"Oh damn, my class is starting soon, see you later Mayu!" Simon exclaimed loudly, hugging Mayumi and then running away. Mayumi nodded and also ran away. The text that she got read; Emergency incoming, Rosen Street, Class A threat. 

Junko popped out of Mayumi's backpack, and she floated frantically. 

"Mayu, I don't know if we can help, this is a class A threat." Junko panicked, Mayumi continued to run, looking for an area with no prying eyes. She found a long corridor, void of people. Despite Junko's panicked pleas, Mayumi was determined to help the other hero as much as she could, besides, she needed to protect her city. 

"Goddess of the moon, please lend me your strength." With that, her transformation began. 

Jack quickly rode her unicycle to rose street, Vex was already there. A large shadowy monster was rampaging through the streets, it was translucent with a slightly gooey looking texture. It seemed to be able to control every part of its body due to it acting like plasma. Long tentacles frantically swung around, due to the gigantic build of the monster, it was targeting buildings. Vex tried to cut off every tentacle that was about to hit buildings, but there were too many for him to control. Jack used her unicycle to catch anyone she saw falling, but she knew deep down that there were some that she could not save. 

She quickly rode around, saving those who fell from the falling buildings, it was much easier to catch them where they had jumped out of the windows themselves. Though that begged the question, where exactly did this beast come from? She had never seen a monster like this before, hell, she had never seen a monster in general. Usually Vex would stop regular assailants, recently the supernatural abnormalities have become ever more dangerous. It was horrifying. 

She gazed over at Vex who, being the more experienced hero, was doing more damage to the beast. She was simply the clean up crew, saving those around her. She tried to shout at Vex, something encouraging, but she was reminded of her weakness when she couldn't be heard. 

Mayu, look up! Who is that? Junko shouted, Jack looked up and saw a silhouette floating above her. She squinted but the sunlight was making it so she couldn't see anything other than the general outline of the person who hovered above her. She wanted to call up to them but she couldn't, instead she pulled out a large cream pie from her pocket and threw it up to them, upon impact the world went dark. 

All she could hear were the screams of those under the rubble, yet all she could see was nothing. She heard the monster moving and Vex struggling but she was stagnant. 

Mayu… what's going on..? Junko asked, but Mayu had no answer. She tried to follow the sounds around her but she couldn't, as she rode, she bumped into multiple pieces of rubble. It was all so terrifying but she had to keep her hero persona up. If a civilian were to see a hero screaming in fear, they too would start to scream in fear. 

Left. Right. Forward. Backwards. Such abstract terms, do you like not knowing?

Jack heard a voice clear as day in her head, they weren't Junko, the voice was anything but familiar. 

Who are you? Mayumi asked but the voice only chuckled. 

The real question is, who are you? "Jack". I know the type of person you are. 

What do you mean?

You'd like to be everything, you wanted to be strong and liked and famous, and yet, you can't even handle the gazes of a few people. 

Stop… stop it please. 

Do you think that's because of your past? Ms. Hero thinks she can run from the darkness within her heart. 

Stop it! I'm fine, I'm fine!

Have you heard of Mayumi? 

Mayu's hearing returned, she didn't even notice it had vanished when the voice started to speak. She heard the screams, people begging to be saved, but Mayumi was useless. She couldn't see, she couldn't hear, she couldn't help. Despite her super powers, there was nothing she could do. She fell to the ground and covered her ears but the noises continued to ring loudly in her ears. She heard the voice laugh, it laughed and it laughed, mocking her weakening state. There was nothing she could do. 

Mayumi, as all people did, hated that feeling. That feeling of complete uselessness. She had legs, but she couldn't walk. She had hands, but she couldn't feel. She had a mouth, but she couldn't scream. 

"Jack?!" Somebody shouted and grabbed her shoulders, the sea of darkness did not fade. She couldn't even see her arms right in front of her.

"Jack, can you hear me?" The person asked, she nodded, she tried to keep it together, but she could feel tears prick at her eyes. She felt them hug her close and rub her back.

"You're okay, you're okay. It will be okay. The monster fled the scene, it shrunk and slipped into the cracks of the ground. It will be back but we get a break for now." It was Vex, he comforted her as the tears began to stream down her face, slowly her vision returned and with her vision, Junko also returned.

mayu…. Mayu.. MAYU! WHAT HAPPENED?! Junko shouted in panic, this had never happened in their lives. Not once did their holder ever lose the ability to communicate with their vœu, this was new. Jack inhaled and exhaled sharply, she felt like she was suffocating. It was terrifying. Vex held onto Jack for a while, just comforting her. The firemen had shown up at this point, they were now in control of the situation, they cleaned up the mess and tried to save as many people as they could. 

