Chapter Fifteen

Denki found his wife sitting alone on the soft white couch of the Todoroki's sitting room.

The ground floor of the estate was dark and quiet, even though it was still relatively early in the evening, exhaustion from the party earlier that day driving everyone to their personal sections of the house. Outside, the storm blew on, raindrops pelting the outer walls and windows as the occasional peal of thunder filled the painful quiet of the night with shuddering groans.

Kyouka was slumped forward, her face in her hands, and in the soft yellow light of the lone lamp she'd illuminated, he could see that she was a mess. Her Hero costume was covered in rips and smudges, clear evidence that she'd come rushing here after getting out of a serious fight. Thankfully, it didn't look like she'd sustained too many injuries, at least none that weren't more than surface-level scrapes and abrasions. That is, so long as they were talking about physical injuries.

The conversation he'd overheard between his wife and daughter had been rough. Aika was young, still - she didn't fully understand what her mother went through every day, the harm that her words could inflict on a person. Kyouka was well-practiced in affecting that cool, confident persona that encompassed who the Hero Earphone Jack was to the people she saved, but underneath, Denki knew that his wife was riddled with doubts and insecurities. Ever since becoming a mother, it seemed like that had become her greatest weakness. She was always terrified that she wasn't doing enough for her kids, and after her fight with Aika, it must seem like all of her greatest fears had come true.

He entered the room quietly, not sneaking in but also not announcing himself. With her hearing, she'd know he was there anyway, but he knew how important it was to give her time.

As he sat beside her, she straightened up, hastily wiping at her eyes and sniffling. After a moment, she turned and gave him a tremulous smile as though trying to show him that she was alright.

Wordlessly, he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a tight hug.

"She didn't mean what she said," he whispered, gently stroking her hair.

She settled into him without resistance, her head on his shoulder, twisting her body and lifting her legs so that they lay across his lap. For a moment, he almost felt like they were back to the early days of their relationship, when they'd spend lazy evenings together in their apartment watching terrible movies and cuddling on the couch.

Times were simpler then. Before she'd gone solo. Before they'd had kids.

Before his father had broken out of jail and screwed everything up.

He half expected Kyouka to refute his claim, but she didn't.

Instead, after a minute or so of quiet, she responded with a weak, "I really tried to be here…"

"I know," he replied, hating how heartbroken she sounded. "This isn't your fault-"

Here, Kyouka snorted, though it didn't hold her usual energy.

"Try telling her that… She thinks I don't love her."

Denki shook his head.

"She's eight. She doesn't understand yet, but she will once she's a little older."

"I'm always missing everything," she went on as if she hadn't heard him. "I missed her first words, her first steps, most of her birthdays, her first day of school… Every important moment of her life, I've been off somewhere else, being a Hero. No wonder she hates me."

"She doesn't hate you," Denki repeated firmly. "She's just… confused, because of what's been going on lately."

He hesitated briefly, because it was hard to say what he was about to, but he knew it was true and so did she, and he owed her an apology.

Before he could, however, she beat him to it.

"Denki… I'm sorry."

He blinked, then turned to stare down at her in confusion.

"What on earth do you have to apologize to me for?"

The expression on her face gave him pause, however. Her eyes, red-rimmed and sparkling in the lamplight were locked on his with a defeated twist to her lips.

"This afternoon," she said softly, holding his gaze, "we got a call from Tokoyame. Some of the other PLF members who escaped with your father had been spotted in a bar just a couple hours west of here. When I heard, even though I knew I'd miss the party, I dropped everything and went to back him up."

When she'd started talking, when she'd mentioned the men who'd been in the same cell as his father being spotted in public, he'd felt a tiny glimmer of hope spark up inside of him. But as she kept going, the tone of her voice and the expression on her face told him everything he needed to know.

"...You found them, didn't you?"

She nodded, swallowing thickly. Well, at least her disheveled appearance finally made sense. But if that was all she had to say, then…

"And… my father…?"

She hesitated, then shook her head.

"He wasn't with them."

Of course not.

Denki let out a breath, running his free hand through his hair and turning away from his wife so he could direct his frustrated glare at the pictures on the wall. In them, he could see Momo and her parents on her wedding day, everyone smiling, happy just to be with each other.

Thunder rumbled outside again, loud and furious, making the walls tremble.

"Did you at least get a lead?" he asked, hoping if nothing else for a silver-lining on what was turning out to be an all-around terrible evening, but as expected, she shook her head.

