Of Quirks and Miracles

by Starlight (Fandom_Eclipse)

Summary:

Mira-bella

So dinner was a total disaster and I ruined Isabela’s engagement, but on the plus side I found Tío Bruno!

He apparently spent the last decade living in the walls of Casita with the rats. So that's a thing.

 

Midori129

I’m sorry, he *what*

 

When Abuela's quirk starts to fail, Mirabel asks for help on an online quirk forum. She receives it in the form of a certain Midoriya Izuku. Neither are entirely prepared for what's about to happen, but at least they'll have a friend with them.

Notes:

Hey everyone! So instead of posting the dozens of wips I've been working on over the last four years, I threw this together. Could it be better? Yes, but there aren't nearly enough crossovers for this yet and I wanted to give these two a friend.

As of now I've only written the events of Encanto, but I have ideas for more if time allows and people are interested. But for now, enjoy!

Chapter 1: Sick of Waiting on a Miracle (So Here I Go)

ADMIN: Welcome to QuirkHelp! Mind the  community guidelines pinned on the front page, violators will be banned!

 

Mira-bella

If anyone here is good with quirks can you please DM me? My grandmother’s quirk is failing and it’s a little bit of an emergency since she uses it 24/7 and nobody believes me when I tell them that somethings wrong and I don’t want anyone to get hurt.

 

   fallenashhoroscps

   its probs just age, my grandmas quirk stopped working when she was in her 70s

 

      gentlemany

      ^^ What they said, people’s quirks sometimes get weaker when they’re older.

 

   pikachurro

   wat do u mean ur the only 1 who notices?? think itd be pretty obvi to ur fam

 

   Mightier-than-thou

   Honestly the new generation is so dependent on their quirks, thinking its an emergency when something stops working once or twice.

 

      Mira-bella

      Well considering her quirk controls and maintains the house, I think it’s reasonable to get worried when it starts falling apart!!

Direct Messages: 

 

Midori129

Hey, um I saw your post about your grandmother's quirk and I’m not a professional but I like to study quirks as a hobby and it’s probably not that great but the comments didn’t seem to be helpful and I was thinking maybe I could offer some help until someone more qualified comes along?

 

Maybe? Please forgive me if this is too forward

 

Feel free to ignore this if I made you uncomfortable!!

Mira-bella

Nonono don’t worry! Any help is great, I have no idea what I’m doing and I live in a small town so the internet is my only option. I've been online all night but nothing seems like it’ll help.

Midori129

Okay! So, can you tell me more about your grandmothers quirk? And does anyone in the family have a similar one?

Mira-bella

Give me a minute to type everything, english isn’t my first language so I’m a bit slow!

 

So Abuela’s quirk is officially called ‘velatar’, kinda a combination of the words vela (candle) and atar (to tie/bind). I think originally she could link candle flames and modify them? Basically she could add separate flames to a ‘system’ that would regulate them, so they’d all burn the same size, brightness, color, etc that she could modify at will, but she couldn’t change the candles themselves so they’d still burn out at different times.

 

Her quirk mutated when Abuelo (he could make butterflies out of light) was killed in a villain attack. She now has a single, quirk fueled candle that causes miracles?? Nobody can figure out exactly what it can do or control it, but it reshaped the mountains around us, created Casita (our family house, it’s sentient and controls itself and takes care of us), and on the fifth birthday of each of Abuela’s descendants it awakens their quirk and grants them a room in Casita designed perfectly for them. I think her quirk does a bit more, since our town seems to have some form of magical barrier so people with bad intentions can’t enter?

 

Everyone else’s quirks are unrelated; Tía Pepa’s mood can change the weather, Mamá’s cooking has healing properties, (Tío Bruno had some sort of future-seeing quirk but he disappeared so we don’t talk about him), my cousins Dolores, Camilo, and Antonio have enhanced hearing, people-based shapeshifting, and can talk to animals respectively (their father and mine are quirkless, most of town is). And for my older sisters, Isabela can grow flowers and Luisa has super strength.

 

Anyway cracks are forming in Casita (it heals before anyone else sees but I know it’s real because I cut my hand on a fallen roof tile) and I’m gonna try interrogating my family on what they know but really any help would be great please.

Midori129

Okay,, first thank you very much for sharing all that but please don’t give all your family’s info out online!!

 

Second--wow! Your family’s quirks are so cool! I’d love analyzing them all later but for now I’ll focus on your aubela

 

Oh

 

But first, what’s your quirk? 

 

You don’t have to say it if you don’t want, I know I just said not to share info!

Mira-bella

I, ah, don’t have one?

 

My awakening ceremony failed and my room dissolved so…yeah.

 

Sorry

Midori129

No don’t worry! I’m sorry for being insensitive!!

 

I’m

 

I’m quirkless too, the only one in my neighborhood so I get it

Mira-bella

The only one?

