Chapter Text
Tonight was Toukou’s first patrol after an entire week of sitting around doing nothing. His energy is nearly through the roof as he literally trembles in excitement after lacing up his shoes. Like a dog straining at the end of its leash, he waits not so patiently for Touya to release the proverbial clasp.
“Geez, calm down kid, I’ll let you out in a second,” Touya stands with mock seriousness in front of the door, but his twitching lips give away how amusing he finds his brother’s eagerness. “You remember the rules right?”
“Of course I do!”
“Humor me.”
Toukou narrows his eye in annoyance. It’s only been a week, just let me go already you helicopter parent! He thinks mulishly, giving in with a huff knowing full well he won’t be allowed out otherwise. “Avoid major injuries, stay away from deals and gangs, and text you my location if something goes wrong.”
“Good job, you passed the test. Don’t cause too much chaos, I can’t exactly come save your ass tonight since I’ve been bullied into resting,” Touya turns and undoes the lock, giving the door a firm shove to get it open. As soon as he can, Toukou slips past and sprints into the city.
Empty streets and run down store fronts blur past as he darts to the center of his usual patrol territory, a derelict office building with a spacious flat roof and an amazing view. He clambers up the old rusty fire escape, pausing at the top to revel in the cool evening breeze. Musutafu lights stain the sky orange in the distance creating a surreal feeling of isolation in the abandoned void of Shinagawa ward.
It was time to get to work.
The first part of patrol nights are always Toukou’s favorite and utilized a skill he has spent years developing, refining, and expanding. Sitting cross-legged, he suffuses his consciousness through every droplet of water and vapor in a 500 meter radius. Like this he can keep track of virtually any movement big or small for hours on end. The experience is wholly unique. When he had first done this his range was much smaller, barely a few feet from his body (which he has since perfected for use in close range combat), but over time he learned to adjust to this strange way of “seeing”. It boils down to this; similar to visual information, things at different distances require a different level of focus. Focusing on immediate surroundings is like staring at it head on, while things farther afield get fuzzy and vague akin to peripheral vision.
Rats and stray cats prowl the alleys down below, fading into obscurity by the end of the block as their movement is deemed unimportant. Not many people are out tonight, those who are move swiftly or form small clusters of two to three indicative of open air drug deals.
Time crawls forward filled with monotony, Toukou is convinced nothing of interest will happen before he has to head back. Or he would have been if the distinct feeling of a limp body falling to the ground hadn’t registered on the very fringes of his awareness.
Honing in on something so close to the edge of his senses takes a bit of effort. However, once he does, Toukou can just barely make out a second presence. This one is small, at least half the size of the body on the ground and seems to be listing side to side as if dazed. Keeping close watch of the situation, Toukou rises to take a running leap onto the neighboring roof, practically flying over streets and alleys along the way to his target. In no time at all, he’s jumping down into the dark crevice between two buildings ready to stop or clean up whatever’s happened.
Now, Toukou has seen dead bodies before, never as the direct cause, but he has witnessed death, and nothing about it ever got easier. The alley reeks of blood and garbage, red liquid pools beneath what can now be confirmed as a very dead body. A stab wound through the neck means the man either bled out or choked to death on his own blood. Nothing about the victim looked particularly special, no unusual features, no valuables, no weapons. So why was he killed? The answer to that question had been lurking in the shadows since Toukou’s arrival, still just as unsteady but now in a way that feels distinctly unhinged instead of dazed like first assumed.
Voice high pitched with a childish lilt, the person speaks, “Who are you?” They don’t seem particularly concerned at being caught red-handed, merely curious. Nor do they have any qualms speaking loudly in the dead of night. Fortunate for Toukou who had left his hearing aids at home as he usually does when on patrol, though he did have trouble grasping all of the words without view of the persons mouth. Which left the problem of holding an actual conversation.
Cell phones are a wonderful thing, text-to-speech apps especially. The robotic voice is halting and awkward, but beggars can’t be choosers. “Are you the one who killed this man?”
