Poisoned Paradise - Hero Academia

ch2: Team Mates

{ published: 2nd march 2018. }

A/N: thank you to leftoverquirks on tumblr for the fanart i'm using as this story's cover! that being said, please note that lucy's interpretation of saki is slimmer than i intended and thus does not accurately reflect the body type described herein.

now, onto the chapter!

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Poisoned Paradise
ch2: Teammates

Nothing especially noteworthy happened in my life between the ages of four and thirteen, so I'll spare you the details. All you need to know is the following:

Firstly, by the time I was five-years-old, I had a good enough handle on my Quirk that I could forgo my gas helmet in favour of a sick mask. Also, I no longer had to worry about polluting the house every time I got a scratchy throat! Now I could filter out the poison, whereas before dad had to sit outside my bedroom door so he could Erase anything that leaked out. Though my parents were immune —mom shared my Quirk and dad could negate its effects— they couldn't risk exposing my baby brother.

Secondly, said younger sibling soon acquired that Erasure Quirk I'd always wanted. I'm still bitter about it to this day, but no biggie. At least that solved the toxins problem in the event of a relapse.

And finally, I became pseudo-grunge. Soft grunge? Something like that; I'm still a little shaky on the terminology.

My beloved Internet introduced me to alternative fashion, and I took to it like black dye to denim. I wrote it something of a love letter with an image-board blog, but compared to what was on my feed, my personal style was much more casual. Unfortunately, whilst Japan as a whole has numerous subcultures, where I lived wasn't too experimental. I had to make do with what was accessible: dark clothes and dramatic makeup. Luckily I had friends who steered me away from unflattering panda liner towards a more complimentary smokey eye. At the ripe age of fourteen, I was much more confident with my makeup skills and overall look. I'd also nailed the cat eye.

My parents were convinced I was going through a phase built with the remnants of my childhood rebellion. I can't deny that, but it had more to do with creating an image for myself. Not a lot of people naturally had a colour palette like mine, you know? I wanted to make the most of it.

So that's what fourteen-year-old Saki looked like: black and white and green all over. With twintails and blunt bangs, because they were the perfect combination of cute and harsh. And a dash of blush to add colour to my face. And a highlight on my eyes' inner-corners. And fake ear piercings. And an ever-present face mask that stopped passersby from getting contaminated by my Toxic...

Needless to say I earned a reputation in my tiny town.

Judgemental biddies.

My personality wasn't that of a delinquent's, but the combination of my appearance and Quirk prompted people to make assumptions. They ignored my Heroic aspirations whenever it was convenient for them, and though some prejudice was overrode by good deeds of mine they happened to witness, there'd always be someone glancing at me with hard eyes or raised eyebrows. I grit my teeth and bore their looks with the stubborn willpower of a young teen.

Not everyone was like that, of course. Any adults who knew me —not just of me— were pleasant enough, and my friendship circle judged people for their nature rather than the packaging in came in. My self-confidence and social skills would have been shot without them; they practically kept me sane throughout middle school.