Jack Redhawke - Not quite a rallying speech, then again... I don't think they'll need it right now.
Jpx0999 - It's just the truth :V
Shahryar - Yay ;)
raw666 - big sigh about the subject in general
Miqila - True. Also add the fact, that canon Bakugou at least had the division between heroes and villains somehow ingrained. His understanding of both was warped, but at least in rough terms anchored him. He would go murder someone because it wasn't what heroes (in his opinion) did. This one... didn't have even that.
I know that it could have been more, but, to be honest I wasn't sure how to write it otherwise. And, in my opinion, for all the build-up, Bakugou simply wasn't even nearly as important as he thought to himself, and Izuku managed to overcome his properly. Let him fade into nothingness where he belongs.
It's good for her and them all, yeah. Sasaki probably treated her as Dabi's equal because all he had were documents and couldn't be sure that it was an escape attempt and an accident rather than bloody (if tbh justified) revenge.
(***)
There were more things happening that particular night. In Metahuman Network headquarters… and beyond it. The meeting between Commissioner Aizawa and Governor Yagi was scheduled for tomorrow morning, once the clean-up is dealt with, and some groups were a tiny bit faster than that.
And then, there were other developments.
Rini was almost at the door to her room (while trying to think of a way to persuade Rabbit to maybe snuggle some before going to sleep, but she just really wasn't good with words like that) when Asa suddenly stopped walking before hugging her from the side.
She promptly freaked out.
"R-Rabbit, I…"
"I-I'm not p-putting you u-under a w-weak status." Rabbit announces, surprisingly steadfastly for himself. "Y-you won't h-hurt me by h-hugging too s-strongly."
She's really, really, REALLY unsure of that, but…
Edge glances at Immortal and Deadshot that just happened to have their rooms on the same floor and were heading there alongside their two teammates. Deadshot is rather scarce, but Immortal nods furiously.
With great hesitation, Rini hugs Rabbit back.
"W-we did it." Rabbit then says. "Not a-all of them, but…"
What is he… oh.
Overhaul's praetorians that they arrested. They were all in Shizuoka. It was their suppressive fire that prevented Edge from killing Carnage. The man that then killed Kendou and Tetsutetsu.
And maybe, just maybe they got Kurogiri too. The man without whom the Shizuoka Massacre wouldn't have happened.
"Yeah, we did it, Rabbit." Edge replies as softly as it's possible for her. She would have hugged him closer, but… yeah, despite him training hard recently, a part of her is still afraid that she would injure him somehow.
It's… stupid, and the shrink that Sasaki is having her visit is saying the same thing just in a more roundabout way, but…
Then, after a few more seconds of hugging Rabbit, she notices the looks on the faces of the others. She sighs painfully (Rabbit looks up at her, as if worried about that and this is honestly cute and heartwarming), before motioning at them to come.
"Wha…" Rabbit lets out when he is suddenly hugged from behind by two more of his teammates.
"They were our friends too!" Immortal says loudly. "We're happy and want to celebrate as well!"
"Yes." Deadshot nods scarcely.
"And you both have a crush on Rabbit that seems to go both ways." Edge announces dryly.
It's not exactly the best time to address that issue, but… they could as well do it right now, once everyone is in their post-battle high, and be finally done with it. Because… yeah, it's slowly getting ridiculous.
"Yeah, that too…" Immortal replies automatically before realizing what she just said. "Wait, what?!"
Rabbit goes slackjawed between them.
"Look, I'm rash, angry and badmouthed, but I'm not fucking stupid." Edge replies. "I can see the way you're looking at him. It's really not that hard of a math." Actually, Mina Ashido did that for her, but… yeah, not important right now. "And before you say something, Rabbit, I have good eyesight too. I saw you googling 'is being attracted to a few girls weird' on your phone a few days ago."
"Oh, well, I, it was about Midoriya, and…" Rabbit freaks out. Then again, he tends to do that.
"I think I told you already that you can't lie to me." Rini replies. Rabbit shrinks slightly. "Look, I really would have preferred to keep you all to myself…" She certainly didn't blush at saying that, she's way too tough to be ashamed of saying words like those. "...but we've all been through hell together multiple times, and it's fucking clear to me that you're all into each other. I'm tired of seeing those two be slowly dying of fucking thirst, and I'm tired of you clearly freaking out internally about being the weird one. So you can as well fucking stop."
