Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This was a strange quirk. It had to be a quirk, otherwise Himiko was in a coma caused by the smoke inhalation from Dabi setting her childhood home aflame. And she didn’t particularly like that theory. It would be immensely disappointing to lose out on participating in the final fight with the heroes due to Dabi’s tendency for dramatics. 

She had been chomping at the bit to confront Ochako ever since Jin’s death and their resulting encounter. She couldn’t say why her gut had shouted again and again that Ochako would be different from the countless others that had come before. But it stung nonetheless to learn that the instinct was wrong. There was no pain quite so crushing as the perpetual failure of other people to perceive you as a human being. Eventually, you just leaned into it. Hurt others before they could hurt you. The League of Villains was the closest experience to home that Toga had ever had. Someone like Ochako, who shined brightly and was well-loved, for whom everything came easily, could never understand that. Why would a cog in a terrible system ever question their role if they weren’t the object being ground into dust?

Himiko trailed her hand along the back of the fancy couch and scrolled through her phone, attempting to collate the information there into something that made sense. Initially, she thought she might have been kidnapped, but every indication pointed to the conclusion that she was the owner of this expensive apartment. Not particularly cozy, but clearly well-outfitted. It was missing a personal touch.  

More importantly…hadn’t one of the minor villains that had shown up for the final fight had a quirk like this? Something about branching paths and consequentiality? Himiko hadn’t been listening closely, but AFO had certainly seemed interested. Regardless, she needed to assess the current situation before proceeding. Her swanky apartment contained a large whiteboard in the living room in place of where a television would traditionally hang. She grabbed a marker. 

1. I have been impacted by a quirk (?)
2. I am in a different version of my life (?)
3. This version of me works for the Hero Commission.
4. I have a nice apartment. 

She sighed and pressed the closed marker to her forehead as she stared at the board. Not much to go on. There were items in the apartment that made it clear she lived here — mail addressed to her, a phone and laptop whose passcodes she recognized, credit cards in her name, and gear that was tailored to her quirk. The phone and laptop contained correspondence with names she recognized from her time with the PLF as hero commission staff (Skeptic had hacked their staff records after Hawks was revealed as a spy) and vaguely referenced assignment details. It made her wonder if there was a second burner phone somewhere in the apartment that contained greater detail, but she didn’t know where to begin looking. 

Himiko returned to the bedroom and opened a search on the laptop, typing in her name. The results were a shock to her system. Instead of arrest warrants and news reports on her criminal activity, there were a number of articles about the young, up-and-coming hero. As well as websites where one could purchase her hero merchandise. This was bizarre. After twenty minutes of dazed scrolling through posts about Reflection, the disguise hero, it occurred to her that she might not be the only one impacted by the strange quirk. None of their contacts were on her phone, but…

Shigaraki’s name brought up no results. Neither did Spinner or Compress. Nothing about Jin. Typing the words ‘Touya Todoroki’ into the search bar finally yielded hits. She felt a little dizzy. He was still using the name ‘Dabi’ as an alias, but this time it was a hero name. Top of the charts, but controversial in both background and behavior. Ok, this was a starting place. If Dabi was also impacted by the quirk, then she could track him down and they could figure it out together. 

A notification pinged on her phone before she could dig further into his new identity. 

Headquarters. 9 AM. Be ready to report. 

Shit. This was bad, right? Before they had been taken out by Re-Destro, the hero commission had possessed far reaching and shady powers. That much had been made obvious by Skeptic’s research into the group and Hawks’ assassination of Jin. If she didn’t show up, would they come after her, assuming that she had gone rogue like Nagant? Or would it be worse to arrive and immediately be exposed as a person who knew nothing about the details of her job? Anxiety rose in her throat. If they were willing to kill Jin, then they were willing to kill her. 

She took a breath. No, it was better to show up. This could be a way to connect with Dabi. She had no way of reaching him otherwise.  

Himiko eyed the gear piled in the corner of the room. Better to be prepared. 

~

Himiko used the badge to access the elevator and eyed herself in the reflective glass while it ascended the skyscraper. She hadn’t been sure where to go, but the elevator had automatically selected a floor based on her badge. Apparently, they didn’t encourage collaboration between colleagues of different floors. 

She still looked like herself. Except that now she wore a tight blue jumpsuit with stripes that curved around her hips, black combat boots, and what appeared to be a dart gun, holstered around her right thigh. A few small knives were clipped into a belt. And a series of small vials each attached to a sharp pin were strapped to a sling across her chest. She assumed this was the ammunition for the gun. Meant to collect blood? Probably. The neck of the jumpsuit could be tugged up to cover the lower portion of her face. She did so, feeling nervous that she would immediately be identified as an imposter. Which was ironic. Her quirk allowed her to become other people, but she had never needed to convincingly play herself before. 

After a tense wait, the elevator dinged and opened. Himiko stepped out into a sleek waiting room and was given a nod by the secretary at the desk. She frowned as Toga walked past toward the large doors that appeared to contain a conference room. 

“Reflection, your hand scan?” 

“Ah, yes sorry,” Himiko stuttered. “I’m a little sleep-deprived.”

The secretary laughed. 

“I hope they’re not working you too hard.”

Himiko hoped her return laugh was convincing. She pulled off her glove and held her hand over a flat scanner. It flashed with light. How did it work? Surely, if they knew someone like Himiko could impersonate people, they wouldn’t rely on fingerprints for security. The glass below her hand turned green and read ‘quirk identified: approved visitor.’ They had technology that could identify quirks? That was a little terrifying. Thank goodness Shigaraki or the PLF had never asked her to infiltrate the place. The mousetrap waiting here would have snapped her in half in an instant. 

She proceeded to the room in front of her and found a set of three people sitting at a long table, facing her. There was no chair for her to use, so she stood in front of them awkwardly, unsure what to do with her hands. Thankfully the mask covered the uncertain twist of her mouth from view. 

Had she switched places with Hawks? Was that what was happening? Perhaps Dabi had taken Endeavor’s place. 

Himiko remained silent and waited for the woman or one of the two men to speak, not wanting to give herself away by providing information. The severe-looking woman casually flipped through a file. 

“We assigned you the task of capturing this villain two weeks ago, and I’m yet to see any progress. On the contrary, another museum has been robbed in central Tokyo.”

She waited for a response, and Himiko gave none. The woman looked at her sharply. 

“Since she’s active, we were hoping to use her to make inroads into the crime family she’s connected with. Someone is selling what she’s stealing. You haven’t been able to acquire any of her blood.”

“No…she’s very wily,” Himiko replied vaguely, hoping that was an adequate answer.

The woman gave an exasperated sigh and pushed the file across the table. Himiko stepped forward to look at it. Her eyes widened at the black and white surveillance photos showing Ochako with one leg dangling off a roof, large bags floating mid-air near her. 

“Fix this,” the woman said, tapping a nail harshly against the photo. 

Himiko made a gamble.

“Dabi-”

“I don’t want him involved. You already know this. We can’t trust where his loyalty lies with regard to his family and I don’t want him accidentally tipping someone off.”

“His file!” she spit out, hoping this would work. “I don’t mean to involve him in the mission, but maybe I can take a look at his hero file and try to pull some information from him. Discreetly.”

Please, let there be files. If those didn’t exist, she was going to be in hot water. 

The woman gave her an assessing look. 

“Fine. Get Tai to give you the file key. But if you speak with him, make sure he doesn’t glean your motives.”

“Understood,” she replied and turned to leave. 

“Oh, and one more thing,” the woman said with a wave of her hand. “Behave at the goddamn publicity shoot. I don’t care if the photographer gets handsy like last time. Deal with it and keep smiling.”

Himiko felt a sinking feeling and nodded, finally turning to escape the room. 

~

It turned out Tai was the secretary, and thankfully, it wasn’t suspicious for Himiko to ask to be shown the location of the file room. She was led to a dark and dusty room full of file cabinets and left alone. After locating the cabinets she was looking for, she glanced around and clocked three small cameras in different corners of the room. No walking away with the files then. She took the folder on Dabi, grabbed the information on Ochako and sat down on the floor to spread them out, pulling her mask down with a deep breath. She coughed on the dust. 

Himiko opened Ochako’s folder first. If Ochako was a criminal in this alternate world, maybe everything was different here? It was a surprise to glance down the page and see her own handwriting amongst the notes. 

[Ochako, Uraraka

Age: 17

Criminal History:

No official arrest record; warrants have been issued for multiple counts of first and second degree grand larceny, involvement in black market trafficking of stolen precious objects, and assault on peace officers. Larceny attempts have been restricted exclusively to Japan and the involvement in international trafficking is not yet proven - therefore Interpol has not issued an arrest warrant. 

Active in the black market for at least 1 year and 2 months, although has likely been involved with smaller crimes prior to the surveillance conducted by HC. 

Suspected to have ties to yakuza operations. Subject either actively trades with multiple yakuza groups as an independent thief or is working under the purview of one group. HC intel suggests that the subject is most likely tied to the Himura/Todoroki family and targets specific locations based on orders from superiors. She has at least one accomplice (male - identity unknown) who has been noted as a skilled sniper that assists from afar by taking out security or responding heroes/police officers during larceny attempts.

Personal Information: 

Subject has two deceased parents (murder case- see file # 43679). Parents owned a construction company and are believed to have owed significant debt to official sources and to loan sharks. She has no living family. Intelligence suggests that she dropped out of school at age fifteen to begin her criminal career.

Quirk Information:

Float: touches objects or persons to make them float at a distance of her choosing; requires physical contact

Subject possesses a quirk that allows her to float herself, other persons, and objects ranging in size. She uses her quirk to enter and exit secured spaces, steal precious objects, and transport them to sources of sale on the black market. We do not believe she is involved in sales beyond transport to criminal groups. Persons who have bought stolen objects have no knowledge of her which suggests intermediary sellers. 

Subject’s quirk is not inherently dangerous, but she has been known to hurl objects at heroes/police, float police cars, and take people as hostages. Her quirk is well suited to stealth, defense, and quickly fleeing a scene. The full extent of her quirk is unclear - HC does not know the maximum size limit for float which is a concern, specifically whether or not she can cause building collapse by lifting walls, ceiling, or foundation with her quirk.]

Confused by the mention of Dabi’s family, Himiko quickly switched over to the other file, skimming past the information on his quirk and hero career to a series of notes. 

[Todoroki, Touya (Hero Name: Dabi)

Age: 24

School Affiliation: UA

…

Notes:

This hero remains under HC surveillance indefinitely due to his family of origin. Dabi is the son of Rei Himura, current head of the Himura family and boss of its extensive crime network (see file #58973). Although operations are publicly handled by Enji Todoroki (Dabi’s father) (see file #56769), Rei is believed to be the puppet master behind the organization. It has grown significantly during her tenure and after the death of her father (murder case- see file #045697). Shoto Todoroki, the youngest son of the family, is currently believed to be the favored successor and is involved in the operations side of the criminal empire (see file #98567). Dabi’s sister is peripherally involved in criminal-front businesses owned by the family (see file #84679). Natsuo Todoroki (Dabi’s younger brother) is believed to be estranged from both the family and Dabi. He is currently living abroad in Canada and is not suspected of criminal ties. 

Dabi is estranged from all family members and renounced ties at age sixteen, choosing to run away from home and enroll at UA. After completing his education, he debuted at age nineteen as a hero, courting controversy due to his family. Surveillance shows that he is not currently in contact with any family members or persons with ties to the organization, but monitoring will continue.] 

Despite his young age, Dabi apparently owned his own hero agency. She collected the address and contact information.

Himiko’s head was starting to hurt. This world was so different from her own. Was this really the result of a quirk? She couldn’t find any files on any other LOV members, but she did locate one on Hawks. It wasn’t particularly surprising to find that he was attached to the Himura crime syndicate. It was like the quirk had taken her world and turned it on its head.

Time to find Dabi.

Chapter Text

Admittedly, Himiko was good at stalking people, but Dabi was a paranoid motherfucker with the jumpiness of an alley cat. If she skulked around the shadows of his agency and he caught on, it could end with a trip to a burn unit. So she entered via the front door. Technically, they were both heroes in this life right? And heroes teamed up all the time so it wasn’t strange for her to be here.

Dabi rejected her meeting request. She grit her teeth. 

“It’s really important, can you please go back and ask again? Insist, perhaps?” Toga said tightly to the sidekick trying to dismiss her from the lobby. 

The sidekick looked weary, but unable to overcome her determination returned to Dabi’s office. She was rejected a second time. Her eye twitched in irritation. 

God damn it, Dabi. 

But this likely meant there was a good chance that Dabi had not traveled over to this alternate universe with her. Still, she had to try. Dodging the startled sidekick, she burst into the office. So much for the subtlety she had promised in the hero commission boardroom.

“What the hell?” Dabi said, rising from the desk, flame flaring around his shoulders. 

Himiko wanted to laugh about the fact his hero costume resembled that ridiculous outfit he had acquired for the final battle, but her irritation took the lead. She kicked the door shut behind her. 

“What’s Spinner’s favorite video game?”

“Is that some kind of weird code I’m meant to know?” he griped, crossing his arms. “More importantly, why is the hero commission’s lapdog trespassing in my office?”

Damn. He really wasn’t her version of Dabi, trapped with her in an alternate quirk induced universe. She felt her stomach drop. Maybe it had been too much to hope that she hadn’t been left alone. 

“Let’s have a team up,” she said, pulling down her mask to show her face. 

Even if she didn’t know this version of him, it was better than nothing right? Maybe if she stuck by his side, it would lead her to more answers.

“I don’t team up with small fries. Our quirks aren’t even compatible.”

Himiko felt her eyebrow twitch in annoyance. Even as a hero, Dabi was still a dick. She changed tactics and pulled out the photos of Ochako.

“Do you know about this girl?”

“The one who's been robbing museums and jewelry stores blind left and right? Why? Is she planning on hitting one in my jurisdiction?” 

Now he was paying attention, eyes sharpened. 

“That’s what my source said,” Toga lied. “Wouldn’t you rather track her down first?”

~

On one hand, she had successfully lured Dabi into a partnership. On the other hand, she actually had no idea where Ochako could be found. Which was a problem. 

