Jpx0999 - You'll find very little of Mineta bashing in my fics, so don't worry. He just doesn't play a very important role in the plot, merely being mentioned. And since he is apparently a branch chief, people trusted him with that job.
BlackChappie - You... might not be wrong :P
(***)
When it comes to dealing with the dark underbelly of society, there is simply no one better than Stain, Knuckleduster and Chainfist. Each of them has their own specializations.
Akaguro Chizome is the field operative. He knows how to intimidate. He knows when not to intimidate. He has that specific aura that makes most strong people out there realize that they met someone who is at least their match. If you want someone to enter some obscure and morally questionable bar to ask for intel.
For some reason, no one expects him to be a former police officer. No police officer can instantly shut a handful of thugs up with a stare.
Knuckleduster is the brain behind their whole group. With some interesting contacts in the criminal underworld. Somehow, just somehow, he always knows how to find said obscure and morally questionable bars and other, similar locations.
All of that while being an expert investigator in general. He occupied one of the walls in their temporary hideout and within a week mapped out most of the local Alderan' underworld, at least in general terms. What group had what relations with what other group. What they were earning their money with. Where their turfs ended. This sort of thing.
Not something that was enough to jail someone, but enough to avoid major blunders. He was also investigating local police structures.
Kendo Rappa, in the meantime, was best dropped by the nearest illegal fighting establishment. The end result was him quickly becoming popular (not to mention, champion) and people suddenly answering his questions truthfully.
The only exception in the party was Rumi, who had no patience for investigating things. She was busy training like an absolute battle maniac that she naturally was, waiting for her husband and her two friends to find someone for her to kick in the face.
As one can expect, it didn't take them THAT long to find what they were looking for. Police was naturally hiding the whole deed, and the criminal underworld didn't know where to look for the local superheroes/vigilantes off work (they mostly knew about their existence, but were busy heatly debating how much of a real threat they were). But they were experts in finding things when they truly wanted to.
They decided to play it safe. They couldn't predict another car crush or anything like that, but they certainly could predict an attempt to rob a bank. Okay, maybe not exactly predict. It was a bit of an accidental discovery on their part.
Still, they warned the police anonymously, spread around the bank and waited.
In the end, it was Stain that ended up encountering the Metahuman Network member as the first one. He had his position in the alleyway behind the bank, in decent enough concealment.
Those were the Special Operations Unit people. Probably not the former SAT guys, but they certainly meant business. They were accompanied by a guy in a hoodie.
Stain observed the scene from his hideout. The guy in a hoodie touched the wall of a bank, which slightly changed the color. The police officers then simply walked through the wall, with the superhero/vigilante staying behind.
Alright, time to get shit done.
"Your power looks rather handy, kid." Stain decides not to sneak right behind the kid. He could do that (he doesn't seem very skilled), but… let's not escalate things too much. So instead, he speaks from a distance of a few meters.
The kid still freaks out a bit.
"W…Who are you?!" He takes a step back while turning towards Stain. Yes, certainly an amateur. Let's not appear threatening, you never know how an amateur will react.
"Not an enemy." Stain says while raising his hands a bit. "In fact, I was the one who sent the warning to the police that there'll be a robbery here today." The kid looks only narrowly reassured. Good. Anyone can say that. Don't be naive. "I'm looking to get in contact with whoever's responsible for the whole… What's your name for the superpowers?"
"Meta-abilities." The kid replies. "Or quirks."
Well, sounds handy enough.
"So yes, I'm interested in talking with whoever's responsible for the whole 'superpower-users helping police' scheme you have going in Musutafu." They already heard that it's a thing from the local criminal underworld - and now Stain has practically seen it in action. "Any way of doing that?"
"Are you a metahuman?" The kid asks back. Still staring at Stain and clearly being ready to bolt at a tiniest odd movement.
Nice term for the superpowered folks. Another thing to borrow from the locals.
"No." Stain replies. Yes, they suspect that he might have a power, but they are yet to confirm that. Would be nasty if the kid asked for a presentation. "But some of my friends and co-workers are."
"And do you want the meeting to be face-to-face?" The kid then asks. Stain is slowly growing tired of it. Is the kid stalling for time, waiting for the police officers to get back? Well, Akaguro already signaled to his co-workers that he made contact. If the worst comes to happen, he's certain that he'll manage to get away.
