Chapter Text
It was a sunny day in Musutafu City. Many people living in this city spent time outside their home, making sure to enjoy the good weather as best as they could by either spending time with their friends or family or just going on a long lone walks through the city. Unfortunely not every resident of this city could enjoy the good weather. A dark green haired boy with a messy hair and freckles on his face and a Japanese-American boy with a short black hair were one of those people.
The two boys were frightened as a group of other boys around their age ganged up on them in the middle of the playground. A green haired boy was standing in front of the dark haired boy, his clenched hands raised in the air as his legs shook out of fear. T he dark haired boy behind him had his face pressed against his knees as he sobbed into them, waiting for the group of bullies to leave him alone.
"Why are you being so mean? You're making him cry, Kacchan!" The green haired boy whimpered out to his friend turned bully Katsuki Bakugo, tears forming in his eyes as he raised his fists in a defensive manner, "If you will keep on hurting him, I-I'll stop you myself!"
"You want to pretend to be a hero again." Bakugo smiled viciously at him as he smashed his hands together, igniting a small explosion in his right hand, the two boys behind him activating their own Quirks, showing them off the the two boys in front of them. "You don't stand a chance without a Quirk, Deku."
The said "Deku" flinched in fear when the three bullies moved towards him and the other boy, but didn't move out of the way and remained where he stood, even though he was completely terrified. It wasn't long before Deku ended on the ground, bruised. His eyes stared blankly at the sky. The bullies left the playground a while ago, leaving him with the crying boy.
His eyes wandered to the side when the boy from earlier appeared on his right. The unknown boy who had tears marks going down from his emerald green eyes to his cheeks held his hand out to him, shaking as if he feared Deku doing something to him for taking the beating for him, "T-Thank you for standing up for me. I'm sorry for not doing anything to help you. If I had Quirk then maybe I wouldn't be so powerless against everyone!"
Deku grabbed his hand and allowed the other boy to bring him back on his feet, "It's alright! Don't blame yourself for not having a Quirk! I will show to everyone that Quirks aren't everything, because I want to become a hero!"
The unknown boy looked at him with a suprised look on his face, "A hero? I thought you were Quirkless..."
"I am Quirkless!" Deku confirmed to be Quirkless to the other boy, "But I still want to become a hero. It is my dream! I want to be the kind of a hero who saves people with a smile on his face! Like All Might! He always has a smile on his face, no matter how bad the situation is!"
The unknown boy stayed silent, still looking suprised by the boy in front of him wishing to be a hero, despise being Quirkless. The people around him must have been lead to believe that it was impossible to become one without a Quirk.
"I'm sorry. I don't think I've told you my name. My name is Midoriya Izuku!" Deku introduced himself to him as Izuku Midoriya as he held his hand out to him, "What's your name?"
The boy shifted his gaze between Izuku's eyes and hand, seeming to be a little confused by his kindness. He slowly reached out and grabbed Izuku's hand into his, before giving it a shake, a slight smile forming on his face as he did so, "I'm Takemura Gareth."
All men are not created equal.
Gareth Takemura learned it the hard way when he was a few year old child.
It all started centuries ago in the country of China when a shining baby was born and from there more people were recorded showing special abilities which as the time passed became known as Quirks. As the years passed, the population of people possessing a Quirk of their own had increased to the point where over 80% of the global population possessed one and that percentage only continued to increase.
Not everything about the Quirks becoming commonly known in the global population was sunshine and rainbows, though. The dawn of Quirks caused some people to start using them for their own not so good intentions, making ordinary people powerless to do anything about them. As the chaos ensued, ordinary civilians started to take matters into their own hands and it eventually resulted in profession of a Pro-Hero starting to exist, making every comic book lover's dream of becoming a hero a reality. The people grew to adore the heroes and as the time passed more people started to have dreams of becoming one.
Gareth was among those people when he was younger as he adored heroes and got excited whenever he saw one fight a villain on the TV. A wish of becoming one in his adult life even started to form in him, but he was forced to abandon those thoughts when he was diagnosed to be Quirkless at the age of four years old. He was stunned when his doctor informed him and his parents about this, but afterwards tried to not think much about it. He thought it wouldn't change much in his life, considering how many people have been able to live a normal life without possessing a Quirk of their own.
Unfortunately, the reality turned out to be completely different as in the eyes of many people, being Quirkless often equalled to being a cripple. In kindergarten his peers started to talk about him and him being Quirkless behind his back, talking about him as if he was some sort of weirdo among them, calling him all sort of names. Not only that. It was when he started to have problems with bullies as the bullies saw him as an easy target, because of him being unable to defend himself against their Quirks. His younger self thought everything would stop once he would get older, but the bullying and the name calling, everything just went worse from there.
"Sooo... as third year students." The teacher began in an almost bored tone, "It's time to start thinking seriously about your futures and what you want to do with your lives. I could pass out some career aptitude tests, but why bother?" This got almost everyone in the classroom excited, each one of the students starting up their own Quirks as their teacher threw the paper into the air without care, "I know you all want to go to the hero track!" His students began cheering, displaying their Quirks, "Yes, yes, you all have some very impressive Quirks, but no power usage allowed in school! Get a hold of yourself!"
"Hey, teach." Everyone stopped their cheering and turned to the source of the voice seeing Katsuki Bakugo. The blond haired boy laid back in his chair as he had his feet kicked up on the table. Cockiness was evident in his voice as he spoke again, "Don't lump me in with this buncha losers. I'm the real deal, but these guys'll be lucky to end as sidekicks to some busted D-lister, huh."
His classmates were understandably outraged by him referring to them in such a manner and began shouting all kinds of stuff at him in order to voice how displeased they were by it.
"Huh. You've got impressive tests results. Maybe you will get into U.A High." The teacher's voice instantly made his students stop shouting at Bakugo as they all froze upon mentioning U.A High.
"He's gonna try for the national school?" A female student commented among the whispers of her classmates.
"That place has only a two percent acceptance rate." The second student could be heard stating such a fact among their classmates.
"It's impossible to get to." The third voice could be heard pointing out such a fact among their classmates.
"That's exactly why it's the only place worthy of me." Bakugo jumped onto his desk, raising his gripped fist into the air, "I aced all the mock tests. I'm the only one at this school who stands a chance at getting in. I'll end up more popular than All Might himself and be the richest hero of all time! People all across the world will know who I am and it all starts with U.A High!"
