Katsumi was breathing deep and heavy, dripping with sweat as she caught her breath, and opened the front door. As she shut it behind her, she called out to her dad, kicked her trainers off and walked into the living room. She swallowed as she looked around, wiping sweat off her forehead.

There was no reply. The living room was empty, she guessed Dad wasn't home, maybe he was still at UA? Whatever, she went straight upstairs, peeling off the top that had stuck to her skin, saturated with sweat. She jumped right into the shower, blasting herself with cold water.

"You better be back soon," Katsumi mumbled as she dried her hair. She needed to go to the bar today.

Her hair had grown out a little, black strands peeking through. Stroking the soft locks she mentally noted that she should bleach it again, before the festival. Getting her hair from black to blonde was a pain though. She could probably go to a salon again, it wasn't like her dad was short on cash. If only her quirk could change her hair cells, but it only worked for living cells. That was one thing about her mother she was jealous about, how easy it was for her to change her entire appearance, she just conjured up the idea in her mind while Katsumi had to use her whole focus to move grow and change the cells in her body.

Her training had made her quite adept at it though. However, she thought she should practise more before the festival. She had been running a lot and had gotten faster. Before she took roughly nineteen minutes to run five kilometres, she'd shaved that down to just over sixteen. That wasn't just from the week or so since joining UA, that would be impossible, she'd been working to get it down to that for a while. Now she'd pretty much reached that goal, she decided she should put more time into weights from now on.

But her running speed wasn't the only thing that had gotten faster. In fact, the time for her arms to regenerate had almost halved. How that had happened so fast Katsumi had no clue. Maybe because she was older and stronger now? Her quirk had matured? Back then it took months of constant injury to- no, don't think about then.

A part of her was almost pleased with the result, she was getting stronger after all, but, it was exactly what he had wanted back then. Did that man know about her arrangement with Tomura? He hadn't spoken to her since he gave her that quirk… but surely he had been keeping tabs on her. On one particularly anxious night, she looked around the bar as thoroughly as she could from her seat for some sort of camera or wiretap, but she couldn't see anything obvious. He didn't need them, she supposed, he had Kurogiri as his eyes and ears.

The bad part of the regeneration training actually working was that it was quickly stealing the time she had with Tomura. It was easier enough to have a conversation with him now but she needed time to tactfully reach the topics she wanted to discuss. Less time to talk meant less time to get to those topics.

At least he had been sending Kurogiri away. Without that man's little spy lurking around it should be much simpler to talk some sense into Tomura.

No, like that would ever be simple.

The other problem playing on her mind was her new quirk, which she still needed to figure out. Another thing to train. Obviously, she couldn't use it around anyone except Kurogiri and Tomura, and that had actually given her an idea.

In order to extend her time with Tomura she would simply ask to use the bar to practise with this quirk! The solution was easy, a rare thing for Katsumi. The only problem with that was that she didn't really want anything to do with this new quirk thrust upon her. She didn't want to use it at all, and realistically it wouldn't be nearly as good as her regeneration training for opportunities to talk to Tomura. No, in this situation having her arms turned to dust was the better option. It would be hard to have a conversation while trying to figure out how to use a quirk, but beggars can't be choosers.

A part of her just wanted to ask that man how to use it, no, she really should. She needed control over it, if she used it in front of another person, even for a moment, she was done for. But she didn't want to neither see or talk to that man ever again, unless perhaps, it was his corpse.

All in all, the problem of this second quirk could wait until after the festival.

"I'm home!"

Her father's voice rang out from downstairs, accompanied by the sounds of the door clicking shut and the shuffling of shoes. Katsumi turned off the hairdryer and walked out onto the landing, "Welcome back! Guess what? I cut my running time down-"
A loud buzzing interrupted Katsumi as she began to walk down the stairs. Her dad began to rummage in his bag as he shot an apologetic smile up at her.

"Shoot, sorry I gotta take this call."

Katsumi nodded, "Alright."

"I already told you. I'm not gonna order you to do anything so just don't use the quirk."

Katsumi blinked.

