Whew that chapter. Teeny wheeny spoilerwarning I always give Deku a lot of trouble, as I'm easily annoyed by shounen-maincharacers and Deku is no acception, but I love how understading he is! The way he spoke up for Endeavor, is so great. Also... Dynamite? ... that was a bit anticlimactic ^^

Anyway on to the chapter


Justice for Noone

"Stop!" he commanded.

Enji's voice was loud and authoritative, despite not wearing a costume, not carrying a license, and really— having no legal authority, whatsoever. In fact, the villain's steps even faltered shortly, before she sped up again. He was after her in an instance, hot on her heels.

She wasn't very fast, and he had kept up his jogging routine. He knew he would catch up to her eventually at that pace. Even with the head start she had. She had to know it too. And yet…

Something wasn't right. He ran around a corner when he remembered her quirk. 'Stepback'— a teleportation quirk. If she wanted to get away, she could just teleport away. And she was a villain anyway, so what stopped her from using her quirk? It occurred to him that maybe she wanted to trap him. Maybe, after all this time, after one dead and two months past, they were coming for him again.

He quickly dismissed that thought, though. She had staked out Inari's house. How would she have known that he would come here? And even if it was a trap, he couldn't just let her escape, could he?

But it was obvious that escape wasn't her goal. If it were, she'd have been long gone. Hers was one of the most potent teleporting quirks he had ever come across. What did she want?

Yuu had said that she'd come regularly in the last few weeks. To watch the house of the man her villain group had killed. Could it be?

"Wait! Let's just talk," he pleaded with her as he caught up. He reached for her shoulder to stop her, when she suddenly turned around, grabbed his wrist, and–

There was a sudden and rather uncomfortable pulling sensation. For a second he felt like he was lifted off the street then he found the ground again. He stumbled over rough pavement before managing to catch himself, feeling disoriented and slightly nauseous.

Enji wasn't exactly surprised that she finally used her quirk. Not even that she took him with her— as evidently, she had been waiting for him to catch up. But he was worried. He knew that uncertainty, and maybe even fear, was showing in his eyes. Quickly, he assessed his situation. He had no idea where he was – it was just some back-alley. There was a heavy metal back door to one of the buildings, and a row of barred basement and ground-level windows. The paint on the walls was brittle, falling off the façade at multiple places and revealing the bare concrete underneath. There was no indicator where he was, but it could be Nasadaa. In the most crime-riddled district of Musutafu, there were dozens of little alleyways like this one. He had grown up there. It might be Nasadaa, he thought optimistically. He hoped it was. Then, at least he'd still be in Musutafu.

To his relief, they were alone. Alone, outside… So, it wasn't a trap.

"I assume you want to talk about something," he asked her warily, pulling his hand back when she let go of his wrist.

"You were running after me," she said, almost accusatory.

Enji frowned, frustrated at the utter lack of an explanation. "And you could have gotten away easily without dragging me along. It also seems that we are alone, so you are obviously not trying to kill me again."

Quickstep crossed her arms, her lips pressed to a thin line.

Yakazuki Shino, he remembered. Her real name. She wore casual clothes, so maybe it was more proper addressing her as such.

"Yakazuki," he said, relishing a little in her obvious surprise, "what were you doing at the Fujiwara house?"

Her arms only tightened around herself. After all, even after taking him with her, she didn't seem eager to talk.

"I asked, and apparently you're there often—" He cocked his head watching her intently. "Why?"

When she didn't answer immediately, he sighed in annoyance. "Let me hazard a guess. Guilt?"

That finally got a reaction. "What would you know about it?" She seemed to immediately regret that she had spoken at all, and her lips pressed together even tighter.

Despite her answer angering him, he had to mark it as a triumph that he finally got a response at all.

"Listen, the only reason I haven't called the police yet," he told her, despite not even having thought about calling the cops, "is because I know you would be long gone before they arrived, unless you actually wanted to surrender."

She snarled hatefully at that, as if he had just insulted her.

"What were you doing at that house?" He yelled in her face.

She flinched at his outburst. At once, her eyes flickered up and down the alley, as if fearing they might have been overheard. Enji didn't care. He wasn't afraid to be heard. If somebody called the police on them, just as well. If some petty villain got involved, he wasn't afraid of that either. It was clear now, that this wasn't an ambush, so he felt rather safe.

However. It became obvious quickly that she didn't feel safe, when she hurriedly shushed him.

