“You know, you should try to learn ventriloquism,” Kai said. He, Sunē, and Katherine were walking side by side to their first day of middle school. Since that day in elementary school, Sunē and Katherine had been nigh inseparable. Kai had joined, but would still hesitate to defend the two if anything happened, which it did quite frequently.

After all, Sunē was seen as a villain waiting to happen, and Katherine was never far from her side.

“Yeah, Kat! Think of it, drawing the villains’ attention to some corner while we snuck up behind them!” Katherine giggled at the idea. Even through the constant bullying about her and her best friend’s quirk, she and Sunē had been dead set on being heroes. The bullying just added fuel to the fire.

“That’s not a bad idea! I might be able to get some computer time and start trying to figure it out.”

“Good! You should also look for defense courses, when you get the chance of course. We don’t want you to get hurt,” Kai said as the three reached the gates of their new school.

“Don’t worry, I will. What’s your guy’s homeroom?” Kai and Sunē checked their schedules, frowns creasing their faces.

“I’ve got E1. Kai?”

“F1. Katherine? Are you in either of those classes?” Katherine checked her own schedule, and her face fell.

“No, my homeroom is C1.” The schedule comparing began, and the trio was dismayed to realize that they could only see each other at lunch.

“Well, at least we still get before and after school,” said Sunē, ever the optimist. Kai shrugged in disappointment, and Katherine tried to hide hers with a half-hearted, “sure.”

“Well, I’ll see you guys at lunch,” Kai said, walking into the building. Sunē walked into the building, Katherine at her side. They came to an intersection, and Sunē waved goodbye as she went to her own class. Katherine walked alone to her class, pushing the door open. She saw a few faces she recognized from elementary, but most were foreign to her.

She gave a little wave, careful not to let the long sleeves of her uniform fall down her arms. She had been practicing her quirk for years in secret, but the constant firing of blades from her arms had begun to leave a permanent indent in her flesh, almost like sheathes. But, with her quirk being unknown, it looked more like self harm. She didn’t want that to get reported.

“Oh, Katherine. It’s you,” One of the people Katherine recognized said. It was a boy with purple hair. His quirk was telekinesis, and while he hadn’t actively picked on Katherine and Sunē, he had watched without an ounce of guilt in his eyes. It was one of the reasons that Katherine didn’t interact with him.

The teacher walked in not long after Katherine found her seat and took roll. Everyone took the day to get to know their classmates and go to orientation. Part of that introduction was what your quirk was. When Katherine said mimicry, everyone looked at her with pity, disgust, or mischief. It wasn’t going to be a good year.

Katherine couldn’t find Kai and Sunē in the lunchroom, so sat alone. This further widened the gap between her and her classmates, who were all sitting with the other children from their elementary schools. Sitting alone was tantamount to admitting that she should be avoided or targetted.

After the long day, Kai and Sunē were waiting outside the school to walk home. Sunē looked exhausted, her snakes not even flicking their tongues out. Kai, on the other hand, looked quite jubilant, practically jumping up and down in excitement.

“Katherine! You’re not gonna believe this!” he said, running up to the dark haired girl in excitement. “There’s a group of kids in my class that all wanna be heroes too! They said they wanted to meet you guys, so that we could all be heroes together when we get older!”

Kai was so excited about the idea of new friends with the same goal that he failed to notice Katherine’s worn out look, or Sunē’s obvious exhaustion. Still, Katherine smiled and nodded, telling Kai that it was all great and of course Sunē and she would love to meet those new kids.

Kai couldn’t stop talking about those kids the whole way to his house. It was the closest of the three, and as he waved on his doorstep, Katherine couldn’t help but feel a little joy that he was gone for the moment. She could finally check on Sunē.

“Hey, are you alright? You haven’t been talking, and you look really tired,” Katherine asked after Kai closed his door. Sunē gave a weak smile.

“Just getting picked on. You know, the usual comments,” Sunē reassured. Katherine, though, didn’t believe her. She saw how hollow Sunē’s eyes looked, how her shoulders sagged and her shoes scraped along the ground. So Katherine did the first thing she could think of. She hugged her.

“Those douchebags are lying, okay? They’re lying, or they’re just too stupid to see how amazing you are. You’re funny, and smart, and you’re great at making people feel safe, and those are all important when being a hero!” Katherine pulled back to see Sunē nearly at tears. 

“They don’t get to tell you who you’re meant to be. That’s for you to decide.” Sunē smiled again, lip trembling, and wiped her eyes.

“You’re right, Kat. Thank you. Thank you for believing in me.”

“These are your friends, Kai?”

“They don’t look like heroes.”

“That one even looks like a villain! Are you sure she won’t try and stop us?”

“Guys, I promise! Sunēkuai and Katherine are awesome!” This last one came from Kai, making a vain attempt to convince his new friends to stop picking on the ones that had been with him since early childhood. “Sunē can turn people into lizards, and Kat can mimic anything! If they can just train their quirks a bit more, they’d-”

“No way, Kai. These kids aren’t cut out to be heroes. Look at them! They should just stay outta the way. If you want to come train with us, fine. But don’t bring these two rejects with you,” the biggest boy said, walking away with his posse of five trailing. He boasted bright green skin, and Kai said the pockets on his skin were full of acid.

Kai seemed to deflate as he walked away, and Katherine felt a little bad for him. She had expected this, but Kai always saw the good in people, always saw hope that maybe someone would look at his friends like they were real people, instead of a villain and a bystander waiting to happen.

“At least they didn’t kick us,” Katherine said, only half joking. Kai just stared after the boys for a while, lost in his own thoughts. Sunē sighed, walking up and putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Thanks for trying, Kai, but it’s no use. Come on, we should head to class. Don’t want to be late on the second day.” Kai turned to face Sunē.

“I’m going to train with them.”

The silence hung in the air a minute. Sunē’s snakes all turned to stare at Kai, who subconsciously took a step back. Katherine, only having the one set of eyes, stared with those.

“Are you serious? After what they just said?” she burst, waving her arms in frustration. She regretted it, as her sleeve started to ride up a little too far.

“I don’t think what they said was right at all! You guys can be great heroes, we all can! But we need training, and they’re our best bet. I’ll train with them, then I’ll teach you and Sunē what I’ve learned after! Does… does that sound alright?”

Kai had the biggest, brightest, puppy-dog eyes. Katherine was convinced it had something to do with him altering the water in his eye, but had never gotten him to spill about it. She tried to use that logic to clear her mind as she reasoned her way through Kai’s decision as he tried to sway her and Sunē.

“I guess it’s fine, if Kat’s alright with it?” Sunē said, turning to Katherine. With a sigh, Katherine nodded.

“You’d better still be our friend though, alright? We can’t have study-sleepovers without you,” Kat said. Kai beamed and nodded. The bell rang as he tried to say something, alerting the trio that they were about to be late. Without a word, all three sprinted to their classrooms, happy and hopeful at the new arrangement.

Katherine arrived home several hours later. She’d found Sunē at lunch this time, but had to endure the same vicious mockery that had always followed her and Sunē. The ridicule would doubtless follow her the whole year, and though the fact was familiar it still weighed heavy in her mind.

“Hello, my little star! How was your day at school?” Katherine’s mother asked.

“It was fine,” Katherine called back, taking her shoes off at the door before walking in. Her mother emerged out of the kitchen, holding a small bowl of sliced apples.

“Well, anything exciting happen?” her mother asked as she handed Katherine the bowl. The girl picked up a slice and bit down on it, enjoying the sweet flavor but saddened by the soft texture of the apple. Regardless, she finished the slice before answering.

“Kai joined a group of boys that are training together to be heroes,” she said offhandedly.

“Only Kai?” her mother replied.

“Mhm. He’s going to train with them, then teach me and Sunē what he learned so we can all be heroes together.” Katherine’s mother tutted softly.

“Star, you know how I feel about that… about Sunē. She will lead you down a dark path, and I don’t want that for you. Plus, think of your quirk! You weren’t meant to face villains, darling.”

Though the words were nothing new to Katherine, they still stung every time she heard her mother say them. It hurt to know her own mother didn’t think she was cut out for her dream. But it was worse to know her mother thought that Sunē, who was closer to her than anyone, could lead her toward being a villain.

