"I assure you, miss Midoriya, this experiment should be quite safe. There have been no problems before." A doctor with jet black hair and green eyes reassured the worried mother through her nervous breathing.

A window next to them showed the room beside them, where a young eight year old boy laid upon a table, little curious eyes roaming over everything in the room. As Inko's own pupils roamed over her son, she saw the ugly swollen black eye that reminded her why she was doing this.

It was the day after Midoriya, her precious baby boy, only four years old and so excited to receive his own power found out it would never happen. The little boy, who was usually a massive ball of sunshine and energy had been near catatonic the entire time.

She had felt horrible when she had to send him to school that day, unable to hold him and try to comfort him somehow. Not that she would be any good at it, as she shuddered remembering her words to her own son.

"Can I still be a hero? Even without a quirk?"

"….I'm sorry Izuku!"

She flinched as she recalled the last little lights of hope in his young eyes dying because of her and tears start to form. She couldn't focus on that now though, her son needed her in the present.

He had returned home with school staff an hour early, more emotional than when he'd left, but not of the good kinds of emotion. She had heard his crying before the door had been knocked on and she had almost fainted when her eyes set on the ugly bruises on Midoriya's face.

It had become so unnatural in society, the idea of there being anyone without a power among the kids that those who were quirkless were considered the freaks, despite the opposite being the case not that long ago.

Kids could be cruel, sometimes without realizing but as the mother stared and the various bruises and the crying face of her only child, she knew they meant every bit of pain they would cause.

Her heart tightened in her chest at the horrible realization that if her son stayed with that school, no matter what she would have to watch her son be tortured for how he was born, and she could do nothing about it.

The next closest primary school was far too far away, needing to be travelled to by train. With her job starting at the time it did there was no way she could take her son that far and moving there was out of the question.

Her heart ached as she realized no matter what, her son was going to suffer.

It was small at first, bruises whenever he came home littering his arm. The children at his school had been given detention each according to the school as well as a firm warning about what would happen if they hurt anyone again.

But it had felt so hollow, like some prepared script that Inko couldn't help but worry that the school didn't actually care all that much. The kids were just more subtle about it now.

Then after a week of this, Midoriya walked up to her, tears in his eyes as was becoming disturbingly routine and showed her his stomach. The normal bruises were there, but there was also a horrible burn mark that stood out from everything else.

Inko had felt her heart shatter as she knew only one boy in her son's class could give anyone a burn like that. Katsuki Bakugou, who Inko knew Midoriya considered to be his best friend.

She had no idea what to do. She knew she should contact his mother, Inko's old friend Mistuki and at least make her aware of her son's actions but a fear gripped at her. What if it got worse if she said anything? But if she didn't it wouldn't get better….

She ultimately picked up the phone, and got through a phone call with the woman, whose anger at hearing the story rivaled Inko's own depression.

But the green haired woman ultimately came to regret her decision, when she had to go to the school and pick up her son who had multiple burns on his body.

The nurse had seemingly only wanted rid of Midoriya and didn't actually care about the pain he must have been in. That night, both mother and son cried themselves to sleep.

A month after the diagnosis, Inko finally built up the courage to talk to his father Hizashi.

His reaction had been less than ideal, and his words still circled around in her head.

"No quirkless brat is good enough to be my son. Don't call this number again."

It settled into a truly heart-breaking routine of the woman already having first aid supplies ready whenever she brought her son home, fixing up the damage that occurred and spending hours holding him and trying to reassure him none of it was his fault.

Not that any of those reassurances did much against the actions of others. She could see it in his eyes, as the light got dimmer with each passing day.

After a year, the first truly serious incident occurred. She had gotten the call from the school that her son had been brought to the local hospital and rushed there as fast as she could, no idea what to expect when she got there.

She had been brought to his room and let in to see him. Her heart stopped when she saw the massive scar that ran from his cheek, over his eye and into his head. A torn up piece of paper held in his hand he seemed to refuse to move.

She later found out that they had been drawing their heroes in class, and one of the students had attacked him outright saying that freaks weren't allowed to have heroes. That student had at least been expelled but it wasn't enough.

It only hurt more to find out the greenette had drawn Bakugou as his hero.

Two years later, they realized the scar would never heal or fade more than it already had. The kids had jumped on it as yet another opportunity to abuse the boy.

The greenette kept notebooks on hero's quirks, to make up for his lack of one. They were plentiful and the woman was impressed with his note taking skills, but it hurt every time she saw one.

At least once a day, Izuku would mention his dream of being a hero and Inko, even now, never knew how to respond

She found a poem on one page of the fifth notebook and she knew she needed to find something, something to fix it all.

Because the poem her son wrote killed her soul worse than any of his bruises ever would.

'Burns, bruises and blisters.

Cuts and Scars.

They all hurt,

Remind me I won't go far.

But still, I have to try.

Because when I stop dreaming

I want to die.'

