Title: Vigilantes Prefer Blondes Part 1

Summary: Inko's two favorite blondes meet up, it goes...better than it could have


Despite the fact that she lived with the Jade Mantis, Morita Kai would never get over how cool she was. Like, right now, she was standing in Vee's living room, all decked out in her uniform, going out to take down the Purple Hawks! The leaders of the villainous gang had hidden themselves away from the reach of the law, so it was the vigilante's job to take them out. Despite the lateness of the hour, Kai was practically buzzing with excitement.

That buzzing was contained to Vee's couch as the Russian and the vigilante were going over a final equipment check before the raid. Most people would probably be worried about a lone woman going up against an entire building full of gang members, but not this nine-year old. Inko was the Jade Mantis, and in Kai's opinion, the Jade Mantis could do anything.

"Just one last thing." The girl tilted her head. Jade Mantis had all of her things, what left was there to do? Inko looked over to her. "A certain little miss needs to be tucked in tonight."

Kai groaned, and flopped back onto the couch. "Awww, c'mon, let me stay up."

"Nope, it's not healthy for you to stay up late."

"You do it." The girl tried to shoot back. The foster mother responded by just picking her up and carrying her to the bedroom.

"I think this is one of those times where you'll have to do as I say and not as I do, kid." Kai pouted and crossed her arms, but allowed herself to be tucked under the covers and given a kiss goodnight. "I'll be here when you wake up." Inko said, right before closing the door.

Kai tried to go to sleep, she really did. But whenever she closed her eyes, all she could think about was Jade Mantis, out there and helping people. Kai wanted that. She wanted to go out there and just…help. She wanted to help Jade Mantis, and she wanted to help other people the way the vigilante had for her.

But Inko had said that she didn't want Kai as her sidekick. But then Kai had a thought—Inko wasn't here to object right now. With a wicked smile, Kai went into her closet. She stayed with her Russian 'godmother' so often that most of her stuff was actually here, instead of their one room apartment she shared with Inko.

You see, Vee had been teaching her things. Like…how to pick locks. How to climb and jump all around across the back alleys of Mustafa. How to fight back if someone hurt her. Things that had to usually be taught with the preface of 'don't tell your mother' and a conspiratorial wink. And then that wink had been extended to a very special present at her last birthday party. A knife-proof dark grey hoodie, made of a smiliar material to that in Jade Mantis' jacket.

Kai smiled as she took off her pajamas and pulled it on. The girl's plan was to go out and prove that she could be a good vigilante, that way Jade Mantis would have to take her on as a sidekick.


Jade Mantis couldn't help but smirk as she approached the Purple Hawks' hideout. She wasn't being cocky (she'd learned that lesson the hard way with Ghost), but enjoying the moment. Because sometimes self-care is downing an obscene amount of coffee and picking a fight with the local crime boss.

But in all seriousness, the vigilante had spent weeks planning and scouting the building in preparation for this raid. She wasn't naïve enough to think that this would ruin the gang for good, but knocking out their leadership would leave the Purple Hawks fractured and flailing. That would mean that the police would have an easier job scooping them up and putting them behind bars. The people of Mustafa were about to have a serious thorn removed from their side.

She came to the shadows, observing the back entrance. Two men were guarding the door, both with broad shoulders and projecting the kind of air that they knew how to handle themselves.

Reaching out with her quirk, Inko telekinetically grabbed at the man's throat and pressed down. As she was moving parts of a person instead of an object as a whole, it took much more concentration to actually be able to do it. (Besides, All Might would get unbearably smug if he knew that she used an idea he got from a movie).

That was when she noticed something odd—as she was choking the man on the left, the man on the right didn't seem to move, or otherwise respond. He was just…staring ahead. The first guard reached for something in his pocket, but the Jade Mantis pulled it away with her telekinesis. A radio?

She tore it out of his hand an into hers before he could contact anyone. Five seconds later, he was on the ground, unconscious. And the man on the right flickered and faded away, still without ever reacting.

An illusion quirk, interesting. Usually the Purple Hawks posted guards that had quirks with a little more bite to them. Big guy with an illusion quirk at the back door meant that they were starting to stretch thin, but still wanted to give the façade of being strong as ever. For the Jade Mantis' goals, that was absolutely perfect.

If this went well, tomorrow morning her daughter would wake up to a safer neighborhood. So the telekinetic in the leather jacket took a breath and stepped through the door.


All Might was not bored. Any night where he didn't have to constantly go between incidents and villain attacks was a good night. That being said, the Symbol of Peace had to admit that things did seem to be particularly slow in his neck of the woods.

