Rubber and sulfur were the two foremost smells, with a tinge of engine smoke accompanying. Beyond that, Hanako couldn't sense much else. Which was probably for the better, because if she could feel anything else, it would likely have been the windshield piercing her neck and chest. The steering wheel had become lodged in her stomach, and her ribs poked out every which way, making it impossible to move. The car itself had shut down thanks to its safety measures to prevent a fire, but the intensity of the crash had even disrupted the airbag's deployment system.
Seems my quirk wasn't able to kick in quickly this time, meaning I'm on borrowed time here.
Even just opening her eyes was a strenuous activity, though one she forced herself to persevere through. After she was able to crack her eyes open, she swiveled her neck as much as she could manage to view the seat behind her. An eyeful of brain and muscle from the captured criminal was sprayed on the seats and windows, caused from the collision he had with the police car's rear seat barrier, which itself had also shattered from the impact.
At least these don't belong to Rinasa or Satori. she thought to herself. With Satori's skill, it's pretty safe to assume he latched onto the truck with her. I made sure to give him a bit of my hair as always, so that should cover them for basically anything. Unless they both got hurt, then one of them is up a creek until I find them. No sense thinking about them right now though, I have to save this idiot. He's going to be a lost cause if I don't get him healed soon.
Prioritizing the prisoner, she tried to move her arms, to no avail; they too were pinned by the steering wheel and dashboard.
"Holy shit! Are you okay?!" A voice yelled from outside her window.
"Oh my god, call the ambulance! Hurry!"
"The man is dead! Help!" Panicked voices began to ring out from all directions.
Bystanders. How annoying. Might as well see if these extras have some iota of usefulness.
"…my…h-hkg!" She coughed up blood trying to speak, to both the horror and relief of those watching.
"She's alive!"
"Is this better, though?!"
"Yeah, she's just suffering now!?"
"Are you implying we kill her?!"
"No! But she's…maybe it's for the better?"
Oh, how I wish I could see who said that.
"You piece…cough…I'm fine…he…needs m-" Her voice was barely above a whisper, raspy and choking like a smoker's. She felt heat as someone carefully got closer to her face, avoiding the broken glass of the side windows as they leaned in to listen.
"I'm right here, w-what do you need me to do?" They asked with a slight waver in their voice.
"Take my hair…put it on his wounds."
"What about you?"
"What…about me?"
"You seem to be worse off…and since you're a police-"
"Just…shut up…do it, or I'll arrest you for…being stupid."
Without another word of protest, she felt a hand grab a clump of her hair. "Does anyone have any scissors or a knife?"
"Just yank it." Hanako spat more than spoke, her consciousness fading from her rapidly. "Hurry…before he dies."
The person nearly laughed at the order. "Yank!? No, there's got to be a better way than that! You're going to die if I pull-!"
"If you don't do as I tell you, you're gonna-Hlgk!" A torrent of blood rushed out of her mouth and never stopped, spurting in time with the pulsing of her heart.
Out of time…couldn't even save him. Shows what happens if you trust background characters to-
She felt her hair violently pulled apart from her scalp, moving her head harshly and making the glass cut deeper into her neck.
"Not sure how this works but I'm just going to cover him with a whole lot. Please be okay, I won't be able to live with myself if you die from this!"
Well, they were useful after all. Finally. Now if I could…just get this glass out of…on second thought, maybe some good sleep. She felt herself fall out of consciousness as people again started yelling frantically. They sounded so distant, not that she could see them before anyway.
Blood isn't getting to my brain, likely severed the internal carotid. Hypoxia's setting in. And now I'm dying…dying…dead. Here we go.
"Honestly, I'm just disappointed, Iraki. You have such a great power. Amplifying your allies quirks for five minutes? Phew, you'd be a shoe-in for any high-level agency. Yet…instead of that, here you are; an empty hospital room, and about to be put in a holding cell." The investigator chastised Iraki, who said nothing in response. "You're lucky that Officer Hanako was able to save your life. Still not sure how she even did it, and I was there. When I first arrived, you were both declared dead on the scene. Next thing you know, somehow your brain isn't oozing everywhere and there's no sign of physical trauma at all. Lucky son of a gun."
Iraki too had been wondering how he had been revived from literal death. Covered in an excess amount of her hair, he'd been wrapped up inside a body bag and prepared to be sent to an autopsy table. Merely an hour later, he had emerged from it without a single sign of an injury. After being checked over again and again by the hospital staff, they announced – to their own shock – that he would be safe to leave by tomorrow.
While waiting for his stay to end, the police had already gotten to work, taking him to a separate, unused hospital room on the bottom floor. The small room was quite barren, with only a table and two chairs inside that the police had provided.
"I know my way around this system, and if I've learned anything, it's to not speak to snakes like you without my legal counsel."
"You know your way around the legal system? That's pretty admirable. Not a lot of people do. Or I guess they wouldn't really need to but…"
Iraki immediately regretted speaking as the man wrote presumably what he'd just said on a slip of paper. He started fidgeting with his hands and looking away from the interrogator.
"S-So how about that other lady? The cop who was in the car with me? They said she covered me in hair and somehow it saved me."
"Some witnesses helped her to do it. Usually we dissuade them from getting involved but in this case, it saved your life. Seems her hair was a catalyst for healing."
"Was?"
"Let's just stay on you for now, can you tell me why you stole the money? Was it just debts, maybe rent was due? Drugs? Doubtful, but I can't cross out any possibilities."
