I know what it's gonna look like, so full disclosure there is no romance in this chapter. The handholding is far more sinister…

Tokyo wasn't much now. Few of its massive structures had survived the Quirk revolution - a general term for the long period of increasing violence that had occurred after Quirks came into being. A period which only now had truly stopped. A good thing for many, but the destruction left in its wake had stayed. Many noteworthy structures had collapsed, the Tokyo Sky Tree, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, The Omaha Zoo and more had fallen to riots, patriotism fueled attacks and anti-quirk militant forces.

Because of that, most cities could be considered 'dead'. They were ghost towns that no longer supported even one percent the life they once did. Our prefecture, Toyama, was in good straits at the moment, there were alot of construction projects going on. Mostly funded by radical evangelical tenth advents. Which was worrying. But, as my family lived on the outskirts, we were constantly reminded of what most of Tokyo looked like. The nearest still functional playground was in Katsuya prefecture, which started not four houses down from ours and was, frankly, a mess.

Me and Kaina had been taught at an early age how to recognize when we should avoid a building as my mother was keenly aware she could actually prevent us from playing in dangerous areas when dangerous areas were the only ones around. Boarded-up windows? Drug den. Holes in the walls? Unstable. Screams? God, please, I shouldn't have to tell you two this, but please just call the police and run.

Mom was a fairly responsible adult, really. I was lucky to have her.

…

I looked back, some ten buildings down was Kaina's home. Kaina's parents home.

I couldn't help the twist of my lips.

Feh.

"Are you coming?" Up ahead, Kaina was tapping her foot, calling out to me impatiently, "What if someone else gets to the swings first?"

Same thing as every other time we've gone to the park, probably. No one's ever there."I'm sure we'll be fine, we can just climb the rock wall."

Kaina's cheeks puffed, arms crossing as I passed. She turned to follow me, "The rockwall sucks!"

"It's good for dexterity though. I know you're still fumbling with your new arm, Kaina." I motioned climbing with my hand and Kaina followed along, frowning when her hand twitched oddly or jerked to the side. Her hand jerked forward, and Kaina's foot slipped on the cement below up. Her pants kept her from scraping, and I sighed, relieved that she chose to wear something long today, "It's nothing wrong, Kaina. It's just something that needs practice."

I reached out to her, and she grabbed my hand, her own stilling as she did, no longer twitching, "Right." She called, eyes looking past my hand, "Just practice."

She didn't let go even after we had resumed walking. Her hand was, with a serious face, squeezing and sliding around my own.

She refused to take her eyes away from it, eyes creasing and frown deepening the longer things went on.

"Are you ok?" I asked, serious.

"Yeah. Just practicing." She said, eyes still not leaving the hand

I grinned, amused, "Kaina. Hand dexterity comes from doing more complex tasks than this…" I tugged her along, "Comeon. Let's try the rockwall this time? Please?" That would help her, at least a little.

"Yeah. Rockwall." She said, hand still not stopping.

Ah.

So that wasn't it, huh? I sighed, if there was one thing that Akihiko had taught me, it was to be patient in a battle. I had found his lessons had many social applications.

I squeezed her hand. She didn't respond.

We passed a jogger that grinned at our clasped hands. It was obvious what they were thinking.

Wrong.

That's not it. Kaina was too young for romance, and this was… obviously bothering her. She wasn't happy to be holding me. It actually seemed to distress her as she frantically rubbed my hand with her own.

Besides. I wasn't into her that way either. She's eight. I'm… something. Not a thousand years old or something, but I'd spent an extra long time being alive. I wasn't really sure how old I actually counted as, but I definitely wasn't eight.

I wasn't interested in thinking about this right now.

My mind continued flitting about, trying to piece together Kaina's actions into a cohesive narrative. When the park came up, I was surprised to see two girls there.

One black hair and one blonde, they were swinging.

"Haven't seen you around?" The blonde one asked, "I'm Bakugou Mitsuki."

"Midoriya."

I slipped in beside them on the third swing, abandoning my plans for the rockwall as soon as the opportunity to mak- to get Kaina more friends came up. Kaina did the same at the forth swing, body already leaning this way and that, "I'm Tsutsumi Kaina, this is Shiomi Kotone, my friend."

