Category: Angst

Characters: Tomoko Shiretoko

An abyss— the inky blackness enveloped Tomoko like a thick blanket, but she did not feel comforted by its embrace. It smothered her, wrapping her in an icy cold that seeped deep into her bones and made every ragged breath she drew excruciating labor. Her limbs felt as if they were weighted with lead, suspending her in the endless space and giving her no strength to move. Her lidded gold eyes were slits as she peered into the gloom; even they felt weighted, chained down to the bottom of her void-like prison beneath the shifting black fog.

Her throat bobbed as she struggled to speak, yet she could form no words. Even if she could, she could not think of what to say. Like her disorienting surroundings, her mind was shrouded in mist too. Articulation and thought were faraway concepts to her now, save for one.

Where am I?

Tomoko was not sure how long she was there, suspended like a broken marionette in the endless black. Broken , because in the ebb and flow of bewilderment the searing pain in her body would rise like a rocky cleft in the receding tide. She could not pinpoint whether it was a single wound that pained her so, or if every single one of her bones had been crushed, filling her to the brim with agony.

Either way, she despaired each time she became lucid enough to feel the burning ache filling her up. She could do nothing to alleviate it— not scream into the void, not sob in misery, not even clench her teeth. In silence, in stillness, in solitude, she suffered .

Again, she could only think as her tears floated in the chasm around her, Where am I?

Time was endless, or may it wasn't long at all, only stretched by the endless blackness shrouding her in its cold veil. Eventually, light speared through the blackness to carve a blazing white path. Tomoko both relished its coming and abhorred it; though part of her welcomed the light— the change— part of her had grown accustomed to her black home in twisted sleepy contentment.

The light snaked toward Tomoko, chasing away the darkness on either side to extend like a road before her. A groan finally rumbled from her weak lungs as her limbs twitched to life. The world of black swirled around her, and Tomoko had the strangest sense that she was ascending. Lying flat on her back with her arms splayed to either side, she rose like a ghost from the grave to grave the world of light once more.

And again, she thought, Where am I?

A grimy white-tiled ceiling greeted her weary eyes when she finally had the strength to open them. Her mind was in dissonance registering it because surely no hospital would allow such deplorable conditions. Another thing that unsettled her was the silence; there was no hushed discussions of doctors and nurses, nor regular beeping of monitoring machines, or even the hum of an air conditioning unit. Only quiet reverberated in the gloom, deafening her with its overwhelming presence.

At first, Tomoko's body was numb from lack of use, but the pins and needles soon faded as her brain repeatedly fired neuronal signals to move. As she went to lift her arms, they stopped short a few inches above the bed she laid on, and the clinking of metal filled the air.

Metal? She thought groggily, rolling her head to observe the thing obstructing her movement. It took her a few moments to recognize the shiny handcuffs securing her to the hospital bed.

Tomoko's heart jumped into her throat when her lagging brain cells finally processed her dire situation. Squeaking in alarm, Tomoko bangs her shackled hands against the railings, filling the once-silent room with frantic jingling. Her panic-stricken mind could still realize that this place was no hospital.

Memories came rushing back like a flood, joining the tidal wave of fear drowning Tomoko. A dark night, dense woods, a villainous raid, and a flash of steel in the dark— the fragmented memories painted a morbid picture, a portrait of her own harrowing kidnapping. As she jiggled the handcuffs violently, part of her frantically wondered if the children and her teammates were okay, while the more rational part of her wondered if she was going to be okay.

"Now, now. There's no need for all that noise, Ragdoll, dear."

The clanking ceased as Tomoko froze. The voice had emanated from the gloom, sounding over her agitated jangling with carefully controlled malice. A squat man wearing a white coat plodded out of the darkness to give Tomoko an eerie smile. She didn't like it; he eyed her like a specimen to dissect, a machine to disassemble, and it sickened her to her core.

As her breaths hitched into hyperventilation, Tomoko began flinging her hands upward again to the point that the cold metal of the handcuffs bit deeply into her wrist.

"Tsk. You are a professional hero. Have some composure, young lady," the creepy scientist sniffed in disdain.

Composure ? Tomoko couldn't even dream of having composure at that moment. The time for composure had long since passed; her only guiding force was self-preservation, frantic sparks of her nervous system driving her body into fight-or-flight mode. Tomoko would one day wonder if that made her any less of a hero, but in the end, she was only human— a frail, pitiful little human just a slave to her mind as the rest of them.

Tomoko froze again as a massive hand clamped down on her throat. She wheezed as it pushed down on her windpipe, constricting the airflow to just a few ragged puffs. Her yellow irises drifted in a vast sea of white as she stared wildly at the scientist man, whose evil smirk widened to stretch his pudgy face.

It was not his hand wrapped around her throat, however.

Her assailant stood at the head of the bed behind her, thick muscular arm reaching around to hold her petite body still. She whimpered pathetically as they leaned over, his bulk casting a shadow over her face. The whimper morphed into a frightened, choked scream as his ghastly face came into view; the crown of his head was a patchwork of ugly scar tissue all the way down past his eyes, so his Cheshire-cat smirk floated underneath a scarred dome of pale flesh. It was an absolutely abhorrent sight, and Tomoko felt a fierce shiver grip her bones.

