Satori had become alert the moment her feathers had sensed Makoto's arrival, but hadn't cared to open her eyes. Surprisingly, Makoto hadn't decided to get her to come down. Instead, Satori heard how she chose to grumble while going back inside about 'teens' who just 'didn't care to stay in one place.'
Stretching her limbs while maintaining her balance, Satori squinted at the sun. Judging by the increased amount of sunlight as well as the increased amount of ambient noise (featuring a lot more people than animals), it was probably around nine to ten in the morning. She had spent a good amount of time perched in the tree, but Satori hadn't needed some space and time for herself.
"I should probably go back to Tsukauchi-san's house," she muttered to herself, "and ask her about when the meeting is."
Her stomach grumbled, and Satori sighed. She didn't want to deal with the impending meeting with the detective and All Might. But Satori couldn't delay the inevitable. Better go inside.
Making her back, Satori noticed that Makoto had left the door unlocked for her to come back in. Securing it as she walked in, she was greeted with the sight of Makoto munching on some Mighty Munch cereal.
Despite Satori not saying anything, Makoto immediately seemed defensive.
"Look, I'm only eating this because Nao-niisan gets it for free, and just dumped in on me. Something about coupons for his job? I don't even know. Don't judge me."
Internally, Satori found it amusing that All Might gave Tsukauchi free merchandise, which he dumped onto his sister. The towel from yesterday must be one of those things, she realized.
"Do you want any breakfast?" Makoto asked her, gesturing to her cereal with her spoon. "I have a lot of boxes of these, but there's also some bread you can toast if you'd prefer. Don't birds like eating bread crumbs anyway?"
Satori sighed, even if she couldn't stop her lips from forming a half-smile.
"Actually, bread isn't healthy and shouldn't be fed to birds. But I'll take that option anyway, Tsukauchi-san." Satori might as well eat something. She would need all her energy for the upcoming conversation.
"Sure," Makoto said, pointing to the bag of bread with her spoon. "The toaster's under that window over there, and there's some jam in the fridge."
Satori took out a plate, along with the jam container and a small knife. By the time she placed everything onto the table, the bread had been toasted.
Spreading the jam onto the toast, Satori bit into it and munched thoughtfully as she sat in the easy silence. Makoto seemed interested in whatever was on her phone, and Satori quickly devoured the toast.
Placing the plate in the sink, she winced when she realized that she still wanted to eat more. Satori needed a lot of calories for her quirk, and the toast wasn't enough. But she had already imposed upon Makoto enough, and Satori felt uncomfortable at the thought of eating more.
Distracting herself from her hunger, Satori asked Makoto when her brother said the meeting would be.
"Oh, that," Makoto said, placing her phone face-down onto the table. "He said it's… about two and a half hours for now and to tell you that it'll be at his friend's place."
Satori felt relief and anxiety at the same time. It was good that they wouldn't be speaking in a public place, as she'd be sharing dangerous information with them that could be deadly in the wrong hands. On the other hand, however, not being in a public place still made her itch with paranoia.
Not to mention, the meeting would be in less than three hours. It was nerve-racking to consider how much time she had left.
"I didn't think it would be soon," she said weakly. Makoto looked at her as if she was assessing Satori.
"Yeah, I wondered what was up with that," Makoto said, seemingly contemplating whatever ideas she imagined about what their conservation was about. Satori didn't think she'd ever guess the truth. "I told Nao-niisan you seemed like you needed to relax more, but he said it was an urgent matter."
Urgent is one way to describe it, Satori thought. Some of her worry must have reflected onto her face, because Makoto looked at her comfortingly.
"Hey, I'm sure you'll be fine at whatever meeting it is," Makoto said cheerfully, as she placed her own bowl into the sink. "Nao-niisan might seem serious on the outside, but he's really caring on the inside."
Satori nodded reflexively at the words, thoughts still churning away in her mind.
"Hey, how about this?" Makoto asked, looking at her. "Let's do something fun together."
"Umm, sure?" Satori responded, hesitant. "What exactly is it?"
"Let's paint your nails!" Makoto said excitedly, clapping her own hands together. Satori noticed the polished, professional look of Makoto's own red nails. "It'll be fun, and you don't need to worry, we have enough time for them to dry."
Satori had never exactly been interested in painting her own nails. While she knew that Fumi-nii had painted his black before, she had never really considered doing so.
