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Chapter 9: Scarlet Haired Beauty
🕑 Added 2023-11-23 16:08:29 +0000 UTCAlright, the second book of the Existence series is done, which meant that I was able to start writing this much sooner than normal, but alas, it's the last update for the year and before anything, I want to wish you all a HAPPY holidays and ask that you don't cancel your support for me during that period, I kinda need the cash to keep this up as bills need paying, and this is still a hobby that I'm trying to turn into something more. Still, as it's the last chapter, I managed to write it the way I did as it seems like a good place to end this for the moment after that somewhat dour start. Also, it's hot as hell as I'm writing this so for all of us going through summer without the beach or a pool, I salute you.
Chapter 9: Scarlet Haired Beauty.
"It would be best if we do it now, fewer people on the street." Izuku spoke allowed as they walked, the lights of the city centre long behind them as they journeyed to where their future friend, he refused to think of them as target, was last scene. Koharu replied to that with some skepticism.
“Yes, I know there are more pros, but if we keep a low profile, they won’t bother us.” He replied, his eye turning to the corner where he saw some pros leading some people out of an alley, he wasn’t sure if they were villains or just drunks but seeing how he could smell it from where he walked on the other side of the street, he would bet it was the later. “They have other targets in mind.” He might have dressed like a criminal, but so long as he didn't commit an actual crime, the law enforcement in the area was content to ignore him. After all, it wasn't like he was the only shady-dressed individual on the street.
More the once he had to shy away from others and not focus on them, else he'd out himself as an outsider, a notion not helped when he saw a lady of the night smile at him, most likely seeing him as a potential customer. Koharu didn’t make that encounter any better for him when she asked him why he didn’t just do it, it was ‘just mating’ which he didn’t even have time or mental strength to explain to her why that was so very wrong.
Keeping focus on the task at that, he still hadn’t figured out a proper way to approach the woman. “Honestly, I’m more worried about what we’ll do if we do find her, I’ll have to be clever else she might take it the wrong way.” Koharu offered up her service, after all, before they had fled the temple, children had loved her.
“I doubt seeing a snake will calm her down, but thanks for the suggestion.” He still smiled at that kind gesture. They continued for a while, his instincts screaming for him to take to the alleys and shadows, but rationale won out as he'd only make himself look more suspicious if he did that. The heroes and cops saw him as just a run-of-the-mill crook, but one that they didn't suspect at the moment. It helped that as they moved, there were fewer pros but more police to handle the increased crimes, or they appeared to be. He wasn't sure as most people might have looked like they'd mug him, but they didn't and didn't seem to have done it, so he wondered by there was so much police in the area.
Another strange thing he noticed was that there were more mutants, hanging out, going about their night, etc. One of them he passed by looked at him with a suspicious look he didn't understand, but whatever they had thought they'd see they didn't as when he made the mistake to make eye contact. This turned out to be a blessing as in the beast man's eyes, he saw fear, resentment and caution in equal measure, things that existed in him. That kinship led to the man giving him the smallest of nods, but he saw it and returned the gesture, wondering what could have led such a man to feel like he did. Was he mistreated as well? Did he struggle to find a place in the world?
Now that he thought about it, was that the case with the rest of these people? Surely not all of them as the police couldn't have been ignorant of all their plights, right? They had been when it came to him, didn't they? What was stopping that from being the case here he found himself wondering. Shaking his head, he reminded himself he had a mission. He couldn't get distracted, even if he wanted to step in. He saw a cop smacking someone on the head, sending the Fishman to his knees and he felt his flames bash and burn against the cage that was his chest, restless and eager to get out and do something, but he couldn't. not if he wanted to remain unnoticed till he found her.
As he moved away, he couldn't help but feel shame for doing nothing, even if others did the same, a tell of learned behavior. Still, it would only make him train all the harder, and develop new tricks to use in situations like this as he imagined that if he could cup a fireball, he could have thrown it at the cop's ass and continued like it was nothing, yeah, he'll have to work on that.
