Of all of the Heroes, it was probably Kotetsu T. Kaburagi who resented the manifestation of his powers the most, although he certainly couldn't fault the timing.
As a whole, the first eight years of his life had been really good ones. He was an outgoing, cheerful boy who made friends easily. He was the type of kid who graciously shared his bento with schoolmates who perhaps weren't as fortunate as he was. He had also adopted the habit of fearlessly standing up to bullies whenever he saw someone being picked on. For his young age he was tremendously strong. This was proven as fact when he recently beat his brother, Muramasa, who was ten years older, at arm wrestling. It was such an amazing, unexpected victory that he told everyone. His humiliated older sibling was brilliantly pissed about the whole affair and, and a result, was barely on speaking terms with him any more.
Added to the household tension was the fact that their father was almost fifty years older than Kotetsu and had very little patience (or interest) in his youthful antics. The old man favoured Muramasa who was, by virtue of his age and disposition, quieter and more mature to deal with on a daily basis. Realizing that he was lacking a positive male influence in his life, Kotetsu's mother enrolled him in Oriental Town's Youth Center. Working there were volunteer councillors who offered mentorship to boys who needed someone to talk to and associate with. At the very least it was a place to hang out, play pool, read comic books, or play video games in a relaxed, supervised environment.
Kotetsu went there after school a few times a week and, while he was getting a feel for the place, he became acquainted with one of the volunteers, a man named William Booth. Will was new to the area, clearly not Asian, and quite vocal of the fact that he felt like a duck out of water in his new environment. Incited by his natural desire to help people, Kotetsu took to him immediately. Taking advantage of the boy's gentle, good nature Will easily gained his trust and became his close friend and confidant. It wasn't uncommon for the two to go hiking somewhere on weekends or go to the movies or eat out. Will's presence filled the void that Muramasa and his father created with their indifference and Kotetsu was pitifully grateful for the attention.
One night after seeing a movie, Will invited Kotetsu back to his apartment. Still raving on about the film (they had gone to see Ghostbusters), the boy accepted the offer without hesitation. They settled down on the chesterfield making small talk in front of the television for a while before Will said, "Hey, would you like to see a real movie?"
Sipping from a can of pop, Kotetsu blinked at him in bewilderment. As far as he was concerned they had already seen a real movie. "What d'you mean?"
"It's kind of hard to describe. Let me show you," he said and slid a cassette tape into the VCR and hit the "play" button.
Kotetsu was disappointed after a few short minutes. As far as he was concerned all that he saw on the screen was naked wrestling because he was still at an age where anything with breasts was viewed as an object of respect, nothing more or less. Not that the men on the screen were precisely 'respecting' the women. In all honestly, the boy didn't know what they were doing with the women. It all looked repetitive and painful.
The movie clearly had a different effect on his much older friend. "This is what guys like to watch when they're alone together," Will said, sliding closer beside Kotetsu until their hips were almost touching.
The youth cast him a curious, sidelong look. "Seriously?"
"Yeah, if they're really good friends. You're my friend, aren't you?"
"You know I am!" the boy cried indignantly.
Will unbuttoned his jeans and unzipped his fly. He pulled out his cock and gave it a few quick strokes until it was standing up on his own. "Touch it, Kotetsu."
Entirely flummoxed by this sudden turn of events, the boy could only stare at him. And it.
"You're my friend, right? At least, you said you were. This is what friends do for each other. Just touch it. It doesn't bite," Will said and actually laughed, ruffling the boy's hair in an affectionate caress.
Kotetsu raised a tentative hand but couldn't bring himself to go any further. For some reason this felt all wrong to him although he couldn't understand why. He was eight years old and the year was NC 1950. In this day and age, things of this nature were simply never talked about or made public knowledge. He had never been warned it could happen, had never been told such people even existed, he had no basis to make any kind of judgment call. He was further conflicted by the fact that it had been his own mother who had sent him to the Youth Center, where Will worked, in the first place. That meant this all had to be normal. Right?
