Isao was a simple man.
He worked long hours at his job and got a decent sized check for it.
It was rather hard to find people to become guards at Tartarus and the dangers of the job did not make it immensely popular.
And that was not even touching on the grounds of Tartarus itself, which had constantly had three different aerosolized anti-quirk drugs pumped into the air to keep the prisoners from using their quirks if they somehow avoided the daily injections or got out of the quirk cuffs.
There was also the physical and mental evals were intense, if you passed the family interviews first of course.
But Isao as a single child to dead parents, with no partners or friends, with an eye-color quirk had managed to pass and had been working as one of the guards for a couple of decades now.
He was a simple man after all and was quite happy with his small apartment along the bay and surfing on his days off.
Living well within his means and splurging only on his birthday to get a new board occasionally or a nice meal at a pleasant restaurant.
All of these things meant that Isao was often overlooked by the higher-ups in Tartarus, in favor of keeping an eye on trouble-making co-workers or promoting the suck ups.
And in being such a simple man, no one would ever think that he would be one of the smugglers in the prison.
But Isao was factually the main smuggler of Tartarus.
Not of drugs, no he would not risk his simple life or decent pay on drugs.
Instead, he brought things out of the prison, tokens of the prisoners to be more specific.
It was surprisingly a large and profitable market and there was decent money in it, was it worth his trouble to ask why some person wanted to have the scales of some S-class villain that was a cannibal?
No, he was but a simple man and if they were willing to pay for it, he would see if he could find a way to grab a few.
His dealer was also a simple man, gave no names and talked to him exclusively through a mental link quirk that only needed to be re-established once a month which was easily done during his daily exercise on one of his days off.
As for his payment for such elicit actions, well his pay was happily donated to the various Saints programs since as long as he is not caught, he would be looking at a nice retirement plan. Living over on one of the south pacific islands in the future and as a simple man he did not need more money than what he was currently earning.
So, when he was getting ready for work one morning, he was not surprised to have his dealer contact him, the request was not particularly odd either.
Hair was a common collectible from the market, he had sold a lot of it over the years.
No, it was the person who the hair was from that was the problem.
One Tsutsumi Kaina, was a high-level prisoner kept with the SS-class villains and had a lot more security on her than most as a former hero.
And her hair was known for making weapons so its length was constantly monitored, so grabbing a lock would not be easy.
The payout, however, was easily going to be twenty times the normal rate and that would do a lot of kids a lot of good.
So, Isao, the simple man he was, found a way around to snag a hair or two.
Unlike some prisons there was no interaction between prisoners so he could not wait for another prisoner to yank some out for him.
But his co-workers could' talk' him into taking over grooming duties for the week. It was unprompted, and he was fine waiting, but who was he to refuse?
Which was how two days later he ended up being the one cutting Tsutsumi's hair that week instead of the next month like the rotation would have dictated.
The woman's hair grew extremely fast as a part of her quirk, so cutting it weekly was needed even with the anti-quirk drugs.
He remained professional as he cut her hair to the short bob that was required.
Slipping one or two hairs in various places in the grooming room and on his person and disposing of the rest in the incinerator as policy.
Collecting a total of ridiculously small lock of hair over the course of two weeks, just shy of twenty-five hairs but that was enough for the client and Isao prepared the lock to be collected later in the week on his day off.
Leaving the lock of hair in a wrapper he threw away on his daily run as discussed between his dealer, knowing it would be collected later and went on with his life.
Isao was a simple man by the end of the day.
"Eighty-two."
"Seventy-nine."
"Eighty."
"Eighty-three."
"Eighty-two."
Kaina sighed and turned to lay on her back and stared at the ceiling ready to count the tiles up there instead of her heart rate.
"One, two, three... "
"Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen."
Then there was silence as she lay in her cell on her bed.
Alone.
Always alone.
It was strange, the things loneliness could do to someone.
Her many years of it had really sunk some truths into her, including how empty her life had been for so long.
It still was, but she simply had not realized how hollow she was with the commission running her around like a dog.
She had not spoken meaningfully with her parents in years.
Did not have a partner to make her feel loved.
And she had not had a friend for years, not since she joined the commission and...
Part of her wanted tears to spring up as she thought of her stupid actions in the past, but she had long stopped crying over her situation.
It never did her any good.
Kaina rolled over again facing the wall, the padding of her cell wall the color of beige and faded from time.
The color was bland and unappealing, but it was not grey, and she could not stand looking at the ceiling for much longer.
She remembered when the thought of falling into madness would have scared her, back when she was first locked up so many years ago.
She had still been in denial then, that someone would stand up and defend her, maybe one of the employees of the commission would finally step forward and confess, that one of her co-workers would prove her innocence.
Days in lock up turned to weeks and she became angry, damning everyone in her life for letting this happen to her, for not exposing the bastards in the commission and leaving her to rot in prison while a poor kid was being brainwashed into being a killer like she was.
After a month though she began pleading with anyone who would listen that she was wrongfully convicted, that the commission was corrupt and there was a young boy in grave danger.
But her words all fell on deaf ears for month, after month, after month.
She was not exactly sure when she finally moved onto the fourth stage of grief, perhaps a year? Two? Time had a way of slipping from you in a place like Tartarus.
And now, she numbly laid in her room and counted, tiles and her heartbeat in order to keep from losing what little was left in her sanity.
Acceptance that she was going to spend the rest of her life in this cell was not so much a comfort as it was a drug.
Time and places, people losing all meaning to her as she came to accept how pointless her struggles were in the face of people like the commission that had enough power, money, and respect to bury her.
