Birthdays were never something Raijin took part in, especially his own. That wasn't because of any traumatic reason or anything, but he just didn't feel the need to. Most of the time his birthday was sidelined for some sort of disaster that happened in the orphanage on that day, like a prank gone wild or colors being mixed with the whites in the washing. So he was just never used to celebrating it.
With his new, crazy life though, of course even the monotonous cycle of birthdays had to end. What better way to have that happen than a foot through your door at 4:00 am?
"Ding dong!" Sparkler didn't even try to match the pitch of a normal doorbell as he shoved his heel into the middle of the door, sending it flying off of its hinges. On the other side of the room, Rai had flown out of his bed at equal speeds and was now standing in a fighting stance with a stuffed owl tucked into his side. The villain cheekily snapped a photo before dragging the boy from his room and bounding down the stairs.
"What's going on?" His voice came out jumpy as Sparkler hopped down the final set of stairs and landed on the ground floor.
"It's your birthday! You're 6 now!" A childish spark seemed to fill the super villain's eyes as he sat Rai at the table, reaching into the fridge for an early breakfast. "And since it's your birthday, that means you get to do whatever you want!" Sparkler danced around the middle of the dining room with a box in his hands before he opened it and shoved something into his charge's mouth. "Including eating donuts for breakfast!" A chocolate glazed donut hung limply out of Rai's mouth while he slowly chewed the part in his maw.
"Yew Showd Mudg Maw Exshided for dis tan I am." Rai said, ignoring how messed up his speech had become with food in his mouth.
"Hahaha, you make it sound like you've never had a birthday before!" The villain threw a donut into his mouth and chewed through it happily. He slowly stopped smiling as Rai shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "You're kidding me…"
Rai rolled his eyes and walked back up the stairs to his room. "If I can do whatever I want… I want a few more hours of sleep." Sparkler chewed through another donut before hearing Rai softly place his door against the doorframe. His face almost became melancholic as he looked at the half empty box of treats in his hand.
"Maybe I should prepare a couple more things." He hummed to himself, placing the box back into the fridge before leaving the penthouse.
Rai stared blankly at the ceiling as he heard Sparkler leave the penthouse. He couldn't decide if Sparkler's reaction had been out of pity or disappointment, but it wasn't like he was ever good at reading the man's emotions.
A soft knock came at the door before the wooden block fell over, creating a loud thump that echoed through the whole apartment. Rumi stood at the entrance to his room, still as a deer in headlights. "Uhh, morning?" She gave a shaky smile before stepping into the room and sitting on the bedside next to Rai.
Rai smiled slightly before continuing to stare at the ceiling tiredly. He didn't make a noise as Rumi tucked herself in next to him, snaking an arm around his neck and pulling him closer. "Happy birthday bro, how ya feeling?"
"Tired." He barely stifled a yawn, beginning to count the dark specs on the edge of his vision to fill the silence.
"I'm guessing the door was Sparkler's doing?" She asked, seeming to enjoy the comfortable silence that followed each sentence in their conversation.
"Mhm, kicked it open earlier and made me eat a donut." Rumi hummed in acknowledgement and tilted her head to rest it against Rai's.
"He's not really too good at this stuff, at least from what I can tell."
"What do you mean?" Rai looked at his sister at the corner of his vision.
"Well, it's kinda obvious if you think about it. He's kinda like a shipwright slapping planks over holes in a ship's hull. Every time something goes wrong, or he does something wrong, he tries to fix it with money or physical things. It's almost like he feels he can't do anything but that." She let out a small sigh and nestled Rai's head further in her own. "He tries, I'm sure he really does. I just think… I don't know."
Rai closed his eyes and let a small frown cross his face. 'A lack of confidence? He has that in spades. Lack of emotion? He's always so bright and fun. Is it because he's never had a normal life? But what is normal anyway…' Rai gave up theorizing and opened his mouth to respond, only to close it again without making a single noise. He'd lived with the man for so long, but he still felt like a stranger on a personal level, so much so that calling him anything other than a guardian felt wrong. Hell, he didn't even know why he was in Japan other than 'doing a favor for a friend'. Despite months of living together, did he truly know the man known as Sparkler? Was that even his real name?
