Hey everyone, so sorry about not posting last week. It's just been a crazy couple of weeks, but I'm back !
I'm posting a little earlier than usual to make up for the fact that I didn't post last week. I already started chapter 15, so I am going to have that done by Friday so we can be back on schedule and as a treat since it was supposed to come out this week anyway.
I know things are a little slow right now, but I promise I"m building up to something big.
But this chapter does have a little Aizawa and Yaeko moment though!
Anyway, without further delay, here's the new chapter!
Chapter 14:
"To what do I owe the pleasure, Yokumiru?" Yaeko drawled as she put the phone to her ear.
As much as she didn't want to take the phone call, she knew better than to ignore HPSC. And if she had to choose anyone from there to speak to, at least it would be Yokumiru.
"Dr. Imai, how are you? I hope I haven't caught you at a bad time?" His tired voice sounded from the other side of the line.
She pushed the door to the staircase, slowly making her way up to their apartment, which was located three floors above the training room their used. She would have taken the elevator but knew that she would most likely lose signal in there. She also knew she'd probably have a hard time staying still for whatever conversation was about to happen.
"Of course not, nothing like strange phone calls after normal business hours." She muttered sarcastically, even though it was still too early for her to call it a night.
"My apologies for the late call, but today was a bit hectic over here." Yokumiru sighed, looking over at the time on his computer. He winced when he saw how late it was, knowing that he wouldn't be leaving for a few more hours still.
"Don't worry about it. I figured whatever you wanted to talk about was important if you were calling at this hour."
"Yes, there were a few things I needed to go over with you. I would like it if you could come into the office tomorrow so we could discuss it in person."
"As much as I would love to head over to HPSC headquarters for old times' sake, I'm booked all day tomorrow." Yaeko answered breezily, finally reaching her floor.
"I'm afraid it's important Dr. Imai. We need to discuss one of your patients, Shouta Aizawa."
Yaeko raised an eyebrow as she unlocked the apartment door and stepped in. "If it's about his surgeries, then no need since that's why I'm booked all day tomorrow." She kicked her shoes off and tossed her keys onto the table in the entryway.
"That's good to hear, sine it's a week over the original scheduled date." He commented cautiously, knowing that the inquiry might piss her off.
"Indeed, it is." Yaeko hummed, leaning against the kitchen island, eyes narrowing as she tried to figure out what he was getting to.
"Well, as long as the surgeries aren't rescheduled, then there is really no need for you to come to HPSC tomorrow. Just be sure to send a detailed report on the procedure and the outcomes."
"Say what you had to say, Yokumiru." Yaeko snapped, annoyed.
The tired man winced at the sudden change in her tone, knowing that this was what he wanted to avoid. He let out a heavy sigh as he contemplated how he was going to word things.
"A few members of the board were questioning why Eraserhead's surgeries hadn't been done yet."
"Well, Yokumiru, let's go through this together." Yaeko stood up straight, trying hard to control her temper. "I spent the past 4 years in a high security facility unable to use my quirk because I was locked in a room with built in quirk dampeners. Let's not also forget that I was pumped full of drugs my first year to make sure I wouldn't lose control of my temper. Those drugs, no doubt, affected my body and quirk since they were highly experimental. So, excuse me if I needed a break from using my quirk." She hissed into the phone.
"You postponed the surgeries because you overused your quirk? Why didn't you call me or tell Hawks about what was going on?"
"Because the second I landed in Japan, I was asked to work on Mirko. Then my sisters get hurt during hero work and training, and there is no way I would trust anyone else with their care. And then of course the trauma patients I am also supposed to take care of. Of course, I'm not going to complain, because this is my job. Not only that, but it was one of the conditions of my release and our return to Japan."
"Imai-san, regardless of the conditions behind the deal you made with us, you don't have to push yourself passed your limits. That was never our intention."
"Oh yes, because the HPSC and I have such great history where I could trust there won't be any repercussions if I say I can't handle what is asked of me."
