From Concrete to Canopy

Inko slowly moved over to where the kitchen knives had fallen, half crouched and tense. Boanat watched with a small smile, making no move to stop her. Eyes flaring, she covered the remaining space between her and her weapons with a quick lunge, scooping them up and brandishing them at the man across from her. They now stood at opposite ends of the room, the gap between the couch and dining table forming a path between them. Her father eyed the cooking utensils with amusement, raising his hand slightly to bring attention to his own blade. It was decidedly more impressive.

"Kanisegan?"

"I'm only going to warn you once." Inko glared. She was in no mood for banter. "Get out, and don't ever come back."

Boanat's slight smile faded. "This is not the reunion I was expecting," he said in Japanese, deciding to humor her.

"This isn't a reunion. Leave."

Her demand was ignored. "What else is father and daughter meeting again after seven years if not a reunion?"

Inko didn't bother repeating herself. Bending her legs, she launched herself at her father, a furious expression on her face. Her steps were light and soft, her bare feet making virtually no sound as she rushed forward. Boanat immediately slid into a defensive stance. Instead of rushing straight at him, Inko instead jumped off the backrest of the couch and flipped so she was upside down. Eyes glowing, the soles of her feet touched the wooden ceiling and stuck, preventing her from falling. After taking a moment to reorientate herself, Inko resumed her advance, running upside down along the ceiling as easily as she would along the ground.

Other than a slight frown, Boanat remained unfazed. Retreating, he dodged her opening slash with the cleaver and caught her follow up swipe with the knife on his own blade. The kitchen steel snapped easily, most of the blade flying off in the direction of the TV. Undeterred, Inko flung what was left of the carving knife at his face before spinning, her dangling pony tail flaring out distractingly. In the middle of her spin she detached one foot from the ceiling and sent it slashing through the air in an upside down roundhouse kick. Boanat just barely managed to duck beneath it.

His lips twitched upward. She had lost none of her flexibility. If he had tried that, even standing upright, he would have torn something.

He felt his back hit the edge of the kitchen counter. Grabbing blindly in the direction the scent of salt came from, his fist closed around cold ceramic. The pupils of his glowing eyes narrowing into slits, he threw the white salt shaker at Inko's head with incredible accuracy. She saw it coming too late and it struck a glancing blow on her forehead. Grunting, she retreated. Boanat didn't pursue. For several seconds, father and daughter eyed each.

"Why are we fighting, Inkombi?"

"You're not taking him," she hissed. "You made me a promise. Don't think for a second I'm just going to let you break it!"

She rushed at him again, swishing her head so that her pony tail flared out and blocked his vision before sending out a flurry of kicks and slashes with the cleaver. She would periodically switch her point of contact with the ceiling, shifting from fighting upside down to letting loose a series of kicks while dangling from her palms. Boanat was forced into a retreat, navigating his way around the furniture as he did his best to avoid her attacks. He managed to parry or dodge most of them, but a few kicks managed to slip past his guard. Inko even managed to make a small cut on his shoulder.

Boanat was impressed. He had expected his daughter's skills to have dulled after all this time, but if anything they had grown.

Losing some of his playfulness, he allowed the next strike with the cleaver to hit him. The blade hit his arm, but instead of drawing blood it bounced off the Oaka's defence with a metallic clang. The rebound threw Inko off balance, giving Boanat an opening. Grabbing that irritating hair of hers, he gave a hard downwards yank, eliciting a cry from her. After a moment of resistance, she redirected the flow of her sunan from the anagwu to the gonyama and dropped from the ceiling. Tucked into a ball, she twisted in midair and then straightened with explosive force, body parallel to the ground and feet rocketing towards her father's chest. He casually sidestepped and the attack missed completely.

Now at gravity's mercy, Inko was left with no other choice than to fall flat on her back, the blunted and twisted cleaver once again jumping out of her grip. Boanat picked it up and threw it down the passage, before regarding her with a frown. He tucked his blade into its sheath underneath the back of his shirt.

"I have kept my promise, kaikintomba," he said as he watched her climb to her feet, coughing. "You are the one not honoring our bargain."

Instead of responding she attacked him again, punching twice and kicking at his midsection. He parried each attack with large, sweeping arm motions, causing Inko to cry out in pain. She jumped back and grimaced at the sight of her scraped and bloody arms. The material of her pants around the shin was frayed and torn from where he had parried her kick, the skin underneath little better. She really fucking hated when her father used the ukrēgo; it made hand-to-hand combat with him impossible.

That didn't matter. She couldn't let him take Izuku. He wouldn't survive on Lua, not without a quirk. The island would chew him up and spit out his bloody, broken remains for her to weep over, and she didn't think she could survive that. When she had lost her mother, she'd had Hisashi. When Hisashi had died, she'd had Izuku. If she lost her son, she'd have no one.

She was not going to lose her son.

She grabbed one of the dining chairs and swung it at him with a grunt, ta'taoh glowing green with the oaka's strength. Activating the oaka himself, Boanat swatted it away as if it were no more than a bothersome fly. The cheap, laminated wood broke into pieces, conveniently leaving Inko holding the two wooden struts that made up the back rest. She didn't get the chance to use her improvised weapons; Boanat was done humoring her.

Activating the kelēnd, he dashed forward faster than Inko could react and drove his fist into her stomach. She still had the oaka active, so the damage was negligible, but the strike distracted her and pushed her off balance. Boanat used that moment of vulnerability to rip the two pieces of wood out of her grip and unleash a series of blinding strikes on her. Not letting her recover from the back foot, he swung the improvised clubs at her ankles and knees, putting her further off balance and causing her to stumble back. A split second later the wood cracked against her ribs and left wrist, then the side of her head, then her hips. Boanat was unrelenting, striking her almost at will. Each hit came within a split second of the last, slowly chipping away at her concentration, and as her control of sunan began to falter, the oaka's defence.

