Preparations for an Eventful Evening
AN: Let me know if there are any characters you want to see in upcoming chapters. If they fit into the story, I'll work them in best I can.
Sweat began to trickle down her back and from her chin to the tip of her nose. She focused on her breathing, keeping her balance, and extending her legs and left arm out as far as she could while keeping herself upright. She resisted the urge to use her quirk.
Uraraka lowered herself centimeters from the ground, watching the sweat drop and puddle beneath her face. The sun was just beginning to peak through her window. Its rays caught half her face, forcing her eye closed and the sweat to collect in her eyes.
Push through. Puuuusshhhhh…
Her nose tickled and she couldn't fight the sneeze. Air ripped through her chest and flew out her mouth and nose bringing her down like a Jenga tower. She rolled over her shoulder a laid out on her back. Her breath came in big, ragged gasps. She took one long controlled breath, and opened her eyes.
She hadn't done morning conditioning since Aizawa's remedial work senior year. Mina had begged her to come with her so she wouldn't be alone. Seeing her step in to help her underachieving friend, Iida persuaded…shamed the rest of the class to join the girls. It was great bonding for the class, even if it was to the annoyance of their teacher.
Uraraka got to her feet and went to the kitchen. Appreciated the sun peaking through her window. She didn't have much in the way of a view, but the very corner of the building across from the apartment stopped just shy enough that she could catch the sun in the morning. Its light filled the room with a burning orange that almost made the space feel romantic, in a Bohemian kind of way. She washed her face and debated a shower. It was a hike to get to the agency. The train made the most sense. She grabbed her hero gear and some clothes for after work, threw in some toiletries, and walked out the door. She'd shower and change at work today.
She made her way up the stairs and popped open the latch to the rooftop door. Slinging her bag over her shoulder she braced her legs and took a running leap off her building. She remembered at 13 she tried this very maneuver and cracked her head off her father's window. Nine years of training later, she manipulated her quirk to glide from rooftop to rooftop with grace and ease.
The morning air felt good passing through her longer hair, each strand reaching out behind her as she alternated between jogging along the rooftops floating to the next building. Down below her, the city began to stir to life as vendors took in the last of their morning shipments and began to prepare their store fronts. Below her she could smell a pungent mixture as garlic and soy, and further down the street a cart was warming fry oil. Her stomach grumbled at the idea of breakfast.
"After I get to work," she muttered to the morning air.
Arriving at work with still an hour to spare, Uraraka stretched her legs and took stock. Desk duty left her lungs a little out of shape, but the kilometers through the air helped her get them under control. Overall, her body felt hungry for movement again. The feeling of her legs pushing her forward and her arms holding her up this morning reminded her that she was a trained hero; she could enjoy the power and ability she'd worked years to achieve.
She walked into the Ryuku agency with her head high above her shoulders. She was greeted by a flurry of activity and endless horde of interns and sidekicks flying from crises to crises.
"Uraraka, no time to mince words, but damn glad you're here," her boss put her hand on her back and pushed the younger hero deeper into the heart of the madness.
"I thought I was early?"
"Yes, but we've been running full tilt with the weekend staff, and it doesn't look like it'll be letting up."
"You could have called me in," around her she watched her coworkers coalesce, scatter, and regroup like a great school of fish. She couldn't remember a time when their small agency seemed so chocked full of bodies.
"I didn't want to worry you. I wasn't joking when I said your stint on desk duty had us concerned. I figured the team up on the STS stakeout might do you some good," Ryuku studied her face. Uraraka began pulling at her hair.
"I can cut it if it'll be a problem in the field. It was for-"
"Keep it. I trust you to handle yourself. It makes you look more grown up. Stunning even."
Uraraka tried to take in her boss's words but was interrupted by a manila folder slamming into her midsection.
"Patrol routes. Get suited up, and out there. We're short-handed and I'm putting you out on fifteen sectors to make up for it. Welcome back to field work, Urarvity."
Fifteen sectors was insane! How could she possibly cover that much ground?
"A fifth of our patrol area? Ryuku, what's going on that has us spread so thin?"
