Chapter Text
You had prepared everything. You had your Endeavor t-shirt, a white canvas ready to be framed when you get home, and a solid black marker for him to write with.
People say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, those people are fools.
Now you just need to hurry out, you didn’t want to miss out on this.
You weren’t the only one wanting to meet the number two hero. The street was packed, but you manage to squeeze yourself to the front. Next to you was a boy who would explode if he got more excited. He was cute you noticed, but you were quick to turn your head towards the road. You wouldn’t want him to think you were weird. Besides, you got sight of Endeavour.
You could feel the heat radiating from the hero as he got closer and closer, and you felt something inside of you burning hotter and driving your body into a mix of anxiousness and excitement, the later easily overpowering the former.
You needed to remember to breathe. When he got next to you, the overly excited boy beside you took a step forward and you followed suit. With the canvas in one hand, the marker in the other you smiled at your hero.
But he didn't stop, he reached out with his hands and shoved you away with a weak sideways swing.
"Get out of my way, kids!" Endeavor roared at the two of you.
You dropped both items to the ground. Tears started falling from your eyes and down your cheeks. You hated crying, your black eye crept people out enough already, but its black tears made it even worse. The only thing worse would be if you cried blood. It stained your face, making it obvious for everyone around you. It made people almost think you were possessed by a demon, and people never wanted to comfort you, other than your mother. You know so much as you've had heroes back off from you in the past when you were lost and was crying for help.
That's one reason you had liked Endeavor as a Hero, he seems like a person not caring about such a thing, but it turned out that he didn't care about anything.
"Is everything okay," the boy asked you, not taken aback from the black fluid streaming from your right eye.
You were just lying there on the ground, the black asphalt pricking your skin, but you didn’t care, other stuff hurt more now.
You couldn't get out a single word, you were not okay, nothing was okay.
But he didn't care about the lack of response, he wiped your face clean with his t-shirt and picked you up in his arms.
Perhaps there really were true heroes in this world, but how could he shine if the world was corrupted by false heroes. More obsessed with taking down villains than actually caring about people. And normal people were even worse, just standing there waiting for heroes without taking any action themselves. But he was a shining light in this bleak and corrupted world.
You didn't care where he was carrying you, and he must have not thought much about it either has he carried you to the train. He was technically kidnapping you. Did that make him a villain? He wasn't even asking you, even if you had no strength to talk, you did notice the world around you. But it didn't talk long before you drifted to sleep in the comfort of his arms.
-x-
You softly opened your eyes, and you felt you were lying on something soft.
"Inasa, she's awake," you heard an adult female speak out.
"I'm sorry for this, my boy wanted to help you out, I hope it wasn't to a bother," Inasa's mother said.
"It's fine Mam. I would probably be still on the ground if it wasn't for him, people don't usually want to help me. They find me creepy," you opened up to her, you didn’t know her, but you felt you could trust her anyway.
"You must be hungry, I'll make you something quick," she said, it wasn't an offer, you knew you had to eat, want it or not, she had the aura of that kind of mother that wouldn’t leave you to yourself when you were down.
"Thanks," you replied and turned to the cheerful boy. It felt contagious as you felt you needed to smile back at him." You're my number one hero," you said in a spark of impulse.
"Thanks! Something you want to do?" He asked you. He was too sweet.
"Can we burn our Endeavor merchandise together one day? I could probably sell it, but no, I want to watch him burn," you asked him. You might have come off a bit strong. But you didn’t need a friend you need to hide your feelings around.
He nodded. And the two of you bonded around all the money you had spent on your collection. While it was a pride in the past. Now the tone between you was a kind of glee, glee about turning the back on him, as he turned his back on you. Every piece was a symbol of his betrayal towards you.
While you were talking about your fan material, you felt a desire to destroy the hero. But you were quirk-less and it wasn't enough just to defeat him.
