Chapter 3 – Enter: Shiyano Monoki

Thinking

"Talking to the voice"

Years later

Sighing, Shiyano Monoki walked down the street, not anticipating the unavoidable scolding he would receive when he returned home, or the closest thing to one he had.

To be precise, the teen had been living inside a government-funded project and research centre for the past what… eleven years? He wasn't quite sure, he was now fifteen years old and had been living there for almost as long as he remembered, but one thing he was certain of was that he had been there a long time, at least ten years.

Well, he was technically living inside a "government-funded youth damage prevention centre" or simply Project 4511 as they were now known as, but it was more of a prison mixed with a training and brainwashing complex that anything else.

He was there because of his incredibly powerful, yet dangerous quirk and, the government, not wanting him to become a villain or to a "threat to society" had put him there, training him to control his power and trying to brainwash him to become their little puppet and soldier.

Under any other circumstances, it might've worked, he had been under their care for as long as he could remember, but his circumstances were anything but normal, there was no hope of brainwashing him and manipulating him like that as long as the voice was there, it was way too prideful for that, and it valued freedom above all. Or the closest thing to freedom it could have.

And why was he so dangerous that he needed to be imprisoned in this facility? That probably was linked to the fact that he had accidentally destroyed a whole district and killed more than five-hundred people. When he was four. The Okozaki Disaster, as it was known.

All in all, that summed up his current living situation pretty well, he was constantly being controlled, monitored and watched.

Always.

But they gave him to the illusion of freedom and privacy. All because they feared him. Well, not him but his power.

Anyways, that still doesn't explain why he was "fearing" a scolding. And that was why today he had destroyed yet another of his uniforms. And, most importantly, had gotten into another fight.

It was not his fault that guy who thought he had a powerful quirk had tried to intimidate him, and, if there was one thing Shiyano didn't like, it was people trying to bully him, or disrespecting him in general. The fact that his quirk had been particularly bloodthirsty lately certainly hadn't helped, it made him particularly short-fused. The voice simply wouldn't let him alone if it didn't see a bit of blood or cause a bit of pain.

So he taught the guy a lesson, quick, but not painless, one that he would remember. Honestly, he didn't feel any remorse about it, really, because the guy certainly wasn't an angel, he was more than a dick in fact. He could often be found bullying people "weaker" than him, stealing amongst other questionable acts.

He had taken his baseball bat, met with him inside a narrow, isolated and dark alley, and broke a couple of his bones, and caused him enough pain to remember him and hopefully not bully anymore.

Without using his quirk, of course, he wouldn't see the light of day again if he used it on civilians, and anyways, he couldn't really use it a lot, except for basic shadow manipulation and enhanced strength and durability.

The five metal rings on his right arm, quirk suppressing rings to be precise, made sure of that. He was only ever allowed remove them when he was training inside a specific room in Project 4511 or if he was in life-threatening danger.

Otherwise it was just too dangerous, he could control his quirk, but only to an extent, and he couldn't really control the madness inducing effect of it or the fact that all light seemed to die whenever he used his quirk.

What exactly was his quirk?

Officially it was named Underwrorld and was a quirk that made his body a connection to a mirror dimension of the earth, the Underworld. Using it allowed the Underworld to take ahold in this dimension, thus the plethora of effects that came when he used it.

Of course, there were plenty more aspects of it that he only knew, including the voice. He wouldn't go tell quirk scientists and government agents whose missions was to ensure that he wouldn't become a villain that he had a voice in his head constantly telling him to go kill people, it probably wouldn't end well for him. Also, Shiyano didn't really have an incentive to tell them anything, they already knew enough if you asked him.

Back to the present, his uniform was bloodied, cut -the guy had some kind of blade quirk-, and the voice wouldn't shut up, it still craved for blood. And he wasn't about to go attack some innocent random guy, Shiyano always prided himself better than the people he beat up, though not always by a large margin. He wasn't a particularly good guy and he knew it.

As he continued to walk toward Project 4511, he wasn't surprised when people gave him strange looks, nor did he care.

It wasn't every day that you saw a tall, muscular and bloodied teen with snow-white hair in tattered clothes walking without a care in the world, with an, also bloodied, baseball bat on his shoulder. Shiyano had to admit, he totally rocked the juvenile delinquent look.

