Chapter Text
Kimiko gave herself a lot of credit. She had stayed behind the police line with Daichi, just like she was expected to. When the fighting broke out she had stayed put, on edge and feeling an immense sense of danger. It set her whole body on fire, forcing her to shift her weight back at forth from one foot to another. Daichi didn't say anything about it, but he did give her a knowing side eye before dismissing a few people around them. She barely paid any mind to them. Her attention was zoned onto the sounds of fighting until, suddenly, it was silent. It was jarring enough to make both her and Daichi stand up straight.
"Vex," Daichi jerked his chin toward the bar.
Vex sighed, adjusting his suit jacket with an irritated look before nodding in acknowledgment. He casually made his way toward the bar. It was only a few moments before he came back with a weird substance on his gloved hand. Black sludge that she recognized almost immediately.
"Master interfered," Daichi waved away Vex, allowing him to remove his gloves and toss them aside. "He could have taken them anywhere."
"This particular Nomu, unless it has moved locations, shouldn't be far from here."
"The factory then," she suggested, remembering the talks about Nomu production that Daichi would have with her. "There's one close to here, isn't there?"
"Not close enough for us to get there in time to be useful."
Her phone vibrated at that moment, distracting her for only a moment. When she looked at the caller ID on the screen it made her grimace. Hitoshi. Her finger hovered over the decline call button for only a moment before she pressed it. There was more pressing concerns right now. She had been avoiding him since returning from the camp. Too afraid to answer questions. Too scared for things to be different between them. He knew she was fine. That she was recovering and just tired from her medicine, which she wasn't even taking. But there had been no real conversations between them and Hitoshi didn't seem like he wanted to push the issue.
"Problems in your love life?"
She glared at Daichi as she slipped the phone into her pocket, "mind your business."
Daichi raised his hands in mock surrender, "so defensive." There was suddenly a commotion in the police line, people scrambling and yelling orders. She barely caught the figure of All Might fleeing the scene, which meant she could only assume Bakugou wasn't at this location anymore.
"Do you think...?"
Daichi grimaced, "Master. Yeah."
"We need to go to the factory."
"There's heroes already there. This wasn't the only place they hit. Even if they fled to there--"
"You know they're nothing to Master."
"And we are?" Daichi grabbed her, pulling her away from the crowd and toward his car. "Master would wipe us out just as easily. The only person who could even possibly stand up to him would be All Might."
"But All Might can't. He's--" she caught herself, snapping her mouth shut before she revealed any of Toshinori's secrets. "He's just one hero."
"No, he's the Symbol of Peace. There's no one in this country better equipped to handle this situation."
She bit her lip. There was a choice in the road. She could tell Daichi that All Might was weak. His quirk was dwindling away the stronger Midoriya got with it. He was on his last legs as a hero and it meant he was in no condition to fight. Especially not Master. But that secret was Toshinori's deepest secret. It was entrusted to her as a show of his faith in her dedication to being a better person--to being a hero. There was a promise to never breathe a word of it. But if she didn't explain her concern to Daichi then he wouldn't take her to the factory. He would keep pushing for her to go home.
Vex, however, cleared his throat. "I believe that All Might is capable of handling Master, but only if he doesn't need to worry about the student's safety in the process. It would be beneficial to All Might for us to secure Bakugou's safety while he fights."
Daichi eyed Vex with narrowed eyes, trying to size up his motives for supporting someone he hated. Kimiko was doing the same, because she didn't trust Vex if he ever agreed with her. Not even in the slightest. For his own part, Vex simply ignored their looks in favor of pulling his keys from his jacket pocket.
"What are you playing at?"
Vex waved away Daichi, "I'm simply making a logical observation. Do with it what you will."
Daichi scoffed, "There's something at that factory you want, isn't there?" Vex stayed silent, sparing no attention for the question. After a few moments he reluctantly sighed. "Fuck it. Let's throw all our safety out of the window."
Daichi busied himself with calling over one of his inner circle. A minion that quietly followed him at a distance. She recognized him, but she never paid anyone other than Vex much mind growing up. This person was only a part of the inner circle because of his quirk; spacial displacement. It was a form of teleportation, useful if Daichi needed to make a quick escape for some reason. His services weren't needed often. In this case, he would be the fastest way to the factory.
