07 • New Beginnings

In the end, I decided it wouldn't be a good idea to call the police just because I wanted to sleep. Instead I pulled on some latex gloves and got to work on mostly faking a crime scene. With my blood all over the kitchen floor, and all the blood readily available to me in the backyard, it wasn't too hard.

Since the only remains of the family were hands and scraps of clothes, it's not too much of a stretch to say two kids met the same fate when there's only bloody clothes left in their place.

To make it even more realistic as to why there aren't any body parts of the youngest members of the household, I…

I never hurt a child in my life, never killed one, it's against my morals. I've seen plenty of dead and dying kids, I've killed in their name but I never took a weapon against someone smaller and weaker than me.

Even now, as Rena and five-years-old, tussling with Tenko and getting into fights at school, I never made any moves to hurt them.

Hana was just nine. She was family.

And Tenko unwittingly killed her while I buried what's left of her in Mother's flower garden.

With no body parts of any of the Shimura Children, we'd all be marked as dead or missing. Hopefully dead with the blood evidence left behind. With the zero chance of a similar crime scene appearing, and no living relatives to speak of or console, the case will most likely be dropped.

Though, just to make sure that we would be marked as dead, I called the police and pulled out all the stops on acting like a scared shitless little girl that just witnessed her brother be killed and hid only to be discovered and ruthlessly murdered.

Not before packing everything Ten and I would need, waking him up and gently asking him to wait for me down the street.

It's not exactly a good idea to still be at the crime scene when the police arrive, especially when you're trying to convince them you just died over the phone.

Now, several blocks away from the blood and house, hidden in an alley, I grasp my brother's gloved hand tightly just as I begin to hear the sounds of sirens.

"Come on," I murmur to him, easily pulling him along deeper into the alley and away from any cameras.

Shimura Rena and Tenko are dead. Now it's just Rena and Tenko.

ʕง•ᴥ•ʔ

When Todoroki Touya woke up that morning, he knew it wasn't going to be a good day. Mostly because he still ached from the training he endured the day before, but also because there was a pit of dread in his stomach that he couldn't explain.

He went through his morning routine with extra care, carefully listening for footsteps and another's breathing. By the time he made his way to the kitchen, he could feel his anxiety crawling under his skin. The scorching heat of his flames in his veins certainly didn't help.

Stepping into the dining room, he was confused to find his mother and siblings happily chatting. They're never so lively with Father around so..

Shoulders slumping in relief, Touya grins at his family. Father must be out for them to be so relaxed. That means he doesn't have another training session to push through and risk throwing up or passing out.

Everything was pointing towards a nice day of relaxing with his family, yet that pit of dread he woke up with still won't leave him. It left him on edge during his interactions with his Mother.

She questioned him about his health, which he insisted was alright, before deciding they'd stay inside for the day. He felt guilty for concerning her but as they settled on the couch in the living room, he admitted to himself that he missed these small moments.

Then they turned on the tv to the news channel and the happy atmosphere shattered around his ears.

"-received a distressing call early this morning at 2:07am. The caller, five-year-old Shimura Rena, was in tears as she contacted the police about witnessing her twin brother, Shimura Tenko, die. It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that young Rena died while on call."

Touya can't breathe. Not Rena and Tenko. They can't possibly be talking about Rena and Tenko. Not sarcastic and blunt Rena. Not shy and happy Tenko. Not the twins. Not them.

"The police arrived to find a grim scene. Evidence points to the entire Shimura Family being brutally murdered in the backyard, with young Rena escaping and dying in the kitchen."

A family picture pops up next to the news reporters head. It shows a happy family of seven, plus a dog. The mother and father standing in the middle, the children in front of them. A pair of grandparents sit to the side, next to the mother, with a dog on their laps.

Touya is only focused on the children, on little Rena and Tenko, on the twins, on his friends.

Fuyumi is crying, he distantly notes over the static noise that's filling his ears. He thinks he might be crying too but he isn't quite sure. His eyes are glued to the family photo, to Rena and Tenko.

They're dead.

He won't ever get to hear Rena's latest adventure that got her sent to the principal's office. He won't ever get to hear Tenko's excited babble on anything that has caught his interest that week. He won't ever get to see them fight and tease one another. He won't ever get to talk with them, or simply hang out on the school's roof.

He won't ever see, hear, talk, or touch them.

Because they're dead.

Touya just lost his only friends, his freedom and stability outside of this damned house, overnight.

And they're never coming back.

ʕง•ᴥ•ʔ

He got the call around five in the morning, woken up by the insistent ringing of his phone. He had reached for it blindly in the dark, not even looking at the Caller ID before answering.

Yagi Toshinori doesn't think he's ever moved so fast in his life. Even now, seated with his old mentor in a police station, he can't quite remember how he got there.

But that doesn't matter, not when his predecessor's family was just murdered late last night. Though, he does wonder how and why Sorahiko was contacted by the police for it.

Shimura Nana, his predecessor, had made them promise to not go looking for her son once she gave him up. They decided to uphold that promise even after she died. There shouldn't be any connections between the Shimura family and them.

He doesn't ask, not when there's more important things going on. Like figuring out who killed the Shimura family.

Toshinori can't bring himself to look at the pictures of the crime scene, not after the initial first look. He's seen a lot of things in his career as a Pro Hero, but that level of violence isn't something he wishes to see again.

They were just children. Three kids, ages 5 and 9, elementary kids, not even double digits. They're so small in the photo, so bright and happy but now they're dead and he couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't save them.

Hopefully, he can find their killer and put them behind bars. It's the least he could do for failing them, for failing Nana. And hopefully it's nothing related to that man. Hopefully, their promise of no contact wasn't in vain.

A shared grim look with Sorahiko dampens those hopes.

ʕง•ᴥ•ʔ

Short chapter with two 3rd POV scenes thrown in

I was really hesitant on including Yagi's pov - mostly because I wasn't sure if it'd be realistic for him to find out the Shimura family was killed but decided that there's no way Nana would leave her son alone without one contact in his file for emergencies, so yeah.

I've decided to change Rena's quirk name to Regeneration. Mostly because the last name didn't really encompass how fast it worked on some pretty serious injuries. Rena should have died choking on her blood when her tongue was bitten off coupled the shock from feeling her skin and body decay.

I don't want to give too much away but since there's been a lot of questions, Rena is now a mini Deadpool because I said so.