A young boy walks through the streets with his hood on, barely concealing the blood that dripped from his dark hair.

In the pocket of his hoodie, a stained knife can easily be discovered with an untimely tug. He continued to walk, but the scene kept replaying in his head.

* * * *

He was walking with a kid around his age, though slightly younger. The kid was the son of a businessman who'd 'wronged' his father in some way. In actuality, the kid's father refused to do business with the boys'. Now, his father gave him an order; kill the businessman's son.

The two walked for some time, with the unnamed boy, often called 'Brat', chatting with him while they walked.

It wasn't until they were right outside his home did he commit the deed. Right before the kid could step into the view of the camera at the front of his home, the unnamed boy extracted a knife from his pocket and plunged it through the kid's head, earning some irregular sounds from between his lips before he finally fell.

"Sorry," the boy says to the corpse in front of him. It was as simple as that. The kid didn't stand a chance against him. The moment the boy's father demanded that the kid die, it was only a matter of time. A bitter taste is left in his mouth as he turns to walk away, leaving the kid in a pool of his own blood. They were not friends, but they'd been having a nice conversation about games the next day, so it might've seemed that way. The next day would not come for him, though.

He'd die, and the unnamed boy will continue to murder. The boy's cold eyes could freeze the air in front of him as he leaves the body just barely in the range of the camera.

* * * *

Then, the boy stops as he hears something. He turns to the side, seeing a young girl with crimson hair with black streaks walking with her arms linked with—himself. "Madoka...?" The boy says as he sees the girl chatting with him, or someone who was identical to himself.

His gut stirred as he saw his older sister walking alongside himself, in disbelief that he can have such a happy expression. The smile on his own face was fake—fabricated. This isn't because of his jealousy or delusion, it's because he knows how his own brain functions. When asked to kill by his mother or father, he'd kill no matter what it took. Even if it didn't get done on that day, he'd get it done the next!

The boy tries to run toward Madoka with his hand out, not even noticing that all of the items and scenery around him slowly faded away. In the hand of the boy identical to himself, just out of Madoka's view, was a knife, the same knife he'd just plunged into his 'friend's' skull. "Madoka!" He screams louder, only to feel his legs go stiff.

Looking down, he sees black constructs rising from the ground around him, pinning him in place. His strength should be unmatched, even at this young age. As he used his power to pull himself away, he's stunned by the helplessness he feels. The black constructs restraining him didn't show any sign of budging. "Madoka, get away from him!" He helplessly screams out to the girl as silhouettes start to surface from the clouds. Grim, vengeful eyes gaze down upon him, a countless number of them.

The pair stopped, Madoka turning around to look in his direction. "Rimi?" Madoka tilts her head in confusion. When the boy checks again, his body has shrunk back to the size of a toddler's. He tries to speak, but he can't even form any words. "Unnh! Ahawkha!" The toddler can't even form a proper sentence, reaching her small hands out to her older sister.

Madoka unlinked her arm from the boy and turned to walk to Rimi. "Rimi, what are you doing out here?" Madoka asks, just as the boy turns around with her, a crimson glow in his eye, a predator-like gaze being cast upon Rimi's sister. 'Is that... me?' Rimi had never seen herself before, she'd never been able to witness her own expression when killing someone.

'No, this isn't me...' The abnormally wide smile on the boy's face gave it away. As he raises the knife over Madoka's head, Rimi can only watch in horror as the knife plunges deep into Madoka's head, practically caving her head in when his hand forces the handle of the knife all the way in, her eyes nearly bulging from her skull.

"Madoka... Madoka...! Madoka! Madoka! MADOKA! MADOKA! MADOKA!" As Madoka's body crumbles to the ground, Rimi finally gains the ability to speak in her high-pitched voice. She tries her best to crawl to the girl who's collapsed to her knees.

When Rimi reaches Madoka, the girl's body has already gone cold, but her chest was still moving as though she were alive. Looking up at Madoka's gruesome head, she can hear a sound slipping between her lips. "...imi..." Rimi's vision become hindered by tears as she clings on to Madoka, refusing to accept the scene before her. "Ri...mi..." With every sound, more blood pours out of Madoka's mouth, showering the toddler's head.

More sounds came out of Madoka's mouth, but Rimi could not hear them over her own screaming as she cries. The boy who'd killed her; himself, was nowhere to be seen. The faces that once spectated were now laughing, but they too were drowned out by her despair.

"...imi!" Madoka's drowned voice became loud. "...Rimi...!"

"Rimi!" The world around her quickly fades away.

