Chapter 26 – Calls from the past, how’s home?
Kimiko had not seen her child in too long. 'Motherhood is an unforgiving thing. If a deity is above, they have a cruel sense of amusement.'
Her husband had gone to fulfill his duties in the police force. Surprisingly, Pro-Heroes helped a lot in cleaning the damages done to the city. Even more surprising was the presence of All Might in the reconstruction efforts. Through the eclipsing news of a tragic day, Japan's beacon of hope lifted the darkness to allow a new day.
'If it wasn't for Koji, I don't think I'd have been able to stay sane. It's been a month now, nearly two... When will my daughter be home?'
"Mom, I made you nikujaga, it's not a lot but I think you'll like it." From the other side of her door, the tall girl—no longer a child—with dominantly crimson hair with black streaks, speaks and soon pushes the door open. Kimiko can't stop the smile from forming on her face when she sees her daughter.
"You've grown into such a reliable lady now, Madoka."
Kimiko's oldest child gaily scoffs, "Are you trying to say I wasn't the most reliable lady of the family before this? I'll have you know, I found tons of lost stuff in Grandma's house while I was visiting. Plus, all of the girls at Seiai loved me because of my quirk! You wouldn't believe how easy it is to get your things mixed up when everyone's got the same brand." Flimsily waving her hand as she explains, Madoka places the tray of food down in her bedridden mother's lap.
Her stomach had grown much larger thanks to her pregnancy. 'She's almost halfway through her pregnancy. How long has it been, three months? Maybe four. I lost count a while ago.'
Madoka and Koji worked hard to ensure Kimiko was comfortable during her pregnancy. When she heard about Rimi being taken by one of her mother's acquaintances, Madoka almost caught the nearest train to Higure. Now 18 years old and graduated after getting her Hero License, she decided to take a brief break to be with her family before stepping into the dangers of being one of Japan's Heroes.
"Ah, my apologies! Great Seiai Alumnus, please enlighten me more about your metal detecting skills!"
Madoka sneers at her mother, then softly smiles. "Almost halfway through your pregnancy. Dad's looking a little more in shape than before too, I think. A lot's changing..."
Scoffing, Kimiko rolls her eyes at her daughter's mention of Koji. "Your father used to look better than that when he joined the police force. The man got out of shape after he had you. 'Letting the dad bod' grow gracefully' he said." Madoka nearly cackles at her mother's words. "Yeah, that does sound like something dad would say." She'd known her father for her entire life—a grace some whose families work in law enforcement cannot experience.
The two share a laugh for a while.
Kimiko can't help but stare at her oldest daughter, Madoka. Only then did she have the time to understand how much time had passed fully. Madoka was no longer the small lass she knew, the one whose sister looked like an inverted version of her. Her hair had grown long and graceful to the middle of her back. Her physical features had matured, no longer as soft-faced as she'd been a decade ago. Though there was still some time for her to develop more, her physical features made her appear like a middle-aged model, just like her mother.
'Beauty runs in my family, I've learned. My daughter's become an eye-catcher.'
"Remember Christmas, a few years ago?" Madoka asks, opting not to quiz her mother for staring. "Rimi stayed up all night reading some novel I had lying in my room and overslept through Christmas morning. I'd never seen her so sad before, it was a new experience, the gal loves reading."
Kimiko laughs, "I had to console her through it. She thought Christmas mornings were sacred and refused to miss another."
"Yep. That's how 'Rimi's December Schedule' was made. Odd that she hates Halloween so much. Tensin' up every time she sees a ghost or ghoul. So, me being the great sister I am—"
"You gave her a can of 'Undead Repellent' for Christmas, which was just perfume."
Snapping her finger, Madoka lifts her hand to her mother in defense. "Perfume that I earned with my hard-earned money! Selling things in class was hard when the teacher was always watching! I had to find the perfect spots!"
"I hadn't a clue I was raising a drug dealer. We should've lived in a manor instead of this family-sized house." Kimiko snorts.
They keep talking for a while, chattering over the past and the looney encounters they had.
The time that Madoka accidentally flooded the bathroom by leaving the bathtub running while the drain was blocked.
Another instance where Rimi managed to do the same after sneaking into the bathroom for a midnight bathing.
The man of the household wasn't exempt from the embarrassing stories. Koji once came home so drunk after a long day of work that he was wearing his shoes on his head, carried by his co-workers who gave Kimiko sympathetic faces. "Thinking back on it, I don't think their expressions were for me." Her husband received an earful when he sobered.
