Title: Here I Stand

Summary: I had grown up being told death was supposed to lead to the peaceful afterlife, not a world of superheroes and "Quirks". [SI-OC/Reincarnation-fic]

Let's just get to right~

Chapter 08: Calm Before The…

Mentally and physically, I had been on five percent battery charge and it showed. Exhaustion filled my entire body as me and Mom made our way through the hallways of Little Angels, my movements lacking much of any humph and my eyes burdened with weariness. Occasionally, I'd blink in short bursts to keep my eyes awake, but that didn't seem to do me any good.

After Mom had finally managed to calm me down, she let me sleep with her for the remainder of the night. I hadn't gotten much of any rest after the nightmare. Even under the safety and protection of my mother, I couldn't fall back asleep. I was too scared to see Mom and Dad like that, to experience the sickening hell again.

So, I didn't.

Seeing how shaken up and quiet I was this morning, Mom had nearly kept me home, but I insisted I had felt a lot better. Some mental healing for the day might've sounded like the way-to-go, but I wanted to get my mind off of things in a different way. A little socialization would help.

"Mi-chan!" I snapped back to reality after hearing her innocently croaky voice and the nickname which only one person would ever have called me, my eyes seeming to come to life for the first time today. I turned my head to the sound of the nearby voice, and sure enough, there was Tsuyu, dressed in a pair of denim overalls, a green stripped shirt underneath and white sneakers. Her nicely braided hair bounced in the air as she hopped towards me and Mom.

"Tsu," I smiled, waving at her as she approached us. Stopping in front of me, she gave me a quick hug before separating and looking up at Mom and smiling.

"Hi, Mrs. Fudo," Tsuyu politely greeted.

"Why hello, Tsuyu," Mom said, warmly smiling at her. That's when Mom started looking behind Tsuyu, an oddly focused look on her face. I decided to question her, "Mom… are you okay?"

"Tsuyu, did you come here by yourself?" Mom asked, finally refocusing back on her.

"Tsuyu! Where did you go?" a panicked voice yelled, the voice traveling throughout the hallways.

The volume of the woman's pleas and rushing footsteps increased and drew closer until the bearer of the voice had finally made their appearance, frantically ripping around the corner. Almost as she had turned the corner, she skidded to a stop after she saw the three of us. The muscles in her face unloosened and she expelled a shaky breath, before making her way over.

"Tsuyu, dear, don't run off like that again," the woman softly lectured, pressing her palm to her heart. Right away, I observed the blush marks on her cheeks, the frog-like structure of her face, the dark green hair; it was already clear to me who the woman was.

"Sorry, I saw Mirai and I got carried away," Tsuyu calmly explained, placing her finger on her lips.

As I had thought, it was Beru Asui, or rather Tsu's mother. Since attending Little Angels, I didn't think I had ever seen her father or mother, well, until now that was. Normally by the time Mom and or Dad dropped me off, Tsu was always here—wouldn't be surprised if they lived near the preschool.

From having already seen how she looked before, I still couldn't spot much of a difference in how she looked, despite it being more than a decade from her age of 40 in the current time.

"It's fine my little tadpole, just don't run off like that again. You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Beru laughed.

"Ribbit, ribbit," Tsuyu ribbited in response.

It seemed like it took a second before Beru finally caught on to me and Mom's presence because when she did, she yelped. She quickly bounced back from her initial shock, although her blush marks had swelled in size around her face.

Beru greeted Mom with a friendly bow, giving her a small nod of her head, "I-I apologize for my rudeness! It's nice to meet you!"

"Don't worry about it. It's nice to meet you too," Mom said, also bowing. I immediately followed suit, bowing my head in respect for the adult in front of me before standing back up straight.

Tsuyu walked over and stood beside me, "This is Mi-chan and his mother."

"This is your friend… Mirai?" Beru gasped, glancing at me and intertwining her hands together. There wasn't any malice or snark behind her words, but rather joy.

"My daughter has told me so many good things about you!" Beru beamed at me.

