"If you died, I would've killed you myself, Emiko. You know that, right?" Sakura glared at her niece, blue eyes flaring.

Emiko could only nod meekly, not used to this angry side of her aunt. Sakura's coffee cup was placed on a side table, dark liquid sloshing over the edge and steaming as it spilled. Her expensive overnight bag was discarded on the floor, along with the cream coloured jacket that had draped across her narrow shoulders.

Slender arms wrapped around her shoulders, pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.

"You scared me half to death, Miko. God, kid. Never do that to me again."

She could feel the warm tears pooling on the shoulder of her hospital gown, sadness pouring from the trembling woman in front of her. Slowly, Emiko wrapped her arms around her aunt, allowing her quirk to dissipate just a little of the sadness she noticed.

"I'm sorry, Sakura." she whispered, burying her face in her aunt's hair. She inhaled her fresh citrus scent, allowing it to cleanse the last of Shoto from her brain. "I'm so sorry."

Sakura sighed, shifting her weight and pulling back from her niece slightly. "What did Shoto tell you?"

A pause, then "About the fight and what came after, Miko. What did he tell you?"

Irritation had replaced sadness in an instant, though Emiko couldn't quite understand why her aunt was so annoyed with her.

"Nothing, Sakura. He wouldn't say anything. It was annoying, honestly." She tried to play off her own emotions, tried to hide just how scared and panicked she'd been waking up in the hospital.

"Okay. I'm sorry I couldn't be here when you woke up, but you were unconscious for 2 days, and I needed a shower something desperate. Shoto didn't leave the hospital the entire time, either. If I was here, he slept in the waiting room. He wanted to be sure you were okay, after everything."

"What do you mean, after everything?" Emiko's voice trembled, concern flooding through her as her aunt refused to make eye contact.

"What exactly do you remember from that night, Miko?"

Emiko launched into the tale, starting from the instant the bomb went off. She left no detail out, as though talking about what she remembered could bring back what she didn't. It terrified her, having huge gaps in her memory. Time was never meant to go missing, and memories were made for a reason.

"And then I just saw him come towards me… that's it."

The image of Stain diving towards her, blade glinting in the poorly lit alley sent a chill down her spine. His teeth bared to her, as though he was some sort of wild animal. His rage and the desire to kill filled her mind and she found it more and more difficult to remain calm, now that her senses weren't clouded by adrenaline.

"Okay." Sakura paused, reaching across Emiko for the still steaming cup of coffee. "After that, Stain… he stabbed you. Badly."

She remembered it, that flash of pain.

"You were bleeding out in that alley, and there were no other options. Todoroki had to… he had to cauterize the wound. But nobody realized that the impact of his sword had broken a few of your ribs, which in turn punctured a lung."

Her mind was reeling, but she tried to focus. She stared straight ahead, keeping her eyes locked onto her aunt.

"So when the ambulance and the pro's showed up, you were loaded into an ambulance and brought here. In the ambulance, they noticed you had some major gashes in your hands and knees from the concrete, so they gave you stitches there. You also suffered a concussion and had blood all over your face."

Warm and sticky, it had poured from her nose. She could smell it, taste the metallic warmth on her tongue.

"I assume that's from using your quirk too much, but obviously I can't be sure. When you got here, the doctors realized your ribs were broken and you had a punctured lung, and that you were having a hard time breathing, so they…"

Sakura paused again, a guilty look flashing across her face.

"They what, Sakura?"

"They had to do surgery, Miko."

Her eyes widened and Emiko glared at the woman in front of her. Betrayal had never been something she'd expected from her aunt, and Emiko's mind reeled with that knowledge.

"It was the only way to set your broken ribs and repair the hole in your lung, Miko. They didn't have any other choice."

"There's always another choice, Sakura. You let them cut me open? You let them… after everything?"

Flashes of doctors glancing down at the bruises and burns covering her arms, shaking their head as she told them she'd tripped and fallen. Doctors ignoring her silent pleas for help as her mother pinched her while they turned away. Casts put on and taken off, no mention of the red and infected wounds on her back.

"They didn't have a choice, Miko. Are you not listening?"

"No, I'm listening. You're telling me that there wasn't anything else that could've been done, but what about Recovery Girl? Hm, Sakura? Why didn't they call her?" She spat the words, venom and anger lacing together to a poetic form of anger.

"Everyone did what they could, Miko. Recovery girl can't fix punctured lungs or broken ribs." Sakura spoke with an air of finality, some part of her work as a lawyer slipping into the conversation. "Surgery was the only option. I know how you feel about doctors, Miko-"

"Stop. If you really knew or gave a shit how I felt, you wouldn't have let them cut me open, Sakura."

