MHA - The Rise of Psion

Chapter 1

Rei grunted as the prison guard shoved down on his shoulder to force him into an uncomfortable metal chair. It was made even more uncomfortable because it slammed his hands into the arm rests, thanks to the tightly wrapped straight jacket forcing his hands to his sides. He glared at the guard for the pain and discomfort, but the guard didn't even bat an eye. Why should he? Rei, after all, was completely powerless to do anything to him.

“That's enough.”

The other person in the room, however, was not completely powerless. The guard's attention shifted to the other... being in the room and looked mildly uncomfortable. Rei focused on the other occupant and wondered if he was back in his cell sleeping still. For, standing on the table across from in, behind a pile of papers and folders, was not another human, but a small white creature. Rei's education was severely lacking, but he thought the little thing looked like a mouse mixed with a bear and dog.

Though, he could be wrong. He hadn't seen pictures of any of those things since his imprisonment. Though he was certain of a few things, even with his minimal worldly knowledge. First, animals didn't wear business suits. They especially did not wear shoes! Second, and far more important, they did not talk.

Rei was curious, really curious, but he'd learned years ago that asking questions was a quick way to earn himself some trouble. Hell, doing anything but saying “Yes, sir.” or remaining perfectly quiet was a good method to earn a beating. The prison guards in Tartarus did not mess around, no matter how young their prisoners might be. Hell, this was the first time in a week that he'd been let out of his chair down on floor B10.

So, yes, he was curious, about everything happening to him right then.

The small white animal of unknown origins, finished with reprimanding the guard, turned his beady eyed focus onto Rei, “Rei, no last name. Do you know who I am?”

Rei, sitting straight and not making any sort of move at all to keep the guard from doing anything, answered in a rough, flat, voice devoid of any emotion at all, “No, sir.”

The white animal studied Rei's face for a few seconds, noting everything with intelligent eyes, “I an Nezu, the principal of U.A. High School.”

If Nezu expected any sort of reaction, Rei left him disappointed. First, reactions mean trouble. Second, Rei had no idea what any of that meant. Well, he did in general terms. He'd gone to school for six months so he knew what a principal and a high school were. He just didn't see what any of that had to do with anything or why Nezu seemed to think it mattered.

The silence dragged on for long enough to become a bit uncomfortable for the Guard and Nezu. For Rei, it was kind of normal to just sit absolutely still in silence so it didn't bother him at all to continue to do so. Nezu lifted a paw to his snout and coughed into his hand, “Moving on. I'm here to talk to you and see if you have what I'm looking for.”

Rei had no idea what Nezu could be looking for. Especially since he didn't own a single thing. Since Nezu hadn't asked a yes or no question, Rei just sat there, silently. Nezu, not missing anything, continued as if Rei's silence was irrelevant, “I'm looking to see if you have the potential to be a hero!”

Rei's response, which on anyone else would have been a look of extreme shock, was to simply blink in confusion. He wondered if the little white animal was mentally stable. The answer was obviously a big “NO!”. After all, Rei was a despicable villain and had been since the day he awoke his Quirk and killed everyone he knew along with hundreds of strangers. How could anyone possibly think there was even a chance that he could be a hero? That was just silly.

Nezu, as if reading Rei's mind, continued, “I am fully aware of your past and the tragedy that happened when you awoke your Quirk. Unlike others, I know what happened wasn't your fault. Tell me what happened that day, from your point of view.”

Used to following orders when they were given, Rei did as he was told without hesitation, “Kattchan was bullying Deku for being Quirkless, like normal. I told him to stop being mean to Deku. He got mad and set his Quirk off right in my face while yelling that he was better than me since I was just a quirkless loser like Deku. It hurt my eyes, a lot. Then I heard the voices.”

Rei's voice trembled slightly at the mention of the voices, “So many of them. They were loud, shouting. I couldn't understand what they were saying. Then I felt them. Happy, sad, angry, afraid. So much. Too much. It hurt so bad. So much worse that what Katchan had done to me. I cried, screamed, begged them to be quiet.”

