Unsurprisingly, Yuka woke up the next day with a massive headache. She couldn't recall the last time she had been this hungover or even if she had ever been hungover before. She usually wasn't the type to drink at all, let alone to the point of being hungover the morning after. She had grown up with the whole "My body is a temple" mantra, which is why she didn't smoke or drink usually. In her line of work, it was important to stay as healthy as possible in order to perform at peak capacity, but last night, she figured she would let loose if it meant she could ease Shigaraki's pain even just a little bit.
Thinking about him brought back the memory of what had happened the night before. She could picture his flaky, crusty lips with picture perfect accuracy, which made her wince. She knew she was going to have to talk to him about what had happened and was not looking forward to having that conversation with him. After debating whether or not she wanted to get out of bed, she decided to rest some more in hopes that she would sleep off her headache and wake up feeling more refreshed later.
What ended up happening was that she woke up a lot later than expected. Toga and Magne had left her alone to rest while she recovered from her night of drinking and Yuka woke up after sleeping in all day. When she finally woke up, she looked outside to see that the sun was setting and let out a long-winded sigh. She knew that her sleep schedule was going to be completely fucked for the next few days and mentally cursed herself for having been so irresponsible with her drinking the night before. After lying in bed for another half hour, she finally rose up from the mattress and made her way towards the employees' lounge. Her head was still throbbing, but not to the point where she wanted to puke her brains out like before. As she rounded the corner into the employees' lounge, she came face to face with the one person she wanted to avoid, bumping into him as he was trying to enter the lounge.
"Uuuugh! Watch where you're going!" Shigaraki exclaimed as he backed away from her.
Yuka froze for a moment as their eyes met. After staring at her for a moment, Tomura finally passed in front of her to go into the lounge. He grabbed himself a bottle of water from the fridge and sat down at the same spot he was sitting the night before. He didn't say a word to her. He didn't even seem embarrassed to see her. Maybe he had forgotten what had happened last night? Once Shigaraki had entered the room, Yuka followed suit a few seconds later, taking a bottle of water for herself after rummaging through the refrigerator. She then leaned against the wall next to one of the many windows, not wanting to sit next to him this time as she still recalled their last interaction together. Tomura noticed this and shot her a brief glance before pressing the cold plastic bottle against his temple to relieve his headache.
"So... about last night..." he said tentatively.
He lowered his head so that his face was covered by his scraggy white locks. He seemed a lot more uneasy now and would not look in her direction. Yuka glanced over at him for a moment, then looked away as she felt the tensions grow between them with every passing second.
"This is massively awkward..." he complained, throwing his head back as he stared at the ceiling. "Look, I'm not sure what happened, but if you tell anyone about what happened last night, I'll turn you to dust without a second thought..."
She looked back at him with astonishment. She couldn't believe he was the one threatening her after what he had done the night prior. She could tell from how he was acting that he felt at least a little bit remorseful, so she kept calm and pulled away from the wall with a long sigh.
"Look Tomura," she began to speak. "I'm willing to forget about this whole ordeal if you apologize to me properly..."
She leaned over the table, pressing her hands against the surface as she stared directly into Shigaraki's crimson irises. He reluctantly stared back at her, nervously scratching his neck before letting out an annoyed groan.
"Fine!" he said to her. "I'm sorry I pushed you against the wall and... tried to kiss you."
"Good," she replied, pulling away from the table. "Now we can forget this ever happened and go back to business as usual."
Tomura seemed relieved to see that she wasn't about to make a big deal out of what happened and resumed pressing his water bottle against his forehead. They were both in rough shape and Yuka was in no mood to prolong the awkwardness. She pulled a chair from under the table and sat down next to him, drinking her water as silence fell upon the room once again.
A few minutes later, Kurogiri suddenly entered the room through a portal. He greeted the pair with a polite bow, before turning his attention towards Shigaraki.
"Tomura Shigaraki," he said in a low voice. "We are ready to move on to the next location."
