"Yuu..." Rimi whines with her head resting on her desk. Her classmates around her were walking around, talking with each other. Yuudai sat in a seat in front of her, looking back and trying to hold in his laughter. "Quit giggling! This is serious! Do I look like big sister material?! I can't even make friends!" Rimi is too worried to be embarrassed as many curious eyes look in her direction.

Since she'd learned about her mother's pregnancy, Rimi had been sweating shells. The pregnancy was not fortuitous happening; Kimiko and Koji had been subtly trying to have another child for years. Rimi's depression lasted long enough to clear their minds, but the desire was not immutable. Rimi and Madoka's efforts were very tenuous, and they'd have been in vain if the attack at the daycare had never happened. This upset Rimi since the delay was caused only after the loss of many innocent lives.

"No one is ever 'older sibling material' until they meet that sibling." Yuudai holds his breath after his words as if his laughter threatened to tear a hole through his friend if it came out. His consideration would be appreciated if Rimi were in any state to appreciate it. Stalling his laughter allowed him to live a longer life, that is one thing he can say with confidence.

"Then again, what can I really say about this? I don't have a sister or a brother, but I do have a Rimi, and let me tell you, they're not easy to take care of." The boy knew the danger of making this joke, and he also knew that he was at the center of a timebomb. She glares at him with hazardous barbarity, her eyes daring to rid his body of its skin.

"Sorry, sorry!" Raising his hands defensively, the boy quickly surrenders under the pressure of his friend's gaze. They'd known each other for years, but he still couldn't shake off the persistent fear that clutched him every time their eyes met. "You're a smart girl, Rim. I'm sure you can figure something out." Calling the girl by her nickname which he rarely ever used has the desired results. Rimi calms downs, no longer shedding bloodlust in his direction. Turning away, he releases a sigh of relief.

The two spend a bit more time talking about the subject. Rimi can't shake her concerns, but she has no choice since, by the time their teacher enters the classroom, they're back to doing their schoolwork.

* * * *

Yet, Rimi and Yuudai found themselves seated in the center of a school bus. The two stare at each other, shaking their heads.

As it turns out, they were going on a field trip today; one that their parents hid from them. "We've been played, Yuu." Kimiko didn't feel like dealing with Rimi's nervousness today, so she signed the permission slip for her daughter to go on the trip. Yuudai hadn't actually been played at all. He knew about the trip but didn't dare say such a thing to Rimi, who would direct her frustration at him should she discover that he hid this important information from her.

It was supposed to be a surprise, but he very clearly heard his mother on the phone, which she still wasn't aware of.

"How come you two are always together?" A child's voice comes from the row behind the two. Looking over their shoulder, the two looks up to see a child with empty eye sockets facing them. 'Didn't I see this kid the other day? He was a lot bigger at that time, though. Maybe this is that guy's younger brother then...'

"Because I'm his babysitter," Rimi says.
"Because I'm her babysitter," Yuudai says.

The two had very similar ways of thinking. Rimi figured that she just rubbed off on the boy, but he was this way when they'd first met. They both grew to adapted similar personalities the more time they spent together. 'This may be why mom wanted me to make new friends,' she thought.

The eyeless child tilts his head curiously. "You're Ose, right? Seiichi Ose?" Yuudai could easily remember the names of the kids in their class. Rimi, on the other hand, could not. "Yeah!" Ose grins, his curiosity intensifying.

"What's up with your eyes?" Now Rimi was now curious as well, having seen two people with empty eye sockets. His mother or father probably lacked eyes as well, unless this was a random development. The girl was clueless about whether or not her question would offend the boy, but she also didn't care. At her young age, it was alright for her to be a little insensitive.

Ose didn't look offended at all. "It's a part of my quirk! If I put something in my eye socket, I can see through its eyes!" The boy explains, and both Rimi and Yuudai carry a muddled expression. "Sounds interesting enough." Rimi turns around, leaving Yuudai to talk with the boy.

"Sorry about her, she's not good at talking to people. So, what do you need?" Yuudai figured that the child couldn't have just wanted a random conversation. "I was just wondering why you were always together!" Unfortunately, despite his expectations, he was wrong. Yuudai stutters, "Y-You're a pretty nosy guy, you know that?"