"Oh, yeah, Midoriya, don't you wanna go to U.A too?" The teacher mentioned another student who wanted to get into U.A as soon as Bakugo finished showing off his ego to everyone in the classroom.
"Guh!" A small squeak rang through the classroom as Izuku who had his head down on his desk for the entire time in an attempt to keep himself out of everyone's sight, slowly lifted his head up to see everyone staring at him.
The classroom was engulfed in a total silence for a brief moment before everyone bursted into laughter, "...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Midoriya!" A classmate of Izuku's shouted, laughing at the thought of him getting into U.A of all schools, "You're kidding, right?"
"There's no way you're getting into the hero course without a Quirk!" Another classmate of Izuku yelled among the laughter.
The students continued to laugh at Izuku, making all kinds of mean comments about him wanting to get into U.A, despise being Quirkless.
There were two people in the classroom who were laughing at Izuku's expense. One of them was a boy sitting in the back of the classroom. This boy was Gareth. His black hair had grew longer over the course of the last few years. It was actually reaching his shoulders now. He thought about cutting it shorter a few times, but always backed away from this idea, because he liked to have his hair long.
Gareth tightly clenched his hand around his pencil, putting more pressure on it as the laughter of his classmates continued and became louder, suprising himself that his pencil wasn't broken in the half by him.
"Can't you see what's happening?" Those words flew through is mind as he stared at his teacher in antipication, hoping for him to do anything. The teacher didn't do anything, though. He just ignored it. Like he always did, "They're bullying him. Do something. Why are you ignoring it?"
The other boy in the classroom who wasn't laughing at Izuku was Bakugo, but unlike Gareth, Bakugo was angry at the turn of events. He growled as he slammed his palms into Izuku's desk, making it explode. Izuku fell back onto the ground.
"Listen up Deku!" He screamed as Izuku looked up at him fearfully, "You're even worse than the rest of these damn rejects, you Quirkless wanabe! You really think they would let someone like you in when they could have me?" He shifted his gaze from Izuku to Gareth and pointed at the other Quirkless boy in the classroom, "At least Mutt over there knows his place and is not trying to into U.A!."
Gareth flinched at the nickname that Bakugo always used when he referred to him as he tightened his grip around his pencil. A quiet crack which only he heard rang through his ears as his pencil couldn't take this anymore and broke into two equal parts. Gareth glanced down at the remains of his pencil, sighing internally.
"Huh? No Wait, you got it all wrong!" Izuku moved his hands in weird positions, scooting backwards to the wall. He reached the wall a second later, pressing his back against it, "I'm not trying to compete against you!" He looked up at Bakugo, "It's just that…I've wanted to be a hero since I was little…I-I may not have a quirk, but I can still try my hardest, can I?"
"You'll never be able to hang with the best of the best! YOU'LL DIE IN THE EXAMS!" Bakugo screamed back, smoke coming off his hands as his and Izuku's classmates continued to laugh at Izuku's dreams.
Gareth clenched his teeth in pain upon the impact of colliding with the wall after he was rougly pushed into it by someone standing in front of him, feeling tears form in his eyes, the laughter of the three figures in front of him ringing through his ears. He slowly looked up at the three familiar figures standing in front of him. Tomohito Kazari lifted up his unzipped backpack and his two friends, Taiga Nakamura and Ryoyu Shintaro watched him with smiles on his face.
It wasn't the first time when the three of them ganged up on him in the middle of a lunchbreak. It was quite a common occurrence in his school life. The three of them would often gang up on him and do various things to him to bully him. There were many times when returned home with the new that he had gotten from them. He knew that he could report them to the principal or the teachers but he doubted if they would do anything about it, considering that his classmates could bully Izuku during classes and the teacher was doing nothing about it. Not to mention that reporting them would most likely make everything worse and have them go after him more often than they already did.
Ryoyu smirked down at him, his hands in his pockets, "This is honestly starting to get boring, you know? How much it would give to show a tiny bit of resistance to us?"
"Do you really need to ask him this question, Shintaro-kun?" Taiga's voice was a mixture of amusement and confusion, the former was heard more in his tone, though, "His resistance against us would be completely useless without a Quirk and I think he knows that. He simply knows his place."
"I know." Ryoyu responded, his smirk not leaving his face, "It still is getting kind of boring with him. Sometimes I wish that he could give us a reason to remind him where his place is."
Tomohito just smiled at his friends talk as he flipped the backpack in his grasp to the other side, making everything spill out of it onto the floor, starting with his school equipment and ending with Gareth's bento box with his lunch. Gareth bit his bottom lip, doing nothing about it as he proceeded to stare down at the floor below him, waiting for this to be over.
This was one of the many ways how Tomohito, Taiga and Ryoyu messed with him for their personal amusement. The three bullies had two ways of dealing with his bento fox. They either spilled all of it's contents into the nearest trashcan, preventing anyone from eating it and simply stole the contents of the bento box from him whenever he had something they were interested in for lunch today and ate it.
This time it seemed like there was something in his bento box that interested them as Tomohito reached into his bento box after taking a good look at what it had to offer today. Gareth found out what caught Tomohito's attention a second later as Tomohito pulled out of the chocolate cake he had baked a few days ago. Tomohito put the piece of cake in his mouth and began chewing on it before holding the bento box out to his friends. Taiga and Ryoyu wasted no time and pulled out pieces of cake for themselves from Gareth's bento box.
Ryoyu swallowed the piece of cake he was chewing on for the past few seconds and asked, smilling at how good the cake tasted, "What do we do with the rest?"
"Do you really need to ask?" Tomohito responded, handing the bento box out to Ryoyu as he had no interest in anything else from it, "Spill it into the dumpster. It's not like anyone will have any use of it."
Ryoyu nodded his head at his friend and shifted his attention to the nearest trashcan. He walked over to it and made sure to spill everything from Gareth's bento box into it, leaving nothing in it for the owner of it to eat. He made his way back to his friends right after and dropped the bento box on the floor. It landed on the floor next to Gareth's backpack.
Gareth remained on the floor as he lowered his gaze to the floor after seeing how the lunch he had prepared for himself this morning was just wasted, catching the three bullies' attention by whispering something to himself. The three bullies couldn't hear what he was saying, though.
"What is it you're saying?" Tomohito put his free hand against his ear, "I can't hear you."