Even through all of his explanation, his voice hadn't wavered once. It was a long time ago and he'd long been taught that crying and begging only led to more suffering. So, to avoid more unnecessary pain, he kept himself calm and explained as if it had happened to someone else.

He continued, “Then I heard this once voice. It was louder than the others and cut through them all. A man, angry and mean. He yelled, called me mean names and demanded that I get out of his head. I didn't know what he meant. Then he started saying how he was going to hunt me down, find me, and kill everyone I loved before he killed me too. Then he laughed, it wasn't a happy laugh. It scared me. I was scared and it hurt so bad, all I wanted was for it to all stop. So, I screamed as loud as I could, I yelled at everyone to be quiet.”

His gaze focused on Nezu's eyes, “And then they were, forever.”

-----Line Break-----

Nezu stood silent as he rode on the shoulder of one of his most trusted teachers, Shota Aizawa, lesser known as the Underground Hero Eraserhead. They had almost completed the process for exiting Tartarus before the man finally spoke up, “I don't like this. I feel bad for the kid, he got a raw deal for sure, but I also understand why he's locked away like that. He's too dangerous. Just one psychic blast from him and he killed eight hundred and thirty-two people, including every child in his school.”

Nezu nodded. Rei was dangerous, there was no doubt about that. But, he was also just a child with no idea what had happened to him. In his own words, he was scared and in pain. Even adults would lash out in such a situation.

Nezu sighed before he addressed Aizawa, “I understand that, but David's improvements on the suppression device should allow for Rei to use his Quirk in moderation without the inherent danger it represents. He would still need to be taught control, for obvious reasons, but the device should help and is significantly less crude than his current... accommodation.”

Aizawa grimaced at that. He might believe the kid represented a danger to the public, but he did not approve of what had been done to him. The device on Rei's head looked like something out of a bad horror movie. It was all metal and wires that looked like a bad science project. Worse, it was literally drilled into his skull and directly wired into his brain. All to suppress his Quirk.

Worse was how powerful the device had to be. It it was attached to a normal human it would suppress their conscious mind to the point of crushing it and turning them into a vegetable. For Rei it just reduced his mental power to a normal human range.

Nezu continued, “Additionally, I am planning for him to be placed in your class. You'll be able to shut his Quirk down if it ever gets even close to out of control. With all the monitoring devices built into David's device we'll all know the moment he's even mildly stressed.”

Aizawa grunted in acknowledgment of the point, but he had another concern, “What about his education? Despite everything else, U.A. is a school and he hasn't had anything beyond the first few months of his first year of education. He's literally a decade behind his potential classmates. He's also been in solitary confinement for most of his life. I don't see how he could possibly fit in with his peers on any level.”

Nezu nodded and conceded every point Aizawa was making, but he had a plan, “I understand all of that. It's why we're here now a year before he would even be old enough to attend U.A. I want to use the next year to prepare him for the school. With his abilities it shouldn't take him very long at all to adapt to society and his peers.”

Aizawa sighed and tilted his head back to put some drops from his eyedropper in his eyes. He took the time to think and while he knew he could argue until he was blue in the face, nothing he said would change Nezu's mind. So, he chose not to waste his time and instead commented, “This all requires that the kid accepts your offer.”

Nezu sighed and nodded with resignation, “That's true. However, I am hopeful he will choose the path of a hero. Someone with his abilities could easily become the next Symbol of Peace. All the testing they did when he was a child revealed his potential.” He scowled, “It's part of why they went so hard on locking him up forever.”

He didn't want to even think about how many favors he'd had to call in to have this opportunity. He might not have for anyone else, but Rei was unique. He wasn't truly a criminal, he had no criminal intent and Nezu felt that was the most important point. Rei was simply a child who had lashed out in pain and done something without understanding it.

Nezu truly hoped Rei accepted. He wanted to give the world the next great hero.