Inching slowly toward the body, the person shrugs, “I’m thirsty.” Revealed by the dim yellow glow of light pollution is a waifish young girl holding a bloodied switchblade. Her hair is stringy and limp and absolutely coated in grime making in nearly impossible to distinguish its original color. The high school uniform she wears is in a similar state, with a fresh splatter of blood down the front, and is quite obviously stolen given how it hangs loosely off her frame.
“That doesn’t explain why you killed him. Couldn’t you have just stolen his wallet?” Toukou knows from experience that stealing what you need is infinitely easier than harming or killing another person, so what made this girl think differently?
Bright golden eyes, with pupils blown almost impossibly wide, stare back with unnerving intensity. Instead of justifying her actions with words, the girl opens her mouth, showing off a set of fangs not unlike those of a vampire bat.
“You… need his blood?” Mutation quirks are known to clash with the general populations concept of “human” quite often. Animal mutations in particular often have unsavory dietary needs such as raw meat, bugs, or even live prey. Blood quirks are extremely rare, often demonized, and have very few accommodations. If his hunch is correct the girl before him has a bat quirk, at least in part.
“Uh-huh!” she confirms, “I tried asking nicely but he kept refusing and trying to run away so I stopped him!” Bare feet shuffle impatiently, “Um, can I drink him now?”
Okay, sure, why not. The body wasn’t getting any less dead, may as well let the girl eat before someone else comes along. Better keep her from touching it though, cops and heroes are uncommon here but it’s still best to keep finger prints and DNA off of crime scenes regardless. Here’s to hoping his water bottle survives what he’s about to do.
“I’ll let you drink on two conditions. One, you let me get the blood for you, and two, you come with me afterwards.”
“Why do I need to go with you though?”
“Because I can connect you to a legal source of blood as well as shelter. A bath certainly wouldn’t hurt either.”
She considers his conditions for a few moments, tilting her head back and forth in thought. While she’s distracted, Toukou works on drawing fresher blood from the cooling body like he had planned on doing whether or not she agreed.
Manipulating bodily fluids has always been highly unpleasant, not to mention more difficult. Working as quickly as he can, Toukou leeches the ferrous liquid through the hole in the corpse’s neck and funnels it carefully into the beat up plastic water bottle he kept in his hoodie pocket during patrol. It only took a split second of looking away to put on the lid for the girl to get very close, mouth open slightly as if scenting the air, her panting breaths brush against his hands.
“Is that for me? Can I have it? Oh, please let me have it!” The hand holding her knife twitches in anticipation. Obviously, she was willing to throw away Toukou’s offer of help for her next meal.
Uncomfortably aware of the weapon hovering near his abdomen, Toukou holds the bottle securely out of reach to type out one last question with his free hand. “Are you going to come with me after I give it to you?”
“Yeah, yeah, now gimme!” she attempts to make grabby hands, just barely managing to not fumble the blade.
He supposed that was good enough.
The water bottle is relinquished to overeager hands which cradle it greedily against a blood stained chest. Sharp teeth impatiently pop open the top before latching on to take huge gulps of the warm liquid. Like a child after play, she barely pauses for breath, merely gasping between each mouthful in her rush to get it all down.
Toukou takes this chance to frisk the body. Any yen notes or valuables are quickly pocketed, in this case that means close to ten thousand yen, a set of keys, and a decent quality cellphone. A perfect collection of peace offerings for when Touya finds out he’s bringing a complete stranger to their home, one that might be a little bit unhinged at that.
Small hands suddenly latch around his waist, emptied bottle held loosely by languid fingers. Everything about the girl now seems relaxed and sleepy as she leans all of her weight against his back. She sighs with enough force to displace the hair around Toukou’s ear, speaking in a much quieter tone.
“So, when are we leaving?”
“Right now if you want,” his phone’s tinny voice runs the risk of disrupting the newly relaxed atmosphere, but the girl does nothing more than nuzzle her face into the junction between Toukou’s shoulder and neck.
“Mmm… ’kay,” she fully falls asleep after that, leaving him lurching to catch her before she slumps to the ground. Her abrupt behavior change had thrown him off guard, though those with animal based quirks often became calm and lethargic after eating what they crave so it made sense.
