Hey everyone, quick note that updates may be a little slower the next couple weeks since I will be out of the country.

I didn't think I'd get a chapter out for this week, but surprise, I did lol.

It is a bit boring and slow because it is a filler chapter. I promise we will get more action soon, especially for the next chapter if it goes as planned.

I'm still outlining it lol. But anyway please enjoy this new chapter !

Also I don't know why but when answering comment's it deleted Little. Didith's name from my response. Sorry about that but I hope I answered your questions!

Chapter 9:

As soon as the door closed behind her, Noriko all but ran to the elevators to get down to the Emergency Room where she figured her sister would be. Akari hadn't answer her when she asked if she was okay and didn't know if it was her way of avoiding the question or if she got sidetracked.

So even though she was freaking out a little, she had done her best to put on a calm front for Yaeko's sake. Despite what the commission said, Noriko didn't trust them to keep their word if Yaeko slacked off even the slightest bit.

"You better hope you're okay or I'm gonna kill you myself." Noriko muttered under her breath.

When the elevator doors opened, she practically launching herself inside and pressing the button for the ground floor repeatedly. The slight rational side of her, knew it wouldn't make the elevator move faster, but her anxiety was increasing each minute she didn't hear ack from Akari.

As the elevator moved slowly between floors, she couldn't help but tap her fingers together nervously. Her eyes remained glued at the changing numbers above the door, willing it to go faster.

Realistically, Noriko knew Akari was more than capable of taking care of herself. She was skilled in both long-range and close combat fighting. It was something she had worked extra hard on because while amazing, her quirk hadn't originally been suited for close combat.

Akari had taken years to make sure she used her quirk to its full advantage. Her hard work and dedication were why she had graduated amongst the top 10 in her class. Both Yaeko and she were incredibly proud of her and her accomplishments, which was why Noriko tried to keep calm.

But the fact that Akari hadn't respond back to her text, made her fear the worse. Trying to relieve some of the tension she felt, she began pacing back and forth in the limited space. She snorted out loud when she realized she had given Midoriya so much shit earlier for his nervous fidgeting and look at her now.

The ding indicating the elevator had stopped made her head snap up. She almost sagged in relief when she realized that she made it to the ground floor without interruptions. The doors had barely opened before she squeezed out, brushing past people in her haste.

Eyes scanning the crowd, Noriko tried to find her sister in the chaos but she was too short to see above the crowd. There were too many people in the halls whether standing around or sitting on gurneys, on plastic chairs, or even the floor. Growling in annoyance, she shoved people out of her way to try and reach the nurse's station.

She ignored the nasty looks and the grumbled complaints from people only caring about reaching the station in the middle of the chaos. A lot of people were crowded around it, and she had to go around until she found an opening.

"Excuse me!" Leaning over the counter, Noriko called out to a nurse that was shuffling around behind the desk.

"There is a line over there." The woman didn't even bother turning around as she pointed towards a mile long line on the other side of the station.

There were three other people on computers behind the station, typing and clicking away as they assisted people. Noriko's jaw dropped when she leaned over to see that the line wrapped around the waiting room. She turned back to the woman rummaging through files.

"I don't need medical assistance. I just need to know where pro-hero Hawks and Inkfinity are. One of -."

"You aren't the only one looking for someone. Those people aren't just here for medical reasons, they may also be looking for a patient, so get in line and wait your turn." The woman rudely cut her off, turning around to shoot her a glare before moving on to a new pile of files.

Grinding her teeth in an effort to control her temper, Noriko slammed her hand on the desk. She felt some satisfaction when the woman jumped and the other three turned to look at her cautiously.

"I just need you to point me to where Inkfinity or Hawks is." She bit out through clenched teeth.

There was no way she didn't know where the Number 2 hero was off the top of her head. Heroes were always a top priority if injured in the line of duty and treated separately from civilians. All she had to do was point her in the correct direction, that's it.

"You need to leave, b-before I call s-security." The woman's voice wavered a bit when she saw Noriko's eyes darken, and a couple sparks started popping along her arm.

"And, you need to tell me where Inkfinity is." Noriko glared at the nurse.

She knew she was being an ass, but it had already been more than 20 minutes since she last heard from Akari. She opened her mouth to continue insisting when she was interrupted.

"Excuse me, did you say you were looking for Inkfinity?" An unfamiliar voice asked from somewhere behind her.

