"Don't turn around Inko."

"What?"

"I said don't turn around."

12-year-old Inko forced her way out of Hisashi's grip and turned towards the TV.

"What are you talking about Hisa-"

Inko froze. On the screen was a news report on a recently deceased hero. This, unfortunately, wasn't out of the ordinary in hero society, but that wasn't what caught her attention. What caught her attention was the name of the deceased hero.

Her mother was dead.

The kind woman who cared for everyone, and whom she had only met a few times, was dead.

She distantly heard Hisashi calling her name, but she just ignored him.

Her mother was dead. Inko's mind repeated this, but she still couldn't process it.

"Inko."

"Inko."

"Inko!"

30-year-old Inko awoke to tears in her eyes and her husband shaking her. She drowsily sat up on the couch and noticed the clock. It was just past midnight, meaning she'd only been asleep for 2 hours.

She shifted her eyes to her husband and fully processed that he was there. Immediately she latched onto his larger frame and hugged him with all her might.

"I see that you're happy to see me." Hisashi forced out with a moan of pain.

Inko immediately let go of him.

"Sorry, it's just been so long since I last saw you." Inko let out while rubbing her head.

"It's fine to be rough with me, let's just make sure Izuku's asleep before we get started."

Inko slapped him upside the head.

"You incorrigible horndog!" Inko shrieked out while blushing.

"You damn Harpy, you almost ripped off my scalp." Hisashi replied while rubbing his head.

"I'LL SHOW YOU A HARPY!"

Inko pushed Hisashi onto the couch before playfully beating on his chest with her fists.

Hisashi laughed and responded in an overdramatic voice, "I give in, you're just my harpy."

Inko stopped and laid down next to him on the couch. She snuggled up against him and laid her head on his chest.

"I'm so happy your home."

Hisashi wrapped his arms around her.

"So am I. Besides, do you think I would just skip out on my only child's 4th birthday?"

"You missed his 3rd one."

"Oh come on, you and I both know that my flight got delayed due to that villain attack at the airport."

Inko gave him an annoyed look before laying her head back on his chest.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Hisashi broke the tension with a question.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't know."

"Was it the one where you watched her die again?"

Inko looked up in surprise towards Hisashi's serious face.

"You always cry when you have that dream." Hisashi stated.

Inko looked down and quietly said, "You know me too well."

Hisashi stroked her hair for a minute before stating quietly, "I never really understood why you cared so much about someone who abandoned you and separated you from your twin brother."

"I've pondered it myself multiple times, and I guess the best answer I can give is that she was my mother, no matter what she did to us." Inko responded. "Besides, no one deserves to die to that…..thing."

Hisashi looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Have you started training him yet?"

"No, he's way too young for that. I plan on starting when he's about 7. He needs to be fit enough to defend himself if that monster ever figures out who he is."

Hisashi let out a sigh before leaning back.

"You should go to sleep, we have to get up bright and early to check if our little Izuku got his quirk yet."

Inko let out a yawn of acknowledgment before drifting off on her Husband's chest.

Izuku woke up to find his hands had gone clean through the bed.

That's odd. The little four-year-old thought as he pushed his hands against the ground. The instant he did however, his hands went straight through the floor. Izuku panicked and started screaming.

Almost inhumanly quickly his mother and father(When did daddy get home?) smashed open his bedroom door in battle ready stances. They looked around quickly for an intruder before seeing the predicament their son was in.

Inko, being the one closer to Izuku, pulled her son out of the floor, while Hisashi continued scanning the room for anything out of the ordinary.

Izuku relaxed in his mother's grip before reaching up with his left hand and tightly squeezing his mother's hand with his own.

Almost immediately his mother screamed out in pain and let go of Izuku.

Immediately he turned around and froze at the graphic site before him. The top layer of skin on his mother's hand was completely gone, exposing the muscle beneath.

His father quickly grabbed his mother's arm and examined the decayed hand. His worried face slowly morphed into one of understanding before turning his head towards Izuku.

Izuku was lowering his hands down before his father grabbed his arms and pulled them as far away from his body as possible.

"Izuku," His father began in a quiet voice. "I'm going to need you to make sure that you don't lower your hands fully until I tell you to."

"Daddy, I'm scared."

"There's nothing to be afraid of, I'm just going to get some bandages for your mother. Then I'll make you some gloves, and we'll head to see a nice doctor I know."

Almost quicker than Izuku could process, his father had dashed out of the room towards the bathroom.

The young child turned his head towards his still crying mother. He didn't fully understand what was going on, but he understood one thing.

He had done this.

He had hurt mommy.

Only villains hurt innocent people Deku. Kacchan's voice rang through his head.

Deku's eyes teared up. He wasn't a villain. He hadn't meant to hurt mommy.

Deku was still crying when his father came back with some bandages and black gloves with the ring and pointer fingers missing.

Hisashi sat next to his son in 's office. He had no idea how his day had hit the fan so quickly. One minute he was cuddling with Inko for the first time in months, the next he was wrapping his wife's hands in bandages from the damage caused by his son's quirk.

Speaking of his son's quirk, it turns out he had inherited Inko's father's quirk. He didn't know much about the guy, but Inko had informed him of her parent's quirks once before when they were discussing Izuku's possible quirk. She had offhandedly mentioned that he always wore gloves with a few fingers cut out to avoid disintegrating things. Thank god he remembered that little quip.

Inko was currently getting treated in another room, so he had decided to sit with his precious child while Izuku was getting tested. The poor thing was bawling his eyes out with a look that made Hisashi want to cuddle him. That unfortunately needed to wait until after the doctor confirmed it was safe.

"So let me explain his quirk ." started in an uncaring tone.

