Six years ago...
He ran.
He ran and ran and ran, ran as fast as the wind could carry him, lactic acid burning in the depths of his abdomen. A small piece of uneven flooring sent him almost barreling across, but he picked himself up and kept running, letting out a small cuss at his sloppiness. Blood glistened across his face; his vision blurred to the point he thought he was going blind. His muscles ached with the familiar hot-white burn of exhaustion and his lungs felt like they were going to melt at any second, but he wouldn't stop. Couldn't stop.
Why?
Why?
Just why?
What was he doing? One moment he was in the office of a yakuza boss, things going great—until they didn't and he was running for his life, trying to escape monsters the underground had created. Everything was a blur. Colours exploded in his vision but they were blurred out of focus, strips of red and grey unravelling before his eyes. Flashes of lightning blared across the sky, illuminating his face in the dead of the night. Thunder roared, but his pounding heart deafened the sound of the gods.
Then for a moment, he stopped.
The world stopped.
For a split second, light ceased to exist.
And the ground broke away from his feet.
***
Rain pelted his skin like a thousand bullets.
The pain that once burned like fire had faded away to an icy numbness. Black filled the edges of his vision and the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat and the incessant dribble of rain on the ground. He let out a blood-curdling yelp as he clawed at the ground, trying to drag himself to somewhere more secluded—somewhere more peaceful. He couldn't feel his legs. They were already a pile of mangled flesh, crushed and rendered useless. Still, he pushed on, using the last scraps of his strength to reach the clearing in front of him.
He'd already lost more than enough blood; a huge chunk of his abdomen had been ripped out and as the rain continued to beat down on him, he wondered why he was still alive. His pain was an icy wind choking the breath from his lungs and making a noose around his neck—fuck, why couldn't he just die already? Or was he supposed to bleed out and endure the pain till sweet oblivion claimed him?
After destroying and ending so many lives... It wasn't surprising at all to see cold death knocking on his front door. He had expected it to make its grand arrival with torturous pain, but the rain kissing his body made it all the more welcoming with mellow warmth he would soon forget.
The rain made it more unbearable.
It was reminding him of everything.
King lifted his hand to the murky sky, blood sliding across his face like rain on a window.
'No, I can't.'
"If I die now," he croaked, coughing out blood, "then who's going to protect [Name]?" He slammed his curled fist onto the ground. 'Fuck, this is all my fault. If I go now they'd go after her... all those bloody bastards. They'd find her and make her take my place to continue their bidding...' Rage burned like a flame within his chest. 'I should have killed every single one of them when I had a chance!'
"If a longer life is what you seek, then I shall grant your wish."
King paused, silence filling his ears.
"Who-Who's there?"
The voice laughed, soft and sweet. "I go by the name Neomie, a wandering soul that treads the streets, looking for the next person who seeks the touch of mercy. A soul that has seen many lives ruined like yours; lives that barely breathed into this world. A simple occupation, no?" Suddenly he couldn't see, but he could feel the chill of hands ghosting across his skin and sharp nails burrowing into his flesh. "You're going to bleed out, you know?" she said, drawing back his attention. Her ravenous eyes raked over his body. "You look a bit busted here and there, but worry not. It's nothing my Quirk can't fix."
He whimpered. "Please, don't hurt me."
"Oh no, no, no, I won't. I'm not that cruel."
"Then... what are you going to do to me?" he demanded.
"Oh, nothing you don't want of course." She stopped touching him. "But tell me... What is your greatest desire?"
"My what?" King screeched. Pain rippled through his body once more.
"Hurry, unless you want to die," she ushered.
'My greatest desire...'
A voice filtered into his head. You don't have one.
'Shut up.'
A cold, heartless murderer like doesn't have one. Stop pretending you're actually human.
'I said shut up...'
Have you forgotten how many lives you've ruined? The family you tore apart?
You don't deserve to live.
"I said shut up!" he roared.
"Time is ticking," the woman reminded.
