Breakingbad02: :D Thank you!
Firem78910: Yes.
PassiveNox: We'll see, we'll see.
(***)
Izuku Midoriya's training was progressing swiftly. His power was steadily growing stronger. It showed no signs of randomly vanishing on him - that was probably his greatest fear. Suddenly waking up one day without that power would break him.
He wasn't capable of flying, but he nailed the self-levitation. It wasn't even that hard. Gravity wasn't a powerful of a force to negate. And it certainly added an intimidation factor.
He could make himself look taller, too. That was a positive. He was rather tiny. This didn't feel very superheroic.
It also meant that he could - it was a variant of his barrier power - float objects around him to the desired height. Like shards of glass or even rocks and dirt. Amassing a handful of them before launching them at the enemy.
He couldn't stress it enough, but he absolutely loved his power. He was really looking forward to seeing just how much it would grow. In the meantime, he also had to make some alternative preparations.
He no longer used his computer to read and watch stuff about fictional superheroes. Instead, he made rather extensive research of Takoba city. Criminal activity hotspots, urban legends which might have been a sign of someone using their power in secret, notable police officers, and so on. Everything that could help him in his soon-to-be superhero career.
Well, considering the general situation in Japan AND his disastrous lack of invincibility, announcing himself to the world sounded like a bad idea. He was no Superman. But some vigilantism here and there… yeah, this could work.
He wasn't going to throw himself at the danger, but no one knew about his power. This gave him options.
What he didn't expect was running into someone like him on the internet.
He was searching through one of the many forums dedicated to urban legends slash supposed paranormal events in Japan. It was interesting to see how many of them were there. Someone even created a graph showing the supposed frequency of such sightings, and it clearly showed an increase during the last two decades. With something close to a spike starting a year ago.
Were they a sign of people like him popping up more and more, yet somehow remaining unseen? He could understand that, to a degree. If there were only a handful of people like him, the governments could certainly keep that under wraps. It wouldn't be easy, but it was possible. But there were leaks (because people aren't perfect), and thus, urban legends. And supposed fake video recordings.
That's when someone sent him a private message on the forum. The username was Engineer_On_The_Warpath. Whoever they were, they said that they saw Izuku on a few different forums similar to this one, and decided that the questions he was asking were interesting. And suggested that he knew something that others do not.
He replied. Thirty minutes later, they were in a chatroom. Apparently anonymous (or at least Izuku was following the rules on how to tread safely on the internet and not get targeted by hackers).
Defiant36: What do you want?
Doom_Enginseer: I'm just looking for people in a similar situation to me.
Doom_Enginseer: You act kinda suspicious. As in, similar to how I did a year ago.
Defiant36: What happened a year ago?
Doom_Enginseer: I discovered I can do something that normal people can't.
Doom_Enginseer: I've been looking for people similar to me to compare the experience.
Doom_Enginseer: Learn something more. And so on.
Doom_Enginseer: Did I hit the nail with you?
Defiant36: Maybe.
Defiant36: If I actually had such a skill, I'd probably be extremely cautious about it.
Doom_Enginseer: Spoilsport. You talk like my parents.
Doom_Enginseer: I'm willing to go out to meet you. On the neutral ground.
Defiant36: Oh?
Doom_Enginseer: I'll probably be accompanied. And I'm not telling whoever will accompany me about the whole business. So officially we'd be just internet friends.
Doom_Enginseer: I'm from Kyoto btw.
Defiant36: Takoba. In Musutafu Prefecture. Tell me which day you can pop up in the city. I'll tell you where to go once you get here.
Doom_Enginseer: How about… next Saturday?
He was going to be extremely cautious about it. This sounded like a trap. Then again, if it was some nefarious governmental cover-up organization, they would simply round him up at home. Or on the beach. Without bothering to do stuff like that.
(***)
Part of Mina's grossly cornered mind expected her to wake up to see Kirishima inviting the police (or worse) to his home to take her away. Instead, she woke up to him preparing breakfast for both of them.
She immediately hated herself for suspecting him. Kiri wouldn't do it. Mina, don't be an idiot. You should know that much.
"So… uhm, why did you move out so far away?" She asked during breakfast. This happened out of the blue. And forced her to walk through two entire prefectures, all while avoiding the police (or worse).
