A helicopter approaching ended the day´s training, physical training and weapons familiarization, which Toga was already very proficient in. Izuku had been rather shocked to see Himiko´s progress from the girl who flailed her knife erratically in what amounted to drunken fist boxing; no discernible technique, but getting the job done in unexpected ways. At this point, Toga could knife fight with the agents and could beat all, save Holy Diver, in a one-on-one match. And Toga really liked her Izu-Izu staring in admiration, it made her feel so great.
The last round of target practice with submachineguns was suspended with the chopper´s arrival. An old cowboy got down, holding his hat. Izuku looked at him with reverence, Toga felt he was familiar looking but couldn't quite place him. Then he spoke, and she knew he was the one who had called Izuku to come over for the operation "Hey, y´all, good to see you. We´re doing another exercise that may come in handy, some land nav, so get in the choppa."
Only Toga and Izuku got on the helicopter, a military model, coloured dark green. The old man adjusted his coat to sit down, revealing two revolvers at either hip. Old man´s some sort of gunslinger? Cool! Besides the cowboy, Izuku and herself, only a pilot and a large dog, some sort of black and grey husky, occupied the helicopter´s passenger bay. Izuku immediately saw the dog and his eyes sparkled in awe "Its so big and fluffy!" Izu-Izu is so cute when he sees doggos! The doggo indeed is sooo fluffy!" The green haired hero was already petting the dog and scratching its ears when Toga got the courage to approach it. Guard dogs unnerved her, though she didn't really know why, she hadn't encountered guard dogs a lot as a villain. The doggy looked up at her, expecting to be petted, and it wiggled his ears. Izuku said "Here, scratch behind his ear like this." He reached out for her hand and placed it behind the canine´s left ear. Toga felt her face blush even more than normal at the small contact of their hands. Oh boy he took my hand, he did! This is so much better than trying to stab him! The doggy was satisfied with the ear scratches, and it licked Toga´s hand. She giggled, it was warm and gross! Izuku looked at Toga with a warm smile, oh Izu-Izu don't do that, I´m gonna die if you get any more perfect! "That´s my boy, Marston. He´s old, half deaf and lazy, but I love him to hell and back. And indeed, Deku, he is very fluffy"
The doggo joined its owner and laid down at his feet. "I don't think we´ve officially met, Miss Toga. I´m Holden Johns, the Deputy Director of the American intelligence agency that caught you. The idea of recruiting you as a potential asset was my own, as was bringing your pal, Deku. So, you two ready to go? The area is a short journey away."
The helicopter set off, going north. On the way, Toga chatted with Izuku, asking all about the vacation time he was getting outside of their joint training, and how his mom and All Might were doing "So it is like a honeymoon!" she said, a smug smile on her face as he stammered, flustered, some excuse that All Might and his mom weren't actually an item. Oh, but all you are saying about their time together says otherwise, Izu-Izu! Toga just laughed and kept asking more questions, she couldn't really talk more about the monotonous life in a cell, and she wasn't too eager to speak about the year she had had, so she just asked about him instead.
"Alright, we are here. Peqoud, take us down. Grab those packs, y´all, you´re gonna need ´em. The objective is simple, get to civilization! Go, go, go!" The old man all but kicked them out of the helicopter, and it immediately took off. "Uhhhh…Izu-Izu, did they give us a map?" The green hero started going through his pack until he found a plasticized paper topographical map "Here! Though I can´t really tell where we are and where we are supposed to go…" he looked just a bit intimidated by the task, hero school probably didn't teach military map reading. "I kinda think I know what to do…it´s like sort of a thing I remember but I don't remember from where…" She pointed at stuff in the map and it felt like she had done something like this a few times before "That is got to be a tall mountain, like that one there in the distance. I think it's the tallest one I can see and the tallest one in the map. From there we can find another landmark, like this river or that canyon, and follow them. The nature preserve has a limit, we just have to find it." Izuku beamed, "Sounds like a plan, Himiko!"
The "mountain" was just some big-ass hill, not an actual mountain, as Toga could see as they got closer. It took the better part of an hour to get to the foothill, and almost two to get on top; by the time they were there, sunset was just under an hour away. The sky was already starting to turn into shades of orange. It was beautiful. Toga had seen many wonderful things and experienced great moments in the last year, but she felt watching the sunset with her Izu-Izu by her side topped them all by miles. The sun´s dying light glinted from the landmark river, that was where they should go. Toga sat down and Izuku imitated her.
