Controlee

87. Debate vs Argument

Rule 87: All anger and hatred do is fester.

"If we run, they hunt us and you know you're not someone who can fall into their hands."

"You have to stop the attacks!" That was what AG told her to say. She had to explain. The attacks had to stop or the villains would know AG wasn't the vigilante, they'd know heroes were onto them, it would all go wrong.

Otsuka took a deep breath, squeezing the seat under her. The top part was soft, where the cushioning was. Under her fingertips was all solid though, solid and surprisingly cool.

"-they hunt us and you know you're not someone who can fall into their hands."

"Otsuka, slow down!" Aizawa ordered. He was only barely awake, though could probably leap into a fight at a moment's notice if the situation demanded. The situation didn't demand so he kept blinking sleep out of his eyes. "Wait, you're on work studies tonight. Where's AG?"

Otsuka took a deep breath, tracing her eyes over the view from the window. The trees were going golden, some already falling. The fountain was still spouting water. Would it keep running through winter? Or maybe they had to drain the water out to protect all the parts from freezing.

"-you know you're not someone who can fall into their hands."

Aizawa cursed. Or, she was pretty sure he was cursing. She didn't recognise the language he was using, but his tone said he was cursing. Even with his phone pressed to his ear, she heard it when his call went through. At first, all he gave was a series of clearance codes, but then, "All vigilante actions for Shie Hassaikai, emergency stop, effective immediately." She didn't hear the response. She was breathing hard from the long run, her lungs heaving, her legs tingling, her feet throbbing, but she could go longer if she had to, she could get up and keep running if she had to.

"-you're not someone who can fall into their hands."

All thanks to her quirk. Always thanks to her quirk.

AG had told her to run to keep her quirk away from the Shie Hassaikai because Otsuka wasn't someone who could fall into enemy hands. And because someone had to stop the vigilante missions from continuing. Otsuka had done it, had given AG what she asked for, given her the best chance she could for whatever she was planning to do in that place. Now, it was all up to AG.

In the meantime, it wasn't like Otsuka could just sit around and relax. Ha, she wished.

As it turned out, the judge preferred not to begin the custody battle in a courtroom, they preferred not to have any of this occur in a courtroom if it could be avoided. They believed a courtroom to be too impersonal for this kind of case and the space often made people instinctively argumentative and defensive. So they weren't in a courtroom, they were in an office.

It was a nice office. One wall was made of windows overlooking the fountain and park. Otsuka's eyes glazed over the space while her mind replayed the events of last night over and over and over. She'd barely slept, stubbornly imagining ways to fix what happened. Of course, she'd found just as many ways it could've gone worse. She was still finding them now, lost a long way in the back of her head.

Staying focused through this thing with the Ogawas was going to be hard. At the same time, having something else to focus on was going to be really helpful. She wished the Ogawas would never come; they couldn't come sooner.

"Emiko?"

She breathed in deeply as she looked up to Yamada's eyes, a frown showing his concern. It was like waking up, her head taking a minute to figure out how to comprehend the world around her properly again. Delayed, she hummed an acknowledgement.