Chapter 300- Like Those Tragic Tales

'I only ever saw heroes on TV… So they were pure fantasy to me. No more real than fiction.' Hawks thought to himself. He was seated in Best Jeanist's personal car, but his mind had raced off elsewhere. He hadn't meant to leave his focus, but given the quiet nature of his driving companion, and the state of his throat (it was scratchy and burned), he didn't have much else to do. Then again, he probably would have started thinking even if he could talk anyways. His mind always had a capacity to be off somewhere else while he handled things in the present.

This time his mind decided to take a trip down memory lane. He thought back to when he was a young boy, in a small run-down shame of a house his parents kept him in as they drove themselves more and more insane. His father had just finished giving him a hard smack for disobeying his rules. The crime? Going outside of the house without supervision.

"You snuck into town and thought you could get away with it, didn't you?! Why you little- !" His father sputtered, taken by paranoia at the news that his son had gone out for a stroll. "WHAT DID YOU DO?! Did you sell me out?! To who?! Don't lie to me!" Hawks could see his younger self look to his mother, her eyes glued to the black TV screen as she fidgeted with the remote control. No help from mommy, once again. Not like she'd do anything useful.

"My feathers were getting all tingly…" The young Keigo explained himself, cooley looking into his father's eyes. His voice was unwavering. "I thought maybe something was happening in town. But the tingling stopped, so I turned around and came home. Nobody saw me."

"Don't you dare lie to me!" His father cried. "Don't go talking to anyone! Don't leave this house- in fact, don't do a damn thing!"

"Dear…" A monotone voice interrupted his rambling. "The TV… Won't work…" His mother had finally decided to join the conversation, but of course only to interrupt it. Like Keigo had predicted: useless. "Hey… Don't leave, okay?"

As his father shouted at his mother, the young Keigo wandered off to the kitchen, some small planks of wood in his hands. His father was no longer shouting at him, he had no reason to stay. He found a corner of the kitchen that was missing its flooring, set down the plank of wood, grabbed some nails and a hammer, and began nailing the wood into place.

'Years ago, my father had killed a guy over some pocket change. Mom harbored him when he was on the lam, and that's how I was born.'

"MOVE IT!" His father shouted as he kicked Keigo, causing the young child to flip around as he dropped his tools. "How many times have I told ya?! Don't turn your back on me!"

"Sorry…" Keigo mumbled, but his father had already taken to muttering to himself as he stood in front of their microwave.

"Relying on Tome's quirk was a mistake… Worse than that, she got herself knocked up… If only that little punk'd never been born, then I'd be free as a bird!"

"Hey… Don't leave, okay?" His mother had called from the TV room. Keigo had taken to sitting in the corner, squeezing his tiny Endeavor doll.

'I had accepted that my parents were broken inside. So I sat there and endured it, hoping to avoid their fate.'

One day, Keigo had snuck out again and returned. But when he entered the house, his mother was alone. She looked him dead in the eyes, and he almost couldn't believe what he heard next.

"He was arrested." She had said. Keigo remembered mimicking the look of shock he saw on his mother's face. "He stole a car… fled… and was arrested… What now, Keigo?"

"Who was he arrested by?" Was all Keigo had thought to ask. His mother breathed heavily for one note… then two…

"Endeavor."

It had almost seemed like his doll had come to life. Endeavor, standing next to Keigo, a hand on his shoulder with his iconic fierce gaze pointed at him. His mother continued to ramble, but all Keigo could do was stare.

'In that moment… fantasy became a reality for me. Heroes were real. One had just saved me. Once the shock had worn off, mom got scared she'd be charged with harboring a fugitive. We left the house that very day. But my mother didn't have the wherewithal to survive in society. I tried to go about things in the right way…'

"Let's go to the police." Keigo sternly spoke to his mother, who was curled up in a ball on the sidewalk of the city. They had been on the streets for far too long, and even she was getting tired of it. They hadn't eaten in days, and they hadn't showered in much much longer.

"Fine." She whispered as she chewed a fingernail. "Whatever it takes to get us some money. You're your father's son, aren't you? Why were you even born? Why do you even have those wings?"

Keigo knew most kids would break down entirely, hearing their parents say that. But he had gotten too used to it by now. All he did was hug his Endeavor doll tighter. It normally did the trick.

A little while later, they had finally spoken with the police. At their office, some representatives of the office spoke with them about a deal that could be made for the two of them.

