Ever since she knew she was expecting, Inko's outlook on life changed drastically. She was going to have her own child; she was going to give life to a little bundle of joy that'll grow to be a wonderful person through her love and hard work.

At least, that was the plan, she told herself. Izuku's birth was not what she imagined in her head, the pain she expected, but what her son looked like, she did not. Izuku was born severely malnourished, with skin as pale as snow. Inko was immediately beside herself with worry despite how tired she was when she saw her boy, but she didn't have much time to freak out, for the doctor attending her immediately whisked him away into an intensive care unit to try to save the baby who seemed to be barely holding on to life.

To his shock however, Izuku was completely fine. His skin although being off putting did not seem to bring him pain, he looked malnourished, yes, but did not show symptoms of starvation, he was just as energetic as any newborn baby. The most off-putting thing, however, was Izuku's crying. The doctor in that room had himself delivered or helped in delivering multiple infants, he was accustomed to the sound of wailing, crying children. Izuku's crying, however, was unlike anything he had heard before, it wasn't the innocent crying of a newborn baby, it was a cry filled with anguish, sadness, despair and self pity. It was as if the child was lamenting his own birth.

When the doctor came back into inko's room, he informed her on her son's condition and that although he did not look like it, it was stable, and he did not seem to be in mortal danger. The doctor then went on to ask Inko about her and her husband's family history, if there were any reports of mutation quirks that looked like what Izuku had. After determining that no one in both families had ever had such a quirk, he determined that a mutation was a likely possibility to explain the infant's condition. The doctor then told Inko that there is no way to know for sure what Izuku had was a quirk and so she would have to be incredibly careful with Izuku and that they would have to monitor his condition as he becomes older to make sure nothing bad happens. She would have to watch what he eats, where he goes (extremely pale skin and the sun would most likely not mix well together) and what he does.

And so that is exactly what she did, she was diligent to the upmost degree. Inko never let Izuku out of her sights growing up, even refusing her best friend's offer to get Izuku to meet her son, Katsuki Bakugou, under the pretence that she didn't want to take any unnecessary risks and that they would meet once they knew for sure what it was that Izuku had. Inko even had to teach Izuku herself, too fearful at the prospect of sending him to a public kindergarten when they still didn't know his condition, and so she taught Izuku how to write, how to do math, his geography, etc. Growing up was hard for Izuku, he was naturally fearful at the slightest of stimuli, he even almost had a panic attack when a mail carrier rang the doorbell to leave a package at his house's door. Along with that, he almost never went a day without crying to himself. Izuku's crying was the hardest thing to endure for Inko, each time she heard his cries, she felt herself die a little inside, blaming herself and her loins for having brought her son into the world in such a sorry state. That is why Inko tried her hardest everyday to make Izuku smile or to get him to laugh if only a little bit because although he did not smile much, Izuku had a million-watt smile and every time he did smile, it made everything worth it for Inko

Izuku, as suggested by the doctor at his birth, had gotten regular check ups not only to monitor his physical health but also his mental health. He was growing normally although he seemed a tad bit taller than would be considered normal and they had learned when he opened his eyes for the first time as a baby that his irises were completely white. They thought he was blind at first, but he showed to be able to respond to visual stimuli, therefore adding another thing that made his condition baffling to the list. Mentally however, they learned that Izuku suffered from scopophobia, the irrational fear of being stared at by people. With childish phrasing, he explained that it was the reason he cried so much, the thought of being stared at terrified him and people looking at him made him uncomfortable. So far, his mother was the only one he felt comfortable allowing to look at him for a long time, although his face was the place he hated people to stare at the most and would ask her not to look at him too long in that area. After a few years and many tests, the doctor gave his all-clear, Izuku's condition did not seem to hurt him physically, his scopophobia was still a mystery as to its origin but the doctor theorized that it must come from his quirk. He told them that come the time when he develops his quirk, it should be safe to integrate him into normal life.

