Chapter Text
“Ochako! Tooru!” A high-pitched voice yelled over the booming bass of the club, immediately catching the attention of the exhausted surgeon.
Ochako looked around to try and find the owner of the voice, having a good idea of who it belonged too. She lightly squinted her eyes as she roamed over the crowd, looking for a particular fluff of pink hair in the sea of people on the dance floor. She noted that in a far corner was a group of three women who didn’t really look like they should be sitting at the same table.
“I found them, Tooru-chan,” Ochako shouted beside her, making sure her companion could hear her over the pounding bass. “They’re over by the windows.”
Tooru nodded in acknowledgment and walked over to the trio, making sure Ochako remembered the drink she wanted. Ochako scanned the crowds more, spotting the fluff of pink and pushing her way to the fluff. She squeezed behind a couple that was dancing in a way the suited a bedroom more than a club. She grabbed the shoulder of the fluff of pink to grab the woman’s attention. The woman with fluffy hair turned around and wrapped her arms around Ochako’s shoulders, pulling Ochako into her for a hug.
“Ochako!” The pink haired woman pulled away from the hug and kept Ochako at arm’s length, examining her. “You look so cute but where’s your drink? Let’s go get some drinks, I need a refill.”
“If we can get through this sea of people,” Ochako laughed.
The two women made their way through the sea of people and to the bar, squeezing between people with apologizes thrown over their shoulders as they continued on. They finally made it to the bar, both breathing slightly heavier than normal and laughing about it. They had to force their way to the front of the bar before they had to fight for the bartender’s attention. It took Mina’s shouting and hand waves to get the bartender to make his way over, taking their orders with an exhausted look in his eyes.
“Poor guy must be swamped with orders,” Ochako leaned into Mina and said, using the bar to support her weight. She looked over her shoulder to see that the group of girls Tooru was with had moved to a table closer to the bar, making a ghost of a smile pull at her lips in relief.
“Yeah. Maybe we didn’t pick the best day to go out for a Girl’s Night.” Mina laughed, giving the bartender a sympathetic look.
The bartender came back with their drinks and Mina gave him a generous tip for all of his work. When the bartender received the tip, his smile reached his eyes and he didn’t look as dead as he had before making their drinks. Maybe he could make good tips tonight if he was still looking swamped whenever they came back for more drinks.
“I have your drink, Tooru-chan.” Ochako gently placed down the two drinks she was carrying, a Sex on the Beach and a Cosmopolitan. Mina was right behind her with shots for everyone at the table.
“But we have to take these shots first!”
Mina had hopped onto the barstool and started to pass out the shots, happily explaining that they were shots of vodka and that it was their hard drink for the night. Ochako looked at the group and was happy to see all of the members of Girl’s Night again.
Tooru was sitting across from her, dressed in a cute black mini skirt with a light blue flowing blouse, her nude pumps resting on a step of the barstool. They had both just gotten off of their shifts from the hospital, Tooru working on the business side of it all and not dealing with patients. To Ochako’s left was Tsu-chan, her best friend since high school and all through college, dressed in what Ochako guessed was her work outfit. Tsu-chan work black slacks and a cool green button-up with the sleeves rolled up, black flats resting on the second step on the bar stool. Tsu-chan was a marine biologist, working to keep the ocean clean from all of the man-made garbage. Kyouka was sitting next to Tooru but leaned in close to Momo. Kyouka wore a cute stripped shirt with black pants, giving her a mature and cute look. Her cardigan was on the bar seat, making sure that she didn’t forget it when she and Momo left. Ochako was happy to see Kyouka since she finished touring Japan with her up-and-coming band. Momo leaned in close to Kyouka, holding her hand on top of the table, dressed to the nines, her black pumps completing her business look. Momo was running her family’s business and making major environmental changes to it. Mina was sitting to Ochako’s right, scooting her barstool closer to their small table, wearing a crop top that said “Pinky” across the chest, a purple tank top underneath and high waisted shorts, her high tops a cute leopard print that somehow oddly matched her outfit. Ochako noted that Mina was advertising her YouTube channel, Pinky, and it looked really good on her.
Ochako felt herself smile at how great it was to be with everyone again. It had been a while since they had all gotten together, it had probably been a month or so since they actually had a Girl’s Night with everyone. It was so refreshing to be with them and not think about work, it had been too long since she had a night without thinking about work and boy did it feel great. She could finally relax.
“Okay, okay. Let’s make a toast!” Mina raised her shot glass, signaling for everyone else to do the same. “What should we toast to?”
“Let’s toast to being successful and reaching our dreams,” Momo offered, timidly raising her shot glass up.
