Training week for he Sports Festival is underway. Suri is going through some emotions and gets cornered by them. Tooru learns first-hand how brutal lycanthrope society can truly be. She also sees something that she can't explain.
The next week of class was spent mostly in Training Grounds Alpha and Beta, and the Beta and Gamma Gyms. Most everyone was paired off into groups of two so everyone should have had a partner to train with but Suri found herself oddly alone. Not that she hadn't tried finding partners to train or spar with. Mina and Uraraka were paired up and spent most of their time in the gym with Uraraka floating more and more objects at a time and Mina using said objects as target practice to dial in her aim and precision. Kirishima spent most of the week sparring with Bakugou, given he was the only one who could really stand up to the blonde's more treacherous blasts and it let Kirishima master his hardening Quirk to get harder than ever.
She tempted the thought of training with Koda but she couldn't think of how the two could really help each other get better at whatever they were expected to get better at together. She did feel an odd sensation that she needed to go to him several times like the numerous animals that came to his silent call. He was like a six foot tall, stone faced, mute version of Snow White. Still, she found herself wandering his way every so often.
She'd have to bring that up with him some time.
Izuku and Todoroki often trained by themselves. Todoroki was standoffish though. He rubbed her the wrong way, not because he never said a word to her but she just hated the way he looked at her. Izuku kept running off with All Might and training with him and she wasn't the only one who had noticed the secret rendezvous. That said, she figured she was the only one who knew the actual truth behind it all.
Out of her friends though, she could never seem to find Tooru.
The invisible girl just ended up living up to her name. Both in sight and through text. Her friends had ghosted her with her revelation that, low and behold, not only could she see herself possibly dating one of her classmates but several of them at once. Everyone was keeping her at arm's length. That following Wednesday, three days before the Sports Festival, Suri just said fuck it and didn't show up to school.
Instead she spent it at Uncle Issie's with the gym's speaker system hijacked by the beast girl and tuned to the angrier and harder hitting music on her iPod. She let her anger and frustration help with her workouts with the weights, various styles of push ups, crunches, chin ups, and pull ups, several ladder drills and then finally the bags. She enjoyed having a rhythm going along with her as she used the heavy bags and today she had one of her favorites going.
Plus the song title had a bit of irony to how she felt now and some of the feeling that she'd dredged up in the last few days.
Now They See Me, Now You Don't.
The intro was always the same, a little stretching and mock jabs as the snyths and drums made their opening hits, pacing in front of the bag as the drum roll on the snare came in. She bounced on her toes as the intro picked up, building and building, and then as the sounds of a gun cocking and firing twice gave a four count, she went in. The first chug of downtuned guitars and breakdowny drums brought a hard right hook into the almost solid surface of the heavy bag. Each hit matched the sound of the drummer's kick drum in harmony with guitars and massive orchestral strikes from the synth.
Right. Right Rightleft.
Right. Left. Right.
Rightrightleftright.
She kept up the pattern until there was a break with a drum solo and a faded guitar riff going in the background. While that built she let her beast out to play, let that force swell up so when the first hit came back she couldn't tell whether the bass drop effect used to make the attack of the song come in with a low boom was the song or her right shin connecting with the bag.
This section of the song focussed on her kicks delivering hard smacks of her shins or backs of her calves each time there was a hard percussive hit. The bass drops just added to the rumble of power that came from every angered kick and frustrated thrust. And with one final kick she was into the next 10 seconds of rest this particular song gave her.
It's cause I'm a fuckin' boss and I understand this tricky bus-
Silence.
Suri turned to see who had shut off the music and saw no one.
She was alone in the gym.
And then a familiar scent hit her nose and it let her know that no, she wasn't alone. Her eyes went from the stereo system and where the surge protector had come unplugged from the wall. Her head jerked just to the left of it and from that spot, she could see the slightest distortion of the wall there. And cast aside any doubts about who it was, a frightened eep sound came as the intruder was spotted almost instantly.
"Hey," Suri blinked and put her beast back in its metaphysical cage as she greeted her friend - she still hoped - with a quiet voice and a small nod.
"H-hi," Tooru tried to fake her usual upbeat tone but it came out shaky.
Suri walked from the heavy bag to her black gym towel just behind her with her water bottle. She wiped the sweat from her brow and forehead and then took a quick swig of the ice cold liquid before returning her gaze to where the invisible girl stood.
"How?" Tooru asked with a little stiffness in her voice.
"How what?"
"How do you do that? Can you actually see me?"
"Nope, cause if I could see you, I'd be staring at a naked chick right now," Suri shrugged, not hiding her bluntness. It earned Suri another frightened sound.
"Don't stare!"
