Briar was used to working alone. She was used to doing everything alone because the people who should do it dumped all the work on her. It never bothered her, however. She knew how to function like a well-oiled machine and piece together all the parts to make the gears turn without fault. But she was not alone now and still had work to do. Even though it was in the depths of an old house shrouded in a 'children's tale.'

Fumbling the spyglass between her fingers, the woman watched the slim slivers of light reveal a rainbow of colors through the lenses. Her nail scratched at the spyglass' golden surface, inspecting it like it was an object of suspicion. It was worth glancing over, given that a ghost probably haunted it. It felt impossible. A poorly told joke because this spyglass can somehow reveal memories, moments, whatever seemed to fit. But it was not impossible, and she should not have doubted it.

In a world where Quirks exist, doubt and faith were fickle things when strong power could be willed with a single thought. How foolish of her. A frown pulled at the edges of her lips, yet she tried to keep her expression neutral. It was probably one of the few things she was good at. Almost hesitantly, she raised the spyglass to sight and allowed whatever memory there was to play out.

A breath of air escaped her as the scene of dirty gray walls evaporated into a reflective memory.

Beige-colored paint was slathered across an office's walls inside a clinic—a simple cot alongside a trio of black swivel chairs. A granite counter with white cabinets hanging above them filled to the brim with medical supplies. Seated with his legs crossed was a man holding onto a clipboard.

"S-so you're s-saying it's... my fault?" Trembling words laced with disbelief cracked against the air. Quivering hands rose to cover the cry attempting to leave a brown-haired woman's lips as tears threatened to spill over her eyes.

She glanced to her left, watching her husband's face morph into a crestfallen one. He stayed frozen as if his breath had left his system entirely. After a few seconds, he managed to lift his gaze and meet eyes with his wife. "Or mine?"

Drumming his fingers against the counter, the doctor sighed. "Hereditary spastic paraplegia is a genetic disorder. A faulty gene comes from one of the parents. Now, if we didn't run more tests, I would have said it was multiple sclerosis or cerebral palsy. I still need to run genetic testing to be a hundred percent sure, but this is my current diagnosis."

"Why can't it be multiple sclerosis or cerebral palsy?" The husband questioned as he wrapped a hand around his shaking wife.

"Multiple sclerosis tends to settle in at the earliest around twenty years of age. Very rarely does it occur in young children, let alone a two-year-old. HSP is more likely since it can occur from infancy. Cerebral palsy occurs from abnormal brain development or damage to the developing brain. Neither is visible in the MRI, and your child has been fine up until a year and a half." The doctor explained as he placed his clipboard on his lap.

"I-in the end, it's o-our fault still? One of us made Natsuki sick due to a faulty gene?"

"Unfortunately."

Briar removed the spyglass and blinked a few times. The double vision that coated her eyesight started to fade, but only for a second. Drawing a deep breath, the hero momentarily dropped her hand into her lap. Her lips pursed into a straight line, and a pulsation of pain thumped against her temples. Her teeth clenched.

Flickering her eyes over to Akihiko, she watched his chest rise and fall. His crystallized eyelashes twitched every so often, signaling that he was lost in whatever dream he was in. His expression was peaceful and serene, and no pain was evident. He looked like a kid who had not gone through the cruel suffering of the world. But naivety was a sweet song; it was not a tune she liked to play.

To don a mask was to veil your true intentions, good or bad. To don a mask was to lock away all of your vulnerable emotions so you would appear normal. To don a mask was to cover your face so no one could look at you in disappointment when you failed them. But masks do not always work. Masks crack, each fissure digging itself into the hard material and each thread unraveling like ribbons being shredded. One may place a mask on, but it only stays on for so long.

Her student donned a mask, but the trepidation quivering in his irises was enough to ensure her of what lay underneath. His sister was the underlying cause of the rippling emotions in his chest. Pain was easy to feel and easy to distinguish from another. Misery and pain were good companions when you had felt enough of them.

