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It was hard for Tenko to make friends, especially with a villainous Quirk like his.
“That's such a dangerous quirk.”
“I know, right? It's so scary! I mean, just look at him.”
“He does look like a villain,” followed by laughter. “So creepy.”
People were afraid of him once they knew what his Quirk could do.
Toshinori Yagi, his adoptive father, wasn't.
Neither was his homeroom teacher, Eraserhead.
Spinner understood him.
The heteromorph knew what it felt like to be an outcast, bullied, and he loved gaming as much as Tenko did.
They didn't click instantly.
The fifteen-year-old tried hard to put up a wall from forming new connections at the beginning of high school, but it crumbled at the lizard, Shuichi Iguchi’s persistence.
Dabi, on the other hand, thought his decay ability was cool, which was the strangest reaction he’d received regarding his Quirk.
It scared him.
A lot of things at his high school did.
Especially Himiko Toga, the blonde-haired girl from Class 1-B, who acted like they were lifelong friends even though Tenko had never met her.
The people were different at Yuuei, nicer, but not all of them.
Tenko was still terrified of hurting someone by accident, like he sometimes did to his beloved pet, Mon-chan.
Killed him.
“Stop it, Tenko!”
His abusive father hated heroes, whereas Tenko admired them.
A lot of times, the boy would get in trouble for simply showing interest in them, so he kept it quiet, and on the playground, he would play heroes vs. villains with other kids.
“Yeah. Mom…” Tenko hesitantly told his mother his dream with a tentative, shy smile while they were home alone after a bad day of allergies. “I want to be a hero.”
He wondered if that was why his dad hated him.
“Do you really want to know what heroes are?!” his father, Kotaro, yelled at him, ripping the picture of his grandmother out of his hand. “They're people who hurt their own families... only to help complete strangers. I don't want to hear any of this hero nonsense again!”
With blurred eyes and an aching little heart, the five-year-old rushed to Mon-chan, the child's only source of comfort aside from his mom, occasionally in the backyard.
It's where he usually went when his father hurt him.
When Tenko was sad, alone, and scared, Mon-chan was there for him.
The child stroked the fur of his brown and white dog with one hand while scratching his own skin that never seemed to stop itching lately and found himself grinning when the corgi licked the salty tears off his cheeks.
“Mon-chan!” Tenko giggled, thinking about how sad he was but glad for the furball's unconditional love. “You silly dog.”
He still remembers the feel of his dog's ashes in the palm of his tiny hands. The terror that came with it—his own sister was disgusted by his appearance on the day of his Quirk awakening. Hana was so disturbed that she pushed him hard enough to scrape his elbow open.
“Mom! Dad!” the girl screeched as if someone had died, rushing into the house. “Tenko killed Mon! He—he burned him alive with his hands!”
“I told you I wanted him out of our house, Nao!” his father, Kotaro, yelled at his mother while his grandmother grumbled, “That child has been nothing but a nuisance since he came here!”
“It's awful, Granny!” His sister's fake cries sounded like long nails scraping on a board. “Something's wrong with him!”
It was loud.
They were so loud.
His ears were ringing.
Tenko's heart was pounding, beating out of his chest, burning.
A small, dark spot of urine coated the front of the child's pants out of fear and anguish from what had happened to him, what he did to the dog he loved—and his family had the gall to argue about how unwanted he was.
The five-year-old was petrified of hurting someone or himself, but no one was listening.
He hated them.
Almost enough to kill.
His father, especially.
Tenko wanted to hurt him.
He remembers how that dark feeling churned and brewed in the pit of his stomach, but instead of acting on it, he ran away.
The boy ran into the streets to find someone who might help.
Anyone.
But no one came.
Not one hero.
Which made his dislike for heroes and society start to grow after Tenko reached out only to be rejected.
“Someone will help. A hero or the police,” that lady said, stepping away from him.
Tenko waited.
He even prayed the ‘Our Father’ prayer he learned in kindergarten in a dark, smelly alley out of desperation.
Not one person cared enough.
Until Toshinori Yagi.
Who Tenko later learned was the number one hero, All Might he idolized and the former student of his biological grandmother, Nana Shimura.
Toshi told him stories about the kind of woman she was.
“She had the One For All Quirk and now you have it too? That's so cool!” the child's eyes gained light and wonder he lost as time passed. “I wanna be just like her, and you, Toshi! Strong. When I grow up, I'll be a hero too!”
The darkness of Tenko's past still haunted him sometimes, but he wasn't going to let that define him.
It was a great coincidence one could describe as an act of mercy from God to fall into the hands of an awkward but caring Toshinori.
His love for heroes and desire to become one, which was buried deep, had been rekindled since that life-changing encounter.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it,” All Might quoted John 1:5 more than once to him before drifting off to sleep when Tenko was still small.
He kept that verse hidden in his heart, along with a few others he didn't mind so much, like Joshua 1:9, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
He didn't believe in God the way Toshinori did—the fifteen-year-old didn't pray. Tenko wasn't ‘saved,’ nor did he know much about the religion his adoptive dad followed, but sometimes… he found himself clinging to those words just a little.
It gave him hope that maybe somewhere out there, someone greater than All Might is looking out for him, but that's just a fleeting thought that comes and goes.
“Oi, Tenko!” Dabi's voice startled Tenko out of his daydream in Yuuei's hallway. “You coming, man? I told you I'd show you where I work!”
“Yeah,” the dark-haired teen mumbled, putting his hands in his pockets as he walked over to the exit. “Hikari Mart, right?”
“Yeah,” the flame Quirk user beamed as Tenko fell in step with him walking down the entryway stairs. “It's not too far from here, so we can take a walk.”
“I want popsicles!” Toga announced, appearing behind them while jumping on Touya's back with a mischievous grin. “Where's Spinner-kun? Oh right, he can't miss the bus to his village.”
“Who invited you?” Touya grumbled, but didn't brush the blonde girl off his shoulders as she hung on him. “And why should I pay?”
“Because you work, duh? And you're like super rich! Matter of fact, lend me some cash, I'm broke!”
Tenko felt something warm bloom in his chest as they walked on the sidewalk under the clear blue sky and scorching heat of Wednesday afternoon. Cicadas creaked beneath his feet as some students and cars passed them by. Toga's constant chatter and Dabi's commentary were a comfort Tenko had grown used to.
He liked this.
Having friends.
Tenko couldn't wait to tell Toshi all about his day.
The fifty-one-year-old worked at Yuuei as a teacher now. He title as number one hasn't fully slipped yet he was as popular as ever but his body started to decline more because of that injury he suffered in a fight years ago.
That didn't stop All Might from kicking butt—with the help of his specialized battle armor he kept on going.
Tenko couldn't be happier.
If his family hadn't died in a fire set by an arsenal villain that night while he was still on the streets, he probably wouldn't be where he was now.
The decay Quirk user didn't know if it made him evil to be grateful for his family's death, but Tenko was glad to have escaped—that he no longer had to live in that suffocating place with those two-faced people.
It was never home.
Yagi was home.
“What's it like having a job, Dabi?” Tenko asked, finally deciding to join the conversation.
“Oh,” Touya smirked, throwing his arm around the dark-haired teen's shoulder while Toga hooked her arm around his on the other side. “Wait till you hear this. So there's this guy I worked with...”
♡
