Chapter Text
It was finally the day where everything needed for the plan had been made, even though it was 2 weeks later, Rui still tried his best to get it done as fast as possible even while maintaining quality.
Kanade had tested everything out, made sure she knew how to use them, and finally, she memorized the plan and layout of MMJHH.
“Okay, I have all the stuff, 2 hours till midnight, yet it’s a 20-minute walk, so I should probably leave at 11:30 to get there early.” Kanade mumbled to herself in her room. Earlier, Mizuki had left food by the door, stating that she needed her energy…
She has yet to touch the food in the slightest, even after 3 and a half hours.
Why was she doing this? Out of nervousness, fear of something going wrong, and just self-hatred in general.
1 and a half hours till midnight. Kanade knows she should try to eat something, but just looking at the food made her want to throw up. She rechecked her tools, got changed, and fell back in bed, her stomach grumbling, head reeling, and staring off into nothingness.
1 hour till midnight, she finally gets up, walks to her door, and slowly creaks it open, hoping nobody else is up, she takes the plate of food inside her room. Once it was set on the table, she grabbed a pair of chopsticks and poked at the miso soup and beef rice. Kanade didn’t want to disappoint Mizuki and make her sad, so she made herself slowly eat it, one mouthful at a time.
No matter how much it made her want to throw up, she resisted, instead, she kept on eating, all until she physically couldn’t eat anymore and ran to the bathroom.
“That was disgusting.” Kanade commented, wiping her mouth. Finally heading back to her room, she checked the time and sighed.
30 minutes till midnight, she rechecks her bag, gets ready to go, and then stares at the wall for a minute before snapping out of it.
“C’mon, we have to go and save Tsukasa.” She mutters to herself, looking for the directions to MMJHH that Emu wrote down for her.
Finally finding them crunched up in her pocket, she finally left her room and headed to the secret entrance. Creaking the door open, Kanade gets hit by a wave of cold, fresh air.
She read off the paper of directions for 25ish minutes, taking 1 or 2 wrong turns on the way before quickly realizing and heading the right way. She realized she should have left earlier with her bad stamina. Kanade had counted, she used her secondary power 20 times to heal herself.
“This is the MMJHH? It looks… average, maybe just a little fancy, but it just seems like a friend’s hangout spot.” Kanade murmured, taking in the little details. It was 2 minutes away from midnight and she was hiding in a bush, waiting for the moment the guards left their shift to sneak in.
“5… 4… 3… 2… 1…” She slowly counted down in her head, watching as the first guard left and the others followed. She had been looking for an entrance and found an open window that would let her close to the basement.
Quietly running up to it, she pushed the window open and took a peek, admiring the structure. “What am I doing, this is not the right time…”
Figuring that her frail body could fit through the window, she crept it open a bit more and quietly jumped inside. Looking around once again, she found the path she needed to take to the basement, she really could only hope that no heroes were there.
The path was a thin and narrow staircase, leading down to a dark, cozy basement library. “Where’s that book I need.” Kanade quietly wondered to herself. She looked to her left, then her right, then back at her left, in front of her, her right again, and saw it! A book titled ‘Ancient Superheroes’ stood in front of her as she reached up to pull the book out.
Once she did, an empty wall opened, revealing rows and rows of dark, grim cells. Kanade took a peek around the corner, seeing no one so far. She headed down the right, looking in every cell for a star-shaped guy.
“There!” She whisper-yelled, seeing a half-awake Tsukasa, tied up, head lolling to the side. Pulling out the magic lock picker, she had a dreading realization.
“I forgot to use the mana trail nuller…”
They’d be able to read her mana trail now! Not good, not good! She panicked, knowing that it wouldn’t be able to cover mana trails already made. ”Screw it, we’ll go with it.” She said dejectedly as she started picking the lock, being careful not to leave any trace.
The door would’ve almost slammed open, if it weren’t for Kanade’s magic reacting suddenly and cushioning the door.
“Tsukasa, wake up, I’m getting you out of here!” She hissed, waking the poor dude up, somewhat fully.
“Huh? Oh, Kanade, you’re here.” Tsukasa murmured watching as Kanade approached the cuffs, undoing them.
“Yep, now let’s go.” Kanade rushed.
“Coming,” Tsukasa followed, slowly recovering his energy.
“Just a few more steps, then we’re out.” Kanade thought to herself. Yet just as she let her guard down, a purple-haired hero jumps down from the second floor, blocking the way to the exit.
“Stop. Why are you taking a prisoner out of its cell?” The hero Kanade recognized as Yuki, or Mafuyu after Mizuki stalked her identity, asked, her voice monotone, empty, and emotionless.
“Ordered check-up.” Kanade made up on the spot.
The hero narrowed her eyes, before suddenly drawing her weapon, a bow, making Kanade flinch back and grab her flute, pushing Tsukasa away while he was defenseless.
“Woah! Calm down!” Kanade tried, an arrow narrowly avoiding grazing her skin.
When Mafuyu showed no signs of stopping, she got her flute and started to play a soothing song, making Mafuyu suddenly stop, her eyes gaining a fuzzy look in them.
Taking the opportunity, Kanade took her flute and hit Mafuyu over the head, knocking her out, “Somebody’s gonna wake up real surprised tomorrow morning.” She murmured, leaving the place with Tsukasa trailing behind.
“Thanks for saving me,” Tsukasa murmured quietly to Kanade. He flinched when Rui touched a particular cut on his face with rubbing alcohol.
“Oh, sorry, was I too rough?” Rui asked, looking down at his lap.
