[Freja Helt]

Sometimes when she needed to run away from everything, Shinjuku was the place to go. It hadn’t always been this way. When she first started attending UAU, she was scared of this place, particularly because of a run-in she had with a stalker. It wasn’t until she met Eiji and the rest of the Hummingbirds that this part of Tokyo was recontextualized for her.

That’s why when Eiji offered her a little bit of work, paid even, to look after some of the orphaned children in Amagi Park, she was more than happy to accept. A real hero had to know how to take care of kids too, and besides, it was a nice getaway from books and strenuous training, even if it was just for the day.

The orphanage was in rough shape, and yet it had a homely feeling to it that Freja couldn’t quite place. One of the playrooms had a wall adorned with children’s drawings. The contents of which ranged from some creative depictions of quirks, to more mundane things like a person standing under a tree. “You don’t think you’ll get in trouble with the school for coming out here?” Eiji asked, prosthetic arm stretched out in front of him as one of the children used it as a swing. “After the elemental attacks?” She looked back over her shoulder. “There’s still so much clean up.”

“Tell me about it. Some inferno freak attacked us here in Shinjuku, we’re still working it all out.” He felt deeply ashamed that he hadn’t been there to fight for his home. “I heard about that, did any of your guys get hurt?”

“Hummingbirds? No, but an attack against the district is an attack against us. Now more than ever we need to unite.”

“Like a hero!” Exclaimed one of the children. “When I grow up I’ll become a hero and fix everything!”

“You can’t become a hero, not with your quirk!” Jeered another child.

“That’s not true- Freja over here is a hero student.” He smiled, pointing at her. “And guess what? She doesn’t even have a quirk! How awesome is that?!”

“Super awesome!”

“Teach us Miss Freja!”

The kids soon swarmed around her in excitement.

“W-Wait a minute!” She waved her hands in front of her face. “One at a time, one at a time!”

Eiji laughed to himself as she was left to regale the children about her tale. About how she became a hero student and how she faced down villains and lived to tell about it.

[Freja Helt]

Having managed to gain control of the situation, Freja had sat down in a circle with all the children while Eiji helped prepare their dinner in the kitchen. “And remember, if you want to achieve your dreams- you should work hard for them!” The kids cheered and she could feel another myriad of questions coming up, until she was saved by the bell. “Okay you little demons, dinner’s ready!” Eiji emerged wearing a stained apron, ringing the dinner bell in one hand. “Don’t forget to wash your hands!” He called after some of the kids. “Lively little monsters, aren’t they?” He smiled at Freja.

“Yeah, was it okay that I told them stories?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Well, aren’t they going to want to become heroes?”

“Freja, every kid dreams of becoming a hero. Besides, we’re not against all heroes. Just the bad ones.”

“Yeah…” she trailed off, looking back at the wall of drawings. “I just noticed the drawings are marked with dates.”

“You’ve been looking at that wall for a while.”

“Mm. They go back pretty far don’t they?”

Her eyes lingered on a drawing by one Eiji from… “No way, is this a drawing you made?”

“When I was little, yeah.”

The drawing featured a black silhouette with many arms. In fact, now that she looked closer at some of the drawings that came after Eiji’s, she noticed that this silhouette appeared in a lot of the drawings, no matter which kid had put their name down. “What’s up with this horror mascot?” She pointed at his drawing, shivering a bit.

“Him?” Eiji walked over next to her, his eyes focused on the drawing too. “I call him The Man with the Many Arms. He shows up in my nightmares sometimes.”

“Ehh? That sounds awful. Since you were little?”

“Something like that.”

“And the other drawings of him?”

“Oh, that’s because I turned him into a bedtime story. To scare the kids into not going out at night. They’re terrified of him.” He chuckled.

“Yeah, no wonder.”

Why did it sound so familiar? A man with many arms? Did a similar myth exist back home? No, she had no memories of anything like that. Did Elias? Old Freja? Nothing came to mind. Maybe she was just imagining things?

“Let’s go eat dinner with the others before they eat it all.” Eiji suggested gesturing for her to follow him. “Yeah.” Her attention lingered on the drawing for a moment longer before she turned away and followed him to the dining area.

After they all had dinner Freja’s shift was officially up. ‘‘Are you sure you don’t want me to accompany you to the station?’’

‘‘It’s fine,’’ she smiled, putting on her coat. ‘‘I have my bat, and besides, I’m a lot stronger now than I was when we first met.’’

‘‘I see!’’ He chuckled, ‘‘We should spar sometime.’’

‘‘Yeah, if you’re ready to lose.’’ She laughed, sticking her tongue out at him.

‘‘Later, Eiji!’’

