Spying was far more boring than it was depicted in the films and on television, Izuku decided. They only ever showed the exciting aspects of following someone around, the interesting climax where the villain did something dastardly, just in time for the hero to catch them in the act. In reality, it was dreadfully dull work. He'd been nervous and fidgety the first day. Following Kamui Wood as he went from place to place. Izuku had been sure that the pro would notice him immediately and Izuku would become just another stain on the street.

But Tsukauchi had been right. Izuku was not unattractive by any means, but he was also not distinctly attractive either. One of his classmates had referred to him as the most plain-faced boy she'd ever met. Mix that with his own quirklessness, and Izuku might as well have been invisible and indistinguishable amongst the crowds of interested onlookers whenever Kamui Wood appeared.

But after nearly a week of following the man, Izuku had yet to see him actually do anything nefarious. At least, as far as Izuku had been able to tell. He did all of the normal things that Izuku expected of a pro. He appeared at rescue operations, he battled villains, and he did the odd commercial or television shoot. But it was all rather…mundane in Izuku's opinion. The man didn't seem to have much in the way of a social life, though Izuku had noticed that Mt. Lady would visit the pro's agency with some regularity, a common factor that had not been all that surprising to Tsukauchi when Izuku had reported it.

"There are rumors that they're seeing one another." The detective had told him, and while the idea of Mt. Lady's visits to the agency being of a more…sinful nature had left Izuku feeling somewhat uncomfortable, it had given him an idea.

He knew, because of what Tsukauchi had shown him the first night, that Mt. Lady was as corrupted as Kamui Wood was, and if they were seeing one another, then it was possible, even likely, that they were working together on something. So, on a hunch, Izuku had waited at his usual spot at the cafe across from the Kamui Wood agency, and had waited for Mt. Lady to show up. Sure enough, at three o'clock on the dot Mt. Lady arrived in the same car that had driven her to the pier the week before. For the last week, like clockwork, she always arrived precisely at three, something which struck Izuku as odd considering the heroine's reputation for tardiness. Apparently, whatever was inside the agency was enough for her to ensure she arrived on time.

Seeing as he had been at the cafe for nearly three hours, Izuku decided that it was about time for him to change locations. It was a tip that Tsukauchi had given him. The detective had spent nearly four hours giving Izuku a crash course in investigating, and on trailing a suspect. One of the tips that he had instilled in Izuku's head, was to never stay in one spot for too long. He needed to look like he was just another pedestrian simply going about his day. So Izuku had something of a routine that he followed. Every day that week, Kamui Wood arrived back at his agency after a morning of patrolling to have lunch at his agency. At least that's what Izuku assumed was going on, truth be told he didn't know if wood-like man even needed to eat. Some quirks were simply weird like that.

He would stay there for the majority of the afternoon, and Mt. Lady would always arrive at three on the dot, but oddly enough, Izuku had never seen her leave. At a little after four every day, Kamui Wood exited the building, and split the remainder of his evening either patrolling or running errands. But it was Mt. Lady that intrigued him the most. Not for what he imagined they were…doing. Given what Tsukauchi had told him, he had no doubt about part of the reason for the giant woman's visit, but the fact that he never saw the woman exit the building was troubling. Surely even when she wasn't using her quirk, the woman's outfit was outlandish enough that Izuku should have been able to see her leave, but he never did.

He made his way over to a park bench that looked over on the west-end of the agency, it was where Izuku tended to spend most of his evenings watching Kamui Wood, until he began running his evening activities. More importantly, however, was that it provided him with an unobstructed view of the main entrance to the building, not that he needed to worry about seeing Mt. Lady exit the building at any rate, he thought bitterly.

Feeling frustrated, and more than a little exhausted, he spitefully bit into the end of the sandwich he'd brought with him that morning. Loathe as he was to admit it, he was beginning to think that maybe this was a lost cause. That maybe there wasn't anything going on, and maybe he really had been imagining what had happened. It had been an entire week, and the most nefarious thing he'd seen Kamui Wood do was double park in his agency lot.

It was…painful to have those thoughts. To believe that maybe everyone who had doubted him might have been right, but surely after a week he would have noticed something right? He might not have been the most observant person on the planet, but he was far from oblivious.

