Resurrected Reaper

?? Memories ??

He can hear someone calling him within the blackness he's surrounded by. He doesn't recognise the name, but somehow he knows they mean him.
He turns his body, turning his head left and right to look for the voice, only to be met with more darkness.
Perhaps he'd gone blind, perhaps he'd never left the laboratory and this had all been an elaborate dream conjured up by his brain whilst comatose.

"Hello?" He calls back anyway.

The name is called again in return, sounding closer. Zero reaches out, trying to make contact with something, someone, anything.

"Come out." He pleads. "I miss you."

He doesn't know why those words leave him. Was he even capable of missing people anymore? He didn't even know who it was calling out for him.
But the voice's owner is revealed, sudden light shining on long silver hair, a small, youthful face being revealed slowly too.
For some inexplicable reason, he knows who it is.

"Chiyo." He breathes.

She repeats the unfamiliar name, smiling at him softly. A warm, friendly, pretty and loving smile. Loving blue eyes gaze at him through strands of silver hair, and he feels at home.

"I thought you were gone." He says, reaching for her.

He's confused, deep down. He doesn't know how he knows this girl, or why he's filled by the overwhelming need to protect her, he just knows that he has to.

"Not gone. I'm still in here." Chiyo responds with a playful grin and a tap against Zero's skull. "What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" He asks.

"Well, you're all scarred up. Your eyes are different colours, too." Chiyo explains, still smiling softly. "Mom would cry seeing all this."

The mention of 'mom' pulls uncomfortably at Zero's chest, and he can't stop himself from frowning in response to the girls words.

"Don't say things like that." Zero chastises gently.

Chiyo giggles at the gentle telling off, and there's something familiar about it, something that makes Zero's chest go warm in response.
She wraps her arms around his waist fluidly, resting her cheek against his chest in a way that Zero can't help but feel like he'd felt her do a million times before.

"I missed you too." She says warmly, pressing even harder against his chest. "I'm happy you remember me."

And Zero doesn't have the heart to tell her that he doesn't. He remembers her name, but everything else is far away and foggy. He can only really feel that he's meant to care for the girl, only has vague and distant memories of her hugging him like this and that her being here, talking to him... it made him feel at ease.
Like something important that had been missing had finally been found and put back into its place.

"Are they looking after you? Like you looked after me?" She asks, looking up at him with innocent and sparkling blue eyes.

It reminded him of Star. How she would look at Dabi when he had her curled up in his arms, or when he would tell her something important and she would listen dutifully.

But he wasn't a father. He could never be a father. He didn't have the time, the ability to love anymore and he'd never really been interested in having a child.
So what was she? Who was she?