Even from the beginning, he had been having a bad day.

First, he was late and had been scolded in front of the woman he loved. Then he was patrolling when an old lady walked up to him and asked for help. Her kitty was stuck on top of a building. So, he momentarily left to aid the poor woman. But once he got out, he found the crab. He had foolishly charged in, thinking that if he beat this, his team leader would see him in a good light again. Instead, the monster had been much stronger than he expected and now he was in its pincer.

He was readying for death, accepting it, when he heard laughter. He turned to find the same odd little girl from before, laughing like something was hilarious. He wanted to pull out his hair. Did that girl have a death wish?! He told her to run, but she didn’t listen. She aggravated the crab even more, and then he attacked!

Johnny had closed his eyes and waited for the undeniable sound of her screaming. Then the impossible happened. He was flung into the air, screaming. He may have peed his pants a bit, but it didn’t matter. What did matter was who accomplished just a feat.

The girl was standing in the middle of the road, with red hot flames surrounding her like a tornado of chaos and death. Johnny stared in shock. The power radiating off of this girl. . .it was nothing short of miraculous. The heat made the ground crack and bulge, the pressure emanating from her being too much for the ground to contain.

And her eyes. . .they gleamed brightly in the shadows of her cloak. Two ingots of energy, illuminated from the darkness cast by the cloak. In her right hand was a katana, which she twirled expertly. Johnny watched as she opened her mouth and said, “Let’s do this.”

The crab bellowed and rushed toward again. The girl stared it down until she. . .vanished?! No. She just moved extremely fast. One second, he'd been staring directly at her. The next, she appeared in the air 5 feet above the crab. She'd crossed 10 meters in the time it took him to blink.

She stayed in the air above the crab, lifting her sword high over her head. Flames trailed after her body, highlighting the path she took to reach the crab. Those same flames disappeared in an instant, almost as if the katana transformed into a vacuum, sucking in all the fire. The sword became enveloped in flames and she brought it down onto the crab’s head.

The resulting clash blew him off his feet, and that ended up saving his life. Lashes of blistering heat spiraled out of control from the point of impact, burning through everything it touched, including the numerous stores. To his greater shock, however, the crab had somehow reacted in time and brought up his remaining pincer in an attempt to block the blow.

The girl grit her teeth and the heat intensified. The flames swirled and came together to form a vaguely humanoid shape. Whatever it was, it followed the girl's every movement. When the girl slashed down at the shell, the flame monster did the same. The instant it touched the shell, a huge explosion occurred, making Johnny eat the ground again. This time though, it seemed to have done serious damage to the crab; the shell was smoldering and the torched-raw flesh underneath was visible in some parts.

“Eeeeee!” the crab shrieked as he crumpled. The summoning of the flame beast and the explosion seemed to have depleted her of her Fire Arts, because she wasn't using them; the heat in the air was slowly turning down and the space around her no longer shimmered. The flames on her katana had also faded away into nothing. She wasn’t done yet though; she weaved elegantly between the legs of the crabs, cutting through the limbs with practiced ease. Narrowly avoiding being trampled by swerving and ducking and jumping, she was absolutely relentless in her endeavors, knocking a stray leg into another one and causing the crab to collapse. She took advantage of his vulnerability to jab her sword through his underbelly, eliciting a loud shriek from him.

Could she be. . .a prodigy?

It certainly seemed so as she continued fighting. Dropping to the ground to avoid a desperate slash, she got back up and slid the katana out of the crab's body, resulting in another cry of pain. Darting out from underneath the crustacean, she continued her onslaught by stabbing out one of the eyes and cutting through the other. Enraged, the crab lunged forward, trying to bite the girl. She slammed her sword into the mouth instead and punched the crab in the face. To Johnny's shock, the crab actually reacted, recoiling and letting go of her sword. In one last desperate move, he slammed his pincer into the girl. She barely managed to block it with her sword, and the blow managed to send her crashing backward into a wall.

Johnny gasped. What was he doing? He should help her! He pried himself free and hit the ground. The earth shook and tremored as his Art got to work. Cracks formed in the nearby buildings, but his attention was only on a particular structure. The crab was making a beeline for the girl, having heard her impact. It was now or never!

“Avalanche!” he cried. Just as the crab passed underneath a building, a section of that same building collapsed. The crab barely had time to look up and scream before he was buried underneath a pile of debris and metal. He tried valiantly to push himself back up but staggered underneath the weight and gasped.

“Stop it, idiot!”

Johnny turned around to find the girl glaring. . .at him! Why? He was just protecting everybody!

“There are people inside!” she said. Johnny’s eyes widened. Now that was he paying attention, he spotted several bodies lying nearby the debris the crab was trapped under. He gasped when he noticed blood seeping out from underneath them. Oh no! He waved his hand around and earthy walls sprouted up from the ground, protecting them from any further damage. They needed to end this as quickly as possible and give the civilians medical help.

“Just leave the rest to me!” the girl insisted as she ran over to the crab. Johnny opened his mouth to protest but it was too late.

The girl let out a battle roar before charging. Holding a hand out, a sphere of molten-golden fire formed over her palm. It suddenly increased in size and then decreased, almost as if she couldn't control it completely. The crab spotted the attack forming and shrieked, "Please, spare me! I beg of you!"

Johnny could no longer hear the girl over the intense crackling of the fireball in her hand, but he saw it in her eyes: there was no mercy to be found in there. She launched the fireball, a stream of light streaking through the sky before landing on the crab and engulfing him. His screams quickly faded away as the sounds of flesh burning filled the sky instead. He let out one last shriek of agony before collapsing for the last time, the flames still spluttering. The girl turned around and quirked an eyebrow.

