My friends had me sit down on a park bench on the side of the festival that wasn't too crowded. No one said a word. We all just kind of sat and stood there, waiting for something to happen.

During the quietness, I rubbed my thumbs against my pointer fingers. My mind was on one thing and one thing only: Ollie. What did that fortune teller mean when she said he was in grave danger? That was what she was going to say, wasn't she? What else could it have been?

Did...did I do something to cause him harm? I thought about it for a moment. He seemed fine whenever I would come home with Sakura. He'd talk an ear off her with how our classes were. Even this past week with Kaito being there for our project, he seemed fine.

How was Ollie doing now?

Without thinking, I shoved my hands into the obi of my dress. Kimonos were strange that way. They didn't have pockets and carrying a purse or something like that due to the long sleeves that they had and the silky material it was made from. People had to get creative where they stored things. For me, I kept everything inside my obi, as I could easily pull things out without looking too awkward while doing it.

The moment my hands grabbed my phone, I clicked on Ollie's number, ready to text him. There was just one problem. I could hardly see the screen. Everything was right there, but my hands trembled terribly that I couldn't even see the letters on the screen. Not to mention, everything was blurry from the tears in my eyes.

"Tami-tan," Sakura softly said as she knelt in front of me, pulling my phone away. Since she did this, I had no choice but to look up at her. Her dark eyebrows knitted together, almost hiding behind the long bangs she had while her green eyes looked right into mine. "Oliver-kun is going to be fine. I promise."

I shook my head. "He—I, he—she said that, I—"

My words weren't coming out clearly as I found it hard to breath. The air around me was getting warmer the more I sat there.

Ollie.

"This is why fortune tellers are nothing more than con artists," Raiden growled. "Just forget everything she said, okay."

"B-b-but Sakura, she said that—that she'd b-become successful," I stuttered as I looked up at Raiden. The boy stood behind Sakura, shaking his head with that permanent scowl that was etched on his face, "And you—"

"That could have been geared towards anyone. She just happened to be the first person to jump towards it," Raiden pointed out. "Just forget it. You'll be better off if you did."

"Raiden's right," Sakura agreed. "For all we know, that could've been for you, with your awesome Quirk and everything."

I shook my head. There was no way the fortune teller was talking about me. There was no way I was going to become the next top hero. She was definitely talking about Sakura. If not her, then maybe Kaito or Raiden, but I knew she wasn't talking about me. That only meant one thing.

My head dropped as I tried to concentrate on my hands. They were still shaking.

Ollie.

"Why don't we get our minds off of this," Kaito suggested as I felt him stand up. Before, he sat beside me, keeping his hands on his lap, but was sitting as close as he could before it became too uncomfortable. "There's a game of wanage or even a kingyo sukui nearby."

"Winning her a prize isn't going to make her feel better," Raiden scowled.

"It's not about that," Kaito argued. "It's about getting her mind off of it. Besides, nothing gets your mind off of it like a cool prize or getting some new fish, right Tami-tan?"

Just like that, I could feel everyone's eyes boring into my head. To be honest, Raiden was right. Winning a prize or playing a silly festival game wasn't going to take my mind off of Ollie. Then again, nothing would.

I just needed to know what was going to happen to my little brother. If anything happened to him now, it would be my fault. I couldn't have that happen.

Ollie.

Yet...I couldn't worry my friends either.

~*~*~*~

"Just give up already," Sakura urged. "You're going to make a bigger fool of yourself if you keep this up."

Kaito shook his head as his eyes were locked onto the toy elephant that was in the very back row of the game. He ripped the rings out of the carny's hand. His knuckles turned white as he held a firm grasp on them.

"I'm going to get Tami-tan that elephant," Kaito's voice was full of determination as he said it. "It's too cute to just give up on it now."

I looked at the rows of toys that lined up. Watching Kaito play made me realize it was a just silly festival game; one that looked so easy to. The goal of it was simple: throw a ring at a toy. Whatever toy it landed on, then that was the toy that was won.

