3 12 Years Old

------(Time skip 6 years, Yasuo age 12)------

Elementary school was a wild and fun time. I made many new friends and even met some old ones who still remembered me from preschool such as Takeo the human cockroach.

My baby fat was had receded as I started maturing, so not to brag but mom told me everyday how handsome I looked. I had somewhat spiky jet black hair, inherited from my father; a tribute to my family name, Kurogami. And my features, at least compared to my classmates, were above average I felt.

Though quirk usage was severely restricted, that was only limited to the incredibly flashy ones. Subtler quirks were still used on a daily basis by students who had them. My quirk could be considered simultaneously flashy and low-key at the same time. Objects moving by themselves could very easily be attributed to one of three students in my class who had telekinetic powers - although the other two had way less power than I did.

With this restriction in place, I began developing and finding new ways to use my quirk that was not as conspicuous to varying success.

From my experience in the Quirk Assessment Center, quirks were like muscles; when they get worn out and damaged, new stronger ones would grow back. Meaning, the more I used my quirk and the more I pushed them to the limits, the greater my maximum capacity of my psychic energy.

In the first place, the psychic energy of my quirk was invisible and intangible - being able to apply force on other objects but force could not be applied on it. So I developed a barrier like ability, which allowed me to form an invisible telekinetic barrier in varying sizes for defensive purposes. Since people could not see it, I could continuously maintain it in class in order to train my quirk.

In addition to my ability to move matter with my mind, my quirk, Psychokinesis, also granted me the ability to control psychic energy. With it, I could spread the energy around me, and perceive anything and everything the energy 'touches' within my range. This allowed me to 'see' through walls without even looking up. I could sense the environment all around me, 360 degrees.

I couldn't see colour, only being able to distinguish the shape and surface area of an object. So even though I could technically do something pervy like 'see' up the skirts of my teachers and classmates when I used my psychic sense, I couldn't identify what colour underwear they were wearing.

(Imagine Byakuugan but rather than perceiving photons, it's more of a sixth sense)

After six years of stretching and pushing the range of my psychic sense, it now extended up to a distance of 400 metres in diameter around me. However, although the range of my sixth sense had extended to quite a distance, I could only focus on just a few things at a time.

This was because of something I learned about in elementary biology in school. The human brain could only process a certain amount of input data, and at the current juncture, my brain was not yet developed to the point of being able to discern every single detail within my psychic sense all at once. Trying to do something like that now was possible, but it would also cause a massive headache.

Additionally, although I was mainly training my barrier and psychic sense abilities, my psychokinesis quirk was gradually getting stronger as well the more I pushed the limits of my psychic abilities.

While I lacked the specialized training equipment the Quirk Assessment Centre provided me when I was younger, I could feel my Psychokinesis growing stronger; its capacity to hold the psychic energy within me growing wider. Six years after I trained in the QAC, even I am no longer sure just how much force my Psychokinesis can exert. One thing is for sure though, it is definitely multiple times more than my last assessment six years ago.

For what reason am I training, one might ask. Just like how I am not sure how strong my quirk has become, so too am I uncertain why I am so hastily chasing strength.

Initially, I was only sent to the QAC to learn to control my quirk in fear of hurting innocent people or worse still, my loved ones. There, control, patience and discipline was hammered into my mind day after day.

But now, I trained so that I could one day fulfil my parents' expectations they had levied on me all those years ago. "You will become a great hero one day." They said. I thought about how disappointed they would be if I had an incredible quirk yet did nothing with it - so for some time my goal was to become a hero.

Unlike many of my classmates who absolutely idolized heroes, I took one look at the top ten hero rankings and scoffed. I was like them once when I was just a young child, but after I had understood, truly grasped, just how strong my quirk was, I didn't think they were that awesome any longer.

Half of them I could defeat with both eyes closed, literally, and the other half I might have difficulty with initially but given enough time for my quirk to continue growing I could crush them with ease. Perhaps All Might was the only who I was uncertain about.

I didn't know how strong my barrier was, since I never had anyone actually strong to test it with. All Might's incredible strength coupled one of his famed super techniques like Detroit Smash might be able to pierce through it easily.

(Yasuo is kind of going through a chuunibyou phase. His thoughts can be taken as something coming from an unreliable narrator. How accurate his theories are, you can speculate for yourself)

'Should I become the next Symbol of Peace?' I would sometimes muse to myself when I got bored in class. Frankly, I didn't know if I would have the mentality needed to become an awe-inspiring hero like All Might - always full of positivity, confidence and sheer altruism. Remembering that incident that happened two years ago, I was positive I didn't have that hero mindset.

