Chapter Text
Not all humans are created equal. Izuku learned that at the age of four, when his mother finally told him what they were. See, he wasn’t human. Not entirely, at least. A Flerken, she whispered, as if fearing someone would hear. The terrible beasts of legend that could devour entire cities and escape under an animal disguise. Izuku thought they sounded cool. His mother and father thought otherwise.
His mother had a good reason for wanting to stay hidden. Izuku’s father died when he was three. The sole casualty of a villain attack. All because he was believed to be a villain too when he tried to use his powers to defend himself. The hero didn’t bother saving him from the real attacker. Only focused on the bigger villain and arresting them.
So from ages four to twelve he never used his other powers. He never tried to, knowing it would make his mother panic. He wanted to. So, so badly he wanted to see what he was capable of. His mother never used her powers to do anything but transform. With his father dead, and knowing of no other creatures like him, he had no one to show him what they could do.
Logically, he knew he could eat big things from what all the stories said, but not how. Not how much or how big or just how . Was his mouth like a shrink ray? Was it like a blackhole? Why didn’t it work when he ate normal food? Could he spit things back out if he used his powers? Every question and more swirled around his head, even as a small child. The number just grew as he got older.
He learned how to transform into a cat when he was four and a half. A cute, little, green kitten with curly fur. His mom was excited that he figured out how to transform. Izuku’s new favorite thing was making cat noises and purring.
Kacchan wasn’t as excited. He called Izuku useless, a Deku. A weak little kitty can’t become a hero, he sneered. His lackeys copied him, and the rest of the class soon followed.
But they forgot that all cats have claws, even if it takes a while for them to learn how to use them.
~~~~~
See, in their world, nearly everyone has a type of magic or power, usually called a Quirk. There were different variants, all of which were interesting to Izuku. First were the normal people that had magic. They had a designated type and couldn’t perform it outside of that, but everyone was amazing and exceedingly cool. Second were the people who had mutations because of their magic, mostly to use it properly. Third, and final, were the creatures. Beings that held a resemblance to humans and were either full or part creature of some sort. Some of them had magic too, but that was rarer.
Izuku was the third type.
~~~~~
Izuku was twelve now. Going into middle school, and registered as a simple cat morph like his mother. Kacchan had gone from a friend to a bully. Everyone followed his example, as they always had. Things hadn’t changed over the years.
The two of them still wanted to be heroes. Izuku knew he could never be a normal one though. Not without using his other powers, which he still didn’t know what they were. Research hadn’t yielded many results other than the fact he apparently had pockets of universes in his mouth. He couldn’t find any when he looked in the mirror, maybe he was a defective Flerken. He was better suited for being an underground hero anyway. Like Eraserhead, one of his favorite heroes. Or Murkrow, another underground hero that could transform into a raven. They were cool.
Izuku still wanted to go to UA though. No matter what anyone else said, he knew he could do it if he tried. If people could handle it before Quirks, then he could while being a cat. Cats were stealthy and sneaky, and he was going to be a good hero whether he was flashy or not. It didn’t matter what Kacchan and Mom said. He would prove them wrong. He would prove them all wrong.
So he worked towards his dreams. Improving his analysis and physical fitness so he could compete with everyone else. He was on analysis notebook number nine right now, and was almost done with it. He could run really far now without getting too winded. Izuku used the forest he had played in when he was small to work out. There were still scorch marks from a tiny Kacchan.
The place wasn’t too far from his house, but he had to be careful going back when it got dark. They lived in a decently populated area, but everywhere was more dangerous once the sun went down. It was hardly sunset when he decided to go back that day.
It was this that lead to what Izuku considered a catalyst in his life. Though at the time it definitely did not seem like that.
Izuku stopped at a store on his way home. His mom and him just needed a few things for dinner that she had forgotten. A quick and easy stop, maybe ten minutes max.
That flew out the window when a knife was held to his throat. One second he was walking to the checkout line, humming a song he had heard on Present Mic’s radio, and the next a robber was behind him with a knife on his neck. Izuku flat out froze where he was, his breathing shallow.
“Don’t try anything funny, kid,” someone growled in his ear.
Izuku felt his Quirk writhe under his skin, attempting to half-shift. For him, he could either full-shift or half-shift. Full was a cat, albeit a green curly one, with everything a cat could do. Half was claw-like nails, cat ears (improved hearing), paw pads, extra hair, and fangs. It depended on how much stress he was under for how obvious some of it was. That had been a surprise to his mother, since most Flerkens couldn’t do half-shifts apparently, minor as the changes were. He had only discovered he could do it a couple months ago. On top of everything else, he had naturally slitted cat-like eyes and vocal cords like one too.
