If you recognize the reference in this chapter I owe you a cookie.

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Chapter Seventeen

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"Looks like your stop."

Mirko smiled as she pointed with her thumb over her shoulder at the four-star hotel behind her. Kazuya assumed that it was the hotel that had been booked for her during her stay in Hiroshima. The school's help with paying for the room was greatly appreciated by her and her mom, especially since they had become a single-income family.

Doubled over with her hands on her knees, the teen gasped for air. "Did…we really…have to run…?" she wheezed. Mirko flashed her a bright smile and gave her a light pat on the back.

"Quit your whining, we got here, didn't we? Besides, you could use some work with power release!" she noted with a nod towards the front desk. Kazuya rolled her eyes, although she was thankful for the astounding room service of the hotel. She was not physically prepared to walk to her third-floor room, let alone carry two suitcases to her room. "Anyway," Mirko continued, "I'll let you settle in. Dress comfy tomorrow. We start the real training at six!"

"AM?!" Kazuya snapped as she looked up from the ground that was spinning beneath her, only to find that the rabbit hero had already taken her leave. "Great…" the pupil sighed and began her painful walk to her room where she immediately flopped onto the bed. Her bags had been transported for her, which meant she was all but prepared to pass out then and there, but decided a much-needed shower was in order.

So, after undressing and picking a mellow music playlist on her phone (entitled Adderall You Can Eat Buffet), Kazuya stepped into the steaming shower. The water rolled down her bare back and across the bruises left behind by her previous fights. With a heavy sigh, she took a moment to admire just how many she had acquired. Each one was a testament to how far she'd come from the glove-wearing fearful child her parents tried so hard to protect. As her gaze travelled back up to her reflection in the sliding glass door of the shower, she was able to take in just how much she had changed in so little time.

When she met with her father at the playground, he mentioned how mature she had become. She didn't feel much different, but when she truly picked out every discrepancy between her a couple of months ago and her now, it was clear she had suffered some sort of development. Was suffered even the right word? It felt far too negative when compared to the acceptance Kazuya realised she had obtained in her short time at UA. She knew Kagami was not coming back. While that thought scared her for weeks on end, it now felt like the realisation had lifted some weight from her shoulders. She didn't have to be the next Livewire and, as much as she loved her sister, she wasn't going to manage what trained investigators couldn't and miraculously find her alive over a year later.

Imai Kagami was dead.

Imai Kazuya was alive, but struggling.

Imai Taigen was a wanted criminal.

Imai Elena was barely holding herself together.

As heartless as it felt to acknowledge her past as the past, it felt even worse to hold on to something she couldn't save.

Kazuya's hands raised, cupping together under the stream of water and allowing droplets to flow through her fingers. She held her breath while her quirk pulsed to life in her fingertips before fading like a dying flame. It would make much more sense for her quirk to allow her own body to be used as a conduit, but every attempt caused her power to fickle like she was denying herself. With a sigh, she briskly tapped the shower wall and watched the streams trickling through her fingertips to attach to the wall.

Being able to control the flow of the water felt like some scientific fluke, but there was a rhythmic beauty behind it. The earth was a resource to her, commonly used for defence and offence against those who harmed her. Moving rocks felt like lifting heavy boxes or trying to push someone out of your way when you're in a rush. It requires physical strength but also mental focus to direct it to and fro. She never dared to control fire, always fearful of the repercussions that would come with one wrong move, but water? Water was like a strictly timed dance she could sometimes catch with perfect cadence (she was still new to the idea). One wrong move and it fell apart, but it was always comforting to feel herself surrounded by such a freeform element.

The wall of water she made was a clearer mirror than the glass wall, yet as soon as Kazuya peered into it, she merely saw herself. Scarred, beaten, bruised, loved, befriended, protected; she had been so many things, but free was never one of them. Someone always made decisions for her, such as wearing those stupid gloves, whether or not she was a villain for simply being her father's child, if she would fill Kagami's shoes or not…Nothing was ever her. Imai Kazuya was her own person and she was going to fix what everyone else's presumptions had ruined.

