-Beyond the illusion-

The truth

Y/N's sits on the edge of the bed, next to her mom. Your mom takes a deep breath, her brow furrowing slightly as she prepares to dive into the complex history that has shaped their lives. "You know I'm originally from America," she starts, her voice steady but laced with emotion. "But there's so much more to it than just that. My family... my past is a tangled web, and your grandfather, Jonathan, is at the center of it all."

Y/N listens intently. "Jonathan wasn't always like this. When I was a child, everything was great. He was brilliant—majored in biology, eugenics, and quirk studies. He had this insatiable curiosity and a desire to help people, to understand quirks at a deeper level. For a long time, he was a devoted husband to my mom, Sarah, and they were happy together."

Larissa pauses, her eyes distant, as if recalling a time long gone. "But when I was five, everything changed. My mom started to get really sick. She had a quirk called Eternal Beacon."

Y/N's brow furrows, intrigued and concerned. "Eternal beacon?, what is that?"

"It's... complicated," her mom explains, her voice trembling slightly. "Eternal Beacon emits an aura of energy that empowers and stabilizes those nearby. It boosts their quirks, heals minor injuries, and enhances physical endurance. It's a beautiful quirk in theory, but it has a terrible price. It drains the user's life energy constantly. Even when she wasn't using it actively, it was sapping her vitality day by day. She aged prematurely, suffering from fatigue and pain, all while trying to help others."

The room feels heavy with unspoken grief, the air thick with tension as Larissa continues.
"Jonathan was desperate to find a cure for her. He was convinced that he could figure out a way to take and store a quirk outside of the body, or to create a new quirk just for her—something that would keep her alive. He was smart enough to stop the immediate effects of her quirk, but... he put her into a slumber. He thought it would buy her time. But if she ever woke up, the quirk would start to drain her life again."

Larissa's features twist with fear. "Jonathan became consumed by his work, more and more desperate for answers. He started to change. His colleagues grew concerned as he became increasingly extreme. They eventually kicked him out when he started proposing human trials before he even had a solution. That's when he began to resort to kidnapping—children and others for his twisted experiments. He hasn't been caught; he has some kind of contract with an underground villain, but I don't know the details."

Y/N feels a chill run down her spine, her breath hitching at the thought of her grandfather's actions. "You... you were part of those experiments?"

Larissa nods, her eyes glistening with tears as she looks away, unable to meet Y/N's gaze. "I was terrified of him. I never wanted to go back, but he always found a way to reach me. I was living in fear, and then one night, when I was 19, I just wanted to escape. I snuck out to have some fun, and I met a hero who was in America on a mission. I got pregnant by him."

The revelation hits Y/N like a punch to the gut, her face a mixture of shock and sympathy. "You never told him?"

"No," her mom admits, tears welling in her eyes, her voice cracking under the weight of her confession. "After I realized I was pregnant, I knew I had to leave. I asked the hero to take me with him to Japan and then to never contact me again. I didn't want him to be involved in any of this."

Y/N processes the information, feeling the gravity of her mother's decisions. "So you came to Japan to escape your father?"

"Yes," Larissa whispers, her voice heavy with regret. "I thought I could start fresh, keep you safe. But now... now it feels like the past is catching up to us. I thought I could keep you away from him, but it's clear that's not going to happen."