“I’m going to my room to do homework. I’ll see you at dinner, Mom,” Katherine said, handing the bowl back to her mother. She turned toward the staircase and went up without a glance back.

When she reached her room, Katherine shut the door and changed into more comfortable clothes. She’d been lying about the homework: she’d finished it all in class today. That meant she had time to practice her quirk.

Carefully, she pulled a paring knife out of the sheath in her right arm. Satisfied, she resheathed it, absorbing the iron for later. She pulled out a bread knife from her left arm and did the same. This continued for several hours, until she heard her father announce that dinner was ready. That did a lot to brighten her mood, and she quickly absorbed the shortsword she’d made and raced downstairs.

Katherine’s father was a chef, and a brilliant one at that. Because of this he wasn’t usually around to cook dinner, but when he was it always tasted spectacular. It didn’t matter if it was something as simple as pizza or as complex as biryani, it always tasted amazing.

This, unlike those he went to culinary school with, had nothing to do with his quirk. He’d had to work at least twice as hard as his classmates to pass his class, and he had not only done that but graduated in the top three. And he had done it all in spite of what everyone thought about his quirk.

His quirk was the ability to make anything a weapon. He didn’t change the structure of anything, but he could pick up any item and would know how to use it as an effective weapon. With a quirk like that, he’d been told by his classmates that he would become a villain, and his parents had worried about that fate as well. It made sense, then, that he had married someone that went through a similar struggle.

Katherine’s mother was an actress. She sang for commercials, and appeared as an extra in those commercials and a few small movies. Her career did align with her quirk, but she did her best not to share it out of fear that she would never get a commission again. Katherine’s mother could command anyone that heard her sing. Just like her husband, her family and classmates had been afraid that she’d become a villain.

Perhaps the mutual experience of ridicule and fear the two had felt was what led them to worry so much over their daughter’s quirk and friends. Katherine couldn’t blame them, though. After all, they were only worried about keeping her from ruin. She couldn’t begrudge them that.

The dinner was terse between mother and daughter, with Katherine’s father trying to bridge the gap between the two. He had always been the more sympathetic of the two, and Katherine adored him for it.

After dinner, Katherine went back upstairs, honing her quirk. One of her knives came out too sharp, and she cut her finger slightly. With a hiss, she dropped the knife. In a panic, Katherine held out a hand to try and catch the knife, and it stopped right above the floor.

The point was about to be impaled in the carpet, floating a bare inch above. Katherine slowly bent to pick it up, and it lifted into her hand. With the knife in hand, she went and opened her window. Stepping back around her room, she dropped the knife again.

When it was floating above the floor, she lifted it back towards her hand, but didn’t grasp it. It was floating level with her shoulder, parallel to the ground. Katherine swung her arm, gesturing towards the window. The knife flew out, point first, with a faint whistling noise. Katherine pulled it back before it went too far, staring at the clean blade in fascination.

Kai was staring at his feet in front of the dojo Katherine and Sunē attended. The two girls stared back, bags slung over their shoulders and mouths open.

“Why?” Sunē asked into the silence. Katherine couldn’t figure out what to say. She just stood staring at her childhood friend.

“They found out I was teaching you guys too. They said that I couldn’t train if I kept passing off their secrets to you guys.”

“But Kai… we were supposed to be heroes together,” Katherine finally got out, tears stinging her eyes. Kai looked up, fists clenched.

“If I don’t do this, none of us will get to be heroes in the first place!” he yelled. “Everyone knows Sunē’s just a villain waiting to happen, and you encourage her! Plus your quirk isn’t suited for heroics, and you know it! Why else would you be here, learning self defense?”

“Kai, that’s enough!” Sunē jumped in as Katherine stood shocked. “If you don’t want to be our friend anymore, then go.” Kai huffed in frustration and turned away, walking back to his house. Once he turned a corner, Katherine started crying.

She had known Kai almost since the cradle. They were going to be heroes together, that was the plan. But now, just a few months before they’d start testing to get into high school, he’d decided she was dead weight. She and Sunē both.

Sunē embraced her best friend, and Katherine felt her own shoulder grow wet. It was just them now. They’d have to make it alone.

After a few minutes of crying, Sunē pulled away, wiping her eyes. Her nose was a little runny, and her eyes a tad puffy. Her snakes were nuzzling against her cheek to comfort her.

“Come on. We can train without him.” Katherine nodded, pulling herself together and walking towards the park with her best friend. Exhausted as they were from training at the dojo, the two trained as hard as possible, Katherine stretching her voice until she could barely speak and Sunē turning objects into lizards and snakes and then back again.

After two hours, the girls headed home, leaving each other with a tight hug and a wave. Katherine watched Sunē walk away. She looked so small and alone. As if the barest wind would tip her over to shatter in the road.

Katherine went silently into her empty house. Her mother was doing a small scene today, and probably wouldn’t be back until late. Her father was supposed to be gone for another three days, serving as a personal chef for the week. Katherine fixed herself a small supper of ramen, barely having to look at the cutting board as she sliced vegetables and chicken for the soup.

She went into her room, practicing with her knives. She could control several at a time, now, and she’d send them flying down the hall or out the window as she pleased. She was careful to never hit anything with them, and kept the knives quite dull as an extra precaution.

It was about an hour and a half later that she stopped practicing, dizzy from lack of iron. That was the drawback of her quirk: she used the iron in her blood to make her blades, and the larger the blade the less she could reabsorb. Because of this, she tried to keep her diet high in iron.

Katherine reabsorbed the knives, and some of the iron she’d used to make them, and took a shower. She was sweaty and tired after an emotionally taxing day. She wanted to ease the cramps in her muscles and wash away the day with hot water before she went to sleep.

That night, Katherine dreamed of a dark room. She stood in her school uniform, and classmates stood in a circle. They were all pointing or laughing or whispering. At least, they would be if they were moving. They were still as statues.

“Why?” someone asked. Katherine spun around, but in the dark the voice seemed to come from everywhere.

“Who’s there?” Katherine called, still spinning to see if any of the statues moved.

“Why do you hide? You could stop this all. They would never torment poor Sunē again. All you’d have to do is stop hiding,” the voice continued, as if Katherine had never spoke. Sunē appeared before Katherine in the circle, smiling brightly.

Katherine continued searching for the voice. As she spun, she saw her parents in the crowd, looking oh so pleased. She stopped, looking at the pride on their faces.

“Ah, yes. Them,” the voice said. Katherine heard gentle clinking, and looked to see dozens and dozens of knives beginning to circle her classmates and parents. They started slow, but quickly picked up, more and more adding to the mass until Katherine stood in the center of a cyclone of knives.

Katherine saw her parents’ faces turn from pride to disappointment. She could have sworn the knives laughed as they swirled. And then they began to close in on the circle of people.

The knives began to cut through the circle of students, and suddenly they were all alive, screaming and bleeding. Katherine tried to get control of the knives, but the more she tried to slow them the faster they swirled. She watched in horror as her parents were sliced to ribbons before they had the chance to scream. She watched as Sunē looked on, still smiling as she was cut into nothing but strips of flesh.

The knives continued to spin, circling closer and closer to her. She was overwhelmed, and felt like she was burning with fear. As the knives began to slice into her, she fell to her knees and screamed. The heat inside her was too much, and blue flames flooded from her eyes and mouth, burning her as her knives sliced her now charred skin. All she knew was the sound of the knives clanking together and pain that wouldn’t stop. It wouldn’t stop. It wouldn’t stop. It wouldn’t stop. It wouldn’t-

Katherine jolted awake in her bed. It was six in the morning, and she could hear her mother digging through pots and pans downstairs. She felt off, her throat and joints sore and her head stuffed with cotton. She wandered downstairs to see her mother.

“Oh, Katherine! I’m sorry, did I wake you?” her mother asked as she reached the kitchen. Her mother had a mixing bowl out and a pan on the stove. Katherine shook her head and rubbed her eyes.

“No, Mom. You didn’t. What’re you making?” Katherine’s mother walked over and gave her daughter a good morning hug.

