History Fanfic / CuckooBird

He's a Quirkless. Or, as he puts it, he didn't get a christening gift from his parents. Despite this, he wants to be a Hero more than anything. Not just to be like his idol, All Might, but to show half-breeds like him everywhere that they can screw their heritage and that they're just as worthy as everyone else, or at least to convince himself of that.

That isn't to say he doesn't have ''powers''. He's got those, but he keeps them hidden, let's everyone think he's worthless until he's out of middle school. It's better than getting that slashing feeling in his throat from lying about it.

After school, he's usually doing jobs for an "acquaintance" of his named Beck. It would be more accurate to call it "indentured servitude", because he doesn't have any say in the matter. He has to do everything Beck asks, all because Izuku didn't know the rules as a child and handed out his True Name to the wrong person.

More specifically, he's a changeling. His biological parents swapped him out for the ''real'' Izuku Midoriya when they were infants. He's been living Izuku's life ever since. You see, "Izuku" is a faerie, more specifically, the son of a no-name puca woman and an elf of the Seelie Court. He's the forbidden product of a disgraceful affair between fae of different courts. Caught between the worlds of Heroes, Villains and the faeries that lurk just below the surface, Izuku will do his best to achieve his dream and break free of the fae that would seek to put him down for what he is.

* {{Animorphism}}: Izuku's magical abilities allow him to do turn parts of his body into that of animal, allowing him to gain claws and wings. He can also completely turn into a handful of animals, such as a crow, a cat, a dog, a fox, and a goat. Unfortunately, his abilities aren't quite powerful enough to hurt U.A.'s robots, nor do they allow him to bypass his weakness to iron.

* ChangelingTale: The story is one, as "Izuku" is the changeling that was swapped out for the original Izuku Midoriya as a baby. He feels terrible about this, since he knows he's a "fake". He even says that his own name tastes like ash on his tongue because he knows it wasn't originally his.

* CreepyShadowedUndereyes: Years of indentured servitude has given Izuku these, but he's shocked to find that Aizawa has even deeper circles than he does.

* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Izuku frequently has prophetic dreams of what's going to happen in the future on what he calls "Teeter Days", such as being trapped in a pool full of chlorine, seeing one of the Noumus, and [[spoiler:seeing Stain attacking Iida, and All Might's retirement]]. Unlike Sir Nighteye's visions, Izuku can't control when he gets them nor are these visions set in stone. He has to pay special attention on the days that he gets them because a single decision can change the course of fate, which results in a feeling that things are locking into place. Unfortunately, these Teeter Days also give Izuku nausea, fevers, and headaches as a side-effect, which makes it harder for him to pay attention on those days. Worse still, Beck's orders against "spoilers" prevent Izuku from telling others about his dreams, forcing him to work behind the scenes to get a better outcome.

* MetaphoricallyTrue: Izuku is a master of telling half-truths out of necessity since he has to avoid actively telling lies, lest he suffers excruciating pain in his throat.

* TheNicknamer: When Izuku hasn't learned people's names, he tends to call them by nicknames in his head. Because he knows that Uraraka is important to his destiny for one reason or another, he calls her "Destiny Girl". He also calls Iida "Doomed" because he saw him being attacked and murdered by a Villain.

* ScarsAreForever: Izuku still has burn scars on his shoulders and arms from the times Bakugou used his Explosion Quirk on him as well as an ironfire scar on his face and a half-chewed off right ear.

* TearsOfJoy: Izuku is brought to tears when he hears Mirio and Toshinori tell him that he'd make a great Hero. He's even more happy when Aizawa tells him that he expects Izuku to be at the U.A. Entrance Exam and that his chances weren't zero. He does so another time after his mom reveals to him that she knows that he's a changeling and while she misses her original son, she considers Izuku her son just as much as his whisked away "brother".

* WrongContextMagic: The modern world mistakenly believes that Quirks are just a natural part of evolution. In reality, they're magic "christening gifts" that lay dormant in the blood of humans because of the affairs and trickery of the fae.

* MixedAncestry: As mentioned below, Izuku is half-puca and half-elf, which unfortunately grants him only limited perks of being either of them on top of heaps of discrimination by other faeries.

* SelkieAndWereSeals: [[spoiler:Todoroki's mother is a selkie, as is her oldest son.]]