A Woman Named Naomi

A tall woman, with short dark crimson hair that fell to just above her jawline and royal purple eyes, named Naomi Ishii, distractedly browsed the internet on her phone as she sat behind the counter of the corner store she worked in the city of Kakegawa Japan.

The late afternoon sun shone through the large open windows that adversities the various magazines, cheap food, and drinks that the store had to sell. There were no patrons in the store as of this moment but Naomi expected a small uptake in visitors within a few hours as people would soon leave work and stop by the shop on the way home.

Naomi looked over her shoulder to see a little boy who shared her dark crimson hair and royal purple eyes sitting on a bright yellow hard plastic chair next to a little neon orange table made of the same material. Its surface was covered in blocks, toy cars, and children's books.

She smiled softly as she watched him scrunch his tiny face up in concentration as he tried to read one of the books sitting on his little table. Her son, Samuru Ishii, was already proving to be intelligent, at only three years old he was learning to read, a year before that he learned to speak, and a year before that he seemingly potty trained himself.

His unique advancement had worried her at first as she was concerned that he had inherited his father's quirk and awoken it much earlier than most children. But a trip to the doctor alleviated those fears, he didn't have one as of yet, his body still much too young to have developed it. However, a brain scan did show her son's mental faculties were far more advanced than a child should have. But the doctor assured her it wasn't something to be concerned about. Her son was more than likely just a natural genius, a thing that was possible even before the introduction of quirks to the human genome.

While Naomi was proud to have a genius son and very thankful that it had made him more mature and empathetic than any child his age. She was still worried that he was advancing too much too soon, she wanted to experience motherhood and hold her baby tight for as long as possible. She didn't want to lose him too soon, he was all she had left after all.

The sound of a tiny bell chime brought her attention back to the store. A tall young man with short black hair wearing a police uniform entered the store. "Afternoon Tsukauchi-san," Naomi greeted.

Officer Tsukauchi smiled back at the taller woman, "Ishii-san, how have things been?"

The redhead shrugged, "quiet, only had a dozen or so customers come in today."

Tsukauchi nodded, "been keeping out of trouble I hope?"

Naomi rolled her eyes, "couldn't get into trouble even if I wanted to." She said as she pulled the long black sleeve on her right arm back to show a metal cuff with a dim blinking red light clasped around her wrist.

"You know need to ask Ishii-san, I have to check all the boxes after all."

"They don't let you parole officers ask questions outside of your little notepad? What's the point in not replacing you with a bot at that point?" She wondered.

The officer chuckled lightly, "I think we've had this same conversation at least once a month for the past three years, Ishii-san."

"Momma, what does this word say?" A small voice suddenly asked from behind the counter.

Naomi looked down to see her son tugging at her pant leg and holding up a bright blue colored children's book, "It says post office sweetie," she answered after taking a moment to glance at the page.

"Mmkay, thank you," Samuru said before walking back to his little seat behind the counter.

"He's already reading?" Officer Tsukauchi asked.

The woman nodded with a proud smile, "started earlier this week."

"His father started reading early as well didn't he?"

Naomi glanced at her son with a mournful frown, "yes."

Tsukauchi looked away from her regretfully, "I'm sorry, didn't mean to bring up painful memories."

She gave the man a strained smile, "it's fine, been three years, after all, shouldn't be missing someone like him anyway."

"No one will begrudge you the right to mourn the man he was Ishii-san."

The woman swallowed a lump in her throat, "is that all you needed officer Tsukauchi?"

"I just need to inspect your quirk inhibitor before I leave." He said as he approached the counter.

Naomi offered her muscular arm to the man who then checked over the metal cuff on her wrist.

"Any discomfort, or numbness?" He asked.

"Other than the fact that it makes it impossible to sleep how I used to, no."

"Well, look at it this way, only nine more years of parol." Tsukauchi offered with a smile.

She chuckled bitterly."Yeah, and then what? It's not like I will ever be able to go back to being a hero."

"I'm sure All Might will be willing to offer you a spot in his agency once your ban is lifted." He reassured.

"I'll think about it."

Officer Tsukauchi stepped away, "your inhibitor looks good," he then called to the boy sitting behind the counter. "Keep an eye on your mother for me Samuru."

"I will Tsukauchi-san." The boy said with a wave of his chubby arm.

Naomi's lip quirked upwards at her son's voice, "see you next week."

"Stay safe Ishii-san," Tsukashi bid farewell with a bow before leaving the store.

Naomi sighed heavily as she glanced at the metal cuff around her right wrist, its dim red light blinking slowly to indicate that it was activated. "Nine more years…" She then glanced over at her son still concentrating on his little children's book. "At least I'm not in Tartarus"

Yes, at least she wasn't stuck behind the walls of the maximum-security prison housed exclusively by Japan's most dangerous villains. Lord knows she's made enough mistakes to warrant being there, twelve years of parole with a quirk inhibitor and a ban from hero work was more than fair in her books. Hopefully one day she will have enough courage to tell her son her story, and with any luck, he will learn from her mistakes, hers and his father's.

____________________________________________________

Hours later Naomi closed up shop for the night, carrying her sleeping son in one arm locking the front door with the other.

The streets of the surrounding city were relatively empty with only a few people walking along the sidewalk or driving down the roads. The occasional yellow streetlight lit her path towards the small two-bedroom apartment she lived in a block away.

The coming winter wind nipped at her face but she was kept warm in her baggy grey hoodie, the cold however did make her wrap her arms protectively around her son as he continued to sleep peacefully in her arms.

She turned a corner towards the street, her apartment block could be found a few hundred meters away. The noise of boots walking along the sidewalk alerted her to two people walking behind her moving in the same direction she was.