Not much more happened that day. Inasa's mother had made you a nice warm bowl of soba. Your former obsession and common interest have died, and a new one had born in the ash of the old one. Your mother was waiting for you at home, you had too much fun with the other boy to notice her message. You sent her a message telling her that you were going home now and everything was fine, but before you could go, you needed his phone-number. You'd a bonfire to plan.
-x-
School work had taken much of your time the last days, you like many other quirkless children strove to work harder as society looked down on you.
You walked into the kitchen to talk to your mother, "Mom, I'm going to meet up with a friend, I might be late."
"What are you holding in that bag?" She looked at you with suspicion at the sight of your fully packed black trash bag.
"Just some trash, my old Endeavor stuff. I and Inasa are going to burn our old stuff," you replied. You would want to sneak out without her finding out, but you didn’t want to worry her like that.
You dragged yourself and your trash to a bit of a secluded area in the city, where the flames wouldn't damage anything. Just concrete around you, a metal barrel, some fuel, Inasa and both your bags of garbage.
As you were loading the barrel with your old clothing, Inasa started to ask you questions. "Do you have a new favourite pro-hero?"
No, you didn't, you wouldn't let a pro-hero betray you like that again. So you just shook your head.
But the less you talked the more he talked. "I was kind of thinking of All Might, I hear he's in Japan now!"
You had nothing to say really, so you just put more stuff on the fire.
"He has helped a lot of people, and tend to be quite friendly with his fans," he tried telling you. You got that this was more to cheer you up by now and convince you the world wasn't as bleak. But you though Endeavor was great too, so what would be different with All Might. He'll probably back off by your appearance like usual.
He stopped talking, for being a loud enthusiastic person, he knew how to be gentle and give people some space and quiet time. With only the flames sparking in front of you, you just stood there watching it burn as Inasa kept it going with more material.
When both bags were empty, he moved beside you and held an arm around your shoulder and moved you towards him, you let him, it was nice to have a shoulder to rest on.
"Do you want me to follow you home?" he asked you.
"It's fine, I just need some time alone if it's okay?" you answer him back with a soft smile.
You start walking back home with soft steps, trying to wrap your head around life, You hoped your mother had something nice to eat when you're back, you smiled at the thought of her cooking.
You smelled smoke in the air as you got closer to home, you started panicking about your mother and get your legs moving faster and faster. You wanted to get home as fast as possible, but your legs couldn’t carry you fast enough.
It couldn't be true, you saw a flaming villain on the ground, and you didn't mean the burning pile of trash. Police, ambulance and firefighters had gathered around the destruction. Along with All Might.
An uniform-clad policeman approached you, "Do you live here?"
"Yes, is my mother safe?" you asked as your heart raced.
"What is your name?"
"[Last] [Name], and my mother is [Mother's Name]"
His head sank, "I'm sorry."
"No, she can't be dead, you must have gotten the wrong person, let me see her!" You screamed at him and wailed your arms in desperation and despair.
"We found her identification in her pocket, and for the body, she suffered severe burn damage from the villain, along with rubble from the fight between All Might and Volcano,” he explained.
"Do you have any other family?" he asked you with a concerned voice.
You shook your head, it was just you and your mom after you father had tied some years ago. You didn’t even know the names of any other family.
"My name is Tsukauchi Naomosa, do you want to come home with me?"
He wasn't your mother, he couldn't replace her, there was only one thing you wanted to do.
And that was to run, run away from everything.
---
Middle school was the worst. If it wasn’t for the fact that you only had a year left, you’d kill someone. But you survived the loss of your mother, you could survive this.
Nakamura however, was trying his best to make your life a hell.
"Isn't it the little quirkless demon," he pushed you against the wall, preventing you from getting away.
"Go away!" you yelled at him. You were not in the mood for this, not that anyone was ever in the mood for bullying. Perhaps if he was a cute boy you liked, you’d let him pin you to the wall, but Nakamura was nothing like that. You’d nothing good to say about him.
"I don't think so, my mother cut my allowance due to my poor grades. But that shouldn't be a problem for you, your mother is dead and you always get top grades," he laughed smugly at you.
