It was morning when a golden-haired boy lay, sprawled on a long bed on his back covered with a large blanket. Resting with his eyes half open and an arm across his forehead.

The sun came in from the cracks in the curtains, strips of yellow repeated in the room running across the floor before climbing to the walls up a few feet.

He heard the small gust of wind whisking outside, coming into the room from small openings in the windows and ventilations. A present gale that came with the cape of Minamizu.

Today was such a beautiful morning.

Then the door to his room swung open and slammed into the wall with a whirl.

"Little brother! It's half-past eight, come on, get up!" came the trumpeting voice of his older brother. But Rei, however, only produced a long hum of disapproval and turned his head away from the door with an amusingly smug sounding grunt.

"Come on now, I've let you off the hook once, now don't make me have to do it again!" Takashi warned while he marched across the room towards the windows and pulled apart the curtains, letting in a blaring light that caused the boy on the bed to turn to the wall.

"Oh... Takashi- You said it's only half-past eight." Rei drawled off with a hand over his head.

"Exactly, exactly! You were supposed to be up an hour ago!" He urged while clapping his hands together, attempting to shake him up.

"Five more minutes, Takashi... and I'll be up like a… songbird on a summer morning," He drawled out, even while being shaken back and forth he couldn't get the sleep out of him it seemed, "Though I could do... with a mug of coffee...?"

Takashi stopped for a moment before looking off towards the room's entrance.

"You know, I think mom's on her way..." And that seemed to snap Rei out of his tired state as he immediately jumped out of bed, eyes manically moving around the room.

"Ha ha ha!" Takashi burst out laughing. Rei whipped his head back to look at him with a glare. "Fell for the old 'Her, mom's coming!' trick." He said as his laughter died down, wiping a single tear off his right eye.

"You're evil, you know that…?" Rei just said with a winding walk before making his way back to his bed. "For just trying to get me into shape, this warrants for you being pure evil..."

"Nah ah ah ah! You can't do that, we need to go before it's too late." Takashi stopped him by placing his palm on his chest.

"Come on Takashi, I have the whole day off. You'd keep me from having just a little more rest?" He attempted to negotiate with his brother.

"Well, if you slack off once, the second time doesn't seem so bad anymore does it?" Takashi gave him a questioning look. "Like that one time, I had to spend so much effort to get you back into routine. You need to have a healthy body as well as a healthy mind to be respected as a hero." He declared.

"Well not with this boy." Rei tried to excuse but as he said that, he was reaching for his running shoes. "I'm just... hmm..."

"See! You know you agree with me, you just don't want to say it." He gave him a look of triumph.

"Hmmm..." Rei just grunted disapprovingly again.

Takashi smiled while innocently beaming with shut eyes, and Rei refused to turn his head upwards, but to be fair he only wanted to keep that he was smiling as well.

And after the boy fastened his shoes, Rei got up to his feet pushing off from his bed.

"Fantastic, now come on. We've wasted enough of the morning." Takashi huffed satisfied through his nose and made to turn around.

"Do you think I'll be as tall as you?" the younger boy asked, looking up directly at his brother's eyes when he turned around.

"Oh, I'm betting on it," Takashi responded immediately as rotated his body back around, "and you know what I'll bet? I'll bet... um... well I don't really know what to wager, but I'm very positive you'll be taller."

"... Well, aren't you the flirt..." Rei said with a very cheeky smile, flashing his brows.

"One of my strengths little brother." Takashi closed his eyes and pulled on his shirt like readjusting a jacket, "One of my strengths... But seriously, I wouldn't worry..." the tall boy turned around and headed for the open doorway.

"You're still growing." giddily he added.

"And you are too..." Rei chimed, and the older boy couldn't help himself and suddenly burst into a short fit of laughter as they came onto the landing overlooking the living room and the front door.

Takashi didn't say anything in response to that because he really couldn't speak for himself that he was still also growing taller every day.

Saki was in the kitchen, being as always the first one to wake in the morning to immediately set herself on tasks for the whole day to take care of the household.

The boys made their way into the kitchen, where they heard the salivating sounds of the maid cooking up a storm on the stove that struggled to keep up.

Her rhythm was impeccable as she was left alone, only broken when she heard the sound of sneakers wandering inside the kitchen.

"Takashi!" she greeted without even turning around, and continued with her work.

"Good morning, Saki-san." the tall boy greeted as he took a cup and pressed it into the filter's dispenser.

"You're going for a walk, I'd guess from the sneakers."

"Yup, yup," Takashi said before he brought up the cup to drink.

"Will Rei be coming- ah, Rei it's good to see you're going as well," She stated as she caught sight of Rei coming into the room.

"Work on reducing your belly fat to atoms." She cheered on, and made gestures with her arms to convey that Rei was tubby, while in reality, he was only slightly tubby.

"Apparently, you can't have a day off with this one." Despite his grumble, he didn't look like he was opposed to the idea of going for a run.

After a few cups of water being downed, Rei was the first to leave the house, breaking into a light jog across the gravel on their driveway,

"Make sure to keep the food warm till we get back!" Takashi called to their maid from the front door before leaving soon after, catching up to Rei in only a few moments.

The two brothers ran down the singular, two-lane road that connected their house to the city, running around the sea-side cliffs as the drippy morning's fresh air rejuvenated their lungs.

Their shoes that clicked on the dark asphalt lanes, and their occasional sharp inhales filled the early morning with the sound of efforts.

"So, did you make any new friends at school?" Takashi asked, speaking normally despite his brisk pace.

"No," was Rei's reply, his breathing a bit more sloppy than his brother's.

"Do you even try to make friends when you're at school?"

"Yes, yes I do," came Rei's reply a beat late, his breathing hastening up,

"That's very unfortunate. Oh hey! I could show you a few poointers about it."

"I don't think that's, that's necessary." His breath was a lot more raggedy now,

"Why not? Having friends is a wonderful thing. I always have you to talk to but, it never hurts to have more."

"Can we- can we stop?" His steps were misplaced and his run had a very poor form to it.

