And though she be but little, she is fierce. – William Shakespeare

I thought I'd never have a kid, but I really wanted one. Beyond the normal aspects many have, I think wish fulfillment was a part of it. I wanted to save all the Eris in the world and rescue them because no one else would or could, but there was something else I… desired.

I desired to raise a soul who had a happy childhood.

My time with Father felt amazing. It was like sitting in a pool for minutes then pushing up and gasping for air. That desperate need for love wasn't there, but then it was. I NEEDED to give that feeling to someone else. I wanted to be responsible for someone who always had that breathe of fresh air… I wanted to constantly save someone before they ever got hurt.

Father laid next to me for hours as I cried silently. He never prodded, but he was there waiting for when I felt ready. Miss Nemuri simply existing did so much. She forced me to watch silly and girly movies sometimes. She pushed me to talk about my past. She gave me a role model, and to this day I'll swear she was the most amazing woman I ever got to know… Not once did she push me too hard.

Then, there was Hizashi. I first wondered why Father banned me from adding any honorific to his name. I realized why the first time I met him. I was an old soul in a young body. He was a young soul in an old body.

He's also my crazy uncle.

BREAK LOGIC

Aizawa watched his daughter. She read the Japanese to English dictionary with disturbing conviction. She never colored. She didn't play with dolls. She never laughed. He wondered what it sounded like.

Once, he muttered a quote under his breathe, and Eri heard it. She asked what he said, since he spoke in English. He explained those words meant in Japanese, and he spoke those words thinking of her. He still did. His girl had a fierceness not from violence but drive. She wanted to get better but not for her sake.

Father, I don't want to worry you. I'll get better.

She tried within the realms of her own limitations. Human interaction was still a no-go. She had three people in her circle of trust and one she tolerated. Nezu acted as her therapist while Nemuri rocketed through education and paperwork for becoming one herself. The woman also acted as a tender caregiver. Aizawa in no way deluded himself into thinking he could bake cookies for Eri without coming across as forced. As for the tolerated one, Recovery Girl had enough of a relationship with Eri to act as her doctor. She also gave the idea for Eri to work her powers on mushrooms for practice, since humans were out of the question and the girl didn't care for mushrooms besides eating them.

Perhaps her lack of friend explained why Eri concluded she must learn English at all costs so she could read Shakespeare. Her views of the world and values were dangerously underdeveloped, so she tended to copy whatever her trusted few believe. Those trusted few were an animal experimented on by humans, a woman who had a public image of a dominatrix, and Aizawa himself.

Thus, he killed two birds with one stone and told Hizashi everything. Like Eri, Aizawa trusted few. Just Nemuri and Hizashi, therefore, he trusted his friend and toddler in human flesh to help Eri. It spoke of their dire situation when the screaming radio DJ with more bling than a disco ball was called in to give Eri a normal influence.

A knock sounded from the front door. Twenty minutes late, exactly as he predicted. Aizawa suppressed a smile when he opened the front door.

"Hizashi," he greeted.

In return, Hizashi screeched, "Aizawaaaaa!" Aizawa squinted, though no one knew if it was from the blonde's bling or his sheer dazzling presence.

Eri, on the other hand, set her book down and hid under their dining room table. She made the move in one smooth motion and did so silently enough to make an assassin jealous. While most little girls learned skills like sharing toys and social norms, Eri crammed concealing herself into her head through trial and error. If Overhaul didn't think of her, maybe she'd be the tiniest bit safer.

Needless to say, Present Mic fell short of a good first impression, and the blonde recognized that.

The father rubbed his forehead. "Eri, meet Hizashi, otherwise known as Present Mic. I've been cursed with knowing this man for over a decade. Hizashi, meet Eri."

"Heyyyyyy, little listener!" Even though he had no clue where the girl hid, he spoke anyway. "I'm gonna be your DJ for the day! Aizawa and I go wayyyy back. Did ya know I was the one who chose his hero name? Yeah! I suggested Eraser Head, and he took it!"

Eri concluded the man had no intent to harm her. First, Father told her he'd be coming. Second, Father would've attacked the man if he wanted to hurt her. Third, not one villain she ever met acted anywhere close to this man. Perhaps there were criminals out there like him, but his disposition indicated he was a good, if weird, person.

Therefore, she chose to give an unbiased opinion. Father encouraged her to be honest with others and to tell them when she didn't want to talk about something. Not knowing what else to say, she noted the most obvious aspect available. "Present Mic, you talk annoyingly."

Hizashi responded with uncontrollable laughter. Eri cocked her head, confused but content with his reaction. "Are you sure she's adopted?" He got on his hands and knees to peer under the table. Gold sunglasses met red eyes. "Little listener, you're a tiny Eraser Head!"

