Author's Note: How's it going, everyone? I'm excited for this chapter to go up. I've had it done for about a week and a half now, and I could not wait to post it! In this chapter, we see consequences and that's just great; however, not without the ability to repair what's been damaged. All it takes is a simple display of respect and a deal.
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.
"We have received confirmation for the meeting with Eraserhead." Mei said.
"We know. We're in the group chat as well, Mei." Kyouka said.
"Well not everybody checks things all the time!"
"I think things should be checked when it's something this important." Hitoshi patted her back as he stepped past her.
"Hmph!" Mei crossed her arms over her chest. "See if I ever tell you guys anything again."
"That's enough, everyone. We can patronize Mei later. Let's suit up." Izuku said as he grabbed his costume from the rack stand as it opened. The others followed suit, taking theirs out as well.
"You really do act like siblings." Inko said, walking into the warehouse. "It makes me wonder what would have happened if Hisashi and I had more children…"
"Mom?" Izuku looked at her over his shoulder.
"Oh, don't mind me. I'm just thinking about what might have happened if things had been different." Inko waved off the concern. "You all are going out to meet with Eraserhead, right?"
"That's right. He's asked us to meet him in the first warehouse that we apparently took one of his bags in. That first arms deal." Mei said.
"We haven't done much with those bullets, have we?" Kyouka asked.
"Mei, did you ever finish analyzing those bullets to make sure that what that guy said was true?" Izuku asked.
"Among all of the other shit that you ask of me? Yes. What the guy said was true. They temporarily suppress someone's quirk factors." Mei explained.
"Good. Then we have a decent failsafe for if things go wrong. Mei, you're a good shot. Take one. Hitoshi, you work in the shadows, you can take one too." Izuku instructed.
"Sounds about right." Mei said.
"I'll try my best if things get hairy. No guarantee of my shooting skills." Hitoshi responded.
"Hey hey, I'm in the shadows too!" Himiko said. "Can I have one too?"
"Fine, you can have one too, Himiko." Izuku handed one of the guns to her. "You each have four shots tonight. Yes, we have lots, but let's try to conserve the ammo that we have. I mean, unless you manage to find out how to recreate them, Mei."
"Unfortunately not. From what I've seen, these bullets are constructed from the cells of a person, so I'm not sure if I can recreate them." Mei said.
"That's… That's sickening…" Kyouka said with a hand over her mouth.
"Quite. The perpetrator is a truly dark man." Fumikage said as he fitted his mask over his head.
"We'll take them out eventually. I'm sure of it." Hitoshi said.
"I hope so. That's going to be a goal of ours." Izuku said. "If we can't save them, then we won't be doing our job."
"I can put together a phenotype from the DNA a bit later." Mei offered. "Could help us find the girl. But that's only once we get back. I'll put the next few babies on hold while I work on that. Since I'm like, the only one here who knows how to do all of the science stuff."
"If you'd teach one of us, you wouldn't be the only one!" Kyouka said.
"Like I'd trust any of you guys with my babies!" Mei yelled.
"You trust us with our combat equipment, though!" Hitoshi replied.
"Fuck you, we're moving out! Fumikage, you're driving!" Mei threw her hands up in the air and walked out of the warehouse. She didn't put her mask on until she had climbed into the van itself.
Sighing, the rest of the group climbed into the van after her with Fumikage in the driver's seat for the first time.
"Be safe!" Inko yelled to the group as they piled into the van.
"We will, mom! Don't worry!" Izuku yelled back.
"Yeah, Mama Inko! We'll be fine." Kyouka shouted.
"M-Mama Inko?" She asked in surprise. A bright red coated her face, and tears welled in her eyes.
"We'll see you later, Mama Inko!" Mei waved out the back of the van before slamming the door shut. Fumikage began to drive away shortly after.
"Mama Inko!" Inko repeated again, now crying.
"She's gonna kill you once she realizes that you're the one that told all of us to start calling her that." Kyouka said once they had driven out of sight of the crying green haired woman.
"Nah, she's always wanted more kids. That's what she's told me a few times, anyway." Izuku responded. "It's probably why she's been so adamant about helping us. She's starting to see you guys as her own children."
"Even me?" Himiko asked quietly.
