"Naoko-sensei? Where're we going?" Sylvia asked, holding her teacher's hand tightly.
"The park," Naoko said, smiling. "I figured today you would want a break instead of learning."
That didn't sound right. Naoko always gave them breaks when they needed it. It wasn't like she was overworking them at all.
Naoko was a beautiful woman with long, black, straight hair and lilac eyes. Her Quirk was Mind Link, which allowed her to take in the thoughts of those around her at will. Sometimes, she could use that Quirk to literally empathize with others, so that she either knew whether or not her students were paying attention, understood what she was saying, or even feel their emotional pains or fears and be able to help them work through it. She was as much a counselor and babysitter as she was a teacher.
Sylvia had been developing her Quirk a lot more as well. In fact, Sylvia, Jack, and Lucy were all doing great when it came to Quirk development. Naoko saw them as very powerful individuals and was one of the few people in their lives who understood what they were saying when they spoke English, as well as essentially their translator whenever interacting with adults. However, children didn't need translations to play. It was a strange thing, the community of children; something very few people have come to understand.
But today, the playground was empty when Naoko brought the kids to their destination. Sylvia frowned. "Can we go to a different park?" she asked.
"Now Sylvia, I'm sure you can have fun here with just your siblings. It shouldn't make much of a difference where you play," Naoko said.
"I know, but I wanna play with other kids, too. I always play with my siblings."
"Yeah," Lucy agreed. "Our friends are still in school, though, and the only kids who are around are very little."
"C'mon, guys, it's not that bad," Jack said, trying to stay optimistic. "Here, let's look on the bright side: what if we played pretend? We can do that, right?"
"Oh, yeah!" Sylvia exclaimed excitedly, removing her hand from Naoko's. "Let's play pretend!"
Naoko sat at a bench, watching as Lucy and Sylvia ran over to Jack, who led their pretend adventures.
"Okay! So here's the game," Jack began. "We're all messengers of different worlds. Sylvia, you're from Angel World. Lucy, you're from the Overworld. And I'm from Earth. I'm known as the legendary Skyboy and I protect the innocent from baddies from the Underworld, Overworld's sworn enemies."
"Ooh, I like this!" Lucy exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "I'm gonna by Lucyfer! See, it's like 'Lucifer' but with 'Lucy' in it...?"
"And I'm gonna be Rose Feather! But you can call me Rose," Sylvia added. "So where do we start?"
"I'll start on the ground," Jack instructed. "Sylvia, you go on the monkey bars like usual, and Lucy can go on top of the roof of the slide."
The kids nodded and flew to their designated positions (since they flew, they were supposed to wear something to cover up their underwear even if they wore skirts; it was a rule and a habit taught to them by All Might. Lucy tended to wear long shorts, while Sylvia liked to wear jeans).
Jack stayed put on the ground and used his Quirk to make several clouds throughout the playground. The clouds were small, not very dense, and as warm as he could possibly make them (which was still pretty cold, unfortunately), but easy to move as long as he concentrated. The clouds were regular cumulonimbus clouds.
"It's the enemies invading!" Jack exclaimed. "They've come to take control of Earth and everything inside it! But never fear, for Skyboy is here!" He jumped on a low platform in the playground and shifted the wind to take out one cloud at a time. "You can't defeat me! I'm the unstoppable hero of the sky, Skyboy the Wonder! No one will be hurt while I am here!"
Sylvia lifted off from her monkey bars and watched Jack fight his own clouds. "Wow! That human has some great strength!" she exclaimed. "Look at how he fights!"
"I know," Lucy added. "It's like the sky itself blessed him or something!"
"Well, should we meet him?" Sylvia asked.
Lucy smiled. "I think we should."
The two flew down to his level after he "destroyed" his last cloud. Jack pretended to be surprised when he turned around to see the two of them.
"W-who are you?" Jack asked.
"I am Rose Feather," Sylvia said. "Messenger of Angel World."
"And I am Lucyfer, or, um, Lucy, from the Overworld."
"The Overworld?" Jack asked.
"Yes; the sworn enemies of my world were those minions who you just defeated," Lucy explained.
"Why do they want Earth? Why are they against you?"
"I believe Earth has a special gift," Sylvia said. "A power beyond their comprehension. If they control the sky and heavens, they control all worlds."
"Then how do we stop him?" Jack asked his sisters.
"We team up and become...!" Lucy began suspensefully, striking a pose. "Dun, dununun! The Tri-World Trio!"
"We never agreed on that," Sylvia said confusedly.
"Now we did," Lucy sassed.
Jack laughed. "Okay. But before we do that, we'll need the proper equipment."
Sylvia glanced around to see if her teacher was watching them; instead, she found the bench where Naoko had previously sat was now completely empty. She hadn't even left her stuff behind! Why did she leave them like that? Was she going to come back?
Sylvia found herself disheartened and a little bit scared that they were left all alone. "Uh, guys?" she asked.
"Hm?" Lucy hummed.
"Where's Naoko-sensei?"
The kids glanced at the bench Sylvia was staring at and found it was empty. However, instead of worrying, Jack merely shrugged. "She'll probably come back," he said.
But she always let them know before she left. This didn't make any sense? Did she forget? Maybe, but...
...her dad was out at work. What if a villain got her or something?
"Sylv! Grab Jack! Let's go!" Lucy urged.
Sylvia sighed and flapped her wings, lifting herself into the air before swooping down and grabbing Jack with the proper momentum required. "So where to?" she asked.
"Down there," Jack mentioned. "That's going to be the factory."
What he had pointed to was a trio of intertwining net walls meant for climbing. Sylvia dropped Jack off on the ground and landed beside him. Lucy was already waiting for them.
"So what's this place?" Lucy asked.
"This is the factory," Jack said. "Here, we'll weapons for defeating the Underworld."
"Ooh! I wanna bow and arrow!" Lucy exclaimed.
"I want a sword," Sylvia said.
"Aw, but I also want a sword," Jack moaned.
"Well, then I don't need a weapon. I have magic powers," Sylvia reasoned.
"Oh, wait, so do I. So then...?"
"I don't think we even need weapons," Lucy pointed out, shrugging.
"But this is the spot of the portal where we'll go," Sylvia said. "Let's just pretend that's a mountain instead."
"Okay," Jack agreed.
"We have to climb this mountain to get to the top," Sylvia said in-character. "It's the only way we can make it to the portal. We could fly, but we want to go with you."
"We have to protect you at all costs," Lucy said.
Jack created three clouds forming a supposedly intimidating face. "Mwahahaha! You cannot escape me, the Underlord! I will take your powers! You cannot fly anymore, Tri-World Trio!"
The young girls folded their wings and pretended they were in pain. "We don't need to fly to beat you!" Lucy groaned. "We'll climb if we have to!"
"C'mon! We can't let him get the best of us!" Sylvia exclaimed, moving to climb up the wall.
The ropes wouldn't stop moving and more than once, Sylvia had to extend her wings to try to balance herself before remembering she wasn't allowed to fly. The same thing happened with Lucy, who had even more trouble (though her bigger wings allowed for easier maneuverability in the air, as well as a better way of keeping balance than Sylvia's small, slender, feathered ones). Jack, however, wasn't quite so lucky. While he was a more skilled climber than Sylvia and Lucy, he still had trouble holding onto the ropes. His knuckles quickly became sore and before he made it to the top, he wanted to stop for a break.
