Author's Note: So. This happened. Keep in mind, this is OC-centric but NOT a self-insert. This idea hit me over the head with the force of a sledgehammer and I surprisingly had the motivation to write, so here we are! The second chapter will be out soon, so look forward to it in the next week or so. I'm really proud of this, so hopefully people like it. Enjoy!

Kaa-san (okaa-san) = mother

Tou-san (otou-san) = father

Nee-chan (onee-chan) = older sister

Otouto = younger brother

End of author's note.

Mikami Hiroko woke up to the smell of breakfast and the soft clanging of pots on the stove. He propped himself up on his elbows and blearily looked around his room. It was a pretty typical room for a six year old, the walls were a soft blue with a few posters of heroes and anime hung up, and it was somewhat messy. Dirty clothes were scattered around the floor along with some stuffed animals and action figures. Next to his bed with its dinosaur themed sheets was a small table with an All Might alarm clock. On it read 6:17am in softly glowing red characters.

Hiro stared at the clock blankly before yawning and burrowing back down into his pillow. It was about 10 minutes before his parents normally woke him up. Ten more minutes of sleep sounds good to him.

"Hiro-chan? Haru-chan? Are you awake? Breakfast's almost ready!"

It was his mom. He whined but started struggling out of his covers. If he didn't get up soon, she'd send his dad in to have the tickle monster wake him up! He just defeated the tickle monster last night and wasn't sure he was ready for such a tough battle this early.

He was just trudging out of his room into the hallway when large hands hooked under his arms and snatched him into the air against a broad chest. He gasped and squirmed around to see Otou-san's warm grey eyes twinkling merrily at him. His dad, Mikami Takeshi, had black hair cropped close to his scalp and dark stubble scattered around his chin. Hiro's dad always shaved, so he must not have been up very long either.

"There you are! I was starting to think I'd have to release the tickle monster to get you up!"

"Tou-san no tickle monster! I'm up already!" Hiro huffed with a pout as he settled against his dad's chest.

Takeshi chuckled as he responded, "I can see that. Now, how about you help me wake up your sister?"

Hiro perked up and felt much more awake at the suggestion. His eyes twinkled mischievously and he replied, "Mm okay!"

"That's what I like to hear!" Hiroko was carried a few steps down the hall to his sister's door. "Okay, on the count of three we're going to rush in there and you're going to wake Haru-chan up. Are you ready?"

Hiro gripped his dad's shoulders and giggled brightly. "Un!"

Hiro was gently shifted as his dad readjusted his hold on his son and gripped the doorknob. "Alright. One. Two… Three!"

The two burst into the room and charged up to the bed and the sleeping lump within it. With a heave, Hiro was carefully tossed onto the bed and consequently his sleeping sister. With a squeal and a loud laugh Hiro landed on the lump with a thud. Immediately a grunt sounded from under the covers and the blob shifted around until a face with squinted brown eyes and long, messy black hair appeared.

"Otouto? What are you doing?" a sleep rough voice asked grumpily.

Hiro laughed and rolled off his sister. He promptly kneeled on the bed and began gently shaking her as he chirped out, "Time to wake up Onee-chan!"

Those brown eyes blinked before they narrowed once again and replied with, "Is that so? Well, I think annoying younger brothers who wake up their cool older sister early deserve to be punished!" With that the lump shot up and tackled Hiro down to the bed.

Hiro's eyes widened as he felt evil fingers sneak under his shirt and start to wiggle threateningly. Helpless laughs were forced out of him as he was assaulted by ticklish fingers. No! He thought he had escaped the tickle monster this morning!

Hiro writhed frantically and between breathless laughs he cried out, "I-it was T-Tou-san's idea!"

Mercifully the fingers stopped their torture as the wicked villainess paused to consider that. Through eyes watery from the wild laughter, Hiro watched his dad startle from where he had been observing the chaos with a smile. Tou-san quickly backed up and sheepishly retreated out the door, abandoning Hiro to his fate.

Hiro caught his breath as Haruka turned her head and watched their dad escape out of the room.

