Colors in the Dark

[0] Prologue

In a world of superpowers, quirks are supposed to be nurtured through families. However, tragedy can strike, leaving children orphaned. When even foster families aren't there long enough to show you the way, instead shunning you for the "evil" power you possess, you have no way to hone your true potential. Just abandoned, left to escape to the streets after years of abuse. You just have to learn to survive while losing the few people you grew up with, the people you once knew, making allies but never really trusting anyone, hearing the murmurs behind your back saying "filthy orphan, what a waste of a child." You have to get used to the fact that the voices in your head your quirk cursed you with might be the only ones who ever truly understand you.

And unfortunately, that hardly scratches the surface.

~ ~

"The results came back, the doctor said you're due to get a quirk any day now," a black-haired woman told the child in front of her. Even if the little girl wasn't her biological child, the little ginger was left parentless and thrust into an orphanage way too young.

The four-year-old girl's eyes looked up at her adoptive mom. "What kind of power do you think I'm gonna get? I wanna be a superhero like All Might, I hope it's super awesome!"

"I don't know, honey, we'll have to wait and see. Why don't you go play with your toys? I need to make some calls," the woman replied, watching her skip away happily to her room. She picked up the phone once the girl was out of sight, dialing her husband's number.

"Hello? What is it, Netami?" His voice carried over a bit of static from being on the phone.

Netami sighed. "The results are back, and it turns out she won't be quirkless like the orphanage promised. If it's something simple, then I doubt it will matter, but you know how... fickle some of the new generation's quirks have been getting. Wilder, more intense. If she gets something too different..."

Her husband clicked his tongue. "I told you adopting from an orphanage around here was bad news, Netami. They're known for lying and shipping whatever misfits they get out. Hell, we're getting paid to keep this kid, so of course she'd be messed up!"

"Let's just wait it out and pray it won't be too bad. Worse comes to worst, we take her back," she sighed before hanging up. She liked the little girl, who she had been taking care of for the past few months, but the idea of some unusual, potentially dangerous quirk in the same house as her family?

Netami rubbed her stomach, which had been growing larger and larger over the last couple of weeks. In just a few months' time, she'd be going into labor with her first biological child, and if the orphan she and her husband plucked from a shabby place out of the kindness in their hearts posed any threat to them...

"What's wrong, mommy?" Ayami's voice interrupted Netami's own train of thought. She forced herself to look down at the ginger girl with her big amber eyes and face speckled in freckles and took a deep breath.

"It's nothing, honey, I was just thinking. What should we eat for lunch, now?"

~  ~

Though the doctor predicted only a few days until her quirk came, Ayami remained quirkless for much longer.

During the middle of the night, she heard a scream, and rushed to its source. Netami's clothes were all wet, and she, along with her husband, were putting together a bag. He noticed the little girl arrive and pushed her aside. "Your mother is going into labor, I'm going to take her to the hospital so she can have her baby. Don't let the house fall into ruin while we're gone, there's plenty of food in the fridge if you get hungry. Move along now."