"Disagreement with my parents." He promptly replies. "Do you remember that time Saito snapped?"
She does. She hated bullies, and she did her best to make people not act like meanies to others at school. But she failed to help Saito in time. And eventually, he snapped. It included sharp objects and a homemade bomb.
"I freaked out completely." Kirishima says. "I had no idea what to do. Shit, I almost peed myself! But you stayed calm and talked him out of it. I… kind of couldn't stand looking at myself in the mirror after that. So I decided to man up. Change myself. Stand up to people."
"Oh." She blinks at him a few times. So that's what he meant when he said that she changed him for the better more than she thought. "And your parents…"
He sighs. It's a painful sigh. Very wrong when it's Kirishima that's letting it out. He wasn't the crazy optimistic one in their relationship, but this was still very out of place.
"My mother left my dad early on." He says. She knows that, but she also knows that there is a point in him mentioning it. "Then she had her lover move in. So I technically had two moms, even if not legally. No man around. And they… well, they freaked out when I mentioned training in a gym. I didn't even mention boxing classes. Overprotective. And way too pacifist. We had an argument because I saw a few people ganging up on someone in school and chased them away. Apparently, that was already too brutal and primitive for them, as I should have told the teacher about it."
He shakes his head. It's clear that there is a lot of resentment there. He just isn't dwelling on it.
"I moved away as soon as I could." He says. "I found a job at a local gym. I get to train for free, for as long as I help clean it up and prepare the equipment and so on. I do the same in the local boxing club. Not much, but it pays the bills."
"Wh… what about me?" She is desperate not to be on the run again, but he doesn't seem to be well off, and… she IS intruding."
"Don't worry about that, Mina." Kirishima replies immediately. Hearing him use her first name scratches a painful itch that she didn't even know was there. It's as if nothing happened, as if they were still just friends at school. Before her life ended. "I have some savings, and you need to rest. After that… you're still the same freaking awesome dancer as you used to be, right?"
"I… might have rusted a bit." She admits. She had little occasions to dance during the last half a year. Just some stretch exercises to not fall out of shape entirely in hopes that she would find a way to escape. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, there is a dance school next to my gym." Kirishima replies with a slightly enthusiastic expression. "Their owners are friends, actually. If I ask my boss, he might get you a job there. You would just have to wear some make-up to work! But that's for after you get some proper rest. And eat up properly." He sighs. "You look like a famine victim."
Oh yes, that she certainly does.
(***)
The most surprising part of his first week as a vigilante is the discovery that crime isn't even nearly as common as he thought. Even nowadays. Especially the serious one. Well, semi-serious - he doesn't trust his combat skills enough to go for something really dangerous.
Izuku Midoriya ends up stalking the supposed criminal hotspots, but it's not like the crime there happens constantly. During the first week of his superhero career, Defiant is mostly tripping people over. Two pickpockets, just as they were stealing someone's wallets. A guy who was running away with someone's purse. Someone who looked like he was about to attack someone (that one was probably a miss).
Not much. But the part of Izuku that always wanted to help people is satisfied. He helped a few. And that's without counting the cat that he took down from the tree for some kids (he used his power to make himself lighter and scaled the tree, to total awe of the children).
It feels good. He feels useful. It's therapeutic after his childhood with Bakugou Katsuki. No one thanks him (save for the kids whose cat climbed the tree and couldn't get down on its own), but he isn't doing it for thanks. He wants to be useful. He wants to help people.
On the seventh day of his career, he actually ends up running into something rather serious. A group of police officers (with some counter-terrorist unit that he did not know how to name) tried to storm a building. Apparently an operation against some violent gang.
Izuku missed the times before the war. Today, even the smallest of gangs out there has an entire armoury filled with guns AND was ready to use them. Even against the police. What was supposed to be quick work turned into a major firefight.
Really out of his league. He knew that. He hid on the verge of his telekinesis range with only a head sticking out, covered said head in three layers of barriers (he had no idea if that would be enough to deter gunfire), and then continued to trip people for the next thirty seconds. With an added element of pulling some guns out of very shocked gangster's hands.
Whatever plans the gang had for the encounter (it seemed to include a firefight to slow the police down while fleeing from the trap, but Izuku wasn't sure of that) went down the drain. The police quickly overwhelmed them.
