EDIT (3/30): fixed some errors. Added to Shinsou and Izuku post-fight talk.
Shinsou plopped down beside him, nearly knocking his textbooks off the table to make room for the food tray. "So, on the days he doesn't have practice, he meets someone-"
"Shhh!" Izuku hushed him, "And you're not supposed to eat in the library."
"Mrs. Nakmanura likes me. I'm her aid for 8th period." He took a bite out of his apple as if to prove his point. "What's our first step?"
Izuku looked back down at his open textbook and the news articles around him. "Eraserhead has a more quiet approach, using what intelligence he gathered for surprise and basic combat skills since he has to fight basically Quirkless, so I think if we use him for the project we should-"
"I'm not talking about that. I meant the other thing."
"Shhh!" Izuku shoved his hand over the other boy's mouth. "I told you never at school."
"We're in the library."
"I said it's fine in a study room, where it's private. Anyone can overhear us."
"You think anyone is paying attention outside of playing fortnite?" He semi-pointed his head towards the computer lab where students cheered. "You're freaking out over nothing, and you know it."
Izuku held his tongue. This wasn't the first time they'd been at odds. Izuku looked around him. He couldn't get a study room and he watched a student flick a small folded paper between their friend's hands. "Not here. Besides, I want to make something to immobilize before we do anything."
"Oh yah, those goo exploidy things are easy to make. I googled it."
Izuku would be offended if he hadn't also googled it, but at the public library on a dummy account.
"You just look that stuff up on your personal phone? What if they look at your records?!"
"Don't give 'em a reason to look. Anyway," he said as he tapped away at his phone. "How. To. Make. A. Bom-"
"Okay, enough!"
"Kidding, look." He showed his phone where a video played of a cat on a leash. It glared at the camera, it's legs never moving as it was dragged over another cat. "That's my spirit animal."
"I thought Eraserhead was your spirit animal?"
"Kin."
"Gross."
"Anyway, I think we should be ready by next week, considering the training. He meets someone on Mondays since there's no practice-"
"I already said not here."
"Okay, so when?"
Izuku thought of all possible reactions and consequences, then let out a sigh. "You free after school?"
"We're not meeting at the dump."
"The beach."
"The library is so much better."
"We can put in spar time?"
Shinsou looked ready to get up and leave. "You're lucky we got a deal going on."
A deal, yah, that's what they called it. "After school, then." The boy grinned ear to ear at getting his way. Yah, they can make this work.
One of the oddest changes for Izuku to get used to was the lost lunch time. The day after the Mimic incident, Izuku sat down with his lunch tray and mystery mush, a notebook poised and headphones playing the morning news he missed. And it was fine. He was used to eating by himself, the same habits from middle school. Sure, he heard his classmates planning parties for the wekend and the stupid things they did on the way to the arcade, but he could turn up the volume a little more to tune them out.
He didn't even notice the hand waving in front of him.
Izuku startled, nearly dropping a spoonful of mushy lunch onto his notepage.
In front of him stood a sheepish Shinsou who wouldn't look him in the eye. "Can I sit here?"
"Ah," he choked out, "sure, yah sure."
Shinsou took a seat as Izuku left one earbud out, still intently writing.
"Is that for our case?"
Case, he called it. "It is. I'm hoping I can narrow the area down. Based on what you said on the direction where Okumura was going and what known gang activity has been reported, maybe, we could be the first ones there to scope out the place."
"Not about idea. Let me see you what you have."
Izuku almost snapped the notebook shut. His mom didn't even look at his notebooks. But Shinsou was a . . . necessary evil. That's not the right word. He was curious. He was in on this. Shinsou wouldn't make fun of him, here. And if he did, Izuku could call the whole thing off.
He slid the notebook over, read thoroughly and gave input. He asked to borrow a pencil, pulling up maps on his phone and taking the other earbud from Izuku. Together, they built a plan.
He remembered taking Shinsou to Dagobah the first time only weeks ago. They barely knew each other, but the school was too packed and Izuku swearing left and right that someone had to be listening in. Someone knew. Someone saw or heard and something would go wrong.
So Shinsou complied when his ally offered somewhere quiet and secure, though how secure a public beach could be was something he wished he never got the answer to.
