Chapter 88

.::Laisser Dire::.

Breakfast at the Villain Alliance, like many things at the Villain Alliance, could be an interesting affair. They didn't really insist on giant group meals to promote unity and all that, generally expecting the grunts to fend for themselves. People would come and go from the kitchen over the course of the morning, grabbing food and maybe cooking it before leaving to eat elsewhere.

So far since waking up here, Izuku had seen people leaving the kitchen with everything from boxes of cereal, to toast, to leftovers, to a giant salmon. The last one had started an argument about the grunt in question hogging it for himself, which ended in a four-way fistfight. It was only stopped by Mr. Compress catching all the involved parties in marbles, and Izuku had not seen any of those grunts since.

(Izuku still didn't know whether that guy planned to eat the salmon raw, especially since it still had scales. But he had seen another guy eat a jar of mayonnaise for "breakfast" on three different days, so at this point, he wouldn't be surprised.)

Izuku himself would alternate between grabbing a quick breakfast for himself, and sitting down in the bar area to eat with Shigaraki. The older male would insist on it, muttering about "families have meals together" while glaring at anyone that dared to linger. The sibling breakfasts didn't happen every day since Shigaraki had work, but Izuku had experienced them at least twice a week. Initially it had felt awkward and nerve-wracking him, but after nearly a month here, they now felt oddly natural.

Saturday morning marked the fourth shared breakfast this particular week, the pair sitting at a booth by the counter eating omurice prepared by Kurogiri. Omurice tended to be one of the more common breakfasts the misty villain would make, and always tasted pretty good. Weirdly enough though, today instead of drizzling the ketchup on it, he'd used it to draw... something.

"I think it's a cat?" Izuku muttered as he looked at his plate. "Maybe?"

"Might be a dog," Shigaraki countered as he stabbed his own breakfast with a fork and cut off a corner. "A bunch of them have pointy ears too." Izuku hummed, squinting down at the drawing. It looked like a big circle with triangles on the top, and three smaller circles that might be eyes and a mouth.

"Maybe those triangles aren't ears. I guess horns are pointy too."

"Ah, so we both get red oni. Fitting after last night." Shigaraki snorted and rolled his eyes as he took a bite, while Izuku groaned in dismay.

"Don't remind me. I was just starting to forget." Yesterday after screaming on the rooftop, Shigaraki had found Izuku and easily convinced him to play video games with him. They'd started a new game, "Rise of Kijin" where they played a pair of blue oni that wanted to become powerful enough to become known as Kijin—oni gods. Doing so involved facing a rival faction of red oni, which had been... pretty brutal, to be honest.

What made it bad was that the game wasn't a semi-realistic, hyper-detailed gore-fest like the premise would suggest. It was actually a cartoonish puzzle platformer with combat elements and comedic writing. And much of that comedic writing involved bosses trolling them to make the fights that more challenging and aggravating.

Scowling down at the ketchup oni, Izuku proceeded to stab its face with his fork before pulling it out to cut off a corner. The hostile action had Shigaraki snorting again. "Getting revenge?" he teased.

"I wish I could stab Onigumo with the fork," Izuku grumbled before chewing on his mouthful of omurice aggressively. They'd spent a good half hour on fighting the spider-themed boss Onigumo before Kurogiri arrived to remind Izuku about dinner for Aizawa. Then after he returned, they beat it only to spend another half hour on the next boss fight. The problem was that boss would teleport them back to the last checkpoint, so they'd have to navigate a tricky bit of platforming without dying to reach the boss again.

And then they got teleported to the checkpoint right before Onigumo.

Just thinking about it had Izuku stabbing the ketchup oni's face. Again. "That teleportation wasn't fair!" he whined. "We beat him! We shouldn't have to face him again!"

"Yeah, no shit," Shigaraki scoffed, stabbing his own ketchup oni. "I looked it up after we stopped for the night, and it looks like we got a rare glitch. Something about it sending players to a corresponding checkpoint from other levels."

"How does that even work?" Izuku wondered incredulously.

