Kyandi: Greetings, Kyandiacs!
Halyn: We're back.
Kyandi: Now, before we start the chapter, at the end of the chapter, I'm going to be moving into a character arc for Halyn.
Halyn: And because this character arc was co-thought of with someone else, we have some shout outs and disclaimers to get to.
Kyandi: First off, thank you to FantasyQuirksandmore for the wonderful ideas and characters he supplied me just for this. It was a lot of fun working with him to come up with a plot line for this character arc.
Halyn: So the new characters about to make an appearance are to be credited to him.
Kyandi: Right. On a second note, I'm sorry the chapter is on the shorter side. It's just suppose to be a bridge into the arc.
Halyn: With that, should we get started?
Kyandi: Yep. Everyone, enjoy and review.
Halyn: Kyandi-sama does not own My Hero Academia, nor does the own the new characters that will start to make an appearance.
Chapter 25 Saying Goodbye
Funeral plans for Halyn's father, due to Halyn's body still not having recovered, got pushed back a few more days, giving the Leander siblings a few more days to finalize plans. Over those coming days, after morning training, Halyn, with either Snipe, Midnight, or Present Mic as an escort, would leave campus to finish funeral preparations for her father. She wouldn't return until close to dinner time.
The day before the funeral services, Halyn came back to the dorm with a surprise. Upon seeing her, her classmates stared in disbelief.
"Ha-chan! What did you do to your hair?!" Uraraka exclaimed.
Halyn reached up to touch her hair. The waist long strands now fell between chin and shoulder length, the ends curling slightly inward. The girl had cut off over half her hair in the time she had been off campus.
"I only cut it. I only kept it long so my father might be able to somewhat recognize me when he finally came back. I don't have to worry about that now." Halyn remarked. "Does it look bad?"
Bad?
Todoroki had been stopped in his tracks upon seeing the hair cut. She was pretty with her long hair, but this new hair cut gave her a more mature, but also more vulnerable, look. Especially when she stared at the floor, petting her hair in a way that made it look like she was questioning if she shouldn't have cut her hair.
Todoroki didn't know about his classmates, but he liked the new hair cut.
"No, no! It looks great!" Uraraka rushed to assure Halyn.
"It's lovely, but...did you have to go so short?" Yaoyorozu asked, lightly touching Halyn's hair. "I mean...your long hair was stunning."
"I know, but it was also difficult to take care of. With all the training for our provisional licenses, I just don't have the time to worry about it anymore. Not to mention...it kind of gets in the way during a fight." Halyn reasoned before turning to Asui. "I don't know how you do it, Tsuyu."
Todoroki watched from a chair at one of the tables as the others gave their opinions on her new hair cut. For the most part, it was all good comments. Then Halyn turned to look at him.
"What do you think, Shoto?" she asked.
All eyes turned to him, making him feel like he was being put on the spot. He shifted his eyes back to the book sitting on the table in front of him. Anything so he didn't have to see the looks cast his way.
"It's fine." was all he said.
Though Todoroki didn't see it, the others watched as Halyn deflated slightly, obviously disappointed with the reaction she had gotten. It was pretty clear that she had been looking for his approval over the hair cut. It had a few boys groaning lowly while the girls shook their heads.
Todoroki was dense.
"Well...anyway," Halyn said, refocusing her attention on her other classmates. "If you guys want to, Aizawa-sensei got approval for you to leave campus to attend the services tomorrow. You don't have to go if you don't want to..."
Halyn trailed off, heaving a sigh. Instantly, Mina had an arm around her shoulders, Toru grabbing onto one of her hands.
"Of course we're going!" Mina told her.
"We must support each other and stick together." Yaoyorozu said, the other girls agreeing.
"The girls are right! Count us in, too." Kirishima called from the couch, the boys nodding. "Right, Bakugo?"
"Yeah, whatever." Bakugo barked from across the room, his back to them.
Halyn couldn't help the smile on her face when even Bakugo agreed. That last one had shocked her, but it also made her extremely happy. She couldn't thank them enough for their friendship and support in a time when she really needed it.
"Thanks, guys. You're the greatest friends a girl could have." she told them.
"Are you sure you're okay, though?" Toru asked.
"Yeah, you're looking kinda pale." Jiro added.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired. I think I'm going to lay down until dinner." Halyn replied.
With a smile and a reassurance to her friends that she was fine, Halyn retreated to her room. Todoroki watched her until she vanished onto the elevator. When he turned back around, he found the girls staring at him from across the table.
"What?" he asked, confused.
"You're really dense." Mina retorted, the other girls agreeing.