He shook his head in disbelief, offended at the mere thought of drugs being the involved. "Drugs?! Hell no, it wasn't-" Iraki stopped himself midway through. "I told you, I'm not gonna tell you anything without my lawyer around, so give it up."
"Alright. Let me cut to the chase then: you're looking at 4 to 6 years as it is, being generous." The wince in Iraki's face made it clear that had an effect on him. "That's if the officer makes it through. Her death would be mostly your fault, since you gave the kid the boost to his powers, and refusing a plea deal with that type of charge is pretty rough. 45 years minimum." A shaky breath came from him, and the interrogator knew he had him.
"I didn't tell her to save me! You think if I'd known that was going to happen, I would've done it? I was in that car too; I didn't want to be in that situation! He didn't even care I was inside, he let the kid destroy the car without even thinking! Damn it all. I don't get why…" He noticed he'd slightly risen out of his chair and sat back down, but when he leaned back, something wet hit his hands. He inspected the droplet when another fell from his eye. A bit flustered and embarrassed, he wiped his watery eyes just as a knock came on the door.
"I'll be right there. Wait here, bud. Think about this for a second. You can get a lighter sentence if you tell me where your friend went. If you can't and you're being honest with me, that's fine. We'll just have to see where that road goes. I don't want you behind bars for the rest of your life for a stupid mistake like this." He left Iraki to his own devices, meeting with a woman outside who looked somewhat panicked.
Iraki saw them outside the door's window, but couldn't make out the muffled sounds. Trying to keep his composure, he wiped his eyes several more times to clear any leftover moisture. He had anticipated this before. They had gone over the plan multiple times, and in the event of capture, nobody's name would be mentioned. They had even simulated fake interrogations for this exact occasion, but now he'd been betrayed, left for dead, and resurrected on the brink of death by someone who had no incentive to do so. Tonight had made him very unsure of what to do, however he still made the effort to not speak. Even if he'd been feeling less obligated as time went on.
"…scumbag. Never should've taken that kid. Of course he knew-!" He caught himself just as the man re-entered the room, his facial expression still neutral as ever.
"Sorry about that, still trying to get the details right. Was the kid a boy or girl? Can't remember off the top of my head. Sorry, I'm getting forgetful as the years catch up to me."
"It was a…boy." He stopped when he realized he was answering, but figured there was no point in hiding such a minute detail that was easily confirmable. "Yeah, a boy."
"Right, thank you. And why did you feel the need to kidnap him?"
"Don't pin that on me, I didn't want to. Takenori acted without speaking to us."
"He's a wild card, huh? I know what that's like. Rinasa, that woman with the two knives? Pretty infamous, notoriously hard to work with. Rarely consults anyone before heading out, just does whatever she wants. I've met up with her a couple times before, said she should try to tone these antics down. Now we might have lost an officer due to her negligence."
Iraki's blood went cold when he said the last few sentences. The investigator made a display of covering his mouth. "Oh, man…that's…well, you know now."
Iraki slammed his fist on the table. "No…NO! It wasn't supposed to be like this! He said he just wanted to grab a hostage for insurance. We just went along, I didn't notice he knew his quirk already. I should've known that weasel was up to something!"
"Woah, calm down, maybe he didn't mean for all that though. Sometimes, accidents-"
"Oh no, that wasn't an accident! He knew Rinasa from the get-go! Mentioned her at least a hundred times, and then he made Ogino lure her over by staying near her station! For some petty revenge…shit! Shit! I hope he gets what he deserves!"
"Why would he want revenge? Sure you're not jumping to conclusions here?" The investigator pried further, discretely writing down everything being said.
"Because she embarrassed his 'outstanding' brother into retirement and he was all rattled. That's it, nothing great, nothing huge. I thought it was just a sad little story and didn't pay it any mind, certainly nothing worth killing…" The tears started rushing down his face, the endless regrets pouring out of him ceaselessly. He knew he'd started spilling everything, and he didn't care anymore. "He just used me to try and get revenge on someone I don't even know. It was never about lifting me out of the slums, just some…personal grudge match!" He broke down on the table as he sobbed into his arms.
"I see. I'm sorry about your situation. I promise we'll make things right for you. Thank you for your time." Taking his notes, the investigator left Iraki to himself.
"Lieutenant!" A man hurriedly rushed towards him just as he came out the makeshift office. "She woke up! Just like you said she would!"
"Course she did. With a quirk like that, she's practically immortal."
Rinasa lay at the side of a bed, where she'd been for four hours. Even as they were working on her own injuries, she fought to get to Hanako's room until she collapsed from exhaustion in the hallway. The wounds that had started to heal were reopened because of her struggles and left her feeling even worse. Yet she persisted on. After four separate incidents in one night, they'd finally given in and let her be, allowing her to sit beside Hanako's unresponsive body. Hanako's usually long mauve hair was now extremely short, and she bore a deep surgical incision that went from her neck down to her groin, created when the surgeons had to replace one of her lungs and remove nearly every bone in her lower chest cavity, although miraculously her spine had remained intact. In addition to all this, her head was bandaged all the way up to her forehead, obscuring any facial features whatsoever.
The slow beeps of the vital sign indicator gave relief that she was not yet dead, but she was not past the worst of it. Frankly, Rinasa wasn't in much better shape. In the lull of the night, her body screamed in pain with every movement, and though she had tried many times, she found sleep to be nigh impossible and gave up.
It's almost morning. I'll get my bath out of the way, so it won't take me away later.
She stood up very slowly so as not to injure herself and began her long trek to the bathroom. Slowly she inched her way to the bathroom behind her. A simply walk that should've lasted no more than ten seconds instead took nearly five minutes, taking every bit of her strength to stay upright. Eventually she put her hands on the doorknob and was overcome with relief.
