I'm so sorry! T-T

I've actually finished the first 5k of this chapter about two months ago but I got stuck midway. And then I had my final year university project and some other stuff I needed to take care of.

Trigger warning:

As I've mentioned in the last chapter, there will be a minor character death. There will also be animal blood and violence.

You guys have been waiting for so long for this chapter so have this 7.5k blocks of text for your enjoyment. I'm sorry I made you guys wait for so long.

Enjoy (or cry)

「「「・」」」

[Four years ago]

"I don't like Okinawa. I want to go back to Tokyo," five-year-old Takato whined as his shirt. His body was red, full of rash and nail marks from scratching.

Mom smiled, taking a seat next to him on the engawa and pulling him against her side. "I thought you had fun with your cousin."

"I did... but then the sand made me itchy. It's hot too. I want to go home."

Mom raised his arm and slathered some lotion over them, gently massaging the red spots on his skin.

"Takato, do you know what death is?" Mom asked, her kind eyes never straying from him.

He tilted his head up. "Like what happened to uncle and auntie?"

She nodded.

"They're... going away? For awhile? For a long time?"

Mom made a face he couldn't discern. It wasn't a sad one, but it wasn't a happy one either.

"Takato, your uncle and auntie won't be coming back anymore."

He squinted his eyes. "They won't be coming back? But Kai is still here. Why would they leave without him?"

Mom slowly let go of his arm to take his other one, her gentle carress letting the cool, white cream cover the itchy places. When she was done, she leaned down to cup his face look him in the eyes.

"They didn't want to leave, but they had to. Kai didn't want his mom and dad to leave either." She tucked his hair behind his ears, a tight smile pulling at her lips.

"Oh..."

A commotion from the hinpun drew their gaze toward Kai who just came back from fishing with Takato's dad. The boy was laughing, talking passionately with the man about seafood and what they'd have for dinner today.

"Auntie, Takato! Look what we got!" Kai shouted and proudly presented their catch of fish, octopus, and whatnot all either impaled with spears or stuck in a net. Mom patted Takato's arm and gave him a nod before fixing her smile to look more convincing as she stood up and approached the two.

"You boys sure went all out today, huh." She grinned and made a motion of rolling up her sleeve. "Well, since you two worked so hard, I guess I just have to work harder for dinner tonight."

Takato watched his parents entertain and joke around with his cousin, the boy laughing throughout.

"Where's gramps?" Kai asked when he eyed around and failed to locate Takato's granduncle. Takato knew where the man was, but something at back of his mind prompted him to clamp his mouth from mentioning it. His mom had the same thought too it seemed as she easily lied with her perfect smile.

"He's taking care of some stuff. He'll be back soon," mom said and picked the boy up, making sure not to drop their catch. "Now why don't we go inside and wash you up. All the salt water can't be good for you."

While Kai went for a bath and his parents prepared dinner, Takato swung his legs on the engawa as he watched the orange sky slowly shifting into the dark blue of the night.

Grandpa Wataru. He was at a place called the cemetary, a place where his son and daughter-in-law had gone to apparently never come back.

Why must death be such a meanie, Takato absentmindedly thought.

「「「・」」」

[Present]

The arrival of mid-july brought with it a rise in heat level to the populace of West Shinjuku. The endless onslaught of cicadas coming out hiding did little to hide their excitement for the summer weather, each one celebrating with their annoying high-pitched shrills.

One in particular sat comfortably atop a house's stone fence, its peace undisturbed as it basked under the hot sun... Until a looming shadow stood over it.

"Mrow?"

The critter flapped its wings unbothered.

"Did you find one, Tsubasa?" Takato craned his neck up to see her playing with it. She tilted her head and nudged it with her nose, sniffing and pawing at it gently. The cicada remained uninterested even after he tiptoed to pick up and put it in his cage alongside other bugs. He closed the lid, smiling. "That should be enough. Good job, girl."

He patted her head pulled out a dry treat that she greedily nibbled on.

"Mrow!"

With every passing day threatening to inflict him with a heatstroke, Takato had forgone his usual wear for a pair of shorts and a simple T-shirt with a fabric that fluttered at the simplest blow of wind. And because apparently the best place to experience it was his head, Tsubasa happily sauntered over from the fence onto his head like walking down a stair. She was noticeably heavier than when he first took her in, he thought as he hovered a hand over her body to make sure she stay in place.

"Mrow." 'Tsubasa light.'

Takato laughed as he led them away, fixing his bag straps on shoulders. "Of course, of course. But you'll grow up too one day. I wonder when you'll be too big to sit on my head like this."

She sulked. "Mrow." 'Don't want grow up. Want sit here.'

"Alright, alright, you spoiled cat." He stroked her, chuckling. "You'll always be my little kitten."

