Chapter 3

Toru Hagakure was used to being forgotten about. Used to teachers forgetting to hand her paper due to not seeing her or marking her absent due to missing her in a head count. Used to her classmates "forgetting" that she existed and apologizing in the most mocking tone you can imagine, dripping with poison that perfectly matched the cruel sneers on their faces. She was used to her own parents sometimes not noticing she was in the room or accidentally leaving her behind on walks or in shops.

Toru hated her quirk. It was the cause of all of this. Some days, she'd wake up, look in the mirror and see the pink wall behind her staring back at her and wonder if she even existed herself. Her quirk made her invisible. She couldn't even see herself. Ever since she was five, this was her life. Cursed to wander between being alive but not being seen. She sometimes wondered if she should just let go and fade from existence. Figured no-one would miss her. Why would they miss what they can't even see?

But she existed. I mean, she had to right? She could see other people as they wandered about the school, minding their own business as they pushed past her. She'd watch the faces of passer-by's faces twist in confusion as they looked back at who they bumped into and were met with nothing. They wondered if they were going crazy. Toru bit her lip.

That pain was the only way she knew she truly was real. Not just some phantom passing through life. She'd often run a hand through her invisible hair just to remind herself it was there. Long and… what colour was it? Was it black like her fathers? Red like her mothers? Maybe it was like her grandmothers, pure silver. She'd trace lines across her arms. What was her skin colour? Her mother was Indian. Her father was Japanese. What was she? How about her eyes? Were they blue? Green? She'd seen some people in pictures with black eyes. That would be interesting. The more she wondered, the more depressed she became. Once or twice she drawn one of her mothers small knives she used for cutting vegetables across her arms just to remind her self she had something underneath what she couldn't see.

It was maddening. Was she real? Someone had to see her, right? She heard someone could cancel quirks out there. Would that person be able to see her? If they could cancel her quirk, could she see herself? Would others be able to see her? Could she finally figure out of she existed. She was here, wasn't she? She heard herself speak, even if her classmates often pretended not to. Or did they not? Was it only her? No, sometimes people responded to her. So she existed. She had to.

Or was she lying to herself? Maybe she really wasn't real? Maybe her parents were illusion her insane mind made up just to believe people knew she was real. Her mother could turn things invisible. A cup. A plate. Her father could change his skin colour. A strange quirk, but she'd seen people who's only quirks were controlling their finger nail length so it was possible. The two combined managed to make a girl whose skin colour was nothing and she couldn't turn it off. She'd tried. Oh, how many times she'd tried. But maybe they weren't real. Maybe she wasn't real. After all, remove her clothes and there was nothing to tell someone was standing there.

But she could see. But maybe she was a ghost. But people could speak to her. But maybe she was hearing things. But people felt her. But maybe it was the wind. But. But. But.

But.

But.

But.

She bit her lip and felt the pain. Tried to calm herself down. She could feel so she was real. But she needed someone else to see her. She existed. But she didn't.

She screamed in the middle of a park once. No-one could tell who did it. They all looked around confused. No-one could tell the heroes who had done it. Or where the sobbing was coming from. She felt so alone.

Her only real solace was messaging people online. But they were big chat rooms. Her nagging voice always kept saying that they were talking to someone else. So she kept searching. Looking for a small enough room. Somewhere she knew for certain they were talking to her. That they could see her. That it wasn't some part of her mind tricking her into believing she existed when it was her fooling herself with false promises.

That was when she found it. Venality. A blog buried in the search engine. She looked at the forum posts and found only two posts, one made months ago but the second only two weeks ago. She went onto the blog. Three people active and talking. Perfect. She hastily made an account.

-IExist has entered the chat-

IExist: SOMEBODY SEE ME

IExist: please

Toru watched the screen. The air felt heavy. The semi active conversation between the three already there didn't update. No-one answered her either. Seconds past that felt like centuries. She felt her heart crushed in her chest. Her skin on fire. They had to see her. They had to know she was real.

But what if they didn't.

But they had to.

But what if she really wasn't real.

But she had to be.

But what if. What then? If they didn't answered.

The screen moved.

Usagi: Hello? We see you.

Crucible: Who is this.

Toxicity: Hey. Are you OK?

Toru gasped. They… They answered her. They… saw her.

IExist: Am i

IExist: real

Usagi: Well, we see you. So I guess you have to be. Ha ha.

Toxicity: What sort of question even is that?

Crucible: Troll

IExist: no

IExist: but you

IExist: i'm

IEXist: i

Usagi: Are you OK? Wanna talk about it

Toru's eyes blurred with tears. Finally. She finally found it. People who could see her. People who knew she existed. She had found her answer. Finally. Finally.