I couldn't even try to contain the giant, cheesy smile I had on my face. It was an amazing gratifying thing to hear about the kind of effect I had on Tsu and how she felt about me. "How kind and funny you are. She even mentioned that you were the son of the hero... Puppetmaster…"

She went silent before rapidly spouting, "Wait, no, sorry! I'm not meaning to say that my daughter is only your son's friend because of his father's—"

"I understand what you're trying to say," Mom assured with a smile, "Enrolling Mirai in school, me and my husband were prepared for the attention that he would get but I'm happy that he's made a sweet, honest friend in Tsuyu."

"Thank you for understanding," Beru replied, before glancing over at me, "Before you came, she had always been someone that was to herself. Even though my husband and I entered her here to get her acclimated with other kids her age, she didn't really have anyone to talk to in the class beside the caretakers. Recently though, she's been more outgoing and expressive and so what I'm trying to say is… thank you for being her friend."

I bowed my head in appreciation, "T-Thank you, Asui-san."

Mom inhaled a deep breath and blew out slowly, "How about we talk more on the way?"

"Sounds like a good idea, we wouldn't want the kids to be late," Beru agreed.

And so, the four of us strolled along in the direction of our classroom. Mom and Beru had carried on with their small talk, chatting about their days so far and sharing a couple of laughs, tossing in the occasional compliment on how well-mannered both me and Tsuyu were.

"They seem to be hitting it off well," I eventually whispered over at Tsu, not wanting to disrupt the icebreaking moment between the two.

Tsu leaned over as we walked and murmured back, "Like magic before our eyes."

Even though they had just met for the first time a few minutes ago, they seemed to have warmed up to each other, at least to where they were having a nice back-and-forth. Seeing them beginning to connect, I was really happy about it and Tsu probably felt the same way I did.

"Tsuyu, Mirai! Hey, you two cuties!" Nakamura-sensei exclaimed, welcoming the two of us when we made it inside the classroom. Cheerful laughter and scampering from the other children filled the room, even echoing from outside the room and through the hallway. Carpet time must've just ended before we got here; good, I was far from in a singing mood.

She came towards the four of us, smiling broadly as she always did. "Welcome, Mrs. Fudo and Mrs. Asui! Hopefully you both are having wonderful mornings so far!"

"If by wonderful, you mean hectic, then it's been pretty wonderful so far," Beru joked, to which Mom and Nakamura-sensei laughed, "My youngest one was a bit of a handful throughout the night and the babysitter cancelled last minute, so I had to have my parents watch over him for the day."

"Ah, so that's what happened. Normally you and Tsuyu are here early, so I thought maybe you weren't planning on dropping her off today," Nakamura-sensei said.

"Yeah, this is unusual for me," Beru replied, "It's also unusual for the babysitter to cancel so abruptly like that. I wouldn't be surprised if it's because all the mur—everything going on right now."

"Mhm… it's a difficult time for everyone," Mom sighed, "Mirai had a really bad nightmare about the killer last night. I feel like I should've kept him home, but he really wanted to come today."

I tensed up where I stood, the hairs on my body beginning to stand up as flashes of the nightmare came back to me. The rotten stench of cartilage, gristle and flesh which filled the room, the bloodied bed where my parents' dead bodies lay, and "its" soulless eyes, I vividly remembered it all. Lord knows how much I tried to forget it, but it… it still lingered…

No! I got a hold of myself, tightly hardening my fist. No matter how vivid and real the nightmare felt, it was all in my head, a harmless event that my brain unfortunately conceived.

"Oh no, are you okay, Mirai?" I returned to reality and there Nakamura-sensei was, looking at me worriedly.

"I'm doing better now," I answered with a controlled imitation of my usual tone. I wasn't okay, but talking about it… it would only make me feel worse. I needed to an outlet to focus my mind on instead, like maybe a computer game or an interesting book. Yeah, that'd do and I had one exact thing in mind.

I looked over at Tsu, who was listening in on Mom, Beru and Nakamura-sensei's light chit-chat, "Yo, Tsu-chan. You up for a game of All Might: Villain Crusher?"

