Enji: Age 35

Shiori: Age 21

~Shiori's POV~

I'd been invited to my first high school party. Despite my family being incredibly wealthy, the other kids at my snobby private school never included me. I didn't have a quirk like everyone else in my class and I spent most of my time with headphones in and my nose buried in a book. Books and Music had always been my escape.

My parents finally seemed somewhat proud of me once they heard I'd been invited to a party by the most popular boy in school, the son of a big CEO. They were always hard on me for not being more sociable. My parents were socialites and everything was always about appearance. Upon hearing that I'd been invited to a party, my mom ordered me what she thought was a cute cocktail dress, it was grotesque and far too girly. Despite my protests, I found myself in the girly dress in the back of my family's limo on my way to my first high school party.

Upon my arrival, I was greeted by the most popular boy in school, Kazuki. His devilish smile distracted me. "Glad you could make it, Shiori."

I stupidly felt a flutter in my chest, falling for his charms. Giddily, I accepted the arm he offered me and let him lead me inside. We didn't make it more than a few steps before he was handing me an alcoholic beverage. I thought it strange, I wanted to say no but I heard my mother's voice in the back of my head scolding me. It was rude to refuse refreshments. I accepted the drink and sipped at it politely.

The rest of the night Kazuki kept feeding me more drinks until everything turned hazy. I mentioned that I felt strange and asked him to call my driver. He acted sweet and told me I should rest a little in his room and carried me upstairs.

I woke with a start as memories of that awful night flooded my mind. It was the start of a chain of horrific events. My parents tried to force me to terminate my pregnancy, when it failed, they tried to force me to marry Kazuki. No one believed that he'd drugged me and raped me...or if they did, they didn't care. When I refused to go along with their plan and marry Kazuki, my parents threw me out and disowned me at eight months pregnant.

Kazuki's family found me and took me in until I gave birth. Once my son, Hikaru, was born, Kazuki's family used their financial influence to get full custody of my child, spinning a tail that I was emotionally unstable and an alcoholic. My son was ripped away from me and I was cast out on the streets again only a few hours after giving birth.

I would have died, if it hadn't been for a kind homeless woman, by the name of Mayuri, who carried me to an altruistic doctor that ran a free clinic for the homeless. Despite not knowing a thing about me, she stayed with me at the clinic. She helped take care of me, offered me comfort and kept me safe. With her help, I found a guitar and was able to play music on street corners, subways and in parks until I scrounged up enough to get a shitty studio apartment. Once I was back on my feet, I went in search of my son. I found him at a hospital, two years ago, he'd been diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. It took some convincing to get the staff to let me see him. After they looked up my records and realized I was his biological mother they reluctantly agreed. Hikaru wasn't taking to any of the treatments well.

His doctor agreed to see me when they had trouble locating a bone marrow donor. I begged him to see if I was a match. I was overjoyed to learn I was and the doctor agreed to let me donate anonymously. Most of my money went to paying the hospital staff for their silence.

I sat up with a wince, the uncomfortable falling apart twin mattress was a nightmare and did awful things to my spine when I slept. My gaze flicked to the wobbly nightstand next to my rickety bed. It was being held together very precariously by duct tape. Atop the nightstand was a small framed picture of me and Hikaru sitting in the hospital courtyard. He was on my lap and we were playing guitar. He loved to strum on the guitar so I'd keep my fingers on the strings and let him strum to his heart's content.

There was a loud thunderous knock at my door. I rolled out of bed and went to the door shaking out my dark ashen brown hair. As I passed the tiny kitchen, I kissed my index finger and touched it to a picture of Mayuri hanging on the fridge. She'd passed away a year ago. I opened the door and was surprised to see my landlord on my doorstep. He was a fat middle aged man who didn't seem to own a single shirt that didn't have some kind of grotesque stain on it.

"Rent's going up next month." He hiccupped, he reeked of alcohol. The fumes seemed to be seeping out of his pores.

I wrinkled my nose and took a step back from the offensive odor. "What the hell for?" I glowered.

"Because I feel like it." He snapped. His jaundiced eyes looked me up and down, "though, I could give you a discount if you spend a night with me."

"No thanks." I slammed the door in his face.

A shiver rolled down my spine at his disgusting advance and I went to get ready for the day. The water heater hadn't worked since I'd moved in, I was now accustomed to cold showers. I took a cold shower and changed into a pair of jeans and a grungy band t-shirt before slipping on my grey denim jacket. I took a quick mental inventory of how many clean clothes I had left before realizing I'd have to make a run to the laundromat. Every laundromat in the city was owned by a sleazeball, I'd have to find a time when it was crowded, or ask one of my neighbors to go with me if I wanted to be safe.

I looked at my phone lying on the charger on the kitchen counter and groaned as I realized it hadn't charged at all overnight. I'd found the charger in a dumpster, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't every night was a game of phone charge roulette. I sighed and checked the time; I didn't have much time to get to the music store for my shift. I pocketed my nearly dead phone shook out my hair, stepped into a pair of boots and left my shitty studio apartment.