The bar was empty, Kurogiri leaving as soon as Katsumi came through the portal. She supposed he had got the memo that Tomura did not want him around when she was here. That or Tomura had pre-emptively told him to leave. Katsumi had pretty quickly got to the topic of her quirk, and how she needed somewhere to practice with it. After all, Kurogiri had explicitly told her to learn how to use it.

"I still gotta get a hold of the quirk," Katsumi insisted, genuinely a little confused by his immediate refusal. It wasn't like her using the bar to train that quirk would be all that disruptive, if he really didn't want to be around her that much he could go crawl back into his dark cave of a room. "It would be bad if I used it in front of someone."

Tomura was unmoved. "Then don't," he answered coldly.

Katsumi pursed her lips as she stared at him, her teeth clenched together tight. Inhaling she smiled tautly, "Right."

Doing dirty work was not the reason she was asking to use the bar to train the damned quirk in the slightest! Was that really that hard to understand? Could he seriously only see it for how it could benefit him? Damn him. Why he didn't want her doing anything for the League's mission, whatever that even was, was beyond her.

Katsumi relaxed.

"Tomura," she cleared her throat, she'd move on from the topic of that other quirk for now. "I am kinda curious why you aren't actually making me do anything. Should I be like- stealing… files? Or whatever."
"'Cuz I don't need your help, obviously."

He didn't even hesitate for a moment. Katsumi wasn't sure what other answer she expected. Despite him waiting every night for her to come to visit him, he staunchly acted as if he completely and utterly wanted nothing to do with her. Even now he talked to her, he still took every opportunity to insult and belittle her. It was quite clear to Katsumi that at the moment, Tomura didn't like her all that much, their history was meaningless.

"Besides," he chuckled unnervingly, "you'd only mess shit up and get caught."

That did worry her. If she actually got caught… Katsumi shut those thoughts down and smiled, "So you don't want me getting in trouble? That's so sweet."
He huffed and turned away, running a finger over the rim of the empty glass in front of him. "More like I can't be bothered to deal with the trouble," he mumbled.

She was supposed to be the spy, the mole, but it seemed the world had cut her a break and relieved her from having to do anything. Still, if she was caught with Tomura like this, or someone found out she knew about the USJ attack, she was screwed. As long as she didn't have to go out and do anything it was fine, she wasn't going to get caught. But how did they expect to get information from UA then? Or maybe they didn't need to anymore? How did they get the information from UA?

Katsumi sucked in a breath, "When those reporters broke in, did you steal the information about the USJ trip?"

Tomura turned his head slightly towards Katsumi, "What does that matter?"

"I guess it doesn't," she hummed, he probably did it seemed. For a moment she was worried that someone else in UA, or had access to UA was working for the League. "Just be careful," she warned, "you won't get away with that again."

"Don't have to," he shrugged, "don't tell Master I told you, but he's got a connection other than you in UA."

"What."
"Yeah," he smirked, "didn't you realise?"

Katsumi went stiff. She had to stay calm.

"Who?"

He snickered, leaning back, "Yeah, I'm not telling you."

Okay, okay. Be calm. No. What? What the hell? Someone in UA? A teacher maybe? No, no way a teacher. Unless that man had some dirt on a teacher. Yeah, that might be it, blackmail. Just like her. Maybe a casualty they could have prevented but didn't? Stealing? Cheating? It could be a whole host of things. Fuck, it might even be a student. Even somebody in her class… No, no way.

What if it wasn't blackmail? What if that man actually had someone in UA conspiring to kill her father? Someone working for him out of their own free will?

She stroked her hair as she tried to stay calm. "Who would betray UA?" she muttered under her breath.

"Besides you?" Tomura sneered, Katsumi frowned, "Could be anyone, heroes aren't all that pure-hearted y'know?"

She scowled openly at him.

What right did he have to pass judgment? It wasn't even like she disagreed, but fuck, what right did he have to say that?

"Is it really that better to be a villain?" She questioned, abandoning any attempt at politeness.

Tomura was unfazed by the question.

"Who cares?"

Katsumi's face twitched, "I'd assume you with all your talk about heroes being shitty back at the USJ." She smirked, "But then again, I guess my dad did call you out about that. How you're really just a destructive asshole."

