Okay, so this took WAY longer than I expected it to. My bad. With everything going on, and me getting sick, as well as myself getting caught up in other stories, I pretty much forgot about this one. This chapter was hard to write, but I promise it won't take this long for the next one to come out. I had a bit of a dry spell creativity-wise, so I hope you all can forgive me for being so late.

That being said…

WARNING! THIS STORY CONTAINS SCENES/MENTIONS/IMPLICATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING: CANNIBALISM, EXTREME GORE, BULLYING, ABUSE, BRUTAL DEATH, HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION, AND HEAVY BLOODSHED.

IF ANY OF THESE THINGS BOTHER YOU, TURN BACK NOW!

IF THE WARNING DOES NOT APPLY TO YOU…

THIS STORY IS A FAN-BASED FICTION

I OWN NEITHER MY HERO ACADEMIA NOR DEMON SLAYER/KIMETSU NO YAIBA

ALL I OWN ARE MY OCS.

[Vol 1 – 3: Humble Beginnings – Part 3]

The doctor's appointment went the way that Izuku thought it would. All clear. There was no need to worry about any illnesses from the extra organs, no future risk of harm, nothing of the sort. In short, it was a waste of time. Although, he supposed that his mother had every right to be worried about it. Children, or humans for that matter, weren't supposed to have multiple hearts or brains, not even those with mutation Quirks.

Well, his Quirk was considered a "variant type," so maybe he was different. Though, the doctor did say that it was strange and abnormal, even for variant type Quirks. He was booked for another appointment in three weeks so that they could run more tests on him to see what it was that caused the extra organs. In the back of his mind, he wondered why he was going to have another doctor's appointment. He even asked his mother, but she was silent the whole way back home.

The look on her face spoke volumes, though. Inko didn't look worried, but rather, she looked conflicted. There were times during the ride that she would look back at him in the car seat with a questioning gaze, then look back at the road. Izuku paid no mind to it, though he was a bit nervous.

He remembered when he got hit by that truck that she had cried a river of tears. Whether that was hyperbole or not is up to those who interpret it. She knew of his Regeneration, she knew of his bone whips. She knew everything that he knew about himself. The only thing she hadn't known up until today was his extra organs.

The car parked just outside of their apartment building, and as they entered and began their walk up the stairs, he noticed how she looked back at him a few times before then smiling at him. Truth be told, Izuku was worried about his mother. She worked herself to the bone day after day, and he constantly kept her worried about him.

As they entered their apartment, Inko took off her light brown coat and shoes, as did Izuku. Walking past the entrance and into the living room, Inko sat down on the couch and sighed. "Izuku, can we talk?" the greenette asked, causing the younger of the two to look back at her. His red eyes looked her over, noticing the visible worry on her face. There was a bit of hesitance, but he eventually caved, walking over to the opposite couch and sitting in front of her.

"Uh, yes mother? Is there something bothering you?" Izuku asked, raising an eyebrow as his mother frowned. She was silent for a moment. To Inko, learning that her son had multiple brains and hearts hit her like a truck. To her, it was as if the world went to static.

That wasn't normal. It wasn't human. Truth be told, she was able to write off all the nonsense Izuku could get up to. At first, when he was born with his signature red cat-like eyes, she thought it to be passed down to him by his father, whose father also had red eyes. The pupil was strange, and they chalked it up to a Quirk once they found out it allowed him to see in the dark, but aside from that, he was a healthy baby boy.

However, when Izuku turned 6, they learned that he could also manifest bone spearheads of sorts from his back that were attached to his spine via black cords, which he called his "bone whips." This was new, and also terrifying, but they chalked it up to it being his Quirk, and that it was perhaps a mutant-type. It was also around this time that Hisashi moved to America, and kept in contact via the phone.

A year and a half later, Izuku was run over by a truck; his body turned to nothing but mush and scattered bits of flesh. Inko watched it all from their window, and when she thought her son died, she cried rivers and rivers of tears, screaming at the top of her lungs. But when she watched Izuku piece himself back together, both literally and figuratively, she knew something was up.

No one and she meant no one, could survive something like that. Not even All Might would be able to survive that. And yet, her son did. Her baby boy survived practically dying, walked to the house dazed and confused, had a bath, then went to help with making supper afterward that night, which had been his favourite, Katsudon.

At that point, she gave up thinking that her son was human. There was no Earthly way that her son, that her Izuku, was human in any capacity, mainly because Humans didn't just come back from crap like that. Upon taking him to the Quirk doctor, his Quirk was labelled a Variant-type, and then the two were sent on their way.

