Chapter 81
.::Aftermath of an Interrogation with a Marten::.
"So, let's see if we've got this right," Rogue said, pressing a hand to his face. "On Tuesday when Midoriya went to meet Present Mic, Mic also probably saw Nettmegg." That got some nods, and he continued, "So then cut to today, and Rockfish has Yuuyake go meet up with Ashido. And he notices she's being followed."
"He found her a block from the konbini," Kouda confirmed with a shy nod. "H-he was already following her, and he followed her for over three streets."
"Right. And so when Yuuyake hears that Akai is also coming over, and also notices a phone," and here he had to pause because the crow let out a victorious caw, "he decided the man was a threat. And decided to use a rock to break the phone before using his Quirk on him. Which, as it turns out, can actually knock people out." He got some more nods. "Great. So how long is he out?"
"We don't know," Monoma replied with a sigh. "I've copied Yuuyake's Quirk before so I knew it could daze anyone who made eye contact with it, but I didn't realize it accumulated the light it stored like that."
"Yuuyake hasn't used his Quirk since June," Kouda added. "I-it's the first time he's gone this long without using it, s-so we don't know how long it will last."
"Well, it's been half an hour and he's not waking up, so hooray for that I guess," Akai muttered, side-eying the unconscious Pro Hero. Mina just felt kind of sheepish and tried to not stare at her not-teacher, feeling more than a little guilty about tying him up and stuffing him in one of Mime's cubes.
They'd dragged him to the tunnel where they'd had the first meeting, which had a lot of scorch marks and damage compared to their last visit. Luckily most of the room they used had been spared from the damage (though the door... didn't really exist anymore), so they'd tied him up in the back behind the curtain before calling for help. Which in this case came in the form of Kouda, Monoma, Rogue, Mime, and Glitch. And with Glitch naturally came Mail, who hovered near the cube trapping Mic with a thoughtful look.
"Huh," he said. "He got beat by a crow." He nodded and crossed his arms as he declared, "That is hilarious and we are never letting him live that down." Yuuyake cawed, whether he understood anything beyond his name or not unclear and unimportant. "By the way, really impressive knots, Akai. The zip ties are a nice touch. How convenient you carried those around."
"Better safe than sorry," she snapped irritably.
Mail just hummed, still smirking. "Yeah. Also, very curious about the invisible cube Mime. Very handy that it's soundproof."
"I'm not saying anything!" Mime declared. "I'm not letting you analyze me like everyone else!"
Mail huffed and rolled his eyes. "Yeesh, you analyze one person's Quirk and fighting style, and suddenly you're terrifying."
"Ghost, you know this guy," Glitch said testily. "Do you have any idea how the hell he ended up here? Did you call him somehow?" Mail hummed, his smirk fading to a more serious look as he glanced at Mic.
"No. I didn't call him, or anyone else for that matter. I don't actually know him personally, just seen him around and listened to his radio show a couple times. Best I can guess, the heroes probably figured out Eraser's with the Alliance now, so he got obsessed with Midoriya and checked security footage for anyone he talked to. And that obviously included Anjou."
"Would he really go that far though?" Mime wondered. "I've never met Present Mic, but he's always struck me as the frontlines type. He doesn't seem like the type of guy who'd be patient enough to sit down and go through hours of footage on a slim lead." He glanced at Mina as if seeking validation, but she just frowned.
"If it's to find Aizawa-sensei, then probably," she said. Everyone in 1-A knew at this point that Mic-sensei was probably Aizawa's best friend. The guy had shown up as the lunch bell rang to drag Aizawa to the cafeteria for "real food, not one of those gross jelly pouches for the sixth day straight!" on multiple occasions. And she also knew that this world's Mic always signed off with a message that had to be for Aizawa.
"From what I know, he's been pretty obsessive about the search," Mail agreed with a nod. "Nighteye's agency has been involved in the search too since they work pretty closely with the UA folks, and they already pool all resources on the Alliance. It's not too crazy he'd ask for Kas's case notes on Ashido, seeing as she was in contact with Uraraka and Uraraka ran away after meeting Midoriya. Those notes would definitely include Anjou having a brother in Odawara."
"So basically, because of a bunch of loose associations, Present Mic decided to come to Odawara to see if he'd find anything," Monoma summarized. "And he was actually right."