"We can't give up, Skyboy!" Lucy encouraged. "We gotta make it to the top!"
"Do you need help, Skyboy?" Sylvia asked.
Jack glanced back down, though he didn't fear falling. "No... I'm good... Just a little bit tired."
"Even heroes need breaks," Lucy reasoned. "Let's pause for a bit."
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Lucy?" Sylvia asked. "We don't want to waste time. The demons could attack at any moment."
"But now our wings are disabled," Lucy argued. "And we can't defeat the demons of the Underworld without the energy we need. Skyboy and I are staying here. Are you with us?"
Sylvia sighed. "Alright."
So the kids found positions to sit and rest while still on the tangled walls. They paused their game and chatted for quite a while. Soon, it seemed it was already getting close to evening, but Sylvia noticed that Naoko was still nowhere in sight. "Guys, where's Naoko-sensei?" Sylvia asked once again. "She's still gone."
This time, Jack and Lucy glanced behind them at the empty bench and quickly became worried.
"We're not stuck here, are we?" Lucy asked.
"No," Jack tried to assure her. "We'll just find her somewhere else. C'mon, let's go look for her."
Sylvia and Lucy nodded and finally flew down from the tangled nets (taking Jack with them) and landed on the grass. "Where're we gonna start?" Sylvia asked.
"All around the playground. Split up and search," Jack said. "If you encounter anyone, ask them for help."
"Everyone here speaks Japanese!" Lucy exclaimed. "How?"
"Uhh... Boku--or, uh, atashi, I guess--Atashi-tachi no sensei to otoochan ga kore ni ikimasen. That means 'our teacher and dad aren't here'. Then say that you're from America, so they'll know you don't speak Japanese very well," Jack instructed.
The girls struggled to remember, but nodded and split up anyway. Jack searched the ground and Sylvia and Lucy searched the air. Unfortunately, from Sylvia's point of view, Naoko and Toshinori were nowhere to be found. She was starting to get scared now.
The kids spent a good fifteen minutes searching and ended up finding no one. When they landed, Sylvia and Lucy shared scared looks before glancing expectantly at Jack, who was thinking of a plan.
"We can't stay here," he said. "They're clearly not coming back. But we can't go to a stranger and just chat it up with them either; we don't know Japanese. We should find a Japanese English teacher. Maybe they'll be able to help us."
"Where will we find a Japanese English teacher?" Sylvia asked. "We don't know any schools nearby, do we?"
"I do," Jack said. "It's the one Naoko-sensei works at. She took me there once for a little bit. We know the way back home, right?"
"Maybe?" Sylvia shrugged.
"Take a look from above," Jack told her. "There's gotta be a way back home."
Sylvia nodded and jumped, flapped her wings a couple of times to gain altitude, then took off into the sky. From above, she could see the neighborhoods surrounding the playground, but she didn't recognize the way back home, looking from the air. In fact, it only made her feel more lost. She lost all familiarity with the area around them and panicked, landing back on the ground.
"I-I have no clue where we are! They make this seem so much easier online!" Sylvia exclaimed. "Everything looks like a maze! I-I don't know where we live! I don't know where we are anymore!"
"Calm down, Sylv!" Jack urged, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Take a deep, calming breath."
Sylvia inhaled and exhaled as big as she could. She wasn't completely calm anymore, but she put her faith in her big brother and trusted him to figure things out.
"Okay. We need to find someone who can either understand us from education or with their Quirk," Jack said. "Even communicating through pictures is better than nothing. That's where you two come in. I'll use whatever knowledge I have of Japanese, so we can communicate a little better."
Sylvia and Lucy nodded in determination. "Who do we look for?" she asked.
"Anyone," Jack said. "Follow me. Always stick together. If one of us gets separated, we assume the worst."
"What's 'the worst'?"
"A villain takes one of us away and no one will save us. It's not going to happen, but you have to be careful anyway."
Sylvia and Lucy, for fear of their own and each other's lives, nodded and stayed as close as possible to Jack without interfering.
Lucy held her hands up to hide her horns self-consciously. "You think they'll notice my horns?" she asked. "I don't like when people point out my Quirk..."
Sylvia flashed Lucy a smile. "No one's going to make fun of you and get away with it while we're around," she assured her sister. "We'll protect you."
Lucy smiled gratefully at Sylvia and nodded before lowering her hands, opting to play with her tail as a fidget toy instead. She picked at the pearly white scales smoothly lining up her tail that refused to budge from their spots. The scales were incredibly tough, which was what protected her tail, wings, and horns from destruction; in fact, her horns, wings, and tail are the strongest parts of her body. By flexing her tail, Lucy is able to secrete poison at will as well as flex the tip enough to make it sharp enough to pierce brick, though it's not strong enough to get through metal. Her horns are currently underdeveloped, so she can't do anything with them (which is good, because if her horns were as sharp as her flexed tail, she'd have to get new pillows every day).
Lucy flexed her tail back and forth from soft to hard, though she didn't activate the poison sacs under her scales (the poison sacs flex and lift the scales just enough to coat the tail with non-acidic poison within the span of three seconds. When they relax, the scales' properties allow the poison to easily slide off. She has this function in her horns as well, but not her wings). Squeezing her tougher-than-nails scales made her feel very comfortable, knowing she could defend herself and that she was safe alongside her siblings.
Sylvia watched Jack worriedly, but kept her mouth shut. She grabbed Lucy's hand, allowing her other hand to continue fiddling with her tail, and then took Jack's hand. Jack tightened his grip on Sylvia's hand without looking back and continued moving forward.
Five minutes of wandering led by Jack caused Sylvia to panic even more when she found no one was there. She hadn't even noticed the aroma of chamomile she was spreading out of nervousness, failing to calm herself down.
"Sylvia," Lucy said quietly, snapping her out of her trance of panic. "Your smell is too big."
Sylvia was only then made aware of the overwhelming chamomile smell in the air and quickly breathed in the chamomile before settling down, relaxing her tenseness.
"Excuse me!" Jack exclaimed in Japanese to someone he had found walking around in the neighborhood they were in. He let go of Sylvia's hand, causing her to lose her cool once more and fly as fast as possible to Jack's side. Lucy was caught off guard, but quickly recovered and flew by Sylvia's side across the street.
The woman whom Jack had found was walking alongside a young girl and had a strange, frog-like appearance. The girl looked to be about Sylvia's age.
The frog lady glanced at Jack in surprise. She asked him something Sylvia didn't understand in Japanese.
Jack struggled to form sentences, but eventually managed, "Our dad and teacher aren't here. We're from America. Our home isn't here."
The girl beside the woman glanced at Sylvia curiously. Sylvia blushed and shied away behind Jack. The girl smiled. "I'm Tsuyu Asui. You?"
Sylvia bit her lip. "S-Sylvia. Sylvia Reviar."
"Nice to meet you, ribbit."
At first, Sylvia was confused by the onomatopoeia used by the girl, then realized she must've had a Quirk that made her speak like that.
"Y-you too."
"Who's your sister?"
Sylvia opened her wings somewhat defensively and apprehensively replied, "Lucy. Lucifer."
"Nice to meet you, Lucy-chan."