"Like I said, Hagakure, I can't actually see you," Suri rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I share senses with my beast. I can taste differently than most humans, I can hear better than most humans, and I can see better than a lot of humans. So with you, it's not that I see you like you're not invisible, it's more like you're a walking shadow. I see the basic shape because that's what my eyes can make sense of but it's like…" Suri motioned, fishing for the word out of the air, "it's like you bend the space your body occupies around you. Like the light sort of bends around you. If that makes any sense at all."
"Oh."
Her voice was small. Suri felt a pang of guilt run through her hearing that tone. Suri hung her head a little and pushed her hands into her jersey shorts pockets.
"You hoped I could see you, huh?"
No answer.
"What are you doing here, Hagakure? How'd you even find me?"
"Grandma Kuroyashi told me. I went to come see you at your house after you didn't show up for school and-"
"Why not just text?"
"I-"
"Why not come and say something, anything to me yesterday, the day before, the day before that, or the day before that? Four days, Hagakure. Four days and no one's said a word to me."
More silence.
"I put my heart on my sleeve, called you guys my friends, my home, my safe place and I start opening up more than I've been able to in months and then ta da," Suri made a wide gesture as her voice became more hoarse with each passing word. "Suddenly no one wants anything to do with me. The two people I considered my best friends, up and ghost me! Why?!"
She screamed her frustration on the last word, balled her first and turned around to the heavy bag and sent every bit of anger, sadness, and desperation into one singular punch. She hit with such force that the bag not only ripped where her fist struck but it snapped the thick iron chains that held it suspended in the air. The bag flew back a few yards before crashing to the ground with a thick, meaty smack.
And then she remembered why her friends that hadn't been lycanthropes had all left her high and dry. She scared them. Everything she was, something she could not and would never be able to change, scared them more than any super villain could. She was a monster after all. The first hot streaks rolled down her cheeks and she watched sand pour from the destroyed bag on the ground. Her knees hit the ground and she fought her hardest to hold back, to push back.
She would not cry, dammit.
And she wouldn't have the chance to. Two things happened at once that forced the sadness from Suri and back deep inside herself. She felt a pair of lithe, toned arms encircling her around the stomach and felt the line of Tooru's body pressing against the line of her back. And then before she could say anything the door to the gym opened up and she felt the energy of wereleopards roll into the room. On one hand, she savored the comforting feeling of her invisible friend at her back, keeping her steady even though the feel of bare skin to bare skin created a heat inside Suri. On the other, the anger that she had swallowed down before the tears threatened to fall had boiled back towards the surface as a scowl crossed her brow looking up towards the three men heading her way.
None of them liked her and in fact, one of them down right hated her.
Then again, she had hit the guy's mother.
"Kikuichi," she said dryly, her tone empty and devoid of anything.
"Okwondu," he hissed back.
He'd used her father's last name. Wow, he really was pissed at her.
"You know I've always used my mother's and grandmother's names," she growled back. "You're outright disrespecting your Hyo-Ra and her direct bloodline."
"Ask me if I care," he shot back with a cocky smirk. "Once the hag is dead, you're looking at the new Hyo-Gu. And honestly, it's funny that I come in here and you're on your knees. Might want to get used to that," he snickered and made no qualms about laying a hand in front of him and patting his manhood hidden behind the washed out denim jeans.
"Yeah," Suri rolled her eyes, "sorry, Yosuke, but I prefer men that actually know how to fuck. I don't think my legs could keep up from having to carry your lousy performance."
His eyes rolled to feline and stared with deep seated loathing back into Suri's already black and green gold eyes. Was it a childish response for Suri to make? Absolutely. Then again, he had baited her with an equally childish remark. Childish begets childish. The retort had only served to piss him off. Funny, for some reason you could never mock a man's maleness without getting bitched at for it, even if he's the one who puts it on the line.
"Oh and Yosuke, you do know that to become the new clan leader you have to challenge for power. You don't just get it cause mommy is next on the food chain after my grandmother."
"Funny, you didn't have to do that at home cause of daddy, now did you?"
"Actually, I did," Suri rose up onto her feet slowly and carefully as she raised her invisible friend with her. Tooru felt so warm against her back and she had craved the feeling of being able to cuddle or spoon with another warm body ever since she had gotten to Japan. She missed it. She wanted it. Desperately. And as much as she wanted to keep her friend there, she gently pulled away with a step forward. She hoped that Tooru did the smart thing and took the chance to get away. She didn't need to be in the middle of this.
"I did the same thing I've done here, I stepped into the ring, whether one like this or during the Lupanars in the audience of our ancestors. I've had my ass handed to me, sure, but I've walked over men and women better in a fight than you will ever be."
"You don't know that. You've never stepped in the ring with me," he hissed, as the two got within inches of each other and glared hatred into each other's eyes. He was a little taller and Suri had to look up to meet those golden leopard eyes but she didn't care, she'd stared down men and a couple women far taller and more physically imposing than he was.
"And I'm not going to waste my time with it either. Now," she turned her back on him and started for her stuff and about where Tooru was now standing. "I'm going to get a run in before I finish for the night. I've got a festival to prepare for."