Before long, they made it to the spot, a corner where the shop had long closed down and been boarded up, the closest lights being in an apartment two blocks up. The street lights flickering and in need of maintenance, but he had Koharu and the moonlight to help him, dimmed as it was thanks to the light population from the prettier parts of town.
“Alright, we’re here. Why don’t we split up and look for hairs? We’ll cover more ground that way.” He asked her, with Koharu looking at him like it was mad, with the chill of a winter’s night, she’ll freeze in minutes!
“Please beat with it for 10 minutes, you’re warm enough for that, right?” He was acutely aware of that, but she spent almost all her time wrapped around him, surely, she had enough heat in her to last that long. Still, she insisted that she get something out of this as nodded.
“Yes, I’ll get you something as a reward, whatever I can find at this hour.” He muttered that last part, to which she glared at him as she expected a damn feast after this, though he questioned where he’ll get it as he let her down and began to search. He had to move snow aside to get to the sidewalk at times, finding dead leaves and weeds but no hair.
‘Snow’s covered most of it, this might take a while.’ He thought to himself, knowing that his plan wasn't the most ideal but it was the best he had. They couldn't trust the media to know where she was, or else they would have gone after her already. He also didn't have time to ask around as he was worried he'd only make her jumpy if someone he talked to got back to her, after all, he wasn't related to her nor was he a friend. So as much as a stretch as this plan was, it was one of the few he could come up with. However, it was starting to test his patience as whenever he did find hair, it wasn't the right color!
‘How much hair can people lose without knowing? This is the 8th strand of the wrong hair color!’ He tossed aside a strand of blue hair, a clump of it really as he wondered if someone had just been pulling hair out. As he continued to search, happy that he didn’t have others in the area to see and question his strange behavior, he felt Koharu approached him.
He didn't turn as he continued his search. "You having better luck than me?" When she replied, he stopped to turn to her, surprised when he saw her with a long strange hair in her mouth, it was thicker than normal too. “Seriously?” As she praised herself for her majesty, she quickly slithered back onto him with a relieved hiss, enjoying his warmth as she handed him the hair strand.
Holding it up to the flickering light, he studied it. "It's the right color…" Its length would also make sense since the newspaper said she used her hair as a weapon, like needles. “It’s our best lead, can you still pick up a scent?” She nodded, getting him to smile as he held it up for her to sniff.
“Then let’s follow it.” With that new lead, they followed it with a new zeal, maybe they’ll manage this without an incident.
Line Break
“We can hold up here for the night.” A man said to his companion, the two carrying backpacks. Before them stood an old house, one that had been abandoned for years and was scheduled to be demolished in a few weeks along with the entire block to make room for a new apartment project.
“You sure about that, I heard that some crazy people have been living here.” His companion, a man nearly half his height asked him, looking around for some same vagrants which just made him scoff.
“Stop being a baby, we can handle anyone drugged out moron.” He held up his hand, a swirl of water forming on it before it vanished.
“And then what?” The shorter of the two asked as they inspected the gate and found that it was locked, not too much of an issue they just tossed their bags over the wall and prepared to jump.
“We meet up with the boss in the morning, we have the…stuff he bought, so no way he’ll be that pissed.” The taller said as he jumped over the meagre wall, his companion following suit with a little difficulty as the taller helped him out.
“We were meant to get him the shit 2 days ago!” He hissed back, as they had been given simple instructions by their boss: Meet up with the local dealer, get the shit he already paid for and get back. It was meant to just be an hour, maybe 2 if traffic and heroes made it difficult to battle other villains, but not something that'll take too long. And yet, here they were, over 48 hours late!
He had seen their boss, and the last guy to piss him off needed a doctor after what was done to him, and that was nothing compared to this.
The taller of the two smacked him upside the head before picking up his bag and presenting it to his fellow gang member. “Not our fault Hawks was all over the place, or do you want to be arrested?” They had been lucky to get there while Hawks was busy handling the dealer and his helpers. So, they snuck in the back and grabbed what they came for, it was already paid for after all so it wasn’t stealing.
