Chapter Text
The streets were in chaos, and by sheer dumb luck they'd been stuck in the middle of it.
The towering form of a woman that looked more like a humanoid wolverine shielded a young boy resembling a humanoid skunk under her arm, trying to keep him blinded to the violence and insanity filling the main street.
However, children being children, he still got the occasional look. Kurogane Shirasaki looked out of the alley to see hundreds, if not thousands of fellow Heteromorphs marching down the thoroughfare, past where he and his mother Tamano, father Kuroi, and sister Sakuya huddled in the alley.
"Mama, why are they helping the villains?" Kurogane stuttered out.
Tamano gave a low snarl, showing her sharp teeth as she hugged her son close. Her son couldn't control his Quirk yet, and she was privately praying the unpleasant scent he was unconsciously emitting wouldn’t draw attention to them.
"Because some people can only think to fight hate with more hate."
That was when Sakuya let out a cry of alarm, startling the rest of her family. A man whose body seemed composed more of ice than flesh had stepped forwards into the alley, his silhouette tall and jagged.
"What are you doing back there?! The march is out here!"
Tamano held on tight to her son and reached for her husband, a rugged looking man who looked very much human, before turning to bolt. Sakuya followed suit, instinctively following her mother.
The man ran forwards, trying to grab Sakuya's neck, the frenzy of the mob clearly clouding his judgment.
"Traitors!"
His hand seized its target, fingers digging into Sakuya’s nape…only for loose, thick skin to give him little grip. His eyes widened as he recognized the significance of the thick white stripe of fur running the length of her back, and the short, slightly upcurved muzzle of her face.
Sakuya Shirasaki snarled, spinning around, the loose skin of her neck not offering any resistance as she did so. In a fluid movement, she swung her arm and grabbed the man's face with a well-practiced move that wrestling fans would recognize as an Iron Claw.
Only, this was a genuine fight and not a staged performance- her claws dug into his icy skin, drawing crimson blood.
The icy man let go of her with a yelp, just in time for Sakuya to follow through and kick him into the brick wall of the alley, where he slumped to the gritty asphalt and didn’t get up. Her claws had raked furrows across his crystalline cheek and forehead, the red blood welling up within them stark against the pale surface.
Fortunately, he wasn't a member of the Paranormal Liberation Front- just some random rioter.
As they reached the end of the alley, Tamano stopped running and gently deposited Kurogane on the ground to free up her hands.
The family matriarch began to dig into the ground, ripping through the concrete and finding dirt. She wasn't sure if she should be glad it was dirt and not a subway tunnel she hit first, but she was definitely relieved it wasn’t any kind of cable, pipeline, or sewer.
Kuroi, for his part, stood vigil over his wife, watching down the alleyway in case anyone had heard the sounds of the fight. His Quirk was closer to his son's and wasn't very useful for the task at hand.
Seeing the man not getting up to pursue the fight, Sakuya turned to catch up with her family.
Tamano excavated a tunnel through the dirt with surprising speed, with Sakuya joining the effort when she arrived. The clumpy dirt fell away in clumps beneath the pair’s swift claws as they hollowed out their escape route- advantages of having all the powers of a wolverine and honey badger.
On some level, Kurogane felt guilty he couldn't help, but his Quirk differed from his mother's and sister's. He let his dad pick him up as the two of them followed Tamano and Sakuya into the hastily-dug tunnel.
A little bit later, and light lanced into the murky darkness as Tamano’s and Sakuya’s claws broke the surface. Neither Shirasaki woman wanted to take the risk of burrowing too far underground, blind to the chaos on the surface- lest they emerge in the middle of a mob.
"We have to get to a shelter as soon as possible," Kuroi said as Tamano pulled him and Kurogane up out of the tunnel and into another, seemingly empty alleyway, this one between taller buildings but otherwise much the same as the last one. “Someone else is bound to spot us if we don’t get off the stree-”
The end of his sentence was cut off as a mighty crashing sound echoed outside the alleyway, the sound of glass and concrete breaking.
Kurogane's eyes widened, movement across the street outside catching his attention. "Look!"
A large, hulking reptilian… monster… had impacted, or maybe been thrown, into the windows of the skyscraper directly opposite the alley, several stories above the ground. A shock of amethyst hair jutted from it’s head, the tattered remains of clothing clinging to it’s waist.
A second figure lept after it, Kurogane vaguely getting an impression of multiple arms.
The monster flung one fist forward to meet it, sending the figure ricocheting into the edifice of the skyscraper to the right, and out of sight of the quartet huddled in the alley.