While she didn't trust the man and it would take months for her to do so, Eri viewed that remark as one of the finest, most admirable comments she ever received.

BREAK LOGIC

Months later, she went on her first outing with Hizashi. Their destination was his territory, his home away from home. They arrived at his studio in the early hours of the morning. Despite the cold, she didn't shiver, for she wore layers as protection from the outside world and for the world from her.

Like Father, Hizashi had differing jobs than the average hero. Before school, he completed his morning radio program. During the day, he taught at U.A. along with Miss Nemuri and Father. In the afternoon and evening, he finished the rest of his show. In terms of crimes stopped or solved, he did much less than the average hero. In terms of how much he helped, fewer had more influence.

He spoke of his show regularly to her. In many ways, he acted as a free information broker. Despite the music that he played, he also hosted talk programs and commentary on the hero life. He offered glimpses into another world for his audience at large, and he accepted any information offered regardless of the sender. On dozens of occasions, a criminal organization ratted out another through him since he never searched for or prosecuted the sender. Many found defeating another gang through the radio of all things was too hilarious to resist.

Little did she know, but several of her future friends listened to his show religiously, with a certain green-haired boy as the token zealot of the lot.

Hizashi leaned on a sound board that stretched from one side of the room to the other and spoke into a microphone. His personality stayed the same from personal to public life, and Eri considered that a good thing. She merely sat in a small chair in the back of the room, watched, and listened. Neither moving nor making a sound, she could have been mistaken for a statue.

He took calls ranging from fans, song request, a hero interview, and five informants. It made no sense to Eri. How could all these unrelated people contribute to just one event? What kept them pointing in the right direction? Who were they?

She didn't know, since she didn't comprehend people. The girl clenched the folds of her skirt. Wrong. This place felt wrong, and it was wrong because she existed. Her very presence acted as an infection, a foreign entity. All she could do was look inside, but she could never touch this world. She had no power over it.

This was a happy, innocent world.

Then, everything changed. Some modern pop song blared in the background as Hizashi read his notes. The clock read four minutes until eight. He had enough time to say one more thing or play one more song before the morning's elegy finished. What will he do?

He muted his microphone and spun around in his chair. "Hey little listener!" He smiled in childlike glee. "What's your favorite tune?"

She titled her head to the side. "Favorite?"

"A song that speaks to ya!" He shakes his head. "Don't tell me the old cat won't let his kid listen to music!"

Father did let her listen to anything, but she gravitated to older pieces. The closer to Shakespeare the better, and electronic-sounding instruments reminded her of being captive. They had machine-like sounds, so she gravitated to solely acoustic instruments.

As for a song that spoke to her… "Lacrimosa, from Mozart's Requiem. Thank you."

"Ahhhh…. Okay!" He pulled out his laptop and typed with near superhuman speed. He didn't have that song nor expected her to make that request, but he decided to get it for her in time. He finished with seconds to spare and turned on his microphone. "Okay listeners! We have a special request from a special little listener, so we'll be ending on a rad note this morning!"

And thus, the station that played pop music, hosted talk shows, and gave commentary played a song written hundreds of years ago for a funeral.

The lyrics were composed in Latin, but she knew the translation by heart. It was somber, haunting. It reverberated in the darkest parts of the soul and fought to bring weeping tears to one's eye. She empathized with the sound. She yearned for the lyrics.

Mournful that day.

When from the ashes shall rise

A guilty man to be judged.

Lord, have mercy on him.

Gentle Lord Jesus,

Grant them eternal rest.

Amen.

She didn't deserve such a glorious fate, but she desired it. Those guilty souls stood before all that was right in the world, and that righteousness sentenced them for their crimes… The guilty atoned for their sins at last.

Eri wanted her atonement for her sins, her damnation.

She was seven.

BREAK LOGIC

Most children would ask why they sat in a car for hours. Most children would feel fear at being away from their parent. Not Eri. She knew they'd reach their destination regardless of whether she was told, and Miss Nemuri drove the car. If Midnight was with her, how could she be in danger, especially if they haven't been around other people?

The air conditioning blew in her face as she stared out the side window. The familiar landscape of the city fell to pasturelands, and the pasturelands fell to a forest. Again, most children saw forests as scary. They thought monsters and demons lived in the green-tinted shadows, but Eri knew the real monsters dwelt inside everyone. How else could men torture her, a little girl? How else could she have murdered her father and the old woman?

To Eri, the idea of a forest stood akin to a fortress of isolation. People couldn't hurt her, and she couldn't hurt the people.

They pulled into a park which lied under a mountain. Now, the mountain was nothing more than a small hill, but Eri hadn't seen actual mountains to compare. This was her first trip ever.

