biscuits and croissants [Kasey/Archibald]

Things were complicated. It wasn't what it used to be a year ago. Time passed. People changed. Policies changed. The world changed. Everything was different, except for her. To her, it was just a day ago. Time didn't exist. It was just a name tied to a measurement between moments you last saw someone. If you felt decades passed in just a few moments, what was the difference to someone who waited decades for what felt like a few seconds? To her, Semper Fi was yesterday. Yet, between those hours, she had done so much, but remained the same girl. Girl? No, she was a woman now. Time passed. People changed. But she didn't.

A soft black jacket worn over her loose white shirt. A blue cap on her head, hiding the horns. Her silver hair free in the wind. Her hands were buried into her pockets, holding onto the small folded wallet that held only a few things. There was no paper money with her, only two credit cards and identification. A white wallet cold to the touch, one people would soon find to be made of bone. Though the reason it was soft like leather would be a whole other process of discovery. She looked up to the sun in the sky, enjoying the light upon the skin of her legs. Short jeans that rested upon her knees, and black cloth shoes. She wandered, free, only to take a moment to enjoy the world, and what gifts it may offer her.

She could see the people, and with it, the idea that it must have been a place worth visiting. A simple exterior that was something that would blend into a market. Nothing spectacular about it. It was average, and she hoped the food would not be so. She would walk in, with a smile, only to wait in line, finding a boy before her, ordering with a strange accent. As he paid and walked away, she looked at him, taking a moment to catch his face. The small clouds of heat against the cold air around him. It was familiar. It was like Maxi.

"I'll get the same as he did, but I'll take a juice. Doesn't matter what kind." The girl would nod with a nervous smile. Kasey handed over the black card to the girl, and watched as she played with the weight of it.

"Oh wow, I thought these things were a myth."

"Well, they aren't."


"You must be loaded then!"

". . . if only." She smiled, trying not to say more than needed. The receipt would be printed, and soon handed over with the card. As she signed her name, she would pass over the paper to receive her order in return. With a nod, she left. Making her way outside, she caught a glimpse of the boy again, only wondering how many quirks like that existed. Surely things were bound to be repeated.

She tucked her buns into her pocket, leaving one hand holding her juice, and the other her croissant. She dropped the bag into a nearby bin and made as few steps, before slowing down past the boy. Slow enough to speak and wait for a reply.

"Wool is better." she would say. If he any anything to say, she would wait for that moment, otherwise she would continue on to the next store.

Maybe she would buy a necklace today. But, of course, it would be more beneficial to craft one of her own. Then at least she wouldn't be wasting money, and it would have a bit of more use out of it. She hated wasting things.

She wasn't the greatest with names, but she could remember instances and quirks. Little moments spent with people were all she needed. To learn about one version of a quirk, was to understand the other. You could see a dozen fire quirks, and at the basis they all functioned the same. One would raise their own temperature, which defined it as heat, others controlled temperature around them, which was fire at its finest. Ice, was just the same. The extremities of the other boy, made this one, seem simple by comparison.

"Trust me." she would say, "If you don't want others to recoil, wool helps out the most." She spoke of course, from personal experience. She lifted her treat to her lips, taking a step towards the seat, but not yet sitting down. "Kasey Setsuna." she would answer in reply. "I'd shake your hand but..." She lifted the croissant to her mouth. Placing it between her teeth as she extended a hand to shake his own. Her own set of teeth baring fangs akin to a vampire or some other animal. If he took her hand, she would shake it and take her meal again, if not, she would just take a bite and sit down after.

"My sister used to go to Yuuei, but that was a while ago." She'd speak from her seat, not really looking at the boy as she took small bites so she could chew quickly and speak again without food in her mouth. "Was a nice place to work." She smiled, nodding about the good times.

She'd place her treat on her lap for a moment as she opened her juice, tossing the cap into her pocket before resuming with snack in one hand, and drink in the other. She would take small sips and small bits, savoring the taste, enjoying the small peace she had, for now.

