Chapter Text
Daiki Fukumoto has one goal in life: to be the greatest hero Japan – no, the world – had ever seen. There’s just one problem. His quirk sucks.
Granted, his mother would say the opposite. She thinks it’s great that his quirk is so reminiscent of the Luminescent Baby’s. After all, he was the next in the direct line of descendants. But how would being able to make his skin light up help him be a hero?
Technically, he knows that it could help him be a rescue hero. His mother had encouraged him to apply for the Kita Rescue School, Japan’s premier school for rescue heroes. For as long as he’d mentioned wanting to be a hero, she’s mentioned that school, much to his chagrin. But she’s coming from a good place.
The problem is becoming a rescue hero isn’t his goal. Sure, rescue heroes do great work. But they’re not the ones that people look up to. Even Thirteen, Japan’s greatest rescue hero, was relatively obscure and had only ever managed to barely get into the top 200 on the Billboard rankings.
While rankings alone don’t make the hero, they’re a good indicator of the impact that a hero has on the public. A low ranking means little influence. And Daiki wants to make a difference, wants to have a positive impact.
It all goes back to one day. He was almost five and his mother was worried that he hadn’t received a quirk. After all, his younger cousin had already gotten his. Daiki didn’t understand her concern at the time. He was happy to play around with his friends and enjoy himself.
He was doing just that when his quirk appeared. His skin suddenly glowing had startled him and his friends, practically blinding them. Before their senses returned to them, he felt a hand cover his mouth and he was being dragged away.
He was so young and so scared that he hadn’t known what was happening. All he knew was that he was blindfolded, his hands were tied behind his back and he was cold.
And suddenly, there were three loud sounds. Soon after, he was freed and his blindfold removed. He looked up to see his savior, a pretty woman with kind purple eyes, blue and pink hair and a funny elbow.
“You’re safe now, kid,” she said, extending a hand to help him up.
He found out later that her name was Kaina Tsutsumi, better known as Lady Nagant. She was a young hero who had just graduated from Shiketsu. Saving him from his kidnappers had been her first job as a Pro-Hero.
After that, Daiki and his friends were fascinated by her. They kept notes of all of her achievements and went to all of her public appearances. They followed her rise through the Billboards. His signed Lady Nagant card was the envy of all his friends.
He was twelve when the allegations began. Lady Nagant killed a fellow pro hero.
He didn’t believe it. And it didn’t shake his desire to become a hero himself. If anything, it made it stronger. He’d started training in earnest, with his sights set on Shiketsu High’s hero program. It was competitive, being the only program in Japan able to compete with UA. But he wanted to attend. After all, Lady Nagant had gone there.
Despite the accusations and Lady Nagant being stripped of her hero license, she hadn’t been officially charged. Some people said it was because there was no evidence, that it was all a setup. Others said she was too popular a hero and had just gotten away with murder. The new Hero Commission president said it was a tragic accident that was caused by her recklessness but since there was no criminal intent, she would face no charges.
Daiki thought that last part was bullshit.
******
Daiki is confident he will never forget the day his life changed.
It starts with his letter from Shiketsu. After two years of training his mind and body, he’d taken the test. He felt he’d done well. Plus, his name held some weight, being a descendent of the Luminescent Baby and all. So, with bated breath, he opened the envelope.
Daiki Fukumoto,
Thank you for your application to Shiketsu High’s Hero Program. It is with our deepest regrets to inform you that you have not been selected for our program.
You were a very strong candidate and we would love to see you apply for our general studies program, which is still accepting applications for the upcoming year.
Best regards,
Imai Jun, Shiketsu High President
Daiki blinks at the paper. It takes a moment for the truth to sink in. He’d always known this was a possibility. A pretty likely one at that, considering that his quirk wasn’t particularly useful. But he thought that if he just tried his hardest, he’d get in. Clearly he was wrong.
He opens the other letters for the hero programs he’d applied to. UA: rejected. Isamu: rejected. Ketsubutsu: rejected. In fact, the only school he’d been accepted to was Kita Rescue School.
Daiki is filled with an almost overwhelming amount of sadness and disappointment. He doesn’t realize how hard he’s crying until his mother knocks on his door and comes into his room.
“What’s the matter sweetheart?” she asks, looking around his room, eyes landing on his desk. “You got the responses back?” He nods and his mother goes to him, embracing him tightly. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I know how much you wanted to go to Shiketsu.” She strokes his hair, calming him slightly. “But at least you got into Kita, right? You were a shoo-in for that. So you can still be a hero. This is probably for the best anyway.”
His blood runs cold. Something about the way she’d said that makes him think that she’d played a part in things. That no matter how well he’d done on the entrance exam, she never would have let him be accepted. After all, she has connections.
He pulls away from his mother and wipes the tears from his eyes. “Thanks mom. I think you might be right. Kita will be good for me.”
She smiles. “Wonderful! You know what? How about I make you some curry for dinner to celebrate. It’s your favorite.” He nods numbly, feigning happiness he doesn’t feel as his mother leaves his room.
The second noteworthy thing happens when he turns on the news as he waits for his mom to finish dinner.
Lady Nagant arrested, awaiting transfer to Tartarus Prison, the headline reads. Confused, Daiki keeps watching.
“I killed him. And I would do it again. Because hero society is broken. And I was trying to fix it,” Lady Nagant says.
The camera turns to the interviewer. “Why come out with this now, over two years after the fact?”
“Because today, the Hero Commission president offered to give me my license back. Which proved to me that what I did had no effect. Maybe this will.”
Daiki feels sick. After all this time, he’d believed in her innocence. But here she is, confessing her guilt.
