Archive of Our Own

Seventeen months and twelve days.

It had been seventeen months and twelve days since a broadcast aired over the dusty surveillance of a mass hero and villain battle. A broadcast which, all things considered, had shattered Fuyumi’s live into a million tiny, painful pieces.

Her brother had been dead. He was dead for years, completely gone and only someone in her memory. Then, he’d shown up on television and exposed secrets that she had spent all of her life keeping hidden from people, all for the sake of a hatred that he did not share alone.

It had taken her months to even be able to process it, and be in a place to actually know that she had to label her brother has a supervillain and not her deceased, big brother who she missed so dearly. He was her brother who murdered and destroyed, and had tried to kill nearly every member of their family in an attempt to hurt one person.

Seventeen months and twelve days later, she had accepted it. A mix of heavy anger and grief remained, the original shock and sorrow having faded. She was angry for the dead civilians, for herself, for her brothers and mother. She was angry for the families he had torn apart, possibly even worse so than what their father did. Their dad hurt a select five people, not thousands.

It had been eight months after that broadcast that her big brother was arrested, along with the other villains terrorizing the country. It had been nine months after that her father was arrested and put on trial.

The four remaining members of their family were healing. Grief was still heavy, but they’d witnessed something that none of them even dared to imagine. After a four day long trial that they all attended every part of, partially as witnesses and partially because it was too big of a deal to watch on television or hear about after, they watched Enji Todoroki be arrested.

It wasn’t even simply his arrest, it was every part of it. Every charge, from the blatant ones to ‘child neglect’ (which had surprised Fuyumi and Natsuo the most, bringing tears to both of their eyes) meant more to the Todoroki’s than anyone knew. They had tried forgiveness, but seeing it all laid out made even that seem impossible, right at the end.

The day that the war between heroes and villains ended, eight months after Touya Todoroki’s broadcast first aired, Fuyumi had filed a report to whatever collective of government for hero and villain affairs still existed. It was six months after that, with the help of Hawks, All Might, and a dozen other good hearted people, that Fuyumi was sat on a boat headed to a prison that she didn’t know existed.

She couldn’t see anything except for the small room she was in, and Natsuo had made her watch enough action movies to know that they were likely circling to throw her off. Her heart hadn’t stopped pounding in her ears since she’d left the house that morning, or even since she had gotten the email that her requests finally paid off.

Fuyumi was beyond angry and disgusted at her brother. He was everything that they were taught to fear and never be, and he was quite literally one of the worst people in their country. No amount of childhood trauma would ever make what he had done excusable, no matter what he said or how much kindness and patience she harbored.

She was beyond grateful to the heroes who had helped her be able to visit the villain, however. She was horrified, and had no idea what she’d say, but she had elected that it was a problem for when she was face to face with him. Multiple of the former top heroes had helped her considerably, pulling strings that she didn’t know existed. No amount of stress or fear would discredit that.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t under incredibly strict rules. She had been made to sign about fifty different papers, most of which ensured she’d never share details of the meeting with anyone. She already planned to tell her immediate family, but they knew the risks of ever sharing that further.

Shouto would have had an easier time getting a visitation, likely under jurisdiction of Yuuei or with his hero license. Yet, Fuyumi wasn’t visiting just to hear excuses or reasoning that could be relayed back to her. She wanted to be face to face with her brother, the one who had left her all alone years ago. She had both a million reasons and none in her mind for why she simply had to see Touya. It wasn’t negotiable, and it was why despite when she was told that the prison he was in wasn’t even made for visitors, she didn’t let up.

She was a regular civilian. She was not a hero, and she genuinely didn’t have any interest in being involved in hero affairs ever again. The number of heroes important in her life had decreased by one, now sitting at a whopping one person. She was perfectly fine to keep it that way, and had promised herself that her visit was a one time thing. Besides, despite all of her patience, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to wait so long and go through so many lawyers just to visit her brother for an hour.