They passed by several more houses, the road sparsed with fewer and fewer adults the more he neared the nearby playground and soon the entrance of his school.

Yodobashi Elementary greeted them with the afterschool hustle and bustle of students preparing for the science fair in two days. But for Takato and his friends, today was the last chance they had to finish their project if they had any hope of fulfilling Izuku's wish.

The only thing betraying Takato's thought was the lost in his bounce as he stepped onto the school compound.

The yard where his schoolmates usually played soccer on was slowly taking on a proper science fair look. Every booth was given a small tent to help keep from the sun, and theirs was carefully picked to be in the furthest corner away from most people's eyes.

Takato approached the booth to see his friends tweaking their project behind a divider to hide from curious bypassers. Behind the divider as well was another cage filled with bugs of different kinds. "How's it looking up?" he asked.

Jenrya shrugged. "Everything's looking alright. It can move if we manually control it," he said, raising a tiny remote control that was decorated with cutesy stickers. The skeleton robot likewise swung an arm at his beckon.

Juri nodded. "We put some oil to the joints, just in case. Not sure if it'll really help..." Her eyes landed on the cage Takato brought.

Takato grinned and proudly presented the bugs. "I found some more. These guys are more humanoid so I'm plenty sure it'll work this time."

Neither Jenrya nor Juri was fooled by his enthusiasm but they nodded regardless, sending smiles his way.

Shiuchon looked up from knitting their robot's skin to address him. It was alreasy finished, but she wanted to add finer details.

"Takato, I finished the Impmon skin you asked." She pointed to her bag where a rolled up purple fabric resided. Next to the bag was the namesake itself, silent and with no sign that a certain soul was sleeping inside it.

"Really?" He put down the cage to pick it up. He unrolled it in the air, comparing it with the already tattered fabric of his Impmon plushie after it got rolled over that one time. He smiled. "It looks great, Shiuchon. I owe you one."

Tsubasa tried reaching for it with a paw.

"Mrow!" 'Look same!'

He didn't have to admire it for long as Jenrya called his name, a frown on his face. Takato didn't have to think long to guess what was on his friend's mind.

"I know we've promised to help Izuku reunite with his parents but..." Jenrya began, and Juri who noticed his hesitation finished for him.

"It doesn't look like we can keep that promise anytime soon, Takato," she said with a grimace. "We've been putting every single insects and bugs we can find into the skeleton but it still won't move. Maybe if we had more time we can figure it out, but tomorrow—"

"Tomorrow Izuku's parents will move away, yeah..." Takato forced a smile and shrugged. "But we still have time."

There was a brief shift of expression in Jenrya's face, a flash of frustration on his otherwise usually relaxed face. And then it was gone, replaced by a defeated frown.

Morale was down, that much Takato understood. Doing the same thing over and over, transfering souls from whatever bugs they could find into their robot hoping for it to work... Jenrya, Juri, and even the ever enthusiastic Shiuchon was losing patience over their halted progress.

"Jen, I..." Takato tried to say but his friend cut him off with a half smile, if looking a bit forced.

"You're right. Dwelling on what ifs won't do us any good anyway. Let's just proceed and hope we find the secret missing piece or whatever."

Juri hummed in agreement. "Let's just use what time we have left to figure this out. We promised after all. Can't back down now."

"Talk about figuring things out," Shiuchon chimed in. "I'm not good at maths but sometimes even I can accidentally get answers right. As long as we keep trying, I'm sure everything will work out." She nodded sagely, though her brother looked less impressed about it.

"Whatever do I do with you..." Jenrya shook his head.

"You guys..." Takato smiled. Tears pricked his eyes, but even those were "licked" away by Juri's sock puppet.

"Cry later, work hard now, wan!" She said in her fake voice before returning to her normal one again. "Come on, time's running out. Izuku's counting on us."

"R-right." Takato nodded and turned his attention to the cage on the table.

Putting Tsubasa down, he opened the lid and picked up the cicada he'd caught. He gently brushed his finger against its head, more for his sake rather than the critter. When he was calm again, he looked up to his friends.

"Alright. Let's get this done with. We'll continue until night— No, tomorrow morning if we have to."

「「「・」」」

It was easier said than done.

"It's still not working..." Takato frowned, the frustration getting to him.

The four of them stood around the table observing the skeleton, watching for the slightest of movement in hope they'd figured out its kinks.

One would argue that they couldn't keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome, but at least they had the excuse of having variations, however fruitless they all were.

"Juri, how did you connect the soul this time?" he turned to his friend who made a motion of interlocking her fingers.

"I tried a webbing pattern this time around."

"Maybe too many connections are disturbing it then," Jenrya chimed, absentmindedly tapping the robot's head. "Make it less, see if it works."

