thomasdarkrose
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MHA: Snatched - Chapter 1
🕑 Added 2023-11-18 21:59:57 +0000 UTCAN
Okay, so I was feeling like writing a chapter of One Piece Merlin, cause that's what my muse wanted. But then this idea pops in my head and wont go away. A vastly different character with a unique quirk. A quirk that, much like Shinso, I felt a lot of kids would give the OC a hard time about.
The Quirk, Snatch, is loosely based on Ban from Seven Deadly Sins and how he's always plucking hearts out of people and demons. Though that's all the OC has in common with Ban. It also had some secrets that will get revealed later on.
Ah! While this isn't as long as my Fabricator chapters have been, it's still 5k words, so longer than my average. Just felt like a good spot to stop.
Let me know if you guys like it.
Chapter 1
Murasaki Kaito, age fifteen, stood in front of one of the, if not the, most premier schools for heroics, U.A. High School. Kaito, like so many others walking past him and through the gates, has traveled far and worked hard in his efforts to matriculate into the school. Today is the day for the entrance exam, something he's worked for ever since his Quirk awoke when he was four.
Kaito nervously ran his fingers through his neon blue hair, though it did nothing to the naturally spiky nature of his hair it did make him feel a little better. His similarly colored eyes scanned the entrance to the school once more as he built up the courage to walk through the gates. He wasn't feeling so much fear as trepidation of the upcoming tests. Was he smart enough? Was his Quirk good enough? Would all of his blood, sweat, and tears be for nothing?
He was broken out of his cycle of constantly questioning his worthiness when he heard and angry blond yelling at a smaller kid with green hair. The distraction was what he needed and allowed him to finally take a step forward. Once the first was taken, his confidence built and he continued into the school's campus to find his first testing area.
He hated tests.
-----Line Break-----
Kaito groaned as he slid into his assigned seat in the auditorium. The first test had been brutal. He was certain there were some college level questions in there! He knew he wasn't the smartest but he'd studied hard and knew the subjects that were expected for high school entrance exams, and U.A.'s had been significantly harder. He just hoped he did well enough to pass.
He was only saved from spiraling into depression over wondering if he got this or that question right when the lights in the auditorium dimmed. He looked up the stage as a spotlight came on and the Pro Hero Present Mic walked onto the stage. Kaito feels a surge of excitement at seeing the pro in the flesh. He was born and grew up in a little rural town where the closest thing to a pro hero had been the police officers with Quirks.
Until now, he'd not seen a pro hero he was familiar with. He had no idea who the ones proctoring the written exams were but Present Mic had a nationally broadcast radio show! He'd been listening to the exuberant DJ for years. He was so excited to see a celebrity that he was practically vibrating in his seat.
Present Mic walked out onto the stage waving his arms in the air as if people were cheering for him, even though the auditorium was silent as the grave. Once he reached the middle of the stage, he threw his hands in the air and practically shouted, “Welcome to my live show! Everyone say 'Heeeeeeey'!”
Kaito threw both of his arms in the air and shouted out, “HEEEEEEEEEEEY!”
There was dead silence as everyone, even Present Mic stared at Kaito. For his part, Kaito was wishing he could just die right then and there. He was certain that this level of embarrassment was fatal! His entire head was blazing red with a blush as he awkwardly lowered his arms. Seriously, could embarrassment kill? Because he was certain he was dying from it!
Present Mic, a consummate professional, quickly drew attention back to himself, “Thanks for the warm welcome listeners! Let's get down to business! I'm gonna give you the low-down on the exam! YEAH!”
Silence, even from the still mortified Kaito.
“We'll be doing ten minute mock battle exams on our replica city districts! You can take whatever you like with you! After the presentation everyone with gather at the designated areas, ya dig?!”
Present Mic pointed at the large blank wall behind him that could act as a projector screen. Three black images appeared with the numbers one, two, and three in the center of them. The bigger the number, the bigger the black image, “We're liberally sprinkling the area with “villains” for you all to take down. They come in three flavors, each worth a different number of points. Your goal, listeners, is to take out as many “villains” as you can and rack up a high score! And don't even think about attacking your fellow competitors, or any other nasty anti-hero stuff! That's an automatic disqualification!”
