Chapter Text
Shota looked at his watch again, a frown starting to form between his eyebrows.
He was late. It was only five minutes past the agreed hour, but it was enough to make panic rise in Shota.
Karma was never late. In all the time he had known the vigilante, the kid had never been late to their weekly meeting in the roof. Not even once.
To say he was concerned was an understatement. Karma was a very skilled fighter, even Eraser had to admit it. He could deal with men two or even three times his age and size without so much as a blink and a few bruises. He was smart, terrifyingly so. He was able to discover anyone's fighting style with only watching them fight for a few minutes, and he was incredibly strong for someone that short.
But he was a still a child. Damn it, he was Shota's child.
He had only known the vigilante for two years, but he couldn't deny the affection he had developed for the kid, and he would be dammed if he didn't do everything in his power to protect him.
With every passing moment, Shota became more and more worried. He checked again the time. It was two past ten in the morning.
What if he's hurt? What if he's alone and scared? What if he needs you and you aren't there for him?
Eraser had been pacing the roof, but that thought made him stop and go totally still. Every minute he passed in that roof could be a minute where his kid needed him, he realized.
Maybe it was nothing. Maybe he was only being paranoid. After all, he knew Karma could take care of himself perfectly. He had seen him fight better that some heroes that had much more experience than him and had even fought with him, back to back. But still, if something bad actually had happened…
He was already moving even before he could finish the thought. Better safe than sorry. He jumped from roof to roof with his capture weapon, going slower than usual in favor of being able to hear or see anything that could reveal where the young vigilante was.
He was so lost in his mind, imagining all the ways in which this could go terribly wrong if he arrived even a minute too late, that he almost discarded the noise as unimportant and kept on his way. Luckily, he didn't. It came from a poorly illuminated alley, and it sounded like someone was talking on their phone.
Shota hooked his capture weapon on the nearest street lamp he found to get off the building's roof he had landed on and started heading towards the voice silently. He could have landed directly in the alley, of course, but that would have scared whoever was talking and he needed to hear the conversation to evaluate if this was worth his time.
"Yes, he's unconscious", said a female voice. She sounded like she was about to burst into tears but was holding them out of pure willpower.
Shota reached the entrance of the alley and saw a most likely unconscious man on the floor and a woman, who was clearly the one talking on the phone. She had her back to him and Shota had kept his steps as silent as possible, so she didn't notice his presence.
The woman was obviously a victim, so Shota directed his attention to the unconscious man. He had been tied up with what looked like green plastic strips, but Shota new they wouldn't brake even with a knife's help. The relief fo seeing any sing of Karma died as quickly as it came the moment he saw the knife covered in blood next to the man. He felt a wave of fear wash over him when a look to the woman confirmed what he already thought: The blood wasn't of either of them, it was Karma's.
The woman's voice took him out of his mind before he could start panicking. He hadn't even realized when he had stopped listening to her, but it couldn't have been much because she was still talking with what Shota guessed was someone at the police station.
"No, I'm fine. Karma stopped him before he could hurt me," The plastic strips had been enough confirmation for him, but at least now he could be totally sure.
Shota wasn't close enough to her to understand what the officer said in response, but it sounded like a question. The woman checked her watch before answering . "Uh, about fifty minutes ago. He told me to call the police and then disappeared."
They exchanged a few more words, and Shota left as silently as he had arrived, leaving it for the police to deal with the disaster. He had the information he had came for, so there was no reason to stick around when his problem child needed him.
There had been a concerning amount of blood on the floor, not enough to be mortal, but enough to make his stomach twist with worry. It wasn't like Karma hadn't been injured before, like the vigilante had told him recently in one of theirs chats in the roof after patrol, but this seemed like a more serious injure than the ones he was used to.
With that in mind, he continued looking for his problem child. From what he had heard of the phone call, Karma had left fifteen minutes ago. A normal person wouldn't be able to get very far from there with a stab wound, but his kid wasn't 'normal' exactly, so he could be bleeding out anywhere right now for what Shota knew.
