Upon returning returning to her room alone, Bulla was met with the smiles of Takado and Hanamura. Getting up from their beds, the two girls approached the tardy attendant. "Hey, Bulla!" Takado greeted.
"Pan's been waiting on you!" Hanamura continued.
"Yeah, I know, I know. I just saw her outside. She went ahead to start on dinner." Bulla explain as the three walked into the dining room. Three familiar large tables remained empty, waiting for the diners to join. Come on let'sset the table up." The three girls opened the large cabinet aside the tables and began to lay out the table cloths before putting down the necessary number of plates, forks, and knives. Strangely enough, the home was lacking a very distinct woman. "So, where's Ms. Iwase?" Bulla asked as she finished the first line of plates.
"She's went to the kitchen to help Pan." Takado answered, coming behind Bulla with the utensils. "You didn't think she could cook on her own, did you?"
"I wonder what she's making for us!" Hanamura said with a giddy smile. After setting the table, Bulla left to wash up before dinner. After coming out of the bathroom, dressed in some gray sweatpants and a plain black tee, several younger kids ran past her. As she walked out, one little girl bumped into her, one with a small tail waving side to side.
"I'm sorry, miss!" She said with a quick bow before joining her friends. Bulla reminisced on the photos of Uncle Gohan that she'd always see hanging in Pan's house. With a soft smile, she made her back to the dining room and sat with next to Hanamura and Takado, who were with the older kids. At her plate was a small sign that read 'Bulla' and another one at the plate to her side that read 'Pan.'
"Aw, that's so adorable!" Bulla squealed internally as someone sat down next to her. "Um, excuse me, that's for my friend." Bulla told the young man.
"So what? If she's not here, that's on her." The boy said. He seemed to be about Bulla's age, with short, shaggy brown hair and green eyes. He was a little taller than her, and he rubbed his slightly pointed chin. "Hey, you're Brief... You and that Son girl are the ones who got into UA!" He said as he suddenly stood up, his eyes filled with frustration. "You think you can do whatever you want? That you're too good to sit next to anyone else?"
"Hey, Sandayo, what's the big deal?" Takado asked him, peeking out from behind Bulla. Heads began turning and all eyes were soon focused on the two.
"I'm tired of you wannabe heroes thinking you're better than everyone else! How about we settle this right now?!" He yelled.
"You want...a fight?" Bulla asked him for clarification.
With a mocking grin, Sandayo pointed a finger. "Unless you're too scared to fight, that is."
Bulla stood up with her head hung low. After a moment of silence, she turned her head and glared at the taller boy, causing him to stagger lightly. "What's with you, huh? I haven't done anything to you, and yet you're picking fights. You're worse than a boy from my class, with a really explosive attitude." She grumbled as she clenched her fists.
"O-Oh, is that so? I bet he'd be no match for me!" The Sandayo bluffed with another more nervous grin.
Taking a deep breath, Bulla's hands relaxed and she turned away. "Just sit down. Dinner's almost ready." As she walked away from her seat, taking the handmade name plates, and leaned over next to her friends. "Hey, Hina, Shizui, let me know if they bother you at all, 'kay?" She asked them, earning a smile in agreement from both of them.
Leaving the tables behind, Bulla entered the kitchen to join Pan and Iwase. Turning to the side, Pan smiled wide as she added a pinch of a reddish-brown spice to the pot in front of her. "Bulla! I didn't know you were back!"
"Yeah, I've been here for a while." She explained. "I was going to wait for you out there, but some jerk named 'Sandayo' tried starting a fight!"
"What? Did you beat him up?" Pan asked, continuing to stir her pot.
"Nope! All I did was tell him I was saving you a seat, and he blew up on me! So I just walked away."
"Wait, Sandayo, you said?" Iwase asked as Bulla nodded in response. "Oh dear, I'm sorry about his behavior. See, Kiriu Sandayo was the son of of a couple of pro heroes. Although, they disowned him his Quirk manifested a young age. It's called Dimensional Rift, and he can open a small pocket dimension with arms reach. They didn't find it practical for combat, and thus felt he wasn't worth taking care of. He ended up here at age six, when they finally decided to do it." She explained.
"Oh my Dende..." Pan said to herself as Bulla covered her mouth.
"He's very resentful towards people wanting to be heroes. He's always getting into fights, even when he knows he may be outclassed." Iwase continued to explain.
"That's... Wow..." Bulla was at a loss for words. Do Quirks really mean that much to people in this world? That they'd throw away their own son...?
"That still gives him no reason to go around picking fights." Pan told them as she picked up the pot and loaded it onto a catering cart. Next to it was a couple rice cookers, and on the bottom were a couple dozen bottles of ginger ale.
With an idea in mind, Bulla prepared a plan, and began to help Pan with serving her home-cooked meal. "Alright everyone!" Bulla said in a spectacle. "Prepare to try my best friends first ever chicken curry and rice!" Iwase pushed the cart along the tables while Pan took everyone's plate one at a time, pouring some curry from her ladle before passing it onto Bulla, who scooped a couple bundles of rice for each person. After getting their plate back, Iwase would pass out a ginger ale bottle.