Her boss looked at her and smiled.
"Not sure, but someone's been kicking hornet's nests out in the villains' world, and they're pissed."
The meeting space was another in an endless line of abandoned industrial buildings with a junky generator providing power and leaking pipes overhead. She supposed it was fitting for their profession, but spoiled or not, she missed Kurogiri's bar from when she first joined the LOV. These days there seemed to be a certain lack of class in their organization.
Toga picked herself up from the large pipe she'd been using as a chair and took her place at the planning table. Dabi bent over the map, arms bracing him up as he looked down on the board.
"And you're sure he suspects nothing?"
"It was cake really," she said. "I told him I would be his girl on the inside, and he arranged for my escape. Americans really don't know how to fear a lady."
"And you're sure it wasn't him?"
Toga looked across the table. The pair of red wings were hard to see in the shadows that permeated the building, but Toga could recognize the number three hero in the dark.
"Ahhhh, does our sweet little spy not trust my abilities?"
"More your intelligence."
"Enough!" Dabi flared up. In the light of the blue flames, Toga caught the spy watching her closely. She wondered if he'd figured it out yet, or if the HA was clued into the new player on the board. She may have been outmaneuvered into being a cog, but she could be an observant cog.
"Both of you enough. I don't like him either Toga, but after New Orleans we don't have the numbers for infighting. The boss says he can bring Shigaraki back, so let's focus on the job, alright? Now what did you find out?"
Toga looked at her friend, and sighed. She began to channel every bit of acting she'd picked up in her year impersonating her victims.
"It's not Deku. I dropped the name Izuku Midoryia over and over and either he's got the best poker face I've seen on a villain-"
"The boss insists that he's alive."
"-or he's not the boss's precious prodigal lab rat. I had a hard time seeing that as important while he tortured Twice and I."
"And Twice is really dead?" Hawks spoke up. Toga fought the urge to grit her teeth.
"Jericho put a spike through his head. Something about only needing one of us to send a message. Hate the bastard for what he's done to Jin, but have to admit he's gifted."
"Fawn over him on your own time. That still leaves us with a skeleton crew. We'll bring in Muscular, and see if Moonfish can keep it together long enough to help with the smash. Toga that leaves you on infiltration with Compress."
"That's it? Dabi that's barely a handful of us. The heroes are going to be packing this convoy with everyone they can get."
Toga watched as fire licked at Dabi's fingers and the man did his best to bore holes through Hawks.
"Don't lump us in with you, wannabe, and don't concern yourself how I run this operation. You're here for intel alone, and these orders are from AFO himself. If you'd kindly leave, I want to discuss the details with my team."
Hawks brought his hands up and stepped away from the table. A soft flap and gust of wind told her the man was gone. Dabi went over the details of the plan, but beyond her part she had trouble paying attention. For a girl who'd made it her specialty deceiving people, the thought of who was on the board for who was beginning to make her head spin.
Still, one thing crystalized for her and provided a guiding light going forward. She didn't care what he was calling himself these days; if she played this out, she'd get the chance to get Jin out of this mess and a crack at sticking a nice long knife into their old friend Deku.
Uraraka kicked her legs back and forth as they dangled from the edge of the building. Her afternoon splurge of Ahi sashimi and rice sat beside her. Normally the thought taking her time and picking her way through lunch seemed an extravagance, but after her weekend she started to think she needed to redefine her definition of that word. Besides, she'd earned herself a treat.
Covering fifteen sectors for patrol pushed her to her absolute limits in a way she hadn't been pressed since her work study. She was putting up Endeavor numbers with thirty-two arrests, eighteen prevented accidents, and even two pets retrieved from trees. Though why anyone would keep a python in the city confounded her. It'd had been a hectic four hours.
Considering her early morning good mood, her record success, and the small fact she'd substituted breakfast for three cups of gas station coffee, Uraraka decreed she'd earned herself some fresh fish, rice, and a midday view of her city. A quick buzz from her phone brought more good news.
"Is my favorite hero kicking ass on the town, today?"
"Izzy! How'd you know I was patrolling today?"