"Sure," Tsuyu nodded, before giving her mother a goodbye hug and leaping off towards me.

"Mirai," Mom called out to me, making me slow down and stop in my tracks. "Yes, Mom?"

"You're not going to give your mommy a hug before I go?" Mom pouted, opening her arms for me to hug her.

"Sorry," I apologized, running back up to her and embracing her. Once we separated, she put both of her hands on my shoulders, "Are you sure you don't want to stay home with me?"

"I'm sure," I responded.

"Well alright then, remember to give me a call if you feel like you want to leave, okay?" Mom said.

"Okay."

She straightened up and rubbed the nape of her neck, "Also one more thing. I'm sure you're already aware of this but I leave tonight for the company's convention tomorrow."

Oh yeah, PRONCon. The whole event had slipped my mind.

"Your father won't be home tonight, so… so you'll be staying with Kiyo for the weekend," Mom hesitantly said. I could see Mom's reaction coming from a mile away, but still, I could feel my face lighting up like a Christmas tree from the great news. There was a boatload of things you could label Aunt Kiyo as, but boring was most definitely not on that list.

Spontaneous trips to amusement parks, movie marathon nights, letting me stay up until the wee-hours of the morning, not to mention the gifts she bought for me on a consistent basis. She even had a game console set up at her apartment for me whenever I visited or spent a night. All of those things were… irresponsible to say the least, but she was a damn cool aunt. She was like a second mother for me, a great friend as well.

Her western-style of cooking was also to die for. I mean, what more could you ask of a person?

"Cool! I exclaimed, throwing my hands in the air with joy.

"I thought you would react that way," Mom sighed while pinching the branch of her nose. Suddenly, a faint synthetic beep pinged nearby. Mom instantly dug inside her pocket and pulled out her phone. She eyed whatever she saw on the phone before swiping her finger across the screen, silencing the alert.

It wasn't the first time I had heard that sound. It had become increasingly frequent, and so normal, as the month neared its end. It was normally a notification for her to finish a dress or sketches or a message from the CEO of PRONTO. Anything related to the company really.

"Oh shoot, look at the time," Mom said, returning the phone to her pants pocket, "My flight is at 11, so I have to get home and finish packing."

She kissed me on the forehead and softly ruffled her hand through my hair, "See you, sweetheart and be safe. I'll check in with you once I land! Try not to have too much fun with Kiyo!"

"I'll try not to!" I laughed. This weekend was going to be one to remember, that's for sure.

Before Mom and Beru left, the two mothers exchanged information with each other. And then there was me, Tsu and Nakamura-sensei.

"How about you two go have some fun?" Nakamura-sensei smiled, placing her hands on her hips.

"Right!" Tsuyu and I cheered in unison, running off to start the game at the computer center.

Just as I had hoped, having some fun was doing a good job at taking my mind off of last night. The nightmare had become a thing of the past as I focused all of my time and energy into something I found a lot more constructive—winning.

All Might: Villain Crusher. In the game, you played as the one and only Symbol of Peace, All Might and the objective of the game was for you to combat and defeat an invading mad mathematician villain named Big Brain and his multiplying and dividing goons with the help of addition and subtraction.

It was a recently released educational game, but it was already a smash hit with all the kids around the country. You could dedicate some of the success to the legendary name that All Might held, but it was a really good teaching game. It helped you strengthen your quick and mental thinking with having to quickly dish out correct answers to the problems while also being a lot of fun.

Of course this meant the rest of the children in our classroom flocked to the computer center to play the game, which then led to a bunch of senseless arguments and tantrums. Thankfully Nakamura-sensei had devised a fair schedule that allowed every kid to get their turns in on the computers.

In our time, Tsu and I normally played the Versus Mode of the game. It was pretty much the same as the Story Mode but instead, it was a race between the two players to see who could solve the most problems and defeat Big Brain.

Having been around Tsu for quite some time now and already having prior knowledge of her character, she had shown to not be a very competitive person. Whenever I'd quickly solve the problems in front of me and pull in the lead, she never once complained or cried but always complimented me.

