(( sorry about the late update! I'm doing Inktober as well :D ))

Chapter 18

"Gotta Go Fast"

"Alright, you and Iida are going to be back before 8pm correct?"

Both teens nodded. Aizawa gave an affirmative nod back. "Iida, since you're provisionally licensed, I'm making it your responsibility to know what do if the situation arises."

It was vague, but the young man got the picture pretty clearly. Aizawa did not forget, and thankfully, neither did Iida, who nodded. "Yes sir."

Aizawa shooed them out, going back to looking at his papers. Considering why Stone asked Iida to go with her, and not perhaps, Kyoka or any one else she seemed to have made friends with. He ran a hand through his hair, at least the girl was thinking somewhat rationally about who to bring with. Iida was not likely to go around telling her family business, and probably wouldn't be too nosy. Hopefully though, there wouldn't be any trouble at all while the teens were out.

There'd better not be any either. He needed his sleep, not another problem child to worry about.

The two teens were, by now, well on their way to the little burger joint, within an easy walking distance of UA's campus grounds. Iida wondering the same as his teacher since they were still in a dead silence. "I am honored you asked me to come with you, Stone."

Alarice had to sort of shake herself out of her thoughts to respond to him. She gave a lopsided smile and a forced shrug of her shoulders. "Thank you for coming with, I know it's a family thing so it probably is a little awkward to go with me."

It was really awkward but Iida wasn't about to say that. Not after how weird she'd been during Parasus's visit, and their conversation afterwards. "Not a problem at all!"

She let out a laugh of a noise, and looked to the ground. Their conversation stalling out again, the street and sidewalk being only lightly busy. Allowing their footfalls to take over in their little space in the universe.

"What should I know about your sister? I don't want to accidentally offend her." He finally asked, not able to tell how awkward it was fast becoming. Not to mention he was about to be put into a Family lunch, with some one else's family.

"Half-Sister" Alarice corrected again, Iida giving a quiet sorry as she continued "As long as you don't say anything bad about Hell-hound quirks, dogs or really anything negative about something that's dog-like, you'll probably be fine." She gave a casual shrug, not sure what else to warn him about. Most of the things Parasus was going to say or talk about probably were things he wasn't going to get. That was fine.

"She might be a little testy about me having a buddy, but I'm pretty sure I told her that UA has the Buddy System now." Iida just nodded in response to that, it made sense and that was just going to be the way it is. He wanted to ask if they were half-sisters by her mom or by her dad but he didn't think he should.

A lot of questions danced around his head, that he was pretty sure weren't polite ones to ask. Though he had doubts about the relationship Parasus and Alarice had, there wouldn't be much he could do for them.

They arrived at the place, and sure enough Parasus did seem a little put off that Iida was there. She seemed to let it go pretty fast, or at least, long enough for them to get food. The three sat outside, at a little table with chairs in a sort of park. "I'm happy my little sister has made some friends. She always had such a hard time making any kind of friend back home." Parasus commented, reaching over to pat Alarice's head like she was a little dog.

"Er, she's a good classmate." Iida said, completely unsure of how to respond, and trying to be respectful. "If I may ask, how far apart are you two, in age I mean? Ma'am."

Parasus made an unreadable face, then grinned. "8 years apart, barely." She ate a french fry before answering any more. "It's a big age gap, but it meant I took care of this little pup a lot, when we were younger."

Alarice nodded, she hadn't said much of anything, all meal, letting Parasus do all the talking. Wolfing down her food like she was afraid it was going to get taken away. "Do you have any siblings, Iida?" Parasus asked, eating more fries right after.

"Ah yes, I do, I have an older brother myself." A touch of pride entered Iida's voice at that, very fond of his older brother. Though he is face looked a little sad for a moment. "He's a good brother, I'm looking forward to see him again."

The other two girls nodded, and Alarice felt a little bad that she'd never really asked him anything about this family in any kind of detailed way. Maybe she could ask him later about it, he did say he was from a Hero family.

Food and conversation continued, lightly before Parasus spoke again: "Alarice I do need to talk to you Privately, you know."

Alarice flushed, and looked over at Iida, then to Parasus. Surely Parasus understood that they did teach English to kids Japan, didn't she? She couldn't just...?! Alarice tried to salvage for her sister's rudeness. "Um, Iida, do you mind, if we speak privately? Me and Parasus?"

"We're supposed to stay together." Iida said with a very firm, matter of fact tone in his voice. Not to mention Parasus was giving a particularly intense, gaze, to both of them. He was apparently welcome to sit in on a meal but he was no longer wanted around.

