Broken Heart Foundation (SYOC)

by LordMammon

Far into the future, for those who have had everything ripped away from them, the Broken Heart Foundation is there to put the pieces of your shattered heart back together again. For one reason, and one reason only, no one is going to fix it for you. (SYOC closed)

21. Chapter 21

Revel In What You Are

Kagekatsu didn't know if it was a good thing, or a bad thing that he was becoming more familiar with the Foundation's non-Euclidian layout. What had once taken him something close to twenty minutes to find, now only took him roughly five or so minutes to properly locate. Each winding wall and collapsed corridor, whilst a labyrinthine for the uninitiated, seemed to become more familiar every time his eyes scanned their jagged edges and impossible curves. Right to the point where it was almost possible for the foxboy to catch his missteps within a second of making them.

Between this Lovecraftian mess born out of an insane clown's mind, and the mind-bending abuse of liminal space he had experienced at the Cradle, he couldn't help but choke out a wry laugh. Ironically enough, the most normal space he had inhabited the past five years was prison, and if you had told it to the foxboy then, your face would have been ripped off faster than a cheetah racing after its prey. It only made him wonder with sardonic amusement what other such pleasures awaited him whenever he got out of here.

Three years… Maybe Kagekatsu should have paid more attention to the fine print when he had signed up this place on that fateful day. Maybe it was the paranoia, or maybe it was the fact that a motherfucking vampire was sat right in front of him, offering the one road to freedom he still had left. Either way, it had made him jumpy, unaware of what exactly he had just dived headfirst into. Now, it left him with little idea of how on Earth he was going to spend the next thousand odd days of his life with people of varying levels of sanity.

Either way, as he kicked up more dust with an added pace to his step, Kagekatsu reasoned that it was better than the alternative. It might have barely cracked just a year, but the time he had spent in prison had given him a unique torment that few could sympathise with, and that was boredom. The ranking he had earned himself, whilst not near S, A, or even B for a villain, certainly delivered him a treatment like he was in the depths of Tartarus. With the addition of his Quirk, however limited it was, the guards were to never let him out of their sight once.

At least here, he was as free as one could be. There were no guards scanning every breath he took for a threat to escape, nor were there hideous villains slicking their slimy smiles across saccharine satanic visages. He needed not to look over his shoulder every step he took, no longer fearing a brutal handcuffing, nor the powerful, swift judgement of a chain from the Inner Circle's Hatchet Man.

Safety though… Well, was he safe? The thought made Kagekatsu grumble as he continued forward, now about one minute away from the main meeting room. As he slid his arms into the sleeves of his kimono, he couldn't help but remember that whilst he might have had freedom, he was still bound by the chains of the past, which seared into his skin like the burning wrath of Gods. Monsoon… Painmaker… The whole Inner Circle… Hell, even Subaru was a possible danger! With how the clown had acted lately, it made the long-haired teen wonder how he was even allowed to be around kids.

That book, too. Das Lied vom Meister, otherwise known as Morax's masterpiece. Nothing was safe from that insane man's grasp. Sacrilege was his namesake, and abuse of all that was proper in nature was his favourite pastime. If he were stuck between jumping into Morax's waiting arms, or staple gunning his dick to a fire ant hill, Kagekatsu'd be loading up the staple gun before even blinking. Yet, he had elected to bring the infernal thing with him. Maybe he really was just a masochist at this point in his life?

"Ugh, fucking hell." He rubbed his eyes, way too tired for this shit. Reading anything Morax had touched was like getting a visit from the Sandman. No matter how deranged he got, the man had a special talent for putting others to sleep with his incessant ranting. Somehow, it had taken the foxboy from the manic peak of discovery into the dull abyss of apathy before it was realised. That was a talent he had only ever seen before on Painmaker.

Kagekatsu shook his head. No, he had to get these thoughts out of his head before he wandered into the room with the others. Sure, he already looked like shit, but that had become par for the course by this point. However, looking like a zombie? No thanks. As much as it didn't look like it at the minute, the foxboy rather preferred to keep some degree of standards with his appearance, thank you very much.

By the time he had reached the door, though, the hand that placed itself on the cool metal was limp and languid. Yellow eyes barely regarded the swift movement of the door as well, which shuttered away into the darkness with a metallic clinking noise that caused his ears to twitch like mad. They were, perhaps, the only part of the foxboy that remained vaguely lucid.

Before him, the room was laid out just like it had been upon his fateful first arrival. The garish colours that Subaru had splattered onto the walls deeper in the Foundation had thankfully disappeared, Kagekatsu never knew he would be grateful to be returned to the stark white, but there was a first time for everything at the end of the day. Lord only knows what depraved artistic mind plagued Subaru; the known one was already bad enough!

The man in question was the person Kagekatsu's eyes zeroed in on first and foremost. The lavish attire that was usually so carefully pinned to Subaru's body was strew with reckless abandon. The overcoat that had seemed omnipresent was nowhere to be seen, revealing the rather thin-looking clothes he had on underneath. Pink, ratty hair dipped between crimson eyes that were only saved from dropping further via the dark bags that had already collected down to pallid-looking cheek bones. And was it just a trick of the light, or were there more black highlights than normal?

Either way, it made him want to snort. Ah, what blissful schadenfreude! It was no less than what the asshole deserved; Shoving him in with the bestial Hisumi; deliberately letting him sleep in for one night only when it would've been beneficial to do the opposite; forcing him into the more awkward conversation since his Dad talked about the Birds and the Bees, oh what bliss it was to see him in such a state. Had he been more animated, there would have been a particular gesture shoved over in Subaru's direction.

As Kagekatsu took up his position, far away from where his gaze sat, and right in one of the room's farther corners, he spied the addition that clung to Subaru's side. Yua was a curious addition to the Foundation, always decked out in that hazmat suit which reflected the slight slivers of light with brilliant radiance. It was a kind of brightness matched only by her constant, somewhat disconcerting over-eagerness for anything and everything that had come her way.

At least, that's what Kagekatsu had seen from her during the few short moments that they had been in one another presence. Frankly, not wanting to listen to someone who took the rampant sadism of this place as normal was far from an irrational position.

However, it didn't take a genius to catch the wafting smog of discontent that ruminated in that particularly cursed corner. It was a sensation that, even from a distance, made every hair on Kagekatsu's tail stand up straight as a rod, and sent his ears folding inwards. The way Yua grasped at the letter attached to her chest, the lifeless stare Subaru was giving her… It was all just a little too familiar. She… She looked like…

Kagekatsu chewed on his bottom lip, decidedly turning his head away from that re-enactment of memories best left forgotten. There were other people in the world, after all, and they were probably far more appealing to watch. Then again, Arius existed. So, when all was said and done, was that fate any better than the prior one? Ack, why did this place have to be cursed everywhere he looked…?

"You're late."

As if there was nothing more than this world loved besides tormenting him constantly, the tension that collated in Kagekatsu's body exploded in one massive, extreme bristling of his tail at the sound of that voice. "Fuck me! What the hell do you think you're doing sneaking up on me like that?!" Harsh words dripped out of nervous lips before the owner had time to question things. Mainly, the question of how the fuck Joseph had managed to spawn out of nowhere. Was reality itself now having chunk errors?

"I was here before you," Joseph stated, making it sound like it was the simplest thing in the world. Which, in reality, it was. Although there was rarely, if ever, movement within the energy demon's features, the slight downturn of his lips said more than enough. "I was here before everyone as a matter of fact. The clown dragged me out himself." He continued, sounding like he was reading off an autocue.

Kagekatsu blinked. Ah, now that would make sense. Without a second ticking by following the acknowledgement of his own failings, he had already taken to glaring at Subaru with the kind of venom that would be right at home on a Black Mamba. "Tch, of course! That asshole has to be involved in everything." He muttered, unapologetic in tone whilst clutching, and trying not to tear into the fabric of his kimono. The absolute last thing that was needed was to look like more of a hobo.

It would not be a surprise at all if after all was said and done, he discovered Joseph's placement as another one of Subaru's asinine plans for bonding. From deliberately pairing them together to clean out his office, and then leaving them as the only ones separate for the group bonding… There was no way on this planet that Kagekatsu was going to take that as anything other than a hidden agenda at play. Did Subaru think he was stupid and wouldn't notice?

Grumbling, Kagekatsu leaned against the wall with half lidden eyes. If there was one mercy he had been afforded today, he had at least come under his own power. "What's even supposed to be the point of this one? He already gave the whole generic "The work starts now," spiel the previous day." He said, free hand rising to rub at the still tender temples on his head. The stitches were still as uncomfortable as ever.

"Agreed. It's pointless." From beside him, but at a safe distance away so no errant touches could be given out, Joseph nodded. The energy demon had never taken to the Foundation, Kagekatsu knew that much, but the sheer dourness with which he spoke spun an entirely new web on top. It was a kind of resignation only heard usually by parents after their kid didn't clean their room, and it was even a hint irritated.

Not that he was unable to agree. It was becoming one of the constants of life; Death, taxes, and the Broken Heart Foundation breaking their own promises as easily as one breathed. The others no doubt agreed with him to various levels, how could they not? Kagekatsu could bet his meagre life savings on that fact without a single hesitation. The only one that seemed to be having any fun at all was that misshapen mass of flesh whom the foxboy refused to name properly.

Still, it never stopped him from asking the pertinent question in his head; Why? If, after all the empty promises and broken bones, the people still remained, what was driving them? Why did they continue diving deeper into a depraved world that evidently didn't care for them? From psychotic professors to rooms designed to kill them, it turned the debatable legality into pure negligence at best. Yet, still, everyone remained like good, obedient little dogs to eat out of Kyte's hand.

Kagekatsu clutched the book under his arm, black nails digging into the pristine purple cover. What kind of spell did that bastard vampire have over them? Seductive words and presence could only carry a man so far, he knew that first-hand thanks to the Inner Circle. Something else must've dragged them into this predatory vampire's castle, vague promises of a better life notwithstanding.

Were all their lives truly that awful? Naturally, he had his own reason for holing up in this place. It wasn't every day that a notorious group of Villains hunted you down, or you ran the risk of being taken back into the hands of your possessive ex-mentor. Thus, his was a perfectly legitimate reason for staying here. At least in this controlled hellhole, none of the people were actively looking chances to stab him in the back. Well, except maybe Subaru…

All indications he had from moving around the files in Subaru's office seemed to suggest that his was one of the more… pressing cases. His lips quirked up slightly as he remembered the unfinished slap in the face Haru's one had been, whoever wrote that one earned one point on the board for his sense of humour. However, the others might have only been a few more pages long at most and had scarcely tickled his fancy.

As Kagekatsu cracked one eye open, he was reminded of the only one that had managed to hold his attention. Whilst Joseph stood at the wall with his arms crossed, all the other could think about was that mugshot which had stared right back at him in the beige folder, and of its exact dimensions and details. The constipated expression of resting bitch-face was far from what Kagekatsu had seen, almost distressingly so.

"I can hear you think." Joseph said before Kagekatsu could continue his mental journey any further. This time, the tone struck was one of the same irritations as before but mixed with a certain kind of sarcasm. "My mother said that if you keep pulling faces like that, your face is going to stick." He added, now completely back to his dreary monotone and without a hint of irony.

The incredulous look Kagekatsu sported was the point of order, the foxboy's jaw on the ground and his teeth oscillating between straight and sharp as if he was contemplating murder. "I didn't ask for your fucking opinion. Next time, keep your goddamn mouth shut." The elder of the pair eventually replied, sounding much more like a child than Joseph ever did.

Joseph huffed out a curt puff of hot air. The skin around his eyes, Kagekatsu noticed, was looking particularly red at the minute, and polluted what was otherwise a pure, milky white. It reminded him that, despite all that had happened with them over the past weeks, he still had little clue what the other's Quirk was. Of all that was known, only the vaguely devilish horns felt intensely familiar.

Before he could press that thought further, though, the sound of storming footsteps thundered down the hallway and completely yanked everyone's attention towards them. One didn't need to have sensitive, enhanced hearing to know the utter fury that belied them, and each pounding beat was like another nail being driven into a coffin. There were no prizes for guessing whom they belonged to, either. Only a single man who wasn't present could move with that gusto.

Kagekatsu's eyes remained locked on the door at the end of the room, and a quick glance all around him revealed that everyone else was under the same enchantment. As if it were the only real object in this false world, it carried within it an inescapable air of dread that hung heavy over his head. Never once before had he been afraid of something as simple as a door, not even when in the Inner Circle, but if the damage he had seen to Yuusui was anything to go by…

The door slid open with a thunderous crash, a single gloved hand forcing it to the side before the natural path could be finished, making nearly everyone jump out of their skin. In fact, Kagekatsu was pretty sure he had just seen Akashi, who was stood in between Hisumi and Fukuro, realise how meaningless his life was after it had flashed before his eyes. Which would be rather funny, if he too weren't convinced his life could end at any minute.

Kyte wasn't the tallest in the room, nor was he the most overtly muscular, but the presence he carried was like an odious, oppressive fog. Each step forward was another poisonous puff of smog, which cackled with deranged glee as it tried to stuff itself down all their closed mouths. Gravity itself seemed to bend, conspiring to drag everyone's heads down to the new centre at the Vampire Lord's feet.

"At last, everyone's here." He said, continuing his march into the centre of the room, and well aware of all the eyes that clung to his body. Whilst his tone of voice had never once been so deep as to sound feral, the words that spilled out tip-toed that fine line between savagery and serenity. "I was wondering if we were going to catch all of the stragglers. Your presence here today is very much welcome."

