Chapter 4

" *yawn* …hmm, now let's see where is the guy?" Ritsuka said, stretching his arms, he looked around as he left the station. It was already evening by the time, he reached his destination, since he had already booked his hotel, they had sent a cab to pick him up.

Finding the guy, he got seated as the two drove towards the hotel. Getting himself checked-in he threw his backpack on the chair and called the room-service to order some food which was sukiyaki hotpot, considering it was winter. After that he took a shower and by the time he left the shower, his meal was ready at his doorstep.

Done eating he went to sleep.

While this was happening, a certain distance from the hotel where Ritsuka was staying, inside an ancient Japanese themed household…

"I have had enough of you, get out of this house" a middle-aged man with black hair said as he glared at a 10 year old girl while pointing at the main door.

There were many other clansmen present around as well who would often give out remarks like "Demon" "Witch" .

The little girl looked at the man who just ordered her to leave the house, who in turn intensified the glare at her. She turned her head to a middle-aged lady who had light green hair and facial features slightly similar to the little girl.

Seeing that the middle-aged lady said "You are not my daughter… a demon like you can never be my daughter"

"That's right a demon like you can never be a part of Zenin Clan" said the middle-aged man and pushed the girl making her lose her balance as she fell on the ground outside of the house while the main door was shut close by guards.

The little girl had her light green hair messed while her body had many bruises and burn marks, and the bandage that covered her right eye loosened from the impact.

*drip*

Blood dripped on the ground from the trail of blood that flowed from her head sliding over her cheeks converging at her chin.

The little girl looked at the closed doors with lifeless eyes, she didn't even shed tears or showed any signs of being in pain from the injury she just received.

Soon the snowflakes descended from the night snow filled clouds, slowly covering the ground in snow.

The little girl shivered from the cold air and snowfall that was happening, her ragged clothes barely gave her the warmth needed. She soon left the place while hugging herself, rubbing her hands with each other sometimes.

She couldn't find a place to stay at and finally had to stay at an old worn-out shrine which was closed for some reason. Seeing the doors of the shrine were closed, she took shelter under the ramp surrounding the shrine.

***

After a few hours, around 2 am in the morning,

Ritsuka woke up and meditated for a while, after that he freshened up and left the hotel to visit the place he had heard of.

Walking around the city, he looked at the snow covered roads with barely anyone around. He soon walked passed by an ancient Japanese themed clan house, looking at the house for a while he turned his head towards the mountain at the other side.

There was an old shrine on top of the mountain, and a few years back it was abandoned for some reason. There were rumours of it being haunted by some evil spirit or by some demon.

Considering the modern age, Ritsuka found it weird for people to still believe in such things not to mention with quirks around, there was a high chance it was someone with a unique quirk rather than a ghost.

Ritsuka neared the foot of the mountain, looking at the old stone stairs that reached all the way to the top. Taking a step he looked in a certain direction.

" *sniff* …Blood, interesting" Ritsuka said, it wasn't hard for him to smell blood thanks to his demon physiology. With a surprised glint in his eyes, he started walking up the stairs while looking around.

Though it may seem he was being careless, he had his senses on alert. If someone tried to attack him, the result would be death for the attacker.

Soon he reached the top of the mountain, he looked around the stone path which had a few broken stone lanterns and a small shrine around the corner.

His gaze stopped at the main shrine, particularly under the ramp on which the shrine was placed.

'A human huh… the human doesn't seem to be dead though' Ritsuka thought as he scanned the entire place with his spiritual energy.

He walked up to the shrine and bent his back to look under the ramp onto which the shrine was placed. Down there he saw a little girl around his age sleeping curled up.

Sighing he pulled her out and noticed the injury and other burnt marks on her body, while the bandage that covered her right eye loosened and fell off.

"She is either an orphan or was abandoned… but her eye, it seems like her quirk" Ritsuka murmured while golden rings surrounded his blue irises.

Though he could sense a quirk and copy them, he couldn't see what quirk someone had so he didn't try to copy quirk randomly.

Carrying the unconscious girl in a princess carry, he entered the shrine. Placing the girl's head on his lap, he coated his hand in spiritual energy and slowly massaged her injury in order to heal the wound.

After he was done he placed her head on the ground and covered her with his jacket. Standing up he sat a bit farther from her in a meditative position and started meditating.

He was absorbing the spiritual energy around the place while infusing it in his bones, muscles, internal organs and such. His Gramps had told him about this that places like shrine had higher concentration of spiritual energy which he could use to strength himself.

After 15 mins,

"Mmm! … Huh!?" the green haired girl woke up, rubbing her eyes she looked around surprised at where she was, while noticing the jacket that covered her.

Alarmed by it she jumped up and saw a black haired kid mediating at the side, who apparently noticing her movements and opened his eyes.

Staring at his blue eyes, the girl questioned "Who are you?"

While Ritsuka was looking at her or particularly at her right eye which was red and had a weird kanji in it. Not to mention looking at it, he felt a mental tug as if his mind was being infiltrated.

Channelling his spiritual energy he fought of the weird feeling and answered the girl, "I am just a passerby, I found you unconscious out there so I brought you in"

Staring at him for a while the girl finally nodded her head and said "Thank y-…Ehh! Don't look turn your head!"

As she noticed her bandage was missing and covered her right eye with her hand.

