"Tsk, damn it," exclaimed the children's mother when, while cutting vegetables for lunch, the knife slipped on the moisture from the tomato. The wound on her finger wasn't deep, but it was enough for a thin trickle of blood to begin slowly sliding down her skin.
She put the knife down on the cutting board, huffing under her breath, and went straight to the sink. As the water ran, part of her thought about finishing lunch on time.
Sitting a few feet away, Reiji stared intently at what had happened. His eyes followed every drop, every movement of the red liquid as if the world had been reduced to that. His gaze was fixed until a draft came in through the open window and made him react.
"Shit... I have to learn to control it," he thought, frowning as he looked down and forced himself to resume his task of setting the table.
It was the same feeling again. That inner restlessness. That dense heat in his stomach every time he saw blood.
"It's been two years since Himiko..." He paused for a moment. "Now I'm the same age she was when it happened... And I think I'm feeling the same way she did. Is this genetic?"
The memories hit him like a cold current.
After the incident in the park, everything changed. His parents, their faces laden with poorly concealed concern, enrolled Himiko in sessions with a child psychologist specializing in "atypical behavior." It was a polite way of saying that their daughter was a potential danger.
The sessions were weekly. Month after month, lasting two long years. And although the girl showed progress in front of adults, Reiji knew it was just a mask. The desire was still there, buried, waiting for an excuse to come out.
He, for his part, did not sit idly by.
He knew perfectly well that it was all in vain. He could sense her every little gesture and feeling like the palm of his hand. He knew that the impulse persisted despite everything, and precisely because of that, he decided to calm that impulse.
Taking advantage of his regeneration, using his own blood to calm Himiko's breakdowns was not a problem. Any cut, bite, or anything else that happened to his skin would be erased in minutes by his accelerated recovery, which was totally ideal given the situation.
And it worked. He had managed to prevent Himiko from reacting when she saw blood and from doing irrational things for her, turning to him when she was about to explode. He also taught her to control her Quirk, playing cheerfully when she took the form of her younger brother, although this, of course, was without her parents' eyes.
"And now I'm the one who can't control the urge... Ironic..." He thought bitterly. A few weeks ago, he had begun to experience the same emotional changes as Himiko. It started with his teeth; his two fangs grew a little smaller than Himiko's, although his Quirk had supposedly already awakened.
The doctor dismissed it as "a shared genetic condition." It could happen; they were siblings, after all. The problem came when, a few weeks later, his nose developed an exaggerated sensitivity to certain smells, accompanied by changes in his own palate.
Experiencing it was very different from noticing it in someone else. The changes were subtle and almost imperceptible to a 4-year-old, and even he, with his teenage mentality, had a hard time distinguishing them.
The hardest part was when his instincts developed, a scene quite similar to Himiko's first contact with blood. He could feel the tingling in his jaw, begging... needing to consume blood.
He totally understood why Himiko had given in to her impulses. It wasn't that she wanted to fall... It was irresistible to control those cravings for blood. It was like being given the most delicious food in the world and only being able to watch as it was wasted. It was horrible!
"Come on, Reiji-chan. Call your father and sister who are in the yard, lunch is served," said the mother to the little boy, pulling him out of his train of thought.
Reiji was speechless for a few milliseconds, thinking that he had lost himself in his thoughts, but he reacted instantly.
"I'm coming!"
As he walked away, he thought about the possibility that all his changes were particularly similar to when Himiko unlocked her own Quirk, but he already had one, didn't he?
He was always left wondering why the characteristics of his body in his previous life had been transferred with him, taking it as a whimsical coincidence so that his torment would not end immediately, but... Was that his Quirk, or his body?
Even though his 'Quirk' was active, his own Quirk factor, an extra organ that forms with the appearance of gifts, had not developed. This left a strange case, not unique in the world but very rare.
'What if I have a Quirk, and the recovery is just somehow the same as in my previous life?'
***
"Himiko, be more careful." The calm voice of the children's mother spoke directly to her eldest daughter, who was almost 6 years old. They were walking down the street toward their home after picking up both children from kindergarten and school, respectively.
Due to the age difference, Himiko had already entered her first years of elementary school, while Reiji was still in the same kindergarten as always, much to his misfortune.
Reiji walked hand in hand with his mother, while Himiko fluttered ahead of them with a bag of candy. Their father, as usual, was at work, so that afternoon was just for the three of them.
They were heading straight home, the same routine as every day. They were picked up from kindergarten and elementary school, respectively, then they arrived home, had lunch, and played together for the rest of the day. Today seemed like any other day.
"Huh?"
As they passed by an alley, an unknown figure appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Reiji's arm tightly, pulling him toward him and placing a small knife near his throat.
"Give me everything you have, or the boy dies!" He threatened, causing both the mother and Himiko to freeze for a moment, watching their son and brother being threatened with death.
"Let him go!"
"Himiko, calm down!" Before the little girl could get close enough to hit the guy, the mother intervened to prevent her from getting close and hurting him.
"When... When did this guy show up? Shit, he reeks of alcohol..." Reiji thought, knowing full well how he had become emboldened enough to attempt an armed robbery in broad daylight. The streets weren't very busy, but inevitably someone would see him and call a hero.