That was all they said before they walked away, leaving a confused Todoroki behind. He didn't get what they meant, what he could have done to make them say that. And they certainly didn't bother explaining it to him either.
Sometimes, girls really just baffled him.
-0-0-0-0-
That night, Todoroki found himself being awoken at three in the morning by a light knock on his door. Getting out of his futon, he got up to answer his door, expecting to find one of his male classmates. Instead, he found Halyn, dressed in her night gown and looking like she had done nothing but toss and turn for the last four hours.
"Halyn?" he asked softly.
Halyn looked up at him, her expression a mix of sheepish and miserable.
"I can't sleep." was all she said.
Todoroki didn't even stop to think it through, he merely stepped aside and let her into his room. Closing the door behind her, he turned to her. Halyn was peering around his room, her hands tangled together in front of her.
"This room really is so like you, Shoto." she remarked before turning to him.
There was a small smile on her face, but he could tell...she was close to tears. Her arms shifted then, wrapping around her, her eyes bright with un-shed tears.
"Your dad?" he asked.
"I..." Halyn trailed off for a moment, her tail dropping to hang miserably behind her. "For so long I held onto the hope, the belief, that someday, one day before I was old, he would come home. That he would show up and give me that crooked smile of his and apologize for being gone so long. I just thought that he was too ashamed of himself to come home. I just wanted to..."
Halyn, once again, trailed off, her eyes falling to the tatami mat-covered floor. Her hair, now too short to catch on her shoulder, fell forward to hide her face from him.
"You wanted to what?" he asked.
"I wanted to talk to my father again. Just once more. I wanted to hear his laugh, to feel his large hand as he patted my head. I just wanted my father back. Now...he's dead." Halyn replied.
"He was gone long before you killed that Nomu. It was All for One who took his life from him. Not you." Todoroki told her.
Halyn raised her head, giving him a sad smile. She knew he was merely trying to make her feel better, and she was grateful for that attempt.
"I know. You're right, of course, but...I really don't want to go to those services tomorrow." she told him.
"Why?"
"Because then I have to fully admit that he's gone and not coming back."
Todoroki watched her as she sighed, idly rubbing at one arm. She wasn't ready to let go of her father when she had just found out what had happened to him all those years ago. It was then that Todoroki remembered something. Without a word, he moved across the room, Halyn's eyes following him until he stopped to pull something out of a drawer.
"Shoto?" she asked.
"I forgot about this until now." he said, turning to her.
He approached her, taking her hand to place something in her hand. Halyn looked down as he released her hand. When her eyes landed on the object cradled in her hand, her eyes widened, the un-shed tears finally overflowing and falling down her cheeks.
There, shining in the low light from the bathroom...was her father's locket.
"I found it after you were taken." Todoroki told her.
"I thought I had lost it for good." Halyn remarked, her fingers tracing the designs etched into the metal.
"It was your dad's right?"
"My mother's." Halyn corrected. "My mother always wanted a daughter. After four boys and a doctor telling her there was a high possibility she would never conceive again, she thought she wouldn't have one. So, when I was born, my father had two of these made. One has been with me for as long as I can remember, and the other, this very one, stayed with my mother. When she died, Father took it to wear."
"Now you have both while they're back together."
Halyn's eyes rose to Todoroki's face then, surprise on her face. She hadn't thought it like that. The thought had her smiling in a fond way, her fingers closing around the locket.
"You're right. Thank you, Shoto."
"Can you sleep now?" he asked.
"Not in that quiet room, alone."
Todoroki had a good idea where this was going and while he was sure they would get in trouble later for it, it didn't stop the words that came out of his mouth. It was just sleep after all. Completely harmless.
"Then sleep here."
-0-0-0-0-
The next morning, thankfully, Todoroki was the first awake in the dorm. He awoke to Halyn half draped over him, her tail draped across the both of them and her hair tickling his nose while she gripped her mother's locket in one hand. One of her legs was completely hooked around one of his and he could swear...she was purring in her sleep. She was almost completely cuddled under the blanket, as if she had been freezing all night. He didn't see how that was possible.
To him, she was like a furnace.
The sun was just starting to rise, casting the first rays of pink and orange through his windows, and Todoroki was sure the others would start to wake up soon. While he hated to wake her when she had only, finally, fallen asleep a few hours before, he knew she had to get up. So, laying a hand on her shoulder, he gave her a light shake.
"Halyn."
A groan escaped her lips before she shifted, opening her eyes. For a moment, she just laid there, blinking, as if trying to get her bearings. Finally she shifted, fully waking up.
"Yeah?" she asked, yawning.
"You need to get back to your room before the others wake up." he told her.
