First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
Himiko needs someone who cares. About her, about her quirk, about her emotions, she just needed someone who saw HER and not the blood she needed to be herself. Sasakia is good at finding caring people. A little kindness can go a long way.
Chapter 16: Lost Stray Kitten
Himiko carefully rolled the modeling clay she’d bought into shape. She wanted to finish the next set of charms before she went to bed. She checked the side, ensuring the image she’d made still looked the way she wanted it to.
Unohana-baachan had helped her learn the art, when she’d expressed an interest in making her own clay charms, and she didn’t want to disappoint her new guardian or her hero. She wanted to show how much she treasured their kindness. She wanted something she could hold and share to show what it meant to her.
Unohana-baachan was the best thing to ever happen to her. The woman had been willing to give her a chance, to help her understand her quirk and her heart. She had been willing to allow a sickly teenage girl into her life and find a way to save her from the world that had done her wrong.
Catching the glowing butterfly had been the best thing she’d ever done.
She remembered the glow of the little butterfly on her bloody fingers, after she’d fought back against a man who’d tried to hurt her in an alley. She remembered the kind voice that spoke into her mind while she held it.
Sasakia’s voice had been gentle as he talked to her. Kind and caring, despite not being present to fuss over her in person. He’d asked her if she was hurt, if there was a safe place for her to go, if there was some way he could help.
She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had asked if there was something they could do to help her. Usually, they just called her a monster the moment they learned she’d killed someone. Called her evil and heartless. But he didn’t. He looked at her, from behind her eyes, and saw her.
He said she was trying to protect herself. The man she’d killed was trying to hurt her, to do something terrible to her because she was a young lady out at night, all alone. She had the right to defend herself, even if she may have gone too far. Her quirk required blood, survival tended to override the mind if you were starving. Losing control, while terrible, would happen if you were barely surviving. (That was what her parents had been doing to her. Starving her. Neglecting her. Leaving her to suffer because they never tried to understand her quirk and how it worked. They never tried to understand her.)
She asked him if he thought she was cute. She hadn’t been sure why she did, at the time. Maybe it was his kind voice, the gentle way she spoke to her, the way he tried to understand what was happening instead of just calling her a monster or a demon for not being normal.
She looked at her reflection in a window and waited for an answer.
He’d said she was. She was as cute as a lost, stray kitten. One that needed people who cared for her the way she needed to be cared for.
It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her. (Not even her parents had ever said something so nice.)
He’d led her to Unohana-baachan. Who’d taken one look at her and gave her a warm meal and clean clothes. Who took the ache in her teeth seriously and wasn’t afraid of her quirk. (Who called her a sweet little kitten and didn’t shy away from her.) Unohana-baachan took her in and gave her a home she felt safe in. Helped her care for her quirk and figure out ways to safely feed it. Ensured her parents couldn’t take her away, who proved they’d neglected her and left her to starve because they were afraid of her quirk.
She would never go back to them. She wasn’t going to jail, even if she was under probation and attending mandatory therapy. She didn’t really understand how Unohana-baachan had managed it, and she wasn’t too sure it mattered. She was pretty sure it had something to do with the Underground Hero who came by and the forum she kept checking on her tablet that needed a bunch of passwords to get into, but Himiko couldn’t think of how it had worked. But it had, and that was the most important thing.
Her turn in fortune had to be the gods smiling down on her. Giving her the chance she’d been deprived of for so long. It had to be. They had given her a miracle.
She drank the pork blood given to her to help calm her quirk. She talked openly about her feelings when she was sad or upset. She talked to her therapist when she was scared or angry. She was healthier and happier than she’d ever been before.
Sasakia-sama and Unohana-baachan saved her. They were both her heroes.
The little yellow butterfly, surrounded by soft purples, hadn’t lost its shape during her gentle rolling of the clay. It was still bright and clean, the round wings in perfect shape inside the clay. Himiko picked up the small knife, slicing the individual charms apart and adding the eye hooks to them. She carefully laid them out on the cookie sheet to be baked before she added the protective layers to ensure they stayed bright and clean for a long time.
She could tell Unohana-baachan how much she meant to her any time. How much she cared. How thankful she was. She could wrap the woman in a hug any time she asked. She could help with chores to make things easier for her. She could say and show Unohana-baachan how much it meant to her.
But there weren’t as many things she could do to show Sasakia-sama how thankful she was. So she had to come up with other ways to do it. Like making charms based on his butterflies. They would be a wonderful surprise the next time he checked in on her. (He’d said he wanted to be sure she was okay, so he planned to check in to see himself instead of just trusting the word of others.)
She was planning to keep one for herself and to give one to Unohana-baachan. She had a special connector to hang the charm on her phone, ready and waiting for one of her cute little butterflies. She wasn’t really sure what she would do with the rest of them after they were done. Maybe she could give them out? Or maybe she would give the small batch to Sasakia to have? He wouldn’t sell them, not when he was all secretive and underground. But he might have something he could use them for. Like giving them to scared kids he was helping.
She hoped he liked them. After all, it was normal to hope that someone loved something you made for them. Especially if you loved them.
She wasn’t sure what kind of love it was, but she was sure she loved him. It didn’t matter if she’d never met him in person, she loved Sasakia-sama. He was her hero, someone who looked at her and saw her. Someone who thought she was worth saving. (She wanted to be like that. Like him. Saving people who needed someone to save them. She wanted to be like Unohana-baachan too.)
If he ever needed her help, she would do it in a heartbeat. No matter what it was.
(He’d changed her world. She would help him change it for others, too.)
