Laying on the floor of an unremarkable alley of Musutafu is a young boy who looks to be around ten years old. Skin that once would have been a light caramel color turned pale from blood loss and covered in bruises. The boy's name was Julian Ryukazi, born to a Japanese dad and an American mom. The young boy was no more, having succumbed to his injuries days ago. Yet the boy's body did not begin to rot when covered by filth and was not ripped apart when vermin came to feast. While his body was laid to rest, Julian Ryukazi and Julian Rodriguez merged, two sets of memories becoming one.
tw: violence/domestic abuse
(flashback)
A young Julian Ryukazi sat on the floor crying. His mom and dad were fighting again, and he didn't know why. His father slammed his mom against a wall, his super speed more than capable of putting up with her non-combat-oriented quirk, not that she dared use to try and escape. Unfortunately for her, the durability of her skin did nothing to spare her from his father's wrath. A punch that held a supernatural weight behind it connected with his mom's abdomen, sending her flying through the wall of their apartment.
A look of defiance formed on his mom's face, her short time as a pro-hero in America remembered as she flew to meet his dad. Her defiance was squashed as she met the eyes of her abuser, a twisted feeling of "love" preventing her from raising a hand against him. Julian cried as his father thundered punches strong enough to turn cars to scrap against his mom, the bastard yelling about how useless she was.
(end flashback)
Julian awoke with a gasp, two sets of memories fighting against each other. Hope quickly won out against desperation, forming the beginnings of a new identity. Hatred battled compassion to a standstill, both settling deep within the soul of the new being. As more emotions, opinions, and trauma battled each other for dominance in the newly forming psyche, Julian reviewed the information in the form of several visions from both lives.
Julian thought about the Ryukazis- an old, traditional family who claimed to be able to draw their family line to the Edo period of Japan. Neither set of memories knew much about them, only the one who shared their blood was able to offer any insight. The Ryukazis believed in a traditional Japanese family and values. They were very unprogressive and only approved of his father's relationship with his mother when they thought about the potential powers a baby of the two would form. Their unsteady "support" completely vanished when Julian was revealed to be quirkless, a genetic condition where one was born without superpowers, or quirks as they were known here. Regardless, Julian's only memories of the Ryukazis were hazy at best and ended at the age of four.
More emotions battled, the desire the help other's hindered by a deep, hollow dread. Yet it did not prevail, for as much fear as there was in both minds, there was a shining symbol of hope for both to latch on and look up to. Using their pillar of hope as motivation, both sets of memories settled into one mind, determined to help others and prevent suffering where he had.
Julian thought to his father in this life, Hiroshi Ryukazi. Hiroshi was different from the rest of his clan, less traditional and more open to "fun" and "excitement" with his band of friends. The strained relationship between his mother and father was detrimental to the boy's developing mind. His father's abuses were, of course, kept behind closed doors so as not to paint the prestigious Ryukazi family in a bad light. The relationship between Julian Ryukazi's family was unfortunately not unusual, his mother was a victim of domestic abuse, though she refused to see herself as such. His mother stayed for him, she stayed so he would be safe from his father's abuse, but that was not the only reason. With her near-invulnerable skin and flight, she could have left, but she didn't. Her emotional dependency on Hiroshi was a far stronger cage than the man's terrifying physical abilities. She relied on him to be the support she never had, because his father was kind at first, loving and showering him and his mother with attention and love.
Hiroshi bought her gifts, took her around the world, and wrote songs about his love for her. He was perfect when he wanted to be, a go-getter who was popular and well-liked, a little bit of a playboy sure, but nothing gaslighting her couldn't fix. That's how it started, making believe her jealousy was just her insecurities, of which she already had plenty. Hiroshi was the perfect boyfriend and husband but would put her down in tiny areas, slowly degrading her self-esteem over the years while simultaneously being the only pillar of support she could rely on.
Then Julian was deemed quirkless and everything went to shit. Hiroshi Ryukazi lost his family's flimsy support, because even though Hiroshi cheated on his wife, the bastard still loved her in his own jealous, twisted way, and had yet to lay a violent finger on her at that point. But Hiroshi's adventurous, loving personality degraded as he turned to using his powers to make ends meet. The man turned to street violence. Hiroshi got involved with things he shouldn't, and without his family's backing, he was forced to deal with it the hard way.
Julian remembered that day, at the time he didn't understand, but with time he saw it as the beginning of the end, and with the insight his other half now had he saw it for what it was. Hiroshi killed for the first time that night, who and why Julian would never know, but it changed the man. Another year passed as Hiroshi turned to alcohol to drown out his problems, as he grew angrier and meaner, blaming the young Julian and his mother for their problems, he broke things, got into fights, and harshly disciplined Julian, but had yet to turn violent on his wife.