Chapter Text
Keigo had been what most considered a sickly child. Illness wise? No, he wasn't actually sick. What people were referring to when they often said 'sickly' were the cuts, bruises, stings and burns that often faded on and off of his small body as a child. They decorated him with the ghostly marks that would stay behind for several hours, just like anybody else's soulmate marks. Because that was exactly what they were, oddly enough.
The concept of a soulmate was something that had been around for as long as the history books could say, even pre-dating quirks. It was something thought of as a simple fact, and the history behind soulmates was amazing. Different cultures, different stories. Keigo had found all of it interesting as a child.
There were three different types of soulmate connections. An invisible red string that connected both people, one that made it's possessor only able to see one color until they met their soulmate, and the third one making it so someone could feel when their soulmate got hurt. While none of these made it extremely easy for one to find their soulmate, plenty of people did. And that was what Keigo loved about it.
The type of soulmate connection that Keigo had, where he could feel if his soulmate was ever hurt, was one of the less popular ones. Not a lot of people had it, and plenty of people often called it a 'negative connector'. It made it hard for two soulmates to find each other, people would say. It only caused pain. A curse, and some even told stories of those who met their soulmate only to suffer. People with this type of connection were even put on a higher risk case for things such as depression or addiction, though his parents hadn't told him about this horrible side effects yet. Said he didn't need to know about it while he was still young.
So, when Keigo would flinch randomly or yelp in pain as another injury was temporarily added to his body, people would look on at him with pity in their eyes. Pity and worry.
"Oh, poor thing. Are you okay? Your soulmate hurts you so much."
"Here, let me look at that. You must be suffering with this kind of a connection."
"You get hurt so much! You must not like your soulmate, huh?"
"Can I see it? It's insane how much you get hurt, Takami!"
Yes, Keigo wasn’t happy that he got hurt as often as he did. By the time he was five, he had already been going to a doctor for his particularly harsh connection, and they had given him all sorts of medications to help fight off the pain of the new injuries and make them heal over faster. It was really all they could do, and Keigo knew that. It was fine, and many of the adults around him were trying their best to help take the edge off of it as well. However, whenever the small boy flinched and saw a new mark fade onto his body, he couldn’t help but feel for the person on the other side. Just what were they going through that caused all of this?
Keigo knew that his parents were also on the brunt end of his connection. The annoyed glances they sent him whenever they thought he wasn’t looking. He’d heard them complaining one night, not bothering to stay quiet in their drunken state. “Why did we have to get the brat with a connection like this? I swear, he’s hurt all the time. Some of his classmates' parents probably blame us! Think we’re abusing him or something!”
Behind his back, others would whisper. Everyone was always whispering, always worried.
“I don’t know how his parents stand it. He gets hurt so often! It’s so much an effort for something that might never change.”
The house that Keigo grew up in was poor, so things were a struggle even without his connection. His parents held a mix of part time and often unreliable odd jobs. They would drink until they passed out, and the walls had been permanently stained by the smell of smoke. Sometimes one of them would leave and be gone all weekend, or cops would come by and tell one of his parents that the other had been brought by the drunk tank last night.
His parents got into fights a lot, some of them about the stress that Keigo’s connection was causing them, both emotionally and financially. While they never said anything to him, the boy grew up with guilt constantly settled in his gut, rearing it’s ugly head whenever his mother cursed at the cost of his connection treatment, or when she glared at him whenever his connection acted up and caused him to yelp or flinch in pain. There were days that Keigo curled up in his room because of those looks, covering himself best he could with his small wings while his parents screamed one room over. They would complain loudly about the cost of his connection treatment, and how it would be so much easier to just give up and see where his connection took him. His father had once, in a drunken state, yelled at Keigo and tried to lunge at him, just so ‘his soulmate could feel some of the fucking pain that they were causing this family’.
Snarling at each other, his mother would use her telekinesis to throw things across the room while his father sharpened the brown and white feathers on his back in a silent threat to cut her. They weren’t together, not by choice. While they never told him, the blond boy had overheard them talking enough times to put together several things.
His mother had been kicked out of her own house at the age of seventeen when his grandparents figured out she was pregnant. She’d drug his father, then eighteen, with her. Apparently she had demanded that he help her raise the mistake they had made together, until their child grew old enough to take care of themselves. He remembered his father saying something about he didn’t owe her anything now, the kid was here. He’d been with her enough, he would leave as soon as he could. As soon as Keigo did, he would.
