Chapter 6: The Redemption of Red (Or: How to Gaslight Your Neighbors into Loving Their Kids)
[A/N:Took me three hours to finish this because my girlfriend has been koala-hugging me the entire time. She's officially my biggest fan (and my biggest distraction)!]
(Sunny Midoriya POV)
I was standing on the sidewalk in front of the Himiko residence. Behind me, the 'Chaos Crew' was assembled. Izuku was holding one end of a giant "ADVENTURE TIME" banner, looking earnest and hopeful. Aqua was holding the other end, though she was mostly using it to shade herself from the sun while complaining that her 'divine skin' was at risk of freckling.
"Okay, boys and... whatever Aqua is," I announced, adjusting my white gloves. "Operation: Sanguine Sunshine is a go."
We marched to the door. I didn't just ring the bell; I pulled out a giant mallet and hit a brass gong that appeared out of thin air. BONGGGGG.
The door creaked open. Mrs. Himiko stood there, her face looking like it had been carved out of a very sour lemon. She saw the banner, the excited Izuku, and the floating, glowing version of me.
"Himiko is ill," she said, her voice like a freezing winter wind. "She is being a 'bad girl' today. She needs to stay in her room until she can learn to be normal. Now, go away."
SLAM.
The door didn't just close; it felt like the entire world had lost its color for a second. Izuku's shoulders slumped. "Oh no... poor Toga-chan."
I didn't get angry. Getting angry is for people who have to follow the rules of the physical world. I felt a cold, mischievous spark light up in my chest. I reached into my ear and pulled out a thick, leather-bound script.
"Wait a minute," I muttered, flipping through the pages. "The script says Toga is supposed to be out here playing. The script says we're supposed to be bonding over red crayons and chaos."
I looked at the closed door. I looked at the 'Author' (who I'm pretty sure was currently typing this while drinking an energy drink).
"Did the author change the script again?!" I shouted at the sky. "Or are these parents just improvising their own tragedy? Either way, I don't like the direction of this scene."
I ripped the script in half. RRRRRIP.
"Sunny? What are you doing?" Izuku asked, his eyes wide.
"I'm resigning as the 'Nice Neighbor,' Izu-chan," I said, my voice dropping into a smooth, dangerous Bugs Bunny drawl. I pulled out a giant scroll that read THE LAWS OF PARENTING and tore that in half too.
"If they won't let her play, then I'm taking over as Director. From now on, their life is a Midoriya Production. And I'm feeling like a very... experimental filmmaker."
(Mrs. Himiko POV)
Finally. Silence.
I sat down on the sofa next to my husband. We just wanted a quiet evening. We just wanted Himiko to stop looking at people like they were juice boxes. We just wanted normal.
"Let's just watch the news, dear," my husband sighed, turning on the television.
[STATIC—BEEP—BEEP—BEEP]
The screen didn't show the local news. It showed a high-definition news desk. Sitting there, wearing an oversized suit and glasses that kept sliding down his nose, was the Midoriya boy. Sunny.
"Good evening, citizens of Boredom-ville!" Sunny said on the screen, shuffling a stack of papers. "I'm your host, Sunny 'Truth-Bomb' Midoriya. Our top story tonight: Local parents win the 'World's Coldest Heart' award! Scientists are baffled how two people can live with a daughter who is clearly a ray of sunshine, yet treat her like a leaky faucet!"
"What is this?" my husband gasped, fumbling for the remote. It wouldn't work. The buttons had turned into tiny, squishy marshmallows.
The screen cut to 'Hidden Camera' footage. It was Himiko, sitting alone in her dark room, hugging her knees. The music playing in the background was a single, mournful violin.
"In other news," TV-Sunny continued, leaning into the camera, "The Supreme Court of Cartoon Justice has just passed a new law. Anyone caught 'Grounding' a child for having a personality is now sentenced to... THE VOID."
Suddenly, a commercial started.