I waved, an easy smile brushing my cheeks, "Call me Kotone. Shiomi feels off." I had spent years distanced from my family name, and it felt oddly… wrong.

"Then call me Mitsuki. And you can call this one Inko."

The shyer girl, Inko, waved at us, "What, ah, what are you two doing here?"

"Yeah! We barely ever see anyone around here!"

"Just playing. We were gonna use the rock wall." I said, wrapping my hand around the swing to keep my balance and point my thumb over at the eight foot tall slanted rock wall, "I want to work on hand-eye coordination."

"We could race?"

That sounded fine, but…

Way down the road, I saw something, a large postal van. Out in the middle of wrecked ass Toyama Prefecture. Driving straight towards a playground.

The discussion about a race was going spiritfully, so I didn't want to interrupt. But if Kaina could be in danger, then I wanted to prevent it. The best strategy would be to leave with Kaina before they got here, and let the other two buy time, but, obviously, that wasn't an option.

I didn't sacrifice myself for all humanity just to let two kids die at the first sign of trouble. Besides, I didn't expect this to be terribly difficult. I just had to convince several children to leave the park at the drop of a hat. No biggie.

"Hm. Nevermind, playgrounds are kinda boring, I think." Alright, that wasn't my best, but even when I was an orphan it was easy to

"Oh. Yeah, Alright." Mitsuki said, stopping her conversation to stare at me, bewildered, "Totally."

Kaina, equally confused, followed my glances back to the van, but said nothing. She was clever enough, and might have figured out what was going on, "Where are we going, then?"

I lept off the swing, presenting my hand to the concrete jungle of Toyama, Tokyo, "I was thinking we could explore some alleyways?" It was perfect, I did it all the time as a kid, and it was never anything but exciting.

"Are you sure..?" Mitsuko said, looking over skeptically, only to stop as Inko shook her shoulder, eyes darting over to the delivery van.

"Mitsuko."

Were these really eight year olds? I wasn't sitting with three additional reincarnations, was I?

No. I couldn't even entertain that, no, reality was much darker. They'd just grown up like this.

Fuck.

I grabbed Kaina's hand, feeling again the odd groping, "Lets get out of here?"

Nods.

With a tug, we all got moving, shuffling to an out of sight portion of the playground, I tried to make it look as organic as possible, but with everyone else so tense…

Mitsuki and Inko ran as soon as they were sure the truck couldn't see them, and I wasn't far behind, Kaina still in my grasp.

"This way!" I pointed to an alleyway deep into the side, and took a moment to check behind us, seeing two men with facemasks, rope and tasers.

So I was right.

Cold calculation had never come to me in battle, but furious revenge was as easy as the slip of a blade, cutting through flesh.

With practiced ease, I smothered it.

Until I had a Persona, I would merely be a burden in battle. I didn't want to risk it in the first place, we'd just have to lose them in the alleys ahead.

Twisting and turning, the alley was a maze, and behind us Asterios rumbled in chase, I followed Mitsuki and Inko, tumbling debris for the men to get around as we ran.

"Shit!" I heard ahead, "We have to go back!"

"Go back?"

"It's a dead end!"

Oh no.

I bolted. Trying. Really trying. The only way out was through? I'd gone through alot of things.

The tight tight tight on my arm, a thick grasp that held no regard for my fragility. And a growling voice that burned hot on my neck as he held me up.

It was too close.

I screamed.

I gripped Kaina tight, and she did the same. She whimpered, but I could only hold her tighter. Who wouldn't want their friend to hold them when they went through something like this?

I braced at that thought, feeling some small clarity return to me.

One of them grabbed a radio, holding it up and clicking it on, "Boss. One of 'em isn't letting go of the target."

Target. Target target target. I'd been called that before. I was a 'target' to Strega too.

"Hm..?" Came a distracted voice, as though far far away from what they were saying, "Then just get rid of it."

Huh?

"Well. Alright." He gestured to someone else.

Just get rid of it. As though Kaina was just a thing I was holding to keep them from hurting us.

I considered letting go of her. Surrendering. But no, that wasn't going to help either of us.

There was something sinking in my chest. A familiar feeling. Bitter, frantic and depaired. But still, Kaina was in danger and I needed to do something. Needed to save her!

And everything froze.

