Chapter Text
Haru had never seen herself as lucky, her parents were often too busy to spend time with her, she was always waking up late and thus was late to class, she only really had Hiromi as a friend, she was bullied and she was born with the power of healing. Meaning, she had to keep her power secret. Also meaning, to everyone else she was just a regular human with no power. Now, normally her life wasn't too bad, but today it seemed that it was completely different. Different how? You might be asking, and to answer; she was currently running down the streets trying to avoid her bullies who were adament on doing who knows what. Earlier they had covered her in water, and despite that seeming not that bad, it was autumn. And quite cold.
She heard the distant shouts of her pursuers but she couldn't make out a single word of it over the sound of her own ragged breathes and her heart pounding in her ears. She looked over her shoulder, seeing them closer than she thought they were. She swallowed and looked in front of her again, trying to think of a different path she could take to lose the persistent people chasing her. She took a left. She could feel her body starting to slow down a slight bit. She took another left. She could feel the autumn chill, and it felt like it was timesed by 100, no shock there tho. She took a right this time. She was trying to rack her brain of ways she could slip away, as she risked a glance behind her and saw them even closer. She took a left. Even she could tell the directions were getting frantic. She took a right. Searching for a way out. She took another right. She then ran into a wall.
"Ow!" She was caught before she fell back and she looked up to see a very well known vigilante, one who goes by the name of Baron.
"Sorry my lady, I did not mean to be stood in your path." Baron laughed, though Haru was too focused on the people who had now caught up. Baron seemed to catch onto her discomfort tho and followed her gaze to the group of students who had now slowed their pursuit. "I'm going to guess you aren't very friendly with those?" Baron whispered, quiet enough that only Haru could hear it. She gave a small nod and looked to the floor. Baron then moved Haru so she was behind him and this made the rest stop completely. Machida, the leader, had glared at Haru until Baron moved his arm to block his view of her and subsequently blocking Haru's view of group.
"B-baron!" One of them stuttered. "We were-"
"We were just playing about, could we have our friend back?" Machida had said, though it sounded like it pained him to say, that was just Haru's opinion though.
"Hm.. Why is this fine lady drenched then?" Baron had questioned, though Haru felt her face heat up at the 'fine lady' comment. Oh, how little it took to impress a lady.
She heard a couple stutters and a few people try to explain, it was in vein though as it was clear that Baron was not really listening, or at least it was to Haru.
"Well, I suppose if that's the end of our conversation I'll be on my way." Baron sighed, though he grabbed his hat and did a bow, his ears flicking a slight bit, before he put his hat back on, grabbed Haru and jumped onto a roof. Haru had been too shocked to scream, though as soon as he dropped her onto her feet her knees instantly buckled, thankfully he caught her first and slowly lowered her to the floor. "Are you alright miss!?"
"Not miss it's Haru.." She muttered, still trying to wrap her head around the events that had just took place. "Sorry, thanks for the help." She then shivered and hugged herself, remembering she was still drenched.
"Oh gosh, I had forgotten the weather, do you live close by?" Baron asked, still resting one of his hands on Haru's shoulders, the other held his cane to his side.
"Uh-" she pulled her phone out to check the maps. "It's about a 20 minute walk.." She mumbled, god she was gonna be freezing. She's probably gonna catch a cold as well.
"That's a bit far to walk in the cold." Baron said, though Haru guessed it was more to himself than to her. "Do you want me to escort you?"
Haru jumped at the suggestion. "Huh?" She oh so smartly said.
"Do you want me to escort you? You know, to your home?" Baron reiterated.
"My home?"
"Well, yes, that is what I said."
"Where I live?"
"That is a home."
