Author's Note: So this leads into the next part of Arc 2, but definitely not the climax. Looking forward to seeing how things will go from here. The next two chapters after this were kind of a slog to write, and I'm honestly fallen super behind in staying ahead in terms of my backlog. I'm about 1k words into chapter 16, and I'm trying to work it out, but there's the whole motivation thing that I'm struggling with on a daily basis. That being said, I am working towards having more motivation both for this and for college. If you pray for anything at all, prayers would definitely be appreciated.
Also, if you want to get into a place with other lovers of MHA, and specifically IzuJirou stuff, come on and join this Discord server that I'm on:
/eFtmT8cTbY
We're only kind of crazy, and not at all a cult... except, we also kind of are. Anyway, yeah, join that!
I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's cross-posted on Ao3 as well. Leave a review if you want to. I welcome the feedback! See you next week.
"Overwatch, we have contact!" Kyouka yelled into her earpiece, ducking behind a trash can in the alley that she and Fumikage were in just in time for a stray bullet to careen by her. Screams of civilians could be heard
"Heard. Where are you, Heartquake? I'll see if I can find a street camera to watch from."
"We're about a block East of the First Bank of Nagano. About five blocks North of where you dropped us off. We caught these guys as they were running out of the bank with a bunch of money."
"The enemy has possession of firearms of some sort. The bullets don't seem to be normal, though. We were giving chase whenever they began to shoot at us."
"Good thing they have shit aim. It's like they're from that really old Star Wars series or something." Kyouka said.
"Don't insult Star Wars! Those are classics!" Mei said. "But I have a visual on you two now. You look to have at least three people at the end of the alley. Possibly two more. Do you need me to head that way?"
"I don't think so, Overwatch. We should be good, especially if you keep watching out for things for us." Kyouka said. "We just need to find a good moment."
Several more shots were fired down the alleyway before the goons all yelled "Reloading!"
"This is our chance! NightHawk!" Kyouka yelled. She sprinted down the alleyway at the people that they were currently reloading and stupid enough to all announce it at once. She snaked one of her jacks through her jacket sleeve and connected it to the speaker that was mounted on her wrist. Fumikage followed close behind her.
The first grunt that she approached fumbled with his gun as he tried to reload. He ended up dropping the gun and scrambling to pick it up again. A perfect chance for Kyouka. She sent out a jab with her left hand, sending her heartbeat through the speakers her jacks were connected to to improve the power of her punch. The grunt was sent flying backwards as he yelled in pain.
Kyouka looked at the other grunts. She plugged her other jack into the speaker on her other hand. "Any of you want some of this?" She took up a defensive stance with her hands in front of her face.
The goons said nothing, but aimed their newly reloaded guns at Kyouka. Before they could shoot, however, a dark claw slashed across each gun, sundering all of the weapons but one. Dark Shadow immediately tackled one of the assailants, and Fumikage jumped at another, sending his knee straight into the man's jaw. He dashed forward as his victim fell to the ground. He tackled and cuffed the man before they could do anything.
The man with the still working gun aimed it straight at Kyouka's head. Kyouka covered her face with her arms reflexively and jumped back as he fired. Her quirk activated through her speakers. Bracing for some sort of impact, she closed her eyes, but one never came. She opened her eyes to see the bullet and several bricks from the buildings next to her lying on the ground. The walls next to her were severely damaged.
"Heartquake, what was that?" Mei asked over the comms.
"What was what?" Kyouka asked. But before she could get an answer, the man fired another shot. The bullet travelled towards her, but then stopped and fell to the ground as if it was hit by a wall. Kyouka stepped back in surprise. She realized that her quirk had been active and turned it off. "Does this have something to do with my quirk?" She thought to herself. She brushed the thoughts off and quickly dodged out of the way of yet another shot. "Alright, if you could just chill out, that would be great!" Kyouka yelled at the person shooting at her. "I just wanna cuff you and get out of here, alright? Let me do my job!"