-----Line Break-----

Rei sat strapped into his chair alone in his cell. Today the guards had chosen to blindfold him. That. Combined with the lack of external sounds, made his cell into something akin to a sense deprivation chamber. It left Rei with nothing to do but think. Which was fine, because he actually had something new to think about for the first time in a long time, Nezu's offer. He hadn't accepted the offer immediately as it was just too much to comprehend. At the moment he was revisiting the memory of the moments just after he'd killed everyone around himself.

Granted, back then he hadn't known that he'd killed them, or how many he'd killed. Instead he'd been struck by the sight of his friends laying on the ground. Katchan and Deku were the only ones laying down on their backs giving him a good look at their faces. Both of their eyes were wide open and bloodshot. Both showed looks of terror permanently etched onto their faces. But, the thing that stood out most were the rivulets of blood leaking from their eyes, noses, and ears. He'd never seen so much blood before, not even when he cut his finger that one time.

Back then he hadn't known it was his fault so he felt only sad and scared. He didn't feel guilty until they told him he killed everyone. But, that was so long ago that the guilt had faded. After not having much else to think about for a decade he'd become... numb to what had happened. He still knew it was a bad thing he'd done, and that he deserved to be punished. But... Maybe he'd been punished long enough?

Nezu seemed to think so. If the principal of a hero school thought he could be a hero, who was he to argue? Should he try to become a hero? It seemed to him that his choices basically boiled down to sitting in his cell until the day he died, or getting out and maybe becoming a hero. Put that way, it wasn't much of a choice.

“Guard.”

-----Line Break-----

Rei held his hand over his eyes as he stepped out of Tartarus and into the sunlight for the first time ever. Was it always so bright? It hurt his eyes and felt hot on his skin. It felt... weird, but also nostalgic. It had been hard to tell in the all white cell he'd been locked into for so long, but out in the sun he could see how pale he'd become. His skin was almost chalk white now and he wondered if that was normal or not.

“Here, wear these.”

Rei looked at the offered item and recognized it after a moment. He'd never worn a pair before, but he'd seen adults wearing them. Sunglasses, they were called. He accepted the item and looked at the man who'd offered the pair to him, “Thank you Mr. Aizawa.”

He quickly put the sunglasses on and sighed happily at the darkness now shrouding his eyes and helping them not hurt from the brightness of the sun. Nezu, sitting on Mr. Aizawa's shoulder spoke up, “It will take some time for your body to adjust to being out in natural light once more. Don't push yourself and take it slowly. We're going to take you to your new apartment and introduce you to your assigned caregiver. She'll be in charge of helping you learn the things you need to know for day-to-day life, such as cooking and cleaning.”

Rei nodded at that. He remembered the terms for his release. It had taken two more meeting to get him out of Tartarus, and he'd had to agree to several things to be released. One was that a retired hero would become his caregiver and watcher. If it looked like he was about to do anything bad, the caregiver was authorized to take him down with extreme prejudice. Just one word from her would see him sent back to Tartarus for all eternity.

At the same time, it was her job to teach him how to take care of himself and his home so he would be capable of living on his own in the future. Provided he didn't get tossed back into his cell, or perhaps die in the line of duty.

“Also,” Nezu continued, “You will get your new dampener later this week. Once it's installed you will be introduced to your tutors. They will give you a crash course on your missing education.” Nezu focused his beady black gaze on Rei, “Do your best. If you cannot pass the entrance exam for U.A. in ten months you will be returned to Tartarus. This is your one chance, do not waste it by being lazy.”

Rei nodded in understanding. He didn't think it would be a problem because he was actually looking forward to learning new things. It was all so exciting.

Soon, they were on the road and Rei got reintroduced to the city. He looked at everything he could through the dark lenses of the sunglasses. Even with them darkening everything, the sheer versatility of color was astounding to him. He'd seen nothing but the white of his walls, the gray of metal, and the black of the guards uniforms for a very long time. It was a feast for his senses, especially when he rolled down the window a little to enjoy the scents and sounds of the streets.

