Chapter 7: Internships: Moki-Chan
A week had passed, and the students stood at the train station, saying their goodbyes to each other as they left to their respective internships. Moki hugged her friends goodbye and opened the door to a waiting taxi, getting in and shutting the door behind her.
"Where to?" the driver asked, not looking back.
"Kamino Ward, Edgeshot's office," Moki responded, waving out the window as her friends got onto the train. The car started moving, and she settled back, closing her eyes. She slept for a few minutes before cracking one eye open, sensing something was off. She glanced towards the taxi driver, who was eying her in the rearview mirror. He slowly reached into his pocket, not noticing that she had awakened, and pulled out his phone. His hand slinked back to the back seat, and he aimed the phone at her. Moki realized that her skirt had ridden up a little bit, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw the phone's flash go off. Her talons slashed up, slicing the phone into pieces. The driver jumped and turned around in shock. He winced as he saw Moki glaring at him, holding the top half of his phone. She tossed it back to him, and snapped her legs together as he gulped and turned back around.
The rest of the drive was uneventful, and the driver was so scared of Moki's furious claws that he didn't even ask her to pay for the ride. He just unloaded her bag from the trunk and peeled out, racing away from the stop. Moki huffed and turned to the building she had been dropped off at. It was shaped like a large, red pagoda, traditional paper lanterns hanging off the edges of the roof struts. A grand staircase led to the entrance, and she fluttered to the top, holding her bag in her claws. She landed just outside the large wooden doors, and stepped back slightly as they opened on their own.
Inside, the pagoda was furnished with golden accents on the marble floor. Several Zen gardens lined the far wall, and a pool of water, base decorated in an intricate pattern of gems, sat in the middle of the entryway. A drop fell to the center of the pool, and Moki looked up to see a large, golden model of Mt. Fuji hanging upside-down on the ceiling, eighty feet above her. She set her bag down and fluttered up, marveling at the level of detail in the model. With her powerful eyes, she could even see little tiny hikers on the mountain, less than a millimeter tall. She heard a throat clear beside her, and she squawked and lost her focus for a second. She looked to her left, and saw Edgeshot's amused face staring back at her, a thin string leading to the floor below them.
"Very detailed, is it not?" he asked her, nodding at the sculpture. "I carved the people in there myself. They're my parents. When I became a pro, they decided to retire, and moved to the mountain. My mother loves the view from the peak." He retracted back down to the ground, and Moki followed, swooping down and landing on her bag. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a set of talon sheaths. These were metal, just like the rest of hers, but they were coated in rubber and kept her claws from scratching up floors. They also allowed her to gain traction and walk, like sneakers. She put them on and hopped down, anxiously drumming her talons on the floor, rocking back and forth slightly. Edgeshot regarded her with intrigue, walking around her, stroking his chin. He held out her wing and observed the feathers, clearly satisfied with what he was seeing.
"How fast can you fly?" he asked, letting go of her wing.
"Um," Moki said, "I'm comfortable at about 140 miles per hour or so, but I can reach almost 200 for a few seconds." Upon seeing his surprised expression, she gave a small smile.
"Well then, Ms. Tsubasa, what should I call you?" Edgeshot asked. "What do you wish to be known as?"
"Oh, I'm Moki-Chan," she said. "I want people to think I'm cute." Edgeshot nodded, and turned, beckoning her to follow.
"I will show you to your room for the week, then we will begin. I will be training you in the art of stealth and reflexes. I noticed your incredible speed and agility in the Sports Festival, but I did notice a slight delay in your reactions. I hope to strengthen you to make you a better hero." Arriving at a thin, traditional paper door, he opened it and entered the room. Moki looked around, interested. The walls were made of paper, in the traditional Japanese style, and the floor was covered in tatami mats. A small reed mattress sat by one side, a silk blanket neatly folded on top of it, and several pillows were scattered across the floor.
"It isn't much, but it should suffice for the week," Edgeshot said, glancing at her. "Ah, and just a heads up, sound does travel in the hallway." His face tinted red for a moment. "I can't stop you from doing anything, but if you feel the urge to, erm, enjoyyourself, keep the noise down. I have had that problem before with interns." Moki blushed, subtly stepping away from the mattress, giving it a disturbed look. "If you need me at any time, my office is at the end of the hall. I'll give you some time to get unpacked, then meet me in the entrance in half an hour." He bowed politely, then left, softly shutting the door behind him. Moki blinked, his words echoing in her head, then she shuddered and set her bag down next to the mattress. She opened it and pulled out her various talon sheaths.
