Winds of Destiny: Rising
Chapter Twenty-Four: New Beginnings
One small note to start off this chapter: I'm so sorry for the long unannounced break! T.T I've been going through a lot of stuff irl but I promise I am healthy and still very committed to this story! Thank you so much for the continued support, I sincerely appreciate every single one of my amazing readers! I have made some clarifications to the concern of why Misaki didn't use her quirk to Restore Hawks in the last chapter. There are a few reasons; basically, she was afraid of using her quirk in her emotional state after what happened to her parents and she wanted Hawks to have a say. As he was unconscious at the time and not in life-threatening danger, she decided to wait until they were able to talk about it face to face. I hope that clears up some of the concerns! Please feel free to check out the re-writes in chapter twenty-three if you're interested! So without further ado... On with the chapter!
Misaki slowly opened her eyes, blinking at the bright light streaming in from the window to her left. She turned her head on the pillow and a sharp pain shot through the skull, causing her to wince and raise her hand to her temple. Something tugged at the back of her hand and she looked down at it to find a securely taped IV needle stuck into one of her veins there. Lowering her hand back down to her side, she glanced around the room in confusion as the lancing pain in her head began to dull into a throbbing ache. Clearly, she was in the hospital, but she had no idea how she'd wound up there, or what had happened to put her in the bed she was currently laying in.
Before she could ruminate on it any longer, the door to her right slid open and a nurse walked in, sliding it shut behind her before walking over and greeting her with a smile. "Good morning."
Misaki blinked and responded in a questioning tone, "Morning?"
"It's almost nine am. You've been sleeping soundly for a little over twelve hours now," the nurse kindly informed her.
Twelve hours? She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept more than six. No wonder she felt so sluggish.
The uncomfortable throbbing in her head prompted her to ask, "Why does my head hurt?"
"Does it?" The nurse asked before reaching out to adjust something on her IV. "Well, you did hit it pretty hard when you fell."
She looked up at her in confusion. "Fell?"
"You fainted in the hallway last night. You don't remember?" The nurse asked, concern edging her friendly tone.
"No…" Misaki trailed off pensively.
The last thing she remembered with any clarity was Migi telling her that there had been attack at the Safety Commission and that the President and several other employees had been gravely injured. She vaguely recalled arriving at the hospital and all of the reporters being camped out front in the rain, but the pain in her head was making her unable to focus enough to remember anything that had happened once she'd entered the building.
The nurse moved toward the end of her bed and picked up a clipboard, glancing down at it as she asked, "Can you tell me your name?"
A feeling of déjà vu assaulted her all of a sudden, and she was reminded of the time she'd sustained a concussion during the second bank robbery attempt at Tythan Savings and Loan almost a year and a half ago. They'd asked her the same question when she'd woken up in the hospital, even though she was sure it was clearly printed at the top of the chart the nurse was looking at. The woman was trying to make sure that Misaki knew what her name was, not because she didn't know.
"Torimodo Misaki," she obediently replied, hoping to get through the series of personal questions without any fuss.
"Date of birth?" The nurse quickly followed up.
"September twenty-second." She rattled off the year and the nurse nodded.
After running through a few more routine questions, the nurse finally asked, "What date do you think it is today?"
Accounting for it being the morning after the raids, Misaki replied, "March twenty-ninth, I think."
The nurse nodded and wrote down some values on the chart before slipping it back into the basket at the end of the bad. "You don't appear to be amnesic at all. That's a good sign. Your short-term memory may be a bit fuzzy for a little while, but it should all come back to you soon. You're not showing any signs of concussion or anemia, just a bit of dehydration and fatigue. As soon as you finish up this bag of fluids, you'll be all clear for discharge."
