Chapter 71: SpottedSummary:
Well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of past actions.
Notes:
Art!
Kai
Gl!tch existential magical girl dread
Memes!
X X X X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Mei had picked the lock on one of the supply closets to give them some privacy while Izuku hacked his way into the camera systems. It had taken a little finangling to do it, but Nedzu had been teaching him a lot of cool tricks, so it didn't take him long to figure out how to connect to the camera system and get all the access he wanted. It was so much easier than hacking UA, "So, if I were a pair of hero students, where would I be?"
"Their class was coming here to buy stuff for their camp, right?" Mei asked. "So maybe the sporty things store?"
"I don't think that's what it's called, but I'll try it." Izuku said, flipping through the camera feeds. "Nope. There's Ojiro and Sato, but not who we're looking for...hmmm, where else would they be? Maybe we should just start from the main plaza and go from there?"
He started looking around the plaza, just scanning until he saw something promising, "Is that them? Right there by the fountain?"
"Yeah!" Mei leaned closer to the screen. "Aww, Ochako's blushing! How cute!"
Izuku caught sight of something behind them and narrowed his eyes. It was just some guy in a black hoodie, but for some reason it was setting off alarm bells in Izuku's head, "Hey Mei-chan. Does that guy look familiar to you?"
He zoomed in on hoodie guy and Mei frowned, "I mean, kinda? His posture is pretty unique, but it's hard to tell without being able to see his face. Can you get me another angle?"
"Sure." Izuku panned through different cameras until he found one with a good angle and zoomed in. Before he fully processed what he'd seen, he was already scrambling backwards, knocking over a broom in his attempt to get as far from what was on the screen as possible. After a long moment of staring at the screen, he shot a panicked look over to Mei, who looked just as terrified as he was, "It's the league. They're here."
Hitoshi panicked and dropped his control, "I am so sorry. I...I should have picked a different question. I didn't even think it would actually work. I am...I can…"
"It's...it's fine…" Ochako was bright red and looked like she was about to cry which made Hitoshi feel even worse. "I guess, uh, lesson learned! Create a list of questions beforehand, right?"
"Yeah." Hitoshi swallowed. "I...I am so sorry."
"It was an accident!" Ochako squeaked. "We can just drop it. I mean, I know you probably don't feel the same way…"
"Oh no, I do, it's just..." Hitoshi froze, eyes going wide. "Uh…I did not mean to...ok, that just happened. Pretty sure I just made this even more awkward. Don't you usually disappear by this point in a conversation?"
"When I teleport by accident, it's because I'm thinking of the person." Ochako buried her face in her hands. "That's kinda hard when the person you're thinking of is right in front of you."
"Oh." Hitoshi nodded numbly. "Yeah. So basically, we're just a mess."
Ochako gave him a pained smile, "Yep. Yeah. Pretty sure."
Izuku couldn't think. He wasn't even really seeing the screen, much less the supply closet around him. All he could see was Shigaraki disintegrating a guy to dust right in front of him, just because Izuku had been meddling in things he wasn't supposed to and messing up his plans. They couldn't let that happen again.
"We…" Izuku's mouth was dry as he tried to think of what to do next. "We need to get everyone out."
"Right." Mei nodded in determination. "We don't know when the rest of their forces will show up and we can't risk them cutting off the exits and repeating the USJ attack."
"Ok...We need...can we contact the students?...What about the police?" Izuku muttered, his brain spinning with so many ideas and possibilities, but he still couldn't think. There was no way he'd be able to decide on a course of action. "How can we get everyone out safely…?"
Thankfully, while he was frozen, Mei jumped into action. She threw open the door, running out into the hall before he could yell at her to stop. Izuku didn't realize what she was planning until she made a beeline for the fire alarm outside and pulled it as hard as she could, "Done. Now let's inform Nedzu and get someplace safe."
She ran back to him and yanked him to his feet, and Izuku barely had time to hug his computer against his chest before he was being dragged down the hall, "Ok. Yeah, that works."
Ochako and Hitoshi both jumped when the fire alarm went off. Ochako looked around, but couldn't see any smoke, "What's going on?"
Hitoshi frowned, "I dunno, but Izuku and Mei probably do. If not, they can probably find out."
"Right." Ochako's face hardened in determination as she called up her quirk. "I'll be back."
The world tilted and she ran to catch up to Izuku and Mei, who were running down an alley just outside of the mall, "Do you guys know what's going on? Why are you out here instead of inside?"
Izuku shot her a glance, but he had a phone held up to his ear and stayed focused on his call as Mei filled her in, "We caught sight of Shigaraki on the security cams. Izu-kun's on the phone with Nedzu right now to get heroes on the way in case it turns into a full scale attack."
Ochako gulped, "So not just a fire drill?"
"No." Mei replied gravely. "Not just a fire drill."
Izuku hung up the phone and turned to Ochako, "You've got anchors on everyone in class 1A, right?"
"Yeah, I do." Ochako said. "You want me to let everyone know?"
Izuku took a deep breath, "Yes. Tell everyone that Nedzu's authorized us to help with evacuation but not combat. If you see Shigaraki or any other villains just run. Got it?"
"Got it." Ochako confirmed.
Izuku's face was grim, "Good luck."
Shouto didn't really need to buy anything for the camping trip, since he'd basically been living a camping trip since his old man had kicked him out and his quirk took the place of a lot of camping essentials like sleeping bags, flashlights, and matches. Still, he didn't have anything better to do, so he figured he might as well tag along. It was nice having a little disposable income again, but now that he'd been living off practically nothing, it was a lot harder to justify spending any of it.
