Disclaimer: I don't own My Hero Academia; that belongs to Horikoshi. Nor do I own Pokémon; that's GameFreak/Nintendo. I am also not someone who worked on the Fangame Pokémon Reborn. I also have not written and do not own any songs that appear in this fic or work as the title of each of my chapters.

A/N: Flashback Chapter! Technically, a quarter of this story is Flashback but not all of it is linear. The flashback chapters appear regularly. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 … etc.

WARNING: I am not an expert so I can't diagnose it properly, but in this chapter, a person is dealing with a panic attack and sensory overload (touch-based only) whilst trying desperately to push it down and ignore it. I don't advise following Calamity example when it comes to dealing with stuff. Almost no one in this family has good, healthy, and safe ways of dealing with their problems.

Well, one almost did, but they haven't been brought up yet. And another dies before things go to complete shit in Reborn, so there was never any issues to deal with yet.

I hope you enjoy this chapter and this story!


Chapter 2: You know, the blood that I'm owed is all yours

"I'm just saying curved edged knives are the best. Like Mum's repurposed kitchen knife! Are you saying that doesn't automatically make them the best?" Xerxen stated, daring them to disagree with her. She crossed her arms and was likely glaring.

"It doesn't automatically make them the best." Kiefer piped up from his place on Calamity's shoulders. "Straight edged knives are just as good as curved edge ones, you can have your opinion, but I like straight ones myself." He leaned a little heavier on the top of her head.

Xerxen made a throaty sound and opened her mouth. Kiefer didn't even let her speak. "No, I support you in almost everything – you're my little sister, Xerxen – but you are not going to change my opinion and you are also not going to make that insinuation. I know what you would have said, and I don't appreciate it."

Xerxen hmphed. "Fine, sorry Kief." She shifted; her layered skirts rustled. "What's your favourite Callie? Curved knives are like your claws so it's gotta be those."

Calamity just tilted her head as a shrug since her shoulders were occupied, not saying what she actually thought. She peeked open an eye and glanced up. "Is that why you like straight knives, Kiefer? Because your teeth are like them?"

A large maw swung around for inspection; its equally large identical twin remained as a counterbalance behind them. She felt along the edges of it to find the teeth in question. Finding one of the ten teeth in there took a bit, the steel horns that grew into giant working mouths were longer than Kiefer was tall. She got a thin slice into her finder when she found it and it immediately swung out and behind her. Kiefer tapped her head gently in admonishment.

"Not really, I just like tantos. They're basically Japanese daggers if my research is correct. At my size, they'd be swords though." Kiefer laughed at the end. At about 90 centimetres or two feet eleven inches, they didn't need a doctor to diagnose Kiefer with dwarfism. Although he commonly joked that Calamity must have found his lost height. There's an entire meter difference between the two, and Phocidae had said they're both unlikely to get any taller. That kind of sucks since she was ten centimetres off from being two meters tall.

"Yeah, yeah. You like Japanese stuff way too much, I got that. But your teeth are not really knives." Xerxen brushed off. "Tantos and knives would be practically useless to Callie, her claws are just better. But swords! Hey, you'd look really fierce wielding those, Callie. Hey, Kiefer, you should make her some swords!"

Kiefer shook his head, the twin maws softly tapping each other. "Only if she asks me herself. If she doesn't want to use a blade, then she doesn't have to. If you want swords though, I can make you some, Xerxen. Some dances have the dancer wield swords like how Tsarina could dance while fighting with her whips."

He straightened and crossed his arms. "Besides, I like Japanese stuff a reasonable amount. Their ancient culture looks pretty interesting. I don't complain about your decision to learn all of Brazil's dances and fighting styles!"

Calamity glanced down the passage of an abandoned rail net they're currently hiding in where Tsarina was sleeping atop a pile of mossy cobble. Her breathing and heart rate were deep and strong, but she still shifted uncomfortably. Missing the presence of her long-dead twin brother even when unaware. But then HighveKing apparently acted as her pillow for her constant naps, and that's not something she could just forget even years after his death.