Now that a bit of time had passed, she'd begun to feel a familiar sense of numbness settle in around her consciousness, thankfully easing the throbbing pain in her skull as well. She remembered the feeling from the last time she'd woken up in the hospital, after she'd witnessed two of her coworkers being killed right in front of her, and it triggered her fuzzy memories of what had happened the night before. All of it came back to her in a rush; Jeanist taking her to see Hawks, meeting Detective Tsukauchi in the hallway and him telling her that the President had passed, the call he'd taken from someone informing him that Shigaraki and the Nomu were attacking Tartarus. And she'd just up and fainted in the hospital when she should have been out there helping to coordinate the remaining heroes. As if she hadn't failed enough already yesterday.
"My phone?" Misaki somewhat sluggishly asked the nurse.
The woman nodded at the bedside table to her right. "All of your personal belongings are on the table there."
Misaki glanced over at her phone laying on top of her clothes and told the nurse, "Thank you."
She offered her a small smile in acceptance of the gratitude before turning and walking out of the room.
Misaki reached over and picked up her phone, unlocking the screen and quickly checking her messages. She had a few from Migi and Detective Tsukauchi, asking if she was alright and inquiring about what she was doing about the prison breaks from the Safety Commission's standpoint. Oh man, she had really dropped the ball, big time. She swiftly responded to both of them, telling them that she was alright and that she'd been admitted to the hospital overnight, along with apologizing deeply for not being able to help. After she'd sent the messages off, she navigated over to her email app to check her incoming mail.
Her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach like a lead weight at the sight of the unread message at the top of the list. She had a rule written into her mail program to flag any incoming messages from certain important email addresses and move them to the top of her unread mail list. That particular one happened to be from the office of the Prime Minister, and the subject line simply read, "Termination Notice". Her fingers shook as she tapped on the header to open the message and she read through the short letter inside detailing her termination of employment from the Hero Public Safety Commission, effective as of the date of notice, due to her involvement with the leadership and planning of the Jaku Hospital raid.
Lowering her phone down into her lap, Misaki dropped her head back onto the pillow and raised her hand up to cover her eyes. It was a shock, but not a surprise. Given how badly they had bungled the operation to take down the Paranormal Liberation Front, she really couldn't expect them to do any less than fire her for her part in what had happened. Yes, the villains were chiefly responsible for the exorbitant loss of life that had occurred, but it had been her job to ensure that the heroes were prepared to prevent things like that from happening, and she had failed. There was no sugarcoating the facts at this point, the results spoke for themselves.
"You've received the notice, I take it?" A distinctly nostalgic voice suddenly addressed her from the right.
Misaki lifted her head from the pillow, dropping her hand from her eyes and staring across the room in shock at the sight of her unexpected visitor. "Hebisawa-san? What are you doing here?"
The tall, pale woman carefully slid the door closed behind her and gracefully walked over to stand next to the foot of her bed, laying the bright red coat she had draped over her arm across the end of the mattress and taking a seat atop it. She crossed her slender, shapely legs and rested her hands on her knees, one on top of the other, as she turned her white lash-lined ruby eyes Misaki's direction and spoke, "Looking for you. As it turns out, you are not an easy woman to track down, Torimodo-san."
Misaki blinked in confusion and asked, "Why are you looking for me?"
The last time she'd seen or spoken to Hebisawa Shira was at the Most Eligible Heroes Auction she'd attended in the President's stead on the fourteenth of February, last year. The meeting was memorable to her due to the circumstances, but she was the last person Misaki expected to be visiting her in the hospital of all places.
"Given your recent change of employment status, I have come to offer you a job," the woman calmly informed her.
Feeling even more confused by the sudden offer than she had been by the unexpected appearance of the woman who'd made it, Misaki asked, "A job? Why?"
"I believe you possess a very useful skill set that I would hate to see go to waste in such trying times," Shira somewhat vaguely answered.
Misaki shook her head and blinked. "I don't understand."
"Yes, well, you have been through quite a lot lately," Shira commented offhandedly as she reached into her large handbag, rummaging around for a moment before pulling out a small, foil-wrapped package. She held it out to Misaki and offered, "Chocolate?"
Feeling slightly taken aback by the offer, Misaki softly shook her head and politely declined. "No, thank you." Shira shrugged her shoulders and hummed, unwrapping the foil herself before popping the dark chocolate square into her mouth as Misaki continued, "I don't understand why you're here. What "skillset" are you talking about, and how do you know I even have something like that?"
