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"Sweet dreams, Yaomomo."
Yaomomo staggered to her feet and stumbled back from Shouto's body as the villain advanced. "No... no..!"
"It's over." Dabi hefted a handful of flames in his marred hand. "Shouto is dead. And you are still trapped." He glanced around their fiery arena. In the sapphire light of the ocean-tinted tongues, lapping hungrily at all scraps of oxygen in the room, Yaomomo found herself trapped in a world of blue, blue, blue. "Just let me make this quick. Your use in this experiment is over."
"No... I..!" As Dabi blasted a plume of cerulean flame at her, Yaomomo yelped and ran, scrambling away from Shouto and nearly colliding with a blazing podium. She jumped back, her feet numb, tears dripping down her face that she didn't bother to wipe away. Her hands were shaking, palms sweaty. "No, no, no! I don't want to-!"
"Give it up," Dabi drawled. "Shouto died because of you. Tamaki died because of you. Come and die already, like Fumikage did before you, like Ochako and Izuku and all your little friends. Don't you want to join them?"
The villain's words rang, sharp as daggers, in Yaomomo's ears as she ran, ran ran ran from him and the blasts of flame that chased her like a cat chased a mouse. She stumbled, faltering with each passing, undeserved heartbeat.
"Don't you want to join them?"
She did, she truly did, Yaomomo decided, images of Kyouka and Denki and Cynthia and Shouto, dear Shouto burning into the backs of her eyelids. She had no reason to keep fighting; she'd failed in the end, failed herself by saying yes and driving that knife into Tamaki's head, failed everyone else when they realized she had been lying this whole time.
You just want to escape, don't you?
No matter who has to die along the way.
She tripped, tumbling to the burning floor. She glanced over her shoulder to see Dabi advancing, growing closer and closer with every step he took, the flames he wielded getting closer and closer to burning her alive.
But they never did.
Why do they never strike?
"Sorry, but I can't let you do that." There was a flurry of crimson, and in a split second there was a man between her and the ravenette, shielding her in the shadow of a massive pair of wings, the feathers sharper than blades and redder than a tropic sunset. "These kids are coming with us."
"I don't see you doing much, birdbrain," Dabi scoffed as Yaomomo shakily rose to her feet behind Hawks. "Feathers burn, y'know?"
"But of course." In a flash, the hero suddenly turned around and grabbed Yaomomo before going airborne, easily sliding her into a bridal carry in his stable, secure arms. "We're getting you and your friends outta here, 'kay?" he said, this time to her. She looked up at his face through his visor; he offered her a small quirk of his lips, his chocolate eyes smiling down at her.
"..." She didn't exactly know how to respond, but he looked as confident as Mirko in his ability to rescue her, to act as the hero of the day for her. "Shouto..." she muttered, her lips forming the words as if they were ghosts upon her tongue. "He's dead... down there..."
"Ah, Enji's son?" Hawks clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. He twirled in midair, sending a row of feathers down in an arc to combat a wave of flame. "We'll send someone down to get him. Dabi has no reason to burn a corpse now, does he?"
Yaomomo stayed silent while Hawks whisked her away, hooking over the top of the blaze that engulfed the trial room and diving up, up to the ground floor and outside.
The sky... is so bright... Yaomomo flinched and squeezed her eyes shut when he first carried her out the hole in the wall and under the sun. As she slowly opened them, she found herself under an infinite dome of blue, richer than the flames that had threatened to eat her alive and clearer than the tears that now evaporated from her sheet-white skin. There wasn't a cloud to be seen as Hawks gently lowered her onto a patch of grass by the brick walkway leading to the building. As she looked up, glancing at the smoking building behind her and the hordes of heroes and emergency workers scattered across the lawn, a breeze ruffled her uncombed hair, causing her ponytail to flutter against her neck. "Spring, huh..?"
"Hm?" Hawks glanced down at her as he pulled back. She could hear sirens now, as well as far too many voices to count; more voices than the number that had ever filled that wretched trial room.
"It's spring. I can... I can smell it in the air." The fresh tang of leaves and new life danced across her nose. "It's... very nice." She blinked, suddenly confused. "But what happened to the months of snow..? Last I was outside, there was snow..."
Hawks gazed sympathetically down at her with a pitiful expression. He looked like he wanted to say more when a flurry of footsteps suddenly halted right behind her. She looked up to see several doctors hovering over her and Hawks, who was still kneeling beside her.
"Missing Persons A, Momo Yaoyorozu," the winged hero informed them. "She has no visible injuries. Are you hurt anywhere?" He returned his attention to her.
"Just... my head..." It was true; her head was starting to pound. The sudden light was a bit too strong for her eyes to handle. "It's the sun... it's too bright..."
"That's to be expected, Miss Yaoyorozu," one nurse said. She looked to the blonde hero. "Let's get her to the ambulance now."
"W-Wait!" Yaomomo cried out, causing Hawks to halt as he began to scoop her up again. "My friend... Shouto Todoroki... he's still in there..." She found herself selfish for requesting they find him as soon as the words left her mouth. It's my fault.
