Eraserhead and Scribe IV

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Eraser arrived soon enough so Shigaraki was fairly certain he was alone. He located the phone and looked around. "I'm alone, Shigaraki. Show yourself."

Shigaraki swung down from the roof, landing lightly enough behind Eraser so the other man spun around in surprise. He recovered quickly. "Where is she? Tell me or I swear to God I'll kill you."

Shigaraki shook his head reprovingly. "You agreed no quirks."

"I told you I don't need to erase you to kill you." Eraser moved to the side slightly, one hand on his scarf.

"Don't get your scarf in a wad yet. She's safe." That might be a slight exaggeration...

"So you have her?" Eraser stopped dead in his tracks, a stunned look on his face. "You took her?"

"I didn't take her. She came to me." It was technically true. "Her head's messed up. She thinks we're...together."

Eraser turned pale. "You sonofa—"

"No need for name calling. I'm here, aren't I?"

"If you hurt her in any way—"

"No need for threats, either. I've never hurt Scribe. She's fine. Had quite a pleasant day, as a matter of fact. A long nap, a good meal, new clothes. Made some new friends, too. Spinner and Toga are quite taken with the new and improved Scribe." Shigaraki knew he was baiting Eraser. How much could the man take? Probably better not to find out. "But she keeps trying to remember. I think it'll tear her apart if we don't help her."

"Then you'll give her back?" Hope flared in Eraser's eyes.

"Of course I will. But right now is not the time. We need to figure out how this happened. And how to safely undo it." Shigaraki fixed the other man with a glare. "You've got work to do. And it starts here."

"Here." Eraser looked around, the frown on his features darkening. "This is where we cleared out the gang. Why here?"

"Because this is where Spinner found her. Unconscious. With a very large lump on the back of her head."

Eraser gave him a sharp look. "You said she came to you."

"Slight exaggeration. But once she was with me, she seemed to have no interest in leaving." Shigaraki shrugged.

Eraser closed his eyes for a second. "I swear to God if you—"

"Relax. I'm not interested in...in that." Not exactly. "I've played along because she's...delicate." Shigaraki made a face. "That isn't the right word, but you get what I mean. Every time I press her to figure out what happened, she passes out. And it's not like...not like just passing out, either. Almost like a seizure. So I've just been encouraging her to sleep. A lot. But she's fine, I swear. I won't hurt her." He paused and raised his gaze to meet the other man's. "In any way."

Eraser's brow crinkled, but then he nodded. "Okay. I'll trust you then. If she needs to stay where she is for now, so be it. I don't like it, but I don't think you'll hurt her." He sounded almost grudging in his admission.

"Good. Then let's move on. The sooner we figure this out, the sooner we can figure out how to help her. And she can come back to her real life." Shigaraki looked at the phone in Eraser's hand.

Eraser followed his gaze to the picture on the phone. His hand clenched a little, covering the picture as if it were too precious to share. Then he relaxed. "Where do we start?"

"Let's start with here. What happened here?"

"That's an interesting story." Eraser looked around and pointed at a boarded up house slightly larger than the others. "They were there. A whole clan of them. They'd been using their quirks to shake down the surrounding neighborhoods for weeks. We've taken out several gangs like this, so we didn't think it would be that big a deal. This one was different, though. They were all related. Their quirks were almost...interlaced. Interdependent. It made them stronger. Scribe used her quirk to lure them out, I erased them, we fought."

He paused. "There were more of them than we anticipated. We thought seven or eight. There were fifteen. I wasn't even sure we could win, but Scribe figured it out. All the quirks were connected, but through a central point. She found the central point—the grandmother—and took her out. The others fell in line pretty quick after that."

Shigaraki shrugged. "That all sounds very heroic and consistent with your line of work. According to plan, so to speak. So why would Scribe come back here yesterday?"

Eraser shook his head. "I have no idea. She didn't say anything."

"I guess that's your assignment, then, Eraser. Find out why she came out here. If you do, we'll most likely be able to figure out what happened to her." Shigaraki turned away.

"Wait a second." Eraser grabbed his arm, yanking him back around to face him. "What about Scribe?"

"I told you, she's safe." Shigaraki glanced at the hand on his arm but didn't shake it off.

"I don't want her to just be safe. I want her to be safe with me." The belligerence in Eraser's voice didn't quite hide the fear.

"I get it." Shigaraki nodded. "You love her. You want to be there for her to be sure she's safe. You want to help her." He met Eraser's gaze. "That's all I want."

Eraser dropped his hand. "You love her."

He'd only admitted it to Scribe thus far. He wondered if she'd fallen asleep in his bed. If he returned to her tonight, he might be able to hold her again while she slept. Just for one night. He didn't reply to Eraser's statement, though. Instead, he reached over and took Scribe's phone. He paused. "She's worried about someone. She's afraid someone will be hurt if she doesn't remember." He looked up. "Is it the girl? Eri?"

Eraser shook his head. "Eri's safe at UA."

"Good." Shigaraki nodded briskly. "Don't waste any time, Eraser. You know how to reach me."

He touched the phone to his forehead in a salute before turning to walk down the deserted street alone, wondering as he did if Eraser would follow. Thankful in the end that the other man didn't.