But if she and Ochako had switched roles here, maybe that was the key to undoing the quirk? Either that or it was time based and Himiko was wasting her energy when she could be lazing in a nice apartment for once. Still, Himiko was curious. To find out that the girl who had summarily dismissed her was a villain in this alternate life was intriguing to say the least. 

So Himiko scoured the case notes and made a list of likely locations for Ochako to strike next. It wasn’t difficult; Himiko had done similar calculations when stealing blood to avoid capture. Hopefully if she surveilled the areas, they might run into each other. Ochako was sure to be staking out the locations in advance. It seemed their little game of cat and mouse had carried over to this world.

Her concentration was broken by a series of pings on her phone. She glanced down and saw the words PR Manager flash on the screen.

Hello, dear. A reminder to arrive at Studio Blue promptly at 6 AM for the photoshoot to get hair and makeup done. 

Himiko let out a frustrated breath and scrubbed her hands across her face. She wanted to devote all her attention to investigating the quirk and getting back to her own life, but the hero commission was concerning. In a potentially life-threatening way. Skeptic had found a wealth of information proving exactly what they were capable of doing to keep people in line. She was alone in this world with no backup. If she disappeared into the bowels of a dark building and didn’t emerge, the league wasn’t coming to save her. It was surprising how quickly she had forgotten the sensation of being completely isolated after living alongside her friends. But this was the way she had always lived and it wasn’t unfamiliar, just a little unnerving.

She hated Hawks for killing Jin, but she did wonder if it was truly motivated purely by a misguided belief in the greater good. After the rage and betrayal had settled down in her stomach, she did take a moment to consider that Hawks’ desperation seemed abnormal for a hero trying to stop a villain. Would there have been repercussions if he had failed? Were they worse than almost being burnt alive by Dabi? And more importantly would Himiko be subject to that kind of violence if she stepped out of line in this other life? That woman with the bob had already made a thinly veiled threat about her behavior at this photoshoot. 

If Himiko had envisioned another life as a hero, it wouldn’t have been this. One where things were easier, one where she was surrounded by love and safety, one where decisions were simple and uncomplicated - yes. But this one? An empty and barren if expensive apartment, a life under threat from her employer? Not so much. 

She set her alarm for the photoshoot.

~

Himiko had always wrinkled her nose at female heroes on billboards posed in raunchy positions. Yeah sure, you had pure and noble intentions about saving people and in your free time, you wore a bikini to advertise energy drinks. No hypocrisy there. 

Now, she felt a little bad about that. 

She yanked at the top, trying to pull it up to cover more of her chest. The bottom edge of it became precipitous as she did so and she ended up just clasping the fabric to her chest awkwardly. Hair and makeup had been exhausting and intrusive, people pulling at her face and yanking on her hair without asking permission. The makeup was caked on and prevented her from rubbing her eyes. She wanted to go scrub it all off vigorously in the bathroom. 

She interrupted her manager and the shoot director’s conversation about where to place her on the set. 

“Isn’t this a little revealing? Can we pick another outfit?”

The director gave her a tight smile. What the hell? Himiko had expected heroes to be treated with respect, but she felt more like a doll being moved back and forth across a store shelf. Did Ochako have to deal with this?

The manager clapped her hands. 

“Well, we want to capture everyone’s attention, yes?”

“With my boobs? You know I’m seventeen, right?” she said, looking back at the director. 

“Oh, everybody knows. There’s countdowns on the internet and everything,” he replied. 

“What?”

What the fuck? She wanted to stab this guy, but they had taken all her weapons away, leaving her feeling vulnerable and exposed. 

The photoshoot was exhausting and emotionally draining. At least as a villain, she had well…agency. This was making her feel a little bad for Hawks which in turn pissed her off. She wanted to stay uncomplicatedly angry at the heroes in her vicinity for their carelessness. Now, she was having to grapple with the idea that they were potentially puppets in a much more sinister system. Compress was always telling them not to trust the government. Then again, they were the ones who chose to become state actors, right? Didn’t that make them complicit?

But what about her current self? Had she chosen this path? Himiko hadn’t thought to stop and read her own file. 

Himiko was still half in her own head as she walked past a tall, glass building and caught a glance of brown hair in her periphery. No way. Her head snapped to the left and she saw Ochako through the glass wall, pretending to stare up at a painting in contemplation through a pair of large sunglasses. She broke into a run, bursting past the front desk personnel trying to hand her a brochure. 

Ochako saw her and startled, turning to flee, but there was nowhere to go. Himiko blocked the exit and behind her was only the exterior glass wall gleaming in the sunlight. 

“I need to talk to you!” Himiko exclaimed. 

She couldn’t say why, but it felt like Ochako was the key to understanding this bizarre quirk. Instead of answering, the other girl threw a punch directly at her face. Himiko dodged. With no visible escape, Ochako had chosen to fight. 

The blows were brutal and difficult to parry. Even in this lifetime, Ochako was skilled in hand-to-hand combat. But ironically so was Himiko. Her body was moving more intuitively than it did in her original life, years of training kicking in automatically. 

She ducked her head to narrowly avoid a kick to the temple and while Ochako was still recovering her balance, Himiko pressed forward to tackle her. They fought for dominance, rolling on the floor. Thankfully, Ochako didn’t seem to be armed. Himiko felt the bones in her jaw rattle as a palm connected with the underside of her chin. Ochako took the opportunity to throw her off, but Himiko snatched her ankle causing her to stumble. 

She followed through on the motion, leaping to her feet and forcing Ochako’s back against the glass wall. Her free hand snagged the knife from her belt and put it against her throat. 

They were both breathing raggedly, but Ochako forced out words before she could.

“Are you going to kill me, Toga Himiko?” she asked derisively.

Her hand wavered at Ochako’s throat, shocked to hear her own words thrown back at her.

“Will you just listen to me?!”

The question went unanswered. Ochako saw the hesitation and grabbed her wrist, changing their positions. Himiko kicked out at Ochako’s knee hard, sending her to the floor. This time she pinned the girl face down, knife against the back of her neck and arm pulled painfully away from her body. 

The glare she gave Himiko over her shoulder was full of venom. She had seen that kind of hatred in Dabi and Shigaraki, but it was startling to see it in Ochako’s eyes.

“I just need to talk to you! Calm the hell down! We’re not that different, you and I. So-”

“What? You want my opinion on how to furnish your penthouse apartment, princess? We don’t have a single thing in common,” Ochako spat with a sneer. 

Himiko felt a flash of rage and frustration. What the hell did Ochako know about her in this life or her other one? Why couldn’t she pause for a detente for five fucking seconds to hear Himiko out? 

“I’m trying to help you!”

“Must be nice to be pampered at modeling gigs instead of stealing ramen from convenience stores. Did you show up to buy my dinner with your ad revenue?”

She twisted Ochako’s arm a little tighter and the girl winced. Himiko had done that exact thing on more than one occasion after she had fled from her parents’ house. If Ochako was so desperate then why wouldn’t she let Himiko help her? 

The glass next to them shattered and a bullet narrowly clipped Himiko’s ear. She made the mistake of letting go of Ochako’s arm to flinch and clap her hand over the wound. She caught the smirk on Ochako’s face just before the second bullet went clean through the hand holding the knife.

“Fuck!” she screamed, curling over in pain as Ochako bucked her off and ran for the shattered wall.

The fleeing girl bounded easily up to a balcony on an adjacent building with the help of her quirk, grasping the extended hand of an accomplice with green hair. Izuku?! He was the sniper in the file? Green eyes retrained on Himiko and as he let go of Ochako’s hand, he raised the gun back into position. Aimed the muzzle directly at her.

Shit. 

Himiko threw herself across the floor and under a table, sending chairs clattering as she went. No bullet came and she tentatively crawled out and saw they were both gone. 

Blood from the wound in her hand splattered across the white floor like a macabre painting. She yanked down the sleeve of the jumpsuit to cover the wound and tried to keep pressure before stumbling to her feet. If she waited for other heroes and the cops to show up, would the hero commission punish her for this? Instead of returning to the stunned employees in the lobby, Himiko let her feet lead her out into the street and ran. 

The burst of adrenaline didn’t last long and she began to wobble on the sidewalk as blood drained from her hand and dizziness set in. She had never been shot before, but the wound burned horrifically like it was eating away at her skin. Was this normal? Before the nausea could work its way up her esophagus, spots filled her vision. She hit the sidewalk and only barely registered the shock of pain against her shoulder before unconsciousness slammed down with sudden force. 

Chapter Text

Himiko opened her eyes to a white ceiling and familiar set of white curls in the edge of her peripheral vision.

“Shig?” she whispered, barely audible, hope filling the chasm in her chest.

“Oh god, you’re awake. I was able to heal you here so I didn’t take you to the hospital. Some of the students found you on the sidewalk not too far from the school gate.”

She weakly looked down at her palm and was surprised to see it whole again. 

“You had acid burns as well as blood loss so take it easy. The bullet must have been coated in something.”

“You healed me?” she asked in confusion.

“Ah, sorry I should have explained,” he said, clutching a clipboard to his chest. “I’m a nurse at UA. My quirk can reverse damage to objects and well…people.”

That sounded like the opposite of his decay quirk. He was a nurse? Why had everyone else’s quirk stayed the same and not his?

“My name is Shimura Tenko. You’re Reflection, right? A lot of the students here are big fans. I had to threaten to beat them away with a stick earlier when rumor went around that you were in the infirmary.”

Tenko? Even his name was different? No wonder her search had yielded no results. This was the Shigaraki she knew, but seemingly without the allergic skin condition. Otherwise, he looked the same as her friend. Although, they didn’t appear to know each other in this godforsaken alternate universe.

“Thank you,” she forced out, trying to sit up but careening to one side when her head spun in response.

He grabbed her gently by the shoulders and steadied her. 

Despite the circumstances being different, she was immensely glad to see him. His presence had a calming effect. Her eyes blurred with tears for a moment, but she swallowed the emotion down before he saw it in her face. Being alone again was much more trying than she had realized, especially given the situation. 

He crossed the room to rummage in a small fridge and she felt irritation at Ochako rise again. And then at Izuku who had shot her through the hand. But then realization hit and guilt bubbled in her chest. Technically, she had done the same thing to Ochako, hadn’t she? Attacked her without pause after Jin’s death. She had walked away from the encounter fully believing Ochako meant to kill her too, but now she doubted whether she had given the hero a chance to get a word in edgewise. It was different being on the other end of it.

What if Ochako had meant to extend an olive branch and Himiko had flung it aside in misunderstanding? Did Ochako’s other life have similarities to this one? Himiko had been desperate for someone to understand her pain. Had she burnt the bridge before it could be built?

Tomura interrupted her thoughts by handing her a small water-bottle. Everything in this world was too complicated. It made her head spin. 

“How long have you been a nurse?” she asked.

He laughed and pulled a hand through his loose bangs bashfully. 

“I look young, right? I’ve been here for a year on staff, but I also went to school here on the hero track before I decided against going pro and went for nursing school instead.”

Was he happy here? Neither she or Dabi seemed to be leading particularly peaceful lives. Maybe it was different for the others? Regardless, she missed them like a physical ache.

“Let me treat you to dinner sometime as thanks for fixing my hand. Here, let’s swap numbers! I have a weird feeling we could be good friends,” she said with false cheer.

~

Himiko had been on the receiving end of anger and the threat of violence plenty of times in her other life, but it had never been quite like this. This felt…sinister, in a way. Sterile. After all, the man, the trainer, who was facing her in the small white room had an entirely blank expression. There was nothing there for her to read, no way to judge his next move. 

We can see that your focus is slipping. That needs to be corrected. Report to the training room. 

The man held an iron bar in his hand and Himiko held…nothing. No knives, no gun, not even any protective gear. This was an uneven fight that she was not intended to win. 

This was a punishment. That was very clear from the alarm ringing in her bones. 

Part of her wanted to fight hard, to channel her rage and bite and kick and scratch like a feral, cornered animal. The other half of her felt intuitively that course of action was dangerous and that any step out of line would be swiftly corrected. In a perverse way, it reminded her of the relationship with her parents. 

The man lifted the bar. She swallowed hard. There was an expectation for her to fight back, but how hard she was meant to fight was questionable. He lunged before she could organize her thoughts and a flurry of blows began. The fight proceeded too fast for dodging to be an option. Her only option was to block the slamming metal object with the bare skin of her arms and legs so that her abdomen and head were protected. 

Each time the metal cracked against skin, she felt the force rattle through the marrow of the bone and grit her teeth. There would be no photo shoots after this; her skin would be mottled with bruises for weeks. But then again, she was a hero in this life. No one would think twice to see her injured. 

She threw a weakly aimed punch, attempting to interrupt the barrage of hits. It didn’t connect and the metal rod crashed into her throat. She choked and fell to her knees, clutching at her throat. For that, the man smashed the rod against her wrist and she felt it fracture, pulling away from her neck. Then he paused.

“Get up.”

“How am I supposed to complete the mission if-”

“We will heal you and start again as many times as it takes.”

Himiko felt a new and cold fear thrum in her veins. The realization that there was no real end to this even if it ended with her bloodied and unconscious on the floor was chilling. She stood up, resisting the urge to cough the pain in her throat away. 

Eventually she found a rhythm, able to block and counter effectively. By the end of the three hours, she was exhausted, dehydrated, and in pain that she knew would increase as it settled into her body. 

“Your value is in your worth as an asset. You were not trained for years to become a failure.”

She was dismissed without healing. 

So much for heroism.

~

She stood in front of the door and raised a hand to knock before hesitating, letting her fist hang in midair. The house looked a little more ramshackle than she remembered, but there was no graffiti, no accusations of monstrosity scribbled on the walls, no death threats. Did her parents even live here? The brief details disclosed during the session of violence had insinuated that Himiko had been essentially raised by the commission from a young age and trained from the time she was still a child. Were she and her parents in contact? There were no messages from them on her phone, but she was a hero in this world. Maybe they were quietly proud and didn’t want to bother their busy daughter.

Still bruised and bandaged, Himiko felt desperate for consolation. She had thought about seeking out Tomura, but after the day’s events was worried about putting him on the hero commission’s radar. It felt like a noose was slowly closing around her neck. She needed to fix this quirk and escape this life back to her old one where at least there was some semblance of safety, even if it was shaky. 

