Chapter 22

Kirishima's eyes darted between them, his hand visible tightening on the door handle. He opened his mouth and closed it again. Questions were obviously moving through his eyes. Relief and betrayal danced with each other. The atmosphere around Kirishima shifted faster than the edges of an eye of a tornado. "Are you guys going to tell me what you're talking about?"

Uraraka glanced towards him. Katsuki sighed, nudging her inside. "I'll make something first. You should probably sit down."

Kirishima neared the edge of the door, "I want to know, now. And don't lie to me, I'm not stupid. You had those papers everywhere. You think I wouldn't notice?"

Katsuki felt himself shift through his mind rapidly trying to figure out what paperwork that Kirishima was talking about. His mind shifting back towards the paperwork Deku slammed against him after the trip to the beach. Those Papers. He had spent hours going through why they were important but was careful not to alter them. But this was Kirishima. He just spent months in jail grieving over the loss of Raiz. Of course, he would notice Raiz in seconds.

"Raiz is alive."

Kirishima's eyes widened.

"Not quite." Katsuki sighed, pushing his way inside, Kirishima glanced between the two of them.

"That doesn't make any sense." Kirishima snapped.

Katsuki shook his head, he wanted to talk to Kirishima about this. There was a lot that he wanted to talk to him about that he wasn't quite ready to talk about or he was unsure of how to talk about to him. "It's kind of hard to explain. Once you find out you're going to want to dart out of this house."

Kirishima's eyes narrowed, "Kind of like now?"

"A little bit more." Uraraka sighed, going to the kitchen to grab them something, anything to mellow out the thoughts.

"That gang….the one that killed him." Katsuki felt himself claw into the living room table. He wanted to bring Raiz back to Kirishima. Show that he was alive and show that he was fine. How we he supposed to explain that he had to kill Raiz all over again? How was he supposed to explain that to Kirishima? How was he supposed to explain that when he couldn't even explain that to himself? "It's not an imposter. It's Raiz."

Kirishima lowered himself to the floor, "Why? Raiz wouldn't…That doesn't make any sense."

Uraraka came back into the room, setting some food up at the table, "I don't think it's Raiz's choice. There was a woman with several men around her. They each had two connections at least I think."

Kirishima glanced towards her, "And what would those be?"

Uraraka took a breath, "First they couldn't fight her commands, the man that fought Katsuki almost lurched, he looked halfway to puking when she demanded he shut up."

Kirishima nodded, "So we're looking for a quirk like Shinso's, we can call him up and ask him if he has any advice."

Katsuki crossed his arms, glancing towards the roof. Wishing it was that easy. He could already guess what the second feature was. Two out of seven shared a connection that he was more familiar then he wanted to be with.

Uraraka glanced towards the table, "The second is the problem."

Kirishima rapidly glanced between the two of them, "What's the second?"

Uraraka took a breath. Katsuki tightened his hand on one of the chairs. He knew he shouldn't make Uraraka tell him, that was his job. He was his best friend after all. He could swing a pretty decent guess. She had probably researched it while exploring the city in search of the gang again.

"They were all dead previously."

Kirishima glanced between them, the information processing in his mind. Whomever that woman was her quirk likely wouldn't have been received well in their society.

Uraraka began talking, vomiting information mostly, likely unsure where to fill Kirishima in on. Nothing out of this situation was going to be a comfort to him, "Her name is Cecilia, her quirk manifested at the age of six during a massive bombing that killed at least twenty people. They each rose from the dead unsure about what had happened, she demanded that they protect her and they moved. After that her quirk wasn't well received by her classmates. Especially since she had to bring anyone she reanimated to class with her since they could only go in a distance of forty feet without dying again. After they die again she can only resurrect them so many times, it varies from person to person, and the police don't have on record how many times she's resurrected a person. So far, each member of her entourage has been resurrected at least once, except for Raiz."

Kirishima lowered himself to the floor, lowering his head into his hand. "Shit. What the heck…." He was silent, the information likely rushing through his head at the speed of an overflowing river. "If he's rotting on the inside, we could probably think about what to do about transplants if we could prevent it. But, that woman's control is another problem. Even if we get him a transplant, if he leaves her, he'll die."

Katsuki sighed, moving to the carpet where Kirishima sat, throwing his head against the wall next to the door. "I've been racking my brain. I wanted to bring Raiz home to you, safe. Not this news."

Kirishima glanced towards him, "Next time something like this happens tell me. What if she brought him to the jail? I would've torn the place to shreds. Or he was outside? What do you think I would've done?"

Katsuki nodded. Kirishima was right, he had inadvertently put them in danger by hiding this information from him. "It won't happen again. From now on we're a team. The three of us." Kirishima nodded.

Uraraka shifted the food from the table, towards their party on the floor. "What we have to figure out is what we're going to do next."

"I would say pummel that woman, but we don't know where to find her or if she's unconscious, other than sleeping, will her quirk deactivate and kill Raiz." Katsuki sighed. There had to be something they could do. It wasn't like they could just get Shinso and have him tell Raiz to live. Shinso's quirk wasn't that omnipotent. And it ranged closer to hypnotism versus brain-washing.

"All right, so one of us needs to figure out how to break her brainwashing without killing Raiz, while someone else needs to locate the gang. The last person can pummel the gang when we get our hands on them."

"Kirishima, you're not leaving the house."

"I-" Kirishima looked between them, "Uraraka, is there any way you can get my court date moved up?"

Uraraka shook her head, "Even if I managed to do such a feat, there's no guarantee you'd win. Then there's the fact that your hero license is permanently suspended. It would be hard for us to justify allowing you to help. It'd be considered endangering civilians and we'd all go back to jail in an instant."

Kirishima nodded. "I'll find another way of helping, but I'm promising both of you, especially since this involves Raiz, my sidekick, I refuse to stay out of it."

Katsuki sighed. It wasn't unexpected. It was one of the reasons he had considered hiding the truth from him. "Fine but stay out of the spotlight. And make sure you don't leave this house until the house arrest is up."

Kirishima nodded. Uraraka shuffled, "I'll try to give Hendrick a call. I'm sure he'll be ecstatic to arrange something. He's always been excited to work with heroes and former heroes alike."

"Weird." Katsuki scoffed.

Uraraka shot him a look, 'be happy he was excited about working with you.'

"Still weird."

Kirishima shrugged, "Some people actually like their jobs. And I hear that he helped you out a while back. Maybe the reason he likes it is he helps people like us. When they're seen as the bad guy but they're really not. Or the kind of people that are on the down and out. I've talked to a couple guys back in the jail and he did his best and always saw the best in most the people that were his clients. When they lost, it was as though he was as frustrated as they were. On many cases apparently, he talked to them about going back to court to request a smaller sentence."

Katsuki glanced towards him.

"Sometimes people are just having a bad time. Sometimes they just don't make it through it. Those are the kinds of people he worked with."

Katsuki tightened his hands. He should've been more than glad that he was like that. If he wasn't, he would've lost that case with Uraraka.

"Either way, we've got to protect each other," Kirishima said.

The front door swung open, a new voice adding itself to the conversation, "It's a little late for that conclusion."

They each looked up, hearts skipping beats.

Aizawa stood in the doorway.