Chapter Text
The boy's skin was becoming harder and harder to damage as time went on. It wasn't hardened, it was still soft to the touch. But when something attempted to penetrate or cut the thin layer protecting his body, there would be resistance and a lot of it. Punches didn't work anymore either and fire was quickly losing the potency it once had.
In the beginning he could torture the boy for hours, never seeing the resistance he saw now. When he finally saw signs of the quirk in the once quirkless body he doubled his efforts, gleefully pushing the limits of the boy's body.
He wondered briefly if breaking the child's bones would prove successful, they still had so many tests to run after all.
The boy sat slack and pliant, obedient and ready for the fate that had been decided for him. He was always so well behaved at times like this. The times when chains wrapped his small body.
Outside of them he listened, but you could see his distaste, his hatred, his disobedience, his spirit. And Hisashi intended to break every part of the boy.
He went to work trying to snap the child's bones, and was only successful for a few fingers before they too, filled with that strange resistance, it felt like something coiling and flexing, rippling under the skin. It felt like something alive and trying to get out.
He wanted to know what it was.
He kept snapping bones, using bigger and bigger tools each time, all the while trying to slice into the pale freckled skin that was so like his own. He took a knife and was planning on slashing the boy again when a moment of brilliance hit him.
He brought the wicked blade up to his face and heated it with the flames that licked out of his throat. He knew that he had been successful in force-activating a quirk into the worthless child but he also felt like he hadn't seen all of it. He wanted all of it.
He wanted his weapon to be the best.
He brought the heated metal onto the skin, a loud sizzling sound and an acrid stench filled the air. The boy was completely still, his eyes totally empty. There was no one inhabiting the mind currently.
The body however?
That same resistance rose up and met the knife that was burning into the flesh and instead of not allowing the knife any further like normal when the skin was broken, it started pushing back. Forcing the hot blade out and away from the body.
Hisashi pulled the knife back and watched in awe as the flesh started knitting itself together. The signs of the awful burn were being purged and instead the scar that remained looked like any other of the slice marks that marred the boy's skin. The broken bones slid back into place with an audible click. Blood stopped leaking from the body and seemed to pull itself back in, sealing the wound behind it like someone shutting a door.
If he kept going he felt like he would soon have the best weapon in the world. A self healing, nearly indestructible creature that was completely obedient to him and him alone.
He grinned, amazed at the success of it all.
What would the next step be? More torture to strengthen the child's quirk? Or perhaps teaching the thing how to fight so he could be the weapon Hisashi needed?
Well, every villain did need a good weapon after all. And what is a weapon good for if not fighting?
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Heat lashing across his back, chains biting into his skin. Something hot and sharp sliced into him. His power roiling and angry under the wounds, he could barely keep it from leaking out, from killing people. His body normally kept it contained but on the rare occasions that something could do damage to him it took all his focus to contain himself.
When the doctor had diagnosed Izuku as quirkless he knew the man was a quack. He knew he had a quirk, he could feel it moving and stretching under his skin, he could feel it wrapping around his bones like a kitten demanding warmth. It had started off as a small thing only active in times of distress. But it had always been with him, it had always felt alive. It had just been asleep.
Now it was awake. It was huge and furious. It fought to come out all the time when he was hurt, it fought to merge with him.
He was so glad Hisashi didn't know his true abilities. He'd be turned even more into a weapon than he already had been.
Flashes of fists pounding into flesh, the sounds of bones snapping under his expert hands. The seedy crowd roared in appreciation at the quick and brutal beating. He hated it.
Acid green eyes and a dark grin raked over his small form. He hated those eyes. He hated that he saw them in the mirror.
He had earned a name. He had one already given to him when he was born from his mother. But this one was given by Hisashi. It was his fight name. His new moniker. If he responded to his old name it would only be painful for him.
Jackrabbit.
The name was misleading on purpose. Most people think he's a small and fast fighter that doesn't pack a lot of punch but they soon found out that they were dead wrong.
Small? In a way, lean was more like it. Nothing but toned muscle and condensed fury.
Fast? That's not even a word for the way Jackrabbit moved. He was blinding, lethal. Vipers wished they could move as fast as him.
As for power, he was unmatched. His hits ripped into your very bones, quick and hard shots that knew exactly how to shatter limbs and dislocate joints with ease. He could locate pressure points and weak spots like they were the only place his hands wanted to go.
Not that he'd actually use his abilities in full. He didn't want to kill anyone, but he always made sure that anyone who thought they could cross him learned their lesson. Just as Hisashi wanted.
He was a weapon after all.