Being the 'advanced' child that I was, I tended to rely on my earlier education and use that to my advantage but because of that our matches wasn't on equal footing, as she didn't have as much intelligence as I did just yet. I felt like a terrible friend so I'd mess up occasionally, just to keep things close.

I had a feeling she wouldn't be too happy if she knew about that though.

Sticking to a slower rhythm as I usually did, we had roughly completed the three levels of the game at the same time and reached the fourth and final of the game—the Big Brain boss battle.

"Good luck Tsu-chan! You're gonna need it," I playfully sneered. The Big Brain boss battle was where the game decided to truly test the mathematical skills of their players. The difficulty of the problems increased, using bigger numbers than usual.

Her fingers stuck to the keyboard and her eyes stayed honed in on the screen but I could still make out a slight smile on her usually blank face, "Ribbit!"

"Haha, it didn't take you too long to get to me, All Might! I expected nothing less from the Symbol of Peace himself!" Big Brain cackled, as he sneered at us while deviously rubbing his hands together, "I am surprised that you let a few of those easy ones get you!"

Ah, the iconic monologue of the villain, a time for a villain to gloat and rub his entire plan and its process in our face before we meet our timely demise and yadda yadda yadda. Heard it a dozen times and I was over it.

My hand moved to touch the Tab key when I stopped. I turned to talk to Tsu, "Do you mind if I skip this and get to the battle?"

"No, go on ahead," Tsuyu said.

"Cool." With a brief hold of the button, the cutscene ended and the boss battle begun. The math problems flew out onto the screen. Big Brain's Quirk: Exploding Problems, allowed him to conjure up problems and if the player couldn't get the answer in a ten second time frame, the problem would explode and deal damage to the player.

5+21=26, easy.

24-13= 11, piece of cake.

13-9= 4. Instead of clicking on the obvious answer, I motioned my hand over the 2 and clicked it.

"There you go again All Might! Messing up on those easy ones I see!" Big Brain mocked, as he tossed out another problem for me to solve. Tsuyu and I were in the middle of blitzing through the boss battle when suddenly the other kids in the class started crowding around us.

I could barely focus on mentally counting the numbers and solving the problems with the ooh's and ah's dinning from the audience behind us as they gazed at both of our computer screens.

"Wow! Look at Mirai go!" a little girl exclaimed.

"How is he so great?" a young boy said.

"Aww… he passed my high score again…" one of the girls muttered in a discouraged tone.

The corners of my mouth turned upward into a wide grin, pride and confidence radiating off of me as I continued dealing incredible, swift damage on Big Brain. I had to admit, it was easy for constant compliments and praise to get to your head and inflate your ego. With how high in regard those kids held me as the son of a Pro Hero, if I was an actual kid that didn't know any better, I would probably turn out to be a conceited, egotistic brat; luckily that was never in my character.

"Hey, what about Tsuyu? She's not too far behind Mirai," everyone, including myself, shifted to her screen. Just as the person had said, Tsu wasn't being left in the dust, only being two problems behind me. I wasn't all too surprised. She had always shown a quick grasp whenever it came time for Nakamura-sensei to teach Math.

"If you wanted to take this serious, all you had to do was tell me Tsu!" I snickered, leaning a bit over at her to make sure she saw the face I was making.

"You might want to focus on your own game," Tsuyu retorted, her eyes still fixated on her game.

"All Might! Did you seriously just miss five problems in a row?! So much for the great 'Symbol of Peace'!" My head snapped back over to my screen, only to find that my health was no longer at full, but at 20.

Fuck.

All of the other kids began a parade of what to me felt like heckling laughter as they watched me hastily click answers and all I could do was hang my head in shame and embarrassment.

Way to go, Mirai.

In the end, I ended up defeating Big Brain but it was all for nothing as Tsu had long since finished her battle beforehand, in turn, saving all of Japan and coming out as the victor of our match. Already embarrassed at what had happened in front of everybody, I sat in the Literacy Center, sulking to myself for the rest of the period as Tsuyu practiced her writing. Eventually, center time came to a close.