Her new goal was piecing back together the remnants of the Imai family, however, few there were, and freeing all of them from society's judgmental stigma.

The illumination of her phone screen through the reflected water wall reminded her of someone who was in a similar situation.

"Forgive and forget?" she asked the murky red and white reflection in the water.

"You can't change the past."

She sighed, knowing her subconscious version of her classmate was right, "but we can control our future." The tender hand of her imagination raised her chin and pushed aside her hair, exposing her neck before leaning down to plant a soft kiss on her wet skin. A heated breath ghosted her lips as her eyes closed from silent shame. The image of Todoroki disappeared, but she couldn't help the guilt that was buried deep within her chest as she came to terms with the fact that she just imagined herself in the shower with her friend. She doubted her fantasy was too far off, what with all the training and the defined muscles and toned goodness —

She turned all the hot water off and allowed the cold water to shock her mind back into reality.

"Pull yourself together!" she snapped, the wall of water dropping with her focus.

Once forcing herself out of the shower and into some comfy shorts and a t-shirt, Kazuya flopped onto the queen bed with a frustrated grunt. Tomorrow was her first full day of training with Mirko and she did not want to find out what would happen if she were late.

After rolling around beneath the blankets (and almost punching herself in the eye while trying to pull the sheets from their tucked corners), she found comfort in lying on her right side with one leg brought up. The noise of the city outside reminded her of how her house used to sound, except Kagami's late-night study music and her father's last-minute dishwashing after her mother cooked was replaced with distant shouting and speeding cars. It was a matter of minutes before she was lulled into dreamland by that ever-tempting somnambulant songstress.

•

•

Six AM couldn't come quickly enough. Kazuya was so ecstatic to officially start her professional training that she got up two hours before to get dressed, give herself a pep talk, have breakfast, and enjoy the cool morning on the hotel's patio. Per Mirko's request, she wore a comfy off-the-shoulder band shirt with a lacy tank top under it and a pair of shorts. Other than what instructions they had received during class, she didn't have much of a regiment to follow. Luckily, Mirko seemed eager enough to jump right into the lesson.

When the white-haired hero appeared from around the corner of the hotel, Kazuya perked up. Her attention was caught by the basic grey sweatpants, matching jacket, and black tank top that her mentor wore.

"What kind of training is this?" she hummed. Mirko let out a snorting laugh before dropping down into the chair across from Kazuya.

"You'll be the one learning. I'm supervising," the bunny woman explained as she flashed a smug smile that rubbed her student the wrong way.

"Please don't tell me it's another game of chase," she sighed, the colour draining from her face.

"Nope," Mirko popped the p as she suddenly stood from her chair, the metal scraping loudly. Kazuya followed suit as they began walking towards the back of the hotel. Watching Mirko bound up the ladder that led to the roof, her unease began to set in.

"Don't tell me we're — "

"Just shush until we get to her house!"

"Whose house?!" Kazuya shouted, words falling on deaf ears as Mirko leapt from the roof of the hotel to the next. Kazuya narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath. She tapped the floor and rocketed herself across the buildings. Her speed was increased so she could keep up with Mirko, but it took more power to keep her constantly in motion than just bursting from rooftop to rooftop.

It didn't take long for Mirko to slow down and come to a stop on top of an apartment complex. She peered through a skylight as Kazuya caught her breath.

"We're meeting an informant who can scan the security cameras and catch the face of the woman you saw," the elder explained, backing up from the skylight.

"Aren't the police doing that already?" Kazuya asked and furrowed her brows in confusion.

Mirko shrugged, "Kamui's much faster." Without hesitation, she gave the tempered glass one solid kick until it shattered and proceeded to jump through the hole in the ceiling.

"This is breaking and entering," Kazuya loudly whispered as a bead of sheepish sweat rolled down her face. She slipped through the opening despite her qualms and landed on a perfectly placed couch.

