In a world where heroes and villains are constantly at each others throats, seemingly minuscule crimes can often be overlooked.
Yet, if only someone knew what was going on behind those closed doors, if only someone looked just a little closer at th...
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Shinjiro coughed and wheezed.
His lungs burned with all of the dust and flakes of drywall he had inhaled over the last few weeks, yet he never stopped digging. His hand reached through the mess of pipes and wires and continued to tediously scrape away at the other end of Ayaka's wall.
His face was covered in layers of debris. His eyes stung as tears automatically streamed down his face, attempting to get the dust out of his eyes, and yet he never stopped digging.
His mind had drifted off somewhere long before this. He was too busy thinking about how happy they would be to see each other, what they would talk about, if they'd finally laugh again, he couldn't help but smile despite the pain.
Thunk
Shinjiro's head snapped over to the wall, to which his eyes opened wide with disbelief and tears began to blur his vision.
His favorite Edgeshot figurine's leg had punctured the wall. He sat there for a few seconds, staring at the small hole, before throwing the figurine to the side and desperately scraping and tearing at it.
Before he knew it, large pieces of dry wall and debris lay in a heap on the floor, and the light from Ayaka's room shone through the pipes onto his face.
He saw her, laying there with her head down and one arm up in the air, chained to her bed. Shinjiro quickly crawled up to the pipes and wooden beams and maneuvered his way through them, occasionally having to contort himself to make it work. He gracelessly landed on the other side of the wall with a thud, but quickly rolled over and sat up, still staring at Ayaka with wide eyes.
He stood up slowly and whispered a name through his dry, trembling lips.
"...Ayaka?"
She didn't respond immediately, but instead slowly lifted her head until their eyes met. Her eyes slowly opened with recognition and her bottom lip began to tremble. She let out a quiet sob before smiling at him.
"Hello, Shin." She said softly.
Shinjiro soon found his own cries emerging as he stumbled over to her and fell into her arms. Ayaka hugged Shinjiro lightly at first, but over time their arms continued to tighten around each other, determined to never let go. They stayed that way for what felt like hours, though in reality it was only a few minutes, until Shinjiro lifted his head to look at her.
Her condition was the worst he'd ever seen. Scrapes, bruises, and cuts littered her entire body. Her eyes seemed dull and sorrowful, no longer harboring the bright, comforting tone they used too. Her right arm was handcuffed to one of the posts on her bed, causing her wrist to be chaffed and bright red. Finally, Shinjiro's eyes landed on Ayaka's wings, to which he felt his heart drop to his stomach and the taste of bile envelop his tastebuds.
"A-Ayaka," He choked out, "your wings... they-" His breathing quickened into panicked breaths.
She quickly used her free hand to gently push his chin away from her wings, redirecting his sight to her eyes instead. Yet, the image of the two mangled white stumps that were in place of her once vibrant wings was still gruesome and fresh in his mind.