IExist: Help me

IExist: please

Usagi: Don't worry. We're here.

Usagi: Tell us everything

And she did. Toru let loose a stream of words. She knew that a lot of the words lacked basic English and were filled with more typos than anything she and likely her new saviours had ever seen. But she didn't care. She just let it all go. And when she stopped, she felt somehow lighter.

IExist: im sorry

IExist: its just

IExist: i was so scared

Toxicity: Sounds like you been through a lot.

Toxicity: But don't worry. We're here for you

Crucible: Sorry.

Usagi: Come on. Stick around. We'll prove you're real without a shadow of a doubt.

IExist: I

IExist: Thank you.

Toru changed her name on the blog to Violet after that, naming it after a character she related to in some old animated movie she watched pretty frequently. Over the next few weeks, she found herself feeling lighter. She couldn't see it, but she knew she was smiling more. It still hurt. When the teachers forgot her or the other girls in her class "accidentally" forgot about her or forcibly pushed her because they "didn't know she was there". It still hurt for her parents to not notice her at home. But, when ever she felt lost, she knew she had a place where she could confirm her existence. She had friends that knew she was real. Usagi. Crucible. Toxicity. Brainstorm. Those four were real. And she was real. That was enough for her. That's what she thought. Then she got a private message from Usagi.

Usagi: Say. Violet.

Usagi: I have a question.

Violet: ?

UsagI: Say, for the sake of argument, I found a way to fix your quirk.

Violet: You found what?

Usagi: Would you take it

Usagi: Oh. Well. I found a possibility.

Usagi: It's just I'm not exactly supposed to say what online

Usagi: But if you're interested, I can give you a location. We can meet there.

From anyone else, Toru probably would have thought this was a scam. It seemed suspicious. A secret method to fix her? It seemed like it was underhanded. Black Market. Maybe even villainous. But this was Usagi who was telling her. When she had no-one, he helped her. She trusted him.

Violet: Tell me where and when. I'll be there.

The location was that of some poorly rated bar in Yokohama. From her home, it would take about an hour to get there by train. But, at this point, she'd take as much time as she could. So, the next day, she dressed up in clothes that she knew would allow her to be able to be easily visible, a hooded jumper, long trousers and gloves, said she was meeting a friend to her parents and left that morning. She reached the bar just before mid day, after a bit of fumbling around trying to find the right entrance. She was thankful that someone, a rather jovial older man with a scarf and missing tooth, was understanding of her mistake and showed her the proper door, not even questioning why a girl like her would be looking for a seedy bar. Perhaps that should have been her second warning that her life was about to change.

She stepped foot inside. The place was empty, though she imagined that many places like this would be on a Sunday morning. She nervously stood in the entry way, nibbling her lip. When the bartender, a man who seemed to be completely made out of purple smoke, spoke up, she jumped. " Can I help you?"

" O-Oh. Erm. No, it's fine. I'm just… looking for a friend."

" Are you perhaps Violet?"

" Huh?" Toru nodded slowly. " Right. That's me."

" Midoriya told me to expect you. Please, take a seat. He and Tomura are having a rather…" A loud crash echoed from the back rooms, followed by some faint swearing. " Heated gaming session."

" I see." Toru felt her mouth twitch but she sat down at the bar nevertheless, pulling her hood down.

" My name is Kurogiri. Would you like something to drink, miss."

" Just water for now."

" Of course." Toru watched Kurogiri turn his back and grab a small bottle of clear liquid from the fridge behind him and poured it into a glass.

" So, Midoriya tells me your here for a quirk related reason, correct?"

" That's right."

" He didn't give me much details, but I'm guessing your quirk is invisibility related. Are you unable to deactivate it."

" No. I can't." Toru answered sadly.

" I see. That must be difficult." Kurogiri placed the glass of water in front of her. " I shall go and fetch Midoriya for you. Feel free to turn the Television on while you wait. Remote is on the side." With that, Kurogiri vanished into the back rooms. Toru took a sip of her water. Midoriya must be Usagi, she figured that much. But did that mean that he lived here? She remembered back to the site. Usagi told the tale of a quirkless boy who got tired of living and, after being refused his dreams by even the number one hero himself and getting tired of being thought of as useless and being abused at almost every turn, ran away from home. Perhaps this is where he ended up. She took another sip.

" Hey, Violet." Toru turned her head. Standing at the far end of the bar stood a young boy about her age with green hair, freckles and a bright smile that didn't seem to match the dull look in his eyes.

" You're… Usagi?"

" Yeah. That's right." He nodded. " My name is Izuku Midoriya. You can call me what you want though."

