Chapter Thirty
~Shina's POV~
Shina was silent as she stared out the car window at the early morning Japanese sky. The city was always alive but seemed like there were less people active right now. Only stirrings of some early morning commuters and the late-night shifts returning to bed for the day. Shina wasn't sure what to think about as she headed to the police station to pick up Kana. There was the obvious issue on the forefront of her mind regarding the LOV and Shigaraki's potential outburst to her not being there during All for One's attack. But honestly she could put this to the side after the call from Kana herself after Shina and Yuto had shown up to pick up James from his 'friendly study date'. She'd initially gotten the information about this rescue mission from Yuto when she'd made it back to the Ugly House earlier that night. She'd been so glad her bike was still in the same place she'd left it as she'd literally flown back to the house once she'd found it. Now here she was, on her way back to a police station. Thankfully this one didn't have a hero hanging around.
'How has this mission gotten so out of hand so fast? What can I do to get us off of this burning ship?' The thought kept circling in her head as she continued to stare out the window. 'All for One is gone, taken to Tartarus prison and being held most likely under maximum security. Can't get him out even if Shigaraki asked. The contract does cover this eventuality but, I never thought we'd still be around if this happened. If we stick around we'd take on bigger roles in helping build the League and this would eventually lead to us helping their plans. I don't want to help the villains…' Shina cut off her thoughts to prevent from going down that avenue of stress.
"Are you alright burglar?" Claude's voice caused Shina to blink. The car wasn't driving anymore, they were just idling down the street from the police station.
"Lost in thought Claude. Running on a few hours of sleep right now." On cue a yawn came that Shina couldn't force down. "Did you just call me burglar?" Claude grunted.
"Yes, your extracurricular activities were caught and reported on the telly. I dare say Madam Maria will give you a good whacking later when we return." Shina sighed. Not even the threat of being smacked by her Head of House, Maria Vasquez, could cause Shina to wake up any more than she was trudging along.
"That's fine, I probably deserve it. Don't turn off the car, I'll be back shortly." Shina yawned once more before she opened the door and got out. The morning chill felt like a slap in the face and had Shina flinching. She probably should have worn a light jacket instead of her usual summer pants and tank top, it probably didnt help that she ran hotter than the average human and having more than a few layers on tended to make her sweaty and uncomfortable. She much preferred the dry, arid heat of her homeland to this humid heat that caused her hair to puff up like a Flareon and make her expel more heat.
Shina continued to grumble about being awake at an ungodly hour and running on fumes as she quickly walked across the street towards the police station. By the time she reached the front entrance her grumbling had died down as she'd bargained with herself to get a cup of coffee on the way home. When she reached the front desk she was more awake and alert.
"Hello I'm Nara, Shina. I'm the guardian of Nara, Kana the young woman who was kidnapped from the UA training camp? I was told I could find her here?" The front desk officer perked up as Shina talked and by the end he looked like a hyperactive puppy.
"Yes miss, please follow me. Your daughter is with a detective who is taking her statement now." Shina didn't bother to correct the officer about her relation as she figured it wouldn't matter in the long run. Shina followed the officer down the hall and to the first door where he knocked twice and opened the door. "I have the mother of Nara, Kana?" Shina saw around the officer just before he moved aside to let her enter. There were two detectives in the room with two regular officers as well as Kana and who Shina was assuming was her classmate, Bakugou Katsuki. Bakugou sat on top of a table looking relaxed but Shina could see how he was tense as he regarded her with an angry pout.
"Shina?" Kana called catching Shina's attention. Kana was sitting straight on a plastic chair with feverishly wide eyes, looking paler than usual. Her hair was mussed more than usual. Shina relaxed as she straightened her demeanor. At least Kana was whole.
"Kana are you okay?" She quickly moved closer to Kana, allowing her heat to flare subtly to warm Kana. She noticed Kana hiding her hands in the blanket that was draped over her shoulders. Shina didn't say anything as she reached out and patted Kana's head gently. Kana didn't like physical touch even from family members. Shina respected that boundary in public, but she would turn mother hen mode later in private.
"I'm okay." Kana murmured in their native language.
"They didn't hurt you did they?" Shina demanded to know. "Because if they did we can leave Japan tonight."
"I'm okay Shina." Kana answered meeting her eyes. "Just bruised but those were my fault. Shouldn't have struggled so hard in the ropes but hey, it's real!" Shina deadpanned at that response.
