Chapter 111 - Fight

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I opened the doors of the police station as if in a nightmare.

I could see the people around me without really seeing them, the blue of their uniforms blending together and leaving trails of light behind them like car headlights in the night.

I moved forward, deaf and dumb, past the reception desk, past the maze of untidy offices, ignoring the running officer who cut me off, not noticing the three men, coffee in hand, standing around a water carboy, whom fell silent as I passed, oblivious to the outside world- oblivious to the world outside me.

A door opened to the left and an officer raised his hand.

It was the red hair and the top of the shoulder I saw sticking out behind him that drew me in like the sun.

Everything was hazy, blurred, as if I couldn't quite grasp the reality of what was happening.

The door slammed shut behind me and suddenly it was as if all my senses were unblocked.

The coolness of the glass under my fingers, the smell of cold ashes and lukewarm coffee, the sound of rattling handcuffs, the sight of his gaze penetrating mine, the taste of audacity filling me like poison.

He casually looked away, unable to see me behind the tinted glass, but I found myself walking along it so he'd always have me in his sights, so he'd know I was there and that he had my attention.

I watched his white hair, still dripping with black dye, registered in my mind the slight smile he gave in response to the officer who spoke to him, and suddenly his lips curled into a larger, mocking smile, and I was sure he was smiling at me, laughing at me, and that he-

Son of a bitch.

- Did we confirm it was him?

I knew that dad and the two officers were silent behind me to give me time to understand - to register - that Dabi, Touya, my dear, sweet murderer of a brother, was alive.

But it wasn't astonishment that stopped me in my tracks, but the realization that this son of a bitch had had the audacity to reveal himself for all to see.

- Blood tests were conclusive.

I felt deadly calm.

Touya turned his head and I slid along the glass in pursuit.

The door opened and three new officers entered the observation room.

I barely glanced at them, my attention riveted on him and his broad smile and the false nervousness that made him fidget with his hands and the exaggerated stiffness of his shoulders.

- Good morning, Mr. Endeavor. Quite a morning, isn't it ?

- Very

-and the shameless lie of his words and suddenly he stretched his arms too far and I leaned forward to register the spasm of pain that stretched his face and smiled because I knew he hadn't healed from his crucifixion-.

No one spoke anymore.

The tension raised the hairs on the back of my neck, the heaviness of the air kept me still.

I could feel them all staring at me, and suddenly I realized that the officers weren't there for Touya, but for me.

Slowly, I straightened up and pulled my fingers away from the glass, disciplining myself like never before to appear calm and collected and above all, to show nothing.

- I need to sit down.

There was movement, and I thought someone was talking to me, and suddenly I was sitting on a plastic chair in the corner of the observation room, a glass of water I didn't drink in my hands.

The plastic, so fragile and delicate between my fingers, was a good reminder for me to stay relaxed, harmless and above all, very shaken.

That way, the way the water vibrated in the glass couldn't be attributed to anything other than my state of shock.

With my elbows on my knees, I silently scrutinized Touya, unable to look away.

The officer to my right, leaning against the wall, spoke, I think, but I couldn't hear him.

Touya raised his head and thanked the officer who brought him a glass of water.

He sipped, his Adam's apple slowly rising and falling, and suddenly all logic left my body as I leaned forward, my index and middle fingers rising discreetly as the water in my glass swayed back and forth like the ocean in a storm.

A shadow passed in front of me and suddenly my glass was still and I was upright as a stick, the icy wall cooling my neck and mind.

My eyes met those of my father, arms folded, who had just taken the place of the previous officer.

- I got the call this morning at six o'clock that Touya...

He fell silent and looked up at him as if he couldn't believe it.

There was something vulnerable in his expression, a glimmer of fear and hope in his eyes that made my blood run cold.

I ran a hand over my face, my tongue sliding over my teeth to moisten my dry mouth.

My eyelids were heavy with fatigue, my muscles stiff and hard as brick.

- I'd only spoken to him once before we learned it was really him.

And he didn't have to say any more for me to know why he hadn't returned to the interrogation room since then.

I froze, painfully aware that whatever this dog had in mind, he'd set me up for failure by revealing himself.

He tried to kill me, and I openly admitted that I hated him.

No matter what happened to him from now on, whether it was an accident or not, Dad - everyone - would always doubt the veracity of the facts and wonder if I wasn't behind it.

In the midst of my boiling anger, a hint of respect - no bigger than an atom - sprang up in my heart and forced me to admire him.

By returning to the light, Touya had made it impossible for me to kill him.

Then fury overcame everything and I suddenly felt like hypnotizing the interrogating officer to strangle him.

- I want to talk to him.

Dad looked at me - really looked at me for the first time since I'd walked in - and I didn't look away for a second.

I could feel the other officers watching us, but I knew that neither their opinions nor their views mattered to the Number Two, All Might's partner and second 'symbol'.

- As you wish

There was movement, doors opening and closing, and suddenly I was standing across from a handcuffed Touya sipping coffee.

The door hinges creaked behind me and I felt three new officers follow me inside.

I felt the warmth radiating from his palms as he held the scalding coffee between his fingers, and I knew from his clean clothes and brushed hair that whatever he'd told them, they believed him.

I suddenly felt like destroying the entire police station to make them pay for their incompetence, but then I remembered who my father - our father - was, and that I'd been acquitted of several murders because of his simple authority.

