Chapter Eighteen

He should have died.

He should have been dead for hours. Yet, at some point, it occurred to him that he wasn't dead. Not only that, he was awake. His consciousness had seemingly returned, at least partially, at some point during the past several hours.

He wasn't fully cognizant, though. Barely lucid, he registered distantly that he was lying on his back, it was cold, and he could barely breathe.

He hurt everywhere… or, well, mostly. In a removed way, without knowing how, he knew that his body was under so much pain that his brain simply couldn't process it. There was a… pressure… on his legs that he couldn't define, but he couldn't really feel them anyway, so he let it go. His left arm was certainly broken and was probably bent the wrong way. He didn't want to think about that either. His right arm, however, seemed to be ok… but he kept reaching out without really knowing why, his fingers closing around nothing, fingernails scratching through mud, coming up empty every time, even though some part of him kept saying that someone was there. Someone had been reaching for him, and he needed to take their hand. It was very important.

After a while, he realized that his eyes were actually working - he was just somewhere dark and couldn't see very well. It was cold, wherever it was. And cramped. And the air was choked with dust. His ribs hurt too much for him to breathe properly, making his respirations pained and shallow, but the dust that clogged his airway left him coughing occasionally, which sent shockwaves of pain radiating up and down his body.

There was also a sensation of wetness underneath him, but whether that was sweat or blood or water, he didn't know. Probably some combination of the three. The thought of water reminded him of the dust in the air and how thirsty he was, which wasn't a happy avenue of thought, but even worse, it called to mind images of a reservoir and a large dam and a meeting he had had on top of it…

After an indeterminate amount of time, he became suddenly aware of a sound. Coming from somewhere… close by. It was muffled, barely audible, buzzing around him like a housefly, irritating and hard to catch.

The sound was quickly followed by another, this one lower, deeper. Were they… voices? Voices, coming from somewhere close by that he couldn't see?

Something shifted, somewhere out of sight. Dust rained down on him, producing another painful coughing fit. The sounds were louder now.

"...nder here!" someone was shouting. "I can hear a heartbeat!"

Someone was coming. Coming to save him. Maybe he wasn't going to die here after all.

But as that thought skittered across his mind, a second thought interrupted, angry and accusatory.

Shouldn't he die here?

Wasn't that how this was supposed to end?

He didn't know what that meant, but the thought… it felt right. It felt like that was the way it was supposed to be.

But someone was coming. Someone was going to save him anyway.

His right hand closed again around nothing. Someone had been there. Someone had been reaching for him, and he hadn't taken her hand.

Overhead, the darkness was suddenly pierced by a ray of light.

A chunk of cement, one of many that had caged him in, was suddenly lifted, allowing the dim morning light of the rising sun to flood into the tiny pocket of space formed around him by the shattered remains of the broken dam.

People were standing over him. Sato he recognized immediately, hefting the enormous chunk of broken wall that had been settled on top of him like a lid. Shouji was nearby, clearing away smaller chunks of rubble.

His friends had come.

But Denki had eyes for only one person. She was down on all-fours atop another of the broken boulders of cement that surrounded him, one of her jacks extending all the way down to him, wrapping around his wrist. There were tears in her eyes and her face was filthy with dirt and soot, but there, overhead, framed in the light of the rising sun, she looked like a goddess.

She was talking, whether to him or to the others who were trying to dig him out, he didn't know. The relief of seeing her, of seeing his friends, of being rescued from his cold, cramped darkness, was flooding through him, carrying him away, back to unconsciousness. He fought to stay awake, but it was useless in the face of his overwhelming pain and fatigue.

The last thought he had before succumbing once more to oblivion was that Kyouka was not who he'd been reaching for.

The next time he opened his eyes, he was in a hospital room.

It was easy enough to tell. The stiff bed with its scratchy seafoam bedsheets. The off-white, sterile walls. The tubes sticking out of his nose, chest, arms, and legs. More than that was the atmosphere. There was something about being in a hospital that just felt... different... from anywhere else.

He had no idea what time it was. There were no windows here, though the dimness of the lights and the general quiet that surrounded him implied that it was evening.

The hospital room called to mind other thoughts. Memories of the last time he'd been in a hospital, when someone else had been the one lying in the bed. The madness in her eyes… how could he have ever known that it would one day lead him to where he was now?

Memories of the battle had returned along with his consciousness, and he shied away from them, wincing like he'd drawn too close to a fire.

He'd blown the dam. He'd blown it while he and his mother stood on top.

He should be dead. It was… impossible that he'd survived. He'd been almost thirty meters off the ground, give or take. There was no way he could still be alive. His thoughts were still too murky to really think clearly, but unless someone had tried to catch him with their Quirk mid-fall… or maybe he'd been caught in the exploding torrent of water and had… somehow landed in the river? No, that still didn't make sense. Sometimes, you heard stories about people surviving impossible situations, plane crashes or car accidents or the like, for seemingly impossible reasons. Maybe that was all this was. Some stupid fluke.