She rapped her knuckles against the door, feeling the familiar wave of anxiety surge in her chest. The door swung open to reveal her mother, wide-eyed at her appearance. 

“Himiko! You’re here?” she said, surprised but not hostile.

She ushered Himiko into the entryway.

“Come in! Let’s have some tea! I’m so surprised!”

It was strange to be seated across from her mother and father after years of not having seen their faces in person. They were wearing bright, but wary smiles. 

“I knew you would come to see us someday,” her mother said, turning to her father. “Didn’t I say? The commission was so insistent that you be left alone for training, but I knew you would understand when you were old enough.”

He nodded and took a sip of tea with a slight frown, not meeting her eyes. Himiko tightened her fingers around the teacup. 

“It’s been…a long time?” she inquired, hesitantly. 

“A long time,” her father repeated.

They made polite, if stilted and awkward, conversation. But her shoulders began to slowly relax. Maybe in this world, her parents didn’t hate her? The commission had kept them apart for her training. Her parents had even served her tea and cookies. She was a hero. They could be proud of her and brag to their friends. Himiko observed the wrinkles around her mother’s eyes and wondered how much time they had lost. And then her mother cleared her throat.

“You know, things have been hard since you left. The commission gave us a monthly check, but your father’s job doesn’t really give raises.”

Her brow wrinkled searching for understanding about the change of topic. 

“It would help if we could replace some appliances,” her father said gruffly.

When Himiko didn’t respond, her mother added.

“You must be doing well. I see you in those advertisements all the time! Our daughter is in magazines! You could give us a small amount, couldn’t you?”

Toga felt the small flicker of hope in her chest be smothered under the painful return of an old ache. 

“I know a lot of unpleasant things were said before you left, but it was for the best, wasn’t it? You’re a big hero now. We made the right decision,” her mother continued.

She’s a freak! Get that monster away from me! I don’t want it in my house. 

“I knew you would understand when you got older. How hard it was on us.”

One time, Dabi had asked her why she had never killed her parents. She had brushed him off without an answer because it was too painful to say out loud. She loved her parents. Even though it was absurd, there was tiny part of her buried deep down that still imagined a different ending. One where her parents hugged her and apologized. Where they begged her to return home. Where her mother said that she would make Himiko’s favorite porridge and her dad let her lean against him on the couch while he explained how baseball worked. Like it had been once. For a few very short years. 

How could she kill them if it would kill that chance? If it meant destroying her own secret hopes forever? How could she live with something so painful? 

They were still looking at her expectantly, now growing anxious at her silence and the blank expression on her face. 

She had still been an abomination to them in this life. But now her quirk was useful and could make money. If that wasn’t a tragedy, she didn’t know what was. Even if she had been lucky enough to be born without her quirk, she knew deep down they would have found something else to hate. Her sexuality, her personality, her aspirations, her achievements. Her parents were obsessed with normalcy and that was a task no person could ever perfectly achieve.

“I have to go now,” she said tonelessly, setting down the cup in finality.

Her parents stood as she did, following her to the door. It was laughable, wasn’t it? This life was as lonely as her other one. Maybe she was always doomed from the start. 

“Will you be back?” her mother asked fretfully.

“No.”

Chapter Text

Dabi seemed to think that Toga had deliberately undercut him with her fight at the museum. He didn’t believe her when she told him it was a coincidence and as tempted as she was to peel back her suit and angrily show off the bruises she had received for it, she refrained. God, was this why Hawks’ hero costume covered all but his face? 

It was disturbing to wonder if she too would have killed Jin had their roles been reversed. She could see how years of violence and brainwashing could break someone down into compliance. Only one session of ‘training’ had her jumpy and questioning her every action. Even meeting with Dabi like this was decidedly dangerous given that she was not meant to involve him in the case. 

If he made a public move, it could cost her dearly. But there was no way to communicate that to him without endangering herself in a different way. And besides, even if Dabi was kind of a jerk in both lives, they were friends and she did feel an instinct to protect him. In his twisted way, he had shown fondness for her by burning down her childhood home. 

Regardless, she had talked him into stationing sidekicks at the various locations that she had identified to do surveillance. Now there wasn’t much to do, but wait. He seemed to take her hanging around his office as a sign of her dedication to the case (or perhaps thought that she didn’t trust him to notify her of an Ochako sighting) rather than the fact that she was too scared to go back to her own apartment. The hero commission definitely knew where she lived. 

Night had fallen hours ago and he hadn’t kicked her out yet. She glanced over to where he sat at his oversized desk, furiously writing case notes. 

“You went to UA?”

“Yeah?” he replied to her tersely, not looking up.

“What was it like?”

He frowned. 

“It was school?”

She sighed. That didn’t give her much insight into Ochako’s life. Trust Dabi to be the least forthcoming person ever. 

His phone beeped and he shot up with a manic grin.

“Spotted her.”

~

If Himiko thought her control of the situation had been slipping before, now she was well and truly fucked. Dabi had the self-control of a fucking flame Pokémon on cocaine. She wondered if his strategy hinged on destroying any property worth stealing via fire damage. His sidekicks had drawn back, clearly sensing the danger inherent in hallways full of smoke and visibility that had been further obscured by activated sprinklers raining water from above. 

Even though her mask apparently had respiratory filtration qualities which prevented smoke damage to her lungs, the entire building had become scorching hot and Himiko could barely see beyond a short distance. Her eyes stung from the combination of soot and steam produced by the intense heat and she was quickly growing woozy. 

The only sense left to rely on was sound as she followed Dabi, assuming that he was trailing Ochako. It was like wandering through a maze blindfolded. 

The sound of a door slamming open twice in quick succession reached her ears. She pushed forward through the smoke and came to an emergency exit, shoving her way through it. Outside, Dabi had cornered a disheveled Ochako into a standoff. The girl was half-turned away, still poised to run, and looked terrified. It was easy to see why - her quirk was no match for Dabi’s fire and there was no debris around for her to use in defense. Soot stained her face.

Himiko felt a momentary rush of relief. Maybe now, Ochako would stand down and come with her. The feeling fell apart when Dabi raised his hand and sent a scorching burst of blue flame in Ochako’s direction. The screech Ochako let out as the skin on her left side singed was painful to hear.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Himiko screamed, snatching Dabi’s coat from behind and attempting to pull him back.

Why was he critically injuring someone who was trying to run away from him and who couldn’t do him any physical harm? 

“My job.”

“You could kill her! Stop!” 

The altercation gave Ochako the momentary pause needed to run, stumbling, into a nearby alleyway. Himiko kicked Dabi in the stomach, sending him tumbling to the ground, cursing at her furiously. She ran after Ochako.

It didn’t take long to locate her in a nearby alley, bent over and vomiting in pain. The look she gave Himiko through the veil of hair in her face was equally enraged and defeated. Himiko grabbed her hand.

“Come with me quickly! Come on!”

Himiko led her through a series of alleys, carefully avoiding the areas she knew that Dabi’s sidekicks had visual on. When they finally stumbled out into an open space, Himiko spotted a shady-looking motel and dragged her through the door. 

~

Tomura looked overwhelmed. He let the medical kit clatter on the nightstand. 

“When you called me for help, I thought you were injured. Mildly.”

Ochako was shaking violently on the bed from the pain and shock of the burn on her side. She was miraculously still awake though. As if her body felt that it was better to suffer the pain than leave her vulnerable in unconsciousness. 

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t take her to the hospital because…of the circumstances. Can you help her?”

His concern was palpable. 

“Her clothing has melted to her skin. I can’t use my quirk until I debride it. I have some basic pain medication, but it won’t help much.”

“It’s fine,” Ochako choked out through gritted teeth. 

He started to press cold water to the area to try to unstick the cloth and used a scalpel to slice away the skin that couldn’t detach. Ochako had gone shock pale and was still trembling uncontrollably. Tomura was having to hold her steady with one hand so he wouldn’t slice her skin open too deeply if she jerked. 

Himiko was horrified. At first, the burn hadn’t looked too bad, just a large red scorch mark on the skin where the clothing had been flash burned away. But with time, huge and pustulent welts and blisters had risen on the Ochako’s side. Himiko drank blood for her quirk, her stomach wasn’t turned easily, but the sight of this made her break into a cold sweat. 

“I didn’t think he would do something like this,” she said in a reedy voice to herself. 

Dabi hated heroes like the rest of them. How could there be a world where he scorched a girl half his size running away from him for the crime of theft? If the cards had fallen differently, would he have treated her like this? She clutched her throat in agitation. 

Tomura’s face tensed and he asked, “Touya did this?”

Himiko’s eyes searched his face. 

“Do you know him?”

“We were best friends at UA. Actually…he’s the reason I became a nurse. His quirk damages his body so I was always healing him because he refused to admit weakness by going to the infirmary. I realized that I could do more good by putting people back together than damaged buildings. But when he debuted…where Touya’s family is concerned, he doesn’t act rationally.”

Himiko drew her legs up to her chest, feeling vulnerable. 

Tomura sighed and set down the scalpel. 

“I’ll have to drain the blisters before I work on fixing the skin. Sorry, this will hurt.”

Ochako gave a sharp nod. He sterilized a needle and set about pressing the fluid out of the wounds. Himiko reached over to grab Ochako’s hand where it twisted in the bed sheet. For a moment she regretted it as Ochako grabbed her hand with crushing force. But Ochako was in far more pain than she was. 

When Tomura was done with the blisters, he placed his hands above and below the wound. The skin began to regenerate and seal itself together. Ochako was left with a lot of sloughing, dry skin at the top.

“I undid the damage to the lower levels of tissue and sealed it off so it won’t be infected. But the top layers weren’t salvageable so right now it’s just dead skin. Let it fall off naturally, don’t pick at it. You should really get some antibiotics as well.”

“Thank you,” Ochako said in a relieved voice, finally seeming to relax from the pain. 

“Please don’t tell anyone about this. And I’m sorry I asked you to do this.”

Tomura gave her a small smile. 

“Don’t worry.”

After he left, Ochako, whose pallor was still grayish, assessed her cautiously. 

“Why did you help me?”

“Because I would have wanted someone to help me,” Toga replied. “Dabi went too far.”

Ochako’s eyes were glassy and blank. 

“I don’t believe in heroes.”

Himiko gave her a wry smile. 

“When my parents died, no one helped me. I went from government office to government office asking for help. All they did was foreclose on the house two days after the funeral. The police weren’t interested in protecting a homeless teenager from loan sharks, no matter how badly I got beaten. They wouldn’t even give me the time of day when I came to ask about the murder investigation, wouldn’t listen to me when I told them who did it. Finally, I was sleeping on a bench in the park in the middle of the night and a hero on patrol came up to me. He gave me a fine for loitering.

If it’s criminal for me to even exist, then why shouldn’t I steal? They took everything from me. Why should I care if some asshole doesn’t get to look at a Rembrandt over his morning coffee?”

Ochako was tiring with each sentence. Finally, exhausted, she dropped off to sleep.

Toga felt guilt for what she was about to do, but it was her only means of survival. While Ochako was unconscious, she surreptitiously stuck her with one of the blood collection devices and collected a vial. 

Maybe in the morning, she could talk Ochako into staying. 

~

When the morning broke and Himiko woke up, Ochako was gone. The note left on her pillow simply said Thanks. 

It took Himiko a good ten minutes to figure out why the room looked different. The TV was missing. She laughed. 

Chapter Text

Himiko desperately wanted to scour the city for Ochako. To ask one last time if she wouldn’t just take Himiko’s hand and run away from all this. But she was currently unable to leave her apartment. 

The crowd of paparazzi and reporters outside had been camped out in front of the building for hours. And the news she had seen was not kind. They had classed the museum operation as a major fuckup. In that respect, she couldn’t really blame them. Dabi had done an immense amount of property damage and simply waved it away with an insurance payout. But it was getting taken a little too far. 

So she was doomscrolling. Typically she would have laughed when she saw heroes getting raked over the coals on the internet, but then again she had never been the target of the commenters before. 

Honestly, we all know that Dabi only did so much damage because that stupid bitch he teamed up with couldn’t do her part correctly. 

Did you see the clothing ad that just came out with her in it? Slutty as hell. Why didn’t she just work at Playboy? NOT HERO MATERIAL

They’re both fucking idiots. I wish Stain would stab them in an alleyway

Does she have any onlyfans yet? 

Women ☕️

I always thought her quirk was creepy. Someone like that shouldn’t be a hero.

Government needs to revoke the hero licenses of  these morons already. I had to walk the long way to work because they destroyed the sidewalk.

An alarming amount of people were just…posting Stain’s video and trying to get his attention. She had experienced harassment plenty, but this was a new and unnerving type. It made her feel very, very small and a little bit scared. And then angry that she was scared because of some assholes on the internet. Would Stain really come after her in this lifetime? She didn’t think she had done anything worthy of being assassinated in this case. And if she had in the past of this life, then it wasn’t by her own choice. Right? But now she tried to swallow the lump in her throat and wondered whether his other victims had any justification…other than simply being a hero in the limelight. 

His quirk was similar to hers in that it used blood. She had been so excited to see someone who understood her pain that she had admired him immediately. Was she any better than all the people in the comments calling for her to face a violent death? 

She was surprised to see a message from Dabi pop up.

You alright? I’m used to it, but…media hounds can be annoying. Just flip them off.

A soft smile stretched across her mouth. Maybe he still did have a softer side in this life. She pressed her mouth to her knees and tossed the phone away. There was no use wasting away in this apartment. Did she not have extra vials of blood saved anywhere? There was that safe hidden under a cabinet. 

After twenty minutes of trying different combinations, she finally hit the right one. Her middle school ID number? Really? That’s what she had chosen? 

The safe opened to reveal a small fridge containing stored vials of blood. Nice. She stuffed her bag with a change of clothes and took on a new identity. 

Slipping past the paparazzi was pretty easy with a new face. 

~

She had mostly been wandering around the city incognito until she saw him ladling out bowls of soup in a more run down looking neighborhood. The stumble she took was so sharp she only narrowly avoided busting her knee on the concrete by catching herself with her palms, leaving them scratched up. Before anyone could notice, she ducked into an alleyway, teary and slightly hyperventilating, to lose the disguise and put on her own clothes.

