It was late into the night when she finally arrived back at the agency. When was the last time she had been here? Three months? Four? Probably more? In any case, each time she came back here she never stuck around for long.
The habits borne from the years of working as an assassin kicked in even before she realised it herself. From the way she observed the building from the outside to how she silently sneaked into the locked building without tripping any alarms to how she kept herself close to the walls such that she exposed herself to the least risks. It was only when she arrived at the office door of her current boss, stopping and staring at the door did she realise that she's doing it again.
Some things just don't change, some habits just don't go away.
"There's no need to sneak around like a thief in your own agency."
That familiar voice came from behind her. She couldn't resist the urge to roll her eyes, of course he would have sensed her presence somehow. This damn upstart.
"Heh, when did you notice?"
"I have my ways."
She turned around to face the young scarred man who she is now receiving orders from, the upstart who had bet his entire life to free her from Tartarus despite the huge backlash he received behind the scenes for doing so. This man is a madman, a truly insane lunatic, but she guesses that's his charm. Unlike the majority of the so-called "heroes" who are still stuck in this gilded daydream seen through rose-tinted lenses, he does not buy into that paperthin illusion. Despite his kind efforts to change this flawed society and address the roots of villainy, he's not a naive fool that does not have the resolve to do what needs to be done when the situation comes down to it.
That's how this damn upstart earned her respect and the only reason why she's not abusing his kindness and disappearing off the map the moment he freed her from Tartarus.
"Why am I not surprised that you are still here and not yet asleep?"
"I would say the same for you," He snorted and walked ahead, passing by and stopping at a specific room where some of her fellow sidekicks would crash for the night if they had to do so at their office for whatever reasons. She peeked in and a quick count of the bodies sleeping inside told her that there are a lot more people crashing in tonight. She also spotted the oddity immediately.
"She's the kid Jin had been telling me about?"
"Her name's Eri. Her quirk has the ability to rewind things back into their previous state, so theoretically, she could reverse us back to the point where we are nothing but a sperm and an egg with just a touch."
"What a bullshit quirk."
"Quirks are bullshit."
"So what do you want me to do? Raise her? Cos hell no."
"Suck it up, cos that is why I called you back here."
The entirety of her disbelief was projected in her next words.
"You are telling me that you called me back here to do babysitting-"
"Her quirk rewinds anything," Dabi cut off her rant prematurely with a soft hiss, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb the occupants in the room. "Anything she touches, it rewinds itself at an alarming rate and the girl doesn't know how to control it, including how to turn it on, how to turn it off, or how fast or slow she is rewinding things. And seeing that it is a little girl we are looking at, we need a female Pro that is able to take care of her where we stinky men can't. It is just too dangerous to get the working mums in our agency to do so, they are untrained civilians, we cannot risk it. Sadly, our agency only has you and Manami as our female Pros and I can't possibly dump the caretaking entirely to Manami, can I? She hasn't complained, but she has been running herself ragged trying to take care of the girl on top of her usual duties. We need you back, Nagant."
She let out a soft frustrated growl as she ran a hand through her messy locks. Taking care of a kid? Her? Some sort of disaster is just going to happen, she just knows it.
"You are not going to be babysitting, well, not entirely," Dabi elaborated from where he is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "Shie Hassaikai; that is the yakuza group which she escaped from and the group who we are protecting her from. We have strong reasons to believe that the screws in the head of their current leader, Chisaki Kai, are loose enough for him to attempt at anything to get his hands on her. You will be Eri's bodyguard, you are the only person I know who is both skilled and trustworthy enough for me to entrust Eri to until we find a better solution."
He never really gave her a chance to make an argument and instead, silently gestured for her to follow him into his office. He unlocked the top drawer of his office desk and took out a stack of documents before passing into her hands. Her experienced eyes quickly picked out and dissected the important parts of the report, and her rage and disbelief rose with every word she read.
That damn Chisaki Kai
"Do you understand now? Why I need you to be Eri's bodyguard?" Dabi's voice was soft, but never had she heard him as loud and clear right there and then. "If Chisaki Kai were to somehow get his hands on Eri again…"
"Yeah yeah, I know, I know," She accepted her new mission with a frustrated sigh. Is she happy with this new task assigned to her? No, a big fat no. But is she the best person that Dabi currently has on hand to act as Eri's bodyguard?
She will truthfully admit that Dabi is right on this one. After all, she and La Brava are the only two female Pro Heroes in the agency and La Brava is not a combat-oriented hero. While her specialty is assassination, she had also been on bodyguard missions as a HPSC agent far too many times for her to count. This is unfortunately right up her alley.
