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1. Todoroki Shoto
Midoriya Inko is a kind woman. She’s a kind woman with a kind son. She knows he wouldn’t hurt a fly. She also knows that his falling out with Bakugou Katsuki at age four left him a shy, quiet version of his former self.
Unless her baby was talking about the boyfriend Inko hadn’t even known he’d started dating.
Izuku wasn’t quiet about his thoughts and feelings with Inko, so when Izuku casually mentioned his boyfriend during dinner one evening, she’d been too surprised to say anything. Once she’d found her voice, though, she was adamant that Izuku bring his boyfriend to dinner so she could meet him.
Izuku had spent a week reminding her that he was dating this boy in secret and that no one was allowed to know, but Inko was his mother and he trusted her. His words caused a swell of adoration in her heart that he was so determined to keep this a secret, and there he was, telling her everything.
From what she’d been told, Todoroki Shoto was quiet and a little weird. But Izuku liked him just like that. She also discovered that the boy liked cold soba, so she prepared it early enough that it would be cool when he arrived.
Inko sits now on the couch, waiting for the doorbell to ring. When it does, Izuku all but flies through the apartment to open the door. She’s standing in the hallway and watching her son launch himself into the arms of a boy slightly taller, but equally lean.
“You came!” Izuku shouts, clearly surprised.
“Well, your mother invited me.”
Inko watches with a small smile as Shoto gently lifts Izuku off him and places him on the floor before removing his shoes and stepping forward to hand Inko a small bouquet of flowers.
Todoroki Shoto, Inko decides then and there, is a sweetheart.
Dinner goes well and Shoto has a lot to say about what Izuku is like outside the company of his mother, which embarrasses the latter to no end. But Inko isn’t bothered. She’s always wondered what Izuku gets up to when he comes home late from school. Now she knows. It’s sweet.
And so is Shoto. He thanks her profusely for the cold soba that greatly surprised him. Before he leaves, Shoto tells her that she’s a wonderful mother to Izuku and then thanks her for letting him still be with Izuku even though it had been kept from her for quite a while.
Once he’s gone, Inko rounds on Izuku with a wide grin.
“He’s cute, Izu.”
“Mom,” Izuku whines, still faintly red in the face.
Inko giggles to herself as the pair of them clean the table together. She’s happy that Izuku has someone other than her to love him.
She wouldn’t be so happy if she knew that Izuku didn’t spend his afternoons watching sunsets on the beach with Shoto, but rather teaching the latter how to dodge and throw knives, and how to wrap the League of Villains around his little finger.
2. Toga Himiko
A few weeks go by, with Shoto coming around for dinner often. Then one day, Izuku asks if he can invite a friend of his. Toga Himiko, Izuku says, is very unconventional. She’s a little wild and he’s worried Inko might not like her.
Inko’s too delighted to learn that her boy has friends to care how weird they are. She smiles and tells Izuku that the only thing that could deter her from his friends is if they were villains. Izuku laughs and assures her that she doesn’t have to worry.
Two days later, Inko meets Toga Himiko. Inko thinks she’s just the sweetest little thing. She’s a year older than Izuku, Inko quickly learns, but Izuku tells her that they’re in the same grade.
Like Shoto, Himiko has an abundance of stories about Izuku from her own perspective and they all turn Izuku a bright shade of red. Especially when Himiko says that Izuku is their teacher’s favourite student even when he shouts answers out of turn.
Inko also learns that Izuku does spend a fair bit of his time with Himiko instead of Shoto. She also learns that on Saturdays, when Izuku goes out and Shoto is still in school, he’s spending time with Himiko at a playground near her home. She thinks it’s adorable that they’re fifteen and still doing childish things like racing each other to the swings or spinning the merry-go-round.
Like Shoto, Himiko thanks Inko for dinner and tells her that she adored spending the evening with her. Inko encourages Izuku to walk Himiko home and Izuku readily agrees. Inko clears the table by herself, happy to have met one more person that makes her baby smile so delightedly.
Inko would be less happy if she knew that Izuku had no intention of walking Himiko home, but rather joining her on a late-night snack run with a five-finger discount.
3. Mr Compress
It’s another two weeks before Izuku says he wants to introduce someone else to Inko. One of his teachers, a Sako-sensei. This time, Inko doesn’t prepare dinner for a guest. Instead, Izuku’s teacher invites her to lunch at a restaurant she could never afford. Izuku assures her that his teacher can and is inviting her for lunch, so it wouldn’t be nice to refuse.
In the end, she decides to go. Izuku doesn’t join her. He has a date with Shoto and then they’re meeting up with Himiko for a movie.
Inko is uncertain as she walks into the restaurant, but Izuku’s teacher is kind and gentle. He tells her his name is Sako Atsuhiro. She asks him what he teaches. He tells her he teaches her son survival skills.
Inko frowns at that, until Atsuhiro elaborates. Society doesn’t like quirkless children, or children with scary quirks. Atsuhiro tells her he wants children like Izuku and Himiko to be able to defend themselves. He teaches them laws that protect them and he teaches them basic self-defence. That’s not in the syllabus, he assures Inko. That’s just Atsuhiro teaching them what he knows.