The boat paused movement, and she felt it hit something. Her stomach must have dropped to her toes, and suddenly a stern looking hero opened the door to the enclosed room. She had no clock to know how long it had been, but with her stressing the entire time it felt like an eternity while also only ten minutes. She supposed that was the idea of the top secret prison that a random civilian couldn’t know the location of.

Her hands were put into handcuffs, and she felt increasingly more like a prisoner. Her purse had been confiscated the moment she boarded the boat, along with her phone, which she had been mid-text to Natsu on. They scanned her glasses thoroughly, asking about ten times if she truly needed them to see. She’d worn no jewelry and focused on comfort with her clothes, knowing that she didn’t have any prison guards or convicts to impress. Her version of public comfort clothes was a sweater and jeans, but it worked anyways.

She didn’t dare make a peep as they lead her down a hall, going into an elevator that must have gone in a hundred different directions. She went through four separate security checks at specific stops, and she was certain that the prison was actually an old labyrinth. Had she not been focused on staying silent and focused she would have cursed Natsu for making her watch so many cryptic movies.

It felt like a lifetime before she was led into a room, a large door on the other side of the wall. There were four guards who walked in, and a hero who’s name she didn’t know. The hero swapped out the handcuffs she had on for quirk suppressant ones, as if she had even used her quirk in years.

“This is also for quirk suppression, it'll be gone by the time you return to the police station,” they told her, lifting her sleeve and injecting something into her arm.

Fuyumi was incredibly thankful that the hero had specified before pumping her full of chemicals. She had enough to worry about, specifically the brother of hers that was possibly on the other side of the wall.

Two guards brought her forward, opening the door. She held her breath, only to see another empty room with a door on the other wall. Except, this time, there was a large window in the center of the wall she was facing. Her heart stopped, and it felt like the world had simply stopped moving.

Sitting in a chair, his hands bound to the table and not even visible beneath metal, was Touya Todoroki. His hair was completely white, any remaining dye having likely grown out. The scars on his face were no longer held together by horrifying staples, as she’d seen on the news, but had actually been stitched and even seemed to blend into his skin now. He was grimacing, staring at the window sharply, though no recognition entered his eyes as they walked in.

“He can’t see you,” the hero said from the other room.

Fuyumi only nodded slightly, her throat completely dry and void of any words. She couldn’t stop looking at her brother. He wasn’t on a screen, he wasn’t standing in swathes of flames and smoke that were threatening to smother her. He was right in front of her. Touya, who she had mourned, was sitting in front of her.

She wondered what her thirteen year old self would have said to the sight. She’d probably have been overjoyed, and in deep denial at the full story. Except, Fuyumi wasn’t thirteen, and she knew everything and had seen enough to believe it.

“If you want out just stand up and we’ll open the door, if you stand up before you’re ready to leave then we’ll remove you anyways. Go inside and sit down, your hands won’t be restrained anymore than they already are.”

She nodded firmly, and one of the guards set his hand on the doorknob.

This was it.

He turned it, and she saw Touya’s head begin to turn in the window.

Her living, breathing, brother.

He began to pull open the door.

He was there.

She stepped into the open doorway and walked in, averting her eyes from her brother. She focused on sitting immediately and keeping her hands in her lap. Her head was pounding, along with her heart. She tasted ash.

Her eyes lifted to look at her big brother.

His eyes were exactly as they had always been. Bright blue, the same as her fathers and Shouto’s left eye. Full of bitter mirth and a sort of anger, though clearly judgmental. If it had been anyone but her brother she would have been offended.

He was grimacing. He leaned back in his chair as far as he could with the heavy restraints, lifting his chin in an arrogant way that never annoyed her like he wished it would have. The amount of arguments she’d listened to because of that particular stuck up chin were innumerable.

She had no clue what to say. She'd had some ideas of what to say, despite being unsure, but suddenly her mind was blank and she was twelve and sitting across from her brother. Scars and puberty or not, it was still Touya, she could see it clearly and wondered how she had ever missed it.

