"You're going to help me kill them."
I blinked. "Aren't you a hero?" I respond. Hawks smiled conspicuously, eyes sharp. He leaned back in his seat and I crossed my arms, not giving an inch on what I thought be exposed.
"Well..." he trailed off, cocking his head as he looked at me, crossing his leg over the other. "We both want to go down the path of the righteous. Yet we both are sinners, of the worst type, aren't we?"
I tapped my finger. He saw the motion, smirk widening. Hold back, Mira. Hold back.
"What do you mean bird shit?" I asked, putting annoyance into my voice, doing my best to make it sound not-strained.
Hawks uncrossed his legs. Changing his positions so much. Hiding something. He leaned forward, clasping his hands and propping his elbows on his knees. The lighting shaded half his face, casting a dark shadow on the wall with his feathery wings.
"The League of Villains are more connected to you than you might believe." The way his eyes glinted sent my body straight as a stick.
"Do you know about illegal experiments on how to use blood advance healing and regeneration? I think it began... ten, maybe eleven years ago?"
I finally reacted.
********************
The night was warm, loud and stuffy. The heat within the heart of Tokyo, people roaming everywhere, lights and cars fuming. It made the summer night more unbearable. It made me miss even more the quietness of my neighborhood.
I bit off another piece of my ice-cream bar, the chocolate covering cracking satisfyingly in my mouth. I bought it at a random vendor lining a street. I ran another hand through my now-short hair, still in wonder at how different it felt. Less heat against my back and neck, lighter feeling when I moved my head. The soft brush against my nape, when I leaned forward, comforting, in a way.
I dropped my hand and stuffed it in the pocket of my leggings, narrowly avoiding being rammed into by a group of wild friends. Ahh, how I miss mine. If Kaminari was here, he and Mina would probably do something crazy in the middle of the street and not give a fuck. And I would laugh and enjoy them.
A breeze wafted over me, not helping with the stuffiness of the air. I paused at a red light, waiting to cross. People chattered all around me
I didn't know exactly where I was going. Ever since I got smacked by Yuuko, and ran out in anger, I've been blindly walking the streets. I stopped at a bench, then at a ramen shop to get dinner when I was starving. I kept walking afterwards.
I know Best Jeanist's agency is close by, but it's way past intern hours and I doubt I'd find Katsuki in this wide city. So where was I going? Nowhere?
Yup, about right.
The white crossing sign signaled, and I got swallowed up in the crowd of late-nighters. So many were carefree, just walking around for the fun of a city night. Some were coming home from work, some just heading out. Tourists, natives, workforce and enjoyers. Then here I was, finally calmed after ready to hit the shit out of my cousin for the stupidest decision she made.
You are my successor, no one else.
I groaned. I absolutely hated the business world. Give me violence - give me one clear person I have to defeat, one clear person I have to rescue. Give me dangerous missions and bad circumstances - but at least make it easy to judge a situation based on their presence.
Don't give me sleazy people with a thousand meanings for one phrase. Don't give me wordy deals and political business men who care about profit more than product. Don't give me people who step on people's toes with words that I can't smack the shit out of.
No arranged marriages. No backhanded deals. No double speaking. No people who think assassins and illegal dealings are legal.
Yuuko knows how much I hate that world, hate that life. But doesn't tell me that she's infertile and places me as a successor?! And chooses to tell me in the midst of an argument!? What the fuck!!?
I almost slammed my ice cream down. And when I caught myself, it slipped out of my hand, falling onto the ground with a heart-wrenching splat.
I stopped, people walking around me, staring at the ice cream. My shoulders stooped, my breath shallow, my hands dejectedly hanging at my side.
What do I do? What would Mina say, or Kyoka? Would Kirishima or Kaminari get as angry as me?How would have Shoto reacted? He is used to that aspect of life, and would just ignore it. What about Katsuki? He probably would have cussed the shit out of Yuuko, maybe even think of throwing her out the window, and leave.
Then he and I would talk, and become clearheaded. And accept it with hard conditions.
I sighed and bent down, grabbing the ruined ice-cream bar and walking over to the nearest garbage can, right in front of a building-in-progress. I wiped my hands on my pants, not having enough shirt to do so. Especially since it was my new -favorite- vampire shirt.
Just as I was about to start randomly walking again, my phone buzzed against my hip. I considered ignoring it. I wasn't in the best mood to talk to anyone right now. But my hand took it out of my pocket and checked the caller I.D.
'Chicken Shit.' I almost slammed my phone on the ground, but decided to answer it.
"What do you want?" My voice was harsh and cold. Not in the mood for bullshit.