If only winning it was as simple. I was never good at festival games. In years past, Sakura and I would just play the games to make fools of ourselves more than try to win prizes. If I remembered right, the only time I won something was in a game of kingyo sukui, where we were given paper to scoop up as many fish as possible. Even then, I only won a single fish before my scoop broke. Sakura, on the other hand, was a pro. She just wouldn't try as hard since I wasn't the best at these games.

Wanage was a bit challenging. The toys that were further away were harder to get, and hooking the rings on them just right was a whole obstacle of its own. Sakura was right. Kaito needed to give up. Only, I knew why he didn't. While working on our project earlier this week, I had accidentally let it slip that I had never won a game of wanage.

Kaito vowed to win me the coolest prize as he was a "pro."

While Sakura and Kaito argued about the game, I took a few steps back, wondering if I could sneak away from them and find that tent once again. I needed to know what was going to happen to Ollie, not be distracted by some silly festival game.

I had to admit, it was sweet what my friends were trying to do, but it wasn't working. There was only one thing that would ease my mind.

Taking one more step back, I was caught.

"Tami-tan, where are you going?"

I looked over, seeing Sakura looking back at me. Kaito didn't seem to have paid any attention as he was still trying to win that elephant. He didn't seem to be doing too well.

"I'm, uh, I'm getting a bit hungry and was going to see if, well, I thought there were some beef skewers or something good not too far away," I told her.

Part of it was true. It was very hard for me to find food I enjoyed eating at festivals, but I was certain I saw some sort of food I didn't completely hate. Food that wasn't too sweet. If I ate candy apples all day, there would be no way I could enjoy the American festival with Kaito tomorrow.

My stomach growled at the thought. Funnel cakes, caramel apples, and deep fried oreos were foods I was hoping they'd have at the American Festival. Then again, it was kind of hard to eat healthy at American festivals and fairs. If this festival was anything like the festivals back home, then I had to eat well today, so I could make myself sick off of sweets tomorrow.

Before then, I just had to hold off on the sweets. That meant I couldn't be eating candy apples all day. It just wasn't the reason why I was trying to sneak away.

Unfortunately, Sakura noticed it too. "I'll go with you. It's not really safe going alone when more and more people are coming."

My shoulders dropped as I looked around. Sakura was right. This place was getting more and more crowded by the minute. It shouldn't have surprised me. Once night hit, the Musutafu Hero Festival was nearly impossible to walk through. Then again, with the fireworks, dances, and other events that would happen, that was to be expected.

But I knew that wasn't the reason Sakura didn't want me to go alone. Her uncle was kidnapped and lost some of his memory because of it. We came here together, promising that we'd be by each other's side, so neither of us would get hurt.

Sakura probably didn't want someone else she knew getting hurt.

"I'll be fine," I assured her, waving my hands in front of me. "I'll come right back, I promise."

"You said you were hungry right?"

I turned around to see Raiden standing behind me. He had been so quiet that I had forgotten that he was right there.

Before I could answer, Sakura slapped her hand on my shoulder. "Yes she did! It would be nice if her boyfriend would go with her," she said in a louder voice, so Kaito could hear. When I looked back at him, he was too determined on winning that elephant for me that he didn't seem to listen. Sakura sighed as she realized that. "But apparently, he's too busy. Mind if you watch over her for a bit. Make sure she gets back in one piece."

Raiden rolled his eyes. "Make sure he doesn't spend all his money on that stupid game. C'mon, Smith."

Sakura let go of my shoulder and walked back to where Kaito was standing. I watched as she started talking to him, using her arms in a grand gesture as if he was an idiot, but he didn't once react. A part of me was torn. I knew he was just doing his best. In his mind, he probably thought that winning me that elephant would make me forget about everything, or at least, it would bring a smile to my face. Another part of me was relieved that he didn't pay attention as it would make slipping past everyone a bit easier.

At the same time, a part of me felt defeated. I wasn't sure why.

"Smith, you coming?" Raiden asked.

"Oh, right! Yeah," I said, following him close behind, realizing he wasn't going to let me out of his sight so easily.

Despite that, I wasn't going to give up easily.

