Author's Note: Time to get some character growth!
Disclaimer: I don't own MHA or its characters. Original characters are mine but that's it. Story is rated for sensitive subject matter and content both mentioned and written.
Chapter 48 - This isn't Neverland
Keigo was so proud of his hero license that he sent pictures to everyone he could. Soji and Azumi planned a large celebration dinner when Jin was out of the hospital, but for their small growing family she made chicken Yakitori because it was Keigo's favorite. Mila seemed as excited as Keigo was, although it was hard to tell if she was following along with his chirps of happiness or genuinely happy about him becoming a hero. She was playing with a doll house they had gotten her, showing Soji how the family needed to be split up throughout the house as Azumi washed dishes and Keigo dried.
"Do you understand Mila's chirps and whistles, Keigo? Or when she trills?" Keigo looked thoughtful before nodding. "Kind of. You know how someone can give you a look or glare and you just know what they are trying to say or what they're trying to get across?" Azumi smirked at something. "Oh yes, I am familiar with it." The teenager, now Pro Hero, looked sheepish as he set aside a plate and started drying another. "Well it's like that. Like an instinct." His mother nodded as she drained the sink and began to dry her hands. "So what happens now, Mr. Hero."
"Mooooom" He partially whined as he put the stack of plates away. She laughed and pulled him into a hug, kissing the side of his head. "I'm serious. You got your license, what's your next steps?" He shrugged as he looked towards the kitchen doorway. I know I have about a week before the Commission can get me into the patrol schedule, and then when Jin is better and graduates, I'm opening my own agency. That's the next step to take" An arm around each other, they walked into the living room to see Soji pouting at Mila as she giggled.
"Uh oh, what happened here?" Azumi looked between them as Soji looked up at her still pouting. "I got out in time out for not eating my vegetables." Keigo crouched down to look in the small house and saw the daddy figure leaned in a corner. Azumi tsk'd and looked at Soji as if he were in trouble, at the same time Keigo's phone started chiming that he had a video chat. "It's probably Jin. I'll be in my room!" He was popping the phone out and hurried to his room, the door closing halfway as he plopped on the bed and hit the answer button.
What filled his screen should have been his best friend with half of his face covered in a bandage. What he saw was a large dark eyeball covered in a greenish film with clear goo around it. The skin around the eye was stitched and puffy red as he heard Jin. "I've got my eye on you!" Keigo squawked as he almost threw the phone, the sound of Jin cackling as he pulled the camera away from his face. He was sitting up in his hospital bed and grinning. "Dude! Your fathe! You look like you laid an egg!" Keigo was breathing faster as he collected himself and glared at the phone.
"What the hell man? Give a bird a warning!" He propped up the phone and looked at Jin who looked very pleased with himself. "So they took the bandages off huh? That's not an infection I see, is it?" Jin shook his head no. "It'th a hydrating numbing gel. Only slightly compromitheth my perfect vithon." Keigo grinned at the phone. "That's why you wear glasses, right?" The bat quirked teen narrowed his right eye at the screen, the left eye remaining open and foggy looking. "I can thee you jutht fine." Unable to stop himself, Keigo flipped the middle finger at his camera on his phone. "Yeah? How many fingers am I holding up?"
Jon gave a feigned shocked look on his face. "Oh my! I'm telling the media that Pro Hero Hawkth gave me, the bird." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and Keigo turned beet red before narrowing his eyes. "Whatever pain medication they have you on, tell them to turn it down." Jin cackled and took a deep breath before calming down. "Really though, I called to thay congratth on your lithenthe. I bet it wath a ton of fun." The blonde shook his head no and started recounting the event to Jin.
They talked for over an hour before Jin declared he had to get medicated and waved off. Keigo grinned at the quiet phone as he opened his text messenger. Dabi had read his text and seen his image of his hero license, but like always, no reply. It wasn't as if the Commission would be after him after all this time. And they'd never used his phone to track himself or Toya, so why wouldn't Dabi reply? With a sigh he stood to head back out and see if everyone was still playing in the living room. A flash of red in the corner of his eye made him pause as he glanced to his bed.
Some of his feathers were laying in the blankets, scattered as if they had fallen. He called them back and they remained still. Frowning, he pulled his wings forward to look at them carefully. They looked full and healthy as they should. Looking away, he closed his eyes and tried to sense them on the bed, only to find they were no longer linked to him. Blinking his eyes open, Keigo picked them up carefully and stacked them on his desk. The last time this had happened, he had molted at 13 and before that at 9 and before that right at 6. A last look at the feathers, he hoped he was done molting and growing new feathers before he had to go patrol and start his hero career. A winged hero with no wings would be awkward.
/
Jin was asleep in the hospital when Dabi came to visit. He had a scrubs uniform again, mask over his face as he made sure to come late at night when Shin was gone or asleep. He sat in a chair next to the bed and watched the teenage bat boy sleeping as his turquoise eyes stared at the stitches and gel over his closed left eye. This wasn't fair. Jin was a great sidekick with an amazing quirk that was versatile and multi functional. He worked so hard to get to where he was, and earned his stripes to stand side by side with Keigo as heros. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he grumbled about idiots with guns.
"If you're gonna thtare at me you could at leatht bring me pudding firtht." Jin opened his right eye and grinned at Dabi. The flame wielder looked up and shook his head. "How do you always know? Aren't you blind in one eye now?" Jin struggled to sit up and Dabi jumped forward to help him. "Only ninety perthent blind in one eye with no depth perthepthon anymore. That'th thtill ten perthent vithibikity." He clicked a button in a small handle connected to the IV and sighed as he took a few deep breaths to settle the nausea of the pain medication. Dabi blinked watching him and spoke softly. "Have you told Keigo yet?"
