Author's Note: I do not own BNHA or any other elements from other fandom, just Keiyu and the village of Tsurukosa.
Chapter 21: Rescue.
Natsume Airport was a private airport that catered to the rich and famous, most notably heroes and politicians who like to 'cozy' up with one another on private excursions. Sasami had worked there for fifteen years and considered it a steady, easygoing job so long as he remained 'silent' about who went in and out.
Yes, it was good to be him.
"Hoh, you're still here," that voice made him stiffen, no, there's no way, they told him she had her memory erased, that she wouldn't be bothering him anymore. Slowly he looked up, dread filling every part of his pores at the devil right in front of him. Her combat boots had silenced her footsteps, and her blonde hair was the same spiky wave that he remembered from before.
"M-m-mitsuki-sama! W-what are you doing here?" she took a step forward and he flinched back as a dark aura threatened to choke him.
"Just here to grab the helicopter that you so thoughtfully promised to watch over for me," she took another step as sweat poured down his petrified form, "Ah! My weapons cache should still be safely secured right?" she leaned in, watching him as a predator did prey, "You didn't give away my prized possessions, did you?" she tilted her head, eyeing him with those blood red eyes that had always terrified him.
"I-it was destroyed in a villain attack," he rushed out, "And the government seized the weapons cache, threatening to shut us down if we kept such items at our airport," if anything she leaned in even further.
"Well then," her mouth opened into a bared grin, her teeth looking sharp as she focused all of her intent on him, "It is so nice of you to volunteer your own helicopter, right?" the air was soon filled with the smell of a terrified man pissing himself.
"Y-yes ma'am, all yours," his voice squeaked.
"They fucking took all of my weapons Kraken!" he pulled the phone away from his ear as she screamed into it, "I got the helicopter but how the hell am I supposed to go in like I always do without my weapons to bash heads in?!" he sighed, shifting as his leg lashed out, kicking the vermin that tried to jump at him.
"Don't worry about weapons at the moment, and I told you to do what Jackalope did with her weapons," there was a huff almost drowned out by the sounds of the helicopter starting up, "Ah, before we meet up again, I need you to pick up someone for me since you are the closest, Inko already grabbed the ones that I told her about," Mitsuki muttered something before speaking,
"Why did Inko get two and I get one?!" there was a yell behind him as someone charged with a knife, he stepped to the side, grabbed the wrist with the knife and twisted, a large crack filling the air as the man fell to the ground screaming as he cradled his arm which was hanging at an angle it should not be.
"The bastard broke my arm!" Mashiro gave him an annoyed look.
"I'm talking here," he knocked him out with the back of his heel, not paying any mind to the guys looking at him with horror at how easily he had taken five of them down in under two minutes.
"Dammit! Why are you getting the fun part? All I did was get that rat to pee himself, am I going to be able to spill blood or not?!" Mashiro cleared his throat.
"Empress, right now I'm securing weapons, so how about you focus on getting," he whispered the name real quick, "While I finish up here, the one I want to bring should be arriving any moment," the sound of a gunshot and he jerked, stepping forward and sighing as he turned to the one who did it, "Didn't I just say I was talking?" he lifted his hand and the bullet shot out, nailing the guy right in his gun hand. If it was up to him he would've already slaughtered everyone, but,
'I can't raise my daughter if I get caught killing people' Inko should've already activated their 'licenses' for things like this, but it takes quite a few hours to go into effect.
"They'll probably have me renew it after this to avoid issues with the righteous heroes," he stepped out of the warehouse five minutes later, rolling his shoulders as he took in the new weight.
It's been over ten years since he's used his Quirk. The weight would take some getting used to, again.
"Now onto the next one," he had room for a few more as he waited for this underground hero to catch up.
"It's during the day," the reason he wanted to be an underground hero was because maneuvering around at night meant less chance of someone catching sight of him during a fight. He hated the press, hated those hero watchers who post things about him despite the unspoken rule about underground heroes and media (whoever posted about his Quirk should be sued for obstructing hero work.) Now he had to deal with a civilian who was taking his anger out on gangs, and reports of him possibly having a Quirk despite being registered as Quirkless spread around.
