Chapter 4

Kaori's fourth birthday came and went in the blink of an eye. It had been a huge relief for her — she could now go wherever she pleased and watch the news channel as much as she wanted. Life was good.

As expected, learning Japanese had been a huge challenge, but she was pleasantly surprised at how quickly she had picked it up. Large amounts of exposure were truly the key to language learning, and even Kaori who had never learned any languages other than English was able to speak almost fluently at the age of two - the one weakness being her tiny vocabulary. Sadly, she found that she still retained a slight accent - a small difference in the way her Japanese sounded in comparison to native speakers. No one had made fun of her for it yet, so she disregarded it. She could now proudly call herself bilingual.

Today was an important day for Kaori. Her parents had promised to take her to an All Might event in the city, and she had been looking forward to it for several weeks. It was for research purposes, she had told them and herself; it had nothing to do with her being a fan of All Might at all, none whatsoever. Sometimes she felt like she was mentally too old to be so obsessed with this sort of thing, but she couldn't help it — it was all so exciting.

She hadn't had the chance to see All Might yet in the flesh, not even in a passing villain subjugation. Just like in her past life, her parents were annoyingly protective and never took her anywhere that had any villain activity. Even convincing them to go to the All Might event had been a struggle. Kaori wished they would loosen up a tiny bit, it was suffocating to live under their constant worry.

"Mom! When are we leaving?" she shouted. "I've been ready for ages."

"Soon, dear," her mom called from the kitchen. "Give your father and me some time to prepare. It wouldn't do if we had to backtrack for a forgotten item, would it?"

"Fine, just hurry up, please."

"Okay, okay, we're going as fast as we can," her dad said with a chuckle, zipping up his jacket. "We're still a couple of hours early, no need to worry."

She grumbled and plopped down on the sofa, turning on the news to pass time. She was starting to regret waking up at the break of dawn to prepare.

After what felt like an eternity, the family of three piled into the car and took off.

"Dad," Kaori started, bouncing slightly in the backseat. "What do you think my quirk will be? Your's or mom's? It should be coming any day now, right?"

"Oh, I don't know. You look so different from your mother and me, maybe your quirk will be completely different too," he said. Kaori could hear the smile in his voice. "Maybe you were accidentally switched with another baby at the hospital."

Kaori scowled, unamused. It was true though. She had expected her eye and hair color to darken as she aged but they never did. To this day, her hair was as silvery-white as it had been as a baby. The same went for her eyes which are still a pale blue. Kaori was glad for the blue eyes at least. It was the one thing that had crossed over from her past life. Each time she saw her blue eyes in the mirror, she felt a sense of comfort and familiarity. It reminded her that no matter what happens, she and her past self were still one and the same.

Her appearance had been the butt of many jokes in the family, as their last name was Kurotobi, like the word black in Japanese — the one thing she had learned from the kiddie shows. Everyone from her father's side of the family had black hair and dark eyes, and they had prided themselves on that. Kaori had never met them and therefore did not care.

"I'm being serious!"

"As am I kiddo. It's not entirely impossible for you to have a completely different quirk from the two of us. Though it is quite unlikely."

It was certainly a theory. As far as she knew, it wasn't common on the show either. Given the rarity, a baby swap might be more likely. "Or maybe your quirk would be like mine," her mom piped up. Her quirk allowed her to communicate with cats. Kaori didn't learn about it until one day, on a trip to the park, her mom was able to convince a stray cat to do some tricks in return for some cat food. "It might even be an upgraded version! The ability to negotiate with lions maybe?"

"What?" Kaori squeaked. "How am I ever supposed to figure out if that was my quirk? Can we go to the zoo tomorrow, please? Now I feel like I have to check!"

Her mom gave her an amused glance.

"The zoo could be fun, I think they got some new chimpanzees the other day," her dad said thoughtfully. Kaori cheered.

"But not tomorrow. You have school, remember?" her mom said sternly.

"Awh, okay." She wished they'd just let her skip — it wasn't like she was actually learning anything of use anyway.

Kaori groaned and stretched out in the back seat. How much longer did she have to wait before her quirk manifested? What was meant to be a fun and exciting event was slowly becoming nerve-wracking for Kaori, and worry was starting to creep up on her. What if she was quirkless? Having seen firsthand how devastatingly harsh the world was toward Izuku because of his quirklessness, she was terrified the same would happen to her. While she was sure she could deal with bullying quite easily, given her true age, she was more worried about what came next. She wouldn't be able to become a hero, or at least, not as easily.

Day by day, kids at her pre-school were manifesting their quirks. Most of them weren't anything unique or powerful — they were largely quirks like rock summoning or being able to shoot a harmless red laser from their index finger. Not anything to be envious of, but the way they flaunted it over the kids who hadn't yet manifested their quirks rubbed Kaori the wrong way.

