Chapter Text
-Chapter 1-
‘Damn, just another day in paradise’ I groaned as I rolled out of bed, listening to my drunken Mother’s snores next door as I got dressed as quietly as I could, not wanting to be hit anymore than I already dealt with the night before. Hi there, my name is Batsu Ikigai, which translates to ‘punishment of my life’, as my mother views me as a punishment towards her for having to quit her modeling career and apparently having ruined her entire life. She blames me for having caused my father, whoever he is, to have no longer wanted to stay with her. Any mishap that happens in her life, my mother will blame me for, and I can’t do anything but accept her rage.
My mother’s quirks is to materialize objects that she has held before and be able to destroy them like they were never there, so she could commit a crime with something she made, and the officers would never find the weapon that she had used for it, along with being able to command people to do things with one word. She, along with being a model, had been known as a hidden villain by the name of “Slicer” due to the fact that she would mutilate her victims and end up carving an ‘S’ above the body in a zigzag style.
I grew up seeing her come home with blood covering her from head to toe right after she would kill someone, and then she would get piss drunk and either whine about her life problems or beat me till I could barely walk the next day. I would go to school covered in bruises and have some broken bones but no teacher would ask any questions due the fact that most would assume that I am quirkless and treat me terribly. Students and teachers alike would try and make me miserable, as I kept my quirks hidden. I had my mom’s quirks of materializing anything I have touched and commanding along with, what I assume was part of my father’s quirk, where anyone I touch, whether it be with something I made or my bare hands, I could erase their quirk till I verbally or mentally said ‘return’.
Now that I have gotten out of my mother’s house and hearing range, I began my run to my school, Aldera Junior High, meeting up with my only friend Midoriya Izuku, who stopped in front of a commotion that was happening with a villain and a new female hero who was waving to the paparazzi after the villain had been knocked out and was being dealt with by the police.
“Iki-chan, we need to get going to school! We are going to be late!” Midoriya yelled, seeing me running at him and realizing the time. I nodded at him and picked up my pace, picking him up on my way by and putting him on my back like we routinely do, knowing that I could run faster than him due to working out everyday right after school and in the evenings when I can’t sleep or my mother isn't home. Within 7 minutes, I skidded to a stop in front of our classroom, placed him down and walked into the room with my head down and arms in my pants pockets, not having to follow the school dress code due to the fact that the school doesn’t know my gender and can’t tell due to my turtle-neck shirts being connected to masks and my body is pretty flat but is also defined, so they let me do whatever and just put on the records that I am a troublemaker and cause more issues than they know what to do with, so they leave me be.
When we get into the class, the teacher starts to talk about what we plan to do for the future, throwing the application papers into the air when claiming that everyone would want to become heroes, even though the hero process was a really fucked up one and someone would have a better opportunity on becoming a EMT or officer than a hero due to the publicity, good or bad, that comes with heroing. The only reason I even consider doing anything Hero related is because Midoriya is my only friend and I defend him from people trying to harm him.
“Hey Teach, don’t lump me in with this bunch of losers. I am the real deal, but these guys’ll be lucky to end up as sidekicks to some D-listers.” Bakugou Katsuki gloated, only to catch my eye and turn his head downward, knowing that I am the only person in the room who is able to whoop his ass into the next year and have no marks left on me.
“You have impressive test results. 2nd in the class only to Ikigai, maybe you both will get into UA High.” the teacher huffed, side-eying me sitting silent in the back row right behind Midoriya. Having said that, it set off a bunch of the students in staring at me and Bakugou as they were in disbelief at the fact that we would try for the highest school in the nation.
“I aced all of the mock tests. I’m the only one in this school who stands a chance at getting into a school that is that good.” Bakugo proudly stated, jumping onto his desk, only to be tripped by me tossing a pencil under his shoe, causing him to slip. “Make that me and Ikigai-san as the only two.” Bakugou groaned, standing himself back up as he growled back towards me, only to receive a tilt of my head and a raised eyebrow in response.
“Oh ya, Midoriya, don’t you want to go to UA too?” the teacher inquired, looking at the school sheets. That announcement made Bakugou freeze and the whole class began laughing, only for me to stand, causing my seat to squeak as it moved back forcefully. The sound and sight made the whole class go silent, knowing that I would make them be quiet if they didn’t go quiet themselves. Bakugo was about to try and lunge at Midoriya to use his quirk on him, only for me to reach my hand out like I was about to grab the pomeranian's head like a basketball, stopping him in his tracks, as the last time I had touched him, he had ended up out the window with a swipe of my hand, glass in his hair and skin for nearly 3 days.
“You really think they will let a quirkless reject like you in, when they could have me?” Bakugo yelled, tilting his head around me to look at my friend.
“No! Y-you’ve got it all wrong! Really! I’m not trying to compete against you. You gotta believe me!” Midoriya panicked, backing himself up into the back of the classroom to put space between him and Bakugo, even though he knew that I wouldn’t allow the blond to get past me.
