Chapter Text
Sato Keiko had always liked to help others, so when she gained a quirk that allowed her to heal others, she knew she was going to be a doctor. She studied hard so she could excel in school and get into a good medical program from which she graduated top of her class. And then she got a job at the illustrious Mustafa General Hospital and all was well. She met the love of her life there and they soon had their first daughter. Sato Yami. She was a beautiful little girl who seemed to love life the moment she came into existence. Keiko and her husband Kenji adored her.
But everything fell apart when Yami was diagnosed as quirkless. Kenji couldn’t even look the girl in the eyes anymore, he became short with her and even moved to ignoring his daughter. He was so cruel. And he had the nerve to accuse Keiko of cheating on him. When the girl looked more like him than her. Keiko would not stand for her husband’s attitude, she told him she wanted a divorce. And he gladly left, giving her full custody.
Kaneko Yami became Sato Yami. And Sato Keiko loved the girl very much, no matter if she didn’t have a quirk. So they braved the world of quirklessness together. But one day, Yami didn’t come home from school. Keiko went to the police station to report her missing the next day, but the officer was very dismissive once he got a description of Yami and asked for her quirk. Keiko didn’t know what to do. It was clear he wasn’t going to help her. She went back to her apartment numb.
She hadn’t been able to fall asleep that night so she was wide awake when there was a loud tapping at her living room window. She went to check it out. She screamed when she saw a masked man seemingly floating in the air holding her daughter, who showed no signs of distress. She hurriedly opened the window to demand her daughter, but the man gently handed her over with no words.
“Who are you?” She asked. This was long before Ash had become widely known. When the vigilante was only a rumor.
“My name is Ash, I’m a vigilante. Your daughter was kidnapped yesterday by human traffickers.”
She wanted to break down at this. Her daughter. The horrors she would have had to face if no one saved her. It was terrifying.
“You saved her?” How could she trust this man?
“Yes.”
“Why did you bring her here? Why not the police?”
“She told me she’s quirkless. I watch the police database for new reports on quirkless people specifically, because I know that 99 times out of 100 nothing will be done. It’s always important to jump on cases like these because the world does not treat quirkless people kindly. The longer you wait, the more chance of death. Your daughter said you were kind to her so I’d rather get you to her immediately than take her to the police. I’m glad you treat her well, I always worry if I’m sending people back to situations almost as bad. Take care of her.”
And with that, he disappeared before she could say anything. She hadn’t even been able to thank him. After confirming he had been nothing but helpful to Yumi, she tried to find more information about him. She spent the night searching the internet. There wasn’t much. But she eventually found some forums where people who he had saved talked about their interactions. She followed the forum and looked at it whenever it updated.
One day, she shared her story and was invited to join an online group. Apparently, Ash had built up a large base of mostly quirkless supporters who were inspired by the stories they heard of him saving people like them. He was their hero. But they wondered why he was so interested in saving people like them. It was sad to say that even most heroes wouldn’t put so much energy into quirkless people. There were theories like having someone close to them die because of how quirkless people were treated. But they were only theories. The favorite being that he was quirkless himself, a theory that had a lot of merits. Regardless, he had established quite a community of supporters before he even made it on the news.
Because of Ash she had discovered a whole quirkless friendly community. Yami had friends because of it. Even with the traumatic kidnapping, Yami had come out of it better than before. Keiko only wished she could thank Ash for this.
Keiko got lucky. She had been walking home from her night shift when she spotted Ash. She called out his name, it seemed like he was going to leave but she begged him to talk to him. She thanked him severely for saving her daughter and then told him that his words had inspired him. She thought about his worry that he was sending children back to terrible situations after saving them. She wanted to build an orphanage for children society had shunned. But that was an ambitious goal, for now, she would get a foster license and suggest to the social workers that she wouldn’t mind the children others typically didn’t want.
And to her surprise, Ash helped her get it. And he kept surprising her. Like right now.
“So how do you feel about speedrunning the orphanage idea?”
“Excuse me?”
“Yeah, I’m working on rescuing some quirkless kids. As well as kids with mutant quirks, like the one you’re going to take in. There’s a good amount of kids so I think a lot of their home lives won’t be ideal.”
“It sounds like you’re going to rescue them soon. We can’t build an orphanage out of nowhere.”
“Well, the building is almost done. And it’s already approved.”
“How?” She stared at him. She wasn’t even aware he was working on it.
He brushed her off, “I have connections. So what do you say? You said you knew people that would work there?”
“I’m in.” She mentioned it in the Ash fan chat she was in and had gotten some volunteers. She was sure the vigilante would background check them first.