Juri nodded and twirled her fingers about over the object, each movement sending out faint pulses that triggered Takato's quirk sense courtesy of the invisible Jeri reweaving the connections.

They waited... and sagged their shoulders in disappointment when the robot still didn't budge.

"Webbing pattern doesn't work," Shiuchon said outloud as she listed it down amomg countless other failed attempts. She dropped her pencil on the paper, looking just as enthusiastic as the rest of them about their failure. "What should we try next?"

"Maybe we should rest." Jenrya looked over at Takato with concern. "You look tired. Quirk overusage is dangerous."

Takato wanted to protest, say that they were racing against time here... but he would be lying if he said he didn't feel lightheaded. He sighed.

"...alright."

Grasping the robot's head with his left hand, Takato grabbed the soul residing inside it and returned it to its body. Jenrya, readying their handmade miniature defribillator, directed its wire with a tweezer and zapped the unmoving cicada until it jumped to live... and stayed there like it hadn't just died and resurrected again.

Speaking of... Takato let his gaze fall on the sleeping Tsubasa curled up on a spare chair for their booth. She was using Impmon as a pillow, but he had more than a suspicion her fascination with the plush lay beyond its cushiness.

"What's the long face for?" a voice said, prompting him to look at an approaching tray of ice-cream cups, standing behind it the owner of the voice. His classmate Hirokazu grinned. "Why not have some ice-cream?"

Takato shrugged and took a cup at random, strawberry flavored. There were only three flavors anyway. Shiuchon exitedly dashed around the table and swiped one with chocolate flavor while Juri and Jenrya picked vanilla.

With a flat wooden spoon, Takato was careful to guide it into his mouth lest he waste such a treat on a hot summer day.

At first, it only tasted cold. Then, the sweetness and slight acidity burst in his mouth, followed by a milky taste. His belly fluttered, as if he was swimming in the ocean, floating freely as the cool and gentle current guided him away from the scorching sun—

And he returned to reality. Takato blinked, looking at his cup of ice-cream before turning to see everyone else having the same puzzled reaction.

Hirokazu grinned and puffed his chest at their questioning look. "What you have in your hands right now are happiness itself. I infuse the emotions, Kenta keeps the effect going, and now you can thank us for flipping that frown off your face," he snapped his fingers and pointed at them with a wink. Takato raised a brow at the obvious attempt to appear "cool" but humored his friend.

"As long as you don't bribe the judges for your ice-cream machine tomorrow," Takato said and took another spoonful and made sure to savour the rush of bliss this time.

"Nah, we're gonna win anyway." Hirokazu boasted as he carefully handed another cup to Shiuchon who'd just finished hers. "Just thought you guys needed some cheering up before we crush you tomorrow," he said, his friendly tone and body language betraying his words.

"How considerate." Juri giggled and raised her puppet. "Well, at least the ghosts won't eat you for dinner anymore, wan."

"Yeah, yeah. The joke gets stale after two years. Me and Kenta have been nice since. Right, Takato?"

Takato held out his now empty cup as a response. "Give me some more of this and I'll consider."

As he treated himself to another happiness in a cup, a plane flying overhead shook the airspace above the school. When the bubbly effect wore off, the dread he'd been putting at the back of his mind returned. The Midoriyas were leaving tomorrow, and here he was dilly dallying and having fun. Not that working on it was fruitful in any way either...

"Hey, you okay?"

His frown didn't go unnoticed, especially by the concerned Hirokazu, but thankfully Tsubasa came to his rescue after being woken up by the noise. She jumped from her chair and tapped a paw against his foot, a gesture he understood as her wanting to talk.

He bent down to palm her head and established a mental connection, listening as her mewl changed into something he could understand.

"Mrow." 'Tuna. Want.'

And there it was, the spoiled request. He shouldn't have introduced her to wet food, his allowance was steadily being cut to buy it. Not he could say no to her face.

"You're hungry, huh. Wait a bit." He looked up at his friends. "Shiuchon, can you fetch the cat food in my bag?"

"Uh, I can't find it," the girl said after rummaging through the books and papers inside.

Takato left the ground to check and sure enough, it wasn't there. The only treat he had was the dry ones in his pocket. He hesitantly pulled them out.

"Tsubasa, do you want–" he barely managed to say before she drawled her mewl in what seemed to be a form of begging. He sighed. "Yeah, of course not."

Did he leave it on his desk? Maybe Tsubasa could go home and fetch it herself? Mom and dad didn't mind to look after her anymore after all. He said as much.

"Mrow?" 'Tsubasa go home?"

"Yeah. Go home to mom and dad. They have tuna."

"Mrow!" 'Tuna! Tsubasa favorite!'