What he knew for certain was that odds of him living through that had to have been infinitesimal. A probability so low it wasn't even worth discussing.

Why was it, then, that the gods or fate or random chance or whatever you wanted to call it decided to spare him - the traitor who had betrayed his friends, the traitor who had betrayed his family, who had caused all of this to happen - and not anyone else? How many people, Heroes or Villains or civilians, had died in that last battle? How many of them deserved this absurd second-chance at life more than Denki did?

Another thought popped into his head.

If he had survived, impossibly, against all odds… then was it possible that his mother had as well? She had been right next to him, reaching for him, when the dam burst.

Denki looked around the room, as though expecting to see his family there at his bedside, only to remember that was impossible now. However, to his surprise, he discovered he wasn't alone.

To his left, seated in a trio of uncomfortably small guest chairs, sat Mineta, Mina, and Kirishima. All three were asleep. Mineta was drooling boorishly onto the armrest, the only one who looked appropriately sized for his seat. Mina was slumped onto Kirishima's shoulder, snoring slightly, and Kirishima himself was leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. All three sported bandages and casts, evidence that they hadn't fully recovered from the battle.

He turned his head to his right, fighting past the stiffness and pain that radiated across his body at the motion, to find more people waiting on the other side.

Sero had created a sling of sorts out of his elbow tape, dangling it from the ceiling, and was using it to support his head while he, too, slept, his snores so loud it was a wonder Denki hadn't noticed him sooner.

And at Sero's side sat Kyouka.

She was slumped forward on Denki's bed, using her right arm as a pillow, her hair in complete disarray, falling into her face. Her left hand was wrapped around Denki's right, something he also somehow hadn't noticed, and she'd tangled one of her earphone jacks around his wrist with the jack itself pressed against his pulse point, as though she'd needed constant confirmation, even in her sleep, that his heart was still beating.

For a moment, he didn't know what to do. He wanted to wake his friends up, to press them for information - about the battle, about his family - and yet…

It was obvious that they'd been through a lot. It meant the world to him that they were there, even after everything, beaten up and clearly worse for the wear and yet still they stayed in his hospital room, waiting for him to wake up. He didn't deserve friends like this. He'd done nothing to earn their friendship.

Still. He needed to know what happened. Where was his father, his sister? What had become of his mother? Logic told him that there was really no hope, and yet if he had survived, impossibly, against all odds, then maybe…

As though summoned by his need, Kyouka began to stir. She mumbled something under her breath, scowling and nuzzling her forehead against her arm as she was slowly roused from her uncomfortable slumber.

Her eyes blinked open lazily in that lethargic way that showed she wasn't really awake yet. Her gaze met Denki's, and for a moment, they simply looked at each other.

Then, when it finally seemed to register that he was actually awake, her eyes went wide and she shot upright in her seat, accidentally scooting the chair forward and letting out a loud, ear-splitting squeal as the chair legs scraped across the linoleum floor.

Miraculously, their other friends remained asleep despite the noise. They must be more exhausted than Denki thought.

"D-Denki!" Kyouka said after a second, leaning forward to grab his hand again even as her other hand went towards trying to fix her hair. It was a futile effort; her sleeping position had squashed part of her bangs up at an awkward angle and now she kind of looked like a chicken. Under different circumstances, it probably would have been funny.

When he didn't reply right away, she scooted a little closer and asked, "How are you feeling?"

He opened his mouth to answer her, but the only sound that came out was a croak.

His voice was raspy from disuse. He swallowed painfully and tried to start again.

"...What happened?"

"You… You blew the dam, remember?" she said, looking anxious. From the look on her face, it was evident that she was worried he had some sort of head trauma that had caused him to forget. She was fiddling absently with his fingers, and the sensation was somewhat distracting. "You were too close, a-and you got caught in the blast… I… We thought you were dead, but I picked out the sound of a heartbeat under some rubble near the riverbed while we were searching for the wounded, a-and…"

But Denki shook his head, slowly so as not to aggravate his stiff, sore muscles.

"No, I know that," he said softly - though to be fair, he didn't think he was capable of raising his voice any higher than it was. "I meant… what happened?"

That wasn't any clearer than it had been the first time, but Kyouka seemed to understand because she sat up a little straighter and cleared her throat.

