Boku no Hero Academia © Kohei Horikoshi
Concept I. A Case of Both Amnesia and Deja Vu
When she wakes up, she's lying in a hospital bed with a woman who claims to be her grandmother crying over her bedside.
Chiasa is what the woman calls her. The elderly woman runs her weathered hands through Chiasa's wispy white hair, pressing multiple kisses to her forehead. Asking forgiveness for some slight that Chiasa cannot remember.
(Chiasa cannot remember a lot of things, she is quickly beginning to realize. She can only remember flashes of pink hair, grey eyes, and-)
Chiasa lets out a cry, the woman's tight hug reactivating phantom pains in her back.
(pain, pain, pain-something was supposed to be there.)
Chiasa's vision goes black.
When she wakes up the second time, the doctor tells her that she has been asleep for about six months. He tells her that she is lucky to be alive.
The doctor tells Chiasa that her wings-she had wings before, big and beautiful- are gone. They had been so diseased and sickly that they needed to be cut off almost instantly. Her grandmother-Elena, the woman had called herself-cries even more.
Chiasa desperately wants to tell the woman to shut up, but she finds that she can't force the words out. She isn't quite sure how to behave; she is simply a marionette being hoisted up by strings and going through the motions.
There's also the issue of the huge tattoo on her back, filled with chemical equations and phrases that apparently none of the people who examine her can understand.
Eventually, a police officer comes in to speak with her.
"Do you remember what happened to you?" he asks.
Chiasa thinks that he can't be terribly bright to ask her a question like that. If she remembered what happened, she wouldn't be sitting in a hospital unaware of her own name. She wouldn't feel as if the world was caving in.
Chiasa clears her throat, running a hand through her hair-only to realize that there was barely any hair for her to run her fingers through. Her nose scrunches up at the realization. "No."
The detective gives her a pitying look. "Can you tell me what day it is, Chiasa-chan?" He was going for the familiar approach, trying to gain her trust.
("Don't trust anyone, not even me.")
"Is it a weekday?" Chiasa answers, scratching at her nose. "Wait, don't tell me. It's a Friday, isn't it? It feels like a Friday."
Her grandmother sobs even harder, and Chiasa rolls her eyes.
"Could you please tell her to quiet down?" Chiasa asks. The sound of sobbing makes her feel even more trapped. "It's quite annoying."
The detective rears back as her grandmother looks at Chiasa with wide eyes.
Chiasa simply lets out a yawn. At least they are finally quiet.
It turns out that it is not in fact a weekday. The current day is August 27th, a Saturday evening.
While Chiasa has been in the hospital for six months, she has apparently been missing for much longer.
"You've been missing for seven years," the detective tells her.
Chiasa lets out a loud, booming laugh, which causes her to fall into a coughing mess once all is said and done.
When the Detective asks her if she is okay, she bares her teeth at him, fangs and all.
(She has a mutation quirk apparently. One that gives her grey skin, pointy ears, sharp fangs, and even sharper claws. A bat mutation, her grandmother had said through her sniffles.)
She is not okay and doesn't think she'll ever be okay. But the painkillers have been very helpful in allowing her to forget the pain momentarily.
She is twelve years old and this is her life.
"What the Hell do you think?" Chiasa hisses, ignoring her grandmother's admonishments. The detective looks slightly ashamed.
("Number 47, you know what you need to do.")
Chiasa closes her eyes.
Apparently Chiasa had been held captive during those seven years by a villain named Mindswipe, who was known for taking the memories of her victims and leaving them to be mindless husks of their former selves. The detectives theorize that the reason Chiasa had lost her memories was because she was yet another victim of Mindswipe.
(Warm grey eyes. Long pink hair. A dimpled smile.)
"Where is she now?" Chiasa forces herself to ask.
The detectives collectively shake their heads. "Gone," they say. For some reason, Chiasa feels sick. "She cannot harm you anymore."
(A bright smile. "47, you can do better than that!")
Chiasa lays back, counting the tiles on the ceiling.
They force Chiasa to talk to multiple psychologists. People who are supposed to help her get 'better'. Help her recall the life she had before.
(She doesn't tell them about the glimpses she recalls. Flashes of events that go together yet have no correlation at the same time.)