After everyone had split off, he'd found himself in a store that Shigaraki would either love or think was absolutely ridiculous, considering that it only sold merchandise for games and tv shows and nothing really useful. , but Shouto thought it was entertaining to see how much he recognized from the various games Shigaraki had introduced him to. When the fire alarm had gone off, he'd been looking at a section of nerdy pet collars that would have been great if Epurr was an inside cat or well, if Shouto actually hadn an inside to put her.
He hadn't really been too concerned about the alarm at first. If it was a drill, then that was just fine, and if not then he was immune to the heat and could always use his ice to put out the fire if he needed to. He'd been content to follow along at the tail end of the evacuation crowd until Uraaraka had suddenly appeared right next to him and immediately started talking, "Shigaraki is here in the mall. The heroes are already on their way. We've been authorized to help with evacuation until they arrive, but not combat. Got it?"
Shouto kept his face carefully blank as he nodded, "Yes. I understand."
As soon as Uraraka disappeared, Shouto immediately jumped into action and started running toward the nearest video game store, "Dusty, you idiot, where the hell are you?"
Hitoshi wasn't too surprised to get a call from his kidnappers after ochako didn't come back, so he answered right away, "What do you need me to do?"
"Add Izu-kun to your class group chat thingy." Mei rushed out. "Put him under the name of cheat code so everybody knows to trust him, alright?"
"Right." Hitoshi wasn't even finished responding before Mei hung up. Hitoshi knew that Izuku was probably busy trying to coordinate with the heroes, but he still added Izuku to the group chat as quickly as possible, making sure to change his name to Cheat Code first so that that's what he would show up under. He sent a quick text to both Izuku and Mei letting them know that he was done and hurried to join the evacuation.
So much for a relaxing class trip to the mall.
Notes:
October 25, 2021 (MDT)
Chapter 72: Damage ControlSummary:
The mall "attack" levels up.
Notes:
Art!
Claire;P
Memes!
X X X X X X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The fire alarm was really annoying. Tomura had just wanted to buy a stupid game but in addition to being loud, the alarm menat that the workers were shutting down the store and sweeping everybody out. There probably wasn't even a fire, it was most likely just a bunch of dumb kids who'd pulled the fire alarm to be funny. It was pissing him off.
Tomura shoved his hands in his pockets and kept his head down as he made his way toward the door. He wouldn't be getting his game today, so there wasn't any point in sticking around until the fire department decided to show up and investigate. He'd better be getting back to the league anyway, even if the new push for recruitment left a bad taste in his mouth. All for One was going to do whatever he wanted anyway, so what was even the point in Tomura pretending he even had a say in any of it?
There was a commotion as someone forced their way into the store and Tomura barely had any time to recognize Todoroki before he was grabbed by the arm and dragged behind one of the shelves, "Are you really attacking us right now? Seriously? If you are, I swear to god, I will…"
"What?!" Tomura yanked his arm away and looked at Todoroki in disbelief, "I'm not...what are you even talking about?! I'm just here to get a stupid game!"
Todorki narrowed his eyes, "So you and your little gang aren't here to target our class?"
"I'm the only one here, you idiot." Tomura snapped. "Well, unless that little creep...no, we agreed no spoilers. Whatever, why in the world would I be attacking you? I didn't even know you'd be here!"
"Thank god." Immediately, Todoroki deflated in relief. "Then you need to get out of here. Now. Somehow, Cheat Code caught sight of you on the cameras and everyone thinks it's going to turn into another USJ. The heroes are already on their way."
Mineta fumed silently as Kaminari listened raptly to Uraraka's report. What did that stupid gaming geek think he was doing? Launching an attack just days before the actual attack they had planned?! He was going to show their card and ruin everything! Mineta seriously had no idea what All for One saw in him anyway. Beyond the destructive quirk, he never even did anything! He didn't deserve to be sensei's successor!
Uraraka disappeared and Kaminari's hands sparked nervously, "Do...do you really think we're gonna have to fight again?! Last time I ended up useless!"
"Why would the league attack now?!" Mineta forced himself to stay in character. "Our class totally isn't ready!"
Nothing was ready, the timing was totally wrong! If Shigaraki actually attacked now...wait, did that idiot actually plan this or did he just get angry and decide to dust someone just because? Of course he couldn't kill someone when it actually mattered, but when it messed up all their plans, it was no big deal. That guy was such a child sometimes, seriously.
He followed a step behind Kaminari until they ran into a group of people that was large enough for Mineta to pretend he'd just gotten separated in the crowd. Would they even be able to attack the camp after this? Or worse, would this just make the league a laughing stock? They already had one failed attack under their belts thanks to Cheat Code, but if word got to the media that Shigaraki was here and pretty much no damage was done, it would make it seem like they weren't dangerous at all! They couldn't' afford that, not when they were just barely seeing the recruitment results from their alliance with Spinner.
Mineta pulled out his phone and almost did a double take when he saw that Shinso had added someone named Cheat Code to the chat. He had Cheat Code's number now...he shook his head. He'd figure out how to use that to his advantage later. The important part was that he had confirmation that Shinso was close to Cheat Code and he'd be able to know the heroes' next moves if he kept his eye on the chat. For now, he just had to make sure he was on the same page with the rest of the league.
"Ah, yes, Trapper." Kurogiri answered quickly, thankfully. "I had thought you were simply maintaining your cover today."
"That's what I thought as well." Mineta hissed. "But apparently Sensei's little brat had other plans. Did you know that the league is attacking the mall today?"