He was rather close, but still at a respectful distance. You are my perfect boy, you can sit closer if you want, we can cuddle and all and do fun stuff. The thought of "fun stuff" brought a very red blush to her cheeks. But the closeness made her think she should say something about what she felt, deep down. "I…I am so thankful to be here, Izu-Izu. When they caught me, I thought they would just kill me, I was only sad because I wouldn't see you again, hear your voice, look into your eyes. When I woke up and thought about it, I was frustrated. The life you gave me when you saved me in the rubble in Okinawa was a waste, I was a brainwashed mess and I did horrible things! I was not even a person at that point, I was a weapon, doing what the nightmares told me! And…when I really thought about all that I felt like an ungrateful idiot, and I thought they really should kill me. But they never did, because you are giving me a second opportunity. I know I don't deserve this, but I am just, so grateful. So much so." She broke down in tears. Izuku, who had gotten closer, embraced her in a powerful, comforting hug. He ran his hand on her back soothingly "It's all ok, cry all you need, I´m here for you." Why do you do this, I am not a good person. "I want to help, I really do. I don't care what other people may think about you deserving or not another chance, but I believe in you, and it's not just because I like you, I really do" Toga felt the hero tense up a bit as he said "I like you". After a while Toga stopped crying and said, "Can I hug you for a little while longer, just while we watch the sunset?" "Of course."
They got a bit more comfortable, but neither one broke the embrace. Toga rested her head on his chest. She could feel his heartbeat, a bit fast, and his steady, controlled breathing. She knew he wasn't exactly used to this kind of thing. The heartbeat was very…calming. I could die happy like this, just close my eyes with this feeling. Or maybe live forever like this, it would be just as good. The sun went down, and the warm temperature dropped. They had a blanket in each backpack, but they didn't really want to move from the hug, so they just snuggled in one of them. Is this heaven? Will they take it all away and make it hell? Toga fell asleep in a mixture of unease and happiness, it felt like a dream too good to be true.
Izuku Midoriya awoke cold and with his left leg cramping. For a moment he wasn't sure where he was and was a bit startled to find his right arm immobilised. The instant of panic made him think he had been captured, but the only thing holding him was Toga, hugging his arm like her life depended on it. She also had most of the blanket on her, Izuku´s other hand holding it so that it would cover her more. She looked really peaceful, which was not something he was used to, at all. When Izuku had encountered Toga as a member of the League of Villains, she had always smiled, like nothing was happening around her except something very curious right in front of her. When he had saved her in Okinawa, she had a completely different expression; she looked lost, terrified and stressed. And now, in custody but acting to get her freedom someday, she had seemed in a state of barely kept control and had broken down twice; when he had first seen her, and yesterday. Midoriya was frightened by the state her mental health was in, and it hardened his resolve to finish whatever mission the Americans wanted to get her help. There was only so much he could do, wanting to help and being able to actually help were different things.
He couldn't move without waking Himiko, so he tried to relax and maybe sleep a bit more. He channelled a bit of One for All to his leg without moving it; the burst of energy tensed his muscles and eased the cramp. Breathing slowly, he let the power return to its dormant state. Now he could try and relax, though he was getting rather conscious of something else quite uncomfortable in his body, was it because it was the morning or because he was cuddling with an attractive girl? Izuku tried to move a bit to the other side, maybe put himself as the "little spoon", but Toga was holding him in a very awkward position. What an awkward situation, I hope no one will ever know! But anyway, concentrating on that wasn't going to make it any less embarrassing, so he could only pray Toga didn't wake up right now!
Midoriya did end up getting a bit more comfortable and managed to get a few more minutes of sleep before he felt Toga moving, yawning and rubbing her eyes with one hand. The other didn't let him go. She then started poking at him lightly. "Uhhh…Himiko, what are you doing?" "Just checking you are still real and not some horrible nightmare again. It checks out, very real." She smiled in relief. "What´s for breakfast, Izu-Izu?" Toga´s smile looked almost as bright as when she had been unapologetically evil. "We´ve got some army food on the packs, I think. I hope it tastes ok…" "Ooohhh…this are the kind that´s supposed to be pizza flavoured, nice!" The pizza flavour wasn't too nice.
Reaching the river took them the entire morning, and it was soon mid-day. All along the way, Toga had been rather talkative, asking Izuku about what was happening in Japan, about his friends and Hero team, about his plans for the future. In a way, this mission was a sort of a course, he guessed, so it would help with the Hero College he planned to attend. A few institutions provided higher education to heroes, on subjects such as detective work, reconnaissance and working with government agencies, so in a way he was already doing that now.
