It had been three days since Midoriya and Shiozaki's meeting, and things had slowed down quite a bit for the green haired Inspector. Now that the whole Grape Juice assignment was finally out of the way, there was really nothing for him to do. The 'High Point' operation wasn't for another week and it didn't look like there were going to be any new assignments coming their way any time soon.
Times like this were both a blessing and a curse for the two Inspectors. On one hand, the lack of work meant that they didn't have anything to worry about. On top of that, some unforeseen leisure time was always welcomed. But on the flip side, this respite from their work related duties did nothing to quell their steadily increasing boredom.
"Y'know, I kinda wish that the others would hurry up and get here." Midoriya sighed while scrolling through some news websites on his computer. "I'm not used to things being so quiet during the day."
"We still have a few more days for that. But I definitely agree with ya'. At least if Togane was here, she'd be able to keep us entertained." Kaniko replied as she dropped her head on her desk.
"The sad part is that we're not even halfway through the day yet."
"Hey…why don't you take off for the rest of the day. I don't want to keep you here if we got nothin' to do."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah." The crab-themed woman waved off. "I'll call you if anything comes up."
"Sure." Midoriya said with a slight smile on his face. He wasn't one to goof off from work like some of his other partners. But he wasn't about to say no to the opportunity to go home and relax for a bit. So with that, the young Inspector decided to take the woman up on her offer and quickly cleaned up his workspace before making his exit. Besides, it wasn't very often that he got a chance to get an early start on his weekend.
"Call me if you need anything." He gave one final wave to his boss before walking out the door.
"Have a good one!"
Not even twenty minutes later, Midoriya was sitting comfortably on the train en route back to his apartment. With this newfound free time of his, the man couldn't help but wonder how he was going to spend the rest of his day.
'I definitely need to get some grocery shopping done. But that can wait until after I get back home. Maybe now I can finally sign up for a gym membership? That's been on my "To-Do List" ever since I moved out here, but I haven't had the chance to do that yet.' The man pondered as he leaned back in his seat.
To be honest, if he knew that he wasn't going to be at work for the entire day then he would've actually driven his car instead of taking the train. That way he wouldn't have to worry about having to make multiple trips before getting settled in. But even with that minor inconvenience, Midoriya was glad that it was practically smooth sailing from here on out.
In no time the train finally pulled into the station. And just like everyone else in the car, Midoriya quickly made his way out of the vehicle, down the steps, off the platform and began walking towards the nearby shopping center. He still had yet to actually eat lunch. So now was as good a time as any to get some much needed food in his system. But unfortunately for the green haired Inspector, what promised to be an easy and uneventful afternoon came to an abrupt halt when a loud crashing sound not too far away from him drew his attention.
'What's going on?' The man wondered while looking ahead of him. It only took a moment, but he was able to spot what looked like a man with some sort of tiger transformation quirk sprinting through the crowd on all fours while knocking over everyone in sight. 'A villain?' He surmised.
It had been a long time since Midoriya was anywhere close to an actual villain attack. The last time he could remember seeing one in person was a few months ago. Usually he just read about them on the news whenever he had the time.
Seeing as he really didn't feel like getting caught up in the middle of any of this nonsense, the man decided that it was best to just move out of the tiger-man's way before he got close to him. But just as he was about to do that something else caught his eye. More specifically, a wild patch of green vines coming from around the same corner that villain just appeared from.
"Stop right there you scoundrel!" The familiar voice of the pro heroine "Vine" yelled out while maneuvering over the crowd in hot pursuit of the runaway villain.
'Really, she's here? Talk about a coincidence.' Midoriya thought to himself. He had no clue that his neighbor/temporary coworker was the one assigned to patrol this area. Then again, it wasn't like he kept track of what the local heroes did on a daily basis. At least…not anymore.
As the villain continued to shove his way through the crowd he was putting more and more distance between himself and the vine haired heroine. But Shiozaki was still right on his tail. Both figuratively and literally. While he watched this scene unfold before him, Midoriya couldn't help but be impressed by how well Shiozaki was using her powers to slip through the sea of bodies while not allowing the man to leave her sight. It was obvious to him that she was highly trained when it came to safely moving in a populated area. And the way that she used her vines to keep her momentum shifting while not losing her balance was quite the difficult feat.
'I wonder what level of control she has over each- Argh, this is no time to be dissecting her quirk.' Midoriya shook his head. He should be getting out of the way, not analyzing the details of her abilities.