For him to throw his boss through a building like that must be some strength enhancing quirk, the eyes glowing was rather concerning however. Why the same guy was breaking into warehouses and leaving broken bodies and emptied weapon stores, it baffled and concerned the hero commission.
Checking the footage from a nearby cam, he tracked the guy to a warehouse near the water and quickly arrived just in time to stop someone from being thrown headfirst to the concrete ground.
"He would've been fine," a voice idly commented, and he quickly sent his cloth after the guy who dodged it and disappeared into the warehouse before he could use his eraser quirk on him.
'Dammit' he needed to end this quickly before reporters arrived, like they somehow do when there's great violence near these areas.
"Mumichi Mashiro, your under arrest for aggravated assault and destruction of property and stealing illegal contraband," a chuckle echoed through the empty warehouse.
"I had heard you decided to be a hero, rather interesting weapon that you have with you," he twitched and glared, activating his Quirk and glancing around the warehouse in the chance that he could deactivate whatever this guy's quirk was.
"Too bad Ai-kun," a hand covered his eyes and a sharp pinch knocked him unconscious.
'Shit' was his last thought.
A blindfold was around his eyes when he woke up, and his cloth wasn't on him easier.
There was a muffled screaming next to him and he stiffened, recognizing it.
"Hizashi?!" how many heroes have they kidnapped, what was this guy's agenda?
A muffled "Shouta!" greeted his ears, and he jerked back when fingers touched his head near the blinds and they quickly retreated.
"If you promise not to use your Quirks I will remove the blindfold and gag respectively, I grabbed both of you for a reason," Shouta scowled.
"Why should we trust that you will not try anything, what do you want?" a phone ringing interrupted them and there was a click before a voice boomed throughout what he realized to be a car (how did they get two heroes into a car without being noticed?)
"Dammit! The guy wasn't even hard to get, I mean, he didn't even have his guard up when I knocked him out, aren't they teaching situational awareness to these heroes?" the insult pierced straight through him even as the man who kidnapped them sighed.
"Your forgetting that we were trained specifically for situations like this, please stop whining about it Empress, Jackalope do you have a location?" wait, Empress, Jackalope? A bad feeling crawled up his spin at those names, he'd heard them before.
"Somewhat, I got footage of the grandparents (which we'll be talking about later) loading her in a boat that left an island a few kilometers away from your hometown. After that it gets a bit more difficult as anything to show which boat it was is hidden. Any word from Komodo?"
"Negative, it could be possible for them to be offline at the moment, are the two of you together yet? We need to hurry up before anyone catches wind that four heroes are missing," 'four?' who else did they grab?!
"Yeah, although it might be difficult for Jackalope to lend any combat assistance considering," there was a pause before the other woman's voice spoke up.
"Since we're on personal business, how about we talk about how your son has been treating mine?" the iciness in the tone let off how pissed the woman was.
"What are you talking about? My son's just a bit rambunctious is all, they're boys-" Empress got cut off.
"Isn't that what your parents said about your brother, where is he again?" an awkward silence filled the air.
"Low blow," Empress growled before sighing, "But point, I'll have a word with the brat when we return, uh, sorry Kraken, got off topic there," Shouta felt the blindfold being removed and tried activating his Quirk but was met with a raised eyebrow and unamused purple eyes.
"Not going to work Eraser, nice to have you here Komodo," the underground hero cursed the fact that he couldn't use his Quirk, they must have some cancelling equipment. A hooded figure was in the front seat, indigo hair peeking out from their hood and the last piece clicked into place.
"Your group was disbanded," he said disbelievingly, Kraken gave a humorless smile.
"As of today it isn't, now, are the four of you going to cooperate?" Midnight's voice appeared from the phone.
"What do you want from us? How do you know how to make our Quirks ineffective?" she demanded, Shouta inwardly sighed, dammit Nemuri.
"I'm sure Ai-kun will be able to explain it to you after you help me," the groan he wanted to let out remained in his throat as he contemplated the fact this group all had children.
"Don't call me that," he said instead, Komodo's head turned towards him even as they spoke to Kraken.
"Just tell them already, I'm sure they'll go along with it once you reveal what is going on," Hizashi spoke up next to him, sounding hesitant.
"If you need help, why not go to more experienced heroes? We just debuted two years ago," but he already knew.
