Chapter 21:
"How are you feeling?" Yaeko asked the minute Hawks was out of the room, sitting by Noriko's hip.
"Like I've been hit by a train." Noriko muttered, leaning her head back into the pillows more comfortably.
"It wasn't a train, but I was hit by a motorcycle, so I can sort of relate." Akari joked, moving to sit on the foot of the bed.
"Not funny." Yaeko deadpanned while Noriko let out a weak chuckle.
"It wasn't your best joke." Noriko agreed, peaking at Akari with one eye.
"Night's still young." She shrugged with a smirk. "But seriously, do you need anything?"
"No, I'll be fine after I get some sleep."
"Then we'll let you rest. Do you want us to let Bakugo come in to see you before you sleep?" Akari asked with a wicked smirk.
"Actually no, stay." Noriko fought back the blush threatening to spread across her face, not acknowledging her sisters teasing. "I need to talk to you guys before they come back for a full report."
"Don't push yourself, Nori. Hawks can hold them off for as long as you need to recover." Akari waved her off, but Noriko ignored her, sitting up in her bed.
"Where are my things? And we need a computer." She added the last part absentmindedly, looking around the room until she spotted the bright red of her fanny pack.
"Can you not?" Yaeko sounded exasperated pushing Noriko down when she moved to get off the bed.
"Can you not?! You need to look at the USB drive before the HPSC sends more goons or the heroes come in here to interrogate us."
"What USB Drive?" Yaeko furrowed her eyebrows in concern.
"The one Dabi gave me."
Both her sisters froze, looking at Noriko in disbelief. They only snapped out of it when Noriko went to get off the bed again. Yaeko pushed her back down, ignoring her sisters swearing.
Akari moved as well, scooping up the fanny pack and tossing it on the bed. Yaeko caught it without looking over her shoulder, setting it down on Noriko's lap.
"Stop overexerting yourself." Yaeko warned her, before looking over at Akari. "Can you ask one of the nurses to bring down my laptop?"
Akari nodded and stepped outside quickly. When the door closed behind her, Noriko stopped rummaging through her bag and stared at Yaeko so intensely, she tensed up.
"I need to tell you something before Akari comes back." Noriko murmured in a low voice. "It's not that I want to keep it from her, but I know how she feels about everything that happened, and the last thing I want to do is make her feel worse."
"What are you talking about?"
"I remembered everything." Yaeko's confusion cleared up, her body going numb as she looked down at her baby sister in shock.
"How?" She croaked.
"I finally found out what Shinso's quirk is and asked him to use it on me." Noriko took a deep breathe before continuing. "It's brainwashing, which in theory shouldn't really have made my memories come back. But I guess it messed with the neurons in my head and triggered the memories or something, I don't honestly know. All I know is the moment he used it on me, I felt weird. The fog felt familiar."
"What happened? What did you see?"
"How the fog took over and 'blinded' me, how they had done the same to you & how they were going to go after Akari next… and when you killed him."
"I'm sorry." Yaeko whispered, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.
"Both of you need to stop apologizing for shit you had no control over." Noriko snapped, glaring at her. "He was the one that hurt us. He is the cause for all the bullshit going on in our lives. You did what you had to, to stop him. No one can blame you for how shit ended."
"If I was stronger, I would have been able to stop him before it got to that point." Yaeko contradicted, looking away from her.
"Enough of the goddamn pity party, Yaeko Imai." Noriko sneered, going back to rummaging through her pack until she pulled out the USB. "If that's how you want to look at things, then I should feel the same way. If I was stronger, then I would have been able to break through the fog and fight back too."
"You were a kid."
"Just cause you were a few years older when it all started, doesn't mean you weren't also one."
They both fell into a heavy silence, which was only broken by Akari's return. She had a laptop in her arm, smiling sheepishly at someone outside.
"Noriko just relaxes better with music playing. Once she falls asleep and we come out, we can talk about it." She assured someone.
Yaeko and Noriko heard a deep voice reply, but they spoke so low they couldn't make out what he was saying.
"I know, but you can see her in the morning. You don't need to worry, she'll be staying the night and probably most of the morning tomorrow, just to ease Yaeko's mind." With that she gave a slight bow with her head, before shutting the door.