She might as well have been screaming into a void, it would do her just as much good.
She wished she could muster up the energy to feel a smidge of anguish with that thought.
But she was so, so tired.
Some days she felt like she was too tired to even breathe, as if the air in her lungs weighed more than lead and that even one more breath would bring her crashing to the ground if she were not laying down.
If too many of those days happened in a row, she was normally put on suicide watch because she could not bring herself to eat the gruel, they brought her.
And on those days, she would feel... something.
Her thoughts often wandered back to a woman she once saved from her abusive wife during those times.
Wondering if this was what that woman felt and was why the woman could not pull herself away from her wife even though the woman beat her bloody some days.
As horrible as the pain was, was it better than this numbness? The loneliness so suffocating that even someone so toxic would feel like a breath of fresh air.
Maybe.
If it were, Kaina would not say she could blame the woman.
Anything was better than this crushing weight of nothingness.
Finally, after an hour of thinking herself into the same hole she always did every night Kaina's eyes began to weigh heavily, and she slipped into the blissful haze of unconsciousness.
Expecting another night to be blinked away in what felt like seconds.
Instead, though, her eyes opened, and she found herself in a void, surrounded by black inky darkness on all sides.
Kaina, a bit listless, blinked and slowly pushed herself to sit upright and look around herself.
Then, for the first time in years she spotted something green, a color she had not seen so vibrant in years sat on a young boy's head.
Kaina blinked again, the movement slow and sluggish as she looked the boy over.
Black freckles and a healthy glow to his tanned skin, his dark green eyes wide and doe like paired with his kind smile.
"Am... I dead?" Kaina asked, unable to place the boy that stood in front of her.
She could have just forgotten him but there was this feeling in the air that just... she did not think this was a dream, it could not be.
It felt too real.
"No Tsutsumi-San, you're not dead... just sleeping." the boy's voice was just as gentle and kind sounding as he looked; the boy knelt down and reached his hands out to her, offering to help her up.
Kaina stared at him.
"Who are you?" Kaina questioned.
The boy smiled "I'm a friend of a friend." he replied.
The smallest whisp of confusion fluttered in her mind.
"A friend?" Kaina repeated.
Perhaps guessing she would not be taking his hand up, he instead sat down in front of her, his legs Chris-cross.
"Yes, you remember Raven, don't you?" he asked back, his head tilted.
Kaina's heart stopped.
Her mouth suddenly felt dry and it fell open to speak but words did not come out.
"Raven?" she whispered, her entire body trembling and tears building up in her eyes.
Would she really...
Even after their fight? And all of those years of no contact with her either would Raven...
The boy nodded his head, reaching into his hair and pulling out a single black feather with a white tip.
One that looked exactly like the ones that Raven started growing during middle-school.
The air was knocked out of her chest, and she started sniffling, a wave of emotion overcoming her as she began sobbing, her hand coming up to cup her mouth as she hunched over.
Raven was still out there? And she cared enough to send someone to speak with her on her behalf?
Raven still cared?
Did she get her call?
Did she believe her?
Thoughts swirled in her mind, and she desperately wanted to voice her questions, but she was too busy reeling to find her voice.
The arms of the boy wrapped around her, and he gently stroked her hair. Kaina froze, then she wrapped her trembling arms around the boy.
Her mind overwhelmed by sights, smells, and sounds that she had not grown numb to over the last decade.
Deep and striking greens, the smell of strawberries and coconut from the boy's hair and the beat of a heart and breathing that was not her own.
And the warmth of another person.
It was all too much for her.
"Tsutsumi," The boy softly called her "Raven wanted me to tell you that she's sorry for leaving you here for so long, and she just needs you to wait for her a little longer." the boy told her.
*Waiting? Waiting for what?* Kaina thought confused.
Raven would not try to break her out of Tartarus...
Would she?
"Just wait a couple more years Tsutsumi, and we'll have your charges overturned and you'll be free to walk the streets again." the boy promised her.
Kaina's breath caught in her throat.
"H-How-" Kaina hardly muttered to choke out.
"We found him Tsutsumi, the boy you tried to save... His name is Tamaki Keigo and he's going to help us expose the commission." the boy answered her question even though she wasn't able to finish it.
The memory of red wings and young blonde boy smiling so wide as he ate an ice cream cone flashed through her mind.
His name was Keigo?
"When this is all over, he wants to apologize to you Tsutsumi, he knows you were just trying to save him now." he continued to say, making the tears fall from her face even faster than before.
"He... ?" Kaina could not even finish her sentence, and the boy held her even closer.
"I can't stay for much longer Tsutsumi, but please remember this, there are people out there waiting for you, and can't wait for the day you'll finally be free again." the boy confidently told her.
Kaina did not want him to go, she had more questions that she needed to ask, but as cotton filled her mind she was blinking back to the real world before she understood what was happening.
Kaina laid there staring at the wall for a moment, tears silently falling down her shocked face and remaining motionless on her bed.
Wondering if that had really just happened?
Was that boy real?
Had Raven really been working in the shadows to free her?
With a strength that had long since been stripped from her pushed herself up and turned to the tiny window high up on the wall that she could not dream of looking outside of, and the first trickles of morning light started to come in.
She felt... something deep inside her chest flare just a tiny bit.
Kaina's hands clenched, and she wet her lips.
A very small, ever so tiny sprout of hope started to take root in her heart.
As she hoped, beyond hope that the dream she just had was not some bout of hysteria and that maybe, just maybe, Raven was out there and working to get her out of here.
She did not think her heart could take it if she were wrong.