I Shall Fear No Evil
(Music: https://youtu.be/PrCh7HOZwYo )
The Outlaw awakes where she was before she was shot at: freezing on the top of a dreary church, soaked to her bones in rain on a cold night. She bleeds from her right cheek, the spot where she was grazed by that shot that had overwhelmed her. Her shot didn't seem to land, as not even the blood of a wounded man limping away can be seen below. The night is inky and dark as the rain falls on the mentally battered outlaw, her civilized finery shed or ruined as she forces herself to rise. She has a bad habit of not knowing when something isn't worth the effort as she carefully crawls along the ceramic roof. She moves slowly, her frigid body shaking her enough that not slipping off the roof to a pile of fatal injuries proves a challenge.
Though agonizingly slow, the Outlaw makes it to the unlocked belfry door. She strips her wet, muddy rag of a dress off as she wrings her hair out, stepping carefully as she looks for warmth to grant her some degree of comfort in her pitiful state. She finds a nun's dress hanging inside, putting it on with hesitation as a pair of yellow rain boots give her feet some relief. With her rifle holstered in her leg-spanning holster and covered by a frayed overcoat, she makes the trek back to her home.
While the man who tried to bring her back to the life of a criminal vagabond had no facial features the men of the east would consider standout, his gun was a unique piece. It was something that could be tracked, like the scent of a bear, and she was the bloodhound. The eyes of the eastern people give her no second thought as a nun's veil covers her head. She takes a trolley back to her apartment, where the Angel greets her with shock. He was just about to go looking for her and was worried about her. He offers her a warm meal, and he asks what she left the house for and why she is wearing the attire of a nun.
The Outlaw loses the veil, the black cloth falling to the ground as she shows the Angel her grazing wound. A trifling thing that would heal in a few days, something none but the most astute detective would notice. The angel starts cleaning the wound and asking how she got hurt, but the Outlaw can't find the means to explain to him who shot at her and why he needs to die. She stays silent, eating her meal with focused, tired eyes.
The Outlaw is sure of two things: That she must kill this final thread of her old sinful life, and that her Angel is much too innocent and vulnerable to get involved with the affair.
(Music: https://youtu.be/2PwDK2GAASU )
Sally McCathy slowly rises from her studying-inflicted delirium, wiping the drool from her keyboard and shaking her head as she does some evening homework. The girl's eyes are bleary as she looks toward a drawing of a license plate she made. She still hadn't done anything about the assassin she had some kind of lead on... Of course, she had a reason: the last people who tried were mostly in the hospital, even her Sensei.
The line of reasoning was clear; she could hear Hoge saying it: 'If a Top 10 Hero can't handle him, you can't' in her text-to-speech-sounding facsimile of English that she often used when she was forced to address Sally.
"One hell of a winning personality..." Sally mutters as she gets up and looks outside. It was 3:00 PM and still pouring rain outside, just as hard as it was this morning.
She grabs her thick leather purse and stuffs some essentials inside, putting the license plate drawing in a plastic bag before shoving it inside the shoulder-strapped handbag and slipping some flats on. She was planning on going out for food, groceries, a quick lay, or some other excuse to not stare at moon runes for the rest of the day anyway. She takes a deep breath to clear her mind as she heads toward the hospital that Chris and Rosethorn were at.
A part of her knew she had time to stop this, to throw the drawing down a drain or rip it up, and just forget about this whole thing. Maybe it was the pride she had in her honed quirk that gave her an inkling she had a chance against the old man named Desolator; maybe it was her bullet deflection that convinced her she had any kind of business risking her entire rehabilitation on this. She'd been lucky before: Both at the beach and at the festival, she was exonerated of vigilantism due to the fact she was acting in self-defense and for the defense of those who couldn't defend themselves. Rosethorn and the principal made things pretty clear: Be a good girl and play by the rules, or go back to America as a proven danger to society.
As she rode the train over, a sharp eye was given to any man getting close to her as the knot in her stomach grew. One that said Noah can help her get over this, to turn the other cheek, to be righteous in her refusal to be brought down to the level that Desolator wants her to reach. She takes her phone out of her purse, her shaking fingers hovering over his contact info. One call, and she can be cleansed of this demon plaguing her mind and insisting she do something stupid.