“To success and reaching our dreams,” the group of women cheered, clinking their glasses together before going to throw them back.
They were interrupted by the sound of Ochako’s phone going off, lighting up and moving around on the table. They all saw the caller id on the screen and sighed, knowing that this call would be the end of their night. Ochako set her shot down as the phone continued to dance around the table.
“I have to take this,” she excused herself from the table.
“I wish we could say to ignore it but it’s important if it’s coming for the hospital,” Tsu-chan had stated, looking slightly disappointed at the interruption.
“I’ll be just a minute.” Ochako walked quickly to the door and out onto the street.
“This is Uraraka Ochako.”
“Doctor Uraraka!” The voice on the other end sounded distressed, “We need you at the hospital right away. We just got a bunch of patients who were involved in a car crash.”
Ochako grabbed the bridge of her nose and sighed, her carefree mood gone in an instant.
“How many people are there? How bad are the patients? How many need surgery? How many doctors are at the hospital now?
“There are 13 in total but only 6 need surgery. The 6 who need surgery have varying injuries, but general surgery is needed for 5 of them. Only 2 need neurosurgery, one of which also needs general surgery, one needs to have a leg amputated and the rest are just general surgery. There are general surgeons already working on other patients who have already come in, so we need the extra hands.”
Ochako turned toward the club, looking through the windows with a longing look, just wanting to hang out with her friends and relax for a night. Work always got in the way for her.
“Okay. I’ll be there as quickly as I can. You’re lucky you got me before I had a drink. You owe me though.”
“Yes, Doctor Uraraka. We’ll see you soon.”
Ochako hung up and made her way back to her group of friends. She loved being a surgeon and helping people but at times like these, she wished that she had a regular boring desk job where nothing went wrong. Making her way back to their table, she grabbed her jacket and purse, passing off her drink to anyone who wanted it.
“Sorry girls, duty calls.” She shrugged on her jacket. “We can always do this again another time. I promise.”
“It’s okay, Ochako,” Kyouka spoke up, looking at her with concern. “There’s plenty of time to hang out. Just make sure you don’t over work yourself.”
“I’ll try not to.”
Ochako gave them a hug before waving goodbye and heading to the hospital. Thankfully this bar was fairly close to the hospital so a walk through the busy sidewalks was easier than getting a taxi, not to mention cheaper.
Ochako pulled her jacket around her tighter as a cold breeze passed her, tossing her hair around her with strands sticking to her lips. Goosebumps littered her skin at the unwelcomed chill, making her shiver.
‘Odd,’ she thought, waiting for the light to change. ‘There shouldn’t be that cold of a breeze now. It’s the middle of autumn, not the end of it.’
She pulled her wild strands of hair back into place as the light changed, signaling for her to walk. She was halfway through the crosswalk when she accidentally bumped into someone, the force knocking her shoulder back. She turned to say an apology when the words died on her tongue. She started at the man who had run into her and she couldn’t help the puzzled expression taking over her features.
The man who had run into her was looking at her like she had offended his entire family, ancestors included. But it wasn’t the expression that he wore that got her, it was his outfit. He was wearing something she only saw in the museums and in the textbook of her history classes. He was wearing samurai armor that looked to be made out of some type of metal since it shone in the night lights of Tokyo, his helmet reflecting the lights harder like it was just polished. It was really weird to see since he looked like he had just popped out of the pages of her old history textbook.
“I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered out, finally snapping out of her staring and feeling her cheeks flush with embarrassment. She turned and quickly walked away, wondering how much time had passed since she got the call from her hospital and how much time the patients had left.
With her back to the strange man, she had missed the way his hand had touched where they had collided and how his expression had changed to an odd mixture of confusion and realization.
Katsuki had started his day like any other. He had gotten up with the sun, dressed in his kimono and armor after stretching his muscles out and proceeded to make sure the guards were awake, waking the stragglers in a vicious way. He always woke up the stragglers by grabbing a pot that he conveniently, not so convenient for everyone else though, had in his quarters before banging it against the wall as hard as the pot would allow him. Nothing to him was more satisfying than seeing the lazy ones literally up from their beds and scream in an unmanly like way, it served them right for sleeping in. They needed to all be taught lessons about taking this job seriously.
After waking the poor, sleeping souls in his demonic way, Katsuki gathered the other Lords there for the morning meeting, after they had all eaten. He waited as patiently as he could, which wasn’t very much, for the other Lords to come in. He drummed his fingers against his arm, looking out over the castle. He needed to tell the others what he had heard from his informants, about how someone might be trying to assassinate Lord Enji. He had to wait for everyone though and it was getting on his nerves that they were all chatting instead of being diligent like he was.