Izuku’s brain was both blank and running in overdrive. Like static that was still speaking. He was pure panic and instincts at this point. Not really a stellar thing, seeing as the part of him that was a cat wanted to either bolt or claw the guy’s arm to shreds.
“Now be a good little hostage and walk.”
Izuku numbly complied. What else was he supposed to do? He was a middle schooler being held at knifepoint in a store. And all he could do was turn into a cat . Actually…that might help for once.
They were approaching the front of the store. Izuku noticed two others at the registers, holding the cashiers there at gunpoint. The other patrons (there were only two, he noted) saw Izuku, and promptly stopped any moves to resist. He wanted to yell, to scream at them to stop the villains even if he was being held with a knife. Nothing would come out. He was too paralyzed with fear to do much other than shuffle forward and try not to go home with another scar.
Izuku took that moment to change into a cat. He could run out of the store and get a hero. Cats were too small to be hostages. Yeah, they would all be ok. No one would get hurt. It’d be ok, it’ll be ok.
But nothing happened. No familiar changing. Not even claws or a bit of fur. Absolutely nothing. And that, that terrified him.
“So you are a transformation type,” the villain sneered. Izuku felt a chill run down his spine. “Now you’re going to hold still until the police get here, and when we get what we want, I'll let my Null go. Got it? ”
He was panicking, not shifting an inch or making a sound. Nothing was working. His mind was just running in circles and repeating the same thing. The villain moved closer. The knife got closer. Sharp. Pointy. Bad, bad, bad .
Izuku’s instincts were screeching in his mind for something, but he didn’t know what. It was deafening. The villain was getting closer. The nearer he and the knife were, the louder Izuku’s head was.
He was scared. So, so scared. Everything tunneled and faded into the background. His heartbeat was too loud. The metal against his neck was too cold. Everything was too dull it was missing something what was missing?
Izuku suddenly snapped away from himself, no longer in full control. Nothing transformed, but…something shifted in him. They were close to the other two criminals now. Izuku didn’t know what that meant, but he knew it was important right now.
He didn’t really think, only moved. His slitted eyes zeroed in on the threats. Before he knew what he was doing, Izuku opened his mouth wide.
And tentacles shot out, along with more mouths. All lined with jagged teeth. Quick as a viper, they lashed out. Growing in size and obscuring Izuku’s vision. He didn’t know what happened.
Izuku was panicking for a whole new reason now. He couldn’t stop…whatever those things were. He took a step to the side, and the things reacted. A whole row of shelves were sent crashing down. He yelped at the noise, but that only made him bite whatever was coming out of his mouth.
He swung himself around, trying to stop whatever he was doing. More shelves were knocked to the ground, some dented and bend. Izuku didn’t know what was happening. Where had the villains gone? What were those things? Why was no one doing anything?
A chunk of the wall was gone when he turned back around. And he tasted it . Plaster was disgusting, he decided.
People were screaming. They were running out of the store now. Where had the villains gone?
Izuku felt exhaustion start to pull at him. Like using a muscle he hadn’t before. He felt heavy. There was a tingling at the back of his head. He was still scared.
A sound finally broke through the din. A voice. Izuku didn’t recognize it, but it calmed him. Enough to hear the words at least.
“Kid! Kid, can you hear me!”
Izuku stopped moving around, listening. He couldn’t talk, so he nodded. The things followed his movement.
“Ok. Ok, so you can hear me now. Kid, you need to stop these.”
Izuku let out a high-pitched whine. He wanted to listen. He wanted to stop and go home , but he didn’t know how .
“It’s ok, kid. Just…try breathing. Calm down a bit. Count with me, ok? 1, 2, 3…”
Izuku closed his eyes and counted along with the voice. His breathing evened out after a few minutes. The things coming out of his mouth didn’t lash out or destroy anything else. The pull of gravity seemed to increase and drag on his bones.
“Ok kid, can you try…uh, sucking them back in?”
Izuku kept his eyes closed, but hummed to let the person know he heard. All he had to do was get the things to go away. Maybe…maybe it was like another tongue or something? Yeah, he’d just have to go with that for now.
The jaws and tentacles retracted back into his mouth without much trouble. Izuku opened his eyes, though his eyelids felt heavy. The…the store was a wreck. Half the shelves were knocked over with their contents on the ground. There was a massive chunk taken out of a side wall, though it didn’t go all the way through. Plaster dust sprinkled the ground around it like snow.
And the villains, the villains were gone. All three of them. One of their guns was one the ground. There was no blood, no scraps of clothing. Nothing left to even suggest they had been there. Everyone else had already evacuated the store.
Had he done this?