She snorted and shook her head before turning back to Hiro and grinning down at him. "Don't worry we'll get back at Tou-san later! Is breakfast ready?"

Haru-nee helped Hiro sit up as he said, "Mm, I think so. Kaa-san was calling for us right as I woke up."

Together the siblings slid out of bed and trotted down the stairs to the kitchen where their parents were setting out the last of the plates and food on the table. Their mother looked up as they approached the table. Mikami Megumi's short icy blue hair glowed white in the soft morning light and made her warm hazel eyes glitter as she smiled at her children. "Good morning you two! Sounds like you both have had a pretty exciting morning already." Her eyes cut over to Tou-san and her smile turned sly as she said, "I hear your father caused some trouble."

Hiro and Haruka simultaneously turned to their father and glared playfully. Before they could say anything Takeshi quickly sat down, turned to his wife and stated loudly and pointedly, "Wow, honey this looks delicious! I sure am hungry! How about we all sit down and enjoy this wonderful breakfast before it gets cold?"

Kaa-san looked at the two in the entryway and rolled her eyes as she told them, "Well your father's right about one thing, come eat before it gets cold."

Hiro, hungry now that he smelled the food on the table, bounced over and sat down across from his dad. A moment later Haruka sat down next to him and Kaa-san took the last seat at the table. With a quick "Itadekimasu!" from all four, they began eating.

After a couple minutes with only the sounds of the family eating, Kaa-san spoke up, "Oh Haru-chan, I'll probably text you a few things for you and Hiro-chan to pick up on your way home from aikido today."

Haruka glanced up at their mother and with a large bite of food in her mouth, began to respond. "Okay-" She cut herself off when she noticed Kaa-san glaring at her poor manners. She swallowed and tried again, "Okay, no problem. What's gonna be for dinner?"

Hiro and Tou-san perked up and looked over to hear the answer. Kaa-san's food was the best and she had been teasing them for days saying they're going to have beef hot pot soon! "Well," Kaa-san paused and pretended to think it over, teasing her enthralled audience. When everyone was suitably on the edge of their seats, she continued, "It's been getting cold recently so I was thinking sukiyaki would be a good way to start the week off."

Hiro and Tou-san shared an excited grin and Hiro blurted out a triumphant, "Yes!"

His family laughed as he blushed at his outburst and they all turned back to their food. After everyone finished Hiro and Haruka shuffled the dishes into the kitchen and began washing them as Kaa-san packed their bento and Tou-san went to shower and get ready for work.

The rest of the morning passed quickly as everyone got ready for the day. Hiro brushed his teeth, changed into his day clothes, packed his homework into his backpack, grabbed his bento, and moved everything to the door.

Haru-nee hadn't come down yet, so Hiro decided to go check the news with his mother while he waited. Maybe there were some cool villain fights that had happened over the weekend? If he was really lucky the news would have some footage of Jetstream! Jetstream was a local hero who could manipulate air to fly super quick and one of Hiro's favorite heroes! He'd never personally met her, but Haru-nee had! She even got a picture with Jetstream and her autograph! Haru-nee kept the signed picture framed in her room. Every time he saw it he was. So. Jealous! Hopefully someday Hiro would meet her as well! He eagerly sat down next to his mother, but while there was some footage of a couple battles that had happened over the weekend, sadly Jetstream was not included. Disappointed, Hiro slumped into his mother's side. At least they had a video of Crimson Riot, he was pretty cool too.

About fifteen minutes later Haruka came down the stairs, finally ready to leave. With her long hair braided and her uniform on, she looked less like a bedhead monster and more like her normal 14 year old self. She walked over and ruffled his already messy hair and asked brightly, "You ready to go?"

Hiro wrinkled his nose at her and swatted at her hand. He didn't need her to make his hair even worse! Sullenly he said, "I was waiting on you."

Kaa-san giggled and pulled Hiro back into her side for a quick kiss to his head before waving them out the door. "Have a good day you two! I'll text you that list later, Haru-chan."

