"Hey, hey. Does that boy look familiar to you?" Another snorted as they were making fun of Kasumi in the background.

The girl didn't move her eyes off her sketchbook. She quickly closed it when she was drawing something prior. Kasumi didn't even look up, but stared at Toya's shoes.

His shoes were so nice and shiny in comparison to her dull and tattered ones. But no words came out of her mouth. It made it seem like she was ignoring him.

When she really wasn't. She just really had a hard time meeting anyone's eyes due to her timid nature.

"I'm talking to yooooouuu." Toya drew out the words to get her attention. He tilted his body to the side in an attempt to get his face in her view.

He hated being ignored. It felt like it was a constant occurrence.

His body was, sadly, very frail. It caused pain to bend like that, but he was almost desperate for her to look him in the eye.

"I'm bored," he complained. "There's nothing I can do inside."

That was his excuse anyway.

Kasumi then glanced at him for a quick second to catch a glimpse of his snow white hairs. Then averted her eyes away when she finally spoke a little bit. "...Oh... Um..."

Her voice was rather quiet and not loud at all. She clutched her sketchbook against her. She was feeling anxious to talk more.

All she wanted to do was greet him confidently with a smile. How was socializing so hard to do?

Why does others make it look so easy?

Even she wasn't aware of that herself.

Toya pursed his lips in annoyance. He didn't take the time to second think what he was about to say. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, it went out his mouth. "Why don't you talk to me with real words? Do you not know how to?"

That made Kasumi on the defense as she became afraid he was going to bully her too. She started to bite her hair strand as a coping method. It was an anxious habit she did.

Tell him that you can. You can be just like the popular kids! Show confidence! Just like how you draw yourself!

But all she did was somehow laugh softly and nervously.

Toya scoffed. It felt like his chest was on fire when someone ignored him. It was as though his quirk was working on the inside, burning his nerves whenever he didn't get the attention that he felt he deserved.

He didn't want to live his life like that. Always ignored and treated like an afterthought. In a way, he was craving love, but he didn't really know how to read those feelings.

"Aren't you going to do anything?" He asked. He straightened up before he lost his balance. If it was possible, there would probably be smoke coming out of his ear. Maybe it was possible with his quirk, but it didn't happen.

"Why aren't you standing up for yourself?" He asked another question. It was partly out of genuine curiosity, but mostly out of anger.

Why? That was a good question.

A question she couldn't answer due to being severely introverted.

Recluse.

The social anxiety was terrible that she felt her eyes starting to get glossy. Her knuckles rubbed them to pretend they were itchy.

"I... dunno..." Her voice sounded cracked and apologetic.

"Fine." He tried to ignore the building anger inside. As a kid growing up in the circumstances that he did, he had no idea how to handle anger in a healthy manner. He had never been taught to channel those feelings in ways other than violence or training.

He could very easily hit her. How satisfying would it be to feel his hand make contact with her cheek? To leave a red mark and remind her not to ignore him?

Maybe that would get his father's attention. He would be angry, but at least he would have to acknowledge Toya. Even if that acknowledgment meant a red mark on Toya's cheek to match the one on Kasumi's.

He didn't hit her, though, for reasons that were beyond him. He just turned his back to her with that big scowl and began to storm off.

Stupid. He made a noise that resembled a growl as he went back into the palace. I should have been training instead and not wasting time. I need to get stronger!

When he walked away, the other kids saw him wander back into the castle. They were all chatting about how Kasumi made him mad so maybe he would lock her up.

All of them were making fun of her more.

All Kasumi wanted was a friend and she felt like she blew it. She felt so upset that tears started rolling down her cheeks.

"Wah, wah. Cry about it," another boy jeered as he laughed along with the girl with a bowl-cut.

That was when Kasumi made herself get up to go inside the orphanage. Maybe to be excused to use the bathroom so she could continue to cry in there.

...

It was the very next day when he saw her again. He was wandering around in search of something to do when he spotted her outside. Ignoring Fuyumi once more, he ran out.

She was on the grass with scraped knees. What really caught his attention was her quirk. Or, rather, what he assumed to be her quirk. Her knees seemed to miraculously become healed by her.

For the first time in a while, his eyes filled up with something other than bitterness. Real, genuine interest.

His pace slowed as he got closer to her. He crouched down to her level, once again, so that he was in the center of her view. "Do you have a healing quirk?"

The question was sudden and completely out of the blue. His behavior when he was younger could be a bit erratic at times.

When Kasumi's face lifted up slightly, her cheeks were drenched. Her nose was constantly running.

"Sorta..." Again with the short answers. She sniffled really loudly.

She felt extremely dizzy that her hands were shaking from doing such a procedure. Whenever she had to heal like so, it unfortunately caused side effects. It was worse when she does it on herself.

She hated getting hurt. It sucked. It was worse when no one even bothered to help her up earlier.

She had been running to get a ball and then tripped. The kids just watched her and did nothing to help.

So she waltzed away from the playground, not bothering to go to a caretaker inside. She would rather do it herself.

Even though she was healed and the pain was gone, feeling lightheaded was making her cry. Everything up to that point was just the aftermath of it.

