Third person pov

They'd been quick, but Mr. Compress was quicker.

The man was as slippery as Harper remembered him to be. The way he maneuvered through the air and danced around them in general was astonishing. Harper could feel her frustration build/ She became less scared and more irritated. This guy had done some bad shit, but she had to wonder how she could've ever been so fearful of someone so... so idiotic. It's not that he wasn't clever or anything like that, he was just overall... stupid. The idea of him was stupid. The nightmares she'd had were stupid. She was eight and had clobbered him with just the help of another eight year old. If she could get her hands on him now, who knows what she'd be able to do to him. 

"Won't you stay still? It's not nice to interrupt one's performance!" Mr. Compress hummed, dancing around Shoto's fire. Harper couldn't tell where the marble had gone. He was trying his best to hide it, but Harper was digging for the information. "These brats won't let up. Here I thought Harper Rye would be paralyzed with fear. I suppose she's come further than I assumed she would. A shame. This could've been so much easier." 

Him being here was surreal. It felt like she was dreaming-- or having a nightmare, rather. Something in her mind wasn't clicking. That this man here was the Atsuhiro Sako that had... god, she didn't know. He felt the same, but acted and thought so differently than before. His aura was unwavering. That was a dead giveaway that it was the same person. Perhaps his near-death experience had changed him a bit. Harper didn't care either way. She was still going to grind her shoe into his face as soon as she got the chance. He wasn't getting away again. Even if she was going to get caught in this process, that was fine. As long as he didn't slip through her fingers. 

Even if she wasn't as scared as him as a person anymore, the experience from before loomed over her. Despite her decision and determination to end him, what had happened... it was still stuck, and it was still trying to claw at her. Kota's presence fended it off. Harper held onto him tight, careful not leave him exposed to any sort of harm if she could help it. He was scared, but cheering her on in his mind. Telling her to kick his ass. And that's what Harper had to do here, wasn't it? Or what she'd been trying to do. Like she'd said before, Atsuhiro was no idiot. He knew how to get to Harper. He dove for Midoriya, who wasn't going to be fast enough to get out of the way.

Of course time seemed to go in slow motion when it happened, because why wouldn't life draw this horrific moment out for her and force her to decide what to do? Not that she really had to think much about it. 

Most people have a moment they've experienced when they knew they were meant to be a hero, or decided that they were going to become one. Up until now, Harper hadn't really decided. She'd played around with the idea and sort of set her heart on it, but she'd never been truly sure she was fit for it. She thought maybe she'd thrive better as a detective like Tsukauchi. And hey, maybe she would. That didn't occur to her right now, though. She saw Midoriya about to get sucked into the depths of Mr. Compress' quirk, and she acted without thinking. It was like her body had moved on its own. One moment she was there, and the next she was diving in front of her classmate and getting sucked into the terrifying, cold depths of Atsuhiro Sako's quirk. 

Her heart all but stopped as soon as it happened. The empty sensation that filled her. She felt like she'd been wrapped up uncomfortably tight. Encased in cold cement, maybe. Harper wondered if this was what it would feel like to be sucked down a drain, or stuck through a funnel. That's what it felt like. Like she'd been pulled and shrunk down against her will and forced to stay suspended in this... this marble. 

She could feel herself immediately begin to cry, but she didn't give a shit. She deserved to shed more than a few tears, she thought. There was only one thing that stopped her from panicking completely and losing her mind. Kota was still clinging to her, warm, alive, and breathing. She could feel his heart pounding against her as he tightened his grip on her as best he could. It was near impossible to move in one of Mr. Compress' marbles. Just as she'd remembered. Maybe if she were alone, she'd be more afraid. Or maybe she'd just reached a turning point. One where she was so scared that the only way to go was up. 

There was a determination newly lit in her now. The undying will to get the fuck out of this situation alive was kicking her brain back into shape. She knew who she was. She was Harper Rye. She was a student at UA high, and lived with Tsukauchi Naomasa, Touya Todoroki, and a mentally-unstable warp gate. An alcoholic cat drove her to school most days. Her best friend was a red head who had a huge crush on her who she'd take a bullet for. Her teacher was a ball of sunshine wrapped in depression. Her brother would be proud of her for functioning. And he sure as shit wouldn't want her to be a little bitch.