"The President invited me to dinner a few days before the PLF operation," Shira explained as she chewed. "She asked me to look after you if things ended up going south."
Shock slammed through Misaki and she asked in a horrified whisper, "She thought she'd—?"
The woman waved a pale hand at her and scoffed, "Oh, no, of course not. But she was a very shrewd woman. I think it was her philosophy in life to hope for the best and plan for the worst." She began to rummage around in her bag again, this time pulling out a small pocket mirror and flipping it open, checking her teeth for any traces of chocolate. "Not to speak ill of the deceased, but oftentimes those plans of hers were, shall we say…" She trailed off thoughtfully, looking up and away as she tilted her head to the side as though she was searching for the best way to phrase her intentions.
"Callous," Misaki answered for her.
She snapped the mirror closed and shot her blood-red eyes back down to gaze shrewdly into Misaki's. "Perhaps. But she believed in you and who you may someday become. That's why she asked me to make sure that your potential didn't go to waste without her."
"What did she tell you about me?" Misaki hesitantly asked.
Shira dropped the mirror back into her bag, reaching inside and pulling out an ornate cigarette case and matching lighter next. "That you have a brilliant insight into what motivates people. She also told me about the remarkable program you developed to identify pockets of discontent within society as it concerns to heroes."
Misaki dropped her eyes down into her lap and grumbled, "That's all pretty much redundant now, isn't it?"
The tidal wave of revolution had washed down upon them at last, likely bursting through the flood gates holding back years of resentment and discontent within society –all of which was likely being heaped upon the heroes at the moment. There would be no further need to spy on them to guess at the people's true feelings; they were sure to be out in the open now on full display.
"For that purpose, I suppose," she conceded thoughtfully. "But there are other causes I believe it could help us with at the moment. Which brings me to the job I'd like to offer you."
Shira lifted herself gracefully from the edge of the bed and walked over to the window as she spoke. "In the wake of the collapse of society's faith in them, many hero agencies have begun closing their doors."
Misaki's eyes shot open wide, and she softly exclaimed in shocked disbelief, "What?"
The tall, pale councilwoman slid the window open and seated herself on the ledge. "On top of that, five prisons, including Tartarus, were emptied last night."
Her shock sharply turned into horror and she gasped. "Five… Emptied?"
Turning her eyes down to the cigarette case in her hand, she pressed the button on the side to release the clasp and pulled a long, thin cigarette from inside, tapping it on the outside of the case as she continued. "Over ten thousand inmates were freed. And without many heroes around to stop them from running rampant, the villains are quickly beginning to overrun the general population. It's chaos." She placed the cigarette between her lips and ignited the lighter at the end, holding it between her fingers and pulling it away from her mouth when it lit before blowing out the smoke as she continued to speak. "If this state of affairs continues, Japan will be a sea of rubble and flames within weeks, if not days."
Misaki thought better than to tell her that smoking was prohibited in the hospital. She was sure the woman was well aware of the policy; she was just ignoring it. Considering her status as a leading member of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, she was probably used to doing whatever she wanted, whenever and wherever she wanted to do it, as long as it didn't endanger her standing in the House of Councilors. Somehow, she suspected that smoking in the hospital was the least of the councilwoman's worries.
"What about requesting foreign aid?" She suggested.
Shira took a drag from her cigarette and blew the smoke out the open window before responding. "The government is sending out requests, but with no one around who has any experience in negotiating with the foreign hero agencies on our behalf, the process is rather slow going."
Misaki started to offer, "I can help—"
The councilwoman waved a hand at her dismissively as she inhaled more of the smoke from the tobacco stick between her fingers. "That's not necessary. The Hero Public Safety Commission is being shut down for the time being and lest we forget that you are no longer employed there," she said as she shot her a meaningful glance.
