[ENG]Shoto Todoroki : Modern-day Terrorist

Chapter 111 - Fight

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.