Izuku parked the truck inside the medical facility. He rolled his shoulders a bit, and then turned to Izumi and Hana. The gates behind the truck closed.
"Please, listen…especially you, Hana. From that moment neither of you can call me Izuku, or Midoriya, or anything else. I, uh…Just, just call me 'That soldier', ok?"
Izumi nodded with a slight sigh. There was no way she will give him any troubles.
"Got it, mr. "That soldier'."
Izuku nodded with a slight smile – even though they couldn't see it behind the helmet. Then, the boy crouched to be on Hana's level.
"Y-yeah, I got it too!"
"Good girl" Izuku gently patted her head. "I'll do the rest of the work. If they ask, tell them that you came because you heard shooting. I will look after you until I'm sure nothing happens to you."
Izuku stood up, and hesitantly approached the exit of the car. With a shaking sigh, he opened the door and left.
'Lead me, Kaito Maki.' He silently prayed.
"Follow me" He said in commanding tone, surprising the mother and the daughter. Izuku led them around the truck into a corridor that was slowly closed shut once they entered.
"Well, the doors closed too slowly for it to be a trap."
Some strange air was forced inside the corridor – Izuku wasn't really sure what it was, but he knew that KM-21 wouldn't question it.
"This is a standard disinfection procedure" 'Kaito Maki' explained. "An additional security for the personnel. You have nothing to worry about."
"Got it" Izumi nodded.
The door in front of them opened, and all of them found themselves in an isolated room. A man in white biohazard suit approached them.
"Those are the survivors?"
Izuku, no, KM-21 – nodded.
"Yes."
Izuku couldn't help but feel discomfort while talking to people in this form.
The man nodded and waved to one of corridors.
"Please, you two, proceed there."
Hana and Izumi looked at Izuku, who nodded in response.
"As you say, doc" Replied Izumi, taking Hana's hand. Without Izuku it will be a bit more…nervous for her – but he promised to look after them. And she had no reason not to believe him – at least, she didn't want to think so.
Izuku looked at them going.
"Major KM-21" The same man addressed him. He clearly was very hesitant to ask the question. "W-where are…"
"Wasted" Izuku, personally, would answer the question in a different way – it felt like a bad way of honoring the soldiers, even if they were ready to kill the civilians. However, he knew how to answer as the Major, even if impersonating his left a bad taste.
"Oh, em…Alright. Do you need a rest? I can report for you."
"No" Izuku had to harshly decline. "I'll do it myself. Just finish the check-up on my armor and let me outside."
"As you say"
Izuku managed to find the right words to evade any medical tests. The armor of that blacklight unit was designed for harsh environments with possible hazards in the air.
If everything was fine with the armor, then whatever danger was outside didn't affect the man inside.
Honestly, he couldn't help but worry about the medical tests. He had yet to see any of his blood, and some time ago managed to dig out a bullet from inside of his forehead.
It was not unheard of, of course. Quirks, in all their variety, allow one person to do something that is completely impossible for another. An ability to throw a fireball does not let you survive a grievous wound, while different body-related quirks were able to do just that. For example – moving organs inside the body to avoid damaging them.
Izuku's educated guess, partly from his general understanding of the world, partly from KM-21's memory of certain quirks, allowed him to guess that his "Body manipulation" would explain surviving such a wound in his head. And not just to others – but to himself first of all.
Izuku left the facility, only to…
"Holy hell…"
He blinked a few times.
The dome. He didn't see it inside the vehicle, but now…
Just, just…
He felt so much small in comparison. He was standing a fair distance away from it, since he had to drive to the specific medical facility located a bit further outside, but…
Just seeing how far in the sky it goes almost made him fall on his butt.
'Is this how it feels to be an ant?'
That dome sealed the entire city inside, including the high-rises in the center. Obviously it had to be big, but…seeing it is yourself was a whole different picture.
'And they sent an elite unit because I made a few scratches on it…'
A few scratches were an understatement, of course.
Izuku pulled himself together and started going in the direction of the better barracks for high military officers.
He had one General waiting for report, Izuku reminded himself with a foul taste in his mouth. On the way, he started thinking about a passable story to tell him.
After evading an ungodly number of military vehicles and walking for half an hour, Izuku got to the blacklight hub. On the way, he noticed a few soldiers whispering about him being alone. That was understandable – in Kaito's memories, he spent time with his soldiers quite a lot. Seeing him alone after a mission was a bad sign.
The soldiers at the entrance gave him a salute and let him enter. Izuku, once more, felt uncomfortable about it.
Once inside, Izuku didn't waste any time to get on the second floor. He quickly got through the maze of corridors and found the right door – with a man in more casual camouflage clothes – standing in front of it.
