Kamishiro Rize was never at any point religious in her life. She never believed in anything superstitious such as ghosts or spirits. The idea of any life after death was also simply a joke to her, which is why she didn't believe a single thing happening to her.

Heaven, hell, reincarnation, whatever the Scientologists believed, it was all just fake. But this much was too much to explain. Green grass beneath her feet, a canopy of autumn trees above her head, a cool breeze moving against her skin as it weaved around the trees. Rize wrapped her arms around her naked body to shield it from the cold wind, even taking her kagune out to wrap what could not be covered by her arms. At least her kagune could be taken with her into her next life. If she could even call such a thing a next life.

She was cold, hungry, and thirsty. If she had to gauge by the temperature it was probably early fall. She was at low risk of experiencing hypothermia, but it wasn't impossible in these temperatures. She needed clothes. Any kind of clothes would do, but if possible she would prefer something a bit heavy.

Rize heard noise from only a little bit away from her. She heard voices, none speaking Japanese, yet not all from the same language. She recognized English and French, but the rest she wasn't sure of. Before she approached she took a smell of the air. Being downwind of the noise, she could easily recognize the very human scent they emitted.

A smile grew across her face as she approached the voices. Arriving at a tree that hid her from their sight, she peaked around the corner to see how many there were, and how odd they looked. They smelt human, but one had skin as blue as the sky and hair white like snow. Another had bone-like protrusions coming out of her head and back. Another had several pupils in his eyes.

It was a tour group. She recognized the native features of their lead, yet was surprised by his claw-like fingers. The man with snow-white hair had an American flag hat and the girl with protrusions had a South Korean patch attached to her shirt. The rest bore no emblems or indicators of their nations, but that didn't matter to her. Even though they looked far from human, the scent was unmistakable.

Quickly she stepped out from the trees with her kagune out, immediately striking the South Korean, piercing her skull, and killing her. The rest of the group panicked in fear, unsure of what to do. Their tour guide immediately stepped in to defend them, trying to charge at Rize with his claws aimed at her neck. Two of her free Rinkaku tendrils grappled around the guide, one at his lower half and the other at his top half, tearing him in two and throwing both halves across the forest. One of the French tourists took his turn to defend the group, causing the grass to extend around her legs in an attempt to bind her in place and hopefully reach her Kagune. He lasted less than a few seconds, immediately being impaled three times, twice in the chest and once more in the head.

That was something that shouldn't even be able to happen. Things like chlorokinesis were only meant to be delegated to fantasy novels and superhero manga and comics. What's next, super strength and invisibility?

The American took his turn, touching a nearby tree and turning his skin into tree bark. One of the other foreigners backed him up, spitting out drops of saliva at decent speeds that burned at her Kagune when she blocked them. Despite her Kagune being able to heal itself at a rapid pace, the saliva did burn like acid, doing more damage to it than she was comfortable with. She shot her Rinkaku tendril towards the American before he could go on the offensive, halfway piercing his abdomen, needing a second strike to punch through him. The other foreigner she threw herself at, grabbing his arm with her hand and ripping it from his body, and, much like how a Dove is with a Quinque, proceeded to club him in the head with the removed appendage, caving in his skull and removing the upper half of the arm.

The hunger was taking full effect with all the blood around her. The aroma was overwhelming her, begging her to eat it the fresh meat of her prey. From the severed arm, she took a large bite, savoring the taste of the human flesh she waited for this entire time.

She watched the rest of the tourists recoil in disgust and fear at her actions. They began shaking as their fight-or-flight instincts betrayed them. Some tried to run, but they were quickly dispatched by her Kagune before they could get far.

Rize noted one of the girls in a green, medium-sized skirt reaching halfway down her thighs. She wore an open jacket that revealed a brown long sleeve underneath. While she preferred dresses, she had to admit that it was a cute outfit and looked to be the warmest clothing of the group. As she mercilessly and fervently dispatched the rest, she did well to not stain the clothes of the last living girl. Once all of them were gone, she finished off the last by wrapping a tendril from her Rinkaku around her neck, squeezing until she heard a snapping noise and her body going limp.

It was more than odd seeing people with strange features casually wandering the earth. Before she killed them, they held themselves with confidence and comfort, as if the C.C.G. had no interest in them, and they had no reason to fear danger. Also despite their somewhat dangerous abilities, she was easily able to dispatch them. They probably trained their superpowers moderately, but not enough to effectively battle a Ghoul.

