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A minor project Yochi had to do in college was on their fatal flaw. It's a random memory, but he can remember crystal clear.
Yochi stood over the board, chewing on the black cap. It was a bad habit of his, and he can already hear his brother lecturing him on that. It'll harm your teeth. He sighs and pulls it out of his mouth, tapping it on the paper as he tries to think of something.
"Having trouble?" someone asks behind him. He turns in his seat to face the voice. Chiteki is running her hands through her sun-bleached hair. He sighs and loosely gestures towards the half-filled-out page. She gives a small chuckle "Yeah. This isn't an easy project" He looks over to where hers is filled out.
"Looks like it was easy for you," he says. She gives him a faint smile.
"Well, it's my 'Fatal Flaw, so I thought, hm, what Flaw is going to end up killing me-" she made a miniature explosion with her hands "-and it turned out to be cowardice, I'm not getting involved in scary shit, I do not like danger and I hoped to avoid it at all cost." she jabbed him in the nose "Maybe your flaw is plan old stupidity, never know" he groaned as she poked him with the eraser-if that rubber thing on the top of a pencil could be called that- top on the head several times.
At the end of the day, he had put down his flaw as 'always wanting to believe the best in people' because yes that was one of his flaws and it could presumably get him killed. Trusting someone and it turns out they're a serial killer or something. That and he refused to put down 'disturbed' from his teacher's suggestion. He was chronically ill, not a movie-made mentally ill madman!
The teacher had droned on about how acknowledging your flaws was the first step in becoming a better person. That being aware of your fatal flaw meant that you could learn when it was acting up and act clearly instead of foolishly.
Yochi should have put down stupidity, or maybe if he wanted to put it kinder than that, native or ignorant. Because now he's fading from consciousness, collapsed on the floor. As his brother stands over him, quietly finishing his food. He wants desperately to punch his brother. He should have done it a minute ago when he had the chance. For some god-forsaken reason, he had agreed to meet up again with his brother. Yes they had cut off contact with each other for good reasons, and by cut off contact. Yochi had moved across Japan when their father 'died' in the middle of the night. But they were still family, they should be able to trust each other. Yep, his flaw was definitely stupidity.
The world was getting darker despite how hard he was trying to fight the sedative. He had thought of a million ways this meeting could go wrong, it could be awkward, they could have diffracting opinions on their actions after the incident, they could get into a fight, they could just not work it all out. Having his soda poisoned with a sedative?, not on his list. His brother was certainly saying something, something probably haughtily or mocking. Or maybe he was sugar-coating his words, not wanting to sound 'cruel' to his 'poor, little brother'. The last thing he felt was his brother's hand on the side of his face.
By the time he finally opened his eyes, he realized there wasn't a point in opening them in the first place. It was pitch-black in room, place, area? he was in. He pressed his hands against the ground, it was hard and cold, the texture was probably something like concrete. That wasn't good news if he was in a concrete room. He pushed himself up, going slow. The last thing he needed was his illness to act up in a kidnapping-kidnapped? situation. Maybe if Language Arts class wasn't right before Lunch he would know.
His senses are as good as nothing. He can't hear anything except for the small sound of his feet against the ground. The air is stale, like a room locked for too long, a faint smell of that fake lemon scent in cleaning solutions lingers in the air. He takes a few steps around until he finds a wall. He had been afraid to run into something, but apparently, there was nothing in the room. The wall is the same cold stone as the ground. He walks along the walls until his hand touches something. Some kind of metal, much colder to the touch than the stone. Unfortunately there wasn't a door handle, well not on his side of the door.
So rehash all of that, he's in a completely concrete room, he can't see, and the only door is locked or only able to be opened from the other side. Wonderful, the world truly does hate him in every way. Did he tell anyone where he was, would anyone know if he was gone? He had told Chiteki he was meeting with his brother, but she didn't know him well outside of school. To top it off, he was often missing from school, they would just assume he was in the hospital for a long time and mark him as excused. The universe is using his suffering as personal entertainment.
Being kidnapped is often described as an utterly terrifying experience, where one is so gripped with terror they can hardly move. Maybe he should stop reading Comic books and basing real-life on them. Then again in a world of meta-abilities, comic books aren't that far off.
