Seated beside a hospital bed with her son in it, Irisa Takishima sat holding onto her child's hand. They were visiting the zoo a few days ago after she found out how good her child was doing in school. She'd picked him up from school early and taken him to see his favorite animals. He was excited to see the penguin exhibit, so she stalled as they worked their way up there.

Tasuku, her son, didn't seem to mind taking detours whatsoever. They'd stopped by the tiger's habitat to watch them for a while. At some point, students from a nearby elementary school arrived and spread out into groups.

'That reminds me of when I was younger,' the woman chuckled, reminiscing on the distant past when she was in their shoes. It was good to see that the current generation's innocence remained the same as before.

The peace and happiness did not last long, as shortly after the children arrived, strange beasts started to appear around the zoo. Irisa quickly grabbed her son and tried to escape the chaos, but while holding his hand, a beast collided with one of the nearby buildings and sent debris crumbling down toward the two of them

Irisa was hit by some of the rubble, but she was relatively unharmed. She could not say the same about Tasuku, however. The child was hit by and pinned beneath the ruins of the building. If he hadn't taken a blow to the head that rendered him unconscious, he'd have been screaming in pain and terror.

Irisa refused to abandon her son. She tried to pull Tasuku from the ruins, even while the monster lifted its arm to kill her. Crying out words of comfort to her son as she mindlessly worked to free him, Irisa was prepared to lose her life.

That's when she was suddenly saved by a small girl with black hair and red streaks. The girl fell from the air and tore the monster's arm off.

Before she knew it, her son was in her arms, thrown by a mysterious force. Irisa was pithily stunned but quickly assembled her thoughts when she noticed the horrible state her son was in. Quickly, she turned and sprinted away, her son in tow. She felt guilty leaving the child to fight that monster, but the life of her son was far more important. As shameful as it was to admit it, she might've sacrificed another person's life to ensure that Tasuku could make it out alive. There is no mother who wants to see their child die young.

Returning to the present, Irisa's hand clung to Tasuku's. He was still recovering from his injuries, but thankfully, she's been told that he'll survive. If that girl hadn't arrived when she did, neither of them would've made it out of the zoo alive.

'I wonder what happened to the child who saved us. I pray that she didn't die, I don't know how I'd live with that on my conscience.' No matter how much she thought about it, Irisa couldn't shake a feeling of responsibility for what might've happened to the child. 'I really want to apologize and thank her properly. She saved my son's life, after all.' Even though her life was saved as well, Tasuku was the only thing that mattered in her life.

Outside, she noticed that the wind was picking up, becoming violent. It was dark outside, so she could only assume that a storm that she couldn't see was coming. 'It looks like it's going to storm tonight.'

---

'I'm sorry, little pups.' Yuuichi thought as he taps the german shepherd's head. Immediately, his quirk activated, causing the dog's body to bloat and contort. The smaller dog behind it was quickly pulled into its mass, allowing for the formation of one of his greatest creations: a humanoid creation, one of his most powerful.

'You will do me wonders. You're perfect for the chaos I need to bring my family peace. Don't think of me too badly...' However, as he's deep in thought, admiring his creation, he hears an undesirable voice. 'What?!' Looking in its direction, Yuuichi is shocked to find a child with black hair with red streaks. She was shouting at the dogs, calling their names.

Yuuichi had never visited the Yonamine household, so he was unaware that they had any pets, but he could recognize their daughter, who'd visited his home in the past. The girl was Rimi Yonamine, his son's best friend, and a monster who he intentionally avoided.

She falls to her knees, and Yuuichi instinctively takes a step back. There is an alarming tension in the air that he can't describe.

As she starts laughing or possibly crying, the surrounding air becomes concentrated on her, swirling around with enough force to drag nearby creatures toward her.

'Shit!' Through his only working eye, Yuuichi can see the unanticipated results of his actions. He didn't expect the daughter of Kimiko and Koji to be out this late, or rather, he didn't expect his ability to attract their dogs either! By killing the dogs in front of the child, he'd unintentionally triggered a negative response in her brain. For children her age, this is typically enough to activate their quirks and cause them to quickly lose control of it.

Using all of his strength, Yuuichi slowly takes steps back, trying to make distance from the child as the buildings around him are slowly chipped at by the wind. 'This isn't just the wind!' The slashes were far too sharp and large to be the product of a few blades of wind. 'She must be using something similar to what she used to kill Hitmiss and that fatass Man-Balloon!'

