[Freja Helt]

For as populated as Tokyo was, it was also big, impressively big. Sometimes when Freja wandered down some of those less populated streets she even forgot where she was. Like she somehow existed in a realm completely separate from time itself. She wandered, each step reality defying, rule breaking as the world around her presented itself in images. Images morphing and twisting into an impossibly fast blur, images turned to abstract light around her. Was she actually walking herself?

She reached a hand out, a faint, fragile mirror image formed around her arm like a sentient drizzle of rain. Another arm, a person. Elias. Elias and Freja. Was this Curse’s doing? But Freja was quirkless. Curse couldn’t possibly be still be active when the contrary had already been confirmed. She hadn’t noticed it until warmth tickled her skin, but she had been cold. So impossibly cold. The blurring lights were gone too, replaced by weightless blackness. Was she floating or was she flying? Was it swimming? Her senses were numb, all except that heat on her skin.

She felt a jolt as something pulled her out of her delirium. Softness. She woke up in an apartment, someone else’s apartment. On a mattress in someone else’s bed.

[Freja Helt]

Fearing the worst she immediately curled into herself and sat up, only to let out a pained whine as her body cried out in pain. Peering under the covers she slipped a hand down to feel her arms, bandages? She was covered in them, like she had fallen and rolled down several flights of stairs. Even her face…

Judging by the size of the apartment she could still be in Tokyo. It was dingy, not that well-kept and dark, the windows looked like they had been boarded up for the zombie apocalypse. Holy crap if zombies were a thing now this was one hell of a introduction to the fall of civilization.

Oh. And look. There’s her bat right there by the bedside table. A fittingly generic zombie weapon for a positively generic survivor. So, Freja had woken up here, unknown place, covered in so many bruises you’d think she had slipped and fallen onto a Mike Tyson in his prime.

But who brought her here?

Just then, footsteps by the door. Without a second thought she reached for her bat.

[Freja Helt]

The footsteps were accompanied by a cheerful whistle as a red-haired man poked his head in the door. His demeanor didn’t at all match his look. The casual happy whistle, a handsome if somewhat angry-looking face and an attire Freja could best describe as biker gang member or punk rock rebel. In the faint bit of neon light that poked in through the boarded up windows she saw a sheen on one of his arms. A prosthetic? He was carrying a bag of something too. He didn’t look anything like a zombie and yet.

“Don’t come any closer zombie!” She pointed the bat at him, still under the covers as she pushed her back up against the wall. “Well would you look at that!” The young man grinned widely, “she’s finally awake!”

“Are you gonna eat my brain with those teeth?!”

“What are you talking about?” He lowered his voice, teasing her. “You think I’m a people eater?”

“I don’t know! I- where am I?” She insisted, grabbing the bat so tightly she could feel her fingers burn. The young man let out a sigh and sat down by his messy sofa table, putting the bag on it. “Shinjuku.” The second he said that name she flinched and raised the bat a little more. “Listen lady, I’m not gonna hurt you!” He shouted back.

“Besides you’re already hurt. I patched you up myself.” He took out a cigarette and lit it. It wasn’t until he said that it dawned on her, she had been out cold, and covered in bandages like this? “You better not have done anything!” She raised her voice, face flushed red at the thought, but he quickly shot it down by waving his hand. “I said patched you up that’s all I did!! You were bleeding everywhere, you should be thanking me.” He took a drag of his cigarette. Could he really be trusted? “By the way,” he added, “I’m not a doctor so don’t move around too much or those bandages will peel right off.''

“Ah-“ she felt one tear on her shoulder.

“Honestly… If I knew you’d be this ungrateful maybe I wouldn’t have helped you.” He scoffed. Before she could even react, a cup of unopened instant ramen hit her face. “Here, eat. You’ll need it.” He stood up to go put some water to boil.

“…And you didn’t-“

“Lady, I’m not into you, I’m gay as hell.”

