[Hiro]

Letting in a deep breath, his smile was practically beaming as he graciously accepted the snack from the stall owner he had just saved from a heaping whole load of trouble. Of course by beating up a bunch of crooks who thought the hard working stall owner was easy pickings.

Luckily Hiro had just walked into town and had seen it all happen, and stepped in to make sure those criminals wouldn’t bother hard working people again. He was sure the heroes would’ve gotten to it, but Hiro was right there, and when he saw injustice like that he just had to step in.

And the free meal was something he more than graciously accepted as an impromptu reward.

"Maybe I’ll stick around this place a little while, the people seem nice..." he thought to himself as he scarfed down the snack piece by piece.

The weather was nice, the people were nice, this definitely seemed like a decent place to roost for a little bit to get his bearings… Maybe earn some of that money he’s always short on, so that he wasn’t always working for scraps and living off the kindness of others.

But walking down the street, he did notice a group walking his direction, some were talking amongst each other, but the sour faces on them meant they sought trouble, or just had gotten beaten at a game of baseball… If the bats they were wielding were a sign of anything?

Hiro would make sure to give them a wide berth, but it quickly became clear that they were very much focused on stopping him in his tracks.

"What’s up, my fellow kids.” he said to the group with a casual smile, continuing to enjoy his snack with nary a care in the world. ”Need my help with anything?” he’d propose, maybe wondering if his name preceded him.

But they didn’t seem to share his calm and positive nature.

"That’s funny coming from you, we know who you are, and you’re not welcome in this part of town.” the first one said, the baseball bat resting on his shoulder.

Hiro didn’t expect threats, but he could notice that there was something else behind those threats… Not anger, or the bluster of bad people, but it felt more like an anxious kind of fear… Towards him, possibly?

"You probably have the wrong person, I just helped someone, and I got this snack as a reward!” he’d remark, raising the snack as his trophy.

Only for someone to take it as if they were taking lost property.

"Yeah we saw that little play you did, sending your buddies to harrass a stall owner and then ‘swoop in as the hero’, you’ve been doing that crap all over the region.” the snacktaker spoke, passing the snack to someone in the back.

"Wait, that’s not true. I just showed up today.” Hiro tried to profess, feeling slightly annoyed that his food was now someone else’s. "I help people… Maybe we got this off the wrong foot, I am Hiro.” he’d offer his hand in greeting.

Except nobody accepted it, merely sneering at its sight before a third person showed a phone with a grainy distant video of a scruffy looking tracksuit crook ransacking a store with a handful of allies.

"Ratty tracksuit, carries a crappy sword, looks like they haven’t washed in three weeks… Pretty sure you’re that guy, ‘Hiro’.” the most assured of them spoke.

"If I squint I can see what you’re saying, but I promise you I am not that guy…” his hand went to the phone trying to zoom the video. "… Look...”

He couldn’t finish as the leader shot a beam of water at his chest, forcing Hiro to take a dash backwards, even if it meant bowling through the people behind him. He dodged the first one, and then unsheathed his sword to block the next.

The blasts weren’t to kill, but still focused enough to hurt him.

"You guys seem like decent folks trying to stop the wrong person, and I really don’t want to fight you guys...” he called out, his eyes lit blue as he was ready for anything.

Bystanders cleared out, the small group of well intentioned world-improvers spread out to surround Hiro in a semi-circle as a few passer-by’s grabbed their phones to record what was going on, or even call the police or even heroes to intervene...

---

Eiji Harada |

[Eiji Harada]

A fight had broken out between his guys and a stranger? He was in full sprint the second he heard about it, cutting through alleyways and weaving past civilians as he ran towards the scene of the clash. At best, they were just fighting some thug who got overconfident and everything would turn out fine. At worst, they were fighting one of The Spiders and he wasn't even there to help. Eiji had recently been made the leader of the Hummingbirds. Ever since the crushing news that the last leader had to retire from the fight due to an injury, everything else had been a blur to him. He wasn't a leader, he didn't know anything about leading, he just talked loud and everyone seemed to follow him. Nevertheless, given the tumultuous times they were living in he would have to learn fast, or risk being the reason the Hummingbirds collapsed.