Inko tried to defend and counter, and when that failed, retreat, but her father was much stronger and had much more experience. He maneuvered around any defence she tried to put up and didn't give her the chance to put any sort of distance between them. Eventually the inevitable happened and Boanat struck her across the face hard enough to make her fully lose her hold of the oaka. Her defence broke completely. Boanat was on her in an instant, sweeping her feet from under her and sending her to the ground. Before she had a chance to regain her senses enough to direct sunan, he was sitting on her back, just above her hips, and pinning her spread arms to the ground by her elbows.

It was over. They both knew it, but Inko struggled regardless, bucking and twisting in an effort to wriggle loose. It was no use; the oaka not only increased a Koa's strength, but their weight as well. It was like being pinned underneath a boulder. None of the ālana she possessed would give her the strength to overcome her father. He had the same powers as her, and then some, and was more proficient with their use than she could ever hope to be.

"Stop this, Inkombi," he growled, eyes shining. Her efforts didn't diminish in the slightest. "Yeka!"

Still nothing.

He scowled down at her back. Why was she fighting so hard? He had anticipated some resistance, but nothing near this level.

He gave up trying to talk to her and simply sat on her back, waiting for her to tire herself out. He didn't know whether to be impressed or exasperated when she finally gave up two minutes later. Despite how her body went slack beneath him, he didn't ease up on her. She had beaten him like that once before.

"What is going on, kaikintomba? Why are you so determined to keep him from us?"

She remained stubbornly silent.

"Is it because of Hisashi?"

Just when he thought she was going to ignore him indefinitely, she mumbled something into the floorboards. Even Boanat's Koa ears failed to make out what she said, it was so soft.

"Hetoni?"

"He's quirkless. Izuku's quirkless. He doesn't have the ta'taoh."

Boanat stared down at her back blankly as he tried to decipher what she had just said. Quirkless? That wasn't possible. The shiam had been all but screaming at him for the past week.

"Please, you can't take him," Inko begged, unaware of her father's bewilderment. "He won't survive on Lua. Please, just leave! I can't lose him too!"

Boanat gaped; the desperation and fear in her voice was real. Did she honestly not know?.

"Inkombi," he said slowly. "The boy has the ta'taoh. He unlocked-"

He was cut off by a savage yell. He barely had time to lift his head before a seething, writhing ball of rage was upon him.

XXX

Izuku started running the second the doors opened. People let out little exclamations of surprise as they were pushed aside by the small boy. He paid them no heed, running through the station doors and out into the street. He knew how to get to his house from here - it was to the right and just up the hill.

The steep inclination didn't do much to slow him down, but by the time he reached the top he was sweating and out of breath. His heart thumped painfully in his chest. He chanced a glance behind him; nothing. He had briefly seen the two villains chasing the train from the back car, before they inevitably fell behind and disappeared from view. He had fought his way to the front of the train, pushing through the crowd and dodging the few concerned citizens who had seen the rather disturbing circumstances surrounding his boarding.

It seemed he'd lost them, but he didn't feel safe. He had thought they were gone before, and then he'd seen them just strolling toward him as if nothing were wrong. As if they hadn't just beaten two powerful heroes in a fight.

Izuku shivered and carried on, his pace not slowing. He was close; he could see his apartment building from here.

He blinked and squinted.

Actually, he could see his door from here. The blue one, up on one of the middle floors; he could just barely make out the two brass numbers that were nailed to its front.

He ran faster. Nothing looked wrong, but he wouldn't feel safe until he was back with his mom. He was scared, mostly for her. He had to help her; make sure she was okay and that whatever the villains had done to her was taken care of. After another ten minutes of on and off sprinting, he finally reached his destination, running through the gates and straight to the open staircase that zig-zagged its way up the side of the building. He got half way to his floor before the strain became too much and he walked the rest of the way up, huffing and puffing. On the very last landing, he paused for a few moments to regain his breath and happened to look out over the railing. A thrill of fear went through him.

There they were. They had just crested the hill, running much faster then he had. How? He had been on a train!

The one in the blue vest paused for a second, before lifting his head and looking straight at Izuku. The boy gasped; they were still a long way away, but even so, he could see the two green dots that made up his eyes. He pushed away from the railing and flew up the remainder of the staircase, taking the steps two at a time. He skidded to a stop in front of the door and frantically yanked on the door handle. Locked. Throwing the welcome mat aside, he grabbed the spare key from beneath it and jammed it into the lock, before twisting it and throwing the door open.

"Mo-!"

He reached the end of the passage before he could finish the word. There was a man in his home, a man that he'd never seen before. He looked a lot like the taller of the two villains, but older; his tanned skin was weathered and his green hair was greying at the temples. Tattoos covered his arms and the skin around his shirt collar, the same ones he had seen beneath the sleeves of the green jacket. Izuku immediately knew he was with them.

And he was pinning his mother to the floor. His mother, who had blood on her arms and right leg, was pinned to the red-spotted floor.

Izuku threw himself at the man, howling with rage. He caught a glimpse of surprise on his face before his fist crashed into the side of it. The man was thrown off his mother with a grunt, and Izuku's next three swings passed through the space he had occupied. Undeterred, he pounced on the villain and started raining down blows on him. These weren't the strong, structured strikes his mother had taught him; all technique and discipline was abandoned in favor of wild punches that had little but fury and ferocity behind them. For every hit that landed, another missed, and even then, the ones that found their target were ineffectual.

Izuku was relentless though, laying into the man while shouting wordless rage. He only paused to pick up the wooden stick lying a metre away, before beginning to beat the villain with heavy two-handed swings, letting out loud grunts with each one.

"Izuku!"

He carried on, not even slowing down.

"Izuku, stop!"

Hands pulled him away from the man. He struggled against them, thrashing about in a vain attempt to resume killing the asshole who had dared touch his mother. The hands grabbed either side of his face and turned it so he was looking into his mother's wide eyes. They had a calming effect on him, and after a second of staring, his snarl was replaced by relief and he threw himself into his mother's arms.

"Mommy!"