Gareth looked up at the people in front of him, revealing his teary eyes, "Why do you keep doing this to me? Have you never regretted it?"
"Why should we regret it?" Tomohito asked him in an amused manner, ignoring that Gareth said before this, as if he thought of him and his friends getting the consequences of their actions against a Quirkless person was amusing to him, "You're nothing compared to me or to Nakamura-kun or to Shintaro-kun. Why would I or either of them pity someone like you?"
It was when Tomohito put his hands on Gareth's shoulders, not giving the boy in front of him a chance to answer and flung his knee into his torso, causing Gareth to cough out some spit as he gasped for breath. Gareth let out a gasp in an desperate attempt to get some air as he clutched his gut, falling to his knees, much to the amusement of the three boys in front of him.
"Why should I pity you If you can't even defend yourself against anyone?" Tomohito stated as he smirked down at Gareth who tried to catch a breath after receiving a knee to the gut.
"I still wouldn't try anything if I were you." Taiga added, smugness was evident in his voice as he spoke, "As Shintaro-kun said, doing this with you with you over and over again with you not showing even a tiny bit of resistance might be getting a little boring at this point but it's not like you, a useless Quirkless nobody would have any chance against us."
Gareth remained silent, the only response the three bullies got from him was him letting out a deep breath as he finally managed to catch a breath after Tomohito hit him in the gut with his knee. The three bullies just smirked down at him for one last time before turning away from him, beginning to walk away from him. They began talking about something but Gareth couldn't hear what they were saying. They were probably talking about Tomohito's plans for high school as Tomohito had plans to go to Shiketsu High School. Gareth knew about this as he overheard them talking about this one day.
Gareth looked up and watched them leave until they passed the corner, vanishing from his view. He wiped his eyes with the intention of getting rid of the tears, not wanting to walk through the school with them in his eyes and reached out for his backpack. He slowly picked up all of things from the floor and packed them back into his backpack. The last thing he packed back into his backpack was his now empty bento box.
It seemed like he was going to return home with an empty stomach, again. The only way of getting his lunch back and eating it would be pulling it out from the trashcan and nothing was going to force him to do it, no matter how hungry he will be for the rest of the school day.
He slouched his backpack over his back and pushed himself into a walk. He began making his way through the hallway of his school, passing by many of his fellow schoolmates. He saw a few of his schoolmates casting glances his way, but pretended to not see them. It's not like they would do anything to help him whenever he was bullied by someone. They always ignored it and pretended to not see it, even when if it was happening before their eyes.
He just wanted to get the place to which he was on his way before Tomohito, Ryoyu and Taiga ganged up on him. He reached his destination a few moments later. It was the spot he and Izuku usually had their lunchs at. It didn't took him long to notice his friend. Izuku was sitting on his side of the bench, eating his lunch. An opened notebook was on his friends knee.
"Hey, Midoriya-kun." He greeted his friend as he walked over to him and sat down next to him, hoping that Izuku won't notice the new bruises on his body, "I'm sorry for coming a bit late..."
"There you are, Gakkun. I was starting to think you wouldn't..." Izuku's smile faded from his lips and was replaced with a look of concern upon seeing the state his friend was in, immediately noticing the bruises that weren't there before the lunch break, "What happened, Gakkun?" Gareth stayed silent as Izuku quickly realized who was responsible for his friend coming to him in such a state, "Was it Kazari-kun and his group again?"
"It's nothing, Midoriya-kun." Gareth tried to brush it off as nothing, giving his friend a fake smile, "I just had a little accident when I was on my way here but nothing severe happened to me. You'll see, I'll be as good as new tommorow."
"You shouldn't brush this off as nothing, Gakkun." Izuku knew that his friend was lying to him, his concerned expression not leaving his face, "It isn't the first time when Kazari-kun and his group bullied you. You should report them to a teacher or the principal. Maybe this make them stop bothering you."
"I don't want to have more trouble, Midoriya-kun." Gareth answered to his friends suggestion, "What is the school going to do about them? They will either give them a lecture about bullying or give them a detention. I doubt either of those things is going to make them stop and I'm sure that everything will just get worse after they will find out that I reported them."
Izuku shook his head head sadly at his friend. He tried to convince Gareth to report Tomohito, Ryoyu and Taiga to the principal a few times, but his friend always backed away from his suggestion, telling him that it would do more harm than good.
It was when his attention was brought to Gareth's stomach as he heard it grumble, "You should eat your lunch, Gakkun. The lunch break will end in a few minutes."
Gareth put his hand on his stomach right after hearing it grumble, "I wish I could but I don't have anything again."
"They spilled it into the trashcan again?" Izuku wanted to be sure. Silence which he received from his friend was the only answer he needed to get from him. He looked at his friend sympathetically as he put his hand on his bento box and pushed it towards Gareth, offering the rest of his lunch to him, "Here. You can have the rest of my lunch."
Gareth shook his head at his friends generous offer, waving his hand at him, "Midoriya-kun, you don't have to."
"It's no problem, Gakkun." Izuku offered his friend an assuring smile to show him that it was no big deal, "I'm sure you would do the same I forgot my lunch or had something happen to it. Not to mention you always share the baked goods you make with me."
Gareth paused when the matter of his baked goods was brought up by Izuku. If there was one thing he was good at, then it was baking, or at least he liked to think he was good at it. He took interest in it about two years ago. After the first cake he had baked didn't came out so wrong, he started looking for various ways to improve his skills in this area. He looked up recipes online, watched baking videos on the internet, even asked the owner of his favourite bakery for a tip or two.
"You don't owe me anything, Midoriya-kun." He replied as he put a bit of rice in his mouth, before glancing to the side, "It's always nice to see someone enjoy the stuff I prepare. Good to know that I'm not wasting my time while preparing those..."
"You're not wasting your time baking, Gakkun. You shouldn't be think you're wasting your time by doing hobbies for as long you have fun and are not hurting anyone." Izuku said after hearing his friend doubting his baking skills again, "Have you ever thought about becoming a baker? I'm sure many people would have loved your baked goods if you became one."
Gareth remained silent for a brief moment, swallowing the rice he had in his mouth. If he was honest with himself, he thought about becoming a baker in his adult life crossed his mind a few times. He never really shared those thoughts with anyone outside Izuku. Nowadays most people his age wanted to be a hero and he doubted his parents would approve of him wanting to become a baker in his adult life.