"Oh right, with your little human buddies right?"
"Yup," Suri answered back with an uninterested voice. She and Tooru needed to get the fuck out of there. Now.
"Like the one with the invisibility Quirk right there?" he sounded way too pleased with himself with that comment.
Shit.
"Leave her out of this Kikuichi," Suri growled with a warning tone.
"Oh, it's a she, huh? Bonus for me and the boys then," he laughed in response. He made a threat and now Suri needed to make sure she stood her ground and made sure Tooru was safe. He might as well have just challenged her claim of the invisible girl because, in a way, he had.
"Tooru, get outside and get to my grandmother's. Don't turn around until you get to her, got it?"
"Y-yeah!" Tooru answered back with a scared yip sort of noise and the shape of her began running for the door.
Then another scared noise escaped her. She had to come to an abrupt stop before she went face first into a body that was just suddenly in front of her. Suri's beast roared upwards and the change was almost instant going into her beastwoman form and suddenly the line of Tooru's back was pressed against Suri's front as she glided back from the wereleopard blocking the doorway. Suri's eyes were focused on Kikuichi's henchman as she brought herself cheek to cheek with the invisible girl. She savored her friend's warmth.
Once out of the way, she turned back to Kikuichi, rolling his neck as he took his own beastman form and gave Suri a wicked grin. Suri's inner beast snarled and they became one being like they had back in the USJ.
"We said leave her. She's our claim!" Suri roared, her voice layered with her beast's and they let their rage filled energy bathe the entire room in a burning heat. Suri held Tooru close, her arms keeping a protective hold on the invisible girl.
"S-Suri," Tooru spoke quietly, fear thick in her voice. "What's going on?"
Suri softened her expression and focused on her friend, holding her tighter and pressing her cheek to her friend's.
"I'm sorry, Tooru. I'm so sorry," it was her dual voice. Suri's beast was also seeking the girl's forgiveness for the situation. She calmed and she let Tooru calm in her arms before she spoke again. "I owe you a long explanation for everything once I've handled this. And when that's done… I understand if you and the others distance yourselves from me. I would if I were you."
"Claim her?" Yosuke laughed with a cough of hysterics. He raised his head and let his mouth part to expose the gland in the roof of his mouth and breathed in, tasting the air, specifically tasting Tooru's scent. He snickered and curled those feline lips into an arrogant smirk. "She doesn't taste of your scent, you haven't made her yours. But fine, if you insist, cause I know you will, then I suggest her as the prize."
She turned to glare back at Yosuke and gave him the very unfriendly look he deserved.
"Prize for what?"
"Our fight," he wasted no time to move towards the ring at the center of the gym and stepped between the ropes and onto the canvas matted arena. "What is it you've said to us on more than a few occasions? Back your shit up?"
It was a trap. He was baiting her and would probably cheat to win. Suri knew that. It was either get in the ring, fight him, get cheated into losing and then try and fight three on one to save Tooru. There was a possibility of losing twice in a row there. Or they could try and run for it now. They had a chance to get away as long as they could get through Yosuke's buddies. But it risked Tooru getting hurt. Any way she looked at it she would lose out if she didn't play Yosuke's own game and force him to submit to her.
Force him to respect her and look at her as a queen.
It was Tooru that had first called her that, wasn't it?
Maybe it was more than ironic that she was here now.
"Don't do it," Tooru whispered and Suri felt the invisible girl's hands clasp Suri's arms in the cusp of her elbows. "You know it's a trap."
"I know."
Suri began slipping her body backwards, unfurling her arms from around her friend. The girl's grip fell from Suri's elbows to her hand gripping tightly onto the beast girl's left ring finger. She pulled, trying to make Suri turn back. She was whisper-screaming don't do it over and over in a pleading attempt. Suri just turned and gave Tooru a small but caring smile.
"A queen doesn't back down, sweetie," she gave Tooru the weight of what the title the girl had given Suri meant to her.
Her smile rolled to the angriest scowl her face could carry as she turned back towards the ring and strolled forward in a graceful stride that carried a wave of anger like a cape. She knew he wouldn't play fair. But if he was going to fight dirty, she could do it too.
As soon as she bent to sweep herself between the top and middle ropes of the ring she felt him move. Like a fiery wind, he came for her and she felt the breeze of his movements against her cheek as she dodged his attack. She flung her right leg over the top rope and rolled herself in a long line over the padded wire and let herself somersault into a crouched pouncing stance as soon as her toes had touched the mat. Yosuke growled and the heavy right swing of his clawed hand spun him with enough momentum to face his opponent. Suri was already coming his way and as soon as he was on stable ground he had less than a second to move out of the way of an incoming right fist.
