Chapter Text
“Mommy, something’s wrong.” I walked up to my mother and pulled on her pants, the only thing I could reach at the time, even though she was sitting down at her desk. I was a very short child. It was two days past my fourth birthday and the unexplained phenomenon had only gotten worse.
“What’s wrong honey?” Mom shut her computer and turned to face me.
“I can’t remember.” I replied and my mother just smiled and shook her head.
“Okay, well come back when you remember what’s wrong okay” Mom moved to go back to her work, but I stopped her.
“No, I mean I can’t remember anything!” This immediately got my mother’s attention as she twirled around to face me in record time.
“What do you mean?” I could hear the panic in her voice even though she tried to hide it.
“Well, a few seconds ago I woke up playing with the finger paints, but I don’t remember doing that. The last thing I remember is leaving school yesterday, but now it’s not yesterday; it’s today. I don’t understand what’s happening!” I started to panic, because I had never heard of anything like this and didn’t understand what was going on.
“Okay, calm down Izuku. Are you sure you can’t remember anything else?” Mom asked her question and I thought really hard about the answer.
“I mean, I can remember things from before, but I can only remember school from yesterday!” I answered.
“So this started yesterday?” My mom asked another question and I nodded. “That means one of two things, but we’re going to ignore the other option for right now. Izuku, honey, this could be part of your quirk, okay. Do you understand that?”
“This could be my quirk?! I got my quirk?!” My fear over the unknown dissipated as I latched on to the idea. I’ve always wanted to have my quirk ever since Kacchan got his. He has such a cool quirk, perfect for a hero.
“I’m not sure yet. Give me one moment and I’ll get an appointment with a quirk specialist. Does that sound good with you?” My mother asked. I immediately yelled ‘yes’ and ran to get my shoes.
Fifteen minutes later, although it felt like forever to me, my mom and I were in the car, driving towards the quirk specialist. The entire building was white, from the hallways to the rooms. Nurses, doctors, and therapists mosied around. It was a very plain place, but I looked around in awe. The two of us stopped in a waiting room, other kids around my age talking quietly.
“Hey, mom.” She looked over towards me. “Do you think I’ll have a powerful quirk?”
She smiled. “Of course honey. Quirks are very interesting things. I’m sure yours has a bunch of different aspects of it yet to be discovered.” I smiled as well. This is so cool!
Thirty minutes after that we were finally called into a room. A nurse was waiting for us and started asking me questions.
“So what have you been noticing that’s weird?” Her voice was very kind and smooth. Her smile was the same.
“My memory is missing entire sections of the day!” I proudly said exactly what my mom had told me to. The nurse’s eyes widened in surprise before getting her composer back.
“Wow! Can you tell me more about that?” At this point my mom cut in and told her how I have been interacting with her basically the same throughout the day but apparently cannot remember anything I did.
Thus the tests started. Well, there wasn’t really anything to do because you can’t really test memory loss, but they brought in someone to make sure it was my quirk. Apparently that person’s quirk allowed them to see an aura around where someone’s quirk affects. My aura was mostly around my head. Still, even with the lack of tests that normally had to happen, it still took a whole hour for them to finally decide what my quirk is.
“At the moment we cannot truly say what your son’s quirk is capable of Mrs. Midoriya. The only thing we really know is that it takes away his memory for parts of the day. I’m sorry you had to stay here so long to only really leave with the same knowledge you started with. But, that’s how it usually is in children. The more your son grows and tries to use this quirk the more functions and hidden abilities he may find. Now,” he turns to me, “what would you like to call it?”
I start thinking, but my mom cuts in before I can say anything. “How about Memory Lapse?” She recommends.
“Perfect!” I yell. Wow, I can’t believe I’ve finally gotten a quirk! Hmmm, I definitely need to practice it or else I’ll never be a hero. But how? I went through a lot of options, but I didn’t have enough control over my power to do basically anything. So I asked my mom.