The boy in man's body almost got to the door, but the man stopped him. Izuku wordlessly turned to him.
"The General is there, but he is a bit busy with the Japanese security management representative. Please, wait a bit, Major."
One of General's assistants.
Izuku nodded just as silently, and leaned on a wall. He couldn't hear anything, for some reason, and didn't even feel the vibrations of sound. It seemed that the room was made to be as private as possible.
Acting as KM-21 wasn't that hard – he just needed to not say much, and only what was needed to say. Izuku would do a lot of things differently, but he mentally kept access to the Kaito's memories open just in case he needs to do something military appropriate asap.
A frustrated man fled the room, stomping, and grumbling something under his nose.
The assistant looked at Izuku and nodded.
"You can go."
Instead of a typical huge desk and beautiful, Izuku was met with a quite modestly looking room…minus quite a good chair.
One chair. One normal table. And a screen that covered most of the wall.
"And who is…Maki." The general Jeremy Karpov said in English after nodding on the screen. Blacklight, being an international private organization, had members from all over the world – Kaito Maki, being a Japanese, was one of the best candidates to be one of higher officers in the region.
Izuku saluted, though it felt quite strange to him, if a little bit funny.
"Take a seat" General's voice was a bit shaky.
Izuku did just that.
"Can you imagine?!" The general started to rant the moment Izuku took the seat, clearly angry. "They sent your squad without alerting me in the slightest. Those dumb fools can't…!..."
The TV started showing white noise for a few moments, surprising Izuku a bit. He expected the military HQ to have a bit better connection.
"…% en I have to get there as fast as possible. That runt they sent to me deserved the words I said. Anyway, tell me what happened. And get that damn helmet off, I feel like I'm speaking with an alien!"
Izuku was a bit scared. Helmet was part of his body – literally. But…as long as he had contact with the helmet, nothing should happen to it, right?
A bit nervous, Izuku finally got the helmet off. His hair was quite short, and black in color. No beard, no moustache – no facial hair at all. The Major tried to be as clean as possible in that regard.
"Th-the…" Izuku cleared his throat, remembering that he still has to talk in that calm tone. "We've been called on that mission in such rush, because there was an attack on the dome from inside…"
The general nodded, now looking much calmer and interested.
"We took the truck. Got to the place…and that's where things get complicated."
"How so, Maki?"
Izuku didn't like being called like that. Even then – he had to share the information he got from inside to the military – despite the skirmish he had with them not so long ago, they were the ones who stood between the dome and the country outside. Kaito's memories were leading them to the gaps that were yet to be filled.
"We were ambushed by those things, General. Ambushed by them."
General's stare turned into glare.
"Continue"
"At the place we've encountered a new mutation of the parasite – with strong leaning into combat. They didn't just use quirks like the carriers, they also had intelligence. I saw one of them carrying a gun."
"A gun?.."
"Yes."
The man's face lost a bit of color.
"I-I see." The general replied a bit solemnly.
Clearly, the danger was much higher than was initially anticipated.
"I have no other choice then. I will get to Japan myself."
Oh…that sounds quite nicely. Right?
"As you say, sir."
"And how's the team?"
He did ask that damn question in the end. Shit! Izuku kept the character.
"Wasted."
Now that made the general really pause.
"Repeat that."
"There's no one left but me, sir."
"Damn it, Maki, I appointed you there to…Gah!" General threw his hands in the air. Izuku initially wanted to say that the gun that the combat carrier held was one of their team's, but decided against it.
"…You did what you had to, right?"
Izuku nodded, keeping his outer calmness.
"Good. Tsk, for such a failure to keep your teammates alive I technically should demote you from your position, but at the moment you are the most experienced soldier from Blacklight around there. Keep it for now. Dismissed"
Izuku slightly frowned – technically, right now, he was the experienced soldier of Blacklight in the area. But, in reality, Izuku will disappear once he has an opening. Boy mentally sighed in relief as the report finished.
"Sir?.."
"Yes?"
Izuku was a bit hesitant – Maki didn't act this way, so it was a risk.
"I've managed to find and get to safety two survivors. Can I look after then until you get here with reinforcements?"
General's eyes softened a bit. He understood the value of friendship, and the value of family.
It seemed that the abrupt loss of Maki's bonds with the soldiers under his command forced him to become attached to the first person he saw.
"Consider it an official order."
"Thank you, sir"
Izuku smiled weakly, but then returned to the character and left the room – returning the helmet in place.
Izuku reached the cafeteria where the soldiers were having lunch. He didn't feel particularly hungry – luckily, considering his scary quirk.
Even then, he, as a human, knew that that he needs to eat something when it's time.
