Chapter one, Filling a sack
Over the course of the last ten months of Izuku being an orphan, he was thrown around the orphanages like a cheap sack of potatoes unable to find its warehouse. Partially that was because of the unanswerable headaches for the directors that popped up around the time of his arrival. The other side of the coin was his unwillingness to show his quirk and overall unresponsiveness. Maybe he's quirkless?
It was about two or three months of traveling around the 'children's safe houses' when this problem was decided to be addressed, his transfers had skipped over the line of budget cut per child.
The freckled boy was observed more intently by the caretakers. After that course of action brought no fruit, it was determined to send him to a psychologist for an assessment. This didn't help their untangling either.
"He's definitely abnormal, but that's expected of a child after such psychological trauma." The old man took off his thick glasses for better access to his temples, pressing his cold fingers into them, he continued. "Also, he's not a shut-in or anything of sort, it's as if he's unaware that he's ignoring others. The staff members have relied to me that he gets this faraway look in his eyes, not the chained-down one in cases of depression as I would like to call this case." His fingers are now warm and the swelling headache was still there, glasses back on. "My best guess is that the answers lie where his mind goes after left alone, but he won't be letting us in there any soon."
His lullaby is still playing when some kid raises his voice.
"HEY! I'm talking to you, you-you broccoli head!" The insult was thrown more of desperation than anything, but that was fast proving to be something else when snickers and 'yeah's' of other children came and the boy's face now adorned a self-satisfactory smile.
Slowly the victim turns his green eyes towards the beaming boy, contemplating whether this is worth of his worry and concern. Shouldn't he be agonizing about something else right now?
I let you go, I let you go.
Apparently not, but the assaulting boy was still left in the very back of his mind. He had to examine this new feeling of … freedom? Or is it weightlessness? Because he's sensing the memory of being held down, chained to something that shouldn't really be there in the first place. When the lullaby continuously played before his eyes, Izuku discovered this exotic feeling of chain links snapping and he wouldn't stop this for the world, because this feel was his earth and sky.
But a polite kick to the stomach was too insistent to ignore.
Izuku was flat on the ground and the kids were all around him, surrounding the abnormality-threat. Fear of the unknown ruled them. Often mistaken for rage was the confusion the kids now had, how's that possible that they had no effect on him? How it's that group pressure doesn't apply to the green haired weirdo – that's the underline, yet their subconscious translated this so colorfully in their heads to match the goal of contaminating the peril.
He chuckles.
Traditional weaponry has been expended and there was nothing left to use against the anomaly, they want to run but their genetics need to see a way how to fight this beast so their offspring would be ready if another case was to happen.
The boy of the hour stands up and
Slaps his offender across the face.
"Stupid." He grunts, and with that the ten months of exploring the various orphanages across Japan end, Izuku simply walks out into the cold of the February and is not seen again.
"As from the standpoint of an adult, do you think it's worth attending school?"
Izuku sat on a freezer, eating an ice cream with his legs dangling over its edge. His current goal was to try out as many flavors as possible and the mint one in hand was far from his favorite. He'd come to the shop for two things – ice cream and advice. This was his sixth creamy threat in a row after the kind vendor closed off the shop for him, and now he's hoping that the man with the funnily large beer belly had some worthwhile advice too.
The courteous shopkeeper muffled from within the fridge where he laid tied. The tone of those sounds was sad and somewhat desperate.
"I guess that's a negative." He scrunched his eyebrows in disgust at the current flavoring of his dessert and threw it away. "At least that means we're on the same page."
After consecutive failed attempts, the man had finally managed to remove the muzzle of his mouth just enough to speak. "A-am I f-free n-now?" There's still so much to learn of the human body, for example, Izuku cannot distinguish whether he's stuttering because of cold or fear.
The young boy was on his way out, but when he recognized who's speaking, Izuku hesitantly turned himself around by 180 degrees. "Free? Where did you get that idea from?" If the man had regrets in his life, this one was the largest one by far, because incredulous voice was the last thing he wanted or expected to hear in return. "C'mere, I can't leave you with that desperation here now, can I?" He then closed in while frantic muffles energetically filled the little abode.
The hysterical laughter from within the shop was open to the world by the ring of the shopkeeper's bell. Izuku left, and with the same bell the vendors agonic guffawing was closed off from the outside world.
"Mhm, great. Now I need to get rid of the mint on my tongue."
Still climbing the hill, we're soon going to get there.
Comments, advice, constructive criticism are warmly welcomed.