Sayuri rubbed at the thick, deep scars on her arms and frowned. It had been a little over a week since she was basically forced into captivity and she had taken it upon herself to use her quirk every time Eri had one of her "treatments" to take away the girl's scars. It was taking a toll on Sayuri's body and sanity, but it was all she could do to try to help for now.
Why did I have to be born with such a useless quirk? If I had something stronger, I might actually have a chance at breaking us out of here. This just reminds me of when I was a kid. When I…had to take all of Shouto's injuries.
She shivered at the memory. Remembering how the boy's injuries seemed to increase over time; like Endeavor knew that Shouto would only endure them temporarily so he stopped holding back as much. Dabi had stopped contacting her phone, or so Kurono had told her. It was beginning to feel like her hope for a rescue was fading away.
Lilac eyes shifted from Eri, who was working on some math problems in her workbook. Meeting a pair of cold gray eyes that stared intently back at her before Kurono raised an eyebrow. It was one of the few days that Chisaki had other business to attend to during the day so he had left Kurono to watch the woman and child. The atmosphere in the room was less tense than usual, but still unnerving.
"Need something?" he asked.
"Do you think we could go to the garden for her art lesson? I think it would be nice to get some fresh air." Sayuri tried to sound like the concerned teacher that she was, but at the same time she was desperate to get a bit of sanity by experiencing the outside world again.
"I don't know. I don't think Kai wants her going outside." He crossed the room from where he saw standing against the door and crouched down beside her. "You don't wanna test Kai. Okay?" Spoken in more of a warning tone than a threatening one.
"Right…I'm sorry. I should've remembered that." She placed a gentle hand on Eri's shoulder and smiled down at the girl reassuringly, but she could feel Kurono still looking at her. When she glanced over, she saw that he seemed pleased that she had accepted his answer. Why does he keep doing that? He's so loyal to Chisaki, but he's always the one to stop Chisaki when it seems like he's about to lose his patience with me.
The two pale-haired adults left Eri's room when it got close to her bedtime so she could change into pajamas and waited in the hallway. Sayuri planned to tell her some bedtime stories to help her go to sleep and, so far, Chisaki had allowed this almost every night. It was just unsettling that he stayed in the room while she was telling the stories. Hovering nearby and occasionally resting a hand on the top of her head like she was a trained pet that was being rewarded.
A smug half-smile, holding no warmth to it whatsoever, met her gaze when she looked at Kurono. "What're you thinking, Sayuri?"
She hesitated to respond, but it was bothering her. "What…do you get out of this?" Catching the slight tilt of his head, she elaborated. "Every time it seems like Chisaki-san gets angry with me, you intervene. So. What are you getting out of keeping me alive? What's in it for you?"
Kurono's half-smile evolved into a smirk and he pushed off from the wall. Taking a step closer to her, hands pushed into the pockets of his long white coat. "I was starting to think you had a mind break or something," he commented, lifting a hand and tapping a fingertip to his right temple. "Actually kinda glad to see the old Sayuri in there."
The young woman's pulse quickened a little when he said this, but she maintained eye contact with him. Putting on a half-smile of her own. "So? What do you get out of keeping me alive? You're helping me for a reason, right, Kurono-san?"
"You want to know what I'm getting out of it? It's not complicated. Where do you want me to start? The first reason is pretty obvious, huh? You're cute and you're the only woman in the house. You've got a good quirk that's useful for Kai. And having a cute girl cook for me is a plus. But most importantly; I think you're good for Kai."
Good for him? Ignoring the rest of what he had said, she fixated on the parts involving Chisaki and lowered her eyes. So far, she had only used her quirk to take Eri's scars after her "treatments". She worried what Chisaki might have planned for her quirk in the future. She could still remember encountering Rappa that same day that she first began living in this house.
"You think I'm good for Chisaki-san?" She heard him step closer and subconsciously held her breath as she waited for him to explain. When a hand planted against the wall beside her head, she winced.
"He doesn't like to get his hands dirty. But you're a hard worker, right, Sayuri? You wouldn't mind getting some blood under your nails. You wanna do everything you can to help Kai." Not a question, but a warning.
When she tried to move away from him along the wall, something sliced her cheekbone and she found her movement slowed considerably. As if she was moving in slow motion. Even lifting her eyes toward him was a struggle and her stomach clenched as a hand tauntingly cupped her cheek. That cold, cheerless smile directed at the young woman as the pale-haired man stared down at her. What is this?! I can't get away from him! I…can barely even move!
"You're pretty smart. You said it yourself; I'm part of why you're still alive. So maybe you ought to show me some more appreciation." A strand of his pale hair was drawing back from Sayuri's cheek so he could wipe at the blood where he cut her. "You don't wanna bite the hand that feeds you, Sayuri."
Her eyes widened little by little. Panic setting in as her brain screamed at her body to move, but it felt like she was frozen in place. After around a minute of him standing so close to her, just staring down into his eyes as she was unable to move, the young woman was finally able to jolt back tighter against the wall.
Eri's door opened and Kurono stepped back from Sayuri as if nothing had happened. The pale-haired woman warily slipped around him and into the girl's room to tell her bedtime stories. Trying to forget what he had said to her, what his quirk had done to her. Trying not to think about the fact that he could, at any time, do that again. It brought back that terrifying feeling of helplessness she had felt all those years ago when Endeavor had shoved her into that dark room and forced her to take Shouto's injuries.
"Are you…okay?" the child asked, noticing how uneasy Sayuri was.