He watched disinterestedly as a young woman exited the building, and made her way towards the bus stop. She was pretty, Izuku thought, with dull blonde hair pulled up into a tight bun, and a pair of purple rimmed glasses on her face. She was dressed conservatively, her figure hidden from prying eyes by a rather bulky looking trench-coat, which Izuku thought was an odd choice given the rather spectacular heatwave they were enduring. Given that he was becoming rapidly disillusioned with his plan to get back at Kamui Wood, he opted to watch the intriguing woman. He noticed that she was carrying a large duffel bag, that she was clutching close to her side.

Izuku frowned, there was something oddly familiar about the woman. He watched a bit more intently, wracking his memory to try and remember exactly where he had seen the woman before. As he considered it, he realized that he had seen her before. As a matter of fact, he'd seen the woman every day for the last week. She would leave just before Kamui Wood, precisely at four o'clock, and she would board the train heading south. As the woman walked, Izuku noticed something else that was familiar about the woman.

The bag.

He knew that bag.

He'd seen it almost every night in his dreams for the last two weeks.

Only the last time he'd seen it, it hadn't been this woman carrying it, it had been Kamui Wood.

His heart hammering in his chest, Izuku got slowly to his feet, tossing his half-eaten sandwich into a trash-bin beside the bench, and began to carve a careful path in the direction of the woman.

He picked up his pace, anxious to keep up with the woman as she began to ascend the platform to the train-station. Desperate to keep the woman in sight, Izuku was more than a touch forceful at moving people out of his way, and maneuvering through the crowd.

Climbing the stairs just behind the woman, he had to pause, and remind himself of what Tsukauchi had tried teaching him. He needed to maintain a credible distance. Keep her in his line of sight, but stay out of hers. He could see her standing in a cue at the far end of the platform, nearest to the back cars. Izuku waited for a moment, allowing the crowd to spill onto the platform, before he allowed the crowd to carry him in the direction of the woman. He got into the rear of the cue, with six bodies between himself and the woman.

As always, the train arrived exactly on time, and the crowd spilled onto the empty train. The woman had managed to snag a bench seat, and Izuku perched himself against a standing rail a few feet away from her. The train jerked into motion, and they were off.

His heart hammered in his chest, and he was struck with a sudden, brilliant idea. There was something familiar about the woman, beyond having seen her the last couple days, Izuku just couldn't place who she was, but maybe Tsukauchi would. He was far more worldly than Izuku was, and as a detective it was important to recognize faces. Standing so that his back was to the woman, Izuku watched her for a moment through the reflection of the glass as he pretended to gaze at the passing landscape.

Coming to a decision, he pulled his phone free from his pocket and flipped on the camera function. Holding his phone in the air, he began adjusting the camera, as though he were trying to find the right angle for a selfie, when in reality, he was trying to get the woman focused in the frame without making it obvious what he was doing. When he was satisfied that he would have the woman in the shot, he snapped the picture and immediately set to work on cropping the photo, blowing up the face of the woman, which happened to be turned and looking in the direction of the end of the car, getting most of her face in the frame.

Once that was done, Izuku sent the photo and a short message to the burner number that Tsukauchi had given him. Izuku only hoped that whatever the man was doing, he was going to be able to see the picture without raising any strange questions.

He needn't have worried however, because his phone buzzed almost immediately, and Izuku glanced down to check the message.

"Is that Mt. Lady?" The text read, and Izuku frowned, before glancing back up at the reflection in the window. Squinting his eyes a little, realization dawned on him that he did recognize the woman. Tsukauchi was right, it was Mt. Lady, granted she was dressed…well…like a civilian so it was genuinely hard to recognize her.

"I think so," Izuku typed back, "I recognized her as she was leaving Kamui Wood's agency, she'd been leaving there everyday around four, and look at this."

Izuku scrolled through his photo's for a second, before attaching a picture that he'd blown up of the bag she was carrying, and he sent it over to Tsukauchi.

"Is that the same bag that Kamui Wood had the night he killed your mother?" Tsukauchi messaged,

A painful throb coursed through Izuku's chest as he typed out a confirmation, but he smothered the sensation bitterly.

"Stay on her!" Tsukauchi typed out, "Find out what she's doing and who she's meeting!"

After replying that he would, Izuku tucked his phone away in favor of watching Mt. Lady out of the corner of his eye through the reflection in the glass. A task which became considerably easier as the sun began to set.