Now that his mind was finally focused on the right thing, the man retreated to spot next to one of the nearby stores along with a couple of other onlookers.
-(o)-
On the other end of the equation, Shiozaki was doing her best to avoid causing any further chaos for the civilians and the surrounding shops.
The vine haired heroine was having a rather uneventful day up until this point. And to be perfectly honest, she was getting rather bored. Of course as far as she was concerned the less work there was for a hero to do, the better. It only meant that things were going well. But even she had to try and find a way to keep herself occupied before she could head home for the day. In fact, Shiozaki was so bored that she even volunteered to take over part of Mt. Lady's patrol route while the woman took care of some business on the other side of town. Which was just an excuse for her to stay out of the office and keep her mind occupied while she waited for time to pass.
About two hours into her extended patrol however, that all changed. Right when the woman was getting ready to head back to the agency, she got a call about a robber who decided that it was a good idea to hold up a local convenience store in the middle of a Friday afternoon. And like any good hero she quickly jumped into action.
It barely took a couple of minutes for her to track down the man with a tiger-quirk and even less time than that to find herself in the middle of a chase. It was about five or so minutes into this little adventure when the villain ran into the nearby shopping center. Probably hoping that it would be easy to lose him in a crowd of people. But that certainly wasn't the case. She may have preferred stationary combat over these kinds of things. But that didn't mean that she was a slouch when it came to maneuverability.
As the villain continued to push his way through the innocent civilians, Shiozaki knew that she needed to get this handled sooner rather than later to avoid any potential injuries. Luckily, there were enough overhead signs and railings in the shopping center to where she could stay above the crowd to try and keep up with the man.
"This is your final warning! Cease your behavior at once!" She shouted.
"Fuck off, bitch!" The tiger-man yelled back.
"Such language, how rude." The woman scoffed before extending half of her vines further down the path. It took her moment to get within range, especially with how fast this guy was. But now that she was close enough, it was time for her to put an end to this. "Via Dolorosa!"
Suddenly, a wave of cascading vines shrouded the area in front of her. Completely blanketing everything in sight. However, Shiozaki had the wherewithal to avoid any of the bystanders while using her attack and focused slowly on capturing the villain. And with a practice ease, managed to lace some of her vines around his ankle to stop him from getting further away from her.
"Shit!" The villains howled only a moment before he was yanked back in the opposite direction. Before he even had enough time to think about what his next move would be, his body became engulfed by numerous layers of vines. Binding him and completely cutting off his mobility. "God dammit!"
"Do not use the lord's name in vain!" The woman barked out before placing a couple of her green appendages over the tiger-man's mouth. Now that the man was successfully within her grasp, there was no way that he was getting away from her. Although they were plants, Shiozaki's vines were much stronger than they looked. The only way to get out of them was to either burn them, cut them or simply force your way out with super strength. And the last person to successfully do either of those was her old classmate, Kamakiri.
"Whoa, she took him down like it was easy!" Some random person yelled out.
"Good work, Vine. You're awesome!" Another said from somewhere behind her.
Like she had done many times before, all Shiozaki did was give the onlookers a polite smile and wave. This kind of thing usually happens when you defeat a villain in front of a crowd of people.
The woman took a moment to look around her to see if anyone had gotten hurt in that little scuffle of hers. But by the grace of God, everyone seemed to be fine. And there was no damage to any of the shops or food stands either as far as she could tell. So to her, this was a resounding success. Her eyes continued scanning across the area before pausing at the familiar sight of a man with green hair dressed in a black suit.
"Inspector Midoriya?"
"Oh uh…hello, Vine." The man greeted the woman standing barely a few meters in front of him.
"What are you doing here?" She questioned.
"I'm actually on my way home. Chief Inspector Kaniko let me go early since we didn't have anything to do today."
"How fortunate."
"Yeah…." Midoriya nodded. "Nice work taking that guy down."
"I appreciate the kind words, Inspector. But this ruffian was little more than nuisance."
"Yeah, I'm sure you've dealt with much worse. But it was still impressive nonetheless. I was actually surprised at how well you used your quirk to avoid all these bystanders. Using your momentum to change direction like that was smart. But I guess that's a pro hero for you."
"Please, there's really no need for any kind of flattery." Shiozaki replied.