"Yaeko, I know that we owe you more than we could ever give you, but please believe me when I say your health matters. More so than your job."
Yaeko didn't say anything, instead stayed quiet as she tried to do a breathing exercise to calm herself down. It was one she had taught to Noriko when she was younger, and her temper tantrums were constant. It also helped her with the drawbacks of her quirk.
"We can send a quirk specialist to work with you. Help you with re-training your body and quirk." Yokumiru offered, after a few more moments of silence.
Knowing Yaeko wasn't taking proper care of herself to fulfil her duties, concerned Yokumiru more than he cared to admit. Part of him was beginning to regret making this deal with her because if she pushed herself too hard, there was no telling what would come of her.
As far as they had known, her drawbacks were minimal. Prior to her arrest, she was known to perform multiple surgeries during a single week. Her father had only been able to do a max of 3 surgeries in the same timespan before he was forced to stop using his quirk.
"I don't need one. I have been training on my own, and I'm confident I can handle both surgeries tomorrow. So, tell your colleagues not to worry, they'll have their precious underground hero ready to return to work full time soon."
"If you cannot perform both surgeries tomorrow, it is understandable. The main priority is his eye."
"As I said before, his surgeries will be done by the end of the day tomorrow. If it goes as I predicted, he should be back to conditional hero work next week. Now was that all you needed to discuss with me?" She asked curtly, more than ready to end the phone call.
A deep sigh came from the other end of the phone, making her eyes narrow again. Aside from Eraserhead, there was nothing else she could think of that he would need to discuss with her. But she had the feeling that whatever he was about to say, was going to be worse than what had already been said.
"Ayaka Kobayashi came by today." Yaeko felt her blood run cold.
"And why the hell do I give a damn about that woman?" Her voice was so low and raspy, Yokumiru almost didn't want to continue.
"She saw Inkfinity's fight with the bank robbers on the news and as you can imagine, she wasn't very happy about it."
"I assume you had to tell her about my release and our return to Japan."
"I did, and I told her the entire board voted to approve all of it."
"So, you lied to her to cover your ass?"
"I didn't lie, and I didn't do it to cover up anything. Without an official replacement for Madam President, any decisions made must be approved by the board. And I did tell Mrs. Kobayashi that the idea was all mine."
Yaeko was taken aback. She hadn't known that the decision to release her and allow her sisters and herself to return to Japan had been a unanimous decision of the board.
"Of course, the old bat wasn't happy with that?"
"No, she plans to file an appeal for the decision and take it directly with the HPSC Judicial Council. And this time she plans on making sure you end up in Tartarus, along with your sisters, as she plans to make sure that they are charged as accomplices."
The wooden dining room table exploded into pieces while Yaeko struggled to take deep breaths to calm down. She ignored the pieces of wood that were flying through the room, hitting her occasionally before littering the ground.
That's gonna be a bitch to clean up and explain to Akari, Yaeko thought to herself. She closed her eyes to try and focus on anything else other than the fact that she wanted to kill a woman she had once respected.
She knew, when she accepted the deal, that this could happen. No, she knew it would happen. That woman had adored her grandson, despite his many faults, and Yaeko had killed him. Nothing she said had mattered to her, only that she was a murderer that deserved to rot in hell.
She could practically hear her blood rushing in her ears, even as she desperately tried to get herself under control. After a few more deep breaths, she felt herself start to calm down.
"Yaeko? Yaeko?! What was that?!" Yokumiru's frantic voice finally began breaking through the fog in her mind.
"I'm fine, don't worry." She got out through clenched teeth. "But shit won't be fine if that bitch goes after my sisters."
"I won't let the appeal go through Yaeko; I promised you your freedom. I will not let the system fail you again."
"If it does, I won't be responsible to what I will do Yokumiru." Yaeko promised.
"Yaeko-."
"What the fuck happened here?!" Akari's voice startled Yaeko enough to make her jump.
Spinning around with a hand on her chest, Yaeko faced the entrance of the apartment. Akari was holding the door open, her mouth open in shock as she looked at the disaster in front of her.
