Chapter 1 – Monsters Cannot Be Happy
MC POV
"Why?" I looked around at the chaos and destruction surrounding me. Collapsing buildings, explosions in the distance, screams and cries echoing far away.
"Stop him!" a man shouted as he ran toward me. He wore a strange, colorful outfit and leapt through the rubble with impressive agility.
He was injured, but still moved with extreme agility as he came in my direction.
I recognized him, the jumping hero, Celeris.
'He wants to stop me? But why? I didn't do anything. It was an accident. I didn't want to…' I looked at the bloodstains beside me, where my parents should have been, the only people who ever showed me love… gone.
"No." I stepped back a little, vibrations rising around me.
"Stop, don't do this!" someone else shouted, but I didn't turn to see who it was, my eyes still focused on the place where my mother had been.
"No." Small cracks began forming in the air as if reality itself were being torn apart.
More heroes appeared, running toward me, shouting something.
Their hands reached out to stop me, but they never touched me.
"NOOOOOO!"
Crack, crack, crack. The air shattered, and the heroes closest to me were instantly turned into a mist of blood. Those farther away were torn apart, losing pieces of themselves. The world around me trembled, and the remaining buildings began to collapse even further.
On that day, the city of Mizuho was wiped off the map.
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3rd Person POV
Three days later, the Public Safety Commission Building
In a conference room, a group of men and women in professional suits gathered around a table, examining the report on the destruction of Mizuho.
"So?" one of them finally spoke. "What should we do with him?"
"Eliminate him," another responded.
"He's only four years old," a third person said.
"And he has the power to destroy a city like it's nothing," a woman replied coldly. "He hasn't even developed his Quirk and already has that much power. We can't let him walk around freely."
"So you want to kill him? A child?" the third person said again.
"So what? It wouldn't be the first time we removed a variable." The woman answered indifferently.
"So in that case, you'll eliminate all children from now on? You know more and more kids with powerful Quirks will appear. Do you plan to eliminate them too?" a fifth person asked.
"This has nothing to do with that." The woman replied. "Yes, children with increasingly powerful Quirks will appear, that's a fact, but they come with obvious limiters we're prepared to handle. This boy, however, is an anomaly. Power like that at his age… the level he could reach may be far too dangerous for us to control."
Silence stretched through the room. Indeed, the boy was far too powerful. His destructive power was so great that even his accidental awakening caused significant damage to Mizuho, and when he lost control, he wiped out the entire city.
Even if they trained him, his power was too great to be used in urban areas, meaning he could never be a hero, not even a weapon for the Public Safety Commission.
"Besides," the woman continued, "there is another factor. All For One. So far, the Mizuho disaster can be covered up as a natural disaster, but if that monster discovers the truth — if he learns about the boy, about his Quirk…"
"All right, we understand. His Quirk is too dangerous, but even so…" the third person said, though far less confident than before.
The existence of All For One weighed heavily. Even though his empire had slowly crumbled in recent years due to the combined efforts of All Might and other heroes, he still controlled a significant portion of Japan's underworld.
His influence over powerful figures was also notable. Honestly, he would not be surprised if one of the nine present in this room were an ally, or at least someone under AFO's influence.
Even more important, his power to steal and distribute Quirks at will…
'This boy cannot live.'
In the end, all of them had that thought in mind, and the boy's fate was sealed.
<><><><><>
Somewhere in Japan.
In a secret facility, a group of Public Safety Commission operatives stood guard in complete silence in front of a special room.
Unlike regular staff, who wore small suits and spent their days talking about laws and regulations, these individuals looked like real soldiers. They wore identical tactical uniforms and were equipped with various types of individually customized gear.
These were the Anonymous Heroes, as the commission called them. Orphans and other individuals with powerful or strategically valuable Quirks, recruited early — often right after their awakening.
Anonymous Heroes were one of the pillars that held society together. Unlike underground heroes, who acted in the shadows but were still known by the public, the existence of these operatives went completely unnoticed — to the point where even the most influential figures in society knew very little about them.
They were responsible for far more than the commission's dirty work; they maintained the fragile balance that upheld Japan's economic and social order.
While All Might and the heroes fought AFO, tearing down his empire, the Anonymous Heroes cleaned up the aftermath and filled the power vacuum, assimilating what they could and dealing with problematic individuals both internally and externally.
Their job was not just eliminating political enemies; it was achieving a favorable balance so the commission could develop comfortably.
And today was no different.
In a special cell on the third underground floor, a small figure sat restrained in a chair, unable to move.
His arms were strapped inside a straitjacket, his legs tied to the base of the chair, his head immobilized, eyes blindfolded, mouth sealed, and ears covered.
The small figure was completely immobilized, alone, accompanied only by his thoughts, unaware that his fate had already been decided — and that his death was near.
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MC POV
"You damn monster. What have you done?"
I looked at the hysterical woman who screamed and cried as she hit me. Her thin, fragile body, covered in clear signs of past beatings, possessed a strength I had never imagined or witnessed before.
'Why?' I wondered amid the punches and slaps I received as I looked to the side, where a body lay on the floor. 'Why am I the monster here?'
Gripping the handle of the knife, in a swift motion, I stabbed the woman in the stomach.
Her small eyes widened, and in an instant, all the hatred and rage in them were replaced by fear.
