The moment my feet touched the ground Kei had his hand wrapped around my throat and he slammed me into the wall.

His eyes are calm and clear, his grip remains true. “I warned you.” I quickly swung my legs up, wrapping around his neck and we fell to the ground. I twisted, freeing myself and we sprung apart from each other.

“You’ve said as much.” I responded, creating a blade and tearing it from my hair. He held his hands out and a purple liquid oozed before forming two dual swords. His signature style. 

The hole above us closed and we were officially cut off from the others.

It’s fine.

Their mission is the girl. Mine has always been Kei.

Our eyes remained locked and we both sprung forwards, clashing blades. We continued to fight and I’m immediately eight years old, fighting him again down in the stone room.

Each of us fought with our might as father watched. Knowing full well that losing would only mean feeling his wrath again.

With each clash I kept flashing between then and now, making me fight even harder. 

There was a strange emotion flickering through his stormy blue eyes. Maybe he too is remembering the past.

How no matter how much time changed, we never truly did.

Thinking back on it, I was pitiful. When did I start thinking that? When did I start pitying myself? It must have been around half a year ago.

When I started at this school with all of them. As short as it was, it feels like a lifetime. 

Kei’s blades swing downward and I backflipped away, throwing a hidden knife which he easily deflected. Even with all that time spent there, my body remembers.

That’s why I can’t lose. I don’t want to go back to those days in that room. I don’t want to be anywhere near my father. I can’t go back there.

“Where is he?” I demanded, swinging my balde to his throat.

He barely twisted away, swinging his leg out and striking my ribs. I kept my feet planted and didn’t budge, continuing my assault.

Kei didn’t slow and his moves remained perfect. “Even if you were to know, what could you do? You know damn well as I do that not you or anybody else can stop him.” He morphed his blades together to a giant sword, making his hits stronger and pushing me back. 

I threw my sword at him before forming two small curved scythes, using them to change its direction.

He’s right. I know for a fact that he is. Even if I were to get the information to Kitsune, even if they raid him, they won’t be able to stop him.

Nobody can. Not as they are now.

But . . . there’s a new generation of Heroes. Of Heroes in training. Maybe . . . maybe they can. How would I know if they never get the chance to?

“Kiriya.” A shiver went down my spine as my fathers voice whispered in my head. In that moment of hesitation, Kei got a good hit on me, slicing at my side and flinging me to the side. I grunted as I hit the ground but rolled onto my feet and continued our fight.

Even though some part of me believes that this whole thing is pointless, I still want to try. No matter how unlikely.

My blade pierced into Kei’s shoulder making him grunt. I jumped up and planted my feet on his chest and kicked off, flinging him away.

I had thought I had an advantage, but something struck me in my back, making a stinging hot pain shoot through me.

I landed in a crouch and dropped one blade to reach around and feel my back.

Small, sharp shards stuck from my back. His damn quirk. I tore them out and jumped away again as Kei struck the ground where I once was. 

“We all have our missions.” I shrugged. He stood, abandoning his sword. The heavy item instantly liquified before evaporating into a poisonous mist.

I did my best not to breathe much. However I’ve gained enough resistance to the stuff.

While I can handle it, it is very lethal to others. Still, excessive amounts are gonna only hinder me later on in the battle.

The trick to fighting him is in a short battle. The same can be said about me. And that’s what makes our battles next to impossible.

We’re pretty well matched, we know each other's moves, we know each other's weaknesses, we just know everything about the other.

It’s hard to fight. 

But like always, we have to.

Regardless of the reason or the outcome, Kei and I will always be fighting with something higher on the line.

As we closed in on one another and struggled against each other's strength, Kei leaned in. “That’s the problem. We have the same mission and you continue to live delusionally."

The more we fought the harder it started and the more desperate we became.

Cuts and bruises were forming on us. It didn’t phase or slow us down though. Our training ensured that. 

I went to my knee and swung up, however he blocked it with a shield. “You forget I know all your moves!” He went to strike me but I was blocked.

And like I knew, weapons flew at me from behind which I deflected with my hair. “And you forget, I know all of yours too!” I stood up fast, slamming the top of my head into his chin, making him stumble back before throwing a right hook, nailing his jaw.

Just like Katsuki taught me in Junior High.

“That’s a little something new though.” I smirked, picking my blade again. 

His eyes flashed briefly before he concealed it, pulling back so as not to go into Berserker.

Our feet barely touched the ground as we fought down the hall, never fully paying attention to our surroundings. Only each other.

He swung from the side and I thought I could block, but my arm didn’t move high enough and the blade struck across my chest.

