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As Keigo made his way through the tunnels, fleeing from the HPSC men, the echoes of heavy boots surrounded him.
“You realize I can help you, right?” Todoroki Touya shouted after him, voice deep and raspy. He limped as he walked, occasionally dragging his right foot along the ground.
“I don’t want your help, Bullseye,” Keigo said, spitting the words out. Just being around this man made him nauseous.
“Don’t call me that.” When Touya caught up to him, breathing heavily and raggedly, Keigo didn’t move; he wasn’t going to run away. “Besides, if you don’t want my help, why are you helping me in the first place?”
“I’m not helping you.”
“You are.” They were so close that Keigo could feel the villain’s breath on his chin, exposed by his red mask. Bullseye’s heartbeat, audible—for him—even from several blocks away, quickened as if it were one with Keigo’s. “You’re just too stuck in your own moral compass to accept this, but don’t worry, little devil.” Touya’s voice took on a dangerous tilt. “I had to get my mind back.”
“Hey,” Keigo interrupted, displeased by his rapid, shallow breathing and the trembling of his body. “Calm down.”
“I am calm!” Touya threw his head back and laughed. “I’m gonna make things right. I’m gonna help—”
Keigo grabbed him by the throat and pushed him against the wall. Touya groaned in pain, his carotid artery throbbing beneath his glove like a dying star. The villains hands grasped his. Keigo pulled him so close their lips were almost touching.
“You wanna do one good thing in a life full of shit?” he snarled. When Touya groaned, he tightened his grip on his throat a little more. “I got it for you.”
“You know—” Touya wheezed and patted Keigo’s hand. He huffed but let him go.
He started coughing as air rushed into his lungs. After a few minutes, he recovered, leaned his head back, and took deep breaths.
“You know I can’t make any promises, right?” he said breathlessly. Keigo could feel the smile forming on Touya’s face, a smile he never tried to hide, deep in his own bones. “But I guess even bad wolves can be good, huh? What do you want me to do?”
Keigo said nothing, just grinned at this man obsessed with finding his North Star.
Touya let out an exaggerated sigh, but when he spoke, his voice was almost soft. “You know, in another world you would be defending me.”
Keigo approached the tunnel junction with calm, confident steps. As the pebbles crunched under his boots, he focused on the voices, pulses, breaths, and warmth of the men pursuing them. All he found was a deep endless void.
Touya had long known his true identity, the other side of the coin, his ordinary life.
Takami Keigo.
Attorney Takami, from Usagiyama and Takami law firm.
Daredevil.
A lawyer and vigilante who was blinded in his youth when radioactive materials were spilled in his eyes, and as a result, his remaining four senses have been heightened to superhuman levels.
He was raised in various orphanages after his father, Thief Takami, was killed by the mafia. He was later trained by a vigilante named Lady Nagant to hone his senses and become a warrior. But Keigo was more compassionate than his senpai, which led him to be rejected by Nagant.
When he chose to study law, he attended UA University, where he met his closest friend, Usagiyama Rumi. After graduating, he dedicated his life to fighting injustice in Fukuoka; working as a lawyer at Usagiyama and Takami law firm during the day, and as a vigilante fighter known as the Masked Man at night. His crime-fighting activities eventually brought him into conflict with the HPSC.
One thing led to the other, and when the Hero Public Safety Commission’s President killed Magne, a member from the League of Villains, Todoroki and the others vowed revenge. But the HPSC and Touya had a much longer history together. Enji Todoroki, the owner of Endeavor, Japan’s biggest law firm, was involved in shady dealings and deep-seated agreements with the Commission, and Touya, Enji’s firstborn, was also implicated.
Keigo had learned all of this while trying to put the pieces together, and he could never look at Touya the same way again.
He didn’t even want to mention how his feelings had ignited when Keigo was with him.
Touya, who once worked for the FBI, wanted to make his father proud, but his path led him down a darker road…
Todoroki Touya.
Dabi.
Bullseye.
Keigo placed his hand on the wall and focused on the vibrations. He tried to calculate how far away the men chasing them were. But it was futile. While Touya was here, his senses were heightened. He wasn’t sure if this was to his advantage or disadvantage.
He rested his forehead on his arm, the devil horns of his faded, torn costume, now more black than red, scraping against the wall. He sighed. He could feel Bullseye’s pulse quickening with each breath in his own veins. He could feel the salty taste of tears burning his lips, running from Touya’s eyes to his chin, then to his neck and chest. Damn it.
He lifted his head and turned around. The letters DD on his chest felt heavy against his skin, as if they were etched with blazing metal.
“Maybe,” Keigo began, his voice, though he tried to sound cold and emotionless, was soft and hopeful. That was the most frightening part.
“Huh?” Touya flinched, tripping over his own feet. Keigo bit his lower lip to keep from smiling. “Maybe what?”
Keigo closed the distance between them in a few steps. Now, here, their breaths mingling, feeling the warmth radiating from Touya’s body in his own soul, Keigo whispered. It became a light in the darkness, opened a door of hope to eternity. “Maybe I will defend you in this world too.”