Normally, Inko would be happy to know that her son was unique. But this was different. Her son was more than just unique. It was clear from the get-go that her son was some sort of monster. Of course, she'd never see him that way, Izuku was still her son, but now she needed to talk to Izuku. She needed to know just what he thought about everything going on around him.

"Well, no, Izuku. Nothing's bothering me… it's just…." Inko began as she let out a soft sigh. "Izuku, baby. What do you think is going on with you? Tell me, honestly," Inko asked, which only seemed to confuse the green-haired boy.

"I don't think I quite understand, mom. What do you mean?" Izuku responded to her question with a question of his own, something that made Inko bite her lower lip.

How was she supposed to explain herself? To be fair, she had no real idea what was going through her son's head right now. He must've been tired. The doctor did do a bunch of tests, and he no doubt wanted to just go lay on his bed. But at the same time, it was her job as his mother to make sure he was okay, or at the very least understood what he was exactly.

Maybe he already knew he was human? Maybe he just thought he was more special than everyone else? It was possible but at the same time Izuku never really showed anyone his true abilities. Even his best friend Natsumi didn't know anything about his whips, or his regeneration for that matter! In fact, Inko was pretty sure that she was the only one in the know about Izuku's Quirk.

"Well… for starters," Inko began, humming in thought. "The doctor's appointment. Your extra organs, to be precise. Do you think that it's a side-effect of your Quirk, or something more?" Inko asked, making Izuku recoil slightly.

"Hmm… I did find that a bit unnatural. I knew I had them for a while, but…" Izuku replied, leaning back into the couch cushions. "Mom, are you trying to tell me that I'm not human?" Izuku asked, which only made Inko feel like she had been just punched in the gut. She tried to reply to him, but the smile on his face spoke volumes about what he thought about it.

"It's okay, mom. To be honest, I always thought I was a bit different from everyone else. I mean, me not being human answers a lot of things that I can do, such as me surviving getting hit by that truck all those years ago," Izuku joked, letting out a content sigh before standing up from the couch.

Inko felt a sharp pang in the corners of her eyes, watching as Izuku left the living room, seemingly unphased by his own words. The sound of his bedroom door closing was enough to make Inko begin to weep. She wasn't upset at the fact that Izuku most likely already knew that he wasn't human, but the look in his eyes, that look of sadness was enough to tell Inko how he really felt.

Something happened at some point to break her son's heart, and he wasn't telling her. Granted, he had no reason to and granted the boy was only 11 years old, but to see that look in his eyes gave her more than enough reason to want to cry.

And so, she wept.

xxXXxxXXxx

Sunday was bland and boring, just like always. Nothing ever happened on Sunday, but that was mainly because her Stepfather would make it so. Natsumi always hated her Stepfather, and would never give him a chance simply because she wasn't her father. That, and he always spouted MLA propaganda that made her feel weak and incompetent.

And so, seeing as her Stepfather would never let her go outside on Sundays, she made it a point to do so every single Sunday just to get his reaction.

But this Sunday was different. It was different because she felt like she royally screwed up. Midori was her friend, her best friend at that, and because of that Natsumi felt like she had messed up big time. Back in that alleyway, she had said something she shouldn't have and it spooked him. Not only that, but he had been ignoring her phone calls, which only made her feel worse.

All she was trying to do was apologize, and he wasn't willing to talk to her about it. She knew boys could be stubborn, but this was utterly ridiculous! "Well, it's only been two days… things will be different at school!"

But that thought was drowned out by the sea of other thoughts that told her it was pointless; that making up to him would be impossible. It didn't help that one of her favourite songs, forget me too, was playing.

Well, it was normally one of her favourites, but right now it was doing nothing more than making her feel worse.

Currently, Natsumi was laying on her bedroom floor, staring up at her ceiling fan, frowning as the song played on low volume off of her phone, which sat on her white dresser that had been covered in cat stickers. She parted her black hair out of her eyes as she sat up, her black crop-top crumpling at the back before she pulled down on it, fixing the issue. As she stood up, her blue jeans loosened around her waist, which she had to pull up in order to prevent them from falling down.

Snaking the black leather belt off of her cat-themed double-sized bed and putting it through the loops, doing up the belt buckle and tightening said belt so it did more than just look like an accessory, she walked out of her room and yawned. It was the middle of the afternoon, and she had nothing to do.