Before Present Mic could continue with his presentation, a tall boy with dark blue hair jumped to his feet with his hand raised high in the air, “Excuse me! May I ask a question?” Then, without waiting for permission to ask, immediately starts, “On the handout there are clearly four types of villains listed! Such an error would be the height of embarrassment for an academy of U.A.'s standard!” He suddenly spun and pointed at another kid in the audience, “Moreover, you! The kid with the curly hair! Your mumbling is distracting! If you're not going to take this seriously, then get out!”
Kaito narrowed his eyes at the boy doing all the yelling. He hatedbullies and the guy was clearly acting like one. Not to mention disrespecting U.A. and a prop hero. He could understand asking if Present Mic had finished the presentation, but in the middle of it? He was about the same distance from the kid that got called out and he hadn't heard anything distracting. Kaito could see no reason to publicly try to shame someone like that.
As if to prove his point, Present Mic spoke up, “Okay! Okay! I hadn't quite gotten there yet but thanks for the segue! The fourth and final villain is worth zero points! Think of it as an arena trap! There's one in each area that will rampage when its crowded!”
The tall boy bowed to Present Mic, “Thank you very much! I apologize for being rude!”
Kaito waited to see if the boy would offer an apology to the kid he'd called out. Instead, he just sat down and stared ahead. Present Mic picked up where he left off, “Well, that's it from me! I'll leave you with this final thought. As a certain “hero” by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte once said, 'A true hero never stops overcoming the misfortunes of life.' Now lets move onto the main event! PLUS ULTRA!”
-----Line Break-----
Kaito stared in awe at the massive gates leading into the section of the testing ground that he'd be participating in. He looked around and noticed a few people sending glances his way and snickering. Overheard snippets letting him know what was going on. They were looking down on him because he embarrassed himself during the presentation. He grimaced at that but didn't let it get him down.
He didn't see anyone he could recognize. Then again, the only people he could recognize were the rube blue haired boy and the green haired boy he'd yelled at. None of his schoolmates were attempting to enter U.A., it was just him, all alone, in the big city.
Instead of focusing on other people or his loneliness, he quickly began doing stretches to loosen his muscles. His Quirk didn't give him enhanced strength or anything like that. He was about as strong as a normal fifteen year old who visited the local gym religiously could get, but that was weaker than even the most simplistic and basic of strength enhancing Quirks would be.
After he finished stretching, he reached into his sling bag and pulled out a pair of gloves. The gloves were made of thick and durable leather with the knuckles and back covered in shaped metal. They weren't anything special but they would enhance his punches and protect his hands from damage. He was already wearing steel toed boots, so his feet were covered. He even had shin guards made of steel to let him kick without fear.
Since his Quirk didn't really have direct combat applications... or at least none he was willing to use on people, he had to supplement that in other ways. He did so by making his body strong and training it in whatever fighting styles he could be taught. His town was small and didn't have any commercial Dojo's so he'd relied on the experiences and knowledge of his elders. They willingly taught him what they knew and he cobbled the pieces together into his own unique style.
As he finished double checking the tightness of the straps holding his shin guards on, the doors to his testing area slowly swung open. Seeing no one else moving, he hesitated to move himself, until he heard Present Mic shouting, “What are you waiting for?! There's no countdowns in real life! GO GO GO!”
Kaito winced. He could hear his grandfather berating him for not remembering such a simple lesson. Always be prepared and move at the slightest change. Well, he wasn't going to fall behind by hesitating now!
He lifted his hand and aimed it at the top of the opening door. Without a sound, a thick bright blue tendril of energy shot out of his palm and attached to the top of the gate. The moment it connected, it began retracting at a furious pace causing Kaito to rocket off of the ground and into the air. He detached the tendril as he got close to the door and blasted over it into the air above the testing ground.
