It had already been week since that Hayase kid had messaged Tsukauchi that she wanted to be a hero and he couldn't help but stare at those very words with a smile forming on his lips. He remembered the day when the accident happened, the girl was barely talking and afraid of everyone, opting on running upwards on her invisible stairs high above them just to avoid being reached.
She was unreachable, literally and methaphorically. It took a lot of patience and time for her to trust them. Most of the officers that were assigned to them were ready to give up but he didn't. He kept telling himself to hold on for one more day. One more day. One more day. Until those days turned into months and those months almost to a year.
Until finally, the day that he was waiting for came. It came to him in the form of a silent call and a reach of a hand. The once closed off girl had finally accepted their help and he almost cried in happiness when it was his hand that she took.
Tsukauchi was thankful to be the very person she trusted first. He was thankful of everything. He was thankful that that hurt girl was smiling now and he was thankful that she finally found the courage to send him messages--but for the love of God! Kid, please stop blowing up my phone with rants EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
He wanted to cry as his thumb swiped the screen then an unending flood of messages, short and long started following after, again and again to what seemed like a loop of complaints about the part-timer in their convinient store to the boring classes in school, to plans on how to become a hero and when he finally came to the very end--he knew, he just knew that the kid was preparing a whole new messege to send to him from her side of the phone.
--
Yuri was taking a long time to come to the store. Again. Fuyuki wished that she'd hurry up, all the waiting she'd been doing was making her antsy that she's thinking about following up the complain text that she just sent to Detective Tsukaichi.
She couldn't help but to complain about this to someone. Yes, she knew Yuki's taking make up classes after school but she could atleast walk faster on the way here or forget walking, she could run.
Mr. and Mrs. Aoki owned a small convinient store and she helped out atleast until Yuri, the-always-late-highschool-part-timer came. And oh God, how much she wanted to complain about her always late entrance, there was even a time where she stood her up and she ended up standing in the register for the whole day until closing time.
She better not do that again.
She needed all the time she could get to go out and scope out fights. She's not the kind of person who would charge headfirst in a fight, no. She'd rather be in the sidelines, prefferably unseen by anyone who's fighting with a notebook on her hand, taking notes on their fighting techniques-- because what's better way to learn than to watch the action happen right before your eyes?
Youtube fighting tutorials are getting worse these days and she was always left baffled staring at the screen wondering how the hell they did that move. It was like they blipped into that stance, not even showing how they ended up there! Surely, they've left out some steps 'cause that's not supposed to happen.
She contemplated whether to find a new channel to watch on youtube or to add a new complain to the detective.
Nah. She'd rather complain.
She shoot another message to the Detective and the door of the store opened the same time she got the notification that the messaged had been received.
"I'm late!" Yuri announced, her steps small but rapid towards the employee's locker room.
Fuyuki pouted. "Boo! You don't even say sorry about it anymore."
"I know!" Yuri yelled from the locker room. Fuyuki pouted even more with her brows coming together at the same time. She could hear the laugh from her voice. She was proud of it and wasn't she taking a bit too long to change her clothes?
There were moments where she could wait silently but there were times where she had to just take out the bell from under the counter and hit it several times until the ringing was a continues assualt to her ears and to those who around her.
Thankfully, it was only her that was in the store and the certain somene who's probably hearing it was--
"Okay! Okay, I get it!" she ran out of the locker room, buttoning the last button of her light green shirt, that was the standard employee uniform of the store. She was wearing one but she always matched hers with a black hat that covered most of her face. She always did this so that she's always ready to go outside and right about now she's about to bolt right out the door.
"I'm just messing with you, geez!" Yuri said as she flicked the collar of her uniform to its proper place. Fuyuki didn't stop ringing the bell until Yuki was in the register. When she's finally there, Fuyuki hid the bell under one of its compartments below the counter again and rushed out of the register, going around Yuki that's may or may not purposely blocking her way.
"You know what? That bell should be taken care of. And by taken care of I mean--" She made a slicing motion by her neck while making a glutural sound from her throat.
Fuyuki looked at her with deadpanned eyes. "You know that's not mine, right?"
