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That old hag was really starting to become a pain in Rumi’s neck. It was summer vacation, the precious time Rumi had to actually go out every day and kick some villain butt. Keeping the city of Hiroshima safe should’ve been what’s most important here, but no. Her mother instead decided that their stupid family-owned okonomiyaki restaurant was more demanding of her time than hero work.
True, she was just a middle school student and not an official hero… yet .
But what did that matter? Heroics was about the heart! It was about taking down villains with a swift kick. As far as Rumi was concerned, she was more hero-material than some of the local pros.
“Rumi! Where are you going!” her mother called after her from behind the counter. She was busy serving a few tourists and Rumi took that as an opportunity to slip away. Not without being noticed though, it seemed. Damn those Usagiyama ears of theirs.
“Going out!” Rumi yelled back, skirt flapping about as she hopped out past the other okonomimura stalls.
Her mother’s voice managed to carry over the commotion of all the nearby shops as she shouted, “I see those spanks under your skirt! You’re going to get into some fights again aren’t ya!”
Rumi didn’t answer her, already rounding a corner and flying down the stairs. Her mother should just be happy she wore a skirt out for once. The woman always complained about what she wore, the faces she made, her manner of speech. She wanted Rumi to be the beautiful, delicate jewel that she was named after; the sweet, pretty thing that would meet a dependable man and take over the family restaurant one day. Rumi couldn’t imagine a future more boring than that.
Once the young rabbit made it outside and breathed in the city air, her ears perked up at attention. They twitched in the direction of a loud commotion a few blocks away while she fixed her gloves and mask on. In seconds she had hopped over to the scene, clotheslining a petty thief and nabbing the purse out of his hands. Giving him a little kick for good measure, Rumi returned the bag to its owner and jumped to the next crime waiting for her nearby.
Hiroshima may not have been Musutafu or Osaka, but it had its fair share of villainous activity creeping about. Sure, there weren’t necessarily as many villains running around like there were in the big cities, but that didn’t deter Rumi. It just meant she had more time between her amatuer patrols to grab a snack or work on her moves. It was during one of those little impromptu training sessions at a municipal park that she caught wind of her next job.
“Father!” a boy cried out a few blocks down, “Father, where are you!?”
Rumi grinned wide, rushing over toward the voice with heroic stride. Landing on the hood of an empty car, Rumi met eyes with the little boy walking alone on the sidewalk. Clearly he lost his parents — the perfect situation for a hero to get involved.
“Hey kid,” Rumi started, hands on her hips and hair rolling with the wind from the rushing traffic behind her, “You lost?”
The boy looked up at her, eyes glimmering with the same adoration any kid his age had for heroes. That look only made Rumi’s grin stretch wider. It was the sort of validation she didn’t get often—or cared for really—but felt great all the same.
Nodding, the boy quietly answered, “I-I got lost… I can’t find my father…”
Rumi peered at the kid from behind her mask. He was probably a tourist from the looks of it. The town was full of them, and a majority of the people who got lost in a city like this were people who didn’t live in it.
Hopping to the ground, Rumi crossed her arms and hummed, “Nothing this bunny hero can’t help you with!” Sporting her eager, confident smile, the young rabbit pointed her thumb at herself and proclaimed, “The rabbit hero Mirko will help you find your dad!”
“Hero…” the boy repeated. Though, the awestruck look he had earlier seemed to have dropped from his face. “Aren’t heroes adults?”
At that, Rumi clenched her fist and puffed her tail. “You got a problem with me being a hero, kid?”
“N-No…” the boy’s voice trembled, his hand scratching at his face nervously, “I’ve just… never met a hero before.”
Rumi blinked and scratched at her neck. Maybe Rumi overreacted a little. Man did she make this an awkward situation. She knew she could get lost in the heat of the moment, but this was a scared child she was dealing with, one that had never met a hero in his life.
With a sigh, Rumi crouched down to the kid’s level, brushing her skirt under her and leaning on her knees. Reaching out, she rubbed a hand through the kid’s shaggy black hair and put on a more sincere smile. Not one of pride or excitement for a fight, but a bonafide, genuine, make-her-mama-proud smile.
“You’re right. I’m not a hero... yet .” Rumi said. Throwing a wink at the kid, she added, “I’m practicing for when I become a hero! So I guess since I’m not technically a hero, you can call me Rumi instead, okay?” The boy seemed to open up again, meeting her eyes and twisting his fingers through the hem of his shirt instead.