---

The toddler's crying doesn't stop as Madoka and Marble stand in front of Kimiko. Their father has gone off to work, so he isn't here for her outburst.

Kimiko rocks the child in her arms, shushing into her ear to calm her down. Madoka had tried to call out and wake the girl up, but she just couldn't get her to open her eyes. That's when Kimiko came running in and saw the girl throwing a fit.

"Shh, Rimi. It's okay, it's okay." Kimiko shushes the toddler. Rimi had been screaming louder than when she was born, for no apparent reason. It took some time, but the girl eventually quieted down, tightly grasping onto her mother. Her hands held her with unnatural strength. It was so concerning that Kimiko had to change the way she held the baby so that she wouldn't hurt her own hands.

"Is she hurt, did something happen?" With Rimi finally calmed down, but too exhausted to wake up, Madoka can voice her concerns further.

Kimiko shakes her head, "Check for any injuries for me, Madoka." Kimiko didn't have time to check Rimi, not when she'd finally managed to get the poor girl to quiet down.

Madoka nods, and shortly after, her golden eyes shine brightly, her pupils shifting into a layer of thin circles, like a radar.

Madoka stands there for a few minutes before she finally deactivates her quirk, placing a hand on her head. A throbbing headache assaults the girl until Kimiko taps her on the forehead, and suddenly the pain is gone. "Thank you, did you see anything?" Kimiko asks Madoka, who'd taken quite a bit of time.

Madoka shakes her head, no. "I couldn't find anything wrong with her," she says, feeling a bit guilty over the fact that she couldn't find the source of her little sister's pain.

"Then she must be having a horrible nightmare," Kimiko had already fed Rimi, she'd burped the girl without her even seeming to notice.

Kimiko strokes the back of the infant's head, letting out a sigh of relief that there isn't anything wrong with her child. "I'll carry her for now, you should get some sleep, Madoka, you have school tomorrow." It was midnight when the child had a sudden outburst, and since she shares a room with Madoka, it was natural that Rimi's older sister is the one who arrived first to try and wake her up.

Madoka crawls back into bed, and Kimiko carries Rimi out of the room, holding the baby's head against her chest.

She heads into the living room where the television is still on. The woman plants herself on one of the sofas, keeping the girl close. She hadn't even noticed Marble following her the entire time. "Come up, Marble." She pats the open spot beside her, and the Pomeranian hopped up onto the sofa beside Kimiko.

Kimiko uses her free hand to pet the dog, and it lays its head down on her lap, quietly whimpering. "Hush, Marble. She's fine." Marble, the family's dog, grew attached to Rimi the moment they brought the girl home from the hospital. Kimiko still remembers the day she had to train the dog not to mess with Rimi while she was playing. Though, he is also a loyal dog who'll bark if Rimi is caught doing something she isn't supposed to be doing, like sneaking out of her crib in the middle of the night.

Kimiko takes a look down at Rimi and sees that she looks much more relaxed now than before. She looks peaceful, sucking on her thumb as she slept. "I've got quite the kids, don't I, Marble?" Kimiko rolls her head back onto the sofa, soughing as a means of alleviating her stress. Marble raises his head, licking her hand in response. Kimiko continues, "My oldest wants to be a Pro-Hero, and my youngest is having such bad nightmares that she's screaming bloody murder. Now, look at me, sitting here talking to a dog."

Playfully, Marble bites down on her hand and whines, as if he were offended by her words. Kimiko chuckles, removing her hand from the dog's mouth and running it over his head. "I guess it isn't much for me to complain about," Kimiko pats Marble on his bottom, signaling for him to get off the sofa so that they can leave, "I don't have to worry about one of my kids being arrested, at least. I can only imagine how other mothers feel when they watch their child get carried off by heroes in handcuffs."

Rising to her feet, Kimiko decides that she should return Rimi to her room for the night. She'll keep watching over her for a few hours to make sure she doesn't have any nightmares again.

* * * *

Once she's returned Rimi to her crib, Kimiko plants herself down beside Madoka's bed, slipping her phone out of her pocket.

Kimiko opens up an app that she uses to get in contact with other mothers in Japan. She usually posts updates about Madoka, but she sometimes talks about Rimi, hoping to find a way to keep the girl in her room. All it'd take is her closing the door all the way, but between Madoka going in and out of her bedroom and Kimiko's paranoia that she won't hear the toddler if she falls, it was impossible to do so.

Kimiko starts typing, hoping to get tips on what she should do with her children.

