I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. And just because it’s a cycle doesn’t make it excusable, it just make it more understandable.
Shown isolated, his (assumed) guardians/parents arguing in the background. With toys, and a couple ‘boy’ decorations on the walls of (what I believe) is his room.
He’s alone, and in a negative environment. (Literally he’s focusing on the old theory that quirks come from a disease instead of playing with his toys)
No ‘real’ positive stimuli. (By real, i mean actual interactions with people that will teach him how to act in the real world, plus show him that he’s actually supposed to talk to people, and physically touch them, and play with toys etc…)
(Kai doesn’t even attempt to look at the adult female and balding male figuresin the background, either he can’t hear (which is unlikely with glass) or he’s just so used to them fighting that he doesn’t pay attention anymore. He just doesn’t care about it anymore because hes so used to it?)
His lack of real stimuli growing up leads exactly to the man we are shown. He has 'learned’ that touch is bad, that showing emotion is bad, and that all debts must be repaid, regardless of any morals or rules. However, thanks to the Yakuza he was raised in, he’s also become excellent at covering those tracks. At covering up his past and his feelings.
She’s given a nice clean room, big bed, 'girly’ decorations on her wall, and brand new toys. (Though, as we know, she doesn’t even know how to smile anymore, let alone 'play’ with anyone or anything.)
(Similar situation to young Kai? You betcha)
Kai is giving her what was given to him, as he barely 'knows’ what children want from a caregiver:
Sweets, and that’ll get her to trust you? Yeah alright, whatever you think big guy.
Shaggy Yakuza member has a point, children don’t come with a manual, you (caregiver) must learn through trail and error what works and what doesn’t for a child, though of course suggestions and guidance from others obviously helps.
Kai, however, isn’t a man who knows what children want. He’s become Overhaul, what happened to him as a child has been pushed aside for his main goal right now, pushing the Yakuza back into the light and rise in infamy once more. Those feelings he once felt as a child have been buried deep, even in the panel where he tells Shaggy Yakuza to give her sweets, he’s cleaning up a quirk destroying bullets inside his hands. He gives a simple answer, and just as he wishes, the conversation is left at that.
Eri’s then shown inside her huge bed, not even bothering to cover herself up, thinking about how different Deku’s touch was from anyone else. The hands of someone who cared… I don’t wanna even know how long she’s gone w/o proper care, even before being left to her grandfather Pops by her hateful mother. She’s says so herself that no one has ever touched her in such a caring way before, no one. Not even her own mother.
Children remember a lot of their life up until they reach about age 6-7, so it makes sense if y'all wanna say thats she’s just forgotten about her mother caring for her or something. But it makes a lot more sense storywise that she’s… Probably never been in a very good place. From her home with her mother who called her a monster to the 'home’ with the Yakuza, she has traded one evil for another against her will. She couldn’t do anything to stop it.
Eri has accepted that though, it’s better to just bear through the pain until it’s over, and then repeat. She’s been told that her quirk destroys things, that she hurts everyone, she’s accepted that she isn’t good anymore. That what Overhaul has in store for her is her only use… Though we know she does still try to escape sometimes, as she does meet Mirio and Deku in that back alley…
Overhaul threatens her with just one simple tug of his glove, and she comes running back. To prevent him from hurting Deku and Mirio. Much like an abusive parent will rug on their belt to remind a child of the spanking they’ll recieve later on, she’s been 'conditioned’ to know that when Overhaul takes his glove off, pain ensues. Pain that she cannot stop. Though she probably felt really good about preventing others from getting hurt, like an sibling who will take the abuse of a parent in place of the other child/ren to prevent them fron getting hurt as well…
Overhaul however, I don’t think, didn’t learn this type of conditioning out of no where. It’s a thing people learn fron example, and as awful as it may sound, weve all been knew that Kai had an awful childhood. If he ended up on the streets, and no one even came looking for him, it’s pretty obvious that his parent/s didn’t care enough about him to really look. (Or I guess you could say that he killed his guardians and that’s how he ended up on the streets? But Nighteye never mentions Kai having any criminal record, so….)
