"Because for the last ten years the only thing I have looked forward to every single day was the fact that I was going to be sat in a room alone with you in complete silence!"
Shoto felt his stomach in a knot.
"Everyday I would be excited I was on day closer to seeing you!"
Her desperate sad eyes kept showing up in his mind.
"Do you know how dangerous it is for me to hold onto something like that?"
A subtle annoyance at what had happened filled him.
"Shoto." That cold monotone voice called out for his attention and the half and half boy looked up at his father. "Keep up, you're distracted." he added before turning back to the street ahead where they had been patrolling. Once again, the boy didn't respond but started walking again. They had been walking the streets of Hosu for a couple hours now after a lead on the Hero Killer: Stain, the same villain who had been responsible for Iida's brother's hospitalisation. The air felt thick and heavy for some reason and Shoto could not shake the feeling something was lurking behind every corner.
Only a few minutes walk away...
"Honestly kid, I don't know why you insisted on going to Hosu. That place is a dump." Hawks' voice rang through Ashley's phone as she walked down the streets of Hosu, she had joined a couple of pros who were going on patrol.
"I don't know... I've just got a feeling..." she said back, she heard him sigh through the phone.
"Ok princess, just be careful." he told her.
"It's me you're talking about." she replied, smiling slightly.
"That's why I'm worried." he said back, in a cheeky tone which made Ashley laugh through her exhale.
"Goodbye Hawks." she sounded playfully annoyed before she hung up the phone.
There was something since the Hero Killer's attack a few days ago that kept Ashley up at night, though she couldn't say what it was. They had just recently gotten into the city, she had asked if she could join the first group sent by the commission in order to feed her mind's weird obsession with the city. As she wasn't allowed to go on her own she latched onto anyone and found her mind wondering on its own as the pros walked in front of her.
"If you didn't want me around you could have just said..."
Dammit, not now. She had struggled to keep her and Shoto's argument out of her mind, she pushed it as much as she could but it kept coming back. She shook her head to wake herself up and get back to the task at hand.
BOOM
A loud explosion was heard not a mile away from them which called for the heroes attention. The group didn't waste a second and began running towards the source of the sound. As they got closer civilians were running past them in the opposite direction, there was definitely something very wrong. Once they turned the corner down the block they came face to face with Endeavour, one of his side kicks and Shoto. Ashley's eyes widened as they met his and her heart started pounding in her chest.
"Of course you're here when there's trouble." That cold voice she had heard multiple times commented, making her meet the bright blue eyes, the very same colour of Shoto's but these gave off such an intense chill it was almost unbearable. Ashley simply frowned at the man and looked back at his son beside him who was looking between the two in confusion. He doesn't know...
"Well, make yourself useful at least." Endeavour said as he began running toward the area where the explosions seemed to come from, followed by the two pros Ashley had come to Hosu with. Leaving the two teens behind only for a few seconds before a pinging sounds came from Shoto's pocket. Before reaching into his pocket to take out his phone the two looked at each other confused. Once he looked at his phone he studied it for a second before his face changed, it seemed like something that alarmed him.
"Shoto! Don't be on your phone and come along!" Endeavour shouted from a few feet ahead of them but almost instantly Shoto turned around and began running in the opposite direction.
"Shoto! Where are you going?!" His father yelled out as he came to a stop an watched his son run.
"An alleyway at 4-2-10 Ekou Street. If you finish what you're doing or find any free pros, send them there. I'm leaving you to take care of the situation." Shoto shouted as he ran.
Ashley stood confused, watching the boy run, then she turned her head to the pros. That's when she saw him. It wasn't easy to make out the two figures on the roof of the tall skyscraper a few blocks down, Shigaraki and the ghost-like villain that was present at the USJ incident. Within a moment her whole body filled with a numbing rage and nothing else existed in that moment. Instantly she began running, she passed the pros and passed the corner she should have taken to get to the fight zone.
"Where do you think you're going?!" she heard endeavour call out to her, his tone made her skin crawl.