"It was almost as bad as Rimi's tantrum a few years ago. You weren't home, but Dad let me have friends over. We got the idea of carrying Rimi over our heads into my room and dressing her like a doll." Madoka squeals, her hands on her cheeks. "She was like an angel! A livid angel!"
By the tale's end, Rimi blew a hole through the house with one of the combs they used to brush her hair. Koji, not wishing to feel the aftershocks of his wife's anger, covered each hole with tapestries. Quietly, they managed to repair all the damages without Kimiko finding out.
"It all worked out in the e—eh?" Madoka feels an intense presence dominating her. "I-It's all in the past, Mom..."
Her mother can't let such a thing go unpunished, even if it were in the past.
A Madoka-shaped hole is left in the room's door.
* * * *
Madoka rubs the back of her head as she walks on the sidewalk, feeling any swelling on her head. Her mother threw her hard enough for there to be any lasting damage. 'She sure doesn't move like a pregnant woman,' she thought.
Not a day went by when Madoka wasn't reminded of how unique her family's genetics were. She was certain that Rimi was too young to fully understand it, but she knew the two of them were more than physically gifted. They'd hit the lottery with the woman who birthed them.
Because of the Yoshiyuki lineage, an exemplary performance was shown by Madoka, excelling among the Seiai Students.
Her first few days in the academy consisted of her charismatically introducing herself to the girls in the school, trying not to come off too strong. Though she was gifted with a body that developed better than usual, this didn't mean anything when developing social awareness. Far more aware than her socially awkward little sister, Madoka quickly learned the names of her classmates, gaining insight into each of their interests. Some enjoyed culinary arts, others were more brawns-brained than expected of the 'lady-like' scholars she neighbored, and there were the few that didn't quite have anything interesting going for them.
Madoka befriended all of them, earning her class representative seat smoothly.
'The development I experienced with my quirk is also worthwhile, I can see myself making money even if this hero business doesn't work out.' Her mother would've hated hearing her doubt herself so far into her journey.
In her later years, she became a reputed figure throughout the academy thanks to her quick growth in the academic field. During her first year, she excelled in her class, however, it'd have been far-fetched to compare her to the alumnus. Entering her second year and carrying into her third year, Madoka's abilities grew exponentially. She began to study endlessly, rarely suffering from fatigue until after a few days of activity.
With her quirk, she could find all the resources for her growth. With the physical training she underwent at the school and during her spare time, he felt her stamina increase to the point where fatigue from only a few hours of exercise wasn't making her break a sweat. Supposedly, her mother was even worse than this, according to her father.
"Hm?" Koji's curious tone mused at the time, "I initially thought your mother was a mutant-type quirk user. She was ridiculously stronger and had scary stamina, to the point where I thought I was going to die..." Madoka offered her father a skeptical look, one almost mirroring her mother's. This made him immediately apologize for his poor attempt at joking. "Ahem. Needless to say, I was wrong. Your mother was just physically gifted with genetics from a special family, and you're the same. I'd say it'll take a lot of labor to gas you out if you train properly."
Madoka took her father's advice and began training daily, resulting in her current state. Her muscles were well developed, toned abs that a fitness expert would gawk at spreading across her abdomen. Her frame wasn't massive, and she was fine with that. Too masculine of stature would intimidate not just a potential girl or boyfriend but also herself.
'Oh, that's right. Next time I see Rimi, I'll have to tell her about my Hero Name. Since I've officially gotten a Hero License and graduated, I can technically begin working with an agency whenever I want to. Actually, I've had an agency in mind for a while. She's only a bit older than me, but that hero Midnight's got an undeniable glamour to her. Risque attire aside, she helped Rimi a few years ago while she was still a student.'
Higure was a lot quieter than she remembered. Nostalgia didn't blind her to the change in the atmosphere, instead, it saddened her more. Disaster after disaster struck their city. Kindergartens being attacked, heroes being killed, and city-wide destruction thanks to what was once a normal citizen of society. 'I've been helping Dad out as best as I can, but the damages extended well past Higure.'
Although Rimi killed Yuuichi Yokota, the damage he caused exceeded just their city. Hidden from the public, other cities faced swarms of his monsters, but they were significantly weaker than the ones he'd released at the Higure Zoo and the city itself.