"Thanks in advance," The scarred man gave her two pats on the shoulder before waltzing out of his office with unhurried steps. Meanwhile, her mind cannot help but think about the 101 ways this bodyguard mission will go sideways with her taking care of a child. How old is the girl even?
Great. This is all going to turn out to be great.
The familiar ring of the alarm clock was what woke her up. She jumped up in shock at the unfamiliar sight of the room that she was in but quickly calmed down after remembering where she is now.
It's been three days, but there are times that she would still sometimes forget that she is no longer under Chisaki Kai's control. This new experience still feels too surreal to her, almost like a dream. If this is indeed a dream, this is a dream that she does not want to wake up from.
A quick look around her told her enough that there is nobody else in the room. All the adults that were sleeping in the same room as her are all heroes and they probably woke up earlier than her to carry on with their work.
"About time you woke up, sleepyhead."
Eri jumped a little from where she was sitting on the edge of her bed. She turned towards the sound of the voice, the top of the double decker bed at the corner of the room and it was then she realised that there is indeed someone else in the room which she had missed. A woman which she had never seen before stared right back at her and Eri subconsciously curled up in trepidation. The woman's dark blue and pink hair looks so pretty but the expression on her face is just so… scary.
The woman jumped down from the top of the bed where she was at and walked up to her as Eri scrambled backwards. She realised that she's being driven into a corner when her back bumped into the wall behind her and somehow, that all too familiar fear started to creep up her spine once more.
"Hey hey, I don't need you to start going on a panic attack. I'm your… uh, new caretaker. Dabi assigned me to protect you," The woman raised both her hands up in a gesture of peace as Eri plucked the courage to try and look at this stranger.
"Uh… You can call me Nagant?"
"Na...gant?"
"Yeah, Nagant. Now, c'mere, go wash up and then we can go get something to eat."
She obediently followed after the woman into the washroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. The woman tried to guide her along by holding onto her hand, but Eri reflexively pulled away in fear, earning her a pair of raised eyebrows from Nagant.
"You… You might… die if I touch you…" Eri whispered in slight distress as she recalled with vivid clarity how she accidentally rewound her father away from existence. She closed her eyes in terror after that, not wanting to imagine the look of fear that might come next like how the people in that place always looked at her whenever she accidentally made somebody disappear once more.
She wasn't expecting a large and warm hand to gently press down on the top of her head and ruffle her hair.
"Sorry, I should have given more thought about this. Let me see, I have it here somewhere, bought it first thing this morning… There, you can have this."
Eri carefully looked up, spotting the pair of small red gloves Nagant was holding up to her.
"With those gloves on, you wouldn't need to worry about accidentally making me disappear. Even if you do accidentally activate your quirk, it would first make your glove disappear before harming me, and that alone would give me enough time to react and pull away from you. Like this, you won't be able to harm me even by accident."
Eri's eyes widened and she could feel her jaw dropping in awe. Nagant's right, if she wore gloves she wouldn't need to worry about accidentally rewinding anybody. Even if she accidentally activated her quirk, it would first rewind the gloves and give her enough time to react and pull her hands away from everyone else.
A strange hotness started to well up in her eyes. This is the first gift she ever received, a gift that will finally allow her the luxury to have normal contact with other people, something which she had been craving for as long as she could remember.
She couldn't remember when or how, she was too busy crying to recall but by the time they exited the room with her hand in Nagant's, she was already wearing those red gloves. Gloves had always been an object of fear for her due to Chisaki Kai's germaphobe habits, especially after how she associated the act of the man taking off his gloves as the precursor to a painful experience of her being disassembled and subsequently reassembled in seconds. All she knew is that after she received her very first present, from then on, gloves are no longer something for her to fear but instead, now a symbol of kindness that she will forever remember.
Her very first gift, from one of the heroes that she looks up to.
"AHHH! THE MONSTER, THE TERROR, SHE'S BAAACK! RUN, YOU MORONS, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! LOCK THE HATCH, HIDE YOUR KIDS! NAGANT IS BACK!"
Eri blinked in both shock and curiosity at how in sync both halves of Jin's personality reacted upon spotting Nagant and her walking into the lounge. The man and his clones are running frantically in circles as they try their best to either escape through the windows or hide themselves behind anything they could find. They aren't doing a very good job at it.