No matter how many exercises they put her through, how many machines they hook her up to, how many medications they try to give her, Chiasa simply cannot remember the important details.
It's terrifying and revolutionary at the same time. Terrifying because she feels as if she's stranger in her own body. Revolutionary because now she can be whoever the Hell she wants to be.
Chiasa is a blank slate, ready to start anew.
Her grandmother brings pictures, photo albums of the girl that she used to be.
Chiasa sees a girl with long dark hair, bright red eyes, and large wings. She has a bright innocent smile on her face.
Chiasa doesn't know who that girl is supposed to be, but it's no longer her.
(She recognizes the shape of her face. She recognizes the features. But there is simply no connection anymore.)
"Manny-your father-would always try to send me pictures," her grandmother says softly. "You guys were out living in the countryside, on a farm of all things, I wasn't able to come see you, or even meet you. All I had were these pictures."
Her grandmother closes her eyes and places a hand on Chiasa's. "I'm glad I'm able to meet you now, even if the circumstances aren't the best."
(Nausea, revulsion, she felt as if she was going to hurl-)
Chiasa quickly takes her hand back.
Physical therapy is a bitch, plain and simple.
With the loss of her wings, walking by herself without the help of a walking stick is a distant memory. Her body also feels incredibly weird. Not weak, but just strange.
Every physical therapist assigned to her quits after day one. They all claim Chiasa is 'difficult' and 'rude'. She knows that if she wasn't a minor, they would probably have many more choice words for her.
Maybe she is difficult, but she likes to think that she's earned the right to be. More than anyone, she has earned the right to be.
When she ends up making a crater in the hospital wall with her bare hands, frustrated with her lack of progress, Chiasa finally realizes that something is wrong with her.
(She hadn't been able to do that before. She can't remember much, but she can remember that.)
Even though she cannot walk straight, her body is three times stronger than it was before. She has abs where she knows baby fat used to linger.
One day, when her grandmother is out getting some snacks at Chiasa's request, Chiasa hoists her hospital bed over her head with one hand.
Upon returning, her grandmother drops a coke, hands placed over her mouth as the soda rolls across the floor.
Chiasa responds with a sigh. "Can't you do anything right?"
Chiasa's mother had a bat mutation quirk, her father had an ambient quirk able to alter a person's emotions through the use of chemicals. Chiasa has a mixture of the two.
Nowhere in those two abilities does it say anything about increased physical strength.
The doctors chalk it up to some form of a quirk evolution. Chiasa doesn't really care either way.
(She thinks of the tattoo on her back and something inside her revolts. She wonders-)
She simply closes her eyes, puts in a pair of earbuds she had bullied her grandmother into getting, and blocks out everything around her.
Chiasa wonders if it's weird to miss someone you can't even remember. Someone who supposedly hurt you in ways you would never be able to recover from.
Chiasa thinks of Mindswipe, of pink hair and grey eyes, and clutches her chest. She looks at the necklace the authorities found on her, a bright blue gem attached to a ring on a golden string. They gave it back after performing all the tests they could on it.
She puts it on and a part of her feels at peace.
("Come on, 47!" A wicked laugh.)
Chiasa clutches the necklace tight.
Half a year into staying in the hospital, Chiasa is visited by a reporter.
Chitose Kizuki is the woman's name. Like Chiasa, she also seems to have a mutation quirk, with blue skin and long purple hair.
"It's lovely to meet you, Chiasa-chan," the woman says, taking a seat next to her. Her grandmother purses her lips, before looking down at her lap.
Chiasa doesn't respond, simply giving the woman a look. "I wish I could say the same."
The woman barks out a laugh, her smile razor sharp. "You've got punk! I like that." Chitose leans in closer. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? Just a few."
Chiasa furrows her brow, looking over at her grandmother. Her grandmother nods her head.
"Fine."
"How are you paying these hospital bills?"
Her grandmother stiffens at the address.
Elena Solano is a short woman with brown skin and laugh lines around her eyes. She has not smiled or laughed once in Chiasa's presence.
Chiasa isn't surprised. She knows she's a horrible person. Not someone that anyone would willingly want to spend their time with. But Elena feels as if it's her duty to be by Chiasa's side no matter how horribly Chiasa treats her.
(She also knows that Elena owns a tiny hair salon and that there's no way for her to be paying all of these bills out of pocket.)