"Hagakure and Ojiro are with the police now, and the men are being questioned, but… It sounds like they went their separate ways almost as soon as they escaped. They're claiming they don't even know how they got out - something about teleportation? Someone on the outside orchestrated it themselves and they only made it out because they happened to be with Renjirou at the time. It doesn't sound like we're going to get very much out of them."

Denki sighed, fighting down his impatience and frustration. Of course, he wouldn't be that lucky. He never was. But if not even other PLF members knew where his father was, then… how on earth was Denki going to find him?

Kyouka, who had been quietly watching his face, slowly returned her head to his chest and let her hand tangle up in the front of his shirt.

"I'm sorry," she breathed. "I'm just letting down everyone I care about tonight, aren't I?"

"Stop that," he murmured, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "You know you're doing your best. This… is my fault."

He was referring specifically to her fight with Aika, but in a way, that was just as true when talking about his father, no matter what anyone else said. He wasn't sure how Kyouka was going to react to that; whether she'd deny it out of some sense of marital loyalty or agree because it was true and inadvertently make him feel worse, but he hurried on, not letting her interrupt.

"I should have talked to her and Rai more after what happened at your parents' place. If I had gotten her to open up to me, I could have stopped her from coming to the wrong conclusion about the attack. And also… well, I should have told her the truth about my parents back when you first told me my father had escaped from prison. I'm the reason things got so bad."

The sad thing was, though he knew that was true, he also knew Kyouka wouldn't stop blaming herself. Her feelings of inadequacy about being a parent had started long before Denki's father had thrown their life into disarray.

When he glanced down at his wife again, however, he was surprised to find her smiling up at him sadly.

"I guess we're both failures as parents, aren't we?" she asked, though there was no accusation in her tone, just self-deprecation and commiseration.

He let out a bark of laughter that was completely devoid of humor and laid his head against the backrest of the couch, staring up at the ceiling as grief and exhaustion assailed him on all sides.

"...I'll talk to Aika tomorrow," he promised softly. "I… I can't say for sure that she'll forgive you right away, but…"

She had the right to know who's fault this really was. If she was going to blame anyone for her mother missing her birthday and her brother almost dying, it should be him. He was the one she should be directing her hate at, not her mother.

Neither Denki nor Kyouka were staying at the Todoroki estate, though Momo had offered them a guest room in case they ever wanted to stay over with their kids. It was just upstairs. It would be easy to go to, to have some privacy as the two wallowed in their failures.

Even so, it was several hours before either one of them left the couch.

His plans to finally sit Aika down and tell her the truth about his family and his past wound up falling the wayside, however, when the next morning he awoke to a request to fill in at his part-time electrician job.

Obviously, doing that was much less important than being honest with his daughter, but even though he knew he needed to stop running and face the music, the idea of having such a hard conversation with her right after she woke up was more than a little daunting. He figured he'd give himself a couple of hours to build up the courage, and give her some time without parental drama before he let his past mistakes suck her back up again.

Kyouka had already left before he woke up. She undoubtedly wanted to try and make up her lost time with Aika, but after the fight they'd had, it was probable that Aika wasn't ready to speak to her yet, and probably wouldn't be for a while. He had a text on his phone stating that she'd gone to check in on the men they'd apprehended the day before and to see if there were any new developments about his father.

He'd be lying if he said he was hopeful. The way things were going, nothing short of his father appearing before him on the street one day was going to help them catch him.

That was part of why he decided to accept the request to fill in today. Him being on the street and serving as bait was honestly the most he could do. He'd thought he'd gotten used to sitting on the sidelines and watching as his friends lived out their dreams as Heroes, but now that it was personal, now that he'd been given permission to help… he wanted to do all that he could. He'd had his fill of being useless.

The ring Detective Nakamura had given him a few weeks back had remained on his right index finger pretty much ever since. He only ever took it off when he was bathing or washing his hands because he was pretty sure it wasn't water-proof. Thus far, however, it had been completely useless, and more often than not, he forgot it was even there.

Even now, as it sparkled under the unrelenting summer sunshine while he fiddled with a series of large fuse boxes outside of a tall apartment complex, it served more as a reminder of his uselessness as bait than anything else. Honestly, thus far, the only thing he'd been able to attract was his sister. Well, and that one attack in the convenience store. Seriously, what was his father doing? He'd spent so much time outside alone or with Emi over the past couple of weeks - why wasn't he taking the bait?

If his goal was to patiently wait to drive Denki insane, it was working.

