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comicgeekscomicgeek · 5 years

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Their Hero Academia -- Chapter 23: Takiyo Aoyama Tries to Shine

The raw, unedited next chapter of my on-going, next gen, My Hero Academia fan fic.

All prior chapters can be found here

Takiyo is four years old and supposedly will have a Quirk. His parents have had him tested and he lacks the extra two gene and otherwise tests positive for having one. But so far, they’ve been unable to find out what it is or make it manifest. His father can project a thin, harmless beam of light from his index fingers, like a laser pointer. And his mother glows, ever so slightly. But no one can yet figure out what it is his does.

And then, there’s a day when he’s playing with his father. Nothing fancy, just playing ball in the yard while his mother hangs laundry. He misses a catch and loses the ball in the grass, but his father sees it, lighting it up with the light beam from his fingers to show him where it is. Takiyo grabs for the ball, inadvertently putting his hand in the beam. And that is when his Quirk decides to come in. Like a man dying of thirst encountering water for the first time, his Quirk starts greedily sucking up his father’s light beam. Takiyo starts glowing, brighter and brighter, and he can’t break away; his father is unable to turn off his beam, both of them locked together as he absorbs the light.

Their worried cries attract his mother, who throws her arms around him and tries to pull him away. But his Quirk is a greedy one, and it starts sucking up her light too. Only now he’s beginning to hurt, feeling like he’s burning up inside. He desperately cries for help, for his parents to make it better, but they can’t. They can’t break contact, they’re just as scared, if not more so, than he is.

And even the sunshine is beginning to make him feel funny now, tingling on his exposed skin more than it ever has. He can feel his little body just drinking it up.

It’s too much for him. All of that light he’s absorbed has to go somewhere. And in his case, it goes everywhere. It erupts from his body like a beacon, blasting up high into the sky. He’d never know it, but official reports would say that the flare could be seen for miles.

***

Takiyo awoke to darkness, as he always did. The accommodations of his dorm rooms were built to a very exacting standard. The glass doors of the sliders could be turned completely opaque and heavy blackout curtains slid over them to keep even the smallest vestige of light from the cracks from slipping in. The door sealed similarly, blocking out everything from the hallway. His alarm clock displayed no illuminated numbers; those could only be turned on through a manual switch.

Everything that could be done to prevent him from absorbing any light had. It would prevent him from absorbing too much overnight and hurting himself… or others.

He groped for his bedside table as he slid out of bed, finding the small remote there and pressed the single button on it once, turning on the lights. His pajamas covered much, but still left his face, hands, and feet exposed. It was really just enough light to see by. Even then, he felt the tingle across his skin as soon as the light came on. Just from that little bit of light alone, he could see the blue-white glow starting to emerge from within him.

It had been this way since his Quirk had come in. The belt and bracelets he wore helped to control it somewhat, gave him better means of directing the light he absorbed, but the fact remained that his Quirk was, by and large, very much out of his control.

It took him the better part of an hour to get ready for the day. Even with no classes, it would not do to look anything less than perfect. There were standards to uphold, after all. And it would be a crime to deprive the world of his face. One of many reasons why he didn’t wear a mask to hide his features and block out the light.

As Papa said, “When you shine, mon fils, the world must always be allowed to see.”

Dark pants, a long-sleeved white shirt buttoned all the way up, matte-black boots (fashion nominally dictated they be polished and shine, but some sacrifices had to be made for his well-being) made up his outfit for the day, to which he added his bracelets and belt. As soon as he clipped them on, he could feel the intensity of the light within him subside slightly.

His room was tastefully decorated, the latest in interior decorating from France. Light colors, mirrors, the dark wood of his furniture looking quite sharp. He took a moment and drew in a breath, before pointing at the far wall. He let out a beam of light from his fingers, like a powerful halogen lamp. And he kept it up for several long seconds, feeling the light leaving his body.

It gave him an empty, hungry feeling. It always did when he was low on light. His body craved it as much as it craved food or water. The eight hours of beauty sleep he got a night were about just as long as he could safely do. But the empty feeling was immediately replaced by the feeling of sucking light in. What little illumination his ceiling light provided was better than nothing at all to his Quirk. It wasn’t picky.

Steeling himself for the world outside, he opened his door.

***

Takiyo wakes up in a hospital bed. Quirk Exhaustion, they’d later say. His first manifestation of his Quirk being too much for his small body to handle. It wouldn’t be the last time it would happen to him.

