Chapter Text
The Hero system, a fucked up place. Kunimi Akira has known that since they were little, sitting in front of a TV watching interviews with the “top heros” while the others were fighting in the back, it wasn’t easy to see but if they focused enough they could see it.
They decided they would never ever try to get into anything that has to do with the hero system while their classmates all had stars in their eyes talking about getting into the hero academy, the teachers would look at them funny when they said they don’t want to be a hero and just live a normal life, they usually say something along the lines of “Akira-kun you are so smart you’d be a great hero!” at which they’ll just shrug and turn back to whatever they were doing, ignoring their teachers.
At the age of 12 they met a boy, a boy who was ready to work himself down to his bones just to get into a hero academy and when he asked them oh so sweetly to join they couldn’t say no. It would be fine, they’d just try and get rejected and he’d get in, nothing too big.
They just kinda trained along with him so it looked like they were trying, he was still working himself too hard, he just wouldn’t stop saying he really wanted to get into the program they simply couldn’t understand why he was trying so damn hard to get into something so fucked up. Of course they tried explaining to him how fucked up everything is but he just shrugged them off saying they read too many books and need to face the reality, just like everyone else they’ve told.
Once they were 14 dragged them to a hero academy that was currently looking for new heros to train and give quirks to, they fail the physical part but almost get a perfect score on the writing part, judging by that Kindaichi should have also managed it since they studied with him and he did just fine.
They knew they weren’t wrong when they got a call from him at 2am crying saying he made it in and that they immediately needed to check if they also made it in, to their dismay they did. That meant going to the academy and getting into the fucked up system, since they failed the physical part they were put into a group they didn’t know existed, the strategists. All the background of the heros, without any quirks and just smart. It was only them and some guy called Oikawa who happily taught them things since he’d graduate soon. From the windows of the room they were put in for the planning they could look down at the field where the others were training. Kindaichi looked concentrated with that classic frown until smoke completely surrounded him in which he disappeared, it quickly cleared again revealing him on his knees coughing while the trainer yelled at him. Akira wanted to do something against it so bad but they couldn’t because they were locked in this fucking room with a shit tone of text to read and analyse before doing a test about everything they just read, it’s all they’ve been doing since joining the academy while Kindaichi was working his ass off. It hurt, it hurt that all they could do was stare from that small window while he gets yelled at even though they know he’s doing his best and can’t do any better for now. They hear all the yelling from the trainers while they scribble words down on a paper.
At some point they had enough, packed their stuff and left. Not saying goodbye to anyone, not even kindaichi, and just disappearing. They knew what they had to do, find a way to the eclipse and join them. They found a lot about the eclipse when doing research for their own tasks, everyone seems to have different motives but in the end they all want to bring down the hero system. So they started walking to one of the places they knew belonged to the eclipse, dropped their phone and anything else you could find them with into the trash before continuing their walk. No one was around them, probably because they were getting really damn close to the eclipse territory. Akira was reminded of that when they heard loud music and plants shot out of nowhere and towards them, they managed to dodge them but not the hard object that hit the back of their head positively knocking them out.
They didn’t know how long it had been since they were knocked out but they were definitely not where they had passed out, there was a conversation not too far from them and bright lights that hurt their eyes when they tried to open them.
“Oh look at that our little guest is awake wakey wakey Kunimi-kun”,someone said kicking their leg.
They groaned and finally managed to open their eyes and take in their surroundings. There was someone with short pink hair sitting on a table and someone else with dark curly hair crouching in front of them staring at them.
“Makki what was he doing here”,the guy in front of them asked.
“I don’t know, I saw him throw away anything that you could use to track him down tho”, the pink haired one responded.
“It’s they.”,they responded, pulling a laugh from the guy on the table.
“Sorry buddy, won’t happen again. It’s kinda funny that that’s the first thing you say instead of asking who we are and why we have you tied to a chair”
“I like for my pronouns to be respected and I know the answers to those questions. you are two guys from the eclipse and I’m here tied to a chair because I stepped onto eclipse territory so you have to and all that stuff”,they stated trying to loosen the knots, “also can you untie me this is getting kinda uncomfortable”
This time the guy in front of them laughed before standing up and backing up so he was standing in front of the other.