"You damn heroes! Always the same! Now be a good little hero and get out of our way! You're messing with the wrong people. Once the boss gets word of this, you're dead!" The man yelled before aiming at Kyouka again. Kyouka ducked down as the man pulled the trigger once more. Her preemptive duck helped her evade the shot as she rushed towards the man.
"First off," Kyouka started as she jammed a palm heel into the man's chin. The man staggered backwards as she continued. "I'm not like anyone else you've ever met. Second," she trailed off, placing her boot on the man's stomach. One of her jacks disconnected from her wrist and snaked down to her boot speaker. She took her foot off of the man and placed it directly next to his head. "What you said was wrong. We're not heroes." And then she activated her quirk, pulsing it through her speaker. She knocked him out from the sheer force of the sound waves and probably deafened him as well if the slight blood trickling out of his ears was anything to go by. She cuffed him and then turned to look around.
"Heartquake, any idea where the fifth one went?" Fumikage asked.
"No, I was kinda busy trying to not get shot. Dark Shadow?" She asked as she walked over to the few bullets that were on the ground due to her sound wall. She picked them up and put them in her jacket pocket. As she picked them up, she noticed that they didn't look like normal bullets, but more akin to thumb tacks, but on a larger scale.
"I think I saw him booking it out of here. He went that way." Dark Shadow pointed down the street.
"Overwatch, can you confirm?" Fumikage asked over comms.
"Dark Shadow is right. They ran off whenever Heartquake took out the first guy." Mei confirmed. "I tried to say something, but I guess you two were too enraptured in fighting to hear anything from my end. Let me check more cameras." Fumikage and Kyouka began to run off in the direction before Mei came back through their comms. "They're not that fast, but they got a bit of a head start. I'd try to hurry."
"We're on it!" Kyouka responded before starting to run faster. "Man, I should really do some more cardio." Kyouka thought to herself as she immediately felt herself getting winded. She pushed through the pain, and before long, they were able to catch up to the man… just as he ducked into a crowd of people, disappearing into the sea of bystanders almost immediately. "Damnit!" Kyouka yelled. "Overwatch, he ran into the crowd. We lost him."
"It's alright, Heartquake. He didn't have any money, just some unloaded gun. You have more important people to worry about. Get back to the people you cuffed." Mei said.
"On it." Kyouka nodded before turning and heading back. Fumikage followed her closely. As they returned to the initial scene, the police were surrounding the bank and had taken the four men there into custody. "Damnit, we were too late. Police are here. We need to disappear."
She and Fumikage ducked into a nearby alley and waited as a police squad car hurried by to get to the scene. "That was close." Fumikage said.
"Yeah, it was. I wanted to get some information about some things from them." Kyouka said. She began to move out of the alleyway and towards the van that Mei was in, taking backstreets and alleyways as much as she could on the way there. Fumikage was right behind her the entire time.
"What kind of information did you want to ask about?" Fumikage asked.
"Just wanted to see if we could get any information that any of them would know about Stain." Kyouka whispered as they snuck by a crowd of people.
"That would make sense. Those in the dark tend to share with others in the dark as well. It's something that Dark Shadow and I call 'Revelry in the Dark.'"
"I like that. You should say that more." Kyouka said. They crawled through one last alley before they finally returned to Mei and the van. As they approached, the back doors to the van swung open suddenly.
"Well finally!" Mei said. "Come on, hurry up and get in already. We have to get out of here before they start closing more roads down."
"Why would they start closing roads down for a bank robbery?" Kyouka asked.
"Well, if you remember, one person got away. And then there's this group of dangerous vigilantes going around working outside of the Hero Commission. They can't have that, so they're closing things off to try and capture you." Mei climbed into the driver's seat and began to pull out of the alley.
"Right, someone got away…" Kyouka said.
