Interlude: Ai


Ai wasn't sure how long she'd been up or even when she woke exactly. All she knew was that it was still dark out, well into the night where the only visible light outside was the glowing neon signs from the entertainment district a few blocks away—its inhabitants never sleeping seemingly. Her neighbors were fast asleep though, no lights shining through their windows from what she could see from the singular window of her bedroom, built right into the roof since she lived on the top floor of the Sato residence.

So she seemed to be the only one up right now, woken up from a dream. It had been nothing spectacular or scary, not something that'd leave her shaken from fear or excited from happiness. What had woken Ai up, though, was a sudden thought crossing her mind in the dream, and then she found herself wide awake, amber-gray eyes gazing at the cracked ceiling of her bedroom blankly for what seemed to be entirely too long.

She couldn't remember the thought at all. No matter how hard she tried to recall it, she drew up blanks. It was odd because she remembered the dream just fine, and as much as she disliked it, Ai remembered most things with near-perfect clarity.

It doesn't matter.

Yes, yes. Ultimately, it did not matter, but Ai still wanted to know why it had woken her up, why she couldn't remember.

Maybe it was for the best though. Maybe she didn't need to kn—

Ai wasted no time taking her cheek between her forefinger and thumb, giving herself a hard pinch. "Shi-Shi," she groaned. "Staaaahp."

She wasn't sure if Shi-Shi did. Her head felt sort of jumbled, kind of hazed over, and she didn't hear anything. So she decided to enjoy the mug of hot chocolate she made as a late-night snack, heading over to the window to open it. Fresh air always did her some good, and this time was no different, a brisk wind brushing against her skin as she leaned out a bit more, sitting on the windowsill and pulling the sleeves of her baggy hoodie down over her hands.

She had a pretty good view of a lot of things, seeing the glow of the neon lights a lot more clearly, but what Ai was more concerned with was the night skies, a deep, rich blue in hue. No stars though. Tokyo was simply too bright for stars to appear, no matter how clear of a night it was, not a single cloud in the sky.

She sipped the hot chocolate, savoring the warmth of the liquid as she took a quick peek around. Everything seemed pretty quiet. There were a few car horns, and she could see a few advertisements playing, but they were all off in the distance, not too loud. A peaceful night seemingly.

She took a deep breath, so deep it was almost like she could feel the cold night air being pulled down to the pit of her stomach.

It made her realize just how empty her stomach was. How much her stomach felt like a void that she couldn't seem to fill. Hunger, although Ai didn't think she was hungry. Because hours ago, for dinner, Tomo had lined the table with somen noodles, stir-fried shiitake mushrooms, boiled greens, and deep-fried fish with miso soup—and Ai had no choice but to partake in eating as it was her turn to pick the recipes this time.

It was weird. Strange. Odd. Maybe not anything she should be concerned with, she guessed. Or maybe she should. She wasn't sure. It was hard to decide.

…What was she doing again?

Oh, right. She was sky-gazing. Looking around. Enjoying the relative quietness.

Raising the black mug to her lips again, Ai frowned. The hot chocolate was no longer hot, having cooled at some point, but there was not much left anyway, so she lowered it to her lap with a sigh leaking out of her lips—because she had spaced out. For a long while, it seemed. A terrible habit of hers she still needed some work on.

The void was stronger, too, gnawing at her. But something dripped onto the floor of her bedroom. Her attention diverted, she half-turned, seeing red seep through the hardwood flooring.

...Eh? came the thought as Ai stared with wide eyes. It looked like blood, but as it overflowed, the texture oddly turned into something like velvet. Liquidy red velvet.

She blinked once. Twice. Then she turned away, not wanting to make sense of… whatever that was. Too much of a headache and her head was already clouded because of Shi-Shi for whatever reason it was ticked off.

Not upset.

Ai hummed, setting the mug down beside her. The wood on the windowsill swallowed the mug whole, and she blinked. She blinked again, and the black mug appeared exactly as she set it down, but… a ringing started to sound in her ears.

