Countdown to Reality
1. Thank you for reading! Maybe I enjoy giving important information to Kaminari too much, but I'm having so much fun! I hope you do to!
2. Let's start!
Day 2. End of the afternoon. Countdown 23: 23: 25
Kaminari had received very angry messages from his parents asking why school had called to let them know he had never arrived. He had texted back something about mistaking trains in the morning, ending up on the other side of the city and giving up going to school.
He was going to have a hard time when he would be back, but that was not yet a problem.
He had to find the Endeavor tower.
If he remembered correctly the address Yao-Momo had sent, the agency should be two blocks down… how she had remembered all these addresses was beyond him. Only Midoriya was known as a fan-boy, but apparently, some other classmates shared (hid) the same hobby.
Kaminari had spent the day going back and forth in the city. He was tired and he was not expecting to find anything more than what he had discovered in the previous agencies. Endeavor tower could be a mall, a bank or (more funny) a fire station.
The job would be almost useless at this point, if it were not for Todoroki.
As far as he knew, his classmate was not fond of his father, but despite all his mixed feelings, trying to find the Number 1 Hero was probably the best thing he could do.
Kaminari Denki looked up from the pavement and across the street, making bets on what he would find.
The building was still there, with a big, flashy, red sign above French doors.
"Hero Agency Number 1", it said.
Kaminari stupidly read the sign, and his brain fried without even using electricity.
Huh?
He rubbed his eyes to ascertain he was not hallucinating.
"Hero Agency Number 1", it said.
HUH?!
"Okay, Okay, Okay, I need to calm down." He said aloud, and a few pedestrians avoided him conscientiously.
He did not calm down at all.
He crossed the street running, not even checking the lights. He rushed at the front door, and opened it wide. Behind the doors was a neat lobby with several desks and a few people queuing. Ignoring the surprised stares, he spotted a desk with no queue and hurried there.
The receptionist looked up from her computer, and smiled professionally.
"How may I help you?"
He almost asked her he wanted to talk to the Number 1 Hero right away, but he stopped himself in time, and took one second to put air in his lungs.
"What… where… how… is this…. I need to… are you really a Hero agency?!"
The receptionist chuckled, and handed him a leaflet. "Welcome to Hero Agency Number 1. You can find general information about all our activities here. Please let me know if you need some help."
Kaminari instantly opened the brochure and his hopes almost as instantly crumbled to pieces. Instead of real hero work, such as saving people from disasters, the agency offered other kinds of "hero" work.
"We can save you from any daily life situation! Do you need someone to watch you kids? Do you need someone to wash your car? Do you need help with cleaning your neighborhood? Hero Agency Number 1 is here for you 24/7!"
There was a long list of services just below.
He hated that world.
Kaminari slowly closed the brochure.
"If what you need is not on the list, you can fill in a special request. Only our most frequent services are listed." The receptionist explained.
Oh yeah, he was in need for something not on that list: one big guy on fire! Although it would have been entertaining to say that and watch her reaction, he did not. She would have misinterpreted.
He was about to give her back the leaflet when a picture on the back caught his interest. It showed a woman in her late sixties (minimum, and that was only if he was nice) next to the tower entrance.
He knew her.
She was the floating woman from Yao-Momo's picture! She was the woman standing next to the young All Might! For the second time, Kaminari's heart was about to burst with excitement.
"Who's that?" He half-spat to the receptionist.
"She is our company's founder. Mrs. Shimura. She retired, but she is still our principal stockholder. It was her idea to build a company who would always help people."
"Do you know if she was close to an American, a tall blond guy, whose Japanese name should be Yagi Toshinori? Maybe he goes by a nickname… 'All Might'?!"
"Mrs. Shimura is very busy, and she knows numerous people. I unfortunately don't have that information."
"Is there any way I could contact her? Talk to her? Give her a message? It's… it's really important."
