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And the story continues with Eri encountering her nightmare once again...
Chapter 5 Past Nightmare
No please… Flashes of ghost pains of slices and limbs breaking down to only be restored assaulted her mind as she trembled under the golden gaze. "Time to turn back the clock…" Every time he had spoken those words, a streak of red would blur her vision as everything went black due to pain, then just before a numbness – a dull bright light would grace her as she would awaken in her own room in the compound.
Someone please… Eri backed away into her bed, pressing her back to the bedframe in attempts to move further away from the nightmare before her. She clutched onto her stuffed animal desperately, hoping there will be some comfort that could embrace her.
"Stop your damn whimpering." Overhaul narrowed his eyes, as a slight migraine was coming on.
Eri held her breath, the years of trained obedience that was habit fell back into place – months of freedom of expression locked away under the gold gaze.
He took in her frightened silent gaze and remarked, "You're coming with me. Get up."
Eri gasped, flashes of all those friendly faces came to her mind – as though they were begging her to not go. Don't go… No. "N—no." Eri urged herself, attempting to put on a courageous face through unshed tears.
Overhaul narrowed his eyes further; Heroes are making her disobedient… "You don't want to save lives?"
Eri froze taking in the threatening glare, "D—don't hurt anyone, please."
"I won't need to if you just listen." Overhaul remarked, moving forward into more of the glow of the nightlight.
Eri backed up further, clutching the stuffed animal desperately as Overhaul towered over her. The little girl cowered under him; she stared up into his eyes taking in the menacing glint within the gold that was slowly trickling with exhaustion. "Get up, I'm not saying it again." He leaned back heading towards the busted glass door.
Eri stared after him noticing the empty sleeves where his arms and hands should be. He's been hurt. The little girl put on a brave face, "You can't hurt anyone since you don't have your quirk. I'm not going anywhere with you."
"What was that?" Overhaul scowled, he shifted his foot reconstructing the floor with spikes that shot out towards the wall impaling colorful drawings and posters.
Eri squeaked cowering in the sheets, "I'm sorry!"
He gritted his teeth glaring at her darkly as he deconstructed the spikes, "Don't apologize when you don't mean it. Move, you're wasting my time…" Overhaul gazed out the door mumbling, "I need to see him."
Eri stifled, "See who?"
Overhaul stiffened, putting his thoughts together, he turned to the girl, "Your grandfather."
Grandfather… Eri remembered the old man – the first kind reassuring smile.
"He's hurt and you are the only one that can heal him… Do you really want to be a hero? Heroes save people, right?" The Yakuza gazed over his shoulder to stare at her.
I'm the only one who can save him… Eri avoided his eyes as she got out of the bed, shuffling to get her shoes. She stiffly went to his side like she had always done when he had scolded her.
His gold eyes lingered on her as she obeyed, "Good, let's go." He stepped over the broken glass and into the grass, his head tilting slightly to ensure she was following.
Eri tried to silent the sporadic breathing and the heavy pounding of her heart as she took more steps towards her nightmare, practically turning away from the light. She clutched her stuffed cat tighter as she stopped at his side once again. Nervously, she glanced up at him seeing his gold eyes studying her – those same gold eyes that had always looked at her with coldness and irritation, but now there was a slight emotion in there, something she never expected to see in the gold – thankfulness.
"Grab my sleeve, I don't want you falling behind." He remarked flatly, glancing slightly at the empty arm sleeve.
Eri's hand shook as she reached out to him and grabbed the clothing, she kept up with his long strides as he moved further towards the outer edge. Her breath hitched as they walked past a puddle of blood before reaching the edge.
Overhaul's gaze flickered to the puddle and bluntly remarked, "I won't let anyone stand in my way in reaching Pops."
Eri's red eyes snuck a hesitant peek at him noticing a faraway look within the gold gaze as they shifted towards the wall.
He remarked giving her a dark stare, "So don't make unnecessary detours."
She shivered under his stare and she nodded stiffly. Overhaul slammed a foot on the wall breaking down the metal to reveal the elevated tunnel. He pulled her with him as she dragged her feet as she stepped over the dark threshold just as he sealed the exit – while the light faded from her eyes.
Eri nervously glanced around the ruins of the city, she remembered walking around these very exact streets – how so much had changed. Her red eyes shifted to her tormentor; he never spoke to her again since he brought them out of the tunnel. She noticed he was staggering every so often and sometimes the ground would shift from his steps that left him ragged in breath. The moon was out shinning over the ruins of the skyscrapers, guiding this seemingly endless trudge.
