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Chapter Two

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It had been about a year since Kagami came home from her deep-cover mission. Hitoshi knew Kazuya enjoyed having her older sister home again, even if she was tired from working both mornings and nights. He didn't remember her having later patrols before the undercover work. Then again, he didn't completely understand the schedule of a hero either, let alone a lazy one without an agency to keep her busy.

Knowing this, it didn't surprise him when Kazuya was left without a ride some days. She never seemed mad at her sister for sleeping in late and forgetting to pick her up.

One Tuesday in particular, Kagami was a no show and Kazuya looked especially disappointed. Hitoshi offered to call his parents for a ride but she refused the offer and settled on walking. Her house wasn't far, he knew that, but he wasn't going to let her go alone.

They ended up spending their afternoon at a playground en route. It was an older park, so not many parents took their kids, which made it the perfect place to hang out for the not-so-social butterflies.

"Hitoshi, have you ever heard of the Gashadokuro?" her sudden question caught the indigo-haired boy so off guard that he had to stop walking.

"The what?" His eyebrows knit together quizzically.

"It's this big monster my dad used to warn me about when I wouldn't listen. It's like a hundred feet tall!" His only friend's eyes grew wide to dramatize her words.

"I'm sure he was just trying to freak you out. You're surprisingly gullible," Hitoshi joked with that indifferent expression he always wore. He sat down gingerly on the rusted swing set, afraid that the weight of anyone other than a toddler would snap the chains.

Imai stood in front of him with crossed arms and puffed cheeks, "Fine, don't believe me." Briefly, her eyes sparkled with child-like mischief and she spun around to face the woods surrounding the old playground. "But...I've got proof it's real."

Before Hitoshi could ask her what the hell she was going on about, she booked it into the tree line. He hopped off his swing and followed after her while muttering curses under his breath. It was hard to see anything past the first line of trees. Despite the bright evening sun that should've illuminated every part of the forest, it somehow became dark.

"Kazuya, wait, damn it!" Hitoshi called. She was surprisingly fast and had disappeared from his line of sight. He slowed down to a walk, moving forward until he found his friend. "What is wrong with you?!" he snapped.

"Don't worry, I've been out here before," Imai shrugged as she took his hand in her gloved one and pulled him deeper into the forest.

"Why were you in the forest alone?" he gave her a puzzled look, only to receive one in response.

"I wasn't alone, I was with Dad," she brushed off his inquiry with a snort of laughter, "We had to chase one of his experiments after it escaped. We tracked it down to this park. That's when I found this." Her lips curled into a wide and deviant grin as they slowly came to a stop. Hitoshi's confusion faded away when his eyes landed on the "proof" that she spoke of.

In front of the duo stood a twenty-foot-tall stone sculpture of a skeleton. Clearly, no one had been taking care of it, since the flora from the surrounding forest had grown into the cracks of the rock. The statue was an eerie moment frozen in time, with the giant skeleton crawling out of the Earth but getting stuck halfway. The lower half was trapped in the ground.

Hitoshi didn't know what to say. He felt as if the soulless eyes of the giant stone beast were staring into the core of his very being. Why was it even there? Who made it?

"The Gashadokuro is a giant skeleton that eats people during the night. If it catches you out in the dark, it'll grab you and crush you or bite your head off!" Imai chomped her teeth a few times, just in case he needed a visual. She growled and pretended to bite some small being's head clean off, causing a bead of sheepish sweat to roll off Hitoshi's temple.

"Your imagination is frightening, you know," he huffed. Imai simply laughed at his statement before approaching the skeleton statue. She slipped off one of her gloves and began to run her fingers over the coarse exterior of the rock.

"My quirk can't lift something this heavy." Hitoshi couldn't tell if she was reassuring herself or trying to explain it to him. While she felt the cracks made by the plants that were trying to break the stone, he watched her with a strange curiosity. His feet move on their own and before he knows it, he's a foot in front of her.

