Fractured Wings

The silence in the room was deafening. Eri's small hands gripped the edges of her blanket, pulling it tighter around her as she stared at the empty floor. Every day was a reminder of the same nightmare she couldn't escape. 

Her thought's were heavy, swirling like a storm. Memories she didn't want to recall surfaced unbidden. Her mother's back as she walked away from her, the faint echo of her father's laughter... before she had erased it forever. The scars that laced her small body, mounds of flesh where needles and scalpels had pulled pieces of her apart, stung even though they had long since healed. 

She had tried to run before, twice, but both times had only ended in pain, for both her and others. Each failure tainted her soul, tainted her body. It was like a reminder that she was nothing more than a curse. 

Her gaze drifted down to her lap, where her fingers clenched the blanket tightly. What was the point of wishing? What was the point of dreaming? No one had ever helped her, not truly. No one had ever stayed. She was alone and she deserved it. 

A soft knock on her door startled her, usually people would just come in. Eri blinked and quickly smoother over her expression, expecting Overhaul. She turned her head as the door creaked open, revealing the quiet figure of her guard. 

He stepped inside without a word, and without his mask, again. He wasn't very tall, at least not compared to other on the compound. His skin was darker than what she was used to, but that was probably because she hasn't spent anytime outside. It was warm and rich, a soft brown, it catches light in a way that makes him seem comforting and approachable. 

His eyes were a soft beige-brown that reminded her of caramel. 

To Eri, her guards hair looked strange too, it dangled in a way that she hadn't seen in any of her other guards before. Like a collection of braided vines, well-maintained, as though each strand had been carefully twisted and shaped. 

Silver studs glinted in both his ears, catching the light whenever he moved. 

There was something about the way he moved as well, a quiet confidence that she also see's in Overhaul. 

He didn't speak much, he stepped in closing the door behind him. Eri watched him cautiously, her red eye's meeting his for a brief moment before she looked away. He wasn't like the others in the compound. He wasn't cruel. He was more gentle. 

She didn't know his name. To her, he was just "the guard." 

He glanced over at her briefly before his eyes settled on the bookshelf in the corner. Without a word he strode over and scanned the spines. His fingers paused on one, Eri couldn't read so she didn't know the title. But it was a book with a faded red cover. 

Pulling it out he turned it over, studying it before saying. "This one." 

Eri tilted her head, unsure of what he meant. He didn't wait for a response. Instead he walked over to the small chair by her bed and sat down, flipping it open to the first page. His voice was steady and low as he read it. 

"Once upon a time, there was a child found in a giant peach..." 

Eri's eyes widened a little, the start of the story pulling her attention fully away from her own swirling thoughts. She didn't understand it at all, but she understood enough of the beginning. The tale of Momotaro, the boy who had come from a peach, abandoned by no one but his destiny to conquer demons. 

The words flowed from her guards lips as he continued, recounting the adventures of Momotaro, who had been raised by elderly parents and gone on to seek vengeance for those wronged by demons. With a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant at his side. He travelled to face those demons, proving that the most unlikely of heroes could change the world. 

Eri sat still, watching him intently as he read. She didn't know why, but there was something calming about his voice. Something about it made her feel like she could breathe again. Like there was something more than just the cycle of fear and pain. 

She had never had someone read to her before, not like this. Not since her mother. A tear threatened to spill, but she quickly blinked it away. She hadn't even realized how much she had missed something as simple as experiencing this, how long she had longed for the sound of a voice that wasn't threatening. Something that seemed like a far off reality. 

Momotaro had been abandoned too, and yet he found strength. Even when the world was against him, he had allies and he had a purpose. She didn't know why, but it made her heart ache. She wished... she wished that she was him, that she was like him and could find that strength. 

When the story came to an end, with Momotaro returning victorious and celebrated as a hero, the room was quiet again. Her guard was closed the book gently, and his eyes fell on her. 

"Did you like it?" he asked, his tone softer now. 

Eri swallowed, her voice barely a whisper and she kept her head down, "I... I don't know. It's strange." 

He nodded, understanding. "That's okay, you don't need to understand it all right away. The important part is, he found his strength no matter how impossible it seemed." 

She didn't say anything for a long time. The story seemed to open an unknown chamber in her heart. She didn't know what it meant for her—if it meant anything at all. She only knew one thing; for the first time in a long time, she felt a spark of something inside her. 

The guard stood up, placing the book back on the shelf. He didn't say anything else, he just gave one last glance before leaving the room. The door clicked shut behind him, and Eri was left alone again. 

But this time the silence felt different, it wasn't as heavy. There was a weight to it, but it wasn't crushing. It was...lighter. And for the first time, Eri allowed herself to think that maybe, just maybe, things could change. 

Eri allowed herself to hope. 

___

I was on a new mission, with new people. 

I could probably fake a happy reaction right now. Honestly, I did expect a lot of moving around but that's everyday of the week so far. Only the third day in but I still needed to find a way to meet up with the Nighteye agency before they finish scoping out all the places I mapped out. 

