She should have killed him.
"Are you alright, Yukimura-san?" Officer Tsukauchi Naomasa asks gently. "Do you need a moment?"
Yukimura Kenzo should have killed Shigaraki. She should've killed All for One, too, honestly. The lives that could've been saved—
She was a coward though.
The plan— She was going to be the only one captured, protect Bakugo from that trauma, she would probably, maybe kill every member of the league in that room. She should have killed them.
Fuck.
"Fine, Officer Tsukauchi. I'm fine," Ken says, rubbing her tired eyes. Her body aches. She feels sick. She hopes Bakugo is okay in the waiting room.
She was a coward, though.
Ken woke up with Bakugo next to her, and suddenly wasn't so sure.
What if it doesn't matter if she changes things? What if she just leaves a power vacuum that kills more people? Can she keep Bakugo safe from the backlash of killing people in cold blood? For fuck's sake she wasn't even caught up to the anime when she died, let alone the manga. She's on a time limit.
Her only advantage is on a time limit, save her quirk.
And even that is still at risk thanks to a certain quirk erasing drug that's going to go on the market soon. And the fact she left All for One alive leaves her wary to ever show her full strength.
Or, rather, what she thinks is her full strength. Hopes is her full strength.
With what her mother and Kaito's quirks mixing has done to her so far, she's sort of fucking terrified.
"It's okay to be dazed," Tsukauchi says gently. "If you're really not up to this, we can do it another day."
Ken shakes her head.
"I'm fine. I've told you my description of events, right? What else do you need to know?"
She's so tired.
"During the fight between All Might and All for One, you were watching the livestream near the train station, correct?"
Dread pools in Ken's stomach.
"Correct."
"Before All Might landed his final blow, and All for One leveled his own, All for One slammed into the ground more than once," Tsukauchi says.
Leave it to her to get interrogated by the one fucking cop that can tell if you lie.
"I noticed," Ken says frankly, face blank.
"Your quirk manipulates metal, right?"
"Yes."
Not a lie. Magnetism can manipulate metal.
"You're in a safe place here, Yukimura, you're the victim, and I'm not trying to accuse you of anything," Tsukauchi says in that same tone, all gentle and sympathetic.
It's unfortunate for him she already knows that's an interrogation tactic.
"I'm aware, though your tone seems to imply you think I had something to do with it," Ken says frankly. "I'll tell you what I was doing while I watched All Might take on his last fight, hugging my best friend and being terrified, and forgive me if I'm a bit offended at the idea of you trying to hit me with a Vigilante charge after a series of traumatic events."
Tsukauchi raises his hands quickly in surrender.
"I'm sorry, it's just that you were the only one with a quirk capable of doing such a thing anywhere nearby."
Ken laughs, ash on her tongue.
"What, a minor metal manipulation quirk? Do that shit? From so far? " She says, sure to add a hint of resentment at the end. "Not even my shitty sperm donor could do that. Can I go home now?"
It's right. A minor metal manipulation quirk could never.
Luckily she doesn't have one, and from the look on Tsukauchi's face, Aizawa hasn't let that slip.
Ken should have killed them .
—
"You're welcome at our house anytime, Yukimura-kun," Bakugo Mitsuki says genuinely, one hand in her son's hair.
Katsuki scoffs, rolling his eyes, and Mitsuki huffs.
"I'm sure you played a key part in my son's escape, along with your own," Mitsuki continues, eyes on the black haired, exhausted looking girl. "Not to say he couldn't manage, but his problem solving usually starts and ends with blow shit up."
"It was a group effort," Yukimura says, rubbing the back of her neck, before turning her dark eyes on Mitsuki's son. "Katsuki, try not to get your ass kicked without me over break, alright?"
"Tch." Katsuki narrows his eyes at the girl. "I do what I want, Raccoon eyes, and what did I say about talking familiar with me?!"
Yukimura grins, and Mitsuki has to keep down her joy that her son finally found friends that don't worship him.
"Ah, right, sorry for the inconvenience," Yukimura drawls, overly formal. "Don't get your ass kicked without me, Bakubaka ."
Katsuki lunges forward, cussing up a storm and even though Mitsuki gets him by the back of the neck before he can reach Yukimura, Yukimura's already dipped out of his intended trajectory.
"We are in a police station ," Mitsuki hisses, wacking her son upside the head.
" Raccoon eyes—! " Katsuki hisses.