Normally, whenever he had a slow night, Toshinori would take the opportunity to sleep or maybe catch up on the latest hero news. But for some reason, the number one hero found himself bounding over the rooftops headed for Mustafa.

As he was over the neighborhood, trying to catch a glimpse of the local vigilante, he noticed a shadowy figure bounding across the rooftops. It was a bit slower than Jade Mantis' normal speed, but maybe she was injured or something.

That last thought causing a bit of concern, Toshinori directed his descent and landed on the next rooftop in the figure's path as gently as he could.

He heard a small grunt as someone landed. All Might cautiously spun around, only to be greeted by the sight of a small figure in a grey hoodie. The moonlight glinted off the goggles covering the upper half of their face.

All Might blinked. "You're not Jade Mantis."

"Well duh." The small figure spoke, and yeah that was definitely a kid's voice coming out.

All Might blinked again. A few seconds went by, and apparently tired of being stared at, the small child started to walk off.

"Hey, wait," Toshinori quickly moved to come in front of the kid. They did a double take of there suddenly being a person in front of them, but quickly calmed down. "Uh, kid, what are you doing?"

Though the goggles were mirrored, he could definitely tell that the kid was giving him an assessing look. "Jade Mantis is busy so I'm looking after things."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Where's Jade Mantis?"

The girl crossed her arms. "Like I said, busy."

They stared at each other for another moment. "Then, may I ask who you are?"

That earned him a smile (though, one that leaned closer to a smirk). "I'm the Jade Mantis' sidekick, Alley Cat!" She put her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest in pride.

All Might decided that despite the oddness of the situation, this was still just a kid. He knew exactly what to do with a kid. His expression went from bemused to amused. "Ha ha ha! I'm sure! The Jade Mantis must very much appreciate you looking after things while she's occupied," He was lying about that, no way he actually believed that Jade would knowingly let a little girl run across the rooftops late at night all by herself. "But I think she would like it even more if you were back at home safe. And isn't now around the time that little girls should be in bed? You must be tired."

The kid crossed her arms, all traces of positivity and openness replaced with a deadpan look. "No."

All Might paused. Well, maybe he just needed to appeal "Okay, seriously kid, it's like 11pm you need to go—"

"Alright then, I'm going." Alley Cat tried to walk away.

"—home. Hey!" he put a hand on her shoulder and spun her around. The girl froze underneath his grip in a way he recognized, but didn't have time to think about. He removed his hand, apologetic, and the deadpan look from before doubled in intensity. "Sorry, but you are a child. It's not healthy or safe for you to be out here at this hour."

The self-proclaimed 'sidekick' gave him another assessing look. "You're not gonna leave me alone, are you?"

Toshinori shook his head in a gentle but clear 'no'.

She held up her tiny fists. "Then I'll fight you!"

Aww, that's adora—Umph!

The kid kicked him in the shins and stared running, making it over the edge of the rooftop before he had a chance to process what was happening. Sloppy, so sloppy, he internally criticized. But seriously, who expects that kind of stuff from a kid?

He effortlessly jumped down after her, and saw her start to slink into the shadows. He grabbed the back of her hoodie, and lifted her up by it. He could feel her glare through the goggles, as the kid started wriggling and shimmying to try to get loose. While All Might could very easily hold onto her, the hero realized that she would never cooperate with him if he just forced this, and taking her to the nearest police station probably wasn't going to help matters.

"Okay, I'll make you a deal, Alley Cat," That seemed to get the kid's attention. "You let me accompany you on your patrol on the condition that you let me take your home when you're done." The kid gave him another look, before sticking out her hand.

"Promise?"

He shook the tiny hand in agreement. "Promise."

(Around the corner, Vronskaya smiled to herself. When she had noticed Kai was out of her bed, her intention had been to track the girl down and drag her back to the Strekoza. But this…this was a chance encounter and she was curious to see how it turned out. Trusting the number one hero to take care of Alley Cat, the Russian turned and walked away.

I hope you have fun tonight, Kai. She thought. Because tomorrow, your training intensifies.)

"Also, have we by chance met before?"

"Ha ha ha! Nope! No idea!" Alley Cat tried to insist. He wasn't convinced, but decided to just nod along anyway.


Jade Mantis laughed as she wiped the blood away from her nose.

Catching projectiles mid-air wasn't as hard as it used to be. She just needed to think of her telekinetic 'hands' as forming a kind of barrier and whamo! She was catching things midair. Had a tendency to freak people out, and given her whole 'vigilante' thing, it was kind of what she was going for.