Her stomach turned within her, and her breath tasted rotten. Guilt rose in her, but she did her best to keep her breathing level, matching it to the set of lungs pressed to the back of her head. Kiefer started sifting through the short strands of her hair. He noticed; his attention was on her. He cared. The guilt still lingered under the surface, but her body stopped rebelling.

Xerxen didn't notice though and kept talking, either ignoring Kiefer's defence of his actions or she had already said her piece about it while Calamity was distracted. "I don't get why she doesn't dance anymore. Like, dancing is just so much fun! And if it's in a fight, it's even better!" She fell against Calamity, the calm breathing she just achieved stuttered. "It's like hugging the enemy. You get to hug them and break their ribs at the same time. Then you've won and you got a hug out of it."

"Xerxen. Off." Kiefer commanded. His hands were now braiding a small piece of her hair. Shame they didn't have anything to tie it off with. Maybe she could ask Mum to grab some hairbands on her next solo trip if she couldn't find some in the meantime. She'd have to get Kiefer to look after them, she wouldn't want to lose track of them. She had lost so many objects already.

Xerxen whined from where she was sprawled out across her lap. She didn't move. Trying to think about other things was not helping right now. She couldn't get her breath under control.

"Xerxen…" Kiefer's voice held an actual warning in it this time. He switched his hands to a mirroring piece of hair on the other side of her head. The small braid started to unravel quickly. Her hair was too smooth, unlike her skin which was now crawling, to hold itself.

"Callie doesn't mind. We're twins, we're meant to be in each other's space all the time." Xerxen's head rolled in her lap, likely from an overemphasized roll of the eyes, but the mental image it brought up almost brought bile with it. "If anyone needs to go, it should be you, Kiefer."

His hands stuttered in her hair. Calamity shoved Xerxen out of her lap before she had even registered having done so. She drew her legs up and leaned back against the rubble to eliminate the area where she could be touched without permission. Kiefer hugged her head with one arm, holding the half-formed braid with the other.

Xerxen gasped as she hit the ground. She lay still for a second but then sniffled. The faint scent of tears appeared, along with fresh blood. "Callie…?" Xerxen sounded hurt and confused. Shit, shit, shit!

Calamity straightened her legs and pulled Xerxen carefully into her arms, making sure to avoid skin to skin contact. She hardly wanted to hurt her own little sister again, let alone with her own rough skin.

"Calamity-." Xerxen cut of Kiefer's protest.

"I love you, Callie." She snuggled into the embrace. The guilt from before rose and combined with the guilt of accidentally hurting Xerxen. She wanted to vomit, she wanted to gasp for more air as she felt like she was drowning. She wanted to push everyone away, hide under the ground, and wait while the emotions stopped intensifying and her body returned under her control.

Her hands twitched. Too much contact. Too much contact. Get away from ME! DON'T TOUCH ME!

Xerxen sniffled again. Calamity shoved the emotions down to deal with later. Maybe. She didn't really get many opportunities to deal with episodes properly. But her sister needed her. The one who declared them twins even after finding out who her father was. The one who made sure she could get all the affection she needed even if it didn't always feel deserved.

The one she just shoved away because she just didn't want to be touched without permission. Xerxen was her twin, her family. She shouldn't need permission.

Kiefer gently scratched her scalp. He tilted his head, maws clanging gently again. It was too much contact. She pulled her head forward. Kiefer just hummed in acceptance and jumped down from his seat.

"Any blood, Xerxen?" He asked. She moved an arm out from the hug. "No welling. I'll go get Phocidae to clean it and wrap it. You may be venomous, but that doesn't stop infections. Don't fight us on this. That's not how it works. We've had this argument a thousand times, I swear."

Xerxen shifted her head from out where she burrowed it into her chest. "What about her and Tsarina's-?" Kiefer returned the earlier cutoff.

