The Yaoyorozus were the richest family in Aichi prefecture-if not the entire country.
It caused a small scandal among high society when their daughter Momo turned down the easy life of an heiress to become a hero. After she got accepted into UA through recommendation while everyone else was still preparing for the entrance exam, the entire town heard about it-including one hungry thief looking for a big score.
Ren sat crouched behind a bush in the Yaoyorozus' garden. He'd been there for the past several hours, still as a statue while he watched sports cars and limousines streamed into the grand courtyard. Men in tuxes and women in fancy dresses stepped out from each car and into the mansion, from which the sound of a whole private orchestra could be heard.
Being the rich people with way too much money to spend that they were, Mr and Mrs Yaoyorozu had decided to hold a grand ball at their Nagoya mansion to celebrate their daughter's achievements before they all moved to Musutafu.
If there was ever going to be a time to strike, it'd be tonight. The internal security measures would be turned off tonight thanks to all the guests and servants running about.
Sure, it was risky, but Ren had spent the past nine months sleeping in alleyways and abandoned buildings. His last meal was a bit of cartilage gnawed off a chicken bone from a KFC dumpster. At this point he was just crazy enough to try.
The last of his money had just been spent on a public shower and a laundry service for his clothes. All the stealth in the world won't mean shit if people could smell him coming. He could only hope that his hungry stomach wouldn't give him away by growling at a bad time.
Once all the guests had arrived and the courtyard was empty, Ren got to work.
He straightened his empty backpack and scratched his nocturnal eyes under his goggles, before pulling out his makeshift blowgun.
The entire thing had been jury rigged from a half inch pvc pipe and a bit of electrical tape. Its darts were equally crude, having been crafted from hot glue, post-it notes, tape, and nails of varying sizes.
Not exactly the classiest tools for a cat burglar, but they got the job done.
Ren grabbed one of his darts and tethered himself to it with his quirk, Tether-Step. The moment he did, he was able to sense everything within a five metre radius of it, from the ants scurrying under his feet, to the squirrels in the tree beside him, to the outline of his own body holding his tethered dart. It had become a portable sonar, perceivable only by his neural link with it.
He jammed the tethered dart into his blowgun and aimed it high into the air. With lips pressed against the mouth of the blowgun, he released a single explosive breath that sent the dart flying.
The dart's tiny silhouette was barely perceptible as it shot across the night skies. Its sharpened tip pierced the brick of the mansion's chimney, well away from any of the CCTV cameras. Just what he was aiming for.
Satisfied with the position of his tether, Ren sucked in another deep breath and vanished in a puff of black mist only to instantly reappear on the Yaoyorozu mansions' roof next to his dart.
The 'Step' of his Tether-Step quirk allowed him to teleport to any empty space sensed by his tethered object's sonar. Though he could create up to five tethered objects at a time, teleporting to any of them severed all his tethers.
He took a moment to catch his breath. Teleporting required him to expend some of the air in his lungs each time. Doing so in quick succession could easily leave him breathless, though he thankfully rarely ever found the need to do so.
Ren plucked his dart off the chimney and shoved it back in his ammo pouch. He sheathed his blowgun and allowed his swift feet to glide over each slippery roof tile with seamless grace honed from years of breaking into places he shouldn't be.
Upon reaching the back ledge of the mansion, Ren gently dropped himself down and started climbing down by the gaps in the bricks, staying in the blindspots of the CCTV cameras. His silky black cat's tail slid out from under his hoodie to help him along.
While he didn't inherit his late mother's cat claws, ears, or heightened sense of smell, he did inherit the strength and agility that came with her feline quirk, nocturnal eyes to see in the dark, and a long tail that helped him keep balance while climbing. They weren't quite as flashy as his Tether-Step, but they've saved his hide more than once.
Ren carefully lowered himself beside a top floor window, avoiding its view in case anyone was watching on the other side. He reached a hand into his pocket to touch a regular pebble that he tethered himself to. The mental sonar it produced allowed him to sense everything within five metres of it-including through the walls.
After sensing no one on the other side, Ren allowed himself to lean over for a peek. Inside was a grand red carpeted hall lined by pricey-looking paintings and decorated end tables between mahogany doors.
There wasn't a guest or servant in sight. The former were probably restricted to the ground floor by their hosts while the latter were focused on tending to tem. Perfect time and place to strike.
Ren used his tether on the pebble to teleport himself to the other side of the window in a puff of black mist.
The pebble didn't teleport with him. Instead it remained outside, at the exact same spot in the air it had been while his pocket was still around it. It promptly fell onto the ground, unnoticed by anyone.
