Going on patrol wasn't easy. I had done my research beforehand, scanning the internet for interviews and articles in the library. Most heroes did patrols as a way of enforcing their presence and building a connection with the public. As an underground hero who did patrols at night, Mister Aizawa didn't have to worry about either of those purposes. It was all about searching for trouble, and reacting accordingly. As a result, his patrols didn't involve walking the streets in the daylight.
They instead were spent climbing high buildings, perching there, and using the infrared binoculars in my tool belt to scan the streets. After almost two hours of sitting and waiting, I was starting to get impatient. Fidgeting, tugging on my braids, and humming to myself (Mister Aizawa interrupted me with, "Add fifty." I didn't think he was keeping count anymore) were all things I did trying to pass the time. As beautiful as the city looked at night, I could only stare at it for so long before that beauty became the ultimate boredom.
"There," Mister Aizawa said suddenly. I flinched in surprise, quickly following the direction his head was facing with my own focusing-goggles. My eyes widened when I spotted the break-in Mister Aizawa had managed to notice several blocks away. "Well," Mister Aizawa started, easily standing on the precariously ledge of the skyscraper we'd been waiting on. "Let's go."
I gulped. "Uh, 'let's'?" I repeated, feeling anxiety build in my chest.
Mister Aizawa turned, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "There's nothing like on the job training," he declared, side-stepping off the side of the building. I choked on air, scrambling forwards to peek over the edge. Mister Aizawa used his scarf to latch onto one of the protruding pipes peeking out of the wall of the building. He waved up at me casually, feet braced on the side of the building, scarf securing his waist. "Watch me do it," he explained. "And then copy the path I make. It's just like the exercises I had you do back at Yuuei," he smiled viciously. "Just higher."
I huffed, displeased with how amused my teacher looked. "'Just higher,' he says," I muttered bitterly, pushing myself to the ledge and dangling my legs over, staring down the thirty floors between me and the street below. Taking a deep breath, I pushed myself off, using the wall to turn myself mid-air. I flung my red scarf at the pipe-drains, watching the cloth wrap around the metal securely. I then swung back into the wall, and I braced my feet against it, landing on the concrete lightly next to Mister Aizawa. I exhaled shakily, carefully testing the security of my position.
"Good," Mister Aizawa said, and I smiled anxiously. Mister Aizawa was very stingy with compliments. "Now, do this," he ordered, unwrapping his scarf. Mister Aizawa skidded down the flat, vertical surface of the building. When he was close to level with the next rooftop, he pushed off, landing in a roll on the roof. He stood up and turned around, clearly waiting for me.
I clenched my fists, feeling my hands shake. I didn't consider myself afraid of heights, but there was something about allowing myself to free-fall ten stories and then leaping across a twenty foot gap that made me suddenly nervous. Taking a deep breath, I told myself that Mister Aizawa trusted I could do it, and tugged on my scarf. My hands ran along the surface of the wall as I plummeted earthward. I wasn't confident enough to only use one hand like Mister Aizawa, so instead I had both hands and feet skimming the concrete, checking over my shoulder to see how far down I was. Leaving my stomach somewhere in the air behind me, I judged the distance between me and the next rooftop, finally pushing off with both my legs and back flipping across the gap. I used my hands to guide myself into a backwards roll, coming up to my feet a few feet ahead of Mister Aizawa.
I stood there for a few moments, stunned, before grinning madly. "Yes!" I cheered, jumping into the air and punching at the sky. "I did it! I'm alive. Holy… Yes!" I turned to Mister Aizawa. "Did you see that?!" I asked excitedly. "I did it! I lived! Holy… wow…" I started to calm down quickly, the adrenaline dying down as I slowly realized what I had just done. "Goodness… I'm crazy… wow…"
Mister Aizawa nodded levelly. "I saw what you did," he stated. "That was probably the hardest part of our journey, now it's just free running," I laughed, because no one else would say "just free-running" so casually. "Let's go, you don't want the thief to escape." He turned around, and sprinted towards the edge of the rooftop. I shook my head, still grinning wide enough to split my face in half, and ran after him, jumping over the edge.
A series of flips, jumps, and running along walls carried me the next few blocks over. It took maybe a minute to arrive at the crime scene. There was a jewelry shop with a broken window, and I could see three people shuffling about inside. The infrared, focused goggles I was wearing made it easy to spot each person in the building. Crouching on the roof of the building next to Mister Aizawa, I waited for my next orders.
