Work Studies continue about as normal as you'd expect. Until Suri and Yumei have a chance encounter that is.
Here's the thing about having Angrboda as your patron deity.
If you want to be rewarded and be in her good graces, you have to go through hell and back again. Trials of Iron are nothing to take lightly and they're never easy but in the end they're worth the battle. The Mother of Monsters is a mother after all.
The trials took shape in a lot of ways; enduring abusive relationships and hardships, having to fight to take care of four kids as a single mom, hitting roadblocks in your life and career over and over again. But if your wish is worth enduring that pain, she'll leave a door open for you to find.
She's a warrior goddess so you best be willing to be a motherfucking warrior.
So for Suri she counted down that list of trials. The daddy issues, then Hyrum and the events leading up to his death, his death, and then running away and starting over. Then, once she got into UA, there was the USJ, the PTSD triggered by Stain, the training camp, Gemini and shouldering the blame for everything she did. Partially losing a mentor in Kodiak was so much fun. Oh and then there was dealing with Yasuke, Lady Oda, and their vampires. And of course having to endure De'Jon and Akeno. Then finding out one of your best friends and one of the key points of your power structure has a dad who happens to be a notorious super villain and serial killer. And did she mention De'Jon and Akeno?
She'd done patrols today, well technically she was on the end of a near 48 hour shift. The shift started yesterday morning on a Thursday, her fifth day working at the Outsiders Agency. It started normally enough, getting coffee and then running through minor cases and incidents with Yumei and Natsukage. After lunch however, Akeno joined her on patrols. Which was annoying by itself, then De'Jon joined the patrol as soon as dark fell. When she wasn't stopping a small domestic dispute or helping a couple drunks home, Suri was listening to De'Jon still going on and on about how he wanted Suri to be his maiden. Oh! But she'd been demoted to concubine this time around!
Lucky her.
Today's entire shift, once De'Jon had died for the day with Akeno by his side, had been relatively normal again. She'd spent the day with Natsukage running up leads and callbacks involving sightings of King Saber around downtown. Nothing concrete was drummed up, but it was nice to have something a bit more normal, even if Suri was dog ass tired. Alpha called it a day for Zeta Squad and Friday night was all Suri and Yumei.
The plan had been for the two of them to go back to the dorms, climb in bed together, and get some fucking sleep. The two of them needed it!
But Angrboda works in mysterious ways.
The two of them heard a commotion. Glass breaking, angry voices, crazed laughs, and a familiar overzealous poeticism. They could hear scuffling of feet, like there was a fight about to be had. The two of them looked at each other and raced the next few steps to round a corner street, one that was secluded and a little out of the way of main pedestrians. Suri was expecting a mugging and that's what was happening because when she turned the corner she found two individuals on the ground huddled next to each other and Akane Enishi just beyond them.
Enishi was grinning ear to ear, somewhere in the middle of a line about fate with a blade in one hand and a pistol in the other. The moment he saw Suri round the corner and watched her face go from surprise to a cold determination, his expression dropped. He went from a Johnny Depp look alike to the Johnny Depp dollar store imitation he was as he raised the gun from the couple huddling at the corner to Suri.
As soon as the gun moved, so did Suri as her and Atiena combined, a wave of hot electric wind surrounding everyone as they let out a flutter of power. Enishi watched the image of Suri shimmer as his hand was slammed into and pulled back behind his back. Suri smacked his hand, hard, forcing him to drop the gun before she pulled him instantly into a chicken wing. His arms burned from the pain and straining Suri pulled him into.
"Enishi, when are you gonna learn, dude," Suri growled into his ear as she restrained him.
"I have learned!" he sneered and moved quickly, flipping the blade he held in his other hand and went for Suri again. "Maybe your fate and mine are intertwined, destined to be-"
Before he could quip anymore, Suri kicked at the back of his knees, dropping him in an instant before her open palm met the side of his head. He fell to the ground limp, dazed and unconscious. While she heard Yumei calling the incident back to Alpha, she smirked softly, undoing her belt and slipping it from her jeans before securing the would-be-assailant's hands behind his back. With him cuffed and incapacitated she turned her gaze up and froze for a split second because she recognized the two huddled on the ground.
The woman was the same one from the cafe earlier in the week, the one that she'd gotten red flags from. And her scent was no longer just the absurd amounts of vanilla she'd put in her coffee, she smelled blood and lots of it. Moreover it was more than just one or two different scents and flavors of blood, the girl had a stockpile of it somewhere. The shy bookwormish vibe she'd initially given off at the cafe was long gone, her eyes, which were amber with thin slitted pupils in them screamed danger. She was angry, filled with vicious intent when she looked at Suri or Yumei over her shoulder but when she looked at the man next to her, it was gone.
