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Himiko wasn’t sure what she was expecting when she answered a frantic knock on the door of her backup safehouse late one Friday night. After all, she wasn’t expecting company and, ever since the League’s dissolution, the only visitors she received these days tended to be low-tier thugs who wanted to claim the bounty on her head. With that in mind, she made sure to bring one of her bigger knives with her. Just in case.
Needless to say, the last thing she was expecting was to see her true love standing on her porch, red-faced and panting hard from exertion, with streaks of red splattered across his forest green hero costume.
She gasped, grin spreading across her face, “Izukkun?! You came to see me?!”
Izukkun’s eyes were blown wide and he jittered in place as he spoke, “T-toga, I did s-something… really bad, and I-I didn’t know who else to go to, a-and you were nearby, a-and oh god what have I done- ”
She silenced him with a finger to the lips, “Slow down, Izukkun, what’s wrong?”
He took a deep, shuddering breath, “I-I think it’s best if I show you.”
She shrugged and nodded, pulling on her shoes and locking her door behind her. Izukkun slowly walked away, fidgeting with his hands as he led her through the dark backstreets of late night Kabukichou, avoiding the many rowdy groups that dominated the main thoroughfares. As they walked, she picked up on a few mumbled phrases, things like “ What would All Might say…? ” and “ I’ll never be able to look mom in the eyes again !”, which told her exactly nothing about the situation. Her Izukkun, as much as she loved him, was something of a worrier, and would fret over the smallest things.
Still, after over a year of soundly rejecting her advances, he’d finally come and found her, so maybe it was something serious after all.
Izukkun suddenly stopped, just at the entrance to an alleyway in the quieter side of town, and gestured in without looking, “He- i-it’s in there.”
Quirking an eyebrow, she poked her head around the corner, only to find a still form lying in the darkness of the alley. Stepping closer, she could smell the iron scent of fresh blood, and instantly, it all clicked for her.
She turned to Izukkun, who refused to meet her gaze, instead toying with his fingers, “I… I killed him. I-I took a human life, a-and I didn’t even mean to!”
Himiko blinked, before cheering, bundling him into a tight hug, “Congrats, Izukkun! Your first is always the hardest! Now you can join me and we can paint the streets red forever and ever and-”
“NO!” He shouted, before slamming a gloved hand over his mouth, “N-no. I- T-that’s not… no.”
Oh. Clearly she had misjudged the occasion. She pulled away and cocked her head to the side, “So… what’s the problem then?”
His eyes somehow grew even wider, “Toga, I’m a hero! Heroes can’t just… go around and k-kill people! What would my friends say? What would my teachers say?” he paled, “What would my mom say?”
“So… what’d you want me for? Not that I don’t love you being here Izukkun~” she flushed slightly, and was happy to see that he did too, “but I’m not really sure what you want from me.”
He sighed shakily, “I-I don’t know, I just… I don’t know what to do now. They don’t tell us about these kinds of situations, not yet?”
She hummed, “Well, why don’t we start at the beginning, then? How’d this all happen?”
He nodded slightly and leaned against the wall, sliding down until he sat on the ground, “I-I wasn’t even meant to be here, really… Aizawa-sensei has us on patrol by ourselves this semester, and I-I was just nearby when I heard a scream. I came quickly, and I found…” he gulped, “ him , attacking a woman. S-she had a fox mutation, and I guess h-he didn’t like that…”
She scowled, knowing the sting of Quirk discrimination all too well. Privately, she thought the man deserved to die, but she could tell Izukkun was barely keeping it together as it was, so she kept those thoughts to herself.
“A-anyway, when I arrived, it distracted him long enough for the woman to run away.” A thought seemed to occur to him, and he began to panic again, “Oh god, w-what if she went to get help? What if the police, o-or the heroes are coming right now?!”
Himiko hurried over and laid her hands on his shoulders, “If they were, they’d already have come here by now, Izukkun. She probably just went home.”
He took a deep breath, and nodded, “Y-yeah… a-anyway, after she left, he started ranting at me, yelling about mutant Quirks and blood purity a-and…” he glanced up at her, deep, fearful green meeting toxic yellow for the first time that night, “ something in me just snapped . I-I attacked, and just kept punching, even long after I knew h-he was…”
“Dead.” The word fell from her lips and dropped like a lead weight in the silence of the alleyway.