[Yonamine, Kimiko: I've been having trouble with my kids. My eldest daughter wants to be a hero, she's stubborn and won't listen when I try to convince her otherwise. My youngest daughter keeps sneaking out of her room (no I won't close the door), she also had a terrible nightmare recently. It didn't sound like she was crying, but like she was screaming bloody murder.]

After a few minutes of waiting, Kimiko received some responses from the other moms in the group chat.

[Konno, Mai: Your youngest sounds smart if she keeps getting out. Is it the same as before, where she uses the blanket and pillows? You might need to get a baby monitor since it might dissuade her to be caught.]
[Kurata, Rika: I agree with Konno, you should get the baby monitor with the speaker installed!]
[Oba, Aya: Yonamine, couldn't you just use your quirk and make her stop? In your line of work, it should be easy!]

Kimiko's heart aches as she hurries to reply to the comment.

[Yonamine, Kimiko: I'd never restrict my own daughter's mind, Oba. Not for my own selfish reasons...]
[Oba, Aya: It's not selfish! You'd be doing it for her safety! What if she hits her head one day!?]
[Konno, Mai: Oba, you should be more considerate of Yonamine's feelings. If she restricts her daughter's mind, it'd be the same as treating her like a villain.]
[Oba, Aya: ...Ah, when you say it like that... I'm sorry, Yonamine.]
[Yonamine, Kimiko: It's fine, I can't say that I haven't almost given in to my selfishness before.]

Kimiko feels guilt building in her chest just from remembering what she'd almost done to her daughter. After the first few times that Rimi snuck out of her crib, Kimiko almost used her quirk to constrict the thought of leaving her crib on her own, but quickly ceased this thinking.

If she did that to Rimi, she'd never be able to forgive herself, even if it was for her daughter's own good. Sure, she used her ability to cease Madoka's headache after she used her ability, but that's something that she worked on with her at an early age. Kimiko helped Madoka train to use her quirk so that she doesn't overload her brain accidentally.

One of the other reasons that Kimiko didn't use her quirk on Rimi is because as far as she's concerned, her mind is underdeveloped. If she does anything to the baby's mind, it could cause more harm than good to her once she grows up.

[Yokota, Hiroko: You should be supportive, Yonamine. Your oldest has a dream, she's aiming higher than most kids her age. She wants to climb, and you should be there to catch her if she falls down.]

Kimiko looks at the newcomer in their group chat. Hiroko Yokota had a son just a bit before Kimiko gave birth to Rimi.

[Yokota, Hiroko: As for your youngest... I don't think there's much you can do but keep applying safety measures. She's a child, and children will do what they do. It can't be helped, just keep doing what you've been doing, maybe try talking and reading with her more.]
[Yonamine, Kimiko: Thank you all for your thoughts. I'm going to sleep for as long as I can since I'll need to work tomorrow. Koji will be free tomorrow, so I'll have him watch Rimi for me.]

All of them wish her well as she turns her phone off, sliding it back into her pocket. Kimiko looks across the room at Rimi's play area, then at the toddler who slept peacefully in the crib.

'What could you have been dreaming about, Rimi? Won't you tell your mother...?' A frown forms on Kimiko's face when she looks down at her hands. All it'd take is one use of her ability, and she'd be able to read Rimi's thoughts and see what she's dreaming about. But she'd never do such a thing to her own children. A breach of privacy, even at their age, is just as unpardonable as altering their minds.

Under enough stress, Kimiko rests her mind for the night. Her eyes start to flutter shut on their own, and her body relaxes. The woman closes her eyes, feeling an unnatural drowsiness overtake her.

With the sudden wave of tiredness, Kimiko drifts to sleep.

---

Something stirs Rimi awake, and it wasn't just the cruelty of the nightmare that'd haunted her earlier that night. She felt like something was looking at her, no, something was clawing at her with its eyes.

Opening her eyes, the toddler looks around the room, trying to see anything that she could.

Past the bars of the crib, she notices that the door to her room is wide open. A man stands at the door, one who does not look like her father. It's too dark for her to see the person right now.

She does notice something much closer, however, standing directly over the bottom of her crib. The toddler opens her mouth, but whoever is standing over her uses their fingers to cover her mouth. "Shh," the person shushes her, unable to hide their chortles.

It's too dark, even when they're so close to her, she cannot see their appearances past the shroud of darkness covering their heads.

Somehow, she can see far enough to Madoka's bed just fine, meaning that something else is obscuring her view of the intruder's appearance.

For some reason, her mother was asleep on top of Madoka's bed. 'Mother never lays on Madoka's bed, no matter how tired she is.' This solidifies Rimi's concerns—someone's broken into their house!