‘‘Come again anytime!’’ He called out to her, watching as she walked out of the park.

[Yvel Koyama]

Another night, another nightmare.

It was always the same one, replaying the events of the day she ran away from home.

She was 13 at the time, but in her dream she appeared as her current self. Walking those familiar streets of Tokyo. The nightmare started out relatively normal, it wasn't until she passed a certain alleyway, when she felt something compel her to walk down it. Plunging her into unknown darkness as the sunlight disappeared and was choked out by tall, gnarled structures vaguely resembling buildings. Her only source of light the neon signs that dotted the narrow alleyway.

Squeezing past an old phone booth, she arrived at a reinforced steel door. It was slightly ajar, so easy to pull open. When she reached a hand forward, she paused for a moment, hesitating. She knew she shouldn't open it. She had been here before and while she couldn't remember why, she knew something bad was going to happen if she opened that door.

RING RING!

She jumped, turning her head to look over at the illuminated phone booth. With trembling hands she walked over and picked up the phone. All she could hear from the other side of the call was what sounded like feedback and irregular breathing. Then, a distorted voice came through. ''You're...''

She felt a deathly chill run down her spine as she instinctively looked back to the reinforced door, it was wide open and something was emerging from it. It was just a dark silhouette, she could barely make out its shape, but she could tell it had many arms, too many to count. It was slowly creeping out from behind the door, like watching blood slowly spill across the floor.

''Helter Skelter'' A disembodied voice she couldn't place whispered.

''Helter Skelter'' The dissonant whispers grew stronger, more voices joined in.

''Helter Skelter''

Opening her eyes, she woke up in her apartment covered in cold sweat. Looking down she took a moment to compose herself. Had she fallen asleep on the couch? She looked over at the paper on her table. ''Right, I was writing a song..'' She yawned and got up, fetching a glass of water before she got back to writing.

[Rui Matsui]

Elsewhere in Shinjuku...

''Are you Mummy?''

The young man in the purple hoodie looked like he hadn't slept for days. Who could after getting chewed out as much by his villain boss as he did? Fail one assignment and suddenly you're in huge trouble and 'putting the whole organization at risk'. Whatever, man. So he couldn't assassinate one hero student. It wasn't like anyone briefed him on her, or the fact that he would have to fight her AND that gel guy too. Just his luck.

''Yeah!! That's me!'' The little gremlin of a woman that sat on the park bench in front of him was busy downing another beer. It was hard to tell if you didn't know her history, but this was Rui Matsui, also known as Mummy. She was an up and coming villain that was making quite the name for herself, if only because she was as brash and loud as they come. She wasn't particularly successful, in fact, she made headlines for getting arrested so often that it wasn't a headline anymore. Even so...

''I'm with The Spiders of Shinjuku, maybe you've heard of us-''

''Nah! Don't know, don't care!''

''...Well.'' He sighed, ''here.'' He handed her a white envelope with a red seal on it.

''What's that? Is it money?'' She didn't take the envelope, only sparing it a glance before focusing her intense gaze on hoodie guy. ''It's an invitation, we're asking if you want to join our gang.''

''I want money.''

''I.. I don't have any.''

''If I join, can I be the leader?''

''Miss, I don't have the authority to make that kind of call I'm just- listen, I'm new myself, but the benefits are pretty sweet. Life is a lot easier if you sign up for one of these things. Looking at your criminal history, it's not secret that you struggle to make ends meet.''

''What do you know about my history?! You wanna go, bestie?'' She grinned, pulling a knife out of her pocket as she perched on the bench. Although he was startled, the man did his best to keep his composure as he raised his fists, turning both into iron bear traps. ''I-If you attack me you'll make an enemy of The Spiders you-'' Aaand then she pounced. ''Give it to me bestie!'' She cackled.

''Gimme your money!!''

[Sadako Gotoh]

Back at the UAU offices, one guidance counselor had chosen to stay behind late into the night to get some more work done.

''Man, the moon's already out.'' She yawned, having walked over to the window of her office to stretch her legs. ''I can't tell if I regret staying behind to get some more work done. Guess it'll depend on how I feel in the morning.'' Some people might feel scared still being at the school this late, but not Sadako. She watched plenty of horror movies and still it didn't phase her. If anything, UAU was easily ten times more safe than her own apartment and she had never experienced any attacks on her personal life. She had only ever had to fight whenever she was on duty.

Sitting down to look through some more student files, her eyes lingered on one that had her stumped for the last couple of hours. This boy had a quirk that changed the properties of his entire body, but it wasn't your typical mutation power up. Suddenly it clicked. How couldn't she have thought of it sooner? Taking a sip from her energy drink, she turned to her laptop and started pulling up the numbers of other heroes, namely UAU alumni.

