4

He sat atop the dorm roof, putting out a cigarette, blowing out the last puff, he only had a few left in this pack, only two more packs to last him through August, a 'Survival Kit'.

His brother promised he'd send him one once a month (Hisashi didn't allow him outside UA walls, so he couldn't get any of it himself), this box he'd gotten within the first few days of the month.

Wouldn't except less of a top tier military student. Exact and timely, executed and packed tight with precision.

Hisashi didn't support his habits per-sey, but he understood why it 'was', he even stuffed small micro-bottles of vodka in it too. For now, Hisashi was allowing it to go on, even drank with him while around.

But his brother swore up and down that he'd eventually rid him of both problems.

Problems. The junior didn't exactly see them like that though. That was where the difference was.

Kasaya was up on the roof reminiscing of all things. About the good times, about baseball, but more forlornly, about how it'd been torn out of his grasp.

He hated when his mind wandered this direction, about his lost past-time. UA did have a batting cages, sports teams, and he was thinking about getting involved, but that meant yet again, travelling outside UA walls, something he promised his brother he wouldn't do, but with how his favorite sport ended, it left such a scar in his mind.

How could he ever play again?

Ashley had him out doing things with his quirk that he couldn't even believe. Immoral, a lot if it involved breaking the law, or worse: Sinful, cruel stuff that he didn't speak about that left him ashamed and sick with himself in his ultimate corruption.

Corruption. The perfect word. Ashley took a good boy, and eroded him away into her puppet, into a disgusting, wicked slave.

Drinking and smoking were bad habits that she had 1st pressed into him, as a way to tear him down, to force submission. He'd had his 1st drink when he was 11, under her emotional control it was sloshed down his throat by his own hands. He'd watched himself tip the tumbler, force it all down.

Drunk, and she was so pleased.

'If you LOVE me at all, then you'll drink all of this.' She'd said.

At times, he felt like a recovering drug addict, stuck with 'em. He'd gotten so accustomed.

The tie between alcohol and numbing his pain, it quickly attached while he was under her hand, he knew he'd become an alcoholic by the time he was 12. She'd made him one.

And still, he drank. It pushed out the reckless shit, pushed out the grief, and he couldn't stop. And, Hisashi knew it, feeding him only enough to keep him subdued, but in a controlled manner, because without it, his headspace became way too consumed by her, and it would spark the one last Control-Emotion she still had placed, that leftover one, one of the worst, LOVE, and he'd lose it.

Lose his damn mind.

Her quirk. All she had to do was say to a person an emotion. That was all it took, then, that person would be latched, serving her.

She was the cause of his injury. The reason why he couldn't play ball anymore, the reason why those medals in his computer desk drawer were just a figment of his broken past.

It was a Emotion Quirk that she held, bred from combining two specific Control-type Quirks, an arranged marriage. The catch was, she could only latch onto one person at a time, a parasite living off of a host, until she was brutally ripped off.

However, he knew she'd work to become more skilled, able to control more people, she already had a secondary. He shriveled at the recollection of that 'wave' of Control-Emotion sweeping upon him, like a haze of morphine. He remembered the feeling of it, cold, like an IV of fluid.

She was only strong enough in their youth to set in a new one every 3 months or so.

He knew she'd boil that down to a damn science over time!

She'd work hard to learn how to set more Control-Emotions in in a shorter amount of time. She had already learned to naturalize the emotional phrasing into her speech, lacing Control-Emotions to sound nonchalant.

That bitch! How fucking scary. How unreal.

The worst part was her quirk was like his quirk: The person she controlled wasn't brainwashed!

There was someone in his class that had a Control Quirk called 'Brainwash', he had these tired, hollow eyes and a super high hairline. He'd overheard him speaking about it, and how it pressed his will upon them, how they had no idea what was happening, and it was rare if they did know at all!

If only.

With his and Ashley's, the hosts could see everything they were doing and saying.

The fighting he'd went through!