Thankfully, her family doesn't seem harmed, but the fact that these people managed to sneak into her home while her father was away is troubling. "Quit messing with the baby and put it back to sleep, Etsuko." This statement is alarming to Rimi. She'd figured that her mother's deep slumber had something to do with a quirk, but for the person who has that quirk to be standing over her right now is a stroke of misfortune!

The woman standing over her apparently pouts, turning to look at the man at the door who scolded her. "Don't be that way, Haru, we have all the time in the world to collect the blood samples we need." Rimi hears her ears starting to ring, fully understanding the situation now.

This isn't a random robbery, rather, this is an organized crime. Someone took notice of her family, and they decided that they were going to collect their blood for some reason. Perhaps not Rimi's, since her quirk hasn't even awakened, but they were definitely going to take Madoka and Kimiko's.

Rimi starts to thrash around, her cries muffled by the woman's fingers. Her infant body wasn't enough to pry the hands away, though. "Look at her adorable she is!" The woman turns back to her but seems to have spoken a bit too loudly. Madoka twists and turns for a bit before her eyes pop open, realizing that the voices were not in a dream, but rather in reality.

She lifts herself up, seeing the intruders in her bedroom. Her mother was lying on the bed unconscious, and one of the intruders whose face she could not see was standing over her little sister's crib, reaching inside it. "Get your hands away from her!" Madoka, the quick thinker that she is, jumps from beneath her blankets and charges at the woman.

"Woah!" The woman is surprised by how quickly Madoka responds, and so is Rimi. Madoka analyzed the situation much faster than any normal child should've. Even Rimi is left impressed by her skill. However, Madoka's quick reflexes are not enough to take on a grown adult.

The woman standing over her raises a hand to her mouth. Rimi could've sworn that she'd heard the woman spit on her fingers. If it weren't for how focused she was on the woman's movements, Rimi would've missed the blurred needle that shot out and struck Madoka in the side of her neck.

Almost immediately, the girl's movements become sluggish, and just as quickly as she'd gotten to her feet, she fell to the ground.

'Madoka!' Rimi's cries remain muffled by the woman standing over her, who hasn't bothered to knock her unconscious for some reason. She may just be a sadist who enjoys watching babies cry. Actually, there isn't a doubt in Madoka's mind that this woman is taking enjoyment in the child's suffering.

Rimi wants to do something, anything, but as a baby, she can't even muster the strength to move a few of the woman's fingers from over her mouth. "Enough, just get the samples so we can leave. It won't matter how loudly the kid cries now," the man spoke, and Rimi knew he was right. With both Madoka and Kimiko put into a deep sleep, they wouldn't wake up even if she cries at her highest pitch.

The woman removes her fingers from Rimi's mouth, letting the child cry and squirm as much as she wants. "You're no fun," the woman complains to the man at the door, reaching into her pocket to extract a syringe. "Come here, sleepy head," the woman speaks down to Madoka, taking her by the arm.

'Stop!' Rimi tries to scream at the woman, but still can't muster a proper word with her teeth just barely growing in.

The woman slips the syringe into Madoka's arm, the child flinching in her unconscious state. Soon, the vial is filled with Madoka's blood, and Rimi begins gathering her blanket and pillow to try and get out of her crib. She has to act, earlier today, she declared that she wouldn't let anything happen to her family, and she couldn't even back those words up!

She'd selfishly declared her motives, and here she is now, powerless in the face of her first challenge! Her pillow and blanket hit the ground just as the woman is making her way over to Rimi's mother, with Madoka held in her free arm.

The woman places Madoka down beneath Kimiko as Rimi quickly climbs over the railing of her crib. She's become so used to it that even with her small body, it's practically an act of muscle memory that can easily be performed.

The woman passes the first vial off to the man who was once at the door, now walking across the room to collect Madoka's blood sample. At the same time, Rimi can see something underneath Madoka's bed, a distinct shadow; Marble!

Seeing Rimi, Marble looks like he's going to bark or growl, but Rimi stops him by raising her small hand in front of herself, stopping the dog before he can act.

Slowly, she points at the man who was carrying the vial of Madoka's blood, but Marble only tilts his head in confusion. Rimi has thought of an idea, and she needs Marble to work with her. Since she can't communicate with Marble, she'll need to do something else to get the dog out of hiding. He didn't seem to act against the intruders since they hadn't physically assaulted Kimiko or Madoka but instead sedated both with a hardly visible needle.