Meanwhile, Rimi has become distracted by one of the kids sitting across from her. She'd noticed it a while ago, now she could no longer endure their stares. The girl fiercely turns to the left, looking at the row of seats across the aisle from her. "Yes?" The girl's voice sounded calm but held malice.

A short, orange-haired child flinches when he hears the subtle harshness in Rimi's tone. He was Arata Takeuchi, a young boy whose quirk was effectively useless. His winter clothing gave away the change that his quirk had on his body. The poor child's quirk made him cold at all times. Rimi knew that there were countless quirks that were useless or harmful to their user, but she didn't think she'd witness one of them in real-time. The child's messy hair was barely contained inside his snow cap.

His pale skin made the girl wonder how someone can live so miserably, and when her stomach twists in disgust at her own actions, Rimi softens her tone. "Do you need something, Takeuchi?" Her voice was much softer than before. Even Yuudai looked in disbelief, amazed that his long-time friend could make such a voice of her own volition.

Arata seems to calm down when he hears the newfound tenderness in Rimi's voice. "I-I-I was w-wondering if y-y-you'd like to..." The boy turns to the side for a moment, looking at the girl, his sister Chiyoko, giggling in her seat. He nervously turns back before continuing. "W-Would you like to w-w-watch t-t-the lions w-w-w-w-w-with me?" The boy's stuttering was due to both his perpetual coldness and his nervousness, but Rimi only guessed the former.

"Lions? Sure, that sounds like it could be fun. Yuudai and your sister can join too." Almost immediately, Chiyoko ceased her furtive giggling. Her face developed a blush when she looked past her classmate and saw Yuudai looking in their direction, with their eyeless classmate still leaning on the back of the seat.

Smoke started to rise from the seat beneath Chiyoko, alarming her brother who etched away from the flustered girl. He was all too familiar with this situation. Chiyoko's quirk was the opposite of her brother's. Rather than being cold, her body's temperature would increase to dangerous temperatures based on her emotions. Anger was obviously the most receptive, but embarrassment was second to that.

"Ms. Takeuchi, calm down now!" From the front of the bus, their teacher shouted at the girl, quickly snatching her out of her cloth of mortification. She'd become so hot that she nearly scorched the rubber seats beneath her. "Sorry, Mrs. Kawabata!" The girl quickly apologizes, turning away from the children, albeit, but not before taking a quick glance at Yuudai.

"What about me? Can I come?" Seiichi, the curious child that he is, hoped to join the group on their journey through the zoo.

A thought clicks in Rimi's mind. She'd been so absorbed by the conversation, she hadn't even noticed the mention of their destination. "Wait, we're going where?!" As if her excitement nozzle had been twisted to the max, Rimi's elation immediately became known throughout the bus. The air began to tremble as a bright grin appeared on her face.

"Oh shit," Yuudai whispers, quickly standing up, his feet pressing into his seat. He wastes no time in leaping over the chair into the row behind them, landing on the unfortunate person who'd been seated with Seiichi.

Rimi's loud squeal reverberates across the bus, rattling the windows and shaking the entirety of the vehicle. Her ability isn't based on emotions, but she still used it at times depending on how she felt. Using her ability whenever she lost her composure was a reminder of how far she had to go before she could properly use this powerful ability. In theory, she could potentially control everything in the world, but that is a tall fantasy, something she can't even picture in her mind in her current state. It may be for the best if she doesn't.

"Ms. Yonamine! Calm down now!" Repeating the same command that she'd given Chiyoko moments prior, Mrs. Kawabata managed to snap Rimi out of her stupor just as efficiently. "Sorry, Mrs. Kawabata!" Much to her chagrin, the child rubs the back of her head.

Seiichi looks at Yuudai, his usual curiosity spiked to what he might've assumed was its peak. "I might've died if I didn't move. Don't worry about it." As if he read the boy's mind, Yuudai answered, getting comfortable on top of the poor kid that he'd squashed. "I'll be here for the rest of the ride, by the way." The poor boy beneath him couldn't bother protesting, he knew he couldn't do anything once Yuudai set his mind on something.

Rimi turns back to Arata, giving him a soft smile to hide her mortification. "Anyway, we can all see the lions together." Arata looks like he wants to say something, but he yelps, looking down at his leg. Rimi can't see it, but she was pretty sure that his sister had just pinched him. "Y-Y-Yeah! We'll have f-fun!" With these final words, Arata quickly turned to hide away in his "personal bubble" that consisted of pressing his head against his sister's shoulder.