Just like her heart started to pound, too. Somehow, all at once, Ai felt tired. Exhausted. She couldn't explain it, couldn't even think of trying to make sense of it, and then, breathing became difficult, her breath almost instantly labored. What was this? Ai didn't know.

A sharp pain ran through her head. She winced, putting her hands in her face. "Ow, ow, ow…"

Sorry.

"It's… okay," she muttered, but the pain was slowly spreading. Her stomach churned. Why couldn't she explain any of this? This wasn't good. She wasn't good. She thought that maybe Shi-Shi was trying to make things better, but she wasn't sure.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang. A frustrated curse. Ai removed her hands to see something plummet down the nearby building onto the street, landing with a harsh thump—and everything seemed to come to a halt for Ai. No pain, no haziness. No tiredness. No void.

She directed her eyes to the streets, seeing that something was a person, a hood up over their head. She watched as they struggled to pick themselves up, leaning on the wall for support. Blood was left in their hand's wake, and upon closer inspection, Ai saw that their clothes were bloodied, too. Torn in some spots.

She blinked. She blinked again. Three times. Unlike before, the person didn't disappear. They were real, not in her head like everything else. There really was a person outside of her house, pretty badly injured.

Yells echoed down the street. Most of it Ai paid no mind to, gaze solely on the person, but there was something along the lines of bitch and went that way.

In response, the person turned their head back, at the source of the yelling. Ai saw their face. It was a gorgeous girl with glowing, blood-red eyes. She seemed familiar but Ai wasn't sure how, watching the expression of the girl—Red Eyes, Ai decided for—contort with undeniable rage. However, Red Eyes composed herself faster than Ai expected, and then…

She grew smaller. Ai knew this because Red Eyes' clothes got baggier and baggier, crumpling to the ground with no sign of their owner. However, there was soon a lump moving around in the clothes agonizingly slow as the yells sounded off closer, the sounds of footsteps beginning to echo.

…then the head of a black kitten poked out of the clothes. Ai stared blankly, watching as the kitten moved away from the clothes, limping. Assessing the scene, it quickly clicked for Ai. Because there wasn't really a viable explanation on where exactly the girl had gone and why an adorable kitten was moving out of the clothes other than Red Eyes being the kitten. Sure, she could've just shrunk, but it wouldn't explain why the kitten was there.

And Ai had a feeling she knew who Red Eyes was, especially with the broken chains around the kitten's tail. But she couldn't be too sure. She needed a closer look, although that meant she'd have to involve herself in whatever situation Red Eyes was dealing with right now, which seemed to involve being chased by someone.

Or someones. From her peripherals, Ai spotted several people rounding the corner to get on the street. Some of them she recognized as guys she was instructed to avoid as they were thugs that belonged to some brat called King of The North.

Now in Ai's own opinion, the title reeked of someone that was desperately trying to compensate for something, an arrogant, power-hungry idiot, but Tomo told her to avoid his members—so as to avoid the start of a rampage from a certain someone they both knew. One that had the capability and the manpower to cause a huge disturbance in Tokyo, making the Calamity Control Unit to be out in force for a while. The leader of Alacran, well-known for violence, and unfortunately, Ai shared the same bloodline as the bastard that played gang leader. She wanted nothing to do with Alacran, really, but it did not matter since she was related to the leader.

…Although Tomo did say if King of the North's men were messing around in Alacran territory, then they were free game so long as Ai didn't do anything too stupid. She was pretty sure Tomo worded it like that to not only avoid a temper tantrum from Tomo's boss but also an even bigger shit-show should the police get involved... but the Sato residence was in Alacran territory, even if it was along its borders. So this totally qualified, Ai felt.