Before she could dash away, Takato picked her up and circled the invisible thread on his pinky around the cat's foreleg. To others' eyes, he was only playing with her, but it was for safety reason. She didn't have a name tag or collar so who knew if some other kids decided she was too cute and wanted her for themselves. Takato wouldn't let that happen, nuh-uh.

"There," he muttered after tying it in a knot and set her back down again. Pulling at the thread didn't disentangle the knot and even if it needed considerable force, nobody except him could touch it anyway. He patted her head. "Stay safe."

"Mrow!" 'Will safe!'

After a few more scratches, he let her go to find her food as her happy purr was gradually drowned among his fellow students' chatters.

Hirokazu whistled. "Is she really going home? That's one smart cat."

"She is." Takato shrugged with a smile, taking pride in her being his pet. Still, he couldn't keep the frown from forming again in his face. Hirokazu seemed to be trying to read him but otherwise didn't push.

"You want custom emotions on your ice-cream?"

"Oh, can I?"

"Sure. We can even mix-and-match them if you want."

And that was how he experienced his first deat— rollercoaster ride without ever being on one. His other friends refused to try and he didn't blame them.

「「「・」」」

Seventeen years ago, she and Hisashi rented this place to start anew. Three years later, it was ready to welcome a new member of their little family. For a decade afterwards, the three of them lived in this apartment together as family. Even after her husband had to leave for his work overseas, this home had been nothing but a safe haven to both her and her son.

The house now looked somber with most of the furniture gone. They weren't taking much with them either, so the only things Inko would have left were the boxes filled with books, clothes, and silverwares. So few boxes, yet so much memory.

As for the toys...

"Are you sure you don't want to keep them?" Hisashi sat down beside her after noticing her taking too long to wrap up the box containing nothing but Izuku's All Might action figures and other toys.

Instead of answering, Inko let out a weak chuckle. "Would you look at these. He's had them all his life, but they're all in good condition."

"I suppose they are." Hisashi smiled after a pause and reached his hands to fold the lids closed.

Inko breathed out a sigh. "I'm sorry. I said I wanted to give them away, but here I am holding onto memories."

Hisashi's hand found its way onto Inko's own before climbing its way up to her shoulder.

"Do you want to?" he asked.

"I... I have to. Or I won't be able to move on." With a resolved nod, she took a deep breath and gave her husband a smile she hoped to look convincing enough.

For what it was worth, he reciprocated her shaky smile with his own and that was a good enough reassurance as any.

"You know, we could go anywhere else in Japan. Okinawa's sea is looking real nice with the hot weather, so why Shinjuku specifically?" Hisashi asked while they were stacking all the boxes in the corner. His eyes caught the now empty paper bag resting on their couch, a picture of a family bakery stamped on it. "Is the bread that good?"

Hiding her grin behind her hand, she winked at him. "That, my dear husband, is a mother's secret."

After a long confused stare and not even an amused reaction, Inko succumbed to embarrassment and buried her face in her palms. She chuckled sheepishly, peeping at him through a gap between her fingers.

"Promise me you won't laugh."

Hisashi raised up a pinky. "I promise the most I'll do is chuckle if it's funny."

"Thank you." She giggled and shifted her gaze to look anywhere that wasn't her husband's direction. She blushed as she muttered her answer. "It feels like Izuku."

Hisashi didn't chuckle, but he didn't show any outward reaction either.

She elaborated, casting her head down. "I think my quirk's gone haywire after our son died."

Reaching her arm out, she gently placed it on his arm, feeling his skin on her own.

"Remember when I explained my quirk to you?" she said, looking into his eyes. He clasped and patted her hand, a pensive look on his face as he tried to recall.

"You told me everyone and everything has a weak pull of sort to it. The smaller they are, the stronger you feel the pull." He reached an arm behind her back, pulling her close to share his warmth. "Different people also have different feel... and that you like how I feel the most."

Inko smiled in response to his teasing grin, fingers gently pinching his arm.

"Not the time." She chided in faux anger before burying her face into his chest. "But you do feel nice. Physically or otherwise."

If she concentrated, she could feel his firm but gentle existence beneath the chiseled muscles hidden under his shirt. The invisible waves that made his whole being reacted playfully against her quirk's prodding, its presence heavy yet at the same time very lightly bouncing inside her quirk's hold.

She sighed. "Izuku's pull was like him. Ever since he was born, his was shaky, wobble at the slightest contact with other people's pulls. But he was comforting too, like the cool side of your pillow.

"After Izuku... After what happened, I started to miss that feel and kept trying to find it everywhere I go. This living room, the kitchen, his room. But I never felt it again. Nothing felt like him... until we went to that bakery in Tokyo. If I could, I wanted to stay there and never leave."

She chuckled again, but without mirth. "It's silly, I kno—"

"Nothing is silly about you missing our son," Hisashi whispered, hugging her tighter. "I miss him too, and if I can go anywhere again that reminds of him, then I'd do it in a heartbeat."

