Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had been about a year since Setsuko and the girls graduated from U.A. They all had potential, and their teachers were rooting for all three of them. They were on the right track. They were going to be the collective Number One, all together as a group. But…something went wrong somewhere down the line.

It started with Akami. Her aggression had reached new heights and she lashed out at anyone she could. She had changed almost completely for what seemed like no reason. And then it was Kanae. Her foster parents, unaccepting and bigoted, disowned her and threw her out to live on the street. They sent her to fend for herself after raising her from the traumatized little girl she used to be. The last thing that set the three off was the death of Setsuko’s baby sister, Kiyoko. His mother followed shortly after with a gun to her own head.

The three of them had lost all that was dear to them besides one another, and they couldn’t hold it together any longer. They went rogue and hid underground to keep themselves out of sight. They had grown delusional and angry, their eyes clouded with a sort of rage too primal to be human. Still, there was one person who stuck around in their deluded minds: their old mentor, Hizashi Yamada.

Oh, how worried he was when they disappeared. They were like children to him. He spent weeks pacing around his apartment, chewing his nails, and losing so much sleep he lost control of his Quirk a few times. He even started lashing out, just like Akami had begun to do before her descent. One bad day could turn him into a villain, people said. He was almost completely unrecognizable to everyone around him, no longer able to hide those big emotions behind his bigger voice.

“You think he’s alright?” Setsuko grunted from the middle of the room, resting on top of cracked concrete. He traced the cracks with twitching black claws, his teal eyes glued to the floor.

“Pssh, he’s fine,” Akami scoffs in response. Kanae stayed quiet. She’d “lost” another parent. In Akami’s mind, Hizashi was fine, but they couldn’t exactly go out and see him. Not with the things they’d done. In only a few months, the three had grown infamous. They had a way of doing things… “Hunting as a pack,” civilians whispered. They were never seen without each other, just how they were in school. One never left without the other two.

“But are we- are we sure, Akami? I mean, we haven’t heard from any Pros in weeks. They’re planning some- something. I can hear it in the air,” the only male of the group scoffed, crossing his lithe arms over his chest and leaning back against a support pole with his ankles crossed and a tremor in his neck. The haemokinetic, Akami, groaned and banged her head against the wall behind her in frustration.

“He’s fine, Setsuko. Why…why do you even care?” She asked with a hint of hesitation. She cared too. They all did. He was the one hint of stability in their lives prior to the horrors that followed graduation.

“You c- care too. I can feel- feel your hesitation,” he stammered with narrowed eyes. Kanae continued to stay quiet, leaning onto Setsuko’s shoulder. His foot bounced wildly. He had been growing increasingly restless and twitchy as his Quirk grew unstable with his mental state, his body constantly vibrating. It never stopped moving anymore and there was a constant hum of his own voice that followed him everywhere, even when he was asleep. Tremors, twitches, constant shaking. Even his words had grown slurred and he stammered every sentence out. His muscles weren’t working correctly anymore. Even his own tongue had betrayed him.

“Will you two shut up? He’s not fine. He wasn’t ever fine,” Kanae finally piped up, annoyance written across her face as she raised her head from Setsuko’s shoulder. “If you actually paid attention, you’d know that. The guy’s been a psycho since the beginning.”

Setsuko’s lips and nose twitched and he blinked at Kanae. Akami just rolled her eyes.

“He’s not a- not a psycho,” Setsuko muttered defensively, letting out a small, offended noise when Akami said something about him being a broken record.

“Really? He has a criminal record, Setsuko!”

“So? That doesn’t mean that he’s- that he’s a psycho! He’s…weird. But he’s- but he’s not crazy!”

They had always been quick to jump to Hizashi’s defense, the three of them, but particularly Setsuko. He’d latched onto him, trying to fill a void in his soul that his father had left.

“A few little anger issues don’t make someone a psycho. Bakugo wasn’t a psycho,” Akami replied. Setsuko and Kanae both gave her a look, glanced at each other, and looked back at her with skeptical expressions.

“Really?” The scoffed in unison.

“Okay, shitty example. My bad.”

Kanae shook her head with a weary sigh, and Setsuko rested his trembling hands on his knees. His biceps twitched wildly and his fingers tapped a mindless pattern against his shins, his knees pulled up to his chest. Akami felt a frown tugging at her lips and she shifted over to sit beside him. Kanae’s lips tightened into a thin line and she laid her head back onto his shoulder, gripping one of his hands as if to force the tremors to stop. It didn’t work, of course, but her hand lingered anyway.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Kanae conceded after a few long moments of silence interrupted by Setsuko’s constant, uncontrollable, low humming. Akami could feel the vibrations of his body in the air beside her. “He always is.”

Setsuko nodded his head haltingly.

“But we were like the guy’s kids,” Akami muttered after a while, her aggressive facade dropping for only a moment. “Nobody likes to lose a kid, much less three.”