You’d think carrying the dead weight of a body several centimeters taller than himself would be difficult. That was not the case here. Apparently this girl came across food about as often as he and Touya did, that is to say, not often enough. She must weight only a kilogram more than Toukou if that. This did make carrying her piggyback style all the way back home incredibly easy, even if he had to navigate city streets instead of recklessly free running across rooftops.
Steering clear of the scant light cast by mostly broken streetlights, he managed to avoid the notice of anyone else. Consequently, getting back took much longer than usual and with the recent excitement Toukou had forgotten to text Touya about being late, or their impromptu house guest. Something he is abruptly reminded of after fumbling through the door to the sight of an irate older brother.
“What in the ever loving FUCK were you thinking, staying out so late without even a text?!” Touya stands just feet from the front door, arms crossed and in prime position to flat out yell at his mostly deaf sibling. So focused is he on his worry fueled rant that he completely overlooks the unconscious girl slumped on Toukou’s back at first. “I was gearing up to torch the whole district to get to you before your tracker started heading back! What took you so long anyway? You aren’t injured are you? Do need to call Saya down here—… Who the hell is that?”
Toukou huffs and pins his brother with a withering look, hiking the girl on his back up higher from where she had started to slip. To which she scrunches her nose with a sleepy grumble, tightening her grip on his neck briefly before firmly pressing her nose back against his pulse point with a deep sigh. Touya looks downright scandalized at the sight of a complete stranger just short of mouthing his younger brother’s neck. A few more seconds of intense one eyed staring, however, quickly makes him give in.
“Ugh, fine!” Spindly arms throw themselves up in exasperated defeat.
Together they manage to maneuver the girl’s unconscious form into Touya’s arms so Toukou could take off his shoes. Normally he’d take off his eyepatch as well but with a complete unknown sharing their space for the time being that wasn’t really an option. Keys are swapped for hearing aids from the small trinket dish near the door on the way to the main living area, where a rather strange scene greets him.
Touya had taken the time to remove the girls still damp with blood sweater, tuck her into their own futon, and was now running his fingers through long blonde hair, gently working through the worst of the knots. It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise really; he had been in charge of a young child since he was twelve. Toukou was just shocked his brother’s mother hen tendencies were capable of applying to someone else.
“Ahem,” Toukou clears his throat pointedly, relishing in Touya’s reactive lurch and inaudible string of curses. “What happened to being mad at me for bringing a stranger home, huh?” he signs with a toothy grin.
“Yeah, well, that was before I picked her up and realized she weighs little more than you and is paler than I am after a bullet wound!” Touya gestures in distress. “Why did you bring her home anyway? You’ve never brought home a stray before, and she isn’t injured or sick. The only real issue seems to be her being unconscious so you could have just dropped her off at the shelter.”
Toukou riffles through his pockets briefly before starting his explanation, retrieving his pilfered goods. “Frisked these off the corpse of the man she was standing near when I found her,” he hands over the phone, keys, and yen notes. Touya takes them, holding up the phone with one brow raised in question. “Yes I factory reset the phone, I’m not stupid. Anyway, turns out she was just frantic to meet a quirk requirement which unfortunately seems to be ingesting blood of some sort. After I talked her down from further violence, I offered to let her drink if she came home with me. Offering was a bit of a moot point in the end since she passed out immediately after getting what she needed, bringing her home was really the only option at that point.”
There’s a brief lull in the conversation as Touya mulls over the situation. They’ve never had a third person sharing their space before, not even Saya stays in their apartment for more than a few hours at a time. “First things first,” the older begins. “We need to get her name at least, keep an eye out for missing person alerts even though I have no intention of turning her in, last thing she needs is having CPS after her. Knowing quirk specifics would also be useful, such as if animal blood also works, health conditions that might pop up related to her diet, etc.. Dropping her off at the homeless shelter is still a tentative option if we get Auntie on our side but only if they can help her manage her quirk effectively and without discrimination.” Touya scrubs his hands over is face in both exhaustion and worry. “For tonight, let’s put her dirty sweater in the tub to wash tomorrow. Surely some of my old clothes will fit her so she can shower and change into something clean in the morning. Now go put on your pajamas or something, I’ll try to make us a place to sleep.”