Shigaraki stood up from his chair slowly. "Alright. Have everyone wait for me in the main hall. We'll leave once I retrieve my stuff..."
He turned his attention towards Yuka, making sure that she understood his instructions. She nodded affirmatively and stood up from her seat before making her way towards the door frame.
"I'll meet you in the main hall," she said to him in a flat tone, before disappearing towards the girls' ward.
She made her way towards the main entrance of the hospital after retrieving her sword from the girls' ward, where the rest of the League of Villains were standing in wait of their fearless leader. Toga and Magne quickly came to meet her once they spotted her, excited to see that she was up and about and looking a lot better than before. She exchanged a few words with them, but was distracted by Dabi standing off to the corner, alone. He seemed to be glancing over at her for a moment, but turned away when she went to look at him. She found it odd as he usually wasn't the type to stare at people, but shrugged it off as maybe her imagination running wild. She then looked over at Spinner who was looking pretty down in the dumps since the incident at Kamino Ward. Twice had tried to cheer him up since they had arrived at the hospital, but to no avail. Soon enough though, they were joined by Shigaraki, who was now wearing his full villain costume.
"Alright, everyone's here," he declared as he stared at them through his mask. "Kurogiri, open the gate."
"Where are we going?" Magne asked.
"It's not safe for us to stay in one place for an extended period of time... so we're changing location."
That didn't really answer her question, but Magne shrugged it off. Kurogiri then executed his order, opening a large warp gate in the middle of the hall so that the others could pass through. They let the rest of the group go through the portal first, with Yuka going in last as Shigaraki and Kurogiri quickly joined her on the other side of the portal. Their new hideout looked to be an old abandoned theater, with rows of red upholstered seats and a huge stage lit up by the few yellowed spotlights that were somehow still working. Himiko looked around in awe as she explored the large room excitedly, while the other members took their seats in the different rows. Meanwhile, Shigaraki walked towards the stage and hoisted himself up on the edge of it.
"So, what now?" Dabi asked as he nonchalantly put his feet up on the seat in the row in front of him.
"For now, we'll continue to lay low," Shigaraki replied. "Once things calm down, I'll have you split up and search for new recruits..."
"Pfff... Seriously? What about All For One?"
There was a long pause where Shigaraki merely stared at Dabi behind his mask. Dabi stared back at him for a moment, before lazily looking away when Shigaraki's piercing gaze became too much for him to bear. Yuka then stood up from her seat to address everyone.
"All For One's gone now," she declared bluntly. "Our mission lies solely within the hands of our leader now, and if he says that we need to recruit new members, then we should do as he says."
She glanced over at Dabi, who shot her a disapproving look. He let out a sarcastic chuckle as he shook his head slightly.
"Kiss ass..." he muttered as he lowered his head in disinterest.
Yuka rolled her eyes at him and turned towards the other members of the League sitting in the theater seats. She noticed Spinner sulking in a corner, barely paying attention to what was being discussed. She made a mental note to check up on him later, once the meeting was concluded. After discussing room arrangements with the rest of the team, they all made their way towards the back rooms of the theater to set up their stuff. Spinner was the last one to leave the theater room. He had spent a few minutes alone in contemplation while the others filed out of the room. When he finally exited the main room of the theater, he heard a familiar voice call out to him from the shadows.
"Everything all right?"
Yuka had been leaning against the wall in the hallway leading out of the showing room. Her voice startled him as he had not expected anyone to wait for him. He clutched his chest with one hand, exhaling loudly as he turned to face her.
"Hey what's the big idea?! Are you trying to make me have a heart attack?!" he asked furiously.
She shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry. Didn't think I'd startle you that bad," she answered simply. "So... What's up with you?"
He averted his gaze. "Nothing..."
Yuka cocked an eyebrow. "I'm not blind, Spinner. You've been sulking ever since we left Kamino Ward... Tell me what's going on."
"Why do you care? You're going to think it's stupid anyways..."
"Try me."
He looked at her for a moment. She seemed serious enough, but then again, when did she ever not look serious? He pondered for a moment whether or not to answer her truthfully, but seeing as she had gone through the trouble of waiting for him outside of the theater room, he finally relented.
