For the next several years, Hiromi's life was typical for a homestead slave. Her days were long and physical, her nights too short to rest. Proper behavior for a servant meant she was not to been seen or heard unless commanded to for entertainment. The Midoriya's were strict and demanded much from such a small child, but Hiromi waited on their every need. Unlike many homestead slaves however, there were pockets of happiness to be found. There were two brothers who she truly enjoyed taking care of, that she loved to watch grow, who treated her kindly despite being her masters.
She still woke up early every morning to clean the whole Midoriya household and clean up the yard. When the rest of the house began to wake up, she would make breakfast and see the boys off to school. It was a favorite chore for her and the boys as there were no adults to watch over them. She walked them both to school to and carried their bags, the three of them would leave early and walk as slow as possible. Katsuki would brag about his latest progress with his explosion quirk and Izuku would list all the latest accomplishments of his favorite heroes. Hiromi wouldn't say much as her days didn't have much change in them, but she would laugh freely and enjoyed being allowed to join in a conversation with her two favorite people.
Once the boys were at school, Hiromi would run back to the household and make sure Sir was ready for work. She would choose his suit and tie, set out his suitcase and wait by the door, bowed, ready to see him off respectfully. Her last task for the morning was to see to Madam's every whim. Usually this was the easiest part of her day. Madam enjoyed nothing more in the morning than reminding Hiromi that she was only a slave and not even good enough to share the same food as her masters. Hiromi just had to smile, look down and agree with no real work done other than paying enough attention to Madam's word to know when to respond.
For the first few years of her service, Madam would take Hiromi back to the market daily for her homestead servant training, although once she was about 8, it was decided she could just walk herself to the market. Being back at the market was the longest part of Hiromi's day. The training was grueling and the punishments for mistakes were harsh. Her special skill classes were better, but the older she got, the more her former master would come in and spend his time watching her sing and dance. His interest in her grew and the space between them when he would critique her shrank. Having no rights of her own, she would just have to endure his hot breath on her face.
The moment her training sessions end Hiromi would bolt from the facility that sold her off. Katsuki and Izuku would be waiting for her to meet them at the gates of their school. The three of them would resume their private time.
Katsuki loved and hated their walks back from school. Anytime Hiromi could talk to them like a normal person was time he enjoyed. She had no hopes or dreams of her own but loved to ask Katsuki and his brother to share the details of theirs. Her sweet smile was the brightest part of his day but sharing that smile with Izuku was infuriating. To make matters worse, Katsuki had after school programs to attend to learn to utilize his quirk better, learn to play instruments, learn new languages and learn anything else his parents could think of to make him a more likeable hero someday. His spoiled brother only had to get home safely to play and that meant dropping Katsuki off at one place or another and continuing on without him. He wanted to go home to play and eat snacks, but he had responsibilities. He wanted to share walks alone with Hiromi so she would laugh and smile only at him.
He would work twice as hard he decided one day, no, three times as hard as the other kids in his classes. He would become the greatest hero in the world so nobody could tell him what to do with his time. Maybe he would have so much money he could buy Hiromi and she could have her own dreams and decide what she wanted to do with her time as well! Katsuki went to his extracurricular activities with a new vigor after that, no longer concerned with Izuku's extra walks, after all, someday all of Hiromi's time would be his and hers.
Izuku couldn't wait for his brother to go to his after-school lessons, it meant he could play all he wanted with Hiromi and not be bullied for it. He didn't hate his brother, in fact, he looked up to the stronger sibling. He wanted to be strong and have a cool quirk. He was so jealous of how everyone assumed that Katsuki would be a great hero someday and Izuku could never follow that path. It wasn't fair. When he was around 4, his mother took him to a doctor to confirm that he was quirk-less, it was the worst day of his life. His parents only focused on Katsuki after that and would give Izuku whatever he wanted to pacify him quickly so they could put their attention back onto the child that mattered.