"Idiot." Shina looked at who she assumed was the head detective. "Is it alright if I can take her home now? I'm assuming you asked her questions already?" Shina would hope they didn't, but Japanese laws were different than the rest of the world.
"Yes but if you don't mind we'd like to have an officer escort you home just in case the Villains showed up again." Shina frowned at that logic. While it was understanding to her to allow this, Shina didn't feel comfortable with letting a cop come onto their turf.
"That's not necessary." Shina stated. "We live in a gated residential area with our own security." The detectives nodded.
"Be that as it may ma'am, we would still like to offer some security." Shina narrowed her eyes.
"No offense but UA's teachers couldn't protect her while she was under their watch. What good do you think your officers would do if you spared them?" Shina glared at the officers who shuffled nervously. "If you don't have anymore objections I'm taking my child from this precinct now."
"Officers, if you'd please." The new voice broke in. Shina turned her head to see Aizawa entering the room. "I'll take it from here. Bakugou, your parents are here."
"About time." Bakugou stated. Shina saw him hop off the table and head to the door while Aizawa nodded at the detectives and the last remaining officer in the room.
"Kana, are you ready to go home?" Aizawa asked. "If so you can both leave." Kana hopped off the table, drawing the blanket around her shoulders.
"Thanks Aizawa." Kana said.
"Thank you Aizawa." Shina nodded once before she put an arm around Kana and brushed past Aizawa. "Claude is in the car outside."
"Where are Yu and Furry?" Kana murmured under her breath as they walked down the hall into the lobby. Shina saw the Bakugou's talking with the detectives down the other hall. It looked like Bakugou was growling, at least until Shina caught his eye. Despite being kidnapped, he didn't look too bad. Of course, being held against your will weighed more on the mind than the body, that Shina knew all too well.
"They're at home with the others." Shina answered as she turned away and opened the front door to let Kana go out first. "Do you want to stop anywhere before we get home?"
"No I'm okay." Kana stated as she quickly climbed down the stairs.
"Then let's get home. After I get a coffee."
~Yuto's POV~
"How do you think Kana's doing?" Yuto asked as he laid on James' bed. His chin rested on a pillow wedge as he watched James toss a foam ball up into the air only to catch it in his claws when it came down a second later.
"She's fine." James panted. "With all the stuff we've been through, I doubt this registered on her trauma-dar."
"Trauma-dar?" Yuto asked as he rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. The ivory paint from above reflected light from the skylight and sconces along the walls nicely. "You think getting 'kidnapped' by villains wouldn't register on this, trauma-dar, you invented?"
"Okay one," James voice came sounding louder than it had been before. The reason came a moment later as James plopped down beside Yuto on the bed. "This is Kana we're talking about. She beats us daily. Two, she saw Auntie Yuuki's dead body and Uncle Eddie standing over her with blood all over his clothes. I think that will forever remain #1. Three, we were homeless for two weeks in Kyoto, that wasn't a fun time for any of us and four, we're working with the League, I doubt they did much damage." Yuto blinked.
"That is a lot of trauma we've undergone over the years." Yuto stated bluntly.
"Trauma builds character." James grumbled. Yuto hummed in agreement. He had his own trauma that was the result of a car accident and being alone for hours in the dark. James of course was second in his trauma, but they weren't going to go down that lane.
"Should we go wait in her room for her?" James asked.
"Yeah sure." Yuto sat up, sliding off the bed as James merely pounced to land beside him.
"Race you!" James called. Yuto rolled his eyes as he merely sunk into the shadows under the bed. He passed between the different columns of shadows before he reached a familiar one. When he popped up he was under Kana's bed in her room. He had just pulled his foot from the shadow when the door burst open and James came in.
"Ugh, you cheater!" James groaned.
"You didn't say anything about no Quirks." Yuto argued. "Plus you jumped across the stairs and ran on top of the couches to get here." James was silent before a sheepish smile broke across his face making him look like a child as he denied it.
"No I didn't!" Yuto smirked.
"You liar." Yuto looked around Kana's room. "So what should we do to pass the time?"
"You know if you touch her art stuff we're dead." James reminded him as James walked over to Kana's swinging chair in the corner by the balcony doors.
"I won't touch it." Yuto smirked evilly. James saw the look on his brothers face too late as a shadow tendril reached up and spilled the old paint water in Kana's art space.
"HOW DARE YOU!" James yelled as water spilled all over Kana's paints and onto her brushes. "Do you know what you've done!?"
"You mean what you've done?" Yuto asked innocently. "I've been in my garage this entire time." Yuto melted into the shadows as James lunged at him.