Electric blue eyes darted around as he noted the position on the robots within the city. The other students were still charging through the door a fair distance behind him. As he began to lose momentum, he aimed at his first few targets and activated his Quirk.
Twin blue tendrils shot out, one from each palm, and flew near instantly to the two three pointers he'd targeted. Unlike when he targeted the door, the tendrils phased through the robots as if they weren't there, passing through the outer armor as if it didn't exist. When he felt them come into contacts with something large, he gave a light tug.
A horrific screeching sound echoed through the area as the engines that ran the machines were ripped from their interiors leaving behind huge gaping holes. The two huge chunks of metal instantly appeared in Kaito's hands, as if they'd been teleported there. Kaito wasted not time in throwing the two engine blocks down onto two one pointers, smashing them to bits.
Before he could fall completely to the ground, a tendril shot out once more and latched onto the head of a one pointer. With a tug, Kaito flew through the air performing a powerful drop kick right to the robot's head. After smashing through the one pointer's head, he shot another tendril out and used a nearby building to pull himself toward a two pointer.
In this manner, he flitted about the battle field ripping machines apart and using those parts as ammunition to destroy others, or using his fists and feet to destroy the machines.
-----Line Break-----
In a dark room filled with monitors, the majority of the staff for U.A. High School are gathered, watching the potential students in the various battlegrounds. Sitting closest to the monitors is Nezu, the principal of the school. A small mammal that looked like a cross between a mouse, dog, and bear. His fur is pure white, though not much of it can be seen due to the custom made business suit he's wearing. Even going so far as to wear a pair of shoes, though that was likely rather uncomfortable for the animal with a Quirk.
He was watching the screens with rapt attention as his Quirk, High Spec, let him observe, parse, and analyze data at extreme speeds. He paid some attention to the conversations happening behind him, but his main focus was on the potential students. At least it was until his laziest instructor asked, “Who's that?”
Nezu focused on the student that was indicated and quickly pulled up his record for everyone to see. Despite that, he still read it aloud, “Murasaki Kaito, Quirk: Snatch. It allows him to create a tendril of unknown energy from the palm of each hand. The tendrils allow for him to reach out with them and 'snatch' objects, bringing the object in question to his hand. The object can either be moved normally through space, potentially damaging anything in its path, or instantly translocate into his hand, as if teleported, without actually teleporting. The tendrils themselves are able to pass through any matter to attach to the desired object.”
He perused the file some more, “Currently on the watch list for the Commission due to his Quirk's potential for theft. Theoretically, he could steal anything from anywhere with ease. Provided he can get close enough for the range of his tendrils to reach the target.”
Nezu returned to watching the video as Kaito used a tendril to slingshot himself into the air once more, “There's no mention of him being able to use his Quirk in that manner.” His advanced mind reached a few theories near instantly, “A weight or size limit perhaps? Using the force to pull himself to the target rather than the target to himself? Interesting!”
The smile on Nezu's face sent shivers down multiple spines, “We've really got a wonderful crop of students this year!”
-----Line Break-----
Kaito panted and wiped sweat from his brow as he looked at the massive amounts of destruction around him. His heart was hammering, adrenaline pumping, and a bit of fear keeping him on his toes. Not fear of the robots, they were cheap tin and easy enough to destroy with his Quirk and training combined.
No, he was starting to think he might have a slight fear of heights. At first, he hadn't really paid attention to how high he was in the air. Rather, he was fully focused on the robots below. However, once the number of robots began to dwindle and he spent more time launched up in the air than on the ground, he felt a fear of falling. Back home the tallest building had been just two stories tall. Here? He was constantly slingshotting himself off of building five stores of higher! It was a huge difference and made the time he spent falling all the more terrifying when he happened to glance down.
Only the knowledge that his tendrils were unbreakable, so far, and never missed a target, that he could see, kept him from fully panicking the first time he realized he could see the roof of a ten story building.
He tried to dismiss the intrusive thoughts and focus on racking up more points. He'd honestly lost count of how many he'd earned, but he was determined to earn as many as possible. He launched one of his tendrils to grip the top of a five story building before he could second guess himself. Just as he was about to launch himself, he heard a high pitched scream.