Inko relaxes quickly in his company, thrilled to discover that there are adults out there that care about her son. She asks after Izuku’s school performance, as she never sees him doing homework. Atsuhiro assures her that he does complete his work. He does so in Himiko’s company.
Lunch turns out to be lovely and Inko bids Sako Atsuhiro goodbye with a light heart and a warm smile on her face. She’s glad that Izuku has at least one teacher looking out for him.
She’d be a little concerned if she knew that Sako Atsuhiro was teaching Izuku how to kill people. But she doesn’t know, and so she’s just glad.
4. Dabi
It’s a cool day, perfect for getting her grocery shopping done, when Inko catches Izuku and Shoto talking to a man in a mask and hoodie pulled up to hide his face. She’s worried at first, until she sees them both hug the man the way Izuku hugs her. She watched from behind a flower stall as the man places a scarred hand on each boy’s head, ruffling their hair. He lowers the mask, revealing more scarred skin, to kiss the top of Shoto’s head. He flicks Izuku’s forehead lightly and Inko smiles as she watches Izuku jumps up to flick the man back.
Both of them know this man. He’s no stranger to them.
Inko pretends she’s just entering the strip mall and acts surprised to see Izuku and Shoto. She looks up at the man and greets him. Shoto nudges the man and hisses at him to greet back. He does.
She learns that his name is Touya. He tells her that he’s Shoto’s older brother. Inko spends some time with small talk before she insists that both he and Shoto join her and Izuku for a homemade lunch. It doesn’t take much to convince Shoto. He adores Inko’s cooking. Eventually, under pressure from his brother, Touya agrees.
When dinner is done, Izuku and Shoto vanish into Izuku’s room and the sounds of his new video game console starting up can be heard. It had been a gift, Izuku told her. Before Touya can leave — Shoto knows his way home — Inko takes the empty chair beside him, previously occupied by his brother.
Inko knows a lost soul when she sees one. She knows that Touya didn’t just run away from home because he was a rebellious teenager. She doesn’t know where he got his scars, but that isn’t what really concerns her. There is a pain in his eyes that she’s only ever glimpsed in Shoto’s.
“You poor thing,” she tells him, taking his hand and patting the scarred skin lightly.
He tells her his quirk and physiology don’t match. She tells him that if he allows it, she’ll take care of him. She tells him that no matter what, if he ever needs, her door is always open.
Touya says he would cry if he could. Inko wipes imaginary tears away and her heart breaks at the way the simple gesture seems to take years off Touya’s shoulders. She will take care of him.
Any friend of Izuku’s is a child of her own. Inko probably wouldn’t think any different if she knew he was the villain Dabi.
5. Shigaraki Tomura
There are no strict rules in the Midoriya apartment, but there are unspoken ones. Inko doesn’t waltz into Izuku’s room past his bedtime to make sure he’s in bed, provided he remains quiet. She asks him in the morning how he slept and he’s honest. He tells her he was up late with his notebooks or texting Shoto. She gives him extra chores the next day, letting him rest after not sleeping, but knowing that staying up late is not something she likes.
Izuku never wakes Inko in the middle of the night. When he stays up past his bedtime, he’s considerately quiet.
Tonight he isn’t. She wakes up to the sound of hushed shouting and buttons slamming. She gets out of bed, fully prepared to scold Izuku and either Himiko or Shoto, whichever friend he’s brought home too late for her to have welcomed them. She has a lecture prepared on how Izuku should bring his friends home before bedtime, so that she can meet them and lock up the apartment knowing that they’re safe inside.
However, Inko is met with a stranger when she pushes Izuku’s door open and her frown fades away as confusion settles in.
The boy’s hair is pale blue and his skin is dry. He wears partial gloves on his hands, covering his palms and two fingers of either hand. He and Izuku stare at her, frozen solid as they hold the controllers. One of their characters dies, but they both look like they’re waiting for the scolding of a lifetime. Well, the strange boy looks like he’s waiting for the beating of a lifetime, actually.
Haltingly, Izuku introduces her to his friend, Tenko. He’s much older than Izuku, a good five years, but he says that Tenko went to the same high school and knows his teachers well enough to spend time with Izuku and Himiko.
Inko asks them to please be quiet with their game and closes the door again. She can hear Tenko’s surprised whispering, and Izuku hushing him.
Inko can’t sleep, so she prepares breakfast early and is wide awake when she hears Izuku’s bedroom window open slowly. She makes it to Izuku’s room quickly and drags Tenko back inside by his ear, warning him not to wake the sleeping Izuku. She loosens her grip but doesn’t let go until she has him seated at the table, where she places breakfast in front of him.
He stares at her in surprise. She tells him to eat. He listens. She disappears into the bathroom and returns with a medicine tub to find Tenko sitting at the table like he’s waiting to be scolded.
She asks him to see the rash. He’s hesitant, but he tilts his head and holds his hair back.
He’s like Touya, she quickly realises. He melts under her touch, as though he hasn’t been loved in years. Tenko can cry, though, hard as he tries not to.
