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81. Equal On All Sides

Rule 83: You can hate someone and still show them kindness.

In hindsight, which was often 20/20, but not always, she should never in a million years have agreed. It was stupid and silly and ridiculous and so unbelievably dangerous. She must've been out of her mind to agree to it.

But she was still reeling from learning Mags had been a liar. A woman she thought she could trust with her life had used that trust against her.

She was angry, and mad, and pissed, and, yeah, ok, pretty much out of her mind. That was when All Might found her. He had a request.

He was polite, a little roundabout in asking her, but he gave her all the facts and left the decision to her, even offered her more time to decide. Her reflex answer had been 'no way in hell' because purposefully putting herself anywhere near a villain who could steal quirks was about the most reckless things she could ever possibly do and she should've stuck by that reflex. Unfortunately, that reflex had been hammered into her by a liar.

Mags would never have let her agree to this. So, naturally, Otsuka agreed.

Otsuka knew a surprising amount about the prison, Tartarus. It was where the most dangerous villains in the world were stored.

To be entirely honest, a young, naive, scared part of herself had once believed she'd end up here. Back when controlling her quirk had seemed hopeless and she'd never dreamed execution was on the table even for a level one controlee with unstoppable episodes, she'd thought a place as secure as Tartarus would be perfect when she inevitably failed to get cleared by eighteen.

Back then, she'd figured she could live with being a prisoner despite doing nothing wrong. Now she was starting to realise that was kind of fucked up. She'd actually spent several nights this week talking with TT and Oboro and Hitoshi and Aki about her thoughts and figuring out exactly what parts of her thought processes were completely fucked over and which parts could probably stay as they were. Her entire brain essentially needed an overhaul.

Mags really messed her up, with a smile on her face too. Great customer service, shit product. Otsuka wanted to return it.

Getting into Tartarus was an ordeal. There were scans and forms and a very worried Aizawa hovering a maximum of one metre away trying to pretend he was completely fine with this— he wasn't and he'd made that abundantly clear several times over the last few days. All Might was there too, looking apologetic and rather like a kicked puppy at the same time. Aizawa gave the kicked puppy no mercy, kicking again and again every time All Might happened to look over and see the glare aimed his way. If looks could kill, All Might would be a goner.

The security precautions were all explained to her, even the procedure in the event of an emergency. She'd be in a separate room, bulletproof glass between them. A straitjacket and restraints were in place. Should the prisoner so much as think to activate a quirk, they'd be subdued instantly.

Otsuka would be absolutely safe. Tartarus guaranteed it.

She wasn't going to believe them until she walked out of here in one piece.

They gave her a small communication device, one of those neat little ones that fit into the ear. It was barely noticeable.

"Remember," All Might told her, one hand heavy on her shoulder. She could feel Aizawa's glare intensifying behind her and it wasn't even aimed at her. "You repeat exactly what we say. Nothing more, nothing less. No paraphrasing, nothing."