Fear, uncertainty, darkness, these were all feelings which Eri was intimately familiar with, she has no idea how long she was with the bad man, but it was a very, very, very long time, more days than she can count, she was scared for so long, her room was dark and those men were horrible. She's tried to leave before, but whenever she failed she's be punished, so eventually she gave up, but that didn't make the pain stop, it just made her feel sad inside. She didn't like feeling sad.
She has no idea why she left that dark room when she did, she just heard a voice and listened to it, at first she thought that she was wrong, that she should have just stayed where she was, the bad man was in the room she wandered into, she made a mistake, and she'd have to bleed again that day.
But, that didn't happen, because she was protected by the nice men.
She clung onto the green man she didn't recognise when she first walked, well he might be a boy actually, she wasn't sure why she did it, for all she knew they would just send her back to the dark room, she was scared of everyone in the room but he looked the least scary, so he had to be the least bad, right?
She heard the bad man ask her to come back and she started to get really scared, she didn't know these men and they would send her back so that they didn't explode, they were strangers to her, she couldn't expect them to-
Then they denied him, they said no to her captor. She fully expected for them to explode like all the other people who said no to the bad man, she started to shake and dots started to appear in her vision as a pool of guilt and terror started to make her heart crack. They were going to die, they'd die and it's be all her fault, she killed them, she's a curse- why does she have to make the people around her disappear! Why can't she just learn to do as he says-
She fell to her knees and suddenly she couldn't breathe, thoughts of what she'd done weighed down on her shoulders as she wallowed and the world became drowned out as she became completely engulfed with the consequences of her actions. She shouldn't have left, she shouldn't have left, she shouldn't have left, SHE SHOULDN'T HAVE-
Her head felt light as a feather as consciousness escaped her grasp, yet even then all she could think about was what she had done.
I stared at my hands, where my new Quirk factor was located, and started to break 'Overhaul' down in my mind, whilst simultaneously keeping the now Quirkless man's lackeys in place with a telekinesis Quirk. Truth be told I've wanted this power for a very long time, in fact it's been at the top of my 'Quirks to steal' list since I first awakened my powers. But, I simply didn't have the time or the need to collect this Quirk, if I just went around exploding my enemies in cold-blood then the reputation of my group would be tainted, this Quirk absolutely does not do non-lethal, at the very least your opponent would be walking away with a few missing limbs. My plans would work best if my opponents are all left alive.
'Overhaul' is the power to disassemble matter on an atomic level and then put it back together based on the user's perception, but I wonder-
I rolled my left sleeve up and placed a hand on my arm. Upon contact I watched with morbid fascination as my forearm exploded in blood, 'Pain Killer' allowed me to shut off my pain sensors so that I didn't start screaming in agony but blood was still spewing everywhere from the area which I disassembled, it wasn't a problem though, 'Super Regeneration' completely healed my missing forearm and I was left with both a new arm and the already disassembled material.
I have a lot of experiments I'll need to conduct later, whilst my body was very well trained it could still do with some improvement, and if I really have control over the state of every single cell in my body then I already have numerous ideas on how to improve my biology. But, those can come later.
Once I was finished with a brief experiment I turned my attention to Izuku, who was currently holding an unconscious Eri in his arms, he was obviously worried about the silver haired girl and I allowed myself to smile lightly at that, even if Izuku Midoriya was a villain he wasn't going to abandon his kind heart, it truly is sad that he'll end up abandoning it soon enough.
I walked up to my ally and asked with some concern." Is she alright?" I didn't have to fake my concern for the little girl, she was definitely traumatised by the whole experience and no decent person wouldn't feel sorry for the poor thing, helping her is something that I wish to do.
Izuku turned his gaze back to me as his green eyes hardened." Physically? Yes. Mentally? Probably not. She seemed to have had a panic attack and fainted, you said that they were using her blood for those bullet, does that mean..." Izuku trailed off but his anger was still clear to me.
I merely nodded at his words in silent confirmation at his question. Izuku looked down and instead of looking visibly angry he looked... well very dark. I was surprised at that, anger is far less dangerous than hatred, anger isn't permanent and it's a very fast process, your emotions are all erupting at once, it's brief, erratic, and mostly hollow. But, hatred is what you really need to look out for, hatred is calm, hatred is dangerous, and hatred is like poison, if someone hates you enough then no amount of strength will save you from them, unlike anger hatred isn't fast and hot, the emotion is more like glacial frost that slowly envelops and overtakes the one who feels it, if they don't get help then hatred will destroy both the person it belongs to and the one that they hate. Izuku looked like that right now.
Hatred can be a source of strength, you can channel your hatred into something far more productive if you're smart, I hate this hero society and I'm channelling my hatred into something productive, but your just going to kill yourself if you aren't careful. Hatred is powerful, but also hazardous and hard to use.
That is one of the reasons I never recruited Dabi, he was completely insane, in the manga he used his fire Quirk to such a large extent that he was practically a charred corpse in the final fight, the only thing that was holding his body together was the terrifying obsession and hatred which he held for his father, and he was also a sociopath who even All For One couldn't manipulate or control. He was far too much of a loose cannon to simply leave around.
But, I don't really need Dabi, I just need his body to use as a tool to break Endeavour down.
The good doctor should have him ready by now.
My gaze drifted onto the two goons who were struggling and stuck on the roof of the room, their bodies firmly pressed against the hard stone ceiling, and I figured that I'd take their Quirks from them. I especially wanted that 'Confession' Quirk, what a handy ability that would be, lying to me would essentially be impossible, I was positive that there were no sneaky spies in my ranks, but you could never be too sure.