He slammed into a wall as he turned a corner, catching his breath as he noticed the group of people crowding around what was most likely the fight he had just been told about. Pushing all of his fears and doubts to the back of his mind, Eiji raised his voice. ''Oi, oi, oi!! What the hell is going on here?'' Stepping through the crowd, the vigilante with red hair and a prosthetic arm immediately stared down Hiro as he caught sight of him. He didn't look familiar, was he new in the area? Armed, so he could totally be a villain. He needed to figure out which approach to take here. Clenching his prosthetic arm he lunged forward, attempting to punch Hiro in the face. ''Ora!''

Punch first, ask questions later.

Hiro

[Hiro]

The guy with the water blasts seemed to take point as his friends seemed more intimidated than angry, preferring to let their strongest friend fight on their behalf rather than putting themselves at risk.

Hiro could respect that attitude to a point, mainly because it seemed like they knew their own abilities rather than were craven. They weren’t a bunch of street gang thugs thinking they could take shots at everyone, Hiro had that feeling from the start.

But where the water abilities were good at range, Hiro would keep it short, forcing him to back down, move around him, and step aside every time he threw a somewhat lazy swing of his sword. Hitting a leg here, a shoulder there, and poking him backwards with the hilt.

"Stop playing with me, bastard!” The water boy claimed in anger, noticing what he was doing. "Fight me, or leave this town!” he continued.

"Seriously, you really have the wrong idea about m--” he’d finish his sentence, but super soaker would stop him in his tracks and force him to jump off the lamp post.

But not without taking a step in mid air, and landing behind the guy. Poking the sword in his back. "Knock it off, if I were a bad guy you’d be really hurt or dead right now.” Hiro would finally say having lost some of his cool.

They were playing silly games, and the guy wasn’t a good enough user of his quirk to be nothing more than a nuisance to anybody who really wanted to hurt him good.

He moved around him a final time, lowering his sword. But before the situation could finally de-escalate, a new contender emerged barging through the crowd and immediately throwing a haymaker his way.

"Yeah, show him whose boss, E!” one of his apparent friends called out from the group.

Unlike the last one, this one threw a fist with much more poise than his friend had done with the water shots. Hiro tried to step back, but realized too late that there was a stationary car behind him.

Seeing the fist close in, his instincts would instead take over as he slipped again and this time swung his sword hard enough to throw sparks off the prosthetic. Fortunately, because an actual arm would probably have been seriously damaged.

”I keep trying to tell you, I am not...” he stopped himself, shaking his head…

Who cared, they clearly didn’t, so maybe it was time he stopped caring himself…

Focus mixed with frustration, he clutched his sword with a different goal. He poised himself, and then would swing a sharp shot at the red haired threat.

The sword wasn’t sharp enough to do a problematic amount of damage, but it was getting there.

---

Eiji Harada |

[Eiji Harada]

''What the hell's going on here?! You wanna start a fight?'' He glared at Hiro, immediately assuming he was a petty criminal or worse. Judging from his skill he was big time talented, probably an assassin out to get them? Not on his watch! Punch first, ask questions later, if he wanted to prove himself as a leader he needed to start doing something about the growing number of enemies in these streets. ''Not what? A law abiding citizen, one of us? Like hell you aren't! What's your deal, punk?!''

He held up his prosthetic hand, as if to silence Hiro even when he had stopped talking. ''Don't make up any petty excuses! Any man brave enough to make an enemy of the Hummingbirds are either affiliated with the heroes, or The Spiders and you aren't acting like one of the heroes!'' He almost didn't dodge the sword attack, no way he could keep up with this guy if he went all out, but thankfully Eiji had the means to end the fight then and there. His burning soul, which extended to the blazing quirk that powered his resolve. Throwing a punch towards Hiro, this time Eiji activated his quirk, flames lighting up his prosthetic arm to enhance the punch.

Whether he hit or not, he was grinning, somehow enjoying himself despite putting his life on the line. ''So you confirmed it, right Jet, everyone? He's definitely a Spider?''

''Well... About that...''

''Hm?''

''The thing is, we attacked first boss..''

''You WHAT?!''

Hiro

[Hiro]

This new guy definitely had more moves than any of the other ones combined, it was obvious in not how they had thrown themselves into the fight but rather how controlled they had been at displaying their aggressiveness.

Hiro was so into the fight he confused the sparks from the arms for his sword blows, when the fire came he could only dodge at the latest possible moment by falling backwards. Using his quirk to ‘grip’ off the body of the red haired boy and kicking himself back to his feet in what bystanders would assume was a frivolous showoff.