Lucy and Sylvia flinched, but then glanced at each other. Sylvia folded her wings back to her shoulders and glanced at the girl confusedly.
She said something Sylvia didn't understand, but she said something Sylvia picked out as "Froppy". Confused, she repeated it. "Froppy?"
"Yes, that's right."
"What?"
Clearly, they weren't getting very far due to the language barrier. Tsuyu thought of something. "Your Quirk?" she asked.
Sylvia didn't know how to say it in Japanese, so she just said, "Floral Angel" in Japanese Katakana, the only way to say cognates.
Tsuyu repeated the name, testing it against her tongue. "Fun," she said. "And Lucy-chan?"
At that, she glanced at Lucy, expecting her to answer. Lucy folded her wings behind her and moved her tail behind her wings to hide it, placing her hands over her horns self-consciously. She avoided eye contact with Tsuyu and hid behind Sylvia.
"Light Demon," Sylvia said. "But she's not bad!"
Tsuyu blinked. She said something else Sylvia didn't understand, though Sylvia knew that she was denying something.
Sylvia turned her gaze away. Tsuyu realized that something was hurting the two and backed off. Meanwhile, Jack had been trying to talk to Tsuyu's mom unsuccessfully.
"Where's your mom?" she asked.
"She's not here."
"Where's your dad?"
"He's not here."
Everything else was her asking him things in Japanese he didn't understand, only replying with, "We're from America."
"This is getting us nowhere," Jack sighed, turning to Sylvia and Lucy hopelessly. "We can't speak Japanese. If we can't speak Japanese, we can't get help."
Sylvia and Lucy tightened their grips on one another, Sylvia's tenseness giving way to more chamomile aroma.
"Sylvia-chan," Tsuyu said, gaining her attention. Sylvia turned her head and watched her in confusion.
Tsuyu tapped her mom's arm and asked her something. Her mother nodded and handed Tsuyu a smartphone. Tsuyu gave it to Sylvia.
"E-eh?!" Sylvia exclaimed. "B-but I can't--"
"Naoko-sensei gave me our address," Jack said. "Let me take it."
Sylvia nodded and eagerly handed Jack the phone (careful not to let it slip; it wasn't hers, after all).
Jack took the phone carefully and struggled to type in the address, but eventually made it. "I hope it's right," he mumbled, handing it back to the mother.
The frog-woman took the phone back and smiled. Tsuyu said something to Sylvia that she didn't understand, then held her hands close together, with a short space between them.
"Short?" Sylvia guessed in Japanese. Tsuyu nodded and pointed at the houses. "The house is short?" she asked.
Tsuyu shook her head.
"The space between them is short," Lucy said in English.
"Ohh..." Sylvia blushed. "S-sorry," she apologized in Japanese. "I understand."
Tsuyu nodded and smiled. "Good."
Sylvia could have sworn her heart was fluttering, but she could have been mistaken, so she shook it off as anxiety.
"Ew, your hands are all sappy and sweaty," Lucy said, pulling her hand away and rubbing it on her shorts' legs.
"Sorry!" Sylvia giggled nervously. "Oh, uh, thank you, Tsuyu," Sylvia added in Japanese, bowing.
"Froppy," she said. "Not Tsuyu. Froppy."
"Oh. Uh... Froppy-chan?"
"Yes!" Froppy exclaimed.
Sylvia blushed and smiled.
Froppy nodded. "Syl-chan! Lucchan! Jakkun! Are we friends?"
Sylvia's heart rate heavily increased, as did the color flooding her face. She nodded happily and held out her hand. However, Froppy didn't accept that handshake she offered and hugged her instead, causing Sylvia's heart to beat like crazy. She didn't know what it was, but it was definitely anxiety. A kind of anxiety she didn't really understand...
"Hey, Sylvia! Lucy! Tsuyu-san! Let's go!" Jack called in Japanese. "We're going home," he added in English.
"Home!" Sylvia exclaimed.
"Are we really going home?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah, I typed it in on her phone and now she's got directions," Jack said. "We wanna get home, right?"
Sylvia nodded and went with Jack. "L-let's go, Froppy-chan."
Froppy eagerly accepted Sylvia's invitation and took Lucy along with her. Lucy immediately felt safe with Froppy, it seemed, and Lucy quickly hugged her arm, saying, "She's mine now."
"H-hey! You can't steal her! She's our friend, and she doesn't belong to anyone," Sylvia argued.
"B-but she likes me even though my Quirk is... it," Lucy whined.
"She's a good person," Sylvia said. "That's why she's our friend. ALL of our friend."
Lucy sighed sadly and Sylvia quickly realized she was being unreasonably possessive of Froppy, despite having only just met her. Besides, Lucy had reason to enjoy her company.
"...but you can have her for now," Sylvia sighed.
Lucy instantly perked up and hugged Froppy. Froppy was startled at the sudden affection, but quickly reciprocated it. Sylvia smiled at her little sister and continued following Froppy's mom.
The house they were led to was indeed their right house, but something didn't feel right. Sylvia felt like something was making her skin crawl in there. "B-bad," she said in Japanese, hoping to convey her negative feeling. "I don't like this feeling," was what she said in English.
"Yeah," Froppy agreed. "Mom?"
Froppy's mom said something, making a protective motion that Sylvia assumed meant "stay back" as she walked up to the door, knocking carefully. The door opened slowly and creepily.
"Ah, so the Reviars return. How delightful. I've been waiting for you, children," the person inside said in full English. It sounded very menacing, causing Sylvia to fully open her wings in a defensive position, Froppy to squat to the ground in preparation, Jack to create wind currents around his hands, and Lucy to open her wings and flex her tail, secreting poison and coating her white tail in a light lavender.
Unfortunately for the Reviars, that voice sounded familiar.
Sylvia's eyes brimmed with tears. "D-Dad?" she said in English. Froppy looked surprised; seemingly, she had learned the meaning of "dad" in English from school.
"Th-that's your dad?!" Froppy asked.
The owner of the Fallen Angel Quirk walked out of the door, opening his razor-sharp wings, dark as the black of night. "You're coming home, kids."
Sylvia, Lucy, and Jack stepped back. Lucy pointed her tail at him as she moved away slowly, hoping to stay safe. Froppy understood the tension quickly and allowed her long tongue to loll out of her mouth, stretching her limbs wider just in case.
Samael Reviar moved closer and closer to the Reviar children, grinning menacingly. "Oh? Are you not happy to see your father?" The character changed their form to match that of Naoko's. The kids gasped in unison.
"N-Naoko-sensei!?" they exclaimed at once.
Now Froppy, her mom, and the Reviar siblings were fully aware that this was not a familiar person. Naoko grinned wickedly and launched herself at Jack first, kneeing the unprepared boy in the gut with lightning speed.
"JACK!" Sylvia and Lucy exclaimed, running to their brother's side.
Froppy's mom said something to get the villain's attention and was successful; in the meantime, Froppy was to help Sylvia and Lucy get to safety.
"Let's go," she said to them, pointing in a direction away from the house.
"Where?" Sylvia asked. "And Jack?"
"We can carry Jack," Lucy reasoned in English. "We have to leave, though."
Sylvia sighed and gently picked Jack up, cradling him as much as she could while she flew. Lucy flew beside her, while Froppy leapt from house to house to match their altitude.