"We need to leave, I tipped off the cops and they're gonna swarm this place, you take the girl and I'll take these." I mentally threw the two men onto the ground and forced them to kneel before me as I walked over and held out my hands, which were glowing red.
There's never a bad day for a little Quirk shopping. I could just kill everyone here and cover-up our presence, but truth be told it didn't really matter.
We'd make our next move soon enough, and when we did we wouldn't need to hide anymore. So, they can know what we did here, because they can't stop us.
They never could.
Eri's mind was completely clear as she allowed the drowsiness of waking up to dominate her mind with complete willingness, she was aware that she had woken up but willingly decided to act like she was still asleep, she had no desire to wake up to the reality of her life, she didn't want to wake up and feel nothing but pain, she did notice how comfortable the place she was sleeping really was though, she subconsciously nuzzled her head into the strange fabric where her head was.
"Looks like she's waking up, lets get her something to eat, lord knows the poor thing could use it."
She heard an unfamiliar voice coming from just above her head and peeled her eyes open slowly, her vision was partly blurred for a few moments, but when it cleared she was able to identify where exactly she was sleeping, in the arms of a man. He was really big with white hair and red eyes, she couldn't help but be reminded of the colour of blood just by looking at them, but they weren't scary to her like blood was.
She stared at his face curiously with her ruby-red eyes, she doesn't know why she wasn't afraid, but she felt really safe with him. She looked around and saw that she wasn't back in the bad room, she was in a new place, one without the bad man.
Had she been saved? Did this mean that she didn't have to go back? Was- did these people come to save her?
No, they probably didn't. She shouldn't get attached. They would probably make her bleed like the bad man did, she shouldn't trust them-
She shouldn't hope.
Suddenly she felt the touch of the stranger on her head. She surprised herself with the way she didn't flinch away from it, she hates being touched by strangers, but the strange fuzzy warmth that the hand provided made her subconsciously lean in closer, was her head-
She looked up and found that the one who was rubbing her head was the man who was holding her. She felt all of her fears of the man before her melt away simply at the touch of his hand. He smiled at her in a way that made her feel safe and secure in his arms and all of her anxieties were proven wrong. Is this what a daddy is?
She immediately flinched away from his touch and felt a new surge of pain at the unpleasant memories which were resurfacing at the reminder of what she'd done when she was younger. She'd made her daddy disappear, she didn't have a daddy, she didn't have a mummy either, mummy threw her out because she was a cursed child, because she killed her daddy.
She felt new tears build up in her eyes and buried her head into the chest of the man who'd saved her. She didn't know why she was grateful for what they did. She deserved all the pain that happened to her, it was better that way. It would have been better if she was gone. She wouldn't have been bothering everyone if she had just-
'Knock, knock, knock.'
She momentarily stopped crying when she heard the sound of a fist tapping on wood. She tore her eyes away from the suit which she had her head buried into and saw that they were in a hallway and they had stopped in front of a door.
After a few moments the door opened and Eri was met with the sight of a short green haired woman, she looked harmless but Eri knew better than to trust a stranger- she was ignoring the fact that she had complete trust in the man who was holding her- so she still flinched away.
Inko was oblivious to this as she spoke with a voice full of surprise." Oh Izuku, I had no idea that you were visiting here, if I did then I would have prepared some dinner. And Ryu, it's a pleasure to see you, I hope that my son has been a hard worker."
It was at that point which she took notice of Eri, she stared mildly surprise for a moment, before she smiled sweetly and asked." And who might this be? She's just the cutest little thing in the world, is she yours?" She asked that last part when she took notice of how similar Eri looked to Ryu.
In response though, all she got was a head shake as Eri withdrew into her saviour's chest from the attention which she was receiving. Ryoto explained this behaviour." Her name is Eri, and no she isn't mine, unfortunately. We found her in an abusive home and saved her from that, she didn't want to part with me so I've been with her ever since, we were in the neighbourhood so I figured that we'd drop by. I hope you don't mind."
Hearing that Inko gained a look of sympathy and understanding as she made sure to give Eri her space." I'm sorry to hear that, please come in and make yourselves comfortable." She gestured for them to follow as she walked inside of her home.
Eri allowed herself to calm down as she heard the words of the green lady. She seemed nice, it wasn't enough to make her completely trust the lady, but it was enough to make her worries lessen. She shifted her gaze to the green boy who smiled at her before saying." My mum isn't going to hurt you Eri, she's a nice lady." He said genuinely as he felt a stab of guilt at having to lie to his mother, but he did his best to ignore it as he smiled at Eri reassuringly. His words helped to placate her worries as she found her heartbeat slowing down.
Eri then found that she was being let down and out of the hands of her saviour, the action wasn't sudden, but it was fast enough that Eri nearly fell down from how numb her legs felt, if she wasn't caught by her arms then she wouldn't have been able to regain her balance. She looked up to see the man who had saved her gesturing for her to enter the door that lady had gone into.
Eri wasn't sure where she was, she also wasn't sure what she was going, but she knew that whoever these people were they were trustworthy, she was confused, scared, and hungry in that moment, but still, she had to take this leap of faith, she had to trust them.
She placed one of her skinny and tired legs in front of her as she walked through the door of Inko's apartment with many thoughts and feeling rushing through her head, but they weren't all negative, sure there was confusion, fear, and anxiety, but there was also a single feeling that seemed to outshine them all.
Hope.
If you enjoyed reading this story and want to read more then just head to my P atreon at The Magician 565 to read 10 Chapters in advance.
So, were you surprised that I wasn't just gonna throw away Dabi? I just really like his character and didn't feel like throwing him away since he has a lot of potential. Also it should be noted that Eri won't be a massive part of this story, she'll be mentioned and have a bit of a role, but don't expect her to make a large amount of appearances.