~*~*~*~

Raiden and I sat on a park bench, eating our food in silence. Like I had thought, there were beef skewers, which were blocks of meat stuck together on a stick. The flavor bursted into my mouth as there was the right amount of juice inside. It was unlike most festival foods where there would be so much to it, like takoyaki. Yuck! How people enjoyed weird seafood in different ways was beyond me.

"So, your brother and you are close, huh?"

My eyes widened at Raiden's sudden comment. I turned my head, noticing him looking at the empty sticks he had. He had ordered four of beef skewers, and had somehow managed to eat all of them before I could finish the only one I got.

"I—uh, yeah. Means we have to be close, right?" I said, before realizing what I had just said and what it had sounded like. "Not you and me, but me and Ollie because we're siblings. I—uh, why did you want to know?"

The boy pushed all the sticks together and held them right in the middle. "You're still bothered by that fortune teller. I can tell because you're jumpier and more nervous than usual, and that's saying something."

My shoulders rose to my ears as I shook my head. "Tha-that's not true."

Raiden turned his head to look at me, raising his eyebrows as if to ask really? I sighed, realizing he may have had a point. After the whole library incident, I grew more comfortable around Kaito and Raiden. I could only tell because I wasn't so nervous around them. That was probably why Sakura was okay with them tagging along with us at the festival. She knew the two of them could hang around without me getting too anxious.

Or was it because having some guys around would make her feel a bit safer after what happened to her uncle?

"Kaito's going to realize it sooner or later, so you might as well forget about it," Raiden told me. "So, whatever you have to say about it, spit it out, so you can move on."

"It's not that simple," I told Raiden as I looked down at the last piece of meat that was on my stick. "Ollie...he's everything. I've got to make sure I make him proud, that I'm there for him, otherwise...otherwise he's going to feel like he's been abandoned, and that's not a good feeling."

"What do you mean by that?" Raiden asked. "Being abandoned."

I took a deep breath. Kaito and Sakura already knew because of how many times they had been over to my house. I mean, it shocked Kaito at first when I called Peter by his first name when he came home from work the first night Kaito and I worked on our project. It was then I had to break the news to him. Well before he knew, I told Sakura, but we had been friends since I moved here. She figured it out pretty quickly and didn't need much of an explanation.

Telling this to Raiden Yamamoto—the guy who nearly beat the pulp out of me when we first met—it was hard for some reason.

Maybe it was because of the name he called Kaito the first time we met. That ugly word that defined who I was.

"My dad," I told him. "He—he left before I was born. Ollie's my half-brother. Our par—well, our mom, his dad, they work a lot because, well, they're Quirkless. They're not home that much, so I have to be there for Ollie. I don't mind. I love Peter and my mom, but I worry that Ollie will miss out and worry that he's all alone or something."

There was a moment of awkward silence after that. I wasn't sure what to say. The only thing that ran through my mind was how I had put Raiden in an awkward place. He probably wasn't expecting that. Of all the things I could have said, he probably wasn't expecting my life story.

But, it wasn't a bad thing. I mean, it never really bothered me. It just...it just worried me what would happen to Ollie if I wasn't there for him.

"So, you're doing your best to be the best sister you can to him," Raiden analyzed, "because of what you've gone through?"

I nodded my head.

Raiden sighed. "Geez, no wonder why that old hag put you in a frenzy. Here I thought he was a trouble maker or something."

My eyes widened as I looked at Raiden. "No no no, Ollie would never get himself in trouble. He wants to be a hero, like us, only...." I stopped myself dead in my tracks as I didn't feel comfortable giving him that information. What would Raiden say if Ollie was Quirkless? Would he think it's weird that I had a Quirk when he didn't? Maybe he wouldn't as I told him that his dad was Quirkless, while mine left. Whatever Quirk he had, I didn't know. No one seemed to know as all the information about him was missing. At the same time, it wasn't something I wanted to talk about again.

Instead of finishing my thought, I changed the subject. "That woman wasn't that old, was she? I'd guess she was in her thirties or something."