"Kazuya, why did we come here? Be honest," he asks with scrunched brows. She didn't answer at first.

"Do you remember when Kagami first came home and we had that argument outside the school?" came her eventual, muttered reply. The tired-eyed boy nodded an unspoken yes and thought back to the brief conversation he had with Imai Kagami.

"What did my sister say to you?"

"Don't let stupid arguments get in the way of your friendship. Zuzu likes you, so I hope you'll stick around. Besides, I won't always be here and I need someone I can trust to take care of her, even when she's too stubborn to accept it."

"Nothing. Why?"

"You've just been different since then…more like an overprotective brother, I guess," Imai scrunched her brows in thought. She winced and pulled her hand away from the statue as her fingertips began to glow. Seeing that she was going to put her glove back on, Hitoshi snatched it right out of her hands.

"You don't need it." He held the accessory up and out of her reach.

"Give it back, jerk!" whined the cobalt-haired preteen. She jumped up to reach the glove but fell an inch short. Hitoshi couldn't hold back the amused snort that earned him a stink eye from his childhood friend.

"Take it from me," he raised a brow expectantly as if challenging her. Imai's face turned red, either from embarrassment or annoyance, he wasn't completely sure.

"You know I can't. I'll end up pushing you into space," she argued, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly. Hitoshi didn't say anything but stared at her in a way that said he wasn't backing down any time soon. She rolled her ebony eyes and scoffed, "Are you serious?"

"This fear is just a mental block. The only way to fix it is to work through it, and once that's done, you'll be able to control your quirk." He watched her visibly tense as he grabbed ahold of her hand, the glove squished between their palms. She took a shaky breath before looking into his tired eyes. He nodded sharply, "Push me."

"Toshi, you know I can't," she droned with a pitiful expression.

"Are you scared?" Hitoshi leaned down until his face was level with hers.

"No, but…" Her voice trailed off, eyes locking onto the ground they stood on.

"Then push, Kazuya," the indigo-haired boy curled his fingers so that they interlaced with hers.

"I said I can't."

"Use your quirk."

"You're being a jerk."

"Push — "

"STOP IT!"

The Gashadokuro statue and Hitoshi's hand suddenly glowed an aggressive blue. Imai's eyes grew to the size of saucers, watching in horror as her best friend was pulled towards the statue with such speed that his back slammed into the stone.

Snapping out of her stupor, she dismissed the psionic aura of her quirk, slipped her glove back on, and rushed to Hitoshi's side, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"That was…" he paused to replace the air that had been forced from his lungs, "pretty cool." As he slid down the trunk of the tree, Imai dropped to her knees.

"You're crazy, you know that?" she glared at him with shocked and somewhat irritated eyes. Recomposing herself until she was calm, she let her head fall onto his shoulder, "I mean like really crazy. I could have killed you."

"Shut up and enjoy your moment," Hitoshi elbowed her in the ribs when she sat beside him. Her boisterous laughter died down, a serene calm washing over them. It was quiet. It was peaceful. It was nice.

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Kazuya could tell something was off the moment she stepped foot into her home. Usually, a TV was left on or their mother was playing music — her mother would even be shouting sometimes — but it was never this silent.

"Dad?" she called when she finally reached the kitchen. Her father sat at the dining room table with his head in his hands, hair dishevelled and his lab coat still on. Kagami stood a few feet away, shrugging cluelessly.

"Your mother went to the store for ice cream," Taigen explained softly. His daughters looked at one another with knowing eyes.

Mom only goes out for ice cream when something goes wrong, they thought in unison.

"Your meeting was today, wasn't it?" Kagami asked as they sat on either side of him. Kazuya had no clue what meeting she was talking about but figured it was important.

"That idiot Garaki called it unethical and denied my funding," the cobalt-haired man rubbed his temples in an attempt to soothe his headache. Kazuya's forehead creased in confusion.

"Why would he do that?" she murmured to her sister for clarification. Kagami simply shook her head despite the far-off look in her eyes.

