Winds of Destiny: Rising
Chapter Twelve: Going Home
Misaki stared out the window from the backseat of the cab she was riding in, watching the familiar buildings pass by with a softly nostalgic smile. It had been so long since she'd been home. The mini vacation that had been sprung on her had seemed like a good opportunity for her to get back to her roots for a couple of days. She hadn't been back to her hometown since she and Hawks had broken up; mostly because she'd been too busy, and partly because she hadn't wanted to risk running into him on the job.
When the President had told her to take a few days off, the first thing that had come to her mind was to visit Eri. On the heels of that thought came the realization that Eraser had just gone through a pretty rough experience, and she didn't want to bother him. She still felt a little bit responsible for being the one to figure out that Kurogiri had once been his good friend, Shirakumo Oboro, after all. She'd decided to wait a day or before she reached out to talk to him about a possible visit. After she'd made that decision was when she'd considered taking a trip down to Fukuoka for the weekend. She'd booked a hotel and made travel arrangements to fly down early on Friday and return Sunday morning, hopefully giving her some time to go visit Eri when she got back.
The first thing she'd done after she'd caught a cab at the airport was to go visit her old house. She'd gotten to know the family who'd purchased it from her, and she still kept in touch with them over email sometimes. When she'd informed them that she was coming into town, they'd insisted that she stop by to visit. She'd had lunch with them, and they'd talked for a while about some of the renovations they'd made and how everything was going in the neighborhood. After she'd said goodbye to the family, she'd decided to walk down to the park and see her parents.
They had grown a bit; less in stature and more in maturity. They were really starting to resemble her parents as she remembered them from her childhood, and she'd gotten a little choked up when she'd seen them. She'd been happy to find that they were still together, walking hand in hand through the park on their way home from school. All she'd ever wanted, even before she'd accidentally turned them into babies, was for them to be happy. Seeing them smiling and looking at each other with open affection, the loneliness she thought she'd feel at the sight of them was washed away by a sense of gratitude that her horrible mistake had ended up giving her parents another chance to be happy and in love again.
When she'd gotten back to the hotel that evening, she had called up another old acquaintance whom she'd been thinking about for a while but hadn't attempted to reach out to. When the woman had picked up the call, she'd greeted her like no time had passed at all and they'd agreed to meet up for lunch the next day. The cab she was currently riding in was on its way to drop her off at their dining destination.
As it pulled up to the curb in front of the diner they'd chosen to meet at, the driver stepped out and opened the door for her and she smiled at him in gratitude as she got out. She moved out of the way for him to close the car door and returned his short bow before he slipped back into the driver's seat and drove away. Turning toward the restaurant, she leisurely made her way over to the door and wrapped her hand around the handle, pushing it open and welcoming the rush of warm air that assaulted her as she stepped inside before letting the door fall shut behind her. As she shrugged out of her long, dark green coat, a familiar voice suddenly called out to her from her right.
"Misaki! Hey! Over here!"
She turned her head to look over and smiled at the sight of the recognizable light-brown curls and sparkling green eyes of the teller she had worked with at the bank. As Misaki walked over to the table she was sitting at, the woman stood, waving her hand enthusiastically with a huge smile on her expressive face and Misaki's eyes were immediately drawn to her rounded belly.
"Ai—um, you're...?" She trailed off as she reached the table and greeted her old colleague.
Ai followed Misaki's gaze with a look of curiosity etched across her features before recognition suddenly dawned on her and she exclaimed, "Oh! I forgot how long it's been since I've seen you! I'm almost eight months along now."
"Congratulations," Misaki said affectionately, watching the woman rest her hands atop her enormous baby bump.
"Thanks! We're really excited!" Ai exclaimed with a shrug as they both took their seats at the table.
"I'm happy for you. But are you sure you should have come all the way out here?" She asked, casting a dubious glance toward Ai's stomach.
Ai waved a hand at her dismissively. "You sound just like my husband. I'm pregnant, not sick. And believe me, I could use the exercise. Thanks so much for calling and inviting me out today!"
Misaki returned her magnanimous smile and said with genuine gratitude, "Thanks for coming."
