Guest - Not quite in 100s, but still pretty tall death count :P
Trixuny - Stark/Loki? Seriously? I want to puke now. Ugh. I totally agree with the first four sentences. Unfortunately for Overhaul, when you don't break someone completely, there is a fair chance that he'll stand up again. And probably stronger. And with some thirst for revenge.
raw66 - Not quite the mayor (I'm like 95% sure that Aizawa is allergic to politicians ngl), but someone new will certainly be introduced.
(***)
Dabi, believe it or not, dropped dead before getting back to the Overhaul's position (Chisaki, naturally, observed the battle from a distance through a set of binoculars in order to learn as much as possible about his enemies in case they weren't brutally murdered on the spot). Duststorm and Inquisitor carried his mutilated corpse back.
Overhaul promptly resurrected him. He expected Dabi to be rather… incomplete the next time they see each other, so he came prepared. It's almost unbelievable how much one can do with his quirk and one or two dead pigs.
Meat. Human or pig, it makes no difference. Dabi's flesh remembers what its shape used to be. The rest is just a manner of putting things back in order, according to the memory of Dabi's body. All the way down to the DNA.
Dabi inhales deeply. His eyes are clouded. It's normal for those freshly back from the other side. He will come back to his senses in an hour or two.
"So… Kurono decides to say the words. "... did we lose?"
For all his intellect and usefulness, Kurono sometimes lacks imagination. This requires some correcting before the villains in front of him get a wrong idea.
"No, we didn't." Overhaul replies. Duststorm and Inquisitor look at him oddly. "It was a reconnaissance by force. Casualties sometimes happen. But now, we know of two more heroes. We learned about one more combat technique of Defiant. We informed Assistant Commissioner Aizawa that we won't tolerate him pushing further into this ward. And, chief amongst all, we've discovered that Glassmaker is alive."
"What?" Kurono clearly failed to follow. He is excused. It was a long night. And Overhaul is in a good mood.
"Defiant and… whoever the other hero was... did their best to apprehend Jetstream." Overhaul replies. "And he didn't kill Duststorm, despite being able to do so. That woman that Jetstream wounded also didn't shoot him with an intent to kill. That tells us that the superheroes aren't using lethal means in combat. Why would they do so if the Assistant Commissioner Aizawa was then executing the captives?"
Finally, understanding dawns on the faces in front of him.
"The police are holding Glassmaker and, after this night, Jetstream captive somewhere." Overhaul announces. "Somewhere within the Assistant Commissioner's sphere of influence. And I'd really love to find out where that secret prison is."
Inquisitor should make it easy enough. They just need to find the right person to ask the questions to.
Making his villains realize that getting them out of the prison is among his priorities should do wonders for morale.
That's all something to do tomorrow, though. Fixing Dabi took a lot out of Overhaul. It's time for some well-earned rest.
(***)
Mei phoned him while he was at their headquarters. In his own room, actually. He only just finished vomiting into the toilet and was now busy trying to wash his mouth to get rid of the taste.
(washing his hero outfit to kill the stench of burning hair and soot was next on his to-do-list)
"Yes, Mei?" He replies. His voice is worn out. He is tired. So very tired. He is sure that she read it from his voice.
"Aizawa is calling for an emergency meeting." She replies. "You, him, the principal, and chief inspector Torino. Plus some more. On UA grounds."
So, pretty much everyone that matters in their little group. Principal Sasaki probably offered to host because he was the most public figure of them all. Seeing him enter any police building would be… well, hard to hide.
Other potential reasons for this are less nice. They could simply use Eclipse warpgates to arrange it. Is he afraid of the police doing something weird?
"I see." He replies. As noncommittally as he can. "When?"
"Tomorrow morning." She replies. "They… Assistant Commissioner Aizawa is rather busy with the… aftermath." Her voice dies down on her. Looks like Izuku isn't the only one shaken up.
"How many?" Izuku replies. His eyes rest on the mirror over the sink. His reflection looks like he has gotten a few years older suddenly.
"Izu, I…"
"How many?" He asks again. The silence that follows is long and awkward. But, eventually, she speaks.
"At least twenty-seven deaths. Twice as many with various degrees of burns." She says. The toothbrush in his hands snapped. Did he use Force on accident? Can this even happen?