Inko smiled, nodding as she basked in his warmth. "I want to say one last goodbye. And then, we'll leave this place for good."

「「「・」」」

Tsubasa liked to dream of the sky so vast there was no end in sight. She imagined its colors, vibrant and lively, all decorating the world beneath and above her. She imagined her wings, feathers ruffling against the wind as she dove to the earth before once again climbing towards the heavens.

But imagination could only go so far, and so when Tsubasa blinked open her eyes again, the sky was still out of her reach and the beautiful colors that used to decorate her world were gone forever.

"...nice weather today, isn't it?" The weirdly colored girl Hikari said as they walked side by side. "I can look at the blue sky, I don't sweat, it's the best of both worlds! Well, other than me being dead, but that's beside the point."

The few words Tsubasa learned from being with Takato and his flockmates was insufficient for her to make sense of the girl's sentences, so she directed her focus to the one word she memorized by heart: sky.

On four feet, the world had become a noisy place. In the body of her own predator, her sight changed, her taste and smell were all different. Every movement she did too took a lot of concentration than when all she had was a pair of wings and two light feet.

She stared jealously at her passing kinds that flew freely in the sky.

"Speaking of, you sure are a miracle, Tsubasa." Hikari said, crossing her hands behind her back to gaze at the same sight above them. "Back when I was alive, I also tried to bring animals and people back to live. My pet, my brother, the other kids from the summer camp... It never worked."

There was a tone in her voice that Tsubasa recognized from whenever Takato was upset and lost all his cheery brightness.

"Takato is smart. His friends too. Mixing up their quirks to accomplish what me and the others before me never could, and now they're trying to revive another person... You guys sure are lucky aren't you." Hikari chuckled, an expression Tsubasa learned to indicate joy, but the way the girl sadly spoke left Tsubasa confused as to what emotion she was trying to convey.

"Mrow." Mewling it off, Tsubasa focused on the road ahead and turned a corner that would lead her home soon... before her gaze caught the movement of a very familiar creature bending down to peck on a piece of crumb on the ground.

It was a nestling of her own kind, she'd recognize the proportions anywhere even if the colors were all wrong. Such beautiful wings, she wistfully thought... if only she could take that form once more.

Tsubasa stared at the nestling, an inkling of hope budding in her at interacting with one of her own kind. But the nestling had a horrifying reaction when it realized it had an audience. It shrieked, surprising her and took her moment of hesitance to flap its wings and start to fly away.

"Mrow!" She called to it as her feet too began to sprint without her realizing. She chased the fleeing nestling, avoiding human feet and other obstacles in her pursuit of the creature.

She wasn't a predator, she was a friend, she was family! She wanted to tell it all these, yet, her desperate mewls only further terrified the nestling and made it fly higher until it was far beyond her reach.

Eventually Tsubasa's shaky legs, sore from the continuous running, could no longer keep up and gave in under her, tumbling her down on the road. Her heart usually beat so slow in this body, but as she gasped for air, she could feel it thumping quicker against her chest.

"Tsubasa... get up. Get up!" She heard Hikari say quickly, a hint of fear in her voice. There were footsteps approaching, accompanied by growls she recognized from only one animal. Rolling her head up, she shook in fear at the sight of a large glowering dog, sharp teeth bared in her direction.

Death had already stared her in the eyes once. And even on the second time, when two sets of gnashing teeth picked her up by her right foreleg, crushing it under its force, all she could do was close the eyes and hope for a swift one.

"Tsubasa!"

It was just like that day, but this time, Takato wasn't coming to save her—

"Stay safe," his voice echoed at the back of her mind.

No. Takato might not be coming to save her... but he'd be very sad if she didn't at least try to survive.

Dangled over the dog's maw, Tsubasa hissed through her pain and sunk her claws into its underside with her good paw. Try as she might, she was no longer the creature that she used to be. But in this form, she at least stood a chance against such a large predator.

She was no stranger to pain, and though she yowled when the dog reacted by biting harder, she only dug further through its skin and flesh.

Her wings were stripped away from her by cruel human hands, but it was another much kinder human who gave her a chance to live again, even if she could no longer reach the sky. If she were to die today, then she wanted to feel those hands again for one last time.

And so she unsheathed her claws in her crushed limb. She whimpered, but her resolve didn't waver.

With the last of her strength, she stabbed the roof of the dog's maw.

Immediately it began to thrash its head, swinging her around in agony. Tsubasa held on, wanting inflict as much pain as she could until the dog swung hard enough to hurl her to the ground. The impact knocked out the air of her and she burned her throat coughing it all out.

The dog was whining, lying down as it held its injured maw. But it won't stay that way for long.