"You can do crazy stuff, go off to peculiar places, share your stories. All that good stuff."

"Takash- Takashi, please, slow down," Rei called as he started to fall behind.

"You can support them and they can support you. Like you and I do with each other,"

"Gah!" Takashi heard the sound of his brother falling behind him and halted immediately before he turned around.

"Oh darn, we really need to work on that stamina of yours," He said whilst still jogging in place, bouncing on his toes.

Rei looked up from his prone position towards his brother. "Can we rest...? I'm going to rest... rest..." He said before lowering his head down again.

"No can do little brother. Complete halt in rotor functions after an aerobic ex-"

"Exercise is bad for the respiratory and cardiac systems of the body. Yeah, I know, I know..." Rei sounded out of breath and quite annoyed at the moment, his chest heaving up and down while he refused to look back up.

"So come on, get up." His brother encouraged from the side.

"It would be a lot, a lot easier if you helped me get up."

"Oh what? You want to be a hero and that's the attitude?" Takashi teased with a playful voice, shuffling up beside the collapsed form of his younger brother. "You'll need to push on, fight! Win!"

Rei remained silent for a moment, as did his breathing, and after he drew a sharp breath, he planted his hands to the ground and attempted to pick himself up.

"Yes! that's the spirit! Come on then, go on!"

"Ahhhh!" He grunted out through clenched teeth. Mustering as much strength as his eight-year-old body could allow.

"Go! Go, push through!"

"Arrrgh!" With a yell of effort and gritted teeth, he was finally on his feet and he wobbled unusually back and forth.

"That's my little brother!" Takashi said as he made his way to him.

Rei's breathing was strained and ragged, his mouth open as he looked to the sky.

"Now we only have five kilometres left. If you push it, well blast through in no time!"

Rei's face changed to ooze a look of dread,

"Um... could we- could you dial it down a few digits?" He asked meekly with a voice full of fear, only for his brother to start running again.

"Takashi! Please dial it down a few digits!" He pleaded desperately as he ran after him down the road with frantically misplaced steps.

After their run of ridiculous length for an eight-year-old.

Rei was lying flat on his back while breathing heavily, heaving his chest up and down. His brother Takashi had carried him the rest of the trip after the second time he fell.

Resting on a set of benches lining the side of a road by the benches on the side of the stretch leading to their home, Takashi was doing stretches with his legs and arms, while Rei laid exhausted on top of a pine bench.

"Someone has got to clean this beach," Takashi said with slight disgust and agitation. "It's ridiculous."

Rei looked down towards his chest to where his brother was looking, and indeed the beach was starting to form literal mounds of trash.

"Hey... I have an idea, why don't we clean it ourselves?!" His brother declared enthusiastically, turning to face the collapsed form of Rei.

Rei looked at his brother like how one would look at a monster of his greatest nightmares. "You wouldn't. Even for you, that's evil."

"Think about it! Cleaning it would not only benefit the state, but it would also be very helpful for our bodies."

"No!" Rei, however, firmly disagreed.

Not only would it be a terrible idea to meddle with a location this important to the main storyline, he did not want to spend every morning and evening cleaning out trash from the beach.

Running this distance was already bad enough as it was,

"Come on! Where's that heroic spirit?"

"I dropped it about three kilometres that way," Rei said with a strain, pointing to the direction they had run back from.

"Humph, you're no fun." His brother said with a pout. "Still, this is becoming a problem."

"I'm sure someone, will deal with it. Eventually." Rei only hoped his brother would drop the idea from his head.

"Now that's the type of behaviour only a coward would have," Takashi said in a mockingly offended tone, "And you're no coward."

"Who says I'm not a coward?"

"There's me..."

Rei's eyes were forced open and he looked downwards to his brother, unsure of how to respond to that declaration.

"So come on, it won't be too hard." Takashi insisted with slightly more emotion, trying to further illustrate his point by holding out his arms in the hopes of negotiation.

Rei paused for a moment and turned lowered his head back flat to let out a chuckle a bit out of breath, 'He truly is a better older brother than I ever was. But still...'

"Takashi, I know someone will clean it up," He flashed him a smile, looking down towards him again, "So we shouldn't bother."

"Really? What, some hero is just gonna pass by and clean the whole beach by himself?"

"Yes."

"Or herself-? Huh?" Takashi was confused at how confidently his little brother had answered him. "'Yes'? What's 'yes'? What do you mean 'yes'?"

"Shouldn't we be heading back by now?" Rei questioned with a drawl, turning towards the sun in the sky, noting how it was fairly high.

Takashi held up his wristwatch to his face. "Crap! Your right!" He said before putting Rei on his back and sprinting away towards their home.

"So what's the plan for today?" Hitoshi asked his eldest son as they were all seated at the table, eating their respective meals for breakfast.

"Oum hueading out tihs aufternoon." Takashi answered, food being hastily shoved into his mouth.

"Takashi, slow down and chew! The food's not going anywhere." Angel reprimanded her son while she grabbed his head mid chewing to wipe off a rather massive stain on his lips.

"What's the occasion?" Hitoshi asked.

"Soccer practice before the big game."

"It's time already?" His father brought his sleeves back to check the time. "My god, it is time."

"So, Rei, did you make any friends at school?" His mother asked while she took an educated guess that she already knew the answer.

"You'd wish," He said sadly while he looked at his cereal with emptily glazed eyes, "I couldn't even make conversation with anybody."

After a bit of discussion, they had agreed that Rei would attend a normal school for the first three days of the week. And study at a University for the other three.

Rei had to admit that it was not as bad as he imagined. But he also had to admit that it was also much easier than he imagined. Having been top of his class in both schools since the first semester.

"Why don't you take queues from your brother, or maybe even your uncle. I hear he's got friends all over the place." Hitoshi offered with a mouthful of cereal crumbs.

Hitoshi never ate cereal with milk for some reason.

"I agree with your father without the uncle part. You two should really learn from each other you know." She referred to Takashi's lack of table manners and Rei's poor social skills.

