The sound of someone knocking at his door drew Shouta's attention, and he stood up and made his way to the door, mango jelly packet still held in his off-hand. Raising an eyebrow as he found Stendhal of all people standing at his door, Shouta folded his arms.
"What brings you here, Stendhal?"
"This girl came to me for aid, but as you have more experience dealing with children than I, I knew that she would live better with you than with me," the Freelance Hero said, stepping aside to allow a small girl – she did look about the same age as his Problem Class, so he could at least make some kind of a guess why Stendhal would think to come to him – with disheveled blonde hair, yellow eyes that looked almost catlike, and the kind of blank, hopeless look on her face that almost made everything else irrelevant.
"You'd better come inside," he said, stepping back so that the pair of them could make their way inside.
"I need to return to my rounds," Stendhal said, giving the girl a push to get her moving, even as he turned to leave. "There are still innocents in need of protection."
Especially at a time like this, Shouta found himself reflecting, ushering the girl into his home so that he could help her clean up, get some food in her, and get some rest. She didn't seem to react to anything he was doing, seeming as though she'd gone through some kind of terrible experience in her past. However, investigating that kind of thing could wait until he'd made sure that she wasn't going to keel over from hunger or thirst.
He could already hear her stomach growling from where he was standing; generally not a good sign.
"Kumori, could you fix something for this girl?" he said, glancing back at the girl he was pulling along into the meeting room where he, Oboro, and Hizashi were all working while Kumori kept them all fed. "Something easy to digest? It seems like she hasn't eaten in awhile."
The girl he'd been escorting actually seemed surprised by that, which didn't speak well of whatever circumstances she'd been dealing with – or escaping – when Stendhal had found her. She was really starting to remind Shouta of his Problem Class in particular. It looked like he was going to be dealing with even more headaches in the future.
Still, Hizashi and Oboro were going to be right there with him.
~MHA~
Knowing just how close they all were to Christmas, even with everything that was happening outside of U.A., Izuku found himself more than a little pleased to have the rest of his and Tenko-nii's family all staying at U.A. with them. Cementoss-sensei had made a new place for them, just across from the path from the 1-A and 1-B dorms, so Izuku and Tenko-nii could visit them whenever they wanted to. And everyone else in their class could, too, so that was nice.
For the moment, however, their current class was having a lesson about handling the media. It was weirdly normal, considering everything that was going on in the world outside of U.A. Still, maybe that was the point: to show people that everything was still normal. Or, at least as normal as they could manage to make it seem, considering everything that was still happening.
Bambaa-chan had told him that Dr. Garaki had seemed tense and worried, and also preoccupied by something, while she had been studying under him.
When Mt. Lady and Midnight-sensei arrived in 1-A's classroom, Izuku chewed his lower lip. Sure, the both of them did seem to be acting just as cheerfully as they always had – with Midnight-sensei playing up her flirtation, and Mt. Lady being as enthusiastic as she ever was – but Izuku couldn't help the thought that it was all just a façade. Considering everything that was still going on in the world, he figured people would want to cling to any kind of stability they could find.
Tenko-nii said that a lot, though he didn't put it quite as nicely as that.
When all of Class 1-A made their way out to the courtyard, the first thing Izuku caught sight of – aside from the improvised stage that had presumably been set up for all of them to conduct mock interviews on – was Uncle Kotaro with his gardening gloves on. U.A. had a landscaper to keep the grounds in good condition, of course, but Uncle Kotaro had always seemed to need to do something that involved plants. Izuku thought, and Dad agreed, that it was probably something to do with his Quirk.
Being able to help plants grow would probably make someone want to stay around them more, after all.
The little – well, smaller than the three-storey mansion they'd all lived in before, anyway – house that'd been set up between the 1-A and 1-B dorms was close enough for Izuku to pay a brief visit while Midnight-sensei finished setting up for the mock interviews.
"Hi, Uncle Ko," Izuku said, once he was close enough that he didn't have to shout over the distance. "I see you've made a new garden," he continued, smiling as he saw the landscaping that Uncle Kotaro had already done around the front door and a few steps up the path.
