Chapter Text
15 years ago:
He was scared. He didn't mean to. He really didn't mean to do it.
He didn't want to. But he killed them made them disappear and now Tenko was all alone.
It had already been a couple of days since it happened. He couldn't stay there. So he left.
The boy didn't know what he should do. He couldn't ask the heroes for help, after all he was a monster bad child. A murderer runaway.
Even the old lady had been scared of him. Father had been right - he was a bad horrible bad child.
So he was hiding behind a dumpster in an alleyway, so nobody would see him he was a scary monster and clutching his hands to his chest so he wouldn't ruin anything else.
That's when he heard a noise - footsteps at the entrance of the alleyway. He tried to make himself smaller and hide but the person was still coming closer.
He couldn't breathe, why were they coming didn't they see he was going to kill hurt them?! He barely registered a tall woman with midnight blue hair standing in front of him.
"Oh, you poor soul..." the woman whispered, "C'mon child, breathe with me..." she continued, trying to reach out to him.
NO NO NO HE WAS GOING TO HURT KILL HER. STOP. COULDN'T SHE SEE?!?
"You won't hurt me dear." and then she placed her hand on his. The boy clamped his eyes shut and waited for the scream to come he hurt again oh no oh no he was an awful boy. Except... it never came. Tenko went still as statue and continued listening for a few seconds. He was... starting to calm down and he could breathe easier now...was that the woman's quirk? He experimentally opened one eye only to see the woman in front of him perfectly fine and smiling down at him with her warm chocolate brown eyes just like Mother did.
"See?" she asked while smiling even brighter "You didn't hurt me at all!"
Tenko couldn't form a response. He was stunned silent and just stared at the woman in bewilderment with his big red eyes. He noted that she was wearing a white knitted cardigan and a straight brown skirt. So very different from his own ratty T-shirt and shorts that left him shivering in the early spring.
"What's your name, kid?" she asked, shocking him out of his thoughts.
"T-tenko." he answered, voice rough and quiet.
"Well, nice to meet you Tenko." she somehow smiled even wider at that " My name is Fukumoto Akemi. Do you have anywhere to go sweetheart?"
Tenko shook his head.
"Ok then..."she seemed to pause and think at that."Do you want to come with me sweetheart?" she asked, extending her hand to him.
He stared at her for a moment. It was suspicious, sure he was 5 but he wasn't stupid. On the other hand... he really had no idea what else he could do. He was a monster anyway it didn't matter what happened to him. He contemplated her offer for a minute.
Then he took her hand.
He wouldn't regret that decision.
»»-------------¤-------------««
13 years ago:
Shirakumo Oboro believed he was a good person. He was training to be a hero how could he not be?
His generally positive demeanor made it relatively easy for him to make friends and he had some of the best friend he could wish for. The sometimes overly enthusiastic Yamada Hizashi, the grumpy and rational Aizawa Shouta, Iida Tensei, who he could always play pranks with and Kayama-senpai, who was probably the most childish out of all of them but still just as brave and smart as anyone. He loved kids, especially his little siblings and his parents were always there for him. He had a good life.
That was why it was okay when he sacrificed almost everything to get the children out of the building when they encountered the big scale villain attack on their second year internship.
It was okay when he stayed behind to check if he had gotten all the primary schoolers out of the building and got hit by some stray rubble. It was okay when the last thing he saw before he blacked out was the absolutely horrified look on Shouta's face and his mouth moving as if he were screaming something that Oboro was too concussed to make out and more rubble falling on top of him.
It was okay when he woke up in the way-too-bright hospital room some time later and found he couldn't feel his legs.
It was not okay when the doctor solemnly explained that a piece of the ceiling had crushed the base of his spinal cord and was beyond repair. When he understood he'd never walk again. When the realization hit him that he could never become a hero anymore out of the danger of additional damage to his body.
