Beyond (Plus Ultra)

Hell

Kei was silent, arms wrapped around herself, waiting for the ground to open up beneath her. She was shaking all over, breathing so quickly and yet the dots in her vision would indicate nothing was getting to her lungs but smoke. She hated that she hadn't gotten her mother's fire powers, she had really only gotten her grandma's ice powers. Where was her mother? The last thing Kei remembered was her mother throwing herself on top of her as something shattered her ears drums, her mother had carried her away, and staggered back towards the noise. Her hand moved to scratch her head, and she screamed when her hand came back before her eyes, red and sticky. What was going on? What had happened? She was trembling, arms wrapped tightly around herself. She cried for her mother, she cried for her father, but no one was coming. She was in hell. This had to be hell.

Her eyes filled with tears, she had just taken a walk with her mother, when some guy came out of an alley and took everything from her, what was this? Why would anyone do this? What was going to happen to her? Where was her mom? She screamed in horror when she felt someone grab her from the walls of ice she had created around herself. She frowned, looking up at Dynamite, she tried to ask what was going on, but she couldn't construct a sentence. He gave her to some paramedics, before huffing.

"You're gonna be okay, kid. Everything will be okay. Your dad and your uncle are going to meet you at the hospital." Kei wanted to ask about her mom, but she was worried about what Dynamite would say to her.

"I've gotta get back to the sick fuck who- I'm going to let these guys do their job."

Kei frowned, she wished he had finished that sentence. "Wait." she rasped, eyes filling with tears as she was put in the back of the ambulance, sobbing as she hugged herself close. What was going on?

The ride to the hospital was a blur, when she got to the hospital she saw her Uncle Shoto talking to Kaz and Himiko's father, her sister and her father were at her side in a second, she could see they both had been crying. She hadn't seen her sister in a long time. She wished they could have been reunited under better circumstances. She watched them inspect her,

"She doesn't seem to need any treatment." one of the paramedics sighed

"We're going to keep her overnight for observation, though."

"Her hair is matted to her head with blood." Kocho murmured, she sounded confused

"It's not her blood." her father's voice broke, "Fuyumi took the impact of the blow. She seems to have taken all of it."

"I-I'm sorry I didn't have time to stop her." she whimpered

Her father looked horrified, "N-no that's not what I meant." Hawks was really just angry with himself for not having been there. What kind of city was he in, where his wife and daughter couldn't even walk to the book store safely? They hadn't been walking through a particularly dangerous part of town, Fuyumi was very conscious of that type of thing, and they had still gotten hurt. He looked at Shoto and Deku, Deku was crying, like he tended to, Shoto looked like he was close to doing the same. He wanted to comfort them, but he also knew he needed to take care of his girls.

Shoto wanted to collapse in on himself, he was watching Deku cry, he felt like he should be crying. The day Deku thought Ochaco died he had punched walls, thrown himself on the floor, the wails that had left his body were inhuman. What was wrong with him? His sister was in critical condition, and unlikely to survive the night, but he wasn't thinking about himself, he was thinking about his mother, how she was likely about to lose a second child, his nieces, his brother in law. They would all be losing more than he would be, even if he felt like he would be losing a lot. He wanted to ease their pain as much as he possibly could, but he knew there was very little he could do. He sighed as he pulled out of Deku's grip, looking at the wet mark on his shirt with mild annoyance as he huffed.