She rubbed her eyes while clutching her toy cat, never letting go of his sleeve in fear of retribution for disobeying. Overhaul staggered again; he leaned his shoulder on a building to catch his breath with the constant flow of his quirk reacting to the ground. He couldn't focus on cancelling it out when his mind was acutely tuned in on Eri to ensure she stayed obedient – even allowing his mind to wander would set the road in front of them to reconstruct if he wasn't too careful.
Overhaul took a breather, he felt exhausted and was fighting the urge to sleep. Judging by Eri's slowed movements, she would probably crash from exhaustion in the street before she would ask for rest. He studied their surroundings noticing an apartment complex that was still standing. Overhaul gazed down at the little girl that swayed to keep herself standing, her eyes were practically falling but he could tell she was trying to fight it. He sighed, deconstructing the front entrance and walked towards one of the first apartments on the floor to rest.
He kicked out the door, pulling Eri into the abandoned unit. She became more awake, aware they had stopped and nervously gazed at the closed space. He sealed the entrance and scouted the apartment, sealing up any windows or doors she may use to escape. He found a phone and destroyed it, once he deemed the place was escape-free, he slumped down on the bed as the rush of exhaustion took over him from the whole day ordeal.
Overhaul stared at the little girl that still clutched onto his sleeve, "Go find a place to sleep, we leave first thing in the morning."
Eri gazed at him seeing the drained expression on his face – he didn't bother to give her his usual cold glare. Finally getting permission to leave his presence, she quickly left the room he occupied.
Overhaul sighed in relief, feeling himself dozing off. With his feet off the ground without any contact, he can finally recuperate. He stared at the ceiling, deep within himself there was a slight unsettledness that came over him by being near that cursed child again. He couldn't really place the feeling, it wasn't fear nor self-preservation – Overhaul ignored it turning on his side as a wave of exhaustion put him in a restless sleep.
Eri clutched onto her stuffed cat, listening intently to ensure he was sleeping – once she heard light snores, she curled into a fetal position as a wave of terror rippled through her of being alone with him. She cried silently as she curled in the sofa, trying to reassure herself that he won't hurt her – he needs her to heal her grandfather. That one thought kept her from breaking down fully, that sliver of hope that he wouldn't hurt her as bad as he used to. Right now, he was too focused on reaching her grandfather – in the past he was too focused on hurting her to make a cure, if he still had that same singular mindset then maybe she would be okay from him. She eased herself to sleep, slipping into a shaky dream of an endless gray tunnel.
Eri woke up with a slight start by the unfamiliar surroundings, but calmed herself after realizing she was still in the apartment. She sat up peering around the room noticing the clock read 1p.m. Worry consumed her by oversleeping, she jumped off the sofa and eyed her surroundings to ensure he wasn't lurking to punish her for waking up past noon since he wanted to leave first thing in the morning.
She nervously went towards the room he slept in, watching the Yakuza sleep as he stiffened, tossed, and turned as though he was having a nightmare. Eri frowned at the scene before her, never imagining her nightmare would be having his own… I wonder what he dreams about.
Eri backed away silently to ensure she didn't wake him as her stomach grumbled. Glancing back at the kitchen, she deemed it was necessary to eat before he got up. She opened the fridge and gagged as the smell of spoiled food hit her, the little girl wrinkled her nose and shook her head to get the smell out of her nose. Scavenging the pantry, she found cereal and a bowl to get herself a meal.
She glanced back to the room hearing him muttering, almost yelling. Eri peeked through the cracked door noticing him tossing and turning with sweat drenching him. She winced as he was startled awake with a yell, "Pops, no!" Eri squeaked as he overhauled the doorway almost slicing her with spikes.
Overhaul breathed deeply, his heart raced as the remanence of sleep left him and sweat trickled down his face. He felt the aftershock of the dream beating down on him. His breaths were harsh as he gazed around noticing the reconstruction. His gold eyes focused on the little girl that fell to her side dodging the spikes that nearly impaled her. He tsked deconstructing the spikes to allow the girl to sit up.
Eri felt tears prickling in her eyes by the close encounter of death.
He glanced down, cringing by the sweat and nervous hives that littered his body. His breath was ragged, gazing around he noticed a tub, "Eri, make a bath." He rasped out feeling himself become sticky and itchy the longer he stayed in these soiled clothes.
The little girl stayed put, too scared to move a muscle by the pale and sickly look mixed with his disgusted and irritated expression.
Overhaul snapped, "Do it now before I fucking level this place!" He could feel himself lose control of his quirk just by the state of his mind by the unnerving dream and being dirty.
Eri ran quickly to the bathroom to run a bath with soap.