Kanae muttered something unintelligible in response and Setsuko just quirked his eyebrow. They couldn’t tell if it was voluntary. But for a while, they basked in the sound of his dead rumble like it was white noise.

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Hizashi was not okay. Everyone could tell. He was snapping at people, creating tension where none was necessary. But then again, who wouldn’t be when their own have gone rogue? He couldn’t handle his kids being on the other side. And really, no-one could blame him. All they could do was help, but it seemed that nothing was working. So, he set out on his own with a blazing determination in his eyes. Not even he knew what the hell he was doing. Maybe he was just making sure they were alive. Maybe he was seeing just how far they’d fallen. Maybe he was going to make a rash decision.

With nothing but minimal research, clues, and a bit of knowledge of what the three of them enjoyed, he searched for whatever hideout they had holed themselves up in. For days, he searched. Nothing but walking and watching, traversing cities and countrysides alike. He knew that Setsuko and Kanae both had a deep affection for quieter places, unlike Akami. Sure, Akami could’ve chosen the place, but Setsuko always seemed the unofficial leader of the group. He was older, his Quirk was stronger, and he was…kind. The Voice Hero shook the thought from his head. Not anymore, he wasn’t. Villains couldn’t be kind. They were evil, no matter the circumstance…or so he was told to believe.

Hizashi finally took a break on the third day. He slouched against a wall in a particularly old city, a mask obstructing his face and his hair down out of its usual style. And he reminisced.

There was a time during training that Setsuko had accidentally caused concrete to crack underneath his feet in his first year when his voice had gotten a bit too hoarse, during their internship. He had no control over his Quirk at that point and part of Hizashi knew that he never would. But still, he did his best to help. He did his best to help all of them and, as he leaned against that wall and remembered, his eyes stung. His lips were turned downwards into an angry scowl and mixed emotions swirled in the pit of his belly. Sadness, anger, betrayal, and…worry. He was so worried he almost couldn’t focus on anything else. He didn’t know what he would do when he found them.

Part of him wanted to hug them and never let go, to apologize for not being a better mentor. Not being able to protect them the way they needed. He knew what it was like to be troubled and he just wasn’t what they needed when they really needed. But another part, a quieter part, whispered in his ear. It wanted him to be angry, to call them ungrateful brats that couldn’t see what they had. But he just knew that wasn’t true. They were kids who had been dealt bad hands. He was the only sense of stability any of them had. He couldn’t say something like that to them.

So he began his search again with bleary eyes and trembling lips. His steps faltered, but his worry and anger pushed him forward. He walked for hours until he felt a change in the atmosphere. Something in the ground beneath his feet, something like a gentle rumble. He could feel something in the air, a vibration tickling the canals of his unaware ears. Just then, he knew he’d found the right place.

He entered the nearest building, brushing cobwebs away from his path and taking in the rundown the interior. The brick walls were cracked and things seemed to have been moved. Dusty chairs lay haphazardly on the floor, but there were poorly covered footprints in the dust on the floorboards. He followed them to the south wall of the building and brushed his fingers across the bricks. When they came in contact with one in particular, he furrowed his eyebrows as the vibration grew more intense. He pressed down on it and then…he was falling.

Chapter Text

It looks ugly, but it is clean

Oh, momma, don’t fuss over me

The way she tells me I’m hers and she is mine

Open hand or closed fist would be fine

The blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine.

The three young adults were startled by the sound of a sudden crash as Hizashi fell to the floor back-first, his glasses hitting the ground. Immediately, the three of them stood up in tandem with squared shoulders and defensive expressions. Their eyes were hardened into glares as Setsuko’s dead hum grew louder and forced his body into series of wild tremors. Hizashi climbed up to his feet and snatched his glasses off the concrete floor.

His eyes widened in shock when they meet the three. They looked different. Very, very different. And now that he was standing in front of them, he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t even know if he could speak, as ironic as it was. There was something feral about them now. They were nothing like they were when he taught them. They were covered in wounds and had a wild look to them you could only find in a child raised by wolves.

The silence fell over them like a thick blanket, Setsuko’s hum and tremors seeming to slow in the presence of his mentor. Only his pinkie finger seemed to twitch now as the hum turned into a softer sound. Deep, dreary pits of teal, green, and gray met soulful pools of red as tension mounted. Hizashi’s mouth opened but, for once, not a sound passed from his lips. A soft puff of air preceded his voice, a sound softer than anyone had ever heard from him.

“…why?”

The word was heavy on Hizashi’s tongue and he could feel the rush of blood through his veins and the pound of his pulse in his neck as he waited for them to answer. Kanae’s jaw tensed and Akami pursed her lips before nudging Setsuko.

“Long story,” he croaked out with trembling lips, his blue-green eyes meeting the cracks in the floor.