When she approached the small booth, all the words died in her throat. Jin looked up with a bright smile, but it faltered when he saw her face. Oh god, he was alive here. 

A preteen boy ran between them and held up a bowl. Jin rolled his eyes and gave the kid more soup.

“Mind your manners,” he chided.

The kid gave him a toothy grin before scampering away, carefully balancing the bowl so that the broth wouldn’t spill. 

Himiko took a big step forward and opened her mouth uselessly. Jin grimaced.

“Um-”

“Listen-” he interrupted, “I’m not interested in letting you rehab your brand by taking photos with vulnerable, homeless teenagers. You people want to come here, gawk at the poverty, have a photo shoot of your ‘charitable’ deeds, and promptly fuck off forever. It’s not cool. The kids aren’t zoo animals to set as your LinkedIn image.”

Himiko’s jaw clapped shut so hard that she felt her teeth vibrate. Moisture welled in her eyes and Jin looked alarmed.

“I’m sure you mean well, but…” he backtracked, trying to calm her down.

She bit her lip as tears began to stream down her face. 

“Hey, hey…” he said, waving his hands helplessly in a startled voice.

“Oh, shit.”

Toga snapped her neck to her left and saw an even more concerned looking Ochako frozen mid-step in the street.

“Ah, Ochako-chan, can you go prep the vegetables? Miss, this is one of our regular volunteers so as you can see we don’t need any extra help,” Jin said in a reedy voice, clearly distressed over the fact that she had begun to cry. 

“What are you doing here?” Ochako asked pointedly, body tensed and ready for flight.

Toga tried to speak, but it came out as an inaudible sob. 

“I think she wanted to volunteer, but the publicity…” Jin added.

“I can do it in disguise!” she wailed loudly, surprising even herself. 

Himiko turned to see Ochako laughing into the crook of her elbow, trying to conceal her amusement. She frowned and gave her an offended look.

“I think it’ll be fine as long as no one recognizes her,” Ochako said. “I technically owe her one. No pictures though.”

Jin seemed to relent and nodded. Himiko pulled out a vial and downed it immediately, transforming into an elderly woman. They both looked at her and then glanced at each other as though they thought her actions were becoming increasingly more unhinged by the moment. Maybe they were. Himiko had really never had a great grip on normalcy in the first place. 

~

Jin’s warm and steady presence and the soothing, repetitive task of chopping vegetables calmed her nerves. More than anyone, she missed him like a physical ache, knowing that even in her past life she couldn’t reach him. Never in a million years had she expected him to be present in this one.

Teenagers flitted by the booth, picking up various items and some food. Jin interacted with them easily and even the rougher looking ones greeted him with friendly familiarity. There was a clear relationship of trust among the kids who came here. 

“Jin runs a non-profit for homeless teens in this area. He feeds them. Helps them get school supplies. Finds tutors and pays for them to come help with homework. I met him when I was living rough. At first I thought it was a scam and he wanted to rob me, but when I followed him here all he did was feed me a bunch of chicken katsu and rice,” Ochako explained, “He’s a good guy. Lost his parents young and struggled to survive. But would give you the shoes off his feet if he thought you needed them.”

“Yeah. He’s a really good guy,” Himiko said quietly.

Ochako gave her a slightly confused frown. 

As evening passed, Jin shut up the booth and turned to them. Before he could say anything, she tackled him into a tight hug, clinging to his waist. His hands hovered awkwardly, seemingly confused as to why this hero disguised as an elderly woman had him in a vice-like grip. But he gently patted her on the back and thanked her for her hard work.

As she and Ochako walked away, Ochako asked, “Are you going to try to arrest me now?”

“No. I really did just want to talk to you.”

Ochako’s responding frown was puzzled and her eyes scanned Himiko’s face like she was a complicated riddle. Then her mouth twisted with amusement, glancing at something behind Himiko.

“God, not that fucking billboard!” Himiko cursed as she turned to see what Ochako was looking at and pulled up her coat’s hood in mortification.

Ochako snorted into her hand.

“Don’t laugh! Do not laugh!”

“It’s very striking, but I couldn’t tell what was being advertised,” Ochako commented slyly.

Toga felt her face turn bright red. It was one thing to lose clothing during her quirk of her volition and entirely another to see her underboob plastered on a giant canvas for passing pedestrians to look up at.

She waved her hands in front of Ochako’s face.

“Stop looking at it!”

Ochako laughed uproariously. 

“Now you’re shy?”

“It wasn’t my idea!”

She pouted, but Ochako’s laughter made the tension in her chest relax. She pulled down her hood and looked at the girl across from her.

“What is it? Are you sizing me up for a modeling contract?” Ochako asked.

Himiko stepped forward and hugged her tightly, letting her chin sit on Ochako’s shoulder. Ochako flinched in surprise and her hands rested lightly on Himiko’s arms. 

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

Himiko felt the weight in her chest drop into her stomach like a stone.

“I’m sorry about your parents.”

Why can’t you just be normal? That girl can’t possibly be my daughter. You must have cheated!

“I’m sorry that no one understood or helped you.”

We’ve just got an arrest warrant. Her parents didn’t even bother to register her as a missing person. Can’t blame them. 

“I’m sorry that you were alone.”

THERE IS NO REDEMPTION FOR VILLAINS JUST DIE ALREADY

“I’m sorry that just surviving was a struggle.”

Did you just try to steal from my store?! You dirty little brat! 

“I’m sorry that no one ever reached out a hand to you.”

Us putting an end to this rotten world…let’s smile, Himiko Toga.

“You didn’t deserve any of that.”

A solitary tear slipped down Himiko’s cheek. She couldn’t see Ochako’s expression. She pressed her mouth to the girl’s shoulder as guilt bubbled up in her stomach over the vial in her pocket.

Ochako pushed her away gently, with a serious expression on her face and stared at her for a long moment, mixed emotions flitting through her eyes. 

Finally, Ochako gave her a small, strained and closed-mouth smile and said, “You’re too pretty for your own good. Maybe it’s better that you’re built to wear other people’s faces.”

Then she walked away from Himiko and didn’t look back. 

Chapter Text

Himiko twirled the vial between her fingers for a moment before downing the blood and letting it slip down her throat. Then she used Ochako’s quirk to float over the very traditional wall of the Himura household. The compound was sprawling and could have been pulled out of a manga featuring an old yakuza family. Various buildings with tatami floor and bamboo paneling were spread out among a beautiful and deceptively serene tea garden. The only sound she could hear in the night was the gentle rushing of water in the garden’s small stream despite the light emanating from inside the buildings.

She approached the closest one, but changed direction when she heard voices coming from behind it. There were a series of targets setup and she found Izuku being nagged by a beautiful, purple-haired woman that she recognized from Skeptic’s hacking as the former Lady Nagant. The danger of this gamble hit her all over again, but if the Hero Commission was primarily interested in this intel, maybe infiltration was the main way to keep herself and Ochako safe for the time being. 

Nagant told hold of Izuku’s arms from behind and adjusted his posture while he held up a gun. His expression looked a little harangued.

“Oh, you think because you can make distance shots now you don’t have to practice your form anymore? My student lacks discipline.”

Izuku noticed her (or well, he noticed Ochako) in the periphery and brightened, dropping his aim to let the gun dangle from his hands pointed at the ground. The intel from HC suggested that Ochako did not live at the compound, but Izuku did. It wasn’t unusual for her to visit, though. 

Nagant popped her hand against the back of his head, a movement somewhere between a slap and pat, flattening the back of his hair. 

“Easily distracted!”

“Am I interrupting?” Himiko asked.

Nagant gave her a smile.

“No, it’s fine. I’m getting tired of him anyway.”

Izuku turned around to give her an offended pout.

“At this rate, if you do ever shoot at All Might, you’ll miss because you saw a butterfly drift past,” Nagant joked, ruffling his hair. “Focus next time.”

Oh, that was new information. And wildly different from her timeline. AFO had briefly explained that All Might had passed some kind of quirk on to him in their timeline. Maybe in this one, he had been rejected and turned into a quirkless villain?

“I’m going to go drink sake and go to bed,” she announced, walking away.

“Sensei!” Izuku whined, “Your liver!”

Nagant stuck out her tongue at him and then wandered off into the darkness. Izuku abandoned the gun on a nearby rack and rubbed his neck. 

“Did you come to get a new job?” he asked. 

“I just came hoping you would feed me!”

He smiled.

“Come eat with me and Shoto then.”

She followed him to the large building at the center of the estate and stepped into an expansive main room where Enji and Shoto Todoroki sat on the floor across from each other on either side of a small, low table. Shoto still possessed his signature scar in this timeline then. He also seemed to be complaining at length to his father who was drinking tea and looked glad for his son to be interrupted. There was a Go board on the table between them. 

“Ochako came for dinner,” Izuku announced.

They sat down at the table and a maid cleared the Go board after a wave from Enji Todoroki. It shouldn’t have been surprising since they were technically a major yakuza family in this timeline, but she was a little awed by the display of wealth. Himiko had never been in a home like this before. Shoto was still staring down his father.

“I’m not giving you the Mikazaki account,” the man said blandly.

Shoto clicked his tongue in irritation. Was he angling for more power in the family syndicate? A flurry of servants arranged a number of lush looking dishes on the table. Himiko’s mouth watered. Come to think of it, she had been living on ramen in her apartment. She ought to use the money she possessed in this life to buy herself a luxurious meal for once. 

She started eating. If she got discovered and killed here, at least she would have a decadent last meal. No one blinked an eye at her voracious eating. Which meant that Ochako likely behaved in the same manner. Funny. Sako had teased her endlessly about the way she had scarfed down sushi after the PLF fight. Another thing they had in common.

Enji Todoroki sighed and directed his attention at her. A slight fear trembled in her chest. It was odd to be in a room with the man Dabi had so much spilled so much vitriol over. Contrary to her expectation, he seemed quite calm in this setting.

“You have my apologies. I heard our errant son caused you some severe injuries the other day.”

Himiko swallowed the rice in her mouth quickly. Shoto made a derisive noise and rolled his eyes. 

“Um, thank you. I’m mostly healed up now.”

“If you have any more medical expenses, we’ll pay for them.”

Damn, no wonder Ochako had joined up with this group. They provided prime pork belly and health care. She nodded, feigning gratitude.

“He does shit like that because he knows she’s connected to our family. If you would just let me take care of it-”

The patriarch halted him with a hand and Shoto’s face twisted with irritation and longing to prove himself. He ignored the dismissal and kept talking. 

“Are you and Mom still hoping he comes back into the fold after all this time? It’s ridiculous!”

“We’re not discussing this again. You know how your mother feels about it.”

Shoto threw down his chopsticks with force and left the room in a bluster, slamming the Shoji blinds behind him. Izuku watched him leave with concern. 

“It’s good that you’ve come by. Rei wants to see you.”

Himiko barely refrained from choking on the piece of bamboo in her mouth. In this life, Rei Himura was the head of the crime syndicate, right? Was she in danger? Was Ochako? She simply nodded in response. 

When dinner was done and the servants came to collect the dishes, Izuku went to check on Shoto and she followed his father to a smaller building which contained the matriarch’s office. Rei Himura sat at a grand desk. The woman was gorgeous and she could see where Dabi had acquired many of his features. Unlike other people around the estate who were wearing more traditional Japanese clothes, she wore a sleek, sleeveless black dress. Himiko took the seat across from her. She sank into the plush leather and felt oddly stifled by the comfort of the chair. 

Rei abandoned her papers and removed the chic pair of glasses on her nose to look at her with a smile.

“You’re here earlier than expected! We owe you an apology.”

Himiko waved her arms in placation with a nervous laugh.

“No, no! I’m fine really!”

Rei Todoroki sighed.

“Still, we’ll increase your finder’s fee given the additional danger.”

Himiko made another gamble. She seemed to be quite the gambler recently. 

“Shoto mentioned…that you might still hope for him to return to the family.”

Rei’s mouth pulled into an ironic smirk. 

“I was just surprised. I figured becoming a hero would make him persona non grata,” she continued. 

“Touya was…very upset by my decision to make Shoto the successor instead of him. He had thought as the oldest son, he would naturally inherit the family business. My son believes that I chose Shoto because he possesses both of our quirks, but the truth is that the problem is his temperament. He’s impulsive where Shoto is more calculated.”

Himiko nodded.

“He ran away at sixteen. We could have recovered him of course, but…he had gone and put in an application to UA.”

“UA has a powerful reach.”

“Oh, it’s not that powerful,” Rei said.

Himiko blinked in surprise.

Enji, who was leaning against the doorframe of the office, gave a small laugh.

“Who do you think signed permission for him to attend?” he said.

“You let him go to UA?”

“We thought maybe it was for the best. Touya was never really meant for this kind of life. He’s more emotional than it’s safe to be for a yakuza heir. And it afforded him some measure of protection from our enemies while he was out of our house,” she explained, “Of course, there was really no right decision. He would have hated us either way. At least this way, he has his freedom,” Rei explained. 

“Ever since Shoto heard about your injuries, he’s been itching for a fight. That would bring way too much attention down on our heads,” Enji added. 

“We have to ask you to lay low for a while, but we’ll give you some money until you can start taking jobs again,” Rei told her.

She nodded solemnly. By doing this to gather information, she may have put Ochako in a precarious position. But the more information she had about this life, the better. It was still unclear how she could return to her old life, if it was even possible. 

On her way walking back through the garden, she ran into the last person she wanted to see. Save the trainer from the hero commission. Hawks was sitting on one of the porches near the garden. He looked up and gave her an inquiring look. Himiko had a feeling that he was more suspicious of her presence than the other residents. She hoped his distrust was directed at the real Ochako and not an inclination that she was actually someone else in disguise. 

She paused.

“Can I ask you a question?”

He tilted his head at her.

“Sure.”

“What do you know about the hero commission?”

After considering for a moment, he said, “They tried to recruit me when I was kid, but I ran off. Suspicious motherfuckers, that’s for sure.”

“Then they couldn’t touch you because you joined up with the family?”

Hawks gave a small smile and wrinkled his nose.

“I didn’t join until I was an adult. There was someone I wanted to follow, but it took me a while to find him again.”

“Enji Todoroki?”

“Haha, was it that obvious?