Her finger hovered over the call button on her phone. Wasn't it really impolite to call her this late, and on her work phone too? Oh well, she could always ask for forgiveness later. For now, she needed to prioritize finding a way forward with this student.

''Helloo, is this Pretender? ~ Yeah, it's Gleipnir calling on behalf of UAU. Do you remember me? I believe we first spoke in your first year. The camping incident, exactly. Well, I'm sorry to be calling you this late, but I'd like to ask you a few questions regarding your quirk.'' Really this was more Iphi's ballpark, but she could always wing it now and double check it with Iphi later. ''Yeah, there's a first year student who just enrolled with a quirk that's pretty similar to yours. It's not a complete match, but his body is kind of gel-like too. Being that you're a pro hero, I figured you can relate to what he's going through.'' She turned a few pages as she looked over his file, before grabbing a pen and a notepad. ''Fantastic! Could you repeat that?''

After the call she stretched her arms above her head. She had a page full of notes she could go over in the morning now, what a save, Mochi Ogawa to the rescue! If only she had thought about calling her sooner so she wouldn't feel so bad. ''Hm?'' Did her ears deceive her? Did she really receive an email this late? An email from Apparel no less.

''Daiki Kaneko targeting Kaida Ikarashi?'' She woke up right quick reading that. ''Daiki Kaneko..'' She immediately walked over to a drawer and looked through a stack of paper. ''Don't ever let anyone say I slack off at work.'' She muttered to herself. ''Kaneko, one of the Kaneko children. Daiki specifically is the prime suspect of the Missing Heads Case.'' She almost dropped her papers as she stormed back over to read the email again. ''Targeting Kaida Ikarashi?! A student? But why... Should I call her in for a meeting? She's probably shaken, but she's been through a lot. I don't want to force her into a conversation either..'' She let out a sigh. She was definitely going to forward this. She could already tell her and Iphi was going to have a lively conversation tomorrow morning at Ouros. Apparel's email reassured her that Kaida was safe, but there was no way of telling if Kaida would become a target again in the future.

[Kazashi McCoy]

The next morning at the McCoy apartment...

Staying at home could get quickly get lonely when all your friends were out and about working during the day. Thankfully she had a great relationship with her mother, ever since they managed to reconnect a couple of years ago. This meant that she stopped by frequently, not only to check in on Kaz, but to just talk about life and help around the house, much to Kaz's dismay.

''Ah'll help clean-'' She was about to stand up, but her mother gently pushed her back down again. ''No, sit, you need to rest. You don't have to play tough in front of me. Being pregnant is hard work.'' She smiled reassuringly. ''Here, I brewed you some tea.'' She put a tray in front of Kazashi. ''Well.. If ya say so, but Ah feel bad makin' ya clean.'' She picked up the tea cup to warm her hands. ''Kazzie, you're not making me do anything. I'm doing it because I want to.'' With a flick of her wrist, Emma conjured up a cloth and ran it under the sink for a few seconds, wringing it before she got to work wiping off counter tops. ''Chuck goes to work early doesn't he?''

''Yeah, he's been workin' more an' more lately.'' It was another thing she felt bad about. Once she could work again she was going to step it up tenfold so that money would never be a problem again. Not that they were about to be thrown on the streets or anything like that, but she felt better when she had an actual income to contribute with. ''And how is Mochi? It's been a while since I've seen her.''

''She's doin' great! She's makin' waves up in Nara. Bet ya she's the talk of the town when it comes ta heroes an' food fighters up north!''

''I don't doubt it!'' Emma laughed. ''I still remember when the three of you first found us. You gave us an awful fright, we thought you were enemies for sure until I saw your face.''

''Ya still remembered me all those years later.''

''I never stopped thinking about you. Never. For twenty long years...'' She choked up a bit, tears streaming down her face as she stopped cleaning. ''Mom..'' Kazashi stood up and pulled her into a hug. ''I-I'm sorry I couldn't have been there for you from the beginning. I'm so sorry, Kazashi.'' Kazashi gently patted her back as she cried. ''It's okay, ma, yer here now. We're together now.''

Although they had reunited, although they had many good years together, it was hard not to feel the scars the past had left on both of their lives.

[Eiji Harada]

Following the unhinged Babel attacks and the emerging Elementals, Eiji was helping out with some repairs around the park, mainly hammering in wooden boards. The kind of grunt work any idiot could be put to. He had been at it all morning, and it wasn't until noon that he was interrupted from his work.

''Boss! Boss!'' One of his fellow gang members ran up to him. ''A letter,'' he panted, ''It's from The Brain.''