If only it weren’t for his damn connection, both would snarl. Things would be so much better if it just went away. Maybe his soulmate will die eventually, then we could finally move past this horrid part of our lives.
With the wounds only getting harsher the older he got, there soon came days when he would have to miss school. His friends would come by, the first few times he was forced to miss school or got sent home because of a particularly harsh wound. After a while though, that became the new normal. So his friends stopped coming by as much, just assuming things would get better and he would be back to school the following day or two.
And Keigo lived like this for years, until he was seven. Until an accident was happening right in front of him and his body threw itself into action, everything else be damned. Until he had pulled the five people in the semi truck’s path away with his feathers, landing them in safety and rushing to their side. He’d left before the police and medics showed up, but they had wasted little time in finding the boy who had jumped into action and saved lives that would have otherwise been lost.
“We’re here because of your son, Ms. Takami. He’s done an amazing thing, and we would like to talk to both you and his father, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Who are you people? What is this ‘amazing thing’ that Keigo’s supposedly done?”
“He didn’t tell you? He saved lives, Ms. Takami. Like a true hero. ”
The men in suits he would later learn were from the Hero Commission, sent to enlist him in some sort of program they had planned out. Turn him into a true hero, the men had said. He had saved the lives of multiple people, something a good amount of heroes had never done until enlisting in a heroics course. He was amazing, and all they needed were his parents to sign forms saying they could take him in.
“You’re sure you want him? I mean, I know you haven’t been here long enough for it to happen, but- here, Keigo, come here! Where was the last one?”
“Last one? Ma’am, I’m sorry, but what do you mean by that?”
Keigo had walked over then, thumbing at the sleeves of his shirt before slowly raising a hand and placing it just above his wrist. He had taken his medication for the pain not even a half hour ago, but the mark was still there. Even after the other medications that made the marks fade faster, the worse always seemed to stay for longer. His mother had stared at him then, giving him a small, plastered on smile before nodding her head.
“Is that where it is?”
“Yeah. Showed up during breakfast.”
“Did you take your medication for it already?”
“Yeah. A little while ago.”
The men had shot each other confused looks then, one turning to his mother with a raised eyebrow.
“Ma’am, may we ask what you are talking ab-”
He’d rolled up his sleeve as they started to speak, fear washing through him. He’d heard his parents talk about, angry after being cornered about child abuse again. “They see the connection marks and just assume we beat him. I get it, usually soulmate marks aren’t that bad. Usually people don’t have to miss several days of school a month because the marks are that bad. People don’t realize all that we have to do for him. Who knows where he would be without us? Dead, probably.”
The man who had been speaking closed his mouth promptly when his eyes laid upon the red grip snaking up his arm. The red marks were outlined by soft brown, having faded greatly over the course of the last few minutes. It wasn’t one of the longer staying ones that his doctor had guessed were permanent on his soulmate’s body, but it still didn’t fade nearly as quickly as markings of this nature usually did. Usually, when someone got a mark from their soulmate, it faded within a few minutes depending on the severity. That was how he had been for the first few years. After a while though, they stopped fading so fast. This was when he had been given medication that helped them fade faster, and when asked his doctor said that because of how often and how severe the marks were as they showed up it had probably taken a toll on the small boy’s body. Therefore, whatever it was that made them fade quickly had become overworked and wasn’t as effective as it had once been.
“I… Ma’am, these… What is the nature of these, exactly?”
Suspicion was already slipping into the man’s face, eyes narrowed as he looked at the red and light brown mark that wrapped itself over Keigo’s entire wrist. The small boy had looked at the ground shyly, shifting from side to side. Above, he heard his mother sigh. His parents had given this talk to what had to be dozens now who naturally became suspicious of the violent marks that constantly appeared on the boy’s body. Marks of clear abuse, though no one ever said it to his face. Keigo knew though, and even though he wanted to scream and tell them that his parents didn’t hurt him, the boy knew that his opinion most likely wouldn’t be taken as seriously as he would have wanted it too.
“His soulmate. These have been for sure showing up since he was probably around the age of three or four, though no one would be surprised if small injuries had been appearing before then. We don’t know who his soulmate is or the kind of situation they are in, but it’s clearly not a good one. And he-” she had mentioned to him now, never taking her eyes away from the men in suits as she spoke “-gets the brunt of that, obviously. My husband and I have tried almost anything, and the best we’ve been able to do over the years is know how to help him when these things show up while medicating him. Pills after the bad marks show up, two a day in general to help the healing side of his markings. It’s a lot to keep up with, so I’d like it if you didn’t think this was something me and his father have done to him.”