"Go for it," Mister Aizawa said. I glanced over at him and stared at him like he was crazy. What the heck did 'go for it' mean? Mister Aizawa looked back at me expectantly. "Well? Go for it. Go. You don't want them getting away, do you?"
I pointed at myself, eyes wide. "You mean, I go fight them now?" Mister Aizawa nodded. "Oh. Okay then, alright. I'll just-" I swung myself off the roof, landing in the middle of the street. I darted forwards, still reeling from Mister Aizawa's apparent training method of tossing me in the deep end and hoping I didn't drown.
I leaped through the broken window, immediately focusing in on the nearest target. I lunged forwards, scarf extended, before the guy even had time to turn. He barely managed to face me, choking out a shocked, "What-?!" right before my scarf tangled around his neck, yanking him forwards onto the floor. I landed on his back, grabbing his wrists and quickly pulling off a set of handcuffs from my belt. I snapped them on his wrists, finishing him off with a final chop to the neck before snapping my head up to scan the other two thieves.
Both stared back at me, seeming equally stunned by my arrival and their partner's quick take down. Then, in the same moment, we all moved. I flung myself towards the next nearest person, a woman whose hands were full of jeweled necklaces. The woman dropped the jewelry, as her nails sharpened into long claws, and the final man fled the scene, climbing back out the broken window holding a duffel bag full of cash.
From behind the night-vision goggles I was wearing, everything was tinged green. The woman's claws flashed as she tore across the store towards me, mouth curled into an ugly snarl. I ducked the first slash of her claws, slamming my fist into her gut. She bowed down instinctively, air knocked out of her lungs, and I quickly hooked my arm around her neck, dragging her to the floor. Swinging my legs over her waist, I grabbed her wrists and buckled them in a second set of handcuffs from my belt. The woman hissed at me, struggling to break free, and I noticed the odd shape of her pupils. I grinned in amusement, pushing myself off of her back and soaring out the window. A cat burglar, really?
I landed outside the store, and I swung my head back and forth, searching for the escaping man. My eyes widened when I spotted Mister Aizawa casually sitting on the back of the third robber in the middle of the street, the bag of money on the ground at his side. The man was kicking and screaming, hands cuffed underneath him, while Mister Aizawa sat on him. Clearly, he hadn't made it far before my mentor had captured him.
I giggled. "Did you really need to sit on him?" I asked, cheeks flushed and shoulders shaking.
"Not really," Mister Aizawa answered, standing up slowly. He glanced down at the struggling man clinically, before leaning down and pinching a nerve bundle at the back of the man's neck. He fell limp instantly. Mister Aizawa stood straight again, facing me. "I've already contacted the police, they'll be here in a few minutes," Mister Aizawa said, and I nodded, sobering.
"I have both a man and a woman cuffed inside," I informed him seriously. "One's unconscious, and one is a... cat," I giggled, facade breaking. "We just stopped a cat burglary!" I cheered, before breaking down into laughter.
Mister Aizawa sighed heavily. "So help me, if you develop Yamada's sense of humor I will make you run laps around the school until you collapse," My mouth shut instantly. I stopped laughing. "Good," Mister Aizawa added, looking down the street.
At that moment, the sounds of sirens and flashing lights broke the relative peace of the night. Four police cars turned the corner, screeching to a stop in front of the store. The eight uniformed men who climbed out were quick to begin blocking off the area with caution tape. Half of them split off to approach Mister Aizawa and I.
"Sir, may I see your license?" One of the officers asked Mister Aizawa. Mister Aizawa reached into his utility belt, flipping out a black wallet that I knew contained his hero license. "And your sidekick?" The officer questioned, pointing at me.
Mister Aizawa shook his head. "An intern, the paper work's in the system," he said. "There's two more inside the store. Hime-Hime," I jumped at the sound of my silly hero name. He was seriously calling me that?! "Take two of the officers and go grab the other two. I'll give my report of the incident to the officer."
I nodded. "Yes sir!" I chirped, turning to two of the officers staring at Mister Aizawa, looking slightly awed. "Excuse me, will you please follow me inside?" The duo nodded immediately, and I spun on my heel, marching over to the store. This time, I used the door, and was surprised to find it unlocked. Why had the trio of thieves even bothered to break the window if the door was open? Shaking my head at their stupidity, I pointed at the unconscious man. "There's a man over there," I told the officers, before approaching the cat-woman.
