Chapter Text
It all started slowly. Similar to the first flame of a fire that inches hesitantly over kindling, but before you know it those flames build a roaring bomb fire that can not be safely contained.
November 23,
The day doesn’t seem important, if anything six year old Bakugou Katsuki would describe it as a boring day. He goes to school with Midoriya Izuku by his side, not because he wants Deku there but because someone has to watch out for him and his mother says that it’s his job. Apparently, those with strong quirks need to protect those with weak/no quirks, and that is what makes a true hero like All-Might.
Their new teacher compliments his quirk and gives him an extra snack cup when he reminds Deku of his place in the world.
Deku was asking too many lame questions in history about the pre-quirk era and the ‘World Wars’ that happened then, and really just taking up too much of everyone’s time. Everyone wanted the class to be over, even their teacher, so they could start recess and begin a game of hero. Besides history is boring, who cares about stuff that happened years ago, especially who cares about things that happened pre-quirk society? Obviously, nothing important could have happened before quirks were around to make people strong.
Yes, Katsuki’s least favorite subject in school is history, because why should he focus on the boring past when he has a real future of becoming a rich prohero.
After school, he goes back home with Deku by his side, not because he wants him there but because Deku is his responsibility and Auntie is coming over for dinner tonight. Bakugou doesn’t like seeing Auntie cry and she cries whenever Deku comes home with bruises, so he makes sure Deku does not get any bruises today on their walk home.
Auntie and Mom are talking when they get home, so he has to include Deku in his game of hero now. It’s whatever, everyone usually agrees to make Deku a civilian with some of the girls who have weaker quirks.
Today they make Deku play the villain because none of the girls want to be held hostage with him. The idiot can’t even do that right, everyone knows that villains are supposed to give up halfway through the game and kneel to the all powerful pro-heros. Instead the blockhead wins by tripping some of the other kids and making it too hard for Katsuki to free the girls before the time dinner starts..
Things don’t start happening until dinner, Deku is talking about a trip they’d gone on with their Great Uncle. Apparently, Uncle ‘Raki took in a kid a bit older than them who has ‘the coolest’ quirk and ‘the awesomest’ red eyes.
His parents seem amused by the greenett’s rambling and even seem interested when Izuku mentions Uncle ‘Raki’s plan to have Deku and this unwanted kid both inherit the family business from him one day.
“And what exactly is the family business you will be inheriting, Izuku?” His mother asks when Deku is forced to pause to take a breath.
Izuku pauses for a second but continues anyways, “Oh Uncle ‘Raki runs a-”
“Oh my god!” Auntie suddenly shrieks, looking at the TV that is playing the news in the living room. The volume is off but even he can read the bright red banner running across the bottom of the screen ‘Landmark Quirkless Registration law passes, Quirkless safety branding to begin soon.”
Deku starts crying, mumbling nonsense like ‘I don’t want to be branded’ and ‘This isn’t fair’.
“Stop crying stupid Deku, can’t you read, what ever they are doing is for your own fucking safety. You should be thankful the government is trying to keep a loser like you safe.” Katsuki tries to explain, remembering their teachers talking about the new laws possibly being passed and how they were important to keep people like Deku safe. No wonder she has sent Deku out before explaining it to them, if the idiot was going to over react like this.
“Katsuki go to your room right now!” His father snaps harshly at him, which surprises the boy because his father never raises his voice at anyone. The last thing Katsuki sees that night is his mother cradling that baby Izuku in her lap and his father kneeling next to Auntie who is crumpled in a ball on the floor.
He doesn’t understand what is going on. He doesn’t understand why Auntie and Izuku are crying about a law that is supposed to protect Deku. He doesn’t understand why his father yelled at him. He doesn’t understand why his mother is holding Deku like a baby, she never does that, not even for him when he has bad dreams.
Bakugou doesn’t see Auntie Inko or Izuku again after that.
He no longer walks to school with Izuku, because Izuku is gone and doesn’t go to school anymore. Not that it matters, not long after Izuku leaves, their school makes a new rule that quirkless kids are not allowed to attend anymore. They say it’s so quirkless students won't get hurt by the normal students' quirks. It’s for their safety because they are weaker than everyone else.
It’s strange suddenly seeing people walking around with the Quirkless Safety Branding, which has been nicknamed QSB by the people on the news, sewn and stapled onto their clothes or bags.
He never knew the owner of the grocery store Mr. Yuie is quirkless. The first time he notices the man’s QSB is when he’s talking to his mother.
“If they pass this newest law, I am leaving the country and moving to New Zealand with my daughter. This cursed country can keep this little shit stand if they really want it but they aren’t getting me.” The greying man mutters harshly, spitting black sludge into a cup near the cash register. “Have you heard anything about the Midoriyas?”
His mother looked into her purse sadly, “No, Masaru went to their apartment but it doesn’t look like anyone has been there in months. The investigator we hired can’t find anything either. I just hope they got out of the country and Izuku didn’t end up-. You know.”
Mr. Yuie looks at Katsuki over carefully with a hard look in his eye, “Ya, I do. I guess we can only hope for now. It’d be terrible for such a sweet and smart kid like Izuku to meet such a fate, but with the way the world is turning you never know. I’ll see if I can find them in New Zealand.”
