Interlude : Un Dia (One Day—That Day)

A/N: best chap ngl, it was edited by a bro of mine @Paradox, maybe he'll say hello here, anyway best editor out there, and he's cheap too. So for me and for him; gimme stones!!! hehe

Enjoy.

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A few weeks have passed since Kurai's visit to Hiroshima prefecture.

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It was still night, only a few hours left before the first lights of dawn peeked through the horizon and shone upon the land of Hiroshima illuminating it.

It was in this land where a trembling voice echoed in a small room, of a moderately sized studio apartment, seemingly belonging to a small child around the age of 4 or 5.

"...'Smile, it'll give you courage'..." The voice tremblingly muttered, the tone.. one of pain, suffering, fear and despair yet filled with the contrasting notes of endless hope and determination.

The tone belonged to that of a child, the emotions underlying it though should never belong to a child her age, yet sadly... it did.

It all started one day, one particular day. The day she realized one of the truths of this rotten, inhumane world.

At first everything seemed well & dandy, from what her view of the world entailed at that time. The world seemed like a place of hope & dreams, of flowers and sunshine.. a utopia of sorts where everyone was equal, where everyone was happy, where everything was so simple.

Then she grew up.

She began to understand.

The small pieces of memories she began to recall all seemed so different from what they entailed to her for so long. The feeling that all of her beliefs turned out to be nothing but idealistic thinking and naivety slowly creeped in and gnawed on the small child's soul.

Maybe it was a perk of human evolution, or the fact that quirks appeared, but kids of this world were more mature. A blessing to some, but a curse to many as the cruelty of this world and the reality of their situation became apparent to them at such an early age.

Still it didn't mean that she could remember and recall all of her memories, in fact the furthest she could go back to was just before her quirk manifested. Around the time when she was 3 years old.

Since the memories before that time remain out of her grasp, she couldn't be completely sure. Perhaps, it started way before that time. Perhaps, it started from the time of her birth. But she recalled those stares, among the memories she could peek at, those mean looks directed towards her, stares screaming at her like she was some kind of abomination weighed heavily on her young mind, making it hard to breathe sometimes.

Was it because she didn't have a father? She grew up without actually being able to see him, though, despite her young age… She knew… Deep down… He existed…

'So why? Why ain'tcha here?! Why did ya leave us alone?!' She screamed in her mind with every bit of indignation her young soul could muster, yet there was no answer, there never was an answer.

...She couldn't understand. She couldn't understand where all the hate and the mean stares were coming from. She couldn't understand why they were directed towards her. She didn't understand how it was that she deserved them. She.Just.Couldn't.Understand.

Maybe adults could ignore all of it, most of the adults anyway, since some failed at even that, ending their lives of the perpetual misery it brought. For a little girl like her, however, dealing with them was very taxing. It took everything she could muster to do so and she did… she kept her head held high and ignored them all…

Was it because her mom was her only family? Was that the reason other kids didn't like to play with her? Questions, unending and unanswered, became her perpetual acquaintance.

'No! I was never mean to anyone!' She retorted to herself in response to those questions, yet there was no one to hear her, she was all alone, she was her only audience.

She was just a little girl trying to have fun, trying to make friends. She was cheerful, she was straightforward, she was... just... an ordinary little girl trying to live her life like any other individual… yet…

'So why?' She asked again, yet her question was left unheard, her soul being it's only listener.

Was it because her mom didn't have the same skin tone as her? Was it because she was the only one with dark skin around?

Her mom always told her that the color of her skin was beautiful, that she looked like an angel adorning it, her cute little angel. But did she mean it? She wasn't so sure anymore… After all, it was true: she was the only one with dark skin in her family. At least that's what her observation told her, she never met her father, so that question like all the others would be left unanswered.

'Is it wrong to be different? Is it my fault?' With no other alternative that slowly became the only conclusion to her.

