Chapter 86
.::In Which Izuku Screams::.
Another day, another lesson with Eraserhead.
Which, how the fuck was this becoming normal?
Katsuki tried not to think too hard on that as they sat in the hero's cell going over workbooks like usual. Apparently Mistface felt better today, better enough for that Aiko chick to finally up and leave. The misty bastard himself had warped right into Katsuki's room after breakfast and then just dropped him outside Eraserhead's cell along with the others. Seemed like things would be going back to normal, or whatever passed for normal in this hellhole.
Apparently, "normal" included schoolwork. "We're not going to have a final exam or something, are we?" he asked as he skimmed over the science textbook for answers to the vocab worksheet.
Deku, amnesiac freak he was, had to pause and think about it. "Um, I don't think so? I mean, most of this stuff are just pre-made printouts that Kurogiri can grab pretty easily, and I think exams are specifically made by the teachers...?"
"They usually are," Eraserhead confirmed with a nod. "It's part of how they cut down on cheating, otherwise kids could potentially find tests and answer sheets online."
"Then how the hell do they keep track of your education?" Katsuki asked, and once again Deku paused.
"Mostly Kurogiri just checks I have the homework done. He has the answer keys somewhere."
"So if we find the answer key, we don't have to study," Hijack typed on his phone, a keen glint in his eye. And Katsuki had to admit, he could see the appeal. They could spend this time doing something actually useful, like planning their actual escape.
"But it'd be kinda hard to hide that we're not doing schoolwork," Deku said with a frown. "I mean, I'm pretty sure Magne's outside in the hallway right now..." Katsuki scowled as he trailed off, picking up on what Deku actually meant by that. Namely, they couldn't risk talking about the escape with Eraserhead since they never knew if someone was listening in.
Shigaraki, Kurogiri, or someone still assigned people to stand guard during lessons. They never entered the room, but they waited by the door. Most of the mooks would probably just hung out in the hall to listen for sounds of a struggle or arguments, but others listened MUCH more closely. A fact they learned when Toga of all people warned them about seeing one guy with his ear literally pressed to the door.
Yeah. Planning an escape sucked when you couldn't guarantee someone was spying on you. And that was before factoring in Seiko, freaky little brat.
So even though they wanted to tell Eraserhead the whole escape plan, it was still too risky. Best they could do was use Eyebags's phone or whiteboard, but neither option gave Eraserhead a way to discreetly respond with his hands in mittens—
Wait. "What's up with the mittens?" he asked, noticing for the first time Eraserhead had the mittens but no handcuffs. It was pretty damn weird since usually it'd be the other way around.
Deku looked mildly panicked at the question, and even Eraserhead stiffened. "Oh, don't worry about them!" the nerd replied quickly. "Aik—you-know-who," he hastily amended as Eraserhead winced, "kinda took them off last night so he could pet Sushi, and put them back on... differently?" He shot a pointed look at the door, and all at once Katsuki understood: no one was supposed to know the handcuffs were off. Hijack picked up on it too, because now they were both shooting the other two questioning looks.
Deku grimaced, but seemed to figure out what they wanted to ask. After a second he grabbed Hijack's whiteboard and marker and started scribbling. 'She forgot, so we're just leaving the mittens in case someone comes inside.' He showed it to them long enough to read before wiping it away with his arm.
So they were hiding the fact the handcuffs were off.
That... actually worked to their advantage in the long run. Too bad she didn't remove the collar or ankle chain. But barely anyone ever visited in the first place, so this was one less thing to worry about. Now they just needed to get some progress on the stupid bomb anklets.
Deku put down the whiteboard, only to suddenly look at his wrist and grimace. Katsuki could see blue residue from the marker staining the skin. Hijack snorted quietly while the nerd tried to wipe it with his sleeve to no avail, making him pout. "Be right back, need to use the bathroom," he said, and hurried off to the small bathroom attached to the cell.
While he left a thought occurred to Katsuki, and he grabbed the whiteboard. 'Do you know how to pick locks?' he wrote, and showed it to Eraserhead. The man's eyes narrowed before nodding, and then before Katsuki could write again Hijack snatched the whiteboard, much to his irritation.
