Chapter 20:

It was about an hour later that Fumiko came to the training area.

"Corrosive, just wanted to tell you that I'm going for the new work studies student, I'll be back in five minutes." After her quick declaration, she left.

"New intern? Aren't you supposed to be unknown and all?"

"Well, I am to most, but Fumiko's cousin obviously knows about me, since they have a good relationship, plus she's learning in a hero school in order to get a hero license, she's pretty similar to you actually."

"Well, it takes a special kind of person to seek you out specifically."

"True that."

"What's her name anyway?"

"Kimiko, you better remember it since from now on you two are going to train together."

"But why?" I whined, uncharacteristically "I don't like working in teams!"

"See, that's the problem! Even I can work in teams! It's just a necessary skill for a hero to have, and both of you lack it. I can kill two flies with one hit if I put you two into a duo team, and have you work together. And don't worry, she is a good teammate, not someone whom you have to help each step of the way, I know that's what was going through your mind." He was right, once again. "I thought the same way, but I found a good partner and together we worked together very well, right up until he decided that popularity was more important than actually killing the villains." It wasn't the training I wanted, but the training I needed, I could see that.

After a couple seconds, I heard Fumiko's footsteps once again, coupled in with another's, who I assumed was Kimiko.

In the doorway, they entered, and I saw both of them. Fumiko looked like her usual self, with her hair flowing down her back, and her clothes being in dark red and black colors. She must have really liked those colors.

Kimiko looked similar to her, yet different. She was about the same height as me, she had blond hair and blue eyes just like me. Her hair was much lighter, like the color of the sun that's about to leave the horizon, and her eyes were similarly light, sparkling with a azure-blue color. If you looked past the hair though, you could immediately see the familiar resemblance between Kimiko and Fumiko. They had the same build, and very similar faces, with the tone of their skin also matching. She wore her hair differently, though. Unlike Fumiko's, it didn't just go down her back, it was parted in the front, it reminded me to the hair of one of the Class B students who survived, it looked like the hair of the girl who could separate her body into parts, except she didn't have a clump hanging in the center of her forehead. Her hair was also, smaller, I guess? I don't know how to describe it, but it was less mossy, more flowing with smaller strands.

"Ah, Kimiko, you've arrived, great to see you! I'm Corrosive, he's Doppo Kamiyama, my other apprentice." After my name was spoken, I waved, coupled with an enthusiastic "Hi!".

"Hello. I'm Kimiko Ankoku, but I'm pretty sure you already knew that. I came here to do my hero work studies."

"Great, but before starting, I would like to hear about your quirk from your own mouth. It's always more informative to ask the user, even though I know the basics from Fumiko."

"Well, okay, my quirk is called 'Crow'. It has three main functions, which give me loads of different uses. I can turn into, control, and summon crows.
First, transformation, turning into crows can be done two ways: I can either turn into a singular one, and have precise control, or turn into a swarm which gives me much more safety, but I also have a low level of control over it's precise actions.

Second, summoning is pretty self explanatory, it allows me to summon crows, I need shadows in order to do this, because I'm only able to summon crows from shadows, the darker the shadows the easier and the more I can summon. It's actually more like creating, since I can modify them a bit, though my skills are still not very good in this area.

Third, controlling. Whenever I summon a crow, I can make it either a worker or a robot, a worker has above average intelligence and completes any orders I give it to the best of it's ability, a robot on the other hand is part of a hive-mind controlled by me. The more robots are there, the harder the strain on me, being the queen of a hive-mind is exhausting. I can also turn already existing crows into workers. I can access the information they acquired in both cases, though it's easier in the Hive-mind." Now that was a quirk. It had so many uses, so much potential, and she appeared as someone who wasn't about to waste it.

"Well, now that we are done with the introductions, it's time for the training exercise I prepared!"

"Already?!" we voiced our shock together.

"Yes! As a hero you never know when you need to act! So, come on, it's not going to be held inside." Along with Kimiko, we fell into a step next to each other as we followed Corrosive.

We arrived in a giant mall. It was much bigger than any that I have visited, I like to stay far away from such crowded places. The last one that I went to which was comparable to this was no doubt the one where the class went that time before the summer camp.