She could hear the sounds of pots and pans clanging in the kitchen, meaning her mother was making lunch for everyone again. Her father was reading a newspaper in the living room… probably. She wasn't bothered enough to check, and nor did she care. Now, don't get the ravenette wrong, she wasn't normally this gloomy, and she hated every last second of it, but when one's mind was being bogged down by depressive thoughts, one tended to be a bit gloomy.

"I could sneak out… but if I get caught, then that would be bad for me, wouldn't it?" Natsumi thought, glancing over her shoulder. "Screw it, what's the worst that could happen?" Natsumi thought with a smirk, running back upstairs to escape through her upstairs window. As she ran up the stairs, she heard a commanding voice coming from the living room that made her roll her eyes.

"Natsumi! You better not be planning to leave the house!" The voice of her Stepfather shouted, earning a groan from the ravenette.

"No, I'm not!" Natsumi replied with a shout, and after a defeated grumble coming from the living room, Natsumi smirked. When she first started sneaking out, he would take away her phone for a week, and then a month. Hell, he even used his Deep Pockets Quirk to hide it in a vacuum space so she couldn't take it, but when he found out that she didn't care about her phone, he simply gave up and didn't do much to stop her.

The worst thing he did was yell at her, but he never raised a hand to her. Mainly because if he did her mother would probably transform into a bear and maul him to death. It was where she got her Quirk from. Her mother could transform into a Polar Bear on command and have full control over herself while in it. The only drawback was that she was Albino, meaning she had no colour in her hair, her eyes, and her skin was paler than the bottom of a baby.

Her birth father had a cat-ear Quirk, which somehow influenced her Quirk enough to allow her to transform into any type of cat so long as she knew about it. Don't ask her how that worked, because even she didn't know.

As she entered her room and closed the door behind her, she walked up to her bedroom window, opened it, and slipped out as she transformed into her preferred black cat form. Prancing atop the fence gate and hopping down, she ran as fast as she can down the sidewalk, the wind blowing through her fur.

As Natsumi ran, she felt her fears and worries wash away. "Why did I think that Midori would never forgive me! Of course, he would! He's Midori, he would never hate me, so long as I apologize," Natsumi thought as she rounded the corner, jumping up to one of the signs of a local pizza business to then jump across to another building, climbing the window sills of an apartment building to reach the roof.

Once she made it to the roof, she turned into her human form and smiled, watching the skyline, the birds flying high in the sky, as well as some of the planes flying above the clouds. It was something that always mesmerized her, no matter how many times she saw it.

As she looked around, the glanced down at one of the sidewalks, and with her enhanced cat vision, she could see a familiar tuft of green hair walking down the streets holding some bags with mixed food ingredients in them. And just in case she got mixed up, she looked at the eyes and smiled. She recognized those red eyes anywhere. It was Midori!

Question was, how was she going to intercept him? A simple question with an easy answer: turn into the black cat, jump from the roof of the building, and land gracefully just like she had done time and time before. There also just so happened to be an alleyway that gained her access to that very sidewalk that Izuku was walking down, so it was a total win-win situation.

Turning into her black cat-form, she jumped from the building's roof and landed on some garbage bags that had been piled up beside a dumpster. Prancing down from the garbage bags and transforming into her human form, she was about to exit the alleyway when a hand grasped her shoulder.

It all happened far too fast for her to stop it. But even though it happened extremely fast, the build-up to the disaster was slow, and terrifying for the young girl.

When Natsumi looked over her shoulder, she saw a scrawny man with black hair with barely any muscle to his name next to two bigger, scarier guys. They looked to be high schoolers, though it was hard to tell, seeing as they were so big.

"Heya kiddo, whaddya think ur doin', eh?" The scrawny man asked, still holding on to her shoulder. "I don't know about you, but this place ain't for kids, so why don't you just go back home to your mommy and daddy, huh?" The scrawny man spat, getting saliva all over her hair as he spoke.

"Let go of me, creep!" Natsumi growled, shaking her shoulder. That seemed to set the guy off, as two seconds later, she felt a searing pain on the right side of her face, and moments later she was up against a wall. Despite being a scrawny little man, the guy's punch packed a serious impact—mostly likely it had something to do with his Quirk—and as a result blood flowed down the side of her head, and that was before she was knocked into the wall.

"The FUCK did you just call me brat!" The thug shouted, grabbing her by the collar of her crop top, her eyes watering from the pain of the punch. The scrawny guy threw her to the ground toward the bigger men as one of them scooped her up from underneath her armpits.

She struggled, trying desperately to get out of the man's hold. This time, she was able to get a good look at the guy who punched her instead of a side view. Not that it mattered, anyway.