Because the smell would make anyone turn around.
"A dump."
"Not a dump."
"A dump," Shinsou repeated.
The boy sighed beside him. "I swear. Okay, listen. It's quiet. No one comes out here."
"Yah, I can see why."
"And it's a good spot for practice."
Shinsou eyed the makeshift structures. A pole stuck in the ground had pillows zip tied to it like the world's worst punching bag. "Yah, sure. Compared to a gym?"
"Can you afford that?"
"Good point." He shook his head. "Okay fine. Let's just," he said as he kicked a torn couch cushion, "settle in, I guess."
"Now, you're just being annoying."
"No, no, I love the smell of rotting fish and soiled books."
"I'm gonna smack you."
"Could you?"
"I literally stopped that guy from smashing your brains in."
"And needed me to save your ass."
"Is that a challenge?"
Shinsou grinned, because surely he'd been thinking about this since they first got into a mini-argument after modern heroes history. "No Quirks. Nothing dirty. You brought different clothes right?"
"I have a back up suit here."
"Great."
They stood across from each other, a wobbly circle drawn into the sand. Two boys stood in awkward stances, one more practiced but never had anyone to apply it with, the other surviving on luck. They charged at one another with as much grace as two fourteen-year-olds would.
And a week later, Izuku fell flat on his back losing his breath.
"Another one to me," Shinsou panted out. "You leave your right side open when you punch. You think you could blink out of the way?" He stood over Izuku, offering a hand.
He took it. "Maybe," he thought aloud. "It's harder when going against the momentum."
"So why not blink behind me?"
"Because now you know my master plan. But not a bad idea."
"Anything to surprise an opponent bigger than you is a good idea. So," Shinsou started as he rummaged through his bag, "have you given my idea any thought?" He tossed something at Izuku that he instinctively caught. It wasn't cold to the touch anymore, but the beverage was well welcomed. It's obnoxiously loud All-Might colors cued him in to the brand.
He guzzled it down with the All Might logo faced away from him. "It's not bad, per se."
"Not Midoriya standards though."
"We don't know the Quirks of any of the guys Okumura's meeting."
"And we won't know unless we follow him to their spot."
"Where we will then disappear until our bodies are found in dumpsters a day too late."
"I'm not seeing you coming up with anything."
He bit back from telling the boy about his very lengthy notebook. In the span of a week, Izuku wrote down sixty two different outcomes for their plan, with sixty exactly ending bad for the both of them, with more welling up in his head each night.
Izuku grit his teeth. "This isn't easy. We shouldn't be doing this, anyway."
"We, you say, because you'll go after them yourself"
"That's not—"
"That's it, isn't it? You think I'm gonna slow you down? Well, guess what: I can handle myself. I just brought you to the ground a minute ago."
Because he was using only Blink, and not his other Quirk. But he can't use that either if Shinsou's around. But there wasn't any swaying with him. Shinsou unknowingly handicapped him and left him vulnerable. They weren't stupid. Both of them were shit at talking, both not wanting to talk about themselves for reasons they couldn't explain. Shinsou was quiet in class, silent for most of it and Izuku could count on one hand the number of times his classmate had been called on by a teacher. The only that's changed is. . .
Izuku didn't sit alone anymore at lunch. That was nice, in Shinsou's own oddly endearing way. They didn't talk much, and Izuku had to put away his more personal notebook, but sometimes he offered an earbud to listen to hero news reports.
He wouldn't call them friends. The two were both too proud for that. But he trusted Shinsou to have his back.
"Shinsou."
The boy ignored him.
"Let's get out of this in one piece."
His ally snorted. "Sure thing."
A boy with a purple tuft of hair leant against a building, his phone in hand a coffee he hardly touched in the other. Sunglasses hid his eyes as we watched Okumura slip into the dead end alley. "Don't see anyone else ," Shinsou said into his phone.
Izuku set down his binoculars, bringing his phone to his ear as he peered back to where Shinsou stood. "Nothing from my end," responded Izuku. He was perched on the fire escape, just where it met the roof. Other buildings towered him, but the tightness of the alley meant no one would look up. No one else was on the roof, so Okumura's "friends" would be arriving from below. "Target acquired," he said as Okumura came into view. He was alone, as Shinsou said. He hid himself in an oversized Endeavor hoodie, having changed out of his school uniform. If he didn't know any better, one would assume Okumura to just be a kid heading to the arcade.
