Chapter Text
It wasn’t an outright lie, the twenty-four hour mark of their mission stated by their employer, but the missive itself was misleading to some degree. Not to Best Jeanist or his agency, but to the Commission who believed they would leave the city the same day the mission would start.
They did not, and the Commission had missed their chance to get a glimpse of which Yamaga clan member would come lead the team into the forbidden territory.
If anything, they should have known, or at the very least guessed, that if both Kaida and Kinrei had been prepared for this mission a month in advance, there was a chance they would spend a greater amount of time with the Yamaga than initially discussed.
“You don’t think they’ll come after us,” Kaida asked, looking out the window to the unending forest they had entered hours ago. It didn’t feel like they were any closer to their destination than this morning, and every road, every turn, every mile, looked exactly the same as the one before it.
Everything around them was excessively quiet; the forest, the car, and even the driver, who had been silent even before they entered Yamaga territory.
There were no birds flying in the sky or resting on the trees or chirping from a hidden place. There was no sound of any kind within the dark shadows of the trees, only an uncanny silence that came in through the crack of the window when Kaida had tried to get fresh air.
She could hardly see out from the deeply tinted windows of the car. Each window was lined with a thick black tint to block out any source of light, and she was sure the one tinted glass separating them from the driver was a one-way mirror although she couldn't prove it.
They, Kinrei and her, didn't know who was driving them or where they were driving them to, but they trusted their mentor. If Best Jeanist didn't directly tell them something was off, then everything was fine and going according to whatever they had told him. They would be *fine*.
There were no people, no buildings, no small towns to stop at, and no other road beside this one-way path they had been on since the strike of dawn. If she didn’t know any better, Kaida would have thought they hadn’t gone anywhere from the moment they set foot at the entrance of the forest.
“They aren’t authorized to enter,” Best Jeanist offered, his eyes still glued on his phone as it had been throughout the trip. “I mean that in the most literal sense; the forest is protected by some of the elite Yamaga, so I’ve been told, and will have anyone unauthorized in a loop until they gave up, exhausted themself, or perished.”
“Then are we in a loop,” Kinrei asked. He didn’t sound surprised at all and Kaida knew it was because he had been watching her throw a silent tantrum each time something outside the window felt like déjà vu. “For how long are they going to keep us this way, until they feel they can trust us?”
“Until they stop tailing us,” Best Jeanist offered, quickly typing away on his phone. “It doesn’t matter how low key we try to move, the Commission always finds a way to be one step ahead.”
“And the Yamaga are one step ahead of them,” Kaida offered, looking at the dark window separating them from the driver. No doubt whoever was driving was probably behind whatever this was. An illusion? “They’ve had us stuck for a while now. How’re we supposed to arrive at the manor on time?”
Best Jeanist typed something out, hit send, and put his phone away before he replied. “We haven’t been fully in the loop, but it has been constructed in a way that makes it look that way. It was a method to separate us from whoever was tailing us while making sure they didn’t see where we were going.”
“How?”
Both Kaida and Kinrei asked, knowing that illusion wasn't a power the Yamaga possessed. They had been trained to counter their Memory quirk, which meant their memories could be played with, erased and rewritten, but something like this shouldn't be possible.
Maybe it was a memory loop of the last scene they had witnessed before the quirk was activated, but they had been told the Yamaga needed to hold their gaze or touch them in some way for the quirk to work. Neither had happened.
“I’m not entirely sure,” their mentor answered with a smile they didn’t return. “Some things must be kept secret for safety reasons regardless of who you are or how close you are to the employer.”
They couldn’t ask him to elaborate because the driver decided to take a sharp right turn at that exact moment, sending both students flying forward and crashing into the space in front of the seats. As Best Jeanist lectured them about the importance of putting on their seatbelts while in a running vehicle, they pulled up to a traditional Japanese manor built both out of the top of the mountain and into it.
