A second chance

Fact, two policemen walked out of the chief’s office and began trash talking a well respected and well liked hero. Fact, Himiko acted rashly and jumped at the one speaking the most, choked him out a bit, did some minor damage, and returned to her seat before anyone had their guns drawn. Fact, the cop she jumped had what feels like a silencer and a plastic bag full of an unknown powder in his pockets, and now they are in her pockets. Fact, she had been speaking with Ochako for about a minute before Katsuki interrupted, and now the two of them were conversing with a few of the police.

The two cops from before, were not happy about this, but it seemed everyone speaking outranked them so they just stood there.

What to do. Himiko clouds run. That would end badly. She could say what she knows. That would end badly. She could tell Ochako what she knows, but if Himiko had to guess she had some powerful enemies, chances are that would end badly not only for her, but for Ochako.

Which for no real reason, seemed worse than the other two options.

What did she need? What did she need, something right? If she had something this would be easier. Not blood, she got that and it's not helping. What would help? What would help this situation? Not to be in this situation. Besides that, What did she need? She wasn't a part of this and they were and how does she get that across-

Proof.

 Proof they had something to do with it. Yes, yes proof she had nothing to do it. That second part would be easy, given Himiko hasn't done a single thing in 7 years. If she was seized now, the police would find the contraband and hopefully that would lead to the location they were made. The problem lies in that they will likely find no trace of Himiko, and that will lead to a dead end, or the cops would just lie and say Himiko was clearly there.

She needed proof before anyone figured out what she had on her. She needed more, something that linked the two of them to the crimes without a shadow of a doubt.

She needs time.

She needed so many things. To have not interfered with that burglary to begin with, to have not woken up, to have not found Jin dead, to have not been in the war, to have not been in the league, to have not killed anyone, to have not needed to run away, to have not found that bleeding bird.

to have not been born.

But she wasn't going to get that…

She watched as the two policemen glared at each other, and then their surroundings. Making vague hand gestures, raising and lowering their brows. They were speaking to each other, they were planning something and Himiko didn't have a clue as to what. She hoped that it was how to run away, but Himiko Toga didn't get that lucky. “Right, anyways- I'd love to get this all sorted out I really would” Ochako interrupted Himiko’s train of thought. “What were your names?” She invited the two policemen into the conversation.

Perfect! Perfect perfect perfect they can't run now, come on Ochako do you want me to get arrested?

“Kaito, he’s Ryuga,” the man who was lucky to still have his vocal cords responded.

“Great” The smile Ochako wore on her face twitched every once and a while, and it just occurred to Himiko that it had been for the last few minutes. She looked down, and Ochako’s firsts were clenched, her dress shoes hit the floor impatiently- she's upset, incredibly so. 

At her? At Himiko? 

No no, she must have gotten what Himiko was insinuating, the men were criminals (Himiko didn't know that before attacking them but who cares) and catching them is probably a good thing.

Himiko hadn't done anything wrong- she might have had she not found the silencer and baggy, but she did find them. Himiko wasn't incredibly lucky, but every once in a while, the sun did shine on her. “Ryuga, Kaito please it would be wonderful if I could meet you two in the interrogation room” Ochako turned around “Katsuki, please take Himiko to a separate room. It's only right we treat this like any other assault, we will collect both sides and-”

“Both sides! I- Im a state officer! and she's a registered nuisance to the country of japan, why even bother?”

“Why even bother with what?” Katsuki scoffed “Due process?” He laughed as the two exchanged eye contact, only to come up with no smart ass retort. “Come on smiles you're coming with me”

“She is a murderer!”

“Yeah- I don't, really give a shit. Okay? For all i care im just wondering if we can add another assault charge to her roster, okay? Calm the hell down, you look guilty” Katsuki flipped the two off while gently shoving Himiko’s back in the direction of the integration rooms, every once and a while offering a completely unnecessary comment like “come on, lets go, walk along, little faster shortie” and such.

No wonder he wasn't in the top ten, best heroes or most popular. 