Boanat slowly lowered his arms from his face, the glow slowly fading from his tattoos, and saw Inko's stunned expression. Before she could return the hug, Izuku broke away and started panicking over her injuries.

"You're hurt!" he grabbed her arm and yanked it toward his face. "Are you okay? How bad is it? Is it bad? What happe-?"

"Izuku!"

Inko yanked her arm from her son's grip and once again turned his face toward hers. He blinked at her expression.

Inko gaped like a fish, struggling to comprehend what she was seeing. She didn't know how to react. All she could do was stare in disbelief as she looked into his eyes.

His green, glowing eyes.

Letting go off his face, she grabbed the hem of his shirt and ripped it upwards, Izuku squeaking in protest. She gasped at what she saw. There, in the centre of his chest, sat the pitch black image of a tree. The entire symbol was comprised of thick, black lines. Its many roots were spread wide, snaking around one another in a tight, sinuous network, before joining up to form the column of the trunk. The lines drifted upward, snaking left and right and twisting themselves into knots until they held some geometric resemblance to bark. From there the branches formed; the lines once again spread outward as they had done at the roots, thick lines tapering to points while thinner lines coiled into intricate little spirals. The limbs and leaves of the tree. The entire symbol was only a bit smaller than her palm.

And it wasn't the only one.

Among the roots, there was one line that was thicker than the rest. It snaked downward, past its brethren, to join to the incredibly detailed body of a panther, crouched just beneath his sternum and looking ready to pounce on the boy's belly button. It was still glowing a faint green, though quickly reverting to black.

The gonyama.

"Mom! Mom, what are you-?"

The struggling Izuku finally managed to peek his head around the front of his shirt, which his mother had been inadvertently pushing into his face. He stopped when he saw her stunned expression. Following her gaze, he gawked at what he found spread across the skin of his torso. Where had that come from?

"Believe me now?"

Izuku's head whipped to the side. The villain was sitting against the backrest of the couch, one arm supporting him while the other rested on top of his knee. He showed no sign of being affected by Izuku's attacks, and wore a brilliant smile.

Izuku snarled and went to hit the stupid, oddly happy villain in his stupid, oddly happy face again, but was stopped when his mother suddenly lept to her feet and scooped him into her arms with a happy cry. Laughing joyously, she spun him around the room while shouting something he couldn't understand.

"Yena inia 'n wahkulé! Izuku, wena inia 'n wahkulé! Makou hezikon ungangah!"

Izuku squawked as she threw him up into the air. What on earth was wrong with her? There was a villain right there! He caught sight of the tattoos around her wrist and throat. His insides went cold; had the man done something to her?

Just as suddenly as she had picked him up, she set him down and ran over to where the villain was now standing. Still laughing, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. He laughed too and hugged her back.

Izuku watched, bewildered, from where he had been unceremoniously dumped. What the heck was going on?

"Mom?"

Inko pulled away from the man and looked over at him. Still grinning, she walked over to him and knelt, taking both his hands in hers. Izuku recoiled slightly, confused and a little frightened. He had never seen his mother act like this.

"Izuku," she said, "you have a quirk."

He stared at her. No he didn't.

She lifted his shirt and gently poked his chest where the two tattoos met. "You have a quirk, abanti. My quirk." She pulled up the sleeves of her shirt to expose her ta'taoh to his wide eyes. Her head turned to look to where her father stood. "Our quirk."

Izuku's eyes flicked between his mother's arms and the man whose status as a villain he was starting to question. What was happening? Was that really his mom's quirk? Whenever he had asked her, she had just said she could make her eyes light up. As he had never seen her do anything other than that, he'd believed her.

His mind flashed back to when the villain in the blue jacket had fallen from the sky. His eyes had been glowing just like he'd seen his mother's do. He looked down at his chest, at the two pictures that had somehow appeared on his skin. Was… was this real? Did he really have a quirk?

He flashed back to all the weird things that had happened. The sudden strength of his senses, the people he had pushed off their feet in the train station, the fact that he'd practically sprinted all the way here and now this tattoo on his chest. He had been focused on running from the villains before, so he hadn't paid particular attention to these things, but now…

His fingers brushed against the skin. It tingled.

"But, the doctor said-"

"The doctor was wrong!" Inko grabbed his arms and pressed her forehead to his, looking straight into his eyes. "I wouldn't lie to you about this, abanti. I promise you, you have a quirk."

Izuku stared at her brilliant green orbs. "I have a quirk," he muttered quietly, sounding as if he were testing the words. "I have a quirk." The corners of his mouth turned upwards as a grin began to grow. "I have a quirk. I have a quirk!"

He began jumping up and down, unable to contain his happiness. "I have a quirk! I have a quirk! I have a quirk!"

Inko held his hands and jumped along with him, laughing. Boanat watched on fondly, paying particular attention to Izuku. This was the first time he had seen his grandson outside of pictures. He looked very much like his father, but the boy's Koa blood was undeniable. He would have no trouble fitting in with the other little ones on the island.

Izuku suddenly stopped, eyes wide, and began to practically vomit words.

"What is it? What does it do? Is it cool? Is it? Is it? Is it?" He bounced on the balls of his feet, eyes shining. "Why is your tattoo bigger than mine? Why is it a tattoo? Is it powerful? Can I-?"

Boanat burst out laughing. "You are certainly Hisashi's son, mopuna. I have never met anyone else who could say so much in so little time."

Whatever questions he still had died in Izuku's throat. He eyed the man warily while moving closer to his mother, sending surreptitious glances to the wooden stick he had dropped earlier. He looked between his mother and the man, hesitated, then turned to face him.

"Who are you?"

Boanat looked to Inko with raised eyebrows. Sighing, she knelt beside her son and held him gently by his arms. "You don't need to be afraid of him, abanti. He isn't going to hurt us." Izuku scowled and pointed accusingly to her arm before sending another suspicious glance at the man, who gave him a broad grin in return. Izuku's eyes narrowed; whether he was a villain or not, this guy was a weirdo.