There was tell-tale silence on the other end of the phone for a long moment, "I...had not been made aware, no. I had thought Young Tomura was simply on a walk to clear his head."
"Yeah?" Mineta scowled. "Well apparently he got himself spotted and now my entire class is preparing for USJ, take two."
"This is…unfortunate timing." Kurogiri said carefully. "I will have to discuss this with Young Master Tomura…"
"There's not a whole lot of time for that." Mineta cut him off. "Right now, we need to focus on damage control. Like you said, we can't afford to show our hand, but we also can't afford not to attack, because then it will look like we're nothing but cowards running away from the heroes."
"Ah…" Kurogir's voice was grim. "So we have been caught in a catch 22."
Mineta frowned thoughtfully, "Not necessarily. It isn't the best, but there might still be a way to turn this to our advantage. We have new recruits for the training camp, right?"
"Assuming that Tomura approves it, then yes." Kurogiri replied.
"Well considering that this whole fiasco is his fault, then he's going to have to." Mineta rolled his eyes. "Get yourself and Spinner over here. That shouldn't give them any new info and there's enough of my classmates around that he should have plenty of false heroes to choose from. If we're lucky, no one will suspect two attacks so close together and we can use this to camouflage our next move."
"A solid strategy, young Trapper." Kurogiri said smoothly. "Sensei will be proud."
Mineta growled as he hung up and ran to catch up with Kaminari, "He better be."
Todoroki kept a bit of distance between him and Shigaraki as they made their way out of the store. On the one hand, he was really glad that they weren't being attacked right now, but on the other, he...he was terrified that Shigaraki wasn't going to get out of this and that scared him. He was supposed to be a hero, he shouldn't be even considering letting a villain like Shigaraki escape, much less helping him. He should have immediately let his classmates know where to find him and cornered him together or even just trapped him in an ice cube immediately. So why was he giving him a chance to run?
Despite everything that he knew he should do, all he did when they got into the hall was nod and start walking in the opposite direction. If it had been an actual attack, then he would have fought him...right? He hoped so, at least. That's what being a hero was all about, but still, why had his first instinct been to warn the villain instead of capturing him?
The gaming store they'd been in was on the second floor, and with mass evacuation from the fire alarm, there were now a lot of people crowding around th4 stairs and escalators waiting to get down. According to Uraraka, their class had been authorized to help with evacuation, so it might be good to make a slide down to the first level to help with the bottleneck. There wasn't any real rush to get everyone out, since this was just a big misunderstanding and not an actual villain attack, but he didn't really have a way to communicate that to everyone and even if he did , how was he supposed to explain how he knew? He didn't really know the words to describe his weird relationship to his co-streamer and if he said that Shigaraki had told him that it wasn't a real attack, his classmates would just get the wrong idea. No, the best strategy when things went wrong in a game was to keep following the rules of the current quest until things calmed down a little more, which would happen as soon as Shigaraki left and everyone realized that there wasn't any real danger.
Suddenly, Shouto heard screaming in the plaza below them. The screams were loud enough that he could hear them above the sound of the alarms, so he ran to the balcony just in time to see a lizard man with a katana crawl out of a smoking portal and stick himself to the fountain. That portal...that was Kurogiri. If Kurogiri was here, that meant...Shigaraki lied.
He didn't know why the realization left him feeling nauseous, of course Shigaraki was going to lie. He was a villain, that's what he did. Shouto really didn't have any right to be surprised. God, he was such an idiot!
Shouto's face hardened and he whirled around, ice already coating his arm as he prepared to encase Shigaraki in an instant glacier, only to be distracted by more screams and the railing on the balcony suddenly disintegrated into dust. Everyone who had been leaning against it like Shouto had been screamed and had to jump back to avoid falling, but of course, not everyone was fast enough. Shouto lept into action, jumping off the balcony as a sheet of ice exploded out from his right root and created a ledge to catch everyone who had fallen. He slid along the ice, building underneath him as he went. When he got to the main level, he glided to a stop and took a quick moment to look around and make sure everyone he'd saved was alright, then immediately looked up to glare at Shigaraki before stopping cold.
Shigaraki looked horrified. His hands were grasping in midair and Shouto could just imagine him running to the railing just like everyone else had and accidentally gripping the metal with all five fingers. His eyes were blown wide, glued to the portal in barely concealed panic and Shouto swallowed as a horrible realization hit him.
Shigaraki didn't know.
Notes:
Next Update: November 1, 2021 (MDT)
Chapter 73: MiscommunicationSummary:
Well, now that there's an attack...
Notes:
Memes!
X X X X X X X X X X X
Chapter Text
Izuku and Mei had run until they had found someplace relatively safe to set up camp. Well, maybe the lobby of an abandoned apartment building wasn't necessarily safe, but it was far enough away from the mall that Shigaraki's decay wouldn't be able to reach them and a random enough location that Kurogiri would have a hard time finding them. At least, that's what Izuku was counting on.
Izuku's laptop was still connected to the security feed from the mall and the first thing he saw when he opened up the screen again was a portal opening above the fountain. He gulped and looked at Mei, "We were right."
Mei nodded grimly, "They can't seal off the exits, right?"
"Not while the fire alarms are going off." Izuku cracked his neck and scooted closer to the screen. "At least not easily, but if they try, I'll know. How's 1A doing?"
Mei grabbed for Izuku's phone and opened the group chat, "About half of the class has responded since Exta-Credit-Kun added Cheat Code, and Aoyama says that the lizard guy who just came through the portal is named Spinner."
