The next day during lunch, Sora was walking to the cafeteria like usual.
On his way to the cafeteria, a group of little girls were walking past him. Amongst them was that little girl from yesterday.
Sora looked at the yellow eyed girl and the fake smile she was carrying once more on her face.
As if she could feel Sora's gaze on her, the little girl turned her head and coincidentally met the golden eyes of the ten year old boy who helped her yesterday.
At that moment, an inexplicable fuzzy feeling within her churned lightly after seeing him.
Joy.
As simple as that.
She felt happy to see him again. The little girl genuinely felt happy, which she hadn't experienced in a long time.
But…
The girl's thoughts wandered as she thought of her problems and drew her gaze away from Sora. Afraid of something… not of him, but what he would think of her.
…
'Poor girl. She's carrying a weight she shouldn't have,' Sora thought as he watched the little girl try to fit in with the other girls.
Stopping in his tracks, Sora's eyes flashed before he made up his mind.
Continuing on his way to the cafeteria, Sora continued on with his day.
***
After school, a little girl was walking home alone.
She walked slowly, as if she didn't want to return home. Her steps steady but she would make constant stops as she looked at the areas around her.
Coincidentally, on her way home, the little girl noticed a wounded puppy.
She stopped in her tracks and looked at the puppy in a stunned manner.
Silently, she stood there as her yellow eyes gazed at the puppy before trailing down to its wounds. Something in her urged her forward.
She crouched down next to the wounded puppy and caressed it, not minding the blood from the dog touching her hand. Her eyes shined and a smile was on her face as if she was seeing the most interesting thing.
The little girl stopped petting the puppy and looked at her bloodied hand with morbid interest.
"Is this if?"
Suddenly, the girl heard a voice directly behind her.
Usually she wouldn't care much, but this voice was extremely familiar. Her eyes dilated and the little girl turned around in fear, afraid of what she was about to see.
Gold.
Piercing golden eyes.
That's what stared back the little girl as she turned around, her heart beating a million miles a minute.
'No… no… NOO!!'
The little girl stood up and turned to run away, refusing to believe what was happening. She had finally met someone really nice who noticed her pain, her fake smile, and really spoke to her.
Yet just like before, as she tried to run, she found that her feet were dangling in the air.
"Let me go!"
The little girl cried, afraid to hear whatever Sora had to say.
"It's okay…"
The little girl trembled at Sora's gentle tone, her screaming died down and she dangled from Sora's hand in a daze.
She could see Sora's gentle smile.
Her little eyebrows scrunched together lightly, tears threatening to come out of her face. She felt vulnerable in front of Sora. Like if he could see right through her heart and her facade.
Her little lips trembled and before she knew it, she found herself crying.
…
After the little girl calmed down, Sora quietly stood in front of her as she retold the story of when she was only 6 years old.
How she was playing in the yard at her house after returning from school and found a cat with a little bird in its mouth. She watched curiously as the cat was scared by her presence and dropped the dead little bird.
She had simply approached the little bird and only looked at it curiously. Yet, when her eyes landed on the dead bird, she had thought that the bird looked so beautiful.
No.
That wasn't it.
Not the bird.
The blood.
It had a beautiful red color and lustrous shine. It's smell was fragrant and the girl couldn't believe what she was seeing.
She picked it up.
Her eyes twinkled in joy.
Happiness filled her heart.
She wanted her mom and dad to see it. To see the most pretty thing she has ever laid eyes upon.
However, things didn't go the way she believed they would.
The happy moment she thought she could share with her parents was instead the most terrible moment of her life.
Her parents looked at her in disgust and fear.
They were disgusted by her interest in blood.
They accused her of killing the bird.
They didn't want to listen to her.
No matter how she tried to explain, her parents refused to listen as they believed her to be crazy and psychopathic.
They forced her to be 'normal' as they wished to never see her true self ever again. Even now after two years, her parents talked less and less with her than before.
…
Hearing the little girl's story, Sora could only sigh before patting the girl's head.
During his time at school, aside from training and learning everything he could, Sora studied quirks.
He read through various books and articles and knew that one's Quirk can affect their emotions, desires, and sometimes even thoughts.
However, the method to deal with this wasn't to ignore the Quirk's' desires' and bottle them up. This would only make the desires continue to get worse and eventually explode out in the worst possible way.
The best method to deal with the Quirk's' desires' is to lightly play into them. That would help curve the desires, give in too much and the Quirk may ask for more.
It was like an addiction.
"Hey, I think you're pretty normal to me. Don't let your parents hide who you are. We all express ourselves differently, the only thing that matters is that you don't fall into the wrong path," Sora said as he lectured the little girl.
In this case here, when Sora said 'wrong path', he wasn't necessarily meaning evil, but rather about any path that led anywhere else but happiness with one's self.
The little girl looked up at Sora, her eyes still red from her crying. She lightly shook her head, knowing that she would only gain her parents fear and disapproval if she did so.