They passed station after station, going further and further out of the city, and Izuku was beginning to get worried. A few more stops and they would be leaving Musutafu entirely, and who knew where they'd be ending up after that. But his luck soon changed, as at the last stop at the edge of the city, Mt. Lady sprang to her feet and walked swiftly out of the train. Izuku was quick to follow, allowing himself to fall into step with the mass of bodies moving across the platform. He was thankful for his slightly larger than usual stature. A giant he was not by any means, but bordering on nearly six feet, put him at well above the usual height for men in Japan, and it allowed him to follow Mt. Lady over the crowd with little difficulty.

Unfortunately, his height was as much a curse as it was a blessing, as it made him conspicuous. So, in order to rectify that, as he clambered down the stairs and out of the station, he hunched down and tried to make himself appear as though he were a good several inches shorter than he was. Drawing the hood of his sweatshirt up and over his face, he pulled a cloth medical face mask out of his pocket and covered the lower part of his face. It had been yet another lesson that Tsukauchi had been hammering into him in their lessons the last several nights. Being recognized, could be as good as being killed in this line of work.

He kept his distance, making sure that he was far enough away where she wouldn't find it suspicious if she turned around and saw him, while ensuring that he was sticking just close enough that he could track her movements.

The sun had fallen, and the moon was rising higher and higher into the sky. The city lights flickered into life and mixed with the milky glow of the moon and Izuku felt a pang of apprehension spear through him. The streets would grow less dense the later it got, and sure enough the crowds of people had dispersed enough where there were only a handful of people meandering the darkened streets. If Mt. Lady were to turn and look now, she would no doubt see him, not that she would recognize him of course. Intellectually he was aware of that, but it didn't stop his mind from playing one terrible scenario after another.

Blessedly, or perhaps not, after another block Mt. Lady abruptly ducked into an alleyway. Izuku hesitated for a moment, before he followed suit. Unlike the city streets, the alley was dark, nearly pitch black, and Izuku could only barely make out the form of his target in the dark as she walked around another corner. Following her, Izuku hugged the near wall and when he approached the corner, he peered around. At the other side of the corner was another alleyway, which led into a small abandoned corridor, surrounded by several small and dingy apartment units. At the mouth of the corridor was a large dumpster, and a small alley cat darted out from underneath it, tearing into the corridor as Mt. Lady walked by.

His heart hammering in his chest, Izuku crept slowly into the alley. In spite of the darkness of the alley, Izuku still hugged tightly to the wall, hoping the shadows would make him even more invisible. He hoped that whatever Mt. Lady was doing here, she wouldn't go into one of the units, there would be no way that Izuku would have been able to follow her inside if that were the case.

He crouched low alongside the dumpster and peered cautiously around its corner. He could see Mt. Lady stop in the middle of the corridor, and adjust the bag over her shoulder. She checked the watch on her wrist and clucked her tongue in irritation.

"Typical," She grumbled, the silence of the alley allowing her voice to carry over to Izuku.

As if on cue, one of the doors to a nearby apartment opened, and a man poked his head out. He glanced briefly around the corridor, as though making sure that there was no one else hiding out in the darkness, before he stepped fully out in the square.

His heart racing, and sweat pooling on the base of his neck, Izuku stuffed a shaking hand into his pocket and withdrew his phone. His palms were slick, and his hand was shaking so violently that the phone slipped from his grip and nearly clattered to the floor. But Izuku shot a hand out and managed to stop the device from falling. Fumbling through the commands on the screen, he opened the camera app and placed the phone along the corner of the dumpster. He positioned the lens in such a way that he managed to see the entirety of the square, but only revealed a small portion of the phone. He hit record and ducked a little closer into the shadows, craning his neck to watch the small screen.

"He's not here?" The man asked, and Mt. Lady snorted,

"Of course, he's not,"

"Am I ever going to meet this guy?"

"Hell no," Mt. Lady said derisively, "I already told you, my client wants this handled in discretion."

"No shit," The man snorted, "We've been camped out in this shit-hole for a month because of him." He grumbled for a second before he sighed, "You got it then?"

Mt. Lady answered by tossing the bag over to the man, who unzipped it and began to inspect the contents.

"That's the last of it." She informed him, and the man looked up,

"The Boss won't be too happy about that." He said,

"Well you can tell your boss to fuck off." Mt. Lady said back, "We've done our part and then some. In case you haven't noticed, your competition hasn't been nearly as active lately. You hadn't wondered why that was?"