"Yokumiru, I've got to go." Yaeko hung up the phone, turning to look at the mess she caused.
"What the fuck?" Akari looked at Yaeko with a baffled, wide-eyed look.
"I'll clean this up and get dinner started, you go ahead and shower." Yaeko said, moving to the closet to get the broom and dustpan.
"Yaeko…" Akari's soft voice made her freeze in place.
She didn't look up at her. She couldn't. Yaeko knew she was barely holding on to her emotions, and if she even attempted to try and tell her about what the phone call was about, she was going to lose what little control she had over her emotions.
"Everything's okay, just go ahead and shower. I'll have everything ready by the time you come out." She waited until she heard the door close, and shower start before she started moving again.
Yaeko cleared her mind as she moved quickly to sweep up the pieces of the table. She contemplated putting it back together for a moment before she shook that thought away. She was getting better at with her endurance, but she didn't want to take a risk the night before a major surgery.
Instead, she grabbed a large trash bag and threw everything in it. Afterwards, she got up and went to the kitchen to start on dinner. She concentrated so hard on making dinner, that she didn't realize when Akari had finished her shower and was now sitting at the kitchen island.
Turn to grab a plate, she flinched when she made eye contact with Akari. "I didn't hear you come out."
Blue-gold eyes watched her carefully, her hand moving to brush a wet curl out of her face and behind her ear. She was in a neon pink sports bra that was darkening from her wet hair dripping water on it.
"I've been out for a while now." She murmured quietly, still staring her older sister down. "What did Yokumiru want?"
"Just to see what the holdup was with Eraserhead." Her voice was airy with the effort to remain casual.
She bit the inside of her mouth, avoiding Akari's watchful gaze as she started plating the food. She knew she wasn't fooling her sister, but she really didn't want to talk about it. More than anything she didn't want to worry her, or let it get back to Noriko. If she lost her shit, she didn't even want to think about how Noriko would react.
"What? Are they threatening to send you back to prison because you haven't don't the surgeries yet?"
"Nope."
"They threatening to take our licenses away again?"
"Nope."
"They threatening to stop Noriko from taking her provisional license or enrolling into the hero course?"
"Nope."
"So, what's the deal? And don't hit me with nothing, you blew up the goddamn dinner table."
"Nothing you need to worry about." Yaeko said, setting her plate down and finally looking her in the eyes. "I'm serious Akari, drop it."
"No, so tell me what the hell's going on or I'll call Yokumiru myself." She leaned back in the high stool, arms crossed over her chest.
Yaeko's jaw clenched as she looked at Akari, trying to determine if there was any chance that she'd be able to convince her to drop the subject. When she saw the hard look in her eyes, she realized she wouldn't be able to.
"Kobayashi saw the news coverage of your fight with the bank robbers and went to see the Hero Commission about it."
"So, we're being sent back to California?" Akari's jaw ticked, but she managed to keep her composure better than Yaeko.
"No, but she didn't like what they told her and she's going to appeal the decision."
"Of course, she fucking is… what's our plan?"
"Yokumiru's very sure he can stop the appeal. I don't trust it though, so I was planning on taking a trip to the Nagata Ward."
Akari sat up straight, glaring at her harshly. "And you weren't going to tell me?! What I something happened to you while you were down there?!"
"I am more than capable to taking care of myself, thank you very much! And now you know, but regardless of that, you can't come with me. I need someone to keep Hawks busy, so he doesn't realize I left without an escort." Yaeko glared back at her sister, annoyed at the lack of faith in her abilities.
"There's no way in hell, I'm going to let you go alone!"
"We won't have a choice, because there's no way I can take a hero with me, now, can I? How would Hawks react to me asking him, 'Hey, do you mind if I take a trip to the Nagata Ward to talk to some Yakuza member about getting my hands on a small boat to escape from Japan when shit hit's the fan?'"
She watched as Akari ground her teeth together in irritation but offered no response. She knew just as well as Yaeko that there was no way anyone could go with her. Part of her thought about telling her to take Noriko with her, but immediately shook her head at the thought.