"It's good to see you again, Izuku," Uncle Kotaro said, standing up and brushing dirt from his gardening gloves before he took them off. "How have your classes been?"
"They've been all right, though it feels kind of strange, seeing everyone trying to be so normal, considering everything that's been going on," he said, looking back at the mock stage that had almost been fully constructed.
"Yes, it is unsettling," Uncle Kotaro said, glancing over his shoulder, then raising an eyebrow. "But it seems I'm keeping you from your class, Izuku," he continued, smiling kindly. "You should probably go back to them."
"Yeah, I probably should," he admitted, feeling more than a little curious about just how Midnight-sensei and Mt. Lady were going to handle the lesson in media presentation that they were clearly about finished setting up.
~MHA~
Rei Junichi liked to think of himself as a fair, just, even-handed man, but when he'd seen Niseko swatted away by one of those puppets – Rei knew that they were puppets, since he couldn't sense any kind of real mind to any of them, but only vague hints of some kind of controlling intelligence attached to the group as a whole – knocked aside as though the little boy who'd done everything he could to help his grand-daughter escape from the man who Rei never should have trusted was nothing more than trash… Well, the underlings he summoned fully understood what he wanted done to those puppets.
"It's all right, Niseko-kun," he said, helping the boy back to his feet.
"Thanks," the boy said, though he still seemed preoccupied by something.
"Is there something about those puppets?" Rei asked, as Niseko glanced back at the place where more and more of those puppets were trying to climb over the walls of the compound they were currently staying in. "Do you recognize them?"
"They," Niseko said, biting his lip and them seeming to force himself to keep talking. "They look like the puppets that Mr. Skeptic uses."
Rei hummed thoughtfully. "That's not something you like talking about, is it, Niseko-kun?" he asked, moving back into the house so that his forces would be able to move more freely, and also so that Niseko wouldn't have to stay within sight of the puppets that seemed to make him so uncomfortable.
"All right, calm down Niseko-kun," Rei said, gently stroking Niseko's hair, trying to calm the boy down so that he would be able to use his Quirk without the risk of getting lost in the young boy's older memories. "Just relax…"
Pushing his way through Niseko's recent memories, finding first himself, then Eri, then Overhaul, Rei set aside the disgust he felt for the man – he didn't know if Overhaul had been twisted from the beginning, or if there had been signs that he'd missed while he was trying to keep the Shie Hassaikai at least viable if not fully solvent in the face of the Pro Heroes who had been encroaching on their territory – and brushed those memories aside as he searched for the information that Niseko might not have realized that he still possessed. Focused as he was on the mention of the "Mr. Skeptic" that Niseko had been talking about, Rei soon found himself in what seemed to be one of the earliest of Niseko's memories.
The earliest that dealt with the man he'd called "Mr. Skeptic", at least.
Narrowing his eyes as he watched the man that was clearly Niseko's father – though Mr. Skeptic called him "Shadow Walker" for whatever reason – introducing Niseko to the man, Rei made his way over past Niseko and his father, up to where Mr. Skeptic was sitting. Studying the man for a long time, Rei found himself wondering just why it was that Mr. Skeptic had chosen to wear the front of his hair so long that it covered his eyes completely. The fact that the man was bent over a large computer console seemed to indicate that Mr. Skeptic had at least some way of seeing through the curtain of hair that covered his eyes.
Whether through his Quirk, or though some other form of connection he had to the computer he was working with, Rei couldn't quite determine from the memories that Niseko was showing him.
Pushing through the boy's memories, searching for anything that might give him some kind of clue as to what kind of Quirk the man possessed, so that he could pass the knowledge on to both his own people and the agents he had within the Police department in this area. When he saw what looked like Niseko's parents, hurrying the boy through the halls and into an elevator, Rei narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of the dull, empty looks on their faces.
