So this one mostly exists in the occasional flashback panel so to put it together:
- He's with his mother and they are Clearly, Actually, Explicitly Homeless. They're living in a train station. His mother is clearly not okay because phew.
- Men in suits come to talk to them. They talk about how this child has such incredible talent that he absolutely, absolutely must become a hero. They offer to make sure he and his entire family (to which his mother angrily points out that there IS no other family besides her) are taken care of. Part of this is that they won't have the name 'Takami' anymore.
- His mom basically is like, yes, right away. She wants to be taken care of because living in a train station fucking sucks. She's pretty dismissive about basically like. Selling her son into this crazy hero training program.
- SO ANYWAY THEY GET SEPARATED AND LED IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS BY DIFFERENT PEOPLE IN SUITS... there's no dramatic voiceover to say 'that was the last time I ever saw my mother', but. The implication is there.
- At SOME POINT LATER they ask HIM if he's okay with entering this extremely harsh training program, because part of the thing is that also his FIRST name, Keigo, gets erased, and he, who is five years old and not legally capable of consenting to this kind of shit, agrees to it so he can be a ~shining light~ just like ~the hero who saved him~.
It doesn't seem ESPECIALLY ETHICAL, THIS SERIES OF EVENTS. ONE COULD SAY THAT PERHAPS A VULNERABLE AND TALENTED CHILD WAS EXPLOITED BY ADULTS WHO SHOULD HAVE PROTECTED HIM. OOPS!
RECRUITMENT
- He's with his mother and they are Clearly, Actually, Explicitly Homeless. They're living in a train station. His mother is clearly not okay because phew.
- Men in suits come to talk to them. They talk about how this child has such incredible talent that he absolutely, absolutely must become a hero. They offer to make sure he and his entire family (to which his mother angrily points out that there IS no other family besides her) are taken care of. Part of this is that they won't have the name 'Takami' anymore.
- His mom basically is like, yes, right away. She wants to be taken care of because living in a train station fucking sucks. She's pretty dismissive about basically like. Selling her son into this crazy hero training program.
- SO ANYWAY THEY GET SEPARATED AND LED IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS BY DIFFERENT PEOPLE IN SUITS... there's no dramatic voiceover to say 'that was the last time I ever saw my mother', but. The implication is there.
- At SOME POINT LATER they ask HIM if he's okay with entering this extremely harsh training program, because part of the thing is that also his FIRST name, Keigo, gets erased, and he, who is five years old and not legally capable of consenting to this kind of shit, agrees to it so he can be a ~shining light~ just like ~the hero who saved him~.
It doesn't seem ESPECIALLY ETHICAL, THIS SERIES OF EVENTS. ONE COULD SAY THAT PERHAPS A VULNERABLE AND TALENTED CHILD WAS EXPLOITED BY ADULTS WHO SHOULD HAVE PROTECTED HIM. OOPS!