Well that was a waste of time. Kairo thought as he brought his hood up as he stepped out of his car onto the street of his home.
He couldn't take any chances with people getting more clips of him, especially when he is at his home.
Standing outside of the building to his home he thought momentarily. Not on one thing. But about the many things that had happened.
The day started off so bright and colourful, was the only way he thought of describing it. Only for it to end off in such a dark way. All because of people that wanted to cause them havoc.
A buzzing sound came from his pocket. Looking at the phone he seen the name of Haruka.
She had been calling him all day but he had ignored it.
'It's midnight and she's still calling.'
Instead of letting the phone keep ringing and ignore it he pressed the decline button this time.
I didn't even get to see Kaminari.
Or get to see if Bakugou was alright.
An image of the tall girl from his class came into his mind. Only the last time he seen her, her hair wasn't tied up, it flowed down to her lower back showing the impressive length.
But the only image of her he could see was that of her knelt down with tears falling from her eyes staring at him in a scared way. The look on her face reminded him of a scared animal shivering in the cold while looking at what's hunting it in the eye.
The grip on my phone was tightening, so I put it away and turned around and walked down the steps onto the street and started walking on the sidewalk.
Where to? Dunno.
Wasn't really looking for anywhere to be. I just didn't want to be cooped up inside for now.
The moon acted as a luminescent guide tracing the patterns of dark shadows in the night. The familiar hustle and bustle of the streets of Musutafu was now replaced by a blanket of stillness and quiet.
The only interruption being the occasional cars passing by me on the street or soft taps of footsteps of people on the opposite side going the opposite way of me.
Each step became a rhythmic dance of motion that slowly began to slow down the violent beating of my chest as the weight of the world began to dissipate into the cool night.
I was a fair bit away from my apartment now, outside of a convenient store that was open until 4 in the morning.
Walking in to the rays of unnatural light caused me to lift up my hand to block out some of the unavoidable light and take down my hood.
Some people get suspicious if people walk into a quiet store covered up.
The clerk behind his desk greeted me kindly not worrying about the face mask I had on. So I tried acting normally as I browsed around looking through things I didn't even want.
A low sigh came out of my mouth. 'But I'm already here so...'
I picked up a pack of chocolate buttons and walked to the counter and placed what I wanted on his desk.
He got up off his chair and attended me with some slight hesitation.
'Maybe this place has been involved in a robbery.' I thought feeling bad since he has to work here on his own at night while worrying about attacks.
But I don't remember this place having a high rate of attacks or any other criminal behaviour. It's actually more on the quiet side of things never going on here.
"Chocolate this late at night will ruin your teeth." the older man laughed a little as he said that.
"Why do you think I'm wearing the mask?" I joked lightly hoping to ease the previous tension.
The man laughed. "Hey why are you out so late at night, I mean it's almost 1 in the morning."
'Really!?' I took my phone out to see that the man was right.
Jeez when I left it was 11:40, and honestly even I expected to be in by a bit after 12.
"Guess I lost track of time."
The older man gained a somber look before he asked his next question. "Did you lose someone today?" straight to the point.
My eyes widened slightly from shock. I sighed.
"Well no. Honestly old guy I'm just tired."
I told him. But I didn't lose anyone. Bakugou is most likely alive, I would expect that Akari would have said something or there would be something on the news that would have indicated that he did.
And even if he did. I wasn't friends with him. Just classmates. I don't think I've ever even spoken to him in the few weeks that we've been in class together.
"I seen the news and not to sound rude but there aren't many people of your skin tone and hair on that screen." This time the older man's tone was more, menacing, like he... had got me.
The shattering of glass from the window was deafening in that moment as I turned and backed away as quickly as I could.
'Antlers.' Those were the first things I had noticed.
A man dressed in a suit jacket with a white shirt underneath was also wearing black leather gloves. He had the head of a deer.
And he was the one who broke the window to the shop.
The chimes signifying someone had just entered also went off and another man came in. He was tall, taller than Mr.Aizawa. Both of them were.
This one wore the same thing as the other guy, the only difference was his sickly pale skin in contrast to his partners thin fur and icy blue eyes with long midnight black and silky hair that reached down to his back.
This guy would definitely stand out in a crowd.
He strode into the store with a silent and calm gait and stood directly still in my peripheral with a more blank but calculating gaze.
"Thanks for keeping quiet sir." The antlered mutant was the first to speak. He then put his leg high to step through the window he just destroyed. "You've been doing great work, you'll be tipped handsomely." he said while walking through.
With his antlers on top of his head and the confident regal way he walked some would think he was like royalty.
"Ah. Young Kairo Yoshimura." he purred with his words falling in an alluring cadence. "What an ordinary night, no? And within you lies much extraordinary power right?"