“I’m making pancakes, since I stayed out so late yesterday. I know your father makes them better than me, but I hoped it might make up for you having to make dinner for yourself last ni- Star, are you alright?” Katherine looked up as her mother pulled away, a worried expression on her face.

“Yeah, just tired, why?”

“You feel hot. Come here, let me check your temperature.” Katherine’s mother placed a hand on her daughter’s forehead and cheek, comparing the two. She seemed unsatisfied and turned to a cupboard above the dishwasher.

“You have a fever, star. I’m going to call the school and let them know you won’t be in today. Here,” Katherine’s mother handed her a bottle of tylenol, “Take two pills with water and then go lay down. I’ll bring you up some pancakes when they’re done.”

Katherine and Sunē sat in the park, holding three letters each. They were from three different schools, the three the girls had tested to get into. They hadn’t held out enough hope to get into U.A., not with their quirks and what people thought of them. But they had still tried for the hero course together.

“On three. Ready?” Sunē said. Katherine nodded, clutching the first envelope tightly.

“One, two… three!” The girls tore open the first letters, briefly scanning before opening the next one. Then the next. Sunē’s face grew excited with the last envelope. Katherine’s continued to fall.

“I got accepted into the Tokyo General Hero Course!” the snake haired girl exclaimed. Her snakes whipped around, full of excitement that Katherine wished she could share.

“I… I got accepted into the General Course. None would take me in the Hero course.” Sunē reached over and patted her best friend’s shoulder.

“It’s okay. We can go and try to appeal your case, ask them to reconsider! Then we could go together!” Katherine shook her head. She would have to reveal her quirk for that, and she refused to disappoint her family.

“They won’t… not with my quirk.” Katherine looked up at her Sunē. Even after all these years, she thought those eyes were the most mesmerizing thing.

“You’re gonna have to be a hero for both of us, Sunē. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep up,” Katherine said, with a sad smile. Sunē pulled Katherine into a hug, and they squeezed each other tightly. They knew if they weren’t in the same course at the same school, they’d probably never see each other except on weekends that they could make time.

“You promise you’ll call, right? And text?” Sunē asked. Katherine laughed and nodded without hesitation.

“Of course! Every night! You’re my best friend, I would never cut ties like that,” Katherine assured. She squeezed Sunē tighter, and Sunē squeezed in turn. Before the girls knew it, they were in a squeezing war, rolling on the ground and trying to hug the other tightly enough that they’d let go. 

It was sunny out, but still chilly in the early spring air. The dew on the grass cooled them and soaked through their shirts a bit. They giggled, squeezing and rolling and staining their clothes with grass. It felt like the moment would never end.

“She was my best friend,” Katherine said at the funeral. She stood before an open casket, but couldn’t look at it. She couldn’t stand seeing her friend’s snakes so deathly still. Or the smile that Sunē would have scoffed at wearing. Or those gorgeous eyes closed forever. Worst of all, she didn’t want to see the rope burns from the noose Sunē tied.

“We were going to be heroes together. I don’t think now that I ever could have been, but Sunē could have. She had more drive than I’ve ever seen in anyone.” Katherine swallowed the lump in her throat.

“People thought Sunēkuai was a villain because of her quirk. They never saw the determined, powerful person that we all knew and loved. They never recognized her potential, something she had in abundance. She used it to push through, to try and reach her dream. She inspired me, in a way that no hero ever did, to keep trying. To keep fighting. I wish I could have done the same for her.”

Katherine went back to sit with her family. They had never approved of Sunē, but when they found Katherine sobbing in bed after hearing the news they never questioned going to the funeral. Sunē’s parents had asked Katherine to speak at the funeral, knowing how close the two had been, and she felt equal parts honored and torn apart.

She cried again that night, considering following her best friend. Katherine didn’t think she could get through another two years of high school without those constant late night talks with Sunē. Who’s house would she go over to, when she felt too stifled by her own parents? Who would confide in her, and who would she confide in? Who would make her believe that anything was possible?

10 years later

Katherine sighed at her desk. It seemed she had an endless supply of reports to sort through, approve, and send off. She considered getting up to eat something, but the footsteps of one of the heroes made her quickly reconsider.

Katherine had been working at a hero agency since she graduated high school. She couldn’t cut it as a hero, she knew, but this way she was still doing some good. Helping the good guys. It didn’t cut at her that she was so low in the company hierarchy, even among the non-hero employees. She was proving something with every correctly filed arrest and damage report: she could still do good in the world without being a hero.

“Hey, Katherine! What does ‘FUA’ mean on someone’s identity?” The newest hire asked. Lily was an American, born and raised, and she had been delegated to Katherine because her American father had taught her English. Katherine turned her chair to face the cubicle behind her.

“It means ‘file under arrests.’ You have to watch out for arrests, collaborations, rescues, et cetera. If you don’t file them properly, the agency can get fined and then we’re all in trouble,” she explained to the blonde.

“Ahhh, gotcha. I’ll make a note of that,” Lily said, scribbling something on a sticky note. It joined the multitude of sticky notes around her monitor. Katherine chuckled slightly, wondering exactly how the girl managed to pay attention to her computer with all the bright colors. She turned back to her own monitor, sorting through the files.

She stretched when five o’clock came around. She snatched up her keys, wallet, and phone, and headed out the door. She had to get home and change. She had an order to fill.

Katherine had begun researching different knives after her best friend’s death. Both because she needed to know different kinds for her quirk and because she had started taking knife fighting courses. One of her best guides had been a guide to smithing.

Katherine had wanted to make one of the knives the book detailed. She had begged her father to help her get her hands on the iron, wood, and leather needed for the knife, as well as take her to the rentable blacksmith space she had found online. It had been worth it when she finished her first blade.

Katherine’s knack for blades and her love for making them inspired her to start her own business. Sunēkuai Blades. She donated 75% of her earnings from the company to suicide prevention hotlines, suicide education, and the like. The other 25% went towards getting more materials.

She made knives, swords, and other blades for self defense, kitchen use, or simply as collectibles. The ones she really liked she made doubles of and kept for herself. As much as the business helped other people, it helped Katherine as well. She hadn’t used her quirk since she opened, six years ago, and it had built her from light and wiry to strong and thick-set.

When she finally reached the blacksmithing area, she was excited. Smithing was the highlight of her day, when she got to do it. It was a few hours that she could be with the things she loved.

She had an order for a collectible today. They were a set of throwing stars shaped like peach blossoms. The customer had included a sketch of what they wanted, which was a welcome relief. It gave Katherine a template to work towards, and a fun bit of art to look at.

The room sweltered in the dry heat of the furnace, and there were a couple of people making their own things already. Some were hammering away at metals, others were polishing nearly finished creations. Katherine went over to her reserved furnace and began melting down the iron she was going to use.

It was three hours before Katherine walked back into her apartment. She was sweaty, tired, and in desperate need of a shower and food. Not necessarily in that order. She snagged a container of leftover udon, heated it, and went to watch the news. She could have done so in the kitchen, which looked into the living room and out onto the balcony, but the couch was more comfy than leaning on the kitchen counter.

She fell onto the couch, flipping the tv on to the news channel. It was just some news about what arrests were made today, any big collaborations between agencies, and the works. Stain’s name was tossed around here and there. Katherine slurped her udon only half listening as she debated checking for more orders before bed.

“In other news, there is a new villain on the loose. They are being charged with the murder of pro Hero Burst.” Katherine stopped eating, looking at the screen. It wasn’t every day that someone killed a hero. It caught her interest.

“While the culprit is unknown, they did leave a knife at the scene.” An image of a simple knife with a wooden handle popped into the top right of the screen. “Police are trying to find any information they can from the evidence left at the scene, and if anyone knows about what happened they are encouraged to step forward and-”

Katherine shut the tv off and reached for her phone. She dialed the police, standing and walking towards her computer. She had to find something buried in those files.

“Hello, what’s your emergency?” a woman’s voice asked from the other side of the line.

“I need to speak to whoever is in charge of the investigation into Burst’s murder.” The line was quiet for a moment, a few tapping keys the only sound.