"The plan worked… for the most part." Here, she tried to smile, but the exhaustion on her face was so strong that it looked more like a grimace. "We managed to push Machia into the water, but it only delayed him for a bit before he broke out. Still, it was enough. Midoriya caught up to Shigaraki before the two could team up, and Bakugou wound up taking down Machia. We won… but a lot of our friends are in the hospital. Midoriya was pretty touch-and-go for a while, and Todoroki almost lost his leg. Eri was able to save it. She'd have come around here for you, too, but there are so many injured…"

Kyouka kept talking for a while. Lengthy explanations about their friends, the status of the world, how things were changing now that the League had finally been defeated. Underneath her fatigue shone an obvious glimmer of hope. Hope for the new world she and their friends had fought so long and hard to bring about. Hope for a future far brighter than the dark and miserable present they'd been stuck in for what felt like forever.

And yet, though he knew this information was important, he was finding it difficult to care.

He needed to know. He needed to know what had happened to his family.

After a while, Kyouka's diatribe slowly wound its way to a close. For a moment, the two sat in silence, gazing at one another, not certain how to proceed.

Finally, Denki worked up the last of his courage and asked.

"A-and… my family?"

It was evident from Kyouka's reaction that she'd been waiting for this exact question, but from the way she hesitated, the way that she averted her gaze, the way she drew in her shoulders even as she took in a slow, steadying breath… he already knew the answer.

"Your father… was arrested. He was apparently caught early on in the battle, and he went quietly, without much hassle."

Denki nodded. That was a relief.

"...and?"

She still wasn't looking at him. She had her eyes glued to their hands, still clasped together on top of Denki's hospital-issued bedsheets.

"...we haven't been able to find your sister," she whispered, and this time, it was Kyouka's voice that sounded raspy. "I-it's possible that she managed to escape, but… Some of the captured PLF members stated that they saw her in the area that Shigaraki had been fighting Midoriya, and m-most of that part of the city was destroyed in the fight, so…"

She escaped, he thought desperately, lying to himself in a vain attempt to keep the despair at bay. She was smart and she was fast. She would have found some way to make it out alive… She had to…

But now they'd arrived at the question he'd most wanted answered, and Kyouka had stopped talking again. Her hand was squeezing his, almost painfully, and her eyes were hidden behind her bangs.

He tightened his hand in hers, willing her to look at him, as he asked, barely more than a whisper, "...and my mom?"

But Kyouka shook her head, raising her free hand to wipe at her eyes.

"We…" she began, only to stop because she had to clear her throat to keep going. She finally met his eyes again, and the hurt and pain that she felt for him was so raw that he felt it press down on him like a physical force, stopping his breathing.

"We found her body in the river not too far away from where we found you. She… She was already dead when we got to her."

The words seemed to linger in the air for a moment like clouds, dense and obtrusive.

He could still see her standing on the edge of the dam.

He shook his head, denying, refusing. It couldn't be.

If he'd survived, then why…?

What had been the point of everything?!

He hadn't even realized he was crying until he took a gasping breath that sent shockwaves of pain down his body.

He cried. He cried and cried for who knows how long, and Kyouka held his hand and cried with him. In his mind's eye, he could still see his mother, hugging him when he got his UA acceptance letter, lying in her hospital bed as they fought, standing at the bottom of the staircase and telling him she loved him.

The madness in her eyes on the ledge of the dam. The way she'd lunged for him when it burst. Had she been trying to help him? Or stop him and save the PLF? He didn't know. He'd never know.

She'd been right next to him. Right there. It wasn't fair. He could have reached out and touched her. And in a way, he was still reaching, his hand still desperately grasping, coming up empty, like when he'd awoken in the dark, trapped under the rubble.

But he'd never hold her hand again. Never see her smile. Never get the chance to try to make up for what he'd done, to her, to their family.

All of this had started because he'd been so determined to save them. And he had failed in the most spectacular way imaginable.

He was Denki Kaminari, and he had killed his own mother.

And so, as Kyouka held his hand, as his friends began to stir around him, Denki cried.

Because what else could he do?

It was over, finally. And he had lost it all.

Finally, after endless deliberation, Emi pulled the door open, striding into the room and closing it behind her with a snap. Immediately, she turned her attention to the room's only occupant, doing her best to look calm and in control.

It didn't matter. Denki wasn't even looking at her. His eyes, distant and depressed, were staring at the floor without seeing. He didn't even seem to notice she was there.

Her brother's makeshift prison cell was actually a janitor's closet. The room was small, somewhat filthy, and dimly lit by a single old lightbulb that dangled down from the low ceiling above them. They'd handcuffed him to some metal shelves that his Quirk wouldn't have any effect on and had removed all of the old cleaning supplies before he'd arrived.

There, seated in the dust, captured and alone with his eyes devoid of hope… This was supposed to be everything she'd ever wanted.

She swallowed uncomfortably as the silence stretched on and her brother continued to ignore her existence.

To be honest, she wasn't completely sure why she was there. Or, well… no, she knew exactly why she was there, she just wasn't willing to admit it to herself.

She was supposed to be gloating. She was supposed to be delighting in the fact that she'd brought him down low, that he was finally made to wallow in the same squalor he'd left her and their father in all those years ago.

