Chapter Text
The building was quiet. Once the final body hit the floor, it was quiet.
It was quiet when Denki wordlessly handed him a fresh pair of clothes. It was quiet when he took a cold shower to wash the blood off. It was quiet when they scavenged each room for whatever they could find. And it was quiet when they walked out the front door like the last guests to leave a party.
Even now, they walked in complete silence. Hanta glanced over at his blonde companion. Denki had burst into tears five times in the past two hours, and he looked like he was getting close again.
Hanta felt like crying too, whether from joy or terror or exhaustion, he wasn't sure. They were in a forest thick with trees and bramble.On one hand it had been so long since he’d seen trees or felt sunlight, on the other hand they were completely lost and probably going to die there.
A thought occurred to him.
"Hey Denki," he said, "How long do you think before someone comes to track us down?"
Denki stopped and leaned his whole body against a tree. He shrugged. "Never."
Hanta ignored him and started pacing. "Eventually someone is going to find out what happened. They'll start looking for everyone, and we got the shortest head-start. We have to find civilization and change our appearances or-"
"I'm not kidding, no one is going to come looking for us," Denki said.
Hanta turned on him and asked, "How do you know that?"
Denki opened and closed his mouth, frowning in consideration.
"What?"
He didn't respond and stared at the ground. Finally he said, "Those documents I was shredding while you were in the shower; I read some of them."
"What did they say?" Hanta asked slowly.
Denki picked the lint off of his stolen jacket. "They talked about something called the Quirk Gene. It's extremely rare, and it's only found in mutants."
Hanta took a sharp breath
"They believed that it causes the mutation itself, so they started to…" Denki swallowed. "Collect people who exhibited those traits. You and me and everyone else. They were observing the gene inside of us."
His stomach twisted.
"It wasn't a government operation if that's what you're going to ask. They even seemed to actively avoid the government finding out. There was a list of names of everyone involved, and they're all dead."
The words hung in the air.
Denki smiled weakly at him, eyes still red from crying. “Like I said, no one is going to look for us."
Huh. So they really were free.
They set up camp when the sun got low. They had two backpacks filled to the brim with whatever they could loot from laboratories. There were thin wool blankets for warmth, granola bars for food, and a map that was completely useless because it was for a district in Tokyo.
In the morning they packed up and continued in their decided direction. Around midday they found a hiking trail going through the woods. Short break for celebration, and they followed the trail to an empty bus stop. They passed out on the wooden bench until a roaring bus engine woke them up. The driver gave them a weird look, like they were the only people he’d ever found there.
They boarded in a dream-like state and collapsed on two seats. The only other passengers were an elderly couple giving them strange looks, and their pet dachshund. He tugged on his jacket sleeves to check that his elbows weren’t sticking out.
Before the bus even moved Denki was passed out and drooling on his shoulder. Hanta, exhausted himself, half-heartedly smacked him awake.
“Wha’ do ya want?”
“Do you know where this bus goes?” he asked.
“Dunno.”
“Oh, okay,” he said. He leaned against the window and closed his eyes, until another thought came. He smacked Denki again.
“How much money did you grab?”
“I dunno, all of the money-zes,” Denki slurred. He snickered at his own pronunciation,
That makes sense his subconscious said. His eyelids grew heavy and he fell asleep.
“Young men!”
Hanta's eyes flew open. Someone was pressing on his chest, he couldn’t breathe. He shoved them as hard as he could and scrambled away. After a few moments he realized that this wasn’t the lab.
"Oww…"
His memory finally caught up with him. He was on the bus with Denki, who was now on the floor, clutching his head and groaning. A very irritated bus driver stared down at them.
"Why would you do that?" Denki moaned.
Before he could apologize, the bus driver cleared his throat. Hanta jumped to his feet. “Oh! Sorry sir. How much is our-"
“Look, I don't know what kind of situation you kids crawled out of," the driver interrupted, rubbing his forehead, "But I don't want to get dragged into it. Keep your money and just get out of here."
Hanta said the appropriate display of “Thank you” and “We won’t forget this” and dragged Denki out of there.
The bus was stopped on a poorly lit city street, a far cry from the forest it had picked them up in. He got a feeling that this wasn’t part of the usual route. There wasn’t even a bus stop in sight from where they were.
