Chapter Text
The Idol Hero: Songstress
Chapter 1: Discovery of a Quirk
In a society where superpowers are considered normal, one fact becomes readily apparent early on in life: that all men are not created equal. About 20% of the population know this fact more intimately than any of the rest. They face the repercussions of this revelation day in and day out, never seeming to be able to escape it. However, in recent history those that suffer from this “condition” happened within mainly the older generations. A smaller percentage of those people exist in the younger ages of early childhood. For them, life is a never-ending struggle just to survive. If nothing else, the suicide rates alone highlight a constant threat to those children born without superpowers. Perhaps in another world, the story of Midoriya Izuku would be of one of those “quirkless,” and his ability to rise above society’s abuse.
But in this world, he has a far different problem.
You see, this Izuku learned quite a different lesson. The young boy did have a quirk, but it was probably simultaneously the most useless and embarrassing power he could imagine. He might have stood a chance of controlling his life had he been able to conceal the nature of his quirk. Sadly, any chance he had of hiding his quirk vanished forever when it first manifested at the age of four.
If you had asked any of his peers prior to the manifestation of his quirk, they would’ve told you that there was something not quite right about Izuku. He was considered more of an annoying follower by everyone, including his friend, “Kacchan,” otherwise known as Bakugou Katsuki. Izuku spent his time following Katsuki around and going on little “adventures” while all the while praising his friend on just about everything. This behavior increased when Katsuki got his quirk. Of course, just about everyone praised Katsuki over his explosion quirk, but the small odd kid was more vocal than most and would often be heard wishing that his quirk would hurry up and arrive. Kacchan, of course, maintained that the greenette’s quirk wouldn’t be nearly as cool as his.
+++
Aldera Elementary School often boasted about their extensive curriculum. Even though their classes were set up in the same way as other elementary schools, they still exposed their students to a wide variety of activities in the hopes to aid their students in activating their quirks. Additionally, their preschool classes started a year earlier than any other elementary school, and they had a large staff of quirk counselors on hand to analyze and define any new quirks that manifested. Thus, even preschoolers such as the ones in Izuku’s class were exposed to things such as a preschool choir. Of course, the children did not care about reasons, all they knew was that it was fun.
Ms. Hironaka always maintained that the older quirk era songs were often the best to judge musical talent. “All right, all of you should have songbooks in front of you. When I call your name, each one of you will come up to the front of the class, show me the song that you wish to sing, and then start singing it after I start the music. But remember, once a song is sung, no one else can pick the same song!”
“Hey Teach,” a young boy with spiky blond hair confidently yelled from near the of the room, “Why are we even doing this? None of these extras will beat my singing.”
‘Yeah, he’s so cool he will easily get the starring role.’ to himself excitedly.
“Well, there is more than one part available,” the music teacher replied. “But I'm sure that you will performs splendidly!” It appeared as if this teacher, like just about every other teacher in this school, was as amazed by Kacchan's quirk as everyone else and allowed him liberties and concessions no other student could claim. Not that Izuku was in any way complaining, most of the time anyways, because he felt the same way!
' I just hope I don't embarrass myself,' Izuku thought as started to begin rapidly searching through the booklet to find something that didn't sound horribly embarrassing. Unlike many of his fellow classmates, Izuku at least knew most of the songs in the book. After all, he loved music! Singing might not be as good as being a hero like All Might, but it was at least something he could do when his mother would not put The Video on for him. And everyone who heard him sing actually loved his voice. Even Kacchan said his voice didn’t suck, unlike most of the other people they knew.
So naturally, Kaachan went first. Izuku, on the other hand, was still a bit nervous about singing in front of the class. Not because of his voice, but because he didn’t want the rest of the class to think he was either showing off or something. Unfortunately, the desire to pick the right song caused him to flounder in his selections. Of course, luck seemed to be against him as students kept on selecting songs that he wanted the sing. So he’d try to find a new cool song, only to have that song chosen by yet another student in a vicious cycle, to the point where he was the last person in the class to sing. Finally, he frantically picked the least embarrassing song left.
Unfortunately, this was a song he didn’t know very well, but at least he had heard it once or twice, something he remembered his mother singing. He might not have known who sung it originally, but at least he was familiar enough with it tow where he could sing it. The teacher looked rather annoyed as these thoughts caused him to miss the first two attempts by his teacher to call him, causing her to be a little exasperated.
