Chapter Text
He knelt there, the crackling of flames engulfed the air around him. He heard people yelling, far, far away. His cheek still stung from the hit by Mizi. His eyes glazed over as he stared at the ground. He breathed in the warm, but he still felt cold.
The fire crept up his arm, leaving a numb burning sensation in its wake. He didn't dare move. This is what he deserves, right? He's lost everything now. He's lost his everything. Even though she wanted him out of her life.
He lets his head droop down, the fire running up his back. It burns so much. When does it end?
Luka doesn't deserve to be saved. Mizi said it herself. Humans are the root of all evil, yet Luka is barely human. Yet, he causes evil. Could you blame him? All he wanted was to survive in this horrible world. But, he has no right to complain. He doesn't get to be righteous.
Nobody is going to find him in the arising smoke swallowing the space around him. His chest burns and he cannot feel. He does not feel sadness, or mourning. No dread or misery. Just hollow emptiness. The kind that feels like a parasite, eating him whole every passing second this warm fire threatens to eat him up.
He deserves this. For being the monster he is. That's what he realises in this final moment. The fire eats up his face, it's excruciating. The horrible sting bites at him like the familiar grasp of a syringe. He attempts to breathe, but all he breathes in is fire. Luka almost screams, but his screaming is muffled by the smoke and fire. He doesn’t know when it happened, but he had toppled on to his side at one point.
He can't see anything. Only red.
He can’t breathe, but it’s worse than the training the aliens had put him through.
He can't feel.
He can't smell.
His heart stops beating once more.
-
The sound of rhythmic beeps interrupts his peace. He feels as if he’s being held up by smooth warm fingers.
Why can’t he open his eyes? Have the aliens managed to bring him back to life. No, he feels too… Small. He tries to open his eyes.
He’s greeted with blinding white light. It feels as if it burns his scleras right through his skull. He opens his eyes wider, wider…
And sees a face. A woman with smooth, glowing skin. Eyes as bright and yellow as a dandelion in the morning. Hair long, blonde and straight. It flows like water going down a waterfall. She looks heavenly. Who is this woman? Why does she look like me?
The woman’s eyes widened slightly as if she was scared when he opened his eyes, but her expression quickly melted into something warm. Loving. She lowers his head to her chest. The beat of her heart is steady. So calming. Like an embrace holding him close. He doesn’t want to go.
“Oh, my love. Luka, I will keep you safe.” She mutters under her breath. What did she say? What language is that? It’s so familiar. As if he’s heard it before. Luka is so confused. Had he not died?
She gently ran her hand down Luka’s head. He felt as if he could fall asleep.
–
My name is Luka Seol. I am “one” years old. I live in Busan, Korea. Throughout the past year, I have yet to see an Alien. Maybe this ‘country’ is set up for the Aliens entertainment. That thought makes him uncomfortable, but something that caught his eye even more was the things around him. He had come across many things in his time in this life and the last, but he’s never known what a Hero or Villain was. They seemed to be categories. They were on TV. He saw his mother watch the news, and the heroes and villains appeared. His father, Min-jun Seol had told Luka many times that he was going to become a hero. Luka does not care, he just wants to live.
Walking and talking is hard. He had been learning Korean, as well as Japanese from a tutor. Apparently, they were going to move to Japan so that Luka could grow up to go to the UA high school. The number one school for heroes in Japan. There was only one Korean hero school, but it was far too expensive and had an almost zero percent chance of getting in.
The reason his father wanted him to be a hero so bad was because of Quirks. His family was one of the lucky few in Korea to even have a quirk for an entire bloodline, and Luka was hopefully going to get one as well. His father’s quirk was the ability to read somebody’s mind, and his mothers was the ability to control someone with her voice.
Speaking of his mother, her name was Ha-eun Lee. She was the embodiment of heaven. A beautiful face, and beautiful body. His father had light brown hair that was slightly curly. He looked like a generic Korean man. It was a miracle that he had even been able to lay eyes upon Ha-eun, but he did.
For Luka’s age, he was quiet. Worryingly so. He’s always either napping, or sitting somewhere. Just sitting. Saying nothing. One other thing he enjoys doing is resting his head against his mothers chest. Listening to her heartbeat. It was like the melody of a song.
He knows all of this because he looks. He looks around him when nobody is bothering him and he observes the area around him. He looks at the TV. He listens to adult conversations. Even though nobody knows he can think this clearly and understand this at age one, they don't have to know.
Nobody has to know.
-
When Luka is five, he has started to dream. When he goes to sleep, he sees the smile of a girl with brown skin and brown hair. He can never see her eyes, but he wants to. Her hair is straight and long, but a bit messy. It looks like melted chocolate. He doesn’t know who she is, but she seems so familiar. Well, there's not much he can do.