Hiro trotted to the door calling "Bye bye Kaa-san," and slightly louder, "Bye bye Tou-san!" Through the ceiling he heard his dad calling goodbye back.

Haruka was already carrying her backpack and gym bag, so she paused long enough to allow Hiro to grab his, before opening the door and heading out. It only took a few seconds to walk down the short path to the gate at the front of their house, then they were closing it behind them and on their way. If one of the siblings were to look back on their house they would see a typical Japanese suburban home: two stories, tall and skinny, beige with a dark green roof, windows liberally scattered around the exterior, an overhang on the left side of the house for a car to park under, and small front yard with its fence and gate surrounding it. The yard was grass with a couple of flowering bushes lining the fence and one large tree that hung over the street. Considering it was nearly winter, the bushes were bare of flowers and the tree was a riot of orange, yellow, and red leaves turning steadily into brown.

Hiro gripped Haruka's hand and skipped along beside her. He hummed happily as dry leaves crunched under his shoes. Some of the kids at school made fun of him for hanging onto his sister so much, but they already made fun of him for his quirklessness, and his sister was super cool, so he did his best to ignore it. His Haru-nee was going to be a hero someday! Her superspeed quirk was gonna make her the number one! They're just mean cuz she was way better than them!

That's what he told himself anyway, but it really hurt something inside him when they say she always had to protect him because he was quirkless and couldn't do anything for himself. Hiro frowned heavily at his thoughts and kicked his feet.

When Haruka noticed that his skipping and humming had stopped, she looked down and shook his hand in hers to get his attention. Her eyebrows drew together in worry when she saw that his good mood was gone. "You okay otouto?"

Hiro jerked, startled out of his thoughts, and looked up at her. Her head tilted curiously, eyes quietly concerned. Hiro shook his head and let go of her hand to give his cheeks a sharp tap. No! It's been a good morning! He was not gonna let those jerks at school ruin his day before he even saw them! He looked up at her and flashed a determined smile. "I'm fine! It's nothing!"

Haruka was visibly confused but let it go. Hiro nodded to himself, there was no need to make Nee-chan worry about him! He was a big boy, almost seven whole years old! He could take care of himself! As if to prove how grown up he was, Hiro jogged ahead of her to walk by himself. Haruka let him do so without a fuss, waving to the elderly Nishimura-san across the street. Around the children was an idyllic suburban neighborhood. Tall, quaint houses in tans and greys with splashes of red or green, and neat lawns with small flower gardens and tall trees. With an ocean-scented breeze rustling through the colorful trees, soft morning sunlight shining down on them, and the sound of an occasional bark or cat's meow, it was the picture of peace.

They weren't the only people walking to school. Before and behind them were teens and children of various ages. Before long one of Haruka's friends jogged up beside her and the rest of the walk was filled with their soft chatter. When they were nearly at the meeting spot where the children of their neighborhood had to gather before walking to school, Haru-nee perked up and dug into her gym bag. After a second she pulled out the bright yellow hat Hiro's school makes the students wear when commuting. Kaa-san said they had to wear it so cars saw them and didn't hit them. Hiro thought it was just so old ladies could coo at them and call them cute as they walked by. Hiro hated the ugly thing. He'd 'accidentally' lost it a couple times and gotten scolded by his teacher. The only good thing about the dumb cap was that it kept the sun out of his eyes in PE.

"You forgot this in the living room. You're lucky I grabbed it or you'd be getting in trouble with Suzuki-sensei again!" She shoved it roughly onto his head and laughed as he whined and struggled to get it out of his eyes.

Hiro pouted as he pushed back on his head. Ahead of them he could see a group of other yellow hats; they'd made it to the meeting spot. "Alright otouto," Haru-nee announced, "you know the drill. You head to the park," she nodded to the playground across the street, "after school, I'll pick you up after my club is over, and we'll head to the dojo together."

He rolled his eyes and complained, "I know Nee-chan, I know!"