"Don't you worry yourself, Chiasa-chan," The woman says softly, knitting something together on her lap. A fluffy wool sweater. "All you need to focus on is getting better."
Chiasa rolls her eyes and stares up at the ceiling. It's not as if she really cares. She just doesn't want the woman to think that she owed her anything.
She begins to focus on the clay ball given to her by her new physical therapist-her fifth one, to be exact. She's supposed to carve something out of it and it's supposed to help her gain better coordination with her hands.
The therapist recommended that Chiasa make something sweet and ladylike. "How about a flower?" the woman had sung.
Chiasa decides to make a cat, carving out its eyes and whiskers with shaky hands
She shows it to the therapist with a sweet smile on her face. The therapist pats her on the head, causing Chiasa to freeze momentarily.
(Physical touch makes her nauseous for some reason. It's one of the reasons her grandmother has made sure to keep her distance. She doesn't know why, but whenever someone touches her, she feels as if she'll shut down.)
When the therapist is singing her praises, Chiasa then proceeds to stab the cat sculpture in the eye. She gives the therapist a toothy, unsettling grin as the woman shrieks.
Unsurprisingly, this therapist quits too.
"Chiasa-chan," her grandmother says softly to her one night. "Don't you think you're being a bit cruel?"
The word cuts deep, causing her to freeze.
("Beating on someone weaker than you is something you should never do.")
Chiasa sucks her teeth before laying down and pulling the covers over her head. She wasn't sulking or upset; she was just tired of dealing with people…of hearing this woman who she did not know judge her in such a way.
The words escape her before she even has a chance to think. "The world isn't kind to me, so why should I be kind to anyone else?"
(It's childish. So incredibly childish.)
Her grandmother hums. "Chiasa-chan. The world isn't kind to anyone. You know that better than most. Which is why we need to make sure that we're always kind to the people around us."
A beat of silence passes between them before Chiasa says, "That's stupid. Some people have amazing lives."
Her grandmother barks out a laugh. It's warm, unfiltered, and completely goes against her gentle aesthetic.
"You'd be surprised, Chiasa-chan. You'd be surprised."
After her talk with Elena, Chiasa tries to listen. She tries to observe.
She finds out that one of the nurses tasked with bringing her food, who she had called a crybaby on her first day of work due to the constant tear tracks under her eyes, had just lost her father not too long ago. She finds out that her head doctor-Akito-has a baby on the way, but that there might be complications. That explains why he's always leaving in such a hurry. Chiasa had called him lazy and unfocused.
("You'd be surprised, Chiasa-chan. You'd be surprised.")
She doesn't become kinder, necessarily. But she becomes less cruel.
Akito smiles as Chiasa finally makes it across the room on her walking stick. She's slightly out of breath and her forehead is covered in sweat, but she feels accomplished all the same. He and her grandmother both clap.
"Amazing, Chiasa-chan! Pretty soon, you'll be able to go home!"
The word makes Chiasa freeze.
(Home? She didn't have a home. Did she ever have a home?)
Her grandmother beams, crushing Chiasa in a hug. Chiasa stiffens, but doesn't push the woman away.
(Physical touch still makes her nauseous. But with Elena, it isn't as bad. The woman smells like cinnamon and her touch is always gentle.)
Elena has been smiling at her a lot now. It's warm, open, and it makes Chiasa feel like she is actually a good person. She doesn't want to lose that.
"It's not much, but I have a tiny apartment," Elena says, her face warm. "If you're fine with that, Chiasa."
(A few months ago she would've said no. She would've laughed in the woman's face.)
But because Chiasa is trying to be good, worthy of Elena's smile, she nods her head.
(The woman had said Chiasa could call her Abuela. Chiasa decides to shorten it.)
"I'm fine with that, Abbi."
(The list of medications they give her upon leaving the hospital are astonishing to say the least. The sad thing is, even with all those pills, the pain on her back still remains.)
Chiasa is discharged on August 27th, a full year after waking up. Her white hair-it used to be black-has now grown down to her mid back, gaining some curls along the way. Her blue eyes-red, they used to be red-are sharp and piercing.
She is now thirteen years old.
Whenever Chiasa looks in the mirror, she feels as if she is looking at an imposter. This is not her. So she resolves to avoid mirrors as much as possible.