"What was that?" Noriko asked, feeling a pressure building up behind her eyes again.
"Hawks got a little suspicious about the laptop and Bakugo wanted to come in and see you." Akari smirked. "That boy seems to be pretty concerned with you."
"He watched as a Nomu took me hostage and how Dabi tried to beat my ass, of course he's concerned."
"Tried? The state you were in when we found you says he succeeded." Akari retorted with a snort.
"The fractured and broken ribs were because of the Nomu, and the lack of oxygen was my quirk." Noriko snarled viciously. "I held my own pretty damn well, all things considered."
"If that's what you think handling yourself looks like." Akari goaded her.
"Enough of your bullshit, hand over the laptop." Yaeko hissed, holding her hand out to Akari.
"Sheesh." "Party pooper." Both sisters grumbled at the same time, shooting each other a look.
Once the laptop was up and running, Yaeko turned it to Akari to secure before they inserted the USB drive. It only took a couple of minutes before Akari had set up a separate server which would be protected from any outsider that tried to hack in. She even added an extra security in case the USB was full of malware.
Once she was sure everything was in place, she inserted the drive and started pulling up files. Going through them meticulously, Akari felt herself getting angrier and angrier. But it was the final file, that really had her barely holding back her rage.
"So? What's on it?" Noriko asked impatiently.
"Literally dozens of files of shit the HPSC has covered up… Including our file." She turned the laptop around to show them what was on the screen. "This is the cover up file of what happened 4 years ago."
Noriko and Yaeko went through it together, and surprisingly the former was the only one that remained calm.
"Stealing medical supplies?!" Yaeko nearly screeched.
"If there was a cover up lie in place for what happened, why the hell isn't it accessible to anyone outside the HPSC?" Noriko asked, looking at each of her sisters.
"Because it would open up questions like the medical records that indicate the shortage of supplies, as well as the police report." Akari supplied, clenching her teeth.
"And there's more files besides ours?" Yaeko asked.
"Dozens, people that the HPSC sent to be killed as well as the highly classified file of Pro-Hero Lady Nagant."
"I heard of her, she was arrested a few years ago for killing a member of the HPSC board, I think." Noriko said, deep in thought.
"Would love to meet her." Yaeko muttered darkly. "I don't know what the hell I was thinking accepting this damn offer from the Hero Commission. The only thing it's done for us is complicate shit even more, not to mention I don't know what to trust. What if I get thrown back in jail once everything is over? Or worse, they have us killed off and label it as a casualty of the war?"
"I wouldn't be surprised. Already the Kobayashi family is working to get us thrown back into jail, and can't make that happen, then she might just hire soon special HPSC Agent to take us down." Akari grumbled, forgetting that they hadn't mentioned any of this to Noriko.
"Wait what?" Noriko looked up at Akari with shock. "When the hell did Kobayashi get involved in this?"
Yaeko glared at Akari, who winced at her slip up.
"Don't worry about that, nothing we can't handle. Right now, our main concern should be the message Dabi left behind." Akari was quick to brush the subject away.
"We're not done talking about this, but yeah. Dabi said he left a meeting place and time to hear what we decided on. He was also very vocal about his hopes it be you that goes to see him." Noriko raised an eyebrow at Akari. "I thought you didn't face him off that day?"
"I didn't." Akari was surprised to hear this. "I only faced off Toga, and he threw up a fire wall to separate us."
"Well, whatever you did, you earned yourself an over cooked admirer."
"I don't like what your implying…"
"And I don't like that your burnt lover boy, tried to kill me."
"You're disgusting."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot you like crispy chicken over burnt barbeque."
"I'm sorry not all of us can find the appeal to burnt caramel."
Noriko's eyes narrowed, looking ready to attack Akari, who was just calmly leaning against the wall next to her bed.
"Can you two cut your shit already?!" Yaeko growled, sending them both a dark look.
"Sorry." They both muttered, sending a glare to each other when they spoke at the same time.
"The meeting time is in two days." Yaeko commented, reading the message. "And it's at an old, abandoned factory."
"What's with villains and abandoned buildings? Why can't we ever just meet over some coffee?" Akari sighed.
"If you want a proper date with the walking corpse, schedule it on your own time and don't have him use me as the messenger. I don't particularly appreciate him wanted to give me matching scars, we aren't there yet."