“Is everyone here?” He didn’t bother to turn around, letting his annoyance slip clearly through his tone and causing the room to quiet instantly. “Someone better say something.”
“Everyone’s here, Lord Katsuki.” A familiar voice called out, and Katsuki could see him standing up as everyone else looked at Katsuki.
“Good.” He finally turned and his grim expression made everyone sit a little straighter than they were. “Let’s get started.”
Katsuki made his way from the window to the head of the table, noting that everyone was there. He sat down without saying a word.
“There’s been a threat made on Lord Enji’s life,” he finally let everyone know. “I was informed by a group I know about this last night. I don’t know how long this plan has been in motion, but we are not going to let that happen. I want everyone to inform their men and tell them to make sure that absolutely nothing gets past them. If anything does, I want their head. I don’t know when this attempt will happen, but I want everyone to be on high alert until this issue is resolved. Do you all understand?”
“Yes, Lord Katsuki,” chorused throughout the room.
“Good.” He turned to look at his right-hand man. “Eijiro, make sure that the gates have stricter restrictions and that the people of the town don’t know about this. They’ll only get in the way with trying to help in their own annoying ways.”
“Yes, Lord Katsuki,” Eijiro agreed, nodding his head.
“That’s all I have to say.” Katsuki stood up. “You’re all dismissed.”
Everyone got up, low murmurs sounded but the words were indistinguishable. Katsuki waited for everyone to leave before sighing, he hated the fact that their lord could be in danger. He felt useless because all he knew was that there was a possible attempt on Lord Enji’s life, not a for sure attempt. He didn’t know what the enemy’s plan was and how to counter it. He may be a tactical genius, but even he knew that he was limited with plans due to all of the unknown.
“You did the right thing, Katsuki,” a soft voice startled him from his thoughts, but he didn’t let it show, that would mean that he was unprepared. “You can make a plan with this information. You’re a tactical genius after all.”
“Shouldn’t you be talking to your men, Eijiro?” Katsuki seethed, wishing to be alone but finding that having him here was helping, though he would never admit that.
“I’m having one of my captains do it for me.” Eijiro rested against the wall that Katsuki was looking out of. “My men will do what their told.”
Katsuki sighed in frustration. “I need to tell Lord Enji about this and make sure that Lady Rei is safe as well. I don’t think anyone will try to hurt her, but I don’t want to take that risk.”
“What do you plan to do?” Eijiro was looking down and had closed his eyes, his arms crossed over his chest like he was in deep thought but Katsuki knew better. He knew that Eijiro was listening to his every word, planning to help revise his plan to make it better. They had been doing this ever since they had met each other, which had to be at least a decade and a half ago.
Katsuki stared out the window again, deep in thought.
“I plan to make the patrols bigger. Instead of a team of four, teams of six will go around the grounds. And the patrol routes will have to be more detailed, they’ll need to check the ground near the walls carefully for footprints of any kind. The walls should be guarded more, not putting emphasis on any one side since we don’t know where the attack is coming from. The guards around Lord Enji should be us Lords and we should carry an arrange of weapons, not just swords. I should have Lady Rei’s guards more vigilant that before, and I need to make sure that the guards around Lord and Lady Rei are trusted. I’ll have to see if my informants can have anything else for me when I go back.”
Eijiro let out a low, long whistle. “You’ve thought of mostly everything.” He adjusted himself so he wasn’t hurting his head while he looked at Katsuki. “But how are you going to keep this up? How are you going to make sure that the guards are well rested and prepared to fight? If you plan on increasing the patrol sizes, who will be able to sleep and eat? How will the guards be able to keep up with this?”
Katsuki let out a frustrated growl. Eijiro was right. How would he keep the guards at perfect condition when he was increasing their work load? He had to be smart about this, but his mind wasn’t able to find any sort of solution to this dilemma.
“Spar with me,” Katsuki ordered, leaving the window and heading towards their sparring area.
Eijiro let the ghost of a smirk cross his lips. This was Katsuki’s way of thinking through a problem that he couldn’t see the answer of. It always worked for him to get his blood racing.
Eijiro and Katsuki had been sparring for around an hour straight, perfecting their fighting styles and blowing off much needed steam. They had lost count of who won how many rounds at this point. They were both trying to think about how to resolve this issue. They had been bouncing ideas off one another while they were sparring though. They had yet to come to a conclusion, resulting in an even more frustrated Katsuki and an even more tired Eijiro.