This is what he deserved. This is what happens when you betray the people who trust you.

The thought made her arm twitch.

Where had her heat gone? Where was the rage, the fury? Why was it that she was only now second-guessing herself? After she'd come so far? After she'd done so much?

But she knew the reason. She knew it, but she resisted voicing it, even in her head, because the thought alone was incredibly painful.

She wasn't supposed to find herself suddenly empathizing with her brother.

She could still remember, albeit dimly, the day that her brother had come home from UA after performing the betrayal that had set Shigaraki's war in motion. He'd been so quiet, so withdrawn. So unlike himself.

She remembered how jealous she was of him when he first went off to school. The fact that he'd gotten into some prestigious academy, that he was on the fast-track to fame and riches, was certainly something worth being jealous about. But honestly, it had more to do with the fact that he was getting out of Deika, away from the MLA, away from their parents. He was starting a new life, on his own, where he'd make his own friends and finally be free. And she'd resented him for it initially, because deep down, she wanted that for herself, too.

But then Shigaraki had taken over, the MLA leaders had made him betray his friends, and when he came home… he was broken. He wasn't the same goofy, bright-eyed, idiot of a brother she'd always known. He hid himself up in his room. He wouldn't talk to her, or to their parents, or to anybody. Their mom hardly seemed to notice, carrying on like nothing was wrong, but her dad had pulled her aside and advised that they give Denki some space. And so she'd tried. Because despite how the two had always used to fight, she still cared about him. He was her big brother, after all.

"Are you just going to stand there and stare at me?"

Emi took a deep breath and let it out in a soft rush.

It was time. Time to finally confront her brother. Time to regain the heat and the rage that she'd somehow lost over the course of the day because she would need it to see herself through to the end. Time to put things to rights.

"You brought this on yourself, you know."

That was supposed to come out colder and harsher than it actually did. To her ears, it sounded like she was a child reading lines for a school play.

Denki let out a short, humorless laugh.

"You know, I could almost forgive you if that was really the case."

She balled her hands into fists, feeling some of her old temper returning. Good, there it was. She hadn't lost it after all.

"Don't sit there and try to tell me that you don't deserve this, Denki."

"I'm not talking about me, Emiko," he said, and finally, he turned his gaze away from the floor to look at her. "I'm talking about my kids."

For a moment, Emi was speechless. She wasn't sure what she'd expected, exactly. Now that they were here, now that she'd brought him down to his lowest moment… She'd expected him to look like their parents. The madness that had shone behind her mother's gaze there at the end, the madness that even now had taken ahold of their father, the madness she had started to recognize nestled deep within herself - evidence of a singular, all-consuming desire that made them abandon everything and anything else in their lives. The thing she had thought united them as a family, for better or, as it seemed clear to her, for worse…

Denki didn't have that. His eyes were cold and sharp and furious, but there was no hint of madness there. He was still himself.

She didn't know why she found that thought relieving.

"Well I am talking about you," she retorted, both as a way to hold on to her anger as well as to avoid talking about her niece and nephew and her complicated feelings about what she'd done. "I've waited ten years for this, Denki. Ten years to make you own up to what you did to mom. No more running. You've lived this picture-perfect carefree life for the last ten years, built upon what you did to us, but I'm finally going to get the justice she deserves."

By the time she finished speaking, her voice was trembling. She'd waited so long for this moment. Finally… Finally, it was going to come to an end.

She'd expected Denki to deflect. To deny his guilt, or maybe lash out.

Instead, he rested his head against one of the shelves, still gazing up at her with his cold eyes, only now instead of furious, they looked empty and dead.

"...Is that what you think?" he asked, his voice soft, barely more than a whisper.

"What?"

"You really think that I've spent the last ten years just… living this perfect, happy life? You really think I could just ignore what I did? That I don't still have nightmares about it? That I don't live with the guilt every day?"

"If you think feeling a little guilty is enough to excuse you-!"

"You make it sound like I hunted her down. Do you even know how it happened?"

Emiko licked her lips, not liking how control of the conversation had been taking away from her.

"Of course I do! You and the Heroes blew up that dam and that's what killed her! And I know you were the one who pressed the button, Denki - everyone knows! So don't pretend like it wasn't!"

She expected him to try to argue that it was an accident, that he hadn't known she'd get caught in the blast. She'd imagined how this confrontation would go, over and over, so many times over the last ten years. Right after the accident, her hatred for her brother had been one of the few things that had kept her going.

"Yeah, I pressed the button. I blew the dam. I killed mom."

Emi blinked. He admitted it? Just like that?

But he wasn't looking at her anymore. He was staring at the wall, his gaze distant and unfocused.

