Saizo was expecting a strong reaction, and urged Charlotte to go home to recover when he went to meet the prince and Kagero back at the Royal Agency. This hadn't been her plan, and he didn't think it would be fair to have her face the music with him. She must have been tired, because she agreed with only a little protest.

He wasn't disappointed on the reaction.

"You did what?!" Kagero yelled, as Orochi covered her face.

Prince Ryoma's reaction was the worst - he merely looked disappointed.

"What's done is done," Saizo said.

Kagero's nostrils flared and she began to say something else, but stopped when Queen Mikoto raised her hand.

"We can discuss that later."

Kagero tilted her head in acknowledgement, but she was still glaring at Saizo. He took a step out of her reach.

"You think the information Kotaro gave you is accurate?" the queen asked.

"It fits with what we already suspected," Saizo said. He couldn't be completely certain that it was true, but he did believe it. "His surprise about hearing the planned attack on the coronation was genuine."

Queen Mikoto nodded. "This is disturbing news about President Garon, but does it change anything? The NNF have already been arrested."

Orochi shook her head, making the entire room turn to look at her. "No, I think there was something in my vision." She screwed up her face in concentration. "You said his quirk was teleportation, right? There was… something…"

Kagero took Orochi's hand and squeezed it, making her jump. But she opened her eyes and smiled briefly.

"The way the shadow moved…" Grim faced again. "I think it's him."

"This 'Iago' is your shadow of death?" Kagero said.

Prince Ryoma and the queen exchanged a look. "Should we cancel the ceremony?" she asked.

"It would just have to take place at another time," the prince said. "And he might be able to recruit more allies by then. We'll send someone to check out the location Kotaro indicated." He gave Kagero a significant look, and she nodded. "If they aren't able to find anything, we'll increase security again, but go ahead as planned.

Queen Mikoto frowned, but only replied, "I imagine that Yukimura will share your opinion; cancelling now would damage our image abroad."

Saizo had mixed feelings. Of course by any logical standard, he agreed with Prince Ryoma - it wasn't worth stopping the coronation because of the threat posed by one man. However, there was also Orochi's vision to consider. The futures she predicted could be averted, but the danger in them was very real. Of course, that was to be expected in their profession, but…

Charlotte.

He remembered what she'd said about attending the coronation with Siegfried, Garon's son, but that wouldn't have put her in such a dangerous position. Kagero was in just as much danger, but being a bodyguard for Prince Ryoma meant she was always at risk. Saizo accepted that like he accepted the risks to himself. Charlotte felt… different. As a hero with a local office, she probably would've been called up to be extra security for the coronation anyway. Saizo still couldn't help but feel that he was responsible for this.

I'll just have to trust that we can get through in one piece.


The day of the coronation was dull, with overcast clouds that threatened rain. It was not the weather than had been predicted, but it set off everyone's mood quite well, Charlotte thought. Kagero and Orochi had searched for the Black Bomber, but all they found were abandoned bases. There were enough traces to confirm that the explosives used and traded by the Black Bomber had been stored there, but the man himself and the explosives were long gone.

Everyone was nervous, even Saizo, as much as he tried to hide it. It was all the worse because they had nothing to do at the moment but wait for the procession from the palace. Traditionally, the rulers of Hoshido were crowned at the foot of the statue of the White Dragon, the mythological founder of the royal dynasty. That meant a meandering walk down from Shirosagi Castle at the top of the hill to White Square in the heart of Castletown, and Charlotte having to listen to the chatter of the other security - heroes and police alike - and the murmurs of the crowd already gathered in the square.

Benny gave her a subtle wave from the seats for the diplomats and most important guests. He wasn't completely better, but he'd still come in costume - because it was a public event, he said, but Charlotte knew he wouldn't hesitate to get involved if something were to go wrong. She hoped that Xander, sitting next to Benny, would look out for him. Xander had brought along a few handful of other heroes from the Siegfried Agency - including Peri, who got stronger by drinking other people's blood and had always been extremely creepy to Charlotte, but she was good to have around in a fight.

Kotaro was in the crowd as well, but he pretended not to know her. Charlotte smirked a little.

She, Saizo, and Rinkah were the ones assigned to the square, alongside two dozen police officers. It seemed too little for such a large, open space, but Kagero and Orochi would be joining them when the procession arrived, as well as Ryoma's siblings - all of whom had strong quirks.

Saizo was more worried about her than anyone else, which Charlotte found sweet but misguided. If it wasn't for Orochi's vision, she was sure Saizo would expect the prince to handle everything. But the square had been one of the primary targets of the NNF in their original plan; maybe this guy's teleportation quirk would let him find some way to adapt that original plan, or maybe he'd attack from a different angle.