"It doesn't matter how old she is," Raiden argued, "she was just finding a way to get to you. Remember what she said in the beginning? One free fortune, then if you wanted additional readings or something, she'd charge. I'd bet she was just trying to find a way to make—"

Before Raiden could finish his sentence, his phone started to ring. I watched as he pulled it from his obi and scowled in response. He looked up at me, pressing his lips together. "Hey, Smith, mind if I take this?"

I shook my head, realizing this was my best opportunity to sneak out. "Go ahead. And uh, could you stop calling me Smith? I like being called Tami."

While I waited for an answer, Raiden just ignored me. He answered the phone, pulling it up to his ear. I didn't listen to what he had to say as he looked down at his legs for a moment. I watched him for a moment as he just listened to what the other person on the phone on the line had to say. A part of me wanted to ask if everything was okay, but if I did that, he'd notice me leave.

Taking a deep breath, I stood up from the bench, moving a bit to see if he'd notice. Instead, I just heard him mutter a few words into the phone. It wasn't in a language I could recognize. Hearing that, I wondered if he had to think twice with what he had said or if it was the fact that whoever was on the phone needed his full attention. Either way, I wasn't going to question it.

With Raiden distracted, I slowly stepped away from the bench, watching him until I had disappeared into the crowd. The moment that I did, I took off running towards the direction of the fortune teller's tent. There was nothing that was going to stop me.

~*~*~*~

By the time I had reached the other end of the festival, where the fortune teller tent was, I noticed something different going on. It wasn't that crowded as it was in other parts of the festival. I looked around, doubting for a moment that I was in the right spot.

The whole street was empty. No one was walking; no one was standing behind the stands, ready to sell food or get people to play their games. My lips pressed together as I looked up, noticing that the sun was starting to go down.

People were finding a good spot to watch the fireworks. That's what's going on. I told myself over and over again. There was nothing really to do here when other places had more events going on. It made sense. Where Sakura, Kaito, and Raiden were, it was starting to get pretty busy. If people had closed down a street, then that had to be why.

My stomach dropped for a moment. If people were gone, would the fortune teller be gone too? I needed her to tell me what was going to happen to Ollie, if everything was going to be okay. Once I was given that peace of mind, I could enjoy the festival. Kaito wouldn't be going overboard with the prizes (which, I did tell him before he even started playing that I didn't need the elephant. He was just worried about me; I was sure of it). Sakura and I could have more fun running around, looking at the different things that were being sold.

Raiden...I just wouldn't be bothering him anymore.

There was only one thing on my mind: find that tent and figure out what was going on with Ollie.

I kept up my search until I saw it: a small tent with beads hanging down for the door. A smile crossed my lips as I realized this was it. There was no going back now. My legs started to pick up the pace as I started to run towards it, hearing voices from inside.

The fortune teller must still be in there. I felt relieved knowing that. It might have just taken longer to pack up, or maybe she didn't know that no one would be around here. After all, I had never seen a stand like that at the Mustafu Hero Festival.

When that thought came into my mind, I stopped dead in my tracks. Come to think about it, I had never seen a fortune teller at a Mustafu Hero Festival. The last time I had seen one at a festival was back in America, and even then, it was at the state fair.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one in the area as I started hearing the voices from inside argue a bit. Hearing those voices and realizing that it was strange to see a fortune teller's tent here at Mustafa Hero Festival should have been enough for me to know that I needed to get away. At the same time, I needed to know what was going on with Ollie.

There was nothing I wouldn't do in order to keep Ollie safe.

Without thinking, I ran into the tent, throwing the beads to the side. I was surprised to see nothing inside, even though I swore I heard voices coming from inside not too long ago. Everything was just empty. There was nothing sitting on the table that was inside like there was before. Most of the curtains that were hanging up were pulled down, revealing the true color of the tent.

I was about ready to turn around when I heard a strange noise coming from the trunk, the trunk that was still shoved against the small side of the tent. My lips pressed together as an eerie feeling surrounded me, like I should walk away, but while I could feel my heart race, it didn't feel right leaving without figuring out what was going on.

