7 Chapter 7: The Talking Mouse

[] Speaking English

{} Speaking German

Everything else is Japanese unless otherwise specified. (I won't be doing honorifics)

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God I feel drained… opening my eyes and blinking rapidly to adjust to the light I looked around.

I was in a hospital room, again, and my mom was asleep on the chair next to my bed. I must have been brought here after I passed out. On the bright side, since mom was sitting next to me it meant that she wasn't injured.

"Mommy….Mommy wake up…"

Looking at her I put on my most vulnerable sounding tone of voice and called out softly. The moment the first sounds left my mouth she was up and alert, I could feel the attentiveness and implied threat in the air. She must have been on edge and watching over me the whole time.

Looking down at me all the tension in the air dissipated in an instant, her facial expressions changed rapidly before finally settling on relief. Tears welled up in her eyes and she nearly jumped to embrace me.

"A-Ayah, I'm so sorry… I should have done something. You should have never had to do…that."

"I-It's okay… I will protect mommy!"

I said that with all the conviction I could muster, which considering how I felt was a lot. However, my words seemed to be the final straw for mom as she jumped at me and embraced me while sobbing.

"Y-you don't have to worry about that, mommy will be the one protecting you. You'll never have to do this again… or my name isn't Zara Crawford!"

*Bang*

Both of us jumped at the loud noise of the door slamming open. Turning to look I saw dad standing in the door frame, panting like he ran all the way here. He immediately ran over and embraced me and mom in a hug.

"You're both okay… thank god."

Following that mom began to explain what had happened while I sat there, hugged by both my parents and in extreme bliss.

After my dad was caught up he stood up and punched the wall, leaving a sizable dent much to my surprise.

"Mr. Krieger you're going to have to pay for that."

Looking over towards the door I saw the same man from earlier, although not in costume this time, standing there with a… white plushie on his shoulder?

As I sat there trying to not laugh at the the image of this big gruff guy with a stuffed animal on his shoulder, the plushie moved.

"Yes, Mr. Krieger that was very irresponsible. Especially expressing such… intense anger in front of a child."

"What…?"

"Ah, yes hello there young lady. My name is Nezu. You must be little Ayah correct?"

"You can talk."

"Why yes, a very astute observation. I can indeed talk."

*pfft*

Looking over at the source of the noise I saw my mom holding in laughter at the sight of me talking to the…mouse? Wait, an animal that talks? Isn't this the principle of the school? I'm so behind on my knowledge, I really need that internet access. I was about to ask for confirmation when the gruff guy standing in the back spoke up.

"Nezu, we have places to be so please speed it up."

"Fine, don't be such a party-pooper Vlad. Anywho Mr. and Mrs. Krieger I'm here to inform you about multiple things. So do you want the bad news or the worse news first?"

After looking at each other in worry dad spoke.

"Um, we'll take the not so bad news?"

"Great, so basically your daughter is having charges pressed against her by Hamada Miyuki the owner of the Hagane Support Corporation and the mother of the deceased. The two eye witnesses on scene were two officers, one of which received a large payment and retired in the last 6 hours. The other has been receiving payments from a shell corporation of the Hagane Support Corporation for the past year."

"T-that's the not so bad news?"

"Yes, the worse news is that the government is very upset at your daughter right now."

"What!? What's that supposed to mean."

My mom shot forward and began violently questioning the little mouse.

"Calm down Mrs. Krieger, it's not as bad as it sounds. Basically your daughters quirk managed to slip through the cracks somehow. All creation quirks are heavily regulated based on their ability limitations. Somehow nobody noticed your daughters quirk. And then she created a weapon and killed someone with it. Currently in an effort to cover their own hides they want to subscribe her quirk suppression tablets."

"I'll kill them."

Following Nezu's statement mom let out a palpable wave of bloodlust. I hadn't felt bloodlust this intense since the final boss of the Demon Invasion arc of MagikaVR. Dad quickly grabbed her arm and the bloodlust faded away nearly instantly.

"Darling calm down, we can't kill anybody… not now that we'd be the primary suspects."

What was that at the end!? Sure he whispered but everyone here is a professional and definitely heard it.

"Yes well, I've done all I can to buy you time. They won't be coming for her till after the trial. It could probably be conveniently solved if one of you happens to be the estranged heiress of an English aristocratic family…"

*cough*

"Can everyone leave the room for a moment, I need to make a phone call."

The moment Nezu finished his oddly specific suggestion moms face became extremely determined and she pulled out her phone. She turned to dad, gave him a nod, and asked us all to leave.

Following my dad outside I turned to try and pet Nezu… what I may be 25 mentally and a highly experienced killer, even if that experience was mainly virtual in nature, but I was still a girl and was allowed to like cute things.

For the next several seconds me and Nezu engaged in an intense battle of wits and reflexes. Sadly it ended in his victory, as expected of the hyper-intelligence quirk it truly was extraordinary.

Just as I was about to try again, even summoning a necklace to increase my speed and reflexes, I heard loud yelling from inside the room. With the yelling came sounds of things getting thrown followed by more yelling, and finally it all cumulated into soft sobbing.

Turning to look at my dad, my question obvious in my eyes, I blinked slightly. He looked down at me with an awkward look on his face.

"Your mom has a… complex relationship with her parents."

*click*

Turning around I saw mom open the door and step outside, tear trails still visible on her face.

"The problem with government and the Hagane Corporation will be solved by tonight."

Looking at Nezu and dad she nodded slightly.

"Well that's a relief, and what did your parents want for their help? Is it still about marrying me?"

"No, nothing like that. They were incredibly happy to find out they had a granddaughter. So happy in fact that they are coming to visit."

As mom finished talking I watched dad visibly flinch. Were my grandparents that bad? Also how powerful are they? I knew that following the advent of quirks, aristocratic society had experienced a revival. But to pressure a national company and the nation itself? That's ridiculous.

"So grandma and grandpa are visiting?"

I put on the cutest expression I could in the hopes that one of my parents would monologue about my grandparents… what it worked in the novels I used to read!

"Yes they are angel, but daddy may have to go out of town while they're here."

No such luck, instead my dad crouched down to eye level and basically admitted that he'd be running away.

I wasn't going to take this, putting on my best deadpan voice and face I looked him right in the eyes.

"So daddy's running away from grandma and grandpa?"

Seeing mom nearly fall over in laughter and the expression on my dads face that basically screamed 'critical damage' made everything that happened in the past…how long was I out? Whatever, everything that had happened was washed away with such a comedic scene.

This was my new life, and I was going to do anything to protect it.

(POV Change)

As I watched the family bonding in front of me I smiled slightly. Vlad had gone to check what the Crawfords were doing to protect their granddaughter and I remained here.

Watching them interact was extremely pleasant, just a nice happy family. Suddenly I felt something coming from the child, turning to look I was met with cold eyes of steel and blood. I was no longer in a hospital, I was on a battlefield. Corpses laying around and in the midst a single young lady sat sharpening a sword.

*shudder*

What was that? My instincts have never reacted to something so violently before. Looking back at the child, I saw the happy innocent look that only children can have.

Was I wrong…? I swear something just happened there, I don't just get visions for no reason. I will have to keep an eye on this child, I must make sure that what I just saw was just my imagination, otherwise I might be looking at the greatest future villain of the generation.