"I wonder what his real name is?" Rai muttered, becoming more comfortable due to his sister's company.
"It's probably something stupid like Alfred or Butch." Rumi responded, earning a snort from her younger sibling. "Do you think he dyes his hair?"
"Yeah definitely, that must be what's hidden in that secret vault of his."
"Imagine that. Eraser head trying to snoop through his stuff just to find cases of neon blue hair spray!" She let out a laugh and the duo continued to make jokes about their guardian's mysterious personality.
Sparkler gripped his phone tightly as he passed the links he'd already thoroughly surfed. 'How hard can it be to get a good present for a kid!? None of the ones so far have given me that spark, come on, something's definitely gotta come soon.' He looked around the street he was on. None of the shops had even opened yet, and here he was looking for a gift for his surrogate son. He closed the internet app and a call notification came through. He quickly accepted with a smile and put it up to his ear. "Yellow?" He greeted cheerfully. Heavy breathing was his only response for a few moments before a gruff voice coughed into the microphone.
"I need your help. Can you come to my location? It's urgent, you know I wouldn't call you otherwise." Aizawa sounded serious, but Sparkler was busy… sort of.
"I'm kind of busy right now, if I do this can you do something for me?" The breathing on the other side of the microphone slowed before the call ended. A location came through immediately after, and Sparkler raced to the location with a frown on his face.
'Who knows, maybe the distraction could help me! Plus, Aizawa's a teacher, right? He'll definitely know something to get for a kid! Yes, that's the only reason I'm checking on him!' Sparkler turned down an alley and saw the erasure hero being hung upside down in a cocoon using his own scarf. His phone was on the ground, several cracks lining the screen protector along with bloody fingerprints.
Sparkler ran forward and was about to use a lightning infused knife hand to cut through the scarf, only to pause before striking. 'A while ago, he said this was made out of metal, right?' The villain mumbled to himself before picking up a shard of glass and attempting to cut through the scarf that way. After that didn't work, he searched over Aizawa's costume before finding a small tactical knife in his pants pocket. It easily glided through the scarf as Aizawa's body fell towards the floor, only to be caught by Sparkler. 'Why did he call me? Why not Tsukauchi? Or another pro?' His hairs pricked up and he narrowly ducked under a spindly leg made of some sort of green goop. It connected with the wall and splattered around the alley they were in, the momentary distraction Sparkler was victim to allowed several more tendrils of goop to fly through the air towards him. The villain quickly dodged and weaved between them before slipping on one of the puddles and falling onto his back, Eraser landing on top of him.
Sparkler shuffled back to his feet in time to see a sickening creature slowly stumbling towards him. It was unable to keep its form, each limb of its creation collapsing the moment any weight was put on it. The creature seemed to want to keep eight, with the way it shuffled forward like a spider. Each of its thin, sticklike legs were connected to a malformed body of a young girl. The soggy material of which the creature was made of poured from every orifice on her face, even her eye sockets were not spared as the sludge flowed towards her abdomen. Her jaw was open to an impossible degree, with a thick, consistent stream of sludge spiraling out of her body to help maintain the arachnid-like body it was trying to maintain.
"Mo-Mo-" Her cries came out warped and horrifying. The creature shambled forward and Sparkler found himself frozen in horror. "Mo-Ig." A tendril slowly snaked along the floor, but Sparkler managed to roll back in time to dodge it. The thick sludge covered the entirety of his back and head, but he couldn't find himself in the mood to care as he returned to his feet. "Ig-Igni."
'Igni?' Sparkler's attention was drawn to the orange sparks emanating from each splotch of goop, including the creature's own body. The sparks slowly increased in size and frequency, until they were almost blinding.
"Ignite." It came out as a high pitched whisper, like the whistle of a ghost as the entire alley was engulfed in flames. They flew high, soaring far above many buildings in a constant stream.