Turning her head slightly, Noriko caught realized it was a little old man that spoke. Her eyebrows furrowed, wondering why this grandpa was speaking to her. Turning fully, she looked down to see he was dressed in a white jumpsuit with a yellow cape, boots, and belt. She raised an eyebrow at him, crossing her arms as she started down her nose at him.

"What's it to you, jiji?" She watched as a vein in his forehead popped.

In a blink of an eye, the old man was gone, and she felt a strong hit to her head. Wincing, she bowed down under the force of the hit. The old bastard had actually fucking hit her!

Raising her head despite the throbbing pain, she tried to find him. Not seeing anything, she started producing more sparks randomly throughout her body. He couldn't get close enough to hit her again unless he was willing to get caught in them. Catching a flash of yellow from the corner of her eye, she swung while concentrating her sparks only on that arm.

She growled when he changed direction suddenly to avoid getting hit. Spinning around to face him, she prepared to swing again but was surprised when he stopped moving.

"Young kids these days have zero respect for their elders!" He snapped, landing gingerly on his feet in the same spot he had originally been standing in.

Noriko narrowed her eyes at him, taking note at how he glared at her behind his black mask. Feeling her irritation growing, she crouched into a defensive stance. She was pissed; he'd caught her off guard and hit her.

"Say's the senile old man that fucking hit me!" Noriko snarled and held her glowing red hand out in warning.

Behind her she could hear the nurse scrambling to reach the phone, most likely to call security. She figured she'd have about 5 minutes max to beat the old man's ass before she'd be tossed out the hospital.

"Put your mini firework display away young lady. I have no problem beating you until you have to be rolled to Inkfinity's room on a gurney."

Noriko blinked, lowering her hand while straightening. Everything faded into the background as she processed what he'd just said. She vaguely heard the nurse speaking I a hushed voice to who she assumed was security, but she couldn't find it in her to care.

"You know where my sister is?"

"You're related to her?" He sounded incredulous, even to his own ears.

"Do you know where my sister is?" She ground out through her teeth, her eyes flashing dangerously.

The man eyed her for a moment before nodding his head to the side. "She's down the hall with Hawks and that Tokoyami kid. They're getting their injuries treated while giving their statements."

"Which room?" She asked, striding down the hall without waiting for a response.

Noriko had turned before he had finished speaking. All she focused on was the fact that her sister was alive but hurt. Her heartbeat was going crazy in her chest. Her hand raised to rub at it, as if that could make the uncomfortable feelings stop.

Gran Torino mumbled under his breath, but waved at the frightened nurse to let her know it was okay before taking off after Noriko. Once he was walking next to her, he side-eyed her. She looked a lot like the young hero he had met earlier today and was amazed he had not noticed the similarities before.

But of course, she was the complete opposite of her sister. While he had seen Akari in action and knew she was stoic, well-composed and level-headed in battle, outside of it she was a sweetheart. She had cracked jokes the entire time they waited for the ambulances and cops to show up to the crime scene.

This girl on the other hand, was tense and had a permanent glare etched into her face. But he could see the worry in her eyes and had decided to put aside his indignation at her rudeness…mostly. No doubt the stress of learning a loved one was hurt, even if it was minor, but he wasn't going to explain that to her.

Instead, they walked in silence. The brooding teenager scanned the rooms as she strode through the hall with long confident strides he could barely keep up with. From this angle, he could see Inkfinity in her, what with her shoulders straight and head held high. She walked almost as if daring anyone to stop her. Gran Torino could admire her confidence, even as he knew her manners were less than impressive.

"It's that door up ahead, on the right." He broke the silence, pointing to the correct door.

Noriko sped up her walk, hand out stretched to push the door open without knocking. Entering the room, she froze when she realized it was packed. She could barely see that there were two hospital beds in the room. Her full view was blocked by Hawks, a man with the head of a dog, a few police officers, and nurses.

All eyes turned to her due to her abrupt entrance. She ignored them, craning her neck to catch a glimpse of her sister. She felt her breathing speed up when she couldn't see her.

Her biggest fear was losing one of her sisters. She had already lost her parents and then Yaeko was taken away for so long. Grabbing at her chest again, she felt as if she was about to start hyperventilating.

Noticing her discomfort, Hawks was the one that stepped forward. He stopped when he was directly in front of her. He examined her face, once again taken aback by how alike the sisters were.