It’s my belief that Chisaki Kai was emotionally neglected, much as we see done to Eri, and that’s what led to his personality as we’ve seen him as a grown up. Though, he does have his moments of blowing up… Much like a child who was never taught how to deal with emotions would. Much like he is that child.
Now let’s talk: Manipulation.
Shaggy man here does it pretty well, telling her that if she tries to run away again/doesn’t listen, that’s she’s gonna cause him to die. That it’ll be her fault. He’s just renforcing the manipulation tactic of, 'just listen and no one else gets hurt’. She should just suffer alone and by herself right? Make it less painful for everyone else around her? Someone as 'destructive’ as her should be grateful that she’s being given such new toys n the such…
Chisaki Kai, a young boy shown to be found on the street, quiet and weak, but he himself has chosen to be found there, or else he would’ve found a place to hide or have run away.
Eri, a young girl thrown into the Yakuza by a mother who didn’t love her. She didn’t have a choice to be found or rescued or anything! That’s ehy she attempts to escape, because unlike Kai, she feels no debt to the Yakuza for taking her in after her mother abandoned her.
Both came from broken families, and both ended up in the Yakuza. Both have 'destructive’ quirks that can actually be used for a lot of a good, aka Overhaul curing people of any and all diseases, and Eri’s ability to heal wounds that woukd otherwise hurt a whole hella lot/even kill at any other time.
Neglect of a child is child abuse.
Physical hitting/spanking/touching a child in a negative way is child abuse.
Both are awful, and both of these two characters have suffered through it.
Chisaki Kai however, wasn’t 'rescued’ (parallel to Shigaraki maybe) by a hero or even heros like Eri was. He was taken in by the Yakuza, the only place he’s ever known as home, and he’ll die for it.
Eri gets a chance to improve and learn to deal with her issues and become a normal young girl. She gets to learn that her quirk can be used for good, she gets to experience smiling, and playing, and having fun and being a child.
Kai didn’t get that chance. And he never well.
While Eri was with him, he repeated what was done to him (plus more)… the cycle continued.
(As always, I’m not saying it’s like 100% of children who were abused becoke child abusers, because there are cases where the exact opposite happens, but it’s very fucking likely for abused children to grow up and become child abusers themselves.)
Think of like… spanking vs no spanking debate. People who spank their children will most definitely say that they were spanked as a child and turned out fine. I’ve never met s single person in all of my life, seven connected families who spanked their child just because they could. They were always spanked as child themselves. Then you look at those who don’t, and it’s almost always because they hated being spanked as a child so thet don’t wanna do that to their own.
Now that that’s out of the way….
It’s really fucking creepy how worried and caring Kai looks/acts when Mirio and Deku meeto him… He’s either learned that over his years at the Yakuza, or it’s something he picked up from his mother long ago and has since become masterful at?
I dunno, my theory/'version’ of his childhood is:
Once his quirk shows up, his father hates it, maybe not his mother at first but eventually she does, and the father leaves at some point with a huge argument. She argues about hos dangerous Kai’s quirk is and what they should do, and Kai’s father leaves because he doesn’t wanna deal with it like a deadbeat dad.
Leaving with the mother carrying the ideal that he could destroy her at any moment, which leads to her neglecting him because she doesn’t wanna get near him. Kai is forced to leave his home shen he begins to starve from his mother’s neglect, and she never looks for him out of our guilt/maybe she even committed suicide, and that’s how Kai ends up on the street?
Anyways, we know Kai is found by a man after he is homeless, and the flashback with Kai as maybe pre-teen age walking with (probably) Pops under a umbrella means that Kai has been with the Yakuza a long time. He cannot remember a caring touch, because he’s never recieved one, just like Eri. He cannot remember touch at all, because his mother never wanted to touch him due to his quirk. Due to Overhaul.
Haha anyways this is big n long and kinda a mess, stay comfy tho.
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