Izuku noticed Toga glare a bit whenever he mentioned any of his female class or team mates, but she certainly seemed less murderously jealous than before. And she was very surprised Uraraka hadn't just asked him out at some point.
By the afternoon they had reached a dirt road and walked along it. It was the way out, but they couldn't see the end of it with its winded path going into the trees. At sunset, they set down again, this time making their shelter a bit more protective, making a rather cosy lean-to covered by a waterproof tarp and close to the fire they started. Izuku thought about asking Toga about how she had been in the year, to fill in the gaps left by what she left out of her calls, but he hesitated, she could tell him at her own pace, and he didn't want to bring out any painful memories of a very bad year. Instead, he asked "Himiko, you have never told me about when you were little. I already told you some of my childhood stories, would you tell me yours?" "I would like to, but I don't really remember…I kind of start remembering just…being me…when I was like twelve I guess? I was at this boarding school and the teacher called my name, I answered "present!" and was asked to tell the class about my Quirk. I don't know how I knew how my Quirk worked, but I think I may have remembered it from before that, I don't know…So I tell them, and they…they all stared at me like I was a monster. My Quirk isn't a Hero´s, I know, but I couldn't remember anyone ever being so mean to me. I remember the first recess, this group of girls came up to me and started telling me how I was evil, how I was a vampire and that I had to stay away from them. I didn't know how to react, I didn't remember how friends worked. So, I tried talking to other girls, but whenever I approached, they all ran away. Nobody talked to me, not even the teachers would ask me a question, they didn't even call attendance. It was like being invisible, but they LOOKED at me. They stared, all the time. It lasted for two months.
"I panicked and tried telling the headmistress what they were doing. She listened and said it would change. The teachers started asking me questions again, and I even made a friend. Her name was Rei Nagayama. She wasn't too afraid of me, and they bullied her too. But then the girls saw her with me. I hadn't been friends with her for even a full week, and Rei´s bullying got so much worse; they stole her things, they poured a bucket of ice water on her as she slept, they even beat her with sticks in one recess when no teacher was looking. One day, they gave her a key. In the middle of class. It opened the door to the roof. The building was eighteen stories high. Rei left the classroom in tears; the teacher didn't say a word.
"The next class was with a teacher that seemed to care a bit more, she had been one of the teachers who had become friendlier. As I was going into the classroom, one of the bullies pointed at me and said I had pushed Rei off the roof. They had found her shoes on the roof, and her corpse on the ground. The teacher, who I thought was on my side, called me a monster. I ran away, to the dorms. The bunkbeds were little comfort, but I hid underneath my bed anyway. Then the bullies came in. One barred the door with a wooden plank, the others had the sticks they had used to beat Rei, the leader had a sharpened wooden stick and a mirror on her hand.
"Her two cronies dragged me by the hair from under the bed, screaming and crying. The leader held the mirror up to my face and said, "Vampires have no reflection." Then she smashed it on my head. The glass cut my scalp and I bled. I tried to stand and defend myself, but they hit my legs with the sticks. The leader approached me with the stake, saying "To kill a vampire we´ve gotta stab it in the heart with a wooden stake!" She stabbed me with it, and my mind kind of snapped. I twisted my body, so it just cut me instead of stabbing my heart. I released myself from the cronies´ grasp and grabbed the leader´s wrist. I broke her arm and took the stake away from her. I felt this…bloodlust. My own voice yelled in my head "KILL HER! TAKE HER FACE! BECOME HER!" I stabbed the first girl, then another one, then another one. The last one was trying to unbar the door. I bit down on her neck. I transformed into her, I couldn't control my Quirk in that state. I bit the leader´s carotid artery and drank and drank and drank. I took her clothes from her closet and ran away. She died covered in her own blood and her own piss between two bunk beds. I sort of drifted then. I don't remember much. I was just…surviving. What I had done in self-defence started to become my life. I liked the taste of blood so much…and the thrill of being someone else. I liked being someone else, anyone. "
Izuku was shocked by the story. Bullying always brought him to a very dark place inside his head. He may have made peace with Kacchan, but the damage to his self-worth and to his mental health was still real. He was no stranger to the teachers turning a blind eye, or people hurting others in earnest. The way her tormentors had used her teeth and her Quirk to demean her hit very close to the Deku he had once been. When Toga was finished, Izuku pulled her in for a tight hug. He was crying bitter tears as he said "No one will ever treat you like that again, I won´t let them, I won´t." He held her like letting go would let her disappear. Toga was quiet but hugged him back just as much.