"Well, let me tell you the fundamentals: This is a simulation, but I like to make sure that any exercise I put my heart into is a challenge, so it's not going to be a walk in the park.

The point of this exercise is to increase your teamwork skills, since that is an area that both of you lack in. For that, I created this scenario: There are ten villains in this mall, but they are more like terrorists. They have bombs strapped onto them, and if they notice that any of them were caught, they'll immediately activate it. This is the scenario, there aren't actual explosives here, just mimics. I've managed to persuade the owner of this building to allow this, but he's the only one who knows about this, so you can't rely on others, just on your partner.

Your objective is to restrain them, and you need to keep them alive, since we don't know which one has intel on their superiors. The ten villains are police undercover students, and they were promised entry into the best police school in the entire country if they managed to win, so don't disappoint me, I checked those tuitions and they cost a lot.

You have 2 hours." He left, and only now did we realize the enormity of this task. This place was gigantic, and we only had two hours, while also not alerting the civilians, which with my quirk would have been very hard. Kimiko's quirk was great for scouting, but she needed me to actually restrain the fake villains.

"Please tell me you got an offensive quirk." she started.

"Don't worry, I do have one. I'll tell you about it in a second, but first you should send out as many scouts as you can."

"I'm already on it, but there are very few crows here, and summoning them out of nowhere may alert civilians. I need to be careful.

While I'm scouting, we should get to a better position."

"Right, let's." As we began walking, I also started describing my quirk:

"It's a transformation like quirk, it can be activated by will or by my anger. When I use it, I have to break down my skin, since the material is basically what composes my body. When my skin isn't there, I can freely shape it. I can also just break down my arm, and only use that as an exit for void, which is the name I gave it." She stopped for a second, and looked me in the eye.

"That's like, one of the greatest quirks I ever heard about. Imagine the possibilities!"

"Yeah, there are a lot of them, though if I lose control then shit hits the fan, and I'll probably instantly climb into the top 100 villains of all time list."

"Still, that's a rather fair compromise. Annoying though."

"You couldn't be more right."

"Let's get back on track. We need to find police students."

"We should look for males, 90% of the police is made out of men."

"They're also training for undercover work, so they probably aren't very old."

"Don't forget that they need to hide fake bombs, they still take up space, they must be wearing a larger coat or a hoodie. It's not the hottest today, but the autumn weather still didn't arrive properly, so not everyone wears more than a shirt." We arrived at the center of the plaza, there was a fountain there. From here, we had the best chances to reach any position were there might have been the fake villains. I actually found Kimiko a rather great teammate, actually contributing enough so that I didn't feel that I could do this much better if I was just alone.

"Found one, north-eastern sector, near the pub."

"Got it." I said, as I began running towards there. I tried not to be too noticeable, and slowed down before I arrived.

Now, there was a problem there. The target, who I could spot instantly, was sitting outside the pub at one of the tables. There were three other customers, and countless other people on the street. A distraction was needed.

Out of nowhere, a crow flied down onto my shoulder. I almost jumped out of my skin (literally), but I managed to calm down, and look at it again. It had a small shine in it's eyes, and I was reminded of Kimiko's quirk.

"Are you controlling this right now?" It tried to nod, with it's little crow head.

"Right, you can't speak." It looked at me like I was an idiot for wasting time with that sentence. She may have been right. "I need a distraction." The crow nodded again, and I saw others arriving on the rooftops. Then, like it was a fairy tale, they jumped down into the center of the road, and started the crow-fighting match. It looked hilarious even from this far away, and other people considered it funny as well, since people quickly crowded around it.

Thankfully, my target was the last one to stand up from his table, and so with a quick void arm I encased his entire body, suffocating him. I only held it for long enough so that he'd lose consciousness, then I carried him to the dumpster, and with a bit of cloth I scavenged gagged his mouth, while his muscles were pierced with my void needle.

I quickly ran back to Kimiko, who was still there in the center of the mall, except in the meantime she sat down to one of the benches in the shade of a tree.

