A/N: Remember, Remember the fifth of November! Yeah, I know that it is really late from the fifth. Sorry!
Hey! What do you think of Sam's reaction, honestly? And what are your predictions of what Sam is going to do?
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The next morning, Sam sat in her empty class at her desk with a book in her hands. James, Tim, Greg and herself cleaned the broken plates from her kitchen floor. After, Tim fixed a pot of tea and coffee. The four sat at the dining table, filling in Sam on most aspects of the case. They brought his file but didn't open it and Sam didn't ask. She didn't want to see him like that. They didn't include the letter that Jack left for Sam, no matter how much she pressed for it. Sam had a pretty good idea of what it entailed but she wanted to read it herself. Codes or banter that might tip Sam off on his endgame. They refused Sam and Sam flashed out her anger on the three.
This morning, she enjoyed the little of bit of time she had to collect herself before her first class.
"Medieval torture devices?" A deep voice asked.
Sam blinked in surprise, her burgundy gaze jolted up to meet Shouta's tired eyes. She shrugged, flipping the book over so that Shouta could view the page she was on. Pear of anguish. "I always found it fascinating how brutal and clever we were back then. Humanity as a whole. Really, you should see what they've came up with for the most petty of reasons... I'm a history buff, had to be or my quirk wouldn't be as versatile."
Sam's computer pinged and her eyes slid over to her personal email opened on the screen. Her breath caught, the Queen. Eliza. The header read, 'Jack the Ripper's letter left with Nathan Dark.' Sam smiled, glad to be on the same page with her majesty for once in a very long time. "What's up?" She asked her colleague.
"What are your weekend plans?"
Sam's dark red eyes narrowed at Shouta, they knew. "I have to attend a funeral... Look, I already told James that I'm not going to do anything rash or stupid." Sam muttered, closing out of her email and bookmarking her book.
"We lose people and it's alright to grieve-." Shouta murmured, awkwardly. "We don't have a say and it's something out of-."
"Don't." Sam hissed out, the familiar words striking her heart like a barrage of bullets. Different words, same meaning. A familiar face with sea foam eyes seared to the forefront of Sam's mind. "Not a person alive has the right to say those words to me. I should know that more than anything -anyone-, believe me." Sam shoved her face in her hands to battle the rising nausea accompanied with volatile emotions. She took a moment. "I'm sorry, the last person who told me that isn't alive, anymore."
"Nathan?"
"Asami." Sam mumbled back, lifting her face from her hands to meet his dark eyes. "I'm not a stranger to loss."
"Neither am I."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too."
"I don't think the students listen to us when we say that they aren't prepared for this profession. They don't fully understand the stakes, not until they see it themselves..." Sam smiled, gently. Sam notice the lack of bandages but a deep scar right under his eye concerned her. "Where's your class?"
"I pitied them."
Sam snorted, amused. "That doesn't sound like the Aizawa Sensei that Hizashi told me about." She remarked with a light teasing tone, trying to sound up beat. Normal-ish. He only answered her with a smoldering look and Sam giggled into her hand.
He opened his mouth to give her, a snarky response when the door to her class burst open. Both heroes' wary eyes flickered to the open door way. Rin panted at the door like she ran all the way there but grinned at Sam.
"Jo accepted me as a intern!"
"That was a given."
"No, there was Jean too! He's going to be interning with Ben." Rin grinned brightly like the ray of sunshine she could be.
"How'd that conversation go?"
Rin stopped and ducked her head as Sam's sharp retort struck it's mark. Shouta shook his head in aspiration. Sam could spot the bright red dance across her face. She smirked, Jo did give her an earful. "She's going to work my ass off in America." Rin bit out.
"As she should."
"You're my aunt!"
"And if I wasn't a teacher and you had chosen to intern with me in London, I would do the same." Sam rumbled with a sadistic sort of glint shone in her gleaming burgundy eyes. "Asami did that to me when I started my career."
"Asami was your senior by two years as a hero, I mean."