"Himura," Vex's smooth voice pulled her attention, making her scowl at him. "Let's hope you have a legitimate reason for being so concerned about All Might. I wouldn't want to look like a fool."
"Noted."
Moments later, Daichi returned to them with his minion in tow. There was no explanation of the way the quirk worked. No preparations. There was just a "do it" and then they were gone.
*
Kimiko had been teleported in different ways through her life. Master had a nomu that could teleport people, but it was an unpleasant and disgusting way. Black goo would come out of your nose and mouth, simulating the feeling of suffocation and when you reappeared somewhere new there would be shivers through the body. Kurogiri was definitely the most pleasant way she was teleported. Step in the circle, step out, no big deal. No weird side effects. Then there was Daichi's subordinate. His spacial displacement quirk was unpleasant in a slew of ways. It dematerializes a target in one place in order to materialize that target in another. The process was....painful. It would leave the target's body burning up, tingling with an unpleasant intensity. It often left people so uncoordinated when they materialized that they would be unable to move right away, which is exactly where Kimiko found herself.
Standing in front of five people she hadn't expected to see, face scrunched up in pain, in a small alley way. So many questions were running through her mind. How did Midoriya and his circle of friends know where the factory was? There was no way they were in Hosu by accident. Had they been inside the bar? Why did they look so scared? She was losing herself in a swarm of thoughts when Daichi reached out to her, his hand gripping her arm hard while he pulled her back.
"Master knows we're here. We do this now or we lose our opening. Go!"
She heard Todoroki call her name, but she turned on her heel to do what she came for. She solidified the air beneath her, creating steps to get up to the flattened area of the building where the sounds of fighting echoed from. Daichi followed behind her, using the steps that she had created. Her feet were on the ground for only a moment when Daichi glimmered away, his voice echoing around her, "don't forget your training."
And she didn't. She remembered the feeling of adrenaline and fear. Her jaw clenched at it, her body tingling with a feverish urgency. And she pushed off, running toward Bakugou who was fighting the Leauge and, surprisingly, holding his own for now. But she came in just in time to solidify the air around him, protecting him from the flames that would have engulfed him otherwise.
"Kimiko? What the fuck are you doing here!?"
"I came for you," she snapped back. "Sound grateful about it."
"I'm not! You shouldn't be here!"
She didn't have time to respond when she had Shigaraki appearing at her side out of the smoke around them. Bakugou cursed, grabbing her arm to pull her into him. She could swear that her heart skipped a beat when Shigaraki's hand passed by her face with only a hair's space between them. And that very small, heart beat skipping moment made her mad. So mad that she pushed herself up and back, using Bakugou's chest as a wall--forcing the air from his own chest--and kicked both feet into Shigaraki's face as he came into view. For good measure she solidified the air beneath the soles of her sneakers to make sure it hurt more. Bakugou stumbled, readjusting himself to support her weight as she landed back on her feet, one arm extended to his side to keep a very manic looking teenage girl away from them with an explosion.
"Warn me next time."
"Sorry."
He let her go when he was sure that she was stable on her feet. She caught Daichi out of the corner of her eye fighting with the girl, both of them using knives to block the other's attacks. What she wanted was an opening to get Bakugou away from the fighting, but she hadn't accounted for becoming a target herself. Which is what happened when she felt a black, whip like tendril wrap painfully around her arm. Luckily, Bakugou noticed it in time to grab it himself, letting a cluster of small explosions force the tendril to let go. She solidified the air around them to keep it away.
"Kimiko Himura," she froze, feeling her entire body become cold with the chill that ran through it. It was an unpleasant, too familiar feeling of terror that rooted her into place. "Your mother has been so distraught at your disappearance."
Through out her life she had seen Master and despite never having ill intentions toward her, he had always scared her. He was the boogey man--the demon in the closet that bided time. Their parents always reminded them that it was by his mercy that they were all alive. It was his mercy that gave them a purpose. He was the strongest. He could survive All Might's hardest attempts to kill him. To many of the adults in the compound he was a walking god. And they were taught to fear him, because fear was respect and fear created loyalty.
