Hisashi let out a sigh, tapping his fingers as he rested his head against the table, listening to his teacher droning on and on about math. It was his first year in elementary school, but really, did they have to be stuck learning about all these dumb things like addition and subtraction?
Since he had just turned six a few days ago, it had been around two years since his first hospital visit, and thus, he was scheduled for another check-up. After school, his mom would have to pick him up and drive him all the way back to Musutafu for it. Sure, he understood that only a select few major hospitals had the specialized equipment for all this quirk stuff, but he didn't even need an x-ray this time; why on earth did they have to drive all the way there?
"-riya... Midoriya! Midoriya Hisashi! Are you listening?!"
Hisashi blinked as he heard his teacher calling his name. The irate mathematics teacher was tapping her wooden ruler against the teacher's table, as she scowled sarcastically, "Glad to see you're still with us, and not zoning out, Mr Midoriya."
She smacked her ruler against the board, where the equation "7 + 8" was written, "Now, would you be so kind as to answer this question?"
Hisashi quickly answered the question, and the mathematics teacher went back to teaching. His throat was getting itchy again, and Hisashi grabbed his water bottle and chugged a few mouthfuls down. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to go use the bathroom until after the mathematics lesson was over; their next lesson was Physical Education, and Hisashi was really looking forward to whatever sports their teacher would be letting them try out.
-----------------------------
Fuku dug around in her bag as she conversed with the nurse at the counter, trying to find the documents she needed. Hisashi peeked behind the counter, and found a familiar green haired girl scribbling on a piece of paper with crayons.
"Inko?"
The girl looked up, took one look at Hisashi, and grinned, "Ah! It's you!"
"What are you doing here?" Hisashi asked, "Another check-up?"
"Ah... nope." Inko smiled sweetly, "My father works here! My mom's busy, and my father refuses to leave me in after school care because the kids there are mean! So he just brings me here! I think he has a meeting now, so he just left me here for the time being."
"Oh." Hisashi grinned, "Your dad's a doctor? That's cool!"
"I know, right?" Inko's eyes lit up, "Both my parents are awesome! Like... my mom can refract light into lasers through her nails! And my dad has the ability to levitate small objects around him! Which is like... super handy for operations... I think?"
Suddenly, she fell silent, and looked back at her drawing. Hisashi tilted his head slightly, "Are you... okay?"
"Yeah." Inko nodded, "I just... wish they were less busy..."
"Oh..." Hisashi glanced up at his mom, who was still talking to the nurse. His dad always left really early in the morning, before Hisashi himself even woke up for school, and came back late in the evening. His mom was the one who always took him to school, cooked dinner, did the laundry, but apparently, she could do her work at home on her laptop.
Fuku looked down at Hisashi, before she noticed Inko's presence, and she let out a small smile, "Hello again, dear. I believe your name is Akatani, right?"
Inko nodded, "Yeah! Akatani Inko! It's nice to see you again, Mrs Midoriya!"
Fuku shot Inko a kind smile, "We have to wait a while for our appointment. How about you join us for a small chat?"
Inko's eyes immediately lit up, and she shot to her feet, "I can?"
She turned to the nurse by the counter, "Can I?"
The nurse smiled at the green haired girl, "If your father comes looking for you, I'll just tell him where you are."
"Yay!" Inko grabbed her water bottle before she leapt to her feet, and ran around the counter, nearly running into Hisashi in the process. Fuku let out a small laugh, and led the two kids to a small corner of the waiting room where there were fewer people.
The two kids chattered constantly, as Fuku flicked through her emails, the smile slowly slipping off her face into a more concerned and distressed expression as the minutes flew by. By the time it was Hisashi's turn for his quirk consultation, Fuku's brows were furrowed, as she desperately tapped on her phone.
She hastily yanked Hisashi by the arm, and turned to Inko, plastering a fake smile on her face, "I'm sorry, dear. We have to get going now."
Still oblivious to Fuku's change in mood, Inko smiled back at her, "It was really nice talking to you!"
"You too."
Without even giving Hisashi the chance to say anything, Fuku dragged her son to the consultation room, as Hisashi waved goodbye to Inko.