He quickly abandoned his leap and ran in the direction of the scream, right around the corner of the building he was in front of. The sight he stumbled onto gave him pause. A tiny person, almost looking like a child, with purple spheres on his head was screaming in a very feminine manner as he stared down a handful of three pointers all aggressively approaching him with their weapons primed.
Kaito didn't need long to decide what to do. Both of his tendrils shot out. The one on his left hand grabbed the little person by the back of his shirt and tugged him out of the danger. The second one latched onto the head of one of the three pointers and instantly returned to him, the robot's head coming with it.
This was one of the aspects of his ability that really scared the hell out of him. Why? Because he could, theoretically, to the same thing to a human being. He could, very easily, have his tendril enter their body and rip their heart from their chest. Ripping out engines and motors that weighed hundreds of pounds hardly put a strain on his tendrils, a human heart would take even less effort.
With the shorty saved and the first three pointer down, all of them turn their focus onto Kaito. He doesn't even hesitate and lashes out with both of his tendrils. They rapidly fly out, latch onto a robot's head, and fly back with the head attached. Each attack taking a second or less. In just a few seconds all of the robots that had been targeting the other boy were defeated.
While keeping en eye out on their surroundings, Kaito turns to address the boy he'd rescued, “You alright?”
The boy nods his head, “Yeah... I got distracted by this chick with a huge rack and was facing down those guys before I knew it! Still... worth it! The way her titties bounced as she ran...”
Kaito grimaced and stepped back from the other boy as he seemed to drift off into space and began drooling. He quickly turned and left wanting to get as far from the other boy as he could. He too could appreciate the female form, but that guy was a bit much. This was an important exam, definitely an inappropriate time to admire beautiful women.
Kaito quickly launched himself into the air to get a good look at the surroundings. Unfortunately, the only bots he could see were further away with other people closer to them. They'd be taken out before he could get there. Time was almost up as well, probably only a minute or two left until the end.
It was only once he began falling that he noticed all the others looking around in panic. He wondered what was happening until he saw one of the taller building being ripped in half by a gigantic robot that put all the others to complete shame.
“The zero pointer.”
He recalled Present Mic's words about it, calling it an obstacle and suggesting running. It didn't sit right with him. His grandfather, an ex-pro, had always told him that true heroes are those who run into danger. They were the ones willing to sacrifice whatever was necessary to save the innocent. He didn't just mean that the hero should be willing to sacrifice their own life either. It took Kaito years to understand what his gramps meant.
In the pursuit of saving the innocent, nothing the hero had was sacred. If all it took to take down the villain was a punch? Fine, punch the villain and call it a day. If it just took words? Speak! If it would take your life, then make sure that you fought with everything you had first to save the innocent, only then were you allowed to die.
But, most importantly, know that you may have to take the life of a villain. Personal honor, belief, or morality could never and should never come before saving an innocent's life. If saving the innocent meant killing the guilty, do it without hesitation and know that you did the right thing. Still, it should only ever be done as an absolute last resort lest you go from being a just hero to a craven villain.
While falling through the air, Kaito saw the other students running in fear, even shoving each other out of the way. It was disturbing to witness from people trying to be heroes. Yet, it reminded him of his grandfather's mantra.
“If they stand behind you, protect them.”
“If they stand beside you, respect them.”
“If they stand against you, destroy them.”
Clearly these people weren't standing against or beside him. They were definitely behind him and it was his job as a hero to protect them with everything he had!
Twin tendrils of blue energy shot out of his palms and connected with the head of the zero pointer. Kaito shot through the air at a speed that caused him some discomfort. When he neared the giant robot, he shot a tendril to the building on his right and maneuvered around its giant head. If he'd slammed into it at that speed, he'd have broken at least a dozen bones and then fallen to the ground to die. Bad idea.
