Chapter 1

It was a busy day in Musutafu, the sun shone bright, the clouds creating puffy shapes that kids would imagine as all sorts of creatures. The streets were crowded with many pedestrians as they walked towards wherever their chilly day would eventually take them.

Among the crowds walked a boy, around fourteen years old. He stumbled aimlessly, bumping into others occasionally as he staggered and stumbled. Some of the more rude ones cussed and called at him, but a simple meeting of their gaze caused them to widen their eyes and quickly walk away. The boy kept walking, mumbling and giggling softly.

An alley caught his attention as the pungent smell of some food recently hidden away emanated from behind a dumpster. Still murmuring to himself, he turned and headed towards the alley.

Or tried to, as yet another passerby bumped into him, this time causing the boy to fall on his behind.

"Oh! So sorry dearie, are you alright?" asked the woman.

The boy met her gaze, and the woman froze mid-sentence, her eyes widening and her body reflexively backing away from the sight.

Green eyes matched by waves of black/green hair, both disheveled and dirty. Dried blood caked his right temple, with a burn stretching from the left side of his neck up to his jaw and mouth, and a small but definitely not friendly smile stretching his lips. He bared rather dirty teeth, one even appeared to be missing at the rear. But what really unsettled the woman and previous walkers was the look in his eyes.

They were broken... maddened... lost.

It was a terrifying sight. And with the slight heat and smoke still emanating from the left side of his gakuran uniform, the boy looked to have just crawled out of a fiery pit.

Without another word, the woman walked away, her steps more urgent this time as she shuddered.

The boy merely stared at the woman until she was out of sight. Chuckling, he entered the alley and searched for whatever his nose had detected and his stomach craved.

~-*-~

"Hey! We was gonna eat that, fool!" yelled a voice, startling the boy from his newfound meal. Turning his head towards the sound, he saw around five gagsters entering the alley. Their physique wasn't anything impressive, but there was strength in numbers.

Instinctively the rusty gears in the boy's mind started to turn.

The first one was limping, he favored the right leg. The second had a bit of a stiff posture, possible soreness. The third had no visible hit points aside from his balls, which were unprotected by the underwear that was exposed by the sagging pants. The fourth and fifth had no visible weak areas.

The boy chuckled, his eyes conveying jealousy as he hugged the meal on himself like a lion protecting its kill.

Actually, a hyena would be more appropriate, what with all the giggling and chuckling he was doing.

The thugs were spooked, but still walked towards the boy. One flexing his fingers as the others popped their knuckles.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Boy, didn't that bring up unpleasant memories, even if they were a bit- very, actually, foggy. He chuckled again.

"You think it's funny? Hah? Stealing our food and laughin' in our faces? Don't you know who we are, ya little shit?!

"Pfft, ha!"

"Aight, that's it you insane little bastard, kill him!"

The five thugs all lunged towards the boy, two ripping the meal away from the now laughing green-haired victim. Another one kicked him in the face, breaking his nose with a loud crunch. The remaining two held him up by his shoulders and locked his hands behind him. Leaving the meal behind with his accomplice, the final thug began to beat the boy up, slamming his fists into the boy's stomach. Strangely enough, the pain and humiliation only made the chuckles into guffawing laughter.

"So you think this is funny? Look at ya! Helpless and weak! You gonna die today boy!"

The laughter only increased. The boy beginning to choke from the lack of air his guffaws were causing, but the beatings only increased. He felt his knee begin to break from the kicks, felt the contents of his stomach bubbling up, the scalding heat on his wrists from the thug's Quirk.

Useless Deku! Learn your place you freak!

No! Ka--an, wait don't! Aaaaah!

"Heeheehee hehe! Pfft! Ack!" he gasped, "AHAHAHA!!!!"

He licked his cracked lips, and his face totalled into one of pure, concentrated coldness.

He jerked to the right just as a fist came to hit him, the fist landing on the collarbone of the thug behind him. The impact loosened his grip on the victim's wrists, but the heat increased.

A switch flipped inside the boy, and he lunged at the thug holding the meal. Proceeding to pound his fists directly into his unprotected groin, the man fell down with a howl as the boy now sat atop of him.

Then the beating came.

Rage. Pure, uncontrolled fury was poured out into the wild hits the boy dealt to the man's face. Nose? Broken. Jaw? Fractured. Teeth? Fragmented. Eyes? Punctured as the boy's fingers dug into them.

Face? Soon deformed by bruises and blood.

All in fifteen seconds.

The boy was yanked off the man and thrown against a dumpster. Snarling, he lifted himself up. The three thugs stood in front of him, all closing in on him while the fourth looked after his beaten comrade. One pulled a knife out, flipping it between his fingers smoothly.

Hypocritical, considering the utter terror plastered into his face.

"M-man! Now y-you really dead!"

Silence echoed around them as the boy lunged again. His vengeful eyes filled with maddened yet cold concentration, his attacks promising only pain and bloodshed.

The fight, to both men and boy, happened in flashes of black and red.