"Listen carefully." I stopped any retaliation, the seriousness in his voice grabbing my attention. No causality, no 'I'm gonna piss you off' tone. He didn't sound like this despite the request he made last night, the one I accepted.
"The League is sending a nomu to attack you. Get as far away from a crowded area as fast as you can."
My heart froze, and the noisy city went silent. A nomu. A nomu was being sent after me. Like the one I fought when starved at the USJ - when I broke my ribs, back, and my spleen ruptured.
The nomu, related to me by-
I blinked once. Twice. Three times. Then the sounds returned to me, the crowd of the streets.
"How long do I have?" I asked, somehow cool-headed. I didn't feel a dread of fear, no slight tinge of nervousness. Just a quiet... calm.
"Almost five minutes." I looked behind me, at the rush of the citizens of Tokyo. I looked back in front of me, at the building in construction. It was a future skyscraper, the framework done. It would reach way above the buildings on it's block.
"I'll call you when I'm done."
"Kazama wait-"
I hung up, not waiting for his response. I slid the phone back in my pocket. Then I walked up to the cross-wire gate, placed my hands on it, and began climbing.
Calm. It was too calm in my head. Not a single thought except 'get to the top of the building'. Why? Why wasn't I afraid, as I hopped the fence and broke into a sprint, as my canines slid out and my blood began rushing. Why wasn't I panicking?
Because I wanted revenge? Because when I was beat badly last time, I was starved and half out-of-my-mind with sleep-deprivation. Was it because I knew that I needed to keep the damage to a minimum for the people, and that I didn't care what would happen to me? Was it that thrill that encompassed me whenever I was involved in violence?
Or was it because of what Hawks told me yesterday?
I ran into the building, finding the middle stairs and climbing three steps at a time, up in a spiral. A timer went off in my head, counting until I reached five minutes. Climbing and climbing and climbing, not stopping. Not stopping despite my legs burning at the steep incline I was going at. Just keep climbing the steps.
Four minutes was gone by the time I nearly reached the top. My breath was coming in more shallow bursts, my thighs trying to resist my movements. And when I reached the top of the building, no crazy noise, just echoes of cars, I froze.
Still, I looked out over the city as I sharply drew in breaths, my legs burning and resting. So much light. So many buildings. An expanse of city stars and lights spread out at all angles. It would have been so beautiful, so much more beautiful, if someone was here to share this with me. And if I wasn't supposed to be attacked by a nomu.
The five-minute timer went off in my brain. My shoulders squared and my head went blank, looking around.
I could have turned my Air Quirk on. Could have used it to sense a black presence burrowing towards me. But I was afraid of it - of my own Quirk. What if I reacted negatively to the mass of presences around me? I can only do so for fifteen seconds before It's too much. What if I destroy the building, killing people? Am I even out of range? I wasn't confident in myself enough yet.
I stood for another minute. Then a cold breeze wafted over me, sending goosebumps over my skin. It seemed ominous, compared to the heat from the city below. Cold and ominous.
I let five seconds pass. Then I looked over my shoulder sharply, just as a screech sounded out. And a black mass rammed into me.
I didn't have time to retaliate. The wind knocked out of me, a large hand grabbing me whole, my body flying through the air, lights blurring by. The wind slammed into the back of my head and legs, my torso and arms being gripped by two hands. Cold, inhumane hands.
I grunted as they squeezed, squinting to see a nomu. It's head wasn't birdlike - round and flat, yellow eyes and exposed brain. And a black, overly muscled body. And yet, I still wasn't afraid.
The nomu screeched, the sound ringing around my head. I don't know how far we went flying, but I noticed when we began to fall. Noticed the city in the background, the sounds of cars quieting. My shorter hair rushed up, brushing against my jaw and cheeks as we began a free-fall.
It was planned, obviously, wherever we were landing. Whether by the same villains at USJ or someone else, there was a planned location they wanted to take me to. To capture me, most likely, if what that chicken-shit said was true.
Though I wasn't about to be taken down so easily again.
I bit into my tongue excruciatingly hard, it almost ripping in half. I opened my mouth as the blood flowed out, in a straight line. A straight, gleaming line, headed right at the neck of the nomu. Before it could move it's thick neck, my blood hardened instantly.
And the head went rolling, lightweight, me falling past it. It was lighter than I, and it began almost a float, from my point of view.
The hands let go of me, slipping off as the heavy body fell faster than me. I tipped forward, wind now battering against my eyes. I gathered the hardened blade, the red liquid streaming to wrap around my right arm. I watched as the nomu's head began mutating, pink strands of muscle growing out of it, a shade of black covering them.