I can't stand much longer. I'll need to use the tub this time, or else I really will hurt myself even more than I already have.
Once inside, she unbuttoned the hospital gown and laid it on the sink. Her bare body felt quite cold now that the searing pain had worn off. She looked in the mirror at her flat chest, reminded about Ikasaki's suggestions for implants and placed her hands on them. Ranika had this trait as well, but it was not to the same extreme as Rinasa's AAA cup.
She complains about being small when there's no material gain to having breasts in the first place. Well, I suppose milking could be a challenge.
She turned the hot water on and waited until it half-filled the tub, then stepped in with only slight difficulty. The feeling of the water was hard on her wounds at first, but it eventually turned into a soothing heat. It was relaxing after all she'd been through today. So relaxing, that she felt herself nodding off inside the tub.
I suppose I was tired after all.
As the water around her turned a murky red, she silently closed her eyes and let the warmth of the bath encompass her.
Tsubame didn't know what to do in this situation. She instinctually wanted to hold her girlfriend's hand and tell her everything would be alright, but at the same time, she couldn't for sure promise any such thing, especially given the graphics the news broadcast had shown them. She managed to do what she thought was best: simply be there for her when she needed someone, which had been quite often last night. This morning, however, it seemed Ranika was doing leagues better than before, having a friendly conversation with her and Coriette in the hospital reception.
"Thanks for coming with me, Tsubame, but if you need to be somewhere, I'm fine now. No point in you waiting here with me. They'll be out in a few more minutes anyway, so I'll meet up with you later."
Tsubame shook her head resolutely. "I'm staying with you as long as I need to. I'll be…wait, minutes?"
Ranika shrugged her shoulders. "Give or take, I'm not sure when Hanako got hurt, but it shouldn't be much longer now. Been about half a day, right?"
Tsubame didn't know whether she was serious, or she was in denial about how bad the incident was. She inwardly debated if she should ask any further and ultimately decided against it, choosing to turn her attention back to the distraction at the front desk.
"Darling, please! I absolutely must see her! I won't leave until I've seen the poor thing! I can't let her roam around this place in…those." He pointed at a random patient in a hospital gown and stared in disgust at the man, who had no idea he was being subjected to this criticism. "Eugh, it makes me shudder."
The nurse checked her watched, mere moments from slamming her head into the desk. "As per the policy, no one is allowed to see either of them right now. We've been through this atleast twenty times."
"Exactly, so you know how…persuasive I can be." He cocked his eyebrows at her while making a puckered mouth, earning only a passing glance and immediate dismissal. Tsubame could tell she had lost much of her patience a while ago and was being curt with him now instead of the bright, helpful personality she'd been when they first arrived.
"I wish 'Saki'd leave her alone. She's going to explode at this rate." Coriette said, although at the low volume she was speaking, the word "said" was giving a lot of credit.
"At least that's interesting. I'm so bored sitting here." Ranika groaned. She leaned her chair back and forth, swinging her head in time with the motion.
"You're going to fall over if you keep doing that." Tsubame warned.
"Genso says we like negative stimulation more than no stimulation."
"That's not a good way to justify it."
"Is there a good way to just defy anything?"
"What?"
"What?"
The woman at the desk erupted, finally cracking under the constant barrage. "Oh my gosh, you have been asking for two hours! Just give it up already! What do you think bugging me for another two is going to get you!? Why of all the people to deal with this, it has to be me?"
"Because you keep giving me material to work with. Here's a tip, if you want someone to leave you alone, don't respond to everything they say." Checking his own watch, Ikasaki dropped any pretenses of the previous conversation as if the past few hours of torturing the woman never happened. "That reminds me, do you know the time that they checked Hanako Sei in?"
Grateful to hear anything else besides his whining, she obliged immediately. "Uhm, yes, I believe it was about midnight when she came in. In fact, they circled 9:30am on her time card. Not exactly sure why, let me go…"
"What time is it now, may I ask?"
"It is…actually it's only a minute til-"
POW!
A gunshot was heard beyond the closed double doors leading to the patients' rooms, followed by many screams after. The nurse rose in terror from her seat and backed away from her desk, trying to reach an exit as quickly as she could, until a vine gripped her tightly and thrust her back into her chair.
"Sweetie, in the event of a shooting, you press the panic button under your desk. Don't move unless told to by the shooter or authorities. I mean, you could at least have the good manners to help evacuate your patients!"
Ikasaki resorbed his vine back into his skin, releasing the grip on her. "And don't worry, she won't kill anyone. I think. Also, I wouldn't say anything to her. I mean, I will, but…I'm me. Oh, and maybe uh…"
He licked his thumb and used it to put a piece of hair behind his ear, hinting for her to do the same. "It just screams middle age to me, having that bang hanging like that."
"…right."
"Glad you understand! Buh-bye!" Unfazed by the sounds coming from the beyond the doors, he ignored the "NO ENTRY" sign and was greeted with the sight of none other than Hanako clad only in a bedsheet. She held her gun haphazardly standing opposite a doctor, who was thankfully unharmed but remained cowering against a wall.
"Must this happen every single time we have you taken to a new hospital? You could try and show a little more restraint."
"What are they gonna do, call the police? This wouldn't have happened if they'd just given me my stuff back from the beginning. But safety reasons or some other bull crap." Hanako paused while she finished reloading her weapon. "If you're wondering, Rinasa's healing in the bathroom, I'm about to wake her up. Clothes, let's go."
