Shadowfire - OC x Shoto Todoroki

Chapter 22 - Family is Everything

Mariko Kisaragi had been practically catatonic ever since Katsuki had sealed her in the kitchen to keep her out of the way while he rescued Kaida from her basement. Of course, Kaida had let her mother out, but Mariko had spent the last few weeks lying in bed, only moving to eat when Kaida brought her food or to go to the bathroom. They had enough savings that it didn't matter that Mariko wasn't going to work, but that wouldn't last forever.

If she didn't think about the eventual money problems, Kaida actually didn't mind her mother's state. Mariko was docile and polite, like all the violence in her had been suffocated and imprisoned and Kaida appreciated not having to fight her off every other day.

It didn't last much longer however. There was always something that would eventually set Mariko off.

In this instance, it was UA's solution to their villain problem. The dorms. Trying to decide whether or not she actually wanted to go practically tore Kaida in two. On one hand, it was an escape from her house, her mother, her past. But on another, there was still a part of her that couldn't bear to leave Mariko alone. She loved her mother, and there was a high chance that if Kaida left, Mariko would allow herself to starve to death. She supposed there was always the option of a hospital. Maybe Mariko could be roommates with Rei Todoroki.

It had taken a lot of convincing to make sure Mr Aizawa didn't show up at her house to speak to her mother about the plan to move the students into dorms. The school already knew about her imprisoned father and they didn't need the added knowledge of her whackjob mother. Plus, she doubted her teacher would appreciate her mother trying to attack him for trying to 'take away her daughter'.

She forged Mariko's signature on the various documents sent to her house for signing in order to allow her to move into the dorms, that wasn't a problem. The real problem was going to be informing Mariko that her daughter was moving out of home and that a nurse would be moving in to take care of her. It was bound to turn into a violent disaster.

^^^

It was a week before the new term started. A week before Kaida moved into the dorms. A week to tell her mother what was going to happen.

She had picked a good time, it seemed, to inform her mother. Mariko had gotten out of bed that afternoon and sat on the couch instead, flicking through one of the books she had read Kaida when she was little, quietly whispering the words to herself.

Kaida toyed with the ring on its chain around her throat as she approached her mother, gently sliding the book out of her hands and sitting down on the coffee table in front of her.

"Hello sweetheart." Mariko cooed; her dull face twisted into an unusual smile.

"Hi mommy. I um-." Kaida grit her teeth. Just tear off the Band-Aid. "I have to tell you something that you might not like."

The smile remained on Mariko's lips, but her eyes fell, contorting it into more of a grimace.

"I'm leaving home for a little while." The air around her seemed to become stiflingly hot as she spoke. "Just for a few months. And someone else will come to look after you while I'm gone."

"No, no no no that won't work, silly!" Mariko still held her menacing smile. "I need you. Not someone else."

"It's already happening, mom. I'm leaving in a week."

"You shouldn't lie to me. Shouldn't lie to your mother." Her smile finally dropped into a frown, and she glared at the ground.

"I know I shouldn't, and that's why I'm not."

"Yes, you ARE!!" Mariko screeched, rising from her seat on the couch and Kaida flinched, scrambling backwards slightly on the coffee table.

"You know I wouldn't lie to you." She insisted, hands raised instinctively in front of her face.