Chapter Text
Chapter Nine:
Strength
They were up in the air for only a minute perhaps, but it was one of the longest minutes Rin had ever experienced.
Although not her most prominent concern, now that the sun had gone down the air had grown chilly and as high as they were, and as fast as they were going with the wind whipping around them, it was freezing. In moments she could barely feel her fingers as she clutched at the tight fabric of All Might’s costume.
“Miss Hajime, I said close your eyes and mouth!” All Might said with a slight grunt as he landed briefly on the rooftop of a high building before taking off again.
“Fuck!” she responded, her eyes streaming from the cold and wind. Apparently, he didn’t have anything suitable to reply with.
She did close her eyes and lower her head a little for the remainder of the trip, which helped with the cold and wind, but did nothing for the feeling of intense vertigo. Landing didn’t turn out to be much of an improvement either, given they were landing in the middle of a chaotic situation, a burning building at the center of it.
All Might lowered her to the ground carefully, but as soon as her feet touched it and his grip on her released, her legs folded under her as she succumbed to the gravity that, as far as she was concerned, had completely abandoned her moments before.
“Apologies,” All Might said. As the spots vanished from her eyes, she became vaguely aware that he was trying to help her up. “If there had been more time I wouldn’t have-”
“Don’t touch me,” she said quickly, interrupting whatever he had been about to say. He ceased in his attempt and slowly withdrew.
“Okay…” he said.
She got to her feet, her legs still trembling and got her first good look at her surroundings. It didn’t improve things for her very much. The theater itself was…hazy. Rin had never seen a burning building outside of the news or movies and therefore had no frame of reference as to what it should look like, but the mind conjured up images of bright flames dancing in the windows and billowing smoke. In reality the theater was a dark shape in a weird orange haze, stuck in its own soupy fog, which grew thicker as the heat from the fire touched the cool autumn air.
They’d landed in the center of an area barricaded off from civilians. There were a handful of police officers within the barrier, some of them holding back dozens of onlookers. And thanks to the #1 hero, Japan’s symbol of peace, with his bright bullseye of a costume, she suddenly found herself in the center of that attention. At the best of times Rin tried to avoid crowds. This…this was a nightmare…except even her paranoid brain would have never conjured up this scenario as a possibility. Years of avoiding using her quirk, attempting to be normal, with her only real ambition in life to leave as little of an impact as possible and here she was…and she had an audience. Rin felt her mouth go dry, or rather drier. The trip there had already left her feeling as if she’d been trying to eat sandpaper.
Ahead of her she saw a man break away from a couple of police officers and a few people in ridiculous enough clothing so that it was obvious they were probably pro heroes. The man was wearing work clothes and a trench coat. Apart from that he looked…ordinary…clean cut, average build, somewhat attractive in a normal, almost dull kind of way. He approached, casting a wary look at her.
“Tsukauchi! Glad you could make it!” All Might said loudly before leaving her side and meeting the man halfway. In other circumstances, she might have felt relief at his absence, but it left her exposed and she could feel eyes on her; questioning, confused, curious eyes.
They were far enough away that she couldn’t clearly hear the conversation All Might was having, but she nevertheless was able to get a pretty good impression of the tone of the conversation. The man, who she decided was probably the sort of policeman who was high enough in the ranks to not need a uniform was wearing an expression similar to what Kaiya wore when she was chastising her. She did catch the tail end of their talk when the officer rose his voice.
“-too reckless…I know your opinions about priority and heroism, but we have these laws for a reason!”
All Might said something she couldn’t hear in response. The man sighed, cast her a brief look and then after a moment his frustration turned to weariness.
“I’m not making any promises,” he said before heading back to the small group. All Might turned back to her, his hands resting on his hips, his smile in place as if it had never faltered earlier.
“Come Miss Hajime! No time to waste!”
Rin felt a bitterness settle into her stomach. She had a moment where she seriously considered making a run for it; simply ducking under the tape the police had put up and vanishing into the crowd of onlookers.
‘No, that doesn’t work with All Might, remember?’ offered the infuriatingly logical portion of her brain.
She thought her legs weren’t going to comply when she tried to move forward, but after a couple of attempts, she managed to propel herself towards All Might and the police. She stopped just short of the small group, purposefully ignoring All Might’s smile as she tried to follow the conversation, despite the intermittent screaming and cursing that was dominating her internal thoughts.
“-If we remove the oxygen from much of the building, the fire should die down enough so that we can enter carefully and get to the people who are trapped inside,” the detective was saying, Tsukauchi…that’s what All Might had called him.
Detective Tsukauchi was the one who was doing most of the speaking. He looked worried and he didn’t look especially happy about the situation. In this, at least, she could relate. There was another police officer who offered occasional comments and there were a couple of pro heroes, all of whom were listening carefully, apart from one, who made Rin nervous, or more nervous…because as the detective was speaking, she could feel his eyes on her.
