Ochaco's foot slipped on a crushed can: Aizawa grabbed her elbow and yanked her up.

There was no time to thank him ; Ochaco ran and caught up with Neito in front of her.

"Uraraka !"

She activated her Quirk.

"Understood"

Her hand grazed three metal garbage cans filled to the brim.

Aizawa's ribbons wrapped around the dumpsters : without slowing his run, the hero spun and hurled them like cannonballs at the three men in pursuit.

Visibility was poor - daylight was just breaking - but he saw them throw themselves aside.

Aizawa caught up with his students and ran between them : Ochaco was sweating, but in good shape. Neito, on the other hand, was pale, beads of sweat gathering on his upper lip.

"How are you holding up ?" asked Aizawa, one eye fixed on the rooftops where he thought he saw a shadow pass by.

The blonde nodded, his gaze steady but his hands shaking.

The part of Aizawa that was too used to working as a teacher had almost reprimanded him for keeping the Quirk of one of his comrades without (as he was quite sure) asking permission.

But the part of Aizawa that was glad to be alive thanked him for his deceit : without him, they'd be dead.

A crossroads divided the alley into two.

Out of the corner of his eye, Aizawa noticed something metallic in the street to his right.

"Right !" he shouted.

The teenagers turned sharply right.

Aizawa caught them both under his arms.

"Ura-"

She had already lightened their weights.

One of his white stripes wrapped around a lamppost like a tongue.

Aizawa lunged, his hands gripping the teenagers so tightly that he must have hurt them. Their feet left the ground and they swung into the left street.

Aizawa heard the deafening sound of bullets fired.

He buried his head in his shoulders, his nose buried in the hair of the two children.

A window exploded above their heads, shards of glass raining down on them.

"Eyes !"

He closed his eyes tightly, hoping the teenagers had done the same without thinking.

Hard, stinging shards fell on his hair and shoulders as they continued to sway blindly.

There was a loud thud, then Aizawa was riddled with tiny projectiles that felt like pebbles or gravel.

One of them hit his jaw so hard that his teeth snapped shut on his tongue.

Aizawa stifled a flinch of pain as his blood spurted in his mouth, shook his head to clear the shards away, and slightly opened one eye to see where they were going.

They were in a cloud of greyish smoke that practically cloaked everything.

His brain screamed Quirk, but his nose said limestone.

They had to get out of the cloud if Aizawa was to find out where they were going and-

Suddenly, like a mountain bursting out of fog, the lit streetlamp he had hung his tape to appeared.

Aizawa cut the ribbon with a sharp bite of his teeth to prevent them from hitting the wall.

Simultaneously, the lamp exploded.

The remains of the bulb sizzled, then arcs of yellow light shot out from the inside towards the metal part of the pole, running over it as if the electricity were trying to escape to the ground.

Aizawa's hair stood on end. He twisted his shoulders, trying to dodge the yellow arcs, but holding on to the other two prevented him from moving properly.

He was struck on the shoulder.

Aizawa stifled a grunt and threw the two teenagers away from him.

Since their weight was zero Aizawa's thrust sent them flying onto the cobblestones, sheltered from the lamppost.

Another bolt of electricity struck Aizawa's left arm.

He groaned in pain as his muscles went into a painful spasm. His heart pounded so quickly and violently that Aizawa froze, wondering if he was having a heart attack.

Paralysed, he fell for nearly three meters.

He clenched his teeth and breathed through his mouth, refusing to close his eyes.

Then he saw someone on the roof of the building in front of him.

A sniper pointed his barrel towards Neito and Ochaco.

Panic swept over him.

With difficulty, Aizawa unravelled a piece of his capture scarf, his arm heavy and his movements slow.

He prepared to throw it, hoping for success, and-

The end of the barrel swung around.

Aizawa, suddenly feverish, sweating like an animal that knows it's dead, came face to face with the weapon.

*

"Dad ? What's going on ?"

He had already crossed the living room, barefoot, running without looking back.

He turned right - towards the east wing - and my heart leapt in panic.

I ran after him, caught off-guard, dry-mouthed, shouting at him to stop.