"Can I come with you?" Rei turned to Takashi as he asked that question.

"Oh ho ho! Finally taking an interest in the sport are you?" Takashi asked, swallowing a large chunk with a heavy and audible gulp.

"There's something I have to pick up that is on the way." Rei just flatly stated, causing a disappointing look to found its way onto Takashi's face.

"Aww... for a moment there, you had me going… you really had me going," He sounded a bit too sad considering the context, "but no matter! It's your life and I'm not gonna tell you how you live it!"

As they resumed their meal in silence. Angel suddenly spoke up. "Will you be going to work, Toshi?"

"About that." Hitoshi's tone was conflicted. "Did anyone sneak into our house last night?" He said in a low voice.

"I don't think so..." She tried to recall any event of a burglar entering their house. "Why?" She hoped someone did not steal his work again.

Hitoshi looked around suspiciously before reaching into his pocket and taking out a folded piece of paper. "Look at this." As he unfolded it, Angel could see that it was a blueprint for a machine of sorts.

Several formulas and symbols were scattered here and there. Unbeknownst to both of them, Rei was trying his very best to act normal and not catch their attention.

"What is it?" She said. She was never an enthusiast of the sciences.

"It's my draft." His voice held a tone of joy and eagerness.

"For what?"

"You know that one time I told you about how our work got stolen?" A smile was starting to appear on his face.

"Yes...?" She said uncertainly.

"Well, as it turns out, they just wanted to help me." His smile was very evident now.

"What do you mean?"

"This design is not the same as before. It's better," He stated, smiling from ear to ear, "I even ran all my calculations for it, it checks out!"

"So you're telling me, someone stole your work, only to improve upon it and send it back to you?"

"I know right?! Crazy to think that someone like that is out there..."

"What makes you think it's a single person?" Rei asked from across the table.

"Well, the handwriting's consistent everywhere across the paper so it could be only one person. But then again, maybe it is more than one person and they just got one of them to write it down..." He said as he placed his hand on his chin, looking at the paper in deep thought with frequent nods.

"Well, I think I like them..." Takashi suddenly said, garnering confused looks from everyone.

"I mean, stealing it was wrong, to begin with. But they only did it to improve upon it right?" He elaborated with a shrug.

"Or maybe they copied his work, improved upon the design, and only sent it back for compensation." Rei tried to reinforce his un-involvement in the theft of the paper by devaluing the thieves.

"But still, they didn't need to return it. But they did." Takashi reasoned. "And I think that's what counts."

"You don't seem to like them very much." Saki inquired Rei, giving him a questioning look. "Is there a particular reason?" She had held some suspicion towards Rei that he was the one who stole it.

"Not really." Rei just shrugged before giving Saki a blank, yet oddly cold stare.

Saki just laughed lightly. 'So it was him.' She said in thought in amusement before proceeding to return to her meal.

After breakfast, the members of the household save for Saki went on their respective ways. Hitoshi, with a mood so bright it outshined the sun. Angel with her typical attitude towards work. And Takashi and Rei were together on a bullet train, heading to Musutafu.

They were seated next to each other, the city blurring past them through the windows.

"Hey, I never asked you, what do you people do with quirks?" Rei asked his older brother.

"You mean the mutant ones?"

"Yeah."

"Well, despite what some people may like to believe. Having quirks that enhance physical features in a sport like soccer was not ideal. So they are prohibited from entering." Takashi explained.

"So no mutant quirked person can play?"

"Not necessarily. If your quirk just lets you have horns on your knees and elbows then sure, you can enter. But if your quirk lets you have super strength or super speed then you can't. Your more likely to score a career as a hero with quirks like that."

"Okay, I think that makes sense." Rei nodded with his eyes closed after Takashi's explanation.

"Anyway, what's this thing about picking up something downtown?" Takashi inquired. "You know if you ask me to, I could go there by myself."

"I figured I would see the city, it's been so long since I did..." Rei said as he looked through the window. The towers and concrete spires in the distance were seen whirling past them.

He then turned to look around their compartment and saw many different kinds of people who, even disregarding their quirks, were interesting.

People in business suits, a mother consoling a crying baby, even a few heroes in costumes. Rei smiled at the complex life of modern society.

"Uh-huh, well, we're here," Takashi said as they pulled into the train station. "Let's go see this city then," He said with a spritely voice as he got up from his seat.

As they picked their bags up, Rei caught sight of a man in a trench coat that radiated an ominous aura for a moment before it suddenly stopped.

'What the heck was that...?' He said in thought, concerned and he followed the man with his eyes stepping out of the train with heavy steps.

"Hey, Rei! Are you coming or not?!" His brother called from the compartment's entrance.

Rei looked back at where the man was walking, only to find it empty.

He shrugged and went on his way. Occasionally stealing glances behind him as they went out of the station

"Where to?" Rei asked his older brother.

"Right there," Takashi pointed to a closed-off fenced area, connecting to a gate. The whole perimeter ran around the stadium's outer walls, built so as to combat the constant threat of vandalism.

The gate was opened, and a heavily built adult man stood beside,

"Takashi, you're late." The man's surprisingly soft voice and harmless-sounding New Zealand accent took Rei aback quite a bit,

"Yeah, I had to take the train here today. Mister Paul, this is my younger brother, Rei,"

"Oh? Wow, very nice meeting you kid, your brother talks about you all the time, he seems really proud of you."

"He does?" Rei turned to Takashi, and gave him a flat look,

"And why wouldn't I be?" Takashi laughed and patted the big man's right shoulder, "You're the smartest little guy I know, there's plenty of things to be proud of. Anyway, I have to go now, I'm already ten minutes late," Takashi held his hands up to his side as he walked backwards into the stadium.

Turning around with a whirl, he jogged inside finally,

The large man lightly nudged Rie's back, "Off you go too, out here is dangerous," The man shifted in his stance, and cleared his throat, holding his hands together in front of him.

Rei nodded and without more delay, made his way inside as well, running behind his brother,

Making their way through the changing rooms, and the brightly lit hallways, they finally made it to the door that led into the field.

