Chapter Text
Tenko woke up thinking he was still at the Watanabes’ house.
As he groggily tried to make his body work, grimacing at the soreness everywhere, he found himself unable to move his legs. But his arms and hands were free, and when he lifted them into his field of vision, it took a few seconds to realize the white cocoon on his right hand were bandages.
Oh yeah. He had gotten hurt.
...
Oh right, he was in. Deep shit.
Tenko dropped his hand onto his face, closing his eyes to feel the weight of it on him, the soft scratchiness of the gauze against his skin. A souvenir of his adventure last night. It was too bad All Might wasn’t here now, Tenko thought, derision saturating the memories he had of the Hero. Giant moron could’ve autograph this to his heart’s content. Maybe after everything healed and it came off, Tenko could’ve sell it online to a fanboy. ‘Signed Bloodied Bandages of Criminal Caught by All Might’ would probably appeal to some crazy out there.
Somewhere beside him a few feet away, came the beep and rustling of a walkie-talkie. “He’s awake,” someone said, and Tenko slowly opened his eyes. Time for him to re-enter the world.
Time to sit in the burning house he set on fire.
Forcing himself to sit up despite the ache in all his muscles, Tenko frowned at his limited mobility. He dragged the blanket covering him off and there it was: his legs strapped to the bed, padded restraints stretching over his calves and thighs and ankles. And here was the ugly too bright orange-and-silver glove for his left hand. And there was the cop that stood at the door of this hospital room.
There was no clock in this small room that only he occupied. Looking outside the window, it seemed to be noon. A sunny blue sky made shadows that pooled directly below buildings and trees, below the cars and people moving up and down the street. It was like a normal day. Last night was only twelve hours ago, but felt like a separate reality from the bland, bare quiet that Tenko was in right now.
He had been free, almost free, and now he was back on level zero, back in the crap pit that was his stupid life.
Not for the first time, Tenko wished he had a time travel quirk. Then he could go back in time and just wait like 15 minutes before robbing the bakery. Then he wouldn’t have been caught, he wouldn’t have been found, he wouldn’t be here waiting to be carted off to wherever.
...If he had a time quirk, he wouldn’t be here at all. If he had...
A flicker in his mind’s eye, and automatically, his hands were on his neck, trying to dig nails into soft skin. But no pain came, and Tenko realized it wasn’t working because his fingers were covered in these things, and then he had half a mind to use his teeth to tear off both the gloves and bandages--
A strong breeze suddenly engulfed him, and something gripped his wrist, firmly pulling his arms away.
“Ohhhhnoyoudon’t.”
Tenko looked up with a start, and saw a face he hadn’t seen in a while. Disheveled black hair, giant motorcycle goggles and a red scarf, lips skewed in a twisted frown - he blinked, his heart skipping a beat, bouncing light and high, enough to push out the discomfort at his throat.
“Shiina,” he breathed. His voice came out much too soft and weak, sounding like a whine. Tenko set his jaw, dismayed, and made sure his next words came out as a low growl. “What are you doing here?”
Shiina rolled her eyes, then smiled at him. “Good to see you too, Tenko. And don’t do that voice with me, it’s not scaring anyone. You’re just gonna embarrass yourself, crumble boy.”
Heat crawled up his shoulders, and Tenko glowered. “Stop calling me that.”
That was definitely a whine. But he let the tension in his body evaporate and let Shiina push his hands down. Let her push back the bangs that were falling into his eyes and stroke back his hair. Then she gave him a feather-light smack to the head. It hadn’t hurt at all; still, he let out an “ow.”
“Sorry,” Shiina said, even though she knew he was being dumb, because she was nice like that. “Heard you hurt--”
“Hey!”
Someone shouted, loud and hostile.
Shiina jumped. She let go of Tenko, spinning around to face the cop that had been guarding the door. The cop stalked towards them, already reaching for her baton. “You used your quirk to get past me, didn’t you? No unauthorized entry! Who are you?”