" Toru Hagakure. It's nice to meet you."

" Ha ha. I don't think we can call this a meeting, really." Izuku scratched the back of his head.

" Heh. I guess your right." Toru smiled softly. " So. About why I'm here."

" Your quirk right?" Izuku looked over Toru, humming. " So, you really can't turn that off, huh?"

" No."

" I can see right through you. That's crazy." Izuku muttered. " What happens if you hold your hand in front of a flashlight?"

" Huh?" Toru was taken aback by the question. " Is that… important?"

" Oh, well I was just curious about your quirk is all. Like, if you shine a flashlight into the palm of your hand, does the light still come through the other side? Or is it like when you shine it through a glass of water? No, but I can see a shadow so…" Izuku shook his head. " Ah. No. Sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. That must have seemed really creepy. I'll stop now." Izuku bit his lip.

" It's fine. Don't worry about it."

" No, it's not. But I can't help myself. Until I met Sensei I didn't have a quirk and they've always fascinate me. So, when I see a new one, I can't help but think about the crazy things people are capable with it and…" Izuku covered his mouth with his hands. " I'll stop. Promise, I'll stop."

" Really. Don't worry about it." Toru shifted nervously in her seat. " You were saying? About my quirk?"

" Oh. Well, the person who helped me and my… roommate Tomura. We call him Sensei. Sensei's quirk is special. It allows him to… fix broken people."

" Like those with quirks that hurt their users?"

" Or people with no quirks at all, yes." Izuku confirmed. " I asked him. He said, if you want, that he could help you. But… well, he's not here exactly. We'd need Kurogiri to take us, but he has offered to help." Izuku coughed. " I made that sound way more shady than it actually is."

" But… he can fix… this?" Toru took off a glove and raised her hand. Through it, she still saw Izuku. Like her hand wasn't even there in the first place. She could only prove it was there by digging her nails into her palm.

" Yes. He fixed me. He can fix you."

" Then I'll do it." She said without hesitation. "Please. I just want to see what I look like. Just once." Izuku nodded.

" Kurogiri. We're ready." From the shadows, the bartender returned and nodded.

" This way please." A shadowy portal opened up before her. There were many signs leading up to this. That passing through this gateway would never allow her life to be the same. Izuku's ominous warnings. The buildings seedy owner. Perhaps even the entire purpose of Venality seemingly being a place for those "abandoned by society". Izuku called them broken. Perhaps that's exactly what she was. All she wanted was a chance. A chance to show everyone she existed. To be fixed. Anything was worth the risk. She passed through.

Toru didn't remember even falling asleep. The room she woke up in was a bit more run down than she remembered her room being. It took her a slight moment of panic to remember that she came to a bar in order to get her quirk fixed. With an annoyed growl at the glaring light above her, she covered her eyes with a hand. She didn't even remember what had happened. But, after stepping through that bartenders portals with Usagi, everything when blank. She sat up. She assumed she was still in that bar Usagi lived at in a spare room somewhere. There was no windows so she couldn't tell the exact time. She noticed her hooded jacket hanging over a chair within arms reached. She reached out to grab it to get her phone. Then she stopped.

Her hand.

It's skin colour was lighter than her mothers but still darker than her fathers and most Japanese people. Her palm and forearm were littered with a few scars from where she had cut herself just to make sure her arm was still there. She quickly went for her phone, finding it where she left it in her jacket pocket, and turned the phone's camera on. She gasped as she looked at it.

Looking back up at her was a face she had never seen before. It combined her father's green eyes and her mother's red hair and was dotted with freckles. The skin was the same as that of her arms. Her eyes seemed tired. She slowly brought a hand to her face and watched as the stranger mirrored. Was this… her? Her face. Her skin. Her eyes. Her.

" Ah. Toru. I'm glad you're awake." Toru looked up to see Izuku entering the room.

" Usagi."

" How do you feel?"

" Strange." She admitted. She looked back down at the face in her camera. Her face. " This is me, right?"

" Yeah. I can see you perfectly. Sensei managed to fix you."

" I don't… remember anything?"

" Yeah. I know. Same thing happened to me first time around. Sensei can erase memories of the people who meet with him. He's a… rather enigmatic person and he likes it that way. He apologises."

" That's his quirk?"

" Kind of." Izuku admitted. " Sensei's quirk is that he has multiple quirks."

" Multiple?"

" Yeah. He can take the quirks of others and transfer them to others. He uses it to help people. He takes away dangerous quirks from people who can't control them and fixes people like us by giving them quirks to help control existing quirks better."

" Did he take mine away? Is that why I'm normal?" Izuku shook his head.