“What do you say Mattsun, they seem to know a lot more than a normal 14 year old does. Tell us Kunimi, how do you know all this”
“It’s because I was from a hero academy and before you say anything, I failed the physical exam but almost got a perfect score on the other one so they put me in the strategy part as only person so I had time to do my research on the eclipse”,they explained never looking away from the two.
“You’re an interesting one, is that why you threw away all your communication stuff? What are you here for”
“I think the answer to both of that should be obvious”
“Well I don’t think so, go ahead and tell us”,Makki requested making them roll their eyes at which Mattsun laughed a bit.
“I don’t want my friend to track me down, he’ll be desperately looking for me and I don’t want him to find me”
“did you guys have a fight or something, sounds kinda dramatic to run all the way over here”,Makki pointed out, obviously holding back a laugh.
“Do you seriously think I would spend all my time at the academy doing research about the eclipse with the excuse of wanting to know what we’ll be going against when we get sent out just because of a petty fight?”
“I don’t know, people your age tend to be extremely dramatic, oh my god don’t tell me he was your boyfriend-”
“shut up. He’s not and I’m here because I want to get him out of that fucking hero system since he refuses to fucking believe me when I tell him it’s fucked up.”,they spat out glaring at him.
“Huh I guess you do have a good motive, so tell us, are you willing to do our strategies until you are trained enough to be sent out too?”,Mattsun asked while walking behind them.
“If that’s what it takes for me to get him out of there then yes”
“Well then, welcome to the eclipse bud. I assume you don’t have a place to stay so you can come with us. We have a big apartment here and got an extra room. You’ll have to meet up with our leader before you get your quirk, that is totally legal, so we can just raise your basic fighting knowledge while we wait”
Their wrists were finally freed and Mattsun took a closer look at them stating they should put something on it when they get to the apartment since the rope wasn’t too kind against their skin when they tried to undo the knots.
Makki held onto their arm, just above their wrist, and led them out of the basement with Mattsun walking behind the two.
“Oh also, guess we should properly introduce ourselves! Hanamaki Takahiro, nice to meet you”
“Matsukawa Issei”
“You two are weird, acting like you didn’t knock me out and tied me to a chair in a fucking basement. Also how did you know my name”
“Well, it seems like your friend is already looking for you, Kindaichi Yuutarou am I right?”, Matsukawa asked and held up his phone showing that a student of the hero academy had been reported as missing by their friend.
“How long was I knocked out”
“I don’t know, not longer than three hours. Had to check if you are alive a few times”
“Of course he’d worry about not finding me in the library or my room at this time…”,they mumbled after taking another look at Matsukawa’s phone.
After that the walk was quiet except Hanamaki humming some random songs while Akira tried to figure out what the songs were called and where they were, they failed at both of those things.
They turned their head when Hanamaki began punching in some code at a big building at which Matsukawa just laughed.
“You do know that you don’t have to look away, you are gonna live here too”
“Shut up it was a reflex”
Once there was a beep the door opened and Hanamaki pulled them in with Matsukawa following them once again, they complained when Hanamaki pulled them away from the elevator and instead made them take the stairs calling it the beginning of their condition training.
Around a week after the whole thing Akira found themself laying on the ground with Matsukawa’s wooden staff against their throat as they struggled to get up.
“Ding ding you lost once again”,he stated before pulling his staff away and helping them up.
“Ugh this is so dumb”,Akira muttered while they dusted off their (read; Hanamaki’s) clothes before grabbing their own staff and getting ready for their next round.
“Mind your steps this time, got you down because you didn’t watch where you stepped and I made you trip in a hole I made in the ground”
Once Akira nodded he counted down from three giving them time to prepare and calculate his next attack judging by his stance, they took a quick look at the ground around them before looking up at Matsukawa again who was still standing in his original spot watching their every move, the two just stared at each other waiting for the other to move, even a single twitch of a muscle would be enough to prepare for an attack.
They probably spent five minutes like that until Hanamaki walked by stop to look at the two before picking up some random pebble and throwing it at Matsukawa’s head distracting him for a few moments to turn and yell at Hanamaki who was laughing at him, Akira saw their chance to attack and swiftly moved forward before throwing Matsukawa off his feet with a well placed kick pulling a yelp from him and a pained groan when his back hit the ground. They quickly disarmed him by squeezing his wrist tightly pressing onto a spot that they know can hurt pretty bad when pressed onto from the right angle. At this point Matsukawa was just cussing them out while struggling against them. After a few moments they could hear Hanamaki starting to count down while coming closer to the two, once he reached the two he was done counting down and ruffled their hair.