"Dunno. Lots of programming mumbo-jumbo was involved. Devs haven't been able to replicate it and no one's sure what even triggers it. There's only three videos with it online. Speedrun community's obsessed with it because one guy got sent to the checkpoint before the final boss."

"What, they haven't found an earlier point to break the game?" Izuku asked sarcastically. "That's the fourth boss!" He had learned a lot about speedrunning over this month, and the biggest takeaway was how dedicated the community was to finding every glitch and exploit as early in the game as possible.

"Yeah, well, there's four more bosses between that and the final one. Speedrunners have found tricks to get through the first few levels faster, but that's the big game-breaking one."

"Well, I hope when they do find it, it's patched out. I do not want to fight Onigumo ever again." The vindictiveness had Shigaraki snorting again, flashing Izuku another teasing smirk.

"Good news is I found a cheat to just skip Onigumo," he commented, and Izuku sagged in a seat with a groan.

"You couldn't have found it before we spent half an hour beating him again?"

"Well, now we know for the future." Izuku just grumbled incoherently as he resumed aggressively chewing. Shigaraki just chuckled as he also began eating, a comfortable silence falling over the pair.

Things Izuku had not expected when waking up in this world: leisurely breakfasts where they talk about video games. Before this past month, he hadn't even really played that many games, but now... He could probably hold a full conversation with his Shigaraki. Hell, he was already wondering about the speedrunning scene in his world. He had a healthy dose of respect and awe for the players' dedication and passion for it, vigorously working to get faster and lower their time by even a few milliseconds.

...Also, thinking about this stuff was way better than wondering about the mess with Mic-sensei. Izuku was not touching that with a ten-foot pole. He didn't know whether he should be relieved Aizawa had been feeling tired last night after dinner and asked for a raincheck on listening to the show. Izuku had no idea how the show would go if they just... canceled it.

Maybe he should listen to last night's episode on the show's website, just to make sure nothing weird happened...

The kitchen door opened as he pondered this, Kurogiri walking towards their table. Which was... odd. Usually he'd hover in the kitchen to monitor any cooking disasters unless the bar got particularly crowded, at which point he'd come out to monitor any disasters there instead. And right now, Izuku and Shigaraki were the only ones here, all the other grunts scared off by Shigaraki's glare.

"Tomura, have you spoken to Izuku about last night yet?" he asked, keeping his voice low. Izuku sat more alert at that while Shigaraki's lips pulled into a frown.

"No, not yet. I wanted to finish eating before we started talking about that sort of stuff." He turned back to his plate to continue doing just that, grumbling, "Since you're here, you can tell him if you want to."

That was just very ominous, and Izuku felt highly on edge as Kurogiri turned to him. "Izuku. There will be some changes to the rules for Hijack."

Five minutes later Izuku was rushing down the hall to Shinsou's room, heart pounding erratically. When he reached the door he rapped on it three times before jabbing the numbers on the keypad and opening it. "Sh–Hijack?" he called breathlessly, barely stumbling over the first syllable of Shinsou. He felt his breath catch as he saw the boy sitting cross-legged on the bed stroking Sushi on his lap, head turning to look at him.

The muzzle was gone.

For the first time since meeting him in this screwed-up world, Shinsou's face was completely bare.

The nightmarish contraption was gone, giving Izuku a clear view of his face. He had started to forget what Shinsou's full face even looked like, and now he couldn't stop staring. There weren't any scars or marks from the muzzle like he'd feared, the now-bare skin mercifully unblemished. He was so transfixed by the sight, that he was startled when the other boy's lips suddenly parted to speak.

"Hey, Midoriya," he greeted tiredly. It wasn't as raspy or hoarse as Izuku had expected it would be. In fact, it sounded surprisingly crisp and clear, just... tired. "I guess you heard the news."

That was enough to jar Izuku out of his stunned stupor, and he nodded with a bright smile. "Y-yeah! Kurogiri told me. You, you don't need to wear it anymore in your room? Or, with Eraserhead?" The news of the sudden new freedom had been unexpected and overwhelming. They'd been hoping for this of course, had even talked about it just yesterday, but for it to actually happen... It almost felt too good to be true!

