Inko Midoriya hangs up the phone with too many emotions rolling around inside her to really know what she feels. After all, it's been years since she's seen Hisashi. Years since the trial, and how he…
She shakes her head and claps her hands to her cheeks to help clear her head. No! He was a terrible, horrible excuse for a human being! I refuse to feel sorry for the man!
Still, even with that mental determination, she can't help but remember their younger years. How enthusiastic he was back in college when he was trying to get her affection. All the ridiculous tricks he did using his quirk to try and impress her. The joy that lit up his face when she finally accepted to go on a date. All the good times they had over the course of their relationship up to the day that Izumi was born. Oh, how excited the two of them were when they held her in their arms!
And then… she was declared quirkless.
She's not sure if that was the day their family died, or if it took longer than that. Did their family die when all she could do was apologize to her daughter for being unable to give her a quirk? Did it die when Hisashi found out that his company had already given the promotion that would have taken him overseas to someone else? The one he initially refused because he wouldn't see them enough? Was it the first time Izumi came home with bruises? Burns?
Inko doesn't know. What she does know is that, by the time Hisashi murdered their daughter, the three of them hadn't been a family in a long, long time.
She thought that trip would have been her chance to fix their family. To make everything better between the three of them. It might even have gotten Izumi to stop wanting to be a hero, or maybe she would have doubled down on her dream with the same stubbornness that she held onto anything made of gold she got her hands on. But she never got the chance to make her announcement. Instead, Hisashi… And now…
She lets out a tired sigh, letting her head fall into her hands. Hisashi is dead. Apparently some kind of quirked beast got into the prison where he'd been incarcerated and killed the majority of the prisoners before being driven off. At least, that's what they said on the news. The story doesn't hold up very well when the government is claiming that there's not any sort of video evidence to collaborate the story.
People have been crying foul play for days, and those who knew for a fact that relatives or loved ones were there have been making all sorts of appearances to share their theories on what actually happened or to lobby for the truth. Not that they've gotten anywhere, although there has been a successful proposition that every prison undergoes the same sort of clean up operation that the HPSC underwent to make sure there's no corruption or illegal practices going on.
Inko looks up from her hands, and for the life of her she can't seem to make any tears fall. And, well, that should be all the answer she needs for how she should feel, shouldn't it?
She nods, taking a deep breath with her eyes closed that she lets out slowly. Along with the last emotions that she'll ever feel for her ex-husband. It feels more than symbolic to the green haired woman, like she can physically feel a weight being lifted off her shoulders. And who is she not to take advantage of her newfound good mood?
She gets up to leave the room filled with medical supplies and makes her way to the director of the hospital and informs the chitin-covered man that she'll be taking the rest of the week off. Obviously he's surprised, and at first he doesn't want to give it to her. Even if it is quiet today, who knows what it will be like the rest of the week!?
Inko politely informs him that she wasn't asking, turns around, and leaves the hospital, sending off a quick text to her dear friend Mitsuki that she'll be coming home sooner than usual today. Inko doesn't know what she would do without that woman, and she's fairly certain that the feeling is returned. Mitsuki's husband may not have killed their child and been arrested, but that doesn't mean that what happened isn't just as miserable.
Well, miserable and baffling.
Even in a world of quirks, Inko doesn't think that anyone expects a B-ranked villain to fall through the roof of their work. Especially when they work on the top floor of a highrise building.
Mitsuki helped Inko work through her grief for Izumi, so it was only expected that Inko would help the blonde work through her grief for Masaru. Not to mention that she needed all the help she could get… The fact that it provided the perfect distraction for Mitsuki at the same time is really just a thankful coincidence.
Really, at this point in her life, Inko can confidently say that she's happy. Even if the news of Hisashi's death is… unexpected, it's far too distant to change anything. Far too late to make her grieve for the man he used to be.
She pulls into the driveway of the house she bought with Mitsuki, both of them having agreed that with how often one of them was visiting the other that it would make more sense than to keep living separately. Couple that with how Mitsuki couldn't bear to be in the house she spent so many years with Masaru in, and they really couldn't think of a reason not to move in together! Especially when they moved away from the toxic environment that they realized Musutafu is after Mitsuki found out that the teachers at Aldera were refusing to punish Katsuki for misbehaving.
Thankfully the boy is getting better through therapy, though neither woman has been able to do anything for his habit of shouting and cursing. Inko loves to point out that it's because of Mitusuki's own habit of cursing and shouting, who then refutes that it's perfectly fine for her to do so because she's an adult and knows how to be polite while out in public. At least until Katsuki starts getting on her nerves…
Still, Inko can't help but think fondly to herself. I'm glad that he's learning how to think of others. She's aware that Izumi and Katsuki weren't exactly friends when they went to school together, but she couldn't help but give in to her daughter's puppy dog eyes whenever she begged her to let the two of them continue going to school together.