The radio crackled in her ear. Kagero's voice sounded tired. "There was an explosion at the castle just after the royal family left. No injuries and no serious damage."

Someone else on the network let out a quiet 'woohoo' until Saizo cut them off. "Don't relax. I doubt that will be the only attack."

But there was nothing else for the hour it took the procession to reach the square.

They came in elaborate, ceremonial dress, with a seriousness that made it seem more like a funeral procession than a celebration. Prince Ryoma was in the lead, wearing elaborate red armour and a sword. Queen Mikoto and the royal siblings followed behind, dressed in relatively simple kimonos of white with gold edging. Kagero and Orochi, as well as a team of heroes and officers she didn't recognise, flanked the group.

Charlotte tensed as they approached the foot of the White Dragon statue, which had been prepared with an elegant rug and cushions for the occasion.

The drummers started up with a steady beat that echoed around the silent square. Kagero and Orochi split off from the group and took up the empty corner, to the east of Charlotte. The prince knelt whilst his siblings stood at his back. Queen Mikoto stood facing him. She reached for the crown on her head, and the music cut out abruptly when she lifted it off. Charlotte turned to catch Saizo's eye.

Then there was a deafening boom like she'd been punched in the ear, and the world was fire and heat as she was thrown across the square. She skidded across the floor, taking a layer of skin off her knee and hands, until she stopped. She stumbled as she stood. Her head was ringing but she could still hear faint screaming. The square was starting to empty, people pushing past one another to escape, leaving the royal family behind.

Charlotte finally caught her first glimpse of Iago as he appeared behind Kagero, holding another crude explosive and a knife. Orochi screamed something and Kagero ducked away without even looking, meaning the knife only got her in the shoulder. Charlotte saw Saizo rushing in out of the corner of her eye, helping the royals get to their feet. Princess Hinoka grabbed Sakura, the youngest sibling, before rising into the air and flying away. Queen Mikoto was already standing; though blood dripped down the side of her face, she managed to form a barrier in front of a sluggish Ryoma as Iago threw the bomb and it went off—

Charlotte shielded her eyes from it and winced against the wave of heat. Now she couldn't hear anything at all.

Where next? He came from the front, the side, so maybe he'll try—

The side she was meant to be guarding. She dashed forward, hoping the lag between his appearances would be enough for her to get there in time. The air seemed to shimmer in front of her and she halted abruptly. There was a brief impression of a shattered mask and Iago's lips parted in surprise before Charlotte punted him like a football.

Her aim was perfect but Iago teleported away before he could be impaled on the statue dragon's horns. She swore, whirling around to see where he might show up next. Kagero was being carried away by Xander - oh no, where's Benny? Please be safe - whilst Orochi seemed to be helping Prince Takumi away from the square. Prince Ryoma was sat up, but he looked disoriented, and the right side of his body, including his face, was covered in an angry red burn. Queen Mikoto was checking Lady Corrin over, to her daughter's protests. Rinkah patrolled the whole area with a scowl.

Saizo met her eyes and shook his head. Charlotte wasn't sure if he was talking about there being no sign of the bomber or something else entirely, but he didn't seem to be too badly off, so that was something.

That can't have been it, can it? Her head was pounding and she felt like she was about to throw up. The ground swam in front of her eyes for a moment before she forced herself to focus. Maybe Iago got scared from actually being hit and ran for it?

Before Charlotte could do more than look around the square, something large and black collided with her, shoving her out of the way.

"Benny!" she cried, although she couldn't hear her own voice and had no idea if he could either.

Fire blossomed against Benny's invisible barrier. She saw Iago's frown as the smoke began to clear—

"No you bloody well don't," Charlotte snarled, rushing at Iago before he could disappear. He tried to duck out of her reach, but she grabbed his long hair and made to slam him into the ground.

He never hit the dirt because suddenly Charlotte was weightless and breathless, she couldn't see or sense anything, just something squeezing her tighter and tighter—

And then the world came rushing back in a violent burst of colour and light. Charlotte realised she was thirty feet above the ground. She shrieked as they fell and Iago pulled himself loose, vanishing again, whilst Charlotte slammed into the ground arm first. The pain made her vision go black for a moment, and when she came back to herself, Saizo was kneeling next to her.

Charlotte blinked at him sluggishly. She still couldn't hear anything and she couldn't quite read his lips. He touched her cheek carefully, like she might break, which made Charlotte scowl and force herself to her feet. Saizo reached out to steady her when she stumbled and waved an officer over to help her away from the scene.

"Wait—" Charlotte said, but she cut herself off with a hiss of pain as she jarred her arm. Shit. I guess it's broken.

