Tsuki Ryoshi is a hunter like her father, she's spent her whole life happily traipsing around the Beast's Forest with her best friend Izuku Midoriya, never really wishing for more. That is until she has to leave her quiet little village to escort a...
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Image: Deika City
12 years ago, in Deika City.
"Get the hell out of here! You damn street rats!" The inn keep yelled throwing Tenko and his mother out of the door into the filth of the street outside. The slick mud beneath their feet gave no grip and they both fell to the floor, their already dirty clothes becoming even more grime coated as they sprawled out on the ground.
It was cold and the frigid air bit at their exposed skin, hitting their mud-soaked clothes, making them feel heavier. It was always cold this far north, but it was almost winter again and soon this muddy ground would be frozen solid. At least for now the slippery filth had saved them from any broken bones as they were tossed out of the building like yesterday's garbage.
Tenko helped his unsteady mother to her feet; they were both weak with exhaustion, not having eaten more than a few scraps in days. They had no money, and nowhere to live, so this evening they'd chanced sneaking into an inn for the night, or at least for a few hours in which to warm up by the fire. But the landlord had spotted them only a couple of minutes after they had made their way inside, and they couldn't offer him anything to let them stay. His mother had even offered to sell herself to him, but he had refused.
Young Tenko supported his mother's weight as they walked slowly through the filthy back allies of the city. Everyone's eyes averted from them, acting as if they didn't see the sorry pair. People didn't like to be reminded of the hardships endured by the poor.
He hated this, any one of them could help them just by giving a couple of coins or a bit of food. If they had, he would have been so grateful, but nobody cared enough to help them. They just went about their day, smiling, and laughing, looking so carefree. He couldn't stand it, he hated everyone! He wished they would all just disappear so he couldn't see them smile anymore.
They stumbled into a dead-end alley and huddled together in a corner. His mother was shivering; trying to wrap her thin shawl tighter round her shoulders with her feeble hands when a group of young men turned the corner. They were laughing and joking, clearly drunk. One man stopped to piss against the wall nearby, and he spotted the pair hunched in the corner. When he finished, he spoke to his friends.
"Well looky what we have here fellas," he sneered approaching Tenko and his mother. His friends loped into the alley behind him.
"Stay away!" Tenko shouted at them, clinging tighter to his mother's skirt.
"You hear that, boys? This rat's got a mouth on him! How about we teach him a lesson?" He jeered and rolled up his sleeves. His friends had wicked grins on their faces and cracked their knuckles menacingly, blocking the only escape route.
Tenko was lifted bodily into the air by the scruff of his shirt. The drunk man punched him in the gut, knocking the air from his lungs. He dropped to the floor and Tenko doubled over in pain, coughing and spluttering while trying to regain the air that had been knocked out of him. The gang laughed and one of them kicked him in the side of the face; he fell sideways and slid into the wall clutching his stomach and now stinging cheek, sobbing quietly behind the messy curtain of pale blue hair.
"Stop it!" His mother yelled. "Please stop, leave him alone!" She tried getting to her feet but fell over the moment she tried.
"Oh, this one's feisty! How 'bout it, fellas?" The first man asked his friends, they nodded and crowded around the helpless woman. Tenko closed his eyes, he couldn't bear to watch what happened next. He cowered in fear, listening to his mother's cries and screams as the men laughed at her anguish. Until the screaming stopped.
"Well, you were no fun," said one of the men dropping his mother's limp arm from his grasp, "let's get out of here guys."
Tenko kept quiet as the gang left the ally, relieved to find they had forgotten about him. Regardless, he remained motionless for some time after the sound of their footsteps had faded away, just to be sure.
When he was certain the men had gone for good, he crawled over to his mother's body, still and lifeless on the wet ground. Tear streaks had left clean tracks down her grubby face, but her wide dead eyes at least looked restful now. He closed her eyelids with his fingertips, sniffling quietly, trying not to cry too loudly in case the men came back.
He held her frozen hand in his for a while, waiting to see if by some miracle she might wake up, but she didn't. Then he stood up to leave the ally; he stopped at the entrance, just once, to look back at his poor dead mother before moving on.
-
Some days had passed since his mother's death, and Tenko was now wandering the streets alone. Occasionally he would grab an apple or if he was lucky, a loaf of bread, from a stall in the market and run as fast as he could before anyone could catch him. Today, however, was not one of those days. Today he had been caught and beaten within an inch of his life.
Bloodied and bruised, he decided to leave the city for good. If he was going to die anyway, he would rather die anywhere other than the same filthy streets his mother had, so he headed north out of the city's boarders and off into the snowy tundra.
The walk was painful and slow, the snow made it difficult to move in, his bare feet were numb, and purple from frostbite and his injuries were screaming at him to keep still, but he kept going until he couldn't move anymore. A mile or so outside of the city, his feet and hands now numb to the bone, and the dried blood of his wounds crusted on his skin, he finally collapsed. Well, he guessed this was it then. He closed his eyes, ready to embrace death, but when death spoke, it was with a calm gentle voice.
"No one came to save you... That must've hurt.... Right, Tenko Shimura?" Tenko opened his eyes to greet death, but instead found himself looking up at a well-dressed man holding out his hand.
"Everyone just passed by pretending not to see, thinking that some hero would save the day. Who decided to make the world this way?" Tenko blinked up at the man smiling kindly down at him.
"Come with me Tenko, together we shall end the world's suffering."
The small boy reached up his shaking hand and placed it in the mans. His frozen fingers felt no warmth from the clasped hand holding his, but this was the first time anyone had ever offered him anything and he took it gladly.