The server came over to take their order. Misaki let Ai go first so she could take a quick glance at the menu. It had been a while since she'd eaten out anywhere. She usually just cooked for herself at home. The last time she'd gone out to eat had been for her birthday, and as usual, Hawks had taken care of ordering all of the food. She opted not to dwell on that at the moment though, just ordering the soup and salad special and a bottle of sparkling water.
"So, are you still working at the bank?" Misaki asked as the server walked away.
"Sure am! They actually gave me your old job, believe it or not!" Ai replied jovially.
Misaki grinned. "Congratulations, Ai."
"Thanks!" Ai quipped before leaning across the table with an excited look on her face. "But I'd much rather hear about what's been going on with you. I heard that you went to work for the Hero Public Safety Commission. I didn't know you even cared about heroes."
She looked down for a moment before hesitantly replying, "Well, I didn't really back then. I was actually recruited to work there by the President."
"No way!" Ai exclaimed, sitting back in her chair, and raising her hands to the sides of her face in shock.
"Yep," Misaki replied with a slight grimace. The woman's shock and awe was drawing attention from a few of the patrons of the diner.
"That's incredible! Recruited? How did that happen? Tell me everything!" Ai excitedly exclaimed as she leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table and dropped her face into her hands, staring at Misaki with rapt attention.
She cleared her throat before answering, "Uh, well... I guess you could say it was kind of an accident. One of those right place right time situations."
The server interrupted their conversation then to bring them their food. Misaki hoped Ai would let her hunger distract her from her rampant curiosity, but she was disappointed when the server left and she immediately resumed her attentive line of questioning, "So what do you do there?"
Clearly Ai had missed the press conference where they'd announced her new position to the media. The woman had always been a bit of an airhead, but she was one of the most genuine people Misaki had ever met. Not to say that she wasn't intelligent by any means, she was just an avid daydreamer. She paid more attention to her spiritual pursuits than she did to current events. From the handful of times Misaki had met Ai's husband, she suspected that the whimsical artist wasn't any more involved in real world matters than his wife was.
Misaki stabbed her fork into her salad and tilted her head to the side as she replied, "Well, a couple of months ago I was promoted from my job as the President's secretary to an executive position. I'm the Commissioner of Analytics now."
Ai slammed her hands down on the table, not even bothering with the glares from the other diners as she exclaimed, "Shut up! Are you kidding me?"
Misaki cringed as she said, "No joke."
Ai sat back in her chair and huffed, "Okay, well! I was gonna be nice and split the check, but now that I know I'm dining with a high roller; bills on you, babe."
"I think I can handle that," Misaki replied with a small chuckle.
"I can't believe you've only worked there for a year and you're already an executive. I mean, I knew you were really smart, but isn't that pretty amazing?" Ai asked after taking a couple of bites from her cheeseburger.
"It's pretty unprecedented. I've been really lucky," Misaki said, staring down at her salad with a faraway look in her eyes.
Ai must have noticed her sudden change in demeanor because she leaned over a moment later to catch her eye as she asked, "Why do you not look like you feel lucky, then? Do you not like the job?"
She shook her head and hastily replied, "It's not that. Not at all. For the first time in my life, I feel like I'm actually where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm meant to be doing. It's just..." She looked down again. "I had to give up some pretty important things to get to where I am today." Turning her head to gaze out the window to her right, she continued, "I took this trip down here to gain some closure, I think. To turn the page on that chapter in my life and finally move on to the next one."
Ai reached out and laid her hand over Misaki's on the table. When she turned her head back, Ai said, "I'm really proud of you."
"Huh?" Misaki asked, blinking in confusion.
"I never said anything because it kinda felt like you didn't wanna talk about it, but you always just seemed a little sad. Like you were just going through the motions of life instead of really living. After that first robbery though, well..." Ai trailed off, sitting back in her seat with a slight grimace.
"What?" Misaki prodded, her curiosity getting the better of her at the woman's unusual reaction.
"You looked kinda happy?" She threw out her hands in front of her as she continued, "I know that sounds weird in that context, but I could tell. You met someone, didn't you? Someone special?"
Misaki gasped. "You could tell that?"
Ai cocked a half grin. "I could tell you were falling in love. Mostly because you looked the same way I did when I met Shuu-chan."