He was maybe six feet tall, and he wore a white wife-beater shirt. He had black hair, and a scar over his right lip. He wore baggy jeans, and he had black scuffed sneakers. He looked homeless, but his friends were anything but, seeing as they wore black leather jackets, and black jeans, and wore the same wife-beater shirts as the guy in front of her did. One of them was holding a bat, which they passed over to the scrawny guy.

"Now, I'm a forgivin' guy, so all you gotta do is apologize, and me and my friends will let you go. How about it? Just two words and that's it," The man said, smirking.

However, it was her stubbornness that took forward first and had she just thought before she spoke, all of what happened afterward could've been avoided.

"LIKE HELL I'll—"

The first strike hit her so hard that she hit against the dumpster, a ringing in her ears followed shortly afterward, but it didn't stop there. She was picked up again, only this time she couldn't hear anything sans the ringing in her ears. She didn't know why, but hearing became something that she was incapable of doing.

Though it might have had something to do with the blood dripping from her ears, and as a result, she couldn't hear the words that were being shouted at her.

However, it clearly pissed him off. He probably thought that she was ignoring him, and as such, the man hit her again with the baseball bat, this time it was in the stomach, which made her vomit all over his white shirt. This pissed him off more, and she was dropped to the floor. Afterward, he stomped on her head, back, and kicked her to her side.

Then, the man swung at her with the now bloodied baseball bat again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

She could see blood. There was a copper taste in her mouth. She knew it to be blood, mainly because she had killed so many birds that the taste of blood had been so familiar to her. That didn't mean that she liked it, however. Some of it even got into her lungs, which she coughed up in sputters, getting it all over the man's shoes, which only enraged him even further.

And so, he kicked her over and over again. She could've sworn she felt her ribs break, as well as feeling something stab into her, but at this point, the pain all melded into one consistent feeling of grossness and haziness.

Natsumi felt a warmness around her, her life fluids flowing around her head as her blood began to pool around her body. She could barely feel her face, let alone anything else in her body.

What made it worse was that she could barely keep her eyes open as she was hit again, and once again, it was in the face. Despite being hit in the face yet again, it didn't hurt as badly as the first time. Maybe it was because she felt so dazed that her mind couldn't comprehend the assault.

A numbing pain washed over her broken and bruised form, and as the man shouted at her, she blinked. When she blinked, blood covered the walls of the alleyway as a green-haired boy held the man that had attacked her by the throat. He looked visibly afraid and was screaming, despite the fact that his attacker was leagues shorter than him and looked to be a child no older than her.

Coming out of the boy's back were several bone-tipped whips, all flailing about wildly. The man who had attacked her was impaled by one of these spikes, some sort of red lump on the other end. The whip that had impaled him then violently ripped out the side of the man's body, the boy then dropped the man after the fact next to two piles of sliced-up meat. After that, her green-haired saviour looked over at her.

Blood red eyes gazed at her with a look of fear and dread unlike any other, and that was when she recognized the boy.

Funnily enough, it was Midori.

In the next moment, she was up above the ground, wind flowing through her blood-soaked hair as she was being carried by what she could only assume was Midoriya. She could barely make out the blood-soaked figure of Izuku, running as fast as he could toward a hospital in the distance, no doubt in her mind that the blood on him didn't belong to him, but rather it belonged to the thugs that beat her up.

The boy ran through the doors of the hospital, and as soon as he did, several people inside swarmed around him. She could hardly see because of the lights, but she could vaguely make out several voices, none of which she recognized. She looked up at Midori, his crying, pained eyes being more than enough to make her want to cry, yet it hurt so badly when she did.

Her body hurt. She felt so tired. It was weird, because she didn't want to sleep, yet she was tired.

Natsumi could feel herself being put down on something hard and uncomfortable, but even then, she felt the urge to just go limp, to close her eyes, because at least then she wouldn't be in so much agonizing pain.

And she did just that.

-Humble Beginnings – End. To be Continued in – Slow Uprisings-

I had such a hard time writing this chapter. I know this is a very cliché thing to do, but I had to do something. Thus, here we are.

I had to re-write this chapter twice, and this scene in particular several times over. I didn't want it to be too drawn out, nor did I want it to be too short. But as I did some research and read articles on what being attacked in this manner would be like, most people who said they survived the attack said that it felt fast, and it hurt and that their mind was all over the place, but mostly they focused on the pain.

And so, I tried my best to replicate that here. As a result, this chapter was short.

That being said, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and I shall see you all very soon in the next one. Bye!