It was quiet. Too quiet. Miki tried not to panic but given their current situation it wasn't easy. He was antsy, just wanting to tear the door open and brainwash everyone who tried to hurt them.
Cupid's Gaze had never been such an appealing quirk to him. But now he wanted to use it, to help his family, but he couldn't. His hands trembled around the knife as he tried to hide it from Eri's view.
Hitoshi, being the responsible sibling he was, called everyone. The police. Their parents. U.A security. Everyone. Miki was pretty sure he saw Midnight's number flash across the screen.
Eri wasn't in much better shape. It looked like she had just shut down, not responding at all to the world around her. Pulling his headphones out of his pajama pant's pocket, Miki came up with a plan. He texted Mirio, telling him there was an emergency and he needed someone to focus on Eri, then dialed his number. He made it clear over text that Eri was not to respond to him. They had to be silent. But she could have him talk her through it and distract her while they waited.
"Here Eri." He said, placing the ear buds in her tiny ears with a bit of difficulty. "Mirio's gonna talk to you, okay? But you have to stay super quiet, so no responding to him, okay? Just listen to him.". The girl nodded, looking more aware and less panicky as her savior's voice filtered into her ears.
Suddenly, a thud rang out in the apartment. Everyone froze and stared at the door. Their eyes were wide like it was about to explode or something. "What do we do?!" Miki whisper-shouted. Hitoshi raised a finger to his mouth to signal the boy to quiet down.
"Nothing." He said, his tone hushed. "We're going to do what Himiko says and wait for someone to help.".
"You want to be a hero, don't you?" Miki asked, his eyes shining with determination. Hitoshi glared at his brother.
"Heroes listen when told to and don't do dumb things that could get them killed." Hitoshi said, as calmly and quietly as possible. Miki bit the inside of his cheek, but decided to let it go for now. If something went wrong though, he'd beat the door down himself.
--------- ----------- --------- -------- --------- --------- -------- -------- ----------
"Leave me alone." Toga said, her face wearing a deceivingly petulant expression. Spinner just laughed.
"We're not that easy." He said, taking another step into the apartment. Himiko flinched and took another one back herself, keeping some distance between them. He had already destroyed the make-shift barricade and broken into the apartment. It couldn't get much worse from here.
"Are you alone or did you bring your friends with you?" She asked, smirking a little. Spinner huffed out a laugh. "Why would I try to face you alone?" He said, chuckling to himself. Himiko clicker her tongue. This wasn't going to be easy.
"Why hurt the kids?" She asked, "They didn't do shit. I'm the only villain here.". Spinner took another step towards Himiko, but this time she didn't back off.
"Your actions have consequences." He explained, lunging at Toga. She dodged at the last minute, using her knife to cut at his arms a couple times before she pushed herself back against a wall. The villain all but growled, going back in for another attack.
Himiko gritted her teeth and prepared for a fight.
--------- ----------- --------- -------- --------- --------- -------- -------- ----------
"This isn't going fast enough." Shigaraki complained. "We were supposed to execute the traitor and call it a day. This is taking too long.".
Dabi snorted. "You think it'll that easy to kill your ex employee? She's talented and I'm sure she's still got some knives on her. No way she completely changed. No one can." He said. Shigaraki just shook his head.
"We have to hurry up." He continued. Dabi's quirk activated as he walked towards the teacher's dorms.
"Then we'll speed up the process." He announced, finding a good spot by a window and blasting it with his blue fire.
"We'll smoke them all out.".
--------- ----------- --------- -------- --------- --------- -------- -------- ----------
When smoke started leaking through the bottom of the bathroom door, Miki decided enough was enough. Eri had started coughing and was crying. As the fight had drawn closer they had been forced to end the call with Mirio and Hitoshi's comforting, although appreciated, could not compensate for the obvious sounds of a struggle coming from the inside of the apartment.
"We have to go." Hitoshi choked out, unlocking the door. He hoisted Eri into his arms. "Hold you breath." He said before running out. Miki scrambled after him, covering his mouth and nose with his pajama sleeve.
They rushed through the apartment but stopped when they caught sight of Toga and Spinner right outside. They were in the hallway, battling it out as smoke leaked into the room. The reptilian man flung Himiko against the wall painfully. He started walking towards her, still oblivious to the other in the room. Spinner pulled a short knife out of his pocket and raised it. Hitoshi covered Eri's eyes and tired to hand her to Miki so he could help, but the boy was already off.
Before the pink haired teen even realized what had happened, his knife sank into the villain's back. Mouth wide and jaw slack Miki's trembling hands let go of the knife. He took several steps back, blood already on his hands.
The image before him of the knife in Spinner's back seared itself into his retinas. It branded itself behind his eyelids, remaining there even when he blinked. Spinner groaned and tried to turn around and attack Miki but Himiko jumped back into action. She picked Miki up like it was nothing and shouted for the other two to run.
They raced to the stairs but were stopped by the wall of smoke beyond the doors.
