Monster

6 | Interrogations and Explorations

He smiled. "She's the nurse in this place. She made sure we were okay. That you were okay."

"I'm okay?" I asked.

He nodded again. "She treated most of our wounds too."

"S-So.." I thought back to the Overhaul theory. I still didn't know where he was and it was making me anxious. "Wh-Where's Overhaul?"

Tenko held my other hand. "Somewhere called Tartarus. Apparently it's a secure prison, so he won't be able to get us."

I sighed, releasing a breath I hadn't known I was holding. Overhaul, Chisaki, Kai, he wouldn't get us. He couldn't hurt us anymore. He couldn't hurt Tenko anymore. I wouldn't have to go through that anymore.

Tears leaked out of my eyes like a broken faucet. We were finally free from it all. All the pain, all the needles, all the injections. We were free. And it felt nice.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" Tenko started wiping away my tears with his thumb, concern written in his gaze.

I tried to smile at him, tears still rolling down my cheeks. "We're finally free."

"Oh, Zu.." He leaned forward, wrapping his arms around me. He brought me into a hug, pulling me forward.

It was nice. It felt warm. It felt safe.

"Zu, I promise we'll never have to go through that again."

I buried my head into his neck, nodding. Maybe, just maybe, we'd be safe after all these years. That sounded nice.

"I hope we aren't interrupting anything."

I hid behind Tenko, staring at the two adults. They were sitting on the chairs beside us, one holding a notebook while the other fiddled with their scarf. The notebook holder was wearing brown clothing, while the other wore all black.

"I'm Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi," the notebook holder introduced. "We just want to ask a few questions regarding your previous situation."

"Okay," Tenko agreed, wrapping a protective arm around me.

He smiled. "Alright, first question. What are your names?"

"I'm Tenko and this is Zu, but Overhaul calls me One and Zu, Two."

He nodded, writing it down. "Next question, do you remember how old you are?"

Tenko shook his head. "Overhaul erased our memories when we were taken. I think it was some sort of memory quirk his underlings had."

He nodded again, continuing to write things down. "How long were you kept there?"

"We don't remember. I remember I was in my double digits when we got there, but I don't know how long it's been." He looked down. "Sorry."

He wrote that down too. "Alright, do you feel comfortable sharing what Overhaul did to you both?"

I looked up at Tenko nervously. What if Overhaul found out we told someone? Would he take us back? Would he do worse? I didn't want to go through that again. I couldn't go through that again. It was too much.

I still remembered all the pain. All those experiments. The smiles those scientists wore as I screamed and writhed in pain. It was all still fresh in my mind, playing on loop, constantly getting louder with each memory.

"Zu," Tenko rubbed circles on my back. "You're okay. It's okay." he whispered. He looked up at the detective as I rested my head against his side. "Overhaul used us both differently. For me, he'd take my blood, always saying I was making him money with my quirk. He also occasionally made me use my quirk on things, improving it so he could use it better for his "project". For Zu," he ruffled my hair, "he used to take his blood as well. Then, when that wasn't working, he began giving him new quirks through injections. Most of the time, the solutions didn't work."

He continued writing things down, discussing some things quietly with the hobo. Tenko just continued trying to reassure me, rubbing circles on my back as I curled into his side. I didn't want to think about those memories anymore. I wanted them to disappear. I didn't want to go through that anymore. It was too much.

"Zu, it's okay." Tenko whispered. "You're safe."

I nodded into his side, reaching a hand up to grip tightly onto his shirt. I'd be fine if I knew Tenko was with me.

"Alright, since you both have lost your memories, would you be willing to do a DNA test?" the detective asked.

"Does.. does it have to be blood?" I asked anxiously.

He shook his head. "It can be hair, skin, spit. Even a fingerprint could do. We just need anything biologically related to you."

"I think we'll just do the hair option." My brother agreed.

"Tenko, what's that?" I pointed at a device someone had up to their ear.

We were walking the halls of U.A High School to get used to the grounds. Eraserhead thought it'd do us good, especially as we hadn't seen the outside world in so long. I was walking beside Tenko, holding his hand tightly.

Eraserhead and Recovery Girl had been nice enough to provide me with some clothes rather than walk around in fresh bandages. It was mostly short-sleeved clothing and shorts, but he had also found some old hoodies for us to wear when Tenko asked.

"Hm?" He looked at the device. He stared at it for a few seconds before looking up at the man. "Eraserhead, what is that? I don't remember." He smiled sheepishly.

He looked over. "That's a phone. You can use it to contact people, play games or browse the internet."

I saw something else. It was a stack of paper on the wall with a bunch of symbols and colours on it. "Eraserhead, sir, what's that?"

He looked over. "That's a calendar. People use it to see the date and write down events for the week, sometimes months in advance."

I nodded as we continued walking. A blue-haired girl using a thing full of paper caught my eye. Though, I couldn't shake the feeling that she looked exactly like that one scientist.

"Sir, what's that?" I asked, pointing again.

He looked at it. "That's a book. It's like the detective's notebook, except it's mostly made-up content. People like to read them for enjoyment." He looked back at us. "How much do you remember about the outside world?"

"Zu remembers nearly nothing except my name. I remember a few things, but that's it. Overhaul erased our memories the moment we got there and didn't allow us out of the room except for experimentation sessions." Tenko explained. "He didn't allow us anything in the room, saying it was too risky and we could get "ideas". The only thing we'd have in there was the occasional plates of food the underlings brought us."

"Occasional?" the hero questioned.

"Yeah. We're only allowed food every three days." he explained. "Isn't that normal?" He tilted his head in confusion.

Eraserhead stopped, facing us. "No. They shouldn't have done that."

"Then, what is normal?" I asked, tilting my head as well.

He sighed. "Children your age should be having three meals a day."

"O-Oh.." I mumbled, looking down.

Tenko squeezed my hand. I stood closer to him, resting my head against his side. I was beginning to grow tired. We hadn't stood up for this long in a while, always sitting on the floor to avoid stumbling around in the dark. I usually passed out from the experiments too, so I never walked through the door bravely like Tenko did.

"Eraserhead, sir?" The hero looked up from his phone. "Can you show us our dorm? Zu's pretty tired from all the walking."

He put his phone away. "Alright, follow me."