"I used to know a NEXT that had healing powers," Kotetsu remarked to Yuri one night over dinner. Kaede was at a sleepover with a friend, and he'd felt odd about eating alone when there was a companion right downstairs. "She'd be able to take care of your leg, quick as a snap."

"You used to know a lot of NEXTs. You don't seem to know many now."

"I used to," Kotetsu agreed. "My wife and I used to run an established safe house. We had meetings, made pamphlets about NEXT working with humans, freed slaves whenever we could."

"You don't anymore."

Kotetsu shrugged. "I've got Kaede. She's the most important thing in my life, after I lost Tomoe."

"How―"

"Sickness. She wasn't a NEXT or anything, she just really believed in the cause." And in me. She thought I could be doing so much more.

Yuri was silent for a moment, chewing his fried rice. "My mother was like that. Normal human, but she believed in my father with all her heart."

"How―"

"Suicide. Or murder, but made to look like suicide. After they murdered my father and took me away. The first time I broke out of my collar, I saw it on the news. They found his identification on his body, you know. That's how they learned his real name. That's how they found us."

"How did you get out of your collar? How do you keep escaping? I'd think you'd burn yourself, if you burn through the metal."

Yuri smiled that chilly little smile of his. "I don't burn through the collar. I threaten to burn through the men holding the keys. It usually works. I rarely even go to market."

"You did this time."

Yuri scowled, then stabbed a chunk of meat especially hard. "They figured out the blindfold. That was harder to get out of."

"How long…you said you first got taken captive when your father died, right?"

"Correct."

"How old were you?"

"How old do I look?" Yuri asked, looking up at him through lashes that, by rights, should have been burned away.

"I was going to say twenty or so. But you can't be."

"Twenty-nine. I was twelve when they murdered my father."

Kotetsu picked at his rice, trying to sound casual. "You say that a lot. Talk about him being murdered."

"Well, he was."

"Usually people would say 'when my father died' or something."

"Usually people turn a blind eye to evil happening under their noses," Yuri countered.

"Touché. But doesn't that keep it fresh in your mind? Doesn't that make you think about the bad things more often?"

Yuri leaned close, meeting his eyes. His own weren't on fire, but that heat simmered within, ready to be released at any second. "If your father was murdered, declared a criminal and a freak for trying to do what's right, and you'd spent the last seventeen years either as a rich man's dangerous toy or an animal scavenging for scraps, would you ever forget about the bad things?"

Silence fell. It often did, when he was talking to Yuri. There was something so intense about the younger man. It made Kotetsu question everything he knew, everything he believed. Finally he said, "I thought you always escaped."

"Someone got lucky. He figured out a way to keep me for a while."

"How?"

Yuri's voice frosted over, colder than Karina's ice had been. "You think I'm going to tell anyone?"

"Right. Sorry."

After another silence, "Kotetsu?"

"Hmm?"

"After dinner, I need your help."

"With what?"

Yuri shifted in his seat, a little uncomfortable. "I need to shower."

"I told you, not until your cast comes off. Make do with the tub and the washcloth."

"I can't reach everywhere. It's obnoxious."

Kotetsu snorted. "I'm not putting another cast on you just because you feel unclean."

"I can't stand it. I tried, but it doesn't work. And my hair feels repulsive."

"It's because you keep it so long. Why not cut it off?"

Yuri looked offended. "I like my hair."

"Well, so do I, but I just think it would be easier if you―"

"You like my hair?"

Kotetsu stopped short. "I guess I did say that, didn't I? Look," he said, brushing that aside for the moment, "I'm going to run out of cast material if you feel like showering all the time."

"Not all the time. I don't think once a week is too much to ask."

"You're a guest in my home. Be more reasonable. If you have to be clean, I'll wash you."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I'll wash you." Kotetsu shrugged, then took his last bite. "No different from washing my daughter when she was little."

"You can't be serious."

"Why not? What, you think I'm going to take advantage of you?"

It was meant to be a joke, but Yuri flinched. Not for the first time, Kotetsu's mind strayed to wondering just what had been done to him in captivity. "I'm not," he said quickly.

"I know."

"I mean, if I was going to take advantage of you, I wouldn't have destroyed your collar."

"I know."

"I'd have done it a while ago, before fixing up your leg."

"I know, Kotetsu."

"I'd have―"

"Shut up, would you? Fine, you can help me, if it'll get you to stop talking about how you would have raped me."

The word cut at Kotetsu's heart with its ugly sound, worse meaning. Even worse than that was the way Yuri said it almost casually. Like a fact of life.

Was that how Keith would talk about it, if Kotetsu could find him today? Or, god help her, Karina? She was just a kid when they took her away, not too much older than Kaede. "If you don't want―"

"I said yes, didn't I?" Yuri snapped. "I'm not afraid of you. I could kill you in a second, and you know it."

Kotetsu didn't know about a second, especially if he'd activated his powers, but it didn't seem prudent to argue. "Then why are you yelling at me?"

Yuri glared at him, then turned and hobbled over to the washtub with the help of his crutches. "Come, if you're coming. If not, you're making me a new cast."