She hated that people looked at others like they were freaks, monsters, anything that made them inhuman. In a way, they were right, they weren't human, they were more than human. She was lucky, that her own quirk was so easy to hide. From the public's eyes, to the senses, she nearly went under the radar, save for the horns on her head. Her former pink hair was almost a tell tale sign of an ability, but with quirks, bright blue hair wasn't so strange either. Nothing was natural. From quirks, to how people acted. Everything was regulated. Everything was an act.

She listened, and watched him look down at his hands. If his hands did get wet, it meant his coldness was really just a captured heat. Taking in the moisture and trapping it. The best way for him to do it, was to easily breathe his skin to allow heat to leave, but what would that do with his quirk? Would that hinder him for the sake of comforting others? No, it wasn't like he was hurting anyone. What he needed was a simple breathable fabric. One that benefited both sides, mostly himself.

He asked far too many questions, ones she didn't find the need to answer. At least, ones she wasn't comfortable with. Was it fitting to tell a stranger that just a year ago her sister was murdered? Was it fitting to say she was suspended for suspicion, rehired, then laid off? There was much to say, yet none of it came out. He shook his head, likely realizing the same.

"Not a teacher. All of the teachers are professional heroes. I am not licensed." she answered, still with a few things in mind. "I think, the students I helped trained, are third years now." She looked up in thought, her eyes following clouds and flies as they buzzed by. "I don't know a lot about quirks, but I have seen my fair share. There was a kid, Maxi, he too had an ice quirk. He hated when people recoiled at his touch." her eyes would fall upon him, curious to what he would say. "Before you ask, as I'm sure you're curious, my main ability is regeneration. But the one people take note, is my affinity for bones." She was careful not to say it was her quirk. Because it wasn't.

It belonged to her own spirit.

She was complicated, and for good reason. Anything she said, even if blurted out was carefully picked. It was easy to pick your words when you had two minds to think for you. She processed the same information twice, and thought over her words twice as often. It meant that any time she second guessed herself, would be done to three, as would be anything else. That was the cost of her quirk; the conveniences of the privacy of your own mind.

"What are your goals with this child?" the voice of Setsuna beckoned for an answer, all the while hidden within the recedes of her mind. Her conscience that was conscious and aware of the world around them. There was no "I" with her, it would always be "we".

Her reply would be silence to him, only to be verbal to the boy. Bones may have been an easier thing to hide, but it came with a heavy toll. Ice, was one that lingered to the touch, but left small ailments that didn't cause puddles of blood to follow. "Then go help people.' she would answer. A simple plan for a simple goal in mind.

"You might not be licenced yet, but nothing is stopping you from being change." She looked around at the people that passed by, finishing her treat, only to take out another from her pocket. She lifted her drink to her lips and sipped it, before speaking again. "Helping doesn't have to be your quirk. Picking up litter, or helping the elderly in a care home is just as useful for our society." She set the drink at her side, reaching into her pocket to pull her identification card for work. She would hold it out, close enough for the kid to look at, but not enough to touch. Just enough to read.

"The Ketsujo Corporation is full of people with, and without quirks. It doesn't matter if you're a doctor, or just a receptionist. People have come in, just to put on a few sensors, and use their quirk normally. Even small things like that help all of us." She would flip the card over to show the back as well. Her name. Her photo. Her position. The plastic covering that protected the card.

Kasey Setsuna. Pharmacist. R&D.

"But you, for now, should probably focus on school.' She smiled, and gave a light laugh, "Now it seems like I'm the one talking too much. Haha.'

Kasey was full of memories and teachings. She was one that could share stories from her own experience, rather than from theoretical examples. She had fought on the front lines as a civilian. She had no duty to uphold. She didn't need to save lives, but she did. She fought true corrupt evil, and still she emerged a victor. She fought battles she had no chance of winning, only to survive and come out on top. She had something many heroes didn't, and it was experience. She may not have fought many battles, but each of them, was a lesson to be learned. Each of them improving her skills.