Midori129

Haha yeah, I live over in Japan, the quirkless are only 4% over here and most of those are adults/elderly so,, yeah

 

I’m guessing you’re also the useless one in your family?

 

Sorry!! that was way too harsh, I just got out of school so it’s at the front of my mind, I promise I’ll be better about it in a few hours if you still want to talk then!

Mira-bella

It’s fine, I was just a little surprised, Japan is very far from here (I live in Colombia)

 

I don’t think anyone’s called me useless directly, but…yeah. 

 

Most of my town is quirkless so it doesn’t get too bad, but I’m the only child of my family without a quirk so it’s different. I try to help the community like the rest of my family, I just get in the way a lot

 

Which is why I have to help fix everything! The town relies on my family, and if I can’t do anything else at least I can help them help others!

Midori129

Right!

 

So can your abuela still link candlelights or did that disappear with the mutation? And do you know if you have any other quirked relatives?

Mira-bella

I think all her power goes to the main candle? She mentioned that she can’t feel the same connection with candles anymore, so she mostly focuses on running the family and town. 

 

But Casita itself is full of candles that light themselves and don’t need changing so maybe?

 

And no, quirks didn’t really spread over here that quickly. I think Abuela said that she and Abuelo bonded over being first generation quirk users.

Midori129

Okay, so I think we need to figure out more about Casita, since it seems to be the biggest part of her quirk other than being able to awaken the quirks of her descendants. 

 

The internet says you’re about 14 hours behind me so you should probably get some sleep. I’ll be online all weekend, so message whenever you find something and let’s solve this together!!

Mira-bella

Yes! Thank you so much, it’s such a relief to not be doing this alone anymore. (I took down my original help post since I was just getting spam on it)

 

Casita wants me to tell you that they’ll be helping too, though they’re not able to tell us any more about the quirk.

Midori129

Tell Casita thanks!

 

Oh, and I’m Izuku by the way. You shared a lot so I figured you at least deserve my name.

Mira-bella

That’s a cool name! I’m Mirabel.

Notes:

So that's chapter one! I'm thinking this will be about five chapters--I have most of it written out already. Ideally I'll be posting once a week, though no promises :3

Chapter 2: Pretty Sure I'm Worthless (If I Can't be of Service)

Mira-bella

¡Buenos días!

 

I’m going to try tracking down Dolores before breakfast and ask her what she knows.

Midori129

Your cousin with superhearing? That’s so smart!!

 

If nothing else she can probably hear what’s happening in Casita’s walls so she should believe you that something’s wrong at least.

Mira-bella

That’s the idea!

 

Okay so she said the only ones worried about the gift (that’s another word for quirks over here) are me, the rats in the walls, and Luisa.

 

So I guess I’ll ask her next?

Midori129

Your sister with super strength?

Mira-bella

That’s the one! Dolores said she could hear her eyes twitch nervously all night.

Midori129

…I just want you to know that as soon as we’re done solving this that I want to hear everything about your family.

 

I could spend days analyizing just one of them, they sound so strong!

Mira-bella

Yeah, my family’s amazing!

Midori129

You’re pretty cool too, you know

 

I mean, you’re really dedicated to helping everyone even though they don’t believe you!

 

I’m just gonna shut up now.

Mira-bella

Don’t worry, that was really sweet  ^o^

 

(Did I do that right?)

 

I’m trying to track down Luisa while she’s doing chores, it’s so hard!!

 

One second I think I found her rearranging town square to accommodate for the changing shape of the town (lots of marriages and new families moving in these last few weeks), but she’s already left!

 

She already started rerouting the river yesterday but I guess she has to do it again?

Midori129

Wait, she’s using her quirk?

 

Don’t you guys have laws on quirk use?

 

(Yes it looks right ( • ω • ) )

Mira-bella

Not really, just that if you damage anything you’re responsible for fixing it

 

Okay, I found her regathering escaped donkeys, give you an update in a bit!

 

Hey, you study people too? Not just quirks?

Midori129

Not as much, but yeah. Why?

Mira-bella

Are there any big drawbacks to having a strength quirk?

 

Not physical ones I mean

Midori129

Well…it’s not really a result of the quirk itself. But at least where I live, there’s a lot of pressure for people with strength-based quirks to go into heroics.

 

They also get in the most trouble for property damage, generally they get blamed for anything that can’t be directly traced to other people.

 

So even though they’re generally seen in a good light, most of the time that means that they’re under a lot of expectations to be reliable and have good control but can’t really go to anyone for help since they’re expected to be the strong ones. It's actually a bit of a problem here; there aren't many quirk counsellors specifically for strength quirks since it's expected that either their parents will help or they'll learn to handle it themselves if they want to live a normal life.

 

Does that make sense?

Mira-bella

Yeah…my sister kinda had a breakdown when I told her she was overworking herself. Her quirk is one of the most versatile ones in the family so she generally has the most chores out of all of us.

 

I always wanted to be like her, having a quirk like that to be useful…but…it feels more like luck now.