Completely succumb and subdued on the outside to her, inside he was screaming.

With some events, he'd screamed in his mind until his head itself was numb, but none of that screaming came out of his mouth, instead his lips formed different words, 'Yes my dear.' 'I can, and of course, for you, I will.' 'All for you, all for your cause', as she re-spoke Control-Emotion words time and time again to strike it, like a match, making it fire again, then it'd fizzle, his body would just sit, like a husk, complacent.

He was stuck for years watching himself doing things under deep hazed emotion, doing things to himself and others, stricken, and he was jaded from it.

He could only imagine what his victims were screaming inside their heads as he slashed, violated, tore them apart with gusto in her name.

He shivered. Lighting up another cigarette, cracked off a mini bottle, 3 fluid ounces, and downed it, shoving the trash back in his pocket.

He wanted nothing more now than to say, 'Me too. Me too! I'm being controlled also!' But, no pleas of 'Help me! Save me! No!' would of saved.

He'd stare into their eyes, he could only imagine what he looked like to them, those he controlled; some words always came to mind: Heartless. Dead. Apathetic. But mostly and most truthfully: Lifeless.

Not 'alive', but alive.

Kasaya could control people's bodies by saying their names, but under influence of her quirk, she'd made him easily use his quirk like playing a fucking flute.

Pushing it to the maximum. She'd made it to where he could use his quirk well, too well, used it too deeply, to do so many bad, awful things, for her own cause, her family's cause, that when she got siphoned out, his control in his ability decreased to nearly zero.

He had been so attached to her emotionally, he had no idea how to use his own quirk by his own will. Being a quirk that was associated under the 'Control' family, dealing with thought and cerebral functions... like many others in the same area, his quirk had something to do with his will, and having control over it.

She had been the one that moved his will, not him.

He had no classification under the UA portal. He'd never even filled it out.

There were a few others in UA with similar quirks like his and Ashley's he'd found, like that guy with the high-hairline. He wanted to talk to him about his Control-type quirk, how he felt about being a hero.

About pursuing that.

His brother had set him on this path to UA after Ashley, the direct opposite individual of what UA even stood for. Heroism was not her forte. She was a villainous, a lecherous blood-sucker. And someone, his brother had said... Had to stop her.

He agreed. Just unsure how.

She, growing up with him, and once their quirks arose at the age of 5, learned they were similar. Ashley however, learned to control her's before he'd even touched on his, and didn't get into a mindset that she could use her quirk for personal gain until about 11.

Where she got that idea, Kasaya never would know, but he bet it was her family. Looking back, it had to be. Something was going on, he had been a puppet low on the string, but they were using their own daughter for their own personal business.

That was when she went haywire.

The sad part was... that was Satoko's childhood friend, but also his childhood sweetheart.

He as a little boy, bought her gifts, as she lived down the street at the time, and was a neighborhood girl, albeit a rich one. He never forgot her on Valentine's Day, always asked her over to play video games, and was his #1 go-to whenever his mom asked who he wanted to take to amusement parks, carnivals, festivals.

It was always Ashley Connely. A foreigner from America, parents in international business, and he's learned so many things from her about American customs, it was why he shook hands. It was like pieces of her still were inside him, ones that he realized would probably never come out.

As a late elementary schooler, so engrossed in baseball, and winning championships, medals, travelling all over Japan for tournaments, he ran down the street once after he got back from Kyoto, unable to wait to tell her about his victory. He cared so much more for the sport than his quirk which he didn't understand.

But when he got there, something else happened instead.

They went outside, as it was a hot summer, and they were sitting on her pillared porch entry eating popsicles. He was going on about how the tournament was, how he'd got another gold, how the team they faced was incredibly defensive and bold. After realizing she wasn't responding, he just got quiet.

"Is everything okay?" He was honestly concerned.

"Yeh. I've just been thinking." She put her hair behind her ear.

"About what?" The little boy pushed. Boy, he wanted to know what she was thinking. He always did!