The man was rough and rugged looking, like he'd spent way too long cuddled up with a dozen packs of cigarettes a day and hadn't seen a good day in his life. His expression only doubled that assumption. He had a scar down the center of his forehead but that had been long healed up. Right now he was clutching his left eye, the skin around it and his hand over it a mask of red as he sobbed and muttered rapidly to himself. His breathing was rapid and uneven as he sat and rocked back and forth with no sign of calming down coming any time soon. That was when Suri took a step towards him, seeing all of the signs of a really bad breakdown setting in.
"Don't!" The woman snarled, her voice was even different from before. The high alto, sheepish tone was gone with a huskier contralto tone set in place which again screamed danger. If that wasn't enough, she now had a knife of her own, that had taken shape out of nowhere, pointed upwards at Suri. "Don't take another step. Either of you."
"Hey, it's okay," Suri said in a soft, calm voice, holding her hands to show that she wasn't a threat. "I'm a junior pro hero, my name is-"
"Wild Eyes. Yeah, I know," she bit back with venom in her tone.
"Okay, then you know I'm here to help," Suri furrowed her brow slightly, taking another minute step forward. Her eyes flicked upwards to see Yumei in a nearly identical position, however she did the opposite and took a slight scoot backwards to give Suri and the couple some room. "And you know that he needs help, right?"
"I can do it, just leave us alone," she replied, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
Suri watched the girl for another second or so before her attention was brought back to the man next to her, his voice wavering as the muttering seemed to become two different personalities. He was spiraling, and fast, and whether this woman wanted help or not, Suri was going to. She took those next couple steps towards the man and then sat herself in front of him, crossing her legs and dipping down so that she could get a better look at him.
It took a lot to ignore the woman, or the swipes of her blade. But Suri moved as quick as the blade, letting it miss her each time the girl tried to stab her. Both of them were nothing, if not persistent and fucking stubborn.
"Hey dude, I just wanna look you over," Suri said in the most reassuring voice she could, offering the guy a gentle smile. "If it's okay with you, I've got a first aid kit in my costume. Can my friend here grab it for me?"
"I-I don't-"
"We need to get out of here," the girl snarled, cutting him off and glaring death into Suri's eyes.
"You can. Once I get your friend here patched up, okay," Suri replied pointedly, giving the girl a firm glare of her own. The answer seemed to shock Yumei, but more than that, it made the girl pause for a split second. "Is that okay with you? I just wanna chat and help you out, okay?"
"Y-Yeah. That's okay," he said shakily before he let out a strained groan and another reply completely contradicting himself. "Back you fiend!"
His free hand came up, clutching his hair tightly, threatening to pull it out by the roots as he began rocking back and forth again. This time it was getting more frantic and his breathing spiked to a new pace.
"Dammit, I'm splitting again."
There was a hint of worry in the woman's eyes. Suri looked up and nodded quickly at Yumei who swallowed hard and grabbed the case Suri's hero costume was in. Once she fished out the small kit from Suri's utility belt, she tossed it over the duo and into Suri's waiting hand. She unrolled the kit out in front of her between her and the man, letting everyone see the first aid kit's contents. Band-aids, gauze bandages, disinfecting towelettes, a sewing kit to make stitches, antiseptic cream, tweezers, a small scalpel, pain pills, and a small bottle of saline salt water spray. It wasn't much, but Suri had made sure to cover as many bases as she could when she'd assembled it. She looked up at the man again and took a calming breath.
"Can I see the wound real quick? I don't wanna pull out the stitch kit if I don't have to," Suri said calmly, then put a small chuckle in her voice trying to ease the situation. "I kinda suck at them if I'm being honest."
"Seriously?" the woman deadpanned.
"Actually I'm pretty good at them," the man replied with his own soft smile, then his brows twitched as his second voice came out again. "Sewing is my passion in life!"
"Mine's dancing," Suri chuckled with a warm grin as she slowly pulled his hand away from his eye. As she looked over the gash that went from above his brow to the center of his cheek, she took a sigh of relief seeing that his eye itself hadn't been cut. She then shrugged as she pulled out the towelettes and began carefully dabbing and cleaning the wound. "And fighting. Sometimes they go hand in hand."
"She's a pretty good dancer," he replied, his rough voice having a warm, friendly undertone mixed in with it. He had one of those voices that was gruff and raspy, but in a good way, where it was easy on the ears and kinda pleasant.
The woman blushed like mad and choked a cough hearing him.
