1 Where it Started

A young girl sat quietly in a soft rattan chair overlooking a small pond. Iridescent blue scales shimmered brilliantly in the sun while her completely gold eyes watched the pond. Bright red antler-like horns protruded out from the top of her forehead just before her lavender hairline. Large finned ears would twitch at every sound around her and would droop and perk with her emotions.

The atmosphere was tranquil around the pond, although a tense silence surrounded the girl. She watched the pond pensively. Her father was supposed to come back soon. He went to go for a swim and bring her some pearls. Unfortunately, that was hours ago in the early dawn. Now it was the middle of the day. Her skin was getting itchy, and her scales had started to dry out. However, she refused to leave her spot. She wanted to greet her father happily when he finally returned.

More hours had passed, fear had filled her being, and tears started to fall. The sun was starting to set and he had yet to return. There was only one thing she could do. She hopped off the chair, only to trip from the weight of a long, thickly muscled dolphin tail. More tears fell from her eyes as she slowly got up and held her tail close to her. She made her way to the closet to get a coat before running out.

She had to find a hero agency so they could help her! That's what heroes do! There had to be an agency nearby.

The young girl walked for what felt like hours. Her feet were blistered and bleeding from walking barefoot on the pavement and some glass. She tried to ignore that as a tall building came into view, making her pick up the pace. Once she made it into the agency, her feet were oozing blue blood. They left a small trail behind her as she made her way to the receptionist's desk.

Unfortunately, she was too small to see the top of the desk, but luckily her horns made up for her small size. The receptionist took notice of the bright red horns poking up from the other side. He leaned forward peering over and seeing a small blue-skinned girl. Normally the man wouldn't be overly surprised that a child came into an agency, mostly in the hopes of seeing their favourite hero. However, the state of this particular child sent him into emergency mode.

The man quickly hit the emergency button on under his desk, before coming around to see if the child was alright. He gently picked her up, bringing her to a private lounge where sidekicks started to gather from his emergency button. He set her on the table, smiling at her and giving soothing words. Some of the sidekicks rushed out, one had gone for a first aid kit, a second to get their boss, and a third to contact the police.

The first intern returned relatively quickly with not only a first aid kit but with a tube of cream for her scales and skin. It wasn't long after the first intern returned that the second came back followed by two pro heroes, their boss Wirebrand and Endeavor.

Wirebrand was the 4th rank hero known as the Geisha Hero. She was a tall, voluptuous woman who wore her white hair up in a maiko hairstyle with elaborate dangling kanzashi. Known for wearing a low, off shoulder kimonos that her chest seemed to never fall out of. Her face was neutral, only widening in surprise at just who was requiring their help that her interns came to get her and her guest.

Endeavor lost his usual stern and angry look when he caught sight of the girl. He couldn't tell if she locked eyes with him until she called to him and Wirebrand.

"Please help! My dad hasn't come home!"

She cried out to the two pro heroes, large tears falling from her eyes. One of the interns rubbed the girls back as another finished plucking the glass from her feet and wrapped them up in bandages. The child had started hiccuping from her crying and concern for her father, hoping one of them could do something to help her.

Wirebrand stepped forward and took the scale ointment from an intern and started to rub it on the girl's arm. Smiling at the distraught child, she slowly soothed the girl.

Endeavor watched his colleague gently question the child. "Okay we'll go help your father, but first I need to know your name." Wirebrand's voice was smooth and calming, grabbing the child's full attention. She finished rubbing the ointment on the little girl's skin and wiped her thumbs under her luminous eyes to get rid of her tear streaks.

"Yamazaki Sango..." The little girl sniffed, looking up at the kind woman. Wirebrand nodded, gently smoothing the lavender hair that stuck up in odd places. Sango pulled her tail close to her and held it close like one would a stuffed animal.

"And what's your father's name?" Endeavor was the one to ask this time as his colleague was busy fussing over the girl's dirt-covered sundress, getting one of her interns to go fetch some unsoiled clothes the child's size. She looked up at the Flaming Hero in awe.

"N-Neuri."