To Izuku, Hiromi was his saving grace. The sweet girl always got excited every time Izuku talked about his hero, All Might, and how he would be a hero just like him someday. All the other adults in his life just looked at him with pity whenever he would tell them of his dreams, Hiromi didn't seem to think it was farfetched at all. She was like him, she had shown no signs of having a quirk, at least not an obvious one.
Hiromi listened to Izuku talk about his heroic aspirations every day on their walks back to his house. She truly hoped the kind child would achieve his dreams; the world needed more kindhearted heroes. She understood from a very young age that homestead slaves did not get heroes of their own. There was no one to save them from ownership, from the beatings, from their hopeless existences. To her though, Izuku and Katsuki were actual heroes, not the fake people in capes she saw on TV. They could call her awful names like Madam, or throw dirty clothes at her like Sir, but they never would do that. She knew they were careful not to treat her too kindly or she would face harsh punishments to remind everyone involved that she was property, not a friend.
Punishments in the Midoriya household varied in severity. For minor offenses, Hiromi would be berated, these were Madam's territory. Larger offenses were beatings by Sir, she seemed to only make big mistakes when business dealings didn't go Sir's way and he needed somewhere to release his stresses. If the boys were too kind to their servant her meals would get smaller or the heat in the basement where her room was would drop in temperature.
Often times her punishments were not purposeful. When the children were around 11, Hiromi had an accident while cleaning the gutters on the house. She was small and skinny, but part of the reason the Midoriya's agreed to take her in was because she could still do the work of her adult counterparts. Unfortunately, her reach wasn't long enough to reach both the gutter and the ladder.
Looking back on the incident, Hiromi would not be able to remember the fall itself. She would remember the breath leaving her body and the feeling that she would never be able to take a breath again. She would remember trying to call for help but the words not coming out, not that there was anyone home to help her anyway. She didn't feel anything at first, the adrenaline kept the pain at bay, eventually though pain found its way into her arm. After a couple of hours, she managed to get to her feet and get herself out of the hot summer sun. There was dried and caked blood on her arm, which was twisted oddly, the sight of it made her swoon, so she did her best not look and focused on walking straight.
Madam was just coming home from brunch with her friends and was the first to see Hiromi covered in grass and debris.
"Why are tracking dirt all through my house?"
"I'm sorry Madam, I fell on my arm, it hurts so bad." The girl cradled her unmistakably broken arm and stifled her cries.
Mrs. Midoriya wasn't quite sure how to react. She wanted to yell at the girl for her clumsy mistake or throw her to the curb if she wasn't going to be useful anymore. She knew her boys were a bit too attached to their little caretaker and wouldn't take well to their mother getting rid of her because she became lame.
"For now, go to your room. You clearly won't be finishing your chores today, but I'm feeling very generous today, so we won't punish you." Hiromi's eyes grew big having just realized she may be beaten just for being injured. "And don't you dare try using this to get pity and attention from Izuku and Katsuki! I see the way you look at them, and I'll not having you getting ideas!"
The child fled to the basement and curled up in her bed trying to fight the nausea that rocked her body every time her arm moved. She may have been denied a childhood, but her young mind wasn't able to understand what she had done to deserve the pain. She knew the boys would not be allowed to comfort her, but her only comfort was thinking about how they would be home soon with her.
Inko Midoriya had no love her homestead slave, but she was great at doing her job as the caretaker of the family. For all the little girl's hard work however, her looks bothered the matriarch of the household. Hiromi's pale skin was perfectly contrasted by her ink black hair which was hung down to her knees and looked eerily like satin. Her eyes were large, shapely and were topped by small, rounded eyebrows. Inko knew her sons were not interested in pretty girls just yet, but she knew that time was coming soon. The last thing she needed was her boys being lured in by her doe eyes begging for help. She would just have to keep them separated until the situation was resolved, however unfair it may be for the family to fend for themselves even though they had paid good money for their homestead slave.
