BNHA: I am Reiji Toga Chapter 4: Himiko Toga (4)

"Dad! Can I play with the other kids?!" shouted a boy with light brown hair and bright eyes, bursting with energy, as he tugged at his father's sleeve.

The man looked down from behind his glasses, watching his son, who radiated boundless energy.

"Sure. Just be careful, Ethan."

With a beaming smile, the little boy dashed toward the playground with the montum of a rocket taking off. His steps were clumsy but full of life. Every ti his little body moved, it seed as though the world responded with joy.

The father watched him go, standing still with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Be careful, son!" he called out worriedly, watching his son's reckless stride.

"Pure energy… don't you think?" remarked a woman watching her own son from another bench, folding her arms with a resigned smile.

The man barely nodded.

"They're unstoppable creatures," he added to the woman's comnt, watching as Ethan ran with great excitent and began talking to the other kids there.

"Sotis I think that without my husband, it would be impossible to raise them," the woman said casually; the man smiled with a touch of bitterness.

"It takes a lot of energy to raise just one, and my wife wanted three."

A small snort of laughter escaped the man's tired lips as he finished his sentence.

"That's total torture; you'd barely have ti to be yourselves," the woman advised, almost as if she had a lot of experience with the subject, even though they seed to be the sa age.

"At least, it stayed just an idea…" he said, trying to change the subject slightly.

The woman laughed lightly, not noticing the true atmosphere. Ethan's father refocused on his son, who was wobbling his way up to the slide platform.

One of the children running behind Ethan stumbled clumsily, accidentally pushing him. The little boy fell with his full weight, his knee hitting the concrete edge separating the playground from the grass.

The man's body sprang into action, running to reach Ethan, who was getting up between sobs, tears streaming down his face. His left knee had a nasty scrape.

Small trickles of blood began to run down, staining his leg.

"Are you okay...?" were his first words. But his eyes widened in surprise at what he was seeing.

As Ethan rubbed his leg and whimpered, the wound began to... close.

First it was the bleeding, which subsided imdiately. Then the skin, regenerating with unnatural speed. The redness disappeared. And in less than a minute, the boy's knee was clean, smooth, covered only by a thin layer of new skin.

The father crouched down slowly.

"Ethan… Does it hurt?" he asked, his voice a mix of concern and amazent.

The boy shook his head, tears still in his eyes.

"It's over…"

The father stared for a few seconds at the wound that had closed, his mind wandering, until an idea crossed his mind.

"Let's go ho."

Ethan looked at his father and nodded, taking his hand to start walking away from the park. His excitent for the ga had completely faded; he just wanted to get ho and rest—he felt quite exhausted.

***

Reiji woke up in the middle of the night, completely agitated, his chest rising and falling as if he'd run a marathon. His mind was constantly replaying the vivid images from the dream he'd just had.

The room was silent, barely lit by the pale moonlight seeping through the curtains. A faint hum from the refrigerator in the kitchen was the only thing breaking the silence.

Everything was calm… Except his mind.

His hands trembled slightly, hidden under the blanket, while his eyes scanned the room without focusing on anything. His heart was pounding in his ears.

The warm night air did little to combat the icy chill running down his spine.

He didn't understand why, but the scene remained as vivid as if it had happened just seconds ago. He could still feel the sting of the wound on his knee, the texture of the concrete, the look in that man's eyes… His father.

He had felt it. He had beco Ethan again.

His breathing remained ragged for long seconds. Sothing ached deep in his chest. It wasn't physical. It was that dull twinge that cos when you rember sothing you wish you could have forgotten forever.

He brought a hand to his forehead and noticed he was sweating. Beside him in another bed, Himiko slept soundly, curled up like a little cat, her breathing calm.

That image restored so stability to him. He closed his eyes for a mont and tried to calm his mind.

He didn't want to be an experint again. He didn't want them to look at him with empty eyes, waiting for results.

His breathing finally steadied, though the tremor in his fingers still wouldn't go away. He pulled the sheets off himself, swung his feet off the bed, and sat there in silence.

'Here... I am Reiji. I am not Ethan. I am not him.'

He repeated that phrase in his mind, like a desperate mantra.

What unsettled him wasn't just the clarity of the images. It was the absolute certainty that this had happened to him. In another life. In another body. With the sa ability.

His regeneration.

Back then, no one called it that. Not a Quirk, not a gift, not a talent. Just an anomaly. An error that needed to be studied. Analyzed. Exploited.

His jaw tensed.

'I won't be that again.'