Chuckling in spite of her brisk attitude, he pulled some old gym clothes from his bag and tossed them her way. "I heard the little doll freaked when she found out what happened to you. We've all "died" so many times, you'd think she'd get used to it by now. Nuh-uh. Still gets so scared and dramatic. Maybe she's just playing it up? Maybe I'm rubbing off on her."
"What's this about rubbing off?" Ranika pushed her way past the doctors, who were rightfully fearing the worst considering what had happened moments prior. Tsubame herself was lost as to how anything happening before her was…well, happening.
Ikasaki noticed her staring and raised her mouth closed. "It's rude to stare, sweetie, although I don't blame you. Protein Regener-Hasten is pretty damn absurd all things considered. Unless you vaporize her with an atom bomb, she's not going anywhere."
"Regener-hasten? Does that mean her proteins multiply at an accelerated rate? So that's how she heals?"
"You catch on quick! That's right, she can create as many proteins as she needs or wants. And the quirk is passive too so even if she's unconscious, it'll do its thing! Unfortunately, it also has the added side effect of making her hair extremely long. When your proteins don't stop reproducing, it tends to happen. I cut it for her every week, but she hates it when I try to add some style to it. On the bright side, we're lucky it's not her nails. Imagine the manicure those babies would've needed."
"Thank you, Present Mic." Hanako quipped as she put the last of the baggy clothes on herself. "These are so big, did you even check what…you just wanted to see me in these, didn't you?"
He feigned shock, putting his hand on his chest and widening his eyes. "What?! No! I wouldn't ever dream of taking advantage of a situation like this!"
"I'll give you an oral prolapse." Tsubame gagged at the mental image of such a horrid threat. "I'm getting 'Nasa up. Take my gear with you, put it in my drawer."
"Yep! Meet you at the station, dearest. Oh! By the way…" He made a scrubbing motion with his hands over his head. "Hair's messy."
"I'm aware it's messy." She almost snarled at him.
"Make sure to see me later! Ta-ta for now!"
With one last scoff, she parted ways from them just as Satori was walking into the hospital's reception area. "A-ha! Satori! I was wondering why you hadn't been checked in! So Hanako gave you some special treatment after all?" He nudged his partner suggestively. He recoiled from the contact which made Ikasaki immediately draw back with an apologetic look. "You're still hurt!"
"I had to spend most of it on helping that kid and our fearless leader. Rinasa wouldn't have made it through the night if I hadn't thought to stuff some in her own jacket. My arm is still sore, but she's alive so I can't ask for much more."
"It was that bad?" Ranika worriedly asked.
He fumbled for words for a second, yet quickly composed himself. "Uhm…I was just embellishing a little, your sister's a tough cookie, she would've made it!"
She beamed at his words. "Hell yeah, she is! Nothing keeps her down!"
"She's a strong one," He shot a passing glance to Ikasaki, who nodded in understanding. "But she'll most likely be taking more of us next time around."
"Like us?!"
"No." answered everyone, including Tsubame.
"Besides, thanks to cranky pants, we can leave here before half a day passes, which means no extra hospital bills for this excursion! Even if I was involved in the incident myself, doesn't mean I allow for unnecessary expenses!"
Ikasaki nearly doubled over in awe of his thriftiness. "GASP! I must say, you wretched cheapskate!"
"Cost effective."
As they continued talking to each other, Tsubame turned to Ranika and whispered in her ear. "Don't mean to be rude or pry but are they…together?"
"Eh? Blegh, No. They've always been like that. Like brothers, I guess you could say."
"It's entertaining for sure, although Ms. Coriette doesn't seem to talk much." She cocked her head towards the older woman who stood meekly by in the conversation.
"You can drop the Ms. part, no need to be all official and stuff. She's kinda like Daisuke, except like ten trillion times weaker."
She tried to hide her laughter from the others. "That's not nice!"
"The truth is not nice."
"What are you two gabbing about, conspiring amongst yourselves? Look at you two, practically hungering for each other. Oh, to be young once more!"
"'Saki!"
"We haven't done anything like that!" Ranika exclaimed, her face turning crimson.
"Yeah, we haven't done anything." Tsubame muttered.
"What? You two are in a drought? How awful! Allow me to show you the ropes of making love with two-"
He was whipped across his back with a wire. "You should really think about how damning that sounds coming from an adult."
"Owwie! What do you mean, I only offered…ohhh. Teenagers. Erase that from memory, if you please. Before I say anything else that gets me flailed, let's cut this short and head on home, girls."
"Agreed. I'm going to wake the other two up before 11. Who knows how much an extended stay would cost around here?"
Coriette rolled her eyes. "…probably not more than what we've saved up for the past 8 months."
"Huh?" She'd spoken so quietly, he missed what she had said entirely.
"Nothing."
"She said you're a tight ass with your spending, dear."
"I'm almost certain she didn't-"
Guess what?"
"Uh-"
"Take this bag for me, it's totally clashing with my New England Punk design I'm going for." He tossed the bag over to Satori's face and nearly hit him in the face with it. "Hey, it fits you quite well!"
"Woah, careful! What's in here? Isn't this Hanako's stuff? Why are-"
"Thanks! Ta-ta now!"
"Whatever, see you around."
As they split up, Ikasaki crossed over to Coriette and put his arm over her shoulder. "While we're here, want to blast through some stores? I think this district has one of those Cadenza Couture shops that are so hard to come by."
She quietly nodded with enthusiasm at the idea.
"Didn't you just say you were taking us home?" Ranika asked.
