Chapter 85

.::UA is Not a Dream::.

Morning one of being held prisoner by a bunch of teens and their mysterious benefactors/manipulators/etc.

Hizashi was given a bowl of cereal for breakfast. And also a granola bar. And a chocolate bar. And a cheese stick. And a bag of chips. And some jerky.

...This was really weird, but after nearly twenty-four hours without food he was hungry, so he accepted all of it. Even if he had to be hand-fed, which was still a wound to his ego, but the kids weren't going to untie his hands.

"This is a really weird breakfast spread though," he commented after finishing off the jerky. "Not complaining, but not exactly what I'd call nutritious."

"Yeah, we know," Mime replied. "We were just gonna do the cereal and granola bar, but then some of the others starting giving us more stuff to give you, and it's, uh, kinda hard to say no." He laughed sheepishly, while Hizashi wondered just what that meant.

Meanwhile...

"Naota, you don't have to give him all the snacks you've hoarded," Ojiro pointed out, ever diplomatic and responsible.

"But he's a Pro Hero so he's extra special!" the small boy whined in response, cat ears flat against his head. "And he's an adult so he must be really hungry because adults need more food, so we need to be extra nice and give him lots of food!" He put a container of pudding into a cardboard box as he spoke, nestling it among many other bags and containers of snacks and junk food.

"Well, yeah, I guess, but you've been saving those for yourself. You don't need to give him all of it."

"But.. but..." Naota's lower lip wobbled, ears somehow pressing even flatter against his head.

...Forget puppy-dog eyes, drooping cat ears were way more effective. "Fine, just keep something for yourself," Ojiro sighed in defeat, and Naota returned to packing.

Back in the tunnel...

"Also, if you don't eat all of it, someone will cry," Mime added more solemnly, getting a round of nods from the others in the room.

"Please don't make him cry," one of them said, a girl in one of those masks that looked like a serene woman. Navi, if Hizashi remembered right. They hadn't exactly introduced themselves; he'd only overheard one of the others use that name while talking to her a couple minutes earlier. "Nothing bad happens, but it feels so awful."

"Yeah," agreed the other, a male in a dragon mask whose name Hizashi hadn't heard yet. "Just eat the food or we'll feel guilty."

"Who'd cry?"

"Not telling," all three teens chorused, and Hizashi huffed but decided not to press. He couldn't help but wonder if they were talking about a kid though; not many teenagers would make someone feel guilty if they cried. Exceptions existed of course, but he also recognized the cheese stick as a snack brand marketed towards elementary school kids. That just got Hizashi wondering how old these kids really were—or rather, how young.

Now that she'd spoken to him directly, Navi sounded younger than he'd initially realized. As a radio host who had callers of all ages, he'd developed an ear for this sort of thing. Between her voice and short stature, he'd peg her around middle school age. As for the other kid, he seemed a bit older since his voice had already deepened with puberty; closer in age to Mime, maybe? (Look, the masks and hoods made it really hard to tell ages, okay?)

Point was, he already didn't like the implication that they had a girl in middle school, and possibly someone even younger than that. What was going on here? Was this some sort of shady recruiting operation? Did these kids even know the full details? He really wanted to know, but he doubted he'd get answers if he asked.

"So, what's the plan, anyway?" he asked instead. "You kids just gonna keep me locked up here forever?" He knew they obviously wouldn't, but he still had no idea what they were even doing or planning. It was clear he'd stumbled onto something, he just didn't know what yet.

"Not forever," Mime said quickly.

"Yeah, it's super-temporary!" Navi added with a vigorous head bob. To Hizashi's amusement it led her mask to slip a bit, briefly revealing a strand of light blue hair. She squeaked and quickly fixed it, tugging the hem of her hood a little lower just to be safe.

The others didn't seem too impressed. "Navi, why did you pick the mask that didn't fit," Dragon sighed. "You know that one's made for adults with big heads."

"It's the only mask we have with a girl's face that doesn't look like it belongs in a horror movie!" Hizashi could appreciate that reasoning, and silently thanked her for not trying to terrify him like some of the other kids.

The curtain shifted then, a boy in a red oni mask poking his head through the small gap. "If it's slipping, I can help," he offered, and beckoned for her before withdrawing his head. She followed after him in silence, leaving the others behind.