"We will provide compensation support for you and your entire family." One of the representatives said.

"My entire family…? Does it look like there's anyone else?!" His mother snarled, a wild look in her eyes. He almost wanted to tell her to shut up and not ruin things, but he knew better. These guys were professionals… they could handle her.

"As part of that support, we will erase any connection to the name Takami and allow you to start over." The representative finished.

'Start over…'

"Hawks!"

Hawks hadn't even realized his eyes were closed until he felt them blinking. Damn, did he really conk out? Kind of embarrassing, even if he's recovering. The bandages on his head, arms, and the oxygen mask on his face were reminders of that.

"Just napping?" A teasing voice spoke beside him. Best Jeanist's eyes were on the road, but Hawks could tell his attention was on him. "Good. I feared you were passing on. We'll be arriving shortly." Hawks took out his phone and began typing away on it. A voice from the phone began to translate the words he typed.

"Sorry I got to snooze while you didn't." It said, "Guess my body still wants some time to recover."

"Indeed. Without the medical achievements of the central hospital, you'd still be hovering between this world and the afterlife. It always amazes me what they concoct in the medical field."

Hawks smirked, not that Jeanist could see it. "You know, they're the ones that came up with the formula that put you in your little death trance. They took some inspiration from the Nomus for that one."

"Hmph. THAT one I'm less fond of. Even now, my body feels like distressed denim. And having to pretend to be dead, not being on the job in all that time… It was a frustrating experience altogether, if I may be honest."

"Sorry, sorry. I suggested it since I knew a cheaper trick wouldn't fool them. Besides, it was a success! I delivered your "dead" body to Dabi and got access to their trust and information! Though Dabi was a thorough bastard. He went as far as having your corpse identified. But we didn't really have anything to worry about there… It was YOUR corpse after all."

"What even happened to my body during that time?" Jeanist asked.

"Well, Dabi decided to move you to one of the facilities they controlled from the shadows. Wanted to hang on to your corpse until the perfect time. But little did he know, I managed to revive you at the perfect time for us." Suddenly, Jeanist's attention shifted towards something down the road.

"Brace yourself." He spoke, before swerving the car 90 degrees. Hawks barely had time to register before he was thrown against his seat. He tried to choke out a 'What's wrong?' but it sounded more like a strangled cry. "Nothing much. Just some loose threads that need mending!"

"TODAY, THE GLUTTON GOD GANG RULES DOWNTOWN!" A large masked villain cheered, with several masked cronies around him. Best Jeanist charged down the street in his car, the hood extending two small hatches as he got close.

"Fiber on!" Jeanist called as two large metal wires shot out from the front of his vehicle. He swerved as the wires wrapped around the criminals and hoisted them into the air. Once all the criminals were rounded up, he parked the car and set the criminals down, each of them tied up by their own metal wires.

"Thanks for saving us!" An old, pudgy civilian ran to meet Jeanist, who was fixing his hair.

"Apologies. My condition required this bombastic capture method." Jeanist looked around, and noticed something very off. Even if he had quickly responded to what was happening, there should've been others here… "Where are the police and your local heroes?"

The civilian looked away, a scowl covering up the smile he once had. "They ain't coming." Jeanist paused his hair fixing. "The cops have got their hands full with the escaped prisoners, and all the criticism made the heroes close up shop and skip town."

"Pfft." Another civilian spoke up. "Who needs heroes anyways…" Jeanist noticed that he was trying to hide his arm behind himself, but he could still see it. A support weapon- one that the Detnerat company had made- was attached to his arm.

'Here too?' Jeanist thought to himself. "I shall assign some of my sidekicks to this neighborhood."

This news was met with mixed reactions. Some citizens looked overjoyed at the prospect of new heroes to come help, while others only had looks of skepticism or disbelief. Before much longer, Jeanist got back into the car. Hawks hadn't left the car the whole time; he was just silently typing away on his phone.

'Things are getting out of control… Like a bad sewing job.' Jeanist mused. They needed to act, and fast, but first Hawks had a request for him. It was the whole reason they started driving in the first place.

"Which is it?" Jeanist asked as he and Hawks stepped out of the car. They had pulled into a high-end neighborhood, with villas and fancy architecture surrounding the area. None of its beauty had been touched during or after the war it seemed.