The man looked at her for moment, before nodding slowly and zipping the bag back together and tossing the strap over one of his shoulders.

"I'll be sure to let the boss know." He replied cautiously, "I'm sure he'll be…grateful."

"I'm sure he will be." Mt. Lady retorted, "It's been a pleasure working with you."

Without another word, the woman spun on her heel and began marching back towards the alley, and more worryingly, towards him. His hand shot out and he snagged the phone, as he crept as deep into the shadows of the alley as he could. He thanked whatever gods were out there, that the moon wasn't full, and there was almost no light penetrating the alleyway. His heart hammered against his ribcage, and he could have sworn that Mt. Lady would be able to hear the sound of it beating from even a few feet away.

He didn't breathe, he didn't move, he even tried to force himself not to sweat out of fear that she would hear the droplets sliding down his skin.

But he needn't have worried; with how dark the alley was, and how small he'd made himself against the corner of the dumpster, Mt. Lady strode past him without even a glance in his general direction.

He didn't exhale until she disappeared from sight around the corner. Apparently, neither did the man she'd met, who let out a slow breath as well.

"Bitch," He grumbled just loud enough for Izuku to hear. There was a beat of silence, before Izuku heard a door open and close. The alleyway fell silent, but still Izuku didn't move. Not that he was confident he would have been able to had he wanted to. He was sweating as though he'd just ran several miles, and his pulse matched it. He realized with a start that his entire body was shaking violently, and he was suddenly overcome with a sickening twist in his stomach. His mouth became slick with saliva as his stomach churned painfully. He fell to his knees, and promptly vomited. His body shuddered painfully as the stress from the situation washed away from him.

What the hell was he doing. This…this was insane. What was he thinking? Spying on pro-heroes? Sneaking around like he was a discount James Bond? This…this was wrong. He was just a kid…a kid without a quirk. What was he doing getting himself tangled up in all of this? What had he been thinking joining this suicide-mission. He should tell Tsukauchi that he was one, that he couldn't do this, that he wasn't cut out for it.

But again, as the thoughts crossed his mind, his imagination once again filled with the image of his mother's body. Her mangled corpse bleeding and broken under the body of the man Kamui Wood murdered. The now familiar feeling of fury washed over him, followed by a strange sense of calm. He stood shakily, ignoring the wetness around his knees from where he'd vomited, and began an unsteady hobble towards the end of the alley.

He started this war, and he'd damn well finish it.

BREAK

Tsukauchi let out a low whistle as he watched the video.

"You recognize him?" Izuku asked, and Tsukauchi shook his head.

"No, but I'll run him through our database, I'm sure I'll get something out of this."

"What's our next move?" Izuku didn't know where this sudden drive was coming from, but the adrenaline was still pumping from his latest encounter and he wasn't going to let off the gas while he was riding high.

"We need to get inside the agency," Tsukauchi noted casually, and Izuku choked on his spit. Whatever he'd been expecting, it most certainly had not been that.

"W-what!" He managed to choke out,

"What were you expecting?" Tsukauchi shot him a quizzical look, "We still don't know who these people are, or what Kamui Wood and I guess Mt. Lady are doing. Are they working alone? Or is this all part of something bigger? Either way, as many questions as this answers, it only raises more."

"But-but" Izuku spluttered, "How are we even going to manage that? Pro agencies are some of the most secure buildings in the country! They're impenetrable!"

"So was Troy." Tsukauchi noted, and Izuku shot him a confused glare, and Tsukauchi clicked his teeth, "Kids of today not knowing their ancient history," He grumbled, "My point, is that anything can be broken into, we just need to be smart about it."

"This-" Izuku closed his eyes and stepped away from the table. His hands crawling up and rubbing soothing circles along his temples as he fought in vain to ward off a migraine.

"What we've been doing…is insane." He said, turning around to stare at Tsukauchi, "But this…i-i-it's…it's certifiable. I should check you into a hospital for even suggesting it. How the hell do you suppose we break into one of the most secure buildings in the county, and-and what? Wiretap his phones? Do you know how to do that? Because I sure don't and-and it's not something I think I want to learn. And even then!" He stressed the words as he began pacing an anxious circle around the perimeter of the room, Tsukauchi watching with a somewhat bemused expression on his face.

