Chapter Text
Destroy the world.
That's what the villains first told her.
Kill All Might, and take over the planet while the city was in shambles.
Destroy everything the heroes had created, and create a new Earth from their ashes—generation upon generation of laws, all made to be rewritten. The outcome of this battle could change everything. This was a fight for survival.
She was so, so close. The entire world was in her grasp. What was this feeling? This feeling of... power?
She led her own death parade, taunting heroes as they remained powerless under her grasp. They were all under her control. She could finally rewrite the future, and accomplish what she'd wanted for so long.
After years of fighting for the world they wanted, her dream was about to become a reality. No more games, no more lies, no more hiding behind her mark of false security.
After this battle, she would finally be free.
There was still one minor inconvenience.
One girl stood in the way of her goal. Buzzing around her world like a fly. Amongst the rubble and chaos that Himiko herself had created, there was just one problem. The girl that shouldn't have been here.
The girl that she should have killed a year ago.
Ochako Uraraka.
Himiko stared right into her eyes as Uraraka floated beneath her. They were latched onto each other because of a stupid hook fastened around her wrist. She was at the top of her mountain of doubles, yet unable to move because of a rock in the sky.
She owned the whole world. What was that girl even fighting for?
"It's too late, Uraraka. You and your heroes should give up already!" Himiko yelled.
"I'm not going to give up. Most certainly, not because of you," Uraraka answered.
So annoyingly persistent. Heroes and their so-called hope.
Himiko stayed at the top of her mountain of clones, looking down at all the heroes beneath her. They looked so weak. Yet, she found their endurance to be sort of cute... It was adorable, looking at all of them trying so hard. Her clones roped many of them down. So many, all trapped in her eminence. They only sank deeper and deeper into her clutches.
She pulled out a knife and slashed at the rope, disconnecting them from the air.
What an annoying little pest.
She controlled four of them to go after her. Four of her clones, all closing in at the pink dot near the ground.
Uravity didn't even notice. A perfect ambush. Surrounded by Himiko's clones.
They all held up their own knives in unison.
Kill.
A burst of pink light shot out from below, scattering a halo where the clones floated away. Himiko could see her eyes all the way down here, even this far apart. Ochako shot out another cord from her wrist, the rope clinging onto Himiko's waist and knocking her off balance.
She toppled down for a moment, gathering all of the clones and Doubles around to gather below her again.
Not far away, she caught a smell. The sweet stench of blood. One of them was nearby. A hero, sent to kill her. She looked around and caught the mass of green amongst her sand.
The green-haired girl. Himiko vaguely remembered her. The hero that she had tried to befriend so long ago in the forest. Yet, she made her face her predictable rejection. One that wouldn't be her friend.
Her hair was knotted and cut. She was too injured to move any farther. Blood seeped all around her skin... A smile crept up on Himiko's face, as she licked her lips and drew in for the kill.
Himiko brandished her knife, pointing downwards at the girl's neck.
"Froppy!" She heard Uraraka yell.
As soon as Himiko was about to swing, Uraraka latched out another grappling hook to the frog girl and pulled her to safety.
Himiko's fingers curled. Her nails dug into her palm.
"You annoying bitch."
"I'm not letting you harm my friends."
"Shouldn't waste my breath on someone like you."
Uraraka was so far; so out of reach. If only Himiko could get a single cut; and drink a drop of her blood. Then she could finally reach up to her, using Uraraka's own quirk against her. She could watch the stupid hero as she died from her own reflection. Himiko imagined it in her head, fantasizing about slitting her throat. Her body would drip in blood as she sucked her dry.
Even the thought of it satisfied her, so so much.
In a few minutes, maybe an hour, all the remaining heroes would give up on their battle. They would fall to her sea of clones, and face her eternal wrath.
Uraraka came alarmingly close. Their faces were less than a meter apart.
She said something. She said something strange.
"Toga. I've- I've wanted to talk to you."
Uraraka launched herself high into the air. She came to a halt, right above the second tallest peak of Himiko's clones. The clones grabbed at her feet, but she rose higher, staying just an inch out of reach.
Himiko saw her staring down at the ground, a hundred feet below. How did she feel, Himiko wondered, as the faces of her friends and allies looked at her back with hatred? How did she feel, being met with nothing but hate for the people she saved?