Inko smiled softly. "Watch," she said, using her left arm to wipe the blood from her right. Izuku's nose wrinkled at the strong smell. The wound was a lot less serious than it had looked at first; it was barely more than a scrape. Izuku blinked as, before his eyes, the edges of the wound slowly crept inwards, healthy, undamaged skin taking its place.

"We heal faster than normal people," Inko said, smirking. "It is one of the abilities of the ta'taoh."

Seeing he was about to launch another slew of questions, she quickly changed the subject. "I promise, abanti, I will explain everything later. Right now, I want to introduce you to someone very important to me." She gestured to Boanat. "Izuku, this is Boanat Khafum. He's my father." His head whipped around to gape at her. She smiled. "Your grandfather."

Izuku was speechless. She was joking, wasn't she? He didn't have a grandad. If he did, then surely she would have told him. Surely they would have met before now. No, it couldn't be.

Yet as he rubbernecked between his mother and the man she claimed was her father, uncertainty began to grow. With each pass between the two, their resemblance became more and more apparent. Their hair, their eyes, the shape of their noses. Their grins. He had never seen his mother grin like she was grinning now; it was full of mischief and mirth. His gaze finally settled on Boanat. Was he really his grandfather?

Boanat approached Izuku as if he were a small, frightened animal that would bolt if he made any sudden movements, which, honestly, wasn't far from the truth. Kneeling and holding out his hand, he gave the boy a soft smile.

"I have waited for this day a long time, mopuna. It is good to finally meet you."

For a long time, Izuku just stared at him as if he were an alien. Then, hesitantly, he reached out and shook his hand. His mind was in a daze. He had a granddad?

He blinked. If this guy was with the other two…

"Are… are you a v-villain?"

It concerned him greatly when Boanat didn't immediately answer in the negative. Father and daughter exchanged glances. He sent her a look that pleaded with her to take charge of explaining this one, and got an unimpressed eyebrow in return. She inclined her head to her son, indicating he was on his own. With a slight grimace, he turned back to the anxious five-year-old.

"There are people who think we are villains, but we are not. We are not evil." He pursed his lips. "But we are not friends with heroes either."

"Then the other two- "

Inko looked up sharply. "Others?" For the first time, she seemed to wonder why Izuku was there instead of at school. She squinted at her father, who had developed a sudden interest in the fridge. "What did you do, umkhulu?"

"Well…"

He was saved from having to answer when Tep and Shaipa suddenly burst into the apartment, out of breath and sweating. Izuku instantly dived for the chair strut and scooped it up, brandishing it at the two with glowing eyes. Whether these people were with his… his grandfather or not, they had tried to kidnap him and had pointed a gun at Mrs Kiya. They had fought with heroes, and no matter what Boanat said, that made them villains. There was no way he was just going to-

"Tep!"

With another happy laugh, his mother threw her arms around the taller of the two and pulled him into a hug. He seemed shocked for a moment, then laughed along with her and returned the hug. The strut in Izuku's hand drooped, as did his jaw. His mother was hugging the guy with the girly hair, the one that had tried to kidnap him not even half an hour ago. She knew him.

"My word, you've grown! You're taller than father now!"

She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair. It was something that she did often for Izuku, a fact the small boy was quite indignant about. That was his mom, this jerk could go get his own to do that.

"It is good to see you again, Inkombi," said the girly-haired jerk of a villain. His mom was wearing her biggest grin yet, and it got even bigger as she turned to the other man.

"And Shaipa! You haven't grown at all!" She laughed as he muttered something Izuku couldn't understand under his breath, yet he embraced her with a soft smile.

Boanat eyed the two's panting, sweaty forms with crossed arms and an abundance of amusement. "It seems the two of you met a worthy match," he said, glancing at the tiny, slack-jawed five-year-old.

Just like that, all the attention was back on him. His mother skipped - skipped! - over to him, letting out a little giggle along the way. Izuku stared at her in horror. When had she become so girly?

"Abanti, these two are also people who are very important to me." She gestured to the shorter man, the one in the blue vest. "This is Shaipa Aptur, a close childhood friend of mine."

Shaipa gave a weak wave, and winced when he got a venomous glare in return.

Not noticing the exchange, Inko moved onto the other one, who Izuku gave an even uglier look while moving closer to her in a possessive manner. "And this is Tep Khafum." She smiled down at him. "He's my brother, Izuku. Your uncle."

The wooden strut fell out of Izuku's suddenly loose grip, the glare on his face disappearing in favor of a gobsmacked expression. More family? He had an uncle too? Could this day get any stranger?

With this revelation, all the stress, shock and chaotic emotion of the last hour finally overwhelmed him. Too much was happening too fast. He didn't know what to think or believe. Was this even real? A dream maybe? A nightmare? Mind reeling with all that was happening, Izuku could only blurt out the first thought that came to mind, that thought being his disbelief.

"But they tried to kidnap me!" He yelled, pointing. How could he be related to people like that? "That one pointed a gun at Mrs Kiya!"

Inko stared at him blankly for a second, before whirling around to face the nervous looking men.

"You did what!?"

Tep, with fear born from a shared childhood with his sister, instinctively resorted to a tried and true tactic of displacing her anger.

"It was father's idea!" He said quickly, pointing at the man in question.

Inko turned her wrath on him. "You did what!?"

Boanat sent his son a brief scowl as his mind tried to work out the best way to calm her down. Thankfully, he was saved from having to answer when all four adults suddenly heard the sound of police sirens in the distance. Inko didn't miss the way her brother and Shaipa tensed and shared grave looks.

"What did you do?" she whispered.

Boanat, his expression suddenly serious, waved her question away as he hurried toward the passage. "That does not matter. We need to leave. Now. I've already packed your bag, but Izuku's- "

"Leave?" Everyone turned to look at Izuku's startled expression. "What do you mean leave?"

All three men glanced at Inko. She wore a conflicted expression on her face, looking from them, to her son, to the direction of the distant sirens. Izuku could hear them now.