How would he react to that? Katsumi didn't know. She was finding it difficult to really pin down his personality. He was irrational, immature and aggressive, her body tensed as she realised how she had provoked him, yet at the same time… He had to think of her with a modicum of care. She was sure that somewhere, there was the boy who led her out of that prison his 'master' had locked her in for so long.

Tomura stared at her for a long moment. He hunched down, staring at the bar table he brought one hand to rub his neck and mumbled, "...Gotta scratch the itch."

It was silent for a few moments. Katsumi's anger melted away. Itch. An itch. What?

"Gross," she snickered, "you shouldn't tell girls that."

Katsumi thought she was funny… but Tomura just glared at her.

"You're so…" he hissed as he clenched his fist and sat up, "...fucking aggravating. It pisses me off."

Katsumi scrunched her nose, "You let me hang around though."

He huffed in annoyance and didn't respond for a few moments.

"I suppose I don't mind you being around," he grumbled. He stared at his hand, clenching his fingers before adding, "As long as I get to destroy your arms the way I do."

Furrowing her brows Katsumi leaned forwards, "What is that like…" A sadism thing? She couldn't say that. "Is that why you wanna be a villain? To, uh, destroy things?"

What a childish question, but she really needed to know. The real reason, of course, was that that man had groomed him too, but she wanted to know why he thought he wanted to.

Tomura shrugged, "Sure."

"...And what's killing All Might specifically got to do with that?"

If there was another mole, that meant someone in UA wanted her father dead, or at least was willing to help make that a reality. That wasn't good. It was bad enough having to deal with Tomura, Kurogiri and their Master. Damnit, to think she had believed him when he said that to kill All Might wasn't their goal, he was clearly lying.

Tomura took a moment before tilting his head towards her, behind the pale blue strands of hair and grey 'skin' of the hand a flash of red peeked out, burning into her.

"Y'know… your old dad is the face of this fragile farce of a world," Tomura tapped his fingers on the solid wood as he spoke. "He's the face of heroes," he huffed, "the most bullshit concept in this world. Selfless individuals? We both know they are just praise-obsessed fame-seekers."

Hearing Tomura voice something so similar to her own past thoughts was humbling- almost unsettling. Shifting uncomfortably, Katsumi found herself confronted by her own beliefs, the ones that had begun to waver ever since she accepted the path of becoming a hero. Her outright disdain for heroes had softened over time, settling into something closer to neutrality. No- if she was being honest, she had simply pushed her feelings aside for the sake of her father and, to a lesser extent, Izuku. After all, openly criticizing heroes was discouraged. Because obviously, if you didn't like heroes, you had to be some type of villain.

And yet, before her now was someone whose hatred for heroes- and for her father- ran even deeper than hers ever had, even in her darkest moments.

How strange.

"He's fucking worshipped, everyone thinks he is so good," he turned to Katsumi, his tone deadly serious. "But would such a good man abandon his child?"

Katsumi went stiff.

"You should know more than anyone how much of a fake he is," he shook his head, "just like the rest of those heroes."

C'mon, no. No, she had already made peace with that. His role as All Might, the symbol of peace made it impossible for him to be her father. Those two identities were incompatible. Tomura was playing dirty, trying to upset her.
"God," Katsumi laughed bitterly, rubbing her eyes, "you're a bastard."

"Of course," sneering, Tomura turned away, "you're one of them now."

Katsumi scoffed, "What do you know about heroes?" She leaned forward, getting close enough that Tomura actually flinched back as she glared at him, "How often do you leave your room? I bet he told you to think that. I'm sure you just gobble up anything that your 'Master' tells you and shit it out your mouth as truth."

Her glare didn't falter as Tomura stared at her unmoving. She continued to stare at him until he let his breath out.

"What the fuck."

He pulled away as Katsumi did, not letting her expression soften in the slightest.

"What?"

Tomura stared at her for a long moment.

"Why you gotta say it like that?"

"Like what?" She retorted.

His shoulders relaxed and he shook his head, laughing harshly, "You're fucking weird."

Like he could talk.

