The president of the commission sat down at her desk. Finally, a man walked into the room. In one hand was a flash drive. In the other was a box with blood on the top. The man handed the flash drive to the president. "Here. It's all on there."
The president motioned to the box. "Things must have gotten messy. Usually, you don't make too much of a mess when you do things."
The man sighed. "Yes, well, those wings of his can hit really hard. It was a difficult task."
The woman hummed in response as she put the flash drive in. She pulled up the video and pushed play.
The man they hired to torture people questioned Hawks about Satoko and the league. He didn't want to answer, of course, so he moved on to torture.
The expression of the woman didn't change as she watched the video. She wasn't shaken at all by the sound of him screaming. She got the information that she needed, and that was all that mattered.
The woman let the video run until it was over. "And what of Lady Nagant?"
"She didn't know anything about Takahashi," he replied. "She stopped talking to Hawks after he cheated on her. I really don't think that we should allow her to live any longer. She could be a threat. Especially with everything going on giving her another reason to hate heroes."
The woman nodded. "You have my permission to kill her then. Before you do that though, send Nozomi in. She is perfect for the job of getting rid of her sister."
"What about her parents?" He asked. "They want to be involved too."
The woman cracked a small smile. "That's even better. It makes it easier to make it look like a villain attack if suspicions arise."
..
The next morning had come. Satoko had been clinging her arms around Dabi's arm. She was still sleeping soundly as he was waking up.
She didn't know that Dabi would be with her on nights she had slept. This time, she had asked him to stay with her. This was the closest she had got towards him like this. Never had she let go of him.
Dabi sat up all the way. He gazed at her peaceful features. It was nice to see her more relaxed as opposed to the panic she face before. He rubbed the top of her head. "Don't sleep all day, now."
Satoko sleepily grimaced, not wanting to wake up. He could see her eyebrows slant down a little bit. She really had no clue how she was acting. Nor was she was aware how being this close to him was stirring a weight in his heart.
Her face moved a little bit as her nose brushed against his arm. It was like subconsciously, she didn't want to let go.
Dabi smiled at her despite the pain in his heart. He used his free hand to stroke her cheek with the back of his fingers. The metaphorical knife in his heart felt like it was being twisted. That only worsened it. "Come on. Let go."
With his touch, her eyes fluttered opened. Realizing her position and his hand, she moved away with a slight pink hue on her face. Sitting up quickly, she turned around from the gesture. "I- er."
She was at a loss of words. She didn't think she would get so clingy with him like that. That was the most embarrassing part. "Thanks for uh- staying with me. I guess."
A part of him felt relieved that she moved. The other part of him strangely longed to feel her touch again. "I probably couldn't have left if I wanted to. You would have held me prisoner."
It's been awhile since Satoko had smiled. There was a small grin on her face when she looked towards him. "Get used to it because I'm not letting you go."
Dabi chuckled. "So I really am a prisoner now? How rude."
Satoko suddenly started to get eerily silent for a moment. Before Dabi could question it, she motioned herself off the bed.
A faint sound of footsteps was somewhere. Satoko could tell the difference between Shigaraki's footsteps and Dabi's. But whoever this was, wasn't Shigaraki. He was out somewhere possibly, but Satoko didn't know that.
It must be due to Satoko's trauma is why she's on edge to certain sounds. More than ever since she recalled a chunk of her past. When it comes to PTSD, you tend to listen more intently to everything.
With a quick motion, Satoko maneuvered herself out of the room. There were three people inside that were caught off guard as she quickly knocked them all out with aggressive force. Her eyes were wide as she panted to look down at two familiar bodies. And one unfamiliar one.
A wave of numbness washed over more than she felt fear.
Dabi looked down at the three. Then back at Satoko. Shigaraki was out doing something, so he wouldn't hear about whatever happened until later.
Dabi knew about Satoko's past. He had never seen those people before, but there was a certain resemblance. They all looked as though they could be related.
"These people..." He started. "Are they your family?"
"Not anymore." Her voice sounded like it was full of ice. Her expression was full of darkness and malice.
After dealing with those men she had killed and remembering what they've done, she knows for a fact that they were here for her.
No way was she going to let them be set free when they possibly came to bring harm. She found that unforgivable.
"I need restraints and a hammer. Or any kind of weapons you have." She looked towards him. "I need to judge them thoroughly." Her eyes looked a bit insane at that last sentence she uttered. It was like the polar opposite to what she used to be.