When I was a kid, a red-headed teenage delinquent used to look after me. Bring me snacks on his way home from school. Protect me from other punks who tried to pick on me when I wandered around during the day. One day my shitty dad found me and knocked me around in the middle of the street. My delinquent in shining armor showed up and put him in the hospital. He went to jail for it and I didn’t see him anymore.”

“Then you found him?”

Hawks grinned.

“Yeah. Good thing I had worked on my criminal skills in the meantime. Why are you asking me about the commission?”

“I think they’re surveilling me.”

“Oh, I’m sure they are. They’re about as good at organized crime as any yakuza group is.”

He picked up a glass of whiskey from the porch and downed the remainder of the liquid. Himiko snorted despite herself. She wanted to be angry at Hawks for what he had done to Jin in her timeline, but now that she was living what may have been his life, it was difficult not to empathize. 

If someone had saved her from the hell of her childhood, maybe she would have given everything for them too. 

“Good night.”

He waved the glass at her and she left before the quirk could wear off. 

Chapter Text

Can you change someone else’s appearance?

That was a weird text to receive from Dabi. But a welcome distraction from pacing in her apartment and anxiously munching on off-brand candy while she contemplated how much to tell the Hero Commission about her excursion as Ochako. She knew that they knew she had been there and it was only a matter of time until she needed to report something or be regarded as suspicious herself.

No. But I can take on your appearance???

Her phone pinged with an immediate response.

Unhelpful. 

She rolled her eyes before activating her capslock.

WHAT DO YOU WANT

His response was as vague as ever.

I have to go somewhere, but I guess it won’t be discreet. Come by my office at 9 PM. Regular clothes.

Himiko snapped the candy between her teeth in half harshly, annoyance growing. When had she agreed to help him? Was there any timeline where his personality was less abrasive? Still, it might buy her some time with the commission. She typed out a text to the handler.

Following up on a lead before I report. 

~

“Did you call me over to go on a brisk walk? I know you don’t have any friends, but…”

Dabi shot her an unimpressed look over his shoulder. 

“It’s better if I don’t go alone,” he mumbled.

She was finding the lack of his usual boastful pride a little concerning. After jogging to catch up to him and walk on his heels, she saw the flash of neon lights and heard the sudden bustle of people. They passed a drunken office worker passed out in a bush. 

“You’re taking me drinking?” 

It had been a joke, but they were actually making their way into a thriving alleyway full of bars in the Shinjuku district. They merged into a throng of young people in remarkably high fashion attire. Himiko felt a tinge of annoyance that he hadn’t given her any indication on how to dress. She had on jeans, boots, and a leather jacket. Which definitely stuck out among all the women in short skirts and fluffy fur vests. 

He came to a halt in front of a club with the numbers 2842 displayed in bright blue neon and looked down the staircase that led below into the narrow building. Dabi stepped down casually without any warning as to what they were walking into. Was she even allowed in? But there was no bouncer checking IDs at the bottom of the staircase. She scurried down after him.

The below-ground bar was a swanky lounge lit in green neon. It cast an eerie witch-like glow across the countertops, couches, and writhing bodies on the dance floor. That said, all movement ground to a halt when Dabi strode across the room and the bartender spotted him. He stood there staring back at the man, unmoving. Himiko still wasn’t sure what the fuck they were meant to be doing here so she just stood awkwardly behind him, shifting on her feet. 

The customers had the upscale air of twenty-somethings with more money than they knew how to spend, but the staff clearly belonged to a more criminal element. When the bartender shifted slightly, Himiko spotted a glimpse of a tattoo on the back of his neck. More intimidating looking people in all black had begun to drift around the edges of the room. It made her hackles ride. Had she followed Dabi straight into a lion’s den? 

The music cut off suddenly. Any remaining stragglers on the dance floor hurried back up the steps and out onto the street or drifted toward the periphery of the room. Everyone’s attention had become fixated on the woman descending the stairs. 

Well, she was gorgeous. White hair, striped with red streaks, piercings, and buxom figure in tight leather pants and low cut, slinky camisole. Toga was so busy trying to drag her eyes away from the woman’s chest that she didn’t put two and two together until the woman spoke.

“Wow, my big brother finally came to visit my bar after all these years. Yuji, pour him a whiskey.”

Himiko shifted her gaze between the two of them rapidly. Oh shit, had he just walked them into a yakuza front? 

“Fuyumi-” Dabi began harshly before his sister interrupted.

“Hahhh. Don’t be a drag. It’s a reunion, yeah? Didn’t Daddy ever teach you that hospitality comes before business? Hey, everyone get the fuck out.”

Any remaining customers abandoned their drinks and exited the bar. The staff remained, though. They were outnumbered. Fuck, this reckless idiot. 

Fuyumi’s gaze shifted to Himiko. She felt her face flush at the appraisal. Who knew that Dabi’s sister was hot?

“She’s with me.” 

“Oh? Welcome then,” Fuyumi drawled.

Dabi let the glass of whiskey sit untouched on the bar top. Fuyumi rolled her eyes and grabbed it instead, taking a large sip before depositing herself on a couch and crossing her legs. Her red lipstick left a stain on the glass.

“Did you finally decide to come home? Wayward brother of mine.”

Dabi scowled. 

“Don’t be ridiculous. I know you’re harboring that girl. The art thief.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. We don’t sell art here, only liquor,” she replied evenly.

“Oh please, you sell a hell of a lot more than that.”

So this was a front business. Likely one where various black market goods were moved. 

“Yeah? You got a warrant?”

Dabi’s lips pressed together tightly. 

“Well, it’s a little difficult when bribes get passed around like candy,” he snapped.

Fuyumi sighed.

“Really, Touya. When are you going to quit acting like a child? Just because our parents tolerate you running around like this doesn’t mean that Shoto and I plan to do so.”

“Is that what you said to Natsuo?”

“No, I wished him well on his fully paid medical school degree. See, he did things the right way and quietly declined to join the family business. Why? Has he unblocked you?” she said, holding up the glass contemplatively while ice grew across it in a crystalline pattern.  

A flinch of hurt passed across Dabi’s face.

“Yeah, I figured. Did you think he would reach out after he left for Canada? I hate to break it to you, but he hasn’t felt very fondly about you since you fucked off without telling him. He was always so attached to you. And then he showed up at the school gates that one time and you pretended he didn’t exist-”

“That’s enough!” Dabi cut her off through clenched teeth. 

Fuyumi looked unamused. One of the staff against the wall shifted and Himiko worried that they might step forward to intervene. After downing the whiskey, Fuyumi stood up.

“Regardless, if you’ve come chasing mice, you’ll be disappointed. I keep a clean house,” she said with a sarcastic shrug. 

A loud crash echoed through the room from the floor above. Fuyumi’s eyes widened and she cursed. A few of the loitering brutes took off upstairs at breakneck speed.

“Fucking goddamit Touya.”

“I never said I didn’t have a warrant. Just that it was hard to get one,” he replied smugly. 

More chaotic crashing sounds filtered down from above. The leftover goons moved to pull weapons and Fuyumi shouted “No! Stay put!” harshly. 

Himiko was surprised to see people in Hero Commission uniforms descending the stairs. Were they raiding the place? One of them started reading Fuyumi her arrest rights as he cuffed her and told her that harboring a fugitive was a criminal offense.

She scoffed, “I don’t control which customers come in and out of my businesses. See how this stands up in court. Your flame hero over there is handing you another round of bad press.”

Dabi was responding to her, but Himiko couldn’t hear over the buzz in her ears. One of the men in uniform was carrying a small unconscious brunette over his shoulder. Her stomach sunk. 

Ochako. 

Chapter Text

There’s less pretext this time when the punishment starts. It’s no longer framed as a physical training session at all. This is re-education. A deep dive into her psyche that seeks to extricate the pieces of her brain that thought it wise to act without permission, to withhold information, to let Touya Todoroki interfere in matters above his pay grade. The damage control that was done is repaid in damage to Himiko. 

And after it ends, she is not healed. And not permitted to return home. Himiko ends up in a small, austere dorm room with gray sheets on a twin bed and not much else.  Something in her body, in this other self, finds the setting achingly familiar. 

There’s not a mirror so she can’t survey the wounds in their entirety, but based on how it feels, it must look bad. Her bottom lip feels swollen to the point of tightness and painful where it’s cracked open in the center, sore and exposed. No matter how much she shifts around the bed, there’s never a comfortable position that doesn’t press on an injury. They were thorough.

Worse than the pain is the waiting. Part of her punishment is the absolute void of information. She doesn’t know where Ochako is, what will happen next, or when this confinement will end. There’s no lock on the door, but it’s not as though she can simply walk out. The hero commission has created an intricate spider web in which she is trapped. That much has been made clear after the session with the ‘trainer.’

For the first time, she pities Hawks. Understands how he could have been driven to do what he did. If she is put face to face with Ochako while the trainer stands hovering behind her back, a careful watchman, will she have the courage to be anything but obedient? Himiko isn’t sure. 

She felt very, very alone. 

~

To her surprise, a few days later, she was summoned to a meeting room. 

“Himiko, we’re sorry to disturb your rest. I know you’re still recovering from the mission, but Dabi insisted on you being here for debrief.”

The Hero Commission agent’s falsely kind hand on her cheek was chillingly cold. Himiko worked her jaw in response and flinched at the pain. Over the past couple days, she has wondered whether one of her back molars is actually fractured. The pain in her mouth has only intensified as the bruises began to fall into a dull ache.

A piercing screech rang out across the room as Dabi shoved his chair back and strode toward her. 

“What the fuck happened to you?!”

He looked alarmed and a little distraught. Which was unexpected. 

“She was injured quite badly during the extraction of that thief. So let’s keep things brief.”

Himiko’s heart seized spasmodically in her chest as she heard the mistake leave the woman’s mouth. Dabi went still and met her eyes for a long moment before turning to the agent. 

“The extraction mission?”

“Yes, you were downstairs so you wouldn’t know, but it was a mess initially.”

Himiko swallowed hard and prayed that no one else in the room would recognize the inconsistency. 

But Dabi knew. He looked her directly in the eyes. She saw the anger and concern in his own and he saw the pleading and fear in hers. Himiko blinked harshly, begging the tears not to fall. Not now, not here, not in front of these people.

He said nothing, proceeded with the meeting as if everything were normal and for that she was immensely grateful. But as soon as the meeting ended, he grabbed her hand and began to drag her out of the room, claiming she owed him a coffee. 

“We don’t really want the public to see her like this,” someone said, stepping into his path.

“We’ll go through the drive-thru in my car,” he responded and sidestepped them before anyone else could manage a protest. 

When they reached the elevator, she squeezed his hand as tight as she could in warning. Not to ask yet with eyes and cameras everywhere. He got the message and it wasn’t until they were in his car and a good fifteen minutes away that she took a deep breath. 

The coffee rested between her hands untouched. It would hurt too much to drink it. 

“I didn’t know you could drive,” she said.

He let out a surprised laugh and his head hit the seat. 

“What in the actual fuck is happening? Tell the truth. Because I know damn well you didn’t get those injuries while you stood behind me in the bar.”

Tears slid down her face and she reached up to touch them in surprise. She felt a numb sort of calm so why…?

Dabi looked startled at the sudden display of emotion.

“Hey, what-”

“Do you know where they took her?”

He was quiet for a moment, peering intensely at her face.

“How did you get that injured? Without anyone knowing? No news crews or anything,” he said, punctuating each word.

“I messed up,” she said, voice faltering. “They were really angry.”

The muscles in his jaw and throat spasmed as he processed her words.

“They have healers on staff. Or you could have gone to a hospital,” he said to himself, staring out the front window.

“I think my tooth is broken,” she said absentmindedly, pressing a hand to her jaw.

He looked at her like she had grown a second head.

“You weren’t answering your phone so I insisted-”

His face had grown pale and she watched him drag his face across it. She could tell that the realization was dawning slowly and poisonously.

“Before I ran away from home, I argued with my mother. Called her a terrible person. She smiled at me and said that our family were just the honest kind of criminals. That I could go work for the hero commission and be the dishonest kind if I was so bothered by it.”

She didn’t speak, only waited. 

“I knew they were shady. That they put tails on me, but- You? Did they do this?”

“Ochako-”

“She’ll serve like 8 months, if that, with my parents’ fucking lawyers. Can we discuss the state of your face?! Worry about yourself.”

“She won’t. They’ll keep her for as long as she’s useful and then discard her. For as long as I can use her blood to infiltrate your family.”

He froze in his seat. Then rested his head against the steering wheel and let out a harsh laugh. 

“What the fuck? I thought I ran away from all this. This whole time?”

“For what it’s worth, I think your parents have been trying to protect you. Quietly. At least that was the impression I got when I was undercover.”

When he finally looked up at her, his face was twisted with conflict. 

“Please help me find her. I want to save her.”

~

“It’s ironic that they were right about me in the end. Here I am planning to break and enter into HC’s holding cells,” Dabi mused, looking down at the crude map she had drawn him. 

She smiled at him and then winced as it pulled at her split lip. It had been worthwhile to pause and look over the building plans stashed in the files room after sorting through the case files on that very first day. 

“We need help, but I really don’t wanna contact that asshole.”

“Tenko?”

“Uh no, how do you-? Never mind, but yeah it’s probably a good idea to get you healed first. Unfortunately, I’m talking about someone else. He’s a dick. To put it mildly.”

She frowned, wondering who he was picturing. It was unlikely to be Compress or Spinner…

He put the car into gear and dialed a number on his Bluetooth.

“Tenko first, then.”

“Touya?” 

It was soothing to hear Tomura’s voice. She had missed him.

“Hey. Can uh…can we meet up?”

~

“I was surprised that you called…” Tomura said, slipping into Dabi’s passenger seat. 

“Ah yeah…” Dabi replied.

He looked nervous. They had been school friends in this timeline, but the weird awkwardness between them made her wonder if they had been slightly more than that. 

“Hello,” she said, leaning forward from the back seat.

Tomura jumped, having been too preoccupied with Dabi to notice her presence and then blanched when he saw the state of her.

“Oh my god,” he yelled.

“Don’t freak out,” Dabi commented.

“Look at her face, Touya! Why didn’t you go to the hospital!”

“It’s just not an option at the moment.”

Tomura twisted in his seat and stared her down. 

