Touya jumped up and down in his seat, a huge smile on his face.

He held his golden trophy in both hands and looked at it every now and then to make sure it hadn't flown away in the meantime. The satisfaction radiating from his entire body was palpable.

- Tou-tou, I forgot how you scored that last goal. Could you tell me again?

Fuyumi was a clever child.

She understood how much all of this meant to Touya - the victory, the trophy, but especially the fact that the whole family had come to see it - and she didn't hesitate to ask for more so that he would have a good excuse to repeat himself.

For the fifth time since we'd left the stadium, Touya told us the grandiose story of how he'd saved the game.

With each repetition, the situation became more desperate, his opponents more caricatured, and his personal victory more decisive.

He loved being the center of attention, loved the way Natsuo looked at him, his eyes wide with admiration, loved the fact that his father - the youngest hero in history to break into the top 5! - had come to watch him play between patrols, and that he could show off in front of all his friends.

For the first time in a long time, Touya looked truly happy.

Personally, I wasn't too happy about being woken up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday to watch a bunch of uncoordinated kids running around a muddy stadium, but whatever.

Touya had been off my back ever since he'd heard his team had been selected for the regional finals, and now he was paying as much attention to me as to a dead plant.

I wasn't complaining, on the contrary: it was better than being scrutinized day and night, as if he were thinking of the best way to make me disappear without a trace.

As I'd suspected, his behavior in the past had only been 'bad'. He'd just had a bit of an early onset teenage crisis, but nothing to get upset about.

Rei listened patiently as he finished speaking, never picking up on any of the inconsistencies in his story (What? When all seemed lost, Enji hadn't really fell from the sky to tell Touya that as a hero, he had to defeat his enemies or the earth would be lost?)

- Am I dreaming or are the traffic jams not moving," she murmured in a low voice.

She leaned forward and banged on the tinted window that separated us from the driver.

He lowered the window.

- Excuse me, why aren't we moving?

- A pile-up, Mrs. Todoroki. Half the road is blocked. I'm afraid we're going to be here for a while.

Rei frowned.

- Thank you very much.

She sank back into her seat as the driver rolled up the window.

Two benches faced each other in the back: under the window were Touya and Fuyumi, and with their backs to the trunk were Rei, Natsuo and I in that exact order.

Each of the children was quiet for the moment - Fuyumi was playing with dolls, Touya was idealizing the last hours of his life a bit more and Natsuo... Natsuo was doing what weird children of his age did - but Rei knew very well that four children in a small room for several hours could only lead to the death of one of them at the hands of the others.

I was confident that I would emerge victorious as long as Touya didn't attack me at the first opportunity.

This boy had been training with Enji for a while and knew how to hit where it hurts.

Fuyumi turned sharply to Rei.

- Mommy, I'm hungry.

Rei reached into her purse.

- I think I have a muesli bar somewhere...

A sudden movement behind the tinted glass caught my attention.

A woman with a baby in her hand was running past our car, against the flow of traffic.

What the...?

There was a muffled scream.

Then, suddenly, dozens and dozens of people ran out of their cars and onto the bridge.

- Mom, what's going on?

Even Touya was silent.

We watched stunned as a new wave of people fled at breakneck speed.

- Stay where you are!

Rei opened the car door and stepped out.

Screams of terror washed over us like a tsunami.

I froze, my eyes wide open.

Rei, her face unusually calm, slipped back into the car.

She unbuckled my seatbelt and held me close to her.

- Take off your seat belts

The three children gave in without flinching.

Natsuo burst into tears.

Rei smiled and leaned over to wipe the tears from his cheeks with her thumb.

- Hey, why are you crying?

The boy hiccupped, his pacifier in his mouth.

- It's all right, okay? It's just a little game.

Ahead of us, to the right, a car burst into flames.

The alarms of the two surrounding cars went off immediately.

- You trust mommy, don't you?

He nodded, his eyes shining.

Rei turned to Touya.

- I want you to keep an eye on your brother, okay?

The boy nodded, suddenly serious.

- Fuyumi, don't let go off my hand!

Rei tried to get up, but Natsuo pulled at her sleeve and refused to let go.

Outside, our driver cast panicked glances over his shoulder.

- Ms. Todoroki, we have to go!

- I'm right here, Natsuo, okay? I'm not going anywhere.

But the boy refused to let go.

Rei's lips tightened until they turned white. Looking at me, she finally put me back on the seat.

