Guild Master here once again.

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The news on the hero killer Stain had been a bot of a hot topic of discussion for the entire country. Many people were exposed to the sentiment that there was a bit of hypocrisy for the current society to simply keep existing the way it was. Although it wasn't explicitly said; many felt that his death was an orchestrated ploy by the government to silence him during his final moments. It was this sentiment that got many online into a heated argument and caused a significant amount of people to discredit the wild accusations made on the topic.

One person in the school of still being a believer of Stain's life mission was a teenage girl by the name of Himiko Toga; who was skipping through the nighttime streets of the city towards her next destination while listening to her phone through her earbuds. Being left alone during the darker hours of the night was a cathartic experience for the socially estranged girl. She had free range of the public space and didn't have to deal with anybody commenting on how creepily cheerful she appeared to be at all times.

Her mind hadn't fallen on such demeaning experiences and was far too occupied with her next destination as of recent. It was just around the turn as she stopped to peer around the building at a rather familiar vehicle with its owner in the built-in kitchen, cooking at his leisure without a care in the world.

Taking one stealthy footstep at a time; Toga approached the foreign designed vehicle while trying to be as stealthy as she could be. Her mission looked to have been almost foiled whenever the man turned to the opposing counter to plate whatever it was that he was preparing during Toga's stealth mission. As luck would have it, he never turned to the open back door of the van as he kept preparing his creation.

He then stood at the counter facing the bar and was chopping up some vegetables while Toga kept creeping forward. She was inside of the van and had masterfully entered it without agitating it's suspensions while doing so. One step after another and she was slowly reaching her target. The remaining distance as the chef was blissfully unaware shrank enough for her to…

"Boo!"

Both hands clasped themselves over Haru's eyes as he was just about finished with plating dinner. There was no loss of productivity; even after having his eyes shielded and blocked from his task of chopping up veggies for the stir fry he had set out. This was the case as he not only completed the arrangement of summer vegetables on the liver and onion stir fry; his last minute addition of chopped chives was unimpeded as Toga kept hanging off of his head with her grip strength alone.

Dinner was finally complete with a marvelously savory plate of liver stir fry steaming away with a mouth watering scent that even Toga was hard pressed to ignore. It was then that Haru began to react to Toga's little game of guess who.

"Oh, dear! I seemed to have gone blind! I wonder who it was that could have done this? Hm, maybe I should start guessing; just to be safe…"

Another Game that Haru had been playing with the girl for years. Her insistence to keep doing this as a form of greeting had yet to wane while Haru never felt the need to say no over a harmless game. It was a good thing that she only did this with him; otherwise, he would have been sure to cut something of his years ago.

"... Santa?"

"Noooo."

"Hmmm… Jesus?! Is that you?!"

Toga was barely able to withhold her laughter with every ridiculous guess that Haru made before he finally just grasped the girl's wrists and just hefted her up onto his shoulders and walked out to the serving area to plop her down on a stool. He turned to the girl and gave her a warm welcome with a full hug.

"Good to see you again, kiddo."

Her hums of contentment in his embrace was enough of a confirmation that she felt the same as Haru returned to his kitchen to get them water and rice for the delicious meal he made for the both of them. Returning with a bowl of rice and water for her while he got himself a beer was quite the start for the evening as Haru and Toga enjoyed dinner in each other's company.

"So how have you been, kiddo? Doing alright?"

"..."

"... They finally did it, eh?"

Her troubled home life had been under quite a lot of strain before now. Their fear of her from such a young age had only grown over the years and peaked recently with her now being essentially homeless. It was an inevitability with how things were for the past few years; though it didn't hurt any less when she did get thrown out.

It wasn't a total loss in her eyes. She got to see Haru again after what felt like forever since the last time she called him. For her own reasons; her desire to call him had been held off as she was in the middle of quite a bit of family drama and didn't want to get the man involved like the last few times he did so. Seeing his face turn into something that scary only made her want to make sure that his face would never turn into something so ugly ever again.

"Well, no matter! My van is yours while we try to figure things out from here. Other than that, It's always nice to see you again, Toga."

Ever since they first met; not a single moment has gone by where Toga felt Haru ostracize her or tell her off for who she was. His behavior was something that always sought to help her in her time of need and provide genuine guidance whenever she asked for it. Same behavior from the kind soul was being displayed with Haru giving her a place to stay and offering his help while not lingering on the issue at hand until a more appropriate time was available for the dialogue to occur.

They had the rest of their dinner while making small talk and wrapping up dinner with washing the dishes together. Before going to bed; they visited a public bathhouse and took their time relaxing and just hanging out in the resting area playing go and playing some ping pong before taking a nap for about an hour. Nothing short of everything to help Toga forest the reason why she called Haru to come pick her up in the first place. They left completely refreshed and ready to turn in for the night.