"The kid's right. I had to move my furniture to make up for your mess," a new monotonous voice sighed with heavy contempt. Kazuya spun around to see Mirko already sitting on a barstool at the kitchen island with a small girl next to her.

"Eh, don't worry about it. Kamui's already in trouble with the police!" Mirko beamed as she rustled the hair of the child who looked younger than Kazuya. The cobalt-haired hero looked down at the ankle monitor attached to the girl. Oh.

"You're Imai Kazuya," the Kamui kid answered before Kazuya could introduce herself.

"I…How did you — ?"

"Imai Kagami's case was my obsession for months," her eyes, as blue and abysmal as the deepest part of the ocean, lowered for a moment before reflecting some semblance of sympathy. "Sorry."

Kamui was a strange character for Kazuya to figure out. She was young but talked as if she was wise beyond her years. Her azure stare was unending, not in the sense that she was an emotionless husk, but in the sense that she had seen everything there was to see and was simply not phased anymore. Her light lavender – almost white – hair haphazardly thrown into a low ponytail. Her round features had yet to crack a smile. Her most notable attribute, however, was the white horns sticking out of her head.

"My intern and I need your help ID'ing a villain she saw. A dangerous chick that was behind the attack on Hiroshima Bank, Otemchi branch," Mirko explained, pulling out her phone and locating a grainy screenshot from the bank security camera. In the corner, for just a single frame, the face of the woman Kazuya chased into the alley was visible.

"I didn't take you for the mentoring type. Must be a special case," Kamui hummed as she grabbed Mirko's phone and began walking towards the small living room. Her movements away from the island gave Kazuya the time to notice the tail that poked out from the girl's white shorts. It was thin and swayed behind her in time with her steps, the fuzzy purple ball at the end reminding Kazuya of a cat toy. She turned to Mirko for an explanation, but only received a smile and a shrug in response.

Kamui picked up a laptop that had been left on the coffee table before sitting on the part of the couch that wasn't dusted with broken glass. Mirko and Kazuya stood behind the couch, watching the young girl's fingers fly across the keyboard. The image on the phone popped up on the computer, slowly becoming clearer as some programs were initiated in the background.

"How did you find her?" Kazuya whispered to her mentor.

"Kamui's one of the top hackers in the country, probably the world. She's on house arrest for stealing government funds, but we caught her tricking online delivery websites into thinking she was paying. Stole thousands of dollars worth of fast food," Mirko explained blatantly, brushing the glass off the couch so she could sit.

"She was the one who arrested me. I do her favours, she brings me McDonald's," Kamui eyed the hero through her peripherals. Before Kazuya could comment, the laptop beeps loudly and draws all of their attention to the screen. The image was finally cleared and the woman's face was in full view. Wine-red hair framing sharp attractive features that are accented by dark eye makeup and lipstick. The woman was rather stunning.

As Kamui continued to type, a second panel opened, matching the woman's face to dozens of others on the internet. It was a matter of seconds before it came up with a match. Kazuya couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity that came from the woman's face and last name of Aishi but couldn't place where she recognized it.

"Aishi Takako. Thirty-six. Residence is unknown and no prior felonies, but she was fired for stealing company documents. Reported missing after her sister hadn't heard from her in months," Mirko read aloud the woman's file, as brief as it was.

"Her last place of employment was Imai Labs. Five years ago," Kamui finished. She and Mirko turned to Kazuya, who had already pieced together where she remembered the woman from.

"She worked…for my dad. She was stealing files and…" her mumbles trailed off as she vaguely recalled seeing Aishi during one of her few trips into her father's workspace to see his more animated inventions. Aishi must have worked closely with him on the amalgamation projects, as he always said they were on a strict need-to-know basis until trials were completed. What other files could she have stolen? Everything else – the hero suit augmentations, the body modifications, implants, catalogues of various surgeries (heroic and civilian) – would have done her no good. It was all fairly public if you did enough digging.

"Wait, look at her quirk registration," Mirko noted, pointing to the quirk section of the profile.