"Oh, shit. It's business property?!"
"Yep, the best one there is!" Fuyuki laughed.
"God, I hate that bell!" Yuri huffed and Fuyuki just shook her head at her fondly.
"Do you happen to pass by any fights today?" Fuyuki asked.
"Yes, I happen to pass by fights like every single day." Yuri rolled her eyes, her hand busy trying to arrange what's left on top of the counter.
"Where?" Fuyuki asked, her steps halting front of the counter.
Yuri paused. "You know... you don't have to scope out gang fights just to learn how to fight. You should just settle with youtube."
"I'm already doing youtube. It's just not enough." Fuyuki whined as she splattered herself faceflat on the counter.
"I have some fliers for karate school?"
"Don't have the money," Fuyuki murmured. "I'll just think of something."
--
Yuri stared down at the blob of human head in front of her. It was an actual idiot blob and she wanted to poke it.
She did poke it with a bored expression and the sensation she felt upon touching it further cement that--that yes, it has a thick skull and there's no getting through it. Yuri sighed. She guessed she should just give up.
"Okay, just make sure to keep out of fights. The fight that I saw earlier is around that abandoned building near your middle school."
"Got it!" Fuyuki finally lifted her head and stretched her arms to reach her hoddie that's underneath the counter.
Yuri hummed in annoyance when she grabbed at everything but could still grab nothing so she just pushed it into her hand and called it a day.
"Thanks!" Fuyuki beamed at her as she put on her black hoodie on top of her store uniform and fixed her hat above her face.
"Bye, Yuri! Take care of Sachiko for me!" She ran out the door, the bell on top of it ringing as it opened and closed.
"I'm not a babysitter, you know!" Yuri yelled after her.
"Thanks! Love you!" Fuyuki yelled back, her voice muffled from being outside. Yuri shook her head fondly as she watched her go.
That idiot's answer didn't even matched what she said.
--
Fuyuki was overjoyed to be finally outside. She loved the feeling of wind against her face as she ran fast, loved how her unzipped hoodie flapped by her sides, loved how light she felt.
Okay, maybe she's a bit over overjoyed as she let out a little whoop. She ran faster and faster, heading into the nearest alleyway and coming out of the other end literally running towards the sky, stepping on something no one but her could see.
To her eyes, the transparent light pink platforms are visible. It formed a neat alignment in front of her, mimicking a stair. A lot of people always get jumpscares whenever she does that. Said she was levitating. But really she's not. She's just stepping on something invisible making it look like she's walking on the sky.
She couldn't just walk up the sky right from the streets. Illegal usage of quirks was still a thing so she atleast try to hide her starting point. And if she was already on the sky, she makes it fast and makes sure she's on a height enough so that she wouldn't get caught in the people's peripheral vision.
But there was one time where a hero noticed her.
He was wearing all black and had a yellow googles. She may or may not know who the hero is. She would never be sure if he is who she think he is until he uses his quirk on her. She had an inkling feeling that it was erasure and if he did used it on her, she would probably come falling right off the sky. But he didn't and just proceeded on yelling at her from the rooftops--which she felt bad for because she really couldn't hear what he's saying and just acted as if she heard the whole thing.
She learned that day that going out at night should be minimized--not stopped-- just minimized (some of the coolest fights happens at night and she couldn't pass up on that).
Once she reached the height she needed she took a deep breath. The air was thinner up there but it is where it is most cleanest. There was a thin wisp of white just a shy away from the top of her head and she relished the feeling of freedom. She's surrounded with blue, the grays of the city left behind underneath the soles of her shoes and as soon as the wind settled she sprinted towards her destination.
It didn't took her too long to find the abandoned building Yuri had told her about and sure enough, there was a commotion already happening down there.
She usually perch herself on top of a roof or behind a tree but something feels different. There wasn't actually a fight so she just had to make sure it wasn't a beatdown of some kind and made a complete landing on the ground, circling the perimeter until she's just a few meters away with nothing but trash cans hiding her from them.
She almost scrapped out the idea of it being an actual bullying until someone literally flew.
