Touya didn't have much experience meeting a girl's parents, but he could tell pretty quickly that he'd already failed to make a good impression on your mother.
However, it wasn't often that he made a good impression on anyone. So he wouldn't have been too bothered if there had not been sharp glass threatening to slice open his throat. Glass that was controlled by a woman with seething, motherly rage. From the way she looked at him, Touya could tell that she'd already concluded that your disappearance was his fault.
It wouldn't be easy to convince her otherwise. Considering that she was a hero and he was one of the most wanted villains in Japan. Aya stumbled over her words beside him, desperately trying to explain the situation, but the woman was having none of it.
"I was informed by Japan's Hero Commission just a few hours ago that a member of the League of Villains had escaped from their custody, along with a female accomplice." She took a step closer. "I wasn't planning on investigating it. The purpose of my trip was to come and check on my daughter's wellbeing. But what a surprise it is to find the two fugitives in her apartment." Your mother flicked her wrist and the glass surrounding them paused in its movement. "Tell me where she is."
Alright, he could play cool. He could convince her to listen to him. Didn't matter that he was a villain and all his negotiations often ended with someone dead or missing a limb. He could be civil.
"Your daughter," Touya said. "Is currently being held captive by the same Commissioners who you spoke to earlier." He knew she wouldn't believe it, but he continued anyway, hoping to at least catch her interest before the authorities were called. "The girl beside me is one of her closest friends who was being held as leverage over her."
Your mother scoffed. "You expect me to believe you, villain?"
"No, actually. I figured that a hero such as yourself wouldn't listen to a single word coming from my mouth. But it's the truth."
Aya spoke up from beside him. Touya looked over, surprised to see that there were fewer of the glass shards around her than there had been before. "Hear him out, ma'am, please. There's... there's a lot that's happened that your daughter hasn't told you. But she'll never get the chance to explain it all unless we get her out of the Commission's hands."
Your mother's brows narrowed. "There is nothing that the Commission could possibly want from her. That girl is my child and I love her dearly, but she is a secretary, a quirkless one at that. I can't think of anything she could've done that would have caught their attention. Let alone have made them 'capture' her, as you say."
Fuck how she felt about him, this woman was not making a good impression on Touya either. "I think we both know that that's a lie," Touya said darkly. "You know exactly what those people want from her. It's the same thing my former villain partners wanted from her. The same thing that the entire world would kill for if the truth was revealed."
The woman's face went slack, betraying the truth of his words before she could put on another mask. "Don't try and spin those lies to me-"
"It looks to me that you're the only liar in this room," he cut her off. "You've been lying to her for her entire life, haven't you? Has it been so long that you've managed to convince yourself that the story you told her was true? And are you so blinded by your heroic nature that you truly believe that the Commission wouldn't figure it out and use whatever means necessary to take control of her? Of the weapon inside of her that you tried so hard to keep hidden?"
Touya didn't expect the sudden anger that rose to the surface. But being face to face with this woman, the one who'd made you strong, yet constantly made you doubt yourself. She could have helped you, trained you to harness that power of yours instead of shutting it out entirely and forcing you into a life where you remained oblivious. You could have learned how to keep it quiet, learned to control it. Maybe then, none of this would be happening.
"How do you know about that?" Your mother asked in a dangerously quiet voice. Touya saw then, that she now saw him as an even bigger threat. And he tried to think of ways that he could fight her without killing her. Coming out of captivity to learn that your mother had been killed, by him of all people, probably wouldn't do much to help your already strained relationship.
"Your daughter and I recently spent a lot of time together," he said cautiously. "We were... partners. It took me a while to figure it out, and I wasn't fully convinced until I saw it with my own eyes." This next part may have been unnecessary, but he wanted to see the guilt that it would cause. "The Higher Up's of the Commission came to visit. One of them attacked her, and almost killed her. I'm sure you can guess which one it was. The same man who your daughter had told you about a couple of years earlier."