"Do you LOVE me?" She asked, turning to his face to look in his eyes, as if to inspect him.

It was an expression he'd never seen before written across her.

He'd never seen something so dark.

To him... it didn't suit her.

Feeling so strong, the wave of emotion sweep over him, cold to the bone, icy, in that moment he lunged forward and gave her a sweet popsicle kiss right on the lips. "Yes! I love you ASHLEY!"

She pulled back, jerking as if it sickened her, a stark tone. "Yes, of course you do."

That was the very moment that she, with her beautiful features, hooked him like a fish, stabbing him right through the jowl and reeled him in.

From 11 on, up until 2 years ago, for 4 agonizing years she controlled him, and with each emotion she decided to place over him, he just got colder and colder.

Freer now, his skin was still warm, alive, but inside the cool chill of her last Control-Emotion over him, LOVE, remained.

He was just now 17, it had been his birthday, and that was why his brother was supposed to come visit. This year they had something to celebrate, another year free of her grasp.

He'd lost control of himself, his mind, his quirk. Everything he had, that girl made him hand her. 1st it was LOVE. And all the actions associated with strong, deep, pure love that one would do for another. He stole. He confessed secrets. He spent money money money. He broke rules. Some more followed, including DEPRESSION.

That was deep.

He felt as if he'd kill himself without her every time she re-whispered it in his ear.

And the only way to break the quirk's bond was to feel a natural emotion of the same value on your own.

His brother screamed at him, punched the shit out of him. Yelled and told him he hated him for all the trouble he was causing, he'd even went so public as to burn a complex down in Ashley's name, she'd made him cut up his body as a sign of his devotion to her just by whispering 'DEPRESSION' over and over.

The thin streaky scars still remained all along his inner thighs.

That was when he felt it. Ultimate pure depression from his loving brother... by hating him. As spit landed all over his face, and his brother smacked him down and blood shot out over the wall in their shared basement bedroom, he felt the 'spell' she cast lift.

The DEPRESSION she'd placed lightened, his insides got just a bit warmer feeling, and was replaced by just his depression alone. It felt like a haze, a veil over his eyes was suddenly gone.

"Do you?" Satoko cried at 15. "Do you really hate me?!" He shrieked out.

"Is it?" His brother realized he'd spoke. He had spoke! And it wasn't words pertaining to Ashley!

Kasaya sat and cried, a loose ball of wet blood on the floor. His brother, seen it, his eyes, Satoko's eyes, like a fog passed. He seen his actual brother in them, for the first time in 4 years.

Instantly, grabbing him up in his arms, he comforted him. "No no Kasaya, no no I don't hate you! I just was trying to make it go away! I just was trying so hard you to pull you from the pain!"

Together that day they cried. His brother wrapping up the deep wounds on the insides of his thighs.

This time, this time... had been the worst time he'd cut himself under her Control-Emotion, DEPRESSION. She'd allowed him to cut up his middle just a bit too far, knifing it, inside his head he'd been screaming in pain, but his mouth never moved, but only to a sick smile to please her as she watched.

He, inside himself, watched himself cut himself up, up, up. Screaming inside to make it stop, the pain! 'DON'T DO IT! NOOO!'

But.

She ended it. Told him to stop if he had any 'PRIDE' in being a man left 'LOVE' left for his body, any 'and she walked away and left him to bleed in the basement, that was where his brother found him.

How she twisted things. How she manipulated.

And from there began the lies, to get away from her. Him and his brother made a pact that he'd continue to lie to her face, acting out how he had before until he could be rid of the false emotions she'd placed on him. To fool her. Even though powerful, she was so proud in her creation, it made her daft in thought that it'd never end, too comfortable, power drunk, and that was the moment Hisashi, the white knight, swooped him away.

He popped another 3 ounce and downed it, shoving it in his pocket. Not enough to faze him at all. He'd demand extra in next month's box, hoping he could plea just enough to get Hisashi on his side about it.