Johnny gulped. He was no fool. This teenage girl had just taken out a crab that was easily one of the stronger Artists in San Fransisco. It didn’t look like she was a student either, which meant she was most likely untrained. If this was her raw power, he didn’t want to think about what she could do trained.

He stared at her. She looked like a goddess. Sometime during the fight, her long ginger hair had fallen out of her cloak. It now dangled across her back, flitting with the wind. Flames swirled around in the hair and sparks constantly flew off of it. It resembled molten lava taken form. Her eyes seemed to be a storm, which you could not escape from once you looked in. She sighed and pushed her sword back into her cloak, making it seemingly disappear. Her hair shifted into a more normal cream color and dropped down onto her back.

“Damn it. I wasn't good enough," she mused out loud, clenching her fist.

Johnny gaped. That hadn’t been good enough!? She'd successfully taken him down with minimal casualties and damages done to the block! Just what was this girl? She turned around and glared at Johnny. He gulped. Was she going to target him now? Apparently so.

“What the hell was that out there?” she asked. Johnny arched an eyebrow in annoyance.

“I was helping.” he shot back.

The girl snorted. “Helping? You call that helping?”

Johnny was getting infuriated with this girl. Who did she think she was? Now that the high of the battle was wearing off, the shame at letting a civilian put their life in danger crept in. No matter how powerful this girl might be, he was still a licensed hero and had government backing. He had more authority than her, and it was time to act like it. “Yes, I call it helping!”

The girl crossed her arms. “First of all, I didn’t need help. At least, not that much. There were other, way more important people you should have prioritized if you wanted to save people so badly. Second, take a look around you. Take a good look.”

Johnny begrudgingly did as she asked. He couldn’t see what she was talking about.

The girl scoffed. “You don’t see it, do you?” Johnny shook his head. “You people are so focused on supposedly saving the world at any cost. You’re so used to it you can’t even see it! Look at the damage!”

Now that Johnny took another look, he could definitely see the signs of battle. Flames crackled across the road. Every single store on either side of the road was completely damaged, and every window shattered. Some of the buildings had gaping holes in them, and others had vehicles poking out. But he recited the words his instructor had drilled into him.

“During the battle, one must always be vigilant; get all people out first, then engage. Do whatever you must-“

“In a clear battleground to take down the enemy before it causes harm, yeah, yeah, I know.” the girl interrupted. Johnny’s brows furrowed. How did this girl know that? Sure, it was well known in the military but she definitely wasn’t part of that.

“But if you would observe, you’d see that the damage caused is by you! I could have dealt with it myself with no damage!”

Johnny opened his mouth to refute that ridiculous claim. "Really? There are fires everywhere, and some of the shops are on fire. You got slammed into a building and that explosion you did? That destroyed way more windows than anything I ever did. In fact, I was handling this pretty well before you showed up!"

She scoffed. "Right, if you call about to get eaten by a crab good."

He sighed. "At least I kept the damage to a minimum. I don't know what you have against heroes but all the heroes I know personally have always put people first over glory or victory. That's the job of a hero, and I swore an oath to uphold that vow."

She didn't seem convinced. "Rogue "supervillains" aren't the main problem here, is it?" The way she worded it made it clear to Johnny that she knew the truth; the existence of the Arias. Mysterious beasts that came to wherever humanity was assembled and were completely immune to conventional weapons. Only Circuits could do a thing. But just how much did this girl know?

“I’m going to have to report you," he finally said. She knew way too much and he didn't know how to handle this situation. Better to pass her off to his superiors.

At this, the girl’s head went up. "Aw, damn it! See, this is why I didn't want to help. Stupid, stupid, should have thought this through."

Johnny sighed. She had done a good thing, though she could work with the attitude. And he owed her his life. The rules were absolute, though. No civilian with Circuits may be able to use their Arts in public against somebody else. The general public didn't know about the existence of the Circuits, and the government intended to keep it that way.

Once Johnny recited the law, the girl rolled her eyes. “That’s stupid. So what, I was supposed to let you die and have the crab go through other places? Harming more before finally being brought down? I don’t think so.” She looked down at the watch she was wearing. “Well, I have a date to catch, so bye!”

“You can’t just leave!”

The girl leaped up and landed neatly on top of a light. “What do you mean? I was never here in the first place. I melted all the cameras before coming here and nobody's going to believe a teenage girl handled that big bad monster by herself. Just chalk it up as your own for once, okay pal? And to get rid of that evidence. . .” She snapped her fingers and the flames died down to reveal a smoldering corpse where the crab had once been.

Johnny sighed. He knew she was right. The moment she had said that about the camera, he checked, and sure enough, they were a puddle of steaming metal. For the first time, he spotted the mischievous glint of a teenager in her eyes. He cracked a smile despite himself. After all, it hadn’t been that long ago he wore those same eyes.

"Remember to take care of the people!" she yelled, and with those parting words, the girl leaped onto the nearby roof and took off.

Right! Johnny scrambled to the walls he had hastily put into place and tore them down, revealing the civilians still alive. Molding dirt over the wounds as a form of a cast to prevent further blood loss Johnny withdrew his phone and dialed the hospital. When it was confirmed ambulances were coming her as quickly as possible, Johnny called his superiors instead.

“What have I gotten myself into?” he asked to no one in particular as the call ringed.

He was going to have a looooong report.