Midori129

Over here, someone’s quirk defines everything about them.

 

Jobs, how people treat you, what schools will accept you, how much you’re paid, and more. There are arguments online that they're a fundamental part of your personality (it's a common opinion of anti-quirkless articles, saying that the lack of something that's such a large part of someone in the current era makes them less than the quirked).

 

I don’t know, being quirkless sucks since you’re seen as worthless, but even if they don’t think I’ll do anything in life and nothing will be given easily to me…I’m kinda glad that I get to pick what I want to do.

 

If all my options are equally unachievable, at least I get to choose what dream to follow, since it doesn’t matter.

Mira-bella

Yeah. I think that’s a bit more extreme than over here, but that’s a good way of putting it.

 

Anyway! Luisa gave me a new lead to follow.

 

Apparently last night when I saw Casita cracking, she felt her strength weaken. 

Midori129

Weaken? 

 

If Abuela’s quirk can awaken other quirks…maybe it does more than that. If she used to be able to link and change the properties of candle flames, maybe the mutation meant she can do that with quirks?

 

It doesn’t explain Casita, but it’s the only thing that I can think of that makes sense.

Mira-bella

Yeah, we need more clues. Before she left, Luisa said Tío Bruno had a vision of Casita falling before he disappeared.

Midori129

The uncle with the future-telling quirk?

Mira-bella

That’s the one. Nobody knows what he saw, but Luisa told me to look for the vision in his old tower in Casita??

 

How do you even find a vision?

Midori129

Maybe he wrote it down somewhere?

 

And tower??

Mira-bella

When the family’s quirks awaken, Casita forms a room designed for them. Casita expands as the family gets bigger, so space isn’t a problem!

 

Each bedroom has a glowing door with their name and a design of them and their quirks, and a room way larger on the inside that suits their quirks (mine dissolved when I failed to manifest a quirk).

 

When Tío Bruno left, his door stopped glowing and my family said his room began to fall apart, so we got banned since it’s dangerous.

Midori129

Wait.

 

If you get a room when your quirk manifests, what about people without quirks?

Mira-bella

Those that marry into the family sleep with their spouses (is that the right word? It looks weird), but kids live together in the nursery, a normal room until their ceremony.

 

I, uh…never left.

 

But hey, it’s just me most of the time so it’s kinda like having my own room!

Midori129

…that’s not right.

 

You know that’s not okay, right? Isn’t Casita sentient? Can’t they make you a room anyway, even without a quirk?

 

(and yes, spouse is right)

Mira-bella

…a little. I asked, but everyone just kinda shrugged it off and Casita couldn’t answer me.

 

Can we focus on fixing the house?

Midori129

Of course! How far are you from your uncle’s room?

Mira-bella

I just stepped in, there’s another doorway, it’s covered by this sand waterfall.

 

Casita can’t follow me in, I think Bruno leaving must’ve broken the room’s connection to the rest of the house.

 

Why is there is so much sand in here

 

Um

 

Just, look at this

 

Mira-bella sent an image

Midori129

…you meant it when you said the rooms were bigger on the inside.

 

That’s a long way up…did you have to take it in panoramic mode just to show the whole thing?

 

That’s got to be at least ten stories tall…so many stairs…

Mira-bella

Ha ha, yeah…

 

…but at least I’ll have a friend?

Midori129

Yep! I’ll be cheering you on from here the whole time!!

Mira-bella

¡Thanks!

There are too many stairs here, you’d think there would be a better way up

Midori129

Well, if Casita used to be able to influence the room before your uncle left, there was probably a shortcut.

 

I’d guess that one of the boulders at the bottom used to rise to that top ledge, like an elevator or something.

Mira-bella

Life hates me.

Midori129

Why? I mean, like, specifically?

Mira-bella

I think I found where the lift is supposed to go.

 

Mira-bella sent an image

Midori129

Hm…doesn’t look close enough to make a jump…

Mira-bella

I’m going to try taking the rope from the guide posts and swinging across…

 

Wish me luck?

Midori129

Good luck! I believe in you!!

 

You can do this Mirabel!!!

Mira-bella

Made it!

 

There was a scary moment when the part of the platform I landed on fell away, but I’m okay!

 

 I’m going inside, there’s a lot of stone so I think I’ll lose signal for a bit so I’ll update you later

Midori129

Okay, stay safe!

Notes:

THIS SCENE DRIVES ME INSANE. I spent half an hour trying to figure out how the stairs work in the movie, and my final conclusion is that they simply don't. I have no idea what was going on when they animated this, but someone didn't keep track of the environment and it hurts my soul.

Anyway, thank you all for the overwhelming support on the last chapter! I can't say I've ever seriously started thinking of a sequel before even finishing the first work, and yet here we are XD

Next time: We talk about Bruno (and a few others).

Chapter 3: Someday be Mine (How Far do These Roots go Down?)

Mira-bella

This is way later than I thought I’d message but a lot happened at once.

