Detonating Desire
It was dark in the midnight blue, for the only light was given by the crescent moon in the sky. The leaves on the tree branches billowed in the cool breeze, giving him faint chills. Summer was fading away into autumn. Eventually the time would fly by and all the students at U.A. would be gone for winter break. Time was of the essence and he knew it.
"We've checked the perimeter. We are set to move forward." Instructed the dark fog of his Second-hand Commander, Kurogiri. His glowing yellow eyes squinted to show his reassurance. Turning forward, Tomura gazed down at the dorm building. All the lights were off. Surely the kids and teachers would all have turned in for the night by now. Luck was on his side, for not a single soul was spotted ever since his stakeout.
"Good… Send Dabi and Himiko in. We failed to convert the Bakugo kid, but perhaps gathering more than one hostage would improve the numbers in our League." Tomura gave a mild chuckle at the sentiment. The very memory of that arrogant, headstrong boy sent his skin crawling with anxiety. He fought the deep urge to scratch his neck thinking about it. That plan, it was a foolish one back then. He didn't have enough man-power to handle the situation, not enough men to show him the great feeling of letting your quirk run free, no matter the cost of human life. He was so ignorant then, so much so that he needed the strength of his Master, All for One, to come handle it. That wasn't going to happen again. Going after minor students was the new plan, the ones with emotional turmoil, like him, ones who have trouble controlling their explosive quirks, and the ones who are alone in need of a family that supports their raw talents. It wasn't going to fail this time.
The large cloud of black fog dispersed to do his bidding and right on cue, he saw his two minions appeared from the shadows of their hidden positions located opposite ways from the building. The dorms were equally spaced throughout the campus with the Academy erected directly in the middle. U.A. was under legal restrictions from both the press and the police ever since their invasion of the Training Camp to be bothered to deal with any other unnecessary issues. It had been almost a year since then. With their attention elsewhere, now was the perfect time to go in. What could be the trouble of one missing student? Especially one with a note claiming to run away out of fear of another Villain attack. Himiko's outstanding use of her quirk allowed her to sneak undetected into the records office of the school disguised formally as the janitor. From there, she was able to copy several documents from the list of staff and students onto a USB drive, ones that he could sift through to find the victims he wanted, and transport it through the trash. Next was the security room. The wiring of the computers to the security cameras was easily ripped apart, keeping their stealth. While on her way back, Himiko was able to steal a bit of blood from a wad of tissue left in the bathroom from a girl who received a broken nose earlier that day. Dabi took the janitors uniform, and with the cover of the night to mask his macabre face, he was ready to move in. He met her near the entrance and stood guard by leaning against the brick wall, once again in the refuge of the shadows. Taking the appearance of the young girl, Himiko quietly walked through the doorway, her trusty knife tucked safely behind her back.
With a sinister grin curled around her lips, she kept her eyes open for anything. There was no set of assigned room numbers for each student in the dorms, which she knew was going to make the task more challenging. She would have to search every single room until she found the right girl. If she wasn't careful, some students could awaken and then she would have to abort the mission, but that didn't matter to her. The excitement of sneaking through these rooms presented her with the possibility of finding a cute new lover. What would he look like? What would his blood taste like? It was so intoxicating, this rush, and to be frank, nothing would give her more pleasure. She tip-toed down the foyer, past the kitchen, and into the open living area. It was quiet. Hopefully none of them would be light sleepers. Toga cautiously moved on to the various doors down the hallway. There were many floors to the building, but only two stories held their rooms. She only had an hour of to use her quirk to the max. She had to get a move on.
One by one, she approached the doors. She slowly twisted the knob to avoid making the clicking sound and peered in. Though this was a unisex dorm, all the rooms on the lower level seemed to belong to the boys. Sadly, only a few of them were actually cute, but not enough to get her undivided attention. What a pity. Their blood probably didn't even compare to that sweet young Midoriya's. So decadent and delicious. At some point, she would have to pop in and pay his adorable face a visit. Maybe if they had some free time, she would, even if Tomura wouldn't allow it, but first she had to get the girl. Toga wondered what was so great about this one girl. She couldn't have been as special as Bakugo. Such a spicy little hot-head, he was. While watching the students, she was able to see this girl's quirk, but it wasn't as amazing compared to the others. For some reason, she had something Tomura wanted and now here she was doing his dirty work. She stepped up the stairs to the last remaining doors. One after another, she peeked. Still not her.
Suddenly, her ears perked at the faint clicking sound of a turning knob on her right. As quick as she could, she glanced around, hoping to find some kind of place to hide. Unfortunately, there was only an open hallway and she was standing right in the middle of it. There was no way she could jump into another room undetected now. Using her fingers, she rotated the handle of her knife to conceal it completely behind her forearm. Whoever it was, it didn't matter, for she still had her disguise. Step by step, the female student walked out of her room while rubbing her eyes. Her hair was dark and shortly cut around her shoulders. It wasn't the girl she was after, just one of the ones she had already passed by. As soon as the student's eyes adjusted to the dimness, she stopped in her tracks to give her attention to Himiko. Toga removed her evil smile into a normal content complexion, making it seem as if she was like any other normal human being. The only challenge was if she had to talk.
