"You're perfect."

I've heard it time and time again.

That is how I've usually been described, for the majority of my life. My first introduction of someone and that's all anyone ever manages to think of me. But 'perfect' is such a broad term though, don't you think? 'Perfect' means something completely different to each and every person. To one person, it may be that I'm cunning and manipulative; to another, it may mean I'm attractive and mysterious; to another, it may mean I'm intelligent and ambitious. That means it's subjective.

So, go ahead and prepare yourself for something that's universally perfect.

Perfect people exist in an imperfect world. Immediately, it is assumed that their role, their duty, their reason for existence is to fix it.

All my life, I've always been searching for my purpose. I wasn't content just living life, day by day. I wanted to find something to devote myself to. Something to live towards. Something that would keep me going. When I eventually did find that, this disgusting imperfect world ripped her away from me.

I devoted myself to her goal. We were separated for a reason because now, I realise, it was that extra motivation that kept me going. Never do I ever want to forget the blood, tears, scars and despair, because it made me who I am.

I will keep living this imperfect lifestyle. I will keep on dirtying my hands. I will keep on doing whatever it is I have to do to get what I want.

Because everything is a choice, isn't it?

At least that's how I like to see it. ★

~~~

As infants, we were all exposed to the horrors of the world.

The child-like innocence was immediately destroyed and replaced with something a lot more morbid. Having grown up already experiencing the worst of the worst, you tend to isolate yourself from the rest of society, realising you're very different.

As you grow older and develop your thinking, you're immediately labelled as 'different'. Or maybe you labelled yourself as so.

Some people may develop some sort of God complex, some people may be too broken for repair, then there are the people who rise above it all.

Still, you can't help the demeaning thoughts.

An invisible barrier slowly beings to form over the years as you realise you have very different morals and ideologies. You live day by day, hoping the next day would be better than the last. Hoping that, maybe, you'll find your place in the world and other people who could understand you.

Such a pointless existence.

'It has nothing to do with me', you try and tell yourself.

You begin to see just the negative. None of the good things count anymore, as terrible thoughts plague your mind.

Fault-finding, flaw-finding is all just tireless human nature.

So, why not fix it?

Instead of spending your whole life complaining about disgusting human nature and all the imperfections and inequality in the world, why not step up and attempt to fix it all?

It's not like you have any more to lose.

-Is what Yuzu says, but she just couldn't understand why he cares so much about this when everything else would just fly over his head.

How many years has it been and she still can't crack the code.

"Miketsukami, since you have the energy to daydream, then maybe you should answer the question! What's x?"

"It's greater than -2, but less than 7."

"That's-" The teacher turned to look at the board, and blinked in surprise, "Correct."

She glanced at the time. Less than a minute left.

"I've handed out another worksheet. Be sure to finish it in time for the next lesson!"

Yua immediately slung her bag over her shoulder and headed out as quickly as possible, not wanting to be engulfed in the crowd. She had no problem dodging and weaving through countless students, also making their way out.

School was boring. Ever so boring.

All the knowledge was useless. The only thing they may have been even the slightest bit beneficial was Japanese, Japanese History and Modern Foreign Language.

She would much rather drop out of school and study whatever she thought would help. Yet, she didn't have a choice, as they would say it was important for her to be a normal high school girl to not raise any suspicions.

Finally getting outside, she spotted two familiar faces, bickering and arguing as usual outside of the school gates. Speeding up her pace to reach them quicker, she adjusted her bag on her shoulder, and sighed, her brows creasing in frustration, "Raiden, Sora, where's Yuzu?"

Sora was the first to turn around, his blue eyes lighting up. He immediately ducked behind her, using her as a shield, "Yua!"

Sora was the youngest of the four and the shortest. He was a pretty boy with darker blue hair and light blue eyes. He was 15 years old, but there was something about him that kicked in a protective instinct. "Raiden is trying to get me to paint my nails, but I don't want to. He's trying to take advantage of me because he's feels threatened."

Yua glanced at Raiden, who had a creepy smile on his face, "Oh, come on! It's not that big of a deal, if you don't like it you can just take it off!"

"No, get away from me! Y-You can't just abuse me because I'm the cutest!"

Ironically, Raiden was the oldest, but he may as well be the youngest. He had startling messy, spiked yellow hair styled in a black undercut with matching yellow eyes that looked like they were constantly shining. Of course, his uniform was a mess. It was very reflective of his personality.

His tie was loose, and the top few buttons were undone. His shirt wasn't tucked in, and he wasn't even wearing the right shoes.

"Why are your nails painted? There weren't like that when we left this morning."

"Oh." Raiden grinned, "The girls in my class did it. What can I say, I'm just that irresistible."

He struck a pose, and Yua ignored him, turning to look at the time on her phone, "Where is he? He isn't usually this late."