"Would be preferable, yes." Face to face meetings make things… simpler. You can read a lot from the other side's body language alone. "I'm representing a group of vigilantes that had a past run-in with one Goto Imasuji. I already almost managed to blind that asshole and… well, I'm looking forward to getting him off-the street."
Which is a rather neutral way of saying 'fucking murder him.' If the kid is working with the police, it might be best to… not mention certain things. At least, not this early on.
The kid seems to be trying to figure out if Stain's worth trusting with that. Eventually he decides to go along with it.
"We have a hotline." The kid eventually says. "I can give you the phone number." Looks like the local police are adjusting to the new world faster and better than he expected.
A second after Stain notes the number down, the kid suddenly drops through the ground and disappears instantly. Huh. That's one pretty cool meta-ability.
It's time to disappear as well.
(***)
Hekiji Tengai was living the life of his dreams. He was an ambitious and somewhat successful member of the Shie Hasseikai, notable enough to be chosen by Kai Chisaki to oversee a significant part of the clan's newly obtained businesses in Shizuoka prefecture.
Yes, he was surrounded by people that clearly weren't awfully happy about the Shie Hasseikai present there. Then again, he was a cautious man. And with the Abegawa Tenchu Kai all but collapsing, there really wasn't enough to threaten his position.
He even got a nice complex of offices in a high rise building in Shizuoka as his headquarters. A bit ostentatious, yes. But sent out a powerful message. He had enough men under him to change that complex into a fortress. Unconquerable, at least not by what was left of the ATK.
Or so he thought.
The attack was unexpected and vicious. His men held their ground with all the ferocity that he expected from them. The attackers were forced to pay with blood for every room they took.
Or so he would like to say.
Instead, he simply fell asleep. He had enough time to see others present in his office fall to the ground as well.
When he opened his eyes, he was bound to a chair in an unfamiliar room. There was a table right next to him, filled with an assortment of knives and other… scary looking objects.
The room was unfamiliar but the person in front of him wasn't.
"K…Kuroiro." Tengai managed to force the words out of his mouth. "W… what the fuck did you…"
Kuroiro slapped him in the face. With a lot of strength put behind it.
"It's Vantablack, Tengai." He then states. He is wearing a black business suit of course. His signatory piece of clothing. There is the electricity guy standing behind him, wearing what looks like a helmetless full body armor. "I'm a supervillain now, I really have to keep up appearances."
Oh great, now he started acting like Chis… Overhaul. Speaking of…
"Are you fucking insane?" Tengai refuses to take this face down. "You dare to attack the Shie Hasseikai?! Overhaul will…"
"Overhaul will die." Vantablack replies with a grin. It's equal parts maniacal and intimidating. "Sooner or later. I've decided to kickstart that process. You see, I need to announce to the world, or at least to the ATK remnants in the prefecture, that the boss is back in business. And what better way to do it than by wiping out the Shie Hasseikai headquarters in Shizuoka?"
Shitshitshit.
"Took us a while to convert Toxin's breath into a gas bomb to knock you all out at once." Kuroiro smiles while pulling a knife out of his pocket. "We needed a lot of it, after all! But now that I have you and twenty-seven of your co-workers in my little hideout, I'm going to use you to send Overhaul a message that he isn't welcome in Shizuoka." Vantablack chuckles before leaning over Tengai. "Feel free to die. Volt needs some training on kickstarting heartbeat again with his quirk."
Tengai decides that it's going to be a long night. He is wrong. It's going to be a long week.
(***)
After the Shizuoka police found the third corpse (hanging upside down from a lamppost, thoroughly mutilated and carrying a wooden board with 'heal me if you can, Overwhore' carved on it), Commissioner Aizawa finally had to admit that the decision to let Kuroiro out of Tartarus was a crucial miscalculation.
Vantablack was more or less stable with Manhole being around to moderate him. With his adoptive father dead and a revenge on the horizon, Shihai Kuroiro lost it completely. He might have lacked the resources that the Overhaul had, but the danger he posed was long-term pretty similar.
Aizawa didn't want to imagine the results of Vantablack getting a handful of S-Rankers into his League. It was going to be… pretty bad. For everyone involved. Worst of all, it was probably only a matter of time.
It was still better than letting Overhaul take Shizuoka over, yes. But Aizawa certainly didn't like it. Defiant clearly didn't like it. Principal Sasaki clearly didn't like it. In fact, the only one who seemed to like it was Sorahiko Torino, but that's only because he could now use the 'I TOLD YOU SO' card on Aizawa.