“Then… Where did you find me?”

[Freja Helt]

“Spider territory.” He made a finger gun aimed at the roof without looking back at her. “Spider territory?”

“Yeah, you just waltzed on in and picked a fight with ‘em. You know the Spiders.?”

Freja shook her head, only realizing after a few seconds that he couldn’t see that since his back was turned. “No. No I would never go back to Shinjuku.” She shuddered. “Sure don’t sound like you’re from around here.” He turned to face her, leaning casually against the kitchenette counter. “So who are you exactly? I thought you had beef with the Spiders but…”

“Why should I tell you?” She scowled, still holding the bat firm.

“Still don’t trust me? You think I would have left your weapon with you if I had ulterior motives?” He pushed off the counter lightly and started walking towards her, kettle of boiled water in one hand. “Uh..” He was raising a good point. “Or what about your stuff.” He indicated towards her backpack with a nod. “Could have gone through that for answers, you seem like the type who carries ID.” He finished his cigarette and flicked it through the room in a small arc, letting it fall into an already full ash tray. “What you did today was dangerously close to upsetting the balance.”

He leaned in and picked up the instant ramen he had thrown at Freja earlier. The hero student was still frozen in place trying to recall what happened as he continued. “In short, you’re an idiot.” He bonked the bottom of the ramen cup on the top of her head. “Ow.”

“But being an idiot isn’t a crime or anything.” He opened the cup and poured hot water into it, sticking a couple of chopsticks in before handing it over to her. “Here, eat and talk, you’re not going anywhere in your state anyway.”

[Freja Helt]

“A UAU student? Damn, I realized I suddenly hate you now.” He chuckled casually, much to her annoyance. “H-Hey! What did UAU ever do to you?!”

“More like what didn’t they do. UA pumps out new heroes which is a pain in the ass for society. You’re living proof of that.” Having pulled up a chair, the young man was sat next to the bed while Freja warmed her hands up with the ramen cup. “I’ll have you know I can pull my weight.” She pouted, needing to be rescued was a particularly sore spot for her. “Sure, sure.” He hand waved her protest casually.

Next he was howling with laughter. “A quirkless hero student? You’re sick in the head lady! You got a death wish or something?”

“Not really.”

“Freja Helt. That sure is a name.”

“So, who are you?”

“Huh?”

“I told you about myself. So who are you?”

“Call me Guts.”

“Not Dr. Guts?”

“Funny.”

She looked down at the ramen, one hand moving to gingerly pick up the chopsticks. “So why did you save me? Why get involved with these spiders?” Her focus shifted between Guts and her ramen as she blew on the noodles she had fished out.

“They’re our rivals. It’s a gang thing.” Oh, a gang thing. As a former almost gang member that told Freja all she needed to know. “Check it,” with one hand he lifted part of his shirt to reveal the small tattoo of a humming bird on his abs. “I’m one of the Hummingbirds.” He smiled proudly.

“Eugh!” She blurted out after swallowing the noodles. “What is this, ‘Bitter Death’ flavor?” She turned the cup to inspect its contents. “Y’know I oughta charge your ungrateful ass for that meal.”

[Freja Helt]

“I gotta say…” Guts said with a hand on his chin. “Your story makes sense and yet it makes no goddamn sense at all.” He held up a finger for every point he brought up. “You’re not a Shinjuku regular, and yet you walked far enough to get into Spider turf. You’re also a hero student, with no quirk, so of course you wouldn’t, but you’re saying you don’t remember how you got here?”

“Last I remember I was in Akihabara. I was just heading out to explore the city.” She shrugged.

“Well, in any case, you should get dressed and step outside with me.”

“Outside?” She glanced at the door. “Yeah, being cooped up in here won’t do you any good. Now eat your death ramen.” Freja closed her eyes as she finished the cup noodles. The taste wasn’t great, but she knew her body needed the fuel. “I’ll be waiting outside.”

