Izuku looked at the mirror, then back at Hado. "Are you sure this is gonna work?" He asked.
"It did before, right?" Hado replied, a proud look on her face, "Trust me, you look stunning."
Izuku wasn't really sure of what to say. He wasn't really sure that 'stunning' was the right term. He looked different, that was for sure. His hair was black, his eyes purple, his freckles were gone, his features had been 'sharpened', making him look overall leaner, and he was a good dozen centimeters taller. Adding the pizza delivery outfit he was wearing and the eyebags under his eyes, he looked more like an overworked high school dropout, which was the point he supposed. "Are you sure this thing is safe?" Izuku said, his hand moving to the small metallic object attached on the right side of his face. It might have passed for a beauty mark, but he could feel it buzz lightly, like the faint sound one could hear listening to a battery charged attached to the current.
"Absolutely. Chiarittan Tech is the best for masking someone's appearance." She showed him the tablet connected to the small machine. She had explained in as simple terms as possible that what the machine did was essentially change someone's physical appearance within reason, using a mix of DNA editing and chemicals. Making someone taller, skinnier, changing hair and eye color, removing or adding back specific features…
"Why don't we use it all the time then?" Izuku asked.
"It's because editing someone too often can cause side effects. Like your organs getting squished, or some features we erased never coming back, or features we added sticking around…"
"You know, it's weird to go from 'organs getting squished' to 'you might have lost your freckles for good'."
"Ah, don't worry, I told you, that happens if you use it too much, without giving your body time to readjust. About once a month for up to one hundred hours is fine and has no long-term effects." Hado patted him on the back, "Just don't take it off, or the machine will stop registering the changes as such."
"Great…" Izuku sighed, "Why do I have to do this? You'd probably do a better job at it, right?"
"Oh, it doesn't work on Faedians." Hado replied casually.
"Why not?"
"I'm not sure. It happens a lot with Alien tech, only a few species are compatible with a given tech." Hado said, and Izuku hummed. That made some sense, he supposed. Lucky it worked with him then.
"Alright, I'm going in then." He replied, and she nodded.
"Remember, I'm ready for support. If you need my help, just call." Hado said, and Izuku nodded. He wasn't about to fail again. This time, they would catch the Octovian. With the confirmation that he was in the apartment complex, they had been rounding down the number of occupied rooms, until they had found the last six rooms that were either unoccupied or occupied by someone that never left through the main door. After that, using various cellphones, they had called at different time of the day and tried to get each of them. Three were free, and three were taken.
So now the final part of the plan was figuring out which belonged to their target of the occupied ones. And that was when pizza delivery guy Ichigo Matsumoto came in. It was an incredibly simple plan, but that was what made it work.
In theory, at least. Izuku couldn't shake off the idea this would go badly somehow, but maybe he was being a bit pessimistic after the last time. He pulled up the suitcase that was supposed to contain his stuff to move in the apartment, saluted Hado, and started moving down the road.
-x-
The apartment he picked, out of the three, was the one closest to the three suspicious ones. He walked in, yawning and pretending to be tired, and closed the door behind, opening his suitcase instead.
The object immediately unfolded, revealing a screen, a keyboard, and a locked container. Izuku opened it, letting three small objects about the size of a fly slip out. He turned on the program he needed, and pulled out from the same locked container a control stick. "Alright, this shouldn't be too hard…" He mumbled.
"No pressure Midoriya." Hado said in his hear through the communicator he was wearing, "Just remember each of those cameras costs a lot of money."
"Why am I the one that has to do this?" Izuku asked back.
"… Because I'm terrible at piloting those, I always crash them." She replied, and Izuku sighed. Hado was amazing, but he supposed it wasn't unreasonable to imagine there were things she couldn't do. She had also admitted before her and firearms were almost incompatible, after all.