Sora reluctantly stepped out from his hiding spot, still sticking close to Yua. He was playing with a strand of his hair, trying to hold back a yawn. "Who cares? I just wanna get home and take a nap. Can we leave?"

"If he heard you say that, you wouldn't be waking up for a very long time."

"Why are you guys worrying so much?" Raiden asked in confusion, "Yuzu-nii can take care of himself."

"We have a lot to do today, and I don't want to get held up."

"Wait, we have a lot to do today?" Raiden asked, looking genuinely confused. He shouldn't look confused, because they had been talking about this for weeks.

"Are you serious?" Sora blinked as if he couldn't believing what he was seeing and hearing. A grin spread on his face as he began to sneer, "Wow, you're way dumber than I thought. I'm supposed to be the youngest and least mature, but you really do take the cake."

"Sh-Shut up, you little midget!"

"Wow, you're in such a pinch that you're making fun of my height because everything else is perfect!"

Raiden lunged at Sora, too quick for resistance. Sora shrieked, and Raiden held him in a headlock, digging his fist into his hair. While Sora complained and screeched, he secretly did love the attention and affection he was getting, even if it meant getting a fist in his skull.

Sora screamed, his signature glare plastered on his face, "This is why no one loves you!"

He likes to be the centre of attention like that.

Raiden loves to be the subject of praise.

Yua, on the other hand, was a little more complicated than that.

And Yuzu?

To her, he was like some kind of animal.

She could never tell what he was thinking, but she was able to somewhat predict his actions. It was if as he was always lying in wait, trying to find the right time to strike out and unleash everything he has.

That terrified her.

He was like some ticking time bomb.

Yua was used to knowing everything. Maybe not everything, but all she wanted to know. When she first met Yuzu, they were both fairly young and even then, she didn't have a single clue what was going through his mind.

She thought that if she got better at using her quirk and reading people, she could finally understand and learn what he thinks about when she got a little older. However, to this day, she remains in the dark while Yuzu lurks in the shadows, waiting to pounce.

He was tall, the second tallest out of the four with jet black hair just barely tickling the nape of his neck. He had broad shoulders and a slim waist, making his legs seem longer than they are. But the most memorable thing about him were his eyes.

Forest green eyes.

Everything about him leaves you with some kind of impression.

Even as he was casually walking about of the school, your eyes were drawn to him like some kind of magnet. He was defiantly aware of all the attention he attracts, but he chooses to ignore it, which just got him more of it.

Sora straightened his back; Raiden did a spin and he bounded over to stand next to Yuzu. "Yuzu-nii! What took you so long? I was getting worried about you!"

Yua rolled her eyes, not bothered to call him out on his lie. "About time you got here."

Yuzu glanced at her, with no kind of emotion present on his face. Then, slowly but surely, a small smile began to spread on his face. "I did keep you waiting, didn't I?"

Raiden was practically bouncing on his feet, "But what kept you back for so long?"

Yuzu answered straight away, lying smoothly without missing a beat, "School council business."

Yua knew better than that, but Raiden and Sora were content believing the what looked to be an obvious lie.

Their house wasn't far from the school. It was a quick 5-minute walk and you were there. Because of that, the walk home was nothing more than aimless, superficial chatter about nothing in particular. The highlight of the evening was watching Raiden moonwalk back into a street lamp trying to impress Yuzu.

All four of them lived in a simple, two-story three-bedroom house, where Sora and Yua shared a room. Still, it was evident that four high schoolers lived all together without an adult.

It was almost like some kind of semi-organised, frat house.

It was homely, as if you could step foot into the house and you could unwind, letting go of all that stressed you. The kitchen and dining room blended, with the living room at the back.

There was one bathroom on the ground floor, and two more upstairs. One is a joint bathroom and the other one an on-suite for Yuzu.

The routine for the day was simple, finish all the school work they had for the day, then head to base.

Yuzu and Yua instantly whizzed through everything; Sora was glaring at his paper, and scratching his head with his pencil; Raiden got distracted, and started playing a game on his phone.

"What?" He innocently asked, "It's too easy, it's pointless."

"If it's easy then you should just do it quickly." Yua stared at him, "You don't want to slow Yuzu down, do you?"

"No..." He glanced at Yuzu, who was just staring at him without a single word. "Okay."

He stretched and knocked a glass of orange juice all over Sora's work.

"Ah."

Sora was livid.

He clenched his fists and started trembling out of pure rage. The air around him began to condense as he jumped up, lunging at Raiden who effortlessly dodged him. His papers flew everywhere; he was ruining his own work with no return.

"You cow! How could you be so clumsy and ignorant and so selfish, you waste of space! No one loves you! You're a giant so my neck always hurts when I look up at you!"

Yua grabbed him by the arms, trying to calm him down.

"You're a waste of space! Leave and never come back. While you're at it, lose a few inches, you giraffe!"

Yua patted his head and began to whisper soothing words into his ears. He calmed down, liking the attention he was getting. Then, he snapped out of it, pushing Yua away.

"Stop treating me like a child!"

He stormed up to his room.

Raiden snickered, "Maybe it was past his bedtime."

