Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ray opened his eyes with a gasp, bolting upright in a panic. What had happened? He looked around himself briefly, seeing only a forest of trees that looked like the ones he grew up with at Grace Field, nothing like the demon forests. Did they… did they make it to the human world? He gripped his face, lowering his head, searching through his memories. He remembers… going with Emma somewhere. Emma had to do something then- Emma!

Ray jolts to his knees, head spinning. Where was Emma and Norman? He spun around frantically, catching sight of Emma’s bright red hair a short distance away, partially obscured by some greenery.

He scrambles forward as fast as he can, boots hardly gaining proper traction on the soft dirt beneath him as he pulls himself towards his best friend, scratching up his hands on small rocks and sharp twigs.

“Emma!” He calls, collapsing with a dizzying thump next to where she lay. Ray quickly holds the back of his hand over her nose and mouth, using the other to grip her limp wrist. After a few tense moments as he tried to focus past the rushing sound in his ears, he sighs in relief, letting go and sliding his hands up to pull at his hair roughly.

She was alive. Pulse steady, breathing normally. She was ok. Thank everything she was ok, Ray didn’t know what he would do to himself if something happened to her. He couldn’t handle losing her like they thought they lost Norman- oh fuck, where was Norman? How could he have forgotten so quickly?! He was a terrible friend.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to look far, as Ray could see Norman just a few meters away, leaning against a tree. To Ray’s surprise, his friend was already awake, though he was clearly not doing well, a bit of blood trickling from his lips and a bruise blooming on his forehead.

As if seeing his friends’ injuries triggered something, Ray suddenly remembered he was also injured as he made to move towards Norman, a sharp pain ripping through his body like electricity. He gripped his side, hissing at the pressure on the gashes. That’s right, a wild demon had managed to swipe him just as he killed it. That would explain the dizziness, it was bleeding a lot. He was bleeding a lot.

Ray swiftly pulled off his scarf, tearing it into strips for makeshift bandages and applied them tightly to his wound with practiced ease. Done with that, he carefully crawled closer to his white-haired friend, keeping a comforting (comfort for himself or unconscious Emma? He wasn't sure) hand on Emma’s ankle, loath to leave her so quickly after she had vanished for so long while they fought.

“Norman? You don’t look great.” He stated bluntly with a furrowed brow, taking in his sickly pallor.

Norman huffed wetly in response, lips tilted upward in a pained smile, “You could say that.”

Ray’s lips thinned. Norman looked much worse than he had before they had been transported to wherever they were now, and from Ray could see it didn’t look like help was nearby. Had whatever happened made it worse?

Emma’s leg twitched under his grip, interrupting his thoughts, followed by a sharp intake of breath as Emma sat up, a confused look on her face.

“Ray? Norman? What…?” She trailed off, sounding a little dazed, looking around. “Where are we? Are you guys ok?”

“I’m fine.”

“Bullshit you’re fine,” Ray snapped, glaring at the other boy. He looked back over towards Emma and noticed for the first time the puddle of blood she had been laying in, staining the back of her torn clothing. “Emma! You’re bleeding!”

Emma startled with wide eyes, shifting her head to look behind herself. “Oh, I am. I didn’t even realise…”

Ray grit his teeth angrily at himself for missing the blood. She could have bled out before his dumb ass even realised something was wrong. Ignoring his own pain, he moved behind her and pulled off her jacket. It was as good as rags anyway, so he felt no remorse ripping it to pieces and getting ready to begin wrapping it tightly around her lower torso.

Emma grunted in pain as he peeled what remained of her shirt away from the gashes, but Ray merely pressed his lips together and continued. They didn’t have anything to stitch the wound shut with, as their supplies were nowhere to be found, and he had nothing to cauterize them with. He growled in frustration as he ran a searching finger gently along the edges of torn skin. There was no way crappy makeshift bandages would be enough.

He needed to close the wound or she would bleed out in a matter of hours, she was already way too pale. If only he had something to start a fire-

Ray yelped in fright as the fingers near her wound abruptly bloomed with heat and lit with flames. Emma let out a short scream at the sudden burn, and Ray yanked his flaming hand away reflexively. 

“Ray!” Both Emma and Norman exclaimed, as he stared in disbelief at his hand.