“Why are you here?” he asked, his voice angry and sharp.

Before the conflict had been resolved she was continuously reminding herself she was just a civilian. It was difficult, with the news recognizing her every time she left the house and having close family members on both sides of it. When Touya spoke first she jumped slightly, and it was another moment to remind herself she was not a hero or a villain, not even a vigilante. She did not want to be those things. She was only a civilian woman, and she was incredibly out of her depth.

Touya scoffed when she jumped at the sound of his voice. Fuyumi was one to act off of emotions, but anger wasn’t one that she felt very often. It didn’t rise up in her like it did her brothers, perhaps a gene she hadn’t inherited, or one that she trained out of herself to be able to take care of them. It didn’t matter, because the look on Touya’s face brought out unruly amounts of anger within her.

“Because you’re my brother, and you’re also a supervillain.”

He leaned forward, “My point exactly.”

Fuyumi reconsidered mentally. She had never been one to operate off of anger, so it certainly wasn’t something she forced out of herself. As a child she had infinite patience for her brothers, including Touya and his constant complaining and irritating habits.

“You,” her face twisted, “You faked your death and left us all alone, and then let us mourn you for ten years, only to go on to become a murderer and a supervillain all for something that we all lived through.”

His eyebrows rose, unimpressed. Shouto irritated her rarely, Natsuo was the one person she didn’t have infinite patience for anymore, but she was certain that if she could have she’d have genuinely tried to strangle Touya. She couldn’t remember a time in her life she had been so furious, watching him raise his eyebrows at her as if he wasn’t a monster.

“I know that, Yumi.”

“Oh,” she said louder than intended at the nickname, “You, I, Touya, I deal with children daily but I’ve never been this angry in my life. I don’t care what you know, you did it and you have to say something.”

He was already leaning forward, but he stuck his neck as far forward as it’d go and scowled again. She couldn’t resist leaning back slightly, seeing all of the individual marks within his scars and the specific way his eyes shone with something she couldn’t name was too much for her.

“It’s kinda funny, seeing you mad.”

“You do not get to try to murder nearly everyone of the people who genuinely cared about you even past your death and then tell me I’m funny.”

“Then why the hell are you here? What do you want me to say? Pour my heart out, oh Yumi I’m so sorry, I forgive dad so much because I’m weak just like you and mom and Natsu and Shouto.”

She was silent for a long moment.

“Mom was the one person you didn’t try to attack to hurt him, I thought maybe you had some sort of heart in you for at least her. What makes you think that you can make such accusations and call her weak?”

“I didn’t succumb to my emotions and have a breakdown, did I?”

“No, you burned yourself nearly to death with your quirk that is fueled on emotions. Not at all similar, but definitely what you’d consider weak.”

She watched as his face changed again. His eyes widened ever so slightly, and if she wasn’t seething she’d have guessed it was less to do with what she said but more that it was coming from her. She watched as disgust morphed into actual anger.

“I didn’t die, though, did I?” he retorted, “You wish I did.”

She laughed, but not of joy, “No, I just wish you hadn’t become this.”

“Then let me ask again, why are you even here?”

They stared at each other for a long moment, both of them unblinking. Grey eyes meeting bright blue, both reflecting anger. Her eyes were teary from the sudden emotions within her, and her rare anger always subset into sadness anyways.

“Because you’re my brother, and I loved you. I mourned you, and, sure, I’ll be honest. Ages thirteen to eighteen, not so fun. Trying to pick up what you left behind, trying to not die myself, keeping Natsu, who loved you so much, from going too far. So, in all honesty, I’m here because I did not spend five years in absolute hell just because you got your ego hurt.”

It was cruel, and every part of what she said was an understatement. She didn’t think that he was about to feel bad for her, but she didn’t care. She wanted him to know. It was much more than his ego being hurt that led to everything, but in the simplest, cruelest term ever that was how it made sense. And she was furious, and tears had fallen from her eyes the moment she began speaking.