A fist to the neck followed by a foot to the knee. A sweep of the feet collapsing a man who didn't have time to gasp at the crushing stomp on the throat that followed. A beer bottle against a skull, a cut-off taunt followed by a choked gurgle and finished in a spray of blood. A head continuously slammed against the wall, then the dumpster, then the floor.

A knife swiping, a cut bleeding, a boy smiling coldly. A snap, a crackle, then a pop. A scream and a squelch.

A meal wasted by splattered blood. Four bodies slumping against the walls of the alley, whether unconscious, critical, or dead… it didn't matter. They didn't matter.

A final thug crawled away, pleading, gurgling, and dragging his broken legs behind him. His nose was flattened, deformed. Jaw slack and with trembling hands scraping at the pavement, he desperately tried to reach the light of the public for help. His eyes were swollen, cuts on his neck and cheek slurring his speech.

"G-ge away fwom mwe!" he screamed.

A foot landed on his own, eliciting a pained scream. Hands on his shoulders turned his body, and his eyes finally met the boy's crazed ones as they rounded.

A steak bone pricked at his throat, the boy's eyes still cold, yet his smile an absolute taunting horror.

"Suh... smi... s-smile..." he murmured.

"Wha? Fuh ywou!"

The bone pressed harder, the tht could feel it's beginning to pierce his skin.

"S-s-SMILE!"

In hopes of being spared, the thug worked a stiff, bloody, and fearful smile unto his quivering, cracked, and bleeding lips. It hurt. His cheeks throbbed, his jaw ached, and his nose agonized his nerves in a way that let a strained scream escape, but he kept the smile on his lips. Anything to appease the kid.

"Heh... good boy."

The bone pierced his skin. The thug felt it slide between the muscles and cut the blood flow before letting it leak out. The thug's smile never left his lips, even as his agonized eyes and gurgling screams subsided, and finally died down with him.

~-*-~

The boy never moved off of his kill.

He simply stared at the fresh corpse, his face twisted in a cruel and satisfied smile as he now took in the blood-scented oxygen into his abused lungs.

He let himself slide off the body, let himself thud against the alley's brick and mortar as he finally took rest. Staring at the corpse, he sighed dreamily, lips burning at his injuries -both worn and fresh- but never faltering.

The boy licked his lips, chuckling as he looked up into the sky. The sun was starting to set, the scent of blood becoming stronger. His breaths becoming strained at his uncomfortable positioning.

Picking himself up, he snarled at the wasted meal. He was still hungry, and there wouldn't be any good food for perhaps a few districts.

Didn't matter. He was a survivor after all. He'd find food soon enough.

"OH MY GOD! SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE! THERE'S A MURDERER!"

He turned slowly, and saw a passerby looking at the result of his earlier scuffle with terror.

Terror, oh how familiar.

Seeing another person with the same look, the same fear he felt for so many years; a person that, like the others, would have given him the blind eye had they passed each other in the street, it filled him with mirth as well as with hate.

It was just like before, wasn't it? Through the twisted and shattered confines of his rapidly fading memory he would find instances where he would defend himself. Found moments where the world would push him down even farther every time he tried to rise even a centimeter in his life. Punish him for standing up when no one else did. The world was cruel, a joke, favoring those who were stronger in their eyes and their eyes only, all while kicking away the rest without a second thought. He hated it, he despised it. This was society? A place where you were left to fend for yourself? All because you didn't fit into society's criteria?

Yes, yes it was.

The boy's face went dead-cold as he stared at the witness, who couldn't bear to look him in the eyes for even a few seconds before scampering away, screaming like a schoolgirl all the while.

They always ran. Away from their moral obligations, away form common courtesy and from basic human principles.

They ran... from reality.

From him, someone who had opened his eyes to the true colors of the world... and survived.

"Haha," he inhaled deeply, "So... that's how it is, huh?"

He could hear the sirens approaching, the signals from the so-called figures of 'justice' nearing as they would fulfill their 'honorable' work. Please, they were nothing but dogs of the state. The boy went ahead and searched the bodies.

The authorities wouldn't listen to him, wouldn't bother to get the full story. They wouldn't understand, he would probably be thrown into a prison to fend for himself. He would be treated as a criminal, a villain, a heartless freak.

You'll never be anything more in life! Just die already!

I'm sorry I--u-u! I'm so sorry!

This world will never accept you! Deal with it and throw yourself off a bridge!

Heroes! Sidekicks! Ha! Like they'll accept your worthless ass.

You, a hero? What a joke.

Yes, what a joke. This society, this world, this life. It was all just one bad joke. One only he seemed to understand the punchline for.

He chuckled as he searched the gang's pockets. The sirens were closer now. But it didn't matter, he wouldn't be here when they arrived. There was always another alley, always a way out. It would be dark, but compared to society, it would be a lamp, an emergency exit.

The boy would reach for it, would use it to guide his way into complete freedom. No longer held back by what society perceived as normal, as strong, or as weak.

He would show the world true fear with his revenge. All with a smile on his face.

His twisted goal in mind, the boy laughed one last time as he lumbered off and disappeared into the darkness, never to exit again.

End of Chapter 1

So not entirely the same, but I didn't want to completely overhaul this introduction. It's unique, and it wasn't something to be easily replaced in this rewrite.