Yochi wonders if his kidnapping experience is different because it's his brother that kidnapped him. Instead of an evil organization looking for ransom, or maybe an opening introduction cut scene of them being cruel to establish how evil they are. Currently, he's bored and in pain. However, he is not in pain because of torture or anything, nope just his illness deciding that it didn't like the kidnapping situation and acting up. There's nothing really to do in a completely concrete room with no light or even future in it. Nope just him. Just him by himself for most of the day, there's a small moment or so when he's given food, but light doesn't come through the slot in the door.
He fought at first, fought against the sedative until his body collapsed. Fought against the guards until they made the slot in the door. Fought at the door, punching it until his hands were red and raw. As if he could something against it. He had even fought his brother a few times, which only resulted in him being thrown across the room until he couldn't move.
Then he stopped, he didn't know why he stopped, stopped everything, but it slowly became too much effort to do anything. He didn't get anywhere and all he got in return was failure and pain. He laid in the cell, loosely against the floor, there wasn't exactly a bed for sleeping. The guards had noticed he stopped eating, but they didn't interfere until it got dangerous. He had been force-fed a few times, held down as an IV hooked up to him took care of him better than he did himself. It's just him in the cell, nobody else, nothing else.
His senses are overly sensitive, but they don't pick up on anything. The room is as dark as ever. No matter how wide he opens his eyes, he can't see anything. The floor and walls are the same cold concrete as day one, rough to the touch and slightly bumpy in places. There's no air filtration in the room, the lemon scent from the first day had long since faded though. There's no sound except his own slightly uneven breathing. He's explored the entire room, over and over again. Looking, searching for something. But he found nothing, just useless information he's memorized. The room is about nine steps down the sidewalls, and about seven steps along the side of the door and back. The door is taller than him, but he can touch the top if he reaches out his arm. There is no handle, latch, or anything else on the door that could let him open it. It's completely sealed shut, and he has no idea what security is on the other side.
The door opens, his brother leans against the door frame. The light is blaring, and his eyes tear up slightly at it.
"I know, I know, I'm not here with a present," his brother says and Yochi slowly looks up at him, he doesn't even move his head nowadays, there's no reason."I was hoping to get your present before your birthday but I'm still searching." Yochi barely reacts but he does. It's his birthday, he's been here for almost an entire year. He almost wants to sob at that. He knows nobody was going to save him, but a small part was hoping somebody did. That a hero from the comic books he loved so much would appear and rescue him. "But I did find a better present than some old comic or something for you" Yochi half-rolls as his brother pretends to pout. "Aren't you going to ask what I got you?"
His brother sighs. "I finally found a meta-ability that even your frail body can handle"
Yochi's eyes widen at that, he knows instantly what his brother is plotting. He places his hands against the ground and pushes himself into a sitting position, it's the best his body will move. His limbs don't want to move but he forces them anyways.
As soon as he's up his brother places a hand onto his face.
Yochi began to scream.
It felt like everything was on fire yet he was ice cold. The grip on his face hurts, and his brother's nails are digging into his skull. All of his senses are on overdrive and he can suddenly sense everything. To the chuckle, his brother is letting out under his breath to his own heavy breaths to the heartbeats, his brother's steady one and his racing one. The red eyes are slightly crescent with glee- happiness, joy. His own hands pushes against his brothers, trying to shove him off. He's not nearly strong enough to do anything, but he tries anyways.
He can feel the meta ability invade his body. He knows when it's transferred over when his body rejects it. When he feels like throwing up and he is suddenly glad that he hadn't eaten anything lately. When he can feel it coursing under his skin like bugs, worming their way through his muscles. Eating their way through him until their room for them to travel freely. An itching sensation spread across his body and he wants to claw at his skin so badly. To scratch out the bugs under his skin and get rid of the itch. To peel them out until they have to leave him.
He's gasping for air as his brother speaks again. In that cold, haltingly tone that he knows he has won, that there is only defeat waiting for his opponent, like a spider walking over its trapped prey.
"I gave you a little quirk I grabbed from one of those government men, it's a stockpile, able to stock up power. It's weak now, but I'm sure that it will gather in strength."
Yochi crumbles at his feet, he feels so weak at the moment. Useless and unable to stand, he's shivering and yet sweating at the same time. His body was unable to decide on its temperature.