Rin herself said nothing and was standing in a way that was giving off the opposite of confidence; slouching, with her arms crossed so tightly that her chest ached, and her teeth and legs clenched to avoid any excess shaking. She was basically attempting to tuck into herself as much as possible and was far too overwhelmed to rectify this, even as she was aware that she was doing it.
“Wait, so…she doesn’t have a hero license?” This came from the pro who had been staring at her.
“A problem for sure,” Tsukauchi said after a moment of hesitation. There was a slight edge in his voice, but as he continued it faded a bit. “But there have been precedents and the plan does seem pretty low risk to her.”
“I don’t think we have a choice; we need to do something fast. If she can remove the oxygen and you and All Might think she can do it from a safe distance, I say we do it and deal with the paperwork later,” the other officer said.
“Agreed,” another pro said. “We can argue about the law all day, but there isn’t going to be a building left if we don’t act soon.”
During those intervals when she was able to pay attention to the words being said, she began to feel mounting unease. Rin had never received professional training for her quirk, but when it had manifested, she had been coached rather extensively by her father and this coaching had lasted up until his arrest when she was thirteen. The lessons had been harsh and often painful. When she didn’t do what he wanted, he’d punish her by using his own quirk on her. He often did this when she wasn’t expecting it and had once even removed the oxygen from her bedroom while she was sleeping. Even Kaiya didn’t hear much about her childhood, mainly because she tried very hard not to think about it.
Her father had by no means been a good teacher and had neglected any insights into using her quirk safely, or in any way that didn’t involve its worse possible applications. Nevertheless, she still managed to get a pretty good handle on what her quirk was capable of. After her father’s arrest, she didn’t use it very much, but it wasn’t because she didn’t know how.
She hadn’t stopped to think about what All Might exactly wanted her to do. She hadn’t stopped to think about much of anything, really. Still, even allowing for the fact that she was only picking up snippets of what was being said by the officers and the pros, it was enough to know that this was a bad plan. As far as she was concerned, any plan involving her using her quirk was, but in this case, it was a bad plan because it wouldn’t work.
“Are you completely stupid,” she heard a voice say…before realizing it was her own. The only person in the small group that didn’t react was All Might himself, even though she was directing the statement at him. The detective also had a much milder reaction then the other police officer and the pro heroes, who’s expressions ranged from surprised to affronted.
“You have concerns, Miss Hajime?” All Might said before anyone else could interject. Suddenly everyone’s attention was on her.
“I can’t just…I mean I don’t…” she stammered for a moment, trying to force the words out. “I can’t just take the oxygen from the building; I mean I could…maybe…I’ve never done an area that large but…I mean even if I can…I can’t do that!” God why were words so hard!?
“What?” The other officer said after a moment.
“You’re worried about your ability to use your quirk at this scale?” All Might attempted.
“No, you idiot,” she said before she could stop herself. “I can’t just remove the oxygen from the whole building if there are people in there…the people will suffocate before the fire does!”
Again, it was difficult to observe a significant change to All Might’s indecipherable expression. His heavily shadowed eyes were on her, but it was impossible to know what he was thinking. The detective appeared visibly frustrated by the information, however.
XXX
“What you’re saying is there is no safe way to approach the situation,” Detective Tsukauchi said finally. Unlike his friend, Tsukauchi was not especially impulsive. He was aware that the building was burning and that they didn’t have much time to stand around, but he felt that a little planning could save time and lives later, and he believed that the laws were, for the most part there for a reason. It wasn’t that All Might didn’t believe in this, he just had a hierarchy of priorities that often put the law slightly below heroism in general…especially when it came to paperwork. Still, surely even he wouldn’t ask a civilian to go into a burning building. His friend had a bad habit of not considering his own safety, but he did consider the safety of others.
After a moment the other police officer spoke.
“Are we…are we still going through with this plan?”
Tsukauchi frowned and turned to All Might, who hadn’t yet spoken.
“All Might…”
“No,” All Might said finally. “Tsukauchi is right. It’s too dangerous. I’ll go in myself,” he said before looking towards the theater.
Tsukauchi felt a mixture of relief and concern, because while he was completely baffled by All Might’s decision to bring this random young woman into a high risk situation, not using her did mean that they were back at square one, with All Might, his friend, heading into a situation that he felt had been designed to lure the hero in. He could only hope that this villain was underestimating the man, as so many had done before.
“You may want to take this one a little slower,” Tsukauchi said out of the corner of his mouth to All Might. “I know it isn’t a strength of yours,” he added with a worried smile.
Before the older man could answer, however, the girl, Rin, who had stood in a state of discomfort before her outburst, pushed past a pro who seemed to be attempting to escort her towards the rest of the civilians and stopped in front of them, fuming.
“Hey! Are you fucking kidding me?” she directed at All Might. To the casual onlooker, his smile didn’t waver. Tsukauchi had gotten a little better at accurately reading his friend’s expressions, however, even in this form and could pick up the slight bewilderment.