"Inkombi," Boanat said slowly, his eyes narrowing. There was a note of warning in his voice. "You made me a promise, as I made you one. I have kept mine, it is time to keep yours. It is time for you to come home." He looked at his grandson. "Both of you."

Izuku, who had been unable to understand anything but the last part, had a confused and anxious expression on his face. Inko still looked conflicted. She opened her mouth to say something, hesitated, then closed it. She walked over to Izuku and knelt before him, taking his hands in hers. The serious look on her face made him nervous.

"Izuku," she said. "There's a place far, far away from here. It's a beautiful place, with forests and mountains and lots of beaches. Before I came to Japan, it was my home." She bit her lip. "I need you to make a choice, abanti. We can go there now, but if we do, we're going to have to stay there." She gestured around them. "We're going to have to leave all this behind."

Izuku stared at her. This was just too much for the poor boy. What was she talking about? What was happening?

"We-we're… moving?" he stuttered. That was as best as he could understand it.

"Only if you want to, abanti."

Boanat made a noise that caused her to shoot him a venomous look, before turning back to her son. "We can stay here if you want, but if we do, they will leave and we won't ever see them again." She pointed over to the three men. "They can teach you to use your quirk, Izuku, better than I can. They can take us to a beautiful, wonderful place where there are other children just like you. They can take us to the rest of our family and help me teach you to fight, to become a hero, but if we go, we have to leave everything we have here, and we won't be able to come back for a long time." She held his gaze. "What do you want to do, abanti?"

He stared at her, speechless.

The sirens were getting steadily louder. Inko glanced over her shoulder, an anxious expression on her face. "You need to decide now, Izuku."

Decide? How was he supposed to do that? What was the right choice? He looked around. This was all he'd ever known; could they really just abandon all of it so suddenly? Everything they had was here, this was their home. And Kacchan. They'd just become friends again. He didn't want to lose that.

But if they stayed…

He looked at his mom and the men standing behind her, all looking at him expectantly. He hesitated, eyes tracing the markings spread across their skin. These men had chased him halfway across the city, attacked him and tried to kidnap him. The way his mother had laughed and hugged them flashed through his mind. He struggled to remember a time he had seen her happier.

His head was spinning. What was the right choice?

They shared a bond, these people and his mom. Their hair and eyes, their faces. Their quirk. They were all different, but there was an inexplicable connection between them that was so strong and obvious that even he could sense it. These men had put him through hell, yet his mother obviously trusted them, cared for them even, and if his mother could do that, then maybe...

Looking at them, something clicked inside his young mind. All of a sudden he stopped seeing them as individuals, and instead could only view them as a group. It was one of those things you can't unsee; once you realized it, it became so obvious, so undeniably true, that there was no chance of refuting it.

They were parts of a whole. He didn't really know how he knew it, but he did. These men had appeared out of nowhere in the worst way possible, yet somehow they had his mother's trust, and she their's. Izuku was too young to consciously understand what he was seeing, but it reminded him of what he sometimes saw between his parents when his dad was still alive.

For the first time, Izuku fully believed they were family.

He looked to his mother, hesitating. If everything she had said about her old home was true… if they could teach him to use his quirk… if they had a family he never knew about…

He made a decision.

"Promise they're not villains?"

"I promise."

He gave the men an unsure look, but nodded. "Ok. Let's go."

Inko smiled and caressed his face, before getting to her feet and leading him down the passage. "Go and put the clothes on your bed into the suitcase. Don't worry about folding them. And just the clothes, Izuku, we don't have room for anything else."

"Can't I take some of my toys? Please mom?"

She pursed her lips for a moment before nodding. "Only one though, abanti."

"And my coloring set?"

"Fine, but that's it. Nothing more."

Izuku looked like he wanted to argue, but thought better of it and rushed into his room. Inko carried on to the master bedroom, and as Boanat had claimed, a bulging medium-sized carry bag sat at the foot of her bed. She grabbed it and the small wooden fish pendant from the corner of her vanity and left the room without a backward glance.

As she walked back into the living room, she paused at the doorway, turned to her left, took two measured steps forward and plunged her glowing arm through the wall. There was a small puff of dust as the plaster gave way. She felt her hand brush against a piece of fabric, grabbed it, and pulled a backpack out of the hollowed out section of the wall. She had put it there years ago, in case they ever needed to bug out in a hurry. It was stuffed nearly to bursting; inside was her own Koa blade, a gun, ammunition, a considerable sum of cash spread across several different currencies and her and Izuku's passports - some real, most fake. Hisashi's too, but there was no use for those now.

Walking over to a bemused Tep, she shoved the bag containing her clothes into his hands. "I assume you have a car ready. Go put this in the back and start the engine. We need to leave quickly." She turned to Shaipa. "Go keep a look out. Shout when you see the police or any pituan."

The two blinked at her, before turning to look at Boanat. He smirked and gestured for them to do as they were told. They rolled their eyes and shared exasperated glances, but left the apartment with nought but quite grumbles. Inko shouldered the backpack and grabbed a reusable fabric shopping bag from one of the kitchen drawers. She half turned to walk away, but caught sight of her phone charging by the outlet next to the kettle. It was on twenty three percent. Five missed calls, twelve text messages. Three of the calls were from Shōgakku, the other two and the text messages were from an evidently frantic Mitsuki. After a moment of hesitation, she unplugged her phone and pocketed it.

Her father walked off down the passage as she exited the kitchen, saying something about going to help Izuku. There was no visible sign to say as such, but Inko could tell he was anxious.

She grabbed two photos from the walls, one from a dinner with the Bakugou family and the other a family portrait of her, Hisashi and a three year old Izuku. She stuffed them into the shopping bag, not daring to take more than that. Walking over to the shelf beside the TV, she grabbed her husband's portrait and blade and stuffed them into the bag as well, before carefully wrapping the loose fabric into a bundle around the objects.

Just like that, she was ready to leave. She had finished packing and was about to say goodbye to the life she had spent the last seven years building. She looked around her, taking a moment to wonder at just how abrupt this all was. The groceries she had bought still lay half unpacked on the kitchen counter. Her and her son's lives had been turned upside down in a matter of… emka, it hadn't even been an hour. And now they were leaving their home.