"You said you could help people, so why would he not agree? He owns a hospital for Christ's sake," she wondered aloud. "What happens to Milk and the rest of your creations?"

"He said it was a waste of resources and that I'm straying too far from science. I'll show him science when I put a metal pipe through his…" his voice trailed off and his head flopped down onto the table with a hard thud.

"Did you get fired?" Kazuya knit her brows together in concern. The quiet that penetrated the air told her all she needed to know. Her heart hurt at the sight of her father's slumped body but she didn't move from her seat. Instead, she leaned over and muttered to Kagami, "How do we fix him?".

"This is a self-help thing," the noirette shook her head. Kazuya pouted in helpless silence until her mother returned.

"Alright, I've got chocolate, cookie dough, strawberry, and a whole quart of mint for the man of the hour!" Elena shouted, hauling two grocery bags full of ice cream into the kitchen. Her mind seemed to be moving faster than her body as she muttered Spanish curses and paced around the house before actually sitting down.

"Elena, sweetheart, calm down. You're gonna blow a fuse," Taigen sighed, lifting his head to watch his wife run into the kitchen for spoons.

"Don't tell me to calm down when trying to cheer you up, you mopey bastard!" The spry woman shouted before shoving a spoon into his hands. She glared at him furiously while pursing her lips, a look that her family knew had good intentions behind it.

"I know, dear. I appreciate all you do for me," Taigen cupped her face and touched their foreheads, never minding the static that flowed between the point of contact. "I love you."

"I love you more, stupid," she hummed softly then pecked his cheek. Kagami smiled at the sweet interaction while Kazuya stuck her tongue out and pretended to throw up. The blue-haired preteen snatched up her ice cream pint and took a spoon from her mother without hesitation.

"Enough of emotions, I want ice cream!" she bellowed while skating into the living room with the help of her socks. She threw a giddy look in Kagami's direction, only to find her elder sister staring at her phone with an intense frown.

She pocketed her phone and then tousled her little sister's hair, "You enjoy, kid. I've got some errands to run."

"Right now? You just got home," Taigen's forehead creased in confusion. His only response was an affirmative nod followed by a quick side-hug. Within a fraction of a second, Kagami slipped out the door. Her father knit his brows together. She didn't take her keys…

"More for me," Kazuya grinned like a Cheshire and dug her chocolate frozen deliciousness. She moved to the couch, where she'd fall asleep watching her nightly cartoons and reflecting on her emotionally exasperating day.

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Kagami glowered at her phone as she paced the sidewalk, staring down at her phone. The screen was the only source of light she had, illuminating only her face amongst the darkness. She cursed under her breath when her message status switched from delivered to read but went unanswered. Clicking the call button and raising the device to her ear, the raven-haired hero waited for the individual on the other end to pick up. The line rang for a few seconds then connected

"What?" came the raspy snarl of the man on the other end.

"Don't what me, you shrivelled raisin, where the hell are you?!" Kagami practically shouted into the receiver.

"I'm on my way. Sit tight, Lightning Bug," her nameless contact ordered. She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth then shut her phone off completely.

After ten minutes of standing on the side of the road in eerie moonlight, her ears perked up at the sound of an approaching car. She stepped back and his amongst the shadows to err on the side of caution. The vehicle rolled to a stop and the tinted window rolled down.

"Get in," the familiar voice called. She nodded and slipped into the passenger seat of the SUV. The silence that filled the air as they drove was maddening. Kagami glanced over at her connection, scanning his features before he noticed. He hated when she stared, he had made that very clear.

"New piercings. I like 'em," she quirked a brow at the silver rings in his ears.

"I could kill you for just looking at me, you know?" he mumbled in his raspy voice that Kagami admittedly didn't mind being threatened by. Although, that information would be taken to her grave. He was a villain, after all.

