Naomasa leaned back in his chair and sighed. It felt like he's been in the interrogation room for over a year when in reality he's been in there for a few hours. He looked at the vigilante across from him who was still spewing nonsense. Sure, some of the stuff he said was important to know, but it felt like he learned a lot yet nothing at the same time.
"So, anyway after that I…" Naomasa held a hand up to silence the vigilante.
"Please, stop talking. I just want to know… Are you stalling? Is there anyone coming to break you out?" Naomasa asked. He didn't need to ask the boy to tell him the truth because of his quirk and also the boy hasn't lied to him yet, but a part of him hoped that the boy would lie to him. At least then something interesting would happen.
"No."
Truth
Naomasa groaned and slammed his head on the table. In moments like these, he considers his quirk to be a curse. Sometimes he considers ignorance better, at least then he'll be surprised by many more things; Secret Santa around the office would be a lot more interesting if he didn't know who his Santa was.
"Can you just… skip ahead? I want to get back home before the sun rises," Naomasa pleaded.
"Fine," Izuku said and Naomasa felt like they were finally getting somewhere. "But let me tell a few more stories before I do."
Naomasa screamed in his head, but he let the boy have his wish.
"Don't worry, they'll be quick and it will feel like one chapter in a story."
A few months passed since he stopped Hayami's mother and not much has happened. He remembered Mei complaining about him not laying one good punch across the woman's face. If he was being honest, he wanted to but a part of his brain, but mostly his heart was telling him not to. At the moment, he wanted to ignore them, but the more he listened to them the more he realized she wasn't worth it, not his anger or his time and energy.
He knows he's a vigilante and that the rules, both written and unwritten, didn't apply to him but it didn't feel right to hit her. He already trapped her and with the evidence, Mei sent to the police she wasn't going to see the light of day any time soon.
"Are you sure you want to do this? We could let the heroes handle this," Echo said through his earpiece. He was currently perched on a roof that was opposing a bank. The day prior, after stopping a mugging, he overheard that a group of people was going to rob the bank.
"Nah, by the time they get here the robbers would've gotten away with a large sum of money," Jack Rabbit responded. They already scoped out the building after they learned of the plan and they found a way for him to easily sneak in without anyone noticing. It'll be a simple in-and-out mission.
"But what about your friend's party?" She asked. Fumikage was having a party for his fifteenth birthday and he was kinda exaggerating when he said it was a party. It was just going to be him and Tsu attending, and the plan was to sleepover and watch horror movies the next day before he and Tsu had to go home and take their siblings out Trick-or-Treating.
"He likes to start his parties late. Besides, we already planned for me to head over to his house after this," Jack Rabbit said. He hid a bag close to his friend's house that had everything he needed from a change of clothes to a sleeping bag. Fumikage's gift was in it too.
"OK, but if nothing happens in the next 30 minutes I'm calling it a night," Echo said, and Jack Rabbit agreed. Even though his friend does like to start his parties late, it would look suspicious if he showed up late.
Twenty minutes passed and nothing happened. He passed the time by talking with Echo and people-watching. He was gonna call it a night when he saw a van pull up in the alleyway beside the bank and three people came out. They were all dressed in black and had ski masks to hide their faces.
"Looks like they did show up after all," Echo said. Jack Rabbit heard the camera zoom into a close-up of one of the robbers. She saw that he was carrying an assault rifle. "They're armed too."
"Now why would they need weapons if they're robbing the place after closing time?" Jack Rabbit pondered.
"Most likely as a precaution for any security or if any heroes show up. I say you should wait until they break into the bank before you sneak over. We don't want to draw their attention when you're in the air," Echo suggested and he agreed.
It took a while for them to unlock the side entrance to the bank, but they managed to get it open after a few attempts. Jack Rabbit waited until he saw all three robbers walk into the bank, and a few more seconds to make sure none came back out. He quickly hooked himself to Sora and Echo flew him over to the bank's roof. He unhooked himself and ran straight to the air vent.
He took out the screwdriver he brought and used it to open up the vent. He hooked the hook on his grapple gun on the duct and quickly, but also cautiously descended down the air duct. When he reached the bottom, he recalled the hook and slowly crawled across the air ducts to not alert anyone of his presence. He used the vents to see if he could spot any of the robbers, but no luck so far.
He finally came across a vent that gave him a good layout of what was happening below him. He spotted two of the robbers in the lobby, letting him know that the third guy was in the vaults. One of the robbers was looking out the window to make sure no cops or heroes were on their way, while the other guy was pointing his gun at some tied-up hostages, which he assumed were the security. He looked around the room for anything that could give him a better vantage point when he spotted a chandelier.
