the woman asked politely.
That, he could answer. “Everyone at school already has cool Quirks! I’m the only one who still hasn’t manifested any special ability. Mom used to say I’m just a late bloomer but now I’m already four and a half! It’s weird I still don’t have a Quirk.” He had let out more than he had intended, the bitterness of jealousy slipping into his tone.
“That… matches up the information we have,” the woman stated.
The words were meant for Aizawa-san, who grunted in acknowledgment, but hearing them calmed Izuku down a bit too. He was doing something right and soon the fake doctors would release him and he and Mom would play at home. As always, like any normal day.
“So you went to visit a doctor. What did they say?” Aizawa-san pressed.
Izuku diverted his attention again to his fidgety fingers and the warm white blankets around his body.
We have reasons to suspect you are suffering from amnesia
If that was true… If the incongruities were due to blackouts…
Mom had hugged him, crying. His favourite All Might video, which he had already memorized by now, had been playing softly in the background. The computer screen had lit both of their faces. Not that Izuku would have known, with how blurry his own vision had been with tears.
He possesses no Quirk at all
Izuku swallowed, closing his trembling hands into fists.
“The doctor… He told me I’m Quirkless.”
Recovery Girl ended up with a blood sample from Midoriya. Meanwhile, Shouta went to the hall to attend a call from Tsukauchi. He appreciated the detective for always going straight to the point.
“It’s one of the weirdest mixes of Quirks I’ve ever heard of, I must admit, but the arrested criminals were telling the truth. Unfortunately, it’s much more complicated than just age regression.”
Shouta groaned. Of course, he was expecting nothing less from a disaster in which Problem Child was involved, but why did it always need to be like this? Today had been one of the worst days of his life since the Hassaikai Raid.
“The bullet contained at least three different types of Quirks. Some are linked with memories, others control age and anothers target negative feelings. At the moment, Midoriya is presenting at one of his lowest emotional points.”
The kid was fucking four right now. Goddammit.
Shouta let the detective keep talking for a few more minutes. Basically, the Quirk combo worked by detecting someone’s worst experiences and then sending them physically and mentally to the time where they had taken place. Each day from now on, Midoriya would wake up at a different age, and each day his most recent memory would be a traumatic one. Lovely.
“How do we stop it?” the hero asked.
Silence settled on the other end of the line.
“We… can’t.” Before Shouta could blow something up—he didn’t have Bakugou’s Quirk, but he was definitely feeling the same rage as the teen—Tsukauchi kept talking. “It will presumably stop once it runs out of traumas to recreate. I recommend checking Midoriya’s mental health record to be prepared. That is as much as you can do for now.”
Shouta huffed, immersed in thought. This was a rather personal issue, and he needed to get ready to see Problem Child progressively getting worse the next few days. How bad could it be? Midoriya was always smiling, talking, blushing, laughing. Would they now see him serious? With tiredness in his eyes, sadness written all over his face? How deep went his fears, how dark were his inner demons? And what was today’s negative event? What had happened when he was four?
“The doctor… He told me I’m Quirkless.”
The kid’s words… Shouta had his suspicions, but priorities first: he had a child to take care of.
“Thank you, Tsukauchi.”
“I’m only doing my job. Please, let me know if I can help further.”
He ended the call.
It had been a good idea to dismiss Yagi. No matter Midoriya’s age, All Might was a big part of his life, and recognizing him might have worsened the Quirks’ effects… somehow. The thing is it was better to let Midoriya keep believing the half assed explanation they had given him: amnesia.
He considered letting Problem Child’s mother know what was going on but, taking into account the details of the Quirks and the worried nature of Midoriya-san, Shouta decided against it. With a final glance spared at UA’s empty halls, he entered the infirmary again.
“There you go. You are very brave, Midoriya-chan.”
The old doctor delicately covered the place in his arm where she had injected the needle. Izuku kept his vision fixated on the small blood filled tube. Half because he wanted to discover what processes it’ll go under and half out of just plain morbidity. The lady probably noticed because she put it out of sight. A thought then passed Izuku’s mind.
“What’s your name?”
The doctor smiled affectionately at him and Izuku vaguely wondered if having a grandmother felt warm like this.
“You can call me Shuuzenji for now.”
Izuku nodded.
“Shuuzenji-san, why do I suffer amnesia?”
There were a lot of other questions Izuku was dying to ask— “where’s my mom?” “i’m still quirkless, right?” “what do you need my blood for?” —but focusing on one task at a time would help his increasing worry, and getting to the root of the problem seemed like the best first step.
Shuuzenji-san averted her eyes and a frown made her wrinkles more noticeable. She next spoke carefully, measuring her words:
“There was a Quirk accident. Unfortunately, you were one of the victims. A villain attacked you and erased your memories. We believe that you will go back to normal after a few days.”
Izuku soaked in the information. He probably should have been more concerned about whatever information his brain was missing but… There had been villains involved… which means heroes must have saved him! That was so exciting, he needed to check the news as soon as possible and see if he appeared there! If he still had the chance he would ask for an autograph. Imagine if… Imagine if All Might…!
The sound of a door opening and closing interrupted his fantasies. Aizawa-san’s head appeared from behind the curtain. He sent a quick “we’ll talk later” look to Shuuzenji-san before returning to his previous place by Izuku’s side. Whatever his phone call had been about, he didn’t say.
“Are you alright, Midoriya?”
Izuku’s skin prickled uncomfortably under the man’s attention, as if he was being judged and the wrong answer led to terrible punishment. He had a feeling Aizawa-san was a teacher.