"You're Imai-Chan, right? Inkfinity's younger sister?" His deep voice was soft and soothing, so she tried to focus on it.

"Where is she?" She asked, her voice catching as she locked eyes with him.

"I'm right here, Nori." Akari's voice floated from somewhere behind the wall of people.

Her feet moved on their own, brushing past Hawks and pushing a few police officers. Hawks waved them away when they made a move to stop her, and immediately they stepped back.

When the last of them moved from Noriko's path, she was finally able to see her sister sitting on the cot, a nurse cleaning some blood from her forehead. She felt the tension melt away from her almost instantly when their eyes locked.

Akari was okay, a little banged up from what she could see, but okay. Aside from the blood on her temple, there was a nasty bruise forming on her jaw. She also seemed to be favoring her left side.

"What the fuck happened?"

"Some bad guy on steroids threw a motorcycle at me."

Noriko's head jerked back in surprise. "Pardon?"

Akari let out a chuckle, wincing slightly when it jostled her side. "You heard me. I guess I was moving too slow for his liking, so he tried to gift me a nice old Street Chopper."

"This would only happen to you." Noriko sighed, stopping on Akari's other side not wanting to get in the nurse's way.

"You would have thought that would be the worst thing, right? Wrong, Tokoyami got a bus thrown at him." She pointed to a guy her age sitting across from her.

Giving him a glance over, she saw that he looked fine, if not for a couple scratches. Turning back to her sister, she raised her eyebrow at her. Once the blood was washed away, there was only a slight discoloration left on her temple, making Noriko frown. Before she could ask the nurse about it, she had grabbed her supplies and left.

"Imai-san was hurt because she saved me." A deep voice muttered from behind her.

"I should have been more aware of my surroundings, that's on me kid." Akari smiled softly.

"But if I had been able to dodge, you wouldn't have turned your back on him." He argued, finally raising his head to look Akari in the eye. A snort from the younger Imai sister drew his attention to her blue-green eyes.

"Get over yourself." Noriko rolled her eyes, as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Shit happens because no one is perfect. Inkfinity is a pro-hero, it's her job to save people. She's got a couple bruises cause she's a reckless dumbass, but she's alive. You were too slow this time, next time you won't be. Now, just say thank you and move on."

"I apologize for my baby sister's bluntness, she never properly learned manners." Akari sighed, smiling sheepishly at Tokoyami.

The poor boy could only stare back with his mouth gaped open in shock. His cheeks were pink despite the dark plumage covering his face, no doubt embarrassed by Noriko's dismissive behavior. Akari wasn't surprised by her baby sister's rough demeanor, no doubt made worse by the worry she must have felt.

Turning to look at Hawks, Akari discreetly gestured to him to clear the room. Catching on quickly, he patted Tokoyami on his shoulder while flashing a bright smile to the rest of the people in the room.

"Well, this has been fun. Chief, I think we've answered all your questions, right?" Hawks turned to the man with the dog head.

"Yes, woof, please have your written report submitted by end of the week." With that he turned and exited the room, his officers following him.

"Tokoyami, you did great out their kid. Take tomorrow off and that's an order." He rushed to add the last part when the boy had opened his mouth, most likely to protest.

Closing his mouth, he sighed deeply but nodded in agreeance. He turned to look at the two sisters. He blushed when he locked eyes with Noriko, who had her resting bitch face on 100. His eyes quickly moved to Akari's kinder golden blue eyes.

"Thank you again, Inkfinity. I look forward to working with you again" He bowed deeply.

"Likewise, Tokoyami! Thanks for having my back out there." Akari sent him a wide smile.

Only once he was out of the room, did Akari drop the smile and slump over. She groaned loudly, allowing herself to lay back into the hospital bed carefully. She was breathing deeply and holding her right side by the time she was full stretched out.

"I thought you were fine." Noriko raised an eyebrow, watching as Hawks moved closer to the bed.

"She asked Recovery Girl to do the bare minimum because she didn't want all her energy completely drained." Hawks answered for Akari, lips pressed tightly. Noriko raised an eyebrow, noting the concern in his eyes, but otherwise didn't comment.

"So earlier the nurse was just cleaning the blood from the healed cut?" Noriko's hands brushed over the mark on her temple.