She should know. A Hero's job was riddled with nothing but guilt. Sure, you save a person from near death, but for those that do die, those that wail in never-ending pain, and those who stare at you blankly because they have donned a mask, it hurt to know you cannot do anything to relieve it. You save the person and then leave. That was the extent of your relationship.

So to her surprise, when she received an offer from someone wanting her as a mentor was strange but weirdly joyous. And as a mentor, she needed to get the two of them out of this place. Briar swallowed the saliva in her throat and rose the spyglass to her eye again.

Petals colored in warm hues cascaded down from the cherry blossoms' branches and swayed to the breeze fluttering their fragileness—puffs of ivory white clouds skimmed within the confines of the bright blue sky. A few birds flew by, chirping a jubilant song and dropping a feather or two.

Outstretched arms were held in the direction of a child no older than four. Light brown locks tumbled into the boy's face as his lips quivered into a smile. Remi gestured with his hand. "Come here, Natsuki. You can make it over to me."

Wisps of brown locks cascaded down the child's back, and the gentle breeze tousled her bangs. Natsuki's brows were furrowed together, creases lining her face in frustration as she awkwardly placed a foot in front of her. Tremors threaded through her muscles, causing her legs to quiver like a leaf stirring in the wind. Her arms were spread out to keep her balance, but it was a pitiful attempt.

Her next step ended up in a tumble. Unable to raise her foot high enough, she was met with the bland yet earthy taste of soil and grass in her mouth. Blades of grass scratched at her arms and legs, and she spat out the few clinging to her tongue. Her eyes glossed over, tears tempting to fall. Instead, she sniffled and clenched her eyes shut to keep herself from crying.

In the blink of an eye, her elder brother kneeled beside her. His hand gripped her wrist and gently began to place her in a sitting position. The child huffed in frustration as her toes curled stiffly. Her jaw tightened as her fingers tapped against her calf. Stiff and rugged muscle lay underneath her skin, tightening yet convulsing as her legs refused to do as she wanted. A simple action such as walking was expected, yet she could not do so because of some strange sickness she could not understand.

A tear of frustration trailed down her cheek.

Thick saliva harshly traveled down the Hero's throat as a sense of guilt washed over her. She was unsure why she felt the blame curl her intestines as this was not her fault, and there was nothing she could do. Oh, that was why. She cannot do anything.

Heroes were supposed to save people, but a Hero cannot do anything about the body breaking down. Erosion gnawed at the body over time and caused the mind to deteriorate. A Quirk can be helpful, but a healing Quirk could only do so much. Medicine was still falling behind. Scars still littered people's bodies, bones still break, and disease can still ravage and destroy. People may have power, but that does not mean they are invincible. There was always a way to gain the upper hand.

Right now, she needed that upper hand, and she needed it desperately. Two memories down, one more to go. She did not need more confirmation, but the echoing of 'your worth' lingered in her mind. Whether it was her own thoughts or a troublesome ghost whispering in her ears, she did not know.

"Your worth lies in the eye of the beholder," she muttered airly to herself. Only now was she realizing that the edges of her vision were starting to blur further. Blood loss, maybe? She did not know that either. "Your presence, knowledge, strength, and fortitude lie within the lens of a spyglass that reflects memories. I see no beauty. Just struggling. I was expecting it to be Chrysalis' Quirk, not some lenses he was carrying."

A single pink petal was clutched in the grasp of an eight-year-old Natsuki. A simple hum curled in her vocal cords as she poked at the blossom. She sat in a black wheelchair with her elbows propped on the armrests. The brown-haired child was placed underneath a cherry blossom tree that spat out a few petals now and then. It was evident in the way the pink decorated her hair.

Smiling, a florescent white light flowed out of her pores and into the petal. For a second, the petal was enveloped before four more sprouted from the single one. Sparkles floated off the newly formed blossom and reflected off the girl's eyes. She poked at the flower, watching the blotches of sunlight illuminating particular parts of it. Her lips parted in the slightest.

"Natsuki!"

Her eyes widened before a grin spread across her face. Craning her head around, her brown hair slipped off of the backrest. "Remi!"