Miss Nemuri stepped out of the car and made her way to Eri's side. She unbuckled the girl and set her on the ground. The bluenette watched her other main guardian besides Father with interest. Did they come to this location for learning or recreational purposes? When Miss Nemuri pulled a picnic basket from her car's trunk, it confirmed the latter.

"I've never had a picnic before. Are they fun?" she asked.

Midnight nodded. "Yup! Great date material too, so pay attention when you find that special someone."

Eri nodded, not sure with exactly what the woman meant but assumed she would with age. "We could eat on that bench." She pointed to a wooded bench that seemed suited for meals. No one thought her actions odd since only the two of them were there. The woman took a day off in the middle of the week, so they had the part to themselves.

"Nope!" She pointed to the top of the mountain. "We'll eat there!"

Eri titled her head. "But, why climb it?"

"Because it's there!"

And so, they did. All the while, Eri pondered Miss Nemuri's words. The girl never took an action without reason. She studied in school to make Father proud. She listened to music to better understand human creativity. She learned English to read Shakespeare, and she wanted to read Shakespeare since Father knew it enough to quote it once. It had to be super amazing, right?

Midnight, on the other hand, took action for the sake of taking it. She wanted to climb the mountain. She wanted to help Eri. She like conspiring with Hizashi to find new ways to annoy Father.

She wondered which could be considered normal.

When they reached the top, Miss Nemuri opened the basket. She took out two sandwiches and a bag of apples, Eri's favorite food. Even so, the girl payed no heed to the food, for she realized that she stood between heaven and earth.

An endless expanse stretched out before her. In the heavens, opaque clouds dotted the azure sky. The sun hung overhead and made her squint. On the earth, a forest of green melted into pasturelands of gold and jade. A small lake glistened silver and trickled into a meandering stream.

In this moment, Eri understood breathtaking beauty.

"Miss Nemuri, why did the world become so pretty?" She stood and stared, not knowing how to respond to such a foreign situation.

"It's always been like this." Her guardian for the day set a red and white blanket on the ground.

"Really?" She titled her head to the side and reevaluated how she saw the world. She knew the darkness of man and the indifference of the metropolitan jungle. She understood the safety that stayed in the wilderness but not the beauty. If she missed that, what else hid itself in the world?

The girl felt a hand rest on her shoulder. "The world is still beautiful even if you don't see it." The woman chuckles. "Or, to put it in terms you'd like more…" She changed to speaking in English. "There are more things to heaven and Earth, Eri, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Though she only comprehended part of it, her eyes lit like the sparkling waters. "Shakespeare?"

Miss Nemuri lifted the girl and sat her down on the red and white blanket with tender care. "It's in Hamlet. But now, let's eat!"

And thus, they did. Even though the meal was entirely Western, thereby more unfamiliar to the girl, she enjoyed it. She ate three apples and would've consumed more but didn't want to risk an upset stomach on the hike downwards. On her third apple, she saw ants marching in lines. One line went towards a large bread crumb that fell from her sandwich. The other branched onto a more concerning site.

A ladybug beetle twitched as ants carried her off toward wherever they called home. Eri swallowed and bit her lip. She didn't know her body tensed and her hand clenched, but Miss Nemuri did.

"Eri, are you alright?" She already knew the answer. Of course Eri wasn't alright nor had she been alright for years, yet something disturbed the girl more than normal. The woman wanted to know what it was to help the child. Why would a hero not help such a soul?

"The ladybug." She pointed at the scene. "I want to save her."

"Then do."

"But, the ants need to eat. If I save the beetle, the ants would starve. If I let the ants take her, then the beetle would die." She unclenched her hand. "Do I have the right to intervene? Both are bugs, so they think the same. One doesn't mean more than the other. Is it wrong for me to choose the winner?"

Miss Nemuri took a moment to gather her thoughts. The girl before her had more trauma than most heroes had in a lifetime, but she still was just seven. She switched between scared, passive, and thoughtful at almost random intervals. It often resulted in the oddest conversations.

Eri's personality could be best described as a sponge. Very little of Eri was Eri. She liked Shakespeare because Aizawa showed the smallest of interest in him. She calculated and thought because her father did the same. She willingly talked to her trusted few because Midnight and Present Mic did so. She cared about the wellbeing of others because everyone she knew was a hero. None of them knew if Eri would've developed that way without them.

Midnight didn't know how to respond. In heroics, the law trumped good and evil, and it made the greyest of situations oftentimes clear. If not, higher powers punted the problem off to the courts. In this situation, no law applied to the grey girl's grey situation.

Miss Nemuri, on the other hand, knew exactly what to do. She handed her a piece of bread. "Sometimes, you can save everyone."