“My apologies!” Shiina bowed, so deeply that her torso was parallel to the ground. Tenko wished she didn’t have to be so polite. “Sorry! I was in a rush and I forgot myself.” When she straightened up, she gave the cop an apologetic smile and dug out a card from her pocket, handing it over. So formal and prim and proper, at complete odds with her weird old-timey aviator appearance.
“I am Shiina Hayama. I am a care-worker at Asutoro Children’s Home. Tenko is one of our kids.”
The cop took the card and looked at it like there was an insult written on it. “Still doesn’t explain why you’re here. He’s going to be transferred to classification.”
“Asutoro has legal guardianship, and it is only fair Tenko has someone with him during…” Shiina waved her hand around, grasping for words. “During all of... this. It’s a rough time, unfair to be alone, he’s scared--”
“I’m not scared,” Tenko said, and Shiina hushed him by giving him another quick smack to the head.
“...Emotional support! Yes, children need that. The social worker is coming too, he has to be here to finalize things. Plus Officer Nishizawa knows I’m here - he’s the one who called me. Perhaps you can give him a call…?”
The cop glared at them, but she nevertheless stepped backwards to the door, and continued to keep an eye on them as she used the walkie-talkie. It was sort of funny. He and Shiina, they were a tied up kid and a glorified babysitter - if the cop couldn’t stop them from doing whatever, she shouldn’t be a cop.
Sighing, Shiina slumped onto the bed, pushing aside the pillow to sit right next to him. Tenko scooted as much as he could to give her space. She frowned at that, and at the straps on his legs.
“I wish they wouldn’t bind you,” she said. “It’s too much.”
“It’s cuz I’m finally a Villain now,” Tenko said with false cheer and mock pride. “It makes sense.”
“Don’t say that, it’s still too much. Tenko,” she said quietly. “You had us all worried. I’m glad you’re safe.” And before he could retort, she added, “Mostly safe, kinda okay - you know what I mean. Not sleeping hungry on the streets.”
Maybe I preferred that, he didn’t say.
“How’s the hand?” she asked. “Mr. Nishizawa said you’ll be fine, but.”
Tenko held up the bundle of bandages. It reminded him of when he was younger, before he learned to be careful, be scary. “They were able to get all the glass out. Took a while.”
“I hope it heals quickly,” Shiina tapped a finger to her chin in thought. ”And I hope your quirk wasn’t affected?”
Tenko felt half a second of panic, then remembered the bread he destroyed; then gave it another half second of thought. “Yeah. My quirk is okay,” he murmured. Because yeah. His quirk was his, whatever fortunes it brought him, it was one of the few things in the world that was truly his. At the end of it all, he wouldn’t want anything else. Tenko wondered if that made him selfish, or insane.
But Shiina smiled, and said, “I’m glad!” And it was so earnest and she was such a weirdo Tenko wanted to throw the pillow at her. Crumble boy, she called him, after finding out his admittedly edgelord online handle.
Shiina had never been afraid of his quirk.
He should say sorry. Sorry for worrying you; sorry I ran away; sorry I got into this mess. The right words, the script, he knew it all. Take a pick of the options, a number of responses he could give and receive.
It was bad of him, Tenko knew, that he didn’t feel any of the things needed to turn those words real. He really just felt nothing at the moment - no nervousness about his impending doom; no guilt, not for running away, not for stealing; and no regret except for not being more careful. If he had to be sorry, then it was for upsetting Shiina; but an apology wasn’t going to do anything. He did what he did and anything he said now would just exist uselessly for a second, with not a single effect on the world, before disappearing into the air.
Instead Tenko said, “Don’t you have more important things to do at the orphanage.”
“Not more important than one of my kids about to be arrested!" Shiina pushed up her goggles and faced him directly. The look she had on, somber but not angry at all - it finally created faint tendrils of guilt that curled around and constricted his insides. “What happened?”
“I robbed a bakery.” It sounded really stupid now that he said it. Who robs a bakery? He hadn’t even gotten money.
“I know that part.” Shiina waved her hand, completely dismissing the fact that he blatantly confessed to a crime. “I meant. Before.” Tenko watched as she chewed the inside of her cheek, eyes shifting this way and that. Finally, she inhaled and put on her face that attempted blank expression she had for asking uncomfortable questions.
