Muted Voices (A BNHA/MHA x OC Fanfic)

Extra: Koto Yamada Inspiration

Hey guys, this chapter is a little different. It's not really a part of the story, just sort of how Koto came to be. I was thinking today about how happy writing this story makes me and seeing all the connections people have made with Koto.

The thought first came to me when I was watching Transformers; what if there was a character who's quirk was to use other people's voices as their own? But then, I thought, how could that work? Maybe they'd go to a different school, since with that quirk, they couldn't be a hero. It's not powerful enough. And that's when I thought back to Fairest where the main character could basically teleport her voice while mimicking other things, a trait she called "illusing." That's sorta where Koto was born.

I still wondered why she would need to use that quirk, then came upon the realization that she could be mute. I had only seen one other story on Wattpad of a mute character and it's honestly one of my favorites. I recognized how much I enjoyed the stories that were unique in a way that worked and not everybody else thought of. So, I decided to make her mute.

Any particular reason she's a hero? I decided that if she's a hero, she would need a tragic backstory, perhaps something that even made her go mute, so that's where I came up with the car crash and the incident with her grandma. I wanted a character who started out so low that all they could do was go up. Maybe after time and stumbling more than once. I wanted a character who isn't always easy to love, with slight anger issues, but definitely sassy enough to make her personable.

My first thought as to how she would fit into the story was the training camp arc. The night that I thought of her character, I sat in bed and as I fell asleep, I realized a scenario that would totally work. My original thought was that a villain in the woods was going around and stealing people's happy memories, so they would lose their hope and wills to become heroes. However, that person would only get Koto because she would scream, alerting Todoroki and Bakugo who were in the area. Those two were going to fight with the villain, who couldn't do anything without touching them, and easily immobilize him. As you can see, that changed quite a bit, but mainly just to add more thematic elements. The main thing that changed was that in the hospital, when Koto was all chained up, she was actually supposed to talk. I wasn't really sure why and I couldn't find a way to connect it to the story, so when I got to writing that part, I was like, "but why?" And so she ended up staying mute, which I actually really enjoy writing. It's definitely a test in writing ability to see if I could create a relatable character without her saying anything; just facial expressions and body language. Sure, she uses sign language, but she had no way of speaking with specific tones. That was all based off her body language.

Anyways, after thinking up that arc was basically when I started thinking, "hmm, this story actually has potential. I'll write it out and see where it goes." So from there, I decided I needed a name and an appearance for her. I don't remember the decision to make her Present Mic's niece, but I know it was rooted in the idea that their quirks both have to do with their voices. I looked through a few websites of Japanese baby names and decided that Koto was cute. With her appearance, I decided I wanted to do something that I hadn't really seen too much on this side of Wattpad. Most of the time in the BNHA fandom, I see characters with long, straight hair, messy hair that they just don't care about, characters with ponytails, or half their hair up and "a few strands to frame their face." I basically discovered that there weren't too many characters with extremely curly hair. And I hadn't seen any characters that looked as Scottish as Koto. So, yes, I did take a LOT of inspiration from Merida in creating her appearance. Mostly because if I looked up redheaded anime girls, I got pictures of girls with legit red hair and it was always too straight or too short, so I couldn't find a good picture for the cover. That was when I thought, "hmm she looks enough like Merida. Let's google 'casual merida.'" Bingo! That gave me all the illustrations I needed to start nailing down the specifics of her character design. Of course, in all the pictures, Merida obviously has blue eyes, so I decided to make Koto's the same so that she wouldn't stray too far from that design.