Mugino Shizuri was a killer, a monster, a terrorist, she was called by many things by her peers. But if there was one thing that they didn't know about their resident hit-man was that she was also a caring older sister.
And there was also one thing she wanted to protect the most in the world, surprising as it may be, her most precious possession, her younger brother, Kamijou Touma.
Though, only a selected few actually knew that certain fact.
That was already to be expected, when you work in an environment were you had a chance of coming back home in a body bag, if you're lucky that is, hiding your true identity was expected.
Humans are greedy and vengeful creatures after all.
They hold grudges that could last several lifetimes.
Her being a level 5 didn't help it either, people envied and hated her, but they couldn't do anything to her, in the city of science she was considered as unstoppable, rank number 4 in a group considered to be the best.
But humans always try to find a way. If they couldn't touch her, they'll find other means. If they couldn't physically destroy her, they would do so with destroying those that are close to her.
This was the reason why she changed her last name, to not have her most precious person get involve in something she does't want him to be a part of.
She couldn't help it, she was already far down to the path she had taken.
In truth, she never really wanted to go to this city in the first place.
It was all for her younger brother.
This was a city that didn't believe in the supernatural. There was a reason why her brother got enrolled here by their parents, she also agreed with them.
It was completely different from the place they used to live.
She couldn't tolerate seeing her younger brother get bullied, get tormented, get blamed for things he had nothing to do with.
And she hated them. Hated them for what they did. How could they do that to someone so young and innocent. Just because 'misfortunate' things happened to them, well that's life, so suck it up!
The girl didn't care about her old classmates, yes, she had acquaintances, and people she would even call as 'friends', but they were all the same, they couldn't differentiate her from her brother. They dislike her brother just as much as the others.
And she despised them just the same.
But she couldn't stop them, she couldn't do anything to help him, she was just a kid, a powerless kid.
She needed to be strong, she needed power, a power to protect her most precious person.
So when her parents propose the idea, she didn't reject it, hell, she also wholeheartedly accepted it, on a certain condition of course, that she would join her brother in getting transferred.
Her parents were saddened by this fact, obviously, they were going to send their son away, and they also didn't want that to happen to their daughter.
But the young little girl was adamant about it. She wouldn't take no for an answer. If she wanted something, she'll use all her power to get it, one way or the other.
Apparently, old habits die hard.
She wasn't spoiled, she just had a very strong resolve for a kid. A trait her parents find as cute for someone so young. So with a reluctant mind and heart, they accepted this fact. They couldn't be with their daughter forever. They're daughter was going to grow up eventually.
So they send them off with a melancholic smile, it's not like they would't be able see them again, there were some days were the city was open to the public, they could just visit them at those times.
Even though she wouldn't be with her parents for a long time she wasn't really dejected by this, in fact she was actually happy, happy that her little brother wouldn't have to suffer anymore from those fools.
She was ecstatic at first, she could be with her most beloved, without any idiots interrupting. No more superstitious fools, no more retards that dare harm her younger brother.
But everything in life ends, no matter how good it is, when she and her brother went and done the so called power curriculum to gain 'special abilities'.
It wasn't really mandatory to do it, you could just take the normal package, and live your school life like a normal person would, but the allure of gaining something that you could only see in science fiction was strong.
Seeing as there was nothing to loose they just went and accepted it.
That was one of the many things in life she regretted. Those were the start of one of the many things that bridged the gap between her and her brother.
Class separation, an unwritten rule in society, were the rich and the poor, the powerful and powerless, were distributed, processed, filtered like canned goods.
Her brother was a level 0, the lowest and most common, people pretty much ignored them, which was good, because that was what her parents wanted in the first place.
She on the other hand became a level 5, one of only a handful. She had won the super power lottery, or so to speak. Scientists and other researchers eyed her like a pack of hungry wolves looking at fresh prey.
She was important to them, she knew that. She didn't hate the attention, she had after all a prideful personality, she could also brag about this to her little brother, he would surely look at her with pure admiration.
But she was still young, ignorant of how society as a whole works. Those who are useless are thrown away, while those who are valuable were used until they stopped being useful. And the same cruel fate happens to them in the end.
At first she was glad, she had finally obtained the power she sought. The power she craved. The power to protect.
But that same power she had wanted consumed her. She was strong, but still weak enough to fully control it.
Anger, vengeance, rage. Emotions that had pilled up in her heart. Something she kept locked up deep down, a secret never to see daylight ever again. And It all escaped in full force once she realized what she could do with her power.
It was a power to destroy.
Wrath.
She went outside the city, escaped from the impenetrable fortress, easily disintegrating a part of the wall that surrounded it. She had something to do, something she wanted to do ever since she saw her little brother's broken body.
She went back to her old hometown. It wasn't because she wanted to visit her parents, they had longed moved, no point in staying at a place where everyone thinks you're harmful.
The reason was something else, something more sinister.
She paid them a 'visit'. All of them.
That was the day she exacted her revenge, and just for a moment, she couldn't care anymore about the consequences of her actions, she was unstoppable.