“What did they do?”
Tenko shrugged. He hoped it look carefree, apathetic. “They didn’t do anything,” he said, and that was the truth. Nothing happened. Nothing that he could express in words, nothing that made sense, even to him. It drove him crazy. He had to get out of that house immediately, or do something truly terrible.
Running away was just the better option for everyone involved. He had been meaning to for a while anyways.
“Not gonna talk?”
“They didn’t do anything,” Tenko repeated.
Silence built up in the space between them. Shiina watched him and he watched her, the waiting game to find out who can stand the dead air the longest. Eventually all Shiina did was give a huff.
“Okay,” she said, trying to sound impassive but the strain in her voice couldn’t be hidden. She took another deep breath. “Okay, well. May I ask? The reason you didn’t come back to us?”
More silence from him, but Shiina waited.
To be honest, he already had his getaway plan, he had been at the train station on the second day, looking at a map, trying to figure out the cost to buy a ticket to Tokyo, when he realized going back to Asutoro was an option. It took hardly a minute before Tenko crossed it out.
He wanted something different. Something more. More than sitting in the chair at the social work office, listening to the sound of shuffling papers going into a file that got thicker and thicker each year; more than the gratingly colorful decorations on the walls of Asutoro’s hallways, the smiling animals and shapes that seem to mocked him; more than the too familiar, sickeningly mint smell of the medicine ointment he had for his hands, for the rash he would get once in a while from wearing gloves all the time. Then he still had to wear gloves, had to shove his gross, oily, itchy hands into them. It was absolutely the most idiotic thing in the world.
Tenko was just. so. bored. So much so he felt like he wasn’t real, at times. Gravity was losing its grip on him. Reality blurred and his senses dulled. He needed something new, he had to have something new, else he might fade away completely.
He didn’t want to play the life of Tenko Shimura anymore.
“I wanted to go to Tokyo and become a phantom thief,” Tenko finally said. Not a lie, technically. When Shiina furrowed her brow and opened her mouth to scold him, Tenko dryly continued. “Then I screwed up my debut.”
A beat, and Shiina buried her face in her scarf, but Tenko caught the muffled guffaw.
“This is serious, Tenko,” Shiina said when she showed her face again, mouth twitching. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I should not have done that, I need to be more serious too. Although. If we continued… Do you want to continue? Do you want to talk?”
He did not. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
Shiina held out for a few seconds, looking like she wanted to argue that, then conceded with a sigh. When she spoke, it was slow and soft and clear. “Well, whatever reason you didn’t want to come back, whatever happened… When you’re ready to tell me, I’ll listen. I’ll help.”
Those were nice words, they really were. Therapy clichés, though that wasn’t Shiina’s fault, and she even got them to sound somewhat genuine. But still just words. Intangible sounds in a vacuum. “It’s pointless,” Tenko muttered. “Talking and listening. Everything.”
“Maybe. But it’s better to have someone along with you even when things are pointless - which they are not.” Shiina jabbed a finger at him. “It’s less lonely. And two people can work together to make it better, or if not, at least more interesting. Even you have to admit that, crumble boy. So I’ll be there to listen.”
The stupid nickname still peeved him. But something harsh inside his chest was smoothed over, just a bit, and his lungs felt able to take in more air.
It’s a good thing you failed to be a Pro-Hero, Tenko suddenly wanted to tell her. It made her pretty cool. And it only strengthen his belief that Hero stuff was a joke. If she had become a Hero, she wouldn’t be nice like this.
“You’re so corny and mushy,” Tenko said. “What the hell.”
Shiina only grinned; placed a hand on his head and stroke back his hair again, the touch all gentle and corny and mushy.
*
The social worker’s quirk was the single giant eye that took up half his face, and that made the blood vessels at the edges extremely prominent; same with the dark puffy skin around it. Tenko was sure at least half of the miserable appearance was his doing.
“Mr. Tenko Shimura,” Douguchi said when he entered the room, sounding completely drained of energy. “Why?”
Tenko gave him a shrug too. His social worker did a really slow blink, which Tenko had come to learn meant he was basically trying hard not to scream.