She just saw a blur of green head pass in front of her and made an impact on the other end, probably hitting the rusty metal wall of the aged building.
The banging made her grimaced as her eyes kept track of the blond boy with hands that's popping out with small explosions.
He was laughing with his lackeys following right behimd him and he was geeting closer to the green haired boy again.
The boy looked scared, his shoulders trembling as the explosion guy gradually closed off the distance between them. The boy didn't look like the type to seek out after school fights. He looked soft with his freckled cheeks, his emerald eyes looked kind even if it was overshadowed with fear.
Fuyuki gritted her teeth. This was nothing but bullying. She could respect a fair fight with both fists coming from both sides, but this? This had to be stopped.
Fuyuki's blue eyes became sharp with anger, she stood up from her hiding spot, took a deep breath but before the words could even come out of her mouth, someone came flying with their flying kick, hitting the blomd square at his face.
Everyone was rendered speechless and Fuyuki's words died out of her mouth now that it's hanging open.
The guy that came in wore a tight bun of orange hair on top of his head and his unbuttoned gakuran swayed in the air, His stance wide, welcoming trouble.
Trouble came headfirst in the form of the blond as he came right back up again, screaming as he ran towards him. The bun guy braced for a tackle but the blond had added explosions to his arms sending him flying with all its impact.
"Watch out!" Fuyuki called, her legs moved on its own, placing her between of the green haired boy and the bun guy, that's about to come crashing down the already beat up greenette.
She was about to create a protective screen in front of her but she stopped, thinking a sudden contact to a solid surface midair would hurt the bun guy more so she did what's best and opened up her arms, catching the guy's back as he touched down aggressively.
Fuyuki yelped at the force of collision. She was pushed back several meters along with the guy with his shoulder blades digging into her chest, her breath was knocked out of her and her thighs are skidding on the rough earth. She didn't expect it would be this strong.
It was strong and no one had prepared her for the impact that came with her back actually hitting the wall the green boy had hit earlier.
Her breath was caught in her throat and she could feel the bang of metal reverberate on her spine. The weight in front of her had lifted itself immediately, the owner not even giving her a single glance as he charged back into the fight.
Fuyuki let out a gruff breath the aame sound drunks do when they had their fill of the night.
She had her fill alright. And that bastard... didn't even wasted a single glance.
Asshole.
She didn't bother on doing anythimg anymore and rest her back on the wall, sitting next to the green haired boy.
She turned her head to look at him and she asked.
"Hey, are you alright? You took quite a beating there," she said, keeping her voice low.
"I-I am--" The boy looked away and quickly grabbed a notebook that's on the ground. "I'm sorry!" he said, as he stood up quickly. Fuyuki was worried that he might get a whiplash out of that but before she could even react he made a quick bow and ran away.
"Wait--" Fuyuki raised her hand towards him but he was already ways away from her so she just proceeded on picking up her own notebook.
It might've flew put of her hoodie when she got bodied earlier.
Her eyes went back to the fight and she was surprised to see the bun guy smiling as he took hits unlike his enemy who was all but nothing but anger written all over his face.
There were explosions here and there but the guy didn't use anything that could written off as a quirk.
It took Fuyuki a moment to realize something.
The bun guy was not a brute with strength. In fact, he was smooth as if he's gliding between thrown punches.
He waits and studies his opponent, waiting for the right moment, dancing around for a second and then strike.
His punch hit the blond right at his nose and when the latter threw another punch fueled with explosions, he jumped, not even bothering on running a little to create a momentum.
He was light as a feather and when he was on midair, he made an arch with his body right on top of his opponents head.
Fuyuki's eyes widened at what she saw. It was the first time she saw grace in a fight.
It was not something so could just write on her notebook and understand. She has to learn it with the help of the very person who could do it.
She has to learn it and she needed him for it to happen.
The wind flew past her face as the orange rays of the lowering sun ran through his silhuette, inking his crescent form high above. There was a moment of slowness and then everything went back to normal. The guy descended and landed his elbow in the on the blond's head. They both fell on the ground but only one stood back up again.