As opposed to dispelling the tension, Kagekatsu felt Kyte's voice only heightening it, his shoulder blades twisting in deeper until it felt like they would explode at the slightest touch. Every inch felt as if it had been slashed with a thousand tiny blades, the insatiable attacks making what little skin it could find as cold as ice. Yellow eyes trembled slightly as they followed their target until the other slowed down and came to a halt. If he wasn't awake beforehand, he sure as well was now.

Time moved forward to a sickening crawl as Kyte's glowering crimson eyes surveyed every student and staff member around, with Kagekatsu shivering further as they landed on him for a second longer than anyone else. Only Morax had ever made him feel so… seen before with just once glance; treating him like more of an experimental livestock than a human of flesh and dreams. It was the stark reminder needed that the man, ex-Pro Hero or not, stood across from them all was a predator.

"I've called you all here today because I have something very to discuss… Or rather, tell you.". More precisely, and not to put too fine a point on it, I've been considering your status as members of my Foundation." Kyte said, arms folded against his chest. His words were curt, and contrary to his intent, cut straight to the bone with a precise slash. Derision dripped coldly with each passing glance.

Yet, it was what he said that was far more important. Status? Kagekatsu was… confused to say the least. In the very literal sense, it was pretty obvious what was meant. However, it didn't stop him from wondering what the hell Kyte actually was trying to put across. Wasn't it just the previous week or two that he promised their training was going to start now? And all of a sudden, he's speaking like he's about to kick them out. It didn't make any sense, and a huff from Joseph seemed to suggest he wasn't the only one with those thoughts.

"Do not be alarmed. I am not saying that your worthiness for our help is in question, far from it." Cool and detached, Kyte somehow seemed like a shadow within the stark white of the room, almost imperceptible despite all attention being on him. "Instead, I would like to take this time to apologise to you all. Whether through negligence or laziness, in some cases both, we have failed to meet the promises I made for your future.. For that, I take full responsibility."

The admission came as a shock to Kagekatsu and just about everyone else with a functioning brain. It was also not lost on anyone when it came to whom Kyte was glaring at as being truly responsible. The foxboy didn't know it was possible to paint Hell on someone's face, but he was thinking God above that Subaru was the one on the receiving end of it.

"About time…" That was Arius' annoying babble of a voice. Kagekatsu didn't even need to look over there to know that he was probably sporting some kind of annoying as fuck grin, and already the fantasises of wiping it off his face were coming back. If there was one person who deserved to have their dreams unfulfilled, it was that odious bastard.

Kyte's head swivel around to where the spiky-haired teen was standing, the speed quick enough to give a lesser man whiplash. "Please refrain from speaking until asked. My mercy is not endless, and the mere fact of your utility does not make you indestructible." The vampire answered, the sharp fangs bared more than enough of a reminder of the true power dynamic.

Kagekatsu snickered. It was perhaps a little ill-advised given what the possible punishment was, but who cared? He was allowed to take the victories where he could get them! And no, Joseph looking at him with such disappointment and resignation wasn't going to stop the high. Oh, he was never going to let Arius live this down.

"But as I was saying, we are deeply sorry for breaking our promises to you all. Therefore, I'm going to allow you the last drop of mercy I have in my heart, for all it may be worth." Kyte pulled off his fur lined coat and rummaged around in it for what seemed like forever. When all was said and done, he pulled out a purple envelope. If he heard the hitching breath of Yua behind him, he did not say. "This here… is a letter from a man known across the world as the Wind of Destruction, but better known to me as Monsoon, leader of the Villain group called Schism."

Now it was Kagekatsu's turn to feel like his world has been flipped upside down. As soon as Kyte had spilled Monsoon's name from that cold, vampiric maw, everything seemed to go hazy. Despite the fact he was laid against the back of a solid wall, it felt like the world spinning around him had accelerated, to the point where the universe itself was about to reset. Keeping his balance was next to impossible.

His breath joined that increased acceleration, skipping two, three, four, five breaths within the space of only ten seconds. The heart that beat within his chest felt like it was on fire, pulsating molten lava into a body that desperately longed for the feeling to not feel at all. He hadn't even eaten any breakfast or lunch yet, and it was like everything he had ever consumed in his life wanted to join the vomit party that threatened to break out.

How… It was… Impossible…

The book under his arm had never felt heavier, same with the red diamonds that hung from his ears. Two reminders of the Schism's existence was more than enough for anyone, but the letter that now rested within Kyte's hands… Two years ago, Kagekatsu might've had the Dutch Courage needed to fight for the objects of his torment. Now… Well, now, he was just a scared, panicked fox. One unable to notice that across the room, Mei was also having a similar reaction.

"Many years ago, I met him whilst travelling in China and was wrapped in his shadow before I could even process what was happening. It was one of the many mistakes I have made, and do not intend to make again." Tense didn't begin to describe it. The way Kyte spoke, and how he gripped the letter with such venom, made it sound like a solemn vow on one's deathbed. "I make you aware of this letter because, as of my own asking, he has returned to Japan and seeks to reclaim what is supposedly his. Someone that he believes is presently in my Foundation."

Hell. Kagekatsu was in Hell. Morax's book clattered to the ground with a dull thud, but there was no chance that he heard a single decibel. The only thing, for fact, that he heard was the malevolent laughter that now claimed dominion over his head like an Emperor. Joined in tandem with them, singing a sick, twisted duet, was the immortal phrase of his former mentor.

"I told you. I always come back. Your soul belongs to me!"

"Whenever he sets his sights on something, his appetite is ruthless and endless." Kyte carried on regardless, seemingly impassive to the two panic-stricken students and ignoring the burning sensation of Shion's eyes on his back. "Though he has promised to stay out of the Foundation for the time being, I cannot guarantee that he will keep his word." He added, clutching at the hem of his shirt.

Most of the room remained silent, digesting the information that was flung at them from nowhere without much of a clue of how it was directly relevant to them. However, one person was more than willing to question Kyte's judgement. "And you thought it was a good idea to bring him back? What on Earth were you thinking?" Joseph asked, voice monotone but burning underneath with righteous indignation.

From the other side of the room, it was also a sentiment mimicked by Mahoro, who had her head held high in the air, and who was presently stood right next to Shiki. It was absolutely typical of these kinds of people, wasn't it? "Breaking a promise is one thing, Niijima-san, but if he were as dangerous as you suggest and you brought him back, then why should we trust what you say next?" Though her tone was tempered and refined to a fine art, the tattooed girl was unable to stop painting the picture of trembling fury that shook her balled-up fists.

Before Kyte could speak again, however, it was Subaru's turn to add to the increasing cacophony of voices. "Oi, you two! When Niijima-sama is speaking, you're to be silent, or did you not hear what he said to Ari-chan over there? One more outburst like that and I might just gu-"

"Enough!" Kyte's authoritative yell silenced Subaru and the rest with one swift declaration. Once more, his fangs became bared like a wild animal, and the lingering threat of violence was never too far away. However, it was clear that his anger was directed to one person in particular, as a long finger was jabbed in Subaru's direction. "If you know what's good for you, you will not say another word. You understand?"

For the first time that anyone had seen, Subaru was utterly speechless. Though his jaw hung open, no sound, be it a sarcastic laugh or sadistic jibe, came out of his mouth. His eyes, likewise, took on a different sheen. They were neither dead nor alive, but instead occupied a zone halfway between wishing death and heaping praise for wisdom on the object of their obsession.

"Unfortunately, Monsoon is but one drop in the ocean of people that cloud my own past. That is of course, to say nothing of the ones who dragged your life to the point you ended up in my care." With the situation settled, Kyte turned his attention back to what he had come here to do. As he slipped the letter back into his jacket's pocket, one final glare was given over in Subaru's direction before he continued. "And it is that fact alone which tortures me. Knowing that I've now brought my hell to infest your own with a demon you had no chance of stopping… I am truly sorry."

Though he made no movement towards showing visible regret, his face remaining a stony mask, the tone with which Kyte spoke struck a nerve. Few in the room had the vocabulary wide enough to properly ascertain it, and even fewer had the understanding of the context that brought it about. However, if there was one universal truth amongst the group of shattered hearts taking up residence in the Foundation, it was that they could all recognise immense sadness when it was present. Whether they liked it or not, there was nothing manufactured about what was said.

"From my words you can discern Monsoon and I once shared a form of kinship… I won't go into how, or even why. But I will say that it was long ago, and like all of you my past is clawing at me. I ask all of you to push yourselves to be better than what I am, because you have the chance and choice to do so."

But still, as Kagekatsu was able to momentarily screw his head back on, it only brought on more questions. Here Kyte was, stood in the middle of a room containing everyone he had promised to help on a personal level, and he was admitting that he had only made things worse? Just what was the plan here? Surely, there had to be more to this, right?

For the first time since entering the room, Kyte moved from his position in the centre and carried every head with him. What was closer to about five seconds felt like five minutes with none of the steps containing the same thunder as before, now instead moving in restrained, graceful strides. Soon, he had taken position at the very end of the room, his back the only thing visible.

In slow movements, Kyte dragged up his coat like it was a traditional vampiric cloak, hiding most of his body from view. "I… I am nothing but a creature that loves what it can't have, and tears apart what it hates. Lies became my creed, and I immersed myself into the darkness willingly, unable to hold back from condemning myself even further. Revenge became a confession of my pain…"

Like the rest, Kagekatsu stood slack jawed by what was happening. If his mind hadn't already been sent spinning by the Monsoon revelation, it would have certainly been on its way now. With each passing second, each passage of the baffling speech continued to get more cryptic. A rather sly, sardonic part of his mind sniggered at the idea of getting in a professional codebreaker.

Yet, it was as if the world around him had become dead to Kyte, and the only thing that mattered was the admissions that came out like a rushing waterfall. "It was a darkness that enraptured me; one that wrapped me up within a shadowy kingdom that I could rule with no scruples. Before I knew it, my heart was permanently stained black."

Those… Those weren't the words of a purported ex-Pro Hero. Kagekatsu might have been young compared to Kyte, but he would be a pure, dyed-in-the-wool idiot to not have suspicions now. The fact that any of them had yet to be told what his supposed Hero name was, in addition to the lack of Pros on staff, did nothing either to disperse the thoughts now in his head.

"The world I live in is one of pain and bloodlust.. I cannot, in good consciousness and faith, ask you to follow me into it with blind devotion and no questions." Kyte continued, still with his back turned. "But I also cannot allow myself to lose you all now that you're here. My mission…, the Foundation's mission, was crafted exactly for this purpose. To allow you loose on the world that turned you into my hands… It would be savage."

Kagekatsu grinded his teeth back and forth, nearly turning his feral, sharp weapons into small, useless nubs. Beside him, his hand started to crawl up to the top of his head, right where it had previously been stitched back before. He had an inkling where this was headed, and if what was said about Monsoon was true…

"I am a man who has done horrid things to many who were deserving… and many who were not… Trusting me… That is your own choice, and I am not here to convince you that it is the only one. As long as you remain under my protection, no harm will befall you, and the many riches of my Foundation are yours to reap."

Trust… It was such a fickle thing. Something that was more like the answer to a riddle the more Kagekatsu thought about it. It took a veritable ice age to create despite the necessity it took up in interpersonal relationships, and then could easily be destroyed over the course of a few short seconds. The last time he had trusted someone, or something to be more accurate… Cold, merciless steel bars and a dank, dreary cell had been his reward.

And what had Kyte done to earn their trust? If anything, the vampire had descended upon them proclaiming to be the guardian angel that they so needed. Yet, he had immediately made them knock lumps out of each other for the sick amusement of his staff. That said nothing of the dubious quality of the alleged 'teaching' he employed. Did he think that he had done a single thing to earn it that would make the others want to follow him?

Kagekatsu had never heard such bullshit before. This… creature was certainly one of Monsoon's ilk, there was no doubt about it. His eyes burned a hole in the back of the other man, and never before had he wished for a Quirk as generic as Laser Vision with such desperation. Through another quick snatch at the others, he knew he wasn't the only one who was toying with this emotions. Ani in particular looked just about ready to finally put that machine gun tail of hers to use.

"My commitment to your betterment is as solid as stone, but you are not my slaves, nor my livestock. If you do not wish to be here, then it is not within my power to force you to remain, and you can demand withdrawal. All I ask you to consider is that beyond these walls, nothing is waiting for you." Throughout the whole time, though, Kyte remained stoic and even. There was even a certain regal air about him as he started to slowly turn back around, coat now dropped back to its normal position. Eyes that stared at the unfortunate souls they had collected reflected nothing back at them.

It was exactly that look that made Kagekatsu's hand tense up by his head; threatening to break the careful balance which prevented blood from spewing once more. What a deceptive promise… Stating that they had freedom, but reminding them that said freedom was nothing but a empty home or a prison cell. That too was right from Monsoon's playbook, how the hell had he not noticed their similarities sooner?

"I know not of what you all seek from my help, a failing that will now begin to be rectified. Just remember what I said to all of you on our first meeting. Nobody is going to be able to do it for you." Kyte moved back to the centre of the room, once more ignoring the stares he was receiving. They could stare, glare, glower, and plot his demise all they wanted; their anger was very much justified. However, it remained nothing more than irrelevant to him.