Moki had four different sheaths. She was wearing her "sneakers", the rubber sheathes that she tended to wear indoors. She also had her steel ones, her usual choice. They were about five inches long and curled inwards, and she spent over an hour each day ensuring that they were perfectly polished and sharpened. A set of serrated sheaths lay under the steel ones. They were perfect for climbing in situations where she couldn't fly, and were excellent at tearing through metal. Beneath those, a set of angry, matte black sheaths lay in a special box.
They were made of an incredibly high strength faceted tungsten-carbide alloy, and were some of the sharpest blades in the world. They were sharper than obsidian surgical blades, and could hold their edge for years without the need for re-sharpening. They were so sharp, they could slice through diamond like a white-hot guillotine through butter. They could sever nerves so cleanly, getting cut by them was painless. One slash could make a person bleed out in mere seconds. They were called the "Hayabusa Blades", made by her father, an excellent bladesmith. Moki rarely used them, as she liked the shiny steel ones better, and they always made her a bit nervous. They were incredibly deadly, and her father had almost lost his entire leg after he accidentally dropped one. It had sliced all the way through his left thigh, including the bone, and it was only with the quick actions of Moki and her mother applying a tourniquet and rushing him to the hospital that he even survived. Since then, he had relearned to walk, but had a permanent limp, and it always broke Moki's heart to see him struggle.
She pushed those thoughts aside and pulled out the rest of her costume. She quickly removed her jacket and tie, and neatly folded them, putting them aside. Moki was a bit of a neat freak, as a result of her needing to preen her feathers every week. She unbuttoned her blouse and skirt, and folded both of them as well, setting them off to the side and depositing her bra on top. She slipped on a set of tan shorts, and clipped her belt around her waist. She took a moment to look over her talon sheaths, checking their sharpness to her satisfaction. She placed them in their individual pouches on her belt, and grabbed the final piece of her costume: a tan fabric strip that wrapped around her chest. She tightened the knot, and pulled out a small mirror from her bag, checking her feathers from every angle. After correcting the few crooked and misaligned offenders, she put her stuff away and opened the door.
She walked out to the entrance hall and took off, lazily flapping around the columns. She swooped back and forth, spiraling through the air as she dodged various decorations and tapestries, and finally streaked towards the ground before leveling off just inches from crashing. She shot across the room like a bullet and spied Edgeshot, watching her with an impressed look in his eyes. She soared over to him and flapped her wings, slowing down and rising into the air, before flipping backwards and landing in front of him. He gave her polite applause, mentally noting that she didn't even appear to be tired in any way. "Very impressive," he said, "clearly full of talent. Now, follow me. We will begin your training immediately."
Two days later, Edgeshot received a call from the chief of police. As he spoke with the chief, Moki sat down, panting. Two straight days of training had exhausted her; she worked on her leg strength for hours each morning (her wings were plenty strong as a result of her speed), then she spent a few more sparring with Edgeshot, working on her reflexes. After that, they would go on patrol around the city. They had stopped one mugging that Moki spotted a few blocks down an alleyway, giving the criminal a rather frightful trip into the stratosphere.
Edgeshot put down the phone and looked over to Moki. "Congratulations," he said, "you get to go on your first mission." Moki looked over, excited. "There's a man who goes by the name 'Headcrawler' who's been causing lots of trouble. Apparently, he has a Quirk called 'Leech' that allows him to absorb a person's memories if he bites their head. He's attacked numerous people, including a few heroes. His bites cause amnesia for a few hours, and his attacks have caused disturbance in the city. He's been attacking teachers, absorbing their intelligence. The police estimate him to have a rough IQ score of almost 7,000."
"So, what's our first step?" Moki asked.
"Our first step is to try to establish a pattern." Edgeshot beckoned Moki to follow, and went to his office. He turned on the computer and began typing into a program. "We already know that his primary targets are teachers, so we should make a location of all of his attacks and see if we can determine anything else." Twenty minutes later, they had logged all of the attacks. Immediately, Moki had noticed that all of the attacks had been at various universities across the city, and there were exactly eight attacks per school, with one outlier.
"Look," she said, pointing to one of the colleges, "This one has less attacks than the rest of them. I think he'll strike here next."