As his short friend’s silence, he smirked. "That's what I thought. Look, we've been radio silent for the past couple of days, we just need to get ourselves a phone in the morning, call him and explain shit hit the fan and that we still got it and just need a place to meet." He wished he had gone home, but they all stayed in the same area and no doubt those damn pros were looking for them.
“Why not the normal hang-out?” He watched as the shorter man picked up his bag, now wanting to smack him again for that dumb question.
“God, why do I get the idiots,” He muttered to himself, thinking that perhaps this was the universe punishing him for a past wrong. “Dumb-ass, if the dealers we know got packed up the pros, what makes you think they didn’t rat people like us out to save their skins?" The shorter man blinked, finally understanding what he was saying and looking away, embarrassed that he hadn't thought of that sooner.
Seeing that he was finally getting through to him, they reached the front door and opened it, at least that didn't have a lock on it, and entered. Walking inside, they found that it was as much a dump on the inside as it was on the outside. "The boss probably got out of there as soon as he heard about it, and is laying low. We just need to rest and we'll be good." He said as they reached the old living room, with just the single couch which he collapsed on, the thing creaking under his weight.
The shorter of the two was about to answer, but then heard something else creak. Looking around for the source, he caught the attention of the second guy. “What is it?”
“Is it me, or does this place look like someone’s already here?” The man asked him, getting him to raise an eyebrow as he too listened in. Soon enough he heard a creak as well, this one louder, followed by another and then another. Someone was getting closer.
“Damn druggies.” He muttered as he got up, dropping the goods on the floor as he turned to the only spot the sounds could be coming from, the hallway that led up to the second floor. “Alright, come out here and get the hell out! Consider yourself evicted!” He yelled, trying to scare them away, which seemed to work as the steps ceased, but only for a moment before they resumed, louder than before as if the person was trying to convey their irritation by stomping towards them.
From the shadow of the hallway, they heard someone speak. “Go away.” It lacked any fear, any hesitation and spoke as if giving them an order.
“What?”
“I said,” The voice started, stepping out of the shadows and allowing them to see it was just some girl, wearing a simply dirty white sleeveless shirt that was too large for her, one shoulder visible while the shirt ended midthigh. “Go. Away.” Despite the odd situation, her eyes told them how little she cared for them, and how easily she could attack them.
This didn’t deter the taller of the man as he sneered at her, holding up his hand, a swirl of water again appeared, ready to be used. “The hell do you think you are? We’re ain’t going anywhere.”
“I won’t repeat myself.” Her hair, which had been the only thing about her that looked taken care of, moved on its own, coming together into multiple bladed strands, her eyes glaring at them with malice that looked so out of place, yet so at home in her gaze.
“Akamine, let’s bounce, we don’t need to fight some crazy hair chick!” The shorter of the two tried to stop this, as they came here to hide, not to fight!
“No way!” He didn’t say anything else as he fired off a swirl of water from his hand, akin to a high-pressure garden hose, to which Hasaki merely shifted part of her hair into a barrier and the other to attack, forcing the little man to jump out of the way of the massive hair spike that impaled here he had just been. Fine then, if they wanted to fight, they'll fight, it'll be a good way to deal with her anger by turning these two into shredded corpses.
“Goddammit, Akamine!”
Line Break
Midoriya was just a few blocks away from the location when he heard what sounded like an explosion. Looking up, he saw a cloud of smoke appearing in the distance. “What the heck was that?” Others who were out at that time also looked in that direction, only for that confusion to turn to fear when they saw out of the smoke, a giant appeared, a figure that was at least 15m tall and towered over the old buildings.
“Where did the giant come from?!” Midoriya asked, wondering who in their right mind started a fight this damn late, it was close to 1 am for crying out loud! And as if his luck couldn't get any worse, Koharu spoke up, telling him that the lady they were tracking was in that direction. “Wait, she’s in that direction?!” The snake nodded, also finding it strange as Midoriya reached for his head, scratching it with both hands.