"It's just-... I'm frustrated, okay?" he said to her. "I feel useless. Ever since I joined up with the League, I've only known defeat. Back at the training camp, I got my ass handed to me by that Pussycat chick, and then, back in Kamino Ward, I was the first to get blown away by All Might bursting through the wall and then I got instantly captured!" Pain grew on his face as he recalled what had happened. "I just-... I thought things would go differently, that I would actually be able to make a difference, but look at me! I performed shamefully. If Stain were here, he'd probably laugh his ass off at how pitiful I am..."
Yuka had always found Spinner to be a bit of a pathetic sort, but seeing him genuinely upset at himself for not meeting his own expectations brought back a lot of her own feelings from her childhood years. She had once been in his shoes, frustrated at herself because she couldn't seem to overcome any of the obstacles that had been thrown at her. Being surrounded by boys all throughout her childhood, she had often felt like she was never going to be able to catch up to them and that they were always going to be pushing her around. But she persevered, and with her father constantly pushing her to do better, she eventually surpassed them.
"Spinner," she started to say as she unfolded her arms. "Tell me... Why did you join with the League of Villains?"
Spinner looked up at her, astonished that she wasn't ridiculing him for how he felt. He stared at the ground for a few moments, unsure of what to answer her, then looked up at her again once he had come up with an answer.
"I joined because... I was inspired by Stain's words," he spoke. "I was nobody before I joined the League... a recluse in some backwater village where everyone only knew me as the 'lizard freak'. For the longest time, I thought it was only natural for them to treat me the way they did, but then I saw the video... Stain believed he could change the world all by himself and through his words, I realized how fucked up the world we live in is and how badly I wanted things to change. I couldn't just stand there and do nothing anymore so I went to Shigaraki... He said he was going to continue Stain's work and took me on board. I thought I could finally bring change to this world, but look at me! I'm still the pathetic nobody I was back then!"
He kicked an old plastic cup that had been lying on the ground for God knows how long. Yuka watched as the cup bounced off the wall further away, then exhaled before taking a step towards Spinner.
"I think I understand now," she said to him. "You're frustrated with yourself. You're seeing all of the others perform around you and, compared to them, you feel small. Not to mention that, yes, your ass was handed to you multiple times... but feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to change the past. Life's not going to hand you your victories just because you want them to happen."
"That's easy for you to say!" he interjected. "You've got your fancy quirk and your fancy martial arts to help you achieve your goals!"
She took another step towards him, her eyes narrowing at his words.
"Do you honestly think I've had it easier than you?" she said to him as she leaned in close. "If I fight as well as I do right now, it's not because of my quirk. I trained hard... harder than everyone around me so that I could overcome any obstacle. I built myself into a weapon because I learned early on in life that I couldn't always rely on my quirk to save myself, because each and every time I use my quirk, my lungs get damaged... so quit feeling sorry for yourself because you were born with a weak quirk. At least your quirk's not killing you on the inside!"
Spinner looked at her in shock. He didn't seem to know what to say to her after hearing her sudden confession. It was only at that moment that Yuka realized she had said too much and regret settled into her. She had always accepted that one day, her quirk was going to get the best of her. She had always been okay with the idea, or at least, that's what she thought, but seeing as she was now dumping her frustrations onto Spinner, she realized now how much it frustrated her that she was born with a body that couldn't even sustain her quirk. But there was something else that was frustrating her as well. Why was she suddenly being so open with the others? Why did she suddenly start caring about how they were feeling and why was she suddenly so desperate to keep everyone together? For the past few days, she had been going against everything she promised herself she wasn't going to do when she joined up with the League of Villains. She stepped back, slightly ashamed that she had revealed so much to Spinner when she had only meant to ask him how he was feeling.
"I'm sorry, Spinner. That was uncalled for..." she said as she turned her gaze away. "I didn't mean to disregard how you were feeling by dumping all of my troubles onto you..."