"This can't go on like this." she started. "This took way too much time. We only have one and half an hour left, while still having to catch at least nine of them. We need a new plan, a better one." It felt like meeting an equal for the first time. Until now, I didn't take her seriously, but from this point on, my view of her changed. The whole 'duo' idea finally clicked with me, I found the magic behind Corrosive's words.

"You're right. Their numbers are the problem, so we need to get them together at one place." I was already working towards a solution.

"And then when they are all at the same place, then what? If you get one of them there, they'll just see it more easily." I still had to work on the whole team-work thing together though, since it appeared that I didn't communicate properly.

"You see, that's it, I've got an ultimate move just for that! It's called Minefield. I spread the void over the ground, and I can grow vines out of it to restrain anyone." The same shine that I saw in the eyes of the crow was seen in hers that moment.

"I know how to do it." came out her words, liced with the same determination.

- POV change -

"Please everyone go to the center of the mall, today there is a grand attraction viewable for free for everyone!" was the message sent through the speakers in the mall. Normally, nobody would have cared about this, dismissing it as another stupid promotion. The next sentence however, changed everything.

"Don't miss out on it, you may even win a couple of the prizes, one of which is an extremely rare 2 meter long dedicated All Might body pillow!" At the same time almost a thousand heads whipped up after the last claim, and people began running faster then if the building was on fire. The fake villains went as well, since if they remained alone they would have stuck out like a sore thumb, and those tuitions weren't going to pay themselves.

Five minutes after the initial announcement, everyone in the mall was gathered in the center, some people even decided to stand in the fountain.

"Great! Now that everyone's here, we can start. First, everyone who wears only a shirt move to the southern side! The lighter the shade of your shirt, the closer to the fountain, the darker it is the souther you go!" The people moved with enthusiasm, even those who weren't fans of All Might wouldn't waste such an opportunity, since the price of that body pillow was probably in the millions.

After the people moved into positions, the announcer started speaking again:

"Splendid! Now, everyone with hoodies and coats move north, the lighter the shade of your clothing the closer to the fountain, the darker the shade the more north you go!" This, coincidentally, also made sure that almost all of the fake villains were in the same space, though they dismissed their worries.

"Everyone else, please move next to the fountain on both sides, and don't forget to stand farther the darker the shade of your clothes are!" After everyone was done, the voice started again.

"Absolutely phenomenal! Now that the first phase is done, we can start the second! Everyone, look into the sky, and concentrate, since if you blink you may miss it!" Everyone's heads turned upwards, despite the sun shining down on them, they didn't budge. Anything for the All Might body pillow.

Unnoticed by almost everyone, was how, from under the ground, a black liquid came out. It only appeared under the most northern side, which hosted the fake villains. Using their distracted state, it expanded, covering the entire area they inhibited. And in one fast move, the vines that grew out of it captured them.

This wasn't an especially covert action, so people began to panic, fearing that a villain came and attacked them.

"Everyone, keep calm! The restrained individuals were undercover villains!" Thankfully, the announcer had a way with words that managed to quickly calm down the panicking masses.

At that point, another pro hero arrived, who while unknown was recognizable by his appearance as one.

"Now that all the villains have been captured, please give us a minute to safely escort them, thank you for your compliance!" As the people left, from the inky void grew a figure, who after rebuilding his body turned out to be Doppo Kamiyama. A couple of crows also arrived, and they transformed into Kimiko.

The pro hero, whom they known was Corrosive, approached them.

"Well, you solved it alright, but please tell me you didn't cause any irreversible damage." Both of them looked at Doppo.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're the one who's favorite non-lethal tactic is cutting into his opponent's muscles to stop them from moving."

"Well, I was careful now, and they only need a couple of days in the hospital."

"I suppose I shouldn't expect more of you in that area. Anyways, your objective was achieved, Fumiko already retrieved that poor soul who you dumped in the garbage.

Tell me your plan though, I'm interested in the finer details." Kimiko started.

"First, we realized that we didn't have enough time to capture them one by one, so we had to herd them into the same space, where Doppo could immobilize them with his 'Minefield'. Extremely creative name by the way." Doppo took over.