“Break,” Eijiro could barely gasp out as he sat down on the dirt, laying down and covering his eyes as he tried to relax the pounding of his heart.
Katsuki had plopped down on his side, breathing just as heavy as Eijiro who was all but gasping for air at this point. They had really been trying to beat each other, too lost in their own thoughts and the few shared between them. They had been to mentally preoccupied to realize that they were literally trying to beat the other into either submission or, as onlookers would think, to death. They still weren’t any closer to finding a solution to their problems and Katsuki could feel the rage setting again, making its way back home into his heart.
He slammed his fist against the ground. “Dammit. We aren’t any closer to figuring this shit out.”
“Maybe we need to plan for what could happen,” Eijiro tried between deep breaths for air, his breathing closer to becoming normal than it was before/
“You mean about if Lord Enji gets injured,” Katsuki couldn’t help the anger in his voice as he knew that that was a very likely outcome to all of this, one he wanted to avoid at all costs.
Eijiro made a sound of agreement, slowly sitting back up and supporting his weight with his arms behind him. “We need to prepare for that. I know that Lord Shouto can cure a lot of things, but I don’t think he’ll be able to cure whatever happens to his father. I don’t even think he wants to become the next Shogun but that’s something else entirely.”
“What are you trying to say, hair-for-brains?”
Eijiro sighed, he wished that name would just die already. “I’ve heard of some strange rumors going around. Something about how there was a doctor who could cure any disease, known and unknown. This doctor had come from the Gods and was so good that some foreign leaders had tried to take him for their own. Hell, he even refused to work with the lords in our lands and decided to join the Gods again. He had gone through the Door of the Gods when the leaders had tried to take him. I think it’s just a myth, but some people are very adamant about the life of this ‘Doctor of the Gods’. I’ve heard that this myth is a thousand years old though. I can’t remember the name of the doctor though.”
Katsuki just stared at Eijiro.
“That is the biggest pile of horse shit that I have ever heard.”
“Yeah, it is pretty stupid.” Eijiro rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, knowing that he would never live down the fact that he believed such an outrageous myth that there was no way it could have been real. “I guess people will believe anything if it sounds outrageous enough.”
Katsuki got up. He needed to do something to actually help this mess that they could be in instead of talking about some myth that the people thought to be true. He needed something tangible, not something whispered to amongst the people.
The rest of Katsuki’s day had been pretty uneventful. He continued to mull over the issues of his plan, even though his plan was already put into action. He wanted to make sure that the men weren’t exhausted should something happen but figuring out how was a different battle. He could have different schedules for them, having each one overlap so everyone was working and could get a break without disturbing the now implemented schedule.
“That could work,” he mouthed as he walked deep in thought around the castle grounds, not noticing how the men were moving out of the way to not disturb him.
“Hey, you,” he called out to one of the patrol groups, enjoying the way the group jumped and pointed at themselves. “One of you come here.”
They panicked and ended up shoving a guy to Katsuki. The guy looked up in fear, not sure why they were called out and why he had to go to the Demon Lord, but he was there now.
“Go get Lord Eijiro.”
It was a simple order, but the guy’s expression was one of an adventurer who had just been told that he had to slay a dragon. His skin seemed to pale at the order, and he swallowed a lump that was sticking to his throat uncomfortably.
“Y-yes, De—I mean, Lord Katsuki,” the foot soldier could barely stutter out, looking mortified that he almost called Lord Katsuki by his nickname, the Demon Lord, to his face.
The foot soldier sprinted to find Lord Eijiro, impressing Katsuki at his sheer speed.
‘He would make a great messenger,’ he thought, yelling at the patrol group to get back to work you damn extras!
He continued on his path around the castle perimeter for a while longer before turning to go inside the castle. He wanted to make sure that the inside of the castle was also being patrolled properly and he still needed to find Lady Rei to inform her of the possible assassination attempt on her husband.
He ran a hand across the back of his neck as he entered the castle. He didn’t like talking to Lady Rei. She was a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any second. He always had to be careful about the way he talked to her too, granted he did the same with Lord Enji, but it was different with her. She was fragile in every sense of the word. She always looked like she would fall over if a breeze pushed her the right way. She struggled talking about Lord Enji and her children for some reason that no one seemed to know why and if she saw Lord Shouto, she would immediately look away with tears in her eyes. Katsuki was sure that everyone knew why she was like that with Lord Shouto, since she had poured boiling water over the left side of his face when he was younger.