"...What are you doing with you notebook?" He spoke a few seconds after setting his eyes on Izuku's notebook, wanting to change the subject of the conversation, "Did you wrote something about Mountain Lady's debut this morning? I saw you writing something down about her in your notebook when we were on our way to school."
"Of course I did." Izuku nodded in confirmation as he grabbed his notebook and showed the most recent entry in it to his friend, "Mountain Lady's Quirk really is..."
Gareth felt a slight smile forming on his face as Izuku was going into the endless muttering he had known him for. This is something he always admired about his green haired friend. He was never giving up on his dream of becoming a hero, no matter how many times people around him were telling him to give up on this dream. People telling Izuku about it so often caused Gareth to encourage his friend to follow his dreams, despise himself giving up on the thoughts of becoming a hero after learning that he was Quirkless.
The atmosphere in the Takemura household was cold. Just like it was for most of the time. Gareth's house was quite huge as his father Ryoma and his mother Sandra were successful lawyers and were able to afford a house like that because of it. Many people would be amazed by how empty a house as huge as his can feel like.
His parents didn't talk and spend much time with him. When he was younger, they always had an excuse whenever he asked them to spend some time with him by either having something important to do regarding their work or something else which too important to leave for later. As he grew older he stopped asking them to do something with him, simply seeing no reason in further doing so.
His parents never made an attempt to hide how much of a disappointment he was to all of their exceptions and how useless he was to them, even on the days when he was returning home with bruises and tears after another unpleasant encounter with his bullies. His parents cared about their image a lot and how other people saw them, more than they cared about him.
They excepted him to help them maintain their image of success among the people from their environment of work and according to them, Gareth was far away from doing a good job at doing so. The black haired boy had lost the count of how many times he had to sit through a long lecture from his parents during which they reminded him how useless he was and how much of a failure of a son he was a long time ago.
Right now, the Takemura family was gathered around the table in the dining room as they were in the middle of a dinner. Gareth silently ate his dinner, hoping to make through this dinner without any problems as his father and his mother sat in front of him on their seats, the two of them eating their own dinners.
"Gareth." His father spoke to Gareth in a stern tone he was known to be often using around his son as Gareth bit his bottom lip as he looked up from his food at his father, bracing himself as he knew what was going to happen, "We heard that there was another incident at school which involved you and a group of boys a few days ago."
"It's not my fault." Gareth said in an attempt to defend himself, even though he was aware that it would be no use. He knew to what "incident" his father was referring to. It was one of the many times when Tomohito, Ryoyu and Taiga messed with him for their personal amusement, "It's just, I can't do anything whenever they go after me, because I don't have a Quirk!..."
"You again with this excuse?! How many times do we have to tell you?" His mother cut him off. She looked at him as if she was offended by having to remind him about that, "Having no Quirk is not an excuse! People all around the world are born without a Quirk of their own and yet they are somehow able of achieving something in their life! Is it really that hard for you to be one of those people?!"
Gareth opened his mouth with intention of responding to his mothers words but his words died in his throat when he remembered how talking back to her in his own defense or how telling his parents what they didn't want to hear during their lectures would end for him. The first time when he tried to do it ended up with receiving a smack to the face which always knocked him to the floor and hurt him to the point where he had to stop himself from crying. He tried to do the same a few more times but his attempts always with getting hit either by his mother or father, depending on who was closer to him.
His mother raising her hand in the air once she saw him opening his mouth to say something only seemed to confirm his suspicious of what would happen if he tried to say something to her in his own defense. This is why he decided to stay silent, not wanting to get hit by her. His mother lowered her hand, even though she was eyeing him as if she was waiting for an opportunity to her son a lesson.
"Look at yourself." His mothers voice was filled with disgust and disappointment as she spoke to him, "Is there anything you are good at? Average grades. No successes in school. You can't defend yourself against anyone. Barely made any friends in your life. The only person you've been hanging around for your entire life is this green haired kid."
Gareth clenched his left hand, once again stopping himself from saying anything in response out of fear of getting hit by either of them. He tried to hang out with other kids other than Izuku when he was younger because Izuku always followed Bakugo around for some reason. Needless to say, he didn't enjoy hanging out with them. If it wasn't for Izuku, he would stay away from them. They always looked down and made fun of him and his green haired friend for being Quirkless and the two of them were forced to endure it, often being left in tears because of it.
They were many times when he tried to do something to impress them with hopes of them stopping to look down on him but unfortunely the results were always the same, negative. He still couldn't believe how naive his younger self was when he thought that mastering skimming stones to nearly perfection would be enough for the others to stop looking down on him.
"Do you have any idea how you make us look in front of other people?" His father spoke next, disappointment in his voice was evident, "Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is for us whenever one of our colleagues and someone from our family asks us about you? Everytime when it happens, you're making us look like a laughing stock!"
Gareth kept his left hand clenched as he lowered his gaze to the floor because he see the looks his parents were giving him, doing his best to stop the tears which were building up in his eyes from spilling down his ceeks, knowing that it would just make the situation worse for him, because he happened to burst into tears a few times during their lectures and it always made everything worse for him.
Gareth closed his eyes as he thought about his parents and the way they saw for him for his entire life. Why? Why couldn't they express their concern for him at least once after he went back home in bruises and tears to show that they cared about him? Why couldn't put their desire of being seen as a people of success by the other people aside and think about him and how he felt like for a second? Why did they have to make him feel worse about himself everytime when they spoke with him?
"How can you look at yourself in the mirror every morning and not feel useless and ashamed of yourself whenever you see yourself in it?" His mother questioned, the disgust and disappointment not leaving her tone, "Is it really this hard for you to start making a name for yourself? Is it really this hard for you to start doing something with your life and stop making our family look like a laughing stock?"
Ryoma sighed, shaking his head in disappointment, "Why do you have to be such a useless failure? You can't even look at us when we're talking to you."
It hurt. It hurt Gareth whenever he heard his parents refer to him in in such a way. It hurt him and made his self worth sunk lower than it already was, no matter how many times when they referred him in such a way when they were voicing how much of a disappointment he was to them. He thought that he would get used to his parents calling him those names over time, but that never happened. In fact, each time just made him feel worse about himself.
"I..." Gareth attempted to say something as he looked up at his parents, but was interrupted as soon as he opened his mouth.
"Be quiet." Sandra coldly cut her son off, "Just eat what you have in front of you."