'What an adorable kid,' Rimi thought. Arata was one of the more innocent students in their class who didn't get into any trouble unless someone tricked him. His grades were better than most, but still behind Rimi and Yuudai's. That was not something to be ashamed of, however, seeing as these two were both exceptions—in their own rights—compared to normal children.

The rest of the bus ride to the park was fairly uneventful. With a row to herself, Rimi could look out the window. Oddly enough, she saw a limo passing by rather slowly. Despite the lane beside them being empty, and the bus moving slowly, the limo moved suspiciously slowly. The other children didn't seem to notice how strange it was since they were too busy fawning over the design of the car. Yuudai might've been able to catch on to the same suspicion as Rimi if he weren't so busy using the children in the row behind her as personal pillows.

* * * *

Their arrival was as chaotic as one would expect from a group of grade schoolers. Their excited voices all clustered and converged to create a symphony of pure chaos. Mrs. Kawabata had a quirk that let her place sigils onto things upon contact. Using these sigils, she can remain aware of their locations. "Okay, everyone! You will all be going in groups of five! I will give the leaders of these groups a mark, so make sure to stay close to them!"

Mrs. Kawabata obviously chose the oldest of the children to lead the groups. Yuudai was the oldest child in Rimi's group, so he was given the sigil that allowed their teacher to keep track of them. She planned on negotiating with Rimi so that the girl could watch over another group of children, but by the time she looked back, her group was already gone.

Her group consisted of herself, Yuudai Yokota, Arata & Chiyoko Takeuchi, and Seiichi Ose. They immediately made a beeline for the lion exhibit, curious about the ferocious creatures of the wild!

Upon reaching the exhibit, the children tuned in for one of the employees introducing the lions. Supposedly, they were very friendly after being tamed and trained. Rimi found it hard to believe. There's no way such dangerous creatures would be tamed so easily. There must've been some kind of catch, but she didn't ask. Instead, she listened to the woman at the front of the gathering audience explain interesting facts about the creatures.

One thing, in particular, caught her attention, something that Rimi felt was personally directed at her.

"Lions, bears, and essentially all creatures in the animal kingdom have an instinct that allows them to kill. Many must hunt to survive, thus, they feel no remorse for their killings. When it comes to survival, their instincts far surpass humans. Guilt, sympathy, and other emotions that bar us humans usually don't apply to them. They do whatever is necessary for survival—that is only one of the things that makes them so interesting!"

"You're a bit of a lioness yourself, aren't you?" Rimi tenses up when she hears Yuudai's voice jokingly taunt her. Her eyes go in his direction, but she does not finish looking his way. She knew that he didn't know about her previous sins, but she couldn't shake the feeling that he might've thought that something was wrong. What could she do if Yuudai ever discovered how many innocent lives she'd taken? His comment wasn't even in relation to the process of killing that animals undergo. It was related to the ferocity of the creatures. Yuudai thought that Rimi was ferocious, much like a lion.

"Rim, you alright?" Rimi hadn't even realized she was daydreaming until Yuudai spoke to her a second time, pulling her out of her fantasy. "A-Ah! Yeah, I was just so amazed!" She lied, stepping over to her group who were approaching the entrance to the lion's exhibit. The woman who worked there was careful to stop the children from petting the wrong place on the lion. She didn't want to risk them agitating it, not that it'd be something easily done by an infant.

"Hey there, kids!" Once it was their turn, the employee, who wore a red hat, spoke to them cheerfully. "Stay close, and try not to touch this big boy's mane!" The employee let the children take turns petting the lion, but only briefly. Even if the lion were calm and domesticated, it was doubtful that the king of the jungle would take kindly to its fur being stroked by the children.

Together, the children walk around the crowd to the protective rails that allowed them to safely look into the lion's habitat. There were a few lions inside the habitat, notably a few cubs. One happens to stand out to Rimi. "Doesn't that one look strange?" Rimi points at one of the cubs on the furthest side of the habitat. It was half buried within a bush, however, its attempt at stealth did little to conceal its charcoal fur.