Surprised at the palpable fear in her eyes, he took a step back and tried to reassess the situation with what little information he had. Which was basically nothing.

"It wasn't supposed to happen," Yakazuki finally spoke. Her face twisted into a grimace that Enji was now sure could only be guilt. "That man. He wasn't supposed to die."

"So, you go to their house, because you feel… guilty?" he asked incredulously. It was a horrible thought. He felt distraught just thinking about it. Quickstep was watching Inari's family. Had he not come to finally talk to Inari's wife in person, Enji would have never found out. A villain, staking out the house of a family still in mourning… Already his mind conjured up possible scenarios how this could've ended in disaster. He didn't even want to think about it. Even if it was true, even if she felt guilty and didn't wish them any harm – and he couldn't trust her in that regard, either. Enji had met enough villains in his day to not be surprised at fickle decisions and sudden changes of mind. How many stalker cases had he seen where the villain hadn't intended any harm until they had suddenly and violently flipped?

But.

It was, he assumed, not a thought that had even occurred to this woman. The way she looked at her feet in acknowledgement and guilt and nothing else made it clear to him that she hadn't even considered this behavior to be inappropriate or weird — never mind potentially dangerous.

"I had to see for myself," she muttered, "that they're alright."

"Alright?" he repeated. He couldn't believe the word. It sounded so absurd. "Her husband— their father, is dead. You and your little posse killed him."

"It was an accident!" she protested. "It wasn't supposed to happen."

Suddenly, he was revolted. Red hot anger brought fire to his eyes and chin, singeing his collar. Gritting his teeth, he reigned it back in.

"You took my agency's employees hostage. One of them died. How was that an accident?"

"I know, I know!" She rubbed the bridge of her nose, and buried her face in her hands. "But I can't just… undo it!"

He backed away a little, realizing he had just closed in on her quite a bit, cornering her against the wall. Her regret, at least, seemed real.

"What am I supposed to do?" She stared at him openly, asking for advice.

"Surrender to the police," he suggested, not knowing how realistic that was. "Give them all the information on your little group, and…" He stopped when she shook her head.

"Surrender?" Her voice sounded shrill. "And then what, just sit back and do nothing? I can't just…"

Angrily, he crossed his arms and looked down at her. Pathetic, he thought.

The way he looked at her obviously infuriated her. She glared daggers at him. "Don't look at me like that. If you hadn't… You started this in the first place." She mirrored his stance, crossing her arms again, lifting her chin haughtily. "It's rich of you to demand other people to stand trial for their deeds, isn't it?"

Enji bristled at that. "How dare…!" But he stopped himself. She wasn't worth it. His actions had nothing to do with hers, as much as she tried to tell herself that. Never mind that he didn't feel stalking his victims was an appropriate atoning mechanism. She had no clue. "Fine," he grunted, "don't surrender. I can't force you." He pushed away from her, turning to leave the alley. "But don't you dare get close to the Fujiwara family!"

"What?" she called after him. "You're just…? Stop!"

He stopped, as she asked.

"I watch them…" she repeated again, "to make sure they're alright."

He turned on her, then, not even caring that his fire beard was flaring to life again.

"It's sick!" he said, frustrated, "What do you think you're doing there for? Watching the family whose father you killed? Stay away from them!"

"I didn't—!" Yakazuki paused for a second, and seemed to reconsider. "You can't force me," she reciprocated.

Enji was utterly stunned. Why was it so important to her to see Inari's family?

"I… can't." He admitted. "I'm not a hero anymore. You made sure of that. And even after I call the police, with your quirk, there's no keeping you away."

She looked almost vindicated at that, as if she had won some major argument. Enji shook his head in disgust. He knew why he normally didn't converse with villains. He had no inclination, whatsoever, to feel sorry for them, or try and understand their motivations. What did he care, if watching the Fujiwara family gave Quickstep some undeserved relief?

"I'm sorry." Maybe it was something in his eyes that prompted her to say it, but the way she looked at him made him sick. Like she was looking for approval.

Enji snorted. "You're being sorry isn't worth anything."

Her mouth opened to retort something, but she just stared at him indignantly— as if she could hardly fathom what he had just said.

Was it so difficult to understand?

"Believe me," he grunted, "I know."

Oh, he did know. And he was surprised, how hard it seemed for her to understand that. She'd been part of a group to make his life hell. They had insulted him, attacked his sidekick, burned down his house, taken his employees hostage, and killed his secretary. They hadn't cared that he was sorry. It was one of the many lessons he had learned recently.