"Quirk: Fire Resistance? I was certain she was the one who brainwashed the chameleon…" Kazuya sighed in her stupor. She could've been wrong. She did jump to conclusions after that banker witness spoke up, but she was so certain.

"She has to have a partner somewhere. If we find her, we can find them," Mirko spoke with a determined tone, although her smile had fallen and her face fixed in a concentrative frown.

"Can you leave now? My food should be here soon and I want to eat alone," Kamui asked with an annoyed tone while closing the computer. Mirko raised her hands defensively and backed away.

After apologising to Kamui profusely for the interruption, Kazuya followed her mentor out of the apartment. Still reeling from the identification of Aishi, she leaned against the wall and clutched her head. She was missing something and her gut was telling her her father was involved.

"Are you okay?" Mirko asked, worried-struck expression carefully monitoring her pupil.

"Yeah, I'm just…confused," she admitted as she took a deep breath. There was no excuse for a lapse in judgement now. "We need to find Aishi," she said sternly.

"If she's left out this much information about herself for the public to find, she's found somewhere to hide. Our first step is figuring out as much as we can about her from her acquaintances," Mirko suggested as she ran a hand through her alabaster hair. Kazuya knew she found no joy in asking for help, but they had no other options.

"I've got connections," she frowned, opening her phone and pressing the redial button.

"Look at you, learning already," the bunny hero nudged her with an elbow. Kazuya's cheeks flushed as she waited for the first ring to pass, then the second, then the third…

Turning away from her mentor slightly, Kazuya lowered her voice and spoke, "I need a favour."

•

•

"I thought I told you not to call me? That I'd contact you?" Taigen muttered into the receiver of his disposable phone. These burner phones are living up to their names.

"I need information and you're the only one we can ask," his daughter huffed in defiance. It was sweet that she had thought of him first but what kind of information did she need that only he could provide? Surely it had nothing to do with the League…

"Who is we?" he asked with brows furrowed from worry.

There was a slight moment of hesitation from the girl, "My new mentor and I." Taigen had been through one hero-in-training before and knew what "mentor" meant at this point in her studies.

"It's a bit early to be sending you into the field, isn't it? What is that school doing?" he wondered aloud with unrestricted annoyance. Sighing, the blue-haired man sat up from the desk he was hunched over and popped his stiff joints back to life.

"They figured we'd be ready after handling real villains," she explained shortly and he winced. He had forced her to grow up much too fast, and for that he was sorry.

"Well, anyway, what can I do for you, Sweetheart?" her father asked as he stood up and walked to his bedroom door, poking his head out to make sure the coast was clear. He was home alone, lucky for her.

"Aishi Takako."

"What about her?"

"She's a suspect in a bank robbery," Kazuya answered swiftly. Taigen knew she was holding back but didn't blame her. Aishi Takako was a name he hadn't thought about in a long time, but he seriously doubted she was the type to rob a bank, let alone confront professional heroes.

"I didn't know too much about her personal life. Her work files, including the ones she stole, are all copied onto a secure platform in my old work computer," he scratched at his head as he spoke, riffling through his thoughts for any valuable info.

"Then we'll meet you there," Kazuya concluded, leaving her father stunned.

"S-Spitfire, that building is condemned. The government shut it down after I lost funding and your sister…" his voice trailed off for a good reason.

"I know, but they left a lot of the equipment inside, right? Plus, you know how to get in without being detected," she spoke with a hint of excitement behind her serious tone.

"I don't know, kid…It's still dangerous. If you get caught just talking to me, your hero career could be over and l – "

"Have you had contact with her after she was fired?" Kazuya interrupted.

"No, of course not. Her main job was safety coordinator, but she assisted with every facet of the research and experimentation processes as well. She was incredibly bright, which was why I was shocked she was stealing documents to sell to competing companies," Taigen answered.

"She was at the bank robbery, Dad. She disappeared into the shadows, just like your group did at the USJ," she whispered the second sentence. Her father didn't know of any new recruits. From his understanding, they were scouting but no one had been good enough yet. If Aishi was indeed a possible addition to the League, he needed to keep his daughter as far away from her as possible.

