With her back to Hiro, Ando, and Kimiko, who were hanging back a respectable distance at her request, Anzu rummaged through her old drawings, which she'd pulled out from a dusty box that had been shoved under her bed. From what Hiro could see over Anzu's hunched shoulders, it looked like quite a lot of artwork. Hiro wondered if Anzu had vied for a career in visual arts in her youth. Maybe she still had a chance to make it as an artist, considering the quality of her more recent works, which she had piled on the bed. Apparently her artistic skills had improved a lot once she had expanded the things she drew and focused less on fanart.

"So my fiancée has powers like you two, huh?" Kimiko muttered, evidently still dazed from the revelation. "I had no idea… she doesn't act at all like you."

Hiro gave his sister a sideways look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, no offense, brother, but…" Kimiko pursed her lips. "You were never exactly a normal boy. I could always tell your life was going to go down a very different path from mine. But Anzu—" Her gaze flashed back over to her fiancée, who was currently flipping through a portfolio crammed full of unfinished lineart. "She just seemed like an ordinary woman. I-if I'd known she was special, I don't know if I would have…"

She trailed off, eyes dropping to the carpeted floor of her and Anzu's bedroom. Hiro wanted to reassure his sister, but he didn't really have a vantage point for what she was feeling right now. Since Hiro himself had a power, he'd never been in the role of an ordinary person finding out that someone he'd thought was "normal" wasn't so after all. On the contrary, he'd always been delighted to find another person like him. To put things in perspective, he tried to imagine a person he'd thought had an ability turning out to be powerless (though he couldn't come up with a hypothetical for why anyone would lie about such a thing), but he honestly couldn't imagine that altering his feelings toward someone he really cared about—his perception of them, sure, but not his relationship to them.

However, while Hiro was puzzling out what to say, Ando spoke up, putting a hand on Kimiko's shoulder. "Listen, I understand what you're going through," he began. "Several years ago, I had a similar experience—isn't that right, Hiro?"

He shot Hiro a nostalgic smile. Hiro blushed, recalling the way their lives had changed upon the discovery of Hiro's power. There were a lot of things from those early days that Hiro deeply regretted now, and things he certainly wouldn't have done if he and Ando had been dating at the time—like falling in love with a woman from the past. Maybe if they'd gotten together sooner, Hiro would have been spared a whole lot of heartache.

"I didn't believe him at first, of course, but before long it was clear he was telling the truth," Ando went on. "The guy I love-loved even back then, although I didn't know it at the time—had a superpower. But that didn't mean he wasn't who I thought he was."

"And when Ando got his power, I didn't stop loving him," Hiro jumped in. He left out how jealous he'd gotten, especially due to himself being powerless at that point in time; this was supposed to convince Kimiko that Anzu was still the same person she'd fallen in love with, not promote envy. "In fact, I was really proud of him! It meant we were finally equals."

"Don't tell her that," Ando hissed. "Kimiko isn't going to give herself a power, and you're making it sound like that's the only way she and Anzu can be on even ground! Besides," he added, narrowing his eyes at Hiro, "I seem to remember you not being too happy about us being equals."

"Sorry, sorry," Hiro sighed, giving his fiancé a pat on the back. "Okay, so at the time I wasn't happy about it. But I'm glad we're equals now, babe!"

Kimiko, who hadn't spoken up during Hiro and Ando's collaborative motivational speech, raised her lips into a half-smile and said, "I appreciate your sentiments, boys, I really do. But…"

She paused, taking another look at Anzu. Papers scattered all around her on the bed and floor, Anzu was now in the process of tidying everything back up again, sorting her work into piles and muttering heavily to herself under her breath. Although she still had her back turned, Hiro could see sweat dripping down the back of her neck; she'd been at this for a while.

"…But what?" Ando pressed when Kimiko didn't finish her thought.

"…But I don't think I can just accept this as easily as you could," Kimiko sighed after a moment. "If Anzu really is a pre-cog, I—I just don't think I can marry her."

Without offering any further explanation, Kimiko swiveled around on her heels and retreated out of the bedroom, shutting the door behind her. A few moments later, Hiro heard her start crying from down the hall. He wanted to follow her out into the hallway and ask why she was so opposed to marrying someone with an ability—after all, she'd been all set to marry Ando a few years ago—but something told him he'd be better off leaving his sister alone for a while.

"Huh?" Apparently not having heard any of the preceding conversation, Anzu glanced up only when Kimiko started crying. "Hey, Hiro, why'd Kimiko leave the room? And is she crying?"

Hiro hadn't expected her to hear it since she was further from the door, but when he didn't answer her, Anzu shook her head and marched over to the door. Hiro moved in front to block her as she reached for the doorknob; he wasn't sure how Kimiko would react to being confronted by Anzu, and he didn't want Kimiko to yell at Anzu for something that wasn't even her fault.

Pushing Hiro aside with an elbow to the ribs, Anzu yanked the door open and stepped into the hall. "Sorry, dude, I don't have time to play around," she muttered as she pushed past Hiro. Then she stopped in the doorframe and turned back to give him and Ando a dour look. "I love you guys, but I swear, if you've done anything to upset my fiancée…"

"We haven't," Hiro said quickly. "She's just… well…"

He bit his lip, feeling guilty despite having no real reason to. It wasn't his fault his sister had fallen for Anzu, and it wasn't his fault or hers that Anzu had a power. It was his fault Kimiko had found out, but he'd assumed she wouldn't mind considering how many people with powers she knew and was on good terms with.

Not waiting around for Hiro to explain, Anzu muttered "whatever" and stomped down the hall to the living room, rapping lightly on the wall to get Kimiko's attention. By now Kimiko had stopped crying, and was merely sitting—or standing, or lying down; Hiro couldn't see from his vantage point—in silence.

"Kim?" Anzu said quietly. "Are you okay?"

There wasn't a reply. Anzu turned to look down the hall back at Hiro, who shrugged, unsure of what to tell her. Eyes narrowing and pressing her lips into a thin line, Anzu beckoned Hiro over. Hiro, who could occasionally take a hint, muttered, "I guess Ando and I should get going now."

"Yeah, that'd be appreciated." Anzu jerked her head back to the old artwork strewn about her room. "Could you tidy that stuff up for me before you leave, though? My back is already killing me from taking it all out."

"But you haven't even looked through your old work yet," Hiro said. "We still don't know if you ever drew anything that's going to happen sometime soon!"

"Yeah, well, maybe you guys were wrong about me being a pre-cog anyway," Anzu said flatly. Stripping off her plaid flannel shirt and tying it around her waist with a sharp tug, she turned back toward the living room, giving Hiro an over-the shoulder look. Before walking through the doorframe, she added, "I think I liked you better as a comic book character than a real person."