He didn't really pay much attention after that. He was pretty sure his parents came to visit and maybe at some point Shouta and Hizashi had too. But he was too out of it to provide much more than a nod and hum here and there so they'd think he was listening to the conversation. He was okay, he told them, everything would be fine.
It was not okay when they left and he broke down. All he'd ever wanted to be was a hero. And now that he couldn't...what? He had trained so hard, given it his all. His family wasn't so rich that they could support his dream now either, especially with 4 younger kids. He cried until his eyes dried out and then continued to stare blankly at the curtain next to his bed...because what else was he to do?
Then he heard shuffling of clothes by the door of his hospital room.
"Do you still want to be a hero?"
His attention snapped to the man by the door. He had shoulder length blond hair, tied up in a low ponytail and red-rimmed glasses resting on his face over his electric yellow eyes. He was dressed in an ironed out black suit and a light blue tie over the white shirt.
"Yes" Oboro responded without thinking. He wasn't sure what had compelled him to answer. "But I can't. Not anymore" He added with his face downcast.
"What if I told you could still be a hero?" that immediately got the boy's attention. The man was smiling. Oboro's eyes were suddenly no longer dull as they had been since he had woken up, there was life in them, hope. He was looking straight at the man.
"How?"
»»-------------¤-------------««
12 years ago:
Everything hurt. That was the limit of what Touya's mind and body could process.
He also somehow knew that he had to keep moving, even with his body battered and his remaining functioning, or not entirely functioning, nerves simulating phantom flames still all over his body. He didn't know where he currently was or where he was going but he had to get away from him. He couldn't go back to that hell, even if he was leaving his siblings back there. The monster would kill him if he saw him again... or more so finish the job. It wasn't as if he wasn't halfway through death's door already.
The "training" had always been terrible. It always hurt. Whether it be from his father's kicks and punches that bruised his ribs and made him sore all over, the burns from the bastard's careless flaunting of his appropriately named Hellfire, or from his very own flames that his body was too weak "You're weak, child! Useless! A disgrace!" The monster shouted to withstand. But then it was worse. And worse. And worse. Until he got so frustrated that he set himself on fire and they wouldn't go out. Because he was so so angry just like that demon. "You aren't like him Touya" his mother would say, gently holding his smaller than now body "Never him".
He remembers he woke up in a hospital, tied up in all sorts of weird equipment and most of him covered in bandages, he isn't entirely sure how exactly he got away from there as he is still somewhat delirious from the pain medication they pumped him full of, he can only hope he hadn't caused too much damage along the way never like him.
He slips on something and falls face down on the ground. He wants to cry, except he can't because the burns near his eyes are still too irritated to allow him to do so.
He can't get up "GET UP! HOW WILL YOU EVER BE A HERO WHIMPERING ON THE FLOOR LIKE THAT!" but he somehow manages to roll himself over so he isn't eating dirt anymore.
He thinks that this is it. This is how he dies: 13 years old, in a dirty old alleyway in an unfamiliar part of the city. So he allows himself to drift and think of his family, at least the good part of it.
He thinks about his mother. His mother who is always sad but does her very best for them. Even under the looming shadow of their monster her husband. How she used to sing him to bed when he was little, how she held him close and let him cry when the torture training got too much, how she made them all cold soba whenever he was away on a long mission. Her tired eyes and warm smiles.
Touya thinks about Fuyumi. Sweet little Fuyumi. Always seeing the best everyone that monster has no good in him and the most compassionate person he knows. Not that he knows a lot of other people the demon locked him away in the house. His smart little sister, who even only being 10 takes care of their little brothers when mum isn't all there and the eldest is too wounded to even get out bed. Because she has to.
Natsuo, who's still too young to understand what's really going on but feels that something wrong in that house never a home. Natsuo, who at 6 will lose a brother. The very same brother he's had to watch break down and wonder why he's even there in the nights after especially gruelling sessions with their father.