He nodded slightly, and turned his head away, “I didn’t know what to do, a-and I knew you were nearby…”
She had, actually, given him the address to that particular safehouse the last time they’d fought. It had been a gamble, of course, but it was clearly paying off now.
“I-I don’t know what to do, Toga.”
She nodded at him, “It’s Himiko , Izukkun. And I can help you, if you need. Just lemme get a closer look at our friend over there.”
He gave her a small nod, and she stood again, moving over to the corpse. Now that she was closer, she could see that the face and much of the torso was completely smashed in, brains, organs and guts all spilling out in a gory display.
Himiko sighed. The things she did for love.
“Is there anything that can link you to this alleyway at this time?” She asked, slipping into her rarely-used, more rational side.
“U-um, I don’t think so? Apart from t-the woman I saved…”
She hummed. Couldn’t do much about that now. “I don’t think she’ll call the police. Crimes like this don’t really get reported much.” She would know, after all.
“I know.”
And so would he, apparently. The surety in his voice spoke of personal experience, something she filed away for later. “Still, we should probably be prepared, just in case.”
She turned to him, and he nodded, before another thought occurred to him, “W-wait! Detective Tsukauchi!”
Himiko blinked at her future husband, “Gesundheit.”
Izukkun shook his head, “N-no, he’s a detective with a lie detector Quirk. We’ve got to plan around him, too…”
She smirked slightly, “Already planning to lie to the police, Izukkun?~ You’re naughtier than I expected!~”
He flushed, “I-I… I want to be a hero. Stopping now… m-maybe it’s selfish or something, b-but what if, one day, there’s someone that only I could help?”
“I mean,” she shrugged, “I think life’s too short to worry about being selfish. More people should be selfish, I think! Then everyone would be happier!” She beamed as she managed to entice a small chuckle from him. “Besides, if anyone deserved it…” she scowled at the mangled body with distaste, and Izukkun didn’t even seem able to argue with her.
Progress!
“S-so, what story should we have? Um, j-just in case…”
She tapped her chin, thinking for a moment, before nodding to herself, “You keep doing your patrol, making sure no one sees you. I’ll deal with our friend here, and you come back in five minutes. Then, if anyone asks, say that you fought him and went to get help, before continuing your patrol, but when you returned, he’d gone, and that you don’t know what happened to him after that! That way, you haven’t technically lied!”
His eyes widened and he nodded, turning around and walking out of the alleyway, before turning back for a moment, “Y-you’re… really good at that.” He marveled at her.
She blushed slightly, “You pick up a few things!~”
He shook his head fondly and walked away, leaving her to deal with the problem at hand. The body wouldn’t be too difficult to lift for her, but dragging it through the streets was another question entirely.
It was times like this that made her miss Kurogiri and Dabi, or even Shiggy.
Taking her mind far away from those thoughts, she decided to do the next best thing. Opening a nearby dumpster, she picked the body up and dumped it inside, tossing in all the loose organs afterwards and making sure to arrange the bags so that they covered it. It wasn’t the most elegant solution, but it would hide him long enough for any evidence to have long since washed away, especially since they were expecting rain.
Still, she decided to speed that process up a little. Unfortunately, she hadn’t known she’d be on body disposal duty, otherwise she’d have brought her cleaning kit with her. Still, no matter; she found some old bottles of various kinds of alcohol and poured them over the stains. In the best case scenario, they’d remove the colour entirely, and in the worst case, they’d simply mix in with all of the viscera and hide things long enough for the rain to wipe the slate clean.
After a moment of admiring her handwork, she left the alleyway and waited nearby for her Izukkun to return.
When he did, just three minutes later, it was in a far calmer state of mind. She smiled at him softly as he approached.
“T-thank you… I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.”
“Anything for you, Izukkun~” she bared her teeth slightly in a small grin, and they both blushed. “So what now?”
“W-well, I would go back to UA, but…” he gestured at the blood-spattered uniform he wore.
She winced slightly and nodded, “C’mon back to my place, I can get them out quickly!”
His face turned bright red but, seeing as he lacked any other option, he nodded and followed her as they walked through the backstreets of the city, arriving at Himiko’s little safehouse without fanfare.