"Yes, Himiko. Even you. Like I said before, we're family here." Izuku said with a smile.
"We still have a while until we reach our destination. It is time to get comfortable." Fumikage said. Fumikage turned the radio on – something Mei never did when she drove them – but it was immediately tuned to a station that just had dark and brooding ambience playing.
Fumikage and maybe Himiko were the only ones that really enjoyed that and got comfortable, but it was a definite change of pace from when Mei drove them anywhere.
After a light banter-filled van ride, they managed to get near the building that their debut was at.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Kyouka said as they drove past the building on the way to an alley to park.
"About a month and a half?" Hitoshi responded.
"We've already made a name for ourselves too. Talk shows have been talking about us." Mei said. "Hell, even the League of Villains has tried to recruit us."
"Not to mention that we have the Hero Public Safety Commission on our backs too." Kyouka said.
"All of that aside, our biggest accomplishment is that we're starting to reach people with our message." Izuku said.
"If you haven't put your masks on yet, now is a good time to do it. We are about to park." Fumikage instructed as he pulled into an alleyway and shut the lights and the car off.
"Heard. Everyone get ready. Overwatch." Izuku addressed Mei.
"Yes sir." Mei stood straight and looked at Izuku.
"We're supposed to be meeting with Eraserhead. I'm not sure how trustworthy he is currently. Take Heartquake and scout out the building. Look for anything that seems off. Information is everything. If we come in with the most information, we're likely to come out on top, even if the enemy is physically stronger than us. It's what helped us against Eraserhead the first time. At least with myself. I was able to understand what our enemy could do." Izuku explained.
"Yes sir. Heartquake, come with me. We're going on a scouting mission!" Mei said, dashing into an alleyway.
"Right!" Heartquake said and followed her.
"What about us?" Hitoshi asked.
"We will wait and see what happens with the scouting party." Izuku said, crouching down.
"R-Right…"
After a few minutes of waiting, they received the first sign of communication in the form of brief amounts of static over their comm link. It soon became more than that, however, as Mei began to speak.
"Your hunch was correct, Snake Eyes. There are more people than just Eraserhead in this building. With my IR goggles, I was able to determine that there are two other people in there. Heartquake tried listening, and she heard the voice of another man and another woman." Mei explained.
"Any details on what they look like?" Izuku asked.
"Not much else. Heat signatures can only give so much. I can't account for hair or costumes with IR."
"Alright. Heartquake, any information on your end?" Izuku asked.
"The other man's voice is incredibly loud. It hurts to listen to sometimes." Kyouka said.
"Hmmmm alright. Given that these two additional helpers are also staff members at UA, the fact that there is a female hero drastically narrows it down to either Midnight or Recovery Girl, and I highly doubt it's the latter. She's way too old to be out in the field with Eraserhead. That must mean that it's Midnight. Moving on from there, the loud voice narrows down the candidacy as well." Izuku muttered. "Heartquake, does his voice sound like the guy from the entrance exam?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the same guy. Including the random bits of English that he has thrown into his speech." Kyouka responded.
"Hmmm okay. That means that we're dealing with Eraserhead, Midnight, and Present Mic." Izuku said. "Come on back, Overwatch. You'll get Mastermind, and take him to Heartquake. Mastermind, you'll need to get Present Mic to speak with your quirk. He likes to talk, and he's loud. Do something to get him to talk like he wants to. He's our top priority first. Most of our masks have filters, so Midnight's quirk isn't much of a problem. Present Mic could render most of us useless and severely hurt Heartquake due to her enhanced hearing. Move."
"Yes sir!" The three being addressed affirmed.
"I'll meet Overwatch mid-way." Hitoshi offered. Izuku nodded, and the purple-haired teammate dipped into the alleyway and moved forward.
"NightHawk, Changeling." Izuku said.
"Yes, sir."
"Yeah."
"We move out soon. It'll be a bit before Mastermind gets Present Mic to speak. It's likely that Eraserhead has told them what he's experienced of our quirks. Including his." Izuku stopped talking to them and once again put his finger on his earpiece. "Mastermind, let me know when you and Overwatch are at the warehouse."
Izuku, Fumikage, and Himiko just had to wait now.
"So when are these guys going to get here?" Kayama asked.