This street looked different than the ones Hanta vaguely remembered from his childhood. The buildings looked boxier, and everything smelled like garbage and cigarette smoke. It was completely empty, unlike the constant bustling of the city he grew up in. There were maybe three buildings that had their lights on.
Admittedly, his memory could be a bit skewed. For years he’d been telling Denki, who could hardly remember anything about his life before, how amazing the city was. It had become a bit of a ritual to keep their spirits up.
Speaking of, the blonde was looking around with stars in his eyes. He was clinging to Hanta's sleeve like he usually did when he was afraid, but now he was tugging on it as if to say: Are you seeing this too?
At least one of them was feeling the magic.
He elbowed Denki and grinned at him. “Things are looking good for us, don’tcha think? A trip to the city and we didn’t even have to pay for it.” Denki laughed and agreed. That reminded him: "How much money do we have anyway?"
Denki furrowed his brows for a second and took off his backpack. "I'm not sure. I just shovelled in whatever I found. But I think it's a decent amount." He opened it for Hanta to peer inside.
He almost choked. The backpack was stuffed to bursting with bundles of yen.
“Dude! Did you grab nothing but money?”
Denki’s shoulders drooped. “Oh,” he said, a little dejectedly, “Is it not a lot?”
Hanta grabbed him by his shoulders and looked him dead in the eye. “Imagine the largest amount of cash you can think of.” Denki eyes widened. “It’s more than that.” He felt safe saying that, considering that Denki had a very limited perception of money.
A man leaving a nearby convenience store side-eyed them. Oh right, a bag full of cash in a shady part of town was going to raise a few eyebrows. They were not doing the best job of being discreet so far.
He threw an arm around Denki’s shoulders and lead him across the street. “Don’t look like drug dealers. Don’t look like drug dealers. Don’t look like drug dealers,” he muttered to himself. Now Denki was giving him an odd look.
They tried to stay in the shadows after that. It wasn't too hard with the questionable number of broken street lamps. They poked around in alleyways, trying to find a spot to sleep for the night. There were lots of weird puddles and stains. Most things reeked unbearably. Sometimes there were people just...lying on the ground, not moving.
While they were peeking inside of more dumpsters, Denki asked,“Hey Hanta, you’re fifteen right?”
He paused to think. “Yeah, if I’m doing the math correctly.”
“And I’m fifteen too?”
“Probably. We can’t be too far apart in age.” The dumpster was full of rotten food, so that was a no-go.
When he turned around Denki was nudging an empty soda can with his foot. “So...we’re technically old enough to attend high school?”
Geez. He hadn’t thought about going to high school for years. The older kids at the orphanage rarely attended high school, so it was an uncharted adventure for him. Starting middle school had been so exciting. His dream had seemed so close. Just three short years. Three. Short. Years.
He grimaced at the ground, unable to meet Denki’s hopeful face. "I don't know man, that’s kind of the opposite of laying low. And there’s entrance exams and uniforms and all sorts of things that could go wrong. Even if we could feasibly make it in, what are we going to say? Neither of us have parents, you can’t remember anything other than your name, and I’ve been missing for three years.”
Denki’s face dropped. He kicked the can down the alleyway and smiled sheepishly. “You’re right. I forgot about all the rules and regulations with stuff like that.”
Wow. That must be guilt kicking his heart in the shins right now. He’d been the one hyping the outside world to Denki, now he had to own up to all the embellishments. He looked around for a prop or something to make a light-hearted joke out of. Trash, trash, syringes, trash, empty bottles, more syringes, a face watching him from the shadows, trash, wait-
“Aaahhh!”
From the darkness next to Denki, a man stepped out. “Hey! Keep your voices down!” he yelled, then suddenly, “AAAHHH!”
Denki scrambled away from. Sparks jumped from his body and lit up the alleyway.
The man’s face, now fully illuminated, grinned like a maniac. “No way! You guys are mutants too?”
“Now you need to keep your voice down!” Hanta yelled back. This was not good at all.
Like flipping a switch, the grin turned to a snarl. “Shut up mutant freak!”
“Wait,” Denki said, “Did you just say, ‘you guys are mutants too?’”
The man’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. “What! No!- I most definitely said that!”