"You telling me you weren't the teeniest bit worried about me when I disappeared for a few months?" She batted her lashes with faux innocence. The spiky, dark-haired man, who she knew was around her age, shot her a dangerous look with his blue diamond eyes.

"Don't test me, princess," he jeered before focusing on the road again. Kagami hummed in understanding as she leaned back in the car seat and put her sneakers up on the dashboard.

"You're no fun," she pouted in response to his threat, "and I'm the only reason you're getting into this building, so I'd play nice if I were you."

Her "partner in crime" frowned in agitation, "You're the one with something to lose, not me." His words put an end to the playful banter the pro hero had started. The low hum of the car's engine filled the night, quieting when they pulled into a familiar parking lot.

With his hoodie pulled over his eyes, the tall villain and Kagami walked into the lobby of her father's lab, where the night security guard sat. He gave her a somewhat confused smile as he paused the browser game he was no doubt playing on the company computer.

"Miss Imai, I'm not sure if you heard but…your father no longer works here," the poor fellow explained, warily eyeing the stranger next to her.

"Oh, I'm aware," Kagami chimed and flashed him a sickly sweet smile. The guard could only scrunch his brows before witnessing the white-hot glow of her finger, dark electricity crackling to life around her skin. It spread to the rest of her body like a protective veil around her figure that momentarily blinded the others in the room.

The guard had no time to speak as the brute grabbed his collar and slammed his head into the desk, effectively knocking him out. Kagami watched him carefully, knowing he couldn't see her eyes while she was in her electric form.

When the cerulean-eyed man nodded in the direction of the computer, she groaned outwardly and placed her hand on the monitor. In under a minute, she was able to physically insert herself into the servers, locate the security systems, and disable the cameras.

"Meet me upstairs," ordered her accomplice once her face appeared on the monitor as a little 8-bit sprite.

"You got it, Hot Stuff," came her vocoded reply. She zipped into the computer's wiring. She surfed the electrical currents of the building until she made it to her father's workshop. By the time she deactivated her quirk and entered the room, she found nothing left of her dad's chimaeras but ashes and smoke. She said a silent prayer for Milk and her fallen comrades then scowled in the villain's direction.

"Did you have to do that?" Her question would go unanswered. Instead, he began rummaging through filing cabinets, old notebooks, and even the trash. Kagami didn't know what he was after (and quite frankly, didn't care), so she simply sat on a work desk and flipped through some old science world magazine that had been left out. Her father was on the cover a few years back for some biological breakthrough.

That weekend was branded into her mind so clearly because it was one of the last times they had a normal family outing. There was no talk of work or school, just sunlit smiles and happy core memories.

"What's the password?" The noirette was thrust back into reality by the choleric voice. She scoffed in its owner's direction as he attempted to access Taigen's computer.

"I help you get in and you don't hurt my family, that was the deal. I did my part." The few beats of silence that followed had the hairs on the back of her neck standing up.

In a tenth of a second, the man was towering over her. She didn't flinch or move away, although she could feel the heat radiating from his body. Her left wrist was caught in his slowly warm grasp but she was more focused on the villain's scent that was filling her nostrils: burning pine, cinnamon, and whiskey.

"If you don't get me into that goddamn computer, I'll do a lot more than hurt them," his icy blue eyes seemed to stare directly into her soul. Kagami wondered if he even had the power to carry out his threats. The doubt hidden in her midnight irises must have been obvious since the notion was dispelled by the sudden spike of heat emanating from the looming man's hand.

On instinct, she brought her leg up, placed her foot right on his abdomen, and pushed the much more daunting male back. Her eyes dared to leave his figure as she assessed the damage done to her arm; a third-degree burn at best.

His lips curved into a devilish grin at the sight of the red-hot mark he placed upon her, "So, what'll it be, Livewire?" The tone with which he said her hero name made Kagami want to shock him into heart failure. If he even had one underneath all that stapled and burnt flesh.