Gareth nodded his head to show his parents that he understood their lecture as he proceeded to do his best to not break into tears in front of him, aware of how it would end for him. He quietly went back to eating his dinner, even though he had lost his appetite, because of the harsh lecture he received from his parents. He simply didn't want to do anything to anger them again. He didn't want to go through another long lecture that would do nothing but remind him how useless he is.
The rest of the dinner went in a painfully awkward silence. Just like most of the dinners in their house went whenever something like that happened. It took him a few minutes to finish his dinner. He stood up from his seat and picked up his now empty did his best to ignores the looks of dissappointment and disapproval he had received from his parents once he passed them and made his way to the counter on the kitchen and put the place down on it.
He walked out from the kitchen and quickly made his way to his room. He grabbed the door handle and opened the entrance to it. He closed the door behind him as soon as he stepped into his room and jumped onto his bed. He landed on his stomach, his face facing the pillow, allowing the tears he's been keeping contained in his eyes for the past few minutes to spill from his eyes, soaking his pillow in them.
He lifted his head up from his pillow and glanced to the side at his video game console which he had bought with his savings about a year ago, considering if he should play something on it, like he usually did to make himself feel better, but backed away from this idea. He shifted his gaze away from his video game console and put his head down on the pillow again. He closed his eyes, wanting to drift to sleep as fast as possible, simply wanting this day to be over.
It took him a while to fall asleep as he happened to have trouble falling asleep tonight. The last thought that crossed his mind before going to sleep was, "...Why are you so useless?..."
Gareth felt a little tired after opening his eyes because of the trouble he had falling asleep the night before when he awoke. He sat up on his bed and buried his face in his hands, letting out a sigh into them, the memories of the incident with his parents the day before and the feeling of how useless he was still fresh on his mind. He quickly pushed those thoughts out of his head, though, because he knew he had to get ready for school today, even though he wanted to stay home today.
His parents would be more than displeased if they found out he skipped school today and the thought of doing something to anger was scared him, because he didn't want to go through another one of their lectures.
His morning routine went as usual. He readied himself for the day in the bathroom and afterwards prepared himself a breakfast and a lunch for the lunch break in the kitchen before leaving his house for school. He eventually came across Izuku on the place where they would usually met up on their way to school and from there walked the rest of the way to his destination with him.
Nothing unusual happened at school either. The classes went as usual. Bakugo's cronies made some mean comments regarding him and Izuku during classes, but except for this one thing, nothing else happened during his classes. At least he got to enjoy his lunch today as Tomohito and his group gave him a break today and didn't bother him again. Perharps today he will be able to get through his day without any problems.
After the final bell rung, he started getting himself ready to leave. He packed his school equipment into his backpack, with most of his classmates heading out of the classroom as he did so. He got up from his seat and slouched his backpack over his back. He made his way to the exit from the classroom and leaned against a doorway, waiting for Izuku to approach him. His green haired friend was still on his seat, browsing through his phone.
Izuku glanced away from his phone to his side and saw Gareth waiting for him by the exit from the classroom. He nodded his head at him, letting him know that he was going without saying any words to him. He put his phone away and hid it his pocket, before grabbing his notebook. He lifted it up and was about to put it in his backpack, but was stopped from doing so by Bakugo.
The blond haired boy ripped the notebook from Izuku's grasp and began fanning himself with it, glaring down at him, "Don't know what you think you're doing Deku, but we're not done."
"Whatcha got?" One of Bakugo's cronies asked, grinning as the two of them approached Bakugo from behind, "His diary?"
Although, he was a bit starled at first by Bakugo suddenly taking his notebook from him, Izuku slowly reached his hand out for his notebook, letting out a nervous, "Huh?"
Bakugo flipped the notebook to the other side, allowing himself to take a look at the title of the notebook, "Don't tell me your taking notes on how to be a hero!?"
One of Bakugo's cronies laughed mockingly, "That's so pathetic!"
Bakugo's other cronie rubbed the back of his head, smilling mockingly just like his friend, "He's delusional!"
Gareth clenched his hand as he watched how Bakugo and his cronies bullied and laughed at Izuku because of his dreams of becoming a hero. Why they couldn't just leave him alone? Why they couldn't just leave his dream of becoming a hero? Why do they thought of themselves to be better than them only because they were born with something Izuku didn't? It shouldn't matter that Izuku was Quirkless. He was a person and deserved to be treated as such.
Gareth clenched his hand tighter, feeling a sudden need of going there and helping Izuku. He felt this urge a few times when he was bullied by someone, but always backed away from it in fear of making things for worse for himself. This time however it wasn't he who was in the need of help, but Izuku. His green haired friend was one of the few people in his life who didn't treat him like a person of worse category. He had to do something to help him, just this one time.
He let out a quiet sigh, making a choice to try to stand up for himself and his friend for once and started making his way to the scene in front of him.
"Yeah, real funny, guys." Izuku said in a nervous manner as he got up from his seat and looked up at Bakugo with a pleading look on his face, "Just give it back."
His pleading expression didn't stop Bakugo. His childhood friend moved his notebook towards his other hand with the intention of putting it between his palms. Izuku, knowing what was about do happen with all his hard work on his notebook moved towards Bakugo with the intention of stopping his childhood friend from burning it with his Quirk. He never made it to Bakugo, though as someone got himself in between him and Bakugo, before he could reach his childhood friend.
Even though, he couldn't see this persons face as their back was facing him, he immediately knew who it was, because of this persons long black hair. It was Gareth. His friend had stepped forward from where he used to stand a few seconds earlier and moved towards the scene without anyone noticing him until he got himself between him and Bakugo.
"G-Give it back to him." Gareth spoke up to Bakugo, trying to sound intimidating for once his in his life but the stuttering made him fail terribly at doing so. He reached his slightly trembling hand out to Bakugo, waiting for him to hand over Izuku's notebook, "Now."
Bakugo looked at him as he stopped himself from burning Izuku's notebook, slightly taken aback by Gareth trying to stand up for himself and Izuku for the first time since he met him, "What the hell are you doing, Mutt?"
One of of Bakugo's cronies laughed and smirked mockingly at Gareth, realizing what the black haired boy was doing right now, "I'll be dammed! I never thought I would live to see the day!"
"You finally decided to stop hiding behind Deku all the time, Mutt? A shame Kazari-kun isn't here to see this. His reaction would be priceless!" Bakugo's other cronie asked, smirking mockingly at the Quirkless boy just like his friend did, but Gareth ignored whatever they just said to him.