"I- sorry. Give me a minute." Haru put a hand to her forehead as Baron nodded and moved his hand away from her shoulder, opting to rest it on his knee instead. She began weighing the pros and cons, while it would be good to be sure she's protected, he would also then know where she lived. And any enemies this vigilante may have could turn their sights onto Haru, purely based on association. "I'm.. I'm not sure it's a good idea-"
Baron interrupted her by putting his cape around her shoulders and claspping it at the front, the collar brushing against her cheeks. "At the very least take my cloak, that way I know you won't be too cold on your way." He smiled at her, his head slightly angling to the side, causing the light from the setting sun to reflect off of his metal masquerade mask. Wait- the setting sun!?
"Ack- I have to go!" She stood up quickly, clearly far too quickly as she started to get dizzy, but Baron quickly stabilized her with a look of worry, but she just shook her head. "I need to get home! Thanks for the help!" She then ran to the fire exit on the roof, sprinting down the stairs and sprinting some more on her way home. She hugged the cloak close to her body the entire time.
~^~
As she fell into her bed, Haru looked over to the cape she had slung over her chair. Despite it looking to be plain blue, the inside is lined with red fabric. She started thinking about Baron, and about the previous situation. Haru wonders if she was the first person to have brought his cape to their house, but that can't be possible, right? A notification pulled her out of her thoughts, so she got her phone out to check. Seeing a message from Hiromi she opened their chats. She barely got a chance to read "Pick up this call!!" before her phone started ringing.
"Haru!? Are you ok?" Hiromis voice came through as soon as the call had been answered.
"Hi Hiromi, yes I'm fine, why do you ask?" Haru rubbed her towel onto her damp hair, she had just come back from a shower after all.
"I heard some girls talking about how they saw you getting chased and I-" she heard a sniffle. "I got worried that you were hurt!"
"No I'm fine I-" Haru thought if she should bring up Baron, as the group saw him but would it be ok to talk about it so openly? "I'm fine, seriously. All they managed was to pour water on me." She ended up saying.
"Are you sure?" Hiromi sniffled again.
"Well, I sure hope so since I was the one there." Haru chuckled.
"Don't make jokes about it! This is not a time for jokes or anything like that! I was seriously worried for you Haru."
"Alright, I'm sorry." She sighed.
"Good. Now I need to go, but do you wanna go out tomorrow?" Hiromi's attitude seemed to change like a switch.
"Uh- sure."
"Ok! We can meet at the Crossroads at 6 pm!" Hiromi beamed. "Goodnight!"
"Goodnight Hiromi." Haru yawned. She heard the call disconnect and reached over to her desk, putting her phone next to her alarm, before flopping back down onto her bed. "What an eventful day.." Haru muttered, then, thinking from her previous question, she couldn't have been the only person to have Baron's cape in their house, because the Baron has got to have a house too-
~^~
To say she was rushing would be an understatement. Haru had just gotten ready and it was half 6. She had second-guessed herself as she was leaving and sprinted upstairs to grab a bag and she stuffed Baron's cape in it, hoping it wouldn't get too wrinkled. She messaged Hiromi and then sprinted to the Crossroads. Once she arrived, she noticed Hiromi wasn't there and checked her phone.
"Heyyyy sorry girl.. Tsuge invited me out and so I can't go anyway so it's ok!"
Would've been nice to see that before hand. She looked around, seeing that not many people were out. She decided to go to a close coffee shop. When she went to sit down with her coffee she accidentally sat on something. She jumped up and turned around to see a cat. A very VERY fat cat. It glared at her. "Sorry! Sorry I didn't mean to sit on you.." She muttered. "Can I sit there?" She pointed to a seat on the same table as the cat, and it nodded. "Thanks." She put two thumbs up, almost dropped her coffee, and sat down, before pulling her phone out again. She messaged Hiromi to tell her she didn't end up going out while sipping her coffee, and soon her and Hiromi were having a conversation about Baron and how Hiromi heard he was spotted near the Crossroads fighting a big cat like creature.
After she finished her drink, she told Hiromi she had to go and left the café, waving goodbye to the cat, who seemed to nod and say 'goodbye' back, but that must've been her imagination. She checked her phone and got an alert saying that the vigilante Baron had been spotted near the Crossroads today. Looks like Hiromi forgot to mention that it was today. Haru let out a sigh, before deciding that maybe it wouldn't be that bad if she just walked around for a bit more.
