Familiar Faces

**"End my suffering."**

**This article, Familiar Faces, is the sole property of GuyCivic, and cannot be mentioned, used or edited without permission, unless you are part of a collaborative work. Please don't touch.**

### 1:20 AM

Musutafu was quiet around this hour, there was little activity from civilians, heroes, and even any villains. Strange considering this would have been the perfect hour to cause some trouble. The buildings stood still as the occasional breeze swept through the open streets that laid in the darkness of the night. The moon itself was resting behind dark clouds that barely allowed any of the white light to seep through, whilst the stars that used to watch over the city from the sky were just as dark as the night. There was little to do for now, but waking up at this hour on this day was normal for Li Jie, who wanted to start off his day with his morning walk. No people meant no bother for him, no interruptions and certainly no annoyances for him to get moody about.

His steps echoed through the silent Japan street, one after the other, Li Jie kept a simple beat with his footsteps as he continued on his way. He could imagine that the normal civilian would be busy at home, or just sleeping at this hour, but Li Jie had assignments to mark for the day after. U.A. has kept him quite busy, so taking the time for a break was something that Li Jie has wanted to do for a long time. He couldn't really make out the building signs around him since most of the lights of the city were switched off; and because the moon was hidden away from the earth with the passing clouds.

"LI JIE!"

Reflexively, Li Jie flinched abruptly in place as he swung his body around to see where the sudden voice came from. His eyes bounced from one spot the other as he scanned the area around him. The voice sounded familiar, younger than him, and had a feminine tone to it. He felt as though he knew whose voice it was, yet he just couldn't pinpoint a particular face for it. In his mind, everyone sounded the same so the only way he could tell one apart is with what they looked like. He slowly rotated his body, cautiously looking around to see if he had missed a spot. He gritted his teeth thinking that there was a chance it could have been a villain.

"LI JIE! UP HERE!"
The voice called out again with more words, giving Li Jie a better sense of where the voice was coming from. Turning his body to where he thought the voice originated, Li Jie could only see empty buildings in that direction, the windows layered with "vacant" signs and "up for lease". Confused, Li Jie stared into the signs, trying to think where the voice could possibly come from. He swore it was there, and that the voice even exists. It's not like he would be hallucinating at this time, he practically just woke up.

"I SAID UP! UP HERE!"
Something in Li Jie clicked that made him lift his head up to see the top of the building. What he saw standing out from the dark sky of the night was a woman in a red cape lined with fur, dressed in a well-kept suit and hair coloured in two colours with a fringe over her left eye. Li Jie knew who exactly who it was, and his face showed that he wasn't all too keen on welcoming the individual to his attention. Before the other person could say something, Li Jie immediately turned the other direction and power walked off, making sure to keep at a pace that would seem as though he didn't see that particular person.

"OI! IM RIGHT HERE! I KNOW YOU SAW ME!" The person called out again. "FINE, IM COMING DOWN THEN."

Hearing those words only encouraged Li Jie to start sprinting as his feet picked up the pace and his legs moving to save his life. There was no way that he was going to be dealing with this early in the morning. He could feel the rush overwhelm his body as he was now running for safety, to survive, because he knew that this person was dangerous on every level. In the background, he could hear a loud thud as if someone had just landed there, only placing more fear into his heart with him continuing to run. As his body was taking off, he contemplated the good times before this moment, when he had risen up from bed, brushed his teeth, left and locked his home, all the times he had a certain freedom.

"STOP!"

No matter what, Li Jie wasn't going to stop, not until he was on the other side of the city, or better yet, the other side of the world. His the echoing sounds of his footsteps on the concrete ground sounded faster and faster before coming to an immediate halt. Not a halt that he had consented to, but a halt he knew came from the very thing he was fearing this moment. His whole body stopped in place as the overwhelming freezing force over his body bounded him in place in the position he last moved in. It wasn't just the breeze that blew right past him at that moment, but also his freedom for the day as a crocodile tear fell and slid down his cheek. Even though he couldn't move his body, his senses were still intact, as he could hear someone approaching him from behind.

