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“Once upon a time, there was a little girl with a red hood.”
It always started off this way. As the quirk-sedatives slid into her veins, dulling her reactions to ensure the proper triggering of her quirk. Wouldn’t want it going off too soon.
“Her family didn’t want her anymore, so her grandfather took her in.”
Every time, it was the same. The same story, the same narrative, no changes, no deviation. The same routine, the same repetition, the same, well, everything.
“Unfortunately for her, her grandfather was being impersonated by a nasty, carnivorous wolf.”
The sting of the second needle puncturing her skin made the girl flinch, as it always did. Even if she tried not to wince at the pinch of the entrance of the cold metal entering flesh, it wouldn’t do any good. The pain was just too sudden. The yellow-eyed man always shoved it in when she wasn’t looking, eliciting the same reaction even if it took him several minutes longer to get it. After all, he was never in any hurry, was he.
“The wolf tried to eat the little girl.”
Overhaul handed the third syringe to his attending practitioner and the man wiped it off with a wet towel before the vial containing the light blue fluid on the table to the left of the chair that Eri was strapped down in.
“He tried to gobble her up, like an adorable little snack.”
The sedatives were beginning to make the edges of Eri’s vision swim, to twist and curl inwards like those fun little spirals that the nice people used to give to her at fairs and festivals.
What were they called again?
Oh, yeah.
Pinwheels.
Spinning, spinning colors. Had she ever really been to a festival? Maybe she was just imagining things. She suddenly couldn't seem to picture anything outside of the compound, outside of these oppressive, white, suffocating walls.
“Luckily for the little girl, her grandfather, who had been eaten by the wolf, had written into his will that she would be turned over to his next of kin whenever he passed.”
Overhaul passed a strange new instrument to his attending. What was that? A knife? No, couldn’t be. Too many chambers. A gun?
“The huntsman knew that the grandfather wasn’t a real man. He knew he was sick inside, but he also knew that the little girl had the seed of the cure inside of her.”
Her eyes slid back lazily to the man, the doctor, standing at her right. His fingers twirled into her hair, softly touching the side of her face, as if he actually cared about the pain he was about to inflict. As if he was actually sorry. Maybe he was. Maybe she could make herself believe that this time. Until the fingers became harsh and rough, jerking her jaw upwards, exposing the soft and vulnerable flesh of her neck. Her drugged eyes couldn’t keep up with how fast he moved her head, and she was left starring at the ceiling for a half second too long.
“And then, one day, mysteriously, the wolf fell into a coma.”
Another sharp pinch, this one Eri knew was so much more painful without the drugs. It shot a single dose of adrenaline directly into one of her arteries. The second man was ready with the syringe of blue liquid, passing it into Overhaul’s open hand.
“An irreversible coma, one he would never come out of until the wolfish instincts inside of him had died, and he could understand that the world had no need for disgusting, sick creatures like him, and he became a real man again.”
The adrenaline hit her system right before the next shot was plunged into her neck, causing her muscles to involuntarily tense against Overhaul’s vice-like grip on her jaw. He held her still as he slowly pushed down the plunger, forcing the quirk-enhancer into her system with almost violent force.
“The little girl in the red hood was placed into the huntsman’s care.”
Setting down the syringe on the small metal table, the yellow-eyed man began to take a step back, waiting for the inevitable activation of her destructive quirk.
“To be kept safe and protected from the evils and sickness of the world.”
Eri wanted to scream at him to shut up, that she knew this story already. She wanted to cry, scream, kick, to beg him to tell her another one, to just please, please, just tell her another story. Anything other than this same tired narrative. Anything other than this, just. Please. Anything to make it go by faster.
“But only if she would give up a small piece of her body every other day.”
Light began to emit from her tiny body, and she felt the second man’s quirk stab into her side. It was the man with the arrows this time. Everything slowed down, and time began to feel even more like thick, dark molasses. Sometimes it was the man with the arrows who attended these sick doctor’s appointments, sometimes it was the tall man dressed in all black, sometimes it was the scary scrawny man who looked at her with that single scary wide eyeball peering out from under his yellow-blonde hair.
“It was a small price to pay for endless protection from the scary, evil, dark world where wolves could be creeping around any and every corner.”
The drugs did little to lessen the actual pain, her body screamed at her to reject the substances forced inside her veins, screamed at her that something was wrong, screamed at her that something was horrifically inside of her that was not supposed to be there. She knew that Overhaul could pump her full of whatever chemicals he wanted, even if they would and could kill somebody. He wouldn’t let her die, she was too valuable to him.
“The girl lived happily ever after, never leaving the side of the huntsman and his friends.”
She tried to speak, to tell him that this wasn’t happily ever after. That this might as well be hell, for all she cared or knew.
But.
She could barely move her eyes back and forth across the room.
And what did she know about the outside world, anyway? When Overhaul got his perfect world, the pain would stop. Maybe he might even let her go. If she could just endure it for a little while longer, everything would be okay.
“You don’t want to be tossed out into the scary, evil, dark world, do you, Eri?”
She shook her little head groggily and a latex-gloved hand gently caressed her cheek. If she could just endure it for a little while longer, everything would be okay. Her eyes slowly moved to focus in on Overhaul’s masked face, which was shockingly close. His piercing eyes felt like they were stabbing her through the retinas. All she could do was blink at him slowly, her muscles weren’t working properly.
“That’s a good girl.”
The man pulled back the glove on his right hand, exposing long, slender fingers, full of deadly power.
The little girl closed her eyes and braced herself for the ungloved hand that would take it’s pound of flesh.
“Just endure it for a little while longer, Eri. And I promise, I’ll show you a world worth saving.”