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“It’s a promise, I’ll save you!” Tenko said as he held the kid he’d found amongst the rubble. Using what he’d learned through his training at UA, he knew where to employ his Decay quirk to avoid collapsing the broken walls around them where they ended up after the tsunami hit the city. The roads and subway systems were decimated, causing collapses like the one they were in.
Earth and debris disintegrated away to bring them back to where they could see the sun again, no longer in danger of the disaster that had hit their nation only hours ago. Responders and other heroes helped the two out of the crater and ushered them toward the emergency triage that was set up nearby. Tenko knew this was where they would part, knowing that he needed to go back into the nightmare so he could try to save more people.
“You did it, saved us,” the young boy said as Tenko set him down on the closest available cot. “You didn’t break your promise.”
Tenko felt his heart thud against his chest, his mind shooting far back to his past, when he’d been asked for his own promise from someone that followed through. “Yeah, of course I did,” putting up the pinky that he’d offered to the boy after he’d found him and swore to get him out alive. Giving back a relieved smile, the kid hooked his pinky to Tenko’s, fulfilling the pinky promise.
“Someone saved me once too, and gave me a pinky promise to make it official. Because there’s nothing that can break a pinky promise, right, kid?”
“Right!” the boy said, smiling bright as the closest EMT started to check him for injuries. Tenko left them to it, planning to come back later to check on the kid before he rushed off to where they were still looking to reach those buried in the aftermath of the disaster.
“Fracture,” the voice called out from his earpiece, “There’s a team that needs you to break through to a found group of survivors, sending you the location now.” The hero acknowledged the request and ran off once he saw where he was needed. It was a good distance away, but the stamina training he’d endured with his rehabilitation had done wonders as he rushed to save more civilians.
It had taken him years of hardships, but his childhood dream of becoming a hero had finally been realized. And as he ran to his next rescue, Tenko, who went by the hero name ‘Fracture’, reflected on how he’d been able to achieve his dream. And it all started with the color red.
There was nothing around him as he woke up, his deadly hands were small and clean of the blood that he’d spilt with them since he was a child. The area around him was a vast space of nothingness. Color didn’t exist here as all he saw was blinding white and the dull blacks and grays of his own body.
But then, as he heard footsteps approaching in this realm, there was a color that jumped out to steal his attention among the lonely blankness surrounding him.
Red. The only color that existed there was now standing in front of him. The color a part of the bulky shoes the other person there with him wore. The rest of his outfit matched himself, dark and lacking feeling. But not the red, that was different and painfully stood out to little Tenko. While the rest of his surroundings were bleak, seeing the man standing before him, with such a vibrant, encouraging color as a part of him gave Tenko hope.
Hope that there are more colors out there for him to discover. Warmth among the cold and dull colorless world he’d resigned himself to. That hope grew stronger as the man offered his hand, wanting to pull him up and away from where he sat. Others had offered their hands, but they either ended in abuse or manipulation, and Tenko wasn’t interested in more of either option.
But if hope is what this man was promising, then he should swear to it properly. And to young Tenko, there was nothing more meaningful and binding as a pinky promise. So rather than take the hopeful man’s hand, Tenko offered his pinky out instead.
“I will save you, Tenko!” he heard from the young hero standing before him. He didn’t hesitate to swoop his pinky around Tenko’s to solidify that promise, and that gave Tenko the resolve to keep fighting to leave his solitary prison.
And soon enough, he was free. Just like they pinky promised.
Getting to the location the dispatch had sent to him, Tenko saw a crowd of heroes standing near the collapsed building he’d been led to. It was easy to see his own hero among them, his forest-green hair standing out even as the sun was starting to dim the light of the city as it set.
As Tenko approached, he noticed that Izuku was focused on speaking through one of the cracks in the building’s rubble. “Don’t worry, there’s a hero that is perfectly able to get you out of there without another scratch!” Noticing his approach, Izuku started to grin widely, “And he’s here now! You’ll be out of harm’s way in no time now that Fracture is here!”
As much as it made Tenko’s heart swell in his chest for Izuku to speak so highly of him, he knew there was a job to do, so he focused on the layout of the area and quickly asserted what parts to decay and what to avoid. Several layers of concrete and brick later, the people trapped were helped out and taken to the triage, taking their first breaths of fresh air in hours thanks to him.
“You could have handled this with Float, you know,” Tenko said as he and Izuku finally had a moment alone. The younger pro blushed as he just shrugged his shoulders at the accusation.
“And miss out on my husband saving the day with his amazing quirk? Yeah, not very likely. Plus,” Izuku said as he leaned closer to Tenko, “I kinda missed you too, I don’t like when our patrols are so far apart.”
Tenko could only laugh as he put his arm around Izuku’s shoulders. “So you made me run the distance of a marathon just because you missed me? You know I hate long distance stamina stuff like that, Izuku.”
“But you don’t hate me, so I think you’ll be okay,” Izuku replied as he patted Tenko’s lower back. Another call through their comms brought them back to the situation at hand. They were both needed in new areas where their quirks would be best put to use. Confirming their new destinations, Tenko was the first to offer his pinky up, crimson eyes soft as they gazed upon green. Izuku hooked his pinky into Tenko’s, their silent bond and promise that they’d fight, win, and come back to each other.
Because there’s nothing that can break a pinky promise.
