Chapter Text
Kintaro had made it before the Anti-metas could and put the girl in one of Yoichi's hide-outs. Shuten knew Yoichi liked to find places ignored by others and pretend they were his hero bases but he didn't expect any of them to be as concealed as this one was.
It had been three days and the number of people looking for the girl only grew by the minute.
Every couple of hours one of the three boys would stay with her while the other two covered his absence. The people from the anti-meta organization narrowed down that it had to have been someone at the factory that day who helped the girl escape. No one else knew of the plan to kill her.
At this current moment, at-least eight members patrolled the factory, looking for the culprits. Within the past three days, ten people in town had been killed, four in the factories. Fourteen deaths in three days. All for the sin of having a quirk. Shuten had never been more glad for lying about being quirkless.
He felt stupid for trusting Kintaro. Of course, he didn't need to trust Kintaro, all he needed was for Kintaro to trust him. Which it seemed to Shuten he'd already accomplished that, why else would he have left him here with the girl.
He could take advantage of Kintaros naivety and kill the girl right now. It would make things simpler, he was risking his life for her right now after all.
He could hide her body in the creek out by the train track, say she ran off and he couldn't find her. Then he would get to keep Yoichi and Kintaro on his side plus be rid of the girl.
the problem with Shutens fantasy was getting her body to the creek without being seen.
He looked over at the girl wondering if she was small enough to fit in a barrel or bag of some kind.
She hadn't stopped crying, every-time Shuten thought she was done she would start again. It looked gross. blood shot eyes, curly hair sticking to her face, and liquid snot running. It didn't help that the hole they were hiding in was incredibly dirty meaning never ending grime stuck to her clothes, skin and hair.
Really Killing her would be doing a favor to everyone. The anti-meta group would leave, Shuten, Yoichi, Kintaro and any remaining quirk users would no longer be in danger. Most importantly he would get to leave this hole.
"Shuten, Rinne, we're back!" A small voice shouted from the end of the tunnel. Yoichi.
Rinne was the girls name. Shuten couldn't remember it, not that he tried.
"We brought food." That was Kintaros voice, but what was he doing here? If all three of them were gone it would raise attention. Even just the two gone while switching out was dangerous. It was like he was trying to get them caught.
Rinne had the opposite reaction to Shuten, she was happy to hear Kintaro and Yoichi's voices. Unlike Shuten, who sat in silence, when with her they both tried to cheer her up. Yoichi would bring his comics and share them with her while Kintaro would tells jokes and make conversation.
She was grateful Shuten was helping her but it was nice to actually talk to someone.
"what are you both doing here!" Shuten hissed. Kintaro really was going to be the death of him.
"It's lunch so we thought it would be fine if we both came." Yoichi handed a half eaten bun to the girl, who gladly accepted.
"Besides I came up with a plan to get Rinne out of here." Kintaro interjected.
He started explaining his idea. He had overheard early this morning that there would be a train picking up shipment tomorrow evening. If they could sneak Rinne onto the train, she could get off at the next stop and hopefully find someone going to Chiba, where she had family.
"None of that is a real plan." Shuten was quite annoyed. Had he really spent all day coming up with that? no way this worked.
"There is no way to get to the train without someone spotting you. Even if you somehow managed that there would be obvious foot prints in the mud of a child. and then what? you really think anyone will look past that. Plus if the Anti-metas are smart enough they would be guarding the area. I won't even bother with your Chiba part because no one in Miyagi is traveling that far."
"Well do you have a better plan. Mr. know it all"
He did: Kill her. Not that he could tell them that since both would object without even considering it.
He stayed quiet. partially because he couldn't come up with a better idea but mostly because he didn't want to waste anymore time with this troublesome child.
Kintaro scoffed at Shutens Silence. He then turned to Rinne.
"So, Rinne do you think you can do it?"
The girl looked up at him then nodded. He smiled at her like some proud older brother would.
"We should gather supplies to help with the journey." Yoichi pipped up.
"Right! Yoichi you stay here while Shuten and I head back for supplies."
Yoichi started to walk towards Rinne but Shuten held him back.
"No. Kintaro you stay here, It's safer if your with her." It wasn't a lie. Rinne would be safer with Kintaro but it wasn't Shutens true intention.
Really he just didn't like not being in charge. It also gave him the opportunity to get himself and Yoichi away from the boy.
"whatever works best!" Kintaro didn't even try protesting. He was just as happy to stay, as he was to leave.
Yoichi and Shuten climb their way out of the tunnel and into daylight.
The building the tunnel's under was a little ways from the main town. there was many crumbled building around from bombing. this particular area was completely abandoned due to the fact each structure was on the break of complete collapse.
Shuten secretly hoped the building would fall onto Kintaro and Rinne. That would solve all his problems.
Although deep down Shuten did want to keep Kintaro. Just for a little while longer. What he didn't want, what he was starting to worry about was Kintaro stealing Yoichi away from him.
As they walked back Yoichi started to list what the girl might need for her trip. Shuten wasn't listening, he was to far in his head to hear anything. Spiraling about the thought that his new toy might actually be a threat trying to steal his brother and his power. It made sense in his head: Kintaro and Yoichi spending so much time together and Him trying to take charge. Kintaro clearly didn't know his place and was trying to take Shutens.
"It will start getting cold soon she will need a jacket, or maybe a blanket. a jacket would be easier to carry but a blanket could cover her whole body if she got really cold. Of course it would be hard to get a jacket that fit and there are already blankets we could take at the factory. Shuten, what do you think?"
Yoichi looked over at his brother walking beside him. When he didn't answer Yoichi gave him a little shove.
"Shuten!"
This brought him back into the real world.
"I don't want you talking to Kintaro when I'm not around." Shuten said blatantly.
Yoichi stopped in his tracks.
"what? why? all we have talked about is comic books!"
Shuten grabbed Yoichi's shoulders. It was moments like these that made Yoichi realize how much Taller Shuten was than him.
"Look, just for now okay? We haven't known him for long and look how much trouble he has already gotten us into. Once this is all over we will see how things go but right now I don't trust him."
Yoichi nodded, hanging his head low. He understood where his brother was coming from but he also knew it wasn't Kintaros fault and that he was just trying to help Rinne.
"Don't kill him." Yoichi looked over at his brother who had already started walking off.
Shuten stopped. He was a little taken aback. He knew Yoichi hadn't been oblivious to his past actions but until now he thought that at-least they were ignored.
"I wasn't going to. Now come on, we have a-lot to prepare for." Shuten beckoned Yoichi over.
His words made Yoichis heart glow.
His brother had done bad things. Yoichi was sure if he knew all them it would be hard to look Shuten in the eye. But he had done it to protect them. In the end Yoichi liked to think that anything bad his brother had done was circumstantial and inside he was a good person. Helping Rinne and not killing Kintaro only made that belief stronger.