“You’re looking for the tip hotline. Do you have a paper and pen handy? I have the number right here.” Katherine jotted down the number and quickly called it.

“Hello, what can I do for you today?” a man asked. Katherine cleared her throat and began.

“Hello. I have some information about the Burst murder.” There was some typing. The man spoke again, terse and suspicious.

“Name?”

“Katherine Soroyan.”

“Age?”

“26.” The questioning went on for several minutes before the man finally gave Katherine what she needed.

“Alright. Please come in tomorrow at 10 a.m.”

“Thank you sir. Have a good night,” Katherine said. She heard the receiver click without response. She set the phone down, sending a quick email to her boss that she had to be late to work tomorrow. She was rarely tardy, so she hoped he didn’t get upset at her. With that taken care of, she began to dig through her files.

Katherine walked into the police station, holding a folder and wearing a suit. She still had work after this. She couldn’t afford going home to change.

She took a seat, waiting to be called to her interview. It was 9:30 a.m. when she sat down. By the time she was called in for her interview, it was 10:30. She didn’t know if she was going to be able to make it to work when she said she would, and frantically texted Lily to explain that her appointment had been pushed back unexpectedly. She had no sooner sent the text than someone came to the lobby for her.

She was guided down a few halls, passing water dispensers and vending machines as they sat against beige walls. After several turns, Katherine was instructed to sit down in a well lit room containing only a metal table and three chairs. The walls were black and covered in jagged foam, save for one wall with a pane of one-way glass.

Katherine waited another ten minutes before the police and a hero showed up in the room. Katherine almost felt her blood run cold as she saw who the hero was. It was her boss: the pro Hero Rapids.

Kai.

When she had chosen to work for the Rapids agency, she had known it was Kai she was working under. He was a fairly small hero, someone who knew the names of the people in the neighborhoods he patrolled. It had been something Katherine appreciated, at first. But the few times they interacted at work he had been unnecessarily harsh to her. She wondered if he recognized her, even now.

“Ah, Miss Soroyan. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” the officer said as Kai stared at her. There was recognition in his eyes. And anger. She desperately hoped it wasn’t directed at her.

“My name is Detective Ito. This here is pro Hero Rapids. We’re working with his agency to track down this hero killer copycat. You contacted us yesterday, saying you had information?” Katherine nodded, training her eyes on the officer as he spoke.

“I do. That was my knife.” The bluntness stunned the chief for a moment, and Katherine realized it sounded a lot like she had just confessed to the murder.

“Rather… It was a knife I made. I have my own company on the side, I hand make custom blades. Anything from a whittling knife to display katanas, I make them.” Katherine set her file on the table, pulling the papers out.

“This knife, as well as two others, were commissioned about five months ago. This first one,” Katherine gestured to a paper with an address, a description, and a picture of the hunting knife that had killed a hero, “was the first commissioned. The next two were ornamental. You’ll find the mailing address on all of these orders.”

Rapids picked up the papers, looking at them carefully. He snorted a minute later, tossing the papers on the table.

“There’s no name. What good is this if there isn’t a name to go with them?” Katherine opened her mouth to answer the hero, when he cut her off, beginning to stand. “Come to think of it, how did you even know it was your knife? Were you collaborating with the killer? Did you see your knife and panic that it might get traced back to you? Are you throwing your partner under the bus so you can live to kill another day? Are you-”

“Rapids, that’s enough!” Detective Ito cut in. Rapids glanced back at the man before sitting down with a ‘harumph.’ Detective Ito sighed and turned to Katherine.

“Rapids does raise some good points. Why did you know it was your knife? Why did you contact us so quickly?” Katherine waited a beat to see if she was allowed to answer.

“I’ve been making blades since my best friend died ten years ago. I make them by hand. I spend hours on every one, making sure they’re properly made. There isn’t a one I wouldn’t recognise,” Katherine explained. Upon mentioning Sunē’s death, Rapids flinched as if slapped. A look of guilt washed briefly over his face, and he looked at the table.

“As for why I contacted you… I guess the best reason is I was angry. I make my blades to help people. The functional ones are used near daily in kitchens and wood shops all over the city. The decorative ones are displayed in some of the finest collections. I take everything I earn from my blades and put it back into making more, and everything left over goes to suicide prevention.

“So to see someone using my knife, a knife I poured hours into, that I made to make someone’s life a little easier and to help someone considering taking their life, to see that knife used to kill anyone feels like a perversion of everything I meant for that knife to be.” Katherine almost felt insulted at the question. Why wouldn’t she want this murderer off the streets? Why wouldn’t she tell police right away if she had information, especially regarding her blades?

Rapids cleared his throat after Katherine was done. He looked her in the eyes, and she still saw a spark of guilt in them. But he blinked, and it was gone.

“Thank you for your information. We will have to keep the files, you understand, but you are free to go.” Katherine nodded, rose, and bowed to the detective and hero in a polite ‘farewell.’ Then she turned and walked out the door.

Katherine dragged herself into her home at 10 p.m., shutting the door and locking it behind her. She was no longer in her suit from earlier, having changed when she arrived home earlier in the day.

She’d been out running errands for her neighbors. Several of the people in her apartment building were elderly, and needed help getting things like groceries and mail. A few were visited so rarely by their own families that Katherine spent time every week to simply sit and talk with them, or help them bake something.

She had been asked by the woman above her to help with cleaning the apartment, and the second floor had been having plumbing issues for several days. Katherine fixed it, much to the landlord’s joy, and had helped to drive an elderly man that lived three doors down to his doctor's appointment and back. After all of that, Katherine still had to clean her own house and get her own food. Considering the hour, though, she opted to clean over the weekend.

Katherine held a takeout box from a local restaurant that made the best chicken teriyaki. She trudged to the kitchen and set the box into the fridge. She would shower next, but then she had a few more files to sort from work. It was the consequence of asking to come in late and then not being able to begin when she said she would, even though it wasn’t her fault that the interview had been so drastically delayed.

After a well deserved shower, Katherine sank down on the couch to begin sorting those files. It was another three hours before she was finished with the sorting, and Katherine’s back ached from sitting still so long. Her eyes stung from the screen, and she heard her back popping as she stood and stretched. She set aside her computer, plugging it in to charge, then walked into her room to sleep. She flopped on the bed, and didn’t even have time to get under the covers before she passed out.

Katherine’s alarm jolted her awake a few short hours later. Much as she wished she could shut it off and sleep a little longer, she couldn’t afford to be late after yesterday. With a long suffering sigh, Katherine turned the alarm off and rolled out of bed. She took a quick rinse in the shower, brushed her hair and teeth, and made herself a bowl of cereal.

After she scarfed it down, she made herself a cup of instant coffee in a thermos. It wasn’t as good as the cafe down the street, but she couldn’t wait. She gathered her wallet, keys, and coffee and went out the door.

She arrived at work almost a full half hour early, and set about on the daily file sorting. It came as no surprise to her that she had more files to sort than usual today. Her manager was definitely upset about the poor performance the day before. But Katherine refused to complain, merely sipping her coffee as she scanned the files and sorted them with the quick efficiency of someone accustomed to the task

“Nice of you to join us,” her manager said as he walked by. She shrugged it off, continuing her work. She barely nodded when Lily greeted her an hour later. She was so hellbent on getting through her whole workload that she worked through lunch without even noticing.

By the time five o’clock rolled around, Katherine was done with the day’s work and had begun on tomorrows. She stood and resisted the urge to stretch as she walked towards the building’s entrance.

Katherine’s car was several blocks away. Parking was always full near the building, as the few heroes and several managers often stayed overnight. Katherine had to walk past several dark alleys, and always tried to keep her guard up. But she was tired today, and unprepared when a hand reached out and dragged her into the alley. She was too shocked to even cry out.

“Hey, there, pretty lady,” a sleazy looking man said. He had Katherine pushed against a wall, around a corner in the alley so that they weren’t visible from the street.

“Where’re you headed, all alone in a place like this? I could keep you company. You know, walk you to your car, make sure no one… gets you,” the man said, leaning into Katherine’s face. She ducked away from him, heading towards the corner to get into view of the street.