With Hiromi hidden away, it was time to call the Homestead Market. The laws put in place after the slave revolution were clear about injuries, anything as serious as a broken bone needed to be taken care of or owners would be fined. Hiromi would need to see a doctor, but the markets that sold the product also provided care services. There were no open appointments until after the weekend, so the Midoriya's would have to suffer through making their own meals again for a time.
Katsuki and Izuku raced out of the school building only to be greeted by their parents instead of their homestead servant. "We're going out to eat as a family tonight" their father explained.
"Where is Hiromi?" Izuku asked.
Mrs. Midoriya chose her words carefully, not wanting the boys to waste their worries on a servant. "We said a family dinner, she's not a family member, you know that. We don't need her to serve us anything at the restaurant, so there's no reason for us to interrupt us tonight."
To Katsuki, something didn't feel right about the situation. Hiromi always went out to eat with the family. Owning her was a symbol of the Midoriya's elevated status in society, and it was an unspoken rule to bring your homestead slaves out in public so the masses could see them standing politely to the side of your table. He wanted to ask about her more, but a few months ago he had made the mistake of defending her after his mother said some particularly nasty remarks to her. His thoughtfulness towards her feelings, while well-meaning, had landed her a vicious beating from his father. Knowing he had directly caused a person pain, even on accident didn't sit well with the would-be hero. He would not make the same mistake twice, so he kept his questions to himself and did his best to look uninterested.
Izuku went in the other direction, he was too old to break down in tears to get his way, so instead he went into a tirade of complaints. He whined about how he didn't want to cut his food, pull out his own chair, look uncool without a servant and a myriad of other unpleasantries.
Katsuki wanted to shove his brother to the ground. He was so spoiled, and Katsuki couldn't stand how he could talk about their playmate the way he did. He held back in from of his overbearing parents, he could always teach Izuku a lesson when they were at school or at the local park.
While the family was out eating an expensive meal, Hiromi began to develop a fever back at home. Every movement caused her pain. Every sob shook her arm painfully. She was a naturally clumsy girl despite her graceful dancing. She had a terrible habit of running into walls and hitting her head on every object in the household. Despite her klutzy nature, she was lucky to have never seriously injured herself. Even when she earned herself a beating, her pain tolerance was strong enough to see her through. The pain she was suffering though at that moment was the worst she could ever remember feeling.
Hiromi, in her fevered state, was feeling the emptiness of the house as a physical being, closing in on her and laughing at her torture. She turned her face into her lone pillow and closed her eyes. Perhaps the dark and lonely figure standing over her couldn't see her if she couldn't see it. The sweat from her brow found its way into her eyes and burned, she squeezed her eyes tighter still.
Where was everyone? How long had she been alone? It felt like days had gone by given that in between the pain she felt odd pangs of boredom. Her stomach growled and her throat was dry and rasped. She fell in and out of consciousness, which made it very difficult to keep track of the time.
The looming figure of embodied darkness scratched at her arm, causing it to convulse, searing pain racked her body. She needed someone to help her, to fight off her fever-induced monster. She needed a hero to save her. She knew Katsuki and Izuku would be home soon, and she would her their banter even from her basement dwelling. She imagined the sound of their voices, Izuku's nasally laughter and Katsuki's already deepening voice. She focused on that voice, used it to drown out the ringing silence that surrounded her. She imagined the loud snap of his explosion quirk blowing up the darkness. She drifted into unconsciousness yet again, but she did not cry because this time, she wasn't alone with the darkness anymore, in her mind, there was a wonderful voice calling her name.
The voice comforting Hiromi was actually many miles away yelling about wanting to go home. Katsuki's parents insisted they needed to take a vacation to celebrate his straight A's in school. After the family went out for dinner they took the boys straight to an ocean-side resort, having apparently packed some clothes and hidden them away in the trunk. Katsuki didn't feel right about the impromptu getaway, every other wealthy family at the resort had their homestead servants with them, and it was too strange for his mother to not show off hers.
"Son, why don't you just try to have fun, we've been here for two days, and I haven't seen you smile once." his father pleaded with him.
"I have too much to do right now, I don't have time for a lame family vacation." Katsuki argued back, careful to not voice his fears.