Yuudai squints in the direction that Rimi points at, lifting his hand over his forehead to block the sun from his vision. "You know, I don't think I saw that befo-" Yuudai is rudely cut off by a pompous voice approaching from behind. "Ah! What a lovely day we're having, isn't it!" The girl wasn't asking, it sounded more like she was making a statement.

The girl that they saw was around their age, but that was where their similarities ended. Her hair was pure white, like a blank sheet. She was dressed in an outfit that you could tell was expensive at a meager glance. Her eyes were the color of cleanly shaved emeralds, and it didn't take long for Rimi to realize that this rich girl had her sights on her. 'Today just keeps getting more interesting.'

"Yeah! Today is a lovely day!" Chiyoko sarcastically shouts back at the girl approaching them. She didn't take kindly to her cutting into Yuudai's precious talking time! The white-haired girl continues beaming brightly, "Of course it is, peasant! You stand before I,Izumi Kiyabu! I am but a bright, brilliant sun in the face of you commoners!"

Rimi's ear twitches, and as her head tilts to the side, she feels it connect with Yuudai's own. They'd both tilted their heads in response to her comment. 'She's got an odd way of speaking, doesn't she?' As if they could communicate telepathically, they both thought the same thing.

"I heard something like that on TV before," Rimi says. "Yeah, in the ancient times." Yuudai agrees. They figured that she must've been used to watching some odd shows on television. "Y-Y-You know, Board of Chairs isn't a g-g-g-good show for kids to watch. It's an a-adult sho-ho-ho-how."

Chiyoko rolls her eyes at her group's naivety. "She's a child of the Kiyabu Corporation, dummies. Her family runs a company that assists people in advancing their quirks. For instance, let's say my idiot brother here," she points at Arata, "decides that he wants to control his quirk better. They'd take him to one of their facilities and he'd come out ten times better! Or, that's what the news says anyways."

Rimi and Yuudai stare at Chiyoko with startled expressions. "I thought you were a vegetable," Yuudai says. "I didn't know you could speak like that, little lighter." Continuing off where Yuudai left off, Rimi also expresses her shock. Chiyoko's face lights up into a blush and she quickly turns away. She hadn't even heard Rimi's words but was instead flustered by Yuudai's attention.

Rimi assumed that the girl was upset by her words, but didn't feel the need to apologize to her over something so small, so she focused her attention back on the white-haired girl in front of them.

When Izumi came back into her sight, Rimi couldn't find the source behind her inflamed face. The child looked like she'd ravage the world in the next second, a form of anger that Rimi had only seen a few times in her life. One occurrence was from her father, who was enraged by the sudden appearance of traffic while driving. Another instance was when she saw a school teacher absolutely hammering his students with insults. She didn't know what they'd done, but she had to assume that they'd murdered somebody to get that sort of reaction from a respectable member of the school system.

"What are you mad about?" Disregarding any subtleties, Rimi aims to go directly to the source. Stepping in front of the girl, she's a bit startled to find that the girl is nearly as tall as her, though, she's still taller. "You look like you want to tear the hair out of my head or something." Izumi's expression might not have been directed at Rimi, but, she took it this way nonetheless.

"H-H-H-HUH!?" The girl bursts out, stammering. "I-I'd never do that! N-N-Not to you!" Izumi and Chiyoko could easily be mistaken for siblings as they both now share identical blushes. The white-haired girl lifts her hands to her face, holding her cheeks. Hiding her cheeks has done nothing to cover up her clear timidness. Thankfully, Rimi's socially inept self could not fully make out the girl's feelings.

"You're not going to try and cut me open or something, right?" Instinctively, the girl jeers away from Izumi. For all she knew, she could be a sadist, like her friend Toga.

"I said I wouldn't!" Washing her flustered face away, this time Izumi answers with more resolution in her voice. "Jeez!" Her cheeks puff out, and she crosses her arms across her chest.

'I have the oddest feeling of—what's it called again—deja vu...?' Izumi's behavior feels reminiscent of something, but she can't quite put her finger on it.

The atmosphere around them changes when Rimi looks over her shoulder once she felt someone standing behind her. "Huh?" An inch away from her face is a pair of horrifying eyeless sockets. "Do you need something, Ose?" Rimi manages to keep herself composed, but her heart was thumping in fear. If she hadn't grown so used to seeing other kids with weird mutations, she might've accidentally punched the child.