She hissed at me when I drew closer, chin propped up on the floor. Her cat-like eyes glared at me furiously. "You little bitch," she growled. I sighed at the unoriginality of her insult. Why did everyone call me a bitch? Why didn't they use variety? Bakugo was creative, they should use his example.
Grabbing her by the wrist and elbow, I hauled the woman to her feet. The officers stared at me with wide eyes from their spots, carrying the unconscious body of the first robber I'd dispatched. I bit my lip to keep from giggling, because they were clearly shocked by my ability to throw around the much taller woman.
"Please walk forward," I ordered, guiding the cat-woman forwards. She hissed again, unhappy with her position, but followed me regardless as I led her out of the store. I trailed after the officers with my own prisoner, as they shut the thieves into the backs of each car. Once I had passed the cat-woman into the custody of the officers, I turned around to see Mister Aizawa. "Eraserhea-" I was cut off by a stab in the back. Eyes wide, I turned around to see that the cat-lady had escaped the officers grips, claws having severed the cuffs holding her wrists and now buried in my lower back. I stared at the injury for a second, then reached out behind myself to grab her wrist and elbow. I flipped her over my hips and onto the ground, dragging her claws through and out of my back, furthering the injury. Landing on the woman's stomach, I held her hands to the ground above her head, using my knees to pin her shoulders down. I glared at her angrily. "You've already lost, don't worsen the charges you're being faced with."
The shorter of the officers, a man with a stout figure and soft face, was gaping at me. "Uh, miss? Your back…" He pointed with a shaking finger at the bleeding claw wounds running up my back.
I blinked, checking over my shoulder. My pain tolerance was so much more developed, I hadn't noticed the injury. "Oh, that. It's nothing," I said dismissively, looking back to the cat-lady, who also was staring up at me with wide eyes. "Please secure this woman," I asked politely. "Get something that covers her hands, her claws need room to grow."
The officers scrambled to follow my request, and the cat-woman stared up at me with stunned eyes, no longer struggling. I grinned at her when I activated my quirk, just to watch her horrified eyes as I erupted into a pillar of steam, the small scratches on my face closing instantly.
When the police had finished sticking each of the criminals into their own cars, thanking Mister Aizawa and I for our efforts, and driven away, I turned to Mister Aizawa with a big, cheesy grin on my face. "That went well, huh?" I said happily. I stretched my arms out in front of me. "This whole internship thing is pretty cool."
Mister Aizawa deadpanned. "Ichigo, what have we learned?" he inquired, sounding severely unimpressed.
I sighed heavily, shoulders slumping and head hung. "You don't turn your back on dangerous criminals," I mumbled, cheeks heating up in embarrassment. My mistake sounded so stupid, when he made me repeat it aloud!
"Good," Mister Aizawa confirmed, flipping a small device out of a pocket on his belt. "It's 5:25 am right now, so there's still forty-five minutes of patrol left. Let's go," he tucked the device away, scarf lashing out and grabbing onto one of the rooftops. Mister Aizawa vanished in a blur of movement.
I groaned, exhausted, before following after him. He still wanted to continue the patrol?!
Over the next several days, Mister Aizawa and I continued to catch robbers, gang members, and most memorably a druggie with a spike quirk rampaging in the back alleys of the city. We got to know the police officers who worked the night shift a lot better as well. Mister Aizawa was more effective than any other hero in the city of Hosu, and probably most other heroes in Japan as well. I hadn't realized it until I was experiencing it, but daytime heroes were held back by their images, public opinion, and their own schedules. Underground heroes didn't need to worry about commercial appointments or interviews. It was all about heroism and catching criminals. In total, my internship was going great. I was learning plenty, gaining practical experience, and preparing for my future career.
On the fourth day (night?), I woke up at 6 pm. Crawling out of my bed, I shuffled into the kitchen and started brewing myself a pot of coffee. My hair was still a mess, and I was wearing my only pajamas, a rumpled, oversized baby-blue jumpsuit Missus Yukihime had bought me. Once I had a cup of coffee in my hands, I walked over to the couch, plopping down on the cushions and planning to kill time until Mister Aizawa woke up.
Instead, I was met with a breaking news headline. There were burning buildings, chaos in the streets, and very familiar looking monsters clashing with the heroes.
Bolting to my feet, I fled down the hall, crashing through the master suite's door. "MISTER AIZAWA! WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW!"