All that aside, Kaori was concerned about what her quirk would be. Her parents' quirks weren't exactly hero-worthy, after all. What good would levitating be if her competition could punch through cement or shoot explosions? She couldn't even begin to imagine what an amalgamation between her dad's quirk and mom's would look like — they don't mesh well together at all.

Kaori sighed as a wave of defeat crashed against her.

"Don't think too hard on it," her mom said sympathetically, as if she could read her mind. "Your quirk will manifest soon enough, and I'm sure it would be the perfect one for you."

"Why, I remember the day I got my quirk. It must've come when I was asleep — scared the pants off me when I woke up with my face pressed up against the ceiling." Her dad chuckled merrily and turned on the radio. It was talking about the All Might event they were driving to.

Kaori felt her worry recede ever so slightly. Her mom was right, no use in worrying too much about it for now; though, she still wanted to check if she could talk with lions first. It was a dope quirk, though useless.

The car ride to the event took longer than what the GPS had estimated. Evidently, every other family with young kids had the same idea of going to the event as a family outing, causing a terrible traffic jam. Kaori felt a twinge of annoyance — if only they had listened to her and left earlier, they wouldn't be in this state.

Eventually, they arrived, and with her dad being the dutiful father he was, dropped them off before leaving to park the car by himself. Kaori saluted him as he left.

"Look at all the people in here! Now, don't let go of mom's hand alright? If you get lost here, we won't be able to go home," her mother warned. Kaori nodded in response, sadly used to the patronizing way people talked to her.

There were already too many people crowded around the stage by the time they approached, kids mostly. Thankfully, a lot of the adults around the back were willing to let Kaori and her mom pass them, allowing them to be a lot closer to the stage. Kaori wondered if Izuku was here as well, it seemed like something right up his alley. The crowd was way too big for her to pick anyone out, unfortunately, and even someone with green hair wasn't enough to stand out in the sea of unique-looking people. Thus was the fate of living in a world with cool quirks, she supposed.

Mere moments later, loud dramatic music began to blare from the speakers surrounding them, and the crowd quieted down in anticipation. Kaori had never been a huge fan of loud noises and crowds but still found herself caught in the excitement of it all. She stood on the tip of her toes, eager to take in every detail.

In a fit of smoke, All Might himself appeared to the roar of the crowd in a dramatic fashion. He was waving and smiling like his life depended on it, his shiny white teeth on full display. He seemed to exude the very definition of charisma without even needing to speak. Kaori felt her heart soar with excitement, he really was the real deal.

"Hello everyone," he shouted in a loud boomy voice, and even without the help of microphones, his voice projected throughout the entire venue clearly and evenly. "And welcome to my meet and greet!" Kaori thought calling the event a meet and greet was stretching it a little, given the size of the crowd. "First of all, I want to thank you all for making this event possible, and also our sponsors -" At the word sponsor, Kaori immediately tuned him out. It wasn't on purpose, but the conditioning made it impossible for her to pay attention to people after they utter the word sponsor. Not even All Might's charisma could prevent that.

After a few moments, Kaori deemed it safe to zone back in.

"Now, I'm sure many of you in the crowd want to be a hero as well! I am here to tell you that if you set your mind to it, anything is possible. Us heroes will be counting on you all, the next generation of heroes." He beamed, shining brighter than even the sun. Kaori briefly thought about the job market for heroes, and if it was supersaturated. Given the loud response to his statement, she thought she had her answer.

"YOU CAN BE A HERO!" he shouted at the end of his speech. The crowd went wild. Kaori could see why Izuku had been so determined now, despite not even having a quirk.

The rest of the events passed by smoothly. Her favorite one had to be the small skit they had put up where All Might pretended to defeat some fake villains. The entire thing was so corny and exaggerated that she couldn't help but laugh. The kids around her — the intended audience — gobbled it all up and cheered loudly at all the right moments. Kaori found it to be quite adorable.

By the time her dad reconvened with them, the event was mostly over, and the signing had started.

"The parking space was significantly harder to find than I imagined," he huffed. "What did I miss?"

"Uh … just the beginning bits, nothing much," Kaori told him, feeling bad. Her dad was a huge All Might fan as well.

"Great! I was worried I had taken too long!" He beamed, turning his head toward the stage. "Oh, they're doing the signings already! Do you want to line up for it, Kaori-chan?"

Kaori glanced over at the extremely long line that was still in the process of expanding. Actually, she wasn't even sure where the line ended.

"No, I'm good, I think. Let's go see the merch!"