'You of all people know how much I loved my family. You know why I had to leave!'
Excuses.
'No... I'm done making excuses. It's time I man up for once.'
The woman hummed. "It's alright if you don't have any, I can always—"
"I want... I want to protect my daughter!" he hurriedly said, his chest heaving with each uneven breath. "She's done nothing wrong, but I know my past will soon catch up to her and the enemies I made back then will want to pay back the price. I-I don't want to see her suffer. I don't want her life to fall into the wrong hands like mine did." A cough shuddered in his chest and spluttered flakes of blood onto the ground. "I've made a lot of mistakes in life. I tried my best to stay away and I couldn't, and now I'm facing the consequences. But!" Tears streaked his eyes. "I want to set things right, I want to do at least one thing right and protect my daughter. If-If you can do something please—"
"Your wish is my command."
King felt his heart stop.
Neo placed her hand atop his forehead. "With my Quirk, you will be granted a second life. However, you will become walking corpse, a zombie but sane, and time will not exist to you. You will obey me and no one else; you will carry out my every order and seek the things I need whenever and wherever; you cannot, under any circumstances, gain back your free will if I desire it so." Warmth seeped out of his skin and he felt the frigid fingers of dread coil around his throat. "Is that understood?"
A thick lump lodged itself within his throat. "Is... Is there any other way?"
She shook her head.
"My Quirk only works on those close to death so we can make the oath. Once you're dead, I'm afraid you'll just rot away like every other living thing out there."
Tears trickled down the side of his face. "I guess I don't really have an option then?"
A listless nod.
"I promise you won't regret it."
King supposed he would in the future, but at that moment, anything was better than death.
"... Do it."
Everything faded from his touch. The rain, the pain, the gentle touch of the woman who hovered over him—everything.
He felt as though he was at the edge of a chasm, feet threatening to slip down into unending darkness. It should have been a terrifying sensation, but oddly enough, it wasn't. His body was incredibly light; weightless even. It had been the first time he'd felt so liberated, far away from his past and the bloodlust of the world, far away from the villain who'd murdered him, even as he stared right into the dark abyss below. Fear didn't exist. No other emotion did. He was an empty shell, roaming the precipice of a bottomless void. It didn't make sense. It wasn't logical, and he couldn't wrap his head around it.
But then incandescent light began to spread from his fingers.
A familiar voice filled the space around him.
"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you," they said, nearly on the brink of wicked laughter. "Extending your life isn't free. Every oath I make comes with a price: in exchange for your life, you give me someone else's..." He hated the silence that followed. "You said you wanted to protect your daughter, yes? Very well, you shall... But I wonder what you'll think when I'm the one wearing her skin?"
A giggle.
"A life for a life right?"
***
"And so I made a deal with the devil," your father laughed grimly.
Tamaki knelt down alongside you with his hand on your shoulder, rubbing in comforting circles. But you couldn't feel a thing right now. Not even the headache that was once pounding relentlessly like a war drum inside your head. Your eyes were fixated on your unmoving father, searching for his hand and gripping it tightly.
"I... I have a lot to explain, don't I?" he sighed in defeat.
"Please tell me the truth," you said. He squeezed your hands.
"Your hands used to be so tiny, all those years back."
"King." Your voice was monotone, and your face emotionless as you addressed him, but the small tears that had unwillingly escaped the corner of your eyes wouldn't stop sliding across your face, wetting your shirt and smearing the floor. "Nine years ago you left mum and I," you continued quietly, nearly on the brink of sobbing. "We were a loving family. Then you left and everything fell apart. You tore us apart."
"[Name]..."
You let out a shaky breath. "Just... why?"
"I..." your father breathed, closing his eyes. His hand gripped yours a tad tighter. "All this time I wanted to protect you and your mother. I left so that the two of you would have nothing to do with me and tried to cut ties with the underground... but y'know," he chuckled softly, "the world doesn't like letting people forget their sins. I kept their attention off of the two of you... tried to make you as safe as possible..." A cough. "But in the end, I knew I was the villain going to cause you the most pain. Because of the selfish decision I made, I put you in the hands of the devil itself. I knew eventually... that Neomie would come looking for you—her oath is absolute after all. As much as I wanted to kill her, I knew her Quirk would stop me. That's why I tried to delay her plan as much as possible."
