REFRACT || bnha oc

🪞come a little closer

come a little closer by cage the elephant

. . . . .

TOBI LOOKED LEFT AND RIGHT as he hung limply in the air. "Tobi Yamako? Never heard of him."

There was a tight burning to his throat as he spoke, and he rubbed his neck uneasily. Had he swallowed some saltwater? Possibly. Tobi swallowed hard and felt like there was something lodged in his airway. Maybe I'm nervous.

Hawks' golden eyes danced with mischief as he lowered Tobi onto the edge of the dock, more feathers diverting themselves around the opposite end to pull two yakuza members out of the water -- one of which was Uehara, vines thrown over his shoulders like ropes. They were gently tossed behind the box, allowing Tobi and Hawks a precarious sense of privacy.

"Well, I've heard of him." Hawks floated towards him and took a seat beside him, his wings still in their full span. As he looked out at the cloudy horizon, he tilted his head in thought. "Or, rather, his alias. Mirage?"

Tobi stiffened, and Hawks' wing spread further, keeping him from darting off. Not that he would. If he'd wanted to leave, he'd already be gone. It was clear that Hawks wanted something, and of the Top Five Pro Heroes, he was the last one that Tobi would have expected. Even Endeavor had a higher chance of confronting him, especially after he'd thrown the guy off a building in Naruhata.

So he sat down next to Hawks, wringing his hair out and swallowing again, trying to pinpoint the reason for his throat pain. "What do you want?" His words were followed by a couple irrepressible coughs that made his body shake and his mind churn into overdrive. A cold, perhaps?

"Me? Nothing," Hawks swayed from side to side, an insipid smile on his stubbled face. He spoke to Tobi as if this was a ho-hum routine, like he hadn't just watched a secondary schooler smash a grown man into mush. "But my boss..."

"Nope." Tobi held up his hands in an X-formation, shaking his head so hard that some water flew from his hair onto Hawks' cheek. "I won't affiliate with the HPSC."

"You know?" Hawks arched a tufty brow, before snickering ruefully. "Well, she did tell me you'd be well-informed." He shifted slightly, turning to face him with one gloved finger raised. "Kid, it's not what you think."

Now it was Tobi's turn to raise a brow, incredulity plastered on his sharp features as he sneered. "It's not another one of your president's child labor schemes? You know," he pretended to mount a sniper rifle, "like the one with Kaina Tsutsumi? Or... the one with you?"

From the scope of the imaginary rifle, he turned to look at Hawks, who was staring at him, still with that stupid, bland smile. Then, it slipped off his face like a piece of silk, his entire face flattening as he turned away from Tobi and tucked his knees up to his chest. He set his head down on them and looked out on the horizon. Tobi waited silently for his answer.

"I'm just supposed to recommend you to Yuuei," Hawks said, tugging at his lip with two fingers. "They want to know where you're located at all times."

"Doing my job too well?"

"I think so," Hawks nodded into his legs, before his head swiveled to look at him again, his golden eyes reflecting the light like an owl's. "The truth is that unknown variables like yourself really tick the Commission off. Especially when you've got better approval ratings than their own sanctioned heroes."

"I have approval ratings?" Genuine shock wormed its way into Tobi's voice, his brows shooting up into his crow-black bangs.

"Sure you do. You saved an entire city and took out one of the most powerful villains Japan has seen in years. Number Six and his Anonymous bombers could have devastated the entire country." Hawks paused and glanced back at the box. "They left, you know. The yakuza."

Tobi sighed, putting his head in his hands. "You just had to come today. Not tomorrow. Today."

"Hey," Hawks held his hands up to defend himself. "I procrastinated for months. Do you think I like being ordered to go and babysit some law-ignorant warp user who's making my job ten times easier?"

Tobi blinked, trying to process the jumble of words that Hawks had volleyed his way. "I'm not law-ignorant. I'm very aware of legal processes and what will happen if I get caught."

"I'm sure you are," Hawks said. His tone was similar to that of a parent coaxing a small child to go to school by telling them that they were a superhero. "Which is why your recommendation to Yuuei comes with a few benefits."

He held up three fingers, waiting patiently for Tobi to retort, but the boy was silent. Hawks let his legs swing down towards the water, planting one hand behind him and looking up at the sky once more.

"One! You're cleared of all crimes. The bounties on your head have already been revoked, as a show of good faith." He put down a finger to signify that he was moving on to the next. "Two! Unlike all the other recommended and standard-entry students, you won't have to take an Entrance Exam! The Yuuei faculty is already acutely aware of your capabilities. And three!" Hawks lowered his second finger so that it was just the middle one, flipping him off. He rubbed his teeth with it as a vein flared in Tobi's temple.

"Yes?" Tobi said after listening to the sound of Hawks' glove on his tooth for three seconds.

"You won't have to worry about finding internships! I know, big stress reliever!" The middle finger then went into Hawks' chest. "Because you're stuck with me! I'm in charge of monitoring you and teaching you everything there is to being a successful pro hero! So... what do you think?"

"Why are you flipping me off?"

"Oh, uh, I don't know," Hawks lowered his middle finger and shrugged comically. "It might be because I have to report to my boss that I let you turn a yakuza member into cherry Play-Doh." Hawks smacked his hands together and made a squeaking noise, for effect.

"I thought I was cleared of all crimes."

"Only if you accept."

He stared at Hawks for a moment, genuinely processing the offer. He'd received something similar from Ingenium two years ago -- though at the time, the pro hero had no idea he was talking to a twelve-year-old -- but this pitch from the Commission just seemed gilded.

The glimmering visage of real heroism, glory, and a chance to train with one of the top heroes in the country was nothing more than that: a visage, a brittle shell to hide what was beneath. Hawks said it right the first time. The Commission hated unknown variables, and they definitely wanted Tobi to become a known one. They'd already figured out his name, it seemed, which meant they probably knew about his mother. And that wasn't enough for them, either: they needed eyes on him at all times. Give them an inch, they take a mile and the next three years of his life. Fucking assholes, the lot of them.

Irritation made the back of his neck hot, and he grimaced as he tried to quell the sensation with a dose of logical thinking.

Linh was right -- it was time for them to consider their future. In all his musings of the future, he'd never imagined Yuuei in any of them. Then again, he hadn't imagined that he'd spend his life breaking the law for the greater good, either.

And perhaps this was the chance they needed. Linh held out hope that Kaina was alive, even after the media and news so publicly broadcasted her death. If Tobi was given the chance to work with her successor, Hawks... maybe he could figure out what really happened that day. Give Linh some peace of mind. Give himself a doorway to information and connections beyond what he already had.

Give himself a chance to delve into the criminal underworld and find the man that tore his hometown to the ground, without worrying about prosecution.

And so it was with those ideas in mind that Tobi replied, "I think you have yourself a deal."

. . . . .

1370 WORDS