No matter where she looked Freja couldn’t find her clothes. However, a set of clothes slightly too big for her had been put out for her at the foot of the bed. Guts’s no doubt judging by how they were slightly too big for her. With a bat over one shoulder she pushed the door open and to her surprise… Daylight! Or rather, an orange sky greeted her as the sun was about to set. “You ready? Leave the bat here.”

“But-“

“We’re not bad guys. Believe me.” He held a hand out to help her get down the step and onto the gravel road beneath. She hesitated, but she took his advice and left the bat behind, before taking his hand.

What awaited her out here?

[Freja Helt]

An abandoned theme park, but it didn’t look at all sad like you would imagine an abandoned place would be. If anything, it was bustling and full of life. Not just adults young and old were chatting and going about their business, but children were running around and playing, carefree and having fun. “Am I still in Shinjuku?” She asked dumbfounded, to which Guts let go of her hand and gestured all around.

“Welcome to the home of the Hummingbirds. It’s nothing fancy but we call this place home.” Freja looked this way and that as they walked down the streets past people going about their business. It felt more like a small town community than the headquarters for a gang. “A theme park? Do you own it?”

“Nah, but whoever does abandoned it years ago and clearly doesn’t care about this plot of land. We moved in and made it our home.” As they passed people would smile at them, some waved or greeted them too, particularly Guts. “Are you the leader? It looks like everyone respects you.” Freja asked, to which he chuckled. “Me? No way! I’m no nobody, but I’m not the leader. I was born and raised here.”

“By a gang?” She still couldn’t believe it. The gang she tried to join back in Copenhagen was nothing like this. “Something like that! Not everyone here fights, but everyone contributes to the Hummingbirds in their own way.” Guts took out another cigarette. “Do you smoke?”

“N-Not really.” Freja replied, waving a hand in front of her face. “More for me.” With a drag of his cigarette they stopped in front of an old ferris wheel. “Cooking, raising the kids or fixing up shelters for the community. It’s all fighting in its own way.” The sun was starting to set over the Hummingbirds’ base. Just how long had she been out of it? “Oi, Guts!” A group of tough-looking guys approached them, the types Freja immediately associated with gang activity. “That the newbie who fought the spiders?” One of the guys nodded towards her as he sauntered over. He was at least two heads taller than her and twice as wide “She’s not joining us, Jet. She’s just a guest.”

“I see…” Jet took her hand and shook it with enough force to throw her slightly off-balance. “That makes you even more insane kid! I like your character!” Jet laughed, intimidating one moment and jovial the next. “Any friend of Guts is a friend of mine! Wanna fight?” The big man grinned, but before she could reply Guts put his prosthetic hand between them. “Woah there big guy, the lady’s still recovering. It’s a miracle she’s even walking right now.”

“That because you patched her up yourself?” Jet teased, “shoulda taken her to see Bean!” Jet laughed and so did the others. “Bean’s out and about for the week I thought.” Guts pouted with his hands on his hips. “Hey boss, how about we fight then?” Jet grinned. Boss?

“Sure,” Guts smirked. “To the arena.”

[Freja Helt]

The arena in question appeared to be no more than a worn down boxing ring. Still, they were serious about this? A match between gang members so casually? “Let’s see how strong you’ve gotten, Jet.”

“Hella strong! I gotta impress our guest!”

Were they really about to go at it? Before Freja could say anything, she watched from the sideline as the two guys charged at each other, trading blows in equal measure. “Is this okay? It looks a bit intense.” She turned to one of the other spectators who shrugged. “Yeah man, to protect our way of life we have to train and get stronger. Hey look! The best part is coming up!” He pointed back to the spectacle in front of them just as Jet fired streams of water out of the palms of his hand. Guts in turn dodged and weaved as he closed the gap between them, raising his prosthetic hand to form a fist and then, like a flash of lighting it lit up with an eerily familiar fire. The crowd roared as the two combatants backed off into their respective corners, both fighters looking at their absolute best.