But she and the officer hadn't gone more than two steps before a wave of heat washed over her and then she was flat on the ground, trapped underneath something heavy - concrete? Spitting dust out of her mouth and ignoring the burning pain in her arm, Charlotte managed to shove the thing off her. Something lurched in her stomach and when she put her hand to it, it came away slick with blood.

It wasn't just concrete - it was a piece of the white dragon statue. One of the spikes had stabbed her. The injury wasn't that deep, but it was harder than before to stagger to her feet. But Charlotte was supposed to be a hero, so she couldn't let this slow her down.

The statue had been obliterated and pieces of it, large and small, were scattered everywhere. Charlotte couldn't see Saizo, Benny, or Rinkah, but she couldn't afford to spend energy worrying about them when there were other people who needed her help and Iago could come back at any moment.

She checked first on the officer who'd been supporting her. His leg was broken but he didn't seem to be in serious danger. He waved her away, so Charlotte started checking the rubble at the foot of the destroyed statue. Lady Corrin had transformed into a dragon-like thing and was tearing through the rubble. She hooked her clawed hands over large piece of rubble and tossed it aside. Under another stone was Queen Mikoto - or her body, limp and bloodied. Charlotte couldn't hear Corrin's screams, but she could feel them through her feet.

It was obvious that the queen was dead, and Charlotte had to prioritise the people who weren't beyond help.

A burst of flame caught her eye, and for a moment her stomach dropped out from under her as she braced herself for another explosion. But nothing came, and then she realised it was Rinkah - she was okay, and so was Benny. Iago was back and he darted between the two of them, trying to get to an unconscious Ryoma.

There were fresh scratches in Benny's armour and Rinkah was limping slightly, so there must have already been some close calls. Charlotte's arm throbbed something awful, but she couldn't just leave them.

She gritted her teeth, braced herself, and leapt forward just as Iago appeared. He recognised her with wide eyes and disappeared again before she could kick him.

Rinkah shouted something. Charlotte could see her lips moving, but blood was rushing through her ears and it made no sense to her at all. Rinkah finished up by snarling wordlessly and pointing down; Charlotte ducked, and a stream of fire went over her head. She hoped the burnt hair smell belonged to Iago.

It was a confusing two minutes of constant movement, constant watchfulness, that left Charlotte dizzy and breathless. Several times she nearly kicked Rinkah instead of Iago when he vanished suddenly, and Rinkah caught the edge of Charlotte's cape with one of her fire blasts. Iago favoured knives in close quarters and without Benny putting up barriers in rapid succession, she would've been gutted several times.

Then Benny's barrier was in slightly the wrong place. Iago found a gap, took a knife, and drove it into Charlotte's abdomen just under her ribs. She didn't hear the noise she made but it must have been garbled as all the breath left her at once. He pulled the knife out, and she hunched over, feeling warm blood slip through her fingers as she put pressure on it. She glanced up and saw the glitter of satisfaction in his eyes.

Charlotte headbutted him as hard as she possibly could.

Even she heard the screech of pain he gave as his nose broke and started bleeding profusely. He staggered back—

Rinkah's fire hit him full force. Charlotte could feel the heat on her face, like opening an oven. He screamed louder, leaping back from the fire and snarling at them. Charlotte tried not to look as unsteady on her feet as she felt. Most of his hair was burned away and the skin on his head and face was blistered and an angry red colour.

Iago vanished again, and she tensed, watch for his reappearance. She counted the seconds with the blood running along the edge of her fingers and falling off as droplets. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Nothing.

The three of them stood there, panting, choking on the smell of burnt hair.

"Does that mean he's not coming back?" Charlotte's voice sounded faint to her own ears.

Then her knees began to buckle and she nearly collapsed, only to have Benny catch her. He said something - she heard his voice - but the world was a blur and the noises made no sense. Pain was radiating out from her stomach, filling her whole body with fire.

Charlotte looked up at the sky as a raindrop hit her face. She blinked, and Benny's worried face stood over her. She blinked again and she was in a stretcher, someone was holding her hand...

Saizo was pale and there was a chunk missing from his ear. But he was standing and only looked tired, and that was important.

"You're okay," she said, relieved.

He startled at the sound of her voice and began to say something. She blinked—


Saizo put his hand on the door of Charlotte's private room, but couldn't bring himself to open it. It had been a day since the assassination, and Charlotte was still in recovery; even healing quirks couldn't work miracles against potential infections, so for the most part her stab wound was to heal naturally. The fight was over but she could still die.

Stabbed. She'd been stabbed and he hadn't been there. And there was no reason why this should upset him so much. He hadn't been there for the white line on her calf or the burn near her right hand's little finger. He could never be there for every injury. It still mattered.

It mattered too much and he didn't want to face her because he felt that he deserved some kind of reproach for his efforts and he knew he wouldn't get it. He remembered the way Charlotte's face had softened when she saw he wasn't badly injured and then she'd just become limp and lifeless, and it was like the earth collapsed beneath him for a moment before he realised she was only unconscious.