With no one moving to speak, Kyte continued on. "My staff will spare no expense if that is what you wish. Shion, Oscar, and Sateriasis are all very capable of assisting you, should they be sought out. Additionally, the groups that were already organised during the prior training sessions will remain as such until further notice."

Very few would've been able to hear it, but in one of the only times he was happy for his sensitive hearing, Kagekatsu picked up the soft, barely audible squawk of indignance from Subaru. It was the loudest he'd ever wanted to laugh since he'd left the Inner Circle. If it wasn't for all the morose promises, vicious vampires, and Monsoon's impending arrival languishing in his mind, his laughter would've likely been heard all the way in the United States.

Fortunately, it appeared as if the speech was finally coming to an end. Kyte had moved to the very top of the room, right near the door that had remained open this whole time. "Together, we will take you to the end of the line, and fix what should have never been broken in the first place. That is the promise I made to you, and it's one I intend to keep." And without any further fanfare, he departed with steps as quick as the ones that had carried him here.

With Kyte's departure, so too did the oppressive gravity and fog disappear, as if they were never there in the first place. Breaths that were held without any consciousness knowledge were let out in massive collective sigh of relief. A mythical Hero like Atlas might have carried the world on his shoulders, but there was no greater removal of weight than what the staff and members of the Foundation felt in that moment.

It took about a minute of pure, complete silence for anyone to speak. "Well, wasn't that interesting?" Sateriasis, the only one of the staff whose jaw wasn't clenched in various ways, said. His tone was far too glib and Subaru-like for what had just been revealed. The grin which stretched across his face also looked more in place on the Clown.

"What the hell do you mean by 'interesting'?! He spouts a bunch of gibberish, tells us he brought a villain back, and then threatens us to remain here!" That was Arius' voice, back from the dead after being threatened into submission by Kyte earlier. To say that he was indignant was an understatement. Although he made no move towards Sateriasis, the trembling fists that were barely restrained by his side said more than enough.

In reply, Sateriasis shrugged, joined in the movement by the ever-loyal Hiroto and Hideyoshi. "Isn't that interesting all the same~?" The nurse's tone once more danced on the edge of insanity. However, compared to the sadistic glee that permeated Subaru's every word, Sateriasis seemed much more willing to replace it with a haughty kind of arrogance.

Kagekatsu watched with intrigue as Arius scowled but said nothing else. As of now, and for one of the only times in his life, he knew that opening his mouth wasn't the correct thing to do in this situation. Though Kyte's oppression had vanished, it was replaced just as quickly by the new simmering tension that threatened to erupt like Vesuvius with one misplaced word. Frankly, he had little interest in being present, or being the progenitor, during the inevitable explosion.

A few seemed to have gathered the same idea as him. He could already see Fukuro trying to slowly inch his back to the end of the room, and Akashi didn't look like he was too far away from bolting it as well. Not that the latter was particularly surprising to him. In fact, it would be more shocking if there wasn't a conspicuous brown stain on his trousers the next time Kagekatsu saw the catboy.

With small, precise steps, he began to inch backwards towards where he had come in. Having already picked a place so close to the door was an accidental stroke of genius on his part. If worst came to worst, then his Quirk was also a pretty good escape option too. Ah, how nice was to have those options again! He had almost forgotten what it was like to actually have them!

"You dropped this." Yet, as his negative thirty luck stat dictated, all his paths for escape closed up the instance he turned around and his ears twitched with Joseph's voice. The energy demon held up Das Lied Vom Meister with a fish-eyed gaze that didn't look to be focused on much of anything. It was one thing to be reminded he was being watched; it was another thing to not be worthy of that.

But that wasn't the worst part of it all. That was reserved for the purple book that mocked him without eyes or a mouth. Those yellow pages reminded Kagekatsu too much of Monsoon's teeth, all they were missing was the jagged, decayed look. Morax's illusive, illegible cursive was a further headache, because nothing that man did was easy to understand.

"Tch, you can keep it." Kagekatsu muttered, turning his attention away from the scene at large. Right now, it would be better if he pretended like the last ten minutes hadn't happened whatsoever. The last thing he needed, as a result, was to spend time around the one kid that was even more fucked up than he was. As much as his curiosity might have abounded with regards to Joseph's file, too much curiosity had proved fatal in the past, and he wasn't in the business of repeating it.

In the background, his ears twitched at the sound of pages rustling. Well, if Joseph wanted to torture himself reading that insane drivel, then so be it! Kagekatsu wasn't going to be the one to tell him that he'd sooner get more value out of cutting his nose off, than he would if he studied every single word back to front.

However, as he turned his attention back Joseph, he noticed something off about the other. Emotional constipation was a hallmark of his fellow Foundation member, but the narrowed eyes that remained focused on book showed a kind feeling so foreign to the otherwise stoic face; Confusion. "…Why are you squinting like that?" Kagekatsu asked, eyebrow raised.

"What is this?" Joseph said, a genuine bewilderment in his tone as he turned the book around. He was in the middle of one of the pages Kagekatsu hadn't gotten to yet; something about how man dreamed of dust and shadows, typical Morax bullshit, really. However, his finger tapped under each line of cursive, sharp fingernails scratching at the page with no sense of recognition.

"Seriously? It's a book! Never seen one before?" The foxboy couldn't believe his ears. Was this some kind of prank? Joseph didn't seem like the type to pull them off, but it was always the ones you least suspected. With a roll of his eyes, he banished that thought to the back of his mind. At this point, it'd be perfectly in character for someone here to be fucking illiterate.

The confusion on Joseph's face began to vanish, replaced instead by the presence of a slight frown and his eyes returning to their dead state. "It doesn't have any pictures." He answered, totally detached and seemingly oblivious to the growing frustration he was stoking within Kagekatsu. This supposed 'Book' was nothing like the cooking ones his father had handed him.

"Are you a fucking toddler?" Kagekatsu dragged his hands down his face. Violence was beginning to sound pretty good right about now, even if the likely outcome was another trip to Sateriasis and a refractured nose. He might not have been an avid reader himself, barely managing to crack half of the books his father owned, but had that somehow become the Gold Standard? He was surrounded by ignorant, unintelligent, annoying assholes!

Ugh, he should not be longing to be lectured by fucking Painmaker of all people!

"I'm sixteen." Joseph replied in a huff, closing the book over and totally blasé about what was going on before extending it out for Kagekatsu again. If anything, Kagekatsu was the toddler. As far as he was concerned, his question was a perfectly legitimate one. This… fox… just happened to have… issues.

Kagekatsu snatched at the book, ripping it from Joseph's grip whilst also making sure that not a single breath touched the other's body at any point. There was no way of knowing how deep that hairpin trigger, and as much as he had just proclaimed the use of violence in mind, that trip to Sateriasis sounded less and less enticing as time ticked on by. "Unacceptable." He seethed, nearly tearing at the edges of the cover, which was beginning to resemble a chew toy.

To think… This day had started with him recovering Morax's book, continued with him learning that Monsoon was back in Japan, and ended by discovering that Joseph was illiterate. It was a miracle that his hair hadn't gone fully grey from stress; the fact it hadn't even thinned once was a God send.

Pointing the book spine-first towards Joseph, Kagekatsu narrowed his eyes as he began to slink away into the shadows. "If these assholes don't sort it out, then I will. Consider it payment for what you did to me at the start." He said, fully turning his back on the other the second he was finished. Enough to miss the rather quizzical look Joseph gave him, which would be sure to stoke his ire once more.

As he grumbled down the hallways and back to his room, collapsing onto the bed face first, one thought played on his mind. Just how on Earth was he going to deal with both the Inner Circle and Monsoon on his ass?

He was a loose part for the pair of them; an elimination target, if he wished to be blunt about it. Neither would hesitate a second to put a knife in his back if the situation called for it. Hell, Kagekatsu could see it now. Painmaker would stand above him with that smug look on his face, reciting poetry and vows of dark devotion, before pulling him apart piece by piece in only the most elegant fashion. The Inner Circle's Hatchet Man trained its assassins after all, cruelty reflected became executed tenfold with reckless abandon.

Monsoon… The weight of his promise to that man hung from his ears, something that he would never escape regardless of the country he fled. Once more, the picture there was as easy to paint as splashing a canvas with a bright, deep sanguine scarlet. The Wind of Destruction would be merciless, much less of a pantomime villain than Painmaker could ever hope to be. There would be no haughty look; no suggestion that he was going to take his time; and no indication that mercy was even something possible to grant.

Kagekatsu was fucked. He was fucked six ways to Sunday. Painmaker was more than likely chomping at the bit to severe ties with a failed project, and the Devil that was Monsoon was incapable of being trusted.

Black nails, belonging to hands well too worn for their age, scratched themselves into a hard pillow that muffled the howls that were soon let lose. He knew this offer was too good to be true, and yet, like a gormless fucking moron, he had taken it under the deluded assumption his condition was fixable. Who was he fucking kidding anymore? He was the textbook definition of a lost cause!

"I want you to know that I only do this out of love… You'll be better when you're worse."

Dark shadows grew in his room, streaking up his inked back like claws. Their slimy tendrils latched onto his arms at the same time Monsoon's voice returned in the back of his mind, dropping them to the side with little resistance. A soft ringing grew in his ears.

"It's time that we talk, Kage. Time to finally break the silence."

In the past, he may have been partial to indulging in the luxuries of life. Many trinkets, conquests as they had been termed during his Inner Circle, had littered his bedroom back home… Ah, now even that word sounded so foreign to him. The empty dorm room he possessed now was scarcely qualified to be a prison cell, and never had it been more isolating than it was now. Once more, the outside world had been locked from by a wall of immoveable steel.

The ringing in his ears grew louder. The shadows grew longer.

"Do you remember, when you were a Kit, that I promised I'd always be there for you?"

Three years ago… He was the same age as the majority of the Foundation, the same age as Joseph…

A phantom arm nestled itself around his shoulders, Kagekatsu's own arms being pulled up like they were attached to invisible threads of string. Despite not existing, the feeling was warm, homely even. Whilst far from enjoyable, with the slimy, slippery feeling never moving away, it perhaps became the only part of his body that stopped aching.

The ringing in his ears grew even louder. The shadows grew even longer.

"Why are you holding back?"

That… "I…"

Because…

The bed that had been so hard on his body before hand now felt like a velvet embrace; his head placed firmly upon a sheet of pure silk, one that was so, so easy to sink into. One that promised him all fears, regrets, and derision would disappear if he just sank in deeper.

The ringing in his ears reached a fever pitch, screeching like the smashed windows of a glass house.

"There's no reason to be afraid, I come because you need me."

The shadows now subsumed everything in their path. Throughout all of it, Kagekatsu remained lifeless, motionless. Any movement made was far from his own power, driven half by his subconscious, and twice as much by whatever mystic force was puppeteering him. There was no reprieve, no rest, and yet, he had never felt so comfortable.

Soft slivers of darkness stroked through his hair like a paternal embrace. Shadows had always been a part of his life; from the moment he turned four and inherited his mother's Quirk. Likewise, his own name had been stepped in them from the beginning, making it even more unescapable.

The ringing in his ears began to die down. He knew that this was all so, so wrong…

"We will be reunited soon."

But as silence fell finally, and Monsoon's voice remained all he could hear, maybe indulging fantasy was better than living in reality.

---

Disaster. That was a total, complete fucking disaster! Despite all appearances, there were very few things in this world that could truly piss off Subaru. Beyond the commitment he had made to the magic circle as a child, and the mere mention of that asshole who dared to call him 'cousin', little could cause his reaction to be so visceral.

The one he had sworn his life to dismissing him like a sack of shit? Oh, that was very much at play. His foot had struck the wall in front of him hard enough for the crack to be heard in Europe and carried with it the necessary speed to create a small crack with the foundation. "Fuck!" He swore, gritting his teeth half out of pain and half out of irritation.

What the fuck had he done to deserve this?! How had it gone from him following Kyte-sama like his loyal shadow, to then being stuck as the slop on the bottom of the vampire's shoe that would be discarded at a moment's notice? He'd done nothing wrong! In fact, as far as Subaru was concerned, he had done everything he was told to do! Why was it suddenly his fault if someone got hurt?!

Everything had changed after that day he had spoken to Kyte-sama alone. First it was the mirror, now this. What curse had he been placed under, and how had it happened without him noticing? The world hadn't quite fallen apart yet, but with those odious words ruminating in the back of his mind, plaguing him like the Great Pox, it was getting close to that point. Subaru had half the mind to spend the rest of the day here, until the wall in front of him was nothing but rubble.

He kicked the wall once again, this time placing even more force into it and ignoring the massive surge of pain that flooded his nerves. If anything, doing this was at least a distraction from the agony that still spread from his elbow. It wouldn't be long now before he'd have to crawl back into Sateriasis' filthy domain, and steal more bandages out of it. There was no chance on Earth, Heaven, or Hell, he was going to actually talk to that verminous whelp.

Placing his foot back down on the ground with ginger steps, Subaru threaded fingers through his hair. Deep breaths… Deep breaths… That's what he had taught Yua when she was younger, right? As much as he would've preferred to lose his shit right about now, as he had nearly done during the meeting itself, it wasn't exactly beneficial to the situation at large.

That woman… Shion, she had said her name was he hired her last year, had been staring daggers into his back since Kyte-sama mentioned Monsoon. It wouldn't be long now until she was screaming down his door, demanding to see all of their files and figure out what was really going on here. Tch, what was he thinking allowing a former police officer in here?