“That’s…” Freja felt lightheaded. How? Why?

“That’s sis’s quirk…”

[Freja Helt]

With another jet stream of water, the fight was over quickly. Guts was sent flying onto his back, laughing loudly as he lost. “You really beat my ass, Jet! Not bad!” Guts laughed and as Freja looked around at the crowd, everyone else was laughing too. Was this normal for a gang too? Wasn’t the one commanding the other members supposed to be tougher than everyone else? She vividly recalled how the gang leader back in Copenhagen viciously beat other guys if they opposed him. Friend or enemy, it didn’t matter.

The gang leader from Copenhagen handed her a gun back then. “You want to join us, Elias? Take someone’s life in our name.”

“Hey, Freja. You want to join us?” Guts’s words dragged her back into reality. “We’re having a big feast later.” He smiled.

“R-Really? I thought you were just about to ask me to join your gang.” She admitted, her face red from embarrassment.

The vigilante chuckled. “Why would I ask that of you? You’re a hero student.”

“I-I’ll help with the cooking!”

“You’re our guest that won’t be necessary-“

“I insist!”

Freja thought it would be awkward to meet up with the chefs and cooking team, but they all seemed to embrace her right away, even with her average at best cooking skills.



Standing on top of a rollercoaster with a paper plate of food each, Freja and Guts watched the swaying lights and dancing people below as they sung, celebrated and enjoyed the feast. “You gonna report us to the heroes when you go back?” Guts teased with a smile.

“No way. I bet they already know about you anyway. Besides, you aren’t villains or anything.” Freja said, putting a slice of boiled potato in her mouth. “We could be villains.”

“You’re definitely not.” A brief flash before her eyes, the villain that killed her, what did they look like? Well, whoever it was they weren’t with these bird guys. “They would have shutdown this place ages ago.” She looked back at Guts. “It’s not all legal, we do some illegal stuff out here. We defend ourselves with quirks, but we don’t go after anyone. We only protect ourselves and try to make Shinjuku safer.”

“Vigilantism.”

“I hate that word.” Guts chuckled.

“So it’s basically a gray area.” Freja filled her mouth with some more food.

“Yeah, something like that.”

“I take it The Spiders are much worse?” Freja asked, her mouth still full of food.

“Well, yeah. They sell weapons and are assassins for hire.”

Freja felt a chill run down her spine. “Wait a minute, didn’t I fight one of them? Am I a target now?” Suddenly she wasn’t that hungry anymore. Guts just laughed. “No way, you’re way too much of a small fry.”

“H-Hey!”

“Besides, you’re a student. They’d probably background check you and see that you’re not worth the hassle.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means don’t mess with the heroes association. We know that, The Spiders know that.”

“That arm.” She pointed back at his prosthetic. “How did you lose it?”

“This?” He balled his prosthetic hand into a fist. “Quirk related incident.”

“Yours or someone else?”

“Mine.” He grinned, “my quirk hates me. Burned my arm right off. It would have been worse if it hadn’t been for Bean and the others.”

“That sounds awful.” She looked down at the ground. She wanted to ask more in-depth about his quirk but it seemed a bit insensitive to ask right after asking about the arm too.

“I bet you think everyone with a quirk has it easy?”

Oof! Calling out her flawed worldview. “W-Well..”

“They don’t. Some of us get stuck with quirks like this. As much as it helps me now, I kind of miss the days before my quirk, y’know?”

“Before? When did you get it?”

“When? Man, I don’t remember, a few years ago?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Why? You wanna see it again?” He smiled.

“Oh, no, that’s okay. It just reminds me of someone else’s quirk.”

“Really? Maybe they’re my long lost twin!” He chuckled, “I gotta meet them! Do they live here in Tokyo?”

“No, she’s… Away right now.”

“I see, on a trip?”

“Something like that.”