"Noriko." Yaeko warned before Akari could respond. "Instead of fucking around, I need you two to focus. I don't know how he expects us to even show up when we're under so much scrutiny."
"Not to mention he definitely made it worse with the stunt he pulled tonight." Akari commented dryly. "There's no way the HPSC or the heroes will allow us anywhere out of their sight, now."
"What are you two talking about?" Noriko looked at them bewildered. "You two aren't actually considering meeting with him?"
"Noriko, we're in no position to stay put and rely on the heroes. Dabi was able to get to you, not to mention the Kobayashi family will be coming at us, hard. If we accept his proposition to join, we can take the HPSC down and end things with them and the Kobayashi's." Yaeko reasoned.
"In exchange for what? Being the villains that everyone thinks we are? Killing innocent people to reach our goal?" Noriko snapped. "I know we don't give a flying fuck what people think about us, but that doesn't mean I want to prove their suspicions right!"
"We can't trust anyone Nori!" Akari snapped, finally losing her cool. "Who the hell are we meant to trust when the Heroes blindly follow the HPSC without any knowledge of what's going on behind the scenes?"
"You trust Hawks!" Noriko shot back.
"Yeah, and I probably shouldn't." Akari's voice was quiet, but the tone she used chilled Noriko to the bone.
Yaeko looked back at her sister in shock. "What the hell does that mean?"
"He was one of HPSC's special agents, we knew that. But it's different now that I know what he's done." She grabbed the laptop and pulled up a couple files. "Lady Nagant was their best agent, and she killed a lot of people, but after she was arrested, another agent took her place. Two guesses as to who."
Noriko and Yaeko both leaned into to look at the screen Akari had turned back around for them to see. The files were a few years old, but it was there, in writing. Hawks had killed people for the HPSC just as Lady Nagant had before him.
It was quiet for a moment before Noriko broke it.
"I don't care what he had to do for the HPSC. We all know that they're a bunch of manipulating mother fuckers, and he was just following orders. I've been around Hawks enough to know he has good intentions with everything he does. He didn't save you from that motorcycle for any other reason than because it was the right thing to do. He would have let you go around unescorted, despite it going against HPSC orders, if he didn't trust you. He stood right there and defended us from that HPSC goon because he trusts and cares for us."
Noriko looked up to glare at both her sisters. "I trust the hero that he is, just like I trust Endeavor who's done nothing but help me despite his busy schedule, and looking for an alternative when he can't be there. I'm busting my ass to be an amazing hero so I can make the world better. I want to tear down the corruption within the HPSC, and I'll be damned if I let some scum like Dabi convince you two to do it the wrong way."
Akari and Yaeko were staring at Noriko wide eyed, surprised and a little chastened. They both had been blinded by the sense of betrayal, and their anger. But their baby sister was right, nothing would be fixed by joining the villains, if anything they would just be hurting innocent people.
"You're right, Nori." Yaeko whispered, lowering her gaze.
"Geez, when did you get so mature, kid." Akari let out a watery chuckle.
She felt the worst out of the two of them. She had actually doubted Hawks for a moment, blinded by the fact that he had so blindly followed the same people that had hurt her family. Completely disregarded the fact that he had been there for her sisters and her more than he needed too.
"Don't call me that." Noriko scowled, crossing her arms, but the look in her eyes softened.
A hard knock on the door startled them all. They looked towards it at the same time it was flung open, a disgruntled nurse entering the room abruptly.
"Dr. Imai, I'm so sorry to disturb you, but Mr. Aizawa is awake."
"Is everything okay? Is it his eye or leg?" Yaeko asked, standing up quickly.
"Everything's fine, but the man is trying to take his wrappings off his eye and won't stay in bed. He keeps trying to walk around to test his leg." The nurse sounded exasperated.
"Of course, he is." Yaeko sighed heavily, running a hand through her hair. "I'll be back, and we can discuss what to do next."
"We don't need to talk about anything, I'm ready to tell the truth about what's going on to try and figure out what to do about the villains." Noriko declared, surprising them all.
"Tell them everything?" Akari asked wide eyed.
"It's the only way to get them to understand the magnitude of this." Noriko nodded at the laptop.
