Fucked up world

Chapitre 12: Taitei instant

I had work to do. I came home late.
I stopped by the local grocer to get some instant noodles and a bottle of alcohol, getting drunk was a nice way to spend the evening. I didn't turn on the light, appreciating the semi-darkness of my apartment.
I put the kettle on, and it began its distinctive sizzling sound.

"So you really came back... I didn't think I'd see you again after a week of disappearing. I honnestly hoped you were dead."
I turned towards the figure who was waiting quietly leaning against the wall.
Silent.
"You will also have to explain to me how you manage to enter my house as if it were your mother's."

"I too would need an explanation.Why did you kill this man? Why did you kill that spy 9 months ago?" I frozed.
Ah...
I smiled weakly. Taking a deep breath.
"Was he a league villain? I didn't know. Well, it wouldn't have changed his destiny."

My words were followed by a heavy silence in which the clanking of the kettle resonated.
I didn't turn around.
"For what?" His deep, calculating voice asked.

"You want to know why I killed him? I only reciprocated his action. He killed my mother."
Dabi remained silent, still.

"I have to deliver you within three weeks." He stated.
My eyes widened. I felt myself falling. Drowning in a empty realisation.

"Three weeks. That's not a lot. I'll have to hurry...You said last time we saw that you wanted to use me. A partnership as you called it." I chukled sourly
"I am afraid I cannot honor your proposal. Because my delivery will cause my death, right?  And I have things to sort out before this one."
The air was thick and heavy. The tension of this ultimatum almost palbable.

"Aren't you afraid of death?" A simple question but diving humans into abysses.I didn't want to think about it. Death, life, it wasn't all that different for me.
I remained silent for a long moment before finally speaking.

"Of course I am... She terrifies me, but living terrifies me even more."
I could not clearly see the features of his face. It was of little importance after all. I turned my back to him and poured the boiled water over the noodles.
I ate them quietly, leaning against the table top. Waiting for him to make a move.
The noodles were hot, burning my mouth, I didn't care.
Once finished I placed them next to me on the table before taking two glasses out of the cupboard and taking out the freshly brewed whiskey from my bag.

"You want some?" I simply asked, satting down at the table.
"Of course"
He pulled out the chair in front of me and sat down slowly, he didn't take his eyes off me.
I poured the brown liquid into both our glasses before raising mine.
"What do you want to toast?" he asked me, also raising his glass.
I smiled, as one would have smiled at an old friend.

"To what our lives could have been."

He smiles too. A real smile, not one of his mocking smiles or his cold expressions.
A smile of recognition, the recognition of a similar being.

We clinked our glasses, drinking in silence, as if in a sort of contemplation.
It was... nice not to drink alone even if it was with my executioner.
I pecked at him, he looked tired, he must have worked a lot to get back to me.
He must have been surprised, it goes to show... life plays very strange tricks on us.

"How did you find me?"
"For the murder? I didn't know, a slight, tenuous intuition. I bluffed, I had no proof before you told me yourself."

I stared at him before lowering my head, sighing. "Definitely, you are unbearable... I really don't like you"
I took a long sip, smiling strangly at myself  for falling in his trap like a dumbass. "So what? Are you going to watch me for 3 weeks so that I don't escape from you?"

"Yes" The statement of a fact. His voice...unfathomable.

"Why don't you hand me over to your superiors now?"
"It would save me a lot of time and difficulty, it's true, but..." He paused.
"But I want to see your vendetta. I want to see what will happen to me. I want to see my future."
"There is no future, we live in the past."
"It's true... but I like to think about a future, however false it may be. Tell me your past."He paused "Tell me about your death." He added, his voice low. 

I stared at him, only to see an expressionless face. I detailed his features for a second. I poured myself another glass and emptied it like the first.
Then I began to talk. Why? I didn’t know...

"I never knew my father. He left when I was born according to my mother.  We weren't very rich, living in a small appartement. At the age of four I discovered my quirk, my mother wanted me to keep it hidden and that's what I did, the best I could. "

The memories were clear, indelible in my memory.  "However, there were... complications." Voices began to overlap mine in my mind. I stared in the void for a second.

Kiri... wake up! Please! I'm sorry.

I cleared my throat."We moved and I was taken out of school, studying at home,  Avoiding all social contact, I've never had a phone or stuff like that.
It was just the two of us. But one evening my mother came home in a panic."

                                               ********

I was leaning on the radiator, watching the rain fall through the window. I thought it was sad that it was raining on my 18th birthday.
Night was beginning to fall.
The shadows lengthening on the road. I soon heard the characteristic sound of Mom's car.
I went to stand in front of the entrance, impatient at the idea of ​​this evening celebrating me.
But when mom opened the door, I quickly understood that this evening was going to be of a completely different nature.
I had never seen her like that, she passed in front of me as if I was invisible.

She was going through cupboards stuffing things and money, our hidden savings, in a huge bag.
She acted frantically, muttering incomprehensible words.

"Mom? What's going on?" She didn't answer me.
And I could only look at her, helpless turning our house upside down.
"Mom!" I grabbed her arm which seemed to bring her out of a sort of trance.
She dropped the wad of notes she was holding, a wad that had come out of nowhere.
"Where did you find all that money?" I asked, not having remembered such great savings.
She slowly turned towards me.

She was...terrified. In his eyes was horror, fear, sadness and...pity...?
She raised her hand and stroked my cheek.
"Honey, we're going to have to leave. Now. Go grab your things and meet me in the car as quickly as possible."
I stepped back, unsteady.
"Quickly!" She called me, almost yelling.
I rushed to my room. A perfectly normal teenager's bedroom.
I touched my hero posters for a moment.
Then I set off, quickly choosing the most important things to take.
I stuffed some clothes and my only beautiful red summer dress into a bag.
I also took some notebooks, my books to study medicine and a photo album.
It wasn't much, but I couldn't take my whole world with me.

I paused, looking around my small room. I didn't understand what was happening but I knew I would never come back here again.
I attached my little cat-shaped stuffed animal to the strap of my bag.
The stuffed animal my mom made me when I asked her to adopt a cat a when i was ten.
I put on my red scarf and turned off all the lights for the last time.

It was rain hard outside, the cold as piercing as a blade.