All of a sudden a sharp pain rung through Freja’s head, like a knife dragging from one ear to the other. She would have fallen off the rollercoaster then and there if Guts hadn’t caught her. “Woah, woah, woah, you okay? Let’s sit down for a moment.”

“I don’t get it… No matter how much I try to remember, I just can’t. How did I get from Akihabara to Shinjuku?” When Elias and Freja died their memory was hazy too, but at least there was something there. The roaring inferno, the suffocating smoke and the person in the midsts of it all, the villain. Regarding her trip to Akihabara? Freja left the school grounds and went exploring… Then nothing. Her memories ended abruptly, disappearing like a stain of breath upon a mirror. “It’s like there’s a gap in my memory.”

Freja wasn’t sure how long they sat there for, but they sat in silence. Watching the sun go down completely as the pain subsided. “You should stay here for the night. You got no school tomorrow right? I’ll walk you to the train station in the morning.” Guts offered. “I’d hate to be anymore trouble to you guys.” Freja sighed. “This place is just as much your home as it is ours.”

“Even though I’m not a Hummingbird?”

“You’re a friend.”

“..Thanks, Guts.”

A gentle breeze blew past them.

“Shit.”

“What is it Freja?”

“I forgot to text my roomies.”

[Freja Helt]

What really happened that day in Akihabara…

“Arakawa told me there’d be a knickknack store here..” Freja sighed as she stood in the doorway of an old inn. It was off the beaten path yet somehow still in Akihabara. It didn’t look like a store and it had no sign out front, but maybe it was a small, local thing?

Taking a sip from her water bottle, she quenched her thirst before proceeding deeper inside. Upon further inspection this didn’t just look like an old inn. This place was in disrepair, it smelled rotten, neglected. The floorboards creaked angrily with every step she took. The wall opened up to a small living room area where she heard voices coming from. Putting on her best smile she stepped forward, fully ready to be the apologetic foreigner who had taken one too many wrong turns.

“Um-“

That was all she managed before she heard the sound of flesh tearing and witnessed a man impale another man with his barehands, sticking his whole forearm through his chest. “You’ve crossed me for the last time.” She heard an ominous bell jingle but had already dove back behind the wall, hand over her mouth as she hyperventilated. What had she walked in on, a fight? An assassination? She looked around, eyes moving rapidly to take in her surroundings.

Suddenly, an arm burst through the wall, finger nails just barely scratching her cheek as she rolled away, looking towards the source of the killer with her back to the opposite wall.

The only problem was her vision was gone completely. She was breathing heavy as her hand hovered over a loose pipe. With a little bit of strength she would be able to yank it free.

“I’ve already taken your eyesight.” The man said, his voice followed by an ominous bell jingle. “What would you rather I take next?” Freja couldn’t see it anymore, but the man was wearing a fine suit with little bells hanging off of one sleeve. Her response was silent, action over words as she yanked the pipe free and leapt up from her spot, swinging towards the sound of his voice. Before she heard and felt the pipe connect, everything went silent. Like Freja and the entire world ceased to be in that instant.

“No one told me he had an apprentice, and one so quick to fight back.” In the real world, the man’s hands had impaled Freja’s forehead and chest, but there was no blood to speak of. Just a faint shimmer as he rummaged around inside her mind and got ahold of her heart. “It’s a shame you didn’t get to activate your quirk first little one, it might just have saved your life… What’s this? No quirk? No quirk and you still followed my trail?” He pulled his hand out of her chest, letting go of the grip on her heart to check her purse. “A UAU student… A quirkless student. This one is not worth killing. Not by my own hands. I will return your eyesight, but I will take your memory of this encounter and make you die in a way that can’t be traced back to me.” There was another ominous bell ring as something seemed to seep out of Freja’s left ear.

“The ringing of the bell commands it.”

She felt a jolt as something pulled her out of her delirium. Softness. She woke up in an apartment, someone else’s apartment. On a mattress in someone else’s bed.