Jin looked over at Dabi, eyeball wide and dark as Dabi saw the pupil blown wide from pain killers and drugs. "Are you inthane? No, let me rephrathe that becauthe I know you are inthane, are you thtupid? Tell him I won't be able to do hero work again on the thame day he pathed the lithenthe exam?" Turquoise eyes met black as Dabi frowned. "You have to tell him." "Thayth who? You? The perthon who couldn't tell him you've had a cruth on him for yearth?" Dabi frowned deeper. "You're being an asshole right now, Jin"
Jin shrugged and leaned back crossing his arms as best as he could with his wings. "Maybe, but you never know what could happen between now and a year from now. There could be thomeone with a quirk that can fick my eye. Or the therapy will work out and I won't need to worry about thith." Dabi dropped his head remaining quiet and Jin looked over at him. "Why are you tho upthet about thith? You got the guy who thot me. I'm not lothing thleep over it, are you?" Dabi shook his head. "Then what'th your deal?"
"You deserve to be a hero more than some of the people claiming to be heroes right now, and they never have to suffer like you are. They always have everything handed to them while you and Keigo have to scrape and fight for it." Dabi looked up at him, eyes burning. Jin narrowed his right eye, the left still closed. "Like your dad?" Dabi almost started smoking. "I don't want to talk about my old man." Jin made his voice super high pitched as he reached up and pulled his eyelids down gently to mimic Dabi's under eye scars.
"Oh no! My name ith Dabi and my dad ith an athhole but I don't want to talk to anyone about it becauthe I'm thcared it might actually help me feel better and I then I can't be emo ath fuck!" Dabi reached over to smack him on the arm that wasn't hooked up to an IV as he chuckled and Jin cackled. "Fine, I get it. You're all up in Thtainth corner about hero thothiety. Jutht don't forget Keigo and I are part of that now. What are you going to do if he thayth we are falthe heroeth?" Dabi was silent as he thought about that.
Jin sighed and relaxed on the bed, eye half open as he started to space out a bit as he let Dabi think about that. "Hey Dabi?" The dark haired teen looked up as he saw Jin looking over at him. "Thankth for coming by every night. You don't have to, but it helpth." Dabi grinned and stood to grab the empty cup next to his bed as he headed for the door. "I'll refill your ice chips. Need anything else?" Jin made a soft 'hm' in response and then mumbled. "Yeah, chocolate pudding." Dabi grinned wider as he slipped out of the room to go raid the closed cafeteria.
/
The President of the Heroes Public Safety Commission was not happy. She had high hopes for Keigo's continued improvement under one of their heroes and wasn't pleased that his aid ran him through a shotgun version of their reprogramming training. Vice President Kueka seemed to throw all of the blame on her, citing that he let her handle Keigo and his day to day lesson plan and training. She had been forced to retire to a Commission outpost elsewhere because of all the money spent to fight the string of subpoenas and writs. And now Hawks was a Hero licensed to work under the Commission, but not the way they wanted.
She sighed and was looking through his file, showing top marks in all of his classes, simulations and even the license exam itself. It was a failure on their part to lose control over such an asset. The radical speaker Stain was becoming a dangerous rumor on the streets that too many people were starting to listen to. And there were other villain organizations that required infiltration, cover hero work and some were just nails that needed to be hit with a hammer.
There was a knock on the door and she called for whoever it was to enter. Nato walked in and bowed, before he set a folder on the desk for her. "This is everything we could get on the Nakamuras immediately related to Keigo Takami. There was information about a new child that they adopted with a bird quirk. We are still tracking that lead. Between all of this and trying to find the unknown quirk user Dabi, we are getting pretty thin on resources. Even with the licensing exam, our numbers only increased by four, including Hawks." She frowned and stood to walk over to a large window in her office.
"There needs to be a way to get a handle on this family. Everything tried isn't working." Sliding the file over to herself, she opened and briefly flipped through some of the pages, pausing at the adoption file for Mila Yusimoko lifting the picture, she narrowed her eyes. "This is the little girl they adopted?" Nato nodded and tilted his head, curiously looking between the President and the picture. "Do you know her ma'am?" There was an odd smile on her face, aa if she had a tender thought mixed with a good idea. "Her mother was the sidekick to Recovery Girl named Soothe, real name Aui Yusimoko. She retired six years ago to start a family and almost immediately after her husband died. Then she died four years later."
Nato frowned as he watched the President set the picture aside from the file. "What was her quirk, if I may ask, and how did she die?" She reorganized some of the files in the folder and began making notes on a notepad. "Her quirk was Healing Hair, she kept it in braids and decorated loops that ran down her arms so they could touch and heal someone. They had to be awake, however. It never worked when someone was asleep or unconscious." Here the President looked like she was concerned, her brows furrowing. "I'm not really sure. I barely looked at the file, and the only reason I remembered her is because shebhad a healing quirk. We have an entire department dedicated to record keeping and identity security because of how valuable they can be."
Picking the picture up again, the President of the Heroes Public Safety Commission held it up and looked at the head of the legal department, speaking firmly. "I want you to find out everything about this one, including if she's had a quirk analysis done. If not, get one done or get menher DNA. Use Spy if you must, or whomever is equally skilled and available. And re-open her mother's file. I am curious what happened now." Nato bowed and turned to walk out, pausing at the door as he spoke in a reminding light tone.
"I'm sure you remember that you agreed to leave Keigo Takami's family alone when his contract is done. You would need to find a way to convince them to come to you." The President didn't bother looking up as she replied, going over more of the file. "We still have a year before that becomes an issue. And I'm sure given that time frame, you can find a way to get the results needed as quickly as possible."
Nato nodded without any response to that and left the room.
