Absolute In/Existence

Chapter 14: Burnt Away



Akira cried in grief at Sora's sorry state.

Her once emotionless face was now covered with pain and grief. An uncharacteristic set of emotions that brought pain into the charred person's heart.

She watched in tears as Sora limped over to her and stood before her. His functional arm moved to the knife at his abdomen and he pulled it out gently before lifting his hand and cutting away at the rope.

"Baby… sniff… cough… nnnn…" Akira cried out gently as she looked at Sora struggling to cut the rope. "I-it's okay… just… leave me here…"

Still, Sora's figure continued moving as if he didn't hear her.

His hand moved and the knife cut at the rope.

Thud!

Akira fell to her knees on the floor after the rope was cut off. She turned her head and lifted it.

She was just about to thank Sora when she suddenly saw him fall to the ground.

Thud!

Quietly, he remained there motionlessly and without breath.

"Baby? Wake up! We need to get out of here!" Akira urged, panic filling her as she activated her quirk and directed it all towards Sora.

"Please…"

Akira's Quirk fell on Sora's body, but unlike before, she didn't feel it connect with Sora's quirk.

Her eyes widened and her hand clasped her mouth as a horrifying thought came to her.

Sora had passed away.

"No-nonono! Baby! Wake up!" Akira cried out, her Quirk worked rapidly and hard, but she didn't see a change to Sora's body.

"Why won't it heal!!! Please!"

Akira cried and watched as her Quirk eventually began healing Sora at a very slow pace.

Closing her eyes, Akira lowered her head and was planning to stay here with Sora's body.

Shhh…

Suddenly feeling something hot and raspy touch her hand, Akira lifted her head and noticed Sora's hand on hers.

Albeit very slow, Akira saw that Sora had begun healing.

His hand moving proved that he was also still alive!

Akira filled herself with hope as she grabbed Sora carefully and made her way out of the window of her work room.

"Hold on baby… we'll be out of here soon enough…"

Akira wiped the tears from her face as she carried Sora's charred body. The instant she esaped the burning house, audible gasps and yells of shock and fear reached her ears.

"AAHH!"

"She's carrying a dead body!"

"Murdurer!!!"

"No! That's Akira-san!"

Everyone talked amongst themselves, whispering and wondering what had happened. Their eyes wandered onto Akira and the charred body in her hands.

Police and Heroes rapidly arrived as soon as Akira stepped outside of the window with Sora in her arms.

"Ma'am! Put the body down!"

One of the officers was nervous, seeing what appeared to be a dead body in the arms of a woman.

Pat

The officer flinched after feeling a hand touch his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw the head officer shake his head.

"But sir…"

"Look closely," the head officer said, using his head to point back at Akira.

The nervous officer listened and turned his head to look at Akira more closely. Now that he was looking at Akira more closely, the nervous officer stood there stunned.

It was simply a grieving mother holding the body of someone deceased.

"Wow… what happened here?"

A hero with hose spigots on his hands was spraying water onto the fire. Beside him were two other heroes, a married couple.

"Hm… there's a gas leak… Backdraft, you know what to do," a man with a visor mask and red vest ordered Backdraft, the hero with water spigots for hands.

"Yes!"

Backdraft stopped watering the house and left it to the heroes higher ranked than him, the Hero Team Water Hose.

Whilst they were doing their work, a hero with a minor fire control Quirk entered the burning house and searched the house for people needing rescue.

Entering the house, the fire control hero entered the house through the front door and instantly came into contact with Kouki's dead body.

"Oh man… a murder happened here…"

The fire control hero looked at Kouki's dead body for a second before rapidly pulling him out.

Since he was at the entrance, it wouldn't take much time for him to enter the house real quick.

Swiftly, the Hero took out Kouki before running back into the house. He used his quirk to control the fir from touching his body.

He wore a mask to protect himself from the heavy smoke as he searched the house for any other survivor that may be there.

"Nothing…"

The hero said as he made his way to the kitchen after checking the various other rooms.

Thud…

"What was that?"

The hero looked down, feeling like he had kicked something by accident.

The heavy smoke didn't allow him to see anything, so he crouched down and took a closer look. There, on the ground, was a head looking at him with wide eyes.

The skin and flesh on the face was burnt off and the skull was slightly visible. The mouth was fully exposed and the hero could see that it was missing teeth.

Terror filled the hero and his eyes widened in fear.

"AAHHHH!!!"

Hearing the loud yell from inside the building, the married couple Hero Team, Water Hose, instantly reacted.

"I'll go check what happened, stay here and continue putting out the fire, Ren," the man said before rushing into the house after grabbing a mask.

"Be careful, Daisuke," yelled Ren, the man's wife and Hero partner.

Daisuke ran into the building, his water Quirk putting out fires as he made his way to where the yell came from.

"Flare! Where are you, Flare!"

Daisuke called out to the fire Hero, whose Hero name is Flare. He walked into a long corridor and heard some panting and quiet sobs to his left.

Turning his head, Daisuke saw a large raging fire, presumably where the fire originated and is still burning brightly.

"Flare?!"

Daisuke yelled, making his way towards the fire, his Quirk working hard as he extinguished the fire.