“Sorry?”
“You…this…we flew…we’re five miles away from my apartment!”
“Er,” he started, before being interrupted again.
“I don’t have my keys, or my wallet…you just… what am I supposed to do…walk all the way back because you apparently had no plan and don’t know how fire works!?”
The other officer, who had watched the exchange decided to interject at that moment.
“It would be easier with her help. The employee access area at the back of the theater seems less effected then the main entrance. Perhaps she could just clear a path to the center?”
Tsukauchi looked sideways at All Might, who seemed to be thinking this over.
“Miss Hajime,” he said finally, turning back to the young woman. “Are you certain you wish to do this?”
She didn’t look sure, in fact, at his question a look of terror mingled with her rage for a moment and she swallowed hard before the anger came back in full. It was unclear as to what exactly was driving Rin Hajime forward. If it was indeed just not having the keys to her apartment, then her own priorities were even more baffling then All Might’s. It was far more evident what was driving All Might himself to changing his mind however as beneath his booming confident voice was a hint of admiration.
“All Might, asking a civilian to go into a burning building is no longer just skirting the law, at the very least there are going to be-”
“I’ll take responsibility,” All Might interrupted. Tsukauchi frowned and rubbed at his forehead, not least because he knew at this point there was no arguing it.
All Might had many excellent qualities, but he could also be infuriatingly stubborn sometimes. He was also hopelessly idealistic, which was, for the most part, a good thing. If he hadn’t been, then the symbol of peace would have never existed. It could be troublesome as a law enforcer though. After a moment, the detective sighed, defeated.
“Fine, but you’re doing your own paperwork on this one,” he said.
XXX
Rin wasn’t a stranger to difficult situations, although she had been able to put time and careful selective repression between her and some of those situations. One important factor, however, was that in every previous high stress situation Rin had been in, she either hadn’t had time to think…or hadn’t had a choice. Having both was proving to be a great hindrance.
The trip there and the conversation between the officers and pro heroes hadn’t taken very long, minutes at best, although parts of it had felt like it had taken longer. Even so, she hadn’t had much time to process anything because she had been too overwhelmed. Even her initial decision at the apartment and her anger had been a result of acting on her nerves.
Now as they prepared to enter the building, she was starting to come down a little. Oblivious to Tsukauchi’s own musings, she was a bit unclear herself as to why she’d even decided to do this in the first place. Guilt? Temporary insanity? Some misplaced desire to prove something? Probably not because of her keys.
There were no firetrucks or ambulances, although apparently both were on their way. Because of this they didn’t have proper equipment. In the brief time they’d had before her and All Might arrived, the police managed to come up with a couple of small respiratory masks of the sort that had a built-in air filter.
Detective Tsukauchi gave her one and it reminded her that in addition to forgetting her keys, wallet and any sort of proper attire, as she was essentially wearing loungewear under her jacket, she had also completely failed to bring her inhaler. She eyed the mask gloomily before pulling it over her head so that it was hanging around her neck.
He handed one to All Might as well, in addition to a radio, saying something quietly to him as the big hero stored both on his belt.
“Miss Hajime,” All Might said, after the detective broke away. “When we enter the building, I must insist that you stay near me at all times,” Rin eyed him warily as he continued. “If at any point things grow too dangerous, we’ll exit at once.”
When she didn’t answer, All Might leaned forward slightly, removing one hand from his hip and cupping it against his ear with an exaggerated flourish. Rin leaned back and eyed him with exasperation.
“Come now, Miss Hajime. A simple ‘Yes, All Might,’ would make me feel a lot better!”
“Yes, fine,” she said through slightly gritted teeth.
“Good enough!” he said as he straightened again. “Now please stand back while I get the door!”
Rin scowled, but did take a few steps back as All Might ‘got the door.’ This involved removing it entirely from its hinges.
“I must be out of my mind,” Rin mumbled to herself. The detective caught Rin slightly off guard by giving her an encouraging smile.
“Don’t worry, he might be a bit reckless at times, but if there’s anyone in the world I would confidently follow into a burning building, it’s All Might,” he said. His smile dropped back into a more professional expression as he turned back to the large hero. “Radio when you think you’ve cleared a safe enough path and I’ll send people in to help you with the rescue.”
“Got it!” All Might said with a thumbs up, before setting the door aside and eyeing the interior briefly. He nodded and motioned for her to follow.
The side door entered a tearoom on the bottom floor of the theater. The air was thick, but not unbreathable as the actual fire had yet to spread to this portion of the building. There were cups and one or two half eaten pastries sitting on the sleek modern tables, showing that this room had most likely been evacuated shortly after the fire broke out. In normal circumstances it might have been a cheerful place to sit and have a cup of tea, but because of the silence, broken up only by unsettling creaking as the rest of the building corroded above and around it and a rushing sound that could have just been the wind, but probably wasn’t, the cheerful effect of the green wallpaper and framed images of a cutesy tea mascot offered little comfort.