Katsumi sneered at him, "Oh sorry. I forgot what an upstanding gentleman you are." She laughed coldly and smiled, "I will be more careful to conduct myself in a more-"

"Yeah ok," he grumbled, "shut up."

Katsumi's face returned to a frown as he turned away from her once again. He was so weird. After a moment, now her anger had died down a bit, a smirk crept its way onto her lips. Despite the fact he was a total asshole, she was actually pretty entertained. If only she could hang out with him without the weight of whatever that man was scheming behind the scenes.

"But actually," she pressed, not wanting to forget why she was really there. Glancing down she swept her hair over her shoulder, running her finger through as she readied herself for what she was about to say. "That man, you really-"

"Oh shut up."

Katsumi's brows tightened and she went to speak but Tomura beat her to it.

"I mean, just…" he sighed, clearly annoyed, "don't talk about him."

"Why?"

Maybe she was going too fast?

"Because I say so," he scolded harshly. "Don't get in over your head."

Katsumi frowned. That was one step back. Oh, whatever, she knew that she was pushing it. She should have stayed in the safe zone.

"I'll have to level up first before I can fight the big boss I suppose," she mumbled, half annoyed with herself, half with Tomura, and completely with that man.

Tomura snorted.

Her annoyance slipped slightly. At least he found her funny sometimes. If only that could transfer into him finding her trustworthy in any sort of way.

She glanced down, her arm was almost healed. The palm of her hand pulsated as the flesh bubbled up the growing bones. Gross.

"So quick..." she mumbled, she would be going home soon she supposed. It was a no to using the bar for training that new quirk, well until she asked Kurogiri, who would probably at least attempt to talk some sense into Tomura.

"You're getting stronger," Tomura noted, nodding to her hand.

"Sure," Katsumi nodded, holding her hand in front of her, her regen was better but that's not what she cared about.

"I need to level up my conversation points though, not my healing," she mumbled, half chuckling quietly to herself, "Or I guess in Persona terms my charm?"

"Destroying yourself, all this for a festival," Tomura's voice was laced with disapproval. "You that desperate to impress those heroes?"

Katsumi rolled her eyes, putting her hand down, "Obviously not."

Tomura grumbled, "Then what's the point in going through this? I'm not complaining, but you look like an idiot."

She sighed, "You gotta add an insult to everything, it's annoying. I'm levelling up using my abilities, don't be jealous." Her eyes drifted to his bandaged hand, "Bet you wish you had your own passive healing."

He laughed mockingly, "I do moron, every person does. And stop talking like that. 'I'm levelling up!'" He clicked his tongue, "So dumb."

"But you-" Katsumi bit her words down, it wasn't worth it, "O-kay."

Tomura snickered at Katsumi's sour face, "I'll enjoy watching you beat up those moronic NPC classmates of yours."

Well, at least he knew she was strong. That was something he couldn't insult her for. But his jabs about her classmates were beginning to annoy her. The thing was that before joining UA, she was sure she was going to be surrounded by brain-dead wannabe heroes who just wanted fame and money. Surely some of them did feel that way, but she knew that wasn't the case. The fact that people like Momo and Izuku were being lumped in as 'morons' was pissing her off.

"My classmates, moronic?" Katsumi shook her head, turning to the bar. He deserved some more teasing for being such an asshole. "I dunno about that, didn't Kurogiri get captured by one of my classmates?" She hummed, keeping a smirk down as she glanced over to Tomura, "And pretty much all of those chumps you brought with you got absolutely destroyed by them."

That pissed him off.

"They were all useless!" Tomura cursed, the reminder of the failure back at the USJ obviously getting to him. "Nothing more than bots damnit! Even with all those numbers they were useless!"

Katsumi's lips curled up, "Pfft."

"I need a smaller group," Tomura continued, ignoring Katsumi, "a tight group of serious fucking villains who aren't dumb as rocks."

"And how will you find people like that?" She hoped he wouldn't. That just sounded like more problems.

Tomura began to say something but it got caught in his throat. He groaned and brought his fingers to his neck, scratching. Katsumi's face scrunched up, concerned.

"You could raid Tartarus," she offered, "let all the big bad's in there out as long as they promise to work for you."

