Alright, I guess if we're gonna start this off on the right foot, I oughta take it from the top.

Ya already know this, but the name's Mikumo Akatani. I was born in Minato and I'm the patriarch of the now-defunct Yamikumo Clan.

If ya really wanna know a bit more about me, I think I oughta tell ya how I ended up here.

It all started on a normal day, just after winter break ended. I'd been listening to my MP3 player on my way to school, and relishing in the tunes before the day started to suck. Sad as it may sound, it was one of my only real comforts during my middle school life.

Now, believe it or not, I wasn't always this sexy, bombastic, charming, and humble bundle of man that sits before you.

I was a pretty pathetic kid. Lanky body, scraggly-ass hair covering one of my eyes, disposition of a shaking leaf.

I didn't talk to people, they wouldn't talk to me either unless they decided that they wanted something from me.

And even then, they never used my name.

It was always a, 'Hey, nerd' or 'C'mere, freckles', most common one was-

Smack!

"Unf!"

"Yo, Yamikumo, have a nice break?"

Yep, that was the one everyone liked, everyone except me. All on account of my gloomy personality.

Much as I wanted to slug the prick who called me that, I could only really sigh after I caught my breath. Makin' a scene wouldn't do anything but get me in trouble.

"Yeah, Watanabe. It was fine."

Especially without your heavy-handed ass pounding me on the back.

"Glad to hear it. So look, I need to take a look at Ono-Sensei's homework if you would be so kind as to let me have a gander at yours." At this, he slung his arm around my shoulder and began to squeeze.

Wow, you said 'gander', that's somewhat of a two-dollar word for you. Maybe next time, you can learn to say 'extortion'. Repeat after me, dummy. Ex-tor-tion.

"Sure, Watanabe." I reached into my bag and handed it to him.

"Heh, thanks Yamikumo." And he walked away, slipping my homework into his bag.

Don't thank me yet. At least half of the answers on that are wrong.

I ended up makin' a copy of the homework the night before, just for that occasion.

Was it more work just for the sake of bein' petty?

Yes.

But was it also satisfying to see that moron get his bogus paper back with a big fat '40' in red ink, the next day?

Also yes.

Little victories like that were my forte back then.

I couldn't exactly fight those assholes, what with the little bit of muscle mass that packaged on my boyish frame.

Some of these pricks could breathe fire, run at sonic speeds, some of 'em could fuckin' fly!

What was I gonna do? Punch 'em?

That would've just gotten me my ass kicked along with a fine side of suspension.

The world ain't fair. It's the majority who makes up the rules. All of us in the minority, we shut up and listen. Speak when we're spoken to.

That's the rule when the strong govern the weak.

Or, in this case, when the quirked govern the quirkless.

So, small victories it was.

Though, I can't say it was all bad back then.

Even if I felt alone most of the time, I wasn't.

I had a couple of friends that I could count on.

A couple, as in, literally just two friends.

Yeah, it turns out that most people didn't exactly seem fond of the idea of hanging with the quirkless sadsack.

Even the other quirkless sadsacks.

Yeaaaah.

But, y'know, like I said, it really wasn't all that bad with my two friends.

During lunch that day, I ended up eatin' in the cafeteria with my best buddy, Kai Chisaki.

Now, I was the quirkless weirdo, but everyone considered him to be the quirked weirdo.

He was always wearing a medical mask and gloves, always talking about people being 'unclean' and 'contaminated', and he idolized the yakuza. More specifically, the Shie Hassaikai.

It made sense since their patriarch took him in and all, but it was scary as shit sometimes when he kicked someone's ass for trash-talking the yakuza as a whole.

He wasn't exactly nice to me, but he tolerated my presence and was willing to talk back when I spoke to him, so that made him best friend material in my eyes. Yes, I know, my standards were low.

"Yo, Chisaki. How ya doing?"

Chisaki, not even looking up from his yakisoba pan, responded, "Fine, Akatani, sit down."

Yep, really low.

