Most nights, Musutafu city was a beautiful sight. Truly, it was. Aizawa always made sure to appreciate it when he could, given the nature of his job and the unpredictability of villain attacks. You never knew when it would be your last night alive. The rooftops afforded him a great view of it all, and it was a small reason he preferred the high ground to watch for crime, rather than down on the streets where he now found himself.
Tonight was different. The air was clear and the city's lights were twinkling off in the distance as the evening owls came to life down on the streets as usual. But here in the less occupied portion of the city, where industrial buildings and older infrastructure sat empty now that the working day was over, the erasure hero couldn't bring himself to care how pretty it would have looked from up on the rooftops.
Hound Dog walked beside him, occasionally sniffing the air for any sign of the scent he was tracking. His dog-quirk allowed him a very reliable nose, and he used it to full effect now. It was a long shot, considering it had been more than a day since Hina had disappeared, but the UA counselor had insisted on trying anyway. Leave no stone unturned. No avenue untried. Aizawa wouldn't turn down assistance, especially if by some miracle it brought him the information he needed to find his missing partner.
The dog-like man gave another loud sniff, before stopping in place and raising his head to the air. Aizawa stopped, watching carefully at the sudden change in behavior. "Anything?" He asked.
After a moment of intense concentration, Hound Dog shook his head, before holding out his hand. "Let me get another sniff."
Masking his disappointment, he held out one of Hina's shirts he'd taken from inside her apartment and allowed him to get a noseful of its scent. The counselor straightened and began walking again once he was satisfied he could pick it out from anything else, stopping beside the alleys and small alcoves between buildings as they came across them.
At this point, they could only hope to come across her scent wherever she was actively being kept, rather than a trail leading to her. With all of the intermingling smells of people walking the streets during the two days of her being missing, it would have surely dispersed anything Hound Dog could have reasonably been able to track.
Another few blocks and still no sign. Aizawa was also on the look out for potential criminal activity, but the area was largely deserted and quiet. The sight of two pro-heroes nearby would have effectively dispelled any possible crimes for the most part. Still, part of him wanted something to do to keep his mind off of his troubles.
She'd been gone 2 days. No sign of her or the duo who'd taken her. They'd caught a glimpse of two men, one muscular and the other of slight build and red hair, in the area where she'd been taken on a corner convenience store camera, but they had managed to avoid most others on their way out. No indication as to a direction or travel or destination. It was beyond frustrating, the way they'd simply vanished form the vicinity with no trace.
The teachers of UA had upped their patrols after their day jobs were finished, searching the city when possible. Even with their combined efforts, however, there was still no further information on her whereabouts. And given the investigation itself was being kept under wraps by law enforcement, they couldn't exactly ask citizens publicly to come forward with information.
Aizawa finally sighed, stopping when he checked his phone and saw the time. Even for him, it was unreasonably early in the morning. "We've searched for several hours now and haven't found anything. Let's head back." He stated, and Hound Dog's head lowered.
"I'm sorry...I thought for sure I'd be able to pick up something and be of use to the search." He muttered guiltily with a sad shake of his head.
"There's no need to apologize." The erasure hero said in a monotone. "You did what you could."
Hound Dog looked as if he had something else to say, but only sighed inaudibly and followed after his coworker to head back the way they'd come. It was a solemn walk.
They parted ways on campus, heading the direction of their respective apartments. He glanced at the student buildings, seeing one or two lit windows on the upper floors from students who hadn't yet gone to bed. He wondered why they weren't asleep, but shrugged and continued on, figuring it was their own fault for not getting more rest.
He avoided looking at Hina's neighboring apartment entirely, grabbing for his set of keys as he approached his door. He held up the ring in the light of the lamppost, trying to discern which key was which.
"Aizawa," a voice said, which made him turn towards the walkway, "are you just now returning from patrol?"
Toshinori stepped into the light from the lamppost from further down the walkway, looking just as tired as he felt. The class 1-A teacher nodded, looking for the right key as the blonde man approached. "Yeah."
"I suppose there hasn't been any further information, then..." Toshinori sighed dejectedly, eyes closing in disappointment. "I just got back from visiting with Tsukauchi, but he didn't mention anything to me about Hina's investigation either."
"If I knew anything, I wouldn't be here right now." Aizawa said bluntly, not in the mood for much conversation at the moment. He found his front door key and pushed it into the keyhole, then stopped, feeling guilty for the bite in his tone. He released a breath. "I just wish I could do more."
Toshinori didn't say anything for a moment, and the two teachers were stuck in a moment of melancholy. The blonde man finally cleared his throat, watching Aizawa.
"I've heard the rumors going around, about you and Hina." He said carefully, and 1-A's teacher winced. "If they are true, then...she must be very precious to you."
Another stale silence followed, but Aizawa finally nodded. "Yes."