(***)
Rabbit was nervous.
It was a sentence that correctly described his state and standard behavior for most of the time. He was nervous, anxious, and perpetually lacking confidence in himself. There was a reason why Tetsu was Itsuka's second in command, after all.
Rabbit had the smarts, but he really wasn't the one to yell orders in battle. But as a sort of tactical advisor for those two, he was perfect. He just left the yelling of orders to those who were clearly more gifted on that field, while telling them what to yell.
It worked well, until it didn't.
At least he still had Rini. And Sada. And Aki. Of the three, Rini was the most helpful. Mostly because she could yell the loudest (but never at Rabbit). She was also his best friend and the person that actually gave him the courage to finally run away from home.
And also the person that (when he wavered that night) ended up throwing him over her shoulder and then carrying him to freedom. Stuff like that really connected people.
She was also his first crush. Or so Rabbit thought. He was acutely aware that emotionally he was… kind of messy, even if you excluded the whole anxiety business. But the rabbit girl did occupy a disproportional part of his thoughts.
Rini was confident. And strong. And actually could stand for herself. But instead, she tended to stand for Rabbit. It was great. There were moments when he felt like she was the only reason why kept going.
Mostly during the time before the Heroes Alliance. Because then he met the others. Then he lost some of the others. Sada and Aki were still there (and so was Reiko, but she distanced herself from them and it kind of hurt even if Rabbit understood the reasons). Both of them were pretty much acting like Rini did (although less loudly) and…
… well, Rabbit liked them very much. He wasn't sure if he liked them that way, then again he wasn't exactly 100% sure if he liked Rini that way too. It was just very very confusing and he had no idea what to do. And once the Shizuoka Massacre happened, he just… he just had no idea what to do in general.
The Network guys were nice. Their leader was pretty much what Rabbit would like to become (but didn't). Gargoyle was so much like Tetsu that it was both great and painful. The frog girl was super nice, she actually told Rabbit that if he ever needed a hug, he could come to her!
Not like he planned to. He wanted to overcome this on his own, get stronger. Not like it was really working or anything. And then he had some really twisty few days when his anxiety meds kicked in and … well, he needed every hug he could get back then. And more. So he ended up taking her up on the offer.
The rest was nice, just… a handful. A bit too much of a handful. Especially when someone (typically Eclipse, sometimes Split when she came to visit Eto) started to talk about pervy stuff, because that was one thing that Rabbit had absolutely zero experience in and it confused him a lot.
At least Midoriya chased them away that one time when they saw him blushing and started to focus on teasing him (taking advantage of the fact that Rini and the others weren't there), because he was really freaking out and had no idea how to react.
To either that or the thoughts that it brought. The most confusing part was that Rini wasn't the only person that showed up in those thoughts, and he had absolutely no idea how to respond to this.
Counselor Inui was probably right when he said that Rabbit should focus on figuring out himself before he starts trying to figure out where he is in relation to others. Not to mention the fact that Rabbit would faint before saying the words. For now he should…
"... Earth to Rabbit?" Rini waves her hand in front of his face and somehow this manages to wake him up from the stupor. "You were mumbling again."
ohgodIhopeIdidn'tsayanythingweirdbecauseshewouldhearitallandthatwouldbesuperawkward
"O…Oh, I'm sorry." He says, and he curses himself for it because Rini starts looking worried right away.
"You don't have to be, it's alright!" She half-says half-shouts back. She always reacts like that when he makes the apology for something and it's kind of sad, really. "You just, uhm, said something about wanting to go train later on, and it's getting pretty late and…"
She isn't looking at him, but he can see that she is nervous. He can see that she is busy trying to drill into the floor with the toes of her right leg, and… well, she only does that when she's nervous.
And she's nervous because Rabbit once again apologized for something that he really shouldn't apologize for. Because she told him many times that she's alright with his mumbling behavior and it's really not a problem to her.
Now Rabbit feels guilty.
She came all the way to his room to remind him of the training, and then he made her nervous because he once again acted like… like himself! He hates it! He hates himself! It shouldn't be like that. He shouldn't be like that!
He is the only person that she feels comfortable showing the other self to. The one in which she isn't the perpetually confident and dangerous Edge. He wouldn't exactly call her other self 'girly', but… well, there certainly isn't a lot of confidence. Maybe 'vulnerable' would be the better word?