The truck we were in rumbled along a worn path, a jagged stretch of road that wound beneath the rusted bridge, the creek's murmur faint in the distance. Inside, the smell of old blood, metal, and the faint tang of chemicals mixed with the stifling in the air. 

I was sat at the back, legs pressed against the hard, cramped walls of the truck. The cargo was packed tight—a grim collection of bodies, both dead and alive. 

Three of them were dead. Human bodies, pale and stiff, faces slack and frozen in a final moment of agony. Their forms were folded in an uncomfortable arrangement, limbs twisted as though in an attempt to shield themselves from the cruelty of death. Their clothes were tattered, evidence of some violence before they met their final end. 

I mentally catalogued their features. Scarred foreheads, skin that had clearly seen many years of abuse, empty eyes. 

The other three were different. Even in the stillness, they felt alive. Or at least, they somewhat were. They were part of Overhaul's creation of merged animals and humans. These one's had no limbs, 'he said it was to make space for the ride.' 

Their cages were still small, barely large enough for their twisted bodies. I could hear the shallow breaths. 

Mimic was sat across from me, in a small form that I was told was just his disguise. Wrapped in a black cloak with two stocky legs and a plague mask that had a pointy nose. I think he was one of the more annoying members of this group I had run into. Similar to Rappa, he had an irritating confidence about him. 

But not so similar—he was always quick with a sharp word or cruel joke. And he was overly-dedicated to Overhauls ambitions. 

I just didn't know if he was someone to watch out for. Which reminded me of the fact I hadn't seen Shin Nemoto in a few days now. 

Yu Hojo, the driver, was less overtly strange, more straight forward. His face was hardened with years of rough labour, the kind that made people forget about the soft spoken-demeanour. He was bald, tall and muscular with shadowed eyes. 

The truck finally came to a stop under a desolate bridge, the creek gurgling beneath. Mimic didn't wait for anything. He opened the back of the truck with a single motion, his gaze flickering towards the bodies and me. "Get to it, Unload the corpses. I'll keep a lookout." 

I nodded without a word, stepping into the wet grass as I began to drag the bodies out of the truck. The corpses were first. Paper flowed from me, wrapped themselves like a thin veil around the corpses and then I just adjusted them and controlled them to move out of the truck. 

I did something similar with the other bodies, I dragged them out with huge hand structures I created hanging above me. 

The other two watched as I caught up to them. As I got closer I noticed a shadow form in a puddle in front of them. A strange figure emerged from it, standing, or should I say floating in a swirling motion. Dark mist emanating from them. 

I knew him, from the news reports on the attacks on UA. A misty warp gate had helped the villains break in. With how rare quirks like that were, this must be him. Kurogiri. He blended in to the surroundings with an eerie calm. 

"Mimic. It is nice to see you again." He said with a pointed direction. 

"Save it, just give us our load and we'll give you yours." Mimic was unnecessarily loud sometimes and this was one of them. It was something that annoyed me about people when I was younger. 

Yu Hojo turned his back to the scene already heading back to the truck. He was fine with knowing things were going as they should have. I remained focused on the task at hand, using my paper to lift all six bodies in the direction of the warp gate user. 

But when two more people, alive teenagers, arrived from the warp gate I was slightly stunned. My chest tightened, they were young, my agemates probably. The boy had messy brown hair and a nervous look to his face. 

And the other was a girl with a tangled mess of black hair and a frightened expression with dirt on her face. Their hands and legs were both bound. 

"That's all we get?" Mimic asked with a perky accusatory tone. 

"That's all you need, Overhaul will know how to accommodate them." 

Mimic then signalled for me to pick them up and drop them in the truck, I stuttered for a moment, 'I think I know them.' 

Yes. 

From elementary school, before I got expelled. The boy, his extremely round face due to his quirk, and soft eyes that looked as if they were about to cry all the time, I could remember him. The girl too, there were marks around her eyes were she was supposed to be wearing glasses. I can remember she had a minor telekinesis quirk, really weak though. 

How are they here? 

"Take care of their journey will you?" Kurogiri mentioned, breaking me out of my thoughts before disappearing. 

"Damnit rookie!" Mimic screamed in my ear as he jumped on my shoulder. "You fuckin embarrassed me. Follow my damn orders and pick em up and put them in the truck." 

Right. I forgot. Plus it's hard to take someone that size seriously when they try to act like a superior. 

As the two were being lifted to the truck like pieces of meat. I began to ponder on the reason for them specifically being here, captured and bound and basically trafficked. 

My mind wandered and came to a realization, Project Oversight. 

It was on Overhaul's computer. It had to do with a school named Aldera, those two probably made the transition to the school, so what then? That doesn't explain why they were kidnapped. 

But it gave me something to work with, even if it wasn't much. 

They clearly weren't taken because of their quirks, maybe just more bodies for Overhaul to experiment with. Now if that is the case... 

...Should I save them?