All too soon, Rei found himself being led into a sterile building, a hospital. It reminded him of his room back in Tartarus and he found he didn't like it very much. Nezu and Aizawa led him to a prepared room that had special equipment meant to deal with his Quirk. They were met at the door to the room by David Shield, not that Rei had any idea of who that was.

David looked between the three of them while sporting a warm and welcoming smile, “Are we ready to begin?”

With affirmative responses from Nezu and Aizawa, Rei was put through the process of checking in and getting ready for surgery. The current dampener that he sported to keep his Quirk from functioning at all needed to be surgically removed and replaced with the new model designed by David. Unlike his current one, the new model could be modulated to allow Rei access to his Quirk in limited amounts. The idea was to slowly acclimate him to his Quirk and allow him to learn how to use it properly step by step instead of all at once. No one wanted a repeat of what happened when he was overwhelmed.

Nezu and Aizawa stood in an observation room watching over the procedure as it happened. Though skilled in many fields, David was not a licensed physician so he was only in the room to direct the installation of the new dampener. Standing next to him, just in case of emergency, was U.A.'s nurse, Recovery Girl.

The doctors and nurses, while nervous due to Rei's reputation, were still professional. The lead doctor even showed a fair bit of disgust over what had been done to Rei to install the device they were removing. It was an abomination of wires and poorly done surgery. Nezu and Aizawa both grit their teeth when they heard the doctor muttering about the pieces of skull that had been permanently removed from Rei's head.

Thanks to Quirks and David's usual level of excellence in his work, the surgery that might've taken days to prep for and hours of actual surgery only took a total of three hours. When they were done, Rei almost looked like a normal kid. Rather than the large abomination he'd previously sported, there were now just two small white pieces located near his temple with small glowing lights. It would take some time for Rei's hair to grow back, leaving him mostly bald for the time being.

-----Line Break-----

Rei blinked as he slowly regained consciousness. He felt groggy but he also felt something different. It took him a few minutes to realize what it was. His head didn't hurt anymore. The pain had been a constant in his life. Something that had been a part of his life for so long that he'd gotten used to it and didn't even really register it anymore. But the absence of that pain...

He looked to the door of his room as it opened and a middle-aged woman in a nurses uniform walked into the room. She had a bright smile until she spotted Rei. Her smile quickly shifted to concern, “Are you alright? Is there a problem? Are you in pain?”

As she asked her questions she approached his bedside and looked at him with a level of concern that no one had shown him in longer than he could remember. Aside from his eyes feeling a little hot he felt great so that's what he told her, “No. I feel just fine.”

The nurse still looked concerned as she asked, “Then why are you crying?”

Rei, slightly confused, reached up and touched his cheek, his fingers came away wet. He blinked a few times, though his smile didn't fade, “I don't know. I just know that it no longer hurts.”

The nurse studied him for a bit before cautiously asking, “Did it hurt before your surgery?”

Rei nodded. Not lying was something he'd been taught a long time ago. When the guards asked questions they expected answers. If he lied, he got in trouble and trouble meant pain.

The nurse studied him for a little longer before she nodded, “So, you feel better now?”

Rei nodded again, “Much better.”

She smiled brightly, “That's good. I'll let the doctor know. After that, your Guardian will come to talk to you.”

She left shortly after checking his vitals on a nearby monitor. A few minutes after she departed another woman walked into the room. This woman was very different looking from the nurse. For a start, she was much prettier. Rei might not have much to compare her to, but he was certain she was pretty. She had long spikey hair that looked black, at firat, but was actually a dark purple, and sky blue eyes framed by red glasses. She was wearing a fluffy purple sweater, a black skirt that went to mid-thigh, sheer black pantyhose, and black high heels.

Rei studied the woman as she calmly walked in and took a seat near his bed. She wore a kind smile the entire time, “Hello Rei, I'm Nemuri Kayama and I've been assigned to be your guardian while you're training and in school.”

Nezu had chosen Nemuri for the same reason he planned to place Rei into Aizawa's class, she could help control him through her Quirk Somnambulist which released a gas that put people to sleep. Rei just nodded in acceptance, like he'd been taught to do.

