Colors in the Dark

Special 3: Loss

Ultramarine eyes skimmed over a dim screen, glazed over with disinterest.

There was only so much that could be done when locked up in a mental hospital.

Kaname sighed, pushing the long silver locks that had fallen in front of her face back behind her ear, accidentally brushing over the tattoo of The Fool in the process. Said major let out a ghostly giggle, which seemed to echo from everywhere at once.

"Hehehehe! How can I help you?"

She promptly ignored it, turning back to the screen to continue aimlessly scrolling through whatever articles were trending. Her pale fingers- the nails were growing long again- tapped restlessly on the mouse and table, respectively, finally disrupting the silence that the room was always heavy with.

The updated Hero Billboard Chart predictions, word about villain attacks, everything I've already seen or heard... Kana continued scrolling, passing all the most recent things to some older (by a few days, anyway) articles. Maybe Hayako published something recently? I found out she was following her dream to be a journalist a few months ago when her name was on something I found, but she sure posts sporadically... Well, I don't get to go online often, so I may as well see what already happened the past couple weeks, Hayako's writing or not.

It was only then that something finally caught her attention, a headline about a Pro killed during a raid on a yakuza hideout. Curiously, she clicked to read more, alternating between skimming through the text and looking at the pictures on the sides.

Her breath caught in her throat as she zoomed in on one of them, a somewhat-blurry image of a winged ginger carrying a little albino girl and a green-haired boy in a costume, who seemed to be about the first one's age. A few blobs of color were present around the older girl's head, though the picture was taken from behind so their faces weren't able to be seen. In front of them (though "behind" them in the picture) was a gigantic hole in the ground, and a monstrous villain faced them.

The caption read Two hero-hopefuls on Work Studies during the raid, shown saving a little girl held captive by the leader of the Shie Hassaikai. The two first-years from UA, Guardian and Deku, worked under Pro Heroes Ryuukyuu and Sir Nighteye, respectfully.

"That's...," Kana breathed, "that's Aya... Haha... She always found her way into trouble no matter how hard she tried to avoid it, but now she's saving people with her gift." The silverette smiled, gently resting a hand on the screen where the redhead was. "Just as I always said, you were always destined to be a hero." My little sister.

She read on, pleasantly surprised at the thorough information it detailed about how the "Eight Precepts of Death" were brought down. Many other Pros she had heard of before were mentioned, though one stuck out.

"Sir Nighteye... That sounds familiar, even moreso than the others." The Clairvoyant Hero had only narrowly survived the treacherous battle, reports had stated, but died in the hospital not long after.

Kana opened a new tab on the computer and quickly typed his name into the search, hitting the enter key as the results came up. She clicked around until she finally found a site that stated his real name- I'm sure heroes are supposed to remain anonymous, but I digress. Now that he's dead it doesn't really matter, as sad as it is to say.

Her stomach dropped as she read the name.

"Sasaki... Mirai...?"

Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she pushed her chair back from the desk so that she could reach over and open one of the drawers. She flicked through her admittedly-extensive stack of folders before pulling one out labelled "(Old) Family".