On the bright side of things, because preschool was closed for the rest of the week, Nakamura-sensei had decided to skip over music class to make more time for everyone to have fun and enjoy themselves. And so, free time was upon us until we had to begin our core subject periods.

"Mi-chan, you're still embarrassed?" Tsuyu asked, her little frog tongue flopping out of her mouth.

I hung my head in shame, not bothering to look into her eyes, "Yeah, just a bit."

"You should learn to not be so cocky then. It's very unhero-like for someone that wants to be a Hero," Tsuyu said. I was used to all of her quirky mannerisms and the way she had of saying things, and they definitely didn't have much of an effect on me but the bluntness of her words ripped through the fragile, humiliated state I was in. My head shot upward faster than thought or time.

"I figured that already!" I retorted hotly, anger surging within me.

"Don't be that way Mirai, its better someone tells you now than later," Tsu lectured, swaying her head side-to-side as she tended to do randomly at times.

"I—I can't even argue with that…" I sighed, lowering my head and letting it droop pitifully. Tsuyu was still a little child, but her early maturity was beginning to show more and more each passing day. I had a knocking feeling she had more "motherly" and "wise" lectures up her sleeve for me too.

"Mirai…" The sudden softness in Tsu's voice had come unexpectedly and caught me off guard. I was even further taken back when she tenderly placed her hand on my shoulder. It took a brief moment before I finally dispelled from my shock and moved my head from the ground I had staring at to her tiny hand.

What's gotten into her all of a sudden? She's never acted or spoken like this before…

I mean, it's not like I looked at Tsu as some emotionless robot, incapable of having feelings. Rather it was just that this was far from what I was used to from her. Nonetheless, something serious was on her mind and as her friend, it was my duty to listen.

I looked her directly in the face, our eyes meeting and I saw them. Her eyes, they were wide, still. They were always as such but I felt something. I couldn't fully explain it if asked, but I could just feel deeply in my gut that there was just something… something much deeper resonating from those firm, lingering eyes of hers that I couldn't pinpoint.

For the first time in that moment, I opened up my mouth to speak, "…Yes, Tsu-chan?"

"Are you okay? You looked really sad and quiet this morning when your mother told Nakamura-san and my mother about the nightmare…"

The nightmare…

Hearing the haunting words, my heart instantaneously plummeted to the depths of my stomach. It felt like my heart had ceased to beat for that split second in time. The unsettling, frightful feeling I felt every single time it came up, I hated it; I hated it so much that I couldn't stop myself from rolling my fingers into a ball of fury.

"I'm sorry…" Tsuyu's voice was soft, almost fragile, as if she was going to give in and cry. Her face pinched, her frog-like eyes appearing glassy.

She was going to cry.

I pulled her into my little arms and embraced her. She croaked in surprise.

The tender, soothing words I wanted so desperately to say to her hadn't come out. I was still shaken up inside but I had prayed through my actions that my unspoken feelings would reach her.

She hadn't said anything, not a single word; however, I didn't sense any stiffness or hostility from her. She was easy.

We stayed attached to each other for a while longer before I finally broke the consoling hug, though my hands stood planted on her shoulders.

"I was just really worried about you," she clarified, wiping a wet droplet from her cheek.

"I know… but you don't have to worry now, I'm feeling better now!" I chortled, my cheek dimples flaring upward.

She furrowed her brow and cocked her eye at me, as if she wasn't buying what I said. Fortunately that quickly faded as her face brightened up like a shimmering star, "Well then, I'm happy to hear that, Mi-chan."

"Good!" I replied, pointing at my smile to further prove my point. I hated lying; even more so lying to someone close to me like Tsuyu, but it was better this way.

"Let's do something to lighten you up a bit," Tsuyu suggested, "Rock, paper, scissors?"

"Something else for you to beat me at?" I joked, a snicker trailing my playful words.

"I only play for fun, you know that already," Tsu giggled, before putting her finger to her mouth, "Fine, how about—?"

