Chapter Text
Everyone has their breaking points.
It is just a matter of how long it takes to reach it.
For Mirabel Madrigal, her fuse has been burning for years, a decade specifically.
“You are the reason why Bruno disappeared!”
Ten years of pain, suffering and uncertainty.
“Luisa’s powers are failing, Isabela is out of control! It is all because of you!”
All because of the simple fact that she is ordinary.
“I don’t know why you weren’t given a Gift, but this is no excuse to hurt our family!”
And on this day, Mirabel’s fuse runs out.
She snorts, and Abuela blinks.
“Me? I am the one hurting the family?”
All inhibitions are let go. The gunpowder has been lit.
“I love this family. Why else would I spend the past ten years trying to help our family and the Encanto?”
The sky darkens.
“I tried to prove to everyone that I can be useful, that even without a Gift, I am a Madrigal who helps this Encanto thrive and prosper. And what do I get in return?!”
Casita rumbles.
“Barred from family photographs, being told off for getting in the way, being called a nuisance, having my relationship with my oldest hermana broken, being treated like an outcast within my own family!” Mirabel’s voice had become loud by the end, and poor Antonio whimpered from the volume, “And for what?! Just because that motherfucking Candle didn’t give me a Gift, am I not good enough? Am I not good enough for you, Abuela?!”
“Mirabel!” Abuela shouts, “Don’t you ever speak to me like - ”
SLAP!
Those watching flinch backwards. Julieta and Pepa both gasp. Pure, unadulterated shock spreads, as everyone witnessed the inconceivable sight of Mirabel slapping Abuela across the face so hard, the older woman’s head did a sharp, ninety-degrees turn.
“No,” Mirabel growls, “you don’t get to speak. You don’t get to open your mouth when you are the reason why this family is falling apart!”
Abuela is stunned into silence, her cheek still stinging with a visible hand print blossoming.
“Do you know how close Luisa is to breaking? Moving the church just so the sun shines through the stained glass every morning, moving the bridge because everyone is too fucking lazy to build a second one, and constantly herding the donkeys because no one can’t even be bothered to fix and reinforce the Dios-damned fence! You are literally working her to death! She hasn’t had a break since who knows when and she is fucking exhausted!”
To the side, Luisa grimaces, because it is true.
“And Isabela,” Mirabel shifts focus, “you are turning her into a doll! It is all pink, roses and flor de mayo, sitting pretty and forcing her to marry the most handsome guy in town, just so you can fulfil your twisted need for perfection! You don’t care that Isabela is her own person, with her own wants and desire for who she wants to love and marry. You are destroying her individuality, because you are nothing more than a control freak!”
Despite the intensity of the current situation, Isabela’s heart glows. It feels vindicating, to have her fears validated by the one she pushed away. Once this is over, she definitely needs to thank Mirabel again, and properly apologise.
“And Bruno,” Mirabel’s voice cracks, thinking of her poor Tío, “he never left. He went into hiding in the walls. He did so because he loves this family. He hid himself because you and everyone in this Dios-forsaken community only saw the worst in him! You and everyone else blamed him for everything that went wrong, when all he wanted was to help others! What kind of parent are you, to see your only son as a monster who brings disaster just because he can see the future?!”
It was obviously a sore point for Abuela, who opened her mouth to retort. But Mirabel does not give her the chance.
“Everything that has happened to our family – the cracks, the conflicts, it’s all because of you! I never once hurt this family, you are the one breaking our home! The Miracle is dying, and it’s all because of you!”
Abuela staggers back, as if slapped a second time. Mirabel finally takes a breath, vindicated by the horror on the older woman’s face.
Then, out of nowhere, a massive crack splits the floor between her and Abuela.
“No! No!” Tía Pepa cries.
More cracks form, racing all over Casita’s walls. They shoot up towards Abuela’s windowsill where the Candle stands. With a great shudder, the wooden frame is destroyed, and the Candle is knocked out of its holder.
Everyone is momentarily knocked off their feet, but Mirabel is already racing across the courtyard.
“Casita! Get me up there!”
A second-floor railing pops off, and hits the courtyard floor as a ladder. Mirabel immediately begins climbing up, just as Camilo rushes to assist her. He dodges falling stone and roof tiles, shifting between forms as he rushes towards the Candle. Isabela quickly joins her youngest hermana, conjuring a vine to swing her way up.