Misaki dropped her head into her hands and groaned, "How embarrassing...!"
Ai reached across the table and pulled her hands away from her face. "Why is it embarrassing? I didn't say it was a bad thing! Like I said, you looked really happy."
She dropped her hands into her lap and sighed, "I was happy."
"Did things not work out between you two?" Ai asked hesitantly.
Misaki offered her a sad smile as she said, "Let's just say we ran into an issue of work life balance and had to take a break."
Ai stared back at her across the table sympathetically. "I'm so sorry."
She shook her head and said, "It's okay. It was a good thing it happened when it did, actually. If we'd continued down that path, we both probably would have ended up unhappy with each other."
Ai tilted her head to the side after taking another bite of her cheeseburger and asked, "Is that what you meant when you said you had to give up something important to get to where you are now?"
"It was one of them," Misaki replied in a low tone after a long moment.
"But you said break, right? Not "break up"? Does that mean there's a chance that you could get back together?" Ai asked with a hopeful tone.
"I'm not gonna get my hopes up," she replied with a doubtful chuckle. "But I'll probably always have those feelings for him. He was the first person I ever truly fell in love with."
"I'm sure he felt the same about you," Ai said, reaching out for the ketchup and pouring a generous amount over her fries.
Misaki stared across the table at her and asked in a tone that was thick with emotion, "Why do you say that?"
Ai looked up and shot her a piteous look. "It only hurts like that when it's real. Trust me. You never know. Maybe once everything settles down with work, you'll both have time to get back to life."
"Yeah, maybe..." She trailed off thoughtfully before shaking her head and saying, "Enough with my depressing story, tell me about you. Do you know if you're having a boy or a girl?"
Ai grinned back at her excitedly and said, "Actually—"
The sound of an explosion going off in the direction of the kitchen cut off what she was about to say and everyone in the diner immediately hit the floor.
Misaki scrambled around the table and reached out to grab Ai by the shoulders, staring into her eyes as she asked, "Are you alright?"
Ai nodded before replying shakily, "Yeah, I think so."
"Stay down. Call the police," Misaki instructed her as she turned to move off in the direction of the kitchen.
Ai's hand grabbed onto her arm and she frantically asked, "Where are you going?"
Misaki gently placed her hand over Ai's and made sure to keep her voice as calm as possible as she replied, "I'm just gonna go see if anyone needs help."
The swinging doors leading into the kitchen burst open suddenly and several of the cooks and wait staff ran out with their hands tied behind their heads. They were all wearing what appeared to be vests with several bombs attached to them strapped to their chests.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Misaki groaned.
"Misaki—!" Ai's frightened voice sounded out behind her.
She turned and clasped the woman's face in her hands, forcing her to look her in the eye as she said, "Try to stay calm, Ai. Think of the baby."
She nodded back at her frantically and pressed her lips together, resting her hands over her stomach and taking several deep, calming breaths.
"Kyahahahahaha!" A high pitched, maniacal laugh erupted from behind the kitchen doors just before they were kicked open and a tall, thin man with a green mohawk and dark sunglasses came walking out. He was wearing a vest with several bombs strapped to it and a bright orange tank top underneath. He stalked over to the line of diner employees and began tapping them on the head with the detonator in his hand.
"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch a cookie by his toe. If he hollers make him blow! Eeny, meeny, miny... Well, hello." The villain pulled the cord on one of the bombs attached to a cook's vest and kicked him out the window on the other side of the diner. The bomb exploded a second later, blowing the unfortunate cook to bits and leaving a splatter-like red stain on the brick wall of the building next door.
"Kyahahahahaha!" The villain loudly cackled as he threw back his head.
"Oh my god—!" Ai whispered in horror as she raised a shaking hand to her mouth.
Misaki turned to her swiftly, holding up a finger to her lips and shaking her head. Ai tightly covered her mouth and nodded her head, her bright green eyes wide with fear and unshed tears.
Several police cars suddenly skidded to a stop outside the restaurant, the officers filing out of their vehicles and leaning over the open doors with suppression weapons aimed at the front of the diner.
