5: School Sucks!

 Age seven. School playground.

 You, Tenko, and a few other kids were playing around with his new quirk, all of you trying to catch the beach ball he was zipping around over your heads. 

 It was amazing. Tenko was probably having the most fun in his entire life getting to try out so many quirks. He only used this one quirk while at school, though, at home he was known as quirkless still. But when he visited you or even on free time when it was just the two of you, you'd give him a new quirk to try out. It was fun for you as well. Unlike with Touya, who you still aren't sure whether you helped or ruined his life, Tenko was an obvious improvement.

 But there was still something off. Things were just going too well for them to be true...

 "Shh! Guys! The principal is outside!!" One of the kids you were playing with shouted. Everyone spun to the path your father walked down. Tenko dropped the inflatable ball. An intimidating man your dad was, even from a distance. He used his shrinking quirk to make himself only about 6'4, an entire foot shorter. And his hair was dyed brown for the role as well.

 "Woahh, what's he doing out here?!"

 "Is he going to expel us!?"

 The tall man approached your friend group and stopped for just a moment before making his request. "(Y/n).. would you mind joining me for a chat? I would like to speak with you about something." He motioned for you to follow him under the shade of a nearby oak. You politely followed, promising your friends that it would be alright as you left them. They were a little unsettled, but continued playing as you sat down beside your father under the shade of a large tree on the same bench you had helped Tenko almost two years ago.

 No one knew the principal was secretly your dad, which you preferred. But.. they were probably freaking out, wondering what you had done wrong. You joined them somewhat in this worrying. Was it about your small business doing other kids' homework??

 "What is it, Daddy?"

 He didn't respond right away. Rather, he leaned his elbows on his knees, dark red eyes watching the children play with calm features.

 "...Did you give Tenko Shimura a quirk?"

 "Hm?!... I-- ...Yes." How did he know? You watched as your dad's face shifted to a thoughtful stare. His eyes trained tiredly on Tomura, who was laughing while teasing his friends with the ball.

 "You took his original quirk away from him, didn't you?"

 "Huh??" Again, "H-how did you know that?!"

 "Mind explaining why..?" He didn't even look over at, or acknowledge you in the slightest. Your eyes landed on your friend as well. You sighed.

 "His quirk was making him scratch himself! I didn't want him to be hurt like that! I can just keep his quirk dormant, so it won't hurt me!"

 "Mm.... You have a big heart, (Y/n)... I'll hand you that." Again, silence followed. The tension between you was intense. More so than it had ever been before. You didn't like this. You wanted him to continue being your happy father who was always so proud of you. Not this.. this disappointment looming over you--

 Wait a minute... Though he hid it very well, your dad was disappointed, wasn't he?! But then why??

 Did he... Did he give Tenko the "Decay" quirk? It..made sense now that you thought about it. It answered how he would so quickly recognize what you had done.

 A deep, agonizing feeling settled into the base of your heart, weighing you down by a thousand pounds.

 If your father deliberately gave Tenko that quirk, then... His plan all along was for your friend to one day snap and kill his whole family, wasn't it..?

 The sickening sensation pounded at your stomach.

 Of course... This man was the main villain. A vile, malicious manipulator at his core. A man you hated to love. That part never left him. He still needed to be changed, perhaps even more than the other up-and-coming villains.

 But how?

 "Do you...want me to give it back??"

 "No, no need." Your dad sighed picking his upper body up and leaning against the back of the bench. You sighed internally, relieved by that. "You don't happen to be sharing quirks between the two of you, right?" Your eyes widened.

 "Uh-uh-uhm..maybe?"

 "Hhhh... I thought so.."

 "How??"

 "Look at the way he carries himself." Pointing at Tenko. You turned your attention to him as well to see what he meant. "He holds himself with such fragility. So was the posture of my younger brother when I used to play heroes and villain, using actual quirks, with him... Have I ever told you about him?"

 You shook your head frantically. You knew about him from the show already, but had no memories of your dad directly telling you. The man scratched the side of his chin, reminiscing for a moment.