"Most likely the new hero killer, judging by the katana." Izuku said absently. "Wait...isn't that where Hitoshi was?! I, uh, I think we might need to call Nedzu again..."
Hitoshi stared at the lizard guy, Spinner, as he screamed out his challenge. He...he didn't have permission to brainwash him. He only had permission to help civilians right now, not fight the villains. He was also pretty sure that Todoroki had been upstairs with Shigaraki when the portal had appeared, which was pretty much all the proof they needed that it was him who had given the league their location and created the opening for this attack. He couldn't afford to worry about that right now though. Todoroki still believed his cover was secure which meant that he wouldn't risk attacking them directly. That meant that the biggest threats were from Kurogiri, shigaraki , Spinner, and another villain named Trapper that his adults hd mentioned was working witht eh league as well. And of those, only one was currently brandishing a sword at him.
Spinner glared at him as he hopped down off the fountain, sword in hand, "You're one of those UA brats, aren't you? I recognize you from the sports festival. Are you a true hero or just another one of those fakes?"
Hitoshi swallowed, but didn't move. The heroes were already on their way before the portal even appeared, which meant that they had somewhere between five to ten minutes before anyone showed up to help them, less if they were lucky. That should be well within the window of time where Hitoshi could activate his quirk without taking full control of his target.
With half a plan in mind, Hitoshi stepped forward, smirking sharply has he spread his arms wide, "I dunno. Maybe I'm a fake or maybe I'm just that awesome. How would you know either way?"
Spinner's hand tightened on his sword, "I will cull the fakes. If you survive, then perhaps you deserve the title of a true hero."
Hitoshi's smirk widened. Bingo.
Ochako had developed a new appreciation for how hard izuku worked. Kurogiri had appeared in the plaza less than a minute after she'd finished telling 1A about Shigaraki and she'd had the brilliant idea to follow him before she realized just how hard it was to track a teleporter. Unlike Mei and Izuku, She didn't have any fancy tech to help her out and even though she'd come close several times at the USJ, she'd never actually touched him, which meant that she couldn't anchor to him directly. Instead, she was having to rely on just tracking him visually, which so far basically came out to a large scale game of wack-a-mole. Every time she saw a wisp of purple smoke, she had to find her nearest classte, anchor to them, and just guestimate to try and get close to him. She'd kept him too busy to be able to warp any other villains in through, so that was something at least.
She hadn't managed to get close until Kurogiri did a shorter jump than usual and he had accidentally gotten close enough to Sero that Ochako didn't even have to think about it before she was right next to him and reaching out for his neck armor, only for her fingers to close around thin air as he disappeared again.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Kurogiri said smoothly, appearing just behind her. "Your quirk allows you to teleport to anyone you touch, correct? I'm sure you can understand why that might be inconvenient for someone in my position."
Ochako growled and lunged for him, but again was left only with a fistful of purple smoke, "Well that's frustrating...how did he even know?"
Izuku facepalmed as he watched Hitoshi walk towards the villain with the massive sword, "Why did we pick that one?"
"Because he's going to be an amazing hero if he lives." Mei groaned. "What in the world is he thinking?!"
"Most likely that he can establish a connection with his quirk and activate it as soon as the heroes give him permission." Izuku sighed. "And it looks like Ochako is chasing Kurogiri. They're both gonna get in trouble if the heroes don't' get there soon."
"Or if they don't get permission to fight." Mei already had her phone in her hand. "We were gonna call Nedzu again anyway."
She put the phone on speaker and let it ring until Nedzu answered, which didn't take very long at all, "Hello children! How goes the evacuation?"
"It looks like about half the civilians are out of the mall." Izuku reported. "But they're going faster now that the rest of the league has shown up."
"Oh no." Nedzu hummed. "That's not good. We already have several heroes on their way. Hawks is approximately three minutes away. He wasn't in the area, but his faster speed means he'll make it there faster than some of the heroes that were supposed to be closer. Can the hero students hold out until then?"
"Not without permission to defend themselves." Mei snapped. "That crazy sword guy's got his eye on extra-credit-kun and Gravity Girl is the only one who's gonna be able to keep up with Kurogiri and…"
"You understand why I can't give children full permission to use their quirks, Miss Hatsume." Nedzu said firmly. "If one of you gets hurt, or worse, hurts someone else, then that could be disastrous not only for the students involved, but for UA as a whole."
Mei looked livid, "But…!'
"That is not to say that I am willing to leave our students completely helpless." Nedzu cut in quickly. "However, the permission will need to be conditional. I can authorize them to defend themselves against direct attacks, but they cannot initiate, will that do?"
"It'll have to." Izuku snatched up his phone from the floor and sent a message to the group chat. "Done. Now we just hope they don't need to use it."
Hitoshi stared Spinner down and tried to think of his next move. He wasn't allowed to activate his quirk yet, which meant that he had to actually survive long enough for the heroes to show up and give him permission to brainwash this idiot. That was going to be easier said than done, considering that his opponent had a sword and he had to rely on a sharp tongue and roguish good looks.
Also, Spinner had just threatened to kill him, obviously, just to keep it interesting. This day just kept getting better and better, didn't it?
So, how was he going to get out of this without becoming a shishkabob? This guy was obviously obsessed with worthiness, so he might have some underlying ideology that hitoshi could take advantage of to keep him talking instead of fighting. He also needed to make sure that he did at least one weird thing to throw his opponent off and keep him from connecting the brainwashing to answering a question because he did not need the league of villains figuring out his quirk's activation requirements. Ok. Easy as pie...hopefully.