"Yes, with all due respect, I still have schoolwork to do and Ranika needs tutoring with a new chapter in math. We must return as quickly as possible."
Remembering Tsubame's dedication to school, Ranika made a heel-point turn. "Okay new plan: let's forget what I said and carry on."
"Ranika, you still struggle with the differences between sine and cosine."
"I don't care, you can sign and co-sign these nuts."
She received a light backhanded smack from Coriette along with a stare of disapproval. Ikasaki meanwhile remained fairly flippant about the interaction.
"It's early morning Saturday, you'll have time for that when we get back. Then you can both sign whatever body parts you want this evening."
He sauntered off before they could get another word in, so Tsubame dejectedly went along with them.
Ranika took her girlfriend's hand in hers. "Come on! Everyone likes some early morning clothes shopping!"
She stared at the pink haired girl's eyes with slight contempt. "I don't."
Rinasa sat in front of the TV in her room, watching the usual Saturday morning runs of cartoons, though she never paid much attention to them. Most of the shows were either predictable to her, or made for toddlers who couldn't even count yet. However, it was a welcome distraction from her dilapidated home. She had thankfully gotten a room to herself, but just outside the door she could hear people fighting, yelling, and under the influence of no less than three different drugs. She'd been exposed early on to the drug underworld, which her father happened to be on top of, and seen how disgusting humans could be once on them.
They'd sometimes bring kids over too, either just to tag along with their parents, or…other things. Needless to say, she despised all the adults, but as for the kids, she didn't even know how to communicate with them. Her social life had mostly consisted of passing friends of her father's trying to get a rise out of her, or her father himself trying to use her to bring more children into her uncle's factory. While she had managed to avoid this, it had only made her more distrustful and distant from everyone.
"Ri…uh…R-…r" A smaller girl, no older than four with black hair covering her eyes, tugged on Rinasa's shirt. "…name? Name again?" She asked, struggling to get the words out.
Rinasa ignored her and turned her head back to the television, prompting the girl to once again tug on her shirt. Becoming hostile, Rinasa elbowed her in the stomach and pushed her back towards her bed. She hated having to look after her. She always needed her help since she was so small. Her childlike lisp was only adding fuel to Rinasa's burning hatred for her.
The girl didn't cry since she'd long gotten used to this treatment from Rinasa. Rubbing her stomach in pain, she went to her bed, picked up a sheet of paper, and returned with a pencil in her hand, much to Rinasa's frustration. "How spell name? Me and you in picture." She held up the page for Rinasa to see: A crudely drawn picture with her and what was supposed to be Rinasa watching a very polygonal television together.
"Your hair isn't pink. It's black. You drew yourself wrong."
"…uh, I wish…my hair pink." The little girl said, gaining a little more confidence as she went on. "Then, I have pink and you have pink, and we, we uh…both have pink and it is…happy."
Rinasa didn't respond to her, just plain disinterest across her face.
"My name…how spell again?"
"I've told you twice today. Are you even trying to memorize it?"
"M…memo…memise?"
"Whatever, I'm not going to answer if you ask ever again." Fed up, she grabbed her hand, forced the pencil into her grip and began speaking every letter one by one.
"R-A-N-I-K-A."
She wrote down every letter as Rinasa said it, some more questionable looking than others, until she stopped at K. "…what K like again?"
Rinasa gave up on her and went back to watching the TV. Ranika had distracted her from the show to the point she didn't really know the plot anymore. Although she didn't really care, it still irritated her greatly. "Annoying."
Ranika didn't try to speak to her anymore, heading back to her bed and crawling in it to presumably draw more pictures. A very muted "love you," was said, before flipping the covers over herself.
Rinasa had many sisters, but Ranika was the only one she'd met that had come from her mother. Her father, Kyoya, had sired many children, many never even knowing him. Their mother, Hana Sei, was also quite promiscuous, but she'd kept in touch with the few children she'd chosen not to abort, and up until her death, she had always meant well, but she had such a weak constitution, easily led about and manipulated into doing things she knew would end up hurting her. Ranika was the last child she'd given birth to before her death, the circumstances of which were still shrouded for Rinasa.
Today, she was going to meet her mother's other child, a healer that her father had called upon to help with his hospital, a call she couldn't criticize too harshly. Kyoya asked her to welcome her in with a nice attitude so she'd be more willing to help. Rinasa had no intentions of doing anything of the sort. What happened between them happened, whether he liked it or not.
The doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of her father and the new sibling. Ranika shifted out of her covers with interest, about to climb out of bed to greet the newcomer, until a yell startled the both of them.
"Ow! The bitch bit me! Kyoya, the fuck is this about, she a fucking dog or somethin'?"
"Don't touch her, just let her go into the back room."
"Little shitstain's got some great hair, though. I'll forgive you if you let me feel it for a sec, girlie."
"Go on." A third voice, childlike, spoke. Likely the kid she was about to meet.
Rinasa herself had gotten curious and, followed by Ranika, went outside her room to see the girl for herself, staying close to her room just in case. Getting a good look at her, she was about ten years old, around Rinasa's age, with some of the longest hair she'd ever seen on a person, extending past her hips and reaching down to her shins.
"Hair!" Ranika blurted out, earning a forceful punch from Rinasa for blowing her cover. The girl spotted them, pointed a finger at them while looking at Kyoya, who nodded, and beelined it for her.