An old instinct began to rise in her gut, the feeling of impending danger. Naomi Ishii had not survived this long in this dangerous world by ignoring her gut instincts.

Her right hand discreetly let go of her son's back as she put it towards the front of her waist and under her baggy hoody to rest upon a massive parol violation should it ever be discovered.

She took the next left turn away from her home and began to subtly increase her walking pace.

The sound of the two people following her grew louder as they too increased their speed to keep up with her.

Naomi reached another left turn and increased her speed to the point of nearly running, the people walking behind her followed yet again.

She now knew for sure whoever these two were, they were without a doubt pursuing her. With an angry scowl, Naomi ran into a full sprint, pushing her muscles into a frenzy as she attempted to escape down the street.

Naomi might have not been allowed to use her quirk for three years, but she was still a woman of well-developed physic and near the pinnacle of nonaugmented human capability. So it was with no small amount of surprise and worry that her two pursuers were able to somewhat keep up with her as she could hear their footsteps sprinting behind her.

Samuru was jostled awake by his mother's flight, "w-what's going on?" He asked with a tired yawn.

She didn't know what to tell him, so she just said the first reassuring thing that came to mind. "It's okay, mommy is going to get us home."

"Why are there two men running after us?"

"Oh it's…" Naomi really didn't know what to do. She didn't know if telling him the truth was a good idea or not, in times like these she really wished she had an example of what being a mother was like in her life.

"We're in danger aren't we?" The calm, matter-of-fact way Samuru asked that question would have been hilarious had she not been so worried for her son's life.

The redhead swallowed her nerves."sweetie, mommy is going to have to make these bad men go away. I want you to close your eyes and over your ears okay."

She felt her son hug her neck tightly, "okay," he said before letting go of her neck and covering his ears with his hands.

Naomi quickly turned on her heel and in the same motion drew a forty-five caliber handgun with a twelve-round capacity and aimed it at the men following her. "Stop following me." She ordered sternly with violet eyes narrowed in anger.

The two men skidded to a halt and raised their hands in alarm, they were both wearing black hoodies and blue jeans, their faces covered by navy blue balaclavas. One man was tall and broad-shouldered but still a head shorter than her, the other man was relatively skinny compared to his partner and was carrying a broad bowie knife in his right hand."Woah, Woah…easy…easy. We're sorry didn't know you were packing iron." The skinny man carrying the knife said.

"Y-yeah, we'll back off, please don't shoot us." Said the taller of the two.

Naomi blinked in surprise, she recognized those voices. "Lee, Ataru, what the hell are you two idiots doing?"

"O-oh shit Ishii-san…oh no we're so sorry ma'am… we didn't know it was you, honest!" The skinny guy, Ataru, cried in shock as he dropped his knife.

Naomi holstered her pistol. "You two scared me half to death, I was about to blow both your brains on the sidewalk! What other six foot ten woman lives around here, no how about why are you two morons mugging people in the first place?!"

"W…we just need another fix Ishii-san, w-we don't hurt nobody, honest." Lee defended.

"What's going on?" Samuru asked as he lowered his hands.

"Oh, shit is that your son too?! Oh God, we thought that was a bag over your shoulder." Ataru looked positively mortified.

Samuru strained his neck to look back at the two masked men in front of them. "Momma, could you put me down real quick please?"

Naomi most certainly did not want to do that, but she was weak to her son's puppy dog eyes and so reluctantly let him down. However, she kept a hand on her pistol just in case.

Samuru walked up to Lee and looked up at the taller man with narrowed eyes.

Lee gave an awkward wave as he smiled down at the boy. "Uh…hey th-" He was cut off by a tiny foot kicking him in the knee.

Before anyone could react Samuru approached Ataru and kicked the shorter man in the nads.

Lee was more surprised at the blow than anything but Ataru however fell to the ground and into a fetal position.

The toddler glared at both men. "What are you two junkie morons doing?! You almost made my momma have to shoot you! Plus don't you remember there's a hero agency only half a mile from here?! What were you two planning on doing, rob some people only for you to be caught and booked within an hour when they go to the police or a hero for help?!"

"S-sorry," Ataru said with a pained gasp.

Lee on the other hand had tears welling up in his eyes as he was berated by the small child in front of him.

Naomi sighed as she rubbed her temples, she knew these two since they were kids. Practically helped raise them when she was doing volunteer work at the shelters, they weren't bad people, just bad decision-makers. "Lee, Ataru, just go home. Never do this again, and please get some help. Do you two have the pamphlets for the nonprofit rehab I gave you?"

Ataru nodded as he recovered from Samuru's cheap shot, "yes ma'am."

"Good, go there and tell them I sent you. They won't ask questions or judge you, if you don't like it they will let you leave but you need to at least give it three days. Can you promise me that?"

"We will," Lee reassured.

Samuru grabbed Ataru's knife, "this is mine now."

Ataru looked like he wanted to argue but a glare from his mother silenced him.

"Okay…sorry for this Ishii-san…Samuru." Ataru apologized with a low bow.

Lee did likewise, "yeah, we're really sorry."

"Well what you waiting for, get on get!" Samuru yelled.

"R-right," the two turned and ran into the nearest alley. Leaving both mother and son alone standing on the sidewalk of an empty street.

Naomi sighed again, "Samuru please give me the knife."

"Okay momma," He said with a chipper smile and handed it to her.

She smiled at him and ruffled his dark crimson hair, "come one, let's get home. We can have your favorite after what we just went through. But only for tonight then it's back to eating healthy."

"Yay, dino nuggies!"

Naomi giggled, her son may be advanced for his age, and quite strange at times, but he was still her baby boy. And nothing would ever change that.