"Hilarious, isn't it?" Mail grinned, his glowing eyes seeming particularly bright in the dimness of the room. "It's the kind of connection that anyone else would dismiss unless they were absolutely desperate." Mina frowned as she glanced at Mic again. Rather than hilarious, she found it pretty sad. He really was desperate to find Aizawa-sensei.
"Bigger issue is if he was actually alone," Akai muttered, side-eying Mic. "No one tried to follow us or the birds would've noticed." They'd had a small flock following them while carrying Mic to the tunnel, apparently led by Yuuyake. According to Kouda they'd been shouting about anyone they saw, ranging from an old woman shopping to a hungover guy who stuck his head out a window to curse them out for being so noisy. If anyone had been trying to follow them, the birds would've made that obvious.
"Well, all we can do is wait for him to wake up," Monoma sighed. "And hope that Haya can help us get answers." The small weasel-like animal by Kouda's feet perked up at the name.
"How can a weasel help?" Mail asked curiously.
"Marten," half the runaways corrected, with Rogue adding, "We're not telling you." Mail seemed to accept it with a shrug while Mina glanced at Mic again. She could only hope they'd get some actual answers.
After the interrogation, the runaways gathered in the other half of the ruined room to talk about the results. A slightly unwelcome change of scenery, since the ruined door meant no buffer against the cold, but a necessary one so they could remove the masks without Mic lip-reading them or something. Mina didn't know if he could do that, but better safe than sorry.
"Okay, so based on Haya's input and his reactions, he probably didn't tell anyone he was coming to Odawara," Monoma declared. "So chances are no one realizes he's even missing yet."
"That's good, right?" Mina asked anxiously. "I mean obviously this is still bad, but that's kinda good, right?"
"Just because they don't know he's here, doesn't mean they have no idea he's looking into Odawara," Akai countered. "He probably mentioned it to someone."
"And when they do figure out he's missing, they'll probably try to search for his phone," Mime added. "I checked it out and it's all cracked, but actually still kinda works? It turns on anyway. So even if we turn it off, chances are they can still see where it was before by pinging cell phone towers or something."
"Does it work like that?" Monoma asked, and Mime shrugged.
"No idea. I'm just repeating stuff I saw on a TV show once." He perked up as he added, "Hey, maybe we could get Yuuyake or one of the other crows to carry it to another city to throw them off!"
"Either way, we're probably on a ticking timer before someone comes looking for him," Rogue said flatly, and got a chorus of "yep"s and "guess so"s. He sighed and buried his face in his hands, looking very tired. "Shit, I can't believe this is happening..." Mina winced and hung her head, her whole frame drooping with guilt.
"I am so sorry," she said. The only reason any Pro Heroes were here was because of them after all; Mic had even been following her specifically! Now Odawara would be on all kinds of people's radars, which would just cause an endless amount of problems for the runaways.
Monoma and Akai seemed highly aware of that judging by the sour looks they sent her, which just compounded her guilt. Kouda and Mime just looked uncomfortable and unsure what to say, and she couldn't even see Rogue or Glitch's faces right now.
"Fuck it, it was unavoidable," Glitch declared, solidifying her—wait, what?
"What?" she, Monoma, Akai, and Mime all asked at once in varying tones ranging from shock to confusion to frustration. Even Kouda made a surprised whimper. The ever-flickering Glitch just shrugged, Quirk still rendering his face unreadable.
"We've been on a ticking timer since the ghost showed up. And even without him, we'd have to relocate anyway for other reasons. We'd just put the move on delay to sort out this mess." This was obviously news to everyone else, as they now all looked at him in even more shock and confusion.
"Wait, what?" Mime asked. "Rogue, is he serious right now?" Rogue sighed and pulled his hands away from his face.
"He wasn't supposed to mention it, but yeah," he confirmed reluctantly. "We're still working out details with Kuroe on the move, so don't tell anyone yet."
"But doesn't Kuroe keep out of all the runaway stuff?" Mina asked in confusion. Anjou and the rest had made that pretty clear when briefing them on the situation after the big reunion with Todoroki. Kuroe wasn't supposed to know anything.
"He does," Monoma muttered, eyes narrowing at the older runaways. "We only use him for networking." Rogue remained steadily silent at the unspoken accusation, while Mina struggled to figure out what that accusation was.
"The problem is now's a bad time to move," Glitch said. "We hoped to at least wait out the worst part of winter and have more time to prepare and save up. Moving on short notice will just cause a giant hassle."