“Of course, she is, why did I think this would be easy?!” He thought aloud before throwing that to the wayside and started running in that direction. “Let’s go, I have a feeling she’s involved in this. We need to get her, and get the hell outta here before the heroes show up!” He was late, but he wouldn’t discount Hawks from getting involved and he wasn’t so sure he could handle it, no definitely not.
As he ran, however, he couldn't help but ask something. “I don’t get it, I thought she would be introverted and avoid confrontation, that news article was the only story with her being violent! Why now of all days would she get into a battle?” He looked towards Koharu, who only rolled her eyes at the weirdness that was human nature and their apparent refusal to stick to patterns. As they approached, he saw the giant move aside right as a massive blast of water shot into the air, as if a fire truck had missed its target.
“Water, it just had to be water of all elements.” And with the weather, it could just bet it would be cold as hell, not good for him nor his companion. "Koharu. Once we get there, you need to find somewhere you can hide but keep an eye out, meet up with me after he makes our escape." She looked at him like he was crazy and made that known in her retort.
“Yes, I know that plan is terrible, but it’s the best we have right now!” If he was getting into another fight, he couldn't afford to get her hurt. A minute or so later, he had made it to the scene and found it was as chaotic as he expected. The giant was still there, even larger now that he was closer to him, while a second man was firing off jets of water at the woman he was after. Said woman dodging both and launching counters via hair, firing off swarms of needle-like hair projectiles or striking at them with massive spiked or bladed tendrils.
“Crazy Bitch, stay still!” The water guy yelled, his eyes bloodshot as he tried to hit her again she used her hair to jump onto a nearby balcony, turning to see that the giant had picked up someone's car like it was a rock.
“Have a car!” He yelled as he threw it at her, which she handled by firing off a large part of her hair, formed like an oversized javelin which pierced the vehicle, causing it to explode, saving her from it as she continued the battle in clothing that was by no means for winter yet if it bothered her, she wasn’t showing it.
‘Wow…That was impressive. Her hair is that strong?’ Midoriya watched, awed by her skills as she managed to keep them off her. ‘Focus!’ Shaking his head, he chastised himself for getting distracted as his body started heating up.
“Just the top this time, just the stop…” He had trained for this, he had learned how not to burn his clothes for moments like this dammit.
With the villains, the giant was about to attack her again when something hot crashed into his back. “Serpent’s Fireball!” He yelled in pain from the blow as the flames ate away at his shirt and left a nasty burn. This surprise attack stopped the fight momentarily as both sides wondered where the hell it came from.
“Shit, what the hell was that?!” The water villain asked as he saw another fireball flying towards them. instinctively, he countered it with his water, dousing the flames and throwing up a large cloud of steam.
“Hey!” Through it, they heard someone yelling at them as a glowing figure appeared. “Leave her alone!” That glowing figure turned out to be a snake-human hybrid made from volcanic stone, cloaked in fire.
“What the?”
“You threw that stupid fireball at me?!” The giant was the only one not impressed as he pulled back his fist to crush him. “You’re a dead man!” He yelled as Midoriya dodged that blow, the ground shaking from the impact.
“Listen to me, leave!” He yelled at the guy, didn’t he know he was only making things harder for himself? The pros could be there any minute and he seemingly was determined to bring the entire block down!
“Don’t bother,” He looked towards the reason he was even in the prefecture, the woman glancing at him before she turned back to their shared issue. “They’re both high out of their minds.” She wondered what he was doing here, he didn't look like a hero and certainly didn't act like one either. Was he just some rando who was helping her? Ha! That'll be a first.
“What?” Midoriya asked back as the two had to separate to avoid the large stream of water that would have otherwise hit them.
As she returned fire, she gave him the cliff notes of what had happened in the last few minutes. "I don't know who you are, but I'll keep it short. They wanted me gone, but I refused. They attacked, I won, then they pulled out trigger and now we're here." She stated, pissed that these idiots had destroyed her house, and most of her supplies.
“Midoriya Izuku.” She turned to him, a cautious look to her.
“What?” Midoriya did his best to smile at her, even if his face wasn't suited for that at the moment as he flared his flames to counter the stream of water hitting him, sending large clouds of stream into the street.