"Gakkun." Izuku moved towards Gareth, in worry for his friend as he knew how much it would anger Bakugo, "You don't have to..."
"I won't repeat myself." Gareth spoke again, this time managing to say what he had to say without stuttering, trying to pretend like he he hadn't seen the mocking smirks of Bakugo's cronies, "Give his notebook back to him. Now."
"Who the hell do you think you are if you can think you can order me around, Mutt?! Are you trying to pick me a fight with me?!" Bakugo screamed angrily, clearly displeased by Gareth trying to stand up for himself and Izuku. When Gareth remained silent, he glared at him, his glare looked like it would be able to blowing up the entire school into smithereens. Gareth flinched internally in fear after seeing the glare Bakugo directed his way but remained in his place, "Don't make me repeat myself, Mutt! Answer the goddamn question!"
Knowing that he won't be able to do anything to convince him to hand him over Izuku's notebook, Gareth acted in the heat of the moment. He reached out and and roughly ripped Izuku's notebook from Bakugo's grasp. He turned away from Bakugo and looked at Izuku, handing his friend his notebook back. Izuku put the notebook against his chest and looked at his friend in worry, knowing how Bakugo was going to react to it. Even Bakugo's cronies seemed to be too stunned by it, their mocking smirks fading away from their faces.
When Gareth turned around to look at Bakugo again, he flinched after seeing the glare his blond haired classmate directed his way. Bakugo looked like he was seconds away from blowing up the entire school building into smithereens. Realizing how badly this was going to end, he opened his mouth with the intention of saying something to calm Bakugo down. He didn't get to say anything as his words died in his throat, because Bakugo swung his fist at him, punching him in the stomach. Gareth clutched his stomach, feeling how the air just left his lungs as he stumbled backwards.
"Picking a fight with me, Mutt?! Who the fuck do you think you are you shitty Quirkless extra if you think you can pick a fight with me?" Bakugo's voice was filled with rage as he yelled out those words as he kicked Gareth in the stomach, making the boy let out a breathless gasp. Gareth continued to cluch his stomach in pain as he let out one deep breath after another in order to regain his breath, fighting to keep himself on his feet, "Did you forgot where you place is, you Quirkless shithead?!"
"Kacchan!" Izuku moved towards his childhood friend in worry for his Gareth, "Don't...!"
He unfortunely never made it to Bakugo and Gareth. Bakugo's cronies who still looked to be quite suprised by Gareth doing what he just did, grabbed him by his shoulders, stopping from approaching Bakugo and Gareth. Bakugo walked over to Gareth, his angered expression not leaving his face. He reached out and grabbed Gareth by his long hair, roughly making him look up at him, making the other boy let out a painful yelp.
His angry eyes looked straight into Gareth's teary and fearful ones as the black haired boy showed off his now tearful and pained expression on his face to him. This however didn't stop Bakugo. He delivered a firm punch to Gareth's face, knocking the black haired boy to the floor. Gareth clenched his teeth in pain once his body collided with the floor, trying to stop himself from letting out a painful whine.
Unfortunely for Gareth, it wasn't over, yet. Bakugo was far than over from being done with him as he intended to teach him a lesson he will not forget for a long time. Gareth let out another gasp a few seconds after landing on the floor, this time however it sounded more painful than the previous ones as Bakugo kicked him in the stomach, which was followed by another one and another one. There was simply no end for Bakugo's kicks.
"I should blow you into bits right now if you think you can stand in my way, you goddamn Mutt! You can't even defend yourself in a fight you started, you useless crybaby!" Bakugo yelled, his glare not leaving his face as kicked Gareth in the stomach for one last time. Seeing that he stopped, his cronies let go off Izuku and walked over to him, now looking down at the Quirkless boy on the floor, "What do you have even going on for you in your life? Even that loser Deku has his smarts while you have absolutely nothing. You will always be a pathetic nobody. I'll give you an advice If you and Deku want to become heroes so much. Believe that you'll be born with a Quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof of the building!"
He and his cronies proceeded to look down at Gareth, excepting to hear some sort of response from him, like a pathetic whine or an attempt to deny his claims. He wasn't excepting to see a complete shift in Gareth's emotions. Gareth's face became completely blank, void of any emotion, even the pain from the beating that he had just received from him completely vanished from his face. Even the tears seemed to disappear from his eyes in the blink of an eye.
Gareth said nothing in response to Bakugo's words as he proceeded to remain completely silent, not a single word leaving his mouth. He just continued to stare blankly at the ceiling as if he was in some sort of trance and did nothing else.
Bakugo scoffed angrily after a moment of waiting for Gareth to respond. It was when he turned away from the Quirkless boy and began making his way to the exit from the classroom, his cronies following him. Izuku moved towards Gareth with a concerned look on his face, having the intention of helping his friend, but wasn't able to reach him as Bakugo grabbed him by his collar and dragged him out of the classroom, telling the green haired boy that he was not done with him, leaving Gareth in the classroom all by himself.
The black haired boy paid no attention to the people who just walked out of the classroom, leaving him all by himself in the place in the process. His eyes proceeded to stare up at the ceiling as he remained unreponsive to everything around him for what felt like an eternity to him. He felt as if something had cracked within him the second he heard Bakugo's words. He felt as if his soul was snapped in the half like a twig.
It was when he came to a horrible realization. A horrible realization which had been on the back of his mind for a long time, but always tried to push it away and pretend like it didn't exist, with the intention of finding something to prove it otherwise.
Bakugo was right.
As much as he didn't want to admit it and as much as he wished to deny it, every word that left Bakugo's mouth a few moments ago was true.
In the society were people are dependant on their Quirks, he was completely useless even if he would try his best, no matter how many times he will try to deny it. He will be never be needed by anyone in a society like this. He will never achieve anything in his life, no matter how much he will try. He will always be an unwanted Quirkless nobody. His parents will always see him as a worthless failure, no matter what he will do.
He will always be a liability to everyone around him...
He will always be useless...
Perharps it will be better for everyone, including himself, if he will just die...
Letting out a shaky tearful breath, he slowly got up from the floor after laying on it for a few minutes and collected himself, trying to make himself look as if he didn't just receive a beating from his classmates in order to avoid earning attention from the other people. He wiped the tear marks from his cheeks
He pushed the door open and gently closed it before making his way down the hallway. It was pretty empty now, because most of his schoolmates had already went home at this point, but a few people remained in the hallway. The people on the hallway paid no attention to him as they were too busy with their own stuff such as chatting with their friends or searching through their lockers for something.