 "I had a younger brother. Like many kids at the time, he was quirkless. But because he wanted to play with me so badly, I would give him quirks so that he could join in my play... This went on for many years. It hadn't registered that I was inadvertently hurting him until he fainted right in front of me one day. ...That was when I finally realized something... You and I. Our bodies are made differently, (Y/n). Because of our quirk's capacity to hold so many meta abilities, our bodies are hardwired with the capability to handle that extreme amount of raw pressure... Our quirk also gives us the wonderful ability to disarm as many abilities as we like, making them no burden to us while dormant. The average person, however...is not quite as adaptable. In fact, flood one's body with too many quirks and it can easily destroy them... I know you do not want to hurt your friend, just as much as I wish I hadn't hurt my brother.. but quirks come at a cost."

 "I was the reason my brother was so weak and later died... That is a burden I wouldn't wish for you to have to carry with me. ...Understand?" You dropped your gaze to the gravel pathway below.

 ...Yet he cared enough to warn you..? For what reason? Just so you wouldn't suffer the same way he did?

 He suffered? Did he have remorse for his actions? At times, he hinted the case was so. There were times when you would wake up late at night for a glass of water or to go to the bathroom and your father was awake, staring his own reflection down with an intensity you couldn't ever build up the courage to break him from. There were also times when he would be talking and then just, suddenly..look away. He'd stare out a window, or even at a blank wall with the most distant stare. Was this his remorse?

 ...Was there a chance that you could turn him into a good guy, or at the very least not a bad one?

 "(Y/n)?.." The principal looked down at you curiously. Your big eyes were full of fresh tears.

 So many troubling things to think about. Would Tenko be alright? Was your dad really capable of changing?

 Were you strong enough to fix this?

 "...Hm... It is alright, my dear... No need to mourn for me, nor my brother." One of his hands gently rubbed your back in slow circles. "We all make mistakes from time to time. The most important thing you can do is to learn from mine... Now, rejoin your friends. Tell Tenko later about how quirks work and ensure that you quit those kinds of games."

 "Thank you... Oh- Daddy?!"

 "Hm?"

 "If I... If I take away someone's quirk..then give it back...does that hurt them too?"

 The man slid his hand away from your back and smiled warmly upon you. "What a brilliant question... No, because that body was built for sustaining their birth quirk, with only a few being the exception, you can take and give it all you want. It will not harm them."

 You smiled up at him, squinting your eyes closed. It was so nice to be able to talk with someone so openly about all of this! Having to learn every small detail about quirks on your own just sounds like a pain!

 "Thank youu! Seeya!" You hopped down from your little bench, your dad chuckling softly as you ran off to rejoin your friends.

 The crimson-eyed man watched with amusement as you began to play with everybody, still pretending to be the quirkless nobody. "At this rate... That girl is going to grow up stronger than me." He grinned.

 He was counting on it.

----------

 Dang... School really does suck sometimes. Elementary school by far being the hardest, most boring hours of your life. It was a little helpful at first, getting to learn how to read and spell in Japanese, but once everyone started to learn the basics of math, science, etc, you just groaned and rolled your eyes.

 You made a business out of doing people's homework, wracking in cash by the thousands of Yen per day. All in secrecy, of course. Even your own parents couldn't know you were this smart! So you stashed away all your extra cash in an empty suitcase that would probably never be used, along with a checking book to help keep track of your income. By age ten, your suitcase held an average of 800 thousand yen. ($5k) That's from doing 15-18 kids' homework every day for five years, 100 yen per customer. So you were making BANK off of these children! Not spending a cent of it either! And the bonuses came in when you were asked to write essays for them too. You had a few close calls in the past with teachers, but you kids were sneaky.

 And of course, your dad, acting as the school principal -- shortening quirk and dyed brown hair -- was always impressed with you for getting such decent grades.

 Ugh.. couldn't wait for the nightmare that was high school...when everyone suddenly realized how much of a delinquent you actually are by struggling so much to catch up. You...didn't have very high hopes for that upcoming season in your life.