Noriko was more than capable of being their sister's back up, but that would mean telling her about why they were doing this to begin with. If Yaeko didn't want to tell her about it, she definitely didn't want to tell their baby sister.
"Fine, but not anytime soon. I have no doubt that we're being watched after the whole thing with Dabi and Toga. Not to mention you having taken so long to do the surgeries on Eraserhead."
"I know." Yaeko sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I wouldn't put it passed them to think we'd probably jump at the opportunity to switch sides if the Liberation Army so much as offered."
"Sounds tempting if you asked me." Akari mumbled around the bite of food she took. "Don't look at me like that! Think about it, the Liberation army wants to tear down hero society, and who do you think is their first target? The HPSC."
"That is the only common enemy we have. Despite my record, I'm not exactly comfortable with killing innocent people. I wouldn't be able to kill a pro simple because he was doing his or her job when trying to stop me." Yaeko grew quiet as she thought about the biggest problem with the idea. "And what would Nemuri-Sempai think about us joining the same people she was fighting against when she died."
Akari's head dropped down in shame, her eyes watering slightly. "Dammit, Yaya, way to hit me where it hurts." He hands clenched so hard, her knuckles turned white. "I'm just so sick of living like this, with the HPSC literally controlling our lives."
"I know, but don't worry. Their end is coming soon. Whether it be by our hands or the Liberation Army," Yaeko promised, finishing up her food.
Afterwards, it was silent between them, both lost in their own thoughts. They cleaned the kitchen up together, flawlessly without even speaking. The three of them always complimented each other, and worked amazingly together, so it wasn't much of a surprise when they finished quickly.
Akari grabbed hold of her hand just as she finished putting the last of the plates away. "Promise me we'll always be together… no one left behind or in the dark." She looked up into Yaeko's eyes. "No going rouge or off on their own."
"I promise." She leaned forward to press a kiss on her forehead. "Now go to bed. It's late and I have a long day tomorrow."
Akari nodded and went off to her room after squeezing her hand one more time. Yaeko didn't move for a few minutes as she tried to process everything that had happened today. It had started off like any other day, and just went to shit.
Letting out a deep sigh, she resigned herself to deal with everything one thing at a time. She turned the lights off and went to her room, her stomach churning as she focused on tomorrow's surgeries.
*Next day*
"Aren't you supposed to be in class?" Yaeko hissed into the phone, already annoyed.
She had barely managed to get 5 hours of sleep last night, her mind refusing to shut off long enough to let her rest. On top of that, the coffee machine at the agency had been down and the coffee she bought here at the hospital was disgusting.
So here she was, in her office, wishing she had had the time to stop by a café on her way to work. Unfortunately, Tokoyami was in a rush and had to take her straight here before heading out for patrol.
"You do realize my instructor is your patient, right?" Noriko asked dryly.
"I thought Endeavor was in charge of your physical and quirk training?"
"He was until the whole shit show with Toga and Dabi's appearance, so he's been working overtime on tracking them. SO Eraserhead was his replacement, and as you know there is a bit of a shortage in pro-heroes at the moment."
"So, your hero course classes are cancelled tonight?" Yaeko frowned, not liking the idea of her sister losing a day of classes when she was in a time crunch.
She had chosen to call Aizawa in today because it was a Friday, which meant he would have the whole weekend to get his bearings. He would stay here in the hospital until Sunday to see how his body took the regeneration. Her biggest fear was the necrosis and having to chop off his leg again or his eye.
Granted his eye was her biggest worry, if they didn't catch the infection in time, it could spread to the brain.
"Pretty much, but Shinso and I were planning on meeting up to study anyway." She heard a grunt in the background, no doubt it was Shinso.
She had met the boy once and had instantly taken a liking to him. He was very nonchalant and quiet, but he wasn't shy nor did he back down easily. He met her eyes without flinching and didn't cower away from Noriko's strong personality. If anything, he gave back as much as she gave. which reminded her of a certain underground pro-hero.