She stood, balancing on the windowsill. Luckily, before the people drew closer, Red Eyes managed to crawl underneath a parked car, hiding, so Ai wasn't too worried about the kitten being found. Because as soon as the group of thugs spotted the discarded clothes but no Red Eyes, they began to argue amongst themselves, and Ai paid no mind to it as she hoisted herself up on the slope of the roof.

Grunts are probably at the lowest of the hierarchy, she thought. Definitely wouldn't make the mistake of chasing someone into their rival's territory. And they don't seem smart enough to realize how Red Eyes' Quirk works despite chasing her. So maybe she's not too high of a priority?

Peering down at them, she climbed to another rooftop, higher this time that allowed her a view of a good chunk of the entertainment district, many people enjoying whatever it had to offer even late at night.

It took her only a second to spot it. A semi-tall building that was pretty plain in appearance, gray and boring but otherwise unnoteworthy. Something that would go unnoticed, and something she had a completely clear view of from this rooftop. Despite appearances, it was a place The King of the North owned. A drug den, Tomo said. It made pretty good business, and Alacran planned on removing it soon because The King of the North was getting far too comfortable with trying to impose his rule everywhere beyond just northern Tokyo.

Rolling up her sleeve to her forearm, Ai pointed at the building with just her forefinger while her thumb was extended upwards—mimicking a handgun with her hand.

She shouldn't do this. She really shouldn't do this. She was going to be doing exactly what Tomo wanted to avoid.

"It's for Tomo, Shi-Shi," Ai murmured. "Red Eyes might be her. Plus, Tomo said Alacran was going to make a move on it anyway. I'm just helping it along."

Ai didn't feel a reply. She took that as Shi-Shi's approval, beginning to superheat the air. Because this was probably going to hurt like a bitch without Shi-Shi.

"Bang."

From the tip of her index finger shot a violet beam, streamlining towards the gray building almost uninterrupted. Almost. Sparks began to appear the closer it came to the building, and even from this distance, several blocks away, Ai could hear the cracks and pops the sparks made.

And then the beam hit the building. With the force of a bomb, a large part of the building instantly exploded in a dark blue-violet blaze, sending chunks of flaming rubble everywhere—with it raining down on the civilians and anything else that was unfortunate enough to be close to the explosion.

Devastation was the only word that could describe the scene as while the surrounding area and nearby streets were instantly flooded with ash and debris, the rest of the building started to quickly be consumed in an inferno. A fiery of indigo-colored flames, entirely unnatural, mixed with the archetypical orange fire as the temperature of the fire lowered in some areas, but Ai knew that it was still scorching hot, incinerating not only some of The King of the North's men but no doubt his assets held within the building, too.

It brightened up the sky further as well, the flames adding the glow of the city. Although Ai didn't expect the inferno to spread so quickly as a few of the adjacent buildings began to catch on fire, but some parts of their structures showed signs of damage from the raw force of the explosion, deep cracks within the concrete and bricks. However, Ai decided that was enough surveying the widespread havoc she caused. She accomplished exactly what she wanted, and everything else was more or less irrelevant. Sure, she could've done it in better ways, especially with all the collateral damage, but eh. She chalked it all up at everything being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

So the redhead shifted her focus to her hand, scrutinizing it for injuries since she cranked up the temperature and focused it into a singular beam, the underlying basis of what Tomo named Ka-BOOM, one of her combustion techniques. She wasn't too surprised to see the tip of her index finger didn't have skin though—charred to the bone. Her thumb was bent back unnaturally, too. Dislocated.

...Could be worse. Yeah, it really could've. She had expected a few more burns, maybe damage to her wrist, but with the extent of the damage she sustained this time around, Ka-BOOM was and still seemed to be a no-no to use. Despite her best efforts, she still could not control the blow-back of trying to make something combust nor could her body handle the intense heat required.

Ai didn't feel any pain though. Not even in the slightest. So she just popped her thumb back into place and placed her sleeve back over her hand, soon moving to the ledge to peer down at the thugs. They all seemed confused, and the redhead figured that if she heard the sparks of Ka-BOOM, then they did as well. The explosion, too. No doubt about that.