"That's only if they can track down Mic," Mail remarked thoughtfully. "They won't be able to search Odawara openly. Given the lack of crime, a sudden flock of Pro Heroes visiting would just tip off whoever captured him. They'd probably only be able to send over a couple people to search discreetly. So as long as you cover up your tracks, maybe set up a false trail like Mime suggested, it should be fine." That had everyone turning to stare at him, and he asked, "What?"
"Isn't this the part where you're supposed to try to rescue him or talk us into letting him go?" Akai asked.
"Are you kidding? I just watched a bunch of teens interrogate a Pro Hero using a marten." Haya's head bobbed upwards at the reference. "I really can't emphasize the value of good entertainment when you're a ghost. At this point I'm honestly kind of rooting for you guys." Once again, Mina was left wondering what the hell was going on in this Mail guy's head. She'd expect him to be on the heroes' side, but apparently he wasn't?
"A false trail," Monoma murmured. "That... We might be able to do something with that. I might have some other ideas too. Ideas I can't discuss here," he shot a pointed look at Mail, "but ideas."
"We'll talk about it later," Rogue said with a nod.
"What do we do with him right now though?" Akai asked. "Are we just going to keep him here?"
There was a pause as everyone considered it. Obviously, they couldn't just release him right now. Mic obviously knew something was up in Odawara now, and also, he knew Mina was there. Even if they dumped him in another city, he'd probably have a bunch of other heroes searching the city within days. And that'd just throw a HUGE wrench into the rescue plans.
...They were totally kidnapping a Pro Hero, weren't they?
"Well, I guess we're going full rogue," Rogue declared, throwing up his hands in surrender. "Screw it, why not? Fuck." He turned to stalk off and grumble some more, and Mina grimaced sympathetically as she pulled out her phone to update the others. Uraraka, Todo, Kiri, Jirou and Kami probably had a lot of questions since her last text before the interrogation. And given they'd now be kidnapping Mic-sensei, she had a lot to tell them.
As she started typing what happened, she felt a pang of regret at the absence of Midoriya's name in the list of contacts. Maybe she should have texted him, just to let him know that the Pros might know Aizawa-sensei was captured by the Alliance. He probably needed to know that they'd now be kidnapping Mic-sensei, too.
But then she decided, no. Not yet. He had enough to worry about with Aiko hanging around today on top of everything else going on over at the Alliance. The last thing he needed was to freak out about them technically, maybe kidnapping Mic-sensei. So until they knew for sure what they would do with him and had a more solid plan on how to handle the situation, it wouldn't hurt to keep it from him so he could focus on everything else.
Just for a little bit.
Meanwhile, Izuku was currently putting his free time to good use.
"DIE!" Bakugou shouted, explosions bursting from his palms and propelling the wheelchair down the hall at record speeds. The crowd of villains gathered on either end of the hallway cheered loudly as he zoomed past an intersecting hall where Izuku, Shinsou and Mustard stood, the latter holding a stopwatch. The sandy-haired teen made a large show of hitting the stop button before checking the screen.
"Four-point-thirty-six seconds," he read, and the crowd's cheers grew. Their voices barely drowned out the shrill screech of the wheels as Bakugou dug his heels against the floor to bring it to a halt. It slowed just in time to lightly bump against the pillows piled against the far wall at the end of the short hallway past the intersection.
He rolled the chair back just enough to get up, and villains emerged from a nearby doorway to turn the wheelchair around. As they debated over who'd get to go next Izuku hurried over to Bakugou's side, eyes shining with delight. "That was amazing, Kacchan!" he exclaimed. "You went so fast!"
"Tch, would've been faster if this thing's wheels weren't so rusty," the blond scoffed. "I could hear the thing squeaking even over my explosions." They walked back to the intersection where Shinsou waited, Mustard already heading down to the opposite end of the hall to wait for the next racer.
With Kurogiri having a second "off day" in a row, Izuku had originally planned to spend the day with Aizawa to ward off surprise visits from Aiko. However, when he mentioned that plan, Shinsou had raised a good point it being a perfect opportunity to try his wheelchair race idea. Kurogiri was the one most likely to stop it after all, so this might be their best and only opportunity.
As it turned out, most of the grunts who lived or just slept over at the base agreed. Most of them had spent yesterday in their rooms since Kurogiri's absence meant the bar area was effectively closed. Having it closed for two days in a row had them getting a little more stir-crazy though. Since the longest uninterrupted hallway in the building happened to house the rooms where most of them slept, it was inevitable for them to find out about the race, and they all wanted in.