He stripped off the heavy shirt he'd been wearing since Kotetsu found him, and let it fall to the ground in a heap. Then he slowly, carefully stripped off what remained of his pants.

Kotetsu swallowed, and gripped the table until his knuckles turned white. The scars on Yuri's neck were just the beginning. Angry red lines and what were unmistakably the silvery welts left by a long-ago whip crisscrossed Yuri's back and buttocks, and what Kotetsu could see of his thighs. The place on his wrists where the manacles went was crinkled with old burn marks, and suddenly Kotetsu understood how Yuri had broken free of his cuffs. He burned them off. While they were still attached to his wrists. Good god, he must have the highest pain tolerance in the world.

Or he just didn't care.

Yuri looked back over his shoulder, daring him to say something, daring him to offer pity.

Kotetsu got to his feet, then retrieved the washcloth and turned on the tap. He started washing Yuri's back as gently as he could, unsure how old some of the wounds were. "Who was he?"

"An executive of some kind. I never found out what he was executive of. I never really cared."

"How long did he keep you captive?"

"He owned me for five years." Kotetsu could hear the faint trace of a smile in Yuri's voice. "I kept thinking he'd get tired of me. I was wrong."

"What was his name?"

"As far as I know? Master."

Kotetsu shivered, and knew Yuri felt it through the washcloth.

"That's what happens, you know," he said quietly. "If they'd taken you, it would have been the same."

"Except I'm not―" Kotetsu stopped himself, flushing.

"Not what?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Not what, Kotetsu?"

Kotetsu swallowed, then lied. "Not Mr. Legend's son."

Not pretty like you.

"My Master didn't care about that."

Kotetsu tapped at one of Yuri's arms, which the man obediently lifted to be cleaned. "Who saved you?"

"I did. Eventually." He laughed mirthlessly. "You can't keep a Class-H in chains forever. Eventually, they break free. At least, I did."

"Your old master?"

"What do you think?"

Kotetsu paused, considering. "I think there probably wasn't anything left to bury."

"Wrong. He was fat. There was plenty left."

After a minute, Kotetsu started to snicker. Yuri joined in, sounding surprised in spite of himself to be laughing.

"Turn around. Let me do your front."

"I can reach my front, thanks very much. You do my hair."

"What do I look like, a stylist?"

"You look like someone who doesn't want to make me a new cast."

Kotetsu glared at the back of Yuri's head. "I should make you walk around with a rotten one, and see how far that gets you," he grumbled.

True, Yuri's hair was in desperate need of a wash. It wasn't easy, getting it cleaned and rinsed without being able to just dump the water over him, but he managed nonetheless.

"You're actually pretty good at that," Yuri admitted. "You're not pulling at all."

Kotetsu worked on another tangle with the comb, then dunked the lock back in the water. "I have a daughter, you know. Girls don't like it when you pull their hair."

"No one likes that."

"Some people―" Kotetsu broke off, coughing conspicuously.

"Not like that, pervert."

"Sorry."

Just then, the heavy door to the basement crashed open. Yuri started up, but Kotetsu put a calming hand on his shoulder. "Easy. Me and Antonio are the only people that can open that door. It weighs eight hundred pounds."

Sure enough, Antonio's head poked down through the hatch. "Ivan's here," he reported.

"Good. Send him down, would you?"

"Sure. But Kotetsu…"

"What?"

Antonio hesitated, then shook his head. "Never mind. I'll let him tell you."

A second later, Ivan staggered down the stairs. He was wearing his own face, despite Kotetsu's many warnings, and the jeans-and-t-shirt combination he usually wore outside the city.

He was also covered in blood.

"Ivan? Good god, what happened to you?"

The boy's eyes were wild. They latched on to Yuri immediately, and he raised a shaking hand to point at him. "I knew it. I knew it! I knew you had him down here, Kotetsu."

Kotetsu frowned. "So? What's the big-"

"Everyone's looking for him." Ivan's voice was trembling, harder than his hand. "They're combing every house. You should have turned him in. He's fucking dangerous."

Yuri stiffened under Kotetsu's hand.

"Easy, Ivan," Kotetsu said, taking a step towards the boy. It was easy to forget how young Ivan was, just eighteen, not really ready for the jobs he'd been doing. No wonder the strain and pressure were getting to him. "Everything's going to be fine."

"No! It isn't!" Ivan's voice cracked, and his eyes were red around the rims. "He's going to bring us all down! You're a fucking fool to take him in!"

Kotetsu grabbed Ivan by the collar and slammed him, back-first, into the wall. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he snarled, fighting for the control to not activate his Hundred Power. "I thought you got over your cowardice years ago. This man is a fellow NEXT, like you and me. Have you forgotten that we help each other?"

"Where were you, then?" Ivan demanded. His voice was hoarse now, and angry tears spilled from his eyes. "When the shit goes down you're always here with your family." He spat the last word like it was a curse, then spun and kicked Kotetsu hard in the gut. While he was still recovering from the blow-always forgot he was so damn nimble-Ivan wriggled out of his grasp.

He ran up the stairs three, four, five at a time, bounding like some sort of gazelle. Kotetsu stared after him, dumbfounded.