“It… doesn’t burn.” He said in shock, wide eyes fixated on the flickering flames, remembering what seemed like a lifetime ago when he was ready to set himself on fire. Is this what he would have looked like? A few moments later, the fire spluttered and went out like a spent candle bubbling against melted wax. The warmth he hadn’t noticed until then remained, a perplexingly pleasant sensation that engulfed his entire body but didn’t make him feel overheated.

Slowly, he turned his shocked gaze to look at his friends. All he managed to say, face blank and voice flat, was a very sincere, “What the fuck.”

Emma seemed to shake herself out of her shock and frowned in thought, before suddenly brightening. “Oh! I think I might know! I… can’t really remember everything but in exchange for helping everyone to the human world, H̸̭̅̑͝ȩ̸̲̱̭͑̋̅̈ said something about… entertainment? Ugh, I wish I could remember! But H̷̨̧̧̛͕͙̉́͌̂̈́̏͜ͅͅė̸̒͋̓͂͊͜ said that I couldn’t go with everyone as part of the payment, but I think H̶̖̩͙̱͌̎̆͂ḙ̵̟̈́͆̈́̕ said something about no demons and a different human world? Maybe that’s what this is!”

Norman nodded in agreement. “That would make sense I guess, I can’t see how else Ray could have done that since we don’t have any matches and we would have seen him use one.” Then, he paused, blue eyes narrowing a bit. "But wait, why are we with you then? If H̴̻́̂ẹ̶̒̾͘ wanted you to not be with the rest of our siblings and the other kids..."

"Maybe H̴̙̚͝e̵̞̤͐ decided to be really nice? I would hate to leave you guys if I could help it, so maybe H̷̛̟͛̇̿̽̓͐e̷̘̐̾̊ thought leaving everyone else was payment enough?" Emma bounced a little in excitement, face lighting up, before stopping when it became too painful. Regardless, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and clenched her fists in front of her. “Oh, this is so exciting! I’m going to miss everyone, but I know Don and Gilda will take care of them, and I have you guys with me! Oh! If Ray has fire powers, do you think we do too? Maybe humans here all have fire powers!”

Ray looked down at his hand again consideringly. “Do you guys feel warmer? I do, and I didn’t realise I’d felt that way since I woke up until… well until my hand caught fire.”

Emma went silent for moment before deflating. “No… I feel mostly the same.”

“Me too.” Norman agreed, before coughing into his palm. “I don’t think whatever happened has been good for me, though. Ray was right, I am worse than before.”

Emma’s eyes welled with tears before she determinedly wiped them away. “It’ll be ok! I’m sure we can find something to help you real soon!”

Ray and Norman shared a grim look briefly, before Ray returned his gaze to Emma’s mess of a back.

“Right.” He said, moving forward. “Emma, I want you do lay down on your stomach. I have to close your wounds or you’ll bleed out or get a nasty infection.”

She blinked at him, face sweaty and pale. “But Ray… how are you…”

Ray smirked, lifting his hand. “Obviously, I’m going to burn it closed. We can’t stitch it and bandages won’t be enough.”

Emma’s face became grimly determined. She nodded decisively and lay down, stuffing the wadded up end of her scarf into her mouth. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye and nodded that she was ready, hands reaching forward to grip Normans offered ones.

Ray took a deep breath and focused, closing his eyes. What had he felt before? He’d needed a flame. He was determined to find a way to help Emma and his best thought had been trying to make a fire, even if it would have been tedious without tools or dry wood since it appeared to have rained recently.

He felt within himself for the new warmth and decided to try to pull it to the surface. It was hard, very hard. He wasn’t sure how to direct it, and it kept dispersing through him in heightened waves rather than a point he wanted. For a moment, his frustration spiked and suddenly there was a burst of flame all around him.

“Fuck!” He yelled, slightly panicked as he backed away. Thankfully, his focus was lost and the flames abruptly died. “Shit! I can’t do this! I’m just going to get you killed! Useless piece of shit-!”

“Ray!” Emma shouted, cutting off his tirade. It took a moment for Ray to realize at some point he’d fallen back to his knees and that he was gripping at his hair painfully tight. He stared at the ground, liquid sliding down his cheeks. He was crying. When had he started crying?

Emma caught his gaze as he glanced up at her. She smiled at him. It was that smile. The one that said everything would be ok, the one she wore before she led them out of danger and comforted those around her with her confidence.