Hiranaka’s face took an odd expression when she read the title of the song. But in the end she shrugged as if saying 'well it's his choice.' She then turned toward the music player and started to queue the song without even telling the class the title.
Koi Suru Foochuun Kukkie by AKB48
“Anata no koto ga suki na no ni… watashi ni marude kyoumi nai… nandome ka no sh*tsuren no junbi… Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” Izuku began singing after the intro. But as he began to sing, something strange started to happen. His body began to emit a brilliant light that temporarily blinded just about everyone in the room. Izuku, for his part, didn't even notice what was going on which, perhaps, was a good thing. If he had noticed, you probably would have stopped singing altogether.
Izuku didn't even notice his body start to shift and change. His hair grew longer and turned from the greenish curly mess that it normally was into long, black, straight hair. His facial features also started to shift, going from the rounded, freckled face everyone was familiar with to a more ovular version, while his body became slenderer in places. His eyes were the only thing that stayed their true color, but the pitch of his voice heightened, making it clear that it was a girl singing, not a boy.
“Tsumasaki kara ugokidasu… tomerarenai ima no kimochi,” Izuku continued to sing, totally oblivious to what was happening to and around him. Finally, the light faded away revealing a little girl about four or five years old to the class. As the teacher and students began to blink away the afterimages of the light, they were still struck silent by this site before them. In fact, no one dared to say anything until the end of the song. During this time, they were treated to the image of a little girl beginning to dance to the song she was singing in front of them, despite knowing that the girl was supposed to be Izuku.
Izuku struck a pose that he saw his mother strike many times as the song ended. And for the next few seconds no one was able to say a thing. “What the HECK!” Bakugou’s voice rang out over the silence. Miss Hiranaka didn't seem to be aware enough to chastise Kacchan for the vulgarity. Actually, she was thinking the exact same thing. “I knew it! I always said your quirk would not be as awesome as mine! But this ... This is absolutely the most useless quirk that you could get. What the hell are you going to do with this? How are you ever supposed to be a hero with this?! I guess it would fit you though.”
The newly transformed girl began to cry, but the tears wouldn’t even come like they have before. The Midoriya crying gene wasn’t even coming! Finally, she could stand the embarrassment no longer and ran out of the room with the sounds of cruel laughter following her. She could even the teacher was laughing. She ran without knowing where she was headed, before finding herself opening the door to the boy’s bathroom, only to stop when a boy urinating noticed her enter. “Ahh! What’s a girl doing in here!” At this point, girl Izuku froze, horrified, with eyes wide and her face turning as red as a strawberry. “Get out of here! Go away freak!”
Instead, Izuku fell to her knees, wailing in grief.
This is how a male teacher, alerted to the problem by the screaming of children found her a few minutes later. She would be sent home early from school that day with a note from the principle, but at least they didn’t expel her.
But that was likely because she turned back into a boy in front of the principle.
+++
The next day Midoriya Inko had to take a day off from work to take Izuku to a quirk counselor recommended by the school, only to have him then referred the case to a doctor. It could have been somewhat to be expected, since they had to see if this was a transformation quirk or some combination of transformation/mutation quirk, but it was still rather traumatic for Izuku. Given the nature of his quirk, he only way they could know for sure to what extent his quirk worked, and how it affected his body, would be to run tests on both boy and girl Izuku. The part-time boy/girl really didn‘t want to use his/her quirk again.
He/she had enough humiliation, thank you very much.
After much coaxing and a bribe from Inko, Izuku submitted to the tests. He had to transform a total of three times, that day, but they noticed after the second time that the transformations required food and rest between each transformation. If the interval between transformations was too short, or he did not get the proper care between them, he would get very fatigued. At the end of the day, the doctor leaned back in his chair and asked Izuku what he wanted to be when he grown up. His thick glasses hid his stare as he asked the question. Upon hearing Izuku’s answer, he his large white mustache turned into a frown as he said, “You should give that up kid.”
Run-time error: Izuku.exe has stopped responding. Attempting reboot.
“So there’s something wrong with him then? Is it too dangerous for him to transform, or does it cause physical problems?” a worried Inko asked.
“No, the transformation to and from girlhood is perfect, down to the internal organs, except perhaps one area.” Dr. Tsubasa put up a projection of three pictures of brains. “The top two are your typical boy’s and girl’s (respectively) brains. For children your son’s age, brain differences are one of the very few consistent differing factors between boys and girls, even more so than external reproductive organs. The later can sometimes be ambiguous, but DNA and brain characteristics often represent the best indicators of a child’s true sex.”