The humanoid creature in front of him stood firm, sharp claws protruding from its hands as it slouches forward, taking an offensive stance. 'Good, it can still move! I didn't want to have to do this, but I might as well!' He raises his hand at Rimi, shouting his command to his creation. "Kill her! Cut her head off!" The man orders. The beast lets out a roar that is almost drowned out by the sound of the violent wind.

Through the child's tornado, golden eyes lock on the beast right when its foot touches the ground to perform a dash. It halts in place, a primal instinct that should've been impossible to muster surfacing to hinder Yuuichi's control. "What are you doing?! I-I said to kill her!" Yuuichi's motives were unclear, but not even his creation cared.

As a creature created from Yuuichi's "Zookeeper" quirk, it should've been impossible for the murderous creation to defy one of his orders. Even the mindless monsters at the zoo charged headfirst at danger, even while knowing that their death was inevitable. Somehow, this creation of his felt fear and was wise enough to not take another step forward.

It refused to press onward and instead opted to stumble back, moving away from the child. "What are you waiting for...?" From where she stood, Rimi's powerful voice reaches the creature, causing it to tremble. Again, the beast attempts to release a roar, but it does little to stop Rimi from closing the distance between it and herself at a moment's notice.

"I'm coming to you then, monster." Rimi slowly raises her hand, and the beast wastes no time darting past Yuuichi, attempting to flee out of the opposite side of the alley. "Where are you going? I need to confirm something."

A breeze goes by as the girl flies past Yuuichi, following the fleeing beast. Her face was concealed by a dark veil, but the tears in her eyes were very visible, streaming from her face like the water of the wildest river.

The creature unexpectedly stops and turns once they reach the road. Crashing into oncoming cars, it seems unbothered as the vehicles flip and roll upon contact with its durable body. Its arm extends out, swaying at Rimi to claw the child's throat out. Unfortunately for her would-be killer, she was familiar with its ability to stretch and moves around the arm, spiraling around it to make it even harder to track her movements.

Shortly after, her foot taps the beast's head, but not with enough force to send it flying. "Pearl?" She speaks the name of her dog, looking at the beast to see if she can gain some sort of response from it. "Marble?" Once again, there was silence as the trembling beast stands there helplessly as the child keeps her foot on its face.

Rimi's frown grows, a feeling of despair overcoming her once more. "I'm so pathetic. You're not even them, are you? You're just another monster." Without warning, the creature's head bursts open like a balloon, its blood washing onto nearby cars and bystanders. The screams of nearby watchers would've usually caught her attention, but now, Rimi was torpid. She didn't want to move, she no longer had any reason to.

'What do you think you're doing?' A voice hollers out from the back of Rimi's mind—it was herself. 'He's back there! The one who did this to them! Are you going to let him get away with this?!' The girl shakes her head, suspended in mid-air. She couldn't do it, even if she hated the man, she couldn't do that to Yuudai. 'What do you mean, no?! Do you know what he did?! He took your loved ones! The ones you vowed to protect! Marble and Pearl! They're your family!'

Slowly, Rimi's feet go down, touching the ground so that she can stand normally. 'Look around you! Don't you hear those faraway screams?! Those footsteps?! They're coming!' Just by taking a brisk look around her, Rimi noticed that the people were not just running because of the appearance of the beast she'd killed. Instead, they were screaming and running because of the countless other beasts that were beginning to charge from every corner.

The beasts came from alleyways and rooftops, sewers, and buildings; all heading in her direction. 'He's serious about killing you! Are you just going to let yourself die!?'

'Wouldn't that be for the best...? Is it really alright for me to be happy?' This time, Rimi responds to the voice. She sounds tired and drained of her energy.

'Don't be ridiculous! Of course, you don't deserve to be happy! But, the world hasn't stopped you from experiencing happiness, has it?!' No matter what happened, Rimi was still allowed to have good experiences. When she made friends, they didn't turn their heads away and hate her, she could actually speak to them. She was allowed to have a family that loved her, although now, that family was downsized.

'Kill!' The voice commands. 'You want to be happy, even as an irredeemable murderer! So, just kill! Kill everyone you have to! If it means you'll be happy, isn't it alright to shed some blood?! If it means that mom and dad will keep smiling, isn't it okay if the world is destroyed a little?!'