Hitoshi kept smirking at Spinner as he shrugged, "I mean, there's gotta be a more effective way of seeing if I'm a hero than stabbing me and seeing if I die. Like, what's a true hero even like? Maybe we can come up with a better test?"
"All Might was the only true hero." Spinner narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying we just come up with a test to see if you're as worthy as the symbol of peace?"
HItoshi whistled lowly, "Whoah, that's a tall order. I can't say I'm exactly on All Might's level, but hey, we're bound to share some similarities, right? You're the one holding the sword, so I guess it's up to you to decide if I get close enough."
He let out a breath of relief when Spinner gave a short nod. Ochako would probably be better at this than he was, considering that she was literally All Might's successor, but she was busy right now, so Hitoshi was just gonna have to do it. Now he'd managed to turn the fight into a friendly chat, or about as friendly as it was going to get, so the next step was just to be as confusing as possible. He nodded in satisfaction and walked toward the fountain. He hung around his kidnappers for fun, he could manage a little chaos.
Spinner pulled his sword, "What are you doing?"
"Well, I figured if we're going to have a serious discussion, we should probably sit down." Hitoshi shrugged and put one foot into the water, "This seems like as good a place as any."
Spinner blinked, his sword wavering as he watched Hitoshi pull his phone and wallet out of his pockets and put them on the side of the fountain, "...in the fountain?"
Hitoshi hummed an affirmation as he sat down, suppressing a shiver from the cold water as he looked up as Spinner, "Why not? All the cool kids are doing it! It helps get the brain juices flowing."
Spinner hesitated for a moment longer, unsure if he was supposed to go along with it or just walk away before slowly sheathing his sword and joining Hitoshi in the fountain, "Very well. Tell me, young hero, how are you like All Might?"
"Well, let's start with the fact that I want to save people." Hitoshi leaned back, the water splashing slightly as he put his hands down to support himself. "What other qualities am I supposed to have? Let's see if I match up."
Chapter 74: Extra PlayersSummary:
The mall conclusion
Notes:
Too tired to link. Come back next chapter for art and memes.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Hitoshi waited tensely as Spinner thought up another question. So far, he'd been doing pretty well, but then again, he was also lying through his teeth to make himself seem more like All Might than he really was or even really wanted to be. He was really starting to get chilled from the water, but it was just a little longer until the heroes arrived and Spinner should be starting to go numb too, which might help him keep control longer...or might knock the villain out of his control immediately, but it was too late to do anything about that now, so Hitoshi was really hoping it was the first option.
Spinner cleared his throat, like he didn't have Hitoshi's full attention in the first place, and asked his next question, "Can you face down even terrifying situations without flinching? That's necessary if you wish to be like All Might."
Finally, a question he could actually answer truthfully, "Well, considering that I'm here talking to you instead of running away screaming, I think you have your answer."
Spinner's expression soured, "There's no reason to be rude about it."
"I'm sorry." Hitoshi flinched when his phone vibrated on the side of the fountain and the minute that Spinner looked away from him to think again, he checked it as discreetly as possible, smiling when he saw what Izuku had just dropped in the group chat. He quietly set his phone down and turned back to Spinner, "Actually, no I'm not."
Spinner froze, "What did you say?"
Hitoshi spoke a little louder, "I said, I'm not sorry for being rude, not that I was anyway. But considering that you're the one that barged in here on what was supposed to be a fun day for goofing off, I'd say I'm entitled to a little rudeness, don't you think?"
"No!" Spinner snarled, jumping up stiffly, "True heroes are never rude! All Might is never rude!"
He pulled out his Katana and charged, slightly stiff from the cold water, but Hitoshi was faster. He smirked and activated his quirk, making Spinner stop short and drop his katana in the water, "Well, that didn't take long at all…"
Hitoshi frowned and trailed off. There was something weird about Spinner's mind. He was fighting back and the cold water was making it harder to maintain his control, but Hitoshi had been expecting all that. No, what threw Hitoshi off enough to break his control was that Spinner's brain felt exactly like Tokoyami's. Well, more precisely, like Tokoyami's and Dark Shadow's.
Spinner shook his head as the brainwashing dissipated and grabbed his katana with a splash as he started stalking forward again, "You little fake, how dare you…"
Hitoshi wasn't even listening, all he could do was scramble backwards in the fountain, soaking himself even more completely as he stared at Spinner in horror. He was supposed to be a lizard who could paralyze with blood. He didn't have a sentient quirk like Tokoyami did, but...Hitoshi's brain was spinning so fast he didn't even think to phrase it as a question, "You're not the only one inside your head!"
Spinner stopped, tilting his head in frustration, "What?"
Hitoshi opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. What was he supposed to say? He didn't know what was going on either! Thankfully, though, he didn't have to say anything, because that was when a bright red feather launched itself straight at Spinner, whose eyes widened as he barely had time to wing his Katana, slicing the feather in half. He shot one final look at Hitoshi, but his expression was a mis of so many emotions like frustration, confusion, and even fear, though that was probably wishful thinking on Hitoshi's part, that it was hard to tell exactly what was going through his head. Hitoshi tensed, mentally preparing himself for another attack, but instead Spinner turned on his heel and dashed away.
"Get back here!" Hawks flew through the door like a bullet and made a beeline straight toward Spinner, but he had already disappeared through a spot of purple smoke on the floor. Hawks gave a disappointed snarl before turning to Hitoshi, "You hurt kid?"
Hitoshi shook his head and Hawks nodded in satisfaction before taking off again and flying up to the second floor. The heroes were finally here, but more importantly, what the actual hell just happened?