"Fine," he caved, "but if I take you, you cannot seek her out yourself. I'll get you info, but let your hero friend take care of the rest, got it?"

Yes, sir," came the automatic reply he was hoping for. Now, all he needed to do was get her to keep her word.

The two had agreed to meet in Iwata in the dead of night. Taigen felt a heavy sense of dread in his heart being so close to his old home. His old life. Imai Labs was an hour away from his family. Maybe he could pop in and check on the house, even see how Elena was faring without him. She was strong, no doubt, that's why he married her, but she wasn't invincible. His leaving hurt everyone and he understood it but it was a necessary damage.

His immediate panic as a cop car passed his hiding place reminded him of the reality of his situation. He slunk behind a cement pillar in the back of the building as the car lights briefly slid over his darkened eyes. What he wouldn't give to have everything be okay again…

"Dad," came a soft voice from behind him. Turning his gaze over his shoulder, he narrowed his eyes at the bunny-eared hero next to his daughter.

"What's up, Doc?" she beamed.

"I thought I said to come alone," he spoke in a low tone as he dipped a hand into his pocket, fishing for his metal pellets.

"Relax, we just need info on Aishi," Mirko held her hands up in surrender. Taigen sighed and became slightly less tense.

"The easiest way in without detection is through the parking garage entrance. The stairs there never had working security cameras and I doubt this place is under much surveillance anymore," he explained, eyeing the nearby car park. He turned and began walking, the edges of his tattered lab coat fluttering behind him. The top half of his dark blue hair was pulled up, leaving his tired but alert eyes exposed.

He led the group to the staircase and used his quirk to silently unlock the door. Once inside, the trio rushed up the stairs and, despite Taigen's protests, Mirko kicked in the next set of doors they came to. She stepped into the building first, earning a glare of disapproval from the doctor. Kazuya followed her without question and he latched on to his daughter's hand.

"Be careful. Please." The two shared an intense look before Kazuya nodded and continued onward. When she noticed he wasn't following, she turned once more. He shook his head, "Too painful."

It had been a little over a year since he had been in Imai Labs. After watching Kagami's abduction video, he refused to come back. The government shut the building down after his research lost funding and he denied any assistance. He had plenty of money to live off, yeah, but not enough to keep the lab running for longer than two weeks. He simply left his dreams to die because why should he have to piece things back together? Life was horribly unfair and his shattered family, a failed career, and twisted society were all testaments to that.

His eyes stayed glued to Kazuya for the first few minutes as they searched the empty cages, open files, and discarded equipment, all of which seemed fairly clean from his place in the doorway. Someone was still running this place, it was obvious. He knew dozens of rival companies and individuals alike that wanted to own his developments, but were any of them willing to go to such drastic measures? And how was Aishi involved?

He had theories, but no concrete answer. Every idea he came up with posed a new threat to him or his family. Watching Kazuya disappear into his office, he held a bated breath and prayed to whoever would listen that she'd just walk away from the building and her mentor would commend her attempts. Go home. Stay safe.

Without another word, he used his quirk to sneak back out the door they came in from and disappeared into the night. Shigaraki would be back soon, and he couldn't be seen parading around with heroes. He couldn't put his daughter in danger.

•

•

Finding her father's old work computer, Kazuya pressed the power button in one last-ditch effort to recollect an old memory. To her surprise, the dusty screen lit up, revealing an old family photo as his lock screen. Mirko approached from behind.

"I thought there was no power directed to the building anymore," she hummed with eyes widened from shock.

"Someone's keeping this place running," Kazuya concluded as she searched the online files that had yet to be wiped from the computer. She pulled up his "confidential" employee contracts and information sheets, the password stupidly being set to the digits of both her and her sister's birthdays.

She sat in his ancient swivel chair that had pleaded for death long before the company shut down and began scanning each name on the list until she came to Aishi. The basic information that they already knew was provided first. Then, came an address and employment records, followed by her last company termination.

