At the evacuation center, everyone was at their limits.
Their block, which was supposed to head to Shiketsu, had stopped moving, and the latch had been firmly shut.
They began to grow fearful in that darkness, unaware of what might be happening around them.
Some tried to busy themselves by watching the fight's broadcast.
Yui was among those, holding her phone and focusing on he screen.
Unlike those who were focusing on Midoriya and Shigaraki, she had been caught by what was above them, the huge bird holding off a gigantic metal platform.
She covered her mouth with her hand as her eyes flooded.
It was Sora.
She could already tell.
Her granddaughter was fighting…
For everyone…
Sora… Was I a good grandmother?...
Sora might have given her answer, but Yui couldn't bring herself to accept it.
Because she still felt guilty.
" What… is she…"
How could she?
Seeing her granddaughter doing her best, the woman closed her eyes and wiped away her tears.
She, too, had to act.
The woman looked around.
She had been certain the red-haired woman should be nearby.
She had made a point of following after her for the past few days, but never approaching her.
She had been bothered about her dark aura, but she brushed it off.
Yet now…
Seeing several people with the same aura…
It worried her…
And so, she made up her mind to speak to her.
But apparently, the other woman had vanished.
" Where did she go?"
Finding no trace of her, Yui became worried.
Something was feeling off.
" It's been a while since I used this ability… but…"
The woman closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, tuning her mind.
I know her aura very well. I still can track her.
Focus on her target, Yui opened her eyes, and she could see footsteps on the ground.
Footsteps only she could see, glowing faintly.
Traces of a specific person, left by their aura.
Only those familiar with the aura could pick it up.
Footsteps that lead directly…
To the inner mechanism of the block…
Yui swallowed. " What are you up to, Reika…"
Frowning, she followed the footsteps, delving behind the buildings and into a large shaft used for airing.
The tunnel was full of cables, but it wasn't hard to pick up the traces.
And they didn't seem to belong to someone who had mistaken their way around.
They were purposeful.
Yui sweated and picked up the pace, actually jogging as she turned another corner.
This time, she was met with a metal door that had been forced open, vines growing between it and its frame.
The woman squeezed through the small crack of the door left ajar.
She stepped into something that seemed like a server room.
Yui took a quick look around, noting the strange vines growing from the ground and writhing around the machines, when she saw it. Through the racks of servers, a flash of red hair passed.
The woman rushed to catch up with her, but the whole place was built like a maze.
Reika, for her part, seemed oblivious to the woman following her, humming a soft melody as she trailed her fingers along the servers, and more vines sprouting at an unparalleled speed.
" Reika!" Yui called from behind her, finally reaching her.
The other woman stopped dead in her tracks, the last notes of the melody fading into the thick silence.
The woman slowly looked back over her shoulder, her red eyes void of any light.
" Oh my… look who do we have here…"
Reika turned back, making Yui take a good look at her, her curly, flaming red hair held up high in a ponytail, her dark red eyes glaring from behind green glasses, and an unphazed cold expression adorning her face.
" It's been a while… Mother-in-law…"
The two women stood still, staring at each other.
Yui didn't know what she should be saying.
But Reika seemed rather annoyed.
"If you don't mind, I still have a job to get done." With that, Reika turned to grow more of the vines from the servers when Yui called out again.
" Wait…" Her eyes were wide in horror. " Reika… Why… Why do you have a Quirk?"
The woman stopped again.
" You were Quirkless… up to the day you left us…" Yui pressed.
Reika looked back, and Yui jumped away just as she saw several auras extending from underneath her.
A moment later, vines stretched out from the ground, wriggling in the air.
" Yes," Reika responded at last. " I was Quickless. But now, I'm just like you, Mother-in-law…" she gave a smug smirk. " I'm a monster."
" You-"
Before Yui could continue, the vines shot from behind her, wrapping her and sinking their thorns into her skin.
She couldn't see attacks coming from behind, and that much Reika knew and took advantage of.
" I met someone who helped me out. Who gave me a purpose, and gifted me a Quirk." The woman walked up to the struggling Yui, her heels clinking on the ground and echoing off the walls.
" All… For One…" Yui gritted her teeth. The vines were strong, and the thorns seemed to sink deep, making it hard to shake free from them.