The lights around him are dimmed, leaving him mostly in darkness. But even then, he’s starting to glow. It doesn’t hurt this time. It feels good, it makes him feel… full.

Even at his young age, he knows something is very, very wrong. More so than just being in the hospital.

There’s a curtain drawn around the bed, but he can hear someone talking to his father just outside it.

“I know you’ve had a traumatic experience, Mister Akasuki,” a voice says, “but I don’t think you you’re thinking clearly. Your son is going to need you. His Quirk is potentially very dangerous…”

A voice, his father’s, cuts the other off. “Don’t you think I know that?” his father asks. “But I just… I can’t. I’m not strong enough. He’s my son, but all I can think about when I look at him is there’s the boy who took off my hand and killed my wife…”

There’s more arguing outside, but Takiyo can’t hear it. He’s crying. Is that right? Is his mom dead? Is it his fault? Did he make his dad leave him?

Long, terribly long, minutes pass. And then the curtain parts and a doctor enters. He has dark hair that’s long enough to make Takiyo think he’s skipped a haircut and eyes that are solid black. It’s a little creepy, but his smile is kindly, if sad.

“You’re awake,” he says. “How’re you feeling?”

“Who… who are you?” Takiyo asks. “Where’s my dad?”

“My name’s Haru Shima,” the doctor says. He doesn’t answer the question about his dad. “I’m your doctor.” He comes and sits in the chair near the bed, and Takiyo flinches.

Doctor Shima sees him flinch, but he doesn’t move. “It’s okay,” he said. “You can’t hurt me.” He takes a pen from the pocket of his white coat and hands it to Takiyo. “Here, throw this at me.”

Takiyo gives the pen a little toss. He doesn’t know why he does it, but it gives him something else to think about. The pen stops in mid-air before it hits the doctor and just falls as though it had hit a wall. The doctor catches it easily. “See?” he says. “Anything gets too close to me, it stops before it can hurt me. That’s my Quirk.”

That’s something, at least. But it just makes him think about his parents. “What about my dad? Where’s my mom?”

Doctor Shima frowns. “I’m sorry,” he says after a long moment. “We should probably have the social worker here for this, but…”

***

Takiyo entered the Common Room to find it in chaos. This wasn’t actually uncommon, but it was always a toss-up as to who would be responsible. Had Mika Mineta angered Katsumi Kirishima-Bakugo? Was Asuka Tokoyami’s Frog-Shadow acting up again? Was Shota Shinso going on about something he saw on the internet and had dragged Toshinori Midoriya and Isamu Haimawari into it?

No, today’s nonsense came in the form of the far more usual suspects: Kimiko Ojiro, Kenta Sato, and Takuma Sero. Ojiro was not quite as terrible as her partners in crime and he did find her an enjoyable source of gossip, but collectively, the three were nothing but trouble. He blamed the Sero boy for corrupting them both. Sero was sitting across from the other two, who were sitting at one of the dining tables.

“Okay,” Sero said, keeping his phone pointed at Sato and Ojiro, “tell me what about you’re doing?”

Sato gave the camera a grin. “So this is a very special addition of Will Sato Eat it? Kimiko here is going to give me something to eat, but she’s going to use her Quirk to make it invisible. Without being able to see it or touch it, I’m going to have to guess what it is.”

Ojiro elbowed him in the side. “Oh yeah,” Sato added hastily. “Hastag invisi-lunch!”

Idiots, all of them. He understood the desire for fame. His papa had taught about controlling your image and putting your best face forward from the moment he had decided he was going to be a Hero. Takiyo knew all about how to stand out and shine. But he also knew you didn’t do it through idiotic stunts and trying to go “viral.” To say nothing of the fact that neither Sero nor Sato had enough of a sense of style or stage presence to pull it off no matter what. Ojiro, at least, did have some of that.

He just wanted to make himself some breakfast and now he had to deal with this. Very pointedly ignoring them, he made his way to the kitchen to start preparing an omelet. They seemed to be ignoring his ignoring them (how very rude!) but he still took some satisfaction from not giving them the attention that they so obviously craved.