Izuku felt faintly proud when he saw handcuffed gangsters being led out of the building one after one. Plus a lot of other stuff. Like… were those drugs?
Wow. Was he a hero now? A superhero?
For now, he disappeared from the area before someone noticed that he was there.
(***)
"Could you please repeat what you just said, but this time be SLIGHTLY more generous in details?" Aizawa Shouta, superintendent of one of the police stations in Takoba (for two whole years now), says, looking at one of his police officers with a mixture of tiredness and bewilderment on his face.
With the mess that Japan is, he is quite high in the ranks for his age. And, at least ever since the Assistant Commissioner in charge of the city police bit a bullet two months ago, he is de facto in charge of the law enforcement in Takoba.
He does not know how that happened. He does not know why Asato Yoshiro didn't get a replacement. He does not know why everyone's looking up to him. He is doing his best, but this is rarely enough.
Senior Commissioner Oh Koji, the man in charge of the Musutafu Prefecture Police Department, was apparently, hard-pressed. Aizawa wouldn't be surprised if he considered giving up. Musutafu was a burning mess, not like the rest of the country was much better.
The entire police ladder was a patchwork of improvisation after the wartime casualties, retirements, defections and several major corruption scandals. Half of the city devolved into de facto slums where the police didn't dare to enter. Aizawa had to beg his relatives for money twice already because his pay was delayed. Sometimes he wondered if he was a masochist to stay in the force.
Now, this.
"Uhm, we raided that Shie Hasseikai… pardon, former Shie Hasseikai group as you ordered." The police officer reports with an incredulous look on his face. "Things went hairy, but then… uhm, they began to trip? I swear that one of them tripped three times in a row. And they kept losing their firearms. One of the SAT guys legitimately laughed at the spectacle."
Well, that's a new one.
"Were they drunk?" Aizawa asks. The police officer shrugs.
"That's for the lab guys to figure out. We shot a few of them, but they should pull through. At least there were no casualties on our side. We found a lot of drugs, illegal firearms and so on. You'll be getting a report once we sort it all out."
The one and only positive side of Japan going down the drain was that unless you organized a public execution of whatever criminals you caught, the press vultures would not go after you. They had more serious problems to deal with. Like bi-monthly terror attacks, the main parties being on the verge of open civil war, the economy in stark recession, government officials disappearing overseas with their department's money and so on.
Aizawa wished it wasn't like that.
(***)
Saturday came. Doom_Enginseer sent him a message that they were arriving in Takoba.
Izuku put some thoughts into that. Having a meeting in a public place made perfect sense - it would make disappearing into the crowd significantly easier, and it's not like many people would take their talk for anything other than two people talking about a game or something like that.
So he found a cafe in a mall that had people inside but wasn't TOO crowded and had a seating arrangement that would let them have some privacy without going too far on that field. He got a table (and a tea), before sending a message to Doom_Enginseer about where to go.
It wasn't far from the train station. They arrived quickly.
He was equally surprised by the fact that Doom_Enginseer was a girl, that she was his age, AND that she was accompanied by a bulky guy in a suit who almost literally shouted that he was a bodyguard.
Okay, he didn't approach Izuku. He kept his distance from them AND entered the cafe ten seconds after her, pretending to not be there with her. But Izuku was 99% sure that he was her bodyguard.
Who the hell was she?
"Defiant-kun!" She said while sitting on the seat in front of him. "It's awesome to meet you in real life."
She was about the same age as he was. So around eighteen (then again, he looked like he was sixteen years old at best, ugh). She wore a pair of what looked like workshop overalls (who the hell wears something like that to another city?), had a backpack that she put on the seat right next to her… and a rather noticeable hairdo.
Pink dreadlocks? Really?
"And you must be Doom_Enginseer." Izuku replies. He is wearing his hoodie, even now. He took down the face mask to drink his tea, but he kept his glasses up. This earned him some stares from people, but he didn't care. Besides, it made spotting him by her easy.
"Yepyep!" She replies with enthusiasm. "So… can I make an educated guess about you?"
What?