Subaru clicked his tongue, sucking in harsh breaths every step as he made his way down the hall, propping himself up with a hand on the wall next to him. Just like the chances of him going willingly to Sateriasis, the odds that he was going to simply hand the files over to that wench were slim to none. If Shion wanted them, then he going to have to show her what they felt like on top of an opened grave.

However, she was still the least of his issues. As much as she could be derided, the job of being a therapist was a… unique one. Not many applicants had come in the first place, and those that may have been appeaseable for the job, had jumped the second they heard about the conditions. If there was one thing he could commend that woman on, she was as tough as she was intelligent. What a pain.

"FUJINAGA!" Oh, wonderful. Exactly what Subaru wanted to happen. Why, thank you, God! Are you always so magnanimous? If he got out of this alive, the pink-haired clown was now rather impartial to having a conversation with Monsoon about how to get rid of this supposed Divine.

Before he could turn around fully, though, his steps still hobbled and tiny muscles torn in his toes, the irate Shion had taken hold of his collar and slammed up against the wall. For a woman so much smaller than him, she was packing way more physical power than Subaru could ever hope for. "Ah, Shi-chan. To what do I owe the pleasure?" He answered, false smile plastered on his face, masking the terrible pain from his injured elbow smashing into concrete.

The look on Shion's face was not one he saw too often, all things considered. Her lips were curled back, so much so that nearly every single top tooth was visible. Deep blue eyes, which had once almost shined like a bright sapphire, now regarded him with the raging tides of an incoming tsunami. Had Subaru not already known the depts of his depravity, then the therapist looked about ready to create a patient of her own right here and now.

Ah, right. He was about to be crucified.

"No, you're not getting away this time!" The calm, almost affable way she usually spoke with had been replaced. In its stead came one of pure sound and fury, her grip on Subaru's clothes tightening by the second, right until her knuckles turned a stark white. "What. The. Hell. Was that?" It came off more like an order than a question, and had he been in a better mood, Subaru would've been far more willing to play along with it.

"Playing Bad Cop today, are we?" Against his better judgement though, he decided to have a little fun. Call it his mischievous side acting up, but with a face like that! Come on! He couldn't help but give a strained half-smirk. Of course, it ended about as well as one could suspect. Shion's tight hold, somehow, grew stronger and he was shoved into the wall again, this time with his elbow taking the vast majority of the damage.

"Don't play with me, this is serious." If Shion noticed the other wincing, she didn't say anything. Her mind was fully devoted to what had just happened, along with what had happened only a short day before the fateful meeting. "Did what the Boss said have anything to do with you dumping Meilia-san on me?"

Subaru raised an eyebrow, that's what this was about? Daring to speak so informally about Kyte-sama aside, what she had brought up was a rather trivial issue. "Maybe. Maybe not. Is it not my job to watch over these children and notice when something is off? I would've thought you happy that I did my job for once." He replied, a little too glib for his own liking, immediately prepared for another jab into the wall.

However, what happened instead was rather unexpected. Instead of doing what he expected, Shion instead turned her attention away from torturing him with force to using her eyes instead. Those raging, tempest-based blue eyes scanned over him like he was a strenuous piece of code, trying to pick out all the defects stopping the programme from working. The slight opening of her mouth, followed not long after by the therapist biting back her bottom lip, only added to the confusion. "What… You're not playing with me, are you? You must've read their files!"

"Their files?" Subaru's dead eyes lit up for the first time today, Hisumi's file under his arm seeming to jump at the mention as well. That was a definite slip of the tongue, he could glean as much from Shion's slightly wider eyes. Heh, maybe God wasn't so bad after all? "Care to explain what you mean by that?"

It was Shion's turn to click her tongue in annoyance, turning her gaze to the floor for a moment to regain her composure. "You brought Nakamura-kun before her, and would you believe it? There's one word I saw possess the pair of them. The same name that Boss says was his previous partner." That would be a matter for pressing later, Shion decided, but for now she stared right dead at Subaru. "Unless you don't know as much as you think, it'd be unusual for him not to inform his new right-hand man about what his previous one did."

"Excuse me?" The temperature in the hallway dropped instantly, Subaru's smirk falling from his face and being replaced by the same neutral, yet unnerving state Kagekatsu had witnessed earlier. "Be very careful about what you say next, Amamiya." He warned, almost spitting his words at the other as a card, pin-prick in size, slipped from his teeth.

Unfettered and unperturbed, Shion pounced on the lead she had and the suspicions that had been boiling away the cold chill up her back. There wasn't going to be another chance to get answers out of Subaru for a while, she needed to seize every moment she could. She would notbe cowed. "Why haven't you given me the files?" Any unnecessary fluff had been cut away for the heart of the matter.

Subaru's hold on Hisumi's file grew lighter, the fire within his body grew hotter. The temperature had changed for him too, but instead of a cold, harsh blizzard, it resembled that of a raging hell-fire; one that burnt every inch of his skin. How dare… How dare she! This… This… This bitch! The card within his lips grew at the touch of his pinkie finger, sharpening all the while.

Too distracted by trying to stare him out, Shion continued on with her train of thought. "If you refuse, I can just ask Hiroto for the extra records he took in case of loss. I'm sure he's going to have no issue in giving them to me." Background politics had never been something Shion had been privy or predisposed towards, even in her previous life. But now? They proved themselves rather useful.

"He wouldn't." Subaru stated, reaffirming the situation as he pulled the card out of his mouth fully now. Within his hand, the sharpness of the edges was propelled quicker than before, taking off any round edges and making it more like a Shuriken than a playing card. "But my answer is still no."

"Did you not hear Boss' speech? Or were you too busy licking your wounds to know he said every method had to be available for their futures'." Shion raised her eyebrow, a teasing kind of half-smirk on her face. Whether or not it was intelligent to antagonise the man who hired her, and someone she still had no psyche profile on, was another matter entirely. This mystery required everything to get to the bottom of it. "As a ma-"

Before Shion could finish her sentence, though, Subaru lashed out. It was quick, almost supersonic. Never before had she seen him move as fast as he had there, nor had she witnessed a simple playing card being tossed with the velocity of a bullet, but it took every ounce of energy in her body to react in time.

Subaru had slashed with the card within his left hand, hurtling it towards her with a callous disregard for her wellbeing. It was a rather clean, precise upwards strike that Shion barely avoided by virtue of a couple inches. Although, her fringe was certainly going to be feeling the effect for a while, thanks to the impromptu haircut it had just received. The fact it was the only casualty, though, remained nothing short of a minor miracle.

However, it was by no means the end. Shion's swift retreat might have saved her from immediate injury, or worse, but she was far from out of the woods. Catching one's balance was hard enough when moving as fast she did, but on heels? It was nigh impossible. By the time she realised it, she was already assuming a trip to Sateriasis would be in her very near future. The ominous sight of the Foundation floor speeding towards her was far from welcome, yet inevitable.

Or, it would have been. Had Subaru not caught the flailing arm by her side, trapping her at a 45 degree angle, but saving her from the dull thud of a concussion. "I told you my answer. Don't try me again." His voice was cold, utterly devoid of any empathy or inflection. He sounded so much like Joseph to Shion, but this was far from that learned behaviour.

With a clean, concise yank, Subaru pulled Shion back up to her feet. No sound but the silent whirring of the Foundation's many, many cameras remained. The card which had started it all stayed within the clown's other hand, still very much possessing the ability to slash any vein he wanted.

"You remind me of a fly, Amamiya." Subaru said, letting go of Shion. "Always buzzing about, always coming back after you push it away. Always so… persistent. If you believe no further words I say, then fine, so be it, but listen here. Kyte-sama's business is his business alone. What he decides to tell you will be all you're allowed to know, and all I will let you know."

Shion watched as Subaru turned his back on her, her eyes very much zeroing in on the limp that had developed. She said nothing, especially when the other bent over to pick up Hisumi's file, which had fallen on the floor. Intense study was all she was capable of at the moment. As frightening as those moments had been, maybe… maybe it was what she had needed to experience to start her ultimate project…

Much to her surprise, however, instead of turning tail and leaving without another word, Subaru trekked back over towards her. "Take it." He said, phrasing it more like an order from an Emperor to his servant. When no move was made in two seconds, he titled his head. "This is what you wanted, no?"

Speechless, mostly down to confusion, Shion picked Hisumi's file carefully out of Subaru's shaking hands. Delicate, baby steps were the only stride she could move in, lest she risk upsetting the beast that could be re-envigored at any moment. Her lips parted into something of an 'O' shape, before settling back down into a soft, half-smirk as she began to read through it.

The detail in these things… She'd have to ask Hiroto why he never considered becoming a member of the force. Police stations Japan-wide would have been chomping at the bite to offer the parasite a place in their detective branch. Certainly, when she was finished with this file, Shion had every intention of gifting him with a crate of wine. With Kyte's approval, and outside of the Foundation, naturally.

"You're enjoying it." Again, Subaru hadn't phrased it as a question like a normal person would. He treated it as if it were a statement of fact. Exasperated would be the best way to describe his voice, now that it had been freed from the void it had once possessed. Especially once he noticed how engrossed Shion had gotten, to the point where she had even forgotten he was there. "Maddening." He mumbled, turning for the final time, and beginning to walk away.

People like that… Always so curious… How annoying. Like little pimples, they popped up when you least wanted them, and were a pain to burst. Their puss would get everywhere over your clothes, making it take at minimum three washes to get the stench out. At which point, your clothes had long lost their colour and lustre, turning thin, ragged, and most importantly, useless. Pressing an issue too much always made it crumble.

Subaru was no moron; he knew full well what Shion wanted from him. That bitch's greedy eyes never stopped studying him like he was in a test tube. Her Quirk was a unique one, definitely suited towards the line of work she had found herself in. But, in his humble opinion, Subaru would've much preferred that 'The Knife', what a stupid-ass nickname, kept her mouth shut and eyes stitched closed.

As he hobbled down the hallway, knowing each and every secret door that would get him to where he needed to be as quickly as possible, the weight he was carrying still hadn't changed. He might have dropped Hisumi's file off to that bitch, but another object was burning a hole within his person in his breast pocket.

Whether it was the correct time or not, it had to be done. Kyte-sama deserved to know. That brat Yua had already found out, and unless he nipped it in the body, that incessant curiosity was going to get her killed. If he was even within five feet of his asshole cousin when they attempted that, he was going to strangle the life from those devilish eyes and make extra sure to piss on the corpse.

Pulling out the purple envelope from his pocket, it took everything within his power not to run to his room and burn it like he had done with so many in the past. This time… This time was going to be the last ones.

What better time was there than now to show his little girl her 'family' and why he was the only one capable of protecting her from it?

---

I miss you.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. For so long, I had ignored the truth of that saying, and how foolish I was, because now I long for your presence by my side. To feel your hands against my skin, your teeth punctured into my neck, and the glorious sight of you slaying our collective enemies once more. Is that so much of me to ask of you?

If there would only be a single moment of happiness for me, I would willingly endure eternal agony. But my hopes can never be raised because my hunger is endless, unceasing in its desire to devour the world itself. When I reach for the life I so desperately want, it all turns to ash in my hands. The preacher now knows that better than even you.

I want to understand the world and know everything there is to know. Yet, the longer I live, the more I wonder if I have all the answers right. The more… The more I wonder if I even know myself at this point. To fly in total freedom, to decide whether I want to become an angel or the Devil himself… To be a saint or revel in what I am… What choice do you think I should make?

Everyone believes that things will get better one day, so they willingly endure suffering with the vague promise that this is some higher power's plan. There are those who believe in science, there are those who believe in art, those who believe in power and wealth, and those who believe everything is a matter of the heart. To tell you the truth, I think it would be wonderful to die in a childish dream in which I truly believed. Because then, at least, my relentless appetite will have met its match.

But the truth remains, the God of Endless Appetite and Greed rules this world. It will change… The world will not turn back to me until my mission has been accomplished. Whether you want to be a part of the correction is your choice if you're willing to choose.

Last night, I dreamt I was at Manderley again… I will be where we first met, see you soon.

With Satan Himself by my side

Yours, Monsoon.

No matter how many times he read it, scrutinising every word for any hidden meaning, Kyte couldn't wrap his head around Monsoon's change of heart. For a man who acted in such brazen, destructive cycles, he could be so frustrating and cryptic whenever the fancy struck him. By this point, it was a miracle that Kyte hadn't gone fully grey.

When Hiroto had first deposited the letter on his desk, a grim smile on his face accompanying the clatter, Kyte had wanted to question many things. First, on how his loyal handyman had managed to get his hands on such a thing, and second, on why Monsoon had undertaken such a massive about face. It had taken a lot of self-control not to lunge at Hiroto when the other refused to say another word and swiftly left the room.

Even now, his hands shook around the edge of the paper. The name might be there, but this wasn't written by the same man he had met at a bar only the other week. Nor was it written by the same Monsoon he had once known all those years ago; there was far too much pathos laden with each word for it to be written by that beast.

Just what was being planned? Kyte placed the letter down on his desk and leaned back in his chair, head titled upwards to his dark ceiling. The dim candlelight that illuminated the room crafted a singular spotlight for him to stare at as he thought. Beyond Monsoon's insatiable, sick desire to reclaim Kagekatsu, there was little the Vampire Lord could actively prepare for, and the Wind of Destruction was very much just one side of the equation.