He gritted his teeth as he bit at his collar and tugged harshly ripping the buttons off. Overhaul sighed in relief as he was able to shrug off the ripped shirt from his shoulders to the ground. He bent forward attempting to do the same with the pants. Fucking useless. He stood from the bed, wincing as he held back the overhaul as his feet hit the ground. He noticed Eri freezing as he stood before her, she was warily gazing towards the exit of the bathroom. "Get me out of these pants." He remarked nonchalantly.
Eri stared at him fearfully, she heard about these kinds of things from the girls in the dorm room that would talk about how bad guys do different scary things.
He scoffed by her fearful expression, "Quit your scared expression, I don't care about sensual pleasures. Look away or close your eyes, but I need to get cleaned."
She gazed up at him seeing the dark circles under his eyes and the sweat and hives that splotched across his chest and face. Eri zoned in on his pants, she quickly looked away as she helped him out of the remainder of his clothes. She closed her eyes as he stepped into the bath and sat down, seemingly ignoring her shaken state. A wave of relief ran through her as he didn't do anything to her.
Eri opened her eyes peering at him as he leaned forward in the bubbled water, breathing in shaky breaths as his hives slowly lessened. After the fear passed, she was able to study him noticing black and colorful ink covering his chest and back.
Overhaul leaned back sinking deeper into the bubbled water to wash off the sweat to where his face was only visible. His gold eyes shifted to Eri noticing her staring, "Got something to say?"
Eri nervously looked away from his eyes, "Y—you hurt me before with your quirk… why not other things?"
He stared at her, memories of him reconstructing and deconstructing her came to his mind, "Other things?"
She glanced back at him seeing his emotionless gold eyes studying her from the water. Eri took a shaky breath and responded, "S—some of the men would come to my room at night… Telling me and describing what they wanted to – to… but they were scared of what you would do. Something about defiling…hierarchy."
He narrowed his eyes by that confession, he knew all those filthy caretakers were useless and expendable, but for them to even think to go further, to even defy his order to just watch her – they wanted to touch her? Guess every one he had killed for failing to get her to trust them had some more meaning than just simply slaughtering them for their incompetence.
Eri noticed the slight dark glare he gave when she told him, actually surprised she got him angry. She scooted backwards hitting her back to the sink as he sat up from his laying position in the tub. His tattoos more visible to her now as he shifted slightly to scowl at her, "The caretakers?" Eri nodded stiffly under his burning gold gaze. Overhaul turned away leaning back onto the wall of the tub, "No matter they failed in getting you to trust them." It pissed him off over the countless number of caretakers he went through for the trouble of finding someone to look after her – to make it easier for her to be more at ease with the experiments and they all failed to keep themselves in check.
"S—so why not you?" Eri asked, wanting to know why this man – the one that had tortured her and haunted her dreams, didn't add another horror to the list of things he had done to her.
Overhaul narrowed his eyes as he stared at the wall, "I have no need for it, besides Pops told me to look after you."
"B—but if he asked that – w—why did you hurt me?" Eri whispered staring at her nightmare in disbelief, her grandfather told him to look after her, to protect her, then why did he always make her bleed? Break her down and put her back together again while also threatening people's lives if she didn't stay in line?
He froze, realizing why he had been so unsettled being around her presence when they were traveling to get Pops. Remembering it will be another thing Pops would condemn him for with failing to uphold the Yakuza ways and destroying the organization. "I wanted to make the Yakuza valuable again, make it powerful again and your quirk had its properties…" Overhaul closed his eyes, being reminded of all that trouble with nothing to show for it. "I wanted to give something back to him, to rebuild the organization like how it once was when Pops was in his prime."
Eri stared in bewilderment seeing the man before her hunch forward and shake with emotion. This once sadistic and cold man that had never cared and had reveled in other's demise was actually revealing remorse. She stiffened as his gold eyes settled on her once again – there was exhaustion behind that gaze and turmoil. But as she kept gazing into those gold embers, she noticed the emotion dulled from his eyes as though he threw down a curtain to hide it away.
"But it doesn't matter now… all that matters is going back to him and waking him up." Overhaul remarked, turning his gaze away from her red one.
Eri stayed silent as he soaked longer in the tub to fully appease the rest of the hives where his skin wasn't splotchy anymore.