"Abbi," Chiasa says to Elena as they make it into their apartment.
(Their apartment. Both of theirs. The thought makes Chiasa feel strange and floaty.)
"Yes, Chiasa?"
Chiasa bites her lip. "I want a haircut. Do you think you could give me one?"
Elena smiles and nods her head. "You're asking the right person. Whatever style you want, you'll get."
Chiasa fiddles with her ears, pointed like an elf. "Piercings too. Lots of them."
Elena laughs nervously at that, but eventually nods her head. "Maybe we can just start off with one on each ear?"
Elena's apartment is in Musutafu. It's a nice area, mostly quiet.
"The neighbors are all so nice! You'll love it here," Elena tells her, chipper as always. Chiasa bites down on her lip.
(Good. She is trying to be good.)
The first neighbor she meets is entirely unimpressive.
He's a skinny little thing with green eyes, freckles, and even greener hair. He's in a middle school uniform. He smiles at Elena, but freezes at the sight of Chiasa.
Elena beams at him. "Izuku-kun! I hope you had a nice day at school."
'Izuku' nods his head, blushing slightly as he avoids Chiasa's gaze. The girl frowns at that.
(Was it because she used a walking stick? Was she too strange for him?)
"This is my granddaughter, Chiasa," Elena explains, giving Chiasa a slight push forward. "She won't be going to school with you, but you're both around the same age. Please take care of her."
Izuku hurriedly nods his head, face still slightly red. "O-of course!"
Izuku meets her gaze head on. Chiasa squints at him, causing him to inch back.
(How was he of all people supposed to take care of her?)
But, because Chiasa is trying to be good, she doesn't say anything to the boy. She nods her head and turns away from him.
She just wants a quiet life. That is all she wants.
(Elena gives her a pair of black gloves to wear once they enter the apartment. They reach halfway up to her elbow.
"I know you don't like touching things, or people for that matter, so these can help," the woman had said with the warmest smile.
If Chiasa were normal, she probably would've hugged Elena. But if she were normal, she wouldn't have needed the gloves in the first place.)
"This used to be Manny's room," Elena says, looking over Chiasa's new room with misty eyes.
Manuel. Her father who she could not remember.
(Green eyes. He had green eyes just like-)
The room had posters of heroes plastered all over the walls. Vintage heroes such as Crimson Riot, Gran Torino, even All Might in his prime when he first debuted.
The sight makes Chiasa sick. "Could we take the posters off?"
Elena looks a bit surprised, but nods her head. "Of course! I'm sure you'll want to make the room your own. Your father was obsessed with heroes as a kid."
(Her father. Her father.)
"Could you tell me about him?" Chiasa asks, still staring up at the posters. Elena's eyes widen. Eventually, the elderly woman bobs her head.
"I'd love nothing more."
(That night, as Elena makes dinner, she tells Chiasa everything she can about Manuel Solano. About how they moved to Japan from Mexico when he was only five. How he would always use his ambient quirk to make Elena feel better after a hard day of work at the salon. How he was a huge hero nerd. How he wanted to be a detective capable of supporting heroes. How he was one of the best people you could ever know.)
(Chiasa asks Elena about her mother, and the woman closes up.
"Nadeshiko was a good woman," Elena says simply. "I didn't know her very well, or at all, to be honest, but if your father chose her then she must have been."
Elena gives nothing more. Even though she desperately wants to, Chiasa does not ask again.)
When Chiasa rolls up her father's old posters, Elena makes the mistake of asking her why she hates them so much.
Chiasa hums. "It's all a sham, Abbi."
"What is Chiasa-chan?"
"Heroes. Saviors. None of that is real."
Elena feels her mouth go dry.
Manny had loved heroes, believed in them more than anything. She had hoped his daughter would be the same. Full of hope and optimism.
She remembers how small Chiasa had looked in her hospital bed. How bitter she had been and how she had every right to be.
"If heroes existed, true heroes, then how come none of them could save me?" Chiasa asks her. Elena does not have an answer.
The girl has a calm smile on her face, and Elena thinks this is the most unsettling smile Chiasa has ever had.
"I hate heroes," Chiasa says softly, tossing the posters in a storage bin. "I truly despise them."