The receptionist hesitated, as if the request was very unusual. She told him to wait for a minute and then sat back behind her desk.
While she typed something on her keyboard, Kaminari almost ate his nails.
"Our policy is to always help our clients," she said, handing him out a small questionnaire. "Please write your name, phone number and other basic information. We are going to fill in a formal special request. I can't guarantee I will get you to talk to Mrs. Shimura, but we can try. Please, make your message short; it must fit in that blank."
Kaminari grabbed the pencil and started filling in the paper.
"I'm thinking of something…" The receptionist hesitated again. "If the formal request doesn't go through, I could try to give your message directly to her granddaughter. Her party's office is also in the tower, and her secretary is hired for something, isn't it?"
"Her granddaughter…?"
"Yes. You must have heard of her. She is a politician. Her nickname is The Little Hana."
"… You remember where your room is?"
"…yes?"
"Good. Go grab a bag, your ID, some clothes and some stuff, videogames, book, whatever, and then, get back down to the hall… you remember where the hall is, don't you?"
"…no?"
"Okay, so you'll come back here, turn right and then… well I guess you'll just have to follow her screams."
Until that sentence, their conversation felt normal. Kirishima had had no difficulties – almost no difficulties – to maintain a decent level of acting.
He bleached.
Screams? Like? Like… what kind of screams?!
"Is that a threat?! You are such a pretentious dirty freak!" Yu-something yelled too close to him for his liking.
Kirishima had almost forgotten about her, but even if Chisaki tended to draw attention, it was a wonder how he had managed to tune her hysteric voice out.
"It's a fact." Chisaki stated without even looking her way. "You are screaming."
That kind of scream was fine. Even if Kirishima did not like her, he was not wishing her to finish her life as pool of nothingness on the floor.
"I have very good reasons to scream!"
"…go, I'm dealing with her." Chisaki ordered and Kirishima refused to get started on what he meant by dealing with her.
He got to his feet, turned away, rushed up the stairs, ran along a corridor or two, slammed his bedroom door behind him, and took ten seconds to consider the option "Run for it" one last time. He closed his eyes, inhaled a few times, passed his hands in his hair, and turned frantically between his bed and his desk.
It was his decision.
He was not opening that window and jumping towards the exit like a coward. He was doing this.
"I'm doing this." He repeated.
He was a hero.
He did not repeat that aloud, but he did grab his backpack and stuffed random things inside. He was still in a much-panicked state of mind, and maybe he took several pajamas and no extra shirt but… who cared?
He checked he had taken his ID, Jirou and Iida's picture, his phone charger, and then, he rushed out of his bedroom and inside his parent's room. He was doing this, so he was doing this right.
He took paper, a pencil, and wrote three short sentences down.
"I discovered the truth, trust me, I'll stop it. Get out of that place. If I am not contacting you every day, call one of these numbers and explain them who I went with. – E." He listed all his friends' numbers, and stuffed the paper under his father's pillow.
Kirishima then rushed in another room, one he had visited earlier that day, and took all the money he could find. He did not even bother checking how much there was, but it was clearly enough to afford transportation, hotel, expenses, anything for two people on the run.
One last thing.
His Quirk was still irresponsive.
He opened a drawer, one he had initially closed as soon as he had seen what was inside, and paused. Whoever owned that room also owned a miniature weaponry.
He hesitantly put his hand in the drawer, hovered above a gun, but finally settled on a knife. In a fight, he would know how to use it. Knifes always cut. Whereas a gun… he had never touched one, and he could not even tell if there were bullets inside.
Hiding the blade into one of his extra pajamas, he headed back down, following the screams. He could hear Yu-something shouting empty threats at Chisaki.
If only they were not empty… and that she did gut him alive before he reached them… well… even as a hero, he would not oppose.
One could dream, right?
"Miss, are you sure this is the right place? You've never mentioned it before."