He crawled to get closer to the chandelier and came across the vent that was closest to it. He pulled open the vent and stuck his head through it to see that it was still a little far from him. With no other option, he held onto the vent and let his body hang in the air for a few seconds before swinging his feet back and forth. He did this for a few seconds before using his forward momentum and launching himself onto the chandelier.
He made some noise when he landed, drawing the attention of the two robbers. He quickly hid before they could spot him and waited until they lost interest. Now with a better vantage point, Jack Rabbit looked around the bank and tried to form a plan.
"What's going on in there?" He heard Echo ask.
"There are two armed guys in here with the third one most likely in the vault and three tied-up security guards. One of them is aiming his gun at the hostages while the other one is on lookout," Jack Rabbit relayed to his partner, keeping his voice low so only she could hear it.
"Do you have a plan?"
"I want to get the gunman away from the hostages, but I also don't want him to accidentally kill one of them when I do it," Jack Rabbit answered. He jumped off the chandelier and onto the second floor, quickly hiding behind a giant potted plant.
"You should find a way to get him away from the hostages. Maybe try a distraction of some kind," she suggested. He already thought of trying a distraction, but he was drawing a blank. He didn't want to attack head-on and have the gunman kill the guards. He then had a great idea after staring at the lookout man for a while.
He quietly moved from his hiding spot and army crawled towards the stairs. He kept his body low when moving down the stairs to not only remain out of sight but to also make the least amount of noise. When he reached the bottom step he swiftly removed his grapple gun from his belt and aimed it at the lookout guy's legs. He waited until the gunman's attention was on the hostages before firing.
The hook wrapped around the lookout's legs and Jack Rabbit recalled the hook, causing the lookout to face plant into the ground. The hostage gunman looked at his partner to see him get dragged away. When the gunman got close to him, Jack Rabbit quickly disarmed him and hit him across the head with the butt of the rifle. With his opponent stunned, Jack Rabbit slammed a foam pellet on him, trapping him where he lies.
Jack Rabbit saw the other gunman was on high alert, but he was also away from the hostages. He quickly moved, hugging the wall to remain unseen when the gunman started walking toward his trapped partner.
"Who did this! Where are you!" Jack Rabbit heard the gunman shout. The good news is that he got him away from the hostages. The bad news is that he didn't plan this far ahead.
The gunman probably alerted his other partner when he shouted so he had to figure out how to defeat him before he was outnumbered. He looked around before he laid his eyes on the vent, giving him another idea. He shot his grappling hook at the vent and ascended halfway up the room. He took out a party snapper and threw it on the ground.
The gunman turned toward the noise and slowly approached it. Jack Rabbit waited until the gunman was directly underneath before recalling his hook and dropping onto the gunman. His feet landed directly on the gunman's head and stomped his head into the ground. Jack Rabbit checked the man for a pulse and sighed with relief when he felt his heartbeat.
Jack Rabbit trapped the man in foam before moving to the hostages tied in the room.
"Who are you? You look too young to be a hero," one of the security guards said.
"Don't worry about it," Jack Rabbit told them. He started to untie them when the world around him slowed down. Knowing what this meant, he tackled the security guards to the ground as bullets flew over their heads. He quickly drew out his staff and turned to the gunman who had two duffel bags full of money.
Not wasting time, Jack Rabbit charged at the last gunman, and with the help of Split Second, he was able to deflect every bullet shot his way. He made it to the third gunman and swung his staff at the man. The gunman used his weapon to defend himself from the attack. While the gunman was defending himself from his attack, Jack Rabbit grabbed the gunman's weapon and tried to point it toward the gunman.
The gunman tried to fight off his advances, but Jack Rabbit kept pushing. The gunman managed to push Jack Rabbit off of him, but before he could aim his gun at him, Jack Rabbit smacked the gun out of his hand and jabbed his staff into the man's stomach. Jack Rabbit then kicked the man's face, knocking him to the ground. Just like the others, Jack Rabbit trapped the man with a foam pellet.
"That was amazing!" Jack Rabbit heard a security guard say. Jack Rabbit freed them from their bindings and started getting ready to leave.
"Don't you want to stay and talk to the press?" One of the security guards asked. Jack Rabbit just shook his head.
"Sorry, I have somewhere to be," he said and left the same way he came in.
After screwing the vent back on, Jack Rabbit slouched against the duct and exhaled.
"That was stressful," he said while heavily breathing. He saw Sora hovering overhead and he gave her a little wave.
"At least your friend's party will help you relax," Echo said, and he laughed. He got up and hooked himself onto Sora and flew to his friend's house.
Izuku slouched on the couch after having a big dinner. It was Christmas day, he was wearing a green Santa outfit, and they were having a party, and by party, he meant Tsu's and Fumikage's families came over to have dinner. He watched the other kids play with the toys they got that morning. Since there were a lot of kids, the caretakers, mainly Miss Azumi, decided that each kid would only get one present so each kid had something to open that morning. Miss Azumi wanted to get him something but he turned her down, telling her to save the money to get the children something nice.