"Fine," she spat, sliding off the table and making her way to the computer. She entered the password then allowed the rogue to enter a USB drive and undoubtedly steal documents. She wasn't proud of herself, but it needed to be done. For her parents. For Kazuya.

"The cameras will be back online in thirty seconds. Let's go." Large, calloused hands seized her uninjured arm and roughly tugged her towards the elevator. His grip on her never faltered as they rode down in tense silence.

Upon reaching the ground floor, Kagami was pushed out into the open space of the lobby. She spun around to shout at the thorn in her side but stopped when she noticed the surveillance camera's red lights had turned back on. They were recording again.

"What the hell is this?" she asked in a hushed growl. Panic began to set in as the malicious villain wordlessly stepped toward her.

"Come on now, Sweetheart. You didn't think I'd let you live, did you?" he mocked with a slight tilt of his head. The mad smirk on his face tested the strength of the staples holding his face together, grossing out the confused mouse he had cornered. She couldn't run now that there was footage of her in the building. She had to fight. It was her duty as a hero.

Accepting the fact that she wasn't just fighting for her own life, but those of her family members, Kagami let her quirk spark to life. Intimidating black lightning encompassed her like a full-body halo. She lunged toward the villain with her fist reared, then brought it down on his raised forearms. Luckily, he didn't account for her other hand, which snuck up and dug into his side. The force of the attack sent him flying into the brick wall on their right and kicking up dust from the broken bricks.

"We had a deal!" Kagami shouted over the crackling of her voltaic physique. The dust cloud dispersed when her opponent shot toward her like a bat out of hell. She dived into the wiring of the desktop computer and then jumped out once the turned-around villain whizzed past her. Much to her surprise, he spun around and caught her mid-air. In addition to having the bottom of her pant leg burnt through, her face was roughly shoved into the marble floor tiles.

"Your family will go unharmed." Brilliant blue flames burst to life on the scarred man's hands and arms. "That is unless you count the pain of losing a daughter."

His heated touch became too much for Kagami to handle. The temperature of the fire surpassed that of her quirk, searing through a few layers of her actual skin under her concentrated lightning. Although tears welled up in her eyes, she would rather die than give this maniac the satisfaction of seeing her beg for mercy.

"In my opinion, you only got to be such a popular hero because you've got a pretty face," he let the blue blaze on his left side simmer down so he could wrap his hands around the beaten woman's throat. She smiled, ignoring the fear that was welling up within her.

"Is this your way of saying you have a crush on me, you edgy bastard?" Her strangled laugh turned to a pathetic whimper when the pyromaniac's heated hand tightened around her neck.

"Let's see how lovely that face looks when it's burned beyond recognition." He raised her so that her feet were dangling inches above the ground. Even though the brave mask she wore had been shattered, the noirette still clawed at the purple skin on his arms.

Just as she managed to rip off a few staples, she noticed the security guard regaining consciousness behind the desk. The pair of eyes she was most worried about were occupied with analyzing the cameras, so she took the opportunity to catch the civilian's attention. When the dark-haired man holding her aloft lifted his free hand and blasted the surveillance with his quirk, she tossed her phone to the unfortunate officer.

"Get down," she mouthed. He gave her an apologetic look that told her he wished he had the power to help and she simply smiled in response. You've done enough, she seemed to say. She'll be taken care of as long as that gets to the police.

"Zuzu…I'm sorry. I did this to protect you," the burnt and bruised hero confessed in vain. If she made it out of here alive, it would be by the hands of whatever higher power put her in this position or by the twisted mercy of this shrivelled freak.

"I think it's time you meet the doctor face-to-face," the blue-flame wielder sneered, bringing her closer so she could only look at him while being strangled.

Soon, her exhausted body was unable to keep her quirk active, revealing several burns and blisters that turned her tanned skin various shades of red and purple. Her hands, which had desperately clawed at her attacker, began to lose feeling. Light drained from her eyes as her final thoughts of her family were replaced by all-encompassing darkness. She fought hard but now she was so very, very tired…