“You can do this Ray, I believe you can do it- no, I know you can do it. You and Norman are the smartest people I know, and you’re the best at figuring things out. You can figure this out. Take a breath and try again.” Her eyes crinkled as her smile widened encouragingly.

Ray glanced at Norman, and Norman smiled that small smile of his and nodded his agreement.

“Ray.” Emma repeated, retaking his attention, looking at him seriously. “I trust you.”

Ray stared. Even after three years, the faith in him always caught him off guard. He knew, deep down, that he didn’t deserve it after all he’d done to their siblings. All he'd wanted to leave his siblings to face in his selfish desire to save the two people that mattered most in his life. But… for some reason, Emma still believed in him, no matter what he did or said, how he disagreed with her naïve and optimistic ambitions, she stubbornly still believed in him and trusted him. 

Right. He wasn’t going to let her down again. Never again. He swore he would always be there to help her no matter what. She needed her wounds cauterized, and he was the only one who could get that done.

Ray focused, glaring determinedly at his hand. Ideally, he only needs one, maybe two fingers on fire, but if he could only light up his hand that would do. He’d burn her if the rest of him caught fire, and his clothing wouldn’t survive another singeing.

The warmth built again, dispersing, but Ray knew what to expect this time. He grabbed onto that warmth with all his willpower and forced it into a compact ball. Sweat dripped into his eyes, but he ignored it. He carefully guided that ball towards his hand, trying to force it to fill out his fingers but stoppering it at his wrist. He sucked in a quick breath and-

There was a fwoosh as he released the energy, and his hand became aflame. He grinned manically as Emma and Norman gave him a little cheer, though Emma was muffled once again by her scarf.

Ray knew he could use this but… no. This was his power. He didn’t care he’d had it for all of a few minutes. He was mastering it now. He refused to lack control over what happened to him again.

Starting from his wrist, he imagined the solid wall of energy he’d put there and started shoving it upwards, extinguishing the flames as it went until just his index and middle fingers remained engulfed in flames. Sweat was drenching his face from the effort, and his head ached something fierce, but he’d done it.

“Alright Emma, on three. One, two, th-“ He pressed his flaming fingers against the top edge of her wound. Emma screamed, body tensing as she fought the urge to move away, fingers gripping Normans crushingly tightly, jaw clenched around her mouthful of fabric.

The smell of burning flesh was horrible, and Ray fought the urge to gag as he forced himself to drag his fingers downwards, using his free hand to pull the skin together as best he could, slowly burning the wound closed. Against his will, tears gathered in his eyes, blurring his vision. He despised hurting Emma, but he knew it was for the best. He had to close it or she would die. After everything they’d done, all they’d accomplished, he refused to let any of them die now, when they were finally free.

Ray pulled his hand away and let go of the flames, panting as if he was twelve again and cornered by the farm demons after sprinting for so long to lead them away from his family. His vision swam and Emma spat out the scarf, panting heavily into the dirt. She pushed herself up shakily, Norman doing his best to support her.

Using the jacket he’d ripped earlier, Ray forced his limbs to move and began to wrap them around the fresh burns. It wasn’t ideal, since nothing was clean, but it was better than leaving it exposed. He sinched the knot tight and let his arms fall back down.

Emma looked over her shoulder at him, a tired smile on her pale, sweaty face. “Thank you, Ray. I knew you could do it.” She whispered; voice hoarse.

Ray tried to smile back, but the world was spinning, his brain was splitting apart like a demon had grabbed it in its sharp claws and his vision was rapidly going very dark.

Slowly, Emma and Norman tilted sideways and his head smacked against the ground.

Chapter Text

When Ray next awoke, he felt better, but still exhausted. There wasn’t much to be done about it though, they couldn’t afford to stay in one spot for too long anyhow. They didn’t know what predators there might be, and they didn’t have any weapons or supplies with them.

They needed to find water and hopefully signs of humans nearby, but water was the priority. They could last a while without food. It obviously wasn’t ideal, especially since none of them were exactly healthy after recent events and just escaping the farm in general.

So they walked, holding each other up and holding each other together. They used the direction of the sun and patches of moss to try and help them pick a direction and started walking, hoping they’d picked right and would find something.

Ray was dizzy with exhaustion, and so was Emma. He didn’t think she’d developed an infection yet, thankfully, but Norman was looking worse every time they stopped for a short break. Ray’s wound had started bleeding again, but all he could do was pull his bandages tighter. He wasn’t able to call up flames long enough to fix it, and he nearly passed out if he tried to push through anyway.

