He did not sleep that night.
It frustrated him, actually. The lack of sleep made him less aware of his surroundings and more irritable; which wasn't good when he was about to move to an entirely new place.
Duster's house was on a mountain valley at the outskirts of Naruhata. There were a couple of other buildings that looked like warehouses, probably his as well, but there weren't any more houses nearby, so he should be able to train outside without worrying about being spotted. The house itself was Japanese style, as country houses often were, but it made him feel at home… He already hated it.
Touya squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose.
He could hear the typical nature noise, only disturbed by the sound of a guitar and the meows of the cat that had followed them there.
It was the old one Eri often hung out with. He knew it would go back on its own at some point, cats were territorial after all; but it was easier to let the kid see for herself than denying her something that gave her comfort.
"Tamao, we have some guests!" Duster announced as he entered and kicked his shoes off.
"Welcome back."
A woman his age came into view as he took off his and Eri's shoes. She looked nothing like Duster, her hair was light brown and, even though she wore it in a low ponytail, part of it covered her left eye along with an eyepatch, but the right one was bright green, matching her earrings.
"Wow, you look scary," she said, rather amused. "Who are they, Dad?"
"This is my pupil and a kid he rescued," he briefly explained before going inside. "Make yourselves at home."
"I am not your pupil," he protested, moving to follow him.
However, the first to actually take the old man's offer was the cat, who rushed past them to go explore the place. The kid seemed in a panic at the feline's actions, but the woman, Tamao, stopped her before she could run after it.
"Don't worry. Your pet can stay as well."
"That's a stray. The brat got fond of it."
"Him," the little girl corrected.
"Whatever," he replied, waving a hand to emphasize how little he cared.
"Well, do you guys have a name?" Tamao asked as she led them to the living room.
"Your old man didn't tell you a thing about us, did he?" Touya huffed.
Said man wasn't in the room, but he could hear him rummaging in another one. If his mind was any clearer he would have gone to check what the vigilante was up to; yet, tired from his sleepless nights and carrying the bags with the stuff he had brought from his old place, he dropped them on the tatami floor and sat down to wait for Duster to join them.
"I'm Eri," the child started.
"I'm her kidnapper," he smirked, earning a pout from the kid.
The woman wasn't intimidated by his choice of words, though.
"Ah, you must be Soen, then. I heard about you two on TV."
This is a family of weirdos, Touya concluded as he tsked in response.
"The police came up with that. I go by Dabi."
"And I'm guessing that isn't your real name either."
He hummed, but gave no more answer.
"Eri, go play with the cat or something," he instructed and, as soon as she left, he turned to the woman. "You've got a criminal in your house, how come you aren't alarmed at all?"
The woman smiled, as if she thought it was a stupid question.
"If you were really dangerous, Dad wouldn't have brought you here," she snorted. "Besides, the media would call him a criminal as well, but he is in the gray area, and so are you."
"Oh, please, it's a miracle I don't have a kill count yet."
"Or maybe you aren't as bad as you think. I know someone like that."
And now she was pitying him. Being around anything related to that old geezer wasn't good for his health, seriously. It kept pushing him to the edge; and, once he snapped, they'd all believe he WAS dangerous.
"You surely are his daughter," he spat with venom coating every word.
She was taken aback. Finally! An expected reaction!
"Yes, this is my baby girl," Duster boasted as he stepped into the room.
"Dad!" she yelled, drawing a hand to his red-colored face.
He let himself fall backwards onto the floor from his sitting position. He was going with 'he wasn't as shitty', because they wouldn't get along this well otherwise. If this woman had been treated like he was by his father, she'd be furious at the cheesy nickname, not embarrassed, and she wouldn't defend his bad choices, she'll call him out on them.
You aren't tricking me, old bastard.
"Mister, I can't find the kitty," Eri called.
Good way to get out of this conversation.
"Let it be. If he wants to find us, he will," the old man answered, stopping him in his tracks. "Anyways, how are you getting along?"
"She's just a tad bit less annoying than you."
"Ah, yes, my old man can be a handful. You just can't get rid of him," Tamao said, moving her hair out of her face.
Touya arched an eyebrow at that. There was no bite to her words and Duster took no offense from it. Still, it felt like there was something more to them… Something that had to do with her covered eye.
"Changing topics, what's with the eye? Wanting to be like Daddy Dearest?"
Tamao tensed up and her father reached to put a hand on her back.
Did I touch a fiber? Too bad.
"It's more the other way around," Duster joked, "but nah, both were accidents."
Touya hummed.
"What about you, Dabi? That's an awful lot of scars," the woman fired back, serious.
