ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴛɪᴄ ʜᴏᴍɪᴄɪᴅᴇ || ᴛᴏɢᴀᴄʜᴀᴋᴏ

• 1 •

"Himiko, you came." Jin weakly grinned, a catheter-riddled arm shakily rising to gesture to the uncomfortable plastic chair next to him. Himiko rolled her eyes.

"Well, duh. It's the day the doctors tell you what your diagnosis is." She fiddled with her space buns as she sat down on the blue plastic, wriggling to find a comfortable position. She settled on a cross-legged seat and pulled a flask of ice water from her rucksack. She offered the cool beverage to Jin, who smacked his lips dryly in anticipation. The room was filled with wet gulps, until eventually Jin moved the bottle away from his mouth with a laboured sigh.

"How are things with your new job?" He asked, and Himiko scrunched her face up.

"After I graduated, I was sent to Precinct 1A, and I got stuck with this detective named Ochako Uraraka. She doesn't like me, she thinks I'm weird."

"How do you know that?"

"She told me to my face."

"Oh."

"She told me I give the vibes of a serial killer." Himiko giggled, "I wouldn't dream of killing!" Jin gave a soft smile and shut his eyes, he looked to be in pain. In this silence, a doctor and his junior entered. His lanyard read Dr Hajime Takara. He looked solemn and apologetic.

"Mr Bubaigawara, we have your blood test results and imaging test results. Is this young lady okay to be here?"

"Yes she's my best friend." Jin responded, and Himiko nodded.

"Your blood results show that you have a high total of protein in your blood - but low levels of a protein named albumin. To confirm our suspicions of a blood cancer named Multiple Myeloma, we need to do a bone marrow biopsy. Unfortunately, if our suspicions are correct and it is Multiple Myeloma, there is no cure."

"No cure?" Himiko echoed, her heart pounding out of her chest.

"There are treatments like chemotherapy and immunotherapy that will slow the spread and reduce symptoms, but you will eventually die from this."

Himiko glanced over at her best friend, the man that took her in when her parents disowned her, he looked relatively calm. Unfortunately, Himiko is acutely aware of micro expressions and she couldn't help but notice the quiver in his lips and the fake nonchalance. He was putting up a front for her.

Everything else was nothing but a ring in her ears as she stared at Jin. She can't let him die, and she knows that doctors won't come up with an expensive cure for someone as irrelevant as a barber. She needed to do something.

Even if it kills someone.

•

Ochako is called into work early that morning, with a new case opening up. Captain Aizawa assigned her the case, entrusting her to show her newbie partner the ropes.

Ochako and Himiko had brief conversations, mainly about work. However, Ochako wasn't the biggest fan of the blonde. For starters she was a little too handsy with Izuku Midoriya, the forensic scientist that works closely with the 1A precinct (and Ochako's long term crush). She was convinced for some time that Himiko was a vampire, as her pale complexion and feline appearance paired with her caffeine obsession and obvious insomnia caused her to rarely eat any actual food. The closest to food Ochako has ever seen Himiko eat was a strawberry syrup mocha.

All she knew of Himiko was that she was incredibly intelligent and can read people like a book. She didn't graduate top of her class, but she was nearing the top of the chart. This would be their first case together, and Ochako was already struggling to find a reason to stay in the precinct. The lieutenant Katsuki Bakugou was irate and explosive, and most of the men in the precinct were immature or just... men. The only reason Ochako hadn't left already was Izuku (maybe she was a little obsessed), and of course her female coworkers. These included the detectives Kyouka Jirou and her partner Momo Yaoyorozu, Mina Ashido and her partner Tsuyu Asui, and the blood spatter analyst Tooru Hagakure.