"I am. It's the house of a dear friend." Yaoyorozu Momo reassured her driver. "It might take some time. I'll give you a call."
The driver nodded, and she crossed the parking to the staircase.
Time was so precious, and she had already lost so many hours… taking her lessons, wearing her smile, being as perfect as every soul in her home expected her to be.
It was necessary. She had money, access to everything and anything, and she was a cornerstone of any plan they could come up with…
Plan! As if she had a plan.
Yaoyorozu just had too many experimental fake IDs in her handbag to count, and the desire to do everything to help her classmates. Nothing more and nothing fabulous.
She wanted to do more, she wanted to help, and she wanted to see her friend's faces.
She wanted nothing more than not being alone.
She took the stairs, wondering how so many people could live inside a building so small, and looked for the correct door. Prepared to lie to both Midoriya and Bakugo's parents, she finally pressed a finger on the doorbell.
The door opened slightly, and a plump woman's face, looking just like Midoriya, appeared in the tiny opening. Yaoyorozu bowed her head a little.
"Are you Izuku's friend?" Midoriya's mother barely whispered.
"I am." She assured her. "I'm sorry to come on such short notice, Mrs. Midoriya. May I come in?"
She did not open her door any wider, hesitating. "You… you know about Katsuki-chan?"
Yaoyorozu did not like to lie. It certainly did not mean she could not. Lying was just another tool in the box.
"We've actually never met. Midoriya-san only explained his uncharacteristic situation to me."
Uncharacteristic situation that was making her nervous. Bakugo's hot temper could only make sparks in such a context.
"… and how have you met my son?"
"I visited his high school at the beginning of the year. It was a formidable experience, since my parents insisted on having my education supervised from home. He was so kind to me that we kept contact afterwards." She recited from a story they had made up together.
Midoriya's mother seemed very suspicious, but eventually opened her door wider. Yaoyorozu took a brief look at her surroundings, took her jacket and shoes off, and followed her to a small living room.
Bakugo's parents were present, sitting on the couch. Izuku was also there, stiff on the very same couch. Bakugo had opted for separated chair.
They looked… tired, angry, worried, but… also normal, and fine.
She wanted to talk to them, to make sure they were real and hear their stories… but this was not the time, not with the adults around.
She bowed her head a second time, while Midoriya's mother brought back a couple of other seats from the kitchen.
"Midoriya-san," Yaoyorozu greeted Izuku, playing her part and hoping he would be able to do the same, "It's such a pleasure to see you again."
"I-I agree, Yaoyorozu-san. Are you all right?"
She nodded, seating on a chair like Bakugo – well, not like him as in the same position than him, because that would have been very inappropriate – and put her handbag on her lap.
"You must be the Bakugo family," she pretended to guess, and Bakugo's face told her she had better to wrap that up in a minute, because he was already out of patience. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"The pleasure is ours," Bakugo's mother answered first, putting a hand on her husband forearm as if he needed it to calm down. "Izuku told us you could do something for us. Something I've never even dreamt of for a decade…"
He voice broke, and Yaoyorozu felt her heart sank. That woman was clearly suffering, and she could not imagine how hard it must be for Bakugo to have his mother sounding like this.
"I'll gladly do it," she said, turning towards him.
"Then, what the fuck are we waiting for, Ponytail?"
His parents turned pale, Inko frowned, and Izuku gave them all a worried look.
"Language Katsuki!" His father exploded. "That girl is here to help us, apologize!"
Help and Apologize were almost nonexistent words in Bakugo's dictionary, and Yaoyorozu had no intention to make it the afternoon's battle. "It's fine," She said before he could jump at his father's throat. "Let's get this done. If you could stay still for one second, Bakugo-san, I need to focus on your face, for the picture."
He settled down. It was a little weird, staring at him directly in the eyes, in the silence of the room, but pictures were hard to make and she needed to visualize precisely what she wanted. Without a model, she simply could not do it.