He and his family live in Japan now. His family still speaks Korean, but they have to speak Japanese in public. Luka still doesn't understand both languages fully, but he can communicate now. Luka has heavily taken the look of his mother. He has short light blonde hair, but it's wavy like his fathers. He looks like himself in his past life.
His mother is constantly cooing at him, pinching his cheeks and dressing him up. His family is apparently quite wealthy and has an expensive house.
At school, Luka doesn't like to spend time around the other children. They're all so unreasonable and dumb, he can't stand it. Luka has grown a habit of chewing his nails. His parents have tried to stop him, but he can't help it.
He sat on the carpet in the classroom, far from his classmates. He was sitting down, looking at the floor. He wants to know who the girl in his dreams is. He swears he's seen her before, but he doesn't know where. Maybe she was in his past life.
He's also convinced that the aliens are in hiding. Maybe the humans had won against the aliens and brought back their rights, but where have the aliens gone? Surely they couldn't have just disappeared. They were there. He was probably just going to go to this school and then straight back to some sort of stage for the aliens. Being some sort of entertainment or play thing for their joy. He doesn't want to do that. Not anymore.
He sees many faces when he sleeps. Most of the time, he sees the girl with brown hair. But, sometimes he sees a different girl. A girl with pink hair and yellow eyes. He can see her eyes, but not the brown haired girl's eyes. How weird. The girl with pink hair always looked at him with hatred. He knows he was horrible in his past life, but he didn't want to be that way. It was just in his nature… It was the aliens.
Luka snapped the crayon in half. He was trying to draw the pink haired girl, but he messed up. He picked up the paper and crumpled it, putting it aside. He had never been good at arts and crafts. He just liked doodling to pass the time. The paper only had the girl with pink hair and the girl with brown hair. Sometimes they were playing. Sometimes they were talking. Sometimes, Luka was there. The brown haired girl never had an eye colour in the drawing like the pink haired one. What a shame he can't remember.
“Luka! What are you drawing?” The teacher approaches him, crouching down beside him. She has a smile on her face, and she kneels. She eventually turns her face to the paper when Luka doesn't respond.
“Ah, you draw these two a lot. Do you know them?” She says, gently rubbing her finger over the paper.
“No. I made them up.” He responded. He doesn't care if he's lying to her. What could she do?
“Ooh, you're quite creative! Keep it up, okay? Maybe you could show the other kids?” She suggests, beaming at Luka once more. Her expression is so bright that Luka almost has to squint.
“Ok.” He turns back to face the paper. He's not going to show the other kids.
Later on in the day. He was sitting down, leaning against the wall like a doll left on the ground. His eyes were empty, as they always were. A girl wanders up to him, sitting right beside him. He slowly turns his head to face her, wondering if she would start talking first.
She had blonde hair. It was a little curly at the ends, and it reached a little above her shoulders. She had bright yellow eyes, and she was smiling. Not just a normal smile from a young girl, but one with far too much weight. Her teeth were slightly sharp, and her expression could scare someone away.
“Hi!” She says, excitedly, “I'm Toga.”
“Luka.” He responds, solemnly.
“Hehe! You're gloomy, but I like you! The other people said that I was scary, so I came to you!” She brings her knees to her chest, she didn't sound very serious, “I didn't mean to kill the worm outside. I just wanted to put it back together.”
Lukas' eyes twitched slightly. A worm?
“Did you step on it?” Luka asks, letting his head straighten a little from where it was loosely lulled to the side.
“No! I tore it apart, but by accident! I didn't mean to pull it so hard, I was just trying to scare them a little!” She says, still not sounding very sorrowful. Luka looks at her fingers, and there's a small droplet of worm blood.
“You have the blood on your hand.” He points out.
“I do!?” She exclaims, but she doesn't sound disgusted. Her eyes sparkle a little more, and she brings her hand up to see it, “I do! Eww, gross, right? You think it's gross?” She waves her slightly bloodied hand in front of Luka's face. Luka doesn't blink.
“Yea, it's gross.” Luka responds.
“Hehe…”
What a weird girl. They did not speak after that once again.
.
His family was walking in a mall. It was far too loud for Luka's taste, but what could he do? He was holding his mother's hand. She was wearing a dark grey skirt that went to her knees, and black tights. She also had a beige turtleneck sweater with a grey jacket hanging off of her shoulders. She also had a purse with some sort of designer brand.
“Eomma, where are we going?” Luka asks, trying to keep up his pace.