Nearing the building, he shot a tendril and attached it to the robot once again to pull himself toward it at a much slower speed. At the same time, the tendril from his other hand lashed out, grabbed something random deep inside of its head, and ripped the piece out violently. Whatever he grabbed ripped through the robots skull and destroyed the armor plating on its exterior leaving something like a reverse bullet hole. It bullets were a meter wide.
The damage didn't put the robot down but did attract its undivided attention. Kaito figured it had plenty of redundancies with so much space to work with. That didn't stop him though! He kept firing his tendrils out, rotating which one did which job. One would keep him moving around the robot's head while the other went inside of it and ripped something random out. He didn't know enough about the robot to target something specific, so he just ripped out whatever big thing he came into contact with first.
It took a dozen swipes over a matter of thirty seconds before the damage to the robot reached enough to cause a cascade failure. Sparks and smoke poured out of cracks in its armor as the cascade burnt out the majority of its interior. Kaito grinned brightly when the robot finally ground to a halt and slouched down, no longer having the necessary power to keep itself fully upright.
With a whoop of joy, Kaito guided himself to a building and landed on the top of it. He took a moment to observe his triumph then turned to resume his hunt.
“TIMES UP!”
Kaito sighed as the shout was followed by alarms announcing the end of the exam. He wasn't certain how many villain points he'd gotten, but he did think it was somewhere around forty to fifty, that should be enough to get into U.A. Right?
-----Line Break-----
Kaito lay on his bed staring at the ceiling. It'd been over a week since the U.A. exam and he was expecting the results to come today. He didn't care if he ranked as number one or number forty, as long as he got into the school.
If he didn't pass though, he was prepared to try to get into Shiketsu High School. If he was being honest, he really preferred the Shiketsu uniform to the U.A. one. U.A.'s uniform was just so... boring and Shiketsu had that cool hat! He shot for U.A. first because it was the more prestigious of the two and would fit his desires slightly better than Shiketsu would.
If he passed, it would finally prove to all the other students in his middle school that his Quirk wasn't villainous, that he could become a hero! It would be better than it was now. He'd never stolen anything in his life, yet he was plagued with the public perception of being a known thief. All because it was technically possible for him to steal anything he wanted to with ease.
Before his thoughts could spiral down a depressing path that he'd tread far too often, the door to his bedroom opened. His grandfather, an elderly man with thin white hair, surprisingly few wrinkles, bright green eyes, and a slightly bent back, stuck his head into the room and grinned, “It's here.”
Kaito was instantly on his feet causing his grandfather to chuckle at his enthusiasm. Together the pair made their way to the dining room where a white envelope addressed to him was waiting. He quickly picked it up and blinked at the surprising heft to it. He doubted it would be so heavy if it was a polite rejection letter so his heart started hammering in excitement.
The letter was quickly ripped open and the contents removed, several sheets of paper and a silver disc. After setting them down the disc hummed to life projecting a hologram of a familiar... muzzle? The principal was on the screen and smiling brightly, “Hello Murasaki Kaito-kun! Am I a mouse? A dog? A bear? I'm the principal! Your written exam scores were acceptable, so you get a pass there! As for your practical exam... You earned fifty-two villain points! It's not the highest number of villain points a student earned during the exam, but it's still quite impressive! But wait! There's more! On top of villain points we had the the judges looking at more than just the villain robots.”
As Nezu spoke, the screen behind him changed to show some recordings of Kaito in action. The first was the recording of him rescuing the short guy with purple balls for hair. The second showed him swinging around the zero pointer ripping its head to shreds. Seeing that, his grandfather placed a warm hand on his shoulder and gave him a proud squeeze. As the clips finished Nezu looked deep into the camera, “There's far more to being a hero than just beating up villains! You showed those traits by rescuing a fellow competitor and taking down the biggest threat knowing there was no reward in it for you. Or was there?! HERO POINTS! All of our judges watched and awarded hero points based on the behavior of the students! You earned forty-five hero points!”
The screen behind Nezu showed his initial score of fifty-two rapidly scroll up to ninety-seven. Nezu nodded and looked back at the camera, “Well done young man! You're the closest anyone has come to breaking the record of one hundred points set by All Might himself!”