As he traversed the empty hallway, Ren pulled out a one-yen coin which he tethered himself to. It was all the money he had left in the world and it was about to help him make a whole lot more.
The entire mansion had been built by a famous architect before being auctioned off to the richest families in Japan. In the end it was the Yaoyorozus who placed the winning bid and made the place their home.
Since the auction had been open to the public, Ren had an easy time looking up the layout and blueprint of the place by just searching for it at the local library. The research he did gave him plenty of ideas for where to look.
Ren stalked the halls with light steps of a master thief until he arrived at the second largest bedroom in the mansion according to the original blueprints. This was probably the bedroom of Momo Yaoyorozu, the family's heiress and soon to be hero student of UA. She probably has all sorts of valuables in there that she can afford to part with.
Naturally, the door was locked. No surprise there. She probably had it locked before going down to attend the ball being held in her honour. Not that that would stop him.
Ren could sense a bit of the room through the wall with the tethered coin's sonar in his pocket, but the five metres didn't even cover a fraction of the entire massive room.
He slid half of his tethered coin under the door before flicking it hard into the room. The mental sonar attached to it allowed him to partially sense the layout of the room as it glided across the hardwood floor. There didn't seem to be anyone in the room from what he could sense, but then again it was pretty damn big so it couldn't hurt to be sure.
The tethered coin slid beneath an enormous empty bed. After taking a deep breath, Ren teleported himself on top of the coin, beneath the bed, and looked left and right to make doubly sure no one was in the room.
Momo Yaoyorozu's bedroom was even more ridiculously large than he thought. Even well-off families would be lucky to be able to afford an entire flat the size of just her bedroom. Meanwhile Ren was lucky if he could spend a night in an internet cafe cubicle smaller than her bed.
Once he was sure he was alone, Ren grabbed his one-yen coin and crawled out from under the bed. He tethered himself back to the coin and placed it on top of a dresser. The sonar instantly allowed him to make out the contents inside it. Upon sensing that there was nothing but clothes and undergarments inside, he picked up the coin and moved on to something else.
The less things of a mess he made, the less evidence he left behind. The less evidence he left behind, the less likely he'd be caught.
If he got really lucky then Momo Yaoyorozu won't even realise she'd been robbed and just assume that she'd simply misplaced all her valuables. It's not like she couldn't just buy more to replace them anyways.
Ren placed the coin on a nightstand and hit the jackpot. He opened the bottom drawer and found a jewellery box that should sell for enough money to keep him fed and sleeping under a roof for the next year or so. There was a lock in it, but he could just pick it open later.
He grabbed the jewellery box and was about to shove it in his backpack when he noticed a neatly folded letter that had been hiding beneath it. Curiosity got the better of him and he picked up the letter to read it. He'd gone through all the trouble of teaching himself how to read after all. Might as well make some use out of it.
Dear Momo,
These jewels were given to me by your grandfather the day we were married. I will be seeing him again soon, and I don't think he would mind it if you were to wear them when I no longer can. You'll grow up to be a fine hero one day, I'm sure of it. I believe in you, my little Momo.
-Love, Grandma
Ren stared at the letter for a moment. The high quality paper was soft and fine. So much so that it kept even the tear stains of the person who first read it. He took another look at the jewellery box and realised that it was a genuine vintage. Easily decades old judging by the style of craftsmanship, but kept in mint condition by loving hands that refused to let it collect dust.
The jewellery box and all its contents could fetch for a much higher price than he'd initially thought.
But it won't do for something so beloved to be sold off to someone who couldn't appreciate its true value. Ren got the feeling that this was the sort of thing that the Yaoyorozus couldn't replace no matter how much money they had.
He folded the letter back to the way it had been and placed it back in the drawer, followed by the jewellery box on top of it.
Ren was a good thief. Good enough that he could afford to be a bit pickier with what he stole. Trying to sell stolen jewellery was a hassle anyways. He'd have to find a black market vendor or a fence willing to take it off his hands for way below the market price, and he trusted those guys about as far as he could throw them.
Hard cash was always preferable, and that shouldn't be in short supply in the mansion either.
Ren placed his tethered coin on the other nightstand and was elated when he sensed the outline of a fancy purse.
"Come to papa," he whispered to himself as he pulled open the drawer and grabbed the purse he sensed.
Inside was an equally pricey looking wallet that had an entire stack of one million yen bills, all freshly printed and still smooth. Sticking out of the card holders were Momo Yaoyorozu's student ID for her former middle school, at least five membership cards for dessert shops, and way more credit and debit cards than anyone should ever need.