“Is there a name I can call you?” Rumi asked.
The boy replied, “Tenko.”
“Tenko?” Rumi committed the name to memory and beamed, “That’s an awesome name!” She took back her hand and rocked back and forth on her heels. “So how old are ya, Tenko?”
“Five.” he answered.
Rumi perked her ears up on purpose, noting how Tenko’s eyes followed them closely. “Woah cool! My cousin’s five too!” she said. “So where’d you last see your parents? Do you know their phone number?”
Tenko’s eyes fell back to his feet, his hands fidgeting with his shirt again. He shook his head and Rumi frowned. Figures a kid his age wouldn’t have a phone number memorized. This was going to be harder than it looked.
“Well Tenko,” Rumi said and rose to her feet, standing tall and proud once again, “You have the honor of being my first lost child case. And the rabbit hero has never failed a case yet!”
Holding out a hand, she waited until Tenko took it before guiding them down the streets of Hiroshima. She thought of taking the kid to the police, but he seemed reluctant at the suggestion. Something about how his father would be mad if he caused trouble like that. Instead, they headed for the shopping center. Apparently his mother and sister went out shopping while the father was supposed to watch little Tenko back at the hotel. Tenko told her about how his father got a phone call and said they had to go meet a partner of his downtown all of a sudden. Insert the run-of-the-mill story of a kid being ignored, getting lost in a busy crowd crossing streets, and the predicament was pretty predictable from there.
“Hold on tight now!” was the only warning Rumi gave as she hoisted Tenko onto her back, just before hopping toward the sky and across several rooftops. She was a bit worried the kid would’ve been the type to scream bloody murder in her ear the whole trip, though it was quite the opposite. Tenko was in a sort of quiet awe the entire ride over to the mall. His fingers dug into her shoulders, but the way he gaped at the scene below them made Rumi’s heart swell with more pride than the first time she took down a brawler twice her size.
“So… you know what they look like?” Rumi asked once they were standing in the center of the mall, no idea in mind of what to do after getting to this point. Another problem of hers that she needed to work on; running on instincts was great, until she ran head first into a wall.
“Well, my mother’s really pretty. And has long hair.” Tenko said. Great, so Rumi was looking for basically any woman in the mall right now.
“And your sister?”
“She has pigtails.” Tenko mimed a couple of pigtails on his own head. “And she was wearing a blue dress today I think.”
“You think huh?” Rumi held herself back from smacking her own forehead. She should’ve just brought the kid to the police. Instead she had to be the brazen prospective hero and take on all the responsibility herself. She could head to the mall’s security room and tell them to make an announcement, but there was no guarantee they were even here. Plus, handing a lost kid over to authorities was something any boring civilian would do, not the actions of a hero.
The thing that made anyone a hero is how they stepped in to save someone.
Suddenly, Rumi snapped her fingers as a lightbulb went off in her head. Looking back down at Tenko, she asked, “How long have you guys been in town?”
Tenko blinked and shrugged. “Um… I think we got here three days ago? And we’re going home tomorrow.”
“Perfect!” Rumi beamed and abruptly leaned in closer, sticking her nose onto the top of Tenko’s head.
Flustered and confused, Tenko jumped back and covered his hair. “W-What the heck! What are you doing!”
“Getting a good whiff!” Rumi grinned, her nose twitching with the new scent. “If you guys are staying at a hotel that means you’re using the same hotel soaps. With my nose I can find anyone with the same scent that’s on you in no time.”
“Bunnies can do that?” Tenko asked in awe, hands still cupped over his hair defensively.
Rumi winked, a smug look on her face. “ Heroes can do that.”
Even with the scent however, nothing turned up. Each time she narrowed the scent of the hotel soap down to someone, Tenko said he didn’t recognize them. After nearly two hours, Rumi made some alterations to her plan: while Tenko couldn’t remember couldn’t remember much about the hotel he was staying at, Rumi had the scent of all the soaps used in that same hotel. If she just investigated the lobbies of each major hotel in town, she was sure to find the right one eventually.
It was after the fourth try, hopping en route to the next lobby, that Rumi felt an odd rumbling on her back. Once they landed, Rumi spun around and asked, “Hey, are you hungry?”