Suri drove her punch home into Yosuke's left cheek, snapping his head to the side and making his back lay into the ropes. The tension of the padded wires made his momentum force back the other way and Suri side stepped to let him stumble forward past her. She then grabbed a handful of his dark auburn hair and pulled. As the force of his hair being yanked backwards sent him off balance, Suri pushed downwards and forced him to the mat on his back. It was hard enough to make his back bow against the ground as the back of his head crashed into the ring. Even with the forceful blow to the back of his head he recovered enough to drive his feet into Suri's gut as she went to straddle him.
He kicked her sternum.
Hard.
She felt her ribs move from the force and hit with enough of a shockwave that the air in her lungs was forced out and she stumbled backward towards the opposite ropes. They caught her weight and she used the second of relief to take a deep breath and get back up onto her feet. She brought her fists up into loose balls in front of her and began rocking back and forth in her stance watching her opponent get back to his own feet. She had the right mind to go after him while he was down. That would have been the smart play, however dirty it was, but she kept hold of her pride in a hand to hand fight like this. Even if she thought it was a little naive.
They both came to the middle and after a few steps of sizing one another up they began baiting each other with mock jabs to see who would bite first. After a few long moments of toying with each other, Kikuichi was the one to bite. He went with a wide, high left hook and she moved to parry it higher with her left forearm and ducked underneath. She sent a right jab into his ribs and pushed him back and had a second to enjoy the feel of her fist rocking into center mass before she was taken off balance by a knee to her stomach. She wheezed and rolled out of reach from Yosuke. She was back into her crouched position, wincing from the strike to her gut as she watched him correct himself and straighten up to tower over her.
She slapped the mat as she launched herself forward, lunging herself at him in a long line of muscled body. She snarled as she forced all of her weight into his gut, jamming her right shoulder into his sternum, and lifting him off his feet from the force and momentum of her movement. She speared him with ferocity and tackled him to the mat and knocked the air clean out of him. She rode him down and straddled herself onto his chest and, before he had the time to recover, began wailing on him, hammering fist after fist into his head and face.
Her fists were coming up bloody, mostly Yosuke's, as she pummeled him into the mat. She was winning, she was on top and in control of the fight and in the back of her mind she knew it couldn't last. Her instincts knew he wouldn't let her win hand to hand and she didn't listen until it was too late. She heard a scream ring out and her eyes instantly went to where they came from, seeing the barely there shape of her friend trying to fight off the other two men in the room. They were trying to grab her and they could have but they were toying with the scared girl.
"Get away from her," Suri growled, got off her opponent and began striding towards the ropes. Towards Tooru.
As soon as she got to the ropes all sense of gravity went out the window.
One second she was marching towards two wereleopards toying with a human girl, the next she was looking at the mat. She crashed into the ground with a meaty thud with nothing to brace her fall, ensuring that when her chin hit the mat it hurt and instantly made her ears ring. Her vision became hazy and she was idly aware that her body was being moved. Then that white halo around her vision was turned to see Yosuke. He was on top of her and she felt his knee dig into her stomach then barely registered something falling towards her. Her vision cleared as massive shocks of pain began surging in her cheeks and her head was forced back and forth.
It was on the fourth strike that she remembered she had arms and raised them to shield herself. She could taste the candied copper penny taste of blood in her mouth as her forearms started taking the blows from the larger wereleopard on top of her. She could feel beads of crimson trickle down her cheeks and drip from her bottom lip, which was busted open, down the back of her tongue. The taste of her own blood cleared her head enough to try and think again and she tried calming herself to the point where she was looking up at the man above her and only him. She focused on him and picked up on the timing and rhythm of his strikes as he wailed on her forearms. They were going to be massively bruised. She caught his forearms on his next two strikes and glared upwards at him.
He just grinned down at her and licked his lips.
"Get used to this position, babe. You're gonna to be in it a lot once I'm king."
"You'll never be Hyo-Gu, Yosuke. And you'll never bed me," she spat back at him.
"Try saying that after I make you scream," he snarled and his claws came out like a barrage of switchblades and buried into Suri's flesh and muscle.
"Fu-ah!" she had begun to curse him out and then she let out a gasping breath followed by a high, pained scream. Her arms burned and thrummed in pain as her upper body was pinned to the mat. Blood seeped from her shoulders below the trapezius and between her collarbone and biceps. She had ten razor sharp claws dug into her, cutting into her flesh and muscle as Yosuke tried to pin Suri to the floor almost literally.
Each little movement of him above her shifted his claws buried into her, every little movement made her wince in and clench her teeth. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of another scream. It hurt to try and grip his wrists and push him back. It really fucking hurt. And then her ears heard Tooru scream again and she rolled her head back to see one of Yosuke's friends with his hand around the shape of her arm.
"Mine," her beast growled from within.
"Bow to me, mutt," Yosuke sneered as he lowered his face to hers.
No.