Harper squeezed Kota back, her mind drifting to her brother. She grimaced, closing her eyes. It made the darkness less real, she guessed. She forced herself to steady her breathing. She imagined she was asleep on the couch. That Kurogiri was trying not to freak out and wake her up, and Dabi was reading a book. Tsukauchi was in the kitchen cooking, and Sansa was drinking and humming the Rasputin song. She ignored how quiet it was. How her quirk refused to penetrate the walls of this marble. She could hear Kota. It wasn't what she was used to, but it was enough to keep her grounded. Panic could not take her here. She had to be ready when they were free. 

There were so many sounds with her quirk. The thoughts of every animal and every person in her vicinity whispered at her. There was always noise. Not in these marbles. Things in here were desolate and made her head pound. It was too empty. Too stifling. There just... wasn't enough. Her quirk was always active. Always. It never went away. To have it suddenly gone made her feel sick. She forced herself to hyper-focus on Kota just to keep her mind from going blank. 

"Where are we? It's dark. It's really, really dark." Kota's thoughts wept. Harper wished she could open her mouth and speak, but she was too constricted to do even that. She was forced to listen to her cousin's fear, unable to comfort him in any way aside from a slight squeeze. "Harper is here. They took her too. But she won't let anything happen to me. It'll be okay. A...Auntie will come get us. She will."

He sounded sure. She hoped, for his sake, that he stayed that way. It was easily to panic-- especially in situations like this. He was being surprisingly calm. Harper was glad. If he could be only minorly freaked out by this situation, why couldn't she? It would be okay. They'd be fine. 

Even as she tried to reassure herself, Harper couldn't help but think of her brother, and of how she'd come to get in this situation. Her brother's quirk had been similar to hers, but it wasn't as... thorough. He was twelve when she was eight, and his quirk came in later than it should've. It was more like their dad's. He got feelings when someone was bad or about to do something. His wasn't intention based, but character instead. On top of that, he could catch glimmers of thoughts and predict movements. Just a few words every so often if the thought was strong, and just a few movements if they were major. It wasn't like hers, but it was enough to give him some bad anxiety. That, with the intention thing... he'd gone to see a quirk counselor. The same one Harper was seeing at the time.

Harper could not filter out thoughts at that age. Not like she could now. It all faded into the background and jumbled together to create this mass of white noise. Harper sometimes wished it had stayed that way. She couldn't use her quirk then. Her brother couldn't really either, but at least he knew what his was. Trying to figure out what power Harper possessed was had been near impossible when she was younger. It wasn't until they visited the Wild Wild Pussycats and helped them start to build the base they lived in now that she figured it out. There weren't enough thoughts there for her to get confused or jumbled. She was able to pick them apart.

God, Eric had been so proud of her. He'd whooped and picked her up, spinning her around and saying she was the coolest little sister anyone could ever dream of having. Harper was sure that her happiest memory to date. She'd been laughing and smiling, because her brother was her best friend. There wasn't anyone she loved or looked up to more. That's why it hurt so bad to see him taken away, and to know that he'd done it to protect her. Her. 

Atsuhiro Sako was a polite man tasked with helping them figure out how to better control their quirk. Harper's appointment was first. She'd bounce in there happily, smiling at him and having no idea what or who he was. God, she'd been such an idiot! Her quirk had been useless back then. Just a weird conglomeration of sounds she couldn't pick apart without her head hurting. He'd just smiled and told her to focus on the thoughts of her mother outside. She'd foolishly done so, trying her hardest to listen while Atsuhiro led her through the process of working through the sounds. It was him she should've been digging into. Had she known that, maybe Eric would be alive.

Eric would go in after her, and Harper would hop back out to the waiting room. Eric absolutely hated quirk counseling. He could never place why. He said something about it felt wrong, and that he thought maybe his quirk was warning him of something. But his quirk was finicky and didn't work the way it was supposed to. It made him jumpy. When people stood up, he'd sense it and have an intense reaction. Harper should've believed him and sided with him when he hesitantly tried to tell their parents. Eric was cheerful, but he was also shy and afraid of disappointing them in any way. Had she just had his back, they'd have listened better. 