A knock on the door causes Chiasa to grit her teeth as she forces herself to get up. The scars on her back are acting up more than usual and her body is aching all over. She desperately wants to punch something.
Elena is at the hair salon for the first time in months. She had looked excited to finally be going back, so Chiasa had said nothing to stop her.
She opens the door, only to see Izuku Midoriya trembling in front of her. A cake in his hands.
"M-my mother wanted me to bring this to you," he stammers, not meeting her gaze. "We heard you had been in the hospital. We're sorry we didn't do anything earlier."
The cake had 'Congrats! You made it!' written on it in obnoxious bright green frosting.
Chiasa stares down at the cake before staring back up at Izuku. His stupid green eyes and stupid freckles make her want to curse. They make something inside of her revolt.
Chiasa decides to make small talk with him because she is trying to be good. "You must not have a lot of friends," she says rather bluntly, causing the boy to wilt.
(Was that not the best thing to say? Chiasa needed to work on her social skills.)
"N-no. Not exactly," Izuku says softly. Chiasa scowls at that.
Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.
"How spectacular," she drawls, snatching the cake from his hands. She grabs onto his shirt, and pulls him into the apartment ignoring his screams. "Neither do I."
When Elena comes home from the salon, the first thing she sees is Chiasa sitting down in the living room, her walking stick right beside her, having a rather heated argument with Izuku Midoriya of all people-who she had always thought to be rather shy and mild mannered.
"How can you say that about All Might?!" the boy asks, looking as if someone had killed his cat. "He's been the number one hero for decades!"
Chiasa shrugs her shoulders, shoving a piece of cake into her mouth. "I don't care how hard he punches things. His fashion sense sucks and that hairstyle is atrocious. I saw one of his interviews earlier and that bright yellow suit made me wanna vomit."
"That's his signature suit! And it looked nice on him!"
"Did it?" Chiasa asks, giving him a measured look. "Did it really?"
Izuku looks about ready to foam out the mouth.
Elena decides it's time for her to intervene. "Izuku-kun, it's getting late don't you think?"
The boy snaps his head up, his eyes widening as he looks out of the window. "Sorry, Solano-san!" He gets up to leave, stopping as Chiasa calls out to him.
"I hate heroes with a passion," Chiasa drawls, licking the frosting off her fingers. Elena cringes and resolves to talk to the girl about her table manners later.
Izuku freezes, clenching his fists at his side as Chiasa sits up a bit straighter.
"I hate heroes, but hearing you try to defend them is pretty funny. Come back once in a while."
Izuku nods his head, his eyes brighter than Elena has ever seen them. He smiles at Chiasa.
"Of course!"
"Izuku-kun doesn't have many friends," Elena tells Chiasa later that night while the girl helps her wash the dishes.
Chiasa snorts. "Yeah, I could tell. He's pretty lame."
"Chiasa~" Elena sings, causing the girl to wince.
"Sorry, not lame. Just… different. He's interesting in a weird kind of way."
Elena hums. "Yes. He's quirkless, so people look down on him for it."
Elena waits. Waits to see if Chiasa will make a jab at the boy for being quirkless, because even though she loves her granddaughter, she also knows the girl can be a bit lacking when it comes to sympathy. Through no fault of her own.
(The girl had lost a majority of her memories. Her body had been changed in ways Elena could never understand. Yet she was still trying.)
Chiasa shrugs her shoulders. "Having a quirk is overrated. If anything, that makes him more interesting."
Elena heaves a sigh of relief.
(Thank God.)
"Be good to him," Elena says. "I'm sure talking to a pretty girl like you will raise his confidence in no time."
Chiasa scrunches her face up as Elena laughs.
When the winter season arrives, Chiasa gets a home tutor. Someone that will be able to get her up to par so that she can go to highschool with her peers.
(She wants to go to highschool with Izuku, although she'll never tell the boy as much. She just hopes he'll get UA off of his mind.)
She once again asks Elena how she is paying for everything.
The woman smiles and taps her nose. "Don't worry, Chiasa-chan. Leave it to the adult."
Chiasa scowls, but asks nothing more.
The tutor goes over all the basics with her. Math, English, Science, History. Chiasa excels in everything.
(It's almost as if everything is hardwired into her brain. She doesn't even need the tutor to teach her; she simply knows it already.)