 

So Tío Bruno’s visions apparently will crystalize into a single image of glowing glass when he’s done, I found shards of his last vision scattered all over this sort of ceremonial room which I accidentally got locked it which was bad when it started to collapse but I got out and was heading back to my room when I ran into Abuela and Luisa came to us crying about how her quirk is no longer working and so I started asking around about Bruno.

 

And it turns out that all his predictions were bad news, like how he told Tía Pepa it would rain on her wedding day and it ending up becoming a huracán and talked about people’s health declining and their loves being out of reach (except my perfect sister Isabela, I think she got the only good vision along with all the good luck), which was bad considering I saw a glimpse of myself in the vision shards so I ran to go assemble it and well.

 

Mira-bella sent an image

 

Pá walked in on me assembling it and I kinda confessed to breaking into Bruno’s tower and we were planning on hiding it but Dolores overheard and she’s horrible at keeping secrets and I’m going down for dinner soon and I’m terrified.

 

Midori129

Okay ignoring how cool that quirk is and everything else

 

You’re not responsible for anything bad happening.

 

I know what it looks like, and you’re going to be the easiest person to blame, but this is not your fault. 

 

Quirks change based on someone’s mental state. My current theory is that at the ceremony, Abuela’s quirk connects to the child’s, boosting its power so that it either immediately expresses itself (like with enhancements, shapeshifting, plant growth) or the doors revealed them (cooking that heals, possibly future sight depending on how it activates).

 

Luisa’s fear of being weak and overworking herself combined with Abuela’s quirk no longer boosting her is what’s causing her to fail. I’m willing to bet money that Bruno’s visions were all bad because he stopped looking whenever things started going wrong. 

 

The vision doesn’t show you actively destroying Casita. Honestly you’re probably being shown because you’re the main one who reacted to the cracks--everything is up to interpretation with prediction-based quirks.

Mira-bella

…thank you.

 

I’m going to go down to dinner. Isabela is getting proposed to tonight, so hopefully I can get Dolores to keep this secret until later.

Midori129

Okay! I believe in you!!

Mira-bella

SO

 

Dinner was a total disaster and I ruined Isabela’s engagement, but on the plus side I found Tío Bruno!

 

He apparently spent the last decade living in the walls of Casita with the rats. So that’s a thing.

Midori129

I’m sorry, he *what*

Mira-bella

Yeah so when he had that vision the night my ceremony failed, it showed two outcomes from different angles. The one I already sent, and this.

 

Mira-bella sent an image

 

And he was scared what would happen because by that point he already had a bad reputation and he knew how it was going to look…so he smashed the vision and hid.

Midori129

Wow…that’s a lot.

 

At least now we know that Casita can be saved!

 

Wait, you said he was still living in Casita?

Mira-bella

¿Yeah?

Midori129

Shouldn’t Dolores have heard him?

Mira-bella

…this morning she said the rats talking in the walls were worried about Casita cracking.

 

I’m an idiot! She’s bad at keeping secrets but is fine after she shares them, even if you don’t understand it.

 

She’s probably been talking about Bruno for the last ten years and nobody noticed!

Midori129

In all fairness I don’t think anyone was expecting Bruno to be in the area at all, let alone the same building

Mira-bella

Yeah…

 

Anyway apparently the rats blabbed to Antonio and now we’re setting up in his room so Tío Bruno can have another vision and give us a direction to work in.

 

I’ll be seeing the vision with him, so hopefully it goes well!

Midori129

You can see the visions with him?? That’s so cool!!!!

 

I’ll save the questions for later, but if you’re watching with him, you can probably help work around the mental block he has around the visions. If he’s used to seeing bad things, he’ll stop looking for the good. So don’t end the vision until you see something helpful, since you might not get the chance to try again if it scares him too much.

Mira-bella

Okay, we’re starting now.

Midori129

Good luck!!

Mira-bella

So, good news, we saw a way to revive the candle

 

Bad news, it showed me hugging Isabela, and that’s not going to work so I think we’re doomed.

Midori129

…do you want to talk about it?

Mira-bella

Yes…no. I don’t know.

 

She’s my oldest sister. She can grow all sorts of gorgeous flowers, and she’s beautiful and graceful and always knows exactly what to say. Everyone loves her, she’s the family’s golden child.

 

This whole last month everyone’s been talking about her proposal and how perfect a match it was, Abuela wouldn’t stop talking about how good for the family it would be. And I ruined it with the chaos of dinner.

 

It’s not like I hate her, it’s just. She’s always gotten everything she’s ever wanted, it all comes so easily.

 

And she’s so annoying, she won’t shut up about how I’m quirkless and getting in the way and I don’t know what everyone sees in her but I do know since she’s still amazing and perfect and it’s all so frustrating!!!

 

I just don’t know what to think.

Midori129

Well, stop me if you don’t want to read about my issues, but I think I can relate a little bit?