“Great, I’ll let you know the details. Also,” he held out a gift bag to her, stuffed with pink and white tissue paper. “I got a present for Yami.”
“Thank you, what is it?” She didn’t even see that he had a bag with him.
“Shoes, a friend of mine makes his own shoes that aren’t a big walking red flag. I convinced him to make some for other people. They’re purple, Yami’s favorite color right?”
Her eyes widened in shock. Yami would be able to wear shoes that were her favorite color. And there was confirmation that Ash at least had a quirkless friend. Maybe something more that he didn’t want to reveal. “It is. Do you think he’ll start a company?”
“Do you think he should?”
“It would be beneficial to the community.” She didn’t want to pressure anyone, but it would be extremely beneficial.
“I’ll talk to him about it. He’ll make some for the other kids you take in as well once they’re settled. If you know anyone else who could use a pair, just let me know. It will be no bother, and he doesn’t need the money anyway.”
Keiko would never forget the look of joy on Yami’s face as she opened the purple flats and sneakers from her hero.
She didn’t even think Ash truly knew the level of people he was helping. Even with quirkless people knowing he was looking out for them, gave them strength. Knowing that if they went missing, someone would look gave them hope. Ash was a hero and he was just what society needed, she hoped that society did not tear him down.
…
Ash had just broken into the police station. It wasn’t the first time, but it was his first time stealing evidence, how exciting. He didn’t play around this time because he did not want to be noticed today. He stole the things that were collected at the first location where the experimentation took place. He had called the cops there that time so they had taken what was inside. But the case was declared closed pretty quickly. They didn’t really investigate much. They had concluded that they had kidnapped the kids to test a drug they were creating and left it at that.
They hadn’t seemed to do any investigation after collecting the kids and criminals. So there was likely other evidence they hadn’t collected still there. But he didn’t want to return unless it was necessary.
At least they safely disposed of the collected blood. He checked the footage to make sure of it. His blood had been a part of that and he didn’t want it out there.
He took the drugs they collected and brought them to his lab for testing. He quickly concluded that they were useless for what they were meant to do. They wouldn’t enhance shit.
He examined his own blood and compared it to Dabi's, who was confused but willing to give a blood sample. He noted the differences as he ran it through different tests. But he wasn’t seeing any indication that quirkless blood could affect those with quirks. Were they basing this operation on a stupid theory? If so, they must be desperate. He wondered why they wanted this so badly.
He went back to the second location to do a more thorough examination. The cops hadn’t ransacked this location since he hadn’t called them here. It was smaller than the place he was in. There had been fewer kids as well.
In the lab, he found lots of notes. There was increasing frustration about the lack of response to the drugs and injections they gave to the children. There were also thorough notes about the changes they were making. It seems they had moved on from drugs to injections. He was going to have Dabi burn all the locations once he was done. Successful or not, this work did not need to get anywhere. He took a sample of the injection back to his lab to test as well. It still was ineffective.
There were two operations. The main one was in Tokyo, he felt that’s where he would get the best answers. And the other one was in Hosu. He would do it all in one night. They must have their guards up since he took down two of their operations. Though they had no idea it was him. But he didn’t want them to have the chance to up and leave. While he was doing that he would have Dabi burn down the other two buildings. Dabi was happy to do this when Ash explained what they were doing to the children. With everything planned, he was ready.
…
Not all men were created equal, and not all men were meant to rise above that inequality. It was a fact Takao Hiroto believed in very much. He had been born to a rich family and had developed a very strong quirk. It was just a fact that he was superior to most others. He had learned long ago that he could do whatever he wished.
He was powerful with his quirk and his family status. And he had gotten an equally as powerful wife. So by all means, their son should have been powerful as well. But he was weak. And Hiroto didn’t understand. He had a strong quirk that increased the strength of his arm muscles, he was naturally stronger than anyone he knew. And his wife had a similar quirk which made her have incredible upper-body strength. But their son, despite inheriting their bulky muscular frame, was incredibly weak. It made no sense. He looked as if he could naturally lift things far past anyone his age could, but his looks were deceiving. And no amount of training resolved the fact that he seemed to be missing the superhuman strength his parents had.
And Hiroto had been heartbroken. He couldn’t have a weak son. His entire family was looking down on him because of it. And Hiroto knew that the world would too. This was simply unacceptable. He started researching ways to enhance his son’s quirk. But there was nothing, if not for a lack of trying. It had been attempted since quirks started appearing, but there were no success stories. There was, of course, the temporary drug: trigger. But that was short term. He needed something permanent.
In his search, he met a chemist who had been working toward the same goal and who claimed to have a good theory that needed some testing. And it started with quirkless DNA. Hiroto didn’t really understand the sciencey stuff that was explained to him, but this man was closer to a solution than him and his big words made enough sense to him. Hiroto had the money to fund this “experiment” so they joined forces.
