A/N: Chapter 53 is… coming through the door like a hero!

Thank you to everyone for the patience with me extending my upload schedule to once every three weeks. It's been an utterly chaotic couple of weeks in real life; I've had a really complicated trial (which I lost. Still sore about that), two exams to cope with, and in the midst of it some lovely Virus of Corona in my house. I personally think we did well to avoid anyone catching it until April 2022, but nonetheless it's been a setback, so I am grateful that nobody is raging at me for not posting a chapter.

I'm hoping that the "once every three weeks" thing isn't a permanent change to my upload schedule. Once I am through the summer, I will be free of my last exams- I am hoping that even if work gets a little more involved, it will still give me the chance to go back to fortnightly updates on this story. I love having the rhythm to fit into and keep me trucking along.

I am so bloody glad that Gunwife herself, Lady Nagant, got a good reception. I love her character to bits and I knew she needed to join this fic the second that I saw her; because of how canon can get her wrong, I just wanted to make sure I did her justice. There will be more Nagant from me in the future of this fic, and more Nagant in the future generally… follow me as an author and you will see.

This week's shout-out- because I love bringing some positivity to this fandom and highlighting people who I think are great- goes to ArSol, of AO3. Part of me is inherently biased, because ArSol says that his story "Legacy makes our blood thicker" is inspired by this fic and flattery gets you everywhere; in its own right, Legacy is fantastic and one of the best debuts in the fandom I've seen from anybody. He's also a fucking weeb and knows far too much about Genshin Impact, my current addiction to keep me sane versus the Rona; expect more fics from me in that fandom at some point.

Anyway… some characters we've not heard from in a while, and another debut? So soon? Blame Hori for introducing so many characters of worth that I find myself giving debuts in Act 3!

Enjoy!

(***)

This mission, with every day that passed, was becoming more and more fucking painful to Katsuki.

It wasn't that they were doing the wrong thing. They had to do something to go after the Meta Liberation Army, now that they had leads to follow and an idea of how big their enemy was. They had to be the ones to do it, because the target painted on Endeavor's back had just grown ten times fucking larger because his sons both came out to attack him on TV. None of the attention was on him and Burnin, surprisingly, meaning they could retreat from front-line missions alongside Endeavor and focus on their own thing. And they had to go to Deika City because shitty Slip-and-Slide had made it really obvious something was going on out there that needed explanation.

What other reason could he have for turning up here so often? This was a Pro Hero that Katsuki was absolutely adamant was a member of the Meta Liberation Army, a Pro Hero based literally in Musutafu. It wouldn't have been so obvious for most Pros, but this one lived and worked right where he grew up, right where he patrolled! And yet somehow, nobody had been noticing that this two-faced bastard had been slipping off across the country to Deika City for at least half a week at a time. He wasn't bothering to patrol Musutafu and keep it safe, he was off in a random city miles away from his patrol routes, with no family links or anything to tie him to Deika. It wasn't even like he was a privatised Hero, calling into Deika City because he had contracts with sponsors requiring him to split his time; this guy was one of the Commission's own, and yet he was going AWOL without anyone punishing him.

Something was clearly wrong. Katsuki's paranoia was, in his view, completely justified. And Burnin and Kyoka had agreed with him.

So they'd dropped everything, and turned their back on everywhere else they were needed. Endeavor's Agency got attacked, Kido ending up in hospital briefly because of his injuries, and they weren't recalled. Protests happened outside UA, the school which Katsuki had always dreamed of going to before his law-breaking episode at Tattooin Station, but they kept their heads down and focused on Slidin' Go because they didn't want to lose the lead. And yet, when they'd got close to Deika City…

He gnashed his teeth, thinking about it. It still pissed him off. He hated that Shitty Hair was right, that he couldn't ignore her, but the truth was… neither of them could go into Deika City.

They were too well-known. She was a more established sidekick, yeah, but he'd done himself no favours when that Kizuki at Shoowaysha interviewed him on live TV. Everyone knew of them as Endeavor's top sidekick and Endeavor's chosen Apprentice, so the second they set foot in Deika, they would be exposed. It wasn't like they could disguise themselves well, either; Bed Head's hair couldn't be kept under control at the best of times, and the second he needed to use his Quirk, Explosion would give him away for miles around. However they tried it, their presence in Deika City would make the locals ask questions, and questions led to rumours. Given that Shoowaysha had another publishing house and a TV broadcast station set up in the city, those rumours would end up becoming headlines, and the rat they were following…

Slidin' Go was a dumbass from everything he had seen, but he wasn't stupid. He'd know why they had strayed so far from Musutafu, to a city Endeavor's sidekicks had never been to before. He'd run, and probably either disappear from front-line heroics for a while, or cut off all contact so that they couldn't corner him and use that to draw out other Army members. It was too much of a risk.

All of that being true was why they'd approached Kyoka, and asked her to join them. But it did nothing to quell the fire inside him, anger burning at the fact he couldn't get out there and drag the traitorous Hero down himself. He wanted to surpass Endeavor and even All Might, become the best there ever was, and instead of that… he was a liability if he went out there. He had to be locked in this shitty little house Burnin had commandeered, in a town a few miles out from Deika, watching on a screen and hoping someone else could do the job he wanted to do himself.

That was the compromise that they had to take in all of this. Kyoka Jiro was a relatively famous face because of her punk rock career and the hit songs she had recorded, but they were lucky enough to be heading to Deika at the same time as some music festival Katsuki had never heard of. She could wander around the city and be approached by residents for autographs, smile and pose for the cameras, and it wouldn't give a damn thing away. Slidin' Go didn't know about her vigilante career, and with any luck she could stumble upon something that would help him and Burnin commit without exposing them too soon.

It was a good plan in the circumstances, making the best of their whole situation. But it didn't stop the fact that Katsuki felt useless for the tiny part he could play. And he didn't like that one bit.