Rumi nearly laughed at how the kid was practically drooling at the mere mention of it. With a hearty laugh, she took Tenko’s hand and led him toward a food stand down the street. Of course, by some annoying twist of fate, it had to be an okonomiyaki stand.
“Here, eat up. My treat.” Rumi offered the plate to the kid in his spot on a bench overlooking the river. Tenko kicked his legs out in joy as he ate, a satisfied hum escaping him after the first bite. Rumi laughed, “Never had any before? Wish that was me.”
Tenko looked at her with his cheeks stuffed, swallowed, then asked, “What do you mean?”
Rumi wasn’t too hungry herself, even after hopping around town all day. There was just something about staring down at the okonomiyaki in front of her that soiled her appetite. “I just think this is the most boring food ever.” She sighed, chopsticks poking at the edges of the pancake.
“Really?” Tenko looked confused, aghast even. How could something so delicious, the trademark of their town, what was considered a delicacy to every tourist that visited, be boring ?
“Guess that doesn’t make sense, huh?” Rumi laughed. “It’s just… this is something I’ve had my whole life. I’m a bit sick of it.”
Tenko nodded, though he still had a little pout beneath his stuffed cheeks.
Rumi picked at her food, her foot rapidly bouncing in place like it always did when she was lost in thought. “My mom just wants me to spend my whole life here making these pancakes. I hate it.”
Swallowing another large bite, Tenko watched the girl’s restless leg, then looked up at Rumi herself. “You don’t want to though, right? You’re gonna be a hero.”
Rumi blinked and snapped out of her thoughts. She glanced back at Tenko, then her own plate again. “Dunno. I wanna be a hero more than anything. I wanna leave this place and travel the whole country.”
“You sound like my sister,” Tenko said. “She’s always talking about becoming a hero when she grows up.”
“What about you?” Rumi asked, intrigued.
Tenko hung his head low, staring down at the little crumbs still on his plate. Now he was picking at his food.
“I want to be a hero,” he said, “more than anything.”
The boy was so quiet, Rumi probably wouldn’t have caught what he said if not for those damned Usagiyama ears.
“You do!?” She looked him up and down and eagerly asked, “That’s awesome! What’s your quirk?”
With nothing left to pick at on his plate, Tenko started scratching at the rashes under his eyes again. “I don’t know yet.”
Rumi’s ears flopped over in embarrassment. The kid was probably quirkless, and she’d never met someone quirkless before. Even worse, she had never heard of a quirkless hero in her life.
Though, she had never heard of a rabbit hero before either.
“Don’t worry!” Rumi offered her plate to the boy and grinned wide, “You’re gonna be a super cool hero too!”
Tenko looked from the plate to Rumi. “Really?”
“Yep! You got the heart for it, then go for it!” Rumi stood up, hands firm on her hips. “What’s stopping us? It’s our future, right?”
Tenko seemed to consider her for a moment, then stared at the extra food now in his lap. She could’ve sworn she saw a smile when a nearby fight caught her ear.
“Be right back!” she shouted and hopped toward a crowd down the block. Tenko finished eating her leftovers when she returned moments later. Suddenly the girl grabbed his arm and whisked him away.
“Time to hightail it outta here!” Rumi shouted. Some whistles sounded after them as some officers dashed toward them. Rumi dragged Tenko down the street and around a corner into an alleyway. Before Tenko could process what was even happening, Rumi panted, “I can’t get caught again or my mom’s gonna kill me, so hop on!”
The girl squatted down in front of him and Tenko scrambled on as the cops rounded the corner. In seconds they were off the ground, their adrenaline rushing, and Rumi’s wild laughter booming over the city rooftops.
Tenko held on tight and laughed along with her.
When they got back to hotel hopping, Rumi finally managed to track down the right place on their eighth try.
“This is—”
“Tenko!” a woman shouted and the two looked over, Tenko brightening up until a man approached them.
The man grabbed ahold of Tenko’s arm and dragged him closer. “What did I tell you about running off? Your mother was worried sick! I had to call the police!”
“Father I—”
“That’s my bad, sir!” Rumi cut in, waving. “The kid was lost so I helped him look for his family.”
The man eyed Rumi with a stern look, then huffed at Tenko, “What? So you ran off to play hero with a strange girl? How many times have I—”
“Name’s Mirko, sir. And I am a hero.” Rumi crossed her arms, chin pointed at the man despite how much he tried to belittle her. “Now you wanna go easy on the kid?”