The door closes again, leaving him in the dark, and bitterly Yochi wishes it'll never open again.
Nejire looked over the blueprints yet again. The room was dimly light by an overhead light. It was evidently dying, judging on the yellow-ish lighting he was getting. The extended extra hours into the night weren't helping its life expectation for sure. The desk was a cheap faux wooden one, something that he got simply because it was there.
He already knew what their plan of attack would be. Had already meticulously plotted out each move, each team, every movement. Red team was the hard front team, mostly heavy hitters, who could do large amounts of damage in a short amount of time. Their path was already marked out with a red marker. Several backup paths were outlined in a various shade of red. If the first hallway was blocked off at the straight path, there would be a second path lined out. Team Blue, Defense, mostly staying in one place but they had retreating options. Team Green, his team.
He sighed. Staying up all night would impair his ability to perform on the raid he was so anxious about. Cause and Effect.
Sekigai drove a hard bargain for information at times, it was always a price unreasonably high, but there hadn't been anyone else with the kind of information he needed. All for One, as he started to call himself, had been rising in power for about a year or so now. Gathering forces, taking over the criminal underworld, everyone was either indebted to him or afraid of him. He was becoming a literal god.
Striking his main base, the one where all of his research was, where all of his forces were, would be a devastating blow to him. It could take years to recover, something he wanted to take advantage of as fast as he could after the raid. They would only get one chance, and he refused to have anything go wrong. Naturally, everything would go wrong in every way, but it felt nice to be prepared for almost everything. Anything he could think of he tried to make a backup plan for. More guards? The teams crossed each other at every second hallway, they can back each other up. Stronger security? Team Blue had meta-abilities fit for every kind of security he could think of.
There were dark circles under his eyes, he hadn't slept in for who knows how long. He knew at least he had eaten dinner, Sanju had basically forced the food down his throat to make sure he didn't skip meals.
"The blueprints to All for One's main base," Sekigai says. Placing down the papers on the table and spreading them out. He leaned forward to look at them, scanning over the information. Sekigai is wearing a loose button-up and black pants, her legs crossed over each other.
He let out a small whistle, "How'd you even get these." He reached over and picked up the papers, filing through them. Sekigai just leaned back in his chair and smiled.
"I had some help" she waved her hand loosely."A small warning" Her tone turned serious for a moment, switching from the playful, aloof Sekigai he was previously talking to.
He tilted his head back up to her as she leaned forwards, practically touching them together. "All for One isn't the only Shigaraki" His eyes widen at her words, mouth going agap. A second Shigaraki? The world was doomed. "He apparently has a little brother he cherishes like their the sun itself."
"Anything else on them?" he hisses out a little.
Sekigai relaxes a little, moved back into her lazed position on the couch, and shakes her head. "No, nobody knows anything else, barely anyone has even seen their face."
She seizes a pencil from the table and taps one of the blueprints, directing his eyes to the spot. "I know two things about him though, his name is Yochi, and he stays in this compound, on the very bottom floor."
He couldn't get her warning out of her head. All for One was supposed to be out of the country on the date they were coming, but Yochi? He had no idea. He could be waiting for them. He never left the compound, and their best bet was to attempt to avoid him somehow.
He hears the door opening and curses under his breath. Sanju consistently made a few rounds at night, no matter what, and often caught him working late into the night. He trusted the man with his life. He had made Sanju his second in command for a reason, but he didn't want the other man to see him practically falling apart like this.
"You okay?" Sanju turned on the overhead light, illuminating the room in a harshly bright white light that has him looking down at the ground as his eyes adjust.
"Just... Worried," he admits, he wouldn't to anyone else, but he knows Sanju will just pester him until he caves in.
Sanju sighs and walks over to him, wrapping his arms around Nejire's waist. He sinks into the warmth. Sanju is slightly taller than him so he has to lean down to do it, but he doesn't seem to mind. He normally hates touch, but he just barely stands the light and a broad touch of Sanju hugging him.
"Just get some rest, no use worrying about what will happen, we just have to do our best alright?" Sanju says. Nejire sighs.
"Yeah, yeah, same to you, ponytail." Sanju scoffed at that as if he was wounded.
"Don't mock my ponytail. It looks good" he says, dramatically turning away like he was betrayed.
Nejire rolled his eyes "said the blind man," he retorts.