The earpiece crackled again, another thing to piss him off. Katsuki knew he had a short fuse, although in his defence other people were morons and didn't make it any better for themselves. But when he resented the fact that he was being made to sit this mission out, his earpiece being obnoxiously loud didn't help at all. Punk Rock wouldn't appreciate him shouting down his mic when she had sensitive hearing, after all. "You still there, Bomberman?"

"Where else can I be? Bed Head won't let me out of the damn house." He shouldn't have taken it out on Kyoka, because she couldn't help being the only member of their team who wasn't on house arrest. "Still stuck in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere-"

"I'm not too keen on sharing with you either, y'know?" While Katsuki was sat on a sofa staring at the feed through the TV screen, Burnin had a computer set up on the kitchen table, scrolling through the internet every time Kyoka sent her an interesting find. It was weird hearing Burnin behind him and then repeated through the earpiece; one of her was bad enough. "You're such a slowpoke in the mornings. And so grouchy! I can't talk to you before you've had your cereal-"

"At least I don't take four hundred years to shower! Your hair can't even get wet, why the hell does it take you so long-"

"Why am I the only adult in this group, jeez?" Kyoka's hissed whisper united Katsuki and Burnin briefly behind the shared cause of yelling at Kyoka, before both of them realised they were missing the point and shut up with a glare in each other's direction. "It's… I don't know if Bed Head wants to look it up, but it's weird. Something I've only slowly started realising the whole day, if that makes sense."

"Hit me with it, and I'll see what I think, Earworm." Burnin cackled maliciously at the long groan Kyoka let out on the other end. While both he and Burnin had headsets and microphones, set up to listen in and watch at home from the button-hole camera donated by Giran, Kyoka was blending in by pretending to use her burner phone, and to any normal passerby she would have just looked frustrated at the news she received on her call. "Hey, you agreed! No first names and no official names in case anyone listens in to this. Codenames only!"

"What do you mean, no official names?" Katsuki was grumpy, but he still wouldn't miss the chance to bully Kyoka about the name he had assigned her when speaking to Endeavor. "Earworm's her proper vigilante name. Isn't it?"

"... Bomberman, I swear, if we make it out of this I will ban you from ever coming to one of my gigs anywhere in Japan." Kyoka sounded mostly serious. "Come on, I hate that name. Could we not have given me something I might be happy to hear-"

"You can't go changing the code! That's a recipe for disaster, people would forget who they are!"

"You know…" Katsuki tore his eyes away from the screen to look at Burnin, and muted his microphone. "People in the wars used to change codes so they were harder to crack, all the time."

"I'm helping you out by making her keep the embarrassing name, idiot!" Burnin whispered, and he nearly snorted with a laugh. It was like having an older sister, the dynamic between the two of them; at each other's throats one second, and ganging up on somebody else the next. She was weird. "She'll love it, eventually!"
"Yeah, right." Katsuki switched back to the call. "No changing, you heard her. Nobody will guess it's you this way."

"... I hate you both, sometimes." Kyoka sounded like she was growling; Katsuki imagined that she was red and flustered, and then cursed himself for thinking of her so suddenly like that. They had important things to focus on, not… that. Whatever that was. "We've seen a lot today on my tour, right?"

"Yeah, Deika City's a lot bigger than I realised!" Burnin turned to look at a big whiteboard which Katsuki had set up, acquired somewhere from a shop where the staff hadn't paid too much attention to the strangers from out of town. "It's not like it's completely shut off from the rest of the country, but… y'know. Nicotine doesn't know much about what goes on out here. And that's strange."

Katsuki rolled his eyes humourlessly at the code name she had assigned to Giran. If he closed his eyes, he could almost smell the cheap cigarette smoke from the bar that Kyoka's sponsor appeared to have acquired as his own. "A lot of newly-built stuff. And loads of big businesses- Shoowaysha has a publishing house, and Feel Good Inc have that huge office downtown. Ugly as hell when you walked past it."

"I didn't know you critiqued architecture, but yeah."

Katsuki chose to ignore that. "That tower in the centre… do you think you can get a tour, at some point?"

"I can try. I don't know when I'll get a little more time tomorrow without the band practice, but it's hard to know who to ask. If we don't know who owns the tower or runs the tower… could it be the city council? They'll find it weird if some touring singer asks to go up it, right?"

"Just claim you're shooting a music video or something."

"Seriously? How cheesy do you think my vids are? My songs are better quality than that-"

"We can deal with that when it comes up. We're getting off-topic here!" Burnin steered them back. "You've been noticing something? About our target, his friends, or…"

"Nah, none of those. It's just… I've been seeing posters and stickers for something everywhere around here. The first couple of times I saw some, I dismissed it and just started ignoring it, but I went back for a walk down the street and… something's hitting the wrong note with me, the more I see it."

"Posters?" Katsuki frowned. "I'm guessing not for the Phoenix Festival?"

"Nah, it's… a name I've never heard of before. I'll try and find one to show you, so you can read it." Kyoka started walking forward, and Katsuki took stock of where she was; a residential street, with built-up apartments on one side and smaller detached houses with long gardens on the other. "Thing is, it's the amount of them that's weird as much as anything."

"More than for the festival?"

"More than that. Oh, here." Kyoka paused in front of a block of flats, looking at a wall by the stairwell up from the ground floor. "I'm gonna have to get up close so you two can see. It's there, right by the stairs. I'm gonna look weird doing this when I don't live around here, but… there's a few other bits on a resident's notice board down here, so at least I can claim I'm looking for yoga classes or something."

"Ooh, good for inner peace. Maybe you should take Bomberman along, he needs to learn how to relax."

