I should start off explaining the people behind the vigilante masks:

The Crawler is a guy by the name of Koichi Haimawari. He's got brown hair and eyes, and... well... such a kind smile and personality in general. Since he's the one that offered to keep me as his own, I began living with him and his wife, Makoto, in their penthouse. Makoto happens to be the sister of Detective Tsukauchi, so that — in effect — was one giveaway as to why the Naruhata Vigilantes were allowed free roam hero-work despite their illegal status.

Pop Step's real name is Kazuho Haneyama and she, in her civilian attire, is not someone you would expect to wear the kind of outfit she does as a vigilante. Her eyes are actually a prominent blue like mine, except that they normally sat behind a set of large, round glasses. She wore pink contact lenses when she went out to either perform concerts or patrol the streets with Koichi. She's pretty timid in public as herself but, when she's just with us or she's in her vigilante outfit, she expresses herself fully — voice loud and opinions plentiful.

Admittedly though, it took me a while to warm up to everyone, which I am thankful they were very understanding of. The trauma of that night stuck to me for a long month afterwards, and I mainly kept to myself in the spare room Koichi gave me. The only thing keeping me from seeing all those gruesome images in my mind was for me to do some exercises — any and all of the ones kids had ever done over the years for fun at the park across the street from the Kirita Kodomo while I'd watched longingly from my bedroom window.

Jumping jacks, sit ups, push ups, jogging in circles around my room; etcetera etcetera. Makoto and Koichi dropped food off in my room, as well as offered for me to talk to them if I needed it. For a while, I declined, at least until one day when the visions were at their worst — to the point that I was still seeing them while my eyes were wide open.

They came in to find me crying on the floor, automatically rushing forward to hold me at the center of a group hug. Tears were shed, feelings were revealed... you get it. I don't want to get too depressing considering that part of my life is over with because, for a significant bright side, I finally wandered out of my self-made prison of a room. I'd been staying inside for so many years — I admitted as much to my adopted parents — that they decided I needed a lot of changes in scenery.

So, every day since, we would go for a walk. Find somewhere new, try a different restaurant, wander around gardens and museums. It was all so refreshing to me, and it taught me another form that heroism takes... compassion. Something else I could improve on, and only after my own mental health was taken care of.

Over time, I even got closer to Kazuho every time she came over. Between the two of us, it took a little longer to bond what with her slight shyness and me... well, just being wary about new people. Eventually though she added singing to my daily routine, teaching me some of her favorite songs and giving me the option to research the songs I would prefer listening to... but... admittedly I was getting pretty attached to pop music, and that was the majority of what she was teaching me.

Adding on to the group walks and singing lessons, I started doing chores around the house and received some suggestions for my exercise regimen. It really began to feel like I'd become a part of a better family than the one I'd lost — no offense to my deceased father, of course, but being free to go anywhere and everywhere was preferable to hiding inside like a caged bird. I was finally somewhere I could be glad to call home.

My new family, in a nutshell, is entirely unconventional. There are the two professional vigilantes; there is Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi and Makoto with truth sensing quirks; and then there's the old geezer that visits Koichi every few weeks.

That old geezer had black hair and eyes, thick eyebrows, and a noticeable scar stretching diagonally across his face to his left cheek. He happens to have been the original leader of the Naruhata Vigilantes before he retired and, not only that, but he's also quirkless. His name is Iwao Oguro, but since Kazuho introduced him to me as 'the old geezer,' I sorta adopted use of the nickname. Not that he minds, interestingly enough.

When I finally asserted my prospective dedication to training to become a hero, it felt freeing. I asked for training assistance — on top of the exercises I was already doing — and suggestions for things to focus on for the path to heroism. And just to make everything more complicated are the constant back and forths I always heard from the truth-knowing sibling duo every time the brother came over for a family dinner.

Being a detective, Naomasa is — quite frankly — a rule stickler, and Makoto is a free spirit, as is first made obvious by her choice of husband. So, as a result, the two of them clash in an ongoing battle on what I was more likely to choose as my future path — Makoto thought it would be cool for me follow in Koichi and Kazuho's footsteps as a vigilante, whereas Naomasa believed the best thing for me would be to join the police force.

And he wouldn't be the only one to assume that, but that's not the point.

I had once thought my best option for hero work actually was to become a vigilante, because what prestigious hero academy would ever accept a quirkless kid like me? It was already bad enough that no matter how many dojos I went to, not a single one would grant me entry so they could take part in teaching me how to defend myself. As if me being powerless would give their establishment bad luck for taking me in.

However, the answer to both of my problems ended up coming from the quirkless old geezer, himself. "A school like UA would be lucky to have you! Here — I'll gladly teach you hand-to-hand combat! Think you can handle it?"

I have to handle it, I'd thought as I gave an emphatic nod. I have to prove that not having a quirk doesn't make me useless.

After a time, everyone had something to teach me:

Hand to hand combat by the old geezer, of course, as well as sometimes practicing how to take a heavy punch without getting so damaged that I can't fight anymore.