She laughed and gave him a push forward. "Alright, I'll leave you alone! See you!" Haruka waved at him as she turned and began jogging down the street to the right, her friend following closely behind.

Hiro waved back and made it to the group. Most of the kids ignored him, but Kazu waved at him a little bit. The others chatted among themselves as they waited for Kyoko. She was always the last one to arrive cuz she lived the farthest away. Hiro used to try to chat with the others in his group, but he had been in school for months now and was used to them ignoring or snapping at him if he tried. There was no point. Kazu-kun was the nicest and sometimes tried to talk to Hiro, but Yuuta always pushed Kazu and yelled at him if he tried to be nice to the 'freak.'

They all turned as they heard, "I'm here! I'm here!" It was Kyoko, almost late again.

Yuuta stomped his foot and yelled at her as everyone started walking. "You're always almost late! My mom says you don't have a dad so you're not being raised right! That's why you're always late and have bad grades! If you'd get here when you're supposed to we'd have more time to play before class starts!"

Kyoko flushed angrily and opened her mouth to shout back, but Matsuyama, Yuuta's best friend, shoved her hard enough that she tripped and fell. "Shut up!" Matsuyama yells. "Even if no one else says it, everyone hates how you're always late! Yuuta's right and you know it!"

Angry on Kyoko's behalf, Hiro charged forward in between Matsuyama and the fallen girl. "Stop it!" He shouted. "You're being mean over nothing! We always get to school on time and have time to play! You're the ones making us late right now!" Behind him Kazu was helping Kyoko stand up. She rubbed at her eyes angrily and sniffled, but stayed quiet.

Yuuta stepped forward and shoved hard at Hiro. "Be quiet, Quirkless. You're even worse! She at least has a quirk! You're worthless! We shouldn't even have to go to school with someone like you!"

Hiro goes to shove back, but before he can two others step in. "Alright stop!" One of them, Ayato, said firmly. "We're actually gonna be late if we don't start walking right now. I'm not gonna get in trouble with sensei cuz you guys want to fight!"

Hiro and Yuuta glared at each other, but everyone started moving. Stupid Yuuta! He says everyone complains about Kyoko making them late, but he's the only one that made a big deal out of it all the time!

Hiro slowed down to be next to Kyoko. "You okay, Kyoko-chan?" he asked softly.

She snapped at him, still upset. "I'm fine! Leave me alone, Quirkless. I don't need help from someone like you!" She tossed her color shifting hair over her shoulder and stomped ahead of him.

Hiro frowned, now a little upset at her, too. He was just trying to help… She didn't need to be so mean. Fine! Maybe he won't help her next time! ...That was probably a lie. Hiro hated being yelled at, but he hated Yuuta more. And it was really mean that he brought up her dad! Everyone knows Kyoko's dad died in a villain attack a couple years ago! So he'd help her again, even if she didn't like it.

Hiro kept his head down for the rest of the walk and everyone made it to school with no further issues. But because of their arguing earlier, they only had about five minutes before the bell rang. Everyone hustled in to exchange their shoes and make it to class on time.

When he got to the classroom Hiro was pleasantly surprised to see that no one had messed up his desk. He wasn't going to get in trouble for harming school property today! The teachers always blamed Hiro for it, even when it was obvious he didn't do it! Sometimes they would make him hold full water buckets in the hall for all of the morning assembly! He swore they filled those buckets with lead instead of water! They were so heavy and made his hands hurt! Or, if they did it during lunch or at the end of the day, he would have to stay after school for ages trying to scrub sharpie off the desk. It looked like he wouldn't have to deal with that today, though! The bell rang just then, and class officially began.

From there the day went pretty normally. During lunch, everyone talked about the latest villain attacks, their favorite heroes they saw on the news, new episodes of the anime they're watching, and how excited they were about getting the latest Shonen Jump after school. Naturally, Hiro was excluded. He just quietly ate his food and ran outside to play by himself until the period was over. During PE the boys played football and everyone avoided passing him the ball. Honestly, that probably upset Hiro the most because it's not like anyone was even allowed to use their quirks during PE! So they weren't any better than he was for having quirks! Hiro was actually pretty good at football! But whatever. Hiro didn't care if his team lost. It was just a dumb game anyway.