Katsuki angrily chewed his microphone, rather than swear at Burnin, watching the camera refocus as Kyoka stepped closer to the notice board and started to examine it. "Which one are we meant to look at? I see the one for the festival-"

"Look in the opposite corner. Bottom right." Kyoka shifted slightly so that she was turned towards that corner, and it took the camera a second to focus on the poster- a plain-white poster, with three pink hearts arranged in a logo and some kanji which Katsuki was struggling to read on the footage. "Can you see that?"

"See it, but can't read it. Huh." Burnin peered at her screen, then Katsuki's television, and shook her head. "What does it say?"

"It says 'Hearts and Minds Party'. That's it. Nothing else, just those four words. Does…" Kyoka paused, as an elderly woman went past her to climb the stairs to her flat, before continuing. "Does that name mean much to either of you?"

"Nah, but I'm searching. Gimme a sec." Burnin looked over at Katsuki. "Anything it reminds you of?"

"Never heard of it, but… I'm guessing it's not a party, if the Phoenix Festival is going on in Deika at the same time." Katsuki paused. "Party… like politicians?"

"Looks that way." Burnin turned one of her screens to him with the fruits of her labours, and the search results were all the same. Helpfully, Katsuki could see their logo on the screen at the same time as the rest of the websites, confirming that the three hearts were exactly the same as they were on the poster Kyoka had spotted. But the rest of the results all seemed to paint the same picture; a smaller political movement, one which appeared to have started within Katsuki's lifetime and was gaining a little more traction with each election. "I've never voted, so-"

"You can't, because you're not eighteen, but thanks for confirming what we all knew anyway, Bomberman!"

"Is it eighteen now?" Kyoka asked, cutting off Katsuki's reply before it left his lungs. "Always thought it was twenty-"

"They changed it about five years after the Dawn of Quirks. It was just one of those things that people forgot about when society started going a little crazy." Burnin blinked, realising Katsuki was staring. "What? I was top of my class when I left, don't look at me like me having some general knowledge is a fucking surprise!"

"... I didn't know you were a damn nerd."

"Urgh! Can we get back on topic?" Burnin flushed, staring back at her screen and pointedly ignoring him. "They're pretty fringe, honestly. A lot of following in Aichi and Mie Prefecture, but not too big in the north or south of the country yet. And it doesn't seem like they've made it much into Shizuoka… maybe that's why their posters caught your eye?"

"No, it's not that, it's…" Kyoka paused, a little movement making the image from her camera distort again. "You say they've got a lot of following around here?"

"Yeah, seems like they started up in Aichi a little while back! Why?"

"Well… I'd expect a party which has got a lot of following to have a lot of people willing to show posters. Obviously."

"..." Katsuki leaned forward, sensing something more to this. "But?"

"But… I've seen these everywhere. And I'm not exaggerating this either, but… literally every place I pass has had some form of poster, or sticker, or something with the three little hearts on it." Kyoka stepped away from the notice board and carried on walking, back towards the centre of town in the direction of the hotel where she had holed herself up with her band. "If they don't have one up in their window, people have a bumper sticker, or something on their garage door. They're in shop windows, on cafe menus chalked on the corner, on the damn crossings. Even saw one sticker on a police car, a couple of streets back."

"... Okay, that's definitely odd." Burnin's attention had been grabbed, prompting her to start trawling through more search results in earnest. "When did you start to realise?"

"Honestly? I kind of ignored it at first, because they weren't Phoenix Festival posters. After I saw a couple, I just put it out of my head and ignored it for a little while." Kyoka began crossing the street, but kept talking. "But then we went in to grab a bite earlier, didn't we-"

"That donburi place?"

"Yeah. The bowls rocked and all but… I remember seeing one of the posters up in the window and I thought it was weird they had one too. I started looking out a little more since I saw that, and… yeah. I even tried to go out of the city centre to prove I wasn't losing my mind, before I said anything, but they've all got them at home too. And I've not seen any posters for any sort of opposition, since I started noticing how many of their posters are out here."

"Good call on it being weird." Burnin was scrolling through something which Katsuki couldn't read. "You're right about the lack of opposition. The last prefecture election for the local assembly was eighteen months ago… you'll never guess which party got all the seats."

"Like hell they did." Katsuki didn't want to believe it, until Burnin turned the screen to him and he could see; a rolling sea of pink icons and numbers he couldn't read, which made it clear even from a distance who had won. "That… doesn't happen."

"It shouldn't. And that's the thing, too- the election was eighteen months ago. There won't be another for two and a half years, but… Hearts and Minds are still putting posters up. And campaigning…"

"Definitely weird," Kyoka agreed, over the phone. "Anything you guys can see that I should know about them? Might make 'em worth checking out?"

"Well… shit. Yeah."

The way Burnin trailed off made Katsuki stop his own search on his phone and stare at her. "Our target?"

"... Yeah." Burnin grimaced, and turned the monitor to him. "The leader of Hearts and Minds is a guy called Koku Hanabata. Career politician, made his switch over to start Hearts and Minds because he claimed Japan needed to change its whole system. This guy… the black-hair and the suit."

The photo was from an article buried deep on the internet, on one of the main news networks doing a rare piece to cover a fringe political party on the rise. It was everything he'd expect of a politician meeting a group of Heroes, getting their photograph with the neighbourhood Pros as if they were part of the team, an insincere and skin-deep smile on the politician's face. But it was one face among the assembled Heroes which stood out, not least because of his enormous and distinctive chin, but also because of how far from his usual jurisdiction he was… "That's him. And the target."

"Seriously?" Kyoka sounded disbelieving. "Those two know each other? That could explain why the Chin keeps coming out all this way, if they're meeting up to talk tactics. That's… a good lead."

"So what does that mean? Hearts and Minds is a front for our friends?" Katsuki didn't like where that was going one bit. "We need to track down this Hanabata, see who he knows-"

"Let's not squeeze him too hard. It's a good lead, but our target is the same guy we came out here for. We need more than this one photo to prove a link."