"This has to do with the Non-Interfering Pact, something that older Heroes adhere to with prejudice, but something that us newer ones could be exempt from due to lack of experience," Tensai joined in the conversation and despite knowing who the fourth person was now, it didn't make him feel any better.
"Wait, that kind of pact exists? I thought it was a myth," there was a derisive laugh from Empress.
"No, that pain in the ass law is the reason our group was founded in the first place to deal with such people. Whoever thought it was a good idea needs a kick in the-" there was a static of noise but no doubt as to what she meant.
"If its to assist in killing someone, we cannot," Kraken pressed a button on the screen and a terrified girl's voice came through.
"They, they said it was a taint, that I have to be cleansed, they want to take my eyes Papa!" sound of a door opening, "There you are you little freak!" the sound of flesh being hit while the girl cried out, "Papa help!" sounded, another voice spoke up, "Shit, I think you did it too hard," before it was cut off.
The dark look on Kraken's face told him everything, as did the words that the girl had said.
"She's your daughter, and the Church of Clover's got her," in the corner of his eye, Hizashi went white.
"W-wait, isn't that a horror story about a cult that kidnaps kids with Quirks and removes their Quirks through surgery?! When the girl said 'take my eyes'," Shouta grimaced.
"They mean it literally," this was not bringing up good memories, at all.
"Shouta, you, ah," he froze, realizing he just said his real name but he wasn't really worried (considering who these people were, and the fact the moron had said his name earlier, muffled or not.)
"We're the ones that rescued him when he got kidnapped by the Church in the past for his Quirk, we thought the organization had fallen before we were disbanded, unfortunately that is not the case," Komodo sounded very annoyed by that, "I listened to the whole message, what Christmas present is she talking about? And would you please look at the road while you are driving? You and Jackalope I swear," Kraken handed her a box while looking sheepish as he returned his attention to driving.
Shit, he'd been ignoring the fact that they were in the car, and recalled the times the guy driving had looked back or moved to take their binds off. How have they not crashed?!
"Glasses?" Komodo held up violet framed glasses, sounding confused as they put them on their face before taking them off, "Why did she mention the glasses? Nothing happens," Kraken took them with a frown at the other before putting them on.
The car nearly swerved as he jerked back into his seat, but he immediately righted the vehicle as Komodo shouted at him, demanding to know what he was doing.
"Nothing?! A screen appeared as soon as I put it on, asking if I wanted to join my daughter's party," Komodo snatched the glasses back from him and took a tool from their robe that they used to scan the device.
"It's made from a Quirk, strange, what is your daughter's Quirk?" Kraken got the glasses back with a blank look.
"I'm not really sure apart from her eyes being related," he put the glasses on and kept his left hand on the wheel, moving his right hand in front of him as if he was pressing something and flinched, muttering something about music as he looked in front of him.
"A game screen," he finally said, "It has my name, level, and it has my daughter's name in the corner as the party leader," he 'pressed' something else as Hizashi leaned towards him.
"His daughter has a gaming Quirk?" Shouta hissed at him to be quiet, this was not the time for the blond to have one of his geek out moments.
It suddenly became hard to breathe at the killing intent that filled the car, Hizashi's eyes rolled back and he fainted as Shouta stubbornly held on, wincing at the cacophony of car horns outside as the other drivers reacted to the dark aura.
"Hey! Why is the road you're on suddenly going out of control? What is going on with the other drivers?!" Empress's voice boomed through the car, demanding an explanation.
"Ask Kraken who should know better," the aura disappeared as the man struggled to calm down.
"The glasses are letting me see my daughter's condition," there was a creaking sound as his left hand tightened on the wheel till Komodo, again, admonished him.
"And? How detailed is it?" Kraken suddenly cursed.
"It's decreasing as we talk, something is going on," Shouta narrowed his eyes.
"If those glasses are made with her Quirk, could you using them to be powered by her Quirk as well?" there was a beat before Kraken took them off quickly.
"Shit, now a lot of things make more sense, during Golden Week last year she asked for foods that were good for the eyes and brain. I thought she was being health conscious because of her grandparents, but if her Quirk uses up nutrients like that, and if she's in a different country right now, the connection," he sounded so frustrated.