"Anyways, we decided that we couldn't make them suspicious, so we couldn't isolate just them, and because of this we decided to herd the entire mall into a single space. Here came the idea about the All Might body pillow, which was mine by the way." Kimiko took over again.

"So after we got them in the center, we started the 'game' which involved separating people based on their clothing, in order to get all the fake villains in the same space, so Doppo was able to encompass them, while I kept their attention away from him as the announcer."

"That was a great plan, I hope the ones in the future are going to be of similar quality, since from now on you're a duo." Que groaning, but not as much as me nor Kimiko expected. We both decided that the other was miles better than any other possible teammate.

"Now go home, and do what you kids do."

"Could you teleport me? The train isn't the fastest, plus it's cramped around this time."

"I suppose you earned it. Fumiko!"

"Yes, yes, I'm here." she said, as she came out from behind the truck that they loaded the 'villains' into.

"You both did well." this was the first time I received praise from her, though I think most of it was intended for Kimiko instead of me. She touched me at my shoulder, same with Kimiko, and teleported them close to UA, where she let Doppo go.

"See you tomorrow!" was what he said before they left.

- POV change -

Next day, I woke up at an early time, so this day I could actually advance my skills. I mean teamwork's fine and dandy, but it doesn't make me better individually. So there was I, at 6 in the morning, taking the train to the city in which was Corrosive's base.

On the way there, I met none other than the other memeber of our duo. We should really get a good name for ourselves.

"Hey Kimiko."

"Hello." That was her greeting, it was like talking to Shoto I swear. She looked sleepy, maybe she didn't sleep enough?

"So, now that we're a duo, we should have a name right?"

"You actually want to be a duo?"

"Nope, but Corrosive is nothing if not more stubborn that both of us combined, so we should just roll with it."

"Well then, I give you permission to name us whatever, just nothing inapropiate. I'm too tired for this." after a couple of seconds what appeared to be extremely intense thinking, she then said:

"You know what, carry me peasant." before turning into a crow and landing on my shoulder.

A name, a name. It should reference our quirks, so 'crow' needs to be in it. Every time I thought of crows, I remembered Fumikage, he had a bird-like head which was black, and that's how I described crows in my head kind of, birds with black feathers. So I was reminded of him a couple of times, and during the preparation for the license exam, he worked on this move called 'Abyssal Black Body', and the name abyssal sounds very similar to void, so the name I thought of was 'Abyssal Crows'. I hoped it was good, naming things was never my strong suit, as Kimiko pointed it out when she talked about my 'extreme creativity' with the naming of my ultimate moves.

Before we arrived, she transformed back into her human form, and we entered the hideout together.

"It's great to see such enthusiasm in you my young pupils!" was Corrosive's energetic greeting. It's like he's never sleep deprived, I can't fathom how that happens.

"Today I have planned some real hero activities! I've got some intel about a new villain group who masquerade as Yakuza. However, rumors suggest that they plan to distribute a bullet that could suppress, or even erase quirks. Now, I usually don't believe any rumors I hear, but this one came from a credible source, so today we're patrolling in the city where their headquarters is, so get in your hero clothes."

I changed into mine, they were still the same. A small jacket that stopped at my elbows in dark blue color, with a shirt that was lighter blue. My pants had two pockets on the side, and they were also dark blue in appearance, however they were by far with the darkest shade of them.

Kimiko's costume's overall style was similar to mine, not standing out as hero clothes unless you especially looked for it. She had a hoody with short sleeves, colored in black littered with dark pink squares. It had minimal armor, unlike mine which had none, because she was more focused on evasion, recon and support, not direct confrontation. She also had a skirt, similar to the one used in schools, along with black thights both in the same black colors, allowing for maximum freedom of movement. Unlike a lot of other female heroes, she didn't use a full body skin-tight suit. Now that I think about it, nobody here at ACID used a 'proper' superhero costume.

Fumiko teleported all three of us into an alley in the city, and told us that Corrosive could call her at any time and if he tells us he can't then he's lying.

Just as we prepared to exit the alley, a girl ran into us. She was small, definitely no more than 6 years old, but probably even less, probably around 5.