Forcing herself up to three legs, Tsubasa began to limp away. Hikari floated close, but the girl's panicked voice was lost to her ears.

Blood dripped from her other foreleg, leaving trails and scents for her predator to follow. Not that she could run faster than it could pounce on her.

No, she needed somewhere safe, somewhere close but out of the dog's reach.

A tree, she saw through her half-lidded eyes. On most days, Tsubasa couldn't even climb one due to the poor control she had over her limbs. And now with only three legs to aid her, she might as well give up.

...but then she wouldn't be able to see Takato again, would she?

She had limped forward again before she even realized it, her thought focused only on reaching the top. At the tree's base, her body shook as she stretched her good paw to sunk her claws in. And with determination a strong bite into the bark, she climbed.

She climbed when the dog began to growl, her hindlegs walking up the tree to her stomach level and sticking their claws there. She climbed when she heard it getting up to its feet, her teeth leaving the tree bark only to bite into it once again just some height higher even if they felt like falling off. She climbed when she heard the dog's footsteps, her foreleg stretching as far as it could before once again finding footing with her claws.

Hikari was already gone, but that didn't really matter. She couldn't help even if she wanted.

Tsubasa's neck was sore from being tilted at an angle and supporting her body's weight with each climb up. But by the time the dog had reached the tree, she was too far up even for it to jump to catch her. She struggled to get on one of the branches and even slipped when her teeth began to fail her, but she held on. Her gum hurt, but with some patience awkward bending of her body and carefully making sure all her teeth and claws were properly fixed every time she moved, she managed to climb onto the branch. There was something warm and smelly in her mouth, but she was safe and that was all that mattered.

When Tsubasa found herself traversing the colorful sky in its vastness, she knew it was nothing more than a lie. A beautiful lie that lulled her as darkness consumed everything beyond her fluttering eyelids.

「「「・」」」

"Takato, what's your plan if this project of us fails?" Jenrya asked while they were on their hundredth— and four, Takato checked— attempt at inserting the cicada's soul into their unmoving robot. The little guy was such a good sport about it he started feeling bad.

"We won't—"

"If we fail, what is your plan? What if, say, Izuku never wakes up?" Jenrya's gaze hardened as he stared Takato down, all the more intensified by the few extra inches the boy had over him.

Takato shared a glance with Juri and looked at a napping Shiuchon, the girl killed by boredom with nothing much to do.

He held his shoulder with his other hand in hesitation, not wanting to entertain the thought.

"I guess I'll... keep him?" he answered lamely.

"Keep him? Like a pet?" Jenrya raised a brow.

"You know what I mean," Takato pouted, putting his arm back to his side. "My quirk is acting all weird, I don't know if Izuku will ever wake up. But until he does, I'll look over him."

He sounded like he was describing a person taking care of a vegetative family member, and it wasn't far from the truth.

"And his parents?"

That was the question wasn't it? There was no doubt, that if they were to pass the deadline of the Midoriya's departure to America, then there was little chance of them reuniting again in the near future, if ever. Izuku's parents would've moved on if they were too late and it'd be hard to convince them their son was alive by then. And that if Izuku ever woke up at all...

While Takato's mind wandered, his hand reached for a pocky stick the dead asleep Shiuchon wouldn't murder him for stealing. Karma had its way to bite him back, or rather, it hurt him a lot when he bit onto the stick and felt his gum screaming in pain.

"Agh, my tooth—" Takato winced as he held the aching area, wondering if he shouldn't have eaten so many cups of ice cream.

"That's what you get for stealing." A surprisingly not so asleep Shiuchon rolled her head up at him with a bored face. She sighed and rested her head in her arms again soon after. "This is taking too long. Everyone's getting home already."

True to her words, the booths around them were slowly being emptied with only decorations adorning every last one of them. They stood in stark contrast against the Project Digi booth— Copyright or whatever, Asanuma-sensei didn't allow the original name— that was barren of any decoration whatsoever.

The reddish orange sky gradually bled onto the blue above them, slowly counting the end of daylight for the city.

It also was a countdown to the Midoriyas' flight departure tomorrow.

Takato lifted his palm after his tooth stopped aching to look at his friends... only to come face to face with black eyes and teeth glowering at him.

"Ah! Go away!" He slipped and fell onto his rump. She hadn't appeared in front of him since last time, why now?!

"Are you okay?" By the time Jenrya was helping him up the ghost had flickered away. But a blink later and she returned with a open mouth that showed her black teeth in all its morbid glory, forcing him to kick away at the ground in an attempt to get away much to his friends' confusion.

"Takato?" Juri looked at him in concern, at the same time the ghost's constant yet inconsistent flickering mouthed his name.

"Helloooo? Takato?"