''From-'' He couldn't hide his excitement, this was the first news they got from her in months. Ever since she had made him acting leader of the Hummingbirds he had been so lost. He couldn't wait for her to come back from her secret mission and take the helm again. ''That's great news!'' He took the letter and was about to open it, but stopped himself. ''Uh- what other officers are present at the moment?''

''Here? The only ones who aren't out on missions would be you and Bean-san.''

''Could you go get her for me?'' He wasn't reading the letter without Bean, it would be selfish of him to relish in this good news alone after all!

''Yo, Bean!!'' He grinned, waving as she finally approached. ''News from up high!'' He held the letter up. ''It feels like a lifetime since she last contacted us. Do you think she's doing well?'' He offered to let her open the letter. Whether it was him or her that did it, the contents were definitely written out in their leader's handwriting. The letter read:

''My dear fellow Hummingbirds. I hope you are all in good health, and that Amagi Park is coming along well. I'm writing you this letter from Aomori. My mission in Hokkaido was a success and I am on my way home. I hope I haven't made you worry too much, I will explain everything once I come back home again, however, there is something important I need to address.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I can no longer fight. That is to say, I cannot reasonably lead the Hummingbirds anymore. I will continue to serve as The Brain and offer my expertise and wisdom, but as of this letter I am officially transferring the title of Leader to Eiji Harada. I know some of you may be confused or shocked by my decision. I will address your concerns in person too.

With Love,
Yui The Brain''

To say Eiji's face was pale as a sheet would be putting it mildly. It was so bad that he immediately reached for the nearest wall to support himself so that his knees didn't buckle under him. He was to be the new leader? He could hardly believe it. No, this had to be some kind of prank, a sick nightmare maybe.

Something Bean might notice was that there was an additional message in the letter addressed to her specifically.

''Bean, you must be concerned too, but don't worry, I'm doing fine. It's selfish of me to ask you this, but could you be there for Eiji? It's a lot of responsibility for him to bear alone and I feel comfortable asking this of you. You're strong, stronger than any of us. Now more than ever I need you to share that strength with Eiji. Thank you, we'll talk soon.''

''I-I... Is she okay? She's joking. She's joking, right? Bean?'' He looked at his friend, eyes desperate for an answer.

bean

[bean]

Bean was working just as hard as everyone else in the aftermath, though not in the same ways. Where someone like Eiji had to hammer things together, she could just work her Quirk and presto, some piece of wreckage was un-wrecked. Not to mention repairing broken equipment for the gang. She was tired well before noon but doing her best to keep her own lazy impulses at bay, mostly managing it by making promises to herself about ice cream.

"Bean-san!" One of the gang members calling out and waving as they rushed over caught her attention, glancing up from the bike she was busy disassembling. "Boss got a letter from Boss," Bean just tipped her head and the gang member hastily clarified. "That is, Boss-Eiji got a letter from Boss-Yui, and wants you to come over and read it."

Perking up and suddenly energetic, Bean smacked her hands together and hopped up from her work. "On it, thanks!"

She hadn't heard from The Brain in ages it felt like, and as she scurried over still clearly in engineering mode - big gloves on her hands and sweater tied down around her waist - she waved back at Eiji and nodded enthusiastically at the letter. Giving another nod she dropped her hands down to her hips and went up onto her tip toes in an effort to try and peek at the letter as Eiji opened it. "I heard, and I bet! It's the Brain of the Hummingbirds, after all."

The green girl visibly got more excited, then the mention of being unable to fight had her face scrunching up with worry, but then the passing of the torch to Eiji had her going wide eyed with excitement again. Normally she would have jumped right to congratulating Eiji, giving him enthusiastic pats on the back and rambling at a hundred miles an hour, but the extra bit that caught her eye kept her still for a bit longer. And put her in a more considerate mindset once she read it, settling down and looking right back at Eiji before giving him a warm smile and a light shake of her head.

"She's serious. I don't know if she's okay, but if she's writing that calmly it's probably not life threatening, right? And if it is serious, we can always help her out." Bean crossed her arms under her chest, looking contemplative. She didn't know what it was and if her Quirk could help fix it or not, but that also wasn't important until The Brain had actually returned. What was important right now was the friend right in front of her. Bringing one finger up as if to try and interrupt Eiji's train of thought she pointed out. "No real change though, right? You've been leading us just fine for months now. Maybe the Brain gets better and can take over again, maybe she doesn't, but you got this either way... and if you ever think you don't, I'll treat you to some ice cream."

She wasn't sure how well that helped, but she was going to do her best to support Eiji and the hummingbirds as she always had - that was what it meant to be one of the Talons, after all.