"The big one in the back." Hawks's phone spoke. "Before I recover and show my face in public again… There's something I gotta confirm."

Hawks lead Jeanist to a building with the nameplate "Ukai" written on the front gate. Hawks typed the code into the door's security lock, then pushed it open. Inside, a large and empty living room with only a TV and a few couches inside. There was no sign of life anywhere to be seen on the premises.

"Mom?" Hawks's phone called out. There was no response. Hawks maintained his neutral expression.

"Has she fled?" Best Jeanist asked. Hawks stalked over to a cabinet near the staircase. On it was a note, folded with a hasty scrawl written on the paper. The note read-

"Dear Keigo,

I'm so sorry. Some horrible men barged into the house and threatened me about our family. So I had to tell them about you and your father. I'm sorry. I don't want to cause you more trouble, so I'm leaving. Please be well. I'm so very proud of you."

"So this is how Dabi did it. Sent some thugs out here, and they followed the trail." He thought back to when he first was recruited by the Safety Commission. How they told him that he had to say goodbye to his name, and that his new name would simply be "Hawks". He sighed, and typed out his next message. "I figured the leak must've come from my mom." Jeanist winced.

"How painful… Like a pair of-"

"No. Erasing the Takami name already severed any ties between us. All this just came back to me… But it's actually a relief. With the chairwoman dead, the Safety Commission is effectively shut down. There's no one issuing orders to me." Hawks reached for his mask, and slowly unbuckled it. He removed it and let out a rattled breath. It felt like there were stones in his lungs, but he could breathe properly for the first time since he put that mask on. "I'm free of any shackles." He rasped out.

He thought back to an older memory of him and his mother, her dragging him through a store, a tight grip wrenched on his wrist.

'Your father doesn't need to know about this.' She had said. He wouldn't stop whining about getting out of the house, so she took him to get him to shut up. She had passed by a few superhero merchandise aisles, eventually landing on some Endeavor dolls. 'This one's fine, right? The All Might dolls cost too much…' Keigo had silently nodded, surprised that she was even making such an offer. After checking their items out at the cashier, she handed him the doll. 'Let's hope you grow up as strong as this guy.'

At the time, Keigo had been extremely grateful. He had managed to leave the house, got something new to play with, and seen his mother do something other than stare at a TV all day. He probably could've died happy right then and there. It wouldn't seem like much to most people, but that simple act for him…

Hawks thought about everything he had recently been through. Everything he had done. Becoming a hero, breaking the top 10 in the rankings, meeting Endeavor, infiltrating the Liberation Army, getting the plans to Endeavor, enacting the plans…

Murdering Jin Bubaigawara.

Justifying everything else he had done was easy. But Jin was such a hard case for him. And the world knew how he did it. They didn't know why he did it, and quite frankly he couldn't even be sure if his explanation held up anymore. Jin was a massive danger with his Quirk… But was that all that was needed to justify snuffing his life out? The life of somebody who, all in all, was a good person at heart?

Hawks usually never dealt with doubts like this. The training the hero commission gave him helped him suppress self-doubt, but whether it was because the hero commission was shut down now, or this case hit too close to home, it was weighing more on him than anything else that had happened.

But that wasn't his role in all this. His doubts would have to wait. He knew he had to answer them, but now wasn't the time.

"Jeanist…" Hawks spoke, his voice low and gravelly. "When a person's backed into a corner, or when they're truly free, that's when they show their true nature. That's why I think Bubaigawara was a good guy who was just desperate to be helpful. And I can't help but feel the same way."

Hawks remembered back when he had first used his wings. As a kid, he was walking along the road when a head-on collision between a car and a delivery truck occurred right in front of him. He didn't even remember thinking, but he had sent out his wings to catch and move all the crash victims away from the area, as well as nearby civilians. After doing so, the people thanked him, saying he was a naturally born hero and they couldn't believe someone his age had managed to do something so incredible.

Up until that point, Hawks had never felt so good to be alive. He had hugged the Endeavor doll that had been his constant companion up to that point as tightly as he could. He knew he needed to follow this feeling- the feeling of saving and being saved.

"Even if what Dabi says about the Todoroki family is true… I know that things are different now. People need to understand that."

"Well?" Best Jeanist inquired. "What's your next move?"

"There's a lot for me to clean up. Starting with my origin, so to speak." Hawks faced Best Jeanist, a determined look on his face. "Endeavor's in trouble."