"TRAITOR!" Yuto ran through the shadows until he reappeared in the small living room on the third floor. He quickly ran to Kana's room door and yanked it shut. He then jiggled the door knob as a hard thump sounded against the door from the other side. "JUDAS! I SHOULD'VE KILLED YOU LONG AGO!"
"IF YOU LIVE, I'LL DO YOUR CHORES FOR A MONTH!" Yuto shouted as he cackled before he melted into the shadows once again.
~Kana's POV~
The drive back to the Ugly House was silent for the most part. Claude had turned on the radio and started playing some songs from her playlist to relax her. She appreciated that after such a long day, or days. Kana wasn't really sure how long it had been, she was kind of zoning out at this point. Or she would have been if Shina hadn't just nudged her.
"What?" Kana voiced as she turned to her cousin. Shina's face held a small smile.
"You want me to heal your bruises?" Kana blinked, unconsciously she realized that she'd just put her arms in the blanket, wrapping the edges around her hands to hide the bruising. She also realized that her ankles were crossed in a way that the bruising was hidden from Shina's eye sight.
"I thought you weren't able to heal?" Kana asked, trying to distract Shina. Shina gave her a bored look that Kana immediately knew meant Shina wasn't fooled by her attempt at distraction. Kana sighed, pulling out her arms to show her wrists. Shina took one hand gently in her warm hands, examining the bruises. There were two lines of dark bruising on her wrists that honestly wouldn't have been so bad if Kana hadn't tried to break them on her own. Most bruises she obtained were her fault, part in kind to her natural clumsiness and partly because she was too stubborn to wait for someone to save her, even if that meant saving her from herself.
"You really bruised bad this time." Shina stated as she examined Kana's wrists. Kana felt Shina heat up almost to an uncomfortable point before Shina's hands took on a golden almost white glow as she poured her 'healing rays' into Kana's hands. She wasn't entirely sure how her sister was able to have so many Quirks and not have any drawbacks. Other than being a human glow stick, Shina also held the power to absorb light and manipulate it into solid objects. Then there was the healing factor, flight and illusions (Granted the flight power was practically a high level energy waster so Shina didn't use it a lot). Kana suspected most of those abilities came from her father as Aunt Renee had had a Shadow Quirk like Yuto. Unfortunately, Shina didn't know who her father was she they weren't sure what else would potentially present. Warmth shot into Kana's hands that travelled up her arms and into her chest. Kana shuddered as she felt the cold that had seemed to settle in her gut disappeared and Kana was left feeling like she was wrapped in her favorite fuzzy blanket with her shark in her arms. Kana sighed in relief as she relaxed into her seat.
"Shingaraki was worried you were going to show up and yell at him before he called you and told you I was with them." Shina snorted, pulling back.
"I wouldn't have yelled. You know I do my best threatening by being scary calm." Kana shared a smile with Shina before Shina spoke up. "Claude, can you stop by a McDonald's? I think Kana could use some fast food."
"As you wish miss." Claude answered.
"You sure Chef Wolfe will be okay with that?" Kana asked. "He doesn't like it when we do take out. 'What's the point in hiring me anyway'?" The familiar words of their long time wolf chef were repeated in sarcasm. Kana knew Chef Wolfe never meant it, he genuinely liked cooking for them. They took him all over the world allowing him to learn different culinary styles.
"He won't mind I'm sure." Shina stated confidently. She winked at Kana. "After all, his favorite way to get around was just 'tortured'." Kana rolled her eyes.
"Alright but I'm throwing you under the bus if he gets mad."
"Duly noted." Shina responded. "You feeling better? You were looking pretty pale earlier." Kana sighed for what felt like the millionth time today. She'd been through multiple questioning sessions with the detectives who wanted to know every aspect of all she'd seen and heard while with the League. Who was the 'leader', who were the members, did they talk about their plans and such. Kana wondered why they wanted to know these kinds of questions as she thought it was pretty obvious on the answers. Adults were idiots sometimes though, and often needed to have things said more than once.
"I'm okay. I just…" Kana trailed off as she thought back to the questions she'd been asking herself after she was rescued. After she'd seen All Might beat One for All. "Are we still working for the League?"
"Yes." Shina nodded, serious. "Unfortunately since they didn't hurt you or any of the boys, our contract is still in effect. Despite All for One not being here, there is a clause in our contract that covers this eventuality. I honestly didn't think this would happen," Shina chuckled darkly. "But unfortunately All for One had to have his 5 minutes of stardom again. I don't know where Shigaraki and the League are unfortunately. I've got to track them down somehow and talk with Shigaraki about this. Considering how dependent he is, he's probably not taking his 'mentor's' abandonment well." Kana frowned at this information.