She let the anger and pain boil into the power inside her. She let that burning energy pour from her skin, let it fill the room again and this time let it bite and whip at the three other lycanthropes with threats of violence. Her psychic energy slashed out at the two lesser wereleopards and they jumped back and clenched their hands close to their bodies like they had just been burned by an open flame. It scared them. Good. Suri and her beast fed on their fear, mixed it with her hatred and anger and forced it into the man above her. He flinched from the strike of power and his claws pulled out of Suri.
And then, suddenly, it was Yosuke on his back, looking up at Suri riding above him. She looked down at him with predatory eyes that were both cold and calculating and burned with green gold fire. She lowered her face to his, a rumbling growl rolling from her throat as she came down to within an inch of him.
"Bow to me," and it wasn't Suri's voice that spoke. It was all that sultry rasp of her beast that could promise you seduction and some of the best sex of your life. Or it would promise you the most agonizing pain you would ever feel and a slow torturous death as you were ripped limb from limb..
"No!"
The word was met with a clawed slap that raked Suri's claws against the man's cheek. She licked her lips at the sight of the blood, purring at the thought of the sweet vanilla copper taste.
"Bow. To. Me."
"Not to a mutt like you."
He was brave. She had to give him that. His defiance however earned him another strike that rocked his head to the side and it took a little longer for him to look at her again. She focused her beastly energy, let it build until it poured from her skin like a concussive shockwave as she roared her anger and power into Yosuke's face and wrapped a hand over his throat.
"BOW!"
Her claws gripped into the sides of his neck, her claws sinking into the flesh and letting blood begin to trickle from around his throat. His eyes went wide. She knew he had heard the rumors about what had happened before she came to Japan. He had always thought they were far fetched. No way had a teenage girl ripped someone's throat out, let alone someone powerful enough to challenge for the power of Ulfric. And then looking into that green gold fire he realized that this was exactly what Hyrum Black had seen moments before he was choking on his blood and looking up to see his throat in her hand.
She was going to kill him.
"Suri no!"
Tooru's voice snapped Suri back to reality, shelving that rage and hatred that was burning along the surface of her skin. The fire disappeared and all of the anger and rage that had been inside her just suddenly became an eerie calm and awareness of what was happening. Suri blinked rapidly and looked down at Yosuke staring back at her with eyes that were so filled with fear that it scared her. It was the second time she had seen that look in her life. Then she was aware of the heat against her back and the weight of another person pressed into her, arms encircling her waist tightly. She breathed in deep and then took one more look at the man below her.
"I-I submit. Y-you win," he whimpered. "Please don't kill me. I'm sorry. I-I'm sorry!"
And there was a pang of sorrow that sent a jolt throughout her entire body.
"I… I'm not the one you should be apologizing to. You threatened someone with no ties to the Pard, you toyed with her. And you did it to get to me. You disrespected her beyond belief on top of disrespecting your Hyo-Ra and her family."
Suri calmly and slowly removed her hand from Yosuke's throat, swallowing hard at the sight of his blood dripping from her claws.
"And you almost made me do what I swore I wouldn't do again. Ever." Tears welled in Suri's eyes and they began making hot streaks down her cheeks as she stared at her clawed hand that had nearly gone for the kill. "Remember that you owe your life to a human. Tooru Hagakure saved your life and proved that she is and always will be a better hero than I will ever be."
Suri looked back to her friend, peering into where the girl's eyes would be and gave her another soft smile before she turned her focus to getting up. Easier said than done. Suri lost feeling in both of her arms as she went to stand and the use of all of that metaphysical energy to force Yosuke and his friends into submission, the Wave of Dominance, made her head swim. Her head filled with the sound of her blood rushing and her heartbeat and it was enough to drown out what was going on. She was sure she heard Tooru yelling at Yosuke, and him mentioning something about him hitting harder than an average human.
The beast girl's eyes tried to make sense of indents in her forearms and she had to really focus on what she was seeing. She blinked and then suddenly it made sense.
"Oh," she said a little slurred. "You just about broke both of my forearms. That's fractured bone isn't it?"
"Yes," Yosuke replied sheepishly.
"B-but the Sports Festival?!" Tooru was devastated.
"I can heal it by then," Suri replied, her eyes partially glazed over as she fought passing out. "I need electrolytes and some protein. Something to help with this," she pointed at her head in a sort of drunken motion and she was hit with a jolt of pain from moving her arm.
Before she knew it, she had a water bottle shoved in her face, and its rubbery straw pressed to her lips. She instinctively worked her lips to slip it into her mouth and began lazily sucking. The first taste of fruit washed over her tongue and she gave a sighed moan as she drank down the strawberry and banana flavored shake. How did they know the flavor of her favorite protein shake? Oh… wait, it was her own bottle. She did. She knew that.
When her vision began to refocus she found that there was a blur in front of her. She blinked and when it didn't go away, she realized what she was looking at. Tooru's head was directly in front of her, probably looking into her eyes. The sound in her ears began to fade and then be refilled with a voice that was normally bubbly and excited but now was filled with worry. Tooru didn't sound as cute when she was scared. She needed to fix that.