- All right, all right

She took Natsuo in her arms and smiled at me reassuringly.

There was a crackling sound outside, as if someone was connecting a microphone to a loudspeaker.

- You're going with Mr. Hibami, Shoto, won't you ? I'll be right beside you, I promise.

I nodded.

- Touya, don't let Shoto out of your sight.

- Understood

She got out of the car, Fuyumi and Touya behind her.

The driver took me in his arms and hardly looked at me.

His big eyes were fixed on the earth golem blocking the exit of the bridge.

- We're leaving.

The crossing was difficult because everyone had left their cars and was trying to get away from the giant, hoping to get back on the other side of the bridge.

- Mic test, one two, one two

I looked over the driver's shoulder.

A man in a plumber's outfit, a yellow hard hat on his head, was standing on the roof of an abandoned van, coughing into the microphone.

- Does this thing work? (He tapped on it) Your attention, please.

A man, briefcase in hand, bumped into Fuyumi as he ran.

- Hey!

Rei steadied Fuyumi and stopped in the middle of the road. We were halfway across the bridge.

People were running all around us, slaloming between the cars, creating a crowd in the middle of the bridge.

Touya was pushing and shoving anyone who, in their rush, got too close to our group.

People were barely reacting, their faces pale, their mouths half open, their heads half turned toward the villain with the microphone.

- We're looking for a-

People started screaming hysterically. As we started walking again, Rei stopped us with a hand. People were fighting in the middle of the bridge, pushing and shoving, some stepping on the fallen ones.

The microphone crackled.

- Your-

The woman with the baby was pushed into a corner by men and women trying to escape, her child crying.

The villain screamed:

- There's a bomb on the bridge, and if you don't do as we say, we'll blow it up!

Everyone froze.

Most of the crowd, huddled between two 4x4s in the middle of the bridge, stopped pushing forward.

Rei straightened up, eyes wide, jaw set.

I could feel the panic spreading.

Calm down, calm down. There's nothing telling you that it's true. For all you know, they're just trying to scare us so they can get everyone's watches and jewelry.

- If you do as we say, no one will get hurt.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

There was a deadly silence.

Somewhere behind us, an old woman fainted.

The villain unfolded a yellowed piece of paper from his pocket.

- We're looking for a boy... (He looked down at the paper) with red hair that's turning white. And in soccer gear, apparently.

Touya opened his eyes wide.

Rei, with her back to the group in the middle of the deck, pressed Touya against her, pulled off her scarf and wrapped it around his face and hair like a baklava.

We were half hidden behind an unoccupied hearse. From where he stood, the villain couldn't see him.

- (He crumpled the paper in his hand and put it back in his pocket.) Hand him over and you'll be safe.

He wedged the microphone between his ear and shoulder and began to set his watch, a high-pitched beep echoing through the speakers.

- I wouldn't advise fleeing to the other side of the bridge. Our colleagues over there are much less friendly than we are.

And immediately, a howl ripped through the air.

A gust of wind came up, sweeping all the dust off the bridge in its path.

Everyone ducked, covering their faces for protection. The driver's legs trembled.

Heart pounding, I squinted to see more clearly.

A golem, larger and more massive than the first, stood on the other side of the bridge.

It had horns that made it look like a demon, and moss covered the rocks that made up its body. He was pounding his chest with his fists, like a gorilla trying to scare off a rival.

Even from here, I could see his vicious little red eyes glowing unnaturally.

He screamed again, cementing the terror in our hearts.

A new, louder explosion swept across the deck.

The villain picked up his microphone.

- You have ten minutes to deliver him

The beep of his watch, a sign of the countdown, echoed to the other end of the bridge.

There was a pause, a second in which no one dared move.

The air was silent, time frozen.

I met Rei's gaze. Then Touya's.

The boy opened his mouth.

And then a scream broke the silence.

- It's him! It's him! It's him!

I turned my eyes to the voice to my left, far from the center of the bridge.

It was the old woman from earlier, the one who had apparently fainted, who had screamed. Her eyes were yellow, slit like a cat's, and she was standing with a walker.

It took me a few seconds to realize that she was pointing at me.

The driver was shaking.

He backed up and crashed into a car, as if the old woman's gaze had penetrated him. I could feel the wetness of his skin against mine.

The vilain with the microphone picked at his ear with his little finger, indifferent.

My throat was dry, my breath short. Blood pounded at my ears like a second heart.

Rei hissed through her teeth:

- Hibami, come back at once!