That was the same day she became a woman.
Suffice to say anything that happened in that not so quaint town anymore isn't pretty in the slightest.
After that, she stopped, just stopped. Realizing what she had done, what the implications were. She immediately broke down on the cold hard ground, reality came back and hit her full force.
Tears of pure contempt trickled down her cheeks.
But she cried not because of the pure destruction she had caused, the real reason was the significance of the thought of what her little brother would do if he saw her right now. In what she could consider as her lowest point.
The face he would make, she was sure it would be of disappointment. He would surely hate her because of this.
What has she done?
But he will never know, right?
A sentence she kept repeating to herself, in hopes that her brother would never find about this atrocity. She regretted this, why did she let the power consume her, it was so good, yet it was bad, she already knew that. Yet she couldn't stop her primal self from controlling her.
All in all, the deed was done, there was nothing else she can do about it. Just, wait and see what happens next. She could only laugh after that.
She just stood there, in the middle, in what could only be called as a war zone, waiting for whatever deity is up there to strike her down for what she had done.
But nothing came, only the sound of heavy motors rumbling on the ground, and the hum of gunships in the air.
It wasn't the defense force of the country.
It was the city of science's entourage. They came to pick her up. And they came at full force. They wouldn't just leave someone as useful as her in the middle of nowhere. They had plans for her. Plans that will use her like the tool she is in the eyes of everyone in the city.
But she didn't care about that. She had already done what she had wanted ever since, to destroy the ones that wronged her brother.
So she followed them, and did whatever they wanted her to do. But that didn't change the fact that she just leveled a town, this she wanted to be kept as a secret, something she doesn't wan't her parents and most importantly, her brother, to find out.
This in fact was easy for the city's higher ups, they could easily pull strings, strings that would sweep anything under the rug. The things they could do with their rank was almost limitless.
For a certain price of course.
And that was how everything started, her story could only be described as someone going down in a spiral staircase, into an abyss that would incinerate any mortal soul that dare come to it.
The girl couldn't do anything else but to destroy everything around her, she was a wreck that devastated anything that gets in her way. So what good can a power like that do.
Apparently, a skill like that was highly sought after in the underworld. She was 'beneficial' here, a sugar coated term used by those hypocrites.
A noble job they say.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who will guard the guardians?
That was her job, supposedly. A guard. The job description was pretty ambiguous. Deliberately or not she could only scoff at this in irritation.
There to make sure that those so called higher ups were kept in a straight line, it seems that none of them trust each other fully with their jobs. This was the place she had fallen into, a place of deceit and back stabbing.
She was there to check if any of those fools manage to upscale the balance, and then she would be sent to do the dirty work. Stop them from gaining any unnecessary power.
But there was nothing she could do now, the crevice had already grown into a gorge, it was too late. Too late to get out of the pit. A hole she had dug herself.
All to protect a certain someone, she did what she had to do, something she wholeheartedly regret since this day. Not towards her brother, but to herself.
When you had already fallen so deep into the rabbit hole, the only place you could go now is deeper.
With the ways that things were going now, she rarely ever meets her younger brother anymore, they still kept in contact. Occasionally meeting with their parents on times they were allowed to.
But they weren't as close as they used to be.
It didn't help that she was a level 5 and he was a level 0, if people would see them together, it would be very suspicious, it was a risk she wasn't willing to take.
No matter how it pains her to do so, her brother still knew nothing about the world she was living in, so far from the light, he had only assumed that the reason why they were separated was because of their standings in the city's level system.
Compared to the two siblings, he was more aloof about this, saying that the reason why they were currently in this situation was because of his misfortune.
She wanted to scold him so hard after that, blaming things on something so unscientific.
But she was glad, glad that even with all the things that were happening with all their lives, he still didn't change, he had a very strong resolve.
And to her amusement, he used that certain trait to help others. Leading it to much her dismay. Seriously though, who gets in a hospital almost every week.
That was something she couldn't change, even with her strength. Trouble seems to follow the two siblings like moths to a flame.
It was one of those times were she actually thanked she had a high paying job, no matter how shady it was. She was shouldering most if not all of the hospital bills her useless brother had gotten. All because he was just 'helping' someone.
She knew days like this would end, and no matter how 'invincible' she was to the eyes of her peers, she wasn't immortal, she would die one way or the other. Her job was after all could only be describe as suicidal to most people.
She could drop dead any minute, at any given time. The powers she had accidentally acquired were strong, but not strong enough to protect her from everything. And her enemies could practically be anywhere.
She just hoped that whatever happens to her, how gruesome it may be, wouldn't affect her little brother too much.
He still had a long life ahead of him, a long road far from the darkness she had been almost consumed by.
A place she wished her brother would never encounter.
But no matter what happens in this messed up world, she is still and will always be, his most loving and caring older sister, that was something that will never change within her. No matter what experiences she would come across to.
Because that was who she was.
And the most wonderful person in this god forsaken world would still be, her most precious.
Little brother.