“No, thanks. I’m quite fine on my own,” she said, tremors in her voice. Tired she may be, she was no idiot. She recognised a possible assailant when she saw one. She was grabbed again, a long arm wrapping around her waist and pulling her further around the corner. Katherine was against a dumpster, hitting her head on the full metal container.

“You know, it’s really not safe for little ladies to be wandering around the city unsupervised. Someone might take advantage of you, you know.” The man crouched down in front of Katherine, trapping her between him and the dumpster. He leaned in, his scraggly face close enough to hers that she could smell the alcohol and cigarette smoke on his breath. He grabbed her chest and squeezed before Katherine could smack his hand away.

“I would recommend you reconsider, pretty lady.” Katherine twisted the man’s wrist off her chest, and he hissed in pain. She tried to direct him off her, but in her seated position couldn’t do much. She couldn’t collapse backward, and the man glared at her with anger in his eyes.

“Oh, you’ll pay for that,” he said. He raised his fist, and Katherine held out a single hand, turning her head to flinch away. The next thing she heard was a thump, and she opened her eyes to see the man had fallen backwards onto the pavement. Floating in the air was a tiny blade, a knife barely the size of Katherine’s pointer finger.

She scrambled to look at the man that had been a faint second away from assaulting her. His eyes were opened. Or rather, his eye. Where his right eye should have been was a hole, containing a few fleshy bits in it. Katherine saw a small hole behind the eye, a small trickling of blood leaking out of it. That’s when it hit her.

She’d just killed someone.

With. Her. Quirk.

Katherine almost screamed and leapt off the body. Almost. She’d been lying for years about herself. If anyone could control themselves in a situation like this, it was Katherine.

She knew she couldn’t take it to the police. That would land her in jail for lying about her quirk, as well as murder. So that left hiding the body.

Katherine did a quick sweep, double-checking that no one was in the deserted alley. Satisfied, she rolled up both sleeves, revealing scar after scar on her arm. She had cut them into her arms after Sunē’s death to hide the sheaths better. The real one quickly became apparent as a broadsword emerged from each.

She opened the dumpster, and the swords pushed aside a sizable amount of garbage. Then one flew and slipped itself under the dead man. Lifting him carefully, the sword moved the man into the dumpster, flipping him off it so that the body would lay flat. Then, the swords recovered the body with garbage. Satisfied that he’d been sandwiched between the refuse of the city, Katherine closed the dumpster.

She checked the area the man had fallen to see no sign of blood. The small blade was still just floating in the air above where he fell, and the broadswords waited at Katherine’s back. She stuck out her arms, and the blades resheathed themselves, the larger ones leaving some iron dust behind that couldn’t be reabsorbed. Katherine brushed it off near the dumpster, pulled down her sleeves, and started walking toward her car. But, for all her years of keeping her secret under wraps, for all her years of experience lying, she couldn’t stop the small smile that fixed itself to her face.

Twice stepped out from behind the dumpster where he’d been waiting for hours. He knew the man that had just been killed frequented this spot. He’d been staking the place out, waiting for the right time to kidnap the now dead man.

The League had some… business with the man. He’d stumbled into their bar once, blackout drunk thankfully, and tried to pull a similar stunt on Toga. Thankfully, the bar had been full at the time. He had gotten away with minor burns and bruises, but there wasn’t a single person in the League that was happy with that.

But the problem seemed to have taken care of itself. And given the League a potential new recruit.

“Shiggy! You’re gonna wanna hear this! It was awful, don’t listen,” Twice yelled as he entered the bar. Shigaraki could be heard stomping through the building towards the main bar. Kurogiri was the only other person in the bar, at the moment, and he didn’t even look up from taking inventory of the bar’s contents.

“What, Twice? You better have that dustball, or I swear I’ll disintegrate you!” Shigaraki yelled as he came closer. He wasn’t quite in the room yet, which meant Twice had to give the information quickly. If Shigaraki came into the room and Twice was empty-handed, he’d be dust before he could open the door.

“I couldn’t get him. I didn’t even try to catch him! Someone else showed up and took care of him instead!” Twice yelled. Shigaraki stopped in the doorway. He glared at Twice from across the small room, and Kurogiri finally looked up at the pale haired man.

“Someone else? You knew right where he was going to be! How did you lose him to someone else?!” Shigaraki yelled. Kurogiri held out a smokey hand to Shigaraki, clearly about to speak before Twice cut him off.

“It was this seven foot ninja! Some lady he pulled off the street did him in. He was trying to attack her, and the next thing I knew he was dead. She seemed pretty freaked out about it. She was really chill about the whole thing. She summoned some swords and used them to hide the body in a dumpster.” Shigaraki pondered the information, and Twice wondered if he should start heading for the door. Just in case.

“What did she look like?” Shigaraki asked, and Twice knew from the tone that he’d live to be solid for at least another day.

“She was about 5’6”, and she had black hair. She was in some kind of business suit, and it looked like she was wearing a badge. It was for the Rapids Hero Agency! Couldn’t see her name, though. Oh! And when she pulled up her sleeves, it looked like she had scars all over her arms.” Shigaraki nodded and turned to Kurogiri.

“Can you find her?” Kurogiri nodded.

“Of course. Though, without a name it will be much more difficult to locate her.” Shigaraki waved a hand.

“I don’t care. I want to see this girl. If she took someone down as quickly as Twice says, she could be useful. Or we’ll just kill her for killing our… friend.” Shigaraki snarled the last word, clearly hating the very thought of that disgusting man.

Katherine spent the next two weeks more afraid than she had been since she first heard her parents speak about her quirk. Everyone who walked into her cubicle was an officer coming to question her. Every creak in her floor was a team of heroes waiting for her to come home so they could bring her in. She could barely relax enough to sleep.

“Heroes have caught the newest Stain copycat. Thanks to police collaboration with an anonymous source and the Rapids hero agency-” Katherine shut the news report from the day before off. She had seen the news explain the evidence used to track the villain, and the hero efforts that went into his capture. It was a lovely feeling, processing his paperwork.

The fear was beginning to wear off. If she had made it this long without being caught, it would probably be okay. That didn’t stop the guilt, though.

Sure, the man had tried to assault her. But what if he’d had a family? Had she taken him away from them? Were they worried? She’d never know. She’d cut his life short.

But she also felt a cold satisfaction in her achievement. She had kept herself safe. She had stopped an unchecked monster. And she had done it using her quirk. It wasn’t hero work, but how many young women had she saved by using her quirk? How much safer would people be, with that man gone?

She was lost in those thoughts, as she had been since her actions. A small chime went off on her still open computer, bringing Katherine back into the present. It was five o’clock. She had to go. She had another order to fill, and wanted to get started right away: the designs she had discussed with the customer were gorgeous, and impossibly intricate. She’d need all the time she could get for them.

She grabbed her bag, checking that she hadn’t left anything that needed to be brought home, before leaving the cubicle and starting the walk home. The setting sun painted the skyscrapers in a gorgeous orange hue, making it look like the buildings were burning without the pain and fear. Her phone rang, much to her surprise. She dug the device from her bag and answered, holding it to her ear.

“Hello, Soroyan Katherine speaking, how may I help you?”

“Katherine, please, you’ve got to help me!” Lily practically screamed into Katherine’s ear through the phone. Katherine jerked it away from her ear for a moment, slowly bringing it back as she paused on the sidewalk.

“Please, Lily. Calm down. What happened?” she asked. She could hear Lily taking a deep breath on the other end of the line. Then another.

“Okay. So, you know those files I was supposed to sort? About the recent arrest?” Lily asked, anxiety clear in her shaking voice.

“Yeah, you were telling me about how you were happy to have such a big assignment.”

“Well, I brought them home earlier to work on them at home, so I could get it done early, and I brought them on a USB that I planned to bring back, but on the way some guy bumped into me and I dropped it and then he accidentally kicked it into the road, and-”

“Lily, hey, calm down. I’m on my way. What do you need me to do?” Katherine asked as she turned around, walking back to the agency. She was in for a late night, she knew. But she couldn’t just abandon Lily to do this on her own. She was supposed to be showing the new girl around, and she couldn’t say to herself that she’d done that if she walked away right now.