Regeneration. Even when it's head is cut off.
"Fuck," I cursed, finally looking down.
My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach.
I was falling, fast, to a dark abyss below. Dark, flowing water, surrounded on both sides by a bank of grass.
A river.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
I finally felt fear as the body of the nomu rammed into the water, sounding as if it hit concrete. Fear that wrapped around my heart and squeezed painfully. From this height, I would be terribly injured. And even if I survived the fall, I would drown before making it out alive.
Water. Fucking water. Of course. Someone just had to fucking know I am terrified of water.
My heart swam back up to my chest. I felt as if my stomach was rolling, my muscles tightening, my breath short and quick. I felt sick the closer I got to the riverfront. No, no no no no.
I can't handle water. I can't handle being submerged under water. I can't handle that-
"Ugh-" I grunted as a searing pain erupted on my upper back. Then that screech. That annoying, fucking screech. And the blood pouring over my torso, warm liquid.
I was half aware of what had happened, the fear of the river clouding my mind. The nomu dug it's fingers into my shoulders as it grabbed me, making sure I was stuck. Almost breaking the bones. I was pulled upwards again, but the fingers stayed imbedded into my skin, not allowing me to heal. It hurt. It really hurt. But it was bearable.
I bit my lip, closing my eyes. I couldn't look at the river, couldn't think of it. Or I lost.
I swung my legs forward, grimacing in pain as I almost swung off the fingertips of the nomu. It screeched and slammed a hand into my stomach, fingers digging deeper into my skin, grazing bone. I gasped, eyes opening wide.
And the water was right there, about to hit me, about to swallow me whole. I was about to die. Not surrounded by air, by the sense of freedom. Drowning - drowning as river water filled my lungs, completely blocked my senses. As a fucking nomu held me, ruined my shirt-
I wasn't sure what did it. Maybe the fear. Maybe the anger. Most likely the fear.
But in once second, I was about to harden my blood, maybe cut off the nomu's hand. And in the next, I was widening my eyes in pain as my body erupted. The fast increase of freezing cold striking my muscles frozen. The sharp release of that air, the intense release of my muscles.
The pressure on all sides off my body as air tried to move me in all directions, battering me to a standstill.
I coughed out, breath leaving me. I desperately sucked in air, a pressure on my chest slowly dissipating. I saw the shreds of flesh, the pink and black strands floating around. I viewed the way the water sloshed away from directly under me, as if hit by a heavy boulder in the middle of a storm. I felt the wounds on my back heal, my blood spraying on me like rain. The lack of my pants, the shreds of my shirt, pressed against me.
Then the presence flooded me.
I didn't feel people, except two so far away, to the right. But I sensed the freezing water, turbulent. I shivered in return.
The blades of grass, rustling from either me or the breeze. The concrete bridge far down to the left, the concrete sidewalks up the banks of the river, the one car that drove by. The bugs in the air, fleeing from the scene, the birds speeding away with squawks and a heavy flap of their wings. The fish swimming as far from me as possible, from the rolling water.
The little, tiny scraps of the nomu, floating around in the air. Smaller than the grass blades, the small bug on the concrete right there, running away.
I was still for a second, almost sitting in the air. I didn't sense any regeneration. Nothing growing and multiplying. Just tiny scraps of nomu floating around in the air. Dead, done.
There was no sudden sensory overload. I could just sense all those things but still feel... fine. Fine, functional, not overwhelmed. Like it should be.
But the amount of what I sensed - all those tiny creatures and grass blades and droplets of water splashing in the air - it was scary. Scary how accurate it was. Not the irrational fear of water, but fear of what has changed with my Quirk.
And then I began falling again. And I remembered what was below me.
And fear helped my heart beat into overdrive.
It was all his fault. If only Takami didn't fucking speak to me, get me caught under surveillance. If I was left alone to deal with my own fucking business, a nomu wouldn't be falling in pieces around me right now. I wouldn't be about to fall into a fucking river when I was terrified of bodies of water, unable to swim. All his fault.
If only I had those fucking wings of his. Then I could fly away and not fear drowning. Then I could fly, like I love, and not worry about water engulfing me.
Just a pair of simple, red wings.
My body tipped forward, the water so close that I felt a drop of water, from where the waves crashed into each other, hit my face. I tried pedaling back, as if I could hit the floor and start running.
Away. I need to get away. I need to fly away. I need to get away. Away away away away away away away.
My Quirk listened.
The blood on my back left, sucked away, following my thoughts, my instincts. The scraps of my leggings and shirt floating around, as if about to escape me.