So, of course, why risk alienating the great Endeavor by putting his found son in a heavily armed cell where he couldn't use his Quirk?

Touya looked up at me with innocent eyes, and I wanted to rip his throat out with my teeth.

- Shoto

He smiled, hesitantly, and I saw worry and concern in his eyes and wondered if that wasn't the only thing true about him.

Because he knew that if he pushed me too hard, I'd abandon whatever moral values I had left and kill him without hesitation, no matter what the consequences.

But I was still sane.

And I couldn't bear the consequences.

So I pulled the chair back, my feet scraping the floor like chalk on a board.

I fell onto it without taking my eyes off Touya, muscles flexed and feet flat on the floor.

He held out his hand hesitantly and my Sharingan flashed in my eyes as a warning.

He pulled his hand back as if I'd burned it, gave me a trembling smile, looked down at his coffee, hesitated, took two long gulps, exhaled slowly, looked up at me again,

and suddenly I was sure that whatever he had in mind, the whole situation was just a show in which he was playing the leading role.

- You must blame yourself

I didn't answer, because I knew that everything he said and did was the result of acute planning.

- For stabbing me, I mean.

Fucking son of a bitch.

I feel the officers around us stiffen.

Touya smiled disdainfully at me and rubbed his left shoulder, where clean bandages had surely been applied this morning after it had been confirmed that he wasn't lying and really was royalty.

I leaned back in my chair, hands crossed over my stomach, and watched Touya from under my eyelashes.

- Not really, since I didn't know who you were and you had burned a friend of mine alive...

The atmosphere was heavy, full of judgment, but I knew the scalp didn't tip neither in favor of the ex-criminal nor the acquitted murderer.

For a second, I wondered how my father felt, the hero who had sacrificed years of his life in the service of others, and who found himself in a police station on a strange Tuesday morning, watching his two criminal sons chatting quietly in a room full of nervous officers who hadn't lifted a hand from the guns at their belts.

Touya pursed his lips and fidgeted.

- How is she? I didn't mean to-

- As well as someone with third-degree burns can be.

He clenched his jaw and inhaled through his nose.

- You must understand that I didn't want to do it, Shoto. That they forced me...

He fell silent, his eyes unfocused.

If I revealed that he had told me that he wanted to stop me the other time, right after All for One had kidnapped me, then Touya would somehow find a way to say that I knew who he really was and yet I hadn't said or done anything.

Dad would ask me why I hadn't said anything, and since I couldn't tell him it was because I had planned to kill Touya once the 'Tokyo' part of my project came to fruition, it would only serve to drive us further apart.

This fucking dog understood very well that if I had to jeopardize my relationship with dad, I'd rather go backwards than forwards.

I was tied hands and feet, forced to play his little game until I found out what he really wanted.

- I had no choice. They said they'd come after you if I didn't. Dad, Mom, Natsu and Fuyu.

And then, lowering his voice, he added.

- You too.

I blinked. Slowly.

The door opened again and another officer came in.

He smelled so strong of perfume that it irritated my nose. I almost sneezed.

I glanced at the tinted glass in the direction where I could sense my father before turning my attention back to Touya.

- Why now?

-Because the League is broken. Thanks to you, by the way. And what you've-

He fell silent and looked suspiciously at the officers around us before he gave me a sharp look.

If today had taught me one thing, it was that I hadn't given Touya enough credit - he was far more vicious than insane, and vice combined with insanity was an unpredictable weapon in the hands of someone with nothing left to lose.

His mention of 'what I'd done' and his abrupt silence were a clear message: he knew I'd been covered up for the murders of his accomplices, and now that he was recognized by all as the prodigal son of the Number Two back from the dead, his words would be given credence.

Public opinion had turned in our favor after the press conference, but Endeavor still had plenty of detractors - if another scandal about me came out, the government might decide to part ways with him, despite all the benefits he brought to the country.

And they still had All Might.

- And because All for One is so weakened...

- So you escaped?

- So I escaped.

Touya sank back into his chair.

Grayish drops fell on his left eyelid and rolled down his eyelashes.

He looked me straight in the eyes and wiped them with the tip of his thumb, and suddenly we were standing on the veranda of our house on a summer's night, and Touya was wiping the blood rolling down his cheek with the tip of his thumb, in a promise of ill-contained violence.

The blond officer muttered something to his colleague behind Touya, then took his place.

- Even if what you've done is...

Touya looked down at his hands as if searching for the right words.

The departing officer went to talk to two of his colleagues, and suddenly, the room emptied, leaving only the one guarding the door and the tall blond man.

- Thanks to you, I was able to escape.

His jaw creaked, and I thought it would fall off.

- Thanks to you.

My eyes crinkled and I tilted my head to the side.

Touya never thanked anyone.

Ever.

My eyes scanned the empty room once more.

- I've also done things I'm not proud of, he went on. Sometimes, I even have trouble sleeping. Does that happen to you?

My attention turned to the other room, which was also emptying.

Against the current, someone came in smelling of perfume.

The same perfume as-

- I never regret anything

The door to our room, poorly closed, swung open and a light breeze of fresh air entered.

For a second the veil of perfume lifted.

Then I met the reptilian eyes of the blond officer.

Suddenly he pointed his gun at me.