“Are you involved in something bad?” Because this is the third time-”

“The third time?!” Dabi interrupted.

She was amused despite herself because his tone sounded so teacherly. He really did deal with high school students in this lifetime.

“Kind of? We won’t get you involved beyond this point though,” she answered. 

He sighed deeply before sending Dabi a withering look.

“You owe me drinks. And answers.”

Then he started healing her wounds. 

“Ok,” Dabi replied.

Himiko thought he looked a little happy about the drinks part. 

~

After finally shooing off Tomura, Dabi drove them to a second location. And pressed the doorbell on a small, apartment with a grimace.

“Well, well, well, look who comes crawling back,” a man with a greasy long black ponytail answered through the cracked door.

“For fuck’s sake, open the door.”

“Ha! You think I’m going to-”

“I'll pay double.”

The door opened wide. She had never seen Skeptic without a suit before. Had he been this slovenly before Redestro picked him up or was this another timeline reversal? 

“I want it upfront.”

“I need you to hack the hero commission’s security system.”

Skeptic’s eyebrows rose high up on his face. 

“Well, why didn’t you start with that?”

~

Despite the absolute chaos of empty ramen noodle cups and discarded soda bottles strewn across the floor, Skeptic’s setup wasn’t too unfamiliar. She did wonder where the hell he slept. Half of the small studio apartment was taken up by computer monitors along with a complex mess of electrical cords that was surely a fire hazard. Himiko didn’t see an actual bed anywhere. 

She and Dabi stood back with arms crossed while his fingers slid across the keyboard, listening to him cackle maniacally. Himiko rubbed her jaw absentmindedly. The tooth was healed, but the nerve pain had only abated incrementally. Apparently Tomura could knit bone and tissue back together, but underlying inflammation was a no-go for his quirk. 

“Sorry for getting you involved in this,” she said to Dabi.

He looked at her sharply. 

“Don’t be stupid. You’re basically just a kid. Hardly older than my youngest brother.”

Did he know his baby brother was gunning for a top spot in the yakuza? Better not to break any of his illusions. 

“I have a store of blood that corresponds to various HC administrative employees in case I need to report incognito. But that will only get us so far and it won’t disguise you,” she replied, thinking back to the small refrigerator in her apartment. 

Dabi grinned.

“Oh so we’re doing things my way, then?”

Himiko winced. In this life and her other one, Dabi’s methods tended toward well…reckless widespread destruction. 

“You know I want to recover her alive, right?”

“Ye of little faith,” he teased.

“It’s done,” Skeptic declared dramatically.

A complex map showed on the screen with certain locations circled. 

“Fire alarm system?” Himiko asked.

“It automatically triggers evacuations in certain parts of the building and shutdowns in others. But I can override those while they’re distracted. Your buddy over there just needs to set a few real fires to make it look believable.”

Himiko looked over to Dabi who was grinning.

“That’s my specialty.”

Chapter Text

The window of time that could be used to free Ochako was perilously narrow. Between Skeptic’s hacking and Dabi setting off the fire control systems in a specific order, Himiko would have perhaps twenty minutes total to reach Ochako and guide her out of the building as Skeptic disabled the security locks along the way. Entering too early could lead to her running headfirst into staff who had not yet evacuated and getting caught. But initiating the plan too late meant that HC staff might uncover the hacker before they could safely exit, leaving them stuck inside without an escape route. 

For now, she sat ensconced in the shadow of an adjacent rooftop waiting for Skeptic’s voice to crackle in her ear and give her an all clear signal. Dabi was already at work and her heart thudded painfully with anxiety over whether he was safe let alone successful. Even if they managed to deliver Ochako to the Todoroki compound where the HC could not reach, it didn’t mean that they would accept Himiko’s request for amnesty. Even with Dabi present. Even without her prior actions having harmed them, which they had, Himiko was a liability. Letting Ochako walk was a loss for the commission, but letting Himiko escape? Unthinkable. She knew too much and it would bring hell down on their heads. In fact, it was probably better for everyone that she didn’t ask for protection at all. 

She inhaled a shaky breath. Not to mention that Himiko still hadn’t figured out how to return to her own life or whether that was even possible. This still felt like a long and unpleasant fever dream.

“You’re clear to go. You can enter through the balcony opposite you,” Skeptic’s voice rang in her ear.

She stood and eyed the gap. Wouldn’t it be hilariously ironic if she just fell to her death here and now? 

Well, no time to ponder on that. 

Himiko took a few steps back and sprinted at the edge, pushing against the concrete ledge with her foot as hard as possible. After a few seconds of heart-dropping air time, she landed hard against the railing balcony opposite her hiding place. She held her breath and clung desperately to the metal, curling her toes inside her boots to attempt to maintain contact with the narrow ledge. Then leaned forward and somersaulted on to the balcony. It was not a graceful maneuver. 

If this life was meant to teach her that yes, she could still feel fear, it was working. Himiko climbed to her feet and opened the balcony door, entering an office. 

“Take a right in the hallway,” Skeptic instructed. 

She sprinted. 

~

It took a total of ten minutes to reach the final door after meandering through a series of narrow hallways. She heard the bolts click as Skeptic disarmed the electronic lock system then watched it slide open. 

As she passed it, a sharp noise came from a nearby door as someone slammed their hands against the other side of it. 

“You’re not here for them. Keep going. It’s the fifteenth cell on the right.”

The lower half of her face started to feel numb as a mix of guilt and anxiety weaved together in her chest. She kept moving. 

The door to Ochako’s cell slid open as Skeptic tricked the security badging system. Ochako was sitting on the floor, curled in on herself. When she looked up, her anger struck Himiko like a knife to the gut. A giant welted bruise had risen on her cheek. 

“Did you come to brag?”

“Ok, we don’t have time, but I came to help. Come on, we need to get out of here,” Himiko rambled, trying to pull her to her feet. 

Ochako did stand, but wrenched her arm out of Himiko’s grip. 

“Is this a fucking joke? If you want my blood to play more sick games with my friends, then I’m sure your handler will come collect some for you.”

“Ochako-”

“Shut up!” 

“I’m trying to get you out of here! Just let me help!”

“I may be an idiot who was fooled by a pretty face, but I’m not completely devoid of brains. I’m not going to make the mistake of trusting you twice!”

Himiko grabbed her by the collar and hauled her into the hallway. 

“You don’t know everything, all right! Just come with me!” Himiko yelled, frustrated. 

Ochako fought her and they went tumbling further down the hall as they pulled at each other.

“The door at the end of the hallway,” Skeptic said through static. 

Were they losing the radio connection? 

Himiko heard a sinister click behind her and froze, releasing Ochako all at once. Then turned to look the hero commission director in the face. Well, down the barrel of her gun to be precise. 

Ochako backed away, getting further from the two of them. 

“You know, I’m very disappointed in you, Reflection. We spent a lot of resources on your training. I had a feeling you would need to be retired soon, but I was hoping to get a few more years out of you first.”

Himiko stayed silent, looking directly into the woman’s eyes. 

The director’s high heeled boot clacked against the floor as she took two steps closer and the barrel of the gun pressed into Himiko’s forehead. Himiko heard Ochako’s footsteps and slid her eyes to the side in time to see Ochako bolting away toward the door. 

“Well, was it worth it? The girl you wanted to save is abandoning you.”

Himiko smiled and closed her eyes. She heard the door open and shut for Ochako. Skeptic had let her through. 

“You’re not going to negotiate? Well, that’s a bit of a shame. I expected better of you,” the woman commented. “Let’s get this over with then. I have other things to do.”

Himiko flinched at the noise, but after a moment was surprised to find her skull still intact. She opened her eyes and saw the woman clutching the wrist of the hand holding the gun and scowling down the hallway. As the woman pivoted to aim the aim gun again, Ochako flung another object in her direction. A stray bullet ricocheted off the walls as the desk collided with the director’s midsection. 

“Run!” Ochako yelled.

Himiko overcame her shock and took off for the door. Ochako slung another object and it passed by Himiko in a blur. She couldn’t say what it was, but a metallic bang echoed behind her. The director cursed.

When she reached the door, Ochako yanked her across the threshold and the metal snapped shut behind them. 

“Skeptic?”

Static crackled in her ear. Damn it. But still, even if they couldn’t communicate, he seemed to have eyes on her. The door across the office room opened. They both ran. 

It took longer than she would have liked, but eventually they wove their way through the maze-like building and burst out the door of a cargo bay. The motorcycle was sitting in its pre-arranged location and as they climbed on, Himiko made a small prayer to whatever gods would listen that Dabi’s thirty minute driving lesson would keep her from killing them both in a crash. 

~

The arranged meeting location was in the woods outside the city. Ochako was weak from hunger, having only been fed the bare minimum required to keep her alive for the duration of her captivity. Which made it an arduous hike. Himiko had to hold on to her waist to help keep her from stumbling. 

As the day began to wane, the two of them reached their destination. Himiko grinned when she saw Dabi sitting on the ground against the large rock that marked their meeting point. And spotted one of his sidekicks standing a stone’s throw from him. But Ochako wrenched away and lost her footing, falling with a cry.

“You-!”

“Hey punk, you still alive?” Dabi asked Himiko, ignoring Ochako’s accusation.

“It’s fine! Don’t worry. He’s helping me,” Himiko assured her.

“He tried to kill me!”

“I wasn’t trying to kill you. If you had been taken in, I would have sent you to the hospital where they immediately would have treated the burns,” Dabi replied. 

“Fuck you!” Ochako yelled. 

Dabi grinned.

“Your girlfriend is spunky,” he said to Himiko. 

She glared at him as she helped Ochako to her feet. 

“Do you have anything to eat?” Himiko asked him. 

His sidekick stepped forward with a backpack, reaching inside to pull out a cereal bar. He offered it to her and she passed it to Ochako who sat down to munch on it with a suspicious stare in Dabi’s direction.

“Thanks,” Himiko said. 

He nodded with a smile. The guy looked familiar, but she couldn’t place her finger on why. She had probably seen him around Dabi’s agency. The sidekick must have been a trusted one for Dabi to have brought him along. 

She sat down next to Ochako and plucked a leaf out of her hair. Ochako gave her a soft look and tilted the cereal bar toward her in a silent offer. Himiko laughed and shook her head.

Dabi sighed and scrubbed a hand across his face.

“So you work for my family, right?”

“Yeah,” Ochako replied sharply, providing no additional information.

“Fuck,” Dabi cursed, before pulling out a burner phone.

“Shoto, it’s your brother. Yeah, shut up. Don’t hang up the phone. Put Dad on. No, you brat, I’m not calling to challenge you to a duel. What the fuck?! No, put Dad on the phone.”

Himiko had to suppress a laugh as she heard how casual he sounded on the phone reconnecting with his youngest brother. But she could still see the tension on his face despite his calm demeanor. She kicked out a foot at his own in support.

“Don’t scuff my shoes!” he scolded, pressing his hand to the speaker before returning to his conversation. 

While Dabi spoke with his family and Ochako folded the cereal bar wrapper into tiny squares, Himiko glanced around. They were in a really isolated area. Hopefully, if they moved quickly, they could get Ochako to safety. Dabi’s sidekick was crouching, reaching into the backpack again. Himiko looked back to Dabi and Ochako, but then felt a rock sink from the top of her throat down into her diaphragm. Himiko looked back to the sidekick. Felt tears well in her eyes. He met her gaze.

She remembered. Where she had seen him before. It wasn’t Dabi’s agency. 

Himiko had passed him on her way to the elevator in the hero commission lobby on the very first day she had woken up in this life. 

They both stood slowly and simultaneously. But as he stood, his hand drew the gun from his backpack. There would be no time to draw a knife so instead, she flung herself in front of Ochako and Dabi. 

The bullet pierced between two of her ribs and she felt the breath robbed from her lungs as she hit the ground. She let out a hacking cough. Ochako screamed and Dabi flung the phone to the ground, leaping over her and conjuring flame. 

“Boss, you know I can handle hot temperatures. That flames not gonna hurt me. It’s why you hired me. Don’t make this hard on both of us. I don’t have any orders to kill you, just those two.”

“You son of a bitch!” Dabi said through gritted teeth. 

Then he let out a grim laugh.

The flame surrounded his body and began to brighten in color, light blue now tinged with a blinding bright white. It engulfed the sidekick. He was still standing, but she saw him flinch and drop the gun as the pain began to set in. Dabi was exceeding his temperature limit. 

“Dabi-” Himiko gasped out. 

Shit. She knew what that flame was. What the fuck was he doing? Himiko had watched him after numerous fights, patching himself back together after burning too bright. One night he had grinned at her and said, “At least your quirk protects you. Imagine having one that would kill you if you got too good at it.”

That flame was way too hot and only growing more intense. When he glanced over at Ochako who was grabbing Himiko around her midsection to pull her away, she saw that the whites of his eyes were turning a glazed white-blue.

He could kill himself and for what? Protecting her? 

Dabi met her eyes.

“Hey kid, I’m tired of babysitting so fuck off already would you?”

“No!” Himiko choked out as Ochako began to pull her away. 

The flame burst from him, engulfing Dabi and his opponent as Ochako dragged her into the trees. Himiko screamed until the wound on her side became so agonizing that she could no longer breathe and the sound died with a whimper. 

~

Ochako had to resort to carrying Himiko on her back as they trekked through the woods.

“It’s fine, just wait a little longer, ok? Shoto is supposed to meet us. We just have to get to the shrine nearby,” Ochako huffed in a ragged voice.

Himiko’s body felt heavy, her limbs growing in weight with each second and becoming numb and useless. At first, she had felt too warm from the proximity to Dabi’s fire, but now she was growing cold. Her chest hurt. An undefined pressure on her lungs was pressing harder with each passing moment. It was growing hard to breathe.

Ochako stumbled over a rock, losing her grip on Himiko slightly. Himiko slipped from her position on Ochako’s back, suddenly finding the ground beneath her hands. Except her hands were blurry. How odd. 

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Ochako choked.

She turned to grab hold of Himiko again and Himiko saw that there were tears sliding down her face. Himiko smiled gently. 

“Ochako-chan,” she managed to say in a thin, reedy voice.

“You’ll be fine!” Ochako declared, voice cracking as she sobbed.

“Leave me here.”

