Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ray is in a predicament. After Emma talked to The One, Ray was separated from them, he has no idea where they are. He is working on the assumption that this is the 'human' world since from what he can see everyone is at least mostly human shaped.

Having appeared in this world just over a week ago, Ray has pickpocketed his way through living, even managing to pickpocket the apartment key off someone who works a night-shift so he has somewhere to sleep and wash. So no, Ray's predicament is not about where he's going to eat or sleep. It is actually about coming to terms with the fact that the quickest way for a 15 year old to be seen by most of those living around the world, is to become a 'hero', which is subsequently the quickest way for Emma to find him, or for him to get the resources needed to look for Emma.

Now, while Ray may have helped save countless children from being eaten by literal demons, he does not consider himself a hero in any definition of the word. Why? Because he also watched countless children being sent off to their deaths. He may not have known at the time what exactly happened to them, but he knew that it was in no way good, but he researches anyway.

It takes Ray until the next day to make his decision. After researching as best he could using his new 'roommates' tablet he has managed to find out a bit more about these 'heroes'. As it turns out, they're just glorified police, and police are pretty much Mama's and Sisters but with tasers. At first Ray wondered whether there was another word for someone who was a 'hero' but didn't take any money or rewards (what Ray originally thought a hero was) but as it turns out, those people are called 'vigilantes' and are illegal. This society is weird. What's also weird is that in this society, people assume that those without quirks are unevolved, stupid and fragile.

Well, you know what? Fuck. That.

Emma and Ray talked to a literal God, travelled across worlds, got impaled (Emma) and stopped mass genocide from occurring (he's still annoyed at Norman for even thinking that was a good idea) all while quirkless. So whatever assholes say that 'the quirkless can't do anything' can eat shit for all he cares.

Ray will be a quirkless hero and that's that.

Chapter Text

Ray is fully aware that to go to school, especially the most heavily guarded hero school in Japan, you need official documents, like a birth certificate and everything else. However, Ray does not have these things, legally or illegally. The most he can put in on his application is his name - Ray - date of birth - Jan 15th (also, apparently this world is way in the future, as in, centuries after 2047) and his current residence/address - 454-1104, Kiriyama.

So three out of an insane number of things is probably not the best, but if all else fails then he can just burn down a few super important buildings and hope to get on the news that way. Less legal but more fun. That would be his first option if the likelihood of him going to jail after being shot by Emma's bow and arrow wasn't so high.

Whoever the principle of UA is seriously needs to have his eyesight checked or something. He has been allowed to partake in the entrance exam, for the hero course. What the fuck? Who is the head of school applications or whatever 'cause this is not right, and that's coming from someone who has technically never been to school.

Well, guess it's time to go 'shopping' since he'll need sporty clothes for the practical exam.

...Where is he going to store his clothes? Shit. He'll figure something out, it's fine.

It's not fine. His now 'ex-roommate' took the night off and watched him walk in, then called the police on him. Motherfucker. Now he's in the back of a police car on the way to the station to give his statement. Perfect, just what he needed. It was a pretty quick car ride (maybe even quicker than riding on Sonju's demon horse) also uneventful since the cat dude refused to talk, or does he meow? Either way, he didn't ask any questions.

When they got to the police station, they met up with a guy wearing a hat and some pretty plain clothes for what he's seen in this world at least. After hat dude was updated on the situation, mainly consisting of why he was on such a simple case; "kid apparently just 'walked into the house as if he owned the place' according to the home-owner, and the officers first on the scene said he has a knack for lying, thought your quirk would be best suited."  Well, it's pretty safe to say that hat dude has some kind of lie detection quirk.

He was then led to an interrogation room where he sat across from hat man, "I'm Officer Tsukauchi, my quirk allows me to tell if you're lying or not, so if could answer these questions truthfully, that would speed up the process."

"Sure."

"Right, What is your name?"

"Ray."

"Family name?"

"None"

This Tsukauchi guy looked take aback for a second before motioning to a coworker, who walked out, and continuing, "your age?"

"15"

"How did you get that man's apartment key?"

"I pickpocketed him."

"Why?"

"Needed a place to stay."

"Where are you parents or guardian?"

"Dead."

"When? Say 'no comment' if you don't want to answer."

