I'm so sorry it took me so long to update! I had to figure out where I wanted to go from the last chapter, but I think I got it figured out. As always, feel free to comment and leave some constructive criticism for me!

-Kim

Chapter Six: It Begins

"Follow me."

I shrieked softly as a hand pulled me away from Mina and Jirou. After stumbling a few steps, I finally caught my footing and looked at my snatcher.

"Seriously bimbro? We were having a conversation; you coulda asked like a normal person," I huffed.

"Don't care." I rolled my eyes and followed him upstairs to the girls' side of the dorms. I opened my door to let him storm in, and we sat on the bed back to back.

"So, what's got your panties in a twist? More so than usual, I mean."

"Kirigaya, you're gonna make me regret coming to you," he growled.

"Ok, ok, I'm sorry. What's up? Did something happen while I was at therapy?"

"How…? What's Shitty Hair like? You know, while you're doing that mission thing?"

"Like his normal self? Only a bit more serious because doing hero work,``I answered with confusion in my voice.

"Is he… getting really close to anyone else besides you?" he continued asking.

"Define 'getting close to,'" I requested, glancing back at him. "You know he's a loveable dork that gets along with everyone."

Because I was looking at the side of his face, I could see his jaw clenching and unclenching as he considered his next words. I remained silent to give him time, otherwise he would just shut down on me.

"Shitty Hair has been acting… off lately. He won't stop talking about how 'manly' that damn bird boy is."

"Doesn't he call everyone manly though? Including girls?"

"Not that much. And not with that damn look on his face. He's only ever talked about me like that," he grumbled.

I sighed softly and leaned more into him. "Look, I can admit that he admires Hawks. Like a lot people do, and for pretty damn good reason. He's the youngest hero to become the number one hero. But that's all it is: admiration. It's like Midoriya's admiration for All Might."

"How can you be so sure about that?"

"Because I've also heard him talking about you around other people," I said, nudging him with my shoulder. "When he talks about you, you can hear the love he has for you. There's no doubt about it."

The blond once again went silent, and I leaned my head back onto his shoulder. It was almost scary to think about how Bakugou would've had to go through this alone the first time around. He wouldn't have wanted to go to any of the other students who were a part of this mission, and he was too proud to go to Kirishima directly about his insecurities (clearly, or the tragedy would've never happened in my time). This means everything had been festering before that week when Kirishima disappeared. It simply grew more and more until it was inevitable that he believed I couldn't possibly be his daughter.

'Don't worry, Dad. I'm going to fix it all,' I thought.

"Fine. I trust you to tell me the truth," Bakugou finally said after a few minutes of silence. I smiled and bumped his head with my own.

"There's no reason for me to lie."

The mission was going pretty bland.

Like, I know it's really important that we keep up appearances by doing regular patrols and not make it obvious that we're searching for someone. But there hasn't been a single sighting of the villain since I joined in. One would think the guy would immediately hop on the chance to take out the one person that can ruin all of his future plans, but nope. Not one single peep out of him.

Besides that little fact, things were going pretty normal. It's been about a month since Bakugou and I had our chat. He seems to have taken my words to heart since I can't feel any unease or uncertainty around him anymore. Plus, Kirishima had gotten a mystery note the day after our talk giving him some... let's say, insights about his boyfriend. I've noticed that since then, he doesn't talk about Hawks as often anymore, whether on duty or at school. Now he saves all the gushing and admiration to be focused on a certain blond.

"Hey look, it's Scarlet X!" I turned my head and smiled softly when I saw a group of kids running over to me.

"Hey there you little rascals. Shouldn't you be in school?" I teased them lightly.

"No way! School let out already!" one of the girls giggled.

"Well then, we should make this quick since I'm sure you have to get home to do your homework," I said with light sternness.

"Ok!"

That was one thing I've had to get used to. In my time, I usually did patrols with Dad since Daddy was usually handling affairs at the agency. And while most kids loved and admired both of us, they were too nervous to approach the number two hero. So I didn't interact much with anyone younger than 10 unless I was rescuing them or evacuating. But now, I'm always being approached by kids who want my autograph and to take pictures with me. It was surreal, and it made me want to take a few patrols on my own or with someone other than the king of the resting bitch face.

"Alright, squirts. Run on home,``I finally said after the tenth picture. I set down the little girl that was currently sitting on my shoulders.

"Hey Scarlet X? Can I ask you something?" the smallest of the group asked me shyly. I knelt down to her height.

"Yeah, of course you can kiddo. What's up?"

"Well, I have a quirk like yours where I have to touch something in order for it to work. And even then I can only change the shape of certain things. Some people in my class say I can't be a hero like you. Is that true?" she asked softly.

My heart tugged a little at the question. I still remember when I was younger and announced I wanted to be a hero that won every battle no matter what, just like my dad. Everyone had laughed at me because I didn't have a combat type quirk like he did. Back then, I only had my wings which, unlike Hawks' wings, couldn't detach in order to form a weapon or any of the cool things he could do. I had been told I could only be a rescue hero at best, a sidekick at worst.

"Hey, don't listen to anyone who says you can't be whatever you want to be, ok? You can be any kind of hero that you want, regardless of your quirk,``I told her.

"But… I can only…."

