AMP 53 Sneak Peek

Yeah, next chapter isn't done quiiite yet. It's close though. It's gonna be a bit shorter, as it's kind of a "Training Arc" chapter, but then we're going straight to the License Exams

However, I wanted to share this scene early and get some feedback, as it's kind of a big change from canon. It's been foreshadowed for a bit now.



                                  …~AMP~...





(Unknown Location: Abandoned Satellite Base)




“This game is so stupid!” Spinner growled, tossing his (stolen) controller onto the couch as Tomura smiled smugly next to him. “It’s ninety-percent RNG!”


Tomura shrugged, getting up from the couch while taking off his two-fingered gloves, “Sounds like sour grapes to me.”


Magne set down her own (also stolen) controller on the crates they had been using as a coffee table, side-eyeing her boss, “It should be near impossible to have a winning streak at Mario Party.”


“Should be, but you’re talking to a veteran here.” From the corner of Tomura’s eye, he saw Himiko slip out the front door, likely out for another sanguine feast. The only reason he saw her was because she wasn’t trying to hide, but he couldn’t help but notice how easily she glided across the room without anyone noticing. He didn’t even know she had been in the room. Her skips across the room were silent, and it only made him believe Lady Nagant’s suspicions more. 


He was beginning to wish he never had that conversation with her. 


He was also beginning to wish he didn’t have to have this next conversation with Toga.


“You guys can find something else to play. I’ll be back in a sec.” Tomura followed her out, seeing her stroll along the grounds in the shadow of the satellite dish. She had a pint of blood in hand, one of many from the supply they had gotten. 


Sure, it was supposed to go to the sick and needy in hospitals, but they counted as sick and needy people, right? Just sick in the head.


He tried to get info about any brain dead nomu he could use for some blood, but any attempts at contacting the good doctor were futile. 


“Hey,” Tomura called out to her, causing Himiko to turn around and take the spout of the blood bag out of her mouth.


“Yo!”


“We need to talk,” Tomura ignored her greeting, nodding towards the forest. He began heading towards the area where he had caught her with the deer. She skipped along behind him, not a care in the world until they were through the trees and in the clearing. 


Himiko hopped up onto a rock, sitting down and taking another sip of blood, “What’s up? This an important kinda talk?”


“You could say that,” Tomura pocketed his hands, pacing mindlessly across the grass, staring up through the leaves. “...I think there could be a spy.”


Himiko furrowed her brow, peering at him in disbelief. “You’re joking, right?”


“I wish.”


“No, really. I mean, c’mon, who could possibly even be a spy? Twice and Big Sis Mag are absolutely not spies, Dabi is anything but covert, Spinner is obsessed with Stainy, Compress has been a thief for years, and you’ve known Kurogiri since, like, forever. I just don’t see how it’s possible.”


Tomura didn’t answer immediately, and when he did, he didn’t answer directly. “You know, Nagant says you had some tips about HPSC security. How’d you know about that?”


Himiko raised a brow at first, but quickly realized there was one person she had left out of the list. She looked down at her lap, blank expression, taking another sip from her blood bag.


“...I’m wanted, remember?” Himiko looked back, wiping blood from her lips. “I need to learn how to avoid them whenever I can.”


“Mm, true. But, uh, specifically about their building?”


“Most inactive time at the building also means they’re probably not working in the field.”


“In Tokyo?” Shigaraki countered again, his expression unfaltering. “I thought you were from Musutafu.”


“...I-”


“And, actually, let’s go back to your point about being wanted. Giran said you were a suspect for a bunch of murders…funny how you’re not on the news anywhere. No wanted lists either. In fact, outside of the file Giran managed to get his hands on, it’s almost like you don’t even exist. Birth certificate, school records, nothing. You've been a street rat your whole life? Even born on the street? I mean, that’s the only way I can think of that stuff not even existing. Must’ve gotten into a lot of trouble throughout the years to reach your skill level. And, speaking of which, I just gotta know just how exactly you got so good at fighting. Last I checked, you were just some street urchin itching for your next meal half the time. You’re not just good with a knife, you know how to take people down like they’re nothing. You’re beyond a pro. The way you walk around, too. It’s like you glide across the floor, no noise to be made. Kinda like…a trained killer.”


Himiko sat silent, staring at Tomura with an empty look in her eyes. Tomura walked up to her, standing in front of the rock. He leaned in closely, Tomura’s gaze meeting hers through his unruly hair.  


His voice was low and quiet, “...You’re an assassin too, aren’t you?”


All that could be heard was the rustling of thousands of leaves, the wind blowing in both of their ears, and pounding heartbeats. Neither of them could tell whose heart was the loudest. 


“...I was.”


Tomura’s eyes clenched shut, a grimace of what Himiko could only interpret as pain flashed across his face. She could only make guesses, because she was fairly certain she had never seen pain like this on him. 


