The Past

A boy was walking along the streets of Tokyo. He didn't know where he was but he didn't really care. All he wanted was to be away from the cold looks he received from his family.

He didn't know what went wrong.

This was supposed to be a fun trip to Japan, all that was supposed to happen is that he and his siblings would have fun and tour the place while his parents discussed some important stuff with some Japanese big shot. From what he could tell everything seemed fine even if he couldn't remember the exact details of the last few weeks. Yeah his family usually regarded him with indifference these days, but that didn't explain the coldness he felt from them now.

The boy continued walking past a display window, he paused and turned to look at his reflection, a boy with maroon eyes, raven black hair which stuck out in the front and a single strand of hair that defied gravity at the back stared back at him. The boy winced as he took in another detail about himself, specifically how parts of his hair in the front and back were now a dark red. The boy sighed tiredly, shaking his head and continued walking down the street. Was it the colored hair? Was that why his family seemed so much more hostile? He doubted it, hell he could barely remember why his hair was red now in the first place! It probably happened in the weeks that were a messy blur in his mind. But hey he wasn't gonna try and change it, he thought the red looked pretty nice on him, it complimented his eyes.

The boy walked past a few bystanders speaking in Japanese, and slowed- understanding their discussion, and it had caught his interest. "There are even more of them these days, I can't help but be worried," a middle aged man said to which the woman he was speaking to nodded in agreement. "It's kinda scary to think about, these people being born with powers, who knows what they could, and there's nothing you could do against it".

At this point the boy walked away, he knew exactly what they were talking about, the Superpower Epidemic, people all over the world were starting to be born with superpowers, it having started about 40 years back. He didn't blame some people for being scared, at the rate things were going it seemed the empowered were gonna take over the human population, but personally he found it pretty cool. Superpowers, a fictional concept, were now reality, mind-blowing stuff really.

The boy looked upwards at the darkening sky and narrowed his eyes. He was no fool. He had to get back to where he was staying, it meant he'll have to deal with his family again but it was much better than being lost by himself in a foreign city at night, that never ends well. He turned around to start heading back the way he came when something sped by him. He barely was able to register it as a stroller when he heard the terrified scream of a mother. When his mind fully processed everything he was running after it, funny he hadn't even realized his legs had started moving even before the mother's scream.

Pumping his legs the boy was quickly closing in on the stroller, he was almost close enough to grab it but it was just barely out of his reach (it would've been really helpful if just one of the many bystanders watching this event had the decency to I don't know- GET IN FRONT OF THE STROLLER?!) The boy shook off his growing annoyance and focused on grabbing the damn thing until he looked past the stroller and saw the dark asphalt of the street getting closer.

Fast.

The cherry on top being the speeding car racing right down the very same street.

The boy's eyes widened in panic, and with adrenaline filling his veins moved even faster to grab the stroller. His hand was just a few inches away from the handle.

Minutes became seconds, seconds became milliseconds, and inches became centimeters as the boy raced to grab the stroller. A deafening honk and squeal of tires rang in the air. Bystanders looked away in anticipation. But there was no crash, no sounds of pain, no screams of terror.

With shaky legs the boy sighed in relief as the car went by inches away from the stroller before coming to a stop. He had managed to grab and just barely stop the stroller from hitting the car head on. People began to approach the scene. The boy went around to see how the kid in the stroller was doing. As he peered in he saw the child staring up at him, a small pale boy with hair that transitioned from black to silver and bright yellow eyes about 2 or 3 years old. The older boy was a bit startled by the younger one's appearance and quickly began to speculate, but he didn't need to wait to get his answer as he saw the younger boy's yellow eyes suddenly gain a clockwork symbol in them. The older boy gaped in shock before the younger started to glow and time seemed to slow and the street turned grayscale around them.

"What th-!?" The boy didn't get to finish his exclamation when he suddenly felt himself get tugged forward, time and space seemed to warp around him briefly before he blacked out.

The younger boy in the stroller didn't understand what just happened, the weird red and black haired boy had a funny face before he suddenly disappeared but he was tired now so he closed his eyes and went to sleep. Meanwhile all the bystanders stood there gaping at where the boy had just disappeared in a flash of light. No one understood what had just happened and they weren't sure they wanted to understand.

The Present (Future?)

The boy woke up briefly in a daze. He couldn't get himself to focus, he didn't know where he was at the moment, all he knew was that he was currently laying on something soft and slightly smelly. He couldn't bring himself to move his body; he could only stare up at the glistening stars in the sky.

…

"What have you gotten yourself into, Hikaru?" The boy mumbled tiredly before falling back into unconsciousness.

The city of Musutafu was currently slumbering. No one noticed anything odd that night, not even the sudden and bright flash of light in the night sky or the figure that fell out of it into an alley next to an apartment complex. At least no one except a certain green haired freckled middle schooler who happened to be revising a training plan at the time.