The Wraith {MANIA Prequel} - BNHA

FOUR

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REFLECTION
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One month later...

Kimiko stood as still as a board in front of the kitchen cabinet. She had her hand on the little knob of the wooden cupboard and merely stared forward at the marble countertop, unmoving. Her eyes were dark and glazed over, distant and disconnected from reality. She sniffled and her nose twitched. That was the only bit of movement she had since she walked up to the cabinet.

Her eyes closed and she took a deep breath, reminding herself to stay centered and lively. A small, fake, smile appeared upon her lips when she opened her eyes again. She opened the cupboard and pulled out a plastic cup, moving to the fridge to fill it with water. She glanced behind her with her golden eyes, seeing the little girl sitting at the counter in a barstool, slowly scribbling away at a coloring book with brightly colored crayons.

The little girl's eyes were just as glazed as Kimiko's were. Her blue eyes were clouded and dark as she stared at her book. Her greyish hair was constantly falling into her face, but she didn't do much to clear her vision of her locks.

Kimiko walked over to her and sat in the barstool seat across from her. Kimiko set the water cup in front of the little girl, who merely glanced at it then looked back down at her coloring book. Kimiko raised an eyebrow at her.

"You having fun there, Tikki?" Kimiko asked.

Tikki didn't respond—she didn't even nod or bounce her head the slightest bit. She was entirely focused on her coloring but at the same time not focused on it at all. The fake smile that had illuminated Kimiko's sad expression quickly fell when she realized Tikki wasn't going to look at her anytime soon.

Tikki had always been a quiet kid. Kimiko couldn't even recall what her voice sounded like, or if she'd heard the girl speak at all. There was a thought at the back of her mind that Tikki had no voice at all, but that couldn't be right. Kimiko's mother had once asked Tikki's if the girl was mute, but Orina Shimamura insisted upon the fact that her daughter was completely capable of verbal communication. She just never spoke. Maybe it was timidness, maybe it was something else.

Kimiko reached forward and brushed a strand of straight white hair out of Tikki's vision, trying to help her. She tucked the little hairs behind the girl's ears and let her do her coloring in silence. Kimiko bit her lip as she watched her.

A thud was heard from upstairs, towards the back of the house. Kimiko glanced up at it and shook her head.

That thud was no doubt from her mother's bedroom.

Ever since Orina's death a month prior, Kimiko's mother had struggled immensely in her mourning. They all had to deal with Orina's tragic passing in their own way, but Irisa's way of managing her grief was drastically different.

The pro hero locked herself away in her room for the first few days after Orina's death. Kimiko could hear the crashing and banging of various objects as she probably destroyed her entire room while she was cooped up in there. Then, when she was done destroying her room, she left it to go out to work. She tried to focus on being a pro and fighting villains, but it was in vain. Without her partner, Irisa could do little damage against villains unless they were petty thieves. It was a strange and terrible change for the Time Hero.

However, Irisa didn't get to play solo-hero for very long. Just a week and a half after Orina's death, Tikki Shimamura entered the picture. Seeing that they couldn't find Tikki's biological father and Irisa was Tikki's next immediate relative, Irisa was designated as Tikki's legal guardian.