"Go check if this apartment has sweatpants and a shirt I can wear." Overhaul ordered, allowing the girl an escape from his presence. He scoffed at the look of relief that crossed her features when he didn't force her to watch him bathe further. It wasn't like he told her to stay, just to help him out of his clothes and to run the bath. He figured he can save the girl the trouble of trying to get him into jeans so she can avoid going too close to that since she was so uncomfortable. He hated sweatpants for the mere sloppy appearance of class, but it would be easier for both of them – plus he figured he can manage getting out of them on his own rather needing her assistance since it didn't require a zipper nor button.
His gold gaze fell on the girl again as she came in with black sweatpants and a long-sleeved green shirt. "Okay good, just stretch out the waist band of the sweatpants and just hold it out so I can step in them." He instructed; she averted her eyes as she did as she was told with opening the pants wider by the hip area.
He ignored the water dripping down his body as he stood up and carefully stepped into each leg. Overhaul noticed Eri closing her eyes and had winced as one of his hips brushed her hand when he fully got the pants on. "You can let go now." He remarked flatly, Eri dropped her hands from his hip band, there was still fear trickling in her gaze as he leaned forward for the shirt, "You're almost done."
She nodded stiffly as she held out the shirt as he put his head through the clothing, her breath was harsh by how close his face was to hers since he had to bend down for her to reach his head and shoulders. Eri held back the whimpers and tears as the gold eyes stared at her blankly – not revealing any emotion, whether it was to make her feel better with the lack of any response or due to him simply not caring how this closeness may reawaken past terrors of being near him again.
He stood back straight, rolling his shoulders to better place the shirt on him as the little girl stood there petrified. Overhaul ignored the rush of his quirk, tuning it out until he found shoes that would self-consciously help put a mental barrier on his quirk as if it was not in contact with anything much like he had done when he wore gloves. He disregarded the girl as he walked out of the room, glancing at the clock he cursed, Great. Overslept again, it's nearly 3 p.m. "Get moving, we need to leave." It annoyed him how little progress in distance they had made – he didn't like how close they were to the bunker. Central Hospital was in Tokyo and they were at least over two hours away, even if the metro was still operational.
It will be a long ass walk, but he doubted the roads were even drivable, hell he didn't know if he could drive even with making extended appendages for himself. He sighed, it will probably take them at least four days to reach Pops, especially if they kept on getting these late starts.
Eri hurriedly grabbed her stuffed cat and shoes as Overhaul shuffled out of a shoe to deconstruct the exit. Once he righted himself with the shoes, he shifted his gaze on the little girl, moving his amputated arm slightly for the sleeve to sway to hint to her to grab on. Eri grabbed onto the green sleeve as he moved through the apartment complex and back onto the street. She glanced towards the way they came from last night, wondering if anyone had noticed her missing. The girl came back to her senses when Overhaul tugged on his sleeve to indicate they were moving.
Overhaul noticed the slight hesitation from the girl when they ventured further away from the direction of the bunker, "Once he's healed, you are going to be done. Stay with your grandfather or go back to the heroes, I don't care. It will all be decided by him anyways."
Eri peered up at the faraway gold gaze, "You will let me go?"
"It depends on the Boss." Overhaul remarked as they walked through the dead city.
Eri frowned at the vagueness, surprised he wouldn't have a say in the matter since he was in charged in the past. "Would he let me go?"
His gold gaze fell on her slightly taking in her nervousness, "You are his blood, he won't have anyone else if you left him…" Overhaul became quiet, he felt like he didn't deserve to be in the old man's presence after everything he had done.
She noticed the strain in his voice, as though he was in pain, "Wouldn't he have you?"
Overhaul scoffed, chuckling at that, "What makes you think he would want me?"
Eri fell silent by that confession, as though he had admitted that everything he had done was wrong.
His gold eyes stared at her darkly, "Who do you think broke him?"
"B—but he was a father –." She dropped his sleeve, staring at him in complete bewilderment.
"At the time it was for his own good." He remarked, ignoring the nagging thought of putting the old man under to fulfill his plan to use Eri for profit – that the old man didn't understand the logic behind it, practically disowning him just for suggesting it. Perhaps it was just for his own self-preservation within the clan to break Pops so the old man was unfit to go through with that threat of throwing him out of the Yakuza. Deep down he had pushed away that motive behind his action, too ashamed to admit to himself that he incapacitated the one person that ever gave a damn about him.
"W—why would you hurt a person you care about?" Eri shook as he turned fully towards her when he noticed she hadn't followed. She couldn't understand why someone would hurt a person they cared about; they should be protecting them – not hurt them.
Overhaul gave her a forged smile, "Guess it's in my nature."
The trek to reach Pops begins... Let me know on your thoughts on Overhaul and Eri dynamic on the past, traumatized by different nightmares. See you all next time for Chapter 6 "Only Criminals".