The man chuckled as she quaked in the bed, filling the air with faint jingling again.

"What a fine Quirk you have. I'll be making excellent use of it."

A cold flush shot through Tomoko's arteries. My Quirk? Use? What? What is he talking about? Though Tomoko's confusion was evident in her impossibly wide eyes, the man neglected to answer her. That vile snicker resounded in her ears, vibrating her bones and twisting her belly with dread.

The man squeezed her carotids briefly, relishing her shocked squeak and the way her eyes dilated as her brain was starved as oxygen. An agonizing few seconds passed, but he released his grip before she could suffer any hypoxic damage. As his calloused hand migrated over her face, Tomoko coughed and sobbed. Of the many things that her mind could land on, it once again rang with that quintessential question.

Where am I?

His hand closed over her face. Tomoko wriggled as he smothered her mouth and nose, once again making her lungs heave in an effort to suck in air. His cruel chortling filled her head until it was the only thing she could focus on, resounding like a death knell chiming in the deep of night. His grip tightening, fingers digging into her skin— and then her body began to feel strange .

It felt like electricity humming just under the surface, just a numb tingle at first. It gradually rose in intensity until it seared like liquid lightning across her face. The sensation drew an agonized scream from her body, and her back arched up of the table as her arms and legs writhed. The clanking of her restraints joined the symphony of his laughs, which had risen in pitch and volume to full-blown evil cackles.

Suddenly, the electricity began to recede. No— that wasn't it. It felt like it was being drawn out, absorbed through his fingers. The abnormal feeling began to spread from her head down to the rest of her body. Dread pooled in Tomoko's belly as it felt like her very soul was being sucked out.

No, stop, please, she tried to plead, but it came out only as garbled gargles against his palm. As the strange draining sensation hummed in her body, her struggles diminished bit by bit until she felt slack against the table. Her eyelids began to droop as drowsiness washed over her. Perhaps this strange villain had taken her soul, and here she was, on the cusp of a sad and lonely death. Tears brimmed in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks as she grappled with her mortality.

Where am I? How will they know where I am? Please… I don't want to die alone in this place…!

The darkness began to creep back into her vision, beginning as small trickles and rapidly rising into a flooding wave. Tomoko had the sensation of becoming weightless, floating down, down, down into the depths of the dark. As her eyes drowsily drifted shut, she embraced the darkness as it wrapped around her in a cool blanket, delivering her into a dreamless and painless sleep…

Heaven— the cloudy white enveloped Tomoko like a thick blanket, and she felt comfort in its warmth. She hummed as she breathed in deeply and easily; fresh, cool air flooded her lungs with the unlabored breaths. She felt weightless and free, floating unrestrictedly in the lovely expanse of fluff. Her eyes slowly opened, and the golden pools were greeted with neat white tiles framing fluorescent lights. The rhythmic beeping of a machine echoed dully in her ears, accented by the pleasant voices of two women in scrubs by her bedside.

Where am I?

"Ah! She's rousing. Go get the doctor while I do a vitals assessment, quickly!" the nurse ordered her comrade as Tomoko's eyes fluttered. Tomoko just barely registered the hasty shuffling of her feet as she exited. The nurse gently brushed Tomoko's locks of emerald hair from her face with a kindly smile. "Easy, now. You've been through quite the ordeal. Just relax. We'll take good care of you."

Tomoko's mind hung in a fog as the medical professionals fluttered around her, checking her vitals and conversing with one another. She caught snatches of conversation that alarmed her greatly— All for One and missing Quirk and warehouse and All Might's fall. Her frazzled mind toiled to comprehend the snippets of information, but too many pieces were missing from the puzzle. She ended up sitting up in bed with no recollection of being pulled up, drifting in the clouds with no clear way to come down.

"Ragdoll!"

Tomoko blinked blearily at the mournful wail that sounded in the doorway. Pixie-Bob came bounded into the room to throw herself at her bedside, snatching up her hand to squeeze it tightly. Tears glimmered in the corners of her eyes.

"Ragdoll, thank goodness, you're okay! We were so worried about you!" she sobbed into the white sheets draped over Tomoko's body. Her pitiful cries pulled Tomoko into lucidity, allowing her to finally appreciate the gravity of her situation. Tiger and Mandalay joined Pixie-Bob at her bedside, and for the first time in what seemed like ages, Tomoko felt relief.

"You guys…" she moaned as fresh sobs bubbled up in her throat, "where am I?"

She didn't really mean it physically. It felt like she was no longer herself, a husk of her former person. She was desperately searching for some semblance of herself, but all she could find within was fear, doubt, and loss.

Mandalay leaned over to envelop her in a crushing hug.

"You're safe, Ragdoll," she whispered as she nuzzled into Tomoko's green tresses. "Y-you're home ." Tomoko blinked slowly, and then a shaky smile stretched across her lips as tears dripped from her lashes.

Home. Yes. Her home, her beloved teammates.

No matter what, Tomoko could always find herself there.