There is silence. Even longer than the one a few seconds earlier. Unlike its predecessor, that one is less awkward and more painful.
"Why, Mei?" Izuku asks. "Why did he do it? If he wanted to kill me or Tsu, he only needed to use a fraction of that power. He didn't have to almost kill himself. He didn't have to kill those people. So why did he do it?"
"I… I don't know." She replies. Her voice is shaking. She saw the recording from his uniform's camera. She saw Dabi's face, the utter madness all over it. She saw what happened to his body after his attack. And how completely he ignored the damages.
She was just as shaken as Izuku. And she had no answers to the questions he was asking.
On that day Izuku realized what citizens of Gotham had to feel when they faced Joker. He didn't like it. He didn't like it one bit.
(***)
He heard knocking on his door three hours later. It's late at night. But he still isn't asleep.
He isn't sure if he can fall asleep.
He decided to ignore it, hoping it would go away. That he could continue lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling. In silence. Trying to not remember what happened (and failing miserably). Probably trying to fall asleep, regardless of his body refusing to cooperate.
He… he really wanted to be alone. He even ignored a few calls from Mei. But the knocking continues. On and on. Until finally, he has enough of it. So he goes out to confront whoever it was.
He expected it to be… well, he had no idea, really. Maybe Mei, transported here through the Eclipse's warpgate. That would make sense, because she was probably angry at him for ignoring her calls.
Instead, he opens the door (angrily) to see Tsuyu. Wearing her standard attire. Namely, nothing.
The fact that he doesn't even feel like complaining about it internally is probably the best summary of how bad he feels right now.
"Ribbit." She says, looking at him quizzically. As always, she is impossible or almost impossible to read. This time it's certainly the former.
"What is it about, Tsuyu?" He asks. He isn't trying to sound angry or anything. But he would really prefer to be alone. To not see anyone right now.
"Can I come in?" She asks. He has no idea what she is thinking. What she is trying to achieve.
"N… no." He replies. "If you want to talk, we can do it tomorrow. Goodnight." He closes the door.
He makes exactly two steps away from them when she knocks on the door again.
Someone's a persistent little amphibian.
He opens the door again. She is standing there, in the exact same position. As if she did nothing when the door was closed. As if the knocking was someone's meta-ability or something.
"Are you going to keep knocking on my door until I let you in?" He asks.
"Ribbit." That is all the answer he gets. But it sounds like confirmation. So he surrenders and lets her in. Maybe if he lets her do whatever she wants, she'll finally give him some breathing space.
Is that what a cat owner feels when their cat really wants to be let through some door? So they let him in, hoping that he'll just make a round around the room and come back? If so, then he is greatly disappointed, as the cat doesn't look like they are interested in leaving.
"So, what is this about?" He asks. Tsuyu, completely shameless in more ways than one, sits on the verge of his bed and looks at him. Her head slightly tilted, her finger by her lips. She seems conflicted about something, but he does not know what it might be.
"Do you want to talk?" She finally asks. This only confuses him more. Did Mei put her into this?
"I don't." He replies.
"Then do you want a hug?" She asks. And he finds himself staring at her in complete shock and bewilderment.
"What?" That is all that he manages to say as an answer.
"You're in pain, ribbit." She replies. "I want to help. That's what heroes do, right?"
That… came out of the blue.
"It's alright, Tsuyu." He replies. His tone speaks of exhaustion, but mental more than physical. "I had a… a rather bad moment earlier, but I'm doing better now. No need to get worried abo…"
She extends her tongue, grabs him with it, and then pulls him closer. When she lets him go, he finds himself sitting on the edge of his bed, right next to her.
"...you're not taking no for an answer, now aren't you?" He says, and she stares at him. "Tsuyu, it's really alright. Sure, something terrible happened, but…"
Once again, she completely ignores him. This time, rather than moving him anywhere, she is the one who moves. She moves closer to him. And then hugs him. The feeling of her breasts resting on him would… would probably make him freak out on a normal day. Tonight, he was… just too tired and mentally exhausted to care.
"Tsuyu…" He says, as calmly as he can. "... please, you don't have to do that." Her head is still resting on his shoulder. Her hands are still on his back. The only answer he gets is a quiet ribbit he does not know how to interpret.
