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Nejire stared quietly at the dog that kept panting in front of her. The only thing gracing her mind was how to describe to her parents that she acquired a new puppy. She had heard plenty of stories with people having little kittens or puppies follow them home and they decide to adopt so it shouldn't be too hard, right? It was just a small adorable little puppy…
That could turn into a massive beast that took down an entire shack. That could also fight the Big Three at ease, well perhaps not so much at ease but she was able to fight them off! Still a scary thought! Though, saying she had a massive puppy with her at all times was a pretty cool feat. She could look like a cool kid! Not that she wasn't already one, but she could be even cooler! Nejire-chan and her massive puppy fighting the forces of evil! No one could stop the dynamic duo.
"What to do with you." She wondered out loud. Tamaki and Mirio and long since gone home, their help with the authorities had been invaluable. Not that the government workers didn't trust the three of them but they for sure didn't trust the giant puppy that was guarding her. It was a lot harder to say 'oh she got super excited and wanted to jump up and play with me, the shack was just in the way.'
A light pout escaped her lips, that was her favorite ramen shop and she had no idea how long it was going to be out of commission now! What was she supposed to do! She gave some money to Mr. Okana to help pay for the repairs of the ramen shack. Hopefully, she will be getting free ramen for the rest of her life at this rate.
Nejire turned towards the source of all her problems. "Yeah, I see you! Did you really have to knock over all that stuff! I don't even know who you are! I know you but gah!" She threw her head back and let out a scream. "How do I tell my parents you're coming home with me! In fact! Why do you keep following me around everywhere! Not that I'm complaining because you're just such a cute adorable little mess but still!"
The suspect in question lifted her nose and started panting at her. If Nejire knew better she would say the puppy was teasing her. The bright purple eyes looked at her with wonder and love. It was like she had gained a little familiar
"I can't believe I'm doing this right now." She spoke softly and patted her side. "You're just too adorable for me to leave here. Come on, let's go see my parents. Hopefully, they'll understand." She murmured softly. The pat on her side seemed to work and at once the puppy was trailing by her side.
The sun had long since disappeared over the horizon and it was much later than it normally was for Nejire-chan to be arriving home. By now her parents were probably worrying about her. Though not uncommon with her new work schedule, she did try to keep them updated when she would be unable to arrive home. Taking a quick peek at her phone, her eyebrows rose at the several text messages that she had missed from her family.
'Nejire? Will you be coming home for dinner or go and get ramen with Mirio and Tamaki? I plan on making beef stew?'
'Are you out late tonight working? I know you don't check your phone while you work!'
'Nejire we haven't heard from you in a while and Ryuku said that you were currently with Tamaki and Mirio, you're not getting into any more of your middle school shenanigans, are you?'
She let out a groan, how could she have forgotten to message her parents! And it was already Eleven! They were probably worried sick about her! She swiped to text them back and quickly began clicking on the keys.
'Be home soon! I brought a friend? I'll explain when I'm there, Sorry!'
There was no way that she was going to explain her new puppy over the phone to her parents, it wasn't a good thing to do. She was never good at that sort of thing. Texting was not her forte, now talking face to face and making friends, that totally was? Sign her up!
She rounded a corner and could see her house in the distance, the little light that they had in the house was on and it barely illuminated the porch but it told her that they were at least awake. Once she got closer she could see that the kitchen light was on. They were probably just sitting there waiting for her and an uneasy tension rose in her stomach. Her parents were some of the nicest people that she had in her lives and she would have no idea where she would be if they weren't there for her. They were what kept her going at times and she really didn't want to freak them out.
She halted at the door, taking a deep breath. Turning to the side she looked at perhaps the happiest puppy she had ever seen in her life. If anything, her normally dark violet eyes had a bright hue to them. Her tail wagged back and forth so much it could knock over anything in its path. "Alright listen up here pal! My parents are the most amazing people on this planet and we have to convince them that you can stay! There will be no ifs or buts! We have to somehow convince them to let you stay! I also need a name for you! I don't know what to call you yet, but you can stay as long as you are a good girl, got it?"
"Yip!" If possible, the tail speed seemed to increase and at this rate, she was unable to see it.
"Alright can't have you go in until the tail stops though! I can't have you destroying my house!"
"Yip!" If anything it only happened to increase. The tail speed looked like it was never going to stop at this rate, it was flying back and forth at unparalleled speeds. Little hairs on it were starting to fly off of it.