"We've just received reports of illegal quirk usage in Tokyo, a pillar of fire was spotted originating from an alley off of Marunouchi 6th." Tsukauchi's radio hummed to life, startling the poor detective who'd just managed to get a blink of sleep. Even though he was in a different prefecture, he'd tuned into the Tokyo frequency due to Aizawa's insistence on investigating a lead there. Something relating to trigger being sold as a stimulant medication for cramming.
The groggy detective slid his radio into his chest pocket before grabbing the keys to his car, determined to check up on the situation in person. Whether it was due to being sleep deprived, or worrying for his friend, his instincts told him to go.
4 hours of sleep, more than enough for a pro hero to get to work. Only god knows how many people were maimed or hurt in the time he used for breaks, let alone sleep. Toshinori slid out of bed and unbuttoned the top of his shirt to have a shower, at least that's what he planned until a call from the Tokyo police department echoed from his phone.
"Crime never sleeps…" All Might murmured, picking up his phone and tucking it onto his shoulder while sliding on his hero costume.
"Uh, sorry to wake you All Might, we have a problem in Tokyo. We're thinking it's a villain attack or a fight between two gangs, but it's scaling to building level already."
"Ah alright, I'll be there soon." Hanging up the phone, Toshinori grabbed his top and sprayed on some deodorant before leaping from his balcony towards Tokyo. '2, maybe 1 minute until I get there, hopefully nobody gets hurt during that time.'
'I can't even use my quirk, this is just plain unfair!' Sparkler tried his best to ignore the burning pain on his back, barely faltering as he leapt out of the way of another exploding tendril. If there was only a safe place to put Aizawa down, he'd be able to knock this thing three ways to Sunday. For now though, he was stuck on the defensive, forced to evade or block dozens of increasingly sporadic attacks being launched from the creature in front of him.
He'd just barely leapt out of the alley before he was burnt to a crisp by that first attack, but he was secretly glad that it'd bring the attention of heroes nearby. Another string of slime was launched towards his torso, forcing the villain to contort his body oddly to dodge the attack, sending it towards a nearby office building. The property damage from this was definitely going to be in the millions, but at least no civilians were getting hurt at this time in the morning.
If only that were all though. Between dodging attacks and trying to keep Aizawa safe, the man desperately needed medical attention. There was clearly someone else there before he came, because there was no way the monster in front of him had the ability to tie Aizawa up, let alone defeat him in a fight.
Dozens of sludge bullets were shot towards the villain, each prepared to ignite mid-air like a firework. Sparkler made a split second decision, throwing Aizawa into the air high above the death zone and spinning around in a cloak of electricity, kicking away several of the attacks like footballs before the final few exploded right next to him.
Sparkler crashed into the ground from the force of several tons of TNT being detonated right next to him. For a kid, it had some crazy firepower! The villain rolled to his feet, ignoring the divot in the tarmac created from his landing as he leapt up to catch Eraserhead, only for a blur of red and white to reach him first.
A foot collided with the villain's face as All Might used him like a step stool to leap onto a nearby rooftop. Sparkler slammed back into the ground, followed by several slimy tendrils that began to surround him. Though, now that Aizawa was out of the way, he could go all out.
Arcs of electricity rebounded off of the bricks and glass each building of Tokyo was so carefully built with. The goop around Sparkler began to ignite, embers fluttering within the cocoon that would soon be his tomb.
The creature watched carefully as its final trap succeeded in killing its target. A large explosion engulfed the entire street with enough force to raze a skyscraper. It was confident even All Might wouldn't be able to stand up to it now, the hero was merely a speck in the presence of its overwhelming might.
That exact same arrogance it held in the recesses of its thoroughly corrupted mind shattered in the next moment as a pale hand gripped around its throat. With only first degree burns and a look of fury, its target stood behind them.
"Oh how grateful I am for power lines beneath the ground." His hand tightened and the creature found itself unable to breath, soon it would lose the fuel it needed for its quirk.
'How surv-Please help-Where am-' The remaining embers of its previous benefactors screamed loudly in the creatures head. The ringing in its ears also didn't help as the hand tightened further. It slowly slipped into unconsciousness.