Actually, it was pretty surprising to hear that from someone who wasn't another hero themselves. Most people didn't realize how difficult it was for her to move around with only her vines. Especially from the quick glance that he must've gotten from watching her just now. The woman wanted to ask how he caught something so small like that. But she immediately remembered that part of his job was tracking down heroes. So a good set of eyes were probably a requirement for his line of work. "I must say, most people don't pay attention to that kind of thing."
"Well…I've always had a pretty good eye when it came to quirks."
"I can tell. Now that I think about it, we haven't heard from you or the police department in a couple of days. Is everything going alright? If there's anything that you need, I'll be glad to lend my assistance."
"No, nothing yet. We're pretty much just playing the waiting game now. Anyways...I guess I should let you get back to dealing with that." The green haired man then pointed to the tiger villain who was still immobilized within the woman's vines. Even he could tell that there was no way that guy was getting out of there anytime soon. Despite the amount of struggling that he was doing. But it was best not to get in the way of hero work. "I still need to go grab some food before I run some errands."
"Oh, actually…." She interjected. "If you're looking for somewhere, there's a nice restaurant not too far away from where we live. I don't know if you're a fan of Indian food, but I highly recommend that you go there."
'Indian food? I guess that she's a vegetarian. Which would actually make a lot of sense. I wonder if she needs to eat plants to help boost her quirk.' Midoriya wondered before putting on his best polite smile. "Sounds good, I guess I'll have to go check the place out. But I don't think that I've had that kind of stuff before. What's the address?"
As the two continued to converse, a few onlookers were watching this interaction with curiosity written all over their faces.
"Who's that guy that Vine's talking to?"
"No clue. Maybe it's a friend of hers?"
"Friends? Yeah, right. Not with someone that handsome. I bet you that's her boyfriend or something."
"But isn't she like super religious? Do people like that even date?"
"You sound like an idiot…y'know that?"
With their unexpected exchange finally over with, Midoriya was able to find an opportunity to take his leave. And leave is exactly what he did, but not before making sure to thank Shiozaki once again for telling him about that restaurant.
Although he wasn't exactly a fan of heroes, Midoriya had to admit that the vine haired woman was probably the nicest one that he had ever encountered. And not the fake kind of nice that they usually put on for the cameras. But the genuine kind that actually reminded him that at least a few heroes out there who were doing the job for the right reasons.
However, it wasn't like one person was going to make him change his outlook on heroes anytime soon…..
As for Shiozaki, the woman was glad to see the young Inspector seemed to be a lot less tense than normal. In all of their previous interactions it felt like he was trying to constantly maintain that aura of professionalism around him. But this time was a bit different. Maybe it was just because she caught him when he wasn't working. Or something along those lines. She wanted to at least be on friendly terms with the man, especially considering that they lived a few doors away from each other. On top of the fact that him and his boss were practically doing all of the legwork on this impending operation of theirs.
'Hmm…now that I think about it, I haven't given him a housewarming gift yet.' She thought to herself. It was pretty commonplace to send some sort of gift to your new neighbors. And she had done so before for some of the other residents in their building. Maybe that would be a good way to show her appreciation to the young man for all of his hard work. 'Yes, that's exactly what I should do!'
After all, it wasn't like Shiozaki had any other plans today. All of her friends were working and she had the next two days off. So what better way to spend a Friday evening than by doing a good deed and making some baked goods for a potential friend?
"Argh! Get me out of this thing you damn hero!" The tiger villain suddenly shouted, breaking her train of thought.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about him." The woman sighed before pulling out her phone and sending an alert to local police to come and pick this guy up. At the very least, now that she had apprehended this villain she would have some paperwork to keep her busy for a while once she got back to her office.
Later that evening after finishing up with all of his errands and finally signing up for that gym membership, Midoriya was casually hanging out in his living room while streaming one of his favorite television shows. One of the major downsides to moving to an entirely new city was that he essentially had nothing to do. Before coming to Kanagawa, he would usually spend his free time either going out and exploring some new places, working out, or being dragged out to dinner by the other Inspectors on his team.
The man wasn't quite brave enough to just go roaming around the town looking for something to do. And he wasn't nearly enough of a social butterfly to try his hand at making some new friends in the area. No matter how much he may have changed over the years, he was still pretty awkward when it came to social interactions.
'I wonder if that bowling alley I read about is open?' The man thought to himself only moments before a knock came from his door.
With a confused expression on his face, Midoriya simply stared at the thing for a few seconds and wondered who could possibly be coming to visit him at this hour. There were two possible explanations that he could come up with. Either whoever was on the other side simply had the wrong address, or Kaniko decided to show up to try and bring him along on some unknown adventure. In any case, he wasn't going to get any answers by just sitting on his butt. And it was impolite to keep people waiting.
