"MIRA! It's time to wake up!" A childish yet noticeably feminine voice shouted out through the small apartment. The sound of sizzling and the distinct aroma of bacon accompanied the voice as it traveled through the halls.
"I'm up! I'm up! I'm up!" Another yelled out, frantic and excited in reply. The sound of ruffling and all around chaos followed for a few moments, before racing down the halls came a small auburn colored blur.
"I'm here, onee-chan! Don't start without me!" Panting as if she had just run a marathon, the small tornado crawled up and plopped down on her seat at the round table.
"Geez, Mira, I know you're excited but at least try to take better care of yourself in the mornings. Let me guess, you didn't sleep at all last night, did you?" Her older sister, Lisana, chided lightly while placing a plate filled with pancakes, bacon, eggs and toast in front of the small girl trying to fix her hair. No matter what any of them tried, it somehow always found its way back into that same state not too long later. Nothing short of tying it up would keep it any other way, and it'd be a shame to cut such beautiful hair.
"Well, in any case, happy birthday Mira. Onii-chan said he would be getting off early today and would meet us at the doctor's office. Todoroki-san offered to pick us up, so be sure to thank her later, alright." She finished setting a plate for herself then went to assist her cute little sister with her bed head. Luckily it was the weekend, so she could accompany her to her exam.
"Un! Maybe Shoto will come too!" Mira agreed while digging into her breakfast. She used to feel self-conscious about eating so much, but her onii-chan said a real man needed to eat a lot to grow big and strong, so she doesn't mind that much anymore. Quickly shoving down the food while remembering to savor the taste since there's no point in eating a lot if you don't even taste it.
Mirajane Strauss had just turned 4, and today was the day she would have her quirk identified. Of course, she had stayed up the entire night in anticipation and accidentally overslept, but as long as no one found out, it didn't count.
"Ah, before she gets here, could you help me with my homework, Mira? I got stuck on another division problem." Lisana asked a little embarrassed sitting down after giving up on her sister's hair.
"Un, you can ask me anytime, I want to help onii-chan and onee-chan after all!" Mira gave an adorably heart-stopping pure smile. She knew her siblings had sacrificed a lot to take care of her growing up, and she would do anything to repay them. One shouldn't let her excitable personality and childish demeanor fool them, because Mira was already an existence that could be called a genius.
Elfman and Lisana had noticed rather early on that their little sister was more than meets the eye. By the time she was only 1 years old she was already walking and forming simple sentences. By 2, she had already learned how to read and if not for her hands being uncoordinated; they were sure she would have been writing by then.
It wasn't until she turned 3 that they really noticed her abnormalities. The girl had a thirst for knowledge that normal means just couldn't sate. Once a week they would stop by the public library and loan out the maximum amount of books allowed, and she would finish them all before the end of the week and have most if not all of them memorized. She was already reading books that most high schoolers would moan about before picking up. She was solving problems that outright baffled Elfman, someone who graduated top of his class in school.
And this was all before she even entered kindergarten!
They had honestly wondered if her quirk had manifested early and had mutated somewhere along the way. It wasn't exactly an unheard-of phenomenon, but upon going to the doctor she assured them that was not the case. Mira's case in fact was not extremely rare at all, in fact it could be said to be quite common, though displayed in different ways.
What they concluded was that Mira's enhanced intelligence resulted from her brain and body preparing themselves for the arrival of her quirk in some way. They couldn't conclude how, as neither Elfman nor Lisana had displayed similar enhancements before they had their quirks, but it was overall a blessing so no one minded much. Their sister was a genius and it would only help her in her life going forward.
*Tap Tap Tap*
A few hours later, while Mira was helping Lisa go over her homework, they heard a light knocking coming from the door. Although Mira wanted to rush over knowing whom it likely was she only turned to her sister and waited for her to respond.
They were both smart girls. They knew their older brother was an amazing pro hero and has likely made a number of enemies over his career. It wasn't impossible for someone to find out the location of his home and use them as hostages, though it was unlikely they would knock first. Then again, there are some really strange villains out there, so it never hurt to be cautious.
Lisa silently approached the door and looked out the peephole before breathing a small sigh of relief. "Mira-chan, Lisa-chan, are you home?" a soothing and kind voice sounded off before Lisa had the chance to open the door.
"Rei oba-san" Just as Lisa opened the door, Mira burst out from behind her, almost tackling the woman who came to pick them up with a hug. The woman was none other than Rei Todoroki, the wife of the number 2 hero, Endeavor.
Rei is a middle-aged woman with an average height and build. She has straight shoulder-length white hair with rather long bangs over her face. Her face has round features, having mellow expressions in most situations. However, if one looked closely, they might notice a tired look in her brown-gray eyes.
The small family had been surprisingly taken care of by the Todoroki family ever since the passing of their parents. To this day, almost no one knows what exactly compelled Endeavor to spare any attention to the family, but Elfman seems to believe it's because Endeavor took a liking to him. So he continues to work as a side-kick for his agency, even though he's more than capable of going solo or forming his own agency at this point.
Rei however knew the truth of the matter. Her husband was only interested in their quirks, or more specifically, he was interested in little Mira's yet to be discovered quirk. Elfman and Lisa-chan have amazing and versatile quirks in their own right, but a great many people have already taken notice of little Mira thanks to her brother's constant bragging.