"Alright, so…" He moved the joystick after pressing on one of the cameras, and the small machine started to fly. It looked just like a fly, although it was capable of staying suspended in position, something normal flies couldn't do. Izuku moved the commands and the camera buzzed out of his window. He took some time outside to train with it, letting the fake bug fly high and low until…
"… It was just eaten by a bird, wasn't it?" Hado asked when Izuku took a sharp breath.
"I think it was a sparrow?"
"Please don't test them outside anymore."
Izuku shook his head, mumbling something about the fact they could have put some of the money in making sure a random bird couldn't snatch those cameras, but he quickly turned a second one on and used it. The small fly-like object buzzed around the room, and when Izuku pushed it against a wall it landed and started to walk on the wall instead. He tested it around, enough to make sure he wouldn't slam into a random object.
When he was finally sure he was good enough with it, he sent it out of the window once again, but this time to start inspecting the rooms. Ideally, at least one of those would have a window open, letting him get a look inside.
The first two were closed, but the third one was open. The bug sneak in, and Izuku took in the room. It was poorly lit, but the bug's camera had a function akin to night vision. There were a whole bunch of weapons, Izuku realized. On the table was an impressive set of knives and a long katana, its edge broken up and damaged. A pair of spiked boots rested in a corner of the room, and tattered clothes hanged on the coat hanger next to the door. On the couch was sleeping a man with messy black hair, his face horribly scarred, the nose entirely missing. Izuku gulped. For some reason, this man seemed dangerous. It wasn't just the weapons or the scar, it was… something else. Even as he slept, he looked ready to jump up and attack at the lowest of threats.
'Did I find a Villain?' Izuku wondered. It was possible, they had already spotted a few in the building, mostly low-ranking ones, but he couldn't escape the feeling this was… more. Still, he took a deep breath. As much as he got a bad feeling from the man, he wasn't his target, and he didn't have any proof this was an actual Villain. 'Still, maybe I could…'
"Midoriya, did you find him?" Nejire asked.
Izuku shook his head. No, he was on the job, and didn't even know if his hunch was right. He had to focus on catching a man he knew he was guilty.
The bug flew out of the room, but the back camera for a moment caught the man open his eyes at the sound of the 'fly' leave. Red eyes looked at the window, and Izuku couldn't shake the feeling he was looking at the camera and at him behind it.
The remaining rooms were locked on both sides. Izuku even tried to have the camera sneak in from the lock, but the keys were inside, blocking his way. Plan B it was then.
-x-
"I don't remember ordering a pizza!" A voice shouted from behind the door. Izuku could feel the eye staring at him from the other side of the peep hole each door had.
"Look man, you are on the list. I don't care what you do with it, I'm just leaving it here. It's already paid either way." Izuku said, pretending to be just an annoyed delivery guy.
"… Already paid?"
"Yeah, just take it."
"… Leave it there, I'll pick it up."
Izuku rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion, dropped the pizza on the floor, and marched off. The moment he turned the corner, he brought his hand to his hear. "First delivery complete." He said.
"The bug is in too." Hado confirmed. She had taken the controls now, and it seemed she wasn't joking when she described how bad she was at it, since Izuku had seen the fly wobble as it passed over his head and inside the room. "The guy is very short, and is wearing a baggy hoody to cover his face. Even while indoor, that's some commitment. It even covers his hands, so this might be our guy. Maybe I can get a better view…"
"No, wait for me." Izuku replied, "I'll make another delivery and then take back control."
"I have the impression you don't trust my flying skills." Hado said with a chuckle, "Then again, I don't trust them either. Alright, the camera is now resting in a high spot in the room."
"Good, if he takes off the hoody tell me, meanwhile…"
Izuku rang at the last doorbell. He heard some shuffling from behind the door, then a voice. "Who's there?" She – it was definitely the voice a woman – asked. Izuku frowned. Was that enough to prove Devilfish wasn't there? No, he might have had an ally of some kind.
"I'm Ichigo Matsumoto from Pizza-La Kyoto. We have an order for a large pizza?" He waited.