However, the magic begins to weaken, and Isabela’s Gift dies. The vine dissipates before it can carry Isabela to the roof, and with a shriek, she falls. Casita pushes out some wooden beams to break her fall, and deposits Isabela safely on the floor.
Camilo jumps onto a railing and leaps up towards the roof. However, his Gift is dies then, and he reverts back into his original form before he can reach the roof. Camilo falls, but a railing juts out for him to grab, breaking his fall and preventing any injuries.
Unlike her primo and eldest hermana, Mirabel makes it onto the roof. However, a deafening BOOM! momentarily stops her. In the distance, the tallest mountain keeping the Encanto hidden from the outside world literally snaps in two down the middle. Mirabel quickly pushes the sight away, rushing towards the windowsill.
Antonio’s Gift is the next to die, his door literally blown off its hinges by all of his animal friends fleeing the destruction. So shocked is the young boy, that he fails to see a massive door hurtling straight towards him.
“Watch out!” Félix manages to grab his youngest hijo before the door could crush him. With Antonio cradled to his chest, Félix rushes for the exit, “We have to get out of here!”
Julieta rushes forward. She needs to get her youngest hija out. “Mirabel!” she tries calling to her, but Casita is rolling the courtyard floor, pushing her towards the exit, “Mirabel!”
Agustín tries to help his wife, “Mirabel! We have to get out!”
However, Casita pushes everyone out of the front door, before falling debris blocks the exit.
Meanwhile, within the walls, Bruno gathers all of his rats as debris rains down behind him. Grabbing a bucket, he puts it over his head, and with whatever strength he can muster, he ploughs through the wall. He breaks through, and he tumbles down the hill, rolling to a stop against a tree.
From her position on the roof, Mirabel could see her Tío made it out safe. She then clambers towards the windowsill, her parents screaming in the background for her to get out. She tries to reach the Candle, but the windowsill is too high. Casita gives her a boost, as cracks begin racing up Bruno’s tower.
Mirabel grunts, desperately reaching for the Candle before it could roll off the windowsill. After much effort, her fingertips finally reach the Candle, and she is able to nudge it back towards her and grab it properly.
However, a massive groan reaches her ears. She whips around and gasps.
Bruno’s tower is crashing down, straight towards her. Casita immediately rolls a frozen Mirabel off the roof. The sudden weightlessness and pull of gravity snaps her back into reality, and she screams as she falls.
The Candle, gravely weakened and on its last embers, flickers wildly in her hands. Casita is too weak to break her fall. It will not kill her, but Mirabel will be injured, and unable to escape as the house collapses on top of her.
Ten years ago, it did not give Mirabel a Gift because she is special. She is meant to be the one, destined to be the next care-taker of the Miracle after Abuela passes on. Unfortunately, the Madrigals had misinterpreted its intention, causing unimaginable grief and suffering for Mirabel. The Candle cries for her pain, and as she plummets to the floor with Death waiting around the corner, it knows that it must act now.
With its last remaining vestiges of strength, the Candle’s flame ignites. Golden butterflies burst forth, swarming around Mirabel like a protective shield. The floor does not come. Instead, Mirabel falls through a chasm of golden light.
The last thing she sees before everything goes dark is the sight of falling debris, and the deathly roar of Casita finally collapsing to the ground.
It wasn’t often that Keigo finds himself soaring the skies above a city that isn’t Fukuoka. The city is his home base, where his agency is located. Not Musutafu.
However, he was here on official Hero Commission business. His handler is part of the Fukuoka division that has arrived in Musutafu for the annual general meeting with the Commission president. Not wanting to keep him out of sight, his handler had made Keigo to come along. He was free to roam the city, so long as a tracker is kept on his person at all times.
It was not ideal, but Keigo was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He will take whatever freedom he can get with both hands.
In many ways, Musutafu is quite similar to Fukuoka. Both are big cities with plenty of buildings. Both are also coastal cities, with the only difference being that Musutafu is right up against the Pacific Ocean, while Fukuoka is along the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
But flying over Musutafu is a welcome change for Keigo. He has become accustomed to the aerial view of Fukuoka, how the city is laid out and planned. Musutafu is a breath of fresh air, something different for his enhanced senses to enjoy. There are so many things to see while up in the air. The gridwork of buildings is different from what he is used to. Occasionally, he sees a plane, perhaps flying towards Tokyo. Or, like that person who is falling from the sky –
Wait, what?!