Shigaraki had done his job well enough, Dabi thought. Could have been a little less obvious about destroying those records, but it would definitely slow Katherine from coming home. That would give him plenty of time to get set up.

He, Toga, and Twice had been watching Katherine for two weeks now. Never again had they seen her use her quirk, even in her own home. She must have really trained herself out of using it. Dabi began planning how to get her to use her quirk. After all, she was of no use to them if she wouldn’t use it.

He signaled Kurogiri that he was ready to go, and the smoke-covered man opened a portal. Dabi stepped through, hands brushing against the rag and jar in his coat pockets. His foot hit the wooden floor just inside the front door, and he took a moment to look around.

 He’d seen the place from a distance, but had never actually been inside. He was standing in a small hallway. Two steps forward to the left was a small, clean bathroom. Across the hall from that was the bedroom. He quickly discounted both as hiding places for now.

A few paces past the bedroom the hallway opened into a large room, split into a neat kitchen on the left by a counter and a living room that led into a balcony to the right. Past the kitchen was a small table with two chairs. Up against a half-wall across from the table was a rolling chair and computer desk, missing only the laptop.

Traveling straight past the kitchen, dining table, and living room, Dabi came to two closed doors. One stood ahead of him, the other to his right. He opened the door in front of him, his hand coming away from the knob slightly dusty.

It was a guest bedroom, complete with a large window, double bed, and small dresser next to the bed. There was an attached bathroom with a conjoined shower and tub, as opposed to the bathroom in the entry hall with only a shower. It was the perfect place to hide, though Dabi wondered why Katherine hadn’t just taken this bedroom. It clearly didn’t see much use.

He walked out of the guest room, checking the last door he’d found. It was just a laundry closet: Washer and detergent on top, dryer on bottom, ironing board tucked into the little room on the side. With no more rooms to discover, he decided to do one last bit of research about Katherine.

The best place to start would be her actual bedroom, and he strolled right in like he owned the place. He was surprised to be met with an unmade bed and drawn blinds, seeing as how organized and bright everything else had been in the apartment.

Aside from the bed, pushed against the right wall with room on either side, there was a nightstand on the left side with a lamp, charger cord, and alarm clock. Across from the bed were two closets, and Dabi opened the nearest one quietly. No one might be home, but neighbors could still hear things through thin walls.

The first closet held nothing but clothes. A few business suits and casual outfits, two pairs of shoes, and a small dresser with three drawers. A small label on top simply labeled it as ‘UNDERGARMENTS’, and Dabi felt no need to look further. The second closet, though, was more interesting.

He opened it and found several sheaths for different kinds of blades, not a one of them empty. There were throwing stars, daggers, and swords of various cultures. Each one looked exquisite, and bore a tag near the hilt. They were all made by Katherine’s company, Sunēkuai Blades.

He picked up a sheath with throwing stars. They were shaped like a peach blossom, and barely sharp enough to cut butter. He set them down, intrigued by a long box held on a shelf above the other various weapons. He reached up, careful not to move things out of place too much, and pulled the box down.

Inside were photos upon photos. He saw images of a smiling girl with dark hair, clearly Katherine at a young age, and two others: a man and a woman. Her parents. They were all smiling, young Katherine holding a sign that read “It’s my first day of school!”

There were other things in the box, under all the photos. Dabi carefully moved the contents of the box around until he unearthed two katanas. One was in a simple brown sheath, the other in an intricate green and silver one. They had notes tied to them as well, and a picture. 

He picked up the plain katana, seeing a picture of a teenaged Katherine and her father in front of a smithy. Katherine looked sweaty in the photo, grinning and holding the very katana in Dabi’s hands. Her father was smiling behind her in pride, a hand behind her back in support. The note simply read “My first blade.” When Dabi opened the katana, he found it as sharp as anyone could ask for, if a bit clumsily made.

The second one was slightly lighter, and seemed to glint even in the dim light of the bedroom. He opened it to find it just as sharp as the first, but with some kind of green streak through it. Opening it the rest of the way, Dabi saw a green snake winding its way down the blade, seeming to spit the point from its fanged mouth. He carefully resheathed it, not wanting to leave a trace of himself if all of this somehow went south.

He glanced at the picture attached to the sheath. It was a picture of teenage Katherine, not much younger than the other photo, with her arm draped over another girl’s shoulder. This new girl had snakes for hair and unnerving yellow eyes with slit pupils. She was smiling alongside Katherine in a park, both dressed in a middle school uniform.

The note simply read, “For Sunēkuai. I think you would have liked this one. Rest well.”

Dabi put everything back almost reverently. A part of him wondered why he would bother. It wasn’t like she would notice, even if he somehow didn’t manage to get her. But he couldn’t bring himself to treat her memories with anything but respect. Perhaps it had something to do with the person herself.

As Dabi had looked through file after file on the young woman, everything had said that her quirk was mimicry. There were no files, or hints of files, that said otherwise. She had hidden her quirk from everybody, and doubtless faced ridicule for it. It spoke to her patience and resolve that she had never revealed herself, even when attempting to get into the hero course at various high schools.

Dabi shook the thoughts from his mind. He had a job to do. A job that would be made much easier if he got on with looking for information and preparing his hiding place. He closed the closet and strode from the room.

Katherine trudged up the building’s stairs. The re-sorting all of those files had taken five exhausting hours, even with Lily taking half the workload. But by the end of it, the files were sorted and Lily turned them in to her supervisor. She had also promised Katherine a nice dinner in thanks.

Katherine unlocked her door, dropping her bag once she shut it behind her. She slipped off her work shoes, a pair of usually comfortable black heels that had become near unbearable, and left them by the door. She walked into her room, changing out of her work suit and into a comfortable, long sleeved t-shirt, sweatpants, and a pair of house slippers.

She took out her hair, letting the tight bun she’d been in all day fall into long, straight, black hair. She opened the drawers on the table next to her bed and gave it a quick brush so she could just eat and go to bed.

She strolled out of her room, usually straight shoulders slightly stooped under the weight of a long day. She had some leftover curry from a few days ago, even if she was too tired to cook rice. Her father had used toast when he didn’t want to make rice, Katherine remembered. She pulled the bread out of her pantry, slotting a few pieces into her toaster before pulling out the curry.

She slipped the leftovers onto the plate, pausing briefly when she heard a creak. Just as quickly as she’d heard the noise, she dismissed it. It probably was just the building creaking in the dark.

Dabi silently cursed the floorboards. He’d been walking around this house for hours, how was it that he managed to miss this one creaky spot? Thankfully, Katherine discarded the noise.

The microwave was on now, humming as it heated up something or other. He opened the door to the spare bedroom, slowly walking out to avoid making more noise.

The microwave stopped with a few beeps. Opened with a click. A plate slid onto the counter as the microwave door clicked shut. The toaster popped a moment later. A drawer slid open and shut, silverware clinked, and a knife scratched against a piece of toast.

Dabi stopped walking, only a few feet from being seen from the kitchen or dining room. He knew Katherine always ate with her back to this hall. He’d been watching her for weeks, after all. Little habits like this were important to know, when you were thinking about kidnapping someone.

Katherine pulled out her chair and collapsed into it with a tired sigh. She used the butter knife and pushed some of the curry onto her toast. She didn’t know if she’d have the energy to eat, at this rate. Her eyes were already drooping, and she was tired enough that she imagined footsteps approaching her.

A cloth pressed against her mouth and nose, and arm running around her body and pinning her arms to her sides. She jumped in surprise and tried to scream, taking a breath of the sweet fumes coming from the rag.

She kicked, trying to push her chair back and give herself some mobility, but whoever was there had set themself so she couldn’t. As she writhed, trying to hold her breath after that first inhale, she started to get dizzy.

“Goodnight,” her attacker whispered in her ears as she stopped fighting to escape. She was just fighting to stay awake at this point, a losing battle. She closed her eyes, and no matter how hard she fought she couldn’t get them to open again. She could feel the cloth being removed from her face, her limp body being picked up, but it felt distant. Insignificant. She finally passed out all the way, hoping that this was all another bad dream.