"She probably didn't realize what it would do, we save that till we get to Germany," 'Germany?!' he did not like the sound of that, thankfully Jackalope intervened.
"They're not in Germany, that phone she used is attached to spread the signal as a red herring," well, that was a relief, they didn't have to leave the country.
"Where is it then?" "South Korea," 'seriously?!' Kraken had a surprised look in his face.
"How did they get property- never mind, now I remember," they would not elaborate and he did not have the patience to ask.
"Look, I know how your group operates, I won't assist in killing," Nemuri's shocked gasp filled the silence.
"K-killing?" Kraken just sighed.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure none of you four end up killing anyone, however, my daughter's health is important and the Church of Clover has been inviting death for their practice for a long time. Now, if we want it to go smoothly, Present Mic, can you reverse how you use your Voice Quirk to create white noise to block radio signals," the newly awakened radio host/hero blanched.
"R-reverse my Quirk?!" he stuttered, wide eyed.
"R-reverse my Quirk?!" Nemuri shared a look with Tensei, both of them didn't have binds on them but she had found out using her Quirk would be ineffective with their captors wearing gas masks. Neither of them knew how to fly helicopters either so there was a chance of them being unable to fly after they knocked them out.
"Midnight," the green haired woman facing her made her want to back away as she recalled how easily the woman had taken her down, and this same woman had also downed Mic as well. Tensei seemed weary of the blonde woman who was currently piloting the helicopter they were on, muttering curses under her breath.
"Y-yes?" the green eyes staring into hers were a bit unnerving, as if the woman was analyzing her from head to toe.
"Use your Quirk to fill these," she handed her several empty balls, "We'll use these to knock out the kids and maybe the staff," 'Maybe' she still wasn't sure about the whole 'killing' thing that these people seemed so blase with.
"If you two have kids, won't you guys end up arrested for all this? Kidnapping heroes and killing, and," she eyed the symbol on the helicopter, knowing for a fact it belonged to a certain airfield, "Stealing a helicopter?" Empress laughed from the pilot's seat.
"That asshole gave away my own helicopter, only fair," Jackalope shushed her and turned back to the two heroes, adjusting the item in her group that made them flinch back, not that she paid it any mind.
"Besides, we're not all that worried, one thing that our organization approved was licenses for us to carry out our tasks," she explained this gently as the pilot added, "License to kill that is," there was a twitch before the woman's head was slammed against the seat with force and she cursed, rubbing the back of her head.
"Seriously?! I'm flying here?!" Jackalope's eyes closed into a smile,
"Yes, don't think just because we have to wait till the mission is over I won't take my anger out on you now, second-degree burns," Empress huffed.
"Why are you getting mad now if it's been happening for years, why not before?!" wrong question.
"Maybe because I've been living with no memories of before? The memories they gave me, I don't know why, but it made it difficult to be observant or get mad about how my son was being treated," Tensei looked confused.
"Your memories?" Komodo's voice interrupted them.
"We've approached the boat, should only take two hours at the most to reach the spot, Empress, we expect you guys to reach there first, Jackalope, block any interference from other planes and helicopters. I'll arrange hospital treatment in the next town, just in case, make sure there are no elements of the Church there," Jackalope adjusted her burden to look at the computer next to her, using her free hand to quickly type something in.
"My program is still narrowing down the exact location, but I'll send you the coordinates of the dock where the boat that transported her docked. There are no images of her unloading, but," she hesitated before continuing, "There was a box that looked like holes were drilled recently." the R-rated hero really wished that the conversation would stop making her want to throw up. But there was a little girl in danger and if what she was hearing was right, other kids, she couldn't ignore it.
Even if these people had kidnapped them.
"Alright, let's triple the speed," the blood drained from her face at the glee in the blonde's voice, and she swallowed.
This was not going to end well.
Aryan Academy
Several hours earlier
Touya quickly got to his feet as Keiyu let go of his foot and struggled to get up,
"H-how, you were dead," the purple in her eyes was fading back to blue as she gave him an exhausted look.
"I feel dead, they hit me really hard," she rubbed a spot on her head and winced, bringing her hands away that now had blood on them.