Once inside, she turned to him expectantly, and finally realised just what he’d agreed to. His blush grew so bright it could light up the country for a month. “I- well, Toga, I mean-”
“ Himiko ,” she reminded him, rolling her eyes fondly, “and I’m not gonna do anything! Well, unless you want me to~” she winked, which only served to break him more. Eventually, though, he began to strip off the top layer of his hero costume, leaving him in a plain black bottom layer, which was decidedly less cute than his bloodstained costume, but Izukkun could make anything look appealing.
She took it over to her special sink, grabbing the stuff she’d need and quickly getting to work scrubbing off the totally cute crimson stains. As she worked, she remembered a question that had occurred to her earlier.
“So, Izukkun, how come you flew off the handle about Quirk discrimination? I mean, you’re perfect , but I kinda get the sense that it’s more than just your usual amazingness?~”
Once he had calmed down from the barrage of compliments and flirts, he answered, “W-well, yeah, I care about everyone, and I want to protect everyone, b-but… it’s a little more personal than just that.” She hummed inquisitively, not prying, just seeing what he offered her. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, before coming to an agreement with himself.
“For most of my life, I and everyone else thought I was… Q-Quirkless.”
Now that got her attention.
“Izukkun… are you sure you’re feeling alright? You pretty obviously have a Quirk.” She chuckled.
He nodded, “T-turns out, my body wasn’t really suited for it for… a long while, and so the doctors said, and I believed, that I was Quirkless. Everyone else found out and… well, p-people nowadays apparently really don’t like it if you don’t have a Quirk.” He chuckled weakly, but the joke felt hollow to the both of them.
“Oh.” She intoned softly. She’d never really given much thought to the Quirkless; she’d been far too consumed with her own Quirk struggles. Now that it was Izukkun, though… “I’m so sorry, Izukkun… I can’t say I know exactly what you’ve been through, but… I can relate.” Thoughts of normalcy , of wearing a mask for all her life, of repeated lectures about the importance of proper presentation flew through her mind. The Togas had never beaten her, not physically, but the emotional scars they left ran far too deep for her ever to forget.
“W-well, that’s in the past now… it’s better now, I promise.”
She turned to him and smiled, small and soft, but no less genuine than she ever was with him. “I’m glad, Izukkun. You deserve good things.”
He flushed bright red once more, and she giggled softly, before turning back to her work, the two of them falling into a comfortable silence. It was nice, almost domestic in a way, and she allowed herself the fantasy of imagining a life with him. They could live in secret, villain and hero by day, loving partners by night. They would marry privately, with Compress and Spinner and Ochako-chan and Tsu-chan watching, and they would spend their wedding night in one another’s embrace.
She imagined the children they’d have, how she’d take care of them. Maybe she’d even give up villainy, just for them. A girl and a boy, she’d like, one with long green hair and the other with curly blonde. They’d inherit his brain and cuteness, and her devotion to those they loved.
They’d be happy together.
She sighed and shook her head, the dream disappearing like the last of the red-dyed water down the plughole. Because that’s all it was, a dream. No, Izukkun would never give up her location, he’d proven that already, but she doubted he’d visit her again after tonight.
They simply lived in two different worlds.
Himiko dried off the costume as best she could and turned to find Izukkun half-asleep on her sofa. Giggling softly, she walked up to him and thrust his outfit towards him.
“As much as I’d love you to stay for the night, Izukkun, I don’t really want all of UA to be kicking down my door when they realise you’ve gone missing~”
Flushing, he scrambled to get his costume back on, ensuring everything was as clean as it could be. “T-thank you for this, T- uh, Himiko.” His blush deepened. “T-thank you for… everything, tonight.”
She smiled softly, “I told you, I’d do anything for you~”
Nodding, he turned and walked to the door, “U-uh, I guess this is goodbye?”
Trying not to let the pain show on her face, she nodded back, “See you later, Izukkun.”
He smiled, “See you, H-Himiko.”
He walked out the door, and she watched as he disappeared into the night.
That future, that family… maybe it was just a dream.
But as far as she was concerned, Izukkun was already a dream come true.
So was it so bad to wish for another?
Himiko softly closed the door.