At the end of the day Hiro rushed out of the classroom the moment cleaning was done. He had to leave school before Kousuke-senpai found him. Kousuke was a fourth year that liked to pick on him. His gorilla quirk made him really big and strong, so it really hurt when the ten year old pushed Hiro around. And since Kousuke mostly did it after school, all the teachers ignored Hiro when he told them that his senpai was hurting him. None of them seemed to care when school wasn't in session. They didn't seem to care that much during school either, but if it happened right in front of their face they put a stop to it. The good thing about Hiro's school was that they were really strict on quirk use, so he at least didn't have to worry about that.

Luckily he managed to avoid Kousuke today. He overheard that the older boy had gotten detention for bullying a quirked kid. Hiro did his best not to feel bitter. Who cared that the teachers only protected quirked students? Who cared that Kousuke had pushed him down the stairs one time and only Hiro's aikido training kept him from getting seriously hurt? It was fine. Hiro wasn't bothered. At least the jerk was getting punished for something, right? Hiro bit his lip and ignored the stinging of tears in his eyes as he left. (His heart hurt and sometimes he felt unbearably lonely. But no one cared about the quirkless. They would never amount to anything, right? Better to focus on children that actually had a future…)

Hiro took his time walking to the park. He had two hours until Haru-nee finished her volleyball practice, so there was no rush. He didn't mind hanging out in the meantime. He would play on the swings or monkey bars and work on his homework at the picnic tables. Sometimes there were kids that didn't know he was quirkless would let him play with them. Other times he would climb trees and play pretend by himself. He used to bring some of his action figures to the park, but after Satoru, another of his main bullies, noticed and broke them all, he didn't risk it anymore.

Once Hiro arrived at the park, he glanced around surreptitiously, making sure no one was watching him, and ran to the trees. About ten meters into the tiny forest was one particular tree. There's nothing special about it except that its base was completely surrounded by prickly bushes. It was this tree Hiro that ran to. He dropped to his knees and quickly scrambled under the bush. There, nestled in the roots of the tree was a small hole in the ground. With the ease of practice, Hiro shrugged off his backpack and slipped it into the hole. He had dug it specifically for this purpose. Leaving his bag in the open while he played was just asking for someone to go through it and destroy his homework. He'd been using the hole a couple of weeks now with no incidents, so Hiro was confident Satoru wouldn't find this hiding spot like he had the others!

He scooted out of the bush and circled the park a little before coming out of the trees. It made it harder for his bullies to guess where his bag was in case they were watching him leave the forest. Better safe than sorry. Hiro had cried when he'd been forced to ask his parents to buy new school books for him after he was careless and some kids tore them apart. They said they weren't upset, that it wasn't his fault, but Hiro had never felt so much guilt in his life. He knew school books were expensive… Hiro never EVER wanted to go through that again. Hence his numerous precautions.

Hiro looked around and saw that Satoru and his friends had already arrived, but luckily they were on the far side of the playground, so as long as Hiro stayed away, they would probably leave him alone.

He'd been messing around on the monkey bars for about 30 minutes when Hiro heard a loud cry. Hiro paused on the bars and looked for where the sound originated from. It was Satoru's group. He and his buddies were surrounding something on the ground, laughing meanly. Hiro let go and landed with a thump onto the sand before wandering closer to the group, trying to see what was going on. Sprawled in the dirt was a boy with a mouse quirk. He had large round ears, buck teeth protruding from his mouth, oversized round glasses, whiskers, and a long naked tail curled around him. He was crying.