"Are you a parent?" a cheerful voice asked. "Do you hate your child's soul? Try Repress-It-All! Guaranteed to turn your kid into a ticking time bomb! Side effects include: haunting guilt, empty hallways, and a daughter who eventually forgets how to smile!"
The screen showed a picture of me and my husband, but our faces were shadowed and monstrous, like villains from a nightmare.
"Turn it off!" I screamed. "Pull the plug!"
My husband yanked the cord from the wall. The TV stayed on. TV-Sunny just looked at us through the dark screen and winked.
"See you in the morning, folks. Don't let the guilt bite."
(Mr. Himiko POV)
I couldn't sleep. I decided to go to work early, hoping the fresh air would clear the hallucinations.
I walked toward the train station, but the city had... changed. I looked up at a giant billboard that usually advertised beer. Now, it was a massive, glowing picture of Himiko's tear-stained face.
WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME, DAD? the text read in giant, dripping red letters.
I stumbled back, my heart hammering. I saw my best friend, Tanaka, standing by a coffee stand. I ran to him. "Tanaka! You won't believe what's happening! My house, the TV—"
Tanaka turned around. He was wearing his usual suit, but he had a tiny, waxed mustache and a very familiar mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Hey, pal," Tanaka—who sounded exactly like that Midoriya kid—said, leaning in. "Did you hear the latest gossip? People who don't let their kids be themselves end up in the 'Empty Room' in the afterlife. It's a place where the only sound is the crying of the child you broke. Pretty spooky, huh?"
"You're... you're not Tanaka!" I shrieked.
"I'm whoever the script needs me to be, bub," he whispered, then vanished in a puff of smoke that smelled like carrots.
I looked down at the sidewalk. My shadow wasn't following me. My shadow had detached itself from my feet. It had grown long hair and was reaching out its shadow-arms, trying to give me a hug.
"Daddy?" the shadow whispered.
I didn't go to work. I ran home.
(Mrs. Himiko POV)
I needed groceries. I needed to get out of that house.
I walked into the supermarket, my hands shaking. I just needed milk. Order. Normalcy. But as I walked down the aisle, the walls started to stretch. The cereal boxes grew taller, leaning over me like judgmental giants.
I saw two women leaning over the frozen peas. They were wearing floral dresses and wide-brimmed hats. As I got closer, I realized they both had the same face. Sunny's face.
"Oh, did you hear about the woman on the next block?" Sunny-Woman 1 said, her voice a perfect imitation of a neighborhood gossip. "She's trying to 'fix' her daughter's Quirk. It's like trying to teach a bird not to fly!"
"How tragic!" Sunny-Woman 2 replied, dabbing an eye with a handkerchief. "She's not a mother; she's a taxidermist! She wants a doll, not a child. I heard people like that catch 'Gray-Scale Fever' and eventually just... fade away."
I reached for a box of cereal, my breath coming in short gasps. The mascot on the box—a cheerful rabbit—suddenly turned into a crying Himiko. The text changed from 'Honey Loops' to WHY ARE YOU ASHAMED OF ME?
The PA system cut out with a screech. [CUE SAD TROMBONE]
"Cleanup on Aisle 4!" Sunny's voice boomed over the speakers. "We have a spilled childhood and a massive ego! Please bring a mop and some unconditional love to the pharmacy section! Hurry, before the damage is permanent!"
I dropped my basket and ran. I didn't care about the milk. I just wanted to escape the whispers.
(Sunny Midoriya POV)
Phase 4: The 'Old Grey Hare' Twist.
I sat on the roof of the Himiko house, checking my watch. It was midnight. Below me, I could hear the parents sobbing in their bed.
"Time for the deep-dive," I whispered. I snapped my fingers.
[GULP]
In their dreams, the world turned gray. They were in their house, but it was empty. No furniture. No sound. Just the wind whistling through the cracks.
They walked into Himiko's room. In the center of the floor was a small, gray mound of dirt. A headstone sat at the top.
HERE LIES HIMIKO'S HAPPINESS. KILLED BY 'NORMALCY'.