While Shiuchon hopped off her chair and curiously waved her hand in front of him to get out a reaction, his slack jaw at the ghost's appearance returned to its original position and then some as his eyes noticed where she was stepping on. The ghost didn't seem to be able to see the red thread, because every time she tried to shout inaudibly in his face, her feet shifted just a bit to not step onto it.

Despite the flickers, when he looked carefully, she didn't seem to he trying to eat him. It was just a hunch, but...

His lips tight, he shifted his right pinky just a little bit and right at that moment the ghost stopped flickering. He still couldn't hear anything, but her mouth shape was spelling something.

Tsu-Ba-Sa.

It was Tsubasa, he was sure of it. She was pointing at a direction somewhere, but Takato could care less what she was trying to tell him now that thousands of terrible thought was crossing his mind.

Tsubasa.

He needed to get to her.

"I'm sorry but I have somewhere to go!" Takato pulled himself up and started dashing, dusting his pants off as he went.

His friends called his name, but their voices were nothing more than hazy noises at the back of his mind while he tried to focus and follow the red thread.

The ghost was gone, but her face as she mouthed out Tsubasa's name hadn't. He chanted the cat's name and didn't stop running even after stumbling over rocks and uneven ground.

"Tsubasa, please be okay..."

At a junction leading to his house, he knew something went very wrong when instead of going in that direction, the thread went into the other road.

He took note of the thread's second line running in parallel to it like a long knitting thread bent after running through a needle's hole that soon broke off in the direction of his house. But that didn't matter. If Tsubasa was the needle, the closer the lines got to each other the closer he should be to reaching her.

The gap between the lines shrunk with each step and heavy breath he took and gasped out. And when he finally saw the dangling paw where the two lines met and were bound to, he froze.

"Tsubasa..."

Tsubasa was up on a tree branch, her fur soaked in red. But she wasn't moving. She wasn't breathing. She was as silent as the tree leaves slowly falling to his feet.

He stumbled forward, tears pooling in his eyes.

"Tsu—" His voice died in his throat when he noticed a figure to his left lying on the ground. A dog with a bloodied maw. Had it been hunting her? Was it waiting for Tsubasa to come down? Waiting her corpse to fall so it could feast on her?!

The dog noticed him too and pushed itself up with a growl, threatening him with its canine teeth if he came any closer. With tears leaking out his glaring eyes, Takato took on that threat.

It was barely a second later when the dog tackled him onto the ground, taking the wind out of him. Before it could go for his arm, Takato smacked its muzzle away and bound it close with both his hands, struggling to keep it closed.

He touched its soul, read its thought, watched its memory that felt joy at inflicting such pain to his beloved pet. Takato gritted his teeth in both anger and pain from a building headache. The dog's emotion was overwhelming, and now here he was at its mercy.

"You killed Tsubasa..." He growled back, keeping the enraged dog's muzzle closed even when its claws dug into his skin. "So now..."

He glared into the dog's eyes, the headaches growing stronger by the second. It tried to wiggle out of his grip but the anger fueling his strength allowed him enough to slowly sit up and push the dog off of him while making sure it couldn't bite him. The headache now was strong enough to split his head into two, but Takato fought it with gritted teeth, if only to finish his words.

"So now I'll kill you."

Salt trickling into his mouth, he tackled the dog back and locked its neck with his elbow.

Souls formed the basis of all living beings. Yet they were also very fragile against the tendrils of his quirk. A flick was enough to kill a rat. A tug was enough to pull a soul out of a human body... And an equalized pressure seemed to be enough to cause pain.

'No! Hurt! Human stop! Burn! Stop! Sto—'

The dog's howl was cut short when its soul shattered right in his hold. He let go of the dog's limp corpse and sat there in silence with his headache gone. Relieved with no more pain, satisfied with his revenge... anguish for failing to get here sooner.

He sobbed. "I'm sorry, Tsubasa. I'm sorry."

"...mrow..."

Takato leaped up, hope filling his chest as he ran towards the tree on shaky legs.

"Tsubasa, wait! I'm coming!"

Takato climbed up the tree and brought her down safely. He held her close to his chest, her blood staining his shirt.

"W-we'll get you to a doctor, okay. You'll be fine—"

'No. Body weak. Tsubasa die," she said. And she was right. Takato could feel her wobbly soul slowly trying to wiggle out of her body. Even if he could put her soul back in, there was no way it could hold the soul inside for long before she'd die again.

"H-how about we use the dog's body? That can work, r-right?" He suggested and looked at the dog's corpse lay sprawled in front of them. He smiled. "It would be like before when we got you this body—"

'No. Tsubasa want die." She coughed again.

Takato frowned in confusion and dread.

"...what? What do you mean, Tsubasa?" He carefully lifted her up to look at her closed eyes. She was breathing, but barely. "What do you mean you want to die? You're not making any sense!"