Reika's smug smirk remained as she looked at her mother-in-law, more and more vines writhing around her.
" Why… Why side with him?..."
" Why? It's simple," her eyes narrowed. " He was the only one who accepted me and cared not where I came from. Cared not that I had no family. Unlike someone I knew."
Yuu winced as she felt the plant's grasp of her tighten. " You shunned me. You called me names. You never considered me one of your family. Just because I was raised in an orphanage."
Reika stepped closer, her long red fingernails brushing against Yui's cheek. " You even mocked me for not having a Quirk."
All Yui could do was bite her lip in regret.
She had no words to retort to her.
That, she had been.
She had been awful with Reika since day one.
She never acknowledged her.
" Not only that, but you despised the very child I bore, didn't you?"
It seemed the older woman was struggling to hold back her tears at that.
" I did…" she finally spoke. " And I'm really sorry about that! If you have a problem, then take it on me alone! Leave the civilians out of it!"
" It seems you don't understand." Reika grabbed her jaw tightly, the sharpened nails digging into her skin. " I have a problem with you and this world. That's why I'm following All For One."
She let go, spinning around to finish her task. " You and everyone else might go to hell for all I care. I only want to serve that man and work under him."
" Subaru died!" Yui cried. " He had been killed by All For One!"
There was an extended moment of silence before Reika spoke. " I know…"
That seemed to hit Yui harder than any slap could. " You… how…"
" I've been tasked with looking after his health, you know. More like his personal nurse. That was always my job." Reika looked back. " I happened to see Subaru's corpse in Garaki's Lab."
Yui was at a loss for words.
How…
How could the woman standing before her not be affected…
" He loved you…"
" Not enough to stop his mother from bullying me!" Reika snapped. " I felt sorry at first, yeah. But it was for All For One's research! If anything, he should be proud of it!"
Yui was on the verge of breaking down. " Sora…"
Reika raised an eyebrow at her.
" Sora is out there… fighting… risking her life against All For One… Do you know that?"
Reika pushed up her glasses. " I do not care for that monster. She could go to hell for all intents and purposes."
That… was the last straw…
Herself…
Her son…
She could have let them pass…
But Sora…
A vein twitched in Yui's temple, and the vines were torn apart in a blink, as the woman stood before Reika, hands grasping her face.
The other woman laughed. " What? You grew fond of that little monster now! It was you who called her a disgrace to your bloodline with her red eyes!"
" I was mistaken!" Yui shouted back, her nails growing and pupils narrowing. " But now… Sora is the only family for me. The only person I won't forgive anyone hurting her! Even if it was her own mother!"
Reika merely chuckled at that. " She is just a replacement for the son you lost, isn't she? In the end, you truly don't care one bit about her. You just want to fill the hole somehow."
" You!"
Tendrils of vines shot from underneath them, separating the two.
" Those vines of yours are nothing!" Yui panted as she cut through them while Reika continued to laugh.
" It seems there is something you're miscalculating, dear mother." The red eyes locked on her. " I never said I have one Quirk."
It was then that Yui coughed, blood splattering against her front.
She looked down to see her veins darkening.
" Poison and plants…" Reika smirked proudly as a huge stalk grew from underneath her, raising her on a large leaf. " Those two Quirks work well together, don't you think?"
Yui knelt down, struggling to breathe. She felt as though her throat was clogging.
Suddenly, the whole block shook, and the sounds of cries and explosions could be heard from the outside.
Reika smiled as she looked in the direction of the entrance. " It seems it's about to start."
" What…" Yui glared up at her, her skin manifested red rashes from the poison.
" This whole place will eventually be wiped out. And everyone inside it will die."
" That… includes you… idiot…"
Reika tutted as she patted the stalk of her huge flower, on which leaf she was sitting. " You're underestimating me, dear mother-in-law. When I hide inside the bud of this plant, I will be completely safe from the explosion that's about to happen. So will be everyone else who is working under All For One. After all…" her smirk broadened as she looked down at Yui. " We're the residents of his new world."
Yui struggled to speak, but her voice wouldn't come out. " You want to know why? Easy. Imagine what the world would think when they knew the heroes had, again, failed the civilians and let them die in a horrible explosion. There is no way anyone would ever trust them again."