The train makes an abrupt stop as she is about to call her angel boyfriend, causing her phone to clatter on the floor. She bends over to pick it up, ignoring the wandering hands of the other passengers giving her tight ass a squeeze. The conductor announces an emergency stop due to some blockage on the tracks and tells everyone to wait. Sally peeks out the window and sees a section of twisted, burned, and blackened track. Lightning had struck it; the wrath of God made physical.
She doesn't stay put, forcing the door of her car open and slipping through as she makes the rest of the journey to the hospital on foot. God had sent her a message. She conscripts the demon in her mind as she puts her phone away to chat with the Mirror Devil himself.
(Music: https://youtu.be/IoxpC2yDCvU )
Aiko (Hero name: Rosethorn) sits about in the recreation area of the hospital with her old classmate, Akagi (Hero name: Popsy), giving her some company. The two are quiet, Akagi doing her best to look like she hadn't been metaphorically dragged here by her friends wanting to chat with her.
"...So you're tellin' me Muscles is in a coma?" Akagi says, her eyes seeming to hate the artificial light blaring down on them.
"It's not a coma, not according to the Doctor at least. I know she'll wake up, but... I know this might sound hypocritical given the things we pulled at their age. I feel like they're going to fall into vigilantism. They're already getting hurt far more than they should, but using an iron fist won't help," the injured teacher says with uncharacteristic fear.
"Reminds me of you and Ryusei. I don't know what to say, Aiko. I haven't been good at this kind of stuff in years. You need a pep talk from someone?" Akagi says, confused.
"If you can manage it, I'd love to hear a speech from Popsy~" Aiko says with a wink, shaking her nervousness off for a moment despite the dour mood and placing a hand on Akagi's inner thigh.
"Right, right, let me jump on the table and start my song and dance like the good old days," Akagi says sarcastically as she starts to unbutton her shirt before she looks away when sees a familiar foreigner. An American in a long skirt and a tight knit sweater which pressed up against well developed breasts, her long brown hair wet as it seems she just got done wringing her skirt out in a bathroom. She asks a nurse in her barely functional Japanese where Christopher Cain's room is and is told to wait while the nurse makes sure he's awake and she's on the visitors list. She sits down, seeming to try and avoid the hero teacher and her unreliable conversation partner.
"McCathy! Hello!" Rosethorn says as she puts on a mask of happiness, something Akagi can see through. The tired clown hero can see concern as she wheels over to one of her problem students.
"Oh, hey, Sensei," Sally says, using an offered towel to dry her hair. "I heard some villains did this to you, Chris, and Kaylee."
"Yes, but I have enough time to dwell on that. I wanted to tell you I'm impressed with how you and the whole class helped out with preventing the summer festival from becoming a tragic affair," Rosethorn says with a radiant smile that seems to fill the American with relief. Akagi can see the technique being used here: a compliment sandwich, which means something more serious she needs a disarmed Sally to answer is coming.
"Thanks. I didn't really know what else I could do. I'm just glad the cops were understanding..." Sally says with awkward relief as she rubs the back of her head.
"It is quite a bad day to visit on your own, though; you must have been really motivated to visit," Rosethorn says, her act working as Sally nods.
"I just figured it would be rude not to, especially with... Kaylee like she is," Sally says as she looks away, her right hand going into her aiming position for a moment accompanied by a look of anger. A flame on wet gunpowder. It's a look Akagi recognizes and can sympathize with.
"Kid... I know how you're feeling. Kicking yourself, but that ain't gonna do anything now. The moment's already passed. There's nothing you can do but keep studying so when you get to work you can stop stuff like this from happening," Akagi says.
Yeah," Sally says before looking up at the blonde woman. "You're the lady from the beach! Popsy, right?"
"...Yeah," Akagi says, the name bringing the weight of her job back into her mind: The job she can't quite do.
"Thanks for giving me cover," Sally says with a genuine smile. "I'm not good enough to shoot while wounded. Broad Daylight might have gotten away if I didn't do anything..."