Immortal looks absolutely horrified and shocked. Deadshot is as emotionless as ever. Rabbit, in the meantime, is himself.
He bends his neck enough to look at Immortal - and reads the answer from her face. Then he does the same thing to Deadshot - and reads the answer from her face (or, to be exact, from the fact that she avoided his gaze).
Then he goes even redder than before.
Wow, who would have known that Rabbit could become so much of a tomato?
Edge pulls back from the hug (damn, she didn't want to, but…). Immortal and Deadshot do so as well. Yeah, it's time for a serious talk, even if it's still in the corridor.
"Y-you r-really like me?" Rabbit asks the other two. Deadshot nods scarcely, Immortal with a look of slight guilt (is it over the 'pretty much trying to steal Rini's boyfriend' thing?) on her face. "But, like, l-likelike me?"
They nod again.
Rabbit has no idea how to emotionally process that.
"But w-why?!" He asks.
"You're cute." Deadshot states shortly.
"W-well, I…" Immortal looks to the side, her normal bubbliness temporarily forgotten. "... I d-didn't have a lot of luck in my life, with that whole 'trapped in an organ farm' thing, and… then you came to save me, and I might have got an itsy bitsy crush on you from this alone, but… then you just stayed helpful, and kind, and nice, and even despite my quirk being what it is you were still worried with me when Rini caught a flu since we've spent time together earlier and… it's just super touching, and warm and I kind of want more of it in my life, uhm." She scratches the side of her head. "I know it's probably weird, but…"
"It's not!" Rabbit, naturally, reacts to self-defamation with immediate reassurance. Way to remind them why they fell for him so much. "It's n-normal! It's just… I mean, with the way I'm looking, that's what would make things weird, I'm looking like fourteen years old at best, it's…"
"We'll wait then." Rini announces. She already had something in mind for this. When Rabbit and the others look at her questioningly, she sighs. "Look, you're supposed to be rewinded for a few years to fix the mess that your bitch of a mother done to you, right? After Overhaul is done, and the prefecture won't be at risk of imminent collapse. We'll just get rewinded with you. It'll be like being childhood friends for a few years before starting a relationship properly again."
"Like being childhood friends…" Deadshot says before nodding. "... but with more cuddles."
Okay, someone's really thirsty for physical affection. Not like Rini (okay, Mina Ashido again) wasn't suspecting it already, but it's nice to have a confirmation.
"Err, what about me?" Immortal asks. "My quirk will probably repel the effect, and…"
Yeah. They tested that already, as a part of Midoriya's quirk experiments after Split's injury. Even if Asa renders them powerless, Immortal's regeneration quirk would just kick in after it returned and 'fix' all changes.
"Yes, but you heard the Grandma Doctor." Edge has no idea why the hell she is supposed to be the reasonable and intelligent one on this, but Rabbit is clearly out of it for now, soo… "Your quirk will most likely delay your aging. So we'll catch up to you eventually. And, besides, I know that certain someone have been glancing at certain female bodyparts you have in abundance right now quite regularly, so I think that said someone wouldn't like them gone even temporarily."
Somehow Rabbit goes even redder. And Immortal almost matches his face color at that very moment.
"B-but what if I'll g-grow up again and I w-won't be 'c-cute' anymore, I mean I'm n-not supposed to l-look that way and…" Rabbit decides to find his way out of the predicament. Unfortunately, it's pointless.
"You'll still be cute." Deadshot announces as expressionlessly as ever. "But on the inside."
Awww, even Rini finds it cute and wholesome. And it DOESN'T make her angry. Damn, is it the whole therapy thing actually working?
"Oh, I…" Rabbit looks down, while fidgeting slightly. ."... I g-guess I'm in your care, t-then."
"Care goes both ways, duh." Immortal announces, with an expression of total relief and happiness on her face. "And… y'all know what that means, right?" The eyes all converge on her. "Cuddle pile on Rabbit's bed in twenty minutes!"
The corridor empties itself almost immediately as everyone runs to prepare themselves for it. Comfy clothes are a must. Except for Rabbit, who is still standing there, very confused but also happy.
(***)
Shoto Todoroki was showering his hero uniform in his quarters' bathroom when he heard knocking on his door.