Spinner gave her a slight nod as he looked away, unsure of how he was supposed to react now. He didn't want to say anything else to trigger her, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel the way that he did. After a few seconds of silence, Yuka finally mustered up the courage to speak again.
"What I'm trying to say is... even though you might have a weaker quirk than all of us, that doesn't make you inherently weak." She looked up at him once again. "But if you're really dissatisfied with your recent performances and are serious about improving... I'd be willing to train you."
Spinner's eyes lit up at her proposition as a smile slowly crept across his scally face.
"You're serious?" he said incredulously. "I-I... don't even know what to say."
"A yes or no would be a good start..." Yuka answered in a flat tone.
"O-Of course! I'd be happy to train under you! You've got such an elegant style of fighting! It would be an absolute honor to train under someone who's trained with the Yakuza!"
Yuka rolled her eyes at his fanboy attitude. "Alright don't get too excited now... I've never actually trained anyone before so you'll have to bear with me on that front."
"Yeah! Sure! No problem... I-It's not like I'm expecting a miracle to happen or anything... If anything, the fact that you're willing to train me at all seems pretty miraculous in of itself... "
"Just make sure you get yourself a real weapon this time... I am not training you to use that crude thing you called a 'sword'..."
"Um, sure... Makes sense. I'll call Giran and have him deliver me a proper sword."
"Good. Once he delivers you the sword, we'll start your training then. In the meantime, try not to beat yourself down too much. Change doesn't happen overnight, especially when it comes to changing the whole of society..."
He nodded in agreement and thanked her for her generous offer, before running off to where the boys would be staying for the night. With a weary sigh, Yuka went up to the theater's roof to get some fresh air. She checked her phone's GPS to check where exactly Kurogiri had brought them as she walked over to the edge of the building. The neighborhood was dead quiet at this time of night, and since Yuka had slept in all day, she knew she had a long, restless night ahead of her. The others were probably already tucking into bed, so she was probably going to be alone for the entire night. She sighed. She had spent the last 7 years traveling on her own, but now that she had spent time with the other members of the League of Villains, she suddenly found herself wanting to be in their presence more often than not. This frustrated her, as one of the reasons why she had left the Shie Haissaikai was because she felt that her attachments made her weak.
There were only a few select people in her life to whom she had been close to. Her father had been one of them. The other was someone she seldom allowed herself to think about. It was easier for her to forget that he ever existed rather than think about how she had left him when her father had passed away. She was dead to him anyways, so what was the point even in remembering him? She shook her head as she tried to push away the memories of the only person she had ever fallen in love with, but the same way she couldn't repress her childhood memories back at their hideout, so too did the memories of her former lover persist even though she so desperately tried to forget about them. As she sat on the edge of the theater's rooftop, she held her head in her hands, trying so hard not to relapse into another one of her flashbacks.
"Head still hurts?"
She jerked her head around to see who had come onto the roof with her. Evidently, it was Dabi again, coming to the roof to have a smoke. Yuka exhaled as she realized who it was, then turned her back to him to stare at the cityscape sprawled out in front of her.
"Something like that..." she answered vaguely as she rubbed her temples with the tip of her fingers.
Dabi slowly made his way towards her before sitting down next to her at the edge of the building. He blew out a puff of smoke away from her, then glanced over at her as she was massaging the sides of her head.
"Didn't take you for such a lightweight, sweetheart," he said in an amused tone before chuckling slightly.
"It's not from the hangover," she spat out a little too aggressively.
He shot her a look before turning towards his cigarette again, pressing the end to his lips before exhaling. Once again, he made sure to blow the smoke away from her as he pulled it away from his face.
"Sorry about that," Yuka finally apologized after a few moments of silence. "It's just that things have been really hectic lately... and I'll admit that what happened with All For One kind of hit close to home..."
He stared at her for a moment, then turned his gaze towards the city lights shining in the distance.
"I heard from Big Sis Magne that you lost your father a while back..." he said after a short pause.