“It’s fine,” Tsukasa replied, putting a comforting hand on Rui’s shoulder.
“Are you okay? What happened? How did you get caught? Anywhere else hurt?” Kanade started, grabbing another roll of bandages.
“I’m fine, my leg is hurting a little, I think someone stepped on it. Everything’s a little fuzzy, but I was left mostly alone after my first interrogation. And… I don’t want to talk about it.” Tsukasa answered, hesitating.
“Don’t worry about it, here, let me see your leg,” Kanade assured, holding the roll of bandages out.
“Okay…” Tsukasa muttered reluctantly, slowly bringing his leg out and into Kanade’s lap. As she wrapped his leg, it reminded him of the older, simpler days, when it was just Kanade, him, An, Kohane, and Mizuki, where it was much peaceful, when their bounties weren’t billions of yen, when being caught wouldn’t mean being executed.
But, of course, after all that they had done in the name of justice for children with ‘villainous’ powers, they became more infamous. Heroes called them evil, called them devils, all for trying to prevent 6-year-olds from being sent to hell that is Angels Academy. People in the streets denounced them, higher bounties were placed on their heads, hell, Kanade even witnessed one of her men be executed after getting caught.
“Kanade… do you feel like our goal has changed from the beginning? That we aren’t fighting for our original goal anymore?” Tsukasa asked, reflecting on the behaviours and actions from recent missions.
“I don’t believe so, why?” She replied, and she really believed it, nobody told her of the suffering of all the innocent people who got in their way. But maybe it was just getting blurry for her, or maybe, just maybe, her personal goal of getting revenge on the heroes who killed harmed her dad mixed in with the collective goal of Ai no Hitori.
“Well, it just feels like missions have been more ruthless and unrelating to our original goals.” Tsukasa thought long and hard about this, and he knew he was right, but how would he get it through Kanade’s stubborn head? How could he help her, stop her from becoming the very people she detested?
“...”
Kanade finally finished wrapping Tsukasa’s leg, completely silent after his comment, not even Rui dared to interrupt the silence. He saw the look on Kanade’s face, the ruthless one, if you dared interrupt her thinking, you would face her wrath. Of course, this was not often.
“Rui, Tsukasa, you both are dismissed. Rui, make sure he rests up and carry him if need be.” Kanade finally said, still a bit pissed.
“
Yes, K,” The two replied in unison, leaving the room.
“Am I being too harsh on them?” Kanade silently muttered to herself while pacing. After patching Tsukasa up, she went back to her room and considered what Tsukasa said. She didn’t think her goal had changed in the past few years, but maybe it was better to get an outside perspective on this. Or, at least someone who wouldn’t automatically take her side.
So, of course, she went to Mizuki.
“K, it’s– 3 am, why are you still up? You should be resting, especially after that mission.” Mizuki asked, exasperated.
You see, at 3 in the morning, Mizuki was woken up by a knock at her door. She thought it was Rui or An since they liked to come bother her, even in the most unbearable hours. But no, she nearly had a heart attack when she opened the door and saw a short, pale girl with long blueish-white hair.
It was 3 am for gods sake, Mizuki thought it was a ghost from her past coming to haunt her. It took her 20 seconds(timed by Kanade) but it felt like 20 minutes to Mizuki.
“I needed your opinion on something,” Kanade replied ominously and way too fast in Mizuki’s eyes.
“Now? At this time? Why couldn’t you wait till morning?” Mizuki found herself questioning every single thing about Kanade, again.
“Well, it was urgent and I would’ve forgotten by then.” Kanade saw nothing wrong with her reasoning and ended up just tilting her head at Mizuki, like a cute puppy who saw something new.
“Ah, just come in,” Mizuki said after a moment of processing. She stepped away from the door to let Kanade in, revealing her pink, cozy, and fluffy room. There was a mannequin on one side, next to her bed was her sewing and ribbon station to practice her powers.
Kanade looked on in blank fascination as she counted the amount of plushies on Mizuki’s bed, not even realizing she was quietly muttering. “22… 23… 24… 25– Mizuki, how many plushies do you have?”
“Uh, you don’t wanna know,” Mizuki replied sheepishly. “What did you need my opinion on?”
“Oh!” Kanade seemed to snap out of her trance and quickly reorganized herself. “Right, um, I wanted to ask you… do you think our goals as Ai no Hitori have changed over the years? You’re one of the originals after all and I think you can give an unbiased opinion.”
“This was the question? I– I’m gonna be honest with you here, maybe, I’ve noticed some shifts over time, but, nothing major, so I don’t think it’s changed that much.” Mizuki was surprised that that was the question, it was not what she had in mind. She was thinking, maybe there was an injury or something had gone wrong.
“Phew, thanks Mizuki, I knew I could count on you.” Kanade sighed out of relief. “Can I stay here tonight? I don’t think I can sleep alone.”
“Of course! You can borrow my pajamas.” Mizuki said with a content smile. “The ones you used last time are in the back of the closet.”
Kanade was silent as she dug into Mizuki’s closet and pulled out a cute, blue nightgown. There was a little area in the corner with had a fancy pink curtain that gave off big Mizuki vibes, after all, every member decorated their own rooms. Kanade changed in that room and came out to find Mizuki getting ready for bed and kissing all her stuffies good night while wearing a cute sleepmask with the text “princess” on it.
If Kanade stared in longing at this, nobody would be able to prove it.
Finally, after pretending she saw nothing, Kanade got Mizuki’s attention, they snuggled next to each other, surrounded by Mizuki’s soft pillows and blankets, and fell asleep.