The man beside him kept quiet the whole time but still keeping his eerie vibe to him.
"Listen you. I've had a bad enough day. So get to it. What do you want?" Meanwhile Kairo was thinking of what to do or what to say. Thankfully his phone was still in his pocket, so as he stood by one of the aisles trying to hide where his hand was moving he had moved his fingers to try and send his location out with one of the commands that Akari had set on his phone.
"Nah, Ah, Ah." the antler head man spoke while waving his finger.
My eyes widened as I felt the thug coming from my pocket. My phone was instantly pulled out of my pocket and into the air, falling into the hand of the man still speaking.
'String.'
"My dear boy. We can't allow that." He then crushed the phone in his hand with minimal effort seemingly trying to showcase a modicum of his strength.
'The string came from the silent one.'
"Who are you!?" Kairo asked again through gritted teeth.
He outstretched his arms and announced.
"We are emissaries of an organisation that seeks balance!" the man to his left that had walked in through the door had turned more in my direction and walked up to be closer to his deer companion.
He then moved past him and finished the sentence for him. "We are 'Harmony's Embrace.'"
The brooding look on his face was unsettling as he said that, added on to the silent gait he moved in. It made me think of an assassin.
An organisation of assassins was my first thought but the antler head did say they were looking for balance.
A power balance?
I disregarded those thoughts for when I'm out of this situation.
The man who was still at the till gained a more smug face on him. And from what the tall mutant said, it was clear that he worked for them.
The previous anxious and rigid tone to his body had now become straight and controlled.
All of them were like that.
I subtly felt the my mental trigger of my quirk lighting up. It was the shape of a lighter about to be lit.
"You see Kairo." the deer faced man spoke. "We believe in a world where heroes have no need for existing. Where having power doesn't make you super. But just normal."
Disregarding what he was saying I already knew what both of their quirks were. It was just the fake cashier's who I didn't know. But two out of three was good enough.
"Quirk redistribution..." What?
The imaginary lighter went out just as I was about to let it go and make my escape.
"...that is the first step to our goal." he said while placing his right hand on his chest in a dramatic way that you would see actors playing the revolutionary role use.
"Harmony's Embrace seeks to liberate quirks from the confines of fate and relocate them to those worthy."
Quirks were something people were born with. They have no choice in the matter, so saying that this organisation had found a way to redistribute them is saying they can remove quirks and then place them in people again. Something that just doesn't make sense.
"And how do you decide who's worthy?"
There was a gleam in his dark brooding eyes. "That my boy is a question on perspective." the tone in which he answered carried a chilling elegance.
"But is it right to take something so personal to someone?" I asked, but from the brief interaction we've had I could already guess the type of answer he was going to give.
"Sacrifice must be made for the greater good. And within the crucible of sacrifice lies potential for profound change."
One last question.
How would... "How would you even do something like that?" the stutter didn't stop me from asking such a vital question. There was no way possible that I could see something like that actually happening.
The mutants hand was outstretched in my direction in a welcoming tone. "Join us and find out."
The convenience store, once a small sanctuary of silence felt like it had become a stage for an enigmatic play where fate and purpose danced in a delicate "Balance".
As Kairo's heart raced, his mind became a battlefield of strategy and conflicting thoughts.
And in an instant, the long haired man moved out in front of me... in the air.
"You're not running." with that bone chilling tone he then kicked me straight in the jaw. And judging from how hard it was he must have wanted to knock me out.
Using that downward momentum I got to my hands and spun around and eventually flipped backwards to gracefully land on a dragon that had forced its way out the store with a loud crash second only to the greater crash that followed from the dragon that I had summoned just above the building that had now grown in a considerable size and pummeled straight down the mini convenience store.
Jeez. I was shocked, adrenaline pumping through me only thinking of soaring through the air and escaping.
After puffing out a huge breath, a wave of relief washed over me as I looked back seeing no movement coming out of the building. And then dread.
'Why would I use an attack like that after what happened at the festival?'
The situation called for it. That was the simple answer that rushed through my head. An answer that Akari would have given me. One that would--
Dread had then washed over as a shadow started to cover me.
And turning to the front was the same pale skinned man standing in the air as he did on ground with string stretching from his hand and tightening looking to hold him in place.
"Just get lost!" I spewed out but my body tightened and felt constricted as the man dived back downwards in our previous direction.
We sailed through the air in great speeds until I could feel my body hit the ground and be dragged through the concrete.
Without the pain subsiding I raised my head looking at the building that I just levelled and seen what looked like a frame of antlers holding the destroyed building and covering the two men that had just walked out.
"As my colleague said Kairo Yoshimura." the deer started menacingly. "You are not going anywhere!"
So I changed the events of this chapter a few times not knowing how to end it off. But thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.