[Alexander Pierrot]

Inside every story made with pride,

the architect lives on inside

---

With a solid four floors surrounding a large open plaza the Toshi shopping center while not the biggest mall in Tokyo certainly made the list. Large enough to fit thousands of shoppers at a time and with several bridges over the plaza for ease of navigation it was a marvel of engineering that had held up against natural disasters and villain attacks alike. Even the massive robbery during Operation Babel hadn't been enough to keep it down. Less than three months had passed since and already it was open once more.

In fact, today was the day of its Grand Reopening. An event advertised as a beacon of the nation's fortitude, ability to recover from villainy and everlasting perseverance. Alexander happily took his place at the edge of the crowd. His eyes roved over the masses, scanning faces and profiles alike, wondering which amongst the great many held potential. He couldn't wait to find out.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our Grand Reopening," A presenter began up on the stage at the center of the plaza. The mall had opened early in the morning but the speech was set to happen now, just a bit after noon. Alexander had made good use of the hours preceding this moment, setting up ways to use his quirk and looking into the past to find exactly the echoes he was looking for. 

As the speech went on Alexander refocused on some of the more useful echoes nearest to him, making sure he memorized their time and location so he could use them at the best possible moment. He'd been analyzing footage for weeks. Some from news reports, others from shaky recordings by fleeing civilians and yet more from security camera footage that had gotten leaked onto the net. It was far from even a fraction of what had happened that day but it had been enough to give Alexander ideas.

By coming here in person and scanning place after place with his quirk he'd found just the puzzle pieces he needed for his opening scene. Now all that was left was to find the actors. 

"...we will not be kept down, will not cower before such an-"

The speech was suddenly interrupted by a loud bang. Within the plaza were several trash cans, each placed at a set interval. One of them contained the echo Alexander had chosen for his first move. The sound of a detonating fragmentation grenade. 

Now all that was left was to wait. Alexander carefully cultivated his expression into one of shock to match the crowd, his eyes roving over them all the while, eagerly awaiting the results of this inciting incident.

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Tags: nat

[nat]

Nat was here largely by coincidence. She actually had only vaguely heard about the attack and happened to hear about the center being reopened on a day when she was looking to go someplace new anyways. The Toshi Shopping Center was as good a place as any, and she had never been there before. Maybe she would find a new hobby or an interesting food to try out while she was there?

That was her plan anyways, idly hanging out on another edge of the crowd with her weight on one foot and her arms lightly crossed under her chest. She wasn’t personally very invested in the speech being given, but she could imagine it meant a lot to the people who lived in this area. Who had been here when the attack had happened. Who might have had friends and family that were here. Trying to think about it that way, she could find it pretty touching and a nice gesture from the city.

Then a loud bang, Nat whipping her head around and sending her dreadlocks sweeping around as she looked towards the source. She didn’t see where it could have come from but the panic was immediate. Some people didn’t even wait around to find out what was going on, they just immediately started trying to flee the scene. Others were confused and quickly shouting questions and concerns. Even though she wasn’t short, the crowd made her feel like it was hard to really tell what was going on.

So she started to separate from the crowd, intending to try and catch sight of anyone or anything suspicious. She wasn’t a hero, and she didn’t have a Quirk, but the least she could do was keep an eye out to warn people. At least that was what seemed like a good idea in the very brief moment when all that had happened was a loud bang.

Alexander Pierrot

[Alexander Pierrot]

Inside every story made with pride,

the architect lives on inside

---

The overture had begun. Alexander had to make haste lest the rest of the play end up dead in the water. Even so he couldn't afford to not check the area before he continued. No show can start without its actors after all and Alexander had yet to find the right ones. His eyes ran over the scene as he stuck to the crowd, doing his best not to be swept up in the panicky herd as he did.

Near the stage several security guards were trying to stop people from rushing onto the stage, whether to ask questions or seek shelter Alexander knew not. One in particular stood out to him, a woman with a side braid and a sticker on the left leg of her sunglasses. He discarded the thought in an instant. A design for a side character at best. Near the middle of the mass a prospective hero appeared to be attempting to keep everyone calm. The boy's voice failed to breach the din of the crowd and the press of bodies was far too thick for him to reach a vantage point to better direct it. A back-up option perhaps, but certainly not someone who would fit any of the roles Alexander currently had in mind. By the edge of the crowd he spotted one more figure, one with blonde dreadlocks, that seemed to be observing the situation in a matter both like and very unlike him. 

Then the crowd moved further and Alexander lost sight of her as he was nearly bowled over by a panicking civilian. A flash of outrage crossed his features before he schooled them once more and helped the one that had ran into him to their feet. While he couldn't quite take a step back and see if there were more that could fit his needs Alexander was sure they'd rise to the top soon enough if any were present. He needn't waste more time searching, nay, he had to continue to the next part for one simple reason.

The show must go on.

Casting his gaze up to the second floor as he neared the stairs Alexander channeled another echo, this time of a burst of gunfire, cracking glass and several screams. Muzzle flashes shone through the banisters of the floor just above him, right near a small jewelry store that had yet to reopen. It had been quite the find, for the lack of access to the inside meant there were no people there that could instantly notice the flashes had no actual phenomenon behind them. Not to mention the unfixed glass could falsely confirm the validity of what any who looked its way had just experienced. It would not hold up to scrutiny for long but it didn't have to. Such things only happened after the fact.

The following set of screams did not belong to his quirk, for like any falsehood that met the uninformed masses it had become real and was echoed by them time and time again without any need for the supernatural. The situation was rapidly getting out of hand and unless someone intervened the panic might just cause casualties.

Having passed the stairs without leaving the fleeing crowd Alexander forced his way out as he neared the plaza's bounds, staying close to the wall and keeping one hand on it for support to feign a need for stability. His other shoulder hunched and he put his other hand on his chest as he pretended to heave for breath, following along the wall like Theseus in the labyrinth. His aim however was not to reach a mere beast, nay, step by step he was getting closer to the location he had last spotted Nat. Whether she was still there, of course, that remained to be seen.

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Tags: nat