A mother moved away from him in a hurry with her little girl in tow and Shiyano allowed himself a small smile. It was truly amusing to see everyone act as if he was going to become a villain...sometimes. Though most of the time, it was simply annoying to always be judged. He was used to it now and had learned long ago that it wasn't worth it to listen to them, otherwise he would've probably become a villain. That didn't make it anymore pleasant, though.

He suddenly heard a whine or a shriek of pain, he wasn't sure, coming from a dead end alley not far from himself and thought, Fuck it, the voice still wants blood, my uniform already is destroyed, and I'm already late, so it really won't make a difference if I come back even later, I can deal with this, and the voice maybe will stop bothering me.

"Yes, give me blood, pain and…oh, you're not listening, aren't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know… If only you could stop being so edgy sometimes, people are gonna think I'm some kind of edgy teenager now. I really should start saying quotes like "The Darkness and I are only one", "It was not my fault, it was the voice that told me" or "Are those that I loved are dead, by my hand"."

"You know that they all are kind of true, though? And don't act like you don't enjoy beating people to the ground, you only want an excuse to do so without any repercussions. Isn't it convenient that you can all blame on your quirk's violent tendencies."

"Yeah, shut up."

Finally, he arrived where he had heard the quiet cry of pain only to find a scene he was sadly already quite familiar with, three teens were beating another one, insulting him, this kind of stuff. It disgusted him to the core, and made him want to beat up to bullies.

"Not so tough now you quirkless freak? Oh you're not quirkless? I forgot, your quirk's so useless it would actually be preferable for you to be quirkless…

While both his accomplices laughed, the victim, a short boy with dark blond hair, only curled up on himself even more, silently weeping.

"Pathetic, it seems you need another reminder of who's the best here, and who's the extra," the same one, presumably the leader, spoke again, popping off small explosions on his palm.

The leader had spiky blond hair and tried to look like a delinquent, though he didn't really succeed, mostly because he was too short and not that muscular. He also seemed to have a relatively powerful quirk, he could create explosions from his palms.

In fact, he was the classic bully stereotype: a powerful quirk, a superiority complex because of it, two minions with the same attitude as him but weaker quirks, and he was, of course, bullying someone who wasn't as lucky as him in the genetic lottery, who had a less useful quirk in that situation.

As Shiyano stepped closer to them, his baseball bat in hand, and a small sadistic grin on his face, the three finally noticed him.

"See something you like? Wanna join in? I keep the money, though," the leader spoke, also smiling.

"Sure, sure. I needed to blow off some tension and happened to pass by. So, he's quirkless or just very weak? I prefer them weak, they tend to cry more…" Shiyano answered, slipping into a near perfect bully persona, one that he had mastered over the years.

"Nah, he's got a quirk, only, it's completely useless…I mean, he can talk to sheep, what's the use of that? He's the definition of a sheeple."

The three bullies snickered at the very bad pun before continuing what they were doing, beating the poor guy.

The tall and quite bloodied delinquent got even closer and spun his baseball bat a few times in the air to get the balance right, while the three bullies continued to kick the poor victim, not even looking at Shiyano. The white-haired teen didn't take long to balance his bat and once it was done, he smashed it hard on the blond haired teen, the leader. He didn't put too much power behind the strike, though, the government officials in charge of him didn't like when he caused too serious injuries.

Even then, it promptly broke his opponent's nose, if you could call him that, and sent him straight into the wall, the alley was a narrow one, putting him out of commission in the process. He was still conscious, but wouldn't be in any state to do anything for the rest of the day.

Before any of the two lackeys had the time to process what had just happened, much less react, Shiyano sent a haymaker on one of them with his other hand, the one that wasn't holding the bat, before grabbing his air and smashing him into a wall face first, also knocking him out.

It was all done extremely swiftly, with practised ease, the kind that came from repeating an action hundreds of times. Needless to say, it wasn't the first bully that got smashed into a wall by Shiyano.

Two down, one to go….Though he doesn't look like much and his quirk is quite a disadvantage for him right now, this alley is too narrow for him to properly use his wings, they'll just get in the way. I could use that.

Shiyano looked at the last one standing, waiting for him to realize what had happened, their faces were always funny the exact moment they understood they were in trouble.

The last one had dragon wings, likely his quirk, but they were mostly cumbersome and useless inside this narrow space. As for their owner, he was shaking in fright, it was most likely the first time he was in a real fight, without his friends to 'support' him.

"What...do you want?" He whimpered, looking as if he would wet his pants at any time now, all while slowly backing off, trying to do it stealthily.

Too bad for him, his movements didn't escape Shiyano, and for him, it was a godsent opportunity, one that he wouldn't miss.