It wasn't—it wasn't fair. Saizo had always prided himself on his commitment to his role, on his level headedness. He was aware that he wasn't strictly "heroic". He had only become a hero to continue working as Prince Ryoma's bodyguard; even though he found the work worthwhile, his duties to the prince were his first priority and it had taken years on Ryoma's part before Saizo agreed to put other people first when he was working with 'Raijinto'.

And now… he would've thrown all those commitments aside in a moment if it meant guaranteeing Charlotte's safety. It terrified him to have so much of himself invested in another person. Maybe this was all a bad idea, but—

"Are you… okay?"

Saizo flinched, snatching his hand back from the door. It was hard to feel that Knight… that Benny wasn't a threat when he took up half the hallway and Saizo's nerves were frayed to thin threads.

"You just, uh." Benny cleared his throat awkwardly and shrank in on himself, utterly failing at trying to look smaller. "You'd been standing there a while."

So he'd been there for a few minutes and Saizo hadn't even noticed.

He also hadn't answered. "I was… distracted."

"Ah," Benny said. "A lot happened."

That was an understatement. Queen Mikoto was dead, despite all their efforts, Prince Ryoma was stable but unconscious, Kagero would need weeks to recover, and a dozen other innocents had lost their lives.

There was little that Saizo could do for them, but he still felt he ought to be doing something. Maybe by some miracle he'd find a clue to Iago's whereabouts and be able to bring him in, or he could look in on the progress of the NNF's interrogations, or…

But he wanted to be with Charlotte.

"Um…" Benny twisted his hands together. "She doesn't like hospitals very much. So… it might be nice if you're there. When she wakes up?"

Saizo stared at him, and Benny shrank back a little. "You haven't even met me."

"Well, no, but…" He shrugged helplessly. "She's been happy. That's enough."

Perhaps it really was just as simple as that. Doing his job well left Saizo satisfied. Spending time with Charlotte… actually made him smile.

"Alright," Saizo said, and walked into her room without a backwards glance.

With her delicate features, she looked frail and totally unlike herself, bandaged and tucked into the hospital bed. Saizo pulled up a chair and, finding the pulse at her wrist, felt a small amount of tension ebb away.

This is where I'm meant to be.

He woke with a start to someone running a hand through his hair. Saizo sat up suddenly, making Charlotte laugh and then wince as she clutched her stomach.

"Gods, I feel like my insides got ran over."

"It was quite clean, though," Saizo said. "Missed the major arteries and organs."

"Yay," Charlotte said, unenthused. Getting stabbed was hardly a pleasant experience at the best of times. "What about Rinkah and Benny?" She frowned. "I think I asked someone this before, but I was pretty out of it. I don't remember what they said."

"Both fine. The Oni needed stitches. Knight was more or less uninjured."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "And you?"

He touched his ear with only a slight grimace. "There was a close call. But it's superficial."

"You've still got your looks," Charlotte said. "Just about."

"Thanks."

Silence fell. The banter felt like just going through the motions. Saizo didn't quite know how to express everything - the guilt gnawing at the pit of his stomach, that he hadn't been there; the relief that it hadn't been worse; the way his heart beat faster at hearing her voice.

"So… what now?"

"Before anything else, you should concentrate on getting better."

Charlotte fluttered her eyelashes, showing him one of the winsome looks he privately thought of as 'Maiden smiles'. It only made him more aware of how… unwell she looked. "Having something to look forward to will help me cope with being stuck in bed for a while."

Saizo couldn't quite bring himself to smile back, but he laced his fingers through hers. "Well, I suppose we should… start at the beginning and see where we end up."

"Straightforward. That'll be a nice change." Her eyes lit up suddenly, bright and clear, a more natural expression that made Saizo feel at home. "Oh, I know! When I'm out of the hospital, I'll make you dinner."

"Do you cook?"

"Do I cook?" Charlotte grinned. "Listen, I am the best cook. Seriously, I dare you to do better."

"It's not a competition," Saizo said, but this time he couldn't help but smile at her energy.

Nearly all the things they'd feared might happen at the attack had happened. They were lucky that more people hadn't died, and he was lucky not to have lost Kagero and Charlotte both. Coming back from such an attack would be difficult; Queen Mikoto had been well-loved in Hoshido, not to mention how devastated the royal family themselves would be.

Just being with Charlotte couldn't make all of that better, but she could still be wonderful. One beautiful thing in a sea of bad.

Perhaps it wasn't the most auspicious start to a relationship. But it was a start.

Charlotte gave him a innocent look. "We don't have to compete if you're worried about losing."

"I don't recall saying that…"