Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Yua knew she wasn’t all that normal. She was smarter than other kids her age, stronger thanks to her quirk, and a bit more mature because she took her job of taking care of her siblings very seriously. She promised her Kaa-chan after all, her last promise to her Kaa-chan.

However, she had nothing on the sheer intellect of her younger brothers. Azul tore through the libraries they visited with the hunger of a starving man. Jade absorbed everything that Azul told him like a black hole. As for Floyd, he was a genius. Plain and simple. Even if his mood affects when he shows his genius, he just was.

Her friends asked her why she wasn’t jealous of them. Jealous of how smart and prodigious they were, jealous about how the teachers praised them to high heaven and let them get away with so many things because of that, but, to Yua, they were just her little brothers that she needed to keep safe since it was the last thing her Kaa-chan told her to do. Look out for her little brothers for her since she couldn’t anymore.

It was okay at first. Oto-san wasn’t all there but he tried his best and kept trying his best for them before he slipped.

When Oto-san slipped, it wasn’t obvious at first. He tried to hide it, at first. However, it got worse. He tried to find help, tried his best to keep damage to a minimum, and tried his best to keep away from them when he got really Bad Days but he kept slipping. It hurt to see the Oto-san who was so full of love slip so far.

It would have been easier to hate him. To hate her Oto-san because now, she had to work so hard to get rid of the smell of wine, beer, and other alcoholic drinks. To work to keep her siblings from finding out because, genius or not, they are only kids. Kids she needed and wanted to protect. To work to keep their house clean and the fridge stocked so they can still live there. 

It would have been easier to run away, just taking her brothers and running to the closest police station and begging for help, but she couldn’t. How could she when she could remember the business cards belonging to therapists, paper with information about rehab centers, whispers of apologies at night, and the food he cooks during those moments when her Oto-san was sober? No matter what, he was still her Oto-san and she loves him.

However, love or not, it got worse. It kept spiralling. It was like her life was slipping out of her fingers. He just kept getting worse as the years passed. Yua loved her Kaa-chan just as much as her Oto-san loved her but Yua knew that this isn’t healthy or normal. She knew that, even if a parent died, the other parent wouldn’t leave everything short of working for money (even doing the family’s taxes) to their child whose age was just barely in the double digits even if she had skipped a few grades.

Grief is just love with nowhere to go. Yua knows this, she knows that her Oto-san is grieving so much because of how much he loved his wife but… did her Oto-san spare any love for her and her little siblings?

Yua used to think so but wasn’t so sure anymore.

If they had their Oto-san’s love, he wouldn’t have drowned himself in alcoholic drinks so he could escape from reality. If they had their Oto-san’s love, he would have tried harder to get better. If they had their Oto-san’s love, he wouldn’t have hurt them.  If they had their Oto-san’s love, she wouldn’t need to sneak money out of his wallet to get money for food and bills. It was getting harder and harder for Yua to see the Oto-san she loves.

The Oto-san she loved.

Yua is tired. So tired but she is trying her best. By Kami above, she is doing the best she could. 

When Yua realized there was no hope of her Oto-san returning to normal, she started planning. First, she did research. Finding out how to keep the four of them together is the most important thing after being safe. The only viable route was to get a relative to take care of them until she could get impeached at sixteen years old and legally allowed to live on her own while taking care of her siblings.

It was hard since both her parents were only children and it was hard but she did find her Oji-san on her Kaa-chan’s side. Luckily too since he was their only other living relative. According to what she could find out online, he was half-blind and half-deaf but he was still active in a lot of things. He’s in an elderly tennis club, goes to old people gatherings, and things like that. He lives in a house in Musutafu city, near the ocean.

Luckily, there was a field trip to that city so, during lunch, she slipped away from her class to go to the address and told the old man her problem. Turns out, he was divorced from his wife and didn’t know his daughter was married because, after the divorce, he left for America for work. They divorced in the first place because he wanted to pick up the entire family to move to America and his wife didn’t want to uproot to a new country where they were barely passable in the language. The old man had just returned to Japan, to reconnect with his family after retiring but couldn’t find them

Yua thinks he was just too out of touch with technology to actually find anything. Really, it only took a few google searches and a bit of hacking into the country's registry to find him, not that hard.

After working things out, Yua slipped back to the area where her class was, claimed she went to the washroom before getting a bit lost with no one the wiser, and went home with a new pen pal who just so happened to be her Oji-san. 

With that done, she moved on to step three. She needed to get all the papers in order because they needed all the important papers to make the transition as smooth as possible. However, before she could find all the papers, her little siblings crossed paths with their Oto-san, and things got ugly.

