Tenya didn't know where he was running anymore--his legs were still persisting as if he were trying to outrun the cold itself, despite his entire lower body going numb after the first 16 minutes of his nonstop sprint.
'Is this all you're good for? Running away? You coward'
His doubts had begun to eat away at his subconscious like a nasty frostbite, although his priority remained both fixed and unclear.

He knew that this was all supposed to amount to something.
He knew that one day his debt would be repaid--and that he'd once again roam the streets a free man.
But... How?
And how long was he going to last?
 ...

"You're not much of a looker, aren'tcha? How's the new broken nose treatin' you, buddy?"
Denki prodded at the goon with his weapon, occasionally making the semi-conscious man flinch for fear of being electrocuted or struck again.

"Come on, I think it's cute. An improvement from before, really."
The electric blonde persisted, earning not so much as a whimper.
Prompting him to resort to... Less tasteful means.

Dragging the assailant by his collar until he was making direct eye contact, Denki had managed to score a gasp.
"You might think you're fucked up now, but interrogating isn't even in my area of expertise--it can get much, much worse than a few bleeding orifices."

Denki tipped his chin towards Shoto,
"You see that man behind me? The guy beating your boss to a pulp?
He's the guy you should be scared of.
Lord I knows I am--and just look at what I was able to do to ya in a matter of seconds--I shudder at the thought of what my guy could do to you in just a few minutes. You'll live, by the way. And all of your limbs will be intact, too--they gotta be attached to feel the pain, after all."

Denki latched his arm around the trembling oaf, tapping his pipe against the man's jaw as if it were a harmless greeting.
"Hehe--shocker, right? I learnt that one a couple weeks ago--granted, they'll be a little less... functional."

...

Tenya's legs had somehow carried him to a roughly familiar location--one that would border the city that swallowed his tiny apartment whole among cloud-scraping structures and bustling streets.

Completely out of breath, he'd considered collapsing right then and there; it wasn't as if anyone seemed to be following him, and even pursuers had a limit.

What was so important about him to the AFO gang, really?
Or the Honō gang, for that matter.

One was tailing him for outstanding debt, while the other was just shit luck.

Maybe it would just be easier if one of them caught up to him.
If he just ended up as an unmarked corpse, or rather went 'missing' without a trace, at least he wouldn't need to keep running.

The streets were slick from the earlier downpour, and Tenya could see the reflection of lights from passing cars and street signs in the inky glass that coated the asphalt.

As a brisk walk slowed to a trod Tenya couldn't help but let his mind wander, flipping through the endless possibilities of how his life would play out.

He always had such a habit--planning out his future and the several routes it entailed with vivid detail.

'Who'd pay off this debt if I'm gone?'
'Will either gang harm my family?'
'If I stayed alive, would I ever find out what happened to Tensei?'

For a brief moment, recollections of Shoto flickered through Tenya's subconscious.
'That man... Would he miss me?'

"Gah!"

Tenya outwardly exclaimed, gripping onto his shoulders as a chill subsequently crawled up his spine.
'In what circumstance would that scoundrel impact my decisions--he's just a brute with no sense of boundaries!'
His hairs still stood on end with the thought of someone like Shoto even paying mind to a bystander like himself--he was willing to chalk such sensations up to the climate, though.

'Curse this cold... It's reducing my thoughts to utter nonsense'
He brought up the collar of his uniform, trying his best to shield his contradiction.

If it was so cold... Then why did his face burn at the mere thought of that man?

"Tenya?!"
A disembodied voice echoed from further down the pavement behind the quivering man.

Tenya nearly fell over from how hard he flinched, bracing himself to break into another sprint when a car started to pull up beside the pavement, tinted windows whirring down.

"Tens, is that you?"