Niseko would have probably been too distraught to notice anything else while it was happening, since for all intents and purposes it did seem like his parents were abandoning him, but from Rei's more detached position he could determine that the people who had appeared to be the boy's parents were simply a pair of puppets controlled by Mr. Skeptic. It was more than a bit cruel, making such a young boy think his own parents were abandoning him, but that did seem to be the kind of person Mr. Skeptic was…
Gathering himself as he brought his awareness firmly back to the present, back to his people and the defenses that were still holding against Mr. Skeptic's probing attacks, Rei held Niseko closer as the boy recovered from the disorientation that prolonged exposure to Rei's Quirk seemed to cause in those he used it on. Making contact with one of his underlings, this one with a Quirk that allowed her to remotely connect to any electronic equipment in her range, Rei gave his orders.
A range she'd been steadily working to expand, so contacting their operatives within the police force was as easy for her as thinking about it, and when she relayed his message about Mr. Skeptic – his Quirk and the fact that he was currently using someone else's form to attack them – Rei allowed himself to relax. There were other matters that he was going to have to deal with, of course, given how many people were depending on him now, but knowing that there was at least someone else who knew about Mr. Skeptic and what his Quirk could do was comforting, at least.
~MHA~
When they'd all gathered together in front of the mock stage that'd been built for them to use, Izuku found himself wondering just how things were going to work out. Midnight-sensei and Mt. Lady had organized the entire class into a pair of lines, and as he watched the mock interviews being conducted, Izuku chewed his lower lip. It looked like they were going to be pretending that the rest of Class 1-A was their audience, while Mt. Lady led one of them at a time in their mock interviews.
As he watched his fellow classmates conducting their mock interviews with Mt. Lady, with Todoroki-san going first, Izuku considered just how he was going to handle himself. He'd never really been that great with public-speaking, but then again there were just his classmates here to see him. But, he probably shouldn't be thinking of it that way, since this was supposed to be preparing them for actual encounters with the media.
Still, it was a little hard to get into that mindset, given that he was surrounded by his classmates.
When it finally came time for Izuku to make his own way onto the stage, he slapped himself on both cheeks and made his way up onto the stage when Mt. Lady called for him.
"Welcome, Myriad," Mt. Lady said, smiling widely at him; he wasn't going to actually say anything, but the smile on her face reminded him more than a little of Midnight-sensei. "So, you're the son of the Symbol of Hope himself, and you also seem to be close to the Symbol of Peace, too. Not to mention the Rescue Specialist. How does it feel to be part of such a legendary, Heroic dynasty?"
"I guess it feels good," he said, feeling more than a little awkward to be basically drilled about how it felt to be a part of the family he'd lived all his life with.
"So, how close are your father and All Might? I can't help but notice that they seemed pretty chummy," Mt. Lady said, the smile on her face growing steadily.
"Uncle Might's pretty much a part of the family," he said, smiling as he thought of how close Dad and Uncle Toshi had been, ever since Granny Nana had brought him home. "He has been for as long as I've known him, anyway."
"That's lovely," Mt. Lady said. "You must have so many stories to tell," she continued, clearly eager to hear at least one of those stories.
Izuku smiled as he thought of one. "During Uncle Might's birthday last year, Tenko-nii and I filled his room with balloons before he woke up," Izuku laughed softly. "He was really surprised when he saw them all."
"How cute," Mt. Lady said, smiling. "So, have you managed to figure out an Ultimate Move yet?"
After he'd shown her Umbra Centaurus – and after he'd managed to get Chat Noir back under control again – Izuku felt just a bit sheepish. "Chat Noir kind of has a mind of his own, so it's a bit hard to get him to cooperate when I haven't let him out in awhile," he said, rubbing the back of his head.
Mt. Lady laughed softly. "Well, you're bound to put anyone who likes cats at ease with that cute, fluffy form of yours," she said, grinning at him.
After that, once the last of the formal interviews had been concluded, they were all given the go ahead to get back to class. Laughing as Kacchan caught up with him, mercilessly ruffling his hair, Izuku laughed. He knew that there were still things happening outside the walls of U.A., but at least here in the school itself they could all be safe.
For however long that would last.
~MHA~
Tapping his pen against his lower lip as he stared down at the form he was currently filling out, Toshinori narrowed his eyes. He couldn't quite manage to push the thought of what might happen to Izuku and the rest of Class 1-A at their work studies; he could only hope that they would be safer on Nabu Island than back on the mainland. Still, they very well might be, considering the attacks being made on Japan's infrastructure by that Villain group that was clearly making their move.