Misaki wisely snapped her mouth shut, watching the woman take yet another long drag. She began to speak again as she slowly exhaled the smoke from her lungs, "The remaining employees have been given the option to assimilate into other government organizations or the police force, though most of them have followed suit with the heroes, deciding to just wash their hands of the whole affair and pursue other lines of work."
"Shouldn't it be my duty as a former Commissioner to take responsibility for the Safety Commission's role in all of this?" Misaki suggested, her voice sounding guilty even to her own ears.
Shira softly shook her head. "The people are focusing most of the onus onto Endeavor at the moment. I'm afraid it would only add more fuel to the fire, having you take sole responsibility for all of the Safety Commission's transgressions." The woman's blood-red eyes shot over in her direction, staring across the room at her meaningfully as she said, "No one is looking at you to answer for anything, and we'd like to keep it that way."
Misaki's brow drew down in consternation and she tightened her hands around the blanket covering her. "That doesn't absolve me of my part in everything that's happened though."
Shira tilted her head back and took a slow drag from her cigarette, staring at Misaki from the corner of her eye as she did so. "Are you looking for absolution?" She asked in a low, meaningful tone, blowing out the rest of the smoke and tilting her head back down before concluding, "Or atonement?"
Misaki lifted her eyes to meet the woman's piercing gaze. "What exactly do you want me to do?"
Sniffing delicately, Shira tossed her practically dead cigarette into a small leather pouch and snapped it closed inside her case before walking back over to the bed. She reached into her bag and pulled out what appeared to be a hard drive of some sort, tossing her cigarette case and her lighter back inside before holding the device out to her. She reached out and took it from her, turning it over in her hands to look at the serial number on the back. Her eyes widened and she gasped when she read the familiar series of digits.
The hard drive she was holding was the backup drive that contained all of the source coding for ROAM.
She snapped her shocked gaze up to Shira as she exclaimed, "Where did you get this?"
"A rather tall fellow at the Safety Commission headquarters kindly entrusted it to me upon hearing of your termination," she explained as she began to spray a deodorizer of some kind around the room, waving her hand in the air before sliding the window closed.
'Kashi-san…' Misaki fondly deduced from her description.
Shira leaned back against the windowsill, crossing her arms underneath her breasts as she asked, "Would you be able to reprogram that to track potential villain activity?"
"Potential? Do you mean like predict when and where they'll attack?" Misaki incredulously asked.
Shira nodded.
"That's—" She wanted to say impossible, but as she considered the villains she was being asked to track, she stopped herself. Given that most of them were escaped convicts with prior records, if she was able to access the police force's stored data on their past crimes, she could possibly rework ROAM's source code to analyze a villain's crime patterns and forecast them using her geographic profiling algorithm. The American FBI had been using similar programs to track down serial killers for years before heroes had come into the picture. She wouldn't know for sure until she tried, but the math already existed; she just needed to figure out how to apply it.
"Torimodo-san?" Shira prompted, breaking her out of her silent contemplation.
Misaki nodded, her tone full of wonder as she replied, "Yeah, I think I might."
"Wonderful," Shira said as she pushed herself away from the windowsill, swiftly gathering up her coat and bag from the end of the bed.
Misaki blinked a couple of times and asked, "That's it?"
Pulling her phone out of her bag, Shira began typing as she spoke, keeping her eyes focused on the screen. "For now. I'll need to discuss the potential applications with the Prime Minister. Until then, I've arranged for you to work on the programming from your home. A generous stipend has been deposited into your bank account as well."
"What?" Misaki questioned incredulously.
"Call it an advance on the work you'll be doing over the next few days." Shira finally stopped typing and lifted her ruby gaze to lock her in a sharp and meaningful stare. "I trust that I do not need to impress upon you the importance of timeliness with this task?"
She softly shook her head. "No, I understand."
Shira smiled cordially in response as she dropped her phone back into her bag. "I look forward to great things, Torimodo-san." She promptly turned on her heel and headed for the door, turning back halfway before exiting to say, "I'll be in touch," before leaving the room and sliding the door shut behind her.
Well, that had all been weirdly unexpected.
