------Author's Note------
Hey guys!

This chapter banner was made by the amazing lovelyavvz thank you so much!! She's so pretty 😍 and the shading is done really nicely.

Koto's POV
(Saturday the 27th)

After cleaning myself up, I lay on the couch in the basement, nursing my water, before I drift back off to sleep. By the time I wake up again, the sun has fully risen. The light feels like a stab to my eyeballs. I groan, squeezing my eyes shut, and try to roll over, but at the same time, I don't really want to move. 

I hear somebody snickering, so I open my eyes to see Jupiter and his deep green eyes that seem more blue in the light. He grins and offers me a refilled glass of water. 

I struggle to pull myself up. I'm about to rub my eyes to try and get them to stop aching, but then I realize why they feel like a desert. I heave myself off the couch and into the bathroom, staring at my eyes. The whites have been shot through with red and feel extremely itchy. 

The winged boy follows me in. "What's wrong?" He asks, taking a bite of bacon that he's holding for whatever reason. All I know is that the smell is nauseating. 

I just reach up to my eye and hold it open while taking the green contact out. He winces and I blink quickly, trying to moisten the surface of my eye. 

"Oof," he says, opening the cabinet under the sink. He pulls out a little white bottle and sets it down in front of me. "I have contact solution if you need it." 

I pull the case out of my pocket and put the lenses away after cleaning them. 

Jupiter ruffles my hair from behind. "Don't hurt yourself, snowflake. C'mon, let's get some food in ya."

Food sounds less than appetizing right now, but I'm in no position to argue, so I follow him up to the kitchen where the smell is agonizingly pungent. Don't get me wrong, I usually like bacon and eggs, but right now, it makes me want to vomit again. I sit at the kitchen island and absentmindedly pick at the food he puts in front of me. 

"Now why did you leave?" He cuts right to the chase. "You said it's a long story. Gimme the shortened version."

I stumble through telling him about the attack and that I just wanted to get away, so I came back to where I grew up. He looks pensive, crunching on more bacon and swiping crumbs off the counter. 

"If you're a student at UA, then why didn't I see you at the sports festival?"

"You were th-there?" I ask, surprised. 

"Nah, I just mean I watched on TV. Are you a transfer or something? Cause I recorded and watched all three levels."

"N-no, I just dyed my h-hair," I say, pulling at the strands that are already starting to curl again. "With Kati and Macy."

He smiles to himself for a moment before noticing my gaze. "I lost a bet last year. Had to dye my hair pink. Macy did it for me. She's chill."

I nod in agreement, once again feeling that guilt of not being there for her over all the years. 

"So, you got a hero name, Elsa?" 

"Maestro," I say. "And...m-my name isn't Elsa."

"Well, I figured."

I fix him with a questioning look. "Did you m-memorize the whole roster or something?"

He smiles bashfully in response, taking a few moments before answering, "Just the hero course. Call me a dork, but I like to keep up to date with all the foreign heroes too."

"Yup, d-definitely a dork," I say with a cheeky smile, then put out my hand. "I'm Koto Yamada." 

He smiles and shakes it. "Nice to meet you officially."

"S-so what's your hero n-name?"

"Nightwing," he says, giving me an apprehensive glance. "He's my favorite hero from the old stories."

"What st-stories?"

"You know, Batman, Superman…" he trails off, but I just shrug. 

"I know of th-them, but I g-guess I'm not up to date on th-th-the lore." 

He gets a faraway look. "Those guys were just legends before quirks. After that, I feel like people sorta forgot about them."

"Ah, s-so you not only l-l-like old music, but also old stories?"

"Music is storytelling, though."

I nod my head, fully agreeing. His phone starts vibrating and he picks it up to check. By instinct, I go for my back pocket, only to remember I left my phone in my room back home. 

"Kati said she's gotta go into the school today for an impromptu meeting. Business kids," he mumbles, shaking his head. "We can go there and meet up with her afterwards if you want. I've been putting off my costume modifications for too long, but I should probably go fix it."

"What hap-p-pened?" I ask in mild concern. 