"Do you think he's going to act right away to get revenge on All Might or any of the heroes who came to rescue me or Bakugou?" Kana asked thinking of Shigaraki going on a rampage and destroying the city.
"No." Shina answered. "All for One obviously trusted Shigaraki with some 'higher purpose'. My guess is Shigaraki is going to isolate himself for a while, until things die down. He'll probably go back into the shadows to plan and regroup before he makes his next moves. What those are however, I don't know." Kana once again felt uneasiness take over her. She rolled the thought around in her head as they continued to drive in silence.
Claude had stopped at a McDonalds and gotten their food and got back on the road to the Ugly House before Kana dared to voice her next question as she stared at her chicken nuggets.
"Do we have to continue with this contract?" Kana asked. She hoped with how quiet she had asked that Shina wouldn't hear it. She wasn't that lucky as Shina hummed thoughtfully.
"As much as I would like to say 'no, we don't'. Unfortunately we do. If we don't then grandma's not going to be alive much longer."
"She's old enough right?" Kana asked in a guilty tone. It was messed up to say aloud but, in her eyes, she felt like this contract was too much for them.
"It's not just her." Shina stated. Kana frowned.
"What?" She'd thought-
"Grandma isn't the only one All for One mentioned in the contract." Shina stated slowly, as if unwilling to say more. "I'll explain the rest of this when we get home. If I'm going to tell you then I had better tell your brothers as well. You know James isn't going to like being left out of the tea." Kana resisted the urge to push as she could vividly recall how James got when he was left out of plans, important plans.
"You're going to need to tell me why you kept this from us." Shina had always enforced the knowledge that they never kept anything from one another. Kana knew Shina had some secrets when it came to certain things that didn't involve them, but this one was of the things they needed to know.
"You'll understand when I tell you." That was the last thing Shina or Kana said as the car continued on.
~Shina's POV~
When the car came to a stop Shina resisted the urge to simply ask Claude to leave her in the car. It wouldn't help anyway, if she didn't have this conversation in the house then the kids would just climb into the car and have this conversation here. They were stubborn like that. Instead, Shina climbed out of the car, turned to close the door and froze. Up on the third-floor balcony, Kana's balcony, was James trying to jump down. One leg was hoisted on the balcony while his ears and tail were at attention, standing tall and slightly puffed up like he was afraid.
"What are you doing?" Shina called up to him.
"Who are you talking to?" Kana asked. Shina didn't see the look of anxiety as James tried to signal to her as she looked down to Kana who had turned on the front steps of the house. Shina jerked her finger to Kana's balcony.
"Your brother the furry is trying to sushi-cide." Kana frowned as she turned her head upwards to where Shina was pointing to.
"What are you doing up there?" Kana shouted. Shina looked up to see what sorry excuse he would offer but instead of giving an excuse James twitched before he screeched and jumped back. He ran inside Kana's room. "What in the" Kana flicked her hand, opening a portal behind the car to show her bedroom. James was yanking at Kana's door, pounding on it vigorously. Shina quickly rounded the car and jumped through the portal with Kana to figure out what the heck was going on.
"Uh," Shina started making James go stiff. "You want to explain what in the El Dorado is going on?" James turned around.
"I just want to say, it was all Yuto's fault, he did it, I didn't touch the water or the cup okay? He used his freaky shadow tentacle to tip the cup and it spilled all over." Shina frowned trying to make sense of what he was talking about. Kana let out a loud and horrifying shriek that had Shina whipping her head to the side to see what she was freaking out over. Kana had run over to her art supplies and was twitching over them. Shina caught on a second later to what James had been babbling about.
The cup of water was most likely Kana's paint water. Kana was very precise with her paint and the brushes so if the boys or she herself had dared to touch them, then the apocalypse may as well have started. Considering Yuto did this and left James to take the fall, Kana would probably go after the brother that was left at the scene. Common sense wouldn't occur to Kana until blood has been shed. This was going to get destructive.
Shina didn't hesitate to throw up a shield between Kana and James as Kana screamed bloody murder and threw herself at him. She hit the shield as James flinched away. Shina used her other hand to form a light pole that she used to break the door open behind James.
"GET YOUR BROTHER OVER HERE!" Shina yelled at James who fell through the door and scrambled to the stairs. "KANA CALM DOWN!"
