Origins: Cain

*BANG*

That was my earliest memory. Being shot by a gun.

Certainly not the most pleasant memory to start off with, but compared to what followed it could be said to be one of my more milder experiences.

That was also the day I began training for my purpose. What exactly that purpose was I wasn't privy to, but the moment I cried out in pain, I could tell I was off to a bad start.

I'm not sure when exactly I learned so, but I felt I had always known that making sounds was not a good thing. Sound was usually followed by pain. And pain was usually followed by more sounds, which eventually came with more pain.

It was a confusing concept to learn at first, but I more or less figured out how the rules worked for it.

Don't make a sound and try not to get hurt.

I just had to follow those two rules and my life became much easier. Even though it wasn't easy, I learned quickly and soon reached a point where pain no longer caused a sound and then a point where sound could be used to avoid pain.

I was very proud of myself at that point and sought some form of praise or recognition. At first I was punished for those unnecessary desires but after the vague exchange between my…father(?) and another person with a strange pointed mouth, I was given my first reward.

A mask I think it's called. I didn't understand the sounds but I could later derive the meaning for it. It could prevent the one wearing it from speaking along with a few other effects. For someone not required to make sound, it was the perfect gift. One that I cherished for a time.

After that the training changed. No longer was I supposed to just avoid pain. Now I had to learn to deliver it as well. Doing both at the same time.

This part was…difficult to say the least.

I couldn't quite understand how I was supposed to accomplish such an impossible task. In my desire to prove myself capable of fulfilling my purpose, something just clicked into place. Following a brief but pretty glow, accompanied by the shrinking of the pointy thing on my forehead, I somehow willed myself into being able to understand my task.

It was the moment I awakened my quirk. The first time I rewrote myself.

Suddenly I could understand, even without sound, I could understand. I saw, no, read what my not father(?) wanted from me from his very body.

No longer were sounds, no… words necessary. Instead I could simply look at him and I understood what he desired from me. It was…nice, to be able to finally understand him. He wanted me to fight. To copy what he did and return it back to him.

After my change it was quite simple to do so. A long time of going back and forth, I was able to tell what he would do before he even did it. I could know what he was thinking before the thought even crossed his mind. And like that, I defeated my not father(?) for the first time.

Aside from a nod he didn't have any other particular response, though I could see the pride radiating off of his body nonetheless.

That was also the last time I ever saw him.

I was sad when that happened, but it was also around that time that I gained something new. Something inarguably much better.

It was around that time that I met Eri. My sister.

-_-_-

Eri was a strange little creature that I could never quite understand.

She was as shy as she was curious. As happy as she was miserable. As loving as she was resentful. In other words she was quite the contradiction.

Still, I couldn't help but think she was a little cute. We actually looked quite similar, the main difference between us essentially being a mirror and scars. Still, it made understanding her equal parts easy and difficult. I knew what she thought but for the life of me I could not understand why she did. It was strange to look at yourself and not understand your own thoughts.

She made quite a number of sounds, I mean words. She made a lot of words, but she wasn't exactly punished for it either. I found this very strange at first and wondered if I should be the one punishing her, but I eventually decided I didn't mind her sounds, er..words.

While I couldn't understand them, I did like listening to them. It was a very novel experience for someone who lived in silence like me.

Of course my purpose was not with Eri so my training continued, even if the contents changed after my not father disappeared.

From that point on, I would meet different people who gave off similar body language as my first not father. Each would teach me different things, assign me different tasks to complete. Then finally disappearing, never to be seen again once I performed satisfactorily.

Some would teach me to fight in different ways. Where best to attack for the best results. How to subdue a person much bigger than myself. Some taught me to handle certain objects like guns, sticks and stars, even with my eyes closed. I was taught to bind a person and how to escape such things myself. One even taught me how to stay out of sight, which combined with my initial training made playing pranks on Eri a lot of fun. She is so bad at not making sounds but I still find them and by extension her very cute.

I was taught how to hide my emotions better than I already did and also how to portray or act in a way to invoke certain emotions or responses from others. How to disguise myself and blend into my surroundings. How to tell lies from truths. And a whole slew of other skills that would apparently make it easier to accomplish my given purpose.

Finally, I was taught more about my quirk. The thing that makes me different from other people.

Rewrite

That's the name of my quirk. Almost the complete opposite of my adorable little sister. Not that she knew the true nature of either of our quirks at that time. Well, it's not like I knew either but It's still pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

It lets me irreversibly enhance anything about myself at the cost of my life force, indicated by my horn. It can be just about anything; strength, height, eye sight, endurance, defense, resistances, etc. The more drastic the change the more lifeforce it takes.