Though she heaved a sigh, she pushed herself up, rubbing the back of her hand against one eye. Yawning again, she stretched, Todoroki watching in amusement as she managed to resemble a cat stretching after a long cat nap.
"What time is it?" she asked.
"A little after six. Everyone else will start waking up soon." he told her, sitting up.
"Right."
Halyn got to her feet, running a hand through her hair, the other still gripping the locket. Todoroki followed her as she turned to finger comb the fur on her tail.
"When will your brothers be here for you?" he asked.
Halyn let out a long breath that managed to sound tired and sad. Taking in another breath as she pressed the locket to her chest, she turned to look at him.
"Around eight. I better go. I need to bathe before going." she replied.
Todoroki saw her out the door, promising to see her later. Standing in the door way, he waited until she vanished onto the elevator at the end of the hall. It was easy to tell that she was still out of sorts, but after so long of waiting and hoping her father would come home, Todoroki couldn't blame her.
He would just have to keep a close eye on her.
-0-0-0-0-
The services, held in a more traditionally Western style, passed quickly with a Catholic priest giving a short sermon. The urn containing the ashes of Halyn's father, sat on a table at the alter, old pictures of him with his family on full display around the urn. The room was over run with all of Halyn's favorite flowers.
Remus, when asked by one of Halyn's classmates why he had gone with Halyn's favorites, had replied that he had insisted on Halyn's favorite flowers because, one, Halyn and her father had liked the same flowers-tigerlilies, white tulips, and blue Forget-me-nots-and, two, because the services were more for Halyn to properly say goodbye. The flowers created a mix of pinkish-red, blue, and white, a single tigerlily tucked behind Halyn's ear.
Halyn sat in the front pew of the church with her brothers, the five siblings dressed in all black. Halyn, herself, was the picture of mourning in a black, knee-length, halter style dress with black flats and a black shawl hanging from her shoulders. The only color, aside from the siblings' blue hair, was the single tigerlily that each of them had tucked somewhere on their person.
After the service, they relocated to the cemetery, Halyn carrying her father's ashes, to pay respects to the new family grave. There each of her friends stepped up to offer their condolences and to place a single flower in a flower pot placed in front of the headstone. Once each of them had done so, they were loaded up on the bus to be returned to school, Halyn requesting to remain at the grave side for just a little longer. The other heroes that came to support her, stayed with her while Present Mic and Midnight escorted her classmates back to the dorms.
While Halyn stood before the grave, just silently running finger tips over the urn in her arms, her brothers went from hero to hero, thanking them for the support they showed by attending the services. When they were done, Maximus declared that his leg was killing him and that he was ready to get back to his room and rest. Remus and the twins agreed that they could use some rest.
"Halyn, we're going."
Even when Remus called, Halyn didn't respond. She just stood there staring at the gravestone. Remus heaved a sigh, sharing a look with his brothers.
"We'll stay with her." Aizawa assured Remus.
Remus gave him a grateful nod. Watching his sister for a moment, another sigh left him. Turning to those teachers who had attended the funeral, he fixed his eyes on Aizawa and All Might.
"We leave our sister in your care. Please take care of her." Remus told them.
"We will strive to raise her the best we can." Aizawa told him.
"I'll hold you to that. Just...be cautious. Halyn had to grow up quick. it's been a long time since I can remember her relying on anyone or actually being the child, or teenager, she still is. She won't know how to lean on the support you offer." Remus warned.
"I've noticed." Aizawa assured him.
Remus smiled then, turning his eyes to his sister's back as she continued to stare at the headstone. As he watched her, her tail flicked once before drawing still once more. She would probably be glued to the spot for a little while longer.
"I have to admit...we've failed in raising her. Because of our failure, she's been beaten and bruised. She's been exposed to the darkness of this world, even more than normal even for a hero, and has felt pain and loneliness." Remus said
"That's not true." All Might told him. "She stands tall, not shedding a tear because she knows you support her and she's so proud of you and your brothers."
Remus smiled, his gaze fond as he watched his sister.
"I know, but as my mother always said...tears aren't a sign of weakness, but rather, a sign of someone who has had to be strong for too long. I've been waiting for eight years to see when those first tears appear." Remus replied.
"Perhaps she has already shed them."
Remus turned his golden gaze to All Might as the blonde man watched Halyn. All Might remembered seeing how Halyn had gravitated towards Todoroki after coming back, the two becoming all the more closer. Todoroki was her confidant. All Might had not doubt that if Halyn was to cry, it would be in the supportive presence of her closest friend.