Take this guy—one of the big shot Lieutenants, had the ability to shoot poisoned barbs out of his wrist like a pufferfish. He tried to shoot her, and she just stopped it mid-air. He froze, as that had probably never happened before, and the vigilante charged him. He was bound and gagged in a matter of seconds.

Just as she finished binding his wrists so he couldn't use his quick (thank you duct tape) the Jade Mantis could hear the heavy footsteps on the other side of the door.

Back up was coming and that wouldn't do at all. Taking out the bag of ball bearings, she threw them towards the entry way. The first person who came through made a hilarious 'thump' as they rushed through the door and fell on their ass. So did the second person, but she was already crawling into the air vents by then.


It took Toshinori longer that it maybe should have to piece together that Alley Cat was Morita Kai. To be fair, she was wearing a disguise—that very recognizable stripe of white hair covered up by the hood—and he didn't know her well enough to recognize her voice right away. In fact, he didn't really figure it out until she stabbed someone in the leg.

Okay, that sounded bad, let him rewind.

The basics of the plan was this: 'patrol' with the girl for a bit until she tuckered out, and then take her home as she would probably just want to sleep in her own bed. Unfortunately for him, Alley Cat was one energetic youngster. It was almost two in the morning but there were no signs of her slowing down yet.

They had indeed come across a few incidents. Car thief, attempted home invasion, runaway car (the driver had fallen asleep behind the wheel). Things that were quite simple for a hero in position, that he had everything handled in a matter of seconds, before the young vigilante could move. Every time that happened. Alley Cat would give a little pout but otherwise say nothing.

Throughout their patrol together, she wasn't as chatty as he expected. In fact, she would only talk if he addressed her directly, and even then her response was usually monosyllable. The girl was probably doing it to be stealthy, or she didn't want him finding anything else about her. But that didn't stop All Might from putting some things together, just based on her behavior.

To start with, the girl had some kind of training. You didn't jump across rooftops and parkour down the sides of buildings without learning how to, especially not at that age. While All Might was sure that Jade Mantis wasn't training this girl to be a tiny vigilante, the point was the girl had training. A well-intentioned parent had probably enrolled the girl in parkour classes, having no idea what she was going to use it for.

That particular train of thought was interrupted when the girl stilled at the edge of another rooftop. "Wha—" the girl put a finger to her lips, silencing him. She then pointed down.

Ah. Hostage situation/Mugging. One guy had a knife pulled on the other. That would something that had to be handled carefully, to ensure that no one got badly hurt or worse. He turned his attention back to the little vigilante.

"Alley Cat," All Might warned, but the girl jumped down anyway. All Might let out a sound of surprise. It would be imperative for him to end this matter quickly and safely.

He leaped down, landing in a heroic pose. "Have no fear, for I—"

"AHHH, SHE FUCKING STABBED ME IN THE LEG!"

"—am here?" He looked up in confusion. The villain was on the ground holding his leg, and Alley Cat was holding a knife. The hostage was no longer threatened but definitely looked lost.

"That's what you get for being criminal scum." Alley Cat stated, staying out of the man's reach, even as he was on the ground bleeding.

The former hostage looked between the Number One Hero and the tiny vigilante. "Is she…with you?"

All Might rubbed his face, sighed, and said: "It's complicated."

"No it's not," The kid chided. "He's accompanying me on patrol!"

The Number One Hero took a deep breath and counted to ten. "Yes, and while I applaud your quick thinking, you don't just stab people in the leg. Criminals or not."

"Hold on a second, he was threatening to kill someone and you're scolding me?" Were kids usually this snippy? Kids usually weren't this snippy to him.

"Well he's unconscious, also, why is he unconscious?" And no longer bleeding.

Alley Cat held up her hand. Her glowing, ungloved hand.

Having been on the receiving end of Recovery Girl's quirk since the ripe old age of fifteen, everything kind of clicked together for Toshinori after that.

Glowing hand + lack of stab wound + unconscious person with lack of stab wound = Healing Quirk.

Small Girl + Healing Quirk = Morita Kai

Morita Kai = the kid that got kidnapped by evil scientists, was experimented on by said evil scientists, and would have to testify against the evil scientists by a trial that was coming up relatively soon. (Also she kind of covered him in rats. Lots of rats. Lots of…amorous rats but he was a big enough person to get over that. Mostly)

There was a lot to unpack there.

Shit.


Local hero inadvertently becomes a babysitter, more at 11

Not going to lie, no scene I have ever written has filled me with such manic joy as All Might trying to wrangle a nine year old with a knife.