Koichi's quirk — called Slide and Glide — allows him to push 'air,' I might as well say, from his hands and feet so he can 'slide' across any flat surface. This is generally only so long as he has contact on a flat surface at three points and, though he is fortunate that it allows him to go as fast as a bike, his quirk didn't give him brakes. In effect, what I was able to learn from him was technically 'drop, tuck and roll.' If ever I end up on something that has no brakes — or I just need to get off in a timely fashion — that technique will help. If I were to fall from a great height, it doesn't really work that way (something I realized one time while he was practicing floating since he doesn't have complete control over that side of his quirk yet). He and the old geezer did suggest one maneuver for that, though, that has apparently worked for the both of them before:

Make sure to fall in a pile of garbage bags. They break the fall very well... Sounds fantastic. Sarcastic inner voice intended.

Anyways, for Kazuho — as seen from the scuffle with the Quirkless Killer — her quirk is called Leap. She can jump as high as she wants to in the air, and her quirk also cushions her landing... But, if she were to land after a fall from that same height and it wasn't initiated from her quirk, then she would die. She generally uses it for her performances but, when it came to villains, she said the best way to catch them off guard is pouncing on them from a direction they can't predict. Up. As a result, I did a lot of climbing and landing on home-made dummies (sloppily sewed and over-stuffed with hay scarecrows) for practice.

Makoto and Naomasa unanimously agreed on playing card games with me — like poker — as a way of showing me how to tell when someone is lying. Their quirks help them cheat, of course, but they observed through them that everyone has 'a tell' — as they call it — that gives away their lie. After some time, I finally got their tells; Makoto, when she had a good hand, couldn't stop herself from grinning geekily. When having a bad or okay hand, both of them had the best pokerfaces ever. Naomasa's tell for a good hand, extremely minor and hard to catch, was for him to quickly glance at Makoto and myself before returning his eyes to his hand.

I found out it was his way of eyeing our faces for our own tells — mine, at first, being that I would shrug when I had a bad hand. I eventually learned how to tone it back, though, so no one would be able to tell when I was lying.

Continuing on, with all my practicing also came a condition... I had to start going to public school.

It made sense, I'm not going to lie, but... even with all the training regimens I was doing, it made me nervous. I had never gone to school because dad had always enrolled me in home-schooling. I knew, as much as I wanted to stay in my comfort zone, that I was never going to be ready for a school like UA if I continued on that path. In the end, everyone had day jobs to go to so I couldn't expect them to be okay with taking turns staying at home with me.

It made me think to myself, how can I know my training is going well if I don't have any bullies to practice all of it on?

In the months since the incident — which happened in April — I had turned nine on August 20. Starting school in September in Japan meant I was coming in on the second semester, so I had a lot of catching up to do. The old geezer, though, said it was good practice on sharpening my brain so I tried not to be too worried about it.

The first five minutes went exactly the way I knew it would. The teacher introduced me to the class... and told them to "be nice to her. She's only quirkless."

Yeah. That wasn't going to put a target on my back, right? I was going to get friends left and right thanks to her, huh?... How dense can most adults actually be in a world where everyone's got powers? That or they could really care less about how it affects the powerless.

The bullying was first attempted at lunch when someone stuck their foot out to trip me so I'd drop my tray of food. With the collective lesson from my family to always watch my surroundings, it was easily avoidable. The fury that resulted from my kicking their foot away wasn't.

There was the expected yelling.. asking if I think I'm so clever to avoid it.. wondering if I'd prefer for them to punch me in the face. It happened all over the lunchroom — as if the whole school had gossiped in the few hours since school began that there was a quirkless kid attending. It was bizarre, but slightly entertaining as I easily replied that if they wanted my food in their face... all they had to do was say something.

With the multiple times I'd slammed my tray in their faces.. drenching them with food and drink.. avoiding the quirks they threw at me just before I was the one tripping them to the floor... returning to the lunchladies for yet another tray, only to do it to somebody else that thought they'd have a laugh at knocking me over... It all eventually got me sent to the principal's office.

It was there that I met my second friend who's still by my side today, and her name is Mei Hatsume. She's got pink hair and gold hawk-like eyes with a quirk that allows her to zoom her focus in on anything that's far away. She was in one of the chairs outside his office because she'd been building a gadget that exploded... in the middle of English class.

We hit it off as I realized she had such a love of building gadgets and equipment — of which she affectionately called her 'babies' — that she could make me anything that might help me keep up in a world full of power users.

She found it fascinating that even though I was quirkless, I had just been sent to the office for heckling other students. She was also more than happy to be my friend — a definitely uplifting fact that made my first day all the better (the other facts being that I had proven capable of defending myself).

Heh, Mei is insane, but we ended up making a pretty good team.

After that we enjoyed inventing new gadgets, and working off of each other's ideas. I, of course, don't know how to make anything, but if I give a general idea of what I'm thinking about then she'll work on it. Just... never again will I be her guinea pig for a random, built on-the-spot weapon. Her stuff tends to almost kill me — like her automatic slap baton that slapped me so hard, I was immediately knocked out.

But beyond that...

The years passed amazingly fast. Walking to and from school with Mei, spending hours in her personal shed at home working on gadget ideas, and training with my family... it all built up until my skills outshined that of the quirk users at school that continued in their efforts to tear me down as a human being.