Once he was sure Inko understood the references, the doctor continued, “While we don’t have pictures of his brain from before, you may notice your son’s brain shows some similarities with both the boy’s and the girls brains, which would normally be an indication of the necessity of further testing. However, most of the time the rest of the body is male.”
“Given the results of the CT scan, I placed a priority on the DNA tests we conducted. However, those tests take time to complete, much more so when multiple tests are ordered on the same person, such as the ones we ordered on your son. Therefore, I am unable to give you the results of the tests we ran today, but the tests run per your request at his birth show him possessing XY chromosomes, supporting the designation of male at birth. Normally, this does not change.”
He then pulled up an x-ray image of his foot, explaining, “Obviously, the x-ray of his foot shows the missing toe joint, meaning he does have a quirk. And all other internal scans still show him as sex-appropriate for what he shows outside at any given time.”
“So what’s the problem, then?” his mother asks, still wondering why the doctor told the still-frozen Izuku to give his dream up.
“You and your husband are fourth generation quirk holders, correct?” At Inko’s nod he asks, “What are your quirks again?”
“Mine is a minor telekinesis quirk. I can pull small objects to me,” she explains. She has noticed that Izuku dropped his All Might action figure and demonstrates her power by calling the toy to her with slow, pulling movements. “His father’s quirk is fire breathing.”
The bald, rotund doctor nods slowly as he watches her pull the toy up. “Quirks are normally directly inherited in some form from someone’s parents. A child would get either the mother’s, the fathers, or in many cases, some combination of both. That being said, your son appears to be one of the rare cases where the quirk genes mutated to give an entirely different expression. In this case, I’d call his quirk Songstress. His ability transforms him into an age-appropriate version of any female vocal artist when he sings their songs for 10 minutes. Unfortunately, that’s as far as his ability goes. He doesn’t transform into male vocal artists, just female. And neither the male nor the female form gain any other special abilities, save one. Even when he sings a modern song, he doesn’t appear to gain the quirk of the female performer.”
Inko looks down at her still-frozen child as the good doctor continues, “So he doesn’t show abilities from neither you nor his father. The only thing his quirk does for him other than change his sex is make him look and sound like the female performer he has transformed into. And since his activation requirement is vocal, and no other powers are evident, his quirk has no real use for hero work. However, he may have a future in the music or acting industry. I would recommend he focus on that instead.”
A short time later, after Inko left with her son, the doctor turns his attention to the medical file. “This will be someone to keep an eye on…”
+++
Izuku was quiet the rest of the way home despite showing some slight traces of life after they left the doctor’s office. All he could hear was the doctor’s words, ‘You should give it up kid…’ Give up being a hero? That was unthinkable! ‘That’s all I ever want to be! There as to be a way! All Might…’
His thinking stopped when it tripped over the name. He couldn’t imagine what All Might would do with a quirk like his. But, it was All Might! Surely, there had to be something! ‘But what could he do with a power like mine? But it’s All Might!’ Izuku was so stuck in a loop that he barely realized they had arrived back home. He realized it was a good thing that his father was still at work. He didn’t want to think what kind of reaction he would have.
“Izuku-kun, honey, do you want some hot chocolate or something? We can talk about what the doctor said, if you want…” Izuku could see the sadness and concern in his mother’s eyes, but talking to her was the last thing he wanted to do right now.
‘I need to sit down with my notebook,’ he thought to himself, grasping at straws to try to think of some way he could still be a hero. But he was thirsty, so… “Um, some hot chocolate would be good… but… can I just go to my room and think please?”
“Are you sure?” Inko asked, not liking the way her son was reacting to this news.
“Please?” He asked again. At Inko’s nod, he went to his room and sat in front of his computer. His first hero analysis notebook was off to the side of the keyboard, and the monitor showed the famous All Might debut rescue scene he has watched over and over. His notebook was quickly forgotten as he was transfixed by the image in front of him. He reached over to the mouse and unpaused the video, which started to play. Once it reached the end, he restarted it. Over and over again he watched the video, his hand moving on its own as tears started to fall down his face.
After about the third or fourth time watching the video, Inko opened the door and called, “Izuku-kun, honey?”
With tears forming a puddle at his feet, Izuku shakily turned his chair around so he could look at his mother, then pointed at the screen. “Okaasan, He… he saves people with a smile. He’s such a great hero. Do you think I could be a hero like him?”
