Frigid Flame

Chapter 6

It was so cold.

Her father had locked her in a freezer, to get her used to her quirk he had said. Tears ran down the five-year old's face, leaving stinging streaks down her cheeks. Her fingers were starting to hurt and so were her bare feet. She could just barely remember how he had dragged her out of  Touya and her shared room by her hair and toss her in some time ago.

Time was fuzzy to Shimo, she had stopped counting the minutes long ago after she stopped crying the first time. She was so scared, what was her father doing to her brother without her there to take the blows for him. Their father deemed her twin brother as a failure and would push him harder to try and correct it.

"Daddy! Please let me out! I'm cold!"

She tried again to call to her father, but like her previous attempts, there was no answer. She knew she had to use her quirk to try and keep herself warm, but she didn't have a good grip on that part of her quirk. The molecules in the air were moving too slow and with it being so cold, she could barely muster the energy to stay awake.

"To-To! Mommy! Anyone!? Please help me, I'm scared!"

She continued to call for someone, anyone, that could help her. She was becoming desperate, she needed to get out of here! She forced herself off the cold ground and sluggishly hit the door. Her feeble blows didn't last long, however, on her fifth hit her hands slid to the side, and her body collapsing. She could feel her skin start sticking to the frozen ground.

Her mood quickly spiraled to hopelessness, making her quirk activate in the opposite effect. Her hair and skin slowly became coated in frost, as more ice built up around her. was it just her, or did the ice feel hot now? She couldn't tell anymore, she just wanted to sleep now.

"What did I do"

She whispered out, looking at the freezer door blankly, her eyes glowing a bright teal.

"I'm sorry for whatever I did I'll be good, I promise."

She was delirious now, trying to say anything that may get her out of this frozen hell. She limply reached out her hand towards the door.

"Please just let me out.."

Was it just her or was the side of the door melting? She didn't know, all she knew was her legs were now encased in ice and burning.

"Shi-Shi! I'm coming!"

Wasn't that Touya's voice? She could barely keep her eyes open now.

The door to the freezer melted away, showing her brother there, a burn gathering up his hand and arm with large tears in his eyes as he saw his frozen sister. He rushed to her side, quickly using his quirk to melt the ice encasing Shimo. He carefully held his sister's body towards him trying to keep her warm.

A fierce glare filled his eyes as he stared at the inside of their family's outdoor freezer and blue sparks of flame crackled around him. Touya lifted his hand and let his flames spew forth. Catching fire too anything and melting the ice around it. He then looked down at his sister and pulled her on to his back.

Their father had gotten pulled away on some emergency business in a different city, so Touya was able to scour their family's compound looking for his sister. She had been missing for four days, her father's only explanation was that she was training. A snarling glare filled his face at the thought of how his father treated them.

"Touya... What did I do wrong?"

Shimo had managed to barely whisper out, thinking her brother was just a hopeful dream she was having. A sour taste filled the brother's mouth, what could he say? They were both little kids, who had to grow up really fast to survive their brute of a parent. Tears pricked at the corner of his eyes from frustration and sadness.

"Nothing you're perfect. You do everything right."

He felt tears on his neck where her face was tucked.

"Why do we exist Touya."

He bit his lip as his tears fell too he couldn't give her an answer when he was asking the very same thing. He trudged on despite the tears and towards his pregnant mother.

Reí gasped when she caught sight of her oldest daughter on Touya's back.

"Shimo!" She rushed to the child, dropping the ladle she was using to stir their dinner. "Quickly Touya, go grab some blankets, he needed to warm her up now!"

Their mother was quick to treat her, making sure she didn't have any outstanding injuries from how long she was in that freezer. He noticed his mother was still free of bruises, their father wouldn't dare potentially harming his next possible success.

He watched as his mother gathered warm water in a basin with a washcloth and set the warmed cloth on Shimo's head.

His sister didn't deserve this abuse, nor the abuse she would receive that was meant for him. Yeah, Touya knew he was considered a failure, and he paid for it, but, seeing what their father did to Shimo on the regular made being considered a failure far more desirable. He at least got to see and play with Fuyumi, he didn't think Shimo even knew their little sister's birthday.

Especially how she barely saw their mother now.

Why do we exist Touya?

"I don't know, Shimo."

———————

Shimo jolted awake with a gasp. Her eyes flew around a dark grey cell, her breathing slightly heavy. A small amount of sweat clung to her frame uncomfortably. She wanted to take a shower, and to be out of this cell they had put her in. She quickly fell back into her neutral face and raked her fingers through her hair, attempting to fix its wild waviness.

She didn't stop even when the sound of footsteps hit her ears. She turned her head and caught a glimpse of the man that arrested her.

Hard teal eyes met her dull, dual-toned ones.

"Hello Endeavour, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Cut the crap Shimo, do you even know how much trouble you're in right now"

She stood up, facing him from behind the bars and gave him an emotionless smile.

"Not as much as you seem to think. I'll be out of here by the end of the day and another tragic ghost that'll haunt you till you die. Leave me alone now, old man, I've talked to you long enough. Officer!"

One of the policemen that apprehended her came in and began to escort the angry number two hero away. His face red fro his daughter's casual dismissal of her circumstances.

An hour passed by, with Shimo laying on the bench in the cell resting her eyes before another set of footsteps and crummy whistling reached her ears. A lazy smirk overcame her face as she sat up, her arms resting on her legs.

"You're late, I'm guessing that crossword of yours took awhile when you were in the morgue?"

Yamato stopped in front of her cell with a laidback smile, next to him were two officers. One held a brown paper bag and the other the keycard to her cell door.

"Pretty much, not all of us have the English dictionary memorized. Besides, crusader is a hard word for an old Japanese man like myself." He waved his hand, signaling the first officer to hand her the bag through the bars.

"Change of clothes for ya, put those on then we'll get out of here."

The three men turned around to give the teen some privacy as she changed. She smiled as she put on the comfy clothes and it grew wider when she saw the roll of bandages for her arm. The cream coloured turtle neck and dark brown knee-length skirt fit her well. The cell opened and Yamato handed her a dark red thigh-length coat and a knitted red and cream scarf.

"It's cold outside Brat, wear these."

A new warmth filled her at the man's kindness. It was almost a fatherly warmth to his kindness, the warmth that at one point she wished her father had shown her and her brother.

"Now let's get you home!"