"What a pain in the neck." Sparkler watched the slime slowly drift from the girl's form. She couldn't have been older than 14 from her looks, and the uniform she was wearing. The villain walked from the alley and placed the girl onto the pavement, bringing out his phone before a red and white clad hand wrapped around his forearm. His gaze drifted upwards towards All Might, the number one hero. "Uhh, did you need something?"
A frown had settled onto the hero's face, something that would be abnormal to those who knew him. "You're coming with me, villain." His deep voice boomed and Sparkler was tempted to scowl before a familiar car rolled up.
"Tsukauchi!" The villain cheered, falling back into his cheerful personality. The sight of his favorite detective was always a pleasure, especially when he gave him a few gray hairs, like now!
"All Might! Please wait!" The detective ignored the supervillain, much to his chagrin.
"Who're you?" The number one hero turned towards the detective, who shuddered under his gaze.
"Detective Tsukauchi sir. I'm here to clear up the misunderstanding. This man, Sparkler, isn't a villain. Right now he's a civilian consultant for the trigger case." Tsukauchi seemed to panic, waving his hands around sporadically.
"Civilian consultant? I've never heard of such a thing." Tsukauchi reached into his trench coat and grabbed out his detective's license and a few forms. All Might scanned them before letting go of the villain.
"So what happened?" Tsukauchi turned to Sparkler, who looked towards the girl on the ground. His face shifted into a serious scowl, but quickly switched back to his usual calm demeanor.
"I received a call from Eraser while I was out searching for a gift. I planned to get him to help me in exchange for helping him out, since he seemed to be in a panic." Tsukauchi frowned at the reasoning, but allowed Sparkler to continue without question. "I showed up in about 3 minutes, finding Eraser binded up in his own capture cloth with his phone on the ground in this alley." He pointed down said alley, specifically towards the charred remains of a smartphone. "This girl here was surrounded by some sort of slime that originated from her body. She could also ignite it from afar to create deadly explosions, as you can see from the destruction around us. I couldn't use my quirk because of Aizawa's conductive capture weapon, so I dodged and ran around until All Might showed up. Then I grabbed her throat and knocked her out." Sparkler rubbed his cheek, where a small bruise was forming in the shape of All Might's foot. The detective wouldn't admit it, but he was kind of satisfied that his number one shit stirrer had been hurt, but not to a grievous degree.
Tsukauchi had taken out a notebook and pen to write down the details, but he felt something was missing. "Why did he call you? Like, we know the reason but why you of all people."
"Guess we'll just have to ask him." The villain shrugged. "Speaking of which, big guy, where did you put him?"
All Might looked tempted to scowl at the nickname, but pointed to a nearby rooftop. Sparkler disappeared in a flash of blue light, reappearing seconds later with an untied Aizawa in his arms. "Well here he is, should we survey injuries?"
"Why didn't you before?" All Might looked at the villain to his right, to which the man responded by sticking out his tongue childishly.
"I was busy." He placed Aizawa on the ground, cutting open the front of his jumpsuit with the knife he'd taken earlier. Dozens of purple blotches spread across his chest, like he'd been hit with a shotgun full of rubber bullets. The bruising around his neck was more concerning though, and his pale skin was a sure sign of oxygen deprivation. "He must've been upside down for a while, maybe he was struggling to get his phone?"
Tsukauchi shrugged, politely taking back his license and forms from All Might's grasp. "Either way, he needs medical attention quickly." He sent a look up to All Might, who nodded in return while picking up Aizawa. The hero disappeared with a heavy leap, and Tsukauchi turned back to his car to leave, only to find a hand on his shoulder.
"So uh, do you have any ideas on what I can get a 6-year-old for his birthday?" Tsukauchi sent a glare back at Sparkler, initially thinking it was another one of his jokes. The uncharacteristic clamminess almost sent him for a loop as his gaze softened.
"No, not really. Maybe just get him a card with some money in it? That's what I give my cousins." The detective stepped towards his car and took a seat inside. "Good luck, and say hi to Raijin for me." Tsukauchi drove off and Sparkler nodded, watching the suv dip around a corner before it was out of vision. More police units began to arrive, and Sparkler decided to make himself sparse before All Might returned to give his report. He'd send it to Tsukauchi later.