"We're only on the second floor." Himiko said with a shrug. Eri let out a distressed cry. Miki rushed back into the relatively smoke free apartment. He knew his parents were the type to be as safe as possible all the time. They had to have a fire escape ladder. His grandma had one in their old apartment.
He was running out of time and his siblings were screaming at him. Their calls devolved into coughs and scolding Eri just for breathing, not wanting to ruin her fragile health.
Miki flung open his parent's closet and his eyes shone with relief.
--------- ----------- --------- -------- --------- --------- -------- -------- ----------
Outside the teacher's dorms 1-A was facing off against the league of villains. Mirio and a couple third years were there too. Everyone had rallied around the kids inside the burning building.
Midoriya had caught Shigaraki right before he warped into the building, intending to finish Toga off himself. The hero student lunged at the villain, his quirk getting a bit out of hand.
He missed Shigaraki's face but the punch collided with the man's neck and seemed to hurt enough to slow him down. "You hero students think you should be involved in this? You're more egotistical than I thought." He commented.
"What do you mean?!" Midoriya asked, his voice angry, "My friends are in there! Eri is-" He stopped himself, not wanting to reveal too much. The boy settled for just glaring at Shigaraki.
"So what?" The villain said, his tone mundane. "All I care about is stopping the steady leak of league secrets coming from Toga. We can't just let these people run around after they betrayed us.".
The green haired teen gritted his teeth. He went to punch the villain again, but missed by an inch. Shigaraki seemed to dissolve into sand. But that wasn't his quirk...who was doing this?
He looked back at the crowd of brawling students and villains. Lots of them seemed to just be sand. Most of them even. Mirio had subdued whoever was creating the copies and the real villains had already fled, although Midoriya didn't know if they went inside the building or if they fully retreated.
Cheers of relief rang out as they realized they were gone. A few people went to rush into the building but were stopped by Mirio, who pointed up.
Mr. Aizawa's capture weapon was dangling from the window. He couldn't see who was moving it, but it looked like whoever it was knew what they were doing. It wasn't quite as fluid as when their teacher used it but it worked.
They lowered a figure who, based on the pink hair, was Miki. In his arms was a mess of white hair. Eri. Midoriya felt his chest lighten by 50 pounds in that moment.
Quickly after they hit the ground and were immediately herded towards the U.A gates, sirens blared in the distance. An ambulance.
A blonde girl Midoirya had seen around before was next. So it was Hitoshi who was controlling it. Midoriya couldn't lie-he was in shock. When had Aizawa taught him how to do that? The boy himself was last, cautiously lowering himself to the ground before collapsing to his knees with relief.
--------- ----------- --------- -------- --------- --------- -------- -------- ----------
And so we return to the real timeline, the one where Shota and Hizashi are staring at their home-and possibly their children-go up in flames.
Shouts rang out on the other side of the building. They didn't sound like screams, but neither hero really trusted their ears right then.
Hizashi was the first one to move, his body unconsciously following the shouts as they moved further into the distance. Closer to the sounds of the ambulances that had practically stalked them all the way home.
He tugged Shota along with him, white-knuckling the other man's wrist. Quickly their walk turned to a jog, turned into a run, turned into a flat out sprint. They reached the brigade of ambulances just as the swarm of hero students started to disperse as the firefighters shooed everyone away.
The first thing Shota saw was Miki. His baby. The boy who had been so exhausted and in pain he was feral when they met.
He was bruised, who knows what from. His eyes were bloodshot from crying and his cheeks were blackened by soot. His black eyes sparkled with tears as he looked up at the paramedic who was assisting him.
Next it was Eri. She was actually inside the ambulance, which was worrying, but the paramedics were offering her a green lollipop, so it couldn't be that bad. She too looked a little dirty, all of their pajamas were ruined, but otherwise she was alright.
Pride burst into the man's chest at the thought that the older kids had protected her properly. They did a good job.
Himiko seemed fine on the surface. She was actually standing by an ambulance, not lying on a stretcher or sitting on it like Miki. She only seemed fine, though. Shota knew to look harder than that. She was clutching her ribs with her left arm, and holding someone's hand with the other. Her face was bruised up and he could already see the blood on her cheek dribbling down onto the cobblestone.
The hand Himiko was holding belonged to Hitoshi, who looked to be in the worst shape. He was lying on the stretcher, one paramedic was checking his blood pressure while the other slipped an oxygen mask over his face.
The couple stood there, taking in everything they saw before them. Hizashi started to tear up, and his cries were what caught all of the children's attention. Shota looked at them all his own eyes watering with worry and fear.
Himiko stumbled her way over to them like her life depended on it, wincing as the leg on the same side as her injured ribs hit the ground. She looked up at the two of them, tears welling up in her yellow-green eyes.
"I was s-so scared dad."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The second last chapter!!!
I'm lowkey sad we're ending so soon, but it isn't really soon since this is chapter 40.
Still tho (╥︣ ╥᷅)
I'm gonna write so many AU's and one shots for this series. I'm not ready to let this story go!
Stay Tuned for the final chapter!
(Also I had 350 notifications when I logged on today. What happened to you guys? When did you start commenting so much? But also keep doing it I love comments more than I love myself)