He decides he can as well give her what she wants. Hopefully, that would be enough to make her leave. So he hugs her back. They stay like that for close to a minute.
It's… pleasant. Not in some perverted sense, or anything like that. Izuku has a girlfriend and cheating is as unheroic as you can get. But… the physical contact alone, feeling her warmth right next to him, it's just… he isn't sure how to name it. But it's… nice.
(she smells of the river water. She smells nice. There are very few smells that Izuku wouldn't find nice after so much burning hair.)
"Tsuyu, how long are you planning on keeping it like that?" He asks. She pulls back, just enough to look at his face up close. Her definition of personal space seems to be even more broken than Mei's at times like this. "I'm really alright, although I'm touched by it, real…"
"If so, ribbit…" She says, her eyes somehow looking twice as large so close. "... then why are you crying?"
What?
He reaches towards his eyes. He can feel wetness under his fingertips. What's going o…
Izuku didn't do anything to keep himself in line. There was no heroic resolve to not get broken by what he saw. No attempts to pretend that everything was nice in front of his friends. There was just emotional numbness that enveloped him once the adrenaline went down. Once the vomiting ended.
Perhaps that's what stopped him from falling asleep. But now Tsuyu planted explosives under the dam and set them off.
He cries. More and more. She once again hugs him close, and this time he immediately responds in kind. He is trying to say something, but he fails. So all that he does is cry into her shoulder. On and on, until finally, the tide grows weak enough that he feels like he can say something.
He does not know how much time passed before that happened. Seconds? Minutes? Might have been hours, and he would be none the wiser.
"I... I was so scared!" He says, his words forcing their way through. "First I… first I thought that Uraraka… that Uraraka will die. Because I was too slow, because I… because I didn't ask for the report earlier and… then, when Dabi did that attack…" His voice fails him again. He hugs her closer and he can feel her respond in kind. "When I… when I turned my head back, when I… when I didn't see you on the rooftop, I thought…"
"It's alright, ribbit." She finally speaks.
"It's not alright!" He is trying to pull back while saying this, but she isn't letting him go. "You could have died! We all could have died! I'm pretending to be a hero, but Dabi killed more people in one evening than I saved ever since I got my quirk! I didn't stop him, I couldn't stop him! And then I run away like a coward! What sort of hero am I?"
She lets him out. But rather than letting him escape from her, she immediately grabs his head by the cheeks. Making him look at her.
"Do you know why I lived in the city, ribbit?" She asks him. He is… taken aback, to say the least. He doesn't know how to answer that. Why did she even ask him that? Even his crying dies down in surprise. For a moment, at least.
She could live elsewhere. There were large parts of the river that were mostly uninhabited. Where she wouldn't have to be afraid of someone spotting her. Where she could live in peace. So why did she…
"I watched people for years, ribbit." She says. On her face, something that makes her look… determined. Like she just came to a decision about something. "Smiling, laughing, talking. Being happy. I always wanted to be like them. But I couldn't."
"Tsu…"
"I never even tried to come out." She continues speaking. He feels like it's the most words in a sequence that she ever said in front of him. "I was too afraid. Of ridicule. Of shouts. Of beating. Of rocks. But then I met you. You saw how I looked and you said that you wanted to be my friend."
He can feel something clenching in his chest. In a good way.
"Tsuyu, I…"
"And now I have more friends, ribbit." She continues speaking, ignoring his attempted interjection. "I'm going to school with them. I can eat tasty food with them. All because of you. So for me, it doesn't matter if someone was stronger than you, if you were afraid of someone, or if you failed at something. For me, you are and you'll always be a hero."
How do you answer words like that? Izuku has no idea. But… they made him feel better. Not by much. He isn't sure if there are any words out that would make him feel good after what happened. But…
"When did you become such a smooth talker, Tsuyu?" He asks. He is dodging the subject, but… he really, really has no idea how to react to what she said.
He thinks he recognizes at least some sentences from the comics and films she read and watched with him. That explains it. More or less. He wouldn't be surprised if Kayama-sensei helped her compile them.
"Ribbit?" She replies, her head tilted a bit. He feels like he made progress in the field of understanding her non-verbal expressions. He is 99% sure that there was a question mark on this.