He had spent twenty years… Twenty long, hard years preparing for moments like this. When dealing with teens and young adults that had more skeletons in their closest than bodies in a graveyard, one had to be extraordinarily careful about keeping potential triggers away. As much as he could deride and admonish Subaru for his temperament, the clown had provided the perfect architectural basis for the Foundation. The twisting walls, winding corridors, rooms that led to nowhere… It was impossible to map out, and it was exactly what he had needed at the start.

Kyte dragged his hands down his face, cursing under the long breath he released. Despite all that preparation, it seemed like it was going to all be for naught. All because of a mistake he had made; all because he had gotten panicked by what that Haru had said;all because he had to go running back to what was comfortable, what was natural, and what he had once loved with all his heart…

A contract signed with Monsoon was one until death, and with his own war against mortality and eternity about to rage, there was little chance Kyte was about to break it. Until the day that he deigned it, his body would never lay in state. Even if it meant he had to fight the same battles, say the same words, make the same kind of connections, and remain a bitter relic of a Heroic past. Kyte would do it all over again without complaining.

…It wasn't supposed to be this way… When he had first appeared before all of the current intake, even taking the special dispensation for Yuusui into account, he had promised them the world and everything it. Whether it was in the frozen tundra of Russia; the streets of Japan; over the phone recommendations; or rescuing mere children from underground blood sports, the promise had been the same. For the first time in twenty years, though, that promise had been shattered.

He could see it in their eyes as he walked in. Previous years had looked at him with reverence, wishing to kiss the ground he walked on. This one, quite rightly, looked as if they wanted to spit on them, and it was only through fear alone that he ruled. The dead heart within his chest had wanted to sputter into life, to pour itself out, but remained constricted by the cold mask that cursed his whole body.

"Kyte-sama."

A knock on his door startled Kyte back into reality. With enough speed to give a lesser man whiplash, he snapped his head downwards at the sound of Subaru's voice. His eyes were narrowed by the time he zeroed in on the door, and a terse "Enter," was snarled from his curled lips. What the hell was he doing here?

The door was nudged open gently, immediately telling Kyte something was off. Subaru was usually so… annoying when entering rooms, slamming doors into walls and sometimes even kicking them down for the sake of it. Gentle care and kiddie gloves didn't suit his sociopathic right-hand man, and he raised further eyebrows once he saw the clown hobbling into the room with a grimace on his face.

That was when it hit him. Blood. Kyte threw his hand over his nose before saying anything further. It was a truly awful stench, one of decay, rot, rancid vegetables; only a handful of others had dared to smell as bad in his presence. How had he not noticed it when he was in the meeting room earlier? "Speak." Kyte said, voice slightly muffled as his elbow became the only way to block the smell fully.

"It's that bad?" After a few moments of confusion, Subaru's wider eyes narrowed back down once he realised what was happening. He asked, already knowing the answer himself. In another few days, the wounds were probably going to get infected properly, there was no way he had managed to pluck every little shard out of his elbow. The less said about the mangled state of his foot, the better.

"State your business. Now." Oh, holy Christ. Kyte wished he could open a window, but with the sun still belting down on the Foundation, it was wishful thinking. His words carried with them a hurried tone, cutting the bone of any unnecessary small talk. Even without the terrible smell he had tracked in, Subaru was about the last person he wished to see at the minute.

Understanding the situation he was placed in, Subaru nodded and pulled out not just the letter he had previously received, but also the new one which had remained in his pocket, free from Yua's sight. "You're not the only one with baggage, Kyte-sama." It was a simple statement, one without any of his usual flair or latent danger.

For a second, Kyte forgot about the stench. For a second, Kyte forgot about his room. For a second, Kyte forget about the world itself. That letter; Schism, Monsoon. Was this another one meant for him? No, Subaru's own words stated that it was the clown's alone, which made it all the more confusion. What possible connection could his loyal servant have that he didn't know about?

"He's a talkative bastard when he decides it. These two are just the ones I've had to keep." Subaru explained, waddling his way up to the top of Kyte's desk. His eyes were still, unmoving, as he placed the letter Yua had stolen first, and then moved to hand Kyte the far more important one. "I would say he's excited for his new role, but he hasn't spoke to me about his career in five years."

All the extra information made Kyte raise an eyebrow, taking the still sealed envelope into his hand. Delicate fingers dusted over the logo that corrupted the centre of the otherwise beautifully constructed parchment. He never knew why Monsoon had decided a Ram would be the symbol of Schism, and he wasn't willing to sit through a single amateur philosophy lesson to learn why. Even for the one he had previously loved.

By his side, Subaru had taken up position on the wall, electing to ignore the seat beside him. "I already have a suspicion about what he's sent me." He continued, knowing that Kyte valued silence over needlessly questioning. "Does he think he's being clever?" A sneer slipped into the clown's voice, the same kind of derision that belonged on a haughty professor grading papers.

The weight in Kyte's hand certainly proved Subaru's suspicions held water. Monsoon's own letter had been heavier for reasons other than the writing, but as those bony fingers felt across the bottom, the distinctive shape that was created in his mind was undeniable. In one motion, they slashed across the envelope's top, dumping the contents unceremoniously on the desk below it.

Kyte's red eyes matched with Subaru's, watching the growing smirk on those glossy, black lips. "Nishishishi, guess I was right." The same arrogance as before abounded within the hyena like laugh. Arrogance which, to Kyte, sounded an awful lot like complacency. Just how long had this secret been hidden from him? And did it have anything to do with the terrible smell of blood?

What lay before the Vampire Lord was simple, tickets. Two tickets to the Providence Theatre, no less, established by the obscenely wealthy Hojo family. It had only been under construction by the time his Hero career had been finished, but Kyte could reckon now that it was a place that scraped the sky with its grandeur. "Any time today would be nice." He eventually said, plucking both tickets between his index and thumb.

All he received in response to his order, though, was a smirk from Subaru. "Oh, Kyte-sama, a magician can never reveal their secrets! It would ruin the illusion." The clown had no interest in telling him the truth, it would seem. In fact, the pink-haired adult looked much more content to stand there, deck of cards in hand, manic spark back in his eyes, and be deliberately difficult. No doubt as a means of revenge from earlier, Kyte knew.

"Don't play games with me." Where matters of villains were concerned, nothing was to be left hidden. That was true in Pro-Hero circles, and it was true of the Foundation as well. Any possible secret, no matter how small, could lead to an ambush, an attack, or in the worst case scenario, a double cross leading to mass deaths. "What do you plan to do?" Kyte asked.

"Not what my cousin wants me to do." Subaru shrugged in reply, coy in his manner of voice. "He's a villain now, no? Don't look at me like I have a death wish." This was far from the first time he had been an annoyance to Kyte, but instead of just being playful, there was an inherent indignance behind his words.

Kyte stood up, rising to his feet with the majestic grace of a fantasy emperor. Within one stride, he had already closed the distance between the two of them, moving fast enough for a simple blink to miss it. It was very rarely that his immense speed was used, and with the sudden widening of Subaru's eyes, he knew the clown was very aware of that fact. "Go." The order was simple, the tickets shoved into unprepared and unwilling hands.

"What did I do?" The corners of Subaru's lips curled upwards, the mischief vanishing from his eyes. His voice was quiet, terse. The space between him and his boss, his own personal saviour from twenty years ago, was paper-thin. One wrong word, motion, or expression, and he was going to remained in Sateriasis' company for the foreseeable future. What Yuusui had seen was but a mere fraction of the power now threatened at his neck.

"If I need to explain it, it means you don't understand it." Kyte sighed, wanting to pinch the bridge of his nose and rub his temples. Keeping such eccentric company wasn't good on his sanity either, it would seem. But who could blame him? Dispensing his pet project on the world? That would be savage and unfair. Both to Subaru and the general public.

Subaru's eyes tore away from him, glaring off into the distance with no particular goal in mind. It reminded Kyte of a petulant toddler, unwilling to admit that he was the one whose baseball had shattered the neighbour's window. "What if Monsoon comes? Isn't there something I can do here?" Once more, the tension in his voice was evident, almost desperate to change to the topic.

It was Kyte's turn to smirk in reply, turning his back and walking back over to his desk. Within a second, he picked up the other object that had come with Monsoon's letter; the very thing that had carried all the weight in the first place. The very object that now made Subaru's jaw unclench and shuttle down to the ground.

Who knew that a single red diamond, dangling on a golden chain, could sway so many minds, and generate such reactions?

"If I don't go to him, he'll come to me, regardless of our contract." Kyte stated, dangling Monsoon's pendant across his hand, and staring dead at the shocked Subaru. "He wants to bind my hands, Subaru. I had already planned on telling them all about his return, particularly for those under his influence already, but this changed measures."

Subaru studied what was being presented to him. In the back of his mind, and the bottom of his fireplace, was a letter from his cousin that spoke about how grateful he was for his new boss to have gifted him a pair of red diamond earrings. Of course, both parties knew full well who this new, 'benevolent' boss was. It was only now, seeing one up close, held by the one he respect the most in this world, that he understand the handcrafted beauty of them. This particular one looked to be the most expensive of all, despite its minute size.

The clown ran his tongue across his lips, picking up trace amounts of trailing lip gloss. The diamond glinted in the soft light it was afforded, reflecting off each piercing on his face. "W-What are your orders then?" He eventually said, stumbling slightly at the beginning as he forced his gaze away from the hypnotic gemstone.

Placing the diamond within his pocket, Kyte walked over to the window, his back fully turned on Subaru. However, unlike in the meeting room, there was no dramatic swishing, nor was there any indication he wanted to lament like the hideous vampire he was. Instead, his posture was straight, rigid, and narrow. "Did you not hear me earlier?" If he heard the crunch of Subaru's jaw, he didn't mention it as he continued. "Fix their broken hearts, by any means necessary. And without bloodshed."

That added bit of the order shouldn't have needed to be said. Not since the alterations made to the schedule after the third class had this ever been issue, but whatever had possessed Subaru… Kyte couldn't help but think it had something to do with the letters he was just now finding out about. How many of them had the other received? How many had been hidden from before now? And which member of the Schism was it?

"…Very well…" Subaru said with his head bowed, breaking the awkward silence. It was clear that his time here was up, and without any of the trademark laughter, which was instead replaced by groans of pain as he moved to the door, the clown had departed as suddenly as he had arrived.

As the door clicked closed, Kyte grabbed hold of the curtains in front of him and sighed.

Manderley…

How long had it been since he was last home?

---

Outside of the Foundation, the wind howled through the night with the scream of an ancient banshee and slashed at the falling leaves of trees with a vengeance long forgotten by the common man. Though much removed from nights prior, which were tainted by the distinct nothingness of the cosmos, the sky was polluted with the shining beacons of hope that stars so often became in times of need. Their twinkling light was joined by the soft sliver of moonlight that cut through the building cloud cover, just enough to guide those wandering through the streets to their destination.

Like any who had trodden the road before him, his shoes crunched as they consumed the tiny pebbles of gravel that dotted what had previously been a shining, pristine surface on its creation. Really, it was such a shame what they had become. Same with the buildings that loitered around him like dark shadows of their former selves. The glistening displays of glass, brick, and cement had long since fallen into disrepair and decay, for they soon started fading into rot and dust without anyone to care for them. After all, what was the point if they were just going to be destroyed by another Villain and Hero fight?

Ugh… It was such a disgrace. For all the progress the discovery of Quirks had given the world, and he could hand any denier of that fact a veritable list of things, there were also sacrifices that had to be made. At the end of the day, it had all come down to one rather simple question; 'What's the point in learning it the hard way if one can do it the easy way with a Quirk?' Never before had he heard such a foolish notion, but much to his dismay, it appeared to have struck a larger chord of people than anticipated.

As he heaved another sigh to himself, though, he continued on. There was no use crying over spilt milk, people had already long moved past those discussions. Manic street preachers were about the only people left who cared more than the obligated amount, and they didn't exactly make for stimulating conversation. Any opinions he might have had in years prior were dwarfed and snuffed out by the raging flame of thought that Deku had managed to illuminate during the War.

The wind around him soon began to pick up more, the harsh wails of lost souls transformed into frenzied slashes at the tatters of his overcoat. The ratty, brown thing stunk the same as months-old milk and had probably done more damage to his health than the endless drinking over the past five years or so. Neon green eyes did everything they could to avoid those treacherous signs that pointed him down to hell as he pulled at the flapping mess that tried to contain what warmth it could.

Was it him or were these nights progressively getting worse? About two weeks ago they had been seamless, almost welcoming as the frigid heat that greeted him coming out of his home wrapped around his body like a protective blanket. His thin overcoat had barely been a notion in the back of his mind. The stars and the moon had beamed with pride in their existence, shining on him with grace and divine power. Even the wind, which had so often been his enemy from his days as a kid, had been perfect for flying a kite with his children.

A soft smile came to his face. The slight flash of shiny, white teeth illuminated a speck in the dark around him. His job was tough, not everyone would be able to handle it, and whilst Heroes often won the plaudits for their daring feats of heroism, their battles against villains, and their branding, they were only one side of the divide. The police and private eyes were still as useful as ever; Underground Heroes were not to be forgotten too, of course.

His body had sustained a thousand tiny wounds, but he had always come out on the positive side of it all. Not so much because of his strong will, necessarily speaking, but because of the promise that had sat locked in his pocket and now possessed his right hand. "Aoi… Heh, if only you could have seen them now… You'd be so happy, I bet." His voice was deep, rough and hoarse with the years spent yelling at the top of his lungs.