I tripped back and he slammed his arms into my body and threw me on the ground, making me bounce on the hard cement. Literally knocking the air out of me.

“And you’re out of practice.” He narrowed his eyes and slammed his leg down across my abdomen. 

Spots danced across my vision but my body didn’t fail me. I twisted underneath him and flipped him, slamming him next to me and watching his head bounce off the ground. He hissed in pain and we rolled away from each other, going into stance.

Unfortunately I can’t think of a long term plan because of the speed and intensity of the fight.

He’s not giving me a moment so I’m not giving him one either. I’m not sure how long we’ve been at it. But it’s draining. 

I can’t find the right opening. It’s always hard, but it’s not impossible. I’ve beaten Kei many times. We’re pretty evenly matched, so much so that just as much he bests me.

Really hope this isn’t one of those times.

Some help would be appreciated, but if even one of them tried to follow then Kei would have stopped them and it would have been too late to save the girl.

It had to be this way. I knew this would be a difficult task. It’s still annoying.

Downfall to fighting someone who trained alongside you.

“Reminds me of the good old days. When it was the three of us.” Anger flared briefly through me and I lashed out, getting a good hit on his leg. “Don’t you dare talk about him!” I shouted.

Trying to quell the anger that licked my heart. I must stay calm and focused. That’s the only way I’ll win. 

It took me off guard. He’s never brought him up. Or any of them for that matter. Those that were lost in that damn house in that damn room.

Is he provoking me on purpose? To make me lose my cool. It’s a good strategy.

He may have warned me that he’d kill me, and he probably will. But not before he’s brought me to father. 

I have something he needs. And while death is the punishment they’ve all given me, it can’t happen yet.

But that makes it worse. The things they’ll do to get her location out of me . . . Dad will be the one interrogating me.

I’d rather die.

I can’t give him the location. I can’t be taken back. So I’ll need to take Kei with me. Kitsune has made this her life’s goal. If I give her this critical piece, Kei, she’ll surely have a way to take them all down. 

I kicked off the wall, flipping over him and slamming my leg down atop him. He had moved his arm to block and we continued our fight, not paying any attention to our surroundings.

“Don’t you understand? That’ll be your fate too. So why do you choose it?! Obey. That’s what we’re supposed to do!” He shouted, flinging a barrage of poisoned weapons my way. I continued to deflect

~

It hurts. It all hurts. 

I curled into myself on the stone flooring, willing myself not to cry. It’d only make him angrier then he already is. Kei lay next to me, unmoving, but conscious. He stared at me through lidded eyes, resentment in them.

It was my fault we were here. I couldn’t kill her. That frightened little girl.

So a Hero had saved her leaving Kei and I to flee with our tails tucked between our legs.

The chain wrapped around my ankle yanked, making me skid across the floor with a shriek. A hard boot stomped on my other leg, stopping my movement and breaking the bone there.

I let out a muffled scream, biting my lip so harshly it bled. Father stood above me, grounding his boot deeper into the broken bones. “Do you know what you are?” He asked calmly. Too calmly. It’s terrifying.

“A-A weapon.” I spoke, throat raw from the damage he’s inflicted already. I winced at my stuttering, and like I thought, it resulted in a kick to my ribs, breaking at least one.

This time I kept my mouth shut tight and trapped any noise I would have made. “Repeat.” He ordered. 

Terror filled me, but I shoved it inside, trying with all my might to hide it. “A weapon.” I spoke in a clearer tone.

“And what is a weapon?” He questioned, his voice booming off the walls of this room.

“A tool.” I answered. He reached down and grabbed a handful of my hair and lifted me from the ground.

I kept my mouth shut, ignoring the pain on my head. “And what does a tool do?” He neared his face to mine, his eyes freezing my blood and trapping my breath.

“It obeys whatever it’s owner wishes.” He threw me to the ground, my small body bouncing off the concrete. 

A long chain left his hand and hit the floor. Barbed wire laced around it. The whipping. “You’ve disobeyed my orders, Kiriya. A weapon that disobeys its masters orders has no meaning of existence. I’ll make sure that’s engraved into you.”

My eyes darted to Kei in panic. He twitched on the ground but was unable to move.

His back is littered with wounds with blood gushing from them. However Sakura moved from the corner to him. His wounds will be healed. As would mine when he's done.

The chain lashes out and the chain whip tore jaggedly across my skin, making me scream in pain.

But it only resulted in another lash.

Another.

Another.

Another.

I shut my eyes tight and waited for the onslaught to stop. 

Three hours. We had been down here for three hours already. It all hurts so much.

I’m scared.

Mom. Nii-Nii. Somebody please make it stop! But it wouldn’t. Not yet. This whipping will go on for a while before he decides to do something worse.

