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Eri didn’t like being in the hospital. It smelled like chemicals, just like the room where Chisaki hurt her. She didn’t like that smell, or the things it made her remember. But Lemillion had told her she only had to be here a short while and no one would hurt her. Deku said the same thing, too, and she trusted them. So she sat on the bed, kicking her heels over the edge and waiting for the nurse (who had been nice, but had insisted on giving Eri a sticker for some reason) to come back.
The door clicked open, and Eri looked up to see Deku and Lemillion walk in, along with someone she didn’t know. Lemillion was wearing the same crinkly paper gown that she had to wear, and he had the same big smile on his face that he always did. Deku wasn’t wearing his hero costume either, just baggy pants and a shirt with some writing on it. She thought it said t-shirt, but she knew she must be reading it wrong, since that would be a weird thing to write on a shirt. He looked nervous, and kept glancing at the other person, which made Eri nervous too.
The last boy was nearly as tall as Lemillion, with the same bleached blond hair as some of the men who had guarded Eri in the past and bright red eyes. He was wearing a heavy jacket, leather gloves, and a pair of jeans that were tucked into heavy leather boots.
His face was blank, but as his eyes met Eri’s, a small smile crept across his face. He raised a hand in greeting, and Eri tentatively returned it. She wasn’t quite sure how to feel about this person. Deku still seemed nervous around him, and he was quiet in a way that reminded her a lot of the people who had been around Chisaki a lot of the time.
“Hey there Eri!” Lemillion said brightly, drawing her eyes to him. “How are you doing today?”
“Okay,” Eri said. “The nurse gave me a sticker for being good, but I don’t know what to do with it.”
“You can put them on things you like, like a notebook or a backpack!” Lemillion said. “Or just keep it with you and show it off to people!”
The other boy nodded. “My sister likes to put them on herself when she’s feeling happy. Or when she’s feeling sad. Or playful. Honestly, she just really likes stickers.”
Eri frowned a little. Putting stickers on herself? It sounded weird, but Deku and Lemillion were looking at her hopefully, so Eri picked up the little star sticker the nurse had given her and placed it against her forehead.
It immediately dropped to the floor, much to Eri’s confusion and the boys’ amusement. Lemillion came over and grabbed the sticker, still chuckling slightly.
“You have to take the back off first,” he informed her, demonstrating what he meant.
He pressed the sticker to her cheek, then stepped back to evaluate her. Eri, meanwhile, waited for whatever the sticker was supposed to do to kick in. After several seconds of concentration, though, she didn’t feel any different. The way they all talked about the stickers, she thought they would make her feel something other than slightly itchy.
“Guess stickers aren’t for everyone,” Lemillion said a little sadly.
“Give it time,” the other boy said, “It took me a while to open up too.”
“Right,” Deku said. “Um, Eri, this is Ko. He’s… a friend of mine who wanted to talk to you. Is that okay?”
She frowned a little at that. He wanted to talk to her? She didn’t think anyone had ever wanted to do that. Most of her caretakers had wanted the opposite. One in particular had gotten very angry whenever she made noise. That had taught her to be very quiet at all times, even after the man had been replaced for not feeding her enough.
“Okay,” she said tentatively.
Ko gave another smile, then moved to sit on the bed with her. He kept a space between them, though, in a way that she could tell was deliberate. He studied her for a moment, then began to speak.
“I was talking to Midoriya the other day, and he mentioned you. He said that you don’t like your Quirk, and that a villain used it to hurt people.”
Eri nodded. “It’s bad. It hurt my dad, and made my mom leave. It makes all kinds of bad stuff happen, to me and other people too. Chisaki said.”
“Eri, he was very wrong,” Deku said quickly, “Your Quirk isn’t for hurting people. It helps them!”
“But it hurt Lemillion,” she replied, “And Chisaki was going to use it to hurt other people too.”
“That wasn’t you though…”
“It feels like it is, though,” Ko said. “Even if it was because of someone else, it was still her Quirk that did it.”
Eri nodded again. That was exactly it. If she hadn’t been born, then all of that bad stuff wouldn’t have happened, and everyone would be happy.
“That’s why I wanted to talk to you,” he continued, “Because I’m the same way. My Quirk is a curse, just like yours.”
Eri watched as he peeled off one of his gloves, revealing a hand that had almost as many scars as her arms did, then leaned over to touch a flower that was sitting in a pot on the windowsill. Where he touched, the petals and leaves turned gray, then brown and rapidly wilted until they dropped into the pot. In just a few seconds, the flower was completely dead.
“That’s my Quirk,” Ko explained. “I pull the life out of whatever I touch, and make myself stronger from it. It works on people, too, but it hurts them. Even just touching someone on the wrist feels like needles on their skin.”
Eri shivered involuntarily. She knew that feeling very, very well.
“If I hold something or someone long enough, they die. I found that out when my dad had me hold onto someone as long as I could, to see how strong I could get. He thought that was just excellent, a weapon and a torture tool in one convenient package. He was a villain, just like Chisaki, only he liked hurting and killing people. He did it for fun, and he wanted me to do it too. He trained me how to fight, and hurt, and kill as soon as my Quirk came in, and he threatened to hurt my sister if I didn’t do what he said. She was the only one my Quirk didn’t hurt, the only person I could touch in the whole world. So I did what he said. I hurt people, fought heroes, and got stronger. When I was strong enough, I killed him too, and ran away with my sister. I was resigned to keeping her safe until she could live on her own, then ending my own life. A fitting end for a monster, I thought.”
He let out a long, slow sigh before continuing.
“And then I met a hero. A whole bunch of them, actually. And they took one look at me and said that I wasn’t a monster. That even with how much pain my Quirk caused, how many people I had been made to hurt, I didn’t have to be a monster if I didn’t want to. And you know what?”
Before Eri could reply, he reached over with his bare hand and laid it against her cheek. She braced for a rush of pain, but nothing came. Nothing but the feeling of skin on her cheek, a gentle touch that she couldn’t remember ever feeling anything like before. It was nice and… almost comforting.
“They were right. They taught me how to use my Quirk, to not hurt anyone unless I want to. They showed me how to help people, instead of harming them. And so much more. They gave me a family, even if I didn’t know I wanted or needed one. They even helped my sister, and she’s happier than I could have ever made her on my own.”
Again he gave her that small, unfamiliar smile. This time, though, it sent a small burst of warmth through her chest. It… it was weird, but it felt for the first time like she could do something, like she could hope for something better than the way things always were.
“So, from one monster to another, it can get better. If you’re willing to try. Want to give it a shot?”
The warmth grew, until it filled her entire body, and she couldn’t do anything other than nod her agreement.
“Mmmm! I do!”