"Oh, look, my mom's here. Have a nice day, you two."
Yukimura walks away, hands in her pockets and completely unbothered.
Mitsuki sighs, looking down at her son.
Thank goodness he's okay.
—
"Kenzo…" Yukimura Miho murmurs, hands fisted in her skirts.
Yukimura Kenzo is different here, in her house, Yagi Toshinori notes. Still lounging in her seat, but there was a tension in her shoulders at school he hadn't noticed.
"Ma," Young Yukimura mumbles. "You and the girls need to go into hiding anyways. There's nowhere safer than UA for me."
The elder Yukimura, just as dark haired as her daughter but eyes a startling red, runs a tired hand down her face.
"Really? That's why you were kidnapped, right?" Yukimura senior says, in a tone very much like her daughter's. Yukimura looks at Aizawa, then All Might finds those unsettling eyes on him.
She's so soft looking, as delicate as a civilian could get, really. Long black hair, small features, no obvious muscles in her frame.
But when she looks at him, Toshinori suddenly feels the failure of not being there for his students collapse down on him again. Weak heart aching.
"My daughter could go to any Hero School in the country," Yukimura says quietly. "They would scramble to give her a scholarship, unlike UA, and the media wouldn't look highly on one of the victims of your negligence transferring."
Ah.
"Principal Nezu actually sends his apologies for that, Yukimura-san," Aizawa says respectfully, bowing his head. "There have been many mismanagement issues in the past months, and we take full responsibility for this. Yukimura-kun has earned her place at UA, and it is our duty to offer her a full ride, especially now that if she were to move to the dorms she wouldn't be able to continue working."
Young Yukimura's eyes widen, minutely, at this.
"Oh shit."
" Kenzo ," Yukimura-san hisses, wide eyed on her daughter now, previous promise for vengeance on UA now gone from her shoulders.
"Sorry for the inconvenience," Young Yukimura mumbles, half paying attention to her mother and now fully giving Aizawa her attention. "Does this include a stipend for supplies? As well as hygienic products since I will be living in a dorm?"
Aizawa pulls a folder out of his blaiser, and the girl takes it from his hands quickly, opening it and scanning the papers with startling life and speed.
"All three years?" Yukimura-kun says, half in disbelief. "And the fee for the provisional exam—!" She looks up, eyes darting to each adult in the room.
In the background, Toshinori spots a small face peaking through the doorway, joined by another. He waves, slightly, and their eyes widen.
"All Might!" One shouts, shooting into the living room and suddenly in Toshinori's face. "You look sick. Does your mom not feed you enough?"
Toshinori chokes on air.
"Yoshi, remember what I said about tact?" Yukimura-kun says with a sigh from where she's handing her mother the folder.
"Only be blunt for shock value," The girl, Yoshi, says very seriously, looking like she recited it before. "I know. That's why I did it, Ken!"
"Yo-Yo, babe, you're scaring Sensei," Yukimura-kun grumbles, standing and scooping the child up over her shoulder. "Mom, I want to keep going to UA, no other school is gonna offer a deal like that and I like my classmates."
Yukimura-san shakily flips through the folder.
"Kenzo, I know, baby, but this is— You could get stolen again."
Something in the woman's voice cracks at stolen.
Guilt. And from the glance at Aizawa he can see it in the tenseness of his shoulders.
"Then next time I'll have legal cause and a paper trail of trauma to keep me from getting convicted of Vigilantism if I kill someone," Kenzo says so blankly Toshinori has to fight another choke. "Come on, Yo-Yo, let's play video games with Kiki."
"But All Might, " The child whines, slumped over the teenager's shoulder like this is a very common occurance.
"Sensei is old and frail, you'll give him a heart attack."
Toshinori isn't made for this much proximity to Young Yukimura.
The child, Yo-Yo's red eyes widen at this, now looking over at Toshinori with tooth rotting concern.
The sisters exit the room and close the door behind them, leaving only the adults.
"My children have been through enough, without more fumbling adults ruining their lives," Yukimura-san says, eyes closed tightly. "Do you understand me? Kenzo is so mature for her age, but she is a child. I don't know how much more she can take before she breaks, and I don't want to find out."
"Yukimura-kun is one of the brightest students I've seen," Toshinori says, bowing his head. "I'm honored that she still has faith in our institution after her ordeal, and we will strive—!"