Nemuri had been briefed on Rei and his circumstances, it was why she was acting calmly instead of her usual boisterous attitude. Mostly because Rei simply wouldn't understand as he had the emotional depth of a child. On top of which, she needed to place herself as someone he could respect and look up to rather than someone overly sexualized or flirty.

“It looks like your recovery is going perfect after the surgery, Rei. How are you feeling?”

Rei gave her a pure, almost angelic, smile, “I feel great.”

Nemuri smile turned a little brighter at his happiness, “I'm glad. Now that you have the new dampener, we can see about letting you use your Quirk in small amounts.”

Rei instantly went from happy to concerned at the mention of his Quirk. He knew, from his discussions with Nezu, that he would be using it, but that didn't make him feel any better knowing it would be happening soon, “Is... is it safe?”

Nemuri kept the smile on her face and projected warmth, “It's perfectly safe. Thanks to David Shield, we can control just how much of your Quirk you can use. We'll start out super small and slowly work our way up. How does that sound?”

Rei tried to smile, “So... I won't hurt anyone?”

Nemuri shook her head, “No, it'll all be just fine.”

Rei nodded and went silent. He was still getting used to his head not hurting and was sure he'd be reveling in that feeling for a long time to come. With his new dampener he was looking at a new life. He didn't know how to feel about it but he was looking forward to his new take on life.

-----Line Break-----

AN

A lot shorter than usual I've been writing recently at 3.8k words, but I'm planning to go to smaller chapters again with more frequent releases.

As for why I've been silent so long? Well, if you don't care to know go ahead and pop off now because it's a lot to take in.

Still around? Alright. I've said it a few times but for those that don't know, I'm a live-in caregiver for two disabled seniors. I spend almost all of my time taking care of them cooking, cleaning, driving to doctors appointments, making sure they take their medications, lifting anything over five pounds, and so on. If something needs done I'm generally the one to do it.

A little over a month ago, Mary (the elder sister of the pair) starting to suddenly hallucinate, badly. Not just weird colors or shapes, but full on events. She once thought that I invited people into the house and let them sleep in her room without her permission or even informing her. She once though that I was the King of England. So, it was bad. On top of her seeming to suddenly have dementia she lost all physical strength. That included bladder control. She's been confined to her bed for over two months now.

At one point we had to send her to the ER where they found something that gave us hope, a UTI. Why was that hopeful? Did you know that an untreated UTI can give someone dementia-like symptoms? We didn't. Finding that out was a ray of hope. Until she didn't get any better.

Thankfully, Leah (the younger sister), noticed that Mary's mental decline seemed to fluctuate on Saturdays. Saturday was injection day. We stopped giving Mary her weekly injections the following week.

Since then she'd been on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, the drug she took (Actemra) did a lot of damage to her. She's still confined to her bed because she can't walk, and while she'd no longer incontinent, she can't make it to the bathroom and is wearing adult diapers. We have a constant stream of nurses coming to check on her. Thankfully, one of them is a physical therapist. Mary is finally doing better, but it's still a long road to recovery.

So, with all that said, I'm sure you all can understand why my writing has suffered and why I've not been around or capable of writing even a note.

As for this chapter. I needed to write something, anything, to make me feel a little better about things. Normally my stories tend to either have a character that is OP from the beginning, or quickly becomes OP in a short amount of time. I wanted to try something different this time. Rei is most definitely OP as hell. Think Jean Grey without the Phoenix Force. He's a psychic both Telepathic and Telekinetic. At age 5 when his Quirk was fresh and new he could hear everyone in a mile, and accidentally killed them all too. And yes, he killed Midoriya and Bakugo.

I chose to go this route to try something new, something I've never done before. This story will be less about him steam rolling everything and more about him learning to be a real boy while dealing with the League of Villains. Hopefully it will be interesting.

My plan is to write this, and only this, until I finish reading Fabricator and return to it. That's the plan anyway.

Until next time folks.