Nejire tapped her foot and a slight frown made its way to her face. What could she do that would make her new puppy calm down? She ran a finger all the way through her hair. She hadn't been this stressed since it was her first day with Ryuku and she knew she combated it pretty well. "Um, Um, let's see." She scratched her nose and then slapped her head. "Duh Nejire! You can do this!" She spoke, hyping herself up.
Clapping her hands together she pointed at the ground. "Sit!" The puppy let out a little yip this time and sat down. It did a little to stop the tail wagging but that was most likely only due to the friction of her slapping her tail back and forth on the wood deck. Hopefully, she wouldn't be getting any splinters anytime soon.
"Lay?" She asked it like a question but the puppy only seemed to be slapping its tail back and faster, ignoring the deck at this rate. "Lay!" She spoke with a more authoritative tone. It worked like a charm, the puppy laid down on its belly and smiled at her. Her leg came up and began to scratch her ear. The tail movement paused for just a moment and she tried getting out whatever annoying flea was in her way. "Alright nice, now you wait here and let me get my parents!"
She fumbled in her pocket for a moment, her hand sliding past her phone and grabbing her keys. A jingle of the keys was heard as she plugged it into the knob and unlocked the door. The puppy raised her head for a moment until Nejire pointed back down at the floor once more. "Lay!"The purple-eyed puppy looked sad but laid back down.
'Nejire is that you? Why haven't you been getting any of my text messages? Oh, never mind! I just read it! Is there a reason you're so late?" Her mom rattled out as she walked from the kitchen to the doorway. Her dad followed behind her quite quickly, making sure that his only daughter was okay.
"You're doing okay, sport? It's not like you to ignore our phone calls, were you at the beach training again? Or perhaps this time you were playing too long in the water, you always did love the water too much." It must have been the look on her face because he frowned at her. "Is there something wrong? You look stressed out. Did something happen today? I thought it was your day off?" Her dad etched closer to her in worry.
Her mom looked at her phone then looked around, "It said here that you were going to be bringing a friend over but I'm not seeing anyone, did something happen to them? Did they not decide to come over? You sent the text message not too long ago."
Her parents couldn't see the puppy, she had done a good job of staying in the spot she was supposed to and she was out of eyesight. The puppy laid on the ground, her tail still wagging, her head shaking at lightspeed. She was being good though, and it was a good start to everything.
"Mom, Dad? I um, I did bring a friend." Her heart began to race. This was a lot harder than perhaps she would have liked. It should be okay though. Right? "I don't really know how to explain this, but, um, I have decided to adopt a puppy?" She didn't dare look at her parents and quickly bent over and picked her up. The puppy was as light as a feather and she picked her up by her two front legs. Her belly was showing and she was panting happily.
Nejire squeezed her eyes shut and started rambling. "I um, don't know how to explain this but she's been following me around everywhere tonight and a lot of things have happened. I feel like I know her from somewhere but, oh I just don't know how to explain it." Her eyes flew back open, worried about the reaction that she would receive.
Whatever she was expecting, it wasn't this. Her dad and mom both had looks of disbelief and something else? It wasn't the disbelief from seeing a puppy, it was as if they knew exactly who the puppy was. Her dad and mom both shared a look for a moment.
"Honey, don't you think it's quite fast to be getting a puppy? I mean, this is normally something that-"
"Tell me what happened today, and bring in Mrs. O'Leary." Her father walked up to the dog and picked the puppy up from Nejire. The cute puppy began to wag her tail and planted kisses all over his face. Her father tried keeping a straight face in the process but eventually broke and let out a light laugh. "I hadn't thought I'd ever see you again." He said with a baby tone, scratching behind her ears.
"You know her?" Nejire blurted out. Here she was, terrified out of her mind of the giant dog that could turn into a small puppy and her father knew her? Is that why she followed Nejire everywhere? To be rekindled with her dad. "Where did you meet her? Did she want to come to see you? I didn't know we ever got a dog! I've never seen her before? How old is she?"
Her dad held out her hand, "I'll answer all I can in a little bit but I do have to ask, you really don't remember this dog at all?"
"I-I feel like I have met her from somewhere before Dad but I, Oh I don't know. She does look so familiar though! I don't know what to do!"
Her mother had been quiet all this time. She was the serious one in the family and Nejire turned to look at her. She had a look of disbelief and her eyes were glancing with worry. "Honey-"
"Darling, why don't we hear what Nejire has to say before anything happens, I'm sure there is a good reason that this little sweetheart here came back after all this time." Her father cut her mom off again. Her mother slowly nodded and sat down on the couch, her dad following suit while rubbing the now drooling dog's belly. "Coming Nejire?"
