And so, we ended up sitting side by side, spilling our guts about damn near everything - family, dumb teenage nonsense, even feelings. We laid it all out, no filter.
Honestly, Tenya wasn't as insufferable as I'd pegged him back at U.A.'s entrance exam. How do I put it… Stiff, by-the-book, rash, all bureaucracy and gears grinding - but dig deeper, and he's actually decent. Friendly, even. Proper rich-kid vibes. Makes sense, though - Ida family, three generations of heroes. That kind of upbringing tracks. He apologized for being a dick during the exam, and I threw one back at him, admitting I'd been way worse - levels of asshole he couldn't touch.
The train pulled into the station, and we stepped off. Manual - Hosu's local hero - met us at the platform with an easy smile, his vibe and demeanor exactly like I remembered from the source material. Dedicated, good-natured, trying to be the picture-perfect modern hero, even if he fumbled sometimes. He shook our hands, his warm gaze flickering with surprise when it landed on me.
"Onodera Ryuga and Ida Tenya, right? Welcome to the area. I'll be your supervisor for this internship," Manual said, voice smooth and welcoming. "We'll start with a quick tour to get you familiar with the place. Then I'll break down the job details."
We nodded, falling in step behind him. On the walk, he pointed out the key spots: nearest police station, Hosu General Hospital, zones prone to minor incidents. He explained this wasn't a villain hotspot - his gig was mostly community support and day-to-day stuff. Underrated, but vital hero work.
Tenya soaked it up, scribbling notes like the nerd he was. I tried to look engaged, but my head was elsewhere, drifting to my meetup with Toga. Nervous energy buzzed in my chest, and I had to mentally slap myself to stay cool.
After a full day of touring, chilling, eating and tons of stuff, Manual took us to Hosu's city office, suggesting we crash there for convenience during the internship. Tenya, predictably, was all in. Me? I politely passed - already had a room booked. They pushed a bit, but canceling last-minute felt like a dick move, so I said I'd just roll in early tomorrow instead.
Truth is, I didn't book anything. Toga did.
And she deliberately picked a spot as far away from Manual's office and the main hero patrol routes as physically possible.
Instead of a decent hotel, the address she sent led me to the edge of the city, to a decaying, cheap-ass apartment complex that looked like it hadn't seen a maintenance worker in a decade. I walked up the creaky exterior stairs, the eerie silence of the area wrapping around me like a heavy blanket. No traffic, no chatter, just the sound of my own footsteps echoing like gunshots in the dead quiet.
I found the door, turned the rusted knob, and stepped inside.
I flicked the light switch on the wall. A dead click. The bulb was busted.
The only light in the entire room was the sickly, pale orange glow of a single streetlamp filtering through the cracked window pane. It cast long, distorted shadows across a space that was minimalist to the point of utter poverty. A bare mattress on the floor, a peeling wooden table, and that was it. No TV, no fridge, no comfort.
And the smell... thick, suffocating mold mixed with the stale air of a place that had been abandoned for way too long. It hit the back of my throat, making me grimace.
"You're late, Ryuga-kun."
Her voice cut through the dead silence, making me jump. Himiko - back in her real form - sat cross-legged on the bare mattress, her form mostly a silhouette against the harsh streetlight behind her. She had her arms crossed, her golden eyes glowing faintly in the dimness.
"Motherfucker…" I muttered, dropping my bag onto the warped floorboards with a heavy thud. "You couldn't have picked a place with working electricity, Toga?"
She tilted her head, a faint pout on her face. "It's untraceable. Cheap. No cameras, no nosy neighbors. I thought you'd prefer it this way... away from all the hero stuff."
Arguing with her now was pointless. I let out a heavy sigh, rubbing my left eye. The sheer exhaustion of playing a mastermind, manipulating heroes, dealing with Bakugo's fallout, and carrying the suffocating weight of this damned timeline was finally crushing my spine. I was drowning in it.
I dropped down onto the bare mattress beside her, the cheap springs screaming under my weight. I stared up at the cracked ceiling, my defenses entirely shattered. The bullying from my past life, the terrifying reality of Nomus, the absolute isolation of knowing the future... it all crashed down. I was so fucking tired. For once, I didn't want to scheme. I didn't want to be the mastermind.
Toga didn't ask if I was okay. Instead, she crawled closer, her nose brushing my neck, inhaling deeply like a predator catching a scent.
"You smell like dust, iron... and so much exhaustion," she whispered, her voice trembling with a dark, intoxicating thrill. Before I could push her away, her sharp teeth grazed my collarbone. She bit down—just enough to break the skin.
I winced but didn't fight back. My arms felt like lead.
She lapped up the small drop of blood, her eyes fluttering shut. "It tastes bitter today. So heavy. You're falling apart, aren't you?" She hovered over me, her hands tracing my chest, her gaze unhinged but laser-focused. "Let me drain it. Let me drink all that awful, suffocating pressure until there's nothing left inside you but me."
"Do whatever you want, Himiko," I muttered, my voice hollow, closing my eyes. "I don't even care anymore."
Her eyes widened with twisted delight. Taking my absolute surrender as an invitation, she took control. She stripped us down in the suffocating dark, her touches frantic, possessive, yet strangely reverent. Every kiss was mixed with the metallic taste of my own blood, her nails digging into my shoulders as she guided us into a desperate rhythm. I just lay there, letting her consume me, letting the raw physical sensation drown out the absolute despair rotting my brain. I let the darkness swallow me whole.
But then, amidst the heavy breathing and the creaking of the mattress, I felt something wet drop onto my cheek.
I opened my eyes.
Toga was looking down at me, her golden eyes wild, completely unhinged, but overflowing with tears. She wasn't just using me to satisfy a bloodlust. She was clinging to me like a drowning victim gripping a life raft.
"Don't look so dead, Ryuga..." she sobbed quietly, her hips still moving against mine, her voice cracking with a raw, terrified vulnerability. "You're the only one who didn't throw me away. If you break... who am I supposed to love?"
That broke the spell. It wasn't a normal kind of love - it was a toxic, co-dependent sickness. But in this rotting, abandoned room, her twisted devotion was the most real thing I had. She wasn't a plot device. She wasn't just a future villain. She was mine.
Something snapped back into place inside me. The hollow void filled with a cold, fierce resolve. The despair was gone, replaced by a dark, undeniable truth: we were two monsters hiding in the dark, and I wasn't going to let this world crush either of us.
I reached up, gripping her waist firmly, and in one swift, fluid motion, I flipped our positions, pinning her beneath me against the mattress.
She gasped, her eyes going wide as the sudden shift in power caught her off guard.
I wiped the tear from her cheek with my thumb, leaning down until our lips were agonizingly close.
"I'm not breaking, Himiko," I growled, my voice low, dropping the hollow tone and replacing it with the sharp, commanding edge of a survivor. "And I'm not leaving you behind. If we're going to hell, we're burning it down together."
Her breath hitched, a crazed, beautiful smile spreading across her flushed, tear-stained face. "Yes... Ryuga..."
I took the lead from there, matching her wild intensity with a dominant, calculated rhythm. We ditched every distraction, lost in each other, inseparable, letting the solitary streetlight be the only witness to our broken, messy haven.
Hot? Hell if I know - my head's blank, drowned in raw want. The price of showing off was that the delicate skin on my back and sides ached intensely from the friction, but that pain was overshadowed by the intense excitement of seeing her maniacal smile...