"Excellent work," Edgeshot complimented. "Let's head over there and speak with the headmaster of the academy." Thirty minutes later, they were in the headmaster's office. Edgeshot was speaking with him, while Moki was looking around the room, examining the various trophies and awards the school had won. She heard Edgeshot clear his throat, and turned around. "Come, Moki-Chan, let's go. We're going to patrol the school to keep an eye out for this criminal." As she followed him out of the room, something in one of the trophy cases caught her eye. There was a slight movement in the reflection of the room behind her, then she saw a small dark shape materialize on the ceiling and drop down onto the headmaster.
She whipped around and saw a small, dark person on the back of the headmaster's chair. He was about three and a half feet tall, and his head was long and tube-shaped, like a worm. Six beady eyes stared at her, and his mouth was latched onto the now unconscious headmaster's forehead, a slight trickle of blood leaking down. He let go and hissed at her, a circle of sharp, bloody teeth pointing at her. She leapt at him and he jumped into the air, crawling through a vent. She chased after him as Edgeshot rushed back into the room. "Moki-Chan, wait!" he yelled, but she had already disappeared into the vent, following the leech. He unraveled his body and his head raced into the vent, but was immediately met with a maze of ventilation shafts. He could hear Moki's claws scratching against the pipes, but he couldn't determine which one it was coming from. He dropped back out and checked on the headmaster, who was dazed and confused, then pulled out his phone and called the police.
In the vents, Moki was scrambling after Headcrawler, her sharp eyes locked onto his retreating form. She wove through the maze of vents, nearly catching up to him, then he slinked down a narrow vent, leaving a trail of slime behind him. Moki grimaced, tentatively touching the slime with the tip of her wing. Her feathers clumped together, and she fought back the urge to try and preen them out. Taking a deep breath, she crawled into the thin pipe, shuddering as she felt the thick slime coat her feathers. Her grip failed, and she squawked as she slid down the pipe, gaining speed as the air duct steepened, then saw a metal panel shoot out and block off the pipe. She opened her beak to scream, but crashed into the panel, instantly falling unconscious.
She woke up in darkness. She felt duct tape wrapping around her wings and ankles, strapping her to what felt like a wooden plank. She tried to open her beak, but something was restraining it. She heard wet footsteps behind her, and a slimy hand stroked along her neck, briefly tightening around her throat.
"Who are you?" a raspy voice croaked, and Moki saw six glowing dots float in front of her. "Who is this hero that dares try and catch me?" Moki jerked her head forwards, trying to spear the villain with her beak. He slinked back, regarding her with cold, uncaring eyes. "So aggressive. Rather unbecoming of a hero, is it not?" The lights flashed on, and Moki squinted her eyes against the brilliant light. Headcrawler stood before her, a drop of blood hanging from his jaw. Now that she got a good look at him, she could see he was even shorter than she was and rather thin, and had dark mottled skin. Moki didn't know if she was disoriented, but it seemed to her that the splotchy patterns on his skin was constantly changing, like the skin of a cuttlefish. "I see you've noticed my chromatophores," he rasped. "They allow me to camouflage myself, becoming invisible. I doubt even a pigeon like you could detect me. That being said," he began to pace in front of her, eyeing her with intrigue, "how did you manage to get this far? How did you manage to track me down? Could it be, perhaps, that you noticed my pattern? Did you perhaps notice an outlier in my symmetry? And how did you manage to follow me through the maze of vents? I was even camouflaging my trail. And yet, you came so far, and still fell into my trap. I have you here, completely isolated from any outside interference. I doubt even All Might could help you now. Not that he would, he's busy with his own intern. That Hatsume, what I wouldn't give for his mind."
On hearing her friend's name, Moki's eyes widened, and Headcrawler took notice. "Oh, yes, I know all about you students. I've learned all about you from your previous teachers." A wicked grin crossed his face. "And your current ones." Moki gasped through her gag, and Headcrawler laughed. "Yes, I've taken on pros before. I've beaten the pros. I am the smartest being on Earth! Nobody can even compare to me! Except, that Hatsume. I need his mind, I want his mind, I crave his mind, I NEED IT!" As he spoke, he worked himself into a furious rage, throwing things around the room. A scrap of wood bounced off Moki's beak, and he stopped, turning around with murder in his eyes. "I don't need you. I don't need a birdbrain like you. I don't want your mind, I want you out of my way." As he insulted her, Moki's eyes darkened in anger. "Now, before I go steal your friend's mind," he growled, "I need to deal with you."