“You know, you were always the one least like Endeavor, but you’re acting pretty angry right now. Did dear old dad start getting to you?”

She was angry at Touya, but not enough to fall for something like that.

“No, you got to me, Touya. And that isn’t something that’s gonna make me run out of here crying, I’m twenty four years old, I’m not scared of lashing out at someone who deserves it.”

“You’re mean.”

Her face scrunched slightly. He was a murderer, and a big bad villain, and he had been playing the part perfectly. She wasn’t a fool, and villainy and ten years didn’t stop her from seeing when a brother of hers was trying to make her angry. Natsu had pulled that trick before, for a number of strange various reasons. She was already vexed, but he was probably trying to provoke her into standing and getting herself taken out of the room.

So, for some reason, he had given it up. She couldn’t tell if it was some version of manipulation to frustrate her even more, but he had given up on the crude insults and game of ‘who could infuriate the other more’ and called her mean. For a split second it felt like she was listening to Natsu, after she had beat him at any game or sent him back to his own home for dinner. Except, she wasn’t talking to her younger brother, and whatever Touya was during was serving its purpose and made her even more mad.

“Sure.”

He sighed, “I don’t even know what you want me to say. I wish I had gone further, I wish I’d actually done the job right and killed him. Then maybe you wouldn’t be wasting your time trying to hear something that you never will.”

“So you care that I’m wasting my time?”

There hadn’t been much noise to begin with, but the room went dead silent. He had been looking off at the window behind her, but his head turned sharply to her when she asked the question. She had kept the same sharp tone of voice she’d been using, despite asking such an emotional question. It was one she’d been asking since that broadcast had aired, even if she knew the answer.

Touya had tried to kill all of them, someone who did that didn’t care. Yet, he never succeeded, and the same hopeful part of her that wished for a happy family all those years was reignited. He was a monster, and he could tell Shouto that he had no emotions and go around only acting on hate. He was never very kind with his emotions prior to his death, anyways.

Yet, as horrible as it was, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. The first day that society fell apart, when that horrifying battle happened, Touya had told her dad and Shouto everything face to face. Supposedly some hero had gotten in the way before Shouto could be injured worse than he was.

The hero Hawks was burned horribly, worse than her brother. Touya had been assumed to have burned himself to ash once before, and even if it didn’t happen, those burns didn’t come from nothing. It didn’t take long for him to cause mass destruction, especially for one person. There had been enough bodies left behind over the years to prove that, because otherwise he’d have been caught.

Touya was not a good person, not anywhere close. He hurt her brother, badly. Along with her father and thousands of other people. But killing someone was slightly different, and he had refrained from killing Shouto. Supposedly because a hero had jumped in the way, but why would he wait? Why wouldn’t he get it done as quickly as possible? The thought always made her feel sick.

Now, she was a hopeful person. She looked at the good of everything, especially her family. She couldn’t do that with Touya because there was no good, but a large part of her was convinced that he somehow, some subconscious part of him from when he was twelve, had let him keep Shouto alive. It was wishful thinking and both of her brothers would have argued very much otherwise, it was almost cruel of her to think considering how much he hurt Shouto.

“You’re serious right now?”

She raised an eyebrow, only staring at him. She had said it as some immature attempt to make him mad while also genuinely asking her question.

He spoke before she did, “You’re literally delusional, Yumi.”

“You don’t get to decide not to have most or any emotions, especially not when your quirk depends on those. I’m not stupid enough to think you actually care or have good within you towards us after you hurt so many people, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“It sounds exactly like what you’re thinking, and if I know you at all then I’m right.”

“You don’t know me at all, you left way too long ago to actually believe that.”

“So you’re not some delusional girl who thinks dad did nothing wrong and should be forgiven, and who still thinks that we even have a family?”

“Oh dad definitely did stuff wrong, I never claimed against that. Did you know me at all, or were you too caught up hating everyone who tried to help you?”