"It's a private, family matter." Parasus added in, now fixating solely on him with her own eyes. There was something about it that made him want to argue.

"It's UA's rules."

"UA doesn't respect a family's privacy?" She pushed again, Iida looking as stiff and determined as ever.

"It does, but-" "It's a very private, family matter about our father and as polite and rule-abiding as you are, young man, I simply am not comfortable sharing it with a stranger." Parasus's tone was almost legal in the way it came out. No arguments allowed, the law of the land, family matter only.

"Whats.. wrong with dad?" Alarice asked, looking desperately uncomfortable. "Is he okay?"

"See? Now do you Mind?" Alarice had already stood up, all concern and worry now, ready to follow her sister if it meant something about their father. "I'll uh.. I'll be right back Iida, I promise."

With that, he found himself unable to stop them, though he wasn't going to not follow the rules. So he quietly followed after them, trying to keep out of sight and not listen-in, too much.

"Is Dad okay, Parasus? did he have another fall?" More questions poured out of Alarice, in quick succession. She was fiddling with her hair.

"Yes." Parasus said carefully, pausing herself to fiddle with a leaf on a bush. "I think he might have been attacked by the group that's been hunting us."

"but.. is he okay now?"

"He's okay for now." Parasus took a deep breath and faced her little sister. "See, this is why I need you to come with me. No one can keep you safe from this, but other hell-hounds."

"..." Alarice fiddled with her hair more, before taking a deep breath, but not looking at her sister. "I really think its better if I stay in school, Sunshine did a lot to get me there."

"Fuck her and her golden ass, she's just worried about keeping promises to mom."

"She's our godmot-" "No. She's Your godmother, because you didn't think you should live with other hell-hounds."

The dark haired teen didn't have any response she was willing to say to that. It was pointless to argue against that. It was probably true any way, given that she had never made any attempt to meet any one else with her quirk. Especially in a world where that was rarely possible at all to know people with the same quirk as yourself. She felt anxiety that she only felt around Parasus creep in, but she did her best to swallow it down. "I'm going to stay, Parasus, I'm staying at UA. I'm working really hard there, I'm not going to waste all that effort."

The answer clearly did not please her sister, who reached out and put her hand on the back of Alarice's neck, gripping it. Pulling her sister closer to her. "Why, so you can keep pretending that anyone is going to let you run around and pretend to be a Hero? Hell-hounds' aren't Hero material, we're hounds. We're our own thing, and we don't need the validation of stuck-up, spandex wearing idiots."

"That's not how it works, Parasus, I want to help people!" She shifted to get loose from her sister, but her grip tightened instead. Parasus looked around them, cautiously.

"Yeah? Some help Heros are, there's 20 dead hounds, including a few pups who they just let die, and many more missing." Parasus dug her nails in , "I can't believe you'd want to join people who let kids die."

"P-" She didn't finish her sentence, having judged the space clear enough of people, Parasus slammed her little half-sisters face into the light pole, with an awful crunch. Her hand caught the younger's shirt before she could fully hit the ground. "The problem is, that neither of us really have a choice, because I'm not putting you down."

Very suddenly, Parasus let go of her sister, in order to duck low enough that the kick that was certainly aimed at her head, missed entirely. She shot a feral glare at Iida as he came to a stop, before baring her teeth in a grin. Taking out one teen wouldn't be a problem, especially while her sister was still stunned. In one smooth motion she had armed herself, and swung her shiny brass knuckles at Iida's face.

He caught the blow on his arm, guarding while he grabbed his classmate, to get her to her feet and out of the way. Managing to get himself only between the sisters, before Parasus's second attack was already on him, going for his open sides. She was a lot faster than he would have thought, though it had been glancing.

Alarice was up now though, Parasus had broken her nose. "Stone isn't going any where with you." he declared, keeping a hard steel glare on Parasus. Both noted that people had been attracted to the commotion "I'd advise that you turn yourself in for assaulting your little sister."

"Picked the most straight edge of the straight edges huh." Parasus gave a shrug of her shoulders. "It'd be nice, but, its her fault anyway." And she took off in a run, apparently not knowing who was she was challenging. Iida spared Alarice a look back, she gave him a hand gesture, and he took off. Semi-literally.

Alarice stayed behind, nursing her broken and bleeding nose, and now throbbing headache from having her whole face slammed into a pole. A passing stranger offered her a napkin for the blood, and she found a spot after giving them a thank you, to sit down. "owch, that looks like it hurts." a familiar voice called. She looked up into Mar's face. "Small world, huh."

