Yamazaki Household, Year 2304.
Narumi.
Narumi Yamazaki was a bit of a worrywart.
Narumi [img]
Her boyfriend, Hiroshi, was the main cause of her worries. When Narumi discovered that she was pregnant, she had been over the moon– but she could tell that Hiroshi didn't quite share her enthusiasm.
That had worried Narumi immensely. She loved her husband-to-be, and she really didn't want to lose what they had.
But even if Hiro wasn't quite as enthused as she was, he still stayed by her side.
They got married a few months later. The wedding was on the smaller side, but she was happy.
And a few months after that, Narumi had a beautiful baby boy.
Seiki Yamazaki.
They didn't have much– Hiroshi juggled a few part-time jobs, and she was a housewife, but nevertheless, this was what Narumi wanted. To have a family. Narumi had been an orphan her entire life, and wanted nothing more to know her mother and father... but the birth of her son had promptly filled that longing she once held in her heart.
This was what she wanted, right here.
Her husband, Hiroshi, was an abrasive man, and a little rugged around the edges, but she loved him. Black hair, blue eyes and all.
Narumi herself was a bit more colorful. She had purple hair with a few streaks of yellow, and golden eyes that flashed red whenever she used her Quirk.
And then there was her little Seiki, who had black hair with a large splash of purple growing from the roots. He was also heterochromatic– his left eye a deep crimson red, and his right eye a sky blue. In Narumi's opinion, Seiki had gotten the best traits of both of them. Seiki didn't have any mutations, either, not that that was something Narumi would've ever judged him for.
Narumi loved her little Seiki more than anything in the world.
He was perfect.
That was why she was so quick to notice something was off about him. Overnight, her little boy had lost that childlike wonder. He was too subdued. Too quiet.
It worried her more than anything else.
Before she could even ask, he approached her.
"Mom, I got my Quirk."
Narumi blinked. She wasn't surprised, but she was a little relieved. Both Hiroshi and her had Quirks, so she knew that her little Seiki would most likely have one...
But if he had been Quirkless, Narumi never would've been able to forgive herself.
"What is it, sweetie?"
Seiki smiled at her, holding out his hand. "I used it a lot in the last hour. I'm curious if you can figure out how it works using your Quirk, mom."
Narumi's Quirk, Flashback, lets her see the past of anyone she touches, giving her a 'vision' of what someone did, going from as little as 1 minute into their past, all the way up to 24 hours. She could speed up, slow down, pause, rewind, and stop the vision at any time. Time still flowed during Narumi's 'viewing,' but it was at a much slower rate.
It wasn't the most useful Quirk, and Narumi wasn't sure why Seiki wanted her to use it on him, but she was happy to oblige. And with Hiroshi's Quirk being Mine, the ability to 'mark' objects as his and warp them back to his hand whenever he wanted, Narumi was curious as to what her little Seiki's Quirk would be.
She grabbed his hand. 'Flashback, 1hr.'
And for the very first time, Narumi saw the future with her Quirk.
'Is... is that Seiki? It IS Seiki! Kiiiya, he looks so handsome! So mature! But why is he... he has to be at least 11 years old, maybe even 12. Why? How? I've never seen the future before.'
Then Narumi saw herself enter the room, but she was older. Haggard. Depressed. Narumi certainly wasn't proud of the way future-her was presenting herself, and that opinion was only strengthened by future-her's breakdown.
Regardless, she listened to the conversation attentively.
It didn't take long for Narumi to decide that she did not like this future.
"Mom, listen to me. Mom. Mom! MOM!"
"S-Seiki?"
"Mom, if I could go back to the day I got my Quirk, would you want me to?"
Narumi froze at the question.
"C-Can you?" future-her asked.
"Whenever I want."
Then, to Narumi's horror, she watched as the woman standing in the corner of the room drew her gun, aimed it at her little boy, and shot him without hesitation.
