Otoboros

by Nobodythestormcrow

Oto would thrive here, taking in the abandoned, the mocked, the feared, giving those rejected by society through no fault of their own dignity, purpose and belonging. In short, Orochimaru gets reincarnated into BNHA and the LoV never quite gets off the ground because Orochimaru keeps poaching the talent while Kabuto replaces Mineta and is an enabling enabler who enables.

21. Chapter 21

Ours is a song that sings of personhood.

It is not anything this world is accustomed to, in this age of heroes and villains. It's the undeniable truth that majority or minority, blessed or cursed, of woman born or of stranger birth; anything, everything in between; all these living, thinking, feeling beings-they are all people. They are individuals. When our voices would have been silenced under the clamoring of mobs, we sang instead. One can refuse to see, be blinded by the flashing neon of "HERO", "VILLAIN", "ALL MIGHT", "ENDEAVOR", "DRAGON", "VENEMOUS CHAINSAW", close one's eyes to suffering, one can not choose not to hear. We will be heard, we will not be overlooked, we will not be degraded to mere characters. Be we hero or villain, we would be things, larger than life, upon which society lay their hopes and fears. Instead we will force this world to perceive what lies behind such painted faces, to listen to the past and hear the present, and in the end compose a better future.

This is not a story. We are not the countless irrelevant characters that are the props of the main players. Otogakure is the hidden song now come forth, sung by those who would have been cast aside. Sung in defiance of your willful blindness. Sung in defiance of your expectations. Sung in defiance of your abandonment. We are those that would have starved and struggled and been forced to become villains in your world, born into it only to suffer, rot in prison, and die. We are those you laughed at, turned away from, prophesied dark futures for. We are those who understood the truth of this world and walked away, leaving you to your lotus-eating cheer. We are all of those, who refused to partake and now return, come back to help others to their feet, come back with the proof that there is a better world, one not built upon tragedy and deprivation. This is the song we sing, the requiem of the age of Heroes, and the birthsong of no age at all, but rather a time of persons and peace.