She was unbelievably proud of her son. She couldn't imagine all the stress and confusion he must be feeling. This would be scary for anyone, but somehow her little boy was holding himself together remarkably well. As for herself, she was mildly surprised to find that her melancholy and uncertainty were quickly being buried beneath excitement. She would never regret leaving with Hishashi, but she missed Lua. She missed her family and she missed her life as a Koa. Not only was she going back to all that, but she'd get to share it with Izuku.

As if her thoughts had summoned him, her son hurried into the room, the wheelie bag he dragged behind him rocking from one wheel to the other in his haste. Boanat followed him, a poorly hidden shit-eating grin in place. Izuku had a guilty look on his face and difficulty meeting her eyes. Inko looked at her father, gaze narrowed in suspicion.

He leaned closer. "I may have helped him smuggle more than a few of his toys into the bag," he whispered, which was ultimately useless since Izuku couldn't understand what was said anyway.

Inko gave him a flat look, though internally she cooed at what she knew was her father's attempts to lay the foundations of his relationship with Izuku. He could be really -

"We need to go, now! They will be here in less than a minute!"

Shaipa's sudden shout caused Izuku to jump; Inko and Boanat to jump into action. He yelped as Inko suddenly grabbed him and tucked him under her arm as if he weighed nothing. Boanat did the same with his luggage, and together they sprinted for the door. A few seconds later, Inko and Izuku left their home for the last time.

They arrived at the landing just in time to see Shaipa preparing to jump over the railing. "No time for the stairs," he said with a grunt as he vaulted over the concrete barrier.

Much to Izuku's horror, his mother and grandfather didn't hesitate in following him.

With a running start, they easily leapt over the barrier, their heads coming dangerously close to the floor above them. There was a peculiar sound as they fell, like a mosquito buzzing around a microphone. It took a second for Izuku to realize it was him, screaming.

The sound was a bit too shrill for his liking.

He thrashed and squirmed as they fell, only to realize they weren't actually falling. They were... descending. Slowly. Izuku looked up in awe at his mother's glowing eyes, and after whipping his head around to check, found Shaipa and Boanat had matching pairs. All three had big, see-through shapes moving behind their backs. It was hard to tell, but they looked like wings. The space behind them shimmered, like the air above a hot fire, and he could see small rainbows appear and disappear along the shapes.

Izuku's eyes glittered. That was so cool! He wanted to be able to do that!

They landed three seconds after jumping and hit the ground running. Izuku was jostled like a sack of potatoes as Inko, Boanat and Shaipa sprinted to the small white Honda sitting by the gate with its engine running, Tep behind the wheel. Boanat threw himself into the passenger seat with Izuku's luggage while the other three piled into the back. The car lurched forward before the doors had fully closed. Taking a sharp turn to the right, they sped off in the opposite direction of the sirens.

Izuku, flanked by Inko and Shaipa, turned around in his seat to look out the back window. The red and blue lights had just crested the top of the hill and were visible for a brief second before they turned down a side street and they once again disappeared from view.

"They're going to find us," he said fearfully.

Boanat gave an amused huff from the front seat. "Don't worry, mopuna. If we had been a second slower then they might have, but not now."

Izuku eyed him uncertainly, before turning to Inko, who was busy typing something into her phone.

"Mom," he whispered. "What does 'mopuna' mean?"

She didn't answer immediately. Boanat glanced in the rear view mirror and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he saw what she was doing. He nearly tore the seat out of its brackets as he spun around to face her, startling Izuku in the process.

"You brought your phone?" he hissed.

She briefly paused to send him a glare before resuming typing. "Relax, I'm not stupid. I'll get rid of it as soon as I'm done."

"Done what?" Tep asked, eyes on the road.

"Sending a message to a friend. I'd like her to know that we haven't been killed, kidnapped or sold into slavery by the strange foreigners that showed up at my son's school and held his teacher at gunpoint." She glared at him as her ta'taoh glowed briefly and she snapped the smartphone in half (much to Izuku's surprise), before throwing it out the window. "Us four are going to have a long, long talk about that, by the way."

Izuku frowned in confusion as the three men suddenly grimaced and fell silent. "Can you guys please talk so I can understand you?" He asked with a pout, folding his arms.

Inko smiled down at him and ran her fingers through his hair. He leaned into her touch. "Mopuna means 'small one'. It's what grandparents sometimes call their grandchildren, like how I call you abanti. That means 'my child'.

Izuku stared at her. He hadn't known that meant anything; he'd always just thought it was something she called him, like how Aunt Mitsuki always called Kacchan 'brat'. What language was that? Was it what they spoke at this place they were going to? Where was that anyway? How much more family did they have?

Inko could see the questions once again getting ready to burst out of her son and hurriedly intervened. Normally she'd gladly answer whatever questions he had, but now wasn't the time.

"I need you to do something for me, abanti."

His mouth, which had just begun opening to verbalize his curiosity, snapped shut. He gave a compliant nod, an adorably serious look on his face.

"I need you to keep a look out behind us. If you see any heroes or police cars, I need you to tell me, okay?"

He hesitated for a moment, an uncomfortable look on his face, before nodding and twisting around in his seat to peer out the back window. In doing so, he made eye contact with Shaipa. Man and boy stared at each other for a moment. Shaipa tried for a smile, though it became strained when Izuku shied away from him. He sighed, knowing it was his own fault.

In the first ten minutes of the car drive Izuku pointed out three different squad cars and five different heroes. He'd even managed to spot one of them before any of the Koa. All of them had been moving with purpose, the squad cars with their lights on and the heroes with alert eyes. Tep mostly stuck to the main roads, sometimes cutting through residential areas to avoid traffic. Their car was a generic brand, one of hundreds on the road. Even if the heroes did know what to look for, it was like trying to spot the red marble in a bag full of rubies.

