Some people cry, not because they are weak...

"Hello."

He blinked.

'Hello'?

Black wisps of hair flew around the girl's face. Abruptly, she had swung her head so that it was facing away from him, and then, she stood. Taken aback, the boy's eyes widened - did he do something to offend her? Before he could ask, Lia muttered something inaudible, and was gone. Well, she didn't just disappear. Indigo orbs followed the teen's small figure as she ran off into the distance, clear with bewilderment.

And then, she really was gone.

For some reason, she reminded him of something... but what?

A frown marked his face, his eyebrows scrunching in thought. What was it...?

She reminded him of...

His features brightened; she was like a-

An unexpected screech broke through his mind, and the sixteen-year-old lifted his head.

"Ivan- Edward?!"

Ivan glanced up, his hands folded in his lap. The bell had rung, and Principal Massini had come sprinting towards him with a look of alarm highlighting his aged features. A jolt of realisation struck the boy - he... actually kind of forgot that Edward was still there, on the floor. What kind of person was he to just-

"...I'm guessing you found the new student, Lia," the Principal murmured when he reached the pair, looking at Edward with something akin to regret.

"I should have told you two about her power as a NEXT..." the man heaved a troubled sigh.

Her powers... did the blindfold have to do with anything?

This time, the blond's lips pursed in thought, and he quipped unsurely, "She... had a blindfold...?"

Maybe it had something to do with her powers.

"Yes... I gave her that this morning. It appears she got into a fight with her father, who dropped her off here. Then, well, she ran off, which is why I asked you two to find her."

At this statement, a soft groan escaped Edward. Alert, the two rushed towards him.

Edward sat up, and rubbed a spot on his head.

"A-are you okay?" Ivan was the first to speak, which surprised the adult slightly. Ivan was normally an extremely quiet student... but it made sense if the two were friends. Interesting, Massini mused, how Edward was typically popular as the top student, and Ivan was practically the opposite, always in the background.

"Y-yeah," Edward replied, but wincing when his fingers swept past an especially tender spot.

"W-what about the girl, Principal Massini?" Edward immediately questioned, removing his hand from his head.

Nodding, the Principal answered, "Yes, Lia Phan. she's sixteen years of age, a year younger than you two, am I right-?"

"What about her power?" Edward asked instead of answering, a glimmer of curiousity and impatience in his eyes.

"She has the ability to... well, put people to sleep, but as you may know," the Principal shot a look at Edward, "She doesn't have... full control of it."

It didn't surprise the two, since not many NEXTs could actually master their powers when they first awoken.

There was a short silence.

"It's a shame," the head of the school hummed thoughtfully, "She has potential. Her power would be great as a Hero. It doesn't look like she'll be able to control it soon though..."

Edward blinked at the statement - potential... as a Hero?

Only one person was selected to be a Hero every year to be approved by the Administration of Justice...

Ivan noted the a determined glare suddenly appeared in his friend's eyes.

"Then what about your likes...?"

The Russian boy pondered over this question for a long while. Lia's deadpan gaze fixed on him when suddenly, his face became a palette of reds. She presented him with a bizarre look as he figured out a way to word his answer.

"...J-Japan," he murmured. He averted his eyes from Lia's blindfolded face and stared at the table before him.

"..." Lia's mouth opened, and then closed.

"..." Ivan's gaze did not falter and the table held it evenly.

"Pfft-" Laughter poured from the girl's lips, and the whitish-blond haired boy's face reddened even more. He waited patiently until the female quietened, and finally, she scribbled down 'Japan' in messy handwriting on the survey (although Ivan didn't have the heart to tell her that she missed the allocated area to write the answer on - maybe it was difficult to see trivial/small things through the blindfold?).

"Was that so hard?" She grinned crookedly, not understanding how the boy could've taken so long to say just one word. The Asian examined his face through the thin fabric covering her eyes.

What she saw made laughter erupt from her mouth all over again.

The way his eyebrows furrowed, and the way his bottom lip jutted out slightly - he was pouting, for goodness' sake.

"W-what about you?" He suddenly insisted, and she paused. Then, she smirked.

"What I like... huh," she said to herself, leaning on the table slightly.

"I-"

"Hah! She probably doesn't like anything!" Edward butted in, making the two look up. He held his own survey in his hands, smirking.

Lia raised a brow, a bit confused at the way the brunet was treating her, but otherwise slightly offended.

"...are you an idiot? Is that supposed to be an insult?"

A scowl split across Ivan's best friend's lips, and he remarked, "Well, I'm not the one who can't control her powers!"

Lia mimicked his scowl.

"Oh yeah? Who's the one who looked in the first place?" So maybe that wasn't the best comeback she ever said, but it was still something.

"At least-"

The bell rang, signalling the end of class, and the beginning of lunch. A teacher strode towards their table to collect their surveys.

"Did you get to know your classmates better, Lia?" She asked cheerfully, albeit a little too brightly for Lia's tastes.

"Yes," Lia replied truthfully.

