#nikific

The city had never been kind to people like her. Mutants were hunted, controlled, forced into submission—but she had never been one to bow. Not when she had power, real power, gleaming beneath her skin like a diamond waiting to be carved into a weapon.

And yet, here she was, sitting across from a boy who had no idea who she really was.

“You’re staring again,” Riki said, grinning as he sipped his drink.

She tilted her head, smirking. “Maybe I just like the view.”

He laughed, easy and carefree, a sound so foreign in her world that it almost made her uneasy. Riki was a civilian, an ordinary boy in an extraordinary city, blissfully unaware of the battle waging just beneath the surface. Maybe that was why she kept coming back to him—because he was normal, because he reminded her of something she’d never had.

“Careful,” he teased. “Keep looking at me like that and I’ll think you actually like me.”

She leaned forward, resting her chin on her palm. “And if I did?”

Riki blinked, caught off guard for a split second before shaking his head with a chuckle. “Then I’d ask what a girl like you is doing with a guy like me.”

The truth hovered on the tip of her tongue. Because you’re human. Because you don’t look at me with fear. Because you don’t know what I am.

Instead, she shrugged. “Maybe I like a little mystery.”

Riki grinned, but before he could respond, a commotion outside caught her attention. The air shifted, charged with something dangerous. Her fingers twitched at her side, the glimmer of diamond creeping up her skin as she instinctively prepared for a fight.

Riki noticed the change in her posture. “You okay?”

She forced herself to relax, to push the power back down. “Yeah,” she said, standing. “I just need some air.”

He frowned but didn’t question it. “I’ll wait here.”

She stepped outside, cold air biting against her skin, and immediately spotted the source of the disturbance. Enforcers. Armed and scanning the streets, looking for someone. Looking for her.

Her jaw tightened. She could take them—she always could. But not here. Not with him so close.

For the first time, she hesitated.

And then—

“Hey,” Riki’s voice pulled her back. He had followed her, standing just a step behind. His brows furrowed as he took in her tense stance. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

She turned to him, her lips parting—but the enforcers saw her first.

“There!”

The world seemed to slow.

Riki barely had time to react before she was moving, grabbing his wrist and pulling him with her. “Run.”

And for the first time, Riki realized—she wasn’t just a mystery.

She was something else entirely.

“Run.”

Riki barely had time to react before she was pulling him into the alleyway, her grip firm but careful. The enforcers’ heavy boots pounded against the pavement behind them, their voices barking orders, their weapons primed to shoot.

“Hey—what the hell is happening?” Riki panted, struggling to keep up. “Who are they?”

She didn’t answer. No time.

The alley was a dead end.

“Shit.”

Riki turned, chest heaving, his panic obvious. But when he looked at her, expecting fear, he found none. Instead, she stood tall, shoulders squared, her breath steady. And as the enforcers closed in, something changed.

Her skin began to shimmer.

Riki’s eyes widened as a crystalline layer spread across her body, starting from her fingertips and rushing upward like frost on glass. Her soft, warm flesh transformed into gleaming, unbreakable diamond, catching the dim city light and refracting it like a living prism.

The enforcers hesitated.

“Target confirmed,” one of them muttered. “Mutant class—”

She didn’t let him finish.

With inhuman speed, she launched forward, slamming her fist into the closest enforcer’s chest. The sheer force sent him flying into the wall, the concrete cracking on impact. Another raised his weapon, but before he could fire, she grabbed the barrel and crushed it in her grip, metal twisting like paper in her diamond fingers.

Riki could only stare.

The third enforcer tried to call for backup, but she turned to him, eyes glinting. “Put that down,” she said, her voice velvet-soft but filled with something commanding.

He stiffened. His hands twitched—fighting against himself—but he obeyed, dropping the radio. His pupils were dilated, his body rigid.

“What the—” Riki whispered, watching the man move as if puppeteered.

She took a step closer, gaze locked onto the enforcer’s. “Now turn around. Walk away.”

And just like that, he did.

Riki exhaled a shaky breath. “You—what was that?”

She turned to him, the diamond layer fading as her skin returned to normal, smooth and warm again. Her lips quirked up in the smallest of smirks. “Telepathy. A little persuasion, if you will.”

Riki ran a hand through his hair, eyes still wide with disbelief. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah,” she breathed, glancing at the unconscious enforcers. “We need to go.”

He didn’t argue.

As they slipped back into the shadows, Riki’s mind reeled. He had always felt there was something different about her—but this? This was beyond anything he could have imagined.

They didn’t stop running until they reached the lower district, where neon signs flickered weakly above shuttered storefronts and the air smelled like rain-soaked metal. Riki’s breath was ragged, but hers remained steady—like she had done this a thousand times before.

He finally tugged his arm free, turning to face her. “Okay,” he huffed. “We’re safe. Now you’re gonna tell me what the hell is going on.”

She wiped a smudge of dirt off her sleeve, unbothered by his outburst. “I saved your life.”

“Yeah, no kidding!” Riki threw up his hands. “From who? Why were they after you? Why were they after me?”

“They weren’t after you,” she corrected. “They were after me. You were just collateral.”

Riki swallowed. “Collateral? What does that even—” His voice trailed off as realization dawned. “Wait. You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

She didn’t deny it.

His stomach twisted. “So what are you? Some kind of—”

“Mutant,” she finished for him, voice devoid of shame. “And before you freak out, no, I don’t go around controlling people’s minds or turning into diamond just because I can.”

Riki shook his head, running a hand through his damp hair. “You crushed a gun with your bare hands.”

“And saved you from getting shot,” she pointed out.

He exhaled sharply. “I mean—yeah, but—”

Her gaze softened just a fraction. “Riki,” she said, quieter now. “The enforcers? They’re Corps. They’re rounding up mutants, sympathizers—anyone who doesn’t fit into their perfect little system. If they had caught me, I’d be locked in a lab or worse.”

Riki’s mind reeled. He had always known the world was getting worse, but hearing it this clearly—from someone who had seen the worst of it—was different.

“And you?” he asked hesitantly. “What do you do?”

Her lips curled into something between a smirk and a grimace. “I even the playing field.”

A silence stretched between them, thick with unsaid things.

Then, distant sirens howled.

She tensed. “We should keep moving.”

Riki hesitated. “Where are you going?”

She met his gaze, something unreadable flickering in her eyes. “You sure you want to know?”

He had no reason to follow. No reason to trust her.

But he did.

“…Yeah,” he murmured. “I do.”

Her smirk turned knowing, and without another word, she turned and walked into the night.