"I'm okay, Tooru. I'm okay," Suri said, not hearing what the other girl was saying.
"No! No you're not. You're hurt and the festival is in like, two days. You said you'll heal and I've seen the little stuff you've done so I believe that but this?! This is bad. And… it's my fault."
"Nope. Not at all. It's mostly his," Suri stared blankly towards Yosuke and his friends and then turned back to Tooru. "But also mostly mine. I let you get dragged into family business and that's not fair to you at all. Shit. Are you okay? They didn't hurt you did they?"
"No. I'm okay, they didn't hurt me. They scared me more than anything."
"Living up to our reputations as monsters, aren't we boys? You know you can't do that to the humans or else we'll have to go back into hiding."
"Why do you keep saying that?" Tooru asked and it made Suri realize just how unfocused and careless Suri was being.
Double shit.
"Guess it's time we had that talk then, huh?"
Suri couldn't read Tooru's face, even from this close and she sighed. She wished she could see her, read her face and see her expressions. She wished for it but didn't blame her friend for something that she couldn't change or could control.
"Let's get me to my grandmother, I need to fully shift before the festival if we expect me to be able to compete. I'll explain everything on the way and if you still have questions, she can answer them for you while I'm busy… healing."
Tooru took the explanations and the stories about as well as Suri had expected; she didn't fully believe her friend. She did partially believe Suri, because, growing up in Musutafu, she had heard stories and rumors from when she was little about there being monsters that lived in the forests above the city. In a sense, Suri just told her that the monsters under the bed that every kid believes when they're little are not only real but one of them is walking right next to her and talking to her.
Which, in fact, wasn't exactly far from the truth either. Suri decided she'd wait to tell Tooru about other mythical creatures and beings that weren't so much myth and much more reality.
"Okay, so you didn't get bitten or anything? The old movies showed that you only become one after you get bitten or scratched?!"
"Nope. Once wereanimals learned how to be able to carry pregnancies full term without miscarrying due to the change, we were able to breed just like normal humans."
"You keep saying that. You don't believe you're human?"
"I have a creature that lives inside my body and gets to truly come out and play basically once a month. A creature that is the size of a small car and likes to hunt animals, fight and wrestle for hours on end, and likes to fuck like a rabbit. This body," Suri gestured to herself. "I look human, but we're taught from a very young age that we're monsters masquerading as people."
"That's… that's really sad."
"Yeah. It is. It can fuck with your self esteem a lot but with how dangerous we can be, we can't have any illusions to who and what we are."
"Kind of like what Thirteen said. We think of everyone having Quirks as just a regular thing but some of us get super duper dangerous Quirks."
"Yup. And you get them when you're, like, five years old. Look at Bakugou. He could or could have killed someone so easily getting that kind of power in kindergarten. Us? We can pass ourselves off as Quirks because that's around the same age our beasts begin to manifest. Before then we're just wild, moody little shits."
"Yay, me, not getting something dangerous," Tooru said with mock enthusiasm that quickly warped into something less pleasant. "Or flashy… or cool... "
"That's not true. Invisibility is really useful and can be especially dangerous if you want it to be."
"But today I-"
"You were going up against shapeshifters. We have better senses."
"I know you said you can't see me and you've told me how but you always seem to know where I am. How is that?"
"You smell good."
The bluntness of the statement made Tooru begin to stammer and flail wildly which Suri could actually see from how the way the sundress she now wore was moving. A loose pastel orange sundress, sandals with little jewels across the straps over the feet, and an honest to god sun hat. Tooru looked like she was ready for a beach day.
"That's so embarrassing!" Tooru whined, making Suri giggle. "Maybe I should try different soaps and hair products."
"Just don't mask it too much. Too much product triggers some sensitivities and gives me a migraine from hell. Like I love cherry flavoring, and the light smell of it is great but you get cherry body spray and mist that stuff, I've gotta get out of the room."
"Oh. Well then I'll steer clear of that then," Tooru answered and Suri could tell that she had seen Ryo and Dai turn to them as they came within sight of the two guards. "So they're?"
"Wereleopards. Musutafu is leopard territory. Tokyo has a smaller pard that we're friendly with but it's mostly territory for a few packs of wolves. I've met Shinjuku's Lupa once, she's pretty cool and she's one of the only ones who doesn't have a king and leads by herself. My grandma, my mom specifically, and her are probably the scariest women you will ever meet if you get on their bad side."
"Miss Kuroyashi! Are you hurt?"
"What happened?"
Dai and Ryo, respectively, moved towards the two quickly as soon as they noticed Suri's injuries. They both had a flare of worry in their energies and then it became hot with anger.
"Eh, just a fight at Issie's that got a little too rough is all. Need to heal up before Saturday."
