Returning Home

"So? Why did you go out of the hotel room despite me telling you not to?" Said Head Priest Juan to me as we walk out of the police station with Althea whose face was as pale as snow.

Apparently she was told that her parents were dead. Earlier, they showed to us a CCTV footage of Althea running away from her home. Althea, upon seeing the video, ended up crying loudly. Luckily we were in a sound-proof room, so her cries weren't heard outside. After that, they sent me out as they said that they will have a private conversation.

From Althea's looks though, it didn't seem like their 'private conversation' worked.

"Oi, are you even listening to me? I almost got arrested for that you know?" Said Head Priest Juan, his face now right in front of mine.

Jumping back in surprise, I replied.

"Because I want to pee?"

Hearing my answer, Head Priest Juan released a sigh before rubbing his forehead and saying,

"Haah~ You know you could have just told me right?"

"If I told you, would you have let me out?"

"No."

"..."

"If you don't give me a reasonable excuse, that is." Head Priest Juan said as we step inside the Aguinaldo Park.

With children playing around and couples flirting as the background, I bare my thoughts to the Head Priest.

"Well, the truth is that I actually wanted to explore. It's my first time visiting a city after all."

That, and I wanted to find a mission.

Thinking of the recent mission that I completed, the urge to vomit started to surface yet again but I suppress it for now.

It's not that I started having regrets about it or something. For the past four years, I already set my mind that I would have to do it someday. I figured that, if I want to find my version of living life to its fullest, I first need to have strength, which I can achieve through training and the system, and second is I need to be resolute.

Hesitation causes doubt, and doubt leads to stagnation.

If I stagnate, then wouldn't it have been the same as my previous life?

Anyways, looking at Head Priest Juan, it seems that he's not even listening to me as his attention was captured by Althea, who was looking at a man and a woman, playing with a little kid about our age, the three of them smiling all the while.

Looking at the family of three reminded me of my own parents. My parents from my past life, and my mother in this life. Yes, I do not consider All Might as my father. But never mind that, what I'm trying to say is that seeing what happened to Althea in person served as an eye opener for me.

Cruel it may be, but thanks to Althea, I started to think about my parents again. I realized that, in my past life until only recently, I only saw things from my perspective. Proof of that is that when I realized that my family was going to be split apart, my first thought was to run away and steal their money, not think of the reason for why my mother cheated.

I was selfish.

Well, not that I'm suddenly going to change and become selfless or anything like that. I knew early on in my past life that I'm not a good person. In my mind, there are only two types of people:

The innocent, and the experienced.

It doesn't matter if they're good and bad, a police or a criminal, a priest or an atheist.

People are shaped by their experiences.

That was what I learned.

Moving on, I notice Head Priest Juan sit on a nearby bench as he urged Althea to sit beside her before shooing me away.

Getting the hint, I walked away while inspecting my new skill.

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[(C) Appraise]

- Find out what material/s are used in an item in a single glance.

- Depends on the user's knowledge of materials.

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Setting my eyes on a balloon that a kid was playing with, I use my skill.

'Appraise.'

I felt an abrupt itch on my eyes before focusing on the text that appeared in front of me.

[Cheap Balloon - Rubber (latex)]

'As I expected, but what was that itch though?'

[It is a sign that the skill has activated.]

'Did something happen to my eyes when the skill activated?'

[Aside from the user's pupils' abruptly turning into red diamonds and irises' colors becoming black, nothing happened.]

Well, not that being seen matters anyway.

'So? Why did my eyes turn into diamonds so suddenly?'

[As the user used a skill from the Diamonds Suit of the Standard Deck, its effects are shown through the eyes.]

Well, its nothing shades can't solve.

I guess I better be careful when using cards from the Hearts Suit then.

Moving on, I check my status for any updates.

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[ //STATUS// ]

Name: Zach

Age: 4 years

Level: 6

Quirk/s: |Card Master|, |One For All|

Bloodline/s: <One For All>

Skills: {(C) Appraise}

Card Skills: Store(I)

(NEW)Decks: \\STANDARD\\

Titles: -

[//SHOP// (2000 coins)]

[//CARD INVENTORY//]

- (3) Blank Cards

- (1) Quirk Card

- (3) Corpse Cards

(NEW)- \\STANDARD DECK\\ {10/54}

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Nodding to myself, I continue on my way to find a restroom.

***

Meanwhile, Head Priest Juan is currently sitting on a bench by a tree, casting a shadow over the other half of the bench.