The man looked infuriated, ready to say something else when his wife stepped in. “Kotaro, we should thank her. She took care of Tenko after you lost him.” Her delicate fingers ghosted over his arm, easing Tenko from his grasp. The man backed off and Tenko took his mother’s hand in an instant while he was led away.
“You can go now,” the man said to Rumi, his tone filled with spite. “You seem a bit old to be playing heroes and villains, you know.”
Rumi scoffed and crossed her arms, leaning on one side with her hip popped out. She replied, “I’ll be a hero as long as there’s a villain out there to kick, sir .” The man’s lips twitched at her insolent behavior. Good. Rumi was glad he understood what she was really saying.
The man turned away without another word, returning to his family. Tenko’s sister and an old couple followed after his father toward the hotel elevators. Tenko’s mother swung their arms lightly as they held hands, trailing slowly after the others.
“Hey Tenko!” Rumi called out after him. Tenko stopped in his tracks and gazed back at the rabbit hero. She smiled wide and held up her fingers into a peace sign, bending them in unison with her ears as she said, “Let’s meet up again at the hero charts!”
Tenko slipped his hand from his mother’s and mimicked the gesture, the biggest smile on his face.
“Okay Rumi!”
A cool draft and the sound of a truck’s horn from outside the hospital disturbed Rumi from her sleep. She let out a stifled breath while rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Pinching her nose between her fingers, she silently sat upright and let her head hang as her vision cleared. She stared down at the hand limp in her lap, avoiding the image of the bandages around her other arm — or what was left of it — from the corner of her eyes.
This was the third day since she’d woken up from her coma a week ago that she’d had that dream. Rumi curled her fingers into a fist, hardly any strength to hold the position for more than a few seconds at a time. Her body felt completely numb and whether it was the painkillers or the harsh reality that had slapped her in the face right after waking up, it didn’t even matter anymore.
Tenko, that little boy she spent a summer day with in Hiroshima, was Tomura Shigaraki. The new Villain King, an omen of death and destruction for anyone in the country, and someone she had every intention of killing during their battle.
Rumi had nearly killed Tenko. The realization only made what remained of her stomach churn in disgust.
Villains were meant to be strangers that she wouldn’t feel guilt over beating to a pulp and throwing into the pits of Tartarus. They weren’t supposed to be childhood acquaintances. She wasn’t supposed to see Tomura’s wicked grin in every case file and news recording of the Jaku Disaster and immediately picture Tenko’s bright smile.
It was a sick joke and Rumi was over it.
Smoothing her hand over her opposite shoulder, her fingers traced the ridges between the layers of bandages that wrapped tight around her body. She felt suffocated. She wished she could just rip these bandages off and be rid of that feeling, though she knew that wouldn’t make a difference. She had to carry this truth and all its questions with her now.
If only she wasn’t stuck in this hospital room for who knows how long. Rumi always hated being confined to a single place for longer than a week. She was a hero and heroes had to be out in the field. What kind of hero just sat around in an office or at home or in their hospital bed all day? It made Rumi feel pathetic.
What’s pathetic was not realizing the truth about Tenko sooner. Pathetic that she couldn’t save him from whatever it was that turned him into that . Was there any semblance of that little, bright-eyed boy within Tomura Shigaraki anymore?
Rumi gripped the sheets on her lap and sighed, shutting her eyes tight. She shouldn’t be asking stupid questions like that. No matter who Tenko was didn’t change who Tomura Shigaraki is . It didn’t change what happened to Rumi, to her colleagues, to those thousands who died because of Tenko’s rampaging pet.
Rumi stifled a laugh. She was already referring to Tomura Shigaraki and his crimes as Tenko. Her mind was a mess. Her body was going to heal, she was bound to get prosthetics and return to work someday, yet she knew there was no way she would fully recover . Things would never be the same again in every way she could imagine.
For some reason, Rumi missed the okonomiyaki from Hiroshima as her eyes stung with tears.
Another headache blossomed across her forehead while she blinked back that weakness. Flopping back onto the cushiony pillows, she felt her chest shudder with an exhale. Her body sunk into the thick sheets and she quickly resigned herself to sleep; another chance at remembering Tenko and Rumi and forgetting who they both became.