"Oh, a study date, is it?" Yaeko decided to tease, wanting to focus on something other than how much the lack of caffeine was affecting her.
"Absolutely the fuck not. Unless my type has suddenly changed to Edward Scissorhands look a likes." Noriko snorted out a laugh, laughing harder after a smack was heard in the background.
"Stop bullying the poor boy before he decides to quit being your training partner." Yaeko chuckled softly.
"He won't, he knows better." She sounded so cocky, that Yaeko could hear the smirk in her voice.
A sudden knock had Yaeko sitting up in her desk chair. Turning she made eye contact with a single black eye. "Noriko, I have to go, my patient is here. Tell Shinso I said hello, and I'm so sorry that he has to deal with you."
"Finally, someone understands the pain I go through." Was all she hears before she heard flesh hitting flesh, and Noriko's gruff goodbye.
"I'm afraid that it seems my baby sister might be the cause of some bruises on your protégé." Yaeko stated with a shake of her head, looking up to see that the pro was balancing two cups of coffee while making his way into the room.
Immediately, she stood and took the to-go tray from him and moved to allow him to reach the chairs across from her desk. "I would be concerned if I wasn't confident Shinso could keep up with her. The one with the white lid is for you, by the way."
Yaeko blinked in surprise, looking down at the two cups in the tray she was holding. One indeed did have a white lid, while the other had a black one.
"Thank you, but you didn't have to. I can pay you back for it." She moved to set the drinks on the space in front of him.
"No need, please accept it as an apology for my behavior last week." Despite the steadiness of his voice as he spoke, Yaeko could sense he was uncomfortable.
"If you're apologizing because you think I won't handle your surgeries with care, don't bother. I am a doctor, first, and I take my responsibilities seriously." Her voice was hard, having misunderstood the reason for his unease.
"I do not doubt your abilities, your record as a doctor speaks for itself. I am apologizing because I may have judged you too quick." He sat up as straight as he could, forcing himself to look her in her eyes.
Her eyes narrowed, trying to figure out what his motive really was. His behavior last week wasn't horrible per say, but it had been obvious how much he didn't trust her. She hadn't seen him since, so this apology was quite literally coming out of nowhere.
Sensing her distrust, he pushed forward to try and explain himself. "I didn't get a chance to get to know you or even ask anything about you. I just took the information I was given and drew my own conclusions. I shouldn't have done that, especially when the details about your case were too vague to even understand."
After tricking Noriko into confessing what little she did, and hearing Shinso talk about the teenager, he realized he had wrongfully misjudged them. Even during training, he could see how hard Noriko worked, and her motivation was to make her older sisters proud while proving to everyone she would be the best hero despite the rumors behind her family.
Already the hero community had been made aware of the sisters return, both due to the news coverage on Inkfinity, and because their return was no secret. Plenty of sidekicks from both agencies that probably have also been talking about them.
Yaeko stared hard at him, trying to debate if she accepted his answer or not. She wasn't stupid to think he hadn't heard rumors in the past couple weeks. She heard the nurses talking sometimes, even some of the pro that worked at Hawks agency. Even the sidekick that had given them a tour when they first arrived, now steered clear of them.
"Not like I would have told you much about myself anyway. Or defended my past for that matter." She finally responded, moving to take the coffee he had indicated was hers.
She was accepting his apology. She didn't know why it made her feel lighter, but it did. Taking a sip of the drink, she was surprised to taste the strong Mocha flavor mixed with the bitter taste of the extra shot of espresso.
Glancing over at him, she was surprised to see his cheeks tinted pink, his eyes focused on his own cup. "I asked your sister if you liked coffee and she responded with your whole order."
"Sweet of her." Was all she responded, putting her coffee down and gesturing to the examination table. "If you have any questions or want me to talk you through the surgery, I can do so while I take a look at your residuum."
Aizawa stood and made his way to the examination chair. He sat down and rolled his pants leg up to allow her to examine him, while he contemplated what he wanted to ask the beautiful woman in front of him.
