Nakano

6 years ago

❧

"Are you stuck here too?"

She can't see him, but his voice is almost like a light in the dark. His kind and careful tone makes her perk up and her heart start to pound. 

She can only see the bars of her cage by the dim light glowing from her arm. The cursed coil, glowing like a sinister smile. She glances to where the voice is coming from.

She doesn't reply.

"I'm sorry," he says, "that was pretty insensitive of me, considering you're the one in the cage."

His voice is quiet and careful, like he's talking to a wild beast.

"What do you want?"  She mumbles.

"I want to know," he sucks in a breath, then starts to whisper, "if you want to get out of here."

She doesn't move, but clenches her fists. "He'd find me."

"He might find you, but he'd never find us," the boy says. She hears the scraping of metal against metal, and a snap.

"Come with me."

She crawls forward, scraping her knees on the metal of the cage. When she stands, her knees immediately buckle from the strain of her body. She hasn't been able to stretch in weeks.

She feels the mysterious boy's hand catch her, pulling her up against him.

"What's your name?" He asks, throwing some tool to the ground and kicking away the busted cage.

She doesn't answer him.

"We have to be quiet," she tells him, collecting herself, "he has cameras."

"That's why I kept the light off," he replies, leading her across the pitch black room. "What's your name?"

"What's yours?"

"Some people call me Akinari. You?"

"I don't remember."

He pushes open a door, and light floods into the room. It stings her eyes and she clenches them shut, grabbing hold of Akinari's arm.

She looks at him for the first time, her savior that she followed with blind hope and desperation.

He has sandy hair and freckles dusting his cheeks. His brown eyes look her up and down, landing on her arm.

"Does it hurt?"

She lets go of him. "Sometimes it burns."

"I'm sorry."

"You didn't do it," she says, "there's no need for empty apologies."

They both continue to walk through the complex, finally coming to a door labeled "exit".

"I know who did, and maybe if I had stopped him before, we wouldn't be here."

"Who are you?"

Akinari turns to her, his uncut hair falling into his eyes. "I'm a captive, just like you."

At that moment, something clicks in the girl's head, and she pulls away from Akinari. Tripping over her own feet, she stumbles and falls to the ground.

"If the exit was here the whole time, then you would've been gone already," she huffs, her heart starting to go wild once again, "don't lie to me, Nariaki."

Nariaki, the Agitator's son. Nariaki, the boy who's trying to escape.

His eyes follow her hand, locked onto the gun-like power on her arm.

"it's what he calls me," the boy says, "but I'm done being his toy. Let's get out of here."

She doesn't trust him, but she trusts the genuine fear in his voice. The defiance.

And with that, he takes her hand. 

"Careful," she hisses, flinching from his touch, "it will kill you."

Once again he stares at her arm. "I'm sorry."

She looks at it, too; the power the Agitator gave her, the blast that kills in an instant or in a year. One blast, one touch, is deadly.

The same power that was forced on to her, that's killing her, slowly.

Karma is a bitch.

She looks back at the boy, who's helping her up. Should she trust him?

She has nothing to lose.

"Fate brought you here," she mumbles, standing, "so I will run. I will try."

"Together." He smiles.

She doesn't mean to say it out loud, but her pain rips the thoughts from her mouth.

"Why? Why together? Why me?"

Without answering, he pushes open the exit, running out into the streets and holding her hand.

"Because," Akinari finally says, "this is my guilty way of being a hero. I've done some bad things, but this is my way of apologizing. For once, I will try to stop him."

She's silent as an alarm rings out.

They're out, but now everyone knows.

"Don't worry," the boy says to her, "we'll go to Tokyo, far, far, away."

"Okay."

And so, with blind trust and nothing to lose, she follows her captor's son to Tokyo.

❧

"Who's that?"

She points to an advertisement on a billboard, looking around at the city. She hasn't seen one since her parents left.

"That's Ayako Nakano," Akinari says, "she was a dancer from a long time ago. It's just an ad for a documentary about her."

"Nakano," she mutters, looking around again. 

"Middle ground," Akinari says, "that's what it means. Not good or bad. In the middle."

They're surrounded by skyscrapers and buildings, and the chatter of people. She looks into the eyes of the brown-eyed boy, who she trusted on a whim. 

"Not good," she says, nodding at him, "or bad."

His cheeks turn pink, and he looks away. "I-I'm not that great. You just needed help, like I did."

"Still, escaping felt too easy." She says to him.

"That's because I've been preparing for this for the past year," he laughs, "it did feel way too easy, though. I think he let me get away."

"Why?"

"Because I lost my use. I guess we both did."

"He knows I'll be gone soon," she says, glancing at her arm, "too soon."

Akinari's quiet for a moment, then he looks at her. "Maybe . . . Maybe I can help."

"That's impossible."

He shakes his head. "My quirk is special."

"How so?"

Without replying, Akinari takes a hand and places it on her forehead, staring into her eyes. Her heart pounds.

"Woah," he whispers, "they turned blue."

" . . . It's a side effect."

His hand starts to glow, and the light is almost blinding.

"The sun,"  he mutters while activating his quirk, "can be turned into pure energy. I can heal you."

Akinari removes his hand.

She looks the boy up and down, her eyes then drawn to her arm.

The once glowing coil is dim, and the burning sensation is dull. It throbs, but her heart stops aching.

"Thank you."

"No problem," he smiles, "as long as you have me, you'll make it through the rest of your life."

He chuckles, covering his smile. 

"Sorry, that sounded really cheesy."

"It sounded more creepy to me," the girl says to him, "but I'll take it as a promise. As long as the Agitator is alive, I'll make sure he never finds you."

Akinari looks at her then; her once blue eyes, now brown. Her serious expression.

He nods at her. "Not good, not bad. Middle ground. Nakano."

"Nakano," she smiles.

❧

From Japanese 中 (naka) meaning "middle" and 野 (no) meaning "field, wilderness"

Nakano, middle ground.

Not good, not bad.