After standing up and making his way over to the door, Midoriya looked through the peephole and instantly became even more confused at what he was looking at. Or more specifically, who. Hoping to get some answers, he turned the knob. Only to find himself standing face-to-face with none other than Shiozaki. The woman was dressed in a set of white sweats and holding a rather large container of something that he couldn't identify. The only clue he had to go on was the pleasant aroma of what he assumed to be apples coming from inside of it.
"Hello, Shiozaki-san. Can I help you with something?"
"I apologize for showing up unannounced, but I wanted to give you this." She then stuck out the container towards him.
"What is it?"
"A housewarming gift." She said plainly. "I realized that I forgot to give you something to celebrate you moving in. So I made some cookies that I hope you will enjoy."
"Wow, I don't know what to say." The man rubbed the back of his head. "You really didn't have to do this."
"Oh, but I did. It's only right that I show a bit of courtesy to a new neighbor. Also, think of it as a token of my appreciation for working so diligently on this impending operation."
'Seriously, how can one person be so nice?' Midoriya wondered as he accepted the gift. Although he did find this all a bit odd, he wasn't really in a position to turn down free food. And definitely not the kind that smelled as good as this. "Thank you." He then bowed.
The moment he did that, Shiozaki's eyes just so happened to wander into his apartment towards the nearby wall. One that held a shelf displaying a surprising number of what looked to be awards and plaques. But the main one that caught her eye was the red and gold Shiketsu High School award near the top of the display.
"Forgive for asking, Midoriya-san, but did you go to Shiketsu?"
"Oh…yeah." The man said while looking back at his display. "That's where I graduated from."
"How nice. I met quite a few Shiketsu students during my time at U.A.. It is certainly a lovely school from what I've heard."
"That's what people tell me." The man laughed awkwardly. "The hero course is supposed to rival that of U.A., but I really don't know much about that kind of stuff."
"Oh? What did you study?"
"The school has a police academy along with the other courses. That's what I went there for."
"You wanted to become a police officer?" She raised an eyebrow.
"That was the original plan...before I got recruited by the HPSC." He responded.
"Wow." Was all Shiozaki managed to say. This pretty much confirmed her earlier theory that the man had to be pretty talented in what he does to get selected by such an organization right out of high school. And the numerous awards that she saw on his wall only further cemented her assumptions.
"Well anyways, thank you again for this. I'll be sure to return your generosity as soon as I get the chance."
"Think nothing of it. I was simply doing what I could to "welcome you to the neighborhood" so to speak."
"And I appreciate it."
With one final bow, the two adults parted ways as the woman headed back down the hall to her apartment. Leaving Midoriya to walk over to his kitchen and set the container of freshly baked cookies down on the counter. Even though his diet didn't really call for any sweets until a few days from now, he was awfully tempted to try one of these things out. Which is exactly what he did.
"Oh wow, these are amazing!" The man blurted out in pure astonishment at the explosion of flavor within his mouth. He couldn't even remember the last time he had eaten a pastry this good. 'I definitely need to find a way to pay her back for this.' He told himself while closing the container and going back to his sofa to watch TV. But certainly not before grabbing a few more of those cookies to enjoy while he got comfortable.
'Seriously, what a nice lady.'
A/N: You know, this chapter seemed way longer than what it was when I was writing it out. But I'm trying to stay within a certain word limit, so I guess it all worked out in the end. If you've read any of my other fics, you'll know that I have a habit of stretching things out a bit too much.
1. This chapter was pretty much just some more "coincidental" interactions between Midoriya and Shiozaki to build up their growing relationship a bit more. Along with some more clues about Midoriya's past. In the next update, we'll finally get to the 'High Point' raid. And we will officially get to see what Midoriya's quirk is. I don't plan on things getting too crazy seeing who all will be involved. But I hope it will be enough to satisfy you guys. After that, there will be some shenanigans (Courtesy of a certain green haired woman).
2. This will also be when I introduce two of the other three members of Unite Nine. I try not to load my stories with too many OC's, so don't worry if that's not your thing. But since this version of Midoriya didn't go to U.A., his "Izu-crew" will obviously be a bit different. You might recognize them if you're a fan of either "Psycho-pass", "Ghost in the Shell" or DC Comics. Which are the series that I'm taking most of the inspiration for this story from.
Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a comment/review!