“That’s my name, I was actually looking for you,” He stated before sending another fireball towards the giant, this time aiming for his knee which got the man to yell in pain. “I wanted to talk!”
“Is this really the best time for that, and who the hell introduces themselves in a fight, what are you, 5?” She asked him, annoyed that he would waste time on something so pointless! All she wanted to do was deal with these two and get the hell outta there, she'll figure out what she'll do next later.
Midoriya took great offence to that last comment. “I-I’m 15 you know!”
“Clearly.” She gave him an impressed look, which would have made him blush if he was capable of that in his present form, so he just turned his embarrassment into power as he turned to the two villains and took in a deep breath.
“Serpent’s Fire Scales!” He sent out a massive fireball, which exploded into 9 smaller ones, 3 of which he sent towards the water user and the other 6 towards the giant. Thanks to his size, he wasn’t able to dodge any of them and cursed him for it while the water user managed to evade one but was struck by the other 2, sending him into his butt.
“You name them?” Hasaki asked him, to which he shamelessly answered.
“I do!” He really was still 15.
“Well aren’t that cute,” Both froze when they heard that third voice, looking up, they saw that the worst person had arrived as Hawks floated over them, an amused smirk on his face as his feathers gracefully fell around him. “Pretty good names for moves tho, you a hero fan?”
“Oh no…” Hasaki muttered, her face losing most of its color as she knew this was bad, it was really bad.
“Oh yes, couldn’t stay away when I saw the action and decided to fly on over and check it out.” Hawks stretched out his wings, sending forth feathers towards the downed villain, picking him up and throwing him into a wall, knocking him out.
Without missing a beat, with his eyes still on them while his feathers handled the water villains, he asked them something. “Any ideas on how to beat the big one?”
“Why are you asking us?” Midoriya yelled back at him, if he could sweat, he would as he tried to think of a way out of this mess. In response to his question, Hawks just shrugged.
“It was a nice way to start a conversation,” Before they could even blink, both found themselves pinned to the wall, though it was much weaker for Izuku as the feathers could only pin him by his pants as his top was gone. “For both our sakes, don’t go anywhere.” He turned his attention to the big guy, which Midoriya knew would be his only chance to escape.
“We can-!” With a flash, Hasaki saw that the other one was freed, the feathers that had been holding him burnt away as he rushed up to her and did the same for the ones holding her. “Should have seen that coming,”
“We gotta run!” He grabbed her hand, which to her surprise, didn’t burn as he dragged her away. She wanted to scream at him to let her go, give her time to get something-anything other than the flimsy shirt she had on her back but she looked back and saw that wasn’t an option. Hawks saw them rush off and sighed, having figured that would happen when he saw that one of them used fire.
“Hawks!” Coming down the street he had flown over, were two of his sidekicks, having finally caught up with him.
“There’s two others, one of them is a walking volcano, keep an eye on them so I can handle this guy.” He directed them as he still needed to handle the big guy who if he wasn’t mistaken, was high off his damn mind.
“Got it!” They didn't question his instructions and did as they were told, rushing off to chase down those other two. One of which he knew, though he wondered what the hell he was doing in his neck of the woods. The commission was also interested in him, which wouldn't bode well for the kid but it wasn't his place to argue that. all he had to do was handle this and capture him as he would any other criminal.
‘I just want to go to bed...’ He was starting to hate this, as he wondered if he should have just called it a night hours earlier, but no-he just had to do one more patrol.
Line Break
"Are you going to keep burning? You might as well scream." Hasaki asked him as the two rushed through alleys, trying to escape the pros that were on their tail.
“What? Oh, one sec,” Midoriya took a breath and with it, his form changed back to normal, though his jacket was missing, his shirt was still present. “Better?” To turn to her, letting her see his face for the first time since they crossed paths.
“Marginally.” She replied, shivering as they went as the adrenaline from the fight was starting to fade, which meant she had only a few minutes to find somewhere to lay low and warm up.
“I’ll take it,” Midoriya didn’t seem to catch her bland tone as he turned a corner into an even narrower alley. “This way.” Already deep with this brat since they had fought together, she decided to follow him.