"Hey, don't stress too much about it. I doubt they'll do much alone. And you stopped the bank robbery, so there's that." Mei said.
"They mentioned 'the boss' earlier. If they're a part of something that has a boss, they'll have more people to act with." Kyouka said.
"I hope that we have not angered some great evil." Fumikage said.
"Knowing us, that's exactly what's happened." Mei said from the front seat. "But it's okay. We'll be fine. We knew the risks; we'd be targeted sooner or later by either the heroes or villains. I have several ideas for things we can do." She turned around briefly and smiled at Kyouka and Fumikage. "Don't worry about it! Everything will work out." Mei turned back to the road and kept driving.
Kyouka took her phone out and began typing a message in their group chat.
Heartquake: "We're on our way back now. See you two in a few hours."
Almost immediately, another message was sent into the group chat.
Snake Eyes: "That's great! How did it go?"
Heartquake: "I'll tell you the details when we get back. Long story short, we stopped some criminals, but probably angered some kind of organization who might want to kill us or something."
Mastermind: "..."
Mastermind: "What the hell?"
Heartquake: "Like I said, I'll explain more once we get back."
NightHawk: "She also stopped several bullets with a new technique."
Snake Eyes: "You were shot at? I feel like that would be something that should be mentioned in the beginning."
Heartquake: ":)"
Kyouka laughed and set her phone down.
"That was mean, Kyouka. You probably shouldn't worry him too much." Fumikage chided.
"But it was funny." Kyouka shrugged as she finally took off her mask. "If it's funny, it's fine."
"Sure, hon." Mei said from the front seat. "Worry our leader and your boyfriend so you never go out on patrol again without him." She laughed. "Or is that your goal?"
"M-Maybe. I'll n-never tell." Kyouka stammered out.
"I love that any of us can tease you about Izuku, and you turn from sarcastic asshole to nervous schoolgirl." Mei laughed.
"H-Hey! I can still be an asshole!" Kyouka defended.
"Mhm, sure. That's true." Mei rolled her eyes.
"Shut up, Mei!" Kyouka said as she huffed and crossed her arms. The teasing lightened up for the rest of the ride back, mostly because Mei had to focus on driving through different cities on the way back from Nagano.
As their van pulled into the alleyway, Izuku was already outside waiting for them.
"Okay, what the hell happened?" Izuku asked as he approached the van doors.
"Maybe we could wait until we're inside before we talk about this?" Kyouka asked as she stepped down out of the van. Izuku immediately rushed to her and embraced her tightly.
"I'm sorry. I just got worried." Izuku admitted.
"Hey, I get it. Come one, let's go. We don't wanna cause too much of a scene."
The group made their way back into the warehouse with Izuku clinging tightly to Kyouka. As soon as they got in, Izuku rushed to the couch and pulled Kyouka with him. "Alright, Kyo. You're gonna tell me what happened now."
"Well, we saw this group of people run into a bank in Nagano. We decided to wait outside on some rooftops. Once they came out with a bunch of bags of money, Fumikage and I jumped into action and stopped them. We followed them through an alley. That's when they pulled out some guns and started shooting at us." Kyouka explained.
"Kyouka was very adept at dodging out of the way of the gunshots. When they announced that they were reloading, we took action. Kyouka rushed in first and powered her punch with her wrist speakers. It was a fantastic use of her quirk." Fumikage continued.
"You remembered that?" Izuku asked. "It's been years since I suggested that to you."
"Well, it was you, so… I listened and remembered." Kyouka said with a light blush covering her cheeks. "Anyway," she continued. "After I decked a guy, another guy shot at me a few times. I dodged out of the way, but then I was back in the alley, but there wasn't anything to dodge behind. So I-"
"So she used her wrist speakers to bounce sound off of the walls and stopped the bullets with a sound wall!" Mei finished excitedly. "She caused some structural damage to the walls, but she didn't die, so I'd say it's worth it. Plus, we don't have to worry about paying for any damages anyway. To think that my speaker babies are capable of outputting just that much sound!" Mei mused excitedly.