There was a glass door leading to the rest of the theater. The hallway beyond was dark and filled with smoke. All Might touched the handle and then hissed below his breath, before pulling his hand away.
“Looks like things are going to heat up beyond this point. Ready?” All Might said.
“Let’s just…get this over with,” Rin replied, trying to push down the fear and uncertainty threatening to rush through her and paralyze her body. She’d deal with it later, after this was over, she could go home and drink and have a slow mental breakdown in the comfort of her own home. For now, she’d attempt to keep the terror in a little ball off to the side somewhere and just…try not to think about it.
“I always find a positive attitude and a smile do wonders for settling your nerves!” All Might said cheerfully while brandishing a stunning smile. Rin returned it with a scowl. “But I suppose we all deal with things in our own ways,” he added charitably. “Anyways, you’re up!”
Forgetting her annoyance for a moment Rin frowned as the big hero stepped out of the way of the door. As she approached it, she was painfully aware of All Might standing nearby, eyeing her patiently and still wearing that stupid smile. She started to hold her breath and then shivered a little.
“Go…over there,” she said to the big hero. He tilted his head slightly.
“Hmm?”
“Further back,” she said with some frustration. After a moment where it seemed as if he might question this, he gave her a thumbs up.
“Sure thing!” he said before moving a little further back. The man did everything with embellished flourishes. Even standing still, it looked like he was posing. Rin had seen him posturing on television before, but part of her assumed that it was some stupid overblown act for the camera. It seemed absurd to her that he found this behavior acceptable in a burning building with only her for company.
She tried to put this at the back of her head as she took a breath and held it. She also put her hands in front of her with her fingers out. This gesture was not necessary in order to use her abilities but helped if she was trying to be more precise.
She could feel the air in the room beyond, low enough so that breathing would be more difficult, but present enough to feed the flames that weren’t visible from her vantage point. She started to remove it carefully, sucking it through the cracks of the door. First, she took the air from in front of the door, then a few feet into the hallway beyond and then further down. She stopped there because she couldn’t hold her breath anymore. Before she gave in, however she dumped the oxygen into the room they were in. Too much oxygen in one place could cause its own problems, but the side door was open and the air in the room had already been a bit stale, so it more or less filled the corners of the space with little trouble.
She swallowed down a few breaths of air, feeling a worryingly familiar weight on her chest as she did. It was still minor at this point, but she was already regretting the lack of her inhaler.
“Amazing,” All Might said as he approached. “I can see your quirk has remarkable potential. How does it work exactly?” Rin ignored the compliment. Like the rest of him, it felt fake to her. Her quirk could be powerful, but flashy it was not. At best the only notable change from before was that the space they were in was slightly more habitable. He couldn’t have noticed that. Still, as she eyed him gloomily, she caught something in his expression before he gave up on an answer from her and turned back towards the door.
He’s smarter than he looks, she thought. She felt vaguely uneasy about this revelation. His behavior had been mostly ridiculous since they left her apartment. And she had to admit, especially with the more pressing concerns of the last twenty minutes or so, she had nearly forgotten to be afraid of him.
She was snapped out of these thoughts when the door made a terrible noise as All Might pushed it open. Like the side door, this one had also clearly been locked. He stepped back, covering his mouth and nose with his arm as he did.
“I doubt the police or evacuees sealed these doors,” he said after clearing his throat. “Let’s proceed cautiously!”
He was implying, what? That someone had willfully locked the doors in a burning building? Why? This was yet another thing she hadn’t had time to consider. There had been a couple of odd attacks in the city over the last couple of weeks. It hadn’t occurred to her that this might be one of them.
She could feel the oxygen slipping back into the hallway as she took a moment to place the mask the detective had given her over her mouth, for whatever good it did.
“I’m certain the entrance is ahead. There should be a way to get to the stage from there,” he said.
The corridor was narrow and dull, covered in framed photographs of various kabuki plays. As it began to open into a larger area, she could feel the air growing thick again. As if to confirm this, she heard All Might half cough, half clear his throat, before removing his own mask from his belt. Instead of pulling it over his head, he just held it up to his mouth and nose. Having been focusing on breathing slowly herself, she nearly ran into him as he stopped.
He eyed her briefly before lowering the mask again and proceeding slowly. As she followed, she began to understand the reality of being in a building that was on fire. The rushing from before grew louder, the air grew thick and was accompanied by a sharp chemical smell that made breathing what little oxygen there was unpleasant, and the temperature rose to the point where she found herself soaked in sweat after a few seconds.
The room beyond the hall did indeed look like an entrance. There were two levels, with the top level being open with a balcony that overlooked the room below. Both were in bad shape. Smoke made it difficult to see more than a few feet ahead, but it was obvious that there was debris everywhere and that most of it had come from above. The second level was an inferno. Rin stumbled backwards as she was hit by a blast of even more intense heat as a banner that had been hanging overhead shifted and fell to the floor below. She could vaguely make out the shape of All Might as he turned to look at her.