He wrestled in the restraints the moment the words left her mouth, as if he could actually stand and hurt her. She flinched, but she wasn’t even sure he had noticed. Guilt was already pooling within her, but also a horrible satisfaction that she finally got under his skin. She knew he wasn’t to blame for anything that happened prior to his death, and that their parents were completely at fault. None of them had tried to help him in the most important way.

It was immature, and she knew that. He hurt thousands, but she was focused on how hurt she was. She used that to purposefully anger him, just because she was upset that he never told them he was alive. She could have gone even further, and she knew that it’d make him angry, because going on murdering sprees didn’t get rid of childhood pain. He clearly had no remorse for all of the horrors he’s done, but she knows more details about him than most people in the world.

And, well, he looked royally pissed off. The stitches along his scars were being tugged as he scowled at her, with much more force than before. He was no longer idly looking at the window, but he was once again meeting her gaze.

For a small moment, she was in school looking out the door of the classroom and meeting his angry gaze in the hallway while a teacher talked to him. It happened multiple times in his last year of school, back when their classes aligned perfectly so they could see each other. She’d laugh sometimes, or be upset that he was getting reprimanded.

For some reason, while he stared at her with all of the anger in the world, it was the same angry gaze. It was weird sitting across from him after all that time, and knowing everything that she did. Relating the murderer in front of her to the angry and misled boy that had been her older brother felt wrong, but they were the same person. No amount of denial or fancy wordplay would change that. It was why what she had said had made him react as he had.

“You’re the worst,” he said when she didn’t humor his glowering.

She laughed. She didn’t mean to, but an actual loud and bitter laugh escaped her.

“Yes, I’m the worst. Ever. You are so right.”

She lightly laughed a bit more, out of disbelief rather than joy.

“You know what, whatever, sure, fine. Fuyumi, what the hell?” she leaned back at the question, “You’re the nice, weak one. You’re supposed to come in here and act like I didn’t do anything bad, and then I can get you out of here easily. You’re the weak one, you don’t speak up, you never have. So why the fuck are you here saying all of this stuff?”

It was a different question than before. She was mildly surprised with her own words, and how quickly anger had rose at the sight of him. She’d sat in her room alone at night enough times thinking about it to get worked up, but never like this.

“I told you this already, it’s because of you. No, I’m not one to get angry, but you are ridiculous. I spent so long so upset because you were gone, and I did a lot. Mom was gone, you were gone, we weren’t allowed near Shouto and you already know dad acted as if me and Natsu didn’t exist. So, my sincerest apologies if after all of that it feels a little good to see little old weak me hurting your ego.”

“You keep talking about my ego but I think you have more of one than me.”

“How is that?”

“You think you’re the best because you kept Natsuo from crying a little? What, you didn’t do shit for Shouto. You visited mom? You didn’t give up like every other person on the planet hasn’t.”

“Do you really think that the house was only bad for you?”

She ignored what he said about Shouto. It hurt, a whole lot, and she had felt guilt about that for as long as it had been a problem. He was a hypocrite in every way possible, and he had chosen to hurt one person at the expense of everyone else who had ever cared about him, and people who had no place to be a victim of his. He decided that getting back at a person he hated was more important than any of the people who were mourning him, and she was angry.

He was silent.

“Touya, I am very, very sorry I couldn’t do anything for you. You never listened to me, so I stopped trying because I was a ‘helpless twelve year old girl’. Yes, I’m guilty for never being able to help Shouto, but I’m honestly not even sure what I would have done. Picked useless fights with dad, like you and Natsu did? I was trying to keep the brother who I could actually help from getting hurt worse than he already was, and making sure I was well enough to do so. Don’t pretend you’re concerned about Shouto just to hurt me, not when you tried to murder him.

“And, honestly, don’t act like you know what kind of hell it was after you left. You got out, and you never bothered to contact us at all. You cannot use that for your ammunition for hating someone, because you were gone.”

