Burnt to Ashes - Kenichi Todoroki

Zay's Origin

"They're out to get me.. everyone's out to get me.." I couldn't even look up at my dad; my eyes were bloodshot. I couldn't breathe correctly. "They're coming to kill me."

"When the fuck did we have such a delusional kid?" My dad grabbed the broom stick he had in the closet and whacked my head with it. I let out a cry as I tumbled to the floor. I reached for the spot he hit me; my vision was going blurry but I could see the blood on my hands.

"Please.." I whimpered out in pain.

My dad reached for the broom stick again. He struck me again with it, this time on my hand, so hard that it snapped. With another cry, crocodile tears flooded my eyes and ran down my face as if it was a waterfall. I heard my mom coming down the stairs.

"Is he talking all crazy again? Good grief." My mom grabbed my arm of which my dad hit and started dragging me. I couldn't even stand up, I just slid across the floor.

She threw my outside the sliding glass door into the backyard. "We're sending you somewhere tomorrow, you better start acting right or I'm going to kill you before you have the chance."

My mom closed the curtains, leaving me outside in the pitch black night. There was barely a moon to give me some sort of light source.

I quickly developed goosebumps; it was cold, and it was supposed to snow tonight. Why do they hate me so much.. why are people coming for me..

I didn't even want to look around; I could feel dark figures and shadows hovering and whisping around me. It was like they were waiting for the right moment to strike . Why am I crazy.. is this how everyone's life is?

————

I woke up to a loud beeping sound. But I thought I was in a hospital; I was painfully wrong.

I was cuffed by my wrists and ankles to a wall, facing a giant tube of liquid. I could see the door slowly opening, and my dad came into view, followed by some unknown people.

"Zixin Liu, eight years old, 144 cm tall and 35.834 kilograms.." One man said. "We can work with this."

My arms felt limp and weak, as well as the rest of my body. I couldn't even begin to comprehend what they were referring to.

Suddenly the man walked up to me. "The name's Kenji, the other guy's Ichirou."

I got a close look at both; they didn't look that old up close, and Kenji's breath smelled like cigarettes. Kenji quickly jabbed something in my arm, making me scream out in pain. But that pain was nothing compared to what I felt next. I could feel my quirk bursting out of me, and I could recall faint and frantic movements of my scorpion tails that were kept inside me.

At the time, I had no idea what happened or what was injected into me. But it was a quirk enhancing drug; one that they used me to test for.

"It's working well." Ichirou muttered. "It's just because he's a weak kid, but the rest of the Shirokage's will handle this fine."

"So we can replenish the sites, huh?" Kenji said, but I couldn't see him while he was out of my limited and tear-filled view.

"Us and Saburo will go up there and we can definitely start. And, hey, Mr. and Mrs. Liu, y'think we can run some other tests on your son?" Ichirou suggested. "Not that you have much of a choice otherwise."

Please... take me away, I can't stay here with two guys I don't know...

As I tried to clear my eyes, I could see my parents exchanging glances. To my demise.. they shrugged. I could see that they didn't care one bit.

"Keep the boy." My dad muttered. "He has no use for us anyways."

I could feel terror lurching at my heart as it pounded in my head. I bared my teeth and my eyes went bloodshot as my scorpion tails reached out for them. They stabbed and clenched and tore at the wall, but Kenji was holding them with his bare hands.

"Stop! Don't leave me here!" I screamed out. But my parents left without even a glance black, without even flinching at my words.

All my power that I still had within myself left my body quicker than it came as the door shut.

"Ready for a few more tests, Zixin?" Kenji took his cigarette out his mouth, blowing smoke out into my face and dropping it in front of him. "Because from now on, we're going to have a lot of fun here."

And from then on, for years, the abuse began.