"I planted the charges. We needed to stop Gigantomachia to end the war. But mom… she showed up at the dam, even though she was supposed to be avoiding the battlefield. I disobeyed the Heroes, I tried to go back and get her… but she wouldn't listen to me. We argued. Time was running out. People were dying. I was out of options. And…"

He made an off-hand gesture, or tried to. With his wrists handcuffed to the shelf, it looked more like a twitch. The motion seemed dismissive, but from the look on his face, the tone of his voice... It was evident he just couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

Emi was silent. She was supposed to have all of these insults prepared, all of these cruel comebacks. There was a weight to the conversation that had stilled her breath, that was keeping her from speaking out of turn.

"What would you have done in my place?" he asked softly, almost like he was speaking to himself. "Hundreds of people dying. The lives of your friends and family on the line, but on different sides of the conflict. The best chance to stop Shigaraki and end the war right in front of you. Your only real shot at keeping everyone you love safe… and then your mom shows up to get in the way, and you realize the only way to save everyone is to sacrifice her. What would you have done, Emiko?"

"Don't…" she began, her voice raspy, "Don't sit there and pretend like you were doing this for your family-"

But he scoffed, cutting her off.

"It was always about you, Emi. You, and mom and dad. I betrayed UA in the first place because of you, to keep you safe from Shigaraki. And I rejoined the fight after mom got hurt because I realized that you were all in danger so long as the war went on. I sided with the Heroes and betrayed the PLF specifically to end the war to keep you all safe."

The fire inside of her was full-on blazing now.

He had the audacity to claim that?! Pretending like he was trying to help protect them when he was the reason their family had been torn apart in the first place?!

"Don't you dare," she seethed, whole body trembling, "sit here and pretend like you were being some kind of Hero. You killed our mother!"

"Because I had no choice!" he shot back, struggling to straighten up but unable to due to the way his wrists were handcuffed to the shelf.

"No choice?" she parroted, her voice raising an entire octave. "I don't know, Denki, how about 'not killing her'?"

"People were dying, Emiko!" he shot back, struggling to rise so he could face her on his feet, but he'd been shackled to the lowest shelf and couldn't do more than crouch. "I argued with her! Pleaded with her to get down off the dam, but she wouldn't listen! You remember - you know what she was like! If we had waited any longer, Machia and Shigaraki could have united and the Heroes would have lost! Or did you really want Shigaraki to win the war?"

"This isn't about Shigaraki or the PLF!" she screamed, absolutely beside herself. "This is about us, our family! This is about you killing mom!"

"Mom died because of the PLF," Denki grated. "Try to divorce the two if you want, but you know as well as I do how obsessed she was. Hate me all you want, but you can't say I didn't try-!"

"Sure," she cut in sarcastically. "You tried. Congratulations. If that's the lie you have to tell yourself to get by-"

"Yeah, and what lie are you telling yourself?" he snarled, and she blinked.

"What?"

"You think you can sit there and patronize me about what went down with me and mom, but you literally just kidnapped your own niece and nephew to get back at me. You're working with the people who nearly killed them in a fire! What lies are you telling yourself about what's going to happen to them? Or do you think they somehow deserve what you're going to do to them?"

The sudden change in topic left her sputtering like a bucket of water to the face. He wasn't supposed to turn this around on her, this was about Denki and the mistakes he'd made.

"No," she said quickly, interrupting. "Dad promised me we weren't going to hurt them. They're just bait-"

"Bullshit," he spat. "Look me in the eyes and tell me you honestly believe that. Tell me you honestly believe that dad won't hurt them, that they're perfectly safe here with the rest of you ex-PLF lunatics."

She tried. She really did. She met Denki's gaze dead on with all of the fire she could muster, but the words wouldn't leave her lips. In her mind, she could see that light in her father's eyes, could see Hotaru sending his in-laws place up in flames. His kids weren't safe here. She knew that. She did.

But she'd brought them here anyway.

When she couldn't answer, Denki allowed himself to settle back onto the floor, but his gaze remained on hers, dark and condemning.

"Honestly, Emi… I can forgive you for wanting to kill me. Hell, sometimes, I even think you're right. Maybe I do deserve to die. But you're responsible for anything that happens to those kids today. Vilify me all you want, but you're in the same boat now. Except this time, the family members whose blood will be on your hands aren't adults who made the decision to be on this battlefield. You dragged children into this. And you're not going to get away with it just because you're going to kill me. You had better pray that someone else gets to you before Kyouka does."

As though his statement had been a sign, outside, someone screamed. Both siblings looked around in surprise. It was distant, but definitely from somewhere within the warehouse.

Emi blanched. It couldn't be. The Heroes had arrived already?

Her first instinct was to rush off towards where she knew the other MLA members would be gathering, but something held her back. Yuu was still upstairs with the kids. If the Heroes had arrived, it was possible that someone in the MLA might try to use them as hostages to secure their escape. They could get hurt.