Sleep sounded wonderful after the events of the day. Toukou didn’t even care that their only bed wasn’t an option, Touya has always made a fantastic pillow. His sleep clothes are still piled sadly in the corner where he had shucked them that morning, easy enough to grab with one hand, leaving the other free to grab the girl’s grimy sweater on the way to the bathroom where it gets chucked straight into the bathtub. Soon to follow is a ball of black fabric and two inside out socks. Toukou gives himself a quick but thorough rinse off with water pulled from the sink, taking extra care to remove the black makeup residue still in his eye lashes and brows (eye patch removed in the end for comforts sake). Once he’s sufficiently clean, he dries himself off and pulls on his pajamas, haphazardly shoving his phone, hearing aids, and a black fabric headband from the cabinet into his short’s pockets. These black headbands hide all over their apartment. A leftover from his childhood when real medical eye coverings were too expensive.
Mouth opening in a jap popping yawn, Toukou leaves the bathroom to hunt down whatever weird sleep nest Touya has built for tonight. He is not disappointed. Touya had gathered all of their clothing and spare blankets into a pile that spilled out of the closet like some sort of shadow creature and has propped himself against the wall, scrolling on his phone, whose screen is now the only source of light in the room.
When they were both younger and smaller, their preferred method of sleeping was huddled up together on the closet floor surrounding by any soft things they owned at the time. Touya was too big to fit comfortably anymore which meant he had to sleep in the main room, but Toukou was still small enough to monopolize the diminutive space.
Their guest has curled up into a tight ball under the kakebuton. Hopefully, they could help her more tomorrow once she had finally slept as long as her body needed. Toukou knew how hard it was to sleep through hunger, he could only imagine how much harder it would be when that hunger is quirk driven. If only they could have her live here with them, where they could keep an eye on her, but they just didn’t have the money to do so. At least at the shelter it would be easy to pop in and check on her from time to time.
No matter how tomorrow went, it was bound to be interesting. At least it was a Saturday.
Toukou nudges Touya’s legs out of the way from where they block the closet door. Touya doesn’t even look up from his phone screen that he’s quite intensely focused on, merely curling his legs into his chest to prop himself more securely against the wall.
Finally Toukou is free to squeeze through the small gap created by the closet door and its bottom shelf. The floor is padded with old, outgrown clothing creating a wonderfully cozy cave of soft fabric. Even better, his favorite fleece blanket was laid out on top. Touya usually threw fits over him trying to bring the thing to bed around March every year, claiming it was too warm. One of the many perks of being able to control his temperature Toukou supposed, he was never too warm or too cold unless he chose to be. He was very much looking forward to having it for the night, at least.
One of the thickest hoodies gets folded into a makeshift pillow which Toukou places close to the closet opening so he isn’t breathing stifling hot air all night. Finally (and with minimal whacking of limbs off walls) he’s able to settle in for what’s left of the night.
Unfortunately, he receives a rather rude awakening shortly after noon via a bony elbow to the ribs. Wheezing out a pained breath, he wriggles out from beneath the body and splintered wood pinning him down. The mystery body turns out to be Touya, pinned by a snarling blur of blonde furiously trying to stab him. Toukou rushes to stop the girl before anyone is hurt beyond a few splinters from their now demolished closet door. He quickly uses his quirk to gently separate and restrain the increasingly distressed girl, her aggression transforming into wide-eyed panic once she realizes she can’t move, mouth frantically forming words too fast to decipher.
Touya carefully extracts himself from the mess of torn rice paper and balsa wood splinters. “I’m gonna go talk with Auntie,” he signs clumsily around a bloody gash in his palm, “Try and calm her down enough to at least take a shower. She’s obviously scared of me, so I’ll stay out of sight until you’ve explained things to her.”
Toukou nods absently in acknowledgement, too preoccupied with watching the now alarmingly still girl in his grasp. Once he’s certain Touya is out of the apartment he deftly retrieves his hearing aids and headband from his short’s pocket. The chaos from before leaves the room nearly silent even with his hearing aids in, but after a few seconds Toukou can pick up on a faint murmuring coming from the girl before him.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please don’t make Himiko go! Himiko will behave for mommy, promise! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts-” the girl, possibly Himiko, continues to panic and plead to the air, firmly trapped in whatever memory her brain had conjured. Toukou was… Concerned over the contents of her mumbling. Whatever had happened to put this girl on the street seemed much worse than the risks that came with being homeless.