What lay in his hand was a simple picture, one that often possessed the breast pocket on his finely pressed if mediocre quality shirt. It was the happy visage of his two children that could bring a smile to even the coldest heart in the world. How couldn't it? Their rosy cheeks, their windswept hair, the crazy but confident grins, all of it was like a microcosm of why, despite every setback, he had to keep moving forward. All of those wounds would be worth it if he could keep this world safe for their future.

After spending a few more seconds absorbing the light of warmth the photo gave off, he stuffed it back into his pocket. His face soon fell back into the same stern frown it always seemed to be on the job. Numerous jokes from others at GLAD had told him he was going get wrinkles by the age of forty, and they were right. In fact, he had pre-empted it by about five years. One could scarcely call him thirty-five, and the greying black hair that swept to his shoulders did not help either. God… This job had really taken years off him.

But tonight… tonight would be the night that made every one of those sleepless nights spent without his family's warmth worth it. The constant skimping on his own well-being, which had turned his normal bright face into a pale sheet barely passing the qualification to be alive, would end. He would finally be free from the chains of this case that had captured him in its cage for the past three years.

In the distance, his destination finally came into sight. It had taken a lot of arm pulling from some of the higher-ups, and a few well-placed donations to the right people, but after plenty of begging from his end, he had been able to gain access to the local police station for the night. More importantly, as he approached the building in question, they had handed the keys to the kingdom over when it came to the security footage. When he had heard that fact, the black-haired male scarcely believed his luck. Of course, they had received pushback and had to make some concessions, but life was full of little events like that.

The police station in question was nothing like the decayed outlines of ruins he had walked past earlier. It was perhaps the one place, next to the Hero Offices themselves, that were still actively under serious consideration for reconstruction if damaged during a battle. The bricks, for example, were freshly laid maybe only two months ago, but gave off such a pristine fit that it was impossible to believe they weren't brand new. The general blue and white colour scheme, though a bit hard on his strained green eyes, helped add to the place's sleek look.

Another harsh swipe from the wind, this time striking right across his scarred nose, stopped him from stopping and gawking at the cleanliness for too long. Without much fanfare, he willed himself onwards and towards where the front door lay, where it hid away the world of warmth that would save him from this brutal cold. The addition of another face standing right by the door was a welcome one too, allowing him to break into an easy smile as he neared.

"Ah, Moguro Fukuzou-san so you've finally arrived." Came the voice of the officer that had been stationed at the door. He was a tall man, about 6'3 if the now named Moguro had to hazard a guess, and definitely towards his younger years as well; he couldn't have been much older than twenty-five from the looks of things. "Nice to finally meet you, I've heard so many good things that it's a pleasure to be assigned to this case with you." His voice, likewise, was youthful if not a little shrill in places, which made it a little hard on the ears.

But still, his presence was a welcome one in Moguro's life. As much as it had been his life's sole work on this case for the past three years, with nothing but his own wits and notes to keep him protected, it would be impossible for him to say in good faith that it had been a pleasant experience. "Yes, thank you very much for accepting my presence, Umino-san. I can already tell you're going to be a great help." Moguro said, sticking out his hand for the other to shake.

"Keh, don't mention it." The young officer said as he shook the other's hand quickly and then readjusted his hat. The pristine uniform he wore with such distinction seemed tight to his body, as if there was just some degree of burgeoning muscle, or something else entirely, which threatened to explode out if moved the wrong way. "Also, for tonight only, it's just Shinsuke. Let's not allow formality to get in the way of us finding the truth."

Moguro smirked in reply, now this was a kid he could finally get along with. All the ones at GLAD… They were… Well, some were passable; Seizou's brat for one had been something of a quality asset when he was still employed. The rest of them? Well, the black-haired male would have preferred if they carried coal to Newcastle. "Very well then, it's just Moguro on my end, Shinsuke. Show me to the CCTV room and let's finally get to the bottom of this."

The rising excitement in his tone, despite his formal verbiage, must've been caught by Shinsuke. The officer returned his smirk in kind as he huddled the older male through the metal double doors that guarded the sanctuary before them. Never before had Moguro thought that a simple indoor heater would be the thing he was thanking the Gods for, but here he was wanting to kiss the ground to suck up all the warmth more efficiently. Frankly, he must've looked ridiculous.

"Was it that cold?" It appeared Shinsuke had found it all rather comical too. The young officer was already looking as if he was suppressing a giggle on his all too expressive face. Those red eyes, which reminded Moguro too much of Aoi, were crinkled at the side and the faint inkling he could spy of pink eyeshadow made the amusement all the more noticeable.

With a sheepish grin, Moguro rubbed the back of his head as he meandered down the hallway with the officer. "Ahahaha, you could say that I suppose." Moguro said, almost cursing under his breath when the embarrassment had seeped away. If only his goddamn overcoat didn't look like it had been dragged out of a dead hobo's hands… What he wouldn't give for just a slight pay increase to get a better one.

However, if Moguro had assumed he would be mocked, he was sorely mistaken. "Don't worry about it, Moguro. My partner was born in Russia, you see, and he's always talking to me about how his boss hates the Japanese Winter so much that he would rather stay in Siberia! Can you believe some people?!" Shinsuke replied, with an almost glibness to his tone. Each step he made seemed to be taken two at a time with the officer gliding across the floor like a trained dancer.

It was… odd, Moguro supposed, to hear another man speaking so freely with someone they didn't know about their partnership with another. Was this just how kids these days did it? He wasn't that old now, was he? "Hmm, yes, they do seem awfully strange." Regardless, they were already getting too off-topic, and his already aching feet were never going to forgive him if he kept moving for much longer. "How much longer do we have left? I'd like to get to work as soon as possible."

From his side, he could feel the energy of Shinsuke's steps dissipate slightly. It wasn't by much, maybe a half step or so. However, the officer, whose frazzled blond locks were loosely spilled back down his shoulders after a day of being tied up, was no longer acting like he was in the middle of rehearsing for Swan Lake. "Oh, so soon? That's a shame, I was hoping we would have more time for small talk." Shinsuke pouted, showing his youthfulness both in physical appearance and emotional maturity.

On reflex, Moguro had to stop himself from nodding along to Shinsuke. He had worked with some terribly dull people before. The types that would never dare to have an original thought even if it was the only to save their families from certain death. In any other case, the GLAD investigator would've been ecstatic to share non-work talk with someone. In this case, though, not a second was to be wasted. "Please, I mean no harm. I only seek to jump on this lead before the one I'm investigating catches wind of this." Moguro murmured, almost pained in the dourness his voice took on.

As much as it pained him, though, it was all necessary. The black-haired male had seldom even mentioned to the higher-ups what his supposed mission was. The piling amount of official work he had managed to wriggle out of the past few months had led them all in an endless cycle of confusion and anger. Call him a crazy man, but after seeing what he had seen relating to this case, one could never be too careful with what one said and did.

"That drastic, huh? Well, alright then." Shinsuke replied, his jumping gait slowed down into a proper walk by this point. Gone too was the seeming youthful energy that had tinged his beautiful features into something cherubic. Instead, all that remained behind was a serious gaze of stone. One that was impervious to even the building heat of the situation. "It's just up at the end of the corridor here. I'll help you set up when you're ready."

Moguro nodded in response as he watched with a careful gaze as the other male pull away from him. At least now it looked like he was getting somewhere. The answers he had lusted after for so long were no more than a few steps away, and it sent his body buzzing with a kind of electricity powerful enough to overcharge a superconductor. Before he could notice it, though, he found himself biting at the back of his thumb; a thumb that had already long been deprived of its fingernail.

Furthermore, despite the warmth that now surrounded him, he pulled on his tatty overcoat once more in an attempt to maintain it against the oncoming chill that assaulted his back. A growl soon worked its way up his throat as the sound of tearing fabric meant that its continued degeneration wasn't going to be ending any time soon. The disgusting piece stained his hand as he hurriedly threw it to the ground, and the desire to buy a new coat the second he got this case closed grew with each second.

"Are you coming?" Shinsuke asked, evidently aware of the other man's momentary pause. The blond's voice belayed a soft concern, one that had clearly been cultivated over many years of careful and cruel experience. However, call Moguro a suspicious man by nature, but it felt like there as something almost… impatient about the way the other spoke.

Moguro responded with a nod. He had nothing further to add at the minute, and has he had uttered himself, every second spent engaging in pointless small talk was time wasted when looking for the monster that now haunted his hometown's streets. His footsteps behind Shinsuke reached into the rhythm of a dull metronome, clacking against the somewhat cracked, black, and blue patterned floor that his gaze had travelled down to see. For something that was supposedly so close, it sure was taking a long time to find the CCTV room…

Nervous eyes glanced down to the watch on his wrist, hesitant to even think about how late it was. The thumb that had already long been deprived of its nail was granted a brief reprieve as Moguro swapped to the one on his other hand, and began his work to annihilate the one in record time. Had this delay already made him spurn the best chance he had in the past three years to catch his suspect? Already, the possible apology he'd have to draft to his superiors was eating away at the corner of his mind.

As he continued behind Shinsuke, out of the corner of his eye, Moguro spotted a spider twirling its way up the side of the wall, watching intently as it spun its illustrious white web. His son had always had a majestic, morbid curiosity about those things. Maybe he took after his mother in that regard? For the GLAD investigator, it was hard to stomach the sight of them. Their spindly legs, the annoying as sin webs that cluttered up the place, and the fact he had likely swallowed more than his fair share, had put him off them for good. It was through gritted teeth that he had brought his son one as a pet for his eighth birthday.

"We're here." The tautness in Shinsuke's words, devoid of any of the previous affability from the start, caught Moguro off guard. As the older man's gaze swept upwards to the blond, he saw how the light in those bright red eyes, which had shined like a diamond down in a coal mine, had now been extinguished. Right now, Moguro felt like he was being stared out by a dead fish.

Beyond Shinsuke lay exactly what Moguro had come here for, the CCTV office. It was the holy grail of his investigation, the one place where he knew all the pieces of evidence he had collated over the past three years would come together to capture the beautiful tapestry of his suspect's capture.

The room, admittedly, was a little less than Moguro had been expecting. Over the phone, the picture painted had been one of a top of the line, world-beating office. Hell, if his son's current interest in classic cinema was anything to go by, the expectation of hundreds of interactive screens, audio facilities, and even a mini forensic lab, was far-fetched. Admittedly, though, from the second he come into this place, expectations has been through the floor.

Said floor was cracked as he and Shinsuke walked over it, feeling the fractured tiles wobbled under their feet. The walls didn't fare much better, stress cracks dotted the corners and the connections to the flooring, although still maintained the illusion of stability. Equipment too looked primitive, well before the age of Heroes had well and truly begun. Moguro clenched his fists, of course everyone had stopped caring about advancing anything outside of heroics!

But all of that was permissible, he was a professional, and personal disdain had no place in this line of work. Right now, all that mattered was using what sat in the middle of the room, the very object that Shinsuke slapped lightly with a bright smile on his face. "Here she is! Ain't she a beauty! 4k, 1080p, you name it, she's got it!" It was quite the startling about face, given how morose he sounded earlier.

Before him lay the CCTV interface that he desperately sought to get his hands on. It had come in the former of a simple PC, but if the monitors around it were anything to go by, then it had more use than about anything else in this room. It still looked about ten, twenty years out of date, but it was far superior to anything that GLAD could offer him. Naito-san was always so strict when budgeting the detective department…

Moguro, much engrossed in picking out the flaws his degree in architecture allowed him to see, jumped into life. The enthusiasm of Shinsuke was a little infectious, he could already feel the smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Quite." It was all he needed to say as he slung the bag across his back off his shoulders, and set it on a nearby desk. "How does it work?"

The brightness that came off Shinsuke was like the sun, ever-present and maddeningly warm. "Ah, that's a best part!" The officer, clearly one of the younger on the force through virtue of the still remaining enthusiasm, bounded off the corner of the room and came back with a sleek-looking laptop. Probably the most modern thing in the room, Moguro mused. "Watch and learn!"

Submitting himself to the ball of sunshine he had been assigned to, Moguro stood to the side and allowed Shinsuke to place the laptop on the table beside his bag. Fast fingers flew over keys far too quick for his aging eyesight to keep up with, what was with the younger generations these days? Even at his age, everything they did made him seem old… worn down by the dark world he had stepped himself into.

Honestly, half the time, whenever his son would come bounding up to him, speaking about the new computer he really wanted, and how it had all the ram, storage, and graphics needed to play his favourite game of the week, all he could do was nod his head. Back in his day… Oh, god… he really was getting old…

"And done!" Shinsuke's sunny declaration snapped Moguro back to the living. He hadn't even noticed the officer connecting his laptop, which was now whirring away in the background, to the PC. "It should just take a few moments. Then, we can get to the bottom of this case. It's exciting, isn't it?" He added, the smile on his face still wide, if not a little… It was hard to describe, but something felt… plastic about it.

It was probably nothing. Moguro found it hard not to nod in agreement to Shinsuke's assessment, regardless. To know that his work was nearing completion, a possible promotion at GLAD was on the rise, and that he could walk back into his home with as an all-conquering, Holmes-style figure to his child, made an intoxicating cocktail that was impossible to not get drunk on. Plus, managing to save more people from this terrible killer was a nice bonus. "Mhm." He hummed.