Except... Maybe it was.

Because Shinsou didn't seem happy like Izuku had expected. Instead his eyes seemed even more hollow than usual, his lips curling into a bitter grimace as he turned his head back to Sushi. "Yeah, I don't," he muttered.

Something was wrong.

Izuku felt his excitement evaporate in an instant, mood sober with dread once more. Shinsou had none of the cheer he should have at finally having the muzzle removed and being able to speak again. If anything, he seemed more defeated now, even compared to the first time Izuku saw him in this world. Even the bags under his eyes seemed heavier. "What's going on?" he asked cautiously.

"...Don't you have to deliver breakfast to Eraserhead?"

It was the most blatant attempt at avoiding his question Izuku had ever encountered; he didn't even try to be subtle. That alone told him how much whatever happened was bothering Shinsou, meaning it had to be bad. However, for that very reason, Izuku also didn't want to push for an answer. Shinsou seemed to be under significant distress, and right now he seemed to need space more than anything.

"Can you at least tell me if you're hurt or in danger?" he asked, and the purple-haired boy grimaced more openly, rubbing the side of his head while continuing to keep his other hand on Sushi's back.

"Not any more than usual," he muttered. That had Izuku wincing and giving his own grimace, but he supposed that was a fair enough point.

"Alright, then. I'll just go take breakfast to him for now." He turned to the door to leave only to pause. "Um, should Kacchan and I give you space today, or...?"

"You guys can stop by later after lunch, I guess." Shinsou sighed, pulling his legs onto the bed. "Just... need to process some stuff before we talk."

That really didn't help assuage Izuku's concern, but he just nodded. "Alright, I'll see you later." Shinsou didn't say anything else as he left, the mood heavy.

What happened? Izuku wondered as he went back to the kitchen to get breakfast for Aizawa. Clearly there was more to the sudden change than Kurogiri had mentioned. He'd explained that Shinsou wouldn't need to wear the muzzle, but still couldn't talk to other Alliance members, and would need to be closely supervised when leaving his room. He'd thought it was a sign of growing trust, but come to think of it... Wasn't that strange given Shigaraki's overprotective nature towards Izuku?

He paused halfway to the kitchen with a small frown. "Seiko?" he called softly, and glanced around only to wilt at seeing the hall still empty. The one time he wanted her, she wasn't around. Seiko always seemed to know everything that happened so he'd hoped she could shed some light on things.

Izuku sighed before continuing onto the kitchen and getting out ingredients to prepare two sandwiches. He probably shouldn't be too dependent on Seiko anyway. Even now, he still didn't know how much she could be trusted.

Soon enough he reached Aizawa's room and knocked on the door. "Morning, Sensei," he greeted as he slipped inside. Surprisingly it seemed like Aizawa had been awake for a while. He had his good knee bent, resting his chin and hands against it, while his other leg was propped on a pillow. Izuku frowned as he walked over and set down the plate. "Is your leg okay?"

"Rough night," Aizawa grunted. He moved his hands so Izuku could remove the mittens. While Aizawa could squeeze the buckles to remove them, it was tricky to do that through the cushioned fabric, so it was easier to just let Izuku do it.

"Maybe I should get some stronger painkillers," he muttered as he pulled them off and set them aside, glancing at the pill on the plate. "If it hurt enough to keep you awake all night long..."

"No, the current dosage is fine," Aizawa sighed, pulling the plate over to grab one of the sandwiches. "Last night was just... rougher than usual. I moved in my sleep and jarred my leg enough to wake up, and didn't really go back to sleep."

"That's still bad. I'm sure we have some stronger stuff..."

"It's fine," Aizawa repeated, more firmly, and Izuku decided to let it drop.

"Alright. Anyways, I have some stuff to do today so I won't be able to listen to Mic's show until later. Actually, that's kinda why I brought two sandwiches, just in case I don't get back in time for lunch. But since we can remove the mittens now, maybe I can bring you a book or something? I don't think anyone will visit suddenly, and even if they do, you could probably just pull on the mittens, even if you can't buckle them." While Aizawa could remove the mittens, putting them back on was another thing. He could tug them on, but the fabric usually got caught in the buckle.