Tsuyu and I spent well over half an hour mulling over our options before we finally threw in the towel and decided to draw for the remainder of our extra free time. The day seemed to shape up to be an easygoing day.

That was until Nakamura-sensei brought out and set up the calligraphy ink and brushes and the exercise books.

Lo and behold, it was time for our daily Kanji lesson.

"Alright everyone, let's stop here!"

Those words were like music to my ears. I released the calligraphy brush, slumping back and sinking in my chair. I contorted my face, feeling the meanest migraine nearing. I was going to say it: kanji could kiss my ass. No offense to whoever created and founded it, but this was just ridiculous.

Why go through all the trouble of creating so many complex characters, over 80,000 of those little scribbles might I add, that could potentially be mistaken for another one, purely based off of a simple stroke? I couldn't wrap my head around it to save my life.

"What's with that long face mister?" I turned my head to find Nakamura-sensei, smiling as she studied my work, "You're doing well!"

I grumbled lightly, crossing my arms over my chest in annoyance, "Doesn't feel like it."

"Look, Mirai. You can't expect everything in life to be simple as ABC," She explained, placing her hand on my shoulder, "All you can do is keep working as hard as you can; after all, practice makes perfect!"

"Yes, Nakamura-sensei…" I sighed, staring at the misshaped and slanted kanji: "実".

The sight of my failure ate at me. I needed it gone.

"Thank you dear!" Nakamura-sensei exclaimed, clapping both of her hands together joyfully before beginning to collect my calligraphy set.

It occurred to me that I would have to be patient and work hard to memorize what I had learned and practiced if I wanted to learn and master kanji, but it was so tempting to just give up; even though that wasn't possible. Learning to actually speak the language wasn't nearly as hard as learning to write in this new writing system. But it's not like Nakamura-sensei wasn't putting her best effort forth.

I just wasn't doing the same. If I truly wanted to get the hang of it, I had to keep at it.

From there, the day seemed to fly by. English, Math, it all seemed like one big blur.

Following our core subject periods was snack time, where we were surprisingly treated to a sugar feast, compliments of our dear Nakamura-sensei. She had gone out of her way to reward us for how fast we had been improving in not on our studies but also as a class and so she ordered platters of Dorayaki, Castella and Mochi from a nearby bakery service.

A cacophony of applause and cheering exploded from everyone, palpable excitement buzzing through the charged air. Hell, even I joined in the emotional outpour with the others when I heard the beautiful news.

To Tsu's excitement, some of the Mochi Nakamura-sensei ordered was filled with jelly; Tsu's favorite food. Seeing the way her lips curved in glee and her eyes twinkled with joy was a sight to behold, one that brought a warm smile to my face as she dug into the sweet, scrumptious delights on her plate.

It was hard to believe that today started off on a bad note. Things somehow, someway turned around for the better. Whether this was a sign from God or not, I was thankful for it. The nightmare felt like a thought of the past, it didn't matter. All that mattered right now was my mouth and the sweet treats that were going in it.

Today was a good day, and this was the cherry on top.

"Alright my precious little ones, snack time's over~!" Nakamura-sensei's bubbly voice announced, "Clean-up time!"

Nakamura-sensei danced and grooved her way over to the classroom stereo and clicked the Play button, a happy-sounding jingle beginning to play.

I pushed the last morsel of the fine textured honey glazed sponge cake into my mouth, officially completing the last of the food that was on my plate. The shimmering glaze dancing on my fingertips quickly disappeared as I used my tongue to rid my fingers of the silky substance. The sugary foods left me stuffed and with a slight fuzzy feeling in the head, nonetheless energized; my whole body riveting with mounds of energy.

I felt like I could run a mile, even a marathon with no problem!

I looked at Tsu, who was in the process of shoveling down the last of her jelly-filled Mochi. Once she finally disposed of the confections, she used her frog-like tongue to lick the remnants of jelly off the corner of her mouth.

"Delicious, ribbit!" Tsu beamed, clapping both her hands together in glee and appreciation for the food she had received.