"So pay up!" He barked.
"And what if I say no?" You asked him, trying to keep your fear in control and not show weakness in front of the enemy.
"I'll use my quirk against you, and then what are you going to do, run home to your parents?" He laughed at his own awful joke. But he was right, there was nothing you could do, and you didn’t want to feel the wrath of his quirk.
So you had no choice than to grab your wallet and take out enough yen to make him content.
"Good girl," his condescending voice growled at you. You wanted to fight back, but you were quirkless, thus powerless. And the last thing you wanted now was another reminder about that.
But your anger was too strong for reason at this point. You shoved him away and perhaps taunting him a bit more than you should. "Go get hit by a car!" You said. But lucky for you, he was bored by you, and he didn’t want to give you the satisfaction of provoking him. The message was clear, you weren’t worth it. He just ran across the street to catch his bus. But he never got that far, the bus hit him at full speed. The driver slammed the breaks, but it was too late, he flew into the air and hit the ground head first.
The nearby crowd screamed, and people were already calling the ambulance. But as lifeless as the body looked, you were sure it was too late. You wanted it to be too late.
"Doesn't it feel great," you heard a cheerful voice behind you.
You turned around to see who it was. A blond girl with messy twin buns and fangs. "Who are you?" you asked. You were sure you’d never seen her before, you wouldn’t have forgotten anyone that cute.
"I'm Toga, and you?" she looked so happy to see you, it was like no one just had died right next to the two of you.
"I'm [Last] [First]," you replied, wondering about what would happen next.
"I can call you [First]-chan right?" she asked you, you tried to answer but she just continued to talk. "Cool quirk you have there."
"I'm quirkless," you said bluntly, you were tired of being judged for who you were.
She leaned into you and whispered in your ear. "How else did you get him to get run over, it's no coincidence. You killed him, and you feel great about it, right?"
You understood why she was whispering, if you really were responsible, you didn't want anyone to know. And she was even more right when she said you enjoyed it. Looking back at the dead body, you felt a fire burn inside you, fire you've not felt since your mother was still alive.
You nodded, you didn’t need to hide your emotions for her.
"I think we're going to be best friends, I don't even want to stab you," she said. As if telling people that they weren’t going to stab them was a normal thing to do. Not that you wanted to be stabbed of course.
"What?" you backed off a bit. Her promise to not stab you wasn’t enough for you to feel comfortable with her. But she was right at you again and put her arm around your shoulders.
"Oh, nothing we should test it out, just to be sure," she said, and just to make sure you didn't do something stupid, she added. "Just make sure you don't go ahead and kill all the bullies, that would make them onto you. And I won’t let them take my new friend."
You felt something was wrong, like someone watching or listening into you, but as you turned around 360 degrees, there was no one apart from you and Toga. The sight of you made people step back, and seemingly no one had any interest in eavesdropping.
"Can I get your phone number? So we can talk later?" You asked her.
She shook her head. "That's not safe, people can listen in on us, and if we talk about I'll think we'll talk about, that's not a good idea. Add me on NaniChat, the name is StabbyChan. No one would even know we talked together, as long as you keep your phone safe."
"Thanks for looking out for me," you smiled at her," I'm looking forward to it."
-x-
Living alone meant lots of loneliness. You had no family, nor any friends at school to keep you company. But that was before, now you had Toga-chan.
"Hi, I saw someone interesting after I meet you. Do you wanna hear?" She texted you, filled with all kind of emoji’s and her usual knife.
"Sure Stabby-chan :D" you texted her back,though you knew that she'll tell you anyway. She was the kind of person who couldn’t shut up about the stuff that excited her.
"His name is Stain, he kills heroes, he says the world is full of false heroes," she explained.
"False heroes?" You texted back, a bit confused about what she meant, or rather what Stain meant.
"Yeah, heroes who work for their own selfish interests."
"So like Endeavor."