Before he could complain Hijack used his sleeve to wipe away the writing, making Katsuki glance at his own bare arms with a scowl. Right, the villains had only given him short-sleeved shirts so it'd be harder for his arms to build up sweat. Deku was still scrubbing the marker residue off his wrists (he could hear the sink running), so he'd rather not have to deal with that himself. He mentally grumbled while the vigilante wrote.
'Can you pick the locks on the shackle if we bring tools?' He turned the board to face Eraserhead, who glanced at the shackle before warily nodding. He gestured to the collar then, and Hijack wrote some more. 'Doesn't have a lock. I think it's normal?' He glanced at Katsuki as he showed it to Eraserhead, and the blond huffed as he nodded in agreement. It was as normal as a fucking collar on a human could get.
Hijack wiped the board again just as Deku exited the bathroom. "Finally, what took you so long?" Katsuki snarked.
"The marker residue was really stuck, and there's no soap in there," Deku muttered with a frown.
"Not much point," Eraserhead drawled, glancing at his mittened hands pointedly.
"I'll... bring some later," Deku said with a small grimace, while Hijack took out his phone.
"How do you get to the bathroom?" he asked, and that had Katsuki pausing. How did he get to the bathroom with his broken foot?
"I drag myself," Eraserhead replied plainly. "The chain's long enough to reach." That had Deku, Hijack and even Katsuki wincing. Dragging yourself across the cement floor with a broken leg had to be painful.
"And maybe I'll get something to help with that, too," Deku mumbled. "More painkillers, for a start. I wish I could try to bring in a wheelchair, but Tomura-nii won't even agree to a bed, so something that would let you move that much... And climbing in and out would be a hassle, too..."
"Get a skateboard," Hijack suggested through the phone. "It's low to the ground and can barely be controlled with two good legs."
Katsuki snorted. "So that would make the whole 'he might use it to escape' argument worthless, right?" The vigilante nodded and gave a thumbs up, expression still totally flat.
Eraserhead just sighed. "Know what? Sure. It'd beat dragging myself everywhere. Anyways, let's get back to work." They nodded as they grabbed their workbooks to try to finish up what they'd been working on.
Half an hour later they'd managed to complete the dumb worksheets, and decided to end there and hang out in Hijack's room for a while before lunch. "So if we can get him the tools, he can pick the lock on the shackle?" Deku asked.
"That's what he said," Katsuki confirmed with a huff. No one hung out nearby to spy on them like they did at Eraserhead's cell, so it was easier to talk about their plans and fill him in on what Eraserhead said. They'd even done the usual call for Seiko to make sure she wasn't there (and she wasn't, thank fuck, creepy-ass brat always set him on edge).
"Well, that's good," the nerd mumbled. "This is a place full of villains, so I mean, it probably won't be hard to find a lockpicking kit somewhere." Hijack perked up at that, whipping out his phone.
"I could too," the electronic voice said, but he then seemed to hesitate. After a moment he lowered the phone and pointed to his cheek—to the muzzle. That had them both pausing, snapping a sharp look his way. Katsuki had tried not to stare at it too hard because it was creepy as shit, but there was a keyhole by the hinge next to his ear.
"Could you pick it even without being able to see it?" he asked, and the vigilante shrugged, grabbing the whiteboard from the desk to start writing.
'Worth a shot. If I can't, Eraserhead can.' Once they'd read it he swiped his sleeve across it to erase it. The nerd's eyes seemed to be pretty sharp now, pressing a hand to his chin as he began mumbling.
"Your Quirk's a call and response type, but I doubt many people here would know your voice. You could also disguise it maybe so they'd be even less likely to recognize it. Either way, it would be really helpful to the escape if you could just brainwash people if we run into anyone. Then you could send them away, or maybe even have one carry Eraserhead! Except, that last one might be a bad idea if they snap out of it..."
While he mumbled to himself Katsuki huffed, annoyed by the tangent. "That reminds me, did those people figure out the stupid bomb anklets?" he asked. Deku perked up briefly before his shoulders slumped.
"Not yet." Dammit. "They're all pretty busy with some other stuff, too. It seems like something big is going on with them, but I don't know the details yet. I was supposed to meet with some of them earlier so they could explain everything, but with Kurogiri, uh, like that, I couldn't really leave the base, so we're meeting this weekend."