"My mama died about a month or two back, I never met my father."

His coworker walked back in with a single slip of paper and handed it to Tsukauchi who looked it over.

"It seems the only records we have of you are from a UA application, do you know if your mother has any records?"

"She doesn't."

"How long were you staying in the apartment?"

"Two or three weeks, I only used it for necessities and to sleep, since the man only had night-shifts I was never there when he was. I'm not a creep."

"Good to know. Where were you before you stayed at this apartment?"

"No comment."

"Alright. We have enough answers for now, you'll be staying in one of the overnight cells until we can find a place for you to stay."

Chapter Text

Tsukauchi was tired to say the least. He needs to find a foster family, close to Musutafu and UA that is willing to take good care of a quirkless kid. However, said family doesn't exist because the amount of quirkist assholes out there has skyrocketed in the last few decades. 

He would have banged his head on the desk but the sound of the coffee machine saved him from a mild concussion. Sighing, he turned around to find everyone's favourite hobo hero stealing his bloody digestives! (A/N If you couldn't tell I am British, and I wholeheartedly believe that Tsukauchi is a digestives guy and if he didn't need coffee to stay awake then he would definitely be a tea guy (Digestives are a brand of biscuit ))

"You know I don't mind you coming through the window, but if you could knock, that would be nice. You'd also scare a lot less interns."

"What are you sulking about?"

"I'm not sulking Aizawa. Anyway," he handed Aizawa a thin folder, "a kid was brought in not that long ago, he needs a permanent place to stay, or at least until he's eighteen."

"I thought there were quite a few families on file?"

"He's applied to UA to be in the hero course so he needs to stay in Musutafu, but he's quirkless. Musutafu isn't known for being very accepting of those without a quirk..." he trailed off, waiting for Aizawa to finish reading the file.

"Oof."

"Yeah."

They sat in silence for a bit, thinking of and disregarding unsuitable solutions.

"Well... Hizashi has been bugging me about wanting to foster someone, we're not quirkist and we could help him get into UA. It's Hizashi's day off so I could call him in and we could meet the kid, see how it goes."

"I would say to take it slow since fostering is such a big step but he can't stay at the station forever and he'd be eaten alive anywhere else. If you're completely sure Aizawa."

"I'll call Hizashi."

The cell was pretty much exactly what Ray imagined Norman's room in LAMBDA to have looked like (but without the chessboard), all white with a single mattress as a seat/bed. Ray was just glad he didn't have to be here for long since he was a minor in a bad situation as opposed to a 'proper' criminal or villain (which would technically be impossible since a villain needs to use a quirk) and very thankful for the fact that his clothes and hair hide his identification number and the missing chunk on his ear.

Roughly an hour and a half passed by before someone came knocking, leading him to a 'visiting area'...

…

Who the hell is visiting him?

He doesn't know anyone, he definitely didn't make it on the news and unless that shabby apartment was owned by the Ratri clan - which he highly doubts - there shouldn't be anyone to visiting...other than a hobo and a human cockatoo, it seems.

"Uhh...hello?"

"Hi, little listener! Shouta and I came here 'cause we heard ya needed a place to stay close to UA and thought we'd help out!"

"Help out?"

"Well, yeah! You're a kid so ya can't stay on your own."

"So, I'd stay with you until I'm eighteen", Ray had read up on the basic rules of society, and frankly, the fact that to be considered an adult you need to be over 18-21 depending on where you live, is annoying. But, he supposes, most people his age haven't gone through life threatening situations.

"Unless you wanted to stay longer then, yeah."

"If you're quirkist I will punch you in the face and/or punch you in the balls."

At that, a quiet snort came from the hobo man. At least he had a good sense of humor.

"Oh, don't worry about that, we'd both do the same thing."

"One question, I'm not an expert on the whole foster system thing, but isn't this quite quick?"

The hobo (Shouta?) spoke again, "yes, but Hizashi and I are Pro Heroes, I heard about your case from Tsukauchi, the officer you saw earlier, and figured that most other foster families and others in the system would refuse to house you since most, especially in the Musutafu area, are discriminatory to those without quirks."

"You're Pro Heroes?"

"Sure are!"

"...Fine, deal."