"While I was dealing with that guy, Fumikage and Dark Shadow took down two of the others. I dodged another bullet and rushed the guy that was shooting at me. I took him down and knocked him out with my boot speaker right next to his ear. Probably made him deaf in that ear, too."
"What the hell, Kyo?" Izuku asked.
"Well I mean, he insulted me first, so…" Kyouka trailed off.
"Is that so? Well, then I guess it's warranted." Izuku conceded.
"Really Izuku? Just like that?" Hitoshi asked.
"Just like what? If I were there and I heard him insulting Kyo, I would have hurt him worse than that." Izuku shrugged.
"Okay, noted. Don't insult Kyouka. She has a scary guard dog." Mei said to herself.
"I am not a dog!" Izuku yelled back.
"It's okay, Izu. You're still a good boy!" Kyouka patted his head and smirked.
"Don't patronize me…" Izuku grumbled. "Anyway, keep going."
"Oh, right! The patrol. Fumikage, you wanna tell the rest of it?" Kyouka asked.
"If you wish. After Kyouka and I handcuffed our respective adversaries, we realized that one of them had run off."
"Like a coward!" Dark Shadow said, emerging from Fumikage.
"Yes, like a coward. Kyouka and I pursued the man, but before we could catch him, he ducked into the crowd, and we lost sight of him." Fumikage finished.
"Oh, also, the guy that I deafened said something about 'the boss', so if they're a part of some underground criminal organization, the guy that got away probably told them about what happened." Kyouka added.
"Anything else that should be said?" Izuku asked.
"I picked up some of the bullets." Kyouka offered. "They look weird, honestly." She pulled the bullets out of her jacket pocket and handed them to Izuku.
"These look familiar…" He mused to himself. "Mei, do you remember anything about these?" He handed them to her before hugging Kyouka again.
"These look just like the bullets you got from your first mission. With the two different groups. One of them must have gotten access to these bullets. They said that these bullets erase quirks, right? Do you think that one of the groups was from the same organization?" Mei asked.
"It's a possibility for sure." Izuku pondered. "We'd have to look into it more. Kyo, Fumikage, did you guys leave an Egg once you were done?"
"No, the cops showed up around the bank while we were going after the guy that ran away. We couldn't leave an Egg there with them and risk getting caught." Kyouka explained.
"Well, I'm glad that you two didn't get caught. I'll take that trade. Now, onto the next big thing." Izuku said. That got everyone's attention. "My mom is going to be coming by tomorrow with food for us so that we can have a watch party for the Sports Festival. And after that, we go after Stain. Get ready for that. But for now, we can relax for a few days. After we watch, we're gonna be leaving the next day. You're dismissed for the rest of the night. Except for you, Mei. I have something I want to ask of you first."
"Yes, sir!" Everyone said as they dispersed.
"What's up, Izuku?" Mei asked as she approached.
"I want you to look into something for me. See if you can find us a contact in the underground. We may be fighting criminals, but using public records, patrols, and stolen UA files is only going to get us so far. We need someone who knows the underground." Izuku explained.
"That makes sense. I'll get to work on looking into that. Anything else you need?"
Izuku thought for a second. "Actually, yes. I want you to make something big and flashy for when we take down Stain. They're not going to want to say that we took him down. They're going to want to give the credit to a hero. We can't let that happen. So flashy and public."
Mei smiled an evil smile. "I have just the idea. We'll work on it together as a group once we get back. Is that all?" She asked.
"That's it for now. Enjoy your night, Mei. If you wanna watch some shows with Kyo and I, you're more than welcome to join us."
Mei scoffed. "Like I wanna third wheel with you two. Thanks, but no thanks. If someone else comes out and joins, then I might, but I'll just start getting after those assignments. I'll talk to you guys later, okay?"
