Living With Crazy

[Several years later]

"Eat it!" A man's voice demanded angrily to the child in front of him as I resisted his attempts to shovel food into my jaw.

"Eat the goddamn food!" He shouted in a fit of rage as I continued to evade his spoonful of baby food with a rebellious face.

"No!" I shouted childishly, attempting to test the limits of the man's willingness not to damage me.

'If I could throw you into oncoming traffic, I would!' He thought to himself in an angered tone as he gave up, dropping the spoon on the ground and walking back to the small TV as I sighed in relief.

Sighing at the easily angered man, I crawled off of the sofa, pulling the pseudo-bib off my neck as I wandered away from the drinker.

I waddled along the scratchy floor until I exited from view and leaned against a wall in a dark corner, sighing tiredly as I delved into my thoughts.

'No way in hell I'm eating that knock-off shit you bought with crack...' I thought to myself in irritation as I shuffled through the numerous events of the past few years within my mind.

First off, living with this guy wasn't nearly as horrendous as I'd assumed it to be.

Don't get me wrong, I was still cautious with the guy but I was too valuable to him to be simply discarded or harmed. So my safety was essentially guaranteed.

And not to mention how he and the person who he initially spoke to on the phone were pretending to "care" and be "parental figures" to me.

It was quite a bit creepy when you thought about how they were essentially manipulating a child into growing up with affection for them and loving them as parents-- At least, that's how that would be from an outside perspective.

Of course, I knew what they actually thought of me so I wasn't at all tricked by the "love" shown for me.

In regard to those two folks who cared for me, the man, Bunta is his name, essentially had no clue about how to take care of a child and relied heavily on the other person's aid.

The other person in question being a woman by the name of Sayo who helped with the majority of the whole "taking care of me" thing. She was probably the only reason that I'm still alive right now.

If not for her shovelling food down my throat and keeping my infant body healthy, that useless dude watching sports for a living would probably have killed me. Accidentally.

Though, I assume that the only reason she was doing this was because she would be getting some kind of share from the money given to Bunta.

However, aside from all that, I have to say that I have learned quite a bit about this new world in which I have found myself in.

For example, apparently, there existed the concept of "heroes" and "villains" which consisted almost entirely of superpowered individuals who have been described as having either good or evil intentions with their powers.

Heroes go to schools, sign with agencies, and register with the government in order to save people. And villains are just people with powers wanting to do bad things.

There are also vigilantes who are not registered by law and break the rules in order to enact their own version of justice. Usually involving death.

How true this description of them is, is up to debate. But as far as I'm concerned and from what I've seen of all of these groups, they seem to be true.

These villains tend to do things typical bad guys usually do, even in my old world, just on a more extreme scale. Y'know powers and all.

Whereas, the superheroes act like celebrity-like symbols of heroism that combat the villains, protect the people and raise the next generation of heroes.

As far as what happens to vigilantes, I don't really know. That kind of information isn't really public knowledge.

Suspicious, but I suppose I'm not entirely accustomed to the laws of this world so I shouldn't make assumptions based on unfounded biases.

And, back to the main subject, it would seem that there was a distinctly prevelant ranking system for all these heroes. Kind of like a video game leaderboard.

I don't know too much about the classification system, but I do know that the heroes above #10 were incredibly powerful.

Like, it was almost absurd the stories that I heard about their strength feats. Apparently, one of them had launched an entire fleet of superpowered villains into the fucking air.

Jesus Christ, I wanna see how one of them faces a bomb... Actually, no bombs... No more bombs... Bombs aren't cool...

Fuck bombs.

Overall, I have learned a lot of things about this world including the fact that these "quirks" awakened within children at the age of four. However, the discoveries mentioned are just the most relevant of what I've learned.

And I have to say... the mere concept of a world like this existing incited a deep feeling of excitement within me.

It was simply fascinating to think about something like that.

"Hey, Riku, where are you?" A feminine voice called out nervously as I groaned internally and stumbled into the light.

"Hi, Sayo!" I greeted in a child-like voice as the woman sighed in relief and picked me up.

This woman was almost entirely too worried about me all the time. Not for my own safety but rather because she didn't want all of the effort they put into raising me to go to waste and lose their money by proxy.

Speaking of raising me, it has been quite a bit of time since I was reborn into this world and, from a brief check-up on the current date and the assumed date of my birth, I'm about 4 years of age.

So I should have gained my quirk sometime ago. Which I haven't.

However, I wasn't all too worried since there were numerous recorded cases of late quirk awakenings according to what Sayo told me after checking in with the doctor.

So I probably have around a 3-4 year window before I have to start worrying about my quirk and my fate.

If my quirk didn't awaken sometime within the next 2-3 years however, I was going to have to plan an immediate escape. My own anxiety won't let me stay still when my entire life depends on the awakening of my quirk.

But, again, worrying is pointless if I can't do anything about it. So I'll just go through the motions until the time to worry arrives.

"Riku, you were worrying me. You shouldn't wander away when I'm not here," She reprimanded in a deceptively gentle way as I internally gained a sly grin.

"But Bunta was being scary..." I muttered sadly, hiding my smile as her frustrated gaze turned to Bunta.

Oh yeah, it would also seem that the pair were pretty open with me not being biologically theirs. Hence my use of their actual names.