"I think you have the wrong address." The girl finally said. Izuku faked a sigh of frustration.
"Look, I guess someone pranked us to make random deliveries to this place, but this pizza is already paid, so it's all yours."
"… What's on it?"
Izuku pretended to not know, just opening the box slightly. "Just the cheese." He said. They had bought the simplest pizza possible. If someone liked pizza at all, they would take the bait. Hopefully. Either way, the alternative was faking he was angry, dropping the pizza on their doorstep and march off. The person inside would have to open the door to get it out of the way.
"Alright." The door opened. A hand covered by a white glove appeared from behind the door. The owner of said hand was really short, Izuku noticed. He handed over the pizza, while glancing for an instant at the fly camera moving in, and then just walked off, hearing the door slamming shut behind.
Keeping as calm as possible, he started to make his way downstairs, as if he was going back to the store. Pizza-La Kyoto was nearby, not close enough that it would be the first choice for someone but also not far enough it would seem weird he wasn't on a motorcycle but on a bike.
He jumped on the bike, did a loop of the building, and parked it behind a dumpster, to make sure no one would notice it. Then Nejire grabbed him and pulled him back to the room, the two floating in from the open window.
Izuku took off his hat and looked at the cameras, taking the controller.
The second camera didn't take long to give results. Izuku watched the pizza land on a small table in front of an old couch. The grey-haired man sitting behind the PC looked familiar, his moustache and confident expression, along with the black coat, something Izuku had seen before, even if he couldn't quite place it.
The other person, the one that had accepted the pizza, was a very short girl with red hair kept in two long pigtails. Izuku made a quick sweep of the apartment with the camera, but no one else was around. "I don't see anyone."
"Think this means we can exclude this one." Izuku decided, before switching channel. The other camera buzzed on, and they waited for the man to either take off the hood or move to an angle where they could see his face. As he stood up once the pizza was finished, his body moving out of the hood, they saw what looked like a large octopus, with two tentacles ending in webbed hands and a weird walking posture, using the other six tentacles as legs to stay above ground.
Finally, their target. "We got him." Izuku said.
"We got him!" Nejire replied, almost shouting before remembering those walls were likely too thin for them to do that. Izuku instead gave her a thumb up that the girl returned.
"Do we go in with the original plan?" Izuku asked.
Hado nodded.
-x-
Overall, Devilfish was having a good day. Free pizza would do that. Well, that and the fact he had managed to get out of the HASC's trap safe and sound, and they had clearly lost him by now.
They thought he was just a punk, those idiots. Even among his allies, many thought he was a thug with no brain. That he was like all the other aliens, ready to grovel and give up for the sake of the 'secrecy' imposed on him by the HASC and the Intergalactic Community. But he wasn't. He was a proud Octovian, born on Earth or not, and he knew the truth. Humanity needed to be conquered and led by Aliens. They were technologically superior, intellectually superior, and just… superior in general.
He drank some water, then splashed the rest over his head and yawned, before pushing himself back into the hoody. 'Stupid disguise.' He thought, gritting his beak. The idea he had to pretend he was a human was almost insulting, but he had no choice, for now.
One day, he would be the one crushing it all. The system that kept the Aliens under the HASC's thumb would come down, and they would finally be free to be who they were. No more hiding behind Heteromorphic people to pretend they were just weird humans, like his parents had so easily agreed to do when they first arrived on this wretched hive.
And if some humans had to die as an example, so be it. He now had the weapons, and as soon as he convinced the other Aliens in the Alliance to take them, they would too. Buying the smuggled goods had been expensive, but it would pay off. With them, they could take over some big Support Factory and hold it long enough to make more weapons, before destroying it so the Heroes wouldn't be able to keep the supply going. Do it long enough, push more Aliens to his cause, and then he could…
"Pizza-La Kyoto! We have a delivery for this address." A voice called from the door. The same, familiar one that had delivered the first pizza. He had wondered why it sounded familiar to begin with, and there was something that bugged him about it, but he couldn't quite place it.