"Will he turn me in, do you think?" Yuri asked, keeping his voice even.

Kotetsu ran a hand through his hair, trying to think. "I'd have said no, not ever. He's been working with us since he was just a little thing, maybe thirteen or so, and I've never see him like that. He's done some fairly dangerous stuff, too, and never flinched. Well, not after the first few. It took him a while to harden that resolve."

Heavy footsteps signaled Antonio's arrival in the basement. Yuri, showing much more flexibility than he'd claimed when he wanted a shower, reached down to the ground and scooped up his shirt.

Antonio wasn't looking. He faced Kotetsu and announced, "Edward's dead. Heard it on the news about ten seconds before the kid showed up."

"Ohhh." Kotetsu closed his eyes, cursing or praying, he was never sure which these days. "Damn. That explains things."

"Does it?" Yuri asked mildly.

"Yeah. Ivan's best friend. Ivan's always sort of been Edward's sidekick, for all that his powers are better for going in and out of the city." He chewed his lip, thinking fast. "Unless Edward pulled something really out of the ordinary for him, that means there was an attack on the base camp. Damn."

"That's what it said on the news," Antonio agreed.

"Kotetsu, your lip is bleeding."

He stopped biting it. "Sorry. Just thinking. I'm just not sure how we're going to get you out of the city if everyone's on such high alert."

Yuri tossed his rapidly-drying hair, easing into his pants. "Who said I wanted to leave the city?"

Kotetsu stared at him. "You can't stay here forever. Outside is-"

"I know what outside is. I've been there. Poor fishing villages and farming towns, where they hate NEXT just as much as they do here. In every other city, the slavery is just as bad, and the living conditions are worse. I'll stay, thanks."

"But they'll find you."

Yuri's eyes glittered with something hard in the darkness. "Good."

Antonio growled, low in his chest, and started advancing on the slender man. "Is this some kinda trick? You a plant lookin for NEXT sympathizers?"

"Antonio, don't," Kotetsu warned.

Antonio brushed him aside. "I thought it was funny that you showed up on this doorstep. How'd you know which house to go to, huh? There ain't that many NEXT sympathizers who'd have patched you up and given you a safe place to hide. How'd you find Kotetsu, huh?" He was nose to nose with Yuri, and Kotetsu got ready to activate his power, just in case either of them snapped.

Yuri's chest shuddered as he forced a deep breath. Little pilot flames danced in front of his eyeballs, held under control by the barest of margins. "Oh, very well done," he said, acid irony dripping from every syllable. "You saw through my cunning plan to escape captivity only by killing three men, break my own leg, crawl until I passed out, and be taken pity on by what is surely the city's only NEXT sympathizer. Obviously then I sat here for nearly two weeks without going anywhere or attempting to contact anyone-because I must be just that clever, right? Then I suppose I somehow divulged the location of this base camp, which I didn't even know existed, and sat here waiting for the news that it had been destroyed, only to...well, sorry, I'm caught up now. What is it the evil Class-H is supposed to do from here? Maybe you could give me a hint."

Kotetsu caught Antonio's fist just before it made contact with Yuri's face. "Don't!" he shouted. "Antonio, he's just trying to make you angry!"

"It worked! Come on, Kotetsu, you don't think there's somethin weird about the whole thing? What's he doing here, if he doesn't want to leave? How do we know he's even a NEXT? I haven't seen him-"

Fire shot from Yuri's eyes in two blue-green lances. With devastating accuracy, the flames scorched by Antonio's right ear, left ear, then vanished. Yuri stood up in the silence, a heavy clunk echoing through the basement as his cast hit the floor. "You want to know what I'm doing here?" he said, head tilting at an odd angle. His eyes hadn't completely gone out, and now there were little flames twitching on his fingers. "I came here on purpose. I wasn't brought into Sternbild in chains, not this time."

"Then why?" Kotetsu asked, hypnotized by the sight. Yuri looked like a demon, or a creature out of myth. "Why come back?"

"I came here to take this city back," Yuri said, and his voice was the closest thing to rage Kotetsu had ever heard.

"I knew it," Antonio muttered. "He's a NEXT rebel. Kid, you're fighting a losing-"

"You have no idea what it means when I'm fighting. You have no idea what I'm capable of." Yuri said it quietly, and the words were all the more frightening for that. "More than that, you have no idea what's already been set in motion."

"Set in-"

"You were right, Antonio. I didn't find this house by accident." Yuri gave that thin, chilly smile again. "I had a list of old safe houses. This was going to be the first one I went to, after smuggling myself into the city."

"But you were captured."

The fire dimmed for a second, and Yuri looked down. "I was betrayed. As usual. I was expecting it, but the blindfold was still an unpleasant surprise."

Kotetsu moved forward, a sudden idea striking him. "You've been going around the world, looking for NEXT who will help you?"

Yuri's eyes flared again, brighter, hotter, and Kotetsu felt his cheeks warm. "No. This has nothing to do with NEXT. They aren't the ones who need to change. They're not the ones who need to be taught the error of their ways."

Despite the flames, Kotetsu was sure he felt the temperature in the room drop a few degrees.