She knew he was looking for other possible avenues to surpass All Might should he deem their most recent child a failure like he did the others. Intelligence quirks are already very rare, so there are multiple different solutions that might arise once they identified her quirk, including simplifying having her work for him as support. If it were also similar to her siblings, then he might even try to force poor Shoto and the girl to team up if Shoto's quirk wasn't as good as he wanted it to be.
Rei was honestly growing tired of all this, but she knew deep down the man she loved was still in there. As for these kids, she knew of their circumstances. They had a past eerily similar to her current life and she couldn't help but to wonder if this is where everything was leading her family. She worried and also sympathized, so she started treating the small family as if they were her own. It wasn't too hard to imagine seeing as they all had similar hair and eye color. Well, all except little Mira with her bushy auburn hair and bright blue eyes.
"Hello Mira-chan, happy birthday. Are you ready to visit the clinic?" Rei put aside her thoughts for now and reached down and hugged the adorable little girl that brought her endless worries.
"Un! Onii-chan is supposed to meet us there too!" Mira was practically bouncing on her feet as she let go of Rei and grabbed her jacket hanging by the door. It was now mid-January, so it was fairly cold outside. Rei didn't seem to mind the cold as she was dressed fairly light even in this weather, but that was likely due to having an ice related quirk.
"Is Shoto coming too? His birthday just passed a few days ago, didn't it?" Mira asked curiously. She enjoys spending time with Shoto and would have liked to play with the others in the family, but strangely enough she wasn't really allowed. She figured it was because she was too young and they wanted her to play with someone her own age, but she at least got to hear stories about the rest of them from her onee-chan.
"Yes, Shoto will also meet us there." Rei said tried to keep the strain off her smile. She knew her husband would be bringing Shoto by to have their quirk identified together. He had purposefully held off until today for reasons she was unaware of but could guess at.
"Yay! Come on, onee-chan. We're going to be late" Mira called for her sister who was doing a final check of their home before they left, making sure nothing was on that didn't need to be.
"Alright, I'm coming. Thank you again, Rei-san." Lisa said, finally greeting Rei and grabbing Mira's hand after noticing she seemed ready to bolt to the clinic on foot.
"Please think nothing of it, Lisa-chan" Rei replied while they walked out of the small apartment while Lisa checked to make sure it was locked. She had developed certain habits after the incident, and now she needed to make sure of various things around her at times. She has gotten better over the years and now only feels the need to check her home coming and going, rather than at random times through the day.
On their way out they waved to one of their neighbors who seemed to just get home from shopping, a slim woman who had short dark green hair with a ponytail on the left. They didn't have much interaction with their neighbors, but they had met her and her son in passing a few times.
They seemed nice, but Elfman didn't want them interacting with boys much while he wasn't around. Even though he doesn't seem to mind her spending time with Shoto...
XXX
Exiting the cab, the first thing Mira did was pounce on her brother who was already waiting for them in front of the 'Musutafu Quirk Clinic'. Unlike general hospitals, these specialize in situations related to quirks. Be that identifying them, handling injuries caused to people by themselves or others, etc.
"Oooh, Mira-chan, are you excited to get a cool quirk like your onii-chan?" Elfman rubbed the eternally messy hair of his youngest sister while giving a smile to his other one, and she walked together with his boss's wife.
Things had been rough in the years following their parents' death and they had both been forced to mature far more quickly than they had ever expected, so they shared a certain bond with each other that couldn't be found in normal siblings. All to give their little ball of sunshine a somewhat stable home that the both of them always wanted. Lisa more than Elfman was extremely thankful Mira was born as smart as she was or else she truly didn't know how they would have managed so far.
"Un! I want one just like onii-chan and onee-chan!" Mira spoke from the heart, giving off her signature dazzling smile. She loved her siblings and wanted to be as similar to them as possible. She always felt a little lonely that they both had white hair and grayish blue eyes while she was the only one different. Although they said she got it from their mother, she could tell it made them kind of sad too.
"HaHaHa! That's my little sister. Spoken like a true MAN!" Elfman laughed out loud with his signature catchphrase.
"HaHa! Yea, like a true Man!" Mira returned waving her tiny fist in the air while still being held in Elfman's arms. They both continued to laugh boisterous, drawing passing glances from a few people before a slightly angry and resigned Lisa interrupted them.
"Nii-chan! I already told you to stop calling her a man! You keep giving her weird ideas!" As much as she loved her brother, he was a bit of a muscle head. And the last thing she wanted was for her sweet Mira to turn into a mini version of their brother screaming "MAN" all over the place. She shuddered at the thought of a 7 foot tall Mira with more muscles than body running around punching anything that got in her way.
They both looked at the horrified face of their sister as she gazed off into the distance in her own little world. Looking back at each other, they began laughing again just as loud. Their sister had a tendency to get lost in her imagination from time to time, and it was always easy to imagine what was going on in her little head.
Lisa returned to reality and pouted as she knew her siblings were laughing at her again, but it didn't hold before she too joined them and started giggling.
Things might have been rough without their parents, but they all developed a bond that wouldn't be broken easily. Their struggles only brought them all closer together, and they each cared for the other more than anything else in the world. They all loved their little family. It was broken, but still good. [A/N: I had an opportunity, and I took it. I regret nothing]