As the beasts finally close in on Rimi's position, the girl disappears from their sight in a blur, flying into the sky above them. 'Yeah...' The wind around her concentrates on her hand, creating a large orb as her shining, golden eyes lock on to the hundreds of beasts crowding on top of each other to reach her.

'It's nothing different, I just have to kill.' Then, she comes rocketing down into the crowd, her sphere dispersing into a volley of slashes that most of the monsters could not avoid. Some of the lucky ones caught on quickly and leaped over the attack, only to find that Rimi's hand was halfway finished drilling through their heads by the time they finished their movements.

Around them, the surrounding buildings suffered much damage from the battle. Whenever her attacks missed their targets, they cleaved through the scenery in the background without fail. Rimi could hear the screams of the building's inhabitants, but she chose to ignore them as the voice in her mind offered her guidance. 'Do you hear that; those screams? That means they're alive! It means someone's alive in there! As long as they're alive, you can keep going, right?!'

'They're still alive...' Mindlessly, Rimi repeats after the voice. 'Right.' Rimi hadn't killed them. The structure might've been harmed, but that didn't mean anything as long as the people inside were still breathing. 'I'll kill all of these things, then I'll go back to that man and- Ouch!'

Rimi winches when she feels something sharp cut across her right arm. Quickly pivoting, she sees Yuuichi with a knife in his hand, trying to cleave her arm off. Before he can finish, the girl's foot rams into his unusually resilient chest. "Umph!" He grunts as he's hurled down into a nearby building, the furniture inside bursting out alongside clouds of dust.

"You..." A beast tries to catch Rimi's leg between its jaw, but she quickly flips around it, ramming her heel deep into the monster's skull. It falls, crushing the smaller monsters beneath its weight. "You...!"  As if the monsters were no longer worth acknowledging, Rimi now focuses on the killer of her loved ones, and now her assailant, Yuuichi Yokota.

When Yuuichi reappears through the dust from the building, he readjusts his grip on the knife but suddenly disappears from Rimi's sight. "...? What the-!?"

Rimi's hair stands tall when a shadow appears behind her, and the girl is quick to spin around and lift her leg.

Her foot meets Yuuichi's arm, and with a surprising amount of power, he overpowers her and sends her crashing down to the ground. Slamming into the ground, Rimi feels the wind fly out of her lungs, stealing her breath away.

"You're more durable than I expected, kid," Yuuichi speaks examining the knife in his hand. "But, I think I was worried over nothing. Your mom's not here tonight, is she? Yeah, I'd bet that she isn't coming to catch you. I made sure the police were busy too, don't be surprised if your old man comes home with a missing arm or two." Yuuichi taunts the child, chuckling at his own words.

Yuuichi is so busy with his taunting that he feels to notice the raging glow in Rimi's eyes intensifying. He continues, "Finally, I met someone who could give me what I wanted for my family! Yuudai and Hiroko will finally get the lives they deserve! Peaceful, rich lives!" He spreads his arms out like a madman. "I'll kill as many as I need to! That old man from before caught me off guard, but I doubt that he'd survive against the Chimera!"

"Do you understand, Ri- Ghhrugh!" Blood flies from Yuuichi's tongue when a foot crashes into his jaw. His teeth violently plunge into his tongue, but this pain helps him regather his thoughts. In an instant, Rimi had covered a street-length distance. It'd have usually been impossible for someone to stand that high without having a quirk that granted flight, but Yuuichi had an unnatural method.

He was held in the air by a tower of bodies, one that Rimi quickly scaled to reach her foe. She's never fought another human, never to this degree. However, this is only a factor when taking Rimi into account. There is an unexpected variable in the form of her former self; the murderer who'd fought innumerable times for profane reasons.

As Yuuichi flies into the air, his eye frantically moves around, searching for something. Rimi already caught on after experiencing it once, however. She quickly covers the distance between the two, ramming her knee into her chest. "Ri-Hhuagh!" Blood flies from the man's mouth, yet, Rimi is quick to use her ability to move around the incoming projectiles. Mid-flight, the projectiles erupt into massive, crimson balls with barbs.

"You catch on fast!" Yuuichi, although he's taken two powerful blows, continues to speak as if nothing had happened. Rimi has a sudden realization as she closes the distance with the man for a third time. 'He has multiple quirks!' Her hand reaches Yuuichi's leg, and before he can counterattack, she uses her ability to send him flying through a nearby skyscraper.

