Not late. Not late at all.

Quirks were assumed to be a product of evolution. The average Quirk-bearer was stronger, faster, and physically superior to the average Quirkless person, but that didn't explain half of her questions. While Quirkless people made up 20% of the world population, they were only about 5% of Japan's total population. Most of it had to do with the dependency on Heroes after international restrictions, but that was a problem for another day. The Hero Commission was a problem for another day.

Touya stared at the circle of blue flames flickering between her palms.

Now, with a Quirk named Cremation, she had expected a lot more pain associated with said flames, but it registered as nothing but a familiar - if a bit uncomfortable - warmth. Would the potential scarring come later? Or was it just pain tolerance? Enji hadn't tried to find her Quirk limit yet; it wasn't something to look forward to, anyway. She was briefly excited by the idea of being fireproof and then realized that fire made her excited, prompting her to lose focus and extinguish the pint-sized blaze with a cringe.

Fire was a visible effect of combustion. It was a chemical reaction that needed oxygen and fuel before the smallest ember could form. Touya closed her eyes in thought. Did Quirks somehow eliminate the need for fuel? Did Quirks provide the fuel and energy? She had more reason to believe the latter. Her hands itched for a pen while the early-spring breeze shook the maples of the courtyard.

If her body had a fuel source (a type of energy, most likely) capable of fueling flames thousands of degrees hot, the potential was limitless. Endeavor's flames didn't explain his superhuman strength. And Touya's were hotter.

"I think I have the same resistance to flames that you do," she told Enji in a previous training session. His theory of a weak constitution had to be nipped in the bud, true or not. "If your tea is too hot, you can't blame the teacup."

"What do you blame?" he raised a brow.

"The kettle," she said, ignoring the phantom whistling in her ears and the ashy taste in the back of her throat.

He didn't ignore her theory. It wasn't ideal, but it was a start. "Can you turn the heat down?"

"I'm working on it," she frowned. (I don't know. I hope so. I really, really hope so.)

(And if Touya unconsciously avoided the kitchen while Rei made a pot of tea for the next few days, nobody noticed.)

...So. The fuel to the fire had to come from somewhere.

Touya doubted that she would've noticed a difference if she hadn't lived a Quirkless life beforehand, but something had surfaced just before she had activated Cremation. The problem was that she didn't know what. It felt like a third eye - a steadying hand on the small of her back, a jacket draped over her shoulders. It felt safe. Rei holding her hand while they meditated, telling her that it was okay to breathe. Enji showing her how to punch a man four times her size and how to make it hurt. The few moments where she didn't have to worry about the inevitable apocalypse. The series had never truly explained what Quirks were. She had to figure it out without prior knowledge.

Touya opened her eyes.

The house courtyard was lined with varying types of bonsai and maples. Her eyes had suddenly unfocused. Traditional Japanese gardens were undoubtedly beautiful, but the sharp differences from Western culture were... bothering her. A hazy feeling drifted around the back of her head.

Something was off.

Touya pulled her training obi tighter with a frown. The air felt colder, somehow, and there was a pull on her gut that she had only come to associate with some inevitable inconvenience. Enji was going to review her kata today - there was only so much to do when his fist was larger than her skull - and while it certainly wouldn't be a light workout, there was no need for the feeling of dread in her stomach. The fusuma slid open behind her. He wasn't going to hurt her. Why was her unconscious screaming?

"Touya," Enji rumbled from behind, and Touya's heart dropped, "did you dye your hair?"

...

...

...

He didn't believe in fantasies.

The future was an unstoppable, inalienable fact. It cannot be changed. One event leads to another in the straight line of fate. He doesn't understand. This shouldn't be possible.

...That is what he believed before. Deep down, he had still wanted to believe it. To recluse in the naivety of his mind, to lift the weight of the future off his shoulders...

Before -

(Now is before, never was then. Nothing exists. It's all in your head.)

...

Was it?

Could he afford to trust the people in front of him? Toshinori had warned him of getting lost in his own head, but he couldn't do anything else. There was no choice but to worry about a future that couldn't exist.

What was the truth? Did a truth exist? How could there possibly be multiple futures without a sort of divine intervention?

He'd be a fool to ignore what was happening to his Quirk. He didn't dedicate his life to All Might just to fall to his own ignorance. It felt like his head was split between reality, and it was a problem. Could he do his job knowing that something

What was he supposed to say? Who was he supposed to tell?

He didn't know, and that was perhaps the worst part of all. The defined had become the undefinable; then had become never. The film of the future became double-sided - twice as long, twice as many mysteries. If fate wasn't set in stone...

There was no answer, he concluded. He couldn't do anything about a future that he could only see pieces of. An inexplicable feeling of fear and guilt and rage settled deep within his bones.

Sasaki Mirai started seeing two futures, but he couldn't figure out why.

Real talk, the side-stories story will be up soon, so drop your requests below! Regular updates are back! ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

Infinite love!