I felt two cold, heavy brands of metal on each shoulder blade, digging in. Heavy, cold, and part of me. I could feel every motion it did, but I was too afraid to realize.
And then I was jerked to a stop, inches above the water, the tips of my shoes grating the water. My face was sprayed, my abdomen and legs having water splashed onto them.
Away, away, I need to get away-
My body moved forward, the brush of wind touching my back, sound of metal whooshing through the air accompanying the movement. It was jerky, half-thought out, but I moved. Up and to the bank of the grass. Metal and wind. Half-jerking to a stop for each movement, stomach lurching at each harsh pause.
My heart drummed, my fingers numb, my mind half-blank half-full of thoughts of escaping the water. Escaping the death of drowning. So afraid of the water, so much yearning to fly to safety. It didn't register what was going on in my brain, my Blood Quirk working on it's own to calm my fears down. To stop my thoughts from spiraling into nothing.
When I saw the grass below me, darkened green and glinting under the moonlight, a huge pressure lifted off of my shoulders. Literally and figuratively.
No water for me to fall into, to drown in. No water to die a dark, lightless death. Just grass - land. Solid land on which air existed.
That was kind of short lived. Cause with that sight of land, my Quirk stopped trying to calm my irrational fear. Liquid hit my shoulders and back, splashing over the back of my arms and head, my hair damp. And I fell again.
I braced for a hard landing, a broken bone or two, not in the right mind to stop my landing. But, with my Awakening, my Air Quirk was highly sensitive. And it would not let me hurt myself, from outside forces. It had no problem of inflicting damage onto it's host, though.
So when I was about to hit the ground, I gasped in pain as a burst of wind escaped my torso, stopping my fall abruptly. The sudden pressure felt like a brick against my chest, eyes widening, lungs emptying, arms and legs jerking forward. Then the wind disappeared and I fell, awkwardly, on my face with a thud and a groan.
Nothing broken. Just bruised. Bruised and healing.
"Shit fucking bags," I cursed in pain as a soreness erupted along my body, my face, my back. I groaned heavily as I rolled over, almost unable to move, onto my back. My legs and arms went flat and I began sucking in air, needing to breathe.
I closed my eyes, focusing on the healing going on, on the much needed breath. The tickle of the grass on my exposed skin, the blades that stuck to the parts of me dampened by blood. The cool breeze that grazed me, reminding me that I narrowly avoided drowning. The scraps of nomu that fell into the water, not piecing back together.
And my clothes. My bra somehow still together, the edges of my shirt gone. My leggings ripped to shorts. But at that moment, I didn't care.
So, I got hit by a nomu out of the city, over a river bank. I cut it's head off, it regenerated. I freaked out about falling into the river - and was still reeling from that fear that suddenly overwhelmed my calmness. Plus, the nomu tried to shred my back and lunge me in the water.
Afterwards, my Air Quirk - which is now highly reactive to emotions - came on and blasted the nomu into so many tiny fucking pieces it couldn't regenerate. I began sensing everything- began falling again.
Then I fucking flew - with metal wings of my own blood- to land. Dropped and bruised my whole body with my own Quirk.
That I am now forcibly shutting off before some shit happens and I destroy this area.
I opened my eyes with a heavy sigh, not moving a muscle. The stars lit up the sky, cloudless, in a million diamonds. So beautiful. So alluring. So unlike how I was feeling right now.
Bloodied, bruised, my favorite fucking shirt ripped and destroyed. Yet, after all of my flurry of calm, fear, with my heart still pounding and head still reeling, I wondered how Katsuki would react when seeing me.
He would have been pissed and would have jumped into the fray to help me. Would have told my ass off for being stupid enough to not ask anyone for help. Then even more pissed at me that I let this shirt get ruined.
Ah yeah - that reminds me...
I didn't want to think about the wings, or how strong a blast I let out to utterly destroy a nomu's body. That will come later, when I am back together in one piece. When I can get a break from this shitty day.
With a muttering of curses, I somehow slipped my phone out of my pocket. My muscles did not enjoy it, but the rushing blood made it easier to move. It was miraculously still there and not destroyed. I dialed the last number answered. He answered immediately.
"Kazama, are you all right!?" Too loud. I don't want to hear it.
"Yeah, I'm fine. The nomu is dead. Bye." I hung up, dropping my phone.
My eyes closed for a minute.
I can sleep for just a few minutes, right?
I didn't care. I was sleep soon after.
Nomu go boom.
But does anyone have a fear of water? On of my friends can't handle bodies of water - not even a bath.
Any major fears or phobias?
Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed!!