Where are you, problem child?
It didn't take him very long to find him. He was in an alley only a few minutes away from where he had found the victim.
Karma was against one of the dirty walls of the alley, half seating half lying on the ground. He wasn't moving and his green hoodie was almost completely soaked in blood. There was a a puddle of blood surrounding him.
Karma had a hand pressed against his side. He had been trying to stop the bleeding, although without much success. His eyes were closed and Shota could imagine the grimace of pain the kid was making under the mask covering the lower part of his face.
For a moment the sight left Shota pinned where he stood, momentarily paralyzed.
He had arrived late. He had failed him. He was supposed to protect him, to convince him to quit putting himself in danger. He should have done something—
He should have captured him when he had the chance. He had intended to do it, but when the moment arrived he was already attached to the kid and he found himself incapable of handing him over to the police. Because he knew what would happen, he had been a hero for enough time to know they would just throw him into system, and he didn't want his kid to go through that.
So he had waited, trusting the child would eventually open up to him. It had been selfish, he knew it, but he didn't want to lose his problem child. And now he was paying the price: Karma was badly injured because of his lack of control over his feelings.
Focus, Shota. This is not the moment.
He crouched down beside the unconscious vigilante and put two fingers on his neck. There was a pulse. It was weak, but it was the only confirmation he needed. Shota carefully moved Karma's hand from the wound and made pressure with his own hand.
He hadn't realized he had been holding his breath until he suddenly recovered his ability to breathe and some of the tension he had accumulated banished.
He was alive. Barely, but his kid was alive.
The relief didn't last long. Shota knew how to detain the hemorrhage for enough time until an ambulance arrived, but he had made a promise and he intended to keep it. It had been one of those rare moments where the vigilante had allowed himself to be vulnerable in front of Shota. He had told him how important helping others was for him, how it was the only thing he could do correctly. When that happened, Shota had given up on trying to arrest him long ago, so he had told him he wouldn't do anything that resulted in Karma being caught.
So Karma wouldn't appreciate it if he woke up handcuffed to a hospital bed. It was as clear as day that the kid hadn't had any adult he could truly trust and rely on, and yet he had decided to risk everything and chose to trust Shota. He would feel deeply betrayed if he broke his promise. He would never forgive him if he did it, he was sure of that.
Shota could use his basic first aid knowledge, but it looked like the kid needed a blood transfusion and he didn't now if there was any organ damage. He needed professional medical attention, and urgently.
The smart thing to do was to ignore his promise and take him to the hospital, but his heart hurt when he thought in how betrayed Karma would feel if he did that. He really wanted to make things the right way, to let the kid make the first move. And he had been doing it the right way. He could sense how close he was to making the kid let Shota give him the help he needed. To ruin that now would mean to destroy almost irreparably the relationship he had past the last two years building.
However, he couldn't risk Karma dying because of his fear to lose him, even if that meant betraying him. Sure, Karma would most likely disappear from his life forever. He would have to go back to the boring and lonely patrols and he wouldn't have someone guarding his back in every fight. But at least his problem child would be safe, away from the danger.
Because it had been easy to forget how young Karma was and how dangerous what he was doing really was. Tonight's events were a reminder of how easily Karma could die, and Shota wouldn't be always there to help him if something like this happened again.
No child should have to risk his live to make the heroes' job, even if that child was an incredibly smart and good fighter like Karma. His first mistake had been to forget that, and that was the reason why the vigilante was on the verge of death right now.
As long as Karma kept being a vigilante, he wouldn't be safe. He would be in constant danger and Shota couldn't allow that. It was time to do what he had done a long time ago.
First, he would get him medical attention. Not in a hospital, he would appear in all the news in a few hours. Luckily, he knew someone that could heal a vigilante without causing a fuss. He would have to deal with certain nosy rat, but it was a fair prize to pay for his kid's life.
Having made his decision, Shota took out his phone and used his shoulder to keep it in his ear after pressing the right contact.
"Chiyo, I need you to do me a favor."