He turned his gaze to Himiko, her small figure sheltered by the darkness, her hair tousled on the pillow. She, too, had sothing special. Sothing that could lead her to be loved or feared.

He wasn't going to let anyone touch her with the sa cold hands that had marked Ethan.

Reiji slowly lay back down, his body still sowhat stiff. But this ti, instead of closing his eyes, he kept them open, fixed on the ceiling. Listening to the silence. Feeling every heartbeat.

This was the reason he was usually so tired during the day. These nightmares were normal, haunting him over and over again in his dreams. He had been in this new life for only a year and a half, but there are wounds that don't heal, even in a lifeti.

***

It was noon, and Reiji was still sleeping peacefully in his room. The nightmares and constant thoughts about the future had barely let him get a wink of sleep, and only with the sunrise did he feel calr, as if it were a sign that his demons could no longer affect him.

Little Himiko, who had slept through the night, was playing alone in the backyard. It was Saturday, so both her parents were ho—a rare occurrence, but one the two children enjoyed.

Her mother was preparing a al in the kitchen, glancing out the window at her daughter from ti to ti, while her father leafed through a magazine on the sofa, completely absorbed in his reading.

The house exuded tranquility.

"Oh, a cat!" Himiko exclaid upon seeing the animal peeking over the fence of her yard; her eyes sparkled with fascination at the little pet, admiring its beautiful orange fur.

The cat had its sharp eyes fixed on a much more interesting target: a small sparrow fluttering unsuspectingly near a bush.

The bird was pecking at the ground, oblivious to the predator lurking nearby.

Himiko didn't quite understand what was happening. She wanted to touch the cat, to stroke its glossy back, but before she could take another step, the animal tensed like a spring…

It was a precise, swift, brutal movent.

The sparrow barely had ti to flap its wings once before the cat's weight crushed it against the ground with a muffled squeak. The animal's claws dug deeply into the bird's skin, preventing it from escaping and ready to play until the bird could no longer move.

Himiko froze, her mind processing what was happening. When she finally saw the little bird stop chirping, her mind clicked into place.

"Chu, bad cat!" she exclaid, running toward the two animals, chasing the cat away, leaving behind the body of the poor bird it had just caught.

The little animal's blood trickled from its wounds, dripping onto the grass of the playground.

"Are you okay, little bird?" she murmured, approaching the animal and cradling it in her small hands.

She held the dead bird in her hands with a mixture of bewildernt and… sothing else. Himiko's breath beca shaky.

The red staining the feathers, the warmth the body still retained, the contrast between the softness of the plumage and the harshness of the blood… Everything seed strange to her, alluring, almost hypnotic.

"Why… are you asleep?" she whispered.

She didn't fully understand what she was feeling. It was a mixture of sadness and hunger. Without thinking, her trembling fingers slid toward the bird's neck, touching the open wounds. She stained her fingers with the warm blood and then, instinctively, brought them to her lips.

The tallic taste startled her… But it didn't stop her.

She licked her fingers again. Then she did it more decisively. She closed her eyes. Her heart was pounding.

From the window, the mother, who had just tasted the soup, turned her head in an automatic gesture to check on Himiko. What she saw made her frown.

She blinked. She leaned in a little.

Himiko… Was she holding sothing?

She moved closer to the window.

"Himiko"

She called out again, but her daughter didn't even react.

When she noticed Himiko putting sothing in her mouth, her maternal instincts kicked in imdiately; she dropped whatever she was doing and ran out to the patio.

Her husband, who was in the living room, jumped to his feet at the sight of his wife's reaction, his heart pounding hard without him yet knowing why.

The patio door swung open.

"Himiko!"

The mother's voice cut through the air as she reached the patio, stopping Himiko in her tracks.

When the father reached the patio, he stood beside his wife, watching what their daughter was doing.

Himiko was crouched down, her white dress stained with dirt and splattered with red droplets, gently holding the bird's lifeless body. The bird's fresh blood trickled between her fingers, and a crimson streak stained the corner of her lips.

The father felt a chill run down his spine. He opened his eyes wide, frozen in place, as if his brain refused to process the image.

The mother, unable to contain her horror, fell to her knees on the ground with a moan.

"Himiko… What have you done?" he asked himself, unable to react.

His daughter, the very child he had given birth to and raised, stood before him devouring an animal; her smile was unsettling, and the pleasure was evident on her face.

As if that were… a part of her.

"I didn't want it to die…" she whispered, lowering her gaze once more to the bloodied little bird. "I just wanted to know why it wasn't moving…"

The father took a step forward. His breathing was heavy. His voice, now much louder, erupted.

"Were you sucking its blood, Himiko?!"