As a class, we began cleaning up our mess, throwing away our dirtied plastic plates into the garbage bag set out for us and helping one another sweep up the leftover crumbs on the floor as Nakamura-sensei cheerily sung the "Tidy-Up Song", encouraging us to work together and do our best from the sidelines. It wasn't long before we had successfully completed the task, leaving the classroom spotless.

"Woo, good job everyone! Give yourselves a pat on the back, this room looks so beautiful~!" Nakamura-sensei enthusiastically praised, a sense of pride written all over her gleeful face as she gave us a round of much-deserved applause. "Now, how about we all go work off all of those delicious treats we just ate outside? Who's ready for~ recess?"

The kids ecstatically detonated off like a bomb after hearing the word "recess", most of everyone letting their Quirks run wild. Nakamura-sensei had done a great job at keeping the kids in control and at bay when it came to Quirk usage, but the kids' euphoric feeling that came with recess was untamable.

And there I was, only able to look on like the normal, or in this world's case, abnormal, Quirkless little guy I was. Yet another reminder that I had no Quirk to call my own, to show me that I wasn't special. Each and every one of these kids was blessed but me? I wasn't, not like them.

Just the notion of being Quirkless terrified me. If Mom and Dad found out… would they look at me differently? Would they be disappointed in me? Would Dad be disappointed in me? Being known as the Quirkless son of a Pro Hero, nonetheless one of his caliber, it would be a downright embarrassment on his part. Not to mention, Tsuyu and I's goal to enroll at U.A. and become Pro Heroes, all of what I had pledged to myself, it would vanish in an instant and I would just have to live with it… and just when things had seemed to be looking up, of course, my bad luck strikes again. As if I needed something else to lament about today.

"Alright, that's enough everyone!" Nakamura-sensei sternly raised her voice. The kids immediately got the message, switching off their Quirks and returning to their former calm state, "Let's all quietly line up to go outside!"

One by one, each and every toddler followed instructions, beginning to gather together.

"Mi-chan, let's hurry and line up," Tsuyu smiled at me, before hopping off to join the line.

"Yeah…" I softly replied, following behind her.

In the blink of an eye, we had all assembled into a neat, single file line. "Okay class, let's make our way to the backdoor quietly," Nakamura-sensei murmured, putting her index finger to her lips to shush us, "Some of the other classes are sleeping and we wouldn't want to wake them up."

Once we had all exited the classroom, Nakamura-sensei locked the door behind her and made a quick run to the supplies room to get a bag full of outdoor equipment before leading us down the hallway.

Once the doors were opened, the kids anxiously broke from the line, running rampant in the spacious field that was our esteemed playground while screeching joyfully.

"Be careful! And let's all remember to play nice now~!" Nakamura-sensei said, cupping her hands over her mouth and shouting.

Some girls got together and played Double Dutch, a group of boys separated into teams and began playing a game of soccer, and some other kids enjoyed their time on the jungle gym. As for me and Tsu, we sat on the soft, lush grass, accompanied by the shade of a towering nearby tree.

"You don't have to sit with me Mi-chan," Tsuyu said, gazing at the white daisy she had picked from the ground, "You can go have fun."

"I'll be fine," I insisted, leaning back on the tree as I took in the view of the boys ecstatically dribbling the soccer ball up and down the field. Getting in a game of soccer sounded like a lot of fun right now but I also didn't want to leave Tsuyu all by herself.

You could say she wasn't all too comfortable playing with the girls, and so she had resorted to sitting by herself and well, I wasn't going to watch her be lonely while I was off having fun without her.

She halted twiddling the daisy around in her hand and looked at me, as if she was about to retort when—

"Mirai! Tsuyu!" The sweet-sounding voice had suddenly barged into our conversation, stopping Tsuyu before she could say anything. Nonetheless, the person had caught our attention. With a quick turn of our heads, we saw the person in which the voice belonged to.

Standing there was a smiling Fumiko, her iridescent wings fluttering rapidly. Standing next to her was another one of the kids of the classroom, a boy with short black hair and brown eyes, accompanied with a green baseball cap.