"Hero Agency?" Sylvia asked Froppy.
"Yes. We'll get a Hero," Froppy answered.
"A-and your mom?"
Froppy hesitated in her response. "She is good," she said. Sylvia didn't know if she hesitated because of their language barrier or if it was for another reason, but she decided that like Froppy, she would have to trust that Mrs. Asui would have it handled until they came back with help.
"Dad would know what to do," Lucy said. "Dad's the strongest Hero there is. He's Number 1!"
"Number 1 Hero?" Froppy asked.
"Lucy! Don't say that! Dad's going through a lot, especially after that weird villain... He can't save everyone in his... well, the way he is now," Sylvia pointed out, trying to stay away from Japanese cognates.
Jack stirred in Sylvia's arms. "S-Sylv..."
"Jack! R-relax, we're getting you to safety. We gotta find a Hero to help us. That wasn't Dad back there, or Naoko-sensei. It's a Villain!"
"I-I know..." Jack groaned. "H-help... g-gotta get..."
"Go to sleep," Sylvia told him worriedly. "We'll take good care of you, I promise."
"S-sleep..." Jack quickly fell asleep, hanging onto his little sister for dear life.
It was only when Jack fell asleep in Sylvia's arms that Sylvia had realized she never felt this responsible or this stressed at once in her life; and she had lived on the streets with Jack and Lucy before!
Froppy seemed to know where to go next, so from then on, Sylvia and Lucy were flying hard and fast, trying to keep up with Froppy's quick movements to make it to where they needed to go.
Soon, they had made it to a strange building with a big gate in front. Lucy and Sylvia tried to fly in through the gate, but Froppy used her tongue to hold them back.
"No," she said.
"Why?" Sylvia asked.
Froppy didn't have a means of explaining, but since Froppy knew the place better than Sylvia did, she didn't argue. Froppy walked over to the gate and pressed a button. She spoke Japanese to whomever was on the other side of the intercom and soon, she pulled away.
"Now," she said.
Sylvia nodded and lowered herself, though not enough to land (she still needed the height to have the strength to carry Jack; without her wings, she wouldn't normally have the strength to hold him), while Lucy landed. The kids walked inside the building, which turned out to be a strange-looking place Froppy called a "high school".
When the kids walked inside, there were three Heroes waiting in the doorway: an old woman with a syringe-staff, who took Jack off of Sylvia's hands and healed his wounds with a tender kiss, a scary-looking man wearing all black and looking like he was tired of living, and a scrawny, skin-and-bones man that Sylvia, Lucy, and Jack all recognized as their beloved father.
"Daddy!" the kids exclaimed, running up to hug their adoptive father.
"Kids! You're not hurt?! Jack, what happened?!"
"Some person mimicked our... late father and Naoko-sensei! I think they took us to the park as well, because we were there for a long, long time, and Naoko-sensei hadn't come back!" Jack explained.
"That's weird. I told Naoko-sensei you'd all be staying inside today until I came back," Toshinori muttered.
"Okay, rascals, where's your house?"
"H-hold on, Aizawa. I want to keep them here for safety reasons," Toshinori said. "And who's your friend there?"
"O-oh!" Sylvia changed to Japanese. "That's Froppy-chan! Froppy-chan is Sylvia, Lucy-chan, and Jack-kun's new friend!"
"Ah, is that so?" Toshinori asked in Japanese. He turned to Froppy and smiled, thanking her with some more unfamiliar words.
Froppy nodded, blushing slightly and replying somehow.
Toshinori gave Froppy some instructions, then turned to the kids. "Froppy and Jack will protect you, okay? For now, you kids stay in Recovery Girl's nurse's office; I'll be back to pick you all up when this is all over."
The Reviar siblings nodded. Toshinori translated his instructions to Froppy, who nodded as well, then proceeded to leave after hugging his children goodbye for the time being.
Aizawa glanced at Sylvia in a way Sylvia couldn't describe; she felt dazed, terrified, stressed, and she couldn't even emit a scent to describe her emotion. When Aizawa looked away, Sylvia essentially exploded into chamomile.
"Sylvia-chan," Froppy said, holding her hand to ease her stress. Sylvia's face reddened slightly and her overwhelming scent was suddenly gone.
"Wow, that's a new record," Jack said. "Dude, Sylvia, do you have like, a crush on her or something?"
"What? A crush?! I don't wanna hurt her!" Sylvia exclaimed, panicking.
"You're adorable."
"W-what?!"
Recovery Girl laughed. "All right, children, inside." She translated to Japanese for Froppy, then led the kids to a hospital-like office. Sylvia sat on a cot right next to Froppy, then proceeded to curl up on the pillow. Froppy joined her. The two became an entangled, feathered, sleeping pile of cuteness. Meanwhile, Lucy slept next to Jack, while Jack read a random children's story online with the help of a tablet from Recovery Girl.
The kids woke up at dusk, when Toshinori returned with Naoko-sensei, Asui-san, and Aizawa-san. "Kids," he whispered. "It's time to go home."
Sylvia tried to pry her eyes open, but it seemed like they were glued shut. "Noooooo...." she whined.
"I don't wanna go back home," Lucy moaned. "They call me names 'n 'Demon Child' 'n stuffs..."
"That's not 'home,' " Jack argued. "Home is where the heart is; also where our Dad lives. Y'know, the one who adopted us?"
"Sylvia-chan."
Sylvia forced her eyes to open. It seemed Froppy was stuck because her wings wouldn't budge from their position, encasing Froppy right next to Sylvia. She lazily opened her wings and rolled onto her back with each wing at her side, stretching and finally awaking. Froppy stood up and hopped a couple of times before running to her mother and hugging her close.
Toshinori smiled at Sylvia, placing a box on her left wing before moving on to Jack and Lucy. Sylvia picked up the medium-sized box from her wing and opened it confusedly. Inside was a pack of sketchbooks, superhero design kits, and a single card. Sylvia picked up the single card and opened it up.
"Happy 1st Anniversary of your arrival!" the card read. "Sylvia, I want you to know that you're loved and welcomed here in Japan. We'll always help you, no matter what. Best wishes and may your dreams come true. I love you. Sincerely, Daddy."
He had written in English, which was surprisingly legible. Sylvia smiled and hugged the card close.
"No way!" Jack exclaimed, opening his present. "D-Daddy, seriously?! Y-you didn't have to!"
"Jack, my son, a Hero always does what they don't need to do: help people. This is merely my thanks for you being in my life," Toshinori reasoned.
Lucy squealed excitedly and flew up to her dad to give him a big hug.
Sylvia flew over her gift and gave him a hug as well, leaving Jack to hug Toshinori's lower half.
Toshinori hugged his beloved adopted kids and smiled. "I'm glad you liked your gifts. I'm very happy you're here," he said.
"Thank you so much, Daddy!" Sylvia exclaimed.
"We love you, Daddy," Lucy said.
"Yeah, thanks for everything, Dad," Jack added.
The Reviar/Yagi family shared their love and hugs that day. It was also that day that Sylvia developed her first friend...
...and we all know it was also her first crush. It's just not gonna happen yet...
...it was only eight years later that day that Sylvia stepped foot in U.A. High once more as an actual student, only to see her best friend in the same class as her. And boy is Sylvia excited.