The usually energetic daughter got a shock to reality and closed the door behind her, walking over to the couch and sitting down. Her eyes were watching the puppy carefully before switching back to her parents. Her parents were hiding something from her which was surprising. The only times that they had ever kept anything from her were little silly things like Christmas and birthday presents, or when they were going to the zoo to surprise her, or when her friends came over to surprise. This seemed to be on a little higher of the spectrum than she was used to.
"I-I don't know where to start." She got startled up, "So much happened tonight and it was crazy Dad! She broke our favorite ramen stand!" Nejire accused with a light laugh at the puppy, not overly mad but compared to the small villains she dealt with, this seemed different.
"You broke my favorite-" Her dad looked in disbelief at the puppy and picked her up. A look of shock on his face. "That was my favorite place to eat! I used to eat there and take the kids there all the time! How could you!"
The only response he got was drool dropping into his lap.
"Why don't you start from the beginning honey? I think that's always a good place to start, don't you?" Her mom was smiling at her encouragingly. Curiosity graced her features as her mom glanced from her to the dog.
She could always count on her mom to know what to do in the right situation. "Right, Mirio, Tamaki, and I were heading home. We decided to go practice at U.A. since it had been a while since all of us hung out."
"I thought you hung out three days ago?" Her father asked.
"It was a while! Besides the point!" Nejire flailed her arms up. "Anyways! I was heading home and I heard a weird sound, it sounded like a puppy yipping but I was unable to pinpoint it. It was a little hard to tell. It kept happening and no one else heard it so I thought I was going crazy. We went out and started eating ramen and then I heard it again. The dog though was ginormous, like Dad! You have no idea it was the size of." Nejire shot up on her feet and pointed at Mrs. O'Leary before widening her hands. "I can't even explain how big she is in that other form! Or how terrifying she looks, I'm lucky she doesn't want to eat me! She was bigger than Mirio and looked like a bull! No, bigger than a bull! When she was in the bigger form she looked unstoppable and able to take anything down! It's crazy!" She started flailing her arms around. How did the massive puppy that she was currently staring at become so small verse the other times she was a crazy monster?
"Oh yes, we know quite well." Her dad kept rubbing the puppy, who was slowly beginning to drift away. Her eyes were droopy and her tail had begun to come to a standstill.
"She broke all of my china sets. We got those at our wedding." Her mom murmured, a little disappointed at the dog.
"How do you guys know her? Come on, you gotta tell me!"
Her father laughed, the rumbling of his belly started Mrs. O'Leary and shook her back awake. "Don't worry about that just yet Nejire, why don't you finish the story."
"Right, well." She crashed back down into her seat. the cushions softening her blow. "Alright well, we were just sitting there and I heard it again. This time at least Mirio and Tamaki heard it. So we all decided to look over and saw her growling with her paws extended. It was terrifying! She roared then sprinted at us, full blast! We had to dodge to the side and she crashed into Mr. Okana's shop! Completely destroyed it with a single blow, she ran at it full blast!"
"You said full blast twice, Nejire." Her father looked amused.
Her mother on the other hand did not, her eyes whipped over to the puppy. "Mrs. O'Leary! What do you think you were doing, startling her like that? Do you know the damages you caused? Oh, that's going to cost quite a bit to repair!"
"Was it worth it?" Her dad asked the puppy.
"Yip."
"Well, at least we know that she is as destructive as our little Nejire-chan here," Her dad commented.
"You already knew that." Her mother retorted, the only response that her dad gave her was a shrug. "Continue Nejire, though I think I can see where this is going right now."
"I already talked with Mr. Okana, I covered it." Nejire winced at the thoughts of her back account. "We started to fight Mrs O'Leary," The puppy's name rolled off her tongue with familiarity, it was a weird name to say out loud but it fit the dog, she liked it. "I felt weird fighting her the entire time, unlike most of the times I've fought, this was the first time it felt different? Like I didn't want to do it but I had to, I guess." She raised her shoulders and gave them a sheepish look. "I can't really describe it."
"It's all good, continue with what happened."
"I guess to sum it up I told them to stop fighting and they stopped, both Mirio and Tamaki that is. It probably felt weird to them but I didn't want to see her hurt. After that, Tamaki stopped holding her down and she came running right at me so I levitated down to the ground? Probably not the smartest situation thinking back on it." She let out a light laugh. "Really not smart, I probably should be dead."
"But you trusted your gut and that's what matters, it helped in this situation." Her father nodded approvingly.