“We are going to the doctors, okay? Just be patient, my dear.” She says, seeming as calm as ever. She was too fast, though.
“Slow down, please…” Luka couldn't catch his breath.
“Oh! I'm sorry, my love! Here…” She bent down slightly and picked up Luka. She was strong. Luka took this as an opportunity to rest his head against her chest, hugging her close. So warm. The rhythm of her heartbeat muffled out the sounds of the crowded mall.
When they got to the doctors, Luka had been taken to a white room. They poked syringes at him and took his blood. It hurt, but he got some candy afterwards. He just put it in his pocket.
He was sitting in a waiting room, sitting patiently on one of the chairs. His mother eventually came out to meet him again. She had a solemn look on her face, unlike her usual beaming smile. Her smile was currently fake. Her eyes were too dark to truly be happy.
She walked over to his chair, holding her hand out.
“From now on, you're going to have to be a little careful.”
.
Luka was still faintly confused on why his mother told him to be careful.
He went to the doctor again a few weeks later. They took an x-ray of his foot, which was kind of weird in his opinion. He wasn't really paying attention to what the doctor said, but apparently he will be getting a quirk.
He has been told that he is supposed to develop his quirk sooner rather than later., and he’s told it could happen spontaneously.
And so it did.
He was walking outside with his kindergarten class. Another classmate was sitting next to him under a tree. Luka was chewing on his nails.
“Ew, are you eating yourself?” The boy says, face retorting in disgust.
“No.” Luka responds. His voice is light and quiet. He doesn’t like talking.
“Eugh! You’re gross!” The boy yells out, getting up and pushing Luka.
Luka tumbles over where he sat, landing on the grass. He gets up, turns around and walks to a new place. The boy follows him.
“Why are you so gross, Luka? You always eat your hands. It’s so yucky.” He says, shoving Luka once more.
Luka does not respond. The boy shoves him again, harder. Luka tries to walk away faster, before the boy hits him. When he tumbles on to the floor, the child slaps him again. It stings.
“Ouch–”
“No! Yucky people don’t get to speak. You gross me out! Ew!!!” The boy yells. The teacher takes notice of them and starts to walk towards the fight.
“Hurts—”
The boy brings his head up to look at Luka, but when he does… He stops. Luka sees a bright flash of light when the boy looks at him. He suddenly sees various spiders crawl up the boy's arms. The boy immediately yelps and stumbles away. The spiders immediately disappear.
“AHH!!! SPIDERS!!!” He yells as he tries to stumble away, running to the teacher. She looks bewildered, but then her eyes widen in realization. She walks towards Luka.
“Luka! Are you okay!? Why were you two fighting??? You both know that's not allowed. Spiders? Where?” She begins, turning to face them both.
“HE HAD SPIDERS ON ME! WHEN I LOOKED AT HIM— S- SPIDERS!!!” The boy cried, clutching onto the teacher's arm. She gently patted his head, looking at him with pity.
“I don't see any spiders, Tanaka.” She murmurs, turning to Luka again, “Here. Explain to me what happened.” She walked over to Luka, crouching in front of him.
“He hit me, and I said it hurt and then he looked at me and said there were spiders. I saw spiders but they went away when he ran. I saw light before I saw spiders.” Luka explained, trying to raise his voice as much as he can to not whisper. His Japanese is just a little choppy for his age, but he prefers Korean.
“Ah! It could be a quirk” Her eyes light up. A quirk? “Luka. Look at me and say something.” She directly looks at Luka. He suddenly hears a rhythm. A heartbeat. Not his mothers, but the teachers. For a while, he hears it. And then, he looks back at her.
He’s overcome with information. It floods into his brain like spilt soda. Her fear. Her sadness. Her misery. Everything she would want to hide. He looks back at her bright eyes. They sparkle with delight. She has blue eyes, and they shine all different ways. She fears insects with her life.
The same flash of light comes back for a split second. Different insects, such as various isopods, ants and others began to fade into reality, crawling up her legs.
She yelps, quickly asking Luka to stop. After some concentration, Luka manages to make his quirk stop. Despite her surprise to the bugs, she seems amazed.
“My goodness! That’s wonderful! Absolutely amazing!” She takes his hands in hers. They’re warm. He eventually ends up being taken home early to see his parents.
.
.
“Luka! My darling, Luka! It happened! Oh, my pretty boy! I’m so proud of you!” Ha-eun runs towards him, her heels not slowing her. Her purse flies behind her, and her hair flows. She brings Luka into a tight embrace, rubbing her forehead against his cheek.
Min-jun eventually follows behind her, “Good job, my son.” He nods.