An older fireman came over to Jack and Vex, he had been in the business for a long time and had been at every emergency that Vex had dealt with. One could say they were even friends at this point. He bent down next to Jack and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. Vex looked at him with a softened gaze.

"Hey Paul." He whispered, he tried to soften his tone as not to disturb Jack.

"Hey there kiddo, you're doing a good job. I just wanted to report the situation to you two." He grimaced, Paul's voice was deep and gruff, but he was comforting. Like a grandfather just trying his best, but he looked very worried. "With this situation becoming ever worse by the second, the necessity for you two to be at the scene is growing ever more noticeable, we don't have the power to fight the monsters but we can help save the civilians. The detectives, though, have been noticing a pattern." Jack and Vex nodded along. Paul continued, "It seems that at every crime scene, there is this weird lookin' symbol. We suspect that it's the assailants mark, I'll show you two, a photo"

He took out his phone which looked extremely small compared to his hands, he showed them a photo and it was disturbing, a red circle filled with text, in the middle, there was a disturbing scene, an eye, a real eye, stuck to the middle of it. Some of the text described a scene of the world ending through tremors, how the Gods would only be pleased with a large enough mass sacrifice. Jack shook and took out a balloon dog from her pockets, she hugged it tight and it comforted her. She could feel the feeling slowly return to her legs, although the image was disturbing, it hadn't yet become 'real' to her. She was, however, coping with this new fact. Paul looked down in dismay and rubbed Jack's back.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, I know you're new and I wish you became a hero before all this went down, but the city needs you and we're here to support you." Paul tried to comfort her, she nodded and took out her whiteboard. She wrote 'Thank you.' On it and showed it to the two men. 

Alright Mayu, we have to go, your time is almost up. Junko reminded her, Jack stood up slowly and shakily and got into a clown car which seemed to have magically poofed into reality. Simon and Paul stood there a little confused, but accepting of Jack's quirkiness. She waved and drove off quickly, heading to an alleyway and turning back into Mayumi. 

She held in her emotions until she got home, when she did return, she let it all go. She started sobbing, her tears would not stop coming. She couldn't breathe and she couldn't control herself shaking. Cleo came up to her as she laid in front of the entrance to her loft, Cleo snuggled into Mayu's arms and meowed frequently to keep Mayumi from forgetting where she was. Mayumi simply cried, the thoughts running through her head, she catastrophize the end of the world and there was nothing she could do. She had gone blind for fuck's sake, now the world would be ending? She panicked. Junko materialised and rubbed Mayumi's face, they knew it would be hard on her, most heroes go through this initial panic, but Mayu was experiencing things that were new to veteran heroes as well. Being a newbie, she wasn't supposed to be exposed to these horrors yet.

Junko went and grabbed Mayumi a cup of ice cold water, Mayumi sat up slowly and drank the water, she was so thirsty that it didn't matter that she spilled a lot on her shirt. Cleo continued to be stuck by her side. Mayumi quickly got up and tucked herself into bed, she needed to sleep. Despite it being only 7 pm, she was exhausted, mentally and physically. She pulled off her pants and went to bed. She would still have to return to school the next day.

Beep beep 

Mayu got up, though, surprised, she didn't see a sunrise. It wasn't her alarm, it was somebody calling. She answered without looking at the caller, imagining it to be Tala. 

"Hello?" She asked groggily, closing her eyes and returning back to lying comfortably on her bed.

"Uh.. uh hi Mayu, it's me, Simon." Simon's voice was a lot deeper through the call, Mayumi was still exhausted so she didn't sit up, but she was definitely surprised.

"Oh. Hi, what a pleasant surprise. Sorry Simon, you called at a bad time, I'm just so tired…" She trailed off, falling in and out of sleep. She slurred her words but Simon found it cute. 

"Hey don't worry about it. Do you want me to let you go then?" He asked after chuckling softly. Mayumi didn't think about it at all when she instantly responded.

"No, you can stay on call… goodnight." And she fell back asleep. Simon laughed and adjusted himself in his bed, he hadn't washed the covers since Mayu was there, so her scent lingered. He didn't know himself, this girl was making him act like a schoolgirl, kicking his feet and cuddling close to his blanket. He fell asleep to her comforting steady breathing, that would sometimes be interrupted by a snort. It was peaceful. 

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