In the two weeks that followed Hitoshi couldn't concentrate. He spaced out in nearly every class, nearly broke his arm while sparring with Shouta thanks to not paying enough attention to block a hit, and barely had an appetite. All he could think about was Eri.
The days they interned with Sir. Nighteye were reduced as the council came closer and closer to infiltrating the Shie Hassaikai compound, something that secretly he was happy about. Unless he could clear his head and get into the game he wasn't going to be any use to that little girl so something had to give.
He had moved back in with Shouta and Hizashi after he'd found himself unable to sleep at the dorms, his parents having been the ones to suggest the idea he'd fallen asleep in one of Papa's English classes. No one in the class had woken him up, clearly they knew that something was up with him and Zuku and were being respectful of that.
Then the letters arrived through the mail and everything had kicked off.
Despite agreeing with Shouta that it wasn't a good idea for him to go on the raid, Zashi was still trying to keep the peace between them, but it hadn't gone too well. Things got heated between him and Shouta as they argued and argued about going with both of them being too stubborn to back down. In the end it was Shouta who had walked out stating that he had to be the dorm parent for the night and promptly leaving right there and then.
Hizashi attempted to get him to stay too but Hitoshi had simply given his Papa a hug and a smile before leaving not long after.
With nowhere else to go he'd elected to spend the night back at his room in the dorms, despite knowing Shouta was the dorm parent, and that he wasn't going to get any sleep. He'd offered a fake smile to his classmates as he'd walked through the common room, offered Zuku some reassurance that he was okay, and then flopped down on his bed. Just lying there he couldn't get his head to shut up and his anxiety had him almost shaking. Kacchan had come to check on him at one point but he'd sent him back to Kirishima.
It was an hour or so later when he exhaled deeply before leaving his room. He headed out the block and down to the dorm parent building. Finding Shouta's office his father was busy using his braille keyboard with his headphones on. Hitoshi knocked which caused him to jump at the unexpected visitor.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."
Shouta shook his head taking off the headphones and depositing them down on the desk.
"I guess my nerves are a little high right now." He took a breath. "If you're here for round two I don't really have the energy, Tosh."
Hitoshi walked over and wrapped his arms around his Dad's neck from behind, leaning down to rest his head on his shoulder. He could see the soft smile which came to his father's face as he did so.
"I'm sorry for what I said; I think we both went a little overboard."
"I'm sorry too, I'm the adult, I shouldn't have lost my cool like that in the first place."
"You weren't that bad, and you're just scared I'm going to get hurt, right? There's nothing wrong with being protective I suppose. I guess it's still strange for me to have people give a shit, even after all these months it still doesn't fully make sense to me. I know you and Zashi want what's best for me."
"But…" Shouta filled in the blank.
"But I still want to go."
"Toshi…"
"They're not the League, and I know you think it's still too risky but a bunch of my friends from the class are going, so is Zuku, surely it's just as risky for them too?"
"They haven't been through what you have though; if you get triggered in there it could cost you your life and I'm not willing to take those odds. You're my son, we nearly lost you once and I refuse to let it happen again on a more permanent basis."
"I know you're worried about me, but I need to do this. There is a six-year-old girl being held captive by these monsters, if I do nothing on a case like this then I could never truly be a hero. Maybe I am too close, but no one would understand what she's going through more than I could and that's why you need to let me do this. I need to save her, so please, let me try."
"You're serious about this? This isn't like training, or our shifts going out after dark, this is real and these people we're going up against won't hesitate to kill you if given the chance. Are you sure this is what you want?"
Hitoshi nodded sincerely.
Shouta exhaled, clearly still not happy about it all.
"Then you stay with Mirio at all times and do not under any circumstance engage any member of the Shie Hassaikai or the League, and you especially do not go off on your own. If you start acting recklessly I will send you straight back to UA, am I making myself clear?"
"Yes; I won't let you down."
"Well you saw the letter, the meeting's tomorrow, we'll find out more about it then."
With Zuku, Kirishima, Uraraka, Tsu, Mirio, Tamaki, and Nejire-senpai all being invited too Hitoshi had commuted with them to the meeting location. Shouta had something he needed to take care of before he could head over so they'd arranged to just meet there instead.
If the circumstances had of been different he knew that Zuku would have been in his element with the amount of pro heroes that were gathered around waiting for the meeting to start.
"Hey."
A came to rest on his shoulder before Shouta offered him a smile.
"Hi Dad."
"I didn't think there would be this many people." Zuku commented.
"Considering our target, this might not even be enough."
Sir. Nighteye walked into the room before clearing his throat.
"Thanks to the information provided by all of you our investigation progressed substantially. We've invited you all here for a joint conference to share the intel we've acquired regarding the yakuza group Shie Hassaikai and what we believe they might be planning."
Sat in the boardroom Hitoshi listened as the pro hero Fat Gum explained about what had gone down during his patrol. Hearing how both Tamaki-senpai and Kirishima had both been shot was terrifying enough even without the additional context of how the Big Three member had also periodically lost his quirk due to whatever was in the drug.