The cup Inko was holding fell to the floor from Inko’s suddenly numb hands, forgotten. After a moment of being frozen at the door, she rushed over to her son and hugged her tightly, her own tears falling to the puddle on the floor. “I’m s-s=sorry, Izuku… I’m so, so sorry…”
‘No mom… That’s not what I need to hear…’ The streams of tears turned to torrents as something broke inside him as a song played from the radio as if it were serenading the moment.
“Sing me symphony, one for the lost out in between, a city of fallen dreams, a city of angels…”
City of Angels – Arrows to Athens
+++
Izuku spent the next few days at home, as his mother was told he would be given the rest of the week off “to get used to things.” But Izuku knew the truth, it was plain to see in the disgusted look the principle gave him even after he changed back. No, this may have been officially recorded as 3 days of excused absences, but in reality it was a suspension. Even worse, the quirk counselor the school referred him chose to take the doctor’s description of Izuku’s quirk at face value and seemed more interested in treating Izuku as a girl all the time, regardless of Izuku’s stated gender. This caused Izuku to balk at any further training, so the only thing discovered in the next few days was that he could shift between different girls during that 10 minutes by singing songs from different female singers but singing a song by a male artist did not change him back. The ten-minute duration appeared to be set from the end of the first song.
If Izuku was completely honest with himself, he wasn’t sure what gender he most identified with. His insistence on being a boy was more situational and reactionary than anything else. He didn’t know how girls felt, and neither his mother nor his father could explain the differences between the two for that age, so Izuku decided he would follow whatever sex his body appeared to be and leave the gender question for consideration later. Hopefully, this would keep his problems with the adults to a minimum. He also swore to not sing any songs from female artists at school to keep the problems to a minimum. The quirk counselor didn’t agree with his stance and recommended psychological therapy.
At this point, Izuku adamantly refused to go to another therapist. He told his mom that he didn’t want to talk about being a boy or girl any longer, that he just wanted the problems to end before breaking down in an epic crying episode that threatened to flood the apartment. His father just gave Inko a disgusted look as if to say, ‘You handle this,’ before walking off to their bedroom. In the end, the suggestion for the psychological therapist was set aside.
So the Monday following Izuku’s first transformation saw Izuku being escorted to his school half an hour earlier by his mother to discuss Izuku’s status with the school staff. After meeting with the school counselor and the school principal, Izuku was given a pass to head to class while the remainder of the paperwork was filed. He was only 10 minutes late, but the class had already started, and their normal class teacher gave him a tired look before directing him to find his seat. He tried to waive to Kaacchan on the way, only to falter when the blond gave him an angry look.
Being in an already fragile state, the look kept Izuku feeling nervous all day. He just couldn’t stop fidgeting in his seat, earning a few sharp glares from his teacher, so he was relieved when recess was called. Once outside, the green haired boy walked straight up to his friend, hoping to find some relief as he asked, “So what do want to play today?”
Instead of the usual game of “heroes and villains” answer that Izuku was expecting, the explosive toddler spun around to face him and snarl, “Aren’t you supposed to be a girl now?”
“N-no Kaacchan, that’s just my quirk. It only lasts 10 minutes. I’m a boy!” Izuku fought back the confusion that tried to make itself known, causing him to verbally stumble a bit at first.
“ EEEEHHHH?! Could have fooled me last week Midoriya,” the bomber toddler snarled. “You were a girl when you left. You even got in trouble for being too stupid to go to the right bathroom when you had your hissy fit. And now you’re a boy?! Just how useless do you plan on being, huh?” Katsuki paused for a moment as if he were thinking about something before turning around to the crowd gathering around them. “Oi, see this name?” he asked as he snatched Izuku’s pail from him and showed the name off to the others, “It has his name here, but as you can see, it can also be read as “Deku,” as in “Useless!””
Izuku’s tears now started to flow down his face as his best friend’s words stabbed him in the chest. “That’s what he is after all, a useless, worthless Deku. She can’t even tell that she’s supposed to be a girl. All her quirk does is change her appearance to look like someone else. Talk about a useless quirk! There’s no way you can be a hero with that quirk. You’d die,” he snarled the last directly to the crying boy as he slamed the pail back into his chest hard. “Go play with the rest of the girls, DEKU!”
“But… but… Kaacchan…” the sobbing greenette tried to say, while his tears formed a puddle on the ground.