'Can they be trusted?' Hijack asked with the whiteboard once again.
"Absolutely," the nerd replied without missing a beat. "I'd trust them with my life." There was a confidence in his voice that was hard to argue.
"And yet they can't tell you what's going on?" Katsuki challenged, folding his arms, and Deku frowned.
"Not over phone or messages. They're just as wary of talking about some stuff as I am. Just..." He trailed off, and then motioned for the whiteboard. The vigilante handed it over, and the nerd began writing for nearly a full two minutes before finally turning to show them. It was a full-fledged ramble, the text crammed into the confines of the whiteboard in increasingly smaller characters as he realized how much there was to say.
'Don't repeat this or say anything. A couple of them are apparently caught up with a runaway network? I only found out on Tuesday when I had to deliver that letter about Aiko-nee since Uraraka has that censoring Quirk going on. I don't know the details, we were in too much of a rush when I met Nettmegg to explain. But they're probably worried about those people getting caught up in all this.'
That raised a lot of questions, like "who the fuck is Nettmegg?" and "what do you mean by runaway network?" He held his tongue though, mindful of the nerd's request at the start of the ramble. While Seiko hadn't shown up, who knew if someone might be right outside the door?
After a few seconds the nerd wiped away the message. "So yeah, their situation seems kinda complicated too? They're absolutely serious about helping us though!" he added quickly. "I mean it, they're really dedicated to figuring it out! It's just, right now, no one can make much progress until they figure out the anklets." That was sucky, but a fair enough point.
"Can't they at least start planning the getaway? Like, get a vehicle or something?" That had the nerd pausing.
"I don't think any of them know how to drive, though. They're all around our age." He paused as he added, "Except for the ghost, I guess, but he can't drive either."
Katsuki's briefly brain stopped working. "What the actual fuck? Ghost?"
"I don't know," Deku said tiredly. "They just said this guy named 'Mairu' followed a couple of them and claims he's a ghost? I mean, we don't know if he actually is, it could just be his Quirk, but he's apparently still sticking to the story he's actually dead."
"Seriously?" What the hell?
"Yeah. Actually hold on, let me send a message to Pinkie to check if he's said anything else." Now Katsuki was really staring as Deku pulled out his cell phone, questioning what the hell they were hearing. The nerd unlocked it while mumbling, "Huh, that's a lot of messages while we were at..."
He trailed off and stared at the phone with a frown, suddenly enthralled by whatever he found. Soon enough his eyes began growing wide with disbelief, which was never a good sign. "What now, Deku?" Katsuki asked sharply.
"...We all completely deserve to be expelled," the nerd finally whispered, voice haunted, and then pocketed his phone and stood up from the vigilante's bed. "I'm sorry, I think I need to go to the roof to scream for a while. I-I'll be back later." He hurried off before they could respond, leaving Katsuki and Hijack to look at each other as they silently wondered what the hell?
1-A_Dancing_Queen: SO
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Mido
1-A_Dancing_Queen: My good friend
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Awesome classmate
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Living incarnation of sunlight and all that is nice and good with the world
1-A_Dancing_Queen: We have news
1-A_Dancing_Queen: About a thing that happened yesterday
1-A_Dancing_Queen: and I have no idea how to break it
1-A_Dancing_Queen: But hiding stuff is bad so you NEED to know
1-A_SpaceRescueHero: Oh, did you guys figure out a plan then?
1-A_Dancing_Queen: um
1-A_Dancing_Queen: no
1-A_Dancing_Queen: not yet
halfnhalfpeppermint: I thought we agreed to wait until there was a solid plan to minimize stress?
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Yeah I know, and I'm TOTALLY still on board with that, but
1-A_Dancing_Queen: then I remembered
1-A_Dancing_Queen: It's Friday
1-A_SpaceRescueHero: ...And? So what about it being Friday
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Well every Friday night, there's a certain show
1-A_Dancing_Queen: and I looked it up and it airs even earlier here
1-A_SpaceRescueHero: ...oh shit
1-A_Dancing_Queen: and I think Mido mentioned listening to it every night with sensei?
halfnhalfpeppermint: He did.
halfnhalfpeppermint: That's how he was able to convince them to let him go to the signing on Tuesday.