"With her being gone like this, it must be difficult. I wish there was more I could do to help find her as well." Toshinori admitted, bowing his head. "But I am confident that with everyone doing their best, we will find her before it is too late."
Aizawa tried, really tried, to push the brunt of what he was feeling down in the pit of his stomach to be dealt with at a later time. It was a daily chore, keeping everything in check and locked up when going about his day and his job in front of the students. But it was late. And dark. And he was tired and the worry had been building the longer she was missing, and...
The 1-A teacher twisted the key in the knob, breaking the silence, before opening the door. "As am I."
He stepped inside without looking back, wanting away from the conversation and how he could feel the pain in his chest flaring.
Cracks. Numerous thin lines spanning the width of the wall under her sweaty palms, barely visible and spider-webbing across the hard surface. But definitely there, nonetheless. Hina's eyes flicked back and forth across the stone, feelings of paranoia mixed with dread that they were increasing in number and size as she watched it. Each rumble and groan from the other side made her skin crawl.
2 days of hunkering behind her mental defenses, and 2 days of straining to keep her quirk active so Daichi didn't break through. The headache to trump all that came before it had been raging nonstop, and she struggled to concentrate on anything but that constant pain anymore. That, and the need to stay alive.
Her trembling had worsened, limbs shaking from exhaustion and fear. Skin sticky and clammy from the sweat that had come and dried, Hina swallowed back a whimper as a particularly powerful hit rammed itself against the wall, causing tiny particles of the stone to fall to the sand below.
Tracks where tears had fallen down her cheeks felt uncomfortable, half dried and trailing irritatingly down her throat to dry in her shirt. She pressed harder into the wall, feeling the boom of another attack, just as strong as the one before. Her eyes closed, and this time she couldn't hold back the sob that leapt from her throat. Her lips curled back in a snarl.
The longer Daichi prodded at her consciousness, the more residual tendrils of his emotions made it past her defense. Over time, the further angered she became. Of course, her terror was most prevalent, but the proverbial fuse was growing shorter and shorter the longer it continued. What would happen when it ran out? Even Hina didn't know.
"Part of me feels bad for you, Hina." Daichi's voice called from behind the wall, sounding bored and unconcerned that he hadn't managed to break through yet. As if she couldn't feel the unbridled anger underneath his nonchalance.
"With our quirk...you could've done so much, gone so far. Even if you weren't born with the strength I was, you could have trained it to be something really incredible." He went on, and her eyes opened to glare at the wall. She couldn't respond, too focused on not losing her concentration of bolstering her defenses.
"Being a hero?" He said, and she could practically see his scoff. "The rules limit you, they weaken you. Just look where you are. Trapped behind a crumbling wall in your own head, trying desperately to hold out long enough that someone will find us here.
"Just look at what Grandpa managed to accomplish, back in his prime! If you hadn't followed your childish little dream of being a hero and actually embraced the potential of your own power, maybe you could have stopped me by now. You wouldn't have been so weak."
The anger that rose now was less a byproduct of Daichi's intrusion and more her own impatience and frustrations finally breaking through. "I'm not weak!" She yelled, knowing full well he could hear even over the sounds of rumbling.
"I help and protect people, from villains like you, that hurt and destroy for the hell of it...because you think you have some sort of right to do whatever you feel like..." She went on, breaths coming out in stuttered pants. "And I wouldn't trade that decision for anything!"
"Oh, you mean like you tried to help All Might? In Kamino Ward, right? How did that turn out for you?" He replied mockingly, and she shut her eyes again to the painful reminder of that night. Her hands clenched into tight fists against the stone. "All Might is taken off the map, hundreds of people dead, and millions in damages...I bet you being there made all the difference in the world."
"Shut up!" She shouted, voice raw and sore. "You don't know anything about that!"
"I know enough, like how All Might couldn't defeat that guy in time to avoid losing his quirk, because you and some kid were in the way." He said viciously, and Hina's chest ached further. "You were a burden to them, too weak to even defend yourself. What was a weak hero like you doing there anyway? If not for everyone else, you'd be dead."
Her fists were tight, fingernails digging crescents into the palms of her hand, and she felt two tremors shake her mental wall. Boom, boom, one right after the other. The pounding in her head, the scornful words, the exhaustion, the fear and terror and anger bubbling to the surface, it was more than she could take. She slammed her forehead into the wall out of anger, a scream bursting forth.
"LIAR!"
Hina felt a pulling sensation, followed closely by a cry of pain, and when she opened her eyes again, she was standing in a dazzlingly white cell. A padded cell. A prison cell...The redhead blinked, seeing Daichi nearby grabbing at his head out of reflex, grimacing from pain. 2 seconds passed before she realized where she was.
His head.
Hina had turned around and got into his own head. Somehow able to gain entry.
