Kage

Three children, Kaori, Takeyama, and Hiroki, were playing in the park. They were on the slides. Kaori and Hiroki looked at Takeyama.

"What is your quirk?"

"What does it do?"

"Are you secretly a giant?"

Kaori and Hiroki started bombarding her with questions.

"Both of you, calm down."

Takeyama struggled a bit with the barrage of questions. Hiroki was now curious about everything related to her quirk. On the other hand, Kaori wanted to know the name of her quirk to confirm if her friend would be Mt. Lady in the future.

"So, my quirk is called Gigantification."

Takeyama answered happily. Her friends weren't afraid of her. She initially feared she might step on someone because of her size. But it seemed like a false alarm.

On the other hand, Kaori began to smile. It was now confirmed that Takeyama is, or rather will be, Mt. Lady in the future.

'That means if I get into UA, I'll have a friend there.'

As Kaori thought about the future, 

"Hello, Earth to Kaori."

Kaori snapped out of her thoughts when Takeyama started shaking her.

"Sorry, Take, I got a bit lost in thought."

Takeyama just nodded positively.

"Hn."

After a few more questions and some playing, the three friends said goodbye. It was getting dark, and Kaori and her mom started leaving the park.

Kaori felt something falling on her, again and again. They were raindrops. It had started raining.

"Kaori, we need to hurry up a bit; I forgot the umbrella at home."

And so, Kaori and her mom began to pick up the pace and tried to get home as quickly as possible. As they walked faster down the street, they heard something. They didn't know what it was. It was quite dark already.

Kaori's mom tried to get home quickly and away from the sound. But Kaori stopped and looked at the place where the sound was coming from.

She quickly broke free from her mom's hand and ran toward the sound.

"Kaori, where are you going? Come back immediately."

Her mom started running after her daughter.

She quickly caught up to her and took her by the hand. But she stopped in front of what her daughter was looking at. It was a cardboard box, and a sound was coming from it.

*Meow*

Kaori put her hands into the box and pulled out a small, cold, shivering black kitten.

"Mom, can we take the kitten home?"

Kaori's mom thought for a moment. They could take the kitten now and decide what to do with it tomorrow.

"Okay, but we'll talk about you running away from me."

Kaori just nodded.

They quickly started hurrying through the rain. Kaori held the kitten in her arms. Normally, Kaori wouldn't just run off like that. The kitten called out to her. Because she knew it was Kage, her cat from her previous life.

Kaori and Yumeko arrived home soaking wet. Yami, Kaori's father, came to the door.

"Hmm, forgot the umbrella, didn't you? You should go take a shower."

As Yami started giving instructions, he noticed Kaori holding something in her arms.

"What do you have there, Kaori? Is it a gift for me?"

Before Kaori could answer, Yami got his answer.

*Meow*

Yami saw the little kitten in Kaori's arms. He looked at his wife. Yumeko just smiled and shook her head.

"Kaori, sweetheart. You should go wash up. Give me the kitten and go."

Kaori just nodded and went to the bathroom.

While Kaori was showering, her parents talked about the kitten.

"Yami, tomorrow we need to check if the kitten belongs to anyone. If not, I'd like to keep it. It would belong to Kaori, and she would take care of it."

Yami looked at his wife for a moment. He was weighing the pros and cons of having a cat at home. On one hand, it might cause trouble sometimes, and they would have another mouth to feed, but on the other hand, it would make Kaori happy.

With a sigh, he answered.

"Sigh, fine, if it doesn't belong to anyone, we can keep it."

The parents didn't know, but someone was already listening. It was Kaori, who had taken a quick shower.

"Really, we can keep the kitten?"

Kaori said excitedly and hugged both her parents.

"Only if it doesn't belong to anyone and if you promise to take good care of it."

Kaori started nodding quickly.

*Clap clap*

"Okay, Kaori, you should go to bed now."

Kaori just smiled and went to her room. Of course, she took the kitten with her and fell asleep.

"I don't feel so good."

Kaori lay in bed with the kitten curled up beside her.

As she slept, her parents stood in the doorway of her room, smiling at her.

...

(The next day)

Kaori was with her family in a building.

"I must say, the kitten doesn't belong to anyone. So you can register it under your name."

Said a man in a white coat.

'That was quick.'

Kaori thought. She had been feeling strange since the morning.

Yami and Yumeko looked at Kaori.

"So, what will its name be?"

Kaori looked at her parents, feeling a bit tired.

"Kage, it will be named Kage."

The family noticed something was wrong with Kaori.

So, Yami picked up his daughter, and the family went home.

The family was taking off their shoes in the hallway, and Kaori felt even more tired.

Kaori took Kage and went to her room.

In her room, she started playing with him.

She felt something happening with her hand. She felt it burning.

"MOOOOM!"

Kaori started screaming, and her parents quickly ran into the room.

"Honey, what's wrong?"

Kaori looked at her parents, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Mommy *hic* my hand is burning *hic*"

When Yami touched Kaori's hand, steam started coming out of it. It was so hot that when he touched it, he got burned. He looked at his wife.

"Yumeko! Call the quirk ambulance. Quickly!"

Yumeko quickly went to call the ambulance. Meanwhile, Kaori felt pain in her left hand, feeling like it was on fire.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, her left hand exploded like a balloon. There was blood everywhere in the room, but what surprised Kaori was that it didn't hurt.

Kaori looked at her left hand. It looked strange; it was slightly larger and looked like the claw of some monster. The hand had a black and red demonic hue, almost as if the hand was made entirely of fire.

(End of a chapter)