"Why aren't you wearing your hat?" Izuku smiled when he saw Tsu. She was wearing a Santa dress and a Santa hat. "We didn't get Fumikage to wear the reindeer antlers just for you to not wear your hat, ribbit."
Izuku rolled his eyes and put his Santa hat on. "I only had it off for a few seconds, don't worry."
He and Tsu are still dating if you could call it that. They mostly do what they've always done when they hang out like go to restaurants, play mini golf, and walk in the park. You wouldn't even know they were dating unless you asked them because they don't do things normal couples do like hand holding. The only thing that was different from their dates from a normal hangout is that Fumikage isn't with them.
When they told Fumikage they were dating he didn't believe them at first, a part of him still doesn't believe it, but he was happy for them. He was supportive and always tried to help their relationship in any way he could. Sometimes when they hung out he would always try to give them some alone time but they would always reject the offer and tell him that he didn't have to do that. One time he bought them movie tickets for a date, but Izuku thinks that it was Dark Shadow who bought them.
"Do you think he's having a good time?" Tsu asked. She looked off in the distance to see the children climbing all over Fumikage, who was wearing a red Santa outfit, while Dark Shadow was distracting some of them by juggling.
"Even though he tries to hide it, he always lets his true feelings slip," Izuku said. Even though Fumikage looked uncomfortable, Izuku saw in his friend's eyes that he was having fun. Tsu sighed before resting her head on Izuku's shoulder, causing him to flinch a little.
"I guess you're right, ribbit," Tsu said before she started rummaging a hand around her dress before pulling out a small package wrapped in frog-themed wrapping paper. "Do you want to exchange gifts now?"
"Sure, just let me get your gift," Izuku said and went to his room. As he did that, Tsu went to take Fumikage away from the children and over to the couch. They decided to do a Secret Santa at the start of the month. Izuku shortly returned with a box wrapped in wrapping paper decorated with pictures of candy canes. "You guys ready?"
"Yup," Fumikage said while lightly waving his present, which was wrapped in black wrapping paper with pictures of ghosts wearing Santa hats. Izuku gave his gift to Tsu, Tsu gave hers to Fumikage, and Fumikage gave his to Izuku. The three friends opened up their gifts and pulled out necklaces with different charms; a frog, a raven, and a rabbit.
"Great minds think alike, huh," Izuku said while admiring his necklace.
"It appears so," Fumikage said.
Tsu studied the frog charm and noticed a small hinge on it. She opened it up and saw the picture of the first time she and her friends went to Flippy's.
"You got a locket as well?" Fumikage said, in a slightly surprised voice. "I gave a locket to Izuku, even used the same picture too."
"I did the same with your gift!" Tsu told Fumikage. The three friends laughed at the sheer coincidence that they got each other the same present. "I guess great minds do think alike."
"Merry Christmas, guys," Izuku said and brought his two friends into a hug.
A month passed and it was the day that every Junior High School student was either excited for or dreaded, Entrance Exam day. Not every school held its entrance exam today, choosing to wait until after one school had theirs, UA. They wanted the students who chose to apply to UA to pay attention to the hulking task in front of them and not worry about anything else. The only schools that hold their entrance exams on this day are for the students who didn't apply to UA, as rare as it is.
Izuku, Tsu, and Fumikage were walking down the street toward their testing sites. Izuku chose to walk his friends to UA to try and calm their nerves about the upcoming test. He knew his friends were stressing this day the moment they applied.
"Don't worry guys. I've seen how hard you guys have worked for this, you're ready!" Izuku told them, though their nerves didn't waver.
"Easy for you to say, you didn't apply to a school with a 0.2 acceptance rate," Tsu shot back. Izuku chose to apply to the lesser-known high school in Musutafu. He chose it because he knew they were gonna ace their exams.
"I don't know, I think something is against us today," Fumikage said.
"Don't talk or think like that! You guys will pass and go on to be some of the greatest heroes of all time!" Izuku exclaimed and he tugged at the locket around his neck. "And if you ever doubt yourself, remember that you are not alone!"
Tsu and Fumikage looked at their lockets too. They looked at the picture inside and smiled, knowing that no matter how far apart they were, they were together.
Author's note: About 8 months ago, CrunchyRoll released its first original series and it was met with High praise with multiple reviews about how great it is. All jokes aside, I've been thinking about writing a story based on it, and I have an idea about how I want it to go, but I don't want to do it if no one's going to read it. So let me know if I should write it or not.
Also, I was thinking about who to pair Fumikage with for a while down and I came up with who I want it to be. Maybe you'll see them next chapter, maybe you won't I don't know yet. Feel free to guess who you think it is.