“Are you all right?” he asked, sounding slightly winded himself. Apparently even the Symbol of Peace was finding these breathing conditions slightly difficult.
It was difficult to hear anything over that heavy roaring sound, including him, even though he was so damn loud. But Rin could almost imagine she could hear voices, screaming, shouting…so indistinct that it would be impossible to tell if she were hearing anything at all. She shivered.
“Just…get out of the way,” she finally croaked out before forcing herself to approach the room again.
“Try to clear the room near those doors,” he said as he complied.
Rin took as deep a breath as she could in the circumstances and held it. This time when she activated her quirk, she did so without much of the care she’d employed the previous time, pulling the oxygen from the doors beneath the balcony and the balcony itself as quickly as possible. She wouldn’t be able to hold her breath long enough to do it any slower. The effect was more apparent as the flames seemed to be sucked out of existence, almost as if the world were being rewound.
She was considering where to put it so it wouldn’t just flow back, when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye on the upper level. It was still difficult to see, even with much of the fire being stifled, but she thought she saw a shadow detach from one corner. She lost sight of it as something creaked and then watched in horror as a large portion of the balcony separated from the wall. Startled, she sucked in a breath of air and for one terrible moment everything seemed to be both sharpened and happening in slow motion as the piece of balcony fell and the oxygen flooded back over the dying embers, causing them to explode back into life. She braced herself against the inevitable heat and pain.
Instead, she felt a brief jolt, not unlike the feeling of one’s stomach dropping while plunging down a steep fall and she found herself on the far side of room, opposite to where they’d entered, with All Might between her and the bulk of the heat. She nearly lost her balance as he withdrew a massive hand from her back before she’d even had time to process that it was there.
“That was close,” he said after a moment through gritted teeth, still managing to sound cheerful despite the fact that they had nearly been crushed by a flaming partition. As he rose to his full height again, she did notice that his smile appeared to be more of a grimace at this point, however. “Whatever you did…the fire is worse than before…”
He was right, not only was it worse, but the sudden burst of oxygen and flame had caused much of the upper floor to come down, blocking the far hallway. He appeared to think for a moment and then pushed past her to a door that connected to a giftshop. The door gave way to minimal force.
“In here,” he said. She saw no reason to argue. The air in the small room wasn’t a lot better than the rest of the building and she could hear a roaring sound from above, but for now it was at least not on fire.
“I didn’t mean…I didn’t do anything, I just…” Rin started with some frustration, realizing that she sounded as if she was being defensive, which was foolish. Because she’d fucked up with her quirk, their only safe exit was blocked, and the fire was spreading faster. Now was not the time to make excuses. Still, she felt compelled to add; “I thought I saw someone on the balcony.”
He turned to look behind him, scanning the upper floor. Or she assumed that was what he was doing. It was hard to tell with the deep shadows in his eyes.
“My current concern is finding a way to get to the people who are trapped,” he said after a pause, perhaps a bit of frustration entering his voice. As Rin eyed the room beyond, she realized she was feeling angry again. It didn’t take much reflection to realize that this time she was feeling angry at herself, however. “The doors to the main stage are too unstable now…even if you can clear…”
“I need somewhere to dump the oxygen,” she interrupted him, panting slightly as she tried to ignore the ever-increasing pressure in her chest. “I can’t use my quirk without holding my breath…I couldn’t hold my breath long enough to keep…the oxygen away from the fire.”
“You have to hold your breath to use your quirk?” he said. She glared at him. “Nothing! That’s unique!” he added quickly. “Hmm, Stay put for a second, I’m going to have a look around,” he said. Before she could say anything, he pushed back into the smoke of the fire.
XXX
As All Might headed back into the main part of the building, he tried to ignore the heat, the growing pain in his side and the ever-pressing urge to cough. He was going to pay for this later. The fire was indeed worse, but it was also still mostly overhead. This meant that the floor below was traversable, but also that parts of the upper floors were beginning to crumble.
Also, because the fire had been revived by the sudden burst of oxygen, the balcony above the doors into the entrance of the stage and the doors themselves were decaying fast. Even if he did get them open, it would be too dangerous to try to get people out through there and now that the hallway they’d come in through was blocked, they’d have nowhere to go.
‘Someone on the balcony,’ He thought and eyed it warily. He couldn’t see anything, but in the current conditions that wasn’t surprising. He’d worry about that later. Right now, he needed to find a way to reach the people still trapped inside.
He covered his face and after a brief look around, found an information desk near one of the walls. All Might pushed carefully past the bit of balcony that had fallen and approached it, finding what he was looking for on display. There were information pamphlets on the theater, complete with a helpful map on the back to inform theatergoers of seating numbers and the locations of the tearoom, bar and giftshop. Thankfully, there were a handful that hadn’t been singed. He pulled out one and eyed it briefly, before turning back towards the giftshop while coughing a little into the small mask Tsukauchi had given him.