They turned to look at each other, then to Suri, and then to Tooru. All three of them felt her flinch as they looked all but directly at her in her eyes.
"Does…"
"She…"
They once again asked in staggered unison, this time finishing each other's thought.
"She knows. Doesn't believe a hundred percent but I was kind of forced into telling."
"Suri, that's the second time in," Ryo started and then stopped himself.
"I know," Suri sighed. "That was a different situation."
The guards both sighed, dropped their heads and then opened the gates to the Kuroyashi compound and the matriarch herself waiting just behind the gate as it opened. The older woman looked at her granddaughter, her friend, and then her two guards. She gave a gentle shrug and a small smile. She'd known something like this was going to happen didn't she? And suddenly Suri wasn't sure if she wasn't as Quirkless as she had claimed. Maybe it was just a mother's intuition. That's what Suri's mom had said it had always been.
"Well, I guess these things can't be helped can they? Hagakure, dear, would you like some tea while we wait for Suri?"
"Oh! Um… sure!" Her voice was high pitched with a little fear in there somewhere and then she calmed it back to her normal voice. "I'd like that a lot, ma'am."
The two girls followed the older woman inside where she already had tea ready, three cups in fact, laid out waiting for them. Suri gave her grandmother a puzzled look to which she sighed and looked outwards in no particular direction.
"No, I don't have any psychic Quirk so you can stop asking that with your eyes, silly girl. No, I knew the two of you would be coming because I received a phone call from a very very apologetic would-be-king that in his own words let himself get out of hand. Though I don't suppose he was the only one who got out of hand, was he?"
Suri dropped her head and looked down.
"I'm sorry grandmother. I don't-"
"Know your other name yet, do you?"
"My… oh. No, I don't yet."
"Other name?" Tooru asked softly and then instantly turned as the two lycanthropes turned to look at her and hoped they pretended they couldn't see the floating mug and sundress.
"Suri has told you of her beast before hasn't she?"
"Yeah," Tooru quickly answered. "She's mentioned it a few times in class as an explanation of her Quirk. Though you guys don't think of it as a Quirk, which is weird cause it really is basically a Quirk and just like everyone who has that sort of power and…"
Tooru eeped a little and quickly took a sip of her tea to force herself into silence and stop from rambling like she had been doing.
"Good to know Izuku's not the only one who does that sometimes," Suri chuckled and could have sworn she saw Tooru turn a shade of bright pink.
"Ah, well that would make the most sense then, wouldn't it," Grandma Kuroyashi laughed. "So as she's said before, she and I both share bodies with another entity, our beasts. They are our true form on the nights when our moon goddess is at her fullest. Some of us, like myself, do not need a full moon for that power to be able to take that shape and let ourselves out of the cage as Suri puts it. Almost all of the young ones do, though. We share body, mind, and soul because even though they can be a completely different personality from what you see in front of you, we are still one in the same. That said, we don't share the same name. Speaking to you now is my human self, you may call me Orihime."
The smile on Grandma Kuroyashi's face remained the same but from one moment her eyes were normal, such a soft human shade of blue, and then the next, they were a more vibrant icy blue surrounded by dark sclera. Her eyes were a winter moon in a starless sky.
"And you may call me, Asuka."
"Whoa~"
Tooru sounded like she was mesmerized and in all actuality she was. Her voice went from a quiet awe to something more akin to her normal voice all though very hushed and soft.
"That's so cool," there was another quick moment of wonder and then the sunhat that indicated which direction the girl was looking at moved towards Suri. "So you don't have two names?"
"We do," Suri answered in a layered voice. One being her normal, the other her thicker one that sounded like it wasn't the happiest right now.
"While you two are out, please take some time for reflection. You can't begin to come into your true potential until you learn that about yourself. And if you want to show those around you that you have truly grown as a woman, it's one of the things you need."
"I know, Grandmother. I… we're trying," Suri sighed and downed the rest of her tea. She then turned and gave Tooru a long look that was apologetic. "This wasn't the way I wanted you or anyone from our class to see. I've lost a lot of people from seeing my other side so if it's something you can't stomach. I'll understand. We," Suri placed her hand on her heart, "never meant to scare you or get you dragged into this."
And with that Suri walked from the kitchen to the hallway on the opposite side of the living room as the hallway that led to her room. Her grandmother followed with a graceful stride and then Tooru quickly downed the rest of her own tea to catch up. The three of them walked to the end of the hallway to a large metal door to a garage. It was completely bare and was solid concrete not only on the floor but the walls and ceiling as well. It was big enough for four cars and seemed overly huge as Suri moved to stand in the center of the room and then turned back towards the other two women.
Suri breathed deeply and closed her eyes as she dipped her head slightly. Her grandmother brought her forehead to meet the younger girl's and cupped Suri's chin, rubbing her thumb over the darker complexion of the girl's cheek. Then the air in the room turned heavy, a thick warmth that flooded the concrete room with a massive amount of energy.
