Chapter Text
*
The new place is much too familiar.
Eri hides herself underneath Mister’s long coat, bumping into him. There's only a grunt and a warning nudge, but he doesn't do anything else, so Eri knows she's okay. She latches tightly onto his leg, and as much as she wants to hide her face, she doesn't. She's going to be brave. So she peeks out with one eye, and watches.
Spinner steps in front of Mister and her. He looks back at them, at her just for a second, before looking forward again. Shigaraki stands in front, the leader that he is. All his attention is on someone far, far away. ‘Doctor’, Shigaraki called the far away man, and Eri doesn’t like how Doctor shouts like a crazy person, or how he’s speaking so mean towards Shigaraki. She doesn’t like his place that they are in, dim except for the glowing tanks containing monsters, every one of them. Most of all, she doesn’t like it, not at all, when Doctor stops speaking, shifting in his chair as if trying to look at something.
Trying to look at her.
“What’s this now,” says Doctor. “What have you picked up, Shigaraki?”
Without looking back, Shigaraki replies: “She was the kid at the center of Overhaul’s operation.”
“Ho ho! The one he was using for his bullets?” At this, Eri flinches, and starts trembling. Twice moves closer to her and Mister.
Shigaraki asks, “You knew about that?” and Doctor says, “I know everything.”
That’s a lie, Eri thinks. He can’t know she likes milk tea, because she only just discovered that herself recently. He can’t know her favorite color, which changed to yellow last week. Yellow like Himiko’s hair that she had let down and then taught Eri how to braid.
And above all, he doesn’t know that Eri will not hesitate to scream and thrash now, to scratch and kick, so the League can hear her and find her and save her. They taught her that.
When Doctor asks to see her, she is ready to do so. Everyone is quiet, everyone is glancing back and forth at her, at Shigaraki, at Doctor. Even Dabi, who is never around, the League member she knows least, has appeared next to Mister.
Doctor laughs. “Just a look, just have her step out. I won’t do anything. As a physician, I work with children all the time, you know.”
Besides her, someone mutters. “Whatever hospital he works at should be shut down for being shit at background checks.” Eri thinks it’s Dabi.
Shigaraki looks back for the first time since they’ve arrived here. He stares at her for a few seconds, and she stares back, and then he waves a hand. “Eri.”
There is a lot of loud whispering, with Spinner and Twice saying to Shigaraki that he shouldn’t, with Mister trying to pry her off his leg, with Himiko leaning down to tell her it’ll be okay, Tomura knows what he’s doing. Before she knows it, she’s standing next to Shigaraki, shaking.
She won’t cry, she won’t cry.
“What a coincidence,” Doctor says. She can’t see him because he’s a dark shape against the light, even though he can see her. It’s unfair. “She’s just like you, Shigaraki Tomura. She has the mutation for a rare variant quirk too.”
Eri doesn’t understand what those words mean, but it’s true that she and Shigaraki both have white hair and red eyes. When she saw him for the first time without the hand on his face, she was so surprised. She had never met someone who looked like her, and knowing she wasn’t the only one who was strange like that made her feel calmer.
Shigaraki stays silent. He is as still as a statue. Eri looks up. His face is even blanker than usual.
Then Doctor says: “A gang of criminal trash is no place for a young girl. Leave her with me, Shigaraki. I can take care of her.”
A few shouts, and talking, popping up behind them. Immediately she goes to hug Shigaraki’s legs, as hard as she can. Eri has never touched Shigaraki before, not even a poke - he doesn’t seem like the type of person that would allow that. Right now, though, she doesn’t care. She doesn’t like Doctor, she doesn’t want to live with him, she won’t go, she won’t go, she won’t--
“No.”
Loud and clear. That’s Shigaraki’s voice. Eri hugs his legs even tighter.
“No?” Doctor sounds surprised. More importantly, he doesn’t sound angry.
"She's a comrade," Shigaraki says, and his words are sharp and final. "She's part of my team."
“So you’ll bring her into the battlefield? You’ll risk her life as you go terrorizing the country?”
“She’s been a member of my League for a month now.” Shigaraki shifts, but he doesn’t try to kick her away. Eri remains where she is. “Eri has her uses.”
“Ho ho ho!” Doctor laughs again. “Well, it’s her death.”
That’s a thing she doesn’t really understand - death. From what she’s told, it sounds like she’s died again and again. It sounds like her everyday life living with Overhaul. But she’s come back from death, every time. She’s left it. She’s here now, isn’t she? Eri won’t die, not anymore. Not with the League here with her.
Shigaraki moves, and Eri lets go this time. Someone picks her up - green hands, it’s Spinner - and passes her to Twice, who walks over to a giant cable on the ground and sits her on it. He says, “Good job, Eri,” giving her a thumbs up. “Now keep quiet, you little brat,” his other voice says, and then he turns back to listen to Shigaraki and Doctor talk.
Around her, monsters float in tanks, bubbles swirling around them. It’s chilly here, and her seat is too hard. But Doctor is far away again. And Twice is in front of her, and so is Mister, and Himiko and Spinner and Dabi. And Shigaraki, ahead of everyone, the leader that he is, the leader of the League of Villains-- he said Eri is a member now. He said Eri is part of the team. He called her a comrade.
This place is still too familiar, and she still doesn’t like Doctor, and she still hopes they will leave as soon as possible...
But Eri is brave. She isn’t scared anymore.
*