"I see movement."
He brought the binoculars back up and watched as two figures entered the alley. A third, stood just at the mouth across the street from Shinsou. "I can't move closer without looking suspicious."
The shortest figure of the bunch looked back, and for a moment, he heard Shinsou's voice hitch in panic, but the figure turned back around and entered the ally. The tallest of them pushed them harshly to the front of the group.
"Hang on." Izuku leant forward to get a better look. Okumura stood with arms in his sweatshirt's pocket. The shortest figure stepped towards them, but whatever they said was too low. Izuku looked back at where his partner would be, then warped one story lower, then another.
"-less than last weeks. You trying to scam me?" That was Okumura. Snarky and bitter.
The short figure shrunk back, but the larger one stepped forward, and for a moment he thought Okumura spoke again, but that's- "Ungrateful ass. We told you already prices were going up."
Mimic.
"He's here."
"Mimic?"
Mimic stepped closer to the teenager who took a step back. "And then you go and fucking accuse yakuza of some petty shit like that? And I thought we were growing on you." He stood so close he stared straight down at Okumura. "Wouldn't wanna fuck up your little busines just 'cause you can't keep your trap shut blathering bullshit."
He stood so close that Okumura looked straight up to meet his gaze.
So close that he looked straight up at Izuku, and Izuku saw the dread in his eyes, widening only for a moment before focusing back on the man. Mimic kept talking, pressing and Okumura stayed silent.
Izuku phoned into Shinsou. "I got this" before setting it down on the fire escape.
He breathed deeply and thought of the spikes just beneath his skin. He was jittery, his hands shaking where he held onto the fire escape's rail. The phone clicked off before Shinsou could reply, and he watched as Okumura shoved the man away from him.
Izuku warped just above them and let himself fall.
The shorter figure shouted a warning, and Mimic looked up.
And he warped just fast enough to miss Okumura who became Mimic's body shield. Just behind him. The landing a bit rough and his knees stung. But he grabbed the loose waterpipe he and Shinsou had placed there the day before and swung with everything he had.
The man grunted, being pushed forward and dropping Okumura as the pipe met his back.
"Hey, the hell are you doing!" he heard Okumura shout beyond Mimic. Or was it Mimic?
The towering man caught his footing and twisted before Izuku could avoid the elbow to the face, but enough to miss the steal meant for his gut. Izuku warped back and saw Okumura, his hair disheveled and eyes barely holding their glare.
Behind him, Izuku heard the pounding footsteps of the third guy. Three to one. Mimic's bulk was like a bulldozer compared to his smaller companion, the one that gave the warning and he understood why. Ears, large and tall, animal-like, perked towards Izuku. Some sort of heightened hearing, but not much for physical stature. Mimic was obviously the pusher of their team. But the third, he didn't know . . . He didn't need a fourth, too.
He kept his voice low behind the mask, staring at Okumura as he said it. "Get out of here."
"Oh, sure, run to mommy and whoever else you sold us out to," said Mimic still in the student's voice.
The boy glanced at Mimic then Izuku with his mouth slightly agape, almost saying something before cutting himself off.
He didn't have time for this. "Go!"
The boy moved, only for a meaty hand to latch on to him. "And just where do you think you're-" he started only to let go with a squeal as spikes embedded in his arm.
The boy ran behind Izuku towards the mouth of the ally.
The third guy at the mouth of the alley shouted, but Izuku didn't have time to look as he used blink to avoid what was surely going to be a punch to the back of the head. Mimic ran forward with fist held up. The sledgehammer was nowhere to be seen and that made things all the more easier.
"You really started without me?"
Everyone looked toward the mouth of the ally, and the third guy stared pointedly. "Hey weren't you-"
"Shut up and stay still."
And as a command, the man did so. Or so, Izuku assumed, because he was too busy avoiding getting his head smashed off. A slipped back, and back until his back met the brick wall. Mimic charged forward, and so did he, and before Izuku could impact with an unstoppable force, he willed himself past him, warping straight past and running into-
He and the shortest dealer, who yelped, went sprawling. The package he'd been holding. It sprawled out on the ground surrounding them, little papery packets of . . . gum? The villain booked it, Shinsou shouting at him only for the villain to keep his mouth shut. When Shinsou brought up his fist, the villain didn't even make eye contact, booking right past.