Ah, there it was. The sudden realization followed by the overwhelming guilt in her eyes sent a small bit of sadistic pleasure through Touya's body. He continued, "Since nobody had believed her then, it allowed him to attack her once more. I got there just as that power was activated and the man was drained of his quirk and his life force."
Your mother's face was blank for a few moments, and he began to wonder if what he'd said had done anything at all to gain her trust. But then there was the sound of glass falling to the floor and Touya saw the woman retreat a few steps. "Her father was supposed to steer them off track. The research he was doing for them was meant to keep them off of her trail. They shouldn't know. They couldn't have-" Clenching her fist, she shut her eyes. "Incompetent bastard."
Touya's eyes widened. "Her father knew about this too?"
"Yeah, but that doesn't matter. Clearly, the son of a bitch didn't prevent anything." She sighed. "I don't trust either of you. Especially you," she pointed to Touya. "My daughter isn't the type to get involved with villains."
"Oh, she got involved," he drawled. "In many different places, actually." A shard of glass flew from the floor and came millimeters from his left eye. Touya chuckled but held his hands up in surrender.
Evening his tone back to match the seriousness of his words, he looked your mother in the eyes. "The only reason she ever entertained my presence was to fulfill her best friend's dying wish. Because that's the kind of person she is. She'll put herself through hell, do anything, even if it hurts her, to help the people she loves. She handed herself over to the Commission for our sake," he looked to Aya. "Even though I know for a fact that I didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve anything from her, but for some reason, she decided to give me everything that I could have ever wanted and more. I could go on for hours, talking all sappy like this, which is further proof of how much your daughter has affected me because I am not a sappy man. But we don't have time. I am going to figure out how to get her back, and if you make me wait another damn second to do it I will show you exactly why I am feared by almost every person in this god-forsaken country." Even if it meant incurring your wrath later on. They didn't have time to play nice.
Much to Touya's surprise, a small smile came across your mother's lips. One that seemed oddly amused. She dropped the glass once more. "While I may not approve of my daughter's choice in men," begrudgingly, she looked between him and Aya. "It seems that she's managed to choose some decent allies. I'll offer you this, villain. Get my daughter back, and I will help you in whatever way that I can without facing discovery from the Commission." The relief Touya felt was quickly cut off. "Once she's safe and out of reach, you will be turned into the authorities. And you will go willingly."
"What?" Aya took a step but the woman held up a hand.
"Not you, girl. I looked into your history and found nothing of interest. This man has sins to atone for, and I will not allow my daughter to continue her life on the run with someone like him. She has gone through too much, and him remaining in her life will only bring more suffering and increase the danger she faces."
"I would never hurt her," he said through clenched teeth. Not again.
"Let's say I believe that. You'd never hurt her intentionally. But will you stand here and deny that your death wouldn't cause her pain?" Your mother turned to Touya, brows raised. "You are dying, aren't you? I can see the evidence across your skin."
Looking down at himself, the air felt like it had been sucked out of the room. He... hadn't given himself a chance to think about that.
"Serve your time," she continued. "Bring peace to the families of all the people whose lives you took, and let my daughter find happiness that will not be so short-lived."
Aya shook her head. "She'll resent you for making him do it."
"No," he said. "It's ok. I'll agree to those terms." He would figure a way out of it if necessary. But maybe, a small part of him thought, maybe she was right. About all of it.
But there was no time to debate morality now. Your mother smiled approvingly, and Aya looked at him with interest, as if trying to decipher whether or not he was being truthful. "We need to find her access card," Touya said. "From there, we'll use it to break into the Commission building and find the layout of the place she's being kept."
It would take much longer to do than he would've liked, but Aya had insisted that the underground facility was miles long, and would be nearly impossible to navigate without a map of sorts. Which should be kept in the President's office. She'd also insisted that the key card was necessary because the alarms inside of the building would go off if they detected any movement inside that hadn't been authorized with the card. Meaning she couldn't just make the doors transparent and walk through.
He was lucky that he'd been able to say the right things and get your mother somewhat on their side because they would already be taking long enough to get to you as it was.