Beside her, a small girl, with mid-length silky black hair and lifeless blue eyes was sitting down, still staring at the family from earlier.

Releasing a sad sigh, Head Priest Juan leaned back on the bench as he thought of what to say.

Earlier at the police station, after the police officer said that she would never be able to see her parents again, Althea wailed loudly, wondering whether she is dreaming. Alas, as she remembered what happened moments before she fled her home, she quickly surmised one fact:

'It's my fault.' She thought.

'Because of me, mama and papa are now...' This thought had been following her since she left the police station.

Althea knew that what she had done was something very bad, and that the person sitting beside her was her father's friend. From the policeman's words from earlier, she learned that Juan Rodriguez, the person beside her, was a long time friend of her father and the one that will be taking care of her until she grows up.

She thought that, because she was the cause of his friend's death, he would blame her. Thinking of that, she became even more sad and blamed herself more and more. Just as she was about to cry, Juan said,

"You know, little Althea, your father was a very kind man." Head Priest Juan said. "To me, he was a friend, a brother, and a teacher all at the same time."

Althea, upon hearing the words, started to shiver slightly in her seat, thinking that he would start blaming her.

But what she did not expect was for a hand, about the same size as her father's, to caress her head.

"Don't worry, I don't blame you." Said Head Priest Juan gently. "Your father has taught me well after all."

"Papa... has...?" Althea said in a dry tone, her voice hoarse from all her crying.

Nodding his head, Juan said,

"You know, back then, I was like you too." Head Priest Juan spoke with nostalgia written all over his face. "I was really sad, and I really hated myself."

Althea listened quietly.

"Your father at that time was..."

About 30 minutes later, Zach returned and what greeted him was a sleeping Althea and Head Priest Juan waving his hand at him.

"What happened?" Zach inquired.

"Oh nothing, we just had a talk about her parents." Head Priest Juan said, his mood evidently better from before.

Zach, upon noticing this, sighed slightly in relief before asking,

"What about going home?"

Earlier at the hotel room, Zach was surprised when Head Priest Juan returned 5 hours earlier than he said he would. Head Priest Juan said that, due to an emergency with his friend, they would need to find someone first, then he saw Althea, and you know the rest.

"Let's wait for her to wake up okay?"

"But the next jeep will arrive in 5 minutes."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?! Althea wake up!!"

***

Same time in Japan. Hero Public Safety Commission Headquarters.(A/N: Manga spoilers below)

Kaina Tsutsumi, a tall, curvy woman with dark blue and pink two-tone hair and angled eyebrows, is currently walking towards an elevator while wondering what her next mission would be.

She is currently in her late twenties and is working as a pro-hero, evidenced by her dark bodysuit with two plates underneath the chest and knee guards. She also wore a long scouter over her right eye, which was in the shape of a lightning bolt.

Secretly though, she was groomed by the Hero Public Safety Commission to be an assassin ever since she was a young girl. For years, she trained, and trained, and trained until she became really skillful with her quirk, Rifle, and became the best marksman in all of Japan.

She achieved her dream of being a great pro-hero.

Although recently, she started to become disillusioned about the current society. Being forced to kill and do ruthless things to people has left her developing a cynical outlook on life, contrary to her past cheerful and optimistic self.

She even recently started to hate the current hero society. The hero society's fragility hidden from the public, the corrupt heroes seeking fame, and the hypocrisy of it as a whole.

'What even is the right thing to do anymore?' She often thought.

*ding*

Hearing the ever so familiar elevator sound woke her up from her thoughts as she stepped inside the room of the current president of the HPSC.

Inside, a simple office desk can be seen, behind it is a chair currently facing the window walls. Various plants in pots are also around the floor and the lights were slightly dim, as it is still afternoon.

"Your next mission is in The Philippines, they have requested in dealing with a crime syndicate, in exchange for letting us take care of some of our runaways." Came a baritone voice from the chair.

The runaways that the president was talking about wasn't from prisons, he was talking about runaways from the HPSC. Kaina didn't know about that though.

Nodding her head, Kaina took the folder top of the desk, bowed her head once, and headed back to the elevator.

After the elevator door closed, she opened the folder and checked its contents.

'The Rat Circle, a crime syndicate.' After skimming till the last page, she noticed a piece of sticky paper with the words 'runaways' written on top of it.

Reading the paper, she noticed 15 names with their addresses on it.

'Kantu tan... Sheyv Mabols... Ochin shin, and—

Juan Rodriguez.