I set my hand on the desk beside me and tapped my finger three times, causing Bakugou to growl but sit back down in his seat as I lowered my eyes to his level, being taller than the average middle schooler by nearly half a foot. With all the commotion done, we all returned to our seats till the bell rang, none of the students wanting to invoke my wrath, as I tend to make people end up in hospitals. Once the bell rang, I stood and waited by the door for Midoriya, watching as Bakugou and his buddies made fun of my friend’s notebook and nearly ruined it, but didn’t entirely due to a knock I did on the doorframe that made the trio scamper away.
I made a nod out the door towards Midoriya, letting him know that we needed to head out, and he quickly got his things together and walked out with me towards our intersection where we normally part ways, him having to go through a tunnel to get home and I have to head towards the south side of the city where people who were poor or villains in hiding would live. I went through alleyways and shady buildings that looked to be on their last legs, when I came up to a door on the side of a building that, when opened, lead down some stairs and into a large room with screaming/cheering people, the sound of fists hitting bone, and bodies being slammed to the ground.
At the sight of my frame approaching the ring in the middle, the people crowding the ring parted and went quiet, eyes going wide as I got to the front of the crowd and watched the two mutant quirked men pummel each other till one went unconscious and over the edge of the ring near where I stood. The man left in the ring watched where the unconscious one fell and caught sight of me, the scowl that had been previously on his face lighting up immediately as he bound over to me like a puppy greeting his master.
“Gai-chii! You are here! Did you see me? Did you see that man give up? Is he dead? Please tell me I killed him! Ohhhhhh, the feeling of his cheekbone going in and the blood covering my hand was soooo exhilarating-” the large fighter was about to continue his joyful rant, only to see my hand raise from my pocket and go near his face, my palm nearing his nose and top of my middle finger reaching his hairline, the entirety of my hand covering his face. He closed his eyes in acceptance and whined when I moved my hand off him and began to walk towards a door near the entrance where I came from, entering an office with a locker next to a desk that was covered in paperwork and smears of blood around the room walls.
“Gai-chii, you should give me a heads up before you come! I would’ve cleaned if I knew I was gonna see you!” The man, also known as Crane in the villain world, whined as he followed me to his office as I got my wraps out from the locker and began to wrap my hands like a fighter would. As soon as I finished, I took off my jacket and pants that I was wearing, showing that I was wearing spandex under the pants and a binder under my jacket. The sight of my most recent bruises made the Bird quirked male snarl and move closer to me to get a better look, only to freeze as I flashed my blood red eyes at him, my quirk coming and going as I finished my preparations to fight and turned towards the burly man.
Crane quickly got out of my way, backing out of the office and making way for me to go straight to the stage where my first opponent stood nervously. By the end of the evening, I had beaten about 30 people and nearly 13 of them had been rushed out by their buddies to the nearest hospital and now people were trying to fight me in groups of 3 to 4, seeing that they would not be able to beat me on their own.
It seems that the amount of people being forced to go to the hospital caught some heroes' attention, as someone came banging on the door up the stairs, knocking the door and the wall around the frame down. Quickly, I threw the nearest fighter near me towards the staircase entrance just as the heroes got down the stairs, and I made my escape, Crane and a few of the other usuals right behind me. I grabbed all my clothes from the office as I ran by and jumped into the nearest shoot, the tube taking me down and around the block, destroying itself as I went through it to avoid letting the people chasing me to follow. When I came out on the other end in an abandoned building, I went to where the next nearest entrance for the furthest shoot was.
As I got closer to where I knew Crane had come out of, I found the burly man fighting a dark clothed, scarved hero. While the villain was putting up a good fight, I knew that he stood no chance at beating, or even escaping, this hero, as his quirk seemed to not be working. Reacting quickly, I lunged at my friend and tackled him away from the hero, making sure that I had my face fully covered and hair pulled back, not wanting to be hunted later by any heroes.
“What are you doing? That is a villain you are protecting!” the scarved hero growled, sending out his scarf in an attempt to try and catch us, but I grabbed ahold of his weapon and swung him around, away from the area I had just come from, knowing that as long as I had access in that direction, I could get us to escape without any casualties.
“Let’s go, it’s getting late.” Crane growled, already beginning to run in the direction I had made free. I nodded and dropped the weapon as I began to follow my friend, avoiding the hero as he came after us. Towards the end of the alley, I changed my pace, signaling that I was parting ways with him, to which Crane nodded, and I scaled the nearest wall, getting to the top of the 3-story building with ease and running across the buildings in the general direction of where my mother’s apartment complex was.
When I got to the apartment, I immediately went to my room and went to sleep, knowing that if my mother was going to beat me, she would wake me up later. By the next morning, my mother seemed to have drunk so much that when I awoke, I found her to be drowned in her own vomit and no longer having a pulse, the sight making me smile in relief of no longer having to deal with her abusive tendencies. Knowing that the police would be going to find her body at one point or another, I went over to the nearest gas station and asked them to call the police to send them to my mother’s apartment while I made my way out of the area so that they could deal with the “crime” scene and I made my escape from the run down house to find a different place to live at.
It wasn’t long after the cashier made the call did I hear the police sirens coming as I grabbed my last item of clothing and necessity before I jumped out the window, the only sign of me having lived there before being a note I left behind for the police to read on information all about my mother’s criminal life and how I was refusing to talk to them in person due to my past experiences with people in uniforms.