 

There’s this guy I used to be friends with.

 

He’s amazing. He has natural talent, but he also works really hard to be the best he can be. He’s got a really strong quirk too, he is going to be the best hero when he gets his license. Everyone I know thinks highly of him, myself included.

 

But, and I cannot emphasize how much this needs to be secret because he will actually kill me if he knows I spoke badly about him.

 

He’s kind of the worst. He really, really doesn’t like me, and he’s not afraid to remind me. He’s not a bad person, he’s just never been told no in his life and it shows. I care about him, and I don’t want him to get hurt, but I’m kinda dreaming of the day he gets his ass kicked and sense knocked back into him. Painfully.

 

Anyway, when we were little we were inseparable. He was my best friend. But he got his quirk, and everyone kept telling him that he was the strongest and how powerful he was just on his own, and we all put him on this pedestal above everyone else. But somewhere it somehow stopped being about rewarding strength, and started punishing weakness instead.

 

I don’t really know where it went wrong. I think he started seeing people as weaknesses, since he’s been pushing everyone away ever since.

 

I’m not saying your sister is like him, but I don’t think she’s as perfect as everyone thinks she is. Putting someone on a pedestal isn’t any better than putting them beneath you, because both ways you’re not treating them as equals. 

 

Even if we’re not born equal, we’re all still human no matter what people say.

 

Mira-bella

…thanks, Izuku. I’m going to try to talk to her.

 

Wish me luck?

Midori129

¡Buena suerte!

 

(I hope I did that right, I double checked with multiple translators but tell me if that’s wrong)

Mira-bella

You got it, muchas gracias :)

Midori129

:D

---

Mira-bella started a video call.

Notes:

:)

Chapter 4: Crecer a Parte y Volver (To Fall Apart to Reunite)

Mira-bella started a video call.

 

Midori129

Are you okay?

 

Oh, you must’ve accidentally called

 

WOAH is that your sister’s quirk?!? It’s so strong, can she make any plant from her imagination?!

 

There are so many types of plants, did she study them or are they coming naturally to her? Can she grow food or would it wilt away? Is there anything to digest? What are they being made from? Are they temporary or permanent, and can she control how fast they decay?

 

Okay, that's really clever use of pollen, I just looked it up and I think all those colors can occur naturally, though I think Isabela might be modifying them? Some of the plants she’s only summoning partially, and they quickly disappear when she stops focusing on them. So maybe the more detailed and physically possible a plant is, the longer it’ll last.

 

Is that the candle? 

 

It’s working!! It’s glowing, the cracks are fading! You’re doing it Mirabel!

 

Oh

 

Oh no. Is that Abuela?

 

I’m still learning Spanish, so I’m probably missing most of this, but she sounds scary…

 

So the flowers can decay on command! 

 

Ah bad timing sorry

 

Okay I believe in you, you can get through to her now that you have a solution!!

 

…she isn’t listening.

 

She better not be blaming you for this.

 

Did she just bring your quirklessness into this? I’m guessing every other word here but I think I caught that

 

Is that Casita? It sounds like…Oh Shit

 

Her quirk isn’t just linking quirks, it’s linking people. That’s why everything you were doing was healing it, you were being driven by your connection with the others in the bond. Casita is the soul of the family, of course it would falling apart as the members’ mental states and health were declining!

 

Mirabel you have to take this outside, Casita is formed by a combination of your grandparents quirks. Abuelo couldn’t just make butterflies, I think he could craft anything from light. Abuela must’ve linked to him right before he died, and that power boost created what he wanted most in that moment--a safe home that will care for his family when he couldn’t.

 

It’s possible that his quirk is stil part of the link, but if too many family members are falling apart (or literally experiencing burnout) then I don’t think Casita is safe to stay in.

 

Oh.

 

You nailed it. It’s like you said, candles burn differently. If she makes them all burn brightly, they’ll burn out at different times. She’s pushing you all too much, and it’s breaking the bonds.

 

MIRA GET OUT OF THERE

 

SAVING THE CANDLE WON’T HELP, IT'S JUST A PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION 

 

CASITA GET EVERYONE OUT

 

MIRABEL THE TOWER

 

MIRABEL

 

Please please please say something, I can’t see anything, dust is covering the camera

 

Okay I can see again

 

Where are you going?

 

Mirabel please 

 

…I’m gonna unmute

 

 

---

Sitting by the river, Mirabel couldn’t find it in herself to care that it was the middle of the night. She felt numb, watching the water flow by as she quietly dusted herself off. 

She had failed.

Just the thought made her want to burst into another round of tears, but she had nothing left to give. After all that effort, the emotional roller coaster of the last two days ended in a spectacular crash. Casita was gone, her family couldn’t access their gifts anymore, and she hadn’t changed a thing. She didn’t stop the cracks, she just pushed too hard and made everything worse. As always, it would’ve been better if she just stayed out of the way.

“Mirabel?”