"You're barely hurt. It isn't worth one of our older sisters' potions. It's just shock making you cry. You are fine, Calamity didn't hurt you. If you fully covered yourself with your exoskeleton, you wouldn't have even felt a thing." Kiefer huffed and started walking away.

Phocidae had set up to self-teach herself science in peace and quiet just around the corner. Fieyre was sitting with her as her aware protector. They weren't the only ones in these tunnels, but they were likely the only non-feral and sane ones. Not that their academic sister needed the protection in Calamity's opinion.

Pho had a short temper, and not even Xerxen could convince her to test it in any manner. Phocidae terrified Calamity. While she was apparently a 'lightning bruiser' type fighter, which was the best according to Xerxen, Phocidae was a Mighty Glacier who was only slow compared to the rest of the family. Kiefer was an actual proper Mighty Glacier, but the title was often given to their second oldest sister because, well, puns.

It started with Mum's terrible sense of humour, and it infected them all. Because it's apparently genetic with their family.

After all, the arctic sister who can summon and control large waves and blizzards was more akin to a glacier than a mini male Futakuchi. In a one-on-one fight, Calamity would struggle against both, but she may get to defeat Kiefer because she can tank one of his hits back. Phocidae would one-shot her. Without remorse, if she had annoyed or distracted her.

Not even HighveKing would prank her back in the day. Although she was the baby sister back then.

Mum was only ever allowed to take care of six children at a time. She had nine, which means she had lost three. Just another tragedy in her story, along with terrible naming skills, horrible parents, and getting found by them.

Since Mum never existed, at least in records, no one came searching for her when she was taken. They've only gotten out of there recently, no thanks to any outside help. And now they're stuck hiding in abandoned underground train tracks, dark alleyways and under bridges.

That didn't matter now. Xerxen drew back her arm and returned to giving a full force hug. Tightening her arms around her but making sure she didn't crush her ribs like she could a car. Calamity wanted her to let go. To stop touching her while her skin crawled, her stomach tried to turn itself inside out, and her breath destabilised as her mind tricked her tongue into tasting something that wasn't there.

But it was only for half a minute while Kiefer got Phocidae, maybe a little longer if Pho was in the middle of reading or calculating something. That was pretty likely, so maybe a minute or two? Xerxen whimpered in her arms. She could deal with it for a little while.

A memory played itself in her head without permission. It was of Tsarina singing on the anniversary of King's death when they set up his and their other siblings' bodiless graves a week ago.

Xerxen wasn't the happiest when they went there. It was raining and she tried to get out of it with her and Kiefer. As both of them had also never met the moth mutant. Mum wouldn't let that happen and hadn't let her get them out of Xikick's death day funeral service the day before.

So, they went and listened to their three eldest living siblings as they sang and talked to a gravestone. Kiefer and Calamity spoke to him later too, when Xerxen was distracted. Complaining to Mum about how Lucifer's death day is on her birthday and their service would happen on the same day if they did it too.

She couldn't see how it connected to the current situation.

But I'm only human,
And I bleed when I fall down
I'm only human,
And I crash and I break down
Your words in my head, knives in my heart
You build me up and then I fall apart
'Cause I'm only human.


Coming up next: Yeah, we can be bad as we can be good

Calamity and Xerxen aren't actually twins, they just joined the team in rapid succession. They're actually born two months apart too. I'm using the dates I caught them as their birthdays.

The only actual twins in this family are HighveKing and Tsarina because they're both Poison-types, I caught them on the same day, and I have absolutely no idea which I caught first. I think it might be King, but that's because I think I was searching for Grass-types when I encounter him. He was my first shiny of the game, of course, I kept him for as long as possible!

Fieyre and another unnamed Pokemon considered each other Half-Twins, since they were born on the same day, knew and got along really well, but were only related through their mother.

Song of the chapter was Human, Christina Perri.