"Look, we're not going to hold you hostage forever," dragon-mask said, waving a hand dismissively as he sat down to reorganize the cards he and Navi had been playing with. "It's just a temporary thing until we figure things out." Already the curtain shifted for Navi to return, and Hizashi noticed the mask seemed slightly different, but he couldn't say how. The other guy stuck his head in behind her.

"Don't tell the hero everything," he said flatly.

"We're not stupid, Fuse," dragon huffed, crossing his arms. Huh, that might be the first time he'd heard someone with an actual name instead of a codename. Though, wasn't that a girl's name?

"Knowing you, you might've already said too much," Fuse replied.

Hizashi expected a witty comeback from dragon-kid, but there was a pause after that. After a few seconds Navi suddenly snorted. "You do remember the mask hides your tongue, right?"

"...Shut up." His shoulders hunched defensively as he crossed his arm, and now Navi laughed freely. Mime just buried his hands in his face with a groan, and Hizashi felt a pang of sympathy. He was clearly the most responsible and mature one in the room. Well, him and maybe that Fuse guy.

"Are you done with breakfast yet?" Fuse asked. "If you are, then cube him already."

"Yeah, yeah," Mime muttered, and Hizashi sat sharply upright at the prospect of being trapped in the cube again.

"Hey now, you don't need to put me in that little cube of yours," he said hastily. "I know you're worried about me using my Quirk, but you don't need to. I don't want to hurt any kids, and it's not like I can control it without my directional speaker, ya dig?"

"It's not just the Quirk," Fuse responded.

"Yeah, you're a Pro Hero so you've gotta have tons of training besides your Quirk!" Navi bobbed her head as she spoke, the mask bouncing a lot more than before but not falling. Only now did Hizashi finally notice the difference: the edges of the mask looked like it had been fused directly to the hood.

And at that moment, the meaning behind Fuse's name clicked and he barked out a sharp laugh that had the kids all startling. "Oh my gosh. Fuse's a pun! That's brilliant!" They'd of course used the Japanese pronunciation, which had a super-short (barely present) "fu" and placed all the emphasis on the "se" syllable, but written in English letters... Well, "fuse" was an English word on its own.

"...Mime, cube him," Fuse ordered briskly. Hizashi barely stopped laughing before the teen was blowing another cube into existence, trapping him once more. He pouted as he watched Mime leave behind the curtain along with Navi, leaving only the dragon-mask kid and Fuse behind.

Wait, scratch that. Mime paused to hold open the curtain and the damn crow flew through the gap. It landed on the floor in front of Hizashi's cube, staring right at him with glowing eyes. He just glared back, feeling his irritation grow.

Yep. It was absolutely mocking him. Damn bird. At least no one would know his shame of being defeated by a bird.

In retrospect, Kyouka wished she'd put more thought into what to do when she reached Nighteye's place. She stared up at the agency from the corner at the opposite end of the street, the building looking like any average office building. It made no attempt to advertise its status as a hero agency, but according to Uraraka it didn't stand out in their world, either. She wouldn't have known it was the agency if Mail hadn't helpfully supplied the address.

Thing was, it was nestled among a bunch of other office buildings in a business district. There weren't any restaurants or shops on the street for Kyouka to set up camp and do a long-term stakeout, and teenagers didn't really have any reason to dawdle around here. She wondered if this Porter guy could get away with that either.

Either way, she didn't want to stick around much longer and risk someone asking what she was doing there. Right now she had absolutely no good cover stories. She'd brought that burner phone she'd used for the initial call, so she used it to snap a photo of the street and sent it in a message to Ashido. 'Hey. Does the freeloader know any specific places his brother might go? Because it's all office buildings here.'

She pocketed the phone as she turned to walk to a coffee shop she'd passed just around the corner. It might not be as brutally cold out as Hosu had been yesterday, but she still didn't want to stay outside any longer than necessary. Might as well go somewhere warm and get a drink while waiting for Ashido to respond. The other girl had spent the night with the runaways due to the whole situation with Mic.

...Yeah, Kyouka was still pretty on edge about all that. She really hoped no one at Nighteye's place had a telepathy Quirk and happened to see her thoughts about that. Maybe coming here was a mistake after all.

No bell rang when she opened the door to the coffee shop. It seemed brighter than the one she and Kaminari had basically chosen as their base of operations for the Gentle Criminal stakeout. Also noisier, but that might be because of who was ordering. Kyouka stopped short upon seeing the three females at the register: a teenager with ridiculously long blue hair, a girl with shoulder-length sandy hair, and a woman with light green hair.