She held Denki's gaze for another moment. She had come here for a specific reason, but it seemed their time together had been cut short. It was possible this was the last time she'd ever see him - either because her father would succeed in killing him or because the Heroes would arrive and rescue him. Either way, she'd failed in settling anything. They were out of time.

Emi turned and left the room without another word. She'd come to Denki seeking confirmation, hoping that talking about what had happened to their mother would steel her resolve and help clear away the doubts that had begun piling up in her mind. Instead, she felt worse than ever.

The problem was that he was right. She'd kidnapped his kids because she was told to, because she ignored the voice in her head that told her it was wrong, believing that it would work out in the end. For the first time, she finally understood what Denki must have been going through after he'd returned from betraying UA. Sick with guilt. Constantly second-guessing. Not knowing whether the side you were on was the right one, or if there even was a right side.

There were differences, though. No one had died yet due to Emi's mistake. And while she still wasn't certain about what she wanted done to her brother, while a large part of her still thought he needed to pay for taking her mother away from her… another part, a larger part, was telling her that what mattered most at this moment, as the Heroes began to descend upon them, as open warfare between Pros and the MLA broke out once again for the first time in a decade… was making up for her mistake.

Denki would have to handle himself. He got himself into this mess, he'd need to see it through.

But as for her... maybe it was time she stopped caring about what her father wanted, or what her mother had wanted, or even what Denki wanted. Maybe it was time to focus on what she wanted. And right now, what she wanted was to get her niece and nephew out of here, even if it landed her in prison with her father.

Maybe she wouldn't be forgiven, but at the very least, she didn't want their blood on her hands.

Aika sat uncomfortably in the corner of her cage, hugging her little brother and doing her best to appear calm and strong so that he didn't get any more scared than he already was.

The truth, however, was that she was more scared than she'd ever been in her entire life, and she wasn't doing a very good job of hiding it.

There they'd been, sitting at a table outside a restaurant, enjoying the sunshine and the cake that their dad's cousin Emi had got for them… and then all of a sudden, their dad had rushed off by himself across the street. Then a car had pulled up, and Emi had told them that it wasn't safe and that they needed to get in so that she could protect them, and she'd gone along with it because it was Emi and her dad had seemed to trust her and she was scared for Raidin and didn't want him to be attacked again and then…

Here they were. In a cage. In a building full of strangers.

They'd been kidnapped.

Her dad has always used to warn her about this. Don't talk to strangers. Don't ever get into a car with someone you don't know. Sometimes, bad men kidnapped little kids. If you got kidnapped, you might never see your family again.

But… Emi wasn't a bad person. She couldn't be. She'd saved Rai from that fire. She'd even bought her a cake for her birthday. She was her dad's cousin… wasn't she? Though she'd never heard about her dad having a cousin before. Actually, he'd never talked about his family ever. She'd tried asking, but it had made him so sad… Maybe something happened to them. Maybe he couldn't ever see them again, which is why he didn't like talking about them.

Was… Was she never going to see her family again?

Rai sniffled in her arms, and she shook the thought off.

"It's ok, Rai," she murmured for what felt like the millionth time. "Mom is coming. Mom's going to save us."

The room they were in was stark and quiet, lit by off-color light bulbs overhead that made everything seem blue. There was furniture in here; an old couch, some chairs, a fridge, a table that had been pushed aside to make room for their cage. Other than that, though, the room was pretty small and ordinary.

The cage itself wasn't very big. Tall enough that Rai could stand up straight, but Aika needed to hunch over. Wide enough for them to sit side-by-side comfortably. Just long enough for her to lay out on her back without touching either end. There was a door on the front, but it had a padlock on it, and she didn't know where the key was. She'd considered sticking her jacks into it to see if she could unlock it like they did in cartoons, but she had a feeling she'd get in trouble if their guard saw her, and she didn't want them to try to hurt her or Rai.

Their guard, who was also the only person they'd seen since they'd been locked up, was a teenage boy. Aika didn't know kidnappers could be teenage boys. She always thought they were scary old men with evil faces. This boy didn't look evil, though. He looked nice and, actually, uncomfortable. He hadn't said anything to them since he'd come in to watch them, but he'd given them some snacks and some bottles of water, which they hadn't touched, and was now sitting on a chair near the door, playing with his phone and trying not to look at them.

Weirdly, he almost looked as scared as she was.

She didn't know how long they'd been in there now, but it had probably been a few hours. Long enough for her and Rai to stop crying. Long enough for her to admit that she'd grown a little bored, even if she was still scared.

The only thing she had to pass the time was the ring her dad had given her just before he'd run off. She'd stuffed it in her pocket when Emi had told her to get in the car, and she'd forgotten all about it until she'd been stuck in here for a while and had nothing to do. She'd been turning it over in her hands for about an hour now, looking at it, wondering where it came from and why her dad had taken it off. Ultimately, though, she wasn't super interested in it; it was just something to do while she waited for someone to save her.

