The hand that wrapped around mine was warm to the touch, but it wasn't sticky like I had expected that giant's hands to be. It also wasn't dainty like that woman's hands seemed to be either. Due to my hesitation, I let the person drag me out of the food court and close to a store's window. It was then my vision cleared a bit that I could look around, finding that people would be able to see if there was trouble happening if anything were to happen again.

When I looked up, I could finally sigh in relief as a boy my age with glowing orange eyes stood in front of me. My eyes widened as I recognized him, even if he was wearing something completely different from the last time I had seen him. He wore a loose, yellow sweatshirt that hung over a form fitting orange shirt that made him look more like a twig. Besides his clothing, this guy was no longer smiling like he usually was.

"What the hell is going on?"the boy asked. "I saw you shift and run away as if you were in trouble."

If I wasn't shaking bad enough from fear of those people coming back or from just witnessing everything that I had already, the boy placed both his hands on my shoulders. His head tilted down to look into my eyes, but I quickly turned to look at his hands.

He was touching me again. Why was he always touching me? Not even Ollie uses this much physical touch.

Then a horrifying thought crossed my mind. That woman with the pink hair...all she had to do was kiss someone, and they were out for the count. My body froze, afraid of what could happen.

I've always known there were dangerous Quirks out there, but never one that dangerous. All some people had to do was touch you or get you to say something, and you'd be completely under their spell. A kiss, a kiss? That was a form of touch I'd never imagine being used against you.

"Tami, I can't help you unless you tell me what's wrong," the boy in front of me said.

I snapped my head back to him, realizing I was pulling away from him and looking away. The boy looked concerned as his orange eyes bore into mine. His eyebrows knitted together while his mouth curving into a slight frown.

My mouth opened to say something, but nothing came out as I saw a woman with pink hair passing behind him. Not far away from her was the giant-sized man turning his head to look for someone. Whether it be their next victim or me, I didn't want to find out. I looked down, realizing I still looked like Sakura, but I worried they saw me shift. Even if they didn't, it didn't matter as I was afraid they would take one look me, and my disguise would fade away.

Without warning the guy, I pulled him closer to me, wrapping my arms around his neck and laid my head on his shoulder. The guy didn't miss a beat as he wrapped an arm around my head and another around my waist. My body shook as we stood in that hug, but I constantly reminded myself of the alternative.

"Someone's after me," I whispered. "A-a woman with pa-pink hair an-and a man wh-who can shoot p-p-parts of his arms off."

The orange haired boy stiffened at that. "What?"

He tried pushing away, but I just pulled him closer, trying to stay hidden as long as I could.

"They're here," I whispered. "I-I-I-"

"Tami, what did they do?" the boy asked.

"A ma-man," I told him, my voice still shaking. "He, well, she k-k-k-kissed him and then the-the man just fa-fa-fainted. She was g-g-g-g-going...I was g-g-g-going to—"

My words could never come out as I saw her face flash before my eyes. I swore I heard her giggling as if she was right next to me, and hearing that, I tried to push myself out of his grasp.

I needed to get out of here. I needed to run. I needed to—

That didn't happen. Despite wanting to pull away earlier, the orange-haired boy pulled me closer to him, holding a much stronger grasp than before. My heart started beating out of my chest. Was he working with them too? Was this guy going to turn on me just like that gigantic man with the arms that changed shape just before it squirted out at me? I pulled my arms away from his neck and placed them on his shoulders, trying to get a better grasp on him, but this guy was quicker. He pulled his arms around me and didn't budge one bit.

This mall was filled with people. Why was no one seeing this? I needed out of here. I needed out of here before something happens.

Almost as if on cue, something wrapped around my waist and pulled me away from the orange haired boy. I froze as I looked back, seeing a thick vine, with leaves growing from it, wrapped around my waist. The other end of it wrapped around a girl's arm. Her emerald eyes didn't even meet mine as she glared at the orange haired boy who wouldn't let me out of his grasp earlier.

"Hey! Cut it out, will y—" the boy started to say before the vine that once wrapped around me, whipped over towards him and knocked him off his feet.

"What the hell are you trying to do to my friend? Are you some sort of pervert or something, trying to make a move on my bestie right there?" Sakura asked as she ran towards him, extending her arms out in front of her. The vines that came out from her arms wrapped around him until he was like a human caterpillar starting to make its cocoon. He tried to struggle, but nothing happened.

I looked up, searching to see if the tall man or the woman with the pink hair were around, but they were nowhere to be seen. People just passed by, not sparing us a second glance. It was just like how that woman had to kiss that man for something to happen, and yet no one noticed. How could people ignore what was going on around them?

While I was worried about that, I was somewhat grateful. It meant no one would notice what was going on. We weren't causing as big of a scene as we could've been, which was somewhat good.

"What? Oh, oh! You're the girl she turned into. Please, let go of me. This is all a misunderstanding, I swear!" the boy painfully pleaded.

Sakura turned to look at me. Her emerald eyes looked skeptical, but waited for me to give the okay. I looked around, afraid that these people walking past us would eventually stop and do something. They never did. Kids using their Quirks on one another seemed more as if they were practicing for the school they wanted to get in rather than a big misunderstanding. At least, that was the only reason I could think as to why no one tried stopping my friend.