She couldn't even begin to attempt to catch up with everything that had just happened, especially not while she was under the influence of whatever pain medication the nurse had pumped into her IV earlier. Glancing down at her phone laying next to her on the bed, she reached down to pick it up and unlocked the screen, navigating to her mobile banking app. Her eyes widened at the number displayed under her available balance, finding there to be a couple more zeroes than she was used to seeing on the end of it.
'Generous? No kidding…'
Not that she was complaining. Given the fact that she'd been seriously considering buying a home for her and Eri to live in together, such a sizeable commission would come in handy when it came time to make a down payment on a house. That coupled with the fact that she had just been fired from her very well-paying job, she could use all the padding in her bank account that she could get at the moment.
Thinking about Eri, she wondered if the girl had been told about what had happened to her teachers and friends. Several of them had been pretty severely injured during the battles. She wasn't certain about the heroes who had been involved with raiding the villa, but she knew for sure that Deku and Eraser had been rushed to the hospital directly following the aftermath of the battle with Shigaraki and that they were both in critical condition. Before she headed home to work on reprogramming ROAM, it would probably be a good idea for her to stop by UA and check on Eri. Glancing back at the nearly empty IV bag, she anticipated that they would be discharging her fairly soon.
Sure enough, the door to her room slid open a moment later and the same nurse from before walked into the room. She smiled at her kindly and announced, "We're ready to discharge you now, Torimodo-san."
She tried not to look too guilty when she noticed the nurse make a face as she walked over to remove her IV, no doubt noticing the faint scent of smoke and the deodorizer that Shira had sprayed around the room before she left. Misaki didn't offer any explanation and the nurse didn't ask, they both just elected to ignore it and proceed with finishing up the discharge process. After the paperwork was completed, the nurse left the room and Misaki quickly dressed before making her way toward the elevator.
Stepping out of the car into the main lobby, she caught sight of a familiar face walking by, and she called out to him. "DJ?"
The unusually tame blonde-haired head of Present Mic whipped around, and he inquired at the sight of her, "Misaki? What are you doing here? Are you hurt?"
"Huh?" She blinked in confusion for a second before following his concerned gaze down to the name bracelet still attached to her wrist. "Oh! No, it's kind of embarrassing, actually… I was checking on some colleagues who were involved in the attack at the Safety Commission and I ended up fainting from overwork."
"I see." His relief was visible on his face, and he replied in a much more subdued tone than she was used to hearing from the boisterous hero.
Seeing as he appeared to be uninjured himself, Misaki cocked her head to the side and asked, "What are you doing here?"
He averted his gaze as he told her, "I'm also here visiting people."
"Aizawa-san?" She guessed, knowing that he'd been present at the sight of the battle between the heroes and Shigaraki.
Mic solemnly nodded.
"Is he—?" She cut off, unsure she really wanted to know the answer. From the reports she'd heard, he and many of the others who had been recovered after the battle had been in pretty rough shape.
"He's alive," Mic confirmed.
Misaki openly sighed in relief.
He kept his eyes downturned as he continued, "Lost an eye and the lower half of his right leg, but… Could be worse, I guess."
She could sense the grief hanging around the man like a death shroud, and she had a feeling it had little to do with Eraser's condition. Reaching out to lay her hand on his arm, she asked with gentle concern, "DJ, what's wrong?"
A sharp look of pain flashed across his face and he turned his head to the side. His voice was thick with emotion as he told her, "Kayama-senpai—Midnight… She didn't make it."
She tightened her grip on his arm as a strong feeling of sympathy washed over her and she whispered, "I'm so sorry."
She hadn't been close with the woman, but she knew all too well what Mic was feeling at the moment. She'd lost people she'd been close with as a result of the battle too. There was nothing anyone could do or say to take the pain away, but acknowledging it was the first step toward dealing with it. That was a lesson she'd had to learn the hard way over the years, and it was one she was still working on putting into practice.
He sniffed, running the back of his sleeve over his eyes to wipe away the moisture that had accumulated in them before offering her a tight, pained smile. "Thanks. I better be getting back."