"Actually," your mother had pulled a phone out of her jacket pocket, one that looked like a burner, and was staring at the screen with slightly widened eyes. "There may be no need for that."
"What do you mean?" Aya asked.
Touya walked over and looked down at the small screen. A message had been sent. There were no words included, just a marked location. The number hadn't been saved. "What's this?" He asked.
"It's from her father," she responded, sounding a bit shaken.
Touya took the phone from her hands without asking and pressed the location with his thumb. A map appeared, giving them exact directions. He showed the screen to Aya. "Does this look like the area from the maps you saw in the President's office?"
She nodded. "The entrance to get below ground is close by. So if her dad sent this..."
"He's with her," your mother finished. "Our agreement was never to contact one another unless it was in regards to our daughter's safety." He couldn't tell if she sounded relieved or afraid.
"Well, it's taken him twenty-two years," Touya strode to the door, refusing to waste another moment. "But let's hope that the man has finally decided to step into his fatherly duties."
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Y/N's POV:
You were going to kill these people.
As the faceless doctors surrounded your limp, sedated body, you silently conveyed that promise to them. The deadly silence held more weight than any spoken threat. They could feel it. You could tell by the way their shoulders stiffened and one of their hands shook while placing a set of restrictive cuffs around your wrists.
The order had come directly after you'd been subdued. Put the devices wherever they can fit, ankles, wrists, neck, waist. Make sure that there is no way for her quirk to activate without our permission.
Nobody had expected Izanagi to break out after the collar had been reactivated, including you. The commissioners had chalked it up to a faulty device, but something Touya had told you days ago had come to mind. And you'd realized that the collar hadn't been faulty at all.
Touya. The memory sent a fresh wave crashing against the fragile wall that had built itself inside of you. The wall that kept you teetering on the edge of sanity. If you let yourself think of him or Aya, you'd fall. Landing in a pit of darkness and despair that would drown you completely. You couldn't let that happen, not yet. Not until you'd killed everyone responsible for what happened to them.
For now, the rage would guide you, keep you on your feet. Once your vengeance had been extracted, only then would you break through that wall. Dive into the depths of your pain and grief that had been deepening since the night of Ami's death.
Your eye twitched, the only sign of discomfort that could be made as the new, larger metal band clicked into place around your neck. Your captors were certainly being thorough. The power that had been in your grasp completely was now just a faint wisp, floating through your fingers.
But it was there. That was what mattered. It was there and you could still feel its presence, no matter how faint.
"All done," one of the doctors said. "Call the guard in and have her carried back to her room."
"I do not need to be carried," you mumbled angrily.
"You were injected with three doses of a sedative. You should hardly be conscious right now." He inclined his head. "Try and sit up on your own, then we can see if walking is in the cards."
You blinked, realizing that you didn't have the help of your hands to push you up, meaning you'd need to rely completely on core strength to get yourself upright. With much more effort than normal, you managed to do it but fell right back onto the table at the sudden head rush that nearly caused you to black out.
The doctor chuckled, "Here." He reached his arms out to help position you, but you shot him a warning glare.
"Don't fucking touch me."
He took a few steps back, and another, more feminine laugh echoed through the room. "I've got it from here."
You recognized your guard's voice. It wasn't much of a relief, but having her help would be better than any of these other assholes giving it.
She brought you to a sitting position and allowed you to put most of your weight on her as you got to your feet. As the two of you moved, she did most of the work, but it was still better than being carried like a child.
"That was quite the scene back there," she said once you'd gotten back to your room and into the bed. Then, she got quieter. "I'm... sorry about your friends."
"Not like it was your fault," you said dryly. You didn't want this girl's pity, guilt, or whatever it was. "I hope those two men in there weren't people you cared about." Not that it would make a difference, or make you feel bad about killing them after what they'd done.
"They weren't," she sounded hesitant. "But they..." trailing off, she shook her head as her eyes darted to the camera in the corner above. "The Higher Up's are taking time to review some things, so you should have a good few hours before anyone summons you again. Try and get some rest."