She managed a shaky smile and smoothed Eri's hair away from her face. "I'm fine. I'm just a little sleepy. It's getting pretty late so it's almost my bedtime, too." Desperately trying to reassure the little girl that everything would be alright. She tried so hard to hide her fear, but it was difficult when her stomach was twisting with anxiety.
Sayuri hated to leave Eri alone. Every night, she felt guilt gnaw at her stomach when she had to go to her own room. Locked away and unable to comfort the girl. The only good thing about going to her room was that she could get away from Kurono and Chisaki for a while. It was the only time she could really go unmonitored and it was only because she was locked in from the outside.
She was fresh out of the bath, wearing a clean nightgown from her dresser and reading at her desk, when her bedroom door clicked unlocked. It opened slightly to first reveal Kurono and then Chisaki. Sayuri's heart sank with dread and she quickly closed the book. Lowering her eyes and hoping this would be something simple and quick.
"Kurono said you wanted to go outside earlier," Chisaki started. He stayed in the doorway and gave a beckoning nod when she lifted her eyes again. "Why don't you join me in the garden?"
The last time she had been in the garden, or outside at all, was the day he told her she was no longer allowed to leave. A sick feeling began in her stomach, but she knew better than to turn down the offer. "Thank you." She wasted no time in crossing her room to approach him and paused to bow. "I really appreciate this, Chisaki-san. I really do. It's been a while since I went outside. I miss seeing the spring flowers in bloom," she said with a small smile.
Behind his mask, his nose seemed to twitch and his gaze relaxed from its intense glare. He walked ahead of her down the hall toward the back of the house, his hands tugging at his gloves. "You've proven yourself obedient. You've done everything I've asked of you and even gone out of your way to impress me. Taking Eri's scars can't be easy on you. So you've earned this reward."
She felt Kurono's cold stare directed at her back. Chills ran along her spine and she quickened her pace so she came up beside Chisaki as he stepped outside. Smiling politely and clasping her hands behind her back. "I just want to be a good mother, Chisaki-san."
The man turned his head, looking down at her as there was a twitch behind the dark material of his mask. His left hand moved to pull the glove off of his right hand. Bare fingers threaded into her snowy hair and he leaned closer. Taking in the lemon scent of her shampoo and seeming to find comfort in its clean aroma.
"You don't want to leave anymore. That old life of yours doesn't matter. That dead-end job. That dingy apartment and those vermin you kept as pets. And that filth that you called your boyfriend. He was diseased. He was dirty." Chisaki's eyes narrowed as he noticed the cut on her cheekbone. "What happened here?"
She tried not to wince when his thumb traced over the stinging cut. Not even sure of what to tell him. "An accident. During craft time. I dropped some scissors and tried to catch them, but my hand slipped and…" Sayuri watched the hives starting to rise along his forearm. She, herself, had goose bumps rising all over her skin and she wanted to slap his hand away from her.
"I see." He sighed heavily and his eyebrows furrowed. "Accidents happen, don't they? I didn't take you to be so clumsy."
Sayuri's breath caught in her throat as she felt him rub along the cut again, his eyes focused intently on her. A familiar, weird feeling began in her cheek. Intense tingling and then nothingness. No longer stinging.
"There. I fixed you." His hand slipped beneath her chin and turned her face in the dim light. Studying her with a coldness as if she was the result of some experiment. "No more scars on your face; they're too hard to hide."
"Th-thank you," she forced out, hating that her voice trembled.
This pleased him. He released her chin and slipped his glove back on, speaking as he did. "I've given you more than that filth ever could have given you. A nice home, a child to raise, food, and everything that you could need. And I expect you to repay me."
"What do you need me to do?" Sayuri was hesitant to ask, but knew that he wanted her to.
He ran gloved fingers along a strand of her clean, pale hair as the lemon scent lifted to his mask again. "If I give you an order, I'm going to expect you to obey it. When the time comes that I need your…disease…you're going to willingly put it to use for me."
Shift P.O.V
Dabi spent over a week watching and observing. Planning for how he would get into that house. How he would find Sayuri and the kid. How he would get them out of there and get his revenge on the guy that dared to try to take Sayuri from him.
With the tall wall that surrounded the house, it was difficult to try to just climb over it. The gate at the front was often locked in the evening, but during the day lots of different people came and went. Some of them looking pretty weak and some of them looking like they would actually be strong opponents in a fight.
He had been watching the house at night, from the roof of a taller building, and that was when he finally spotted Sayuri. She was in a room off to the side with barred windows. Too thick for him to easily melt through and spaced too narrowly for her to squeeze through. It was irritating, but at least now he knew what room she was in. This would make it much easier when he burned the place to the ground.
The real issues now were locating the kid before he started burning everything and how he would get into the grounds. While it would be optimal to do it as covertly as possible, Dabi's patience was already running thin. He wanted to get Sayuri back and he barely minded bringing the kid along at this point.
It was evening when he made his move. The gate was unlocked because a group of guys had just left, presumably planning to be back soon, so Dabi took the opportunity to slip in. When a weaker-looking guy approached him to demand who he was and what he was doing there, the villain grabbed his arm and pinned it against the man's back.
"Alright; looks like you're gonna make my job easier than I thought it'd be. Let me tell you how this is gonna go. You tell me where they're keeping the kid and then we're gonna go on a little walk to get my girl. Whatever happens after that is up to you and how cooperative you're feeling," he threatened.
"I'm not telling you a damn thing!" The man sobbed as intense heat burned at the flesh around his wrist, beneath Dabi's grip.
He extinguished the flames and brought his face down near the man's. "Let's try that again. You've only got so much skin before I start doing some permanent damage. So you might wanna think about your next words carefully. Where is she?"