Yuka turned towards him, surprised to hear that Magne had told him about her father. Oddly enough, she wasn't even upset about it, and merely looked back down to continue staring at the city lights beneath them.
"Seeing Shigaraki's reaction to All For One's capture reminded me of how I felt when my father passed away," she explained to him in a calm voice. "It felt like the world around me had suddenly come crashing down in a single instant."
Dabi inhaled deeply as he stretched his arms. "Can't say I relate to any of that," he suddenly declared. "If I learned that my old man was dead, I'd probably be dancing on his grave."
She let out a slight chuckle at his response. "Why am I not surprised that Dabi has daddy issues..."
He started laughing as well, pulling on his cigarette once more before blowing smoke up into the air above him. Yuka continued to dangle her legs off the edge of the roof in an attempt to ground herself. After a few more moments of silence flew by, she finally found the courage to say something to him again.
"Hey Dabi," she said as she turned to look at him. "It just occurred to me that I never thanked you for helping me out that night at the hideout..."
"Hmm? Oh, that..." he said. "Don't mention it..."
"No, I'm being serious... I was really impressed by how well you handled the situation, even though you had no idea what was wrong."
He blew another long stream of smoke into the air. "Let's just say I'm somewhat of an 'expert' when it comes to dealing with emotional crises like that..."
She shot him a curious glance, wondering what exactly he meant by that. Her eyes lingered on the scars that covered most of his body. She remembered how they had felt beneath her fingers when she had checked his pulse. She couldn't imagine the amount of pain they must have caused him when he got them and wondered if, to this day, they still continued to cause him pain. Dabi noticed her staring at him even though he wasn't directly looking at her which made him smirk.
"Take a picture sweetheart. It'll last longer..."
He pulled one last time on his cigarette bud before extinguishing it. Meanwhile, Yuka's face began to turn bright red as she looked away from him, embarrassed that he had noticed her staring at him.
"Sorry I just..." she hesitated to speak. "I was wondering how you'd gotten your scars..."
His smile faded from his face as he took a in long, deep breath. He then leaned back lazily, propping himself up with his arms as he stared up at the night sky, debating on whether or not he should tell her the truth.
"I mentioned my dad earlier," he started to explain. "Well, there's a reason I wouldn't cry over him passing away..."
Yuka pondered what he said for a moment, then stared back in horror as she realized what he meant.
"Did he do this to you?" she asked in a horrified tone.
A sarcastic chuckle left Dabi's lips. "Not exactly..." He paused again, looking down at the city before continuing with his story. "My dad and I shared the same quirk. When I was young, he trained me... He wanted me to become a worthy successor and pushed me hard in order to achieve that goal. So hard in fact, that it resulted in the scars you see today."
Yuka's eyes grew wide as she stared at them.
"Oh god Dabi..." she said as she put one hand over her mouth in shock. "I'm so sorry..."
"Don't worry about it, sweetheart," he chuckled slightly. "I'm over it, it's fine. Besides, I can't change what happened in the past..."
"Still, I shouldn't have pried..." she replied, lowering her gaze.
"It's fine. Really..."
Yuka still felt bad for delving into his personal life. The air grew tense between them as they both just sat there in silence, unsure of what to say to one another.
"So..." Yuka finally broke the silence. "Both our bodies aren't built to handle our quirks."
"That may be true," Dabi answered. "But didn't you get healed by All For One back in Kamino Ward?"
She narrowed her eyes at him. "How much did Magne share with you?"
He looked away from her, slightly embarrassed. "It's just what I've heard from the others when I asked them about what happened. I didn't think it was supposed to be a secret..."
Yuka sighed. "It's not... Not anymore at least. And while All For One did buy me some time, it's only a matter of time before my lungs start degrading once again when I start using my quirk."
"You could always just stop using it..."
She glanced over at him. "I'm not sure I'd be useful enough if I suddenly stopped using my quirk."
"Tsk... You're not giving yourself enough credit, sweetheart. You're plenty capable even without your quirk."
