Chapter Text
Each morning, Izuku would take care to listen to what his magic friend had to say. Sometimes the information was clear, but other times it was vague.
While still a loner among his classmates and either scorned or pitied by most adults, Izuku had a growing positive reputation in the surrounding neighborhood, especially among older people. His quirk would often let him know when people needed help, so Izuku would often wander over and help people carry groceries or pull weeds in their garden.
… a strange amount of cats in trees, as well. Izuku was practicing climbing quite often now and was getting rather good at tree-climbing. It was becoming a favorite activity.
His mama loved how helpful he was and whenever someone asked how he always managed to be in the right place at the right time, he’d proudly announce, “My imaginary friend said you needed help!” to which the person would coo and think he was adorable.
School wasn’t going so well, though.
Izuku sniffed. “Kacchan hit me with his quirk!” On purpose, is what Izuku didn’t say.
“Oh, Izuku. You should know not to play with Bakugou. He has such a powerful quirk and he’s still getting used to it! He plays so rough, and you don’t have a quirk to protect yourself,” the teacher said, walking Izuku to the nurse’s office.
Izuku knew that essentially all of the other kids’ quirks wouldn’t allow them to ‘protect themselves’ from explosions (Tsubasa’s wings or the extendable fingers, for example) but the teacher never said those types of things to them. And he knew that quirkless people weren’t more fragile than anyone else because of the story Mrs. Ishida told him about Mr. al-Tusi. He’d been a firefighter that saved tons of people, and he was quirkless!
Both the nurse and the teacher chastised Izuku for not being careful as the nurse put cream on and wrapped his burn. Instead of lecturing Bakugou for hitting him with his quirk, they were lecturing him about not being reckless. Izuku thought it was ridiculous and he knew his imaginary friend would agree, because his imaginary friend was always right. This is fine, Izuku thought. It doesn’t matter. They can think I’m fragile all they want, but I’m going to be like Mr. al-Tusi! I’m going to save-
Izuku cut off his thoughts. Save people. He still really wanted to, but he didn’t let himself think about being a hero nowadays. It would just make him sad. As Mrs. Bakugou picked both him and Kacchan (Izuku’s mom still thought they were friends, and during almost every ride home Kacchan ignored him viciously) he thought a little more about his magic friend and suddenly realized he’d never figured out his friend’s name! How rude of him!
Before he went to bed that night, he thought really hard about wanting to know his magic friend’s name. Then, he went to sleep.
I’m sorry, child, but I have no name.
Good luck on your math test today.
Izuku snapped awake. His friend didn’t have a name? That was completely unfair! He was going to have to pick one. That would cheer them up.
Mm… Mizuko? No, doesn’t quite fit. Akio? No, not that one either,
Anzu?
He smiled to himself. He liked that name. Anzu.
I’m part of your quirk, that is what’s true,
Despite the fact no one would believe you.
Izuku threw his pillow on the floor. He didn’t understand why Anzu kept insisting they were part of his quirk. His mom said Anzu wasn’t part of his quirk, that everyone had imaginary friends, and that even some imaginary friends gave them poems.
He huffed and thought hard about it. Maybe it was because of Anzu’s magic? His mom didn’t say whether it was normal for an imaginary friend to be magical. He nodded to himself. That was probably it.
He thought about whether he should tell his mom, but decided not. Anzu said, Despite the fact no one would believe you, which meant nobody would actually believe him about it. If the poems were his quirk at all. Izuku sighed, feeling down. He wasn’t sure if he had a quirk and even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to tell his mom and classmates about it yet until he figured out how to prove it.
To cheer himself up, he decided to take his math homework and go see Mrs. Ishida. She would help him do it, and she would give him a lemonade and let him see Muffins. He smiled softly to himself. That would be nice.