In actuality, he preferred it over falling on his butt. Ability or no ability, nobody liked falling on their butt.

When he had recomposed himself sword in hand, the situation had already changed as the boss was now chewing out his own people.

”I kept telling them, I am not the guy you think I am.” Hiro said, the blue in his eyes slowly fading to its natural state.

He made sure to put his sword away, because he really didn’t fight some more. ”Also, they stole my food!” Hiro said, looking over the red haired boys’ shoulders and mean mugging the thief in question.

Calling him a crook was one thing, trying to fight him was another, but stealing his snack had been a bridge too far.

---

Eiji Harada |

[Eiji Harada]

He was strong, maybe even stronger than Eiji himself... But if he was a Spider, wouldn't he have gone for the killing blow already? The Spiders weren't predictable, but they all fought in similar ways. Freak Show, Lowlife, Happy House. All three Spiders which Eiji had faced before and none of them wasted any time or effort. It was always aim straight for the throat with them. Not so much this stranger.

If he had tried to maintain any semblance of being a cool-headed leader who had everything figured out, he lost it all that moment when the truth of the situation became clear to him. He had jumped in to assist his guys because he assumed they were in the right. Now they had made him look like a complete idiot by proxy just by acting like reckless idiots themselves. ''You can't go around threatening people, that's not what we do!'' He had no problem turning his back to Hiro for a moment as he lectured his fellow gang members then and there.

''I'll replace it for you.'' He sighed, turning to Hiro. ''What did you get, where did you buy it from? I'll cover the cost.'' Was it just his imagination, or had Hiro's eyes changed colors from before? ''Sorry I attacked you out of nowhere, Shinjuku is a mess right now, if you don't make your gang affiliation known immediately you could get in trouble, especially carrying around a weapon.'' He extended his prosthetic hand in a handshake. ''I'm Guts, The Heart of the Hummingbirds. I'm responsible for wrangling these idiots.''

''Hey! Who're ya calling an idiot?'' Cried one of the members, to which Eiji quickly looked over his shoulder and shouted back. ''Shut up!''

Hiro

[Hiro]

It felt good for his reputation to be vindicated, and for this red haired dude to understand that he was the good guy in this situation, and not the knuckleheads that he called his friends.

It really was extremely rude, how they had taken his kind nature and just trampled all over it. It would take… At least a few hours for him to ever start trusting again.

”Yeah, that’s not what you guys do!” Hiro copied the guy, looking over their shoulder to mean mug at his buddies knowing they weren’t going to try anything now.

It wouldn’t ingratiate him with them, but at this point, it was their fault and not his!

”Well, I got the sandwich for fr---” he’d pause in his tracks as he realized he was going to pay for his meal. ”I got it at that one place on main street, you know, that really fancy place. I spend like five days of snack change on it!” he’d profess, with wide eyes and walking the fine line between stone faced lies and looking like a complete ass for playing him.

If he was friends with knuckleheads, the jury was still out on him.

”Don’t worry about it, if I got a hundred yen for every time people mistook me for a bad guy, well. I would probably be rich, I think…” he explained, shaking the guy’s hand. ”I am Hiro.”

”So what do you Hummingbirds do? Do you go around playing music?” he wondered, oblivious to the obvious example of their activities he had gotten.

---

Eiji Harada |

[Eiji Harada]

''That's right!'' He agreed with the stranger as he chimed in, bonking each of his gang members for good measure before huffing his way over to Hiro. ''R-Really?!'' He grimaced at the thought of having to buy a sandwich from main street, but he had given the man his word. ''What do I say about rich people?'' He shouted back at his guys.

''We don't-''

''WE DON'T MESS WITH RICH PEOPLE!!'' He shouted over them again before crossing his arms and letting out a sigh. ''You got it stranger, take me there.'' He was a simpleton so he had no reason to try and see through this cleverly constructed lie Hiro was telling. Even if he could, Eiji felt better compensating for the misunderstanding by paying Hiro for a better snack than what he had gotten initially. ''You can get mistaken for a bad guy often? Why's that?'' He raised a suspicious eyebrow at Hiro, ''maybe it's your clothes.'' He proposed without a hint of irony even though he himself was dressed like a textbook delinquent.

