Rule #7: Always be specific when you lie.
It's been two days since the incident with Stain: the Hero Killer and five days since class 1-A had started our internships.
All things considered, the punishment that Toru had received was more a slap on the wrist than anything else. Nezu had explained that she would receive a week of suspension, two weeks of community service (to be decided upon at a later date) and she had been enrolled into the Dancing for Delinquents programme that UA ran.
Apparently the idea behind the dance classes was to take the kids who would usually spend their detention slots whittling away the hours, in doing something more productive. The class of delinquents was split into pairs/groups (chosen for them), given a style of dance and the deadline (the school gala) in which they were to perform in front of the whole school.
As far as she could understand, it was supposed to teach the students teamwork, patience, self-confidence and determination among other things—or at least that's what the obnoxiously bright pamphlet said.
Everyone on the news is obsessed with the Hero killer. The story being reported is that eight Pro Heroes and four high school students stumbled upon him. Then Endeavour rushed in and took care of the situation all by himself, of course that's just the official report from the Police department.
After the interrogation with Nezu, Tsukauchi and Karasuma, Toru had been met with Matchstick and Hitoshi who had all but pounced on her the moment they had stepped through the door. A flurry of questions were relentlessly fired at her, whilst bony fingers pawed at her tired frame, turning her this way and that as she was inspected for any lingering injuries.
When she had been deemed well enough by both the mother hens, she had been escorted by the pair down to the boys' room. Upon reaching the assigned room, she had found, to her surprise, Kayano pestering the blushing and awestruck boys with intense questions in a chirpy tone. At her arrival, it was soon discovered that both Rio and Karma were left to the wander the hospital together alone. Panic was not quite the word that Toru would've used.
The chief was true to his word. Myself, Midoriya, Todoroki and Iida were never named in connection to the Hero Killer with our injuries explained away as accidents procured during our internships.
When Kayano had dragged Hitoshi off to find where the troublemakers, Rio and Karma were hiding (Toru suspected that they were scouring the cafeteria for wasabi, mustard and hot sauce packets), the Police Chief Tsuragamae Kenji, Manual, Gran Torino and Matchstick sat the four of the high school students down to talk.
They had been lectured about how Quirks were used by licensed heroes, and the strict code of ethics that went along with it. They had been told that each of their supervisors would receive gross punishments for the illegal use of their powers. They had chosen to have Endeavour take the acclaim for the incident, so—aside from Toru—the boys got off lightly. Tsuragamae had even formally thanked them for their efforts.
Following that, Iida returned home so that his mother could take of care him there. The test results he had received that day showed that one of his arms had been so seriously damaged that they were unsure if it would ever be fixed.
Midoriya remained in the hospital for the rest of the week, due to the severity of his injuries. Toru was almost convinced that Recovery Girl had reserved an infirmary bed specifically for the green-haired boy back at UA, just because he spent so much time in there, whether intentional or not.
Todoroki's injuries weren't all that bad and he returned to his internship with his father for the rest of the week. He had all but stated that he was returning only to spite his father, who despite getting the public's praise for the takedown of the Hero Killer, never even laid a finger on the man. He had also promised to retrieve Toru's items from the agency.
As for Toru, after a rather heated wheelchair race down the hall between herself and her friends (she was convinced that Rio and Karma had cheated!), she had been declared well enough to be discharged. Following that, she remained glued to the couch in Aizawa-Sensei's apartment where she slept away the last two days buried beneath a mountain of cats and mothered by a combination of Hitoshi (who stopped by on Sunday and was still there), Present Mic (who Toru was convinced was more than just Aizawa-Sensei's colleague; seeing as he had barged in and had filled the fridge with all kinds of home-cooking like soup and sandwiches without being told twice) and Aizawa-Sensei who also spent most of the weekend asleep, although that wasn't unusual.
"Hold still" Hitoshi scolded keeping a hold of her ankle so that he could finish the little purple and yellow flowers he had been painting on each of her toe nails.
"Sorry" Toru apologised quietly when she shifted slightly. An absentminded hand ran through the thick fur of the purring Kenta who lay on her stomach, as she watched the latest video making the rounds on the dark net. It turned out to be a propaganda video of Stain: the Hero Killer and Ritsu had flagged it before she had sent her a notification with a link to the video. Readjusting the earphone in her ear, Toru pressed play on her phone and the video began to stream.
An image of Stain appeared on the title card with his name in both English and Kanji, before it was wiped clean with the sound of gunshots and several cartoon splotches of blood appearing on the screen.
"The Hero Killer, Stain. Real name: Chizome Akaguro. As a child he was greatly inspired by All Might's debut. He enrolled in a private hero high school but was dismayed at what he viewed as educational skewed system of what it meant to be a hero.
Several news images were shown in powerpoint format as kanji floated up the screen and a young masculine voice narrated the short clip.
Throughout his teenager years, Chizome advocated for a return to the early days of heroes, but quickly realised that words had no power. For the next ten years, he trained in killing techniques in order to fulfil his self-appointed duty. During this time, his parents passed away and police eventually ruled this as a tragic accident.
His focus was on a return to the old days. He believed heroes should not seek compensation, that one should optimise the idea of 'self-sacrifice'. He believed that present day Pros were frauds and through his violent purges, he hoped society would eventually side with him"
Here, the video showed a fuzzy clip of Stain perched on the edge of a building, his raspy voice loud and clear over the video. "…These streets…MUST RUN WITH THE BLOOD OF THESE HYPOCRITES! HERO! I WILL RECLAIM THAT WORD! COME ON! JUST TRY AND STOP ME YOU FAKES! THERE IS ONLY ONE PERSON I'LL LET KILL ME! HE IS A TRUE HERO! ALL MIGHT IS WORTHY!"
Clicking out of the site, Toru let her phone collapse against her chest, nibbling at her lower lip, she let her thoughts turn inwards. It scared Toru, how much of her own views and teachings were reflected in Stain's.