I could see — I could feel — her legs weakening, but I didn't let her go. Holding her by her shirt, staring into her eyes, I pulled the knife out and stabbed her again and again and again.
At some point, I was on top of her, my hands moving repeatedly as I shredded her body with the knife. Her lifeless eyes stared into mine, but I didn't look away for a single second.
When I finished, the woman's torso was devastated. The scene was grotesque and disturbing, but for the first time since I became aware of myself, I felt safe.
Dropping the knife, I looked at my hands and then at my surroundings. Blood was splattered everywhere, the metallic smell that had followed me my entire life had never been so thick and heavy — but somehow, it was extremely comforting to me.
Leaving the woman's body, I stood up and went to the bathroom. I removed my blood-stained clothes and stepped under the shower. The hot water slowly washed away the blood covering my body, revealing the marks of a life of abuse and violence.
"This feels good," I sighed as I curled up under the shower.
I enjoyed the hot water for nearly 30 minutes, feeling warm for the first time in a world that had always been so cold and cruel.
Leaving the shower, I approached the fogged mirror and stared at it for a moment.
"Am I a monster?" I extended my slightly trembling hand toward the mirror, afraid of what it might reveal.
As I wiped the fog away, the faces of monsters passed through my mind.
'Do I have horns? Do I have sharp teeth? Reptilian eyes?'
In the end, the face reflected in that mirror was just an ordinary one. No horns, no fangs, nothing that suggested anything unusual — just the face of a thin young man, nothing special.
"Is this the face of a monster?" I wondered.
Leaving the bathroom, I went to my room and put on regular clothes, but they were visibly better than what I used to wear. These were the first new clothes I had worn in years: beige cargo pants, clean new white sneakers, and a black shirt with a random print.
After that, I went to the old room of the other residents of the house and searched for a while until I found a small box with an old silver watch.
"Buffo, she didn't sell it then? I wonder why?" I looked at the watch that once belonged to my grandfather and put it on my wrist before leaving the room.
I walked past the bodies lying on the floor and stopped over the fallen man. He was a thin man with a big belly, probably cirrhosis, I don't know, I don't care.
I turned his body face up, and for a moment, I was stunned when I saw his face.
He had a terrified expression, something I had never seen. For a moment, I just stood there observing him before grabbing my old cellphone and taking a picture.
It was morbid, but it felt right. I stared at his face for another moment before turning his pants pockets inside out and taking the car key.
Leaving the house, I got into the old car, a ten-year-old utility vehicle.
I drove for a bit until I reached an old family restaurant a few blocks away.
"What would you like?"
"A double cheeseburger with fries, a medium-rare steak, a Coke, and for dessert a chocolate milkshake, please."
"One minute."
I stayed silent, waiting for my meal while watching the families around me enjoying a moment together.
'Why couldn't I have that?' I wondered as the waitress brought my meal.
At the end, I left a two-hundred-dollar tip for her and went back home.
I sat in the old armchair in the center of the room and turned the TV on to some random channel while dialing a number on my old smartphone.
"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"
"Hi, my name is Simon, and I just killed my parents," I said softly, keeping my voice calm. "I'd like you to send a patrol car. The address is XXX."
Hanging up, I leaned back on the old couch and enjoyed the talent show that was on.
'This Tape Face guy is cool,' I thought as I heard the sirens approaching. Shortly after, a loud knock sounded at the door, and someone shouted something. Moments later, the door was kicked open, and a team of police officers entered.
"My God…" one of them said as he saw the brutal scene before him.
"…" Another raised a hand to his mouth, turning his face away before looking at me. "Hands on your head. On your knees."
"I just took a shower, and these clothes are new. I'd like to stay clean if possible."
"On your knees. Now."
I stayed still for a moment, but I did as the officer commanded.
The blood stained my clean pants, which made me frown. As I was being handcuffed, I looked once more at the bodies on the floor. Their deaths hadn't brought me peace, relief, or anything else I might have been looking for.
"Let's go." The officer began escorting me outside, and as we passed by a mirror, I looked once more at my reflection — still an ordinary face — before turning slightly to the officer.
"Am I a monster?"
The question made the officer stop, and his partner, who had been inspecting the bodies, also turned. Both stared at me in silence but said nothing, simply taking me away.
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The days in prison were slow, but for me, they were the closest thing to peace I had ever experienced.
The other inmates didn't mess with me much; no one wanted anything to do with the crazy guy who murdered his parents so brutally.
Of course, one or another would try something, but in the end, I would end up killing them.
In the end, I spent my life inside a cell until I died at 57 from a heart problem.
Honestly, I imagined my fate would be hell — purgatory if I were optimistic, but instead I was given another chance. A divinity or whatever that gourmet baby polar bear was said it would give me the chance to reincarnate in a random world with a random power.
Honestly, I didn't want that. I was a monster; my own mother said so, and monsters don't deserve second chances. But I received one anyway and ended up being reborn.
My first days were confusing; my body went through all kinds of sensory overload. Bright lights, loud noises — everything was extremely uncomfortable.
I tried to keep my mind steady, but the sensory overload was irritating.
Eventually, after some time, my body adapted, and soon I could distinguish the things around me.
I wasn't sure what I expected from this new life, but having loving parents wasn't one of the possibilities.
For 4 years, I felt what love was.
For 4 years, I knew what it was like to have someone caring for me.
For 4 years, I allowed myself to be happy…
But in the end, monsters cannot be happy.