Her hands were bound together, but she lifted them anyways to wipe at the tears that had escaped beneath her glasses. As she was growing up alone she never realized how horrible it was, but now that she had friends and could hear their stories, and the ones of her students, she had begun to process how hellish it truly was. She always knew it wasn’t normal, but simply never the full scope of it. It only completely clicked when she heard her fathers crimes listed in the court room, and even as she spewed it all at Touya it was still unfolding in her head.

She spoke again, “You don’t have remorse, you like to say you don’t have emotions, I know. I do not care. You hurt people, thousands, and I can’t do anything. But I’m speaking to you now, and do not dare pretend you know how horrible it was to grow up once you were gone. I don’t think I’m special for helping my brother to grow up not completely alone, but compared to you, I’m a damned saint. Everyone is when they’re being compared to a monster.”

Finally she had finished, and she wiped away the last of her tears calmly. When her eyes focused and she looked at Touya, he was staring at her. He was still grimacing, and his eyes were still angry, but they were less focused. She took pride in the slightly widened state of his eyes.

She sighed. She was half tempted to stand up and walk out immediately, but she wasn’t losing a single second of her chance to talk to her brother. She knew it was likely the last time that she ever would speak to him. She had thought that once before, and there had been a couple of times during the chaos of society that she was sure he’d die before ever being arrested. Watching that moment off of the dusty news feed had been one which she’d never forget.

Instead of standing, she leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. Her cuffed hands rested in her lap, no longer wiping at her face. She couldn’t believe she’d managed to say all of that and not completely break down, and she certainly felt like crumbling to a mess of sobs and tears in that moment. A break down was due for the moment she got home, but she wasn’t home yet. She was still across from her big brother, who had gone decidedly silent.

“Nothing to say?” she asked, her voice still teary and heavy.

She wasn’t sure he’d speak again at all. Part of her hoped the meeting would be over, but she wanted some sort of acknowledgement from him. It was unlikely, but he did everything he did because of their dad and in turn how he grew up, and she just wanted him to see that it didn’t end when he did. She could say that, for her, it definitely got much worse. Even beyond her own feelings, it was worse.

“Oh, what, sure it was bad for you, about time after it had been bad for all of us.”

“Did I even say it wasn’t before?”

“You don’t have to, I saw you.”

“Who was making you dinner every single day, and then bandaging your wounds, and then trying to make sure no one fell apart when everyone was?”

“See, ego.”

“This isn’t ego, this is me saying it sucked, always, but it was worse when you left and don’t act like it wasn’t when you have no clue.”

“I don’t care if it was worse.”

“How?”

“Not much of a fan of emotions.”

“You can’t throw away emotions like plastic, Touya.”

“To be fair, most people don’t throw away plastic.”

She opened her mouth to retort again before promptly closing it, turning her head slightly.

“What?”

“Just saying.”

“Yeah, people throw plastic on the ground, usually.”

“Exactly.”

“So you agree, can’t throw away emotions.”

“No, I’m just saying it was a terrible metaphor.”

Their conversation had gone from both of them angrily firing at each other to what could almost be called banter. Fuyumi didn’t realize until they both paused, and she realized her anger had dissipated. She couldn’t hold onto all of that forever, and it was exhausting her. She was still very mad at him, but the anger that was allowing her to shout at him was gone. He could likely bring it up with his next sentence, but she didn’t even know if she wanted to.

She rolled her neck slightly, feeling the tension in it.

“Look, I thought you were gone forever once before. You weren’t, but this is likely actually the last time I speak to you. You’re terrible, but I’m here anyways.”

“Wow, gee, thanks.”

She sighed in some sort of disbelief at the lighthearted nature of the conversation, “I’m not wrong.”

“I won’t deny it.”

“That is a first.”

“Shut up.”

She shook her head, “What is this?”

“No clue.”

There was two knocks on the door, and the guards had informed her that two knocks meant five more minutes remained.

“What’s that mean?”

She only gave him a firm look, one mimicking what she’d give her students.

