May 4, 2003

3 years, 6 months, 19 days prior to Incident

"Thought you could tattle on me, you fucking nark?!" Onishi Asahi roared. Four of his cronies stood supportively at his back, all in various states of inebriation.

"If you hadn't cheated, I wouldn't have had to inform the authorities," Mikami Teru said calmly. He was relatively certain that he could beat the idiot on a one-on-one fight, but he was sorely outnumbered, and at least two of them had some sort of weapon.

"Let's see what 'the authorities' will say once I'm done with you. Who wants to see me beat this fucker into a pulp?!"

There was a drunken cheer and Onishi happily chugged down the rest of his beer, throwing the empty bottle at his victim's head.

Teru ducked.

The glass shattered on the wall behind him, and though he managed to avoid a head injury, Teru couldn't protect himself from the flying shards that embedded themselves into his skin. He grimaced. It was going to be nearly impossible to get those out later.

"Stay still you little weas - " Onishi suddenly vomited violently onto the asphalt, to the amusement of his friends. Teru crinkled his nose in disgust. So base.

However, he couldn't help raising a brow in interest when Onishi fell to the ground and started convulsing heavily, stomach acid still leaking out of his mouth.

"Holy shit!"

"Is he dying?"

"Leave him, let's just get out of here!"

No loyalty amongst thieves, Teru thought, still observing the shaking Onishi.

"Onishi Asahi. The last one, finally."

Teru narrowed his eyes. Where had that come from? It sounded... familiar. A strange mix of tenor and soprano.

Perhaps...

A flash of black, and a blurry figure stood above Onishi's now prone body.

"What happened to him?"

"Poison. I slipped it in his beer earlier."

"So he's dead?"

"Of course. Who do you think I am?"

"An angel," Teru responded promptly. "You must be."

"What?" The figure turned to - he assumed - look at him. "What kind of angel kills people?"

"The kind that is responsible for doling out judgment."

"I - no. I'm not sure why you think that. Anyway, why are you here?"

"He was trying to attack me."

"Again? Why do all these guys hate you so much?"

"I saved someone from Sugimoto, and he beat me instead. As for Onishi, he was cheating on a entrance exam and I reported him."

"You're an idiot. Why would you do that if you're just going to be hurt for no reason?" Teru's eyes turned cold, the memory of his mother's betrayal echoing in his ears. "Standing up for the weak, doing what's right; I can understand that, commend it, even. But you're going about it all wrong."

He relaxed, since it didn't seem like Tenshi-sama would walk the same path as his mother - and then blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Look. How many times have you been hurt trying to stop other people from doing bad things?"

He couldn't remember.

"And how many times did they just go back to doing the same thing?"

Nearly every single time.

"This is what we call winning the battle, but losing the war. Sure, you were able to help that once... but then they beat you up and just go back to doing it. What's the point?"

Teru opened his mouth to speak, but the angel raised a hand.

"There isn't one, because you're using the idiot's method of making a difference. The most important thing about doing something dangerous is this: don't get caught. Don't ever get caught. Rash actions and direct confrontations are only possible for those who are 100% sure they have the power to win. Pride or gratitude or whatever, they're all unimportant when compared to your ability to keep doing what only you can do. If you're hurt, if you're incapacitated, if you're dead, how can you keep helping? You can't. It's over. You've lost the war."

"What can I do, then?" he snapped, suddenly struck by a harsh wave of anger. "What else can I possibly do?"

Having his entire life waved off so flippantly, even by a supernatural being, was a galling thing.

"You think things out. You plan ways to stop the bad guys and keep yourself out of trouble. If someone's cheating, then film it secretly and anonymously drop it off on the teacher's desk. If someone's being beaten in an alleyway, play a recording of a police siren and chase them away. If you want things to change, sometimes you have to accept that you won't be thanked, that no one will know. That it's fine to not be given the credit, as long as you're doing the best you can."

"I... see." The rage receded away, all traces of it fading as if it had never been there.

Yes, he saw now: he'd been foolish when he didn't need to be.

So this is the wisdom of an angel. He nodded to himself, almost as if in affirmation of his own thoughts. She hadn't straight out said 'I'm not an angel', after all, just deflected the question. Not that he would have believed her if she had.

"It's pretty late, shouldn't you be at home with your family?"

"I don't have a family."

Sakura froze.

Damn it, wouldn't the similarities stop already? It seemed as if the only true difference between this guy and her former teammate was that one was a powerful shinobi, and could back himself up when the going got tough, while the other was a civilian, and just... couldn't. Not for the first time, Sakura cursed the bleeding heart that the Leaf had afflicted her with. If she had just been born in Mist!

(If she had been born in Mist, she would be dead.

... And besides, she wouldn't have traded her past friendships for anything.)

"Look," she sighed. "If you're ever near Kyoto Station and need a place to hide out, look for the big snail beside JR Kyoto Isetan's front entrance. If you walk straight into the statue, you'll find yourself in a small room, where you can stay for a bit. If you find yourself needing to stay longer than a few minutes, run your hand against the back wall until you find a section that feels like water. Stick your hand in and push, and you'll find yourself in a larger room with a connecting bathroom. Just don't let my clients know you're there when they come in, and only write on the paper when you're in an urgent situation, or severely injured."

The guy nodded vigorously, and then winced.

"You're hurt. Why am I not surprised?"

He coughed in embarrassment as she approached him. "It's really not that big of a deal, just some glass - "

"Shut up stupid," she said, sliding out a thin knife. She used chakra to locate the foreign bodies embedded in the guy's skin and set to work picking out all the shards. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Mikami Teru."

Fuyuno Sakura - age 13, 3rd year junior high

Mikami Teru - age 17, 3rd year high school

The poison Sakura used was first created by Shizune. It makes the victim appear to have died from acute alcohol poisoning, but at the same time fires all the sensory receptors in a way that makes the victim feel a burning pain on every inch of their skin.

AN

He's been getting taller and more muscular (every day is leg day! and arms... pecs... abdominals... obliques...) by the way, that's why he was cowering in front of Sugimoto but confident in front of Onishi. Well, that, and Sugimoto was super strong.

And before you ask, no, not all of Sakura's little stations have a bathroom and stuff. Just a few of them.

Candy Dream: I missed you~ hahaha

VampireHuntress72095: What if I, say, kill L? DUN DUN DUN. But I won't, obviously. Maybe.

Badge Nightmare: Yay, thank you. I hope so too lol