"HE RUINED SIX MONTHS OF WORK! SIX MONTHS!" Kana shrieked. Shina had a feeling they weren't going to talk about the contract until this issue was settled. She dearly missed the days of being a single child.
~James POV~
Sweat ran down James face as he launched himself off the wooden platform and into the air. His fingers outstretched as he reached for the bar he needed to grab a hold of to prevent himself from falling thirty feet through the air into the glittery trampoline down below. His hope and excitement grew as he grabbed the bar with one hand but realized too late that his other hand was too sweaty to grip the bar firmly. Horror spread as he felt his arm jerk at his body weight pulling his tired muscles to the ground.
"Urgk!" James grunted as he hung there on the highest bar of the training course. He was tired and sore from running this dang course multiple times since this morning. He just wanted to finish it already!
With an unholy amount of aggression, James forced his other arm up. He grabbed the bar and held on for a moment as he forced himself to not feel the strain of his muscles being forced to work while they were exhausted and trembling. It took him what felt like forever, but in reality was probably only a minute, as he pulled himself up to his chin before he cried out and dropped.
He watched as the bar got higher and higher as his body fell towards Earth. He twisted his head around to watch his landing on the trampoline. The glittery universe that lay on it was going to be a pain to wash out of his hair. That was his last thought before he landed on the trampoline and bounced back up into the air. When he landed again he felt the strain on his left arm before he stopped bouncing. Glitter was all around him and he was pretty sure he had inhaled some as he coughed and choked to clear his throat.
"Ohh! So close!" Shina's voice came. "And that ladies and gentlemen is how we managed to gain a glittery cat."
"I hate you!" James yelled as he coughed and hacked through the glitter in the air.
"Don't look at me, you three didn't want to make amends the easy way so now you all get to suffer through this together." Shina's voice was laced with smug amusement that James held nothing but dark fury for.
"I don't want to live anymore!" Kana moaned somewhere to James left. She had fallen a while back. As far as James knew though, Yuto was still going through the course. He was just slower than his cousins.
"INCOMING!" James hissed/yelped as the trampoline he was lying on bounced him into the air and into one of the wooden constructs of the course.
"Owww!" James moaned as he held onto the wooden pillar with all his strength. "I hate you most of all you shadowy plague."
"Another one bites the dust, yeah. Another bites the dust." Shina was singing.
"If this was going to happen, I only wish I'd actually managed to get away with it." Yuto sighed. "We can get away with stealing hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of jewels but we couldn't get away with ruining Kana's art supplies."
"'We'? What 'we'? You're the one that did it." James growled. "It's your fault we're being trained to death."
"You said we should go wait in Kana's room." Yuto reminded him.
"IT WAS A SUGGESTION!" James yelled getting up to glare at Yuto who was buried by glitter. Thanks to the sweat the glitter was going to need to be washed out very carefully.
"One you agreed to." Yuto stated.
"I didn't think you were going to ruin her brushes!" James screeched. "Be thankful we didn't actually ruin her paint job."
"It's a canvas you uncultured swines!" Kana yelled at them.
"Oi! Whenever you devils want to get cleaned up you can. Your teacher is here to talk to me."
"What?" The three of them chorused. James crawled to the edge of the trampoline to see Shina heading inside. Celeste was waiting with a tray of water and some towels for them to come down off the structure. She gave a friendly smile and a wave. Calling up to them.
"Whenever you three are ready. Come down and get yourselves cleaned up. I think Shina would like for you all to be presentable a lunch." James grumbled at her giggling as he and his cousins managed to climb down from the structure. 'Climbing down' was subjective as James just rolled to the edge of the trampoline and let himself fall to the next level of trampoline. It meant more glitter getting on his clothes and on his skin and hair, but it was the lazy way to go about it. He wasn't ashamed of being lazy.
"Did Shina say our teacher was here?" James asked when he got to Celeste.
"Yes sir." Celeste gave a warm smile as she touched his head. He felt the light 'ping' as his muscles seemed to cool. He had never been so happy to have a healer on staff as he did now. "I believe Claude said it was 'Aizawa'? I think he's the one they call Eraser head right?"
"Yeah that's him." James confirmed. "What's he doing here?"