With a sigh, he stepped off the couch and toward the door. He coughed and slightly changed his voice, like he had before. Not taking any chances. "I haven't ordered another pizza…" He started, opening the door slightly to look at the pizza delivery guy.
"That's a pity." He said, and Devilfish frowned. Uh, actually, weren't people from Kyoto supposed to have a Kansai accent?
The butt of a long polearm slammed into his face just as the realization arrived, sending him rolling on the floor. He looked up to see the tip of a shining trident aimed directly at his face, holding him to the ground.
"You are under arrest." The guy said.
"The HASC? How did you…" He looked left and right frantically, searching for something in reach he could use as a weapon, but stopped when the hardlight weapon moved even closer, a hair away from his face.
"You are under arrest. Surrender now and cooperate, and we can still try to ensure a lighter sentence." The guy said.
"Fuck you, you government lapdog!" The ink shot out of Devilfish mouth and enveloped the guy's face. He felt the hardlight brush his skin and cut through, and winced at the pain, but it was nothing. Devilfish wasn't about to give up for some pain, that was this guy's mistake. He rushed off, aiming at the window… And then found it blocked.
"Going somewhere?" The floating Faedian asked, jumping in through the window and locking it behind her. Devilfish looked around. He had expected the kid to have reinforcements outside the door, so he had tried to make his escape through the window instead, but that had backfired. He tried to rush back to the door, but the kid predicted his move and moved the trident's butt to lock the door, trapping him inside. For good measure, he also slammed his own body against the door, making sure Devilfish would have to kill him first.
And judging from the fact his opponent could see somehow, that wasn't going to be easy.
He looked back and forth. Armed kid or Faedian, both options weren't fun. He might have won, but even then, killing an HASC agent would have been even more of a nuisance. Roughing one up was one thing but killing outright would have put the whole HASC after him for more than just his weapons.
"How the fuck did you…"
"Please surrender." The Faedian pleaded, "We don't want to turn this into a fight."
He grunted, snapping his beak closed, and staring at her. "You… I can understand him, but why do you serve the HASC. You are a Feadian! You are supposed to be… more! And yet you turn on us?! On your fellow Aliens, in favor of the Humans that keep us shackled. That force us to follow their laws, to hide who we are?!"
"That makes no sense. You are acting like it's us versus them, but Octovians and Faedians aren't any closer than Humans and Faedians."
"We are closer!" He spatted, "We know about the cosmos! We can reach places humans can't even dream of! We are above them! Our technology is better, our societies are better, we are better!" He pointed at the teenager, "Look at him! He wields a weapon we gave him, and that makes him feel strong! He enjoys his fake strength built on toys he is too stupid to understand! But without it what is he?! He is just like the others! A weak, pathetic, useless human-"
"Shut up!" The Faedian shouted.
-x-
Izuku watched Hado shout and then the mouth of the Octovian clamped shut. It wasn't just fear, because he closed his mouth so harshly that Izuku could hear the teeth slam together.
More confusing still, Hado wobbled, coughing as she set herself back on her feet. Izuku took his chance and left the door to rush forward, bringing down the butt of his weapon on Devilfish's head. The Alien took the blow and tried to take the chance to slip by, but before he could Izuku followed up with a second hit of the weapon's staff, the alien metal hitting like a metal bat and sending the Octovian hitting the wall.
It wasn't enough apparently, as Devilfish stood shakily back up, rambling about the weakness of humans. Izuku gritted his teeth.
Yes, maybe he was weak without the Alien technology. Heck, he couldn't even beat Hado yet when they trained. She had never attacked him once as they did so.
But he wouldn't be useless anymore. He was done being just the kid with a dream. He was going to save people. To be a Hero, in his own way.