Chemistry is her favorite. For some reason, the subject speaks to her. She even corrects the tutor when it comes to certain equations.
Eventually, the tutor gives up.
"I have nothing left to teach her," the man says a few months into the job. "This girl is ready for high school, college even."
Chiasa preens at the praise, relishes in it, as Elena claps her hands.
Chiasa wants to fly.
She can't even remember flying, or what the sensation felt like; all she knows is that she wants it more than anything.
The scars on her back ache.
She tells Izuku this one day as they walk to the corner store. Elena doesn't like Chiasa going out too much, or at all; but if it's with Izuku, the woman is fine for some reason.
(Chiasa really didn't understand. Chiasa could snap Izuku in half, literally. If anything, she was the one protecting him.)
Izuku hums at that, completely serious. That's one of the things Chiasa likes about him. He takes everything she tells him seriously.
(Chiasa missed her wings. Desperately.)
Izuku perks up. "Why not try and build a pair?"
Chiasa blinks up at him.
She likes to think that Izuku is smart. Smarter than most. But then he goes and says something like that.
"How the hell am I supposed to build a pair without any professional equipment?" Chiasa asks, narrowing her eyes. "Now isn't the time for jokes, Freckles."
Izuku shakes his head, his eyes bright.
"Before quirks even came into existence, before airplanes were even invented, there were two brothers who were able to fly using simple tools. We learned about it in Pre-quirk history. Why not you?"
Chiasa bites her lip, looking off to the side. "I don't know-"
"Well if it isn't Deku."
Chiasa's blood turns cold.
(Deku? Who the Hell was that?)
As Chiasa sees the look on Izuku's face, wide eyed and scared, she begins to have a sneaking suspicion that Izuku is the 'Deku' this boy refers to.
The boy in question has red eyes, spiky blonde hair, and would actually be quite nice to look at if he didn't have that ugly smile on his face. His lackies aren't even worth observing.
Explosions crackle in the boy's hands as he holds them up menacingly. He looks over at Chiasa and his smile grows even crueler. "The quirkless hero wannabe has a girlfriend?"
(Quirkless hero wannabe.)
Chiasa grips her walking stick.
She could destroy them. One punch and they would all be wiped out.
She thinks of Elena's smile and sighs.
But she is trying to be good.
With an exaggerated sigh, she falls to the ground.
"Solano-san!" Izuku calls out rushing to her side, his voice frantic. Chiasa merely moans in response.
"Help me!" she screams. "Please, help me! These boys are trying to attack me and my friend! They took my walking stick!"
Chiasa throws her walking stick at the boys, hitting one of the lackeys in the head.
The boys rear back as the owner of the convenience store begins to walk out. The ringleader with red eyes sucks his teeth as Chiasa smirks at him.
It wouldn't look good for a group of boys to be ganging up on a tiny girl. Chiasa knows how fragile she looks to most people and plans to take full advantage of the fact.
"Lets get outta here," the ringleader says to his lackeys, before giving Izuku a dirty look. "Watch your back, Deku."
Chiasa flips them all off.
As they leave, Chiasa lets out a cackling laugh. "Shitheads," she spits at their retreating backs as Izuku helps her up. She can tell the green-eyed boy is bothered by the encounter, however.
"Come on, Freckles! They deserved that-"
"I'm supposed to protect you," Izuku interrupts, his eyes downcast. "But you ended up protecting me."
Izuku walks over to pick up Chiasa's walking stick, handing it back to her gently. He closes his eyes. "I really am a worthless Deku."
Chiasa looks up at him and folds her arms. She grabs him by the scruff of his shirt.
"Why the Hell would I hang out with a worthless Deku?" Chiasa asks him, more than a little annoyed. "Say something that stupid again and I'll throw you in the ocean."
"But-"
"But nothing. What kind of insult is 'Deku' anyway? It's so stupid," Chiasa says, balancing on her walking stick. "Don't let someone as pathetic as that boss you around. If he bothers you again, I'll shove my walking stick up his ass. Lets see how well he can use those stupid explosions then."
Izuku watches her as she goes, eyes wide. He smiles slightly as he hurries to catch up with her.
"Thank you, Solano-san."
"Chiasa. I already told you to call me Chiasa."