Katherine woke with a headache. She debated opening her eyes, not wanting to greet the day with this headache and not enough sleep. She felt cold, too. She must have kicked off the blankets last night.

Which was odd. Katherine never moved in her sleep. As she woke up more, she realized that she wasn’t in her bed, but tied to a chair. Her head was hanging down, and she opened her eyes slowly to see her legs, still clothed in the sweatpants she’d put on after work.

The chair was wood, and as she paid attention to it it seemed old and unsteady. The floor was a gray brown, covered in dust and a few stray rocks. She hoisted her body up, headache railing against her temples as she did, to observe the room.

There was one door, off to her left. It was rickety, and had water damage on the bottom. What was once a bright brass doorknob was now a dirty brown without any hint of shine. The walls were the brown of old yellow wallpaper. There were bigger rocks around the edges of the room, the largest not even the size of Katherine’s palm, along with a few pieces of broken wood that looked like they were once chairs.

She looked behind her to see the one clean thing in the room. It was a mirror, and Katherine wondered if it was really a mirror or if it was one-way glass. Either way, it was clear that this room was meant for holding and interrogation. If nothing else made that clear, the rough rope tied around her wrists and legs did.

The doorknob shook slightly in the door, and Katherine turned around to see the door open. A man walked through, tall, and with black hair. He was covered in burn scars, healthy flesh stapled to the purple, burned skin under his eyes, along his cheeks, and on his hands. He had a white t-shirt on under a long, tattered, black trench coat.

But the most striking thing about him was his eyes. They were a piercing blue, almost glowing in the dim light. They seemed to bore into Katherine’s own silver ones, digging through her head for her secrets.

“So, you’re awake,” the man said. Katherine stayed quiet, watching as the man shut the door behind him. He, similarly, watched her as she drew herself up to sit straight, her face bored as the villain leaned against the wall in front of her.

“You gonna introduce yourself? It’s quite rude not to, you know.” He started to walk, circling Katherine as she refused to answer.

“Well,” he said after a minute, “one of us has to have manners here. I’m Dabi. And you are…?” he tried again. Katherine refused to talk, staring straight ahead as the villain circled her. With a sigh, Dabi stood in front of her and held a hand in front of her face, a small blue flame dancing on his fingers.

“I’m starting to get really tired of your attitude. Now, tell me your name, or I’ll burn your pretty little face off.” Katherine stared at the flame a moment, fear in her eyes as she considered. Dabi inched the flame closer, and she broke.

“Katherine. My name’s Katherine,” she said quickly. The flame went out and Dabi smiled, pulling at the burn scars on his face.

“There, that wasn’t so hard now, was it?” he said, once again circling Katherine. She could feel her heart pounding in terror as he did, not wanting to let the villain out of her sight but not wanting to let him know how afraid she was by trying to follow his movements.

“So, Katherine. I’m a part of an organization, of sorts. We know you had a run in with… one of our friends, about two weeks ago? In an alley?”

Katherine would have tensed if she wasn’t already. How did they know about that? There hadn’t been anyone there. What were they going to do to her? Was this villain a hero that had found out what she did? It had all been in self defense, she swore! She didn’t mean to kill him, she didn’t!

Did she?

“You wouldn’t happen to know what happened to him, do you? We were looking forward to meeting him again and he just disappeared. Right around the time you two met.” Dabi’s voice made Katherine shiver, and she hoped he mistook it as fear for him instead of fear of being found out. She shook her head adamantly, looking down at the floor.

“I-I don’t know what happened to him. He… he tried to grab me, drag me into an alley and,” Katherine swallowed, tears pricking her eyes at the memory of how his face looked as he fell.

“But I managed to run away. Used my quirk to distract him and ran,” she lied.

“Really, now?” Dabi said from behind her. She could hear a fire in his hands, feel the heat as it danced out of sight. She doubled down on her lie.

“My quirk is mimicry. I can sound like anything I’ve heard before. Cars, animals, people. You name it.” Dabi walked around to face her, flames still in his hand.

“Is that so?” he said slowly. Katherine looked up to meet his eyes, putting as much defiance as she could in her eyes and voice.

“Of course it is. You can check any file I have since I first manifested my quirk. It’s mimicry,” she said in his voice. His blue eyes widened slightly at the perfect copy, but that was it. Until his smiled turned from slight amusement to sadistic glee.

“So you can copy voices. This just keeps getting better and better.” Katherine swallowed hard, praying she hadn’t just guaranteed herself a crispy end. Dabi leaned in terrifyingly close, staring into her steel gray eyes.

“But I think we both know that isn’t your real quirk,” he whispered. He pushed the top of the chair back, placing a foot on the rising leg to keep the chair from falling all the way back. Katherine was left hanging at a 45 degree angle, shaken and breathing quickly. All she wanted at this moment was to get out of this place, to get away from the villain staring straight at her.

“It is, I swear!” Katherine said, not taking her terrified eyes off of Dabi, in case he decided to try to burn her.

“And why should I believe you?” he hissed. Katherine was fighting tears now. This villain kept pushing closer, kept demanding answers after she gave them. Worse was he knew her secret, and she had to find a way to convince him otherwise.

“Please, I promise, that’s my quirk! I promise! Please, just leave me alone!” she begged, not that she actually expected it to work. Which was why she was quite startled to feel the front two legs of her chair hit the ground.

“So, you really are telling the truth,” Dabi said more than asked. He didn’t believe it for a second, but he needed to catch her off guard. She had been expecting intimidation when he opened up that question. But if that attack in the alley had caused her to use her quirk, then maybe the same approach could work again. He swallowed his disgust at the idea as he prepared to execute it.

“Well, then this has all been a big waste of time.” He turned to face Katherine, who still watched him like a cornered rabbit. “I don’t like wasting my time, Kat. Though you don’t seem much like a cat. More a helpless little mouse,” he said with a smirk, leaning down next to the woman’s ear.

“But maybe I can still get some use out of you.”

In less time than it took Dabi to blink, something shot towards his face. It brushed along his cheek as he almost fell back, leaving a shallow cut along the burns with that barest of touches. As he regained his footing he heard the ropes hitting the ground, followed by a few quick footsteps.

Katherine stood before him, shining knives that had not existed a moment before held in her hands. Even from across the room, he could tell they were just as sharp as the first. One sleeve had been sliced open to reveal several scars along her arms, including two or three that seemed to be hollowed out.

“Don’t touch me,” she hissed, staring dead at the villain that stood nearly a full head taller than her with the ferocity of a cornered tiger. Dabi smirked and took one step closer, curious to see just how far she would go.

 As his foot hit the ground, Katherine let go of one of the knives in her hand. It flew towards Dabi’s face, stopping barely an inch from his right eye, and he watched as another knife slipped from one of the hollow scars into Katherine’s hand. His smirk turned into a grin.

“I thought you said your quirk was mimicry?” he mocked. Katherine’s face went from confusion, to shock, to determined.

“I guess I did,” she said. Before she could try anything Dabi swiped the knife in front of him away, darting straight for the woman that he was certain was about to try and kill him. Caught off guard, Katherine was grabbed and pinned to the wall. She would have fought, but she could feel Dabi’s hand heating around her throat. It was uncomfortably hot, but wasn’t burning her.

Yet.

“You know, we could use people like you. People with powerful quirks. People who are under the radar.” Katherine let out a strained laugh, fear making her brazen.

“And why would I help a villain like you?” Katherine knew, if it had been anything but the situation it was, if she hadn’t already been revealed, she would have been shaking and terrified. As it was, she was too panicked to register anything but anger.

“Because, there’s people on the other side of that door. People that have heard everything you and I have said. They know. And even if you get away, you’ve been recorded this whole time. We can spread word of what you are, who you are, and there’d be nothing you could do to stop us.”

Dabi wasn’t precisely lying. The door was flimsy, and he’d be surprised if no one had heard at least snippets of his and Katherine’s conversation. But the audio recorder in his pocket had caught the conversation in full. Even if she managed to get away, the information could be shared and spread with minimal effort. A few words to the right people, and she’d have heroes breathing down her neck.