Nejire nodded. "Yeah, it did. She ran right up to me and once she reached me she kinda just stopped Dad? Like right at my heels and the next thing I know she is this small puppy. After that it was really just dealing with Mr. Okana and the police. They wanted to take her to the pound but I wouldn't let them. I guess I couldn't let them. Mirio and Tamaki weren't happy with it either but I eventually won them over. That about sums it up, I guess it wasn't a lot but, Oh I don't know."
Her parents were speechless. Her dad was stroking the light beard that he had going on while her mother was glancing back and forth between the two of them and the puppy. Finally, her eyes stayed on Nejire's dad, waiting for his next move. The puppy hopped off of her father's lap, done with the belly scratches, and made her way over to Nejire. She crawled up the couch, struggling with her hind legs before pushing herself up and sitting on Nejire's lap. Quiet and in a ball that made her look like a pillow and not a living being.
"Roger-"
"Honey, go get the box." He leaned forward and rested his forehead on his knuckles. "Please."
She nodded even though he couldn't see it. Without a word she quietly left the room. The only thing that could be heard was her feet tapping on the tile floor.
"Dad?" Her father shot up. "Am I in trouble?"
Her dad let out a scoff, "Very far from it kiddo. If anything, the little pupperchino you have in your lap is the one in trouble. I think we need to tell some stuff that will take quite a while. And well, your mother and I have been keeping something from you for a bit that I think it's time that we need to tell you."
"What have you been keeping from me? Does it involve her?"
"Yes, it does." Her mother walked into the room with a briefcase that was locked. "Part of me wishes we kept a better eye on you that day but something tells me that it was out of our reach. All things happen for a reason and you are a free spirit Nejire."
"I'm confused," Nejire admitted. Her parents weren't normally like this, beating around the bush so much. To her, it seems they were hesitant to explain everything.
Her mother set the briefcase on the table with a heavy thud. "I'm not listening to the beginning of this, I'm sorry Roger, Nejire." Without another word, her mother quickly fled the room. Tears began to brim at her eyes and the door was closed with a loud bang.
Nejire was confused before but now it seemed like she was on a whole different planet. Her loveable parents had given her everything. When she was down beaten on the ground, they were there to pick her up. When she was unable to control her quirk, just like Mirio. Her dad cheered them both up right away. When Tamaki accidentally became a fish, they were there taking care of him. The nicest, most caring people she had ever met in her life. They were always there.
And now? She felt disconnected from them, scared of what might be said next. They felt off, her mother was unhappy and most likely crying. Her dad's face was locked in place. No emotion was on it as he fished out a key from his pocket. Nejire eyed him cautiously, his muscles were tense and his jaw was now clenched.
And then it all dissipated. Her father let out a sigh. "Sorry, Neji. Your mother and I, well, we told ourselves we wouldn't talk about this again unless the situation arose."
Nejire looked down at the dog that was laying on her lap, this seemed like a lot for just a small dog entering her life. What happened?
He flicked the case open and pulled out some photos, looking at them and shuffling them in a certain order. "Nejire, do you remember what happened before you were eight years old? I know we don't talk about it much, if at all."
She scratched the side of her face. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember it at all. It was a weird feeling. Eight years old? She remembered when she turned nine, that was about it? "No, not really Dad, did something happen? I feel like I should know, don't most kids start remembering at like four? Eight seems really old, maybe I was just a late bloomer?" She wondered out loud. She hadn't really thought about the past before. She was always a live-in-the-moment type of girl.
Her dad reached into the briefcase and pulled out a photo. Nejire gingerly took it from him and gasped.
It was a picture of her and Mrs. O'Leary. In front of the smiling two was a giant cake that had the number five on it. Behind her were various decorations and several of her old friends from her elementary school that she hadn't talked to in ages. The smiling dog was drooling on the table looking at the cake while Nejire held her neck tightly.
Her eyes left the picture and looked back down at the sleeping dog. She had known this dog, she wasn't crazy. "So she was our puppy? Why don't I remember her?
Her father put a hand through his hair, "I'll be honest Nejire I don't have all the questions but I do know someone that does. It's just, well I don't know how to contact him. You were the only one that could. I never actually met the gentlemen before either."
"Huh?" None of this was making sense. "Who?"
"Let's start from the beginning." He gave her another photo. This one was of a large glistening white owl. Her feathers shined brightly in the picture and she looked proud. The owl's pitch-black eyes stared at the photo with a haughty look. She looked beautiful, more beautiful than any owl she had ever seen.
A sharp pain jabbed into the side of her head and she clutched it, gently massaging the pain that was in her head. Where had that come from? "I-I know this owl."