"Yeah," you snorted. "Good thing I have all these metal devices around me to keep me nice and comfortable."
Behind the mask, you thought the girl might've smiled. "Right, well, I'll see you soon."
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Maybe it was the drugs or the overexertion of your body, but you did end up falling into a fitful sleep. Not willingly, of course, because sleep meant dreams, nightmares.
Nightmares filled with the sounds of Aya's screams and Touya's look of defeat once he realized the battle could not be won. The choked pleas coming from the man you'd drowned with your bare hands. Hands that were wet, not with water, but with blood.
Not your blood, but the blood of all those who'd made the mistake of coming into your life. You tried to wipe it off but your clothes were soaked in the substance as well. It was everywhere, coating the walls, the floors. Even your eyes could not quite open fully because of the redness that coated them.
The walls began to close in, trapping you, keeping you from moving as more of the thick, red fluid spilled, filling the room. You tried to scream but only choked as blood fell from your mouth, your nose, your eyes, and-
A soft sound brought you out of sleep. Immediately, you began to take gaping breaths of air, filling your lungs. Your neck was sore, probably from the collar that had dug into your flesh while you'd slept.
The sound that had awoken you was coming from beside your bed, and you looked over to see your father standing against the wall. His eyes were shut, and his lips were pressed together as he hummed that familiar melody that had once lulled you to sleep as a child.
Maybe you were still dreaming.
You sat up, relieved to find that the sedative must have worn off in the time since you'd been injected with it. A dull ache flared in your back, which had still not completely healed. But somehow, you still felt more energized than you had since they'd first pressed that blade close to your spine.
"What are you-" you cleared your throat since the words came out scratchy. "What are you doing in here?"
His eyes opened and the man looked down at you. "How are you feeling?"
Eyes narrowing in suspicion, you answered, "Fine."
There was a surprisingly wistful look about him and you were still very confused as to why he was standing next to your bed. Your father bowed his head. "I'm sorry."
Nervously, your eyes darted to the camera above your bed. "Sorry for what?" There were plenty of things he could be apologizing for, but many of them weren't appropriate to say with the ears of the Commissioners listening in.
"Everything," he said, shocking you even more. "But especially for the things that have happened to you since being here. If I'd known they were hurting you..." He sighed. "I was supposed to protect you, and up until now it's clear that I've failed miserably."
You stared, still groggy. Was the guy really exposing himself like this? It wasn't that you didn't want to hear what he had to say, you'd been dreaming of the day he would finally come back and apologize since you were a little girl. But now of all times? Right after you'd woken up in a glorified prison cell?
"I'm not sure what you mean," you said, trying to steer the conversation. Your love for your father had died long ago, but that didn't mean you wanted to see him hurt or killed by the Commissioners. There'd already been too much death, too much suffering inflicted on the people in your life.
Your father smiled softly before looking up. "The cameras have been deactivated. I'd say we probably have ten minutes at most before someone notices. The night watchers tend to get a little lazy around this time."
"What? Why would you do that?"You went to rub your eyes, then remembered the device around your wrists that kept you from doing so. "Wait. You said you were supposed to protect me," a creeping suspicion slithered up your spine. "Did you mean that in the fatherly sense? Or something different?"
"I think I failed in the father department a long time ago." He put a hand to his head. "I thought that leaving would be the best thing for you, the only way to keep you safe. After that night..." Your father trailed off.
"What night? Dude, you are incredibly confusing right now."
"The night we found out about your power, your mother and I."
Your brows rose. She knew about it too? "Alright, I don't know what the hell is going on with you but you can't just wake me up and start saying cryptic shit without any explanation."
He continued, "I'd just gotten permission to take a few days off from hero work after taking down a particularly nasty villain, a cult leader who lured people in with false promises and violent ideologies. It had been a hard battle, so many of his followers had fought with him, refusing to listen to any reasoning, but my team and I still came out on top."