Keeping watch was exceedingly difficult when they were all dead on their feet. They hadn’t encountered any wild animals yet, nor had they found water or food. Normally, they could climb a tree and tie themselves to a sturdy branch to sleep, minimizing the need for a watch, but none of them were in a state to climb trees so they were forced to sleep on the ground.

Two days passed, and they still hadn’t found water. Emma definitely had an infection and was feeling it, lacking all her usual exuberant energy. Norman steadily got greyer and less able to support his own weight. Ray himself wasn’t doing so hot either, but of the three of them, he was apparently the strongest right now- not that that meant much, considering their states.

Ray tried to ignore the thoughts, but he was getting increasingly desperate and resigned over their situation. They hadn’t found anything. No water, nothing edible, no sign of humans… he was surprised they had made it as long as they had, honestly. They weren’t going to last much longer though.

Suddenly, Ray heard a commotion up ahead, pausing and pulling his friends to a halt. Neither had the energy to even question him. Gritting his teeth, he strained to hear the sounds again. It sounded like… running? And was that an explosion?

As if hearing his unspoken question, the ground shook and the trees creaked alarmingly. Before Ray could do much more than steady the three of them, a group of four odd-looking people appeared just ahead of them.

Ray stared in muted horror. They looked human but… what even?! One of them had the head of what Ray thought was a shark, recalling a picture in a book and another had what looked like yellow scales covering most of their body. The other two looked human enough, aside from the one with pink hair and the other with seven eyes that signaled them as something different.

They weren’t demons, obviously, and Emma said there weren’t any in this world, but then what-?

Scales apparently caught sight of them and smirked menacingly. “Well, well, if it isn’t our lucky day.” She drawled, prowling towards the trio. Ray grit his teeth and pushed himself to stand in front of his siblings. Whoever these maybe-humans were, they were not allies.

“Fresh meat, by the looks of it. Reckon Boss’ll be more lenient if we can replace some of the goods.” Eyes giggled, each eye moving differently and sizing them up.

“What about the heroes?” Pink Hair questioned, glancing back to where they’d run from, but Scales scoffed dismissively.

“Don’t worry, they’ll be distracted by the others and the goods and probably wont even realise we escaped until it’s too late. Let’s grab these kids and meet back up with- hey! Get them!”

Ray had heard enough. These guys may not be demons, but their intentions didn’t seem any better than those running the farms. Praying they could get away quickly, Ray gripped Emma and Norman as tight as possible and took off as fast as he could. It didn’t take long, but by the time he heard Scales shout after them there was a decent distance between them.

His hair flew into and out of his face as he ran, sticking to his already drenched skin. This wasn’t good. None of them could run as fast or far as normal. They needed help. Should he try and go towards where those guys came from, loop around? Or should they run as far away as possible?

They had said ‘heroes’ with such contempt, such hatred for disrupting whatever illegal thing it was they were doing that they had to be able to help, right? If ‘heroes’ meant people like the ones in the stories he’d read, then that was their best chance. At this rate, it would be better for that to fail. They weren’t going to survive another day out here without supplies and medical attention. He had to risk it.

With a mental apology to Emma and Norman, he abruptly yanked them to the left and began weaving through the trees, circling back towards where he had initially heard the explosion.

Suddenly, a bunch of leaves launched from the trees and slammed into the group, knocking them off their feet and against a short rockface. They all cried out in pain as the leaves sliced through their skin.

Ray and Emma managed to get back to their feet, but when they tried to pull Norman up, he barely made it a step before dropping like a stone, hacking up blood.

“Norman!” Emma exclaimed, dropping next to him and weakly trying to pull him up. “Norman, no, please, get up! Norman!”

“Fuck!” Ray looked around frantically, but there was nowhere to go. He could see them closing in and it looked like Pink Hair was the one who had caught up first, and was… controlling the leaves?! They hung menacingly in the air as Pink Hair grinned at him triumphantly, face tense and strained.

Ray realised that controlling the leaves must put strain on him, like it did when he tried to use his fire, so he wouldn’t be able to hold them there forever. But, he clenched his jaw in frustration, that didn’t help them. They needed a plan right now. Norman was unresponsive, they were all injured and exhausted, and Emma wouldn’t be able to leave Norman behind… fuck, he was horrid for even considering that, after everything!