Yua was just going to get a routine grocery run after realizing that their Oto-san ate more than normal and that she needed to go buy more if she wanted to make them dinner that night since tomorrow was grocery day. So she went to the closest convenience store to buy some heatable dinner and a few snacks because the boys were being surprisingly good this past week with no teachers getting angry.

She should have realized that things were too good this week. When there wasn’t enough trouble with those three, there was probably a bigger incident on the horizon. There was a big incident. Her three little brothers ran into their Oto-san while he was on a Very Bad Day. It was only made worse when Azul, opinionated and passionate Azul who looked so much like their Kaa-chan except with their Oto-san’s eyes, started yelling at their Oto-san. No doubt he was already irritated thanks to the cute little antics of his fellow triplets before even laying eyes on their Oto-san.

When Yua realized the three weren’t in the backyard, she panicked. Rushed into the house and ran to the kitchen when she heard loud crashes. When she got there, she watched in slow motion as their Oto-san broke the bottle in his hand. Before she knew it, she was in front of her siblings, keeping them close as she took the hits. 

She thanked Kami that she added sleeping pills to all the alcoholic drinks their Oto-san bought so he would sleep faster. It may not be safe because he was at risk of overdosing but she regulated the doses enough that it was more or less safe. 

Yua did her research, so it should be fine.

When their Oto-san passed out, she herded her silent siblings back into their rooms. Her siblings were so full of life, they shouldn’t be this quiet. However, she couldn’t stay with them. She needed to get the bleeding under control. Even with partially transforming so that she would have scales to protect her back from the worse of the damage. It didn’t completely protect her but it did enough. 

She entered her room where she kept all the first aid stuff and got to work patching herself up. Even if her Quirk has some regenerative properties that make her heal faster than a normal person, she still needs patching up. Grimly, she knows she was getting really good at this.

Once she was done, she put the first aid kit back on the windowsill. While she furnished her siblings’ room with bookshelves, a comfy bed, a large desk, a closet filled with clothing, toys, posters, a computer, and everything they could possibly need that she could give them with their limited funds, her room was bare. There was a single futon, a closet with the bare minimum of clothing, and a first aid kit on the windowsill. 

She had long since moved all her childish furniture into her brothers’ room because they need it more. She did her homework in their room as well so really, she didn’t need anything more than a place to sleep and change. 

Once she finished, she went over to her brothers’ room and sat them down for a serious talk. A talk she wished she didn’t need to give. The three of them were quick to catch on after what happened in the kitchen and understood everything. Yua was both glad and sad that they did. Glad because it made explaining everything else much easier but sad because, now that they know, they can’t unknow. 

After spending another month in the house, she got everything in order and packed her bags. The four of them waited until their Oto-san fell asleep and silently left the house towards the police station.

Towards a place where Yua could keep her siblings safe like she promised her Kaa-chan she would.

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Yua opened her eyes, felt the weight of three smaller bodies around her, and slowly got out of the pile with a soft smile. They were still in the police station where they’d been staying for the past four days but it was fine. In a matter of hours, they would be in Musutafu city to stay with their Oji-san. 

She brushed her teeth before waking her brothers up. After getting all of them ready, they ate their breakfast and waited for one of the police officers to drive them to their Oji-san’s home.

When they entered the car, her brothers piled into the backseats while she sat in the front passenger seat. After a while, the three children fell asleep. The police officer checked the mirror and started talking.

“You and your brothers will be transferring to Aldera Junior High School and Aldera Elementary School respectively.” The police officer said, “I hope your new life with your Oji-san is a happy one.”

“Thank you, sir.” Yua thanked respectfully, “If you can tell the rest of your coworkers that we thank them when you get back to the station, it would be much appreciated.”

The officer glanced down at her, “You speak very respectfully for a little kid.”

Yua smiled, “You don’t get much respect from the older kids if you talk like a child. I have to speak like this or else the hazing would be worse. Pride is a very big thing for kids and they don’t like their pride being stepped on by a younger kid who skipped a few grades to be in their class.”

The police officer laughed, “You got that right. Well, child, go to sleep. It will take a while to get there.”

Yua nodded and looked out the window. Like always, there were sounds of traffic, music, street chatter, screams, cheers, camera shutters, sirens, and monologues. Using the everyday noises of the city as a lullaby, Yua fell asleep.

For the first time in a long while, she felt so light.

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The police officer dropped them off at the house. Well, he rang the doorbell, introduced them to their Oji-san, and helped move their stuff into their new rooms before leaving but it was the nearest thing.

The five of them sat awkwardly in the dining room where they finished their lunch. It was completely silent with only the fan making noise. The boys were blank-faced as they stared at their Oji-san who looked as if he didn’t know what to do about three children staring at him. This wasn’t getting them anywhere.

“So.” Yua spoke up, “This is our Oji-san on our Kaa-chan’s side, Aikawa Tadashi. I already explained why we never found out about him until I did some digging. We will be staying with him for the foreseeable future. Don’t cause him any trouble, okay?”