He tapped the corners of the table, rummaging through his bag, as he waited for the PC to finish doing whatever it needed. For all the wonders of what remained of modern engineering, it was a shame they never invented something that cut straight to the point. Oh, well. As he pulled out the USB that had his life's work on it, kissing it for good measure, his eyes trailed over the rest of the room and what lay nearby.

Through the window, which was a little dusty, but nothing too bad, he saw what was probably an interrogation room. The reason it was only sat at probably in his mind, was the utter state it had been placed in. The whole station had been crawling with spiders, and god knows what else, but it had remained professional. The ambiance certainly didn't suggest destruction on this kind of scale.

The whole floor was torn up, perhaps more so than the one he stood under, and was likely the reason why it was like that in the first place. The walls, likewise, were fully busted and even retained some holes that had been clearly punched through. In Moguro's opinion, it was a minor miracle there hadn't been a serious structural failure, given that the support beams were clearly missing too.

It appeared that his gaze had been caught by Shinsuke as well, the officer dropping to his side with a quiet voice. "Oh, that… That's a rather embarrassing story. We used to have an investigator at this station that specialised in interrogation. To cut it short, we had a Quirk based accident between her and a suspect, and we've not had the funds to repair it since. Sorry about that…"

Moguro pursed his lips, he'd heard about that story. A rather sad one, in his view. Such a young hot shot, that woman was. Who knows where she was at the minute? A whole career had been ruined because of a simple mistake. On the other hand, that simple mistake had let a Villain once again infest the streets, and for that there could be no mercy. All he could hope was that she had landed on her feet.

"Ehehe…" Shinsuke giggled, half nervous as he shrugged his shoulders. "At least it's kinda functionable, warts and all." Moguro could tell that as much as the officer was trying, even the blond wasn't buying into his own bullshit. Odds were very good that he was nowhere near ready to join the force at that time, and just going off memory.

But enough staring at that monument to an awkward past, Moguro had much more important things to deal with. His gaze slipped over to where the PC was sat, watching with intrigue at the screens that sputtered into life. "I suppose you've been briefed on the details of this case?" He said, seeing what he assumed to be the motto of the station, then followed by the empty screen and Shinsuke offering up his laptop to him.

Said officer smirked, a noted difference from the previous sunny smiles, and one that felt far more cold, clinical, and real than what came before it. "A little. Nothing more than what the average officer knows." Even his tone of voice seemed to shift, going from enthusiastic, if a bit dim, to more subtle, more shrill and nasally. Although, by the end of the sentence, it appeared to pick right back up into the former.

Moguro watched Shinsuke with narrowed eyes as he presented his USB. "Well, I've been on this case for more three years at this point, and there's one thing you need to know that I won't sugar coat. This Villain, Shutter, has never been seen on camera before, and this is the one piece of evidence I have not only to prove his existence, but also what he looks like." He rattled off, a little guilty for dumping the information on such a young kid like that, but it was all going to be necessary.

Unsurprisingly, Shinsuke blinked twice with big, owl-like eyes. Blond eyebrows were raised up the hair line, as it looked like the severity of the situation he was in had just hit him. "Wait, seriously?" He said, sounding more like a surprised teenager than an officer of the law. "Like, never ever?"

The older of the two nodded, lips grim and pulled into a tight grimace. It was an unusual thing to happen for sure. Even for villains, their debuts tended to be full of the pomp and pageantry expected of Pro-Heroes. Naito-san had even given him a helpful written list of what to expect during them, and how it naturally led to them getting the one thing they wanted above all else - notoriety, and an infamous place in history.

Yet, Shutter was an enigma, an anomaly. There was no pomp, and the circumstances were often in simple domestic settings. All that often remained, after a phone call from the man himself, was a single tape in each home. The one lasting memory of that families existence; the less that Moguro mentioned about the state of the bodies, the better. Shinsuke was still so young, and frankly, he had to fight back his own instincts to vomit whenever he saw some of the photos.

"Yes, never," Moguro affirmed, pressing forward and looking for the USB port on the laptop, placing it in with a satisfying click. "We have our suspicions about how he's been able to avoid capture or documentation. From him being a part of an underground ring, to him being sponsored by a corrupt official in government, killing off targets for the sake of that individual's gain; all avenues have been considered at one point or another."

And all avenues had met the same invariable fate, the cutting room floor. None of them, if given a modicum of scrutiny, could hold any water. It was so, so frustrating! Moguro was sure Shinsuke would come across it in the future, but the feeling of being so close to unravelling a mystery only to be right back at square one was infuriating. Perhaps that was why he had started going grey so young…

"Interesting…" Shinsuke had a hand placed under his chin, taking position at Moguro's side, motioning him to continue on. It was only now did the older of the two realise the serious height difference at play, what was it with kids these days and being so much taller? His son was already at his shoulder, and he was only 5'8!

"The most likely theory at the minute is that he is not just functioning as one single individual." After three years, Moguro would have liked to have said something a lot more concrete than that. But every piece of evidence had gone up in smoke before he could get it, all that remained were his hunches, which were often hit or miss.

He gritted his teeth as he watched the bar slowly load on the laptop, all the surrounding screens starting to cutaway to the one recording all of GLAD had managed to glean. Though he expected to see only one person on the screen, it would not come as a surprise if the CCTV had managed to capture two, or even three people at the scene of the crime. No matter how many it was, he was going to find whoever this was… Even if it meant his end.

If only this thing would fucking load faster! Come on! What was the hold up? He had placed the thing in about a minute ago, and it was still loading! Oh, but sure! There was bound to be someone whose Quirk was to be a fucking supercomputer, so that compensated for everything! Oh, thank you great and merciful creator! You are truly too benevolent!

"Uh… You okay there?" Shinsuke tapped Moguro's shoulder, no doubt noticing the increasing mania in front of him. Whilst it may have been way funnier to let it degenerate, he'd be killed himself if he didn't hurry up. "You look about ready to, excuse the language, shit yourself with your ass taped shut."

Shinsuke's hand on his shoulder was cold, artificial. That was the first thing Moguro noticed as he started to regain his composure. "Apologies. A little tense." He supplied, covering his tracks so he could focus back on the clay-like skin that invaded his personal space. Was this part of the kid's Quirk? He certainly hoped that was the case, otherwise his partner was sooner going to drop dead of a heart attack before the next sun came up.

Whatever, Moguro growled internally, all he needed was for this kid to get the video up and running. He shouldn't be concerning himself with such trivial details when the smoking gun was pointed right in his face, barrel pressed against his forehead. "How much longer?" His ratty overcoat was hanging on for grim death, the constant clutching serving no favours.

"Few… more… seconds…" Shinsuke replied back, covering Moguro's view of the screen for a split second before turning around with a triumphant smile "And we are live, bay bay! Let's see this invisible killer in action!" With a single press of the enter key, all of the screens were now perfectly in sync and began to play the video.

It was a grainy little thing, camera quality not necessarily being the highest priority for whomever was taking it. When Naito-san had handed the flash-drive to him, all he had mentioned was that it was shot on a Super 8 video recorder, the likes of which had become a veritable antique even by the original age of Heroes. Now? It would be like searching for a needle in a haystack to find one.

But that wasn't so much as why Naito-san had deigned its importance, far from it. Reason being, it was the same type of recording that was present in each and every one of Shutter's tapes. As the scene began to sputter into life, the tiny aspect ratio hiding a fair amount of details from view, all the scenes began to show the same thing.

It started out with a simple, snowy field and the camera titled downwards. Even with the numerous screens, Moguro found himself leaning inwards to get a closer look, his strained green eyes trying to search for any kind of detail that he might have missed. Any footprints, any buzzing insect, hell, a single drop of blood on a frost covered blade of grass could tell him all he needed to know!

The scene lasted about twenty seconds. Twenty painstaking, soul-crushing of snow crunching under heavy, steel-capped jackboots. During all of which, Moguro continued to progress to the proverbial edge of his seat. The presence of Shinsuke was largely ignored, and soon, forgotten entirely as the new scene sputtered into life with a jump cut, a consequence of the technology at play.

The new setting still hadn't jumped from the snowy field, but a new stain on the skyline had appeared with the camera now pointed upwards. A house, no bigger than the nails which Moguro had long chewed off, was clearly what whoever was holding the camera was heading towards. Their heavy breathing, a delicate, soft, but decidedly male kind, was all the audio on the film. The droning sound of crunching snow having vanished into the aether.

"Is this…?" Shinsuke wanted to start, about to question what he was seeing in front of him. However, the harsh glare that Moguro swung back him, not unlike the ones he sometimes got from his partner, were enough to cow him. "Right, sorry... Got a little ahead of myself." He added, placing himself further into the tense investigator's bad books.

After another twenty seconds, the scene cut once more. The home in the distance was coming into view, revealing it to be part of a much larger skyline, but still fairly blurry. In the background, Moguro could easily make out the thin, but noticeable strip of Tokyo that had been his own home for so many years. Still, it was near impossible to place what exactly was going on here.

Moguro bit down on the back of his thumb, not caring that he was now chomping down on the nub of his nail. When was Shutter, or whoever the identity was composed of, going to show up? It had been a minute by this point, and there was no sign of the smoking gun he knew he held with his hands. Hell, this wouldn't have looked out of place for some kind of weird advertising campaign.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could Shinsuke twiddling his thumbs and very much fidgeting where he stood as another scene came to them with a harsh shuttering. In these twenty seconds, whomever was filming had further approached the house, which had now come into view properly. It was a two-story house, very traditionally Japanese in its architecture… And oddly… Familiar to Moguro.

"God is Dead, and he is no longer sought."

The voice on the video, raspy and out of kilter with the heavy breathing from earlier, nearly made Moguro's skeleton jump out of his skin. On the other hand, once he had recovered from the brief scare, it only made him all the more interested. Pulling out a notepad and pen from his bag, he noted down the most important thing he heard. The speaker was Russian.

"Oh," Shinsuke spoke, nearly making Moguro drop his pen. "That voice sounds familiar. I'm fairly sure my partner said a Russian guy called in the other week, wanting to report a crime." The taller of the pair said, scratching the back of his head as it looked as if he were trying to recall all the details.

Taking his attention away from the video for the moment, Moguro stared daggers through Shinsuke with his pen and paper at the ready to take more notes. It might have been a hunch, but something… something about the way Shinsuke had said it made the investigator suspicious. Screw the shattered interrogation room next door, all he needed to get the answers was a flipbook and an inexperienced officer willing to break procedure. "Anything you remember? Did you get a name?" The questions were launched in rapid-fire, not unlike a machine gun.

"People believe only what they want."

The voice on the recording spoke out again, to which Shinsuke pointed his finger out. "That. He said that." Said the officer, with about the most professional tone Moguro had heard from him all night. In fact, the blond sounded a little smug about the whole thing. A little… too smug.

As the two continued to stare each other down, the scene in the background began to switch again. This time, the director had reached the doorstep of the house and began to fiddle about with the obviously locked door handle. Moments later, the soft rattling of the handled had transitioned into thunderous thuds and knocks that shook even the ground the watching pair stood on.

But Moguro and Shinsuke no longer had their full, undivided attention on it. Instead, the investigator was much more interested by the man next to him, who claimed to be the officer assigned to help him with the case. "How long ago did you say this was?" There was something wrong here, something so terribly, awful wrong, and it was staring Moguro in the face. He just knew it!

"One week, right as the two of us were preparing to take leave for the holidays. Then, I got assigned onto this case, and the rest was history." Shinsuke folded his arms, suddenly looking much larger than before as more of his musculature was revealed. The look on his face was sour, an otherwise attractive visage destroyed by an inner ugliness that was impossible to fully fathom.

An inexperienced officer… with a Russian partner… Surely, he was looking into things far too much here. Yet, the sneaking suspicion that infected Moguro's body was unshakeable, and refused to let up on pounding his mind. He raised his pen and paper, readying another question when…

A shrill, loud recording of the Enchanted Lake from Swan Lake burst into both of their eardrums. Whilst Moguro was busy throwing up his hands over his eardrums, he witnessed the smug look on Shinsuke's face first dissipate into confusion, and then into a bright recognition that looked much more like the officer he had gotten to know.

"A-ah! Sorry, Moguro-san!" He said, fumbling about with the phone he pulled out and bowing before the older man. "Forgive me, but it's my partner! I've really got to take this! You don't mind if I leave for a second or two, do you? You don't? Alright thanks!" Without getting the chance to place a word in edgewise, Moguro was forced to watch as Shinsuke darted out of the room with a lovesick grin on his face.

As the door shut behind the younger officer, Moguro could only shake his head. They were partners both in work and under the sheets? What had the force come to? It was only about five to ten years ago when he himself had worked up through the ranks with utmost professionalism. Aoi and his beautiful children were simply the rewards for a decade of service, and had always been second to finishing the job.

Getting distract because of a call from your lover… When Moguro got back to GLAD after this, and if it were needed, he was going to immediately demand Naito-san place him with a different partner. This one was far too unreliable and smiled like a snake despite the flower he tried to appear as. But, at the very least, it had gotten him into the position where he could watch the video by himself. The one thing he had been intending on doing from the very start.

"It's five to twelve. Time's almost up."

Something about that voice… Moguro was swore he had heard it somewhere before. Was it in Naito-san's office once? That didn't seem very likely. Naito-san was a very private man, suggesting that some nobody from Russia could waltz in and speak to him was outlandish. Half the time, it was impossible to get hold of the man!

