Chapter Text
Riko wasn’t sure when she noticed that she was being followed. She just knew due to the instinct only held by those who have hunted and been hunted by others. It could have been anything, a stray noise or movement out of the corner of her eye, but she knew.
Riko forced herself not to react in any way. Stiffening would only alert the would-be predator of her awareness. She was better off waiting. She activated her quirk cautiously, feeling the sharp tingle of energy under her skin that accompanied it.
To her observer, nothing would have changed and there would be no indication of the change to anyone else until something happened. In this part of town, hiding one’s abilities was vital to survival, so this worked in her favor most of the time.
Something cold pressed against the back of Riko's neck and she stopped walking.
“Give me your money,” the mugger growled in a deep voice that indicated his masculinity but didn’t reveal anything more than that to her. His shadow, revealed by the light of the dying sun at the end of the alley behind them, revealed he was rather large, though not huge, and had a long, whiplike tail swinging back and forth behind him. A mutation quirk, which explained the gun. If everyone could see your power in your skin, it was harder to intimidate someone who could be more powerful than you in a bluff. Though guns were less likely to be a threat in this world of quirks, taking a bullet to the back of the neck would still kill most anyone.
Riko smirked slightly and spun on her heel to face her attacker, allowing the gun to rest against her throat when she stopped moving and looked up at him. Riko was pretty tall for a female of her age, so she didn’t have to look up far.
The man had bluish skin and slightly darker blue hair with deep green eyes that reflected the light like a cat. His lower face was slightly extended into a half-snout like a lizard with small, needle teeth in his mouth, which was curled into a snarl. His tail was long and whiplike but didn’t have any particular strength to it. It would still hurt to get hit by, but it didn’t pose any real threat. He didn’t have claws, was dreadfully thin, and held himself with the energy of someone who hadn’t eaten in a while.
The man visibly hesitated when he met Riko’s eyes, seeing the weight of experience and the smirk on her face. His pause made her smirk grow into a full, wild grin and she flinched toward him slightly.
The blue man took a sharp step back and pulled the trigger. Riko registered movement off towards the front of the alley and a sharp cry of alarm as the gun fired. The bullet hit her skin and, with a flash of red light across her throat, deflected straight back into the barrel of the gun. The gun cracked and the man dropped it in shock and pain as the gun practically exploded in his hand.
Within seconds, the man was encased in what looked like a wooden prison. Riko tilted herself to look at the beginning of the alley behind the man and saw a pro hero standing there, arms outstretched with wood filaments coming off them and encasing the mugger. Kamui Woods, one of the top heroes, to the rescue.
Riko didn’t exactly have a problem with heroes, but she’d learned to rely on herself and not the hope that someone would rescue her from bad situations. She felt that she had the situation well handled and if they had waited a few seconds, the guy would have run off at the display of her quirk. Oh well, the man would at least be fed in prison.
Kamui quickly approached her, keeping the man trapped in the wood prison. His eyes darted over Riko’s throat, which was still sparking with red light and there was a small red mark where the bullet had touched her skin, which wouldn’t even form a bruise. After a quick examination, he glanced over the rest of her with the cool detachment of someone looking for more injuries.
Riko was striking, though not necessarily in a beautiful way. At about 14 or 15, she stood at about 170cm (5’7’’), just a little taller than Kamui and was almost as thin as the mugger, which made her features sharp, though there was still some stringy muscle under that. Despite her name, she was clearly not Japanese, owing her heritage to Eastern Europe or Russia, though her coloring made it difficult to discern where. Her skin was so pale it looked like she’d never seen the sun in her life and her messily chopped bob length hair was the white of fresh snow, though her eyebrows were coal black. Her eyes were a dark blood red and surrounded by a similar shade of red as if someone had put red eyeshadow on them. A scar ran over her right eye and another small one marked her cheekbone under her left. Long scars ran down the inside of both wrists and medical wrappings circled her left arm around her elbow and up. Her lips were black, though, like her eyes, it didn’t appear to be makeup. She wore a ratty loose black shirt, similarly ratty grey pants, and a pair of red and black combat boots that looked newer than the rest of her clothes. It was cold enough that she should be wearing a coat, but she wasn’t.
Riko forced herself to unwind all her muscles so the hero wouldn’t view her as any sort of threat. She didn’t want to have to fight this man, especially since his quirk could be used to trap her. As soon as she relaxed, Kamui Woods did as well.
“You know using your quirk against other people is illegal, right?” Kamui said, a slight laugh in his tone, though his mask gave nothing away.
Riko widened her eyes at him in faux innocence “He fired a gun at me. My quirk protects me but it reflects the damage back. I couldn’t help it.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. She could’ve deflected the bullet or the energy of it in any direction she wanted but it had seemed most prudent to shoot it back into the gun. She didn’t want to kill the mugger, just eliminate the weapon and scare him away.
Kamui tilted his head at her for a moment before nodding “The police are on their way. We will need you to make a statement.”
Riko tried not to stiffen. She may not have a problem with heroes, but she didn’t always have the best experience with police. As long as she did nothing that would draw more speculation from them, she knew it would be fine.
Riko latched herself to Kamui Wood’s side as the police arrived and took the mugger away and began collecting evidence. Kamui led Riko over to the mouth of the alley, where a few police officers stood.
Kamui placed a hand on Riko’s shoulder, turning her towards a nondescript man in an overcoat and a hat “This is Detective Tsukauchi.”
Riko gave the detective a quick bow “My name is Riko.”
Tsukauchi and Kamui didn’t react to the use of only a first name, but she knew they wanted to. Tsukauchi led her over to where an ambulance sat and had her sit on the edge of the back doors while an EMT looked at her neck. While answering Tsukauchi’s questions, Riko allowed the woman to look over her but flinched away when she reached for the wrappings around her arm.
When he had run out of questions regarding the attempted mugging, Tsukauchi put away his notepad and focused on her “Do you have someplace to stay tonight?”
Riko glanced between him and Kamui Woods, seeing that they had her pegged for a street kid in their eyes. They weren’t wrong. Riko shrugged and didn’t answer.
Kamui and Tsukauchi exchanged glances before the hero nodded for the detective to step away with him for a moment.
“I will take her for tonight,” Kamui said softly once they were out of earshot.
Tsukauchi gave the hero a sharp look “She’s probably better off with child services.”
Kamui shook his head quickly “You didn’t see her when I mentioned the police. She looked like she was trying not to run away. Who knows how she’ll react to child services.”
The two men debated further before returning to the young girl, who was accepting a roll of gauze from the EMT in order to replace the wrapping around her arm on her own after refusing to allow the woman to look at it again.
“How would you like to come home with me, kid?” Kamui asked, fixing the girl with a friendly look that managed to be expressed through his mask.
Riko, who considered herself a good judge of character, analyzed the hero for a moment before nodding “Okay.”
Kamui Woods led Riko back to his large apartment in the slightly better part of the city and set her up in his guest room next door to his own bedroom. Since she only had the clothes on her back, he gave her one of his t-shirts and sweats with the promise that they would get more clothes for her tomorrow. She showered in her own private bathroom, getting completely clean for the first time in what felt like forever, and Kamui made her dinner. For the first time in years, she felt safe when she fell asleep.