"Yuki, how old are you?"
"Five."
"Five?"
"Five."
"When's your birthday?"
"January 28,"
"Shit."
"Language."
"Yeah, yeah." Mai waved him off. "Mine's on June 6! What are you going to get me?"
Yuki looked up from his worksheet and glanced over to Mai's worksheet.
"Nothing if you don't do your work." he bit back a chuckle.
"Meanie~" she whispered.
-.-.-
"What do you think about girls liking girls?" she asked one day.
Yuki continued to play in the sand. "Like friends?"
"No, like, like like."
"A couple?"
"Yes."
"I think it's okay. I used to know these men who have liked each other since they were in school." Yuki smiled fondly.
"Really?!" Yuki flinched at her surprise.
"Yes. they lived happily together until the very end." The girl's eyes saddened.
"I was gonna ask you to take me to them." she pouted.
Yuki held in a laugh. "They're on the other side of Japan."
"A bullet train!"
"I don't remember where they lived."
"Boo, Yuki. Boo!"
"Ahhhh..."
"I'm not trying to scare you!"
"Hai Hai."
-.-.-
"Yuki."
"Yes?"
"Do you think I'm pretty?"
Yuki looked up to meet her eyes. He took the time to look at her features before nodding firmly.
"Yes. Why?"
Her face erupted in a heavy blush.
"Don't say such things like that?!" she shrieked covering her face.
"But you asked me."
"I know!"
Yuki only tilted his head in confusion.
-.-.-
"Ne, are you sure you don't have a quirk?" Yuki asked her one day as they dug for more bugs.
"Nope! I'm quirkless. Are you sure you don't have a quirk?" she asked without looking up from the dirt.
"I'm sure. I'm almost 6 and nothing's happened."
"Good! We can be quirkless buddies for the rest of our lives!"
"The rest of our lives?"
"Yes! Got a problem with that?!" She frowned, glaring at Yuki.
"No. I'd like to have a buddy for the rest of my life." Yuki smiled now helping her move the pile of dirt into the hole again.
"Good! I wasn't gonna give you an option anyways!" she smugly stated, dusting off her hands.
-.-.-
The thing Yuki looked forward to the most was going to school.
This foster family weren't too strict on him, so long as he got the chores done on time. He even dared begin to make his own lunches. The mother having caught him once but she didn't particularly care so long as he cleaned up after himself.
He was grateful for that.
Where he didn't get attention and affection from the family he got from Mai. Who, in his opinion, had far too much to give.
She would at times cling onto him. Force him to carry her between her dramatics. Use him as a pillow to take an afternoon nap before heading home. And even as a stepping stool to reach higher up in the trees to look for more bugs.
For Mai's birthday he'd even dared to ask his foster parents to buy a certain type of fruit snacks. Not just any, but a certain type of fruit snacks. It was one that came with a surprise toy inside Mai had been on a mission to get but had to wait for the box to finish before her mom went to buy more.
He didn't get the special limited edition toy of the hero she wanted. But still gifted her three fruit snacks and the toy.
There were also days she wouldn't go to school. Mai never told him why but on those days he made sure to stay within a teachers sight during break or he'd get picked on.
Not that he thought the teachers would actually do anything.
-.-.-
"Mai?! Where have you been? You've been skipping school a lot lately..." Yuki's cheerful voice faded as soon as his friend turned to face him.
Her cheek had a dark bruise. There were messy bandages wrapped around her arms and on her left leg. Eyes puffy and red.
"Yuki! Have you really missed me that much?" her smile forced.
"W-What happened..." Yuki whispered slowly walking to her.
"What do you mean? Look! I found a really cool beatle while I was waiting for yo--AH!" Her ankle looked swollen.
"MAI!" Yuki dropped his school bag and ran to her.
For the first time since they've been friends she looked small.
Smaller than him. Her large presence and confidence are no longer there.
"Mai! Can you stand up? Come, we'll take you hom--"
"NO!" she slapped his hand away.
Yuki froze upon seeing his dear friend tremble.
"I can't go home right now...he's still there..."
Yuki didn't know what to do. Helping her rest against a tree, hidden a bit from plain sight.