Rosethorn nods: "You're improving a lot! Even your Japanese is much, much better. If you go to talk to Cain, make sure to use your Japanese, okay?"
Sally nods as the nurse comes back, informing her that it's okay to see her classmate. She waves the women goodbye with a practiced, gentle smile.
"...You think she's hiding something?" Akagi asks quietly.
"She always is, but the fact she's putting more effort into lying about it is more concerning," Aiko says, her smile dropping. "And with her situation, she has more than me judging her case."
(Music: https://youtu.be/w4aUSyVXUbA )
Christopher Cain rubs his eyes as Sally comes in and sits by his bed. His roommate, the Hero Smokin' Sexy, is out of the room for a rehab session. He's thankful he has privacy, given his rough relationship with the infamously volatile Gun Nun. She digs up a drawing inside a plastic bag depicting a license plate number from her bag. Her gaze is one she often wears during practice or combat training: Steely and alert as she puts the drawing in his hands.
Chris looks at it, trying to figure out why she's showing him this, and looks back up at the girl.
"{...Any reason in particular why you've given me a drawing of a license plate?}"
Sally considers her words carefully, trying to think in Japanese and clearly straining herself: "...I visited Orochi in here a while back, then went to pray for her... and everyone for that matter. After the license exams, I was... blowing off steam cause Hoge ran off to let me get beat up by some guy... the European guy..." Sally strains to think of his name in her scattered thoughts.
"Impakt," Chris quickly corrects.
"I knew it from your notebooks; I just needed time to remember it!" She snaps a bit before taking a deep breath.
"...Anyways, some guy with a .50 cal and .45 shot at me and tested my tactical reflexes. Knew all about me too. Called himself Desolator. I saw him at the festival too... was seconds away from... from..." Sally struggles with her Japanese.
Chris waits for the girl to finish, already grabbing a notepad at the mere mention of Desolator.
"{I was going to blow his fucking head off. He wants me to be his student, some kind of assassin for hire,}" she says in English, gritting her teeth in anger.
"...Go on," Chris says quietly, praying that Popsy was keeping Rosethorn occupied enough to not listen to them. And judging by the moans coming from Rosethorn's room, she was.
"Yeah. After I visited Orochi, I saw him at Kawaramachi Church. He got a briefcase from someone and left in a car."
Sally sighs and looks Chris dead in the eye: "I don't know how to trace this, but you're the smartest kid in class behind Hoge, and there's no way in hell she would not rat me out for asking her to help find this fucker and get him to leave me out of his plans."
Chris looks at the drawing with determination. Despite his wounds, despite his failure to capitalize on the situation he'd made to catch the man who killed his mother, he was being given a third chance. Not only that, but Sally's quirk was a hard counter to Desolator's reliance on firearms, not to mention the fact she was considered too deadly in a fight to even be in the tournament.
He looks at her with grim resolve. "...I can work with this. When I'm back at school, we don't speak of this unless we get in way over our heads or both of us are sharing an expulsion."
"...In my case, it's an extradition..." Sally mutters.
Chris cocks his head at the cagey American's words, daring to ask despite having seen many get warning shots for trying the same thing: "...I get if you don't want to talk about it, but if you're in this with me, you may as well lay your cards on the table, Sally," he says in a compassionate voice.
Sally can feel rounds forming in her arm. Naked ones designed for killing, as a defensive response, one she has to fight to not get kicked out of the hospital for firing off her quirk: "{...I'm not here cause I'm some talented genius here to get a leg-up. I... I fucked up really bad. God's grace was being able to prove myself capable of being a hero... whatever the hell that means.}"
Chris tries to look at the girl with welcoming eyes, but the investigator in him says to push her while the tough, trigger-happy part of her is out for lunch. A more compassionate part of him knows even talking about this hurts her and reminds her of trauma she wants to leave buried.
"{...What'd you do?}" he asks in a slightly stilted way, both parts of him mixing the sentence into a slurry of both approaches.
The Gun Nun looks toward the Mirror Devil with an expression that's clinging to any hint of kindness she can find. "{I... I killed two people walking home one night, from a prayer vigil. They were robbers... but... I shot first, and I didn't have a license... W-Wounded the third...}" she says, the scene coming back to her, real as her worst dreams.