Will it be my fingers? Will he rip my tongue out again? Gouge my eyes? What horrid things will he do next?

All because I couldn’t kill that little girl. 

The daughter of a politician who had crossed the Nozomi’s.

I have done many things. But killing someone? I can’t do that.

Yet with each strike, with every kick, with every blade, and burning, I wished I had. And that just made me feel even worse.

Mom would never approve of that thought. She’d be disgusted. It’s hard enough when I resemble the man that’s done all of this to her. But to become like him? 

If I don’t though, I’ll die.

The only way to survive is to obey his orders. It’s the only way. So I’ll need to bite my tongue. It doesn’t matter. I’m a weapon. A tool. And to live I must obey his every word. 

Shutting my eyes, I shoved what little humanity I still had, and vowed to never disobey him again.

~

I struck his sword with force, shattering it and struck him as he used his second to strike me as well.

We pulled back, pantining lightly and assessed our wounds. This isn’t good. I’m running out of stamina. At this rate the two of us will collapse and it’ll be a matter of which side finds us first.

I don’t think it’ll be mine. 

As I thought this, a scream echoed in the hall. What the? Kei and I stopped our attacks as the ground began to shake and . . . move?

It keeps on moving and molding into different shapes, tossing us around. What the actual hell? “I thought this was a one on one battle?!” I shouted, as the floor and walls tossed us around.

Kei grunted, hitting the ground briefly before springing up. “It is. He’s angry.” The damn guy who keeps this maze?

Why is he angry? Is it because of the others?

His screaming continued, rage clear as day in it. It’s familiar though. Someone was taunting him. The Heroes?

They don’t have a funny bone in their body. “Toga.” Kei grumbled in annoyance. That caught me off guard. He’s annoyed, but not in a violent way. I’ve never seen Kei with that expression.

He’s not angry with them. “The League? You said this was because of fathers order.” I pierced the ground with my sword and clutched it, hoping to stay in place.

“It is. This must be Shigaraki. Seems he’s still upset.” He muttered the last part to himself. 

Well, while he’s still worried about the League's personal problems . . . I launched myself into the air, pulling out a short blade and slamming into Kei.

The two of us rolled on the uneven moving hallway before it stopped. Once it did I slammed my knee into his chest and held the blade to his throat, pressing tight enough to draw blood.

“It’s over. You’re coming back with me. The Heroes have a lot of questions about him.” 

We were breathing heavily with the prolonged battle and the struggle to keep still when the hall kept moving.

My brother stared into my eyes not at all phased by the blade. “They can’t stop him. Me, yes. But not him. This is their world Kiriya. We just live in it.”

I grit my teeth at his words, knowing in my heart that he’s a hundred percent right. “We’ll see.” Keeping my blade to him, I used my free hand to unwind some wires.

Before I could though, Kei buckled and threw me off him, grabbing my wire and wrapping it around my throat. 

With the airflow cut off and the steel wires cutting to my skin it made it hard to move. He placed his knee between my shoulder blades and pulled upwards on the wire.

Damn it! How the hell did he do that? I was sure I had him pinned!

“Like I said; out of practice.”

Cocky bastard. I clawed at my throat, trying to tear the wire. It won’t do any good. It's Jeanists’. It isn’t going to snap so easily.

Damn it, damn it, damn it! I am out of practice. I guess it’s been a while since I’ve trained with them. This sucks! 

“We’re going home.” 

Eh? Home? Memories of the mansion flowed through my mind. The servants, followers, the tools and that god forsaken room. Cruel red eyes staring down at me making the fear I’ve always shoved in the box inside of me burst out violently.

My aura escaped and a scream tore from me. My hands gripped the wire and I tore it off of me, leaving deep cuts into my hands and I spun, slamming my foot into the side of Kei’s head and flinging him into the wall, denting it.

My fear coursed violently through me making my fingers buzz and my body heat. It felt so wrong to have an emotion this strong rampaging through me.

All my emotions must be limited or shoved down. This feels so wrong. And . . . exhilarating.

It's like chasing a high.

Berserker has always been like a drug in that sense. 

Kei stood, glaring at me menacingly. Noting my now glowing eyes and soft red aura that radiated on me. “In more ways than one.” He spit some blood, wiping it from his lips.

I shook my head once. “I’m not going back!” I lunged at him and threw my fist, lodging it in the wall where he once was. 

That’s not a home. Let alone mine. Izu and Katsuki are my home. Midnight. U.A. That’s more of a home then I’ve ever had. So I’ll let this emotion take over. I’ll succumb to Berserker and let it devour me. 

Because

I’m 

Not

Going

Back.