A Second Life

The sun remains a shade away from raising. Thinking it was about time, Sumire woke up. She was beginning to feel tired of this. Pretending to sleep… and the fact that she can do nothing about it made her feel all the more helpless. Today, the UA high school was closed. On Friday. And here she is, preparing for her morning jog.

As she changed into her training gear, she walked out of the orphanage with a small duffle bag.

"Sumire-chan, up already? How are you feeling?" Mrs. Sakaki asked as she saw the girl walk out.

"Never better, Sakaki-san. I'll be out for a jog. Will be back before breakfast." With that, she waved a bye and started jogging.

"Alright. Be safe." Mrs. Sakaki sighed looking at the fading silhouette of the girl. Anyone, when forced into a desperate situation, would never be okay, at least not so soon. And when faced against a group of villains who come at you with an intent to kill, you'd be traumatized. The feeling of life dangling by a thin thread, is unquestionably not a preferable experience. Let alone the burden of having other's lives tied down to your own. It's sheer agony to one's spirit. It would take a long time to recover. The USJ was a fine blend of all these things and the girl walked out of it, almost unaffected.

Sometimes, Mrs. Sakaki wonders if it's okay. If it's alright for the girl to become immune to trauma and tragedies… clearly not and she should do something about it. But what can she possibly do to soothe a child who was experimented on, by her own father? That is not something you can ever accept. It's like a stigma, reminding all the pains and ugliness the fate had given to the girl.

Years passed by and Sumire showed no signs of trouble, and Mrs. Sakaki knew, it was all but a façade. Albeit a fool proof one.

The girl, she changed her name, past and everything to have a new start. Mrs. Sakaki can only hope for the child's happiness, however small it might be.

…

As Sumire jogged on the foot path, she noticed there were others too. Yes, it was perfectly fine for others to go out for a morning walk, but five in the morning? She recognized all the early birds in her locality and Sumire was pretty sure there are new faces today.

There's one man with average built in regular sportswear. There was nothing odd about him. But regulated breathing and not sweating even after 12 minutes of running? Not normal. There's also this car, with a woman inside. They were following her and did it discretely.

Police. Sumire thought. Shaking her head, she pulled out her headphones and started playing some music. Oh, her phone is tapped. All her messages and calls were being monitored. She found it strange when Terry didn't call her yet. After the stunt she pulled, she was sure the brother of hers would sure be freaking out. And the man loved to w.h.i.n.e.

For once, she was appreciative for the spying. It evaded the long-winded lecture from Terry. She decided to allow the bug in her phone remain the way it is. She was feeling a bit lazy to do anything about it.

She checked the messages in her phone. Nearly, the entire class sent her one and there were some other notices. But there are nearly eight texts from the same person, Bakugou Katsuki.

She sent 'I'm alright' and soon got call. Amused, she picked it up. She didn't expect the boy to be awake at this moment. It was 5:45, Friday. No teenager would be awake. But it's Bakugou Katsuki we are talking about. There's nothing weird about the boy being strange.

"Damn freak, were f*** you've all this time?"

"Hello to you too, Kacchan."

"Quit joking you freaking and tell me where the hell you were all this time or I swear to-"

"Whoa, easy there, Kacchan. I'm at XXXX park, if you want to talk to me, come here. Sayonara, I'm not in the mood to deal with your foul temper in the phone." With that, she decisively hung up.

Sumire removed the earphones and pressed her ears. [damn, that boy sure YELLS] She thought.

…

The female officer sent to watch Azumi was annoyed. For one, which sane teenager on earth starts jogging at 5 in the morning? On a weekend, nonetheless. It did everything to ruin her beauty sleep.

Cursing her fate under breath, she quickly wanted to be done with her shift. The officer really wanted to kill her boss for this, but she knows very well it is not possible.

The officer decided to take the night shift so that she could be free on the day. She thought the girl would stay put for the rest of the night, and her job would be easy. Anyone would stay curled up inside their houses after being attacked by villains.

But here she is, jogging at this ungodly hour like a lunatic. 'Azumi Sumire is abnormal,' the officer thought, 'It must be her way of coping with stress.' Her job was to keep an eye on the girl and prevent media or anyone(villains) to approach her.

And the girl jogged for 15 minutes. The officer felt pity for her teammate who was jogging along with the girl. She looked at him and detected no signs of annoyance. Surprised, she observed her teammate. The officer followed his line of sight. He was… staring at the girl, well the girl's rear.

The officer felt incredulous. She knew for sure her teammate was being an absolute a**. She was about to call her a** of a teammate and ask him to quit being disgusting, but there was no need for that. Since Sumire slung her duffle bag back and it did its job faithfully.

The officer laughed at the frustrated look on her teammate's face. But she kept in mind to report this behavior. He was a police officer yet here he was, lacking morals and ogling a high schooler.