Flying after him, Rimi pays no mind to the carnage inside of the building. The people inside are horrified by a flying man blasting through their edifice. "Ugh!" Yuuichi grunts as he exits the opposite side of the skyscraper, finding that Rimi has already caught up with him and has her knees raised to her chest. "Impressi- Urgh!" She doesn't let him finish, sending her feet into his chest with enough power to leave his ribs in pieces.

While he's falling, a massive crimson tendril sprouts from the shadows of his jacket's sleeves, flying up at Rimi who was speeding down after him. Although she easily avoided it, Rimi didn't account for the tendril veering back around and wrapping around her body. 'Look! You're losing!' The voice in her mind deduces her position from just one successful counter, but it isn't wrong in the slightest.

As though he'd been waiting for his moment, Yuuichi recovers mid-flight, spinning in a circle while maintaining a connection with Rimi via the tendril. Once the tendril loosens its tight hold on her, Rimi is sent flying through one of the skyscraper's windows, sending her back into its structure. "Heads up, kid!" Before Rimi even has the chance to gather her footing, Yuuichi's fist rams into her stomach, and the girl feels her internal organs tremble, nearly giving in to the sudden pressure. If it weren't for her using her ability to slow him, she might've been killed by the punch.

"You know, you used to scare the hell out of me!" Yuuichi, who was chasing after the child he'd just sent flying, shouted his dialogue. "Hiroko told me about how Yuu had a friend, and how she had a terrifying ability! I expected it since you were that witch's daughter!"

Soon, Rimi's arms are raised in front of herself, gathering as much wind as she can to dampen the impact of Yuuichi's approaching leg as he aims to kick her down a nearby flight of stairs. "A family of powerful quirks, with the exception of your father! Your family is a cesspool of luck! Your worst struggle is what five-star restaurant you'll eat at tomorrow!"

As Rimi descends the staircase, Yuuichi pushes off the ceiling and flies back down after her. She quickly uses her quirk to drag herself through an open door leading to one of the lower floors, avoiding the meteoric punch of the descending Yuuichi.

"An absurd growth rate passed down from that monster of a woman your mommy calls her 'mother'!" Rimi finds that she's growing tired of Yuuichi's thoughtless banter. "Shut up!" She screams at the man, stopping herself in motion just as Yuuichi speeds across the floor with his knife in hand, cleaving through anyone and anything unfortunate enough to get caught in his way.

His pursuit is delayed once he realizes that dozens of tables around the room are being thrown at him thanks to Rimi's ability. "Exactly what I expected! You're growing just by fighting me!" Using his knife, in the most unrealistic display of swordsmanship Rimi's ever witnessed, Yuuichi chops through the tables in less than a second. "I heard you were a killer! That you killed your first victims when you were just 2 years old! It must've felt good, didn't it, you little sadist!?"

"I said shut up!" Yuuichi's taunts seem to hurt Rimi more than she realized. His words brought back horrible members: the voices that haunted her in her past life, the thought of the dozens who died because of her attack, and the many children who had their bodies disassembled that day.

In her brief moment of hesitation, he closes the distance between the two with a massive grin on his face, lifting his knife over his shoulder. "Gotcha!" Yuuichi hadn't been taunting the child for no reason. Even if she knew how to fight a bit, she was still a child, one easily influenced by emotions.

His blade descends, closing in on her skull. The swing was too fast for her to react, a weakness that Yuuichi had discovered during their fight. Although Rimi's ability is powerful, she struggles to use it on fast-moving objects. As long as he moves faster than she can react, he doesn't have to be concerned with her vectors.

Much to Yuuichi's anguish, his knife never feels the resistance of Rimi's skull. A new presence appears, and when Rimi looks over her shoulder to see who it is, she finds Pinnley—the butler from the other day—standing over her with his cane sword excellently blocking the knife.

Pinnley didn't look the same as when she'd seen him at the zoo. His shirt was missing, revealing the countless scars caking his muscular body from years of rigorous hard work and training. His body was covered in sweat and blood, and judging by the change of expression on his face, Yuuichi looks as though he was faced with a ghost. "Old man, you should be dead! There's no way you could beat my Chimera!" Yuuichi quibbles, quickly darting back to create space between himself and the newly-arrived adversary.