My concern turned to sheer fear as he climbed the stairs to the bedrooms.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

I staggered at the foot of the stairs, a spasm shaking my arms until my hands, my stomach rising in my throat.

A blink later and I was behind him as he broke down Touya's door.

I stopped in the corridor a few steps before it, my eyes going to Teka's soldier, slumped in his chair, his head hanging limply from his shoulders as if his neck had been broken.

I ran two fingers under his nose - he's only knocked out - while my father ransacked Touya's room all the way to his bathroom.

The room to Touya's left opened with a jerk : one of the day soldiers, shirtless, dishevelled, pistol in hand, stepped calmly out.

He spoke in Italian.

"Has something happened ?"

His eyes went to his colleague.

He put two fingers on his neck to check his pulse.

Behind him, in the doorway, stood the other soldier, pistol in hand, watching us without coming out for safety's sake.

"I don't know, Dad..."

I gestured towards the night watchman's.

"Did you hear anything ?"

The question was purely rhetorical : of course they hadn't heard anything, my clone had supervised Touya's entire departure to make sure he didn't get caught.

Dad came out of the room at the same moment.

His eyes were bloodshot, his hair dishevelled, his face sickly pale.

I suddenly remembered that he hadn't slept for twenty-four hours and had just come back from what seemed to me a very long day.

"What's going on ? Has Touya disappeared ?"

At the same moment, the three doors at the end of the corridor opened.

Rei, Natsuo and Fuyumi stepped out one after the other.

Natsuo blinked like he was having an epileptic episode.

"What the... Enji ? What's going on ?"

Dad turned to the soldier in the corridor, whom glanced at the rest of the family, tucked his weapon discreetly behind the elastic of his underpants and then straightened up as if facing Teka.

"Didn't you hear anything ?"

"Enji", Rei insisted as she approached, her furry slippers clattering on the floor.

The soldier shook his head.

"Absolutely nothing. Lorenzo is not the type to be fooled easily : he must have been taken by surprise"

The second soldier gently closed the bedroom door and came out a second later, minus the gun, and stepped between Rei and his colleague as he spoke to my father in a low voice.

"What's going on ? Did something happen to Touya ?"

Dad looked as angry as he was distressed.

"Wake your colleague and inspect the house : we may have had a break-in. Make sure Rei and the children stay in their rooms"

The soldier, now wide awake, had to restrain himself from saluting him - right hand flat on his heart - as he would have done with Teka.

"Understood"

He looked up at Rei.

"I think Touya went for a walk without telling anyone. We have to find him"

She nodded her chin gravely, her eyebrows furrowed, but asked no further questions.

"Bring him back safe and sound, okay ?"

She hadn't believed his lie for a second.

Dad nodded curtly.

He turned to me.

"Shoto, take off those pajamas and put on some jogging pants. I want you at the front door in exactly one minute"

He spoke in Italian while Fuyumi and Natsuo listened anxiously to the exchange.

"Do you think he's been kidnapped ? ", I murmured.

I felt a bit like shit.

"If you've got your Hero outfit, put it on"

A minute later we were standing at the front door, him shoes on and me in my ANBU outfit, tantô included. The barked orders of the members of our Familia in brittle Japanese echoed through the dark night as they woke the staff and combed the house.

Someone had texted my father about Touya.

He tossed me his mobile phone as we flew over the forest towards Tokyo, Hell Flame on full blast.

Tokyo, Kugawa, Touya murdered

Drops of cold sweat rolled down the back of my neck as spasms shook my left hand.

If it was Hawks, I'd rip his wings off with my own hands.

If it wasn't, on the other hand…

A surge of panic hit me.

Someone's hunting you, someone knows, someone's playing with you, they're all against you, it's a trap, don't go, Touya's just the bait, you'll all die tonight-

The mobile phone read 04:32.

Hawks had to kill Touya and be gone before we arrived, otherwise my father would kill him.

*

A/N : Webnovel has now caught up onto the publication schedule : for those of you who preferred reading here, you can do so from today onwards

If you want to read ahead of schedule up to 27 chapters, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

See you in the next update everyone !