Their bodies still lay in the grass, waiting to be picked at by vultures, boars, or any other opportunistic eaters. She wouldn't let her hard worked meal be stolen by some stupid animal. She would make sure to eat the strangled girl last, just so she wouldn't ruin the dress. She had to safely blend into society somehow, and bloody clothes from her messy eating wouldn't work very well. But that was if she got to the girl. There looked to be enough food to finally fill her stomach for once.


Several heroes and a handful of police officers sat around in a room. Several student interns also were in place next to the heroes, waiting for the debrief. As the final group entered the room, they stood at the forefront, the only man of the quartet holding a briefcase that he sat down on the table beside him.

A brown-haired girl spoke, a member of the group who had just entered the room. "To the heroes and police, you guys already know who we are. But for the interns, you may not. We are the Wild Wild Pussycats! I am Mandalay, the big guy right beside me is Tiger-" she pointed to the muscular man wearing a skirt and half-shirt, Tiger bowing as he was introduced, "-and on the other end are Pixie-Bob and Ragdoll." They both waved to the group in the order of which their names were called.

It was Pixie-Bob's turn to speak, the blonde member of the group. "Normally we would do a flashy introduction but we felt that it was not necessary, given the urgency of the situation. Two weeks ago a tour group in the Fuji-Hakone-Izu went missing. They never made it to their next stop at the base of Mount Fuji. We have been searching since day one, but have found no traces of them. At this point, likely having run out of food and water, we think they may be dead. After a few days of pushing, we've finally been able to expand the search, which is why we are here now."

Tiger opened the briefcase, pulling out a handful of papers, and placed them under a projector-camera. The lights dimmed and the photos of the missing people showed on the screen. "This is the guide, Saito Kenji. When he didn't show up to transfer the group to the next guide, they called his phone and he didn't pick up. He has a record of taking detours and being late to drop-offs, but he's never gotten lost before as far as his coworkers know." He slid over the next pair, two American tourists of different appearances. "These next two are an engaged couple, Henry Morgan, male, and Ashley Campbell, female, both from California, United States." He then slid over another, this one showing an Australian flag above the picture instead of an American one. "Jacob Taylor, male, Australia. The people at the front desk said he had a lot of photography equipment, so if we find any of his cameras we should be able to find the group." He then began sliding off the rest with some details about who they were... "Hwang Eun-Jung, female, South Korean national with a bone-based quirk, they're naturally hard so if you have a tougher time breaking it than you should, it's hers and the rest could be close by or scattered around. Andre Dubois, male, French national with plant-based quirk. Hugo Bergland, male, Swedish national quirkless..." it went on and on. He listed off five more people before he stopped, two from Germany, one from Italy, another from Belgium, and the last from Iceland.

Eventually, he packed the files back into the briefcase and the room lit back up again. He stepped back to let Mandalay take the floor again. "As of right now this is all being contained in Japan, but it's only a matter of time before we have to get Interpol involved, and I would prefer that not happen." She then scanned the room looking over all the student interns, all second or third years, none of them first years. "Interns, I should warn you that you will likely be looking for their dead bodies which will be in various states of decay or post-mortem injury from scavengers. This will be a very grizzly mission, so as an adult to you all, I am giving you a chance to leave if you don't think you can stomach the sight. How are you with this?"

The students shared a queasy look. There was a collective unease among them after being told they would lay eyes on dead bodies, so some took the offer and left the room, each one apologizing for their weak stomachs and thanking Mandalay for the opportunity to leave. However, they must know once they turn into adults they may not always be offered this opportunity. Even some crime-fighting heroes have encountered the deceased before, so it was mostly unavoidable.

What was left was six out of twenty-three interns. Mandalay doubted they had stronger stomachs than the last, but was appreciative of their willingness to learn the search part of hero-work.

"Alright then, let's start dividing ourselves into teams..."


Over the past two weeks, Rize had found work at a handful of places. She had one job at a library not too far from the center of Tokyo, one job at a coffee shop along the road of one of the large schools, and one more as a nighttime custodian at a grocery store. Currently, she stood behind the counter of the coffee shop, reading a book she checked out from her library job as she waited for people to come in.

Typically they were unusually busy for a simple coffee shop. She got to see students from the high school come in as well as the suit-and-tie adults from their cubicle jobs stop by now and then. The high school's name was U.A. which didn't stand for anything but was actually a pun on the word for hero that used two languages to make possible.

It was a bit of an adjustment to make, having to come to the realization that she is now in a world of superheroes and supervillains. It seemed so absurd and almost childlike, she had to have hit her head so hard she was stuck in a coma. This had to be the weirdest dream she's ever had so far. A two-week-long dream.

She closed her book as she heard the door open and the bell chime to alert the staff. She looked over and saw it was one of the regulars from the school. A tall man with black hair and a perpetually tired look on his face. The closer it came to night the more coffee he would order. He must've been one of those "nocturnal heroes" she heard about.

