Chapter 3: Motherly Love

Ryuko learned two things about the little girl she spontaneously adopted on the flight home. The first thing she learned was that the little girl's name was Jackie. An adorable name, for sure. Ryuko had no intention of changing it. The second thing she learned was that none of the blood was hers. Before falling asleep, Jackie assured the pro hero that none of the blood was hers and that she would 'protect her new mommy'.

Ryuko was concerned about the little girl's behavior and how she got so much blood on her, but she could worry about that later. The hardest part was about to come.

Ryuko landed softly on the front porch of her small house. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.

"Oh hey! You're back ear—" Rumi Usagiyama froze when she caught sight of the child resting in her arms. "Dear, what's that?"

Ryuko winced, but tried her best to smile. "Surprise?"

"So let me get this straight," After Ryuko brought Jackie to the guest room and tucked her in, the two sat down in the living room. "You found a child in the middle of buttfuck nowhere dripping with blood that isn't hers and adopted her because she called you her mommy?"

"Well, if you put it that way, it sounds odd," Ryuko winced at Rumi's statement, "She seemed so desperate… I… I think she escaped the Commission."

"Oh…" Rumi's expression darkened. They were both painfully aware of the child soldiers that the Hero Commission 'trained'. After all, Ryuko was one of them.

"You know what it means to house one of the Commission's runaways," Rumi said. Her tone of voice didn't imply that she wanted to leave Jackie on the streets. Rather, she was concerned for Ryuko and herself. The Hero Commission was unrelenting and dangerous behind the scenes.

"The both of us would be more than enough to protect her," Ryuko stated. Both of them were extremely skilled and could take on most of what the Hero Commission could throw at them. There were heroes that can overpower them both, but they knew that All Might would be morally opposed to beating up his colleagues to kidnap a child.

"I…" Rumi leaned back on the couch and let out an exasperated sigh, "I should have seen this coming."

"You really should have," Ryuko sauntered over to the couch and sat down beside Rumi before leaning on her. "I love you, Rumi."

"Dork," Rumi turned around and smiled as she pulled Ryuko into a loving embrace. "I love you too."

Hitoshi Shinsou had a high tolerance for bullshit. He could take other kids blaming him and his quirk every time they fucked up. He could take the muffled whispers he heard every time they thought he wasn't listening. He could take general distrust that people treated with every passing day. Hitoshi Shinsou could take a lot, but when his foster parents put an honest to god muzzle on him, he decided enough was enough.

When he was certain that both of his foster parents were asleep, he snuck out of his room, unlocking his cage with the key he pickpocketed from his foster mother. He snuck around the apartment complex and took anything of value. He took their wallets, his foster mother's ring, and his foster father's luxury watch. If they didn't treat him like a literal animal, he might have actually felt bad for stealing their stuff. With everything in hand, he slipped out of the apartment.

When he was out of the complex, he ran. Ran as far as he could. He ran away from the evil people that were his foster parents. He ran away from the cages and the shit they fed him. He ran away from his terrible life and didn't look back.

When he finally stopped, he didn't recognize where he was. The moon was up and the street was empty.

Shit, Hitoshi thought to himself. This was probably one of the 'bad parts of town' that people would talk about. They said that he deserved to be here.

How cosmically funny, Hitoshi thought to himself. After running away from a shithole, he just ended up finding himself in another one.

"Hey kid," Hitoshi turned around to see a ragged looking man looking at him with a greedy smile, "That's a nice ring you've got there. Mind if I take a look?"

It would have been so easy to deal with him. All Hitoshi would have to do is insult him and then use his quirk. Too bad he had a muzzle on, and the key was god knows how far away. Hitoshi just glared at him and assumed a defensive position. It wasn't as if the small child could fight, though. His eyes darted for the first opportunity to escape.

"Heh, I guess I'll have to get it the hard way," A wicked grin grew on the man's face. His teeth were unnaturally large and sharp, probably due to his quirk. When the man lunged, Hitoshi turned around and closed his eyes in hopes that the man wouldn't bite his arm or god forbid, his neck.

"Get away from him, you fiend!" A voice shouted. Hitoshi heard a thud, but didn't feel any impact. "How dare thee try to lay a hand on a child?"

Hitoshi opened his eyes to see a woman standing in front of him. Her green hair was messy and unkempt and she seemed to have some sort of animal ears and a tail. She was holding a bow and stood defensively in front of Hitoshi. Hitoshi peeked past her to see his attacker dead on the floor with an arrow sticking out of his neck. The woman then turned to look down at him.

"Are you alright, ch—" The woman froze when she got a look at Shinsou. "By the goddess! Why would one muzzle a child like so?"

She knelt down and took an arrow from her quiver. When Hitoshi flinched, the woman only smiled and placed a soft hand on Hitoshi's head.

"Worry not, child. I'm only going to remove that foul thing from thy face," The woman said gingerly as she used the arrow to carefully cut the straps off of the muzzle.

"There. Is that better?" The woman asked as the muzzle fell to the floor.

"I… Are you not scared of me?" Hitoshi knew that there was no reason for the woman to fear him, considering she didn't know his quirk, but it almost felt natural to ask.

"No, young one. I have no fear towards thee," The woman assured, "What is thy name, child?"

"H-Hitoshi Shinsou," The boy managed.

"Well met, Hitoshi. My name is Atalanta," The woman introduced herself. "Do you have a caretaker or a parent I can talk to? I am disappointed in the way they hath treated thee."

"I… no," Hitoshi shook his head. Those… monsters were not his parents, and they never will be.

"I see…" Atalanta rubbed her chin before taking another look at Hitoshi, "Does thou want to live with me?"

"Are you sure?" Hitoshi asked. He was surprised that an adult even offered to take care of him. He knew that his old foster parents only kept him around for the check. "They say that I have a villain's quirk."

"Nonsense. A child is a child, and a child deserves to be happy," Atalanta said with no hesitation. Hitoshi was moved by the amount of conviction in her Hitoshi. At that moment, he knew that he was truly lucky to meet Atalanta.

"I… I think I want to be with you," Hitoshi decided. Atalanta's smile only widened.

"Excellent!" Atalanta looked genuinely happy at the prospect of adopting Hitoshi. "Now, can thou tell me exactly who muzzled thy face?"

Sherlock Holmes looked at the files on his new desk. Two murders. No signs of resistance, each killed by an arrow to a vital. One in the heart, and one in the head. There were fingerprints on the arrows, but it didn't match up to anyone on the database.

When he saw the large, empty cage at the scene of the murder he decided to do some digging. He found out that the two had a foster child, Hitoshi Shinsou, who they caged and muzzled like an animal. All the evidence led to the victims doing such things to the child because of his quirk, and not because he had done anything wrong.

Normally, he would wait for his Noble Phantasm to point him in the direction of the murderer, but he could overlook a case. Just this once.

AN: Well, we're up to the date on the chapters I've already written. I'll work on writing longer chapters from now on. Anyways, I'm taking requests for servants right now. I'm currently kicking around the idea of having Sigurd and Brynhildr, but I'm open to ideas. Thank you for reading! Please R&R!