People were watching us. Looking at me. Everyone was.

- He's here!

There was a commotion on the bridge. The crowd was thinning. They were coming towards me.

- Hibami!

- I... I don't...

He stammered.

Rei looked around angrily.

Then, without warning, she let go of Fuyumi's hand and ran towards us.

Her free hand wrapped around me and pulled me into the safety of her arms.

But it was as if the driver had become a statue and his fingers had become rocks on my body.

Rei pulled and I tried to stand up against him and move towards her.

With wild eyes, the driver looked at the crowd and the golems and the crowd with an expression of pure terror.

Rei slapped him.

The slap reverberated across the deck like a general electric shock.

All those who had been frozen began to move again, slowly at first, like zombies.

A clamor, at first a whisper, rose from the hard core of the crowd.

Hibami finally let go of me and Rei pulled me to her. Natsuo looked at me, his lip trembling, clinging to Rei as if he wanted to melt into her and hide inside her.

Rei ran to the middle of the bridge, away from the villains.

Fuyumi clung to her skirt to her left and Touya, at my side, ran at her pace. One man held out his hesitant fingers in our direction, his terrified eyes focused on me.

Touya rammed into him like a bulldozer, knocking him to the ground.

The people closest to the villains woke up, some even running after us.

- Stop her !

The people in the middle of the bridge watched us pass as if in a dream, hesitant to move forward, confused as to what to do.

I saw our reflection in the glasses of a curly-haired passerby. Rei was crossing like a fury, four children clinging to her, a stern expression on her face.

People ran after us.

Rei slipped between the two 4x4s and kept running.

Her heart pounded against my ear.

Then I saw a tall man, half hidden at the end of the 4x4.

His complexion was waxy, his lips parted, and he held a baseball bat in one clenched hand.

He squeezed it, raised it slightly, murmured in a low voice, and hid it behind his thigh.

He met my eyes.

I saw guilt flash in his eyes.

I opened my mouth.

- Mo-

And suddenly, Rei stumbled.

The whole world shook.

I barely had time to open my eyes before my skull hit the warm asphalt.

Rei's arm released me.

I rolled onto my side, thrown by the force of the impact.

A searing pain, like a clap of thunder, erupted from my shoulder. I moaned in pain and tried to hold my arm to my body.

A wave of heat swept through my mind, blurring my vision. For a second, the whole world lost its colors and shapes.

I blinked frantically, forcing the pain to fade.

Shit, shit, shit.

Above me was a sky of metal tubes.

It took me a few seconds too long to realize that I'd rolled under a car.

My eyes went back to the road.

Rei was hugging Natsuo who was sitting on the ground with a purple ankle. Fuyumi was crying next to her.

Touya, his face dripping with sweat, threatened to roast anyone who came too close, fire burning in his hands.

The people took a step back, then two, cautious but not afraid. Touya wouldn't hurt them. Touya was just a child.

Rei let out a heartbreaking scream.

- Shoto!

They didn't see me.

No one saw me.

I looked at Rei, like a wounded animal, at the rest of my brothers and sisters, at the crowd that was closing in on them like a jaw.

If I got out of here, I knew something terrible would happen.

Clutching my arm to my body, I crawled under the car to get away.

Then I heard a scream, different from the others - terror.

I stopped, unable to help myself, and looked over my shoulder.

Touya was standing over a man with a charred arm, panting, his left hand shaking.

The crowd retreated. The burnt man continued to scream.

Touya continued to stare at the man, a strange gleam in his eyes.

Then he blinked, as if waking from a dream.

His eyes swept over the watchful crowd at a respectable distance.

He raised his hand again, flames blazing from his fingertips, threatening anyone who approached. The crowd kept their distance, but a clamor rose.

Touya backed away slowly, watching the two part of crowd that surrounded them between the 4x4s.

Then he met my gaze.

He froze, one hand on Natsuo's wrist, the other on Rei's shoulder.

Then a hand closed around my ankle.

- So this is where you've been hiding, you brat?

My blood ran cold.

The man laughed and violently dragged me away.

My knees rubbed against the ground, tiny pebbles sinking into my bloody flesh.

Helplessly, I reached for Touya, my mouth hanging open in a silent scream.

Help me!

He blinked. Slowly.

His eyes went to our family and the crowd around him. He looked at me one last time.

Then he swung Natsuo onto his back, took Fuyumi's hand and forced Rei to get up and follow him.

He left without looking back.

*