“Of all the fucking days, they had to come today and now I’m on the run.” She muttered as she lost just about everything thanks to two idiots, and now she was on the run.
“It could be worse,” Midoriya spoke up, leading to her glaring at him, too tired of this shit.
“How?”
“You could be alone, or Hawks could have got you.” That…was a good point. Hawks would have arrived regardless of Midoriya's arrival, and she didn't think she'd be able to handle him, not when he was able to pin her to the wall before she could even blink.
“…True.” She agreed as they came to a stop, with Midoriya approaching a wall of all things. “What are you doing? Do you want me to leave you behind?” She asked him, her hair sharpening itself just in case she needed to scale the walls and escape via the roofs.
“I’m waiting for someone and here she is!” Koharu appeared and slithered up onto him, nuzzling into his warm body as she reached to give her head a good scratch. “Good job following us.” Hasaki looked at the moment with confusion, then disgust and finally raged, he slowed them down for a snake.
“There they are!” Before she could murder the two of them, they heard the pros that had been chasing them at the entrance to the alley. They shared a look before she jumped over the wall, with Midoriya taking a little longer than her as her hair just ploughed into the wall and threw her over, by the time he made it, she was already a sizable ways away.
Midoriya ran after her, catching with soon enough due to being in better shape, he noticed that she was starting to shiver and breathe heavily, the events of the night catching up to her. “Dammit, is that why we were going so damn slow, for a snake?” She huffed out as he ran closer to her and heated up, with steam starting to come off him in an attempt to heat her.
“Koharu is not ‘just a snake’, thank you very much!” Koharu hissed at her for that comment, getting a smile from Midoriya. “And she doesn’t appreciate that comment.” If she had more breath, she would gut him for that, still might.
“First those two idiots and now you, I can’t catch a break,” She wished her luck was any better than it was but it seemed like the universe wanted to make her night even worse as they could make out those heroes from before catching up, even as they turned whenever they found a bend to try and lose them. “We need to take care of those two, which means…” She looked behind and saw those two pros turn the corner and race towards them, both being in better shape than even snake loving heater next to her meant they'd catch them soon enough.
Seeing a fire escape that had some trash underneath it, she shifted her hair into bladed tendrils and sliced at the fire escape, causing it to collapse right as they made it past, blocking the path. “Burn that!” She yelled, to which Midoriya didn’t hesitate as his head and only his head transformed as he looked back and breathed out a fireball that impacted with the demolished fire escape and trash, causing a small explosion of flames and heat.
“Crap!” One of the side-kicks just barely stopped himself from trying to jump through what was just debris but now was flaming debris.
“Sorry!” As Midoriya apologized over his shoulder, his head turning back to human, the other side-kick pulled out his phone to contact Hawks and any other heroes in the area of the situation.
“What are you-whatever, just keep moving!” She panted as they continued to run, needing to get as far from here as they could before Hawks had time to finish up with that big guy and join the chase.
“You think that’ll slow them down?” Midoriya asked as they turned another corner, the alley only having the dim light of the moon to guide them.
“Not for long!” She replied, feeling like her lungs were about to jump out of her chest even as she forced herself to keep moving. Noting that she was slowing down, Midoriya came to a decision.
“Then let’s speed things up.” He told her, getting closer to her as she turned to see what he had in mind.
“What are-!” She yelped as he grabbed her, bridal style and kept up the pace, if anything he was now running even faster while his passenger found herself held to his warm and oddly muscular chest with a snake giving her what she was sure was a smug look. “Put me down, you brute!” She beat against him.
“My mother didn’t raise any brute!” He yelled back, offended she would ever see him as such. “You’re slowing down, I’m not so this was the best option.” As much as she hated it, he was right as even with her in hand, he wasn't slowing down. Plus…it was nice to be held like this, even if it was temporary.
Leaning against him, she let his unusually warm body soothe her tired body as he caught her breath. “Brutes wouldn’t have asked permission.”
