The scene sped up again, past all the experiences and testing Garaki had run, to a meaningful rainy night.
Sora felt it.
Whether in the atmosphere or through her own blood.
Something big was about to happen next.
She saw Tadashi walking along with a group of people, all of whom apparently had Quirks.
And then they stopped by a rather large house.
The one who was acting as the leader pointed at it and then moved towards the door, breaking it down with a kick.
Inside, there were only an elderly woman and a young girl.
Seeing the strangers barge in, the girl grabbed a kitchen knife and stood before her grandmother, ready to defend her, although her hand was shaking and her eyes were tearing.
The group of people merely laughed.
" By the laws of All For One, all of those who don't have Quirks are to submit to the will of the superior humans with Quirks. Some of our members lack a shelter, so we thought you could be nice and leave your home to us."
Sora frowned.
Was that how things happened back in the day?
Did All For One's men waltz left and right, taking whatever they fancy?
And why was her ancestor with them?
" This house is all we have!" The girl cried. " If we leave, what would happen to Grandma? We will have no shelter!"
" I tell you, our friends have no shelter! Scum!" The leader caught the girl by the hair. " Quirkless people like you can die in a ditch, and no one would ever care. No one would miss you. But us! We're the superior race! The ones chosen by All For One to make a new world!"
The girl struggled in his grasp before flinging the kitchen knife. But she couldn't hit him.
She didn't have the heart to.
She hesitated.
And the man smirked, his eyes glowing bright red as he stared into hers. " Why don't you take that knife and put it to your own throat?"
A red rim appeared around the girl's irises as she turned the tip of the knife towards her own neck, eyes swimming with tears.
" Reiji, stop it!" Tadashi called out. " She is just a helpless brat and an old woman. We can deal with them without resorting to that."
" Huh, where is the fun in that?" Reiji snorted as he returned his gaze to the girl, eyes aglow. " Why don't you press it a little further?"
Blood trickled down the length of the knife and into the ground. " Please…" the girl pleaded.
" Please… let her go… take me instead…" the grandmother begged as she held onto the man's hand, but he pushed her away.
" A little further…" A strangled gasp followed as the tip sank a little deeper.
" Enough! Reiji!"
" Cut your own throat." The man ordered as he took a step back.
Blood streamed everywhere, and the girl fell to the ground, breathless.
The others laughed as the older woman crawled to her granddaughter's corpse, crying and wailing, soaking in the teenager's blood.
At the very back, Tadashi froze, wide-eyed, as he clutched the fabric of his t-shirt sso tightly it almost tore.
Memories flooded before him.
Memories of the slums he lived in.
Of the Quirkless mother who tried to hide and protect him.
Of the woman who had shared everything they managed to scavenge from the dumpster with him.
Of the one person who shielded him with her own body as the "Normal" people picked up their sticks and rocks, wanting to beat him to death after they realized he had a Quirk.
No one stepped up to help them.
No one stepped up to protect them.
He hated it.
He hated the people who killed his mother.
What made them believe they had the right to judge who was normal and who wasn't?
Who gave them the right to condemn him to death?
It was wrong.
Someone had to put an end to it.
Someone had to put them in their places.
That's why he followed All For One.
He believed the man could change the world.
He believed that they were the chosen ones.
That they were blessed with the gift and strength to rule over the weak.
But what he had just witnessed shattered all of that.
As someone who had been robbed of his home, of his family, of his childhood, he thought it right to take from those who wronged him.
You reap what you sow.
Yet, seeing the old lady crying in front of him, it felt wrong.
Was that what he wanted?
Couldn't it be done in a different way?
He had seen a lot of All For One's followers doing the same with other people.
He had seen All For One himself act in a similar way.
He had told himself that nothing would change without paying the right price, that sacrifices were a must to open people's eyes.
But seeing the girl dead before him, drowning in a pool of her blood with her eyes glazed over with tears, as his companions laughed out, made something snap in his mind.
He was looking at it from the wrong angle.
It wasn't about having a Quirk or not.
It wasn't about being on one side or the other.
It was simply something in everyone, no matter the side.
This evil that denies others.
That thinks one's self is the absolute right.
That everyone else is beneath them.
That those different are to be shunned.
Tadashi took a moment to question himself.
Why did he hate it from the Quirkless, and he couldn't condemn it when those with Quirks did the same thing?
Wasn't he acting the same as well?
Wasn't he becoming like the very people he deeply loathed?
Gritting his teeth and preparing himself for the outcomes of his very next action, he reared his clenched hand and punched Reiji right across the face.
The man hit the wall, stifling a nosebleed as he glared up at the one who dared stand against him.
Tadashi panted, his knuckles reddened from the impact.
" What do you think you're doing, Tadashi?!" Reiji roared. " It was you who said you wanted to be of use to All For One! That's why we let you join the Enforcer Squad!"
Tadashi gulped. " This is wrong!"
" It's what All For One ordered! Anyone who resists us is to be eliminated!"
" She was just a child!" Tadashi countered. " She was just a desperate child! Just like you! Just like me! We could have done it another way!"
" There is no other way!" Reiji cried as he bolted to his feet, grabbing Tadashi by the collar. " Those Quirkless people are the same as bugs! No one cares about them! They ought to be exterminated!"
