You Can't Have the Light Without the Dark

Chapter 1: Background

A/N

Basically just background information before we get started.

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Kaminari Denki was smarter than he let on, not academically though, he was still pretty bad at math. But what his classmates didn't know was that he is an assassin. Correction, was an assassin, he left that life far behind him.

After being abducted into an underground organization known as Project Beta, Kaminari spent the first 14 years of his life training in the art of assassination. Project Beta is a heavily kept secret, its very existence debated on. But Kaminari knew the truth, hell he even lived through it. The organization morphed kids to become weapons for the underground world. Kaminari underwent their brutal regiment and came out as their top assassin, the best of the best. He was their elite weapon and was given the code name, Static.

...

Kaminari didn't know the exact details on how he ended up at the organization, but he had his theories. He hypothesized his parents were most likely disposed of so the organization could get their hands on the blonde. Or maybe they were just scumbags who never cared about him. But since he'd never know the truth, he liked to believe the former. It's not like he didn't try figuring out what happened. He went through files upon files at the organization but all his research efforts came up null.

When he thought about his parents, there wasn't really any grief. Well there was, but he never really knew them so there wasn't much to reminisce on. He didn't particularly blame them for his situation, the organization is a terrifying force. So if his parents were regular citizens, it would be no wonder they couldn't protect Denki. He still missed them nonetheless, silly isn't it, missing someone you never knew. Occasionally he'd lie awake at night imagining living a normal life with a normal family, relishing in the thought even if it was all just fantasy.

Kaminari didn't know exactly why he was taken as a baby. Maybe his quirk manifested at a very young age or maybe that his parents had strong electrical quirks that made him a promising recruit. Perhaps it was a mix of both, he'd never know for sure.

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, during his time at UA he continued his search and stumbled upon a newspaper article covering a homicide about a couple found dead in their apartment with clean bullet wounds in the back of the head. There were no names but the thing that tipped Kaminari off was an eerily similar lightning bolt in one of the victim's hair. It made his stomach churn but at least he had some sort of closure about his parents, or what became of them. He left it at that, slowly folding up the crumpled newspaper and tucking it away under his mattress. He didn't need to know any more.

...

The organization's protocol was to train up the recruits until the age of 7, then they'd start doing jobs, not assassinating just yet, but dipping their toe in the underground world. They'd do drug runs, or accompany victims to their inevitable doom, among others tasks. It was also a way to assess how their trainees would handle being out in the field, and dispose of the ones that didn't meet their standards.

At age 10, the remaining recruits are given their first mission. For their first couple assignments they would be supervised from afar. If they failed to complete their duty, someone else would, while they endured a horrible punishment. And if they had the audacity to attempt to escape, they'd be taken care of right then and there. Succumbing to the same fate they just bestowed onto their own victim.

They also had an education, well as much as an education one would need to become a successful assassin. The coursework consisted of linguistics, basic math, anatomy, chemistry, (hand picked) history, among other subjects.