''Music?'' He smiled, ''some of us do, but mainly we keep these streets clean.'' He gestured around them. ''Are you familiar with the gangs of Japan? Not all of them are bad. We fight the ones that try to sell drugs and weapons, keep the streets safe for those who can't defend themselves. More likely than not, my guys mistook you for a petty criminal since you aren't a familiar face. Our rivals have been increasing their activity lately so we're always on high alert.''

Hiro

[Hiro]

”Wait, what is wrong with my clothes?” Hiro inspected himself in mild confusion. ”The person at the store told me it was very fashionable.” he’d add.

Well, maybe it was getting a bit too musky for its own good. And he had been pretty much wearing just that in the past six months, so it was definitely getting pushed to its practical limits. But it was nice and comfortable, and it wasn’t as if he had so much money that he could go out and buy a whole new wardrobe for himself.

It was… transient chic, like the loveable cad he knew he was.

”I must admit I skipped my gangs of Japan classes… whenever I went to school.” he’d reply to the redhead leader of the would-be crew of overeager world-improvers. ”There’s a lot of things I am a bit fuzzy on, I must admit.”

He wasn’t in the habit of telling everyone ”Hey, I lost all my memories and washed up in Okinawa.”, so he wasn’t going to share that just yet. But the guy seemed like a decent enough sort, he guessed, and he always found himself to be a perfect judge of character.

”I honestly move around and try to find work for people that need it, saving cats from trees, solving trolley dilemmas, and hauling crates. You know, whatever makes people happy.” he’d explain to Eiji as he felt more and more comfortable, enough to slip his vague sense of comedy in again.

”If you need help with those rivals, I can always lend a hand for fair pay.” he’d add with a cheeky smile. ”Could put sugar in their gas tanks, to really mess with them.”

---

Eiji Harada |

[Eiji Harada]

''I'm no expert on fashion, but if people profile you as a bad guy maybe you don't look friendly enough.'' He shrugged. ''For the record, I don't think you look evil or anything.'' He looked down at his sword. ''Well, maybe being armed doesn't help your case. What do you usually do if the cops try to stop you? You don't look like the type to carry a license.'' He grinned smugly.

He laughed when Hiro mentioned the gangs of Japan classes, knowing full well that it was a joke. ''So they teach that sorta stuff in school now? Maybe I shouldn't have dropped out.'' It was probably no surprise that Eiji wasn't the bookish type, never had been. He was an orphan from the streets so it was an uphill battle to begin with, and he didn't really see the value in sitting down and reading the same way some of his smarter gang members did. ''Really?'' He raised an eyebrow. ''Like how far back exactly? This might sound weird but I helped another amnesiac recently. Supposedly, she forgot an entire half a day of her life before we rescued her.'' If it was a similar case with Hiro there might be a pattern forming on these streets, a disturbing pattern.

''Whatever makes people happy, huh?'' He would reach up to try and give Hiro a pat on the shoulder. ''You don't sound so bad after all, Hiro! Who knows, maybe you'd have joined our gang if you grew up on these streets.'' He smiled, ''of course, you're always welcome if you can stomach the company. Promise you won't get in trouble with my folks anymore.'' When he offered to help them with their rival gang Eiji looked him up and down. ''Really? I'll keep that in mind, we need all the muscle we can get to deal with them.'' The sugar in the gas tanks comment made him laugh again. ''That'd teach them! But if you help us you become one of their targets. They're known as the Spiders, they train their people to do assassinations and illegal dealings.''

Hiro

[Hiro]

”Assassination and illegal dealings definitely doesn’t sound very cheeky and fun.” he’d remark half seriously, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

These Spiders were bad news, and he disliked the types. Honestly, mostly he hadn’t dealt with the types of people that could legit murder people in cold blood. Mostly bullies, crooks and general lowlives that knew to take a step back if it meant keeping their teeth intact.

But Hiro was confident in himself, even if he didn’t know who he had been before he washed up, he knew that he was capable enough to put a bruising on anybody, even stone cold killers.

”You know, maybe we should make a plan how to take them on, really show them that they should have a different line of work if they want to find happiness in their lives...” Hiro spoke, but then felt the grumble of his stomach overrule any deeper thoughts. ”How about we discuss it over a bowl of ramen?” he’d propose, of course hoping that the other would find it in their heart to pay for it.

Of course, he was owed a meal thanks to his friends, so he was hoping that he could at least swing that.

”How about it, Friend?” he’d say with a big overwhelming smile.

---

Eiji Harada | We can look to wrap it up I think