Still, she was strong enough, mentally, to brush it off. She accepted the reality of her life, everything was finally coming together, she was getting used to it. Or so she thought until her quirk appeared, transforming her into a demi-human.

This caused her to be more ostracized than ever, naturally kids didn't yet know about notions such as discrimination or racism, but they didn't need to. It was the inherent trait of humans to cut off anything that went beyond normalcy. Besides, she, more than anyone, knew just how different she was from a 'normal' kid.

Her quirk brought her a few perks outweighing the cons in her social life: mainly enhanced strength, speed, dexterity and agility. Which helped her a lot at being the best at the games kids liked to play. And the fact that she was a girl didn't matter at such a young age where hormones had yet to develop in their bodies.

Although being the best at something didn't necessarily bring only good things, she could see it, the more she won, the more people hated her. Jealousy, envy, hatred, those traits couldn't be hidden by kids. But she didn't let them bring her down, she didn't let them step on her, she directly confronted the people hating her.

Sometimes they just ran off, clicking their tongues and badmouthing her under their breath. But other times a frontal confrontation was inevitable. It still didn't mean that she lost, no, very far from that, no one could beat her, it didn't matter if they were alone or in groups, she was unbeatable, she was the strongest.

She could still remember vividly that time a few weeks ago, when a group of demi-humans like her wanted to monopolize the volley-ball field. In fact, they had done that just to annoy her, her skin tone irked them and she knew it very well.

Sadly such was the reality of things. Even people like her, demi-humans, ostracized her, and for what… just to follow the norms of the so called 'society'. They were like sheeps following the shepherd, not knowing the butcher hidden within.

Even though they challenged her, to humiliate her, she didn't let herself fall to their tricks.

'Only cowards need a team!' Being left alone for so long had twisted and changed her vision of the world quite a bit, and made her more self-reliant than anything. She believed that alone, she was enough for whatever challenges life threw at her.

So it didn't come off as much of a surprise that she overcame that game and came victorious in a 1v6 volley-ball game. Her quirk helped her immensely, still even if other demi-humans had the same perks as her, no one had the same level of control and expertise as her. She was in a league of her own, a true genius when it came down to skills and utilizing her quirk.

Unfortunately, this incident brought her even more hate. And kids were regularly ganging up on her. While she found it bad, or even tiring at first, she started to get used to it and after some time it became boring and annoying.

Then, more time passed, her win rates piled up, she began to change... the thrill and gratification of winning became her life's main joy, a thing that made the ever pessimistic life worth living for. She started fighting more and more, and went to even greater lengths just to fight… just a bit more.

It became so bad that sometimes she even willingly antagonized people, just to fight, to beat them and revel in the joy it brought to her.

This earned her a nickname, a nickname she'll adopt in the later parts of her life, 'Bunny-eared Usako'.

'Now that I think about it, it was that day the dreams started.' She clenched her trembling hands in an attempt to stop them from doing so but failed. Giving up, she thought back to that day, to that time when she was eating candy after finishing that volley-ball game.

It was given to her by a kind looking man in a business suit, he looked quite professional and trust-worthy to her. He even said the candy had beneficial effects for her body and mind. So she ate it, 'it couldn't be bad' she thought at that time before shrugging…

If only she knew… It was truly unfortunate that 4 year old kids didn't have any interest in watching the news, or else she would've known that it was some kind of drug, sadly kids weren't like Kurai, a reincarnated person.

It wasn't that bad at the beginning for her… At the beginning… In fact, it could be said that it was a blessing in disguise, because to this day, the very first dream induced by the drug had helped her stand her ground against all the other 'nightmares' brought up by the same god forsaken drug.

It helped her climb on her feet from each setback the never ending nightmares brought on her life.

Each time she thought she couldn't stand it anymore.

Each time the weight on her mind was too heavy for her weary soul.

Each time people swore at her.

Each time people were mean to her.

Each time she was dead tired of her painful existence in this rotten world.