"I want to see what's inside of the den! Give me a rock!" The boy speaks a bit too loudly for Rimi's taste. She sidesteps away from him before turning in the direction of the lion's den. While she wanted to question him a bit further, Rimi reasoned it to be pointless to interrogate the boy any further. She'd already deduced that he was a very strange fellow the moment she'd met him.

She places her focus on the den, her eyes scanning about to capture any loose rocks in her vision. She didn't need a boulder or something massive, but instead, something like a pebble. When she finds a small stone, she quickly attracts it to herself, catching it in her hand before anyone could notice. "Here." She hurriedly turns around, handing the boy the stone.

As Ose grins and lifts the stone to his eye, Rimi finds herself helpless to her curiosity, staying to watch the whole time as the child pushes the stone into his eye socket. The sturdy stone begins to unnaturally change in shape. Its sharp edges become dull, then spherical, much like an eye. 'The stone is... becoming his eye?' Rimi thought, watching the confusing process.

By the end of it, Ose was blinking casually, as if the rough surface of the stone didn't bother his eyelid at all. "Do you not feel that?" Rimi asks the boy, and he just shakes his head, continuing to grin proudly.

"So, can you see anything?" Given that the stone strangely changed its shape to take the place of his eye, now seeming like a marble, Rimi is curious to know what the boy could see.

"Uhh..." He takes a while, thinking of a way to explain his own view. "It's like a video game map! No, wait, that isn't right... Uh..." Ose puts a hand on his chin, stroking it with his fingers. After a few seconds, he points in the direction of the den. "I can see anything! Like, when you spin around really fast, but all the time!"

Rimi begins to wonder if she's just stupid because she finds it difficult to imagine what he's seeing. "Oh!" She snaps her finger. "Like those store security cameras!? The ones that they stick on the ceiling!?" She remembers vividly how annoying those cameras used to be, especially when you're trying your hardest to avoid them.

"Yeah! I think!" Obviously, Ose had never paid much attention to his surroundings. His voice was brimming with confidence even though he'd just admitted to being completely clueless.

"So, what do you see in the den?" When she looks in the direction of the den, Rimi finds that the dark-furred lion is nowhere to be found.

Ose is speechless for a while. It isn't that he's thinking of what to say, nor is it that he didn't hear Rimi. When the girl sees the boy cringe and sweat, she understands that something isn't right. "Ose? What do you see?" She waves her hand in front of him, yet, the child just stands there, frozen in place.

This draws the attention of the other kids. Izumi, who held no affection for the boy, didn't seem to care whatsoever. Her eyes were looking past the group of kids, into the lion's den.

"Ose!" After some time without a response, Rimi realizes that the boy is trembling and screams his name. She barely has time to react when the stone in his eye rockets out, crashing into her forehead. "Agh!" Rimi tumbles to the ground, holding onto her forehead.

"A-Ah...Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Ose screams, pointing in the direction of the lion's den. Before they could turn around, the scream of who Rimi immediately assumes is Izumi erupts behind them as well. "What is-!" When Rimi turns around, a wave of fear rushes through her body, locking her in place.

The sight in front of her was grotesque; horrifying. Ose, who lacked eyes, would be more settling to stare at. The air was assaulted by the nauseating smell of feces and blood, and she could already hear people in the distance vomiting. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen, even in her past life as a killer. A giant bipedal mass of many colors arose from the den, reaching past the fences that used to contain the now-cowering kings of the jungle.

The mass had arms, many of them. Its body was almost the shape of a coiled cone. The intestines of countless creatures poured from all sides of itself, and as it finally seems to halt its outlandish growth, legs sprout from beneath itself.

At the top of the monster, where one would expect a face to be, the mesh of animal carcasses that shaped its body spread open to reveal a shockingly long tongue. It had many abnormalities about it, apparently being the combination of many different creatures' tongues and mouths put together.

Out of her entire group, Rimi and Yuudai are the only ones who seem to be surprised, for two completely different reasons. "Yuu!" She screams at him, seeing the tongue of the creature starting to coil up to create a spring. Something was heading their way if Rimi and Yuudai were the only ones who could do something about it. They were both children, but they also had a close encounter with danger at a young age. This danger was more alarming than the self-bloating man from long ago. This fact is also what made Rimi more worried than ever before.