If Izuku was being honest, this was actually exciting. Sure, it had been scary at first, and still was, but now that he actually had a chance to sit and calm down, he realized this was actually kind of fun. It was like the car games he and his mom sometimes played when they drove somewhere, though of course this was real and they were actually running from the police. That somehow made it more exciting.

Needless to say, Izuku was kept busy all the way to the coast. They left the car in an underground parking lot a few minutes from the harbour and walked the rest of the way. Izuku thought they must have looked rather strange; three men, a woman and himself walking next to the highway, carrying heavy bags, wearing dirty, torn and bloody clothes and sporting weird tattoos.

For what must have been the hundredth time, he pulled at the collar of his shirt and peered down at the symbols on his chest. His fingers brushed the marked skin, a giddy grin on his face. He had a quirk.

As they got closer to where he could see the ships floating, his nose wrinkled at the smell of fish that suddenly appeared on the breeze. Something about it smelled rotten. The smell got stronger as they walked through a gate, and was soon joined by the smell of stale cigarette smoke and pee as they stopped in between two warehouses. Shaipa pulled out a phone and walked a short distance away to make a call as Izuku pulled a disgusted face.

Boanat laughed. "You will get used to it, mopuna," he assured. "For now, try breathing through your mouth only."

Izuku stared at him for a moment, before following the suggestion. It didn't disappear, but the smell became less pungent. Izuku sent a tentative smile at his grandfather (he had a grandfather!) and received a beaming grin in return, prompting him to clutch Inko's hand tighter and move closer to her. Boanat laughed again.

After waiting a bit, two men came down the alley, stumbling slightly. Dan and Ryoji both froze when they saw the kid and the woman with the men, horror spreading across their faces.

Ryoji might not have had much in the way of integrity, but there were definite lines he refused to cross. Human trafficking was one of them. A quick glance showed Dan was thinking much the same thing.

"You said you weren't moving anything," he whispered, eyes locked on the kid and his mother. Had he just ruined their lives? "That includes people."

He received confused looks. Tep was the first to catch on, realization dawning after a few seconds.

"You misunderstand," he quickly explained, holding out a pacifying hand. "This is my sister and nephew. We're bringing them home; they've come with us willingly."

He gestured to their luggage, which caused the two smugglers to hesitate. They looked at each other, and then Inko for confirmation. She gave them a firm nod. They hesitated a moment longer, then gestured for the group to follow them.

Inko wrinkled her nose as she got closer. "Have you been drinking?"

Ryoji left Dan to answer that question as he moved to walk alongside Boanat.

"Can I expect trouble from this?" Ryoji asked him as they walked along the wharf.

He pursed his lips. "It could have gone better," he admitted. "The police will be looking for us."

Ryoji gave him a sharp look. "Why would the police be looking for you? You said you just went to pick up those two!"

Boanat gave him him a sheepish look. "We may have done so in a way law enforcement did not like."

Ryoji took in the state of their clothes and groaned.

"Do not worry um hoabo, we made sure we were not followed. I do not think they will come looking for clues here, but if they do…"

He fished around in the bag he carried, the one they had brought with them.

"Here is your compensation for the trouble."

Ryoji grimaced as the second half of his payment plopped into his hand. It was noticeably heavier than the first bag, but the extra money would do him no good if he ended up in prison. He sighed and waved his hand at the seaplane. Dan was busy unmooring the line.

"Just get out of here. The sooner you're gone, the better. For everyone."

Boanat nodded and walked over to help Shaipa load their luggage into the fuselage. Ryoji sighed and gave the woman and kid one last look. The boy was giving the plane a nervous frown. He wondered what was in store for them.

He turned and started walking back to the harbor's main entrance. It would take Dan about ten minutes to finish his pre-flight checks, and if any cops showed up during that time he would need to stall them for as long as possible.

There wasn't so much as a traffic cop. Everything went smoothly and ten minutes later Izuku was staring out the window as Japan's eastern coastline shrank beneath him.

They were doing it. They were really leaving everything behind and going somewhere new. It was surreal, terrifying and exciting all at the same time.

He kept on staring out the window until all that surrounded them was sea and sky, and then stared some more. This was his first time in a plane, and after getting past the initial apprehension and the irritating pressure in his ears, all that was left was wonder.

When he did turn back, his eyes were drawn to the two of the men he had met just that day. The seats ran along the length of the fuselage, facing each other; he, Inko and Shaipa sat on one side while Tep and Boanat sat across from them. His grandfather and uncle. The former gave him one of his signature grins while the other was clutching his seat belt, eyes closed, face pale and knuckles white. How come he had never heard of them before today? How come he hadn't known… anything?

He tried to ask his mom, but the sound of the engines was so loud that conversation was impossible. He eventually gave up trying and simply sat back in his chair and looked around the cabin. It wasn't long before all the excitement and steady thrum of the engines worked their magic and he drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

He woke up intermittently throughout the trip, these brief periods of consciousness proving uninteresting enough that he fell back asleep quickly. The adults were either looking out the window, asleep themselves, or in Tep's case, trying not to throw up. Izuku took a small amount of vengeful glee in the man's discomfort before nodding off again.

The final time he woke up, it was to Inko shaking his shoulder excitedly. He blearily rubbed at his eyes as he watched her mouth move, the words smothered by the roar of the engines.

She was pointing at something out the window, grinning from ear to ear. Her eyes were shining with excitement. Twisting around in his seat he followed the direction of her finger and gasped.

The sun was still high in the sky, allowing him a clear view of the landmass sitting in the middle of the endless blue. The waters around it were a clear, pale blue, allowing an uninterrupted line of sight with the seafloor, which was covered in a carpet of white sand and dark masses of coral. The island itself was made up of two pieces of land, the smaller connected to the larger by a massive sandbar. Both had a thick outline of white, sandy beaches that disappeared into the green of the jungle.

Vegetation almost completely covered the island. It rolled across the hills and climbed up the slopes of the three mountain peaks he could see towering over the land below. Izuku could see brown dirt trails criss-crossing through the trees and a few ruined structures dotting the landscape. They looked ancient, and Izuku felt the immediate urge to go and explore them.