Idly, she threaded the ring through one of her long, stringy earlobes, watching it slide up and down as she wiggled it through the air before slowly winding her jack around it, watching it spin. The metal part of the jack made contact with the ring with a soft click, and suddenly, understanding bloomed in her mind through her Quirk.

There was a computer chip in here.

She didn't know what it did. There wasn't anywhere on the ring for her to plug her jack into, but it seemed like it didn't matter; the ring was made of metal and it conducted electricity, so she could connect to it just fine. The computer chip or whatever it was didn't have a battery. Maybe it was designed for her dad to use his own electricity on? She didn't have as powerful a Quirk as her dad did - she couldn't shoot lightning around everywhere like him - but what little electricity she could produce was usually enough for small electronic devices. Maybe it would work here too?

For lack of anything better to do with her time, she touched both of her jacks to the ring and gave it a little zap.

It sparked in her hand with a pop and a bright pinprick of light, making Rai and their teenage guard jump. In her mind's eye, through her Quirk, she had the impression that something had just been sent out to somewhere far away, like… like a sound, or a message…

"The hell was that?" came a familiar voice, and Aika jumped in fear, dropping the heavy ring onto the floor with a loud clatter.

A man had walked into the room and was now glaring down at her with a twisted smirk on his face. She recognized him vaguely as the driver of the car that Emi had pushed her and her brother into. He was short and kind of bony, with an overly-big head and puffy fish lips. While Emi and the teenage boy who was watching them didn't really seem like kidnappers to Aika, this scary man definitely did. And the way that he was staring at her made her draw Rai closer into her arms as though that would somehow keep them both safe.

"What are you doing here, Yaso?" the teenager cut in, the tone of his voice clearly indicating that he wasn't a fan of the scary man either, and Yaso turned to shoot the boy a condescending look.

"Oh, Yuu. I didn't see you there. Figures Emi would want to keep all of her little pets locked up in one place."

"I'm here," Yuu snarled, getting to his feet, "to keep an eye on them. What are you doing here, Yaso? Don't you have somewhere you're supposed to be?"

The older man shrugged, turning his attention back to the kids.

"Eh, what does it matter? The old man has Emi's brother, just like they wanted. Soon enough, the brats' dad will be dead, and then the Pros will probably show up and we'll all be in for the fight of our lives. Pretty stupid if you ask me, but eh…"

He stepped closer, smiling down at them, and for a moment, Aika didn't know if it was Rai who was shaking or if it was her.

Mom, where are you?

Yaso fished around in his pocket for a moment before stooping down in front of the cage.

"Y'know, I'm still surprised that Emi actually went along with the plan. I thought for sure she'd chicken out at the last minute, come up with some excuse to not have to go through with it. But no, here you are - she actually kidnapped her own niece and nephew. Maybe she's tougher than I gave her credit for."

The way that he laughed, the way that Rai shuddered, the way he spoke so casually of their kidnapping, sent Aika's fear through the roof. But somewhere in there, mixed into her terror, was a sudden flash of anger.

"We're not her niece and nephew!" Aika shouted, as though that mattered at all - though, in a weird way, it felt like it was suddenly really important that she correct this scary man and prove him wrong, as if that would somehow make her feel less powerless. "She's just our dad's cousin!"

Yaso, who had been fiddling with the padlock on the front of the cage, stopped to blink at her in surprise.

"What, is that what she told you?"

And then he laughed, the coldest, meanest laugh Aika had ever heard.

There was a click, and the padlock dropped off of the front of the cage.

"W-wait," Yuu said, suddenly sounding anxious. "What are you doing?!"

"I don't mean to break your heart, kid," Yaso said, ignoring the teenage boy and slowly pulling the door of the cage open. "But you were lied to. Emiko is your dad's younger sister. What else has your dad been lying to you about, I wonder? I bet he never told you that he was a villain, huh? Or that he betrayed all of us, or that it's his fault your grandfather has been in jail for the last decade, or what it was he did to your grandma… I bet there's all kinds of things your daddy never told you. How 'bout I make you a deal? You come here, and I'll tell you all about 'em."

He was holding a hand out as though he expected her to come to him willingly.

Instead, Aika shrank back, pulling Rai behind her.

"Y-you're a liar. Dad… Dad was never a… a villain…"

Yaso smirked cruelly, opening his mouth to respond, only to let out a hoarse grunt of surprise as Yuu, the teenage boy, suddenly stepped forward and shoved him, causing him to lose balance and topple over onto the floor.

"Gah! What the hell?!" he shouted, glowering up at Yuu, but the boy had placed himself protectively in front of the cage.

"Emi kept me here to protect them!" he shouted, trying his best to sound brave, but it was obvious from the look on his face that he was just as scared as Aika was. "You're not supposed to be here, Yaso! Get back to your post, or I'm going to tell Emi-!"