"If you want to." Izuku replies, trying to stay calm. He didn't exactly expect the talk to proceed in that direction. Then again, he didn't expect to be talking to A GIRL today. He had absolutely no experience with that. It was Defiant that was talking to her, not the timid Izuku.
"I'm kinda good with computers." She replies while leaning towards him over the table a bit. "I investigated you to hell and back. I didn't find out your real name, I probably could, but I figured out that it'd make you suspect me. But I noticed people with similar account names popping up recently in a few places on the internet that I happen to be frequenting. Urban legends, supposed superpowers, criminal activity in this prefecture… and superhero comics and films. So my educated guess is that you are a superhero fanboy… and developed some sort of superpower. And you wish to be like a real-world superhero. Am I right?"
Well, busted. He wasn't as stealthy as he thought he was. Izuku decides to salvage his dignity out of this investigation by admitting the truth.
"Yes." It's a bit of a leap of faith. But he is almost certain that he can successfully escape from the cafe if things went dicey. He extends his hand over his empty teacup and pulls it up. The girl's eyes light up.
"Some form of telekinesis, awesome! How strong?" She asks him, and… well, no. This has to go both ways.
"How about showing me your power first?" He asks and she… wait, what?
The girl takes off her contact lenses, revealing something distinctly unnatural about her eyes.
Normal eyes weren't crosshair-shaped.
"It's pretty much a set of binoculars AND a microscope." She replies with a grin while reattaching the contact lenses. "I can see everything in perfect detail at several kilometres distance when I zoom in, or I can see bacteria when I focus on something close enough. And it's quite easy to hide. Not exactly combat-useful, though."
"Unless you get a sniper rifle." Izuku mumbles, mostly to himself. That's a completely different type of power than he imagined. He had telekinesis, so he expected… pyrokinesis? Remote viewing? Something from the ESP classics. This was different… but certainly not a natural thing. "As for myself… well, I lifted a small car yesterday."
For three seconds, then he ran out of juice. But it proved to him that his power had an almost ridiculous speed of growth. If only his stamina rose as quickly… And even then, he seemed to have been approaching the plateau. The recent few days had only minor improvements in both fields.
"That's… awesome!" Her grin is almost manic. "This is exactly what I've been looking for! I take it you aren't interested in telling me your real name, right?" He nods. This isn't on the table. "Fine, Defiant-kun. But I'll tell you mine. I am Mei Hatsume."
OH SHIT.
"You're from THAT Hatsumes?" He says and she nods. "The family behind the Hatsume Industries, one of the largest industrial companies in the country?"
She nods again. Izuku had a meeting with a member of the family that was pretty much zaibatsu. Wow. That came out of the left field.
"Yepyep." She adds while he is busy swallowing the news. "And I'm also a genius inventor. But you see… I got that power of mine. And I figured out that there have to be more people like me out there. But the public doesn't know about it. You know what that means?"
"That someone is hiding the truth from the public?" He asks, only a bit worried by the implications.
"Actually, I don't think so." She replies with a shrug. "My parents made some investigations into that when I started seeing bacteria with my naked eyes. They are almost certain that the superpowers are simply extremely rare, and… well. The scientific community is sometimes hopelessly conservative. I've found several research studies suggesting that the scientist behind them ran into someone with genuine powers, but they were all actively suppressed and attacked for being against the scientific consensus." She sighs painfully. "And the video-altering technology can create videos indistinguishable from actual events nowadays, so any record of someone actually using a superpower can be blamed to be a hoax, regardless of how real they look like. And that's where I come."
She leans towards him again, with a conspiratorial glint in her eyes.
"The way I see it? We have maybe a year before the world will find out." She announces, adding a grin to the glint. "And you know what? When that happens, people with powers like us will need gadgets. I already made goggles that amplify my eyes' far-seeing ability. This is an entirely new field of research and development. An entirely new market for Hatsume Industries to dominate." She chuckles a bit before leaning back. "Let me ask you a question, Defiant-kun. Can you name the inventor behind any modern engineering development? Say, some new aircraft?"
"No. But I think those are mostly a team game, right?" He replies, and she nods fervently.
"That's the point!" She throws her hands around. "We have entire teams of professionals working on those. No one gets the same level of recognition as, say, Wright's brothers. But…"
"...but if you will be the first one to create those… gadgets, you'll become famous." Izuku interrupts her, but despite that, she beams at him. "And if you start working on that now, you'll have months or years of advantage over the competitors."
