BACKSTORY

” You’re my greatest weapon, dear daughter. You’ll be my greatest weapon.”

The words Orochi’s father spoke to her at such a young age were confusing. A weapon? Weapons were bad weren’t they? They did bad thing to good people. What did Mother see in him? Everytime he would say those things, young Orochi would vehemently shake her head. He’d only laugh.

Orochi didn’t have a healthy relationship with her father. She grew up thinking that being doused in lavish gifts and having whatever she wanted was her father being a good parent. It wasn’t until later in life did she finally realize.

Orochi’s quirk manifested early, and it was strong. Inheriting both her mother and father’s abilities, she was the perfect blend of them both. She secretly thanked whatever god created her that she didn’t end up with her father’s clawlike hands and serpent like tail. But no matter, her mother loved her all the same. Her sweet, warm mother. The complete opposite of her father. Niho taught Orochi how to be kind, and to love. Her father tried to teach her how to dominate and destroy.

Orochi’s father was a known, underground villain before the Yakuza had began to disappear. He went by ‘Jörmun’, the shortened form of the ‘World Snake’ from Norse mythology. He ran one of the dirtiest gangs. Drugs, trafficking, you name it. He was a king pin. He was feared and hated. By both the public authority and his own family. For years Orochi was taught the ways of a Yakuza heiress. How to manipulate, how to control, how to make someone do what you wanted. Violence and power went hand in hand. To get something done, you needed it. You needed fear.

Jörmun knew his daughter was stronger than him in every sense, and who better to take the throne as his heir? That’s all he cared about. He never saw his daughter as his child, nor his wife as someone to love. They too, were pawns in his chessboard, and Orochi came to that cold realization the day she watched him murder someone. Sure, over the years she’d seen men be broken down in front of her, as preparation for her future as a leader. But never outright murdered. And it made something stir in her. Something that battled against the darkness that had been rooted in her at an early age.

For being below him he said, for being in the way. A man who had a family of his own and was in too far in gambling debts. That didn’t mean he should’ve lost his life. But he did. Jörmun had made an example of him for his daughter. To show her the kind of ruler she had to be. She would be.

That night Orochi didn’t sleep, and her mother cried all night on the other side of the wall. She finally realized that all those gifts over the years meant nothing. Simple cover ups to the fact her father was grooming her to be a monster.

A monster. No. She refused. The heroes that were rising to popularity and recognition..people who saved others. Who made others smile.

Orochi wanted to be like that. She wanted to be a hero. A new spark flared up in her chest, a new determination to be better than her family lineage. Only eleven at the time, Orochi snuck into her mother’s room the same night, finding Niho curled up in her bed. Hesitantly, and with dread in her heart, Orochi approached, tapping lightly at her mother’s shoulder.

Her mother jerked, as if hit, slowly turning over to face her daughter.

Orochi couldn’t keep the gasp in. The whole side of her mother’s face was purplish and bruising. Tears left streaks down her mother’s usually beautiful face. Orochi knew right then.

They had to leave. Tonight.

In hushed whispers, the two made plans, Orochi wise beyond her years as they mapped out their escape route. Jörmun thought them compliant, so security wasn’t strict on them. Orochi has grew up playing in this mansion built on blood and evil, knew the secret ways to get out without being seen like the back of her hand.

And so the two packed a small bag and the money her mother had stashed away, and the two escaped into the night. Far from her father’s clutches and angry fists. She wouldn’t let him hurt her mother again. And she vowed to grow up big and strong, to become a hero, and put her father away for good.

They made it out, Niho moving them to musutafu, Japan, where she had both her and Orochi’s names and entire identities changed. They had simply disappeared like ghosts. The first couple years were cautious, Niho afraid that Jörmun would find them again. But year after year, they lived in peace. Year after year more heroes began to pop up, and the Yakuza hold began to dwindle.

The day Orochi asked her mother to attend UA was a shock, and her mother was at first against it. What if she ended up on tv and Jörmun or his henchmen recognized her? Afterall, Orochi had been keeping tabs, and she knew he had gone into hiding. She persuaded her mother, she told Niho she was strong now. Strong enough to protect them both. And she would.

So now, 17 year old Orochi is currently a year 2 student of one of the best hero academies in the country, on her way to becoming a great hero who could save people instead of destroy. With the recent happenings of Stain, the Yakuza had began stirring again. And orochi knew her father wouldn’t be far behind. This time, she wouldn’t let him kill another innocent soul. And she wouldn’t let her father’s bloodline or reputation define her. She wasn’t ‘Jörmun’s daughter’.

She was the Serpent Hero: Viper.P

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