As I locked my door, I saw my landlord a few doors down as he tried to proposition one of my neighbors. A laugh bubbled in the back of my throat as he was suddenly doused with scalding hot coffee. I practically skipped down the stairs as I heard him let out a roar of pain before a door was slammed in his face. The elevator hadn't worked since I'd moved in, I wasn't even sure if the elevator actually existed or if the landlord just put elevator doors against the wall for appearance to get more money out of his desperate tenants.

I stepped out of my apartment building and took off at a run in an attempt to get to my shift at the music store on time. The shop owner took a chance and hired me part time after realizing I could play every instrument in the shop to some degree. There were a few perks to having been raised in a rich household.

As I was sprinting down the sidewalk in an attempt to not be late for work, a masked man darted out the doors of a bank just ahead of me. I didn't have enough time to react and felt a sense of panic as I realized the masked man also had a gun in his hand. He turned as I was about to hurtle into him and my heart dropped as he pointed the gun in my direction. A strong arm hooked around my waist and an unflattering squawk escaped me as I was suddenly jerked back away from the man with a gun. My world seemed to spin from the sudden jerking, spinning motion as whoever had grabbed me turned their body so that I no longer had a gun pointed in my direction.

I heard what sounded like crackling flames followed by a cry of pain. There were a series of shouts as several police officers flooded the sidewalk to apprehend the masked man. It all happened in what seemed like the blink of an eye though I had a feeling my perception was a little skewed from my moment of shock. I chanced a glance up at my rescuer and felt my heart pound in my chest as I realized it was the second ranked hero, Endeavor. He was a somewhat scary looking man with piercing teal eyes, a face that almost always seemed to be fixed into a scowl and short spiky crimson hair. He was wearing his hero costume which molded to his every rippling muscle and included a fiery mask around his eyes that also seemed to create a flaming beard and mustache.

He glanced down at me once the masked man was in police custody but didn't release me, "are you alright?"

I managed a nod, my heart was still pounding in my chest, it was so loud it was about the only sound I could hear. "Th-thank you."

"Why the hell were you running?" he growled though he still hadn't released me from his hold and I was starting to wonder if I looked unstable.

It took me a moment to remember why I was running. I glanced at the fancy looking watch on his wrist and paled, I had one minute to get to work. "AH! I'm late!" I shoved away from him and took off at a run.

"H-Hey!" He roared as I turned the corner.

I made it to the music shop right on time. The shop owner shook his head at me before telling me to start cleaning all the instruments in the back and wiping away all the grubby fingerprints from kids that would come in to play with the display instruments. He despised children. I hurriedly set to work without a moment to catch my breath or process what had just happened. I couldn't afford to be fired, I missed too many days recovering from the bone marrow donation and now I was on very thin ice.

My shift at the music store went by pretty quick since the shop owner liked to keep me busy and didn't give me a single moment to catch a break. I was dead on my feet when my shift ended but I still didn't have time to take a break, I had to run back to my shitty apartment, get my guitar and head to a gig at The Sunset Lounge. I only had ten minutes to get there to be on time.

I ran back to my apartment as fast as I could, grabbed my guitar and took off again at a mad dash. I got to The Sunset Lounge with a minute to spare and took a moment backstage to chug a glass of water and catch my breath before I was announced on stage. The Sunset Lounge was a fairly nice club. It was a little dated but they had a full bar and kitchen and served good food. It was fancy enough to have a VIP section upstairs that had a velvet rope and everything.

I stepped onto the stage and took a seat at the piano on stage. I set my guitar case on the floor next to me before greeting the crowd with a nervous smile. My gaze fell on a familiar giant of a man with piercing teal eyes, Endeavor. He wasn't in his hero costume this time. I remembered seeing him the night before at the bar I'd played at then again at the hospital. Was he following me? As the thought crossed my mind, I mentally kicked myself for being paranoid before beginning my set.

The first half of my set was original music. As I sang, I chanced a glance in the crowd a lot of people were attentive, some were still chatting and eating and going about their own business. My gaze drifted back to Endeavor. His eyes were half closed and he looked to be relaxed by my song. It was probably a very rare feeling in his line of work.

After my set was over, I collected my earnings from the bar. The owner of the club heard my stomach let out a grumble and sent me on my way with a to go order of food on the house. I left the club quickly, I didn't like to linger after shows, I still wasn't quite over my stage fright. I crossed the street and went to sit on an empty park bench to eat my meal and take a breather.

My stomach yelled in protest as I sat down on an empty bench in the middle of the park near a sputtering fountain. It was admonishing me for neglecting to eat all day. I sighed and opened the white Styrofoam container. There were three crab cakes inside with a side of rice. It was the first thing I'd seen on the menu and didn't seem like it would have too long of a wait. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time and groaned as I found myself staring at a black screen, the battery had died.