"What hairstyle would you like?"
Elena's hair salon is small, smelling of multiple chemicals that make Chiasa's heightened nose burn.
It's small, but it has the same feeling of warmth that Elena embodies.
The person giving her the haircut is a young woman named Fuuka, who sports multiple piercings and smells of cherry blossoms.
Chiasa leans back, her walking stick placed between her legs as she mulls the question over.
(Something different. Something new.)
Chiasa pulls out the new phone Elena had gotten her-not too expensive, but practical-and pulls up a picture.
Fuuka lets out a whistle. "Elena-san won't like that," the woman grins down at her. "Let's do it."
Elena's jaw drops when she sees Chiasa.
The left side of the girl's head is partially shaved, white curls spilling over the right side of her head.
Elena grits her teeth. "Fuuka! I said nothing too crazy!"
Fuuka shrugs her shoulders, sweeping any leftover hair from the floor. "I gave the customer what she wanted, Elena-san. You said to make her happy."
"I know what I said-"
Chiasa tunes them out. For the first time in months, Chiasa forces herself to look in the mirror.
(Imposter. Fake. This isn't you.)
Something warm trickles down her cheeks, causing Elena and Fuuka to both stop arguing as they gape at her.
She has freckles. Multiple freckles scattered across the bridge of her nose. A beauty mark under her left eye.
Her eyes-red, they used to be red-are blue and blazing. Something that no longer makes her want to cringe when she stares into them for too long.
Her bottom lip trembles as she lets out a sob.
This is me, she thinks as her chest heaves.
"I love it," she whimpers, her gloved hands reaching up to cover her face.
After her outburst of emotion in the salon, Elena has no problem with Chiasa getting a few piercings. Anything to make her feel whole.
"Izuku," Chiasa asks him one night as the boy goes over his homework. "Did you know I have freckles too?"
Izuku stares at her, eyes narrowing as if he's trying to decipher some kind of puzzle, before simply nodding his head. "Of course, they're hard to miss."
Chiasa lets out a loud booming laugh.
(She had freckles.)
Green eyes, curly brown hair, and a crooked smile.
("You can do it, Asa-chan!")
Her father had freckles too.
Chiasa continues to laugh as Izuku worryingly asks her if she's alright.
She responds by falling off the chair and cackling on the floor.
Chiasa's urge to fly grows even stronger.
"It's your mutation quirk," Izuku tells her, his eyes bright. "Bats aren't meant to be on the ground. Your body must be rebelling."
Even though he says this with such a bright-eyed look on his face, practically sparkling as he always did when talking about quirks, the thought makes Chiasa feel a bit sick.
(Rebelling.)
Izuku catches himself, waving his hands in front of his face. "I didn't mean to be so morbid! It's just-"
"I know, I know," Chiasa replies, shoving his shoulder. "You get all worked up when it comes to quirks of any kind. Nothing wrong with that."
Chiasa is the same way. Even though the idea of this superhero society that Izuku seems to love sickens her to no end, she finds quirks fascinating. She always ends up analyzing them.
Elena has the ability to calm people down with a touch. Much like Manuel, she can insert certain chemicals into an individual's body to make them more relaxed.
Chiasa's quirk apparently works in a different way.
While she has her mother's mutation quirk and her father's ability to influence emotions, her quirk isn't as gentle or 'civilized'.
"You need to bite people?" Izuku asks, face flaming as she tells him. Chiasa nods her head, pulling her lollipop out of her mouth with a pop.
Apparently, according to a letter Manuel had sent to Elena, when she had been five years old-when her parents were still alive, when she had wings, before everything went to shit-she had found out about the second aspect of her quirk by biting one of the neighbor kids on the farm. Even though she hadn't completely understood it at the time, she had been able to make the kid a lot happier. More upbeat.
Izuku starts muttering to himself. "It's an intriguing ability, but it's not exactly something you can test out on regular people. I wonder if-"
"Izuku," Chiasa calls out, lightly bopping him on the head. "You're doing it again."
The boy blushes even more, rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry."
Chiasa finishes what is remaining of her lollipop, throwing the stick into the trash can with startling precision. "Besides, I don't really care about any of this stuff. Unless you're a hero, your quirks don't really matter anyway."
(Chiasa had no intention of ever being a hero.)