Growing up without a traditional family dynamic (especially without a mother), Satori hadn't really ventured much into traditionally feminine activities. Her closest female role model had been Rumi, but she'd more focused on teaching Satori about how to throw a good punch than anything else.
It was why she decided that she might as well explore it now when she had the chance.
"I've never painted my nails, but I'd be grateful if you could help me, Tsukauchi-san," Satori said. Makoto laughed, melodic but unashamed.
"Ah, don't worry Satori-chan," she said, eyes gleaming. "I'm an expert at these kinds of things."
She might as well take her mind off the impending meeting. And plus, Satori really liked Makoto. She was confident, cool, and proud about what she liked.
A lot like Rumi, although she knew they both definitely had different takes on fashion and style.
"Let's go with a blue!" Makoto said, grinning.
Satori's heart froze in her chest.
"Why blue?" she asked, trying to not let the heavy pounding of her heart be heard. By how hard it seemed to be pounding, it felt like Makoto might have been able to hear it.
"Because of your eyes! I have the perfect blue to match!"
Satori… hadn't exactly had the best experiences with the color blue.
All her life, it hadn't exactly been a color associated with the most pleasant memories.
It had been a part of her that she'd disliked the most.
She remembered wearing black contacts once in front of her dad because she always felt bad about how he freaked out sometimes when he looked into her eyes, only for him to freak out even more about the fact that she'd felt the need to do so in the first place.
That hadn't exactly been an isolated incident.
But Satori was tired of running, and there was no reason now to try and hide from it. It was a part of her, and it wasn't realistic to pretend otherwise.
"If you say so," she said, allowing for a dubious tone to accompany her words even though in reality, she always eventually found herself seeing how right Makoto tended to be.
"Don't be silly," said Makoto, "by the time I'm done, you'll see just how right I was."
—
Satori quietly acknowledged that yes, Makoto had indeed made a good decision. Flexing her fingers and toes with now dried polish, she couldn't help but admire the near-professional look her nails had.
"Well, what do you think?" asked Makoto, raising an eyebrow as she screwed the lid back on the bottle of polish.
"It looks amazing," said Satori, genuine appreciation spilling into her words. "Thank you so much, Tsukauchi-san."
"Aw, you're making me blush Satori-chan," giggled Makoto. "I've done this plenty of times, it's nothing big."
For Satori, it was something big.
The blue actually looked pretty to her. She liked it, and ended up lightly tracing her cheek with her newly painted nails.
"Hey," said Makoto, suddenly sounding a little startled, as if she'd just thought of something, "how important is this meeting of yours with my older brother?"
"Uh, I guess it's pretty important," said Satori, a little alarmed by Makoto's tone. "Is something wrong?"
"You look fine," said Makoto, now murmuring to herself, "but I can't let you go to a potentially important meeting wearing that! I could never forgive myself."
Now, Satori was getting a little tired, even if she really appreciated Makoto's efforts. Hadn't she already done so much for her?
"It's fine, Tsukauchi-san. Besides, you've already done so much for me."
"Nonsense," retorted Makoto, dismissing Satori's words. "Doing this helps me alleviate my boredom, and besides, I have a lot of things I don't need anymore."
Satori couldn't help but think about Makoto's similarity to her brother. She's just as stubborn.
It vaguely reminded her of Rumi, and how she'd always drag Satori kicking for some sparring.
As Makoto continued to look at her, she simply shrugged in response. She doubted Makoto would've accepted anything else.
"Glad you've come to your senses," Makoto remarked as she stood up and walked away. It seemed like Makoto had already known what she wanted to take out, as it seemed like only a minute had passed when Makoto exited the closet, brandishing a black-long sleeved tee.
"The pants are fine," Makoto said, "but this shirt is probably better. And I think you'll like the pun too."
Unrolling the shirt, Satori couldn't help but close her eyes when she saw that it said 'The Early Bird Gets the Worm.'
"This is the only other bird-related shirt I have, unfortunately," lamented Makoto, "but I think it'll suit you just fine."
"And you won't mind if I cut this up?" asked Satori, slightly hesitant to take the shirt. This looked like something expensive— and it felt slightly dubious to accept it outright.
But the material felt almost heavenly against her fingers.
"Oh, don't worry about that," said Makoto, handing the shirt to her. "I outgrew this long ago but never got the chance to wear it, so might as well not let it go to waste."