"Tsuki?" she called, her voice a bit deep from exhaling a yawn as she spoke. "What are you doing up?"
"I thought I heard Akane leave her room earlier. I wanted to be sure she was okay." Toga lied. Thankfully, the tired girl was too exhausted to even pay attention to her and kept on walking down the hallway. Anything was believable in that state of mind. The only thing that mattered was getting back to sleep.
"Have you checked her room?" She pointed to the last door on the opposite side near the end of the hall. What luck! A small fluke in the way, but she got around it, just like she always did with these disposable souls. A small beam of light instantly shone across the carpet floor, fully catching her eyes. After a moment, she relaxed as the light disappeared behind the door of the bathroom. With the girl gone to do her business, Toga dropped her knife back comfortably in her fingertips and proceeded quietly to the said room.
Click! Another doorknob turned right beside her. In a slight panic, she gripped the blade tighter. There was no time to run into another room. Hopefully this person would do the same as the one before and pay no mind. She should have just found some place to hide and waited until she was sure that they had all gone back to sleep, but there was no time. All that chatter must have woken her up. Just how many more were going to come out? The door cracked open revealing the girl. Immediately alert, Himiko held out the knife. It was the same girl that she had stolen the blood from, the one from the public bathroom, the one she was disguised as. She rubbed her eyes with a yawn as she stepped out into the hallway. Turning her eyes forward, she stopped and blinked. For a moment, she assumed that she was still dreaming, but as her eyes adjusted to the light, she quickly realized what she was seeing. It was her own clone standing before her holding a knife. What the hell? There's no mirror in the hallway, so it couldn't be her reflection, and she didn't have a knife. Chills spiraled down the real Tsuki's spine as the rush of adrenaline suddenly made her understand the situation.
"Who are you?!" she shouted. Himiko cursed her for shouting, but she still had the upper hand holding the knife. This girl's quirk wasn't anything remotely special, nothing she couldn't handle. She needed to be silenced and quick! Just before taking another step, the light of the bathroom door beamed across them. The other student stepped out and paused, momentarily assessing the scene. Two Tsukis?!
"What the hell?!" she yelled "You're not Tsuki!"
The tumbling sound of other waking girls began to consume the silence. It was fine for Himiko to deal with two of them, but not the entire dorm. Their damned shouting was waking everyone up. Shit, she cursed. The mission failed. She had to get out now! Quickly, she ran towards the real Tsuki and slashed her knife across her torso. In response, she leaned back to dodge it, but it was already too late. A small spurt of blood erupted from her right shoulder, causing her to yelp in torment. She helplessly fell to the floor, clutching her wound to suppress the pain. Toga took advantage of the attack and moved around her to break out the window at the end of the second story hall. The glass shattered as her body fell, but thanks to her years of training, she stuck her landing with only a minor knee scrape. Dabi emerged from the shadows to her, but when he realized that she was alone, he rolled his eyes. He didn't really want to deal with another one of Tomura's outbursts. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could to now except to try again some other time. Before leaving the scene, Dabi activated his quirk to conjure a small blue flame in his hand and placed it on the wooden outside door. They gathered themselves up and ran back into the darkness of the night to join the others. In the distance, Tomura angrily scratched his neck at the sight of the compromised mission. He failed when he promised that he wouldn't. Cursing himself, they dropped down from their positions in the trees and left. They only had a limited amount of time before the teachers and the police arrived. One way or another, he was going to get that Akane girl.
Hearing Tsuki's painful whimpers, all the girls awoke from their beds to see what was going on. Two of them remained at her side trying to tend to her injury while the remaining girls went down to wake up the boys. Turning on all the lights, the entire class was in shock. Quickly, half of the boys went out the front to go get their teacher and the school nurse while the rest of them helped Tsuki down into the lobby to lay on the couch, all completely unaware of the growing fire. In no time, Ms. Kayama along with the rest of the staff and classmates entered the dorm, all of them armed and ready for any fight to come. The air didn't smell right in the dark. Using a first-aid kit, they were able to bind her blood soaked arm in time for the nurse to heal it.
Suddenly, the view grew dense along with the bitter stench of smoke. All heads turned searching for the source of the smell. Some of the boys asked if anyone was in the kitchen area over cooking something, but that wasn't true since everyone was in the room. All the staff members immediately fell alert. All Might along with the other members of the staff ordered the students to huddle together outside with the nurse while they followed the smoke trail. At the end of the first story hallway, the air fogged with not only smoke, but also ash. The blue flames had spread from the back door all across the walls at a progressive rate. There was no mistaking that it was going upwards to the second level. They had to act fast or else all the students belongings would turn to dust. The Principal immediately went to pull the fire alarm, which activated the sprinkler system. While Thirteen used her black hole quirk to suck up the flames, Aizawa grabbed an extinguisher to help put them out. Ms. Kayama took the liberty of remaining beside her students, counting them to be sure no one was left inside the building, and All Might went through each room to be sure of that. They were able to alert the Fire Department, but the damage left to the dorm was beyond what the staff expected.