While Eric was in his appointment, she'd play in the waiting room with the boy who had the appointment after him. They'd become fast friends. His quirk was physical and not at all like the Rye sibling's mental ones. He had a wind quirk that he struggled to control. He had to focus to keep it from bursting free. He'd get distracted easily and cause random gusts. He'd knocked Harper over a few times, but she'd always just laugh hysterically and brush off his apologies with a cheerful grin and a hug. She'd been a completely different person as a child. So happy and willing to make friends. Sometimes she wondered where he was now. Sometimes he wrote her letters, but it was rare. They simply hadn't stayed in contact after... after that.

One day was really bad. Really, really bad. Eric had refused to let Harper even go in the counseling building. He insisted that she stay behind this time and that he'd go have his appointment first. They could go to the store while he was in there, he promised. Their mom had been hesitant, but his eyes were pleading her to say yes. Harper had been silent. Her brother was scared, she'd recognized. He'd hugged her tight and told her he was going to get to the bottom of this, and that no one would hurt her. She should've told him to get back in the car and come with them.

She didn't. She regretted it everyday.

Letting him go in alone was stupid. Idiotic! But he'd insisted he wanted to go first and it would be fine, and that he had some things he'd like to tell the therapist anyway. He'd been determined that day. A bit bolder when talking, and a bit more sure. Yet somehow so nervous at the same time. Harper couldn't remember it clearly, but she could recall her mother's hesitance. Her mom had trusted Atsuhiro too, though. She had no reason to think her son wouldn't be just fine while they ran to the store just down the street. Eric was almost a teenager, after all! It was good for him to be independent, wasn't it?

When they came back, he was nowhere in sight. Atsuhiro claimed that he'd never come up for his appointment, and that security footage showed that he'd never entered the building. And the footage had showed that. Her mom came up to see the reel and had her sit out in the waiting room. Her friend with the wind quirk-- Inasa was his name-- was there. He looked scared. He pulled her aside when his mom went to the bathroom. He said that her brother had come upstairs. That he had been in Atsuhiro's office, but had never come back out. That's when Harper knew.

She and Inasa peeked through the door. Harper's eyes immediately went to the bowl sitting on Atsuhiro's bookshelf. Usually, it was full of beautiful blue marbles. There was always a different amount and she'd always thought it was kind of cool. Today, it was empty. She didn't know how she knew, but she did. Maybe it was her quirk telling her, or maybe she'd had a hunch the entire time. Her brother had been too nervous when they left. He'd always said something was wrong here. He'd always had a bad feeling, and they'd dared to brush him off. And then, he was missing. 

Her parents went into a frenzy. The police did too. A twelve year old boy had gone missing, after all. Harper had been in a haze. She was quiet, didn't sleep, and was nothing like her cheerful self. Her parents tried to hide how panicked they were becoming, but they couldn't. Their son was gone and their daughter was spiraling. Things were out of control and they were terrified because of it. She'd tried to tell them she thought Atsuhiro was to blame, but her mom was an empath and would always try to sooth her out of it and tell her she was just scared and nervous. Looking for answers. Her mom still regretted that. Still dwelled on it. Still hated herself. Harper had forgiven her a long time ago. She'd have to tell her that when she got the hell out of here.

The turning point was almost an entire week after her brother vanished. Inasa showed up at her door. He used to live just a few streets away, but had moved after the incident. He'd run all the way there. He plastered on a smile and lied right to the faces of her parents, saying his mom and dad wanted to invite Harper over to stay the night. Something in her friend's eyes told her to say yes, so she'd smiled too. Forced herself to become excited so that they'd say yes. Her mom helped her back her backpack and forced her and Inasa to hold hands so neither of them got lost. She stood out on the sidewalk and watched them walk until they disappeared around the corner.

Thing was, Inasa had told his parents he was staying the night at her house. Not the other way around.

They never went to his house that night. Harper wondered if things would be any different if they had.