"As if, too many people were freaked out by her to-" Lia paid no heed to Edward's statement, and instead gathered her and Ivan's paper to give to the teacher. The blond blinked, and his head was tilted to the side a fraction as he watched her, but he made no move to stop the girl as she handed the sheets to the teacher, who gladly accepted. As she bid goodbye to the teacher, she went past Ivan, and stopped beside the boy for just a minute.

"I was... about to say..." A grimace was sketched onto her lips. Her voice, even, was hesitant and it sounded as if she were in pain - which was weird, although they couldn't really judge because they had only known her for a few days.

"I actually like Japanese music," she uttered. "S-so we have something in common, I think."

Before any of the two could say anything, she rushed off.

As her initial happiness (happiness? - she thought - she didn't know why she was smiling like she was), her demeanour soon soured. Top students were meant to be role models, yes? And role models were supposed to be nice... weren't they? The sixteen-year-old girl pursed her lips. She sat in front of the statue of Legend and sighed, a rush of awkwardness bubbling inside of her as she watched other NEXTs converse and have lunch together. No one... noticed her? Or maybe they were 'freaked out' by the fact she had a blindfold on. If push really came to shove, she could just hang out with- no. She was fine alone. That'd probably be even more uncomfortable. Maybe.

She lowered her head; her mouth a straight line.

And then-

She clutched her head in her hands, grimacing. What were those balls made of-?!

"S-sorry, little girl!" It was one of the more older students in the Academy that called out to her. Little girl? She was sixteen, legal age to live alone (with parent's permission, of course). She wasn't little-

A shadow fell upon her figure, and with her eyes narrowed, she glanced up. Of course.

"What the hell is your problem?" She spat, removing her hands from her head and standing up.

"Problem? I have none. It's your fault. But hey... who's the one who got hit in the first place?"

She recognized those words, similar to her own earlier in the day. She gritted her teeth and stood. But she didn't speak.

She waited for him to leave, but he didn't. He looked... smug?

What did he want from her?

"Look, I'm sorry for whatever I did? Alright? You don't like me. I get that!" Did she damage his pride or something? Did other people see him as 'weak' because she accidentally used her power on him or something? What was it? But even if she knew, it probably wouldn't make a difference.

She was reminded of the reason she was in the city, in the Academy for Heroes. Sure, her powers was a good enough reason, but even so, she didn't want to be there.

Because she was just sick, and tired. Of all the things happening one after the other.

Of the fighting.

Of her parents who didn't love her enough to stay together for her sake.

This was why she didn't like adults. They lied. She didn't like marriage, or love either. Because marriage was just a contract, just writing, and love... wasn't real. Because if her parents claimed they loved each other before, why did they not love each other now? Wasn't love supposed to last forever?

"Just-just, leave me alone, okay?!" Who was she talking to? Edward? Or maybe it was just her, telling her thoughts to go away so she could stop and just gather the pieces of her mind.

A drop of liquid stained her blindfold. She was crying, in front of the guy who had absolutely no reason to be so... what was the word - unfriendly - towards her.

God, she was pathetic. Why was she crying? Edward, as well as some other NEXTs, were looking at her with a strange mixture of concern and perplexity. She wasn't crying... much, right?

She ran.

She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

It was still very early into lunch when she slammed open a door to an empty class. The ring of the door banging shut resounded, and she was by herself. Then, feebly, she crawled into a small corner in the room and merely curled her knees to her chest.

There weren't any tables or chairs in the room - it looked so...

...

A pang of loneliness strung inside of her, and something - a noise - escaped her throat. A small, helpless whimper.

It surprised both her, and the poster on the wall.

"Why... are you crying?"

The girl jumped, letting out an uncharacteristic squeak, and backed further into the wall. Her hands, trembling just a little, raised to the area her eyes were, and found the cloth covering them, damp. Oh. So she was still crying.

Alert, her dark eyes darted across the room, but to no avail. Slowly, Lia's shoulders relaxed. Maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her, wishing for someone other than herself, to actually fully take away the negative feelings inside of her, instead of just hiding them away.

When she looked up for the last time, a head popped into her vision. She stared at it for a moment, before squeezing her eyes shut, for at least a few minutes. She wasn't seeing things, was she?

"Miss Lia?" Miss?

She opened her slightly tearful eyes. Who would call her... 'miss'?

Suddenly, the outline of the head had disappeared and in its place... what was it? A shadow of sorts...

"Miss... Lia?" It repeated.

"I-I-Ivan?!" The girl cried, shocked as the aforementioned person materialised in front of her, as if out of nowhere.

The figure, Ivan, did not speak. Instead, his hand reached out, and then paused. And he asked again.

"Why are you crying?"

Her cheeks scorched, and she immediately replied, "I'm not crying!"

Cue the raising of a brow.

"I- None of your business..."

She winced at the sound of her voice. Not that it had been especially biting, but rather, the opposite. It was weak.

He knew that too.

They sat there, each other looking at nothing in particular, just... -was it, maybe, too naïve for her to say - relishing in each other's company? Or at least, if not that, she just glad for the presence of a living, breathing person, not just an embodiment of misery and isolation in one.

And at the same time, she was embarrassed, curious and... grateful. She decided to go with the one emotion that wouldn't really damage what was left of her pride.