"Should we kill him?" she asked you, she said 'we', did she want to help you?
"No, I want to see him suffer, destroy him as a hero, for that he needs to be alive. But where should we test out my quirk?"
"3:00 am at the train station, remember to bring a hoodie so we don’t get recognized as easily" she texted.
"OK, I'm going to bed, goodnight <3." you texted one last time and put your phone down. You were tired and wanted to sleep.
-x-
Next day after school, you had already put on your hoodie, now you just had to wait for Toga.
"HI [First]-chan," she hugged you from behind. How did you not notice her you though? What if it was Endeavor sneaking back on you, you wouldn’t want that. Though you knew that the man couldn’t even sneak up on a rock.
"Hi, Toga-chan," you replied back.
The two of you entered the train, ready to scout out a victim. Someone who'd easily blend in, someone no one would remember talking to you.
That meant a plain-looking office worker. It was time to really see if you had a quirk as Toga claimed, or if you were right and it was all a coincident. You reckoned that the quirk worked by touch and simply say what you wanted to happen, like with Nakamura. You didn’t know if they had to hear you talking, but for now, you'd play safe and whisper it. The noise of the train and people talking with their friends would drown you out.
You looked around, no one paid you any attention, the only one of notice was a hooded figure playing on some kind of handheld device. His black hood made sure he couldn't see you, and you couldn't see him.
You got right next to your target and with a soft hand on his back, you whispered "Someone is going to stab you in a minute,"
The deed was done, all it was to do now was to wait in silence, talking to Toga would just attract attention.
When both one and two minutes had passed, it was clear that it didn't work.
"Seems like you were wrong," you told Toga.
"Did you do anything differently the first time?" She asked you.
Not really. But were the anything different between the two instances and you just hadn’t noticed?
Nakamura was your classmate, but this man was unknown.
Was that it, you didn't know the name of this man? You couldn't just ask his name, but there was something you could attempt.
You pulled off your hood and poked him softly on the back to get his attention.
"Excuse me, I feel I've seen you before, are you Tanaka-san?"
You smiled at the man in his twenties. He looked like the kind of guy who never got the attention of any girl in school.
"I'm sorry, you got the wrong person," he chuckled and looked a bit nervous. You didn't blame him, if you knew you were going to die soon, you'd be pretty nervous too.
"Oh, could I get your name then? I'm Ito, I hope my eye doesn't creep out." Even at this moment, your self-consciousness hit you. But you were going to own it.
"I think it's cute," he continued to smile, "I'm Suzuki Haruto, nice to meet you."
"I'm a bit afraid," you said, as you tried to put on a face matching your words.
"What are you afraid of Ito-chan?" he asked you.
"I'm afraid that..." you paused for a split second and put a hand on his chest, "...you're going to get stabbed." You withdrew your hand and put it close to your own body.
That should do it, now you only need to explain yourself.
"There are lots of scary people in here. Anyone of them could carry a knife," you muttered.
."Demon!" both of you turn towards the sound.
A rough looking man, he probably had some drug issues or were homeless. Out of nowhere, he charged at you with a knife.
But before he could get to you, Haruto-san put his body in line to protect you.
No one else reacted, giving the stranger a free pass to stab him in the stomach. But before he could move onto you, some of the other passengers got into action. He was pushed to the floor and restrained with whatever they had available. Be in a jacket or a belt. Securing every limb on his body till there was no room for movement.
-x-
Short while after, a group of policemen along with ambulance personnel.
"It was you he charged at right?" one of the police officers asked you.
"Yes, but Suzuki-san saved me," you said and smiled at him, given the situation, it was the best to make the impression of a sweet and innocent school girl.
"You know him?" he asked you.
"No, we just meet. I thought he was someone I knew, but I turned out to be wrong, but he turned out to be really nice," you explained, if you pretended you liked the guy, they wouldn't suspect you of getting him stabbed.
"What about the perpetrator, do you know why he attacked you?" He asked. You began to get tired of his questions.