Each time she was left alone.

Each time she helped someone, without even getting a small 'thank you' in return, instead being subjected to the mean look someone would only give to some piece of useless trash.

She just had to…

"...'Smile'..." She softly muttered, a faint smile adorning her trembling lips.

She remembered that dream…

Strangely enough, she still recalled that dream, as if she only woke up from it. And weirdly, the dream seemed very realistic, as if it were not a figment of her imaginary mind but a happenstance of reality.

She was in a park, alone, sitting on a swinger, lost in her thoughts when she heard a kid shouting for help. Immediately, she jumped out of the swinger with agility, and landed safely a few meters further. There she was greeted with the sight of a raccoon girl, close to her age, being picked on by what looked like two tall middle school boys.

Naturally, she was afraid but as someone whose dream was to be a hero, she just couldn't let a poor person suffer before her eyes. She gathered her courage and sprung forward with all the force she could muster with her quirk, rotating her body and launching a flying side kick straight into the belly of the, seemingly, 12 year old bully.

The two boys didn't see her coming, all their focus was on the poor girl, when suddenly, a bunny girl appeared in their tunnel vision, before they could even blink one of them was already on the ground, his hand clutching his belly rolling in pain and groaning like the little bitch he was.

The rest of the 'fight' was set in stone for her, she was way too fast for the second bully and even with his quirk he couldn't match her. In the end, they ran away crying while she was laughing with her arms crossed, her head held high, a few bruises and scratches here and there. She also helped the little girl get back on her feet.

Everything seemed well until then, that's how heroes should act, saving the innocents from big bad guys, even when it's hard or when they are afraid. But she wasn't nearly ready to face what happened afterwards.

The 2 boys came back with their parents, and it was then that the true horror started, that day she learned how scary adults could really be. They didn't even try to listen to her reasoning and arguments or find out about who was in the wrong in the first place, they just biasedly defended their sons. As a child, a young girl at that, she couldn't resist the lashing of grown up adults, so she ran away.

Finding her place back on the swing, she slowly started crying. She thought back at her actions, she knew that she was violent in her attempt to save the girl, but she didn't particularly have any choice left. Did she do something wrong? Shouldn't heroes save people? So why did those parents come back to shout at her for defending someone?

She didn't understand, no, she couldn't, so she continued to weep, alone and silently… The reality, the cruelty became too much to bear even for her.

After a while, a person approached her. While in her dream she seemed to not know who the person was, it couldn't be more wrong after she woke up that day…

After all, that person was none other than Nana Shimura, her idol, or more like every little girl's idol. She obviously knew about her history, track records and death. But her admiration for her, even if she was a past hero, didn't diminish. She was the sole female hero who had attained the top of the rankings. And just that was enough to set her heart ablaze in endless admiration for Nana.

It was thanks to Nana that she wanted to become a hero, and she still did. Though in her dream, it seemed that all this knowledge had been forgotten, as if the dream was just an act and she was an actor following a predetermined script.

Nana was just walking down the streets enjoying the peaceful afternoon when she saw a lonely rabbit girl sitting on a swing with her head down, the swing unmoving.

"Hey there! It's getting late!" Nana informed her, coming close to her.

She continued, "Kids should start heading home! It can get pretty scary when it gets dark, you know." Yet, the little girl remained unmoving, her head still down as if she didn't hear a single word Nana said.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" She asked, now worried about the cute child.

Nana could hear the faint sniffles of the little girl, it looked like she was trying to stop herself from crying. A smile adorned Nana's lips at her attempt to look brave, yet her heart was also sad at seeing a kid crying all alone in this desolate playground.

The little bunny girl slowly raised her head and looked at her, tears peeking at the corner of her eyes, holding them in she muttered to Nana in a trembling voice, "I saw a raccoon girl getting picked on by other kids..."