"What?" Katsuki turned to Burnin, ready to argue that, but was quickly silenced by the look on her face and the silent shaking of her head. She… Katsuki didn't understand why, but the part of him that wanted to argue saw the look in her eyes, imploring him to back down. There was something more to this… and whatever his own feelings on keeping secrets, he also knew that she wouldn't ask if it wasn't crucial. "Oh… yeah. I get that."

Burnin mouthed a silent thank you, before carrying on as if nothing had happened between them. "Earworm, you copy that? We can't take too many risks, or the old man will flip. But we don't have to take risks."

"... Gotcha." Kyoka paused for a second, as if she was uncertain, but she finally agreed. Katsuki didn't feel right, knowing that something was being held back from her. "What did you have in mind that's safer?"

"The whole reason you're here is the Festival, right? Hanabata's posted online about how he's looking forward to attending. Someone like him won't miss a chance to meet the acts. You can sound him out there, see what he's getting up to. And if our target is here in the city too… there's no way he won't go to see the show, either. Anything you get on Hanabata is a bonus, but if the target leads you to him… two birds, one stone?"

"Sounds good," Kyoka agreed immediately, trusting the more experienced sidekick. "All the fun stuff happens backstage."

"Alright, sheesh. Save that kind of talk for Bomberman." Another time, and Katsuki would have sworn at her and joined in, but as Kyoka stammered he kept his microphone muted and glared at her. "Go blend in and practice with your band. Update us if you catch anything else, and we'll call you if we get anything, but otherwise it's show time tomorrow. We begin the real work at the Festival."

"Catch you both later. Bomberman… give her a kick from me, will ya?"

As the phone clicked off, Katsuki was already glaring at Burnin enough to make his point. "You didn't want to tell her to go after Hanabata."

"No… if she had us for backup, I'd be fine. But we aren't there to push this, so we need to be careful."

Katsuki examined her face, looking for the slightest twitch… there. "There's something else."

Burnin took a second, then groaned, tapping two windows open which she had minimised. "Another article. One which is linked to the page I found Hanabata and Tokoname on."

"Seriously?" Katsuki stood up and slouched over, hands in his pockets as he stared over her shoulder. This one was different, talking about a charity ball which had taken place in central Tokyo a couple of years after Incident Zero. "Hey, I remember that one. The old hag made a dress for one of the Heroes. Ryukyu, I think."

"Cute. But that's not why I'm scared we're in too deep." Burnin gave him the mouse. "Fourth or fifth picture down."

Katsuki didn't like that she wasn't describing what she'd seen to him at all, the alarm bell starting to ring in the back of his head. Down he scrolled, past a couple of photographs of dressed-up Heroes and the venue outside, to a photograph inside the room. Two men, standing side by side in their finest suits and clasping each other in a handshake while they directed well-practiced smiles to the camera. Koku Hanabata…

And the president of Detnerat.

"... fuck." Katsuki blinked twice, not knowing what to add to that for a second. "Shit. That's the old man's biggest sponsor."

"Yotsubashi… that sly bastard. But that's not just it." Burnin shook her head. "Those two could genuinely be together because they're involved in the same charity projects, or use the same golf course. It could just be a coincidence. But take another look at that picture, and you'll see why I don't think it is."

Another look… Katsuki stared back, examining every detail of how the men were standing, what they were wearing. Nothing in their faces was giving anything away. "I don't see it."

"That's because you're looking at them." Burnin pulled a face. "You're not looking at the table behind them."

So that was the hint. Katsuki looked, only now seeing that while Detnerat's boss held his wine, Hanabata was reaching back for a glass placed on the table. It was clearly their table, and they clearly weren't alone. And while the faces were blurred because of the camera focus, while some of the others were hidden behind the lean frame of Hanabata and the bulk of Yotsubashi, there was one woman who could be seen over Hanabata's arm, sat at the table and focused on texting.

There weren't too many women Katsuki knew with blue skin and purple hair.

"Bastards. That's Kizuki." He couldn't see for certain, but he was sure nonetheless. "That's her, isn't it?"

"I think so." Burnin sagged. "Shoowaysha, Detnerat and Hearts and Minds… if there's people in all three who are part of the Army, then we are more outnumbered than the Boss ever thought. And they're closer than he thinks."

"Dammit." Explosion popped in the palm not holding the mouse, an angry reflex. This… was bigger than he expected. And now they'd put Kyoka in the middle of something bigger than he'd expected. They'd sent her in on her own for good reason, and Burnin was right- they still couldn't go in just the two of them, outnumbered and distinctive as they were. But clearly Deika was a Hearts and Minds stronghold, and now their leader was supposed to be close with suspected Meta Liberation Army members. This was the man Kyoka was supposed to meet tomorrow…

"And we can't go in tomorrow." He stared at Burnin, but it wasn't a question. He already knew the answer, however much he hated it. "This is dangerous-"

"But we'll only make it worse if we swoop in now. She still has a chance." Burnin was still pale-faced as she said it, eyes flickering with the light of her agitated flaming hair. "... Jeez, I hope we haven't got this wrong."

Katsuki punched the back of the sofa in frustration. He hoped so too, but right there and then?

They thought that they'd dropped Kyoka into the frying pan… instead they'd thrown her into the fire.

(***)

Amidst the whirlwind of punches being thrown her way, one uppercut nearly found its mark on her chin. She dodged, but it was just enough of a reminder that her opponent's onslaught could catch even her off-guard. "Hah!"

"It's like you forgot how to fight!" Her opponent's eyes were wild, framed by the black hooded mask which he had brought especially, unrelenting in his attack. "Dodging all the time… don't tell me you're scared now, Mirko?"

