"I asked Ayatsuru for the soundproofing so that if your quirk is a secret," Fukusei said, "the rest of them can't hear anything. Is it? A secret, I mean?"
Midoriya just stared at him, mouth opening and closing as he attempted to form words. Fukusei shrugged.
"Take your time," he said, sitting cross-legged on the floor. "I'll wait. Just don't step out of the bubble, though. We don't want your secret getting out."
Fukusei made himself comfortable on the tan bricks, lounging effortlessly on hard floor. After a couple of seconds, Midoriya shut his mouth and sat down by Fukusei, staring at the floor with his hands in his lap.
"Are you fine now?"
Midoriya looked up. Fukusei was smiling amusedly.
"So, can we talk?"
Hesitantly, Midoriya nodded. Fukusei sat forward.
"I'll make it easy for you," he said. "When I'm about to copy a quirk, I can feel how complicated it is, how big it is, what each part of it does and how it works. It helps me organize each quirk into slots. Everyone else was simple enough. You, on the other hand…"
Fukusei half sighed, half laughed.
"I probably had to use up fourteen slots for your quirk alone," he told him. "And there's a whole bunch of stuff in there. It has some kind of order to it that I know is there, but I can't explain. It goes like, transferring and replicating, stockpiling power for later release, changing velocities with no applied force, storing kinetic energy for later release, detect imminent threats, generate manipulatable strands of physical energy, produce smoke from the body, and a hovering quirk. The first one seems more prominent than all the others, with the last one being weakest. I don't know."
He looked at Midoriya.
"You have any idea what's up with all that?"
"I… I don't know if I can," Midoriya admitted quietly. "It's a secret with someone else. I don't know if they'd want me to tell you."
"Ah. And I assume it has nothing to do with All Might?"
Midoriya's head snapped up at lightning speed. Fukusei's elbow rested on his knee, his head rested on his hand.
He smiled gently.
"All Might had the same stockpiling power as your quirk, when I met him." Fukusei said. "Something's up with that, I think. I couldn't detect anything else with him, though."
Fukusei's smile widened.
"So really, what is your quirk?"
=0=
"Hey, Fuku-chan," Hashimoto said, leaning forward from behind him, looking up at him from just above waist height. The members of Class 1-S strode across the grounds of the UA campus in their hero costumes under an orange-pink sky, blending in by standing out.
After all, what was suspicious about hero students, on the premises of a hero school?
"Yes?" Fukusei responded, his face illuminated gloriously by golden-orange sunset rays.
"What did you talk about with the green-haired guy?"
Fukusei smiled privately. "It's our little secret."
"Hmph." She floated backward, her legs passing through Kaneshiro's face. He didn't even blink as she settled back down behind him, then floated forward again, lying in the air on her stomach.
"Like what you see?" she whispered to Kaneshiro. He looked at her.
"Yes."
She laughed. "Your face and voice make everything so much funnier. And how you're so direct about everything! It makes it even better!"
"That's the point," he replied in his flat monotone.
Hashimoto looked forward, and floated onward to Ando, who looked at her with disgust and somehow managed to wave her away.
"Hey, hey!" Hashimoto called. "Don't gravity me like that."
Ando sighed and snapped her fingers, and Hashimoto felt the pulling force on her disappear.
"I really wish you'd stop acting like that," Ando grumbled. "It's so painful to watch."
"Acting like what?" Hashimoto smiled innocently, her head resting on her laced fingers.
"Like a slut," Ando snapped. "Stop flirting with everyone so much."
Hashimoto righted herself and flopped her silver hair behind her shoulder, opening her mouth to speak. Hoshiko slowed so that she was beside Ando, and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hey. Don't call her a slut."
"Yeah, Chiaki! I can act how I want!" Hashimoto said, snapping finger guns at Chiaki.
Ando just slumped and walked forward to the front of the group, where Ayatsuru was poking Fukusei in the shoulder.
"I know you wouldn't make that kind of mistake, no matter what you say," he was saying indignantly. "You let them know on purpose. Why?"
Fukusei grinned, and folded his arms behind his head as he walked.
"Well, we need to have some fun, don't we?"
=0=
"Hos… pital," came the harsh, somehow roaring, deafening whisper, from the face of Oboro Shirakumo.
And then Kurogiri dropped forward in his seat, kept from falling over by the restraints that bound him to his chair.
"Eraserhead, Present Mic!" came Tsukauchi's voice from the speaker. "That's all for now. You both did great!"
Aizawa's hair fell forward, over his face.
Yamada looked over at him. "Your eyes… you okay, man?"
"So what?" Aizawa said, not looking at him, his face still obscured by his hair. "They're just dried out."
A streak of liquid shone on Aizawa's cheek.
=0=
"How do we know it's him?" Rock Lock said, arms folded, his foot tapping on the floor.
"We had someone go undercover based on a tip from the Safety Commission," Tsukauchi replied. "They discovered a locked-down area in the hospital, and nobody knew what it was being used for."
The detective reached for a tablet.
"It's only accessible via the morgue," he said, his fingers moving across the screen. "Only Garaki himself goes in or out, and our insider managed to get proof."
He turned the tablet around. "This photo."
On the screen, Garaki stood in a doorway with his back to the camera. Tsukauchi zoomed in.
And that misshapen shape with two legs and a tail, its eyeballs stuck mindlessly into an exposed brain, was visible.
Pixie-Bob started, with evident disgust. "An itty-bitty Noumu!"
"Arresting Garaki Kyudai won't be too tricky!" Tsukauchi interjected forcefully. "However, if we get ahead of ourselves, the Liberation Front will catch wind of it."
There was a brief lull before someone spoke again.
"What's our strategy?" Endeavour asked.
"We all remember the traumatic events in Hosu and Kamino. Even though we were able to restrain All For One at Kamino, the number one hero, All Might, was basically forced into retirement," Tsukauchi responded. "Therefore, we will be facing this situation with all our forces."
The screen behind Tsukauchi lit up with dark blue, and the word 'HERO' showed up in white.
"First, we will split the heroes into teams."
The 'HERO' split into red and blue, the words spelling out 'Team Endeavour' and 'Team Edgeshot', respectively.
"Team Endeavour will secure Garaki Kyudai in Jaku Hospital. Team Edgeshot will storm the Gunga Mountain Villa, which is considered the Paranormal Liberation Front's hideout," Tsukauchi informed them.
Two arrows appeared from the words, pointing to the tasks they had been assigned.
"These two things will happen at the same time. In addition, hero course students will be deployed as logistical support for both teams," Tsukauchi continued. "We'll have them help with civilian evacuation and rescue in the event that things escalate."
More words detailing the hero students' support appeared on screen, with arrows pointing from them to the team names.
"Once the fighting begins, of course we expect resistance from the Paranormal Liberation Front and the Noumus. Even so, we must do this."
The detective looked at them with force of will, a determination that said it all, oh so strongly.
I believe in you.
"Garaki. The Noumu. Shigaraki. And the League of- no. The Paranormal Liberation Front. Our mission is to take them all down at once!"
Of course, Tsukauchi didn't tell them about the backup plan. About the last resort. He couldn't say it in front of this many people who were out of the loop.
But Class 1-S would be there, watching.
He hoped to hell they wouldn't have to be called to action.