He walked out of the school building shorty after and began walking forward himself, passing by a few more of his schoolmates who were chatting with their friends as he did so. He stopped once he reached a crossroad. He normally would turn to the right, which was the way leading to his home, today, he had no intention of going back there. He titled his head to the left and was about to turn the corner in this direction, but a familiar voice made him stop dead in his tracks.
"Gakkun!" A voice which belonged to Izuku rang through his ears. He turned to the source of it and saw Izuku running towards him, with his notebook in his hands. His friends look was the one of worry and guilt. Gareth glanced at Izuku's hands and saw his friend holding his beloved notebook. Good. At least he managed to help his friend for once, "I finally found you! I'm so sorry! If I knew what would ha..."
"It was nothing Midoriya-kun. I know how much work you're putting in your notebooks and I didn't want all your hard work to go to waste." Gareth prevented his friend from saying more, trying to brush this off like it was nothing important, "You always helped me whenever someone was bullying me or making some mean comments about me. I just returned the favor for once instead of doing nothing as always."
"You don't owe me anything, Gakkun." Izuku said, trying to assure his friend that he owed him nothing and that he did all those things without excepting to get anything in return from him, "You shouldn't put yourself in danger because you think you owe me something. I never did it because I excepted something in return from you for it. I was helping you whenever you were in trouble, because we're friends and friends are supposed to help each other."
"In that case I helped you because you're my friend." Gareth smiled slightly at his friend once he said those words him. Izuku will truly be an amazing hero. His smile quickly faded away from his face, though. It was when he took a step away from Izuku, beginning to head in his way, "I should get going."
"Where are you going?" Izuku looked confused by Gareth taking a different way than usual, "I thought we'll be walking home together."
"I have to take care of something in the city. My parents wanted me to get something for them." Gareth quickly came up with a lie to why he couldn't come with Izuku today. He rubbed the back of his head as he tried tto act sheepish in front of his friend, pretending like it was something he forgot to tell him about this, "I must have forgotten to tell you about this earlier. Sorry."
"I see." Izuku nodded in understanding and offered his friend a goodbye, "See you tommorow."
"See you tommorow." Gareth nodded his head in response.
Izuku turned away from Gareth and was about to head out in his own direction. Gareth remained his place and bit his lip as he watched how his friend started to walk away from him, feeling like there was one more thing he had to say to Izuku before they will part their ways.
"Midoriya-kun." He called out for his friend after a second, making him stop in his tracks and turn around to look at him. He needed to say it to him, "Have I ever told you how much I appreciate you being my friend for all these years?"
Izuku looked at Gareth in concern, feeling like there was something off about his words and the tone he said them to him, "Is everything alright Gakkun?"
Gareth's face wore a fake smile, the black haired boy trying to make it as real as he could, "Yes. Everything is fine."
"Are you sure?" Izuku wanted to be sure, this feeling regarding his friends words not leaving him, "You know you can always tell me if something is wrong."
Gareth stayed silent after hearing Izuku's words, bitting his bottom lip. He thought a few times about telling Izuku how he felt about himself and how much he felt like his existance was useless, but always backed away from this idea whenever it crossed his mind. Izuku was dealing with some stuff on his own, with his own bullying problem being the main example of it and he didn't want to bother his friend with his own problems.
"Yes. I'm sure." He responded after a moment, the fake smile not leaving his lips as he turned away from Izuku, his back now facing his friend as he offered him his goodbyes, "I'll see you tommorow, Midoriya-kun."
"Yeah..." Izuku remained skeptical, the concerned look not leaving his face.
It was when the two friends parted ways and went on their separate ways, Izuku making his way towards his house and Gareth making his way towards whatever place he will decide to visit today, having no intention of returning to his home.
It had been a few hours since Gareth left his school. Gareth spent these few hours in the city, wandering around it, taking an occasional stop at the places where he usually went to forgot about his everyday problems such as the arcades where he made sure to play his favourite arcades or his favourite bakery where they sold his favourite cake. This place was actually one of the reasons why he took interest in baking and started learning how to prepare his very own baked goods.
It was night now. The sun had disappeared from the horizon a while ago and the darkness covered the entire area around him. The streets were almost completely dark, only slightly illuminated by the street lights. Gareth was on the top of the roof of some random building he had stumbled upon when he was wandering the darkened streets all by himself. He didn't know why he choose this building out of all the buildings in the city.
The dark haired boy was sitting on the ground of the roof of the said building, leaning against a small elevation made of bricks. His gaze was set upwards on the stars and the moon above him. The night sky was really beautiful tonight. There wasn't a single cloud on the sky tonight and it allowed him to get a good look at the moon and all the stars.
A lot of his stuff was scattered on the ground around him. His backpack which he hadn't opened since he left the school was right next to him. He placed it against the elevation he was leaning against right after he found this spot on the roof. His wallet which was almost empty because he had spent almost all of his money when he was visiting his favourite places in the city was laying a few meters away from him on his right side. His school I.D which he had taken out of his wallet before throwing it aside was laying next to it.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone before lifting it up to his face. He hadn't checked it since he left the school. He unlocked it and cringed a bit when the screen shined into his eyes because they were already used to the darkness around him. He put his free hand before his eyes, waiting for him to get used to the light again. Once they did, he set his eyes on back on it, immediately spotting the two messages from his parents.
"Where are you? Did you not understand anything from our lecture yesterday? You better be ready for when you're come home."
"Have you not learned anything yesterday? Except consequences once you will return home."
Gareth had a completely blank emotionless look on his face once he read those messages. He let out a sigh as soon as he read them, not knowing what was he excepting to see the messages from his parents. His parents never worried about him before, no matter how bruised and tearful he was going back home after another unpleasant encounter his bullies so why they should worry about him now?
Normally he would start feeling nervous inside after reading his parents messages in fear of receiving another long harsh lecture from them about him making them look like a bad parents in front of other people and about how he was not meeting their exceptions, making him completely useless for them, but this time, he just didn't care about it. He had no intention of going back to his home, to them.
He clicked his phone a few seconds after reading the text messages that his parents send him, making the screen turn back. Not having the need to use it anymore, he threw it to his right side, hearing how it slided about two or three meters away from him, landing probably somewhere between his wallet and his school I.D.