And then Hado threw herself in the way. Izuku had an instant to stop his own attack, narrowly avoiding hitting Hado and in turn watching her getting grabbed by the Octovian and promptly firing one of her rays. The spiral-shaped beam sent the Octovian slamming against the wall again, and then crumple to the ground, defeated.
Hado turned around. "We did it!" She said with a wide smile.
"Y-Yeah…" Izuku nodded, trying to smile, "Yeah, we did it."
He was happy of course. But he couldn't help but wonder if Hado thought he was too weak to fight by himself. Why would she just jump in otherwise? She put herself in danger, and all to protect him.
He shook his head. No, this was absurd. They were a team, and he had landed his share of hits. It was cooperation.
Right?
-x-
"Do you think people heard that?" Izuku asked as they made sure once again he was properly restrained. They had called reinforcements from the Kyoto division, who would take in the Alien, but they first had to find out one more thing.
"Hopefully not, or if they did they will either be in the know or assume the guy was crazy."
Izuku shook his head, checking another one of the arms to make sure it was handcuffed appropriately, "You know, I really wish we had that memory delating flash thing from the movies at time like this."
Hado chuckled, "I wish. We tried a few times, from what I read, but it either damages people's long-term memories or people's brains, and that would be a bit problematic to do. There are a few Quirks that can do it, but tech seems to be hard to make." She checked the last few arms, "Either way, the Kyoto team will arrive soon. If we want to do our job and find out how he got the weapons and where they are…"
"We should start now." Izuku nodded.
He gently but firmly shook the downed Villain, until the Alien opened his eyes. "Wha-" His memories of what happened earlier clearly came back a moment later, because he tried to free himself. Thankfully, they had locked his tentacles and his arms appropriately, so all he could do was thrash uselessly.
"Hi." Hado said, sitting down. Izuku stood next to her, on the other side of the small table facing the Villain. With his appearance still modified, he actually looked a lot more intimidating than his usual height, thanks to the sullen expression and the tired appearance. "You are under arrest and will soon be carried to jail." She continued, "But first we want you to tell us one thing."
"Which is?"
"Where are the weapons, who sold them to you, how many did you buy… Make your choice."
The Octovian laughed. "Go to hell, Faedian." He spatted, glaring at her. It was fairly impressive how intimidating he could look, considering he was only about a meter tall, and that was including the chair holding him up. "I'm not telling you."
"Don't you understand that what you are doing is absurd?! If you cooperate, we can at least push to get you in a normal maximum-security prison, but as it stands you are going straight to Tartarus!"
"I know." The Octovian said, and Izuku could tell how angry he was… and how scared he was, "But I'm not giving up our only way to fight."
"We will find out eventually." Hado pushed, "Telling us now saves us time, but eventually we will find the weapons. And once we do, we will figure out who sold them. We are being nice here, offering you the chance to save us time and yourself trouble."
Izuku didn't say anything. Hado was… technically correct, but in the sense that they could have found out eventually. The problem was how long that would take. Eventually Devilfish would crack, or they could try to find someone from the Alliance willing to rat out the location, but that might have taken days or weeks. Days or weeks when the Ushimitsudoki Alliance had the potential of putting their hands on alien weaponry and either use it or sell it on the black market.
And apparently, the Octovian knew. He just shut his beak and refused to so much as open his mouth.
Izuku passed a hand through his hair. This wasn't going to be easy.
-x-
It took a whole week for Devilfish to crack, under the Kyoto interrogators. He proved extremely uncooperative, and in the end all they managed to get was the weapons' location, without a word on the source or the price.
Izuku and Hado looked at the large hangar. The place was a small, private airfield in the mountains of Japan. The ideal place to hide something, because who would check such a random location?
They looked back at the cars and vans they had prepared to empty the place.
"You ready?" Hado asked.
Izuku nodded, and they both pulled the hangar's door.
Only to find stacks upon stacks of empty boxes.
-x-
"You did very well this time, Tenko."