"I'm sorry gato, I don't have a clue." Celeste apologized. James twitched at the 'gato' but refrained from saying anything. He was just glad she didn't call him 'kitten' like she'd done previously. Not that he would have corrected her. She was one of the 'elderly abuela's' alongside Maria and Juanita. He wasn't dumb enough to get them mad. The one and only time Shina had done that, she'd been whacked by 'la chancla'. That was something they'd come to fear, for better or worse. "Lady Shina has asked that you three head up to your rooms and shower. She should meet you for lunch when she'd done talking with your teacher."
"Yes ma'am." James, Yuto and Kana chorused. They headed for the back door and tried to shove each other aside to be the first to make it to the back staircase. James was honestly curious as to what Aizawa was doing here on such a nice day as this. They hadn't heard anything about class resuming for the summer or going back to training cmap. Of course with the press constantly broadcasting All Might's 'retirement' they hadn't heard much of anything else. This was highly unusual for Aizawa to come out and speak with Shina. Maybe it was because of Kana's kidnapping?
"Hey, do you think we should see what that meeting is about?" Kana asked. James instantly headed for the couch to get the remote.
"That's a yes from James and I'm joining this to know the tea." Yuto said from behind him. James clicked on the TV and 'muted' the television before he changed the input to the 'security cameras'. Thankfully Shina was paranoid about having cameras everywhere so James just had to flick from one room to the next until he found Shina sitting in the front living-room with Aizawa across her.
"Get the door!" James hissed. He watched as Kana rushed to close the wooden double doors to the den before he turned the sound on.
'-sorry about how rude I was at the police station.' Shina was apologizing.
'I understand. You were entitled to being concerned for Kana's wellbeing, especially when she was processing her kidnapping. Aizawa stated. Shina nodded.
'I take it that's not the only reason you have come to visit us?' Shina indicated.
'No. Because of the increasing threat of the League of Villains, Principle Nezu has put in for a new program he is wanting to initiate that will have all UA students attending UA from a dormitory that will be on campus. Principle Nezu feels it would be the best option to protecting our students from possibly being targeted or kidnapped by the League if they continue to commute from off campus.' James looked at his cousins in shock. A dorm? They'd never stayed in one before. Well, James rethought about that, he supposed the Russian compound would seem like a dorm if you thought about it in an academia way. Though, there was nothing academic going on there.
"Are they serious?" Yuto asked. "That sounds awesome!" James sat down on the couch as he thought about this new change in plans.
"You think Shina will let us stay in a dorm?" Kana asked hesitantly.
"If she doesn't than that's the end of our contract with the League." James stated. "We don't go then we don't go to UA anymore. I doubt they'll let anyone continue to go to school but still commute. Even if we did take Claude or Shina with us every time."
"You have a point." Kana acknowledged as she and Yuto sat down beside him. James had no doubt that the other two were thinking about what this meant if they did enter the dorms. It was scary, but also a small bit thrilling if James was being honest. They fell silent as Shina spoke.
'If I can be honest with you Aizawa, I 'm not totally comfortable with letting my cousins out of my sight. I wasn't really excited about letting them go for the training camp considering what happened with the USJ incident. I allowed them to go because I figured it would allow them to grow their Quirks and also continue to be around children their own age.' Shina took a sip of her tea. 'We move around a lot due to my job. This is the first time I've been able to make enough of a compromise to be able to stay in one location for them to attend high school. I'm not very excited about them being hunted by villains, but even I know that I can't protect them forever.' Shina took a deep breath. 'Can you guarantee that no harm will come to them while they attend your school?'
'Considering all the training that they go through, I can't promise any harm won't come to them. It would be impossible to help them grow stronger without going through some amount of pain. I can promise that if any villains come for them, I will protect them at all costs.'
"He sounds serious." Yuto stated obviously.
"Shina's really selling this isn't she?" James whispered to Kana.
"Hmm, her acting has always been great. I can't even tell she's lying." Kana whispered back.
"They're doing a lot of gazing into each other's eyes aren't they?" Yuto whispered breaking into James and Kana's conversation. "Should we worry about that?"
"Eh, he's too much of a cat to gain her interest." James stated, brushing that off.
"If you ask me she seems more into birds." Kana smirked.
"What?" James asked, whipping his head to see Kana cackling like the gremlin she was. "What does that mean?"
"Oh!" Yuto started laughing. "I remember!"
"Well I don't! Someone fill me in!" James grumbled.
"You remember when we were on I-Island for the expo?" Yuto reminded James.
"Yeah you said you guys ran into Hawks and then the villains came in." James stated.
"Yeah they were flirting that whole time. I did cave and gave him her phone number later." Yuto stated. James honestly didn't know how to feel about that.
