I haven't eaten an actual dinner in the past two days. Two days ago, it was a dessert buffet at a concert, and yesterday, I went to a movie and just got ice cream afterwards. Normally, I have a massive sweet tooth, but I can't do any more sugar! It's too much! I need real food tonight, but I think we're gonna get pizza. I don't think I've ever dreaded the deliciousness that is pizza so much. But anyway, regardless of my diet, let's get to the story.

I make my way across the drive. On either side, rose bushes without blooms create the boundary between the driveway I walk on and the stone gardens beyond. A long time ago, those stone gardens used to be green gardens, with hedges and flowers and trees. Then Mom died, and for some reason, Dad thought it best to transform her favorite part of the house. It never really bothered me. I think I like the stone gardens better.

Rounding the small marble fountain in the center of the round drive, I step up the small staircase to the front door. I ignore the lion knocker and shove it open. A thinly carpeted expanse filled only by twin staircases greets me. I absorb in the familiarity of it, as well as the abstraction. This house...it's just a house. It's the place I've lived my entire life, and yet, from an early age, I don't think I ever really thought of it as a home. It's just another place I know the ins and outs of.

"Ms. Kyou, welcome home."

I lower my gaze from the second floor to a woman who stands in the arching doorway on my left. Her short, dark hair clips close to her chin, a worn apron covering a particularly nice shirt she's paired with one of her maxi skirts. She must be almost thirty, now, but she doesn't look a day older than the day she started working here.

I cut to the chase. "Why was I sent home?"

"I'm afraid I do not know the details," she replies, head still lowered, "but Mr. Kyou is currently entertaining a few guests in the parlor. They have been here since five. I suspect they might have something to do with it."

"Guests?"

"I believe you should see them for yourself." She finally raises her head, and I avoid her amber gaze. I linger for a moment longer, fingers fiddling with the item in my pocket, then move past the woman to the room behind her. It's a small room, its main purpose being the lengthy window seat spanning the entire front wall. It was never a place I spent much time in, other than cutting through it like I am now. As it was an open doorway to the entryway, it's also open to the main hall running through the mansion's left side, and I take the hall down to the decorated mahogany door at the end. It stands slightly ajar, hushed voices floating out through the crack. One of them, vaguely familiar, has me frowning even before I enter.

The parlor, unlike the little room before, is a place I've spent much of my time in. Although it's technically for entertaining, when it became just me and my dad, we pretty much ceased to have anyone over. That and it's position at the far left point of the house makes it one of the most secluded areas you can be in. On the left, a gaping window spans the length of the room, rounding out into the stone garden beyond. Two large, plush chairs face each other within the glass casing with a small ornate side table between them. Then, running across the length of the room stretches a navy Persian rug over the deep red carpeting, the wall across lined with paintings and bookshelves broken up by candle holders. On the other end, a stone fireplace crackles below a powered off TV, and behind a group of uniform chairs and a matching love seat.

A blonde man and a brunette woman sit on that love seat, a man with slicked, dusty purple hair in the far chair around the coffee table. All three of them have lifted their heads at the groan of the door opening.

The first thing that has me bristling is the presence of All Might. I don't quite close the door behind me, anticipating the need for an escape.

"Welcome home, Megumi." The man in the chair straightens and flashes me an anxious smile. "Why don't you join us?"

I don't acknowledge his invitation other than crossing the carpet and lowering myself into the single empty chair across from him. In the moment of silence following my arrival, I examine the only unfamiliar face in the room. The woman next to All Might, although she has a naturally soft face between her soft curls, has an expression of authoritative business. Her hands are folded neatly in her lap.

"Hello, Ms. Kyou," she greets me without warmth. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Mrs. Fugo, and I work as a counselor for teenagers like yourself. Your school has hired me to talk with you about your recent behavior."

I sink back into my chair and throw one leg over the other. A counselor. Of course they sent me to a fucking counselor.

Seeing my reaction, All Might pipes, "Mr. Aizawa wanted to expel you, but he agreed if you cooperated with Mrs. Fugo, he would give you another chance."