"And that's not all, when I was investigation the drug I found something that made me sick to my stomach, it contained human blood and cells."
Hitoshi's eyes widened.
Eri.
Having spaced out from whatever the pros had continued to say next, Hitoshi's eyes were drawn to the image of the guy in the mask which Sir had projected onto the screen behind him.
"The young head Chisaki, quirk, Overhaul; he can disassemble things and then reassemble them; a quirk that allows him to completely break down matter, and a bullet that can break down quirks."
Mirio-senpai and Zuku gasped beside him.
"Chisaki has a daughter named Eri, there are no details or records about her birth, but when Hitoshi, Mirio, and Midoriya encountered her they noticed there were bandages wrapped around her arms and legs."
"I'll say this one time." Another pro spoke up. "We're wondering if this Chisaki bastard is turning his daughter into bullets then selling them on the black market?"
"We're not certain if he's actually selling them, at this point their efficacy seems to be questionable, it's possible they're still in the testing phase and he's giving them out to rally more people to his cause. We have no hard evidence but we do know that he's gathering both allies and funds from across the nation. If the completed drug allows him to annihilate a person's quirk entirely then imagine the devastation he could cause."
"It makes my blood boil, let's go get this monster!" Fat Gum growled.
The hero who had spoken up before turned to Hitoshi and scoffed.
"It would have saved us a lot of trouble if these three amatuers had just gotten the girl away from him."
"Please... please don't go."
He felt sick.
"The blame should not fall on them, even without knowing the whole story they acted to save the child each in their own way. Hitoshi was willing to bear the risk of taking her then, while Midoriya and Mirio chose to wait for another opportunity when the chance of success would be more likely."
"This guy." The pro pointed to him. "He has a friggin' brainwashing quirk don't he, why couldn't he just use that?"
"You don't think I wanted to?! Do you think that I enjoyed having a terrified, shaking kid beg me to help her just for her to run back towards her captor and her abuser so I wouldn't get hurt? You weren't there so keep your comments to yourself." Hitoshi growled before taking a deep breath to try and calm himself down, feeling the muteness clawing at his throat.
The room was silent after that.
Shouta looked concerned despite clearly trying to remain professional.
"I assure you, no one in this room is more frustrated than they are." Sir sighed.
Hitoshi jumped as Mirio-senpai and Zuku suddenly got to their feet, the force almost knocking both their chairs over behind them.
"I promise you that we'll get Eri away from him next time, and we'll protect her!" They vowed together.
"Indeed, that's precisely what we've come here to discuss."
As the meeting adjourned Hitoshi was on his feet in seconds and out the door, following the long corridor down towards the exit. Walking a short distance out of sight he doubled over, the contents of his stomach coming up with hacking coughs and retches.
Jogging footsteps approached before a hand came to rest on his back.
"Hey…"
It was Kirishima.
"Just get it all up, you'll feel better once you do." He encouraged, rubbing his back comfortingly before digging into his pocket and holding out a tissue.
"Thanks."
Hitoshi wiped his mouth before taking a seat on the wall, Kirishima joined him.
"What Rock Lock said back there… it was gross."
"He's right though, I had every tool I needed to get her away from him… why didn't I?"
"Because you didn't want Eri to get hurt; and you knew that if you'd tried anything then that Chisaki prick would have just taken it out on her. I know it sucks but in the long run this is the best way of getting her out of there. You don't have to take this all on by yourself; we're here to help you, man."
Hitoshi smiled.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
"Toshi?"
He looked up to find Shouta by the entrance.
"We're over here."
His father made his way over.
"Who's we?"
"Kirishima, Sir."
"Ahh."
He crouched down in front of them.
"You okay?"
"Yeah just… tired."
"Not surprising considering everything that's happened these past few days. Effective today both the Nighteye Agency and the Fat Gum Agency are suspending your internships until further notice due to them being out of office working on this case. As for the two of you, take some time to relax, get some sleep, remember you need to eat to keep your strength up and just try to go on as normal; yes the call might come through at any time but try not to worry yourself to death over it, you both want to be on your A game for this raid so look after yourselves and look after each other."
"Will Tsu and Uraraka be back too?"
"Yes, they'll be around too."
"And we have to keep it secret for everyone else?"
Shouta nodded.
"It's for their safety as much as ours and Eri's, we can't give the Shie Hassaikai any more leverage than they already have."
"We won't say a word." Hitoshi nodded.
Shouta took a deep breath.
"There's support available for you all at UA, don't forget that, we're always around if you need us, or if you just want to talk."
"Thanks, Dad."
"Thanks, Sir."
"Now come on, let's get the others and head back to the school, Nezu wants to speak with you all."
Hitoshi stood up from the wall.
"Anything interesting?"
"It's probably just a much longer and animated version of what I just said but he's the Principal so what can you do."
They smirked.