Hanta and Denki shared a glance. This guy was either high as a kite and lying, or high as a kite and telling the truth. Either way, he wasn’t a threat beyond shouting their secret to everyone in the block. Hanta relaxed his fighting stance and Denki’s electricity slowly flickered out.
The man started gripping his hair and muttering to himself. With one shaky hand, he pulled a piece of black cloth from his pocket. For a few moments he seemed to be wrangling it over his head while simultaneously trying to rip it off. When the mask was finally over his face, his body loosened and he sighed deeply.
Great, now the weird drug addict was dressed like a bank robber.
“I overheard you talking and I want to help you out, especially now." His voice sounded calm, or at least, calmer. "I can tell you more once we're somewhere private. Follow me.” He turned on heel and walked away without waiting for a response.
Hanta shook his head. "Does he seriously think that we're that stupid?"
Of course, Denki was already running after.
Bubaigawara Jin was certainly an odd man. It was amazing that he managed to have his own apartment, as run down as it may be.
They sat on a crappy sofa, shovelling instant ramen into their mouths as if it were the last meal they’d ever have. Hanta needed to start giving Denki credit, he had smart ideas sometimes.
Bubaigawara, or "Twice" as he preferred to be called, was a mutant with the ability to duplicate things, even people. He was blonde, scruffy, had sunken grey eyes, and was slightly shorter than Hanta. A large, disturbing scar split his forehead perfectly down the middle.
“Giran’s great,” he was saying, “He’d totally help you guys get fake birth certificates and everything else you need to take the entrance exams. Giran’s the worst!”
Hanta set his bowl on his lap. “Wait, when did you giving us a place to stay turn into us attending school?”
“When the sparky kid said he wanted to go to school. Besides, you have enough money to pay for uniforms and bags!” He pointed to Denki’s bag, which had remained zipped up their entire time there.
“Dude! How long were you tailing us?”
“Not long- all night!”
Hanta groaned and dropped his face into his hands. He was split on feeling bad for Twice’s condition, and wanting to scream every time he contradicted himself.
“That’s kind of creepy,” Denki said with a nervous chuckle. He swirled the noodles with his chopsticks. "But if your friend can actually do all that then it'd be amazing."
Hanta lifted his face and looked at Denki incredulously. "Are you seriously considering this? It's way too dangerous!"
Denki threw his arms up in exasperation. "What are we supposed to do? Hide around for the rest of our lives? We have to go out sometime, so why not now?"
Hanta opened his mouth to argue, but nothing came out. He couldn’t think of a retort beyond a paranoid, ‘but danger!’
"Entrance exams are in a few weeks," Twice said, "You two should start seriously studying. You'll be fine, just wing it!"
Thus began their career as perfectly normal high schoolers, living with a man they didn’t know, and having copious amounts of money that wasn’t theirs. That didn’t stop Hanta from trying to think of a counterargument for two hours.
That night they did rock-paper-scissors for the sofa; Hanta lost. At least the floor was still more comfortable than rocks and dirt.
He curled up under the thread bare blankets and tried to sleep with no avail. "Denki, I can hear you thinking," he mumbled, after ten minutes of no rest.
"Sorry.” A brief moment of silence. “There was something I didn’t really understand in those documents I found.”
“What?”
Denki talked with his hands. “It said that everyone with the Quirk Gene has DNA that’s really messed up, but also really similar. So, hypothetically, the genetic makeup of two mutants could combine, like mixing two colors of paint. It was only ever hypothetical, but they tried several experiments with Neito and...y’know.”
Hanta wasn’t sure if he should laugh or hit something. “Wait, that’s what those psychos were doing? What, did they get that from Dragonball Z? Were they insane?" Denki flinched at his harsh tone. He sighed. Trying to keep his voice level, he said, “That’s... really weird.”
“That’s what I thought too, so I didn't bring it up. But what about Twice? His name is literally Twice and he talks like he's got two separate minds. He’s a mutant too. What if that scar is what divides the people making him up?"
“You’re asking me if Twice is two kids in a trenchcoat?”
“...Yes?”
“Go to sleep.” He wasn't having this conversation at 2 AM.
Sweet silence embraced him for a moment, then: "Hear me out... Todoroki."
This was going to be a long night.