Prologue

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"YOU USELESS WASTE OF SPACE!" Endeavor screams at his wife. He had only married the woman because her ice quirk mixed with his fire would create a future hero far more powerful than All Might, but thus far, she has only managed to birth useless brats.

"I-I'm sorry." Rei is holding the most recent of their useless children, a girl with hair that is half red and half white, perfectly split down the middle. "I had hoped this one would be good enough. I thought for sure this time would be a boy with the quirk you wanted. We could try again. I can't carry the baby, but if we use a surrogate and my eggs..."

As Rei speaks one of the doctors comes in. "That won't be possible, Todoroki-san." The woman glares at Endeavor as she speaks. "There was too much damage. We had to remove everything. I warned you this could happen if she had another after the last one. I've been warning you since the first was born. It's a miracle she's managed to survive four pregnancies and didn't have to have the surgery until this time." She pauses to compose herself before moving on to what she hoped would placate the hero. He pays her well enough to keep her mouth shut about his unethical treatment of his wife and children, but she always makes sure to let him know of her displeasure at what he does. "Based on our tests on the child's DNA, it looks like she has inherited both quirks as well as a capacity to tolerate both of them as well. We won't know for sure until her quirks manifest, but she should be the exact child you've been trying for Endeavor-san."

"His quirks," Endeavor growls. He will be forced to deal with this child being born female, but he'll be damned if he's going to accept that the child is a girl. Women don't get strong enough to be the number one hero. "You will put the child's sex down as male, and his name will be Shouto. How soon will he be old enough to start preventing female hormones from making him weak?"

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Four Years Later

Shouto trudges along behind his father. He wants to play with his brothers and sister, but he hasn't been allowed to play with them in months, not since his quirk manifested. He doesn't want to train, doesn't want to have to do everything his father says. All Shouto wants is to be able to be a kid like his siblings, but he is the chosen one, the one with the quirk to become stronger than All Might.

As the pair head up to the peak of Sekoto Hill, they hear a random thunderclap despite the sunny weather and lack of clouds in the sky. Curiosity getting the better of him, Shouto looks up only to see a white blur falling towards his father's head at a rapid pace, and before he can say something, the blur lands on Endeavor's head leading to a yowling sound escaping the blur and angry noises coming from Shouto's father as the man attempts to get the thing off of his head.

It takes Shouto a little while to figure out what the white thing is, having only seen creatures in the books that his mother reads to him every night, but he manages to figure out that the white thing is, in fact, a cat.

Shouto's siblings have been asking their parents for a pet for a while, using the excuse that it would teach them all responsibility, at least that's what Touya says when he tries to convince them, and Fuyumi and Natsuo usually agree with what he says. Anything to try and get what they want. Maybe this cat can be their pet. At least, Shouto hopes so since he's never gotten to see any other cats.

The cat eventually looks at Shouto, apparently done tormenting Endeavor, and launches itself at the boy who instinctively holds out his arms to catch it, and once the cat is safely in his arms, it starts purring. Shouto looks up at his father, cat in his grasp to see multiple scratches all over the man's face. A part of him, the part that hates his father for keeping him from being allowed to have fun, wants to laugh at the sight, but he knows better. Even if he doesn't want to train to be the tool Endeavor wants him to be, he does want to be a hero, so he scolds the cat.

"Bad, kitty." Shouto attempts to sound stern. "No scratching tousan."

The cat simply purrs louder, snuggling its way closer to his chest.

"Put that thing down," Endeavor growls at Shouto. "It has diseases and is nothing but a waste of space."

Shouto's shoulders drop, and he puts the cat down, but, rather than dart off like any sensible wild cat, it chooses to stay by Shouto's feet. Endeavor does everything he can to try and shoo the cat away, even going so far as to attempt to burn the animal, but nothing seems to bother it as the cat simply sits there in between Shouto and his father. Endeavor decides after multiple attempts at getting rid of the animal in ways that don't include him touching it that he'll just pick the animal up and throw it away from them. His attempt is in vain as the moment his hands come into contact with the cat, it latches onto his face with its claws digging into his flesh causing long, deep scratches that the man cannot ignore no matter how much he wants to just continue on to train his, as close to perfect as he's ever going to get, creation, he has to go get the wounds taken care of.

The trio, as Endeavor cannot seem to get rid of the animal, then head back to the house where Endeavor tries to lock the cat outside the door, and as soon as he has the door shut with the animal definitely outside, he turns to find the cat sitting next to Shouto's feet with what the number two hero could only describe as a Cheshire grin on its face.

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