It also has the downside of not allowing me to control those changes very well if they are too extreme. I've broken a lot of doors trying to control my strength after a recent rewrite. I also have to make sure I don't change something that ends up being a detriment to myself. Like that time I increased my sense of smell a bit too much and had to learn to control it. A bunch of sweaty old men smell a lot worse when your nose is as strong as a bloodhound.

The downsides notwithstanding, the physical potential alone would have made it a top tier quirk or so some of my not fathers would say. But I discovered a few years later that it wasn't only limited to enhancing physical concepts. I could also change more abstract concepts as well, like intelligence or a change in the mind. That last one is apparently how I gained the ability to understand people though their body language alone.

Apparently my brain now reads the body like other people read a book. The apparent cost being I could no longer learn how to read, write or speak. A small problem one of my not fathers came across while trying to teach me how to do the former. Unfortunately I would not learn how to read as apparently, while useful, it was not deemed necessary enough to warrant another rewrite and potentially ruining what I had already done to myself.

Regardless, while content with my life, I was becoming eager to finally fulfill my purpose. My time with Eri was fun even if it mostly consisted of me listening to whatever random sounds she would come up with that day. Still, knowing my purpose was unfulfilled left me feeling a little hollow.

So when I was finally told it was time to fulfill said purpose, I nearly made the mistake of making a sound. Potentially ruining years of progress on the spot. Luckily my mask largely prevents me from accidentally making that mistake by requiring me to apply a great deal of force to actually open my mouth.

But I digressed, it was finally time.

I listened on with hidden excitement brewing underneath my constantly masked face, waiting for them to point me at my purpose.

Eri's name came up quite often and from what I could understand, apparently I was supposed to complete my purpose with or on her originally. It seems something changed since then and now she had greater uses. Good for her. I know she had been jealous of me for some reason and the only difference between us I could think of was her lack of purpose, so I'm glad hers was finally found.

She seemed to think she was a bad girl, but that doesn't make any sense. Bad girls get punished and I've never seen her get punished before.

Still, with Eri no longer being an option, my purpose had apparently been shifted to someone else. I'll admit I was a little shaken up over the fact that it could be switched to another so easily but I just figured it was never tied to a single person in the first place. Rather from what I could understand it was a function I needed to perform that used my skills.

One of my not fathers expressed his concern with the change of plans and seemed very worried and frustrated over my target no longer being my sister. It seems he felt I would mess things up if I were to deviate from the original plan that became my namesake: Cain.

I would have scoffed at his lack of trust in me had that not required me to actually make a sound, something that would have only further proved his point.

Still, I didn't have to as the one in charge put his foot down and put a stop to any further arguments while ordering him to take me on my assignment.

my expression shifting to look a little smug as a result of the admonishment he received could be neither confirmed nor denied. I was wearing a mask after all.

-_-_-_-

What followed was actually a lot simpler than I had thought it would be. All I needed to do was make it to the top of the building and "execute" the man at the top. Just like the games I used to play with some of my not father's! Except this time I needed to "follow through" to finish the job.

Still, I knew this would be easy, my last not father had nothing left to teach me after a single trial run. I was already a pro at this kind of thing! Still that didn't diminish my excitement nor did it impede my judgment. I squashed down all my unnecessary feelings in order to focus on the mission. I refused to fail now that it was finally time to show my worth.

Getting in was the easy part. Knocking out someone exiting from the back and sneaking in with his key card was standard procedure.

After that I had a multitude of ways to get to the top unnoticed but unfortunately I had baggage to bring with me to ensure I finished the game, so I had to do things a bit more…forcefully than I would have liked.

Still, seeing as no one was expecting me like most of the practice simulations I ran, it was simple enough to isolate and incapacitate anyone unlucky enough to cross my path to the top.

Security was pretty lax on the doors as well so sneaking through a duct or using brute strength to get past locked doors to higher floors was enough once the key card no longer allowed us to go higher. There were a few camera's that I would have normally avoided but my baggage said that doing so would be irrelevant so I opted to ignore them for now. He was kind of bringing my mood down since he wasn't playing by the rules but I still soldiered on regardless. Perhaps this was part of my test as well?

It felt like he should be…

Still, I was feeling pretty proud of myself once we got to the top. Everything was far simpler than I initially assumed it would be but I knew never to grow complacent. And for good reason, since as soon as I was about to burst down the last door, I heard a faint set of sounds indicative of guns being cocked and loaded behind the door. I could hear and feel the panic and unease even without being able to see them yet.

This posed a slight problem however, as this was the only entrance into the room. If I went through the door, though I'd likely make it out relatively unharmed, it wasn't very efficient to walk into an ambush unprepared.