Her brother was going to be born into this grim atmosphere. With the quirks their family had, there'd be no telling what kind of devastating impact his awakening would have on the world around him. Rimi's left a gaping cavity through the mass of both an impact-absorbant villain and a towering building. It'd been impossible for her to replicate the power she'd used that day, likely because it was a culmination of her stress and underlying emotions.
At least while training as a hero, she'd gotten rid of scum on the street like the former juvenile-turned-super crook 'Etsuko'. Her mother warned her about the dangers the woman posed, and how she was supposedly one of the people who broke into their home years ago.
Her memory of that day was loose since she was rendered unconsciously immediately after waking up. It was the determining factor that pushed her to become a hero, knowing that there were people out there who could harm not only her family but also others for their selfish reasons. These people didn't deserve to be free, in her eyes. Though she could not sentence them, she could bring them to face justice and hope that they repent and atone for their crimes. More importantly, she wants to ensure they are all properly punished.
Etsuko wasn't a threat to her, though. The woman fired off needles that were seemingly laced with sedatives from her body. They grazed her once, numbing a portion of her body, but she didn't let herself get hit twice. With monstrous speed and strength, Madoka steamrolled Etsuko in an underwhelming 'grudge match'.
'Dumb bitch.' Although she won, Madoka's hatred for the woman didn't subside. She'd broken into their home and threatened her family, this is something she could never forgive, even if she'd won. Should she ever get the chance, she'd beat Etsuko worse than she did the first time. Torturing criminals wasn't the way a hero operated, so it was beneath her to keep beating Etsuko while she was down. 'There's nothing saying I can't beat her when she stands back up.'
The gap between one's personal life and work duties is prohibitive.
She sighs, "I'm not thinking like a hero right now, huh?" Her teacher would scold her mercilessly if she heard her thoughts.
"Have I ever told you how creepy you are...?" The blonde-haired girl's smile was massive, stretching to her ears. It unsettled the young male sitting on the opposite side of the bench from her. Her answer was obvious to him, but he still needed to ask, "Yep! You've said it a few times! Then, you played with me right after!"
He'd learned her name on the first day they'd met. She was a very straightforward person, and also someone who carried an aura that made Yuudai nervous.
Himiko Toga.
Yuudai met her at the park after getting emotional support from his grandmother, and their talks eventually led to the mention of Rimi, who was shockingly a mutual acquaintance. Her fang-like teeth and obvious infatuation with blood made the boy skeptical at first, yet he wasn't dissuaded from talking to her. 'Hanging around Rimi for so long made me detached. I can't bring myself to be too wary of her.'
Sharing a bench with a chessboard on it, Yuudai couldn't concentrate on the game because of Toga's persistent noises. There was no particular reason behind it, from what the boy deduced. His chess opponent was making noises and squirming around sporadically.
They'd played chess a few times in the past. Both could be seen as amateurs compared to avid players, which made sense for their ages. Slowly, they went through the repetitive cycle of Yuudai dwindling Toga's pieces from the board until she was forced into a checkmate.
Today was different, however. "Checkmate!" After a lengthy match, Toga's bishop moves into place and adds the finishing touches to her trap.
Yuudai looked in disbelief, stunned by the result of his attention being torn away only a few times. 'This slimy blood-sucker... She was doing that on purpose!' Exploiting her unusual habits, Toga slyfully tore Yuudai's attention away from the game just enough to assure her victory.
Crossing his arms in frustration, the boy glares at the blonde-haired child. "Yeah, you're even creepier now." Sighing in resignation, Yuudai nods. "You're a lot better at this than before." His loss was a testament to his inexperience. He let something as small as Toga's consistent, playful activities distract him from a game requiring intense focus, and she won while practically lacking it.
"What do you mean when you say that? When you say I'm creepy, what does that mean?" Yuudai had heard this tone from the girl before. Now, the time for joking was cut to a swift closure. 'Sometimes, I forget that this kid is older than me.' Yuudai was nearly a year older than Rimi, and Himiko Toga was a full year older than him. Although they were all still young, there was no doubt in his mind that the sometimes naive-behaving girl was more wise than she let on.
"You're asking me what it means to be weird? If I had to answer from the dome, it just means 'not being normal', I guess. Whatever 'normal' is." He'd been using the term blindly, just as a phrase without a deep meaning. "You sound upset."
Silence passes for a few seconds, then Himiko replies. "I was only wondering. My parents say the way I act isn't normal. They say I should 'be normal and live a normal life'." Their conversations in the past led Yuudai to catch glimpses of the girl's problematic life at home.