'Tsubasa miss sky. Miss fly. Miss... wing.'

Her thoughts were full of colors, even ones he didn't know existed. The sky in her memory was warm, and the wind sang a melodious song with a rhythm that followed every flap of her wings. She rose and dove, twirling in the sky among her flock in a dance that brought her joy.

Her happy memories flashed before his eyes; when she hatched and met her mother, when she fought with her siblings for worms, when she learned how to fly.

The memories turned bleak, its warm colors slowly becoming dimmer; a human catching and caging her next to a starved cat, the human breaking both her wings, the human throwing both of them outside when she got bored of them.

And then there were her memories with him; him feeding her first meal as a cat, naming her, smuggling her to school, sleeping together.

Izuku, Hikari, Juri's birthmom, the market. So many good and bad memories, some he wasn't even aware of. And she kept every moment of it close to her heart...

Tsubasa's eyes fluttered open and it was the most peaceful he'd seen her.

"Ra," she muttered.

"Tsubasa?"

"Ra... Ha... Ro..." She proudly said.

He choked on his tears. "I-is that supposed to be my name?"

Tsubasa closed her eyes again and leaned forward to nuzzle against his chest.

When she breathed her last, her soul too followed until he couldn't feel her anymore.

He fell to his knees, heaving in tears and hugging her corpse.

'Tsubasa love Takato. Takato... family,' a voice said the moment he felt something land on his shoulder. He felt her soul take flight, and with the invisible weight lifted lifted from his shoulder, he looked up at the night sky wondering if she was at least looking down at him as she left him alone on the street.

「「「・」」」

"Mom? Dad?" Takato looked up to find his parents' concerned gaze when he returned home all bloodied. "Tsubasa died," he said simply.

He didn't remember undressing and getting into the bathroom, nor did he realize when mom started slathing soap and shampoo over his body. The water when he got into the bathtub was warm, and the gentle hands brushing over his scalp never once left him. He sat in silence, lost in his own little world until he was suddenly in his room with mom dressing him in clean clothes. Yet the smell of blood remained.

"I cleaned her body and left her in that box over there. We can bury her later, okay?" mom said while she buttoned his pajamas. He nodded dumbly.

The response didn't seem to satisfy her because right after, she pulled him into her arms, her voice breaking a tad bit as if she was trying to hold back her own tears.

"Takato, do you want anything for dinner?"

He shrugged.

"Then is tempura okay?"

He didn't answer.

"I'll ask your dad to buy us some ice cream we can eat later, how about that?"

"...vanilla," he said after considering it.

Mom chuckled at getting an answer from. Pulling him onto her laps, she held him close.

"I remember I used to sing to you when you were sad. Would you like that?" she whispered.

He didn't answer, but as she began humming a familiar tune, Takato found himself relaxing into her embrace.

It was a gentle melody, like the slow ebb and flow of ocean waves against the sandy shore. Warabigami, his old lullaby.

Tin kara no migumi ukiti kunu shikee ni

'mmaretaru nashigwa wami nu mui sudati

(A blessing from the heavens I receive

My beloved child I shall raise and protect)

Irayoo hei, irayoo hoi, irayoo

kanashi uminashigwa

(O hey, a hey, o hey

O my dearest child)

Naku na yoo ya hei yo hei yo

Tida nu hikari ukiti

(Do not you cry oh dear my dear

May the sun shine upon you)

Yuuiri yoo ya hei yo hei yo

Masasaati tabori

(Be a good boy dear my dear

And grow up in miraculous health)

When she finished the lullaby, Takato snuggled deeper into her embrace and sniffled.

"Mom, can you call dad? I have something to tell both of you."

「「「・」」」

Yeah, Tsubasa's dead. You may have noticed I neglected to mention her in previous author's notes. Tsubasa (翼) means wings, which is a rather cruel name in hindsight.

She may be a minor character, but her death slaps Takato hard because he's essentially been caging her all this time in that prison he calls his pet. Is it selfish to keep someone alive against their wish? That's the question he's gonna have to answer next chapter especially in regards to Izuku.

I told you she's necessary for Takato's character development xp

Next chapter as promised will deal with the creation of *drumrolls... Izuku's new body. I know a lot of you have been waiting for this cause why the heck has the main character not get his spotlight yet, right?!

I know my writing is slow, but it's mostly because I want this story to have weight. More often than not in fanfics, stuff happens just because the plot demands it so, and I don't like that. That's why I'm taking so long to give Izuku his body. It has to be earned, or there'd be no meaning to it, you know (๑•﹏•)

The song at the end is Warabigami, a traditional Okinawan lullaby. I'm not sure if the Japanese version or the Okinawan language version came first but I prefer the Okinawan version which is the one I wrote here.

Thank you for reading :v