"No worries, Ma'm, we've got heroes in there recovering all of the survivors," the nurse soothed.
"He's dead," Hawks suddenly cut in. "I saw him. Dabi, the villain with the fire quirk, burned him pretty badly."
It's my fault.
"O-Oh..." The nurse seemed stunned for a moment, unable to find words to offer Yaomomo. "I'm... I'm so sorry," she finally managed.
"It's fine."
It's my fault, my fault, all my fault..!
"Medics! I require a medic, now!" A second voice suddenly rose from behind them, back at the school. Yaomomo's head snapped around, causing another surge of pain to her head, but she ignored it, for the blurry sight that greeted her overwhelmed all other thoughts in her brain.
There was another hero, one with golden, feathery wings similar to Hawks's. He had dirty blonde hair and wore a translucent visor, one that showed his sharp, blue eyes behind them. In his arms was Shouto, her Shouto, burned and beaten, limp and still as a corpse. Yaomomo watched as a group of doctors swarmed out from behind her and met the hero midway down the brick path, crowding around the boy. For a moment, they were still, before one jolted up and ran for the ambulance.
"Eh?" The ravenette observed as he grabbed a stretcher with another doctor and rushed back to Shouto, gently lowering him onto it and hurrying for one of the many vehicles waiting outside the gate. Hawks wordlessly got up and intercepted one of the other medics that had greeted the dead Theorist and the hero who'd picked him up. "What's happening? Why are they taking the body to the hospital?" Yaomomo mumbled from her place on the ground, her legs too weak to lift her to her feet. She tugged at Hawks's jacket hem, but he ignored her, exchanging hushed words with the medic.
As the medic rushed away, the crimson-winged hero turned around and knelt to face the Detective. "Well, you've got good news. He's not dead."
"..." Yaomomo blinked at him. Once, twice. "What?"
"That Todoroki's not dead, Miss Yaoyorozu." Hawks smiled. "I suppose all of them are quite accustomed to fire after all, even if that kid refused his power until his outburst on live TV a few months back."
"No, no, they've got to be mistaken..! He's dead! I watched him die!" Yaomomo cried out, tears welling in her eyes. The blonde man eyed her with concern, a frown tugging his lips down. "I watched him die! He jumped in front of me, took a hit from Dabi! He can't be alive! He died for me, I killed him! I KILLED HIM!"
Droplets cascaded down her face, washing clean streaks on her skin, and the words were torn from her smoke-raw throat like knives. Hawks reached out to touch her, maybe place a hand on her shoulder, but she jumped back and slapped his hand away. "I KILLED HIM! STOP LYING TO ME!"
"Yaoyorozu, calm down!" he hissed. She was sure heads were beginning to turn at the sight of a survivor of the infamous Killing Game yelling at her savior -the number two hero, at that- but she didn't really care. "He had a pulse! If that's not alive, I don't know what is!"
"DON'T FUCKING LIE TO ME!" Yaomomo sobbed. "I KILLED HIM! I WATCHED HIM DIE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! HE'S DEAD, DEAD, DEAD! I KNOW A DEAD PERSON WHEN I SEE ONE! I-" She broke down coughing, her throat dry from the flames and burning from her screaming. "I've seen your intern get torn apart in front of me!" she rasped, and through her tear-blurred glare she could see Hawks's eyes widen. He flinched at the mention of Fumikage. "I've seen my best friend with her guts on the floor! I've seen my own hand drive a knife in Suneater's skull!"
"You're just delirious from the smoke, I'm sure," the hero tried to soothe, but she squirmed away from him, stumbling to her feet. Hawks leaped up and opened his wings, slowly approaching her as if she were a fearful, rabid animal. She scurried away and began to run down the path, only to stumble on the uneven ground when she'd taken not even four steps. "Yaoyorozu!"
"Go away!" she wailed, dragging herself to her feet despite her scraped knees and making for the ambulance beyond the gate. "They can't take him away! He's dead, he's mine! They're lying, lying, lying!"
"They aren't! Why won't you listen?!" Hawks sighed as she tripped and fell a second time, hauling her up despite her writhing in protest. "Sheesh, you're feistier than anybody I've ever rescued. Not even a cat struggled this much with me," he huffed, fighting to contain her before she landed on the concrete again and hurt herself. A second hero hurried over- Ryuukyuu, Yaomomo realized in her delirious fit as she tried to kick her way out of Hawks's too-strong arms. "Ryuko- help me out here with her! She's a little spitfire if I'd ever met one!"
"Strange. Last I recalled, she was expected to be the calmest of the group." Ryuukyuu was perfectly composed as she gently took Yaomomo's arm, somehow holding her in place with an iron grip despite her own bandages and the girl's squirming. Yaomomo felt something numbing pierce her arm, and almost immediately her senses blurred. Her limbs grew unresponsive to her fight. "Apologies, Yaoyorozu, but we're going to have to put you to bed for now. Relax."
As the dark consumed her and her eyelids slipped shut, she thought the dragon lady's voice brushed her ears a third time.
"You deserve it."
Chapter 9 : The Beginning of the End : The End | Surviving Students : 6 | To Be Continued
Item Obtained : Red Feather