Similarly, his mother had begun spouting nonsense after seemingly 'recovering' from the stress and trauma of her husband's slaughtering. 'Yuu! Yuu you have to be good: you can't be like your father!' Her words were all frantic, entirely hopeless. Hiroko didn't want to lose her only child.
'It doesn't make sense for her to worry about me dying any time soon to begin with,' His body's grown a lot over the past several months. Numerous experiences have led his resistance to quadruple, making the young male a titanium man among those his age.
After tossing his legs over the bench and rising to his feet, Yuudai stretches and groans. Cracks come from his shoulders, releasing the tension that'd built up during his game. "I feel like an old man, like the old ones with the—."
Interrupted, Yuudai turned to find the source of the barking approaching him. "A pitbull?"
Before he has time to fully process the sudden occurrence, the dog leaps from the ground and opens its wide maws, capturing Yuudai's face.
Himiko looks in dismay, "Woah! Yokota, are you okay?!" She'd gotten off of the bench at the same time as Yuudai, hurrying beside her friend to look between the slight gap of the pitbull's maws and the child's face. The owner of the dog is sprinting at full speed behind the dog. Unfortunately, it was a much pudgier man, unable to keep up with the dog's speed.
His words come through the gap in mumbles.
Gripping the dog's tail, Yuudai yanks it away as if its teeth weren't trying to latch into his face seconds before. "Get off of me," Tossing the feral dog by the tail, its owner luckily is close enough to catch it.
Their concern over the child quickly changed when they witnessed their dog form spiraling into their arms. "H-Hey! You violent brat, you can't just throw my dog!" The hefty man was sweating and overcome with dyspnea.
"You should leash your dog better, chubby." Rimi's unfiltered speech must've rubbed off on him.
An earful later, Yuudai was finally free of the man's yelling. 'I deserved that. I let that inconsiderate girl's spirit take over. Talking like that to adults—I've really lost my mind.' Teachings have made Yuudai learn of the necessity for respect from children to adults. Some adults may be wrong, but there was no excuse for disrespecting them, certainly not at his age.
"That was intense, huh?" Even though her words implied she was concerned, the smile spread to her ears wouldn't allow a person to feel comfort from Toga's worries. "I thought your head would set on fire."
"Hhrrgh-!" Yuudai nearly chokes on his saliva when he hears the girl's joke, pumping his fist into his chest. A short series of laughs come from the boy, reminded of one of the reasons he continued speaking with the girl, besides the sympathetic sensation which overtook him during her 'episodes'.
During their time together, Yuudai's comes to understand that his acquaintance is obsessed with blood. Frighteningly enough, when he cut himself on a branch, her first instinct was to hurry and lick the blood from his arm during one of their games. His harsh words to her led to the unraveling of an unusual affection for blood. 'What'd she say back then, again?'
'You're my friend, isn't it normal?' He attempts to recount, 'Yeah, she said something along those lines back then.' He hadn't pressed her for further details, he only told her that he felt uncomfortable with her licking his blood. The child made an expression he couldn't read at that time.
Pushing through the park's bushes as usual, Yuudai holds an opening in the hedges for his smaller friend to slip through. "Do your parents not care who you hang around?" He asks.
Halfway through the hedge, she tilts her head. "They're around watching me."
"Yeah, I know they're watching you. It's irresponsible for a parent to leave their child unattended..." Although he said this, Yuudai was completely unattended at the moment. His grandmother believed it'd be impossible for him to face a danger that'd bring him serious harm.
A soft giggle is her response to her friend's concern. Rising to her feet on the other side of the hedge, Himiko dusts the grass from her dress.
Rolling his eyes, Yuudai slips between the hedges himself, releasing them so they close once he's through. "Answer my question with bubbly giggles, sure. That'll work 'swell."
His friend looks at him suspiciously then, "Did you just give yourself an accent?"
"Nay, I'd never do something so childish."
"You did too! You just did it again!" She gives an accusatory point.
"Pfft," He dismissively waves her off before turning, hearing her laughter pick up. Step after step, Yuudai makes his way deeper into the park. Eventually, they'd gone far past the area where dogs and children could banter about freely.
Smooth, carved stones decorated a path that stretched out a mile to the children. Piles of flowers and decorations are left across the grass field, papers with names and photographs left untouched—unvandalized.
Memorials for heroes who'd passed away from the attacks in the other cities. Friends of them gathered in Higure, the main location of Yuuichi Yokota's assault, and created a memorial in the unused lot of the park for the deceased.