The feeling from before returned to Dabi. Something was different about her. It made him feel strangely unsettled, but he pushed it down. Those people deserved to die for what they did. It was fitting for Satoko to be the one to kill them. He smiled. "I'll find them, Doll."
He went to another room and was able to find some things. Ropes, a hammer, and one of Toga's special knives with a tube attached to collect blood. He hesitated to take the last one. It annoyed him that he hesitated at all. He didn't think he should feel that way when her and Twice weren't going to return. He was just using them anyway, right?
Returning back to the room, he presented the supplies to Satoko. "This should work. I'll let you have the fun when it comes to these people. It's fitting for you to do it."
"I wouldn't call this fun. Justice more like it." Her eyes leered towards them as she went to make preparations.
...
Satoko and Dabi had them all tied up pretty well where they couldn't move. They were placed apart from each other separately.
The ones she wanted to work with first were her parents: Fuji Takahashi and Yua Takahashi.
Her mother wasn't waking up anytime soon, but her father was.
His vision blurred a bit before noticing Satoko standing in front of him.
"You useless-" Fuji's voice got cut off as Satoko whacked him with her fist. Blood came from hit bottom lip from the impact.
"Off to a bad start. I didn't even say anything just yet, scum." Satoko didn't bother wiping off the blood from her hand.
Fuji immediately started to struggle from the restraints. He tried to activate his Soundbending quirk, but Satoko kicked him in the stomach.
"You're making this difficult for yourself. You see, I need to judge you properly to see why you had come here." Her eyes narrowed coldly. "You had come with bad intentions, didn't you?"
Fuji called her a profane name before yelling out more. "I thought you were dead!! You're just a nuisance to society! You never deserved to live!!!"
"And why is that? What have I possibly done to make you hate me so?" She asked as she stepped forward.
"You didn't give me what I want!! QUIRKLESS TRASH!! WHY WERE YOU BORN-"
"Wrong answer." With a swift swung of lifting up a hammer, she hit into his back with full force. He spat out a gush of blood. "Have you ever once loved me?"
Fuji was coughing and hacking in between. "NO! WHY WOULD I LOVE A NOBODY LIKE-"
Over and over, Satoko struck his back with the hammer. Ignoring the screams of agony. There wasn't any pleading from him. Just pure hatred.
"Isn't this oddly familiar? Like what you've done to me?" She hit him once more as he squirmed on the ground. There wasn't any hesitation with her strikes. It was like she was mimicking what he has done to her in the past. "The reason why I have a tattoo on my back to cover up your disgusting and cruel act?"
Fuji was swearing a bunch of words towards her. "You deserved it."
There wasn't any regret in his words at all. Dabi kept watch over the other two family members, but was witnessing what she was doing.
Her eyes became similar to his when they widened. If there was any sadness, it was tucked away from her crazed smile. "You're in no position to talk to me this way. Beg for mercy. Apologize to me!" She ripped off his shoes to start tearing his full toenails one by one. "This is for everything you've done to me!"
Another one ripped off as he shrieked from the torture. She couldn't stop. Death would be too easy with this monster. "I want you to suffer more than I have!"
Watching her like that made Dabi realize that she was so much like him. He didn't see it before, but the way that she treated her family was a good indicator of how she really felt.
(Why didn't I think of that before?) He watched what she was doing with increasing interest. Those screams were so satisfying. (We can give Shoto and Enji the same treatment.)
All his toenails were peeled off. There was a lot of anguished yelling.
"I won't let you live any longer. You're a threat to society. It's time for me to erase you." She looked towards Dabi. "Will you assist me? I need hellfire."
"I'd be happy to burn up someone like him." He crouched down beside Satoko. He held his hand out and tilted his head to one side. "You should have been happy to have a daughter like her. One hair on her head is worth more than your whole existence."
He didn't let Fuji respond. With a burst of flames, he was gone.
Watching his corpse ignite didn't stir up anything inside of Satoko. If there was anything, she wished it didn't have to be this way.
"He was a danger to everyone. Who knows how many other people he has brought harm to." She shook her head. "Jail wouldn't be good enough punishment. I don't understand why he still thought that way even before he died."
"He's a terrible person." Dabi had a cold expression. "He deserved everything that he went through and more."
She strutted on her way to her next person to judge. Her mother. Satoko motioned Dabi to heat up water. When he came back, she poured the water on Yua's leg. She yelped herself awake.
"Sa-Satoko?" Yua looked up with emotionless eyes. "Am I here for your funeral?"
"Funeral?" Satoko echoed eerily. "This is reverse. This is your funeral. Unless you answer my questions correctly, you may be released." She lowered herself towards her with a knife. "Tell me, did you ever regret starving me?"