Aizawa hummed quietly while he chewed. "Not today," he said after swallowing. "I'm going to try to get some more sleep, so I don't need it. It's... risky anyway." His face darkened at that, tucking his chin against his knee again.

Izuku frowned, but nodded. "Okay, I guess you're right. And it's hard to hide books..." Maybe he could get a magazine, though? Aizawa could slide it under the blankets much more easily than a thick book. He could also probably flip through the pages even with the mittens. He'd just have to find one that wouldn't be too topical or relate to current events.

In any case, Aizawa didn't seem to be in a particularly social mood at the moment, so he decided to leave. "If you don't need anything else, I'll just go. I'll try to be back in time for lunch, but if I'm not, you can just have the other sandwich. I'll get a big dinner to make up for it!" Aizawa just grunted quietly, already shifting to lie down. Izuku hesitated but left, sighing once the door closed.

Next stop, a visit to Bakugou to update him on whatever was up with Shinsou. And after that, he'd ask Kurogiri to warp him to Aiko's place.

Today, he was going to look for that secret notebook she'd mentioned. He needed to learn about his Quirk in this world as soon as possible, as well as whatever other information that notebook could hold. It would be good to find it before meeting Todoroki and Uraraka.

Saturday morning marked the third and final day of watching Team Storm Chaser's headquarters. Ochako and Todoroki had spent the past three hours camped out on the bench in front of it, having arrived just at sunrise to use that as an excuse in case anyone asked. They'd left a couple times, gone to get breakfast and leave more messages, but they always ended up back on the bench facing the ocean.

The view had become a familiar sight, and the sunlight glittering atop the water made Ochako feel warm and comfortable even with the brisk ocean breeze. Watching the sunrise had been one of the most gorgeous things she'd ever seen, and well worth getting up so early. The sight of bits of amber mixed in with the blue water would stick with her for a long time.

Of course, they still hadn't seen any signs of Porter though. At this point she wasn't surprised, and didn't expect that to change before they left Numazu that evening. She didn't mind though. They had a new avenue for searching.

"Okay, I'm in!" she declared cheerfully as her phone loaded the Tweeter account's homepage, Todoroki leaning over her shoulder to peer at it. Kaminari had sent the password in the group chat so they could upload photos and check for any messages, since he and Jirou would be busy studying today. She looked at the page and asked, "Okay, does it look like there's any notifications?"

"I can't tell, I've never used it before," Todoroki replied.

"Me neither." There was a moment of silence as they stared at it, and then Ochako silently opened up a Moogle window to search how to use Tweeter. After a few seconds of skimming the first article she said, "Okay, there's no orange numbers on the bell, so looks like there aren't any messages. Or even rechirps."

"Rechirps?" Todoroki repeated blankly, and she slowly turned to stare at him. It was suddenly occurring to her just how little he knew about social media.

"A kid not knowing about rechirps? Wow." They startled at the new voice, and both turned to see an unfamiliar man standing behind them. He grinned as he folded his arms, continuing in faintly accented Japanese, "Really do find something new every day."

A foreigner. Ochako's brain instantly flickered to Porter, but she immediately dismissed the thought. The man looked to be middle-aged, judging by the wrinkles around his eyes and the corners of his mouth, so much too old to be Porter. Even without taking the obvious age difference into account, nothing about his appearance matched up with Shouji or Mail's descriptions.

For starters, this guy's hair seemed to have a natural wave to it. Strands of gray mixed in with the overall dirty blond hue, and she could instinctively tell that the color had likely once been much brighter before dulling with age. His eyes, meanwhile, were a bright, reddish-pink, an almost mesmerizing color. And then there was the accent, which Porter supposedly lacked. All of it combined to make it clear this wasn't Porter.

Or... did it? Her mind conjured the memory of Aiko with what looked like a totally male physique, and then her large collection of wigs. The thought had Ochako almost squinting at him, wondering if those wrinkles were actually real. It was weird that some random man would approach them. Could this guy be Porter in disguise?

