Chapter Text
There are many tales of great heroes. All Might. Endeavor. Hawks. Each one had a quirk that when you looked at, thought,
"Wow! That's so cool! Makes sense they're heroes!"
All Might with his supreme strength and speed. Endeavor with his command over flames. Hawks with his remarkable speed and control.
However, some people are not as lucky. Others, with 'villainous' quirks, such as mind control, copying quirks, and quirk erasing, were tormented to harassment and bullying, especially as children. Even people who didn't have villainous quirks but instead had mutation quirks were even subject to discrimination.
And god forbid you be quirkless. That was essentially a social life death sentence. You might as well take a swan dive off a building and hope for a quirk in your next life.
But this story in particular focuses on 2 young people who suffered a great deal, not because of their character (well... one of them could be argued), but because of the hand they were dealt at a young age.
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Neito Monoma was not a boy who spoke about his home life. His quirk came in at 5 years old. A copy quirk, extremely rare. Monoma thought it was the best day of his life. He thought of all the cool things he could achieve as a hero with a quirk like that. But when he went to school the next day, he was instead tormented by his peers. Monoma had been friends with some popular kids when he was younger, but not anymore. In fact, almost no-one wanted to be his friend, scared that he would steal their quirk. No matter how much he tried to explain it didn't work like that, it wouldn't matter. Monoma was a quirk thief, and that was that. Even his parents seemed to respect him a little less. His only saving grace was his older sister, who also had a 'villainous' quirk. But she didn't care. She had his back, and even stood up to some of his bullies.
When he was 7, his sister ran away from home and was presumed dead. His parents kept a tight grip over him after that. Monoma hated it. He believed it was their fault that his sister ran away. Eventually, after a lot of sleepless nights, and a switch to a different middle school, Monoma was able to put on a façade. Confident, strong, better than those around him. But deep down, he felt incredibly lonely. He pushed away those around him, to save them the trouble of having to deal with the villain, Neito Monoma.
Truth be told, Monoma had never held any semblance of an idea to turn to villainy. Quite the opposite, in fact. Monoma wanted to prove them all wrong. Maybe if he was strong enough, smart enough, fast enough, he could be a hero. He began reading more about quirk history. He went to a local gym to practice his physical skills, and his quirk's fortitude. For a while, he really started believing in himself. He passed Middle School with flying colors, and even signed up for U.A. His parents were initially uncaring but eventually they started believing in him too. But that all came to a grinding halt after the U.A. Entrance Exam, when he saw something that broke his heart.
1-B.
Of course. Monoma wasn't good enough. With a quirk like his, he wasn't ever going beyond being a supporting character in someone else's life. But finally, Monoma was done. He had struggled his entire life, for what? Second place? And no doubt someone with a flashy quirk was going to 1-A. 1-A kids probably led a much easier life. 1-A kids probably didn't get bullied, having to go to the local clinic for medical care after getting hit so hard in the nose they blacked out. They probably weren't even that much better than 1-B!
These thoughts kept swirling around in Monoma's head. He settled down and decided that he was fine, happy even, with class 1-B. And he was going to show the world the easy road those 1-A kids were on for their entire life! No more would Class 1-B hide in the shadows!
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Of course, we know that events didn't exactly transpire this way. Monoma ended up meeting some good friends in Class 1-B, such as Itsuka Kendou and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu. His loneliness was cured a bit, but he still had those nights where he fell asleep silently weeping, missing those days before anyone's quirks came in. But hey, as long as he got to dunk on Class 1-A once in a while, it couldn't be that bad, right?
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Akane Hagakure had a unique quirk. She could turn invisible for 5 minutes at a time, with clothes on. She had lived a great life, became a full-fledged hero, retired, settled down, and found the love of her life. Chouji. He loved Akane so much, he changed his last name to hers, usually considered strange. Eventually Akane got pregnant, and she was as happy as could be.
For now.