And Shouto. Baby Shouto, who's had his future taken away before even learning how to walk or talk. His tiny, little baby brother who that monster will push in his place the moment he gets his quirk. Because no one will say it they're all too scared but they all know he would be the one their father wanted. He wishes he could be the one to take the hits...because Shouto doesn't deserve that. Nobody does.
Touya feels the edges of his vision darken and he thinks he could just make out a silhouethe above him before everything goes black.
...
He wakes up in warm, dry room. He's confused. The last thing he remembered he was dying on the ground in a forgotten dirty alleyway. The walls of the room are a light beige and there's dresser, a desk and several bookcases along them. Did someone bring him here? He's curious but still way too exhausted to move.
The door opens and he tenses up but all the sees is a teenager or a young adult with fluffy light blue curls on top of his head, who smiles at him as soon as he notices Touya looking.
"You're awake!"
»»-------------¤-------------««
10 years ago:
Hitoshi whimpered in fear as he listened to his new foster parent' shouting match downstairs from his hiding spot under the blanket, not that it really hid him, or kept him warm for that matter but it was something. Or well, his mouth tried to produce a whimper but that only made the muzzle, snugly fit onto his face cut into his cheeks and the sound came out unidentifiable.
He was used to it though. At first the damned thing had at least fit him at first but then it got too small and nobody wanted to spend more money that absolutely necessary on the villainous kid. Not that he'd grown much with the amount of food the last few households had given him. At least here they gave him food still.
Doesn't mean the yelling isn't scary though. He's still only 5. And yelling usually means more hurt for him and nobody really likes getting hurt, so of course it's scary.
He sometimes wishes he'd been born without a quirk. Because ever since his quirk came in he's only had bad things happening to him. His first mummy screamed the first time he used it and he didn't know what he'd done back then. He had spoken, which is a bad bad thing, even worse, he'd asked a question. He didn't really get it until his first daddy had hit him when he spoke. And they looked at him weird, he didn't understand that at first too, now he does. He is a very smart boy and knows that look is called fear. Then came the muzzle and the fear went away and Hitoshi thought that maybe, just maybe everything would go back to normal and his first mummy and daddy would love him again now that he couldn't speak, right? But that didn't happen. What happened instead is they forgot about him. He had to make his own meals and patch up his old clothes by himself. For a while it went on peacefully like that.
Then one day his parents told him to get in the car, he listened to them because he wants to be a hero so he has to be a good boy. They took him to a weird house with a lot of other children. He learned later that the house is called an orphanage and it's where kids whose parents didn't want them lived. That made him sad. The other kids were always mean to him, they thought he was a weirdo because he wore his muzzle and pushed him around or stole his things. That didn't really bother him that much because he was used to it from school, until someone took his favourite Present Mic action figure. He tried to tell the adults but they pretended not to hear, or well see him ( he didn't want to get hit for speaking so he used a notebook to communicate.)
Then he got sent to his first foster home. He thought it would be better at first but then they didn't even give him food and he had been made to sleep on the floor. Thankfully they brought him back to the orphanage. And when the second and third home went pretty similarly to the first, Hitoshi decided he much preferred the orphanage.
He'd been sent to his fourth home about two weeks ago and here he at least had a bed and semi-regular meals here, even though the adults liked to take out their frustration on him sometimes.
He heard the stairs creak and tensed under the sound of his foster father' heavy footfalls and prayed to whatever god could hear him that the man was too drunk or tired for a beating tonight.
He almost melted in relief when he heard the other bedroom's door slam shut.
He wasn't safe yet and he was bitterly reminded of that fact when the door of his bedroom creaked open and in came the wife, just as drunk as her husband and eyes red from crying. She stalked over to him and gripped his shock of lavender hair pulling him up to his feet and shouting something in his face. He blocked out whatever she was saying, knowing it wasn't anything good. She slapped him which made he muzzle on his face did deeper and he grit his teeth trying to stay silent because making noise would only make her angrier.