Uraraka tore her eyes away, locking eyes with Himiko.
"I've realized something. I figured it out; you can't do the things that Twice could, can't you? You can't fully transform into him-"
"What are you talking about?" Himiko screamed. How does she know this? Himiko tried to get away, but a grappling hook latched onto her other arm and bolted her in place.
"You're- you're confused. I know you are. You can't tell the difference between affection and aggression," Uraraka said, above the howl of wind and clones. Himiko could see her eyes, tracing her blond messed-up hair and her pale face.
"You blended them together... You see them as the same."
Himiko grabbed her head, shaking and denying whatever words were coming out of her mouth. "Shut the hell up! What are you even saying- Watch your mouth, Uraraka.
"You wouldn't know. You've had everything you've ever wanted. Society loves you and gives you nothing but admiration."
A bolt of lightning flashed in her eyes. Her eyebrows knit together. Himiko only heard her say three words- "That's not true."
A shower of rain fell onto them. Himiko felt her matted hair twist into locks around her face and the raindrops mix with her sweat.
"You were born into such an easy life. You have the friends you want, the boy you want, and the life you want. You've never had to deal with anything. I don't have to listen to anything you say."
She willed her clones to move. They responded to her and followed her commands, climbing on top of each other to form limbs with limbs. Two twenty-feet long hands formed out of her sea outstretched towards Uraraka falling in front of her.
"So don't force your pity onto me."
Uraraka managed to dodge the hands trying to swat her out of the sky. She redacted her grappling hooks, finally letting Himiko free. She flew farther away, almost out of sight.
Uraraka landed on a stray rooftop miles away. Himiko watched her crouch and cough out flecks of blood. Her uniform was damaged and soaked with rainwater. She must be getting exhausted... Any moment now, Uraraka would lose her willpower and Himiko would win.
Her sea of clones formed platforms out of their bodies, and she stepped on hands and limbs to reach her goal. She slowly made her way through the rain and the mass of bodies which all responded to her power. Uraraka fell limp and lay down on the rooftop, breathing heavily. Himiko walked at her own pace, watching Uraraka catch her breath, as she took her time to make her way over.
Himiko gazed around the battlefield around her. Lightning flashed all over the city, the drops and drops grazing her bare skin. As she watched the sky, Himiko saw a small dot flying across the horizon. It flew closer and closer flapping its wings as it glided down to an electrical wire.
A crow, she remembered. The distinct black feathers, and the same-coloured beak.
So similar to the crow from her childhood...
* * *
"Look, look, mommy and daddy! Isn't the crow so pretty?"
She held out a single bird in her hands, dead-eyed and bloodied.
"Oh, my, Himiko!"
"What is that in your hands..?"
"It's a bird. It looks so cute, I just wanted to capture it... Don't you also think it's cute?"
"No, put it down! Take it back where you found it!"
"But I like it. It's mine now."
"I said no, Himiko. We told you to behave! I can't believe you would do something like this!"
"No! Blood... I- I didn't..."
"You killed the sparrow to drink its blood?"
"I just found it in the backyard! I just thought it was cute! I-I'm sorry-"
Her parents' faces were so horror-stricken. Filled with nothing but fear and shock. They didn't spare a single hint of sympathy for her.
She heard them whispering about her too. Late at night when she couldn't sleep, when she came wandering out of her room, wanting their comfort. Their tone was hushed, but she heard every word.
"What are we going to do about her?"
"There's something wrong about Himiko. It's alright, we'll fix her. We'll suppress these weird tendencies."
"It's way worse than I thought it'd be."
She heard a scrape of a chair.
"A dead bird... How did she even manage to catch it herself?"
"We'll take her to see a doctor soon... I don't believe this. I just wanted her to be a normal girl."
"Nothing we say is getting through to her. I don't know anymore."
She remembered the countless trips to the hospital, to mental facilities, to therapists. They all said the same thing. They were going to make her normal. They were going to fix her.
Not one of them explained why she felt these emotions. They didn't bother to figure out what made her different, what caused her to be this way. They told her nothing except that they would shape and remould her so she could become just like everyone else.
Himiko didn't know what they meant, at first. She didn't know at all. Their masked faces and fake smiles scared her more than the dead crow in her hands.