“Okay, Nee-chan.”

“Of course, Nee-chan.”

“M’kay…”

Oji-san coughed before speaking up, “Now. Do not expect me to raise you properly because I didn’t even have a hand in raising your Kaa-chan. I will do my best but don’t expect much. I already heard from your teachers, and the police, and I read in your files that you, kids, are geniuses so that makes my life easier. So-”

Yua hit their Oji-san in the head, “Don’t talk like that. They’ll think you don’t care about them.”

“This is how I am, so this is how I’ll act. I’m already an old man, which means I can do whatever I want without worrying about social niceties.” Their Oji-san announced, “Once you get to my age, you stop caring. Sure, I do love you as my grandchildren but this is my attitude, so deal with it.”

Yua let out a long-suffering sigh. She had a feeling, no, premonition, that she would be raising four children instead of just three. 

“Just so you know, I own this entire house, plus the lawn around it, and at least a hundred and fifty meters of the sea that way.” Their Oji-san pointed out the window, “Feel free to swim and go wild with your quirk. I bought this house for my wife who loved to transform and swim. Hoping that this gift would make her take me back.”

“Why leave her and Kaa-chan if you love her so much?” Azul asked, speaking up for the first time.

Yua pats Azul’s head, proud that he finally talked. She was getting worried he was nervous about meeting their Oji-san. It wasn't the nices question but he still talked. 

Their Oji-san looked out the window, towards the sea, “I wanted to give her and your Kaa-chan a better life. A life away from all this hero nonsense. I mean, it’s all over the world, but here, there was a big, country-wide case of kidnappings happening so I wanted to get us all out of Japan, it helped that there was an opening in my work that would let us move to America until I retire. 

“Your Obaa-san didn’t want to go. She loved with all her heart, you see. She didn’t want to leave her friends and her parents. She has the same Quirk as your sister, while I am where you and your Kaa-chan got the Morey Eel Quirk. We talked it over, but we couldn’t come to a solution we both were happy with. I already applied so I had to go. So I left.

“Our marriage suffered for it. I wasn’t there to help raise your Kaa-chan and stuff happened. It was easier for the both of us to just get a divorce, we knew that if we didn’t we might have ended up hating each other. I would have hated that because I loved her more than anything. I still sent money over but we lost contact after a while due to a big villain attack that happened around twenty years ago.”

The four of them kept quiet, letting their Oji-san drift into his memories. His eyes were glazed over for a moment before turning his full attention onto them, causing them to sit up straighter. 

“What do you four want in your life? What are your ambitions?” Their Oji-san asked intensely, with his eyes glowing in a golden-ish colour, “Whatever you want, don’t let go and don’t regret anything.”

Yua smiled, “Personally, I want to go into voice acting and songwriting, maybe even dabble in composing, as a career choice. I also want a house built underwater so I could swim for days. The ocean calls for me, telling me to come home, like a siren song. I want to make enough money to make that happen.”

“The ocean calls for you, eh? A child of the sea, just like your Obaa-san.” Their Oji-san muttered with a sad smile.

“An underwater home is nice. I want that.” Floyd nodded happily, “I want that, Nee-chan.”

“We can all live in the underwater home, then.” Yua smiled as she patted Floyd’s head as Floyd leaned into her hand.

“I want to be the CEO of my own company. I will make it happen.” Azul said in a voice that told everyone not to doubt him.

“I will help Azul.” Jade added with a smile.

Their Oji-san looked at them with an unreadable expression but nodded. He then shooed them out of the house with some pocket change, telling them to look around the neighbourhood and to remember to come back for dinner in a few hours. Looking out at the sea, Yua feels like she could be happy here.

The four of them walked along the road that was parallel to the sea. For one thing, it was close to the sea that they all adore, and for another, it was harder to get lost if they stick to a straight road with something memorable beside them.

“What do you think about this place?” Yua asked as they sat on a grassy hill and watched a flock of seagulls fly about above them.

“It’s better than before.” Jade said evenly.

“It’s closer to the sea, so it’s better.” Floyd declared.

“It could be worse.” Azul finished.

Yua smiled. Her siblings liked this place. Briefly, she thought about their Oto-san. He was moved to a rehab center that doubled as a prison. From what the police told her, he was resisting treatment on some days while being cooperative with others. They said it was going to be an uphill battle but if he gets more sober days, he should be able to turn back into a functioning member of society within a decade at least.

Yua still hopes that the Oto-san she loved would turn back to normal. Even if she could never forget what he did nor could she forgive him that easily, she wanted him to go back to normal for a sense of closure.

When she gets that closer, she can finally feel free. Until then, she’ll be patient and take care of her little siblings as she promised.