"Well now! It looks like the little piggies have come to market!" The villain exclaimed, stalking toward the front door. He threw it open and chucked one of the bombs from his vest out at the police car as he called out, "Sorry piggies! No roast beef here today! Have some C4 instead!"
He cackled loudly again as the bomb exploded, sending the police scurrying back into their vehicles.
"Where are the heroes?" The terrified voice of the elderly man who'd been sitting at the table behind them asked aloud.
The villain's head snapped in their direction and he darkly growled, "Hero? Did I just hear someone say hero!?" He began stalking toward them while screaming, "Who said that?!"
Everyone cowered away from him, including Misaki and Ai.
"No one wants to fess up, huh? Fine! I'll just have to blow up everyone in here. One! By! One! Until all of you are dead!" He punctuated a few of his words by throwing plates of food at the frightened patrons. "And then nobody can say the word hero ever again."
He turned around abruptly and stalked toward the terrified cooks. "Starting with you!"
Misaki stood up and called out to him, "Hey!"
The villain stopped in his tracks and slowly turned his head to look at her. "Well, well, well... What do we have here? Don't tell me? A hero—!"
"No. Not a hero," she shook her head and calmly replied before dropping her eyes to his side cargo pocket. "I just noticed your book."
He reached down to pull out the small red and black book from his pocket and asked, "This book?"
Misaki nodded. "You're a Destro fan too, huh?"
His brow drew down and he asked her suspiciously, "Haven't I seen you somewhere before?"
"Not really. I'm just another regular citizen tired of being held down by a society that worships people like heroes," she said with a nonchalant shrug, hoping to distract him from potentially recognizing her from her recent press conference appearance.
The villain's eye began to twitch, and he reached up to slap himself on the side of the head. "Heh heh, yeah. Yeah, that's right! Who are they to tell us we can't use our own powers however we want to!? Down with the heroes! Up with the Metahuman Liberation!"
As he'd begun his tirade, Misaki had caught sight of a few familiar faces arriving on the scene. They were staying behind the barricade the police had erected around the outside of the building, likely getting a rundown of the situation from the first responders. It was a little odd to her that they'd arrived after the police, with Hawks Agency's track record of being first on the scene of most incidents. She hoped they weren't slacking off without him around.
When the villain started to turn his head in the direction of the windows, she stepped forward and called out to get his attention, "I just wonder what your plan is? Once you blow up everyone in here? Then what?"
The villain reached up and removed his sunglasses, marching over to her and leaning down until his face was only a centimeter away from her, his crazy, neon green eyes staring into hers menacingly. "I'm gonna blow up anyone who comes through that door. The cops! The heroes! Take out as many as I can! And then blow up myself!"
"Viva liberation, huh?" She said, cocking an eyebrow at him.
"Now you get it! Kyahahahahaha!" He tossed his head back and threw his arms out to the sides.
Misaki took the opportunity while he was momentarily distracted to signal one of the heroes behind the barricade with her eyes. She didn't have time to see if he'd taken her hint, but he had acknowledged her. That was going to have to be enough.
The villain dropped his head forward and leaned back down to stare into her eyes. "That includes you, sweetheart. Ready to go boom?"
She shrugged. "Only if you are?"
She reached out to pull the pin on the grenade in his hand just as a black shadow burst in through the window and wrapped around the villain's midsection. He looked down at the grenade, then back up at Misaki, who smirked and waved at him with the pin hanging from her finger.
"Alleyoop!" The black shadow called out as it dragged the villain out the broken front window and tossed him high up into the air. The grenade exploded a few meters away from him, the concussion from the explosion knocking him unconscious. The police rushed to arrest the villain as he was caught by the same black shadow that had tossed him when he finally fell back down to the ground.
"Is everyone alright in here?" A familiar voice called out as the heroes made their way in through the front door.
"It's Hawks's sidekicks!" One of the diner patrons exclaimed and they all began to rise from their crouched positions, their faces showing their relief.
As the sidekicks began issuing instructions to the people and the staff who were still wearing vests covered in bombs, Misaki crouched down next to Ai who was still seated on the floor with her expressive face a mask of shock.
"Ai, are you alright? Can you stand?" Misaki asked, taking her by the shoulders and giving her a gentle shake.
