Chapter Text
"Mommy! Mommy look!" A young child no older than 8 years old, jumps up and down pointing at the screen as his head swivels back and forth between his mother and the television. Hearing her child call to her, she looked up from her table she was cleaning and saw the title card of a show called Vikings. Confused, she approaches her son as he watches in excitement of what seems to be...well, a show about Vikings. Still not knowing what it is, she knelt down to a knee and put a hand on her little boy's shoulder and asked what it was. With a blinding smile, he turns to her to answer her question.
"It's a show about a Viking warrior and farmer called Ragnar Lothbrok who wants to explore and raid other places!" She responds with a fake smile with worries flying all over inside her head. While she doesn't know much about vikings, she does know that they were barbarians and savages that love to kill and steal, although she doesn't know that they were only stereotypes. Inko turned her attention back to the screen where Ragnar and his son Bjorn were on top of a slope looking over Kattegat with coats around their shoulders. She wasn't that fully fluent with English but it's a good thing that there were subtitles.
" Why do you want to fight? What are you fighting for? " Asks Ragnar with a steely gaze.
" That. " says Björn, gesturing to the sprawling city of Kattegat. Ragnar got up and walked towards his son before stopping beside him and taking a look at his village. He looked back at Bjorn and asks what he sees with a calculating look.
" Power. Power of a king. " Bjorn answers, only taking his eyes off of Kattegat for a moment to meet his father's eyes. Without hesitation, Ragnar responds to him.
" Power is always dangerous. It attracts the worst and corrupts the best. I never asked for power. Power is only given to those who are prepared to lower themselves to pick it up. " With that, Ragnar walked away, leaving Bjorn to his thoughts as he continued to look at his home.
"Is it true mommy? What he said about power?" Izuku asks her, his eyes filled with curiosity and a hint of sadness considering the world they live in where almost everyone has power, a superpower most likely, a quirk. Inko turns to her son, thinking of a right way to tell him. With a sigh, she picks him up and sits him down next to her on the couch before looking him straight in the eye with seriousness.
"Yes and no. Power can be many things dear, it could be Quirks or it could be influence or authority like our government. Quirk or not, everyone has power, remember the video of All Might saving all of those people with a smile?" She asks him as he nods happily.
"In that video, he showed his power, both his quirk AND influence. He used his quirk to save them and his influence to inspire you and millions of others who saw that video. Do you understand?" Asks the woman to her child as he nodded.
"There are many people who use their power for both good AND bad, but sometimes it gets hard to tell because people lie and lying is...?" She asks him with a smile and Izuku responds back with a smile and an answer of his own.
"Bad!"
"Exactly, such a good boy for listening to mommy." Inko praises him as she pinches his cheeks lightly, causing the child to giggle.
"People lie for two reasons, good and bad. Good because it means that they are protecting them like a hero does, especially if they aren't ready to hear the truth or if the truth causes more damage, it depends on the situation. Bad because you can be tricked into doing or saying something bad that you won't know until it's too late. Power changes people Izuku, for better or for worse, understand?" She asks him with concern in her voice. Izuku, hearing his mother's tone, nods and hugs her who hugged him back.
"I promise mommy, I won't let power co...corr-uhh carrooo.." Izuku tries to say the word 'corrupt' but fails to do so, causing the mother to giggle in amusement.
"Corrupt?" She asks in a teasing tone.
"Yes! Corrupt! I won't let power corrupt me mommy! I'll use my quirk to become the strongest hero ever! So that no one gets hurt anymore!" The young lad exclaims, raising his arms in the air as if he announced it to the world. Inko cheers beside him and brings him in for a hug. After their little celebration, Izuku asks Inko if he can continue watching the show but as she looks at the screen, it shows Ragnar and his joint army attacking Kwenthrith's uncle's army. She sweat drops and tells Izuku that he can only watch with her so she can block his view from all the blood and violence, except she kept that part to herself. Little does Izuku know, what he said earlier was loud enough for someone nearby to hear.
"Sir, I think I just found the perfect candidate. You'll like him." A man with a X-ray vision quirk says on his phone in clear English.
"Lovely, let's bring him in, shall we? Time to get to work, Katashi, let's see if we can put that dojo to good use." The man on the phone says to him in English as well.
"Consider it done Jasper." Katashi responds before hanging up and putting on a hat and putting on the most fake and charismatic look he can muster.
* KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK *
"Hm? I wonder who that could be. Stay here Izuku okay?" Inko tells her son who just absently nods and is totally taken in by the show. The woman goes up to the front door before opening it and getting greeted by the sight of a salesman.
"Oh, hello. How may I help you?" She asks the man who only smiled courteously and bows in greeting.
"Hello madam, I overheard your, pardon my assumption, son and his "announcement" earlier. The way he shouted his goals so clearly was just inspiring and motivating at the same time so I am here to tell you that if you and your son wish to pursue his dream of becoming a hero, you'd be more than welcome to visit the Moore Dojo where we teach children various martial arts so they can defend themselves and help/protect their loved ones. Ranging from basic boxing to even Krav Maga if they're old enough." Katashi explains to her as he hands her the flyer. Inko took it and began to read the stuff on it before she asked what the price would be.
"Depends on the martial art and how long your son would be willing to train there. Of course, we don't want to impede his studies so we're willing to negotiate with you for flexible schedules." The man explains and Inko thinks about it. She looks back at her son who was still watching the show before facing the salesman again.
"Can I have a moment to speak about this to my son?" The mother asks and Katashi tells her 'Of course'. She closes the door and Katashi waits outside, keeping up the act and within just a couple minutes, Inko opens the door with a nervous smile.
"I take it that the young lad allows it?" He asks her with a teasing tone, causing the mother to giggle.
"Yes, he seems very excited about it, and he can't wait to be trained so he can be like All Might." She says with a mirthful tone. Katashi beams in happiness and tells her to give them a call if they're ready to make a schedule as he hands her the dojo's calling card. He bows once more in gratitude and Inko returns it, bidding each other goodbye as Katashi leaves and Inko spends more time with her son. As Katashi messages someone named Gazsi to open up a portal to Jasper's office and once he pocketed his phone, an orange crack seems to appear right before his very eyes. The crack expanded more and more as more orange cracks appear until a huge portal opened up, showing nothing of the other side.
' Things are about to get interesting. '