In the same direction of Okumura.
"Shin, now's a good time to use them."
"My thoughts exactly," he agreed, reaching for the pouch of the utility belt he hid beneath his sweatshirt. Izuku heard the small explosion rather than saw as he warped to catch up with the short villain. He may not be much in fighting prowess, but he was quick. He warped again. The villain ran right into Izuku's awaiting fist. "Gotcha." He went down with his hands covering his face.
Still on his back he scrambled away before pleading, "Please, please, I didn't know. I'm sorry. It's short because the League wanted it more, okay?"
The hell? "I don't care the products short."
That seemed to startle him. His ears twitched. "Aren't you his buddies? You're too young to be pros."
That doesn't matter. "What does the league want with trigger?"
"I,I don't— Some big plan. A raid or something. I don't know, I just, I wasn't gonna hurt that kid, you know that—"
"Raid where?"
"I don't know!"
"Izu!"
He turned to see Shinsou running towards. "That pink goo isn't gonna hold them. The other guy broke out of my Quirk, too. We need to go."
"What are they after?" Izuku said to the villain.
"I. Don't. Know. They just bought all our product, okay? There's a shortage, and we can't do anything about it." He startled when Shinsou got closer. "I would never hu-hurt anyone. So please-"
"Izu. We gotta go."
Said boy turned to look, seeing a pink blobby monster leaving the alley and spotting them. Mimic was coated in the science experiment Shinsou and he created for capture, it's strength nothing more than thick, sticky mud to the bulking man. He spotted the teens. Izuku looked to the dealer beneath him, their eyes wide and terrified watching Mimic. Watching Mimic and not the two vigilantes right in front of him.
Shinsou grabbed his arm. "Let's go."
He looked back at the young man still scrambling backward, thinking of the spilt gum packets in the alley, then following Shinsou.
The two ran and ran. They'd planned for this, grabbing the sweatshirts they'd hidden a few blocks up, slipping onto the first bus they could fine and letting it take them away. The held their breaths when their bus passed a trail of pink tracks, Mimic or his lackeys no where to be found.
Shinsou was the first to speak, not looking away from the window away from Izuku. "What happened to sticking with the plan?"
"Mimic was going to hurt him."
"And now he's gonna hurt tons of more people because you jumped the gun."
Izuku shrunk in his seat. "Okumura called the police, didn't he? They'll at least know something's going on."
"Like he'll tell them the truth," he said with a sigh.
Izuku thought of the tall-eared dealer. He never even moved into a fighting stance in that alley, and he ran. "That guy I chased down," Izuku said, "he said the League of Villains is buying everything."
Shinsou turned to him in an instant. "The League?"
"That's what he said."
"Since when did the League ever do anything? They've been quiet for, like, years." Shinsou seemed to consider, then went back to looking out the window. "He was probably saying whatever he could to get you to let him go."
I don't think so. It would explain why those students tried to go to Shinsou for trigger. Okumura and whoever else can't get a hold of it.
"Anyway, did you see what Okumura was buying?"
"It looked like gum."
"Gum," Shinsou repeated.
"I mean, I don't know. They were small sticks in gum packet size-"
"So they're just stimulants. Like, study aids, more than anything. It's not big enough to be anything else."
"I didn't even know there were edible versions." The only way he knew of were the giant needles in B movies.
"Neither did I. Easy to pass around though. I don't know, I thought he'd be selling something stronger considering the hype."
"Do you think he'll go back to them?"
"Doubt it. Mimic basically called him a nark. Then he ran for it."
"I wonder if he did called the police."
"I guess we'll see at school tomorrow."
"But what about the League? I mean, if he was telling the truth. He said, they're planning a raid using trigger."
"Name the biggest guys in the underground to get you to let him go," said Shinsou matter-of-factly.
"Or we just stumbled onto something big."
"Izuku, we're talking about the league of villains if this is legit. That's shit even the cops won't touch without an actual hero."
"What are we then?"