"Just a run-in with some villains. I've been an apprentice at a hero company for a while. It happens."

He types on his phone for a while, smiling to himself. I hope he's texting Kati, but I can't be sure. "So what exactly is y-your qu-quirk?"

He puts his phone down and leans back. "It's called Lunar Angel. Everyone told me that should be my hero name," he says, chuckling spitefully. "Yeah, no. Anyways, I have these wings, obviously, but they can only be seen in the moonlight. That's it."

"That's r-really cool, though!"

He shrugs and runs a hand behind him, where his right wing must be. "And if you were wondering about Annie, little miss 'Shadow Dancer,'" he makes over exaggerated finger quotes, "that's exactly what her quirk is called. She can move her shadow independently from her body."

My eyes widen. "L-like Dr. Facilier?"

"Uhh, I'm not really sure who that is. I just call her Peter Pan, which she hates. Her shadow basically can interact with others. She uses that to control things."

"You s-seem to know a l-l-lot about it."

He shrugs and twirls what seems to be an invisible feather in his fingers. "She won't shut up about it. She wants the two of us to start our own hero agency that specialize in 'nighttime heroes.'" he speaks with a high approximation of the girl's voice. "Pfft, ridiculous."

The more I'm talking to him, the more I like him. He's so good for Kati. I hope they get together!

"I mean honestly, the one time she convinced me to spar with her, I beat her in like one second just by picking her up and dangling her in the sun. Her shadow can't fight if it's not even there."

I find myself chuckling at the thought of her flailing around.

"You gonna eat or are you still feeling rotten?" His question shakes me for a moment, sounding like a nicer version of what Bakugo would usually ask me. 

Stop thinking about him, I mentally chastise myself. It's bad enough he recognized me last night. I don't think I convinced him. 

"Hey, I have a better idea," Jupiter says, giving me a welcome distraction from my thoughts. "Let's go."

Standing makes me dizzy, but I follow behind him to the front door where we put on our shoes and head out. I wince at the harsh sunlight as he leads me over to the garage where a couple bikes are propped up. 

"I figured flying wouldn't agree with your stomach," he explains, hopping on one and gesturing to the other. "You can use my brother's. He's at a friend's house."

"Where're we g-going?" I ask, mounting the blue bike. 

"You'll see," he says with a smirk, peddling at a steady pace as I follow him. I can't find it in me to speak, the unpleasant movement not sitting right with my stomach. On top of that, the sunlight feels as though it's driving a wedge into my brain, but the fresh air is nice and at least the road isn't too bumpy. 

I find myself following him onto a familiar road. In a happy daze, I reminisce, watching the houses pass. As we come upon a small, refurbished barn, Jupiter slows down, guiding us into the parking lot. 

"This w-was my favorite p-place!" I exclaim. He glances at me with a small smile as we lean our bikes against the wall. 

"Well, I'm glad. Nothing better than ice cream for breakfast to ease a hangover!" I study his face, but I honestly can't tell if he's being sarcastic or not. He laughs exasperatedly. "Honestly, Koto!"

I look around frantically, trying to make sure nobody had heard him as I shush him. "Wh-when I'm here, I'm Elsa," I whisper. He has to bend over to hear me and he nods in understanding. 

"Right then, Elsa, ice cream feels good sometimes on an upset stomach and brain freeze gets rid of headaches. So trust me here." He takes my hand to pull me to his side, then wraps an arm around me as we walk to the counter. 

"B-but I don't have any money," I protest, suddenly realizing. "It's all b-b-back in my bag."

"Nonsense," Jupiter says, quickly waving me off. "I've got it. You've got a boo-boo head."

I smile despite wanting to protest more. A sweet smell makes its way into my nose and I have to pause. It's not the smell of the ice cream, but the flowers dotted around the building. They're planted in the ground, in hanging baskets, and in pots on the picnic tables. I approach one and look at the label. 

Peony.

