Kaminari P.O.V
People always used to looked at me like I was stupid. Like I was a disease. A curse. And I used to believe all of it. Everything was always my fault, no matter if I was even related to it in any way or not. My step dad would beat me for everything that went wrong. My step mom would lock me into my room and not give me food for days on end so that I could 'reflect on my mistakes'. I had no school friends, no people to talk to, nobody to rely on. No matter where I was, I couldn't escape the whispers that followed me in my small hometown.
"It's him... that electric boy..."
"He brings disaster with him wherever he goes."
"Be careful around him, he might go crazy again."
"Don't play with that boy, all right? He's dangerous."
"What a shame, the rest of his family is so proper, yet he..."
"I would die of shame if I was the one taking care of him."
"Why doesn't he just leave already? Isn't it obvious he isn't wanted?"
The only singular exception was my big brother, Sanda Kaminari. He was the only person who would treat me as human. When step mom locked me up, he sneaked food to me through the window. When step dad beat me, he would beg him to stop. He would bring video games to bring my room and we would play all night, trying to keep quiet while laughing our asses off. He didn't care about what had happened in the past, he was always there for me.
The troubles all began when I first developed my quirk at four years old. I had been playing with the little family dog, a Shitzu, when I started feeling static along my arms.
11 years ago
"Dad!", I shouted with excitement. "I think I developed my quirk!"
"Coming, Denki!", came my fathers response.
My brother ran out the house, positively jumping with excitement. "Your quirk! Your quirk! I wonder what it is! Maybe our quirks will be similar so we can become heroes together!"
I laughed, and picked up the dog.
"Well, Sparky? What do you think it'll be?", I asked it with a giggle. Suddenly a current of electricity went through my body, a blinding flash emitted from me, and Sparky yelped before going limp. "S-Sparky?"
"D-Denki?", big brother stuttered. "Wh...What happened?"
I started sobbing "I don't know!", I bawled. "I was just holding him, and then he... he just stopped!"
"Denki? Sanda?", our dad shouted as he come to us. "What happened? What was that light?"
He stopped when he noticed Sparky and my tears.
"Son?", he asked calmly and slowly. "Please explain to dad what happened, alright? You're not in trouble, don't cry."
"I... I was holding him, and then I felt a weird feeling in my body, then I flashed and Sparky yelped then went limp!", I answered quickly. "I don't know how it happened!"
My dad embraced me and patted my head. "It's not your fault... don't worry."
"My my...", my mom said as she walked out of the house. "What is happening here?"
She walked over to where my brother and Dad were hugging a sobbing me and placed a hand on my shoulder.
"DEAR NO! YOU DON'T HAVE A QUIRK!!!", my dad shouted, but it was too late. I felt the same static current as before, then the same bright flash. This time, instead of Sparky, it was mom who let out a scream and fell to the ground, limp.
"No... no...", my dad sobbed as he cradled mom's body.
"Dad?", Sanda asked. "What's happening?"
I looked down at my hands, and noticed a small spark between my fingers.
"Why is this happening?", I whispered as rain started to fall on the three of us.
2 years later
Dad remarried after 2 years of mourning, although I don't think he was quite ready to remarry mentally. Now that I think about it, he may have done it to get financial support for me and big brother.
My stepmother was the biggest bitch I ever met in my life, and she would haunt me for years even after I escaped her grasp. There wasn't much that I knew about her, except that she had red hair, had a fake smile, and definitely hated me.
For the past 2 years, I had had to endure people expressing their pity for me when they were with me, but then gossip about me behind my back. Because we lived in a relatively small town, word spread fast and I was marked as the problem child. I was avoided completely by everybody, and nobody would meet my eyes. As a six year old kid, the one thing I wanted almost as desperately as my mother was a friend, but the only people who would still talk to me were my dad and Sanda.
Sanda had changed over the past 2 years, in small but noticeable ways. He didn't smile as much as he used to, and he wasn't super excited about quirks as he once was. He used to watch All Might clips every day and clap along with the All Might theme song. He used to study heroes and villains and their quirks, writing notebooks full of info on them, but now he didn't care for quirks or heroes as much. He was still the best big brother I could ask for, but I couldn't help but think that he was changing because of what had happened 2 years ago.
My dad would always insist that what had happened wasn't my fault, that it was my quirk that had gone on a rampage, that I couldn't do anything about it. I never believed him.
My dad fell into alcoholism, most likely due to the grief of losing his wife. He would work late hours and come back home exhausted with no energy. He would always fight with my stepmom late at night, when they thought I was asleep. My stepmom thought that I had to be fixed, and that there was something wrong with me. She even used the word murderer a few times, which my six year old self didn't understand. My dad would always defend me, and say that I was going through too much already, that he couldn't bear making me go through even more hardships.
This kept on for a year, until my dad suddenly collapsed from 'being overworked and exhaustion after numerous long shifts'. He was rushed to a hospital, but there was nothing the doctors could do, I didn't even get a last word with him before he left. I was only seven years old, so I couldn't quite process what was happening, but my big brother (who was now ten), seemed to understand everything. Interestingly enough, my stepmom seemed happy about everything, although she acted devastated in front of others. But I could see through her fake tears and fake frowns. I could see through it all.