He could only be grateful that Hisashi had offered to let Class 1-A stay in his summer home while they were on their Work Studies, so they'd have a place besides the small, rural Hero Agency where they were going to be working out of. Kurogiri already knew the place well enough to open a Warp Gate there, so there were no worries about any of them being intercepted or captured during the trip. It was all well and good, but Toshinori still found himself unsettled.
Still, at least there would be one less thing to worry about, with everything currently happening.
"All Might, it's almost time for the staff meeting," Principal Nedzu said, making his way over to the desk where Toshinori was working.
"Right," he said, nodding as he called up One For All again, standing up and making his way into the main staff meeting room.
Once there, All Might settled down in his chair and listened to just what it was that all of them were here for. As it turned out, the HPSC did seem to be using the Work Studies as a way to get the kids out of the line of fire, which was what he'd been hoping for in the first place so that was more than a little weight off of his shoulders.
"While the Hero Work Studies are currently on hold, the Hero Public Safety Commission has expanded the Hero Work Recommendation Project to include Class 1-B, as well," Principal Nedzu said, popping up from Aizawa's capture weapon; much to the annoyance of Aizawa himself, of course.
"Was that on your recommendation, sir?" Kayama asked, lacing her fingers together as she turned to look at Nedzu.
"Partially," the Principal said, flipping through the papers in his hand-paws as their meeting continued. "I was the one who made the suggestion, when all of the troubles we've been having first began."
"It's good to know we won't have to worry about the children for at least a week," Hisashi said, folding his arms and leaning slightly forward.
"Yes, and thank you for lending your summer home for our class to stay in," Principal Nedzu said, turning to smile at Hisashi as their meeting continued.
After all the teachers had finished their general meeting, he, Aizawa, Kan, and Principal Nedzu all made their way to another, more private meeting room. Yokumira Mera from the Hero Public Safety Commission had requested that the three of them meet him there, to nail down a few more details about the Hero Work Recommendation Project. As the three of them settled down, All Might couldn't help but find himself wishing that they'd be able to put a stop to this attack on Japan's vital infrastructure before Christmas.
He suspected that might very well have been an impossible wish, especially since they hadn't even managed to discover just who was behind these attacks or how they were carrying them out, but All Might still found himself wishing for it.
~MHA~
Narrowing his eyes as he studied the message console within the Spire, Nine – known as Tempest, among those who had been so willing to take him and those who had chosen to ally with him – considered the request that had just been made of not only himself, but those who had originally followed him when he had wandered the world in search of power and a purpose. Having found both, in this place that had been built for and then inhabited by those who sought their own forms of power. Those who, in fact, created other forms of power.
Not for themselves, true, but it was clear that each and every one of them had made their own choice to contribute, rather than giving up their freedom for the protection of this place.
"Nova," he said, activating his communication console so that he could speak to the woman who seemed to have been made from the sun's own fire. "I need to speak with you."
"What is it, Tempest?" she asked, unmasked face quizzical.
What little of it was visible, under the light produced by the fantastic abilities she had been granted at birth; the pair of them shared more than a few circumstances, though unlike Nova, Nine was actually capable of interacting with others without the confinement of the suit that Nova had been forced to make use of ever since her powers had emerged. It was one of the reasons Nine had connected with her so deeply.
"Something has come up that I and my people have been tasked to attend to," he said, glancing back down at the long-distance communication console, before turning his attention to the radio once more. "Will you attend to the Spire in my absence?"
"Oh course, just give me a minute," she said, nodding.
"Thank you, Nova," he replied, cutting the connection and then turning to the long-distance communication array once more.
Saving a copy of the message, Nine sent other copies to Chojuuro, Hoyo, and Kiruka; the three who had accompanied him to I-Island to begin with. There had been no stated limit on the number of companions he could bring with him, but only those three remained both close enough to him, and free of the responsibilities that the others on I-Island had taken up. Those three, therefore, would be the ones to travel with him.