 Oh well. For now, you had middle school to worry about. Still two years away, but that was too close too soon. And you really didn't want to waste your time getting involved in hormonal-driven drama when you could instead be plotting and preparing for more rescues.

 Of course... This wouldn't even be a problem.. if only you had the right quirk~

 Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

----------

Google search: villain "Twice"

[no results found]

Google search: recent robberies by army of clones

 Aha! You, age ten now, scratched your chin while viewing the computer. Now, your mom granted you much more time online as long as you got your homework done, so you gladly used this open window opportunity to track down your "victims."

 Twice was a rare case. You remembered from the anime how much of a softie he was, but weren't sure how he would react to you. Unlike the others, he was a full-grown adult by now, just entering his early twenties! So he wouldn't be as easy to coerce as Touya or Tenko. Add in the fact that not even the police could track down this guy...and you had quite the challenge set ahead of you.

 He had just begun his career as a villain, however, meaning he was bound to get sloppy and make a mistake at some point or another. You just had to look out for when and how...

 Found it.

 After four months of tracking this guy through news articles and police reports, you discovered a pattern. Though Twice tried to be sneaky, every place he robbed circled around in big rings. The ring moved as well, meaning he was constantly switching up bases. But, from this you could project where he might camp out next.

 You searched for especially cheap apartments within the district you had predicted he might find himself in. And, thanks to a few previous police reports leaking some info on the same case, were able to track down the guy.

 Because unlike the police, you knew the target's real name. Jin Bubaigawara. You knew his face pretty well too. The basics, at least. It had been ten years since you'd seen the show now, so, faces were starting to get a little fuzzy.

 As for how you'd get close to him. Well... That would take a little bit of creativity.

----------

 "AAA!" Bungeeing off of the balcony above his definitely wasn't your first plan.

Snap!

 You shrieked again as one of the stretchy ropes snapped, leaving you hanging by only your right ankle. By balcony, it was more like a window with some railing around it. Again, very cheap apartment. Cardboard boarded up the windows from the inside, so you hoped screaming and banging on the glass was enough to get his attention. You'd been snooping around here for a while now, since your parents thought you were on a field trip and your teacher thought you were sick, so you'd seen the man and his many clones entering already. "Beh!..." You gave up for a minute, just hanging there to recover. "Grrr! Knock knock, b####!!!" After a while longer if knocking and screeching like a wild animal, a muffled voice sounded from inside.

 "Hold up I think it's.... You're right, there's someone... We shouldn't.... But what if they.... Oh for crying out loud, I'll do it!" After that last shout, the cardboard was torn away and a blond man revealed behind it. He and the half a dozen behind him shrieked at the sight, all racing one another to reach the windows and open it first. "What the h### are you doing out here, kid?!" "Language!" "Shouldn't we be trying to get her down already?! Ask questions later!" "Right, right." You couldn't help but chuckle at their banter.

 A couple pairs of hands helped each other to cut your ankle free and pull you inside. Once in, you were welcomed by the army of clones and open stashes of money piled around the place at random!

 "Awwe! She's so cute! Can we keep her?!" The one sitting on his knees in front of you exclaimed. Another standing on one knee promptly slapped the back of his head. "Not unless you want to get arrested!" "Where are your parents, kid?" "Oh, and don't mind the money lying around. We got it from our completely honorable job!" "Oh- and we're all identical brothers, by the way!"

 "Yeah!"

 "Yeah!"

 "Yeah!"

 "Yeah!"

 "Yeah!" They shouted in unison, displaying a large array of over-expressive poses. A funny sight to behold. You laughed, falling onto your back on the floor.

 Two problems spun through your mind now as you laughed. First, in order to take this guy's quirk, you'd have to know which one was the real him!

 Second, you didn't really want to just snatch the only company this guy had and dip!

 Hmmm... Clearly, this would require much more time to resolve.

 "Hey! What's so funny?!" "Yeah!! Why are you laughing?!"

 "I saw you guys on the news. You robbed a bank yesterday, didn't you?!" Sitting up, you took the bold, narrow route. All of the Jins jumped back with terrified looks.