Sensing his indecision, Will grasped his hand and placed it against his erection, curling the boy's fingers around the base. "That's it, Kotetsu," he rasped, guiding the small hand slowly up and down. "Just like that. You're such a great friend, you know it? You're really helping me out and that's what friends do for each other. They help each other out." While he praised the boy he kept his hand tightly clasped over the other, relishing the contact and going through the motions until he finally climaxed. Kotetsu managed to wrench his arm free at that first spurt of fluid. "Gross!" he cried, wiping his hand on the sofa with a grimace of distaste.
Will just laughed. "That's what they do when they're happy."
"Well, mine doesn't!"
"You're still just a kid," Will said, wiping himself off with a tissue and tucking his shrinking prick back into his pants. "That's not to say that you can't feel almost as good. I can help you with that." He dropped his hand down directly on the boy's crotch. "Would you like me to s-"
Kotetsu jumped to his feet, forcing his embarrassed, flushed face down at the carpet as he said in an unsteady voice, "I want to go home."
Will didn't argue the point. He shut off the VCR and television and paused long enough to kiss Kotetsu on the top of the head, whispering, "You're the best friend I ever had." He then moved towards the door shouting, "Let's go! The Booth taxi awaits!" as if nothing ever happened. Kotetsu was so confused by the events of the evening that, come morning, he was beginning to have doubts about what he had seen and done.
He stayed away from the Youth Center after that, brooding over the incident with uncharacteristic silence. Once, he tried to approach his father with his questions but one look at that impatient, disinterested face killed his bravery. He sought out his brother next and, after much stalling and stammering, managed to ask, "Is it true that guys like to-to hang out and watch movies together? I mean, like, older guys? Older than you, even? Have you ever-?"
"We do when we have an annoying younger brother at home always asking stupid questions," Muramasa huffed and chased him out of his room, slamming the door shut in his face.
Kotetsu's mother soon noticed that her son was avoiding the Youth Center. "What happened? How come you're not going there anymore? Did you get into a fight with one of the volunteers?"
"I didn't do anything!" he shouted at her, tears springing to his eyes. That, alone, should have been an indicator that something was seriously wrong. Instead, it just angered the harried woman and she immediately rounded on him. "Whatever you did, you're going to go back there and apologize."
"Huh? But mom-!"
"No buts! It's a nice, friendly place for you to go to after school and stay out of trouble. Those people are there out of the kindness of their hearts. They don't get paid for their time or their effort and they don't need boys like you giving them grief. Like it or not, you're going back!"
Three against one in his own house. Even a boy as bad at math as Kotetsu was knew that those were lousy odds. He went back to the Youth Center the next day and of course, Will was there to greet him as if they were still great pals. After a couple of visits, Kotetsu was almost willing to forget the entire thing had ever happened. Until, of course, he got lured back to Will's apartment and it all happened again.
The same disarming conversation. The same movie playing on the television. This time Will pulled off his jeans and freely masturbated in front of the boy, telling Kotetsu how great their special friendship made him feel and all of the wonderful things they could do together to make it even better. Silent and miserable, thinking about his frustrating attempts to articulate this to his family and the way they had rebuffed him without even trying to listen, Kotetsu did as he was instructed.
It went on for weeks.
Kotetsu's growing moodiness began getting him into trouble. At school, he started getting low marks on tests and detentions for his bad attitude against the teachers. He began sassing back at his father and getting the belt more and more often. He was picking fights with Muramasa. He was disobeying his mother. In his own way, he was lashing out against all of the people who should have been preventing what was happening to him at Will's apartment. They should have realized that something was wrong even if he was unable to articulate the reasons for the shame and self-loathing growing inside of him day by day. Somebody should have come forward to help- To at least ask him if everything was all right- but nobody ever did. That was how, at the young age of eight, it became imprinted on Kotetsu that his problems didn't matter to anyone else and they were something he would have to struggle to deal with all on his own. Because people didn't care. Not really. They said they did, but they lied.