"Sorry Li, but I don't think you were going to stop after I asked you to." The same person playfully apologised from behind, slapping him on the back as he remained in place.

Li Jie tried to speak but all he could do was silently protest what was happening to him through the look of his eyes, that almost seemed as if they were going to fall out of his head. From the corner of his eye, the person he was running from came into full view, the colours of her hair being more noticeable and the cheeky smile she had planted on her face on display. Li Jie knew exactly who it was but didn't have the ability to pronounce her name in disgust, mainly because the force over his body didn't give him the freedom to do so.

"Thought you could get away though? Yeah, not on my watch. I'm bored so let's go do something." She smiled, placing both hands on her hips before excitingly walking away in one direction, leaving Li Jie to remain in place.

Panic soon took over the worry of being caught that motivated his sprint, as watching the woman walk away made Li Jie silently begged to be released from this frozen state of his. He tried to fight back against the force but to no avail, he was locked in place until otherwise by the command of the woman who was leaving him. He wanted to cry but his body didn't want to do anything, he knew this woman far too well to know that she could easily leave Li Jie like this for the rest of the day. In his mind, he could picture the stacks of assignment and work papers on his desk, neatly placed on top of one another, yearning for his mind to mark them. The faces of Class 2-A crying due to their papers not being marked on time, all because he couldn't get away from her.

The woman suddenly stopped in place before laughing in disbelief, "Oh that's right! I forgot to unfreeze you!" she exclaimed, snapping her fingers. "Now that would have put you in a bit of a problem. Imagine, leaving you frozen like that in public in a position like that?" she laughed off before continuing her way.

Li Jie, on the other hand, was not impressed, and fell to the ground with mixed emotions of happiness, hatred and sadness, traumatised by the whole experience. He was both thankful and angry at the woman, quietly sobbing with his forehead pressed onto the floor. Li Jie placed both palms on the ground and softly moved his fingers on it, feeling the freedom he took for granted before this day. The roughness of the ground was like soft pillows to both the senses of his fingers and his mind. Never again was Li Jie going to stay inside away from the outside, he was going to live his life to the most from this moment on.

Swinging her head back to Li Jie, the woman placed one finger on her cheek with a curious and worrisome expression. "Eh? Li, you alright there bud?"

The quiet sobbing that Li Jie initially was expressing stopped at her voice, his body remaining in place as the silence of the area overtook. His head slowly and eerily lifted to see the woman standing in the open, his eyes drained of any reason with only pure hatred burning from the back. His open hands turned into closed fists, and his back pulling his body up into the air to face the woman. His teeth were clenched together but somehow, he was able to articulate some words that passed through.

"Hana Kojima..." Li Jie said with a distasteful tone flavoured the two words that he managed to create.

The woman eyes shot with fear at the sound of his voice, the fear that he once had was now transferred onto her, evident by the sudden sweat drop sliding down the side of her face. In an ironic turn of events, Hana was now the one frozen in place, as the strong force of fear washed over her body. Hana, however, was able to reason out, something that she couldn't allow Li Jie do at the time.

"C'mon... Li... Let's not get... Too carried away?" She asked, her voice trembling with every word. She wanted to run away but her body would not allow it, as if her own quirk was used against her. "We're friends here? C'mon. Li Jie, old buddy, old pal! No need to overreact! I didn't mean to scare you, I just wanted to hang out that's all!"

Nothing she said was getting processed through Li Jie's mind as he started to inch closer to her, his head hanging down with his hair brought down to cover his face. The way he walked was almost zombie-like, his feet dragging the rest of his person closer to Hana, Inaudible mumbles and groans could be heard coming from his mouth, only enhancing the fear that Hana was already suffering from. She tried pushing herself to move but her body would not budge, even though she very well knew what Li Jie was going to do once he caught up to her. Closer and closer Li Jie got, Hana could see the distinct hatred Li Jie was brainwashed by that made him this way, his eyes pierced her very soul. Hana was able to bring her hand and grab her chest, but this was all the movement she could do for now. The closer he got the clearer his words became; "Kill. Kill. Kill."