“Oh…” Looking at Koharu, she merely called him a dumb-ass and reminded him to keep his eyes on the road else he trip and falls, taking all of them down. “Sorry about that.”
“Just forget about it…I’m…I’m not that mad.” She replied, the two falling into a silence after that, with only the sounds of Midoriya’s steady breaths his shoes smacking the ground or the occasional pile of snow. Both paid attention to listening to other sounds and their fortune, there was none, not even the beating of wings that signified the approach of a red-winged pro neither wanted to fight. After a couple of minutes, Kiruka broke the silence.
“Hasaki Kiruka.”
“Pardon?” Midoriya looked down at her, keeping another eye on the path ahead to avoid obstacles and other tripping hazards.
She pointed towards the name tag on her shirt, as this was one of her work uniform’s tops before she got fired. “It’s my name… Hasaki Kiruka." Hasaki repeated, thinking that if nothing else, she owed her apparent hero her name. hearing it, Izuku smiled at her, even as his cheeks were a bit red from the rather intimate position they were in.
"It's a pretty name." If he remembers his kanji right, her last name could be read as feathers that blossom, like a peacock which match her beautiful yet deadly hair. Her given name also could be red as killer incense which he supposed had something to do with how deadly and capable she was, like a well-made incense.
"Charmer…" Hasaki replied, finding this entire situation to be the oddest one she had been a part of in years. She would have just thought he was saying whatever he could to impress her, which she wasn't discounting as he was an awkward teenager, but so was she in a way. More than that, he seemed…honest in his words, and complimented, which added a little extra weight to it than when a customer complimented her hair.
“This way!” After another couple blocks of running and avoiding the main streets, he took them down another alley with a dead end where he gently placed her down, with Hisaki missing the heat as soon as her bare feet touched the cold ground.
Hugging herself to preserve some of that heat, she spoke up with half as much heat as she had before. “I swear if you’re leading us down another-What the hell is your game?” She stopped herself from calling him a brat, giving him that respect.
“Not a game! There, our escape!” Midoriya pointed towards a manhole cover, partially covered by snow which she wiped away and lifted, presenting it to her like he was opening the door to a fancy cat as she looked at him like he was mental.
“You can’t be serious! Like I’ll ever stoop so low.” She had done some shit in her life away from her father to make it, but she could proudly say she’s never reduced herself to a gutter rat, it’ll be murder on her hair!
“Hawks is the king of the skies; we stay in the open and he WILL find us.” Midoriya reminded her of the fact just because they didn’t see him, didn’t mean he wasn’t there. Holding out his hand to her, he continued to appeal to her. “Please, I just want to talk but we can’t do it here.”
She looked disgusted by the entire thing, looking at herself and dreading what this would bring. Noting that he took off his shoes and handed them to her. With the shoes that were too big for her in hand, she looked back at him and saw that even the snake was trying to get her into the damn hole in the ground. "Arg-Fine, but you better sure make it worth my time, and then compensate me for the damage whatever down there will do to my hair." She quickly slipped into the borrowed shoes to protect her feet from whatever was down there, finding that they were only a couple of sizes off before she crawled in.
“Agreed!” Midoriya promised as he followed after her, closing the manhole cover above them, lighting his hands on fire to give them a source of light while they descended.
There was meant to be more, but I had to cut it due to time as this chapter is already late, and because I wouldn't have been able to fit that into less than 900 words anyway. Anyway. Hope you all enjoyed, the happy holidays and please don't cancel your support of me. I kinda need it to continue writing.
As for her name, according to the trivia portion of her wiki page, Hasaki contains the kanji for "feathers" (羽ha?) and "blossom/bloom" (咲 zaki?). Her given name, Kiruka, means "kill/murder" (斬kiru?) and "incense/perfume" (香 ka?). So Izuku, who has experience with kanji being poorly read by Bakugo(even though I've changed his nickname as Deku doesn't apply to something with a quirk as powerful as his), learned how to read them properly to not accidentally offend someone like he is constantly. I also use the same naming convention for OCs whenever I can, to help them fit into the world, you know?
