Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
3 Day later - Taylor Pov .
For the past three days I felt myself drifting in and out of consciousness. The amount of information I was receiving was overwhelming me, hundreds of thousands of meaningless images, sounds everywhere, sensations I knew weren't on my skin. I could feel it all, all at the same time and it was overwhelming.
It was on the third day that I finally woke up, and that's when I got it. The bugs, I had my swarm again. My quirk had evolved and was now more. I had never bonded with any of the bugs within 3 blocks and now I could control them all. In a way that had previously seemed impossible.
"Taylor! You're awake! " My newly awakened eyes glanced over at the side of my bed. Dad was there, along with Mom and Aunt Zoe. I tried, more easily than I expected, to sit up in the bed I was in. My gaze darted across the room. Hospital. Why-
The locker.
I felt myself go pale as terror settled into my body.
"Taylor, are you okay?" Mom asked worriedly. I pushed the locker memories away into the back of my mind and felt myself starting to calm down. Like I was numb.
"Y- yeah, I'm fine." I said nervously, the three adults didn't seem to believe me. "W-what happened?" I asked. The three of them now grimaced.
"You were locked in the locker for hours, you were... you were in bad shape when they rushed you in. They treated you completely, but you have been sleeping for three days." Dad said with pity, I repressed the shiver I felt and looked at the three of them almost frantically.
"It was Emma and Sophia!" I exclaimed desperately. My parents and Aunt Zoe looked at each other before sighing.
"Taylor, Emma already told us everything. Stop lying!" my father said with a disappointed look. My eyes widened.
"They're lying! Emma and Sophia were the ones who pushed me into the locker!" I exclaimed again.
"Taylor, that's enough," my mother said with a touch of finality.
"No! You never listen to me, you always believe Emma over me!! It was Emma! It was always Emma, and it's all your fault!! " I shouted without controlling my volume. Zoe looked at me worriedly.
"Taylor, Emma is worried about you, she -"
"NO! She doesn't care about me! She hates me! She provoke-"
"Enough!" my father exclaimed loudly silencing me, my eyes widened, I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times my father had raised his voice at me in anger. "We've made our decision, The PRT was quite generous with your punishment." My blood ran cold.
"Punishment? What punishment? The PRT? Why Is the Parahuman Response Team involved?! " I asked, horrified. My mother gave me a look of pity.
"You attacked Emma and Sophia with your bugs, Taylor. It's a crime to attack someone with a quirk." My mother explained, I turned completely pale.
"I... I don't remember that." I muttered in horror, but somehow I felt completely satisfied if that had really happened. I wasn't going to cry for either of them.
"Taylor… stop it… stop lying… I don't know when it became a habit of yours, but this, this has to stop." My father said firmly. I could hear the anger coming from his voice.
"I'm not lying!" I growled under my breath. "I didn't attack them! I can't attack them!" "I don't have a swarm to manipulate! Emma and Sophia killed all my insects!" I exclaimed quickly, despite it being a lie. I couldn't tell them about the new evolution of my quirk, I didn't trust them, not anymore.
"So who attacked them?! They were both stung and bitten by insects! You're the only one with a quirk related to insect control in Winslow, no one else! " my father replied. I gritted my teeth. It was happening again, it was the same thing again. They didn't believe me.
"And what is the punishment for the crime I didn't commit?" I asked through gritted teeth.
"You're moving to Japan," my father said with finality. I froze in place before the blood started to run out of my face.
"What?" I barely muttered in complete disbelief. My father sighed, pushed down his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose.
"At first they wanted to send you to juvenile detention until you turn 18 and then they would reevaluate your case. Then they insisted that you join the Wards program on probation, even though it is a fairly exclusive program, they have a pretty good rehabilitation system. The last option they gave was for you to study abroad."
"We decided with your mother. We thought it was best for you to go study abroad, to take some time to calm down. Maybe if you're away from Emma for a while you'll finally get over this... this phase," my father said with a grimace. My eyes widened in disbelief.
"So your decision is to send me to Japan?! Why !? Why would they do that!? Why would the PRT give me that option?! " I exclaimed as if he were crazy. Father's gaze hardened.
"It's for the best. We don't know what to do with you anymore Taylor. We've been patient with you, we don't want to send you to juvenile hall, and the further you stay away from the PRT, the Wards , and Soph -" my father stopped and I looked at him suspiciously.