"...Sorry?" She innocently asked as Li Jie stood face to face with her.

### 1:44 AM

"YOU DIDN'T NEED TO HIT ME THAT HARD!" Hana yelled in pain as she curled up in a ball at the side of a public bench, rubbing the top of her head.

With his arms crossed in front of his torso, Li Jie only stared down at Hana, his angered eyes pinning her to the position she was in. "Pull that kind of shit with me again and I'll make sure you can't freeze anyone else with that stupid quirk of yours." Li Jie threatened.

Hana softly lifted her head to face Li Jie, both her eyes glimmered with white as the frown on her face remained as if it was carved. "I said sorry! I just didn't want you to run away like you always do, because whenever at school I ask if you want to hang out you always end up running! I can't help it if I use my quirk to make people stop but that's what it does!" Hana reasoned out as she slumped onto the side of the bench whilst looking at Li.

Li Jie remained unmoved and continued to stare down Hana, the fire remained stoked behind his eyes. Hana had no intention of making Li Jie anymore angry than he was at the moment, remaining in her curled up place until the man decided to calm down. Her head hung down, but every now and then her eyes would peer upward to see if Li Jie's expression had changed. But every-time she looked, he always stayed the same. She felt as though it was strange, she's never met someone who could remain this angry at her, let alone stare her down for this long. She could still feel his eyes strike down into her soul every time her gaze met his.

"I said sorry!" She reasoned out again, only to be responded with total silence from the man. She wondered how long Li Jie could even keep this up, is this what he did to students who misbehaved in his classes? Is this why some of the teachers don't talk to him? She thought it was just because he always smelt of smoke half the time. "Okay, okay! You broke me! I'll do whatever you want! Just stop looking at me like that!"

As before, her plea was left unanswered with the unwavering silence of the night. She remained cradled up against the bench as the seconds slowly turned into minutes, she felt as though she was there for ages. The night sky remained dark as usual as the sounds of the city slowly became quieter and quieter, despite edging closer to the hours of the morning. Feeling defeated, Hana switched to a position on her hands and knees and bowed to Li Jie in hopes that this can end with forgiveness. She thought that this was the ultimate Chinese way after all, to bow before someone was the ultimate sign of regret. Bringing her upper body from the bow, Hana came close to Li Jie's face as their eyes met at an unreasonable distance. Seeing how close they were, Hana flinched and pulled herself back, not realising how awkward it was.

Li Jie had not moved for the past ten minutes with Hana holding her heart, feeling the fast pace that her heartbeat was pounding, both from fear and embarrassment. Hana felt that something needed to be done in order for this to finish, as the both of them knew that something like this couldn't go on for the rest of the day. Taking a deep breath in, with a confident yet serious face, Hana brought herself from the ground and stood in front of Li Jie, placing both of her hands on her hips. Her head was held up high in comparison to Li Jie's who was still staring at the ground where Hana originally was.

"Listen here Li. We both know this can't go on for the rest of the day. We're work colleagues after all so we'll be seeing each other pretty much every weekday of each school term. It is very childish to keep grudges like this so I suggest we forgive and forget, and get on with our lives. Do you agree?" Hana tried to talk round with the best serious voice she could do. In a way, she was trying to imitate Li Jie, as he was the most serious person she had ever met. Holding her hand out for a handshake, Hana patiently waited for Li Jie to return the gesture, but he remained in place, staring at the ground.

She was getting pretty frustrated with Li Jie's behaviour, for a man as serious as him, he was acting extremely childish. Hana brought her hand away and frowned, upset at the fact that Li Jie had not forgiven her for her simple actions and that he had no intention of mending their acquaintanceship. "I said sorry you kn-" She began to apologise before something clicked in the back of her mind. The unchanged movements and the complete silence was definitely something out of Li Jie's character. The only thing that could make him stop was her, her quirk. Hana's eyes widened as she realised what she had done, fear had exploded once again in her mind and overwhelmed her body as she took a step back.