It all came to a halt under the shadow of a heavy green light. I didn't dare look to its source behind me.

Something settled into the air before me. Not an object, but a light. Not green, but bright yellow, shining from ahead, and parallel what was no doubt behind me.

I felt no fear to see it.

The sun. Burning above, it laid its light on my shoulders, urging me.

I am thou

Thou art I

It thrummed with power. Settling itself into my mind, the once barren maw now lit brightly by the motherly star.

From the sea of thy soul, I emerge

I am the morning sun, Khepri.

I offer you my light

The Sun arcana. My bond with Kaina. My bond with Khepri.

They hummed with tantalizing power.

I felt it like a warm blanket resting over my shoulder, and whipped my head around.

The moon. Massive and looming and green.

Time began again, and it disappeared.

I locked eyes with the man holding my hand, staring red hot rage into his very being. How dare you. How fucking dare you.

My hands grew sharp claws, sleek black steel covered my skin, turning my features inhuman, more akin to a beetle. My eyes shined, and between two horns on the sides of my head, a miniature sun scorched into existence.

"Die."

It rocketed forward at my captor, burning straight through the man's head.

I felt something pierce my side, and whirled around, sharp claws raking across the chest of the shortest one, whose arm had burst into spikes.

At the same time, I sent my sun hurtling towards the last kidnapper, only to feel a piercing pain in my head as something snapped.

I turned to see my sun, frozen blue, having just scorched the mans side. He looked at me with wide eyes, and promptly fainted, letting my sun be once again a burning yellow.

Feh.

Fine. There was no reason to kill him. If someone was trying to kidnap me specifically, then I would need to get intel on them somehow.

I heard a sniffle behind me and whipped around, barely resisting grabbing Kaina by the shoulders with sharp fingers, "Are you alright?!"

She stared at my side, and I followed her gaze to see my shirt had bloomed with blood. I couldn't feel any pain… in fact, it felt warm. I patted my side, feeling only soft skin, and smiled, "Don't worry. I'm ok. Maybe my quirk gives me regeneration?"

"Regeneration?" She said, eyes wide and scared, staring with childish fright at the bloody stain across my shirt. Her hand rose to touch it, cold metal resting against me before flinching back.

I chose not to comment. She'd tell me soon enough, no way she wouldn't, "Like Kamen Yasa. Remember when she heals?" I said, a super hero from an old TV show. It was called Super! Kamen Yasa, because apparently it was a remake.

I'd need to clean the blood up, and it might be best to move the bodies so that Mitsuki and Inko don't have to see them. They had chosen to hide deeper into the alley, out of sight.

"W-well, Kotone?" Kaina said, interrupting my thought, "Aren't you gonna call 119?"

My brow twinged. No. Obviously I wasn't going to call some unreliable douchebags. And Kaina needed to know she couldn't rely on them, needed to know who she could really go to. "Listen Kaina, the police are-"

"You're hurt. Please." She grabbed me, this time she didn't flinch or falter, "Please call the police."

…

It was quick. Almost instantaneously before I threw the phone aside, unable to stay calm after what I'd just done. It skidded across the cement, and lodged itself between the body of kidnapper number two and the ground. I could hear the operator loudly asking if I was ok, where I was, so on so forth. I couldn't. Couldn't answer them.

I sat with Kaina there, hand comforting her panicked form until the police arrived.

—oO0Oo—

She checked her watch. 6:40.

"Hm." They had failed, then. It didn't really matter much. Kaina Tsutsumi was to be caught, still, and they could find out what went wrong and fix it for next time.

The car door opened, and a man slipped in. Nao held out her hand, feeling something heavy drop into it. They called him 'Camera' because that's what he did. His quirk let him go unnoticed, and it made operation security much easier, since Nao wouldn't have to risk any of Himiko's things on finding out what happened to old ones.

She reached into the dashboard, grabbing a long cord and plugging one end into the camera and another into her phone.

She watched, face unmoving like stone monoliths. The girl was powerful indeed.

The boss would want to see this.

"Let's go." She said, letting Camera take the wheel.

Then stopped, noticing something. She should probably say something.

She nudged him, just like Himiko had taught her, being polite, "Drink less alcohol, your liver has cancer."

He jolted. Odd. Had she done the nudge incorrectly? Himiko had not indicated there was anything special to it…