Kimi spoke of the incident to the two caretakers later that day. She explained what had happened in the courtyard, repeating Junsei's words and his cold reaction, hoping the women might help her understand why he had behaved that way. Mrs. Kagome and Mrs. Kikyo listened with growing confusion. In the end, they could only shake their heads. Kagome sighed and said that Junsei was just a little child who did not understand the world around him, and she gently asked Kimi not to take his words to heart.
And Kimi did not. She accepted their reassurance and let the matter go.
What none of them realized was that one of the children had been listening. By the time the story passed from mouth to mouth, retold in clumsy fragments and childish exaggeration, it had changed. The white-haired freak had done something terrible. He had upset Miss Kimi.
Before the day was over, every child in the orphanage was angry with Junsei. To them, he had become a villain who had hurt Miss Kimi. The days that followed passed as usual, but Kimi did not return. Her studies had grown demanding, and she stayed away. When the children asked about her, Mrs. Kikyo told them she was busy and would visit again later.
At first, they believed her. But some of the older children began to whisper that Miss Kimi was not coming back because she was angry. Angry because of Junsei.
That idea took root quickly. It was the oldest boy in the orphanage, Sykes, who finally gathered the children around him. He declared that if they wanted Miss Kimi to return, they had to punish the evil villain Junsei.
Sykes was older than the others, taller, and much louder. His voice carried authority among the children, and they rallied around him easily, especially when he promised that their actions would bring Miss Kimi back.
Their plan was simple. They would be the heroes who beat the villain while the caretakers were not looking. They did not have to wait long. As soon as the caretakers began preparing food as they usually do, twenty children gathered together and followed Sykes across the yard. Junsei was sitting where he always did, in the shade, hugging his knees and staring into nothing.
They surrounded him from all sides in a half circle. Sykes stepped forward, chest puffed out.
"Today you will pay for your crimes, villain," he said. "We will make you regret wronging Miss Kimi."
Junsei did not react. He remained still, his gaze empty and distant.
The children began to shout. Freak. Villain. Weirdo. The words grew crueler by the moment. Still, there was no reaction. Sykes felt irritation rising in his chest.
"I, Sykes, the hero, shall end you, villain," he declared.
At that, Junsei finally reacted. He lifted his head and looked at Sykes. His eyes traveled over the boy, white skin, blond hair, brown eyes. Nothing unusual. Nothing he had not seen countless times before. Then his eyes began scanning those who surrounded him one by one. It was not the first time it happened, they were just a little smaller, or maybe he was bigger than the other times? He remembered how this ends usually.
The children were startled by the simple act of Junsei reacting. They had come to punish him, yet seeing him acknowledge them felt unsettling and strange.
"You are here to kill me?" Junsei asked softly.
The children froze. Many of them had never heard his voice before. The younger ones didn't even fully understand what killing really meant while the older ones thought to themselves that they are the heroes and they don't kill, but no one spoke as it was just too sudden.
Even Sykes hesitated for only a moment before forcing confidence back into his posture. He raised his fist. Bones pushed through his skin, forming pale protrusions as he grinned.
"I am the bone hero," Sykes announced, "and you will pay for your evil deeds. When I'm done with you, Miss Kimi will come back."
The other children quickly regained their heroic confidence and erupted in cheers.
"Beat the villain!"
"Punish the evil!"
Junsei stared at them a moment longer. Then his eyes began to glow.
Fear rippled through the group. Sykes took a step back, then shouted, "You think I'm scared?! I am a hero!"
He lunged forward, kicking at Junsei with all his strength.
From his seated position, Junsei caught Sykes's foot in midair. His grip tightened. The sound of breaking echoed sharply through the courtyard, followed by Sykes's scream. Junsei released him. Sykes fell onto his back, howling in pain.
"Death hurts more," Junsei said softly.
The children scattered at once, fear overtaking anger as they backed away from Junsei and the screaming boy. Moments later, the two caretakers came running, drawn by the noise.
Mrs. Kagome's voice rang out in panic.
"What is going on?!"
——————
Not long after the courtyard incident, Kimi returned to the orphanage. She had come to visit the children again, and the first thing her eyes fell on was Sykes struggling to move around, his leg obviously broken. Her heart sank. She hurried over to him, full of concern for his state.
"Sykes! What happened? How are you? How did you end up like this?" she asked, worry threading her voice.