"{Windrider... said he knew someone... in Shiketsu... got me in... The town protested for a commuted sentence... We settled with the judge to send me over here to learn to control... my quirk.}"
Sally covers her eyes as she notices tears, wiping them away with her damp sweater.
"{I'm not a murderer... I won't be tempted by it. If I fuck up, even once, it's juvie or worse back in the USA. I'll never be anything more than an unstable murderer. I won't let that... that bastard tempt me.}"
Sally tries to look tough, gritting her teeth as her tears fall. "{Whatever you need from me to get him as far away from me as possible, to convince him I'm not his second generation assassin, I will do it,}" she says as she desperately tries to gather herself.
Chris is quiet, reminding himself to update his Sally Binder ASAP through his renewed anger. Sally is quiet as she looks away from the boy, expecting his judgment on her sins. He simply looks toward her.
"{I have a score to settle with him too. Don't get anyone involved in this without telling me in person, okay?}" he says.
Sally nods. "{I'll pray for us, that God is with us when we find what we're looking for,}" she says before standing up and gathering herself, the rain still falling outside as she leaves her classmate.
(Music: https://youtu.be/XS47vpGd6Ck)
As soon as the boy was allowed out of the hospital, he and Sally met at Kyoto's DMV office, the line spilling out the door despite the presence of automated consoles that would process smaller claims. Sally groans as she and Chris wait in line, playing with her hair, listening to music... anything to keep the intrusive thoughts away. She imagined someone storming in to stop them from looking the number up. A fight where they were forced to show their hand. She glances over at Chris, who, even out of school, obsessively takes notes and strategizes. Even while listening to hymns and familiar rock songs, a sense of dread fills her.
The demon inside says this is all too easy, and the rest of her can't shake that idea as they slowly inch up through the line, up to a lady from her church on shift and working the desk. Chris handles the formalities but runs into a snag.
"I'm sorry, sir... I can't give you that kind of information without asking why you need it," She says.
Chris has to bite his tongue to avoid the truth spilling out. Sally steps forward and speaks up. "Yamaguchi-san, can we... talk in private about this?"
The woman adopts a whole different expression as she looks around for her supervisor, and seeing that the coast is clear, she lets Sally and Chris into the back. She opens a small, empty office and flicks the lights on. "What do you two need to know the owner of this vehicle for?" she asks, attempting to mask worry with kindness.
"Because... he's stalking me, but I don't want to bring it to the police. A few warning shots will scare him off, and it will be the end of it," Sally says in a graceful and charming voice, something Chris had never heard out of her before, even when she spoke English.
The woman nods, seeming to have trouble saying no to the girl's omission of information to someone she knows well: "I... I suppose I can bend the rules for a sister in Christ. Just please do be careful, okay? You should really just call the police and get a restraining order..." she says as she walks them over to the database consoles, typing her credentials in and looking up the plate number.
Sally growls low. "I'll be fine," she insists as Chris looks toward the monitor, trying to parse the results of the search on where "Micheal Hilltop's" car was.
The rough, heavy man who ran the junkyard the two heros-in-training were led to by the querie lets them in with a chuckle, inviting them to sort through the scrap if they really want to look for the car. It didn't take long for them to find some of its pieces and see the license plate. Sally blows a hole in it, giving into her anger for a moment as Chris covers his ears to avoid the deafening scream of the Gun Nun's quirk.
"{Fuck! Bastard must have seen us coming!}" Sally says with fury.
"{Calm down! You're not gonna help anything by getting us kicked out of here, okay? There has to be some trace of him left here; just help me look!}"
"{And what if there's nothing!?}" Sally yells, gritting her teeth in anger.
"{Then we ask the guy who was working the dump when they found the car and work from there,}" Chris says as he starts carefully digging through scrap, with Sally helping despite it ruining her tights. As the two spend an hour digging through abanondoned metal, they manage to find something entirely out of place: A Russian passport. After translating the Cyrilic letters they get all of one useful clue: the owner.
Yuri Ivanov.
Sally looks to Chris, the both of them knowing this is the best their going to get out of the scrapyard.