-----------------------------
Hisashi was pretty sure his mother wasn't listening to a single thing the doctor said during the consultation session, but luckily, the doctor didn't mention anything new. Just that he most likely had a quirk, and that he should just give it some time.
Once they had gotten home, Fuku had heated up some leftovers, before she ordered Hisashi back to his room. Hisashi had tried to protest, but one look from his mom sent him running back to the safety of his room.
He was supposed to be doing his homework when heard the front door opening, and he hastily rushed to the door and pressed his ear against the door, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Where's Hisashi?" His father asked, and Hisashi heard a small thump, most likely from his father dropping his briefcase on the ground.
"In his room. I read the emails... were you... really..."
Fuku was immediately cut off by a huff, as Moyasu grumbled, "Fired, effective immediately. Yeah."
"Why? What for? You're one of the senior higher-ups! You've been working in that company since it started up!" Fuku protested, as Hisashi heard his father growl, "I was replaced. Apparently, they hired some guy that had a stupid quirk that could do several of our jobs better than we "quirkless folk" ever could. We were all made redundant."
"But you... you do have a quirk..." Fuku tried to argue, and Hisashi could feel his heart racing as he heard his father growl, "Yeah, but my quirk is just about on par with a kitchen appliance. Being able to create a small flame has nothing on a guy with a so-called "analysis" quirk."
There was some tense silence, and Hisashi gulped, unsure of what was going to happen.
"So... what are we going to do now?" Fuku asked, and Moyasu replied, "Do we have enough savings for all the bills?"
"Maybe for a few years." Hisashi heard his mother mutter, "My current salary won't be able to cover everything."
There was a slight pause, and Hisashi held his breath, before he heard his mother ask, "What if I get fired as well? I'm quirkless..."
"We don't have a choice. At least... we've got some time. I've got to start job hunting again. At least my resume looks decent." Moyasu huffed, and Hisashi could hear his mother sighing heavily.
Hisashi crept back to his table, but he couldn't find it in himself to continue with his homework. He just hastily scribbled in some random answers, and shoved his papers back into his schoolbag, before he climbed into bed.
-----------------------------
Hisashi just sat in the main hall of his elementary school, waiting for his parents to pick him up. His father had applied to a bunch of jobs, and he had to run all over Musutafu for his job interviews, and Fuku was trying to take on extra roles in her job for more pay, or at least, keeping her job for a longer period of time.
He wrung his hands together, and let out a small cough. His throat was feeling pretty scratchy lately, but he didn't want to bother his parents with something so trivial when they had much more important things to worry about. It was probably just a small cold, and he'd get over it eventually.
Hisashi rubbed his hands against his arms, and let out another cough. He really wished that he had brought a jacket to school.
Suddenly, he felt a scarf being draped over his head gently, and he looked up, surprised to see his mathematics teacher standing in front of him. She sat down next to him, and pulled out her phone, as Hisashi just looked at her in bewilderment.
His teacher just glanced at him briefly, before turning her attention back to her phone, "It's not safe for a six year old to be left on their own. Where are your parents?"
Hisashi just miserably shook his legs around, "Busy. Dad's at job interviews... Mom's taking more shifts."
"I'm not surprised." His mathematics teacher shook her head, "That recently started Hero Commission... they're offering incentives to hire people with useful quirks. They're putting too much emphasis on the usefulness of quirks. Their way of trying to assimilate quirks into society... it's a nice attempt, but it's doomed to fail."
She turned back to the small boy, "I'm not saying quirks are inherently bad, but they're rushing things, and trying to do too much without giving society ample time to adapt. We might not feel the impact now... but future generations would probably be the ones suffering the consequences."
Hisashi didn't really understand all the big words that his teacher was using, but he did understand something; his father losing his job for having a weak quirk was a drop in a bucket compared to the possible unfair treatment due to quirks in the future.
After a few minutes, the doors opened, and Fuku rushed into the hall, looking around frantically, "Hisashi?"
"Mama!" Hisashi jumped to his feet, and gave his teacher back her scarf, "Bye bye!"
His teacher nodded back at him, and Hisashi ran to his mother's side, as Fuku gently ran her fingers through his hair. His mother shot his teacher a small smile, and the teacher just nodded back at her, before turning her attention back to her phone, as Fuku led Hisashi out of his school.