"Like hell I am!" Oh, that would do it. That was enough to get Rumi's blood up, an extra pool of adrenaline tapped into from somewhere to unleash hell. He wanted a fight? He'd damn well get one. "I've been going easy on ya!"

There was no time to think beyond that or wisecrack, because her opponent just wouldn't allow it. He wasn't a man to waste words with banter in the middle of a fight, to allow her to regroup and collect her thoughts. He was a one-man wrecking crew, driven by bloodlust and the desire to claim victory over anyone who stood in his path…

But she was the fucking Rabbit Hero. And if he wanted some sort of berserker grudge match, she'd give him one.

Rumi launched forwards from a flip quicker than she had ever managed before. Her Quirk gave her many things that she could use to gain an advantage; survival instincts sharply-tuned over a career of being a frontline Hero striking out on her own, smell and hearing on a level that no human without a highly-specialised Quirk could compare with, and the ability to kick through solid concrete like it was paper. But that leg strength also meant speed, throwing herself from one move into the next faster than the average bystander could keep up with, and so she threw herself from defence into offence instantly.

Her opponent, to his credit, had been expecting it. Whereas many would have lunged into the gap she left behind and blundered forward, he twisted effortlessly with his freakish arms and nearly socked her in the shoulder on the way through. He was good… but she was better. And even as the bloodlust washed over her too, she could see the gap he was leaving as he extended further, snarling and trying to land the knockout blow. It wasn't much of a window for her… but it was all she needed.

"HYAH!"

Luna Arc was a devastating attack, propelled by the thumping muscles in her legs and capable of crumpling a car in two if she put her mind to it. He thought she was going high from the way that she twitched, a feint on her part, but it was only enough to get herself airborne and launch her attack. Other Heroes might have called out the name of their attack, like some triumphant finishing move, but that was a waste of Rumi's breath. She never called them out except for the commercials; why the hell would she tell a villain what she was planning, and give them the chance to counter? Fighting fair was just a recipe for disaster.

He wasn't pulling his punches… Rumi wouldn't expect him to. So she would do him the justice of not holding back with the kick either. He could take it.

The masked man went flying with the force of the kick into the small of his back, all forward momentum sending him sprawling to the floor, and Rumi felt a vicious smirk twitch on her face as he went down. She still had him sussed, and as she landed from the kick, she launched herself in a flying leap to close the gap between them. She didn't waste any time landing on his back as he went down, making sure she was on top and knocking as much wind out of him as she could. "Stay down!"

The man snarled, shocking orange hair spilling out of the bottom of his hood, one fist banging against the floor as she bounced forward across his back. The sound of the clang of metal against the hardwood floor was satisfying. "You… forgetting my Quirk? I could… rotate-"

"And hit me? You could." Rumi wasn't holding back either, as her legs went either side of his head and knocked against his ears, just hard enough to make it clear to him where she'd ended up in the melee. "But you know my Quirk. Ever seen someone snap a guy's head off between their legs?"

"... Once." That answer shouldn't have surprised her. Underground fighting rings, and all. "Yeah. Once."

Rumi felt the savagery creep into her voice as she squeezed, just to make her point clear. "... Wanna know how it feels?"

"I'm not cleaning that up off my floor." The voice of their spectator, gruff and cynical as ever, cut across the room as Rumi grinned. He had been so quiet during the fight that she almost forgot he was there. "Yield?"

The only reason it was a question was because Rumi's opponent was an absolute monster, and one of the very few people in Japan who could probably have carried on fighting in the position he was in. The question of whether he could land a hit on her before she snapped his neck would probably have come down to a coin toss, and he knew it; that was why the masked man growled from his pinned position, his clenched left fist smacking down on the floor in frustration. Rumi couldn't blame him. She'd have felt exactly the same, if she still felt able to fight and yet couldn't. "Dammit-"

"Rappa." The spectator's gravelly tones carried enough authority, in spite of everything, to shut him up. "Yield."

"Mrmmm…" The indomitable fighting spirit of Kendo Rappa still chewed on the surrender for a second, before finally unbunching one fist and laying a flat palm against the wooden floor. Accepting defeat did not come easily to him, no matter how many times Rumi kicked him down or knocked him out cold. "Yield."

"Heh." Her heart was still pumping like mad, and her foot was tapping against the floor as the adrenaline high wore off. Rumi wouldn't miss a chance to gloat. "Maybe try leg day one day at the gym, Kendo. Your arms aren't always gonna win you fights."

"I'd like to see you punch like I can." Rappa was still speaking through gritted teeth, but this was the same man who had taken a Luna Arc to the back at full strength. Most villains she hit with one of those stayed down unconscious, or couldn't find their teeth, or both. "Twig arms."

"Punch like you can? All those punches you could throw with your Quirk, and you couldn't hit me." Rumi hopped off of his back, no matter how tempted she had been to stay on top and talk some shit in her moment of victory, and held out a hand to him on the floor. "And hey, I can pull your ass up when you hit the floor, so I ain't that weak."

In the beginning, she had found it strange that Rappa didn't bite about the simple gesture. He fought in the underground clubs that the Commission couldn't shut down quick enough, fought dirty and hard; she thought he might be insulted by the fact that someone else was offering him a hand up, as if he was too weak to manage it on his own. But he was weirdly honourable, for a brawler with shady connections. He didn't take it as an insult when he lost, and she pulled him back to his feet; it was almost a sign of respect that he would take the hand offered to him, recognising his opponent. He'd do the same for her.

If he ever actually beat her, anyway. He hadn't so far.

Rappa shot her a look, framed by the black fabric of his mask, but he clasped onto her hand anyway as he always did. She didn't miss the little grimace… clearly she left a mark. "Nah. You're not. You put everything into that kick, huh?"

"You wouldn't respect me if I didn't fight you at full power." Rappa snorted, and she knew she'd hit the mark. "And you weren't pulling punches, either."