She looked over at him with an astonished look on her face. She was always surprised whenever he gave her a compliment. She was slowly starting to think that Dabi wasn't as bad as she had thought him out to be. Since she had had her meltdown in front of him back at the old hideout, she noticed that he had been a lot nicer to her. The reverse was also true. For some reason, she found herself not disliking him anymore, which was surprising to her considering how utterly revolted she had been when she first met him. Now, for some reason, she found herself being oddly attracted to him, which intrigued and scared her in equal measures.
"You're staring again, sweetheart..." he said as a crooked smile crept across his face.
She had been caught staring at him but instead of turning away as she did before, she looked up at his eyes, staring even deeper into them as they made eye contact with each other.
"And what if I am?"
The surprise was written all over his face. She could tell that her response caught him off guard and, admittedly, she enjoyed seeing him a bit flustered. It only lasted for a short moment though, as his smug smile quickly returned to his face.
"I might get the wrong idea," he said in a low voice.
"Oh? And what idea would that be?" she challenged him with a raised eyebrow.
He stared at her more intensely. "You sure you want to know?"
There was silence for a moment. "...Did I stutter?" Yuka asked with a slight shrug.
Something lit up behind Dabi's eyes as his smile grew even wider. After staring at her for a few more seconds, he suddenly shifted towards her, grabbing her by the back of the neck and pulling her close as their breaths intertwined with each other. Yuka was surprised by his forwardness, but didn't pull back like Dabi had expected her to.
"Feeling brave are we?" he asked in an amused tone.
"What's there to be brave about?" she said to him.
He let out a low, gravelly laugh as he ran his tongue over his bottom lip. "Not gonna lie, I'm kind of enjoying this side of you, sweetheart... But are you really sure this is what you want?"
Yuka shifted her position, growing even closer to him as she adjusted her posture. Their thighs were now pressed against each other as they sat side-by-side along the edge of the roof.
"Well, you did say there were other ways we could blow off steam..." she cooed.
"Should I take this as you accepting my offer, then?" he replied as he raised his eyebrow in interest.
"What do you think?"
They both looked at each other for a moment, not saying a word. Yuka's eyes dropped to Dabi's mouth and before she knew it, they were both lunging at each other as their lips came crashing in a fiery, passionate kiss. She felt something metallic press against her tongue and it's at that moment that she realized that his tongue had been pierced. This came to her as a surprise as she didn't recall ever noticing his piercing before.
Their hands scrambled for purchase as they frantically held on to each other as if their life depended on it. Dabi ended up grabbing her waist and pulling her up from the edge of the building, pinning her down against the floor as he slid on top of her. All the while, his lips never left hers, devouring them as his hands wandered around her body.
"Are we-" he started to say, before being momentarily interrupted by Yuka's hungry kisses. "...really doing this on the roof? Not that I'm complaining but..." He pulled away from her to catch his breath. "We could be doing this somewhere less exposed..."
Yuka's breathing had also grown heavier as she stared up at Dabi. "I am not doing this in front of the others while they're sleeping..."
"Then I guess we'll give the neighbors a good show..."
Yuka rolled her eyes as Dabi leaned in to kiss the crook of her neck.
"I didn't take you for the exhibitionist type, Dabi..." she said in a flat tone.
"What can I say," he growled into her skin. "I have no shame..."
He sank his teeth into her neck, sending chills down her spine as she slightly pulled at the base of his hair with one hand.
"Well I'm less than keen to have spectators... Luckily for you, I'm actually quite familiar with the city we're in right now."
"Is that so?" He lifted his head to look at her as he towered above her. "What's your plan then?"
His eager gaze made her slightly embarrassed, forcing her to look away.
"I know a place where we could... spend the night," she answered. "It's not far from here."
"Hmm you've got me curious now," he said in a husky voice. "Fine, we'll do it your way then."
He stood up and helped her stand up before pulling her towards him again. He slid his hand behind her head and pulled her into another steamy kiss. Once he had his fill of her lips, he pulled away slowly, smirking as he did, then motioned for the door leading back into the theater.
"Lead the way..."