When the trio exited the car, their surroundings were no longer dead silent. There were birds flying above, some squawking loudly as they passed by while smaller song birds chirped away on the nearby trees. Small furry animals scurried around the trees and through the garden of multi-colored hydrangeas that surrounded the manor. Then came the loud sound of waves repeatedly crashing against rock and the salt of the sea filling the air.
“Big sis—Madam will see you inside.”
Kaida and Kinrei jumped at the sudden deep voice that broke through the sounds of nature, turning around to look at the speaker. They meant to say a quick thank you and make a run for the employer, but before they could utter a word, they froze.
They looked up, and up, and up, and took in the full sight of the very large bug-like creature that had been their driver. A giant of a *man* covered in brown fluff that had forcefully stuffed into a black suit.
“Thank you for bringing us,” Best Jeanist stepped in, having noticed the shock of his interns. “I’m sure the orders were to drop us off at the entrance and scramble the whereabouts of this manor?”
The creature—the Yamaga–nodded, turned away from them and visibly struggled to stuff his large wings into the car he had just come out of. Kinrei recovered first, pulling at Kaida when she tried her best to look through the tinted windows at the moth man who seemed so out of place within a luxury car. In a *suit* no less.
“Stop staring.”
“No one’s going to believe this!”
“This mission is a top secret one, you’re not supposed to tell anyone.” Kinrei responded, picking her off the floor and following Best Jeanist into the manor. “Did you forget the agency’s info said the Yamaga come from a line of Mothman quirk handlers?”
“I thought I would see more man than moth, but that was just a man-sized moth driving a car. It's odd.”
“Be sure to prepare yourself for even odder sights,” Best Jeanist smiled back at them, pushing the doors of the manor open without knocking. Without an invitation. “No one Yamaga looks like the other, be that a Yamaga by blood or through politics.”
But Yamaga, Aisa looked human.
She had a human looking face. Pale and uncanny, but human looking, down to the shape of her nose and almond shaped eyes (eye sockets) and short cropped hair. This Yamaga had fur, large and bulging insect eyes (partially hidden behind sunglasses), and wings that left powder when he walked.
“To be on the safe side,” Best Jeanist turned to them as the doors slammed shut behind them. “Don’t look straight into her eyes. Look down at her feet or, if you must look up, set your sights on the wall behind her. And if you absolutely must look her over, don’t let her catch you.”
Kaida felt like that last part was directed at her, but she couldn’t help it. She hadn’t seen people with a Mothman quirk and the only photo she had ever seen was of Aisa, who looked human in every way.
The Commision had refused to say if they had any photographs of other Yamaga–both Kaida and Kinrei agreed they were lying–and Best Jeanist assured them he had never seen any of the Yamaga.
He had to be lying also, why else would a Yamaga know how to contact him if he'd never met them? How would they know he would accept their request, and why would they trust him over other pro-heroes?
How the majority of the Yamaga looked was up for debate, a debate Kinrei refused to participate in when Kaida asked him what *he* thought they looked like.
“There’s another,” Kinrei whispered to her after a few minutes, nodding to a figure and the end of the hallway, standing before the door of what should be the main room of the manor. “Smaller. Our age?”
“You're judging their age based on their height,” Kaida whispered back, eyes never leaving the Yamaga guarding the door. “You're the same height as Best Jeanist and still a high school brat, yet no one ever believes that.”
Kinrei shrugged his shoulders. “It's their aura, isn't it? Also, look at the body language, see how they're trying to make themselves larger, to look intimidating. The driver *knew* his looks alone could cow anyone, even when hunched over.”
“This one is a bit skittish,” Kaida mused aloud, following Kinrei’s line of thought. The young Yamaga moved more than the driver did, their second set of arms crossing and uncrossing in front of them as the trio got closer. “New to the post.”
“If the pro-heroes were going to bring in teenagers, why wouldn't the Yamaga include one of their own,” Kinrei said in agreement to her assessment. “It's an olive branch of some kind.”
Whether Best Jeanist knew or not that this Yamaga would welcome them, they couldn't tell. He didn't act surprised to see them there but he also didn't have any sign of knowing who they were or why they were there.
