POV: Isozaki Izumi

Date: 24th – Monday.

Timeline: *After getting out of the restaurant*

"Eh!? No way you're 24!? I totally thought you would be younger than me!" Nana exclaimed while we were sitting in the backseat in Yasahiro's car, as he was driving us to the fire station.

"No, no you are the one who don't even look like they're 23! I thought you were a teenager or something," I said while scratching the back of my head.

"Oh, you're such a flatter, hahaha!" Nana laughed while slamming her hand on my back.

"Listen, it's not like I'm your driver or something, why are you both in the backseat?" Yasahiro complained while glaring at us from the side mirror.

"But you are boring, when I sat in the front you didn't even say a single word," I complained back, and with a grin on my face, I asked, "but if you beg me, I might change my mind~"

"Could you get more childish?" Yasahiro angrily complained after clicking his tongue.

"Ah, Izumi do you want to visit the fire station?" Nana asked me and continued while smiling with her black eyes sparkling, "I bet you won't have another chance to visit a fire station from the inside~"

"I can!?" I asked excitedly, "to be honest, I was thinking of asking if I could, but I thought it was weird!" She patted my shoulder and said cheerfully, "I totally understand that feeling! Fire stations or police stations, you can't help but feel excited about them!" I responded with excitement in my voice, "totally!! It feels like a place a superhero will suddenly appear in them!"

"Rather than a superhero," Nana said while grinning and continued, "I think they're places for twisted villains to emerge from."

EHHHHHH!!!??? THIS IS!!!!! DON'T TELL ME SHE'S-!!!

"Are you talking about..." I asked while hesitating, then rephrased it and yelled, "Are you talking about Fartsman!?!!!" and Nana opened her eyes wide and flipped her orange hair and answered with a confident smirk on her face, "who else?"

Was it my imagination? But I felt like Yasahiro sped up when he heard us, as if he wanted us to reach the destination faster so that his suffering would end.

"Don't freak out, but," I said excitedly with a proud look on my face I continued, "I met Watari Kida-sensei in flesh not long ago!"

"No way!" Nana exclaimed with a grin on her face she continued, "so jealous! It's one of my life goals to meet Kida-sama."

"-sama!?" I exclaimed while raising one eyebrow, "but unlike how I imagined he was like-" Nana interrupted me and asked, "how was he like?" I blushed and said, "he was way cooler than I thought."

"'cooler' my butt, he looked homeless," Yasahiro mumbled while sighing and said, "we're almost there."

Nana reached her hands toward Yasahiro's neck and with a black grim reaper eyes, she threatened, "take it back before I break your neck, you bastard."

"break it, break it!" I cheered excitedly, Nana backed her hands away and said in a low tone, "but he's driving," I started booing.

Suddenly, Yasahiro pressed on the breaks stopping the car, "we're here, hopeless adults," he said with disappointed eyes digging holes in us.

"Then shall we go?" Nana said while returning to her cheerful self and got out of the car while humming, "do all idiots have a twisted side inside them? What a scary world we live in," Yasahiro mumbled.

As we got out, a man rushed toward us in high speed and slapped Nana out of nowhere, "w-wha!?" I exclaimed by the sudden events, "what the hell are you doing, Iku!?" Nana asked angrily.

"How dare you show your face here!?" The man yelled while shaking Nana, "let go of me," Nana resisted, "what is wrong with you, all of a sudden?" she asked confused, the man glared at her and yelled, "Baruko told me why that happened to the boss!"

Nana face turned pale and with her trembling hands she pushed the man away, and with a voice that seemed to be on verge of tears she responded, "so, what?"

The man got angrier and raised his hand to slap her again, "stop right there, young man," I said while holding his hand, "I haven't fought in a while so, I might not be able to hold back," I said while smiling slightly then glared at him and continued, "but if you are that eager to fight, I can help you with that."