Still, that brief glimpse was all Kurogane had needed to identify which hero that’d been.
"That's Tentacole…"
The students of Class 1-A had made a pretty decent name for themselves at this point, with them getting involved in nearly every villain-related event of note that had happened this year.
With a scream, the monster lept after it’s quarry- only to be met midair by six swinging fists impacting it’s snout.
Green scales crashed into reflective glass, shattering it. A split-second later, and the hero landed a few feet away on a concrete support beam, the force of his impact shattering the glass further.
For the first time, he’d paused for longer than a second, giving Kurogane the chance to see that Tentacole’s distinctive mask was… gone .
Without it, Kurogane could see that his face had a definitely strange shape to it, a muzzle-like, angle-edged jaw. Lips pulled back in an angry grimace to reveal squared teeth. The whole of it was crisscrossed by taut-skinned scars, two of which went from the corner of his mouth to his ears.
"I was persecuted too! And no, the people who hurt us weren’t justified!" he cried out, shouting loud enough for his words to echo down to the alley. He seemed angrier than he'd been in any of the news reports that Kurogane had seen him in.
The monster lunged to it’s feet and spoke , screaming as it charged along the side of the building.
"DON'T CARE! DESTROY ALL!"
And then Tentacole was back in motion again, running to meet it, the pair defying gravity as they dueled at least a dozen stories above the asphalt.
"Think about how to make use of that rage!! I know you can! Cause we've all got scars we carry!"
Far, far below, Kurogane was completely focused on the fight, only dimly aware of his mom gripping his and Sakuya’s arms… or the massive swarm of birds and flighted insects beginning to circle in the sky overhead. He took his eyes off the fight for a second, confused-
And then a shout from above drew his attention right back.
= You Say Run - My Hero Academia =
Tentacole had woven together his extra limbs into a massive fist, with mere moments before impact.
"OCTOSPANSION!" the hero called out, swinging the superpowered punch forwards.
The attack slammed into the monster with a thunderous impact, sending hardened scales flying in all directions and the monster flying out of the alley’s narrow line of sight, whereupon yet another loud crashing noise told Kurogane that it had made impact with yet another building.
"WHAT WILL YOU CHOOSE TO PROTECT WITH THOSE SCALES AND THAT GIANT BODY?! TELL ME, SPINNER!" Tentacole yelled, jumping away and out of sight to continue the fight.
Tamano’s hold on Kurogane’s arm was all that kept him from running to the mouth of the alley to keep watching, as the swarm of flighted creatures overhead dispersed.
Tamano herself blinked, distantly noting Kurogane's scent had changed to the citrus-like one indicating he was…excited?
"THE REST OF YOU TOO! WHAT'RE YOU HOPING TO PROTECT WITH YOUR GIFTS AND YOUR POWER?! DON'T LET THEM EXPLOIT YOUR WOUNDS! YOUR CHILDREN MIGHT BE THE NEXT TARGET!! BE BETTER THAN MERE AVENGERS!"
Kurogane's eyes widened. What're you hoping to protect with your gifts and your power? The words echoed in his mind.
He reached for his tail, pulling it closer to his chest and looking it over, feeling it’s fur between his fingers. He closed his eyes, concentrating, and a drop of purple liquid condensed at the tip.
His power wasn't the flashiest, the most powerful…but it was still a power…
= The Day - My Hero Academia
"Five years ago, the heroes of Japan united against the League of Villains. In a war spanning the entire country, the League would finally be defeated and the greatest evil the world had ever known was destroyed once and for all…
"Since then, we didn't just rebuild, we learned from the past, and took pains to never repeat it. Childrens’ welfare is placed under increasing priority, the lives of heroes outside of the public eye is more closely monitored, Quirk conversion therapy is a felony offense, and people are now freer to use their Quirks than ever before. Hatred against those with mutation or 'villainous' Quirks is at an all time low, and this is just the beginning.
“But some things never change. Villains still exist and disasters still happen. And thus heroes are still needed, and always will be.
"Thanks to the heroes who fought five years ago, we've inherited a brighter future. It's the job of new heroes to protect the future they won for us and ensure it continues to grow ever brighter and better.
“My name is Shirasaki Kurogane. And this is the story of how we became some of those heroes."
Aldera Junior High School, Five Years Later
Aldera Junior High School had faced a major scandal five years prior when it was leaked to the public that the faculty had allowed rampant bullying and student abuse to take place, with no attempts to curb it. The story had become big news, resulting in a bevy of lawsuits and charges.