"Come on, hurry up. Your cell phone, jewelry, and all your money, now!" he ordered, knowing full well that he didn't have much time. He may have been drunk, but he felt the danger and adrenaline of what he was doing.
"Calm down, please don't hurt him," said the mother, her voice breaking with emotion. She began to quickly remove all the jewelry she was wearing, her hands shaking, making it an almost impossible task, but she remained as strong as she could to prevent her son from being hurt.
"Shit... If he keeps going at this pace, I'm sure something bad will happen... That knife, if my recovery is exactly the same as in my previous life, as long as I dodge a fatal spot... I'll survive!" He thought resolutely, and taking advantage of his proximity to the man's arm, he opened his mouth with determination and bit hard into his attacker's skin.
"Agh, stupid kid!" he shouted, pushing him aside. The knife cut a few centimeters into his neck but avoided all the major veins. The mother and Himiko watched this in shock, only noticing the crimson thread that ran down his neck from the cut.
Reiji fell to one side, managing to steady himself with his hands as he felt a sharp burning sensation at the back of his neck, but he knew perfectly well that he would heal and come out unscathed!
"NO!" His mother's heart-wrenching scream made him turn around inevitably, seeing in a split second a black spot heading toward him at full speed.
'Shit, shit, shit. I need... I need to protect myself, that could dislocate my damn neck! Protection!'
At that moment, everything stopped.
Time seemed to dilate just as the attacker's leg, charged with strength and rage, descended violently toward him. All Reiji could do was wish, almost like an animal instinct, to protect himself.
A moment before impact, he felt a sharp pain right where his neck was wounded, and a crimson stream gushed out at high speed, heading straight for him to act as a wall between him and the blow.
The mass perfectly stopped the assailant's leg, absorbing the sneak attack without any problem.
The attacker immediately backed away, falling backward, frightened. He felt a slight tingling in his leg, as if he had kicked some kind of extremely hard mattress.
"What the hell...?" he stammered, looking at the mass in front of him.
Reiji was panting, still on the floor. The blood was still there, suspended in front of him like a liquid extension of his will. He didn't know how he had done it. He just... wanted it. Another prick in his neck hit him, his hand went straight to the source of the pain and covered the wound on his neck.
"Reiji..." His mother whispered, paralyzed by what had happened in just two short seconds.
"Onii-chan!" Himiko cried, running toward him. Completely ignoring the assailant who was still staring at the mass in front of him.
But Reiji couldn't hear. The metallic smell intoxicated him. The burning in his neck was already fading. His jaw ached. His fangs had grown. His instincts wanted more. He wanted to attack.
He wanted to devour blood!
"No... Not like this." He squeezed his neck tightly, in a desperate attempt to quell the growing urge that was coursing through his entire body.
Reiji was trembling. He clenched his teeth. Every part of his body begged him to lunge at the attacker, to feed on the blood of the damned drunkard in front of him. But then... a shadow descended from the sky.
A tall figure in a white suit and blue cape fell with a crash that shook the pavement.
"Get away from the child, now!" thundered a deep, authoritative voice.
The assailant backed away, still lying on the ground, but an invisible wave of pressure stopped him.
"I-it wasn't my fault! It was the brat! He...!" He tried to defend himself, changing the facts of what had happened.
"I saw you," interrupted the hero, raising a hand as a small floating device recorded the entire scene from above. "Stealing. Threatening. Attacking. You are a despicable being, trying to harm a child." He frowned, somewhat annoyed.
With a simple snap of his fingers, a series of metal bands emerged from the hero's belt and shot out like shiny snakes toward the thief. In an instant, they completely immobilized him, trapping his limbs with surgical precision and adding an extra one to prevent him from speaking.
Reiji was still on the ground, his hand pressing against his neck. Himiko hugged him, protecting him even though she was the one shaking the most. The blood around him no longer floated, but it still glowed faintly as if resisting returning to the body that had called it.
"You've got guts, kid," said the hero, his voice softer now, turning to look directly at him and continuing with a small smile, "And a rare gift... did you know that?"
Reiji didn't answer. He just looked at him, his breathing heavy, his eyes analyzing every action of the man in front of him, his mother behind him slowly beginning to react.
"You protected yourself. You protected your family. You're a real hero today, aren't you?"
Reiji swallowed hard. His body felt numb. The Quirk... his blood... still tingled under his skin as if it wanted more. But those words pierced him like a sharp needle.
A true hero, a hero who chose to risk his life to prevent someone else from suffering, to prevent his mother and sister from suffering. He wasn't someone locked up in a laboratory, being examined day and night for the good of humanity, with a false purpose as a hero when he was nothing more than an experiment, even to his father.
Reiji trembled. Himiko hugged him tighter.
"What... what's your Quirk called?" asked the hero. Mistaking the sparkle in the little boy's eyes for something very different from reality.
"I-I don't know..." he murmured, pressing his lips together.
The hero smiled slightly.
"Then you should give it a good name."
The children's mother immediately approached, her hands still trembling, and wrapped them both in a tight embrace. She said nothing. She just held them against her chest, as if afraid to let go and have the world break apart again.
It was all over.