When Time Slows Down
The hall was full of pro-heroes, each with their eyes glued to the speaker at the front.
"As you can see, for many of you, this will be your most important mission yet and we cannot mess this up. We have one chance and it will require every bit of strength we can muster. Thank you." The tired speaker shuffled his papers again. "We'll be hosting a debriefing of the plan the night before, please stay vigilant. Goodnight."
Izuku Midoriya and All Might stood in the back, politely nodding along, although they had already been introduced to the plan days ago.
"He's right, you know," All Might leaned over to tell Izuku. "It'll be extra dangerous out there, what with the league and all. Please be safe."
"I will, of course, All Might." Izuku gave him a reassuring smile. "It's just-"
"Hey, you two," Suddenly, Tsukauchi opened the door beside them, beckoning them inside.
The two follow him into the hallway, looking worried.
"While we were recovering information from Hawks, I sacrificed a couple of informational gatherers to do a little digging on Aiko's situation."
Izuku's eyes lit up slightly, indicating that was one of the many things he had his mind on.
"So, recently, there haven't been any reports of missing people with children. And it was a surprise to me that if Aiko was an entirely normal girl, that she didn't have any prior footprints to follow before all of this," Tsukauchi explained. "And after a while, I believe we found our person."
The detective held up a photo of a man with long dark brown hair and green eyes that looked just like Aiko's.
"This is Haruki Aoki, and I'm sure you've already noticed the resemblance. Not only that, but the surnames as well."
"Is he her father? How do you know for sure?" Izuku asked.
"Well, for one, he is a very tough man to find. Very off-the-grid. We've suspected him to be a member of the underground drug cartel, the White Hyacinth, for quite some time now and it's no surprise Aiko would be able to stay so well-hidden with him to protect her." Tsukauchi told them.
"His birth records state that he has two triplet brothers, Hansuke and Hiroshi Aoki. Hansuke is a notorious member of the White Hyacinth and we've been trying to get ahold of him for a long time now, and on the other hand, we have Hiroshi, whom of which is a doctor living in Hosu currently. He seems to have no current ties to his family, but we asked him some questions just in case." Tsukauchi looked grim.
Izuku noticed the man's discomfort. "What did he say?"
"He very reluctantly informed us that his family very rarely contacted him, but from what he knew his brother, Haruki, did, in fact, have a daughter, named Aiko."
Tsukauchi seemed troubled, but continued. "He said that Haruki hated the child, blamed her for her mother's death, and that he had locked her away for most of her life."
Izuku and All Might grimaced at the thought. It was incredible how soon they had met Aiko after saving Eri. The resemblance was uncanny.
"Finally, and this was the most intriguing part, Hiroshi had recently received news that Haruki had been...murdered."
Izuku was surprised to hear this. "Murdered? By who?"
Tsukauchi, shuffled through his folder. "Himiko Toga."
"What? She murdered him? That must mean she would've taken Aiko after doing that, but what would she be using as leverage?" Izuku couldn't put it all together.
"After looking through the evidence, we came to a possible conclusion,"
Izuku and All Might leaned in.
"It's possible that Aiko doesn't know her captors are villains, and that Toga pretended to be helping her. It's been made pretty clear that the league is no stranger to manipulation."
"That's terrible," Izuku pursed his lips, thinking hard. "I-We need to help her. During the mission, we should make some of the other heroes aware of Aiko's situation and have them keep a look out for her on the way."
All Might agreed. "That's what I was thinking. We'll remind a few of them during the debriefing."
Tsukauchi nodded and they parted.
Izuku walked back into the dorms, only to be greeted by a sad-looking Eri.
"Are you ok? You seem upset." Izuku bent down and Eri's eyes started to tear up.
"A-Aiko hasn't been to school in days! Did she leave? Me an' Kota have been waiting forever!" Eri hiccuped.
"Aw, I'm sure she just sick or something," Izuku, knowing that that may not be the case, assured her. "Just wait a bit longer! She might show up tomorrow!"
"But she's my bestest friend! I only like the play with her!" Eri pouted.
"Don't worry! She'll be fine." Izuku smiled and patted her softly and she started to calm down.
Hopefully...
"When can I go back to school?" Aiko sniffled, rubbing her runny nose with a tissue.