Instead of just letting her run however, Corrosive immediately grabbed her, however he did in the most tender way I ever saw him do anything. Like the child was the most fragile vase in the world, and he's careful not to do anything that might hurt her even a little bit. She was in what looked to be a hospital grown, but both of her arms were covered in bandages.

"Little girl, are you alright?" he asked quietly, trying not to scare her. Me, along with Kimiko just stood next to him, not sure what to do. Even Fumiko stopped before teleporting, and remained with us.

One thing I noticed, was that she was trembling. I wasn't sure what that meant, but my best guess would be a fear of touch. Corrosive's eyes darkened however, and she still didn't answer.

"Now, you know you can't run around causing trouble for heroes." said a man coming from the alley, wearing a plague doctor like beak-mask. I immediately had a bad feeling about it, but not just me, since both Kimiko and Fumiko stiffened.

"Are you her... caretaker ?" came from Corrosive, though the last word was said with such disdain, such hatred, that for a moment I thought he was exchanged with another person entirely. Instead of waiting for an answer, he began talking again.

"Fumiko, take the girl back to the hideout. I've got a villain to kill." The aforementioned villain already began moving forward, trying to grab the girl, however we were faster, I created a shield of void, which was big enough to close off the way to us entirely. Fumiko quickly took the girl and teleported away, which was thankful since I could already feel the burning feeling on my skin starting to increase. I let the shield dissolve, and instead grabbed Kimiko and ran out of the alley, and didn't stop 'till I reached the other side of the street.

"Hey, who said you can just take me like I'm a doll or something?" she was offended, but then I pointed to the alley, which was already beginning to dissolve. Anger pushed Corrosive's quirk to the limit, the walls were dissolving, even the floor, even his own skin! Though the last one was only happening slowly, it still showed how strong the mist actually was.

I couldn't see it from there especially well, but the villain appeared to flee. Corrosive chased him, but he managed to evade capture. I didn't get many details out of him, since when he rejoined us he was in an extremely foul mood. I never saw him that angry until now. He quickly called Fumiko, who after seeing his state decided to not make one of her usual comments.

When we got back, she told us in which room the girl was, and it was like a flip was switched in Corrosive. He sighed out, put on a smile, and went in there, along with Fumiko. Me and Kimiko just waited in the center area, on the sofa.

After a while, Corrosive came out, and sat down in his armchair.

"Well kids, we achieved a lot today. The girl we rescued is Eri, she was used for experiments by the Yakuza group, the Shie Hassaikai. Her blood is the secret component of the quirk erasure drug, that's why she was so important to them. The man you saw was none other than the leader of the group, Chisaki. From what I managed to gather about his quirk, it's extremely, working on almost anything. Do you kids know the basics of alchemy? Deconstructing then reconstructing? That's basically what his quirk is. He used it to experiment on Eri.

Now that they lost their ace, they'll probably target us to try and get her back. We're going to set a trap for them, and brutally slaughter all of those animals.

Eri will live here from now on, Fumiko already went out to buy some decoration, furniture and toys for her in her room. She is extremely valuable to any villains, and if she lived anywhere else she would be in constant danger of kidnapping, so I think she'll be safe here.

Also, there's going to be training every day right after your school ends, in order to make sure you're ready. I don't want to call more pros here, and have them ruin it by keeping the villains alive."

After he left, Kimiko looked at me, and described the situation perfectly:

"He really does get angry about child abuse."

"You couldn't be more right."

AN: Lately, I've been reading some actual books, not just fanfiction. During these reading sessions, I began noticing small details that I would have liked to have in my own works, and the book that had by far the most was: "Anything to declare?" by Jon Frost. It is a first person retelling of his job starting as a Customs Officer, after which he went into the heroin catching secret service. It's very entertaining, and it uses a similar format to my own work, and it's what I would like my fic to be like.

In this chapter I really struggled to write the interaction between Doppo and Kimiko, since both of them are supposed to smart individuals, who immediately take a leading role in any team effort, not actually working together with others but standing above them. It wasn't easy to write how these two characters would interact, but I hope I managed to write it okay.

With this chapter, I managed to break through the 60k barrier, and it feels awesome!