“Luka! Show us what you did at home, okay?” Ha eun says, excitedly. She takes his hand and takes him to their car. You can see the happiness seeping out of her. It runs through the air and into the rest of her family. A beam of light.
As they all get into the car, Min-jun speaks up.
“Luka, we were also informed that you got into a fight beforehand. Anything to say about that?” He keeps his eyes on the road, not turning to face Luka.
“Oh, yes! I was so worried when I heard… Are you hurt, dear?” Ha eun looks into the back seat, turning to Luka with a face of concern.
“A boy called me gross for chewing on my fingernails. He hurt me.” Luka murmurs, not looking back at her directly.
“Luka… You shouldn't bite your fingernails! But, that boy should not have hit you.” His mother responds, taking his hands in hers and running her thumb over his small fingernails.
“Hm.” His father grunts in agreement.
.
.
When they make it home, Luka is placed on the couch immediately.
“Okay, Luka. What did you do to activate it?” Ha eun sits next to him, gently rubbing his shoulder. She switches to Korean now that they aren’t in public anymore.
“Look at me.”
She goes to crouch in front of Luka on the couch. Min-jun stands to the side if anything happens.
When they lock eyes, Luka can hear notes. Piano notes. But, this rhythm is familiar. Instead of the distant thump of a heart, Ha eun's heartbeat had been transformed into music. Luka doesn’t know if this song was made by someone before, but it's the exact beat and rhythm of his mothers heartbeat. He looks into her eyes, the light yellow shines bright with anticipation. He sees the pure joy in her heart, as he usually does when he looks at her. But, he can also see her anger. Her misery. Her anxiety.
The same flash of light. It seems Ha eun saw it too.
Ha eun was involved in a shooting during her high school years. It created PTSD for her. Luka didn't mean to make that what they saw, but all of a sudden she heard a gunshot. They all did. Min-jun flinched at the sound. Luka didn't mean to. He just got excited. Ha eun put her hand on Luka's as the sound of gunshots, blood and the distant yells of policemen around them.
“Luka, honey. That's enough…” She's shaking.
Luka eventually figures out how to make it stop. He just has to concentrate.
“Thank you.”
Her face quickly regains all joy.
“Ah!!! So cool!!! I'm so proud, my dear ~!” She pulls Luka into a tight embrace, “Explain to me, love. What happened?” She smiles at him when she pulls back. It's a smile he never wants to end.
“When I look into your eyes, I can see all the bad things you don't like. I can't control which one comes into real life. Sorry. I couldn't control whether Dad saw or not.” Luka mutters, lifting his hand up to bite at his nails. Ha eun immediately lowers Luka's hand to stop him.
“That's okay, my dear. Nobody can control it well when they just got their quirk. Don't worry. And, you didn't scare me. I know you didn't mean to.” Ha eun reassures him, giving him a quick kiss on the forehead.
“Son, from now on, I will help you control your quirk. Training.” Min-jun interrupts suddenly, taking a step towards Luka.
“Ok.”
-
And so, they trained. They trained day and night. They practiced how to control what visual will come out of what Luka reads from their fear, they practiced plain manipulation, they practiced physical combat. It was probably too much for a seven year old, but it would make Luka perfect. What else can he achieve to be, except perfect?
His seventh birthday was a few months ago. They celebrated with far too much cake and food for his liking, but he got a new violin which he liked.
Luka would get breaks if he wanted, and if he was sick they wouldn't train. But, he was busy everyday. If he wasn't taking Japanese lessons, violin lessons or whatever activity, he would train.
Over the time, he has learnt that his father's heartbeat is a slow bass rhythm. His mother's is a gentle piano melody. Now, he can tell if they are near. Although, he's glad that it's extremely quiet. He would probably go crazy if the music was loud. Also if he's next to them for a prolonged period of time, it eventually goes away.
Now, when he rests his head against his mother's chest, he can hear a gentle piano. Usually, he falls asleep when he does that
In training, Luka was requested to use his quirk on himself. He saw fire. He wanted to stop.
Min-jun was slightly concerned at his son's extreme reaction to fire, but decided just to write it off as a phobia.
They had gone to a doctor specializing in quirks and got a clear explanation of Luka's quirk.
With eye contact, he can look into a person's brain and learn their deep fears or regrets. He can create a hallucination, but that takes a lot more effort and tires him quickly. That's why he found himself exhausted and drained after creating the hallucination with his mother. When Luka activated his quirk, a flash of light could be seen. No explanation of how or why, it was mostly just a small setback in his quirk.
He still kept seeing that girl in his dreams, too. She just wouldn't leave. He's tried to look round for her in crowds and at school, but she's nowhere. Luka didn't think that much of it. Maybe he'll find her one day.