Shinsou glared at him. "Some stupid kids. "
He felt his face become heated. "No, we are making a difference because we can."
"We can't though. You know what happens if we get caught. And you want to get into that with no backup?"
"You're my backup."
"I'm a first year with a quirk that isn't gonna work on a whole room. It didn't even work on two brutes and that bat thing. And neither is yours. We couldn't even do anything today. We just made fools of ourselves and tipped them off. Both this dealing syndicate and maybe the League if that was even real."
"Okay. Okay fine."
"Promise me you aren't gonna do anything stupid?"
"I promise."
"We don't even know if what the guy said is real. If you go around poking a sleeping bear? That's worse." The bus rolled to a stop. "I'll see you in class tomorrow," he said pointedly. And with that, Shinsou stepped away hesitatingly, watching Izuku, searching for something. When he didn't find it, he turned around heading towards where he hid his book bag. Izuku would have to get his from a roof now a good dozen blocks away.
Things were as quiet as ever after.
For the rest of the night, Izuku waited for the police to knock on his door but such a house call never came. School was quiet. The only oddity was Okumura entering late. Izuku looked to Shinsou who shrugged and the two let it be. It's not like Izuku expected a medal or anything, but he at least expected to overhear someone talking about his rescue. The morning news reported an attempted mugging in that area, nothing more and Okumura's name not disclosed for being a minor. Did he mention the vigilante's to the police?
Shinsou said not to worry about it 'til something happens. He doubted those idiots were anymore than low-life thugs with nothing better to do. Selling to teenagers to make a quick buck.
"It's gum. It can't be that strong. Probably like a study-aid or light steroid at most, " Shinsou had told him. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.
Izuku let it go. Izuku had never seen trigger outside of movies and lame TV. For it to be in such a small format, according to Shinsou, couldn't be all that strong, maybe equivalent to a short high.
He felt a bit stupid for getting so little sleep that night, thinking and pondering and waiting for something. Trigger. Gum. Mimic. The League.
He didn't realize he stood in front of his locker for over five minutes. The halls were empty as classes started. Cursing to himself, he slammed his locker shut heading to class at almost a sprint. Warping never sounded like a great idea, but Quirk use wasn't allowed in general, let alone the fact he isn't supposed to have a Quirk. It's usefulness would be astounding.
Then he stopped in his tracks.
Because in front of him were the captain of the baseball team and the pitcher, Ishida and Okumura, and they were arguing. Did they know? Izuku tried to lower his voice and muffle it behind his mask, but maybe Okumura knew. They whispered harshly to each other, heading straight towards him obliviously, and Izuku slipped into the closest bathroom and to wait for them to pass.
But why, why, was he never so lucky because just as he closed the stall door, the entrance thundered open likely cracking the tiles behind it. And the whispers became actual shouts. Sneakers and hightops stood just outside his stall until high tops came off the floor, the boy being held up by the other.
"This gum isn't enough. You told me it would be enough to beat the ravens but we got creamed! I swung like shit." Ishida.
The sound of struggle, Okumura gasping for breath. "I- I can't get more for a- uh few weeks? Okay? My guys are busy with somethin'." More like indefinitely, if Mimic's reaction was anything to go by.
"I don't have a few weeks!" he screamed. "Fukuoka's scouts are coming to the next game. If I play like shit I could lose my chance," Izuku held his breath as the high tops feet kicked lamely, "and it's gonna be your head!"
"Ishida, I can't do anything-"
A crash of glass. High tops was gone from his view entirely. "Like hell you can't!" Glass falling to the tiled floor. The boy had been thrown.
He couldn't stay quiet.
Sneakers moved away, toward their target, and Izuku finally opened the stall door to the mess.
Okumura wasn't moving, his back to Izuku on the floor and the pitcher moving towards him. And Izuku ready himself only to pause looking at his classmate of months now.
Ishida's arms, though Izuku never considered him thin, rather muscular and bulky, hardly fit in his long sleeve, the fibers tearing, revealing thick brown fur on arms twice the size he knew Ishida to be.
This wasn't normal. Izuku had seen him play, passing the practice field after school as Ishida pitched over and over with arms only coated a less than thin coat of hair. He never looked like this.
"Who's you're supplier?! I'll fucking get it myself!"