I sat across from him. Close enough to be heard when I spoke, far enough to be out of Kai's bubble. That's the system we made. Last thing I wanted to do was trigger his mysophobia.

"So, how was your break?"

"Fine. Yours?" Man of few words, that guy was.

"Fine too. Ended up making a copy of my homework to give to that moron, Watanabe."

"Isn't that more work on your part? Why not just… not give him your homework?"

"Well one, yes it is, but it'll work out. Two, I can't just not give him something, he'd kick my ass. The guy's got flaming fists and a black belt, he might as well be a fighting game character."

Chisaki didn't say anything back to that.

I knew how I musta looked to him. Fucking pathetic.

An asshole was bugging me and shaking me down, and I was just taking it.

It practically went against everything he had learned from the yakuza.

Truth be told, it's surprising that he still associated with me after the first time I let it happen.

The rest of lunch that day was spent in delectably uncomfortable silence.

After school, I ended up heading to the library. I had to meet my other friend there.

I scanned the library, heading deeper in when I didn't the person I was looking for.

"Mikumo-kun, over here!" It turns out that she ended up findin' me first.

Looking over towards the back of the library, where the study areas were, I saw my only other friend, Nemuri.

Sitting to her left was another friend of her's, uh… let's see, brown hair, unremarkable face, dark eyes… um, Suzuki, yeah, let's go with Suzuki.

Now, Suzuki was one of the quirkless sadsacks that I mentioned earlier, but we didn't have much in common, save for Nemuri, so she ain't exactly important in the grand scheme a'things.

Nemuri, though… goddamn, was she somethin' special.

Messy purple hair down to 'er shoulders, blue eyes ya couldn't help but get lost in, and a bod that most middle schoolers only saw in movies or mags.

All of that in mind, combined with the fact she was a pretty sweet chick to boot, ain't too hard to guess why a lotta guys were really into her.

What was hard to guess was why she was friends with me in the first place.

"Hey, Kayama-san, Suzuki-san."

Nemuri was her usual welcoming self, gesturing to the empty seat across from her, wide smile on her face.

Suzuki, however, was packing up her things to make a quick escape, giving me nothing but a nod to let me know that I hadn't been completely ignored.

I gave her a nod of my own, sitting down and grabbing my notes and shit from my bag.

Suzuki gave Nemuri a quick 'see ya' and she was gone, leavin' me and my friend alone at our table.

If I hadn't been sure that she was creeped out by my presence, I'da thought she was trying to be my wingman.

Or would it be wingwoman?

Either way, she didn't like me so I knew that she just wanted to leave before it got awkward.

With Suzuki gone, the only person that Nemuri had to focus on was me, and when she did, it was with a real toothy smile. A smile bright enough to help a blind man see.

"So how was your break, Mikumo-kun?"

"It was fine. How was yours, Kayama-san?"

And that pout of hers was cute enough to make a puppy wanna pet her.

"Mikumo-kun, what have I told you? It's Kayama-chan or Nemuri-chan."

"R-right, Kayama-chan. Sorry." My face was burnin'. Luckily enough, my raggedy-ass hair hid that fact from the girl across from me, so I didn't end up dyin' from embarrassment there.

She did end up sighin' though, probably because that wasn't the first, second, or even third time that she'd had to correct me.

"Honestly, we've been friends for the past four years, least you could is call me by my name."

"Sorry…" It was frustrating for me too. Given our history, it shouldn't have been all that hard for me to just say her name.

We'd met at the end of grade school. She stopped some other kids from bullying me by using her quirk and I kinda latched onto her. She didn't seem to mind and we became friends.

Year after that, we ended up in the same middle school, though in different classes. By the time we ended up in the same class in our third year, I'd met Chisaki and somewhat latched onto him.

They never met, and to this day, I think they're still strangers. Probably for the best, considerin' the circumstances.

"Ah, whatever. Anyway, it was great. I ended grabbing a lot of study material over it, so I think we're gonna ace that Entrance Exam next month."