Stepping out into the vast spaces of the stadium's interior, Rei took in the sights, looking around with his mouth hung open,

The walls inside were green, and the grass on the field was greener. An 8 laned orange track ran around the perimeter, encircling the edges, neatly wrapping around the field like a ribbon.

"Wow, it's bigger than I thought it would be..." Rei commented, the place almost managing to take away his breath,

"It's 300m from end to end. More than big enough to charm a cynical big-field-hater, if there exist such people." Takashi said as they made their way towards the gate.

From their spot on the edges, they saw a collection of kids in their teens, dribbling and kicking soccer balls around the artificial grass.

"Is this gonna take long?"

"No, It'll be only about half an hour, I promise." He said as he took off his jacket before running towards an adult with a whistle hanging from his neck who Rei assumed to be the team's coach.

As Takashi made small talk with his friends while they practised their dribbling, Rei sat on one of the many rows of seats available to the audience.

They appeared to be mostly comprised of normal-looking kids, only a single mutant was present and his mutation seemed to only give him a slightly longer neck, maybe about an inch.

He watched them silently, noticing how everyone that talked to Takashi left with either a delighted smile or a sharing laugh.

"Huh..." Rei realized how alone he was on the rows of seats, sitting by himself with no one to talk to.

"This sucks..." He sunk his head back, and looked to the exposed sky,

"Maybe, I do need to let him teach me a thing or two about making friends..." He idly mused, looking up towards the hole in the stadium that showed him the vibrant blue sky where long stretches of white clouds floated about.

After soccer practice, Rei and his brother were making their way back to the City's central train station. Taking a short detour around the block to pick up something that Rei needed.

"What's that?" His brother asked him as he wiped a band of sweat away from his forehead.

"A powder of Titanium Carbide. Very fine stuff," Rei referred to the black powder he was carrying in a bag. He then reached into another bag and pulled out another someting.

"And this, a Lithium Polymer Super-capacitor." It was a battery, "If only I could get access to Graphene..." He muttered under his breath.

"Oh? That sounds interesting," Takashi's tone told Rie he could elaborate further. Takashi seemed to take an interest to the black powder as his gaze seemed to linger.

"This is a metal, a very hard metal," Rei explained when he noticed Takashi's spot of intigue.

"How hard? Can it stop bullets?" He asked, seeming to be interested.

"Mmm... not on its own. But, I am planning to alloy it with Chrome or Nickle in the future to see what happens. Despite its hardness, it is very brittle." Rei lifted his nose, and closed his eyes as he explained the theoretical metal's properties.

"Alloying it with more malleable metals may increase its shock-absorption and dimensional-retention, while still retaining its refractory-ceramic properties. At least, that's my idea on paper." He said with enthusiasm, although stumbled a bit at the end,

"Boy, it would make me glad if this ship can sail. I'm smiling and it hasn't even left the harbour yet..." Rei's mind almost ran ahead, towards the marvellous things he could do if his plans bore the properly ripe fruits.

"That sound's awesome," Takashi said with admiration, as well as a bit of pride as he looked over his younger brother.

As they entered the station's doorway beneath the bright moving billboards on the side of the building, they wasted no more time entering the platforms, but they were still late.

"Huh, we were late. We're gonna have to wait about ten minutes," He said as he saw that the train they were planning to board had gone without them.

"Ten minutes?" Rei asked with a bit of destain in his voice, frowning towards the display that showed their train to dock.

"Hey, you're the one who didn't want to run." His brother said in a teasing manner and Rei rolled his eyes while they made their way to a bench, seated directly below the train boarding display.

As the brothers sat there on their own, a news broadcast caught their attention when a TV's buzz came from a single monitor pararllel to their seat.

"Breaking news, Breaking news," A news anchor from the Musutafu Quill, a popular news channel based in the city repeated the phrase to get their attention,

"The villain known as El Bombardeo has escaped custody yet again. The Mexican-born bomber was last seen on the outskirts of Musutafu. Citizens are advised to exercise caution in the presence of a man of this description: Tall and muscular in build. Brown hair with red eyes and smelling of smoke. The suspect was last seen wearing a trench coat and a bowler hat."

"Wow, a trench coat and a bowler hat. Does he seriously think that a disguise like that was gonna work?" Takashi said while holding in a laugh. "I mean, that's like the most stereotypical outfit to wear if you're in hiding. Points for going old school though..."

"I'd take this a bit more seriously if I were you. They did say he was last seen in Musutafu." 'Could he be that trench coat guy that was giving me bad vibes back when we arrived?'

"Besides, what if he tried to hijack our train?" Rei turned to his older brother with a fearful, contemplative look.

"Our train? Why would he choose our train, out of all the trains in the city? And even if he did choose ours, there are always heroes on board. I'm sure it won't be a problem for us if he tried." Takashi said with a bit of a dismissive laugh.

"I'll… Take your word for it." 'Why do I have this... feeling I'm going to regret the trip on this train?' Rei thought to himself worriedly.

When their ride finally arrived, they boarded immediately, having decided they already wasted enough time lollygagging.

On their ride back, Rei couldn't help quench the uneasy feeling in his stomach.

"Wow, your shaking like hell. Do you need me to hold your hand?" Takashi teased from his side and received a glare for his efforts.

"It's okay, no one's gonna bomb this train-" As soon as he said that, the train vibrated, the sound of an explosion rang out.

Rei sat at the window seat and caught a brief flash of light from the side of his vision. The bridge their train was travelling on had appeared to be destroyed at about a kilometre down their path.

Immediately, the passengers were thrown forward courtesy of the train's breaks being applied. But due to how fast they were travelling, it would not be stopped in time. They would have fallen to the streets.

"No one's gonna bomb it huh!?" Rei yelled as he turned towards his brother with a glare.

"Oh no! They're panicking!" Takashi shouted in horror, the people on the train were screaming and scrambling, some tried to head to the exits to leave out of fear of dying once the train fell from the tracks.