Looking down at her hands, Hana realised that as soon as she clicked her fingers, Li Jie would hunt her down. But she also knew that she couldn't leave him in this state, as it wouldn't look good for the school if she had left another teacher like this, especially out in public. Walking away a few metres away from Li Jie, Hana readied herself in a starting position, with the intent of sprinting for her life to the other side of the city. Her left hand ready to click, Hana took one deep breath in before the run of her life was about to commence. The instant her fingers snapped and the click echoed around the deserted area, Hana took off without hesitation, creating distance between her and the monster she had just created.

Subsequently, Li Jie's body began emitting smoke that drifted from his nose, mouth and ears as well as from underneath the bandages on his wrists. As the grey smoke slowly drifted up into the atmosphere, Li slowly looked up into the night sky and inhaled through his mouth loudly.

"KOJIMA!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, his voice rung throughout the city of Musutafu.

### 2:23 AM

The smoke had yet to calm as Li Jie walked through the empty streets of the city, making every area he walked into smell of smoke. He did hold some grudge for Hana, but there was something to a morning stroll that could fix most problems in life for him. Besides, it wasn't like Hana was going to be showing her face anytime soon after what had happened. Looking around, Li Jie saw an empty bench with an open newspaper on one of the seats. Deciding to take a look, Li Jie approached the bench with his eyes focused on the words written in the newspaper. The black symbols made out words, that would make out sentences, that would then make out paragraphs. However, it was what the words were describing that Li Jie took an even greater interest in.

Sitting beside the newspaper, Li turned his head before picking the newspaper on either side with both hands, bringing the paper in front of him to see what it was talking about. His eyes scanned the document to process what it was on about, noticing that words such as *protest*, *shooting*, and *metal giant* appeared commonly within the article. It was crazy to think that this had just happened yesterday and that neither police or local pro-heroes we're able to do anything about it.

Closing the newspaper up and chucking it to the side of the bench it was found on, Li Jie leaned back into his seat and stared at the stars above. He contemplated how his time at U.A. went and how he saw the other teachers. Out of all of them, the only one he could really count as his "friend", was Hana, even though he didn't like the idea of it. The smoke from his body dissipated and slowly began fading the calmer Li Jie got, before his body completely stopped smoking. He felt regret for the way he exemplified himself to Kojima, and how she became ever so fearful of him, especially after this morning. Stretching his arms outward, Li Jie was thinking of how he was going to apologise to Hana once he saw her again if he ever saw her again.

Footsteps nearby caused Li Jie's ears to perk up, making him fix his posture to sit upright. Thinking that it was Hana coming back to see if he was okay, Li Jie tried to act cool and calm to show that he's recovered. The footsteps proceeded to increase in volume as they got closer to Li Jie.

"Hana?" Li Jie asked before turning his head to see who it was from out of view.

What Li Jie saw, however, was an entirely different figure, a woman with a top tied up to cover her chest and expose her stomach, jeans reaching down past her ankle with one sleeve ripped off, and black hair tied with a single white ribbon. In her hands, a blade drawn from its sheath which hung by the side of her pants, cutting the air as she approached him. His instinctive fear immediately kicked in, encouraging Li Jie to run away due to the fact that the person was coming closer to him with a drawn weapon. Pulling himself off from the seat, Li Jie kept his eyes on the woman and her sword, steadily walking away from her to the nearest exit that he could escape through. What was strange about the woman was not just because she had brought her sword out or the deadly glare she as giving him, but the strange blue light that was appearing under her skin, glowing with a familiar glow that reminded Li of one of his students.

"Wh-whose there? Who are you? Have we met?" Li Jie asked, trying to buy some time with trivial questions.

The woman didn't answer and continued to approach him, only making Li Jie more nervous the closer she came. Holding his hands out, smoke was beginning to form on the palms as a warning for her to back off, but it seemed as though the woman didn't get the gist of such message. Closing his eyes, Li Jie looked away as his palms shot forward two thick missiles of smoke directly at the woman.