"A corporation that actually strives for medication with minimal side effects? Yeah, crazy right?" To have a corporation that didn't care about the bottom line was unheard of. Any CEO would be out of their mind to care about their people. Any pharmaceutical company would keep their medications with ailments so they would be on another pill, to deal with the first pill. But that wasn't how she saw things, it wasn't how Sato saw things. To keep people alive, meant to have customers that would return. If a prescription came and bettered their life, they would be open to other suggestions. That was how he succeeded. People who felt great were fine in being monitored for new possible advancement and further research. If it bettered their lives for a bit, then it would also help others. There was nothing to lose. There was only things to gain.

"Just go to Tokyo General, say you want to participate in a Quirk Study as a subject." she would say, "It's non-invasive. I've done it." A pause in her words. Something near to none would understand, and even fewer would actually catch. She was once a participant in the testing, but by force. Her life dissections feeding off of her regeneration. All knowledge they possessed, and Kasey had used even now, to further the lives of others. She had used the research, from her torture, to save lives. It was dedication in every sense. The better lives people lived, the better world they all would have.

She tucked the card away. Filing it away with the others. She took the bun from her pocket, and with two bites, would devour it before continuing with the conversation. "You'd need training first. Stick around at Yuuei. Eventually you'll find a hero to mentor you. Then you'll learn what hero you want to be." She'd smile, giving a small laugh for a moment, "But, if all goes well, you might be ahead of your class. After all, there's a few that work with K-Corp too."

Word choice. Carefully picking words could make your message mean more, or mean less. In some cases, for trying to make something overlooked, a softer choice of words. To bring attention, stronger words. To pick your allies and enemies required knowing a bit of what the person you talking to were. Were they someone who wanted evil, or good in the world? How good were they? Was it just about themselves? The more she spoke to people, the more she begun to understand them as a species. A feeling she didn't belong. The more she spoke with students, the less she felt human. Less than. But why?

A smile. One cast in times of darkness and in light. She brushed her hair past her ear as she listened to the young boy. Or perhaps he was already a young man. In the coming years, time would tell, and her own plans would come to fruition. Her own meal now gone for the moment, only to sit quietly. She lifted a hand, her fingers straight as if to chop the bench between them. Her nails extended, and would mold and fuse together. "The bones in my body." she would say, "In addition to my regeneration, I control my bones. From small cartilage, to other fibers." Shapes would form from her nails, giving a shape of vines as they twisted until they formed a smaller dragon like creature before receding.

"That and-" She reached out to the empty juice bottle she had set beside her, and placed the end of it in her mouth. Her teeth would grow into jagged sharp points as they would tear into the plastic, and rip it apart. "The fact I can practically eat anything is nice I suppose."

Perhaps it was strange to showcase all of her weird quirks, but, if she was going to do things right, she had to be honest with him.

"It's a bit more complicated than that." How she would have killed for a simple quirk like fire, lightning or even the cold touch. Any of them that didn't leave her body torn and misshapen, like a aberration of sorts. She might as well have been a demon, for that was how most people saw her. Most quirks didn't leave the user vulnerable, and those that did, were often villains. People who fought to make their weakness their strength. Others fed on the living like vampires. But in her case, what set her from those mistakes?

She waved away the offering of bread. It wasn't that she was hungry. For her, it was just tasting the few moments of a street she didn't take the time to enjoy before. She had food at home, and she had the money to pay for more anyways. All she wanted was company for a little while. "The trash piles up, and sits forever." she said, taking another bite of the plastic. "At least this way, it's not festering a new bacteria at some dump." A weird choice of words, when it would leave her body by the same means.

She smiled at the sentiment. "You can't learn if you aren't listening." she would say, "Even if your abilities are different than mine, there is something to be taken from it." She looked down at her hands. "Even I tend to avoid touching people when at work, hiding my hands in gloves, for safety reasons as well as medical. It would be one hell of a case if I scratched someone with claws or something."

That was saying the least, but wasn't like she was in complete control all of the time. Sometimes she just mindlessly did things. To be careful was one thing, but to take precautions was another. She might not cause just discomfort, but a full injury with her quirk. But that was a different matter.