Then came the day to get see if he would get a quirk, or if what he had even was his quirk. Inko had taken her son to the doctor he had usually gone to do his check ups; he was the only person he felt comfortable with and trusted to inspect him. To get to his office, Izuku had put on a medical mask, sunglasses and a hoodie to hide his face, after having learned of his fear, Izuku and Inko had experimented on ways to make him feel more comfortable going outside where other people could look at him and they found that covering his face up so you couldn't fully see it made him less shy and fearful.

They arrived at the doctor's office and waited in the waiting room.

Inko started softly, as to not scare Izuku: ''so Izuku, are you excited? Today we'll find out what your quirk is!''

''huh? Oh, yeah. I guess I'm excited mommy, I just hope that it isn't a flashy quirk like explosions or super strength, I'd want one like yours, mommy, it doesn't draw a lot of attention.''

She chuckled ''I'm happy that's what you want, baby, I'm very proud of you''

''thanks mommy'' he said, then proceeding to give her a hug

''Izuku Midoriya? The doctor will see you now'' the receptionist said out of the blue, making Izuku jump.

''shh, shh, its ok Izuku.'' Trying to calm her son down, ''yes, that's us.'' She says to the lady.

They then get up from their seats and go into the doctor's office and they were greeted by the medical professional they had come to know over the years.

''hello Ms. Midoriya! Good to see you again, same to you Izuku, how are you feeling today?'' he greets

''H-hi Mr. Sugimoto, I'm doing ok, I guess. Not as bad as usual, at least.''

''That's great, it means we're making progress! Anyways, you've come today for your quirk apprehension, right?''

''Yes, we did, I do hope today's apprehension will shed some light on Izuku's condition, it would make me feel a lot better for when he finally starts going to school.''

''As do I, Ms. Midoriya''

She chuckles ''stop calling me that, Riku, I've already told you we've known each other long enough to be on first name basis, so call me Inko.''

he laughs too ''Heh, my apologies. as do I, Inko. Anyways, let's get started, I'm going to take Izuku here in a separate room to do a couple tests, we shouldn't take more than an hour.''

''Alright, that sounds good'' to Izuku ''come on Izuku, go on and follow Mr. Riku, you know he'll take good care of you''

''A-alright mom, see you later.''

Finally, both Doctor Sugimoto and Izuku leave the room. After about an hour, Izuku returns to the room where Inko was waiting and tells her that the doctor told him that he would review the test results and would come back into the room once he was done with them.

After a short waiting time, he came back into the room, looking slightly off.

''so Riku, what's Izuku's quirk?''

The doctor sits down in his chair, takes in a big breath and sighs ''would you like the good news or the bad news first?''

Both greenettes we're startled by the sudden change in attitude from the doctor, Inko starting to get worried and Izuku starting to tear up slightly and to shrink into himself.

''The good news, I guess?'' Inko says hesitantly.

''Well, I've found that Izuku is resistant to pain and can heal himself'' he begins ''While I was taking a blood sample, I realised something. Normally during our usual check-ups, I would only take a little bit of Izuku's blood using a small syringe, something that only stings for a few seconds, but today I needed a larger sample, so I used a bigger needle that is supposed to hurt more, but Izuku didn't bat an eye at it. I asked him if the needle was hurting him, he said that it did but that the pain didn't bother him. So, to confirm my hypothesis, I ran Izuku through a couple pain endurance quirk tests and as far as I can tell, Izuku isn't affected by pain. I'm guessing Izuku never got into any altercations in the past few years or else you would have found out and alerted me but that's details, the fact of the matter is he's apparently not bothered by pain.''

''Oh, ok. That's good, it's not a flashy quirk, just like how Izuku wanted.''

''hold on now, I'm not finished. Normally I would say this is a bad thing, we feel pain for a reason, it tells us what's wrong with our bodies, but Izuku seems to have that aspect covered. A lot of things seem to be wrong with his body, we've all known that for a long time, but every test comes back negative and Izuku himself says that he feels fine, at least physically that is. So, after realizing that the puncture wound that was supposed to have been left by the needle seemed to have disappeared, it got me thinking that Izuku also had a self healing aspect to his quirk. So, I evaluated him for that too. We started by cutting a small gash into his arm after confirming with Izuku that it did not hurt him and waited to see if the wound would close itself back up. After about a minute, the wound had healed completely without scarring.''