This time she couldn't hold it in anymore, the held back tears overflowed and streaked down the sides of her face like a never ending tide. She hastily hid her eyes behind her sleeves, trying to make it look to Nana like she was trying to scratch something with the back of her hand, trying her best to not show a random stranger this embarrassing side of hers.

"I wanted to help her! But the adults came! And I was so scared! Then I ran away from the fear instead!"

*Sniffle*

She stopped a bit, taking deep breaths. She finally put a hold on her tears and dried her face with the back end of her sleeves. She resumed again, "How could I be a hero if I get scared so easily?"

Nana understood what transpired pretty easily, it wasn't that hard after all. The bullies, after getting their asses handed to them by a girl far smaller than them in all aspects, went to cry to their parents, who unleashed their hate on her without even trying to determine who was in the wrong in the first place.

She lifted the little girl's head and made her look into her own eyes. She softly patted her head, between her long and fluffy white bunny ears in an attempt to console the little girl.

Showing her best smile, Nana exclaimed cheerfully, "Wow! You're so brave! You're already showing that you want to help other people in trouble at such a young age!" She complimented her with utmost genuineness. The courage, the thought and the bravery of this 4-5 year old girl truly stupefied her.

"So look… listen to me." Nana slowly and gently wiped the tears peeking through in the corner of her eyes.

"If you ever get scared just smile! By facing your troubles with a smile, you're showing that you aren't afraid! You'll find that when you smile, you're not just giving yourself courage, but also spreading that to the people you're saving too." She mimicked a smile on the little girl's face with her index fingers, raising her cheeks upwards and spreading her lips into a wide grin.

The little girl understood Nana's intentions and calmed down first. Forgetting everything that happened until now, she breathed out.

She then let out a refreshing smile, her white hair contrasting with her chocolate brown skin made her look that much cuter. Her cute look and refreshing smile enchanted Nana.

"Like this?" She said imitating the smile Nana showed her.

Nana smiled back at her too, standing straight from her crouching position, "You have such a refreshing smile! Good! A strong hero must be able to recover fast! I can already tell you'll be a super strong pro hero in the future! One that saves a ton of people!"

She crouched down again, caressing her chubby chocolate toned cheeks with her thumb, "Can I get an early autograph?" Nana asked cheerfully.

Sadly the dream became muddled from there on, she wished oh-so much to remember more of that dream with her idol but she couldn't. That was the only good dream she ever had, so she had even more reason to try and remember it.

What she didn't know was that those dreams were the exact effects of the drug described in the news, a good dream first then the dreams only started degrading further, getting worse and worse as time passed on.

That's also why it was a blessing in disguise, the dream with Nana helped her go through every nightmare until now.

It helped her get through her harsh daily life. But for how long… she wondered in despair.

'I'll overcome all this alone! I don't need help!' Laying on her back, she raised her fist to the ceiling, shouting her last sentence with endless determination… The feeling of sleep slowly started creeping in on her psyche.

Her mental fortitude was strong enough and thanks to Nana's help she didn't succumb to any kind of trauma. But it wasn't without side effects, her character started becoming rougher and more violent with others, unknowingly she longed for danger, extreme sensations and thrill or just a fight with stakes that fuelled all those emotions and more..

Her changing personality was a variable to her plan, a hindrance, a curse but her ambitions remained firm.

'I'll be like her!' She decided as she felt her eyelids weighing more and more making it harder to stop them from closing shut.

'I'll show them all that I don't need anyone's help!' Her raised fist slowly fell on the bed.

'I'll be the top female hero one day!' Her eyelids started closing, her eyelashes dropping yet the determination in her eyes never dimmed.

'One day…' Sleep finally hit her and her eyes closed.

But, until that day came, she had to be strong, she had to win, she had to face the world and help people… she just needed to...

"...Smile…" Echoed an inaudible murmur…

And in that murmur lay the dream of a young girl going against all odds to fulfill her dream…

To be the greatest female hero…