“See, he cries like a girl too. She’s too stupid to see what she is,” his best friend scoffed as he turned to the rest of their one-time group. “Come on, I ain’t wasting no more time on this Deku.” Everyone started to laugh around them as the group of boys walked off, leaving a distraught Izuku Midoriya standing there limply. By the end of recess, he would finally run out of tears and go to class with a blank expression, hardly noticing anyone around him.
He’d be like that the rest of the day.
+++
Thankfully, Bakagou would leave him alone for the rest of the day, though perhaps that’s due to his isolating himself. However, things went from bad to worse that day. When he got home, he saw his mother sitting at the kitchen table with her head in her hands and a large puddle on the floor.
“Okaasan… what’s wrong?” the young boy asked as he was drawn out of his stupor by her sobs.
“I… it’s nothing Izuku,” Inko replied while trying to pull herself together for her son. Unfortunately, she missed the look he wore as he entered the apartment. “H… How was your day at school?” A look of worry was showing plainly on her face as she tried to deflect her son’s concern.
Izuku shrugged before taking off his shoes. “It was OK , I guess,” he replied gloomily. For the first time in his life, he decided not to be completely open with his mother about what happened at school. She was obviously upset, and he didn't want her add to her problems. “It was kind of tiring, with a lot questions about what happened, but other than that nothing much happened.”
And for the first time, but unfortunately not the last, Inko appeared to take that at face value, “I-Izuku honey? Um... There's something I need to tell you. Your... Your father has to go overseas for bit. H-his job is sending him to America for an important project. He'll be gone for a while.”
Well, this was all that Izuku needed to hear right now. But given the state his mother is in, he quickly realized that she couldn’t handle him being more upset about it. “O-OK. When will he be back?”
“I don't know sweetie. Hopefully it will be soon,” Inko said, trying to appear hopeful for her son.
And that would be the last that Izuku and Inko would ever see of Hisashi Midoriya.
+++
A year later, Izuku’s and Kaacchan’s relationship would get even worse. Izuku had gotten used to the verbal bullying would become a part of his everyday life. While he had hoped that his childhood friend would change his opinions on Izuku’s quirk, it was not meant to be as they grew further and further apart. One day, Izuku would find himself walking into a local park only to hear explosions nearby. The sweet smell of burnt sugar wafting through the air alerted easily cued him into Kaacchan’s presence. Following the smell, Izuku eventually found Bakagou and two of his cronies standing over a boy curled in on himself crying.
While it was an option, turning around and walking away never even crossed Izuku’s mind. After all, he wanted to be a hero. What hero would turn their back on this situation? “Stop!” Izuku yelled before running forward and putting himself in between the bully and his victim. “Can't you see you're hurting him?”
“What's it to you Deku?” the blonde bombastic boy replied, “This ain't none of your concern. Just turn around and leave like the pathetic Deku that you are.” to emphasize his point, the blonde’s hand started sparking with small explosions, making his intentions clear.
“He's hurt. Can't you see you've done enough? This isn't acting like a hero! A hero wouldn’t do this.” Izuku’s whole body was shaking even as he put his arms up outstretched to his sides in an attempt to block Katsuki from reaching the boy.
“He needs to learn his place,” the bully replied with a sneer widening across his face. “You have one more chance to move out of the way… Unless you want to take his place...” look on Katsuki's face show just how much he would be fine with that scenario.
“No!” Even though his body was shaking, Izuku couldn’t just help being the hero that he had so desired to be. “I-I-I won't let you do this! Stop now Kacchan. Right now, you just look more like a v-v-villain than a h-hero.”
The blonde boy’s hand started sparking even more wildly at that declaration. “Oh yeah?! What are you going to do, turn into a girl to stop me? You still can't figure out what you are in the first place. Maybe we should call you Izumi-chan! That is ... After we teach you your place.” upon finishing that sentence, the three boys rushed forward and started to beat up Izuku. What felt like hours later, but it was likely just a few minutes, Katsuki stopped the other two and just spat upon the boy curling down on the ground before them. “Tsch… she's done, and this is getting boring. Come on let's go find something else to do.”
After spitting on the quivering boy again, the three bullies left. It would be a while before the bullied boy would get the courage to look up, first in the direction of where Kacchan and is groupies were and then towards the boy that he had defended. It was only then that he discovered that the boy and long since left. ‘Of course… Of course, you wouldn’t stick around.’ Assured he was alone, he finally risked getting up before cleaning himself up to go home.
It was after this incident, that things really started getting bad or the green haired boy.