It felt like an eternity; finding her voice.

"How... did you do that?" She finally asked.

He blinked.

"That poster..." She pointed towards a poster on the wall, which told of an upcoming excursion to some place she most likely didn't want to go to.

"Ah," the boy murmured in acknowledgement.

She stared at him through her blindfold, waiting for him to explain. But he didn't. She pursed her lips, and turned her head away from his gaze, which was unreadable. She wasn't sure what to make of this situation - why was he looking at her, as if he was asking for permission or something...?

And when she glanced back, it was her turn to blink in confusion.

It was her.

A mirror-image, or a replica, or a clone, or a doppelganger - whatever it was, it looked exactly like her. So, uncomprehendingly, Lia reached out and pinched the thing's cheek. It actually felt... softer than hers? Wonder flitted across her eyes, and Lia continued to poke at the other Lia's cheek.

The other Lia lifted her arm and began to mimic her actions. The hand groped softly at her cheek, and a weird feeling shot through real Lia's body, but she shrugged it off as the idea of a person looking exactly like her - blindfold, short-ish straight black hair, skin colour and all - touching her.

"Like mochi," the clone whispered, but the Asian didn't register it in her mind. If this person looked like her, then...

The girl had released her hold of the other Lia's cheek, and began to tug off the blindfold. It fell, revealing glowing blue eyes.

...but she didn't feel anything.

This other Lia... didn't have the real Lia's NEXT power?

"Ivan?" She queried, eyes widening. The disguised boy looked at her with a look of expectancy. 'Duh', Lia Number Two's eyes said. Okay, it was starting to freak the sixteen-year-old out.

But she smiled anyway.

And then, there was what could be taken as giggling.

It turned into full-blown laughter. A few seconds into it, the boy changed back, and when he did-

"You're something."

Without letting the startled blond a chance to speak, she continued, "Your power..."

For a second she hesitated, and he noticed. He stiffened, as if preparing himself - but the female didn't notice. Her lips parted -

"I like it. It's cool."

A moment of apprehension, and then realization.

The boy lowered his head. His whitish-yellow hair fell into his face, masking his purple-blue eyes.

Lia shifted uncomfortably. Was he... bowing? A minute crawled by. Unsure whether or not to interrupt him, she-

He lifted his head, and his eyes, to Lia, were very pretty at that moment. Happy.

"Thank you," he told her softly, earnestly.

She smiled. It was hardly noticeable, but there was a sort of gentle gleam in the girl's eyes.

She didn't know whether to tell him or not, but she had heard his talk with Edward. How he doubted his abilities. He was insecure, she deducted.

Very insecure.

A part of her felt as if it was her duty to make him feel the opposite.

The bell rang.

Quickly, she felt the portion of cloth around her eyes, and was satisfied that it was dry. When her hand fell back to her side, a different hand moved into her line of sight. The same, pale hand that was Ivan's.

Biting the inside of her cheek, she gripped it firmly, and stood.

She was strong...

...and maybe, she mused, life wasn't so bad after all, what with being extremely awkward, and having unreliable parents.

Yeah.

She'd be okay.

Before the two exited the classroom, Lia said, "Oh and Ivan?"

Ivan turned his head towards her.

"I have brown eyes."

...but because they've been strong for too long.

I apologize in advance if there are any mistakes. Tell me if there are.

So can anyone tell me what Lia reminds Ivan of? And if anyone doesn't know what mochi is... look it up~! A hint: squishy (that might be too much of a hint though). oh and i'll be asking this question but no one will answer darn ghost readers -sigh-

But anyway, thank you for reading. There was never anything saying stuff about how the Hero at the Academy was chosen or if they'd even become a Hero after being selected at the school, so I made it that one student each year would be selected, and if the Administration of Justice (you know, Yuri Petrov, Maverick, the Mayor etc) thought they were good enough, then they'd let them become a Hero.

Also, to clear things up a bit - Edward's character:

I don't think I'm making him /too/ mean. I just think, as the top student, he is nice. Meaning, he really does believe Ivan and him can become Heroes together at some point. But there's also the fact that Lia, randomly showing up and accidentally putting him to sleep and all (which is not powerful, but can be useful - it's debatable), kind of well, I don't think he would appreciate that. Especially since the Principal was like: she has potential, and all. And remember that Lia can't even control her power - so whoever looks her in the eye immediately gets knocked unconscious - friends or foe. I repeat: it's not an amazing power like... um, controlling animals and riding on them and being able to turn into one and being all beastly and awesome and omgiaminvincible - okay (I made this up on the spot, I'm not talking about anything/anyone)? Edward sees her as a rival of sorts.

And Ivan's character:

I'm pretty sure I have him in character, from what I've gathered from what Principal Massini said in episode 8 of T&B. Quiet, hiding behind his closest friend, Edward... of course, room for character development, but that happens when Kotetsu and such happen.

And uhm, about the 'I have brown eyes' bit - it's because Ivan only saw her when her power was activated that he transformed it like that; I'm sure you guys know that most of the powers in the anime glow blue (with the exception of Jake and etcetera, which glowed orange?). So yeah, Lia has brown eyes.

Review?