She stopped in her tracks and whipped around, her face showing both the anger and annoyance toward the pro, "YOU CAN HANDLE IT!" she yelled before not wasting a second in turning back and running as fast as she could. As she ran through the streets the wind blew past her, hitting her skin hard. Nothing could have stopped her expect when she looked back up at the roof on the building down the urban hill and the figures were gone. Frozen, she stared up feeling the panic rise more and more. She frantically turned and turned to take in her surroundings to look for them. Nothing.
"Oh... how pathetic..." the skin crawling croaked voice whispered as if it came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Was she going insane? Then it hit her. The same thing happened at USJ, she could hear his voice although he was nowhere near her.
"Show yourself!" she yelled out in panic still turning around on herself. A low soul killing chuckle was heard and then the forest of buildings around her turned to complete black. The same darkness that enveloped her at USJ. "W-what... what is this?!" she yelled out and her voice echoed back at her. Her face changed to one of worry and fear.
"Poor little flower... all alone... unable to live like a normal girl her age..." his voice whispered, again sounding like it came from all around. Ashley didn't move, frozen on the spot, as if a step in any direction would have made the darkness swallow her up.
"Shut up!" she spat out. "It's because of you! It's all because of you!" her echo growing loader and louder as it bounced back at her.
"Oh now... I don't believe that's fair... we were both there that night... we both know what you did..." the voice snaking around her, Ashley kept her eyes on a fixed point deep into the dark.
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!" She screamed.
"Everybody around you knows... they know what you're capable of... they don't care about you...they fear you... you're a weapon to them..." Ashley could feel tears building up and her breathe got shaky as if the oxygen around her was decreasing or she was drowning.
"You know nothing." she said, her tone cold and dismissive.
"Oh little girl... I know a lot more than you think..." and with a blink of an eye the buildings were back and Ashley gasped in a deep breathe as if she had just swam up to the surface. She bent over with her hands on her knees as she recovered. Not a moment later her phone rang in her pocket, she sighed before taking it out and answering it.
"Hawks?" she said into the phone, still trying the take in oxygen.
"Where have you been?! I've been calling you for like 20 minutes!" not again, she thought.
"I'm still in Hosu I thought I sa-" she started but Hawks cut her off.
"Look, Endeavour and Gran Torino are fighting off loads of those damn Nomu things in the hot zone, I'm on my way but you need to ge-"
"Shoto..." she remembered him running away, something about that text made him run. She hung up the phone and began running in the direction he had earlier. 4-2-10 Ekou Street. 4-2-10 Ekou Street. 4-2-10 Ekou Street.
She got there in no time due to her determination. Her eyes widened at what she saw. Iida was on the ground, looking like he was unable to move. In the depths of the alleyway she could see another figure leaning up against the wall. Then she saw Midoriya and Shoto both with their backs to her facing the tall and lanky figure of the Hero Killer himself, Stain. She saw her classmates' injuries, blood seeping from their arms and legs. She had read the file on Stain, she knew he had some sort of blood manipulation quirk so they were in danger. She didn't hesitate in running forward so she could see Stain fully before swinging her arms in front of her as if she was pushing something, using her quirk to send Stain flying up against the back wall. Shoto and Midoriya turned to see her standing behind them.
"Could n't she have come sooner...? the figure that now was clearly Native, a pro hero, joked as he struggled to move. Ashley looked over at him and Iida to check they were actually ok before looking back at Stain, who was passed out on the ground.
"Seriously? We try to fight him off for ages and you just floor him in one move?" Iida commented, in a jokey manner but his words held the truth. She walked over to him and helped him to his feet.
"Can you move?" she asked him
"Kind of, the effect is wearing off." he told her and she nodded, letting him stand on his own.
She turned her attention back to the passed out villain, "Let's restrain him, in case he wakes up." she said and the boys nodded. Midoriya and Iida hobbled over to tie him up and as Ashley moved her gaze up she was met by Shoto's eyes. They seem to say a thousand words and none at the same time. She held herself back from reading minds all the time but she really struggled with his mind. She wished she would just listen to his thoughts and then she'd know everything she wanted, but she couldn't, it wasn't right. She sighed through her emotions and diverted her attention to the two boys dragging the villain.