Nezu grinned brightly and held his arms open in a welcoming manner, “I welcome you to your hero academia Kaito-kun!”
With that, the hologram faded and the device shut down. Kaito felt his grandfathers hand squeeze his shoulder once more before he removed it to pat his back, “Well done. Very well done, indeed.”
Kaito turned to look at his grandfather and, seeing his glowing smile, couldn't help smiling back at him, “I just did what you told me to. They were behind me, so I protected them.”
His grandfather laughed and nodded, “Good! And the robot stood before you and I saw how you dealt with that! Keep it up and you'll become an amazing hero.”
Kaito's grin nearly split his face. The only person to ever believe he could be a hero was the man in front of him. His grandmother had too, up until the day she passed away. If it weren't for them, he had no idea what his life would be like. He would have still tried to be a hero, but he'd probably be much worse at it.
Nothing would have stopped him from trying, not even the disparaging remarks of his fellow classmates calling him a thief. Not all the bullying he'd been put through. And not the laughter he'd been subjected to every time he said he would be a hero. There was nothing that could stop him now!
-----Line Break-----
Kaito stood in front of the tall mirror in his bedroom looking over his uniform. Today was the first day of class and last night had been the first night he'd slept in his new apartment all alone. It would have been impossible for him to commute from home to the school so there was no choice but to get an apartment.
Living in the small apartment constantly filled Kaito with a sense of guilt. His grandfather was tapping into his savings to pay the monthly bills for the apartment along with a stipend to him for groceries. To assuage his guilt, Kaito swore to himself that he'd pay his grandfather back for every last yen, once he became a pro.
He shook off the thoughts and guilt as he examined the outfit. It wasn't as cool as Shiketsu's and he really wished they had a cool hat, but he'd live. He was willing to deal with the less awesome uniform for the, universally agreed upon, better education.
Once done looking himself over, Kaito left his apartment and made his way to U.A. early. He didn't want to risk leaving his house too late, not until he was used to how long the short commute should take. He also wanted to be extra early on his first day. He had a small hope that his fellow students would be able to look past the surface of his quirk and see him as he really was.
The journey from his small apartment to the school campus only took ten minutes by foot, quite impressive. Kaito had no idea how his grandfather had managed to get his hands on the place with it being so close to the campus. Real estate prices so close to the school should be pretty high, shouldn't they?
He wondered about that until he arrived at the entrance to his classroom for the next year. He looked up at the rather large door and muttered, “That's one big door. Good for them!”
The door opened easily, being well balanced kept it from feeling as heavy as it should have. Once he stepped inside, he came to a stop. He wasn't the first to arrive. It wasn't that he was aiming to be the first, but he was half an hour early and someone else had been even earlier than him. Did she not have a life?
Sitting behind a desk, looking at him, was a rather beautiful girl with long black hair done up in a spiraling spiky ponytail with a thick strand hanging on the right side of her face. She was staring at him with sharp darkly colored eyes. Kaito cleared his throat, feeling a bit awkward. He'd spent all of his scholastic career, thus far, with the same handful of people. He hadn't had to introduce himself to someone new in a very long time.
Kaito tried to speak, his mouth even opened, but nothing came out. Flushing with embarrassment, he turned away from the girl, which he realized was rather beautiful, and quickly found his desk. He flopped down into the seat and proceeded to drop his head onto the desk with a loud thud.
Yeah, his first day at U.A. was just off to a wonderful start.
Comments
Mezmor
When is the next chapte?
Mezmor
I disagree with MC having prior knowledge. I prefer when the MC spends time and resources in spy networks or information gathering systems.
BookDragonling
I'm always a bit disappointed when the MC doesn't have metaknowledge as that's what I feel like gives the best chance of deviating from the original plot or exploring other aspects of the world more in-depth. I still liked it and will definitely read more when it's posted. I can already see his quirk being totally busted if it can 'snatch' conceptual things as well as just physical objects.