“What?! No, I can’t-”

“It’s slowing you down. You need to reach Shoto before…before someone else finds…”

“It’s my fault! I’m sorry! If I hadn’t hesitated when you-”

Himiko let her body slide down further into Ochako’s arms until her cheek was resting against Ochako’s sternum. She was so tired. Himiko wanted to sleep.

Ochako’s hand cupped her face. 

“You can’t…You can’t die. It’s just a little further.”

“Ochako-chan, I’m really glad I met you. In either lifetime. So thank you for that.”

Himiko’s eyes slid closed and Ochako’s pleading voice grew quieter. She thought she felt the press of lips against her face. And then everything faded away into silence.

Chapter Text

Himiko woke up to a commotion in a cold cave. But a familiar one. 

“Dabi?” she asked, peering through the dim lighting at a familiar form. 

Then flinched at the bizarre noises emanating from the back of the cave. What the hell?

“Dunno how you slept through that. Boss is still undergoing his gross mutant hand transformation and Spinner is wearing a hole into the ground with all his pacing.”

From her right, Spinner snapped, “How are you not worried?! We’re just supposed to trust that Tomura is fine based on that guy’s word alone? Look at him!”

The reality slowly sunk in. Had it…really all been a dream? But it was so vivid. She remembered it in exact detail. 

A sudden wave of grief washed over her as she remembered Dabi sacrificing himself to protect her. She began to crawl across the ground in his direction, but paused as a twinge shot through her ribs, causing her breath to catch. The pain disappeared a moment later, but the place where her hand was resting over it was…

Ducking her hand beneath her clothes, she traced her fingers along her ribcage. Between her fourth and fifth rib, she felt a rough, raised patch of skin. After glancing at the other two who were still distracted, Himiko surreptitiously lifted her shirt and felt her heart slam in her ribcage when her eyes landed on the scar. 

That hadn’t been there before. Himiko did not have a scar on her ribs in this lifetime. Especially not a fucking bullet scar. Was it real? The effect of a quirk after all? 

Then what the hell did it all mean? Was dying in her other life the key to returning to her own? Or maybe it had been saving Ochako? 

Himiko let her shirt fall back into place and began to rack her brain. She felt intuitively that her experience was meant to tell her something. To hand her a key to something important in this life. But what? 

Yes, she had connected with Ochako. Understood the frustration in trying to reach out and help someone who wouldn’t quite take your hand. It was possible that she was meant to learn from that, to try one more time…

But

Everything in that other life had been reversed in some way. 

And saving Ochako had cost Himiko her life. Did that mean if Ochako reached out her hand again and Himiko accepted, that Ochako would die? Himiko pressed her hands to her eyes until she saw patterns begin to form. What was she supposed to do with that information? 

No, it was obvious. She needed to stay far away from Ochako. She couldn’t bear to fight her, not after everything, but she also couldn’t risk Ochako’s life by getting any further entangled with her. 

The date for the final confrontation with the heroes would happen soon. Himiko couldn’t abandon her friends and leave them behind now. They were all she had. She removed her hands and looked over at Dabi again. He was staring into space, preoccupied with his own thoughts. She resumed crawling across the floor until she reached him. 

“Dabi, you want to get revenge on your family, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“How?” she asked cautiously.

He stared at her and his mouth twisted briefly before he spoke.

“I’ll kill them. It’s simple right?”

Liar. 

Dabi was no good at deceiving people. His true feelings always flashed across his face. They had all immediately known that Dabi was an alias and not a real name. He lost at cards to Compress because he couldn’t bluff properly. He had once stolen pudding from Twice and been immediately identified as the culprit.

Her heart seized in her chest because she recognized the expression on his face. 

Hey kid, I’m tired of babysitting so fuck off already would you?

“What are you all teary-eyed for?” he asked, aiming for gruff but clearly concerned.

She fell forward and hugged him.

“Hey, what the hell! Get off! I’m not your pillow!”

This time Himiko would protect him. 

~

The morning of the battle, Himiko hugged each of them in turn. Then grabbed hold of the back of Dabi’s ridiculous jacket with a tight fist. Clenched her jaw in determination. 

“Am I your kindergarten teacher? Why are you clinging to me?”

“I was just thinking that it would be really embarrassing if you went to confront your family, but immediately tripped and fell on your face. So I figured I would anchor you.”

He frowned at her, torn between telling her off and considering whether tripping was a real possibility. 

Ultimately, he just went with, “Weirdo,” but didn’t shrug her off. 

She smiled despite the grim reality of what was to come. All in all, she felt eerily calm. Himiko knew what she needed to do. 

What she hadn’t realized was that the heroes would split them up. 

When her grip on Dabi’s jacket was ripped away and she landed in the water of a second location, panic descended like an avalanche. 

No, no, no. 

This wasn’t right! This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. She needed to get back to the others. 

Himiko stumbled to her feet. She was surrounded by fog, but could hear others nearby. How was she going to get back? Kurogiri was their only means of long-distance transport and had been captured. Could Spinner reach him in time? If he did, would they know where she was? Would they know to come get her? Would it be too late? 

Twice’s blood couldn’t be used to imitate the other’s quirks, only his own clones. She had the vial of Dabi’s blood that she had begged off of him, but that was useless in this situation. 

She stepped forward in the fog, drawing a knife for protection. A flash of green hair appeared in her field of vision. When she saw him shift his body weight, she slashed the knife at him as a knee-jerk reaction, nervous system clamoring for self-preservation. 

Fuck. 

She wasn’t a match for Izuku by herself. If she died here…

His fist connected with her sternum with bruising force and she went flying. But she managed to cut his cheek open as he did so. Something wrapped around her ankle as she collided with the water. 

Tsuyu. 

Great, the situation was only getting worse by the moment. No, she wouldn’t be captured or killed here. Himiko would do what was necessary. She slashed the knife and severed the tongue binding her ankle. Tsuyu cried out in pain and Himiko charged forward attempting to put distance between them. Maybe one of the other small-time villains here had a useful quirk she could steal to get away in time. 

Another swipe from Izuku emerged out of the fog and she dodged, but only barely. Hefted the knife. 

“Himiko!”

Ochako was calling her name. And then barreling into her and sending them both rolling across the shallow water. 

Izuku hesitated. 

“Don’t! Just go, Deku! Get back to the others,” Ochako yelled at him. 

His face shifted to determination and he turned to run. 

Damn. 

Himiko flung herself away and stumbled to her feet before realizing Tsuyu had cut off her exit path. 

“I was wrong! I’ve been thinking about what you asked me last time,” Ochako continued breathlessly. 

No. I can’t take your hand here. 

She turned and slashed wildly at Ochako, missing on purpose. 

“I have nothing to discuss with you!”

“I still haven’t talked about love with you!” Ochako cried out, dodging and trying to restrain her.

Himiko broke away from her. 

“I wanted to stop you from hurting people, but you were hurting too, right? I can see it in your eyes. And when you talked about Jin.”

“Stop!” Himiko screamed, hurt rising again at the mention of his death, “You don’t know anything!”

“I don’t want to hurt you. But I don’t want to watch you hurt other people either.”

There were only so many times that Himiko could feint an attack before it became obvious that she was missing on purpose. 

Ochako grabbed hold of her shirt.

“If drinking blood is how you love, then I’ll give you mine. For the rest of our lives.” 

Tears welled up in Himiko’s eyes. Why now? She knew she couldn’t have this. There was no future if Ochako died saving her. But she felt weak. Himiko wanted to give in. For once. 

Over Ochako’s shoulder, she saw the portal begin to form. 

Dabi. 

Himiko pressed forward and sliced across Ochako’s abdomen, not deep enough to seriously wound her, but enough to stun her. Ironic. She was opening Ochako’s rib cage in the same place that she had bled out from her own. But this was a shallow cut not a lethal one.

Ochako bowed over in shock, giving Himiko an opportunity to rush past her. She unclipped the vial of Jin’s blood from her belt and downed it. As his body melted into place over her own, she channeled her grief into a sad man’s parade and made for the portal.

In the moment before she tumbled through, she uttered Dabi’s name and felt metal curl around her ankle. Himiko looked back and saw Ochako being dragged behind her by a grappling cord. She had hoped to lose her…

As she landed on the other side of the portal, Himiko spotted him at once, burning brighter than she had ever seen before. His family was trying to press their way toward him through the flames. She cut the cord wrapped around her ankle and used the mass of clones to shove her way forward. The voices of nearby heroes echoed out in dismay. 

Behind her, clones began to float. The hero commission had been right to be wary of Ochako in the other timeline. What a monumental display of power. But the effect hadn’t reached Himiko’s real self yet. She continued to push forward.

And when she was within a few steps of Dabi, she uncorked the vial of his blood and drank. All the clones behind her fell away as his quirk took effect and she fell to her knees behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. 

It burned. 

Even having consumed his blood to acquire his quirk wouldn’t protect her entirely. Dabi was emitting enough heat to harm them both. Himiko felt her arms and face blister with pain where they pressed against him. 

“What the hell are you doing?!” he screamed.

“We said we wanted to live in a world where we could be happy! But how can we be happy if you’re not there!” she screamed back, pleading as the tears evaporated from her face. 

He looked stricken as he looked down at her and tried to shove her away. 

“Get out of here!” he said, voice cracking. 

His family watched on in astonishment. 

“Please stop!” she cried. “I don’t want to lose you. Don’t take away one of the only people that cares about me. Aren’t we family too?”

She saw tears in his eyes evaporate amid the flame. The fire was so intense that his appearance had begun to melt away from her even though the blood hadn’t worn off yet. As it did, horrible welts raised on her unprotected skin as the flame scorched it. 

“Damn it, Toga!” he screamed.

She finally saw the tears fall down his face as he looked at her injured skin and the flames went out. The salt water trailing across her own cheeks stung like hell, but she laughed in relief, smiling up at him as his mouth twisted to hold back a sob. 

“Touya!” 

His family was calling out. He looked over to them. Shoto gave a small grin and fell to his knees. 

“Well, this is disappointing. I expected more from you, Himiko Toga.”

Why did that sound so familiar?

AFO was hovering above them and gazing down upon them like some sort of vengeful god. He raised a hand as if he were planning on waving at them.

“Himiko!” Ochako yelled, running toward her in desperation.

Himiko let her arms finally fall away from Dabi as they watched AFO in confusion. She winced as skin ripped away from her arms and face. 

“You-” Dabi began, addressing AFO with a steely edge to his gaze. 

“Well, you were admirable pawns. But you’ve outlived your usefulness. Time to remove you from the board.”

Ochako flung herself in front of Toga as his hand flicked forward, floating huge chunks of debris between them as a shield. 

It didn’t work. The black and red tentacle pierced straight through the rock and Ochako’s abdomen. She landed with a dull thud and blood trailed in her wake. 

“Och..ako…” Himiko said weakly, staring on in numb confusion.

Then she fumbled forward attempting to reach the still body on the ground. Coughs wracked her body as she took a few steps. Why was it so hard to breathe? Himiko’s legs gave out before she could make it. She reached out a hand and only managed to barely brush Ochako’s fingertips before it all went black for a second time. 

Chapter Text

Himiko would have liked to say that Ochako was the first thing she noticed when she woke up, but the searing pain in her chest took precedence. It felt as though she had been burnt from the inside out. Almost as soon as she opened her eyes, she let out a wheezing cough into the oxygen mask that left her chest spasming.

After that, she was surrounded by nurses for a good thirty minutes. It was only after the chaos calmed down that she caught sight of Ochako watching closely with teary eyes in the bed to her left. Himiko tried to open her mouth to say something, but nothing came out except a weak strained sigh-like sound. 

“You’re not supposed to talk yet!” Ochako exclaimed, gripping her IV pole. “Also, I wish I could come over there, but they barely let me move in here after a few weeks because of the infection risk. I had to ask Principal Nezu to convince the hospital CEO. So I can’t hold your hand yet.”

The last sentence was uttered a little sorrowfully, but Ochako gave her brave smile. Himiko eyes dropped to her waist.

“Oh,” Ochako muttered, reaching down to touch where the wound would have been.

Himiko had thought for sure that the wound would be deadly. It had gone straight through her abdomen and there had been so much blood…how?

Ochako gave a small laugh.

“I would have bled to death, but your friend…Shoto’s brother…cauterized the wound with his quirk. I was unconscious by then, but according to Shoto he was swearing a bunch.”

Dabi had saved her? For Himiko? She felt grateful tears well in her eyes.

“Ah!” Ochako said, waving her arms around in panic and misinterpreting Himiko tears. “He’s fine, don’t worry! Also in the hospital. Shoto’s been visiting him everyday.”

Oh thank god. A tear slipped down her cheek and she grit her teeth at the sting of salt water trailing across a burn. 

“Um, I should tell you everything, huh? When All For One turned to attack you and Shoto’s brother, well…I didn’t totally understand what Izuku meant when he explained…but All For One and Shigaraki had some kind of psychic connection? He was trying to take over Shigaraki’s body or something? So he knew when All For One turned on the two of you. Apparently, he flipped on All For One to protect you guys. He won. Also in the hospital.”

Himiko’s eyelids fluttered in surprise. Tomura had killed All For One because he had attacked Dabi and Toga? She knew that he cared about them, but to throw away his whole plan…

The tears kept coming and stung her face. 

Ah…she wished that she could see them.

~

It took a few weeks before Himiko was able to move about and talk again. By that point, Ochako had been discharged, but kept visiting. She was a little surprised, honestly. 

“It looks horrible. Don’t lie,” she said to Ochako as she brushed Himiko’s hair.

“It’s not!”

“It is! He singed my hair! It’s a mess! Totally uneven!”

“No! It’s cute! I think you’re the cutest girl in the world, regardless of your hair!”

Himiko froze in surprise. Ochako turned beet red.

“A-anyway…you’re finally allowed to visit, right?” 

“Yeah, I’m heading over soon.”

“Well…have fun,” Ochako replied.

Himiko could have sworn she was pouting, but that didn’t make sense, did it?

~

Dabi was being unusually quiet as he looked her over. She thought she saw a twist of guilt in his face as she sat at his bedside. 

“Sorry about…all the burns.”

“You should be sorry,” she replied. “Look at my hair! Yours isn’t even touched. How does that make sense?”

“Tch,” he clicked his tongue, but she saw his shoulders relax and she grinned.