It only took a glance for Kyouka to recognize the first as Hadou Nejire from UA. Then another few seconds to identify the woman as Ms. Joke when she laughed at something. She didn't fully recognize the last girl, but something about her still felt familiar. Which with Kyouka's luck, meant she'd probably also been in a hero program.

In short, two hero students, and a woman Kyouka knew was a hero teacher in her own world.

Yep, Nighteye's Agency was definitely around here.

"So like, maybe the mocha latte today?" Hadou said, hands linked behind her back as she stared up at the menu board. "Is that a thing? Ooh, or maybe a cappuccino? Or! Or the honey au lait one! That sounds good, too!"

As she rattled off ideas Ms. Joke laughed. "Maybe you should get a decaf instead, Nejiji-chan," she snickered.

"Like, what about the soy decaf latte?" the other girl asked thoughtfully. "Like, are those any good?"

"Sure?" the barista at the register replied with a shrug. "I'm not big on soy milk myself, so..."

"Hmm, so you can't give me a good review then..."

"Ooh, a soy latte sounds like it might be good too!" Hadou exclaimed. She leaned to the side to look towards the back wall where two other baristas were hard at work preparing drinks. "Hey, hey! Did either of you guys try the soy decaf lattes here? Are they good?"

"Kinda busy!" one of them called back.

"Yeah, let's let them focus on making all the other drinks for now," Ms. Joke said, putting a hand on Hadou's shoulder to pull her back. She turned to face Kyouka with a smile as she added, "And hey, if you want to order, you can go ahead of us! This will take a while."

"Nah, I'm good," Kyouka replied after a moment, a bit startled at being addressed directly. "I'm not in any rush, take your time."

"You sure?" Ms. Joke asked. "We've got a lot of orders! Enough to need three people to carry all of them back, even with these handy coffee carriers!" She gestured at a small stack of what Kyouka figured must be collapsible fabric drink carriers on the counter.

"Yeah, this, like, always takes a while!" added the girl she didn't know. "Like, we barely gave the order five minutes ago. So you can go ahead."

"Thanks, but I really don't mind the wait," Kyouka replied with a shrug. "I've seriously got no where else to be today. If anything, it just gives me a valid excuse to hang out here longer and enjoy the heating." That had Ms. Joke burst out into laughter, flashing a toothy grin at her.

"Now that's looking on the bright side!" She turned back to the others as she added, "But we do have stuff to do today, so make up your minds now, or I'll get you both decafs!"

"Not even a latte with cute latte art?" brunette girl gasped.

"Sorry Camie-chan, not today!" Ms. Joke replied. The name finally jarred Kyouka's memory, recognizing her as the girl from Bakugou and Todoroki's remedial lessons. She'd been fairly active with texting Bakugou after getting his phone number.

"But, but the art here is so cute!" Hadou whined, and spun to face the barista. "I've decided! I'm getting a latte! Can you draw a little spiral kitty in it?"

"...A spiral kitty...?" The barista looked lost.

"I'll handle it when I'm done with these," one of the others called with a sigh. "Nejire-chan always requests spiral animals." While the baristas chattered Kyouka went to sit at a table, opening the group chat with the others currently investigating various places. Ashido still hadn't responded yet to her individual message, but she could update the others and try to get some ideas.

'So I'm at a coffee shop by the place, and the lady who flirted with sensei at the exam, that girl from the Big Three and that girl from the remedial classes are all here'

It didn't take long for Todoroki to respond. 'That would mean there's people from UA, Ketsubutsu, and Shiketsu there. Is there a school nearby?' That had Kyouka pausing, sneaking a glance at the counter. She could see five to-go cups being loaded into one of the collapsible carriers, and it looked like the baristas were still working on more.

'I guess? They're ordering a LOT of coffee'

Then came a reply from Ashido. 'There is! You-know-who just confirmed it! He also wants you to say hi to Camie, but no.' Kyouka snorted and rolled her eyes. Yeah, not happening. 'Anyways! So turns out he doesn't really know WHERE his brother would go, just that he'd probably be in the area to look around? Which isn't actually helpful with that photo you sent me.'

Kyouka's amused smirk faded. Already she could tell there were no convenient spots to watch Nighteye's office, which eliminated the obvious options. He might stop by this coffee shop or one of the restaurants, but she lacked any vantage points to watch those, either. Unlike the coffee shop in Hosu, this one didn't have any tables right by the front window. In fact, the front window had privacy shades, blocking the view of the street entirely.