"I-I don't even know what's going on here anymore." James stated.
"Shh, she's talking again." Kana shushed them with a wave of her hands.
'I believe you would do all you could to keep these kids safe. They told me some of what happened during the USJ incident. You risked your life to keep your kids safe. I may not have much faith in much, but I believe you'd do all you could. Do you need me to sign anything to allow this?'
'No, your verbal agreement is all we need.' Aizawa stated. 'The dorms should be ready to move into in a week. At this time we will have the students begin to move in so they can resume their summer training.' Shina nodded.
'Can I ask, does this mean I won't see them for some time?' Shina asked.
'We will have Parents days when parents or family members will be allowed to come visit the students. At this point in time, Principle Nezu doesn't feel it would be okay for the students to be allowed to return home once they enter the dorms.'
'I understand.' Shina stated as she stood up. 'I'm assuming that's the end of our conversation? Unless you want to join us for lunch?'
"We should go shower!" James hissed as he shut off the television. Kana opened a portal to the third floor living-room.
"Let's go then!" She hissed. The three of them quickly ran through the portal and ran into their respective rooms to shower and change.
~Shina's POV~
Shina waited for her three charges to meet her at the dining table for lunch while she thought about the recent meeting with Aizawa. She didn't want to allow them to go to this 'dorm' system that UA was setting up but, it would help their mission better. Living with someone usually meant you were constantly around them and you learned things about them that no one else did.
If Shina was being honest with herself, she really wished this dorm system helped to get the kids away from the villains that were soon going to be invading the house. The kids didn't deserve to get into this any more than they already were. Giren had messaged her yesterday and informed her that Shigaraki was with the rest of the League in a warehouse on the other side of town, far from where the bar had once been. They were hiding out for now, but they needed a base. Shina didn't see why they shouldn't reside here. It was on her turf and among her staff, which reminded her, she needed to call a staff meeting. She would have to thin the ranks soon to make it easier for them to head out if they were infiltrated.
"Claude, let the others know we will be having a meeting at 2pm this afternoon in the dining room." Shina spoke aloud. She didn't need confirmation that he had heard her. Claude's Quirk was super hearing, he heard everything that went on in this place. Between his hearing and Jon Von's Quirk, Farsight, there wasn't much that went unnoticed. It came in handy with the kids.
That taken care of, Shina just had to let the kids in on the dorm system as well as the contract details that she hadn't been able to discuss with them yesterday. This was going to be a long lunch. Shina took another sip of her tea as she simply allowed herself to relax for this moment.
The sound of footsteps coming to the dining room caught her attention. Shina looked over to the entrance to see Kana with Yuto and James behind her. She put on a smile.
"Glad you all took your time." She caught the glitter shimmering in Yuto's hair but kept the amusement from taking over. James would no doubt tease him about it enough later. "Take a seat, we have a lot of things we need to talk about."
"Are you going to tell us about why you hid the contract details?" Kana asked as she sat down to her soup. Shina sighed as she continued to drink her tea.
"Yes I will get to that." Shina answered. "Go a head and eat your sandwiches. I'll talk." She waited until Kana rolled her eyes and took a bite from her soup. The boys followed suit and Shina nodded. "I know you three were there when we first met All for One and Shigaraki, but the contract you guys didn't read. I just gave you guys an abbreviated version."
"What?" James cried out in outrage.
"Let me finish before you continue." Shina narrowed her eyes. James grumbled but went back to eating. Shina nodded once before she continued. "We don't get involved in these villain/hero dramatics, and this is a good reason why. Unfortunately, our reputation precedes us." James opened his mouth. "It means people already know about us before we even come into town." James closed his mouth and continued eating. "You know All for One got us into the contract by threatening to hurt grandma, but he's kept us where he wants us, because he knows about some of our affiliations. Samara and Desire for instance. I know they're the Inferna Twins and as the partnered Head of the South American mafia, they can take care of themselves, but I'd rather not cause them any issues since this is All for One and he dealt a blow to All Might that no one else has ever done."
"I mean, point." Kana conceded. James seemed to be thinking about this as Yuto maintained eye contact with Shina as she continued.
"Yes. Another thing is that he knows who Tatiana and Samantha are. You three know they're the only friends I've kept in touch with from Arizona." The three kids nodded. Shina took a deep breath. "Tatiana is a nurse in Phoenix and Samantha is in the military. I'd hate to know something that I could have prevented happened to them or their families. This job was only supposed to be a short term one that involved us gathering info on the heroes for Shigaraki and aiding him in any capacity. But this contract is going on far longer than it should have because All for One twisted it to his advantage."