She nods fervently.
"Precisely!" She can see that he doesn't look uplifted at her motivations, so she keeps talking. "Listen, I get it. You want to be a hero and save people. I want to earn money and become famous. Not exactly super compatible. But this isn't a 'sell me your soul' deal. I don't expect you to work for me - it goes the other way around. I'm not going to have you become Hatsume Industries' personal death squad. In fact, if you have to choose between saving people and saving Hatsume Industries' property, save people. Everything's insured either way. If you want to be Batman, I'm going to be your Wayne Enterprises, capiche?"
That sounds significantly better. Izuku was painfully aware of just how incredibly… amateur his attempts at superheroism were. Besides, most superheroes had someone in their corner to provide technical support. But how much could she give him?
"What are you bringing to the table, exactly?" He asked, and she smiled at him in a rather… innocent way.
"The first thing I have to say is that I can't exactly support you with money." He looked at her with suspicion and surprise, so she quickly elaborated. "Look, my parents do not trust me with money. They know that I'm a gifted engineer, so they give me whatever parts and so on I'm asking them for, though. So I can produce things for you. I also dispose of a lot of my creations when they aren't up to standard, so I'll just tell them you like to tinker with things on your own and send them to you. You'll pick those up at a parcel locker or something. How does that sound?"
She was… talkative.. Izuku was talkative as well, but… just not with girls. That was his weakness.
"It makes sense." He says carefully. "I actually might have an idea about a… gadget that would work well with my telekinesis. It's just…" Her eyes burn with curiosity now and it's curiously endearing.
"Tell me imm… no, bad Mei, finish the talk first." She says to herself, then she steadies herself up. "I can also take care of your internet business. You are reasonably careful with the security, but I'm way better than you are. Besides, even if someone tracks me, what are they going to do to a Hatsume? Write me a nasty letter? Unless I murder people, even the government won't risk THAT war." That was painfully true. "So I'll look for people like us for you through the internet. I'll help you do your crime research. I'll be your little friendly technical support slash mission control, while you're busy battling supervillains."
This deal sounded… good. Like, very good. Almost too good. Exactly what Izuku Midoriya needed to make his little vigilante-slash-superhero gig take off for real.
"I will not tell you to just show yourself to the world to act as a living advertisement for my awesome inventions, by the way." Mei continues. "You want to stay hidden? Fine with me. I'll potentially get months or years of field testing before anyone else. I mean, whatever idea for a gadget you have, it might be useful for anyone who has a similar telekinetic power, right? But I do promise to not sell my gadgets to anyone who is clearly having supervillain tendencies. Is that alright with you?"
He mulls it over for a few seconds. Finally, he arrives at the conclusion.
"I think you've got yourself a deal, Miss Hatsume." He says and almost immediately finds his hand to be in pain. She grabbed and shook it rather vigorously. And he isn't a strong person.
She doesn't seem to notice it.
"Brilliant, Defiant-kun!" She grins. "Now, please tell me what exactly you need from me. But before we start, take this."
She pulls out a rather modern-looking laptop from her backpack.
"It's actually my old laptop." She says while he is staring at her. "I purged all the data, reinstalled the system and made it REALLY secure. You have some additional instructions on how to stay safe noted down in a text file on the desktop. Plus a direct, encrypted line to my current computer. Yes, I know there is a risk that I put something inside to track you, but let me be honest with you. I could find your home and your real identity, either way, I simply decided not to violate your privacy. Besides…" She sighs. "You don't have a megacorporation behind your back to keep you secure if someone finds you. If you weren't reasonably cautious, we wouldn't have that talk."
He accepts that gift in the end.
(***)
Look. If you are writing a very LGBTQ-friendly fanfic and you're giving the guy who is obsessively looking for masculinity in his life two moms (which is quite common, as far I as know), you should probably rethink this. Because it doesn't sound in any way, shape or form positive, like you probably intended.
So I decided to stick a needle about it. By skewing it in THAT way. It's seriously the second most irritating thing in the fandom to me after something related to Magne, although I rant about this at some point of Cure to Evil.
At least it's not going to be very important for the story as a whole.