1-A_SpaceRescueHero: oh no I just looked it up and it's actually airing EVERY DAY this month? So it also aired yesterday, too?
1-A_SpaceRescueHero: oh no we should've mentioned it earlier
powerofmusic: Chill
powerofmusic: He records some shows in advance just in case. He mentioned it in class, remember?
powerofmusic: I'm pretty sure he did the same with the shows this week. No way he can go to the radio station EVERY night
1-A_SpaceRescueHero: Oh yeah, that's true. Phew!
powerofmusic: anyways need to go, busy drawing messages with chalk and trying not to get caught
powerofmusic: You guys should too. I'll send pics in the other chat of what I mean
powerofmusic: Gonna send it to Nettmegg too
halfnhalfpeppermint: Okay?
1-A_Dancing_Queen: But we still can't hide it guys.
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Remember when Space decided to wait to tell Yuki about his brother in person?
1-A_Dancing_Queen: And then Hawks called
1-A_SpaceRescueHero: ...
1-A_SpaceRescueHero: dammit you're right
powerofmusic: yeah, with our luck there'll be a big announcement tonight
1-A_SpaceRescueHero: I mean, we even left Dancing_Queen behind just in case something happened so there'd be a backup
1-A_SpaceRescueHero: and look how THAT turned out
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Yep
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Which brings us to the main point!
1-A_Dancing_Queen: +deku_breaks_bone
1-A_Dancing_Queen: We can't go into FULL detail yet, for obvious reasons
1-A_Dancing_Queen: But uh
1-A_Dancing_Queen: We kinda
1-A_Dancing_Queen: accidentally
1-A_Dancing_Queen: kidnapped loud-sensei after he tracked me down and got knocked out by a bird
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Which was totally NOT planned at all! But we guess he made the connection between you and Nettmegg, and decided to check out her brother's house and happened to see me?
halfnhalfpeppermint: Wait. The bird is new.
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Oh yeah. There's a crow with a Quirk that can knock people out?
1-A_Dancing_Queen: I totally had no idea Loud-sensei was following me until he was knocked out!
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Also Haya-chan is adorable and I will die for her
1-A_SpaceRescueHero: Who's Haya-chan? The bird?
1-A_Dancing_Queen: No, she's a marten and she's adorable and fluffy
deku_breaks_bones: what
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Oh good you're here
deku_breaks_bones: what do you MEAN you kidnapped Loud-sensei? Is Loud-sensei who I think it is!?
1-A_Dancing_Queen: yes
1-A_SpaceRescueHero: Yep
halfnhalfpeppermint: Yes.
powerofmusic: Unfortunately yeah.
deku_breaks_bones: HOW
deku_breaks_bones: WHY
deku_breaks_bones: THAT'S TWO DIFFERENT TEACHERS NOW
deku_breaks_bones: WHAT THE HECK
1-A_Chargebolt: Just popped in because there's a break in class, and uh
1-A_Chargebolt: bad timing I guess but yeah
1-A_Chargebolt: Please don't kill Pinkie, she owes me money
deku_breaks_bones: why does the universe hate us
1-A_Chargebolt: *Multiverse
1-A_Dancing_Queen: We're totally working on a plan, don't worry!
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Just leave it to us!
powerofmusic: You know you're not the most reassuring person to say that
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Fine
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Nettmegg is ALSO working on this plan. And so are Kaitou, Froppy, and a whole bunch of other super-smart and reliable people
1-A_Dancing_Queen: So just leave it to them! And also us
1-A_Dancing_Queen: Just wanted to let you know in case it comes up tonight
deku_breaks_bones: ...I need to scream now.
1-A_Dancing_Queen: That's fair
halfnhalfpeppermint: We're here if you need moral support.
deku_breaks_bones: Thanks. Might take you up on that later. Screaming now
1-A_Chargebolt: you do that
powerofmusic: Hey Jamming-Whey
powerofmusic: You get any good notes on today's review?
1-A_Chargebolt: ...