Patches of pinks, yellows, blues and many other colors decorated the green carpet, breaking up the monotony of the emerald color. The sun shining on the water behind it gave the island an ethereal, golden glow, making it look otherworldly.

Izuku was speechless. It was beautiful, like the pictures he had seen of places like Hawaii or Fiji.

Inko put her lips right next to his ear. "This is our home now, Izuku." She was shouting and he could still barely hear her. "Welcome to Lua, the land of the Koa."

XXX

The detective leaned back in his office chair and rubbed his eyes, sighing. It had been nearly a full day since he had last slept and at this point, his brain had turned to mush. Everyone else had already gone home, except for the cleaning staff of course, so he was left alone in a dark and empty precinct.

He went to take another sip of coffee and grimaced as he found his mug to be empty. With a sigh, he set it back down and regarded the mess on his desk with contempt. Honestly, he didn't know how to feel about it. On one hand, he had been incredibly lucky to get this opportunity. There were hero agencies that specialized in criminal investigations and information gathering, so for a case as big as this one to be handed over to the police was a stroke of luck.

That is, if he could solve it.

The evidence was conflicting. At first glance, it was nothing more than a straightforward kidnapping. Two villains had shown up at an elementary school, tried to get one of the kids to leave with them and pulled a gun out when the boy refused. The kid ran, the villains gave chase and the last anyone saw of them was on their way out of a nearby train station.

After beating the shit out of two of Japan's more formidable heroes.

The detective glanced once again at the medical reports of Snipe and Gunhead. Even after reading through them several times, he found them morbidly fascinating. Snipe was currently in a coma, with a severe concussion and fractured skull. The doctors were fairly certain he'd recover, but were less sure about his ability to resume hero work. The skin around his left eye was a patchwork of stitched up cuts and inflamed skin. His eardrum had ruptured and apparently some glass had found its way into the eye socket. They wouldn't be sure if it still worked or not until he woke up. If he woke up - the report mentioned that was a real possibility.

Gunhead's prospects looked better by comparison, but he was no less injured. A punctured lung, five broken ribs, two fractured, a broken jaw bone and a quite a few missing teeth. He had been in and out of consciousness since being admitted to the hospital.

There weren't more than ten minutes between when the villains showed up at the school and when witnesses said they saw the unharmed perpetrators chasing the kid through the train station, and this was where the case started getting interesting. Kidnappers weren't uncommon, but kidnappers that could break two heroes like Snipe and Gunhead in a timeframe as short as a few minutes and walk away unscathed? You would know about them.

Except they didn't. The quirk registry showed no records of people with the quirks the two men displayed. He had done a scan of the police archives and the last time a quirk that could have been a match was involved in a crime was from a fifteen year old case of public disturbance. The descriptions they sent out had yet yield results. As far as Japan knew, these men didn't exist. Either they had been living illegally for a number of years or, more likely, they had entered the country undetected.

At one of the teachers urging, they had rushed to the boy's house. Apparently the villains had claimed to have tortured his mother, which made the fact that she wasn't answering the school's calls very concerning. They had showed up at an empty apartment.

Groceries lay half unpacked on the kitchen counter; Inko Midoriya had been caught by surprise.

The door had been wide open, with obvious signs of a struggle further inside - blood on the floor, broken furniture, items strewn all over the place, including two broken and twisted kitchen knives. She had put up one hell of a fight.

There was a hollowed out section of the wall that looked to have been plastered over. A hiding place for something? If so, what was Inko Midoriya hiding? Did it have anything to do with their abduction?

Their cupboards had been ransacked and some of their clothes were missing, and there were one or two empty spaces on the wall where pictures had hung. This was odd; kidnappers usually weren't concerned about whether their victims had a change of clothes or not, and for the life of him he couldn't think of a reason for taking some family photos.

That and the mysterious nature of the villains were the only aberrations; otherwise it was a fairly straight forward abduction.

Or, it was, until Mitsuki Bakugou.

The detective sighed and ran his hand over his face. Leaning forward, he once again stared in consternation at the single piece of paper that was giving him such a headache. It was the last clue they had to the Midoriya's whereabouts and circumstances, and it turned the entire investigation on its head. A single screenshot of a text message. The phone it had been sent from couldn't be found. This was the last correspondence of Inko Midoriya.

'Mitsuki,' it read. 'I don't have a lot of time, so I'm going to keep this short. Izuku and I are okay. This might be hard to believe, but I know the men that tried to take him from school. Despite what they may have done, they are not going to hurt us. Mitsuki, we have to leave with them. They've come to take me and Izuku back home. We'll both be fine, but it will be a long time before you see either of us again, if ever. I'm sorry this is the only farewell I could give. I know you have no way of knowing if this really me, so I want you to know that I hate that fashion line you designed after my clothes. It looked fucking ridiculous.

Goodbye, Mitsuki. I hope we see each other again.

Inkombi Midoriya.'

AN: This was the hardest fucking thing I have ever had to write. Seriously. It fought me with every paragraph, and I had to rewrite certain parts of it several times before I was even remotely satisfied with it. I'm still not sure I like it.

Anyway, here it is. Feel free to comment in a review or give advice if you feel it's needed. Also let me know which girls you want in the harem. I can say with certainty that Kyoka, Momo, and Mei will be in it. Possibly Midnight too. I'm not too concerned with making this one too big, unlike with my RWBY story, so go nuts.

Glossary:

Kanisegan? - Truly? (Like how we would use the word 'really'.)

Anagwu - Spider.

Kaikintomba - My daughter.

Yeka! - Stop!

Ukrēgo - Shark.

Hetoni? - What?

Yena inia 'n wahkulé! Izuku, wena inia 'n wahkulé! Makou hezikon ungangah! - We were wrong! Izuku, they were wrong! You have a quirk!

Umkhulu - Father.

I think that's everything. If I missed something, let me know in a review.

Cheers!