'Looks like they managed to stop the gas leak,' thought Daisuke as the fire was dying down slowly.

Searching around as he put out the fire, Daisuke finally found Flare.

Flare was panting, his back leaning against the wall.

"Flare! What happened, Flare?!" Daisuke asked as he approached Flare.

Hearing someone call his name, Flare weakly lifted his trembling hand and pointed over to a round object still burning.

"What is it?"

Daisuke asked Flare, but didn't receive any response anymore.

Curious, Daisuke used his water Quirk to douse the round burning object with water to extinguish the fire.

As the fire was being extinguished, Daisuke approached the round object and soon noticed what it was.

"Holy-!"

***

[Multiple casualties have been reported today at a residence in X where only one individual has survived.

Neighbors have reported of seeing a strange man appearing in the neighborhood and knocking on the victims door. Shortly thereafter, an explosion had gone off, caused by a skirmish between the intruder and an individual who is still unknown at this stage…]

Click!

Turning off the television, Akira wiped her tears away as she turned to look at Sora.

Despite his body healing, Sora was still in a very terrible state. Even with Akira's own healing aura Quirk, Sora will need many months of rest before his flesh can be completely grown back and healed from the burns Sora sustained.

Till then, Sora will have to remain in the hospital.

Quietly sitting next to Sora, Akira maintained her Quirk active as she allowed it to connect with Sora's Quirk and aid in his healing. She took rests when possible and remained next to Sora as long as she possibly could.

Sora was the only thing she had left in this world.

Her house and her husband were both gone.

The sadness she felt, only Sora and her knew about it.

As Akira sat there quietly, looking at Sora heal, her mind wandering as she recalled the little interaction she had with the police earlier.

Two Hours Ago

"Miss Akanabe, are you sure you're not aware of what had occurred between your son and the culprit?"

Outside of Sora's hospital room, Akari stood near the door whilst she spoke to two investigators.

"Yes," Akari responded calmly.

The two investigators turned to look at each other, their eyes conveying their thoughts to each other before turning to Akira once more.

They were suspicious of Akira hiding evidence, but there wasn't much they couldn't do at the moment. Since that was the case, they will have to back away for the day.

"Then, Miss Akanabe. If you're able to recall anything, please don't hesitate to call us," the investigator said as he passed Akira a card.

"Mm. Thank you for coming," Akira said, bowing her body respectfully to the investigators as they left.

Lifting her body, Akira maintained a somber look on her face as she turned her body and entered Sora's hospital room.

The room was quiet, the only sound there was that of the heart machine monitoring Sora's vitals.

Looking at her son's burnt face being illuminated by the sun's light, Akira felt her heart tighten in pain.

"My poor baby… wake up soon… you have to train hard to enter the U.A. School," Akira gently said as she sat next to Sora.

Akira's eyes were teary, but nothing fell. Her heart was filled with grief, yet she held her tears back.

She didn't want to cry.

She had to be strong.

Her son was in terrible shape.

Her husband is gone.

And now…

She is all alone with her young son.

Her house is gone as well.

Burnt away by a fire.

***

The days passed by quietly, Sora's healing combined with Akira's healing aura slowly brought back his flesh. As the time passed, Sora's quirk began to improve slightly as it healed Sora at a faster rate.

In a simple three weeks, Sora's flesh returned and his skin was rapidly returning to his body.

After three long weeks, Sora's eyes finally began to slowly open.

"Good morning Ms. Akanabe."

Looking up dazedly at the lunch lady that greeted her, Akira stepped forward towards her. With a simple greet in return, Akira ordered her usual breakfast.

Akira would quietly eat her breakfast and then head back to Sora's hospital room in order to take care of him. A routine she often did in order to be in proper shape to use her Quirk to it's fullest without feeling too tired.

During these days, Akira even kept herself from drawing in order to dedicate her time to helping her son heal.

When her Quirk is used on other's, it doesn't drain her as much, but to maintain her Healing Aura on for long periods of time had consumed a lot of her mental energy. To have the most optimal energy, Akira made sure to sleep as much as she could to recover and eat healthy to maintain her health.

Finishing her food, Akira soon made her way back to Sora's hospital room.

Entering the room, Akira was heading to the window of the hospital room to open it and let the fresh air in. But as she approached the window and noticed the reflections on it, Akira looked at her tired face.

It wasn't physical tiredness which was visible on her face, but mental. She barely did anything these past few days aside from going to her husband's funeral and occasionally reviving visits from her concerned editor.

Shifting her eyes away from her reflection, Akira's gaze fell onto Sora's bed.

The same bed she had sat next to for three weeks and where Sora sleeps.

Approaching Sora, Akira leaned over and looked at his sleeping face that had fully recovered his skin.

Mm…

!!

Akira's body trembled under Sora's little groan.

After not hearing anything from him in three weeks, Akira had begun to worry about Sora. Worried that he may never wake up again.

'He's… he's waking up!'

Akira's eyes brightened in joy as she watched as Sora opened his eyes slowly.

"Mom?"

Hearing that sweet voice, Akira smiled, a couple tears forming in her eyes.

"Baby!"

***

With Sora waking up, the hospital moved on to making sure he was completely well before letting him go.

A couple examinations later and both Akira and Sora were out of the hospital.


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