I mean, she did have a cape to return.
~^~
So, maybe that choice was a bit of a bad one. She jumped into a nearby alleyway for cover from the falling debris. She snuck a glance out of the safety of the alleyway just to see Baron get flung and land just a little in front of her.
"That was a good hit!" He shouted, struggling to get to his feet, before sprinting off and attacking the enemy again.
Talking about the enemy, it was a giant cat creature which looked to either be made of shadows, or about 137 cats stacked on top of each other. It had piercing purple eyes and it's mouth was just a couple shades darker than it's eyes. Her thoughts were interrupted when Haru saw Baron get thrown into a wall, next to her alleyway. She saw the cat turn for a second and, using that to her advantage, grabbed Baron and pulled him into the alleyway.
"Helloooo?" She waved a hand in front of his face for a couple seconds, before he seemed to shake himself of whatever stupour he was in.
"Who- wait. Miss Haru!?" He jolted, seeming just as shocked as she was, before folding in on himself with a groan.
"Are you ok?" Haru asked, trying to get just a glimpse of his maybe injury but he had his arms covering the entire area. He looked up at her and let out a shaky sigh.
"I'm fine." He gritted out. Haru simply responded with a slightly raised eyebrow, to which Baron looked away. "It's not that bad."
"Sure. But based on how you're clutching your abdomen I would have to guess that you are in at least a mediocre amount of pain." Haru gestured to his arms, which were still tightly wrapped around the place which she guesses was injured. Baron opened his mouth to say something before Haru cut him off, "And I'm not asking to use your injury against you. I'm technically a doctor." This statement was basically true. Anyone with the power of healing was forced into being a doctor, therefore Haru technically was a doctor.
Baron took a few seconds, before he reluctantly agreed. He moved his hands away to reveal-
Nothing.
"Huh? I thought.." Haru trailed off, pointing to it.
"You do know what a Creation is don't you, Miss Haru?" He asked, his voice still sounding strained.
It was then it clicked. When he's in this cat form his body is made of wood, meaning that of course she wouldn't see anything, wood doesn't bleed. "So- uh- how can I help if you're made of wood..?" He shrugged but then moved his arm back over the wound. She remembered about the article of clothing sitting in her bag. "Oh I brought your cloak as well! This might not be the best time but-" she turned to her bag to grab it. Her bag's clasp got stuck when she tried to open it, but after a little bit of fighting she managed to get it open. She pulled the cape out and turned to Baron, only to be met with a pool of blood under him and his hand over a literal hole in his abdomen. She quickly dropped his cape (away from the blood) and reached out to him. He flinched away, before leaning his head back against the alleyway wall. It was then Haru noticed something.
His face wasn't covered in fur. He had no whiskers. He was human.
A groan pulled her out of her thoughts and back into the main problem; he was bleeding out. She reached out again, and this time it would seem the vigilante didn't have to strength to fight back, as he only glanced down at Haru. She moved his hand away from the wound and saw the extent of his injury. At being jostled, he hissed in pain. "What..?" He moved his head to be looking at her. "What are you doing?"
She stared at him for a couple seconds before letting go of his arm and putting her hands up. "I was just checking the wound!" She looked down at it again and saw the alarming amount of blood increasing. Without thinking, she reached her hands out to the wound, holding the sides of it. Baron grabbed her wrists, quite loosely, but she assumed that's from blood loss, and she looked up at him. His face was twisted with pain. "Sorry I-" she looked down at the injury. She needed to do this quickly. "I'm sorry for this." She said, before quickly moving her hands out of his grip and pushing on the wound. He shouted out in pain as she started pushing the skin back together. Her hands began glowing, and she began worrying about if there was anything still in the wound. That wouldn't be too good would it?
Once the skin was back together she slumped forward, though not falling entirely onto the injured vigilante, she got close. "Done." She murmured, before promptly passing out.