I was in fourth grade two years ago when I had accidentally bumped into a sixth grade upperclassman and made him drop his chocolate milk. He got so riled up even though I apologized and offered to pay him back for the milk.

The senpai wanted me to fall to my knees and grovel for forgiveness, which I had to point out was a totally villainous thing to ask for. I refused of course, and the senpai who had some sort of spike creation quirk grew a spike out of his hand and was about to strike me with it before the recess bell rang.

He warned me that after school he and his friends was going to kick my ass. I just rolled my eyes and told him, 'whatever, sure".

Sure enough, he somehow found out which class I was from and immediately after school he and his little gang came in and basically gave me a choice: to get beat up right there and then in front of all my classmates or get beat up behind the school where no one could see. I chose the latter because at that moment, I decided that I didn't want anyone to see what I was going to do to them.

Once they had pushed me into the alley behind the school the leader of their group, the spikey senpai threw a punch at the back of my head. His fist stopped in mid-air.

He was surprised but mistakenly realized that I probably had some sort of a barrier quirk. He provocatively declared that if I had a barrier, he was just going to break it. Together with five of his friends, they began unleashing their respective quirk abilities on my barrier, trying to break it down with sheer quantity.

After a minute or so of making zero progress, they started getting tired and I was getting bored. So I unleashed my own quirk. Not at full power or anything, since I didn't want to straight up murder them. I just gripped their bodies with giant 'phantom hands' and lifted them off the ground.

I tightened the grip of my phantom hands on their small bodies and asked them if I should just crush their bones right now to make them leave me alone. Of course I wasn't going to go that far. If there was one thing that defined me, it was control; be it quirk control or self control.

It was a scare tactic, since I heard from the anti-bullying assembly awhile back that if you fight back against bullies, they would leave you alone. Or at least that was the message I got from it, since the speakers were encouraging students to report to teachers instead. But something like this was much more effective than just telling the teachers after letting them beat me up.

The bullies started crying, and incoherently babbled apologies or pleas. I felt bad for making them cry so I let them down and warned them to not try something with me again. They agreed.

That was when I also found out that I had just defeated the 'boss' of my elementary school. Turns out, him and his gang, as the strongest and most willing to resort to violence in our school as well as being the oldest (and thus physically biggest) students in our school, were the ones who were recognized as the strongest guys around.

Somehow, someone had saw the little altercation we had behind the school and rumours quickly spread. Since I had defeated the 'boss' of our elementary school, that made me the new boss or something like that. I couldn't be bothered to correct them initially, but after people started treating me differently, even my own classmates and friends, I talked to some people and told them to spread the truth - I was not interested in being any type of 'boss', and I wasn't going to start beating people up.

People started loosening up around me after that, even more so when after they had joked around with me or teased me about one thing or another, I didn't flip out and yell at them like some delinquent. My friends and classmates started treating me like before again, albeit with a hint of caution at the back of their minds.

To make things worse though, somehow even my teacher found out what I had done. Thankfully however, since I had always been a model student and usually one of the more better behaved kids, they let me off with a warning. A warning that had been sent to my parents as well.

Mom was Pissed, with a capital P, and threatened to ground me until I graduated. As a former pro-hero, she couldn't stand violent acts like mine even though the teacher had informed them in the phone call that I only fought back in self-defense.

I could understand her perspective - surely she had seen more than once before people misusing their quirks to harm others. So for her own son who had a frighteningly strong quirk to have used said quirk to hurt others, even if it was in self defense, was something she could not tolerate. Especially since she knew I was more than strong enough to defuse the situation without relying on physically harming them.

Dad calmed her down however. He explained that he knew me, what I was like, what I could do and more importantly what I wouldn't do. Picking fights and bullying others with my quirk was something he knew was not in my character, so he gave me the benefit of the doubt.

Upon hearing his explanation as well as mine, mom calmed down. But I was still punished by being sent to bed early without supper.

I knew I didn't do anything wrong, I knew it. Even though I could understand where she was coming from, I was still slightly miffed that I was being punished for defending myself.

The next day, however, all was normal again and my parents had seemingly forgotten about it all. This was what a family was supposed to be like after all. We could fight and argue and throw tantrums at each other, but once we slept on it, we would wake up having forgotten what we were even fighting about in the first place.

That was two years ago. Now, I was graduating elementary school and headed to middle school. I would hate it if there were any more of those bullies in middle school. Since they might try to find some trouble with me and I would end up having to defend myself again.

Not only would I get punished by mom, I might even receive some troublesome label like 'delinquent' or 'boss'... that shit is seriously annoying.

avataravatar
Next chapter