The other man ran his hand through her hair while she ran to the room, reveling in the sensation. "Man, that's some nice silky hair, I'd love to pull on it when you're a bit older. Do it up in a nice ponytail perhaps so…what the hell?" His hand started bloating with large tumors, quickly spreading over his arm and body. He started panicking and tried to wipe them off. Once he realized they were attached to him, he got scared. "Hey, what's going on? What the hell'd she do to me, Kyoya!? Get these off me! Help! HELP!" He cried out as the others in the main room looked on in horror as their peer slowly turned into a groaning amorphous blob of skin and fat. Kyoya was nearly dying of laughter, leaning against the doorway to keep his balance.
"How did I know you would be the first one to get hurt! You just can't lay off the kids, can you? Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be…pfft!" Trying to compose himself, he addressed everyone else. "As Toshi so kindly demonstrated for us, Hanako hasn't quite mastered using her quirk yet, and things like that tend to happen often especially with her hair, so I'd leave her alone. We're not the ones she came to see anyway."
Hanako had already made her way into Rinasa's room and made herself at home, jumping on Rinasa's bed and getting comfortable. Flippant and uncaring for Rinasa's discomfort, this was definitely a person she didn't know how to interact with. Even if she'd seen her type on TV a bunch of times, in real life she was still inexperienced, and clammed up when Hanako tried to talk to her.
"Your dad wanted me to get to know you, whatever that's going to accomplish. You're Rosuke? Rakshasa? Rotisserie, I can't remember, or rather I didn't care when they told me. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but I don't want my first impression to be of a liar."
The first thing that stood out to Rinasa was that she was mature. She talked pretty similar to an adult even though they were the same age. Kyoya told her Hanako had spent a lot of time near the Factory, so she had probably gotten used to the way they talked. Rinasa felt a bit intimidated and said nothing, letting the noise from the television fill the silence.
"Your mom was Hana, right? Guess that means we're…half-siblings? I think that's what they said we'd be. But there's other words, like matronal half-sibling or something. Again, I wasn't paying attention. Who's that?" She pointed to Ranika, who was also a bit overwhelmed by the personality of Hanako, hiding under her covers. "…weird kids in this family."
"Ranika."
"Cool. Is she also a half, or…"
"…f-full, I guess."
"Hmm, you're a lot quieter than I thought you'd be. Considering you're Kyoya's daughter, I thought you'd be meaner. Maybe that's on me for assuming he'd spend any time with you."
Rinasa was starting to hate this. She just met her, and already she didn't like the feeling she got when she spoke. It made her want to mirror her younger sister and wait under her covers until she left.
Hanako noticed her growing discomfort and immediately changed her tone, sitting up on the side of the bed. "…sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I really was expecting you to be more…yeah. I'm going to guess you kept to yourself a lot more than I did, huh?"
A surprising and sudden shift, her words felt a little more sincere now. Rinasa knew she wasn't being fake, but she stayed cautious of the girl. "I…I don't…"
"Don't force yourself to speak. You don't have to say anything unless you have something to say. Besides, that was a rhetorical question. You don't need to answer those. Something about being an answer to itself."
Ranika apparently felt even more uneased than Rinasa, and quietly hurried out the room, avoiding eye contact with Hanako.
"Well, there she goes. Ugh…" Rinasa watched with concern as Hanako ran her hands violently through her light purple hair, shaking her head until she tore out some of her own hair. "This is the worst. Why am I even trying?"
"Trying what?" Rinasa flinched from the sound of her own voice, clearly not expecting herself to ask so forwardly. Hanako was surprised as well, but welcomed the engagement.
"Well, this whole…friends thing. I feel sick just saying it, but I was kind of hoping to meet someone I could become…" Hanako appeared repulsed when she thought of it, so Rinasa tried to carry on since she somewhat understood already.
"You thought a family member would be easier to try it with?"
"Exactly! And since you know what's going on, it might be easier to relate as well, so no explaining or…you know? And if we worked together, we-" She stopped her sentence midway through, seeming apprehensive at finishing it.
"What?"
"It's nothing, but you get it anyway. So you want to try? We don't even have to be like, best friends or anything. Just maybe someone we can talk to about all this stuff. Instead of keeping it to ourselves? And we could also protect each other – I'll look out for you, you look out for me?"
Rinasa was a little skeptical about it. After all, she wasn't close to her own sister and wouldn't let her even hug her. Not to mention the feeling inside Rinasa's stomach that Hanako was hiding something. But she didn't feel any evil behind the words she spoke, and though intimidating, she also believed Hanako wouldn't try to hurt her. If anything, Hanako knew how to read her emotions, something notoriously hard for even her family members to do.
The door suddenly burst open, and an angry woman shouted at Hanako, who backed away from Rinasa. "YOU MONSTER! YOU DEFILED MY TOSHIO!" She held a gun up to the child, something Rinasa had seen many times before, except she felt a bit more scared for Hanako than the other ones.
"Drop the gun, Misato! Rinasa's-"
"JUST DIE!" She fired the gun multiple times into Hanako's head, blood spewing out the other side and spraying all over Rinasa's bed. Rinasa stuck her arm out and aimed for the woman. Everyone who had gathered behind her to stop her tripped over themselves to get out of Rinasa's range.
"Oh my god, she's going to do it!"
Kyoya rushed over to try and stop her, much too late as Rinasa had made up her mind the instant she saw Hanako get shot. "Rinasa, No!"
A large grid of pure electricity ran through her arms and shot out at the woman, making a loud sound like lighting hitting a powerline as it plowed through the woman entirely, grazing a couple of people in the doorway and blowing a hole through the house, clear into the outside. Thankfully, they lived in a fairly rural part of the town, so likely no one would get hurt, and before it got too far away, it fizzled out on its own accord. The woman's body was spared slightly as it hit her at an angle that only halfway cut through her body, leaving her insides visible for everyone to see. It also instantly cauterized the wounds so most of the blood stayed inside the body, slowly boiling her alive.