Truly, it seemed fitting, that he would be traveling with those three who had been with him since before he came to I-Island would be leaving with him for the errand he had been asked to carry out.
"All right, Tempest, I'm docked and hooking into the Spire's power generator."
"Thank you, Nova," he said, glancing briefly down at the intra-Island communication console, before rising from his seat to make his way out of the Spire once more.
He would need to gather the rest of his people, before they could turn their attention to the task they had been asked to complete. Though perhaps Kon will be thinking of this as a vacation, Nine mused, lips curling slightly as he recalled the bond that Kon had formed with the man named Avion Skye. It was more than likely, therefore, that Kon would wish to have Skye accompany them, as well.
~MHA~
Watching through his various cameras as his guardians – Garaki was thinking of calling them Nomu, in deference to the fact that the process he used to resurrect them would have burned out the minds of anything that was not already a corpse – swarmed out to drive back the forces of whatever group had been foolish enough to attack the place where he had made himself a home for so long. He'd confirmed that the replications of Jin Bubaigawara had not been created by the man himself, given the way they broke apart into the splintered remnants of furniture rather than whatever medium that Bubaigawara himself used to create his own duplicates. He'd given some thought to asking the kitten if she wished to accompany him at this moment.
Still, he rather doubted that Sensei would have appreciated having his daughter so close to a battle, even one that Garaki fully intended to keep as far away from his base of operations as possible.
Finding himself curious all over again as to just who it was that had initiated the attack on Jakku and the surrounding environs, and whether or not they were part and parcel of whichever group had launched an attack on Japan as a whole, Garaki turned his attention back to the others who had followed in the wake of the false Bubaigawaras. Each of them seemed to have dressed for an infiltration, with their faces covered and what seemed to be some kind of Support items placed seemingly at strategic points on their bodies.
So, it seems as though there are more enemies than just the one who keeps summoning those artificial replications, Dr. Garaki mused, narrowing his eyes as he watched a pair of guardian Nomu tearing their way through the false Bubaigawaras, and then moving on to intercept those who had been standing behind them. The one standing on the right seemed to have a short-range teleportation Quirk, using it to make their way past the pair of guardian Nomu that Garaki had previously unleashed in the area. Of course, those two were hardly the only pair that he'd released into this area after the lockdown had gone into effect.
For a moment, Garaki found himself considering the merits of calling on Kurogiri's abilities, but that one had his own matters to attend to. And Dr. Garaki was not quite so pressed as to reveal the secrets of that particular guardian; not to anyone but Sensei, of course. Sensei was the only one who could truly appreciate his work on Kurogiri. Not even the friends of Kurogiri's former identity could know him as well as he and Sensei did, now.
~MHA~
They'd all gathered together in the main room of 1-A's dorm, packed up and ready to head out for the Hero Work Recommendation that Aizawa-sensei had been talking about in class for the last few days, and Izuku turned to see Class 1-B making their way into the dorm alongside them.
"Partner!"
"Hi, Neito-kun," he said, feeling more than a little awkward as Monoma-san raced over to hug him.
"I'm so glad we're going to be staying together for a whole week," Monoma-san said, squeezing him tightly for a long moment, before moving back to rejoin the rest of class 1-B.
"Yeah," he said, rubbing the back of his head and feeling awkward all over again. "It'll be great."
Monoma-san grinned at him, and Izuku caught sight of Kacchan giving him a firmly unimpressed look out of the corner of his left eye.
As all of them picked up their costume cases and made their way through Kurogiri-sensei's Warp Gate, on their way to his, Mom's, and Dad's summer home on Nabu Island, Izuku found himself wondering if Kazuma and Maharou would be staying in the house when they all arrived. It was kind of funny, thinking about how Maharou had found a way into his room that first time, and that had ended up amusing Dad so much that he'd allowed the pair of them to stay for the day. After that, Maharou and Dad had ended up becoming friends, in that way that Dad had always seemed to bond with little kids.
He'd told him, when Izuku had asked, that meeting little kids had always reminded him of the times when Uncle Yuuichiro had lived with him and all of the children he took care of; both the children of the people who'd worked for Dad in the past, as well as the ones that Dad's old associates had picked up off of the streets.