"Who the heck!?" The man responded and directed his other hand toward me turning it into a fist, and throwing it toward me, I avoided the coming punch, grabbed his hand as it passed by me and kicked the back of his knees making him fall on the ground as I held him up using the hand I was holding, "I warned you, so don't blame me for breaking a bone or two," I said as I started twisting his arm.

The man started screaming in pain, as I continued to twist his arm, "s-stop, Izumi," Nana said as she got down to him, "are you alright, Iku?" she asked him as I let go of his hand, "who are these people?" The man asked while glaring at me and Yasahiro.

"Why should I tell you!?" I angrily complained as I glared at Nana for stopping me, "Izumi? It's you, right?" Yasahiro asked me from behind, I turned around and said, "of course I am, who else-" I paused as I saw a terrified look on the calm Yasahiro's face.

W-why is he so scared? Was I that scary?

"A-Are you fine?" I asked Yasahiro, he forced a smile on his face and said, "yeah, I just forgot how hot-headed you were for a minute there."

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This jerk, and here I was worried about him for a second.

"Let's go, I don't want to see the fire station anymore," I said as I started dragging Yasahiro out of there, I pointed at the man on the ground and said, "this man ruined my mood."

"Wait, he's not that bad, it's just that he's a bit of an idiot so he rushed like this," Nana explained, she got up and invited us again, "come, follow me, I'll show you around."

"Izumi, I don't really want to go to a place with a lot of people, so, I'll wait in the car," Yasahiro said with a pale look as he started heading to the car.

Is it his ability again?

As we entered the front door, we got met with a receptionist desk, it was full of papers which were scattered around with pens rolling on the floor, "haha... we don't really use this much... so it's in this embarrassing state," Nana said as she started heading to a door behind the desk and she pointed at me to follow her.

As we entered the other room, it had standard mount lockers showing yellow jackets and equipment that looked so freaking heavy, "this looks way cooler than I thought!" I exclaimed as I rushed inside looking at the jackets, they looked worn-out and most of them had mud all over it, and the boots that were outside the lockers had their original color hidden behind the burning marks.

"Doesn't it send shivers down your spine?" Nana said as she stared with me, "these battle scars prove how hard we worked, they are the proudest product of our challenges."

"I can feel it to my bones," I said as I looked over to Nana, "I feel their thoughts screaming, to save as many people as they can, till their bodies break apart," I smiled and continued, "as I thought it was a place for superheroes after all."

"Right?" Nana agreed as she smiled back, and continued, "but the coolest thing would be the sliding bar! Want to try it!?" I felt my blood rushing throughout my whole body with excitement, "yes!" I yelled.

As we slid down the bar, a room with three firetrucks appeared, each had various hoses attached to them, red, white even yellow ones, each seemed like it was for a different purpose.

"This room is my favorite one! The room to rush, we don't spend time here, but we always come here to get inside the firetruck then rush out in the speed of light!" Nana said as her eyes sparkled looking in the distance, I smiled and said, "glad, you seem to be alright now."

Nana looked my way and her smile started to fade and she came closer, "I'm sorry about what happened before," she apologized, "it's fine, I didn't get hurt rather it's that jerk who you should attend to, a minute later and I would have definitely have dealt some serious damage to him," I complained as I clicked my tongue in disappointment.

"But you really are strong in fights, huh? I didn't expect that at all," Nana said as she laughed, "but Iku probably didn't mean any harm, he was just shocked learning the truth about that accident."

"But why did he take it out on you?" I asked hoping for a proper explanation, Nana sat on a chair and stared at me and said with sorrowful look, "well, I ruined the life of the person he admired the most."

Her words were filled with a sadness I easily related to, ruining someone else's life, even while regretting it, the actions you can't take back, the time you can't return to, just keep on haunting you.

I sat next to her and said in low voice, "you can tell me about it, if it will make you feel better."

Nana smiled at me, and said, "it will take long," I laughed and replied, "I have nothing better to do."