"He called me demon, I think he was kind of creeped out by my eye, people often do," you answered.
"I can see why. Have you considered covering it up?" It wasn't a question, it was an accusation.
"Are you blaming me for what happened?" You raised your voice at him, a fire started to burn inside you.
"All I'm saying is that you can take precautions to avoid this happening in the future. Eyepatch, covering it with your hair, it's up to you," he said,
You couldn't believe what you heard, and before you could think twice about it, you stepped forward and launched a punch against the officers face, but quick reflexes on his part let him grab your wrist and turn you around. Before you could protest, you felt cold steel around your wrists. You tried to tug the restraints, but your hands got nowhere.
"Now girl, I'm taking you to the station and then we're going to call your parents," he explained. As if you had any say in it.
"I'm an orphan," you said. "So can you let me go?"
It was hopeless but was worth the effort.
"I'm taking you to the station anyway, and we'll figure out what do to there," he responded to your request.
That was clearly a no.
He pushed you forwards and towards his car. He was nice enough to open the door for you, but he didn't have much of a choice as your hands were tied. After you were secured in your seat, he went to the driver seat and drove towards the station.
You had to get away, but you had no opening yet.
"I need to pee," you said with a meek voice to emphasize your need.
"You can wait till we get to the station," he replied, but you had to get away.
Now.
"I can't, if I don't get to it very soon, I'll get the car wet," you argued back. Hoping the thought of having to clean his car would change his mind.
And judging by his next actions, you were probably right.
He slowed down the car and drove to the side of the street, right next to a public restroom.
He opened your door and dragged you up into a standing position.
"Can you take off my handcuffs now?" you asked. If you’ve ever had you handcuffed for a prolonged amount of time, you’d know it was kind of uncomfortable. That, and you needed your hands free for your escape.
"Not before we get inside?" he replied.
"You're going to follow me inside? This is the ladies room," you argued and turned to look at him with disapproval. This wasn't what you needed. You couldn't get away like this.
"I will be waiting for you outside your stall," he answered back and opened the door to let you in. When the officer saw that you were alone in there, he locked the door behind him.
"What are you doing," you felt your heart beating faster and it getting harder to breathe. You didn't need to pee, but if he couldn't hear anything from the stall, he might notice something was amiss.
"Just for security reasons, I won't do you anything, I'm not a pervert if it's that you think," his voice was stern, probably offended by the implication.
"I don't like people hear me pee, can you let the sink run, so you can't hear me?"
"Fine," he said, "now get going so we don't get stuck here all day." He uncuffed you, and as you moved towards the stall, you heard the sound of running water.
The inside was a disappointment, you had hoped for a window or something of a help, but there was nothing.
You couldn't climb through the plumbing either, you were a small girl, but not that small. And the thought about climbing through the sewer just made you sick.
You didn't get much time to think much about your flight plan as you heard a scream outside the stall.
What should you do?
But again, you got no time to think as a voice outside got your attention.
"Come out [Last], there is nothing to worry about, he's dead," you didn't recognize the voice, but as he had just killed a policeman, you felt you would just make it worse for yourself if you stayed inside. So you slowly opened the door.
On the floor, you saw a pile of dust. And next to it stood a blue-haired man with several detached hands feeling him up. Since you were innocent and there was only the two of you, he had to be responsible for killing the man.
"Who are you?" your voice was faint as you spoke to him.
"I know who you are, I'm not telling you my name before I can trust you. But I'm the leader of the League of Villains and I want you to join the party."
You panicked and asked him. "You know my quirk?" your voice was even more restrained now.
"You don't need to worry, it's only a coincident that I know. One of my party members were spying or rather observing your friend. And they got a look at you sending a boy to his death. Your little test earlier was brutal, he was friendly to you and you got him stabbed."
"Ehh, you saw that," You asked. You didn't know if you were embarrassed, afraid or the mix of the two that you’d no word for.
