10 Steps Ahead

A New Path

"Look who I found, a useless Deku," Kachan taunted. Explosions popped from his hands above me while his 'friends' stood behind him showing off their quirks as well. And me? I was doing what I did everyday, cowering on the ground and protecting my vitals from the beating that always comes.
   
Boom! 2 of Kachan's explosions on my right shoulder, center of my chest and bottom left of my stomach. Jeez, I expected for him to do it in the same places as always but did it have to be directly on the scar from yesterday. I think it's intentional now, that's the third time Kachan exploded a previous scar in a row. Shing! Goon 1, his quirk is that he can make knives out of his fingernails. Cuts on my arms when I tried to protect myself from Kachan. Thwip! Goon 2, they're quirk is turning their limbs into rubber. It makes being slapped on the back a lot more painful than usual. Imagine a rubber band rebounding and hitting your hand when you stretch it, but bigger.
   
That's the most people Kachan will allow to follow him when beating me up, and the most powerful quirks those two are allowed to have so they don't upshow him. Everyone knows not to interrupt Kachan when he is harming me. I'm not the only one who's scared of him so I should be able to get to my next class without being cornered again. I let out a whimper to seem like I was a lot more scared and hurt than I actually am. It does hurt a lot and I am still scared but it loses some of its effect after happening so many times. Now I have more important things to worry about than a bit of pain, like how to get out of this. People like me have to stay 10 steps ahead to survive these kinds of things since we don't have a quirk.
   
As they laugh and taunt me some more, I wait for an opportunity. They turn to glance at each other for a split second but that's all I need. Quickly changing from cowering on the floor to diving between one of the goon's legs and sprinting through the halls. I drop down in my seat a few minutes before the bell rings. Not a moment late so the teacher can't reprimand me, but still late enough that by the time Kachan bursts through the doors the class has already started and he doesn't have the chance to hurt me again.
   
The day was better than expected. Only 1 small group of kids confronted me, and I left with only a few bruises. Kachan was glaring at me throughout the day, that always meant that he was going to be more mad after school. So when the teacher started to utter the words "dismissed" I was sprinting through the door.

Unfortunately, I already knew I wouldn't make it out with the teacher announcing to the class, specifically Kachan, that I was applying to UA just before. It's like they want Kachan to be angry enough to hurt me. Oh wait, yes they do!
   
"Fucking Deku! What the fuck do you think you're doing. You really think some quirkless nobody like you could get into UA," Kachan continued to yell at me. I could faintly hear him yelling as I drowned out his voice. It was really easy now, considering how much he's screaming, to tune out and ignore all the hateful words. I'm forced back to reality when Kachan picks up my notebook. I catch the last bit of what he says ("take a swan dive off a roof and pray for a quirk in your next life") but it looks like he's going to... No. No, I kept this one safe so far he can't just do that it's too important-
   
I watch as a charred notebook falls through the window, landing in the fountain. Everyone stands around laughing as my last escape from this all is destroyed. It had some of my favourite analysis in it as well. I stared at my notebook swimming with the fishes, I could probably stand here all day grieving the lost book. But I can't take time to do that, I've got to get out of here first. I grab my bag and slip out the door while everyone is busy laughing and taunting me as usual.

   I walked through an underpass, looking through the remains of my notebook to see if it's still usable. I was able to get it out of the fountain when I escaped. A few entries are still legible so it wasn't the worst it could be. And now that school's over I can hide in my room until the day's over, it's all uphill from here.
   
"This looks like a good meat suit to hide in for a while," a voice says behind me. I spoke too soon. Before I could even turn around to see what my new problem was, slime was forcing its way down my throat. Pressure built in my chest as I tried to claw my throat or cough it up. It was a useless effort as the slime kept filling my body. Soon my hands fell limb beside me as I blacked out.
   
I blinked my eyes, taking in the rays of light and the figure in front of me. "Oh good, you're awake. Well I must be going then," the figure said. I sat up trying to gather my thoughts, then all my senses came into focus at once. The figure was walking away, and it kind of looked like... All Might!? Wait, was he leaving?