Katherine glanced at her reflection on that window. It must have been a window, she thought. How else could she have been recorded? 

She thought again about killing Dabi, and anyone else that had heard, and destroying any record of her quirk. But she would never know if she got them all, never be certain that one hadn’t gotten to the footage before her and ran off with it. With gritted teeth, she closed her eyes and recalled her knives, absorbing them as she raised her hands in surrender.

Dabi released her, taking a few steps back to let her breathe. It was a small courtesy, one he did not usually grant. But something about Katherine told him that he’d be safe giving her that space. The woman had done her best to hide her quirk since she’d gotten it. She would do anything to keep it hidden.

Katherine glared up at the villain. He knew he’d won, and she hated it. She hated feeling like she was trapped under his thumb. She thought that maybe, just maybe, it would be worth it to try and escape anyway, recordings be damned, but she checked herself. She’d come too far, built too much of herself on a false identity, to stop now. So, with impotent fury in her eyes, she asked Dabi one thing.

“What do you want?”

It had been weeks since she had gone missing. There hadn’t even been so much as a mention of her disappearance. It made sense to Katherine. She had, after all, tried her very best to stay under the radar. But still, it hurt. She’d had a job, after all, and friends in her apartment building. Had they even filed a missing person’s report?

The League didn’t particularly mind. Less attention went to them that way. It meant their little plan could easily be carried out.

Dabi had quickly introduced Katherine to the rest of the League, after her surrender, and while some were more friendly, Dabi and Shigaraki seemed to have no qualms about holding her secret over her head at all times. She supposed the strategy had worked, though. She hadn’t even tried to run once.

Not even now.

“It’s the League of Villains!” someone screamed. People ran past Katherine as she stood from the bench she’d been positioned at and started running past the tall buildings herself. This was not an escape plan. If she ran, truly ran, she’d be exposed. No, this was so that it could look random, like she was just picked out of a crowd.

She felt herself being drawn into Compress’s marble, felt the marble being scooped up and held, jostled around. Katherine couldn’t do much about the strange feeling from inside the marble, but she’d be sure to be more passive aggressive than usual when she got back.

Without warning, she was brought from the marble to the street. She felt Dabi’s hand wrapping around her neck through the sweatshirt she’d been given to hide her scars. The unusual heat was a dead giveaway that it was the flame user. They had gone over this plan back at the base. She was to act scared for whatever hero was there, and it was not difficult.

She almost faltered when she saw Kai, fully outfitted in his Rapids hero costume, standing before her with two of his sidekicks. She was vaguely confused for a moment, but the confusion was overshadowed with relief. An asshole he might be at the agency, but he was still a hero out on the streets. He would rescue Katherine from this situation, like he’d rescued countless others.

“Well, hero? Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to make a choice?” Shigaraki called from behind her, and she felt Dabi’s hand heat even further. This had not been part of the plan, and her fear grew to the point that tears began trickling down her cheeks.

“Please, Kai! Help me!” Katherine screamed. This was also not part of the plan, but in that moment she forgot all about her secret. All she could think about was that they would kill her if Kai didn’t save her.

“Well, Kai,” Dabi spat, “what’s it gonna be? You, or her?” Katherine silently begged Kai to get her out. To take her back home, away from the villains that had started to sound a little too sane, where she could get back to her life.

“Keep her.” Katherine felt like her heart had turned to ice. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Those words were not supposed to leave the lips of people that called themselves heroes.

“Did you even bother to look at who you kidnapped?” Kai let out a barking laugh, wiping an imaginary tear. “She’s been useless ever since we were kids! She could copy what she heard, what kind of quirk is that? She couldn’t even make it into the c-list hero courses!

“She’s just a burden to society, chasing after a dream she knew couldn’t be achieved. She even encouraged Sunē to try and do the same, even though we all knew she was going to be a villain. It’s a good thing she realized it and offed herself before she ended up that way.”

Katherine just stared at Kai. He’d recognized her. Had he always known? Or had he figured it out when she called him by his name?

But then, why wasn’t he saving her? He was a hero, he was supposed to save people. But here he was, leaving her to be killed or worse by villains, but why? It took very little effort for her to remember those times on the playground, through middle school, when Kai had shamelessly let her and Sunē take a beating, then check on them later. He had always been too scared to actually get hurt.

And Sunē.

Those things he’d said about her. That had been his friend at one point, how could he believe she would be a villain? He knew her, almost as well as Katherine did! But that last comment, that praise of Sunē’s actions ten years ago…

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Katherine’s eyes, a moment ago so full of fear and confusion, hardened with nothing short of absolute hate. She began muttering, barely moving her lips as the sounds bounced off the buildings on the street around them. The voices sounded like a crowd of people, whispering. How useful ventriloquism was turning out to be.

“Did you hear what he just said?”

“He’s not going to save her?”

“Isn’t he supposed to be a hero?”

“Why aren’t the sidekicks doing anything about this?”

“Is he just going to let those villains go?”

Kai’s sidekicks began looking around, trying to find prying eyes that did not exist. All the civilians had long since evacuated. It meant they didn’t have to see what happened next.

With a flick of her wrist, Katherine sent a dagger to the sidekick on the left. It went straight through his eye and out the back of his head. He dropped, blood beginning to pool under his head as Kai and the other sidekick turned to his body.

The knife looped behind the two, stabbing the poor man in the throat. His death was slower. Katherine and the League watched without sympathy as he bled out as Kai watched in horror. Katherine wondered if he’d ever seen death before.

She held her hand up and the knife flew to it, stabbing in and being reabsorbed. It left a nasty cut, but she didn’t care. It got Kai’s attention, and that was what mattered. He turned to her with wide eyes and blood spattered on his mask from the man that had been stabbed in the throat.

“You… no. No, your quirk was mimicry. You told me, you told everyone!” he shouted, as if it would save him. He stood, preparing a blast as Katherine unzipped the sweatshirt and slid it off, revealing her arms to the sun for the first time in years. The scars tracing up and down them caused Kai to falter.

“Yes, I did. And you called yourself a hero.” Katherine grew a katana from her arm, the same that she had made for Sunē with the snake slithering down its length. Dabi released her neck, and she heard his heavy boots take one step back. Kai, recognising the threat, shot a large burst of water at Katherine.

But she had trained with him for years. She knew his attacks could be split, watched Sunē do it with sturdy branches countless times in the park. So she held up the katana and let the water flow to either side of her as the League scattered behind her. Kai saw her still standing, anger on his face.

“I am a hero! I have the certification! I have an agency! You work there!” Katherine charged forward as he opened his mouth to continue yelling, stabbing her katana through his stomach to silence him.

It pierced all the way through his body, sticking a foot or two out of his back. Kai, caught off guard, looked down at the blade, buried to the hilt in his stomach, and fell to his knees.

“No. You weren’t a hero,” she said. With a small flourish, she removed the blade from her childhood friend’s stomach, savoring the small noise of pain he made at the movement, and his reflexive clutching at the wound.

“You were just a part of the problem.” With a vicious swing, Katherine took Kai’s head off. It thudded wetly on the pavement, his body following suit with an air of finality.

The street in front of Katherine was stained red, the blood of the three people before her mixing into one big puddle. The blood began to flow around her shoes, and she found herself numb to it as she stared at her handy work.

A warm hand rested on her left shoulder, and she turned her head to look Dabi in the eye. His smirk, while still sadistic, seemed less sharp than usual.

“Pretty good for someone who isn’t a villain,” he said. Katherine blinked, looking back to the katana in her hand. She began reabsorbing it, speaking as she did.

“I am a villain. I think I have been since I decided to hide my quirk to keep my family.” As the katana finished being absorbed, Toga tackled her in a hug from the right.

“That was so cool, Kat! Does that mean you’ll stay with us? We can be knife buddies! I promise not to cut you too much!” Toga pleaded, glancing up at Katherine’s steel gray eyes. 

With a small smile, she placed a hand on Toga’s head, ruffling the younger girl’s hair. She couldn’t help but see a piece of Sunē in the girl’s unabashed excitement. Katherine sighed, and when she inhaled again it felt like she was filling her lungs for the first time.

“I suppose it does,” she said.