“Oh I don’t know honey. How about you start with something small, like trying to remember the parts of the days you forget, and then go from there!”
I know! I can’t remember stuff, so I’ll just write it down! If Mom’s right and I do everything normally, then I will probably be able to write down whatever I do! It’s perfect.
My internal monologue ended right as the car was parked. Not even waiting for Mom to get out of the car I bolt out and run to our apartment. Sadly the door was locked so I had to wait but that only took a couple seconds. Once it was open I rushed into my room, got a piece of paper and a pen, and wrote a note.
‘Hi! Ef ur seyng this an don reemember ryting et then wir the saym! Pleez reespond!’ (Translation: Hi! If your seeing this and don’t remember writing it then we’re the same! Please respond!)
As soon as I put the pencil down I blanked.
~***~
I blinked a bit in confusion. For some reason I was in a completely different room than I was a few minutes ago. And the sun was back up. What was happening? Slipping off my bed I walked to the kitchen where my mom was talking on the phone.
“..just don’t understand! This is nothing like Hasashi or my quirks, how did this happen?...Yeah I guess...Wow really?...Okay well maybe we can figure out how to turn it off, it’s pretty inconvenient honestly..yeah..okay bye.” Seeing she was finished I spoke up.
“Hey mommy? What happened..” She looked concerned and kind of scared, I couldn’t help but feel like it was my fault.
“Honey, your quirk came in.. do you remember what happened?” She asked carefully. I shook my head. “Turns out your quirk makes your memory spotty. We’ll work on figuring how to turn it off together though! So it’s fine!” It didn’t seem fine, she looked worried. I smiled though, pretending to fall for her false optimism.
“Okay mommy! Well I’m going to go play with All Might!” I said before running back to my room to play with my action figures. It was then I noticed the note on my desk. It was written in my handwriting.
‘Hi! Ef ur seeing this an don reemember ryting et then wir the saym! Pleez reespond!’ I certainly didn’t remember writing it so I responded with ‘I didnt ryte it’ (Translation: I didn’t write it) and went back to playing heroes.
I was interrupted a couple hours later by my mom calling me for dinner. Running in I slid onto my seat and smiled wide at the sight of Katsudon, my favorite.
“Thanks mommy!” I shouted in excitement.
“You’re welcome.” She smiled, though I could see that she seemed off. I didn’t comment.
We ate in silence until she spoke up. “So I was thinking we could work some with your quirk? See if we can control it?” I smiled brightly.
“Yeah! I bet it’ll be helpful when I become a hero! Maybe I can use it on other people too, to make them forget or remember stuff or something?”
She looked even more pale. “W-well maybe we can work on using it on other people when you get older, we wouldn’t want someone to forget something important.”
“Okay mommy..” I was a little disheartened but let it slide.
“I-. Listen Izuku..I don’t know how good of an idea it would be to be a hero anymore.” She was clearly trying to say it nicely but I still felt tears fill my eyes.
“W-what, why?! I have a quirk don't I?!
“It’s not fit for hero work okay? I’m worried you’ll be hurt if you try to go down the hero path. Or you might forget useful information during an investigation, or about a certain villain.. I think you’d just get in the way..”
She looked like she wanted to take it back but it wasn’t like she was wrong. That didn’t stop me from crying though. She got up and wrapped her arms around me. “I’m so sorry, I wish it was different!” That wasn’t what I needed though..
As with last night when my mom tried to put me to sleep I found myself restless. I quietly took out my toys and played heroes. At a certain point I began to zone out and felt weird, like I wasn’t really there. After a few moments of staring and blinking I was gone.
~***~
I was pushed into consciousness by something I didn’t understand yet. I looked around the vaguely familiar room and saw that, as before, it was dark out. However, unlike before, there was a note sitting on the desk.
Wait, so there are others than just me! That’s sooo cool! I can’t believe it! I wonder if they’re going through the same things I am! Like the weird forgetting stuff and then suddenly waking up in a room you don’t remember. Although, the last time this happened to me I just stayed in this room. That was super weird. I was soo confused. I guess I’m still confused, but at least there is someone else going through this! Two people! That’s great! Wait, I guess I should probably tell them I’m here too! Hmm, what to write.