As they all settled in, opening up his room, Tenko-nii's room, and the guest rooms that sat nearer to the front of the house than the family areas of the house, Izuku found himself setting up in Dad and Mom's master bedroom. Everyone else had told him that he could, even though it was the largest of all the bedrooms. Chuckling under his breath as he saw all of the merchandise that Dad had collected from his favorite show, Izuku made his way over to the large, King-sized bed to set his costume case down beside the table next to it.
Sighing deeply as he slipped off his house slippers, Izuku flopped down on the bed, wondering how everyone else was doing; even when they'd left, no one had quite seemed to know who it was attacking them.
~MHA~
When their group had finally made it to the hospital that was currently the site of a battle between the forces sent by the Villain who had been reported as using the name "Mr. Skeptic" by his contacts in the police force, Eraser Head found himself confronted by the strangest creature he'd seen in some time. The overall shape was broadly humanoid, but for all the time he'd spent working with people who had Heteromorphic Quirks – those on the outskirts of society, those who were often the most skeptical of mainstream society – Eraser Head had never encountered any of them who seemed so out of it, before.
At least, no one who hadn't suffered the effects of Rosaru Fever, at least.
The exposed brain… Well, that was something new, as well. The fact that each and every one of them seemed to be pointing Eraser Head and his fellow Pros toward the thick knots of puppets that whoever Mr. Skeptic was had sent into the hospital. Eraser Head was glad to have the help, strange as it was to be fighting beside whatever these newcomers turned out to be, though he still couldn't help but wonder just what in the hell they were. They seemed at once too varied and too uniform to be anything but some sort of construct.
The exposed brains that each and every one of them seemed to possess lent credence to the idea that – whatever they did turn out to be – they hadn't come about naturally.
Still, for the moment Eraser Head knew it would be irrational to distract himself with thoughts about who or what they might be fighting beside, when there were still enemies in front of them all. He could only take a moment to be grateful that the hospital seemed to have gone into lockdown, with bars across the doors and more of those strange creatures seeming to stand guard. And one more, to be grateful that his students were far away from this place.
~MHA~
Looking down at the monitoring devices that kept him in contact with the dispersed forces of the Meta Liberation Army, ReDestro chewed his lower lip as he contemplated the progress he was making. Skeptic had dispatched his puppets to various places, and ReDestro had ensured that those of his people who wished to support him would be coming along, and now all he could do was wait and hope.
Wait to see just how many of his people would be able to establish beachheads for themselves, and hoping that Harvest would appreciate his efforts when everything was said and done.
Turning his attention to another part of the console, this one set to monitor communications from one of his deep-cover agents, ReDestro was at once pleased and unsettled. Pleased, because he would be able to find out more about that group that had formed in Otheon, and unsettled because that particular group was the exact antithesis of the Meta Liberation Army. That group despised Meta-abilities, even in spite of the fact that the upper-echelons of the group were composed of those with powerful Meta-abilities.
Not quite as powerful as those who filled out the ranks of the Meta Liberation Army, yes, but powerful abilities all the same.
Making his way into the room he'd had set up to facilitate communication between him and the deep-cover agent he'd had dispatched to Otheon, ReDestro gave a signal to Spyglass to connect him with their agent. The form of Stalker, dressed in the garb of yet another of the cultists who had turned against their own Meta-abilities, had soon appeared in the full-length mirror he was standing in front of. The set of Stalker's shoulders and the Liberation salute he was offering informed ReDestro without even the need for words that Stalker still understood his purpose and was prepared to carry out his mission.
Narrowing his eyes slightly as Stalker spelled out a name in sign language, ReDestro took out his tablet and copied the name down: Humarise.
Turning back to Stalker, ReDestro sighed as he took down the information that his agent was continuing to dictate to him. It seemed as though Otheon's local police had been almost entirely compromised by the cult, though such a thing was hardly unusual for such a small country. It was rather troublesome, however; clearly, Stalker was going to need continuing support from not just the Liberation Army as a whole, but Shadow Walker in particular.
Their Meta-abilities synchronized particularly well, after all.