He simply motioned for his students to stand back and moved forward to block them from the Yamaga’s line of sight, for the most part. The young Yamaga stood a head taller than their mentor, and that was without taking into account their antennas.
“I am Atsuyuki, your guide for the rest of your stay in the manor. Direct any questions you may have to me and no one else.”
“I am Atsuyuki, your guide for the rest of your stay in the manor. Any questions you may have, direct them to me and no one else.”
Their full attention was on Best Jeanist, speaking in a soft lull of a voice with no masculine or feminine inclination. Their left set of arms bent inward, the insect-like hand pressing to their chest.
Much like the driver, there was not an ounce of human-like features on them that Kaida or Kinrei could see. At least not from where they stood, and it wasn't like they could look directly into their face to check thoroughly.
What they could see was the creamy white colored wings rimmed with black edges and all four of their arms tipped in red at the forearms, if they could be called forearms.
Both were too busy searching for any human features that they jumped in surprise when Best Jeanist pulled back so suddenly, almost knocking them over in his haste to avoid the outstretched hand.
“Excuse me,” Atsuyuki pulled back, his voice sounding sheepish. “I was told to share the layout of the manor with the arriving hero team. I'm not used to working with none Yamaga.”
“No physical map exists or can exist of the manor, therefore you directly implant the memory,” Best Jeanist quickly understood the situation, but again, he hadn't been told this information and his student noticed.
He didn't move forward nor did he allow his students to raise their eyes from the ground, which he had motioned for them to do when he'd moved back.
“Is there no other alternative,” he asked, voice even.
Atsuyuki didn't sound offered when they spoke again, explaining the situation on hand as best they could.
“No other alternative could be found but me. To put you at ease, my version of the Yamaga quirk is simple memorization and nothing else. My specialty is memorizing maps and blueprints and implanting them in other recipients.”
“Should a Yamaga really be offering such information so willingly,” Best Jeanist asked with an easy smile. Did he mean to scold the Yamaga, to warn them to be careful with this type of information?
“Madam made it clear that I was to explain how my quirk works to put you at ease,” Atsuyuki responded, the mention of his Madam causing Best Jeanist to relax his stance. “It is a much faster and secure way to show you the layout of the manor with all its exits, entrances, and all possible places someone would hide.”
Instant knowledge, with only a slight chance of getting your mind scrambled or turned into puree. But it didn't matter, because the simple mention of their *Madam*, and Best Jeanist was stepping forward and presenting his forehead to Atsuyuki.
Kinrei followed his example, stepping forward as Best Jeanist moved to the side. He kept his gold eyes glued to the fuzzy neck of Atsuyuki as they lifted their arm and pressed one insect-like digit on his forehead.
He stepped to the side in a second, blinking rapidly as if trying to focus his eyes to a very bright room, although the lights in the manor were kept low.
Seeing as both Kinrei and her mentor were fine, and her mind was going to be messed with anyway, Kaida stepped forward and craned her head back to look into the Yamaga's face.
Atsuyuki flitched, pulling their hand back as one of her snakes inches forward to flip its tongue on the outstretched digit. She saw it then, that one human feature they had been looking for, and it was their eyes.
Earthy brown, human-like eyes rimmed with thick long lashes that were currently filled with fear.
“They don't bite,” Kaida assured with a grin, because they did indeed bite, but they didn't need to know that. “I can pull them back for you–ow!”
Kaida didn't get to marvel at how the blueprints of the manor had been implanted into her memories. As soon as she hand pulled back the curious snakes away from her forehead, Atsuyuki had jabbed her forehead so quick and hard she was sure they left a bruise.
Kinrei had been trying his best to keep in a laugh and failing miserably when she began to massage her red forehead that she'd kicked him on the chains to get him to stop.
Her eyes narrowed in a glare on Atsuyuki’s wings as they turned their back on the trio and walked forward into the main room.
Kinrei assured her that it was impossible for the eye markings on their wings to glare back, but Kaida was damn sure sure those markings had narrowed ever so slightly at the sound of her snakes hissing.