His brother suggested enrolling him in UA, their military father followed suit, because he'd turned his back on him altogether. Seeing a son with a juvenile record, multiple counts of juvenile jail, body harm issues, drinking problems, his father looked at him not only as a societal dud, but a too far gone.

Worst was how he viewed it as 'his' problem, never taking a second to absorb it could be someone else's doing.

"Fix yourself." He'd said, smacking him across the face with a thick leather glove. All chin held high, nose sniffing, not looking the wretched one's way. "Hisashi. You're responsible."

That left a mark for a week across his face.

So, him and his brother worked together on studies to land him in a C Class. All the while, also still knowing Ashley showed up whenever she pleased, and would use her already cast emotional words to get him to do things for her.

They hid everything through lies, and false acting.

His brother tried to talk sense into their father, but it fell on deaf ears, too prideful to consider such a good girl would do that, said that Kasaya was just blaming others for 'his' problems, trying to remove blame off himself.

He spat at it. How could he? Their own father?

Ashley Connely was a grade A student. Ashley Connely was a damn pretty girl. Ashley Connely was sweet as sugar. Ashley Connely's family had money... and they always put it where mouthing off happened.

Evil.

Together, his brother and him lifted the false emotions she'd laid. Because after it was laid, the same emotion she couldn't do again to the same person, another quirk drawback she had.

Kasaya was thankful for that also.

DEPRESSION was the big one. FAITHFUL was another. COURAGE. BRAVERY. DEVOTION. HONOR. PRIDE. ANGER, and so many others.

All were erased except LOVE, the last remaining. That Hisashi couldn't dissolve.

With all mixed together, he had been a love-crazed, overflowing, passionate nutbag who was faithful in completion to Ashley, devoted to her in every single way, and with every action he took he was courageous and brave in doing so, but yet he was so depressed that he couldn't continue on without her, and through all of them, he was crazy in thinking had to do anything he could to keep her: Stealing. Breaking into houses. Burning shit down. Beating others up for her. Making other people beat each other up with his quirk. Making people do this. Him doing things, making himself do horrible, terrible, things. Cutting himself. Piercing his skin for her. Kissing her when she told him to... in places she told him to.

But she was never his.

Even though he was her chess piece.

LOVE remained, that last coldness under his skin, icy.

He couldn't get rid of it. Lift it until he felt pure love on his own. The childlike 'crush' he'd had, it wasn't love. It was childish.

But LOVE he could live with. It kept him tied to her, but someone could be in-love and still function. With UA's security walls protecting him, it was like the LOVE didn't exist, the further he was away, the more the emotion sat in the back of his head he noticed.

And more alcohol! 'Damn it!' He puffed deep, letting out a billow of smoke. His head. It was too scattered. He put a palm to his forehead. "Fuck." He finally mumbled. Hisashi better follow through, or a drawback would happen.

This side of the dorm roof overlooked the still in-construction back area that was abandoned at the moment by the hired crew. He wondered if UA was perhaps out of funds or something to finish the back garden area, never the less it was all roped off and nobody was allowed to go past the yellow tape.

It was the perfect overlook to light his cigarettes up.

What was strange, is even though both insomnia and smoking were 'side-effects' of Ashley, they somehow effected each other. Smoking calmed his nerves, and his body. And smoking a few before trying to fall asleep actually helped him fall asleep, so did alcohol.

He swore he'd never get rid of any of it. Permanent reminders then of his recent past.

Just like his brother's one word text every morning. His brother texted him everyday a safe word: There?

A reminder... to text back that he was there.

Satoko's 'Here.' was a confirmation that he was alive and well, without her, his brother checking to make sure he'd not ran off to her. UA was the safest place for him. It's gates and walls kept all outsiders locked out, and since her quirk didn't work through the phone, it worked only by natural voice, things were much easier.

Life was much better. He was more free than he'd felt in years, even though, trapped in a way because he never left campus.

He couldn't.