The brown-haired teenager waved at the girl as he walked over to her. In his arms were a couple of textbooks—biology and chemistry if the spines were labeled correctly. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I wanted to see if the petals would fall and then make them back into blossoms! See!" Natsuki proudly displayed her blossom by shoving it upward into Remi's face. This elicited a chuckle from him.

"I can tell. You used your Quirk."

"Yup!"

"Hey, Natsuki, would you like to walk if you could?"

"Walk?" The girl echoed. Her hands fell into her lap, and her fingers brushed over the surface of the petals. Her lips were pressed into a thin line. "It would be nice, but I can still do stuff on my own. I can't walk or run, but I can still do a lot of things. There's no cure for my disorder anyway. I'm stuck like this, but I don't mind."

"So that's what you wanted to show. What a vague way to show who the culprit is, you troublesome ghost." Briar bit down on the edge of her nail to stop a chortle. "Couldn't have used an easier communication method?"

The response she received was nothing but silence. Well, what was she expecting? A response from the ghost haunting this place? Probably but that did not mean she wanted to admit it now. Delicately, she placed the spyglass inside her tipped-over hat so the lenses would not scratch. She scooted to the left, dragging her injured ankle across the ground with a grunt. A shot of pain ran up her nerves, and she muffled the noise by clamping her jaw shut.

Shoving her hand into her pocket, she ignored the aching sensation running across her knuckles and pulled out one of the glass lenses Akihiko had thrown over her. Scratches littered both sides of it, but she did not care. Picking off one of the keys hanging on her belt, she twisted it between her fingers before slamming the base of it into the lens. The moment it connected, the glass shattered.

Shards nicked the side of her thigh. Pinching a piece between her fingers, she felt the edge dig into her finger, and a few droplets of blood slid down. Shoving the shard into the gap between the glowing blue line in the center of the cuff. Angry crimson lines were drawn across her wrists and stung with every little movement that the metal shifted.

Briar carefully wiggled the shard into the forced gap before grabbing one of the thin gears from the pouch on her belt. The fabric of her glove ruffled as she jammed it into the opening and popped the top off, exposing the colored wires. Briar glanced at the cables and shrugged. She yanked the wires out with little care, and the bright light died instantly. She shook her hand, and the gear she used levitated slightly but ultimately collapsed onto the ground with a clunk.

A soft tingling sensation shot up her arm, signaling the slight return of her Quirk. Just because she built stuff did not mean she did not know how to tear them apart. Building and breaking were a natural part of creating and mechanics. All she wished was that she could have done this sooner. The woman started to dislodge the other one as quickly as she could.

Breathing in harshly, the pull of her Quirk pricking at the inside of her skin and surging through her bloodstream was instantly recognized. Flexing her fingers, her joints popped, and a slight smile curled on her face. Curling a finger toward her, the gear floated about the cell in quick zooms. Briar flattened her hand, and the piece of metal nearly hit the ground but stopped a centimeter before.

"Good, Quirk's working. Time to get out of here."

Briar snapped her fingers, and the rusted metal bars began to tremble. Hollow creaks groaned at the bases of the ground and ceiling as the metal yawned in defiance. Clicking her tongue, the Hero watched as the bars began to morph their shape. She created a fist, and the bars collapsed into oxidized cubes. They hovered for a moment before the woman stacked them against the wall.

The clattering sound of glass hitting the ground instantly made the woman's head tilt upward in alarm. The creases running across her forehead relaxed as she noticed the reason for the sound was her student waking up in fright. It was not the sound of glass but crystal hair clanking against each other. His face was twisted in pain as he cupped his dislocated shoulder.

Briar grabbed her hat and the spyglass and placed the cap on her head. "Now, it's time to free you. Let's just hope Remi takes his sweet time doing whatever he's doing."

❯──｢✾｣──❮

A feeling of numbness washed over the entirety of Akihiko's body as the calming effects of amethyst seeped into his skin. The pain, exhaustion, and even the dehydration that once plagued him seemed to disappear. Whether it was true or not, he was not entirely sure. For all he knew, his Quirk was only numbing these feelings and not healing them. He did not even know if he had enough strength to do so anyway.