“No. What happened?” Hizashi replied, his tone stern as a muscle jumped under his eye. Stress? Sleep deprivation, maybe? He couldn’t even tell, himself. “Sit down and tell me.”

The three were taken aback. Was he not afraid? Did he not care that they could kill him then and there? He was speaking to them like they weren’t a collective national terror. But still, they obeyed, their bubbling resentment being quelled at no more than the sight of Hizashi. With shaking hands, Setsuko dragged the one chair in their hideout towards Hizashi, allowing him an actual seat while they sat on the ground in front of him with crossed legs. Setsuko settled between the girls and leaned against his pole as his humming picked up once again. Kanae squeezed his hand again and Akami placed a pallid hand on his shoulder.

“I don’t- I don’t think you want me to t- tell you,” Setsuko muttered.

“His Quirk basically gave him some weird brain thing. Listening to him speak is like listening to a damn broken record,” Akami scoffed as she squeezed her friend’s shoulder. Hizashi’s blond eyebrow quirked.

“What do you mean?”

“She means that he lost control of it and now he never stops humming. The vibrations, like, caused some sort of head trauma, or something. It makes his muscles twitch and tremor and his tongue doesn’t work right unless he’s purposefully using his Quirk,” Kanae explained with a soft sigh of exasperation.

“How’d that even happen?” Hizashi asked Setsuko.

“I don’t- don’t k- know.”

The older man pursed his lips and nodded slightly as he stared at his old charges. He leaned forward and rested one elbow on his knee with his legs spread and his other hand messing idly with his hearing aid. He knew what it was like to be negatively affected by one’s own power.

“Akami never told us what happened to her,” Kanae began. “She just…got mean. Well, meaner. She just started snapping at everyone and never told us why. She still hasn’t said anything,” she continued, glancing over at the young woman in question as she used her free hand to pick a piece of food from her teeth. Setsuko and Kanae scowled at her and she shrugged.

“And my…my parents disowned me,” Kanae whispered after a few quiet moments, suddenly feeling her throat tighten. “They kicked me out.”

Hizashi’s hardened expression softened at her tone and the way her green eyes welled with tears. He watched as Setsuko’s shaky hand came to wipe a tear or two away from her cheek, even as his shoulder jerked and his fingers twitched.

“And Kiyoko died. I assume you heard about the incident with that petty villain that went rogue, right? In Hosu? It’s always Hosu,” Akami chimed in with a scoff. “Well, she died in that. Literally the only casualty. Some low-grade Pro came to help and he just straight-up ignored her. I watched him look her dead in the eye and just walk off with a pair of other civilians he saved while her legs were crushed.”

The hero’s eyes, in record time, went from soft and understanding to sharp and full of nothing but hate.

“Who?” His voice came suddenly, a scowl on his face so deep you’d think he just smelled something foul.

“Dunno. Never saw the guy before then. It must’ve been his debut.”

Setsuko’s expression shifted and he leaned on Kanae’s shoulder for both support and comfort. The girl’s arm wrapped around his shoulders and Akami just watched with something like affection in her gaze. Or, well, as close to affection as she could get.

“Ms. Eda killed herself after that and Setsuko’s Quirk started messing up, and he just started tweaking.”

Hizashi, with a clenched jaw, nodded his head stiffly. He rubbed his forehead and pushed his glasses up his nose before taking a long, slow breath.

“Why are you here? Why’d you even come looking?” Kanae muttered at Hizashi, a false sense of strength in her watery voice.

“Why did I come looking? Oh, I don’t know, maybe because my brood of emos went rogue and I wanted to know what happened,” Hizashi scoffed at her before letting out a deep sigh. At this rate, they’d be replacing all the oxygen in the hidden basement with CO2. Akami snorted softly at his words and shook her head she squeezed Setsuko’s shoulder. Hizashi drew in a breath and stood.

“Where are- where are you g- going?” Setsuko asked as he stood with the girls, almost like he was afraid of Hizashi leaving. And…a part of him was. Kanae’s eyes glowed as she muttered a soft chant, successfully locking the older man in place. Akami muttered the same chant and, like he’d lost control of his body, Hizashi walked stiffly over and plopped down onto the floor. His muscles were stiff and his expression was blank. The girls stared at Hizashi with regret in their gazes.

“You…ca- can’t leave,” Setsuko whispered, his voice low and deep as the vibrations of his vocal cords changed and carefully crafted ropes from nothing but dust molecules. He used the ropes to restrain Hizashi and grabbed the cleanest cloth he could find to gag him with to prevent the usage of his Quirk. Not like it would affect them. Other voice Quirks never did. But they couldn’t take chances.

“We’re sorry, Dad, but we just can’t let you go. Not now that you know where we stay,” Kanae told him as the effects of she and Akami’s voices wore off. He just stared at them with narrowed eyes, not fighting one bit against his restraints