She yelped as someone called her name. Whipping her head around, she braced herself for a confrontation…but nobody was there. The forest was just as quiet as it had been for the last twenty minutes.

Great. As if my day wasn’t bad enough; now I’m hearing voices in my head.

“Uh, Mirabel? Can you hear me?” 

The voice was in English--thanks to the internet, most of the town had a decent grasp on both Spanish and English, although they mostly used the former in daily life. She couldn’t think of anyone that would be using it now…and where were they speaking from?

“It’s Izuku, you accidentally called me when you were talking with your sister, uh…Isabela I think?”

She finally processed the words, looking down at her dress pocket (her bag was nice but she couldn’t carry it everywhere--it swung around and got caught on everything ). Sure enough, her phone was peeking out, front-facing camera dusty but somehow still intact after the day’s chaos.

Dios, had it only been a day? Her whole body was aching. She didn’t think she’d moved so much in ages, let alone how many things she crashed into and how she’d been flung around. Mirabel wasn’t a slouch when it came to exercise, but now that she stopped moving she was starting to feel the consequences of her adventure.

Electing to ignore the pain for now, she grabbed her phone and wiped it off. The first thing she noticed was how awful she looked. Even after rinsing her hands in the river and shaking dust from her hair, there were still patches that she missed all over her. Between that and the tear tracks and snot running down her face, she could barely look at her red, puffy eyes without wincing. She was so distracted by her own appearance that it was an embarrassingly long time before she realized there was another face on the screen.

Izuku looked to be her age, which was a relief. She’d been a little worried about how close she was getting to someone she didn’t even know, but she couldn’t help herself after he talked about being quirkless. Yes, there were dozens of quirkless people in the Encanto, but Izuku was the first one that really understood where she was coming from. He knew what it was like for people to expect great things from you, and to immediately stop caring when they found out you were the only one without a quirk. That for some reason, just being yourself wasn't enough. No matter how much you did, it would never be enough in their eyes to make up for lacking what everyone else was simply born with.

He had freckles, green eyes, and matching green hair (which was so cool! She had never met anyone with obvious physical mutations, no matter how small) with curls almost as wild as her own, though cut way shorter. It was hard to tell in the dim lighting of his room, but she was pretty sure his eye bags could rival Tío Bruno's (come to think of it, the color scheme did match...). She had a feeling the pile of soda bottles in the trash can behind him had something to do with that.

“...Mirachan, are you with me?”

Ah, he was talking. She opened her mouth to explain, but all that came out was, “Mirachan?”

Izuku’s face turned a deep shade of red. “Ah, sorry! I keep shortening your name to Mira since the full thing is a little hard to pronounce at the end, but that felt a little too informal so I added the honorific ‘chan’ to the end. I completely forgot to check if it was okay with you.”

She knew she should address what nobody wanted to see, but Mirabel was grateful for the distraction. “Oh, that’s adorable, I love it! Can I give you a nickname too?”

“Ah, sure! Anything works, as long as it isn’t something like Deku…”

“Deku?”

Izuku had a pained expression. “It’s an alternate reading of my name in Japanese. It, uh…means useless. Everyone at school calls me that, so…” He shrugged, looking away from the camera.

Something angry formed in her chest. Mirabel knew that things weren’t great for Izuku over in Japan (no matter how distracted she was with saving Abuela’s gift, she could tell from the brief parts he did mention). But she couldn’t imagine having to respond to a name like that--all her family’s names for her were so sweet. It hurt to think that the boy that was by her side throughout the whole disaster of a day didn’t even have a nickname to comfort himself with.

Now wasn’t the time to talk about that though, so she considered for a moment before offering, “Mido.”

“Huh?”

“Like your screen name. Midori means green in Japanese, right? Well over here in Colombia, mido means ‘I measure’. It’s used to say you’re up for a task, to be capable. So…can I call you Mido?”

She watched as Izuku teared up, nodding vigorously. “That…I’d really like that. Oh, by the way mirai means ‘the distant future’, I thought it kinda suits you since you’re always looking ahead.”

Mirabel let out a surprised laugh. “Really? Over here mirar means ‘to look’, so I guess you’re onto something.”

Izuku grinned, though it slowly faded. “Anyway, are you alright?”

Ah. There was reality again. “Casita protected me, I wasn’t hurt in the…accident.”

“It’ll be alright, Mirachan. You didn’t fail.”

“...didn’t you see Casita collapse? I messed up, everything is in ruins and I wasted everyone’s time trying to fight it but Bruno’s vision was right and I should’ve just stopped poking around because maybe then it would’ve been fine--”

“Mira!” She snapped out of it, noticing the tears forming in her eyes. “You didn’t fail, I think I figured out your Abuela’s quirk. Have you looked at my messages?”

“No?”

“Well, basically this is still a theory, but I think her quirk links people she’s close to. Their quirks, energy, and possibly more. I’m pretty sure your Abuelo could do more than just make butterflies, too.”

