Creak

The bathroom window made the tiniest of noises as Ken slid it open, shuffling his small frame through the run-down house.

With Ken having stood up to his father and their relationship souring even more, there were none of Ken's occasional cleanings of the place to prevent riff-raff from finding its way in.

The effects were evident as Ken's huge figure drove away the critters, who likely came in through holes in the walls or floors, the drain, or the air vent.

Ken found himself in a place where the previous him would cower away in fear; now, however, he only held apathy for his father.

He wanted to kill the man; revenge was on the cusp of his thoughts—the pig squealing for his life, the euphoria that would bring him.

But reminding himself of his upcoming mission, Ken focused.

He momentarily feared his movement had caused his father's attention to shift towards the bathroom, but soon found that such thoughts were unnecessary.

THUMP

THUMP

THUMP

THUMP

The creaking of wooden headboards against the plaster walls echoed, telling Ken all he needed to know and that he'd be fine.

Opening the door, Ken walked out and looked to the left, seeing his corner, the place he used to treasure so much, filled with the things he could call his, surprisingly untouched.

A blanket, an old pillow salvaged from a trash can, and medicines lined the insides.

Picking it up, Ken walked to the bathroom with everything that belonged to him in this world.

Coincidentally, the thumping stopped the moment he closed the door; the sound echoed as Ken didn’t put much effort into being quiet, thinking the background noise would cancel it out.

Quickly fixing the window and shuffling out, he narrowly avoided the figure of the overweight man holding a knife while opening the door.

His steps were more hushed than a man of his size should be capable of.

With a Bowie knife held in a reverse grip, he opened the door with a creak and quickly shifted his weight to his toes, ready to make any split-second decisions.

But the empty bathroom, with only a sink and toilet, greeted him.

'Did I scare him into going to a self-defense class?'

Ken, from only a corner of the window, was watching the scene unfold.

The refined movements suggested that his father was more on guard than Ken had ever seen.

With these never-before-shown movements, a reasonable conclusion was that he'd been training.

"Babe, are you coming back to bed?"

The aggressive eyes gave the place a once-over one more time before he hid the knife within his shorts.

"Sure, Kaiki, I’m ready!"

"Kaiki? We’re doing role-play, huh? I can get into that!"

Their cuddling continued as Ken then left.

...

Sigh

Looking outside the window, Ken observed the countless clouds as his ears picked up the incessant humming of the plane.

"That’s your thirteenth sigh within the last 12 minutes."

Looking up from his fancy brown leathery seat, he looked ahead and saw Ashnah at the open bar on the plane, sitting on a stool with a pamphlet in hand.

To her left, sitting in a passenger seat that was on the opposite side of the plane from Ken, was Naia, though they both looked different.

"Is the problem the disguise?"

Ashnah moved her palms from the top to the bottom of her face, which changed the colors of her hair and eyes along with some key facial features.

The size of her nose, her lips’ natural color, a mole on her left cheek, her eyebrow size, and how potent her natural blush was.

She looked like an entirely different person when she undid the transformation.

"I’m sorry, my quirk only works on objects that stay in contact with me, so I can’t permanently change you,"

Ken shook his head.

"It’s not that.... It’s just-"

He grabbed at his expensive suit, pointed to his brown eyes, and lastly grasped a strand of his black hair.

"This just isn’t me."

"Yeah, and that's not Naia either."

Naia looked up, letting Ken scrutinize her even more.

Her previous light blue hair had turned to a dark purple.

With some extensions, it was now stretched out and went down to her back.

She was in a pantsuit, and with her purple contact lenses, she had the appearance of an assistant.

"It’s called a mission," Ashnah said.

"Yeah."

He slumped back into his seat, still feeling the discomfort of the atmosphere.

Another 20 minutes went by before the computer in the middle of the bar turned on, and Seneca’s face shone.

"You're still in the air?"

Receiving nods, he continued.

"Good, the flight shouldn’t take too long-"

"Yeah, a 45-minute drive, and we’re flying private class with our very own plane."

"The boss, Reiki, and I are in our hotel. We introduced ourselves as people looking for a break in a new city. You all will be staying in [Hotel Pearl City Akita Kanto Odori] in the King and Queen suites, respectively."

Ken's eyes twitched as he thought of the money they were blowing on the trip and what it could have been used for instead.

"Remember, you are masquerading as a rich widowed mother, along with her son, who has a condition that needs to be fixed. The eyepatch is to increase the act, so in the event that it's messed up, Ken, you’ll need to constantly keep your quirk activated."

As he said that, the boss popped up behind Seneca and onto the screen.

"Treat it as training, kid. You said you can’t keep the quirk active once you lose focus, right? Then this endurance training is perfect."

'Though that isn't counting when hunger consumes my mind.'

"Boss, please go spray the bathroom; it stinks….haiz, why couldn’t I have gotten a separate room like Reiki?"

But Ehno’s special hearing seemed to pick up on that as he responded from the bathroom.

"Because you're not nearly as scary as her, and also because we wouldn’t be able to spend quality bonding time together like this."

"Anyways, Naia, you’re to act as their assistant for this mission. Your quirk is more suited for the extraction of information, so you’ll be in for Reiki. She’ll be around if you need anything. Remember, keep your covers up; a whiff of anything suspicious and the target could flee."

Beep

"Incoming call, I’m going to cut this short. Come to our place alone at night. We're at [Akita Castle Hotel in room 307]."

The screen went black as silence once again reigned.

The flipping of a page, everyone's breath, and the thrust of the plane took over the sound as everyone digested the information.

'I understand it—everything, really. Just why did I have to look so much like him?'

With his appearance, Ken looked like a copy of Kaneki from the beginning of the story.

This appearance didn’t help his already growing concerns about his quirk and how things would end up.