12 No Thanks

I woke up today, prepared to once again go to school like I would any other day, but Ms. Portman told me that I wouldn't be going to school today. I was confused, this was very unlike her. Maybe it had something to do with the recording studio?

I waved goodbye to the kids with Ms. Portman, waiting for her to explain why I was called to stay home from school. She led me to her office before sitting down and typing something on her computer. She turned her screen to me and on it was the face of a man I didn't recognize.

"This man is Tokihiko Toga. Yesterday he called about coming around and adopting you." Ms. Portman didn't have her smile on her face like she normally would in this situation. "There is nothing wrong with his file, he has a wife a daughter a year older than you and he is well off..."

"However, he called for me directly and you think it's because I just got famous." I finished off her sentence, not needing to think hard to know about where this was going. "Alright, lets meet them, but if I don't like them I'm not going with them."

Ms. Portman nodded her head at my decision. She trusted me enough to make decisions like this on my own because of my maturity. I doubt any of the other kids my age would be able to decline having a family well off look after them.

They were scheduled to come and meet us around 11 so that gave me a few hours to prepare anything I needed. I didn't need much, after all, besides my music and notebook I didn't really have much important to me.

I waited in the cafeteria for the time that they would arrive, spending my time in my notebook and writing down any songs that I could remember. Who knows, maybe one day I might even write an original song.

After a few hours and having written a few more songs in the notebook, Ms. Portman appeared and following her were a couple with light blonde hair and an air of superiority to them. Following those two closely behind was a child, one that I surprisingly recognized.

Himiko Toga, one of the future league of villain and antagonist of the main plot of the story of this world. I hadn't intended to meet with anyone from the main plot, maybe just meeting them in passing or something like that, but now one of those major families wants to adopt me?

I thought God wanted me to stay in the US, why is he sending these people to me? Unless everything that has happened so far was really just a complete coincidence? That couldn't be the case, could it?

"Do you speak Japanese boy?" The man was the first one to speak, I had been too busy thinking about the events that had happened so far to notice that I was staring. His voice knocked me back to my senses and I shook my head in response. "I see, we will have to work on that."

I didn't like the way he spoke, it was as if he already thought I was his. It looked like Ms. Portman didn't like the way he spoke either as she was giving him the stink eye.

"My name is Tokihiko Toga and from this day on I will be your father." At this point I was really annoyed. I didn't know why he was being so insufferable, but I didn't like that one bit. "Ms. Portman, may we discuss those adoption papers now."

"No thanks." I spoke for the first time since they had entered the room, causing everyone to have their eyes on me. Tokihiko looked pissed, probably never heard the word 'no' before.

"Excuse me?" I could see a vein bulging from his head, showing just how pissed he was. "You do not get a say in this matter."

"No, but I certainly do." Ms. Portman stood in front of me, protecting me from his gaze. "I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid that I agree with Shawn in this matter. He will not be going with you." I silently cheered for Ms. Portman, who knew she could be this badass?

"Excuse me, do you know how much I had to sacrifice to come here, to secure the boy before anyone else swooped in and took him? You have no right to stop me from adopting the boy!" Great, now he's yelling.

Himiko was visibly shaking hearing the man yell, she even had some tears in her eyes. Her mother wasn't doing anything, just standing there like a statue as if she was completely accustomed to this type of scenario.

I activated my quirk, creating a clone of myself and leaving it there to look after Ms. Portman, not that she needed it. I on the other hand made my way towards Himiko, being as stealthy as I could, but not really needing to because the adults were so busy yelling at one another.

I grabbed her hand, causing her to jump in alarm but not make a sound. I placed a finger over my lips, giving her the signal to be quiet to which she nodded. I then pulled her away from the commotion and towards the recording room where we could talk without being disturbed.

I was dragging her along and she was letting herself be dragged. It didn't take long until we were in the recording room with my instruments. I sat down on the drum chair and she sat down on the floor.

"Sorry about that, I'm Shawn." I introduced myself, hoping that she wouldn't be offended by me refusing her father adopting me.

"How did you do that? Why did you do that?" She was hugging her knees, still about to burst into tears as she asked her question. I was confused, was she talking about me grabbing her without people noticing?

"Do what?" She still didn't look up, instead she began sniffling before she responded to me.

"You said no to him, you didn't have any fear of him. How? Weren't you afraid that he would beat you? Weren't you afraid that that woman would beat you?" Geez, what the hell sort of person was that man.

"Uh, Ms. Portman doesn't beat me, she's never even grounded me." This caused Himiko to look up, confused by what I said.

"But what about when you're bad, aren't you punished then?" I shook my head, causing her to grip her hands into fists.

"Nope, I'm not really a bad child so I don't get into trouble much, but other kids have and I've seen it. Ms. Portman mostly just makes them go to their room or wash the dishes or take out the trash. Never once has she beaten one of us."

My casual words caused Himiko to cry curl back into her knees, hiding her head from me once again. I heard her sniffle once more, however these were also followed by heaving, clear signs that someone was crying hard.

I got up and walked next to her, stood her up and wrapped my arm around her in a hug. She leaned into me, being comforted in the warmth of my embrace.

"Why couldn't he love me like she does. Why does he have to do that when she doesn't. It's not fair!" She screamed her frustrations into my chest, wetting my shirt in her tears. I continued to hug her, letting her get her emotions out with me here.

I even ended up splitting another clone and had him go into the booth in the room and turn on the recording function of the microphone. You never know what could be said and what sort of consequences it could have.

"Just because of my damn quirk, he wants to get rid of me, replace me with you, 'The Perfect Boy'. Why?! Am I not enough for him, I try so hard to be normal, but it's never enough!" She started hitting me and if she were stronger it would probably really hurt.

"I try so hard to fit in, for what! For him to find someone else to show me off to? Damn it, why can't I just be normal! Why can't he just love me for me!" She ended up on her knees, her eyes red and puffy from the crying she was doing.

She continued to hit me weakly, losing any strength she may have had. Eventually though she stopped, she stopped crying, she stopped hitting and she collapsed. I reacted and stopped her from falling to the floor, wrapping my arm around her back to support her.

I was worried, I didn't know what to do in a situation like this so I did the only thing I could think of, call for help. My clone rushed out of the room and ran to Ms. Portman. I was screaming the entire time, trying to get anyone's attention.

Ms. Portman ran into the room, following my clone and stopped when she saw me holding the girl. Tokihiko was also following her, and upon seeing his daughter unconscious in my arms his eyes went red with rage.

"Shawn, what happened?" Ms. Portman inspected the girl, checking for breathing, checking for any signs of distress or discomfort. I explained what happened, how we started talking and how she eventually collapsed.

This caused Tokihiko's face to redden even more, he was so red a tomato would have trouble comparing to him. He was obviously upset that the girl told someone about his plans to replace her, but he was still mostly angry at the girl for being even more of a nuisance as to cause a panic that would bring police investigating him now.

"Let go of my daughter! We are leaving." Tokihiko tried to grab his daughter from Ms. Portman's arms but I stood in his way. "Get out of my way boy." He back handed me out of his way, sending me sprawling to the floor.

That went a lot better in my head.