“Nice one Kunimi”
“That was cheating, you’re a bastard Makki”
“Okay maybe I wanted to give them a good chance, not like your opponent won’t get distracted, it was good practice for sneaking up. Let’s call it practice for sneaking up and taking down an enemy”
Akira had expected themself in many situations but sitting in an office staring at the ground while someone stares them down and almost makes them shake with the intensity of said stare.
“So, you are here for a quirk?”,the guy asked at which they gave a shaky nod,”you aren’t as intimidating and Mattsun and Makki made you out to be, how old are you again?”
“Almost fifteen”
“And they really are intimidating! You’re just scaring them with your stare”,Hanamaki called out from the desk on the other side of the room.
“Alright alright, sorry for scaring you like that Kunimi. I’m Mizoguchi as you heard him say”,the man stated and pulled something out from under his desk.
It was a black clase and they were watching his every move when he opened it. Yes this was the leader but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to test them no matter how many good things Hanamaki and Matsukawa said about them. They were right because the second the case closed there was a weapon pointed at them, their first reaction was backing off and just stare at him.
“Guess I can give it to them”,the man muttered and slid the weapon over the table onto the ground on Akira’s side.
They stood still for a few seconds before picking up the chair they pushed over when quickly getting up and sat down again, never quite taking their eyes off his hands in case he somehow pulled out another weapon, instead he held out a needle at which Akira stared with a confused frown.
“You need to inject this, it’s basically the same thing as the hero academy”,Hanamaki explained while walking closer,”also what’s this quirk? Do you have the document with its description, it will be easier to understand since they worked with texts to understand quirks”
“sure it’s on the table you sat on, thought you saw it”
“oh I thought it was something else, anyways mattsun throw it here”
“Kunimi catch”,was the only thing Matsukawa said before throwing the folder across the room.
They easily caught it and read the name written on it “perfect split”, an interesting name.
They slowly looked through the text about the history of the quirk before stopping at the most important thing, the description and downsides;
Quirk:
[Perfect split] - The ability “Perfect split” is able to split the ground and everything that isn’t alive. The ability works its way through the ground to reach its destination where it will create the largest gap.
Drawback(s):
-if used for too long it could end up crushing your bones from the arms
-it has a certain “recharge time” depending on stamina and the strength behind the last split
-it will exhaust your body quite a lot
-if not used for a long time pain will build up in your arms and hands
-controlling where the split goes requires a lot of training, without training it will split everything within its radius
The others stayed quiet as they read over the whole thing with a frown, it sounded like a lot of work but they’d be willing to do it, for Kindaichi.
After a few minutes of silence they put down the folder and ripped their focus from every word their eyes can catch on, a stupid thing they do when they analyse something.
“So? What do you think, I thought it would fit you after watching you fight with Mattsun a few many times”,Hanamaki stated and leaned over them looking at the file once again.
“I think I can work with it”
“Good, very good. Hey, is Watari here? I don’t wanna destroy their arm by injecting it in the wrong place”
“Oh yeah, he’s in the basement. Kyoutani got into a fight and he's treating him right now”
“Gotcha”
A few blurry minutes later they found themself in a basement once again, the only difference being that they weren’t tied to a chair this time.
They spotted two guys at a table, one with short blond hair with two black, vertical stripes and another guy who seemed to be almost bald. Akira recognized the blond one, they’ve read reports about him and even written a strategy against him, good thing they didn’t hand it in.
“Watari our dear kohai~”,Hanamaki basically sang, making Watari immediately turn to look at him and then at them.
“Well hello there Hanamaki-san and uhh ...Kunimi?”
“Yes yes that’s their name, can you give them the injection?”
“Already? Did Mizoguchi-sama already give them one, they’ve been with you two for like three months now”
“Yes he did, perfect split”
“Oh I remember that one, make sure to get a shit ton of stamina Kunimi!”,he said and waved them over.
They just stood there a few seconds before Matsukawa gave them a light push making them snap out of their own little world in their head, they could feel the others eyes on them making them tense up again until they heard Matsukawa holding back a laugh.
They muttered an insult before sitting down on the free chair next to Watari and holding out the needle, he gave them a smile and rolled up their sleeve.