"Can you please walk me through the surgery and what do you believe the chances for a full recovery are?"
"Well for starters, you will be under for both surgeries. We will start with your eye, seeing as the HPSC has made that a priority. I will be making small incisions in the nerves and veins that connect to the eyeball as well as the other damaged areas. From there I will be activating my quirk to begin regeneration. I estimate it will take a full 2 hours to complete, simply because I don't want to rush." Yaeko explained, while she poked and prodded the area.
"Why do you have to make incisions?" Aizawa frowned.
"I take it you didn't read the packet I sent you home with?" Yaeko looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.
Coughing to hide his embarrassment, Aizawa turned to look at the wall. "No, it slipped my mind between lessons, training and midterm for my current students."
"I'll excuse you this one time simply because I'm grateful for how you've been helping Noriko. She enjoys your lessons and trainings very much."
He chuckled darkly at that, remembering that the feisty teenager who was constantly bickering with him. Ad she always had to have the last word in, especially during extra hard training sessions.
"Anyway, I need to cut the incisions because I need active blood vessels and nerves to create the connection with the new tissues and cells. Despite using already existent blood cells to help with the reconstruction, your body won't be able to reproduce enough blood to circulate properly into the new limbs. So, I need to be able to see and feel the flow to know when to signal the nurses to start a blood transfusion. That won't be necessary though until we get to your leg."
Aizawa nodded his head in understanding, somewhat getting an idea what she means. He looked down at his leg, part of him nervous for what's to come, but a bigger part of him is excited. "And recovery?"
This time he raised his head to look at her directly, wanting to see the truth in her eyes. Instead, he was stunned when she flashed him a beautiful smile. "From how well your residuum has recovered, I have no doubt you'll be back to hero work next week, though limited of course. You still have to give your leg and eye some time to fully recover. Especially because your quirk's drawbacks are extremely dry eyes and headaches in severe cases, right?"
"Right…" Aizawa managed to mumble, still taken aback by the smile she gave him.
She suddenly lost the smile, focusing on removing the latex gloves she had put on to examine him. A strange pang made his chest ache, and he wanted to do whatever possible to make her smile again. Anything to take that sad look from her face.
"You will have to have a couple post-op appointments, just to make sure everything is still going well. If you would prefer someone else take over after-"
"No!" He exclaimed before she could even finish the sentence, startling her so much she stumbled back a little.
Instinctively, Aizawa reached for her, his large hands almost completely circling her small waist. He flexed his arms to pull her upright again, using his one good leg to support himself so he would topple over with her.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Are you okay?" They were so close now, and almost at eye level since he was still partially sitting down. Looking slightly down at her, he realized how small she actually was, now that she wasn't wearing heels this time.
"It's okay, I'm okay. Thank you." Her voice came out a little breathy, and she internally cursed herself for how she sounded.
The man was going to think she was like some groupie falling over herself because of him. Granted, she was a little flustered being practically pressed up on him.
She knew he was very well built; he was a pro-hero after all, but her imagination didn't do his justice. She could feel the strong muscles in his biceps from where she clung to him, his abdominal muscles, and strong thighs from where she was pressed against his side.
Realizing how they must look to anyone that were to walk in because of the position they found themselves in, she pulled away abruptly, clearing her throat as she did so. "I'll call the nurses to come and prep you for the surgeries, if you're ready to start?"
"Yes, I'm ready." His voice was deeper than before, and she had to will herself not to blush at the indication.
"Perfect, so I'll meet you there, and then I'll be here when you wake up." She sent him a small reassuring smile before scurrying out of the room.
She was still flustered by the time she reached the office of her leading nurse to let her know about Aizawa. When she started walking to go get dressed for surgery, her legs still felt wobbly.
Oh, I am in so much trouble, She thought to herself, pressing her hand to her forehead.
She just needed to get through today. Then the post-op follow-ups, then she would be free of him. But a small part of her told her, she would never see the end of that confusing man.