"God damnit, Emiko. What part of this aren't you hearing?" Sakura stood as she shouted in exasperation, her heels clacking across the tiled floor as she began to pace the small room, working off the desperation building in her. "You almost died, kid. Would have died if they hadn't fixed your lung. Are you going to sit there and tell me you'd rather I let you die, than have a surgery? Really, Emiko?"

She knew her aunt was right. Knew she shouldn't be so angry, because of course broken ribs and punctured lungs would get her into surgery. She'd been lucky when Shoto had broken her jaw in the sports festival, because Recovery Girl had been able to set the break quickly, before the shock wore off and she was in immense pain.

"If you're really gonna tell me that, Miko, then say it. Say you wished I'd let you bleed out internally and stop breathing, all because you can't accept that what these doctors did for you is nothing like what those doctors did to you. Say it - tell me you wished I'd let you die, and I'll stop making decisions on your behalf. I'll stop giving a shit - I'll let you throw yourself recklessly into battles you have no business being in, and I'll let you die."

Emiko wanted to roll her eyes, wanted to curse and scream and throw a tantrum like a child. She wanted to roll over and turn her back on her aunt, wanted to cry and sob until her head spun. She felt betrayed, betrayed by the one person she thought would have her best interests at heart. By the one person, the one adult she thought understood why things had to be how they were.

Doctors don't care. They've never cared. You're going to end up with an infection and then you're going to get sick.

Terrible thoughts took control of her mind, a million different possibilities running rampant in her painkiller addled brain.

"Miko, I am sorry. As soon as you were out of surgery, I had Recovery Girl come and take a look at you and heal you as much as she could. I did everything possible to make sure you were okay, and I get it. I know exactly what kind of thoughts are going through your head and I am so fucking sorry you're hearing those things in your mind…"

Emiko didn't notice as Sakura started to sob, missed her anger turning to sadness. She didn't feel it as Sakura succumbed to despair. It was only when she collapsed on the floor in a heap, as her limited strength gave out, that Emiko noticed.

"I couldn't lose you, Miko." Sakura whispered, pressing her hands against the sides of her head. The fluorescent lights glinted off of her inky black hair, a cool blue hue dancing across her fear stricken face. "I couldn't lose you, too."

Those words sliced right through her. Cut through her own rage and anger and despair. Those words, so full of brutal honesty and loss, made it obvious to her. All these years, all this time spent mourning her loss, Emiko had never once considered what Sakura had lost the day Hisato vanished.

She slipped to the floor, wrapped her bruised arms over her aunts trembling shoulders and felt her quirk reach out, some piece of her longing to unburden her aunt. Sadness and grief and pain sat heavy on her tongue, the salty taste of tears living in her throat.

"I lost him, Miko. I couldn't lose you, too. I couldn't survive that. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if-"

Heavy sobs were wracking Sakura, a guilt Emiko hadn't known she'd been holding onto for so long burning itself in Emiko's chest.

"You almost died once and I was almost too late and I was so fucking scared, kid. I couldn't get that picture of you in that bathtub out of my head and I was panicking and I'm-"

"I know, Sakura." Emiko sighed, brushing a hand over Sakura's gleaming blue black hair, wincing as the needle sitting in her vein pulled. "I know."

That memory was one Emiko wanted to keep locked away - tucked back in some hidden spot where she could pretend it never happened. Sakura bringing it up brought all of that fear and pain back, and from behind her half closed eyes, Emiko could see it. The steam that rose from the too-hot bath water, the way red had beaded on her skin. She could still feel the bite of metal on flesh, still hear the hiss of pain she let out with each pass.

And, even more than that, Emiko could see Sakura as she burst into the bathroom. As her aunt watched her niece slip under the water, just slightly. Just enough that the red tinted water began to bubble, as Emiko's eyes began to drift shut. Sakura's garbled screams still haunted her dreams, left terror in her gut.

Sakura kept rambling, no idea the painful memories she'd just dug up. Tears were still pouring down her face, mascara flooding her cheeks.. "You could've died, Emiko. I couldn't let that happen. Hisato would never forgive me if I let anything happen to you, and I know you hate the hospital and doctors but I couldn't let you die. I couldn't let that happen, I couldn't do that to him."

It shattered her heart, seeing her rock crumbling. Words weren't enough, she knew from experience. No words could ever replace her dad, would ever replace the love she knew her aunt held for her big brother.

Loss and grief, two emotions so intertwined most people found them nearly impossible to separate, overtook the two women crumpled on the floor, then. It filled them, covered all of the cracks in their aching souls. They breathed into that pain, that biting sharpness in their hearts. They each felt it, that anger and loss.

"I love you, Sakura."

"I love you more, Miko. Always, always more."