Sanju laughs lightly at that, pulling off of him he places his hands back into his pockets. "I am serious though, get some rest, otherwise you're going to get yourself killed on the mission,"
Nejire sighs and caves in, rolling up the blueprints and placing them aside. "Whatever, what time is it anyway?"
"It's a little before midnight, so try to catch some rest," Sanju says,
"I will," he promises.
They stand in front of a vault door.
"We should get going already, we'll fall behind," Sanju warns beside him. He sighs, looking at the door again.
"You three, break off of us and continue the path, me and Sanju will take care of this." he points to the three others on his and jerks his thumbs towards the hallway.
A boy with ocean hair- literally opens his mouth to protest "Leader, should we split-"
Nejire cuts him off with a glare "I and Sanju can handle anything, go before you end up cutting our time," he says.
He nods and off the three are dashing down the hall. Boots hitting against the ground. They'll deal with whatever is in the vault and catch up to them.
Nejire loads his gauntlet, allowing it power up as Sanju begins to twist the handle, lefty loosely, righty tighty. Sanju unlocks it as there's a hiss of air from the door, Sanju turns to him, not yet opening the door. "You ready?"
He takes a deep breath and nods to Sanju. The man gives him a thumbs-up as he raises his leg. The door slams open as Sanju kicks it, moving back and forth.
He stares inside the vault, only to make eye contact with someone inside.
Green eyes
Yochi Shigaraki, he doesn't comprehend how he's sure utterly sure that the person inside is All For One's mysterious brother, but he knows. Yochi bears an uncanny resemblance to his brother yet looks nothing alike. The other side of the coin, the same thing but nothing alike.
Green eyes stare at him, in wonder and fear. He's seen the shaking iris into many of his enemies to not recognize the fear in them. His face is slightly hollowed, a starved appearance. He has long snow-white hair, which falls a little past his shoulders. It's to same perfect white as his brother and yet looks so different. He's wearing a loose t-shirt and jeans, not even a pair of shoes on. It's odd, his brother has never been seen outside of a perfectly polished suit, yet Yochi looks like he throws on the first thing he saw on.
He has kinder green eyes, so different from his brothers much crueler red eyes. There's a determination in them though, like he's ready to fight both him and Sanju if he must. He's not ignoring his fear, he's welcoming it and defying it, using it as a tool.
Nejire should shoot, he should shoot right now and catch up with the other part of his team. This man is a Shigaraki brother. He already knows what All for One is capable of, he doesn't need a second one about.
A lock only on the outside of a door, completely unopenable from the inside. Green eyes squinting at first from the light, like they were uncustomed to the bright lights.
He lowers his gauntlet, letting it power down but not off. Just in case. There's no way for Yochi to have locked the door by himself. A brief thought of someone locking the door for him crossed his mind, it didn't make sense. The lock should be on the inside, and even so, Yochi wouldn't have been so uncustomed to the light.
Nejire takes a step forward, ignoring whatever Sanju just said.
"Yochi Shigaraki," he says, casually, he's sure this is the man Sekigai warned him about, but he could be wrong- wants to be wrong.
"Banme Nejire," Yochi says, his voice is weak and horse. Nejire widens his eyes a little in shock, Yochi somehow knows his entire name and he's not sure how.
"tch, how do you know that? he says, Sanju is giving him a wide glare, telling him that they should be going, yet his feet refuse to move.
"The gauntlets...There aren't many meta-abilities users out there, even less who have support items for said abilities, my brother whines about you sometimes," Yochi says carefully.
There's an uncomfortable pause where none of them can open their mouths, shifting subtly in the silence.
"You came here to kill me, didn't you?" Yochi says suddenly. Nejire freezes, and he can't answer the target- the prisoner. Yochi looks solemnly at the ground, he hasn't stood up this entire time. "It makes sense. I'm the one thing he cares about" Yochi tries to speak levelly, emotionlessly, but there's a hatred in his voice though, he hates being the object of affection.
"Do you really wanna die for him?" he says harshly, he steps forward again "You that ready to die for a man who does this-" he gestures towards the door, to remind Yochi but also himself that it's there "to you?"
Yochi stares at him for a moment before slowly shaking his head. Nejire gives a wide smile, stepping forward to be right in front of Yochi.