He went behind the board she was taped to, and she was suddenly flipped upside-down. She glanced down at the ground and saw Headcrawler open a trapdoor under her. Her eyes widened as he revealed a vat of boiling water, and she frantically struggled against the tape. The board began to lower, and as she struggled, she realized that the steam from the boiling water was clearing out her feathers. As the steam beaded up and rinsed the slime out of her wings, she felt the tape begin to swell and expand from the humidity. As the boiling water grew closer, she pulled with all of her strength, and her wings tore free, the tape plucking a strip of feathers off of them. She screamed, muffled through the gag, and freed her legs, dropping to the floor just as the board sank into the water. She glared up at Headcrawler, who dropped to all fours and closed his eyes. His skin shimmered, and his form disappeared from sight. She heard him scuttling across the wall, and reached into her pouch, pulling out her steel sheaths. She flung them at the source of the noise, and heard a grating screech as Headcrawler's form reappeared, clutching at his severed arm. Moki flew towards him, and he rolled out of the way. His shoulder began to ripple, and Moki stared in shock as his arm began to grow back.
He hissed at her and scuttled forwards, teeth bared. Moki leapt to the side, her claws slashing out. Headcrawler ducked under them and sank his teeth into her thigh. She spun, throwing him off of her, and fell down, panting. The bite didn't hurt, but it was bleeding. She looked up just as he jumped, teeth bared as he descended upon her. She rolled on her back, claws slashing up, and she heard a gargled scream, and she was splashed in blood. She sat up, and saw Headcrawler writhing on the ground, stomach sliced open. He frantically tried to gather his guts together, pulling the back into his body as the gash began to close up. He groaned as his wound healed, then tried to sit up, but felt a set of claws press against his neck.
"Make a move," Moki said, glaring at him, "and I'll cut you where you won't regenerate."
Two hours later, the police were leading Headcrawler away as medics tended to Moki, who had passed out. She had tied him up and forced him to take her out of his lair, which took a while. Edgeshot had found her as they exited the hidden base under the town hall and had profusely apologized for getting her involved in such a dangerous situation. He had been searching for her for hours, but had been unable to find her. After the police and medics showed up, they had taken Headcrawler to the police station for processing, and the medics had taken Moki to the hospital. She had lost almost a third of the feathers on her wings, and the bite on her leg hadn't stopped bleeding ever since. Headcrawler's saliva, like leeches and other bloodsucking parasites, had a powerful anticoagulant, and for the next three days Moki was on an IV drip, racked with a severe infection. She was in and out of consciousness with heavy fevers and dehydration, and ended up getting a total blood transfusion.
When she finally woke up, the first thing she saw was a pile of black feathers. Her father was sitting in a chair next to her bed, sleeping. Groggily, she reached her wing out and rubbed his shoulder, and he jerked awake. He looked over, seeing his daughter giving him a tired smile.
"Moki!" He wrapped her in a big hug, a tear dripping from his eye. "I was so scared when I heard you had gotten captured! But I knew my daughter was strong, and look at you! You defeated a villain all on your own!" Moki returned her father's hug, a tear squeezing out of her own eye as she smiled.
Later that day, Moki was discharged from the hospital. Edgeshot had come to apologize for her internship ending so early, and brought her a present. It was a set of custom-made talon sheaths, made of silver and platinum and with intricate gold gilding. They weren't actually sharp, but Moki thought they were pretty, so she decided to wear them at fancy events (she went to a lot of those, as her father was a master craftsman and former professional athlete). That night, they arrived back at her home, nestled in the forest. It was a large, luxurious cherry tree that had several rooms hollowed out of it, and Moki's room was at the very top. She couldn't fly yet, as her feathers were still growing back in, but she could climb the exterior of the tree with her claws. She made it to her room and flopped on her bed, exhausted from the week's events. Her room was large, and she had a round, fluffy bed with pink blankets and pillows strewn about. She had a large assortment of mirrors on her walls so she could preen her feathers from all angles, and various stuffed animals sat on shelves scattered across the room.