"Tell her what?" Yaso scoffed darkly, picking himself back up off the floor. "She doesn't have time to come here and deal with me - not now that we caught her brother, not now that the Pros are on the way. You always talk a big game when Emi's around to protect you, but she's not here now. So come on, you Quirkless little piece of shit. Show me what you've got."

Yuu hesitated, drawing himself up to his full height, clearly not sure what to do. Then, after a moment, he let out a yell and threw a punch right at Yaso's face.

Or tried to. The bony man caught his hand in the air, and then a moment later, Yuu was screaming.

Aika was horrified. Within seconds, Yuu had fallen to his knees, every muscle in his body taut as he screamed. It was the most agonizing, blood-curdling sound Aika had ever heard.

The door to the cage was still open. This was her chance!

She seized Rai by has arm, surging to her feet, rushing towards the door and the promise of escape, but before she could make it, Yaso was there.

He released Yuu's hand and the boy fell to the ground, senseless and whimpering, curled up in the fetal position. Aika tried to push Rai back, but the older man's hand shot into the cage and caught her by the arm, forcefully dragging her out. Rai shouted in fear, and Aika cried out as her arm was twisted painfully behind her back.

A moment later, she was standing on her tiptoes, her arm secured behind her back by one of Yaso's hands as the other slapped itself over her mouth, muffling her cries of pain.

"Let me tell you about my Quirk, kid," Yaso said, breathing heavily into her ear. "It's called 'Agony'. Just by touching someone, I can make them feel the most exquisite pain imaginable. It's not all that strong compared to folks like your parents, but I've found a lot of uses for it."

Her arm hurt. His hands were big and rough and gross. She tried to shout, to call out for her mom even though she knew she couldn't hear her, even with her Quirk, but Yaso had her mouth covered and she couldn't do more than squeal. Rai was still in the cage, hunched over, watching in wide-eyed horror.

"Now, you may be wondering, 'Why are you doing this to me?' Well, that's pretty simple. You can thank your aunt for this. That little bitch is always walking around, lookin' down her nose at me. But after today, this will all be over. We're gonna kill your dad, give him what he deserves for what he did to us, but then after that? The Pros will probably hunt the rest of us down. But that's fine by me. So long as I can do what I love best, that's all I care about. And since I can't touch that girl herself, well… I figured I'd go for the next best thing. Besides, something tells me that hurting you three will be more effective anyway."

And then there was pain.

It was indescribable. It came from everywhere, above and below, outside and within. Pain, like had been lit on fire. Pain, like millions of needles stabbing into her. Pain, like she was being crushed beneath an enormous weight. She screamed and screamed and screamed but time had lost all meaning and there was nothing else that existed in the world but pain and screaming and pain.

And then, suddenly, just as she thought she'd certainly lose her mind, a familiar voice shouted, barely audible over the sound of her screams, "Let my sister go!" and then Rai was there, right in front of her, full of fear and four-year-old fury, and he clapped his hands right in Yaso's face.

A boom shook the office, rattling the cage and all of the furniture. A few of the light fixtures overhead exploded in a salvo of sparks and glass.

Aika's heels hit the floor as she was released, and she stumbled to the side, nearly losing her balance, just barely catching herself on the wall of the cage. It took her a second to realize that she couldn't hear anything other than a loud ringing in her ears. Her vision swam, tears dripped down her cheeks, and her head seemed to throb with both the aftershocks of Yaso and her brother's Quirks.

She turned her head, disoriented, struggling to keep her balance, only to find Yaso was in even worse shape than she was.

He'd collapsed backward onto the ground, blinking stupidly at the ceiling as blood dribbled out of his ears and nose. He tried to pick himself up, but the damage Rai had done to his eardrums seemed to have robbed him of his equilibrium, and he was having trouble getting his limbs to move correctly.

Someone grabbed her hand. It was Rai. He was shouting something, but she couldn't hear. It didn't matter though; he was tugging her in the direction of the door. Now was their chance. They had to escape before that evil man recovered.

Still, it was hard to walk straight. She lost her balance and fell against the doorframe, struggling to reclaim her bearings. Behind her, Yaso had managed to get to all-fours and was slowly getting up, wobbling drunkenly. His mouth worked, but she still couldn't hear. She needed to move, but her legs…!

Yaso took a step forward, then suddenly tripped and hit the floor. Behind him, she could see Yuu, still on the ground, had caught him by the ankle. He was saying something, his mouth working frantically, but she still couldn't hear. The world around her seemed to swim.

Rai still had her hand in his, and he tugged her along, out of the room they'd been held captive in and into the darkened hallway.

Together, they ran. Two frightened little kids, alone in a building full of kidnappers, Rai having to support his sister so she didn't topple over.

There had to be a way out of here. There had to be.