"That's the dumbest fucking idea I've ever heard," he spat, whipping round to glare at her. "How the hell would I do that, no even if I did how would you go about getting them to actually-"

"Oh my god," she scoffed, a little intimidated, "it was a joke."

"You're just so funny," Tomura's tone didn't ease, rough and harsh as he chastised her, "your little green-haired boyfriend must be head over heels."

Her insides froze. "No." She was stiff as she spoke, "That's not-"

How did he know- Kurogiri. Of course, it wasn't that man ordering Kurogiri to follow her, it was him. What did that mean for her? That he knew who she was close to? She was pretty certain that she at the very least could not allow him to catch onto the fact she liked him, that was for sure.

"Oh really?" he taunted. "You've been hanging out with him for a while now. You even saved him from me, don't think I forgot about that. You two are close, don't tell me he doesn't like you. You do seem like the type to lead guys on."

"What?" Katsumi laughed nervously, "We're just friends." Type to lead guys on? She wanted to punch this bitch. "We hang out a lot because my dad-" shit she couldn't say that.

"Chose him to inherit his power?" He laughed, the sound grating her ears, "Of course. I guess that makes sense, he might like him but the feeling isn't mutual. You must hate him really. You're own father chose him over you."

Yeah, she was done with this.

"I should leave," she stood up, eyes glued to the floor, "it's getting late."

"Sit back down," he snapped.

Katsumi flinched at his words, they were cold and final. She stayed still, making no move to either sit back down or leave.

"You're hand," Tomura cleared his throat. Katsumi looked at it, it was pretty much healed, the fingers slowly rebuilding their structure.

She sat back down, not bothering to say anything. Every jab and insult that she had ignored, allowed to pile up re-running in her mind. God, she wanted to leave. Tomura was quiet too, staring ahead, at least she assumed he was, Katsumi didn't glance at him to check.

"... Do you…" he asked in a low voice, "Wanna play cards?"

What was with this guy?

"Why should I?"
"Let me rephrase that," he shoved his hand into his pocket and took out a pack of cards, throwing it out onto the bar table. "Play cards with me."

Fucking weirdo. He acted like such an asshole to her but he wanted her to hang around? Or was he wanting something?

"Whatever," she frowned. "But on one condition."

The grey hand that grasped Tomura's face hid his stare as he looked at her, leaning on one arm resting on the bar table.

"What?"

She looked at him sternly, "You take that hand off."
"Fuck off."

Katsumi raised her eyebrows, her face remaining hard, "I'll leave if you don't agree."
"You can't leave," he retorted, seething slightly, "I need to call Kurogiri back."

She shrugged, "I'll walk out the door."

"And then what? You're in your pyjamas and have no clue where you are." He sneered, "Young ladies shouldn't be walking in the streets at night."

"Because of people like you," she muttered.

Katsumi needed to keep her mouth shut.

"If I win whatever we play," she decided to compromise before he could reply to her last remark, "you take the hand off."

Tomura clicked his tongue, sucking his breath in through clenched teeth, "...Fine."

Katsumi nodded, hiding her mild surprise, pushing the cards towards Tomura, "What are we playing?"

They agreed to play nine rounds of the game Tomura explained to her. She hadn't heard of it before, which put her at a disadvantage. Katsumi decided to just relax, it didn't really matter if she won or not. She really just wanted to go home, she was only doing this to not piss him off more than she already had. It seemed she had given up on making him like her, she still wanted that but, her own personality made it difficult to be passive and likeable.

They played mostly in silence, and as she kept playing, and despite her poor performance in the first few rounds, Katsumi began to enjoy herself. Especially when she began winning. Her score kept climbing and it was obviously beginning to get to Tomura who tapped his fingers against the table restlessly and scratched his neck. Tutting and hissing as he placed his cards.

"That's four to three," Katsumi smirked at the end of the final round, "I win."

Tomura stared down at the card she had placed down, her last card.

Her mood had improved vastly and she almost let a snicker out as she leaned against the bar, waiting patiently.

"So?"

Tomura stayed still for a long moment, staring at the cards on the bar.