He makes a slow trek to the kitchen, hopeful his mother has finished the curry. He hears arguing, which makes him stop outside of the office door. It’s slightly ajar, a bad habit his mother had always had. He knew he shouldn’t but he can’t help himself. He stands there, eavesdropping. He’s able to make out most of his mother’s side of the conversation.
“I can’t believe her… After everything the commission did for her… We made her the hero she was… She was nothing without the commission… This is going to set us back so far… Kiyomi’s too soft… It wasn’t my fucking idea to try to bring her back in!”
Daiki takes a step back, trying to understand exactly what he’d just heard. It almost sounds like his mother was involved with the Hero Commission and they’d helped Lady Nagant become a hero. Which is enough to make his head spin.
He ponders what this new information could mean as he finishes his way down to the kitchen. He can smell the curry on its way to burning, so he turns down the stove and serves himself a plate with some of the rice.
He barely sits down as his mother makes her way into the kitchen, looking as though nothing had happened. “Sorry, I had a work call. Good to see you grabbed the curry before it burned.” She beams at him and makes her own plate for dinner, sitting across the table from him.
He fakes a smile and forces pleasant conversation as he shares dinner with his mother, a plan forming in his head all the while.
******
Daiki will admit his plan wasn’t very well fleshed out. He was just so frustrated and angry about everything all at once. The rejection letters, Lady Nagant’s confession, whatever role his mother played in all of it that he didn’t know. All he wanted to do was something about all of it, any of it.
And that’s how he finds himself at the Hero Commission headquarters building only a few days later. He’d told his mother that he was spending the weekend at a friend’s house but instead, he’d made the two-hour long journey here.
He really hadn’t thought this out. Standing in the lobby, talking to the receptionist, he realizes how idiotic he looks and sounds. He’s trying to explain who he is and that he wants to see President Kiyomi without the annoyed lady in front of him calling his mother. It’s not going well for him.
A phone ringing interrupts him making an ass of himself. He could take the opportunity to get the hell out of there and form a better plan. He’s about to turn tail and leave when the lady looks up at him.
“You’re Daiki Fukumoto?” she asks. He nods, earning an annoyed sigh and eye roll. “Wait right here. Someone’s going to come down to get you.”
He’s nervous. That doesn’t sound good. But he can’t really run out now, so he awkwardly stands there, waiting until a burly man with scales comes to collect him. The man says nothing as he leads Daiki to the elevator, up to the top floor and through the hallways, landing outside of an ornate door. He gestures for Daiki to enter, which he does, though the man doesn’t follow.
Sitting at the desk is a woman he recognizes from the brief online research he’d done as President Kiyomi. He takes a seat across from her, unsure of what to do with himself.
“Daiki. I’m sure you don’t remember me, but I met you were a child. You’ve grown into quite a handsome young man,” she says with a smile. It doesn’t quite reach her eyes, making it off-putting rather than reassuring. “What can I do for you?”
He gulps. He really hadn’t thought this out and he’s regretting it. But this is his chance and he has to grab it. “I want to be a hero.”
She laughs softly. “Won’t you be going to the Kita Rescue School next year? Pretty sure they’ll make you a rescue hero.”
“I don’t want to be a rescue hero. I know they help people but I want to stop the bad guys. And I want to be someone that kids can look up to. I can’t do that as a rescue hero.”
The vaguely creepy smile returns to her face. “You make a good point. But what is it that you think I can do for you?”
“The Hero Commission made Lady Nagant a hero. Do the same for me,” he says with more confidence than he feels. He’s working on minimal information here, there’s a possibility that he’s wrong on this front, but he has to at least try.
“I don’t think your mother would like that very much,” she says, confirming the comment he’d made about Lady Nagant.
“I don’t care,” he says, not realizing how much he’d meant it until the words left his mouth. She hadn’t supported him, not really. She’d always had an idea of who she wanted him to be and anything that strayed from that was unacceptable.
“But I do. See, your mother is responsible for a sizable portion of the Hero Commission’s funding. She’s already unhappy with some of the choices I’ve made. To intentionally piss her off puts at risk all of that funding. You would need to be able to offer me something worth more than what your mother brings to the table.”
He blinks at her a few times, taking in what she’d just said. “I can’t really offer you money. But I’ll do anything you want.” If it was for his dream, it was worth it, right?
She laughs, sounding awfully like a cackle. “I like the sound of that. But I was misleading, my apologies. You being one of the Commission’s heroes is a win-win for me. See, your mother’s funding gives her a lot of influence at the Commission. Many people, myself included, are not a fan of that being the case. Now, if she has a change of heart and approves of you becoming one of our heroes, well, the status quo remains more or less the same. But if she disapproves, as I suspect she will, she’ll pull her funding. And with it, her influence disappears around here. And those she hadn’t realized don’t care for her will be very pleased with me. Perhaps they’ll increase their funding to match what we’d lose. And we’d up a hero candidate.”
He swallows, taken aback. She couldn’t have thought of all this in the brief time after he’d mentioned he wanted her to make him a hero. It seemed like a lot. And she was clearly thinking only about how it would reflect on her. In one sense, it was a bit refreshing to know that she was upfront about her priorities.
“What if she decides to say something? About whatever you do to make me a hero?”
She hums. “I’m glad you asked. You see, your mother cares very much about appearances.” Daiki could confirm as much. “She wouldn’t risk the scrutiny that would bring upon herself. She would begrudgingly allow it happen, I’m sure of it.”
He thinks about it a moment. He’s not entirely sure what he’s agreeing to but, as he’d said earlier, he’d do anything if it meant he could be the hero he’d always wanted to be. “I’m in.”
“Good. I’ll get you started tomorrow.”
He has a sinking feeling that he’s just jumped from the frying pan right into the fire but it’s too late to back out now.