Having somewhat emotionally surrendered to his fate, Kotetsu passively returned to Will's apartment after an afternoon at the Youth Center, mentally preparing himself for what was to come next. This time, Will put a spin on things and gave the boy a can of beer instead of his usual Coke. The Kaburagi family business revolved around alcohol and Kotetsu would be lying if he said that he hadn't sneaked a taste of wine or spirits the odd time, just to see what all the fuss was about. He drank two cans in short order and became abysmally shitfaced. This time he didn't fight too much when Will forced him to perform a blow job, and he didn't bother to argue when Will went down on him afterwards. It wasn't until he was lying on his stomach and felt his pants and underwear tugged down past his ankles that he began to actively process what was going on. ". . . Hnh? Wha's you doin?"
Will was running his hands back and forth along his back. "Don't worry, Kotetsu. We're finally getting to the best part now. Just relax. That's what good friends do."
Kotetsu thought he was going to get a backrub and that seemed innocent enough. Hell, his mother still did that sometimes, particularly on hot summer days when he was outside without a shirt and she rubbed suntan lotion into his skin. Her hands were always so soft and warm and it felt really good-
-Except this wasn't feeling good. Will's hands had left his back and were now between his legs, doing strange things down there, touching him in weird places. All of a sudden Kotetsu lurched forward with a sharp cry. "OW! Hey! What're you doin? What-"
"It's okay, it's okay," Will panted, his entire body shaking with excitement. "How does this feel?"
"It hurrrts! Lemme up-" Kotetsu tried scrambling away only to be forced down into the cushions by the weight of Will's heavier body. The action made that wide, blunt intruder move further inside of him and Kotetsu shrieked in pain. He braced his arms against the sofa and pushed up with all of his strength, bucking the man off his body. "Get off me!" he screamed.
Will made the mistake of trying to restrain the boy again. He caught sight of a livid blue glare an instant before a compact glowing fist collided with his jaw hard enough to shatter it on impact and send him flying across the room. Will slammed up against the wall hard enough to leave an imprint of his body in the plaster before slumping to the carpet, unconscious and bleeding. Still in a shock-addled alcohol-induced rage, Kotetsu brought his arm down in the VCR that sat on top of the television, cutting both almost in two, and then picked up that cursed, hated sofa and threw it through the locked front door. It flew outside of the apartment and landed on Will's car, demolishing both.
Kotetsu tore the apartment to pieces, screaming at the top of his lungs until that manic rage abandoned him as quickly as his sudden new powers. He fell to his knees and began sobbing, his small form succumbing to a bewildering mixture of fear, pain, and shock. It wasn't until he heard the first of sirens that he willed his limbs to start moving. He managed to pull his clothes back on and slipped out of the window in the back bedroom. Just before the first police cruiser pulled up to the building he made it across the parking lot and hid in some bushes. The police were joined by several other units, including an animal control van (Kotetsu's tantrum had caught the attention of the entire building and someone, hearing his raw screams, had reported that it sounded like some wild animal was loose in the complex), a fire truck, and an ambulance.
Several cops were investigating the ruined sofa and dented car. Another was regarding the huge hole where the apartment's front door had been. The waiting paramedics were called up to the unit and a couple of firemen followed. Kotetsu could hear their stunned exclamations at what they saw all the way over to where he was hiding. He looked down at his hands uneasily. He was pretty sure he had been glowing but had been so drunk and angry he wasn't entirely certain. Whatever the case, he was strikingly sober now and witnessing the destruction he had caused with conflicted thoughts, starting to cry again. On the one hand, he felt a gloating satisfaction at what he had done, but on the other he felt a wave of crippling guilt. He had hurt someone, probably very badly, and that didn't sit well with him despite the circumstances that had led up it. What Kotetsu felt most at that moment was grief: For the man he had thought was his friend; for losing control. The majority of it was for that intangible piece of childhood that was now and forever stripped away from him. A piece once happily nestled between innocence and trust.
He would never tell anyone about what had happened to him here. He forced the memories deep down into the cellar of his subconscious and locked the door, mentally throwing away the key. Afterwards, whenever his powers activated, he would feel shame and a vague sense of nausea, but all that gradually went away as he got older. That was the virtue of his peaceful, simple-minded nature and his ability to gain strength from adversity. He moved on with his life. He eventually made friends, married, had a kid. He became a Hero who was more interested in people than points, because he had a unique insight into suffering.
Because he had been there. And that made him the best Hero of them all.
End.
