Mockingbirds Don't Sing Lullabies

Chapter Twelve: So soon...

Ash's hands were bleeding by the time the girl appeared. She had popped up in the corner of the room about twenty minutes ago. Ash still refused to stop punching the sand filled bag that hung from the basement ceiling. The girl was still patiently waiting for Ash to stop. Ash finally stopped, but not until her breathing was ragged and her hands numb from spending five hours in the basement letting out her anger on the seventh bag so far. She didn't bother wrapping up her bleeding knuckles as she approached the girl.The girl was small for 14 years old with long black hair that brushed the floor where she sat and vibrant blue eyes were in stark contrast to her deep brown skin. Her old rag dress was almost too short.
"Let me guess, he sent you?"
The girl just tilted her head, "You really should wrap those up,"
"If you're one of his then you know that's pointless."
"Whatever you say. She sent me."
"Oh? That should make all the more aware that I don't care about my hands. What does she want?"
"She wants to make sure you took care of her... gift."
"Is that what she calls a dead student. Well then she will be pleased to know that I cleaned up after her."
"She will be sending more. She is going to save one of them for when you complete her assignment."
"So that's where he went. Tell her I don't care. They're all just useless pawns anyway. Someone was bound to die eventually."
"Last I checked that was not what happened in Shanghai. You were soft then. You will be sof-"
The little girl made a choking noise as Ash squeezed her hand tighter around the girl's throat. "I am not soft." She brought her mouth close to the girl's ear. "Leave me alone and get off my property."
Ash picked the girl up by her neck and threw her at the wall. Instead of crumpling into a dead heap the girl vanished into a puff of black smoke when her body hit the wall. The girl's final mock echoed off the walls. "Hope you like her newest present."

Kirishima walked down the street,headed back to UA, eating Chocolate Rocks, next to Bakugo, who had his hands in his back pockets. They had decided to go get food.
"You still haven't told me what's bothering you."
Kirishima looked over at Bakugo and swallowed his bite, "What?"
"Earlier this morning I asked you what was bothering you. You never answered the question."
"Yes I did. I said I was fine."
"I'm not stupid, Eijrou. Like I said this morning, I can tell when you lie to me."
Kirishima let out a long sigh. "Earlier it was the scream that was bothering me. Now... now it's the dead body. We have a dead classmate. Sure he was a pervert but I mean... c'mon. He got into UA. That has to mean something. Right?"
Bakugo was silent for a moment. "I guess so."
"What do you think they are going to do about it?"
A scream cut off Bakugo's response. The boys shared a look before running into the UA courtyard.

Kaminari watched Jiro fall to her knees. The dark haired girl had come from the shadows in a puff of black smoke, drove a black spear into Ashido's stomach, and then vanished. He was at Jiro's side pulling the crying girl into a hug before her knees even hit the pavement. He looked around for a teacher but only found Kirishima and Bakugo running his way.
"What happened!?" Kirishima stopped and turned to look for any villains.
"I'm not sure. I'm going to take Jiro to the nurse then find a teacher. Take care of Mina." Kaminari stood, pulling Jiro up with him. Kirishima nodded then made his way to Ashido.
"DO NOT TOUCH THAT SPEAR!!!" Ceader came running into the courtyard seconds before Kirishima was about to touch the spear.
"Why not?"
Instead of answering him she turned to Jiro and Kaminari. "Get her out of here." She turned to Bakugo. "Keep people away from here. Do not find a teacher. Leave that to Kaminari." She held up a hand to silence Bakugo's retort. "Do not question me in this moment. Just go. We will save more lives this way." With a glare and a nod Bakugo did as he was told. Kaminari got Jiro out of there.

Ashido's stomach hurt and she couldn't move. Why was she in so much pain? What was everyone saying? She couldn't hear anything over the intense roaring in her head. She was so tired. Calloused, bandaged, hands gripped her shoulders. She followed the arms up to see the gentle, slightly concerned face of Ceader Harunei.
"Nei? What are you doing? Why is the world so fuzzy?"
"Shhh.. You're going to be ok. Focus on me. I'm going to do something. It might hurt. Ok? Just squeeze my arms."
Before Mina could respond Nei presses a hand to her stomach. The pain came as an explosion, jumping across her nerves in rapid succession with each press of Nei's hand. Tears sprung from her eyes in harmony with her screams and moans of pain. Nei's constant, "You're ok. Everything will be ok." became the countermelody. After what seemed like hours but was only mere seconds Ceader pulled away. She was smiling.
"You're going to be perfectly ok. I'll be right back. Don't touch anything, ok?" Ashido nodded as Ceader got up and walked away.

Kirishima was almost shaking with anger and fear. He had heard Ceader tell Mina she was going to be ok. Was that the truth? He got his answer a second later as she walked up to him. The hatred and sorrow in her eyes was obvious.
"How long does she actually have?"
"Five ten minutes at the most. She's too out of it to notice luckily."
"What should we do?"
"There is nothing we can do."
"Why can't we remove the spear?"
"Two reasons. One, she'll bleed out faster. Two, if anyone but Shadow Smoke touches that spear it will release thousands of tiny needles tipped with poison. Mina won't die quickly. She will die painfully slow if we do that."
"How do you know this?"
Ceader sighed. "About a year ago I was a transfer student to America, for extra training. I had made some really great friends. One of them and I had taken an internship with one of the hero agencies. Long story short we were attacked by someone calling herself Shadow Smoke. She is able to manipulate anything that cast a shadow, as long as she can see it. She learned a trick with her hair. If she took a strand of it from the shadows she could turn it into a deadly spear. She drove a spear through my friend's stomach and into the pavement below him. It took him one hour and three minutes to die. I held his head in my lap until he died. Then I pulled the spear out. They had to remove blood in my hands and replace it in order to heal me."
Kirishima was silent for a minute. "How do you know she isn't going to die that slowly?"
"Because Shadow Smoke released barbs into Mina's stomach. It's killing her faster."
Kirishima looked over Ceader's shoulder, at Ashido. His eyes met hers as the light in them faded. "She's gone."
"Clear the area." Ceader turned around and walked to Mina. She carefully closed Mina's eyes, whispered something, and then grabbed the spear. She pulled it out just before thousands of barbs shot up like a porcupine. Kirishima's eyes widened. He was about to say something when a young female voice echoed eerily off the buildings in the courtyard. Her voice was thin, like smoke. "She should've kept her nose in her own business. Now other people can stick their noses in her business." The fury grew in Ceader's eyes as the voice laughed.