“No, miss Takami! We never would have thought that this was something you did! We’re just… Shocked. How long have you had this injury particularly, Takami?”
They had looked at him curiously, analyzing the small boy in a way that made his shift from foot to foot. He didn’t like it. They were trying to figure him out, look at him like everyone else did as they were trying to convince him to talk about the marks that showed up across his body. His marks were fascinating to a lot of people, something that made them stop and look even after they learned it wasn’t a result of problems at home.
“A… Half hour? Maybe a little longer?”
“Really? Miss Takami, you said that the healing side of his markings needed help? Why is that?”
“I don’t remember the details, but basically the doctor said that whatever makes them fade away was probably too overworked given how young he is. Too much stress, too much use so often. Damages the thing.”
The man nodded again, thoughts of some kind burning behind his eyes. “So do you have any leads on to who his soulmate might be? That’s the most vital part of stopping these injuries, if they are as bad as your hinting them to be.”
His mom snorted in dry amusement. “You think we haven’t been trying that for years? It would make everyone's lives a hell of a lot easier if we managed to find the other person in this situation and get them away from whatever situation they’re in. There’s a case file with the cops and a bunch of other people looking out for someone with injuries like these, doc said some of them could be permanent on the other person.”
The men had turned back to him at that point, weary eyes drifting over Keigo. Everything had quiet, before the first man spoke again. “So how many of these marks do you have right now, Takami?”
“Uh… I don’t know, three I think? Maybe four?” He’d been nervous, pushing himself closer to his mother and staring up at them nervously.
“Hm.” The second man had hummed, pulling a notepad and writing something down. “Is this more or less than usual?”
A pause as Keigo had looked up at his mother with an almost begging look in his eyes. Something about these men had put him on edge. After a nod from her, though, he shifted a little and replied. “Regular. Sometimes it gets really bad though, my arms or legs burn. One time my side burned really bad for a whole day. Usually after though there’s a few days where I don’t get hurt at all.”
“Burns?”
His mother nodded. “Whatever happens to his soulmate, they seem to get burns at least once a month. They didn’t really start getting bad until Keigo was probably four. Doctor said it may have been a quirk from his soulmate, but they were never able to confirm that.”
“I see. We’ll look into it, see if we can find anything.”
His mother had snorted. “Give it a shot, see what you can find.”
The men had nodded then, looking to each other and whispering before the first one bent down and picked up the briefcase at his side. “We’ll keep looking into this, definitely. It’s an interesting case, but right now I believe we should get back to business Ms. Takami. The reason we came here is because, as I said before, your son saved lives. We believe that he can become a true hero, as I said before. All we would need is for you and the boy’s father to sign these papers, then we’ll take him in. Not to mention we’ll pay you and his father handsomely as well as support you financially while he’s training under us.”
After that, the men had both pulled paper after paper out of the briefcase, along with a check donning more zeros than the small boy could ever remember seeing on one. They kept explaining how he would become an amazing hero, how with the proper training he could even become number one someday. His mother had never cared for heroes before, and his father certainly had a negative opinion of them. However, his mother stayed and listened. Eyed up the papers, or the check more specifically. She asked the odd question or two, like where they would take him and what would happen. The men never gave a specific answer, Keigo realized. His mother didn't seem to realize it though, or if she did she chose to ignore it.
"Well," his mother had said after a while. "This sounds like a promising program. If Keigo really did save all of those people, it would only make sense to help him save others! We all need more heroes, isn't that what people are always chatting about?"
"I'm glad you understand where we are coming from, ma'am. It's important when making decisions such as this." The face the man had made when he said that had thrown Keigo off, making the small boy shrink back even further into his mother. Why did the second man smirk as the first spoke? Why did Keigo feel as though they didn't really have a choice?
"Oh of course! I only want what's best for Keigo, and I'll be honest when I say we don't have much here. Especially when it comes to that connection of his. Passing up an opportunity like this for him would just be cruel!" His mother had shook her head then, as if it was emphasising her point.
"You truly are a good mother, ma'am. Thinking like this for your son's future." The second man was back to smirking as his coworker talked, eyes shifting between the small boy and his mother. Bad at hiding. Bad at hiding why they really wanted the small boy.
"Oh, thank you. Wish I heard more of that, you know? Now, you said you had some papers to sign or something? We should get this going, the sooner we could get him to you guys… So he can get help! The better."