You gnawed on the inside of your cheek.
"... That's why you tried to kill me back then. To cancel the oath," you said. "But you didn't."
He nodded, grimly.
"I swear, [Name], none of this should have happened. I didn't know about the requirement for the oath—she said nothing until the end. She used the first person on my mind at that time—"
"And that was me," you muttered.
Another nod.
Thoughts ran rampant inside your head. At any moment in your life Neo could have swooped down to claim your life, but your father had been trying to derail the process, trying to protect you. Even if the entire thing was his fault in the first place. A mixture of bitterness and sorrow swelled in your chest; you couldn't forgive him for such a thing, for promising something that wasn't his, but as he lay on the ground, the colour draining from skin... you didn't know what to think.
Were these tears real? Or were you crying for the death of a man you used to know?
Whatever it was, it didn't matter now. Your mind was blank, the roof of your mouth parched and your limbs aching from strain and fatigue. All you wanted was some peace and quiet.
'Some peace of mind.'
"For the past few years Neomie had been desperate for your body," he said. "But I had delayed her. We weren't ready, we were still tied to many villains back then. She knew that. She didn't want to risk heading into the battlefield just yet—" He pressed his lips together in a firm line. "—if only I kept it up, at least until her body became too frail for any grand scale operations. But that woman was persistent. I couldn't keep refusing her in the end."
"Then why didn't you just finish me off back then?" you asked. "The way you looked at me... you were ready for the kill."
"I'd convince myself to, thinking it was the easy way out for the both of us..." he rasped. "But I was acting out of selfishness again. I didn't have faith that there was another way out." He shrugged his shoulders in a weak attempt. "But that's what I needed. A little bit of faith. Hope that someone would take her down." A tiny chuckle. "What kind of sane father would threaten to shoot their child anyway?"
His eyes flitted briefly, his vision blurring and blackness rimming the edges of his eyes.
"I didn't want to put you in danger. People like Neo... people who take advantage of others and control them. Who look down on people just trying to live their lives; people who always toy with others, who break them and steal from them. I wanted to protect you from that—I couldn't possibly put you in danger like that. I could never live with myself if you got hurt on my behalf..." he hacked, but his words seemed to have trouble coming out. He swallowed, gripping your hands tighter before talking again. "So I figured the best way to end of all this... was to lure the pros here and have them defeat Neomie and I once and for all."
A haunting quiet seeped into the room.
"I didn't want to go back, but I was forced to. I didn't want to leave you or your mother. I didn't mean to drive your mother to that place either," he croaked. "I only wanted to make things right."
"I-I understand," you muttered.
"But I guess I only made it worse. Huh, screwed up as always. Ain't nothing new."
"Don't say that."
"[Name], I..." words failed him for a brief moment. "I am so sorry. You experienced such pain because of me... I failed to use this second life to protect you. I had enough time—nine years—to make things right, but here we are."
You shuddered. "Please don't say that. It's fine now, we're all fine now."
"Yes... Yes, I'm just glad everything is over..." he laughed bitterly. "I think I can finally rest in peace now, knowing that you'll be alright." His ashen eyes drifted to a roughed-up Tamaki and back to you. "I'm glad you found someone you can fight for, [Name]; someone who can fight for you too." His strength on your hand slowly diminished. "Treasure him forever."
Something shattered inside your chest.
"Wait, I still need to know more-"
He briefly tapped his knuckles against your forehead. "Don't sweat the details, kiddo. You don't have to worry anymore; everything's over."
Panic seized you. "Wait, dad—"
"Hey, [Name]."
Amidst all your tears, you saw the corners of your father's lips twist upwards.
"I'm proud of you."
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