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70. We Will Hit The Ground Running

Rule 59: When telling the truth after a lie, look them in the eye.

This was a terrible idea. This was a terrible, terrible idea. They had no idea what Dabi had done to Otsuka (if he'd done anything). They could be forcing her into a potentially traumatising situation when she could've already been traumatised by the villain they were forcing her into the situation with!

Could be.

Or they could be getting closer to finding out if UA had a traitor (if Otsuka was the traitor).

Could be.

They were now in the viewing room of a different interrogation room, the one currently holding the villain, Dabi. Unlike how Otsuka had been, he was cuffed to the table with quirk-inhibitors. His ankles, too, were chained to the floor. He could stand, he could lean, he could sit, but he couldn't go anywhere. Considering Otsuka was about to walk in, that was definitely a good thing.

Yamada squeezed his husband's hand and hoped they'd got it right. Oboro, beside them, crossed his arms and very pointedly didn't look in their direction, he'd tried to argue against this, but he was the child here and Otsuka's guardians had spoken.

Otsuka hadn't argued, hadn't attempted to refuse. She'd seemed nervous about talking to Dabi, but she'd agreed to do it. Did that mean she secretly wanted to talk to him? To her villainous partner? Or could it be that talking to him was the last thing she wanted to do, but she hadn't felt she had a choice, not when Yamada and Aizawa had asked? This was the same kid who hadn't thought her consent mattered in medical procedures. Maybe they just hadn't made it clear enough that she was allowed to refuse.

(Maybe, just a little bit, they'd done that on purpose.)

The door into the room opened, and they watched as Otsuka entered, hovering just inside as the door closed behind her. She stared at Dabi and Dabi smirked back.

"Hey there, Kaos."

She didn't take her eyes off him and she didn't move.

"You can come closer," he told her, sat back in his chair, as relaxed as he could get without having any of the restraints biting into his flesh. "I promise I won't bite, I couldn't even if I wanted to." He lifted his hands, showing off the cuffs. "These bracelets they gave me are such sweet gifts, it's not even my birthday."

It was slow, but Otsuka made her way across the room, a notepad with questions she should ask in hand. She sat in the chair opposite the villain and opened the book to the first page.

She glanced to her left, to the mirror she could see and the people she knew were beyond it, and opened her mouth.

"Do you trust them?" Dabi beat her to it.

"I'm meant to be the one asking you questions," she said, fingers worrying the edge of the page.

"I'll answer one of yours if you answer one of mine?" It wasn't meant to be a negotiation. But they wanted answers, and Otsuka knew that.

She let the book rest on the table. "Rule thirty-one: Trust is careless."

Yamada glanced at his husband who frowned, slouch deepening. They'd chosen not to read Otsuka's rulebook because she'd asked (because the way she'd reacted when they said they wouldn't raised a lot of questions about whether or not that courtesy had been given to her in the past). She'd said it was personal, and they believed her. Now, Yamada had to wonder if it was somehow incriminating.

But at the same time, Otsuka had over a hundred rules, she'd told them that after the USJ. So a rule as early as thirty-one had to come when she was a lot younger. What the hell had happened to her to leave her convinced that she needed a rule of thumb like 'trust is careless'?