As the smoke quickly flew towards the woman's face, she had swiftly brought forth her free arm to punch directly at the smoke shots, instantly blowing them back with the force that carried off from her hand. Looking back to the woman, Li Jie was surprised to see that she was still standing even though he had sent two of his Choking Shots to stun her. Leaning forward whilst bringing both hands behind his position, Li Jie allowed even more smoke to seep through as he charged the attack, watching the woman proceed to inch towards him. Desperately trying to ward off the assumed assailant, Li Jie threw both hands forward once at the mysterious woman with thicker smoke shots.

Ill-prepared this time, the two shots exploded into a cloud of smoke on the woman's face, covering both her sight and choking the air out of her for the time being. Li Jie could hear the violent wheezing and cough that the woman forced after being hit with the smoke. Taking this opportunity to retreat, Li Jie ran to the nearest exit whilst the woman was distracted, keeping note of the fading volume of the woman's pain the further he got away. His feet were moving by themselves and his arms were pushing him forward without needing to be controlled by him, his whole body was motivated by threat and fear to get away as fast as possible.

Li Jie, however, didn't take into account where he was and what route he had taken, usually, he would have asked others the exit to areas like this but it was still the morning; the area was totally deserted besides him and his attacker. Swinging his head left to right, Li Jie chose to take a chance with whatever direction looked good, prompting himself run in the closest direction to remain out of sight.

He didn't know where he'd be going, just somewhere away from that woman is good enough for him. The echoing sound of his footsteps reverberating in the area didn't help to hide his cover anyway, but the further he would go the little that could matter in this situation. The longer he ran, the more tired he was getting, as the place he chose to walk his morning stroll seemed to be a labyrinth of small shops and buildings. It was either really big, or he was running around in circles. Li Jie wanted to see if he could see the exit on top of one of the buildings, the only problem there was how he was going to do that, and the risk of being seen by the strange woman. Li Jie stopped in his tracks, thinking that he might have gotten far enough from the attacker, to see if there was any way to scale the buildings. Whilst producing smoke was handy and all, it didn't grant him the best travelling capabilities. After all, he did have to come to Japan in boat due to the risk he would put other passengers if he travelled by plane.

Seeing no possible way of getting up, Li Jie continued on his way, keeping a lookout for anything to climb up to get on top of a building.

"HELP! SOMEONE!"

Li Jie's ears perked up again, this time recognising the voice, a voice he became all too familiar with tonight. Moving his route to the direction of the voice, Li Jie followed the call without a second thought, it was a cry for help, and it was a hero's duty to answer it. His feet picked up a pace faster than the one he had running away, it seemed he felt stronger when he was the one chasing rather than running from.

"SOMEONE PLEASE!"

The cries were getting desperate by the second, she was definitely in trouble, all that he was thinking about was getting there in time and saving her. The more he followed in that direction, the louder some particular sounds got; the breaking of ground, menacing laughter, and innocent sobbing. Although he didn't know who could have been making two of those sounds, he already knew who was making the last one. He didn't know it at first, but he couldn't believe what he was doing. He was going to save *her*, the one annoyance that irritated him the most, who at the same time was the one friend that he had in the life he knew. Li Jie didn't want to let that go, as this was the first time he would experience a special need to care for someone else, other than himself.

"IM COMING!" Li Jie called out in response, hoping that the voice would reply back. "HANA IM COMING!"

Turning around the corner of one of the buildings, Li Jie finally saw what was happening, a woman dressed in a white top and black skirt with a noticeable yellow, butterfly hairpin on the side of her head, and a large robot with three red eyes that he was knows well. And not too far from them was Hana Kojima, lying on the ground, battered and bruised with pieces of her clothing ripped. The ground around them was cracked with bits of rock and concrete scattered across the floor, a fight had been brought here with the obvious winners still standing over their defeated opponent.

"Well, well, well. Is this the back up you called in earlier? Is one man what you Pro-Heroes in Japan call, *backup*?" The lady with the yellow hair clip jokingly asked.