"The important thing is to practice your quirk to find your limitations. Then you can work on pushing those limitations further and figure out how you can use that to become a hero. Do you think Erasorhead gave up on being a hero when his quirk can only erase other quirks? Do you think I gave up when people used to tell me I could only be a sidekick since my quirk only allows me to harden the things I touch? No way! Anyone could be a hero if they put their minds to it, and that includes you."

The little girl beamed at me, but before she could reply, a shadow draped over me. I tensed at the sinister presence behind me.

"Now isn't that such a sweet message," a dark voice snickered. "Unfortunately, that sweetness is about to be ruined. Right now."

I whirled around and pulled out my already extending staff, standing between the kids and the man. "You guys get out of here. Quickly,``I said seriously. The man laughed as a chorus of 'okays' rang behind me followed by feet running away.

"Don't worry, it's not the brats that I want anyway. Only a weak person would use hostages in order to get what they wanted," he chuckled.

"Oh yeah? And what is it that you want? If you go after Bakugou Katsuki or Eijirou Kirishima right now, you'll only get stopped by UA and the other heroes on patrol,``I declared, stalling for time.

"Oh, I don't want those two losers. They're too weak right now to be of any use to me and my plans. Oh no, I have a much better target."

"Yeah? And who would that be?"

"You."

I tensed and quickly hardened my staff, but he disappeared in an instant. It was through instinct alone that I was able to swing the staff backwards just in time to knock his hands away from my head.

"I see you've done your research. How did you know I would attack from behind?"

"Because I've been training with top heroes since I was a kid." I pushed a button that extended the staff even further and twirled it around my fingers. "Now let's dance."

A sneer reminiscent of Bakgou's spread across my face as i attacked him head on. I didn't want to give him another chance to do his disappearing act: instinct can only go so far. It was obvious that he wasn't used to fighting against someone who was adept in close combat as I was, and I was going to use that to my advantage. Even when i couldn't get my body close enough for an attack, the extra extension on the staff allowed me about five feet of extra reach. But i knew this wasn't going to be enough to defeat him completely.

And I was right.

One slip up. That's all it took for the man to get his hands onto me. The freaking slip up wasn't even my fault either! There was a forgotten toy on the ground. In my concentration on the battle, I didn't realize it was there until I stumbled over it (rookie mistake, I know). The bastard used my momentary loss of balance to tackle me and pin me to the ground with his knees on my arms. With his weight on my chest and my staff laying uselessly two feet over my head, I was trapped.

His face transformed into a smug smirk as he slowly reached his hands towards my temples. "Now, let's see what I can use to control your very being."

I struggled with all my might, but no amount of training could make up for the fact that I was a teenage girl that had to keep her body light enough to not burden her wings mid flight. I could do nothing but shake my head vigorously, which only made his eyes glimmer with unhidden glee. Then his fingers pressed into my temples, and I felt him enter my mind.

It felt so weird and intrusive. It was like there was another presence in my brain, a heavy one that pushed its way through to do whatever it wanted. I wasn't able to keep him away from my deepest thoughts and memories, the fears that I hid from everyone.

A soft cry pushed past my lips as pain shot through my head. But it wasn't a physical one, it was emotional. He was bringing forward the very thing I wanted to erase from existence.

"Daddy!"

I watched in horror as the explosion hit Red Riot square in the chest. Midoriya-sensei and I were close enough by now to be able to see how Unbreakable fell right away, leaving my precious Daddy defenseless against an explosion big enough to destroy an entire block of houses. I flew straight past the still panting Dynamight to catch the falling body that was Bakugou Eijirou. The weight was too much for me though, I struggled to at least land in the grass with as little impact as possible.

I fell to my knees and gently laid the redhead down in front of me. I gulped at the sight and smell of burned skin, but I ignored that as best as I could as I pulled out my phone.

"It's ok, Daddy. Help will be here soon, I promise. You're going to be ok,``I said, more to convince myself than to get a response from him. His eyes were already closed as my shaky hands struggled to dial the nearest hospital's number.

"Kirishima…." came Deku's soft voice behind me, but I ignored him.

"This is Scarlet Riot. I'm calling to request emergency assistance at (enter street name here). Yes, it is Red Riot. He has multiple burns caused by an explosion."

"Shigo, it's too late…."

"Please hurry. I'll be waiting here with him," Shigo continued on the phone, ignoring her sensei. She refused to listen to him. She put away her phone and gently touched Kirishima's hand. Was it just her imagination, or was he already getting….

"Stop! Stop this please!" I pleaded softly.

"How cute. The memory of your deepest insecurity is tied to the greatest day of my life," he laughed before his voice turned dark and weirdly entrancing. "Now, tell your new master Ryuu your deepest darkest insecurity. And succumb to my complete and utter control."

As if on their own, my lips parted to do just that. Before I could though, a red feather pressed to my lips before more pulled Ryuu off of me. I scrambled to stand up just as mini wings made of Hawks' feathers gathered on either side of my spine. Like it was ingrained in my very soul, I instinctively flew up to the blond immediately and tugged on his arm.

"You go on ahead. I'll capture…." he started to tell me.

I shook my head insistently and pointed back to the villain. Sure enough, Ryuu was already gone, having teleported away. Well, 'teleported'. Now that I've fought against him, I knew that wasn't what was happening.

"Fine. Let's get you to your Sensei instead then. You can't do anything without being able to talk after all." I nodded and flew with him to UA High.