"We have to do something!" He said before shouting with his hands held to cup his mouth. "Everybody stay calm! We're going to be alright!" His announcement was completely muffled in the screaming but that didn't deter him one bit.

Rei had seen that their side of the track was still perfectly fine. Had their train been off the track just to their left, they would indeed fall down and possibly die.

But they harmlessly stopped to a halt just beside the bombed area.

"See? Completely fine-!" Takashi said with a brief laugh of happiness, straightening his back to look around the compartment at the passengers.

Several of the passengers seemed to calm down, some taking their time breathing out heavy sighs of relief, while a few appeared to be undergoing a state of sheer terror that they became frozen, their face unchanging from their initial looks.

But, not counting for the ones whose hearts raced dangerously fast, they were fine, they were safe.

The same could not be said for the train that was heading towards them, its path on the track that had been destroyed just beside their compartment.

Takashi's serene smile after the lucky thwarting of their apparent untimely deaths, disappeared when a light flashed to the corner of his vision.

The headlights of the train coming around the corner had been that flash of light.

Some of the more astute passengers in their compartment could see the sparks from the parallel train's breaks grinding against the rails, but the transport wasn't showing any signs that it was slowing.

"Oh-oh my god..." Takashi said, the colour draining from his face as the other train zoomed past their own.

Derailing from the point at the destroyed tracks, it crashed onto the streets below.

Civilians who had abandoned their cars under the overpass tracks were safe, but the train crushed and lifted many cars as it barrelled onto the street.

Asphalt cracked in giant chunks and pieces, as the length of the train buckled between the compartments before its momentum completely halted with a jerk, the metal constructions creaking from both the train, and the overpass.

"We... we have to help them! Rei, stay here and whatever you do, do not come after me." Takashi said after a moment's consideration, and with fire in his eyes, he unbuckled his seat belt and got up to make his way towards the compartment's door on the other train.

"Takashi...? Wha- what are you doing...?" Rei asked unsurely as he watched his brother unstrap, and as Takashi squished between their seats, Rei's body acted on instinct and grabbed onto his wrist.

"Takashi, no!"

Takashi looked back with a face that told he was uncertain with his decision. But, looking to the other train once more, he could see many people thrashing about from the unclear windows on the sides, many clearly injured and scared.

Closing his mouth shut, he swallowed and turned to the terrified look of his little brother, "There are people in there... Someone has to help them..." He spoke as calmly as he could to his brother firmly, giving him a smile from his eyes before he tugged his arm, forcing his brother to let go.

"Hey, kid! Sit down!" A blonde guy in a tan brown leather jacket called out to him. "You'll only get in the way of the heroes." He said as he struggled to take off his seat belt which appeared to be stuck.

But Takashi either did not hear him or paid the man no mind as he made his way out of their train and ran across to the other.

Rei watched on with horror as Tasashi opened the door to their compartment, and jumped out. After a moment to make a decision himself, he unbuckled his own harness and ran after his brother.

"Stop! Don't go after him!" The man cried from his seat again, but like before, the other Omura did not seem to listen, "God- damnit! Fuck!" the man continued to meddle with his seat belt in vain.

When he jumped out of the train's compartment door and landed onto the gravel, Rei saw his older brother, who seemed to be trying hard to open the metal sliding door from the outside of the other train.

Rei's panicked eyes never left his brother as he ran up to him.

"Come on, come on…" He heard him mutter as he tried to pry the door open from the middle with his bare hands, but it was clear it would be impossible, the glass and metal frame of the sliding door refusing to budge.

"Takashi!"

"Rei, what are you doing here! It's dangerous!"

"I could say the same thing to you! Don't you dare be a hypocrite!" He snapped back, giving his brother a reprimanding glare. And after he saw Takashi's mouth open with silence in response, Rei closed his eyes and bit his lips, looking down he turned to the metal door,

"Besides, I think you could use a hand..."

Takashi sighed while his head slumped. Turning towards the door instead with a contemplative, disbelieving look, before turning back to his brother, "Alright, fine... since you're here, can you open it?" He said as he stepped away and gestured to the door.

"I'll try…" Rei walked up to the door and placed his palm on it before closing his eyes. He activated his quirk before looking for the main circuit board. When he found it, he ran a flow of electricity through it, stimulating the unlocking prompt for the door's program.

After a brief flash of electricity being generated from his hand, the door swooshed open. "Got it!" Rei said triumphantly before he got pulled into a hug by his brother.

"You're a lifesaver. Now stay here and just wait for me okay?" Takashi gave his brother a reassuring look. Holding up a finger to Rei's face, just shy of touching his nose, he flashed him a smile, then rushed inside.

"Don't come after me, I mean it!" he called back once more from the inside,

Rei however disobeyed the wishes of his brother; and went right in after him.

When Rei climbed over the steps of the train compartment, he could see that many passengers were in critical condition. Takashi could be seen running around and trying to help as much as he could. Setting uncomfortable passengers at ease by adjusting their positions.

After he finished checking the passengers for their injuries, he made his way to the next compartment at a brisk pace.

Rei looked around, unsure of what to do. His brother had already done the best he could for most of them so he just stood there looking around.

Then an idea sprung to mind, he made his way to the many doors and started unlocking as many of them as he could. Letting in the fresh air and, providing the passengers with a fast way out should help arrive.

When he unlocked and opened all the doors in the compartment, he decided to go where his brother had gone.

This compartment was tilted forward at an awkward angle. Takashi could not be seen anywhere, which Rei chalked up to him already being done. He did the same thing he did with the previous carriage, although with much greater difficulty due to the tilt, before moving on.

The next one, although straighter, still sat at an angle. The back slightly being lifted off the ground.

He caught a glimpse of Takashi on his way to the compartment on the front. But this time, as he was unlocking the doors, a small explosion rattled the train suddenly and he was staggered a bit.

Looking up, he saw that it had come from the front.

The fire came spewing out, cracking the glass that separated the second compartment from the first.

Rei stared wide-eyed before rushing to the front as fast as he could. When he arrived, he could see that the explosion had come from the cockpit. Fires were entering the cart and Takashi could not be seen anywhere.