Rumor had it that Principle Nezu of U.A. High School had been behind this information being leaked, but no official confirmation was ever made.
Whatever the case, the school’s faculty had largely been forced to retire in disgrace, with several facing serious legal action and quite possibly prison time.
However, hiring an entire school’s worth of new staff was quite the difficult and lengthy process, and the replacing group of substitutes and permanent hires couldn’t be everywhere at once.
"Give it back, Imasuji!" a teenage Kurogane yelled, jumping up to try and grab the artbook held in the larger kid's hands.
"Tsk, you think you can be a hero when you can't even get your stupid little book back?!" Kenji Imasuji sneered. The much larger boy shoved the skunk-like Heteromorph down to the ground with ease, his blonde hair not even mussed.
Kenji had one of those muscle-boosting Quirks that ran in his family, and easily outclassed Kurogane in terms of physical prowess… to say nothing of the pair of brawny cronies who stood behind him, waiting to get involved at the slightest signal from their leader.
"You're pathetic." Kenji spat down at Kurogane.
Kurogane snarled as he got back up, gritting his teeth as his tail lashed.
The two toadies backed up, holding their noses and gagging as a foul odor began to permeate the back corner of the schoolyard.
"Ha! Is that the best you can do?" Kenji laughed, seeming unfazed by the noxious scent. "Just give up, you'll never pass the entrance ex-"
His jab cut off as a shadow fell over the group and a larger hand snatched the artbook out of his grip.
"Shut up."
Kurogane gasped as he saw just who was standing over them.
By contrast, Kenji's eyes lit up. His facial expression changed to one of earnest, honest admiration.
"Dynamight?!"
The toadies backed up nervously, one still pinching his nose.
Katsuki Bakugo… seemed to recognize the look of admiration in Kenji's eyes, seeing right through the mask that usually fooled most teachers.
He seemed… annoyed.
"That's Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight , get it right… you remind me of myself when I was a kid."
Kenji smiled. Kurogane could tell he hadn’t picked up on the man’s tone or facial expression.
" ... and looking back, that real bratty piece of work really ticks me off. "
Kenji’s smile faded under the hero’s harsh words.
"You don't get to tell the squirt if he can be a hero or not, got it?!" Bakugo continued, keeping his voice lowered… compared to his usual volume.
"Y-Yes, sir..." Kenji stammered. His toadies were already gone, Kurogane hadn’t noticed their departure amid… well.
One of the new teachers trotted over, likely drawn by the sight of the visiting alumni standing over two students in the far corner.
Bakugo looked over to the approaching teacher. "Hey! Teach! Got a bully over here! Two more of ‘em ran, but this one's the ringleader. They were picking on this kid, stole his sketchbook!"
The teacher nodded smartly, gesturing for Kenji to come with her. The boy wisely kept his mouth shut as he trudged dejectedly after her, likely to be dragged into the office for a phone call with his parents.
Kurogane watched as his unexpected rescuer turned his artbook around in his hands, examining it with an unreadable expression on his face. In Bakugo's mind, it was overlaid with an old worn notebook being lit on fire for a moment before he tossed it back.
"Here, squirt."
Kurogane caught it, hugging it to his chest. "T-Thank you... W-What are you doing here?"
Bakugo turned and looked over to the distant walls of the school. "This is my old school, stopped by to look at the place for old times' sake..."
The hero turned his gaze back to Kurogane. "Was that kid right? You trying to get into U.A.?"
Kurogane looked down at his artbook, but then back up, a resolute expression on his face. "Yeah. I don't care how many times I have to take the entrance exam, I'm getting in!"
Bakugo looked him over, seeing his surprisingly well-developed muscles for a kid his age, nodded, and gave one of his now famous smirks. "Good answer! Prove that snot-nosed brat wrong! It'd be a disgrace for me and Deku if we were the last kids from this school to get in!”
Kurogane nodded, blushing a bit as he habitually adjusted his plain-rimmed glasses, glad he had put in hours of practice to better control of his Quirk. There'd been a push for better training of and support for children who had difficulty controlling their Quirks, after what happened with people like Eri and Flect Turn had been made public.
"I will! Prove him wrong, I mean… Oh! Um… Can you give Tentacole this for me?"
Bakugo blinked as Kurogane carefully ripped out a page from the book and offered it to him. He took it.
It was a drawing of Shoji, in full hero garb. Bakugo was no art critic, but it looked pretty decent.
