Feeling Inside Out [BNHA OC Anthology]

I wanna go home!

Emotions are always a complicated thing. They drive every decision, whether to go and have fun at the park, kick a can, lash out and destroy an object. Anything is possible, but it always makes you wonder: how does it all work? For a girl named Yukia Rootsie, her mood and emotions play a huge part in her life, given that they are visually expressed in her eye colour, thanks to inheriting her father's mood quirk. So, her parents Leonie and Kioshi never had a hard time differing how she was feeling (once they charted all the colours possible). Their life together in Germany was peaceful, filled with many joyful and loving memories from her first steps, her passion for art beginning to shine at age three when she'd always make a mess of their front yard with chalk; when she began school and always came home covered in paint, pencil stains or any other medium. As she grew older, her bubbly energy was never more prominent, always attended creative clubs and made a wonderful group of friends. Her 'Frightwig' quirk, inherited from her mother, mutated by itself around age 8 when her hair overproduced oil and turned it into stick-like paint ink. She can manipulate it and be just as dexterous with it as her mother. With this new discovery, Rootsie could bring anything to life she wished and it would stay for 24 hours. This day is a core memory for the divergent girl, remembering how shocked and happy her family was and hugged her with joy. Her friends were jealous and made playdates even more exciting.

When Kioshi gained a promotion opportunity in Japan and came with a new house, they all moved over and Ru was about 10 at this time. It destroyed her heart as this change would force her to abandon everything she built up to that point. It was a hard time settling into a new country, but knowing and speaking 3 languages really helped her adapt and soon met two boys who would end up being by her side for the unforeseeable future: Midoriya Izuku and Bakugo Katsuki. They spent all their spare time together exploring the park, having playdates and talking about heroes. Over the following years, leading to Rootsie's place at UA, Bakugo and his 'gang' shifted their behaviour and treated Izuku like nothing because he was quirkless, and always undermined Rootsie's quirks, never failing to remind her that the hero profession wouldn't suit.

As the time for attending UA came around, more large events arose, such as connecting with her elder cousin Mizuno Souji and making up for lost time, meeting their new classmates and settling into the new reality of hero work. Again, Rootsie didn't have trouble making friends with some of them, namely all the girls and Kirishima. The memories shared outside of class and hero missions were quite fun, almost like living in a big house as a family.

Over the years since going to Japan, something felt... missing, as if her heart had a huge void inside. Something never quite settled. Subtle behaviour and mood changes occurred that some students noticed, and Ru shrugged it off as anxiety about the work. However, she found herself lingering for her past life back: living carefree, celebrating Oktoberfest in her favourite custom-made dresses by her grandmother on Leonie's side of the family before she passed away, looking through the album she kept with all the photos of her childhood in. UA quickly became a foreign place and it never felt right being there. On a day off, she decided to take a walk and never returned, so when classes started the next day and she wasn't present, Momo didn't like the sinking feeling that began to stir inside and the class began having a little discussion.

Momo: "This is really unusual for Ru to not attend class. Where is she?"

Mina: "Yeah! She NEVER misses these art classes for anything!"

Denki: "I don't know, it is unusual for her. I did see her walk out though..."

Momo: "You did? Where?"