Sykes shifted uncomfortably, clearly embarrassed to explain, but the others had no such hesitation. They jumped in eagerly, recounting in detail his "heroic" attempt to punish Junsei for the terrible things he had supposedly done to Miss Kimi. According to them, the villainous freak had been far too strong, and in the struggle, Sykes's leg had been broken.
Sykes, still flushed with pride, added indignantly, "I underestimated him this time! But next time, I'll win for sure!"
Kimi might have smiled at his enthusiasm, if not for the stark reality of the situation. Sykes attempted to hurt another child and had ended with a broken leg while Junsei was nowhere to be seen. Her brow furrowed as she crouched beside Sykes. "Sykes, listen to me. Don't fight others for me, alright? Junsei said nothing bad to me. Nothing at all. It is just a misunderstanding, okay?"
For the first time since the incident, the children seemed to pause, and Kimi saw disbelief on their faces. They initially believed Junsei had done something wrong and the two caretakers were hiding it. But hearing Kimi say otherwise made their collective belief shift.
Kimi made it clear that Junsei was not a villain in the eyes of the other children before she left Sykes and the others and went in search of Mrs. Kagome and Mrs. Kikyo, hoping to understand and confirm exactly what had happened that day. When she found them, she greeted them and immediately began asking about Junsei and the incident in the yard.
The two caretakers recounted the events. The children had ganged up on Junsei, convinced he was the villain, and Sykes had approached him aggressively. When Sykes's cries and the children's shouting escalated, the two women became aware something was wrong.
Kimi asked, "Is Junsei okay? I didn't see him this time."
Kagome's expression softened, though concern lingered. "Junsei is not hurt. But he is punished in his room. He is not allowed to leave until he apologizes to Sykes."
Kimi froze. "Why did you punish him? Going by what you said, he was only defending himself. This will isolate him further and might encourage the children to bully him even more."
Kikyo let out a long sigh. "It can't be helped, we are a small orphanage with limited funding, we can't afford to let it be known that we allow children infighting and hurting each other, punishments must be given, we are intending to punish Sykes as well once he is a little better, we made that clear to all the children."
She paused for a moment then continued "As for Junsei, we are at our wit's end with him. When we arrived after Sykes screamed, it was clear that Sykes approached Junsei first. The children's words only confirmed that. But Junsei… he didn't react. Even after the ambulance arrived, he showed no emotion whatsoever."
Kagome nodded in agreement. "The children insisted Junsei was in the wrong, that he hurt Sykes first. But Junsei simply stared at them."
She hesitated, then added, her voice tight with concern, "Junsei broke a leg with his hand… and he didn't show the slightest reaction to his action. He didn't show remorse or even seem aware that it was wrong. We couldn't risk him hurting another child, whether in self-defense or not. He has to learn that hurting others excessively, even to defend himself, is unacceptable. We want him to learn constraint and empathy, but words don't reach him. This is our only way."
Kimi listened carefully and nodded, though she still thought it was not right and too harsh on Junsei, but on the other hand, she didn't know what was the right thing to do, the two caretakers needed to worry about the orphanage and the rest of the children as well.
She understood Junsei was indeed difficult to communicate with and it would be very bad for something like this to happen again. She paused, then asked "How did he break Sykes's leg? I thought Sykes had a quirk that strengthened his bones, not to mention he is 4 or five years older. Did Junsei awaken a quirk?"
Kikyo shook her head slowly. "We don't know. We suspected he might have awakened his quirk, especially after the children said his eyes were glowing. We even took him to the hospital to check for a quirk. But the doctor assured us he is quirkless for the rest of his life and mentioned a missing joint in his body as a proof of that. According to the doctor, among the billions of people registered worldwide, not a single one with the missing joint turned out to have a quirk."
Kimi blinked, processing the information. "Then… how did he break Sykes's leg? And what about the glowing eyes?"
Kagome's lips pressed together. "The doctor suspects it was a side effect of Sykes's own quirk. It doesn't just strengthen his bones, it can also make them more brittle if misapplied. Junsei only had to apply a little pressure in the right place… and that was enough. And you know how clear his eyes are, I think the children just mistook his eyes for glowing under the sun, it is not that strange. I honestly find the situation strange, but not impossible and Junsei didn't show any signs of quirk beyond that."
Kimi was not convinced by that argument, if quirk was part of human evolution and has all kinds of strange powers and effects, then what prevents a new one appearing where one joint is missing? Maybe he is the first case and the doctor overlooked that.