As he passed under the balcony again, he felt something wet hit the side of his face, like the first few raindrops before a storm.
He frowned and wiped at the moisture with the back of the hand he was holding the pamphlet in. Even in the smoke, the stark crimson color stood out against his skin. Blood…not his.
Before he had time to process this, he was overcome with an odd, extremely unpleasant feeling, as if every inch of his body and everything inside of it had suddenly turned against him. The closest he’d come to the sensation had been shortly after his injury, when multiple organs had been damaged and parts of him had been in danger of literally falling out through the hole in his stomach. Back then he had still forced himself to keep fighting, even as he lost blood and possibly even broken pieces of lung, stomach and intestine.
All Might had always had some level of self-control. It was necessary to maintain the image of the symbol of peace even as he was giving up everything to do so. It had been the driving force of his easy mastery of One for All. After his body started to wither, however self-control became a necessity as he forced his constantly weakening body into his hero form over and over and held it for as long as he could manage…sometimes longer. He had grown accustom to pushing his body past the pain and fatigue, both of which were just his default state of being now. This situation was no different and his reaction to it had little to do with rational thought.
No, came an internal voice, as he fought against the sensation in the same way someone might fight off a sneeze. There was brief resistance and then it was gone along with the pressure and the feeling like his insides were being squeezed. He coughed, tasting iron and moving his tongue over the roof of his mouth to stave off the immediate desire to vomit and the more worrying compulsion to transform back into his weaker form.
It took several seconds for this to pass. When it finally did, he eyed the balcony again and perhaps there was a shape detaching from one of the pillars, but it was hard to tell. He pulled himself together as best as he could in the circumstances, as he stumbled forward through the room and back towards where Rin was waiting.
When he returned, Rin was standing where he had left her. She had her arms crossed and was almost huddled against one of the walls. He forgot his own weariness for a moment as he felt a wave of instant frustration with himself. The building was still full of panicking civilians, and all he had managed to do so far was endanger one more.
He replaced the broken door as he entered, and she straightened a little. She’d been wearing the respiratory mask since they’d left the tearoom, so only her eyes were visible. He’d noticed in the park earlier that day that her eyes were so dark they were nearly black. Right now, it was difficult to read much of an expression in them.
“There’s an emergency exit nearby. The only one as a matter of fact, which seems a tad unsafe, if you ask me!” he said, wiping a few beads of sweat from his face and regaining some of his composure from before.
He wasn’t used to planning extensively while performing hero work, given his habit for reacting before his brain could interject. This situation required a little extra effort, however. Unlike Rin, he had paid pretty close attention to Tsukauchi’s briefing, as well as all of the details that might be pertinent for safely navigating the building. Tsukauchi had said the fire had been started on the second floor, presumably in one of the side rooms since it was still believed that the stage area at the center of the building wasn’t on fire…at least according to those frantic people who had managed to escape before the doors had been locked.
Naturally this meant that both upper floors were a no go. The second floor was on fire and the third floor was most likely completely unstable due to the floor below it being on fire. That left the floor they were on, which had three exits, two of which were now cut off and a stairwell that went to a basement level that had no exits. Their way out seemed fairly obvious. As for his way into the stage area? If the actual doorways were unstable, he could always make more.
That left Rin. He wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t wish to continue to use her quirk after what happened in the entrance, but as much as he was deeply regretting the fact, he needed her. And at this point it wasn’t just because he needed a safe exit in which to extract the people trapped inside the building, but because he could feel his time in his hero form running out. Whatever had happened a moment before under the balcony had shortened it. He’d been in burning buildings before and breathing in a burning building was hard enough for someone with youth and two healthy lungs. He had neither.
“You said your quirk moves oxygen from one place to another. When you used it before, you moved it into the room we were in, correct?” He said.
“Er, yes…” she said after a measured pause.
“Can you do it again?”
She nodded, but looked uncertain, clearly beginning to lose whatever motivation had propelled her into coming with him to begin with. All he could do was be himself. Even if his present company found himself infuriating, at least annoyance was better than fear.
“Fear not! We’ll be out of here in no time!” he said as he brandished a huge smile. “I have faith in you Miss Hajime, you’re doing great!” And if staying away from you is indeed your wish and is the only way to make this up to you, I’ll do it, he added to himself.
XXX
Rin stepped towards the door feeling exhausted. She had been trying not to wheeze into her mask for the last couple of minutes. She was beginning to accept the fact that a full blown asthma attack was going to fill her immediate future and all she could do was hope that she would be able to avoid it while also being trapped in a burning building. Because of this, the prospect of holding her breath for any length of time was not an attractive one. Nevertheless, she did so. She didn’t really have much of a choice.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. She probably did have a choice. But she was frustrated. She couldn't completely process what it was she was feeling in the circumstances, but one thing she knew for sure was that if she did stop at this point, her frustration with herself would only increase.