So that's what was in Nyikang's garden that smelled like home. I remember coming here every Saturday afternoon with my parents, sitting at the wooden picnic tables and smelling the sweet air as we ate. The sun would bake our skin and the flowers would seem to glow pink and purple in the light. Ice cream would drip down my fingers and I would struggle to lick it all up, always just ending up with sticky hands. 

"I'm getting german chocolate," Jupiter says after a moment of me staring off into space. "How 'bout you?"

I sigh contentedly and recite my favorite order, "raspberry, chocolate sprinkles."

"Sounds good, snowflake. Let's get in line."

When we get our ice cream, I start looking for a good seat. They're aren't many people here, just one other family sitting at one of the tables. As I sit down, Jupiter gets a mischievous smile and tiptoes very unconvincingly to one of the hanging baskets. I mean seriously, he's picking up his feet like a cartoon villain. He reaches up and plucks a flower from the plant, pretending as though he's just committed a crime. 

He runs over to me and swipes a hand across his forehead. "Whew, that was close." I smile as he places the flower on the table before me, presenting it theatrically. The petals are a deep purple in the center, getting lighter as they go outward. 

He seems to examine me for a moment before picking up the flower and brushing my hair back to place it behind my ear. I'm brought back to my childhood when my father would do the same thing to my mom at this very place, saying that's how he knew she was the woman he wanted to spend his life with; that one time at their internships in Japan when he put a cherry blossom in her hair.

I feel a tear run down my cheek, but manage to smile at Jupiter. "Thanks."

"No problem," he says, eating a spoonful of his ice cream. "You know, you're a pretty bad influence. This isn't a healthy breakfast."

"It was your idea!" I exclaim and he just laughs to himself, eating another spoonful. 

"But it's good. Tell me I'm wrong." He points his spoon at me tauntingly. 

I grin and lick my own ice cream cone. It's already started melting and the sprinkles are making a landslide towards my hands. "Y-you're not wrong."

"I know," he responds cheekily. 

We sit in comfortable silence as we eat, listening to the family next to us planning their trip to the beach. I stare wistfully off into the distance, trying to imagine I'm here with my parents and we're planning one of our many vacations. My heart hurts at the thought of normalcy. 

•°•°•°•

After we finish our ice cream, we bike over to the school, the same one I would've gone to had everything stayed the way it was before the accident. I probably would've been a general studies student, not knowing what I was going to do with life. I wouldn't have all the friends I have now. As we park our bikes in the rack, I find myself feeling guilty for leaving without a trace. Maybe I should go back sooner. 

Jupiter leads me through the empty hallways to wherever he's going. I feel like I must've toured this school at some point. Probably in fourth grade before I left. I'm not sure, but I know these hallways have a sense of familiarity to them. 

"So, I gotta pop into the costume department to fix my suit and then we'll just chill around here until Kati's done."

"How d-do you know her, by th-the way?" I ask. 

"My dad works with her mom. Ever since we moved here, her and I have both been dragged along to the functions and stuff, so we usually hang out together. It's better than having my dad introduce me to everybody as the 'next biggest hero.' Of course, when I was a kid, they would just pinch my cheeks and say 'oh, of course you are, sweetie,' but they didn't realize he was serious. Now they do, I guess, but it was just so embarrassing."

"R-really?" I ask. "So they don't pinch your cheeks anymore?"

"Ha ha," he laughs sarcastically as we turn down a hallway. "Anyways, Kati was always super chill and we would just hang out at the table. Did you know she can only fit two rolls in her mouth? I can get at least four." He pauses for a moment before adding, "we're usually pretty bored."

I smile at the mental image, so focused on that that I don't acknowledge the picture on the wall until we've nearly passed it. I stop in my tracks and look up at the mural of GGG.

Out of all places, this was her school? My heart starts beating hard. It's so beautiful seeing her mural in real life.

Her light blue eyes look off to some faraway point over my head as she smiles her comforting smile. I hadn't noticed before in the video, but at the base of the hill, is a small family; an elderly man, a redhead man with his brunette wife, a redheaded girl, and a brunette little boy. They sit on a picnic blanket, enjoying the pleasant day as Evie watches over all of existence. 