She held her arm out, and ignoring the adults' gasps, produced a little card with Bakugo's picture.
"There."
He instantly got up and took it.
"I tried prototypes in random shops, and it was enough to let me in. On the other hand, I'm not a hacker. It won't go through formal checkup. Don't try it in a bank, hospital and avoid police... of course." She explained, opening her handbag. "I also prepared this in advance, since it needn't pictures. You have a fake toes test with your name."
Bakugo also took the paper, reading it.
"You've done all this in one day?" He asked. "Shit, Ponytail, you are more a nerd than Deku."
She would take that as "Great job, thank you".
Mrs. Bakugo rose from the couch, and before Yaoyorozu could prepare herself, she got another sort of thank you. The woman hugged her tightly, repressing hiccups.
"You can't know how much this means to us." She whispered.
Behind Mrs. Bakugo, Izuku made rapid signs with his hands, showing one room's door, and then pointing at them three. Oh. She had to escape the hug. It was plan's time.
Or more no-plan's time.
Keep it efficient. No extra moves, no extra words, no extra lies.
Kirishima entered the compound hall, ready – or as ready as he could – to face Chisaki, but he stopped at the door.
What was currently happening was surrealist.
During his absence, a surprisingly large number of additional people had joined Chisaki and Eris' mother, including his parents.
Obviously, the memory-loss story was no secret to them anymore.
His mother seemed to be connecting the dots with their earlier conversation. She was totally convinced and about to pass out. Two people were gravitating around her, trying to get her to go rest elsewhere – with little to no success.
His father was not connecting any dots at all, but he was also making a scene. He was dead angry with Chisaki for fucking up – quoting his words here – and with Yu-something… for what exactly, Kirishima was unsure. Two other men were trying to prevent him from jumping at both villains throats.
If that commotion was not enough, Eri's mother had apparently decided that Chisaki was too dangerous and that she needed some backup. Half the men of her compound were standing around her, nodding at every word she was hysterically shouting.
If that had been all, Kirishima would not have called the scene "surrealist".
But there was Chisaki.
He was doing a great job at ignoring Yu-something, her men, Kirishima's dad, and was filling up medical prescriptions as if it was the best place and time to do that. And maybe it was, because frankly, he was the only one doing something constructive.
Maybe he had not come to Yu's place only to check on Kirishima, and wanted to get the rest of his work done, but surrounded by people carrying weapons and threatening him, that was crazy.
Well… he was crazy.
Just, Kirishima had never pictured him as that sort of crazy.
"…LOOK AT THE RESULT! The only thing you managed so far is change my birthplace into a drug-addict circle, turn my father into a puppet, and break people with your stupid experiments! You are just a failure, a dirty, ugly, disgusting failure!"
Kirishima agreed on that one.
Chisaki turned the paper he was reading, and signed it.
"If you don't heal him, if he isn't back in one and only piece, this time, I'll have your head!"
Chisaki took another paper.
"I mean it! You think you are so powerful, making deals with politics, making a drug no one else but you can do, being the next heir and all, but let me tell you… you mess up one more time, and that's it! I'll report you!"
That finally got a reaction out of Chisaki. He stopped reading, and he did spare a murdering glance at Eri's mother…. Who stared back.
"I have kilometers-long list of crimes you've done that I could use to have you arrested, but I'll need just one!" She threatened.
"Please enlighten me."
"Your Quirk."
Chisaki closed his pencil with a snap. Kirishima shot very worried looks at everybody, wondering why no one started running.
They should be.
Eri's mother smirked. "It's kind of hard to forget… isn't it the most dangerous we have? I'd love to bet on how fast the police would forget about you if they'd learn… a couple of decades, maybe?"
Was it another empty threat?
It did not sound like one.
Was she crazy?!
"So… let's say, you don't make another kid disappear, you bring him back with his memory in the right place by the end of the weekend and I might hold my tongue. Deal?"