"They're from training and fighting."
"We need to review your routine, then. It seems like you keep overdoing it," the vigilante observed.
"No, I'm self-taught and that's gonna stay like that. I already told you I'm not your pupil."
Touya glared at the man. Couldn't he just burn down the place and leave?
No, you can't. This is the safest and most convenient place you can be for now.
"But I don't like to see Mister hurt," Eri chimed in.
"Don't look, then," he shrugged, ignoring the chill that ran up his spine.
"That's a bad idea. Given what happened last time I took my eyes off you, you should be under 24/7 surveillance."
The guy was making fun of him again! What was wrong with him?!
I swear, when I don't need him, I'm killing him.
"C'mon, Dad, you know that's too much," his daughter sighed. "Don't mind him, Dabi. He's overcompensating."
Well, that was interesting; but, before he could inquire more about it, a beeping sound told them the food was ready to serve.
By the time spring came around, Eri could already say she loved living with Duster and his daughter. She liked listening to Tamao play her guitar and her kitty friend liked to hang out outside the house. It was fun, Mister would join sometimes and Duster would smile at them every time he passed by his daughter 'giving them a little concert' as he said it.
The only thing she didn't like as much was that, once Mister got better, he stopped spending as much time with her. Duster and he would be out of the house for days and never say when they'd come back.
Today, they were out to capture some bad guy called Muscular, because Duster said if people saw they were going after villains, they wouldn't go after them. However, all the news she heard were about how that villain had hurt a lot of people and run off again.
"Tamao-san, do you think they are okay?"
"I'm sure they are. If anything happened to them, it would be everywhere," she answered, carelessly.
Eri nodded, but she was still worried.
She felt her horn start to sting. It made her head hurt.
She found out that, as her power 'recharged', as Mister put it, his horn grew bigger. Right now, it was as big as it had been and, despite her best efforts, she was unable to hide it. Mister had noticed and said they should be able to start quirk training soon.
She wasn't looking forward to it.
"We're home!"
Eri rushed to the door. They were hurt, but mostly fine. Actually, it looked like this time Mister was better off than Duster.
"That was a tough customer," the older man chuckled.
"I should have left you to die," Mister muttered.
Mister's response lacked the usual rage and he was walking like his body was being controlled by someone else. Eri followed him while Tamao went to help her father.
"Mister, are you okay?" she asked once they reached their shared room.
"Just need to doze off for a while, kid," he answered, letting himself fall face down on his bed.
Eri thought it would be good to leave him alone and focus on calming down now that they both had come back safe.
"Wait, Eri," her caretaker called as she was heading out.
Her head was pounding, to the point of making her want to cry. In the dark of the room, she could see the sparkling coming from her horn.
"Your power is overflowing," he stated. "We'll get started in your training tomorrow, but for now you need to release some of it."
He extended his hand, inviting her to use her quirk on him. Yet, Eri took a step back and shook her head in a panic.
"No, I have to go. I can't control it! I don't want to hurt you."
Mister considered it for a moment, but then sighed, tiredness taking over as he buried his face in his pillow.
"Don't go too far and don't stay up," he conceded.
Eri bid him goodnight and went outside the house. It was a bit scary when it was dark, but out there her quirk couldn't hurt anyone.
"Meow!"
Almost anyone. Maybe.
Does it work on animals?
Because she wanted to pet the kitty, it always helped her calm down, but if she hurt him… She didn't want to risk it.
"No, kitty, go away!"
The kitty left what he had in his mouth and obeyed.
Eri heard a soft caw and she approached the 'gift' her friend had brought: a black bird. Was it black or just really dark? She took it so the light from her horn could let her see it better.
The bird didn't move at all, merely letting out some more sounds. It was black, but its feathers were covered in a mix of dirt, blood and cat saliva. She didn't mind it, she was just sorry for the poor bird, it kinda looked like her old caretaker.
I wish I could help you.
She closed her eyes and quiet tears fell down her face. Her head hurt so bad she was physically shaking, the base of her horn being the source of it. The stinging was now like needles and the light she could see from behind her eyelids was stronger.
The bird cawed again and fluttered its wings, falling out of Eri's hands.
When she opened her eyes, the light from her horn was gone; but so was it, only leaving some black feathers on her hands.
The pain on her head moved to her heart.
Again. I did it again.
They were outside, about to start Eri's first quirk training session.
However, Eri was trembling. She had confessed what happened the previous night as soon as Touya woke up. He could understand her reaction if she had disappeared the cat she had got attached to, but…
"What if you killed a random bird? Some hunt those for sport," he said, completely unfazed. "Besides, if it was that hurt, you put it out of its misery."