"What happened here?" Kayama asked, her voice stern with concern. Tsuki glanced over to Emiri to help her explain. The staff turned back and forth to both of them for an answer. "Well?"
"Someone was here. They broke into the dorm while we were all asleep. I got up to go to the bathroom and I saw Tsuki out in the hallway. She said she wanted to check on Akane." Emiri explained.
"I never said that. I woke up when I heard you two talking outside my room and went to see what was going on." Said Tsuki. Instantly, their eyes turned to the quiet little red-head standing outside the crowd of people. Despite feeling a bit uneasy, she continued. "Whoever it was, they were able to make themselves look exactly like me. She had everything matched from my clothes to my busted up face… She carried a knife. When we tried to confront her, she cut me and escaped through the upstairs window."
"That person, their quirk allowed them to transform into you, correct?" Ms. Kayama asked. Tsuki nodded. "Did the same girl start the fire?"
"We don't know." They both said in unison, looking down in despair.
Each student's face read heartbroken at the sight of the burning building. The staff did all that they could to put it out, but the spread of the fire was beyond what they could do alone. Midnight felt their pain. Who knows what kind of sentimental things were just destroyed? All the work put into their studies turned to ashes. Their clothes, their beds, everything gone. When the Police and the Firemen finally showed up to seal off the area, the Principal instructed that the students set up cots in the local gymnasium area for the night, though most of them could hardly sleep after that. As soon as they were settled, the staff called for an emergency meeting.
"After the invasion of the Training Camp and the kidnapping of Bakugo, we created the dorms as a solution to keeping our students at U.A. safe, but now this?" Explained Sensei Kan, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"Yes, it would seem that our security has been breached from the moment our attention was driven towards the media and the police." Principal Nezu said in his usual monotonous tone.
"The villain was able to transform into Tsuki." Kayama reminded them.
"Which could only be the work of Himiko Toga. She was last sighted at the Training Camp during the invasion and seems to have sided with the villains." Aizawa interjected.
Midnight sighed a breath of disappointment. "And it seems that their target was Akane Hattori, one of my least exceptional students."
"Do you mean Hattori of the Public Security Intelligence Agency Hattoris?" Mic asked. Midnight nodded.
"As the adopted daughter of the PSI's Prime Minister, her enrollment here was granted under recommendation." She added.
"Kidnapping someone of her credentials would no doubt benefit their motives to threaten public security, or perhaps even national security." Began All Might. "You say that she is one of your low leveled students? What of her quirk?"
"She's very well-read when it comes to the study portion of class, but her struggles are predominantly during the active training course, specifically with controlling her transformation quirk. Though it is powerful, it can go haywire very easily. If the villains were to take her and force her to side with them like they did with Bakugo, it could be chaos." She explained.
"Then we must take more drastic measures to ensure the safety and well-being of our students. We have already notified the families of the students in regards to the situation and the students are currently relocated in the gymnasium. Some of the parents have decided to withdraw their children from U.A., thanks to the media, and will be here in the morning to do so. We will still need to find a solution to support our remaining students while their dorms are being repaired." Began Principal Nezu. "The Fire Fighters were able to determine that the fire was started by an outside source, which we can assume that more than one villain was involved in this attack. We have checked our security cameras, but the wiring was cut to the system and will need to be replaced before we can view it. It's likely that that too was damaged by an undercover villain. Luckily our cameras are always recording, even without monitors."
"Then for the time being we will need to set up additional guard around the premises, especially at night." Said Kan. "We are responsible for our own class, but if we were to take night shift, it could impede our teachings during the day."
"We will make arrangements to hire security guards to patrol the grounds at night. By then we shall enforce a mandatory curfew for the students. If we should endure another oncoming attack, the entire campus will be under 'Lock down' until it is deemed safe to roam about again. And if the situation becomes dire, we will have to close U.A." The very idea dampened the already stressed mood in the room.
"Then what should we do about the students? Most of their dorms and possessions have been destroyed by the fire. What can we do?" Midnight asked, remembering their awful sad faces.
"In reparation for the students' possessions, we will compensate each victim with a generous check that will repay the value of every item that was destroyed or damaged in the fire and an extended amount for their suffering and our inadequacy with security. Any lost documents or school work will be waived until we can provide them replacement supplies and uniforms. This is the best option we can offer them, though I understand that some of them have brought priceless items that no amount of money can replace. The only other option would be to close U.A., but with the extensive rise in villainous crimes, heroes are needed now more than ever. It is our duty to shape these students into exceptional heroes." Nezu explained.
"There isn't much we can do about the parent's decisions then." Mic interjected.
"Try as we may, we are in no position right now to oppose them… As for the students who remain, I propose that, for the time being, the class will be split up and allowed to bunk down in other dormitories until their own dorm is rebuilt. The gym can only be a temporary solution, seeing as our training sessions will be more extensive than before. We must prepare the students for any possible outcome. We will divide them up in groups of five or less to avoid overcrowding the dorms. The school will be cancelled for the next three days to prepare. Each teacher must inform their class of the temporary change, but classes will proceed like normal until winter break. Understood?" he finished. All members of the staff nodded and they were immediately dismissed.