"They'll be here. I know they will." Shouta responded, his gaze making large swaths around the room. They had to be careful. The vigilantes showed that they have some combat skills. Awareness had to be key for dealing with them. The sound of something falling sounded behind Shouta. He quickly turned around and launched his capture scarf at the wall above where the noise came from.
"Oh, a swing and a miss. Strike one!" A very melodic voice called from Shouta's right. He threw his scarf where the voice came from, once again meeting wall. "Strike two! Things are not looking good for Eraserhead. One more strike, and he's out. What will he do?" The same voice came from the other side of the room this time.
"Where are you? Show yourself!" Kayama yelled.
"Now where would be the fun in that?" The voice echoed around the room.
"Not when we have the blonde cockatoo to deal with." The same voice, seconds later, sounded from the other side of the room.
"Mastermind must be here. Don't answer anything that's said!" Shouta said.
"Oh, how insightful! That won't stop us, though. You don't know which of us is which!"
"And it'll be difficult to deal with us if Presentation Michael starts blabbing."
"Ooh, nice one! What do you think, Present-Day Microraptor?"
"Mic, don't respond!" Shouta yelled.
"Pretentious Michaelangelo! Don't pretend you don't hear us! We've got more!"
It was difficult for Shouta to figure out where to throw his scarf. The voices seemed to circle the roof. It was so dark that he couldn't see them too well. Plus, their outfits were mostly black anyway. If he focused, he could get them, though. Hizashi was having some trouble blocking the taunts out. It went against who he was to be quiet.
"Presentable Mickey BLOCKED DUE TO COPYRIGHT!"
"Hey, you can't say that one. Those people have their ears everywhere!"
"Ah shit, you right. Sorry about that one. Plus, he looks more like a bird than a rodent."
"These people are starting to annoy me…" Kayama said. "I don't know where they are, so I can't use my quirk. You two might get caught in the gas."
"If it comes down to us getting them or not, I'd rather pass out than be defeated again." Shouta responded.
"Oh, wait! I got one! Presbyterian Madman! Hi!"
"Madman doesn't fit with Mic, though."
"I'm not even religious! I-" Hizashi fumed. He started to blow his lid when he just stopped moving and talking.
"Mic! No!" Shouta yelled.
"Whoo! We got him!"
Shouta let loose his scarf at the voice that just spoke. Instead of wall, though, he felt the scarf wrap around a body. He pulled hard on it, bringing the person down to him.
Heartquake fell towards him. He couldn't see it, but she was smirking. "Strike three. You're out." She said as a gunshot ripped through the air.
A small red needled capsule flew at Eraserhead, jabbing his bicep.
"Eraser!" Kayama yelled in concern.
"It's okay. It's not an actual bullet." Shouta yelled back. "I have you now, Heartquake." He tried to activate his quirk, but it wouldn't happen. His eyes started hurting, and he brought his hand up to his face, clutching his eye. "What did you do?"
"We told you, three strikes and you're out." Heartquake said. Her ear jacks plugged into her shoulder ports, and a wave of sound blew out the capture scarf from around her body. She slipped out easily.
"My quirk's not working!" Shouta yelled. "Midnight, I have a target for you!"
"Right!" Kayama responded. She ripped a piece of her bodysuit off, and a wave of pink gas overtook Heartquake. After a few seconds, Kayama stopped. She gasped when the fog cloud dissipated.
"Gas masks. Unlucky. Looks like you're out, too." Heartquake said. She pointed a finger gun at Kayama and pretended to fire it. Accompanying it, though, was an actual gunshot, and another capsule pierced Kayama's back.
"We're all good in here, Snake Eyes." The two of them could hear Heartquake saying.
Shortly after, the doors blasted open. Standing on the other side of the door were the three figures of Snake Eyes, NightHawk, and the new member that Shouta still didn't know the name of.
"Now now, Eraserhead. You told us we'd be meeting with only you. You didn't mention any friends. It's a shame, really. I was expecting such great things from our partnership." Snake Eyes said as he stepped through the building.
"Partnership? What is he talking about?" Kayama asked.
"Oh, did you not tell her?" Snake Eyes cocked his head to the side. "Eraserhead is funneling information to us from UA."
"Shouta!" Kayama yelled, the situation removing the professionalism from her.