Unfortunately, even as he worked on his food, the noise from the others was distracting. Every so often something would crunch or snap or make some other unnatural noise as Sato bit through whatever it was. Already, Takiyo could see he had bitten the head off a garden gnome, taken a bite out of a Frisbee, eaten all he glass from a light bulb, and was about to take a bite out of a traffic cone. It also looked like Ojiro had several more items on the table for Sato to taste, only some of which he could readily identify. He let out a weary sigh.

“Is this going to be going on all morning?”

Sero stopped filming for a moment, putting his phone down and shooting him an angry look. “Dude,” he said. “You ruined my shot! Don’t you know we’re supposed to have quiet on the set?”

Sato gave him an incredulous look. “Dude. It’s not a set. It’s the Common Room.” Perhaps he had an ounce of sense after all.

“Aoyammmmma,” Ojiro whined, crossing her arms. “Whyyyyy?”

“Because I’m tired of having to put up with the three of you acting like you’re going to be the next big thing.”

Sero frowned. “Dude. That’s harsh.”

“Sometimes,” Takiyo shot back. “Harsh reality is needed.”

***

It’s days later and his father still hasn’t come back for him. The nice lady from social services had said something about “giving up parental rights” and that they were “trying to find a nice home for him.”

They did lots of tests and they kept his room really dark. Every time there’s even the least little bit of light, he can feel his body and Quirk sucking greedily at it, wanting every bit of it. It doesn’t look like he can turn that off, they say. The hospital’s Quirk specialist says they’re trying to see if they can have any support gear made that will help him,

He spends most of his days crying. He hurt his dad and…

There’s no words around it. He killed his mom. He’s only four and he understands that much. The nice Doctor Shima and everyone has tried to make him understand it wasn’t his fault, but he can’t stop thinking about it.

But Doctor Shima visits him every day, talks to him, makes him feel just a little less like a monster. It doesn’t last, but it lasts for a moment. It’s nice to have someone, at least, who isn’t afraid he might hurt them.

One time, Doctor Shima visits him with another man. And he is the prettiest man Takiyo has ever seen. Skinny, with blonde hair. He wears a thick belt that wraps around his middle and has a sparkle of his own. Takiyo instantly tries to scoot farther back on the bed, away from the man’s light.

“It’s okay, Takiyo,” Doctor Shima says. “Anything happens, I’m right here. Nobody’s going to get hurt.” He gestures to the other man. “This is my husband, Yuga Aoyama.”

“Don’t… don’t get close,” Takiyo cries, desperately. “I don’t want to hurt you!”

In spite of his warnings, Doctor Shima’s husband sits next to him. He sees the slight glow coming from him, the little bit of light he’s absorbed from the machines in the room and the light from the hallway. He looks over to Doctor Shima for a minute, who merely nods. His gaze quickly returns to Takiyo and Takiyo realizes he has some of the kindest eyes he’s ever seen.

“I too, know what it is like to have a Quirk that scares you, mon petit ami. Mine has, most of my life. But my husband tells me you have been very brave. You must be very strong.”

“I don’t feel strong,” Takiyo says. “I hurt my dad. I hurt… I… my mom…”

Doctor Shima’s husband does something unexpected then, and he wraps his arms around Takiyo, completely unafraid. “It was an accident,” Aoyama says. “It was not your fault. It was not your fault.”

Doctor Shima clears his throat. “Takiyo… my husband and I have been talking it over… and how would you like to come live with us?”

***

“Really?” Sero asked. “Now you’re just getting pissy. Do you have over a thousand followers on HeroTube?”

Takiyo put a hand to his chest. “Over two thousand on InstaGlam. Some of us are meant to shine. Some of us are not.”

“So what you’re really saying is you’re not any different than us,” Sero said, pointing an accusing finger. He moved from the table toward the kitchen.

“Guys…” Ojiro said, trying to come between them.

“This… is gonna be ugly,” Sato said, looking like he was trying to find an escape.

“Non,” Takiyo said. “I, at least, am trading upon my natural grace and beauty. You three are a sideshow attraction, trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Which is fine for you. But do not subject the rest of us to it.”

“You think you’re so much better than us,” Sero said. “You try to hog the glory, you talk down to Mineta, you think you’re such hot stuff, always trying to show off. Well, you’re not any different than any of us. You… you’re…”

“You’re on fire,” Sato said.

“Of course I am,” Takiyo said. “When you’re this good, you’re…”

“No!” Ojiro cried out. “You’re on fire! Your arm!”