"Then let's get going," he says, his voice is harsh, but Yochi doesn't seem to mind. He's made people more timed, more determined, more bitter, angrier into follows and fighters. He reaches out his hand to Yochi.
The white-haired man looks up at him, green eyes he knows he'll never forget staring at him with a newfound determination, with a new hope. "Thank you"
Yochi grabs his hand, pulling on it to bring himself up "My hero."
Sanju twists his head to look at the mirror, with his body facing the other way he attempts to get a good look at his back. He can feel the gashes in his back, but he can't see them. Nejire had fallen asleep a little under an hour ago after their rescue of Shigaraki, god that felt weird to say out loud. He wasn't going to wake Nejire up, he knew how little that man had been sleeping lately.
He sighs when he hears something behind him.
"You alright?" A voice behind him speaks. He turns toward the voice, tearing his eyes away from the mirror. Yochi is leaning against the door. He looks completely different than when Sanju had seen him less than a few hours ago. Wearing completely new clothes, a loose blue shirt, and a grey hoodie over it. Dark pants and deep red shoes. His hair is still loose, and still as bad as before, tangled and messy, but Yochi doesn't seem to notice or care.
"Got some minor wounds on my back and I can't figure out where to bandage them" he points with his thumb at his back. If Nejire says he could trust the younger Shigaraki, he'll try.
"I can help if you would like" Yochi rubs the back of his neck.
He looks at Yochi, surprised he would offer something like that. The only one who bandages him was Nejire, but well, he was asleep, and he couldn't do it himself. "Yeah sure, I've already got everything out," he says absent-mindedly.
Yochi gives him a bright smile and walks over to him. He turns around, pulling off his shirt as Yochi grabs the medical supplies. He stares at Yochi's reflection in the mirror as he begins to treat the injuries.
"Where did you get all of these?" he asks.
"The scars or just the current injures?" he retorts coyly.
"The current injures" Yochi gives him a small laugh.
Sanju thinks about for a moment, trying to pull up all of them.
"The ice-spike user is where the stab-like wounds are from, the wound on my lower thigh is an actual stab wound," he says. Yochi touches a spot on his back, and he hisses. "I think that a burn," he admits."But that should be everything I think" he pauses for a moment as Yochi grabs the burn cream."I try not to get injured, it's not a helpful, thoughtful, or a fun experience."Yochi lets out an actual laugh at that, throwing his head back for a moment.
They sit in silence for a bit after that. The only sound being the small groans or hisses Sanju lets out as Yochi treats him.
Sanju stares at Yochi's reflection in the mirror. He has beautiful green eyes filled with kindness as he carefully looks over each of his wounds. His touches are soft, and each time Sanju lets out a groan or hiss of pain, Yochi mummers a small apology.
Yochi taps his arms and leans to the side, so he can be seen better in the mirror. Sanju's face flushes as he quickly looks at the ground, he hadn't realized his staring was so obvious. "Can you lift your arms real quirk?" he asks. Sanju hurries to do from the embarrassment and almost wacks Yochi in the nose. Yochi just gives a silent laugh before he steps forward again. He picks up the bandages and begins to wrap his back. Another silence passes before Yochi speaks again. "Sorry... for all of this"
Sanju looks at him with a confused expression. "Oh? So you stabbed me all these times and tried to set me on fire? Should have known better than to trust you after all" he says.
Yochi gives him a look in the mirror, rolling his eyes as Sanju smirks.
"You know what I mean...I held both of you back, you wouldn't have even run into the ice user if you didn't have to carry me along."Yochi finished bandaging him, clipping the bandages together to prevent them from falling. Sanju turns around to face him. He doesn't know why, but he can't stand the guilty expression Yochi has on his face right now.
"Don't blame yourself, I would have gotten injured at some point, you didn't do this and you didn't cause it, so don't say it was your fault," he says.
Yochi looks up at him, smiling a little "Yeah, thanks for that" he half-mummers.
"Don't worry about it, next time you need a super awesome pep talk though, go to Nejire, he's weirdly good at them."
Yochi bursts out into laughter as Sanju watches him. His smile creeps onto his face, and he finds himself laughing. It wasn't even a good joke, but he feels like laughing because Yochi is. His feelings of positivity seem to be almost contagious, and he can't stop smiling when next to Yochi.