Katsuki shook his head to rid him of these thoughts. He just had to report to Lady Rei about what could possibly happen. It wasn’t anything to be this stressed over, but he was stressing over it. He knew it was because she could make anyone feel uncomfortable with the way she looked at people, never actually at them but focusing on something that was always just beyond everyone. He had no clue as to how her guards could deal with that.
He made it to her room and gently knocked on her door, remembering the reprimand he had gotten for pounding on the door. He waited until someone answered the door. He wasn’t surprised to see the Captain Momo answer the door, she was the one in charge of the Lady’s all-female guards.
“Lord Katsuki,” Momo nodded as she made his presence known to everyone behind her. “What brings you here?”
“I need to talk to Lady Rei.” He forced his voice to be a little lighter than normal, knowing that Lady Rei would start to shake if there was any trace of anger in a male’s voice. “It is important that she knows what’s happening in her castle.”
Momo nodded her head and opened the door wider for Katsuki to get through. He had to force himself to seem gentler than his nature would allow, not wanting to scare the Lady. He removed his sword, keeping it by the door frame. He always disliked how he had to unarm himself whenever he entered Lady Rei’s area, but he needed her in the best state he could get her in.
He slowly walked over to her, acting like he was dealing with a startled fawn, which wasn’t far from the truth.
“Lady Rei.” He bowed in front of her, keeping his voice soft. “I have important information that you need to be informed of.”
“Please sit, Lord Katsuki,” Lady Rei breathed, motioning to the seat that was in front of her.
He made sure that he sat down slowly in front of her, keeping his hands on top of his legs to show that he didn’t mean her any harm or ill will. Katsuki watched as she took a timid sip from her teacup, not missing the faint tremor from the cup she was holding.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, Lady Rei,” Katsuki began, sitting stiff. “I have been informed that there is a plan to kill Lord Enji some time in the future. I do not know if it will happen sooner or later, but I wanted to inform you that the patrol groups have gone from 4 men to 6 men per group so there will be an increase in men around the castle. I do not know if there could also be an attempt on your life, but I want to be prepared just in case who ever is planning this wants to also kill you. I want to make sure that you have guards around you at all times. Would it be possible for me to have a group of men with you as well?”
Lady Rei was shaken about the news. Her hands were visibly shaking now, tea coming threateningly close to spilling out of her cup. Ashido had come up and gently grabbed the Lady’s hands before removing them from the cup of tea and gently setting it down on the table in front of them. Lady Rei didn’t notice that her hands were shaking, or that her tea had left her hands. She was focusing on something far beyond any of them, her eyes blank as she burned holes into the wall behind Katsuki.
‘Crap I scared her,’ he thought, burrowing his brow as he tried to think of how to fix this mess. It was hard to get more female guards like the UA Women’s Guard and finding more of them would take too long to gather than interview each one found. It was easier if he could have some male guards around her, but she was always distraught with men around her.
“Lady Rei,” Momo gently called out, trying to bring Lady Rei back to them. “Lady Rei, I’m sure that Lord Katsuki won’t let you be around an all men’s guard, right Lord Katsuki?”
“Yes.” Katsuki wasn’t an idiot. He wouldn’t make Lady Rei uncomfortable just to keep her safe. “I would only add one or two men to your already capable guards. I want to keep you safe and let your guards have a break.”
Lady Rei seemed to have focused back on what was going on. She looked around and saw that her guards gushing concern for her and she saw that Lord Katsuki was there, a patient look on his face that seemed to understand. Lady Rei was confused by his expression, it looked like he knew what had happened and understood what it did.
“How…...how many ma…. male guards will be with me?” She breathily stuttered, unable to look up from her clutched hands in her lap.
“Between one or two to your already capable group of guards,” he repeated himself, making sure he sounded calm.
“An…...and this is for the possible death of my—Lord Enji?” She stopped herself from saying husband, which caught Katsuki’s attention.
“Yes and possible yours as well, my Lady.”
There was a long pause as Lady Rei thought this over. Katsuki could see the wheels in her head turning, thinking over the pros and cons of letting two men close to her. He could tell that this decision was a difficult one for her to make, she needed more time than what he had right now. He didn’t have the time to wait around for her answer when she was debating this decision with herself.
“My Lady,” Katsuki pulled her out of her thoughts, something close to understanding faintly pulled at his features. “Please think this decision over. I can come back tomorrow to get your answer.”
The relief that flooded from her could be cut with his sword.
“Thank you, Lord Katsuki.” The smile on her lips reached her eyes. “I will think this over and come to a decision tomorrow.”
Katsuki stood and bowed to her before making his way out the door, grabbing his sword.
“Have a good night, my Lady. Rest well, guards.” He closed the door behind him.