There was only one thing Ray could do. From his estimation, he thinks they are close to wherever it was these shits came from, so if he could get their attention…

“Hah, gotcha kid. Don’t worry, you tried really hard, but it’s over. We promise to take good care of you!” Eyes giggled as the other two caught up, effectively trapping them.

Stall, Ray! Focus! “Fuck you. We’re not going anywhere with you freaks of nature!” Yes, make them mad, keep them talking, distract, give yourself time!

“Wow.” Shark Face scoffed somewhat disbelievingly. “What a quirkist little bastard you are! Regardless, in case you haven’t noticed, you’ve got nowhere to go, so just make this easy on yourselves and we won’t have to hurt your little friends over there.”

Before Ray could stop himself, he blurted. “What the fuck is a quirkist?”

That seemed to make them pause, baffled. It was the perfect opening. With an involuntary shout, he launched a massive fireball towards them, locking his knees so he wouldn’t fall. Shark Face, Pink Hair and Eyes dove out of the way in panic, but Scales stood firm, smirking and ignoring the flaming trees behind her and the disintegrated remains of the leaves floating around her face.

“A fire quirk, eh? Well lucky for you, fire doesn’t hurt me!” She exclaimed smugly and started stalking towards them. Ray fell back a step, eyes wide, sweat dripping into his vision. Fuck, now what? He needed a solid barrier, but flames weren’t solid! They were screwed!

Fuck it.

“Stay away from us!” He screamed, fire erupting all over his body. His head felt like it was splitting again, it was excruciating. His wounded side was sending shocks of intense pain through him from sprinting and carrying his friends, but Ray didn’t care. He wasn’t going to just let them take his family from him. He refused! Not after how far they’d come, he refused to allow some inhuman freaks to be the ones to take their hard-earned freedom. Even if he had to break his vow, he would gladly die before he let that happen.

The flames kept shooting towards Scales, who just kept walking without a care, smirking and waiting for him to tire himself out. Ray glared, an unhinged expression twisting his features as he pushed through the pain. He refused to let these fuckers win!

“Stay-“ He growled, forcing more fire, barely even aware that the forest was quickly starting to blaze and spread as his focus narrowed on his target.

“Away-“ Emma was still screaming at an unresponsive Norman behind him, trying to pull him up so they could run.

“From my-“ He poured more energy into the flames, willing them, with a desperation he doesn’t think he’s felt since Norman was about to be shipped, to create some sort of barrier, something, anything to give them time to escape or for someone to find them.

“Family!” Like a flash of lightning, the flames around him burst into a blinding blue intensity as he screamed in agony, using all the energy he had left to give as his entire body let forth a bursting stream of fire at his target.

Scales was halted in her advance as a wall of flames erupted around her and she found she was trapped, unable to move past the inferno no matter how hard she tried, the intense heat making her fear this supposedly helpless child, his unhinged expression flashing in her mind as she tried to force herself free from the cage of fire.

Ray’s eyes rolled as he collapsed backward into Emma, who startled and tried asking him if he was ok, griping his arm desperately. The wall of flame remained, and the forest was still burning. He had done it, Ray thought blearily. He’d made the fire solid, despite all logic saying that was impossible. He’d created a signal that he prayed someone would see and be able to come help them in time.

He looked up into Emma’s green eyes. Her mouth was moving, but Ray couldn’t hear what she was saying. It was almost silent. Something hot dripped from his nose, but he couldn’t lift his arm to check what it was.

A green flash, and everything abruptly stopped. No light, no sound, no pain… just blissful darkness and a blessed feeling of peace, safe, home.

Chapter Text

The girl was unresponsive.

Admittedly, part of that could be that she was obviously injured and suffering infection, but no. Aizawa could tell from experience with trauma and its victims that it was mostly shock causing her to stare blankly ahead, round eyes wide and unseeing, lips slightly parted. To be completely honest, he was more surprised she was still conscious considering the poor state she looked to be in and the immediate injuries they could see.

Hawks had flown in with her, carried bridal style in his arms, soot and dirt clinging to her sweaty, blood-streaked face. Her clothing was scorched to the point there was almost more ash than functional fabric, small cuts littering her exposed skin.

Aizawa had been part of the few underground heroes tasked with scoping and infiltrating the place for info on the location of kidnapped people, before the daylight heroes made themselves known to begin the raid. It was simple, the heroes outside would focus on the villains and the ones already inside would focus on rescuing the captees.