"You're supposed to be dead... It was for that purpose-"
Satoko stabbed into Yua's intestines. She kept the knife in place to not let any blood leak out just yet. "I bet this is more painful than the thumbtacks you used to use on me. Don't you recall my cries? Or did it not affect you?"
"I've never done such a thing!-" Yua denied. That made Satoko's eyes wince.
"How dare you even forget that..." Satoko finally pulled the knife out in a way to twist her innards out. A disgusting amount of organs poured out of Yua. Then she was gone. There was one more person to deal with.
"You failed too." She almost looked sad for a moment. "Ah. To never be loved by my own parents... How funny. It's hilarious, isn't it?" She looked towards Dabi. "To think they've led me to bring them justice this way!"
It still felt wrong to a certain extent. Satoko was starting to sound more and more like Dabi as time passed. (Ignore it. This is how it should be.)
"It's the justice that you deserve for dealing with them for so long," he replied.
Nozomi had already woken up, but she was in shocked silence when Yua was killed. She stared at the mess with wide eyes. Her emotions were a swirling, confusing mess. She felt like she had lost something important even though those people treated her horribly. Yet there was still a certain sense of satisfaction that they got what they deserved. She was free.
If she survived, that is.
She lifted her head to look at Satoko. "You're crazy! Both of you!"
"Crazy?" Satoko turned to leer at Nozomi. "I'm only doing what I'm meant to do. Taking out trash like these people." Then she shook her head. "No. They don't even deserve to be called people. Just pure demons with terrible intentions. I only repaid them for what they've done to me, but in a tenfold."
She then walked forward towards Nozomi and stopped in front of her. "Aren't you the one who's crazy? Why have you come? I doubt it was something nice. I assume you're my sister. Why be with these scum?"
Nozomi's voice shook. "I was sent by the commission to kill you. That's all it was. I don't care about you because I don't know you!" Her eyes glossed over. More than anything, she was scared of suffering the same fate as them. "And I couldn't escape from our parents! You don't know how lucky you are that they kicked you out. Living with them has been a worse nightmare than anything I could imagine!"
It was as if those words had triggered Satoko immensely. "...Lucky...?"
Her face became extremely dark. It was worse than how she was looking at her parents earlier.
"Would you have rather be me then?" Her hand gripped Nozomi's face roughly to look at her in the eyes. The reflection of her irises wanted to portray her pain and everything she was about to say. "Would you rather be the one starving on the streets? Eating trash? Sleeping on the dirty ground? Soiling your pants without a bathroom to go to?"
She kept rambling on as her voice intensified remembering the painful memory she just recalled. "Would you have enjoyed being ganged up on older men being raped over and over again? Tell me AGAIN that you had rather traded places with me because that was FAR worse than what our so-called parents put us through!"
She grabbed a handful of Nozomi's hair roughly. Her cold eyes were stinging with massive tears. Her body trembled like a leaf. "I RATHER BE BEATEN BY THEM TO EXPERIENCE THAT PAIN SO DON'T EVEN TRY ME! TELL ME AGAIN THAT I AM 'LUCKY'!!!!"
Nozomi tried to squirm away. A sense of desperation came over her. "Don't compare it like you know what I went through either! All I said was that you're lucky and you decided to make it a competition!"
"You're the one who said I was lucky!" She ripped part of her hair out. Strands dropped onto the floor where parts of Nozomi's scalp was bleeding. "You sicken me."
It started making her rage a bit. Every word she uttered sounded intense. "You're the one who said I was fortunate for being kicked out. How about I go sell you off to some men to do the same thing to you? Would you still wished to be abandoned? I never was blessed."
Tears finally began to stream down Nozomi's face. "We're both horrible people then! You think that you can go and do this just because you suffered too?! At least what I was doing helped people in the long run! What are you accomplishing? Making yourself feel better about your problems that you can't solve?!"
"You act like I've never helped anyone in my life." Satoko hissed. "I only aid those who deserve a chance to live. I've decided to get rid of those in this twisted society that bring harm!"
Her head then lowered. "I want to make a place for innocent people to thrive. At least I won't just kill anyone." Then her stare became intense in a way it seemed like her fierce eyes were glowing. "That's my answer. Do you deserve salvation? If I were to let you go, would you hurt those who don't deserve it?"
Nozomi had to think on that. What led her to do all of those things in the first place? It was her parents. With them dead, why did she have to continue going down that path?
She gulped, trying to get up more courage. She then shook her head. "Of course not. It's not fun to me. I'm not a monster."