Betrayal. 


Tomura took a deep breath, nodding his head slowly, “...Okay.”


His hand shot out, reaching around Himiko’s throat in an instant. Himiko reacted faster, her blood bag dropped and a small blade pressed against the base of Tomura’s pinkie finger, keeping his hand from fully enclosing around her throat as he shoved her down onto her back.. 


She pressed another knife against his stomach, but didn’t thrust it into his torso. Tomura grabbed the blade, seemingly ignoring how it sliced his palm, the metal cracking and crumbling under his touch. 


“Give. Me. One. One good reason not to kill you.”


“I said I was! Was! I’m…not…with them anymore!” Himiko choked out as Tomura’s hands squeezed her windpipe, her instincts screaming at her to attack back, but she was holding back. “And y-...you haven’t killed me yet. Ac-! My other knife is basically dust already. Which means…you don’t wanna kill me.”


“You’re right. I don’t. Convince me that I don’t need to.”


“I could’ve cut off your pinkie multiple times already, but I haven’t. I could’ve killed you all in your sleep multiple times over, but I haven’t.”


“A fair point,” Tomura nodded, his grip growing even tighter, “But, still not good enough.”


“I’m not a spy, and you know it. I just need to explain. You don’t talk about most of your past, and you-Ergh! You expect me to talk about mine?”


“When you used to work for the HPSC? Yeah, I’d say that’s something we’d like to know. So. Start. Talking.”


“...I killed another student,” Himiko didn’t waste any more time, that day replaying in her mind like it was yesterday. “I already told you about how my parents felt about my quirk. I spent years suppressing it, my urges. But, when I was at school, a fight broke out in the courtyard. One of the boys in the fight was bleeding, and I-..the second I saw it drip down his face, I just…I don’t know what happened. I…I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed it. I got him alone, and I drained him of all I could, but some other girls came in and saw me. I was covered in his blood, my body starting to transform into him. I ran home, and I hid. I was panicking, I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I just waited for my parents to come home. I heard the door open, and I ran downstairs, but…but they weren’t alone. Someone had already called them and told them what happened.”


Tomura’s grip loosened just a little bit, “Our friendly neighborhood government.”


Himiko didn’t confirm his answer, which still told Tomura what he needed, “Apparently, being able to turn into anyone is something the HPSC found incredibly useful. They told my parents they would make this go away, protect their reputation. All they had to do was hand over their kid; the daughter they already didn’t want anymore. Their freak of a kid, turned murderer. They signed those papers before I could say a word. They took me, kept me locked away, trained me, made me kill for them.”


“Trained you too well, apparently, seeing as you got out. They seem to have a problem with their experiments turning on them.”


A smile slowly grew on Himiko’s face, blood still staining her fangs, “You ever see that movie ‘The Thing’? It’s from centuries ago, but…that’s just what it was like. One-by-one I became my guards, and one-by-one they dropped, drained, and disposed of. They keep my name out of the news because they don’t want anyone to know I exist. I’m another one of their loose threads. How do you catch someone who can be anyone? They’re looking for hay in a haystack. That’s why I like it here, though. I don’t have to hide. So…how’s this gonna end, boss?”


Tomura continued to stare down at her, with Himiko waiting for him to make his next move. But, he released her neck, standing back up to move down from the rock. “I believe you.”


Himiko sat up, rubbing her neck with a cough, “...Thanks.”


Tomura shook his head with a sigh, “I’m sorry, Toga. I jus-”


“I get it,” she stopped him. “Really, I do. Do you really think any of us would let a spy out of here alive?”


“Yeah, well…Look, you don’t gotta say anything now, but the others should know at some point. We’ll just say you told me in private, and we didn’t want to say anything in case of a bad reaction. I’ll see you inside.”


Tomura began walking back towards the base, with Himiko peering at him as he went. She smirked just a little, “I told you that you were nice.”


Tomura stopped, turning around with a brow raised, “I just tried to kill you, and you call me nice?”


“Bah, you wouldn’t have done it,” Himiko waved him off dismissively. “I’ve never seen you kill anyone before.”


“...I’ve taken lives; innocent ones. It’s not the act of killing that makes me hesitate, it’s who I’m trying to kill.”


“Aw, that means you like us.”


Tomura glared at her, until he closed his eyes and sighed, “...Yeah. So what?”


He turned around to walk back to base, with Himiko giggling from her rock.





                                 …~AMP~...

This was actually an idea I saw somewhere on one of the MHA subreddits a while ago. But, it was basically it was talking about how Toga's skills make zero sense in canon (they do) and everyone was trying to explain it.

Someone said they thought she might be an assassin, and I actually kinda liked that, so I tried my own spin on that here.