Chapter Text
Something wasn’t right.
Something definitely wasn’t right.
I walk through the front door of the building I decided I was going to call “home” when I was just ten years old. The words “I’m home” slowly die on my tongue as I take in my surroundings.
Coffee still warm. Papers thrown everywhere. Akari’s car isn’t here. Neither are her shoes. Or her slippers. No pictures are to be found. Cabinets and doors are thrown open. There’s a glass cup shattered on the floor.
“What the hell?”
I come inside, taking off my shoes and dropping my bag nearby.
No signs of a struggle. Just… panic.
“Is this another one of your training exercises? Because if it is, it’s creeping me out.” I call out to the empty house. Akari used to set up these training exercises to “train you to become an amazing pro-hero.” And that I “shouldn’t take them lightly.”
I wasn’t taking this lightly in the first place.
I go upstairs, hoping to find her at the top, scolding me for trying to “worm my way out of this one.” She wasn’t there. A feeling of panic in my stomach started to expand into my chest as I found her room in the same state. Disheveled, things thrown everywhere, things taken, and obviously in a panic.
Obviously in a panic.
Akari wasn’t one to panic. Hell, she was the most calm and strongheaded person I know. She wasn’t called “The Calmest Pro-Hero” for nothing. So for her to leave in such a rush was…concering.
I go back downstairs, stopping in my tracks. Around all the chaos and destruction, sat a white envelope, as if Akari took her time to write it and set it there. I walk up to it, my hands trembling slightly as I take the envelope and open it.
Dear Kagami,
I know you must be wondering where I have gotten to. I wrote this letter moments before, but I have gone off the radar for classified matters. I have given you a credit card. It won’t run out of money, please use it. It’s under your name. I cannot say much in this letter. I promise to you that I am ok. Remember your skills I have taught you. Never falter.
Plus Ultra,
Beast
P.S. Rettel siht dniheb ssredda tnemtrapa na decolcne evah I. Neddih eb dna ereht yats esaelp. Enoyna tsurt ton od. Ouy evol I.
My hands shake violently as I read the letter, my vision blurring as tears roll down my face. I read it over and over again, trying to burn the words, her handwriting, into my memory. She’s… gone. She left me. I turn the paper over to the back, seeing a hastily scrawled apartment address. I quickly take out my phone and search up the address. I immediately groan.
It’s fucking an hour away.
Almost immediately, thoughts begin to swirl in my head. Doubts, insecurities, worries, problems, all filled my head until I was close to hyperventilating.
I stopped.
I cleared my head.
I packed a bag of essentials, took the letter and the envelope with the credit card.
I took my bag and called a taxi.
No more weakness, no more grieving. Just strength.
fin.