"Um, can we help you?" she asked awkwardly. The best way to gauge his identity was to make a conversation.

"Non, I was just curious about the kids who've been hanging out here all the time," the man replied with a loose shrug and jovial grin. "That, and I want to make sure that you're not planning to bomb the HQ."

Now Ochako and Todoroki were jolting again. "I'm sorry, what?" she squeaked, feeling a spike of dread and horror, and the man laughed.

"You realize hero agencies have security cameras, right?" he asked, and hitched a thumb over his shoulder towards Team Storm Chaser's headquarters. "You two have been showing up on this bench repeatedly since Thursday."

Oh. Oh, shit. Ochako could practically feel the color drain from her face at the revelation that they'd been seen this whole time. Of course they'd be recognized, it wasn't like she ever stopped wearing the bright sky blue unicorn jacket! She'd chosen it because she figured it'd make for a good disguise compared to her usual fashion, but how hadn't she realized how much it would stand out?

But more importantly, if he knew they'd been here that often, then this guy must be a hero. She felt panic spike as she remembered that they still didn't know who worked for Team Storm Chaser in this world. Looks like she'd been right about them having more heroes secretly on the payroll than just Oracle.

"We're not here to attack anything," Todoroki said while she internally panicked, perfectly calm. "She's just a big fan of Team Storm Chaser." It took a moment for Ochako to process his comment in her current frantic state, and once it did she jolted for yet another reason.

"W-what?" she yelped. Good news: the color must be back in her face, judging by how warm her cheeks suddenly felt.

"Oh, really now?" the man hummed, looking interested.

"She's been a big fan since she was a... toddler?" Todoroki looked at Ochako for confirmation, and she had no idea what he was doing, but she wasn't in any condition to take over so she nodded.

"Y-yeah, I was six," she replied. "I saw a documentary about them, and it was just so amazing to see them in action, s-so..." She trailed off, feeling a small smile as she remembered her awe at watching the documentary as a child. "Storm Chaser died right after that, so I didn't get to see much of them in the news, but seeing all those videos in that documentary is part of what made me want to become a rescue hero!"

"Oho, so you wanna be a rescue hero?" the man mused, a sharp glint in his eye as he focused on her. Ochako flinched, worrying she'd said too much, but she then squared her shoulders and nodded.

"I do," she declared. "I know it's hard with pretty much all the hero schools closed and everyone still figuring out how this stuff should work now. But I don't care. I still want to save people, just like them." Something about those words felt so right, confidence and conviction swelling the longer she spoke.

Honestly it surprised her how passionate she felt, because while she liked them, they weren't one of her driving motivations to be a hero. Team Storm Chaser had just been the ones to first really introduce her to the concept of rescue heroes. She hadn't been around to see their heyday, and so had become a much bigger fan of other rescue heroes whose careers she could actively follow like Thirteen.

Was this the other Ochako? The thought suddenly popped into her head and almost startled her, but it made sense. Most of the others had mentioned having weird subconscious influence from their counterparts, and so far Ochako had been the only odd one out. She had felt more enthusiastic about them whenever they got mentioned in this world.

In any case, she could think about it later. She focused her attention on the man as eyed her consideringly, and after a moment he smirked. "I see, I see... You've definitely got the passion for it. Who's your favorite member?"

"Cosmonaut!" Ochako replied without skipping a beat. The man looked surprised for a moment, but then chuckled.

"C'est dommage," he said with a fluid shrug. "Can't win them all, I suppose." That had Ochako frowning, becoming puzzled at his identity. That sounded like he'd been hoping for a different answer, maybe himself? But as far as she could tell, he didn't look like any of the main members. Most of them wore costumes that didn't heavily obscure their hair or eyes, with the exception of Cosmonaut, but obviously it wasn't him,

More than that, wasn't that French? She'd heard Aoyama use that phrase a few times. Team Storm Chaser had two French members, Noir and Phoenix, but Noir had black hair. And Phoenix had been... well, a woman. Though her hair color was closer to his, one of those almost pastel orange-tinted blonds—

Click. "Are you related to Phoenix?" she blurted, and he flashed a beaming grin.