"The park," Naoko said, smiling. "I figured today you would want a break instead of learning."
That didn't sound right. Naoko always gave them breaks when they needed it. It wasn't like she was overworking them at all.
Naoko was a beautiful woman with long, black, straight hair and lilac eyes. Her Quirk was Mind Link, which allowed her to take in the thoughts of those around her at will. Sometimes, she could use that Quirk to literally empathize with others, so that she either knew whether or not her students were paying attention, understood what she was saying, or even feel their emotional pains or fears and be able to help them work through it. She was as much a counselor and babysitter as she was a teacher.
Sylvia had been developing her Quirk a lot more as well. In fact, Sylvia, Jack, and Lucy were all doing great when it came to Quirk development. Naoko saw them as very powerful individuals and was one of the few people in their lives who understood what they were saying when they spoke English, as well as essentially their translator whenever interacting with adults. However, children didn't need translations to play. It was a strange thing, the community of children; something very few people have come to understand.
But today, the playground was empty when Naoko brought the kids to their destination. Sylvia frowned. "Can we go to a different park?" she asked.
"Now Sylvia, I'm sure you can have fun here with just your siblings. It shouldn't make much of a difference where you play," Naoko said.
"I know, but I wanna play with other kids, too. I always play with my siblings."
"Yeah," Lucy agreed. "Our friends are still in school, though, and the only kids who are around are very little."
"C'mon, guys, it's not that bad," Jack said, trying to stay optimistic. "Here, let's look on the bright side: what if we played pretend? We can do that, right?"
"Oh, yeah!" Sylvia exclaimed excitedly, removing her hand from Naoko's. "Let's play pretend!"
Naoko sat at a bench, watching as Lucy and Sylvia ran over to Jack, who led their pretend adventures.
"Okay! So here's the game," Jack began. "We're all messengers of different worlds. Sylvia, you're from Angel World. Lucy, you're from the Overworld. And I'm from Earth. I'm known as the legendary Skyboy and I protect the innocent from baddies from the Underworld, Overworld's sworn enemies."
"Ooh, I like this!" Lucy exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "I'm gonna by Lucyfer! See, it's like 'Lucifer' but with 'Lucy' in it...?"
"And I'm gonna be Rose Feather! But you can call me Rose," Sylvia added. "So where do we start?"
"I'll start on the ground," Jack instructed. "Sylvia, you go on the monkey bars like usual, and Lucy can go on top of the roof of the slide."
The kids nodded and flew to their designated positions (since they flew, they were supposed to wear something to cover up their underwear even if they wore skirts; it was a rule and a habit taught to them by All Might. Lucy tended to wear long shorts, while Sylvia liked to wear jeans).
Jack stayed put on the ground and used his Quirk to make several clouds throughout the playground. The clouds were small, not very dense, and as warm as he could possibly make them (which was still pretty cold, unfortunately), but easy to move as long as he concentrated. The clouds were regular cumulonimbus clouds.
"It's the enemies invading!" Jack exclaimed. "They've come to take control of Earth and everything inside it! But never fear, for Skyboy is here!" He jumped on a low platform in the playground and shifted the wind to take out one cloud at a time. "You can't defeat me! I'm the unstoppable hero of the sky, Skyboy the Wonder! No one will be hurt while I am here!"
Sylvia lifted off from her monkey bars and watched Jack fight his own clouds. "Wow! That human has some great strength!" she exclaimed. "Look at how he fights!"
"I know," Lucy added. "It's like the sky itself blessed him or something!"
"Well, should we meet him?" Sylvia asked.
Lucy smiled. "I think we should."
The two flew down to his level after he "destroyed" his last cloud. Jack pretended to be surprised when he turned around to see the two of them.
"W-who are you?" Jack asked.
"I am Rose Feather," Sylvia said. "Messenger of Angel World."
"And I am Lucyfer, or, um, Lucy, from the Overworld."
"The Overworld?" Jack asked.
"Yes; the sworn enemies of my world were those minions who you just defeated," Lucy explained.
"Why do they want Earth? Why are they against you?"
"I believe Earth has a special gift," Sylvia said. "A power beyond their comprehension. If they control the sky and heavens, they control all worlds."
"Then how do we stop him?" Jack asked his sisters.
"We team up and become...!" Lucy began suspensefully, striking a pose. "Dun, dununun! The Tri-World Trio!"
"We never agreed on that," Sylvia said confusedly.
"Now we did," Lucy sassed.
Jack laughed. "Okay. But before we do that, we'll need the proper equipment."
Sylvia glanced around to see if her teacher was watching them; instead, she found the bench where Naoko had previously sat was now completely empty. She hadn't even left her stuff behind! Why did she leave them like that? Was she going to come back?
Sylvia found herself disheartened and a little bit scared that they were left all alone. "Uh, guys?" she asked.
"Hm?" Lucy hummed.
"Where's Naoko-sensei?"
The kids glanced at the bench Sylvia was staring at and found it was empty. However, instead of worrying, Jack merely shrugged. "She'll probably come back," he said.
But she always let them know before she left. This didn't make any sense? Did she forget? Maybe, but...
...her dad was out at work. What if a villain got her or something?
"Sylv! Grab Jack! Let's go!" Lucy urged.
Sylvia sighed and flapped her wings, lifting herself into the air before swooping down and grabbing Jack with the proper momentum required. "So where to?" she asked.
"Down there," Jack mentioned. "That's going to be the factory."
What he had pointed to was a trio of intertwining net walls meant for climbing. Sylvia dropped Jack off on the ground and landed beside him. Lucy was already waiting for them.
"So what's this place?" Lucy asked.
"This is the factory," Jack said. "Here, we'll weapons for defeating the Underworld."
"Ooh! I wanna bow and arrow!" Lucy exclaimed.
"I want a sword," Sylvia said.
"Aw, but I also want a sword," Jack moaned.
"Well, then I don't need a weapon. I have magic powers," Sylvia reasoned.
"Oh, wait, so do I. So then...?"
"I don't think we even need weapons," Lucy pointed out, shrugging.
"But this is the spot of the portal where we'll go," Sylvia said. "Let's just pretend that's a mountain instead."
"Okay," Jack agreed.
"We have to climb this mountain to get to the top," Sylvia said in-character. "It's the only way we can make it to the portal. We could fly, but we want to go with you."
"We have to protect you at all costs," Lucy said.
Jack created three clouds forming a supposedly intimidating face. "Mwahahaha! You cannot escape me, the Underlord! I will take your powers! You cannot fly anymore, Tri-World Trio!"
The young girls folded their wings and pretended they were in pain. "We don't need to fly to beat you!" Lucy groaned. "We'll climb if we have to!"
"C'mon! We can't let him get the best of us!" Sylvia exclaimed, moving to climb up the wall.
The ropes wouldn't stop moving and more than once, Sylvia had to extend her wings to try to balance herself before remembering she wasn't allowed to fly. The same thing happened with Lucy, who had even more trouble (though her bigger wings allowed for easier maneuverability in the air, as well as a better way of keeping balance than Sylvia's small, slender, feathered ones). Jack, however, wasn't quite so lucky. While he was a more skilled climber than Sylvia and Lucy, he still had trouble holding onto the ropes. His knuckles quickly became sore and before he made it to the top, he wanted to stop for a break.
