As difficult as it is to imagine, there was a time before Overhaul became the man who eventually led the Hassaikai to its demise. There was a time before the motive became the man.
There was a time before Overhaul. A time when he was just Chisaki K...
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It didn't take long for Eri to become (Name)'s only refuge at the Hassaikai. Since her meetings with Sir Nighteye and his sidekicks became an established thing, she couldn't really relax anywhere within the compound for the life of her. The constant fear of getting caught refused to leave her alone, and ate away at her nerves every waking second.
Naturally, spending time with Eri was her only relief. She didn't have to pretend about her loyalties and love around the six-year-old, and (Name) took the reprieve for all she was worth.
She hadn't ever really considered herself the motherly type because she didn't like most kids, but Eri was so unproblematic and so good, she couldn't help the swell of affection in her chest whenever she saw the girl. Eri, in turn, soaked up every bit of (Name)'s attention because it was the only contact the girl had that came from a place of kindness.
They bonded over not belonging in a place like Kai's Shie Hassaikai, tied together by the trust that came from recognizing someone else out of place in their worlds. It was hard not to reach out to the only available source of comfort, and they didn't really have to resist, so they didn't.
Eri didn't have much interest in the toys and games her previous caretakers had tried to win her trust through, but (Name) learned that the little girl did like to draw. When she could, she turned to starting up on educating Eri as best as she could with her inexperienced teaching. She read Eri all the fairytale books she could get her hands on, and they passed their hours of peace pretending they weren't mere puppets of a man who was unafraid of hurting or manipulating either of them.
Whether or not Kai actually meant to manipulate (Name), she didn't know; but she was beginning to learn which threads he had spun within her to keep her tied to him even when she knew the things he was doing were likely to drive her away out of a sense of self-preservation. If she tried really hard, she could tug on the thread and unravel it slowly, following it back to a memory that had seemed so inconsequential at the time. Except now, she could recognize that she had been bending and twisting herself in all sorts of ways to fit in the space beside Kai because she loved the boy she had grown up beside.