"Fucking hell, I haven't seen it in so long, I forget what my own daughter's quirk is!" Kyoya was more exasperated than anything else. "What do I tell them? Don't mess with these kids, that singularity shit is no joke! Who listens though? Find out the hard way, I suppose. Hey, you all get back to the living room!" He pushed the others back from forming a crowd, leaving the bodies in Rinasa's room.
"Well golly, that's a pretty metal power, no?!" A voice from behind Rinasa exclaimed. Hanako was already back on her feet, the bullet holes filling up as she spoke. "No need for clean-up either! What is that Quirk called?" Hanako asked, before seeing Rinasa fall to the floor. Her arms were covered in blood and barely holding themselves up by the visible muscle tissues. "Oh my gosh, are you okay!? Let me see!"
Hanako took her hair and wrapped it around Rinasa's damaged arm. "What kind of a drawback is that, is it like equal opposite reactions or something?"
"I…ugh…I don't use it, really." Stepping past the convulsing body, Rinasa was taken to the bed by Hanako, sitting down and letting her do what she needed. "I have to absorb plasma for it to work properly, but since there's not really any plasma to absorb, my body tries to …compensate?" Rinasa felt her arm stop hurting, and looking down at it, she saw there was no sign of any injury anywhere. "It doesn't hurt anymore. How?"
"Well, I am a healer after all. Kind of, more of an "also" a healer. My quirk lets me make as many cells as I want, have you learned about cells?" Rinasa nodded, having watched many cartoons explaining them. "Basically, I create a lot of these things called proteins, and they can repair any living thing endlessly. It's complicated, but they can replace any type of cell that was lost or destroyed. It's easier to do it with my hair so I don't have to tear my skin every time someone's hurt, plus my quirk makes my hair grow fast anyway, so it all evens out."
She glanced over Rinasa's arm one more time, making sure no marks were left, and then walked to Misato, still writhing in pain on the ground. Her mouth was blown wide open by the attack and blood poured out non-stop. "It's a miracle you survived this long. You sure look funny like that, Ma'am. I mean, you always did…actually this might be an improvement." She went back to her more callous demeanor. Rinasa was still uncomfortable with it, and the nicer aspects of her personality didn't erase this more concerning part.
"gkt…you….fcks…" The woman gargled words out her mouth.
"Don't speak, I'm about to burst out laughing as it is. Just hold still for a second…"
To Rinasa's surprise, Hanako began pushing her separated body parts together and covered them all in hair until each one was reconnected fully. She saw in real time the extent of this healer's ability. Even completely decimated organs were quickly strung back together almost effortlessly. An attack that should have ended her life in no less than a couple more seconds now no longer had any evidence of taking place. In under half a minute, the woman was soon returned to her original, whole self. Apparently, she too was not expecting Hanako to take the time to heal her.
"Geez, it's not like your husband is permanently deformed. The tumors have probably stopped growing, so if you remove them all, come get me and I'll heal the wounds. Until then, hope you like scalping."
Misato opened her mouth to say something, but thought twice about it and simply left the room.
"For the record, that was an accident." She said to Rinasa, wiping some of the blood from her hands on her pants. "I don't mean to hurt people, they just find ways to make me angry, and since I don't have a lot of control over my quirk, it gets messy sometimes. I'm really sorry you had to see that. If…if you don't want to be my friend, I get it."
For once, Rinasa felt compelled to say something to her.
"It's okay…and I-I would like it…if…we were friends, that is. And, m…maybe best friends…if you'd like."
Hanako shared her first genuine smile since she'd seen her. "I'd like that very much."
The smell of something being burnt woke Rinasa up from her sleep with alarm. She quickly scanned for any flames or smoke and thankfully found none around her, nor was it hard for her to breathe.
"Owww, God!" Someone by the sink cried out. "That one definitely drew some blood. I can't spend much more time on this, don't feel like listening to Satori complain about extended hospital stays anymore."
Rinasa recognized Hanako's voice and, with a start, immediately became aware of her position. The water around her was a light shade of purple with hair strewn all about it and her wounds were completely healed. Flustered at her bare form in the water, she drew the shower curtains across as she stood up, feeling infinitely better and able to move as normal.
"H-Hanako…would you pass me my clothes? On the rack next to you."
Hanako didn't reply immediately. She was stuck on a nasty tangle in her hair that was causing her to struggle with speaking. "I brought a towel for you too, just…hold on…Ouch! Ughhh!"
Rinasa couldn't quite see from behind the curtain but the silhouette was enough to make out her general figure. "Looks like it grew back in all messy."
"I'm aware it's messy. I'm trying to iron out a couple of these knots so I don't trip over myself."
Hanako heard a giggle from behind her.
"What are you laughing at!" She dropped the flat iron to the floor and turned her back to Rinasa, trying in vain to hide her bird's nest. "This is not funny!"
"It's very funny." The usually stone-faced woman laughed like a little girl as she took the chance to grab her clothes herself while her sister struggled to reign in her wild locks. "I always liked when it was curly more than the flat you always do. Makes you cuter."
"You saying I'm not cute?"
"Absolutely."
"Tsk, how rude." By the time Hanako had managed to get her hair in a (slightly) less chaotic state, Rinasa had finished drying herself and was putting her pants and jacket back on.