"Only if your sure, Nori." Akari whispered, grabbing her baby sister's hand.
"I am." She swallowed thickly, squeezing her hand. Yaeko nodded an affirmative before leaving the room with the nurse.
"Want me to stay until you fall asleep?" Akari asked.
"No, it's okay." She couldn't turn her thoughts off, wanting the constant replay of her memories from 4 years ago and the events from earlier tonight to stop. "Go on and tell Hawks I want a private meeting with his most trusted heroes and UA's Big three."
"I'm sure the meeting won't happen until tomorrow anyway, so there's no rush."
"Yeah, but it'll give Bakugo a chance to come in before I crash."
"If you just wanted some alone time with him, you could have just said that." Akari laughed as she strode towards the door.
She ducked without having to look back to see Noriko launch her bag at her. She laughed harder as she swore at her when it flew over her head.
Opening the door, she peeked out into the hall, looking for the hot head. She spotted him sitting with Hawks in some chairs a few feet away.
"Hey, kid!" Akari called from the doorway, smirking when Bakugo looked up with a scowl. "You can come in for a bit, but fair warning she's running on pure adrenaline. She'll crash soon."
"It's a miracle she didn't stay unconscious after Recovery girl treated her." Hawks commented amazed, standing alongside Bakugo.
"She's a stubborn shit, that's why." She smiled, patting Bakugo's shoulder as they walked past each other.
"She's a pain in the ass, is what she is." Bakugo muttered, stalking into the room, and slamming the door shut.
Immediately after she heard his raised voice, joined by Noriko's. Akari laughed out loud, stopping right in front of Hawks. "It's scary how similar both are."
"Just a little." Hawks agreed with an easy smile, looking down at Akari with hooded eyes.
Her breath caught in her throat at the look, reminding her of how he had looked at her earlier when they almost kissed.
"We need to talk about it." He murmured quietly.
"We do… and we will." She agreed, her voice a little hoarse. "But first thing's first. I need you to get Best Jeanist, Endeavor and UA's Big Three together, Noriko's ready and we want to get through this before the HPSC gets involved."
*Meanwhile*
"Why the hell are you not in bed?!" Bakugo snarled, stalking over to where Noriko was standing looking at her reflection in the mirror.
"Because my face felt sore, and I wanted to see what the hell that burnt corpse did." Noriko commented nonchalantly, poking the fading bruise on her face.
Recovery girl had focused mostly on her ribs, not wanting to use up her energy on small bruises when the rest of her injuries were much more serious. Everything else could wait until the morning after she rested or heal on its own.
"I don't give a damn, you shouldn't be awake right now, much less out of bed."
Bakugo didn't hesitate to pick Noriko up, ignoring her yelp of surprise, to lay her down on the bed gently. He smirked when she smacked his chest as he straightened, enjoying the way the blush spread across her face.
"You don't have to manhandle me!" She snapped, even though a part of her thoroughly enjoyed it when he did.
"Then stop being stupid and doing dumb shit."
"You know I only told Akari to let you in so I could thank you, but I'm starting to reconsider."
"No, go ahead. I'm dying to hear you worship me for saving your life with my superior skills."
"You're insufferable and an arrogant shit head."
"You're actually shit at showing gratitude."
"You make it hard to." She snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.
She made have done it subconsciously, but the move automatically lifted her chest more, drawing Bakugo's gaze down. He was grateful she had turned her head to pout at the wall because he definitely was stooping to Mineta's level right about now.
"But regardless of how annoying you are, I wanted to thank you for coming after me and saving me." Noriko looked at him from the corner of her eye. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been there."
"Considering how you were baiting the extra crispy Endeavor Jr, probably dead." He glared down at her. "That was a stupid thing to do when you weren't in any condition to fight back.
Noriko shot him a weak glare, feeling the pressure behind her eyes grow. Her body was already sinking deeper into the bed, all the adrenaline seeping out of her body.
"I wasn't just gonna sit there take his bullshit." She slurred, having a hard time keeping her eyes open.
"I know you weren't." Bakugo murmured quietly, allowing her to succumb into a deep sleep. "Just rest up." Brushed a stray strand from her face, feeling his heart stutter when she sleepily nuzzled into his hand.
I'm fucked, he thought, snatching his hand back.