"Accessed unauthorised files and attempted to add Case Studies 76, 35, and 54 to a personal hard drive," Mirko read the reason for termination section of Aishi's file. Kazuya's gaze hardened at the final line.

"Possible infiltration of Project Gashadokuro."

"What's that?" she asked no one in particular as she kept her eyes on the screen to find any other hints of this hidden project. She recognized the "Case Study" term as the amalgamations her father used to create. He said they rarely ever went far after the initial experiment was performed. Of course, that was followed by them both having to chase one down to the forest near her and Hitoshi's favourite park...conveniently located near a Gashadokuro statue.

"Something's not right," Kazuya thought aloud as she searched whatever files she could get into for any information involving Project Gashadokuro.

"There," Mirko pointed to a heavily encrypted folder marked "PG". Kazuya swallowed hard, not wanting to witness whatever it was her father had wanted to bury away from the world.

As Mirko dialled Kamui's number to help crack whatever technical bullshit that kept them from accessing the file, Kazuya bit her nails in anticipation. No way was she about to uncover some secret plan her father kept hidden all this time. She hoped it was just research for prosthetics and hero modifications because making yet another outlandish discovery that would shake her to her very core was not good for her blood pressure. Breathing in deep, shallow breaths, she listened as Mirko gave her father's IP address to Kamui, then watched a small, 8-bit, purple dragon dance across the screen before gnawing away at digital "chains" that kept the documents sealed. Once opened, the little dragon exploded and Kamui hung up.

Immediately, photos of her father's experiments began to pop up on the screen. All at once, before and after images of the amalgamated creatures he used to show off to his daughters like they were pets. Mirko's face paled as she scrolled past a particularly heartbreaking photo of a rabbit with a metal contraption on its back, similar to a spider's legs, that helped its mobility. The common theme between many of the creatures was their resemblance to mythological creatures. She remembered M1LK and all the other experiments following that same design, as well as how lifeless and hollow they looked, but to see the process…?

Kazuya regretted her untamed curiosity the moment she opened a video labelled "Surgery_22". Little was left to the imagination as M1LK's creation was replayed on the screen. As the combination of the animals was completed with one last suture, in true Victor Frankenstein fashion, a small electrical shock was applied to the "husk" as her father's voice-over called it. After a beat of silence, small bones cracked and popped as the creature stood up, skeleton remobilizing after rigour mortis had begun to settle in.

Kazuya was unable to watch the rest after one of the stitches came loose and blood seeped through matted fur. She felt searing heat rise in her stomach and throat, then turned and pushed past Mirko to find a trashcan to vomit in. Conveniently right outside the door, she dropped to the floor and emptied her stomach into the bin. She could still hear her father's haunting voice in the next room until Mirko shakily shut the computer down. With the only notable sound in the building gone, all that was left to fill the space was the laboured breathing of one traumatised blue-haired girl. Was her father as evil as everyone believed?

She remembered the way he talked to her at the USJ before identifying her. His voice was cold, calculating, and uncaring, just like in the Surgery_22 video. That was a side to him she had never wished to see, yet it was still him. The Mad Scientist, The Doctor, the evil bastard, whatever names people were calling him after his role in the USJ attack was revealed were true. Her father was dangerous. Imai Taigen was evil.

"He's hurt you before and he'll do it again," an unfamiliar voice echoed in her ear. It sounded as if someone were whispering to her, yet speaking from her mind all at once. "Look at what he's done to us. He deserves to lose everything." Us? What was she thinking?

Her head spun and she wanted to throw up again. Her shoulders tensed when she felt cold fingers wrap around her arms, sharp nails digging into her shoulders until blood was drawn. She needed to escape. She recognized the danger, yet the world grew dark around her and she was lulled further and further away from consciousness.

Get up, she pleaded with herself.

"Kid? Are you alright?" Mirko asked, voice distant. Kazuya tried to scream for help, but no words would come.

"Sleep, daughter of evil," the unfamiliar voice shushed as she was finally ejected from her own body.