The Innocence of a Hero

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Midoriya Izuku was a good child. He was cheerful, helpful and always a delight to be with. He was a good kid.

“If only you weren’t quirkless.”

Midoriya Hisashi saw the moment the kid’s heart broke and those bright green eyes dulled even more with the overwhelming emotions of betrayal, grief and sorrow. It was concerning to see those things within a child so young but it couldn’t be helped. He was quirkless.

“E-eh?” The kid started with a watery smile. “Bu-but dad I have a–”

*SLAP!*

Hisashi looked at the eight-year-old lying on the floor.

“You’re still on about that? I thought your mom already had a talk about you and ‘lying’?” Hisashi rolled his eyes.

The kid looked up with a reddening cheek and teary eyes.

“Dad... do you hate me?”

Hisashi raised his brow. He carefully took in the sight of the silently crying child in front of him. As expected, Hisashi felt no affection. But even so, he kneeled in front of the boy who was slowly sitting up until they were seeing eye to eye. He sighed and gently put his hand on the boy’s head patting it slowly.

“I don’t hate you Izuku.” Those green eyes stared at him intently, waiting for the rest of the words the kid knew would surely come. Hisashi felt a small smile tug at his lips and he continued. “Hating you would imply that I loved you at some point in the past.”

Hisashi put his hands under the kid’s arms to pull him up into standing and dusted his shorts.

“I didn’t, so I could never hate you Izuku. What I feel towards you, that’s called apathy.” He looked at the heartbroken kid staring back at him one last time before uttering his last words. “It’s also called the greatest kindness you could ever give someone else.”

Heavy silence filled the air. The kid couldn’t keep looking at him and turned his head to the floor with his small clenched fists trembling at his sides. Looking at the pitiful child, Hisashi had a sudden urge to tell him something. So he leaned down and whispered his thoughts to the kid.

The expression he gave Hisashi after he was finished was priceless and he would have revelled at it more if not for his wife’s arrival.

“Oh! So you two were here all this time!” Inko’s worrying voice resounded in the young kid’s room. Hisashi turned to her with a small smile.