''that's great! You hear that Izuku? You have a quirk that's powerful and that isn't flashy, isn't that great?''

''yeah, mom I guess it is!'' he says, a smile creeping onto his face.

Dr. Sugimoto coughs ''um, sorry to rain on your guys' party but I haven't gotten to the bad news.'' The family then stops celebrating and returns to their serious attitude, waiting for the doctor to continue what he was saying.

''So, as I was saying, there are some bad news. The thing is, Izuku does not have a quirk.''

''Huh? But Riku, I thought you said that he did?''

''No, I said he was resistant to pain and could heal himself, not that he had a quirk.''

Inko looks towards Izuku, who is just as confused as she is, then looks back to the doctor ''I'm sorry, I don't really understand what you're getting at, is this a joke? If so, this is in poor taste, Riku.''

''I assure you, Inko, that I am not joking. Studies have shown a link between bone structure and quirk development, more specifically, every person who develops a quirk lacks a joint in their pinky toe that other quirkless people have and Izuku has that joint in his pinky toe. So, Izuku here is quirkless yet he possesses a quirk, or some sort of power.''

''so, what does this mean, Riku?''

''It means we're still no closer to understanding Izuku's condition, I have no idea what he has and how his body is doing the things that it does. For the first time in my medical career, I'm stumped''

This is what Izuku feared, he was quirkless, everyone would point at him when he would go to school, everyone would laugh, everyone would look at him, his worst nightmares were coming true. Izuku curled himself up into a ball and started to cry to himself, terrified at what his quirkless status would entail.

''I knew this would happen; I knew it would.'' He says between sobs

Inko goes up to her son and hug him, trying to comfort him and quiet his crying: ''shh, shh Izuku, everything will be alright. No one will look at you, no one will judge you.''

Seeing Izuku in the state he was trying to get him out of, the doctor Sugimoto starts to regret putting it to them so bluntly. ''look Izuku, we do not know a whole lot about quirks, they are still a big mystery to us. Yes, studies have shown a correlation between the pinky toe joints and quirks but that's only in cases we've seen so far. It's possible that you are simply an outlier. Look, you clearly have a power, you're happy about that, right?''

Izuku starts to calm down slightly and responds to Ruki between quieter sobs: ''yeah, i-i guess I am, it's a quirk that doesn't draw much attention.''

''Well then that's that, if you have a power, we'll write It down as your quirk. We'll put the fact that you possess an extra toe joint as a foot note, no one will look that deeply into it, it'll say you possess a quirk so just tell everybody you have a quirk, ok?''

Izuku lifts his shade for a moment to wipe his eyes of his tears. ''Y-yeah, I guess I can do that.''

''Good, then we're done here. Congratulations Izuku, you have a great quirk. Now, how about I give your mom a little bit of money to buy you some katsudon to celebrate, hm?''

Inko, after getting up alongside Izuku, walked up to Riku. ''Oh Riku, you don't need to do that, i'll gladly pay for it myself to congratulate Izuku.''

''Nonsense, I insist. It's the least I could do.''

Inko rolls her eyes ''Oh fine, you big dope. Thank you, I deeply appreciate it.''

''no problem, it's my pleasure''

With that, they both leave. While in the car, however, Inko was restless. They knew Izuku had a power, but they did not know its origin. Even worse they had learned next to nothing about Izuku's condition. She wasn't going to make it, if she sent Izuku to school she would die of worry, she just couldn't do it. But Izuku needed it, he couldn't stay on their house forever, there would come a day when she wouldn't be able to protect her dear Izuku, so he needed to learn independence, how to take care of himself and how to interact with others. She had to do it, she had to send him to school or else she would be hurting him more than anything. She'd be damned if she didn't send him in with someone to look over him, however, so she turned to her son and said: ''hey Izuku, how would you feel about meeting the son of mommy's bestest friend? His name is Katsuki Bakugou.''