"Now arriving at Nexus Station, Corusco Ward – Platform F. Please disembark in an orderly fashion. Now arriving at – "
As the robotic voice repeated itself, the automated doors slid open with a pressurized hiss.
Costume in one hand and backpack slung over her shoulder, Ryuko stepped off the train onto the surprisingly clean platform, yawning only after her sneakers touched concrete. Eyes sweeping the crowd, she spotted several pros handing out autographs or posing or small children. There were also tons of advertisements for Revocs products. She didn't know who needed jackets impervious to spikes, acid or steel. Or special goggles for those with sensitive ocular Quirks. And she didn't care. Even after learning her dad had worked at Revocs for who knows how many years, her interest stood below caring about Bakugo's opinion.
In other words – zero.
Basically zero.
"Where's the exit?"
There were signs everywhere.
Some of which led back to themselves. Take this escalator to reach Platform A. Head west to speak to customer service. Follow the blue signs to reach the cafeteria. If you've witnessed unauthorized Quirk usage, please head towards the security kiosk. Simply thinking about the signs gave her a headache so instead of doing that, she did the logical thing – follow the crowd. It involved an excessive amount of pushing and shoving, mostly on her head, but eventually Nexus Station's sterile air conditioning gave way to humid spring morning hinting at last night's thunderstorms.
Despite being the support gear capital of the country, this was the first time she'd actually stepped foot in Corusco Ward.
And the first thing she noticed – the only thing she could notice – upon stepping outside Nexus Station was Revocs. The place had to be seven or eight blocks away and yet it was just there. An overwhelming behemoth of steel and glass dwarfing every other building in the city. Backpack slung over her shoulder, her eyes ascended floor by floor, eventually reaching the uppermost levels, where a familiar red symbol stood attached to the curved roof.
Pulling out a crumpled pile of papers, Ryuko searched for the address, memorized it, stuffed it back into her backpack and proceeded in a direction generally known as west.
She didn't know how long she'd been walking, but from how much the sun moved, it must've been pretty damn far.
But after what felt like – and had to be – an eternity of walking, backtracking and begrudgingly asking a pro hero for directions, offices and fancy restaurants, plus more than enough stores to bankrupt even Yaoyorozu, eventually gave way to apartments and sidewalks lined with blossoming trees.
Which was where she found herself standing.
Underneath one such tree, shadows and shafts of sunlight dancing across her unkempt hair, a single fly incessantly buzzing around her face and a gentle spring breeze preventing her from sweating, Ryuko stared at an off-white apartment, blinking ever-so-slowly with bored confusion, "This can't be the right place."
Scratching the side of her head, she pulled out the increasingly crumpled and torn pages, found the address and stared at the numbers next to the door.
Yup, this was the right address.
Which only added to her confusion.
She'd expected…well, she didn't know what she'd expected to find, just not a really nice apartment with a vegetable garden around the back. A garden that, when she cautiously took a look, had a sign threatening harm to anyone who so much as touched a carrot.
"Guess this really is the place."
A sigh escaped her lips as she stood in front of the building mocking her with its mere presence, "Better get this over with."
Even though she said it, Ryuko didn't move. At least, not for a minute or so. Because once she rang the buzzer, there was no going back. No turning around, taking the first train back to Musutafu and pretending she interned for the entire week. Well, she could do that. But dealing with Aizawa's 'disappointment' and expulsion from UA wasn't something she really wanted. Plus, her arm was growing tired. So, with a troubled grunt, she swatted the fly buzzing around her face, braced herself for whatever was coming, walked up to the door and pressed the buzzer with her elbow and waited.
Nobody answered.
She hit the buzzer again.
And again, nobody answered the door.
Ryuko felt the exact moment something inside her mind snapped. But instead of physically demonstrating her Quirk on Mirko's front door, she dropped her costume, case and all, pulled out her phone and dialed a very specific number.
"Hey, you've reached Rumi Usagiyama! If you're calling about an autograph, get lost. If you're looking to form a team, go bother someone else!"
"God damn it."