'So basically, I wasted an hour on the train to Chiba?' she typed.

'...Maybe. Sorry?'

Kyouka sighed and suppressed a frustrated scowl, just in case Ms. Joke or any of the hero students happened to look her way. She really should have thought this through more. She knew she couldn't formally stake out the area for days on end; she had to study for the exams with Yaomomo and Kaminari this weekend. Today would be her only chance, but she'd come anyway, just on the slim chance she might see that Porter guy. Better to at least try for one day than risk actually missing the guy.

But with no leads and no place to set up camp, even that slim chance dwindled down to almost zero. She'd have to hope he'd just happen to come into this specific coffee shop, and even then she couldn't hang out here all day.

That said, she still didn't want to have wasted her time.

She switched out of the messenger to her web browser, just browsing aimlessly for a moment to give herself time to cool down. Take a break to clear her head so she could think of some better ideas. As she did, naturally she started eavesdropping on the conversation around her too. Consequences of a hearing-based Quirk and all that.

"...and so like, Sayonaka-sensei just stared so long," Camie was saying. "And then she said 'I am not paid enough for this' and just—walked away!"

"Ha! Just like Sayo-chan!" Ms. Joke crowed. "She always hates being called for super-trivial stuff like that!"

"Did you ever find out where the dog got the spray paint, then?" the barista asked, and suddenly Kyouka wanted to know too, because what the heck?

"Nope! We had other priorities. But who knows? Maybe we'll find another mural from F.K. with a doggie-shaped hole in it!" The heroine laughed boisterously, and Kyouka decided to Moogle 'fk chiba' just for the heck of it.

What came up were a series of articles about a graffiti artist that had become notorious in the city lately. The image results were full of pictures of different pieces, ranging from simple doodles to full-fledged murals. They were pretty neat to look at, actually. She went to check the articles to get some more details, and the top one wasn't about the artist specifically, but about people copying some of the simpler pieces in other cities.

As she read it, Kyouka suddenly felt something click in her brain. She opened Moogle again and began searching. 'Places to buy spray paint in Chiba. Ways to do graffiti fast. Thrift stores in Chiba.' She skimmed the results quickly, and soon enough she had a plan.

By the time group from Nighteye's office left Kyouka had texted Kaminari to get his help since he had a computer, and quickly got a mocha to go so she could head out and get to work.

Nearly an hour later she returned to the streets by Nighteye's agency, now wearing a completely new outfit after raiding multiple thrift stores. She kept her head down with her ears hidden under the flaps of a knitted hat, her cheeks covered in green-colored foundation that peeked above her facemask. As she reached the corner where she'd stood earlier she turned the opposite direction from the agency. She walked until she reached a gap between two buildings, and stepped inside as she pulled out a piece of chalk from her pocket.

Looking for this Porter guy would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, so why not have him find them instead? That's what they did with the 1-A Vigilantes. Thing was, that only worked though because the others from 1-A knew what to look for, and had reason to look. Porter wouldn't know that though, and he wouldn't be likely to check the news or social media too often. So they needed something more public to get his attention—

Something like a message spray-painted on the walls by wherever he'd go.

The writing was fast and easy, the bright blue chalk showing up clearly on the beige brick of the wall. Every second counted when working so close to a hero agency, and she'd realized chalk would be way faster than spray paint. Barely a minute passed before she finished and slipped the chalk back into her pocket, heading off to find somewhere to draw the next message.

UA is not a dream for 1-A

And we want to go back

+1-A_No_Dream

...Okay so heads up: FFN does not have the "at" symbol. You know, the fancy "a" used in email addresses, or for Twitter accounts. I have many gripes with this site, but I actually DO understand why they restrict it. Lots of kids use this site, so best way to make sure creeps don't get kids to email them is to just automatically remove that symbol. So: on FFN only, Tweeter uses "+" to refer to accounts!

Fun fact: Navi is the only OC in this chapter (besides the baristas), and was actually suggested by someone on the Discord server (though I changed the codename). Also, I've been thinking of a viral graffiti campaign for 90% of this fic. Originally it was a way to help reunite people, so I thought I wouldn't be able to do it. I am so glad to finally have it featured here! Related: Moogle is actually shown in MHA as the Google equivalent. So there's your go-to parody!

Question for next time: What would be some good messages/hints to leave for Porter?