"I wasn't familiar with proper protocols. I was raised by N- the Queen's Guard. Secret Service, whatever you'd like to call it. Not public servants." Sam had caught herself from saying his name, she couldn't. Not yet. Her ruby eyes flickered back over to her awaiting laptop. "She and James help my service training there."
"You did alright participating in the Sports Festival but your quirk is very versatile. The Sports Festival is meant to showcase what you can do for recruitment." Shouta pointed out. "Not just for recruitment but for the world to see."
"Frankly, spamming the spells that you did was moronic and arrogant." Sam paused, watching Rin jolt as if her sharp words had just slapped her. She waited, watching the words sink in her niece. Sam vaguely recalled the last round where Rin was using simple spells. Defensive and minor attack spells. Shadowman was the largest spell she used in the Sports Fest. "You were as out there as Bakugo was but you were just as cock sure in your overall victory. You already had a guaranteed heroine and a hero that would offer to take you under their guidance. You had nothing to prove to anyone at the Festival. How'd that look to 1-B or General Studies?"
Rin blushed and muttered, "Yeah, I see you point. It was simple to use, not much prep."
Sam nodded, satisfied. "Good, you are learning and you will improve in time. Mistakes are natural part of growing up." Sam's tone softened as she spoke. "We all make mistakes but what differs everyone is those who learn from those mistakes. So, learn and soak up everything that Jo and Ben teach you."
"Now, how are you traveling there?" Shouta asked, not all of his students were traveling as far as Rin for their internship. Most internships develop into work studies if that were Rin's case, that could be problematic.
"Spell." Rin answered. "I have been developing a spell so I can anchor a portal there with Jo and here. Travel like that. I'm still working out the kinks but it's almost done. I've been talking to Tim and my friend who can teleport about it's logistics for the spell. It's similar to a couple other spells I've created." Rin snapped her fingers in emphasis.
"Can you bring passengers?"
"Of course." Rin grinned at Sam. She glanced at a clock on the wall and frowned. "I have to go, I wanna tell mom before class."
Sam's eyes grew solemn at the thought of Tsubaki and Rin's strained, brittle relationship. "Yeah, off with you."
Rin waved at the pair of teachers and bounced out of her classroom. Sam watched her go with a grim smile. "Y'know, I fear the day when Rin looks back on her childhood and reflects on all that she missed. Not that Ben and Jo didn't do everything she needed but it wasn't their responsibility. Tsubaki should've know better than that, she was the adult. Not Rin. Jo and Ben raised her and healed her when Tsubaki should've. And now, here Rin is. She is the one pushing and trying to strengthen the relationship with her mother when it should be the other way around." Sam muttered, softly. "Tsubaki is going to regret not wanting to keep Rin close with her. Not now but one day, she will."
Shouta peered down at Sam. The righteous anger simmering behind dark burgundy eyes that seemed to brighten to a more prominent scarlet shade. Shouta took note of the squared up shoulders brimming with tension. "I'm not disagreeing with you but would you act differently? In her shoes as a single mother working as a full-time, professional heroine."
"I am. I promised Asami that I would and I am. Some people just shouldn't have children." Sam muttered, crossly. Not really caring about the words leaving her mouth. "I'd do anything for those girls." Sam swore. Sam paused and heaved a big sigh, halting her tangent.
"And I do understand the-... unfairness against Tsubaki. I do, really but you haven't been with their family for as long as I. You haven't seen it all, neither have I." Sam relented, tensely. She had to surrender some ground at the look on Shouta's face. He did know Tsubaki better than she did at the moment and Sam acknowledged that. "Asami did, though. She asked me to watch over them both."
"Have you tried to talk to her?" Shouta said, awkwardly. Sam leveled a look at the dark haired man, he clearly didn't understand women, completely.
The bell rang and Shouta frowned at Sam. "See you at the Sports Festival." Sam chirped. Shouta gave her, a sharp nod and left with a soft bye. At least, he had tried. Sam thought with a slight curving smile. That was half the battle.