Everyone froze around Sango when she said her father's name, the remaining interns looking at both Endeavour and Wirebrand. The child noticed how everyone around had stopped what they were doing.

Yamazaki, though an uncommon surname, was still a relatively shared by a significant portion of people. However, there was only one Yamazaki Neuri, a notorious and deadly smuggler. A smuggler that had gotten caught early this morning when he went to get paid from a black market contact. A criminal having a child complicated things, but this felt it was going to be far more complicated.

Wouldn't a criminal teach their children to avoid heroes and their agencies?

Endeavor thought this to himself, something felt off about this. He looked over and made eye contact with the Geisha hero. He could see that she thought the same as him. The third intern from earlier, the chief of police and another new intern following close behind them. While Wirebrand stayed next to Sango, Endeavour stepped to the side with the police chief leaving the new intern to stand awkwardly in the room.

As the newcomer stood there, the sound of sniffling stopped completely. Sango's golden eyes were drawn to their form. Wirebrand followed the child's eyes and caught sight of one of the newest interns, Kugo Sakamata. A large smile overcame the child's features and soon she slowly got down from the table, letting her large tail drop with a thud. As soon as her feet hit the ground she tried to run to the intern, only to have her weighty tail pull her back and fall face-first into the floor.

Sango quickly picked herself up, her face flushing a darker shade of blue, and made her way to him. She looked at the tall teen with bright, gleaming eyes and wiggling fin ears. "Killer Whale!!" She beamed up at the intern, catching him off guard. The teen intern looked down at the girl in shock. He wasn't even a licensed hero yet, only having a debut from the sports festival, then there was the matter of his appearance. The teen was quite intimidating to most, especially to those younger than him.

Endeavor looked over towards the two youngest in the room. He watched as the teen intern having become flustered from Sango's pure adoration. Kugo quickly swallowed and being as careful as he could speak to her.

"Hello, I'm Kugo, who're you?" He didn't want to scare her, considering she may be the only fan of his. She would have smiled wider if that were possible, looking up at the much taller boy.

"My name is Sango and you're the killer whale boy from the tv! You're gonna be my favourite hero!" She exclaimed happily, her tail gave a slight wriggle in her arms, making it difficult for her to hold on to. Looking at the two of them, Endeavor decided to bite the bullet and get the conversation out of the way. However, the police chief beat him to it.

"Sango, we think your father may be at the police station. You'd be able to recognize him if he was there right?" He said, making his way to the young girl. The police chief was a larger man with a kind face and a large bushy mustache. Large horns protruded out the sides of his head, giving him a bullish appearance. He smiled gently down at the young girl, unable to hide the pity in his gaze. Looking up at the man, she nodded, hugging her tail just a smidge tighter. The intern that Wirebrand had sent for new clothes came back in, bringing another dress and some shoes.

"Alright, when you get changed into those clothes, we'll head to the station and see if he's there."

Wirebrand quickly whisked the young girl away and to a private room. She looked down at the young girl and sighed. She decided against letting the girl finding out the truth at the station.

"Sango. There's something I need to tell you." The beautiful woman bit her ruby painted lip when those gold eyes looked into her blue eyes. Taking a deep breath she continued, sitting down and bringing the young girl with her. "Your father... may have done some bad things, and possibly hurt many people. If that is the case, we, as heroes have to enforce the law and he'll go to prison. Okay?"

She spoke slowly, running her fingers through Sango's lavender hair. It was better to get this over with and deal with the emotions first than deal with it at the moment that it happens. This way she could decide for herself how to feel and think over if it was true. The little girl crinkled her brows and the quickly shook her head. It wasn't long till tears pooled up in her eyes, and she was trying to push away from the woman.

"No! T-that's wrong! My dad is a good person, he always makes time for me. And when he leaves for work for a long time he brings me presents. There's no way he's bad." She cried out at the hero. Sango refused to believe that her father could possibly be a bad man. She was loving, and always cared for her. She never went without, he always made sure of that. She struggled to get away from the hero, only for Wirebrand to clutch onto her more in a tight hug.