Keigo does a double take. His eyes are not deceiving him.
Someone is literally falling out of the sky!
He dives into action.
Flapping his wings as fast as he can, Keigo surges towards the person before they can become a bloody splatter on a building or pavement. He dislodges one of his larger feathers, and throws it at the person. It hooks on their top, slowing their fall. Keigo catches up, and grabs the person into his arms. He immediately hovers down onto the roof of a random office building, both for their safety.
The feather unhooks itself and joins back into his wing. Now that they are safe, Keigo gets a good look at the person he had just rescued.
She is young, probably a teenager. She has brown skin, and curly black hair. A pair of green, round-lens glasses hangs askew across her face, and she is dressed in a beautifully embroidered white blouse and teal skirt that falls to her ankles. But perhaps the most striking detail is the pair of large, golden butterfly wings on her back.
Her eyes are closed, but much to Keigo’s relief, she is breathing. A quick check also shows that her pulse is normal.
He attempts to rouse her.
“Hey, kid. Can you hear me? Can you open your eyes?”
At first, she does not respond. Keigo decides to bring her to the nearest hospital. While she does not appear injured, falling from a great height could have caused internal injuries that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Plus, he can’t leave her like this.
He begins to stand up with the girl in his arms. However, it seems that the slight jostle was all that is needed for the girl to open her eyes.
“Oh, thank god. You’re awake!” Keigo beams an easy smile, “How are you feeling?”
The girl takes one look at him…
…and shrieks in terror.
Admittedly, a small part of Keigo is a little hurt, especially when the girl jumps out of his arms and scrambles away. Surely, he’s not that frightening, right?
But that aside, there are more pressing matters to attend to.
“Hey! Kid! It’s okay!”
The girl does not appear to listen, “¡¿Quién es usted?! ¡¿Dónde estoy?!”
Ah shit. His Spanish has gone rusty from disuse. Hopefully, she will be able to understand him.
“Hey, hey, calm down, okay? I’m…not going to…hurt you.”
It’s not the best, but the girl does stop shrieking. Keigo could still see the panic in her eyes, but there is a guarded layer to them now.
“Trust me. I’m not going to hurt you.”
Slowly, the girl responds, “W-Who are you?”
“My name’s Keigo,” the winged hero replies, giving her a smile in a bid to calm her nerves, “What’s your name?”
The girl’s brow scrunches up, as if she is trying to remember. Shit, Keigo thinks, does she have amnesia? Does she not remember her name?”
“Mirabel…I think?” She answered.
“Mirabel, that is such a…beautiful name,” Keigo replies, “Are you hurt, or in pain, Mirabel?”
Mirabel glances down for a moment, “No…no, I don’t think so. But…w-why can’t I remember anything? I can’t remember anything! W-What is going on?!”
‘Ah, so she does have amnesia,’ Keigo concludes, ‘Better take her to the hospital.’
“Mirabel, I need you to calm down. I’m here to help.”
“Help?”
“It’s my job to help those in need,” Keigo explains, “Right now, I’m going to take you to the hospital.”
“Hospital? What’s that?”
Huh, interesting.
“It’s a place where people can get help,” Keigo explains in easy terms, “You need help, Mirabel, and I will take you there.”
While the fear remains evident, there is some degree of pensiveness in Mirabel’s expression. Keigo completely understands, they have only known each other for a few minutes, and Mirabel is confused and scared. It is understandable that she still does not trust him. Hopefully, he will be able to bring out just a little of her trust, so that he can get her the help she needs.
“I promise I won’t hurt you, Mirabel. But I need you to trust me, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt.”
For a long moment, Mirabel is silent, staring down at her lap. Keigo patiently waits, the last thing he wants to do is rush her. He will wait, as long as needed, until Mirabel is ready to trust him.
She returns her gaze to meet his eyes, and she opens her mouth to reply.
Something heavy lands on the roof.
Immediately, Keigo is on high alert.
They are no longer alone.
________________
To Be Continued.
________________