1-A_Chargebolt: We are so screwed
powerofmusic: well crap
1-A_Dancing_Queen: so glad I ran away from school and don't have to do exams
Normally, the sight of Izuku screaming on the snow-covered rooftop would have been more than enough to pique Seiko's interest and curiosity.
Normally, she would be present at the Villain Alliance's headquarters to witness that scene.
Today, however, she was not. Miles and miles away Seiko followed Kuroe in silence as he headed down an alley towards a side door, rapping on it three times. After a few moments it opened to reveal a tall, muscular man, eyes skimming over the pair before resting on Seiko. Immediately his lips pulled back in a sneer, disdain evident on his face.
"You know this isn't a playground, right Karasu?" he asked gruffly. "Not exactly a place to bring your kid sister."
"She's not my sister," Kuroe responded flatly. "Usual guard can't make it on short notice, so this is the substitute."
"You're using a kid as a bodyguard?" The man raised an eyebrow, clearly judgmental. Kuroe didn't react to the obvious jab, just met his gaze stonily.
"I bet you can't even look directly at her face for a full ten seconds," he declared. The man scoffed, eyes darting over to Seiko. She met his gaze with her face as blank as ever, eyes still hollow and empty.
There was something people never really noticed right away when looking at Seiko's face. But upon closer inspection, the little details would begin to stand out. The pastiness of her complexion far beyond the normal shades of pale. The way her face showed remained perfectly still so effortlessly, not one muscle giving even the slightest twitch.
The lack of any light in her eyes whatsoever.
After five seconds the man abruptly shuddered and averted his eyes. "The hell, like looking at a corpse," he muttered.
"Do you see many child corpses?" Seiko asked, tilting her head, and he shuddered again at the dull monotone to her voice.
"Fuck no, not kids, but..." He turned to Kuroe questioningly, suddenly looking very wary. "Karasu, I have to be real. Is that a reanimated corpse?"
"Hell if I know," he responded blithely. "Word of advice, don't ask her questions or you'll regret it. You know the saying, ignorance is bliss." The yakuza thug just grunted, stepping aside to let them enter. They walked down the hall in silence until they reached a pair of double doors, knocking three times before opening them to reveal a sitting room not unlike the one Kuroe had visited in Odawara.
Chisaki Kai was alone today, the Shie Hassaikai's leader absent. He glanced at the door as Kuroe entered, and the skin between his eyebrows crinkled with obvious disdain when Seiko slid in behind him. "A child," he murmured in clear disapproval. "Is she your guard today?"
"Yes, she is," Kuroe responded as he sat across from the yakuza, Seiko standing next to the couch and facing Chisaki.
"Heiwajima Seiko," she introduced herself with a small incline of her head, dull and inflectionless as always. Chisaki scoffed softly as he eyed her for a moment before turning his gaze back to Kuroe.
"I suppose she's not a normal child if you brought her," he remarked.
"Absolutely not," Kuroe confirmed bluntly. "I chose to bring her over Stendhal today for more than just convenience. If you have no objections, I suggest we start the meeting now. I believe we have a lot to go over." He picked up the folder on the table between them, flicking through its contents and frowning. "So you finally found the guy's phone in a bus station in Esuha City?"
"Yes, and he was investigating a lead in Nagano prefecture," Chisaki confirmed with a huff. "I don't know the specific place where he vanished. He'd been trailing a few leads before we lost contact."
"So it went went from from Nagano to Osaka," Kuroe murmured to himself. "Forget crossing a border, those are in entirely different regions. Do any buses even run between those two directly?"
"Not to Esuha City specifically. I already checked the lines." Chisaki's voice took on a faintly irritated note. "Someone would have had to specifically transfer onto a bus that would, and left the phone behind. He had no reason to get on any such bus. It was in the lost and found, so we have no idea how long it'd been left behind."
"Well, that's definitely more effective than just destroying it or tossing it in a lake. I can try to narrow down potential transfer points, but..." Kuroe trailed off, making it quite clear he did not consider it particularly worth the effort.
"It will be easier to try to retrace that fool's steps," Chisaki said simply, and Kuroe nodded. He flipped to one of the pages and held it towards Seiko, prompting her to peer at it. It had a printout of a map of the Chuubu region with several locations circled, some in Nagano, some in other nearby prefectures.