They walked through the alleyway to the opening onto the main street. Ashley used her quirk to help the boys drag Stain along while Midoriya had native on his shoulder, helping him walk. As they reached the opening in the street they could see Endeavour and Gran Torino coming towards them. Ashley looked at the fire hero blankly and rolled her eyes.
"Are you kids alri- HUH?" Gran Torino asked as they reached the young hereos, noticing they had captured Stain. The pros stood with their eyes wide in shock as civilians arrived on the scene.
"You caught him..." Endeavour said unable to believe a group of children had managed to pull this off.
"Yeah they did..." Ashley started as she released Stain, making him the ground. "... no thanks to you." Endeavour stared right at her, unable to come up with a response. "And I'd listen to your son more often." she added, turning her head to face Shoto and smiled subtly. "He knows what he's doing." Shoto looked back at her and didn't react, but he did glance over at his father who was staring at Ashley as if he was abut to explode. They obviously didn't like each other for some reason.
"E-e-ermmm well ok then! We'll take the villain downtown and have the commission arrange transport to Tartarus." Gran Torino explained. "You kids don't say a word to anyone about this, got it?" he told the young heroes and they all nodded back at him slowly.
Suddenly a sound from behind them alarmed them as they knew Stain had woken up and broke free fomr the restraints and Ashley was the first one to notice. For the corner of her eye she saw him swinging his sword toward Shoto. She didn't hesitate to move in front of him.
Shoto's eye widened as he processed what had just happened, it was all so fast. He stared into Ashley's eyes that were locked open. He looked down at the blood stain forming on the front of her right shoulder as the sword pierced through her. As stain removed the sword from her she dropped onto Shoto, she struggled to breathe and she convulsed at the agony of being stabbed all the way through. Shoto hurried to hold her she he fell to his knees along with her. He tried to apply pressure to her wound but it was really bad.
"Hey hey hey hey stay with me." he coached her to her senses to stay awake. Her breathing was patchy and her eyes were wide still as she stared into his eyes as if she was grabbing onto his soul for dear life.
"Why did you do that...?" he asked her in a panicked worry. He looked up to she Midoriya, Endeavour and Gran Torino, who had chased Stain only a few feet away before he started giving some speech about the crumbling ideal of heroes. Shoto couldn't focus on that as Ashley was in such bad shape she could slip away any second. Her convulsing continued as she held onto every breathe and refused to look away from Shoto's eye. Her left hand crossed over to her wound in a failed attempt to stop blood from spilling out.
"Don't you dare. Don't you dare!" Shoto pleaded as he fought back tears he held her closer to him. Ashley held out her hand ready to cup his face but struggled, when she did she used her quirk to communicate.
It's going to be ok, he heard her voice in his head but her lips didn't move. That's when he broke, tears streamed down his cheeks.
I can't lose you, he thought, knowing she could hear him. Don't leave me.
Almost on cue her eyes closed and her arm fell from his face. His heart broke into a million pieces as he watched her seemingly lifeless body in his arms.
"Ashley! Ashley! Come on! Stay with me!" he pleaded but got no reaction. He looked to his classmates and the pros for help and in front of them he saw Stain frozen, as if he had been petrified on on the spot.
"Get an ambulance here now!" Gran Torino called out as he made his way to the two on the ground. He examined the girl's wound and shook his head. "She needs urgent care." he said to Shoto who nodded back at him. He stood up as he shifted the girl carefully into his arms bridal style. Her body was limp at every movement he made, he could still make out her faint breathing but it was getting less and less apparent. Endeavour watched as his son carried the girl over to the ambulance that had pulled up a few feet away. He wondered why his son had shed tears and he wondered why she jumped in in the first place, a girl who to him was bottom feed hero materials due to their passed encounters. He didn't say a word to his son as he watched the ambulance drive away and another pulled up to take the boys and Native away to tend to their injuries. Endeavour felt completely removed from the situation, as if he were a ghost.