Honestly, it was a pretty good plan. If I was a normal kid, I would probably be more trustful of them for being "honest" in the fact that I wasn't their biological child.

Rather than discovering it later and having an epic and dramatic argument.

She plugged my ears, "What the fuck, Bunta? You can't be scaring him! We can't risk him not trusting us!" She reprimanded through gritted teeth before letting me hear again as she turned to face me.

She didn't speak for a bit, seeming as though she was pondering something heavily before sighing and speaking.

"Listen, Riku, I think it's about time we let you play outside..." She spoke confidently with a smile as I gained a surprised look.

The man sitting in front of the TV turned his head sharply towards the woman, staring angrily for a second as the woman shook off his gaze.

"Really?" I questioned doubtfully as the woman nodded and set me back onto the ground.

"Really. It's good for you to make friends and play around!" She spoke cheerfully, signalling Bunta to stand up as she walked towards the door.

'What's she planning now?' He muttered within his mind, standing next to Sayo as I walked up to the pair.

"Come on, let's go, let's go!" I shouted gleefully, a bit of my real excitement leaking through.

Sayo pushed open the door, letting me walk outside for the first time in forever as the two adults walked outside behind me.

The moment I stepped outside, the pleasing scent of summer hit my nose, the warm winds wrapped around my body in a calming embrace, and I felt free again...

Well, not really.

It really was not a pleasant experience.

The moment I stepped outside, the scent of burnt rubbish and filth hit my nose, the icky air wrapped around my body, and I instantly felt three times sicker and claustrophobic.

And the environment surrounding me, the one I could visually observe, looked ridden with filth, held a drab, almost depressing, atmosphere and felt like I had just wandered into Gotham City.

It felt absolutely horrid to be standing in this hellhole but felt all too familiar at the same time.

'This feels like the slums in my old world,' I thought to myself in realization, not hearing the conversation going on between the adults behind me.

"He's supposed to be kept healthy. He looks pale as hell, he needs to be outside. It might also help with the awakening of his quirk," Sayo whispered to the man next to her as Bunta groaned and turned away.

"Alright, fine, just let me watch TV dammit. I took care of him last week, now it's your turn," He spoke with a tone of annoyance, closing the door behind him as Sayo shook her head.

She turned back to me who was observing this strange environment with a look of deja vu on my face and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of my own thoughts.

"What do you say about going to the park?" She inquired curiously as I gave her a nod and she responded in kind.

Sighing under her breath, she began leading us forward through the drab streets for quite a while.

Along the way, I noticed many strange things that didn't seem all too pleasant to the eyes, including, but not limited to, a weirdly advanced body pillow hanging on a clothes rack.

There were also very depressed-looking people laying on the streets with vacant expressions as though waiting for nothing but the day of their deaths.

However, before I could observe too deeply about the people here, the filthy atmosphere seemed to dwindle away as we entered a different area of the city.

This part of the city seemed much cleaner and held a much more pleasant atmosphere of joy and hope, a stark contrast to the bleakness of my home area.

"Here we are, Riku. Why don't you go play? I'll be on the bench if you need me," She gestured toward the playground as she sat on a nearby bench.

To be honest, despite my excitement at being able to walk around outside, I still didn't really know what exactly I planned to do.

'I suppose I should just enjoy my freedom for a while. Who knows how long it'll last...' I thought to myself as I walked forward only to stop when I noticed an animal dash by.

A smile unknowingly crossed my face.

'I guess I found what to do now,' I thought with a face of slight excitement as I walked over to where the animal had wandered.

I always held a distinct interest in the animal kingdom due to my field of study and it would be interesting to see the differences between animals here and in my world.

After walking for a bit around the exterior of the tree line, I finally spotted what looked to be an injured porcupine-looking thing laying in a mass of leaves.

Curiously enough, it looked to have received some sort of bite in its side.

Which wasn't strange in and of itself but, judging by the bite mark, the attacker was a canine. Not a dog, maybe a wolf. Something that shouldn't be so far into the city.

Weird, but for now I needed to see if this little guy could be saved.

"Hey, you're alright..." I muttered gently and got a closer look at the wound before wincing at the sight, "Actually, you're pretty screwed."

My hand was hovering near the wound as I spoke, completely unaware of the increasingly agitated creature.

However, I was instantly made aware of its irritation when it bit my finger tightly and I reared back in pain.

"Yowchy!" I hissed in a pained voice, the porcupine spasming for a moment before falling on its side as I gazed distastefully at the now-dead animal.

"Don't just bite me and then die all of a sudden...!" I muttered irritatedly as I sighed at the limp animal and walked away with annoyed mutters.

As I walked back towards the playground and within the sight of Sayo, I failed to notice the increasing spasming of the dead animal.

"I'll just play on the swings for now," I hummed to myself, remaining blissfully unaware as a large, lumbering figure vanished into the shadows of the setting sun.

And, like that, time passed. Many minutes passed with me just mindlessly swinging back and forth.

Before I knew it, an hour of me just enjoying myself had gone by and Sayo decided to end this trip.

"Hey, Riku, let's head home now!" Sayo called out suddenly from her seat on the bench as I sighed to myself before getting off the swing set.

I blew a kiss toward the beautiful sun in a heartbreaking divorce as I grabbed Sayo's hand and said goodbye to my freedom for quite a while.

"Come, Riku, let's go," Sayo spoke in a dry tone as the both of us walked down the street and back home.