Hikaru was probably already asleep. I might be able to let the staff let me in to tuck him into bed and maybe sing him a lullaby. He probably wouldn't even remember or know I was there, but I wanted to see him. I inhaled the first crab cake entirely too quickly and nearly choked to death before telling myself to slow down and ate the rest of my meal like a civilized person with the plastic utensils I'd been given. The crab cakes were good, they weren't too dry and the sauce they'd made to go along with it paired nicely. The rice was bland but cooked well. It was probably the best meal I'd had in years.

As I was nearing the end of my meal, I heard footsteps on the brick path heading in my direction. It was a public park, people were allowed to go for walks or eat on park benches, I told myself to ignore it and continued eating. I kept my head down and focused on my meal until the footsteps came to a stop next to my bench. I casually glanced up mid bite and felt my eyes go wide as I spotted Endeavor scowling down at me. The last bite of crab cake dropped off my fork and fell into the container of sauce.

As I stared up at him scowling down at me, I was suddenly reminded of my hectic morning I hadn't given myself a single moment to process and recover from. A horrifying thought crossed my mind, did I tell him thank you for saving my life?!

"Thank you for saving me earlier." I blurted quickly.

He looked momentarily uncomfortable by my thanks before grumbling under his breath, "I was just doing my job."

"...right...but isn't it nice to be thanked for it?" I asked curiously.

He looked annoyed. "For future reference, if you're involved in a crime, don't run away from the police before they can take your statement."

"...oh...sorry..." I blushed as I realized I had rudely run away from him earlier.

"Everyone thought I accosted you." He growled.

"Oops...sorry about that." I laughed nervously and dug the toe of my boot into the soft sand beneath the bench.

"Why were you in such a hurry?" He pondered. It somewhat felt like he was questioning me as if I were a suspect.

"...Am I in some kind of trouble?" I pondered.

"No." His tone was gruff; something was irritating him.

"So, this isn't an interrogation?" I asked him curiously.

"No." He looked even more frustrated.

"Then could you refrain from towering over me like a terrifying harbinger of doom?" I asked amused.

He looked taken aback before awkwardly dropping onto the opposite end of the bench with his arms folded in front of his chest.

I giggled, he looked like a giant child pouting in his current position.

He seemed to bristle at this and turned to scowl at me, "you still haven't answered me. Why were you in such a hurry?"

"I was running late for work, I'm kind of on thin ice and I really need to keep my job." I said simply as I finished my last bite of food and dropped my Styrofoam tray in the garbage can next to me.

"Surely your employer would have understood you were involved in police business and would have excused your absence." He frowned.

"In my experience, that's not usually how it goes." I shrugged before stretching to my feet. I slung my guitar case across my back, "Am I free to go?"

He nodded. His brows were furrowed in frustration, it seemed like he'd wanted to say more but stopped himself.

"Thank you again, Endeavor." I offered him a smile before taking off at a run.

"Why the hell are you running away from me again?!" He snapped angrily as I sprinted away.

"I'm late!" I laughed as I sprinted away in the direction of the hospital.

I ran all the way to the hospital and slid to a stop before I could smack into the automatic doors that seemed to be on a slight delay. The same receptionist who'd been working the day before was at the desk. She offered me a sad smile, "he's already asleep."

"I know, I just want to see him and tuck him in, please." I begged her.

She sighed and nodded. "Before you go, his doctor wanted to talk to you."

"Alright, I'll head to the staff lounge after I'm done." I slid an envelope of cash across the desk and headed for the ward Hikaru was staying in.

I quietly entered his room. He was sound asleep in his bed hugging a plush bear I'd brought for him on his last birthday. My heart swelled with love and hurt as I looked at him withering away in his bed. He'd been undergoing treatments for a little over two years now with little to no results. I quietly crept into the room and pulled the fleece blanket littered with little animated pirates over him tucking him in. I kissed the top of his bald head and felt my heart break.

"Goodnight, baby. I love you, so much." I tenderly readjusted his army of plushies around him, gave him one more kiss and left the room.

Nervously I made my way to the staff lounge praying this wasn't the day they'd tell me his time was up. The lounge was empty so I dropped into a chair near the door and waited anxiously for the doctor to join me.

Ten minutes later, a man in his late fifties with salt and pepper hair and hard dark brown eyes wearing a lab coat stepped into the lounge. His hard eyes flicked in my direction and he gave me a brief nod. "Miss Ishihara."

"Is something wrong with Hikaru?" I asked worriedly.

His expression turned grim, "the treatments aren't providing any results, I'd like to do another bone marrow transplant. We'll need another donation."

I nodded, "of course, anything he needs. How soon can we do it?" The last time I'd donated I was stuck in bed for five days. I had to work tomorrow; I'd find a way to make it work.

"We can do it now. Do you want local or general anesthesia?" He asked.

"Local please, I have to work tomorrow."

"That's ill advised." He frowned.

"I'll be alright."