"Yuki-kun."
"Y-yes?"
"Can you hug me?"
Yuki stayed quiet and gently wrapped one of his arms around her as she leaned on his shoulder.
There, she cried. Her tears were heavy. Almost completely drenching his shirt sleeve but he didn't care. His friend was hurt and at the moment he would do anything for her.
Yuki had an idea of what she might be going through, but he didn't want to force it out of her.
"Does it hurt?" he asked once her cries had been drained and only small hiccups came out.
She nodded, "yeah."
He slowly ran his fingers through hair in an attempt to sooth her before a small idea popped into his 5 year old head. He let his hand hover over her wrapped arms and gently began to sing,
"Pain, pain, go away. Pain, pain go away. Leave my friend alone for another day. Pain, go away and don't come back again..." Yuki bit onto his lip.
He felt so useless doing nothing as Mai laid on him, hurting.
"Please...pain...pain... go away..."
"It's not working Yuki." Mai grabbed onto his hand. "It never works..."
A sob escaped Yuki.
"Hey! You're supposed to be making me feel better not the other way around!" she tiredly teased.
Taking in a deep breath he began to sing again this time in an attempt to at least distract her of it.
"Pain~ Pain~ Go Away! Pain~ Pain~ Go Away!"
Mai laughed a little wincing from her injuries. "I told you already it doesn't--"
A warm blue light began to flicker from his palms. They both stared at awe as the blue light got intense and then faded away.
"Yuki, you said you didn't have a quirk..."
"I didn't think I did..."
"Lier!" she playfully punched his shoulder. "Huh?"
"What?"
Mai quickly pulled on her bandaged arm that had been under Yuki's blue light. "AH!"
"What? what happened?!"
She slowly turned her arm around for Yuki to see...nothing.
"Nothing's there--"
"That's the point! I was hurt and you-- Oh My GOD! YUKI! You have a HEALING QUIRK!" Mai shouted, excited for her friend, who had one of the rarest quirks one could possibly get.
"I do? A healing quirk? Is that cool?" Yuki wondered as he stared at his hands.
All the students at their school would tease them because they were quirkless but after Mai scared them off they'd go after other students who didn't have 'cool' quirks.
"It is! I'm so happy fo-- Ow!" Mai had been about to stand but in her excitement she'd forgotten about her swollen ankle.
"Does that mean, I can heal you right now?" Yuki's grey eyes filled with hope.
"I guess. But quirks are hard to use at first--"
"Then let me practice on you!"
"HA?! You want me to be your guinea pig!?"
"Oh... sorry."
Mai smiled tenderly at her friend, "Don't apologize! You can start with my foot. I now declare you my personal healer!" she grinned letting her leg fall onto his lap.
"I don't think it works that way..."
"Potato, french fry. Heal me my personal healer."
-.-.-
"Do you know how you're doing it?" Mai asked as she watched all her bruises slowly fade.
Yuki shook his head. "No, I don't feel tired. Do you?"
"No."
"Let's do your cheek now." Yuki nodded once the last bruise/cut was gone.
"My face?"
"Yeah, you have a... black eye?" Yuki tilted his head and tried to remember the things movies would say where one eye was swollen and looked a different color.
Once he was done he removed his hand from her face and the soft blue hue gone.
"Does your quirk make my face prettier?" Mai smiled cupping her face.
"No. you look the same."
Mai's smile fell at his bluntness.
"I was kidding." she huffed before looking up at the sky now painted with the sunset colors.
"That's my favorite kind of orange." she pointed to one particular spot of the sky.
"Then that's my favorite blue." Yuki pointed to the opposite side.
"It kind of looked like fire with blue fire!" Mai grinned. "Clashing against each other, one pushing the other away."
Yuki gave her a look that could only be read as 'seriously' before looking back up again.
"They kind of look like cotton candy to me."
"Yeah, sure, that works too."
"It's getting late. I should head back." Yuki sighed.
"Will you go to school tomorrow?"
Mai looked over to him nodding firmly, "Yeah! Now that I have my personal healer I can do whatever I want!"
"Mai, No."