Her phone buzzed again. A couple of small articles and a video popped up in her messages.
"You've already made the 10 o'clock news. I think that picture of you with the snake is going viral."
"'Out, single, and with a new look?' I guess I shouldn't be surprised that that's their angle."
"You're doing good work out there, and that's what matters. Besides, of course they're going to talk about your looks. You're drop dead gorgeous."
The line went silent. Uraraka closed her eyes and in her mind she could picture the heat rising in Izzy's cheeks. She swore she could almost feel it through the phone.
"Hchm…anyway. I thought I'd call. You know, check in. See if there was anyplace particular you wanted me to grab a reservation for. I hear Lucardo's is supposed to be nice."
"Izzy, aren't they closed on Monday's?"
"Shouldn't be a problem."
Uraraka fought the urge to squeal. Lucardo's had been open for a year and had a waiting list five times as long. A month before their break-up, Iida and her walked in front of it's windows, gazing at the succulent creations coming from the open air kitchen and taking in the smells that occasionally wafted through the door. They joked that if the villains rose up and wiped-out half of Japan, maybe they'd get lucky and be able to get a table in a year. Now to have such a place within her reach…
"No," she said.
"Okay…so not a fan of Italian. I could see if-"
"No I don't want you to make a reservation."
The other end went silent again. Uraraka took this time to gather her thoughts. She needed to get this right.
"So, you've reconsidered then. I'm sorry. I thought after you kissed me and what you wrote me…I'm sorry I wasted your time."
"No! I still want to see you!" Damn her. She'd sounded like Tsu. She took a deep breath and went for it.
"I want to see you, but on even ground. Does that make sense? So far everything has been in your home, or something you've taken the time to set up. I don't want you weaving a fantasy around me all the time. I love it, but Izzy…"
Another deep breath.
"I want to spend time as just you and me. No set ups. Just, in the moment…You know it's stupid when I say it out loud I don't-"
"Okay."
"Okay?"
Her heart sped up.
"Okay. You and me in real life. No gimmicks. No plans beyond having dinner together and seeing where the night goes."
This time she did squeal, a combination of joy and her rapidly kicking feet almost sending her over the edge. She'd done it. She'd convinced him to meet her as an equal. No pretenses or gimmicks. A normal date. As normal as they could manage at least. Her celebration was only cut short by the buzzing of her phone. She looked at the other incoming call, and grew confused.
"So, see you after work?"
"Yes, Izzy. Sorry I'm getting another call. Work."
"Understood. See you tonight. Bye, Ochaco."
She clicked over and for the first time that she could remember, was greeted by a very concerned sounding Tsu.
"Ochaco. Are you safe out there?"
"What?" This made no sense. Tsu was an uncouth yet unshakeable woman who feared nothing. It was hard to tell, but she could pick up a hint of worry in her froggy voice.
"You're going to have to be a little more specific."
Tsu rubbed her temples and looked around her. Ras and the rest the crew under Captain Seely were doing their best to take evidence and clear the more dangerous wreckage from the smuggler's hide out. Where once three ships and a couple of barracks had filled the cave, two ships sat crushed at the bottom and the third sat torn in half with the bow smoldering at the entrance and the stern strewn about the remnants of the buildings.
"We're investigating a smuggler's den a few clicks South of where we spent our summer Senior year. It's a warzone, kero. Captain Seely said they've been getting reports of similar scenes in other parts of the country, but you're part of town came up."
"Yeah, Ryuku mentioned the villains have been acting up. I've picked up a lot of riff raff this morning."
"Have you noticed anything about the villains and their targets, kero?"
"They aren't attacking shops or innocents. Most of the criminals were attacking drug dens, whore houses-"
"Old established ones?"
Uraraka thought about it. Two hours into her shift she spotted a gang of crooks firebombing an old building in one of the old money neighborhoods. The old wooden structure went up like a bonfire. She'd moved in and KO'd two of the crooks but had to leave the area fast once her helmet warned her what she was inhaling. Massive amounts of heroin were going up in flames inside that building.