Eri could see how Nagant's left eye was starting to twitch irritatedly. Setsuno, who was sitting at the table and having his breakfast, happily waved Eri over from where he was as if this entire debacle wasn't taking place at all.
"Morning, Eri! Slept well?"
Eri nodded her head as she climbed up her seat before looking back at Nagant, and she wasn't ashamed to admit that she let out a very undignified squeak upon seeing how a barrel just popped out of Nagant's right elbow.
Is… Is that a rifle?!
"First time seeing Nagant's quirk?" Setsuno let out an understanding laugh as he poured milk into Eri's bowl of cereals and pushed it over to her. "Ignore the both of them, this is common whenever they are both in the office."
Even with the kind of yakuza upbringing she was exposed to, Eri is certain that trying to gun for someone's life upon spotting them is not something that is supposed to be common. The only reason why Jin is not yet dead is because Nagant is still trying to identify the real deal from the clones. So far, all the Jins that she had shot turned out to be clones.
"WHAT THE HELL, WOMAN?! YOU ARE SERIOUSLY TRYING TO KILL ME?! STOP TALKING AND KEEP RUNNING! CAN'T YOU TELL THAT SHE IS TRYING TO KILL US?!"
"Oh shut up and stay still, you make good target practice."
Another loud bang resounded in the lounge as the horde of Jins continued to make a racket like a coop of terrified chickens being chased by a cat on the hunt. It was only when Dabi's uncharacteristically loud voice boomed from his office and nearly deafened the entire floor as he shouted "What did I say about using your quirks in the building?!" did Jin finally have the chance to escape while Nagant reluctantly deactivated her quirk.
"That is common too?" Eri turned to Setsuno for an answer, to which he replied with a casual shrug.
"Eh, you will get used to it soon enough."
"That irritating doppelganger, when I get my hands on him…"
"Yo, Nagant, maybe you can try toning it down a little when Eri's around?"
"I'm already trying, the fact that the annoying idio- I mean, annoying man is still alive is proof," Nagant quickly stopped herself from saying anything too improper when she remembered that they are still in the presence of an impressionable child. The sniper helped herself to some ready-made sandwiches she found in the fridge that was probably bought by someone from a nearby convenience store.
"Her name's Kaina, but she prefers if people call her Nagant," Setsuno told Eri in a low whisper, acting as if he just revealed the greatest secret in existence to her. Nagant had excused herself from the table after quickly finishing her breakfast, probably to hunt Jin down once more as Setsuno surmised.
"Nagant is not her real name?" Eri cannot help but ask in surprise. Setsuno merely shook his head.
"Her hero name is Lady Nagant. Right here, most of us heroes know each other well enough to call each other by our first names but Nagant is an exception. She just… I don't know why, she just doesn't want to be called by her real name. Even when she is talking to us after work, she still calls us by our hero names instead of our real names. It's just something about her that you have to get used to. Other than that? She's actually pretty nice to get along with as long as you are not Jin. She's plenty powerful too, but she usually prefers to be alone so we don't really see her around here."
"Nagant is really nice. Look, she gave me these," Eri raised her hands up so that Setsuno could see the little red gloves that Nagant had given her.
"They are pretty," Setsuno agreed with a jovial laugh, but the duo was promptly interrupted by an unexpected intruder.
"Pssst! Hey, Setsuno, hey! Is that crazy woman gone? She better be, it was hell trying to run away from her!"
Lo and behold, the target of their resident sniper's wrath is climbing in from the window and Setsuno had to blink his eyes a few times to ensure that he wasn't seeing things. They were on the fourth floor for crying out loud and he was certain that the original escaped from the door! How did Jin climb in from the window?!
"She's not here," Setsuno simply accepted this seemingly impossible sight that he was witnessing with unbelievable ease. He had long since learnt that the best way to cope with the insanity in their agency is to simply accept things as it is and just roll along with it. For some baffling reason, common sense doesn't really apply to the people here.
"Phew," Jin let out a tired sigh when he finally climbed in through the window. He gave himself a stretch with his hands raised high up in the air and released a satisfied sigh upon feeling the pop in his bones. The doppelganger sauntered up to the fridge as he dramatically opened it up to peruse what there is inside while humming a cheery tune.
"My heart goes sha la la la la~ Sha la la in the morning~ Oh look! Just what we are here for! Some nice cold beer! Oh~ Sha la la la la~ Hey Eri, want some apple juice?"