Her father landed on the branch outside her room that served as a "doorstep", more like a perch to take off from. He set her bags down on the floor and limped over to her. Her father was large for a bird; almost six feet tall. He was a magnificent condor, shiny black feathers making his enormous wings shimmer in the moonlight, somewhat matching his silvery eyes that seemingly shone in every color of the rainbow when the light hit them a certain way. The rest of his body was black, but his belly and the feathers around his eyes were a deep blood red. A jagged scar ran up his left thigh, nearly circling his entire leg, and the feathers on the right side of his face were patchy and ruffled. In his career as an athlete, he competed in the Quirk Olympics as an endurance flier, and was a three-time gold medalist in the 5,000 km and 10,000 km races, the latter of which took almost the entire week to complete. He had set the world record in the 5,000 km race when Moki was just four, completing the race in an astounding 93 hours and 17 minutes, sleeping less than four hours in the whole race. However, his career had been tragically cut short two years later in an accident that burned the right side of his face, impairing his vision and lung capacity. He was still a very strong flier, but was limited to short distances.
Her mother had passed away when Moki was twelve, two years after her father had made the Hayabusa Blades. She had been a meteorologist, serving as a field reporter. She was one of the best fliers in the world, and could even fly through a hurricane with no problem. During a particularly massive storm three years ago, she had been struck by lightning while reporting, and fell almost 9,000 feet into the ocean. Moki had watched her mother's death on live television, and had cried for weeks afterwards. Her father had mourned as well, but had never stopped caring for Moki. Perhaps the reason he was so protective of his only daughter was that he couldn't bear to live with himself if he lost her too. Moki was his reason to keep on living, his reason to go to work every day.
Her father owned a small shop that sold custom carvings and weapons. His most popular item was a decorative katana, worth almost two million yen. It was expertly crafted, each example taking over three weeks to create. They were decorated with jeweled inlays in the hilt, and the blades were intricately carved with golden accents and the customer's name. They were fiercely sharp, almost as sharp as Moki's talon sheaths, but dulled easily. In any case, nobody actually used their katanas as weapons. They were practically art pieces, known all across Japan. Her father received dozens of commissions per week, and made plenty of money. Moki remembered one time several years ago when his first example ever produced was brought to auction. She remembered seeing his excitement as the price rose higher and higher, before finally selling at over 29 million yen.
Her father leaned over her as her eyes struggled to stay open. He tucked her in and placed a small kiss on her forehead, then left, closing the door behind him. The next morning was school, and Moki got up a half-hour earlier than she usually did so that she could fix her feathers. She sighed, staring at her body in the mirror. Her wings were still bandaged where the feathers had been ripped out, but there were dozens of feathers that were still matted from Headcrawler's slime. An hour later, she had finally cleaned and fixed all of her feathers, and began to get dressed for school. Twenty minutes later, she was finally ready to go (it took her a while to get dressed; trying to put on a shirt without ruffling your feathers that you just spent an hour preening is difficult). She hopped down the branches outside her room, descending to the ground in short time. She skipped to the bus station and pulled out her phone.
Forty-five minutes later, she was sitting in her desk. She was waiting for Sasaki to come in so that she could grill him about his internship. On the way to school, she had seen a news article that stated he defeated a powerful villain all on his own, and she wanted to hear about it from him. She glanced around behind her, noticing that Toschi's desk was still empty. I wonder what's taking him,she thought, frowning. He's usually one of the first people here.
"Psst! Moki!" She turned upon hearing her voice, and saw Shikora looking at her, a dangerous glint in her eye. She usually had that look when she had a piece of juicy gossip, and Moki leaned back. "Did you hear what happened to Hatsume?" Shikora asked. Moki shook her head, nervous. Shikora looked around before leaning in and whispering to her. "I overheard one of the third-years talking to one of the students that interned alongside Hatsume with All Might, and apparently something happened to him on a mission. He was really shaken up about it, and he actually left halfway through the internship!" Moki gasped, looking over to the empty desk.
"Does that mean…" The door opened, cutting her off. She looked over, and saw it was Sasaki. He looked around, taking in the tense atmosphere, then sat in his desk.
"What's with everyone today?" he asked Moki, leaning forwards. She opened her beak to respond, but Midnight spoke first.
"Everyone, I have some bad news," she said. She sighed, then threw a desolate look to the empty desk. "Toschi Hatsume has quit the hero program."
Author's note:
Damn, that was some difficult stuff Moki went through (me too- 4,900 words!). Did you like her backstory? I thought it was interesting to add in that little detail about her "Hayabusa Blades", I felt that really brought a sense of importance to them, like they're much more important to Moki than just some generic blades. Also, did anyone catch the easter egg about Headcrawler? Remember, tell me before I release Toschi's chapter, and your OC will be incorporated into the story! Enjoy!