'No, no, no, NO–! What?'
Then Narumi watched in confusion as the vision repeated itself, but slightly different– her son just standing there, looking slightly confused. Then the vision 'flickered' backwards after a handful of seconds, going right back to when she first broke down once more. Then it was a repeat of her first viewing, ending with her watching Seiki die again.
Narumi didn't know what she was seeing, or why.
That was, at least, until the third repeat... where Narumi saw her Seiki bolt at the bitch who dared to kill her son, throwing out a kick. And every few seconds, the vision would flicker slightly into the past. And every time the vision flickered, Seiki would do slightly better. Her little boy constantly fixing his mistakes.
Narumi thought back to what Seiki told her.
'Sei-chan said he used his Quirk a lot in the last hour... but this is the future... and future Seiki said that he would go back to when he was 4–' Narumi's eyes widened. 'Wait, wait, wait! Time-travel?!'
She wasn't seeing the future, but the past.
Seiki's past.
Narumi watched in morbid fascination as her son dispatched what appeared to be government agents, her little boy displaying a level of skill that she'd bet was on par with most heroes. The lethality of Seiki's actions was a little jarring... but these people were trying to kill her Seiki. With that in mind, it wasn't all that hard for her to justify it.
"Mom, listen to me carefully." Narumi listened. "I asked you if you wanted me to go back in time to when I was 4." Narumi nodded along, already having watched that part.
"As soon as I asked you that, Yuki-nee put a bullet in my head." That one gave her pause, since it seemed like future-her knew who this 'Yuki-nee' was. The current Narumi, however, did not.
"Luckily, it turns out that I'm immortal. I'm going to go back no matter what, but tell me if there's anything you want me to tell 'past' you. You have–"
Narumi watched as it took Seiki a couple dozen tries to kill two more agents, finally succeeding, all before they could even fire their guns.
"–fifty seconds. Hurry it up."
Then Narumi watched future-her take an agonizingly long time to process what Seiki said.
"Tell me how the government took you from me! And tell me to dump that stupid bastard for leaving you!"
That one made Narumi furrow her brow. 'Bastard? Who–? No, don't tell me...'
She discarded those thoughts for now, continuing to watch and listen.
"S-Seiki?" future-her asked.
"Mom, I'm going back in time, to the moment I awakened my Quirk. You've already told me what to tell 'past' you, so there's no need to repeat yourself. I just wanted to tell you that I love you, and that I'm going to miss all these years that we spent together."
"I... oh. Okay." future-her smiled. "I love you, Sei-chan. Stay safe."
"Of course, mom. I love you too."
Then the vision skipped back to the past, and Narumi watched as her little Seiki's eyes lost their innocence. Narumi watched all the way up until she saw Seiki told her that he got his Quirk.
Then the vision ended.
*
Narumi was confused, angry, awed, and scared... but most of all, she was just worried for her son.
She immediately dropped to her knees, pulling her little boy into a hug.
"Seiki, are you okay?"
"Mmmmph. Mom, if you keep squishing me, I'll suffocate."
She pulled back a little. "Sei-chan, please don't joke with me. Tell me the truth."
Seiki rolled her eyes and gave her a blank look, displaying a level of snark that he was not previously capable of. It would take some time for Narumi to get used to this.
"I'm fine, mom. Really. To you, this is a lot, but this is old news to me– honestly, I'm just glad that I didn't have to spend any time convincing you. Your Quirk was perfect for this. Could you imagine me trying to explain myself? 'Hey mom, I'm your son from 8 years into the future, taken in by the government to be their next assassin. Crazy, right?'"
Narumi chuckled... before remembering that her son had quite literally just killed people, and was acting like nothing had happened. Like that was perfectly normal behavior.
'Well, I guess he didn't actually kill those people, did he? They're all still alive. But still...'
"We– you are getting a therapist."
Seiki shot her a look. "And I'll tell them what?"
"We'll, er, uh..."