Izuku smiled. "Okay, Mei. You do that." Kyouka and Izuku watched Mei walk away from the couch. "So Kyo, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Izu. Don't worry about me." Kyouka assured him. "What did you do today?"
"I just used my quirk on things to lower probabilities. If our theory is correct, then hopefully, I'll get to equilibrium again in time for Stain and be able to use my quirk to its fullest potential."
"Oh, I'm sure you will." Kyoua agreed.
The night passed fairly uneventfully after that. Kyouka and Izuku both stayed on the couch until it was time for them to go to sleep. Mei began her work on getting her plan set up for after Stain. Hitoshi helped her as much as she needed him to, and hung around her during her work, waiting to be needed. Fumikage retreated to his room for some time in close to darkness with Dark Shadow. After today's mission in the direct sunlight, he needed some time in the dark.
As the day grew to night and Kyouka kept drifting off on Izuku's shoulder, Izuku picked her up and took her to her room. "I-Izu, what are you doing?" She asked as he lifted her from the couch.
"You kept falling asleep on me. It's okay. Today was a big day, and I'm sure you're tired."
Kyouka just nodded and snuggled her head into Izuku's neck. He began to take her to her room, but she shook her head as they got closer. "I don't wanna sleep in there tonight. Can I sleep with you again?"
Izuku laughed. "You're gonna make all the work that Fumikage did for nothing."
"Well that's on him. We weren't together then. And we are now." Kyouka said, pouting.
"I heard that." Fumikage said from his room, causing Izuku and Kyouka to laugh.
"Okay, Kyo. You can sleep with me again." Izuku smiled. Kyouka beamed back at him, and Izuku could swear that his heart skipped a beat. Or two. Or three. Was he dead? He didn't know. All he cared about was Kyouka's happiness right now.
"Thank you…" She whispered as she smiled. Izuku took her into his room and tucked her into bed. He laid down next to her, and she instantly snuggled up next to him.
"Hey Kyo?" Izuku asked as he looked at her. She turned to look him in the eyes, humming in acknowledgement. "You wanna go on an actual date once we take down Stain?"
"We've been on some kinda dates." Kyouka said with a smile on her face.
"I know, but a REAL date."
"I'd love to, Izu."
"Awesome. Goodnight, Kyo." Izuku said as he closed his eyes and relaxed into her embrace.
"Goodnight, Izu."
Izuku woke up the next morning to the smell of some heavenly aroma. Unlike these past few days, however, it wasn't the scent of lavender that he had come to associate with heaven. Instead, it was a waft of savory scents that he hadn't smelled in almost a month. Not since he had left home. Which could only mean one thing… His mom, Inko, was here.
Inko? Here? He needed to get up now. He bolted out of his bed and rushed to put on clothes, forgetting the purple haired girl still in his bed from the previous night. As he changed, said girl began to stir. Thankfully, he was only missing his shirt whenever she opened her eyes.
Kyouka slowly woke up to see Izuku… shirtless. She immediately blushed as her eyes trailed his shirtless form. She knew that he had muscles, she had certainly felt them when they cuddled, but the muscles that she saw were much more than she had anticipated. She could mess with him.
"Wow, Izu." Kyouka said. "Getting dressed and leaving like this early in the morning. What will everyone else think?"
"K-Kyo! Uh, good morning." He reeled back in surprise and hurriedly put a shirt on. "S-Sorry, I woke up to the smell, which means my mom is here. I should probably help her with whatever she's cooking."
Kyouka said nothing for a few seconds. She hadn't even thought of the smell. She was rather… preoccupied with another stimulus. But now that she thought about it, she had to admit that it did smell absolutely fantastic.