Overall, the raid had been a landslide success. This human trafficking ring hadn’t been well organised in defending their previously hidden base, despite their proficiency with serially kidnaping and selling people off.

One of the sidekicks had noticed a few villains had run off, but they hadn’t been able to spare anyone right away to go after them, as one of the villains was causing small bursts of vibrations through the ground. The villains weren’t organised, but they had a lot of troublesome quirks and decent enough numbers to provide an obstacle.

Surprisingly, it was Aizawa who noticed the fire first, despite the fact it obviously hadn’t just started, and he’d been inside the base for the majority of the raid. He had yelled for one of the heroes with a water quirk to go after the fire and for Hawks to fly overhead to see what started it and possibly capture the villains.

Now that the raid was over, villains being loaded away and civilians being transported for treatment, Aizawa was left in charge of watching over the catatonic girl that had apparently started the blaze. She was skinny, but he was surprised to see well-toned muscles on her. Greasy red hair hung messily around her face, large green eyes and a small mouth and nose.

At first, he had assumed she had escaped from the villains they had raided, but as he was pulling a shock blanket around her shoulders- just to cover her up if anything, he noticed the numbers and the missing left ear. Tattooed boldly on the left side of her neck were the numbers 63194, and judging from the discoloration and the softness of its edges, it was years old.

That was decidedly unusual. None of the victims were like this. None of them had been numbered, nor injured quite this badly. There was also the cauterized wound on her back, the still raw burns sealing up arm length gashes across her back.

From what Hawks had seen and from identifying the villains quirks, the girl must have started the fire in self-defense. One of the villains had been trapped in a solid box of blue flame and it was only when Hawks had picked the girl up that the flames had finally died away, allowing an overheated and panting villain to collapse to the ground and be taken into custody.

It made the most sense, but Aizawa was skeptical. From the angle of the burns, he didn’t think it would be possible for her to cauterize them shut so cleanly by reaching behind herself, especially without being able to see what she was doing, leading him to suspect someone else had done it, but thy hadn’t found anyone else in the area.

Not long later, the paramedics were ready to take her to the hospital. She was loaded onto a gurney and Aizawa stepped away- only to be stopped when a small hand shot out and gripped the baggy sleeve of his costume tightly. Aizawa looked back at the girl, and while she still seemed out of it, her lips had pressed into a thin line and her unfocused eyes were welling with tears.

Ah, he thought to himself, she was aware of my presence next to her after all. With a sigh, Shouta heaved himself into the ambulance and sat on one side of the girl, shifting her hand from his sleeve so he could hold it in his instead. This wasn’t the first time he’d done this for someone he’d rescued- though usually always children- and it wouldn’t be the last time, but it never bothered him more than the mild annoyance that he’d be later getting home to his husband and cats than anticipated.

It was at the hospital after she had been treated that they ran into some… interesting complications.

The girl, for all intents and purposes, didn’t exist.

Doctors informed him that her missing ear was around three to four years old, and several scars littering her body were within that timeframe. One of legs showed signs in had been broken, but no other bones. The infection was bad, but thankfully she had responded to antibiotics. They’d had to give her almost all her vaccines or else she was at risk of getting severely ill just from being at the hospital, as someone in pathology had noticed when they ran her blood that she’d never had a shot in her life.

A quirk specialist had been baffled, since all signs pointed to the girl not actually having a fire quirk, as all the usual signs of one were absent. That had given them all pause, considering what they had been briefed about when she was brought in. If she hadn’t caused the fire, then who?

In lieu of her lack of existence and therefore contactable guardians, Aizawa had merely sighed, texted his husband and signed the papers to enact his emergency foster license so she could be protected and cared for until they figured out her situation.

Hizashi had, of course, sent a flurry of texts back demanding more details other than the ‘Got a kid, might not be home until tomorrow. Feed cats.’ that Shouta deemed as a good enough explanation for the situation. But Shouta, being tired and still feeling a little petty over the fact that ‘Zashi had stolen his coffee that morning, ignored them.

So now here he was, watching as the girl slowly blinked her eyes open over a day later. Medicine and healing quirks had done wonders to bring her back to almost full health- she was still a bit malnourished, but the doctors had informed him that her healing was apparently accelerated, so the lingering damage to her back that they couldn’t heal all the way should have a significantly shorter recovery time.