"Yes, 'uh.'" he snarked. "As I said, I'm fine. I'm a little twisted, mentally speaking, but I'm well-adjusted. Sure, I'm more than willing to kill at the drop of a hat, but you aren't about to catch me breaking down."
...Was that a jab at her?
"When did– why are you so snarky? Where did my naïve little Sei-chan go?"
His eyes softened. "I didn't go anywhere, mom. I just grew up. Yes, you missed out on that 'growing up,' and you'll continue to miss out on it. But I'm not going to miss out on any of the time that I spend with you. I'll always be your son, no matter how old I get."
"That's– wow..." her little Seiki had such a way with words.
Narumi thought back to her vision, though. Not back to all the killings, she was already over those, but to the conversations. About how Seiki would use his Quirk to think, to plan out the things he wanted to say.
"Flashback," Narumi muttered under her breath, still hugging her son.
It had taken Seiki nearly 10 minutes to come up with that, and it took him 2 minutes to come up with his previous snarky comment. Narumi giggled.
"Sei-chan, are you going to use your Quirk to plan everything you say?"
His eyes widened, before struggling in her grasp. "Gah– I take it back! I'd prefer to just have to explain myself! To think that the one person who counters my Quirk is my mother...!"
She let out a soft sigh. This was all sorts of weird, even when considering Quirks. But this was still her Seiki, even if– as he put it– she had missed out on him growing up.
"Well, you already sort of know what I've been through, but let me give you an overview."
*
Narumi listened, and she did not like what she heard.
First was what Hiro had done. She loved him, and for him to– 'Wait, can I even judge Hiro for something he hasn't actually done yet?' she hesitated. But only for a few seconds.
'I can and I will. That bastard betrayed us.' Narumi didn't want to have to choose between her son and her husband, but she would always choose her little Seiki. Especially when her husband– no, when her ex-husband abandoned the both of them. 'All for a fucking paycheck.'
Even if it was the future version of him, it was still him. It wasn't even that far into the future. Hiroshi would've abandoned them a single day from now.
Then there was the fact that Seiki was, quite frankly, impossibly strong. He said it was a little limiting being in the body of a child, but essentially– if Seiki were ever to get into a fight, and there was a chance that he could win, then he'd always win. And if he, for some reason, was unable to win, then he could always go back to before the fight had even started.
All due to Seiki's impossibly amazing Quirk, Save & Load.
He had three 'hot-saves' he could use, allowing him to save a point in time whenever he wanted, and then he could go back to that point in time whenever he wanted, and all it required was a single thought on his part.
Ridiculous.
He also had a 'soft-save,' being the last time he woke up, and a 'hard-save,' that being the very moment he awakened the Quirk, which was just a bit earlier today. Giving him five saves total. Narumi had asked if his Quirk had any other limits, and Seiki said that the only one he knew of was that he couldn't spam his saves or loads too quickly.
And by 'too quickly,' Seiki meant 1000s of times, one after another. And if he did, it would give Seiki... a minor headache. Not to mention that, even with that supposed 'limit,' Seiki could just wait out the headache, before going right back to the very same save a few hours later.
In Narumi's honest opinion, that wasn't a limit at all.
And to top it off, as they both recently discovered, Seiki could not die. Dying would just send him back to the latest save.
Her little Seiki was now an unbeatable, immortal, killing machine.
She didn't know exactly what to make of that, but she decided to be... proud. Yeah, proud.
Then there was one last little tidbit– how to actually deal with Hiroshi, and what exactly was their plan for the future. Narumi already knew that she would be divorcing Hiroshi, and she was already hell-bent on keeping Seiki as far away from this 'HPSC' as possible. Thankfully no one knew the truth of Seiki's Quirk, or that he even had one yet.
And while she wasn't exactly looking forwards to dealing with either of them, Narumi knew that with Seiki by her side, she'd be safe.
Impossibly so.
*
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