Well, that's not supposed to happen
Third Person POV
When Nika woke up on a Sunday morning to her Mom, Hanaka, screaming her name, she briefly considered acting like she had died just in case she was in trouble but her curiosity won and she hopped out of bed and made her way downstairs.
When she turned the corner into their decently sized living room and saw her mom's eyes light up in excitement, she let out the breath she had been subconsciously holding. She barely had time to ask her mom what she wanted before an envelope was being shoved into her hands! She looked down at it and saw that it was for her, from UA High. Her eyes widened before they flickered briefly back up to her mom’s face to see if this was really happening. Her mom's look of barely-contained joy was all she needed before she was tearing the envelope open, expecting a letter, only for a disk to fall out on their coffee table instead. Her eyebrows scrunched in confusion before leaning down and pressing a button on the black disk. She definitely did not scream like a woman on fire when All-Might appeared as a projection in front of her. She didn’t scare that easily and no one could prove otherwise.
When her vision blurred from tears of joy at the news she was hearing she couldn’t help but think back to everything she went through to get to this point.
Even though she is only six, she is very confident with her full name being next to the news headline, "Quirk manifestation gone wrong!! Child blows up beloved elementary school!”, was definitely not a good thing. The news anchor who was explaining what happened conveniently left out that she had not meant to blow up anything at all! It's not her fault that she likes to play with so many different toys and that her quirk relied on her touching stuff. She was sitting in a hospital room waiting for her quirk to be identified by her primary doctor and someone had the bright idea to leave the news on around her on the television.
She pulled her gaze away from the T.V as her doctor came back in the room with her mom and dad. She put on quirk-resistant gloves the doctor handed her to help make sure nothing like what happened at school, happened here. After she was done, Nika looked over at her doctor waiting for him to explain what had happened. He told her that from what he can tell, when she touches anything with all five of her fingers, her quirk activates and it becomes a bomb! Which is really scary, she thought to herself. He also explained that it seemed like the more people who touched the object after her, the bigger the explosion would be. Which would explain how even though she's so young, yet managed to cause so much damage.
“So, it's like hot potato.” She replied helpfully, and the doctor laughed a bit before nodding his head. He briefly explained that her gloves would stop her from accidentally activating her quirk before he turned back to her parents to talk to them more. She listened to them for a bit, before falling asleep next to her mom.
She woke up to the sound of her parents arguing. She blearily looked around and realized she was in the back of her parents car, and they hadn’t realized she was awake. She sat up quietly and began listening to their argument when she realized they were talking about her.
“Keijiro! I love her just as much as you do but we both know that we can not handle her quirk!”, her mom whisper-yelled before taking a peek backwards to make sure they hadn’t woken her up. Nika quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.
“If you loved her as much as you claim, then you wouldn’t be trying to give up on her so quickly.” Keijiro, her dad hissed back. This time when they looked back at her, she was caught being awake and her parents both glared at each other before deciding to hold this conversation off, until they were back home.
After they got home her parents tried to act like nothing was wrong, but even she could feel the tension in the room. They quickly ate dinner in silence before she went to her room for the night. She started thinking back to the conversation her parents were having in the car, and was wondering what they meant. She knew her quirk was strong, and a bit scary, but she already promised them she would do her best to not make anything else explode, so why wasn’t that enough? She scrunched her eyebrows in anger before she realized she heard someone yelling downstairs. She slowly opened her door before peeking her head out to listen better, and came to the conclusion her parents were talking about her again.
She slowly creeped down the stairs praying they wouldn’t creak and got close to the living room door, so she could hear them better.
“I am not giving her up for adoption! She is my daughter and I will be the one who helps her through this and that is final, Hiyori.” Her dad yelled before he sighed and continued, “I know you're afraid but we can make this work. We don't need to send her off to some place for dangerous quirks, because our daughter is not dangerous.”
“I love her just as much as you do, Keijiro, but we both know we can't afford the damage she caused to the school. They said the only way they'd let us off the hook is we either pay someone to train her, which we don't have the money for, or we give her up for adoption, and the school goes after the government for the money, not us.” Her mom hissed back at him. She was clearly worked up over this conversation.
They continued to bicker, but after she heard what they had finally been arguing about, she couldn't find it in herself to continue listening. Her vision blurred from unshed tears as her mother's words finally sank in. They want to get rid of me? Nika thought to herself in growing horror before she snuck back up to her room.
