~No More Time~ (EraserMic)

Beautiful Insanity

“I-I didn't know what would happen....I was holding his hand one second, a-and then.....then he was g-gone....” Eri whispered, her soft voice trembling as she sat huddled in the emergency blanket Tsukauchi had given her, her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms curled around herself.

Her red eyes were bloodshot and stared down at the ground with a blank, empty look, her face splotchy and pink from her tears prior to Kai Chisaki's flight from he police station, shivering with leftover terror as Tsukauchi, Hizashi, and Aizawa crowded round her in the astute detective's tidy office, Sansa standing guard at the door in silence.

Tsukauchi was seated behind his desk, his shoulders hunched and his hands folded in front of him, his elbows resting on the surface of the wood, a bruise beginning to bloom across his jaw where Kai had struck him. Hizashi was rubbing his wrist, and was having a little difficulty standing straight, this due to the fact that when the previously mentioned stranger flipped him, he landed heavily on his already bruised side and had the wind knocked out of him, so he was in a lot of pain.

Aizawa on the other hand seemed completely unharmed, his black eyes fixed on Eri with a well hidden anger, but not at the quivering girl that filled his vision, but for the man who had come in here, assaulted his already damaged lover and threatened to take her away from him.

He hadn't trusted Chisaki initially, but now he found himself hating him, and he knew that for once, his sudden flare of emotion was completely rational.

“M-Mommy....she...she was so scared of me...she was screaming....screaming for me to b-bring daddy back....b-but I didn't know how....” The girl continued after she had taken several, frightened breaths, keeping her eyes forced down so she didn't meet the concerned eyes of the astute detective and her two guardians, her voice trembling as more soft tears filled her eyes. “Mommy said i-i was s-sick....and that I had t-to go away until i-i was better...”

“So you were given to your grandfather, yes?” Tsukauchi asked patiently, his voice quiet in an attempt to keep Eri calm, the small girl nodding her head in response.

“I-I loved my grandpa....He was nice and he made sure he took good care of me....but M-Mister Kai was not a g-good man.”

“Did your grandfather know that he wasn't a good man?”

“N-No. Grandpa trusted Mister Kai very much. He would leave me with him when he went out....and he...he didn't believe me when I said that Mister Kai was scary. He said that I just n-needed to warm up to h-him. B-But then grandpa got really sick, and he said I h-had to go with Mister Kai....G-Grandpa said he would be my Daddy now and that he would t-take good care of me...”

“But Mister Kai didn't want me. B-Before Grandpa died, Mister Kai pretended to be nice to me...He said I c-could call him daddy now, and said that I would be happy with him...B-But when Grandpa was gone....He stopped being nice and said He didn't care about me and that he didn't care about Grandpa either. He c-called me bad th-things and put me away in a d-dark room....and he would only come i-in when he wanted to....when he wanted to t-take my blood....”

“Your blood...?”

Eri nodded her head in shame, her lower lip trembling as tears began to gently trail down her face, her hands shaking as she slipped them out of the cover of the blanket, her fingers hitching in the cuffed sleeve of the shirt she wore under her dusty blue jumper, both Aizawa and Hizashi feeling their eyes widen as what she was doing dawned on them.

Eri had never let them see what lie hidden under the mass of bandages, always insisting on replacing them herself and hiding them under shirts and leggings, never daring to speak about the hidden injuries.