"Uh, hopefully that looks better. Maybe I won't get confused for a walking used toilet snake. You'd think with all the hair I pulled out to heal you this morning, it'd be a little easier to work with." She stared in the mirror for another second, inspecting her handiwork. "How do I look?" She turned to her sister with zero confidence.
Rinasa said nothing. Her face said everything.
"Kill me." The frazzled girl slumped over in defeat.
"Just ask Ikasaki. He loves straightening it for you."
She picked up the flat iron and swung it by the cord idly, waiting for Rinasa to finish re-attaching her badge and gear. "I could. I just wished I could do this myself instead of needing his help all the time for it. I ask him almost every week to keep it tame as it is."
"He doesn't mind it. He's told me himself. He's told you himself."
"He has! But I don't want to just take and never give back, I feel wrong not doing something for him sometimes. Even if he can be an irritating chatterbox."
The woman hopped onto the sink and played with her hair to keep her hands busy. Not that she was trying to fix it anymore, she'd given up hope and put the iron back into the drawer. "He's probably the only person who could talk to a brick wall in your place and he wouldn't even notice if no one told him."
"Mmm." Rinasa wordlessly responded. A couple seconds passed with the only noise being Rinasa's keys jingling as she hooked them to her belt.
"Geez, it's really quiet in here." Hanako put her ear to the wall. "Definitely soundproofing. Didn't really expect that from a hospital bathroom but, I appreciate it."
"The entire place. It's a very nice stay for people stuck here. 'Saki would like it. He always loved making the patients smile at Dad's hospital, if just for one moment." She'd been finished getting dressed, now the two were simply enjoying each other's company. They'd grown comfortable and didn't feel like returning to the world just yet.
"Glad he stuck with us." Hanako spoke somewhat candidly.
"Me too."
"Makes a huge difference having him there."
"Mm-hmm, very kind to everyone."
"Good, honest heart as well."
"Yeah, I adore Saki."
"All of them. Satori, Aki…Coriette."
Hanako let the quiet overtake them for a minute. It was quite hard for her to be open with most people, so she made the few times she could matter.
"…Nasa, listen. I know I'm harsh to Coriette. I don't hate her at all."
"…"
"I just don't want you to drag someone along out of pity, especially if they don't add much to the team."
"It isn't about giving her a job."
"…so it's protection?"
"Yes."
Hanako stared at her with slight disappointment.
"Maybe she's not important to you, Hanako. But she is to me. She wouldn't be safe if all of us were out at once. She's barely trained with her quirk, and Banshee is supportive at best, chaotic at worst. If she's caught off guard while we're away, how would she protect herself? Those men could easily come and get her without anyone else here."
"Dad's men haven't come for her for years. Hey, I know more than anyone how traumatic those days were. For both of you. I still haven't gotten over what that…" She breathed in sharply, feeling herself get emotional. "But they're gone now. No one's going to come after us anymore. We have a few loose ends here and there, and we'll take care of them soon enough, but we're safe now."
Rinasa grimaced at something in her mind as she was lost in thought. Hanako noticed and got off the countertop to stand next to her. She took her hand and held Rinasa's chin up.
"No ma'am, none of that now. I'm the grumpy one here. Leave the inner feelings of resentment to me, alright? You just focus on being happier. That's why I'm doing this. Why we're all doing this."
Rinasa took a deep breath, and cleared her head. "Feel better?"
"…yes."
"Besides, Banshee isn't really that weak. If worst comes to worst, she temporarily deafens half the city and then I undo it. We've all got our strengths. That's where she picks up our slack, staying behind and watching our home."
"Home… okay. I'll tell her to stay behind. Me and Aki should be enough together. I'll have to tell Satori about the change."
"Yeah, yeah. Mr. Always By-The-Books. Best Treasurer we have though."
"…remember when he went on vacation and-"
"-and Ikasaki had to do it for one week, yes! Wow, we were in…so much trouble, that debt racked up quickly. Amazing what 5 people can spend in 6 days. And speaking of that, let's get on out of here. Satori's going to throw a hissy fit soon, and my hair isn't going to reshape itself."
"Unfortunately." Rinasa teased. Hanako was about to say something until she looked up to see a genuine smile gracing her sister's face. Cherishing the moment, she couldn't help but hug her tightly in response, which was immediately returned.
Heavy knocks on the door brought them back to Earth. "Hanako! Rinasa! If I need to snare both of you and drag you out of there, I promise I'll do it!"
"Right on cue. Let's get on with it." She hesitantly released the embrace and patted Rinasa's cheeks on her way out the door. "What's that about snaring me? Go ahead and try it then, see where it gets you!" She reverted to her usual self as soon as she left the bathroom.
"I'd prefer if you two would wait until it's noon to start this." Rinasa returned to her flat, monotone manner as well. "Satori, you said you finished writing down everyone's posts and patrol sites?"
He seemed to be unshaken by Hanako's threats at this point, waving her off and answering Rinasa. "Yes, ma'am! Did it all in one sitting. It was a bit hard trying to squeeze Coriette in there, for some reason the system didn't have her logs anymore."
"Remove Coriette, I'm changing her assignment. She'll be staying at the station instead."
"Of course, let me-wait, wha…b-but I…that was…hours of-"
"Hmm?"
She clearly wasn't paying attention to his protests in the slightest.
"Sigh. Done, ma'am. Done." He glanced at the top of Hanako's head.
"Hanako?"
"Yeah?"
He gestured towards his hair. "It's a little messy."
Her entire body visibly shaking, she calmly held her hands together for the safety everyone around her.
"I'm aware it's messy."