"Don't listen to him! I haven't told them anything!" Shouta responded.
"Then why don't you explain to Midnight what the guise of this was? How did you lure us here, Eraserhead?" Snake Eyes asked.
"I asked for a meeting." Shouta responded matter of factly.
"And were they aware of this fact?"
"No…"
"Exactly!" Snake Eyes began to step forward. "You're an interesting person, Shouta Aizawa. You've played both sides. You've played your allies, and you've played me. And I don't take that well." Snake Eyes finished by rolling his dice eyes to hit double ones, bathing the room in a harsh red.
"We'll stop you here and now!" Midnight yelled.
"Oh, I bet you will." Snake Eyes' voice oozed sarcasm. "Your quirks are working, aren't they?" A few seconds of silence passed. "Oh dear, what a shame. Plus, I'm not sure your goals align with Eraserhead's goals. Trying to get things done when the goals don't line up? That's a recipe for disaster."
Kayama looked at Shouta, who avoided her gaze, and then back to Snake Eyes. "That doesn't matter! You're just kids. You may have the strength and optimism of youth, but we have more experience in combat!"
"Experience doesn't mean everything. NightHawk." Snake Eyes snapped, and immediately a mass of dark energy swirled around the one known as NightHawk before rushing towards Kayama and Shouta. Shouta dodged out of the way with a roll, but Kayama wasn't so lucky. She was pinned to the ground by Dark Shadow.
"Gah!" Kayama let out.
"If you had kept to your word, Miss Midnight wouldn't be in pain right now." Snake Eyes slowly walked towards Shouta. "Give up, give us some information, and we will ignore this slight against us. And to top it off, we'll give you some information about what you've just been hit with. Deal?" He extended his hand forward.
Shouta had to think. Could he take out one of them? Yes, probably. But he still had three others to deal with that he could see. There were still two, maybe three more people that he didn't know the location of. He was once again outclassed by this group. They were smart. They took precautions. They strategized against their opponents if they knew about them. They had to have good scouts to determine the others that had come with him. He was beaten. Again.
Shouta thought back to the attack on the USJ and recalled how easily he took out most of the villains that had shown up then. This group. These six. Maybe seven. These kids were so different from the average villains.
Taking everything into consideration, Shouta realized he didn't have much of a choice right now. He didn't know the morals of these kids, but they had two of his teammates captured and immobilized.
"Fine. I concede." Shouta said.
"Wonderful." Snake Eyes clapped his hands together. "One. Your quirks are not gone for good. They'll be back in… how long was it, Overwatch?"
A body slowly descended from the ceiling via a rope. "About two hours or so. Maybe longer. Enough to take you out of the fight, but not much more than that." She said.
"You heard her. Two hours. You'll be right as rain after that. Two. Overwatch, give the good man one of the bullets." Overwatch did as she was told, walking up and placing one of the bullets in Shouta's hand. Shouta studied it for a few seconds before Snake Eyes began to talk again. "These bullets are not made by us. The first arms deal that we stopped here — your job, apparently— had a bunch of these. They temporarily erase quirks. We've analyzed these and have come to the conclusion that there are cells of a human included in the recipe for whatever serum is in here."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you as heroes will typically have more resources to find out something like this. We may have more freedom, unshackled by the bureaucracy of heroics, but you have more resources. It comes at a cost, though."
Shouta raised an eyebrow in jaded curiosity.
"I expect that information you find about this situation will be relayed to us as it comes in. I don't expect failure. I do respect you, Eraserhead, but that can change." Snake Eyes stood there expectantly for a few seconds. "Well?" He asked.
"Well what?" Shouta responded.
"I gave you some good information as a display of faith. Don't tell me that you're backing out of the deal that you just made with us?"
"R-Right…" Shouta started. "Well, we've decided to have our first year students do their summer training camp in a different locale than we typically would have. Instead of anywhere near UA's campus, we'll be doing it out in the middle of the woods. On some land owned by the Wild Wild Pussycats. We're worried that the League of Villains knows more than we think about us and our movements." Shouta explained.
"Shouta! You're feeding them information!" Kayama shouted.
"I'm doing what I have to so that we can get out of here!" Shouta yelled back. "If there's to be any good faith between them and us, we have to bend the knee sometimes."