 "L-l-listen, kid, don't you go around telling nobody!" "Yeah!! Tell on us and we'll slit your-- ...too far?" "Yeah, man." "W-well, don't you go around telling nobody!"

 "He-here!" One of them dropped a pile of cash into your lap. "You can have all that as long as you keep this a secret, alright?!" "We'll take it all back if you betray us!!" "MHM!!"

 You stared down at all the cash with wonder-filled eyes. But then, sighing, you pushed it all aside.

 "No... I already make a lot of money..." You pouted.

 "What?!" "No way!" "How?!" "Stupid rich brat! How are we supposed to bribe her now?!"

 "It isn't very hard, actually." Lifting your head to have a turn making eye contact with all of them individually. "I have been doing everybody's homework for years now! 100 yen a day, per person! Now, I have over 800k yen just from that!" You revealed with pride.

 "NO WAY!" "WAIT WHAT?!" "YOU'RE TEN, RIGHT?!" "She must have a high IQ quirk or something!" "Luckyyy!"

 "Why?? Do you need help with your homework?"

 "Nope!" "Nah!" "We're adults!" "Well actually, I dropped out of school so maybe I do need help." "Especially with math!"

 "Hmhm.." chuckling cutely, "Maybe I can help you!.. To be honest, though, all I really want is a friend." Was this said intentionally to pull at specifically his heartstrings? Yes. Did that make the statement a lie? Sadly, no.

 In truth, despite having Tenko at your side, it was really hard to connect on an emotional level with kids your age. All of their thoughts, dreams, and ideas were just so childish to someone who had already lived and died through to adulthood. But your mother was too overbearing to allow you to even talk to any adults besides her and your dad. So, you were left feeling empty in some way. Craving a genuine friendship with someone maturity-wise closer to your level.

 Doing the math... You would be 28 right now if you hadn't died! Heh... What a funny thought...

 It would certainly be hard. But, maybe you could both take his quirk and become great friends with this guy! 

 "You know... I won't tell anybody about your stealing..as long as you agree to be my bestest friend!" Standing up, you opened your arms wide to emphasize your childlike excitement.

 All the Jins' eyes teared up a little as they stared at you with such care.

 "Of course, kid..." "Wait, but first, where are your parents?! We're not going to get arrested for being around you, are we?!"

 You and the Twices all talked on your way back to your school, you guiding the way. You'd used public transit to reach them before, but the drive back in their busted-up truck was alright too.

 "Dang, you wandered pretty far away from school!" The driver remarked as at last you came up on the last turn.

 "I thought I was going to run away for good..but then decided to go back! Because you guys can be my after-school friends!"

 "You bet'cha!" "Wait, so you ran away without packing first?!" "For a super smart kid, you aren't very smart."

 You giggled. "Yeah.. I'm more smart about making money than anything else..." Says the one who previously held three jobs and two half jobs.

 "Hey, that's a good kind of smart!" "Much better than us!" "I wish I could start a business! Sounds like fun!" "You make it sound so easy!"

 "It is easy!" You laughed. "You just need to look for something everybody else needs. Something only you can provide!.. I can help you!! We can start a business together! All of you..and me! You just need to tell me what you want your business to be about!"

 "Sounds awesome!" "I actually kind of like this idea." "Meh, too hard." "But then what else are we supposed to do with our free time!" "Sounds like fun!" "Us and a kid, huh?? This definitely won't go terribly wrong!"

 It was decided as the Jins dropped you back off at school. You would visit them in a week. Hopefully, by then they would have an idea of what they wanted to do.

 And from there, you'd help them achieve that goal!

 On your walk back home from school, never having even stepped foot into the building, a revelation dawned upon you like the turning on of a lightbulb.

 Oh! Twice could make clones of other people too, couldn't he?!.. So, you didn't even need his quirk to skip school! You could just ask him to make a clone of you!

 Score! Guess you hit those two birds with one stone after all! Except for the first time, there was no downside in sight!

 A new friend. A potential business you might be able to make money off of in the future. And of course, most crucially of them all, a quick and easy way out of boring school life.