"Yep, she was just making sure she didn't need to call Recovery Girl back. Which I would have refused anyway. I'm already exhausted from the short healing session. Plus, I wouldn't have wanted Tokoyami beating himself up even more over what happened. You did enough." Akari muttered dryly, opening an eye to look at Noriko.

"I didn't say anything that wasn't true."

"You could have been nicer."

"I would have been nicer, if I wasn't so pissed you stopped answering me."

"Actually, that's my fault." Hawks cut in, smiling sheepishly when both women turned to look at him. "Akari wasn't letting the nurses do their jobs because she was busy trying to text you."

"Bad move bird brain, you almost gave me a heart attack and Yaeko almost neglected her duties to come looking for her."

"That was just uncalled for."

"So is your presence."

"And here I was looking forward to meeting you, little chickadee."

"Well, that makes one of us, because I didn't care about meeting you one way or another. And don't call me that." The disgust was evident in her sister's voice, despite her dry tone.

"How about chicklet?"

"How about I turn you into fried chicken?"

"Now that just made me hungry."

Akari almost laughed out loud at their banter, but then her slow mind finally processed what Noriko had said. Her eyes flew open and at the same time she sat up abruptly, startling them both. She grabbed Noriko's arm tightly and looked her in the eyes.

"Do NOT tell Yaeko what happened." She was dead serious.

Yaeko had a tendency of over worrying about them. Despite it being part of the job, her older sister hated it when they got hurt. Part of it stemmed from the trauma of how their parents died and the other part was from the incident 4 years ago.

"You do realize you're covered in fading bruises and look like you could use a year's worth of sleep, right?" She winced when Noriko's fingers poked her jaw.

"That's what makeup was made for."

"Unfortunately, that's not gonna work." Noriko's eyes were glued to the tv screen in the corner of the room. "Your little adventure is on the news."

Akari and Hawks both turned simultaneously to see a clip of Akari using her capture weapon to pull Tokoyami out of the way of a small moving truck. The camera zoomed out quick to show a motorcycle flying towards her. They all winced when it clipped Akari in her right side when she couldn't move away in time.

"Fuck."

"I'll order her favorite for lunch, maybe that will get her mind off this whole thing." Noriko offered, pulling her phone out. "BRB." She went out to the hallway to make the call.

"What was the point of surviving this whole thing? Yaeko's gonna kill me." Akari groaned, covering her face.

"How about you don't die? You just started the job." Hawks asked with a crooked grin.

"I think I've earned myself early retirement." She laughed, peaking at him from between her fingers.

"Maybe I can pull some strings, I know the boss." He winked at her, smiling widely when she laughed again.

"Akari Imai!" And that was when the peace ended. Yaeko had finished her session with Midoriya and rushed down to find her sisters. Both got an earful because neither had bothered to text or call her to let her know they were okay. Eventually though she calmed down and after they ate the food Noriko had ordered, she healed Akari.

Now they were enjoying the remaining time together in one of the private break rooms, grateful they had it all to themselves. Hawks had been nice enough to give Akari the rest of the day to rest even though she was fully healed now. That little fact wasn't something her two sisters had overlooked.

"He's just being a nice boss!" Akari snapped, crossing her arms, and leaning further back into the couch she was sitting in.

"Oh yeah, sure, not like he's interested or anything." Yaeko snorted.

"We are not having this conversation right now! Nori, anything interesting going on?"

"I'll let this slide for now because I actually do have something to get off my chest." Noriko sat up, sending a smirk at Akari before continuing. "So, get this, two of UA's top three from the class I'm supposed to transfer into failed the provisional licensing exam the first time."

"Who cares if they failed? From what Akari's told me, you've done amazing during trainings with her, and even excelled with those quirk assessments." Yaeko frowned.

"I care because not once during training was I able to land a hit on Endeavor! That man is incredibly fast and amazing! Not to mention I fought one of the two that failed, and he managed to knock me on my ass." Noriko groaned, dropping her head onto Yaeko's shoulder.

"Well from what Tokoyami told me, his class tried for their provisional licenses during their first year. It probably wasn't easy for them, what with all of Japan knowing what their quirks are due to the sports festivals and whatnot." Akari added, picking up a left-over shrimp tempura.

"Not to mention the villain attacks on their class and then the war." Yaeko said softly, her hand coming up to brush Noriko's hair. "They are stronger now, so don't worry about something that happened years ago."

"I only have one shot at this before the school semester starts. If I don't pass, what's gonna happen to me? Will I be thrown in the general studies course? I don't want that." Noriko muttered sounded dejected.