“It’s gonna hurt a bit and probably have you bedridden for a few weeks but from what I’ve heard you probably don’t mind”,Watari explained while wiping down their arm with a numbing wipe,”and you two take good care of them. Make sure they eat and drink enough”
“Gotcha doc”
“I told you I’m not an actual doctor”
“Yeah yeah whatever, for me you are”
Akira closed their eyes when Watari took off the cap protecting the needle and lightly pinched their skin before poking in the needle, just as fast as it had been put in it was out again and he put a small band aid over it.
“There you go, make sure you actually rest”,Watari reminded them while pushing them towards the door clearly in a hurry for the three to leave.
They didn’t know why and they weren’t going to question it, they just walked out with Matsukawa and Hanamaki trailing behind them the whole way looking around like they usually do.
At some point Matsukawa wandered off and Hanamaki told them to hurry home before running after him, they probably just spotted some random wanna-be hero who thinks they can take on the eclipse.
What they didn’t expect was to see smoke going up, fucking smoke. The same smoke they studied the time they spent in the academy, they began running towards the building turning around a corner just when smoke moved towards them, as much as they wanted to just turn around and run to him they knew they couldn’t. They had a goal to reach first, before they could face him and convince him that this was better than the hero system, more safe than it. If they turned now it would all end, everything they worked so hard for; he’d just have to ask them to come back with him and they wouldn’t hesitate and once again end up in a room writing things while the others trained.
Even when they reached the building they could hear sounds of a fight going on urging them to hurry up, if he hadn’t come alone someone else might be following them, god they hoped he came alone.
They basically sprinted up the stairs to the top floor silently thanking Hanamaki for dragging them out on morning runs (read: patrols) so their lungs could somewhat keep up, once they reached the top floor they immediately ran to the big window facing the direction they just came from.
The smoke was clearing and Hanamaki’s plants were retreating back into the ground and if they concentrated hard enough they could spot him walking away from the two others.
To put it simply, Akira was a complete mess when the two returned, walking in circles muttering things under their breath and just generally looking distressed. Hanamaki was quick to grab them by the shoulders and push them to sit down on the sofa and squeezing their hands in hope of helping them calm down. He didn’t know what to do, he’s never seen them like this but he also had questions to ask them because the guy who tried to enter the eclipse territory had clearly been looking for them and he was sure he’d known him from somewhere.
At some point it had become obvious to him that there was nothing he could do except hold them even when they were crying a bit because they refused to speak, he just turned on the TV before selecting Saiki K on netflix, they once mentioned enjoying watching it when their emotions were overwhelming them.
After a while Matsukawa joined the two dropping a weighted blanket that was supposed to be a gift for the next day when the injection really takes action but he felt like it might be a better time to give it now, he wasn’t wrong because akira relaxed a bit more under the weight while leaning back against Hanamaki, at some point he could see them falling asleep just like Hanamaki but couldn’t be bothered to turn off the TV before his eyes slipped close and he fell asleep too.
The next morning was a mess, Akira embarrassed about yesterday but still looking a bit distressed and the injection taking action wasn’t really helping the whole thing, they pretty much just stayed in their room curled up under their blanket, every time he checked on them they were either asleep or looking at something on their phone, the glimmer in their eyes showed him it was something precious to them so he didn’t even think about asking if it was something they’d like to talk about they would do so on their own.
Hanamaki made sure to keep Watari updated on any changes that were caused by the quirk, even the smallest things like the way their arms felt warmer than normally and had a really subtle glow that was hard to see if you didn’t know about it. He didn’t know why Hanamaki said they felt colder because to him they just felt warmer than before, or maybe it was just because his hands were always cold.
It took a whole week for Akira to recover and they kept on complaining about their arms hurting so Matsukawa dragged them out and to a big hole in the ground where Mizoguchi was waiting for them to help them with releasing their quirk, he looked like he didn’t get enough sleep so it was a good thing that Akira was a fast learner.
“Okay that was good already right?”
“Yeah my arms hurt less now but there’s still like,,,something”,they explained frowning while they struggled to find the right words to explain the feeling even though they all knew that words can’t describe how shitty it feels to have your quirk pent up.
“Well then you just have to do it again, concentrate even more this time but not on which direction you want it to go but to just get rid of it”
They nodded before closing their eyes, this was tiring but it relieved the pain in their arms so they would keep going until it stopped hurting. That’s what Matsukawa brought them here for and they’d rather die than disappoint Matsukawa when he had looked so sure that they could do this.