"B-but," a clang above them got his attention, and he grabbed her hand, "We have to go, if they find you," it doesn't look to be a regenerating Quirk as she wasn't fully healed, maybe 'revival?' If that horrible woman found out, it would not be good.
He helped her up and started dragging her back the way he had come.
"What is this place," he didn't want to tell her, but there was no hiding it.
"Not everyone survives the ritual when they get here," they entered a larger room, one that they had taken him to over and over again to use his Quirk since he had been captured three months ago.
He heard the intake of breath as the scent hit them both before the scene did. Fresh and rotting corpses of children were in piles, dumped carelessly after the ritual along with the physical attributes of their Quirk in a separate pile. Sometimes those parts were dissected to advance some kind of research that the scientists were doing, but were thrown in the same place when they were done. How many kids were sent to this Academy that didn't make it through the ritual? Why did they keep going through with it despite so many of the kids dying? This thought ran through his head the first time he came down here, and haunted him when he was back in that cell.
She stopped and he turned to her, about to order her to keep moving when he saw the recognition and horror on her face.
"Ami-chan," he followed her eyesight, wincing as he caught sight of the pink hair attached to an eyeless skull, if he remembered correctly, the girl had spent a whole month at the Academy asking to go back to her sempai or to see her mom and sister. Her Quirk was in the eyes and she hadn't survived the procedure in which they were removed. He was supposed to burn this pile tonight, now he wished he had just to spare the girl from seeing this.
"I'm sorry, but we have to go," they made it pass the other piles, her trembling hand in his as she took in the sights of the cruelty of this Academy.
The collar around his neck started beeping, signalling the request for him to go to them, but he needed to get her out first.
"Come on, we don't have enough time, they have a truck that leaves here in the next hour to go pick up new students, but we have to be quick," the buzzing turned into low hums of electricity and he winced, which she noticed.
"What's wrong?" he pulled down his shirt, showing the collar and the singed skin on his neck,
"If it wasn't for this I would've left this place weeks ago," he didn't have to look to see the horror on her face.
"You can't use your fire to burn it off?" he laughed mockingly.
"My accursed Quirk works against my body, it'll sooner burn my neck off than the collar, if I had my mother's Quirk I could've easily taken it off," his twin was the fortunate one despite her refusal to see the nature of their father, wanting to cling to her dream of having a family. Which was why he didn't tell her of his plans to fake his death and run away, she would have immediately told their father in hopes of persuading him against it.
"If you don't want your fire to hurt you, it won't," they came to an exit that led into a dark tunnel and he scoffed as they carefully walked through, his fire providing the light.
"You don't know anything about my Quirk, it destroys, that is all it does," she tugged him to the left, muttering something about them approaching from that direction before she spoke up again.
"You only think that because of what that bastard taught you, it destroys you because you hate it and view it only for destruction. It's pretty, doesn't give off any heat at all, the only one who can know what the Quirk itself really does is the person who is born with it," he stared down at her with wide eyes, disbelieving that someone like her could say such things.
Then she stiffened and tugged his hand,
"The dots are getting closer, we have to go," 'dots?' she stumbled as they quickened their pace but didn't let him stop again, urging him to go faster.
Then the electricity in the collar intensified and he fell to the ground, hearing her alarmed cry as the smell of his flesh burning told him that they had intensified beyond anything.
"Are you okay? The collar," her hands touched it only for her to draw back with a cry of pain.
"G-go," he gritted out, "I can't move, but you can," shit, it hurt so much. There was running footsteps and she hovered over him, why wasn't she leaving?! The sound of a door opening barely caught his attention before he felt her tiny hands grab his arm and drag him into the room.
She whispered something in his ear before a knife clattered to the floor in front of him and she ran out, closing the door behind him as shouts of the 'gorilla' guy and others went passed the door.
Why, why didn't she just leave him there? The electricity in his collar disappeared at the same time a few minutes later, which meant they must've thought he was dead.
'Or they found her' a traitorous thought whispered in his brain.
Dammit, he had to rescue her, he couldn't give up now. His hand reached towards the knife even as her words about his Quirk from earlier repeated itself in her mind.
'If you don't want your fire to hurt you, it won't' blue flames filled the room.