"YuYu here is obsessed with shopping, she's got a pretty good eye when it comes to clothes," Suri continued casually as she moved from the towelettes to the antiseptic cream. It made Yumei whine in embarrassment.
And soon the other woman joined her.
"Hey, so does she," he chuckled. "You shoulda seen how happy she was with this coat she bought while back. Wouldn't shut up about it."
"Jin!" the woman whisper screamed and then flinched as she realized the mistake she'd just made. She grumbled her frustration as her walls went back up, going guarded and cautious once again. Not trusting either of the girls.
Suri smiled softly as she wiped the excess cream from her thumb on her jeans before reaching for the band aids. Realizing she'd said his name, the man flinched and his nerves began to come back once again.
"I already knew," Suri said softly, shrugging her shoulders. "After Kamino, your identities were posted up in every agency across Japan. I thought you looked kinda familiar, now I know why."
"Y-You… Shit! She's onto us!" his nervousness peaked as his voice split once again, making him flinch as Suri tried to apply the first bandage.
"Hold still," Suri grumbled and then had to duck backwards as fast as she could to avoid a knife coming straight for her. "Fucking, dammit."
Suri watched the woman fly past her, land with her feet to the wall next to them and then begin to coil up, ready to pounce. When she came at Suri again, the beast girl grabbed her forearm, rolled backwards and launched her feet into her stomach. It sent her end over end across the street where she came to crouched down low, clutching a blade ready to strike again. Both of them glared at each other, eyes boring vicious and violent intent into one another as they squared off.
Suri took in a deep breath and began hopping backwards, narrowly avoiding the tip of a blade to her chest or stomach several times. The girl was fast, faster than she seemed like she should be. The knife was getting closer and closer with each pass before Suri stopped running backwards and went forward at her, ducking beneath a strike and planting her hand on the asphalt as she swung her legs forward. She took the girl off balance and rolled to take advantage of having her on the ground on her back but Suri came up to see that the girl had rolled herself backwards. She'd countered the fall with expert timing. This time however, it was Suri that seemed to move faster than she should, quickly appearing as several shimmering after images, making the girl second guess which target in front of her was the real Suri.
The hesitation cost the girl and the price she paid was a fist right square in the chest, sending flying backwards end over end. She rolled and crashed across the street before coming to a stop with an abrupt and painful jolt as her back and head met the brick of another building. She growled and her amber eyes almost seemed to glow with a sinister fire in the dark as she slowly pulled herself back up to glare at Suri.
"You should have let us escape," the girl said in a low, hostile purr. As she said it, her flesh, hair, and clothing began to melt, dripping away in a thick grey sludge. As it drooped away, it revealed Suri's suspicions to be correct as a blonde girl with her hair done up into two tight buns became visible. Himiko Toga's sinister smile came with a low, humorous chuckle as she tucked her knees against her now nude form and brought up a second knife in hand.
"Now, I just wanna cut you."
If it was anyone else, they might flinch at the sudden appearance of a nude girl. For Suri, it just reminded her of Lupanars and being back in her place of power. Fighting naked wasn't even second nature, it was her first.
"Sorry, but I can't let you draw blood," Suri gave her own determined glare back at Toga.
"Cause you're like her, right?" she quipped back, eyes narrowing sharper.
"Yeah," Suri let out a humorless snort, her lip quirking with the sour taste of being compared to Gemini. "Sorry, if she was your friend but I had to put her down. She's way too dangerous to be running loose."
"She's not my friend," Toga sneered, she practically vanished as she raced forward coming at Suri with both blades. "Actually, I wanna cut her worse than you."
Suri flipped backwards, somersaulting herself away from the wild swipes from both blades as the blonde closed the distance. On her fourth time backwards she landed in a pushup position and then lunged forward, ducking Toga to the side, rolling across her back and curling her arm upwards to hook the girl under her right armpit and across her neck. Toga's continued momentum took her off her feet as Suri pushed her down, slamming the villainess into the asphalt below. To finish the takedown, Suri put her weight into her knee, pinning Toga's chest with her knee while she leaned over the girl and grabbed both of her wrists into one of hers.
Toga took the blow hard, coughing and choking from the sudden loss of air as she took on Suri's full weight with her knee against her chest. Then came the soft pain of having both wrists bound together in one tight takedown was a pure display of power showing off just how much strength Suri had behind her, hoping it might make the villainess stand down.
"Good, we both hate her. Means we're friends already," Suri chuckled, letting out a deep breath and giving the blonde girl beneath her a smirk. "But you've always known about my kind, right? And you know why it's dangerous to try and take our blood."
"Don't act like you know me," Toga snarled back. "How can I be friends with someone like you?"