Suri gasped from the heaviness of it all and her eyes flashed open, already rolled to her animal eyes and glowing with that green gold fire that radiated from them. Tooru gasped as well from the change in energy and, if it could have been seen, both her and Suri guessed that in that moment her skin would have been covered in goosebumps.
"Tooru, you'll wanna close your eyes for this next part, dear. I don't know that you two are ready for this sort of thing in your relationship," it was Asuka's voice. She turned her head to show a glow of blue fire radiating from her eyes and a soft, motherly smile. Tooru, though it couldn't be seen, did what she was asked.
"Come to me, Kitpup," Grandma Kuroyashi said in a warm, loving voice and took all of the energy that rolled off of her skin and filled the room with prickling embers of power and shoved it down her arm. She touched Suri's forehead, cupping it in her palm and the flow of energy washed over her like a waterfall and Suri was left gasping into a silent scream. Her dark skin gave way to a similarly colored fur that flowed and washed outward from her body. A thick rumbling covered the sounds of bones and muscles reforming and taking shape into new ones. The silent scream that had threatened to escape Suri's mouth erupted into a loud snarling growl that echoed and reverberated throughout the entire room that was somewhere between a wolf's growl and the snarling scream a lot of big cats make.
When Tooru opened her eyes, the human form of her friend that she had come to recognize and had watched for the short time they'd known each other was gone. In her place was a giant animal with glossy fur that was a dark wash of dark clay brown, black, grey, and tan that created a sort of saddle shape down its back and a chest the color of ivory. Its body was that of a giant wolf, thick with muscle and fur but its head was closer to that of a leopard's, rounder with a short muzzle until you reached the eyes where the features became more chiseled. Instead of cat ears were a pair of tall, sharp wolf ears and while the creature's tail was long and slender like the feline it was half of, it was coated in thick shaggy fur that was all wolf.
And then Tooru spotted something that she had seen on Suri's hero costume in the exact same place, a patch of leopard spots that could only be visible in the right light on both hips. Then she realized that that wasn't the only leopard markings that were there but only if you were really looking for them. She was still staring when she felt a hand touch her shoulder and it shook her enough that she turned up to see Grandma Kuroyashi looking back at her with her icy moon eyes. She smiled and then looked back to the wolf and leopard hybrid that took up an entire parking stall to itself.
"Come, dear, we've got to let her go and play for a little while. She'll be back soon and then she's going to sleep for a few hours. I can answer any questions while we wait and we can have another cup of tea or two."
"S-sure," Tooru replied, turning her full attention back to the animal that was stretching and shaking it's mane of fur like it had just gotten up from a long nap. And then Tooru just said the first thing that came to mind, "she's… That's really Suri?"
"It is. She is what dwells inside of Suri, you've heard her voice, and you've felt her energy a few times now, right?"
"Yeah," and she was following the older woman but still looking back.
Suri meanwhile was moving into that forest clearing that was inside her mind. She could still feel what was going on, even from in here, she could still sense and smell the other two women. She could still hear Tooru but she didn't sense utter terror or fear like she had expected. She didn't think that low of her friend but when you go from a five and half foot biracial teenage girl to an animal the size of a car, what else are you supposed to expect?
"Thank you, Tooru," came the doubled voice from the creature that was Suri. "See you soon."
And with that, the wolpard got to its feet and began trotting towards the large garage doors that began opening after Grandma Kuroyashi hit a button near the metal door back into the house. Tooru watched from that doorway as her friend trotted out in this form and then bound from the driveway into the line of trees that surrounded the compound. Tooru could only think of one word as she watched the animal disappear into the forest before turning back into the house.
Beautiful.
Suri smiled as she felt the wind rushing past her as her animal form ran and bound through the forest. They both loved that feeling. And then a wide, fanged grin filled both of their lips as she scented the thick musky smell that the short, coarse fur that deer had. It meant food. And well wouldn't you know it, Suri and her beast were hungry. Suri happily let herself be the passenger in the backseat of her mind while she let her other side out fully. She decided that if this is what it was truly like when she just gave the reins over she'd do what her other self seemed so content to do; relax.
She walked to that giant stone that was her beast's bed and laid herself onto it. It was surprisingly comfortable. And it felt homey, like her own bedroom. Then as she laid back, she caught something from the corner of her eye.
There was writing.
Suri rolled onto her hands and knees and looked down at the center of the rock and let a smile curl across her lips. So this was the answer then. Just like Suri had scrawled into the steam of her bathroom mirror a week ago, so too had her other side scrawled into the stone. Suri sighed and let out a soft chuckle as she read aloud the message.
"I am Atiena," she let the weight from her shoulders go and then turned and laid onto her back staring up at the moon filled sky that illuminated this place. "Nice to finally meet you, Atiena."