Unlisted Report #11027A
(This case has been closed for nearly two years now. Also, this report wasn't found in Muscular's file. Althought the recount of events lines up with injuries sustained... Who's feeding us this information?)
[A cheeky little Rabbit]
(WHO JUST TYPED THAT!?)
The ridge overlooks the majority of the valley, and more importantly, in Kota's mind, it lends distance between him and the wanna-be's. And considering all the stupid training they are doing, and all the noise that results from it, he's glad for that distance.
Distance gives him time to think.
Distance gives him time to mourn.
Distance gives him time to settle into knowing, one day more than the next, that all of it was just stupid.
That his parents chose being heroes over being parents.
That his parents chose fighting off some stupid villain instead of running to protect their own child.
Distance gives him time to settle into those thoughts. Let them soak into his bones and marinade in the hate he was steadily brewing.
And distance…
Separated him from all kinds of safety as soon as the fire started.
He rises, slowly as he surveys the first spark, then uncertainly as he watches it blossom into a blaze. And then fear as he hears someone creep up the trail behind him, heavy boots on loose soil.
He swallows, then steels himself.
It's probably one of those stupid heroes.
Chasing after him because he was gone too long, and some other idiot set the woods on fire. He scoffs at it. Scoffs because out of everyone here, he can take care of himself. And he doesn't need a hero, a quirk, or anyone else to do it.
"Cute hat." Growls the voice that haunts his nightmares.
He gulps, swallows the lump in his throat as he stands, trembling as he faces the man that's climbing the slope. It can't be him.
That monster is behind bars.
That monster was locked away by his parents!
"I'll trade you this lame mask for that hat." The monster coos, beckons with an open hand.
"Personally, I prefer the mask considering the shitshow that is your face."
Kota whirls, something cold and dark leeching into his bones as he finds not one, but two people on his ridge, his private spot.
This one though, he doesn't recognize.
It's no villain he's seen, and it's not one of the other wannabe's from camp. This man… stands tall, confident as he shoulders a… a rifle?
"Oh? And what have I done to earn the attentions of the Rabbit?" The monster asks.
Kota turns back to him, winces as the mask is pulled away and the face- the face!- the face of his parents murders reveals itself. It's different. His left eye is missing, something else replacing it, but everything else, is the same.
He's still big.
He's still broad like a truck.
He's still some super giant, muscles bulging out of his chest and a smile like a maniacs.
He swallows, backs away from the monster. Wants to run, but can't peel his eyes off it.
And running wouldn't help.
The monster jumps, closes the distance between them in a single bound, smashing into the rock. And he sees it.
He sees the face close in, the dark look in the normal eye as it's quirk activates and muscles coil around one arm. And he knows he's going to die.
Knows that he's going to end up as nothing but a wet spot on the ground once the hit connects.
And then suddenly he's being whipped to the side and the sound of an explosion is ringing in his ears. He stumbles, trips into the wall and rolls his back into it, and finds the owner of the second voice.
The Rabbit.
Battling his monster.
It's one sided.
It's utterly shameful.
It has him biting his lip and curling in on himself as he watches.
Rabbit dodges, ducks and weaves through the head handed blows that the monster is throwing. Each blow shatters the rock, leaving craters in the dirt where Rabbit once stood, but if that difference in power phases him, Kota can't tell behind the grim smirk that's plastered itself on the stranger's face.
He's going to die.
He's swapped his entire life for a few extra second of Kota's.
Like some stupid idiot.
But.
Kota swallows, squeezing the feeling in his chest with his hands, trying to bury it.
"What's wrong Rabbit!" The monster roars. "Can't do anything but dodge? I'm not even trying!"
Rabbit laughs, but it's breathless and quiet beneath the thundering crack of the monster's attacks.
"Quit runnin'! Stand and fight you coward! Show me I'm right! Let me kill you! Bathe in your blood!" And the monster cackles, sweeping his arms out and in to catch his nimble opponent.
And Rabbit backflips out of it. Like some faker. Like some dramatic hero in a cheesy action show. The rifle trails behind him.
And that's what makes Kota pause.
He's had it the entire time. Fired it even, the roar of the explosion the first thing he heard.
What was he?
Rabbit tilts his head and squeezes the trigger.
The sound is like fireworks in the smallest room imaginable. It's Present Mic at close range. It's deafening. He flinches, blinks and slaps his hands to his ears to muffle it but cant.