Okumura started to move, keeping his face down and using his arms to protect his head. "You can't just— just go up to them. They have to come to you. That's how Trigger sales work. They'll kill you otherwise."
"Then get me in touch!" The downed boy wheezed as a kick hit his side. "I'll pay double. I'll do a job for them. I just need it by Wednesday, is that too much to fucking ask?! All you fucking rejects don't get it, do you? I can get out of here. I can go places." He lifted the boy by the hood of his sweatshirt, making him cough at the pressure on his throat.
Izuku cleared his throat. "Ishida."
The boy froze, then slowly his head turned and Izuku saw his bloodshot eyes, the large wad of gum smacking between his teeth. Izuku could guess what it was laced with. Always chewing. How many pieces were in his mouth? Four? Six?
He stood to his full height. "Why is it you're always meddling in shit that doesn't concern you." It was said as a statement of fact.
Izuku raised an eyebrow. "Trigger?"
A single word made the drugged student burst. "I already told you to FUCK OFF!" he shouted, and with his mouth wide, baring teeth, Izuku saw the slip of a tongue too gray to be natural. He lunges towards Izuku, with needle like nails aimed for his face.
He ducked but not before the boy could grab his hair and yanked him into hitting the closest wall. He saw stars but before the second impact he called for Blink and fell from the boy's grasp to behind him, sending a kick to push the boy against the wall.
But that wouldn't be enough. The captain twisted around and aimed a Quirked punch for Izuku's face, who warped out of reach, the brute following suit with a left hook, then another and another. He raged, attacking wildly.
But this, Izuku realized in surprise, unlike Bakugo, who trained and perfected his techniques, who knew how to follow through a proper punch and bring Deku to the ground—
This was just a kid with a complex and a drug clouding his judgement.
When the captain tried to bring both pounding fist onto Izuku, he dodged to the side, letting the fist shatter the sink and faucet that suddenly spewed water in every direction, including Ishida's face.
And as Ishida stumbled back, Izuku swept a leg beneath him and he fell with a hard thud, his skull snapping against the tile floor.
For a second he thought he killed him, but once bleary eyes looked at nothing Izuku let out a sigh of relief just as the other boy slipped out the bathroom door.
How did he not notice?
'Cause his head kissed the bathroom tiles.
Oh yah.
"Hey, wait!"
He stepped towards the door, just not noticing his missing shoe to follow Okumura out of the bathroom and saw him down the hallway. The boy paused for only a second to grab something on the wall.
"Stop!" But his cry was drowned out by the wales of the school's fire alarm, lights flashing in the hallway and all the classroom doors barging open, the boy disappearing into the crowd. He could warp over these people with Blink. He could. But then everyone would know.
The boy got lost in a sea of sneakers and high tops.
He headed back into the bathroom, Ishida having not moved from his spot except to try to open a packet of gum.
He kicked it out of the boys hands as the kid growled lowly in his throat. He didn't get up. He was vulnerable, weak and unable to stop Izuku if he reaches out his hand, pulling his Quirk to the forefront and—
No.
No. He wasn't like that. Ishida was cruel, made Izuku hate being caught in the halls alone. But, to take his Quirk. . .
Why did he even consider it? Everyone would know if Ishida lost his Quirk.
He went to the closest teacher and told them how he heard shouting in the boys bathroom.
And that's how the word quickly got around that the school's varsity captain was found half conscious in the school bathroom with his Quirk definitely activated and insatiable angry.
Upon a drug test, traces of illegal Quirk enhancers were found. His bag was searched.
Some said they found needles and a bomb, but Izuku knew from his eavesdropping while in the stall it likely was just the gum laced with Trigger.
Word travelled faster than any official print. Shinsou texted him that night. When he didn't respond, calls came in that went ignored.
If that's what a little pack of gum can do to a teenager, just what can it do to villains with a vendetta?
He'd pay a bat-eared friend a visit, even if Shinsou wouldn't agree.
I don't like this chapter, but it is a necessary evil in order to get to the USJ. Sorry for the quality. I hope to go back and shift things around and go into Izuku and Shinsou's relationship, but not yet.
An interlude will be posted this week then a normal chapter next weekend (April 4th).
Stay safe out there!