"You're assuming I want to stay at UA."

"Megumi—" I glance up at the man across from me. He's dressed in a suit, but not his usual, sparkly show suit. The suit he wears is the single plain grey suit he owns, his only black tie secured around his neck. I haven't seen him dress this dull since Mom's funeral. His eyebrows are furrowed in a failed attempt to look like a strict parent. "—enough is enough. I let you do what you want because I thought it'd run its course, but you can't keep acting like this." Tears glimmer in the corners of his eyes despite his efforts to contain himself. "Going to the UA was the first thing I've seen you want in years. I beg of you, don't ruin this for yourself."

"Kyou," I turn to the emaciated All Might, "we want you to stay."

He nearly goes on, only to be interrupted by Mrs. Fugo clearing her throat. When the two men have quieted, she sets each hand on a respective knee and meets my gaze, her confidence boiling my blood. "You need to understand your position. I'm sure you are aware that the UA does not normally take transfer students. I'm sure you have surmised that they allowed you in for consideration of your father, but that is not the primary reason they accepted you. You, Kyou Megumi, are on the list of potential villains. Considering the magnitude of you quirk, the UA decided it was best to take you under their care to foster you onto a better path. You must understand that your position is precarious."

I slap an arm down on the armrest, turning the gaze I'd averted to glare at her. Glowering, I snarl, "Do you think I'm an idiot? They shoved me into the highest class, of which I have no reason to be in, and you think I missed why I'm there? I would have to be retarded to think that me having a quirk that has to be looked at and the teacher having a quirk that stops quirks by looking at them were placed together by coincidence."

"If you realize that," she leans forward, hands refolding, "then why do you continue to act up? Do you want to be a villain?"

"Only a fool would want to be hated."

"You should realize you aren't being 'cool' by doing this. Choosing a life in prison is nothing but pitiable."

"If that's all you have to say…" I stand, intending to head for the door.

"I would like to talk about your mother, Kyou Sachiko."

I briefly glance at her out of the corner of my eye. "Nothing to talk about."

"I understand from talking with your father that you were close with your mother."

"And she died. Woe is me.

"Tell me about her."

I turn to leave.

"Let me remind you if you do not cooperate, you will be expelled," All Might states, gentleness gone from his voice. I very nearly stalk out, regardless, but the shape of the syringe in my pocket reminds me of my plan: my goal. Hands shaking from the effort to keep my cool, I whirl and stomp back to my seat, throwing myself down onto it and sending every ounce of hostility I can muster towards the demeaning woman.

"My mother," I begin, voice cold, "was the same as every other mother. I was attached to her, but when she was killed, I got over it."

Seeing I'm leaving it at that, she prompts, "How did you feel about the fact that your father didn't make it in time to save her?"

A sharp intake of breath has me glancing at Dad. Clearly, judging from the tears that have escaped him, he wasn't expecting this to be brought up. Or maybe he was anticipating it, but praying it wouldn't be. I reply without looking away from him. "Never blamed him. He took her death harder than I did."

I look away when his tears start coming faster.

"But as a hero, he was useless."

She's trying to probe me. "He does his work just fine. This house is proof. Sorry to waste your time, but the vendetta you're searching for doesn't exist."

"It's rather apathetic of you to be able to say such a thing concerning your mother. I find it hard to believe you weren't emotional about it," she pushes.

"Ask Dad. I wasn't broken up about it even back then."

"She only cried once," he confirms, wiping his eyes, trying to pull himself together.

"Lack of reaction inclines me to think you poured your emotions elsewhere."

Truth is, I was heartbroken over my mother's death. I just had more pressing concerns at the time. Trying to make it through every day of school without getting ridiculed or beaten was a much more pressing concern to me than the circumstances surrounding her death, so I basically forgot my sadness by the time school started the next day. "If you think I started acting like this as a result of her death, you're wrong. It was years later the first time I got in trouble for fighting."

"Why did you get into a fight, that time you got in trouble?"

I vividly recall the kid, a boy who could send pathetic sparks from his fingers like sparklers. I can still hear his laughter as he grabbed me by the hair, his triumphant exclamation that he had caught the bad guy...just like Endeavor.