Eri eagerly nodded in excitement at the offer. Feeling happy at finally being able to give Nagant the slip for once, Jin continued to hum the merry tune as he helpfully popped open the can of sparkling apple juice for Eri while Setsuno collected the used bowls and carried them to the nearby sink for washing.
Jin passed over the can over to the little girl and Eri excitedly took a large gulp of her new favourite drink and-
"Pueh!"
Eri cannot help but sputter at the weird taste of the beverage she just drank two huge mouthfuls of. What is this?! It tastes so bitter! This is definitely not apple juice!
"Um, Jin?" Eri called out as she blinked her eyes. She suddenly feels a little sleepy and for some reason she is seeing two Jins instead of one. Did he clone himself while she wasn't looking?
"Yes?" Jin turned around to face the little girl, still in a good mood while he glugged down a can of nice cold beer, just the perfect way to start the day. Ah, the sweet taste-
Wait, beers aren't supposed to be sweet, at least not for his favourite brand of beer.
Alarm bells started to ring loudly in Jin's head. His head quickly swiveled to take another look at the can that he was holding, then snapped back to the one that Eri was holding. The poor girl is starting to sway in her seat like a metronome, eyes half-lidded, and it only took her a grand total of three seconds before her forehead unceremoniously came into contact with the tabletop with a soft bang.
Shit, how on earth did he manage to mix up apple juice with beer?!
"Eri, wake up! Wake up! NOOO DON'T DIE ON US! SHUT UP! SHE'S NOT DEAD! BUT SHE'S NOT MOVING! SHE'S STILL BREATHING!" Jin frantically hugged the girl close to him and tried his best to shake her awake to no avail. This in turn alerted Setsuno, who had been washing the dirty dishes in the sink nearby and had immediately ran over after hearing Jin's wailing.
"Jin! What on earth did you do?!" Setsuno yelled as he took the little girl away from Jin's arms and into his, but quickly made the connection after seeing the can of beverage that Eri is somehow still holding in her tiny hands.
"You moron! Why on earth did you let her drink beer?!"
"It was an accident! ACCIDENT!"
"How can you accidentally mix up apple juice with beer?!"
Nagant walked back into the lounge just at that perfect moment. Even without uttering a single word, it was obvious that she was alarmed after seeing Eri slumped over in Setsuno's arms and not moving an inch but true to her title as the best sniper in the country, her perfect eyesight immediately spotted the can that her little charge is still holding in her little hands.
Nagant's eyes narrowed dangerously as she slowly turned her head towards Jin, the only person in this room who would consume alcohol at this time of the day.
"I… I can explain!" Jin immediately tried to buy some time and began to retreat a few steps backwards, hands outstretched and body crouched low to the ground in a poor attempt to calm the sniper down while making himself as small as possible. Like the calm before the storm, Nagant strode into the room with perfectly calm and quiet steps, the look on her face betraying nothing.
Everyone in the room knew better.
"It was an accident, I swear! An accident!" Jin whimpered pitifully the moment Nagant whipped up her right elbow as that rifle that is the origin of Jin's nightmares made its reappearance. Nagant took up a stance for optimal aiming and knowing that begging is going to get him nowhere, Jin began to rapidly clone himself once more in a desperate gambit to survive, hoping to successfully hide himself within a sea of clones in this somewhat spacious room and that this would be enough to let him survive until the storm blows over.
Bang!
One clone down. Wait, two clones, Setsuno corrected himself. Nagant had somehow popped off two of Jin's clones with a single shot.
"It really was an accident!"
Bang!
Bang!
Another two clones down. Nagant's actions were unhurried and calm. Reload, aim, fire.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Goddammit! Stop making me repeat myself! No using of your quirks in the building!"
Their boss' warning went unheard. Nobody stops Nagant when she is on a rampage.
In a rare show of unity among the clones, they all began to sincerely pray while somehow trying to avoid Nagant's shots.
"Oh God, if you can hear me, I will convert my religion to whoever hears my prayers and give me salvation! Oh dear Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Brahman, please take pity on this poor soul-" Bang! "- IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE A GOD! SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, SAVE ME!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Stay. Still."
Bang!
"DID YOU SERIOUSLY JUST SHOT AT MY CLONE'S CROTCH?! WHAT IF THAT WASN'T A CLONE?!"
Bang!
Just then, another roar boomed from their boss' office, now coupled with spews of blue flame shooting out of his office door.
"STOP, USING, YOUR QUIRKS, IN THE BUILDING!"
AN: A chapter to celebrate xmas. Happy Xmas and a happy new year!