"From what I understand, his quirk destroys anything his 5 fingers touch, making it crumble to dust. From what we gathered, it does not matter if the target is organic or not, with the speed of decay varying with how hard he grips the object. It also seems to consistently spread from the target area when he grips hard enough, with the decay spreading throughout the area until the object is completely decayed. The effects do not seem to be voluntary, but they do not affect his own body. Quite frankly, your wife is lucky that she'll be walking away with scaring."

Izuku cried harder at those words.

Hisashi reached out to cradle his son while glaring at the completely impassive doctor.

Dammit, why would you say that in front him? Hisashi thought with a fury. Do you want to traumatize him, or are you just an idiot?

They continued their glaring match as Hisashi tried to wrap his arms around Izuku, right as Izuku pulled his head under Hisashi's grasp and scooted away from him.

"My fault, it's all my fault." Izuku kept repeating over and over.

"No it's not my precious little child. It's no one's fault."

Izuku appeared to have not heard him and continued mumbling to himself.

"It's all my fault."

Izuku was watching his favorite All Might moment on repeat when Inko walked into the room. Hisashi had left to get groceries, insisting that she needed to rest and look after him.

Izuku turned around with tears in his eyes and asked in his small voice, "Can I still be a hero mommy, even with my quirk?"

Inko almost responded yes. She almost assured him that he was fine the way he was and that he didn't need to worry one bit.

The camera zoomed in on the body. She saw everything. The lifeless eyes that stared back at her, the blood the covered the once black costume, the still-smiling face that was her mother's trademark.

The screen read "Pro Hero Shimura Found Dead".

She can't let that happen to him too.

She wrapped her arms around him and cried with him, repeating the same phrase over and over again.

"I'm sorry Izuku."

He heard screams of terror as he watched his parents turn to dust in his hands. He turned around to see All Might raising a fist.

Izuku woke up terrified, gripping the sheets with his still glove-clad hands.

He gripped his head and repeated, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

Katsuki was wondering what was wrong with the shitty Deku. He'd been quiet and dead-eyed all morning, he'd avoided touching people the whole day, he had refused to do their super secret handshake, and he had gotten all tense and scared looking when he had slapped him on the back. Not to mention the weird gloves he was wearing.

At recess, he cornered him with his group of extras.

"What's wrong shitty Deku? Why have you been avoiding me all morning?"

The shitty Deku looked around nervously, trying to find a way out of the situation. When he found none he relented and bowed his head.

"You know how yesterday was my 4th birthday?"

Katsuki had honestly forgotten. Why would he need to keep track of the shitty Deku's birthday?

Before he could respond, Deku continued, "Well I got my quirk yesterday."

Katsuki got excited. He could finally know what his sidekick's quirk was. This was awesome.

"Well spit it out, what is it?

"It's terrible Kacchan. It's evil and I hurt my mom when I first used it. Without these gloves, I might've hurt some-"

Katsuki got bored of his speech and grabbed his gloves. He quickly tore them off the shitty Deku in his surprise and waved them in front of his face.

"You mean these gloves? What's so special about them?"

Deku desperately grabbed forward for them. Unfortunately, he grabbed Katsuki's hand in his panic.

Katsuki felt nothing for one moment, but then felt a burning sensation traveling up his hand. He screamed and let go of the gloves, looking at the decayed skin on top of his hands.

Deku reached out to help him, but Katsuki kicked outwards and knocked him off his feet.

"Get away from me you villain."

He didn't see the hurt look Izuku had as he walked away with a teacher.

Katsuki didn't talk to Izuku anymore after that.

Neither did anyone else.

Shigaraki was playing one of his favorite games, a remaster of the 200-year-old game known as Bioshock, when Kurogiri walked into the room.

"Young master, it's time to go to bed."

Shigaraki half-heartedly grumbled about how unfair it was before saving his progress and turning off his console.

He got up and started heading towards his bed when Kurogiri grabbed him by the shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I forgot to mention that Sensei wished to talk to you before bed."

Shigaraki's eyes widened and he dashed in front of the TV in the bar. Kurogiri walked over and turned it on, the familiar audio only showing up on the screen.

"Shigaraki my dear child," Sensei echoed through the TV screen."How are you doing?"

"I'm doing great Sensei. How are you doing?"

Sensei laughed a small bit before replying, "I'm doing just fine my dear child."

"That's great Sensei! Do you know if or when I'll get to see you?"

Sensei paused before continuing. "No my child, I'm currently dealing with the problem of All Might-"

All Might would come and rescue him just like dad said.

He had to, because All Might saved everyone, regardless of if they were a hero or villain.

He had too…

The adults kept passing by, telling him the heroes would come eventually, before just walking away. He knew that the heroes would come as long as he stays put, just like his dad said…

Eventually…

Why had nobody come to rescue him?

Why was he all alone?

Was he that pathetic?

Did he matter that little?

He was so hungry….

He was so thirsty….

Where were those footsteps coming from?

"-and once that's over with, perhaps I'll come for a little visit."

Shigaraki zoned back in and realized that he had missed the response to his question.

"Can you repeat that again Sensei?"

Kurogiri looked like he wanted to scold him before Sensei let out a hearty laugh that echoed throughout the bar.

"I'm sorry that my response bored you young Shigaraki. To keep it brief, I'll visit after All Might is dealt with."

All Might. The name he hated more than anything. The man the promised to help others no matter what but never came to help him. He wanted to hurt him like he had been hurt, decay him until there was nothing left. But he was still too weak. He needed to get stronger

"Go to bed my young ward, and dream about the better tomorrow without All Might."

Kurogiri turned off the TV and helped his young ward into his bedroom.

Shigaraki went to sleep that night thinking of all the pain that he would cause All Might, and how proud Sensei would be when he did it.