[color=fff200][b][h2]Ueno Haru[/h2][/b][/color] [hr] [quote]"You owe me two for this!"[/quote] Haru shuddered as Yusuke once again took a hit that was meant for him. For the second time today, no less. He knew that Yusuke would be alright, as he began to regenerate before his eyes, but knowing that someone is sacrificing themselves just to ensure that you’re not the one getting hurt… Is this what the civilians feel when they see heroes get battered in battles against villains? Haru wouldn’t have any more time to ponder that feeling when another of the villains appeared, calling upon his henchmen to fall back. His presence, his aura… it was all but overwhelming. Haru immediately readied another beam of light only for the sheer gravity of the new villain’s existence in that place to manifest quite literally. Space and time ripped apart as the villain imprisoned the heroes within a cage made out of visions and impossible timelines. The city turned into a true hellscape, even more so than when the Nomu from earlier had ravaged the streets. And far above them, a ball of fire beckoned, screaming death and destruction. “Congratulations, Mr. Ueno. It appears that your son has an Inverted Quirk.” ‘Huh. Why am I seeing the day of my Quirk assessment?’ Haru looked at his four year old self. The blue skinned boy held an All Might action figure in his dainty little hands, his grey hair cascading onto the sides of his hair. He sat on his father’s lap, whose very presence dimmed the light around him. Like his son, the father had blue skin and grey hair; a set of mutations passed from generation to generation. “An inverted quirk… so it is the opposite of mine?” The now-retired Pro Hero known as Storm Shadow asked the doctor while his son held the All Might figurine up here like it was a holy artifact. “A strange development…” “Your wife being Quirkless could be a contributing factor,” the doctor replied with a shrug. “But we’ve been studying quirks for more than two centuries, and we still don’t know where Quirk Factors came from, exactly! Quirk inversions are rare, but in most cases, one of the two parents is Quirkless. If its an opposite kind of quirk, like ice and fire, you get quirk fusions, like Endeavor’s kids.” “Hnn,” Storm Shadow nodded. “What do you want to do with your Quirk, Haru?” “I want to be a hero, like you and All Might!” Storm Shadow grinned. “And why do you want to be a hero?” “I wish… I wish to make other people look and know that everything will be okay. Why? Because I AM HERE!” “That’s the spirit…” Storm Shadow nodded. He set the boy down on the floor and bowed at the doctor. “Good afternoon doctor.” “With a strong quirk like that, I’m sure little Haru will be a great hero one day.” [hr] Heavy. Everything is so heavy. Haru groaned as he struggled against the gravitational distortion that the thrice-damned villain, Keyaru, summoned. He rose from the ground, his body protesting with every inch he defied the pull of the earth. Though the villain nor anyone else here would see it, for his goggled mask obscured his face, Haru’s eyes burned with defiance. No one tells Sol Invictus to just lie down and take an incoming fireball! Haru stood up. Unlike some of the others, he wasn’t as tired yet. He hadn’t pulled off his supermove, Supernova, yet. He had yet to be injured beyond a few cuts and bruises. Still, being imprisoned in folded space, surrounded by illusions of shattered buildings, and a blazing ball of fire coming down like a proverbial Sword of Damocles, and his wounded allies all around him… one could say that this was as dire a situation any hero may find themself in. “What can you do with your Quirk, Ueno?” “I eat light and shit it back out.” “No, really?” “That is an abridged version.” “I’m sure that you can do much more! You basically control photons, right?” “Yeah.” “Imagine all the applications, Ueno!” Imagine. And see through the lies. Haru scanned the illusions all around him. None of this was real, of course. No one, save for maybe All Might and All for One, can reduce a city to rubble in an instant. And the abilities of this villain so far don’t line up with mass devastation. He was more of a manipulator of the fabric of spacetime. Holograms are little more than lasers being manipulated in such a way that they form a coherent image. Lasers are just a concentrated stream of photons. And illusions… they are nothing more than photons being rearranged to make the beholder see what is not there. After all, sight is merely the brain’s interpretation of its reception of photons. “I want to be a hero like you and All Might!” Haru held out his hands and PULLED. He could feel every photon dancing upon every atom of air, on every quark that made up the most basic building block of reality. They were like grains of sand on a glass canvas, rearranged and manipulated to form a most sordid bastardization of what was real. “Why do you want to be a hero?” Separate the truth from the lies. The fake from reality. Put photons back where they should be. “Because I AM HERE!” The veil weakens. Haru tugged at the illusion and ripped it apart with the sound of shattering glass. He could only imagine the surprise on the yakuza leader’s face as the intricately constructed lie unravelled and died. Except… That damn fireball was real?! Would taking the radiance away from a fireball work? Haru didn’t know. But he knew well enough that he had to try. Kazuki was going to try to shoot the yakuza leader, and so Haru still had another role to play. Haru reached out his hand to the fireball, willing it to go silent and snuff out. He wouldn’t see the result, however, as the restored world around him began to fade away, replaced by darkness.