Takiyo looked down to see his sleeve had slipped near the burner of the stove. He’d moved his omelet when he’d started ranting at the three idiots, but had neglected to turn the burner off. And now his sleeve was very much on fire.

“Aaah!” he let out a cry of alarm.

“Aaah!” Sero cried.

“Aaah!” screamed Ojiro and Sato.

Takiyo hastily turned to the sink, turning on the cold water and sticking his arm under it. It extinguished the blaze and he did not seem to have any burns, but his shirt was ruined. “This. Was. Silk!”

“Whoa, dude,” Sero said, holding up both hands. Ojiro and Sato had moved to stand beside him. “You okay?”

“This is all your fault,” Takiyo snapped. Before he even knew what he was doing, he threw up a hand and a beam of light lanced out towards the three of them.

The three acted surprisingly quickly. Ojiro and Sato both wrapped their arms around Sero, who shot a stream of his tape up towards the ceiling and yanked, pulling all three of them out of the path of his light beam. It struck the couch on the other end of the Common Room, but did no damage. He didn’t have enough light stored up for that. Not yet anyway.

***

Takiyo is five and a half years old and he has been living with Doctor Shima and Yuga Aoyama for more than a year. Six months ago, they adopted him. They didn’t ask him to forget his mom or dad, but they wanted him as a part of their family now and forever. And they are good, kind people who love him and who aren’t afraid of his Quirk. He wants to be a part of their family. They spent part of their time in Japan and part of their time in France, where some of his papa’s family is from. His papa is a famous hero and his dad is a doctor.

He doesn’t see his old friends anymore. Their parents are afraid of him, won’t let them play with him. But he’s made new friends, the kids of his papa’s friends. They aren’t afraid of him. Maybe he doesn’t get as close to them as he’d like, but they are good people too.

He is six when he decides he wants to be a Hero like Papa. Papa’s friends, Mrs. Yaoyorozu and Mrs. Iida do some tests on him and design him a belt and bracelets to wear, like the belt Papa wears. He works with Papa to learn how to use his Quirk. He will be a Hero.

“In this world,” Papa tells him once, “there will be many people who say you cannot do it. Because you need support. Because your Quirk is not quite right for who you are. You must ignore it. You shine and show the world your sparkle. You will take them all by storm and prove the wrong.”

So he tries to always shine, to always sparkle. He has to prove everyone wrong. He has to be the best, so that no one can ever say there is anything wrong with him again.

***

Sero had somehow managed to swing his trio from one spot to another across the Common Room ceiling. Takiyo had continued trying to tag them with light blasts—one good one would probably make him lose his grip and then he could get his hands on them—but to no avail.

Unfortunately, their fighting had attracted attention of others in the dorm and they now all found themselves under the disapproving glares of Asuka Tokoyami and Akaya Koda.

“Someone please explain to me why you’re turned the Common Room into a shooting gallery?” Tokoyami asked, one finger aside her beak.

Sero and Takiyo both pointed at the other. “He started it!” they said as one.

Tokoyami let out a groan. “I don’t know why I expected anything else,” she said.

“Kenta,” Koda said, looking to her friend. “Could you tell us what happened?”

The thick-lipped young man looked guiltily at Sero. “We were filming and Aoyama started yelling at us… But Takuma started yelling back and then Aoyama got distracted and set himself on fire and it kind of spiraled from there.”

Under the dual gaze of the most responsible and level-headed members of the class, Takiyo did not especially feel like putting up an argument. Koda was of one of the few members of the class who did not seek to make him less than he was. And Tokoyami had mastered the art of “disappointed in you” to a level he was not fully certain he understood.

“Clean up the mess, please,” Tokoyami said. “I don’t want any of you getting in trouble with Aizawa for destroying the dorm.”

“Aw, but we were going to…” Ojiro began. Sato gave her a nudge in the ribs. “Oh, okay.”

Takiyo grumbled, but reluctantly nodded.

He couldn’t afford to let anything jeopardize his future as a Hero.

Because he had to be a Hero. And a famous, important one at that. Because if he saved people, if he saved everyone, if everyone loved him…

Then maybe he could save enough people to make up for what he’d done. Maybe one day he could look in the mirror and see a Hero, instead of someone who’d killed his own mom.

#my hero academia #their hero academia #takiyo aoyama #fan fic #fan fiction #my writing

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