"You're not gonna find a mistake."

He stayed still, looking at the cards. He placed his own down and began to chuckle, his hoarse voice rough from under the mask.

Despite being quite sure he was not actually going to go through with the deal, Katsumi subconsciously held her breath. Her lips parted slightly as she watched Tomura bring one hand up to the base of the hand that grasped his face. In bated breath, she watched as the bottom slowly lifted up and-

"Nah."

Tomura stood up.

"W-what?" Katsumi sputtered. She actually thought she was about to see his face.

He ignored her, walking towards the corridor.

"Woah, hold up! We had a deal!" Katsumi lept from her seat, following Tomura.

He huffed, "I don't care."

"Dude have some integrity!" Katsumi grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Immediately he turned to her and yanked his arm away.

"Fuck off," he snarled.

Katsumi's brow furrowed, "No. Stick to your word."

Tomura laughed coldly and went to turn away. Katsumi took no notice, grabbing his arm again.

"Stop touching me," he hissed.

Katsumi glared, pulling his arm closer towards her, "Why you gotta pretend we're strangers? It's not like I'm trying to sit on your lap or some shit like when we were kids."
Tomura jerked backwards, "Y-you-!"

Taking the moment of weakness Katsumi reached up to his face. Tomura recovered from his shock in time to quickly grab her wrist just as her fingers grazed the leathery skin of the hand. He yanked her wrist away, making her stumble towards him.

Katsumi glared up at him, now so close she could clearly see the gaps in where his hair and the fingers of the hand failed to conceal his bloody eyes. He stared down at her, eyes intense. Katsumi met his gaze, too far gone to give up now.

His fingers gripped her wrist firmly, his pinkie raised, straining away. One movement and he could destroy her like he had countless times before. In her head, she thought she should be scared, and her body seemed to agree, her heart pounding quickly in her chest. Yet, she didn't pull away.

She looked up at him,"Please."

She could almost see his eyes narrow and widen, watching her face as she looked at him. His grip on her wrist loosened slightly and Katsumi slowly moved her hand back, he didn't resist as her fingertips brushed the skin of the hand.

"...Can I?" she asked with a tenderness he obviously didn't expect as he stiffened slightly. When she received no reply she took it as a yes. Her heart felt all of a sudden much larger and erratic as it beat in her chest. She waited so long for this, finally-

Slowly, without straying her gaze from his own, she pulled the hand away.

Intense, being under his gaze was intense. His eyes, it was all she could truly focus on as she took in his face. Still, she took it all in. His scars, she remembered them now. He had two scars on his face, one stretching from the top to the bottom of his left eyelid and another across his top and lower lip. Speaking of his lips, they were cracked and dry, she remembered that too. They were parted slightly, his breath shallow as he stared at her. His skin was chipped and peeling just like how her skin did as his fingers gripped her wrist. Her eyes couldn't focus on that for long though, perhaps it should have disturbed her, but her gaze fell back on his eyes. Bright, red.

Tomura let go of her wrist and stepped back, yanking his arm from Katsumi's hand. She was put off balance by the sudden movement, she hadn't even realised how closely she had been leaning into him.

"Happy now?" Tomura growled, snatching the hand off her. Katsumi stared at him, putting a face to the voice that felt strange, but the raspy tone fit.

"What?" His lips snarled as she glared at her, "Not what you expected?"

"I didn't expect anything," she watched as he placed the leathery grey fingers back around his face. "No, I was just remembering how you used to look."

Face hidden once again, he turned to face her, "You looked pretty fucking disgusted."

Katsumi felt strange, almost giddy, no, more like, she felt unreal. She brought her hand to her chest, rubbing her collarbone soothingly. Disgusted? No, not disgusted.

"I think you're making that up," she mumbled without thinking, looking at the floor. "Have you watched Phantom of the Oprea?" She pursed her lips, slightly biting the inside as her mind struggled to come back to earth, "Now that would be a bad reaction."

"Huh?" Tomura shook his head, "What, no. I don't even know what that is. You're so damn weird, talking about shit I don't care about all the time."

