Being a part of a hero agency as one of the top heroes in Japan often felt draining, even though it was a labor of love and it was my primary passion in life. Still, getting away from it a little at a time was necessary, even if it meant I was on call. Something about the beach set me at ease, probably something between the salty air and the natural breeze. I was so used to seeing people and families terrified for their lives, crying or in pain, but here, it was calm and serene. Children were laughing and playing and not a worry was to be seen. So it was here where I'd visited, my costume left behind and instead a white t-shirt and blue trunks were in place of it. I'd finished setting up a towel on a small section of beach, and was about to head in, until something caught my eye. "Is that...."

She had to admit that working was one of her top priorities and it had certainly been the center of her attention as of late. However, she couldn't resist that small pouting face that begged her to spend the day at the ocean. So, they compromised and well, went to the beach. The beach was somewhere Mei hadn't particularly been fond of going to, considering she couldn't swim for anything. She also didn't enjoy the gritty sand that stuck to her skin and she didn't enjoy the hot rays of sun beating down on her. Nonetheless, she knew it would make her.. niece.. happy, so she would do whatever it took.

Mei had been set up for a while now with two towels layed side by side in the sand. She sat upon one with eyes fixated on a small, purple haired girl near the waters edge as her attention never wavered. She wore a pink T-shirt, a pair of shorts, and her shoes were tucked away in her bag somewhere away from the clingy earth around her leaving her feet bare. Of course being none other than a medical professional, she had multiple bottles of water at the ready.

As my eyes focused and my eyebrows furled, the realization hit me. "Oh shit... it's Mei. Um.... Now what the hell am I supposed to...? Ah.. nevermind. It's not worth ruining my day off over." Though I could easily admit that she'd grown up nicely and was still quite beautiful, there was that....thing that happened between us. Kinda made things awkward and such... yeah. Shoving that aside, I shedded the shirt I was wearing and created a disc of air under my feet, slipping towards the ocean and skimming along the water. I was glad that no one would complain about my quirk usage if I didn't go over the top with it. Not to mention that it wasn't often I got to use it for fun.

The day seemed to be going smoothly and Mei seemed to be relaxing just a tad bit more, until she would hear the sound of a child crying off to the right of her. The woman would stand seeing the worried looks his father and mother were giving eachother after looking at his small leg. Mei would glance from her niece to the boy before sighing knowing full well the girl wouldn't enter the water. Besides, as long as she looked back every now and then, things should be okay. So, Mei went to tend to the child without even so much as having to introduce herself. She would wink at the family before smiling and placing her finger to her lips in a shushing manner. Thankfully, they would nod to her and understood what she meant.

Emi on the other hand had caught eye of something much more interesting than the sand. She watched a man seeming to walk along the water, which would cause her to stand up. Her long purple hair flowed down to her waiste and her matching eyes locked onto the one walking on the water. She wouldn't speak, however she would slowly make her way over to him hesitant to step into the ocean. She would look back to her Auntie to see that she was working, yet again. She just couldn't stop working. She was always busy. How come she couldn't just spend some time with her? Emi would form a pouting face as she would turn back to the man and take a deep breath. She would wander into the water, but only up to her knees. There she would continue to stare, but not say a word. She had seem him before. She knew him from the news and hearing stories. He was a hero.

I felt at one with both the wind and the water as I got into riding the natural ripples in the ocean. The water would curl, and I would skim effortlessly around it. Even through certain circumstances where I could fling myself into the air, I had perfect control of my movements. It wasn't often that I felt so free and felt that I could enjoy such a peaceful event. Though amid this, I noticed a small child... a familiar child no less to have taken interest. She had lightly colored hair and bluish eyes to match. Why was that so familiar? I slowed down and eventually rode the water down to her position, as she had now stepped into the water. For some reason, she had headphones on, so I didn't know what the story for that was. Standing on the water before me, I waved to her and said, "Hello there, how you today little girl?"

And yet for some reason, I felt attached to this one. I couldn't explain it but... I smiled a lot more just from being around her. I couldn't find the reason, all I knew is that I was happy.

Emi continued to watch as the man floated atop the water as she wondered what it would be like to do such a thing. It looked so free and fun. She wanted to have a fun quirk like that, but all she had was a burden. Her quirk was loud and miserable. Her quirk didn't help anyone and hurt more people than that. The child would continue to watch, even as the man drew closer to her. He was a hero, so he wouldn't hurt her. She wasn't afraid of him.

Mei had just got done taking care of some small jellyfish stings on a young boy's leg as she turned around to where Emi was originally. However, she would notice she wasn't there causing a sort of panick to set in. Multicolored eyes scanned the beach looking for the girl only to set eyes on her in the water. Then, she would set eyes on someone getting closer to Emi. He was familiar. He was no stranger. She knew exactly who he was, but she wasn't quite sure if he knew who Emi was. Quickly, she would make her way down to the small girl arriving just as Noz asked his question. "Sorry, she.. doesn't speak," Mei would say grabbing the girl's shoulders lightly. The water covering just a small bit of her legs. She hated the ocean. "Anyway, nice seeing you again," Mei would say as she would attempt to bring Emi out of the water with her. However, the child had other plans.