When she went to bed a couple days later, still processing what she had heard, she definitely didn't expect to be woken up by her mom in the middle of the night. Her mom picked her up and helped her put her shoes on. She watched her mom grab a backpack full of her stuff off the floor. She put both her, and the bag, into their car and drove away from their house. She had a sneaking suspicion that she wouldn't be coming back home after this trip, but she couldn't find it in herself to fight back. If they don't want her here, why would she fight to stay? She wants what's best for her family, always. If that means she needs to be sent away, then she’s willing to leave for them.
Sometime after she accepted that she was leaving, she fell asleep. She's not sure how long she was out for but she can tell you that she has no idea where they are. Her mom is pulling into a parking lot for some kind of institution. After she parks, her mom gets out and comes around to her door to let her out. Nika’s mom pulls her into a hug before crouching down to her level, to talk to her.
“Nika I want you to know that I love you so much, and I’m doing this because I love you and want what's best for you.” Her mom said softly with tears in her eyes.
“It’s okay mommy, I understand.” She spoke softly trying to comfort her mom, which made her mom cry harder.
“I really wish you had been born quirkless, because then I wouldn’t have to say goodbye.” She told Nika not realizing the pain that she was causing her daughter.
“Mrs. Sugimoto?” a lady with golden-brown skin, long curly blonde hair, that was pulled into a ponytail, approached them. She was wearing a long flowy skirt, and a loose white shirt with a cardigan pulled over it.
“Yes, that's me, are you the woman I spoke to on the phone? Laurie?” Her mom asked, unsure of who this woman was. Upon seeing the lady nod, Hiyori introduced Nika to her and handed over Nika’s bag of stuff.
The lady looks down at Nika briefly, she takes Nika’s hand before looking back up at Mrs. Sugimoto, with kind and understanding eyes, said, “We will take great care of her, I promise.” The lady spoke softly towards her mother, before she walked away. The lady grasped Nika’s hand and brought inside what she would realize is Japan's orphanage for children with unmanageable quirks.
“Are you excited Nika?” Laurie asked, while brushing Nika’s hair to get her ready for her birthday party. Nika squealed in barely contained excitement as a response. Laurie laughed softly, before encouraging her to go take a look at herself in the mirror. Nika rushed over to her mirror, and began taking in her outfit, her dark blonde hair was pulled back into twin ponytails, with small ladybug clips holding them in place, which tied into her outfit, that was a red and black polka dot dress with black socks and red sneakers. Nika gasped, before whipping around to face her caretaker, exclaiming that she loved it. One of her friends peeked into their shared room, and grabbed Nika’s hand upon realizing she was ready and dragged her out to play with everyone.
“Happy Birthday!!” The other kids yelled, when Nika blew out her candles. “How does it feel to be seven?” one of the other kids asked excitedly, before getting distracted, by one of the older kids bringing in her birthday cake. Nika ran up to her caretaker, “Since I’m a big kid now, can I have TWO slices of cake??” she asked while holding up two fingers.
Her caretaker laughed, and said, “Well, since you're the birthday girl, I guess I can make an exception just this once, and let you have TWO slices.” Nika squealed in excitement before running back to her party.
It was officially the end of her party, and as she was getting ready for bed, Laurie peeked her head into Nika’s room, and pulled her off to the side, “You have one more present, but I wanted to give this one to you when it was just us two.” Laurie explained and handed over an envelope to her. Nika ripped the envelope open, and started reading the paper inside of it. It was her official document, saying that she had control over her quirk and could be fostered or adopted!
Nika felt happy tears start gathering in her eyes, before she jumped on her caretaker pulling her into a hug. “Best birthday present ever.” she said quietly as she cried into Laurie’s sweater.
Nika was so excited she had her first foster family interview lined up today! She was heading over to the interview room to meet them, and right before she opened the door, she realized she could hear people yelling. When she leaned against the door to try and hear them better, she realized they had just been told what her quirk is, and they didn't want her anymore.
“We have two young kids at home, we can't risk her blowing something!” a voice she didn't recognize yelled.
“But she has excellent control over her quirk, you don't need to worry about that-” Her caretaker, Laurie, argued back, before she was cut off by another voice she didn't recognize.