"Kacchan, we're going back home tonight anyway, why do you need to go back now?" Izuku asked innocently. He didn't share his brother's fears, instead, Izuku was happy that Hiromi could get a break from taking care of everyone else. 'I hope she is baking lots of cakes for us to surprise me when we get back' he thought to himself.
Katsuki growled to himself and stomped off along the beach, needing to be alone. "Whatever" he mumbled. He looked around the beach looking for a spot to be alone, but there were tourists everywhere he looked. Despite the early spring chill in the air, people in bikini's flooded the beach. He pictured Hiromi in a bathing suit, laughing and running on the beach like a normal girl. His face flushed, 'what am I thinking right now.' Confused at his own thoughts and his body's subconscious reaction to them, he brought his thoughts back to the problem at hand. Where was Hiromi, was she even okay, and why wasn't she there keeping him company?
Later that night the family piled back into their car and started the drive back home. Inko made a quick call to the market to let them know the family would be home soon and the doctor could meet them at the house. She glanced into the backseat at her boys. Izuku was fast asleep, having worn himself out playing in the waves, but Katsuki sat with his arms crossed looking out the window into the night.
Inko wasn't sure why Katsuki was so upset, he never seemed to be happy at all. She remembered the first time she ever held him in her arms, he screamed and cried the whole time, and it seemed he never left that phase of his life. Even as a newborn infant he showed signs of his quirk, small sparks would fly from his small balled-up fists. It was very rare for a baby to show quirk abilities that young, although, a few x-rays would usually show whether an infant would gain one later in life. Although they had no idea that his quirk would develop into his powerful explosions, the Midoriya's were hungry to shape his ability into something grand. Perhaps that hunger pushed the child too hard causing his mood swings. Inko shook those thoughts away, she had big plans for her son, and if it meant that they couldn't enjoy a vacation together, then so be it.
She had to lean her dreams heavily on Katsuki since Izuku showed no signs of ever getting his own quirk. Inko and her husband felt bitter disappointment after Izuku was born. They had dreamed of raising Japan's number 1 hero, and so the same day Izuku was born they had him sent through a series of x-rays, blood tests, and exams by specialists to see if they could pinpoint what type of power he would have. Every test came back with same results, their boy was in the quirk-less 20% of society. 'Thank goodness we got Katsuki' she thought, peering once again to the angry pre-teen in her backseat.
Now she had her work cut out for herself trying to keep the boys calm once they realized their homestead slave was injured. As they pulled into the driveway the market doctor was already there unloading some supplies from his vehicle with the help of two large slaves in dirty blue scrubs. Katsuki flew out of the car before they even came to a full stop. He recognized the symbol on the van in their driveway, it was the same symbol tattooed on the side of Hiromi's neck to mark her status in society. It was the logo of the slave market they bought her at, a ribbon winding in and out of three rings.
"Why are they here?" he asked to anyone who would answer. "Where's Hiromi?" He was losing his ability to act calm and disconnected. He knew something wasn't right. He needed answers.
"Calm down Katsuki, this is no way to act over a servant." His father scolded "These men are just here to make sure she's healthy, so calm yourself."
Izuku rubbed the sleep from his eyes, "Mother, what's going on?"
"It's just as your father said, now get to your rooms, it's still a school night." She tried to keep calm herself, but her blood boiled at the sight of Katsuki's obvious panic. She reached out to him, but he squeezed through the door the moment his father unlocked it and ran inside.
Hiromi couldn't breathe, it was too hot. The heat burned her already dried throat. Her arm had lost feeling to it, although she could feel the heat it caused her whole body. She thought she would go insane from the heat alone or the dark. Very suddenly the lights flipped on stinging her eyes and she could hear distant yelling. Despite the brightness of the lights, she tried her best to open her eyes and look around. Everything was a blur, but she could see the outlines of several people walking down the stairs toward her. She felt desperate to not be alone, but she didn't know who the outlines belonged to and struggled to crawl away. Her attempts to move were pathetic. Strong arms lifted her gently from her bed, but the movement was more than her weakened body could stand and the darkness came for her again. She must have been wishing young master Katsuki was with her again, because she could have sworn, she saw him reaching up for her in her last conscious moments.