Reika laughed out as she flung her hands in the air dramatically. " All they will be able to do is fear and follow All For One, as it's meant to be."
" Don't… play around…" Yui climbed to her feet with great effort, fighting to get enough air into her lungs. Her eyes narrowed as she shot Reika a deadly glare.
" You're going to ruin everything that child is fighting for…" Gritting her teeth, she took a step forward, her limbs heavy with poison, complaining against her.
" I told you, I don't care about that little monster any-"
" Shut your pipe hole! You're still her mother!" Yui's form enlarged, several more wings sprouted out of her back, and the golden halo over her head shone brighter and doubled.
But even as her strength was restored, the darkened veins never vanished.
Reika let out hysterical laughter as she looked down at Yui. " Don't even try. That poison is specifically made to kill you. That's the culmination of my hatred for you, for years!"
" I know…" Was Yui's sole answer. She could already feel it.
That made Reika blink twice, her momentary delight at revenge snatched from her by the older woman's nonchalance.
" I told you… I will take all of your anger at me… But Sora alone," the blue eyes flared with a determination that unsettled Reika. " I can't allow you to hurt!"
The red-haired woman flung her arm, and several more vines shot out of the ground, trying to encircle Yui.
Yet the woman was faster, flying away from their reach, her focus always set on Reika. " I don't want Sora to live it… that the reason thousands of innocents had been killed was her mother."
" I will be a hero! And find out the truth!"
" I can't step away. Not while everyone is fighting. I belong there, with them."
" I won't let you ruin everything that child had been working for any more!"
" Foolish!"
Instead of launching an attack towards her mother-in-law, Reika brought he vines in a crisscross around her, creating a safety net out of them to keep the older woman at bay.
But that wouldn't hold Yui at her full strength.
Her wings beat the air, her form blurred as she tore through the space with a speed strong enough to cut through the thick layers of wriggling plants.
The thorns slashed at her skin, pouring their poison into her blood, but she didn't slow her advance.
Reika quickly backed into the bud of her plant, hoping to escape her next attack.
Yui was quick; just as the petals were about to enclose the red-haired woman, she slipped inside.
In a blink, Reika found herself restricted, Yui hugging her tightly with her wings wrapped around them in layers.
" Get your filthy hands off of me!" The woman cried, and vines wrapped around them, trying to force the wings open and free their master, stabbing the other woman in several locations to loosen her grasp, but Yui held tight, as if she couldn't bear to let go.
" I'm sorry…"
" Your 'sorry' means nothing to me!"
" I know…" Yui mumbled, back and wings bleeding from the assault of the thorns, their white color slowly dying red. " I can't expect anything else. I don't expect to be forgiven."
" You're the best grandmother."
Yui could never tell if Sora meant it, if she had really forgiven her.
She thought she didn't deserve it.
Still…
" I failed to protect my family… when I drove you away… when I lost my son and didn't look for him…" Tears dripped down her face as the picture of Subaru, softly seating Sora on his lap and laughing at her childish antics, flashed before her.
When she lost Subaru, she thought it was her punishment for hurting Sora and her mother.
" He didn't die…"
It was then that she realized.
She wasn't the only one who lost a dear family member.
Sora, as well, lost her father.
The only family that had loved her so far.
She had it worse.
" I won't fail her again… because I'm her grandmother…"
Reika's eyes widened when she felt the heat rising, and she took notice of the woman's veins that began to glow red under her pale skin, branching off slowly and reaching her face, vaporizing her tears.
I didn't want her to know of this part of our Quirk… that's why I tore away the pages about the first Angel from the records…
" What are you doing?!" Reika panicked, struggling to get away from the older woman's grip, but it was in vain. Her strength in her full form was all but inescapable. And yet she chose not to hit her with it, but to hug her.
The one thing the first Angel had left us… the warning against ever letting our Quirk fall in the wrong hand…
The one thing that had saved him before…
" I will make it up with my life, to both you and Sora…" The red color shone bright enough to be spotted from behind the wings, from behind even the petals of the enclosed flower bud. " I will hear everything you have to say to me on the other side."
" Wait! NO!"
But her scream drowned out in the overwhelming heat and light that followed, searing anything within its reach as the vines and plants withered under it…