You vaguely remembered that story, your mom had let you stay up late to watch his interview on the news after the battle had been won and the villain had been arrested. You tried to remember what had happened afterward, but there was nothing. You'd probably fallen asleep on the couch.
"I was exhausted and ready to be home after being gone for so long. I let my excitement get the best of me, and I wasn't careful enough. My lack of vigilance allowed for someone to follow me, one of the villain's lackeys with an invisibility-type quirk that was extremely inconvenient." Your father looked at you, and you were startled by the stark regret plastered across his face. "It was almost three in the morning by the time I got home. You and your mother were both already asleep. I came inside, got into bed, and fell asleep within minutes when I should've been checking the security system, locking the doors, or doing something." He shook his head. "I was the target, when the villain came inside he should've come looking for me. But I'd been stupid. I'd led him straight to the people that could be used against me."
None of this sounded familiar. if a villain had gotten into your house it seemed like something your mind would have held on to. Even if you were young.
"Your mother and I both woke up to the sound of your screams. God, I don't think I've ever felt so terrified in my life. We ran to your room, but the door was locked, and this strange light was shining through the crack beneath it. I broke it down, ready to go against all of my hero training and kill whatever was making you scream like that, but once we got inside and that light had started to fade, all that we found was your tiny, three-year-old figure shakily standing over a mangled, dried out corpse."
The air in the room felt colder than normal, your mouth fell open, and it took a second for his words to fully catch up to you. Three years old? You'd murdered someone as a mere toddler? Your mind raced. This was surely something you would've remembered.
"We thought that your quirk had manifested somewhat early," he kept on. "And it was vaguely terrifying, knowing that your kid had a quirk that quite literally sucked the life out of people. But we dealt with it. Your mother comforted you while I disposed of the body. I hated myself for letting it happen, but I was so relieved that you weren't hurt that I couldn't bring myself to focus on anything else." Another sigh. "Until five minutes later, it was your mother who was screaming. I bolted back inside, worried that someone else had managed to break in, but when I got to her there was no one else there, and I mean no one, including you. Your mother was frantic, screaming about how you'd just disappeared from her arms. We both started to panic until a little voice croaked from the bed, asking why mommy and daddy were so upset."
Oh. Now you understood where the story was going. "I'd taken the villain's quirk," you said. "Something to do with invisibility, right?"
Your father nodded. "We didn't quite put the pieces together at first, not until I managed to identify the intruder and run a background check. Once I realized what had happened, things started to feel a lot bigger. It was around this same time that the villain All For One had become well known throughout the world, and the similarities between both of your quirks made me think. I spent all of my free time researching and investigating until I came across the legend of Izanagi. A legend that had sounded oddly similar to a story my grandmother had told me while I was growing up, the same grandmother who'd died on the day you were born."
You stared down at the blankets covering your legs. What he was telling you made sense, but it was still difficult to process it, especially the fact that you'd killed someone before you'd even been able to read. The grandmother thing, though, answered the question of how you could've gotten this power. But still, why was he telling you all of this now? Emotion swirled through your chest, rising up to clog your throat.
"I told your mother what I learned, and we both realized the danger that this power would put you in. If people learned of it, if they managed to figure out that my family was somehow tied to the legends and discovered that you existed, you would be hunted. Your mother and I both agreed that it would be safer to have the blocker implanted, your memories of that night erased. But what we hadn't agreed on, was my leaving. She wouldn't listen to me when I said that it would be safer for you if I was gone." He looked away in shame when speaking his next words. "But I'd made up my mind. I refused to put you in danger any more than I already had. So, the night after you went to your doctor's appointment and learned that the blocker had worked in hiding your abilities, I left. Moved out to Japan, and did some more hero work before halfway retiring and getting my job at UA. I'm a science teacher, which always made sense to me because of my quirk. But I never forgot about you, never stopped worrying, not once."