Inko doesn’t give him the cream. She tells him to visit often, so she can apply it again for him. She does give him a stick of chapstick and warns him that if he comes back to her home with dry lips, she’s going to twist his ear. He’s confused.
He’s not exactly like Touya. She wonders how little he was when he’d last been held by his mother. Tenko is still a child, she quickly learns, because it takes one weak embrace for him to crumble in her arms and soak her fleece gown with tears. His fingers clutch her tight, like she’s going to disappear. She pats his back soothingly, whispering the words of comfort she used to give a toddler Izuku when he cried in her arms.
She catches Izuku watching from the doorway. He gives her his sunshine-bright grin and she knows that she’s doing the right thing.
+1. Spinner, Twice, Magne & Kurogiri
With meeting Izuku’s new friends, Inko has been letting him go out more often. She knows that Touya will look out for them when she can’t. She knows that Atsuhiro takes care of them even after school. She knows that Himiko is a beast when her hands are on a knife — it wasn’t a pretty thing to learn, but Himiko had defended Izuku from a petty thief and Inko was just relieved that they were both standing in her apartment unharmed. She knows that Shoto would break the rules his school gave him and use his quirk if they got into trouble.
So Inko sees her son a little less, but he’s always home at the end of the day, either tucked into bed or quietly playing video games with Tenko.
Knowing that, Inko starts to spend her free time going out herself. She visits malls and does all the window shopping she wants without having a bored Izuku wanting to head home after two hours of it but trying to stick it out for his mom's sake.
Inko has always worried about Izuku’s safety, and the thought never crossed her mind that she could someday be the one in a pickle until today.
It’s just some petty thief, but no one’s been teaching Inko self-defence or given her quirk training. She thinks she’ll hand over her purse and her cell phone and that’ll be it. Until more of them arrive and back her into an alleyway. Inko begins to panic, but only because she has to get home before Izuku does, so she can listen to his stories about the day and kiss him goodnight.
She’s just about to decide whether to fight or flee when she hears shouting. The petty thieves all turn at the revving engine and their faces pale when they see who springs out of the van like they’re chasing someone. Inko thinks she’s paled too, because she recognises these people.
They’re part of the League of Villains. She knows the reptilian one is called Spinner and he likes his swords. She knows the one in the black and white mask is Twice and he always appears to be in two minds. She knows the woman is Magne and she’s very volatile. Inko reads up on the news. She knows what she needs to know.
She backs up against the wall, shouting when Twice comes up to her.
He loudly informs the other two that he’s found Mom and then immediately claims to have found a stranger.
Inko half expects him to snatch her bag, but he simply picks her up and sprints towards the van, shouting for the other two to hurry. She glances over his shoulder to see the other two fighting the petty thieves. Magne shouts something about them daring to touch Mom and Inko finds she's not exactly surprised to see the tall woman very likely kill a man with one blow.
Is she Mom? That makes no sense.
Inko expects to be restrained and tossed into the back of the van. This is a kidnap, after all, isn’t it? Instead, Twice helps her up into the front next to Magne before he climbs into the back with Spinner. Inko clutches her bag like a safety blanket as they drive. Twice shouts obscenities to the thieves.
She can hear Spinner on the phone, calling for Kurogiri. She knows that name too. He’s the warp villain.
All Inko can think about as the portal opens is Izuku going home to an empty apartment. She doesn’t expect to see him in the window of a shabby bar, bouncing in anticipation between Shoto with his furrowed eyebrows and Himiko with a knife between her teeth. Twice helps her down and ushers her inside.
She recognises Atsuhiro, Touya and Tenko differently now, as Kurogiri offers her a drink. They’re Mr Compress, Dabi and Shigaraki Tomura.
Himiko throws herself at Inko, hugging her tight. Inko tells Izuku he’s grounded in a shaky voice. Then she shouts to the entire room that they’re all grounded.
She doesn’t care to find out how they knew she was in trouble, but she’s grateful. She’s also furious with them and true to her word, they’re all grounded for a week. Surprisingly, no one tries to argue with her.
Later, Izuku asks her if she’s okay and she gives him an honest no. But she tells him that she really does like Himiko and Shoto, and Touya and Tenko, and she knows that Atsuhiro cares about them.
The world isn’t kind to her quirkless little boy, but these villains are. Inko doesn’t believe any of them would hurt her Izuku. Slowly, they all creep into the front of the bar. Twice apologises for grabbing her and then immediately takes it back.
Inko sighs and starts thinking out loud about how she’ll have to move family dinners to the bar, because sneaking the entire League into her apartment won’t be easy. She doesn’t miss the way Shoto heaves a relieved sigh, or the way Himiko squeezes Izuku’s hand. She doesn’t miss the way Tenko allows himself a small smile, or the way Touya’s tense shoulders droop.
Midoriya Inko is a kind woman. She’s a kind woman with a kind son. She knows he wouldn’t hurt a fly. She now knows that he would probably kill a man, though. But she knows that he has a home and honestly? All she’s ever wanted for Izuku was to find people who cared about him the way the League does.