"Posh little shite," Ren muttered to himself as he gutted the wallet and tossed all the money inside his backpack.
This was enough cash to tide him over for at least a year or so. But now that he'd gone to all the trouble of infiltrating the house of one of the wealthiest people in the country, he might as well make sure his pack was filled before he left.
He teleported himself back out of the bedroom by sliding his tethered coin out under the door and stalked down the hallway looking for the master bedroom.
When he found it, he entered it the same way he did Momo's bedroom and quickly discovered a hidden mechanical safe behind a giant family portrait.
Years of practice made cracking the thing about as easy as tic tac toe. The fact that Ren could use his mental sonar to sense the exact shapes and movements of the interior mechanism didn't hurt either.
His gloved fingers slowly twisted the safe's dial, alternating between left and right whenever he sensed something click in the locking mechanism.
Soon the safe swung open and Ren was greeted by more money than he'd ever seen in his life. Countless ten thousand-yen bills kept in banded stacks fat enough to bludgeon someone over the head with. Why anyone would ever need this much hard cash on hand when online banking is a thing was beyond him, but he wasn't about to complain.
"You rich fucks won't miss a dime," Ren muttered to himself as he tossed stack after stack of cash into his canvas backpack.
Even after his bag was full to bursting, there was still enough cash left in the safe to feed a small town for a lifetime.
But this was already more money than he could've ever hoped for, and his bag was already heavy as is. There was no point in trying to take all of it with him and risk being weighed down and caught during his escape.
Ren took some time to rearrange the cash stacks left in the safe, neatly lining them up the same way they had been with the missing chunk hidden at the very back of the safe. By the time Mr. Yaoyorozu figures out he'd been robbed, if he ever does, it'd be far too late to do anything.
It was mind boggling to think that this was the way some people lived. When Ren was eight and newly homeless, he tried to get money by begging near a metro station.
Sometimes a kind soul would toss him a coin or food which he would gratefully scarf down for a rare meal that didn't come from a garbage can. Other times kids his age or older would beat the living snot out of him for shits and giggles because they knew they could get away with doing it to a stray like him.
The rich types, the ones in bespoke suits and expensive watches, didn't even look his way. On the rare occasions their gaze did accidentally land on him, it'd be quickly averted.
Any one of them could have done something to help.
Gave him some money to eat for the day. Stopped to wonder what a child was doing out begging by himself. Maybe even helped him get into an orphanage that didn't exploit the children they were supposed to protect.
None of that matters now though. Nothing matters now but his next meal and his next bed.
Ren wasn't one to judge anyways. If he had their wealth, he figured he'd probably prioritise his own life and foremost as well.
He closed the safe back up, leaving the dial exactly the way it had been before placing the family portrait back over it.
Unless the Yaoyorozus regularly opened their safe to count their cash, which he highly doubted they did, then they wouldn't even notice anything's changed.
Ren a tethered pebble out the master bedroom's window before closing it back shut.
Then, he teleported beside the pebble on the courtyard grounds and slinked away into the night with a backpack of hard cash rocking side to side on his back. He now had enough money to feed and house him for the rest of his life if he could keep it safe.
A house or apartment still wasn't in the cards. You needed to have a social security number and an ID card for that, and Ren had effectively been an unperson for the past nine years.
But he'll be able to sleep in internet cafes with actual beds instead of cardboard boxes now. After a few years, once he's grown up enough to pass for an adult with anyone needing to check for an ID, he might even be able to sleep in actual hotel rooms.
Things were finally looking up.
Then, just as he was about to slip away to his comfy new life, an unsightly scene in the courtyard caught his eye.
A man in a fancy suit, presumably a guest, was in the courtyard with one of the Yaoyorozus' maids. It seemed like a secret rendezvous in the garden away from prying eyes. The sort of scene you'd find between star crossed interclass lovers in a cheesy romance novel. Or at least it would be if the poor girl didn't look so damn terrified as the man ran his unwelcomed hands over her trembling body.
Ren felt the world slow down around him. The black fur on his cat tail bristled with anger and apprehension.
This had nothing to do with him. He could just ignore what was happening and leave with his stuffed backpack of cash. A golden opportunity like this wasn't going to come around again anytime soon.
Someone else could come along to help the poor girl instead. Someone who can afford to show their face without being chased out at knifepoint.
He could just leave this place behind. Forget what he saw and comfortably live the rest of his life with stolen money that won't even be missed. He could just…
The tip of the creep's right hand grazed the hem of the girl's skirt uniform. He was about to reach underneath it when he felt a tiny makeshift blowgun dart fly straight into his shoulder.