"But it's a part of who you are!" Izuku interjects, his eyes fierce. "Shouldn't you want to know everything you possibly can about it?"
(A cackling laugh. "47! Come on!")
Chiasa shakes her head. "I think it's better to remain ignorant about certain things."
Izuku purses his lips, gripping at the handle of his schoolbag.
"Chiasa-san," he starts off. "Don't you think you're just running away?"
Chiasa stops dead in her tracks.
(Red eyes identical to her own. Soft smiles. "Chiasa-chan. It's better to just face things head on.")
She grips her walking stick.
"No," she eventually says, after moments of silence. "I don't think I am."
Elena holds out a tiny box in front of her, something dusty and worn.
Chiasa opens them, only to see a pair of golden earrings shaped like sabers.
"They were your mother's," her grandmother says, pursing her lips. "I-I figured you would want them too."
Chiasa puts the earrings on, along with her multiple other piercings, and closes her eyes.
(Gentle smiles. "Chiasa, it's time to come in!")
Chiasa puts the earrings on, wrapping her arms around herself as she remembers her mother's voice.
("I love you, Chiasa.")
The memories are beginning to come back to her one by one.
Chiasa flying on a farm in Fukuoka, her father chasing after her with laughter on the tip of his tongue as her mother yells at both of them to come inside.
Chiasa watching the television set, hugging her stuffed animal-Bunny, she had called it- close, eyes sparkling as she looked at the heroes she loved. The heroes she had believed in more than anything.
A woman with dark hair, dark eyes, and an even darker soul taking all that away. A cruel smile. "Call me Madame."
Mindswipe picking her up, dusting her off, giving her a purpose. Teaching her how to make all sorts of poisons and antidotes. Teaching her how to live.
"Hanami," Mindswipe had said to her, blood trickling out of her mouth as she held onto Chiasa's hand for dear life, as the tattoo on Chiasa's back ached. "Please call me Hanami. I'm so sorry that I did this to you."
Chiasa remembers it all.
That night, when she is crying herself to sleep, when Elena is whispering comfort into her ear over trauma the woman can't even begin to understand, Chiasa finds a new purpose.
"Live safe, die forgotten," Hanami had said to her, reciting the words of the tattoo on her wrist. "Make sure you live a phenomenal life, 47. One that's worth writing stories about."
Chiasa closes her eyes, the tears still streaming down her face.
Izuku blinks as he hears something tapping against his bedroom window. It's currently three o'clock in the morning, and he doesn't understand what (or who) it could be. He closes his eyes and tries to ignore it.
His phone vibrates. As he looks at the screen, his eyes widen.
Chiasa: Wake up. I need to talk to you (*~*)
Chiasa, whom he hadn't seen in days. Whom Elena-san had said wasn't feeling well. She was currently standing out in the cold, waving at him like a maniac. Izuku immediately gets up, slipping into his shoes as he stumbles out of the door.
"Chiasa-san!" Izuku exclaims, rushing out the door and covering her in a blanket. "It's freezing out. You shouldn't-"
Chiasa grabs Izuku's hands.
(Chiasa never touched anyone. Not if she could help it. Only brief taps. But now, she was holding onto Izuku for dear life.)
"UA," Chiasa says, eyes wide. "Let's go to UA. Both of us together."
Izuku freezes, falling silent as Chiasa beams up at him. The kind of smile he had never seen on the girl before.
"I want to be able to fly again," she says. The laugh that escapes her is magical.
Chiasa is now fourteen years old and she feels as if she has something to work towards.
Author's Note: So here's the rewrite for Meraki. Chiyo is now Chiasa. There's a lot of differences from the original version, and I'm just going to say off the bat that Chiasa is not going to be a hero in this version, and has no aspiration to be a hero. Her goals will be explained more in the next chapter. I know it's been a while, and it's probably not what you guys were expecting, but I hope you are able to enjoy this version as well. The main pairing is still Momo/OC. Momo will appear in the next chapter.
The cover art is a picture of Chiasa that was done by alirienge on tumblr sometime ago.
Let's Do That Again helped me with planning out some storylines in the beginning, and Lloegyn has helped me with this chapter as well. There's a lot more people that helped me out with planning that I'll end up thanking later.
*Reviews motivate me to write more, so please leave one.