Even now two of them had set up for their turn, one seated in the wheelchair and the other behind him with his palms pressed to the seat's back. The standing man's biceps instantly inflated to almost cartoonish levels, easily larger than his head. "Call start already!" the sitting one called, and Mustard huffed.
"Fine, go," he said, hitting the button. The inflation in his biceps "shifted" to the hands instead, the sudden change shoving the wheelchair forward with extra force. It zoomed down the hall at rapid speeds, and Mustard stopped the watch as it passed him and called, "Four point fifty-two seconds."
The crowd whooped at the number, and Bakugou clicked his tongue. Izuku was honestly surprised at how close it was to Bakugou's time. "Maybe there is something up with the wheelchair," he mumbled to himself. "Kacchan's explosions should make him faster than getting pushed, especially on wheels, unless maybe the hands suddenly growing made the air displace and added to the push? Or maybe..."
"Hey, we found another one!" He got cut off by Twice's voice, and they turned to see him approaching with another wheelchair. One that made the trio of teens stare.
"Are those... restraints?" Bakugou asked, staring at the belts around the arms, footrests, and torso.
"Yep!" Twice confirmed with a nod. "This chair's super creepy! I love it!" The longer they looked at it, the more disturbing the wheelchair became. It looked more beat up than the other one, and the belts had obviously been added later and had been fused onto the chair with a Quirk of some sort.
At that moment Mustard returned to time the next racer, only to do a double-take as he saw the wheelchair. "The hell? Where'd you find that?"
"I found it in an old storage room in the hall where that hero's staying! It was full of super cool stuff! I'm never going back there again!"
"Did you find any that... didn't have those?" Izuku asked tightly.
"Nope! There was another one that had a belt for the neck though. It creeped me out just looking at it! I want to try it!" Well, that was even more disturbing.
"I don't think this place was too legal when it was open," Shinsou declared through his phone, and Izuku, Bakugou and Mustard could only nod in mute agreement.
"Hey kid, start the next race already!" someone called, and Mustard sighed as he turned around to time the next round.
"Five point thirteen," he called as the latest racer zoomed past. He went back to the other end to wait, and Magne and Toga poked around the corner before quickly joining Izuku and the others.
"Oh, goodie, you're back!" Toga greeted Twice, and paused to study the chair. "Ooh, that chair looks super fun!"
"Yeah, you would think that," Magne muttered with an almost fond huff.
"This shithole's even more screwed up than I thought," Bakugou muttered. In the background they heard Mustard call for the next racer to start, and the wheelchair went zooming past them, only for a loud crash to follow. The group quickly leaned out of the entrance to their branching hallway to peek at the far end, spying the wheelchair toppled over against the pillows and its occupant sprawled on the floor.
"I'm okay," the man called feebly.
"Your leg's half-melted, idiot!" someone else called flatly, which was true. The man's left leg had begun to melt into a puddle of something, a puddle which was slowly spreading. It didn't seem to be painful, so probably his Quirk. Mister Compress stepped out of the nearest doorway to inspect the puddle.
"I believe we'll need to clean this up before the next race," he called, and the crowd began booing and vocalizing their dismay.
"Yeesh, looks nasty," Magne said. "Hey Twice, help me clean up."
"Huh? Uh, sure. Please don't hurt me!" Magne led him down the hallway to check on the fallen racer, leaving them alone with Toga. The blonde turned around to face Shinsou with a bright grin, making him step back. Oh no, stalker Toga was back.
"So Jackie, when are you gonna race?" she asked, and he quickly tapped a reply on his phone.
"Never. My Quirk doesn't work for it. And I can't use it anyway."
"Plenty of people don't have good Quirks for it, but they're still getting people push them!" she countered with a laugh. "Come on Jackie, it's fun! And I wanna see you win!" She bounced over to the wheelchair Twice had found and pushed it forward. "Just sit down, I'll even give you the push!"
"I am not sitting in that one." Shinsou typed the reply at record speeds.
"I'm not gonna strap you in, silly!" she laughed, and then grinned slyly as she added, "I mean, unless you want me to."
Izuku decided it would be best to intervene now before it got any worse. "Um, I don't think we should use that one," he said, walking over to pull her away from it. "I-it doesn't look like it's in good shape compared to the other one," not a lie, the seat looked disturbingly worn—was that a bloodstain? He mentally pushed it away as he continued, "And plus the other one seems fine even if it got knocked over, s-so! And there's not actually room for two wheelchairs in the hallway anyway, so..."