Fumiko? What did she want? As fellow classmates, we had talked and interacted a couple of times, inside or outside of group work, but we never really had much of a friendship. She was probably one of the only people that weren't too hung up on my status though, and I was grateful to her for that.

"Yo, Fumiko, Haruki," I replied, greeting them with an acknowledging nod.

"Ribbit," Tsuyu croaked, acknowledging them with a nod of her head.

"Hey! Do you want to play 'Heroes and Villains' with me, Haruki, Aoi, Kosuke, Rina and Misaki~?" Fumiko jingly asked, looking back and motioning with her finger over at the said group of kids smiling and staring expectedly at us.

"Mirai, pleaseee!" Haruki begged.

Tsuyu furrowed her eyebrows as she cocked her head at me, "Do you want to?"

"Sure, why not? It's been awhile since we even got a game of 'Heroes and Villains' in anyways," I smiled.

"Yay! This is going to be so much fun!" Fumiko beamed, clapping her hands together in joy.

The concept of the game was easy to grasp and play. Children were divided into three separate groups—the 'Heroes, Villains and Civilians'. Of course, the Heroes were to stop the Villains from committing whatever crime while protecting the endangered Civilians. The best part of the game was that you had the choice to stick with the traditional story of a group of villains holding several civilians hostage or explore your creativity by coming up with your own scenario.

Unfortunately, most of the times the kids couldn't come up with good storylines and go through with them, so the original story it was. Anyways, the Heroes were given three minutes to take down the threat of the Villains and Civilians. If a Civilian was to get 'hurt', the Heroes would lose time, and if a Civilian was to get 'killed', the Heroes lose altogether. Activation of your Quirk in the game was also prohibited in public, due to the actual legislated Quirk usage laws. If used, then you were automatically disqualified and your team losses, even if you were playing as a Civilian.

"So, does everyone get the rules?" Fumiko asked.

We all nodded in assurance.

"Alright! Before we begin, I'll divide everyone into their roles!" She began eyeing each and every one of us, tapping her chin in thought. Several seconds had passed before she finally opened up her mouth to talk. "Kosuke, Rina, and… Tsuyu," She said, "You three will be the Civilians."

"Ribbit," Tsuyu croaked.

"Oh great, a 'Civilian' again…" Kosuke muttered.

"Yay…" Rina sighed.

Next, she pointed over at Haruki and Misaki, "Haruki and Misaki, you two will be the Villains."

"Hehehe!" Haruki cackled, "You ready to take them down, Misaki?"

"You know it, fellow Villain!" Misaki grinned devilishly.

When it came to the roles of Villains and Civilians, they were easily the most un-liked positions. Civilians were the damsels and so, all they really got to do was sit and cry for help. Not much fun.

At least the Villains got to get into the action. Then again, no kid really wanted to be categorized as a 'villain'. Or at least your average child. Haruki and Misaki seemed to be a part of the rare percentage.

"Last but not least, Mirai and I will be the Heroes and Aoi," Fumiko announced, before turning over and looking at Aoi," Aoi, would you be fine being the Moderator of the game? I know you don't really like playing anything other than a Civilian but…"

"Mhm, it's fine, Fumi-chan," Aoi replied joyfully.

"That settles that then," Tsuyu said, "Let's start—"

Tsu's voice came to a breathless halt, her body suddenly going stock-still. Everyone collectively looked at her, confused and taken aback by her sudden strange shift in bodily tone.

I jogged to her side and kneeled down, "Hey, what's wrong?"

She raised her arm and pointed.

"There."

実 = Courage.

A/N: I could spend this Author's Note apologizing for how long it took me to get this finished but I'm not lol. These last couple months of the new year haven't exactly been the best for me. School, depression, relationships, it's all eaten at me to the point where I needed to take a break and find myself again because before the beginning of March, I wasn't myself.

Luckily I've found peace with myself and I'm a lot more happier with everything going in my life. I'm on my way to graduating in the next couple of months and I'm incredibly excited to start attending college. I will try my best to finish the next chapter.

Until next time. Hope you all have a blessed day/night!