He didn't even bother to answer him, stepped forward, grabbed one of the guy's wings and pulled it toward him, causing his entire opponent to come closer. He then simply knee-striked the guy right in the crouch, leaving him a whimpering mess on the floor.

Three out of three, and it didn't even take thirty seconds…I swear these fight are getting easier by the years...

It was only once the fight induced adrenaline wore down that he noticed that the little boy who was getting bullied was still there, watching him with fearful eyes. The second the victim saw him looking in his way, he looked like he would faint, piss his pants, or both.

Not bothering with him, he simply said "scram", causing the little boy to get back on his feet, mumble a weak "Thank you", then scamper as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast considering his current state.

Shiyano took a few seconds to relax now that the fight had ended, getting his heartbeat and emotions back to normal, but was interrupted by a groan.

Oh, it looks like blondie here is tougher than I thought. I'll be impressed if he manages to get on his feet.

The leader, and the first that was dealt with, was indeed trying to get on his feet, maybe to run away, maybe to fight, who knows? But one thing we do know was that he was failing miserably at it.

"What's happening, you can't get back up blondie? Does your nose hurt? Do you want Mommy to put a kiss on it? I'll call her for you if you want."

"Fuck…" he started, but was interrupted by a coughing fit...of blood, "you…"

Just as he finished the two words, which seemed to take a great deal of effort out of him, he fell on the ground again.

"What? I'm not sure if I heard you well, would you mind repeating. If you're strong enough, and not some pitiful and weak extra, of course."

Shiyano approached the down boy and squatted near him, he wasn't even a foot away from the downed blond, but said teen couldn't do anything.

"F…"

He couldn't manage to speak more before a sharp kick hit him in the ribs, causing him to start coughing once again.

"What, can't even manage to talk? How pathetic…even that boy with the weak quirk could talk better than you, isn't that humiliating? To be bested by someone so weak? In fact, I didn't even need to use my quirk to get rid of you, isn't that amazing? It just proves how weakyou are…"

"You…"

Another kick was thrown at the boy, who was now whimpering on the ground, interrupting him once again. And another one. And another one.

Shiyano didn't continue like this for long, though, but still kicked all three of them, making sure to thoroughly destroy their egos, but as he didn't want to injure them too long and it was starting to get boring he decided that it was enough at one point. He didn't want to be too late after all.

So after spitting on the leader one last time, the self-appointed judge, jury and executioner walked away, the voice for once, completely silent, satisfied with the massacre it had just witnessed

Returning 'home', Shiyano did his best to ignore the feeling that he got when he helped that young boy.

It hadn't felt good at all when the boy had thanked him, not at all.

Shiyano was in denial, he wasn't a hero, and never would be.

Inside Project 4511

"You're late again Shiyano…and your uniform's destroyed…another fight, no beating down, isn't it? You should seriously stop, one day the officials here are gonna decide that it's enough…"

The one that had just talked was a slender woman who at least in her sixties, maybe even older, with her gray hair, eyes and stern look. She was looking at Shiyano, who had just entered Project 4511, disapprovingly and was exasperated with him, but she was mostly concerned. She cared about him.

"Come on, Nyie, we both know that the officials all know why, when I come back with a destroyed uniform. They only let it slide because I never go after innocents and that my quirk is "bloodthirsty". They understand that I need to fight."

Nyie merely furrowed her brows at Shiyano's reply and gestured for him to follow her.

"Follow me, I'll treat those cuts, a mean quirk I suppose?"

"Yeah, the first guy could turn his fingers into blades, wasn't expecting that…"

Nyie shook her head, once again exasperated again by this boy, who she now considered to be her grandson.

While she treated his wound she thought about how she had been contacted, more than ten years ago, by the government to be a caretaker for a boy they had responsibility over. At least that's what she was told, but she had deduced more, you don't ask a retired pro-hero to be a nanny for anyone. She had eventually learned that the boy was 'responsible' for the Okozaki Disaster, an 'attack' that had claimed the lives of more than five hundred people.

Of course, she was suspicious, distrustful and didn't like the boy in the beginning, Niye knew some of the heroes who had died in the attack, but she eventually got over it and realized that Shiyano Monoki was just a boy with a really powerful quirk and really bad luck. As the years had passed, she had attached herself to him, and he had attached himself to her, she was the mother figure he didn't have anymore after the attack and he was the grandson she never had.