Ah, right. The Entrance Exam. I looked down and pretended to study a few phrases that I scribbled on the page.

Yeah, I ended up not thinking too hard about the Entrance Exam over my break. I knew I'd do fine on the written portion, the practical though…

I had a bit of muscle packed on from exercising the past ten months before, it was impressive by quirkless standards, but who knew what the hell the practical exam was gonna throw at us?

Deadlifting cars?

Punching holes in concrete?

Mortal combat?

They were the number one hero academy in the country, and they still are now, even with all the competition.

They had to be crazy selective if you were gonna have guys like All Might and Endeavour unleashed onto the world the way they were.

So how's a quirkless shit like me gonna get in?

Slap!

It was a pretty light smack, didn't even make cheek sting, but it caught my attention.

Looking up from my notes, I could see Nemuri smiling at me again, less toothy this time.

She looked me in the eye, and said, "Hey, relax, we're gonna do fine... Captain Kumo."

It wasn't much, but it was enough, coming from her.

Face on fire again, I smiled back and replied, "Yeah, alright, so what's first Miss Midnight?"

Yeah, things were never that bad when it came to Nemuri.

And remember when I said a lotta guys were into her?

Yeah, I wasn't exactly the exception to that rule.

After finishing up at the library with Nemuri, I walked about half an hour to a record shop.

Now I know you're thinking, 'A record shop? In this day and age?'

Well, it turns out that even now, in the age of MP3s and MyPhones and pirated music, people still like to collect old records. Vinyl can go for a few thousand yen at least, depending on the artist.

Last I remember, 'Miracle Johnson's Greatest Hits' went for about 9000 in a classic sleeve.

So yeah, selling records wasn't a lucrative business, but at the very least, it was a business.

Ding!

"-fuke no kohsoku de"

And stepping across the threshold of this particular shop, you would understand why it was the place to be.

It had just about everything.

Crazy Ken Band.

Deep Dope.

Shōnan no Kaze.

Good number of foreign bands too, all neatly arranged from wall-to-wall.

Everyone that went there said the place was never hurtin' for options.

They also said the service was great too.

"Be with you in a second!"

After all, the place only had one employee.

One employee who was also the manager, cashier, accountant, owner, and-

"Okay, now, how can I help you?" She stepped from around a recently stocked shelf and smiled.

"Hey, mom."

My mother.

Yeah, my mom. Who I had gotten all the finer parts of my looks from.

She always wore her hair short, the longest I'd ever seen it was when she had it down to her shoulders.

I got my freckles from her. Mine only really dust my cheeks, but hers were splashed across her face like an unfinished Pollock painting.

And her eyes, they were dark like mine. Despite that though, you could always see that that darkness was only the color, never the feeling.

"Oh hey hon, is it that late already? Just gimme a few minutes to close up and we'll get outta here, 'kay?"

Yeah, that was the system. Anytime it was past seven on a school night, I'd come down to the shop to remind her that she did indeed have a family that was waiting on her. Usually it would take less time because our apartment only ten minutes away, but since entrance exams were next month, she knew that I'd stay a little while at the library to study with Nemuri.

"[I'm just playing games, I know that's plastic love-]"

The song that was playing cut, as soon as my mom finished slipping on her coat and turned off the speaker.

"Okay, that's everything. Let's get goin' kiddo. I'm feeling Udon tonight. You can tell me all about your study date with Nemuri-chan over it."

"Mooom!"

She laughed and ruffled my hair before we stepped out into the cold.

We joked and laughed all the way to the Udon stand, mostly at my expense, but that was fine.

Most of our nights were like that, that's just how we were as a family.

Truth be told, I miss those days. Especially since they stopped happening a little over a month later.

Ah, but that's all the time we've got for today.

Thanks for listening to me ramble on, most of the folks in here wouldn't.

You're a pretty cool guy.

Anyway, I'm gonna get back to my cell.

See you later, Kasuga-san.