Sam turned back to the screen as 1-A filed in and she opened her emails to view Eliza's. They already knew what to do since it was the same as yesterday. Sam didn't even question Iidya Tenya's absence. Something grabbed at her attention in the back of her mind that there was something major that she was missing. Sam brushed it off as anxiety and peered at her screen.
' My Militia. I hope that this caught your ever wandering attention. Have you healed well since your little incident? I grow tired of your lack of effort. All the work I've put into this relationship, this is how you repay this game of ours? Oh well, I know I have your attention now. I know I do. Do you care to finish this? I do grow tired of you. Not that this game of ours hasn't been... interesting but I do intend to grow and explore bigger oceans if you understand my meaning. Grow the legacy of Jack the Ripper past London and even, Europe. That means little Militia's end in our dearest game. What says you, my darling? Care to end this fantastic epic with one last duet? A requiem of our time together, so that you can be immortalized amongst your peers after all you are owed that much. Nathan Dark sought that too, correct?
I look forward to your response.
-Forever and always your quarry, Jack'
Sam bit back the growl lodged in her throat. She glowered at the screen, struggling with the rising anger. She tapped out a response to the Queen with trembling hands and shut of her computer. Jack... Jack wanted her attention, he was bored. Sam bit back the rage threatening to spill over the dam. He wanted a response, Sam could do that.
Sam looked up after a calming breath. "You are dismissed, enjoy the Sports Festival while it's here." The students cheered and crowded around the exit to flee her classroom. She pinched the bridge of her nose and took in a deep breath. Sam stared at her shaky hands.
"I need a coffee."
Sam was dutiful with her responsibilities as a teacher with the remainder of the Sports Festival. Hizashi didn't seek her out for the booth, not because Sam put her evasion tactics to use. Sam completed her tasks without much thought and driving home was the same.
Sam has to park in a parking garage, giving her a ten minute walk to her townhouse. She normally used that time to clear her mind but that seemed impossible for her. Her mind was too full and stuffy to sort anything out. She needed to deal with everything, this weekend and then, she'd be free. Sam pursed her lips at the thought.
A full head didn't stop her from being alert.
A blast of what looked to lava landed on the pavement beside her. Sam took a second to marvel at the sizzling pavement and the glowing, molten rock before reacting. Sam frowned as a man skated on a stream of lava towards her. Three more men followed behind the lava boy. Sam sighed, a tri bladed dagger formed in her hand and as he passed her, she stabbed. Didn't hit anything major, the blade pierced through his arm. The blade itself was lethal. He howled in pain and his buddy lunged at Sam.
Sam jolted back as best she could with her casted leg, raising her blade up with on hand and a pistol forming in the other. However, a tan bandage wrapped around the man and yanked him back. "Fancy seeing you here, Eraser." Sam teased, squeezing the trigger. A bullet finding a home burrowed into a tiger headed man's leg. He crumbled under the pain and torn tissue.
"You have a hero's license?" Shouta asked, skeptically. He dodged on slash of sharp, elongated nails. Sam fired off another well aimed shot to drive the man towards Shouta who wrapped a bandages around his middle and aimed a kick to his side.
"I do."
"For this country?"
"Temporary one to last until my papers go through." Sam answered, sweetly with blood dripping from her blade in her hand. "I'm legal."
Shouta huffed out a sigh, easily capturing the last one. Sam sighed and leaned up against a nearby wall to give her report. She banished the blade and pistol alike. She chose to fiddle with the action of a colt revolver as she waited for her report to be taken. "Get some rest, Sam." Shouta finally muttered after everything was said and done. The fight itself lasted a minute maybe three. The report? An hour. Sasha would not be too happy. Sam wasn't too happy but that was the beauty of the job. Paperwork.
"Don't have to tell me twice, Shouta. See you tomorrow. Don't stay out too late!" Sam murmured with a faux smile and left to stay in her lonely townhouse with only her pets and her mind for company.