And he almost misses the monster stagger back, one step then two before red drips to the ground. Rabbit shoulders the rifle, works a lever on the side of the gun and drops it back down in front of it, not ready to shoot, but more like he's carrying it.
"Want to continue?" Rabbit's voice is calm, steady even as he looks to the monster.
But he only got a lucky shot off.
He's just lucky.
He happened to get it. He still couldn't win.
"You're so stupid." The words tumble from Kota's lips before he can pull them back, but now that they are.
It's a dam.
And everything else floods out of him.
"You don't even know me! You're not a hero! You're just some stranger! Fighting this monster for nothing at all! And if you die! If you die-!" He hiccups, freezes as he feels the tears. "You're just leaving everything else behind!"
Like his parents left him.
Like all the other heroes that did.
Casting aside everything else that they loved just to play hero. Just to be something. To fight with quirks and battle villains that are also fighting for stupid things like money or fame or just. Just to kill.
Rabbit chuckles, low and sarcastic. "I'm not here to play hero." He replies. "And I don't need a quirk for that either."
The monster recovers, roars as muscle fiber erupts from his body, binding over him, whatever wound the rifle caused, and launches himself forward at Rabbit.
And Rabbit dances away.
Skirts around the next blow that shatters the rest of the ledge. He skitters over the rumble, rifle tucked close to his chest as he runs, navigates the rubble, up and over and around the raining blows of the monster as he moves.
And it's.
Stupid.
Ridiculous.
Corny.
The next gunshot makes Kota flinch, but not because it hits, no.
It goes wide, and when he opens his eyes back up, he can see why.
The monster caught Rabbit.
The barrel of the gun clenched tight in an iron grip; the barrel bent a different direction that the rest of the weapon. And Rabbit.
Is pinned against the wall.
Hopelessly captive against a monster that he has, and never had, any chance of defeating.
And Kota isn't sure why.
Isn't sure why he steps forward and thrusts his hands out.
Surges forward with a yell and pulls at the power, the only thing he has left of his parents.
Water splashes across the monster's face, across both of the men actually, but it makes the monster pause. Makes him turn his head from Rabbit to him.
And he swallows.
"Ah." Rabbit coughs, then chuckles. "Water Hose. Right. You're the son." He snorts, and then reaches into the jacket. "I bet you know what tetrodotoxin is, water related quirk after all." And he pulls out a vial of something, casually flicks it at the monster.
It shatters.
Crushed under ruthless hands coated in muscle. And the laugh that follows is terrifying.
His knees buckle, his mouth goes dry.
But Rabbit laughs next, and when he does, the monster goes silent.
"What's so funny." He demands. "What's so fucking funny! I'll rip your head off you damn vermin!"
Rabbit just snorts, shaking his head. "Tetrodotoxin is a poison you muscle headed buffoon." He shakes his head, and combs his free hand through his hair. "Normally it takes effect in 10 to 15 minutes, and the lethal dose is 2 milligrams, or less." He smiles. "That vial contained to three pure grams of it."
It was.
Unexpected.
Until it was inevitable.
The monster's limb buckles, and Rabbit drops to the ground. A moment later, the rifle clatters to the ground beside him.
Unconcerned with the villain, Rabbit retrieves the firearm, examining it for a moment before shouldering it and walking away. The monster is.
Is heaving.
He rolls onto his back, hands curling at his throat as he gapss for air like a fish out of water. And he's. He's frothing at the mouth, a red foam that's slowly trickling out of his form.
"Don't watch that." Rabbit chastises him, and Kota flinches, backs away as the man approaches him.
But instead of doing anything violent, the man sits down next to him, rifle in his lap as he starts pulling it apart.
"W-what are you doing?" He demands.
Rabbit turns the rifle this way and that, examining the barrel. Then he snarls, tossing it aside with a huff. "Twenty five thousand, and the thing snaps like a twig." He grumbles. He sets his hands on his hips, pursing his lips as he considers it.
"W-what were you going t-t-t-to do?"
And those emerald eyes flick over to him, burning with a heat he hadn't seen since- since- his parents. The fierce look in their eyes as they dove into combat or left on a mission.
"Well." Rabbit hums. "I was going to protect someone." He turns his back on Kota, looking out over the burning forest. "But I suppose I'll have to scrap that, and start planning for an alternative option."
Kota swallows, digesting that information slowly.
"What are you?"