"Sophia? What does Sophia have to do with the PRT? With the Wards?! " I asked quickly. The three of them fell silent as my mind began to move frantically from one side to the other until reaching a more than obvious conclusion. "She is a Ward? Sophia Hess is a Wards !?" I hissed full of hatred. The grimace my father made was all the answer I needed to know.
It all made sense now, because they always believed her, as she was able to get away with anything at school. The administrators should have been aware that Sophia is a Ward, they decided to believe her for that simple fact, and so did my parents.
"Get out." I said simply and looked at them with unending Rage, the three adults looked confused. "I said get out!! Get out of here! I don't want to see you anymore! " I exclaimed furiously in their direction. None of the three seemed to want to move, but luckily for me, a nurse who was passing by heard the scandal and quickly took the three of them out of my room.
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After my parents left, I made sure the nurse denied entry to basically anyone. To my relief, the nurse was more than okay with it, so for the next few hours, no one bothered me.
The doctor who came to check on me said I was just being observed. Like my father had said, Panacea had completely healed me while I was catatonic so I had a clean bill of health in my name. But because I had been unconscious without them understanding the reason for the past 3 days due to my sensory overload. They had to keep me for 1 or 2 more days thereafter.
It reminded me of those joking comments like ' At least she's healthy' after going through hell. I felt exactly like that.
Also, I remembered, yes, I had 'attacked' Emma and Sophia. Or at least my new power had. I remembered just before I fell unconscious in the locker. I remembered the initial overload, the desire to attack them both. It's possible that order had stuck while I was unconscious. I wouldn't really cry for Emma and Sophia. But this was really a problem.
I spent as much time as I could buried in the phone that I had found on the table next to the hospital bed where I was lying. At least until a PRT employee whose name I can't be bothered to remember entered the room without the nurses being able to stop them.
"And the details?" I asked without emotion as I looked at the papers in front of me. The PRT woman had been talking since she had entered and kept handing me different papers. Papers that sentenced my future without my permission.
"In essence, you'll be representing the PRT in Japan, specifically at UA, but it doesn't really mean anything. Enrollment in the general studies department is automatic and unconditional. You're only asked to maintain a certain level of your final grades. If you fail beyond a certain point, you'll likely be expelled from the university. Which doesn't change anything at all; you'll just be sent to another country."
"If you want to enter the Hero and Hunter Department, you will have to take the entrance exam on your own. If you manage to get in, the normal restrictions for studying abroad will apply, that is, years of service in Japan after graduation."
"The PRT will take care of all your basic utilities and accommodations until you enter UA, where you will then move into on-campus dormitories. You will also be given a stipend for your personal expenses. Pretty generous in my opinion."
"Any questions?" The PRT employee in front of me asks, bored.
"Why me?" I asked simply, it was the only thing I still couldn't understand. Representing the PRT sounded like something important, not something that was given to just anyone, and certainly not to someone who was accused of a crime. The woman looked at me for a few seconds before sighing and ruffling her hair.
"Look, I'll be honest with you, you seem like a smart girl, so you'll figure it out sooner or later." the woman said before looking towards the door, then she took a couple of steps closer to me and lowered her voice "I don't know what the hell happened, but someone screwed up. I don't care if it was you or my bosses, but they want you away; they want you to shut your mouth, and they decided that sending you to another part of the country or the other options they gave you aren't safe enough."
"This is on the level of, holy crap, this could create a huge PR hit for the PRT so they want to silence you, and your parents signed an NDA in your name, so you're legally bound to it… well, partly, it's not legal and your parents are the ones that have to keep you quiet, but you get the point. Back to the topic."
"The higher-ups don't like sending their precious Wards and other promising people out of the country. They have to if they want to keep up appearances, but it's basically like giving away ammo and bombs to another country, so it rubs the bureaucrats the wrong way. That's why they're sending you out. Two birds with one stone."
They were taking me out of the country. They wanted me to stay away so I wouldn't open my mouth. They wanted a guarantee that I wouldn't tarnish their precious Ward with some controversy. I was expendable. It was obvious, but it didn't make the bitter pill any easier to swallow.
"A recommendation girl, take advantage of the opportunity, start over, study at UA, it's a very good school. Forget what happened. Move on. Meet a boy or something, make your life" The woman said simply before taking several steps back and staying silent.