"Yeah… same to you." Rappa rolled his shoulder, as if testing whether the kick had affected his range of movement. "What the hell was that? Luna…"

"Arc. Come on, you know my moves by now," Rumi snarked. "Ain't too many who could take one of them and get back up, y'know."

"Ain't many like me. I'm stronger than most." Funny thing was, that wasn't just his ego talking, and Rumi knew that. Most gutter punks could only dream of getting on Rappa's level… in a physical one-on-one, there were very few people who could take him. "I'll be stronger than you one day, Usagiyama. I'll beat you."

"Yeah, right. Not like that you won't." He was one of the few people she would let use her real name, every now and then. She knew she shouldn't, but… history was a strange thing. "You were over-extending. You never leave gaps like that open on your flanks. Why today?"

"You were holding back on me."

"Holding back? As if-"

"You're like me. You normally rush the second you get the chance. You don't care if you could get hit, because you think you'll hit first, and harder." She couldn't argue with that too much. "You were dodging. Jumping out the way of punches like you didn't wanna fight. I thought I could press-"

"I was checking out what you'd do when people draw the fight out against you. Seeing if you left yourself open to a counter." Rumi bumped her fist against his back, where she landed her Luna Arc, and enjoyed the look on his face as she hit sore flesh. "Just had to wait for you to give me a gap."

"Really? Damn." Rappa's shoulders dropped, just a little bit, and she knew his pride had been wounded a little when hearing that. Offensively he was incredible, so the fact that his defences had been opened up would sting. "I didn't think I was sloppy-"

"You're not." Their spectator had been holding back while they bantered, but he had appeared the second Rappa got to his feet. A water bottle was chucked her way, one she caught with ease and chugged from. She would never admit that fighting Rappa took it out of her, of course. She was still on top. "Most opponents you face won't see that sort of opening. It takes someone fast with as much strength as you to take advantage of it."

"Someone like me." Rumi jerked a thumb to herself, and grinned. "Good form, old man?"

"You won't get the chance to spin and launch that attack sometimes. Here…" Their watcher gestured to the dojo walls, to the hard wooden floor and the open space in the centre of the room. "You can do it. In a tight alley, or in a crowd, some villains won't give you the chance to get momentum up. The kick was good… but you can't rely on being able to wind up."

"Yeah, yeah. I knew it was too much to expect a compliment from ya." Rumi was used to the old man's ways by now. He didn't want her ending up too smug that she became overconfident and made mistakes… that, and a lifetime of winning battles on his own meant that he was one of the few people who had the right to tell her her form was shit. "One day."

"But not today." The spectator nodded to Rappa, who had drained most of his bottle. "You can afford to push so relentlessly against most people, Rappa. Fifty nine seconds of every minute, your stance is so complete that nobody is going to see any opening that they can use against you."

"I don't normally leave openings." Rappa sounded frustrated. "Nobody can get through-"

"No, they can't. You sensed blood, and pushed harder than you normally would because of how much you want to beat her. But Mirko is a Pro Hero. She's trained as hard as you her entire life, and you've never beaten her once. That's different. Small cracks in your defence? She's exactly the sport of person who will exploit that. You can't expect to plough through her like she's just another ring junkie."

"I dunno…" Rappa briefly grinned, despite everything. "She's not that different from me."

"She's had a career fighting crime outside of the ring. Fighting for her life as much as anyone ever has. You remember that someone tried to kill her not long after All Might died?" Rumi winced as their host brought that up, but he was right. She'd been a little too close for comfort, that day. "I've seen enough berserkers, hero or villain, in my time. No matter how strong, they don't tend to last long if all they live for is to rush headlong at people and fight naively. She's had to be smart to survive as long as she has."

"See? Not just a pretty face." Rumi kicked the half-drunk bottle back towards the spectator, unsurprised that he didn't even flinch as he caught it. "Fight dirty, fight crazy, fight smart. Do what you have to do, right chief?"

"You listened to one thing, at least." Chief crunched her bottle in his fist, and turned his back on both of them. "I'm gonna lock up, out back. Try not to kill each other while I'm gone."

"Still don't trust us, huh?" There was no way Chief was going to respond to her while he walked off, and so Rumi turned back to Rappa with a raised eyebrow. "Reckon you can get smarter, or are you just gonna try to punch your way out of every problem?"

"I can do both." Rappa made a little noise, almost like a laugh, as he cracked his knuckles. "I'll show you. Two weeks' time."

"Cute. You say that every time I lay your dumb ass on the floor, and every time you keep coming back. There ain't many people who hate losing as much as you, Rappa."

"Because I know I can beat you. I have to. There's only two people who have the better of me. You… and him."

Rumi tried not to groan, feeling her ears flick in frustration. She didn't like it when he brought up his boss, because she knew exactly who Rappa was affiliated to and exactly who had given him the other mask that he bundled into a pocket when he entered the dojo. With her, it was a goal, but with his boss it was a grudge that kept Rappa down dark paths… it didn't need to be like that. "Try to beat him before you come for my head. You're not one of those freaks. You don't belong there-"

"Tell me something I don't know." Rappa bumped past her, and the message was clear; he didn't appreciate her attempts to talk him out of it. Given how much that grudge fired him up, and how much he resented being beaten by a man he held no loyalty to, she shouldn't have been surprised. "Why do you think I keep coming back? The more I learn from you… the more I wanna try to use against him. Not that it's worked so far…"

Rumi paused, taking that in. He'd never admitted that before… maybe there was hope, if he kept coming. "... Hey, Kendo."

He held back from the door, just briefly, that awful mask clutched in his fist with such resentment. "..."

"I promised you I'd save my less deadly kicks for you, back then." Rumi saw the way he straightened slightly, not expecting her to bring that up. It was what had started this whole routine since Incident Zero, both of them meeting up to fight bloodily and messily with all their baggage left at the door. It wasn't about allegiances, being on different sides; it was raw, brutal competition between two people who loved the thrill of it all. "And now look at ya. Taking my hardest ones like a champ and still getting back up."