After roughly five minutes, everyone's plate was full. Looking over, Bulla could see that Hanamura and Takado had moved one seat down to the left, and that two seats to their right were open. With a smile, Pan and Bulla joined their friends before trying their meals. "Oh, man, this isn't bad, Pan!" Bulla told her before taking a swig of some ginger ale to cool the sizzle in her mouth.
"Yeah, did you think I'd be terrible?" She asked her with a smile as she took a spoonful of curry into her, followed by a bundle of rice. "Cowking es acdually rally fun!" She said with a full mouth. After swallowing, her smile said it all. "I'm really glad you like it!"
Following dinner, several kids were brought back to their rooms and put to bed. Soon, the Ruimi Orphanage was dead silent. Quietly, Bulla jumped out of bed and pulled off her pajama blouse, leaving a black tank top exposed.
On her toes, she inched through the dark orphanage until she made it outside. Waiting for her was none other than Kiriu Sandayo. "I got your note. What's was the point of calling me out here?" He asked.
"You wanted a fight, didn't you?" Bulla asked him, cracking her knuckles.
Sandayo put his hands into the pockets of his sweats, his white tee barely visible beyond the black of the night. "And where is this coming from?"
"What's wrong? Are you chickening out?" Bulla asked him in an attempt to coerce him.
"Hehe, you've got more balls than I thought." As he pulled his hands out of his pocket, he dashed forward, throwing a fist towards his new opponent. Effortlessly, Bulla blocked it, catching the fist in her hand.
"If you want to beat me, you'll have to use your Quirk!" She told him as she threw her leg upward, holding back as to not actually hit him. Sandayo ducked, and as he swept low, Bulla jumped and spun around, throwing her foot forward. A suppressed kicked connected as he raised his arms to block, causing him to skid back a few feet. I'm not as graceful with my legs as Pan is, but being joined together has helped me understand where I can improve!
"Go to Hell. My Quirks not useful for fighting. That's all anybody cares about nowadays!" He yelled as dashed forward once again. He's not really combat trained, is he? He must go to a regular high school. "All anybody cares about is what Quirks you have! I might as well be Quirkless!"
"How do you know that if you don't try!?" Bulla asked him as she caught his fist once again, shifting her body at the last second so that he'd continue moving forward. With his momentum built up, and his balance disrupted, Bulla spun around behind Sandayo and slammed the back of her fist into him, knocking him to the ground.
Suddenly, as Sandayo turned around and threw a fist forward, Bulla cupped her hands together and braced for an impact, one that delivered, but not into her hands. Looking down, a blocky hole swallowed Sandayo's hand, and from a similar one to her side emerged his fist. In a panic, he pulled his arm out of the hole and it closed. While holding her side, trying to apply pressure to the slight sting, Bulla smiled softly. "Your Quirk is Dimensional Rift. You can create small holes in space and transport things over that small distance."
"B-But how did you-?!" Before he could finish, Bulla had knelt down, holding out her hand.
"Ms. Iwase told me. I wanted you to know that not all heroes are bad, nor are those trying to be heroes. I'm sorry for what your parents did to you, but not everyone is like that." Taking her hand, she helped Sandayo to his feet. In confusion, he looked down to whom he thought was his enemy. "I didn't know if it would help between you and your parents if you became more combat ready, but whether you decide to go back or not, I think you're better off without them." She told him.
"Why do you care...?" He looked away from her warm gaze, no doubt trying to contain the feelings that he'd harbored for so long.
"Sandayo, you've lost something, and now you feel as if you yourself have been lost." She told him, suddenly reaching out as she took him into an embrace. "I know how that feels. But don't worry, you will find who you truly are. If you'd like a little guidance, I'd bet that you had wanted to be a hero long before your Quirk existed. Is that right?"
With tears streaming down his cheeks, he couldn't stop his hiccoughs. With a nod, he clenched his fists, and made his best attempt to talk straight. "I haven't hic felt this since hic that night I lost..." Looking up curiously, Bulla wondered what he was going to say next. Sandayo took a moment to recompose himself, wiping his tears and taking a deep breath. In between the long periods in which his breathing would become slightly erratic, he explained. "My parents didn't actually kick me out because I couldn't fight. One day... They were out, and... It was just me and my sister, Kirie, and some... Bad guys broke in... I tried to stop them but... They took her from me and... I couldn't do anything!" He clenched his teeth and fists in frustration, trying once again to hold back the tears. "I couldn't face them... I was afraid of what my parents would think of their weak defenseless son. I practically killed her, because I couldn't do-!"
Before he could finish, Bulla held her hand up and pat his shaggy hair. "It's okay, Kiriu." Bulla said to him with an overwhelming warmth. "I'm sure they wouldn't think that way about you. You have a home, and a family waiting for you."
Choking up, Sandayo found himself with an old image in head. One that he hadn't seen for so many years. "Kirie...!" He said as he fell to his knees, holding Bulla tight. "I'm so sorry!" His whole body trembled, and his tears flowed more freely this time as he cried out into the night.
Knowing what he needed to hear, Bulla uttered soft words, the words she knew he needed to hear, as if spoken from the one person she knew he needed to hear them from. "It's okay, Kiriu... It's not your fault... Big Sister Kirie forgives you..."