"I know the vamps fucked you over. I know the system fucked you over too," Suri quipped back, both answers making her flinch slightly. "You and Enishi over there. Like, seriously, if they had done their jobs-"
"Don't!" Toga screamed and thrashed herself around, swinging her legs upwards to hook Suri by the hip. It was the villainess' turn to show off her own strength as the muscles in her thighs and abdomen rippled and slammed Suri down onto her back. It left Toga straddling Suri, a knife now gripped by both of Toga's hands and putting it to Suri's throat. It was only Suri's strength in the single hand that kept the blade from piercing her. "And why? Why are you acting like him, why do you smell like him?"
"Like who?"
"Don't play dumb."
Then it hit her. When she ran into Toga at the coffee shop, her intent and attitude changed for some reason. When had it been? It was when Izuku was on TV, right? That… oh…
"You mean Izuku?" Suri asked carefully, furrowing her brow up at the girl.
"Yes," Toga hissed in return but the tone seemed off for how she looked. The mere mention of his name made her blush and smile like a giddy schoolgirl, like she was gushing over a secret crush. But it didn't take a rocket scientist to realize that that crush was no longer a secret.
"I guess his personality rubbed on me a bit," Suri replied with a shrug.
The answer and the reaction to hearing Izuku's name had made Toga's strength and position waver which meant Suri could move. With a burst of power, she pushed, powering herself upwards so that Toga had to choose whether to back off or ride Suri's waist suspended in the air. Toga chose the former and somersaulted herself backwards away from Suri, putting some distance between them.
"So you were serious back then," Toga growled, seeming to become more angry at the prospect of what the next answer would imply or directly confirm. "Are you… in love?"
"Yeah. Yeah I am," Suri grinned, not even caring that the villainess in front of her just had the heat of rage stoked in her.
"No! No no no no no," Toga grumbled and hissed. "He's supposed to be mine! I wanna show him how much I love him!"
"So do it!" Yumei called out, turning both Toga and Suri's attention to her. The snake girl had apparently taken initiative and finished what Suri had started. Jin was still rocking back and forth but it was far more calm than it had been before. "I'm sure he'd take you on a date if you asked."
That answer made Toga freeze.
"I-I'm still splitting. I need to be whole again."
The quiet pained groan from Jin made everyone's attention snap back to reality and back to looking at each other. Toga seemed upset because she was looking for something and realized that she was nude. Whatever she was needing had apparently disappeared in the sludge that melted off of her and was no nowhere to be found.
"How do we help him?" Suri asked, her voice carrying a sympathetic concern to her voice. It was making Toga second guess every interaction with the girl. So much so it took Suri firmly calling the blonde's name. "Toga!"
"Dammit," she cursed under her breath and began looking around more frantically. "It's his trauma. His mask helps him remember who he is but I don't know where it went."
Suri thought about the events and knew she hadn't seen the mask on him, on Toga, or anywhere else during their encounter. It meant it had gotten dropped somewhere long before Suri and Yumei ever rounded the corner. Then Suri saw something out of the corner of her eye, it wasn't the mask but she then remembered she'd had a hoodie tied around her waist as her and Yumei were walking home. It must have come undone during the fight. As Jin began to rock back and forth once again, this time more frantic as his breathing picked up to a fever pitch, Suri ran for it. She grabbed the hoodie and felt a sharp sting across her leg as she started towards the hyperventilating villain quickly.
Despite the pain, Suri quickly used her claws and cut the hood off, turning the hoodie into merely a sweatshirt. The split second decision left her with the hood in hand as she came to Jin and Yumei's side before she quickly slipped it over his head and then used the cords to bunch it tight, effectively covering his face with the hood. Once he was covered, Suri quickly took his hands in hers and held them gently and she did the very same thing that helped bring her boyfriend and herself down from a panic attack of this level.
My mother told me
Someday I will buy
Galleys with good oars
Sail to the distant shores
Stand up on the prow
Noble baroque I steer
Steady course to the haven
Hew many foe-man
Hew many foe-man
My mother told me
Someday I will buy
Galleys with good oars
Sail to the distant shores
Stand up on the prow
Noble baroque I steer
Steady course to the haven
Hew many foe-man
Hew many foe-man
Hew many foe-man
When Suri finished singing softly to the man in front of her, he was calm. His breathing was better than normal, he was relaxed and at peace. His eyes were wide, from what she could see through the bunched up fabric, but not from fear and panic. His eyes said that he was struck, like he'd never had something like this ever happen to him before. More than that, they said he was grateful.