"... Hm. Yeah."

"Maybe…" She stepped up beside him, deliberately looking him in the eye and holding out a fist. "Maybe that's progress. And you're more ready to take him down than ya think."

"..." For the longest second, Rappa met her stare and held the look, before looking away. The fact that his own fist, the one not currently wrapped in the cloth of the mask, came out to bump hers was enough of a victory. "... Soon. And then it's just you I have to beat."

"Oh, like you'll find that easy?" Rumi left the teasing at that, jerking her head towards the door. "Go, before someone asks me why I'm not arresting you with that shit in your hand."

Rappa huffed, shaking his head, but she was quick enough to catch that flash of a grin that fleetingly appeared at the corner of his mouth before turning away. "... See ya soon, Hero."

She watched him go with mixed feelings. Rappa would never change, and the primal desire to smash people down which made him tick? She had channeled hers into stomping out crooks and got a licence to do it in broad daylight, whereas Rappa would always cling to the shadows and relish in how extreme things got at times. But that was how he worked, living for the fight and nothing else… now, someone else had exploited that and forced his loyalty to something he didn't believe in.

She could never wade in. Rappa would never have forgiven her, because of that drive to do things by his own hand. And he'd never forgive her if she did. But that didn't mean that she was happy with it.

"Strange, how a fighter like Rappa has so much honour."

For an absolute tower of a man, Chief could move pretty damn quickly and quietly when he wanted to. Rumi's ears hadn't missed him turning up, but it was close. "Honour? We are talking about the same Rappa, right?"

"You don't see it? You used to run all over the country and not have an agency in one place, but I thought you'd see what I mean once you settled in Nabu." Chief took a drink from the bottle that he had thrown at her earlier. "What's missing from your territory?"

"Good bars? Cheap housing?"

Chief didn't rise to it. "Shie Hassaikai. They haven't come here, have they?"

She paused, thinking about it for a second. He was right, come to think of it. Rumi had been aware of their existence from her travels, back when she had been a nomadic Hero and fought anyone and everyone across the country. The Yakuza had been a dying breed when she was young, until All Might's death changed the landscape of Heroes and Villains throughout Japan; the Shie Hassaikai were one of the oldest surviving groups, and one which seemed to have enjoyed trying to expand in the wake of disaster.

Rappa's association with them had been a surprise, when she first found out about it. It hadn't made sense; he lived to fight in cages, for an audience of savages, and the Yakuza groups were supposed to be refined white-collar crooks. Then when he had admitted the story about how he'd been recruited to her, and she heard how little love Rappa held for the man calling himself Overhaul, she understood. The stories of what his Quirk had done to Rappa set off every flight instinct which her bestial Quirk gave her. Not the sort of guy she wanted to run into in a dark alley.

But Chief had a point. The Shie Hassaikai, from what she could gather, had a few hub bases across the country. One warehouse in Musutafu had recently been hit by the Hero Killer and Sir Nighteye, one of the weirdest team-ups Rumi had ever heard of, but that wasn't their only site according to Rappa. His lack of loyalty to their cause meant she had been fed intelligence about some of their sites, which she had passed on to Heroes in their patch; it wasn't supposed to be her fight. The fact that some hadn't acted pissed her off, and made her wary about their connections, but… she had still been safe despite that.

Nabu didn't have any presence from the Yakuza. There were a couple of small-time punk groups who hung around, too stupid to stay out of the way of the Rabbit Hero and too stubborn to give up, but there wasn't the same drug traffic in her city that there was around places like Musutafu. There weren't Trigger-related rampages for her to deal with, or gang shoot-outs, or unsolved murders… all the hallmarks of Yakuza moving in. They were leaving her city well alone.

She wrinkled her nose, and looked at Chief. "You think Rappa's responsible for that?"

"He respects you. It's not like his boss. You don't use the fact that you can beat him to demand anything of him, or make him follow you around." Chief's face creased, the scar on his cheek crumpling as he did. "And they're not around here. They've not moved out of Fondo and expanded into the rest of the prefecture… Rappa is the only one of their group who I've seen around here, and that's to come to the dojo. With you."

"... Huh." So that was his way of saying thank you. Maybe Rappa was more complicated than she gave him credit for. "Yeah. Rappa wants to be free to do what he likes. I get that."

"It's how you work, too." Chief shot her a look. "I know how little you care about your sponsors-"

"Like hell they can tell me what to do! I go where there's asshole crooks, not where some guy in a tie wants me to smile for photos with his daughter!" Rumi hadn't meant to raise her voice, but she felt strongly about that. "And as for the Commission… Keigo can do what he wants, but I'm not their golden girl. I'm taking the missions I want, not acting like some enforcer."

"Saving the people who need saving? You know I approve of that." Chief nodded. "There's some who won't."

"Like who?"

"Other Heroes, for one." Chief had a point. Rumi knew what one of her so-called colleagues would say if a Hero ever walked through the door of the dojo and saw her throwing hands with one of the Shie Hassaikai's Eight Bullets. They were elusive to the point of untouchable, rumours flying around that they had Heroes in their pocket and large-scale drug operations bankrolling them, and yet Rumi met up every other week to trade blows with one of them and walk away. "Probably the Hero Killer too-"

"Stain? Don't even get me started." Rumi felt her foot tapping again, a give-away whenever she was annoyed. "What, he'd call me unworthy as a Hero because I won't arrest Rappa?"

"He'd accuse you of making a deal with the devil. Letting one of their enforcers walk free in return for them not coming into Nabu-"

"Bullshit if he did accuse me. Rappa's not like the others. And if you ask me what I'd rather do, kick his ass every fortnight or have the rest of his group flooding Nabu with Trigger?" Rumi calmed her foot down. "I'd be back at the dojo ready to scrap with Rappa again, before Stain could even open his mouth to call me a fake."