Tenko bowed his head, a wide smile on his face. Praise from his Master, and even the use of his proper first name? "Thank you, sir." He replied with a bow, "It wasn't a difficult task. The HASC's NPCs spent too long trying to interrogate the Octovian, meanwhile I managed to track down one of the people that sold them."
"Excellent. I hope he was… taken care of." The man replied, studying the weapon. Tenko smiled. Seeing his Master's interest in what Tenko brought him truly made him feel like he deserved the praise. The man had his eternal loyalty and respect, but Tenko also truly wished to be of service to the family that saved his life.
"Of course father."
"Good, very good. Why don't you go tell the rest of the family about your exploits?" His Master asked. Tenko smiled, bowing his head a final time.
"Of course, father." He said, leaving the room. A smile stretched across his face. Any chance to show off to his 'siblings' who was the Master's favorite child was a good one.
-x-
Izuku stepped out of the door at the bottom of the stairs, a sad smile on his face. He had finally filed in the report on their second case, which definitely put it out of their hands for good. Apparently, the higher-ups had decided that, since the weapons had probably been stolen, the investigation had become too complicated for two people they saw as rookie – and in Izuku's case, they were right probably – so the long-term hunt for the weapons had been reassigned.
"That's on me for my blunders…" Izuku thought, scratching the back of his head. No matter what Hado said, if he had just managed to catch Devilfish the first time during the bar brawl, maybe the weapons would have been retrieved in time. Or maybe the real blunder had been prioritizing Devilfish at all? Clearly the thieves, whoever they were, had a different route to track down the weapons. If they hadn't focused so much on the bigger target, maybe…
He paused at the top of the stairs and passed his ID on the door, stepping out in the Aliens Research Clubroom. He still found it a bit childish that the secret entrance for the base was under this specific room. Then again, in a school like this it probably prevented anyone from joining-
The door slammed open, and a girl stormed in. "I'd like to enroll in the club!" The girl in question declared, before freezing for a moment staring at Izuku.
Izuku froze back staring at her.
"… Hatsume?"
"Orgue Guy!" She shouted, "How is the baby?!"
Several students passing bye looked in the room hearing that – making Izuku thankful the secret entrance had locked up behind him – and then he looked at Hatsume.
"Wait, Hatsume, why are you here?!"
"Oh, my dad got super angry, and he said that if I can't be trusted to go to school and stay out of the family business until my formative years are over, he will make me. So he used his money to send me to a school that was both prestigious enough he would know if I skipped class and… I guess important enough or something. And also out of the way." She waved her hand before focusing again on Izuku, "I was completely ready to get desperate, but now your baby is here!" She paused, "And you are too! This is amazing!"
Izuku stared at her.
He had the distinct impression his routine was about to get a wild shake.
(XX)
Ah, back from vacation.
And right on time to introduce more changes to our world. Hatsume is here, Tomura is... well, not Tomura, just Tenko, and Izuku is dealing with his stuff.
Well that's just the usual for MHA fics, but still...
Either way, the Devilfish mission is finished, and I bet a lot of people thought it was being a success, but remember that it was just as much, or even more, about retrieving the weapons. No weapons, no success. It wasn't considered a full failure either, since Devilfish was arrested and the Alliance doesn't have the weapons, but it definitely wasn't the great result they aimed for.
Devilfish himself was a fun character to write because he is a look into the way one subset of Aliens can see humans in this story. After last chapter showed Hado's perspective, I figured showing Devilfish's perspective was interesting as well.
My beta has no idea of what's going on with Tenko, the Master and the siblings, and I'm honestly enjoying his confusion. I like discussing my plans, but sometimes leaving him in the dark is fun.
And Hatsume is here! Yeah, I bet a lot of people didn't realize, but punishing her from her dad's POV would most likely mean sending her away from Kyoto and the company. And what's the better place to do that if not the best school in Japan that doesn't deal with building stuff?
Sorry, Izuku, the girl is here to stay.