Shortly after noon found Denki trudging his way back to the Todoroki compound, sipping on a mostly-empty bottle of water and idly scanning the streets for an attack that apparently wasn't coming. He'd had another request to fill in on the other side of town, and he was torn between taking it and spending more time out on the street or getting back to his daughter and telling her the truth. It was odd that a day had finally come where he'd rather go out and work in the unbearable heat than spend time with his kids, but… well, everything was backward nowadays. Why should this be any different?

When Emiko appeared out of nowhere at his side, he was surprised to find that he was not surprised. Had he become so accustomed to her presence over the past week or so that he no longer felt uneasy around her? When had that happened?

"Hey," she greeted, watching as he replied with a non-verbal nod. "You know, it's dangerous to go around alone like this."

"That's kinda the point, remember?" he responded monotonously, tossing the empty bottle into a nearby trash can.

Emi rolled her eyes.

"Sure, but that's why I'm here, right? Two heads are better than one and… however that expression goes, I don't know."

"So you're saying you wanted to come stand around with me and die of heatstroke while I pretend to be an electrician?"

She grimaced.

"OK, point taken."

"Besides, how exactly was I supposed to get ahold of you? You just kind of… show up, like a ghost. How do you do that, anyway? Do you have a bug on me?"

He swatted at his hair as a fly whizzed by. Whoa, what timing.

"If I had bugged you," she replied sarcastically, "it wouldn't have taken me so long to find you today."

He grunted, not really having a response to that, and too tired to keep up the conversation. After a few quiet seconds, his sister started talking again.

"So… How was the party?"

Denki winced.

"Um… Well, it was fine… at first."

"At first?"

"Yeah, uh… Kyouka… wasn't able to make it. She got caught up with her Hero duties, and when she finally did get home, Aika wasn't…"

"Ah…" Emi replied slowly. "Yeah, that's gotta suck."

And then, without even realizing what he was doing, Denki found himself unloading. He told Emi everything, about the fight between his wife and daughter, about Aika's misunderstanding, about how it was all his fault, and how he was looking forward to a difficult conversation when he finally got home.

He wasn't sure at what point he'd suddenly felt comfortable enough around his ex-con of a sister to tell her about his problems. She'd been out of his life for years, and even now, she was still a member of the MLA. Logically, he should still have his guard up around her. He couldn't be certain, even now, that she wasn't out to get him.

And yet… maybe it was because he just desperately needed someone to talk to and his other friends were too busy with their own lives and careers and he didn't want to be a burden to them. Or maybe it was because spending time with her over the past couple of weeks, exchanging sarcastic quips like they had when they were kids and seeing her spend time with his kids, had managed to break down the walls he had built up within himself. Maybe it was a combination of both.

All he knew was that having her around felt… right. Like a puzzle piece had fit itself in, partially filling the hole that had been left in his heart after his final betrayal of the PLF. He… wanted to trust her again. He wanted her to be a part of his life.

And Emi, for her part, didn't react strangely to her brother confiding in her. Neither her expression nor her body language gave away that she felt like anything was odd in this sudden development. She listened to him, commiserate with his story, and seemed genuinely concerned about Aika. It was almost like the past ten years had never happened and she'd always been there.

When his story was done, they walked in silence for a bit until Emi let out a soft breath and said, "Man… I wish there was something I could do to cheer her up."

Denki smirked. "Well, she did invite you to the party which you bailed on - but I get the feeling that you being there wouldn't have helped in any way, so don't beat yourself up over it."

He was mostly kidding, of course - Emi showing up to the party would have been disastrous, and from the look on her face, she clearly agreed.

"Yeah, no - no going to Pro Hero houses for me, thank you very much. Never again, at least. Still… She's a sweet kid, I feel kinda bad."

"Yeah, don't worry. It'll blow over eventually, once I do what I can to make it right."

"Y'know, I was… I was going to get her a present."

Denki blinked in surprise, then turned his head only to find Emi awkwardly scratching the side of her cheek in embarrassment, dutifully avoiding his gaze.

"I just… I mean, she invited me, and she thinks I'm your cousin, so it's only right. But like, I don't know what she likes, and her mom is super rich, so she probably has everything a little girl could ever want anyway, so…"

Denki smiled his full thousand-watt smile.

"She'd like anything you gave her," he said softly, feeling a strange, unexpected warmth bubbling inside of him. "Though when in doubt, cake is always good. She likes cake. And strawberries."