Himiko, who was making them lunch, said, "Sorry Aiko, you're still too sick. That fever was really bad."
"Aw..." Aiko sighed. "But I wanna see Eri, she's fun to play with."
Himiko felt bad. Aiko hadn't been able to go to school in days and she seemed really down about it.
After they finished eating, Aiko solemnly left, coughing all the way.
She walked through the halls looking for something to do and came across a door she'd never been in before. Without hesitation, she walked in.
The man with bright red wings and Twice were talking inside and Aiko, who was finally starting to gain some self-awareness, realized that walking in on them was probably rude, so she turned to leave, but Twice stopped her.
"Hey Aiko! How ya feeling?" Twice walked over a scooped her up.
Aiko sniffled. "I'm getting better, but Himiko-Chan still won't let me go to school."
"That's too bad," Twice imitated her sadness, then perked up again. "Hey! You've met Hawks, right?"
Aiko looked over at the red-winged man, apparently called Hawks.
"Yeah! I ran into you guys a while ago," Aiko said, then she remembered something. "Wait, I saw your picture in the city. Are you a hero?"
Twice set her down. "He is! But he's also helping us!"
Hawks, who wasn't able to attend the debriefing, stepped over and bent down to talk to the girl.
"He's right. I don't think I ever caught your name, kid." Hawks put on his signature friendly grin.
Aiko saw his grin and frowned. "But if you're a hero, why're you here? I thought the heroes fought against the bad guys."
This caught Hawks off guard. She's more observant than I thought.
"Well, to me, Twice and them are the good guys." Hawks stated. "Aren't they the good guys to you?"
"Well, yes." Aiko thought a moment. Can there be good bad guys?
*A couple days later*
Hawks walked along the halls of the Paranormal Liberation Front's mansion, where they were all staying temporarily with Aiko.
His phone began to ring, and he picked it up. As expected, a voice came through, saying Prepare Yourself.
"It begins." He mused.
Aiko was almost trampled by a panicked Skeptic and she scowled.
"Everyone's ignoring me! What's going on?!" She yelled.
The whole mansion was in an uproar. Villains ran about here and there, preparing for something and Aiko didn't know what.
Skeptic suddenly yelled something that caught her off-guard.
"Heroes! The heroes are here! Prepare yourselves!"
Heroes?!
Aiko decided that she needed to find her sister.
"Himiko-Chan! Himiko-Chan!! Where are you?!" Aiko ran about in search of Himiko desperately.
She ran into the large front hallway, getting pushed around by crowds of villains, all preparing themselves for the incoming invasion.
"Ack!" She fell to the ground and tucked herself between her legs for stability.
At that moment, a great crumbling commenced and Aiko watched the front of the mansion suddenly tear itself apart, revealing an enormous crowd of heroes outside.
"Is that Eri's friends?!" Aiko yelled out, her eyes catching sight of Denki, Fumikage, and Kyoka, as well as many more heroes she'd never heard or seen before.
Before she could react, a bright light was released and electricity began to immobilize the surrounding villains.
Aiko watched the people who had surrounded her for the past year suddenly go down and she started to run away, hoping to hide in the halls.
Down below, Midnight caught sight of Aiko near the top of the stairwell.
"It's that girl! The one we're supposed to look out for! Don't hurt her!"
The other heroes near her nodded and Edgeshot released his quirk, efficiently capturing all the PLF members in one fell swoop.
Aiko slipped out into the halls and began to run.
She opened every room in search of her sister.
Where is she?!!
She opened a door, grateful that she had finally found someone she recognized, but her relief quickly changed to worry when she saw what was happening.
Hawks had cornered Twice with his feathers and Aiko tried to make sense of what had happened.
Maybe they don't know what's going on!
"Uh-um-The-There are heroes invading the mansion! Everyone is getting captured! You gotta come help!" Aiko explained frantically.
"I'm afraid he won't be able to do that, Aiko." Hawks said, and Aiko caught sight of his piercing yellow eyes, and she suddenly realized.
"Get outta here, Aiko. Go play with Toga." Twice assured her and Aiko backed away, telling herself over and over that everything was ok.
"O-ok, I'll go get her..." Aiko's eyes were wide and she stepped out and ran away.
Twice returned his gaze to Hawks, rage filling his empty eyes.
Part Two Coming Soon!