Kaede had forgotten things about the day. She had forgotten what she had done and forgotten what she had experienced. But when the last light in her room went out, the last sound died away and the only thing she felt was her cosy bed, she remembered. She remembered more than just today. She remembered the day many years ago:
The world around her looked bigger. The way from the table down to the floor was so far. And the room seemed so spacious. Her parents were sitting with her at the breakfast table. She looked at her mother's cheerful smile as she put a plate down for Kaede. Her mother gently stroked her father's cheek. "Would you feed her while I'm upstairs?" "Of course darling." He took the first spoonful and brought it to Kaede's mouth. "How does a frog make?" She clapped her hands happily. "You don't have to feed me, I'm already big!" "Oh yes, I guess we forgot." He left her to her eating while he turned back to the newspaper. He couldn't help but cast furtive glances over the pages to watch his daughter. She was a little behind in her development. Not only with her Quirk, but spiritually she was still like a two-year-old. The two of them didn't care, and that's how they wanted to teach Kaede. No matter what others tell you, take advantage of your disadvantage.
Before you get your Quirk, you might think it's a special moment. That something special has to happen to activate the Quirk, but that is rarely the case. Like a baby's first cry, it happens on its own. Kaede's mother came back down the stairs and saw Kaede smearing her face with her food. "Oh sweetie, what are you doing?" She gave her husband a reproachful look. Apologetically, he lifted the newspaper. "I thought it was cute." Her mother took a rag and wiped Kaede's mouth clean. "I love you, honey." Her mother had said it many times before, and she meant it no differently than usual. Still, Kaedes Quirk decided that this "I love you" was special. Kaede felt a tug in her chest. A need, an unsatisfiable thirst without even knowing what she wanted. And like children, she tried to get what she wanted. "Love?" Kaede's voice was greedy. Her mother's skin was crumbling. Not from the outside, but as if pressure was being applied to it from within. Blood leaked from her mother's eyes, mouth, nose and ears. She was gasping and wheezing. "Love feels beautiful!" Kaede did not understand what had happened. She did not understand her mother falling to the side and her father catching his wife's limp body in disbelief. Kaede thought only of the sensation she had just felt. Children have always had their feelings from the beginning, ever since they were born, and Kaede now understood feelings in a far superior dimension. "More love, love is beautiful." When her mother had blessed her with love, Kaede had stolen love. The love and all the life force of her mother. She had killed her mother because she was greedy, because she couldn't have enough. She really was a horrible child. Her father panicked. Gently, he put his wife on the floor and walked out of the room for a moment. Kaede tried to reach for her mother, but the chair was too far away. When her father returned, he took her in his arms. "Let me take you to your room, will you?" He took her to her bed and put her down. He stared at his child. There was more blood on his hands than on Kaede's. "Do you love me?" He exhaled. He knew what his answer would cost him. "Yes, I love you."
"I don't love them." She stared at her reflection. She had been standing in front of this mirror for hours, because it was easier to stand here than to go back to bed. What would await her in her bed? Whether it was dreams of her past or whether she would lie awake, nothing changed. She had to work on herself, she had to change to save the others. "What I think of them is not unconditional love, it is not my mother's feeling. It is... Sympathy. Yes, I sympathise with them, nothing more." She looked into her eyes, but was not convinced. "Don't look at me like that." She began to brush her hair. "You know, you look like shit. Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?" Her reflection did not answer. "Oh no wait, you didn't get out of bed did you? You crawled out of bed. Crying. Crying like the baby you were when you killed your parents." She threatened her reflection with the brush. "You didn't cry then, so why now? What's changed?" She fell silent when she saw how many hairs were hanging from her brush. More than usual. Without caring, she continued brushing, pulling fiercely at the knots until she could force them loose. Then she threw the entire clump of hair into the trash and went back to her room. She looked around the room but didn't know what to do. 'If I can't experience love for myself, at least I can read about it.' She slipped into the hallway and quietly opened bakugo's room door. It was a 50/50 chance if he was awake, but luckily he was asleep. She crept to his bookshelf and pulled out the first volume of the book series she had seen him reading. On the shelf she put the note she had written to him and disappeared again. She was reassured. The love she had read about was not what she felt for her friends. It was nothing comparable. kaede wondered if this love existed at all. Maybe this love only existed in blood, at least then there would be no one left for Kaede to kill.
...
The next morning, everyone stopped in front of the blackboard. "Hanta Sero is a coward." "You know, I would have hoped for something more authentic." "That's not all, just wait." So he waited, not really believing that anything more would happen. He had been wrong. Neito and Tetsutetsu joined them in the room 5 minutes later. "Which one of you was Hanta Sero again? It was you, wasn't it? Can you explain what you did to our tablet?" "What?" Not only did Hanta walk in on them, but so did most of the class. The 1B board also had the words "Hanta Sero is a coward" written on it. He glanced furtively at Kaede. Everyone knew the rules of spin the bottle. Just as Mina was not allowed to tell Hawks that she had only called him for the game, Hanta could now tell the 1B that he had nothing to do with it. "I don't know, maybe someone is making fun of me..." Kaede had to wait until lunch time for everything to be revealed. They were sitting at lunch in the dining hall when the headmaster's voice came over the loudspeakers: "Hanta Sero to my office, please." When Hanta stood up, all eyes were on him. Not only those of the first-year students, but also those from the second and third years. "Kaede, what have you done?" "Well, the task was to paint the blackboard in our room. But when I got there, after 15 minutes by the way, I thought to myself, 'It's not worth the effort if I only pay a visit to one room. So I went to 1B." Sweat stood on Hanta's forehead. "And the C, the D, the E..." Panic in his eyes. "And of course the A and B of the Second Year..." He looked apologetically around the room as the students still eyed him. "And of course I couldn't leave out the third." "You did all that... In that short time??" "Don't underestimate me." Hanta hurriedly made his way to nezu. "You're not the one anyone wants as an enemy, Kaede." "Hanta is not my enemy. I make fun of anyone who thinks he drove me into a trap."
"He asked me: 'Do you want to explain to me why your name was on the blackboard in almost every classroom?' And I said: 'I can't explain it. He stirred his tea and looked at me. Then he said, I've been running this school for a few years, young Sero. This prank was nothing, so if you want to do something special to be known throughout the school, you'll have to think of something clever." They stared at Hanta and had to stifle their laughter. "Nezu is not stupid, he is the smartest- the smartest creature I know. He'll know this was all a game, so why is he encouraging you?" "It's simple, isn't it?" hanta grinned. "He wants to see more pranks."