Toshinori takes a breath.
" I will strive to be worthy of that trust, Yukimura-san."
The packing boxes around the room, the tiredness in Young Yukimura's mother, Toshinori wishes he and UA both were not responsible for more strain on them. Especially now with Young Yukimura's father freed from prison and on the loose.
"You will live up to that promise, All Might," Yukimura-san says finally. "And you as well, Eraserhead. My daughter deserves only the best for the sheer amount of work she put in to get into your thrice damned school. And you should be ashamed to have given her any less."
—
Toru pull's Ken aside, the second they get to the dorms, the door to what's going to be Ken's room shutting quietly.
Ken holds up a hand, eyes scanning the room, before narrowing, hand clenching into a fist.
"Small EMP," Ken murmurs, seeming to droop. "Anything listening in on us is fucked now."
"What is going on, Ken?" Toru asks, quietly.
Ken runs a hand down her face.
"What in particular?" Ken asks, looking at Toru, somehow staring straight into her eyes despite them being invisible.
It's not to be cheeky, the words are genuine.
"A lot ," Toru hisses quietly, waving her hands. "All for One, you somehow knowing about things, why you're so tired. A lot, Ken."
The at ease falls from Ken's frame in fragments, like a crumbling building.
"Nothing that would make you safe, Toru. I owe you answers, but I can't. Especially not here."
Toru wonders for half a second about conversations she heard when adults couldn't tell she was there, about how no one should've known where class 1-A was so many times.
And then dashes it.
Not— She can't. Ken isn't a villain. Her dad was a villain and she turned him in to the police.
"All I can tell you is that this, the shit with the league, with worse," Ken pauses, looking viscerally like she hates herself , before letting out a shuddering breath. "It isn't over, Toru. Not by a long shot. Class 1-A is Icarus flying towards the sun, and there's only so much time until we get burnt up if we don't get some better wings."
"Shouldn't you tell the others?" Toru asks, even if she knows it's stupid.
"I don't even want to tell you, To!" Ken hisses, usual composure shattered on the ground, crunching under their feet. "But you already figured some stuff out and I can't just not say anything."
Ken's hands come carefully to Toru's shoulders.
"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry I can't tell you stuff, you're my best friend. Can you please trust me? This once, in the very least?"
Ken looks so earnest.
Ah.
It wasn't a choice in the first place, was it?
Toru's lied by omission already, hasn't she?
Toru runs one hand through her hair and sighs.
"Okay, Ken." She breathes. "Okay."
Toru doesn't know how heroic, this is, keeping information from their peers and teachers.
But, well, Toru went into heroism to be seen, didn't she?
And from the honest relief and understanding and gratefulness on Ken's face, in the very least she's already gotten that.
—
"My room's kinda bare, you guys, but sure."
With a lazy turn of the doorknob, Class 1-A peers into the number one's dorm room.
Kaminari Denki blinks once, then twice.
A neat shelf of books tucked beside the bed, said bed full of pillows and blankets that all look like heaven to fall into, and.
Er. That is a lot of metal.
An old baseball bat sits against the wall right beside the bed, within grabbing distance, sheets of metal lay in various places around the room in disarray, a box of screws and nails sits very innocently on the desk beside what seems to be Ken's school books and pencil box, two different pipes are laying places, one at door to the balcony and another right by the door into the room.
Oh. And a dartboard. With a crappy drawing of what seems to be Endeavor stuck to it with a nail.
"Why all the metal?" Ojiro Mashirao asks, brows furrowed.
"To hit people with," Ken says dryly, flopping onto her bed. "The next person who tries to kidnap me will face the repercussions of me having legal cause to use self defense. Like a thousand stained steel nails to the groin."
Denki chokes, not sure if he's supposed to laugh or not.
"Oh, and I like doing origami with metal. It calms me."
Denki laughs, hysterically. It's not that funny, but the absurdity of the situation really is.
Two of their classmates were kidnapped. They were attacked as a whole . Twice now.
And now they're judging each other's dorm rooms.
"I like your taste in darts," Todoroki says from nearby, peering dully at the dartboard with his father on it. "Can you make me one?"
"Gladly."
At this rate, they're gonna be on the news again in a few months, he can already tell. Holy crap.
Well.
He wanted to be a hero, didn't he? Heroes sort of get into trouble all the time, right?
Maaan. He wasn't expecting it this soon though.