I shrug. "Don't remember."

"What about childhood friends?" When I shrug again, she ventures, "Your father tells me when you were little, you were good friends with the Todoroki's youngest." I stiffen, casting a glare at Dad that has him cowering. "I believe his name was Shouto. He's a classmate of yours now, isn't he?"

"He is," I confirm, immediately on guard. "What of it?

"Are the two of you friendly nowadays?"

I watch her through narrowed eyes. "We shook hands and made up. Ask anyone in my class."

Her lips twitch up in a slight, victorious smile, and my lips begin to draw back viciously over my teeth. "Enlighten me. What was it you had to make up for?"

"Fuck you."

"Megumi." Although I'm sure Dad meant to scold me, the word comes out as more of a plea.

"It's quite alright, Mr. Kyou," the woman assures him, sitting up straight. "If she's getting defensive, it means we're getting somewhere."

"If I'm getting defensive," I growl, rising purposefully out of my chair, "it means you had better back off."

"That's where things have gone wrong," she declares decidedly, cool as a cucumber. "Until now, people have 'backed off' when you got like this. Ms. Kyou, you are not the most dangerous thing in the world, and you cannot do whatever you like. Whether your quirk is powerful or not, you are confined to the same rules as the rest of us. If you act as though you are not," her smile widens triumphantly, "then you are the definition of a villain."

There it is. That's what I was waiting for. Adults always restrain themselves to saying I'm on the path to becoming a villain, that I'm acting like a villain, but this is what they always actually mean to say. From the very beginning, to the eyes of every single person I have ever met, I was already a villain.

Even to my parents.

Shouto was the only one who saw me differently.

"I'm done," I bite in disgust. Pivoting on my heel, I rant as I storm to the door. "I've stayed long enough. If you still want to expel me, do it already! But I did comply to this level of revoltingly invasive analysis! I did sit and let this bitch worm around and try to figure me out, so don't you dare say I didn't comply!" When I reach the door, I flip a look over my shoulder, eyes locking with the brunette counselor even as I snark, "Have a wonderful rest of your day, Mr. All Might."

The door being as dense as it is, the walls rattle when I yank it shut. Eyes wide with rage, breaths quaking in my seething, I fume down the halls. When I make it to the stairs, the maid attempts to follow me to the second floor. Without glancing back at her, I hiss, "You are dismissed, Kana."

I can see her bow even without looking, her mannerisms so familiar I can guess at them. I fly the rest of the way up the stairs and slam the door to my room.

In solitude, I lean back against the door and try to even my breathing. The imprint of the conversation, however, pricks like a ball of thorns in my mind, constantly tearing my irritations open afresh. That woman's accusatory tone, the way she treated me like a wild animal to be tamed, the way she acted as if she'd won when she discovered a weak point.

The reminder of the hatred I've only once failed to receive.

The reminder that now, even that one person is lost to me.

Anger coursing through me, I shove off the door and jerk out the box from under my bed. The flaps rip as I force it open, pages crumpling as I dig in my hands and chuck the books and papers across the room. Handwritten notes detailing the histories of top heroes, I crush into balls and hurl. Printed articles on spectacular heroic rescues, I shred and let fall to the ground. I only pause when, with all the kids books about heroic aspirations scattered and destroyed, a small figurine lies uncovered at the bottom of the box. Hand shaking, I reach in and lift the doll, turning the proud, grinning face to face me. I think of the bony, frowning man downstairs—

—and snap off his head.

This chapter went on a whole page longer than I usually write, but a lot of it's dialogue, so it probably looked like more to me than I actually wrote. So we got more insight as to her family situation and upbringing here. I can't wait to dig into even more detail in chapters to come, because obviously, a lot has shaped who she is now. But what do you guys think? What do you imagine Megumi to be like as a child? I've given you some background, but I haven't really addressed her specifically, so I'm curious! Also, I have an interesting idea I want to implement next chapter, so hopefully that'll happen. I'll tell you in the next afore note if it does. But look forward to that, and I'll see you guys then!