She sat upright fast, looking around in confusion, blinking sleep and the semi-lingering effects anesthesia away. “Where-?” She looked around again, before her eyes welled with frightened tears and she suddenly pitched forward and started screaming into her arms, fingers yanking her short hair.

Alarmed, Shouta swiftly started trying to comfort her. “You’re ok, you’re safe now. You’re in the hospital and your injuries have been treated.”

“Where-“ she gasped. “Where are they?!”

Shouta frowned. “Where are who? The villains who attacked you?”

She shook her head, staring at the blankets, red faced and wet with tears and snot. “No! Ray and Norman! They were right there and then- and then!” She gasped.

So there were others? Fuck. “Take a deep breath for me and tell me what happened. You were alone when we found you. I want to help, but until you can give me details, I can’t do anything.”

The girl slowly began to follow his measured breathing as he pulled her to lean against his chest and open her airways. Aizawa was beyond grateful when the hysterics stopped. He’d never been good at knowing what to do with crying children, that was more Hizashi’s thing.

“Good. Now, what’s your name? My name is Aizawa Shouta, pro-hero Eraserhead.”

“Emma. My name is Emma.”

“Thank you, Emma. How old are you?”

She opened her mouth to answer but paused. “What date is it?”

“March twelfth.” He answered, watching as a look of relief crossed her face that Shouta couldn’t divine the reason for.

“I’m fifteen, and so is Norman. His birthday is the twenty-first. Ray is sixteen.”

Shouta doesn’t know why he did, but he had expected her- them? To be younger, especially considering her seeming lack of quirk knowledge.

Shouta was about to question her further, before he realised he should probably not force her to do it twice. So, instead, he pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to Detective Naomasa and waited, simply holding the girl as she continued to calm down.

Not long later, there was a soft knock at the door and it slowly opened to reveal the detective. Emma stiffened against him, eyeing the new person warily.

“Emma, this is Detective Naomasa. He’s just here to ask you some questions so we can figure out what happened.”

Naomasa sat down near the end of the bed, leaving a clear line of sight to the door. He pulled out a notebook and clicked on a recorder. “If its alright with you Emma, I’ll be recording our conversation. Do I have your permission? Verbally, please.”

Emma studied him with a calculating gaze, before nodding and smiling brightly at the man. “Sure!”

“What’s the last thing you remember? Any details of events leading up to when we found you would be very helpful.”

She frowned, biting her lip. “We woke up in the forest and Norman and Ray were hurt. Ray realised I was too. We didn’t have any supplies and he was worried a bandage wouldn’t be enough to let us find help, then all of a sudden his was on fire! But it didn’t burn him at all! I was bleeding a lot, I think, so he tried to get it to come back so he could close my wounds.”

Naomasa gave the barest of pauses as he listened, before continuing to write his notes.

“I’m not sure what happened after, I think we both passed out. We walked for a few days after that, but we couldn’t find any water. I… I think I was a little out of it, everything is really weird in my memory. Ray was mostly carrying both of us.”

“Do you know how you got to the forest?”

Emma hesitated, before hesitantly replying. “No, but… people were trying to capture us and then we were there.”

Shouta could tell she wasn’t telling the whole truth and from the look on Naomasa’s face, she had likely lied in some way, but he didn’t press the issue as it wasn’t important right this second when there was apparently two missing children. “What happened after that?”

“Some really weird looking people appeared. They didn’t really look human, and they were talking about wanting to capture us. I remember that part. Ray made us run away but we couldn’t move very well and he was already tired. Something hit us and then Norman collapsed, and then he wasn’t breathing and then Ray was on fire and everything was on fire and then he collapsed too and- and I don’t know! They were there! I was holding them and then they were gone! I don’t know what happened! I need to- I need to find them! They’re all I have left!”

She started sobbing hysterically again, looking at them both pleadingly. “Please, sirs, I beg you! Please help me find them!”

It took all Shouta had to keep his expression from showing his thoughts. From the way she was speaking… did she not know what quirks were? Sure, he knew some people were prejudiced against those with mutation quirks or “villainous” quirks but the way she spoke about them, the confusion mingled with a little excitement when she first described how her… friend? Ray had made fire from himself.

“Emma,” He began slowly, drawing her attention. Naomasa tilted his head questioningly. “Emma, do you know what a quirk is?”

She hesitated and Naomasa’s eyes widened as he finally caught onto what she had said, “Um, a peculiar behavior?”