She hadn't meant to offensively apply her quirk, her anger directing one of Daichi's lashes back at him, but she had. And miraculously, he hadn't been putting up any sort of defense against an attack from her, so sure that she wouldn't-or couldn't-fight back against his continuous onslaught.
Hina ran for the red orb in the corner of the room, intent on forcing their location out of his memories. Now that she'd been given this opportunity, she wasn't going to squander it.
"NO!" He shouted, realizing what was happening a split second after she did, and he ran after her.
Her fingers grazed the glassy surface, providing an imprint of a location, but she felt her head torn back with a vicious yank, a fist buried in her hair dragging her away from it and sending her to the ground in a heap. She yelped from pain, but flailed and kicked and punched with as much strength as she could given the circumstances.
Her fists and feet landed a few blows, and her squirming meant that Daichi couldn't get a good hold on her, but she was still at a disadvantage. He managed to get a grip on her arm, dragging her onto her back and punching her in the face.
Grunting as he landed a few more blows, she managed to catch his arm before he pulled it back, and leaned up to sink her teeth as deep into his bicep as she could.
"Fuck!" He spat in pain and anger, smashing her head into the floor with her still attached by her mouth. She grunted, her head feeling like it was split open and vulnerable. Her mouth opened to cry out, and released his arm all in one.
His hand pressed her head hard into the floor, and his eyes glowed a bright cyan. The pressure in her head mounted, but she pushed back as much as she could both with her quirk and her hands and feet, refusing to let him in her head. He likewise refused to budge.
He snarled down at her, lifting her head and slamming it down into the ground again. She saw stars for a moment, nearly losing consciousness, but managing to stay awake. Her feet shuffled, trying to gain purchase against his chest or something similar, to push him up off her.
Hina choked out as he pressed harder in her head, glaring with menace and a hatred that was unmatched by anything she'd ever seen. A particularly hard press in her head forced her vision black, and the pulling sensation marked the end of her own infiltration. He'd forced her out, throwing her back into her own mind with a violent shove.
The sand between her fingers was rough and unpleasant, mixed so plentifully with the stone's particles. Daichi's presence returned, and she scrambled, crawling for the wall and planting her weakened hands against it's surface, bolstering it's strength moments before Daichi's mental hits resumed.
His attacks were fierce, angry and sadistic. They lashed and slashed angry marks on the opposite side, his emotions fueling each assault. The terrifying sound of the wall cracking further made her look upwards.
Kiwi-sized patches of the wall began to fall away to the sand on her side, the integrity weaker than it had been in years. She couldn't take much more of this, and her heart ached with the painful realization that she didn't have long.
Daichi's presence finally pulled away, releasing his quirk. She waited, thinking it to be a trick, but eventually her own eyes faded from their cyan and she found herself slumped on the cold concrete floor again.
Daichi's heavy breathing was the only stimulus she could register, besides the phantom pains coursing through her body. Hina couldn't even move to prop herself into sitting up. The pain was too great. If there was one silver lining, it was that he'd worn himself out with his uncoordinated and emotion-driven attacks, much quicker than he otherwise would have. Pouring his hatred at her had exhausted him.
His staggering footsteps left the room, and soon Hina's own stuttered breathing was the only sound remaining. Daichi would rest, eat, and drink to gain back his strength. And come the next day, he'd return to start the assault all over again, now working at a great advantage, her wall and her mental fortitude severely weakened. At this rate, she did not have faith that her strength would last through the next time.
Despite her exhaustion and spent energy, Hina could not fall asleep. The image of their location was prominently stuck in her mind, and she thought about it ceaselessly, now that she had time to think and breathe.
It had shown a familiar tea shop that Hina herself had visited several times in the past. Just behind it, an unrented shop, closed and barred from visitors. The basement was unfinished, left as storage for whatever eventual shop decided to move in.
It was barely 20 minutes from the University, and even closer to her old apartment building.
Armed with the knowledge of her location, Hina closed her eyes behind the blindfold, thinking over what had happened towards the end of Daichi's last attempt at breaking through her head.
She'd managed to connect with Daichi, despite not visually seeing him. Perhaps it had something to do with the mental connection they'd shared at the time, Hina didn't know. But somehow, she'd traversed and briefly overcome that one caveat of her quirk. Direct line of sight.
Hina activated her quirk, barely feeling the flare of her headache as it had been under intense pressure for the better part of 2 days. She sat in front of her wall, resting her forehead on it and thinking back to that moment of impulsive anger.
She remembered bracing herself forward, and involuntarily doing the same with her quirk. There hadn't been a specific target in mind, just the desire to push away anything and everything attacking her all at once. Words and attacks alike. But in the same instant, she'd also seemingly extended her power that direction too. How?
Her life now depended on figuring it out, and she began trying everything she could think of to replicate the result, hoping that somehow, it would reach past the concrete walls of the vacant shop's basement.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