"Nobody cares for what you think," he hissed. "Maybe you think that just because you feel sorry, that it's alright to watch that family to get some closure… but you're just a villain, stalking out the house of their victim."

Finally, his words seemed to get through to her. She hunched in on herself a little, burying her face again. Enji thought that she might've started to cry, but he didn't care much about it.

"What am I supposed to do, then?" she sniffled.

Was she expecting a reply from him?

"I told you what to do. What else do you want from me?"

She shook her head. "I just can't… I'm afraid…" she admitted. It made him only more annoyed. "Please."

He couldn't believe it. "Do you want my compassion?" His voice betrayed his flabbergasted disbelief.

"No," she mumbled, and from the way her voice sounded, he was now sure she was crying. "No… I… th-they ki-killed Noone." She sank completely to the ground until she sat on her heels.

To his own embarrassment, he didn't catch the meaning of her words instantly. Then, he remembered the other female member of the JfN. She went by the villain moniker, 'Noone'. The one with the electricity quirk. He still remembered her being the one who'd tried to get her comrades to leave as soon as Endeavor appeared at the agency. Of all of them, she'd seemed the most reluctant to risk a fight.

"Noone?" he asked, this time legitimately shocked at the new piece of information. "Who did?"

He was never satisfied to just see Inari's death as an accident or a mission gone wrong for the JfN, but he would also be the first to admit that he didn't think Inari's death had been planned. It had been obvious that the situation escalated in a way the villains hadn't expected. But if Yakazuki was now implying that the other members of the JfN had killed their own teammate, that was an entirely new dimension. How had they escalated so quickly?

"The Raining Man did," Yakazuki shook her head.

"Noone was… When Fujiwara died, she was the most distraught. Wanted to surrender to the police right there. We thought she'd calm down, but it just got worse. The Raining Man… He was…," her voice was hectic, a bit difficult to follow for Enji. "He was always more extreme… And Relax, I don't know." Her words were muffled against her own hands. "He, I think he doesn't see a way back. He st-stopped you fr-f-from jumping after Fujiwara immediately-ly. Thinks-ks it's his f-fault. When… when No-o-one suggested surrend-d-dering, he panicked." She shook her head, her sobs now audible and increasingly hysterical. "Then the Raining Man finished her off."

Enji was horrified at the tale. To go from recklessly killing a hostage to murdering their own comrade…

"They threw her in the Nabu River," Yakazuki ended her tale, visibly trying to calm down.

At that, Enji's eyes widened in understanding. The body the police had fished out of the river last week. It had to have been her.

"They want to join the League," she added as an afterthought.

Enji's thoughts immediately grinded to a halt. "Wait, what?" He shook his head, trying to keep up with this new development. "Since when? How did they get into contact?"

Her eyes widened a little, as if that last piece of information had just slipped out and she hadn't wanted to tell him. Then her breath caught. Her shoulders slumped, resigned. "Honda," she said, as if that name would answer all his questions.

It didn't. Honda was a common name, but Enji had never heard of anybody named Honda in connection to the JfN or the League of Villains.

"Honda?" he asked, when she wasn't forthcoming with information.

"Honda Gen," she answered, "he's our fifth comrade. Took care of all the planning and decision making." She shook her head, as if she couldn't believe how easy she was selling out her own teammates. "He joined us over… I don't know, he's one of Steven's – The Raining Man's acquaintances. He works for Detnerat."

Suddenly, pieces shifted into place and Enji started to understand. Hadn't he even suspected that? He remembered a phone call with Aizawa right after Inari's death. His security systems were built by Anzen Inc., which was now part of Detnerat… And there was a possible fifth villain who had connections to either Detnerat or Anzen, with the knowledge to tell Noone exactly how to disable or infiltrate Enji's or his agency's security systems.

"How is the League connected?" he asked. There were still a lot of unanswered questions.

"Not he himself… Detnerat…" She shook her head, as if she didn't know everything herself. "I'm not sure, but Detnerat… Yotsubashi, the CEO, he's somehow connected. Something about the Deika incident."

Enji only vaguely remembered that one. He's been at home, sulking in his own misery after just losing his license. He had avoided the news like the pest. It was then that unknown villains had attacked Deika, and the city's inhabitants had fought back. It'd ended in disaster— with many citizens dead and major landmarks of the city destroyed. It was only due to the utter lack of information on the situation – it still was a mystery who had even attacked the city – that the news hadn't reported on it for weeks. Well, that, and he assumed the Hero Association hadn't been keen to spread a story about civilian vigilantism further than necessary. Still, he suspected it was part of the reason why the media had finally started losing interest in him.