She soon let him go and he managed to drag himself to bed. He couldn't fall asleep - he never could and the throbbing of his scalp and stinging of the cuts inhis cheeks only made it harder for him to actually get some rest. So he stayed in bed and stared at the ceiling.
Then all of a sudden there was a knock on his window.
Hitoshi jumped and after a while cautiously drew the curtains open.
There was a young man there. Riding on a cloud. He had gently swaying in the wind pale blue or white hair and kind blue eyes.
Hitoshi thought he was an angel or some kind of fairy at first but quickly scoffed at the though. Why would an angel want anything to do with a villain like him?
He opened his window, shivering in the cold night air.
The man smiled and Hitoshi couldn't remember the last time someone had smiled at him.
"Wanna get out of there, kiddo?" The man extended his arm in invitation.
Hitoshi took it.
»»-------------¤-------------««
9 years ago:
Izuku hadn't been having a good day in the first place.
He wasn't able to sleep enough because of his anxiety keeping him up and then of course he overslept and ended up missing breakfast and still almost being late to school. He wasn't late, he'd arrived just before the first bell rang but the teacher still punished him to stand in the hall for no reason at all, accompanied naturally by the snickering of his classmates. The teacher then proceeded to only pick him to answer for the entire day until lunch. Then he got his lunch stolen and his head shoved in a toilet bowl by some older kids.
The teacher was scheduled to return their latest exams in the afternoon but he never gave Izuku his and accused him of cheating because the quirkless kid could NOT be smart. He didn't even give him the chance to retake it he just left the boy a failing grade.
Izuku was already done by the time one Katsuki Bakugo had managed to corner him after school and beat and burn him until he was satisfied.
"USELESS FUCKING DEKU. NOBODY WANTS YOU HERE YOU KNOW! POOR AUNTIE, YOU SHOULD MAKE IT EASIER ON HER AND DISAPPEAR!!" Katsuki sneered and walked away laughing at the look he put on the worthless Deku's face.
The green haired child stood motionless, staring behind his former friend for a few minutes, needing time to regain his bearings after the insult. Sometimes he though Kacchan might be right.
He tried to cheer himself up thinking that when he went home his mum would be waiting for him with a warm meal and an even warmer smile and then she's let him watch his favourite All Might video as many times as he wants!
Already feeling a bit better Izuku stops in a park not too far from home and takes out the first aid kit he always carries with him to try and patch up some of the wound Kacch.. Katsuki inflicted on him.
He got up to head on his way back home when he saw the smoke. The boy's eyes widened when he realised the smoke was coming from his building.
He started running and attempted to go into the building when a hero caught him and prevented him from getting closer to the burning building.
"Hey kid! Stand back, it's dangerous!" the hero shouted.
Izuku realised that he couldn't wiggle out of the hero's hold, after all he had the strength of a 6 year old, which he is, and started frantically looking around the evacuating people for him mum's familiar plump form. He started hyperventilating when he couldn't find her. What were the heroes doing?!? At this point there were 4 different pros gathered around the scene and none of them seemed to be doing anything. Izuku then heard one of them say something about not having a suitable quirk and he didn't even know whether he wanted to scream, cry or laugh at the absurdity of the situation.
That was when the fire brigade finally decided to make their arrival and put our the fire.
The paramedics started treating the injured and Izuku could only stand and stare.
And then the firemen rolled out a stretcher, covered in a white sheet from the building. The boy knew what the white sheet meant - someone had died. He felt a rare spike of anger - someone had died while the heroes were standing around like clowns doing nothing!
Then he saw a familiar strand of straight dark green hair dangle from outside the white sheet on the stretcher and felt everything around him collapse.
It wasn't somebody who'd died. It was his mother. His sweet mother who loved him even though he was defective quirkless. Who he knew worried relentlessly about him. The only person in the world who'd loved him.
He felt empty. As if he was the one under the thin white sheet instead. He zoned out.
