As the morning light crept through the bedroom windows and pulled it out of its nocturnal atmosphere, Kaina covered her face with her beloved's pillow in a futile attempt to return to drowsiness.
Resigned, the woman with messy violet hair sat up in bed, wiping the bridge of her nose with the idea that such an action would reduce the eye pain she felt. Between the pain in her legs and her eyes, she didn't know what would have her more irritable for the rest of the day, but if she had to be honest, she had no regrets for the pleasurable evening activities that had brought her to such a state.
Her feet soon found comfortable red velvety slippers that protected her from the cold tiles of the bedroom, so she became aware of the low temperature in the room due to a thermostat she had manipulated last night before waking Takuya once she got out of the shower.
She could only sigh with relief. If there was one thing she had discovered over the years, it was that it was bad for her to sleep at air conditioning temperatures that might be considered common in summer.
"Sigh. Nothing a good bath won't heal," she said to herself, grabbing a few clothes from her drawer, a towel and heading for the adjoining bathroom.
While Kaina was having a warm, relaxing bath, on the second floor of the house, Ryunosuke Takuya was preparing breakfast while listening to the morning news and dealing with a burden on his shoulders that grew heavier with each passing second.
His loving wife and he had talked about it several days ago during his flight from the U.S.A. to Japan, and she had been empathic about it, which was why Takuya hadn't collapsed into a mess of excuses to try NOT to go there. It wasn't that he was afraid of her, it was just that, if possible, he would prefer to prolong the inevitable awkwardness that would arise if he met that person.
Pitifully, the logical part of his mind, the one for which he was so praised, told him that for sure the UA Academy staff had already heard about his return after a year abroad. Whether 'they' were aware that he had contracted a nuptials was something he could not know.
"I swear, Nezu did this just to screw with me for calling him Mickey at the last Halloween party we went to..."
If he wanted to set his agenda in motion, he had to meet Toshinori Yagi or as the civilian population knew him, All Might, Japan's number one hero and an example to follow on a global scale. Even someone who was sometimes as cynical and arrogant as Takuya admired the man, and that is why he would have set out to give him all the help he could give him.
And that help came in the form of information.
"The things I do out of friendship... But I owe Yagi quite a bit, he's the one Aizawa and Hizashi didn't lynch me in the public streets when I screwed up monumentally."
"Have I told you how crazy you sound when you soliloquize?" asked Kaina as she walked into the kitchen, her hair a damp mess and her body cool and covered only by a magenta towel.
"Several times, and you still married me," Takuya replied with a smirk.
"Well..." she tapped her cheek several times with a finger as if in deep thought. "You're crazy and I'm in trouble with the law, I'd say we're even."
"How the hell do you compare one thing to the other?"
"Because you were crazy enough to keep me from being sent to Tartarus."
"... Touche."
Kaina's presence began to calm Takuya's mind. It wasn't such a thing as a psychological or emotional dependency or anything like that, it was just about the effect she had on him.
What else to say? They both complemented each other and brought out the best in each other, they deserved nothing less after the suffering they had to face as karma for their past histories.
You know the story of Lady Nagant, used as a tool of assassination by the Hero Public Safety Commission; they offered a poor girl who wished to help everyone the opportunity to do so, when all they did by taking a pure wish and distorting it in a vile and grotesque way.
You do not know the story of Takuya Ryunosuke, the greatest threat the HPSC had ever faced, a man who had taken the circumstances and played with them, who had monumentally ruined their relationships in the 20's, someone who rose from the ashes. One who walked on the edge and not only triumphed like so many before him, but lived.
He who could walk through anything that was put in front of him.
... ... ...
... ... ...
When Shiori Fujikake was called by All Might to have a meeting at the UA building, she did not expect Nezu and Eraser Head to be present. She reluctantly had to admit that the eccentric director had an admirable intellect that she couldn't even begin to match despite considering herself to be intelligent.
She hoped this was very important because if there was one thing she didn't like about joining UA, it was the attention she attracted.
Was it her grayish hair, her tattooed arms, or the piercings on her face? Not at all. It was the fact that everywhere she went she moved around in a wheelchair.
"So... what's this all about, Takuya's return? Because let me tell you, I wouldn't mess with the guy right now. I bet he's still celebrating his honeymoon."
"No... that's not what this is about, Shiori," Shouta Aizawa, Class 1-A teacher and infamous hero Eraser Head, replied wearily. "All Might just wanted to know what Takuya did while he was in I-Island, a waste of time if you ask me."
"... Is that all?"
Toshinori Yagi, the admired and powerful All Might, nervously adjusted his tie. He wasn't surprised that Aizawa didn't make even the slightest attempt to save his skin.
"Sigh. No, there's something else," admitted the thin man who was out of his heroic form. "Have you talked to him about whether both of you reactivate the agency? Because I wanted to know if him and you going to attend the UA Festival."
"You're such a gossip," Shiori said with mock indignation and a smirk. "I can't blame you for asking either."
... ... ...
... ... ...
20 years ago.
Death Valley, California, USA.
A human individual is still considered young at the age of 17. At such an age, it is normal to hang out with friends, suffer through studies, make questionable decisions, screw up, mature and a long list of things that can happen during such a crucial stage of an individual's development.
In a superhuman society, it was not an eccentricity that many young people did not go through this and in one place faced events of physical, psychological, emotional, etc. trauma. In the misnamed 'Hero Apprenticeship'.
Well, Takuya Ryunosuke was not going through a 'Hero Apprenticeship', how could he?
To society, he was just another Quirkless...
To the woman in front of him... he was the Boogeyman.
To others, he was the Icebreaker. God knows what that ugly nickname meant.
"How poetic, we end this where we started."
"In a desert?" the woman asked.
"Noo... With you reaching out your hand to me."
Shiori Fujikake was the name of the woman Takuya was trying to lift due to the wounds on her legs, one of them with copper shards embedded in it.
Despite Shiori's injuries, they both knew that what they had done was worth it. This was their pass to a free life, to not have to live in fear, but to be the ones to command fear and respect wherever they went.
That included the All For One bastard, Shiori believed.
In the world, there were stories of Quirkless facing villains using their supernatural physique or technology beyond what humanity could imagine.
That fiction was the reality of Takuya Ryunosuke and Shiori Fujikake, two young people whose birth was laced with misfortune, happiness, conspiracy and freedom.
Misfortune for being born.
Happiness for knowing each other.
Conspiracy between One For All and All For One.
Freedom achieved with blood, sweat and many, many fights.
"... Do you think Frank would be proud of us?"
"Takuya, I think the guy would adopt us if he hadn't croaked like a hundred years ago."