Visit

It's evening when we return to the hero HQ. The moment we walk in there's a bunch of people waiting for us.
"Kazu! Tarou!"
"You guys okay?"
Shin and Hiro had worried looks as they checked on us, meanwhile Aya rushed in to hug me as Tomo had a smile on his face when he said.
"I'm glad you're ok."
He lets out a laugh before continuing.
"I guess we should've been faster through the portal."

Looking at everyone surrounding us gave me a warm feeling.
'These guys... I'm glad to have them by my side.'
"Hah."
I start laughing.
"Sorry, I guess I haven't felt this way in a while for some reason."
Before the nice moment can continue the nurse walks forward, towards me. She wore a smile on her face though for some reason I didn't trust it.
"Youuuu..."
'Crap. Is she angry?'
I expect anything, but instead she gently taps me on the head as she says.
"I told you to be careful... Honestly, seeing a portal suddenly open up was quite surprising. Then when the second one appeared with two more people coming through... Are you just trying to give me more people to heal?"
I hang my head low.
"Sorry."
She chuckles.
"Well, you must think I'm quite great a healing, so I'm glad."

Gaia steps forward, giving her a hand shake as she starts saying.
"Thank you for helping out."
"No worries."
"Uhh... Excuse me."
Full Throttle was behind was, waiting to pass to guide Sloth to his cell.
We all step aside letting him through, with Gaia following behind giving me a motion to follow which I do, looking back to wave at the others.

...

We're standing in the cells, looking at Sloth who keeps staring right at us.
Full Throttle looks around and then starts heading off.
"I think I'm not needed here, you guys got this. Once again I'm sorry you had to see me in that state."
With that he leaves the room while Gaia and Sloth keep staring at each other silently.

After a while, the silence is finally broken when Wrath says.
"I'm surprised to see you here Sloth, I would have thought you'd be one of the last."
Without hesitation Gaia immediately follows that up with a barrage of questions.
"What is your mission? Who do you work for? Where is your base? Who else-"
"Woah there. Let's calm down."
Sloth grins and leans forward.
"You guys defeated me, that's impressive so I will answer ONE question. Make it count, I'll let you think about it."
"Tsk."
Gaia's frustration is obvious, I was about to ask but she looked at me and shook her head, the meaning was clear.
'He's not going to budge...'

They once again stare at each other for a long time while Wrath attempted to start some small talk a couple times, until finally she speaks up, having decided on a question.
"What do they want to use the Chairman for?"
Upon hearing this, at first Sloth gets a wide grin on his face, before bursting out laughing for a few moments, which thoroughly annoys Gaia, until she finally shouts.
"ANSWER ME ALREADY!"
"Hahah... Sorry, sorry. So you know that already huh? Wrath really is a blabber mouth aren't ya Wrath?"
He looks to the wall on his right, towards the neighbouring cell where Wrath is held, who quickly answers him with a smile.
"What can I say... They asked after all."
Sloth nods.
"Yeah, they did. Tell you what, promise me you won't blab anymore about anything you haven't already told them."
"Sure!"
Immediately Gaia screams.
"What?! Hey! Hey! That's no good, Wrath!"
Wrath looks at us with an apologetic face.
"Ah, I apologize. I just went with the flow."
She slams her fist against the bars of Sloth's cell with an angry face.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Sloth puts his hands up.
"I can't have it be too easy, now can I? Don't worry, I'm fair, I'm not going to breaking my word. That's the question you want answered, correct?"
"...Yes."
'I can feel the rage in her voice...'

Sloth leans forward once more and says with a mocking smile.
"The reason chief wants the Chairman is to get to the Vice Chairman. That's his real objective."
Surprise appears in Gaia's face.
"The vice... What the hell does your chief want with her?"
"Hah. Defeat me again and maybe you'll get another answer as a reward. Though I know you won't be letting me out, not this soon."
Gaia takes a step back, seriousness taking over her face.
"Hmph. We'll make you talk eventually."
"I don't know about that, heck do you even have anything on me? You attacked first after all."
She turns around, heading for the exit.
"Keep saying that then."

...

I follow her out as we head towards the lobby.
"What now?"
She glances at me.
"Let me think, I'll let you know tomorrow."
We reach the lobby and see a familiar short woman as she turns towards us. She wore a cute red dress, and had her black hair flowing this time.
"Ah, you guys."
"Tsk. More on top of more..."
Gaia was already annoyed from before, but seeing Sloth's wife made her extra upset.
"What's that? Whatever, I'm not here to fight you. I'm just here to visit that idiot husband of mine. I can right?"
"...A visit...!"
It seems an idea dons on her and she happily puts her arm over her shoulder, guiding her in.
"Right this way, I'm sure he'll be thrilled to see you!"

'...I wonder if that's going to work.'
"Kazu! We finally get to leave at the same time for once!"
I turn to see dad on his way off from work.
"Hey dad."
"I got off early today!"
'Sometimes I wonder if his boss is a slave driver... Did the pizza shop owner switch jobs or something?
...Though, I've seen dad start to get circles under his eyes, even after days off...'
"Want to take a ride home with me?"
I nod, and we both head out.

...

After some time in the car I notice that we're not on the way home anymore.
"Where are we going?"
"Ah, well I figured we don't often visit together... I'm sure she'd be happy if we did!"
"Oh."
'...Yeah.'

It doesn't take long until we reach the hospital. I pass by Light show and Echo as they're on their way out, giving each other a wave, before moving on.
We go up a few flights of stairs and reach her room. Dad turns towards me with a smile and puts his arm around me and we walk in.

There she was, mom. She looked peacefully in her bed as she always did. Almost as if she could wake with any noise.
We walk over and sit by her side as dad begins speaking.
"Evening dear... Well it's night now, heh. I brought Kazu along, how about that huh? It's not often we visit together, what with all the schedule issues... And all that..."
I looked at dad as the sadness in my heart grows.
'I miss pretending that she was just tired and sleeping.'

Dad continues, he talks about his day and some of the calls he had or some of his co-workers had. Even talking about how some co-worker had a call related to some huge tornado in a park.
'I guess he doesn't know the details.'
Afterwards he finishes and remains silent for a moment, before turning towards me.
'My turn then...'
"Hey there mom. I uh... Am training hard.
...Really hard... I- I'm sure you'll know all about it soon enough! Oh I've also been hanging out more with a new hero called Full Throttle.
Maybe you already know of him... He's pretty cool.
Gaia is the same as always I want to say."
Dad chuckles.
"Ain't that the truth."
I smile for a moment at the comment, before it fades and I continue talking to her about all sorts of things. Well, things that wouldn't cause utter panic to dad.

A few hours later and it's very late, with a nurse coming in to tell us that it's time to go.
"Sorry. We'll be out in a moment."
Dad stands up and heads for the door, stopping as he turns back to see me still sitting. I glance back at him and say.
"Sorry dad. I just want a few more minutes..."
"Of course. I'll wait for you in the lobby."
I nod to him and wait until he leaves.
'Another attempt.'
I stand up, putting my hands on moms forehead and heart as I concentrate.
'Another attempt.'
I take a deep breath and cast my magic.
"Heal."
A glow surrounds mom, a moment later the heart monitor shows me her heart beating slightly faster, giving me a glimmer of hope.
'Please... Please...'
It goes on for minutes until I finally tire myself out and stop, her heart rate returning to normal as I slump back in my chair.
"The exact same thing as the last however many attempts."
'How many has it been... I really have lost count...'

A minute later I stand up and head towards the exit.
'All of this because of Neptune's imposter...
All of this because of Wrath... And Envy.'