Haru had offered the girl the cot; her response was to ask for the passenger seat and sleep next to Haru in the front of the van. It wasn't an unusual request from Toga and was easily honored with both party members leaning back in their chairs while looking up at the night stars through the sunroof.

"... Haru-san?"

That was enough for Haru to be clued in to what Toga had to say. That was her calling him the president for how formal it was from her usual term of affection for him.

"What's up, kiddo?"

She liked how Haru treated her like a kid and never deflected anything she had to say. Everything they talked about was his prerogative to answer with nothing but honesty when he can help it. She needed that honesty now more than ever.

"... I need to go somewhere for a while to do something. Is it okay with you… If I do?"

A rather odd way of phrasing it; in Haru's eyes, he knew exactly what it was Toga was asking of him. He never cut corners with the girl since childhood; he saw no need to start now.

"... I would think that it's something you need to do and keep doing until you feel like it's something that you truly want. I can't stop you from doing what you want to do; but I want you to know this…"

He looked Toga into her eyes as she was probing the man for answers for her decision to do what she was about to do.

"I will always be on your side whenever you need me. Whether you make it or fail; I'll be there for you no matter what."

Nothing short of what she expected came out of Haru's mouth. His words were always carefully selected and considered her position in the grand scheme of things. The bridges built between them were always something he was careful to maintain after years of knowing Toga. An answer that made her smile in earnest and provide closure that she knew that despite all the garbage she endured so far; someone that she considered family would never abandon her.

"Do what you need to do, but make sure you can always find a way back home. For me, okay?"

Her heart knew that there was a place for her in Haru's life. She was nothing short of a daughter to him since the earliest years of her memory knowing him. Her only regret was not being his actual daughter and avoiding many years of self induced torment and misguided advice.

"... Do you mean that?"

Toga was shy and hesitant. Not her usual mood of elated excitement, but not something Haru hadn't expected from a growing girl seeking affirmation on a difficult life choice. His response was to simply outstretch his arm and present a pinky pointed right at her. It was odd to see out of context, but it meant the world for Toga to see their personal sign of trust being presented. Her own pinky reached out from under her blanket and wrapped itself with Haru's in a mutual interlock of their smallest phalanges.

They then swiped hands and fist bumped to seal the deal. This little gesture of a promise was something that both Toga and Haru had when she was a little girl whenever they made a promise. It was nothing more than a pinky promise to others with a few extra steps; to Toga and Haru, it meant that they would fight tooth and nail to see their agreement seen through. There was only one person who trusted Toga as much as they did, and that man has earned that very same trust in return from that very same girl.

"I've always meant it, kiddo. Don't ever be scared to reach out to me. We all need someone to help us in our times of need, and leaving you alone is the last thing I would do to you."

It was filling her with a bit of mixed emotions over her decision. There was one side of the spectrum where she was committed to the call of purpose she felt, though it meant abandoning certain aspects her one true guardian had taught her throughout her lifetime. This was a painful decision; not a hard one.

"... Thank you…"

"No problem, Toga. Goodnight."

She reached out for Haru's hand before she was willing to drift off to sleep. He had to sit up and face Toga to hold on and allow enough slack in his reach to allow the girl to fall asleep. In a matter of minutes she fell asleep with her hand wrapped in the warmth of something that her parents had failed to provide for years now. A memory that was closest to this was when she was four and still just a little girl without any sort of issues for her parents. It both made her sad and happy that something like this wasn't possible from them, but was still possible with the man who took her in as his own.

The Next Morning

Sunlight hadn't broken the horizon just yet when Himiko was finished changing out of her pajamas and into her clothes from yesterday. She tiptoed back to the front seat where Haru was still lying in complete silence with his eyes shut and breathing serene. One last look at his sleeping face was the last time she felt she could commit the man's face to memory. Without a moment to spare; she leaned down to give him a peck on the cheekbone while she could do so without his knowing.

"Goodbye, Haru-chan. I'll miss you…"

Another bittersweet moment between the troubled teen and surrogate parental figure in her life. The van was now sans the younger teen and was only occupied by the resting adult. Unknown to Toga was that her perception of Haru being asleep was just an act by the man himself. When Toga left him by his lonesome; he opened his eyes and sat up in a somber mood. Whatever she was out to do was likely affiliated with the recent death of Stain. He worked to ensure that traffic would be mitigated enough to keep people like Toga out of the loop, but Toga was always a girl who was too smart for her own good.

Any parent who wishes to respect their children's development knew how hard it was to find the right balance between that and providing guidelines without becoming overbearing. This was something that he knew that he can only keep her safe while allowing her to learn from such an experience by giving her that space to explore.

By no means was he simply sending her out to the wolves. Now more than ever was he going to tread carefully and make sure that Toga would be safe from the repercussions of the decisions others have made. It just pained him to see her doing something so dangerous and feeling like this was all she could do.

The memory of that little girl that was so excited to show him the little bird she found dead was replaying itself in his head. He allowed himself to reminisce about the time he and Toga first met all those years ago.