Her mom rolled her eyes but smiled. "Don't you think we have enough All Might merch at home? Some variety would go a long way, wouldn't you say? I think Endeavor would be hurt if he knew the amount of All Might merch you have."

"Yeah, well, Endeavor can try being a better hero then. To the merch shop we go!"

Kaori basked in the surprised expressions of her parents. They don't come as easily anymore, not after the number of shocking comments she had made over her childhood.

The merch shop wasn't so much of a shop than a small booth in a truck, but it had all kinds of cool things. Kaori had never been one to buy merch in her past life, but since coming here, she found herself enthralled with hero merch. It was the only clothing she was willing to wear aside from blank t-shirts. If she wasn't careful, she might accidentally find herself becoming a bigger fan than Izuku. She shuddered at the thought.

Kaori was mildly disappointed to find that she already owned most of the merch at the store. Her mom might be on about something when she said she needed to branch out more, though she hadn't come across any Eraserhead merch yet - the one other hero she cared enough about to want merch for. She picked out a shirt and handed it over to the clerk who looked bored out of his mind.

Merch bought, Kaori was ready to return home now. Being in such a huge crowd was extremely energy-consuming, but she thought it was worth it just to see All Might. His dad, however, looked confused when she told him that. Maybe she shouldn't have lied to him about the amount he missed.

They had left the venue and were on the way to the parking lot when a man caught Kaori's attention, stopping her in her tracks. He looked shifty, and there was something in his eyes that didn't sit quite right with her. As if he was scheming something. The way he dressed also set off alarm bells in her head — he was wrapped up from head to toe in black clothing despite the heat. Kaori, who was in an All Might t-shirt and shorts was already sweating buckets, she couldn't imagine what he might feel like.

The man wasn't near Kaori and her parents and was standing a fair bit of distance away, but Kaori could tell he was watching them. Kaori's eyes met his for a brief second and felt goosebumps rise uncomfortably across her skin. She looked away quickly, feeling as though his gaze had burnt her.

As insane as it sounded, she was sure she had felt murderous intent from the man. Her instincts screamed at her to get away from him, that there was something wrong with him. Yet Kaori hesitated. She'd never had such a strong gut feeling about someone before, she wasn't sure if she could trust it. Especially since he was so far away. There weren't many people around the area, only them and two other families. Kaori was glad they weren't the only ones in the area, at the very least.

Then, even stranger, Kaori felt something shift in the air, as if the air itself was expanding. She paused. How did she know that? It was as if she just knew, intuitively. Perhaps it was just the wind? She glanced over at the strange man and found his back turned against them. Was her paranoia overtaking her sanity? All her time spent watching the news on villains might have corrupted her mind into thinking that danger was all around her, even when there are none.

"Kaori-chan? What's the matter?"

She opened her mouth but had no concrete answer. What was wrong? She could feel anxiety fill her mind and she looked around frantically, trying to place the danger her instincts were warning her of. The nagging feeling that she was missing something was almost overwhelming.

Then it happened. Smoke started to rise from the ground. No fire, just smoke. The quantity of it was multiplying at an alarming rate, engulfing the entire alley with a thick fog within seconds. It was also getting hot, searing hot. It felt as though her skin was on fire.

Kaori was finding it difficult to breathe. She coughed, trying to get the uncomfortable feeling that was building up in her lungs. The air felt too stuffy and smelly. She felt tears began to gather in her eyes; whether it was because of the fumes or her panic, she wasn't sure.

Kaori couldn't do anything but watch, still as a rock, entranced by the happenings around her. Her mom had grabbed hold of her arm tightly, and she could see in her eyes that she was confused and afraid. She dragged her away firmly, and Kaori complied obediently. In the midst of the smoke, she found that she couldn't see her dad nor the other families she had seen earlier. She wanted to call out for him, to see if he was alright; but her lungs refused to cooperate, and she choked on the gas.

The reach of the smoke felt never-ending; Kaori's airways were beginning to constrict from lack of fresh air. She wasn't sure how much longer she could last. Kaori grasped her mom's arm a little tighter and inched closer to her. She hoped this wasn't the end for her again.

She sensed another shift in the air, a slight change in something she couldn't quite identify. A second later, a loud pop sound went off somewhere behind them, followed by several others in quick succession. Her mom reacted the quickest and lunged at Kaori, pressing her flat on the ground.

She couldn't see much of what happened afterward and laid there, like a cowardly slug.

A loud, booming noise sounded in her ears, followed by a ringing in her ears.

Then nothing but silence.

A/N: Looks like Kaori's life is going downhill D: Anyway, canon characters are gonna start showing up from now on, exciting :D I hope y'all enjoyed, and the next chapter will be up in a week or sooner.