She dropped her hand from his arm and nodded. As she watched his despondent form turn and begin to walk away, she found herself calling out to him. "Wait!"
His head slowly turned back toward her.
She jogged over to him and asked, "Would it be alright if I came with you?"
More than it being a good opportunity for her to hitch a ride with him back to UA, she really felt like he shouldn't be alone at the moment.
Apparently, he was of the same mindset, as the smile he shot her appeared more grateful than sad when he replied, "Yeah, sure."
She returned his smile as she hooked her arm through his and they made their way out of the hospital together.
Misaki stood outside of Eri's playroom next to Togata Mirio, peeking in through the cracked door at the despondent form of the little girl, sitting with her head lowered and staring down at the top of her table.
"How long has she been like that?" She asked in a lowered voice.
"Since she found out why they didn't come home last night," Mirio answered solemnly, matching her lowered tone.
Misaki sighed softly to herself and pushed open the door enough to allow her to enter the room. She walked up to the table and sat down in the chair next to the child before gently laying a hand on her shoulder. "Eri."
Her big, sad red eyes lifted as she turned her head to look up at her. "Misaki…"
She lifted her hand from the girl's shoulder to brush her pale hair back behind her ear, tilting her head and offering her a small smile as she said, "Hey. How are you?"
Eri turned her head and dropped her eyes back to the tabletop as she said, "I'm okay."
It was clearly obvious that she was not okay. However, much like Misaki herself was, Eri was prone to hiding and bottling up her negative emotions rather than worrying others with them. Feelings like joy and excitement were new to her, and she had so many people around her now that encouraged her to express them. But pain and sadness, feelings that had once been her constant companions, were just as important, if not more so, to encourage children her age to confront and convey. If she didn't, she would never learn how to properly handle those feelings in an emotionally healthy manner.
"Are you hungry?" She asked, knowing that the girl hadn't touched any of the food that had been brought to her since she had heard about Eraser's condition.
Eri kept her eyes fixed to the tabletop as she slowly shook her head.
"Are you sure?" Misaki asked as she pulled an apple out of her jacket pocket and held it out to her.
She finally raised her head a bit and glanced over at the shiny red fruit, reaching out for it after a moment and muttering a quiet, "Thanks."
Misaki let out a soft sigh before softly assuring her, "Aizawa-sensei is gonna be okay."
Eri lifted her eyes to stare up at her with an almost pleading expression on her rounded face as she asked, "How do you know?"
She could see that it wasn't just pain and sadness Eri was feeling right now; it was fear too. Not only was her mentor and guardian laying injured in a hospital bed at the moment, but one of the teachers she'd gotten to know while she'd been living at UA had died as well. It was understandable that she would be afraid the same would end up happening to Eraser. Even if it wasn't as a result of his current injuries, when suddenly faced with the prospect of a loved one's mortality, it was difficult not to let that fear overtake you, especially for an emotionally traumatized seven-year-old girl like Eri.
Misaki reached out to run her hand over Eri's hair and said, "Because he has you to look out for him."
Big, fat teardrops suddenly flooded the bottom edges of Eri's expressive red eyes and Misaki immediately opened her arms as she told the girl, "Come here."
The apple went rolling across the table as Eri flung herself forward into Misaki's open arms and cried out, "I don't want him to go away!"
The sound of Eri's tortured cry drew Mirio into the room behind her and she swiftly held up a hand to signal him that they were okay. As painful as it was to witness, it was important for her to be able to vent her feelings. The fact that she was crying the way she was right now was actually a good sign.
She wrapped both arms around the sobbing child, settling her into her lap and gently stroking a hand over her hair as she sympathetically said, "I know."
Eri hiccupped and brokenly sobbed, "They won't let me fix it!"
Misaki began to gently rock her back and forth while reminding her, "It's too soon, Eri. You already used all of the power you had built up to help Lemillion, remember? You don't regret that, do you?"
She hiccupped again and quickly shook her head against her shoulder.