-.-.-
Mai never told Yuki why she'd show up to school with her arms covered in bruises and cuts. She'd alway lie and say she's practicing climbing trees and learning to fall, but Yuki never bought it.
She also took it upon herself to start experimenting what he could heal. So since she would often go to school he'd heal her while she timed it and wrote it down on her notes.
"Let's try with your eyes closed."
"I don't think it'll make a difference..."
"Are you questioning my theory?"
"Yes."
Mai threw him a look.
"Okay, let's test it out." he let out a sigh, obliging.
Yuki closed his eyes as he focused on healing Mai.
"Interesting..."
"What?"
"SHH! Focus."
"O-okay."
"This one is a nasty bruise I got fighting a dragon." she suddenly told him.
Yuki didn't say anything, focusing.
"Yes, very interesting...okay! I've discovered something!" Mai cheered, giving him the okay to open his eyes.
"What is it?"
She dramatically pushed up her imaginary glasses and pointed a color pencil at him.
"You can't heal as fast if you can't see it!"
"I could have told you that."
"Shut up!"
The next day they repeated the experiment, "Okay this one is a nasty scrape" Mai lied.
It was actually a shallow cut.
"Okay okay." Yuki nodded, focusing on healing the scrape as soon as Mai gave the go.
"Oh!"
"What?!" Yuki snapped his eyes open.
"I told you! You can't heal without seeing what it is!"
Yuki stared at her... "What."
"I told you it was a nasty scrape when it was actually a cat scratch. Look." she showed him her hand. It was indeed a cat scratch. But it was only half healed.
"It should have healed--"
"In seconds right? Well it took 40 seconds for you to heal half of it when you thought it was a scrape!"
"Mai you're so smart--"
"Of course I am! Hahahaha!"
Yuki laughed along with her 'evil' laugh.
-.-.-
Neither of them had gone ahead and told the teacher of Yuki's newly manifested quirk. Not that they didn't want to, they just deemed it unnecessary.
Much to Yuki's surprise, Mai was really into studying his quirk and its limits.
The amount of effort she put into it was much more than she put into her school work and he would even go as far as to say her search for insects as well.
"Alright class today we're going to share what you'd like to be when you grow up." the grade school teacher smiled as she passed around pieces of paper for students to draw what they'd like to be.
"What are you going to be Yuki?" Mai asked going straight for their shared crayon box.
"I don't know... what about you?"
"I'm gonna be a scientist!"
"A scientist?"
"Yeah! It's one of the hardest things in school so I'm gonna conquer it and become the best!" she smiled.
"That's so cool, Mai! I wonder what I should do?"
"Be a doctor! You already have the quirk for it and if you studied a whole lot you can help all the sick people!" Yuki's grey eyes glimmered at the thought of helping other people the way Mai had done for him.
"A doctor... okay then."
"Maybe when we're both big and smarter I can make a universal medicine to help you cure all the people in the world! So you don't have to go one by one yourself."
"Yeah! And maybe you can come along when we give them the medicine!"
"Right!?"
"Yeah!"
-.-.-
"More on the weather later today. Moving on, we bring in Fujimoto-san. One of the many renowned detectives currently investigating the ongoing mysterious disappearances and brutal reappearances happening across Japan. Good afternoon Detective, it's a pleasure to formally meet you." the news anchor smiled, fixing his note cards.
"Yes, good afternoon." a greying middle aged man spoke.
"Let's get a couple questions out of the way, shall we. Many have speculated or are speculating law enforcement aren't taking this seriously. There have been family members of the victims claiming and proving the police have not been taking these missing cases seriously. And from what I've seen and/or heard you're currently taking a hold of Head Investigator is that correct?"
"Yes, that is correct."
"So, can you give a proper response surrounding the lack of activity with these sudden mass disappearances?"
"As a matter of fact, I can." Fujimoto replied, shifting in his chair. "A collective group of specialists are currently focusing on being able to track back to when these disappearances began. As of the moment we cannot confidently assume anything. However, we are still following up with family, friends, and taking many things into consideration."
"Detective, there are families out there worried about a loved one going missing. As you said, specialists are, I'm assuming, collecting evidence. Is there any possible evidence linking all of these cases together?"