________________

The interrogation room gave Himiko a minute to think. It was dead silent when Katuski was watching her, he wasn't much of a talker. He wasn't patient either, because he happened to leave not even five minutes after he brought her to the room. 

She was alone for about three hours.

They were probably questioning the two cops, and by ‘they’ she means Ochako, who was clearly on Himiko’s side. Really it was shocking, they did attack her cuffed to a rain on the table, but still to just leave her alone while they interrogated literal officers seemed…

Ridiculous.

Maybe things had changed, and due process really was embraced in full swing.

Or maybe, a hero was tipping the scale in her favor.

Obviously the former rather than the later, the question was why? Why go through all this trouble? Why make a park when she died? Because Himiko happened to give her own life for her? Big deal, Himiko was going to die no matter what, she didn't sacrifice herself she just…helped out a little bit.

Just a little. Maybe she wanted to live vicariously through Ochako? It was a selfish thing. She wasn't helping. Ochako was a hero, her friends killed all of Himiko’s friends.

…

Friends. No. yes? Himiko didn't think she had any friends, not growing up, not in the league. They were coworkers- maybe more than that, but not by much. Associates, sure? Himiko cared for them, For Spinner, mage, Tomura, Compress, Dabi and the likes. She cared for them like she would a family, and they did the same for her. 

The issue was none of them had a family, so maybe the way they treated each other wasn't truly all that great. In their own way, they loved each other. Himiko knew that from experience, but looking back on it all: they made each other worse. 

Himiko tried to comfort Dabi, be friends with mage, play cards with compress, but at the end of the day they were killers. Killers who genuinely didn't know if the other would turn up one day and kill them. The only reason they didn't spend their lives in constant fear, was because they didn't care.

Himiko didn't care if Spinner stabbed her one day. Dabi didn't care if Tomura disintegrated them. They didn't have dreams or goals other than the one. If they didn't work out, what else was there?

So Ochako’s friends didn't kill Himiko’s friends, they killed her fucked up family. 

But it was the fucked up family she chose, and that's what made them important. They accepted her. If only for the skills she offered, that was better than what others had done for her. Torment, insult and lie. Himiko had the choice to be with them, that's why she cared.

Himiko’s fucked up family did kill Ochako’s friends though. That she knew.

So why did the other girl insist on helping her?

The door clicked and opened, Ochako walked in with her plastered smile “Sorry that took so long, hope no one bothered you” She looked to the two way mirror, then back to Himiko. “Now then, what's your side of the story?”

“The whole story?”

“That would be helpful”

“Wouldn't it?” Ochako narrowed her eyes and raised her brow. Himiko couldn't help but giggle. She stirred in her seat, slapping the table while laughing “No, let's go back and forth. I answer a question you answer a question”

“Not really how interrogations work-”

“Is that what this is? Normally I don't get apologies at the beginning of those”

“Well, a good amount of things have changed” the brunette clenched her jaw and closed her eyes, then looked at Himiko “Why’d you attack them?”

“Will you answer a question afterwards?” Ochako turned her head away from the two way mirror with her brows upturned and let out a genuine smile, before replacing it with her fake one and turning back to face Himiko and nodded. “They were talking shit, saying you were a royal pain, and must be a villain because my blood coursed through your veins.” As Himiko spoke, Ochako's hand shifted to her own wrist, gently rubbing the veins absentmindedly.

…What was that about?

“It wasn't just one or two comments, they just kept going- and what was I supposed to do? Just sit there?” Himiko lifted her hand, and slammed it onto the metal table, dislocating her thumb. Ochako did not stir, she looked worried but didn't move to stop her, Himiko could hear shifting behind the mirror. She took her hand out of the cuff and pulled the silencer and baggy out of her pockets. “Not only were they talking shit, but I happened to recognize them. The league got a few of their weapons from the police, and whaddya know I happened to see a familiar face in the station.” Himiko smiled.

A complete lie. The men were probably around 40 so the chances they had changed careers was low. Odds are they were cops when Himiko was out and about, and you don't just walk around with a silencer- they were comfortable. They had to have been doing this for a while. It was a guess based on little to no evidence but if Ochako truly wanted to help her, it would be enough. Ochako raised her hand to her mouth, covering it.