“Well, it’s fine. Your family has hired me some fancy lawyers so I’ll forgive you.”

He rolled his eyes dramatically.

“Yeah, my family thinks you’re the fucking Buddha or something. Very annoying.”

She cackled in response and shoved at his shoulder.

“Hey, move over,” she declared, climbing into the hospital bed next to him. “Make room for the favorite Todoroki child.”

She sat shoulder to shoulder with him as he grabbed the remote and flipped on the tv. 

“I can’t believe out of all of us, Spinner is the one that got invited to a talk show.”

Himiko laughed and said, “Hey, Compress is there too. Someone has to cover for him when he panics and forgets his talking points.”

“Can’t believe this asshole is writing a book.”

As the preview for the show began to play, they both looked over at the creaking sound of a wheelchair moving into the room.

“Lay off Spinner. The man is trying to make money for our hospital bills.”

“It’s very sweet that you’re supportive, Tomura, but we all know he’s gonna freeze,” Himiko replied.

“Can Spinner even write? Have we seen a forward of the book? Does he have a ghost writer?” Dabi mused.

“You guys are so mean to him,” Tomura said, shaking his head in amused disapproval.

The commercials ended and the screen panned to the talk show stage where a female host wearing a outrageous amount of makeup sat facing Spinner and Compress.

“Oh my god, he’s already visibly sweating and they haven’t even started yet. He looks terrified!” Himiko yelled, pointing at the screen.

“Look at his eyes. You can see the whites,” Dabi cackled.

“Ok, yeah. It’s a good thing that Compress is there,” Tomura capitulated.

After the show welcome, news clips played in the background while the host did a voiceover.

“Vulnerable youths manipulated and taken advantage of by a villain. But with the strength of their friendship, they broke out of an intense brainwashing quirk to fight back and save the day.”

Dabi barked a laugh.

“How the fuck did we end up on this narrative?!”

Tomura let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Do you think we have fans now?” Himiko asked.

Spinner visibly squirmed in his seat as the host addressed him.

“Young man, you are writing a book about your experiences in the league of villains.”

“Yes-”

She cut him off before he could continue.

“Let me just say that I think you’re very brave.”

A gesture to the audience had them clapping.

“Well-”

“To think that all this time, you were construed as villains when you were actually subject to a vile brainwashing quirk by All For One.”

“No, I don’t really know where that came from, but-”

“You still seem to be suffering from some of the effects.”

“Bro, shut the fuck up! That’s my legal defense!” Himiko yelled at the TV. 

Tomura rolled his eyes at her as she leaned against Dabi’s shoulder.

Actually, Himiko had never really stopped to consider what AFO’s role was in the other world. If everything was opposite, he wasn’t a villain. Did that make him the head of Hero Commission or somethi- Oh holy fucking shit. Was that true?

Damn, what if she had been brainwashed in this world? 

No, no. Legal defense or not, she didn't think that was true. 

On screen, Spinner was trying and failing to explain the principles behind their rebellion against society. The host just continued to aim pitying looks at him. 

“Tomura, I appreciate your ideology and all,” Dabi stated. “But can he wait until we get declared innocent before publishing this book?”

Himiko silently agreed. 

Finally, Compress intervened. 

“I think the important thing to take away is that-,” he paused to place a hand over his heart, “we have each other.”

This elicited a series of awes and oohs from the audience. Compress aimed a handsome and calm smile directly at the camera. 

Dabi and Himiko snorted in unison.

“Well, you said you wanted to be a hero when you were a kid, boss,” Dabi teased.

Tomura let out a long suffering sigh. 

~

It turned out that legal trials went shockingly fast when you had money to spend on good lawyers (or well…the Todoroki family did). And although it was kind of shitty that they were gaming the same system they had criticized, Himiko wasn’t particularly interested in a life sentence. And surely, saving the world was some kind of penance, right? Along with the other life that no one else knew about. 

Honestly, when all was said and done, she expected to walk away from the situation with nowhere to go. Her family hadn’t made any attempt to reach out. Ochako was living in a dorm room. Spinner and Compress and Tomura had managed to rent a tiny shared apartment with the advance from the book that had no real space for her. The persistent, unabating feeling of loneliness was familiar no matter which life she lived. Himiko didn’t belong anywhere. 

So when she walked out and saw Rei Todoroki with a smile and her arms extended for a hug, Himiko had burst into ugly, body-wracking sobs. Dabi had looked on in horror. 

It had been a joke, but she really had been adopted as an honorary Todoroki. She even had her own room since Natsuo had moved out and Shoto was living in the dorms. And homemade food. Himiko hadn’t eaten a homemade meal in years. When Fuyumi gushed about always wanting a sister and handed her a plate of welcome cookies, she had burst into tears all over again while Dabi shook her and demanded to know what she was sobbing about. 

Dabi had always been prickly, but now that she saw how he snappily interacted with his actual siblings, she felt a little smug. He was rather partial to her, huh? 

“Stop taking all the rice. You pig!”

“Huh?” Natsuo cried in outrage. “I’m a medical student. I need brain calories.”

Dabi slid the rice out of his reach with his chopsticks and conveniently moved it in front of Himiko’s plate. She snagged a spoonful with a snicker. 

“Thank you,” she said.

“Malnourished child,” he replied condescendingly. 

“Be careful. He tried to kill all his other siblings. He’s got that Cain instinct,” Natsuo commented with a raised eyebrow. 

“Hey, fuck off,” Dabi snapped back, flinging a soybean at him.

“Stop food fighting at the table!” Fuyumi cried out. 

~

One night, Rei knocked quietly and entered her bedroom, sitting softly beside her. She placed an envelope on Himiko’s lap.

“We weren’t sure if you wanted the information…but just in case…we hired a private detective to find your parents.”

Himiko felt the lump rise in her throat and the white of the envelope blurred in her hands. She thought she had made peace with it and left the hurt of her family behind her in the other life. It still ached inside her chest. How silly to remain disappointed after all this time.

Rei’s hand reached over and gently stroked her hair.

“Can I tell you a story? Do you know why I got married? It was an arranged marriage. My extended family, though once prosperous, has been in decline financially for generations. Rather than let it show and damage their pride, they chose to make monetary deals in exchange for their children. 

It was a very cold home. Unloving. I was never good enough no matter how much I strived to please them. I thought that anything would be better than where I grew up so I agreed to the marriage to escape the suffocation of my childhood home. In some ways, it was better, but in other ways…it was worse. It’s funny how that works out. 

I only went back once, a month after my marriage. I thought for once, now that I had been useful, I would be welcomed warmly. Of course, I was wrong and after that day I never returned home again.”

She paused and Himiko slumped forward against her chest, small hiccups emerging from her throat as tears fell down her face. Rei’s hand brushed through her hair. 

“It’s painful, isn’t it? How close that story is to Touya’s? Apparently, neither Enji or I learned our lesson from our parents. I hope you won’t repeat that story and learn to live your life free of people’s expectations.”

Himiko crinkled the envelope in her hands and watched tears drop into the paper, head still resting against Rei’s collarbone. 

“I don’t think I’ll open it,” she replied. 

~

All in all Himiko felt rather spoiled. Rei and Fuyumi even helped her pick out a new dress. One that was pretty and covered in a floral pattern. It was flowy with ruffled sleeves and showed off her shoulders. Himiko felt entirely out of place in it. Growing up, she had never had much opportunity to dress up. Her parents always preferred her to fade into the background as much as possible. 

The Todorokis clearly had a different life motto. After the cascade of outfits that Rei and Fuyumi insisted on her trying on, Himiko felt a bit like a dress up doll. 

She wondered if Ochako would like it. 

After having helped attack the school at one point, she was a little surprised that Ochako had gotten approval for her to come visit. It was nerve-wracking for a number of reasons. The public may have been fooled, but the UA students knew the truth. Himiko had really been a villain. What if Ochako’s friends hated her? Maybe she wasn’t really welcome here after all. 

Himiko wrung her hands in the skirt of her dress as she stood outside the steps of the dorm, trying to gather the courage to knock.

“Toga-chan!” 

Ochako’s voice rang out and Himiko looked up to see her bounding down the steps, red-cheeked. She came to a rapid stop in front of Himiko.

“You look very…beautif-” Ochako stuttered.

“Hey! Did Touya-nii eat the soba I hid in the top cabinet? That was a special flavor! I’m saving it for Christmas!” Shoto called out, approaching. 

Izuku trailed behind him looking slightly panicked and trying to grab him by the tail of his shirt. Ochako’s mouth pursed and her eyebrow twitched. Himiko watched her puff out her cheeks.

“Shoto, I think Iida is looking for us. We should go inside!” Izuku pleaded.

“Huh, right now? Weren’t we giving her a tour?”

“I think Ochako is giving her a tour. Not us. Just them.”

Shoto tilted his head in puppy-like confusion. 

A pink-haired girl leaned out a second story window and screamed, “Shoto! Stop interrupting Ochako’s date!”

Ochako’s face turned an alarming puce color. Himiko wasn’t sure she was breathing. 

“Eh? Is it a date?” he questioned. 

Instead of answering, Izuku grabbed him by the shirt sleeve and yanked him back inside the dormitory. Ochako was standing very still. 

“Well, let’s go on the tour!” she blurted out suddenly, grabbing Himiko’s hand and pulling her along. 

UA was certainly impressive and Ochako was explaining things at a mile a minute, but frankly Himiko couldn’t say she retained any of it. Ochako hadn’t let go of her hand, instead lacing their fingers together.

Finally, they reached the front gate and faced each other. Himiko felt the wind shuffle her newly cropped hair and reached up to flatten it. 

“Ochako-chan, thank you for showing me around. But I don’t want you to feel obligated. The blood thing…”

Ochako grabbed both of her hands and held them.

“The tour wasn’t supposed to be a date.”

Himiko flushed.

“Ah, I know that…”

“Erm, I was going to ask you to go to the ice cream parlor afterward. That was the date. Obviously, I wouldn’t just assume that you would say yes. But I thought it would be more…” Ochako rambled.

Himiko let out a laugh of surprise. 

“I’ve never been asked out on a date before.”

Ochako looked flummoxed by this revelation.

“I’ll buy! I saved up some money. I mean…if you want to go…with me.”

Oh? Maybe Ochako’s financial situation wasn’t that different in this world? That was a daunting idea. 

“No! I can pay!” Himiko protested. 

Ochako grinned. 

“Is that a yes?”

Himiko nodded softly. Ochako laced their fingers together again.

“I’m still buying though,” she said, before her face fell serious, “What I said before I was discharged from the hospital…I meant it. You can have my blood for the rest of my life. If you still want it.”

Himiko felt like bursting into hysterical laughter. She was still reeling from the date offer and Ochako said that. She hadn’t expected anyone to ever tell her that, let alone more than once. Ironically, the blood lust had kind of…abated? Not entirely, but significantly. She hated to think that it had been in large part psychological. But now that she was surrounded by people who accepted her…well, the urge was fulfilled a little bit better. 

Also, she felt a little shy. Since she had been given the option. Ochako wasn’t so much playing the part of a hero as she was stepping into the role of romantic lead. Unexpected, certainly. But welcome. 

“Why don’t we start with ice cream?” she said. 

Ochako ordered cookie chunk. Himiko ordered strawberry. 

Then Ochako hit her with another one-two punch. 

“Do you want to stay the night with me at the dorm? I got permission.”

Himiko bit down on her spoon in surprise and it broke in her mouth. 

Ochako blushed the color of Himiko’s ice cream. 

“N-not like that! Just uh-”

“I don’t have pajamas,” Himiko said inanely.

“Um, you can borrow some of mine.”

~

Among all the outcomes of the war that had flitted through her mind, Himiko had never pictured herself ending up in an oversized Eraserhead t-shirt in bed next to Ochako. They had been talking for hours late into the night. 

Honestly, she hadn’t even known they had made merch for him. She ought to find one for Tomura. 

Mid-contemplation, she realized that Ochako was looking at her. A flustered panic dawned. Oh fuck, was this a kiss signal? Were they going to kiss? Oh my god. 

Ochako propped herself up on an elbow and then extended her arm toward Himiko with a blush. Huh?

“Do you want to?”

Himiko flushed to her ears. Oh god, she was preoccupied thinking about kissing and Ochako was offering her blood again. Good lord. Which was more nerve-wracking? Himiko couldn’t decide. 

This girl was going to kill her. Maybe this was the heroes’ long term plan. Take out Himiko via gay heart failure. Unusual angle, but effective nonetheless. 

Himiko sat up. Ochako’s eyes flicked to her bare thighs for a moment and Himiko almost fell over. 

Right, cool. What would alternate super spy Himiko do here? Probably get shot again. That wasn’t helpful. Fuck. What would Dabi do? Something stupid? 

Himiko grabbed her wrist and pulled Ochako forward and then sealed their mouths together. She felt Ochako’s eyelashes flutter for a moment against her cheek before the other girl closed her eyes and pressed forward. 

When they broke apart, she blurted out, “I thought it would be weird if I kissed you while I was you.”

Fantastic. Great. Wonderful. Good job, Himiko. You wasted all those years learning knife fighting when you should have been practicing hitting on girls. 

Ochako let out a laugh that reminded Himiko of wind chimes. Then kissed her again. 

When Ochako’s tongue flicked against her bottom lip, Himiko thought that the gay assassination theory was really gaining credence. 

Eventually, she did drink a teeny tiny bit of blood. Not enough to transform. Just enough to make the make out session mildly iron-tinted. 

She would force Dabi to high five her for this whether he wanted to or not. 

~

“Are we really doing this?” Himiko asked, sipping her iced coffee. 

“Of course, we are! We have to tell our story right? And maybe this way we can change things,” Spinner said passionately, “We can’t let them control the narrative!”

“You’re transcribing my part,” Dabi drawled, “I'm not typing it up.”

“We should add photographs to make it more emotionally impactful,” Compress chimed in. 

“First, can we think of a better name for a book?” Tomura added. “The title is way too long. Who came up with ‘The True Story Behind The League of Villains and Japan’s Near Fall’?”

“You don’t like it?” Spinner whined.

“Why does it read like a manga title?” Dabi complained.

“Hmm, I have an idea,” Himiko said with a small smile. “What about Reflection?”