"We can't give up, Skyboy!" Lucy encouraged. "We gotta make it to the top!"
"Do you need help, Skyboy?" Sylvia asked.
Jack glanced back down, though he didn't fear falling. "No... I'm good... Just a little bit tired."
"Even heroes need breaks," Lucy reasoned. "Let's pause for a bit."
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Lucy?" Sylvia asked. "We don't want to waste time. The demons could attack at any moment."
"But now our wings are disabled," Lucy argued. "And we can't defeat the demons of the Underworld without the energy we need. Skyboy and I are staying here. Are you with us?"
Sylvia sighed. "Alright."
So the kids found positions to sit and rest while still on the tangled walls. They paused their game and chatted for quite a while. Soon, it seemed it was already getting close to evening, but Sylvia noticed that Naoko was still nowhere in sight. "Guys, where's Naoko-sensei?" Sylvia asked once again. "She's still gone."
This time, Jack and Lucy glanced behind them at the empty bench and quickly became worried.
"We're not stuck here, are we?" Lucy asked.
"No," Jack tried to assure her. "We'll just find her somewhere else. C'mon, let's go look for her."
Sylvia and Lucy nodded and finally flew down from the tangled nets (taking Jack with them) and landed on the grass. "Where're we gonna start?" Sylvia asked.
"All around the playground. Split up and search," Jack said. "If you encounter anyone, ask them for help."
"Everyone here speaks Japanese!" Lucy exclaimed. "How?"
"Uhh... Boku--or, uh, atashi, I guess--Atashi-tachi no sensei to otoochan ga kore ni ikimasen. That means 'our teacher and dad aren't here'. Then say that you're from America, so they'll know you don't speak Japanese very well," Jack instructed.
The girls struggled to remember, but nodded and split up anyway. Jack searched the ground and Sylvia and Lucy searched the air. Unfortunately, from Sylvia's point of view, Naoko and Toshinori were nowhere to be found. She was starting to get scared now.
The kids spent a good fifteen minutes searching and ended up finding no one. When they landed, Sylvia and Lucy shared scared looks before glancing expectantly at Jack, who was thinking of a plan.
"We can't stay here," he said. "They're clearly not coming back. But we can't go to a stranger and just chat it up with them either; we don't know Japanese. We should find a Japanese English teacher. Maybe they'll be able to help us."
"Where will we find a Japanese English teacher?" Sylvia asked. "We don't know any schools nearby, do we?"
"I do," Jack said. "It's the one Naoko-sensei works at. She took me there once for a little bit. We know the way back home, right?"
"Maybe?" Sylvia shrugged.
"Take a look from above," Jack told her. "There's gotta be a way back home."
Sylvia nodded and jumped, flapped her wings a couple of times to gain altitude, then took off into the sky. From above, she could see the neighborhoods surrounding the playground, but she didn't recognize the way back home, looking from the air. In fact, it only made her feel more lost. She lost all familiarity with the area around them and panicked, landing back on the ground.
"I-I have no clue where we are! They make this seem so much easier online!" Sylvia exclaimed. "Everything looks like a maze! I-I don't know where we live! I don't know where we are anymore!"
"Calm down, Sylv!" Jack urged, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Take a deep, calming breath."
Sylvia inhaled and exhaled as big as she could. She wasn't completely calm anymore, but she put her faith in her big brother and trusted him to figure things out.
"Okay. We need to find someone who can either understand us from education or with their Quirk," Jack said. "Even communicating through pictures is better than nothing. That's where you two come in. I'll use whatever knowledge I have of Japanese, so we can communicate a little better."
Sylvia and Lucy nodded in determination. "Who do we look for?" she asked.
"Anyone," Jack said. "Follow me. Always stick together. If one of us gets separated, we assume the worst."
"What's 'the worst'?"
"A villain takes one of us away and no one will save us. It's not going to happen, but you have to be careful anyway."
Sylvia and Lucy, for fear of their own and each other's lives, nodded and stayed as close as possible to Jack without interfering.
Lucy held her hands up to hide her horns self-consciously. "You think they'll notice my horns?" she asked. "I don't like when people point out my Quirk..."
Sylvia flashed Lucy a smile. "No one's going to make fun of you and get away with it while we're around," she assured her sister. "We'll protect you."
Lucy smiled gratefully at Sylvia and nodded before lowering her hands, opting to play with her tail as a fidget toy instead. She picked at the pearly white scales smoothly lining up her tail that refused to budge from their spots. The scales were incredibly tough, which was what protected her tail, wings, and horns from destruction; in fact, her horns, wings, and tail are the strongest parts of her body. By flexing her tail, Lucy is able to secrete poison at will as well as flex the tip enough to make it sharp enough to pierce brick, though it's not strong enough to get through metal. Her horns are currently underdeveloped, so she can't do anything with them (which is good, because if her horns were as sharp as her flexed tail, she'd have to get new pillows every day).
Lucy flexed her tail back and forth from soft to hard, though she didn't activate the poison sacs under her scales (the poison sacs flex and lift the scales just enough to coat the tail with non-acidic poison within the span of three seconds. When they relax, the scales' properties allow the poison to easily slide off. She has this function in her horns as well, but not her wings). Squeezing her tougher-than-nails scales made her feel very comfortable, knowing she could defend herself and that she was safe alongside her siblings.
Sylvia watched Jack worriedly, but kept her mouth shut. She grabbed Lucy's hand, allowing her other hand to continue fiddling with her tail, and then took Jack's hand. Jack tightened his grip on Sylvia's hand without looking back and continued moving forward.
Five minutes of wandering led by Jack caused Sylvia to panic even more when she found no one was there. She hadn't even noticed the aroma of chamomile she was spreading out of nervousness, failing to calm herself down.
"Sylvia," Lucy said quietly, snapping her out of her trance of panic. "Your smell is too big."
Sylvia was only then made aware of the overwhelming chamomile smell in the air and quickly breathed in the chamomile before settling down, relaxing her tenseness.
"Excuse me!" Jack exclaimed in Japanese to someone he had found walking around in the neighborhood they were in. He let go of Sylvia's hand, causing her to lose her cool once more and fly as fast as possible to Jack's side. Lucy was caught off guard, but quickly recovered and flew by Sylvia's side across the street.
The woman whom Jack had found was walking alongside a young girl and had a strange, frog-like appearance. The girl looked to be about Sylvia's age.
The frog lady glanced at Jack in surprise. She asked him something Sylvia didn't understand in Japanese.
Jack struggled to form sentences, but eventually managed, "Our dad and teacher aren't here. We're from America. Our home isn't here."
The girl beside the woman glanced at Sylvia curiously. Sylvia blushed and shied away behind Jack. The girl smiled. "I'm Tsuyu Asui. You?"
Sylvia bit her lip. "S-Sylvia. Sylvia Reviar."
"Nice to meet you, ribbit."
At first, Sylvia was confused by the onomatopoeia used by the girl, then realized she must've had a Quirk that made her speak like that.
"Y-you too."
"Who's your sister?"
Sylvia opened her wings somewhat defensively and apprehensively replied, "Lucy. Lucifer."
"Nice to meet you, Lucy-chan."