She never stopped looking for some way to help her son, no matter what it was.

She kept saving money, looking at houses and schools in other cities and looking for support groups of some kind. She had discussed therapy with her son before but he had refused.

She had wanted to make him go regardless, until he told her that it would just make him have to face the fact he was a freak.

The conversation didn't continue far beyond that.

It continued to be a nightmare for the year, and quite a bit into the next, until she found an advertisement that seemed too good to be true and yet also a curse at the same time.

It had been a flier posted up in her workplace, which when she had left she had seen many more of outside, all advertising the same thing.

"Scientists believe they have discovered a way to give the quirkless an evolutionary boost to keep up with those who have quirks. A forced evolutionary boost. Previous tests are promising.

We are looking for human volunteers who are quirkless. The younger the better as they will likely react to the process better.

WARNING! This could be incredibly dangerous due to the nature of the experiment. If you volunteer, please be aware of the risks."

It was too good to be true. Yet the warning about the danger made her hesitant. She considered not letting her son find out about it but had a feeling that would be fruitless.

That feeling proved true later that day. She had planned to not bring it up and save it until she had thought on it more, when her son came in with a hideous black eye and ripped trousers that made her want to cry.

In his hands, was the same flyer she had seen at her workplace and so she decided then, they at least had to see what was happening at that lab.

They had arrived earlier that day, Midoriya's eye only looking a little better than it already had. When they had walked into the university the experiment was being done at, two cities away, it had seemed a little….worn down.

The person who greeted them had seemed kind of shaky and worried but he had been polite enough to greet them and take their bags before showing them to a lab where they met doctor Srijan.

He was….excitable to say the least. He had gladly explained what they were doing and had been all too happy to have Midoriya as a test subject when the boy mentioned his own quirkless nature.

The only thing stopping him was Inko's reservations. A lot of the situation seemed to set of red flags in her head but another part of her felt like she was being paranoid.

They were then invited in to watch the process, as a man in his forties walked into the lab. They were brought into a viewing room and watched as he was injected with a serum before being allowed to leave, being told to come back in a day or two so they could take down some results.

It seemed fast and harmless at least. Her eyes wandered to her son and he looked at her with eyes brighter than she had ever seen them since he was still a baby. There was no way she could say no at that point.

That's how they got to where they were now, Midoriya lying down on a table ready to get an injection. Inko looking on worriedly, having no idea if she made the right decision.

"Doctor….please explain this to me." She asked quietly as she saw another doctor walk into the room with her son, seemingly just talking to him to get him ready.

"Well the idea is quite simple really. We know quirks aren't natural, we weren't supposed to evolve to have them. One of the more popular ideas being that quirks were a virus carried by rats." Srijan explained as he wrote down some notes on a clipboard. "This effectively locked most of us out of being able to evolve normally. Once quirks hit the end of their evolution most of the human race will cease to continue evolving. We will hit a dead end and then no one knows what will happen."

Inko shuddered at the thought.

"The quirkless aren't burdened with that same issue. Humans have something that some childish doctor called our 'quirk factor'. Think of it like a glass of water, the quirkless have an empty glass but still possess the glass itself, while those with quirks have water in theirs. It's not the possession of the glass that stops us evolving but the water within."

"So…you're going to try to make him evolve normally?" Inko questioned as she fiddled with her clothes nervously. "Is that even legal?!"

"I understand your concern but technically this would be considered a quirk experiment, not an evolution experiment due to how it's filed in the paperwork so yes it is legal."

That answer did not help the red flashing lights going off in her head. She considered calling a stop but before she could, she saw the other doctor already going to inject her son.

"Alright, test subject: I. Midoriya is being injected with sample BL23." Srijan spoke into a recorder on the table she had failed to notice. She watched as a black liquid was injected into her son and felt her nervousness spike through the roof.

It was too late to stop it.

"Now, we are going to try to simulate the virus. Yuuma, if you would?" The doctor said and the mother blinked in surprise as the younger doctor inside quickly made his way over to the other side of the room and flipped a couple of switches.

Inko had no idea what to think as the room was plunged into darkness before it lit up again with a red hue, a temperature dial turning on in front of her and reading 32 degrees. 'What….'

SPLAT!

Inko froze, her heart skipped a beat and she looked up, anger and sadness tearing at her once she realized what she was looking at.

Her soon was no longer on the table, but a vicious red puddle of some type remained on the table, spiking out into various parts of the room and dripping onto the floor.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY BABY?!" Inko screamed, tears in her eyes as she turned, ready to murder the doctor who looked shocked. However he suddenly broke into a grin and pointed into the room.

"Apologies miss Midoriya….but look…."

She did. Her jaw dropped.

All of the parts of her exploded son- oh god that was her son….

The exploded pieces started moving, all coming back to the table and piecing together. Building up and around each other, before color and hair also returned.

Then Inko was looking at her son, who looked terrified and confused.

And all of his injuries were gone.