Rimi, with her small body, will have to endure some pain for her plan to work.

She uses her notoriously quiet steps to run across the room as fast as she can while neither the man nor the woman is paying attention to her.

Rimi doesn't even process how much pain she'll endure by the end of this, since it's never been something that mattered to her. In her past life, she could endure the pain of having her head bashed into a steel wall. In this life, she'll grow herself to become used to that pain too, it's what Kimiko and Madoka would want, in her mind.

Rimi, using what little strength she has, raises the cuffs of the man's pants to reveal his ankle. He looks down, caught off guard by the sudden feeling, but his confusion turned into a sharp pain as Rimi's barely developed teeth bite down on his Achilles tendon. The man's foot swings back, hitting the girl in her stomach and knocking her away.

Thankfully, Rimi loosened her teeth before the kick so that she didn't suffer from any irreversible damage to her jaw structure.

Just like she'd expected, a low growl comes from beneath the bed, alarming both the woman and the man, who hadn't expected there to be anything else in this room. Before either of them can do anything, Marble springs from under the bed and latches his sharp canines onto the man's ankle, biting down with full force.

"Agh! Fucker!" Rimi watches as the man stumbles and eventually falls down onto his back with a powerful thud, and the woman attempts to shoot her needles in the direction of Marble, who's surprisingly nimble for a little Pomeranian. While Marble is sprinting around the room trying not to get hit by the woman's sedative, Rimi quickly makes her way to the man who fell on his back.

He'd managed to hurt himself more than Marble could ever hope to by becoming startled—Rimi was lucky.

On the ground, one of the needles that the woman was shooting was visible to Rimi. They were made out of her saliva, and they probably invaded the victim's bloodstream as soon as they make contact with blood. They were thin and sharp enough to easily pierce into a person completely but likely could never cause any lethal damage. From its size, it'd be like a prick, one that the victim wouldn't even feel.

Testing her luck, Rimi uses her small fingers to pull the needle from the ground, surprised that it hasn't even broken apart from hitting the floor.

The man slowly pulls himself up off of the ground, rubbing his ankle and the back of his head. "Damn dog, handle it, Etsuko!" The man, Haru, shouts at the woman named Etsuko, who is currently trying to shoot her needles at Marble. The dog is so small that it can freely rush behind any toys or underneath the bed to avoid being hit. This woman's quirk is problematic, but it doesn't have much combat usage.

The man feels a prick on his bleeding ankle, and his eyes grow wide when he sees Rimi, poking one of Etsuko's needles directly into the wound created by the girl and the dog. The drowsiness sets in quickly, the man can barely even open his mouth to say anything. "I'm working on it!" Etsuko is in the middle of retorting his last comment, so she doesn't even hear him when his back hits the floor again.

'I won't let you hurt them, ever...' Rimi slowly climbs onto the man's torso, turning to watch as the darkness surrounding the woman's face fades away. She must not be aware of it, since she is still focusing on Marble.

The infant crawls up his chest until she reaches his head, not even feeling an ounce of nervousness or hesitation. Her small fingers spread open the eyelids of his left eye, and she can see a sparkle in them. He's still conscious, but barely. Maybe the needle barely had any use left. It didn't bother Rimi, though, she had more than enough time to finish up here.

'They targetted us, and there is no guarantee that father will be home soon. That girl's quirk probably doesn't work on its own user, but you...' Rimi's golden eyes seem to shine in the darkness. She can see the fear in the man's eyes, even if he cannot properly express it. 'You are a different story. I'll make sure at least one of you can never hunt us again,' Rimi isn't even sure why they were being hunted in the first place. Maybe because of Madoka's quirk? But they had no way of knowing about that unless someone informed them—Dr. Tsubasa?

Rimi shakes her head, figuring that thinking about that won't get her out of this situation. This man, someone who'd broken into her home and knocked her sister and mother unconscious—no, it wasn't him, but the woman behind him—he was just as guilty as the person who'd executed the actions.

'If I don't consider this a personal action, I don't think my sister would approve of it...' Rimi doesn't even know why she's monologuing, since the man can't hear her thoughts. 'Anyway...'

With the man's consciousness remaining, he watches as Rimi holds his eyelid open and opens her mouth wide, revealing the barely developed teeth in her mouth. 'I hope you forgive me.' The man tries to move his body and shout, but he's in a state comparable to sleep paralysis.

Rimi draws closer to his eye with her mouth open, and the man can only think of his pleas: 'PLEASE! DON'T DO THIS! PLEASE! PLEEASSEE!'

And soon—Crunch.