Chapter Text
"Sorry kid, it's not going to happen", came the almost bored response of Doctor Tsubasa, the local pediatrician and expert on Quirks. All excitement drained from the body of his patient, four year old Izuku Midoriya, who dropped his All Might action figure from the shock and horror of the words his doctor, and grandfather to one of his classmates, has just uttered.
The boys mother, Inko Midoriya gave a concerned gasp, "Oh my, is there something wrong? Most of the other kids in his class have already begun to show signs of manifesting their Quirk. Is there a reason why my little Izuku hasn't yet?"
The doctor gave an annoyed grunt. "Well according to my files you yourself have a minor telekinesis Quirk and the boys' father has a fire breathing Quirk. If Izuku was going to manifest a Quirk he would have started to show the signs of either one of these or a combination of them by now, just like the rest of his class has. Though occasionally there are rare circumstances of a child's Quirk Factor having a mutation that causes them to manifest something completely new, but again he isn't showing any signs of that either."
Inko made a motion with her hand causing the dropped All Might figure to slowly float up to her, her brows furrowed in confusion. "While those are our Quirks and he hasn't shown any signs of anything relating to them manifesting yet, how can you be sure it isn't anything completely new from a mutation? He has that little gem imbedded in his forehead that's been there since the day he was born. Surely that has to be connected to to such a mutation considering no one on either side of our families has one", she points out, while Izuku reaches up and pokes at the mentioned jewel, hoping that it could mean something, anything.
Doctor Tsubasa sighs, hating it when parents try giving their kids false hope like this. "Mrs. Midoriya, while normally I would agree with you that such a feature might mean something along those lines, as I have seen it before, I must direct your attention to this x-ray we took of Izuku's foot earlier", he explained, pointing to the left of two x-rays he had, "and alongside of it a secondary x-ray of another child's foot who is confirmed to have a Quirk. Please take note of specifically their pinky toes. Do you see the difference between them?"
"Yes", Inko replied, wondering exactly where he was going with this, as it seemed like quite the odd thing to point out, especially as she had vaguely remembered her husband Hisashi mentioning something on this a while back, though she was trying to remember what exactly.
"Well, not too long after Quirks started appearing, lots of studies were done to try and find out what was causing them. While the results on the cause were inconclusive, a link between the points of a pinky toe and a persons likely hood to manifest quirk were found. With the manifestation of quirks it was found people had one less joint in that specific toe. And Izuku here has an extra toe joint", the doctor explained and then quickly held up his hand to stop Inko, who had just remembered what it was Hisashi had told her, from interrupting him, "as for that gem in the kids forehead, despite no one in your family currently having such a mutation, it is highly likely a family member from a few generations ago had such a mutation and it is, at best, a vestigial mutation, kinda like the green hair your and the kid have, that skipped a few generations. While not something a baseline human would have had before the Dawn of Quirks, it doesn't automatically make it a quirk."
"Are there no other tests that can be done just to be absolutely sure?", Inko asks, handing Izuku back his All Might figure before placing her hand on his back and rubbing it in a circular motion to try and comfort her son as he gripped the figure to his chest like a lifeline, tears streaming from his eyes.
"There are... but there is really no point in doing them due to the x-rays, as most of them are for Quirks with tricky activation requirements, to see what the full extent of the Quirk is, and other similar circumstances. Things not readily apparent at first glance. We'd just be wasting time and resources to do them and have you come back a week from now only to be told the same", Doctor Tsubasa replied, suppressing a a growl as he was nearing the end of his patience with this woman.
Inko let out an annoyed huff, barely holding back her own anger over this to not yell as she picked up Izuku. "Well then Doctor Tsubasa, thank you... for absolutely wasting our time and traumatizing my child with worthless crackpot science"
Doctor Tsubasa let out an incredulous snort at the woman's accusation, "What do you mean crackpot science. This has been tried and true test for nearly the last two hundred years."
Inko glared to the old man before replying harshly, "My husband Hisashi is a Research Assistant to one of I-Islands top support technicians and a massive quirk enthusiast. A couple years ago he got to meet with one of the worlds top Quirkologists who lives on the island, Doctor Orochimaru Sannihebi", Doctor Tsubasa's eyes widen and his complexion pales at hearing that name, "and they talked shop about quirks for a number of hours. When he came home to visit, Hisashi couldn't shut up about everything they talked about, including one important detail."
Doctor Tsubasa began to break out into a cold sweat as he realized what was coming, because had he known Hisashi Midoriya was an I-Island researcher, he would have likely handled this particular child and parent differently. Because while he didn't know Hisashi's profession a few minutes, he DEFINITELY knew Inko Midoriya's. She was considered a rising star in Japan's legal world. He knew that if lawyers were to have a ranking similar to heroes, she would be considered their next version of that blonde buffoon All Might. And she KNEW he was using outdated medical information. He gulped as the woman continued.
"He said they talked about about how the Toe Joint X-Ray had been disproven as the best indicator for Quirklessness for at least a decade, going from 95% down to 33%. And before you try to backtrack and say you will run the tests now, save it. You will be hearing from my offices before the end of the week. Goodbye 'Doctor' Tsubasa", Inko said with such barely restrained venom that Tsubasa could hear the quotation marks around his title as she stormed out of his office.
A dark voice chuckled over the intercom, causing 'Tsubasa' to flinch as he looked up, "Well, that could have gone better doctor. Would you like to have her eliminated to prevent future problems?"
Doctor 'Tsubasa' quickly composed himself before answering, "While I would normally say yes Master, someone like her would cause too many issues if we were to do so. Especially with that blonde buffoon sniffing around, and I would be of no more use to you if they managed to find me. Besides this particular identity has pretty much run it's course. With this Doctor Tsubasa will quietly fade away into obscurity and allow me to resume one of my other identities almost seamlessly"
"If you're sure then who am I to argue. Though I must ask, just what kind of Quirk did that child have that caused you to act so out of character? While I could tell it wasn't one we could make use of, you're usually not so forceful in your dismissiveness", the dark voice over the intercom asked, genuinely curious.
"Bah. It was nothing more than a cheap imitation of your glorious Quirk All For One. A simple Copy Quirk. Honestly, the gall of such Quirks to exist", the doctor says, some of his earlier ire returning.
All For One let out a chuckle, "Oh don't be so hard on the child Doctor. It's not his fault nature tried and failed to reproduce what it did with me. Even more so as there has yet to be any heroes with such a Quirk. Poor child wouldn't have made it anyway. Speaking of children, it is almost time for Tomura's check up. Get to work on that as well as giving me up update on Project Warp.
"Of course Master"