She quickly got out of the bed and rushed to her room to change like Izuku had. In front of her. Kyouka blushed again. "I… I'm not sure what to think about that. I mean, he's eye candy for sure. I guess I'm just nervous because Inko is here again…" Kyouka thought to herself as she dressed for comfort today. There were no patrols. Just a watch party of the Sports Festival. Of course, this wasn't all fun and games. Undoubtedly, it would come with some of Izuku's patented muttering and theorycrafting about quirks. And Mei's muttering and theorycrafting about making her babies for people. She eventually left her room and made her way out into the warehouse, bathing herself in the scent of various breakfast meats, eggs, and rice.
"Man, Inko is a good cook. I hope I can make Izuku that happy cooking for him eventually…" Kyouka thought to herself before realizing just what she had said. She blushed, but kept walking. "Good morning, Miss Inko." Kyouka said.
"Oh, good morning, Kyouka. Did you sleep well?" Inko asked as she cooked.
"I did, thank you. Are you here for the watch party?"
"Oh, of course I am. I wouldn't miss it. It's been a tradition at our house to watch the Sports Festival together every year. This year could have been different, but since you five are changing the world in a different way, I can still be here with my boy!" Inko said excitedly.
"And I'm happy that you're here, mom." Izuku said. "Now please, let me help you!"
"No no, none of that. I'm going to make food for us, and you're going to enjoy the Sports Festival."
"But mom!" Izuku defended.
"No buts! I'm your mother, and I'm going to do this for you. Now go sit down with your girlfriend and friends, okay?" Inko may have said it like it was a question, but her tone made it clear that she wasn't asking.
"Fine, but I'm going to do something for you later, and you aren't going to be able to refuse!" Izuku said as he grabbed Kyouka's hand and pulled her towards the couch.
"Sure, honey. Whatever you say." Inko laughed as she continued to work to cook. Kyouka, Izuku and Fumikage sat on the couch, while Mei and Hitoshi pulled chairs from the table to sit next to the couch.
Once Inko finished the food, she joined the kids by pulling up a chair and handing each of them a bowl with food.
"Who's ready to watch?" Izuku asked as he pointed the remote at the TV.
"Hell yeah!" Kyouka pumped her fist. Inko cleared her throat. "I-I mean, heck yeah!" She pumped her fist again, less enthusiastically than the first time.
"Better." Inko nodded.
"Then let's get to it!" Izuku turned the TV on and changed the channel to UA's broadcast.
"Hello and welcome to this year's broadcast of UA's Sports Festival!" Present Mic yelled through the intercom system in the stadium. "We're looking to have a great event this year. We have some fantastic students in the running, don't we, Eraser?"
A much more tired man stepped into view on the screen. "Whatever."
"Ah, the pro hero Eraserhead! His quirk is cool. It cancels out quirks." Izuku said
"Like the bullets allegedly do?" Mei asked.
"We'll have to see when we finally use them."
"Alright! We're getting into the action soon. But first, the opening speech from the hero student that scored the highest on the entrance exam: Katsuki Bakugou!"
Izuku scoffed audibly, and Fumikage's face fell slightly. Inko took notice, but didn't say anything. She wasn't exactly privy to her son's opinions of his former friend, but the fact that 'former' now came before 'friend' meant there was probably something.
The blonde haired former tormentor of both Izuku and Fumikage stepped onto the stage, his hands in his pockets. He didn't say much in terms of words, but the meaning of his words shook the stadium to its core.
"I'll win." He said into the mic before stepping off of the stage and walking back to where he originally stood.
"Ha!" Kyouka laughed. "Of course he'd say something like that. Little bastard."
After the booing from the crowd stopped, Present Mic was able to speak. "Well, what a speech from a one Katsuki Bakugou. With that, let's begin the festival!"
Everyone in the room leaned forward in anticipation, expecting a great show. But for them, this wasn't just about the show. This was about watching them to get an edge on them. To scope out potential enemies. And as such, while it was entertaining, this was one of the most important things they'd watch in a long time. Izuku produced a notepad and pencil and got ready to write as though his life depended on it.