Keigo froze, looking up at his mother. He didn't know what was going to happen, but it sounded like the men would be taking him? "Mom?" He finally asked, look up to her. When she looked at him again, her smile faltered a little. "Am I going with them?"
Her smile shifted back into a grin, albeit softer than before. "Not right now. But at some point. You did a great thing, Keigo. They want to help you do more great things! Like Endeavor, right? And they could help you with that connection of yours. Maybe they could finally find the other person, yeah?"
"Endeavor? Does he like him?" The first man said, looking down at Keigo and smiling.
"Oh, yes. He's his favorite." His mom had said, smiling as she spoke. Keigo had looked at her, confusion clear in his eyes. His parents rarely ever spoke good about heroes, Endeavor being high on their chart. His father apparently used to have a friend who was arrested by the number two hero several years ago. However, both his parents never spoke badly about their son's favorite hero in front of him. They just weren't very quiet with their conversations at night once they thought he had fallen asleep.
"Well that's perfect! We've worked with Endeavor on a few occasions, you could probably even meet him if you wanted!" The second man had said with an excited smile, looking at Keigo as he spoke.
The men had spoken to his mother for another half hour, going over some of the dozens of papers they had brought with him. Different forms about this or that, all things the young boy hadn't understood. Something about a custody paper, something else about changing his education from public schools to a private one on one teacher. Again, they were all things he didn't understand at the time.
"Now," the first man had eventually said as he pulled out a pen and handed it to his mother. "We only need the signatures of his guardians, which I assume would be you and…"
His mother had huffed. "His father. He's around, just not now. Probably at his second job, though he could also be skipping to drink with those idiot friends of his."
"Oh. Are you two tight on money?" The second man asked, looking around blatantly for the first time.
"You could say that. Never been too solid with work, and with Keigo's stupid connection, medicle bills aren't exactly easy."
"Oh, I'm sorry. That must be hard, looking after a kid like him when you're already struggling." The first man had said, what sounded like forced pity in his voice.
"We get by. However, it would be nice not to struggle as much…" His mother eyed up the check that still sat on the side of the coffee table. The first man saw her looking and smiled.
"We would be completely willing to help your whole family should we be able to take Keigo in. You and his father would be paid a monthly, very handsome check. The Public Hero Commission would also offer to move you into a nice house close to where Takami would be training, since it is in our interest to keep him at the facility. You would be able to visit as much as you wanted, of course."
His mother had crossed her arms then, tilting her head as she thought. "What about work? I'm sure whatever you are offering to pay us in exchange for Keigo wouldn't be enough to necessarily get by."
"You could keep working your jobs up here, if you want. We would help you look for a job and be a reference if you needed. I do believe the check would be enough for you to get by easy, though."
"Hmm," his mother had said. "That would be nice. I definitely am interested, if there is anything you have for me to sign today."
"That would make this process speed up again greatly, if you are willing! We can leave some papers here, if you wish to sign some things today and try and get the boy's father to do the same."
"I don't see a problem with that. Keigo, darling, can you go to your room? I have some things to sort out with these men."
Keigo hadn't known what else to do, didn't even fully understand what was going on, so he simply nodded and left.
That night, when his father got home, his mother told him all about what the two men had said. She showed him the papers they had left behind, and talked about the massive check they had shown her.
"Are you sure these men are telling the truth, Kiyomi? That they would actually be willing to do all of the things they told you?"
"Yes! I'm sure of it. Besides, when are we going to get an opportunity like this again?"
"I still think they're scamming us. Don't be an idiot, they're with the heroes. We have to think more about this."
"Even if they are, they offered to look for Keigo's soulmate and said they would take up his medical bills! Isn't that enough to make this all worth it? Even without those we would be fine!"
Keigo had listened closely at night as his mother and father shuffled around in the kitchen, cleaning up as they talked. His mother kept telling her father all of the things that the men had promised her, while his father snapped back that he would doubt it until he was given proof. However, about a half hour of arguing later, his father relented.
"Fine. Like you said, we won't get an opportunity to leave this place again. Them taking up some of Keigo's costs will be nice as well. I'll sign the papers, let's see what happens."
The next morning, his parents had pulled him aside. They told him the men would be back in one week, and that they would be taking him with them. Confused, the boy had asked if his parents would be coming with. His mother and father had shifted a little, before his mother bent down in front of him and smiled with a shrug. "We're working out the details right now, but no matter what we won't ever be too far away."