"I'm better at painting, but I can't really haul my painting supplies around school..." Kurogane replied, fiddling nervously with his tail.
Mezo Shoji sat on a folding chair in the hospital waiting room, standing by for some of his fellows to be discharged and watching the medical staff bustle back and forth. He was let out a little earlier- the benefits of a Quirk that came with the ability to regenerate at least some wounds.
A sudden strong scent of lavender wafted across his nostrils, causing him to blink.
"Um...Tentacole?"
Getting up from his chair and turning around, the Tentacle Hero saw a small Heteromorph boy standing behind him. Mammalian ears pricked above a short muzzle, hands holding a drawing pad. Two women and a man were watching from farther down the hallway- the kid’s family, presumably.
"Hello," Shoji replied. "What's your name?"
"Shirasaki Kurogane," the boy answered, a nervous expression on his face as he fiddled with a large, fluffy black-and-white tail.
Shoji sat back down on his chair facing backwards so he could look the kid in the eyes, hoping to seem less intimidating. "And why do you want to see me?"
Kurogane rubbed his tail nervously. "...I was there… you know, when you were fighting that big scary villain… Me and my parents and my sister got cut off by all those people before we could get to a shelter, we were hiding in an alley below you."
Shoji paused for a moment. "... I'm sorry about that, we tried to get as many civilians to shelter as we could."
"Oh, we got into one once you, Anima, and the others won!" Kurogane replied. "...Um...I'm actually kind of glad..."
The kid looked up, giving a small smile. “‘What are you hoping to protect with your gifts and powers?’ I listened to what you said, over and over..."
Shoji's eyes widened slightly. He considered himself a humble person. He'd hoped his words would reach Spinner and the mob, he hadn't really considered someone else might latch onto them .
Kurogane’s tail twitched slightly in his hands, a small drop of purple liquid leaking from somewhere beneath the fur at the tip. The lavender smell intensified.
"My Quirk is called Skunk, but I don't have the powers of one. I can control smells.” the boy explained. “Lots of people say it's weak or stupid… I've gotten picked on for it… and for… you know..." He pointed at his fur and ears. "... I wanted to be a hero, but all those mean people made me think I couldn't..." He then gave a smile. "But what you said… it makes me want to use it to protect everyone!"
Shoji was silent for a few moments, his mind flashing back to how Deku talked about All Might. How he'd rewatched videos of All Might saving people over and over again.
He gently put a hand on Kurogane's shoulder. "That's a good dream. And remember, so long as you make one good memory, hold onto it and it'll make it worth it."
Kurogane listened intently. "I'll remember that...Um...one more thing..."
Shoji held back a sudden gag as the scent in the air from the child changed, a pungent note coming into it. Looked like he hadn't fully gotten a fine control of his abilities yet. "Yes?"
"...Can I see your face?" asked Kurogane timidly, before backtracking loudly. "Sorry, is that rude?! I'm sorry!"
Shoji paused before he replied. “... No, not at all," he said, slowly and carefully removing his mask to reveal his face… and the scars inflicted by intolerant villagers.
Kurogane cringed, and Shoji tensed before he realized it wasn’t from fear or disgust.
The ambient scent in the air changed to the cherry-like whiff of petrichor. "...Did it hurt?"
Shoji nodded. "Yes… but I wouldn't do anything different"
"Can you tell me?"
Shoji smiled. "Sure, kid..."
"He's my hero and the one who inspired me." Kurogane finished
Bakugo paused for a second, then handed the drawing back into Kurogane’s claws.
"He's gonna be at U.A., get in and give it to him yourself! Got it?"
Kurogane stared for a moment, then nodded. "O-Okay, I will!"
"Good. See you at the exams, squirt!" the Explosion Hero replied, sharply sauntering off back towards the school.
Kurogane stared after him for a moment, a smile beginning to spread across his face. "...Thank you."
"That's it, little bro! Keep it up!" Sakuya shouted, standing by as her brother’s spotter.
Kurogane used the precision breaths his sister had taught him as he heaved the weights over his head. One… two… three!
Finishing the set, he lowered the dumbbells back onto their rack, while Sakuya rummaged in her gym bag.
The older woman pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to him, nodding and smiling with approval. "Good job! You should be all set for the U.A. entrance exam!"
Kurogane took the bottle with one hand, the other fidgeting with his tail. "T-Thanks, sis…"
He eyed his reflection in the mirror that ran along one of the gym’s walls. Having a body covered in fur meant it could be difficult to see, but his muscles were lean and tough- largely in part to his sister’s expert advice and assistance with his training. "Seriously, thanks."