Unfortunately nothing could be done about the past, something Toukou knew quite well, but at least now he and Touya could help the girl get back on her feet. Before that could happen though she needed to calm down. The only issue came with Himiko(?) being a stranger so anything that would help or cause further distress was beyond him.
Well. When all else fails, try what you know.
The futon and kakebuton were fortunately splinter free if a bit rumpled where they had been launched into the wall. Keeping a close eye on their carefully restrained guest, Toukou hastily straightens out the bedding. Next, he gently maneuvers the girl to comfortably sit on the mattress before cautiously releasing her from his quirk’s hold. She had stopped thrashing before Touya left and fortunately didn’t start doing so again after being released, though she was still firmly stuck in her own head. Toukou slowly and carefully drapes the thick quilt around her shoulders and over her head hoping to provide some sort of comfort without actually touching her. Armed with his carefully curated playlist of cat videos, Toukou sits cross legged on the empty part of the mattress, placing his phone between them, and hits play.
The first video gets her to stop mumbling, the second has her posture relaxing, and by the third she starts cracking smiles at some of the goofier cats. Five videos in and she says the first coherent words since arriving.
“Sorry about your door…” she mumbles sheepishly into the blanket she’s huddled in.
Toukou shrugs and waves off the apology, “It’s alright. The thing needed new rice paper anyway, I’m just glad you didn’t damage my brother too badly.”
Gold eyes stare in bemusement.
“I thought you couldn’t talk!” she blurts, immediately cringing at the bluntness of her question. “Sorry. I, um, don’t like strangers. Usually I don’t have a knife on me but…”
“This time you did,” Toukou finishes. He couldn’t really judge the girl for her reaction anyway, that would make him a hypocrite.
“Well,” he begins, “Let’s solve the first problem then. My name is Toukou, my brother’s name is Touya, and we are currently in our apartment. Upstairs is our aunt who will have breakfast ready in about an hour. This building is around half a kilometer away from where you were last night in an abandoned part of Shinagawa ward. As for why I’m talking now when I didn’t last night; I have my hearing aids in. I don’t take them with me on patrol because I hate them. Now for my questions. What’s your name and is your difference in behavior between last night and now quirk related?”
“My name is Himiko,” she pauses. It takes her a moment of obvious reluctance, but the explanation eventually comes. “…Last night is what happens if I go too long without drinking. My brain goes all fuzzy and all I can think about is getting my next meal. Once I drink enough I go back to normal, panic attacks notwithstanding.” Himiko trails off after that to pick at her nails in an obvious attempt to avoid the topic being discussed further. A topic which Toukou had no issues changing, though he made a mental note to warn her about sharing so much when a simple “yes” or “no” would have sufficed given the types of creeps who could easily take advantage of a drawback like that.
For now they should both get ready to head up to Auntie’s which will most likely take longer than usual given the amount of grime Toukou will have to wash out of Himiko’s clothes. Though even then they might not survive given the sheer amount of staining and holes… On second thought maybe he’ll just give her some of Touya’s old stuff like he suggested earlier.
He nods decisively. “Wait here for a second while I get the bath ready, I know for a fact mud and blood encrusted clothes don’t feel great. There should be clothes around here that fit you.”
Himiko looked—uncomfortable with the idea but didn’t protest in anticipation of getting out of her stiff and flaky blouse.
“Don’t worry,” Toukou assures her, “The door locks from the inside and you have my full permission to stab anyone who enters without your consent, including me.” He leaves her giggling on the futon to collect his own filthy clothes (plus her still tacky sweater) from where he dumped them in the bath tub last night. A quick blast of boiling water takes care of the bloody smudges left behind. Water from the faucet is allowed to run until warm while he retrieves detergent from under the bathroom sink, at which point he plugs the drain. Steam rises comfortingly from the slowly rising water, condensation forming on the mirror and clinging to the single bottle of 3 in 1 shampoo on the tubs inner corner.