"Another question," Satoko pressed on as she wasn't satisfied. "Why did you say I was lucky? I'm not dropping that. Assault is not a joking manner or something to be envious of. You're the one who's lucky that roles wasn't reversed."
"I wasn't envious of that," she replied. There was a tiny hint of anger in her voice again, but she was trying to regulate it. "I was envious of the fact that they didn't expect anything from you. They threw you out when they decided you weren't up to their standards. Do you have any idea how badly I wanted to get away? To escape that life?"
She always felt trapped and hopeless. She didn't believe there was any hope that she could have a good future. It almost caused her to bring harm to herself a few times. She could never bring herself to do it though. That only made her more frustrated because it felt to her like there was no way to get any sort of release for her trapped emotions. She felt like she was going crazy on the daily. All of those bottled up emotions turned into anger and bitterness.
As Dabi was watching, he felt a small twinge of sadness. He didn't feel bad for Nozomi at all. Rather, he felt bad for himself. The story of the Takahashi family seemed very similar to the story of the Todoroki family. Maybe Satoko understood his feelings a lot more than he gave her credit for.
"You don't think they expected much from me? Once you were born, they didn't need me anymore!" Satoko argued. "Do you know how much I wanted to die every day? Like my life had no meaning?! You're not the only victim here!"
She then showed the scar on her shoulder. "I even took a bullet just to think I was doing something! Perhaps even die in the process so I could save someone! For years, I've resented myself the most! I never knew I had a quirk until I met important people in my life. My whole life was a lie!"
"Stop!" Nozomi screamed. "I answered your question, didn't I?! What is the point of going on like this? Face it, you're only trying to make yourself feel better. I don't know what it feels like to go through some of things that you did, but I do know that this can be over now. Let me go already. Any satisfaction that you might get from killing me is temporary!"
"You're only quick to assume that I would kill you right away." Satoko glared in disgust. "To make myself feel better? Far from it. I'm only thinking of other people! When have I ever cared for myself?!" She grabbed the collar of her shirt. "Your tone and words doesn't convince me that you won't betray my trust!"
Her hand let go of Nozomi. "Who is the commission? What do they want with me?"
It was unknown to Satoko because Hawks never told her anything. The commission was a new thing to her. All she knew about was hero's work and that was it.
"I'm not saying this for myself. I want to protect those I care about." She subtly looked towards Dabi.
Their eyes made contact for a split second before she looked away again.
Nozomi averted her eyes away from Satoko. "The hero commission. Those are the people above us heroes. They decided that you're a threat and they want you eliminated. We were going to kill anyone who got in the way as well."
"And why did you agree to those terms?" Satoko's firm expression didn't falter. "Was it more of a personal matter?"
The questions kept going onwards as Satoko didn't want to make any mistakes from her intuition. If the commission knows where they are, she would have to get Dabi and her to evacuate after this.
Nozomi shook her head. "It's not simple like that. It's not easy to leave. There are rumors that they're the ones who really killed Lady Nagant...and they torture people! I saw the video. They tortured Hawks to get information about you!"
Satoko stood silently. She thought she wouldn't even hear that name. Even then, was that the reason why Hawks acted the way he did?
It was no excuse. If it were her being tortured, she never would have given anything away. Especially now that Dabi was filling her heart. She'd never do that to him.
If anything, this made Satoko hate Hawks even more. Her reaction was a bit apparent towards Dabi.
"You hear that?" Dabi smiled as he looked at Satoko. "He's finally suffering."
Retracting the subject of Hawks, Satoko kept going. "You said it's not easy to live. What will happen if I let you go? Have you thought about that?"
"I have. I don't know what to do," she replied tearfully. "But if you don't let me go, you'll torture me! Of course I don't want that!"
When Nozomi thought about it more, she realized that the death of her parents didn't change anything. She still couldn't be free. As long as she was alive, someone would be keeping her trapped. Satoko would likely torture her if she kept her there. If she went back to the commission after failing her mission, they would probably kill her. Either that or they would torture her anyway. There was no way for her to escape the life she was living.
It was painful to think about. No matter what she did or where she went, the result would always be the same. She would be stuck in that painful cycle with no way out.
Her breathing got faster. She didn't care about hiding it anymore. She was terrified. "It doesn't matter, does it? There's no way out of this. It's life! Someone is going to be waiting to hurt me no matter what I do, so what does it matter how I feel about this?!"
Satoko was quiet for a moment. It made Nozomi's anxiety rise up as she went towards her with a knife. She slashed down at the restraints to free her.