Sakuya gave a smirk and flexed her own biceps. Her own borderline amazonian physique showed even beneath the loose skin from her Quirk. "Hey, what's the point of being ripped if you can't help your little bro bulk up when he wants to be a superhero?"
She chuckled, her ears pricking. "Well, in your case less 'bulk up' and more 'tone up.' Your build isn't really that of a powerlifter, so I called in a favor or two and asked some co-workers to help me formulate that regime. Everyone’s body is different, after all."
"Yeah, the heavy-duty brawling is more your style," Kurogane replied as he sat down on the padded bench, the water bottle still unopened.
"Darn right," Sakuya said before sitting down next to him. She noted him still fiddling with his tail. "Nervous?"
"...Oh, no…just…"
Sakuya gave a smile. "Kurogane, I've known you since you were born. Even if you figured out how to stop stinking when you're upset, I can still tell."
"How?"
"I'm your big sister, it's kinda my job. That, and you and I both know you stim with your tail when something's on your mind."
Kurogane nodded, slowly. "Yeah… I'm nervous. Why wouldn’t I be? I know I've been working and training hard, but only like one in three hundred people actually get in."
Sakuya patted him on the back and gave a wide smile which was somehow reassuring despite her mouthful of sharp teeth. "Hey, you were the one that said you'd try as many times as you have to, and I know you well enough to believe it. You're gonna be a hero, little bro, and I'll be one proud big sister!"
Kurogane reached over to hug her, the feel of her fur and loose skin familiar beneath his fingers. "Thanks, sis."
Sakuya returned the hug without hesitation, one hand making little pats on his back. “No problem."
She released him as she stood up. "Okay, now let’s get home. You need to rest up for tomorrow. Remember that- no matter what, you need rest. Nobody performs at their peak when they’re tired.”
Sakuya kept a firm but gentle hand on Kurogane's shoulder as they walked out of the gym. "I know you have a habit of overthinking things, but you're my determined little stinker and always have been."
Kuroi looked up from the last of the note cards. "Who was the founder of the Meta Liberation Army?"
Kurogane’s brow furrowed in concentration. "Yotsubashi Chikara, also known as Destro."
The patriarch gave a fatherly smile as he folded up the cards and adjusted his glasses. "Honey! I think our son is ready for the entrance exam!"
Tamano smiled, coming over to the dining room table where the two were sitting. Despite being the largest member of the family and her Quirk being a fearsome predator, she moved gently as she kissed Kurogane on the forehead. "You've been studying hard."
She gave a somewhat bittersweet smile, looking over at the framed photograph that hung on the dining room wall. It showed a younger Tamano, cradling her son, who at the time had been no more than a small bundle of black and white fluff.
"... I admit, I'm worried for you. Being a pro hero is dangerous, even with the world safer than it was when I grew up… but it's what you've wanted to do since you were ten. What mother would I be to get in your way?"
Kurogane reached for her claw. "You're not in my way, you've helped me get there… both of you."
Kuroi smiled, rising from his seat and coming around the table to join in the hug. "That's what parents are supposed to do, Kurogane. Remember, when you're taking that test, we're going to be right behind you."
Tamano nodded. "And whether you succeed this time or have to try again, or even just want to get into a different school, we're behind you all the way."
Kurogane, for a moment, let the anxieties slip away. He closed his eyes, and a citrus aroma enveloped the three of them, the scent fresh and invigorating. He heard both his mother and father inhale softly.
"Now, tomorrow… How does the motto go?" Kuroi asked, in that teasing rhetorical way- he knew the answer as well as any of them. ”...Oh, right. Go Beyond!"
"PLUS ULTRA!" all three cheered.
U.A. High School, the Next Day
The chatter of several thousand people filled the air, and the crush of bodies felt tight and overwhelming as Kurogane made his way through the massive crowd. His tail was held in both hands, fingers fiddling through soft fur. He felt like his heart might beat itself free of his chest at any minute, but he refused to let himself break down.
'This is what I've spent five years preparing for.'
Taking a few deep, slow breaths to calm himself, he looked up at the facade of the massive building towering over him. Rebuilt after the final battle with Tomura Shigaraki and All For One.
U.A. High School, the birthplace of some of the greatest heroes ever known.
"WHAT'RE YOU HOPING TO PROTECT WITH YOUR GIFTS AND YOUR POWER?!"
Kurogane’s face set in a resolute expression, and his heartbeat steadied just a little bit.
"... Everyone I can…"
To be continued.