And now, that fear was making it hard to breathe as he came into view. Just on the other side of the air she barricaded herself inside of. It drowned out the sounds around her with the sound of her blood pumping. She wanted to run away. Her legs tingled in response, but running wasn't a real option. There was no running away from a monster like him. A part of her regretting coming there. She wondered why she hadn't thought more about the dangers. Did Bakugou mean that much to her? Was he worth her putting herself in so much danger?
"Kimi," Bakugou slipped his hand into her's, pulling her attention to him. "I won't let anyone hurt you."
Master laughed, but Bakugou squeezed her hand. Her worst nightmare stood in front of her, only a small barrier away, while fighting consumed the area around them. She came to rescue Bakugou, because he was worth the risk and he meant more to her than she could form in words. Yet here she was having the hostage she came for trying to protect her! As outrageous as the situation was it still sparked something inside her. Bakugou was willing to protect her. He cared for her. They were still friends. But it was also a sign that she was still the same Kimiko that came to Yuuei and the same Kimiko that had lost her memories before the training camp. She wasn't the scared little kid Master remembered.
She squeezed Bakugou's hand back, taking a deep breath before she looked up at Master, trying to force her resolve to show on her face.
"I'm not scared of you."
Master chuckled, but he didn't have time to respond before All Might had thrown himself back into the fray. She only let herself feel relief for a moment. They were still against the entire League and Daichi was nowhere to be seen.
"If you see an opportunity to run then do it," she turned to look at Bakugou, seeing him narrow his eyes at her. "Daichi and Vex brought me here. They'll get me out. But promise me, you'll take any opportunity to escape that you can."
"Not without you. I--"
"Katsuki, just trust me, okay? Please?"
He nodded, letting go of her hand. She really was hoping that Midoriya had a plan. For now, her best bet was to get Bakugou some distance between himself and the villains coming for him. The best bet was to move backward toward the edge of the building where the heroes had been attacked.
"We need distance between us and them," Bakugou jerked his chin toward the villains as if she didn't know who he would be talking about. It was almost insulting. "Your barrier is only protecting us, but it isn't keeping them at a distance. We need to--"
She huffed, focusing on the air she had solidified in a dome around them and pushed out with her arms, imagining the expanse of air that the dome formed becoming larger. The ground around them was pushed up, ripping into rubble and dust as it expanded. Some of the League were smart enough to move back, narrowly avoiding being hit. Others, like the girl and man with the flames weren't as prepared. They were hit, pushed back with enough force to be lifted off their feet.
"That's new."
She grimaced when Shigaraki walked up to her barrier, slapping both of his palms onto it with a look of pure hatred. The barrier cracked around his hands, but she focused on continuously solidifying the air he disintegrated. Daichi had always joked that Shigaraki hated her because she had a quirk that could get in the way of his own. He didn't like that he could be essentially useless against her. But Daichi had always been quick to note that his quirk wasn't entirely useless. If she gave the air around her form then it was vulnerable to physical attacks. Like any other solid object Shigaraki could still use his quirk on it. Of course, she could always continue to solidify the air that was constantly around them, but he could continue to disintegrate it. A deadlock between the two that really only meant one thing; it was only a matter of who gave up first. Shigaraki's saving grace was that his quirk required much less energy and concentration than her own and it disintegrated just fast enough to require her full attention to keep up with.
"Kimiko--"
"It's fine as long as I don't stop manipulating the air. Get back there and when you do I'll come to you. Just be ready to keep them away from you when I let my barrier down."
"I don't like that idea."
"It's sort of the only one we have."
"Mine is better," without warning, Bakugou grabbed her arm to force her to look at him. "Trust me."
"Baku--"
"Trust me. Please."
A small part of her was reluctant to do so. After all, she remembered what she was always taught about trusting others. There was also no guarantee that whatever plan he had in mind would work for them. Yet there was a stronger part of her that had nodded immediately, asking him what he wanted her to do. Because that part of her trusted him inexplicably. That part of her was the one that listened intently. That let her barrier down as they retreated backward. Even as the villains descended on them like moths to a flame. Her trust in his plan was unwavering, even up to the point where they gained the distance they need using his explosions and random walls of air.
Even when Kirishima called out to Bakugou, both of his hands out for each of them. The explosive blond hadn't thought twice before hooking an arm around her waist and propelling them in the air with his own quirk. Kirishima caught her hand easily, but Bakugou's grip on her didn't let go until they were back on solid ground. Back in safety.