They tried to follow the instructions as good as possible, they concentrated on all the rage that had built up in them; from being told they can never make it far in life because they don’t want to be a hero even when they are smart to being put into that fucking room where they had to read papers over and over again.
They heard multiple loud cracks that made their ears ring a bit all around them and the ground shook a bit before there was a hand in their hair ruffling it talking about how great they did, they opened their eyes and Matsukawa hadn’t been wrong. There were splits in the ground within a somewhat big radius, they were the cause of those splits, they also noticed that the weird feeling in their arms had disappeared.
Matsukawa looked pretty proud, like he was the one who did this or explained this whole thing to them so they couldn’t stop themself from grabbing a small rock and throwing it at him. That bastard had no right to look that smug.
His smugness did not stop like they thought it would, he bragged about their achievements from trying to use their quirk for the first time to Hanamaki who also ruffled their hair and told them he’d get them salted caramel ice cream the next time he gets groceries.
The three were just sitting on the sofa minding their own businesses on their phones except screens occasionally being shown to each other when they found a funny video of picture, Hanamaki didn’t want to destroy this calm atmosphere but he still had that important question to ask.
From Hiro:
Mattsun we still have to ask them yk
To Hiro:
Are you implying that you wanna do it right now?
From Hiro:
Kinda? I mean we really have to, what if that guy comes back and sends them into another distressed situation?
To Hiro:
Yeah ur right, I’m not gonna ask them tho
He turned off his phone with a sigh and nudged Akira to get their attention, when they noticed he had put his phone away they turned off their own one and looked at him with a confused frown.
“Look I know you probably don’t want to talk about it but we really have to ask this. Who the hell was that hero last time, the one with the smoke”
“I don’t know what you are talking about”
“You could have easily taken him on but you left like you knew exactly who it was”,Matsukawa pointed out, also putting away his phone,”I also noticed you looking at your phone with like a somewhat fond but sad look after he appeared”
It was quiet for a bit while Akira fidgeted with their fingers clearly trying to find the right words to explain themself.
“Okay you are right, I know who he is. He’s literally the reason I’m here”
“So he’s the guy who reported you as missing?”
“Yeah”
“You know you look like you really wanna talk about him or something, just a feeling I got”
“Maybe”
“Well go ahead, we aren’t gonna stop you. Actually I’ve been wanting to know how you two met and how he got you to join the academy even tho you said you don’t like the hero system”
And with that Akira took the two back in time with stories, the two listened and Hanamaki occasionally asked questions before returning to just listening.
They spent a lot of time on the big training ground with Matsukawa and Mizoguchi learning how to control their quirk and how to use it during direct fights; it came in handy when they were out alone almost at the border of the eclipse territory to try and make the radius of it even bigger without damaging any surrounding buildings when they were suddenly attacked from the border, they barely managed to block the attack.
They groaned as they blocked off the next attack, seriously were those guys trying to kill them? Actually they probably were considering they are heros sent to stop the eclipse.
It was the first time fighting actual heros, the last ones that they had encountered while training weren’t heros but rookies. They didn’t understand why they had even been sent, they had just been training their precision and didn’t harm anyone or anything other than the land owned by the eclipse. Maybe that was a mistake, no one other than people who belong to eclipse dared to train on those grounds so it was probably obvious that they are part of the eclipse but how had they been supposed to know heros would show up on the land?
Kunimi could feel the familiar ache building up in their arms and moved back from the heros before ramming their staff into the ground and looking at the heros who seemed to be confused by their actions, perfect.
They took a deep breath before removing the “barrier” blocking their ability to escape, the first few tiny cracks showed in the ground before rapidly spreading through the ground and getting larger the closer they got to the hero’s positions, they heard one of them shout something about backing off for safety since breaking the ground made everything foggy due to the dust.
Knowing the heros weren’t able to see anything, they quickly grabbed their staff before running off, covered by the dust clouds.
They arrived back at the apartment covered in dust and panting, Matsukawa gave them a questioning look but they just waved him off and walked into their room to get a new set of clothes to take a shower.
Matsukawa was already waiting for them in the kitchen sipping from a mug looking at them before handing them a glass which they took with a quiet thanks.
“So what made your run in here?”
“Just some heros attacking me while I was training, just made a big dust cloud and ran away before it cleared”
“Guess they really are coming for us by now”