“For now, all I ask is for you to cooperate. Please.” Douguchi stepped aside, and in came Nishizawa too. The whole gang was here, the pitiful group that was the Tenko Fucked Up Again Damage Control Legal Squad, plus or minus one or two people depending on the specifics.
Shiina was already talking fast. “What’s going to happen to Tenko?”
“Mr. Shimura will be going to the juvenile classification center--”
“So, pre-juvie,” Tenko muttered.
“The classification center,” Douguchi said pointedly, directing his attention at Tenko. “Where you’ll be staying until family court decide whether or not to accept your case. This is not an arrest, only temporary detention. We’re simply taking you into protection, and there, we will have you evaluated.”
“Classification,” “detention,” “protection,” -- All this fancy speak to hide the truth, it was irritating. Douguchi could call it whatever he liked, but Tenko was still being taken away and locked up for the safety of everyone and everything.
“He’s going to be okay, right?” Shiina tugged on her scarf, glancing over at Tenko. “He broke the law, yes, but there were special circumstances. He was stealing food, which means he was hungry so it’s not for fun or to hurt--”
“The family court will take those factors into consideration.”
“No, I-- Sorry, what I’m asking is, that Tenko is-- You know thisisn’tthefirsttime...” Shiina stopped, then tried again. “The family courts already have a skewed perspective--
“You mean he’s classified as a pre-delinquent,” Nishizawa cut his way into the conversation. “There was a reason for that, Hayama. Several reasons. What you’re asking, is whether they’ll actually refer the case to adult court this time, right?”
“...Yes, but. Come on! Look at him! He’s a child 12 years old--”
“12 is the age of criminal responsibility.” Nishizawa said sternly. He turned to Tenko. “Shimura. I don’t like this either, I didn’t want you going to adult court. But these are the facts.”
Tenko coolly gave him a head tilt in acknowledgement, though he didn’t get why Nishizawa told him all that. Was there a response he should give? ‘Thanks for feeling bad,’ or maybe, ‘Sorry you’re feeling bad about this’?
“The process hasn’t even started yet,” Douguchi said. “Ms. Hayama, Mr. Shimura, please don’t fret. Even if family court accept the case--”
“‘Even if’? Don’t lie to her. They’ll be accepting the case. We’ve got breaking and entering, property damage, theft, and quirk use.”
“That-- Isn’t that way too many?”
“There have not be any formal charges. Family court--”
“Oh for the-- What Mr. Nishizawa said. Please stop bureaucrat-ing this. I want to know what they’ll do to him. You can’t let them label him an adult Villain!”
“Very well, but that won’t be happening. There is a process. Every step of the way allows for the possibility of dismissal.”
“Which is not likely.”
“Officer. Look, it’s evaluation to accept the case, then family court hearing with close examination of factors, so for all we know they might place him in reformatory again -- Please don’t give me that look, Ms. Hayama, let me finish -- If family court find it appropriate to refer the case to a public prosecutor, then he’ll be charged and given a criminal trial in ‘adult’ court. That is if worse comes to worst, and even then, considering the offenses, the boy will still be only charged as a juvenile pre-Villain--”
“That is not any better! Mr. Douguchi, you’re his social worker it’s your job to make sure Tenko’s okay--”
“...”
Tenko stared out the window, tuning out the noise.
The trees outside have all lost their leaves, he noted. Just wooden skeletons now, branches rising up and splitting and splitting into a thousand spikes. Like rivers. Like blood vessels. Fractals, that was what that splitting was called, right?
His quirk did the same thing. A single point of contact, and then destruction spreads out, it’s reach encompassing and total. He had done experiments, had borrowed one of the caretaker’s phone to record the objects he disintegrated. Afterwards, he watched the videos and compared the pathways. A million little branches, never the same pattern. Chaotic and random movements, cutting into all there was to cut, leaving only dust fine enough he couldn’t feel the individual particles; fine enough to blend invisibly into the air when he blew it all away.
Sometimes, Tenko wondered if he could do this to existence itself. Crack it open and shatter it. Usher in the heat death of the universe. It could be a form of nirvana.