"I'm sure you'll remember a lot more, that's my hope at least. We met this owl when you were four years old. You told us you followed her and met up with a strange gentleman that was standing at a pool of water. We never met this man but he brought you back, gifting you Mrs. O'Leary." Her father gave her several more photos.
They were of her doing various activities with Mrs. O'Leary. In one photo she was putting makeup on the dog, giving it long eyelashes and bright pink lipstick. Another photo was of her playing in the leaves and Mrs. O'Leary was mid-jump into the pile. In the last one, she was making bright blue cookies with the puppy staring up at her, bright eyes watching. "Where did she go?" Nejire looked up at her dad in confusion. "She was here for all this time and just left? Out of the blue?"
"You were eight years old when it happened." He grimaced. "Your mother and I went out shopping, and you were going to go visit your friend like normal. You were baking and ran out into the alleyway to go and give him some of the treats you made. Her other form had destroyed our living room one too many times." He let out a light chuckle, "I remember the day she sat on our dining room table and it shattered. Your mother implemented a rule that she could no longer be in the house in that big form, or travel at that point in the house."
He paused and looked at a photo in his hand, there were only two more at this point that he had. Gently he set it on the coffee table in front of her instead of giving it to her.
Nejire couldn't handle the knot that was in her stomach. There was blood, a lot of blood. In the picture was a small alleyway with a crashed truck. Not much else could be seen in the photo other than the cracked windshield with glass in it. The blood was trailing from the windshield all the way down to the concrete and a trail was seen going out of the photo.
"A delivery man was late making it to a high-class ball that was supposed to be happening later that evening. He decided to go through the alleyway at top speed to make up for some time. In the process, you were hit." He let out a shaky breath and Nejire looked up to see something on her dad that she had never seen before. She saw a broken man in front of her. A man with regrets and sadness overtaking him. "We thought you were dead when we reached the hospital. Neji, seeing you in the bed," He began to choke upon his words and tears started coming out of his eyes. "I thought I lost my baby girl."
She shot up, forgetting that Mrs. O'Leary was in her lap. The dog fell with a thud to the floor as she reached up and wrapped her arms around her now crying, father. "Dad, I'm here, it's okay. Your baby girl is right here." Tears started to grace her eyes at this rate, she had never seen him like this or felt this way.
They embraced each other for a moment. Neither saying any words and quietly crying into each other. After a moment her dad leaned back and wiped the tears off his daughter's face. She could see the line of tears down his face, the years showing on him as he stared down at her. "It was a miracle that you lived, we were lucky, we were blessed. We are blessed.
She let out a laugh, "It's all good Dad! I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere." She frowned and pulled back from his embrace, looking down at Mrs. O'Leary. "I'm confused, what does all this have to do with her though?"
He frowned. "I don't know, she appeared before us at the store, and before we could react, your mother and I were at the hospital. It was a weird feeling, to say the least." He let out a shudder.
A click of the door could be heard and her mother walked back in. Her normally sharp eyes looked raw and dry. "Did you get past it?"
Her father nodded at her. "I did, we were talking about not knowing why she disappeared."
"Have you brought him up yet?" Her father shook her head and her mom let out a shaky breath. "Very well."
"As I was saying, the last we saw of Mrs. O'Leary was when she brought us to the hospital. She just all but disappeared after your accident. It confused us and we don't know why she left. We do know she was at our house after your accident though."
Realization hit her. "That's why we left so fast isn't it, you didn't want to be reminded of what happened!" It all made sense why she no longer lived in the same town anymore. She remembered living in a new house at the start of the new school year, everything had looked so unfamiliar. It was like she had just woken up when she was eight once again.
"Nejire?" She heard her dad ask as she fell down into her seat. Eight years of her life that just weren't there, she hadn't remembered any of it. It was just all gone.
"I-I'm fine Dad." Her voice cracked, she most definitely was not fine but she had to push through this, she had to know everything. "I just, there's so much, I'm so confused and I have so many questions."
"We will answer them the best we can." Her mother reassured her. "I'm afraid the story isn't done yet though."
Her eyes shot up, "The man. Why were I such good friends with him? Who was he? Why did he never come to visit if I was so close with him?"
"We don't know Neji, if we are being honest with you. I told you earlier but we have never met him, we just know he brought you back to us and gave you Mrs. O'Leary. If anything we hoped you would remember enough by now."
"His name was Percy, that's all we know. Does that help?"
"Percy?" The words rolled off her tongue. "His name was Percy Jackson!"
And with a flick of a switch, she was out.
Oooo Cliffhanger. Will we see Percy next chapter? Who knows!