It was probably for this reason that the government had asked her in particular to 'watch' the boy, so that they would grow closer to each other. After all, if Shiyano was close to her, there was a good chance that he would get some of her heroic values and tendencies, thus not becoming a villain.

And it had worked, at least partially. Shiyano maybe wasn't totally cut out to be a hero, but he would never become a villain. In fact, the boy in question just hoped for a quiet life, but knew it would be impossible.

The retired hero shook herself out of her thoughts once she had finished treating the wounds on Shiyano's body, it wasn't anything serious, only some shallow cuts that bled a lot but weren't anything threatening, the boy was too experienced to suffer more than this at the end of mere bullies.

Just as she prepared herself to scold him one last time for his injuries, someone knocked on the door of the infirmary they were in. She opened it, only to be greeted by an official who spoke as soon as she opened.

"Director Yuio wants to speak Monoki. Be in his office in five minutes."

As soon as he was finished speaking, he left without as much as a single glance behind him.

"I wonder what Director Yuio wants to talk with me about…"

"He'll probably punish you again because you beat up another bully. I told you it would come and bite you in the ass someday."

"Yeah, let's hope it's not that…"

As his wounds were treated, Shiyano made his way toward the office, which was quite further ahead in the complex, not wanting to make Director Yuio wait. The Director wasn't someone mean or cruel, but he was busy and not particularly patient. You didn't want to make him wait.

Four minutes and a couple of seconds later, Shyiano was in front of the Director's office, and knocked on the door, swallowing his nervousness.

He didn't want to admit it, but yes, he was slightly nervous, the Director was an intimidating man and Shiyano knew he frequently broke rules, though he was careful to never do anything too serious.

Maybe I crossed the line without realizing it…Maybe...

"Don't worry, we can always reduce this building to nothing if you really want to get away, it would do both of us a lot of good, if you ask me."

"Yeah, that's why I never ask you anything…"

"One day…"

Their conversation was interrupted when the door opened, a gesture meaning that the delinquent teen could finally come in.

He entered, and was relieved to see that Director Yuio didn't look like he would scold him. The man himself, fifty-ish years old and slightly balding, motioned for him to come and sit in front of him.

"Do you know why I asked to see you, Monoki?" Director Yuio asked, his voice grave.

"Hmmm, no?" The teen replied, confused.

"I also imagine you don't know about the seventy-four incidents in which you were involved in the last year, more than fifty of which required people to go to the hospital?" He continued.

"Well…they weren't innocent and we both know, I can't really control it sometimes…I need to fight, y'know…"

"Yes, and it's been…concerning for the higher-ups, we don't want you to become a villain after all. So we had to do something."

Shiyano stayed silent, waiting for his interlocutor to continue his explanation, but secretly worried about it.

"At first, we thought about sending you to a hero school, but the risk you posed was too great, what if you got out of control while in a school full of tomorrow's heroes, it would be a bloodbath, and we can't lose a generation of heroes. And there was also the fact that you aren't exactly hero material."

"We didn't know what to do," he continued, "we could keep you here, but it would be quite pointless in the end, you need social contact, you are human, no matter what others might say."

"We were in a bind, then, a disturbing piece of news got our attention. A student who had been accepted into U.A. had several sexual harassment charges filed against him. The school, of course, promptly expelled him, we don't need a hero like this.

The more the Director spoke, the more confused and perplexed Shiyano grew, they couldn't send him into a hero school, they both knew he wasn't cut out to be a hero. Shiyano didn't have self-esteem issues and anything, it wasn't that which made him think he wasn't a hero, but the fact that he liked to hurt people, to make them bleed, and wasn't self-sacrificial at all, he didn't have hero values.

Yes, he did always go after bullies, but that's because they deserved it, not because… And he did feel a nice feeling when he saved someone…Oh…I see.

As if he was reading his thoughts, the Director continued.

"So that left a spot in U.A.'s hero course open. That didn't solve our problem from earlier, though, how would we control you, you are dangerous. However, we remembered something, All Might is teaching at U.A. this year, and if there was someone that could control you, it was him. Also, a teacher has the ability to cancel quirks, but we have no idea how it would react to your quirk and don't really want to know, so…"

"I then talked with U.A.'s principal a bit, and we both agreed that you weren't completely hopeless as a hero, you still help people, and only beat up the bad ones, that's more than certain pros. We agreed that you have potential…"

"So prepare yourself, you're going to U.A.! Oh and…you start in three days, be ready.

"WHAT?"