Rin pulled her mask off and reached out with her left hand, her fingers outstretched, feeling her lungs ache and the pressure on her chest increase as she once again activated her quirk. Like the previous time, she was far less careful, sucking the oxygen towards the doorway. This time she closed her eyes and covered her mouth and nose with her right hand, forcing herself to keep from breathing even as it became unbearable.
Outside of the small giftshop, selling it's paper masks and t-shirts the flames died down once more. As the air left the entryway the smoke itself also began to disperse. She was careful to keep it to just that room and the hallway beside it, avoiding pulling oxygen from beyond that.
“Easy,” she heard from behind her. She jumped, unaware that All Might had approached. His voice had dropped back into more normal tones. “That’s enough Miss Hajime, I wouldn’t want you to overdo it.”
Rin stepped back from him and the door, taking a breath. It was only a minor improvement however, as it felt like she was breathing through a straw.
He paused for a few moments, possibly waiting for her to catch her breath, or perhaps in order to ensure the fire was out before reintroducing oxygen into the room.
“Stay close,” All Might said as he removed the door again.
She followed him as he headed towards the hallway opposite of the side they entered on. It was in far worse shape. Rin could see that the ceiling was coming down at the far end of the corridor and the hallway itself was blocked in many places. All Might lifted some of this debris and carefully set it aside. True to what he had said, she could see the faint red light above an emergency exit. Near that was a stairwell. Because of her quirk both were now accessible.
XXX
Because it was an emergency exit, it would be as easy as pushing it open, which All Might did. Whoever had locked the other doors wouldn’t have had much success with this one. There was a moment of cool fresh air. He eyed Rin, who had replaced the mask again.
"Through here, Miss Hajime," he said cheerfully.
She eyed the doorway briefly before turning her weary eyes back to him.
"This goes outside," she said simply. She sounded tired and slightly winded, as if she were still trying to catch her breath.
"Yes! I have a plan!" he responded. She seemed too tired to argue this and ducked under his arm, stepping into the cool autumn air.
“Thank you for your assistance! I’ll take it from here!” She gave him a vaguely bewildered look but was unable to react much beyond that before he shut the door behind her. There was a very definite latching noise as the door’s automatic locks fell into place. It might be open from the inside, but from the outside it didn’t even have a handle. All Might headed back into the hall towards the stairwell.
According to the map, the basement had no exits and very little of note in it but a bathroom, and extensive storage space for theater supplies and costumes. But and this was important, it would have to run under the stage area, and even more importantly, would not be on fire. Generally, he tried to avoid structural damage as much as possible. With a little precision however, he could break through to the upper level with no danger of upsetting the building’s already tenuous structure and get the civilians out safely.
“Tsukauchi,” he said as he pulled his radio from his belt and pushed into the basement area.
“All Might,” the man answered. “What happened? Have you cleared a safe path?”
“Almost, there’s an emergency exit on the other side of the building,” he said as he eyed the map and moved towards the center of the room. “I need you to get as many officers and pros over there as you can.”
“All Might, that side of the building is on fire…we avoided that exit…”
“It’s less on fire now! Sorry, my friend, I need to break the ceiling a bit.”
“Break the…wait...” whatever else he was going to say was drowned out as All Might sent a short sharp punch upwards. His fist didn’t contact the ceiling itself, but it burst inward nevertheless from the shear force of his punch.
XXX
The people who were trapped inside the Ukiyo-za were huddled near the stage at the ground floor. The fire had indeed begun on the second floor, although exactly where it started was unclear. Possibly in the restaurant, or the shrine room or the lobby. Some would muse later that it might have started in multiple places simultaneously.
The people stuck in the theater had found themselves locked inside shortly after the play had begun. The room they were in had fire deterrents, but they were trivial in the face of the sheer force at which the fire had torn through the upper levels of the building, most of which was made of wood.
The balcony seats on the second and third floor caught fire first and were abandoned as some didn’t even bother to use the stairs as they jumped to the lower level. For a while they had screamed and pounded on the doors, but as time passed this began to cease, as the air in the room grew thin and the heat grew more intense.
One civilian, a young man named Kenzou, who had been there on a first date that hadn’t been going very well even before the building had caught fire, had spent the last five minutes or so sitting in one of the seats. He’d collapsed into it after he and many others had tried to get the doors open before ultimately giving up partly out of exhaustion and partly because the doors had become so unbearably hot that it was clear that even if they did manage to open them, the room on the other side was going to be even more deadly then the room they were in.
He could hear that some people were still shouting for help or trying to find a way out and he was amazed that they still had the energy. It was all he could do to not fall asleep.