Their tub took about five minutes to fill so he had some time to put the dirty clothes on the patio and find Himiko something clean to wear. Speaking of Himiko, she seemed to have made herself right at home in the main room. She’d switched to laying on her stomach and swinging her feet in the air behind her while fiddling around on his cell phone. As far as he could tell she was just continuing with the cat videos from earlier, so he didn’t mind.
“Ahem,” he clears his throat to grab her attention, “I have the water running so if you want you can go check the temperature, see if it’s to your liking. I’ll be there with clothes for you in a second, just let me get this stuff outside.” Toukou gestures with the items in his hands as if it wasn’t obvious what he was talking about.
Himiko abandons the phone as she rolls over to stand. With an acquiescing nod, she pads down the hall with footsteps only slightly sticky from last night.
He could feel her testing the water as he opened the sliding door leading to the patio with his foot. Each apartment had one though theirs was in worse shape than most being on the ground floor, all cracked and covered with over grown weeds. Practically unusable by anyone else’s standards but perfect for laundry, cleaning out messier wounds, or just getting some fresh air sheltered by the balcony above. Toukou, being the glorified washing machine and designated nurse he was, spent the most time out here.
From the angle of the meagre rays of sunlight spotting the over grown courtyard, he figured he had maybe forty minutes to waste before breakfast. Well, technically lunch now as it was nearing one in the afternoon. Washing such a small amount of clothing wouldn’t take nearly that long so he and Himiko may head out sooner if she was ready.
The routine came easily after a decade of practice. Warm water flowing directly from his left hand, one cap full of liquid detergent into the resulting bubble, shove in clothes then swish vigorously. One, two, three rinses until the water ran clear and suds free and voila! Blood and mud free clothing. No need for drying either since he could pull the water straight out of the garments.
As he expected, Himiko’s sweater was well and truly stained with large splotches of reddish brown against the formerly cream colored fabric. The rest of her clothes were most likely in a similar state and would be just as unusable when he finally got around to cleaning them. Touya’s hand-me-downs would work for now but what about when she left? Auntie was much too tall for any of her clothes to fit the petite girl. Maybe the shelter would have something when they took her there later. They’d let her stay here if they could, but they just didn’t have the resources, at least the shelter had clothing, food, heating, and other basic necessities. Volunteers there were also required by law to provide for any quirk needs that impact a person’s health so getting blood for her would be no problem either.
Well, that could be discussed later over food.
Leaving the detergent outside for later, Toukou steps back inside and closes the door behind him. Wading through Touya’s blanket pile and carefully shuffling aside larger bits of broken door, he set the bundle of clean clothing on his shelf of the small closet. Stuff the brothers had out grown was kept on the top shelf in a disorganized mess of black and dark blue. He was much too short to reach the top shelf though, so he simply pulled everything down onto the floor. Cleaning up was a problem for future him anyway.
Rifling through threadbare tees, scuffed jeans, and the occasional shoe, Toukou finally found something in both the right size and condition. A relatively unharmed pair of black sweatpants, a black t-shirt with a large white circle on the front, and a pair of slightly too large black sneakers. Neatly folding and stacking the articles, he carries them over to the bathroom door, setting them down just outside before knocking softly on the frosted glass.
“Himiko,” he called, “I found some clothes for you, they’re right outside the door. I’ll be in the main room so come find me when you’re done, and we’ll go have something to eat.”
Muffled splashing and a hasty, squeaked out “Okay!” assured him she had heard, though he felt a bit bad about startling her.
Toukou settled next to the futon in a corner both out of sight of the bathroom door and away from any wooden shrapnel, bending down to snatch up his phone as he did so. It seemed Touya had texted him while he was busy to tell him lunch would be ready in twenty, now ten, minutes. He’d expected a text from his brother of some sort, it was the out of place notification below it that got his attention.
He and Tokoyami-san had exchanged numbers earlier that week because of their shared training but he definitely wasn’t expecting a text from the rather withdrawn boy outside of school hours and certainly not on a weekend. While the message was unexpected in and of itself it was the contents that really caught him off guard.
What on earth?