"Cake with strawberries…" Emi mumbled. "Ok, that should be easy. Do you think… We can stop somewhere before you go home and I can get some for you to take with you? You don't have to tell her it's from me if you don't want to, it's fine."

But something about the idea of his sister wanting to buy his daughter a present had Denki far more excited than he'd been expecting.

"I'll do you one better - why don't you give it to her yourself?"

Emi blanched.

"Um, yeah… no. There's no way I'm stepping foot inside that building, not when two Pros live there."

"You don't have to," he said, trying to hide his enthusiasm and instead sound reassuring. "I'll take them out to lunch at a nearby restaurant and you can meet us there. It'll be fine."

It was Emi's turn to look surprised.

"O-oh, um… Are you sure? I mean, do you really want to take them outside when…?"

She gestured around them as though to say 'with all of this going on?', and Denki shrugged.

"It should be fine if we stick close to the estate and we don't stay out long. Besides, getting Aika out of that place will probably do her some good, and I can advise the Pros in the area to be on alert in case we need them."

Emi still looked hesitant, but Denki wasn't taking no for an answer. About an hour later, after splitting up, rushing back to the Todoroki's, taking a quick shower, and scooping up his confused-yet-excited kids (who had been going a little stir-crazy being locked up all day), Denki and his family arrived outside of a nearby family-owned-and-operated Soba shop. It also happened to be Shouto's personal favorite, and Denki still personally believed that they'd built the estate here just because it was nearby.

Emi was already there when they arrived, sitting at an outdoor table beneath a large seasonal umbrella, two small cakes sitting on the table in front of her while she nervously played with the napkin holder.

Aika was excited and embarrassed to see that Emi was there and had bought her a cake for her birthday, but that didn't hold a candle to Rai, who had tried to jump-tackle his aunt upon seeing her and had nearly knocked her out of her seat. As it turned out, she'd ended up buying two cakes, because, in her own words, "It felt wrong to buy a present for Aika and leave Rai out."

She apologized to Aika, clearly afraid she might be upset that she hadn't been given a present just for her, but Aika didn't mind. She was too busy inhaling her cake to pay her brother any mind.

It turned out the kids had already eaten, but Denki and Emiko had not, so he decided they'd have lunch there. The meal was pleasantly rowdy, with Rai gushing over his aunt and making a mess of himself with the cake she'd given him and Aika smiling and happy, all memory of last night's fight apparently blown away. With any luck, Denki would be able to ride this good humor through to the talk they would have when they got back home. That was the intention, anyway.

Emi, for her part, still seemed a little nervous and uncomfortable, though not as much as she had been the last time she'd been with the kids. She smiled more readily and responded to each of Rai and Aika's questions, at least the ones she could answer, yet she kept fidgeting in her seat like she was anxious to hurry and get out of there, and her eyes kept darting up to the passing crowds of pedestrians on the street as though terrified a Pro would pop out of nowhere and grab her.

It was about a quarter of an hour into their meal that Denki noticed his sister suddenly go stiff as a board, her eyes wide and fearful.

"What is it?" he asked, immediately tense. Emi going rigid like that could mean only one of two things - a Pro was nearby, or she'd spotted somebody she recognized from the PLF. And since he'd been dumb enough to bring his kids out here, one of those options was clearly bad news.

She didn't answer immediately. Though his sister's eyes were locked on something in the passing crowd, though her body had gone rigid with apprehension and fear, the look on her face… For once, Denki was having a hard time reading it. She almost looked… reluctant.

"I… I-it's just…" Emi swallowed, jerking her eyes down and giving her head a rough shake as though arguing with herself. "Across the street. Th-there's a woman with red hair. Her name is Hotaru Ueda, and… she's with the PLF."

Denki sat up straighter, trying to peer across the street through the crowds of pedestrians and the passing traffic. It was tough, but he thought he could see a middle-aged woman with a vulpine face and red hair tied back in a bun.

PLF, huh… He didn't recognize her, but that didn't mean anything. It had been a long time since he'd left their ranks, and it's not like he knew everyone.

The sight of her there on the street, however, had his palms itching. The escaped prisoners from his father's cell had known nothing, but they were in a different city. A PLF member here, where he lived, was much more likely to know about his father's whereabouts…

The smart thing to do would be to pull out his phone and call Kyouka or one of his other friends. Pass the description, get the word out. The problem was, she could easily get away in that time. After all, the last time he'd seen a PLF member on the street and sent a Pro after them, they had escaped. But Denki was here, looking right at her. He knew it wasn't right, he knew it was a crime, but…

If Denki managed to apprehend her and she knew anything about his father, then he could finally bring this to a close. He could finally be useful. Be a Hero, for once in his life - even if it landed him in hot water with the police. As long as his kids were safe again, who the hell cared?