But as the video switched again, this time to a recording of the snow-covered window, the fact played in the back of his mind. For a moment, nothing happened in the video, as the Super 8 recording was placed onto the ground. But then, an almighty crash was heard. "A brick?" Moguro mused, his suspicions confirmed when he saw the shattered window laying in pieces on the floor...

Wait a minute.

That… No, that couldn't be right!

Moguro was already close to pressing his face against all of the screens at once, but now he had taken it a step further. He was so close to all of them that he could lick every individual pixel that populate their screens; the heat of them all burning his face like he had booked an impromptu tanning session.

That…

The video jumped again and his breath hitched. This time, the video was pointed towards a set of twirling banisters painted a deep purple colour; the wall behind was painted in the same mould, but was flecked with some sprays of grey that made it pop just that little bit more.

No.

No.

NO!

He had only… He had only been gone a week! At most! And last he heard from his family, everything was fine! The caretaker he had hired to look after his children had fed him daily messages and pictures! There…

There was no way…

"So much pain for such little glory… How does it feel knowing your life has been wasted?"

At this point, Moguro scarcely recognised the presence of another voice speaking. The mania of finding out that Shutter had been in his house had taken full hold, and like a clingy-ex, it wasn't going to be going away any time soon. The fact that Naito-san also had this… What did that mean?

The pen and paper in his hands shook, then tumbled to the floor in disgrace once the video jumped again. Each clip was only twenty seconds long, but every second dragged on for entire lifetimes. He didn't need to know the sensation of his life flashing before this, he was learning all about the horrors of watching it in living colour.

"Ryuu! Shinbou!" He screamed out, hoarse coughs hacking up from his lungs as a result. It didn't matter that it was a recording and the dead was likely already done; his fucking kids were in the house with a Villain and none the wiser! Where the hell was the caretaker?!

All that stood between the mysterious director of this, for lack of a better word, snuff film, was a simple wooden down with his kid's names scrawled on in messy Kanji. If it was possible to jump between video and reality, Moguro would have been halfway through the screen by this point.

However, all he could do was sit and watch.

Sit and watch as the video cut again, and the sleeping form of his children was laid bare.

They looked so peaceful, so tranquil… So blissfully unaware of the danger that had just trekked into their room.

Moguro's heart, already stressed, had started doing somersaults by this point. It had gone from his mouth, to his chest, to his throat, to stopping for just a brief second when it seemed like this might have all just been a terrible case of mistake identity. No matter how much he wanted to look away, it was impossible to drag his gaze from the screen. To put it simply, he was mesmerised by what he saw.

Whoever was holding the camera set it down, and for the first time, his appearance was somewhat revealed. The shock of lilac hair, despite its brevity in frame, was unmistakable. It was perfectly slicked back too, with just a single bang of soft hair crossing in between twin lilac eyes. If there was any doubt about the identity of the man, Moguro would've said he looked like a guardian angel.

However, he knew better.

"Shutter…" The name fell out of his lips, and still somehow felt surreal. Three years… He had spent upwards of three years, day in and day out, trying to uncover the mystery of this monster's series of killings. This should have been a moment of great triumph, but instead of heading back to GLAD with his head held high, all he could do was keep it from impacting the ground.

"This world is dying. Do not try to save it."

Shutter's voice was as hellish as he imagined it to be. Whilst earlier it had been raspy, likely out of breath, it now sounded like the gravelly tones of the grim reaper. With trembling green eyes, Moguro could only watch helplessly as the glint of an axe was raised high into the sky.

The video cut before the deed was done, but Moguro was already on his knees. Even if they didn't show it, he knew what had happened. No Quirk in the universe could save him now, and only now could he curse the heavens for not giving him one that could turn back time.

Hot tears began to stream from his eyes as he clenched his fists on the ground. Had… Why did it have to be him? Was it because he was tracking Shutter for all this while? If that was the case, then why wasn't he the target? WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE THEM?!

"Don't worry, they are now immortalised with my image forever. That is the greatest honour they can bestow."

Moguro barely recognised the sound of the door opening again behind him, or Shutter's words from the recording. The only thing he could hear was the heart pumping in the middle of his chest. It was only supposed to be a myth, something old people told young couples, that you could die of a broken heart.

"Moguro-san." At Shinsuke's voice, Moguro's eyes bolted open, still streamed with the tears. The video had seemingly ended if the still silence that sat between them was anything to go by. "I take it that I missed the whole thing?" But the strangest thing was… Shinsuke didn't seem upset.

No, instead, he seemed to be happy?

"Y-y-you-u-u…"Moguro stammered out, trying to wrestle himself to his feet as he saw Shinsuke turns his back and lock the door behind him. "W-w-wha… Tell me what you know! You're hiding something! Who are you?!" Despairing anger, that was the only emotion he could feel at the minute, and it was exactly the one he shot over at the so-called officer.

"Try not to tease, my luchik. He'll know soon enough."

If he had anything left to give than what he already expounded, Moguro would have turned around and drawn the revolver in his holster immediately. But as it stood, all he could manage was a limp turn of his head at the sound of a Russian voice that was no longer coming from the recording.

The sight was one to behold. At first, it had just been one screen that shut down without warning, something that would be passable as a minor technical fault. But then another one joined it in quick succession.

Then another.

Then another.

Then another.

Until, finally, all of them had been switched off save for the biggest one in the middle. With Shinsuke standing guard at the door, blocking any hope of escape, Moguro was forced to watch as the image of a close up face was placed before him.

"He has been a polite and amicable guest for the evening. He deserves the truth."

It moved. The image on the screen moved along with the voice. That thing was fucking live! But… But… Naito-san had only given him the USB tonight before he left! And the recording was definitely more than a day old, so how was it possible for something like this to happen?!

Unless…

It started out small. First it was a hand, pale but soft looking, which slowly started to crawl out of the screen. Soon after, the second one joined it, and the black leather of the jacket its owner was wearing became more than visible.

"And he deserves the most beautiful scene imaginable painted for him. A masterpiece ready to rival Rembrandt."

Next came the legs, decked out in the same kind of black leather, which under normal times would have had Moguro deriding his assailant as an emo. Yet, all he could do now was sit and watch as the same steel-capped jackboots from earlier dropped out of the screen with a heavy thud; the figure by his side definitely pushing a lanky, slimy, and almost feminine body. However, it was one that still remained taller than his own. Although, not by much.

A soft click reached Moguro's ears, followed by the weight of the hands that had just emerged taking hold of his arms and pulling him to his full height. Had he been anything more than a simple puppet of meat, too devastated by the alleged demise of his precious children, maybe he'd have noticed the lacking weight of the revolver by his side.

Instead, all he was able to see was the face of the man who had done the deed.

Shutter was beautiful. Truly, had he not been the embodiment of grim death, Moguro would have willingly prostrated himself at the lilac-haired Russian's feet. Said hair looked even more luscious and thick in person, coifed perfectly and with stray strands dangling between mesmerising eyes of a Supreme Hypnotist. The bottom half of his face was sadly hidden, disguised by a leather face mask coated in small silver spikes.

"Are you ready to become famous?" Shutter said, voice soft and angelic. A far cry from what it had been just moments earlier. One arm was locked around Moguro's back, catching him at a 60-degree angle downwards, almost like he was ready to pull the investigator into a waltz of some kind.

In his other hand, though, lay the revolver. With zero sympathy in those angelic, lilac eyes, he placed the gun back into Moguro's possession and guided the long barrel of the .44 Magnum into the greying temple through the detective's own prerogative.

"I…" Moguro wanted to cry out. He wanted nothing more than to curse the man who had murdered his children. He wanted nothing more than to scream to the heavens about the corrupt officer, who was doing nothing to save him.

He wanted nothing more than to go home… He wanted nothing more than to be with his wife and kids…

"Shush. Your 'justice' ends here." Shutter replied with a cold voice, hand tight around the trigger of the gun. He then pulled the face mask down, revealing the cold, blue lips that would seal the fate of the man in his arms. It was same as he did for all his victims; they deserved a mark of beauty they could take with them to the afterlife.

With a simple, chaste kiss on the lips, Shutter's finger pulled the trigger of the gun.

BANG!

And instantly, Moguro slumped in the leather clad killer's arm, soon to be discard to the floor that would become his eternal resting place.

"So dramatic, Ilya." Came the voice of 'Shinsuke', who had watched the whole thing with a perturbed smile on his face. The tone that slipped out of his mouth was far removed from the sunny police officer, drawing back the curtain on the ruse further. His real voice was one that was already well known to the assailant in front of him, nasally whines and aggressive swearing and all.

As he stepped forward towards Shutter, little pieces of what looked to be clay started to slip from 'Shinsuke's' body. First, it was only minor dribs and drabs; a part of the shoulder, maybe something from under the eye that could be mistaken for sleep, and then a small tuff of hair. However, by the time he had gotten halfway, the great exodus had begun. Large chunks of the 'torso' began to ebb away, revealing an even more developed, but still lanky frame. The height likewise remained the same, but the muscles became evidently more tuned towards dancing than law enforcement.

By the time the mystery man had reached Shutter, the jig was fully up. Large chunks of false hair started to disintegrate, revealing the natural mop of black hair that fell down to just above his shoulder. Then, the face finally fell apart. Though it remained quite handsome still, it was not the face of a one Shinsuke Umino.

It was the face of Taka Michinoku. Osprey.

Osprey

Quirk: Mimicry!

Owing to his role as the Inner Circle's Assassin, Osprey has the Quirk to match the lofty targets he's handed! Osprey's body secretes a clay-like substance from the pores of his skin, which can be used by him as a kind of "bodysuit" that can be moulded into replicating someone's appearance, so long as he has been in prolonged contact with them beforehand!

"It has been too long, Mon Cher." Osprey moaned as he approached Shutter, wrapping his arms around the other, and making sure to deliver a nice, looooooong kiss to the neck. How long had it been now? Two, three years since they had last seen each other in person? Ah, how time flied.

"Your assistance was unnecessary." Shutter responded, terse, but not upset enough to ignore the kiss he received from his boyfriend. Plus, he needed something to wash the bad taste of old man lips out of his mouth. Would it kill these people to use mouthwash every once in a while?

Noticing the icy reception he was getting, Osprey pulled back a little. Though, he still kept his arms wrapped around Shutter, not wanting to let his lilac-haired lover go out of his sight for even a second. "Is it too late to mention the reservation I made at Providence?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, hoping that everything could be smoothed over.

"I can carry out my work with or without you, Taka." Came another icy reply, Shutter now moving to pry clingy, spider monkey like arms off his body. As much as his heart leapt for joy when he received word Lord Monsoon needed him in Japan, knowing he would be able to see Taka again, now was not the time for this… buffoonery.

"But you know for a fact, Ilya, that we're better together. If this is about a couple of days ago, I already told you that it was an accident. How was I supposed to know that the thing still fucking worked? It looked like it was from the 19th century!" Osprey cried, trying not to sound like a petulant teen and directly failing at that very task. He already knew that if Painmaker were present, and not taking care of this shit-nosed kids, he'd have been whacked up the head by now.

Theirs was such a strange duet. In two voices combined, lay the foundation of power needed to shake all opponents to their core, but they so seldom sang from the same hymn sheet that it was impossible to know that fact in the first place. More often than not, what was left behind remained nothing more than a hideous discordant screech. Yet, the intoxication that spun from every word they uttered to each other was unmissable. The dim light of the one still functioning computer in the background barely managed to illuminate the harsh pink that dusted under Shutter's eyes.

"And is that why you tried to get Chernobog to patch things over with me instead of yourself? Try better next time." Chernobog… Ah, God. He forgot he was going to have to stay with that nuisance. Staying with his lover was out of the question at the minute, and right about now? Shutter didn't feel like playing nice anyway.

"What about the letter?" Osprey questioned, folding his arms behind Shutter, and looking away into the distance. Not unlike when he was masquerading as the formerly alive Shinsuke Umino, who now happened to be halfway to Atlantis.

Shutter grunted, finally freeing himself from Osprey's grip and stepping on Moguro's corpse to get to the other side of the room. "I thought you said you learned Russian, what was that supposed to be?"

"You're unbelievable, of course you focus on that! Do you know how hard it is to write in that shit you call a script?! I felt so filthy trying to understand it all!" Osprey squawked. This was the thanks he got for assisting in getting the most prominent investigator in GLAD off his boyfriend's back? Well, Shutter can forget about that booking! He'd just call Katsuyori again… fuck's sake..

However, much to his surprise, Shutter had come back over and linked his arms underneath his and planted a quick kiss to the cheek. When he wasn't busy murdering someone, or being his usual pedantic asshole self, Osprey liked to reckon that his Ilya was the most romantic man in the world. "Just a few hours, that's all I ask. I'll go to Lord Monsoon, and then I'll come back, alright?"

Osprey grumbled, reverting from the callous murder he was into the lovesick dancer he should have been. "Ugh, fine. But when you get back, you're paying for the bills. I ain't touching that shit." Honestly, what was it with Flashfire and eating him out of house and home whenever he went anywhere with the Inner Circle's agitator.

With the door still locked, Shutter's way of exiting the room was far from the most subtle thing in the world. Picking up the gun that he used to murder Moguro in cold blood, he slashed at the nearby glass divide to the Interrogation room, eventually breaking it down after two blows. "See you soon, Taka."

Lord Monsoon awaited his arrival, and as his ever loyal, only protégé, who was Ilya Raskolnikov to go against his master's wishes?

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A/N: I have sevre issues. Thank you for those that will read this. I have nothing further to say, see ya next time.