“My husband is correct, we just can't risk it, even if she does have the control that you claim over her quirk. We should’ve never even been considered an option for her, since we put down in our application, ‘no destructive quirks’.”
And just like that, Nika couldn't help but feel like she was going through what happened with her parents, all over again. She ran away with tears in her eyes, and went back to her room. The worst part of all of this though, was that it was just the beginning of her onslaught of “No’s.” It seemed like a curse that every family, no matter if they were warned before-hand, would say “no” upon seeing what kind of damage her quirk could really do.
She has gone through more interviews, then she can count on both hands by now and still hasn’t been placed with a family. She has had to watch birthday after birthday pass, knowing she still doesn't have a family who loves her. She is nine now, and if she is still here by the time she's ten, she'll be moved to a different orphanage for older kids, which means she won't even have Laurie to bring her comfort anymore. Nika may have lost hope for a family, but Laurie hasn’t given up on her, and she won’t. It's after-hours right now, and everyone is in bed, even Nika, but Laurie is still up, because she has a call she needs to make.
“Hello? Is this Hanaka To-”
“Yes, that's me, what can I do for you darling?” A woman with a kind but tired voice replied, cutting her off accidentally.
“I have a girl under my care, who needs someone to foster her, and no one will take her because of the nature of her quirk. Would you be willing?” Laurie replied with a hint of desperation in her voice.
“Why don't you tell me a bit about her, and set me up to meet her tomorrow?” Hanaka replied, trying to ease the young woman's concerns. Hearing that she'd be willing to meet Nika, Laurie let out a sigh of relief before she began to explain the situation in detail, to the kind mystery woman.
When Nika woke up the next morning, she certainly hadn’t been expecting someone to be waiting to meet her, but she didn't let herself get her hopes up. Laurie did her hair and helped her pick out an outfit, before walking her over to the interview room. She assured her that she found a good one this time, before sending her in to meet her future guardian.
“Can I ask why you want me, when no one else did?” Nika asked the woman sitting across from her. She was a tall woman with fair skin, and long red hair, that had some streaks of gray in it showing her age.
“Well, darling, I happened to be in a similar situation to you when I was young too, but I had someone to help me, and I intend to help you as well if you'll allow me the opportunity.” She replied to the young girl's question, not shunning her for the question, even though it could come off as rude. Nika asked some more questions trying to get to know Hanaka, before she agreed to anything.
“I’m glad you asked! My quirk is called ‘Fired Up.’ That means the angrier I get, the stronger I get, and if I get angry enough my hair actually lights on fire! Can you imagine how hard that was for my parents? I was such a troublemaker, lighting everything on fire all the time.” Hanaka laughed fondly at the memory before continuing to answer the girl's questions.
“How’d I deal with it? Well, honestly, I learned to control it, and I learned a hobby I could use it towards. I started baking, and let's just say everyone was a bit baffled seeing me angrily making cupcakes! The increased strength really did help with it though.” Nika nodded her head along, clearly liking the answers she was hearing.
“Where do I live? I live in a small house near UA High. It's a two-bedroom and the room you’d get, has an attached bathroom, that will be all yours, so don't worry about that. I’m not pressed for money by any means either, so you will be able to decorate your room to your heart's content.” Anyone could see the way Nika’s eyes sparkled, upon hearing that she lived near UA High.
“How do I have so much money? Well, if you can believe it, I’m a retired pro-hero. That's part of the reason I'm so confident I can help you. The other part of my trust towards you, is that I can see a hero's heart in you, sweetheart. You do everything you can to help people, don’t you? Well, I'm here to help you for once.” The impromptu interrogation ended abruptly, when Nika busted into tears, at having someone who was able to read her so easily. Hanaka scooped little Nika up and just held her soothingly, until she calmed down.
“I take that as I can take you back to our home now, right?” Hanaka confirmed with Nika, before they walked back to her room to pack up some of her favorite outfits, and toys. The only thing left was to say a tearful goodbye to Laurie.
“You’ll do great things okay?” Laurie told her. “When you're a Hero, I promise I will be your number one fan, so go and make me proud!” They hugged one last time and if either of them saw tears in each other's eyes, they didn’t say anything.
Nika walked up to Hanaka, and took her waiting hand.
“Let's go home.”