Just typical, that after hoping that some major incident would finally take the attention off of him for so long, when it happened, he almost missed it.

Enji hadn't said anything in a while, considering the situation. Apparently, that made Yakazuki nervous.

"What should I do?" She looked at him helplessly. Her puffy eyes made her look younger than she was. "I can't go back there. I can't… I can't be part of the League. I thought we were doing the right thing, but the League!? They'll kill me if they think I betrayed them! And I can't just do nothing after what they did to Noone!"

Enji now understood her plight, and even somewhat felt for her. Still, his thoughts were focused on what she had just told him— and in any case, she was asking the wrong person. There was nothing he could do, short of telling her to surrender… Then again, maybe he had the right person's number saved on his phone.

He had never called Hawks' private number. Truth be told, he hadn't even called his agency directly, either. But when he had asked Hawks for his contact number right after they'd arranged their meeting in Kyushu, Hawks hadn't only given his agency number, but his private one as well. Enji hadn't been impressed back then, but now, he thought it might come in handy.

He took a few steps away from Quickstep, so she wouldn't be able to listen in easily. Hawks let it ring several times, before he took up the phone.

"Todoroki, you changed your mind?" Hawks came right out of the gate.

Enji sighed. He should have expected it, but it still took some of the wind out of his sails.

"I told you, it's not just me not wanting to come back. I can't. In any case, is this line secure? Nobody listening?"

Hawks didn't answer immediately. Then: "Huh? What… Yeah, sure, it's secure. And I'm alone."

"Good. Do you know of a connection between the League and Yotsubashi?" he asked, "CEO of Detnerat." He added the last bit, since he didn't know if Hawks kept himself informed in matters of economy..

He heard something akin to a gasp on the other side. Then, Hawks needed another eternity to answer. Finally, when he did, his voice was wary. "Why are you asking about Yotsubashi? You know I can't give you any actual intel."

"So, there is something," Enji acknowledged. He was completely certain that Hawks' gasp and tone were not by accident at all, but Hawks willingly and knowingly sharing information that he wasn't supposed to with him. "That's all I wanted to know. Listen, do you remember a villain called Quickstep? Part of the JfN. She says the remaining members of the JfN want to join the League. I'm not sure if she's willing to cooperate with the police or Hero Association. Had to make sure she was telling the truth, though. You think you could use her?"

Hawks seemed to hesitate. "What do you think?"

Enji wasn't sure himself. "I don't trust her. She has a clear agenda to bring down at least the remaining members of the JfN, but she's terrified of the League. I can't guarantee she won't switch sides again, just out of fear. I'm also not entirely sure how honest she is. I'm not good with that sort of thing." He hesitated, then added: "Also, she's involved with killing my secretary, so I know it's not my call to make… but any deal that gives her immunity, I can't endorse." If the Hero Association or the Justice Department decided to propose such a deal, he knew he had no say in the matter. Still, after his talk with Fujiwara, the idea of having Quickstep run free sickened him to his core.

"Can you get her in touch with your agency?" Hawks asked with uncertainty in his voice. "Silent Tracker doesn't like me much, but if you arrange it… Maybe she'll be useful. Silent Tracker is in a better position to make that call and bring the matter up with the right authorities than you, and she already knows about me. Quickstep can't know about me, if she's not trustworthy, but Silent Tracker could be our connection."

Enji mulled the idea over, before deciding it could work. He went back to Yakazuki, who was eyeing him suspiciously.

"Who was that?"

"None of your business. Listen," he raised his phone for her to see, "if you agree, I'll call my former sidekick. She'll find a use for you, but I fear you would have to surrender to the police, eventually. In any case, there's no point in calling my former sidekick, if you're not willing to cooperate. So how is it?"

He didn't have to wait long for her to give him a small and frustratingly uncertain nod.


Tzetzetze... Man, Noone really was stalking around that house because she felt guilty, huh?
As some of you pointed out in the comments last chapter, Enji can't quite apprehend, fight or otherwise detan her. So, he'S a bit limited on options. But it's not necessary to do any of that, as Quickstep doesn't want to flee. Honestly, I liked to just for one chapter, but Enji a bit on a moral high-horse.