The first thing Fumikage had done when he saw Shigaraki was turn off the lights. There was still sunlight and other brightness coming in from the hallway outside the store he'd been trying to help evacuate, just enough to keep Dark Shadow firmly in his control, but without the harsh artificial lights directly above him, he was free to order Dark Shadow to spread out and form a wall between the small crowd of civilians behind him and the dastardly villain up ahead.
"Leave here." Fumikage said, sounding a lot braver than he felt. "I will not allow you to hurt these innocent people."
Shigaraki scratched at his neck, "What makes you think...they're just a bunch of NPCs anyway, it's not like they're gonna drop any loot. I...stupid side quest. The party is supposed to communicate and clear things with the party leader…"
Fumikage watched suspiciously as Shigaraki paced back and forth, still scratching his neck and muttering unintelligibly. Finally, he stopped, his hand falling limp at his side, "Whatever, you're not high enough HP to be worth my time. I'm outta here."
He put out his hand and Fumikage hadn't had time to take more than one step forward by the time the outer wall collapsed into dust. Shigaraki gave a mocking salute and moved to jump out of the hole he'd just created when a portal appeared just a few feet away.
"Ah, young Tomura." Kurogiri said, materializing out from the portal, "I've been looking everywhere for you."
To his surprise, Shigaraki tensed, "Yeah, and?"
"And the heroes have arrived, so it is time to retreat for the time being." Kurogiri said. "We shall regroup and prepare our forces for another day."
Fumikage had to be imagining the way Shigaraki looked almost disappointed about that prospect, grabbing a bright red feather that had been flying toward them and disintegrating it to dust, "Fine, whatever. Let's just get out of here."
They disappeared into the portal and Hawks came flying in, "Tokoyami! Are you alright?! I felt Shigaraki dust the feather I sent up here and…"
"I am alright." Fumikage assured him. "The villain did not harm us."
Hawks' shoulders slumped in relief, "Thank god. Get these people out of here, I'm gonna make sure there's no more villains."
Tokoyam nodded as Hawks sped away, stopping for just a moment to stare at the wall Shigaraki had disintegrated instead of attacking them. Weren't villains supposed to have a terrifying inner darkness? What had happened to his?
Shouta hated this. It was just like Shirakumo all over again. He and Mic ran as fast as they could, steps echoing on the pavement as they burst into the mall. He should have made Hitoshi stay home, he should have warned Nedzu about Todoroki's link with the league immediately instead of researching it more. In hindsight it was obvious. Of course the league would attack a class outing where no teachers would be present! It was only logical! But no, he'd been blinded by his own hopes and had let his students, and his son, walk into a villain attack with no preparation and no back up. He was so stupid!
"He's gonna be alright Shou." Hizashi sounded like he was reassuring himself more than Shouta, but the effort was still appreciated. "Hitoshi can handle himself and he's got the support gremlins to help him out, plus the rest of his class. He'll be fine."
Shouta nodded, but didn't say anything. He could see a few of his other students talking to the police, but he could worry about them later. Right now, he just needed to find his kid. His eyes scanned what was left of the weekend shopping crowd until he caught a glimpse of purple hair. He almost didn't realize it was hitoshi at first because his hair was darker than usual and hanging around his face in wet clumps rather than sticking straight up like it usually did, and the rest of him was equally soaked. It looked like Yaoyorozu had made him a blanket at some point, but he was still dripping onto the tiles and slightly shivering as Uraraka awkwardly rubbed his back.
Hizashi was the first to take off running, but Shouta was only half a step behind and he was pretty sure it looked like they'd both inherited Urarka's teleportation ability because almost instantly, they were barreling into him and wrapping him in a hug. Hitoshi was ok. He was safe.
Hitoshi went tense for a short moment until he realized who it was, and then he immediately slumped over into the hug, "It's been a long day."
Hizashi gave a wet chuckle, "I bet kid, I bet."
"Are you hurt anywhere?" Shouta asked. "How did you get so wet?"
"I, uh…kind of invaded the fountain?" Hitoshi grimaced. "And no, I'm not hurt. Just cold. Todoroki offered to warm me up with his fire, but…"
Shouta's face went stony, "Right. I think this is all the proof we need."
Notes:
Next Update: November 15, 2021 (MST)
Chapter 75: AwkwardSummary:
The day after the mall attack.
Notes:
Art!
Sora
InS0mnIAc
gaiyee
Memes!
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Hitoshi grumbled as he dragged himself into the living room and face planted onto the couch. After he'd come home from the mall yesterday, it had taken less than five minutes to shower, put on the comfiest pajamas he owned and collapse into bed from emotional and physical exhaustion. He'd gotten up only once, and that was because Aizawa had shaken him awake and forcibly shoved a plate of fried rice in his face. Beyond that, he'd been dead to the word and honestly, he kinda wished he still was.
Mic looked up from his laptop and grimaced when he saw Hitoshi come in, "I'm guessing you're not actually feeling any better."
"I'll get back to you on that after I finish dying of mortification." Hitoshi lifted up his head and looked at Mic piteously. "I called Aizawa dad."
Mic's face lit up, "Yeah, you did."
Hitoshi's pout deepened, "And I told Ochako I like her."
Mic's eyes widened and he hurriedly shoved his laptop onto the coffee table so he could give hitoshi his full attention, "And what did she say?"
"Nothing." Hitoshi whined. "The fire alarms went off pretty much immediately after that and we had to jump straight into a villain attack."