When the men came, they had greeted Keigo with bright smiles. One of them then walked to talk to his parents, while the other came inside and helped Keigo gather the suitcases he had backed the night before. The man gathered up the bag that Keigo’s parents had packed, the one full of his medication and bandages for when his connection hurt him. The man made some comment to him about them going to see his doctor in a few days so they could find out the details on his connection and figure out what they had put together on his soulmate. The winged boy had nodded absentmindedly, packing everything up and following the man outside to put his things in the back of the car.
Before he knew it, Keigo was hugging his parents goodbye and being herded into the black government vehicle. His parents promised that they would see him in a few days, after they fully moved into the new place the Hero Commision had supposedly set up for them. They had already visited the place a few days beforehand, while Keigo had been at school. When he had come home that night, they were buzzing about how nice and big it was. Twice as big as their current house, apparently. Two stories, the second floor being open at the beginning which gave Keigo and his father the ability to jump off of it and glide any time they wanted.
The house sounded amazing, and Keigo couldn’t wait to go there. Nodding as his mother promised they would see him soon, the car drove away with him in the back seat. They drove for a while, probably around an hour, before arriving at a grey, square building. It was massive, one of the biggest buildings Keigo had ever seen, and the two men told him that this was where he would be living for the next foreseeable future.
They parked and took him inside, touring up and down some halls where they said he would be the most for now. A cafeteria, the medical wing, a small classroom made for one on one tutoring, a work out room. The most impressive, though, had to be the massive training grounds that they showed to him near the end.
It was nothing special, really. Just a huge dirt-covered clearing in an area that looked like it had been built as a makeshift arena. White markings outlined a makeshift track around the border, and the men explained how the walls were high enough that someone could go all out if they wanted without the risk of damaging the rest of the building. A room sat tucked into one side of the arena, a glass floor to ceiling wall making it easy to look over the whole training ground. “You’ll be spending a lot of time here soon,” one of the men had said, “I’m glad that you already like it.”
After that, they wrapped up the tour by taking him to a small nearby building connected to the cafeteria by a long hallway. One of the men explained how the building was new, and had been built with the idea of both storage and housing in mind. Sometimes heroes would come to Japan on long missions and need a place to stay, one of the men said. However, more times than not, the building was almost completely empty of people. Keigo would be the building’s first and probably only full time resident.
The building itself was nicer than any building Keigo had been in before. A massive living room greeted them as the three entered, with a giant kitchen to go along with it. While no one else was staying there, the men explained that Keigo could use the livingroom and kitchen as he pleased. The kitchen was fully equipt to cook anything the boy could think of, and the living room had a massive TV along with three big couches.
The halls themselves were tall and wide, enough to stretch his wings to their full length if he wanted to. The walls were polished white, dark giant wood doors leading into the rooms. The men led Keigo down to the end of the first hall, showing him to where he would be staying.
As the small boy pushed open the door, he gasped. The room he was staying in had to be almost the size of his old living room! A giant bed was shoved against the far corner of the room, with a big desk opposite it. There was also a bookcase and small table shoved against the right wall, though other then that the room was bare. The men took him inside, noting that his things had already been brought in. "Not all of these rooms are this big," one of them said "this floor is the only one with rooms this big. They're made for people who are doing extended stays or, in your case, living here full time."
The two men left him to settle in after that, telling him that they'd start going over some of the things that he'd doing tomorrow morning. He wouldn't be doing intensive the first week or so, but they said things would start to pick up fast after that.
With that said, the two men waved goodbye and left, saying that his parents were going to settle into a house close by and that they should be stopping by at some point over the next few days. Keigo nodded, smiling as he waved back. And with that, the two men left.
As soon as they were gone, the small boy ran over to the far wall where a big window sat. It was high enough that he had to jump and flap his wings a little to reach the window sill, curiously looking out at his new surroundings.
The sun had already set, though in it's place the bright lights the city had come to life. The streets were still almost packed with cars, people running around on sidewalks and into shops. It was never busy at night at his old house, just outside of the city. No one was ever really out at night where Keigo lived, unless they were going to or coming back from work. Some of the nearby bars also got an audience, and his parents told him to stay away from everyone else.
This place was weird, and Keigo didn't know how he felt about it yet. It was big and fancy, almost too much for the young boy to take in having only been there one day.
However, even though he didn't realize it then, he would have plenty of time to adjust. After all, this place would be his home for the next eleven years.