Chapter 42

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"I am not pleased." With heavy steps, the leader of the group, Ace, came to her side. "Do you know what Hawks did? He just stormed one of my warehouses. Thought you were there, I guess. Well, you weren't." He knelt in front of her and pinched her chin hard. "Now you have to take his place, I've lost a lot because of him." He looked around and waved to some men. "Beat the shit out of her. I still have work to do. Give me good results." As if as a sign, he launched into the first kick. He hit her squarely in the jaw, throwing her head back violently. The other men were no kinder. They kicked and punched, nothing else. Blows to the head, to the pit of the stomach. Kicks to her legs or even her ribs. She didn't want to lose consciousness, didn't want to give the men the victory. Even though her vision was blurred and everything was so far away, she kept her eyes open and her mouth pressed shut. "Show me." She hadn't noticed that Ace was back. He smiled when he saw her. "How are we doing? Is that how you think Hawks will meet our demands?" She lifted her head weakly and stared at him. Though her body gave up, her mind remained alert and ready to fight. "What are your demands anyway?" "Ohh, sweet of you to ask. We want Hawks to disappear as a hero. Not only should he give up his job, he should show everyone that heroes don't bring hope, only despair. Our demand was that if he kills himself publicly, we'll let you go free." She had to process the shock first. "That just goes to show that he's arrogant and selfish, doesn't it?" He just laughed while Kaede was still thinking. They were threatening Hawks. They threatened him with Kaede's life, with her death. It was his life or hers and they both knew which decision they would make. "You still think he'll come to kick our asses?" Her eyes filled with tears. Her whole body felt numb, so she couldn't even control her eyes. "Oh, don't cry! Do you think he will let you die? Don't you think he, heroic as he is, will die for you?" "I am not afraid to die." She gasped and spat blood as she tried to activate her Quirk. "I'm not someone to sacrifice for." The men looked around agitatedly as someone was already approaching with another syringe. "I'm afraid he'll sacrifice himself." She activated her Quirk. She had no control over it under the pain, and it was not a wide radius, but her Quirk acted on its own. Cracks formed in the floor and walls. Debris began to fall above them as well. Ace came running towards her. "Stop that!" "I can't do anything, you have to touch the binding seal on my wrist." He bought this hasty lie from her. In his panic, he didn't think about what he was doing. He pulled out a key and undid the chains around her wrists. " Where-" She smacked him in the face with her fist. A weak blow after which she lost her balance and fell over, held back by her ankle chains. "You little bitch." Ace hissed at her, the hatred in his voice almost touchable. Kaede didn't know what was happening, but the screams around her had died down. "At least I'm standing here with you, where nothing can happen to me. " He pulled her close as if she were a shield. Did he think her Quirk would make an exception for her? This one didn't. The pillar crumbled and fell, as if magnetically attracted, straight towards Kaede and Ace. Kaede smiled as the shadow fell over them both, Ace on the other hand dropped her, trying to get away. The pillar fell on Ace. Irony of fate. Kaede scrambled towards him as every bone in her body ached. She looked for the keys to the chains, but he had apparently lost them. Instead, she found a mobile phone. With his fingerprint, she unlocked it. First she entered Hawk's number, but the call did not go out. Then she tried the police. Same thing. Desperate, she crawled further away from the body with the mobile phone. "There must be something..." As more debris fell, she rolled away, but suddenly the chain was jammed by something and at the limit. Instead of hitting her entire body, the debris partially caught her chest and legs. She cried out in pain, her breathing shallow and the warmth disappearing from her body. She had to find a solution. If she didn't contact Hawks, he might kill himself after all, even though she was already out of danger. Hope sparkled in her eyes as she found an app. She opened the app and logged in with her account. The group chat of this app also worked very well without internet. The group chat of the 1A. She pressed contact.


There are 19 other students in the chat and none of them picked up. Desperate, she pressed again and again and again. She didn't even know what time it was, but someone had to answer the call. "Stop fucking ringing all the time! If you want to say something, do it tomorrow, you fucking idiot!" She exhaled in relief, but immediately regretted it. Her lungs contracted and her ribs throbbed as she tried to catch her breath. All she could do was cough. "Kaede?" She didn't answer, she couldn't right now. "Weren't you on patrol with Hawks? You were gone for quite a while and now you call in the middle of the night? When are you coming?" She glanced at the clock, which said something like three, before trying to speak. Her voice was very quiet, squeezed under a boulder. "I... I'm not coming." Shakily, she took a gulp of air. "Not yet... I still have to-" A volley of coughs interrupted her. "Kaede, what the fuck is happening? Are you all right? Where's Hawks?" "Just tack... track the phone. Tell Aizawa... Tell Hawks... he'll find me." She mumbled half-asleep into the phone while Katsuki shouted again, but she already didn't hear it. A tone sounded as if someone else had joined the call too. The second person said something, but Kaede was no longer listening. She just breathed into the receiver. The only sign of life she could give. Her ragged breaths, which were audibly weaker and came at longer intervals.


...


Kaede was lying in a pool of blood. The loss of blood also caused the drug to disappear from her system and she was able to use her Quirk again. She suppressed the pain and her feelings. She had to do it to survive. She lay there with her eyes open, staring at the broken ceiling. It didn't feel long before she heard loud noises. "Debris! Everywhere!" "Do you see them?" "There's no one here to fight, they're all buried, we have to find Kaede." "I'm here." She raised her arm and waved. Aizawa slipped on the rubble as he went to join her, but Hawks was with her in one leap across the room, staring at her. "What have you done?" "Nothing, I-" She was silent as he pushed the rock off her. They both looked at her wounds, which were deep. Torn and crushed flesh, open bones and not a single spark of pain read on her face. "Don't do that! You know it's dangerous!" "No! I don't want to feel this!" "You've felt worse. We'll patch you up! The longer you suppress it, the worse it gets" "No, it's my-" Aizawa took the decision from her by suppressing her Quirk. She felt as if half her body was suddenly missing. A high-pitched scream rang out as hawks caught her. Her head against his chest as he brought her out. "You found me." "I found you." She lost consciousness. "Maybe she should have waited until she was really taken care of." "Every second counts."

...


The only students who knew what had happened that night were Fumikage, Katsuki and Denki. When Kaede had been dismissed and she had cleared everything with Hawks and Aizawa, the three were already waiting to hear her explanations. They asked her if everything was okay, if she was well and she answered the same thing she had told Hawks and Aizawa: "I'm fine, don't worry." When she was in her room, she stood in the empty room. The room was not empty, there were still her shelves, her bed, her books, her violin and everything she loved, but it felt empty and it felt cold and sterile. She didn't dare take a step further into the room, but paused at the door and sank down against it. After being treated at the hospital, she had not seen Keigo or Aizawa first, but Midnight and Joke. Kaede could read from their serious expressions that she was not going to like the topic of conversation. They had asked her in what way the kidnappers had dealt with her. What they had done to her. Kaede did not tell everything. She told about the things that had happened to her body, not her mind. Because her spirit was something fragile, she had to protect it even if it meant hiding it from the people who mattered most to her. Her body was covered in bandages and her wounds and injuries had been treated with creams. She should have stayed there, but she hated hospitals. Anything was better than lying in a hospital. She didn't like it in her room, at least not right now. She slipped out into the corridor, down the stairs, outside onto the lawn, then into another wing of the building. She went to the teachers' living quarters until she reached Eri's room. Fortunately, the girl was fast asleep, because Kaede would not have liked to explain herself. She lay down in bed with Eri and snuggled close to the little girl. As close as if she were her rock, the only thing keeping her from drowning while the whole world sank into chaos.

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