"Oof." Mic winced. "That's...wow…"
Hitoshi flopped over so he was on his side, "Yeah, and to make it even worse, we were playing around with my quirk and I pretty much forced her to tell me she has a crush on me."
Mic froze, "What?"
"It was an accident." Hitoshi groaned. "I know what you're thinking, I feel like a villain for doing it too, but like I said, we were just playing around with my quirk and I asked what I thought was a totally innocent question about Mina, but apparently Mina knows about her crush and it just came tumbling out. I didn't think I'd even be able to get her to answer!"
"Oh, Hitoshi." Mic came and sat on the couch beside him, carding his fingers through Hitoshi's hair and letting him put his head in his lap. "Quirk accidents suck."
Hitoshi nodded and rubbed his eyes, "Sorry. I was hoping I'd feel better after sleeping, but…"
"Yesterday was a lot." Mic pointed out. "It's ok to feel a little overwhelmed."
Hitoshi sighed, "Where's Aizawa?"
"He had another meeting with Nedzu." Mic said. "Their one yesterday got interuppted."
"Oh. right." HItoshi said numbly. "What's going to happen to Todoroki?"
"We're not sure yet." Mic said. "On the one hand, he's dangerous to have around, but on the other, knowing who the traitor is can give us a huge advantage if we can use that knowledge against the league. Honestly, we were hoping to get Cheat Code's opinion on this, so...well, your dad's gonna be home soon, so why don't we invite your friends over? We can bring them up to date on the Todoroki situation and you can test the waters with Uraraka and see how she's feeling about the whole thing. How does that sound?"
Hitoshi's face scrunched up, "Do I have to?"
Mic shrugged, "No."
"Ugh." Hitoshi groaned. "Fine, but if this goes south I'm volunteering to be a test subject for one of Mei's explosions."
Izuku bit his lip as he looked through the security footage again, "Mei-chan, you didn't see anyone fitting Trapper's description at the mall, did you?"
"What description, Izuk-kun?" Mei asked. "Nobody's ever seen him."
"Well yeah, but his quirk…" Izuku tried.
"Wasn't used during the attack." Mei finished. "The police and the heroes are looking for him too, you know. You don't have to find him all by yourself."
"I know." Izuku frowned. "But if I'd just noticed Shigaraki earlier or pushed Nedzu to let the students fight…"
"Izu-kun, this isn't healthy." Mei sighed. "You helped keep people safe, you don't have anything to make up for."
"But…"
"No buts." Mei slammed his computer closed. "Did you eat breakfast?"
Izuku blinked, "Uh…"
Mei rolled her eyes, "If you can't remember, then we're gonna assume it's a no. Come on, let's get a snack. I promise I'll try not to explode your kitchen."
Izuku swallowed and let Mei drag him by the arm into the kitchen. He supposed breakfast wasn't a terrible idea…
Ochako was nervous. It had only been a day since their class's nice normal trip to the mall had gone completely south, and that meant that the last twenty-four hours had been a whirlwind of police interviews, reassuring her parents, and teleporting away from the media. In the end, her anxiety basically came down to the fact that she hadn't talked to Hitoshi since the attack, which was understandable considering that he hadn't been doing that well when his adults had arrived to shuffle him off, but she still felt weird because maybe the fact that she'd accidently confessed she liked him and he confessed back wasn't that important considering that an actual villain attack had happened less than a minute later, but it still kinda felt like something they should address eventually? Maybe she was just making a big deal out of it and it didn't even matter at all…
She groaned and flopped back into bed. Her bags for the training camp were half packed on the floor by her closet, but she didn't feel like doing that right now. Honestly, she didn't feel like doing a lot right now. How was she supposed to focus on anything with literally everything else that was going on?! Their class had just gotten attacked by villains and her crush was ghosting her! Even if he had an incredibly valid reason to do so, it was still ridiculously stressful! Why did this have to be her life?
Her phone vibrated beside her head and Ochako groaned and rolled over to see Mei calling her, "Hey Mei-chan. What's up?"
"Hitoshi's adults invited us to lunch!" Mei said. "Are you coming?"
Ochako shot up, "What? Uh, am I invited?"
"I think so." Mei replied absently. "Pretty sure Present Mic said he texted you too."
Ochako scrolled through her texts and groaned, "Yep. I was just too busy being depr...ok, yeah, uh, I'll text him back and say I'm coming. It's in...like ten minutes. Great. Wonderful."
"Well, It's not like you have to worry about driving time." Mei laughed.
Ochako looked down at her comfy pajamas with holes in the knee, "Yeah. That's not what I'm worried about."
Izuku was trapped in kind of a surreal situation. On the one hand, this was just Hitoshi's house and he knew, logically, that Hitoshi's parents were just normal people. Sure, they were pro heroes, but he talked to pro heroes all the time at school and it was no big deal! On the other hand, he was in Eraserhead and Present Mic's living room and they were offering him cookies. His inner fanboy was dying right now.
"Ochako said she was coming, right?" Hitoshi asked under his breath. "I really hope I didn't scare her off…"
"How would you have scared her off?" Mei asked, grabbing a cookie. "She's used to me and Izu-kun, so I'm pretty sure she's got nerves of steel at this point!"
Htisohi blushed, but didn't say anything as Mic and Aizawa sent him sympathetic looks. Izuku frowned and grabbed a cookie. He'd figure out what was going on when Ochako got here.
Speaking of Ochako, she popped into existence less than a minute later by the side of the couch, "Hi guys, sorry I'm late!"
Hitoshi's face lit up briefly before he cleared his throat and looked away, "Uh, hey. Glad you could make it."