"Yes! It was quite a dangerous enemy! It felt like I was cutting steel, thus it took me several long days before I finished mincing it!" With the newfound opportunity to recover, Rimi breaks down into a panting mess, her body aching. Rimi had barely trained herself for this kind of fight, she was far too young to endure something like this normally. It made her wonder how she even managed to remain conscious for this long, and apparently, Pinnley wondered the same thing. "Are you alright, Young Miss?"

Rimi takes a few moments before she answers, gradually rising back up to her feet. "I'm fine." Without wasting her breath any further, Rimi's eyes lock back on Yuuichi, who has already recovered, although, he remained partially fatigued. "I can't stop here." Pinnley is surprised by the vigor in the child's eyes. Although she is speaking calmly while exhausted, Pinnley can see a very familiar bloodlust in her eyes—she possessed the ruthless eyes of a seasoned killer.

Pinnley had fought against Yuuichi's most powerful beast, the Chimera, for several days. The beast could freely manipulate its shape and was ridiculously durable. Firearms did little to slow the beast, and its speed was nothing to slouch at. If Pinnley were any older, he'd have been killed within the first few moments of their strenuous bout.

Ever since the day at the zoo, he was buried underground by some strange means, forced to fight the Chimera until he eventually chopped it into hundreds of pieces. Much to his surprise, he returned above ground to find countless monsters running around the city!

Yuuichi was particularly afraid of the butler because of his insane speed and strength. Even with his regeneration, Pinnley's slash on his eye did not heal, creating a permanent scar. More precisely, the butler cut Yuuichi's eye so many times, it could no longer regenerate. Even though he'd attacked the butler while his guard was down, he still somehow managed to twist his body in an impossible motion and fight against him and his gargantuan creation.

Rimi's hand reaches up to grab Pinnley's sword by its crook, and the man is hesitant at first but allows the child to grab his weapon. Before the girl can even finish tightening her grip on the weapon, both Yuuichi and Pinnley are alarmed by the pressure that envelopes their surroundings. Just by touching the cane, Rimi unleashed a terrifying bloodlust that changed the color of her surroundings. "Thank you..." Rimi speaks in a low tone as she examines the weapon.

Since coming to this world, Rimi has never held a bladed weapon. The most that came close was a butterknife, which she could hardly consider an adequate tool. Yuuichi, feeling the approaching danger, swipes his hand in her direction once more, preparing to use his ability.

Yuuichi doesn't manage to get any move off, as before he knew it, Rimi disappeared from his line of sight. A silver streak passes by him, and when his eye readjusts to its surroundings, he finds that Rimi is just a few inches in front of him, the bloodied cane sword at her side.

He attempted to clench his stretched hand into a fist but found that it was completely unresponsive. "You stole Marble's skin, didn't you?" Rimi looks up in Yuuichi's direction, basking in the tearful expression he had as reality dawned on him. "I've got to pay you back for the pain you caused him."

With a gross sound, Yuuichi's hand slides from his wrist, dropping to the ground in front of him with a squelch. "Ah-Ahhh! Aha! AHHHHHHHHH!" Violently thrashing, Yuuichi falls to the ground, holding his forearm in an attempt to stop the blood flow to his wrist.

"Didn't you hear me earlier?" Rimi's golden eyes stare down at Yuuichi, whose confidence was quickly drained away from him for a second time. "I said shut up."

Rimi eyes Yuuichi's bleeding arm for a few minutes while the man thrashes around. Eventually, the bleeding stops, and Rimi unknowingly smiles. To her, it's a smile of relief as she realizes the extent of his regeneration, but to Yuuichi, he sees a sadistic smile that should not be on any child's face.

"You can't heal lost limbs, can you?" Even though he doesn't answer directly, Rimi can see him gulp as his anxiety grows. "But everything else can heal, can't it? Your stamina recovery seems to have a limit, though."  This time, she doesn't wait for him to answer, using the tip of the place to puncture Yuuichi's only working eye the moment that he looks in her direction, completely blinding him.

"AGGGHHHHHH!" He screams in pain, attempting to raise his remaining hand to grab the blade. To his dismay, Yuuichi finds that he can't move his body an inch. "Stop! Stop!" He pleads, unable to stop the trembling of his body.