" No. He gave you a new one." Izuku folded his arms. " I think he said the quirks name was Limiter. It allows the user to deactivate quirks within an extremely short range around them. Like, you'd have to be touching someone to even have a chance to effect them with it."

" And that's what turned my invisibility off?"

" Yep. Think of it as a sort of on/off switch for your quirk." Izuku smiled. " In theory, you should be able to use it with a thought. It might take a bit of practise though."

" Why would I ever want to turn it back on?" Toru grumbled.

" Because you're quirk is amazing." Izuku answered. " You remember my hobby right?"

" That quirk analysis thing you mentioned on the blog?"

" I don't believe any quirk is useless. Maybe we're broken, but we're not useless. I mean think about it. With your quirk, you could be the perfect spy or infiltrator. You could just walk past the heaviest defences without anyone knowing your there or sit in the corner of a room listening to secret conversations. And I wasn't joking earlier when I was talking about you possibly using light as a weapon. Believe me. You have an amazing quirk. You just need to hone it properly."

" Hone it. Huh." Toru had always thought her quirk a curse. She hated it. How it made her feel. How it made her question her sanity and her own existence. She hadn't thought about the positives of her curse. What Usagi was saying? Was it all true?

" Do you know what the tag line of Venality means?"

" You mean that thing about it being a place for those abandoned by… people?"

" Yeah." Izuku frowned. " This society places too much of a value on quirks. But not just any quirks. Quirks that can be used to turn children into soldiers. Only people with strong quirks can succeed in this world. The rest? The people with weak quirks or no quirks at all? Those who are deemed as villains or dangerous because of what they were born with?"

" The broken." Toru realised.

" Right. We're swept aside. Used as stepping stones for the so called heroes." Izuku grit his teeth. " They can do whatever they want and no-one can stop them. Those who try are crushed. It's not fair." He looked up, eyes burning with determination. " But Sensei. Tomura and Kurogiri. We're trying to change that. They won't listen to reason, so we may have to get a bit… forceful. But it's all for the best." Toru grit her teeth.

" You mean… you're villains?" She asked, slowly.

" I suppose." Izuku closed his eyes. " But I was rejected by heroes but a Villain fixed me and gave me purpose. If standing by those who accept me makes me evil, then I'll be evil. I don't care." Izuku took a deep breath, waited three seconds, and exhaled. " Sorry. I don't mean to snap."

" It's fine. You don't need to apologize all the time, y'know? If anything, I should be saying sorry. You helped me so much. All of you here. And I still called you Villains." Toru gave Izuku a nervous smile. " If anything, you're the heroes." Izuku seemed taken aback by this. He blushed deeply and looked down, bashful.

" U-Uh. W-W-Well. I-I-It's… fine. D-Don't worry." He laughed nervously. "Besides, your m-mostly right. In the eyes of the law, I g-guess we are Villains."

" So, there are more people like us?"

" Y-Yeah. I, erm, I made Venality to try and, erm, try and fine them." Izuku swallowed, trying to get his nerve back. " I'm Quirkless, Crucible has an extremely over bearing father, Toxicity is treated like a monster and ostracised while Brainstorm is treated like a Villain outright because of his quirk. There are things people just get away with in this society. If people think your a Villain or your Quirkless or someone in the right place is attacking you, there's nothing you can do. It's not right."

" And… you want to help them?"

" Helping a few people isn't enough. That's why Sensei wants to…" Izuku stopped. " I'm getting to far ahead of myself. You… probably don't want to be involved with all this."

" Cause the law sees you as Villains, right." Toru said. Izuku nodded.

" I understand if you just want to leave here and wash your hands of all this stuff. I can still help you with your quirk if you want. We won't force you to join the… illicit stuff."

" But… you're seriously trying to help… y'know. People like us." Izuku nodded. Toru paused for a moment. In reality, she knew from everything she'd been taught that she should run. Run, call the police or a hero or someone and never looked back. That these people were dangerous. Evil. Then she looked back down at her hand. Her actual hand. She could see it. She briefly remembered what she'd been too. Supposedly good, law abiding students psychologically bullying her because of her quirk and teachers and her parents not helping matters, even if she knew they didn't mean it. Her damaged mental state. Her constant questioning of if she was real or not. And none of it was helped by anyone in hero society. But these people? Usagi, the mist man bartender and the enigmatic Sensei? They did. They fixed her. She steeled her nerves. " You helped me. I want to help you."

" Are you sure?"

" Absolutely." Izuku smiled.

" Then I guess I'll let Sensei explain to you what our plans are." That day Toru Hagakure turned her back on the society that had hurt her and never looked back.