"Takashi!" He called out.

No response…

"TAKASHI!" When his brother's voice didn't call back to him in response, the back of Rei's throat dried up and his heart skipped a beat.

"No..." meekly he muttered, looking on with upturned brows in terror.

He noticed that the fire was drowning the room with a cloud of thick black smoke and he steeled himself before rushing to the various doors to unlock them as he had done in the previous compartments.

"Keep it- keep it steady Rei, there is no way he could go down that easily." He muttered to ease himself, and turned again to the compartment doors to continue opening them.

Takashi had to be the toughest person he ever knew. He once even went to soccer practice with a broken arm.

So what was a little fire going to do?

And as his compact was clouded in a suffocating smoke from the fires seeping in, he started coughing with a single thought to comfort himself.

Rei took in a deep breath from a mask supplying him with oxygen and immediately did the urge to cough surface as his lungs were steadily cleaned of the fire and plastic fumes.

A man did his best to take care of the boy whose whole body shook as he seemed to rasp in pain and dehydration.

After about thirty seconds, the fit went away, and the man patted him on the back. Rei was sure he was asking him if he was okay, so he nodded.

The medic had draped a white towel over him and poured a bottle of water on his head to help him cool off, and went away to take care of the others.

So now Rei sat with his hair wet, breathing heavily while he looked in silence to the ground.

Hesitantly he looked up and squinted from the blaring, flashing lights of the emergency vehicles and the unrelenting shine of the searchlights. The bombing had taken out a power grid around the block, so the rescue staff were left dark from the early night.

He heard the muffled calls in the distance, requesting assistance or from personnel notifying the rescue staff.

Rei saw the paramedics carry the wounded out in stretchers following a line that itself was stretched thin and long, leading into the big white trucks to be driven to proper care.

This certainly was a crisis, but it was not catastrophic. From his count, three people had lost their lives to the bombing, and considering the worse possibility, it really was relieving that so many survived.

So why did it feel like glass scraping inside his head?

Why can't he stop thinking he could have done something to save all of them? Of the three that perished, one was the conductor, the one who tried to save his passengers by applying the breaks.

But simply because he was unable to react in time, he died for it. Burned to death having been roasted alive on his seat.

What a terrible way to go,

"I heard you're the one who opened the compartment doors. Ya' got balls kid." A fireman walked up to him and knelt down to his knees, "But next time you wait for us okay?" He gave advice with a gentle pad on the back.

"Hey Haochi, one of the guys just wheeled in a kid for Emergency Medical Treatment." Another fireman called out to him from behind, hurriedly walking up to them holding a board accompanied by the sound of paper whipping in the wind.

"What happened?"

"Serious burns, third to fourth over his right arm. They're not sure he could make it." He elaborated, flipping up and down his pages. "Surprisingly, he's still awake."

A sharp breath drew both their attention to the boy under the towel.

"What did he look like?" and although his tone was a bit difficultly spoken, they heard him well enough.

"Well, he was tall, brown hair and fairly well-built. Barely out of his teens, why?"

"Where is he?" the boy spoke with a concerning urgency and they quickly pointed towards a medical staff wheeling in a stretcher into an ambulance.

With no further words, the boy just took off.

Throwing aside his breathing mask he rushed towards the ambulance as fast as he could, though he still kept the towel.

"Kid wait a moment!" Called the voice of the firemen but be paid them no more mind. He needed to make sure his brother was alright.

He arrived short of breath and one of the medics tried to stop him. "The boy needs to rest. Please visit him in the hospital afterwards."

"He's my brother! I need to see him now!" Rei said as he desperately tried to push past him.

The man's head jerked back and he turned to one of the other medics. He gestured at a loss to the small boy but his colleague simply shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Very-… Very well..." He said with a sigh and he let him through, stepping aside to let the boy climb up onto the truck.

Rei rushed in and looked ahead at the tall boy laying with his feet facing the back of the large van. Releasing a breath when he saw Takashi's chest move up, he took a seat on a bench at the left side of his brother

Slightly, their body rocked as the medic closed the back door of the ambulance, and were left in silence.

Takashi had a mask attached to his face, covering his mouth and nose. And he looked like someone had dropped the entire right side of his upper body in a deep fryer.

All of his right arm and a couple of spots on the right side of his chest were turned to black, his body doing its best to fix his burn by secreating disgusting liquids through the cracks on his charred skin.

"...Rei..?" Takashi's muffled voice was hoarse and ragged, exactly like it would coming out fresh from a burning train.

"Takashi..." Rei just quietly responded.

"... Left... or right?" Takashi asked as he distantly looked at the ambulance's ceiling, a focused look present on his face.

"Huh?"

"The burn... Left or Right?" He repeated.

"… Right, the right side." Rei answered with a bit of hesitance.

"Dammit, that's my good side…" His brother only sounded mildly annoyed.

Rei had no idea how Takashi was still conscious. "Doesn't it hurt?"

"Can't feel it." As he said that, he weakly lifted his left hand, palm-held open, beckoning for his little brother to hold his hand.

Rei picked up the cue and grabbed onto it. "Mom's gonna kill us when she sees me like this..." Takashi said with amusement.

Rei's concern died down a bit after seeing that his brother was not only okay, but he was cracking jokes as well. "That was a very stupid thing to do,"

"You mean running into the fire or running to the train in the first place?"

"Both, both of those things."

Takashi laughed. "Oh... come on, give me a little credit. Someone had to do something." He defended himself with a raggedy and fragile laugh.

"Risking your life for no reason is not only dangerous, but it is also plain idiotic." Rei turned up and looked his brother deeply in his eyes.

"Isn't that what Heroes do?" Takashi smiled as he asked his brother that.

"Don't go on with that now," Rei said, annoyed, "One of these days you really will get yourself killed…"

After their little argument, the two brothers sat in silence again for a while.

The ambulance rocked as they made turned and went over speedbumps, eventful moments in the uneventful ride. Occasionally, a beep from the spectrometers monitoring Takashi's functions would cut through the silence.