“What? How would you know?”

“Well, I don’t really know, but a lot of first generation quirks weren’t diagnosed at all, so it was up to their users to figure them out on their own. If he never tried to make something else, then he never would’ve known. My guess is that his quirk had some desire-based aspect to it, and when combined with Abuela’s quirk it could craft a home out of light, sustained by the energy of the bond.”

Mirabel’s eyes widened, “Casita…”

“There’s this theory written by Dr. Garaki Kyudai almost a century ago on how the quirked might actually influence their quirks as much as the other way around. Parts of it are sketchy at best, but he proposed that if one could take the genetic component of a quirk from one person and give it to another, the recipient would begin to experience the thoughts and feelings of the original. He used rats to prove it, and goes into this essay about how quirks relate to the brain and consciousness as a whole, so it’s not impossible to consider that parts of Abuelo’s consciousness and personality could be preserved in Abuela’s quirk. It’s actually quite controversial since-”

“Ay, Mido, you lost me.”

He startled, his blush returning. “Sorry! I got distracted. Basically, my theory is that Abuela’s quirk can connect to people she’s emotionally close to, with the connection being stronger the closer she is to them. She can power up their quirks at the cost of them burning out if she pushes too far with some more susceptible than others. I think if she’s close enough to someone, she might even be able to keep their quirk when they pass, so that explains Casita. I have some other theories on the quirk-awakening ceremony, but that’s most of it.”

“So if Casita was the bond she had with Abuelo Pedro, then why did Casita fall? She still loves him a lot, even decades later.”

“Ah, that’s the catch! The bond isn’t based on love, but how close she is to someone. My guess is that as she got out of touch as to how her family was doing, she fell out of sync with Abuelo, whose spirit was living on with the whole purpose of taking care of you all.”

“That does make sense…except why was Casita healing when I helped Isa, but Luisa just fell apart when I talked to her?”

“Luisa had other things going on. Your family has really strong quirks by themselves, but Luisa pushed herself past exhaustion and was probably relying entirely on Abuela’s quirk to fuel her. Even if Abuela’s quirk weren’t a factor, I think she’ll be fine once she has some proper rest and doesn’t overwork herself.”

“And Isa?”

“Well…I have a theory… but I’m not entirely sure …Regardless, it’s likely that Isa’s improving mental state had a greater impact than her losing sync with Abuela’s image of her.”

Mirabel was going to push to hear his theory, but she was stopped by the sound of someone approaching. She turned, making eye contact with Abuela. “Ah, I’ll talk to you more later, Mido. Adiós.”

“Oh!” He glanced over her shoulder before nodding, “Buena suerte!” His pronunciation is a little off, but it's cute.

Making sure her phone was off for real this time, she tucked it in her pocket. Taking a deep breath, she wiped off her face one more time before sending Abuela her best smile. Judging by the sadness in the elder’s expression, she wasn’t successful.

Abuela approached carefully, eyes scanning over her in search of something. She seemed to have found whatever she was looking for, as she slowly lowered herself down beside her on the riverbank.

Mirabel opened her mouth. Whatever she was going to say--an apology, an explanation, maybe just using Mido in an attempt to talk about anything else that would fail because Casita falling was the reason she met her new friend in the first place--was lost as Abuela spoke first.

“I’ve never been able to come back here…this river is where…our miracle happened.”

 

Notes:

Made it! Just one more chapter, but it'll probably be shorter than this one. This marks the last time Mirabel will give Izuku a heart attack; from here on out it'll be the other way around :3

As of now, there will be no pairings beyond the ones in canon. You can interpret it however you like, but there won't be any romance in this series.

And yes, I had those nicknames planned from the beginning. I want you all to know I I audibly cheered when I figured out Izuku's since it was just so perfect.

Chapter 5: We Have No Gifts (but We'll do Anything for You)

Mira-bella

So…that went better than expected

 

She apologized. For everything. 

 

The attack on her town that killed Abuelo was targeted towards quirk users. The rest of the town was willing to stand by them, and they fled together, but she was so scared of losing everything again. When her children awakened their quirks, she started to put emphasis on spending every day helping around town, to make us friendly and useful enough that nobody would grow resentful towards them for being why the town was targeted in the first place.

 

She got so caught up in her fear that she forgot who she was trying to protect…she said she asked Abuelo for help, and that he sent me.

 

Izuku, there was a cloud of butterflies leading us home. Abuela called me a gift sent by Abuelo, and we were in the eye of a huracán of these yellow butterflies, and I felt so happy as the sun rose.

Midori129

I’m so happy for you!!

 

It’s great that she finally sat down and talked about everything, how are you feeling?

Mira-bella

This is the lightest I’ve felt in years, maybe even since I was five and I hadn’t failed my door ceremony.

 

The hurt isn’t completely gone, but it’s not a hollow aching in my chest anymore.

 

Does that make sense?

Midori129

Totally!