As long as the pink haired woman and gigantic man were gone, I should be fine. I looked back and nodded my head to Sakura, silently telling her to let him go. Her gaze narrowed onto mine, but I gave her another nod. My friend sighed as her vines pulled back into her arms until they made a slight design in her arms and slowly faded away as if they were never there.

I looked up at Sakura, noticing her nose was starting to run a bit. She had barely used her Quirk for long, and I could already tell her allergies were starting to act up. My hand reached into my pocket for an unused tissue before I handed one over to her. Sakura smiled for a moment, grabbed it, but looked back at the boy in front of us.

He scrambled up to his feet and tried to straighten out his clothing. When he looked up, he didn't look at me, but rather, Sakura.

"My name is Kaito Oba, but my friends call me Kaito. I met Tami back during our practical exam for UA. She saw me in a tough situation and—" the orange haired boy started.

"I don't care where you've met my friend, Orangie," Sakura spat. "I need to know what you were doing to her that was making her uncomfortable, so I can decide whether I use my vines to knock you out until next week or let the heroes deal with you."

Kaito gulped. He looked over at me, as if he wanted my help, but I didn't say a word. Instead, I brushed my short blonde hair back behind my ears. It was good to be back in my own body, but I was worried that they'd come back for me.

Even if they did, there was one other person who knew. As long as he wasn't working with them, he could at least tell someone.

"Tami was running away from someone," Kaito explained as he looked back at Sakura. "She came onto me, explaining there were people coming after her. I couldn't exactly understand what she was saying to be honest, but when she was pulling away, I thought she was just having a nervous breakdown, which was why I held on because I didn't know what to do."

Sakura glanced towards me raising an eyebrow to make sure this guy was indeed telling the truth. I took a deep breath before nodding my head, confirming it was all true. Seeing this, Sakura cursed under her breath.

"That's why you were missing for over a half-hour," Sakura muttered as her fingers started to rub her chin and looked down. "Here I thought Oliver-kun had a lot to say."

"Oliver?" Kaito asked.

"My brother," I whispered before looking at Sakura. "He's fine. It—it was after that phone c-call that I, uh, I found myself in a bad situation."

"What happened?" my friend asked.

I explained everything, starting from the woman bringing the man into the dark hallway I was in to the part where she had back up that started to chase me away. It was then my hands started to shake that Sakura and Kaito lead me away from where we were at and towards a bench where I could sit and relax a bit more. My mind wasn't concentrating on what was going on as I tried to explain everything. Even as we walked, all I could do was think about what happened.

By the time I got to the part where Kaito stepped in and pulled me away, I looked up at Kaito. They were both standing in front of me, almost as if guarding me from whatever was around. I was thankful for that. If I had to deal with those adults again, there'd be a huge amount of trouble going on.

At least I had two people who knew that if something were to happen again, they'd know what to do.

"Tami-tan, I'm so sorry you had to go through that," Sakura said.

"She did the right thing in running," an oddly familiar voice claimed, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stick up. I snapped my head back to the right to see a brunette leaning against the wall close to us. His hair wasn't the same type of brown that Ollie's was as it was much darker. In fact, he looked nothing like my brother as his muscles were bulging out of his plain white school uniform. "Sure standing up for yourself can be brave, but there's strength in running away."

"Ah! Raiden, I didn't realize you were here," Kaito laughed as he walked over to the guy and placed his arm on his shoulder, leaning in. "When did you get here?"

Raiden. He was the guy who nearly beat the pulp out of me during our entrance exam, except I don't think that was what I remembered his name being that. I remembered it being Yamamoto. Still, my shoulders started to tense up as I remembered how awful he was back then. Why was it he was being somewhat kind right now? It didn't make sense.

"That doesn't matter," the brunette explained. "If there are two villains with that kind of Quirk, we need to tell someone higher up rather than just gossiping about it. The heroes can take care of it from there, understood?"

Sakura and Kaito looked at me, worried for my sake. I looked down at my hands that were playing with the bottom of my skirt. Raiden Yamamoto was right. This whole time I had been selfish that I hadn't told anyone what happened, but I was also terrified with everything that I had just witnessed. I could've ended up like that poor guy that woman landed a kiss on. What if that happened to me?

What would've happened if that happened to someone else?

"Tami-tan, just take it eas—" Sakura started to say.

"Okay," I whispered, not looking at any of them. "Just—just promise that you'll all b-be there for me, okay?"

I looked up at all three of them, each wearing a different expression. Sakura looked concerned after everything that had happened. As for Kaito, he gave a small smile, almost as if he was proud of me for doing the right thing. Yamamoto, on the other hand, wore his neutral expression that he seemed to have permanently planted on his face.

Even back during the entrance exam, there was something about him that made me uneasy. I thought it was his attitude or something that happened that day, but as I looked at him, I realized that wasn't the case. There was something else that made me instantly wary about him. I wasn't sure what it was, but I didn't want to find out.

All I needed to do was contact the authorities about this incident and have them take care of it to protect anyone from suffering the same fate as that man. Then, I'd just have to worry about my last few days before becoming a student at U.A.

Author's Note:

And that concludes the first mini "arc" of this book. More chapters are to come, no worries. This book will be on a short hiatus until the next arc is finished.

Question: What has been your favorite part of this book so far?

Character Spotlight: Kaito Oba
Quirk: Light
Likes: Chocolate

Song: Anguish of the Quirkless from BNHA