“Right, right, why would you ever break a rule.”

“Because they're there for a reason, and especially in a place like this..”

“Too scared to say max security prison? I know that’s what I’m in, at least. Totally thought I was out of Japan, but I don’t know if you’d come all this way.”

“I’m not stupid enough to even pretend to answer that, Touya.”

“Yeah, and I just realized you’re definitely crazy enough to go anywhere just to sit down for, what? An hour with your crazy brother.”

“You just called us both crazy.”

“Right, you’re way too good to be classified the same way as me.”

“You are genuinely not wrong.”

“Can you believe you’re having a conversation with a murderer?”

She sighed, “Honestly, no, but I’m excusing it on account of nostalgia.”

“I hate that.”

“I’d be surprised to hear something that you didn’t hate.”

“Oden.”

She paused, blinking at him. That had been the first thing she was truly taught to cook, and she still loved cooking it. It was also the first thing her mom touched the stove to cook, only a month prior.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, you can’t really get it that good when you’re a supervillain though. And I can’t cook. Definitely never getting it here,” he looked around as if to motion to the prison.

“Huh,” she said quietly.

“There, you got your emotionally good piece of information out of me, meaning you can leave satisfied.”

Her head turned automatically and she fired, “Do you even like oden?”

“Yes,” he paused, “And seriously. You’re probably like, living, or something. I don’t know. Teacher stuff. So, just, forget about the villain in here who literally could not care less about you.”

“What?” her voice rose slightly.

“You heard me, walk out that door and get all your tears out then never think about this again.”

Tears rose in her eyes once again. He said he liked a dish she used to make for him, but that meant nothing compared to the words he was saying. He was a villain, but he did care. Somehow.

“Oh, don’t start crying again.”

The door opened, and the guard was standing there waiting for her.

“Thanks Touya, and I won’t. You supposedly know me well enough, that you should know I’d never forget anyone in my family.”

She stood, and for the first time since she walked in, she smiled at him.

“Of course you’d say that. You better not mean it."

“Bye, Touya.”

She walked in front of the guard and looked at Touya one more time, his eyes more alive than they’d been the whole meeting. Then the guard pushed her forward and the door shut, nearly capturing her hair with it.

She was walked back down the labyrinth that was the prison halls, and then eventually back onto docks and onto the boat. They stuck her back in that windowless room and she she sat down, leaning agains the wall and shutting her eyes.

There were no words to describe how she felt. She had no clue how long the boat ride was, so she wasn’t going to break down and let them walk in and find her crying. She knew people had listened to that entire conversation, but she wanted to keep some of her dignity.

Instead of thinking about what she had just been through, she thought about her students. For however long the boat ride was, she strayed off any thoughts about Touya or villains.

When the boat stopped and they let her back onto a dock, she walked into the police station, where they freed her hands. She felt slightly dizzy as access to her quirk was restored, even though she hadn’t used it in months.

A specific detective, one who had largely helped her be able to visit Touya, walked up to her before she walked out of the door. The sun was more than halfway through the sky, though there were clouds beginning to cover it. She wanted to go as quickly as possible, but she turned anyways.

“I want to thank you again for making this possible,” she told him.

“Of course, though no need for more thanks. Just, about the nondisclosure agreement, I assume you already plan to tell your mother and brothers everything you and Dabi spoke about.”

Her eyes widened slightly.

“I emailed them the same agreement this morning, so go ahead and tell them. Though, beyond those three do not share any information, even about the experience.”

Her eyebrows raised, “Thank you, so much. And of course not, they also know the rules.”

“That’s good. Well, I’d hate to keep you waiting. Have a good day Todoroki.”

“Same to you, Detective Tsukauchi!”

And then she walked outside, smelling the oncoming rain. Unfortunately she ended up driving straight into it, before eventually arriving back at the home that her father had built for them. She got out of the car and stretched her arms up, thinking of Touya.

She walked in, found the three most important people to her, sat on the couch, and finally had that breakdown.