"You will pass because your quirk is amazing, and your skills are comparable to a pro's!" Akari declared, looking at her baby sister with a determined look.

"We'll help you train as well. If you want to give up your weekends to train." Yaeko offered, smiling when Noriko lifted to look at her hopefully.

"Will you guys really?"

"DUH!" Yaeko and Akari exclaimed at the same time making her laugh.

A knock on the door cut their laughter short. Yaeko stood up and moved to open the door, blinking in surprise when she was met with a woman with bright yellow-green flaming hair.

"Hey there! I'm here for Noriko Imai." She exclaimed; her lips pulled into a wide smirk.

"And you are?" Yaeko raised an eyebrow, unamused by the woman.

"Burnin', I work for Endeavor."

"Well, I guess that's my cue." Noriko muttered with a frown.

"OH, HOW I'LL MISS YOU, MY LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE!" Akari shouted, jumping up to throw her arms around Noriko.

Growling in annoyance, she shoved her older sister off with a dark glare. "Can you ever fucking behave?!"

"Nope, see you later chickadee."

"I said that overgrown chicken not to call me that, same goes for you!"

"So saucy." Akari laughed when Noriko threw an empty cartoon at her.

"Energetic bunch, aren't they?" Burnin' laughed from her perch in the doorway.

"Enough, both of you." Yaeko ignored the sidekick and rubbed her temple to ease the headache she felt coming on.

Noriko threw a one last glare at Akari before squeezing Yaeko's arm in goodbye. Once she was out of the room, she closed the door and started cleaning up. Akari was silent as she cleaned, so she stole a couple glances at her.

"Spit it out, what's bothering you." Yaeko finally broke the silence, taking a seat beside her.

"I'm thinking of how I'm gonna hack into the agency's system tomorrow." Akari answered softly. "I feel a little guilty because Hawks has been very nice and genuinely trying to help us… and he saved my life today."

"What do you mean?"

"That motorcycle would have hit me dead on if he hadn't sent a few feathers to push it out the way. He didn't have enough to fully push it out of the way, but he still tried."

"I understand not wanting to betray his trust, so you don't have to do it. We can get the information some other way." Yaeko grabbed her hand and squeezed tightly.

"What other way?" Akari chuckled humorlessly. "Our only shot is through the agencies."

"Not necessarily. Midoriya talks a lot when he's nervous, which he was for most of his session. One of the things he told me was that the Endeavor had let it slip that Hawks tried digging further into our past and hit a dead end."

Akari's head swung to look at her. "What the hell? Hawks is literally one of the commissions special agents, if he doesn't have clearance then no one does."

"No hero does. We'd have to break into the Hero Commission's system directly, and that's no easy feat." Yaeko sighed, leaning her head back on the couch.

A phone ringing jerked them out of the somber mood that had fallen over them. Akari reached for her phone, smiling when she saw the caller ID.

"Don't tell me you miss me already, boss man." Yaeko rolled her eyes but didn't say anything and allowed her sister to take the call. "It's a 10-minute walk, no big deal. If I couldn't handle that, then I might as well return my hero license… yeah, yeah, I got it. See you soon."

"What was that about?" Yaeko asked when she hung up.

"Hawk's is caught up at in a meeting with Endeavor and Best Jeanist, so he won't be able to come escort me back to the agency. He would have sent a sidekick to come get me but the ones he could spare are still helping to clear up the disaster from earlier."

"So, he's going to let you go back on your own? That's going against the conditions Yokumiru gave us."

"Yeah, but Hawks clearly doesn't give a damn or he trusts I'll can handle the walk." She rolled her eyes, standing up and stretching. "Which I can by the way. I'll text you when I get back to the apartment."

"Please be careful." Yaeko frowned, not liking the idea of her going on her own.

She'd been on the news, meaning there was a chance she could have been recognized. Yokumiru had said he was mostly concerned about retaliation for their return to Japan.

"Always." She smiled, leaning down to hug her tightly. "And you stop worrying. If I'm not mistaken, you have to prepare for Best Jeanist coming later."

Yaeko just waved her off and stood to walk her to the elevators. Even after Akari had left, she couldn't shake off the worry. She had thrown herself into her work, filling out post-examination notes and working out a tentative schedule for her surgeries.

It wasn't until later that night that she'd realize her senses had been right.