Kenzou was not an exceptional young man. He had a low paying job in the post office, a position he had acquired mainly due to his ability to produce a weak form of adhesive from his finger tips...not strong enough to be of any use apart from say, sticking stamps to envelopes and labels to boxes...oh and making dating difficult because girls didn't seem to respond very well to the fact that his hands were always a bit sticky if he didn't constantly wash them. This theater outing was the most exceptional thing to happen to him in a long time and he would spend the next few weeks retelling his account of the experience to anyone who would listen.
The last thought he had, before the stage floor burst upwards was to resent the fact that he had paid so much for the seats up in the balcony, when the seat he was in seemed to be perfectly adequate and wouldn’t have set him back two paychecks. And then All Might was there.
XXX
By the time the police and the other pros were aiding in the rescue, ambulances began to roll in. As far as anyone could tell, there were no casualties, although some of the people inside the building were in critical condition because of the smoke and others had minor to severe burns.
The people who were in less terrible shape began to talk excitedly as they recovered in the fresh air and waited to be checked on by medics. Some of them were talking to the press, who like ants to a picnic had turned up at some point, recounting the story of All Might bursting through the floor and carrying many of the people who couldn’t stand or walk back out.
All Might himself was purposefully trying to avoid the press for the time being. He’d done most of hands on rescuing himself, as he could carry multiple people at once. Some had been able to walk out themselves and the police had mostly helped to direct them through the makeshift path, up the stairs and through the emergency exit, which was propped open. They’d managed to evacuate the building before the flames had moved back into the space that Rin had cleared.
Once the building was clear, All Might allowed himself a moment when he judged that attention was off of him. His lung hurt, his side hurt, and every breath felt sharp and unpleasant, as if he’d caught a bad chest cold. How much time did he have left? It should be a little over an hour and a half at least, but he felt it was probably closer to forty minutes and that was if he pushed himself.
He straightened and watched as the firetrucks finally began to role in. He would have to. He wasn’t done yet. Someone else had been inside the building. He’d briefly filled Tsukauchi in on this, leaving out the part where he had…fought off an attack? He wasn’t sure exactly what it had been, but he couldn’t worry about it now and he didn’t want to worry the other man either. At his warning the younger man had immediately ordered those officers not aiding in the rescue to keep a lookout at other exits.
All Mights shadowed eyes drifted from the emergency vehicles to the dark shape of his neighbor, sitting on a bench near a large advert for the degrading theater behind him, her respiratory mask cast aside. She was resting her head in her hand.
He still had work to do, but it could wait for a moment.
XXX
This was different from the attacks she sometimes had in the early morning. Those attacks weren’t because of her asthma, although they probably didn’t do it any favors and it was sometimes difficult to tell when one began and the other ended, but after years of having them on and off, she’d come to terms with the fact that those incidents were more mental than physical.
Actual asthma attacks were different. They were also different from what she’d experienced when her father used his quirk on her. Right now, however, as far as she was concerned the differences in all these things were minuscule. She couldn’t breathe. It was hard to weigh the intricacies of the various ways in which she hadn’t been able to breath throughout her lifetime to decide which was worse, when her lungs were refusing to do what they were supposed to.
“Miss Hajime is here!”
‘God, not him…not now.'
She was only vaguely aware of what was going on around her as she wheezed and fought against the darkness that was welling up as her brain threatened to lose consciousness. Because of this she didn’t notice All Might as he approached until he spoke and even then, his voice almost had a strange echoing quality. Oblivious to her internal thoughts, he continued.
“Thanks to your efforts the theater has been evacuated and…uh are you all right? Miss Hajime?”
“Please…just…” she started, between gasps of air.
She felt a change in the air and her world was filled with red and blue and white as All Might knelt in front of her.
“Miss Hajime! Rin!” His voice once again sounded strange and far away. Had he used her first name? No, she must be more fucked up then she thought.
“Can’t breathe…” she said finally. “…my inhaler,” she added. There was a pause where she could only hear her own breathing.
“Inhaler?” All Might said in response. “You have asthma? Shit!”
Even as she was gasping for air, she was able to dwell briefly on the fact that it was extremely weird to hear All Might curse for some reason. He stood up and moved out of her vision. After a couple of seconds, she raised her head a bit. He was a couple of feet away eyeing the ambulances that were tending to the victims of the fire. They clearly had their work cut out of them, with hundreds still waiting to be looked at.
When he turned back towards her his expression was odd, or rather, it wasn’t odd. His smile was odd, his expression now was more like his surprise in the coffee shop or the way he had looked in her apartment. It made him look more human.
He approached her again.
“I apologize Miss Hajime,” he said, before scooping her up in his arms. Rin didn’t have much strength to resist, but she nevertheless made a halfhearted attempt. It didn’t do her any good. She could tell that even at her best, it wouldn’t have done her any good.
“Wait…” was all she managed before she was once again subject to a rush of wind and vertigo. This time she couldn’t even shout because she didn’t have the air in which to do so. She gritted her teeth and fought against the even more persistent desire to faint.
At this point it would be an improvement, her mind offered.
She conceded and allowed herself to drift into a state of semi consciousness.