She would begin to sign to the man, unsure of if he knew sign language or not. "That looks really fun," she would sign as she stared at him straight faced. She was very shy, so it was a bit of a struggle to communicate with many people. She also didn't physcially speak making it almost impossible for people to understand her. Behind her she would hear a sigh from her Auntie wondering why it was that she sounded so annoyed in her tone, "Do you understand what she's saying?"

Standing in the same spot as before, she seemed unable to hear me. I gave a puzzled expression, which was interrupted by Mei. At least she spoke to me, giving me an explanation for the girl's silence. Not that she didn't want to, but instead couldn't. Before I got a chance to ask, Mei seemed to try to pull her away, giving me a very short 'nice to see you' which didn't sound all that honest. Try as she might, the girl resisted, but only enough to say she wanted to tell me something. She began moving her hands and fingers in deliberate patterns. Sign Language. She seemed like she had trouble expressing herself aside from using sign language, given her blank expression and seemingly doll-like body language. Mei sighed heavily before looking to me, seeming frustrated with both of us. "Do you understand her?" To which I could only shake my head. "I wish I did. For some reason... she reminds me of someone."

I tried to put the thought aside because I was unsure of whether I wanted to open that door. Seeing as I couldn't let it go, I spoke again, before I lost the chance. "Could you at least tell me what she said? I probably wouldn't be able to respond, but..." My head immediately sunk, looking at the mixture of seawater and sand beneath my feet. It was more than that. So much more. "What happened to us?" It hurt to say it, but I'd been holding onto it in the back of my thoughts. It hurt, but I didn't want to let that part of my life be forgotten and wasted. As if to show Mei how serious I was, I let the disc of air beneath my feet vanish, my body sinking into the shoreline like any other person would. Without my quirk, I was a normal man. I hoped that she could see that I never meant to be the hindrance that I once was.

Noziel began to respond to the platinum blonde woman as she began to feel something uneasy washing over her. She knew that Emi could hear the conversation, at least the way she was in this moment with those headphones over her ears. She could hear well enough, but she simply couldn't form words with her mouth. This was something that this man obviously couldn't deduct, considering Emi hadn't verbally answered him nor physically reacted to him. She communicated in a language that he didn't understand, which wasn't surprising to Mei. He didn't know anything about this child. He never tried to know.

The woman would listen to Noz speak asking if she could translate the child's nonverbal words to him. "She said 'that looks fun'. As in, your quirk. Being able to walk above the water and such," her voice was dull and uninterested in speaking to him. He would then ask a simple question which would cause Mei to do something completely uncalled for. She would rip the headphones right off the child's head as she would cover the girl's eyes with her hands. Now she was completely deaf and unable to see their lips moving. However, her hands would rise to her head as she clamped her ears as Mei spoke to Noz with blind rage. "NOT... in front of her. How dare you ask that? You.. you up and leave. You disappear with absolutely NO word about anything. You cut it all off and now.. what? You're sad? You don't get the right because you never tried to begin with. As far as she's concerned, you're just someone that I work with. Got it?"

Her multicolored eyes were filled with anger only breaking from their fiery glare when she began to feel wetness on her palm. Tears? Mei would look down only to stare with heartbreak at the small girl. She would quickly replace the headphones before apologizing profusely to her "niece". The small body would spin around to stare at her before running off back to the area they had set up their things. After she would leave, Mei would turn to Noz, "If you want to talk, you can talk to me alone, but don't talk to her again. Now.. if you'll excuse me... I've made a huge mistake that I need to fix."

"That looks fun." The sentence that the little girl had told me. I had wanted to talk to her more, but I never got the chance. Mei had other ideas, quickly tearing into me for the last thing I said.

Honestly, I didn't put much thought into that. I mean, how would I have come to the conclusion that while deaf that anything I said would reach the ears of the child in front of me. I didn't think she knew how to read lips, much less have any way of technically hearing me. So when Mei went postal on me, I had mixed feelings. First of all, it wasn't her fault, don't punish her for that. But she did remind me that I was the one that created the rift between us. I felt a bit hollow, because a part of me wanted that back. Though from the words I heard, it sounded more like she'd hate being around me at all. It's like we'd flipped around, but to be honest, I was never mad. I had my own reasons, but now wasn't the time to talk about that.

She seemed like she wanted to tear into me harder, but something stopped her. I followed her gaze down, noticing as she did that the girl was crying. Oh. And this is my fault as well. So of course between the two of them, my face crumpled. After hearing a little mildly apologetic line from Mei, I left her with an "I will want to talk to you later. There's a lot we need to discuss about work." Something that wouldn't sound off to the girl if she could hear me, but would make perfect sense to Mei, even if she didn't want to hear it. I tried to remove the pain from my voice, because I understood that I messed it all up, and her feelings were at least justified if not completely necessary. After all, why would she let some kid who ditched her come back into her life as an adult?

As she left, I felt no reason to stay at the beach either. I couldn't exactly enjoy my day there if I knew there was something I should take some time to seriously think about. So I went home. I locked myself in my apartment, quietly taking in everything that had happened. I dunno. I didn't ever really think about what I'd done until now. I guess I tried to forget that part of my life instead of blaming myself incessantly. I wasn't ready to deal with it then. Perhaps now was a good time?