My dad left custody and his entire will to our stepmom, who wasn't too happy about taking care of me and Sanda. She remarried, to a man that was just as bad to me as she was. They both hated me, but they never seemed to have a problem with Sanda. The young me just took that as another sign that everything was my fault.
Ever since the day that my stepfather came into my life, my life became miserable to the point that I hated myself. My stepdad beat me whenever something didn't go the way he wanted it to. My stepmother would lock me in my room, sneering that it was "all for my good". Sanda changed even more, and started getting into fight after fight after fight outside of home. He would always come home beat up, but smiling. My stepdad seemed to approve of his fighting, saying real men don't back down to a fight.
When I asked him in private, he told me that people were making of me, and he didn't like that.
My life kept on getting worse and worse, with things going wrong at every turn. Sanda tried his best to cheer me up, but he was still a kid too, there was only so much he could do.
My quirk, at this point, was still completely out of control and I didn't dare activate it in case something bad happened again. My performance in school, which had never been anything to write home about, took a massive turn for the worse. I would bring back tests with 3% or 5%, and my dad would beat me for it.
"FUCKING IDIOT, AREN'T YA?!?!", he shouted as he raised a fist. "DID YOU FRY YOUR BRAINCELLS ALONG WITH YOUR MOM, BRAT?!?!"
I became known for my horrible marks, and I began to associate that with me, began to treat it as a part of me. Through everything that happened, Sanda was with me. He would play games with me, tell me stories about his fights, show me videos of heroes rescuing civilians.
"You aren't a monster, or an idiot, Denki.", he would say firmly as he hugged me. "I swear on my life, I will find a way to save us. If it's the last thing I do. Until then, I will continue to get stronger until I can protect the two of us from anybody."
One day, years later, when I became 13, the true will of my father was found, along with concrete evidence that my stepmother had murdered my dad, helped by my stepdad. It turns out that the police had been suspicious of his death all this time, and had gotten an anonymous tip about how to find evidence of the murder. My stepmother and stepfather were both locked up in prison for life, and my brother and I were finally free.
Along with that, their assets were seized and liquified (Turned into cash), the money being saved for me and Sanda when we turned 18. Turns out my dad hadn't left a single drop of money to my stepmom, instead splitting his will between me and Sanda.
I guess I should've been happy about being free, but I just became even sadder about everything. I could feel myself slowly losing a grip on sanity and losing my humanity, and at this point I didn't care about anything. The only person I could trust was Sanda.
The two of us were put into an orphanage, as there was no relatives willing to take us in. Strangely enough, we were immediately adopted by a mysterious rich man, who gave us an apartment to live in in the main city, occasionally stopping by to check up on us. We moved to the same school, where nobody knew about our past. Sanda quickly rose to the top of the school as the most good looking, strongest fighter in the school. I was known as his stupid but funny little brother, who was never serious about anything.
When I turned 14, I went to a specialist (as per request of our adopter), and began trying to control my quirk. Sanda, who had the exact same quirk as me (Although he had near perfect control over it), was with me every step of the way, giving me advice on how to gain control of my quirk.
After months of hard work, I had finally managed to set a limit on my quirk, the limit being that if I used too much electricity, I would become a complete idiot. Sanda was the one who brought up the idea of creating a limit instead of trying to outright control the power, and it had worked perfectly well. I was now just like any other person, except for the fact that I had killed a person before.
I was later accepted into UA, and I began to change. I'm not 100% sure what brought about the change, but I do know that everybody's eyes were different than back in my hometown. There wasn't any malice or anything like that in them, just kindness (for the most part). I found a girl that I slowly fell in love with, and I had finally found a place I could call home. I could feel that I was healing slowly, but surely.
At the same time that I went to UA, Sanda said that he would join a travelling rock band called 'The Sovereign', and he didn't know when he would see me again. I was obviously sad to see him leave, but knew that he had sacrificed so much to keep me happy, and I couldn't keep this from him.
End Flashback
My sweet brother. Who bought me ice cream whenever I passed a test. Who, despite his tough guy look, actually loved playing with pets. Who used to bounce up and down whenever someone mentioned quirks. Who loved puns that would make a normal person cringe. Who cries every time he watches the 'Titanic'. He was, in my eyes, the perfect person, my role model. He could do no wrong.
So why in the hell are All Might and Izuku's dad talking about his rock band? And what are they saying about world domination? What's the truth, what's happening?
As all these thoughts flooded my head, one thought rose to the top.
Is my brother a bad person?
At the very thought, something inside of me cracked. I don't know how I know, but I know. My limit just broke, and that meant I had lost control of my quirk again.
I dropped to my knees and began hyperventilating, memories of what had happened last time I was out of control rushing in my head.
It's fine, right? As long as I avoid touching anyone, I can get to the hospital or have a hero detain me. Everything's fine! ... Right?
That's when it happened.
"Kaminari?", Jirou asked puzzedly as she reached for my shoulder. "What's wrong man? You feeling okay?"
I could only stare in horror as she reached out to me.
The girl that I love.