Until he felt a hand touch his shoulder and turned to see a boy a bit older than him with pale blue hair and startling blood red eyes.
"I'm sorry" the boy said, in a quiet, understanding way.
And Izuku broke.
The stranger tried to hug him comfortingly, clearly inexperienced.
That night Izuku cried himself into exhaustion and fell asleep into the older boy's arms.
Little did he know, the next day he'd wake up to a family.
»»-------------¤-------------«
8 years ago:
Himiko was sitting alone in the swing set in the park near her house in the middle of the night. She sniffled.
She hadn't meant to kill the kitty she only wanted some blood.
She had tried to explain it to her parents so many times now and they never ever listened to her. Not drinking blood made her stomach hurt. A lot. It felt like her stomach was trying to eat itself as a substitute for the missing part of her diet.
She couldn't just make herself not hungry.
A lot of other kids have to eat or drink something specialized for their quirks! Like Orange Juice, or Wasabi! So the blonde didn't really understand why her parents denied her blood. They can just buy some duck or pig blood from somewhere and she'd be fine! People use those to cook all the time right?
But she understood she had been bad. She wasn't allowed to drink blood but then she'd been so hungry she couldn't help but attack the kitty. That's why mummy shouted and that's why daddy kicked her. That's also why the kicked her out of the house. She hoped they'd let her back in soon. There were times when she had to stay out for days at a time but that was usually in summer or in spring, they wouldn't keep her out for that long in winter would they? She really hoped not. It was really cold. At least she'd managed to grab her coat - it was and old dirty, brown little thing but she didn't mind as long as it kept her warm.
She was humming and swinging back and forth in an attempt to keep the little warmth she had when she heard a noise from nearby.
*Trigger warning attempted sexual assault of a minor*
Himiko turned to see a drunk middle aged man stumbling towards her.
She tensed but didn't move from her spot. She had a really really bad feeling.
The man's eyes cauth sight of her and he smiled, eyes glinting from the alcohol.
"Heyyy gurlie...What are you doing out so late at night, huuhh.." the man slurred.
Himiko tried to back away only for the man to grab her shoulders. She tried to struggle but he wouldn't let up having a surprising amount of strength for a drunk.
He tried to reach beneath her skirt and she panicked and bit his shoulder with as much strength and as deep and she could manage.
The man yelped in surprise and falls backwards hitting his head on a slide.
*End of trigger warning*
The man wasn't moving.
The blood in the blonde's mouth tasted absolutely disgusting and made her loose the little food she had in her stomach.
She took a few steps back, tripping over something and landing on her bum.
She started crying.
She'd just killed a man.
The girl didn't even notice she was having a panic attack and hyperventilating until she finally registered the black haired teenager, covered in purple burn scars sttempting to get her attention and ground her without touching her.
"Hey, hey kid it's okay. You're ok. You're with me. Breathe with me alright? Can you do that?" she managed a nod "Good. Now breathe in for 7, out for 5 ok?" she did as instructed and finally managed to calm down somewhat and get her breathing back to normal.
"It's ok kid. You did nothing wrong, ok? You defended yourself." The dude said. It made her start crying again.
"W-who even a-are you?" she managed to stutter out.
The teen seemed to be contemplating his answer for a bit when he broke out in a grin.
"How does your new brother sound?"
»»-------------¤-------------««
Current time (After USJ attack):
The atmosphere in the base was idle.
Tenko was lounging in a bean bag chair in front of the TV and playng Animal Crossing.
Dabi was pretending to attempt to get a rise out of him by shoving hello kitty pins and accessories into Tenko's hair (everybody know he didn't really mind them but he's play pretend that they annoy him, mostly because of Dabi).
Hitoshi was taking a nap on one of the couches, while Himiko and Izuku were cuddling on the other as to not disturb their boyfriend's slumber, god knows he needs it.
The idle atmosphere was interrupted by Oboro slamming the door open and grinning.
"You have a mission."