Seeing so many people didn't really surprise him – it felt, as if the surroundings were returning to normal. Healthy people instead of lurking parasites were much easier to get used to.
Once Izuku entered, he noted that the TV was showing local programs, which meant Japanese. Because of that, most likely not even a half of present privates could understand.
However, a few moments after Izuku entered, the screen of the TV started showing white noise for a few seconds, earning some whines from the eating folk.
"They really need to fix their connection" Commented Izuku, slightly shaking his head.
As long as he didn't have to act specifically as Kaito Maki with people that personally knew the Major – it was…fine. But every time he had to borrow Maki's character, he felt…dirty. Uncomfortable. It wasn't his body, nor were those his words.
He felt like this body was a suit that hid the real Izuku inside.
Four days passed quite quickly, since he barely had to do something. He checked Izumi's and Hana's status every day, and today was the latest update – they were perfectly fine, and will be transported to a closest city in a week.
Izuku sighed in relief behind the helmet.
Also, it seemed that common soldiers decided to cheer him up a bit, considering the loss of his squad. Not only they somehow got him a bottle of beer that they secretly brought inside the base, but he also got a "Ghost" nickname.
The origin behind it was a bit weird to Izuku.
From what he learned - it seemed that TVs around Izuku started working in a strange way. Now, everyone immediately knows that Izuku got into cafeteria once the image turns into white noise for a few seconds. Otherwise, the connection was fine.
And now, inside his quite nicely decorated room in the base, Izuku, still in full armor, was sitting on the bed – thinking.
Stretching, Claws, Hardened skin, long fingers, large sharp teeth, small useless wings and growing hair into forms he wanted – even if they sounded useless, Izuku remembered every quirk he absorbed/could imitate from the carriers, but couldn't find anything that could mess with electricity.
He might actually have something related – after all, he had to learn about his quirk on the way. But even then – why did it last only a few seconds?
Having nothing better to do for the closest half an hour, Izuku got to the large TV in the room and turned it on. Late news appeared on the screen, and Izuku sat down.
After watching it for a minute, the connection started to disappear and turned into white noise.
"Again."
Izuku waited for it to disappear again, but then someone knocked on his door.
"Maki-san, are you messing with the TV signal again?"
Izuku turned to the door, about to answer, but managed to glimpse a bare moment the screen tried to show something. Izuku didn't know if he just blinked, of if there really was something in there.
Shaking his head, he turned to the door.
"I apologize. It should return back to normal any moment"
Izuku heard the steps behind the door getting further and further. When he turned back to the TV, the image started to return.
Izuku made a shaking breath as he exited the dorm.
It's time.
Time to start the new life, while searching for glimpses and whispers of his past one.
Time to actively look for answers and understanding.
It's time to run.
Current destination – Tokyo.
Izuku looked into the night sky – something he liked to do a lot lately. It seemed that after the dome, the sky will always have a soothing effect on him.
Then, his focused shifted to the capped bottle of beer in his hand. He won't drink it, of course, but the fact he even has that was heartwarming… and depressing, at the same time.
Izuku knew that a lot of good people were here, serving to protect citizens.
However… Izuku was not a fool, and knew about the military inner workings quite a lot now. Some time later, he will try to get information about Izumi and Hana. Should he receive something he doesn't like…
Well, then… this place will burn. Even if he dies during the process – the first people that he met in that dome had a special place in his heart. If the military has no problem with killing citizens, that they have to protect… Then he, personally, will see no problems with killing such people. Only those, who do not risk lives of others, deserve to live. That is the rule that Izuku set for himself. He couldn't feel bad for killing people. He was indifferent about it, even if it scared him just a little. Thus, he needed away to restrict himself and his behavior until he has a better idea of how this emotion-suppressant inside his body works.
Putting that topic aside, Izuku was glad that all the doubts about his identity disappeared.
Quite some time ago, he asked Izumi the question of who he is. Yes, he could continue his life as KM-21, but it continued to irritate him and make him uncomfortable. Despite memories, Izuku continued to contradict what he wanted to do, while impersonating the Major. It seemed, that the memories weren't the only decisive factor.
With a sigh, Izuku quietly put the bottle on the ground.
After walking a bit into more forested area, Izuku closed his eyes imagined the map that Izumi showed him at her house.
He opened his eyes, and adjusted his direction.
He prepared himself.
Legs started to turn black, as the boy was about to stop holding back. Weak red light inside his legs dimly lit the grass bellow him.
And then… he ran.
Ran, without getting winded. Ran faster then most of the military vehicles he saw in the area.
Ran, leaving cracks on the roads that he occasionally crossed, forcing social workers to urgently fix them once they notice the damage.
Ran in the darkness of night, that wasn't a handicap for him.
He ran… to create new memories.
His memories.