"A rabbit goes where he doesn't belong." Is the response, but before Kota can follow it up, a cellphone is dropped into his hands, and the man saunters away, hands in his pockets as he heads down the cliff.
"Wh-where are you going!" He demands, rushing after him, clutching the phone to his chest.
Rabbit considers him, then shrugs. "Other plans to work. Things to do little Kota." He smiles. "Make your parents proud." He adds, turning back around, breaking out into a jog.
And Kota.
Isn't sure.
What happened.
The body of the monster is a few meters away, painfully still. Utterly void of motion. A twisted conglomeration of muscle fibers and slack skin. Something in Kota's gut swirls and twists.
But he turns away, runs back to the edge of the cliff to look down at the destruction. The cellphone, a cheap flipphone model, opens in his hands and he dials the number.
Not the number he wants to. The one he's known since he could talk and walk and understand numbers. That number doesn't work anymore.
So he has to settle for the other number. The one that he knows but never uses, the one that he has memorized because he was told to, and not because he wanted to.
The phone rings.
Signal apparently is not an issue for it.
"Kota!" Mandalays voice barks through the receiver. "Kota, honey! Is that you?"
He pulls it up to his mouth, grunting into it before finding his words. "Y-yeah. I'm I'm here."
He hears her breathe a sigh of relief, and then a hurried. "Kota, where are you? Baby where did you go?"
"The ridge." He glances out, and can just barely see the cabin from here. "I don't think it's safe to go back now…"
"Just stay there! We'll come and get you." She pleads and Kota nods, humming into the receiver because he's not sure what else to do.
Not after everything happened. Not after this.
Not when a villain kills another villain to save a child.
Not when he used science and trickery to fight an overpowered quirk.
"O-okay." He mumbles. "I'll call if anything happens." He adds, because that's what he always adds. What he's used to saying.
"I'll be there soon." Mandalay assures. And.
He doesn't want to admit it.
But it makes him feel safe.
"Treasure what you can kid." The stranger says suddenly, and Kota whirls, finding that he's returned with a bag, small and made of leather, it hangs from his shoulder down to his hip. A messenger bag. "And know what you can and can't do."
He blinks, then looks from the man to the monster's body.
"Or." Rabbit rectifies. "Know how to get what you want when your own power isn't enough." And he bends down, opens the bag and produces-
A juice box?
"Huh?"
"Call me Rabbit." And- duh. He'd already assumed that was the stranger's name. "I didn't plan on hanging around, but…" the villain(?) shrugs, "I didn't plan on saving a kid today either."
He squats, settling on his haunches as he holds the juice box out to him. Kota slowly takes it, stares at it before turning his eyes back to the man.
And the violence is gone.
It's a subtle thing, but it's something Kota's… learned to pick up. Identify in the flex of muscles. And he's… not sure why. But he notices.
He notices that Rabbit seems nervous.
Notices that the man watches the skyline, the burning trees and the dull explosions resounding through the forest.
Notices that despite the relaxed position, the calm way he's holding his bag, he's still. Ready.
Silence reigns for ten minutes.
Unsettling and questionable.
But then Rabbit stands, stretches his limbs and cracks his neck before shutting the bag. "Mandalay should be here shortly." He says glancing at the trail leading up to them. "Her and Eraser if I had to guess." He looks down at Kota, then offers a smile. "You're safe now."
"Kota!" He hears the words being shouted, recognizes the voice. And he turns, stands and runs towards it.
Aizawa is running around the corner, eyes wide with fear. That look diminishes as he takes in the sight. Of the man called Rabbit, of the body prone on the ground, and of him running into his arms.
"Kota." Aizawa picks him up, carrying him back to Mandalay. But the Hero pauses, looks back. "Thank you Rabbit."
Rabbit laughs, and replies, "I told you I'd protect them. Class 1-A." He shrugs.
"They took Bakugo."
"I know. I'm going to go fix that."
Kota twists in Aizawa's arms, but the villain is gone. Vanished sometime in between his words and the time it took him to look back at him.
(I'm not sure how credible this information is. While there was a report of a broken firearm at the scene, it didn't have fingerprints on it. Was the user wearing gloves? Muscular was found dead at the scene via poisoning... Unsure how reliable this "report is")
[More reliable than Moonshot's reports- that's for sure]
(Moonshot...?)
[Check the morning news tomorrow]
(Edit: How did you know about that? Were you the source for his bust?)