Nonchalant

Chapter 16

Izuku held the basket firm as he emptied his stomach into the bag. Whatever was left from his meal was now inside the plastic bag. He stared at Sumiko, eyes grim. She held out a cup of water and a paper towel. Izuku accepted the water quietly and gulped it down.

Sumiko cleaned the corners of his mouth. She was looking particularly angry, for some reason. Izuku hoped she wasn't angry at him.

"Stupid villains, making a kid watch something as scary as that..." her next words were mumbled, but Izuku was pretty sure she was cussing them out.

Ah. So she wasn't angry at him.

The memory flashed once more in his head, and he threw up bile into the bin. Sumiko scrubbed at his mouth and chin again.

She helped him onto the bed and pointed to the plate of food she'd gotten earlier. "I'm guessing you won't be wanting this right now." Sumiko said. Her question was more of a statement. Izuku nodded as he placed a hand over his mouth. His other hand was on his stomach.

He couldn't believe he'd just wasted food. Stupid.

Sumiko had asked him what they made him do, seeing that he didn't have any sort of injuries (unless you counted the stuff they did to his mental state). Izuku had tried to respond, but managed to sign 'Making Nomu' before she grabbed the basket and placed it in front of him as he vomited.

Izuku used sign language to ask her how she knew he needed the basket. Sumiko signed back, saying that she thought he looked queasy. Natural big sister instincts, she signed playfully, and Izuku mustered a faint smile.

He ended up giving the food to Sumiko, even as she protested, saying that he needed it more  than her. He signed that he lost his appetite, and he wouldn't be able to keep it down and it'd be a waste of food.

She finally relented after he wouldn't stop tapping 'No' in Morse on the gray concrete floor.

Izuku signed back, asking Sumiko how she knew about the Nomu-making process.

"Heard it once, few months after they caught me. The thing wasn't very quiet, but my room was directly next door," she swallowed a bite of food. "The sound kept me up all night, and I was fifteen at the time."

Eight years, then. Izuku wondered if he would also be stuck here for eight years. That would mean that he'd be eighteen when he got out, but he didn't linger on it. He tapped a quick 'Sorry' on her thigh, and she laughed.

"Don't be sorry, it wasn't your fault. Besides, home life wasn't the best for me either. Dad was a bully, remember?"

During one of their 'bonding' chats, she'd talked about her not-so-happy mother and her abusive father, whom she and her mom had to put up with for the sake of money. Sumiko had cursed multiple times, saying that she was a terrible daughter for leaving her mom to deal with him alone.

Izuku, not knowing what to say at the time, had just patted her back and apologized.

Izuku laid on the bed and told Sumiko he that he was going to sleep.

He did not mention to her what quirk the man had, nor did he mention that the man had used his quirk on him. 

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Circles. All his memories were revolving around him in a circle. It was making him uneasy.

They continued to spin, almost taunting him to choose one. And since he didn't have many happy memories, the only ones he saw were those that were amazingly depressing.

How uplifting. 

It stopped spinning and Izuku was sucked into a memory.

This one was the day he was brought to the quirk doctor. It was the day everything changed. Izuku didn't want to see it. Reliving the day he was told he was practically useless was not very pleasant. 

He was in four-year-old Izuku's perspective, and Mom was strapping him into the booster seat as he bounced around excitedly. 

Since this was a memory, Izuku couldn't stop himself from being excited. 

"Mom, what do you think my quirk will be?" Little Izuku asked. Mom smiled warmly and clicked the last buckle into place.

"I don't know, Izuku, but I'll love you no matter what it is!" she replied, pecking his forehead and closing the door before getting into the driver's seat. 

Little Izuku gripped his All Might toy in his tiny fists as quirks raced into his mind. Would he get a fire-related quirk like Dad? Maybe he would get a telekinesis quirk like Mom. Izuku hoped Kacchan would like his quirk. Then they could be heroes together like All Might!

 Izuku grimaced at his younger self. So young and naive. He wished he could stop thinking so happily, but the memory was going to play until it fades. And, unfortunately, Izuku remembered this day well. It wouldn't finish until it was over, according to Sensei, and the day had lasted very, very long.

Mom unbuckled the seatbelt when they arrived, and he leaped out eagerly, pulling Mom to the tall white doors after she locked the car. Mom chuckled light-heartedly and led him over to the waiting area. Izuku played with his All Might toy while he waited, swinging his feet back and forth.

"Midoriya?" the nurse called. Izuku followed his mother into the doctor's office. Present-day Izuku wanted to run away.

The man asked him to place his foot on a machine, so he did. The screen on the metal plate buzzed and glowed. Izuku wondered what it was doing.

After a while, the doctor gestured to the two seats and Izuku hopped on one and held his All Might toy tight. His mother took the other seat.

The doctor held a large piece of card in his hands, which present-day Izuku recognized at a glance.  

"You should just give up."

Wow. So blunt. 

Izuku dropped his All Might toy, the sound seemed to be deafening in the silence.

Mom's eyes got harder slowly. "I'm sorry?" 

The doctor proceeded to explain in all the ways why Izuku was useless. Present-day Izuku bit his lip and frowned.

God, Izuku wanted to die.