Tadashi gritted his teeth as he struggled against his captor, before Reiji threw him at the wall and turned to the elderly woman. " They're nothing but insects! They can't even defend themselves!"
His eyes widened and glowed red again. " Pick the knife…"
With a shaky hand, the woman took the knife from the girl's hands, tears rolling down her face as the man smirked.
" I'll show you I'm not merciless. I'll reunite you two soon."
" Stop it!" Tadashi wanted to step in to help her, but the other members of the Squad pinned him down.
" What can you do, huh?" One of them mocked.
" Your Quirk is only good for changing your appearance! There is nothing you can do against the leader!"
They were right.
All he could do was wriggle and beg the other man to stop, but he could tell Reiji would never…
________________
" Once upon a time, there was a prince whom everyone adored for his kindness. Once he passed away, they erected a statue in his memory, covering it in jewels and golden leaves.
" The statue looked immaculate and regal, but it always wore such a sad face.
" Once, a swallow asked the statue why it was crying, and the prince responded that wherever he looked, there was always poverty and suffering.
" The swallow then elected to help the statue, plucking its jewels and peeling its golden leaves to give to the poor and needy, till nothing was left of the statue's regalia.
" But as a result, the swallow delayed his flight south as winter approached.
" When it became too cold for the swallow to fly, he nestled by the prince's feet, and bid him goodnight.
" As winter came to pass and people walked out of their warm houses, they realized how ugly the statue had become. So they decided to incinerate it.
" However, as they were taking it down, something small shot out from beneath the snow at its feet, and flapped its wings towards the sky.
" They looked up to see, much to their bewilderment and awe, a white swallow beating its small wings and flying away.
" The end." The woman closed the worn-out picture book with that note.
The kid's eyes widened as he listened to his mother telling the story.
" Again!" He insisted, steam almost puffing out from his nose.
The older woman laughed as she patted his head. " You really love the story of the happy prince, don't you?"
" I love it! Especially how the swallow turns white and flies off at the very end! It's a miracle, right? For the one who helped the prince and all those people!"
The woman laughed softly at the boy's enthusiasm and innocence. " It is. For all his efforts, he was turned into an angel."
How pitiful…
It was years later that I realized…
That was not the real ending….
It was so sad that they couldn't put it in a picture book for children…
Perhaps that was the first slap of reality…
The moment I realized my childhood was nothing but lies all along…
Still… I wanted to believe in it…
I wanted to believe that it was the true ending…
Just like the swallow endured the cold of the winter and flapped his new wings to fly away…
I wanted to be the same…
After enduring that harsh life…
I wanted to take my mother…
And fly away too…
White, large wings shot forth from Tadashi's back, tearing through his skin and clothing, all while knocking the others away.
Reiji barely looked back at the commotion before he was hit on the jaw again.
In a split second, Tadashi grabbed the elderly woman in his hands and shot off, breaking the ceiling.
He refused to think about it.
As though acknowledging what had just happened was impossible would have made it so.
Would have turned everything into a wishful dream.
And so he flapped three pairs of large white wings as he shot across the city.
He didn't stop until he became too tired to move the new limbs he was not used to, and landed, graceless, into a pile of trash that had softened the impact.
For someone who had never defied gravity before, it was considered an expertly executed landing.
The man shook his head and struggled to regain his balance with the added weight of the wings, only to fail and fall several times, during which the old lady stifled her snivels and dried her tears.
" Thank you… young man…"
She mumbled as Tadashi managed to sit up, and he looked to the ground, his heart feeling heavier than ever.
" Don't thank me… I was one of them… I allowed them to…"
The sight of the dead girl could not leave his mind, and his eyes blurred with tears.
How could he stand by and allow such a thing to happen?
" But you tried to stop them…" The woman's shaky and frail hands reached to his face, lifting it slowly and wiping his streaming tears. " You saved me… Angel…"
That managed to draw a snort from him. " I'm no angel, granny."
The old woman looked past him at the large wings and cocked her head. " You look like an angel sent by heaven for me."
" I'm no angel… I told you… and certainly I was not sent by heaven… I'm far from that…"
And he took a moment to consider the wings himself.
How did they manifest?
He wanted to know…
And most importantly…
How to get rid of them?
As he was thinking about all of that, the old woman stood up and began walking around, calling out. " Sasha! Sasha!"
" Do you know someone in here?" He asked.
" I'm calling for my granddaughter, O honorable angel."
Tadashi blinked at that.
Calling for her granddaughter…
The girl whom she had just witnessed breathe her last…
" Granny…"
" Sasha! Grandma lost her way again! Sasha!"
" Granny!"
The old woman stopped, looked back, then held a hand to her mouth, startled as if seeing Tadashi for the first time.
" My… What a beautiful angel…"
" Who are you?" The man asked, and the woman looked around, as if he might have been talking to someone else.
" I… don't know…"
" Who is Sasha?"
" My granddaughter." The woman answered instantly. " The only family I have."
Then, she resumed calling out for the girl, while Tadashi buried his face in his hands as it dawned on him.
This old woman…
Was senile…
And the only one she could ever remember and rely on…
Was the granddaughter she had just lost…
Tadashi cursed himself that night more than he could ever remember…