"Hahahahahaha! Hahahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!" Laughing. Just non stop laughing. It was all she could hear as she tried to sleep. She wrapped the pillow around her head and stirred, but nothing could stop the echoing of his voice in her mind. Her initial crying quickly turned into anger, and she accidentally burned the pillow she gripped so hard. She screamed into the pillow and continued to struggle through the night.
Sasuke himself snuck out of his room to the training grounds and worked tirelessly on his techniques until he could barely move from exhaustion. His clothes were drenched in sweat and shuriken and kunai surrounded him. His palms were so sweaty that his sword slipped out of his hand. Although, images of his failure to put down Deidara and Sasori kept playing through his mind and he gritted his teeth as he struggled to his feet, ready to keep going.
At the same time, the artistic duo was enjoying another night of partying when Sasori checked his phone, "They should be arriving around now," Sasori turned his eyes to the crowd, and Deidara joined him.
"I already know that dick Hidan is gonna try and start something."
Sasori muttered, "And you always fall for it."
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
They spotted a brown-haired head standing above the crowd wearing a mask, and next to him was a white-haired man with his hair slicked back. They both wore tuxedos and approached them.
Hidan smiled, "Yo! You guys look different..."
Deidara replied, "Cause these are disguises, dumbass!"
Hidan laughed, "I'm a dumbass yet you're the one who got your identities exposed! Ha!"
Deidara stood up, but Sasori got between them and put his hands up. "Gentleman, tonight is a good night to enjoy ourselves. Let's not ruin it over petty things, and yes Kakazu, I can see the greed in your eyes. You'll get your money."
Kakazu averted his gaze, "Good."
Deidara adjusted his collar and the four of them sat down at a round table. Hidan said, "Y'all hear about that broad that got out of Tartarus recently? You think AFO could do something like that?"
Kakazu's face palmed, "You're so retarded."
Deidara added, "That's what I always say!"
Hidan snapped back, "What's wrong with what I said!?"
Sasori said, "I'm partially surprised they didn't try to have AFO executed as soon as possible."
Kakazu replied, "They likely want info out of him, but they aren't getting anything from the boss."
Sasori asked, "What's up with Shigaraki's group? I remember AFO putting a lot of faith in them, but I haven't heard anything from them in a long time."
Hidan answered, "They've been fighting that huge fucking monster Gigantomachia for a few weeks now."
The artistic duo shared mutual surprise. Deidara asked, "Why? Gigantomachia was on our side last we checked."
Hidan shrugged, "Hell if I know."
Deidara grunted, "Is there anything you know? Hm?"
Before Hidan could respond, Kakazu interjected, "Topic change. So how long are we supposed to stick around here?"
Sasori answered, "Just a couple of weeks before we move."
"Good. I have other jobs waiting on me."
Hidan's gaze traveled around the room until he saw some people gambling with tokens. "Hey guys, let's go gambling!"
Kakazu glared, "Why would I risk losing money?"
Hidan shook his head, "This is why you'll never make it big, Kakazu. Don't you read statistics? I'm a scholar on the damn topic! 90% of gamblers quit before making it big!"
Deidara blurted out, "That's a meme, not a statistic, you idiot!"
Sasori facepalmed, "Maybe I should just go to sleep."
The next day, Class 1-A went about their normal classes more quietly than usual. As Aizawa taught a lesson, the door opened, and everyone turned to see Mina, who had bags under her eyes. Aizawa paused, "Mina... you don't have to attend classes this week."
"No. It's fine." She walked to her normal seat and sat down. A lot of the class side-eyed her and Aizawa cleared his throat.
"Back to the lesson then! Turn to page 88."
Mina loosely followed the lesson. Her usual doodling in her notebook was nowhere to be seen as she just went with the flow, occasionally forcing a smile when a concerned glance turned her way.
Once it was lunchtime, everyone besides Sasuke made their way to the cafeteria and Mina got a smaller plate than usual before sitting next to the rest of the class. Almost everyone's eyes were on her as she slowly ate. The only ones to focus on their thing were Todoroki and Bakugo. She frowned, "Could you guys just act normal and not ogle at me?"
They returned to their normal conversations and Kirishima awkwardly cleared his throat, "Have you been feeling better?"
"... Yeah. I'll be fine." She played with her food with her fork.
Some of the girls awkwardly swapped glaces at each other and Hagakure mentioned, "Oh, did you guys hear about the new dancing game at the arcade? How about we have a get-together and check it out."
Mina's head perked up, "Yeah, that would be"— The thought of dancing had reminded her of the Cultural Festival and everything that happened after. Her fork scraped against the plate and she accidently snapped off one of the ends as she felt something hot build up in her. "Maybe another time."
The students winced at the sound and silence fell over them again. After a pause, Mina stood up and left with a clenched fist, "Sorry about that." Her previously hollow voice held anger this time as she left.
Later in the day, after Endeavor had a climactic fight with the High-End Nomu, Hawks made a call. A woman answered the phone, "Hello?"
"Hey, Hawks here."
She drew a sharp breath, "No! I thought I said that would be a one-time thing!"
"You did, but some complicated things happened. Have you heard about what happened with the UA student's parents?"
"I did, and it's awful, but I don't want Hakari involved in any of that stuff!"
"Miss... I get that, but this is serious. The person who bombed the student's house could target another student at any time if we aren't able to locate him fast enough."
"Then locate him! You don't need to put my son in danger for that."
"Miss... we both saw how your son acted when he helped me track down Madam President. He's gonna want to do things like this more in the future no matter what. At the very least, we can give him a safe outlet to do it without him getting in trouble on his own in the future. Was there any danger when I took you two last time?"