But Emi wasn't finished speaking yet, and her next sentence drove all concept of rational thought from his mind.

"...She has a Quirk that lets her manipulate fire."

Denki was on his feet before he even realized he'd stood up. Every cell in his body was suddenly alive as though surging with electricity, though he'd yet to activate his Quirk.

Manipulate fire? The memory of his in-laws' house up in flames, of Emi jumping through the window, of Rai unconscious on that hospital bed, flickered through his mind like the world's most haunting slide show, and all at once, Denki found himself consumed by a dark, ravenous rage.

That woman had tried to kill his children.

"...Dad?"

He turned back briefly to glance at his daughter, his movements feeling oddly stiff and jerky, to find her staring up at him with a mixture of confusion and apprehension.

"Where are you…?"

He tried to smile, he really did. But from the way Aika leaned away, it was evident that he hadn't succeeded. Instead, he reached out a hand to pat her on the head consolingly, and as he did, he noticed the silver ring on his index finger.

Of course. Detective Nakamura's bug. It was supposed to help him call for help if he spotted his father or was captured by him, but it was also a way for the police to monitor his actions if he ever decided to let loose with his Quirk while out in public.

It would only get in the way of what he was about to do.

"I'll be right back, kids," he said, addressing the table at large, ignoring Aika's evident fear and Emi's apparent confliction and Rai's consistent obliviousness. "Stay here with Emi."

"But dad-!"

"Here, Aika - hold onto this for me, ok?"

He slipped the ring off of his finger and handed it to his confused daughter, who stared at it like she'd never seen a ring before in her life.

"...What is this?"

"Just a keepsake," he replied, fully aware of how stiff and unnatural his tone sounded. "Hold onto it until I come back."

That Hotaru woman was getting farther and farther away. He needed to leave, now.

"D-Denki, wait!" Emiko suddenly shouted as Denki stepped off of the curb and into the street, heedless of the traffic. "M-maybe this isn't a good idea."

"Just watch them for me, Emi."

And without a backward glance, he was off.

Cars honked and swerved dangerously as he raced across the busy street, but he paid them no mind, the sound of his heart thundering angrily in his ears driving out all other noise. People shouted as he reached the sidewalk on the other side and began shoving through them in the direction the fox-faced woman had disappeared. He hardly noticed them, seeing instead a house in flames and his son in the hospital and his wife crying on the couch and all the ways he'd let his family down over the past month.

If he could catch that woman, this could all end. After all, if she was the one who had burned his in-laws' house down, then she had to be working with his father. This was the closest they'd been to a lead since the breakout, and Denki was their best shot at catching her.

This was his moment. This is what he'd been waiting for.

He rounded the corner he thought he'd seen her turn down, but though the crowds were thinner here, he saw no sign of her. Assuming she didn't enter a building, then her nearest turn would be down another street about a kilometer ahead. Denki raced for it, heart in his throat, rounding the corner, sweaty and panting, to see she wasn't there either - but there was another turn not too far ahead, leading to what he could only assume was another alleyway.

Feeling emboldened, trusting that if she'd caught sight of him, if she'd appeared there on the street specifically to lure him away, that she'd have chosen just such a spot to lay a trap and thus that must be where she was. He hurried on, slower now, more cautious, ready for anything, expecting flames to leap up out of the ground and surround him at any moment.

Instead, as he rounded the corner into the little dingy alley behind an office building and an abandoned ramen shop, he found his mysterious adversary merely standing there in the center of the street, waiting for him.

She smiled when she saw him, a full-lipped toothy beam that reminded him of a fox that had just cornered the duck it meant to eat for breakfast.

"Well now," she drawled, her voice low and pretentious, "I can't believe you actually fell for that. For one of the most famous traitors alive, you're surprisingly stupid."

If she was trying to bait him, she needn't have bothered. Just the sight of her standing there helpless and alone was enough to make Denki want to let loose with all of the electricity he'd stored up inside of him.

In fact, he prepared to do just that. Wordlessly, he stepped forward, lifting his hand, letting lightning crackle ominously in his palm. It would be quick, but it wouldn't be painless. Not after what she'd done to Raidin. He only prayed that this burned her. She deserved that at least.