"ish your friend here?" Alarice said between breaths, having to breathe through her mouth with her nose busted. Mar shook her head, "Nah, here with two different friends actually."

She thrust a thumb to a pair of twins, paying them zero attention.

"Do you... want me to walk you to where you can get that treated? Maybe some ice?" Mar offered, trying to look concerned.

Alarice instinctively wanted to shake her head but stopped herself. Giving a hand wave instead. "Hafta wait for Iida."

Iida had nearly run to a dead end. In angered shock he had lost complete sight of Parasus. He hadn't been able to use a burst, sure, but he had been more than fast enough to catch up... so where the hell had she gone? His side ached and he began to wonder if she'd done more than graze him. If he couldn't catch Parasus.. she may have found a way to double back to Alarice.

He'd turned around before he'd finished that thought, to make sure his classmate was okay. He didn't find Parasus there, and Alarice appeared to be talking to some one he didn't recognize. She practically jumped up upon seeing him make it back, walking stiffly and quickly to him, holding a bundle of fabric to her face.

"I couldn't catch her she just... disappeared. We'll have to report her when we get back." he stated, slightly oblivious to her new found rush to get back to UA's safety. "Can you make it back like that?"

"I can make it." Alarice stated, "I don't want to shee any more surprise visits from family and I can't shmell a damn thing now." breathing through her mouth fairly hard, sticking close to her friends side. They left and time didn't seem to matter as they headed back as fast as possible to UA. Her head was pounding and she found herself trying to lean and walk at the same time.

As they got through the gates, a sudden panic made the pounding in her head worse. "I... don't know if we should tell any one."

"We are going to." the firmness in Iida's tone surprised her. He looked at her as harshly in the eyes as he had Parasus. She half expected him to grab her and drag her, but he slowed down instead.

"but.. what if... they kick me out..because of Parasus?" Alarice returned, eyes pleading, processing the events that had happened in full.

"You will be expelled, if you don't say anything." He didn't waver from his commitment. He softened just a tad, trying clearly not to be to harsh on her. "I can't and won't, lie for you Stone. This is something that has to be reported. You and I need to tell them everything that happened."

000

What had he said? What had he definitely hoped despite being a realist, what would not happen?

This. This is what Aizawa didn't want to have happen.

However it had happened, and nothing could be done about the past now. He'd been alerted that two of his students had returned and were being taken straight to the Nurses office, and that authorities had already been contacted. Essentially as the kid's guardian, since they'd become a boarding school he headed over to get the story as well.

He sat in for Iida's recounting of the situation to the officer, who already had had the boy's written account for documentation of what had occurred. Once Iida was done and left, he followed only far enough to collect Stone from Recovery Girl. As he neared the door he could hear them talking.

"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be so much trouble." Alarice said very quietly, while rolling the Pez around in her hand that Recovery Girl had given her.

"I know you aren't, Stone." Recovery Girl patted her leg gently, Her tone was soft, and gentle "Some things, just happen."

He cleared his throat to get their attention, Stone jumping at his appearance. She was somewhat hesitant to leave the safety of the nurses office, he noted. Aizawa, nodding to Recovery Girl as he left, following behind his transfer. She said nothing to him as they walked, and was brief even with the Officer. Though she handed over a 4 page deep recounting of the events. Clearly she had a lot to say about the situation and Parasus.

"Do you have any knowledge of what your sister may have been talking about after she assaulted you."

"No sir."

"Her last comments sounded like threats, what do you think she meant?"

"I... don't know. She was always very distrustful of the government, especially back home... she always wanted to be around other hell-hounds, I think that's why she left the states, its probably related to that."

"Why would she leave the states to be around other Hell-hounds?"

As Stone sat there stiff as a board explaining the non-association ruling in the states against hell-hounds gathering, or even living together if they weren't direct family to each other. Aizawa saw that child he'd met the first time. She had grown and changed a lot since the avoidant person she'd been when she'd started. The stiff, tense posture, the fidgeting and the occasional darting glance to the door, were all back now. He really wanted to shake her and tell her she wasn't in trouble, herself. The reasoning of his thoughts told him it made sense, given the history she had with schools previous, that to her, there might be real reason to think she was going to get thrown out now. After all, the files provided from Sunshine, had stated that there had been two incidents of assault previous, that ended with Stone having to leave the schools.

While it made sense to expel one student for attacking another, keeping the assaulter and getting rid of the victim was completely illogical to him. So much so that when he had read the files, he had his own doubts about the reports. Now though, all of the incidents he'd had to deal with, regarding Stone, had been pretty cut and dried about who was the victim. Outside of some wild parkour and avoidance of social situations, she wasn't a bad kid at all. She definitely did not go around looking for trouble.