Quickly playing various scenarios through my head I decided on another rather simple plan and signaled to my watcher to approach the door and just…knock on it.

With him grumbly doing so, I listened out very carefully for the sound I was waiting for. When I didn't hear it I motioned for him to do so one more time. This time I heard it. Footsteps approaching the door slowly and carefully.

Just as they were right in front of the door…

*CRASH*

…I made my own entrance through the wall further to the side. Which, thanks to my rewrite enhanced strength, was fairly easy to do.

The rubble created a nice smokescreen that allowed me to enter the room quickly, unharmed, and most importantly, unseen. Not long after shots fired at my impromptu entrance and a hail of bullets assaulted the empty hallway.

While they were firing willy nilly, it gave me enough time to scout the situation and make a plan of attack. There were only four people in the room of various shapes and sizes.

Looking at their bodies, they seemed frightened, tense, and angry. I didn't quite understand why. Maybe because they knew they would lose? Well, it didn't really matter.

Once the first gun clicked indicating an empty magazine, I pounced.

Leaping from my position off the roof I brought my heel down directly onto his head knocking him out instantly. Then before his gun could reach the ground, I grabbed it out of the air and chucked it at the green skinned man furthest away from me.

Not waiting to see a trained certainty I immediately assaulted the three faced man closest to my current position. My speed was fast but it appears he had a few more bullets left in his gun that he could get off just before I got to him. Still it was no trouble as I could clearly predict where he was aiming and adjust my steps accordingly. Dodging out of the way and going for a low sweep to his locked stiff legs. Then as he bounced from the ground slightly I delivered a final blow to his solar plexus with just enough force to knock him out cold.

Swiftly turning I could see the last armed man cradling his now empty and broken hand with both guns resting further away from him unattended.

Keeping a note of their positions just in case, I put the whimpering man out of his misery by giving him a roundhouse kick to the head.

Finally, that left the last man in the room who seemed to be trying to give off an impression that he was still in control even though everything about him screamed he was beyond panicking at the moment!

By the flexing of a few of his arm muscles I could also tell he too had a gun in his grip beneath his desk but seemed to be hesitating on whether or not to pull it out.

HIs body seemed to say he did not want to harm me after getting a good look at me? But why is that? Getting shot may be a little painful but that's no reason to hesitate, is it? Perhaps he's afraid of retaliation? Of course he should be but I don't think that's the reason either. The incredulity on his face is starting to make me a bit uncomfortable. Like he knows something I don't.

I'll admit I have a small complex regarding others knowing stuff I don't, but can you blame me when it's already so difficult to understand them normally? Isn't it a little rude to hide things from someone at that point!?

Well, not that it would matter. This man was the target. He looked just like the picture shown to me outside a few minutes ago if a little less smug.

"~~~~~~~!!?" He started making sounds. Talking, no questioning me about something. I couldn't understand his words but I knew he wanted to know why I was here. What my purpose was. What a strange question to ask. My purpose is with him after all.

Unable to answer in a way he would understand and being reminded of my goal, I snapped out of my momentary lapse of introspection and proceeded to kick a rather large stray piece of rubble at his desk with my enhanced strength. He had no time to react before he was against a wall and the entire lower half of his desk was suddenly crushing everything below his waist.

While he coughed up a bit of blood, I knew it was finally time to "Execute" and "Follow through". Execute usually meant to go for a vital area in training but the follow through part was one I had never actually tried before. The principle was pretty simple though so I wasn't worried about failure.

Barely taking a second to consider where to strike I went for the throat since it was usually the least protected vital when not in direct combat.

Swiftly coming down on the frazzled man, I grabbed his throat just above his adams apple with three fingers to "execute" him. Then following what I had been taught, pinched and yanked back for the "Follow through".

And that was it. I had finally done it! I completed my purpose and probably passed with flying colors too! It was a little more frustrating than I was expecting with the baggage man, but I could finally feel proud of myself for having completed my goal.

I wish I could tell Eri how great of a job I did. Maybe after this I'll teach her how to read like I do so we can finally talk to one another. I feel like she already has an inkling to what I'm thinking at times but I want her to be certain in the future. I wasn't sure if she'd be able to but I at least had to try. I really wanted to share this with someone.

Because I couldn't ask anyone how well I did I turned to the only other person here who might be able to understand how I was feeling. My former target.

With bated breath I waited for him to convey his satisfaction at my job well done. Even a simple nod like my other not father's did would be enough for me.

Instead what I saw as I gazed into his eyes and read his body…

"Terror and then…nothing."

[A/N: I gave a hint with the name and title, but I wonder how many people can guess who her origins are based off of?🤔]