As soon as they found out the baby was a girl, they picked out a name. Toru. She was going to be beautiful. They spent many nights playfully arguing on whose quirk she was going to inherit. Everything was going perfectly.
Until delivery day.
The doctors couldn't find Toru for a long time. When they finally did, the doctors realized she was completely invisible. Akane thought that Toru had inherited her quirk, and was just invisible for the time being. But the doctors shook their head. Usually, quirks don't manifest until at least 3 years old. Unless it was a physical mutation quirk.
Akane still didn't understand. The doctors stared at each other, uncertain of how to break the news.
"Mrs. Hagakure... Your daughter, she's invisible. We presume permanently."
Tears welled up in Akane's eyes. Her husband held her tightly.
At this point, Akane still believed that Toru had some form of her quirk, that meant she was invisible even with clothes on. Even when this was confirmed to not be the case, Akane didn't want to think about Toru anymore. She was obviously a mistake, a freak of nature. Chouji had tried to reason with Akane, telling her that it was alright, and they would still love Toru no matter what. But Akane was too far gone. A few years after Toru was born, she divorced him. All her love dried up with the realization about her daughter, driving the young man to kill himself. And now Akane was stuck with her fluke of a daughter.
Toru never really knew her father. Her mother described him as a "deadbeat who did the world good by ending himself", but Toru never believed her. Her earliest memories were of her father singing to her while she was crying. There's no way someone like that could've been a deadbeat, right? And Toru seldom paid attention to anything her mom said. If anyone was a deadbeat, it was her. After Chouji, the family's main source of income, died, Akane turned to prostitution. She often returned home late, bringing random guys upstairs to her room. Akane would also completely neglect Toru, not giving her any money, and would almost never give her food or water. Toru eventually became accustomed to not having dinner, or breakfast. At least the school lunches were free. Although, her mother had forgotten to sign Toru up for school for almost 3 months, meaning socially, she was behind immediately. Everyone already had friends. Toru, being a floating set of clothes, did not attract any friends immediately. In fact, Toru was often the target of bullying. Mutation quirks were commonly discriminated against in society. None of the Top Ten Heroes were mutants, other than Ryukyu, and even then, she had a human form.
Toru, for all of elementary and half of middle school, was quite possibly the shiest girl anyone could've met. Her invisibility lent herself to this lifestyle, as she was quick to disappear.
Toru didn't admit it, but more often than not, she felt like dirt. Her mother made sure of this, as she was always "Akane's little failure". Even some of the regulars who came back home with Akane began calling her that. Toru hated it. But she couldn't help but feel like they were right. 'They' being her mom. Her bullies at school. Her mom's "friends". It was all a lot to bear. For a while, she thought about taking after her father. That was, until everything changed. She arrived home from school one day, fresh from another beating from her classmates. Not that anyone would notice, though. Toru was invisible. Nobody could see the bruises on her face. She was just about to head upstairs to her room in the loft when she noticed her mom sitting in the living room. She had a large suitcase by her side. Toru was a bit scared. Even more so when she heard her mother's voice, at barely more than a whisper.
"Go pack your things. The train leaves in an hour."
Toru was left dumbstruck. Only one word could escape her mouth.
"Why?"
"Because I said so! Look..."
Akane sighed and looked back at Toru. There was a sadness in her eyes that Toru had never seen before.
"I found a new job in Musutafu." Toru could tell that was a lie by looking in her eyes. "I already enrolled you in a middle school there. Now let's get moving."
Toru stood there for a couple seconds more before rushing upstairs, laying down, and crying. She didn't know why. Hell, she was happy she was leaving everything behind. There were too many bad memories. From the school, the tiny apartment. Musutafu would be a fresh start. But it was all too fast.
Toru didn't know how long she lied there, but she did eventually pack her meager belongings in her school backpack. She said goodbye to her terrible old mattress that bent when she sat on it, and left the house with her mother for the last time. From that day forward, she told herself, the old Toru was dead. The new Toru would be carefree, happy, and put everyone at ease. Yes, she thought. I'll make everyone happy.