 

I’m glad that you’re doing better

Mira-bella

:3

Midori129

 ( • ω • ) 

 

So what are you all doing now?

Mira-bella

Well, I told Abuela about your analysis (I explained everything, she wants to meet you and ask you more about it since you were right that Abuelo could make other things from light. Apparently he made their wedding candle, which was the same one I tried to save earlier)

 

She says she’ll be trying to reconnect with and heal the family before attempting to reuse her quirk, but until then we're staying in town while we rebuild Casita.

 

Everyone’s quirks aren’t working right after the sudden influence, I was wondering if you’d want to help everyone to get to know their quirks again?

Midori129

!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

YES! Yesyesyes Id love to analyze everyone’s quirks that would be amazing!!

 

And I’d be helping too :D

Mira-bella

I’m glad you’re on board! We can work out the details later

Midori129

Definitely!

 

Though my last year of middle school is gonna start soon so I probably won’t have as much spare time

Mira-bella

That’s fine, we’ll be busy with the rebuilding until July at the absolute earliest so it doesn’t have to happen right away.

 

We’ll have to clear out the rubble and start drawing up plans before we can even begin to gather materials and start building, so there’s plenty of time to work with.

 

The town is very understanding too, insisting we all take time to recover and that they can handle the usual chores while we rest.

 

So yeah, there’s nothing to worry about over here :3

Midori129

It’s amazing the impact your family has made on the area, your Abuela really knew what she was doing when she insisted on rebuilding the community around everyone helping each other.

 

Even if it got out of hand it was a brilliant plan.

Mira-bella

Yes! Honestly she’s so strong, I can’t imagine being in her place

 

She was a young mother of three who just lost her husband, and she was still able to take on the role of matriarch. 

 

I’m still a little upset with her, but I can still appreciate everything she did for us. I’m looking forward to being close with her again :)

 

Anyway that’s enough emotional talk, what will you be up to on your side of the world?

Midori129

Oh! High school entrance exams will be in about a year from now, so lots of studying!

 

I’m trying to get into UA so I’ll have to work really hard, but it’s worth a try

Mira-bella

UA…is that the really famous hero school that does the international sports festival thing every year?

Midori129

Yeah, it’s the only one in the country that’ll accept quirkless applicants for the hero course, and as far as I can tell the only one that doesn’t discriminate based on quirks in general.

 

It’s not perfect (I’ve read rumors that the practical exam is biased towards strong physical quirks), but it’s my best shot if I want to be a hero

Mira-bella

That would suit you so well!!

 

You’re so smart and kind, you’d be the perfect hero!

Midori129

Jhsdfjkas

Mira-bella

Mido, you okay?

Midori129

Sorry, just,, give me a minute

Okay I’m back

 

Thank you so much

Mira-bella

Oh, no problem!...what for?

Midori129

Just…you really think I could be a hero?

Mira-bella

Well I think it’d be hard and you’d need to train a lot, but I don’t see why not?

 

Like I said you’re smart, you’ve been so nice and supportive, and you went out of your way to help me save my family even though it would’ve been way easier to just ignore my help post just like everyone else did.

 

Being a hero is all about saving people, and you’ve already done that. You’re helping not just my family but the entire town with your offer to help even more without really anything in return. 

 

Honestly you being a hero in training makes way more sense than just being a really good analyst offering free help to some kid on the internet that not only figures everything out but also prioritizes everyone’s safety and well-being.

 

So yeah. You’re already a hero to me, so of course you could be an official one.

 

Are you okay? You’ve been typing for the last ten minutes

 

 

Midori129

Thank you so much,, I can’t find any words, I can’t stop crying,, autocorrect is the only thing making this readable

 

You’re kinda the first person to say I could be a hero

 

Ever

 

Everyone else either shuts me down or hurts me when I bring it up

 

So…thatnk you

 

*thank

Mira-bella

I’m torn between wanting to hug you and wanting to fight everyone in Japan

Midori129

^-^

 

Anyway, I’m gonna try physical training again this year. Gyms still won’t let me in since they claim I’m a liability and mom doesn’t want to buy weights or anything, but I really can’t push it off any longer.

 

I need to get stronger if I want any hope of getting in

Mira-bella

Well I don’t know much, but Luisa trains with weights so I can ask her for tips!

Midori129

Thanks, that’d be great :D

 

It’s a school night so I’m gonna go to bed early tonight.

Mira-bella

Oh, buenas noches :3

Midori129

Buenas noches!

Notes:

And so part one is completed! This is now officially a series, though I have no idea when I'll be posting the next part (which will be focusing on the year before the UA entrance exam).

Thank you all so much for the support you've given throughout this story! I probably wouldn't be continuing this without you guys, so everything in my drafts is thanks to you :D

In the meantime, feel free to ask me things about this series in the comments. I can't promise I'll respond immediately, but I'd love to hear what you think!! (both about this and predictions for the future.)

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Making Miracles