~~~

"I did it!" Sora happily exclaimed, a bright smile on his face. "I did it!"

It was weird seeing him smile so genuinely.

"You're effectively shielding us from the rain, but you're splashing all the water on the other two."

Sora turned around and saw that Yua and Raiden were soaked, despite the umbrella Raiden was holding. He smirked, "It's okay, I can dry Yua off later."

The condescending smirk was more like him.

"Wait, but... what about me??"

Sora ignored him as he went back to concentrating on the air shield he had built about himself and Yuzu, as some kind of make-shift umbrella. It was fair to say it wasn't going very well.

He was visibly struggling.

Yuzu would give words of advice, trying to help him perfect his technique as they were making their way to base.

Yua began to whisper under her breath, "Remember what we talked about?"

He gulped, feeling uneasy. "Is this about... swan?"

Yua nodded.

"Look, is this a good idea?" Raiden muttered, a little anxious. "I know you said that we need to find out more about her, but I don't know if I can do this."

Yua squeezed his arm, playing with his ego. "You're the sneakiest out of all of us, if anyone can do it, it's you. I promise."

He still looked unsure, because he hated doing things behind Yuzu's back.

"You don't have to do much, you just have to tempt her. Let her see you, and don't engage."

"But Yuzu-nii-"

"Will thank us later." She started putting some charm into her words, trying to convince him. "If we want any chance of leaving a message, we need her. Ogami has her claws deep in Yuzu. He can't know or she will and then everything will be over."

He started nodding.

"We're counting on you. Until we can get rid of Ogami, we're relying on you."

He smiled, happy that he was needed and being counted on.

"By the way," Sora turned around, raising his voice so they can hear him over the rain. "What on Earth is Raiden wearing? He looks... I don't know how to describe it. But it's weird."

Raiden was wearing gold-tinted sunglasses, and a choker. Sora thought it weirdly suited him, but still wanted to judge him. He was wearing a long-sleeved, black shirt with this brown and white jacket over it, along with calf-length black boots.

"I look so cool." He stuck another pose.

He was the only one who tried. Everyone else dressed purely for comfort. Yua was wearing a white long-sleeved crop top with black leggings and trainers. Sora was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt under a blue t-shirt, along with a red beanie and knee-length shorts.

The red beanie and blue hair and eyes was quite funny. It reminded them of a certain firecracker.

Yuzu was wearing a dark blue turtle neck with black jeans. His hair was tied into this very small ponytail, with some strands having escaped the clutches of the hair tie.

Not to mention, Raiden and Yua were soaked, because Sora's air shield did nothing but fling all the water in their direction. The only one who was completely dry was Sora himself, which defeated the purpose.

"Looks like we're here," Sora announced.

Raiden sighed, not even trying to hide his discomfort. "Guess we are."

Yuzuhira looked calm. As if he was free of any responsibility; as if he didn't have the weight of the world on his shoulders; as if he was acting on his own free will.

As if his entire world hasn't fallen apart.

~~~

Happy bday to my boi 🥺❤️

Also if any of you play Genshin Sora's quick is kinda lie Travellers skill. Kind of. Not exactly. Don't quote me on that.

Hope everyone who's in lockdown isn't struggling too much I know I'm defiantly feeling it already but we can all get through this 💛