"As of the moment, there are not. Many of these disappearances, dare I say kidnappings as well, don't share anything with each other. We don't have a lot to work with as many of these cases range from ages 5 up to 40. Missing cases are still being filed some of which we yet cannot say they are related to the investigation. And of those we do follow up on, we aren't seeing any signs of them after the last place of disappearance"
"That's quite terrifying, Detective Fujimoto."
"It very well is."
-.-.-
"Adults suck!" Mai shouted throwing a rather large stone into a small river.
Yuki was in the middle of stomping on every and any crunchy looking leaf he could find.
"What did she do this time?" he asked. Following a rather satisfying crunch of a dying leaf.
"He told her to stop buying me sna-- How did you know it was about my mom?" Mai glared at Yuki, mid-throw of another rock.
"You always say 'adults suck' when your mom does something." Yuki calmly told her, stomping on another leaf. Only a soft 'thump' coming from that one.
"Do I?" Mai asked looking back to the river.
"Yeah."
"Well," Mai huffed, this time trying to skip the rock. "Adults suck either way."
Yuki sighed, silently agreeing. "Not all of them do..."
He walked over to her side, picking up a rock. Joining her in tossing them back into the river.
"Doesn't matter! Enough of them exist to make them bad!" Mai retorted.
Yuki flicked his wrist, sending the rock skipping twice before plopping below the surface.
"...I guess so."
Mai went to flick the stone into the river but hissed as she did. Clutching onto her wrist as she bit her lip.
Yuki turned to her. His face grimacing.
"We should tell sensei..." he whispered gently, grabbing onto her arm.
She slowly allowed him to pull her sleeve up her arm where bruising covered the majority of her arm.
She didn't reply, watching Yuki's familiar soft blue come from his hand.
"...it's not her fault." she finally told him. "Besides! I have you to heal me!"
Yuki frowned, watching the bruise slowly go away. "I don't think I should be healing you this often."
"What? Why not? Are you finally getting tired using your quirk or are yo--"
"I think they're planning on sending me out." he blatantly told her.
Mai's face contorted into confusion. "What do you mean 'sending out?' You're not... you're not leaving are you?!"
Yuki released her non-bruised arm. "Yeah... I think I am."
"Liar."
"I'm not--"
"You said you 'think' they're sending you away!"
"I overheard them talki--"
"But you can still stay right?!" Mai shouted, taking a step closer to him.
"Mai--"
"You're staying right! You're not going to leave. You and I are still going to the-- What about Christmas? New years? We're supposed to go to the shrine together!" Mai shouted desperately, her hands now clutching tightly around his sweater.
Yuki could only stare into her eyes. Not trusting his voice.
"You're at the top of the class! You even beat smarty-pants Hara! How can they not let you stay!"
"Mai, it's not up to m--"
"YES IT IS!" tears slowly falling down her face.
"Tell them-- Tell 'em you want to stay! I'll even go and tell 'em too!"
Yuki slowly reached up to her cool hands. Taking them into his own.
"Mai. It won't work."
"LAIR!" she sobbed. "You just want to leave! Right?! You just want to leave me alone!"
Yuki's arms suddenly engulf her into a hug.
"I don't want to leave." he whispered. His arms tightening around her.
"Then... don't go... I don't have anyone else." she whimpered, returning the hug.
Yuki let out a shaky laugh. "Yeah you do."
"No."
"What about your mom? She--"
"She's always too busy!"
"You can make new frie--"
"I don't want to! You're my only friend and you're not allowed to leave me!" her arms hugging him tighter.
Yuki didn't want to leave. This was the most fun he'd had. He knew what other places would be like if he was sent out. They would be miserable. The family he was with was by far the best. And he had Mai. He had Mai with him to make things better.
"We can send letters..." Yuki began, his own tears falling. "I can try calling you too."
Mai buried her face into his neck. "When do you think you're leaving..."
Yuki softly stroked her hair. "...next week."
"Oh"
The two continued to stay in each other's arms.
Familiarizing each other with a warmth they could only describe as 'home.'