Nana clenched her hand and started telling me a bittersweet story in a voice that was on verge of breaking in tears,

"There was a girl, who had the world snatched away from her; no family she knew of, no place she could call home. Standing in the busy road as cars passed her by, people looked at her with merciless eyes, fluttering her heart that was weakened with an illness called loneliness.

But between the crowd of ruthless humans, a man was different; he extended his warm hand toward the cold frozen girl, and he saved her from a world of darkness.

The world the girl lived in started to change, to a lively one with a smile that never left her side.

The man used to have a wife that passed away, he used to cry in middle of night every single day while holding the picture of his beloved, and the girl used to hear his weeps and feel a void in her heart as she come to realize that the reason for the hand he extended was also, loneliness.

While embracing the loneliness they shared, and seeing the other in their weakest state, the man became a father to the girl he picked up, they became a family and finally had a place to return to, they both could call home.

It would have been a happy end, it should have been one. If it was a story that will be when the end line would come, but in the life, they led, the happy ending didn't come.

The girl greed grew bigger and bigger with each passing day, she wanted to become something in her life, she had an ability that was able of achieving that, she wanted to be a hero to the weak, a savior to the helpless, and a piece that fills the void in the broken hearts.

The man warned the girl that it was no job for a girl, it was no job for his only family member. Begged her to change her mind, begged her to not leave him alone again, the girl didn't bat an eye and ignored the man wanting to become like him.

The girl became a woman and the woman became a firefighter.

As she and the man went through battles with fire, her belief became stronger, her greed became stronger.

It was that day, a day that took irreplaceable piece of the small family they formed.

The woman insisted on going in a hospital that was on fire to save the patients that couldn't get out in time, the man told her that it's insane to go inside, and to wait for help to come, the woman refused and went inside, not wanting to lose his family the man went inside as well.

As the girl was rushing outside while carrying a kid on her back, a pillar fell from the ceiling and started heading toward her, but the man saw it in time and pushed the girl out of the way, and he got buried inside instead.

The woman tears started dripping as she screamed her lungs in the midst of a burning fire, using her ability she got the man out, but his hand that extended the light of hope to her, didn't survive the fire.

With his hand becoming unusable the man quit his job as a firefighter, and the legend of a heroic firefighter came to a tragic end thanks to the greedy woman."

"Are you an idiot?" I scolded Nana while frowning, I sighed and complained, "and here I thought you stabbed someone or killed someone," feeling speechless Nana got angry and scolded me back, "what is with this reaction, you should console me or something!"

"I was planning on doing that but hearing all of this made me sure of one thing," I said glaring at her, I continued, "you know, you are regretting the wrong thing," I stood up and scolded her, "stop insulting that man."

"What!?" Nana yelled confusedly as I was about to explain, the jerk from before rushed in and started yelling, "Nana! There is fire!" Nana looked at him and asked right away, "quickly let's go then, where is it!?"

The man hesitated as he said, "apartment building 12 ...on the seventh street..." Nana eyes widens, and she pulls him down by his collar, and asks while trembling, "are you sure!?"

The man nods, and Nana fell on the floor dumbfounded, mumbling, "n-no way..."

Is it her house? Then that man is there?

"Get up, Nana," I yelled at her, "this place, is a place for heroes, right? You wanted to be one, isn't this your chance? Let's go, this time it's your turn to save him."

"Are you an idiot!? We can't just take a citizen with us," the man opposed, I glared at him, he backed off and said while stuttering, "I-I mean... i-if you promise not to go inside, w-we might consider it..."

I got down to Nana and said, "I'll follow you guys in Yasahiro's car, get yourself together and the regret you didn't have a chance to atone for, I'll help you with it since we already have a trait only superheroes have."

"trait?" Nana asked trembling, I patted her shoulder and said with a smile to reassure her, "our abilities!"

-End of Chapter 22-