Hakuin’s breathing started to falter near dawn. Katsuko held his hand, grip tightening when she felt his shivers subside. Ichiba had lost his voice hours ago, curled up in an unhappy little ball near the front of his cell.

“Love you, old man,” she muttered, voice cracking.

He smiled at her, wrinkled cheeks creasing. “Be strong, my dear. “

She fell asleep sometime during her vigil and woke to find Hakuin’s hand cold in hers, ruined eyes turned towards the ceiling. Numbly, she drew the shirt over his face and crossed his arms over his chest, retreating to the far side of her cell like an animal wounded.

Asuma shifted, stretching his hand through the bars. “Sweetheart,” he murmured, voice soft and careful. “Sweetheart, come over here.”

She couldn’t hear him at first over the low buzzing in her ears. He called a second time, and then a third, until at last she stirred herself and crawled over to the grate. She took his hand and clung to it, curling over to rest her forehead against his knuckles.

She couldn’t speak. Ichiba was sobbing, quietly, sounding tired and very young. She needed to speak, muster the energy to comfort him, but right now she just felt--empty.

The orderlies came an hour later to take the body. Katsuko watched as they lifted the corpse on to the gurney and replaced the floor rushes, preparing the cell for its next occupant. “They’ll be coming for me next,” she told Asuma, meeting his eyes. “I don’t make it back, you look after Ichiba, you hear?”

Asuma gripped her hand hard, dark eyes fierce. "Make it back. We're going to kill these bastards, and you should be there to see it."

“I’d like that,” Katsuko said, managing something like a smile. Impulsively, she lifted his hand to brush a kiss against his fingertips. “Good luck, Asuma. And thanks.”

The orderlies opened her cell a few hours later and slid a syringe under her skin, lifting her onto the gurney as black started to creep in at the corners of her vision. She smiled at Ichiba and closed her eyes, listening to her heartbeat fade as Asuma tried to tear down the wall between them.

She woke up on the lab table. Inazuma had stripped her to the waist, buckling her wrists and ankles into the metal restraints with practiced efficiency. Kaminari was standing over her, frowning at her clipboard as she held a wet ink brush over Katsuko’s stomach.

The beginnings of the latest seal were already beginning to take shape below her navel. Katsuko gritted her teeth and stared up at the ceiling, nails digging into her palms.

“You’re awake,” Kaminari observed, looking up from her clipboard. Her nose was slightly swollen; faded bruises dotted her throat. Katsuko swallowed down a feeling of smug satisfaction and bared her teeth at the woman.

“None of that, now,” Inazuma admonished. He gripped her forearm and twisted, grinding the bones there together. Katsuko cried out, tears pricking the corners of her eyes, and his smile widened.

“Enough, darling. We’re running out of time as it is.” Kaminari was half-done with the seal, attention focused on a character near Katsuko’s hipbone.

“You killed Hakuin,” Katsuko hissed, voice warped into a snarl. “I hate you. I hate you both. I don’t care what you do to me, I’ll hunt you down like the animals you are--”

“Finished.” Kaminari straightened and moved away from the table, placing her brush and clipboard to the side. She smiled down at Katsuko, expression benevolent. “This one won’t be like the others, little Leaf. I’ve made a few adjustments since last time.”

Katsuko fought back a whimper and stared at her, lips white. Kaminari moved to the foot of the lab table and clasped her hands together in the first seal, eyes fixed on Katsuko’s face. “Darling, are you ready to begin?”

“Of course.” Inazuma moved to her side and mimicked his wife, attention focused on the seal painted over Katsuko’s belly. “Whenever you are, my dear.”

Kaminari’s hands flickered. The seal sank down into Katsuko’s skin and wrapped sickly tendrils around her chakra, pushing itself into her core. She screamed, arching off the table, as her coils pulsed and writhed. Fire exploded behind her eyes, spreading down to her nerve endings and scorching her bones. First light,

then dark,

then silence.