"So we can't just up and leave without grandma or these other people being targeted?" Yuto stated. Shina nodded. "That… sucks."
"Yeah tell me about it." Shina sighed.
"Why don't we just kill All for One?" James offered.
"Because at this point in time All for One is being held in the most secure prison on Earth, Tartarus." Shina reminded him with a bit of sarcasm. "Considering his past, I'm sure he's on maximum security."
"Well why didn't we kill him sooner?" James demanded to know.
"Because we didn't know where he was doofus." Kana half shouted in defense. "If you're going to kill someone it would help if we knew where he was and also where our information is just in case he has a time delayed release on that info." Kana stopped before she looked at Shina. "How did he even know that much information about us?"
"Beats me." Shina shrugged. "For all intents and purposes I've been very careful about our origins and who we interacted with in case this happened. It helped that our parents are dead."
"Does he- does he know about that?" Yuto hesitated to ask. Shina frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"If he knows about grandma, wouldn't he know about our parents? I mean they're all dead, except for Kana's dad."
"He's dead to me." Kana stated blankly. Yuto nodded at the glare he received from James and Shina. They didn't bring that up as it was a sore subject for Kana.
"Yeah, but why would he instantly assume Kana's dad isn't part of our organization?" Shina could agree with what Yuto was trying tell them. It was a bit suspicious that All for One knew all this information. It was something she'd been contemplating herself but so far, she didn't have an answer.
"I'm not sure." Shina admitted aloud. "I don't know why we're obviously so important to All for One's plans. I'd much rather we weren't in the middle of this and instead were still in Aruba getting ready to head for Alaska. But whatever plan All for One has, I'm just going to hope that we can ruin it before we have to go through with it."
"Is that why you agreed to have us go to the UA dorms?" James asked. Shina should have guessed they would have eavesdropped on that conversation.
"Yes." Shina nodded. "It's my hope, that you guys continue to learn and grow your Quirks at UA. I know I did my best to teach you how to use them for our thieving ways. But I want you guys to learn how to use them in case we ever run into this issue again. Well that and I'm secretly hoping you guys want to give up your thieving lifestyle and become heroes."
"Never." The trio chorused.
"Never say never." Shina murmured into her tea cup. "Now please eat your food because I have to talk with the rest of the staff after this."
"Why?" Yuto asked.
"I'm going to send half of them to the other houses we have to keep an eye on them." Shina stated. "With you three not here then there won't be so much cleaning to be done." Shina winced as the three teenagers sputtered. "Of course I should also let you know, the League of Villains is going to be moving in."
"WHAT?"
"WHAT?"
"WHAT?" Shina was not looking forward to this next conversation. Thankfully her phone chiming caught her attention. "Don't you answer that." James growled. "We're still talking here."
"Calm down. I won't-" Shina quickly answered it, sticking her tongue out at James who looked like he was going to launch an orange at her. "Hello?"
'Shina?' Shina blinked in confusion.
"Who is this?"
'It's Kira. We need to talk.' Shina's mouth opened slightly in surprise as memories of a young teenager with long black hair and knives hidden in every inch of her black suit filled her mind. 'We're in Japan currently, in Fukuoka. We need to talk with you.'
"When you say 'we' am I going to assume you and the rest of the Russian armada?" Shina asked. The kids quieted down as they heard the forbidden word.
'Who's that?' Kana mouthed.
'No, it's just Kai and I. Oh and Yoshi…and Kaito.' Shina held up her finger, took her phone from her ear and put Kira on speakerphone.
"Why are you in Japan?" Shina asked. "And who said we are too?"
'Yoshi tracked your phone.' Kira's voice came loud and clear.
"Why?" James asked.
'Nikolai is dead.' Kira announced to the room. Shina's eyes widened once again in surprise. 'We really need to talk about this in person. Before his kids find you guys.' Shina looked at her cousins. They looked shocked on this news but also unsure. Shina bit her tongue in thought. Nikolai was an important person in their lives, he was the surrogate grandfather they never had. He'd helped them before, made them part of his family. Whatever this curve was, there was no doubt Shina was about to be dragged along for the ride. She had no say in this, not if HE was trying to find them.
"Okay. Come to Mustafu."
GM NASAI: I have no excuse for how long it's taken me to post this. All I can say is mental health is a bitch and so is real life.
On that note, how's everyone liking Season 6?