“I hope to see you tomorrow.” His mother says in a soft voice he’s never heard before. “I’m sure officials will not allow world history to repeat itself, or forget the contributions of quirkless people during our own country’s reconfigerment period.”
“We shall see.”
That night another read banner scrolls across the TV screen during dinner ‘New Quirkless Protection Act Passed’.
Katsuki listens as a pretty woman with red hair explains the law, the government says it’s too dangerous for quirkless people to own houses, businesses, or any property because they are too weak to defend it from people with quirks. The government is doing them a favor by taking these things and giving quirkless people a break from worrying about it all the time.
It kind of makes sense to the boy, how could Mr. Yuie protect his store if someone decides to steal from it. He doesn’t have a quirk and could be killed before heroes could arrive.
Katsuki never sees Mr. Yuie again and he never calls with information about the Midoriya’s either. Not long after he left, the grocery store was closed down along with alot of other businesses that Katsuki would never have imagined could be run by quirkless people.
The boy hears the normal people around him muttering about stores closing suddenly, ‘the economy’, ‘loss of non-skilled workers’, and a few people even wondering why the government couldn’t manage stores that lesser quirkless people had for years. The people who question the government either stop or disappear like Deku.
The little boy is surprised to see a familiar triangle like symbol on his Grandma’s shirt when she comes to visit with two suitcases tucked under her arms.
“I am leaving for America,” The older Adachi woman declares strongly, kissing his mother's face softly and with the gentleness of a mother. “Your father is no longer with us but if he was, he would be appalled of the state of things. This is not the country he spent his life fighting for. This is not the country I fought for.”
Large tears are streaming down his mother’s cheeks, another first for the young Katsuki, “I understand Mother, but I am begging you please stay out of the riots. You’ve done your part for the cause, for years you fought for the right to legally marry Father. Leave this fight for the younger generation. Please, I am begging you.”
Grandma Adachi’s lips thin into a small smile as she brushes tears from his mother’s eyes, “I am sorry darling but this is something I must do. Just know that no matter what happens to me that I love you, I love Katsuki, and I love Masaru.”
“Mother-”
“Mitsuki, stop all these tears, I did not raise a cry baby. You will always be an Adachi and Adachi women are stronger. Now I will be going to fight any way I can, because that is what's right. We don’t have much of a younger generation, not anymore at least.” Grandma does a weird gesture with her hands as if to demand his mother to pull herself together. “Just think of that poor Izuku child who used to live around here. They were probably kidnapped into one of those quirkless-trafficking rings that the government refuses to acknowledge. Your friend Inko was probably raped, beaten, and killed by those very traffickers. And if she wasn’t and is still in the country she will be forced to be sterilized so she can’t birth another ‘undesirable’-.”
“Mother! Katsuki-”
“Will have to learn the truth one day.”
“Mother, please don't-”
“I must go, I love you. I hope I will see you again.”
With a kiss to his forehead and a long look at his face, his Grandmother leaves their house with her two suitcases and leaves behind the familiar triangle symbol on the table near the door.
That night, when Katsuki is sure both of his parents are asleep in their room and will not hear him. He sneaks into the living room and turns the television to the one American news station they get. He doesn’t understand the words being said, nor does he understand why everyone looks so angry, but he watches as the news host shows a film of a protest going on in New York.
Before he goes to sleep, riot scenes are still swimming in his memory, he takes his Grandma’s QSB patch and hides it in a box carefully placed under his bed no one can find.
He doesn’t understand why his Grandma would leave them. Why she would go to another country to protest laws that are keeping her safe. He doesn’t understand what she meant when she was talking about Deku and trafficking. But he does understand that her leaving made his mother sad.
His Grandma calls them once a week for a couple of years, but she never comes back and visits them, and one day when he is ten those calls suddenly stop. It takes about a month for an officer to confirm his mother’s worst fears, Grandma is dead. She was killed defending two children from a bad man.
His mother goes to America for a few weeks to set up a funeral that Katsuki and his father do not attend. His grandmother’s grave is in America, but they set up a small shrine to her in the back of the house away from where guests can see.
If his Grandma was born with a quirk, he’s pretty sure she would have made an amazing hero.
Years pass and Katsuki stops hearing about quirkless laws and regulations on the news. They are still being passed apparently, but less people care now that most quirkless people have left Japan for other countries offering them asylum. Which Katsuki thinks is pretty, fucking selfish of them, because Japan is one of the only countries actively trying to keep them safe with laws.
At one point there was a fear that Japan might be forced to go to war over their quirkless laws and regulations, but in the end that threat also died down. Not that anyone is happy with the way Japan is constantly being bad mouthed by other countries in the news. The only really big thing that stands out to Katsuki is that Japan's relationship with Germany is very rocky, so Katsuki’s favorite show that was dubbed over Germany animated shows is no longer available anywhere.
He doesn’t think about Izuku, Auntie Inko, Mr. Yuie, or his grandmother very often anymore. To focus on getting into a top hero school next year, specifically he has his aims set on world famous U.A. Highschool.
Nothing can shake his faith in his abilities, not even the stupid ‘Slime Monster Incident’ that had caught him off guard yesterday. Besides, he got to talk to All-Might after he was saved! The All-Might said he was ‘brave and resourceful’ for thinking to use his quirk on the villain. Sure, Katsuki must have used his quirk subconsciously while he was passed out, but still a complement from the #1 hero is still amazing.