"U…uhm, thank you for reminding me of it." He had a tendency to lose track of time when he got really deep into his thoughts. She took it to herself to keep him grounded and punctual. Although, in all honesty, when it is something REALLY crucial to remember (like, life or death stuff), he tended to rely on Aki.
Deadshot was of a bit more… methodical mind. Immortal was a complete scatterbrain, and Edge… somewhere in between.
"Awesome!" She grins at him, showing him all those scary (but he likes them!) teeth. Her foot is still drilling in the floor, though. "Go get 'em, Rabbit!"
"Y…yes!" He does his best to appear confident. There isn't really anyone to 'go get', it's just his physical training with Kirishima, but… she is encouraging him, and that's really nice to hear. "I'm g…going to do my best!"
He is about to go grab the training clothes of the wardrobe, but she ends up speaking before that.
"It's quite strange to see you train so much." She says. When he looks at her, she quickly adds. "I mean, it's alright! Great idea, just, uhm…" She is clearly trying to figure out how to put something into words. "... kind of strange that you didn't… uhm… ask me for tips on that, I guess?"
Oh. Ooooh. Not good. Very much not good.
"It's not like that!" He quickly barks out, only to immediately curse himself in his mind because of course she freaked out a bit over seeing him react like that. Stop making her feel guilty, Rabbit! "I mean, I just…" He looks down. "I just… figured out that I'd like… to get stronger, uhm… be more like you and… Kirishima offered to help me.." …while pointing out that Rabbit's goal is a bit… too far. "... so I kind of got into that…"
He realizes that something's wrong when he sees that the foot froze. His eyes go up and… well, foot isn't the only part of her that froze.
"R…Rini? Is everything alright?" He asks quickly. What exactly happened to make her react like that?! He never saw her like that and…
"Asa, you don't have to be more like me, I…" She speaks, and it's clear that she's struggling with those words. "I…I'm kind of a mess actually, and… I mean… you really shouldn't try to be more like me. It's not… it's not a good thing."
"But you're confident, strong, brave and…" He tries to list all her good qualities, but she interrupts him.
"It's… it's not like that, I…" Rini showing him her… slightly vulnerable side was one thing, this was another. "... I just don't know how to act differently, alright?! My dumb parents just…" She gags for a second, too overtaken by emotions (mostly anger, probably), but manages to continue. "They just kept fighting and screaming at each other, and it was their definition of a good relationship and I just… I just don't know how to act differently, damnit!"
She throws her hands around, clearly exasperated, a bit confused and… maybe a tiny bit afraid. Seeing her like that… Rabbit is actually shocked speechless. It's not the Rini that he knew.
"I just keep shouting at people and… I just don't know how to act differently." She deflates, clearly running out of words. "You want to be more like me, but… you shouldn't. If anything, I always wanted to be more like you, but…"
Oh. That's… that's not what he expected that talk to escalate into.
"Is that… Is that why you are acting that way with me around?" He decides to ask. The drilling into the floor resumes with twice the intensity. "Why you are… uhm… softer?"
She doesn't erupt at the term. Small part of Rabbit is actually surprised at that.
"Less softer and more…" She looks away from him, her eyes jumping from place to place. "... I mean…. I only know how to be angry and shout and push people around but.. .I don't want to do that to you. You are…" She actually blushes slightly. Rabbit has never been so confused in his life. It's… she's… just so different from the Rini he was used to. It was… "... youaresomeonespecialtomeandIdon'twantyoutoohatemeorpushmeawayand…"
Rabbit might typically be the one to mumble. But his hearing is good enough to understand what she just said. Well enough to feel his heart flutter when the word 'special' was thrown around.
What he took as being softer was Rini not knowing what to do, as everything in her repertoire was out of the question. Unless someone was bad to Rabbit, because then she knew exactly what to do.
"Y…you are someone special to me too." Rabbit says faintly, wondering at his sudden suicidal courage. Rini clearly realized what he meant, at least judging from how she suddenly looked like she wasn't sure what to do with her hands. Hide her face in? Grab her ears? Grab her ears and hide her face behind them? "I.. I'm sorry for not realizing how you felt earlier and…"
"It's alright!" She barks out, probably only semi-consciously. Saying those words was almost automatic to her when he was apologizing. "You don't have to worry about me! I'm…"
"But I want to worry about you!" Rabbit finds himself speaking his mind and… what is with him today?! "No one else ever does! When you are bruised after training, everyone just assumes that it's alright because you are a tough girl but it's not alright! When you are tired and exhausted you keep hiding it from everyone but I know when it's happening and I hate it!"