"Calm it yeah. I know this man. And I think he knows me. We better finish business here because it'll be morning soon." The robot replied, its monotone and electronic voice warning the lady.

"Yeah, yeah. Just let a girl have some fun. I barely get to do any fighting with my line of work." The lady asked as she pulled out a vial filled with orange liquid from behind her. Taking the cap that was secured on the opening, the woman quickly sculled the whole drink before wiping the excess off her lips. "You can finish up with the girl whilst I have a bit more fun."

The robot didn't answer, allowing the lady to proceed with another fight, who was all too excited to combat with a shocked Li Jie. Li Jie stood in place as he saw what had happened to Hana, but hearing the woman's order to finish up with her gave Li Jie some sense of relief. To him, it sounded as though Hana was still alive, to some degree. Thick smoke began drifting off his body literally pouring out from Li Jie's wrists and hands, and from his ears, nose and mouth. He looked at the approaching lady with displeasure and a threatening glare, he was going to make sure that he was going to make her pay for what she had done to his *friend*.

Without a moment to waste, Li Jie held an open palm in the direction of Hana and launched a ball of smoke that quickly drifted over to Hana's location. Before the robot could react, the smoke ball instantly and softly exploded over Hana's body, masking her appearance. The robot's sight was stunned for the moment, causing it to step backwards whilst waving its arm in front to blow the smoke away. Quickly acting, Li Jie ignored the lady who was approaching him and ran straight for Hana, his arms held down in a scooping position in order to catch and lift Hana during his Escape. The lady, however, was not going to allow it, noticing that Li Jie was not focusing on her and instead on the former opponent. Intending to stop Li Jie, Hana followed Li Jie's looks and moved as soon as he did, tackling him as soon as both their paths collided. With remarkable strength, the lady had grabbed and forced Li Jie into a building nearby, causing Li Jie to crash into the stone wall and fall back onto the ground. Now he knew who the menacing laughter was coming from, as the lady produced the same chilling sounds as before.

"You can talk to your girlfriend later. But first, I want you to pay attention to me." The lady explained as she leapt towards Li Jie's location.

Hearing her words made Li Jie blush a little, knowing that there were no feelings like that in their "friendship". Recovering from his injuries, Li Jie swiftly leapt forward out of the way of the woman's jump and closer to Hana, the robot still shaking off the smoke cloud to see where his target was. He could hear the woman land right behind him, a small shockwave rippling through the ground that had moved the smoke covering Hana.

"Where are you going sweetie? I'm not done playing with you!" The woman called out.

Li Jie had no time to look back as Hana was the prime concern at this very moment. Doing what he had done before, Li Jie moved his arms into a scooping position in order to catch Hana as soon as he reached her. With the robot distracted and the woman behind him, Li Jie had only seconds to make use of before he could suffer the same fate as Hana. Lowering his body, Li Jie pushed his arms forward and scooped Hana off the concrete floor, quickly lifting his arms to bring Hana closer to his body in order to hold a better grip on her body. The rough concrete scrapped the back of his hands and wrists, but at least he was able to get Hana and get away in one piece. There was no looking back, but only looking for escape so that they could reach the safety of public eyes, well, eyes of anyone who was awake at this time.

"You idiot, you let them get away!"

"I thought you were handling that guy! I was supposed to be dealing with the unconscious girl."
"Well look where she is now!"

"Piss off. You're the one with your H serum."
"You've got the big robot armour."

"Size doesn't fucking matter."
Li Jie smiled as the voices drifted off into the distance, sure there wasn't a dramatic fight he thought there would be, but a quick pick up and escape were all that was needed. As he ran for his and Hana's life, he could feel Hana's body shifting around as continued running. Looking down, he saw Hana slowly lift open both her eyes looking up at him. A faint smile could be seen on her face followed by a weak giggle, something that in turn made Li Jie smile himself.

"So. You're not mad at me anymore?" Hana asked in a weary voice.

Li simply shook his head, "Nah. How can I stay mad at the only friend I've got."