Staring at her phone with a single twitching eyebrow, watching the call time increase second by second, Ryuko slammed her thumb against the screen. She mentally willed the rabbit hero to call back. But nothing happened. And when nothing continued happened, she suddenly felt goddamn stupid. Why had she expected anything different? Mirko was a pro. And that meant she was out patrolling for crime, kicking ass or posing for the cameras like nine out of ten heroes. She took a deep, rattling breath, burying her anger down in the depths of her soul. Alright. Change of plans. Mirko had to come home eventually. All she needed to do was sit under a tree and wait for the hero to finish patrolling, even if that took all day.
Her plan lasted all of ten seconds.
"Tch, screw this," excessively bored and patience having long since worn thin, Ryuko grabbed her things and headed back the way she'd come, "I'm getting some lunch."
My Bloody Academia
Somewhere Across Corusco Ward
It was supposed to be an easy score.
The boss's contact claimed security around the armored transport would be lighter than normal.
"Damn it!"
One of the masked thieves instinctively ducked underneath the storm of bullets before returning fire, metal-like nails blasting out of his barrel-like fingers, "This is all your fault!"
"My fault!?" another thug, crouched next to the first in the back of their getaway car, blood trickling from a bullet wound in his shoulder, painfully tossed several small orbs over the side, "Fuck you!" the spheres bounced once, then twice and then exploded into waves of liquid cement, dragging both the pursuing cops and any unfortunate civilians and pro heroes into the sticky explosion, "You weren't supposed to shoot the goddamn driver until he gave us what we wanted!"
"Will you idiots shut the fuck up!"
The third criminal yanked the steering wheel, smashing their car into a bus, then a minivan and finally a taxi before glancing at their prize bouncing in the passenger's seat – a metallic case covered in yellow tape bearing Revocs' logo.
Something worth more than its weight in gold.
My Bloody Academia
It hadn't taken long to find a place that sold Takoyaki without vacuuming every yen from her pocket.
The chef recognizing her from the sports festival probably helped, whether she liked it or not.
Or maybe it was threatening the manager when she caught him ogling her ass.
Whatever motivated the steep discount, Ryuko walked through the quieter parts of Corusco Ward, lunch carefully perched on one hand and her costume ready to break some would-be thief's nose before her Quirk finished the job firmly grasped in the other. Cheeks stuffed full of fried octopus, she looked around, searching for something to do. Anything to pass the time. Because this was going to take a while. The only problem being she didn't know what to do. Or if there were anything she could do. But as her feet continued moving without conscious input, something caught her eye. She backpedaled, nearly bumping into someone. She chewed slowly and carefully, halfheartedly giving the finger to whoever was insulting her, staring at the movie theater playing pretty much every blockbuster imaginable.
A movie would be good.
Hell, two or three movies would be better.
And by the time she'd gotten sick of butter, popcorn and soda, Mirko would be finished patrolling.
Hopefully.
Her plans were interrupted when a bullet-riddled car skidded around the corner, slammed into a parked taxi, pulled a sharp turn, accelerated fast enough to fill her nose with burning rubber and vanished in a cloud of acrid smoke and exhaust. And she wouldn't have normally cared if not for one thing – the accompanying gust knocking the rest of her Takoyaki onto the ground. Her eyebrow twitched. She took a deep, staggered breath. And as her head steadily and with noticeable creaking snapped towards the car speeding through one red light after another, a tanned and white blur with distinctive rabbit ears bounded from building to building after them.
"Tch!"
Eyes narrowed and hair imperceptibly glowing with an incredibly faint crimson light, Ryuko buried her dark and disturbing thoughts, threw away her trash and begrudgingly followed the trail of crime, "…guess I'm not catching a movie, after all."
She walked.
And walked.
And kept walking while underneath her fingers, flowing through capillaries, arteries, veins and even muscles and bones, blood flowed back and forth. It was a trick she'd been working on for a couple of weeks. Instead of drawing out her blood, manipulate it inside her body. Something Vlad King had encouraged when she came to him with the idea. Right before he started bawling his freaking eyes. But either Mirko was faster than she'd thought or the criminals ran into a few more cars, because halfway through her second exercise, she ran into the standard crowd – people, reporters and even a few lesser-known heroes gathering around the scene of a crime.