Instead of answering, he hugs her closer once. She reciprocates.
(***)
Kirishima Eijirou is busy having a truly manly fistfight in a ring against some monster of a man, only to almost freak out when said monster suddenly speaks to him with his girlfriend's voice.
"Kiri!" WHAT IN THE… "Kiri, wake up!"
So he does. He opens his eyes to see the familiar ceiling of his room. And then, when he looks around the room, he sees Mina in her pinkish set of pajamas. Closing the door after her, with a flashlight in her hand.
(Having lights on after the nightfall, even if the windows are mostly boarded, is a sure-fire way of announcing to the world that someone moved into that building. Besides, it's not THAT dark inside. They can do with some low-light flashlights and healthy eyesight.)
"What hour is this?" He asks, rubbing his eyes. It's not like they have enough energy to put a night clock in every inhabited room. Or, more like, they narrowly can, but what if they also want to recharge some batteries? Not to mention running a computer they use for communication (and occasional downloads of new music for Mina's little dance parties).
"It doesn't matter!" She says. He dares to disagree with her about that. By now, she was already back in the bed, cuddling right next to him. "Look, I went to the toilet, and you won't believe what I saw!"
"Is Overhaul here?" Kirishima asks. That briefly takes her by surprise.
"Uhm, no?" She replies, dumbfounded by his reaction.
"Then I think that it could wait until morning." Kirishima replies. Sure, he loves her. Sure, her being excited about something is always a sight that warms his heart. But maintaining a healthy sleeping schedule to make your body healthy (and as we all know, a healthy body = a healthy mind) is an extremely manly thing in his mind.
Mina refuses to take that face down. Kirishima realizes what a mistake he made when he sees her pouting at him up close. Then he suddenly feels her fingers at his sides.
That wakes him up well.
"OUCH!" He grabs her hands and stops her from causing irreparable damage to the most vulnerable part of his body. Seriously, he is super ticklish, but why is she wielding that fact like a weapon?! "Alright, alright, what is it about?"
"Midoriya was getting a night visitor!" Mina announces almost triumphantly. "And it was a naked girl!"
"Was that Tsuyu?" Kirishima asks, as scarce in emotions as possible for him. Mina nods. "Mina, she is always naked."
"I know, but… I mean, the implications of that…'' She is trying to puzzle something resembling an answer, but Kirishima sighs loudly. Then he immediately protects his vulnerable sides from retaliation. "Kiriii!"
"Mina, I'm begging you." He really is. "He had a really horrible day. Tsuyu probably only went to cheer him up a bit. You know how she reacts when someone's sad. Give that man some space and stop making weird theories. Especially in the middle of the night."
"You're no fun." She says while cuddling closer to him. Despite her words, her tone of voice is rather cheerful.
"Well, at least I'm still your favourite body pillow." He replies as confidently as possible while hugging her back.
(***)
Izuku wakes up early in the morning. Feeling… Well, he isn't refreshed. Not entirely, at least. He is still mentally exhausted by what happened yesterday, and the fact that he'll have to talk with the Assistant Commissioner about it in like two hours is… painful.
Still. Tsuyu's visit, the hugs and the cries helped him. A lot. Bottling those emotions down was unhealthy, to say the least.
He… he has to do better. Sure, he might have failed. They might have failed. But Takoba city has no other superhero team to take the job from them. No one else to stop Overhaul. To stop him from killing more people. He isn't like the superheroes from comics, but… he'll have to do.
Then he realizes he is feeling oddly heavy. It's like there was something on top of him. So he promptly looks down and then pulls his quilt up a little and…
He almost has a heart attack when he sees enormous eyes staring at him from under his quilt. It's like from some horror story! Then he almost gets another heart attack because he realizes that's Tsuyu. In his bed. In the morning. Still naked.
ohmygoddidwe… wait, no, they didn't. He just fell asleep after all that crying and… oh, she refused to leave, told him that suffering alone hurts more than when you share it with someone, and then loaded herself into his bed.
Why did he agree to it? It made sense to him back then. Now it's… much less sensible. He has a naked girl lying on top of him, her head resting on his chest. And it's certainly not his girlfriend.