Toga hummed at his rambling and tilted her head. "So then, does that mean this wheelchair won't work?" she asked.
"Well, I mean, the other one seems like it's still fine," Izuku replied.
"Not the race, silly!" she said, and leaned closer to whisper. "I mean for whatever you're planning!" Izuku froze up at that, eyes going wide.
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" he replied in a high-pitched voice, a too-tight smile pasted on his face. "We're not planning anything!" Toga just giggled at his denial, and he heard the smack of Shinsou's palm hitting his face.
"Deku, how the hell are you so shitty at lying when you live with a bunch of villains," Kacchan growled in frustration.
"Zuzu's just too sweet and pure!" Toga sing-songed, and then added in a conspiratorial whisper, "But it's okay. I won't tell anyone you're planning something, even if you don't tell me what it is." She continued in a louder voice, "This race is super fun anyway! This is the most exciting thing to happen in weeks!"
"Ah, y-yeah, it is," Izuku agreed with a nod, relaxing a bit since she didn't pry. He didn't want to admit that they were looking for a wheelchair for Aizawa for the escape, even if she'd helped in the past with the anklet. They just didn't trust her enough.
They were spared from further conversation when Shigaraki suddenly appeared in the hallway behind Toga, making Izuku, Shinsou and Bakugou all startle. She noticed their reactions and turned to look, and jumped back when she saw him. The blue-haired man looked slightly more annoyed than usual as he marched over.
"The hell's going on over here?" he grumbled irritably. "All this shouting's throwing me off. I just got killed by Aiko, again." His lips curled in obvious displeasure, and Izuku could only assume he meant in a video game since he was alive. He side-eyed the wheelchair as he added, "And what the hell's that thing doing out here?"
"Wheelchair race," Shinsou replied through his phone, having already begun typing the response after his initial question.
"Wheelchair race?" Shigaraki repeated skeptically.
"We were bored, and apparently so were the rest of these mooks," Bakugou grunted, hitching a thumb back towards the hall. "Got a problem with that?" Shigaraki paused to consider it, eyes narrowing.
"No, I don't," he finally decided, and Izuku nearly slumped with relief. They were spared from further conversation by the return of Mustard and Magne, who looked mildly surprised at his arrival. When he didn't say anything they quickly turned their attention elsewhere though.
"Hey, Toga-chan, come here for a sec," Magne said.
"Okay, Magne!" Toga sang as she bounced after her. Magne led her to the smaller dead end area where they'd set up the pillow barrier on this end of the hall. That little section had two private rooms, one on each end, and Izuku knew that one of those belonged to Magne. (How he knew that, he didn't know, but at this point he was oddly used to randomly knowing details like this.)
Except Magne didn't lead Toga through the door like he expected, instead motioning for her to wait in the hallway while she stepped in the doorway. "Okay, just stand right there," the older villain said.
"Um, okay, but why?" Toga asked. "Isn't this in the way—huh?" She startled as she suddenly began glowing pink, and spun to face the other end of the hallway. All at once Izuku realized what was happening, and Toga screamed as Twice came hurtling towards her on the wheelchair.
Mustard hit the stop button just as Twice crashed into her, the pair crashing into the pillow barrier. "Four point twenty-nine," he declared, and the loudest round of cheers sounded yet while Bakugou cursed. Even Shigaraki looked mildly interested now.
As he took in the obvious popularity of the race, Izuku silently lauded Shinsou as a strategic genius. They still had a lot of work to do, but by the end of the day, they'd at least have a wheelchair for the escape.
Even if it might be one from a horror movie, he thought as he glanced at the one Twice found with a mild grimace. Hopefully they'd find one less disturbing to use, or at least one without mysterious stains that may or may not be blood. The day was still young, they had plenty of time to look for other wheelchairs to hide.
At last, the long-awaited wheelchair race! Woo! (Also Izuku WILL be told about Mic soon, but for now, they're letting him focus on his end. He's got enough to worry about already.) Not much else to say. Mic's going to be staying here for a while, but hey, at least he'll probably be the first one to see Aizawa when he gets out, right?
Question for next time: what ideas for other Quirked animals do you have that could be added to Kouda's chaotic menagerie for the most destruction?