"Can I borrow your scissors again?" asked Satori. She felt slightly bad that she didn't just pull out a feather and do the job herself, but she still wanted to keep all her cards close to her chest.
"Oh sure, no problem," said Makoto, "Just let me grab them."
While Makoto was gone, Satori took advantage of being alone to bury her face into her hands. She could freely lose her composure without anyone seeing.
Everything just felt so… overwhelming.
Then again, quite a lot had occurred within the last couple of days. With the Tsukauchi siblings, her sudden displacement, and the matter of the looming meeting, there had been a ton of events that had taken place.
Sighing, Satori lifted her head back up as she heard the sound of Makoto's footsteps coming back.
"Here you go," Makoto chirped, handing over the scissors to her. Satori took them and swiftly cut the slits into the shirt, before handing them back to Makoto.
"Woah, that was quick!" Makoto commented as she took the scissors back. Satori didn't doubt that with the detective as a brother, Makoto was probably more analytical than she might seem at first.
After going into the bathroom and changing into the shirt, Satori came back, only to be greeted with the sight of Makoto rummaging around a box in the living room, filled with jewelry from what she could see.
Satori felt a little irritated, despite knowing how much Makoto was doing for her. Would there be no limit to Makoto dressing her up, as if she was some doll to simply put on whatever her owner decided would look best?
Instantly, Satori felt a little ashamed of making that analogy. Still, she couldn't help how her freshly painted nails dug into the soft flesh of her palm, leaving thing crescent marks behind.
Being confined indoors with someone she didn't know well was starting to take its toll on her, and Satori couldn't help the frustration that was building.
"Found it," muttered Makoto, pulling out a… watch?
"Don't know why I even kept this in here," she grumbled, as she shut the box and placed it next to her feet. "Well, take a look at this!"
Leaning over, Satori raised an eyebrow when she finally looked at the watch in question. It was old-fashioned, having hands and numbers instead of being digital, but it had a picture of All Might on the face on the clock.
He stood proud and tall, the position representative of his status as the Symbol of Peace.
But Satori could see that clearly, this watch wasn't really Makoto's style. Sure, it had quite a nice golden strap, but Makoto seemed to only grudgingly use whatever hero merch was in her house.
"Another thing Nao-niisan pawned off to me," she said, "and I almost sold it like I did with most of the stuff he gives me. But I'm glad for some reason, I threw it into that box. Here, hold out your wrist," Makoto asked, with no room to question.
Satori held out her arm, but she quickly snatched her arm back after Makoto had loosened her grip to fasten the buckle of the watch herself. Not looking at Makoto's inevitably startled expression, she tugged the strap through the loop after fastening it loose enough that it didn't feel constricting on her wrist.
No need to feel like someone else was placing a quirk suppressor on her wrist again.
Seeing the gold strap of the watch, she couldn't help but be reminded of her dad's own golden hair, as well as memories of combing through it with her fingers.
It was a little amusing that an All Might merch product was what managed to bring the memories to the surface.
Looking up, Satori was glad to see that she'd missed seeing whatever Makoto had felt with her abrupt rudeness, as she was furiously tapping at her phone.
"Nao-niisan said he'd be here in ten minutes," Makoto informed her, as she continued tapping. "Might as well go outside and wait for him."
Nodding, Satori tried to mask her elation at getting out of the apartment. Sure, it had been comfortable when she'd been dead tired and exhausted, but now it was simply suffocating.
With shoes on and a lot fresher than she'd been when entering the apartment last night, Satori stretched her legs as she waited for Tsukauchi's car to pull up.
Unfortunately, now that it was later than it'd been when she had been out before, she couldn't exactly stretch her wings. The most she could do was stretch them out wide without actually flying.
The sound of a running car made its way to Satori long before Makoto would hear it, and she stands up a little straighter, cracking her knuckles. Then, Makoto grinned as she saw the car rounding the corner, waving madly at her brother.
After he stopped and unrolled the window, Satori could tell that Tsukauchi was probably reassessing her now that she didn't look as pathetic as when they'd been introduced to each other yesterday. With newer clothes and a dirt-free face, she probably looked more capable and a lot stronger.
"Thanks for helping me out," he said, as Makoto came closer.