Katsuki had run into the house before anyone could stop in. The lights were all off and the house had an eerie quite to it as if it had say emptied while the family was away. He ran to the basement and flipped the lights on, not slowing down on his way down the steps. The smell hit him first, the scent of salt and sweat permeated the air. On her bed, Hiromi was gasping hard for breath, her white and black dress, which she normally kept so clean and ironed clung to body discolored with blood, dirt, and sweat.
Katsuki was rooted to the spot. A thousand feelings went through his young mind in that moment, guilt, disgust, anger, sadness and fear. Those emotions left him frozen, unsure what do. There was a ringing in his ears blocking out the sound of his mother yelling at Izuku to get the bed instead of following his brother. He said her name, but she didn't respond, didn't move at all. He wanted to run up to her but couldn't seem to make a move off of the stair he was on.
The men from the driveway pushed their way past the stunned boy and made their way over to the bed where the girl laid motionless. They huddled around her blocking Katsuki's view. The doctor examined her for a moment and then mumbled a command to the large servant next to him. A hand on his shoulder startled Katsuki "Go to bed, this doesn't concern you" the stern voice of his father reprimanded.
Katsuki didn't make a move; he didn't seem to have control of his own body. His father turned him roughly, forcing him to turn away from the scene. "Is this why we didn't come home?" he whispered, anger cracking his voice, "What happened to her? How long has she been like that?"
His father finally had snapped "Enough!" He yelled, "We took you out as a celebration and this is how you repay your mother and I?! She is a homestead slave, not your friend, not your plaything. She was careless enough to get herself hurt, which is no fault of ours and is lucky we are getting her fixed instead of throwing her out! If you can't understand the difference between the two of you, next time, we will not be so forgiving!"
Katsuki was dumbfounded, his parents never yelled at him, he never gave them a reason to, but it wasn't the yelling that shocked the child so badly. Katsuki had always known his parents weren't the kindest people on the planet, but he had never thought of them as malicious or evil before. Hiromi took such loving care of his family, although the choice wasn't hers, she was always there no matter what and to see her laying, looking half dead in her own blood without feeling any pity was more akin to villain behavior. He couldn't respond, just stood looking up at his father, holding on the railing for support.
His father waited for a response and upon realizing there would be none coming, turned on his heel and stomped off. He needed a moment to collect himself, there were outsiders in his house after all and he didn't want to look like he couldn't control his own son.
A shuffling from the room turned Katsuki's attention back to the bed, where the men were gently lifting Hiromi from the bed. He got his first good look at her, and the image burned itself forever in his memory. Her mangled swollen arm draped across her waist; her normally silken hair had matted to her face which was so pale she looked more like a ghost than a living being. He had failed the girl he once felt he had saved by convincing his parents to take her from the market. He had let his family take him away for her when she needed saving, some hero he turned out to be.
Her eyes fluttered open for a brief moment, and Katsuki knew he had to let her know it was going to be okay, he would make sure she was taken care of. He dashed off the steps and ran to grab her hand, but the second large servant stepped in front of Katsuki blocking his way.
"Mind your father boy." The doctor said, stepping around his helper. "If you truly care about this girl, and I would strongly advise against that, then you may want hide your compassions a bit better." The boy didn't seem to notice his words, being too preoccupied with the slave-girl.
The doctor was no saint, he only became a doctor for a good income. His only patients were homestead servants and he was one of two physicians in all of Japan that treated these people. In his 23 years of practice, he had learned true cruelty came from the masters of his clients. His heart had become softened over time and in his later years he had come to truly care for ones treated. Seeing concern come the boy warmed him, but he knew reality would separate the two in a matter of years as the boy became a man learned their respective places in the world. Still, for now, he would advise the child as best he could.