The girl jogged for an hour before taking a break in the nearby park. Before long, someone came towards her. The officer was prepared to make a move if the other party was determined to be hostile but once again there was no need for her to take any action. It was just a boy. And judging by the looks of it, they both knew each other.

The officer continued watching (stalking) Sumire. They had a chat, though the boy looked like he would literally explode and appeared murderous. This caused the officer to be tensed. Especially when the chat turned into an argument and reached to an all-out brawl. Now, when she should take action, the officer chose to stay neutral. Thankfully, none of the two were injured.

The officer had to admit, it was a good entertainment.

…

Bakugou reached the park and found Sumire sitting on a swing. He looked livid. And Sumire had no idea why he was so angry.

"Kacchan, don't you think it's a bit too early to plan on killing me?"

"It's never too early to kill you, freak."

"Oh, but you can never succeed anyway."

"You have no idea."

"Okay. So, Kacchan, tell me what you wanted to talk about."

"Where were you afterwards? You weren't there in the nurse room when I went to check, but you weren't there. And Aizawa said you went home but there was no f***ing reply to messages and you wouldn't answer any call!"

"Aw, were you worried about me, Kacchan?"

"Yeah, worried that you might've died before I killed you."

"Oh, don't worry. I won't die so easily. I'd take a lot more to pull me down. So, anything else? Cause you sure look like you want to ask something."

"…Yeah." With that, Bakugou threw a punch. It was swift and completely unexpected. Sumire swept sideways and avoided it with ease.

"Whoa, what did I do to deserve this?" she asked, while dodging his fists and kicks.

"Every bit." The boy said through gritted teeth.

"You wanna talk this way, sure, let's do it."

Thereupon, Sumire was no longer passive. She returned the fist with a fist, and this continued for a while till they were exhausted, well at least Bakugou was.

"So, willing to talk now?" Sumire asked as she laid on the grass, a little out of breath. The self-induced coma still had some effects on her.

"Shut up." Bakugou Katsuki had trouble regaining his breath, because he was too exhausted to do anything.

"Ok. As you wish."

Silence shrouded the park. Other than few occasional chirping of the birds, there was no noise. It was quite nice actually. They both watched the sunrise and stayed quiet. It was just 6:30 and only these two lunatics would spar on a Friday morning where the rest of the worlds would be sleeping tight.

"Don't do that again." Bakugou said silently.

"Don't do what?" Sumire asked in return.

"You… that was overboard, even for you freak."

"Kacchan, clarity please."

Bakugou got up and looked at the girl beside him. She is watching the sky, without any care in the world. And it irked him. That she had no care. And why did it matter to him? He didn't know. And he didn't like it. Bakugou only has few emotions. Anger, pride or annoyance. He was fine with these and didn't want confusion in him.

"You still pretend, huh?" he asked.

"…That I do." she replied. Somehow, he hoped that it would be a lie, but he knew what she said was true. He just sneered and got up.

"Fine. Be a pretentious f*** all you want. I'm done."

"If you want to talk, here's not good. There's someone following us. Let's meet later. I'll text you the place." She said, for the first time seriously and walked away without saying a word.

Only then did Bakugou notice that someone has been stalking him since he left his house.

…

Sumire well fed and well dressed, waited for Bakugou to show up. She didn't expect the boy to show up.

"Follow me." She said. The boy nodded and followed her.

They both walked into towards the Eichen house and entered in. Confirming that no one was watching them, Sumire motioned the boy to follow her. For once, Bakugou proved he could be quiet when needed. The two of them walked towards the garden. No kids were there in the orphanage since it was Friday and whether they like it or not there was school and work for them.

They took some turns, and were out of the Eichen House, standing on top of the hill beside the orphanage.

"If you are going to talk crap, then save it. I'm sure as f*** not interested in them." Bakugou made his intentions clear.

"Don't worry, that's not my plan for the day. Rather, I want you to speak." Sumire didn't just bring him here to have idle talk either.

"Speak what?"

"How did you find out that I was pretending?" she wanted to know. She managed to fool everyone. That everything she did at the USJ was 'genuine', and she didn't want anything to screw her plans. So, if Bakugou knew anything he shouldn't, she would make sure it would stay with him, by all means necessary.

"Because you were pretending, you freak." Bakugou glared at Sumire in exasperation.

"How?"

"…"

"…"

"…It was a hunch, honestly." The boy finally admitted.

"Huh?"

"Like I said, it was a hunch."

"…do continue please."

"I… f***, it felt obviously wrong you would be taken down so easily."

"Oh?"

"I mean, yeah, I admit it. You are strong. I saw it. The day you 'tried' strangling me, I didn't even see it coming. If you wished, you could've just killed all of them in an instant. But you didn't… it either meant that I either overestimated you, or you were holding back… it was just a hunch. Now, talking to you, I know I'm right."

"Ha…Hahaha." Sumire burst into laughter and Bakugou's heart dropped at the sight. He was frightened. And looking around, he was isolated with this madwoman.

'f***, f***, f***,' he thought.