The parents fell to their knees, crying just like Elmer Fudd after he thinks he killed Bugs Bunny. Huge, crystalline tears splashed onto the gray floor.
"We're sorry!" they wailed. "We were just scared! We didn't want people to look at us! We'll look at you now, Himiko! Please!"
Suddenly, the gray walls began to pulse. A heartbeat thudded through the house. [THUMP-THUMP]
The door burst open. A giant, fifty-foot-tall Toga stood there. She wasn't scary—she was vibrant. Her eyes were glowing gold, and she was holding a giant bucket of red paint.
"WHY WON'T YOU LOOK AT ME?!" she roared, her voice a chorus of a thousand happy children.
She tipped the bucket. A tidal wave of warm, red paint—shaped like millions of tiny hearts—flooded the room. It wasn't blood. It was love. It was life. It was everything they had tried to suppress. It drowned them in warmth, pulling them under a sea of crimson joy.
(Sunny Midoriya POV)
I was sitting on Toga's windowsill when the sun came up. I was holding a juice box and a red crayon, drawing a picture of a dragon on a piece of toast.
The door to the room flew open. Mr. and Mrs. Himiko burst in, their eyes red and puffy, their clothes rumpled. They looked like they had been through a war.
They saw Toga sitting up in bed, looking confused. They didn't scold her. They didn't tell her to be quiet. They both lunged forward and pulled her into a hug so tight she made a little [SQUEAK] sound.
"We're sorry, Himiko!" her dad sobbed. "Be weird! Be red! Just don't leave us in the gray!"
"You don't have to be normal," her mom choked out. "Just be Himiko."
I hopped down from the windowsill. I felt the '10-Ton Weights' of guilt that had been dragging behind the parents suddenly vanish with a [POP].
I snapped my fingers. The house, which had been feeling dim and oppressive, suddenly burst into full Technicolor. The flowers in the wallpaper started to bloom, and the sunlight through the window turned a brilliant, golden yellow.
"Well, well," I said, leaning against the bedpost. "Looks like the Director is happy with this take. Good job, parents. You finally learned your lines."
I walked over to Toga and gave her a firm, solid head-pat. She looked at me, her eyes wider than I'd ever seen them, and she started to laugh—a real, bubbly, chaotic laugh.
"See you at kindergarten, Toga-chan," I grinned.
The Kindergarten Gate
Ms. Hina was standing at the gate, her eye twitching. She saw the Midoriya twins, the blue-haired goddess, and the explosion-boy. She braced herself.
Then she saw Toga. And Toga's parents.
They were holding Toga's hands. They were wearing bright red scarves. Mrs. Himiko even had a small smudge of red paint on her cheek and was smiling.
"Good morning, Ms. Hina!" Mrs. Himiko said brightly. "Himiko has some extra red crayons today if anyone wants to share!"
Ms. Hina stared. She looked at me. I gave her a casual wave and a HONK of my nose.
"What... what did you do?" she whispered.
"Just a little script doctoring, Teach," I said.
Aqua marched up, looking at the scene with a huff. "Finally! The red girl has proper servants. Now, Sunny, as for that Tsundere Boom Boom Boy..." She pointed at Bakugo, who was currently trying to kick a butterfly. "He's being especially 'Tsun' today. Don't mind him, Toga. He just needs a hug and a muzzle."
"I'LL MUZZLE YOU, YOU WATER-HEAD!" Bakugo yelled.
I laughed, reached out, and gave Aqua her ritual head-pat. She melted into her puddle-state with a long, divine sigh. Then I gave Toga a pat too. She leaned into it, her messy buns bobbing.
"Alright, crew! Let's go inside! I hear today's lesson is on 'Gravity,' and I've got a few corrections to make to the textbook!"
As we walked in, I saw a black car pull up. A man with long black hair and a very tired expression stepped out, holding a capture weapon.
"Is this the place?" the man—Aizawa—muttered, looking at the glitter-covered building.
"Oh boy," I chuckled. "The Eraser is here. This is gonna be a great Season Finale."