Wolf in the night | KamiDeku/DekuKami |

22.

Izuku explained the day when he was diagnosed quirkless, and the day he knew his life wouldn’t be the same. Aizawa and Tsukauchi didn’t interrupt him as he recounted the first few years of the constant abuse and neglect from Inko, and he was grateful because he wasn’t sure he would be able to continue if they did. He tried to not focus too much on what he was saying and instead just getting it out there for the detective to have a record of. It was harder than it sounded, and Izuku at some point felt like all the relived memories were pushing down on his mind. Everything was too much and not enough at the same time. He was hot and cold, but he pushed through it.

There were moments he skipped over and moments he went into full detail about. One such moment was a few months into his start of being a vigilante.

Since Inko hadn’t been home in months, Izuku became used to not having to sneak out as well as coming home late into the night before his patrol route started. However, Inko was home and waiting on the couch for him in a drunken state of anger. Izuku tried to quietly slip past her and to the room he slept in. He was close to the door when the old wooden floorboard underneath his feet made a loud creaking noise, alerting Inko to his presence. Her head whipped around so quickly, he thought he heard a snap. Her eyes narrowed in a menacing way and he gulped knowing the punishment he was in for.

It was currently 3:30 in the morning and Izuku had just come home from a long patrol, meaning (if Inko was even coherent enough) when she read the time, her punishment would last until 6:30 or 7:00 am.

He watched her eyes look at the clock, widen, and then sharpen with something akin to hatred and betrayal.

‘What right does she have to feel betrayed? She doesn’t get to feel betrayed by what time I come home.’ Izuku’s thoughts were racing and none of them were happy thoughts. They were all angry and disgusted thoughts, aimed at his mother.

“Why ar’ you h’me so la’e? Why di’n’t you call me and tell me you w’re goin’ to be gon’ so long? I sat here wor’ying ‘bout you.” Inko exclaimed, her words slurred considerably.

‘Bullshit. Worrying my ass’

“Why should I have to tell you anything? You haven’t been home in god knows how fucking long!” Izuku retorted, voice tinging with disgust for Inko.

Inko gasped appalled, like she hadn’t expected Izuku, “hEr PrEcIoUs BaBy IzUkU”, to talk back to her. She even had the audacity to start tearing up.

Izuku glared at the short, pudgy woman standing opposite him. He didn’t want to hear her manipulative ass try to guilt trip him. Apparently, she had been talking to him and when Izuku didn’t answer, Inko used her quirk to stop the flow of blood to his heart. 

Izuku could feel his chest tighten as he struggled to not pass out. Inko released his arteries from her quirk’s hold and he flopped to the floor, curling up into a tight ball.

“Shit,” Izuku cursed under his breath trying to regulate the amount of oxygen by controlled breathing.

Izuku knew the moment he talked back to her, this would happen.

He continued on with recounting the story, up until he met MeiMei. He summarised him living with MeiMei and Aki-san and how he almost never went home. Kizu nudged her head into his hand as he finished off what he was saying.

After all that Izuku needed a break, maybe some ice cream before going shopping. Remembering all of the painful memories was hard on him and he understood the amount of therapy he needed. He was able to acknowledge that building a wall of snarkiness around himself so as to not feel vulnerable was an unhealthy coping mechanism, but he also knew it was the only way to protect himself from being hurt. Emotionally and physically.

He quickly finished off his statement, not wanting to take any longer than he already had. “To sum it all up, Inko would threaten me with my life. Literally. If I stepped even a toe out of line she would use her quirk on me to get me to ‘remember my place’ so I wouldn’t fight back. She would leave home for a few months at a time. Don’t ask me where she went during those time periods, I won’t be able to answer you. She would injure me in ways that couldn’t be found unless I went to the hospital so no one noticed. I went to school with aching ribs, blocked arteries, and a fucked up mentality every now and then.”

Tsukauchi’s eyes held something fierce in them. A sort of protectiveness that Izuku didn’t want to look into at the moment, so he filed the thought away for later. Aizawa on the other hand had let loose and was fuming.

“I want to take Inko Midoriya to court on basis of child abuse, neglect, illegal quirk usage, illegal quirk usage on a minor, and attempted murder. I assume with the recording you have of Izuku giving his statement, the kid won’t need to make an appearance and it’ll be smooth sailing.”

Aizawa had declared with no room for argument. Tsukauchi wouldn’t have argued either way, because he wanted to throw this woman in jail for the rest of her life.

Izuku watched the whole ordeal, a foreign emotion worming its way up his spine and into his chest.

“Great!” Izuku cheered, clapping his hands. He was sitting normally in his chair this time and Kizu’s summoning had been released near the end of his statement. “Can we go get ice cream, dad ,” Izuku asked. A teasing tone edging his voice.

He watched Aizawa’s eyes widen a little at the term and the hero promptly hid his face in his capture scarf. Izuku smirked to himself.

“Yeah whatever kid. Let’s go get you some ice cream and then go shopping for supplies for your room. It’s been a long day. Tsukauchi, I think you can wrap everything up on your own?” Aizawa may have worded it like a question, yet to both the detective and teen, it was like a threat saying “we’re leaving. Try and stop us and see just what happens”.

Tsukauchi nodded tersely and turned to neatly file everything into a manila folder. Both teen and hero walked out of the police station, walked to the car and promptly headed for the mall. Everything would be ok. Both detective and hero would make sure of it.