Alarmed, Hiro began running to the group. He arrived just as Satoru sneered and said, "Didn't you know? People hate rats! My aunt told me that whenever they find them they use poison to kill them. You should be grateful you're even allowed to live!" Without any warning, the bully brought his foot down hard on the boy's tail. As the kid screamed, Hiro raced up behind Satoru, grabbed his shoulder tightly, and shoved him around to face Hiro. He glared furiously into the bully's startled eyes, gripped his arm, turned, and flipped Satoru over his shoulder. The jerk crashed into the sand, stunned and wheezing, his breath knocked out of him. Hiro backed up and stood firmly over the mouse quirked boy, eyes blazing, mouth pressed thin with anger, his fists clenched tightly.

"Back off!" He shouted.

The other bullies surrounding them looked at each other, eyes wide, less confident now that someone was standing up to them. One forced out, "H-hey! You can't do that!"

Instantly, Hiro shot back, "Why not? You guys went way too far! You were acting like villains!"

At that Satoru finally managed to stand up. He bared his teeth and grit out, "What, does that mean you think you're some kind of hero? Newsflash Quirkless, people like you don't get to be heroes! They're nothing. A villain could kill you and I bet no one would care! Your parents would be happy that someone finally got rid of their worthless kid!"

Hiro clenched his teeth against a sting of hurt but remained firm as he responded. "I'm not gonna let you hurt him anymore! You know you can't beat me, even with your stupid friends, so just leave!"

Satoru kicked sand at Hiro and the boy but wisely retreated. He'd learned the hard way that numbers didn't do much against Hiro, he was too well trained. He called to the others, "Who wants to play in a park with losers like them here anyway. Let's go!"

Hiro watched the group slink away before he turned and knelt down in front of the still sobbing mouse boy. "Are you alright? How's your tail?" The boy was clutching the appendage to his chest. Through the kid's fingers he could see that it was already swelling and turning purple. Hiro winced, it looked really painful... His hand hovered over the boy's, wanting to help but unsure what to do or even if the boy wanted his help. He'd been turned away so many times before…

"I-I think it's okay. It hurts, but I think it's just bruised. I can still move it alright." The boy scrubbed one arm across his eyes, his sobs receding.

"I'm sorry I didn't stop them earlier, I didn't notice till it was too late…" Hiro's voice cracked and felt his eyes tear up in both sympathy and guilt.

Hiro considered himself lucky. Yeah, almost everybody either bullied him or ignored him because of something he couldn't help, but because he's been in aikido since he was little, almost none of them dared to physically confront him. He only had to worry about older kids or people with strong quirks attacking him. This boy obviously didn't have that luxury.

The boy looked up at Hiro and smiled shyly. "I-it's okay. At least you helped." His smile dropped as he looked out at the playground. Dozens of kids were laughing and playing cheerfully, not even glancing at the beaten boy in the sand. "No one else even thought about stopping them." Suddenly, the boy beams up at Hiro, "You were my hero! They definitely would have kept going if you hadn't been here! I'm Watanuki Rin, what's your name?"

Hiro blushed furiously, he was no hero but smiled back tentatively. "My name's Mikami Hiroko. Nice to meet you!"

A moment went by of them just grinning at each other, when Hiro perked up in realization, "Hey, I think I've seen you at school before! You're a second year, right? That would make you my senpai!"

Watanuki's eyes widened in recognition, "Oh! You're the quirkless kid everyone talks about!" He rose on his knees and clapped his hands excitedly. "That's awesome! It means we can play together at school from now on!" Suddenly his ears drooped and he looked away from Hiro, shy and embarrassed. "I-I mean. If you want to of course…"

For a second Hiro just sat there staring at Watanuki, stunned. Someone actually wanted to play with him even after learning he was quirkless? A smile so big it hurt his cheeks broke out across his face. This was the best day EVER!

"Of course I wanna play with you!" Hiro grabbed his new friend's hands and pulled him to his feet. "We can start now! Let's play heroes and villains! We'll be the heroes and we'll pretend Satoru is the villain."

Watanuki laughed and nodded eagerly, tears forgotten completely. After that, time passed very quickly for the two boys. Watanuki had to leave before Hiro, but they promised to meet up at school the next day and continue their game then. After his friend left, Hiro retrieved his backpack and worked on his homework for a bit, grin never leaving his face. When his Jetstream watch told him his sister would be finishing up with her club, Hiro packed up and headed over to the meeting spot.