With her hands tied against the table along with her legs, Keiyu could only watch the headmistress as she conferred with someone in a hazmat suit.
"We still don't know what her taint is, but the fact she is still alive could mean something, I want those eyes as soon as possible," cold dark eyes turned towards her and she felt a shiver go up her spine as the headmistress added something else, tone laced with malice, "As usual, anesthesia is not necessary for the ritual, you may begin once I leave," Keiyu felt the familiar fear crawl up her spine as the horrible woman left and the person in the hazmat suit approached her with several sharp tools in his hands.
'Papa' she had felt him accessing her gift just a few minutes before, which had caused her to fall to the ground for the others to catch her. Not that she could regret it, it told her that he was looking for her, she just had to bear it till he could come save her.
But as she watched the tools near her left eye, she knew it was too late.
Touya heard the scream and put on speed, bursting through the door and sending his flames flying at the hazmat suit who was putting something away in a jar that disappeared into a machine.
The guy fell to the floor crying out in pain and agony as the flames consumed him, but Touya went to the girl first.
"Oh no," a mismatched pair of a blue eye and a gaping hole greeted him, and he quickly freed her using his flames, "Why didn't you keep the knife with you, why?" he didn't end up needing it.
"Y-you got it off," she didn't look good, and he quickly searched for bandages which he used to cover the gruesome sight.
"Yes, I didn't even know I could, you should've kept the knife," he said again, glaring at the man who was now dust on the floor, he should've made his suffering last longer. He handed her the knife and watched it disappear back into her arm before she fell back against the bed.
"B-b," she struggled to talk as he lifted her up and positioned her on his back.
"What?" he asked as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
"B-burn t-the machine, m-my e-eye," realizing what she was saying, he walked over to the machine and held out his hand, hesitating, if they could take it out, maybe.
"P-please," he closed his eyes, and burned the machine to ash. Her breathing was shallow against his neck as he turned and ran out of the room. Several personnel met him and he burned them all to ash before they could do something to stop their escape. But he couldn't keep it up and he found himself slowing down as his long term imprisonment started taking its toll. One of the men got close and tried to grab her off of him, but backed away when he sent flame after him.
His legs shook, and he could only watch with despair as more and more people surrounded them.
"Nowhere to run," the headmistress appeared among the, a gun trained on his form, her lips pulled back into a sneer, "I see you've taken the collar off you dirty mutt, but you won't be abl-" she gargled, clutching her neck where the knife was now lodged, the gun in her hand falling to the floor as she collapsed.
Touya saw Keiyu's hand lower from where she had launched the knife and struggled to prevent her from falling to the ground.
"Don't call him a mutt, and I didn't think that would work," everyone froze in shock that this six year old girl had just killed the woman like that.
"They're both monsters, get them," there was a roar as a motorcycle crashed through the ceiling and a figure in a tracksuit flipped off of it as it crashed against some men, knocking them down. The figure landed on his feet, turning towards them as they took off their helmet.
Brown hair with streaks of purple slowly overtaking it lay flat against a face with blazing violet eyes that took in the red haired boy with scarring around his neck and the girl on his back with a bandage darkening with blood covering the left side of her face and the bandages around her fingers that were hanging from the boy's neck.
His eyes flashed and the brown hair on his head was completely overtaken by violet as he turned towards the men.
"I was going to let you all live as courtesy to the heroes, but now," he flexed his hand and gun barrels materialized from every part of his body, "I should just kill you all instead." Touya stared at the man, this was her 'Papa?'
"Papa," the whisper against the back of his neck reminded him of her failing health and he panicked when a hand touched his other shoulder, lashing out with flames that didn't come.
"Calm down, we're here to get you out," the man was dressed like a hero but he didn't recognize him.
"Please, she's bleeding out, the other kids," he looked towards where the violet haired man was and felt terror at the killing intent the man was unleashing.
"It's fine, we've got others searching through the building, go to sleep," sweet scented smoke filled his nose and he felt Keiyu slipped off his shoulders as sleep fell over him.
The last sight he saw was the other men in the corridor being shot down, one even having his head twisted off as the enraged father took them all down.
His eyes closed as one last thought filled his mind, the wish for a parent like this man who went to such lengths to rescue his daughter.
Something he knew his father would never do.