"Uhm… Tsuyu?" He asks. Her eyes seem open, but… wait, does she even blink? Do frogs blink? Do they sleep with open eyes? Wait, no, but they seem to have three eyelids, if he remembers correctly, so she might look like has her eyes open but in fact… Why didn't he research that subject properly?!
"Ribbit?" She asks. She sounds vaguely pleased.
"Did you… did you spend the whole night in my bed?" She might have left and returned or… something… wait, would that even change anything?
"Ribbit." She confirms his fears with a single… uhm… word. She looks rather… lazy? Izuku isn't sure how to describe it. "Warm. Cozy. Soft. Nice."
Well, at least someone is happy. Besides, she almost died yesterday. Perhaps she needed that as well. Not to mention, with all those things she told him, about how much she dreamt of having friends before she met them… she was probably as terrified of losing Uraraka and Izuku as Izuku was about losing them.
She was just less expressive about it.
When he inquires about the reasons for her still being here, she ribbits loudly while standing up (and giving him a… very fine sight, very fine indeed). Then he suddenly feels the end of her tongue on his cheek, before she quickly flees the room.
Wait, did she just… kiss him on the cheek? It wasn't that, right?
(***)
Mei sounds reassured when he phones her. She actually insisted on making it a quick video chat to inspect his looks.
"Look, I have to admit something." Izuku plays it openly. The last thing he wants is Mei hearing about it from someone else and getting weird thoughts. "I… might have… like… slept with Tsuyu last night, and…"
"Awesome!" Mei beams at him and he was absolutely and totally surprised by it. "I mean, once we go public, I might as well spend months away from you. I'm totally alright with you having one or two more girlfriends, especially when it's someone I like and trust enough not to get worried about them trying to knock me out of the deal, or trying to steal my wealth and babies from me! I was actually trying to talk Ochaco into that and…"
It's at this moment that she realizes the horrified look on Izuku's face. And she promptly realizes that something's wrong and she might have misunderstood… like… something. She has no idea what.
"Wait, WHAT?" Izuku is doing his best not to yell, but it's really, really hard. "I didn't sleep with her like that, she just cuddled me into sleep because I was really out of it!" Mei realizes what happened and promptly shrinks in her seat. "And even that made me feel guilty about it, so I wanted to come forward about it! Mei, what the hell's wrong with you?! And what was that part about Uraraka? Could you please elaborate a bit mo…"
Suddenly, the connection is severed.
Izuku is certain that this isn't a connection problem. He actually waits for like ten seconds, just in case it was the Shie Hasseikai attack with some communication jamming. But no. This means only one thing.
He is going to have a serious talk with his girlfriend once the emergency meeting is over.
(***)
"Uhm… Shino?" Shino Sosaki looks up at Mei, whose head is now sticking from her workshop's door. So much about reading the newspaper in peace and quiet.
"What happened, Mei?" She is, and has fully acknowledged that fact, her nanny. Almost an unofficial adopted aunt at this point. Yes, Mei referred to her like that once (three days ago), but Shino pointed out that it makes her feel old.
(she prefers to think that her 30th birthday is ahead of her, not behind her - besides, she is eighteen years old at heart)
Mei promptly asked her if Shino could be her older sister. Mei was… occasionally weird. It was best to get used to that.
"I think we're having our first argument." Mei replies. Of course, it's about that boy. The I-Will-Finish-Your-Career-Shino packed into a single container with a rather fluffy, broccoli-coloured hair on top of it. "Do you have any idea how to…"
"Good luck with that." Shino replies and looks at her newspaper again. "Should have thought about that before you blackmailed me."
Mei should get a lesson about not blackmailing people close to her. Shino decides that it's time to teach her that.
"... you realize that I still have that blackmail material, yes?" Mei promptly obliterates Shino's attempts to educate her. Ugh.
"Alright." She realizes her situation and puts the newspaper down. "What did you do, Mei?" Because of course, it's something she did.
(***)
Fun fact: When someone needs a hug, and you give it to them, there is a fine chance that they will hug you back when you'll be the one who needs a hug.
Also, if you expected Uraraka Ochaco to be the second girl that actually gets to join the romantic life of Izuku Midoriya, then you're in for a surprise. Uraraka Ochaco, after all, has almost as many secrets as Midoriya Inko. And that's a very high bar.