She just wanted to show affection, like how everyone else did. Was there something wrong with that? How did everyone else deal with this feeling? She wanted to become the people she loved. She wanted to look just like they did.
It's not normal, they said.
Repress yourself, they said.
It worked at first. She restrained herself for years. She got through elementary school with no troubles at all. Her parents were finally proud of her, for acting like a normal and sweet girl. Her classmates and her teachers all thought she was innocent. She changed herself and put on a mask, keeping a facade to be cute.
She didn't dare touch another living creature. Not her friends. Not her parents. Especially not birds. She couldn't let that side of her show. She had to behave and act normal.
Yet suppressing herself and ignoring her true nature made her want to do it more. More and more and more. She couldn't control herself.
She would always be an outcast, because of her emotions.
That's why, she wanted to make a world that would be easier for her to live in. A better planet, where she wouldn't be judged for showing her affection. To do that, she would need to win this war, and take control. Destroy everything that stood in her way without a second thought.
Kill the heroes.
Kill Uraraka.
Uraraka stayed on the rooftop, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She stood up, hands clenched on either side. Her short brown hair blew across her face, but she didn't pay it any attention. Her eyes, dulled by the rain, looked directly up at her.
"Toga..." Her voice strained. "Not everything you think about me is true."
"Liar."
"I've also had a hard life. I wasn't always so happy. My family and I struggled to get enough money to live by. I wanted to become a hero... so I could help them lift the burden," Uraraka said.
"At least you had a family, Ochako. At least you had a home where people didn't ostracize you," Himiko scoffed.
"I wasn't born into a perfect life like you said. I had my struggles too. Not everything is as it seems, Toga."
Villain and hero. Here and there. Here, Himiko stood, rising above everyone else with the help of her quirk. Stepping on the bodies of legions of heroes as she puppeted them from above. There stood Uraraka, closer to the earth, a lone hero standing amongst her parade.
"I already told you... I don't need your stupid pity. You're just delaying my death. You're just trying to distract me." Her voice grew fainter with each word she uttered.
Himiko dropped down to the rooftop, baring a knife in each of her hands. They stood opposite to each other, with no obstacles in the way. Her clones spectated, forming thick claws around the building with their bodies.
Uraraka swayed on the spot and brought a hand to her forehead. She shook her head and faced her again.
"Did your parents ever tell you that you were a monster? That you weren't human? Did you ever have to run away from your own home because of something you can't control?"
Himeko swung. Her first knife struck Uraraka's shoulder. She winced in pain but dodged the second knife.
"You can say whatever pretty words you want, but you'll kill me in the end anyway!" Himiko shouted.
Uraraka sidestepped as Himiko thrust her knife, aiming for her neck and heart. She grabbed Himiko's arm, knocking her hand and forcing her to drop the knife.
"I don't want to fi-"
Himiko jabbed with her other knife, Uraraka missing it by less than an inch. Several strands of her hair sliced off and fell to the floor.
Uraraka launched herself into the air, narrowly missing another attack. Himiko walked on top of her clones. They pushed her up, their hands and feet forming pedestals.
Himiko toppled. Uraraka came out of nowhere, shoving her backwards. She felt herself float away from the doubles, flailing to get back to the ground.
"GET HER!" She yelled to them. Hundreds of heroes and villains all rose to meet Uraraka, their hands and weapons outstretched to kill. And yet, all of their punches missed.
Why weren't they killing her? Why couldn't they touch her?
Himiko's clones hovered in the air. Ah, she realized, Uraraka was shifting their gravity.
Her mountain of doubles was gone. Both heroes and clones were forced into the air. They swung around uselessly, unable to move. They were trapped, now under Uraraka's control. They began to float back towards the ground.
"Idiot... You can't even hurt them this way. You're wasting your strength," Himiko sneered.
"I'm- not- trying to hurt them. I don't want to fight them, not now."
"How noble of you, Ochako Uraraka. Spending the last drops of your power for everyone else," Himiko laughed.
"I- I know. But I wouldn't be able to live, knowing someone died in front of me. That I wasn't able to help them," Uraraka said, breathing heavily.
"You would only care if they were a civilian or your own friend... You wouldn't care if I died."
