metamorphosis | various bnha

2.14 - empty promises

summary - [first name] finally tells her parents about tomb and i have an excuse to write a sobstory as a background.

...

By the time you got home, it was around 6:30 PM. Your dad was already home, but your mom was on her way back from her office. You brought your dad to the living room and told him you had something important to tell him. It worried him. You looked so scared and dreadful, which he had never seen before. Even at that place, you had such a cheery disposition. He sat down on the couch while you took the armchair.

He remembered when he and his wife, Niyoka, visited that orphanage all those years ago. How long ago was it? About ten years ago, right? You've changed so much in the span of those ten years. When he first met you, you were cautious, but not at all shy. You were so little, too. His wife immediately loved you. She thought you were the cutest thing ever. He didn't care about how cute you were (a lie), but he sympathized with your story.

...

They came to observe the orphanage. Kibaru and Niyoka both wanted a child, but unfortunately, neither of them could produce a child. They talked to the caretakers, pointing the couple to multiple kids, advertising them like show dogs.

"That one over there is well-behaved!"

"That one has a strong quirk!"

"That one will be a great hero!"

He and his wife didn't care about quirks or heroes, especially as Niyoka had met many Pro Heroes for her job. Not all of them were particularly nice, or even civil. She just wanted to make costumes all day, but it was hard when your client wants things that just aren't possible.

They saw you when they entered the courtyard. There was a ratchet playground set to the side, rusted and most likely unsafe. There was a circle of children surrounding something, squealing and cheering in amusement. Kibaru loved that sound, the sound of bubbly childhood youthfulness, the pure innocence of laughter. He himself missed being a child, but he couldn't imagine life as an orphan.

"What's going on over there?" Kibaru had asked, an amused smile on his face.

The caretaker forced out an artificially saccharine laugh. "Why don't we go see, shall we?" he had proposed. "All the children here get along exceptionally well as they all have such great personalities!"

Niyoka thickly smiled. "I can see that, Akumatsu-san."

The caretaker walked over to the group and immediately paled at what he saw. You were at the center of the circle, your two arms held in one of those Chinese finger traps, due to one of the older kids' quirk. He knew exactly who did it, but he refused to call him out.

"You guys!" he lightly chided, causing the group to scatter. "I said to behave! Sorry, they're never like this..."

Niyoka and Kibaru loudly gasped in horror. Even though your head was down, they could hear that you were crying. Worms had been dumped on you just a few minutes ago, apparent from the coarse dirt in your hair and the pink worms wriggling around you.

Niyoka immediately kneeled down in front of you, her husband following. Her thin eyebrows were knit together as she wiped the dirt out of your [hair texture] hair. "Are you okay, sweetie? Why did they do that to you?"

You looked up at the unfamiliar voice, surprised by the couple in front of you. You had big, teary [eye color] eyes and a scratched up face. "I don't know. They're just mean," you absentmindedly mumbled, trying to escape from the Chinese finger trap. You kept on pulling your arms outward, but it only seemed to make the trap tighter.