Of course, Chisaki did not answer "Deal!" cheerfully.
He did not sliced her into tiny bits either, but he did look like he thought it was a reasonable reaction.
An open fight in a not-so-large hall with a crowd including both his parents was not something Kirishima wanted to witness.
Before he knew what he was doing, he stepped in the room.
Was he crazy?!
He was a dead man, he was a dead man, Chisaki was going too… "I got my bag." He said, and felt relieved when his voice did not betray him.
Instantly, all attention was on him, and the next second, he had both Yu-something and his parents next to him, asking so many questions he was not even able to tell them apart.
He inhaled, refused to be a coward, and faced them. He hugged his mother and father first, whispering in their ears that everything was going to be all right. He also faked listening to Yu-something babbling, and then, stopped looking at them all.
His full attention was on Chisaki.
He was doing this.
It was his decision.
He took a first, hesitant step towards him, and the next ones felt like steps towards hell, but he still took them.
"I-if you asked me to get my bag," he said, "It's because you want me to follow you to where you work, right?"
"Yes."
"Okay, I just wanted to confirm."
Chisaki smiled behind his mask, and Kirishima had to repress a shiver.
"Don't be so stiff. On contrary to what people here say, I'm not a bad person."
Best joke ever.
Seriously, who could believe that?
He started writing a letter to the company founder.
Kaminari had never written any letter to anybody, and even less to grandmothers being All Might relatives.
Dear Shimura-san
All might had a Quirk. A dangerous one. Maybe it was not smart to mention it. Maybe it was also not smart to write about the picture Yaoyorozu had discovered at U.A., because Mrs. Shimura also had a Quirk… and maybe she did not want publicity.
I am a high school student, and I would like to interview you about how you…
I am a high school student, and I would like to meet you to…
I am a high school student…
That was hard!
I am a high school student, and I would like to talk with you. I am very interested in the successful life of a businessperson like you, whose story could help me with a school project…
She would never accept.
She was retired and he was a high school nobody… he started over. He needed something catching her interest immediately… the truth, for example.
Dear Shimura-san
Yagi-san was my teacher until very recently and I would like to speak with you about him. I heard you made this Hero Company to help people. My classmates and I do need your help. I hope this letter will reach you.
He hesitated.
Kaminari-san, 1st year student at U.A.
These two little letters would catch her interest.
He folded it, and handed the questionnaire to the receptionist. She smiled and promised she would do everything to get the message to their founder. Kaminari thanked her, turned around, and…
…and what exactly? Should he be going back home?
Endeavor was not in that building and Todoroki Shoto neither. So… next step was definitely home.
He still stayed in the entrance for a few more seconds, expectantly looking at people faces in hope to find one of the two escapees. Of course, none of the clients nor the receptionists were his classmates.
But… he had not remarked before, because seeing "Hero Agency Number 1" kind of caught his full attention, but… there was something weird going on with that room. The light reverberation was…
…weird?
Light rays were coming from outside and mixing up with the dim neon light, but they were not reverberating everywhere as they should.
Especially… especially in that spot.
One chair, by an escalator's door, looked shiny, as if some invisible mirrors were playing with artificial shadows.
He suddenly had a crazy, out of nowhere certitude.
Anything not normal usually meant "Quirk" and he had an idea on whose Quirk it meant.
Kaminari had not spent eight months daydreaming for nothing. He could not see a person on that chair, but he had played "guess-where-the-naked-girl-is" with Mineta enough times to detect recurrent light patterns happening in her vicinity. (Only when she did want to be found, though.)
Kaminari slowly walked towards the chair, feeling a little bit like an idiot, because it looked empty. Maybe he was really an idiot, and maybe it was empty, but… The pattern of light oscillated, and Kaminari just knew.
A someone who wanted to be found was on that chair.
Something, a something with fingers, touched his shoulder, and despite the fact that he had known, he gasped loudly.