"Evangeline Agnew," Jupiter says, shocking me. "Her family donated the money to build this hero department. I guess she sacrificed herself to save her students. All of us in the hero program learn about her."

I reach up to the mural and touch her hand, whispering in my mind, hi Evie. I'm here. I wish I could've met you. I have your movies and music. I love them so much. If only I'd been alive at that time. I hope we would've been friends.

I bend down to get a better look at the family. My grandma's silvery eyes look up at Evie in admiration. She sits next to the little boy I had never heard of before, only seen briefly in the video. I don't even know his name. 

I point at him and ask Jupiter, "do y-you know who this is?" 

He offers me his hand to stand up. "Yeah, that's Daniel Agnew. He was her grandson. He lives around here."

It feels as though the air has been punched out of my lungs. "Do you know w-where?"

"Yeah, he invites the hero students over to his house from time to time, just to keep in touch with the program. He's a really cool dude."

"C-can you take me there?"

"Umm…why?"

I reach down to point at the little girl. "Th-that's my grandmother. She passed away a f-f-few years ago. I didn't know she had a b-brother."

"Oh," he says quietly. "So that means…"

"Evie was my great-great-grandmother."

He's silent for a long time before tugging me down the hallway. "I'll be quick with my costume repairs and then we can go over."

He pulls me into a large room, lined with suitcases, some larger than others. He grabs one off a shelf and brings it over to a workstation. 

"D-don't you guys have a support department?" I ask. 

"Nah, you have to go to a special school if you wanna do anything with hero suits. My apprenticeship gave me one that was better than what the school could provide, but I can't keep going in to get it fixed. There are some things a hero should do by themselves."

He roots around for a while until he finds some black thread and a needle. Opening his case, I don't see anything particularly special about his costume, but it must be able to do the job well enough. He takes care in removing the black shirt and stitching up a rather large hole in the side. 

"Did you get hurt?"

"When I fell from heaven?" He asks. "You'll have to be more creative with your pickup lines. Annie uses that one at least weekly. Besides, I scraped my knee climbing up from hell."

I giggle as he continues sewing up the gash in the fabric. 

"Anyways, yeah I got a nasty cut on my side, but I'm fine now. Only needed a couple stitches and it's healed. That's definitely an indication of how long I've put this off." He ties off the thread and cuts it, taking a moment to appreciate his handiwork. It's much better than what I could do. I consider learning to sew so I won't always have to get my costume repaired by somebody else. 

After carefully folding his costume and putting it back, he returns the case to a shelf I only now notice has his name on it. There's a tacky little plaque and everything. 

He ushers me out of the room and we start heading back outside when Kati catches up with us. 

"Hey guys!" She chirps from behind us. I turn to see her smoothing her hair out. "Where're you off to?"

"The Agnew house," Jupiter says quickly. Kati's eyes flash with too many emotions for me to process in such a short time. 

"Umm...why?"

"Turns out," he explains with raised eyebrows, as if he can't believe it himself, "Koto's related to the Agnews. She's Evangeline's great great granddaughter."

Kati looks at me with wide eyes. "So...does that mean--"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Wh-whoa, is there something here I'm n-not getting?" I ask, looking between the two of them. 

"Don't worry about it," Jupiter replies immediately. "Kati, you wanna come with?"

"Yeah, I'll drive."

I keep looking back and forth between them, but they just continue down the hallway at a brisk pace. How am I not supposed to worry about it when they're acting like this?

------Author's Note------

Hey guys!

There's even more art for this chapter! WOOOOO!!!!

Here are some more pictures lovelyavvz has created to accompany this chapter! She's so pretty! I love how the colors are used in the shading to make it look real!

This is a beautiful portrait from my friend Arabelle on the Discord server! The detail is amazing! I love the way you've drawn her hair! It's so perfectly curly

And finally, we have this awesome picture from Gottalovethefandom!! The expression is so good with the little look over the shoulder!! And the dialogue from Bakugo really caps it off. I love the coloring in her eyes, they look so pretty.

I hope you all have a great week! Stay safe!!