SSD V: Aizawa

121. The Bad Things Come

It was meant to be peaceful. A perfectly calm Saturday evening. But that was how it was always going to be. Nobody planned for this stuff.

Hizashi and Eri had gone shopping, and they decided they should bring Hitoshi outside before he hibernated on Sunday— a mixture of cold weather and insomnia did that sometimes. Silver was allowed to remain at home but only because she had homework from Rat-Bear and looking at it always made Hizashi's head spin.

Then some kind of horn started blaring so loud Silver snapped her pencil in half and had to slap her hands over her ears. Glad Nezu had yet to fill the rest of the apartment blocks with tenants who would be furious with the noise, Silver's eyes darted the room, searching for a device capable of this kind of volume.

Then Hizashi's phone managed to vibrate itself off the table. Of course he would have a phone loud enough to wake the dead, of course he would manage to leave it behind while he went shopping (he hadn't even said which shop he was going to so it wasn't like she could go get him), of course he would leave Silver alone to try to figure out what had happened and how to make it stop.

The phone had landed on the carpet face down, light on the back flashing blindingly bright in a repetitive pattern. She was going to have to get close to make it stop. Of all the moments this could've happened, why not when the man who was near-deaf was here? As it was, she was going to be near-deaf by the end of this.

She darted forward, shoulders up by her ears, and she flipped the phone over before throwing herself back. Her head was starting to pound with the blaring.

Her heart dropped through her stomach.

The words 'SOS Aizawa Shouta' sat there innocently, bold and bright against the black background. Three little words.

Three little letters.

Suddenly her head wasn't pounding. Suddenly the horn didn't matter. Suddenly she should've demanded to know more about the stupid mission he didn't even want to go on but was doing anyway. Suddenly her dad was in danger and the most illogical course of action was thrumming through her muscles.

But no. She couldn't do that. Couldn't be that. There was danger, yes, danger that she could help. She knew how to handle that. She could do this. She'd done this a hundred times. Someone was in trouble, and they were calling for help.

She had to be smart or she wouldn't be help. She tapped the phone screen, an acknowledgement of the SOS, and sent a text to Hitoshi with her own phone. Hopefully he'd see in time.

'SOS Eraser' it read, with the address still burning bright on Hizashi's phone screen tacked on the end. She assumed that was where Aizawa was now, or at least his last known address. Hitoshi would pass it on to Hizashi as soon as he saw it and Hizashi would know what was meant to be done with it. She'd done her part in that, now all she had to worry about was her own choice.

Except there was no choice. Eraser hadn't and wouldn't hesitate if their roles were reversed; she didn't plan on holding out on him now.

She grabbed her school bag, opening the pocket with her actual school stuff in it and tipping it upside down. She slung it over her shoulder.

Now she had a first aid kit in case the SOS was about an injury.

The window was left cracked open, each step folding grass under her trainers once she'd dropped down the fire escape. It wasn't hidden in the first row of trees, but the second. Tucked in an old squirrel nest burrowed into the tree, wrapped in a plastic bag and a blanket, were two guns and a set of throwing stars she hadn't touched in over half a year. One of the guns was far smaller than the other, small enough in fact that she could tuck it into the side of her shoe, while the larger required more thought. More thought she didn't have the time for. As for the stars well, she jammed them into her pocket, hoped they wouldn't tear through her clothes and hoped she wouldn't have to use them.