"Alright. Out of my way."
She pushed.
She shoved.
And when someone pushed back, she shoved them harder with her elbow.
But after squeezing her way through the crowd until reaching the police line, whereupon a cop said she couldn't go any further, Ryuko leaned sideways and noticed several important yet different details. The first was obvious – the car was totaled. And not just totaled, the entire front was caved in, as if a certain hero caught up, spun around and smashed her heel into the engine. The second, equally unsurprising, was said hero standing over the bruised and battered criminals sitting in the middle of the street next to their totaled vehicle. Third, Mirko was holding something undeniably belonging to Revocs.
"Hopefully, it's not too damaged."
One hand propped on her hip and a smirk oozing nothing but confidence, the rabbit hero handed over the stolen prototype while blatantly ignoring the not-so-subtle crater looming behind her feet, "More importantly, is the driver alright?"
"He'll be fine. A few puncture wounds, lucky considering one of the criminal's Quirks," the cop, sweaty and with the head of a snake, adjusted his cap, "He's been transferred to the nearest hospital for observation, but he should make a full recovery," as he spoke, the bloodied and bruised thieves, more injured from their car getting totaled than anything Revocs or the police could do, were shoved into a van, hands shackled and weapons aimed at their backs, "We can take it from here, but you'll still need to come down to the station before the white suits start making a scene."
"Yeah, yeah."
Visibly disinterested in spending time inside a musty station filling out paperwork or dealing with Revocs' supply of superpowered lawyers, Mirko saluted the cop, "I'll hop on by later this evening. Right now, there's something important I need –"
Right eyes spotted a familiar face among the crowd.
"Hey there, Ryuko, long time, no see."
Ryuko didn't know when Mirko hopped over, grabbed her wrist and yanked her through the yellow tape and into the crime scene, "Couldn't help but watch your performance at the UA sports festival. Not bad. Seems like you picked up a thing or two since our little scramble at Seiai."
Everything happened so quickly that she latched onto the last thing that passed through her head.
"I wasn't trying to impress you," standing barely an inch shorter than the number five hero meant Ryuko could not help but get a full view of Mirko's infamously cocky smile.
"Ten against one and you still almost kicked their asses without your Quirk!" the dark-skinned heroine threw her head back and laughed hard enough that several cops turned to see the commotion, "Of course, back in my day, I'd have finished those obnoxious punks before a hero like me arrived on the scene," jabbing the crescent moon on the front of her white costume, Mirko's smile widened, "But don't tell anyone I said that! Last thing I need is Endeavor preaching about the 'etiquettes of proper heroism' or some stupid nonsense!"
She didn't laugh.
Which was somehow wrong because Mirko smacked her in the shoulder, "Alright, let's see it."
Ryuko had no idea what she was talking about, and she made certain to get that point across when she slapped away Mirko's hand, "See what?"
"A smile oozing with confidence," instead of waiting, the rabbit hero somehow smiled even wider, "A frown like that's not going to make people feel safer."
"Tch," she clicked her tongue against her teeth, "I'd probably smile if you told better jokes."
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Mirko took the insult, weak as it was, in stride, then slapped her shoulder with enough force that she stumbled, "You know, I had this amazing plan to introduce myself at the train station. A grand reveal by Mirko the Hero! You would have loved it," her smile faltered, "But these low-level schemers got the brilliant idea to rob one of Revocs's transport trucks," with a shrug, she propped her hands on her hips, "Gonna guess you got tired of waiting for me to hop on home and caught a movie or something, right? Because that's totally something I'd do."
Ryuko refused to answer that question.
"Anyway, enough talking! Here's the key to my place," Ryuko blinked when a gold key with a crescent moon attached to it was dropped in her hand, "Get changed into your costume and help yourself to my fridge! Once I'm sure those punks aren't getting out anytime soon, we'll hit the streets. Rumor is there's an underground fight club a couple of kilometers out of town. Thought you and I could investigate, maybe kick some bad guy ass. Sounds like fun, right?"