Hiroto did not care that in order to do this they would have to kidnap and experiment on multiple children. It’s not like the quirkless were human in the first place. They were disgusting animals wearing human skin. They did not deserve the same rights normal people did. In fact, they should be glad that their efforts would help society move along. Hiroto did not see what they were doing as wrong because he wasn’t hurting people. How different was this from testing on lab rats? To him, there was no difference.
And when they needed quirked people to test their results on, of course, he choose those fucking mutants. They may have quirks but they were monsters. Just like the quirkless, they were the dregs of society that would one day hopefully be eliminated. And he would do his part in that. When they were successful, they would exterminate the ones they had collected. If the rest of the world knew what they were doing, surely they would agree. But he could only come out with it once he had results. His activities were technically illegal even if no one cared enough for the quirkless and mutants to even look for them.
He had built this organization from the ground up. He had gotten the warehouses, bought all the supplies, and gathered a group of people that cared about the cause. So what the hell was happening?
Their first location went down months ago. They had no idea what had happened. There was radio silence and when they went to check the place out, it was abandoned. His men were in jail, but the police report said they had arrived at the ‘criminals’ indisposed. His men weren’t criminals, their actions could hardly be counted as such. They had only harmed a few quirkless. And yet the police arrested them as if they had kidnapped actual children. Disgusting. Who had done this? Surely not a hero.
But nothing happened after that. And he was relieved. Sure they lost one testing site, but it wasn’t their main location and the cops had no idea what they had been doing. The operation was safe. They continued as usual.
He felt uneasy when the head at one of his locations did not respond to communications and was intending to check out the situation the next day. But he never got to.
That entire day he had felt unsettled. Like there was a predator lurking in the shadows waiting to tear him apart. He knew he was being paranoid. He was a predator himself, he would destroy whatever came for him. When he went to the primary warehouse that night, he checked to make sure everything was normal before sitting in his office to go over the reports. He had gotten halfway through when suddenly his door opened. He had been sure it was locked.
He froze in terror when he saw who had entered his office. Ash. He had heard enough stories to know he should be afraid to have the vigilante’s ire. Hopefully, he could talk him down. Surely once he heard Hiroto’s story and what he was trying to do, he would back down. He didn’t know that the kids they had kidnapped were subhuman. He was just trying to better society.
“You think your son will want his father in jail? You think he wants you to harm other children?”
‘Children,’ he had scoffed at that word and told the vigilante exactly how he felt about the so-called children they were harming. In fact, it should have earned him some sympathy and understanding. It did not. It earned him a fight. A fight he easily lost. Because strength won’t always win over cultivated skill. Something up until now, he did not believe.
He thought that his quirk meant he was unbeatable. Now he was beaten black and blue.
But what hurt him the most was what Ash whispered in his ear when he was on the ground. “Know that when you’re rotting in prison, a quirkless person put you there. And you’ll never get out, I have proof of the sick things you’ve done, besides this. You’re the one that doesn’t deserve to be called human. But if humans are like you, I’m glad I’m not considered one.” The whisper had been so quiet that he wondered if he had imagined it. But regardless if it was real or not, he knew that it would haunt him.
…
Izuku had learned long ago that humans were disgusting creatures. Human nature was full of pride, greed, envy, and other unsavory attributes. Human nature was cruel. And it was especially cruel to those who they did not consider human. And nowadays, your quirk status determines that.
His parents had tried to shield him from the world the best they could. They were the best people he had ever met. But their kindness did not stop them from being killed. Izuku believed that Endeavor saw those around him not as people, but as stepping stones. As annoying pebbles in his way of reaching his goals. His parents were born with the right to be human. But yet they were thrown away like they weren’t.
He had lost all illusions of the world they tried to build for him after they had died. There were already cracks in the mirror. The love at home had won over the hate from outside, but it had been a forever ongoing battle. And the love had been taken out by an outside force and ever since, he had been beaten down constantly because of his quirklessness.
He had been branded and experimented on because those people felt he was less than a person. That it didn’t matter that they were hurting him. Because his pain would be useful to them if they succeed. And if they had killed him, it wasn’t like he mattered. They reduced him to a thing rather than a person.
And you could only push so hard until one breaks. And Izuku had broken a long time ago. He had been broken before those fuckers kidnapped him. That incident had pushed him further than he thought was possible. And revisiting it and learning the reasoning behind it, consumed him with a wave of burning anger that would not extinguish. And so, he had become a beast. Somewhere along the way, he had practically forgotten what it was to be human. But he didn’t think it was much of a loss.