Silver Linings (A My Hero Academia Fanfic)

Prologue: Kumori Tatsumaki - Origin

(A/N: Hey, everyone! Before we get started, I would like to give you all a trigger warning. This chapter mentions verbal and physical abuse, so if those topics trigger you, or if they cause any sort of distress to you, I highly advise you skip this chapter and go straight to Chapter 1.)

A long time ago, in Qing Qing City, China, a baby was born with a shining presence.

As time went on, similar phenomena happened across the world, until most of the human population ended up with superpowers known as "Quirks".

You may think that Quirks are an advancement in humankind. Yet when you're born into a family who only cares about Quirks, you'd wish you were born without them.

My dad's Quirk is absorbing solar energy and firing it into laser attacks and solar flares. My mom's Quirk is the ability to use pre-existing winds, compress them, and release it to do great damage (and also for defense). I was born with the ability to do both, but not at the same time. (Well, I only have the solar flare part of my dad's Quirk.) I can only use my solar energy ability when it's sunny outside, and I can only use my mom's Gust Slash Quirk when it's windy. (Also, how strong Gust Slash is depends on how strong the winds are.)

I was the first of my class to show signs of Quirk usage, and my mom was so thrilled. She had her usual "My little baby is growing up!" cry that a lot of moms have. However, it wasn't enough for my dad.

As soon as I learned about my solar and wind quirks, my dad took me to a random laboratory. (Looking back on it, the laboratory was incredibly shady.) In the laboratory, I was basically a guinea pig for Dr. Kuroda, a weird scientist my dad was friends with.

The experiments were... scary to say the least. Basically, what Dr. Kuroda would do is that he would use DNA markups of other quirk users, and inject them inside of me with a needle. I was terrified of needles, so I would scream and yell the entire time. My dad had to pin me down while Dr. Kuroda stuck the needle inside of me.

The experiments ended up working, and I inherited six new Quirks as a result.

I ended up with a gliding/floating Quirk which only works when it's cloudy outside, a Quirk where I control the movements of raindrops and use them as water pellets, a Quirk where I can create illusions out of fog, a Quirk where I can use snow/ice molecules to create weapons during the winter, a shock absorption Quirk for when there's a lightning storm, and a Quirk where I can form a veil of sand during a sandstorm.

Basically, whichever Quirk I am able to use depends on the weather. Therefore, my Quirk is simply known as Weather Imitation.

However, after receiving these new abilities, my dad told me to keep them a secret. This is because he lied to my mom, saying that he was going to get me some ice cream. (He lied to me about that, too. I had no idea what I was getting into until it was too late.)

He did actually end up giving me ice cream, though, as an exchange for my silence on the experiments. Not only did he not want me to tell my mom about it, but he didn't want me to tell anyone about it. He also didn't want me to show anyone my new quirks until I started attending the most prestigious hero school in all of Japan, U.A. High School.

My dad had expected me to go to U.A. since I was born. Becoming a Pro Hero was all my dad wanted me to be, and for a while, he tricked me into believing it was my dream, too.

I was recommended into U.A. from both my dad (especially because he was a Pro Hero before I turned eleven), my mom, and some teachers. When I was almost done with junior high school, my dad drove me to U.A to take the Recommendation Entrance Exam. I remember right before I hopped out of my dad's car, he inched his face close to mine, and he threatened me with gritted teeth, saying "Kumori, if I ever find out that you failed this exam, I'm fucking throwing you out of my house. No offspring of mine should EVER be a failure. Got that?" I nodded nervously. "Good. Now don't you dare disappoint me." he said as I got out of his car and closed the door behind me. He drove off, and I headed over to where the exam was held.

Lucky for me, not only did I get accepted into U.A., but I also got the second highest score, so I wasn't going to get thrown out of the house anytime soon. I was proud of how I did in the exam, but all my dad was able to focus on was that I didn't get the highest score. As punishment, I wasn't allowed to have any singing lessons, and I was forced to run laps for miles with my dad every day before my first year started.

However, my mom was able to sneak me into my voice lessons. She had to change my schedule from having my lesson every week to having it on random days in order to avoid looking suspicious, but we still managed to get my lessons in without my dad suspecting a thing.

My mom could always tell I found joy in singing, and she encouraged me to do it as much as she could. However, she and I were both under my dad's control. He thought singing was a stupid waste of time, and he considered my voice lessons as a "privilege" and not anything important. He wanted being a Pro Hero to be my top priority.

Yet that's not what I want. It was never what I wanted, no matter how much smoke my dad blew up my ass. The very thought of being a Pro Hero and putting my life on the line every waking day sounds so scary. Ever since I was little, I've wanted to be an idol. Every night, after my mom would make me go to sleep, I would sneak into the living room and watch concerts, music videos, and variety shows on TV at a low volume without my parents knowing. I've aspired to be like those singers on screen for as long as I could remember. Hearing the music was the only thing that gave me hope, and I want to give the same kind of hope to people in the same exact way when I grow up. 

When my first year at U.A. started, the only thing I looked forward to was time away from my parents. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but it can be scary at home. My dad yells at me whenever I fail to meet his expectations (which is a lot), and sometimes, when I try to fall asleep, I hear screams of pain coming from my mom as my dad yells at her and hits her. One time, when my mom was cooking me breakfast, I saw a hole in the drywall.

I had Shota Aizawa (a.k.a. Eraser-Head) as my homeroom teacher during my first year at U.A. Having him as my teacher was brutal. I have no idea how I even survived.

During my first year, I won the First Year Stage of the U.A. Sports Festival, which got me tons of nominations from the Pro Hero Draft. I chose my hero name, Forecaster, and I chose to work with Mirko for my internship because she's the only Pro Hero I'm really a fan of. (Luckily, my dad retired from being a Pro Hero a few years before I started high school, or else he would've forced me to work with him.)

After I got my Provisional Hero License, I worked with heroes like Hawks and even All Might during the Hero-Work Studies Program.

I'd have to admit that those were all great opportunities. It just sucks that I had to take them instead of someone who probably would've killed to do all of those things. The only thing I enjoyed doing at U.A. was performing at the U.A. School Festival.

I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous at first. Yet seeing everyone's smiling faces in the audience gave me the most joy I've ever felt. That was what I've wanted to do all my life.

Tomorrow, I'm about to start my first day of my second year at U.A. High School. I'm incredibly nervous. I'm so nervous, I can feel my stomach sinking.

Right now, all I'm doing is laying down on my bed and staring at the ceiling. I then started to lay down on my stomach, looking at my gold medal that I won at the U.A. Sports Festival last year. I couldn't help but sigh. I feel like I'm robbing people of their dreams, while not even following mine. I'm sabotaging everyone including myself. All because I'm too scared to stand up to my dad....

I decided to take my mind off of things by listening to my favorite K-Pop artists before doing my bedtime routine and dozing off to sleep.

Until the next day starts...

(A/N: Hey guys, it's me again! I hope you guys are excited for what I have in store for this fanfic! I know I am!

For those of you who are interested in getting to know each character, I will put character bios in between each chapter! I won't be leaving out any information unless it's a huge spoiler or something. Mark my words.

I'm also making Spotify playlists for each character, so I'll see if I can put the links of each playlist during their respective character bios.

I will post Tatsumaki's character bio in between the prologue (this chapter) and Chapter 1, due to the fact that she's the main character. Bare with me, I'll be doing bios for her entire class.

I hope you all enjoyed this prologue. Have a wonderful day!

- Accord Amity)