Katsumi probably should have been annoyed, but she wasn't. Her head still felt very light, woozy even. Her chest was tight and she felt almost breathless. Her head hurt.

Tomura scowled, "You got what you wanted, fuck off already."

Katsumi was still feeling strange when she got home. She went to the bathroom and stared at her reflection for a long time.

What position was she in now? He seemed angry with her, and she had practically forced him to reveal his face to her but, she still thought it was progress. Progress, progress, progress. That was her life now huh? Progress to get stronger, be smarter, more powerful, progress to not be being blackmailed, to save a guy that arguably didn't need it.

But she knew he did. He needed saving from him. That man. He was selfish. He was clearly just using Tomura just like how he used her. Like he was using her. She understood back then why he took her but now, what was her role now? Was she really there just because he needed insurance that the fact he was still alive wouldn't get out? Incriminate her with the League's crimes so she couldn't go and expose him without exposing herself in the process? It was getting worse every second, she was digging herself further and further down. Since the moment she returned from his capture and stayed silent, her parents ignorant of the fact she had ever been gone. She had long dug herself into a hole she wouldn't escape.

She could at least help Tomura. No, she had to. She had to do something. Anything. She'd go crazy if she didn't try.

Tomura had to be convinced that his 'master' was just using him for his own gain. Convincing him that he was evil was futile, Tomura was clearly not guided by any intention of improving the world, but simply a dirty urge to destroy. He knew the disgusting things his master had done and did not care.

No, he must, at least he must of at some point, in some way. He helped her escape goddamnit! But perhaps how that man had allowed it and let her go easy redeemed him from what he did to her in his eyes? And then all those years of separation made his memory of her sour? To the point where he didn't care how she was tortured and used anymore? So he sided with the man who brought him up, she hated how that seemed honestly reasonable to her.

The fact was that unless she found something truly evil about that man, her chances of changing Tomura at all were slim to none. He was selfish, clearly. His situation with his 'master' worked to benefit him so why would he care that he was a bad person? Fuck, Tomura was a bad person! It would have to be something that directly linked to Tomura, something that personally hurt him. That might change his mind. If Katsumi could get proof that he… was planning to sacrifice Tomura to kill All Might? Would that work? Yes, it would. Or maybe something to do with how he even got Tomura to begin with… He wasn't his child, maybe he stole him from his parents because of his quirk? No, she knew what happened to his family. He had told her. Fuck, what was it? What happened to his family?

Katsumi groaned, gripping the sides of the cool porcelain as she stared at her distorted reflection in the metal drain.

She'd got that hand off, she had seen his face. She wondered if that meant he wouldn't bother wearing it around her anymore. No, it seemed that he wore it all the time anyway. Maybe it was a dumb goal to have, it didn't actually serve her in her goal to make him trust her. If he had taken it off on his own accord, that would likely imply a level of trust between them but she had gotten impatient literally pulled it off him. No, she didn't know what came over her, that was completely moronic! Now it meant nothing. Her saving grace was that he had sort of let her, god that whole interaction was so strange. Katsumi really didn't understand what even happened.

At least she knew what he looked like without the hand, not bad. He acted like he was horrifically disfigured, and that's what you'd assume would be the reason for someone to cover their face. But his face was fine. A little, scary, maybe. But if he wasn't glaring all the time...

Why hands though? Why did he decorate his body with hands? Were they real? She knew the answer, she was sure she knew hands...

Katsumi's eyes widened.

The hands, the hands were the remains of his family.

That was it, wasn't it?

Did… he kill them? Tomura? Was that it…?

She was getting a headache.

She couldn't keep doing this. Writing had helped but, she couldn't do this. She couldn't have this leaking into her life during the day. She couldn't agonise over this at lunch while the people she was supposed to be befriending chatted happily. She couldn't lament her situation while she was doing math equations. She had to draw a line.

She raised her head, pressing her forehead against the mirror as she glared into her own blue eyes.

"From now on Katsumi," she whispered, "you have two lives. They do not mix. You do not think of one in the other. There are two you's, and they will not meet."

She was exhausted, and the bed in the room her father had given her was warm enough. When she woke up she wouldn't think about any of this, she'd wait until night again.