She watched calmly as one of the guys received a call from his wristband, a holographic screen appearing from the device. Then another guy was called. Soon, looks of disbelief crossed the faces of the two thugs before they were consumed by panic, and Ai didn't have to hear anything from the calls to know that they were informed about the explosion—that someone picked a fight with King of the North with some of his men having to pay the price for it.

Hastily, the two thugs barked orders, and that was pretty much that as everyone darted down the street.

However, still as a statue, Ai did not move until the thugs were completely out of sight. She climbed back down to the roof of her own house, and then she prepared to jump down to street level.

Because by this time, the kitten—Red Eyes—had moved from underneath the parked car, its movements slow, but it was a clear sign Ai needed to hurry. She wasn't sure what exactly was going on with her tonight, but if Red Eyes was who she thought she was, then Ai could focus on her exclusively. Treat everything else like background noise. Ignore it all.

With a deep breath through her nose, composing herself, Ai leaped off the roof and landed in front of Red Eyes, cutting off Red Eyes' route to the discarded clothes. Her landing was a little less than graceful than she wanted, tumbling to the ground.

Red Eyes was completely spooked, big red adorable kitty eyes almost bulged out of her small, furry skull as they stared Ai down. Meeting that wide-eyed, almost deer-caught-in-headlights gaze as she raised herself off the ground in a crouch, Ai could understand how and why Tomo had gotten so attached. Red Eyes was practically cuteness personified.

A few seconds ticked by. Red Eyes cocked her head to the side and raised a paw slightly—as if she wanted to move closer.

Ai inhaled. Because it was all the redhead needed as a sign to lunge at Red Eyes, scooping up the black, injured kitten tenderly, a surprised yelp escaping out of its lips, but Ai quickly brought Red Eyes close to her face and cooed, "Kitty!"


...so Ai's not really all there and she's not a good person, huh? And her fire is still pretty destructive, huh? And Shi-Shi... Well, that seems to be a thing. o.O

just FYI, the first half is meant to be confusing. Ai was confused herself because she was going through dissociation. because, yeah, uhhh. our lil' redhead is crazy, and I wanted to give more insight on her character since she does seem to act amicably, which is what I was going for. but we got one character partially introduced (Red Eyes) and another one that was mentioned (King of the North)... Ai may or may not regret what she did to the property of the latter. x.x

However, giving more insight on Ai was not why this was uploaded. I wanted to announce that there is no more deadline. Because my mental health is simply not there and the same can be said for a lot of other submitters that asked for an extension, lol. So yeah, the 17th? No longer a deadline. So if I haven't quite responded to your PM yet, especially for a character, I'd greatly appreciate if you sent me a reminder because I have been trying to respond over the last couple of days, but again, mental health ain't there, chief. Because this SYOC is going to stay open until I have a pretty sizable cast. And I mean BIG.

But uh. Yeah, that's pretty much it. See you in the first official chapter next time!

...although I do hope no idiot comes into my reviews trying to give me backhanded compliments again. Very sussy-wussy of them. Huge red flag. They probably need to stay in their own lane. OwO But also, jokes aside, I know who you are, Mr "All my homies hate Revolution". Or maybe you're a friend of that guy. Either way, keep your stupidity to that that shitty Discord server where you trash-talk the SYOC stories your characters aren't accepted in. I say stupidity because y'all really were stupid enough to trash-talk someone's SYOC while the author of said SYOC was in the server with you.

Or don't. I do know you're not ballsy enough to come off anon to give your petty hot-takes about MHA SYOCs. So guest review all you like. It really doesn't matter to me because honestly, I think it's a little funny. Provides good ol' amusement, and it's mostly why I haven't said any specific names. Mostly. The rest is because that's just rude and inconsiderate, something you guys don't seem to understand. Yikes.