"Stop...?" Rimi's head tilts in confusion. This is the man who'd just cast countless monsters across the city. If she hadn't intervened, he'd have certainly used said monsters to take countless lives, ruining the families of millions of people. Only a few moments ago, he'd cut up the unfortunate folks that were in his way. Rimi might not have been much better, but she certainly wouldn't be begging if she were in his shoes. "What are you on about? You're spewing bullshit again, Yuuichi." Slowly, Yuuichi's mouth falls open, revealing the inside of his mouth.

"Oh! Your tongue actually healed! I guess it explains why you could talk so much." Stabbing the blade into his thigh, Rimi can finally give Yuuichi his rightfully earned round of applause.

Rimi crouches down in front of the man, locking eyes with him, "You're not making it out of here alive, Yuuichi." As Rimi's fingers trail against Yuuichi's lips, the man stubbornly refuses to accept just how helpless he is. He hadn't even noticed that his mouth was opened not of his accord, but of Rimi's.

"I love Yuudai to death." Her voice trembles, a sense of shame welling up inside her stomach. She's quick to shove the feeling down, too consumed by her rage to dwell on any future consequences.

"I believe that my job is done here. As things stand, I don't believe I will be getting my cane back any time soon." Pinnley, who'd been watching, didn't even realize that his quirk was deactivated. This meant that the task that he'd been committed to for over 48 hours was finally accomplished. In his current state, he wouldn't dare attempt to retrieve his blade from the child. Instead of trying to challenge her, he gives a polite bow before using the stairs to head to the entrance of the building. This left Rimi and Yuuichi, alone.

"I love Yuudai like he's my brother, which is why this pains me so much." Finishing where she'd left off before Pinnley interrupted, Rimi puts her fingers in Yuuichi's mouth, pinching his tongue with her fingernails. "It pains me, knowing that I'm doing this to someone that my best friend loves so much," Rimi remembers the conversation she had with Yuudai. He couldn't bring himself to truly hate his father because he did horrible things in their family's name.

"Despite the things I say, I'm no different from you." Slowly, Rimi started to pull Yuuichi's tongue, but as it left his mouth, his body did not go forward. It was trapped in place. "For my family and loved ones, I'd do awful things." Yuuichi attempts to scream and plead, but it's an impossible task while even his jaw is locked in place. He can't complete a single word in his sentence. "Which is why I understand that I have no right to say this, but, you're a sick person."

"I understand why you did it, and I completely agree with why you did it, but," As his tongue hangs unnaturally far out of his mouth, Rimi addresses another thing. "You used what? Three quirks during our fight? No, maybe four. That weird thing you used in the zoo and the alley, that 'shadow teleportation' you did, and I'd bet that your physical abilities are thanks to a quirk as well." She didn't feel the need to address his regeneration. There were a few more that she didn't address, like the apparent blood manipulation he possessed.

"I don't know if it'll hurt you to know this or not, but I don't care." Rimi stands up, releasing his disgusting tongue. Although she's let the tongue go, Yuuichi can still feel the pressure holding it in place. "The man you found who gave you those abilities is a monster. He made a promise to you, but he wouldn't have kept it. Yuudai and your wife would've been killed or exploited—it would've been your fault."

Abruptly, Yuuichi's tongue comes flying out of his mouth, leaving a trail of blood. Yuuichi's tears cannot gush out more than the blood in Yuuichi's mouth. "Hey, you're going to choke to death, bend over." Her foot pushes against Yuuichi's back, leaning him forward so that most of the blood would pour out of his mouth until the wound was sealed or his tongue regrew.

"You talked a lot, so it's my turn, alright?" Next, his right arm was torn from his body. Without its hand, the arm was practically useless anyway. This time, the wound in his arm sealed much faster than the others. "I've killed so many people, yet, in this world, there are monsters so much worse than me." Rimi shakes her head, in disbelief at her own words. No matter how pathetic they were, this was the truth of the world.

"You stole from me, Yuuichi. You killed two of the people I held dear." Rimi did not refer to Marble and Pearl as "things" but instead, she talked about them as if they were humans. "I loved them, so much. So much... So fucking much! Then you..." Rimi's breathing becomes frantic as she thought back on the scene from before—the brutal deaths of her dogs. "You fuck!" Rimi, in a fit of frustration, kicks Yuuichi across his jaw. She didn't kick him hard enough to knock his jaw off, but she did hear a multitude of crunches.