I slowly made my way over to where the note and the single pen laid on the desk and began to write. ‘i dident ryte it to. iem yamikumo. who aer you?’ (Translation: I didn’t write it too. I’m yamikumo. Who are you?) There, that seems good enough.
With that done, I began to explore the room. Even though it was extremely late out, I felt no need to go to sleep, actually, I had never felt the need to go to sleep, which I do believe isn’t normal.
The room was covered in All Might merch, along with other hero merchandise. I slowly inspected the room, picking things up and moving them to possibly discover why I am where I am, and also learn about the person whose room I was currently in. So far, all I had discovered was they really loved heroes. Every corner of the room was covered in something related to them. I even leafed through a few books only to discover that they were based on All Might or someone similar. Wow, this person really wants to be a hero.
Soon, almost all of the room was reorganized, because it was a mess and I can’t understand how anyone could sleep at night with all of those faces staring directly into their souls.
During the reorganization I had discovered a few trinkets that I began to play with as I waited for my time to leave. What I had was a few paper clips and some missing pencils. Slowly, but surely, I began to wrap the paper clips around the bottom of the pencil and folded them how I wanted them to look.
“Okay,” I talked to myself quietly for some reason. I guess there was someone else in the house that I didn’t want to wake up. “If the paper clips go at this angle while wrapped around the pencil like this, then it should be able to stand up on its own!”
A few minutes later, and some destroyed paper clips later, I created a pencil that standed perfectly upright.
“Wow! That was really fun! I hope the others enjoy my little gift for them.” At that point I had realized that my time was almost up, or at least, this is when I went ‘to sleep’ last time, but who knows. “I hope I can do this again, it was nice to leave a note for the others, and who knows, maybe there will be another one!”
~***~
Oh, I’m in my room! I turned to look at the clock. Wow it’s been a long time! I didn’t know I could look at those pictures for that long! Wait, I must’ve not eaten. But... I don’t feel hungry. Well, whatever I guess. I look around to try and find the book I was looking at. It was a bunch of landscapes, some with paintings of them next to it, others just by themself. They were so pretty!
It’s … not here. I guess I must have put it some other place. I get up and start walking towards the bookshelf to try and find it. While I was walking, I saw a new piece of paper on my desk. I didn’t write that. Maybe it was Mom? Now curious, I go pick it up.
“What is this? Who’s Yamikumo?” I pick up the pencil next to it and write a little note.
‘wat iz hapening? im akatani mikuno. Ho ar you?’ Satisfied with my answer, I go back to finding my book. I’m sure this will all be explained later. I also notice that there’s a standing pencil on my desk as well. I didn’t make that either. Strange.
Quickly I turn on my light and go back to the bookshelf, finding it quite easily. By the time I’ve gotten into my bed I’ve found my page and are looking at the landscapes once again. A couple seconds afterwards my mom opens the door and pokes her head in.
“Izuku?” She keeps calling me that. Is Izuku a nickname for Mikumo? “It’s three o’clock in the morning, what are you doing up?” I kinda motioned to my book. “Did you have trouble sleeping.” I shake my head. She looks at me strange but then just kind of shrugs, “Well, okay then. I’m going to turn off the light and you need to go to sleep. I know you can sleep late tomorrow but still.” With that the woman flicked the light switch, closed my door, and went back to doing whatever she was before she saw my light.
Placing the book next to my bed I laid down, pulling my All Might covers up to my chin. Why do I have so much All Might merch? I mean, he’s a good hero but I’m not obsessed with him. I guess they were presents? There’s been a lot of strange things happening.
Weirdly, even though it was three in the morning, I wasn’t tired at all. Probably because the only thing I had been doing was reading and thinking. For the entire day. But whatever the case was it took me another hour for me to fall asleep.