"Perfect!" Mic grinned. "Everybody's here! Lunch is already ready, so let's eat!"
There was still an odd tenseness as they followed him into the kitchen, but then again, they had just been through a huge villain attack yesterday, so that might just be normal. The dishes at the table were all mismatched, like most of them had been bought as gag-gifts at the thrift store at some point, but Izuku supposed that Eraserhead and Present Mic were kind of mismatched too and they somehow made it work, so it was fitting that their house was the same way.
"Um, so are you feeling any better, Shindig?" Ochako asked as they sat down. "I was kinda worried about you after, you know, that whole thing at the mall?"
"Yeah...sorry." Hitoshi grimaced. "I didn't mean to fall off the face of the earth, but I came home and basically just crashed into bed. It'd already been a really long day before we even got to the mall."
"That's actually part of why we invited you kids over." Aizawa cut in. "You're all in on a few school secrets already, not to mention that you're Hitoshi's friends, so it's only logical for us to inform you, especially you Midoriya, since you're so skilled in analysis."
Izuku and Mei exchanged a confused look and Izuku caught Ochako looking at Hitoshi with rapt curiosity until he sighed, "There's a traitor in class 1A and I figured out who it is."
Tomura was pissed. He was supposed to be the leader of the league! How had an attack, a major attack, happened without his approval? Not only that, but without him even knowing about it?! Kurogiri had given some bullshit answer about their fearsome reputation and made the whole thing sound like it was Tomura's fault in the first place. How was he supposed to know he was gonna get spotted? He didn't even know 1A was going to be there in the first place! If this was anybody's fault, it was that good-for-nothing spy's for not informing them of 1A's location.
But no, as soon as word got to the league that he'd been spotted by the heroes, they were simply following his lead. It was ridiculous! If he was really the league's leader, he wouldn't be under All for One's thumb right now. He'd be free to do what he liked and actually make something of himself rather than obsess over destroying society in Sensei's name.
He wasn't the leader of the league, though. Not really. He was just some kid that All for One had picked up on the side of the road one day and decided would make a perfect puppet. And to make it worse, he didn't even have a main role anymore. He was constantly getting pushed to the sidelines by everyone and wasn't even the main character anymore. No, he was just some side character that everyone had apparently decided didn't have enough strength of character to win the game, but couldn't get rid of because their face was on the box. He hated the way the rest of the league was treating him!
And he hated that they were right.
A few days ago he would have argued that at least he still had his stream and Icy Cat, but there was no way Todoroki would ever talk to him again. Why would he want to when, from his perspective, Tomura had just betrayed him and then lied about it. Maybe if he hadn't assured Todoroki there wouldn't be an attack, then they'd be able to get through it, considering that he and Todoroki had a sort of silent understanding that he was a villain, and attacking heroes was just what villains did, but that wasn't what happened. No, he'd just had to open his big mouth and let Todoroki think everything was going to be fine before stabbing him in the back.
He hadn't been surprised when Todoroki had put out a message on their socials saying that he was going out of town for a bit and would miss the next few streams. Sure, he could have just been talking about the training camp, but at the same time...he hadn't said when he'd be back, or even if he was coming back at all. And the worst part was that Tomura couldn't blame him. He wouldn't want to come back either.
Izuku's frown got deeper and deeper as he listened to Hitoshi describe Todoroki's odd friendship with Shigaraki, "I'm sorry, but that makes absolutely zero sense."
"I mean, it kinda does?" Ochako said. "Kurogiri knew how my quirk worked, so he was obviously given inside information from someone."
Hitoshi shrugged, "I can show you some of the streams. It's definitely them, and I'm sure you saw them together in the security footage."
"Well, yeah, but it just seemed like he was trying to deescalate because he wasn't allowed to use his quirk." Mei argued. "Why in the world would he start gaming with a villain anyway?"
"The simple answer is teenage rebellion." Aizawa sighed. "He has good reason to hate his father and, quite honestly, if he's trying to piss off his dad, this would be a great way to do it."
"No, I got that, it's just…" Izuku groaned. "It doesn't make any sense for him to be the traitor...or at least, not the only one."
Mic blinked and Aizawa heaved a heavy sigh, "Do I even want to know what you're getting at?"
"Well, Mei, you know how I couldn't find any evidence of Trapper during the attack?"
"Yeah…?" Mei's eyes widened. "You think..."
Izuku nodded, "Every other known member of the league was there, but Trapper didn't even show his face? Why? Because he'd be recognized."
"You think Trapper is one of our students?" Mic asked. "Well, I mean, if it's Todoroki, then everything comes back full circle."
"But the quirks don't match." Izuku said. "Todoroki has ice and fire, but the evidence Trapper's left behind points to some sort of like an almost synthetic moss?"
"Which doesn't fit any of our classmates' quirks either." Uraraka huffed. "So now what?"
"Well, just because it doesn't match our class doesn't mean that it doesn't' match someone they know." Hitoshi said. "A parent, sibling, uncle, anyone they trust enough to tell about their day pretty much, could be a potential information leak."
"Or they could be intentionally doing something to hide their quirk." Mei said. "There are tons of inventions that can change things, chemical reactions, all sorts of options if you're desperate to hide who you are."
"So...we've got a lead, but it's thin." Aizawa said. "So what if looking into their families dosn't work out?"
"Well, then we've got a plan b." Izuku smiled. "If all else fails, we already know one of the traitors. If we play our cards right, He'll lead us straight to the Trapper without even knowing we're onto him."
Notes:
Next Update: November 22, 2021 (MST)