He shifted his gaze from the stars to the edge of the roof in front of him. He got up from the floor and slowly made his way to the edge of the roof. He glanced down at the sidewalk below him as soon as he stopped on the edge, being only one more step away from falling down to his death. This is how he spent the next few minutes. He just stood on the edge of the roof and continued to look down at the sidewalk, making it the only thing he was doing for those past few minutes.
He was unaware someone was standing behind him. The unknown person quietly made their way into the roof without him noticing them and stopped a few meters behind him. The unknown person watched him approach the edge of the roof before picking it up his student I.D from the ground. They eyed it as soon they picked it up, paying attention mostly to the part where his name was written.
"...I'm sorry Midoriya-kun." He said something that he knew would be his last words after a few minutes of not doing anything but staring at the sidewalk below him, "I just can't take this anymore. I just can't. I will always be a Quirkless nobody. I will always be useless. No matter what I will do, people will always see me as nothing but a liability..."
He clutched his right hand into a fist as soon as those words left his mouth, feeling his chest hurt as he fought an urge of bursting into tears. He was not going to cry. This is what he suprised himself upon entering this roof. He was not going to cry like he did whenever people around him reminded him how useless his existance was.
He doubted many people would miss him. His parents would definitely pretend to be saddened by his death in front of other people, but privately they would probably be relieved that they don't have to provide for someone as useless as him. The people from his school wouldn't miss him either. His bullies would probably be saddened not by his death, but about them losing a person to mess with, but ultimately they would just continue their lives like he had never existed and his other schoolmates and teachers would ignore this, just like they ignored all the times when he and Izuku were bullied by someone.
The only people who would miss him that he could think of right now were Izuku and Izuku's mom Inko. She was always nice to him whenever he visited Izuku to hang out with him. It was when his mind flew to Izuku and his dream of becoming a a hero, despise being Quirkless. He wished him to achieve his dream of becoming a hero. Maybe if Izuku will end up becoming a Quirkless hero, then people who were born with a Quirk will stop to look down on the people who were born without one, which would prevent them from having to go through the same thing as he did for his entire life.
He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, feeling how his heart was pumping loudly in his chest. He held his breath and was about to take one final step of his life, stopped in his tracks in the last second. There was one reason to why he backed out of this in the last second. This reason was a male unknown voice ringing through his ears.
"You must be terribly sad." An unknown male voice ringing through his ears made him stop dead in his tracks. Gareth's eyes slightly widened upon hearing this completely unknown voice to him as he was suprised by it. He looked over his shoulder and spotted a man in a suit standing behind him. Gareth noticed one more thing about this stranger. It was his weird black helmet that covered his entire face, "It must have been hard for you, right? Takemura Gareth?"
He turned his gaze away from the stranger right after he spoke his name, already guessing his intentions. He glanced ahead of himself, looking at the building on the other side of the street. He wondered how the stranger knew him name, because he had never encountered him before but quickly got the answer to it because he remembered how he dropped his school I.D on the floor of this roof after pulling it out of his wallet.
"...Why are you here?" He asked him after a moment of staying silent, "Are you here to make fun of me and to tell me how useless I am?"
"I'm just here to comfort you." The stranger voiced his intention to Gareth who remained skeptical and had his back facing the stranger, not turning to look at him again, "I can see how this world has pushed you to the absolute bottom, to the point of you willing to take your own life. All because you were less fortunate than the the other people your age and was born without a Quirk of your own. I must say, it is quite tragic."
Gareth clenched his hands, feeling how tears began spilling down from his eyes to his cheeks. He remembered the promise he had made himself upon entering this roof, did not fullfil it. The memories of everything he had to endure because of him being born without a Quirk of his own flied through head, starting with the bullying and the name calling from peers who always looked down on him like nothing, ending with the neglect from his parents who cared more about their own image and what other people thought of them than about their own and only son flew through his head.
"Is being born without a Quirk a sin? A sin that allows the society to treat like a person of a worse category? Like a liability? You are a human too and deserve to be treated as such." The stranger continued as he slowly took one step towards the black haired boy. Gareth lifted up his hands and pressed them against his face, now sobbing into them , soaking his hands in his tears as his chest hurt, feeling like his heart was seconds away from bursting out of his chest, "That kind of distorted society. Don't you think it is detestable?"
Gareth remained silent as he put his hands away from his face, revealing his tear stained face. He wiped his tears from his cheeks, only to have them covered by his own tears a second later as there was simply no end for them right now and they continued to fall down from his eyes. One deep breath was leaving his lungs after another as he looked over his shoulder at the man behind him.
"...I do. I do think like that." He admitted after staying unresponsive for a brief moment, his voice becoming less shakier as he spoke. He paused for a second, bitting his bottom lip, causing a small trail of blood to spill down from it to his chin, "People like me, people who were born without a Quirk are looked down by the society and treated like a liability. We are pushed aside for the sake of people who were born with the promising Quirks. People are doing nothing to help us whenever we are stomped upon by the people who think are better than us, because they have something we don't. They just ignore whenever something bad happens right before their eyes, because they think heroes will take care of it, but heroes do nothing to help us."
"Poor child. Hurt by the people around him for all his life. No one ever reached their hand out to you. Am I right?" The unknown man took another step towards Gareth, followed by another one and another one as he was getting closer and closer to Gareth, "How about you come with me if you're thinking about throwing your life away? You won't feel like liability anymore if you do."
Gareth proceeded to look over his shoulder, staring at the approaching man, debating if he should take his offer and go with him or if he should decline it. He exhaled a few seconds later as he made his choice. It's not like he had any better place to go. He nodded his head at the unknown man, telling him that he will go with him without saying any words to him.
"Very well. You will be fine from now on." The unknown man stopped behind him and placed his hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner, "Because I'm here for you."
This is the story of how Gareth Takemura became a villain known as the Mask.
I honestly wasn't excepting this chapter to turn out to be over 12,000 words when I started writing it...
Welp, here we go with newest story. I've been wanting to do it for a while now. At first, I thought about writing a story where an OC is inserted into Class A (The MC of this story would be about Momo's cousin who attends U.A with her). I even had a lot of things planned out for it (His love interest would be Reiko from Class B), but ultimately I went with this idea instead because I haven't written a story where an OC hangs around the bad guys, yet. I might do the other idea sometime in the future.