Before Nozomi could question anything, Satoko pointed towards a direction. "There's a hidden escape route in here just in case something were to occur."
Shigaraki had shown her the path before when she had first came back here.
"If you leave through there, you'll be able to escape that way." Her eyes narrowed with some sadness underneath. "I've made my righteous judgment."
Nozomi slowly stood up. She looked shocked as her tears dripped down onto the floor. Slowly, she nodded. It didn't feel right to thank her for letting her live. Satoko already killed two people in front of her and was prepared to do the same to her if she didn't answer correctly. It didn't feel right to say anything.
Perhaps she was just being selfish, but she refused to thank someone who did something so horrible. She began to walk away. (Satoko...you really are a monster.)
"Wait." Satoko spoke up before Nozomi went away from her sight. "I'm sorry for hurting you. I thought of you as a threat."
She couldn't look at her in the eyes at first and then looked towards her with a strange, yet kind expression. "I hope when we next meet, it would be under better circumstances. One where we could be actually sisters. Be safe and be free."
Nozomi was even more shocked when she heard that. She smiled a small, shaky smile. "Yeah. Maybe."
With that, she let Nozomi escape without Dabi interfering. The adrenaline finally caught up to Satoko as she squatted to the ground. Her head rested onto her knees. It was a strange mixed feeling of gratification yet guilt that she felt within her core. There was a disturbed yet pained smile on her face.
Almost to the point where she could laugh or cry. Even throw up.
(I did the right thing. I did the right thing.) She kept thinking to herself over and over again until she believed it.
Dabi got beside her. He pushed some hair out of her face with a smile. "You did well. They got what they deserved thanks to you."
"Yeah. Uh- if you don't mind. Can you turn them to ashes?" She put her hand onto his while looking towards him. "I can't exactly do that myself. Thanks for the help."
Dead bodies brought off a terrible stench. It was getting a little too much for her nose.
He nodded and reached his other hand out. In just a few short seconds, there was nothing left but the smell of burnt flesh. The room felt eerily silent without the sound of their screams. The silence was far more bothersome than the screams themselves.
Dabi had a faraway look in his eyes as they locked onto the ashes. "There are some people who I would like to do this to. What you did...your 'judgement'...was more satisfying than anything I had planned. If you help me get rid of the people who wronged me, I would be happier than ever. Happy enough to die without regrets."
There was a thin stream of blood dripping down one of his arms. He couldn't feel a thing thanks to the nerves being destroyed, but he was aware of it.
"Dabi-" She immediately had a panicked look on her face. Her hands took one of his arms and studied them. "What do you mean die? Who has done you wrong?"
Immediately, her heart started racing. She felt so uncomfortable with the way he was talking. With speaking about death - especially from someone who said will never leave her - caused her to be alarmed.
She immediately put pressure from her sleeve to stop the bleeding. "I need to wrap it up. I'm sorry. I didn't know your quirk would hurt you like this."
"My quirk has always hurt me. How do you think I ended up looking like this?" He finally turned his head to look at her.
He told her his story. How he was seen as worthless because of the damage that his quirk did to his body. How his brother, Shoto, took his place as Endeavor's 'masterpiece'. He did everything that he could to make it seem like he was the only victim in all of it. In the back of his mind, he knew that wasn't true. It was almost like a desperate attempt to gain her sympathy. It was subconscious, of course, but he did want her to feel bad for him. He didn't know why he felt that way though.
As he was telling her his lengthy tale, she was treating his arm. Her expressions changed with everything he had told her. Even his true name.
Her hands suddenly placed the sides of his cheeks as her eyes glossed over. "You don't have to worry about dying. I'll take care of this. I'll bring you justice. Let me be the only one to do this."
He sighed. He wanted to say that it would be more satisfying if he did it, but he did tell her that he wouldn't leave her. He usually didn't care about breaking promises, but he did in that case. "The only reason I'll agree to that is because I told you that I wouldn't leave you."
The one thing that stood out to her was in regards to his brother, Shoto. With all that he had told her, she now knows that Shoto was the one she had saved that day.
"I have one condition." She used her thumbs to stroke his face. "I cannot - no... Will not kill your brother. I had saved his life before. He was a victim just like you."
There was still some sense of sensibility inside Satoko. Even releasing her sister even showed that she still had a heart.
That made Dabi a little irritated. The perfect revenge would be if both of them ended up dead. However, this was clearly the best option. If Satoko didn't agree then it wasn't happening. "...Fine. As long as my 'dad' suffers, I still win in the end."