Well then. “Emma, a quirk describes a special ability that 80% of the population has. There are mutation types, transforming types and emitter types. My quirk is Erasure. I can stop someone from using their quirk, just not mutation types. Detective Naomasa here can tell when someone is lying. It sounds like your friend-“

“Brother.” Emma stated firmly, interrupting him.

“Like your brother,” He continued as if he hadn’t been corrected, “Has a fire quirk, which is an emitter type. Did you really not know?”

She bit her lip, looking down and thinking. “No… we haven’t ever seen a human do anything like that before.”

The Detective shifted and cleared his throat gently. “We’ll come back to that in a moment. I would like you to provide a description of your siblings to me. I’ll have someone composite a sketch and we can start searching.”

“Well, Ray has dark green eyes, and he’s five-ten. He’s got black hair and he wears it over one side of his face like this-“ She grasped a handful of her hair and pulled it down to mimic Ray’s fringe. Suddenly, her hair turned black and grew in length. She yelped and let go. “What the-“

There was a beat of silence. “A shapeshifting quirk?” Aizawa questioned, mostly to himself.

---

Emma looked to the side where she could see her reflection in the window. She gasped. Starting back at her was a perfect copy of Ray’s face. She lifted her hand to touch, and the reflection followed. As she studied herself closer, she noticed that it was only her head that changed. Her hands were still the same and her build was no different.

“Oh. This is really weird.” She teared up a bit, though Ray’s face looked really weird with the way she usually scrunched up her mouth when she was trying not to cry. “Ok, um. How do I turn this off? I’d really like to stop. I can’t-“

Aizawa squeezed her shoulder. “If you don’t know how to just yet, I can see if I can erase your quirk.” He offered, his gruff face soft as he stared at her. She quickly nodded.

Aizawa blinked and suddenly his hair flew upwards and she was met with a piercing stare of glowing red eyes. It startled her, having not expected that at all, but was quickly distracted when she saw Ray’s face morphing back into her own in her reflection. Was this her quirk?

The questioning went on for a bit longer after that, thankfully without her somehow looking like Ray again. The Detective told her that they were done for now as he had enough to start searching for her brothers, but he would need to ask her more questions about how they ended up in that forest later. She had simply nodded, relieved she would have time to figure out a cover story. Ray was always better at those.

A few hours later, after another round of tests, the hospital had let her leave. Aizawa had informed her that she would be staying with him for protection until something could be sorted out, since he and his husband were pro-heroes. This of course, led to her asking what a pro-hero was and then Shouta had had to give a quick lessons on the history of pro-heroes and how the profession came about to combat the emergence of a quirked society.

They arrived at a decently sized apartment and Emma instantly fell in love with it. It looked homey and lived in. The mismatched couches, the overflowing bookshelves and little trinkets, including the abundance of pictures scattered about, mostly Aizawa with a grinning blonde that Emma assumed was the husband.

She had just finished taking her shoes off at the genkan when a fat calico cat came charging towards them, howling. It leapt upwards and landed gracefully on Aizawa’s shoulder, who didn’t even react beyond turning a fond look towards the yowling beast and scratching its chin. Emma decided she liked the way his eyes crinkled as he hid his small smile from her in his scarf.

“This is Jelly, she’s deaf which is why she’s loud. Sushi and Noodle are probably asleep in mine and Hizashi’s room, you can meet them later. Zashi is on patrol right now, so he won’t be back for a few hours yet.”

Emma nodded with a smile, reaching up towards the cat- Jelly. Jelly dug her claws into Aizawa’s shoulder and learnt towards her fingers, giving them a good sniff, before mrrping and butting her head against Emma’s hand in a demand for pats. Emma could only giggle in delight and comply.

Aizawa rolled his eyes and huffed. “Go take a seat on the couch, I’ll be right back.”

So she did, the couch was super comfy and she couldn’t help the childish urge to bounce a little on it. Her gaze caught the bookshelf and her happiness dimmed a bit. Her smile turned sad as she tried to imagine how long it would take Ray to read these books and which ones might be his new favorite.

“Emma? Are you ok?” Emma turned her head and saw Aizawa standing there. He’d changed out of his clothes and was now wearing a black shirt with long sleeves and bright pinks sweatpants, Jelly still proudly perched on his shoulder.

Emma smiled and opened her mouth to reply when-

“Who is that?”