"R…Rabbit, I…" Rini stutters something, clearly unsure how to deal with what he just said. Rabbit himself somewhat hits the breaks because wow he has no idea what just happened to him.
Judging from her suddenly exploding blush on her face and how she was clearly trying to hide it behind her hands, he used the right words. On an accident, but… does it matter if he spoke from his heart?
"I… I mean…" He stutters back to her. "If you want to be more like me, it's alright. I want to be more like you so it's only fair to let you do the same, just…" He takes a deep breath while trying to look at her. It's not exactly working, but he is doing his best. "... let's meet halfway, okay? And mmmmmaybe try to… uhm…" C'MON RABBIT, YOU'RE ALMOST THERE, YOU CAN SAY IT! IT'S THE PERFECT TIME FOR IT! "... try to uhm… be special to each other together?"
It's not exactly how he expected to word his pretty much a love confession. Then again, he didn't exactly expect to confess either. It just kind of happened. And considering the look on her face he will - once she manages to say it - receive an answer that he'll like. Very much so.
(***)
"... she said yes." Jirou announces. The tense silence in the room is finally broken when Mina and Mieko yell YES in unison.
Momo is much more subdued, but the smile on her face is rather unmistakable. Todoroki finds himself enjoying its existence a bit more than he expected. She really has a pretty smile, doesn't she?
"Damn." Immortal says, looking rather confused. "I mean, I'm happy for them, it took them long enough, but… damn."
"... wish that was me." Deadshot says quietly. Her face is perfectly stale, not betraying her emotions in the slightest.
"Yes, precisely, I mean… wait, you too?" Immortal actually blinks at her companion a few times. Deadshot stares back. "Oh. Well, that's a new one." She wasn't the most observant person. Her companion knew about her crush since looong time ago.
"I mean, are you sure that it's too late for you?" Mina gives them a wry grin. "I mean, it didn't stop Midoriya, and Rabbit looks rather similar to him." Especially the messy yet fluffy hair bit. It was a bit of a trademark element of those two.
"... I'm quite certain that if Midoriya was here…" Momo decides to be the sane one in the room. "... he would argue against that route the strongest." He loved Tsuyu and Hatsume to the point where it was absolutely heartwarming to watch (especially when he was with Tsuyu), but… he really wasn't a big fan of the poly element of their relationship.
He was, actually, the first one to point out how this sort of thing was often a bad idea. Very time-consuming, very resource-consuming, and the risk of collapsing over envy (it's one thing to say that you aren't envious, it was another thing entirely to truly be without envy).
What's worse, they all shared a stressful and occasionally life-threatening job. It only made things more emotionally complicated. Just as the fact that most of the potentially participating parties had to deal with serious emotional trauma.
Also how the whole thing was so very Izuku-centric that it sometimes felt like the girls were orbiting around him instead of being completely independent (it was hard to keep things balanced with more than two elements).
Not to mention (although it's something that he didn't mention with Momo around) how hard it could be for him to satisfy them in, let's say, twenty years. Momo had enough theoretical knowledge to know that when male interest in those activities starts dropping, female tend to start growing.
In Momo Yaoyorozu's opinion, Midoriya was way more mature and thoughtful than people gave him credit for after seeing his very youthful face. And the whole thing only worked so well because of that. And because Midoriya was clearly the person to go plus ultra on the relationship.
She still wasn't sure if he wasn't… worryingly burned out recently because of that. People have limits, and he felt like he was approaching his.
"Oh, he is a bit of a killjoy." Mieko chuckled. "C'mon, Rabbit needs all the love and support he can get!" She is clearly omitting some important stuff such as a risk of getting murdered by Edge. Then again, Immortal was kind of immune to this problem. "So go for it, I'd say!"
Mieko, as Momo realized once again, certainly wasn't mature and thoughtful. Then again, doing dumb things was part of being young. So perhaps it wasn't going to end up badly. In fact, considering the fact that Asa (if he even agreed to that, in a way that wouldn't be caused by him being too awkward and nice to harm a girl with rejection) felt oddly alike to Midoriya, it might have actually be…
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Speak of the devil.
(***)
After spending TTB and CTE without a single ship, Rabbit finally gets himself a... rabbit. Oh, the irony. Also I really think that unlike Midoriya he has an actual tendencies towards the concept of uhm... 'bigger' relationships (for Midoriya it just 'kind of happened'.).