"Large black coffee please," he asked, placing his yen on the counter. "I don't care what beans you use."

"Would you like anything else?" she asked, smiling and putting away the money.

"That'll be all, thank you."

She quickly shouted back to the kitchen to get the teacher his order and immediately turned back to the customer. "Just a few seconds!" she cheerfully announced.

"Thank you, miss."

The kitchen soon brought out the man's order and Rize served it to him before getting back to her book. She watched him take a seat near the table closest to the door, drinking his coffee as he waited for the sun to go down.

She briefly thought about trying her luck with him but thought it to be too risky. She knows he works at U.A., which exclusively employs heroes as far as she knows. The man could have some hidden superpower that lets him punch through walls or hypnotize someone with a mere look into their eyes. He also struck her as a more paranoid type who would immediately know she was trying to do something to him.

"Aizawa-kun!" shouted another voice that had just entered the establishment, loud and annoying.

"This is a quiet place, Yamada-san. I would enjoy it very much if it stayed that way."

"C'mon man, it's okay to let loose a bit," said the brightly blonde individual, still smiling nonchalantly. "Seriously. There was this one kid in my auditorium today who went off on another examinee for being noisy. The kid was so tight I immediately thought of you."

"If he made it then he must be a blessing," replied Aizawa. "I expect nothing but chaos this year. Quirks these days are getting too strong for society."

"Like that one kid who broke both his legs and right arm?" Yamada asked, getting a nod from his coworker.

"I won't ever understand why Toshinori-san vouched for the kid, but I already know he's picking favorites," Aizawa added. "Something tells me they're unbearably similar. He better pray he's assigned to Vlad's class."

"Don't be so hard on the kid," Yamada said. "Give him some time and he'll get ahold of that quirk easily."

"He better. I have no hard feelings about removing him from the hero course if I deem him unworthy of my time."

"You really do need to lighten up," Yamada told him.

The blonde number of the two looked over to Rize who was still reading her book, but kept popping her eyes up to check on the two. He stood up and walked over to her, his eyes wandering up to the menu behind her.

"So what's good here?" he asked, a friendly smile on his face.

"We have Liberica, Arabica, and Robusta coffee beans. We do not have Exclesa yet, but the store owner is doing his best. I prefer Arabica because it's not too sweet, and the smell of Liberica is a bit too similar to Robusta, which is a bit off-putting because of how much sweeter Liberica is compared to Robusta."

"I'll take the uhh... the first one you mentioned."

"Liberica?" Rize asked, writing down the type of coffee bean for the kitchen to use.

"Yeah, sure," Yamada answered. "What about the food items? I see muffins, sandwiches, cookies, and donuts. Do you have any recommendations from there?"

"Oh, no, I'm on a very strict diet," she told him. "Unfortunately everything here goes against the diet and I don't want to start the downward spiral into eternal cheating."

"Alright then," he said, turning to Aizawa. "What do you recommend?"

"I only come here for the coffee," he answered.

"Okay, how many donuts are there in a single order?"

"Two," Rize answered.

"Then I'll have the coffee and the donuts. Chocolate please."

"Of course! Everything will be out shortly! Nine-hundred fifty-two yen."

Yamada pulled out a one thousand yen banknote and handed it over to Rize. She opened the register and put away the money and handed him his change. "Here you go. Your coffee will be ready in a few minutes."

"But you got his coffee in a few seconds," Yamada pointed out.

"We just poured him what was already made since he didn't give a preference."

"Oh, okay. Sorry about that."

"It's perfectly fine! We'll call out your name when it's ready. Yamada-kun, correct?"

"Y-yeah, that's right," he said, almost blushing at the gesture. "Thank you, uhh... I'm sorry I didn't get your name."

"Kamishiro Rize," she answered, introducing herself with a polite bow and warm smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"


End note:

I wanted to make this chapter longer but I think this was a good place to end it. This was kind of a spur-of-the-moment idea I managed to put together in a few days, so I'm not sure where to go from here but I'll figure it out.

As to why Present Mic (Hizashi Yamada) was blushing, the honorifics system in Japan uses the "san" honorific to address everyday strangers you'll meet. The honorific "kun" is used mainly by people of a higher status talking to those lower than them, or used for men or young boys. Women also use kun for men with they are close with... so I'll let you dissect that little web of entanglement.

I probably didn't explain the honorific thing well and possibly got a bit wrong because my familiarity with the Japanese language isn't that deep, as I am not a native speaker nor do I live close to Japan. If you're still lost, there should be information online that explains it better than I did.