Smiling, Sora expected her to answer this way.
He first needed to give her an impossible suggestion. Only then would she really consider some options.
The little girl still had some reservations and truly worried about what her parents thought of her. If that wasn't the case, she wouldn't have followed their charade for the past two years.
"Alright then, be yourself when you're with me," Sora said as he placed a hand on the girl's head.
The little girl looked up at Sora with her big doe eyes and eventually nodded.
Nodding, Sora pulled his hand away from her head.
"Then…"
Getting down on one knee, Sora didn't have to look down at the little girl anymore.
Although both children were around the same age, the little girl was of average height for an 8 year old. Sora on the other hand, was a little more tall and slightly robust compared to other 10 year olds.
He could even pass for a 13 year old.
Despite his harsh training, his regeneration not only helped temper his body, but his regeneration made sure his body grew up in the best conditions.
Because of this, Sora was always healthy and stronger than those his age, not including his training.
Continuing his pure physical strength, Sora was stronger than a large majority of adults, his body even tougher than that.
His endurance? Even stronger than hundreds of horses combined.
"Nice to meet you," Sora said as he looked at the little girl in front of him, their eye levels now closer than before. "I'm Sora."
The little girl's eyes glimmered at what Sora was doing. As if she finally realized that Sora really was willing to be there for her.
Her wide eyes closed in joy and a wide smile spread on her face.
"I'm Toga! Himiko Toga!"
…
"Mm, I see. So your quirk revolves around blood," Sora said, analyzing everything Toga was telling him.
Aside from knowing that she wanted blood, Toga didn't know much about her Quirk since her parents didn't let her explore it any further.
"Do you want to know about your Quirk?" Sora asked meaningfully as he turned to look at Toga,
Scrunching her little eyebrows, Toga put on a thinking face as she wondered to herself.
Did she really want to know about her Quirk?
Was she willing to find out more at the cost of her parents finding out?
Thinking hard for a moment, Toga looked Sora hard in the eyes before subtly nodding.
"I want to figure out why my parents hate me," Toga said, her eyes full of seriousness and sadness.
Hearing her answer, Sora gave Toga a deep look as he wondered what was going on through Toga's parents' heads. Why would they do such a thing to a child? Much less one as adorable as Toga?
"That might be something you will never understand," Sora mumbled mysteriously as he pat Toga's head. "Okay then. To study your Quirk, we need to give you blood," Sora said as he thought for a moment. "Would any blood do, Toga?"
Toga tilted her head, never really ever thought of the question.
"I… I don't think so?" Toga asked, her eyes looking up at the sky as she thought to herself.
She's had a fascination towards the blood of animals, but she never really had any towards human blood. Mainly because she really hasn't seen any before.
"Guessing by your expression, you probably don't have much experience with human blood," Sora said, noticing Toga's facial expression.
"No… I haven't."
Toga lowered her head as if she had disappointed Sora.
"Alright, give me a second," Sora said as he bright his hand up to his mouth.
Bringing his index finger over to his mouth, Sora bit on his flesh before chopping down fiercely.
Ptchi!
Blood shot out from Sora's index finger, splattering a little on the corner of his lips. His finger on the other hand was just about to begin healing when Sora controlled his regeneration quirk.
Blood dripped from his finger and Sora could feel Toga staring at his finger. Her eyes seemed to be shining with stars and her cheeks were rosy, desire bloomed deep within her eyes.
"Toga-"
Just as Sora was about to ask Toga about her thoughts on his blood, he saw her open her little mouth and approach his finger. Her hands grabbed at his wrist and she placed her mouth over his finger.
Her tongue licked at Sora's wound and she sucked greedily, sucking Sora's blood and drinking it.
"Toga… we need to teach you restraint," Sora said looking at Toga's flushed face as she sucked at his finger.
"Mm?"
Toga looked up at Sora, confused as to what he meant.
Mbop!
Pulling her mouth away from Sora's finger, a single strand of saliva connected her to his finger.
"Restraint? Why?" Toga asked, wondering why Sora would say such a thing.
Looking down at Sora's finger. Toga revealed a disappointed look on her face, no longer able to see the blood.
"You're Quirk can not control you. It's part of you, not the other way around," explained Sora.
It was quite a common case among children for them to follow the desires of their Quirks. Then, as they grow older, they slowly learn to control their Quirks. Others managed to incorporate it into their lives.
"Okay," Toga said, not the least bit embarrassed by what she had done.
"Alright, don't worry about anything," Sora said as he put his hand on Toga's head. "Your Quirk control training will happen during lunch at school."
"Mm!"
Toga nodded, the smile on her face wide with a light blush on her cheeks. She was excited to not just begin learning more about her quirk and no longer having to hide, but that she would be doing it with her new friend, Sora.
"Head on home then," Sora said, sending Toga off with a smile.
"I'll see you at school tomorrow, Sora-chi!"
Toga walked away, a wide grin on her face as she waved goodbye to a confused Sora.
"Sora-chi?"