"When do I leave?" I asked simply after a few seconds of contemplating in silence. She was right. If they were going to send me away, I was going to take full advantage of my new situation. UA was famous. All Might, the national-level hero, had studied within its walls. He was actually famous in America due to the time he spent in the country before his promotion to japans national hero. So studying in the same place as him was one good thing I could salvage from this situation.
The PRT employer nodded in satisfaction as she went back to reviewing the papers.
"Let's see…" the PRT employee said as she began to read. "Mmmm… the school year will start in a month and a half. Sending you to Japan is easy, but it's not enough time to fill out all the necessary paperwork and have time to complete the Japanese GED, so you'll be enrolled for next year. That will give you a whole year to catch up."
"We'll hire someone to teach you Japanese with their quirk instantly so you can speak the language, but everything else will be on you. We'll pay for tutors and all the books needed to get you up to speed so you can take the GED before you enter UA. You'll need to move in within the next week to begin your studies," the employee said. I paled slightly.
"A-A week?" I stuttered lightly, closing my eyes tightly, I knew this was going to happen, and despite my resolve to take advantage of this, I would be moving away from home for the first time, and it would be halfway around the world and I wouldn't be allowed back into the country under any circumstances. "Will I be able to go back to Brockton Bay?" I asked in a whisper.
"Just during the holidays at the end of the school year." The clerk said commiseratingly and I sighed wearily. Even if I had the ability to go back, would I want to? The answer I got was, no, I really wouldn't want to go back, I didn't want to see my parents, Zoe, Emma or Sophia. I was tired of all of this. Starting over just sounded wonderful. Scary but wonderful.
"Can you send me out as soon as I'm released from the hospital?" I finally asked, the woman's eyebrows rising slightly before she frowned in consideration.
"They'll release you in a day or two, right?" the woman asked, and I nodded. She was silent before nodding.
"I won't ask why the need to do it as soon as possible, but I'm sure it can be arranged," the woman finally said, and I sighed in relief. "We'll have to go over a lot of things. But I don't think any of my superiors will complain."
"Thank you." I muttered weakly, the woman nodded as she began gathering the papers before handing me another set of them.
"Read this carefully, we'll be in touch," she said as she prepared to leave, "oh, and good luck." With that, she turned and walked out of the room.
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I was released the next day, much to my surprise. Much to my dismay, my mother had to be present as a guardian; even so, I decided to completely ignore her while she finished the paperwork and then took me to the PRT building.
There was a lot of paperwork to do. Also, meeting different people. Meeting Polyglot was the weirdest and only highlight of the day. Her quirk was based on being able to transfer languages she knew into another person's head. It was weird, going from understanding a few words here and there (after all, you learned when you had an Asian gang in your town), to being able to fully speak the language in a few minutes.
The only problem I had was that it only worked for the ability to understand and speak the language; I would have to learn to write it completely from scratch. I hoped that understanding the language would help make that process easier, but just remembering the Japanese symbols did not inspire confidence in me.
After all the meetings, I had to pack all my luggage in a hurry. To my relief, Emma was not present at home. Later, I found out that our father had asked her to stay at Sophia's house until I left. So much the better. I was able to pack in peace.
Finally, after a few very hectic days, I found myself in front of the airport.
"Are you ready, Miss Hebert?" asked the same PRT employee who had visited me at the hospital. She had been waiting for me in front of the airport. Apparently I couldn't travel completely alone because I was a minor. Someone had to accompany me, and they had to finish the paperwork in Japan, so I would be accompanied the first few days of my stay in another country.
"We'll miss you, my little owl." My father said with a sad smile, I just stared at him, he took a step and opened his arms to hug me, I took a step back. The hurt look on his face made me grimace internally, but I kept my face impassive. "Just… make sure you call us, okay? " My father pleaded, I tightened my grip on my bags.
I looked at my mother and Zoe standing behind my father as if they wanted to say something or do something while they were looking at me, but they were holding back; they looked distressed. They should have thought better of it before sending me to another country. I simply took a deep breath and looked at the PRT employee.
"I'm ready, let's go please." I said simply, the woman looked at me for a few seconds before looking at the other three adults who looked hurt; she simply nodded.
"Okay, let's board the plane," she said as she turned around and started walking. I took one last look at my parents as if I wanted to memorize their faces for a few seconds before turning around and quickly catching up to the woman. It was time to start over.
I just hoped Japan would be better.