Lucy and Sylvia flinched, but then glanced at each other. Sylvia folded her wings back to her shoulders and glanced at the girl confusedly.
She said something Sylvia didn't understand, but she said something Sylvia picked out as "Froppy". Confused, she repeated it. "Froppy?"
"Yes, that's right."
"What?"
Clearly, they weren't getting very far due to the language barrier. Tsuyu thought of something. "Your Quirk?" she asked.
Sylvia didn't know how to say it in Japanese, so she just said, "Floral Angel" in Japanese Katakana, the only way to say cognates.
Tsuyu repeated the name, testing it against her tongue. "Fun," she said. "And Lucy-chan?"
At that, she glanced at Lucy, expecting her to answer. Lucy folded her wings behind her and moved her tail behind her wings to hide it, placing her hands over her horns self-consciously. She avoided eye contact with Tsuyu and hid behind Sylvia.
"Light Demon," Sylvia said. "But she's not bad!"
Tsuyu blinked. She said something else Sylvia didn't understand, though Sylvia knew that she was denying something.
Sylvia turned her gaze away. Tsuyu realized that something was hurting the two and backed off. Meanwhile, Jack had been trying to talk to Tsuyu's mom unsuccessfully.
"Where's your mom?" she asked.
"She's not here."
"Where's your dad?"
"He's not here."
Everything else was her asking him things in Japanese he didn't understand, only replying with, "We're from America."
"This is getting us nowhere," Jack sighed, turning to Sylvia and Lucy hopelessly. "We can't speak Japanese. If we can't speak Japanese, we can't get help."
Sylvia and Lucy tightened their grips on one another, Sylvia's tenseness giving way to more chamomile aroma.
"Sylvia-chan," Tsuyu said, gaining her attention. Sylvia turned her head and watched her in confusion.
Tsuyu tapped her mom's arm and asked her something. Her mother nodded and handed Tsuyu a smartphone. Tsuyu gave it to Sylvia.
"E-eh?!" Sylvia exclaimed. "B-but I can't--"
"Naoko-sensei gave me our address," Jack said. "Let me take it."
Sylvia nodded and eagerly handed Jack the phone (careful not to let it slip; it wasn't hers, after all).
Jack took the phone carefully and struggled to type in the address, but eventually made it. "I hope it's right," he mumbled, handing it back to the mother.
The frog-woman took the phone back and smiled. Tsuyu said something to Sylvia that she didn't understand, then held her hands close together, with a short space between them.
"Short?" Sylvia guessed in Japanese. Tsuyu nodded and pointed at the houses. "The house is short?" she asked.
Tsuyu shook her head.
"The space between them is short," Lucy said in English.
"Ohh..." Sylvia blushed. "S-sorry," she apologized in Japanese. "I understand."
Tsuyu nodded and smiled. "Good."
Sylvia could have sworn her heart was fluttering, but she could have been mistaken, so she shook it off as anxiety.
"Ew, your hands are all sappy and sweaty," Lucy said, pulling her hand away and rubbing it on her shorts' legs.
"Sorry!" Sylvia giggled nervously. "Oh, uh, thank you, Tsuyu," Sylvia added in Japanese, bowing.
"Froppy," she said. "Not Tsuyu. Froppy."
"Oh. Uh... Froppy-chan?"
"Yes!" Froppy exclaimed.
Sylvia blushed and smiled.
Froppy nodded. "Syl-chan! Lucchan! Jakkun! Are we friends?"
Sylvia's heart rate heavily increased, as did the color flooding her face. She nodded happily and held out her hand. However, Froppy didn't accept that handshake she offered and hugged her instead, causing Sylvia's heart to beat like crazy. She didn't know what it was, but it was definitely anxiety. A kind of anxiety she didn't really understand...
"Hey, Sylvia! Lucy! Tsuyu-san! Let's go!" Jack called in Japanese. "We're going home," he added in English.
"Home!" Sylvia exclaimed.
"Are we really going home?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah, I typed it in on her phone and now she's got directions," Jack said. "We wanna get home, right?"
Sylvia nodded and went with Jack. "L-let's go, Froppy-chan."
Froppy eagerly accepted Sylvia's invitation and took Lucy along with her. Lucy immediately felt safe with Froppy, it seemed, and Lucy quickly hugged her arm, saying, "She's mine now."
"H-hey! You can't steal her! She's our friend, and she doesn't belong to anyone," Sylvia argued.
"B-but she likes me even though my Quirk is... it," Lucy whined.
"She's a good person," Sylvia said. "That's why she's our friend. ALL of our friend."
Lucy sighed sadly and Sylvia quickly realized she was being unreasonably possessive of Froppy, despite having only just met her. Besides, Lucy had reason to enjoy her company.
"...but you can have her for now," Sylvia sighed.
Lucy instantly perked up and hugged Froppy. Froppy was startled at the sudden affection, but quickly reciprocated it. Sylvia smiled at her little sister and continued following Froppy's mom.
The house they were led to was indeed their right house, but something didn't feel right. Sylvia felt like something was making her skin crawl in there. "B-bad," she said in Japanese, hoping to convey her negative feeling. "I don't like this feeling," was what she said in English.
"Yeah," Froppy agreed. "Mom?"
Froppy's mom said something, making a protective motion that Sylvia assumed meant "stay back" as she walked up to the door, knocking carefully. The door opened slowly and creepily.
"Ah, so the Reviars return. How delightful. I've been waiting for you, children," the person inside said in full English. It sounded very menacing, causing Sylvia to fully open her wings in a defensive position, Froppy to squat to the ground in preparation, Jack to create wind currents around his hands, and Lucy to open her wings and flex her tail, secreting poison and coating her white tail in a light lavender.
Unfortunately for the Reviars, that voice sounded familiar.
Sylvia's eyes brimmed with tears. "D-Dad?" she said in English. Froppy looked surprised; seemingly, she had learned the meaning of "dad" in English from school.
"Th-that's your dad?!" Froppy asked.
The owner of the Fallen Angel Quirk walked out of the door, opening his razor-sharp wings, dark as the black of night. "You're coming home, kids."
Sylvia, Lucy, and Jack stepped back. Lucy pointed her tail at him as she moved away slowly, hoping to stay safe. Froppy understood the tension quickly and allowed her long tongue to loll out of her mouth, stretching her limbs wider just in case.
Samael Reviar moved closer and closer to the Reviar children, grinning menacingly. "Oh? Are you not happy to see your father?" The character changed their form to match that of Naoko's. The kids gasped in unison.
"N-Naoko-sensei!?" they exclaimed at once.
Now Froppy, her mom, and the Reviar siblings were fully aware that this was not a familiar person. Naoko grinned wickedly and launched herself at Jack first, kneeing the unprepared boy in the gut with lightning speed.
"JACK!" Sylvia and Lucy exclaimed, running to their brother's side.
Froppy's mom said something to get the villain's attention and was successful; in the meantime, Froppy was to help Sylvia and Lucy get to safety.
"Let's go," she said to them, pointing in a direction away from the house.
"Where?" Sylvia asked. "And Jack?"
"We can carry Jack," Lucy reasoned in English. "We have to leave, though."
Sylvia sighed and gently picked Jack up, cradling him as much as she could while she flew. Lucy flew beside her, while Froppy leapt from house to house to match their altitude.