Covering a smile.

“Thank you Himiko, I'll be right back”

“Hey, what about my question? Don't tell me you're like every other pig?”

“I'll be right back, don't make me regret that” Ochako pointed to the blonde's now free hand, which Himiko was currently trying to fix. With that, the pro hero bit her tongue and walked out. What an odd way to act, to be so obvious in the fact that you were being watched. Did she want Himiko to know? Did she assume Himiko didn't know they were being watched? If that were the case, her actions were nothing short of adorably kind. A silent don't say anything stupid instead of the please say something stupid Himiko normally got from interrogation officers. 

How sweet.

Himiko wasn't dull enough to believe she would be able to listen into the conversation happening just beyond the glass, she opted to just try and zone out. When nothing came of it, she decided to try and focus. The sounds beyond the glass were muffled, obviously the wall was meant to be soundproof. Himiko glanced up to the camera in the corner, with a more than visible microphone apparatus. If it was off, the only means of knowing what was happening there would be through the screen in a far-off security office, or through the mirror. Nothing Himiko could do about that now, maybe if she got her hand out faster, she could have thrown something to break it. 

No, someone would have noticed that. She’d just have to leave a more secluded conversation with Ochako for a later date. She’d waited this long, what’s a little more?

Back to the muffled noises, Himiko was impressed she could even hear that much, so she focused in. Perhaps in her 7-year absence, the fortifications on the wall have lapsed. Slowly but surely, as Himiko closed her eyes and kept herself perfectly still, she could make out an incredibly annoying voice “...hat about the people she’d already harmed? You’d go and tell them not to worry?” an older man, probably the chief or something.

“No, of course not. I can't make what she did disappear- what I'm saying is why waste a cell when we know she’s going to escape when we can give her a chance to try and right her wrongs” Himiko. A hero. Ochako must have seriously lost it.

“Give her a chance- are you kidding, let her use her quirk in the open! Have you forgotten-” the man was cut off by a genuinely irritated groan that Himiko wouldn't place to Ochako in a million years.

“No, sir. With all due respect there is no way I could forget. I was there, remember? I was fully on the front lines the entire war and did more than this entire precinct combine. So no, I have not forgotten how dangerous she is. It seems you have thought, if you think that a prison cell would keep her” Himiko snickered, she could almost see the insecure and embarrassed look on the chief's face. That a woman 12 times younger than him contributed more to the country than he ever would.

“Not here, somewhere else-” she could hear the man grumble, could hear him shift in his uniform uncomfortably.

“Oh yeah great idea, make her someone else’s problem”

“No, I wouldn't- we’d send her to the most secure spot in japan!”

“Forget it, if not for himiko’s sake then for all the people she will be more than willing to kill to ensure her own safety. If you lock her up, she will get out and lives will be lost. If we keep her here, and try to connect with her I genuinely believe-”

“Well of course you genuinely believe in her, she saved you for some twisted reason-”

“Cut me off one more time i dare you” the room went silent, and if the door to the room she was in didn't damn near rupture her eardrums, she would have heard what the brunette said next.

The door opened up and a woman in a deep burgundy suit walked in, and despite Himiko’s newfound hearing abilities she didn't hear a single step the woman took. Her skin was like porcelain, there wasn't a single blemish or mark across her face or hands, which was all the skin she showed. The suit was form fitting but not overly tight and the blouse underneath covered her up to her neck. Her expression was that of an annoyed parent, until she saw Himiko listening intently to the conversation in the room beside them. “Oh, well it looks like everything is going according to plan” her voice was somehow in her head and out of it all at the same time. Every word she had packed a disembodied melody behind it, one that Himiko couldn't quite put a name towards “I was worried activation would be necessary, but it seems I was mistaken”

“You’re not a cop” Himiko muttered, careful to not make any sudden moves that would halt the conversation Ochako happened to be winning.

“No. No I am not” and with that, the woman closed the door.