You blinked back tears that had unexpectedly formed in your eyes. Alright, he wanted to have this conversation now? You could say your piece. "But I didn't know that." His story was truthful, that much you could tell, but it didn't erase the pain you'd endured in his absence. "You left without even saying goodbye. The person I looked up to and admired the most was gone, just like that. I thought it was because I was quirkless, I spent my life believing that you'd left because I was useless to you without any power." Your voice shook, and your father couldn't meet your eyes. "You say you wanted to protect me? Why weren't you there to protect me from the ruthless training she made me do?! Why weren't you there on the nights that I was bleeding and broken and being screamed at to stand back up and do the exercise again?!"
You knew your mother loved you, and that the things she'd put you through had been her way of making sure you were safe. And it had come in handy in your later years, but it didn't erase the trauma it had caused. "I grew up with one parent who left me and another parent who blamed me for it. I grew up constantly being spat on by strangers and told how worthless I was because of my condition and I fucking believed them! Because of you! It took me years until I met someone who said otherwise, someone who acknowledged my strength even without a quirk, and even then it took me longer still to believe that she was being honest. And guess what?" You lifted your arms and dropped them into your lap. "She's dead now! They're all fucking dead! And I couldn't do anything about it because I had no idea that this power even existed in me until less than three weeks ago!"
You'd been taught not to rely on power, and you'd won plenty of battles without a quirk. But ever since fully accepting that Izanagi was inside of you, you couldn't help but wonder if you could've used it to save them, had you known.
"Ami was a good friend. I was so glad that you met her." Your father finally looked at you. "When I found you two that night after you'd killed those men and she'd dragged you back to shore, I knew instantly what was going on. And Ami did too. She knew of Izanagi, and it was clear that she'd figured out the secret that I'd done so much to keep hidden." He smiled faintly. "I was worried, at first, but speaking to her in the hospital made me realize that she would do whatever it took to keep you safe and keep others from discovering you. She would be a better protector than I ever was. I respected her very much." He pressed his lips to a tight line. "Which is why I wish I could have succeeded in doing what she asked of me. I thought that I was, by agreeing to be the Commissioner's investigator and leading them off your tail while searching for Izanagi. But it is clear now that I failed. Twice, I promised to protect you, and twice I have not fulfilled my promise."
You listened to what he said, repeated the last sentence in your head, and then inhaled sharply. "It was you," you said in surprise. "In Ami's letter, she said someone was going to explain everything and help keep me safe. It was supposed to be you, wasn't it?"
"It was."
Jesus, you needed to lay down.
"That night at the river also confirmed another one of my fears," he said. "That the blocker wasn't able to completely subdue the power in you. See, Izanagi is not a normal quirk. It is the quirk. The power that existed before any other. This is why no regular quirk-restricting device can fully restrain it. It broke through the blocker when you needed it desperately, and just a few hours ago it broke through the collar around your neck when those guards tried to subdue you."
"Yeah," you mumbled, slightly dazed by this overload of information. The tears had stopped, but the weight in your chest was still heavy. "I'd kinda started to figure that one out."
"I wish we had more time," he spoke apologetically. "I could sit here for hours and try to atone for the things I've done, but it would not be enough. Nothing will ever be enough but for now, this will have to do. I wanted to make sure you were rested and healed enough before coming to you. I will not let these people hurt you again. " Your father kneeled beside the bed and pulled a small tool from his jacket pocket. "Your friends are not dead. They managed to escape without harm."
Your eyes went wide, "What?"
"If I'm correct in my guess, they should be on their way now." With the device he'd pulled out, your father began to release the restraints on your ankles, then moved to your wrists. "I'm gonna get you out of here, ok?"
"You- They-" You stumbled over your words, but before you could voice a proper thought, the door to your room hissed open just as the cuffs fell from your wrists.
"Well, that was quite a touching conversation," The Higher Up stepped inside, you didn't know his name, but the threat he'd whispered in your ear echoed through your mind at the sight of him. Your father turned, and you were surprised by the lack of fear in his stance.
"Unfortunately," the man said. "I'm not quite ready to let either of you go."
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Whoo two more chapter left after this!