"See anything familiar?" he asked. Seiko inclined her head as she skimmed over the list. Nothing related to the Alliance, at least in its current state. A few caught her eye, but she didn't bother mentioning them.
"Nothing in Nagano."
"What about other places?" Seiko leaned over to point to a circled area in the prefecture below Nagano, Yamanashi, in the corner just below their borders and next to Saitama.
"Koredia used to have a base used by the Meta Liberation Army. It was destroyed years ago, though."
"I've never heard about that," Chisaki murmured as Seiko stepped back, eyes narrowing at her suspiciously.
"Destro kept it secret, intending it be used as a backup base should he ever get arrested, so they could regroup and prepare their next attack." She inclined her head at him and smiled, making him flinch as she added in a lighter tone, "However, he forgot that he had more enemies than just the government." All For One had never been one to turn down a chance to obtain powerful Quirks, and all those so-called freedom fighters gathered in one place provided a veritable buffet.
Chisaki seemed on edge as he stared at her, clearly wanting to ask how she knew about that, but finally he turned to Kuroe. "Karasu, who is this girl again?"
"There are some questions you don't want answered," he responded nonchalantly with a loose shrug. "But that is interesting. This group you were investigating, the one that you had to eliminate when they tried to enter Odawara. Did you ever figure out what exactly they had planned? You crossed out 'drug dealing' on this page."
"We initially believed that was their intent, but now we're not so sure. As I noted back then, there were signs it's connected to a larger organization, and we don't know what its objective is." Chisaki sat back and crossed his arms. "I suppose this raises the question of whether any remnants of Destro's followers remain."
"Plenty would," Kuroe responded, sounding more resigned than anything. As they began discussing more details and possibilities Seiko remained silent, seeing no point to offer further input. For now she simply did what she did best: watch, and listen.
Shouta heaved a large sigh as he reclined against the pillows like always, staring up at the ceiling blearily.
The kids had asked him about whether he knew how to pick locks. It was the first genuine sign of them thinking of escape since he'd met them. The fact they were still looking towards the future was good, meant they still had plenty of willpower and hadn't had their spirits broken. It gave Shouta a bit of hope too, motivated him to want to do more.
Now the question remained whether Midoriya could be convinced to help, or if he'd be another obstacle.
He didn't miss how Bakugou had waited for Midoriya to leave to ask about picking the locks, and how neither of the boys spoke aloud. He didn't know what the pair thought of Midoriya, but they seemed to be wary. It would be up to Shouta to figure out how trustworthy the boy was.
BONUS:
~A Conversation between Shigaraki and Izuku~
"Izuku, why are you screaming on the rooftop?"
"Because my friends are idiots."
"What? Is your party that bad at school stuff?"
"No, they're smart. I'm talking about online friends."
"Oh. What did they do?"
"I don't even know where to begin. They're just idiots, that's all you need to know."
"Oh."
"..."
"..."
"...mumble mumble, can't believe second time, mumble mumble..."
"...Do you want to play video games and take your mind off it?"
"Heck yes."
The kids are learning! I thought about having Izuku learn through the radio show somehow, but this is also fun. Also: Bakugou accidentally makes Aizawa more suspicious of Izuku! Whee!
Also, thank goodness Microsoft Word's advanced find/replace feature lets you include formatting. Because formatting that chat would've been annoying. I was able to just italicize the whole section, and find/replace the usernames without the fancy formatting.
By the way, if it's not obvious: Kuroe uses "Karasu" when working as an information broker. Karasu means "crow", and "Kuroe" sounds kinda like "crow". I only came up with it recently, so I actually plan to go back to the last chapter where he met Chisaki to insert it there! ^^
On that note, just to give some context for their meeting: In Chisaki's first appearance (55), the Shie Hassaikai reported to Kuroe about groups they'd stopped from entering Odawara. One group couldn't be turned over to police and had to be killed, and they suspected it to be connected to a larger organization, so they proposed investigating it. Later in Chapter 75, Kuroe had gotten some emails from Chisaki that one of their guys had disappeared while investigating said group/organization, which is what prompted this meeting.
Question for next time: what would you do if you got isekai'd into MHA?