"Do you know where Parasus could be now?"

"No.. I really don't... I didn't even know she'd come to Japan till she showed up." The detective taking the information nodded to her, and then to Aizawa. "We'll do our best to keep you all informed if we find anything else. "

Just like that, it was over, and his student hadn't relaxed in the least. Instead he noted, she had curled up on herself hiding her face. This was new, and he reminded himself, this was a nearly 16 year old girl.

"Stone, are you okay?" It was a stupid question, he knew, but he'd asked it all the same, offering her the ability to just talk to him. Though he doubted she'd take it. "You aren't in trouble."

She pulled her head out of her hands, and despite trying to hide it he could tell, she was trying not to cry. Stone didn't say anything, turning to look at him, some suspicion in her eyes but she didn't say anything still. She looked pale in the face as she visibly tried to force herself to relax. There was a long quiet that stretched out for a moment, before Stone quietly just said "I'm sorry, Aizawa-sensei."

"You don't need to apologize to me, Stone." He said softly, giving her a single, soft pat on her shoulder. "I'm sorry that this happened to you, but I'm glad you trusted us enough to report her properly. I know its not an easy thing to do." Not that he knew from experience, but the timing of his Patrols meant he had observed the difficulty people had in reporting their family members for real crimes.

"I feel sick." She said very quietly, again, shifting forward.

"Like you need to-" Aizawa grabbed her hair out of reflex before that thought even finished. Saving the long braid before it fell into the danger zone. She'd grabbed the trashcan that was in arms reach, and had heaved into it. For a moment he wished he could close his ears but it was mercifully quick. Still holding onto her hair, he reached into one of his little pouches, to retrieve one of the individually packaged wipes stored there. He handed one to her without saying anything, she took it, remaining equally silent.

He let her hair go, once it was safe, and grabbed the unopened water-bottle that had been on the table. He handed that over after she'd tied up the trash-bag, her face had color now at least.

"You should be off resting in your room, I think." He told more than offered, and his student only nodded. This was nerves, given how she hadn't had this problem after a stranger stabbed her, it was likely to do with her sister. Not just the standard "she's my sister and I can't believe she gave me a minor concussion." kind of nerves either. More of the fear of being kicked out, and a fear of her sister, who of course, knew where she lived. That's not even getting into whether or not her father had been hurt or if Parasus had just used the threat of it to get her alone. Aizawa was pretty sure he would break Parasus's arm given the opportunity to do so. He patiently waited for Stone to stand up. She gave him that puppy eyed look again, albeit briefly, and he let out an exasperated sigh. "If Bakugo can blow up 1-A's fridge, and not get tossed out, you wont either."

She gave him a confused looked but just nodded, still looking perplexed as to why that was relevant. Aizawa had to concede to himself that he just wasn't as good as he wanted at comforting right now. Instead, he spied someone he could easily hand that task off to.

"Yagi, can you escort Stone back to the dorms for me?" He called, catching the lanky blonde's attention. Yagi didn't take long to agree, heading over to take-over for Aizawa.

To his credit, Yagi didn't ask too many questions, but then, he didn't need to know much. Important information traveled fast in UA.

000

The day was still going, a few clouds in the sky as they walked outside in silence. Yagi noticed she had her phone out for part of the walk, and he had to wonder how much he was actually needed.

"Mr Yagi...do you think.. my dad is okay?"

They came to an abrupt stop, Alarice wasn't looking up from her phone, but he could tell, she was trying not to cry. She wasn't entirely convinced that Parasus had just used her their dad as a ruse to make Iida go away. Her voice wavered as she began to explain her self. "I called and texted him, but he didn't pick up and he hasn't answered."

There was a poof of air, as it was disturbed and she looked towards her teacher, seeing All Might's form instead. "Young Stone," he started, tone confident, taking her shoulders, and pulling her gently into a hug. "I'm sure, that with a daughter as strong as you are, your father is fine."

There was a little muffled sniffle, and she returned the embrace, though her arms obviously couldn't quite get around his torso in this state. He let go and poofed back down to his skinny size, while Alarice wiped her last tear. He quickly wiped blood off his cheek. "Thank you. Mr. Yagi."

He offered a smile back to her, and she returned it, mostly. Her father still hadn't answered, but it wasn't time to panic about that, yet. The rest of the short walk back to the Dorms went quick, and she thanked him again for the hug. With his job done, he turned, and headed back to the school buildings to finish the work he did have. Alarice headed into the dorms, greeted her classmates, and disappeared into her dorm room.