The man let out a yelp of pain. He retracted his right hand from the girl to touch where he thought he'd been stung by a bee. The girl seized the opportunity and pried herself away from his grasp before running back towards the mansion.
"Get back here you damn tease!" shouted the man as he ran after the girl.
He was about to grab the girl's collar just as she was about to make it inside when a puff of black mist clouded his vision. Someone's knee came flying out from the mist immediately afterwards, smashing straight into his nose.
This was the biggest, most idiotic decision Ren had ever made in his entire thieving career and he knew it. But now that he's chosen his cards, he might as well go all in. It'll be a good opportunity to let loose if nothing else.
The moment Ren's feet hit the ground, he shot his leg up straight into the creep's crotch.
His eyes nearly popped out of his head. His open mouth let out a high-pitched whimper as his knees buckled under him. It was a comical sight, but Ren knew better than to underestimate someone who was twice his size and not starving.
For all he knew the creep might have some overpowered quirk that will obliterate him the moment he lets his guard down. Best make sure he can't retaliate at all.
Ren grabbed him by the ears, pulled his head down, and slammed another flying knee into his face, shattering his nose and forcing him to stumble backwards.
Not wanting to lose his momentum and with a lot of pent up frustration he needed to release, Ren kept up the offensive by elbowing the man in the jaw before push-kicking him in the solar plexus.
The man, blindsided by the sudden assault, tripped over himself. When he crashed backwards through the mansion window into the ballroom full of high society socialites, Ren realised that he'd just fucked up again.
The party stopped. The orchestra ceased their playing to look at the broken window, the beaten up guest, and the scrappy stranger standing outside with his face hidden behind a mask and goggles.
Momo Yaoyorozu, the girl of the hour herself, stood not ten feet away in a long evening dress with heels. She stared at him with an incredulous look and a half-eaten apple tart in her hand.
"M-monster…" murmured the creep Ren just beat up through his broken jaw as he lay on a bed of broken glass.
"Uuuh…" Ren's copper-orange eyes darted around from behind his tinted goggles.
Upon deciding that no amount of smooth talking could save him from an imminent asswhooping, Ren turned around and hightailed it out of there. His cash-filled backpack bounced up and down as he ran. Hopefully it wouldn't spill open while he was making his escape.
The party erupted into chaos as everyone struggled to process what just happened. Ren kept running as quickly as his emaciated body could take him.
"Get back here you villain!" shouted a girl's voice behind him.
Ren didn't waste time looking behind him. He could already tell that it was probably Momo Yaoyorozu chasing him.
An aspiring hero like her wasn't likely to take a stranger waltzing into her home and beating up one of her guests lying down.
He ran straight through the courtyard with Momo on his tail. When they neared the walls separating the estate ground from the rest of the city, Ren reached into his back pouch and pulled out a home(less)made shuriken he'd cut out of some scrap metal with a hacksaw.
They weren't nearly as accurate as his blowgun darts but were much easier to send flying while on the move and running out of breath.
Ren tethered himself to the shuriken before throwing it like a miniature frisbee over the estate walls. The moment it was on the other side, he teleported himself to it in exchange for a bit of the air in his lungs and kept running.
He finally spared a glance behind him hoping to see no one there. Instead, he was greeted by the sight of Momo Yaoyorozu vaulting over the walls of her estate in all her finery using a longass metal staff that came seemingly out of nowhere.
'Seriously?!'
Ren swore under his breath. He knew Momo Yaoyorozu's quirk allowed her to create anything she knows the molecular structure of, but the trash tabloid magazine he learned that from didn't mention she'd be so goddamn athletic
The chase was starting to take them into the city. He was just able to outpace Momo with the abnormal speed given to him by his feline mutation, but he was encumbered by his loot and on the brink of starvation while she was in tiptop shape.
Time to change the playing field into something more suitable.
Ren ran into an alleyway he knew to be a dead end. He could almost feel Momo Yaoyorozu's smug smile on his back when she thought he'd just made a blunder. It was just a shame that he couldn't spare the time to see the look on her face when he ran up a wall and started climbing the building.
Momo might be generally fit, but parkour climbing was a very specific skill that needed extensive training or firsthand experience to master.
Ren scaled the building in a matter of seconds, hopping off railings and pulling himself up ledges until he reached the top. He ran across the rooftop and threw a bunch of caltrops behind him on the off chance that Momo also knew parkour.
Well, he called them caltrops, but they were just metal jacks with the ball points filed down to sharp spikes. Unless Momo has been chasing him in heels, she was probably barefoot. Even these makeshift caltrops should be enough to deter her from following him any further if she did somehow make it to the rooftops.