Presently, this monstrosity that should have never been known to man is more dangerous than the villain who murdered Ringtune, the former rising star from several years ago. Thoughts of doubt flooded the child's mind. During that time, Yuudai was nearly killed and if not for her awakening, she'd have likely been killed too. Somehow, things only became more complicated after that also!

Suddenly, the tongue springs forward, and Rimi doesn't need to take a second glance to realize that it's striking out at Izumi, who is the closest to the den.

Rushing in to rescue her, Rimi's feet barely even touch the ground a second time, covering the distance between the two of them in one swoop. She wraps her arms around Izumi, pulling the white-haired child into a tight embrace, one tight enough to ensure that she won't fall out of her grip with her next maneuver. "Hang on!" Before Izumi knows what's going on, she feels the wind violently pushing against her, causing her to groan as unfamiliar stress is applied to her body.

Opening her eyes, Izumi finds the red-streaked hair of Rimi flapping with the wind. A cold breeze of wind goes by, causing the noble girl to shiver. Looking around, she doesn't see any of the previous scenery. Neither trees nor fences were in sight, and as she turns her gaze to the side a bit more, she finds that besides Rimi holding her in a bridal carry, she is surprisingly being held in mid-air.

The child has no time to bask in the carry that'd usually make her heart flutter, as just like Rimi, she can barely stomach the scene playing out below.

Hundreds of smaller monsters, similar to the one from the lion's den, were running around. But, this time, they could see how they were made. As if hypnotized, animals approached the blobs of culminated mass and merely make contact with it. After touching the blob, their bodies first have their flesh mercilessly sucked away and absorbed before the rest of their body succumbs to the same effect as if melting into it.

"This is disgusting," Rimi speaks with a voice more scornful than she hoped for. Below, Yuudai was already working fast to gather the members of his group while striking against the tongue of the mass with a powerful punch every time it got close to them. In terms of pure physicality, he easily surpassed even Rimi, albeit without the usage of her quirk.

Now was not a time when they could adore their own growth, sadly. Below, countless lives were being taken by the rampaging monsters. Some of them looked more animalistic than the blobs of mass that seemed to be torn from the worst horror novels ever written.

"What the hell is even going on...?" Rimi didn't know what was happening. It could've been a villain attack, but in that case, where was the villain?!

---

At the furthest side of the zoo, a cowering woman whimpers on the ground, holding on to her injured hip. Her hat read "SECURITY", but her appearance was unbefitting of someone meant to protect the innocent.

Around her, there were countless others wearing a similar uniform to hers, but none of them were breathing. Their bodies were spread around, dismembered by many ravenous wolf-like monsters chewing away at their flesh. However, it wasn't the wolves that'd done this to them.

In front of her, a man stood wearing the same uniform as them, except, he was covered in the blood of his colleagues. "Y-Y-You!" The woman barely manages to calm her breathing enough to utter the words. Coldly, the man's eyes crimson eyes gaze down at her, filled with murderous intent.

He holds a blood-stained katana in his hand, having used it to cut down countless people, making her the only one remaining. The entire security unit had been cut down by the man, the father...

"Shush." He speaks down, approaching the woman. She tries to push herself away while holding her injury, but she can't seem to kick herself away faster than he can finish his steps. "You're just fighting the inevitable." There wasn't a hint of compassion in his voice. No, instead, he sounded steadfast. "Just go to sleep." With those final words, he raises his sword over his shoulder.

"N-No! Wai-!" Her words are cut off as the sword cleanly cuts across her throat. The woman's hands weakly reach for her neck as she begins to gurgle, but the light in her eyes soon dulls, and she goes completely still.

Her killer lets out a sigh of relief, happy that the hard part of his duty was finished. "Now, I just need a few more innocent lives to be taken. I thank all of you. Your deaths will ensure that my family lives in peace." As the man speaking removes his hat, the thick patch of oak-colored hair makes it all too clear who it is.

"Hiroko, for you, I'll gladly become a murderer." Yuuichi Yokota stands in a pile of corpses, wielding a bloody weapon—the culprit behind the entire massacre.

The man who is willing to murder innocent lives to protect his family—someone who was very similar to Rimi, or rather, a distant version of her...