"Even if, and that is a very big if, we manage to get in there, the likelihood of him finding out what we've done?" He gesticulated wildly as he couldn't quite find the words to explain his mounting frustration. He collapsed into a chair, his chest heaving as he tried to collect himself.

"You done?" Tsukauchi asked, sounding amused.

"Yeah…" Izuku panted, "Yeah…I'm done."

"Good," Tsukauchi said closing a folder on his desk and tossing it to Izuku, "Because I know how we're getting in."

Izuku caught the folder and opened it. It was a series of blueprints…or schematics rather, of a highly intricate plumbing system of some kind. Izuku frowned, his brows furrowing in confusion as he scanned the document. His eyes landed at the bottom of the page, where the title to the schematics lay.

"Okay…" He said slowly, looking up at Tsukauchi, "I'll bite, what do the sewers have to do with breaking into Kamui Wood's agency?"

"Not the sewers per se," Tsukauchi corrected simply, "Think plumbing. His agency is only a block away from the main line for the sewer system."

"I'd rather not," Izuku muttered, before his eyes went wide as he realized exactly what it was Tsukauchi was thinking,

"You're kidding me!" He exclaimed, "Of all the ridiculous things you've told me in the last week, this-this is probably the most ridiculous."

"It'll work." Tsukauchi said indignantly,

"You want to explain to me how clogging Kamui Wood's toilet is going to be beneficial to us, in literally any way?"

"Because what does someone do when their toilet gets backed up?" Tsukauchi asked rhetorically,

"And how are we supposed to make that happen exactly? We. Aren't. Plumbers."

"No," Tsukauchi said with a small nod. "But I do happen to know the one guy in the entire city that the hero agencies trust to do their plumbing," His lips contorted into a sneaky little grin. "And…he might owe me a favor or two. Plan's simple, we stock up their plumbing using the main line beneath his agency, then my buddy gives me the call, and we go in, plant our bug, and head out. Simple as that."

Izuku was left with the rather distinct impression that Tsukauchi was far more shrewd than he had initially suspected.

"Simple?" Izuku asked, incredulous.

And not for the first time, Izuku was debating his own sanity in joining in on this growingly absurd mission. Every day it seemed as though he was being asked to do something even more ridiculous than the last. Sooner or later, he had the distinct impression that he would be asked to do something that even he wouldn't be able to justify to himself.

"Okay," Izuku said in an effort to distract himself, "Okay, so say we do this. Say we manage to get inside the agency. There's still the not so simple problem that we don't have any way of bugging the phone."

Once again, Tsukauchi had an answer ready and waiting for him. He flicked his wrist at Izuku, and a small object soared through the air. Catching it, Izuku wasn't even surprised when he looked down and saw a small device, and he had a feeling he knew what it was without having to ask.

"I shouldn't even be surprised at this point, should I?" He asked rhetorically,

"Snagged it from IT." Tsukauchi explained with a self-satisfied smile. "Got loads of 'em, but because the pros don't like us being too proactive, we don't get to use them all too often. Still, I've set one or two up in my time."

"Of course you have," Izuku muttered sarcastically. It was a strange change he'd begun to notice in himself as of late. In addition to his strange new temper, he was becoming increasingly snappy and sarcastic. He thought he remembered reading in journal article a long time ago that trauma could cause dramatic changes in a person's personality, but he decided it was better off not dwelling on it for the moment.

"In for a penny," He muttered, tossing the device back to Tsukauchi and nodding at him.

"Well…let's go find a sewer."

AN: So, this one was a lot of fun to write. This kind of gritty, gross, spy-thriller kind of story just gets my blood pumping! Hope you guys have been enjoying this so far, and I hope that you're excited for what's to come. I've really enjoyed creating this story; I wanted to make something really different to the other MHA fics out there, and I hope that I've been accomplishing that thus far. Let me know what you think! As always shoutout to Double0Sxvxn for being an awesome Beta and dealing with my bullshit and as always if you enjoyed this but haven't checked out my other work, give them a try you never know you might find something else you like. I'm also on discord now, where I and a bunch of other writers hang out, chat and brainstorm ideas, you just have to copy the link that's in my profile bio if you want to come and hang out with us. Stay safe, stay healthy and have an awesome week.

All My Love and see you next week,

LilDB