"Hero Agency?" Sylvia asked Froppy.
"Yes. We'll get a Hero," Froppy answered.
"A-and your mom?"
Froppy hesitated in her response. "She is good," she said. Sylvia didn't know if she hesitated because of their language barrier or if it was for another reason, but she decided that like Froppy, she would have to trust that Mrs. Asui would have it handled until they came back with help.
"Dad would know what to do," Lucy said. "Dad's the strongest Hero there is. He's Number 1!"
"Number 1 Hero?" Froppy asked.
"Lucy! Don't say that! Dad's going through a lot, especially after that weird villain... He can't save everyone in his... well, the way he is now," Sylvia pointed out, trying to stay away from Japanese cognates.
Jack stirred in Sylvia's arms. "S-Sylv..."
"Jack! R-relax, we're getting you to safety. We gotta find a Hero to help us. That wasn't Dad back there, or Naoko-sensei. It's a Villain!"
"I-I know..." Jack groaned. "H-help... g-gotta get..."
"Go to sleep," Sylvia told him worriedly. "We'll take good care of you, I promise."
"S-sleep..." Jack quickly fell asleep, hanging onto his little sister for dear life.
It was only when Jack fell asleep in Sylvia's arms that Sylvia had realized she never felt this responsible or this stressed at once in her life; and she had lived on the streets with Jack and Lucy before!
Froppy seemed to know where to go next, so from then on, Sylvia and Lucy were flying hard and fast, trying to keep up with Froppy's quick movements to make it to where they needed to go.
Soon, they had made it to a strange building with a big gate in front. Lucy and Sylvia tried to fly in through the gate, but Froppy used her tongue to hold them back.
"No," she said.
"Why?" Sylvia asked.
Froppy didn't have a means of explaining, but since Froppy knew the place better than Sylvia did, she didn't argue. Froppy walked over to the gate and pressed a button. She spoke Japanese to whomever was on the other side of the intercom and soon, she pulled away.
"Now," she said.
Sylvia nodded and lowered herself, though not enough to land (she still needed the height to have the strength to carry Jack; without her wings, she wouldn't normally have the strength to hold him), while Lucy landed. The kids walked inside the building, which turned out to be a strange-looking place Froppy called a "high school".
When the kids walked inside, there were three Heroes waiting in the doorway: an old woman with a syringe-staff, who took Jack off of Sylvia's hands and healed his wounds with a tender kiss, a scary-looking man wearing all black and looking like he was tired of living, and a scrawny, skin-and-bones man that Sylvia, Lucy, and Jack all recognized as their beloved father.
"Daddy!" the kids exclaimed, running up to hug their adoptive father.
"Kids! You're not hurt?! Jack, what happened?!"
"Some person mimicked our... late father and Naoko-sensei! I think they took us to the park as well, because we were there for a long, long time, and Naoko-sensei hadn't come back!" Jack explained.
"That's weird. I told Naoko-sensei you'd all be staying inside today until I came back," Toshinori muttered.
"Okay, rascals, where's your house?"
"H-hold on, Aizawa. I want to keep them here for safety reasons," Toshinori said. "And who's your friend there?"
"O-oh!" Sylvia changed to Japanese. "That's Froppy-chan! Froppy-chan is Sylvia, Lucy-chan, and Jack-kun's new friend!"
"Ah, is that so?" Toshinori asked in Japanese. He turned to Froppy and smiled, thanking her with some more unfamiliar words.
Froppy nodded, blushing slightly and replying somehow.
Toshinori gave Froppy some instructions, then turned to the kids. "Froppy and Jack will protect you, okay? For now, you kids stay in Recovery Girl's nurse's office; I'll be back to pick you all up when this is all over."
The Reviar siblings nodded. Toshinori translated his instructions to Froppy, who nodded as well, then proceeded to leave after hugging his children goodbye for the time being.
Aizawa glanced at Sylvia in a way Sylvia couldn't describe; she felt dazed, terrified, stressed, and she couldn't even emit a scent to describe her emotion. When Aizawa looked away, Sylvia essentially exploded into chamomile.
"Sylvia-chan," Froppy said, holding her hand to ease her stress. Sylvia's face reddened slightly and her overwhelming scent was suddenly gone.
"Wow, that's a new record," Jack said. "Dude, Sylvia, do you have like, a crush on her or something?"
"What? A crush?! I don't wanna hurt her!" Sylvia exclaimed, panicking.
"You're adorable."
"W-what?!"
Recovery Girl laughed. "All right, children, inside." She translated to Japanese for Froppy, then led the kids to a hospital-like office. Sylvia sat on a cot right next to Froppy, then proceeded to curl up on the pillow. Froppy joined her. The two became an entangled, feathered, sleeping pile of cuteness. Meanwhile, Lucy slept next to Jack, while Jack read a random children's story online with the help of a tablet from Recovery Girl.
The kids woke up at dusk, when Toshinori returned with Naoko-sensei, Asui-san, and Aizawa-san. "Kids," he whispered. "It's time to go home."
Sylvia tried to pry her eyes open, but it seemed like they were glued shut. "Noooooo...." she whined.
"I don't wanna go back home," Lucy moaned. "They call me names 'n 'Demon Child' 'n stuffs..."
"That's not 'home,' " Jack argued. "Home is where the heart is; also where our Dad lives. Y'know, the one who adopted us?"
"Sylvia-chan."
Sylvia forced her eyes to open. It seemed Froppy was stuck because her wings wouldn't budge from their position, encasing Froppy right next to Sylvia. She lazily opened her wings and rolled onto her back with each wing at her side, stretching and finally awaking. Froppy stood up and hopped a couple of times before running to her mother and hugging her close.
Toshinori smiled at Sylvia, placing a box on her left wing before moving on to Jack and Lucy. Sylvia picked up the medium-sized box from her wing and opened it confusedly. Inside was a pack of sketchbooks, superhero design kits, and a single card. Sylvia picked up the single card and opened it up.
"Happy 1st Anniversary of your arrival!" the card read. "Sylvia, I want you to know that you're loved and welcomed here in Japan. We'll always help you, no matter what. Best wishes and may your dreams come true. I love you. Sincerely, Daddy."
He had written in English, which was surprisingly legible. Sylvia smiled and hugged the card close.
"No way!" Jack exclaimed, opening his present. "D-Daddy, seriously?! Y-you didn't have to!"
"Jack, my son, a Hero always does what they don't need to do: help people. This is merely my thanks for you being in my life," Toshinori reasoned.
Lucy squealed excitedly and flew up to her dad to give him a big hug.
Sylvia flew over her gift and gave him a hug as well, leaving Jack to hug Toshinori's lower half.
Toshinori hugged his beloved adopted kids and smiled. "I'm glad you liked your gifts. I'm very happy you're here," he said.
"Thank you so much, Daddy!" Sylvia exclaimed.
"We love you, Daddy," Lucy said.
"Yeah, thanks for everything, Dad," Jack added.
The Reviar/Yagi family shared their love and hugs that day. It was also that day that Sylvia developed her first friend...
...and we all know it was also her first crush. It's just not gonna happen yet...
...it was only eight years later that day that Sylvia stepped foot in U.A. High once more as an actual student, only to see her best friend in the same class as her. And boy is Sylvia excited.