A part of him missed the aching sensation in his joints. At least that pesky feeling reminded him that he needed to breathe. He felt out of touch with reality, considering how drunk he felt on amethyst's healing properties. You think that having hair created from such a crystal would not do such a thing. But it seemed like his injuries were far worse than he expected. The roaring sound of blood flooding through his ears was proof of that.

He bit down on the inside of his cheek, tasting the metallic blood on his tongue. He swallowed the disgusting flavor reluctantly. His hand pressed his dislocated arm to his side. Although he could not feel that pain anymore did not mean he wanted to damage muscle, tissue, blood vessels, and nerves more than he already had. Not to mention the inflammation and burning sensation that littered the surface of his skin. For once, Akihiko was glad he could no longer feel the pain.

A selfish thought considering the consequences a dislocated shoulder would bring him later, but it did not matter now. A thump against his head told him he would regret that in the future, and he did not dare to deny it.

If the two of them were not creeping down a hallway, Akihiko would have laughed at his predicament. Stupid ghost, stupid crazy college student, stupid cherry blossoms. His jaw clenched tightly as he silenced the noise of frustration wanting to escape him. Instead, he focused on the dirty specs of grime decorating Briar's backside.

The Hero was limping, dragging her foot since it weighed her down. The thickness of her boot hid the swollenness and bruising, but her hunched-over posture gave away her pain. Earlier, when she tried to walk, pain flashed across her face, but she was quick to mask the expression. Akihiko's eyes flicked up. Dried blood coated Briar's hair and scalp while traces of scarlet painted her neck.

Glancing away, Akihiko scanned the corridor they walked down. Peeling musty green wallpaper revealed rotting wood with bugs scurrying across the crevices. Black dots adorned the ceiling while intricate cobwebs were found in the corners. From the corner of his eye, the crystal swore he saw spiders crawling nimbly across their webs. He tilted his head to ignore them and was met with Briar's limping again.

His lips pressed together in a thin line. Slowly threading the imaginary line between himself and one of the beads in his bracelets. Lucky for him, the glow of glass converting into aventurine was dull. The last thing he needed was to get both of them caught. And Remi's Quirk was not something they would want to be the receiving end of if caught unguarded.

Their Quirks were back, but the injuries were still there. Reflective Crystallization may have numbed his pain; however, he knew it would hit him full force once he ran out of strength.

He commanded the aventurine sphere to tap the brown-haired woman on the shoulder lightly. She twisted her head slightly to see the offering. He croaked, "good for healing, even if it is a little."

Akihiko's voice sounded raw once he recognized how he sounded. It was not choppy or hard to speak anymore, but that did not mean he liked how his voice came out. It seemed like amethyst could not do anything to his voice. Well, he did not feel any more pain, so what was he complaining about? But it did comfort him in the slightest to do so.

Briar's hand plucked the aventurine out of the boy's hand. Her fingers rubbed along the surface, feeling the roughness of the crystal rather than the usual sleekness. She stared at it momentarily before dropping it into one of the pouches on her belt. However, she did not retract it instantly. "Is it supposed to feel like I'm numb?"

"I do not have enough energy to heal," his gaze lowered to hide the flickering of shame flowing through them. "If I had not passed out for so long, then maybe I would have been able to do something—"

"Don't blame yourself. You're not at fault." Briar replied sharply as she stepped over a loose floorboard.

Those words did not stop him from feeling guilty. If only he had woken up sooner, they would have placed the puzzle together faster. His Quirk would have worked, and their injuries would have been healed. He really was useless if he could not utilize his Quirk. Considering his luck, Akihiko would not have been surprised if a slab of painite showed up. The final nail in the coffin.

"You're still blaming yourself—"

A grating sensation crawled against his scalp at an agonizingly rapid rate. The crystal's breath left his lips as he surged forward and clamped his hand against the Hero's mouth. Two of his fingers cradled her jaw, and he did not move his hand despite the woman's confusion. Before he knew it, the vision in his right eye was suddenly coated in bright violet, and the pain surging through his body returned in full force. The crystal harshly bit down on his tongue to keep any sound from leaking out.