"What does that mean?"
"It isn't suffering anymore, you did something good."
The kid took a moment to process his statement. Then, she hesitantly nodded, hugging herself in an attempt to calm down.
Good enough. Let's get down to business.
"It also taught us it works on animals too," he pointed out. "So, let's see what else it works on. You can choose."
She picked a rock. It was a good start, all that would happen if it worked was that it would change size.
"Okay, try to remember what you did to activate your quirk last time."
She closed her eyes. They waited a few seconds, but nothing happened.
"I'm sorry, I don't know how it did it," she muttered, looking down.
Maybe they should try a different approach.
"Try to copy my quirk with yours."
He took a rock big enough to occupy both of his hands and let his fire surge and disappear like a flicker. Then, he showed her the result: the blue had left burn marks and slightly melted its edges.
"Your turn," he said, dropping the smoldering rock.
Eri mimicked him, keeping her eyes on the object that rested on her open palms and furrowing her brow in concentration.
"Visualize the power flowing towards your hands," Touya instructed.
Her horn started to glow. However, the rock wasn't affected by it at all.
"We'll have to try it on something else. You can stop."
"I can't stop it," she whispered, paralyzed.
He could see the pure raw panic in her eyes.
Oh, if he didn't know how that was.
Yet, Eri's quirk wasn't like his. If it worked by touch, like it seemed, stopping it should be as easy as stopping the contact.
He quickly separated her hands to let the rock fall to the ground.
"No! Don't touch me, you'll disappear!" she yelled as she brought her hands to her chest.
"It's okay, Eri, you…"
Before he could finish reassuring her, he heard a metallic sound. A chill ran down his spine when he spotted the staples on his wrists hitting the ground.
She did that with a contact that lasted barely a second?
But it didn't stop there, his scars were receding. He shook his left arm and some more staples came out of his sleeve.
The kid was frantically sobbing, blurting out sorrys while her horn kept glowing.
Suddenly, his body felt like it was freezing inside, something he wasn't used to.
No, I can't disappear!
I haven't made him pay yet!
Stop it!
Stop it!
STOP IT!
His own panic triggered his quirk and its heat completely erased the cold he had felt.
That didn't mean he wasn't still being affected by Eri's quirk, though. He could see the burning being healed as soon as it happened again and again, as if both quirks were fighting for dominance.
He looked at the girl, who was covering her face with her arms and trembling.
She wouldn't be able to stop her quirk in that state.
Most would deactivate when its user lost consciousness, but if Eri's wasn't like that and he made her faint, it would only make things worse.
No, if she was going to waste her power on him, he might as well make it a learning experience.
"Eri! Look at me!"
She slowly peeked out between her sleeves.
"If I use my quirk at the same time, it doesn't really work. See?"
He opened his arms to the sides. He was sure all his staples had popped out at this point, but that wasn't what he was trying to show her.
She stared at him. It was hard to see behind his blindingly bright flames and she was too scared to make sense of his words.
"Just let it out. It's okay. I can take it," Mister assured.
No, no, you can't. I'm sorry!
Please, I'm sorry!
Don't disappear!
Her body itched to go hold onto him and run away at the same time. Yet, the fear didn't let her choose either. She couldn't even go ask for help, she couldn't risk hurting the others too!
All that was left was believing Mister. If she left all of her power out now, she won't be able to hurt him or anyone else for a while.
So, without any other option, she stared straight into his eyes and hesitantly nodded. Then, she extended her arms toward him and pictured her power running from her horn towards him through them. It wasn't really doing anything, but it showed Mister that she was trying.
He smiled, pleased. He didn't seem in pain at all.
My quirk can't hurt him, she realized.
It was relieving. Because maybe he wouldn't hate her after it was over. Because maybe he would stay.
Because he won't disappear.
The glow faded, leaving her feeling light-headed and totally exhausted.
She only took a step towards him before she collapsed, but it was okay.
He didn't disappear.
So, this is what was supposed to happen around chapter 2: the rewind! XD
Anyways, I feel like the wait was worth it. It gives more depth to the scene, since they've known each other for some time.
Also, the black bird was a crow and those are a bad omen so...
Changing topics, I forgot to say this in the previous chapter:
-Sōen (蒼炎) means "blueflame". Yes, the police named him based on his quirk.
-Tengu is the name of a Japanese yokai. It isn't the guy's real name, it's an alias and his quirk's name like with Overhaul.
Disclaimer: My Hero Academia and its characters are property of Kōhei Horikoshi and Studio Bones.