Something made a noise off to his left, where the store entrance was. He whipped around, a snarl already on his face with sharpened fangs. The Null, whatever that was, had worn off now. He felt his power, cat morph one this time, come out without him trying. Nails hardened into claws, green fur grew around his hands, and cat ears were flattened against his head. Sounds were louder now, but it let him hear whoever it was approach.
The expression melted like wax when when he saw who it was. He recognized them, the pro hero Eraserhead. Capture weapon on his neck and goggles over his eyes. If he wasn’t so panicked and out of it he would be fanboying. As it was, he was more cat than human right now. Or…Flerken? Was that what that had been?
“Hey kid, you alright now?” Eraserhead asked softly, edging closer.
“Hurt. Tried to hurt me,” Izuku growled, eyeing the approaching man. It wasn’t him speaking, not really.
“I saw what happened, was that your Quirk?”
“Don’t know. Never tried. Only turn into cat, not more. Mom said not more. Listen to Mom.”
“Ok then, questions for later. You sound out of it, kid. Do you need to calm down for a minute?”
Izuku closed his mouth and nodded. Eraserhead came closer, and his ear flicked to listen to the hero. But Izuku trusted him, Eraserhead was his second favorite hero for a reason. He was a good person.
It took a few minutes, but Izuku eventually regained his bearings. The instincts screeching in his head stopped, and he turned back to full human. Eraserhead finally came within arms reach of him. Up close, Izuku could see just how cool his capture weapon was. Though it was funny the man wore it during the day. He was an underground hero, they worked at night, so why was he here?
“You good now kid?”
“I-I’m ok now.”
“Good. Now, can you tell me what that was?”
“I, I don’t know, Sir,” Izuku whispered, shrinking in on himself. “I didn’t mean to, to destroy the s-store.”
“I know you didn’t, kid. No one expects you to keep your head when a weapon’s pointed at you. Come on now, let’s get out of the rubble.”
Izuku nodded and followed Eraserhead out of the ruined store. Once out on the street he saw that there were police cars parked nearby. Oh nononono, they were going to arrest him. He too young to go to jail!
He stayed close behind Eraserhead as they neared the cluster of police. There were a few other heroes there too, Izuku noticed. If he didn’t think he was in danger of getting arrested he would ask for their autograph.
Eraserhead seemed to relax when one of the cops came over. He was dressed in a tan trench-coat and a fedora, which Izuku found funny for someone in the police force. The man walked over, obviously familiar with Eraserhead.
“Eraserhead, nice to see you,” the man greeted. “Do you know what happened here?”
“Three villains, two with guns, one with a knife. Took a hostage in a robbery. Come here, kid.” Izuku cautiously edged closer, coming to stand besides Eraserhead. “A new part of his Quirk emerged, causing the damage. He didn’t know it existed.”
“Ok then, and the villains?”
“That’s…where it gets complicated. His new powers…ate them.”
Tsukauchi blinked at the two of them. “He…ate them.”
“I didn’t mean to!” Izuku blurted. “He, he was h-holding a knife to, to my neck and, and I th-thought I was going to, going to die and I didn’t want to die . I don’t know what happened but then things came out of my mouth and the villains were gone and the store was a mess and I’m so sorry .”
“Hey, hey kid, it’s ok. We know you didn’t mean to,” Eraserhead said quietly, putting a hand on Izuku’s shoulder.
“What’s your name?” Tsukauchi asked.
“I-Izuku Midoriya.”
“Ah, that explains it.” Izuku looked up, and saw the detective looking at him in understanding. “You’re a Flerken, aren’t you?”
Izuku reeled backwards and away from the detective. Hardly anyone knew what Flerkens were anymore. If they did they either knew one personally or they thought they were monsters. He had no way of telling which one this man was.
“A what? Kid, it’s ok. Calm down.” Eraserhead sounded worried. Why was he worried?
The detective put his hands up in surrender. Izuku was tense, ready to run. He couldn’t outrace police cars, but a man with no visible Quirk was feasible. Maybe not Eraserhead though.
“It’s ok, Midoriya. I…I was familiar your father.”
Izuku froze, staring at the man who had his hat in his hands. His…his dad. This man knew his dad. His dad who died before Izuku could even transform. His Flerken dad.
“You, you knew him?”
“I knew him from where he worked, and the villain attack when he died. I was the one who dealt with the hero’s punishment.”
“Oh,” was all Izuku said.
“Mind filling me in,” Eraserhead asked, looking a bit confused.
“Sorry, Eraserhead. Midoriya’s father was a man I knew who died in a villain attack due to creature discrimination.” The man looked to Izuku for a moment, asking a silent question. Izuku nodded, staring at the floor. “They’re Flerkens.”