"Maybe." Remus agreed, his eyes returning to Halyn. "She's so strong. Always has been. Even when she was scared, she trudged on, never once losing the path she wanted to follow. My brothers and I are constantly amazed by her. After losing our mother and, by some extent, our father, Halyn gave us life and meaning. She was the one that comforted us. We watched as she pulled herself, and then us, together." Remus shook his head. "She should have spurn the world after all she had been through, but no. She had decided to protect it, fight for it. That she can go on like this...she gives us hope every single day. So...make her into the fine hero I know she can be."
With that, Remus and his brothers bid their sister farewell, Remus planting a kiss on the crown of her head. Halyn's only physical reaction was a flick of her tail. She continued staring in silence for a while after her brothers left. It wasn't until a few of the heroes that had showed up, started to leave, that she finally spoke.
"Sensei."
Aizawa raised his head, pretty sure that she was talking to him, though not completely sure.
"We're here." Aizawa assured her.
Halyn's tail swayed once in acknowledgement, but she didn't turn her eyes from where her family name was carved in the headstone.
"You don't have to worry about me."
"Leander?" Aizawa asked when that was all she said.
They watched as Halyn raised one hand, spreading her fingers as she stared at them, the urn tucked safely in the crook of the other arm.
"This quirk of mine...because of it, my hands can hold a lot of power. If All for One is anything to go by, they could hold even more than I could imagine." Halyn started. "I've seen what that kind of power can do in the wrong hands. Our quirks are so similar that its frightening. Despite that...this quirk is mine and mine alone. Only I decide how to use it."
All eyes were riveted on Halyn as she spoke, her voice low but firm. She had obviously come to a resolve about the whole thing.
"What are you saying, Leander?" Aizawa asked.
"I've come to a stark realization and from it, I've come to a firm resolve. No death or fear will shake it. Yes, first Flame Lash and now All for One have darken my door step, but because of them and what they've done...I am all the more sure of who I am."
Halyn's hand curled into a fist as she said this. Her tone was firm, showing her resolve. Her head rose, her eyes returning to the headstone. Stepping forward, she laid a hand on the stone, her fingers tracing her family name carved there.
"I don't know what happened and probably never will. For all I know, he let himself be caught. Regardless of what may or may not have happened, my father was a great hero. Both he and my mother taught me so much in the brief years I had them. They taught me how to take the bad and use it to embrace and appreciate the good. They taught me to rise above adversity, to stand on my faith in the goodness of the world."
They could hear the pride in her parents in her voice. Halyn was, even to this day, proud of her parents. Even despite spending the last eight years thinking her father had abandoned her, Halyn was still proud of the hero her father had been.
"Because of the lesson they taught me, wherever I go, wherever life leads me, I know I'll never walk along. I'll have my brother, my friends, with me. So I will take these lessons and will not be afraid of what comes my way, because my parents taught me to be a hero. They taught me to be brave."
Halyn finally turned to face them. Her eyes were dry, not even blood shot or shiny from un-shed tears, and there was a smile on her face. All Might and Aizawa both felt pride in her as one of their students. Despite being knocked down, she was climbing her way back up, refusing to tap out.
"I won't say I'm alright. I can't. Not yet, at least. But...I will be. Like a forest after a fire, I will rise again, better than before. Like I've said...I refuse to be like him. This is my life and I choose to be the same kind of hero that my parents were and the my brothers are now." Halyn said, giving them a smile. "So...don't worry about me. That's the funny thing about hitting bottom...you have nowhere else to go, but up."
If there was one thing to be said about Halyn, it was the amazing way she bounced back. Watching as she smiled fondly down at the urn in her hands, her teachers had a good feeling that Halyn would, given time, be just fine.
Unknown to them, someone else watched Halyn from the shadows of a nearby tree line, watching as she turned back to the headstone, protectively cradling the urn of her father's ashes. Eyes fixated on her, never wavering, even when three more shadow-shrouded figures joined the first.
"Are you going to continue to just stare at her? Why not just go up to her already?" one asked, sounding like they were ready to head back.
"Not yet." the first figure responded, still watching Halyn. "I'll approach her soon enough, but for now, I'm content enough to just watch her."
Things were about take another turn that Halyn wouldn't see coming. For the time being, she was blissfully unaware, ready to continue with her training and get her life back to as close to normal as she could.
But that blissful ignorance wouldn't last forever.
END
Kyandi: Once again, sorry that the chapter was on the shorter side.
Halyn: But she's working on the next chapter.
Kyandi: I am. Until it's done, though, I have two chapters about to be uploaded to another story.
Halyn: So if you like any of her other works, keep a look out for that.
Kyandi: Right. For now, I need to get to editing those.
Halyn: So, wrap up time?
Kyandi: Yep. Everyone, please enjoy and review.
Halyn: We'll return as soon as possible.
Kyandi: Bye-bye!