Sure enough, Momo Yaoyorozu came vaulting after him on a long metal pole that was growing out of her palm. Apparently she can keep her creations attached to her body so long as they're still in the process of forming
"Stop right there, villain!" shouted Momo in the cheesiest stereotypical hero voice in existence. She's probably practised that exact same line in the mirror a million times hoping to use it one day.
Ren leapt over an eight metre gap between rooftops with her dad's money on his back before turning around to flip her the bird. In her anger, Momo didn't notice the caltrops laid out on the ground.
The smug grin on Ren's face vanished into a look of abject horror when instead of stopping dead in her tracks like he intended, Momo Yaoyorozu continued to stumble forwards off the ledge of the four-storey building.
The world slowed down around him once again. And this time, he didn't hesitate to act.
Ren's body moved on its own. He tossed the heavy backpack of his stolen loot onto the ground and leapt at Momo to tackle her away from near-certain death. His body collided with hers in mid-air and his bony arms wrapped around her as they both crashed into the side of a building.
There was a soft crack as Ren's shoulder popped out of place. The air was forced out of his lungs when he dropped onto a slanted roof back-first, followed by Momo falling on top of his chest.
She was surprisingly heavy for a girl with such a nice figure. Or perhaps Ren was just weaker than he realised. A lifetime spent eating food from vending machines and restaurant dumpsters didn't exactly leave him with much muscle mass to speak of.
Ren held Momo to his chest with his remaining good arm and planted the soles of his shoes against the slanted metal hoping to slow their descent.
No luck.
They continued to slide down the slanted roof. Ren closed his eyes and threw Momo on top of him as he slided down on his back. If nothing else, he could allow his body to break her fall.
Krrrrrk!
The sound of screeching metal pierced his ears. His descent slowed.
Ren hesitantly opened one eye, unsure of what he would see. Momo was on top of him, her sweating, wide-eyed face inches away from his. Her heart was beating so fast that he could feel it thumping against his own chest.
He averted his gaze to one side and saw that she'd stabbed a quirk-created knife into the metal slanted roof to stop their fall just shy of the ledge.
"You saved me," said Momo in between heavy pants.
"Against my better judgement, yes," said Ren before immediately wincing from a pain in his chest. Something was definitely broken. "You holding tight onto that knife?"
"Yeah," said Momo, still in a daze.
"You sure you won't let go of it?" Ren asked.
"I'm sure." Momo seemed to calm down a bit.
"No matter what happens, you won't let go?" Ren asked again. "Absolutely, totally sure?"
A look of annoyance spread across Momo's pretty face. Her grip on the handle of her created knife tightened.
"I'm sure," she repeated. "So stop worrying."
"Good," said Ren before immediately sucker punching her in the jaw.
True to her word, Momo kept her grip on the knife's handle as Ren slipped out from under her.
He pulled another makeshift shuriken out of his pouch, tethered himself to it, and tossed it at the ledge of the building he'd leapt from.
But when he tried to suck in air to teleport to it, he found himself unable to. A sharp, constant pain pierced his back and every breath he took was short and ragged. His lungs wheezed inside his chest like a bleating goat.
'I must've collapsed a lung during the fall,' he thought to himself.
Beside him, Momo was recovering from the sucker punch. She reached out her free hand to grab him with teeth clenched in anger. No time to hesitate now.
Ren slid down to the edge of the slanted roof and propelled himself off it with what little strength remained in his scrawny legs.
He reached out to grab the fire exit railings only to remember halfway through the jump that his right shoulder was still dislocated.
'Oh, shit.'
The last of his meagre strength was spent grabbing and holding onto the railing with his left hand while his right dangled uselessly off his popped shoulder.
Without the strength left to pull himself up, it wasn't long before his hand slipped and sent him plummeting down. Something in his ribcage cracked as he crashed into a metal awning that dented under the impact and gave away for him to continue his fall.
'Land on your feet, land on your feet, land on your feet, land on your feet!'
Ren twisted his body in midair, trying to relax his body as much as possible to minimise the damage. He bent his knees before the soles of his feet planted hard into the ground and allowed his body to tumble onto his side to avoid hurting his back.
His other shoulder smashed against the cold ground. It hurt like all hell, but the pain reminded Ren that he was still alive. That was something to smile about at least.
"Ha...ha-ha…"
Ren let out a soft, wheezing chuckle through his collapsed lung. The lack of oxygen going to his head caused dark clouds to encroach upon his vision as his mind went loopy.
"Nice try, gravity," he muttered under his breath before his consciousness slipped away.