The woman's eyes focused in on her and she suddenly exclaimed in a high-pitched tone, "What the hell was that?!"
Misaki cringed. "Sorry, that was the only thing I could think of to stall him and keep him from hurting anyone else until the heroes arrived."
Ai stared back at her in disbelief. "That was all an act?"
Misaki shot her an incredulous look, holding up the book the villain had dropped before he'd been sent flying as she asked, "You don't really think I believe this crap, do you?"
Ai practically collapsed in relief. "Oh, thank goodness..."
Misaki tossed the book onto the ground and shook her head as she reached out to help pull the very pregnant woman up to her feet. "That's some amazing confidence you have in me there, huh?"
"Those are some amazing acting skills you have there is more like it! I can't believe you were able to come up with such a strategy on the fly like that. As expected of a Hero Public Safety Commission executive!" Ai exclaimed in amazement while dusting off her sky-blue dress.
Misaki tossed her a small, sheepish smile as she trailed off, "Thanks..."
It wasn't like she could tell the woman that she'd actually been studying the book and it's philosophy's followers for the past month or so.
"We have a pregnant woman over here!" The voice of one of the sidekicks suddenly called out.
EMS rushed through the door and immediately took over helping Ai out of the diner as she tried to assure them, "Oh, I'm alright! Well, thank you."
Misaki reached out to grab her coat and slung it around her shoulders before following after them, but she was stopped in her tracks suddenly by the sound of a familiar voice addressing her.
"Misaki-san?"
She slowly turned around, offering a tight smile and a small wave in greeting as she said, "Long time no see."
"No kidding! What are you doing here?" The sidekick replied excitedly.
She gestured in the direction they'd just taken Ai out and said, "Just visiting a friend."
"You know this woman?" An unfamiliar voice asked, and she turned her head to watch Hawks's young intern step through the front door.
The sidekick turned to him and exclaimed, "Yeah, of course! She's—"
"Just an acquaintance," Misaki sharply interrupted.
She wasn't sure how much Hawks had told them about their relationship, or how it had ended. Even that it had ended. If there were any prying eyes around, she didn't need anyone having a reason to suspect that they'd ever been anything more than work acquaintances.
"Huh?" The sidekick asked, turning to her with a quizzical expression on the visible part of his face behind his mask.
She shook her head slightly, hoping that he'd take the hint that she didn't want him to mention her relationship with Hawks to his intern.
His eyes widened in recognition and he slurred, "Uh... Yeah! I guess? Something like that!"
Misaki sighed in exasperation at the overly conspicuous cover before turning to the kid and asking, "You're Hawks's intern? Tsukuyomi, right?"
"Have we met?" The kid asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at her.
She slid her hands into the pockets of her coat and cocked her head to the side. "I saw you on TV during the UA sports festival. Good job catching that hint. You're pretty quick. Guess that's why you're here, huh?"
"And you are...?" He trailed off, staring at her with veiled interest.
"Torimodo Misaki. I work for the Hero Public Safety Commission," she introduced herself as she held out her card to him.
He took it from her, glancing down at it and reading her title aloud in a lightly astonished tone. "You're the new Commissioner of Analytics?"
She tossed him a gracious smile. "Feel free to give me call if you ever need any help with your math homework."
"Thanks..." He trailed off, staring up at her in wonder.
"Well, I better get out of your way. It was nice seeing all of you again. Keep up the good work, Tsukuyomi," she said, waving over her shoulder as she walked out the door.
...
"What was that all about?" Tokoyami Fumikage wondered aloud, turning his head to watch the dark haired, pink eyed woman walk out the front door.
She was the type of beautiful that made people do a double take, as though trying to confirm whether or not they had just walked by a movie start on the sidewalk. There was an almost sultry slant to her almond shaped eyes, which were framed with thick and wispy dark eyelashes. The most eye-catching thing about her was probably the stark contrast of her coloring. Her long dark hair, which fell down her back in straight, stylish layers, complimented her fair complexion and light, cherry blossom colored eyes. Her black turtleneck sweater dress molded to her body in a way that would have had Mineta drooling, the almost indecently short length showing off her shapely, stocking covered legs and ankle high leather boots.
