Not powerless

chapter 4: jump

A heavy thump nearly sent him sprawling on the ground. Luckily he was able to stay standing, whirling around to face … no one. There was nobody there. Confused, Izuku kept his guard up. There were plenty of quirks which could have hit him at range, the user probably hiding. A loud hoot drew his attention to the ground. The barn owl was there, staring up at him.

Was this normal behaviour for owls? Izuku may not be an expert, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t. The owl leaned backwards, twisting its head to face back towards the shack, and hooted again.

Izuku decided the best course of action was to ignore this strange bird and continue on his current plan. He needed to get to a train station and get as far away as possible. After that, he’d have to improvise. At least then he could lie and claim to have some kind of quirk if people asked. At least that way he could use homeless shelters as an absolute last resort. It all required him to…

Another thump to his back had him crash to the ground this time. Izuku turned back and glared but the owl didn’t seem fazed by it at all. It simply twisted its head backwards and hooted again, though it also hopped on the spot. Izuku stood but when he made to walk away, he caught the way the owl tensed, preparing to knock into him again.

“What do you want?”

The owl hooted.

“You think it’s funny? Knocking down the kid who has nothing, over and over again! It’s not as if this has never happened before. It’s not as if nearly everyone in my life hasn’t done the exact same thing! Apparently even animals see me as pathetic. I am not pathetic!”

The owl didn’t react to his rant. Izuku couldn’t help but laugh.

“And now I’m ranting at an owl as if it can understand me.”

This was too much, because when he said that the owl hopped and hooted.

“You’re saying you can understand me?”

Another hoot.

“This is it. I’ve finally cracked,” he said, sitting down heavily and letting his head hang, “it’s not like I’ve got any way to prove it. It’s not like I can say ‘if you can understand me, come sit on my shoulder’ or something like that.”

There was a flutter of wings and then a surprisingly light weight rested on his shoulder. Izuku looked up and the owl was there. It hooted at him in a way which he almost thought was smug. Izuku was stunned.

“You can understand me.”

The owl hooted once again. It must have some kind of quirk, either one which made it smarter or just one that allowed it to understand human speech. Izuku couldn’t help but laugh again. Of course he would find an animal with a quirk. It was just his luck. Apparently even animals would get quirks before him. His laughter was quiet, broken, half way to being sobs. At the noise, the owl gently nipped his ear.

“Sorry, sorry. It’s been a rough few days,” he said, though that was putting it lightly, “but I’m sure you don’t want to hear about my screw ups.”

The owl hooted, hopping off his shoulder to land in front of him.

“Did you want something?”

The owl hopped in place, doing that weird thing again where it angled its body while twisting its head to look back at the forest in the distance.

“Do you not want me to go to the forest?”

It moved its head side to side, obviously saying no.

“Ok, do you want me to go to the forest?”