A boy sits alone, illuminated by flickering candlelight. Contrary to the explosive impacts and crackle of thunder heard less than an hour ago, flipping pages and the boy's breathing is the only sound to be heard.

He yawns and stretches, resisting the lullaby of tedium that would befall most his age.

"Ochibi-sama, stay here."

But he's the leader, shouldn't he go and-

"Don't worry, I'll take care of that stuff for now. Besides, we'll be out past your bed time, right? You should stay here and read up on Perseus."

With that, Izayoi left Jin behind while he and everyone else went to Thousand Eyes.

He didn't agree with the blond's decision but Jin held his tongue. Izayoi's plan for the Community is honestly their best bet until they can get Leticia back.

Half a dozen books lie on the table, all about the legend of Perseus. There is a slight difference between each version but, the basic story stays the same. A child cast away who becomes a champion of the Gods and slays Medusa.

Because of where Jin is sat, at a table far in the back, he doesn't hear creaking from the library door through the dozens of bookshelves piled with books of every kind. It's only natural for him to be surprised when a certain white haired comrade walks by at a brisk pace with books in hand.

"Soma-san?"

Hearing his name called he backtracks to face No Names' leader. Soma gives a look that incites Jin to ask, "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for information." He holds up a few books to emphasize his words.

"Oh," But that much is evident by Soma's presence in the library. "What information are you looking for? I can help you if you want." Without hesitation he nods and replies,

"Perseus."

"Soma-san, Perseus is from Greek mythology. There won't be information in any of those books." Buddhism, Brothers Grimm, and Norse mythologies are the topics in his hands. Soma hums in understanding. "I actually have the books that focus on Perseus right here." Jin gestures towards a stack on the table. "Please help yourself to any of those books."

Soma nods and sits wordlessly, setting aside his stack and opening a book. Jin's eyes flicker between his book and new comrade before curiosity gets the better of him.

"Soma-san, how do you like being here compared to your old world?" The white haired boy pauses and looks into the distance.

"There's more people?" He says finally. "New races, new fauna, new concepts, new materials, ne-... Everything is new." Concludes Soma, since far more is alien than familiar for him.

"Really?" Jin rattled off a few names and terms but every time Soma shook his head no.

Even if it's considered history, Soma should recognize something! Given how, uh, unique all the problem children are they probably had special circumstances in their old world. That or maybe he just hasn't recognized anything yet, The Little Garden is a big place afterall. Jin leaned more towards the latter.

No more conversation to be had, Soma focused on reading.

"Uh, so how was your old world like?" Blank eyes stared long enough for Jin to add, "-If you don't mind, of course."

"Vast. Violent. Void."

...

That's it?! And he's already gone back to reading! Jin nearly retorts but stops himself. Vast, violent, and void. Going over the words in his head, he could only think of a terrible life Soma must have endured. Jin's heart sinks. Soma is at most a couple years older then him and void must mean he was alone throughout his struggles. If he didn't have Black Rabbit, Lily, and all the other children supporting him...

Jin resolves himself to get to know Soma better once he's ready to open up.

It lasts about an hour until Jin can hardly read with his eyes closing every few seconds. In a mumbling voice he says,

"Let's stop." Two books left, but he's sure it's well past midnight. If his eyes could focus they would see a troubled Soma.

"You're the leader?"

"Nn, yeah, I am."

"You don't want to save her?"

"Her?...O-of course I want to save Leticia-sama!" Jin's remaining energy drains after his outburst. "It's just... You don't need to push yourself."

Soma could have made some sort of reply but Jin passed out in his chair.

I'll tell him later, he decides. Right now there's work to do.

Author's Notes

In this scene is Soma's interaction with Jin after he visited Yo. Nothing but a bit of conversation.

Next time will have Soma, Izayoi, and Shiroyasha so you know it'll be fun. It'll probably take a while to write too.

Reviews and such are welcome.

~Bai

Post A/N note

Uh... So, the note above was written months ago. This was pretty much done, and I just wanted to go over it before posting.

Then I did nothing but Stardew Valley for a few weeks.

Then I learned of the Borderlands 2 Unofficial Patch.

Then I had school stuff.

Then ******** got an update.

Then I made an account to play as Soma in ********.

Then I started reading Hero Academia fanfics.

Then I started writing a Hero Academia fanfic.

Then I realized I didn't post this.

Then I didn't have the ability to post this for two weeks.

I also may have lost the next main story chaper.

Oops.

Hoppy854: I've got stuff for that planned after volume 2 is finished, but seeing as how I need to rewrite part 2 (Soma and Izayoi's visit to Shiroyasha) and everything that I had for v2... Lets just say I may make something up in the meantime.

Post Post A/N note

So I was waiting until I finished my new My Hero fic's first chaper (because I felt kinda bad just uploading this after so long) and it got kinda jank and kinda long, kinda like this sentence, so it's been taking a while to write if you haven't noticed. I planned to get it out before new years when had a stroke of genius in realizing you probably don't give two butts about the MHA fic, so I set about writing the second part of this instead.

Oh, and to the guest who's going around commenting in what I can only assume is leet speak... Well, I'm not very proficient at reading any language other than americanese but I think it says I have a very nice story. Either that or I'm being used for some sort of conspiracy. Regardless, I thank you for your contribution to my review section.

PPPA/N

I was gonna post this along with the next pre-main chaper thing but it's taking too long. The next upload will be a basic overview of Soma's abilities being discussed between Soma, Izayoi, and Shiroyasha. Its been an absolute pain to write all the technical stuff I want while making it a believable conversation. I'm giving myself until April is over. If it's not finished by then I'll post what I've got and a character sheet thing or something.

-MGM