Eri, being Aizawa's daughter as thus oddly intelligent, understood what the woman inferred. With one hand, she picked up the ladybug. With the other, she put a crumb down on the ants. The little creatures scurried, but within a few minutes they'll reform their line. Eri walked to a bush and placed the beetle on a leaf.

"Thank you, Mo-" Eri paused and blushed. "Miss Nemuri."

The woman smiled at their unspoken but understood relationship. "Anytime, Eri."

She pat the girl on her head, a daughter in all but name.

BREAK LOGIC

"Father, why doesn't the world know about you?"

Aizawa stopped in the doorway and looked back at his daughter. She hadn't moved, still tucked in her bed. Her eyes changed from dreary to alert.

"How did you hear that?" He felt certain about the answer. Today was the first day of school which meant orientations for most. For his class, it meant he expelled four of them. Another twelve probably won't last the month. Though, three of the expelled students transferred to general education. The last was expelled from the school, since he gave a new meaning to the word idiot.

"I… I was with Recovery Girl when four students came in and needed healing. They didn't see me since I sat on a bed with the curtain drawn. They…" He saw the confusion in her eyes. "They said 'Who does that no-name Eraser Head think he is? Expelling us? I'll tell my father, and he'll suffer.' Why don't they know about the best hero ever?"

Right. He expelled the two recommendation students. One was the idiot. The other has a chip on his shoulder the size of Hizashi's hair. His daughter, on the other hand, proved how well should could remember details when it mattered to her.

"The public has almost no idea I exist. Many heroes don't unless I worked with them before."

"Why?" She sat up in bed. He'll have to tuck her in again later. "Shouldn't everyone know about the nicest hero ever?"

Nicest… He wondered what last year's students would've said after hearing that. "I'm underground. My Quirk uses surprise, so the fewer people who know about me, the better." Eri nodded at his logic. "Plus, what would fame give me? Money? Fans? Neither saves people."

"So, if Overh-" She shook her head. "If that bad man knew about your Quirk, he could've… could've…"

He intervened before she worded her thoughts. "Maybe, but real heroes aren't one-trick ponies. I would've found a way to save you. I'm sure."

"Does it bother you? No one recugnizes… rekicnizes… Um…"

"Recognizes." He smiled.

"Thank you. No one recognizes all the work you've done and all the people you've saved." Her words sounded sad.

He shrugged. "It doesn't bother me, not really. I try not to care about what strangers think of me. It is illogical to think their opinion matters when they know next to nothing about me, but for the people that do know me, I care. That tells me how others who do understand me think of me."

She pushed her covers off and stood with total conviction. "I think you're the best father ever!"

He disagreed but didn't voice that opinion. Taking care of a child was difficult, and he took a child who was distorted. Despite his best efforts, his little girl remained… off in many ways. She tried to hide it from him, but he knew she hated and blamed herself for her accidental deaths. She hated being away from her trusted few and despised talking to new people. Every other night, she woke up screaming or sobbing. She had no friends her age nor did she want any.

Even so, she believed he was the best father ever. Instead of correcting her error, he walked to her bed and gently tucked her back under the covers. "Thank you, Eri." He patted her head and headed away from her.

In while leaving the room, Eri blurted, "I love you." Immediately, she gasped and hid her head under the blankets. She never told him that before.

Not wanting to push the girl but also desiring to give his approval, he said one thing before closing the door. "I love you. Always have. Always will."

BREAK LOGIC

No matter how many years passed, Eri remembered that moment in perfect clarity. She could feel her heart tighten and her breathing freeze from unimaginable terror. It fully eclipsed the worst moments of her torture or any injury she sustained during her career. Her fear held no logic, no reason.

Cognitively, she knew her father loved her and wouldn't disapprove of her statement. Emotionally, the thought of him rejecting her horrified the girl because she believed he should. She brought nothing but more troubles to her hero, and she was a villain. A hero's duty was to stop villains, and she murdered two people with her Quirk. She had more in common with a ticking time bomb than a real girl.

So, when he told her those words, a sense of jubilation washed over her. He dispelled every fear of disapproval or rejection because Father NEVER lied to her. He lied to others, but he told her nothing but the blatant truth. She had no fear of deception from Father.

Therefore, when he told her that he loved her and will continue to love her no matter what happens, she accepted it as reality. Two plus two was four. Water was wet. Father loved her.

That night, she cried herself to sleep. She cried out of happiness.

Perhaps that was why Eri said those very words almost a decade and a half later. She felt exhausted beyond belief. Her body glistened with sweat, and her mind blurred from exhaustion. She hardly noticed the doctors around her or the worried but relieved man beside her.

Instead, she recalled Father's words and focused on the screaming soul in her arms. On top of her head was a horn, indicating a similar fate to hers.

Even so, Eri beamed in euphoria and cooed, "I love you. Always have. Always will, my daughter."