For about half an hour the two said quietly, their bodies rocking back and forth before Takashi finally broke it.

"Rei?"

"Hmm?"

"I need to pee," Takashi stated in a dead-serious tone.

"Oh- are you... are you serious?" Rei started to panic slightly.

"Of course not dummy!" He raised his voice as loud as he could through his battered state. "I peed like, an hour ago."

Rei breathed out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank god," Then a concerning fact surfaced in his head. "Wait, weren't we on this ambulance for about two hours now?"

"Yup," Takashi replied.

Relational struck Rei like a bolt of lightning. "Ew! Eeeeww!" He immediately retracted his hand from his. Wiping it on the fabric that covered his brother as if droplets of urine were present.

Takashi laughed hard, "Hahaha! Ha, ha-gah-" Only for his laughter to dissolve into a coughing fit. "You're the most, ghuhlable, little brothuher anyone can have!" He said through the coughs.

Suddenly, the door to the ambulance opened. "Come on move! I wanted this boy in the ER ten minutes ago!" Came the commanding voice of a middle-aged doctor.

Rei stepped out as fast as he could to not get in the way of the medics and made his way inside the hospital. As several adults were moving his brother to the ER, Rei decided to ask one of them if his brother was going to make it.

"Dr Saito? Will he be okay?" Rei asked the man who was yelling. He seemed to be the most competent and experienced among them.

Dr Saito stopped yelling for a moment and turned to him with a puzzled expression.

"How did you-?" he stopped short when Rei pointed towards his left breast pocket where he hung his ID, "... Oh that's- well anyway, what can I do for you, little boy?"

"My brother, will he be alright?" He repeated his question from earlier.

"Of course he will, of course. He's in good hands now." He reassured him and patted him on the head as he knelt beside him.

"Do you know the number of your parents?" He received a nod. Then he took out his cell phone and opened the phone call app.

"Good, now type it on this number pad here and call them. If they pick up, tell them to head to 'Crab tree's Health and Research Center' in the Shopping District, Okay?"

"Right," Rei replied and began typing away at the doctor's phone.

"Now, I need to go. Stay in the lobby and wait for your parents. I'll come back for you!" He said as he got up from his crouch.

Rei typed his mother's phone number first.

"Hello, hello, who is this?"

"Mom..." Rei said weakly with a hesitating voice, shifting his vision around the brightly lit lobby of the hospital.

"Rei? Where are you? Who's phone is this?"

"It's a doctor's. We're at the hospital."

"The hospital? Why, did something happen? Where's Takashi?" Her voice rose in concern and her way of speaking became faster.

"Takashi is here. Were at the... Crab tree's Heath and Research Center in the shopping district."

"Did you tell your father?" The sound of her packing her things could be heard through the phone, she was violently stuffing her things into her bag.

"No."

"Okay, you just stay put Rei. I'll call your father and we'll be right there," With that, her mother ended the call and he was left with a beep.

Rei took the phone away from his ear, in their call he had made his way onto a seat in the lobby. He held onto the phone weakly in his hands and turned to one of the many Tv screens in the hall to take a moment to calm himself.

"He's okay..." He reassured himself, making a fist with his right, he watched it intently.

"He's okay..."

After about an hour of sitting there idly. His parents burst into the hospital lobby. When they caught sight of him, they immediately rushed to his side.

"Rei!" His father cried. Picking him up and inspecting his body for any injuries. "You are okay. Thank god!" He said as he brought him in for a hug.

His mother had gone to the receptionist to ask for the whereabouts of his brother. "Was a boy by the name of Takashi Omura brought in today?" She asked with concern to the receptionist that looked like she couldn't be less interested.

"Huh, who are you?" She said as she began swiping on a tablet.

"I'm his mother!" She stated with a bit of annoyance to the woman's behaviour.

"Right... Well, here it is. You'll find him in the ER block, room 13." She stated dryly.

Rei's mother then made a beeline to the block, her husband following not too far behind.

When they arrived in room 13, they could see several nurses and doctors exiting the room. One of them, which Rei recognized as Dr Saito noticed their arrival.

"Doctor, my name is Angelina Omura. I'm the mother of the patient." She said as she took a moment to catch her breath.

Dr Saito on the other hand could only look at her with sympathy through his surgical mask. A look Rei could not miss. "Mrs Omura, will you and your husband follow me inside?" He requested.

With a nod, his mother made her way inside, the doctor tailing behind her. His father placed him on one of the seats outside the operation room and knelt down in front of him.

"Now, you wait here, okay?" He told him calmly while his voice stumbled slightly, and looked at him with his eyes that held fear and uncertainty.

Hitoshi got up, released a breath to calm himself, then he too made his way inside.

In the operation room, Angel covered her mouth with her hands, and Hitoshi also had a look of terror. Walking up behind her, he gently placed his arms on Angel's shoulders and reassured her with soft squeezes.

Takashi was placed under and was unconscious, an oxygen mask strapped to his face.

"As you can see, the Patient- I mean, Takashi has suffered severe fourth-degree burns on his entire right upper body and arm. Most of the nerves have been damaged and... his chance of recovery is slim if there is one at all." the doctor brought up his hand to his face and ran it upwards and around his head, releasing a frustrated breath through his nose,

"The best chance he has of living is... if we amputate his entire right arm and even then, he might not make a full recovery." Dr Saito said in a dead-serious tone.

"There's no... there's nothing more you can do?" Angel asked with her voice trembling, painfully looking at the unconscious form of her eldest son.

"I'm afraid so, as his parents, I ask you to make that decision." He looked to the ground, refusing to meet the devastated couple in their eyes.

After a moment of consideration and with great hesitance; Angel decided it would be best to follow through "Then I'll-"

"Hold on," Hitoshi interrupted and slightly tugged her backwards, "Why don't we wait for him to wake up first? Let him make the call himself," He reasoned with as bright a smile he could manage at the moment,

"It would be rude to take a person's entire right arm without their permission after all." He chuckled lightly as if to relieve the pain of the moment.

