Mind of Mine || ʙᴀᴋᴜɢᴏ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

chapter 40

[This chapter was written while listening to the song linked above on repeat. For the ultimate experience, play "Sleeping at Last" by Hearing and enjoy!]

...

"If you're watching this, then that means I'm dead."

The pale hair seemed thin through the screen and the permanent wrinkles on his forehead had almost been forgotten by you.

"Who is that?"

Quickly pausing the video, you knew you should give your friends a quick explanation. "That is the man I refer to as 'The Boss' otherwise known as the fearsome leader of the Hassaikai clan and Eri's grandfather."

"Oh wow."

"He looks... strict."

"What happened to him?"

The man in the video still looked well, with no sign of his illness. This must have been recorded before he started dying and yet he must have known he was going to die if he made this. "He got sick, eventually slipped into a coma, and passed away. It was a dark time for the group but Overhaul stepped forward immediately and took care of everything."

A bit suspicious now that you think of it.

Leaning forward, you press play. You never expected to sit here and listen to his voice again. It had been years and the last couple of weeks before his death, the old man had been bedridden and needed to use a ventilator to breathe. But you grew up with him as your only parental figure, so of course, you'd never forget his cold voice or the way his eyes seemed to harden whenever something was displeasing him.

The man leans back into the velvet couch and you recognize the room he's in, it was his private meeting room, the one reserved for highly important conversations.

"I don't know where to begin," he looks to the side, jaw locked as he focused on something else. "I assume the beginning seems appropriate. I never did tell you about your family Y/n and you never bothered to ask, either way, I assume it was because you knew I wouldn't respond. Your parents definitely weren't parents of the year, they were too busy to raise a child, often neglecting you and let you cry for hours. The only reason why I knew them was because they were family friends. Your birth father was close friends with my son."

He sighs deeply and you knew he was hurting, it was so easy to read his body language. The topic of his son was never an easy one, not when the Boss regretted never fixing their relationship.

"They let you cry for hours and always seemed to forget you were just a baby, a little thing who needed help, who needed someone to wash them, feed them, and love them. But then it happened, at the young age of 10 months, your quirk manifested. It was practically unheard of, but I assumed it was because you were dying. Your body's survival instincts kicked in and you used your power to grab onto the baby bottle your parents had forgotten to give you. See— you were starving and the bottle had been in front of you, taunting you."

The Boss laughs like this was just a childhood story that parents shared fondly, but it was far from that. You shook your head, feeling angry at the world. You never stood a chance in this place, from birth you were destined to be unloved.

"Your parents didn't understand, they thought they had birthed a monster, a child bewitched or cursed. Because no child had ever obtained their quirk at such young age. And so they became afraid and handed you off to whoever wanted you. I knew your potential— for a baby, you were smart enough to understand that the bottle was food and managed to use a quirk perfectly. Which is why I took you in. Your parents didn't even care about what I did— all they cared about was the money I gave them, so they made me your godfather and fed everybody this lie about how I was protecting you or something. "