He hadn't really known what to expect when he'd seen her gesture to him with her eyes from inside the diner. It had looked like she'd been engaging in conversation with the villain, but she didn't appear to be an accomplice. When he'd seen her reach for the pin on the grenade in the man's hand, he'd immediately sent Dark Shadow in to pull the villain out. He couldn't believe that had actually worked. The plan had almost resulted in the villain's demise, but from what he'd heard, that had been the man's plan all along. At least he had only been able to take one innocent life in all of this.
He wasn't quite sure what to make from the overly conspicuous explanation of her prior acquaintance with Hawks's sidekicks. It was obvious that they were quite familiar with each other, but they, or rather she, had been fairly adamant that they were mere acquaintances and nothing more. He couldn't really substantiate the theory, but from the way she'd presented herself, and given that she was clearly more familiar with his sidekicks than she'd let on, he was willing to bet that she was much more than just a passing acquaintance of the Number Two Hero's. Having been an unfortunate bystander during a few run-ins with Hawks's rabid fans, he couldn't really blame her for wanting to keep the extent of their personal relationship a secret.
"Uh..." The sidekick in black trailed off, rubbing at the back of his head.
"Yeah, so..." The sidekick in the toga trailed off next, reaching up to scratch his cheek and clearly avoiding Tokoyami's gaze.
"That was, um..." The remaining sidekick trailed off last, crossing his arms as he looked up and to the side.
Tokoyami closed his eyes and sighed in mild exasperation. "Never mind. Forget I asked."
The sidekick in the toga wrapped an arm around his shoulders and said, "Let's get this all cleaned up so we can move onto the next job, huh?"
...
Misaki walked up to the back of the EMS vehicle where Ai was getting checked out. They'd just taken a blood pressure cuff off of her arm when she approached and asked, "Everything okay?"
Ai turned to her and smiled, laying a hand over her belly as she confirmed, "Yeah, we're fine. Sorry our lunch date got cut short."
Misaki shook her head and said, "Don't worry about it. I'll come visit again after you have the baby."
Ai gasped in a breath and looked down before saying, "About that. To answer your question from earlier, we're having a girl." She looked up into Misaki's eyes with conviction. "And we're going to name her Misaki."
Her eyes widened and she gasped. "Ai..."
"After the woman who saved her mother's life. And hers. Mine twice," Ai added, cocking her head to the side with a crooked grin.
Misaki let out a small laugh before saying with genuine reverence, "I'm honored."
"Thank you, Misaki!" Ai stood up and threw her arms around her. "And I really hope everything works out for you." She stepped back and placed her hands on top of her stomach as she said, "You deserve to be as happy as I am someday."
"Thank you, Ai," Misaki sincerely replied.
What had started out as an impromptu visit back to her hometown had actually ended up being an important learning experience. She'd gotten some closure with her parents and had been able to catch up with some old friends; and perhaps she may have even made a new one. Once again she'd found herself in a volatile situation with a homicidal villain, and this time, she'd managed to keep her cool and help save nearly everyone in the diner. Her heart went out to the family of the cook who had lost his life, but she didn't feel the same level of responsibility for his death as she had for her coworkers at the bank before. It was a tragedy, yes, and the one responsible would be tried for his crimes.
Misaki had learned the hard way that dwelling on things that could not be changed would only fill her with sadness and regret, two things she'd had more than enough of in her life lately. Instead, she would take her failures in stride, learn from her shortcomings, and make sure she did better next time. No matter what her intentions had been from the start, she had become a hero, not just to Ai and her daughter, but to everyone in that diner now as well. She wouldn't shy away from it anymore. Like her mother had told her when she was four years old, she was meant to help people. The best way she could do that right now was to help protect the unassuming citizens from being used as collateral damage in the Paranormal Liberation Front's malicious vendetta against the "fake" hero society.
The tidal wave of revolution was coming. They needed to be ready.
~ Author's Note ~
The Hawks content from the special manga volume for the new movie was *chef's kiss*! If you haven't seen it, I think it's called XXX Hawks: SOOTHE. There's all kinds of spoilers for it on Tumblr! (btw, follow me at l0lsat for more HawksxMisaki content 😘)
As always, thank you so much for reading! ❤️
LOLSAT