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Keigo clung to the bars of his specialized cage, one of many holding people with heteromorphic quirks like his, as his feathers picked up on shouting and screaming from upstairs.
He hated his handlers, so it wasn’t as if the noise bothered him as much as it likely should’ve.
Then again, by this point he hated a lot of people.
The cruel man who initially found him and Tomie, after his group Keigo also hated had killed his father for trying to steal from them.
Tomie forfeited him to that man to save her own skin, pleading for her own life as she offered him up.
For all Keigo knew, way that first group operated, they may have still gone after her, allowing her some false comfort to lower her guard before they turned around and finished the job.
‘First’.
He’d been sold, traded, and stolen so many times now, he’d lost count before he hit ten years old.
That first group was when he was five.
That was the last time he was wholly sure of his own age, only eavesdropping a few times to try to hear his handlers recite his age to an interested party.
He had to be in his late teens or early twenties now.
As the years had gone by, he’d hated every group who came to claim him.
Every underground black market group, whether he was their sole heteromorph or one of several, like now.
Had his father just kept his hands to himself, this whole never-ending cycle of ownership would’ve never started in the first place.
“No one wanted you anyway.”
Way his life kept playing out, that first group that sold him’s leader was probably right.
While others were now hunkered down and cowering in their cages, Keigo simply watched the stairs on the other side of the basement they were in. Those old words and similar others resurfaced as he waited for the upstairs door to open.
This wasn’t new. Nor was it likely a last.
He’s just a bird to keep handing off and stealing away, after all; he wasn’t ever truly wanted.
Just held worth in this business. Whether it was simply to 'look pretty' in his cage or to have more feathers carefully plucked and used to make whatever they were selling, his keepers using him as an 'endless' feather source.
He himself wasn't wanted.
Not by his parents. Not any handler. Not anyone he’d been trapped with.
No one.
He was a prize, but not prized.
As the floor hatch was thrown open by someone above, the others caged whimpered and scurried to the other side of their cages.
They must still have some bit of foolish hope left.
As if any of them had any say or control in this matter.
“What the hell..?” A man with raven hair and icy eyes glanced around at the multitude of cages.
Must’ve not known the group who owned this place had a hand in this market.
“Hey Dabi, what’s-?”
This one caught Keigo’s attention, but he didn’t get his hopes up.
Just because a lizard man was part of this new group didn’t mean he wasn’t some singular exception.
“Spinner-“
“We gotta help them!” Keigo watched as Spinner ran to the cages, falling to his knees before Keigo as he grabbed at the box device on his cage.
“Yeah? Then what?” Dabi walked over to stand behind Spinner, his eyes scanning the cages. “They’re in rougher shape than we are.” He didn’t sound impressed. “Buncha cowards won’t do us any good.”
“Dabi!” Spinner shot him a glare.
Dabi looked from the others to Spinner, taking notice now of Keigo.
Of dull amber eyes glaring weakly up at him, of the visible scars and injuries, but especially of how while the others at most attempted weak, fake sounds of threat, Keigo hadn’t, nor had he even moved from his position since they came down.
“Maybe this one.” Dabi smirked as he bent down to meet Keigo’s kneeling eye level, not at all phased as Keigo tapped black talons on his own thighs, his large wings flicking out as much as they could in his confined space as his tail instinctively fanned out in further warning.
“Watch it, Dabi.” Spinner worked on the lock box as he spoke. “If I open this and he attacks you-“
“If his feathers aren’t fireproof, I’ll be fine.” Dabi reached in and plucked a feather.
Despite the slight, familiar pain from the pluck, and the further sensory pain from Dabi burning it with icy flames, Keigo remained in his position of silent obedience, only clenching teeth and flinching slightly.
“Seems he didn’t like that. Feather went to ash easy, too.”
“Dabi!” Spinner was clearly annoyed.
“Looks like they all got those fancy collars anyway. Whatever he’s capable of, we should be fine.”
Keigo glanced away.
The metal collar supplied occasional small doses of quirk suppressant, so Dabi wasn’t wrong.
Keigo was just a powerless bird in a cage, waiting to see if these new faces were about to be his newest handlers to once again hand him off or lose him later on.