I slowly made my way to the chest, and knelt down, finding a lock around the latch of the chest. More noise escaped from inside, almost as if something was trapped inside. It was weird, so weird that I looked around, finding a key laying on the top of the chest. Part of me knew I shouldn't go through someone else's things, but something didn't seem right.

My fingers slid the key off the top of it and slid it into the keyhole. Once I unlocked it and pushed the lid off, I peeked inside, my eyes widening as I did.

Inside the chest was a woman with dark hair. She wore similar clothing to the fortune teller, only her outfit was a bit more modest as the blue material covered her torso and had layers of beads on top of it all. While the strange outfit caught my attention, it wasn't what my eyes were glued on. The woman had her arms tied behind her back with rope, just like her legs were. She had a gag tied tightly around her mouth, preventing any words from coming out.

The women looked up at me, her eyes pleading for help. I didn't think twice as I bent down and untied the gag. Once it was off, I helped the woman to a seated position and was about to untie the rope that bound her wrists together. Right as my hands touched hers, the woman drew in a deep breath.

"I thought I warned you to go away, child," she claimed, causing me to freeze.

"What?" I asked as I looked the woman in the eyes. "I thought...but, you weren't the fortune tell—"

She shook her head. "They forced me to use my Quirk, Telepathy, to help them. If I didn't, they were going to take my Quirk away, but I fear that's going to happen. You have a chance to get out of here, so go!"

My shoulders rose to my ears as I felt my muscles tensing up. Telepathy? That meant...that meant that she could read my thoughts, wasn't it? Or did it mean she could communicate with others? Or could she do both? Either way, I started to realize how right Raiden was. This fortune teller was nothing more than a fraud.

"Why? W-w-why did you, who are—" I started to ask, not sure what to ask.

I never got my question out as laughter filled the tent. The woman inside the chest winced as I slowly turned my head, finding the fortune teller from before. Only this time, the fortune teller didn't have the veil or sunglasses to cover her hair and eyes, revealing vibrant pink hair that tumbled down past her shoulders while her matching eyes were locked onto mine.

Standing behind her was the man with the meatball Quirk. For the first time, he wasn't wearing a mask or a hat to cover up his face. He had boxed-like facial features and white hair, even though he didn't look older than forty.

Seeing his face for the first time caused my heart to race even faster. I held my hands up in surrender, hoping neither of them would do anything to me. I was out numbered. There was no one outside the tent that could help me. And even if there was, I don't think I could have made it.

"Wooksie wike you fell for our wittle twick," the pink haired woman announced as she walked towards me. "No one is gonna help you now."

I shook my head. "I-I-I don't understand. I—why me? Wh-what do you, why—"

The woman knelt down in front of me as she grabbed my chin. I was too afraid to try and shove her away and make a run for it. All I could think about was why she wanted me. I was just a kid. I mean, there was nothing special about me. So why? Why me?

"Aren't you sweet? No need to worry, wittle baby," she cooed as she leaned closer to me. "It'll all be over soon."

I wished I could have fought back, but I didn't. Instead, the moment her lips came off of mine, I felt my eyes growing heavy to the point that I passed out.

Author's Note:

This surprise, early update is brought to you by your amazing support! Never has a book of mine reached 10K reads before it was finished. I didn't think that was even possible! Thank you guys so very much for all your wonderful comments, votes, love, and support. I truly appreciate it and hope you all continue to enjoy the story.

From now on, updates will be twice a week, moving to Mondays and Fridays. There will be no break between arcs, so we will all be able to figure out what these villains are planning to do with Tami very soon. If I miss two updates in a row, I will throw in an extra fun tidbit like I did the last time. If I'm late or miss one...I apologize and will try to prevent that from happening.

In the meantime...

Question: What was your favorite part of the festival arc? (AKA, the part when Tami picks up Sakura from her home to this chapter).

Character Spotlight: Tami Smith
Quirk: Biochange
Likes: Dino Chicken Nuggets

And here is what inspired her Kimono for this arc

Song: Tokyo Rain by Marcus Warner