"... You really are alike." Chief threw the bottle away. "And that's why Rappa respects you. Why, buried deep under all that love of violence, he behaves with some honour towards you. You see things his way."

"Right! I want him to beat Overhaul, but I ain't got a right to tell him to stop fighting, or become my sidekick, or some shit like that." Rumi smirked, looking over at Chief. "Also, as if you can talk about a love of violence. I've seen you throw hands."

Chief's scarred face cracked into a smirk, just as he cracked his own knuckles. "Wanna see it again now?"

"After I've just beaten Rappa down? No fair. Even if you are an old man now, I'm tired and you ain't."

"Hm. If a fight like that wears you out, clearly I'm not working you hard enough." She knew that he didn't mean it. "Still, you need to be careful, kit. I respect that iron will of yours, but it's gonna get tested more and more going forward. There's a lot that's been brewing in the dark, and it's all coming out now."
"You think I don't see that?" Rumi turned and made to walk off, heading towards the same door that Rappa left through. "Endeavor's screwed all of us, one way or another, and it's not like Kei and his friends in the Commission are handling shit well right now."

"It's deeper than that. Rappa being recruited by a Yakuza group is a sign that they're stronger than the rest of the Heroes realise. The Hero Killer broke Lady Nagant out of Tartarus last night-"

"Who?"

"... Trust me, you wanna go and look her up. That'll teach you how long things have been a mess. And they're just the groups anyone can guess at. It's the others you should worry about." Chief gestured towards the door. "You know someone delivered a copy of Destro's book here the other day? Meta Liberation War?"

"Seriously? There's still freaks who believe in that?"

"If they're dropping his book through my door in broad daylight, then there's more freaks than you think out there. It's all coming out, now." Chief looked her up and down. "I could'a done so much more as a Hero. I reacted to things I saw and helped in the moment, rather than fix what I needed to under the surface. Now all those things are coming up, and it's gonna be a war when they all do."

"Yeah, well… I don't do too bad in a battle, do I?" Rumi pumped one of her arms into a fist, to show him. "You'll just have to join me, Chief. Not so bad yourself, I hear-"

"I will. But I'm just warning you, Usagiyama." That did make her falter. He never used her full name. "All of this is on a collision course. We won't get time to think, we'll just have to act… you know what I mean."

"... Yeah. I get that." The implication was pretty clear. She might have to act… and depending on how Rappa was doing with his attempted liberation from his Yakuza overlord, one of them might not make it out alive depending on their choices. "It's a shame you aren't out there too, y'know? Stuck here in this dojo, training me and other idiots how to fight… not out on the streets."

"I'm not a Hero anymore." Chief's hand went to the pocket of his jeans, and pulled something out briefly for her to see; a dark glove, and the flash of brass. "And vigilantes… the Commission outlawed them."

Rumi snorted, and turned away from him. She pitied anyone who came across Chief in a dark alley, in the middle of the night… her own odds against him in a fight weren't that great. "You're lucky the Pro Hero around here doesn't like the Commission. I heard she likes having vigilantes around to help keep the peace."

"I don't think she could stop the vigilantes even if she didn't like them enough to turn a blind eye. Her kicks aren't that strong."

Rumi flipped her middle finger at him as she reached the door, not looking back. "Bastard. You're lucky we make a good team… I'll see you later, Oguro."

Behind her, as she left the dojo and began jogging in the direction of her agency, Iwao Oguro pulled his other glove out of his pocket, and grinned at the way the light reflected on his brass knuckles. "... Yeah. We work quite well together, don't we?"

The Rabbit Hero Mirko disappeared one way into the closing night, looking for anyone who dared threaten her new home… and the vigilante Knuckleduster prepared to head out the other way, pitying whichever idiot criminals got in his way.

(***)

A/N: On the Discord for this fic, I teased that the upcoming arc would contain a "mutual ceasefire". My clue, for all the theorisers wondering where that would come from, was a spade emoji, and a masked face emoji. That was an attempt to elaborate to the Underground Masquerade, to O'Clock and Rappa and Tiger Bunny vs the world… so now you all know! Mirko and Rappa.

Rappa is one of my highlights of the Shie Hassaikai arc, generally because I think the scenes with Kirishima and Fat Gum are brilliant. I love the nuance that there is a member of Overhaul's inner circle who absolutely hates Overhaul and shares none of the belief in their group direction, but is effectively cowed into obedience by just how strong Chisaki is; he's a good foil to the sycophants like Chrono and Nemoto. I wanted to echo that here, and I wanted to use his connection with Mirko to show some shades of grey to the whole 'independent Hero' world. She's doing a good thing, in totality, but doing the right way is another thing entirely.

And hey, Katsuki and Jiro adventures away! Time skip means some time for their trio to get established and begin scoping out, and it means a move away from Musutafu to explore the delights of Deika City. I know I wanted to give some more flesh to my Meta Liberation Army, to capitalise on the potential generated by canon and make them seem more looming and omnipresent- there's been local elections near me recently and I'll admit, it inspired some of the talk about Hearts and Minds here. It's a surprisingly alarming thing, seeing a wall of signs for one party with no opposition to be found anywhere; it really can intimidate.

Because it's been delayed in coming out, I apologise to anyone whose reviews are outstanding. I will get to reply to all of those in the coming week, now that I have slightly less on my plate in real life. Thank you for all of the support and for the kind messages from those who have sensed that I have been struggling. If you liked this chapter, please review (just don't flame), and please favourite and follow if you have not done so already.

And if you want to talk more, please join the Ignite to the Call Discord server where this fic has its own channel. The code to join is - NBSfWXNM .

Ya boy, out.