The older woman hushed her, brushing through the lavender strand of hair. "Shh, it'll be okay. You must come to understand that this is true. You have to be prepared for that. Has there ever been a time where your father had been gone for days or weeks at a time?" She asked though the child had gone from struggling to holding onto the kimono-clad woman.

She shook her head trying to deny it, though she was right, there were times her father left her for times like that. Sshe wanted so badly to deny what she said, it couldn't be true. Sniffing and holdng onto her, shee hoped none of it was true.

"Can we go see my dad now?" She croaked out softly, pulling away from Wirebrand. She recieved a soft smile as aa hand weaaved itself through her hair.

"Of course, but first let's get you in those new clothes. We dont want you to worry him in such a state, right?" Her smile grew to be almost motherly, and only wider wwhen Sango nodded at went to put on the new clothes and shoes.

With new clothes on and new shoes, Wirebrand and Sango exited the private room with thee latter clutching the former's kimono sleeve tightly. The police chief smiled at the young girl, giving her a compliment on her new clothes. "My my, don't you look pretty." a wave of heat flew up to her cheeks staining them a dark blue from her blush.

"T-Thank you Sir."

The police chief grinned aand then turned to Endeavor and Kugo, shaking both of theiir hands. "Thank you both for all your help today! Sakamata, with your carring personality and attitude you'll make it very far as a hero, I look forward to working with you in the future." He gave the Orca-looking teen a hefty clap on the shoulder, turning to make his way to Wirebrand and Sango. He looked back over to Endeavor and waved to him, "I'lll let you know how it goes Endeavor."

The man nodded and watched as the trio walked out. Wirebrand stopped at the door and turned to the teen intern. "Kugo, feel free to head up to the personel quarters, you did a wonderfu job today, please take the rest of the day off." She gave him the same warm smile she would give to those she had soft spots for. After telling him thatshe walked out with the young girl following, though she too turned and gave him a large smile andd a wave.

The silence was mostly tense as the three drove to the police station. While the two adults were trying to decide what to do when they arrived at the station and Neuri, Sango sat and admired the car, she had never been in one before. Everything went by so much faster. The blurring colours passed by, making it hard to focus on anything. She was seeing more people on the street than she had ever seen in her life. They finally made it to the station and a different kind of apprehension filled each one of them.

Upon entering, Sango caught sight of her father handcuffed to a desk next to a hard faced officer. Her eyes widened and tears fell from her eyes as she rushed for him.

"Dad!!"

The man immediately stood up, yanking his arm harshly from the desk holding his seven foot tall self to a more standard height. He hissed form the slight pain, still kept his eyes on the trained on her. She rushed and hugged one of his long legs tightly, digging her face in it and cried. A large hand came to rest on her head fondly. His normally cold, orange eyes melted into a warm pool of apricot as he gazed down at her.

He soon kneeled, hugging her close and rubbing her back with his free hand. There was no way he was a bad man, he was too loving. Bad guys didn't love anything. She thought this to herself.

"Shh... It's okay my little jewel. I'm here now."

She looked up at her father with tears eyes nodding. The police officers that were watching felt nauseous, there was no easy way to deal with this type of situation. Wirebrand stood to the side watching the criminal with a neutral expression. There was something not right about this entire display.

Neuri was thought to be a sociopath, lacking the ability to feel such level of compassion that he was displaying for this child. From what she was observing, this man was genuine, the compassion he shown towards Sango was that of a worried parent. He moved from kneeling on he floor to sitting, pulling his daughter to his lap and holding her closer as she cried and held onto him till she fell asleep.

"What is really going on Neuri." Wirebrand voice cut through the atmosphere of the room like a hot knife. She wanted the truth, her instinct as a hero and as a woman said there was more to this than they knew.

The man sadly looked down at the sleeping girl in his arms. "It was the only way I could protect her." A long strand of lavender fell into his face. Moving it out of his face, he looked over the chief and Wirebrand. "I'll tell you everything I have ever done if you promise me two things."

Before anyone could object, the heroine raised her hand to silence everyone and agreed to his terms. He looked back down to his daughter and gently shook her awake.

"Wake up my little jewel you'll wanna hear this too."