He arrived before Haruka today. Haru-nee was really popular so sometimes it took a while for her to say goodbye to her friends. Everyone knew that she was gonna take the entrance exam for UA next year and that she was smart enough and strong enough to pass. Everyone fawned over her and wanted to be close to her because of that. Hiro didn't blame them. How can he when Hiro looked up to her so much? His sister was awesome! So Hiro was never upset when he saw her with all her friends, even though he didn't really have any of his own. Until now! He had Watanuki now.

Hiro felt jealous occasionally, but honestly, he'd never once wanted to be a hero himself. Don't get him wrong! Hiro loves heroes and admired them greatly, he just didn't want to be one. So he always shook the jealousy off and supported Haruka with all his might! Hiro thought that maybe he wanted to take care of animals rather than fight villains. Tou-san and Kaa-san took them to the zoo last summer and it was so cool! Hiro had loved the birds the most. There were so many different kinds and they were so pretty and made all sorts of incredible sounds! So he'd like to work in a zoo when he grows up. When he told his parents this Kaa-san said he had plenty of time to make up his mind and Tou-san said he definitely should be a zookeeper, but when he did, Hiro had to sneak Tou-san a lion. Silly Tou-san! A lion can't fit in Hiro's backpack! Maybe he could bring a baby lion home? A baby lion could definitely fit in his backpack, right?

Hiro was crouched down, idly waving his fingers at a stray cat sitting on a low wall next to him, as he considered what he would do with a baby lion. The sign in front of the lions at the zoo said lions eat meat, so if Hiro shared some of his dinner with the baby lion it'd be okay. And it'd need a litter box like a normal kitty right? He could take care of a baby lion no problem! He nodded to himself and stood up as the cat hopped off the wall and walked away. He'd tell Tou-san his plan when he got home.

When he looked up, he spotted Haru-nee walking at the end of the street. He smiled widely as he ran up to her and chirped, "Hi Nee-chan! Guess what!"

She grabbed his hand and they began walking. "Hey, otouto! What's up?"

"I'm gonna be a zookeeper when I grow up and sneak a baby lion home and I know Tou-san said he wants a big lion but a big lion won't fit in my backpack and also I think it would be really heavy so I probably wouldn't be able to carry it anyway so that's why I'll sneak a baby one out instead and-" Hiro ran out of air and was forced to breathe. Meanwhile, his sister laughed brightly at his enthusiasm.

"Don't laugh Nee-chan! I'm gonna do it! You'll see!"

Haruka smiled indulgently down at him but nodded seriously. "Of course you are! You can do anything you set your mind to Hiro-chan! I'll always believe in you!"

Hiro's heart felt warm and big in his chest like he swallowed the sun. No matter how much she teased him, he knew she truly meant her words. She really believed in him. Hiro felt like he would burst from the love and happiness he felt in that moment. Quickly, he yanked his hand out of hers and pounced on her. He grabbed her in a hug and gave a fierce squeeze. Haruka grunted from the force but hugged back just as tightly.

Then it was over and Hiro jerked back, exclaiming, "Ah! You almost made me forget! I made a new friend today!"

"Is that so? Tell me about it."

And so he did. Haruka pushed him along, nodding attentively as they walked. She was accustomed to managing her excitable, rambling younger brother, so he knew they'd get to the dojo on time, as always. Hiro couldn't help but think, as he continued describing the fun he'd had with his new friend, that nothing could ruin his current good mood. Aikido would be fun, they'd pick up groceries on the way home, and have sukiyaki for dinner! This was the best day ever!

Just a few weeks later Hiro would look back on that day, on those thoughts, and struggle to hold back tears. Oh, how wrong he had been.

It had been a perfectly normal day. Until it hadn't.

With a flash of light and an earth-shaking boom, time stopped. Hiroko's world changed. And it would never be the same.

By the will of a god, fate was altered...