"What was that?" Togas asked, making Suri realize that the girl was crouched on her knees behind her. It was only then that Suri realized that the blonde was behind her and had a knife to her throat. "How did you know that would help?"
"Because it always helps Izuku."
Toga flinched at the answer.
"You two remember the raid on the Shie Hassakai, when he fought Chisaki?" Suri asked quietly.
"Yeah. I'm guessing he told you he saw us, huh?" Toga growled softly in return.
"He did. But that's not the point. During the raid, Sir Nighteye was killed, he was the hero Izuku was working with during the raid. One of his mentors," Suri explained and then paused, taking in a deep breath. "He wakes up screaming at least once a week from night terrors. That… well that's one of the only things that helps calm his panic attacks."
Again, that answer made Toga flinch and relent ever so slightly.
"When we got here, sure I recognized you as Twice," she said, looking directly into Jin's eyes. "But that wasn't my first thought. When I saw you, I saw the same pain and fear that I see every time Izuku wakes up screaming. You needed help, so that's what I did."
"T-That… I've never had anyone sing to me before," Jin replied softly, then his brow furrowed. "But still that doesn't explain something! If you knew who I was, why care? It's not like you know me so why do all this for a guy like me?"
"A guy who likes to sew can't be all that bad, right?" Suri grinned. There was a hint of finding the humor in her response from Jin but Toga pressed closer, putting the knife back against Suri's skin. "But for real. You being a villain doesn't mean you're not a person and it doesn't mean you don't deserve a helping hand. Especially with mental health shit."
"This sort of thing is, like, totally a habit of hers," Yumei chuckled softly.
"Anyway," Suri shrugged and then heard a buzzing sound. When she looked up, she saw Yumei fishing her phone out of her bra and saw the girl's eyes go wide as she saw the Caller ID. The snake girl turned the phone, showing the a call was coming from the agency, most likely Alpha himself. "You two go ahead and get out of here. My pops is gonna be here soon probably so we'll take care of Enishi."
"You're letting us go?" Toga asked incredulously.
"Hey, sir. Yeah! Corner of 13 and 13, Akane Enishi is detained, yes. We arrived just as the mugging started so we apprehended him and sent the couple he tried attacking on their way home." Yumei gave the three next to her a pointed look, making sure Twice and Toga knew exactly what was going on in the conversation. Suri gave her a smile and a nod to which Suri answered Alpha's question. "Yeah, that was Wild Eyes' call. Yeah we'll be here. See you soon."
Once the call was hung up, Suri sighed and chuckled at the expression on the snake girl's face. She knew that extra training would be in order.
"Great, I get to bench the damn tank some more, don't I?" Suri said with a light, humorous tone.
"Yep," the snake girl sighed, the look of you're a dumbass written across her features.
"A tank? For real?" Toga asked curiously. Hearing the phone call she had made the decision to shelve the knife and sit back on her knees behind Suri.
"Yup," Suri replied as she moved to get onto her feet.
There was still a stinging pain in her thigh and she found a knife wound when she looked down. She realized that Toga must have thrown one of her knives and grazed Suri with it at some point but she didn't remember when exactly. As if to add the shock value of her answer, she reached down and grabbed both Toga and Twice by the arm and lifted them swiftly to their feet without any effort at all. Both of them had their feet leave the ground, which was saying something since Jin was taller than Suri. It made Toga realize that Suri hadn't been using hardly any of her true strength during their fight and for that, her flight or fight response began screaming in the back of her mind. It was screaming even more as Suri retrieved her hoodie that she'd cut the hood off of and then slipped it over Toga's head. There was a moment of shell shock as she felt the air on her naked body one second, and then a comfy, light sweater wrapping around her skin the next. Neither villain could get a read on the girl in front of them at all.
"Now, go, scram," Suri jerked her head, indicating for the two of them to run. She was trying to keep face now, especially since she'd spotted a familiar branded scar on the back of Toga's right shoulder. It was a perfect match to the gouged scar that Bakugou had in the same spot.
Without much of a word, Toga and Twice looked at each other and then back to the two girls. Toga made the first move, grabbing Twice's hand and pulling him along as she walked backwards the first few steps. The next second, they were running, disappearing around another corner and off into the night.
"You sure that was a good idea," Yumei asked cautiously as she and Suri watched the pair take off into the night.
"I meant what I said when I said I felt like I needed to help him. I have no idea if it was dumb on my part or not so I guess we'll find out," Suri shrugged. She then looked down at Enishi and groaned. "Anyway, let's get him ready and let's get this over with."
"Well, there's goes any chance of sleep tonight, huh?" Yumei asked drearily.
"Yup."
"Well, damn."
"On the brightside; more coffee."
"Yes, please."