"Why do we want good faith between us?!"
"Because there's a chance that we can help them use themselves for good!" Shouta yelled back. "I gave out harsh scores for the entrance exam. If they really are people from UA's entrance exam, then It might be my fault that we're where we are. I want to change that, and I want to help them!"
A few seconds passed with no words exchanged between anyone. "How admirable." Snake Eyes finally spoke. "Willing to face up to the consequences of your own actions. I respect that. It is because of this respect that our meeting here is over. You will not follow us. If you do, we'll release footage of this embarrassment that you pros put forth today. We're moving. Changeling, you can collect some samples if you'd like." Snake Eyes said.
The one that Shouta didn't know the name of – until now, that is – dashed to Midnight, pulled out a dagger, stabbed her arm, and collected some blood. They did the same to Hizashi, and before long, the group was gone.
Kayama stood up from the ground, groaning intensely. "Shouta, what the fuck did you just do?"
"I saved your life, Kayama. Maybe be grateful that the new member only took blood. I have no idea what they're doing with blood, but they took mine too last time." Shouta responded. He walked over and nudged Hizashi slightly. Enough to wake him up.
"Wait, what just happened? Where'd they go?"
"They're gone, Hizashi." Shouta said.
"You let them get away!"
"For the last time, I saved your life. We don't know what those kids' morals are right now. We don't know what they're willing to do. If they decided that they wanted to kill or seriously hurt us, then that was where they would have done it. Maybe shut up and think for a second. This is something that we teach our kids. Priorities in a hostage situation. I acted according to what we teach. Or would you rather be a hypocrite as well?" Shouta asked. "Plus, it's not like I got nothing out of this. We have confirmation that they were UA applicants, and we have a new lead for something."
"Fine, you win. Let's get out of here. I'm sure Nezu will want a report of this." Kayama said.
"Or three." Hizashi sighed.
"Why the hell are you complaining? Your report is going to be the shortest!" Kayama said. "'I was insulted for my Hero Name, and then I did nothing for about ten minutes.' Probably something like that."
"I didn't do anything! Why is everyone targeting me?" Hizashi asked, exasperated.
"That's it! You didn't do anything!" Kayama said.
"Enough, you two. Let's get out of here." Shouta said.
"Fine." The two of them said. The three gathered what they could of their gear and left the building, unaware of the eyes that had been on them the whole time.
"Good job keeping lookout, Overwatch." Izuku said from behind her.
"Of course. You told them not to follow us. Just making sure that they don't." Mei responded.
"Does it look like they are?"
"No. They're doing as they're told."
"Good. Move out. We'll regroup with the others now." Izuku said, standing up from the crouch that he had taken.
"Good job tonight, boss." Mei said.
"Thanks, Overwatch. It went better than I thought it would. There was the possibility of us fighting our way out of there."
"I'm glad that we didn't have to. I think we got our point across."
"What, don't fuck with us?" Izuku asked as they scaled down the building that they had holed up on top of.
"Exactly. I don't think they'll fuck with us anytime soon."
"Good. We should keep an eye on them when they go to their summer training." Izuku said.
"I'll be on it. Remember that we have a location link with him. There's plenty of things that we can do to keep observing them." Mei said.
As the two of them dropped into the alleyway that the van was in, the back opened up.
"Good job tonight, everyone." Izuku said. "We've established a lot tonight. Things might be different moving forward, but everytime that we act, that's a possibility."
"We're gonna be fine." Himiko said. "I have the blood of three pro heroes now! I can pretend to be them whenever we need to!"
"Good. Let's head back." Izuku said. "We'll get some sleep. Everyone deserves it."
Kyouka pulled Izuku into the seat next to her. "Hey."
"Hey." Izuku took his mask off and smiled.
"You being all intimidating and badass today was really hot." Kyouka leaned in and kissed his cheek.
"You too! You did well. I-" Izuku started.
"Get a room!" Mei yelled at them.
"Fuck off!" Kyouka flipped Mei off before turning back to Izuku. "I'll tell you more later."
"I'm looking forward to it." Izuku smiled and relaxed his head on the seat behind him. Today was good. They did well. Izuku was massively proud of his team. He was looking forward to the future, whatever that may be.