Against his will, the remaining beads in his bracelets yanked themselves free. Floating around in a spiral, three were quick to convert into an amethyst crown that settled above his brows, while the rest quickly crafted themselves into thin sheets of lavender crystal. A light sheen skid across their surfaces before they reflected an empty corridor. As if they were never there in the first place.

Low yet audible footfalls echoed, each one more nerve-racking than the list. Thud, thud, thud—they continued in a steady rhythm as they grew closer with every second that had passed. What felt like a lifetime was a mere nine seconds before the sight of a jutted beak of a plague mask and orange lenses that appeared from the end of the hallway were two connected in a 'T' shape.

Tilting his head in a slightly awkward position, Remi's covered eyes seemingly scoured the hallway where the two were hiding in plain sight with the assistance of the crown chakra and the third eye. Akihiko bit down on his lip, tasting metal as his eyelids drooped in exhaustion. The nerves in his left arm were screaming at him, yelling, cursing, expressing the agony they felt as muscle and blood vessels freely hung from his limp limb. Pulses of festering fire clung to his shoulder blades and trailed down his vertebrae.

In front of him, Briar had placed her hand on top of his own before peeling it off her face. As she did so, her gaze never wavered from the man standing only two dozen feet away from them. Her hand still held his own, waiting in case either of them did have to use their Quirks.

Remi pressed his hand to the back of his neck and shook his head. He took one more look at where the pair was standing before dismissing the thought in his head. "I've been here too long. There's nothing."

With those final words, the man continued to trek down the hallway. Despite their forms no longer visible, the two still waited a few minutes for the man to be entirely gone. When Briar tapped her finger against his knuckle, Akihiko gratefully dropped down the reflective panels, and with them, the three crystals forming a crown. However, he yanked them upward before they clattered against the ground. Blinking a few times, the crystal pattern faded from his eye, and numbness concealed his pain.

"S-sorry, I did not mean to grab you, but–" Akihiko started before the woman turned around and sent him a look to 'shut up.' He complied quickly.

"No need to apologize. I'm more ashamed that I didn't sense or hear him before you did." The Hero pushed her glasses up by the bridge, and blood smeared on the metal. She glanced at the hallway, splitting left and right. "I'm going right, and you're going left."

"You are going in the direction of where Remi went? What about his Quirk? He's obviously seen your own."

"That's the point. He knows my Quirk, but he doesn't know yours. That works in our favor. I confront him, and you either find the hostages or information on whatever he's doing to them. I have an idea, but I can only guess for so long without any proof. Do you understand?" Briar stated with so much determination that Akihiko could not find the words to deny her.

"And if you cannot stop him?" The crystal pressed his injured arm to his body, masking the worry on his face. He seemed to be doing a terrible job because it elicited quiet laughter from the Hero.

"Don't worry about it, kid. I know the dangers, but a Hero must put others before themselves. Now, are you ready, Chrysalis?"

He was not, but he nodded anyway. It was not like he had a choice. This was the job he wanted, and he would complete anything that went with it. Saving people was what he, not what they wanted to do together. If his sister were not here to do it with him now, he would have to pick up her part until she returned.

This was a stepping stone and one that would build up to his future. To their future. And at the moment, he and Briar were going to bring an end to this rumor-filled children's tale.

❯──｢✾｣──❮

Author's Note

I have learned that Quirk canceling cuffs are not a thing and are popular in fanfics which caused confusion. But considering this is taking place in the future and my fic, welp, they exist in this future timeline because I say so. But honestly, I was super surprised when I learned that. Now I understand why Overhaul's bullets were more shocking in the manga and anime to the characters.

This book should have about two/three more chapters left which I'm going to try to finish this week but probably not going to happen. We'll see.

Character Spotlight:

Name: Briar (Luce Carter)

Quirk: Metal Manipulation

Likes: Crossword puzzles