"I won't tell on my party members," he gave you a creepy smile. "So what do you say, work for me and your secrets are safe or decline the party invite and we'll deliver you to the police, along with telling on you about Nakamura and the police officer you just pulverized."
"I didn't.." you tried to mutter, you didn't know why, as he was clearly aware that he himself was responsible for the latest death.
"We won't request you to work for us without getting anything in return. We can provide you with protection if something goes wrong like you punch a government official? And you seem to like hurting people, or worse. We won't mind. Just keep this secret for your friend Toga, for now. We didn’t want anything bad to happen to her. Like someone stabbing her,” he said.
"There are lots of scary people in this city. Anyone of them could carry a knife."
He looked into your eyes waiting for an answer.
"I guess I've been careless," you took a look at the pile of dust that had arrested you. "I give it a chance,"
You could always ditch them if needed.
A purple portal opened beside him.
"Step inside," the man told you, and you obliged.
The purple mist engulfed you as you walked inside it, but through the other end, something resembling a dimly lit bar appeared. If not, someone had a serious drinking problem as the wall was covered with all kind of alcoholic beverages.
As soon as the blue head fellow appeared beside you, the mist condensed into a bartender with quite an intangible head.
"Now what did you want with me, I don't think you brought me here to drink, I'm not even old enough."
"You're killer, and you worry about drinking age. What's up with you and Kurogiri, you are villains. We're supposed to break the rules."
"You can consider me Lawful Evil," you smirked at him.
Before Ao-san, as you named him could give you an answer, you heard a voice from a nearby laptop. "To answer your question, I called you here." The screen didn't show the face of the man speaking, all you saw was the text, 'Sound Only'.
"To aid Tomura's plans, I see it fit to place a spy at U.A. I'm sure you've heard of them. And that's where you come in. If you had gotten properly arrested today, you wouldn't have been able to attend, so you have to excuse our rash behaviour today."
Tomura took the word before you were able to. "Don't tell her my name!" He yelled into the monitor.
"Calm down," the voice on the other end tried to smooth the man. "If we want her to trust us, we need to trust her in return.”
"I don't mind attending the school, just don't harm or make me harm any friends I might gain there, is that clear? I'll hunt you down if any of them die, I've had enough people die on me!"
"I like your spine. I don't think that should be too much of an issue, just don't get too attached to any of the pro-heroes," the voice said. Could you trust him?
Obviously no, trust was based on honour, you knew that when you outlived your usefulness, he would see no reason to keep any promise. You just needed to betray them first.
But there was an obvious issue with you attending a hero school.
"I can't use my quirk at school, it will be too easy to link any of my extracurricular activities back to me. Officially, I'm quirkless and you can't become a hero without a quirk. Not even a fake hero," you told them.
"You seem to underestimate us. I have the perfect quirk for you. So if there aren't any other issues, do you take the job?"
"Yes, and it better be a nice quirk!"
You had to admit, getting a second quirk would be nice. You knew enough about quirks to know that having two quirks wasn't common. At best you'd have a quirk that seemed like two. Like Endeavor's son, Shoto. Fire and Ice, but in reality, he was some kind of weird heat pump able to produce both heat and cold.
You had to admit you had been kind of stalking the boy. He should be your age, so he might be your classmate, maybe you could use him against his father. The piling trash of a hero could impossibly be doing any better as a father.
You were too deep in your own thoughts to notice that Kuroguri tied a blindfold around eyes.
“What was that for,” you wailed your hands to get the offending hero.
“I’m going to take you to Master for your quirk, and to be safe, we don’t want to see his face or anything that let you identify him.
What was all that about trust earlier? But it was a tiny bit, if he betrayed you, you’d find a way to hunt him down no matter what.
You felt the purple mist gliding past your skin. By the change or temperature, smell and sound, you knew you were no longer at the bar.
"[Last], I'm going to give you your new quirk. It will just take a second, so don't panic," it was the same voice as through the laptop.
You felt one of his hands touching your head, for what could be no more than one-two seconds, before he retracted it.