It never worked quite the way they expected. But hey. Gotta give them points for trying, right?.. Bah.

By the time we started our last year of middle school, Mei had set me up with a titanium utility belt that I kept equipped on a daily basis. I wanted to put my sword in it, but for some odd reason the school would never allow me to bring it in the building — something about it being 'too dangerous for the safety of the student body,' even though there's nothing protecting powerless students like me from the quirks of the other students.

Surprisngly though, they never actually checked my belt, so they didn't realize I had pepper spray and a high class taser attached to it. Kudos to Mei for doing as I asked and disguising them properly; the pepper spray had a perfume label, and the taser was colored as such to look like a square russian doll. There are other things attached that she made special for me, but I can always explain them later. Wink wink.

Despite sometimes feeling like my sword was collecting dust at home, Kazuho and Koichi did take me out at night sometimes to patrol the streets for villains. I was able to get in some great undercover practice during those times when Naomasa wasn't around to step in the way and exclaim that I should be doing more studying.

I swear he wins 'overbearing parent of the year,' even though he's supposed to be like my uncle. And it's technically not because he's scared for my safety... okay, well maybe it is that... but it's also more along the lines of him thinking I should be a cop, not a vigilante or a hero.

He was admittedly more worried for me emotionally than physically. Yes, he knew I could handle almost anything that came my way... but since he was also around when I was just a traumatized little girl, he hesitated at even the thought of the cold shoulders I would be receiving if I became a hero. Naomasa believed, as much as I tried to play it off, that I didn't care what others thought. It had to still hurt for so many people to be so antagonistic toward me.

I mean... I can't lie and say it didn't hurt me sometimes... but, at the same time, I always knew it wouldn't do me any good to agonize over it. Living the life I wanted was far too important for me to waste it away wondering why I wasn't widely accepted. I desired the ability to save people, not only from villains but also from themselves, because I knew I wished for there to be more heroes like my family.

To be willing to even do the tasks of a hero that aren't all about glory and explosions. To do it without expecting some form of recognition for accomplishing it. Far too many heroes seemed not to think about those things anymore.

I wanted to be a major influence for a better world. I might not be acknowledged for it, but that much didn't truly matter to me. At least I would know what I had done. And that was the case when it came to the Quirkless Killer's release from prison.

It was another mundane day of junior high school starting off with a question.

"Who here..." our teacher, Mrs. Motoyama, started off dramatically. "Is applying for UA High School next year?"

Cheers erupted around me as everyone showcased their quirks with large grins and waving hands. Typical.

"All right, all right! I get it!" she replied with a smile, shuffling through the papers in front of her. "However, the real question is: why so many of you didn't express a desire to join the hero course? You know we could always use more heroes, and you all have such wondrous quirks that it would be a shame not to make use of them."

Stop stroking their egos... they don't do anything special...

"What's the point?" one boy with a neon green mohawk asked. "I've heard the entrance exam is near impossible to pass. Even if we were to refine our quirks to that level, there's too much competition to even make it on the list. Not to mention those with recommendations get first pick."

"You don't know that unless you give it a shot, Saku," Mrs. Motoyama replied amiably, pulling one sheet out of her pile of papers. "Kirita certainly had no qualms about applying."

And there it goes.. I thought as I stared blankly back at her. Making it so the whole class wants to do everything possible to make my life a living hell. Just ridiculous.

They all burst into a round of condescending laughter:

"Quirkless Kirita in the hero course? No way!"

"You're joking, right? She'd never make it!"

"She won't get in — that's a fantasy!"

"Hey Kirita!" this came from Mohawk Saku. "You think just because you're so big and bold around us that you can get into the hero course? Let me break it down to you: the kids going there are ten times stronger and more practiced with their quirks than we are. You'll be toast just taking the entrance exam."

I slowly turned my attention to him to coolly respond, "At least I strive to improve myself so I am as strong as them. You and the rest of the lazy bums stay the same in the hopes that your ability will just magically spike overnight."

He stood so fast his chair felt backwards to the floor with a loud clang, and he glared daggers at me with red-tinged cheeks. "What did you —"

Mrs. Motoyama loudly clapped her hands for our attention, a thin-lipped frown on her face to show her displeasure. "That's all for discussion today. No more dilly-dallying. It's time to start our lesson plan. Sit down, Saku, thank you!"

I rolled my eyes as I looked at Mei, who sat next to me with her hand to her mouth as she struggled not to laugh. I mean... she was always smiling anyway, but her laughs could get overly obnoxious. She enjoyed the responses I gave to other ignorant students a lot of the time, especially since their reactions were always so indignant.

I hoped my time at UA the following year would be something different. That maybe then I could get through a day of school without someone trying to make a fool out of me for being quirkless.

That daily routine was beginning to feel tedious.

Bzzz bzzz

My phone buzzed deeply in my pocket, loud enough that Mrs. Motoyama glared around the room for a moment in suspicion before returning her attention to the whiteboard. As she did so, I pulled it out to view the text... a smirk playing on my lips at the implication of what it meant for me.

'He's been released from prison.'