Angel was taken aback for a moment before nodding. "You're- you're right. Doctor, how long until the anaesthetic wears off?"

"About half an hour from now." Dr Saito said after looking away in thought for a moment.

"Then we'll wait," Hitoshi finished, lifting his chin high into the air with a serene smile,

Saito looked on for a moment in silence with eyes held open, the cheerful air of the father at a time of tragedy stuck with him greatly.

He looked down to the ground and smiled, "Very well," he said deeply, and he turned to make his way out, leaving the family to be alone together in the room.

"Dr Saito?" the voice of a little boy called out, as he exited the door of the operation room,

"Ah, it's you..." He said as he knelt down to his level, "You still got that phone I gave you?" Rei nodded and turned to the side. Reaching into his left pocket, he pulled out the device and held it up to the man with both his hands.

"Thank you," He cheerfully said as he took the phone with his right hand, while simultaneously bringing up his other hand to ruffle the boy's golden locks, hoping to take off some unease he might have held.

He grunted out a heaving sound as he got up, and before he turned to leave, the little boy called out to him again,

"Is he gonna be okay?" He asked uncertainly, almost turning to the door to look inside.

"What's your name?" The doctor asked him first instead,

"Rei, Omura Rei..."

"Well then Rei, as I said before, your brother is in safe hands. So you don't have to worry about him at all." He said as he went on his way.

Rei however could see that the doctor was lying. He then glanced into the room with a look of sadness.

"Why did you have to do that?" He asked in frustration finally, with his voice all defeated and confused.

"Why did this have to happen...?" The boy looked down and took in a sharp breath.

Today was such a beautiful morning...

Back at the crime scene, a short woman, a foreigner with brown hair and hazel red eyes could be seen investigating the site of the explosion. Pacing around the area, she could be heard sniffing the air while she mumbled some things to herself,

"That's Potassium Chloride... and Manganese Heptoxide..." She sniffed again. "and there are faint hints of Trinitrotoluene-"

"Officer Umin, what have you got for me?" Came the voice of a man in a light brown trench coat.

"Well, as far as the explosives used? They're all low to mid-levels in power and quality, usually obtained at the black market."

She hummed in thought for a moment, "I suggest you start scanning the undercover police database for any purchases made under these substances." She handed him a piece of paper with various explosives and chemicals listed on it, organized in alphabetical order.

"I see, good job..." He politely said before taking out a flip phone from his pocket, turning to the side as he began dialling a few numbers on it.

"Seriously?" Maggie asked dryly as she looked at his choice of telecommunication.

"What is it?" He asked instead in confusion, either unaware of how out of fashion flip phones were or in defence against his tastes.

"You know what? Never mind..." She just waved him away, it was none of her business anyway, that he chose such things in life. However, her eyes couldn't help but wander towards the device the detective held to his ears, and whenever she saw it, she couldn't help but cringe.

Thankfully though, her own phone then suddenly began vibrating in her pockets, indicating that someone was trying to call her. She took it out and held it in front of her face. Seeing the caller labelled as; "Electric Bish" it was none other than her sister.

"This is Officer Umin speaking," She said with a firm voice, hoping her sister would know that she meant she was on duty.

"Maggie, do you know about the bombing?"

"The one at the shopping district?"

"Yes," Her sister confirmed through what seemed to be her slightly shaken voice.

"I'm here right now." She said with a heavy sigh and that wasn't a good sign. There was a reason that the Swat team from her department have taken to referring to her as an honorary aunt to them, which was how it seemed she could make light of any situation, so her exasperated sigh was a sign that things were truly serious,

"It's crazy out here... First Responders were throwing around casualty numbers as high as twelve, unaccounted for all individuals still missing from the registry of the train's passenger manifest..." She looked upwards towards the night sky, "Why... you seem worried. Did something happen?"

"Takashi and Rei were on that train, and I think-"

As she said that, Maggie immediately frowned and her blood began to warm up, "Oh, ho ho ho," She said with a menacingly challenging laugh, and all the sentimentality she held of the situation turned to animosity.

And before their conversation continued further, she ended the call abruptly. Turning towards the man in charge of the case that was pacing around, speaking to someone through the phone, she marched up to him.

"Detective Tsukauchi, I wish to adopt complete authority over this Investigation." She requested, turning up her nose to him. When the villain attacked this city, it was her duty to bring him to justice. But he had not only done that, but he had also attacked her family.

This had become a personal matter as no one messed with her family,

"Are you sure?" He asked to which she simply nodded firmly without saying a word.

"Alright, good luck to you then," He released a breath of relief, he was already having several cases he needed to resolve in this week alone.

Plus, Maggie or, 'Aunt Mag' as the Demolitions Division has taken to calling her was quite versed in manhunt cases, even once solving 7 missing person cases in a span of just 14 hours.

Although at the time, that was mostly due to luck and she was assisted by a very intriguing individual she claimed she found in the city's criminal underbelly.

But even so, Detective Tsukauchi had full trust in her solo capabilities.

For tonight though, he would get into his car and drive home, maybe take a nap before he rearranged the dozens of unsolved case files.

Surprise!

Didn't expect to see this so soon did you?

The next chapter will be up in the next few days!

And to InCK. A time skip will eventually happen. I just wanted Rei to learn a few important lessons to become a good person first before he attends UA since I wanted him to affect the characters with his own ideals.

If I didn't, and Rei was correcting or pushing other characters to change, it would come off as idealistic of him. And I would have had to explain how he got his morals through flashbacks, so I just opted for this option instead.

And about Rei's abilities. Technokinesis was the power to control anything that was labelled as technology. I began to realize that a catapult could be considered Human Technology, the same way a computer could. It would be wired for him to be only able to manipulate those things.

It was too vague, so I just gave him this power set:

The ability to control and manipulate conductors and certain insulators down to the atomic level.

Imagination and creativity to think outside the box when faced with a wall.

Maybe a couple more traits will be stated later on as the story progresses. IDK.