"... No."
"Exactly! So please... let your son help us."
After a long pause, she sighed, "Fine. When are you coming."
Hawks smiled and rubbed the back of his head. "Thank you. And about that... I personally can't come, so Lady Nagant will take care of it for me."
She scoffed, "The woman you just got out of Tartarus?! Are you serious?!"
"I know that sounds bad, but I trust her with my life. It'll be fine."
"... I better be compensated more than last time for this."
"I'll make sure to wire you twice as much as last time."
She sighed, "Fine…"
Later, after the sunset, Nagant traveled with the boy who followed where his finger pointed.
It was more quiet than usual and he had a constant blush. She asked, "Are you cold?"
"No... you're just really pretty."
"Oh, haha thank you!" She smiled and the boy stopped walking as he closed his eyes.
She asked, "What's up?"
"They're on a... big rich people boat."
"A yacht?" She looked around at the buildings that surrounded them. "We're like 5 kilometers from the nearest docks."
"They're on a yacht! Near a... ferris wheel."
Her eyes widened, "Alright, I believe you... the nearest amusement park is near Yoshimura Docks. Are you saying that's what you see?"
He opened his eyes and nodded. She started leading the way to the docks and she asked, "Could you always do that?"
"Do what?"
"See the place in your head."
He shook his head, "No... I just felt like I should close my eyes and I'd get my answer just now."
Nagant fell silent, 'This boy's quirk is maturing... Unlike his father, he can see the location of an exact place from 5 kilometers away? I wonder what his quirk will be like once it's fully matured.'
Soon enough, they saw the ocean and the only Yacht that was docked there. "You're sure that's where Deidara and Sasori are?"
Hakari nodded and she gave him a high-five, "Good job." She thought, 'So that's where you've been hiding... I'll have to come back tomorrow, but your end is coming soon.'
The next day, at UA, the lockdown was lifted, and Mina walked through the halls alone when she saw Jiro with her parents around a corner. "Me and your father were so worried about you!"
"Yeah..."
"Are you sure you still wanna go to this school? We can pull you out."
"What? No, of course I want to stay!"
Her parents hugged her, "We're just worried about you. If you ever feel scared or anything you can always come to us."
Mina turned and stomped her way to the training room. Any feeling of hollowness disappeared as she remembered her own parent's hugs, their smiles, their bad jokes, everything she had lost. A hot feeling bubbled up inside her, and once she reached the training room, she let out her anger on targets and the earth pillars. Grunting as she melted through them with ease causing them to collapse to the ground in a cloud of dust. She did this for so long that her skin became discolored from overusing her quirk.
"Mina."
She whirled around to see Sasuke standing there. He could see that her hair was more messy than usual and she glared at him, "What?"
"You're overusing your quirk."
She turned away, "Leave me alone. I'll be fine."
Sasuke stepped closer and put a hand on her shoulder, "No you won't. Let me help you"—
—She swatted his hand away and turned back to him, "Help me? Help me?! It sure would have helped me if you could have killed that bastard the first time around!" She jabbed a finger in his chest, "I wouldn't even be in this situation right now if you weren't such a stuck-up asshole refusing to use part of your own power!" She shoved him as acid residue on her hands burned his shirt.
"Mina—"
—"Shut the fuck up!" Her voice was venomous and she threw acid at him. He instinctively manifested a ribcage that blocked the acid but melted instantly. "They'd still be alive if you could have just used everything you had, but no! I guess your shitty pride was more important than their lives!"
"I'm not gonna fight you!" He stayed on the defensive weaving her attacks, but her aggression was relentless.
"You're such an asshole!" Her eyes became watery and she went to grab Sasuke's collar. He tried to block it with a ribcage, but she melted through it like paper and threw him on the ground, getting on top of him. Her voice was shaky but loud as she gripped him by the collar, "All of this cause I saved your dumbass! He waited until I was right there to see it!" Tears streamed down her face as Sasuke's own eyes were blocked by his hair, "I could see them right there through the window! And in seconds they... they..." she broke down and her grip loosened as she bawled in Sasuke's chest.
Sasuke blinked, but slowly wrapped his arms around her as she cried. "It's just… So painful…"
"... There's no worse feeling."
She sniffled, "I'm sorry… for saying all those things..."
"... Don't be."
After a while, she stopped crying and said, "I keep hearing it... his mocking laugh. Every night he's just laughing at me..." Her grip tightened and Sasuke frowned at the mention of him. "I thought that I could feel better if I just tried to go back to normal... but..." She recalled seeing Jiro with her own parents. "There's no "normal" to go back to... not right now at least." she got off him and sat up, making eye contact with him while he sat up. There was a long pause, and Sasuke couldn't help but feel like he was staring into a mirror when he observed her gaze.
"He's probably having the time of his life celebrating right now... while I'm here suffering..." she put a hand on her chest and looked away, "I can't accept that... I don't want to feel useless anymore... I don't want to just cry and be pitied... I want..." She made eye contact again. "I need him dead, Sasuke."
Silence befell them both as Sasuke's heart stirred, recalling how he'd felt over the past 7 years that his parent's killers had roamed free. He felt as if there was only one thing he could say as he placed his hand on Mina's and sat up, "Then we'll kill them."
Her eyes lit up slightly, "You won't try to stop me?"
"I'd be a hypocrite to do that... and Mina, I promise... no matter what it takes, they'll die this time," Sasuke himself didn't notice, but his left eye took on a purple ringed pattern.