"Shh, idiot! It's me!"
"H-Hagakure-san?"
"I'm sooo happy to finally see someone!" Some voice whispered next to his earlobe, while another hand grabbed his wrist and dragged him towards the men's toilet.
"Me too…!" Kaminari said, even if he technically could not see her. "B…but… but… but…what... a-are you all right? Where… what are you doing here?!"
"Shhh! People are going to think you're nut!"
She pushed the men's toilet door, and without letting Kaminari any time to protest (She was naked, and that was men's toilet!), she dragged him inside a stall and locked the door.
"I so want to hug you!" She exclaimed.
"M-me too!" He admitted, purposefully not looking her way (wherever that was) and secretly hoping she would hug him. (Obviously, she did not, so he changed topics before it could get awkward). "Hagakure-san, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm really fine," she breathed. "I'm lucky. Did you see what they say on T.V.? Did you see?! About Todoroki-kun and Ashido-chan?! It is so, it's so… my God, my God. I still don't believe it's real! …and you, please, please, please, tell me nothing like that happened to you, you do have a Quirk that is dangerous… what happened to your hair? I was not sure you were you, that's why I just played with lights instead of speaking to you!"
Kaminari sat on the toilet.
He slowly started explaining his own situation, his parents, Yaoyorozu, Bakugo, Midoriya, the little he knew about Kirishima and Aoyama, his exploration of the city, Mina, Todoroki, the missing memories, the people on the train… everything.
"So, you were here to check heroes' agencies too?" He asked after ten good minutes of murmured-monologue.
"No, not at all." Hagakure answered, and from the movement of the toilet paper, he guessed she had just leaned against the wall. "When I woke up, I was in a small studio I had never seen before, so I panicked and I tried to get back to school… That's when I checked my cellphone."
"…and you understood how wrong..."
"No, not at all." Hagakure repeated. "Someone was calling me. A client was calling me… because I have a job, I have a studio, I even pay taxes… and I have clients!"
"Clients…?"
"That's crazy,! Crazy, crazy, crazy!"
"W-what job are you doing?"
"Oh, that's the good part. My client told me she was at my door and that I had to hurry up. I was in such panic, I didn't try to understand, and I went straight into her car, like an idiot! It could have been anyone! But I was so panicked! Then during the commuting time, I finally understood that the problem was not focused on me." She explained. "The radio was on, so I understood… well… what there is to understand. And, and, and… and also I did not know her, but she seemed to know me soooooo well, as if we had had business together before. I completely freaked out. She told me she needed my Quirk for the day, and brought me with her to TV sets. While she was interviewed, I spied on people for her!"
Kaminari mouth opened wide.
"You spy on people for a living?"
"Yes! My client list is six pages long and I have famous people on it! I have no idea where my family can be, I found nobody I knew but you, and this other me, she is spying for not, not, not, not nice clients!"
Hagakure was half-crying, half-telling her story as if it was just an immense joke.
He wanted to pat her head, or hug her, or anything, but she was still very naked and he was not confident trying to touch her would not end with touching a part of her he should not.
"…and today, it started all over again! That same client, she paid me for two weeks! Do you know how much money it is?!"
"No..?"
"I am rich, and I'm literally dirty rich, because this is dirty money! My client even met an old Yakuza boss earlier today in her office upstairs! They discussed police operations, deals about stuff I don't want to know about, and even how Todoroki-kun and Ashido-chan are going to be arrested!"
Upstairs?
Like upstairs in that very tower?
"Upstairs?!" He repeated aloud. "H-Hagakure-san… that client of yours, what's her name?"
That weird world seemed to enjoy coincidences a lot, so he already had a fairly good guess.
"People call her Mrs. Shimura, and I heard journalists and her brother on the phone using a nickname. Like Small Hana, or whatever! But we don't care! I told you they spoke about police operations to get our friends arrested! That's what's important, not her name, idiot!"