That scream echoed off the walls of the house.

Reiji, who was still asleep upstairs, jolted awake beneath the sheets. The echo of the shout yanked him from a restless sleep, and, his eyes still heavy, he sat up abruptly.

'What's going on…?'

"Dad… I…" the girl tried to explain, her voice trembling, knowing she was about to be scolded.

The father took two strides forward, and with a strength he didn't usually display, grabbed Himiko by the wrist, forcing her to let go of the dead bird. The lifeless body fell onto the grass with a soft plop, leaving a reddish stain on the damp earth.

"No, you can't do that!" the man roared, beside himself, as if the scene before his eyes couldn't possibly be real.

Reiji's eyes widened instantly, his mind processing many things at once. His body reacted, moving toward the scene unfolding in the backyard.

As he crossed the room, the first thing he saw was his mother, standing by the patio door, one hand over her mouth.

The second image hit him even harder.

His father, kneeling in front of Himiko, still holding her wrist, with restrained force. And on the ground, the little bird, dead, its feathers stained red.

Himiko's eyes were misty, confused, breathing heavily, with traces of fresh blood still on her lips.

"Let her go!" Reiji shouted from the back.

The father looked up, seeing his other son arrive on the scene. For an eternal second, their eyes t. The father's eyes trembled; his youngest son had just shouted at him in a way that made the whole house shake.

Reiji's eyes, on the other hand, burned with rage.

"Don't touch her!" he shouted, striding down into the garden and stepping between them.

The man hesitated. His hand slowly released the girl's wrist. The mark of his grip was visible on her fragile body.

Himiko could barely hold back her tears, her whole body trembling with a mix of fear and sadness.

Reiji knelt down beside her without saying a word. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to his chest. The little girl didn't resist, hugging her younger brother tightly.

"I didn't an to hurt him…" she murmured, her voice a whisper against his chest. "I just… passed by."

Silence fell once more. All that could be heard was the distant singing of birds and the heavy breathing of everyone present.

***

It was nightti in the Togas' parents' master bedroom; both were still trying to process what had happened a few hours earlier. Their children were asleep, and yet the vivid scene of their daughter sucking the blood from the little bird remained fresh in both parents' minds; they didn't know how to react to it.

The father rubbed his face with his hands, exhausted, his eyes wide open as if he were still seeing his daughter repeat that grotesque act.

"It wasn't normal. Neither what Himiko did… nor the way she looked at us afterward. That face..." The father paused, lowering his gaze. "It wasn't guilt; she was just scared because I scolded her..."

The mother turned slowly toward him, gripping her husband's hand tightly.

"She… won't do it again, will she?" She voiced the thoughts that had invaded her mind more than once; she couldn't stop thinking about her daughter's gaze, filled with emotion and total excitent at what she was doing.

The father clenched his jaw. A nervous tic crossed his eyebrow.

"We have to control that impulse. No matter what. Maybe… seek help. A doctor, a psychologist, whatever it takes."

"What if it doesn't work? What if it's sothing that's already inside her?"

"Don't say that."

The mother didn't respond.

She lowered her head, defeated, while her husband got out of bed and began pacing in circles around the room, restless from the thoughts flooding his mind.

"She can't leave this house. No one can know. I don't want people to point fingers at her. I don't want them to… think she's crazy or has sothing wrong with her."

And then, a pause.

"Plus the way Reiji looked at us. It was just a second… But there was sothing in his gaze. As if… What his sister was doing was good, that I was the bad one for intervening."

"Huh?"

Reiji, sitting on the second-floor stairs, held his breath.

It wasn't the first ti he'd overheard private conversations uninvited, but few had left him as stiff as this one.

"They're not wrong… This isn't going to stop with scoldings, nor with a cheap psychologist who tries to mask the symptom without looking at the root cause'

mories of his sister's future flooded his mind; he had promised himself he wouldn't let it get to that point, and yet he had been careless, and everything had escalated too quickly.

'If they want to "cure" her with conventional thods, they're just going to push her to the limit. Himiko doesn't understand what she did; the solution isn't to suppress it..."

"She was in shock. That's all," the mother spoke up in her youngest son's defense.

The father nodded but said nothing more. Silence reigned once again in the room, as they silently agreed on what to do with their daughter.

With silent steps, Reiji stepped away from the railing and returned to his room. He closed the door carefully, sat on the bed, and stared at the ceiling.

He just hoped this wouldn't lead to the future he wanted to avoid.

'If no one else understands what it is, then I'll take it upon myself to teach her how to live with it. How to control it.'

***

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