"You don't have to worry about me, I guess it is your quirk… don't worry it doesn't affect me, did you forget we were staring at each other a while back"

As she processed his words, her eyes widened in surprise and disbelief as she said "Y-you are right" saying she lowered her hand.

Seeing Ritsuka staring at her right eye, the girl said "Pretty nasty right?" in a defeated and sad tone.

Hearing her, Ritsuka shook his head and said "I don't think so, to say the least I find your eye pretty cool"

The girl was caught completely off guard by his words, since she had expected harsh words from him. And what surprised her the most was he wasn't lying and as for how she could tell that, it was thanks to her quirk that made her eye look like that.

Before she could respond to his words, Ritsuka moved at an insane speed and appeared next to her. Wrapping his arm around her waist he jumped back as someone crashed into the shrine breaking through a wall.

The girl couldn't comprehend at what just transpired courtesy to how fast everything happened. Before she could even question, she was met by the sight of a pale ash-grey skinned muscular man, with spiky dark-green hair.

The man smiled showing his fangs.

"To think I will get to taste two brats early morning…hehehe" the man said as he laughed like a maniac.

The girl couldn't process what the man meant, just then she felt the hold on her tighten. Feeling that she looked at the black haired kid, whose eyes had turned blood red. She couldn't help but feel intoxicated by looking at them.

Ritsuka looked at the demon and kept his silence, tightening his hold on the girl, he channelled his spiritual energy and soon a katana manifested in his other hand.

This was one of the applications of spiritual energy, where the user could use the energy to make any weapon they wanted.

Taking a deep breath, he loosened his hold on the girl and said "Leave this place!"

"Like hell I will let my meal run away brat" the demon shouted as he jumped at the girl with his sharp nails ready to claw out her brain.

Ritsuka blocked the demon using his katana and said "Leave!"

The girl wanted to retort but knew she would only obstruct him, so left the place.

"Tch! …you saved your friend but you won't be able to escape" the demon said

"Haha… you think I sent her out to save her… Nah, the reason I did so is…" saying Ritsuka smiled showing his fangs to the demon, while his red eyes glowed.

Was all the demon saw before his head rolled off the ground was Ritsuka's blood red eyes.

"Y-you are him, but how!?" the demon's head said as his eyes frantically shook, fear evident in his eyes.

Ritsuka didn't say anything instead, he placed his hand on the demon's body and other on its head and absorbed the demon completely.

Getting up he dusted his clothes and left the place with a satisfied smile. Even though he didn't need to consume blood or human flesh, the said increased his strength so he had decided to absorb the demons and certain villains.

Feeling energy course through him, Ritsuka smiled and left the shrine. His job here was done which included absorbing the spiritual energy around the shrine and see if there was indeed a demon here.

Walking out of the shrine he was met by the little girl who had a worried look on her face, noticing him, she ran up to him to see if he was injured or not. Looking around she didn't see any injury but noticed his eyes had turned back to blue.

"So how about you tell me what you were doing here?"

The girl had a conflicted look on her face hearing him, she had somewhat guessed that the man who attacked them was killed by the kid in front of her. She did feel repulsed by it but wasn't in any position to act on it, this conflicted her on whether to trust the kid in front of her or not.

After a few minutes of contemplating, she sighed and looked at Ritsuka while she narrated her story to him.

To summarise it all, the girl's name was Maki Zen- "No its only Maki!"… *ahem* the girl's name was Maki, she had awakened a quirk which turned her right eye to what it is now, her quirk made it so that anyone who looked at her right eye would fall in an illusion which would showcase their worst nightmare not only that she could also sense if someone was lying to her or not.

This caused her to be isolated by everyone, even when she covered her eye, people avoided her like she was cursed. But the quirk affected her aswell considering her eyes would ache or even bleed when her quirk is used.

Despite that, growing up she had to go through verbal abuse and even physical beating from time to time, even her parents denied her as their daughter. Yesterday, she was being bullied like always and she finally snapped and pulled her bandage, putting her bullies in an illusion as they screamed and begged for it to stop. This however caused her to be kicked out of the clan and that too a few days after her 10th birthday which was never celebrated ever since her quirk awakened. And since she didn't have a place to live, she came here to shelter herself from the snowfall.

Ritsuka sighed hearing her story, while he was abandoned because of being quirk-less, Maki was abandoned for being born with a quirk that was strong enough that she became feared by her 'family'. He knew very well that he would have been in similar state if not for hus Gramps accepting him.

Ritsuka couldn't help but laugh at the situation, seeing him laughing offended Maki as she glared at him and shouted "What's so funny huh?"

"Our Life dear… you know just like you I was abandoned by my family when I was 4 after that some psycho abducted me and experimented on me, I was disposed of when they felt I was useless… but luckily an old man extended his hand to me and now I am extending my hand to you… do you wish to join me?" Ritsuka said

Maki remained silent for a while, seeing no lies in his words, she sighed and questioned "What do you want from me and what will you make me do?"

"You don't have to worry on being treated like some slave or tool, I will not force you to do something you don't want to, as for the purpose of my team… I won't give you some crazy reason like saving the world and shit, I have no interest in doing so… I just want to survive in this world and try and change things so that what both of us and many more like us went through, my kids don't"

Maki kept silent for a while but then nodded her head and said "Fine, I am ready to join you, don't you dare make me regret it" while extending her hand.

Ritsuka laughed lightly and shook her hand saying "You won't"

(-End-)