"No problem-o," Makoto replied, grinning. "Just take good care of her, alright? Otherwise, you won't like what I'll unleash on you."
"Of course," Tsukauchi grumbled, even as his eyes shone with mirth. Satori made her way towards the car but stopped in front of Makoto.
"Thanks for everything, Tsukauchi-san," Satori said quietly, bowing in front of Makoto. Despite her own frustrations with being copped up, she really was immensely thankful for everything the older woman had done for her.
"Don't worry about it, birdie," Makoto said, eyes bright as Satori stood up again. "I haven't had so much fun with someone in a while."
Entering the car, she gave a small wave to Makoto through the window before facing forward, while Tsukauchi clearly observed what Makoto had done to Satori. Her nails and clothes were quite different from what they'd been like before.
"I hope Makoto wasn't too bad," Tsukauchi remarked, as he continued driving.
"She was nice," Satori answered, a little defensive. After all, Makoto had really gone above and beyond what she'd expected of someone when dealing with a random person at who knows what time in the early morning. Still, she added, "I see what you mean, though."
Tsukauchi chuckled. "Yeah, she's always been like that."
After that brief exchange, everything fell into a peaceful silence, although Satori couldn't help but jerk up a little when Tsukauchi suddenly fiddled with the radio and put the news on.
At least it wasn't irritating music, Satori thought, as she half-heartedly listened to whoever was speaking regarding the newest model of a cell phone, the rising prices of villain insurance for small businesses, and minor advancements in the support equipment.
She did, however, become a lot more alert when it was mentioned that Endeavor had gotten into a nasty fight with another villain, which had ended up wrecking three buildings. His agency had released a statement saying that they'd pay whatever damages had been caused by Endeavor during the fight.
Endeavor… or better known as Todoroki Enji to Satori, was someone that Satori didn't know exactly how to feel about.
From what Fumi-nii had told her, he'd been one of the only people to visit her dad after he'd lost his wings and lost his hero career.
Endeavor had been supportive of her dad during a time when he'd been shunned and abandoned by the Hero Public Safety Commission. And her dad had continuously visited him over the years after his forced retirement from heroics.
Quirkless or not, her dad still held the same respect for the man who had been his favorite hero since he was a child.
But for Satori, she simply couldn't look at the man in the same light.
Endeavor had been one of her dad's closest supporters and was also his favorite hero. She still remembered the autograph her dad had treasured from when he'd received it as a child (as one of the only possessions that had stayed with him from before he'd joined the HPSC).
But he'd also been the man who had shaped her father into whatever twisted, bitter man he'd become— and eventually the man who'd lashed out at her dad.
And Satori couldn't let that go. She didn't think she could let the past stay in the past like her dad had chosen to do so, even after the broadcast Dabi, formerly Todoroki Touya, had released on the internet revealing Endeavor's past parenting.
And Endeavor had certainly changed for the better, she knew that, or else Frostfire wouldn't have continued to have a relationship with him.
It would be wrong to only think of him from one perspective.
But Satori still hated how it was him that had allowed her father's bitterness to grow unchecked, essentially neglecting him emotionally, until it was too late to take back the result of his actions.
Leaning her head back, Satori slowly exhaled as she noticed Tsukauchi slowing down so that he could park.
They'd entered a gated housing complex, and now the detective had completely stopped in front of a random house, typing out a message on his phone with one hand as he unlocked the car with the other.
The house wasn't anything overly grand or lavish, certainly not something people might have thought of as belonging to the number one hero. But overall, the area did seem quite affluent, from the well-trimmed lawns to the numerous rare and well-cared for flowers in front of every house.
Was this where All Might lived?
"We're here," Tsukauchi said, evidently relieved by reaching what had to be their destination.
The door of the house suddenly opened as Satori got back onto the ground.
A tall, skinny man stood in front of the house. He beckoned them both inside, and Satori could see the look Tsukauchi shot her, as if he was wondering what she thought about the situation.
Well, Satori thought, I hope we can have a productive discussion.
The moment she'd seen the man, Satori had instantly recognized him from the archived footage of the fight at Kamino. It was one of the most highly watched hero fights of the century, and the face of the hero who had persevered in the face of so much against him, despite how his true form outed to the general public was one that Satori wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon.
"Hello, All Might," Satori said, bowing respectfully in front of the man. She suppressed a smile at the shocked, wide-eyed look he shot at Tsukauchi