Himiko stared at Uravity, as she was carrying the weight of the world.
"In heroes' eyes, villains don't count as people. You couldn't care less about our fate."
"I do care about you, Toga! I've- "
The same words kept repeating in Himiko's head. Liar. Fake. Deceit. Empty words to get her to lower her guard.
"How did you turn out like this? What made you look so sad?"
"It's your fault, you hypocrite! You're the reason why-"
"You said I can't understand you. You said me and Deku were like everyone else. And you're right. I didn't understand you at all. How could... How could you smile in the middle of a fight?"
The same words everyone else said to her, so many times. That they don't get her. That she was a monster, a freak. Uraraka was repeating the words everyone had already said.
"Shut up. Shut the fuck up!"
Himiko tried to regain control of her doubles, as they were still in the air. Some of them responded and reached out to Uraraka. That stupid girl in the sky. She was so torn and beat up, how was she still alive?
"Why- won't you- just die?"
"Himiko."
She stopped dead in her tracks, a chill going up her spine.
"I'm not saying you should repress yourself."
The raindrops fell on her eyes, her open wounds. It made her skin burn and feel like she was on fire.
"I'm saying... you should show your true emotions. You should show how you really think, and how you truly feel."
Why was she so fucking annoying?
Her clones were getting closer and closer to the ground. Some of them had reached the rooftops already, looking up at the rain and the fight beneath the clouds.
"You have such a lovely smile, Himiko. You went through so much. I want you to smile again, I want you to feel happy."
And if... if you still want to talk, I'll be here for you."
Himiko felt herself falling. Uraraka was there, right beneath her.
"Tell me what you thought back then. Tell me what you're thinking now. Please, I want to know everything."
Her arms were spread apart like she was trying to balance herself. Himiko felt herself fall, closer and closer to the ground beneath. Himiko felt less tied back by Zero Gravity like the power she was fighting against was fading away.
The grip on Himiko's knife tightened. Her muscles tensed, ready to strike, but something stopped her.
She looked down, locking eyes with her rival from the beginning. Her brown eyes were muddied by rain and dust from the battlefield. The soft pastel pink from her cheeks; all faded away.
Her face was so beat up. Splotches of blood were all over her uniform. Her shoulder was still soaked from before. Bruises on her hands, and long scratches along her chin. How much pain was she even in?
"I want to... I want to talk about love with you, Himiko."
"...Love?"
"Yes."
"..."
Her grip on the knife lessened. It fell hundreds of feet onto the concrete roads, then clattered.
"I..."
Ochako's face was so honest. A single tear dripped down her cheek.
She wouldn't... she wouldn't judge Himiko for her emotions.
Not her. Not Ochako.
There was no need for her to show compassion, when all heroes were told to kill the villains.
Was there?
"I... I fall in love easily."
She took a deep breath.
"No matter if they were a boy or a girl, hero or villain, from my past or present.
"I see them all beat up and covered in blood and... I start caring about them so much. I fall in love with them. I love them so much I... I want to become who they are."
Himiko held up her other knife, pointing it downwards with both hands.
Yet, she found her voice. She found her mind forming words she'd wanted to say for so long.
"I fell in love so easily, yet I couldn't tell them. I was scared of getting rejected. I was scared of being told the exact same thing that I'd heard from my parents from someone I really cared about."
"I couldn't tell people how I felt, Uraraka.
"I couldn't tell my first love how much I cared about him.
The words poured out. A stream of blood from her mouth like the cuts on her body.
"His friends called me a freak. A monster. That my feelings weren't human. My parents said the same... Doctors told me the same... Everyone told me the same thing.
"I was an anomaly. I was cast out from everywhere, just because I couldn't control my emotions.
"I was so tired of it, Uraraka. I ran away from everything; I left all of it behind. That's why... I joined the League of Villains."
She could see it. The light in Ochako's eyes was fading away, her warm brown darkening to pitch-black. Himiko felt herself starting to fall out of the sky.
"Ocha- Uraraka! Wake up! Snap out of it!"
They all disappeared, one by one. Streaks of clay and mud and dirt fall from the sky and mix with the rain. Her heart racing and beating and stopping.
Only one sentence replayed again and again in her mind.
I don't want her to die.