"I didn't want to kill anymore. I thought that I could make things better, that the world wouldn't flip over and reveal my past. Instead, it's working against me. You're just an agent of the world, right, Yuuichi? An annoying bitch sent to screw me over!" Rimi's words held more venom than ever before. She's never spoken this way before, not even when she was angry at Yuudai. She spewed venomous vitriols with the intent to harm, even if Yuuichi couldn't understand her through his screaming.

Briefly, Rimi holds her breath to calm herself before she finally exhales. "Now, I'm going to kill you. I'm not going to make it quick either, Yuuichi. No, I don't know you personally enough to make this quick." Shaking her head, Rimi reaches her hand out to Yuuichi's trembling form. The man who once boasted such great power and spoke with confidence was now diminished to a sobbing mess.

Rimi understood why Yuuichi did what he did. The man became a villain for his family, someone capable of taking innocent lives so that his loved ones could live lavishly. At another time, he might've succeeded in his attack today. In another world, Yuuichi might've successfully killed her and gotten away with his injustice. In life, not all things go the way you'd like them to, which is why now, Yuuichi failed.

"Don't forgive me. Please, don't. I hate you so much that I think I'd cry if I found out that you were willing to forgive me in your final moments." These were Rimi's final words to Yuuichi. As she drew the sword from his leg, there was no one to stop her from performing the inhumane butchering of Yuuichi Yokota.

---

The one who arrived at the scene first was none other than the towering, smiling man in oddly casual clothing. His blonde hair stood out with spikes, and the pose he planned on striking was swiped away when he saw the scene in front of him. Never in all of All Might's days had he seen something as horrible as this, not by someone so young.

Shortly, law enforcement arrived as well, with a few other heroes arriving to support if necessary. All of them had the same reaction to the display.

At the front of the skyscraper, right at the entrance, there was a sculpture. The sculpture was not made of stone or any other traditional material, but instead, a human body. The eyeless head was removed and placed on its two severed legs that were folded beneath its hip to create a lap. Its two arms were crossed to create a sloppy star above where the head should've been. The eyeless head's mouth was held open by two severed hands, balled up to mimic an apple. On the ground in front of the sculpture rested a cane that was dirtied by blood and innards.

Beside the corpse, a child sat with her legs crossed. Her elbow was on her thigh, and her head was in the palm of her head. She looked tired, almost lifeless. Although the bags under her eyes would tell you that she was fatigued, her golden eyes were glowing intensely in the direction of the world's greatest hero, All Might.

Usually, he'd have made a spectacular debut on the scene. His presence would inspire others to rise and cheer, knowing that the day was saved. However, the day was already saved by the child who stared at him. "Goodness..." All Might speaks with the most compassion he can muster, slowly approaching the girl. For just a moment, he feels something brush past him, but ignores it.

The enormous man carefully drops to a knee in front of the child, offering his hand to her while trying to ignore the organized corpse beside him. "Little girl, did you..." All Might cannot help but look at the corpse before turning back to the unresponsive child. "Did you do this...?"

As much as he hoped for the child to deny it, she is curt with her answer. "Yeah. I tore him apart. He tried to kill me, so I tore him limb from limb." Rimi didn't feel the need to lie about what she'd done. The euphoria of the deed was already gone; she hadn't realized she was so much of a sadist. Now, she was overcome by a frightening feeling of guilt.

As All Might gather the child into his arms, she doesn't bother resisting him. Just now, she'd attempted to cut him using her quirk and found that he was so durable that her ability didn't so much as bother him. It was a test to see whether her ability was weakened the more fatigued she was. As it turns out, this is exactly the case, not that she'll admit that out loud.

Remorsefully, Rimi can only think of one thing as she's carried towards the nearby emergency services. 'I'm so sorry, Yuu.' Her apology would not bring back the boy's father. Yet, even as she pictures Yuudai's crying form, she can't shake the feeling that she'd do the whole thing again.

If someone were to kill one of her loved ones like what'd happened tonight, she'd probably do the same thing. Despite how much she smiled and chatted with the children her age, Rimi was still a psychopath. She'd never been to therapy, nor had she ever actually been given professional care for her underlying mental issues.

In her mind, her growth over the past 7 years was nothing but a waste of time. She'd fallen right back down to where she'd started.