Because then he wouldn’t have to listen to stupid adults arguing about the stupid actions and the stupid future of the world’s biggest dumbass.
“--don’t run away for no reason. They don’t run away to starve in the streets unless something bad happened!”
“Shimura ran away last time because he refused to wear a sweater.”
“It wasn’t about thesweater!YouknowaswellasIdo--”
“Ms. Hayama, please mind your quirk. We’ll be investigating, but there was no evidence of maltreatment last time. The Watanabes are respected members of--”
Tenko laid back down on the bed, deciding to try to take a nap. There was nothing for him to do or say about any of this, he could only wait it out. He pulled the blanket over his head and closed his eyes.
They’d get him when they were finished.
*
Out of the hospital and on the road.
Shiina convinced Nishizawa to let her ride along - “Emotional support,” she said again, taking the phrase as far as it could get her; it did end up getting Nishizawa to stop for a really late lunch, though she had to pay for all three meals.
“Hurry up,” Nishizawa glared at them via the rearview mirror. “I gave you two 15 minutes and it’s been 25.”
“I’m going to prison soon,“ Tenko said through a mouth full of burger. “Let me have my last meal in peace.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Nishizawa said. “And you know all this was 100% preventable.”
“So you don’t deny it’s a prison.”
“The classification center is--”
“It’s got cells and uniforms and guards,” Tenko countered. “It’s a prison. Right, Shiina?”
Beside him, Shiina chewed the straw of her drink, considering. “Well, there’s no 24-hour straitjackets, I don’t think. Oh, but I guess that’s only for places like Tartarus?”
“Hayama!” Nishizawa twisted around in his driver’s seat. “Don’t encourage him! And you!” He pointed at Tenko. “Stop being a smartass and eat.”
Tenko gave the cop a wide fake smile, while Shiina choked and coughed out an apology. “Sorry, you’re right. Tenko, ignore what I just said. I know it feels like jail, but...” She trailed off, before reluctantly finishing. “It’s not called that.”
That didn’t even require a response. Tenko just stared at her, and she turned away, lifting up her goggles to rub her eyes. He shifted his gaze sideways to look at Nishizawa, challenging him next. The cop accepted.
“Being there is a good thing for you, Shimura,” Nishizawa said. “It’s so family court can investigate the circumstances behind your latest adventure, find evidence for your defense. Making excuses for you, so appreciate it.”
Shiina groaned and shot Nishizawa a glare. “Do you have to sound so--” She paused and looked at Tenko, and sighed.
When she spoke again, it was a flash flood of words, comprehensible enough, but too fast for anyone to stop her.
“—It’s going to suck and feel like a jail and miserable there’s no sugarcoating it you already know Mr. Douguchi and I will try our best to shorten the time and I’ll visit you every week and I apologize I can’t do any more than that—”
With that, Shiina exhaled the rest of her breath. She gave Tenko a lightning fast pat on the head, then went to deal with Nishizawa who had already began to chide her.
You already know, Shiina said, and he did. The food in his mouth lost its taste, becoming just sludge. Tenko swallowed it.
Last time he was at the classification center for three weeks. How long would this time be?
“...They do, you know,” Tenko said out of the blue, because he was an ungrateful little shit. Shiina told him the truth he wanted; he searched for appreciation inside of him, and instead found dissatisfaction. Then he found bitterness, and he just had to grind them together to create the familiar wreck that was rage. The two adults stopped and looked at him, and Tenko said, “They do have straitjackets, and you get to wear one if you use your quirk or if you become agitated.” He enunciated the word, cynical admiration on his tongue. “There was a kid that got called agitated for crying too hard.”
Those reasons didn’t have to happen if you were careful, Tenko reminded himself. Don’t use your quirk; do use the breathing exercises the orientation video taught everyone on their first day.
But he felt a dark thrill at seeing Shiina fidget with her scarf and Nishizawa pressing his lips into a thin line. That he could share his misery with just a few words. They didn’t deserve being treated like this, but being selfish and cruel felt really good right now, a rope that he could climb up and out of a black hole.