She pulled up the file now on her phone. Her agencies database had reems of reports on the address, but most of it was restricted. Beyond it being a known drug den, there was nothing she could access, save a DO NOT INVESTIGATE WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION warning. The HA only slapped those on high priority targets in national or international cases. What was it doing connected to that old building?
"There's a DNI attached to one of your cases, kero."
It wasn't a question. Her friend continued.
"Here too. Captain Seely took this case because he's been begging for approval to take them down for months. Till this morning, the HA warned him it was to be avoided."
"So, what are we looking at? A inter villain war? A violent changing of the guard, or invasion?"
"Where did you say Izzy was from again?"
No. No not him. It couldn't be him. It wasn't going to be him.
"A new villain in town, old, restricted villain sites under attack, and this kind of violence. It seems like a hostile takeover, kero."
"We don't have confirmation that Izzy is into anything illegal, let alone a villain."
"We know that money and the clubs have to come from somewhere, and HA wanted him investigated."
They kept talking over theories and about what they'd seen, and she promised Tsu she'd be careful. The scene Tsu described at the inlet sounded like it came out of a bad disaster flick. She filled the image within her head and imagined Izzy's kind face being there among the carnage. The two didn't belong together.
"Just, again, promise me you'll be careful, kero."
"Sure thing, Tsu. You, too."
She expected her friend to end the call, but it stayed active.
"Was there something else?"
"You're not seeing him again, are you?"
"No, of course not."
"Good. Love you." The phone clicked off.
Uraraka put her phone away and stared off across the city. She decided it was time to get back to work. She stood up, cracked her joints as needed, and leapt off the building. She left her lunch behind, her appetite long forgotten.
He hated this. The list of things he hated was extensive; he'd created and curated it over a long career of field work and raising the next generation of heroes. He could have wrapped that list around him several times over and used it to insulate his mummy bag, and this was shooting to the top of that list with a bullet.
"I don't like this either, Eraser. But these orders are coming from the top."
"Since when have orders been your priority, Fatgum?"
The bulbous hero shrugged. Out of the working pros that he interacted with, Fatgum wasn't the worst. Sure his eating habits were a little off putting, but he understood the need for them. He even had the experience and know how that earned Aizawa's respect. Still, he was a mountain of flesh barring him from what should be his mission.
"They aren't, but neither is rocking the boat right now. The villains are in an uproar over something big, and it seems the board has a plan to deal with it."
"And that includes me being off the team that insures Shigaraki's body makes it to Tartarus?"
"It'd appear so, Sensi."
He didn't turn. He'd spent enough of his life pounding lessons into the hard head of Kirishima when the boy was a student. Surely where one went…
"Don't worry, Mr. Aizawa. Between hubby and I, corpse detail will be a breeze."
The other idiot was never far behind. He didn't like this either.
"It's Eraserhead. I'm not your teacher anymore. Also, this is beyond stupid. Placing both your child's parents on the same mission. You're only upping the chances of making him an orphan."
"I tried to tell them that, and they wouldn't listen."
"What do you expect from the inferior heroes that matriculated from 1-A?"
Behind his former problem children Tetsu and Monomo came into the room. Both appeared to be on loan from their respective agencies. That didn't bode well. How many more heroes were they replacing him with?
"I have a good team with me, old friend. And we'll get this done for you. You have my word."
Eraserhead looked over the group and sighed. He'd been moved the side, but for what reason he'd have to figure out later. He watched as an HA suit came through the door, and decided that if he had his marching orders, it was better to be away from the commanders giving them. He began walking, noticing from the corner of his eye how the suit took a position next to Fatgum. She was just close enough that he couldn't overhear the conversation.
"I don't like keeping him in the dark like this."
"Eraserhead is too smart for his own good, and too conventional. Your time with Drug Enforcement assures the board you understand the need for deception in this matter."
"I get that, but I'm not going to let my team die just to sell your gambit. These are good heroes."
"Yes, and we're assured they'll perform as such. All of you," the suit patted his massive shoulder, and left the room. Fatgum looked at the faces of each young hero now under his command. None of them knew it, but he was leading them head on into the hands of the enemy.