Yuudai approaches his first memorial and drops to his knees, slapping his hands together in prayer. The memorial was of the hero 'Straw-Membrane', whose identity was left a secret in the memorial. He was not remembered for who he was but for his actions as a hero. 'We're selfish creatures, aren't we?'
Several minutes go by before Yuudai moves on to the next memorial. It showed a young hero who'd recently graduated from Shiketsu High School, 'Westman Westbrook'. His southern-styled costume was a beacon of hope, providing a sense of relief to those he saved before his passing. Yuudai prayed for him as well.
It was only when he'd gone through thirty more memorials that Himiko, who followed him every time he came here, questioned him on his motive.
"I don't know." He replies frankly. "It's never occurred to me why I feel the need to do this, I did nothing to these people. I didn't know any of them, and because I was never in danger, they didn't do anything for me. In some ways, I feel responsible. My father did all of this for me, after all." Himiko had never known that Yuudai was the son of the man responsible for the large-scale attack across several cities because he never let her know until now.
"It may not have been directly my fault, but I feel like I bear some of the sins too. So, I'll atone by paying my respect to these people for as long as I live. I'll remember each of their faces, no matter how irrelevant or forgettable. I won't forgive myself for forgetting if I do."
Himiko's head slants once more, studying the boy on his knees. "You're pretty awesome, Yokota."
Darkness had fallen over the Yokota estate. Cars lined the center in the front of the abode, many visitors occupying the room after a long term of vacancy.
Pinnley's poorly lit bedroom had a visitor in the corner, unseen through the darkness of the blinds. "I'm curious, Pinnley. You've served the family since Kazuhiro brought you in. What'd make you betray our trust by keeping the Yonamine girl secret?" The person speaking to him was a woman, based only on her tone.
The elderly butler rested on his knees, his head facing the turquoise carpet underneath him. "I'd simply not been ordered to tell you, Ma'am."
"Yes, because you've been so determined to only listen to orders, Pinnley." Her words didn't need more indications of sarcasm.
"You'd expressed an interest in the Yonamine girl, which is why you purposely stationed a Yoshiyuki to guard the laboratory in case she stumbled upon it, no? Though, it should've been impossible for her to stumble upon your sins in the first place. I fail to see how it is my mistake."
A black disembodied hand cracks its knuckles across Pinnley's head, knocking the old man onto his side.
"They are not sins, they are necessities. And the reason they found it does not matter to me, we'll fix that mistake later. Do not pretend like we are on the same level, Pinnley."
"From my eyes, Ma'am. I certainly see you as something of a leveled person. However, Yokota blood doesn't course through you in the slightest. Until my true master has something to say, I feel that only the bare adequate amount of respect should suffice, no?"
The woman disingenuously laughs at the old-timer's snarkiness. "Where'd you pick up such suicidal talks, hound?"
"The Yonamine girl, of course." Moving through the existing shadows, the black hand crashes down on Pinnley's head. Blood erupts from beneath the fist, a groan escaping from the old man's core. The fist did not cease with just one blow, however. It batters him, shattering the floorboard beneath the turquoise carpet with every impact. It was a miracle that there wasn't a human-shaped hole in the floor.
The woman looks through the darkness at him, the massive black fist fading out of existence so that she may take in Pinnley's battered form. He was alive, but this was not a surprise to her. "If not for my husband's insistence, I'd have wrung you dry of your blood. Where is the child now, Pinnley?"
The old man slowly rolls off of his side, his hands pressing against the floor. Weakly, he pushes himself onto his elbow to face the woman.
"By now?" He asks through his rigid breathing, assured that the woman could not kill him no matter how much animosity she felt for him. Just as he could not harm her no matter how many times she enforced her will upon her children. "Madam Misahana, I'm sorry to say that girl is—forgive me for being blunt—home and safe."
Misahana Kiyabu rose to her feet, the sound of her heels indicating the near shattering of the floorboard beneath her. Stomping to the door, her figure casts a momentary shadow of Pinnley's silhouette. "I'll have you hang, bastard." Odious words meet Pinnley's ears, all too familiar to shake the veteran.
"I look forward to that day, Madam." His shit-eating grin tore the arrogance out of Izumi Kiyabu's mother countless times, even in his pathetic form. "Had you waited any more years to do this, I believe your love taps would've been too painful for this old man to endure."
Sneering as she exits, the woman slams the door shut behind her.