So Tenko said, “Then they put you in a wheelchair and wheel you somewhere.” He nibbled on his burger. “Though it’s not 24 hours, so Shiina’s right ‘bout that. Just a time out.”
“That should only be the last resort,” Shiina murmured.
Nishizawa let out a slow, long breath.
“Quirks can be unpredictable, and heighten emotions can cause a rampage. Unintentional, accidental or not, people get hurt,” Nishizawa said lowly. “Prevention is the goal. It’s for their own safety as well as everyone else’s. That’s not unreasonable.”
Tenko blinked.
Then he smiled.
A small, tight grin, the mirth demented, but real. He smiled, and Nishizawa twitched. The cop turned and sat back in his seat. “Finish the burger, Shimura. We need to get going.”
For all his uptight asshole-ish faults, Nishizawa tried hard. He was the one to bring Tenko to the hospital last night; he brought Tenko two onigiri and hot chocolate while they waited; and when the nurse said, excuse the delay; and then later said, we’re only following the protocols for risk reduction; and finally, much later, a quirk with documented lethality, pre-villainous tendencies, being brought in by you, Officer…
Our fear and caution is not unreasonable. We’re only taking measures to ensure the safety of our staff.
That was when Nishizawa grabbed Tenko and dragged him through the doors into the ER and to the first doctor they saw, demanding treatment now. The whole night, Nishizawa stayed with him.
Was that reasonable of you, Officer? Tenko thought. Wasting your time like that.
He ate his last bite and Shiina threw away everything and Nishizawa started up the car.
There was no more talking.
In the silence of his making, Tenko sobered up. Whatever twisted pleasure he had from making everyone sad was now gone, leaving only a hollow inside with thick lungs and a swollen heart and bloated guts. What did he expect? He saw the good option, and he picked the evil route.
Nishizawa was visibly stiff, keeping his eyes solely on the road, not checking back at them periodically as he did before. Next to him, Shiina was looking out the window.
Just throw me in Tartarus, Tenko thought. Skip to the last step.
It’s where murderers go, he stupidly, absentmindedly thought, and slimy-red ideas came racing—again—I might try—people are so—
Unable to claw away the tightness in his throat, Tenko bit his tongue until he tasted blood.
“Behave,” Nishizawa said. “I’ll see you soon, Shimura.”
Tenko scoffed. “What kind of goodbye is that. It sucks.” But the man was already walking back to the car. Shiina was still here, though, standing at the entrance of Hachioji Juvenile Classification Center.
Inside, he was going to get poked and probed by shrinks. Outside in the real world, everyone who knew him was going to be asked what they thought of him, his teachers and guardians and all the people he shouldn’t have pissed off but did. Evaluated, Douguchi said, then judged and sentenced.
“I’ll see you Wednesday,” Shiina said. “I’ll update you on anything that happens with everything.”
She had her goggles off so Tenko could see her gray eyes, filled with concern and anxiety and guilt. He kept his face blank, finding no other expression appropriate.
Shiina said, “I wish I could do more. And I’m sorry about… the Watanabes. About the straitjacket. About this—” she gestured at the doors of the building, where two guards stood, ready for him. “—about...that.” She waved an arm wide, at all of their surroundings. “It’s...a lot. It’s unfair to you.”
Tenko only replied, “I guess.”
Not really, Tenko didn’t say. He couldn’t do the game right, even after knowing all the rules, knowing what would give him damage; he couldn’t muster up the desire to try harder - it wasn’t anyone’s fault but his.
“Do your best in there, Tenko.” Shiina managed a wobbly smile. “You’re tough. Endure, and make it okay.”
“Yeah.”
When she gave him a hug, Tenko kept his arms at his side, like always, ever since he was younger and afraid to touch people, even with gloves on. Instead, he tried to headbutt her. Like the first time they met, like always, and she was still too fast for him. Their dumb, childish game.
“You’re a brat, crumble boy,” Shiina said, already a feet away, sounding much lighter.
One of the guards grabbed him then and push him towards the door.
In the glass reflection, Tenko caught a glimpse of Shiina, still watching, and so was Nishizawa, next to his car in the background; then the doors opened and they were gone and he was shoved inside.