She knocks on the door and waits a few moments to give Mitsuki a chance to hide anything she doesn't want her to know about, just in case. It's one of the small things that she does to make things easier with sharing a space. Not that Mitsuki returns the favor. Nor does she really seem to mind Inko seeing all of her… things. She's also started insisting that they sleep in the same bed to save room, which she thinks is just odd. Really, it's almost like-
Inko trips with one foot in the door, stumbling forward and windmilling her arms to try and stop herself from falling to the floor. She manages to do so, if just barely. And when she does she furiously shakes her beet red face, trying to get rid of the thought she just thought. Because there's no way! If Mistuki felt that way about her, she'd know about it! She's not dense! Besides, she dropped the blonde bombshell all the hints back in high school and she never returned them! If anything, Mitsuki is dense! Not her!
After she finally manages to get her face to a normal color she takes off her shoes and puts on her slippers before she searches through the house for her… friend. She shakes her head again, though at least this time her blush hasn't spread to her entire face. Goodness, if she can't get control over her imagination she won't be able to look Mitsuki in the eyes when she finds her!
Except she doesn't. After checking through the entire house - which honestly doesn't take more than ten minutes - she fails to find her. Furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, she checks her phone to see if she missed something, and indeed she did. Evidently, while she was driving home Mistuki sent her a text saying that she would be out running errands for a bit and wouldn't be home until around five.
Inko sighs, wondering what she's going to do now that her initial plan of spending the day with the fiery blonde has gone down the drain. For a moment she thinks about turning on the tv and just… existing, until she gets home, but unlike her daughter she hates stewing in her own thoughts. Not that what she usually does is much better, but at least she'll feel a bit better. Maybe.
After a quick glance over her shoulder she heads to the room she and Mistuki share. It's a decent size, clean. Nothing in particular to stand out about it. She goes to the closest and opens it with a heavy heart, where she then carefully brings down a cardboard box from the top shelf. She doesn't know how long she stands there, just staring at it, before she brings it to the bed. Her fingers tremble ever so slightly as she removes the lid to reveal the contents. She blinks back tears as she reaches in and pulls out a simple notebook.
Proudly proclaimed on the title, written in green crayon: Hero Analysis For the Future #1.
She smiles slightly when she opens it and sees childish doodles of heroes from ten years ago. Some of them are still active, of course, but others are long retired. Or maybe they're dead. Inko doesn't keep up with hero news anymore, now that she doesn't have a reason. Sure, Katsuki wants to be a hero, but not in the same way as Izumi.
Izumi wasn't driven by pride, by being the best like Katsuki is. Instead, she just wanted to help people. But despite what the title says, Inko knows that these notebooks weren't really about her wanting to be a hero. She just really loved quirks. Heroes too, if the way every drawing is surrounded by exclamations of 'Cool!' and 'Awesome!'. But as Inko flips through each notebook, getting closer and closer to her final one, she can't help but notice how the focus switches from the hero themselves to their quirk.
Everything that Izumi saw them do with it. All kinds of theories about what the heroes could do with it. How they could train their quirks to make them stronger. What kind of support equipment could help them cover their quirks' weaknesses.
No, Inko can't help but think as she slowly closes the last notebook, the final entry being on an Underground hero named 'Eraserhead'. I think, at some point, Izumi stopped caring about heroes specifically, and more about their quirks. Not that she ever would have admitted it; being a hero was all she could ever see herself being.
And I told her no…
Wet spots appear on the front of the notebook as her tears fall, silent. She's grieved an awful lot the last few years, and cried enough that the famous 'Midoriya tears' have a much harder time appearing now. She's sure that if she could stop herself from shedding tears for a week that her tear ducts would go back to normal, but that feels impossible.
She failed her daughter. Never told her that she could follow her dream. That if anyone could become a quirkless hero, it would be her. No, she kept her silence. Hoped that she would give up one day and choose a 'safer' career path. But that didn't happen. Izumi never got to pursue any kind of career. She died without Inko ever being able to apologize to her, to try and make things right.
She stays there with tears dripping down her face for hours, not moving an inch. It's not until she hears Mitsuki's car in the driveway and two high pitched voices somehow going even above the blonde's that she moves. She carefully wipes off the notebook before replacing all of them in the box. She carefully returns it to the shelf. She gently closes the closet and turns towards the bedroom door.
She hears Zuko and Azula Midoriya shout their excitement and sees them burst through the bedroom door. She feels it when they launch themselves at her in a pair of crushing hugs that she returns with equal enthusiasm.
She may have failed Izumi as a mother, but she won't make the same mistake a second time.