She could be looming around anywhere, just waiting to dial him back into her schemes. She'd already gotten strong enough to take control of one more person...

Between UA and his brother, they'd saved his life.

He sucked on the cigarette, unaware that someone below had spied him.

Bakugo consistently cut through the construction zone. It was quiet, and the back door there leading out into the unfinished, restricted, taped-off area he could always open by inserting his thin student ID like a credit card into the slit to jimmy the lock.

It was a short cut he realized was perfect for him to avoid unnecessary chat, running into people, and the stairwell was right there. He just wanted to be left alone damn it!

Excel in school. Become #1. There was nothing else.

But that was when the blonde spied with the corner of his eye movement on the roof, and backed against a bush to conceal himself.

Someone was up there. 4 stories up.

And he wasn't about to let the dumbass know he was down there... in the construction zone. Off limits.

He didn't want to get addressed period.

Bakugo stayed unmoving and quiet, and that's when he watched a familiar glint of blue get pulled back into a bun, and a pair of high tops swing over the edge.

Unmistakable.

Fucking stupid roommate! 'WHAT THE FUCK?'

Something else. This was just something else! He allowed himself to peek out, just to confirm. Yeh.

And to top it off, the bastard was lighting up a cancer stick, right there in plain view, to him at least, to nobody else though as it was the construction area.

Aside from sneaking out at night, which wasn't exactly breaking the rules, this was just another one of those type of things... No smoking was allowed in the dorms. Well the bastard wasn't 'in' the dorms, but on top of it.

Bakugo recorded that the douche, he was beginning to realize, was all about bending the rules, just enough to let his will be.

He knew nothing about him however, he hadn't asked him shit! He didn't give a damn!

Bakugo waited 10 minutes until he was gone, arms crossed behind the bush, leaning on the brick exterior wall.

By the time he got back to the room, the Blue Balls was laying on his bed drawing a circular shape on a piece of paper, obviously sizing it for some sort of fractional perimeters for a homework question. He looked rough, like he needed to shower.

The bitter mooded one from having to be made to wait outside, pluncked down on his own bed, ever careful of the line of course, and opened his laptop, leaning against the wall. He had to start getting ready for an electronic chat, silent group. It was a group Q & A for government.

He looked over the top edge of his computer, the idiot he watched, now put a clear plastic ruler down and was counting.

A thought washed over him that he knew something about him that he didn't know he knew about him. A smoker. Of all things!

It pissed Bakugo off to no end. His ears went hot. Not the smoking. But the catching him in the act.

He had no desire to know anything about him! He had no desire to know shit about anyone!

He just kept moving through this life of his to become the best; going to class, here, there, back and forth. Avoiding all distraction.

But this guy.

Was it by living with him that maybe he was just more attune? Because of close quarters?

No. Not really.

He'd sat the boundary up on Day 1. He'd set the tone.

Instead, Bakugo questioned the universe. It made him incredibly infuriated that he was constantly having something, some little thing dangled over his head, like a stuffed rat on an end of string for a pet about the guy.

He kept packets of condiments in his desk from the cafeteria too, and there was no set 'rule' about doing that, but Bakugo swore there was also a dish in there he'd taken from the cafeteria. A plate or something. Another bend.

The day he ate the pizza he recalled a dirty plate out on his desk.

He'd also swore that he caught him drinking alcohol. The orange juice he'd had on his desk. From across the room, Bakugo caught a slight whiff, but the window on his side was also open, it could of been a quick odor from outside, something passing in the air. But he had it 'disguised' as OJ, if that even was what was going on at all?

And since when had be become observing?

Since last week when he walked the fuck out of the room some time after midnight, only to be caught on his 'hidden intention' stroll by Pinky!

The retard downright... was puzzling.

The UA portal came up and he shifted his eyes down to the screen. Never the less, he didn't have time to be bothered. He had to log in and get on the chat mode to ping the other government students in the group. He had the names on a post-it note. No other way he's remember them.

Like he gave a fuck to!