"Oui, I am! You really are a fan if you recognized me!" He laughed while Ochako stared at him in awe. Now that she was thinking about it, the resemblance was obvious; their hair had the same texture and a similar enough shade, and even his eyes were the same reddish-pink. He looked like a gender-bent version of Phoenix. His laughter tapered off, but he still smiled warmly at her. "Nice to see there are still some kids who remember my sister."

That had Ochako's own smile dimming a bit. Right, Phoenix had died not long after Storm Chaser had. Unlike the others, it had been from a chronic illness that left her hospitalized in the last months of her life. Oddly enough, Ochako remembered she'd been hospitalized in Japan rather than France though. "I didn't know she had a brother on the team," she murmured, and he smirked.

"That's because I'm not a hero. I'm a freeloader who basically just housesits full-time because I can't go back to France."

"Should you be telling us that?" Todoroki asked with a wary frown. "Weren't you just accusing us of planning to bomb this place?" Oh right, Ochako had forgotten that part.

The man didn't seem too bothered. "Ne t'inquiète pas. I wasn't the one who thought you might be planning something. And if you were, you wouldn't be wearing such an eye-catching jacket." Ochako felt her face flush as he confirmed her earlier thoughts. She didn't know whether it was good or bad that it stood out so much anymore, and pondered it as he continued, "I just used it as an excuse to come out and get in my daily social quota, tu sais?"

"Chu... say...?" Todoroki tried to repeat slowly, butchering the pronunciation, and the man chuckled.

"Don't mind the slips into French too much. I find it adds a nice flair to my speech, and it is good to hear such familiar words in a foreign land, even if I'm the one using them." Now Ochako felt a pang of sympathy for the man. France and Japan were vastly different, and French definitely wasn't as common as English. So far the most exposure she'd gotten to the language was Aoyama.

For half a second she felt an impulsive urge to ask about Phoenix, strike up a conversation to maybe take off some of the edge of his loneliness, but she quickly dismissed it. Talking to someone connected to heroes for any extended amount of time was risky since both she and Todoroki were runaways. More than that, Oracle was connected to Team Storm Chaser, and he knew about Ochako and Ashido's connection.

While she admittedly felt bad for the guy, there was just too much risk. Chances were he actually already recognized her, and was buying time. The thought gave her another surge of panic, and she quickly glanced at her phone. "Oh, crap," she blurted, getting their attention. "I accidentally put the phone on silent! Mom texted a minute ago!"

"She did?" Todoroki asked in surprise, and she nodded.

"Yeah. She wants us to meet her back at the hotel ASAP." Thankfully he caught on to what Ochako was doing and nodded.

"Oh. Is she freaking out again?"

"Not yet, but you know how she is." She opened the messenger app on FacePage and pretended to type a reply before pocketing the phone and getting up. "I'm really sorry to cut this short, mister, but we need to go!"

"Ne t'inquiète pas. I understand, don't worry your mother by dilly-dallying here. And I should probably go reassure the jeune technicien that all is well." He chuckled softly, and the fact he didn't try to persuade them to stay filled Ochako with relief, suggesting maybe he wasn't stalling for time. Either way, they shouldn't linger, so she flashed a smile and nodded.

"Bye mister! It was nice meeting you!"

"And you as well. Au revoir, bonne journée. May you have safe travels." Ochako nodded and hurried off with Todoroki.

"We're leaving Numazu now, right?" he asked once they'd gotten a few blocks away.

"Yep, time to go to," she replied, not noticing how she'd skipped over "Nabu" as she pulled out her phone to message Deku.

'Change of plans. Coming over today instead of tomorrow! Hope to see you soon!'

You asked, and you have received. The muzzle is gone now and absolutely everything is good and great now! :D

Also I speak zero French, so I do not know why I insisted on having this man sprinkle French into his conversation. But he is a FUN OC and I really look forward to writing more of his scenes~ (Today's chapter title translates roughly to "Allow it to be said" by the way.)

Question for next time: Do you have any fun stories about video game bosses?