"You don't hafta cry about it." Toya rolled his eyes. He made no effort to help her up, but he himself didn't get up yet either. He gave a look as though telling her to go on. "Are you gonna explain it or just be sad the rest of the day?"

Kasumi used her sleeve to wipe her nose as she cried a little more. She struggled a little bit talking as her voice sounded whiny. "It involves blood."

She didn't know how to explain it nor even liked the name of it.

Blood vessel manipulation is what it was branded as.

Still not making eye contact with Toya, her head buried into her knees to fight the dizziness.

Toya grumbled something incoherent. He settled down into a sitting position across from her. "I guess you're doing both."

He wasn't entirely sure why he was sitting with her. He could just as easily go inside and train again. After all, he was frustrated the day before for 'wasting his time' talking to her. But underneath his wishes to be recognized by his father, he was still just a child. Children naturally don't want to be alone in most cases. Even though Toya tried to convince himself that his father's recognition was all he wanted, his actions said otherwise.

Kasumi peeked a little bit through her blurry tears. She wondered why he stuck around her.

Was she not creepy towards him? Usually, when someone hears anything involving blood, they upturn their nose. Like it was the most dreadful thing.

She didn't know what else to say when he made that comment. She was somewhat nervous to glance towards him.

That habit started to form at a younger age when some kids were talking. She tried to get herself involved by looking and listening. One kid pointed at the floor as a way to never look at anyone.

She couldn't remember their words, but they hurt.

She didn't even realize she was an outcast at all until that moment in her younger years.

Obviously, the silence was bothering Toya once more. She heard him scoff. She can tell he was losing patience for her not explaining more, so she decided to mumble, "It's called Blood Vessel..Mani-" She struggled to say the last word.

She always had problems when it comes to speech with a slight impediment to pronunciation.

"Blood vessel manipulation?" He finished for her. He was able to pick up on what she was trying to say fairly easily.

He didn't seem upset or scared at the name. It wasn't the typical reaction that she got. Instead, he smiled. It was a rather ornery looking smile. "I bet your quirk isn't as good as mine is."

She slightly looked up towards him for him to get a good look at her face.

Yuck.

Too much snot hanging out. Her face was a mess.

She wanted to ask him what his was, but chickened out. She quickly looked down.

"Yeah..." Was all she could really answer.

"You need to wipe your nose," he pointed out mercilessly. "You're full of boogers."

He saw her shoulders shake as though she was about to start crying again. Strangely, it caused him to panic, although not much.

There were no heartfelt words of comfort. No hand holding or head patting. Instead, he gently pinched her arm. "Stop that."

Flinching a bit, she quickly moved her arm away. She started to frantically wipe her face. It was that command that made her slightly obedient.

Especially when it comes to being mortified from such a comment.

She may not be good with words, but she sometimes listened to slight demands. All she did was nod to answer him. Even though it bothered her, she didn't retort it at all.

She really was a pushover.

A week went by, and Toya didn't visit Kasumi often. Becoming her friend had never been part of the plan. His sights were still set on gaining his father's attention. He only had another person on his mind occasionally.

Despite Kasumi being a slight distraction, his goals hadn't changed. He still wanted to prove himself. If he could just get strong enough, everything could change. Shoto wouldn't be hogging the spotlight anymore. Toya would be under its bright beam instead.

The strength that he needed felt so far away. He never once gave up, but it was exhausting him in more ways than one. He often found himself screaming within his own head and asking why he couldn't seem to be enough no matter what he did.

Deep red blisters turned to charred skin. It was a little scary for him to look at as a kid, but he told himself that he had to keep going. Surely, it wouldn't kill him. He was stronger than that, right?

His skin started to peel in some places. One day, as he inspected those wounds in the mirror, he felt something unsettling fall over him. He looked almost completely different than he did when he was younger. Fiery red hair had turned to a snowy white. Skin was peeling, dying, and even starting to fall off in areas where it was really bad.

It burned and itched without any relief. The part of his brain that he still allowed to be childish was scared and desperate for the pain to stop. The part of his brain that he trained to focus on the goal thought that it still wasn't good enough. He needed to work harder somehow.

Maybe that dummy's quirk can heal it, he thought. He didn't like the idea of going to the orphanage again, but it was a feasible option.

He made his way over there. Just as he was about to get Kasumi's attention, he saw something that froze him in his tracks.

Kasumi was staring at the grass as kids around her were taunting her. There, Toya saw her dumb face just nodding along with everyone. Not even saying anything to stand up for herself once more.

"Weird, ugly, pasty b*!" A lanky boy spat and laughed. He mimicked her whining and crying. He even cursed too as something a child his age shouldn't be saying.

Kasumi didn't answer as she kept not looking at anyone. Their words were really hurtful. Especially being called ugly.

She wanted to make fun of him in return. Like calling him a girl or something.

"Is it true? Your quirk killed your parents?" A girl laughed mercilessly.

"Didja see what she did to me the other day? She moved my arm! I swear!"

""Wow. No wonder nobody wants her. That's so creepy!" The bowl-cut brat chortled.

"Hey, hey. Give me a back massage," a 'friend' of Kasumi's ordered her.

"O-ok." Kasumi nodded to her with a forced smile. She felt like she was going to be useful.

"And draw me something for class too. I need it for homework," Another one demanded, making Kasumi nod mindlessly.