“I-I’m fine. Shuuzenji-san has explained to me the details of my amnesia.”
Black eyes bored into the doctor.
“Is there anything else Shuuzenji decided to tell you that I should know?”
Somehow, it didn’t seem as if the question was actually directed to Izuku. Shuuzenji-san hurried to speak.
“I was about to suggest Midoriya-chan could stay in the dorm section of our… medical facilities. With the rest of… resident patients.”
Wrong answer.
“You want to involve the other kids?” Aizawa-san’s hair stood up and rage flashed in his eyes. (Or maybe that flash wasn’t figurative. Was he activating some Quirk?).
Shuuzenji-san remained admirably firm.
“Aizawa, they deserve to see Midoriya-chan. And it’s necessary that they’re informed about his amnesia to act accordingly the rest of the week.”
Heavy silence engulfed the room. Izuku curled up in himself, guilt pooling his stomach. The adults’ argument was going over his head, but he was aware that he was causing them pain.
A deep sigh was heard before a weight settled on Izuku’s head. When he looked up, Aizawa-san's expression had softened.
“Fine. I’ll take him to see the other brats but he won’t sleep at the dorms.” He stroked Izuku’s hair before letting go. “Shuuzenji, please, send a message to Iida to give the class a heads up.”
“Of course.”
The doctor nodded before disappearing. As the sound of her steps decreased, Aizawa-san sighed again. His eye bags looked even darker now. Izuku wondered when was the last time the man had taken a proper rest.
“Come on, Midoriya, let’s get you out of bed.”
With Aizawa-san’s help Izuku managed to stand upright in the cold floor tiles. He hadn’t been paying attention before but staring down now he realized he was barefoot and wearing just an oversized white t-shirt that looked like a dress on him. It read “t-shirt”.
A brief thought flashed through his head— “do these clothes belong to the ‘me’ that i should be if i didn’t suffer amnesia?” —but it was dumb. Sure, he knew he was supposedly lacking memories of the past days, but it couldn’t have been so big of a time gap to make him grow enough as to fill in the big shirt that was currently hanging below his knees. Plus, it would imply that the Quirk not only messed with his brain but also with his body, and Shuuzenji-san hadn’t mentioned something like that. That meant the shirt had probably been lent to him by Aizawa-san or another adult. He considered a hospital gown would have been more expected but…
“Midoriya, you’re not at the hospital.”
Oh, right. Though now Aizawa-san was taking him to visit other patients…? So weird.
“Kid, you’re muttering.”
Izuku felt his face heat up.
“Sorry.”
He had been told time and time again to stop that annoying habit.
“It’s alright. I know you have a lot to process and I haven’t been making it easy for you.”
Izuku studied the man with renewed interest. How could Aizawa-san tell that his muttering came from being overwhelmed by data? Perhaps under those tired eyes hid a sharp perceptiveness.
“Okay, kiddo, let’s go over this once again, alright?”
Aizawa-san crouched down so he was eye-level with Izuku and then he gently put his hands on the boy’s shoulders. “he’s warm, this feels nice ,” Izuku thought absentmindedly. “ if he got a bit closer we could hug .” And, honestly, he usually wasn’t the biggest fan of physical affection, but he was craving it right now. Almost as if he hadn’t received it in a long time. Mom had hugged him yesterday… but that hadn’t happened yesterday yesterday . Who knows how long it had been since the last time someone had caressed him because they wanted to and not just out of pity. Briefly, an image of Dad stroking his cheeks at a train station crossed his mind. That had been the last time he’d seen him, a year ago when he paid Mom and him a visit during Christmas.
“Midoriya, are you listening? I need your full attention on me, please.”
Izuku snapped out of it and nodded with determination. Aizawa-san began speaking with a low and soothing voice.
“You were hit by a Quirk. Now you suffer temporary amnesia. You are not exactly in a hospital, but here there are people who are… patients too with diverse conditions and they want to meet you. They heard about the brave kid that was attacked by villains and want to see how you are. Does that sound good?”
Izuku lit up. They had heard about him? That was so cool! It’s not like he had done anything heroic worth being proud of, but he was satisfied even with his victim role. Anything was a step closer to his dream, no matter how!
“Yes! Cool.”
Aizawa-san smiled faintly before resuming his talk.
“I’m afraid your mother can’t take care of you at the moment, so I’ll be doing it in her place. Before you panic: your mother and I have met before and I have her approval to parent you if necessary. Is that ok with you?”
Izuku seemed reluctant to agree easily this time. Mom had never mentioned any acquaintance named “Aizawa” before.
“... Can I call her?” Izuku dared to ask.
Aizawa-san looked conflicted before huffing.
“Can that wait until tomorrow? I promise you’ll talk to her, but the priority now is getting the day over with. Which brings me to the next point-”
Izuku was not pleased at all with Aizawa-san’s fast answer to his plea. It screamed “suspicious”. But while he didn’t completely trust the tired looking stranger, Aizawa-san had done nothing deserving of painting him in a bad light. Plus, having his guard up was exhausting and pointless and he’d rather let his growing curiosity take the reins.
“-you will be sleeping at my place tonight.”
And Izuku promises he usually doesn’t just let himself get dragged by random adults he’s just met to unknown places but… he’d barely woken up—what? half an hour ago?—and it was already the most confusing day of his short existence. He might have been hallucinating for all he cared. He was lost. So he said “fine” and took Aizawa-san’s hand when he offered it. Together, they got out of the infirmary.