Heroes Without Capes

Anger

Mom.

Why?

A million questions spun around in Kimishita's head. What was she doing here? Why here? Why now? How had she found him?

What was happening?

Kazama stepped up next to him, looping an arm around his shoulder. For once Kimishita didn't recoil at the invasion of personal space. He took comfort in the arm draped around him, the familiar presence of someone he knew well, someone who wasn't a complete stranger bursting into his life without warning. Someone... who actually belonged here.

"You asked for Kimishita Atsushi, right?" Kazama addressed his mother, pointing at him. "This one's the only one we have. Is he the droid you were looking for?"

Kimishita wanted to slap him, both for giving him out to his mother and for adding that tasteless joke, but he restrained himself. Kazama didn't know what was going on here. For all he knew this might be the most ordinary situation in the world.

Kimishita stumbled forward, trying to keep his expression blank. Behind the mask his blood was boiling. All the bitterness, all the resentment, all the anger and hatred from sixteen years that had festered inside him rose back to the surface, threatening to erupt from under his skin like a volcano.

"I'm Kimishita Atsushi," he said coolly, not looking at his mother's eyes. "Can I help you?"

She flinched as if she had been hurt. Kimishita clenched his fists. What the hell was she hurt for? They were virtual strangers. Maybe if she'd actually bothered to visit once in awhile and show that she cared, he wouldn't have to introduce himself to the woman who had given birth to him now.

"Atsu– I mean..." Her voice trailed off, and she cleared her throat, bracing her shoulders with a confidence she didn't have. "I'm... My name is Hayami Hanae. I'm your... do you know who I am?"

Your mother.

Kimishita almost laughed. This was absurd. It was so absurd.

But the others were still looking at them with curiosity, and he restrained himself. He didn't say anything; he just nodded.

His mother– no, Hayami-san took a deep breath, avoiding his gaze. "Then... do you have a moment? There's something I need to talk to you about."

No, his mind said. No, his entire body screamed, recoiling and protesting as if he was being dragged to his own execution. But his mouth said something else.

"...All right. If it's not for long."

Damn his gawking teammates. If it hadn't been for them, he'd be on the run already.

---

The question left his mouth as soon as they were alone. "What are you doing here?"

Hayami-san stopped walking next to him, turning to look at him with those green eyes that were so disgustingly like his own, the same alarmed expression Kimishita wore when he was caught off guard. Stop looking like that, he wanted to say. Stop looking so much like me! You have no right to look like me when you spent sixteen years pretending your husband and son didn't exist!

Deep down he knew it was absurd and irrational. She had already looked like this long before he was born. But it still made him angry. Why did he have to look like the parent who had deserted him? Why did he have to look like a goddamn traitor?

"Atsushi," she said hesitantly, and Kimishita flinched at the use of his first name. Don't call me that, he wanted to scream. You're not my mother!