She glanced at his hand then scoffed.

"Yes, yes, I know perfectly well you can zap me unconscious in no time. I"m really no match for you. But then, if you knock me out now, you won't be able to hear what I have to say. And something tells me you might just regret that."

"You can talk behind bars," he growled menacingly, taking another step forward.

"When?" she shot back. "In a few hours? After I've been arrested, taken to the hospital to treat my wounds, and then shuttled off to a jail cell to await my trial? I'm afraid you don't have hours, Denki Kaminari. In fact, you've run out of time already."

"The hell are you on about?" he asked in spite of himself, and she smiled again, all pointy teeth and smug satisfaction.

"You truly are surprisingly stupid," she continued, clearly relishing the moment. "From the way Renjirou talks about you, from the way the entire Metahuman Liberation Army curses your name, you'd think you were this cunning genius. And yet you willingly took your children out on the street again today, after they'd been targeted more than once by villains. And even more than that, you left them alone with a known PLF member. Honestly, at this point, you only have yourself to blame for what's about to happen to them."

Denki's entire body had gone rigid at the mention of his kids and his sister. She was right, he had chosen to leave them with Emiko so he could chase her down, but… Emiko wasn't… she wasn't…

She'd saved Rai from that burning building. She'd warned them about the trap the other day. She… She'd bought Aika a birthday present… She couldn't be…

Without even thinking, he turned back, as if he could verify by looking, as if he could peer through the solid walls surrounding him back towards the restaurant he'd left his kids at and see that they were safe. Below him, the ground quaked, and Hotaru's mocking laughter was suddenly swallowed by the sound of shifting gravel.

When he turned back, Hotaru was gone, leaving nothing behind to show she'd been there at all save for a pile of overturned asphalt.

What? Had she… disappeared underground? But her Quirk had been fire-related, hadn't it? Unless she'd had backup. Unless Emi had been lying. Unless this was all part of a larger trap and he'd left his kids unprotected on the side of the street.

All of the rage and righteous fury he'd been feeling early had vanished, leaving him feeling raw and cold inside. His kids were in danger. He needed to move.

His frantic race back through the city was a short one, but every step seemed to last an hour and every street stretched on infinitely before him. With every thud of his heart, he cursed his name. With every ragged breath, he screamed at himself to move faster.

Denki was no stranger to fear. But there was a difference between being scared, and feeling a terror so profound you convince yourself the very world is about to end. Denki had felt that fear many times before; when he'd betrayed UA, when he met Kyouka in the woods, during that last battle with the PLF, when he'd seen that house in flames and learned his son was trapped inside.

Right now, he was feeling that same all-consuming terror coursing through his body, ripping through his psyche like water bursting free from a dam - a metaphor he was all too familiar with. A metaphor that called to mind memories of events and a loss too painful to face right now, particularly since it seemed like he was about to go through it all over again.

This was all his fault. Again. If he hadn't been so angry… if he hadn't been possessed by the need to prove that he wasn't useless…! His selfishness and anger and pride had allowed him to put his children in peril, and for what? So he could pat himself on the back? So he could feel like a Hero, like the rest of his friends, for once in his pathetic life?

Finally, he was back on the main road, racing once more across the street, heedless of the passing cars and the angry shouts of their drivers. His eyes were glued to the restaurant across the way, but even before he'd begun crossing the street, his eyes had revealed the truth.

They were gone.

Denki jumped over the curb and crashed into the table they'd been sitting at, where their food was still sitting, half-eaten. His lungs were burning, his eyes were streaming with tears of anger and grief and fear.

"Aika!" he shouted, his voice coming out rough and guttural, twisting around and staring up and down the street as though he might see them there, standing with their aunt.

People around him were staring, confused and fearful.

"Raidin!" he tried again, knowing it was useless, knowing no one would answer.

The restaurant owner stepped out of the building, looking at him askance and waiving over a passing police officer.

Denki sunk to his knees, his entire body shaking as despair rose like bile in his esophagus.

"Emiko!"

That last call wasn't a call of desperation, but a shout of fury and rage.

She'd taken his children. She'd taken them away.

He'd let himself think he could trust her in spite of everything. Because he was an idiot. Because deep down, he'd desperately wanted her back in his life. He wanted his little sister back. He wanted to believe that she could bring herself to forgive him.

Because maybe then, he could start forgiving himself.

The cop was at his side now, together with the restaurant owner. Both were speaking, but their words were lost to him as he drowned beneath the overpowering weight of his own despair.