"You just need to take some time to rest and recuperate." She gently cupped Eri's face and pulled back to look her in the eye as she told her, "Sensei is going to be fine. I promise."
Eri's face scrunched up as she nodded, and more fat tears began falling freely down her cheeks. Misaki pulled her back into her arms and held her securely as she rapidly cried herself to sleep. The exhaustion from the release of all her pent-up emotion along with the lack of proper nourishment had taken quite the toll on her little body.
As soon as she had calmed down, Misaki heard Mirio say in a quiet voice from behind her, "I'll go turn down her bed."
"Mirio-kun." She heard him stop walking as he turned to make his way over to the door leading into Eri's bedroom. She lifted her eyes to stare at his slightly hunched back and firmly told him, "There was no way you could have known something like this would happen. It's not your fault."
His hands clenched into fists at his sides and his strained voice floated over to her from where he was standing, tensed and still, a moment later, "I selfishly asked Eri to use her quirk on me just so I could join a battle I had no business being a part of in the first place. And now when there are people who actually need her quirk… She can't use it. What kind of hero does that make me?"
"The kind of hero who can't resist his desire to help others. A true hero," Misaki replied.
His tense posture relaxed a bit, but it appeared to be less in acceptance and more in defeat as he miserably uttered under his breath, "I sure don't feel like it."
"You saved a lot of people by protecting Best Jeanist and the others from those Nomu. Your presence inspired other heroes to stand up and fight alongside you. Eri doesn't regret using her quirk to give you back yours. You're her hero too, remember?" Misaki stood and walked over to him, carrying Eri with her and resolutely telling him, "If you're that bothered by it, just make sure you save as many people as you can from now on, Lemillion."
"She's right," a soft voice suddenly sounded out from the playroom doorway.
They both looked toward who had spoken and Mirio asked, "Tamaki?"
The typically gloomy teenager walked into the room and laid a hand on Mirio shoulder, determinedly looking him in the eye as he said, "You're the invincible man, right? You've got a lot more people to save to reach that one million mark. You can't give up now."
"We're all supporting you, after all," a female voice chimed in from behind him.
Mirio looked over Tamaki's shoulder to the short-haired girl with a layer of bandages over the left side of her face standing in the doorway. "Nejire-chan?"
Her face scrunched up in a scowl and she shoved her fists onto her hips as she stomped into the room and told him, "Stop being so wishy-washy! Heroes are supposed to smile, right?"
"Yeah! You're right!" Mirio said with a short laugh, smiling at them as he reached up to swipe a finger under his teary eyes.
Misaki smiled at him warmly and said, "Well done, Lemillion."
Mirio sniffed and told them, "Thank you, everyone."
Glancing up at the clock, Misaki sucked in a breath through her teeth and addressed the group, "I'm so sorry to ask this, but could one of you look after her?"
"Yeah, of course!" Mirio immediately replied, reaching out to carefully lift the sleeping girl from her arms.
"Thanks," she sheepishly replied.
"Are you leaving?" Mirio asked as he settled Eri into his own arms.
Misaki sighed and turned her gaze to the side with a frown as she replied in a morose tone of voice, "I just need to talk to the Principal for a little bit while I'm here."
"Oh, okay. We'll see you later, then?" Mirio asked as the others walked by toward Eri's bedroom, probably to help prepare to lay her down to sleep.
She tightened her lips into a thin smile and nodded. Taking that as his cue to leave, Mirio returned her smile and bowed his head to her before following after the others. Misaki let out a heavy sigh and swiftly turned on her heel before heading for the door to the playroom. Considering the news she'd read on the way over about one of the prisoners who had broken out of Tartarus, she had some things to discuss with the mouselike Principal of UA.
~ Author's Note ~
If anyone is interested in reading Shira's intro into the story, please check out Red Thread in Winds of Destiny: Converging! It is the first short story in that collection :)
I will be catching up this story with the chapters I've missed over the last three weeks ASAP! Look out for two more chapters to drop sometime today!
Thank you so much for reading ❤️
L0LSAT