All that soot.
Thankfully Dabi wasn't even nearly as good in close quarters as Amplitude was, probably thanks to overreliance on his Prominence Burn. Being maniacal and enjoying mass destruction was sometimes a weakness for a villain.
Shoto has a faint feeling that it won't last.
He ignores the knocking, wanting to focus on what he was doing right now. But then the knocking happens again, but sounding slightly more urgent.
Shoto turns off the faucet and heads towards the door. He realizes midway that he is pretty much in his boxers only (he doesn't wear an awful lot of clothes under the armor and then he took off most of it because after all those heat the air just felt nice).
Wow. he is really out of it.
He grabs some clothes (knocking comes again in the meantime), before opening the door.
It's Momo. In some rather conservative set of pajamas.
Honestly speaking, he feels like he should feel something about this sight, but… he isn't super interested in sex in general, and is especially not interested in it right now. Just… not in the right mind for this.
"Did something happen?" Shoto asks.
"I just think that I don't want to be alone right now." Momo replies. "Can I…"
Pajamas. Does she want to sleep in his room for the night? Shoto Todoroki is vaguely aware that it feels like a go-to way of dealing with trauma within the Network, at least before you get proper therapy, but…
"I…" What does he even feel about this right now? His thoughts and emotions are a mess, but… holding her hand earlier felt nice, so maybe… "... alright. Come in."
A few minutes later they are sitting next to each other on the couch, holding their hands. Yaoyorozu's head rests on his shoulder, his head resting on hers.
It's… nice.
"Sorry for intruding, I just…" Momo eventually says. It's the first words that leave her mouth since their brief exchange in the entrance.
Amplitude's equipment lies temporarily forgotten in the shower.
"It's alright." Shoto replies. "It was… not a nice day." To say the least. She almost died! It was no wonder that she was shaken so much.
"Yeah, I kind of… didn't imagine that it would go that way." Momo admits. "We just… I think we all focused a bit too much on saving people. Not the risks involved. I… I actually considered walking out after it, but then Kirishima spoke and… now I want to leave but I'm almost ashamed of wanting to leave. It's…"
"You know that…" Shoto decides to be honest. "... I'm not the right person to ask for emotional advice, yes?"
She sighs loudly.
"Yes, I know, I just…" She probably has no idea either. "... are you going to stay?"
"Yes." Shoto replies with a second of doubt.
"Why?" She wants to know.
Does she trust her enough to share a supposed confidential information? Yeah, of course he does. He isn't sure why he didn't tell her about it earlier.
"Because of my family." Shoto replies. "I love my siblings. I love my mother. My father is a dick, but he's still my father. And Dabi… stopping Dabi is a family matter so to speak." She pulls her head off his shoulder just to give him a questioning look up close. "It's Touya, Momo."
He honestly expected that she would berate him for not telling her before, but… instead, she simply hugged him. And he hugged her back.
It was… honestly, better than handholding, (although he still liked it, handholding was nice).
"I guess that 'for my family's future' is as good of a reason to stay around as any other, isn't it?" Yaoyorozu says quietly. "Sure, they are wealthy and influential, but in times like this it just makes you a target, and…"
"Did you… were you just looking for a reason, any reason whatsoever, to stay?" Todoroki asks, slightly surprised.
"I think so." Momo replies. "Kirishima… had a point, didn't he?"
That he did, yeah. And they did save a lot of people. It … felt good, honestly. Much more interesting than everything that Shoto Todoroki pictured himself doing in his life before his meta-ability manifested.
"Do you want to… spend a night here?" Shoto asks instead.
"Not in a romantic way, but…" She sighs. "I think that I want to see if it's true that not sleeping alone helps with nightmares. Because I'm fairly certain that I'll have some."
"I'll try to help you then." He smiles faintly while pulling back a little and looking into her eyes. "But if you want it to work, you're going to have to take a full 'sleep with someone to avoid nightmares' course."
"And that is?" She blinks at him with surprise.
Todoroki stares back at her and then, with a face of absolute seriousness, loudly says 'ribbit'.
Momo Yaoyorozu promptly loses it.
(***)
Mieko Eto made it rather clear rather quickly that she absolutely refused to let her girlfriend out of her sight for an extended period of time.
It was understandable. Then again, Jirou's injury wasn't THAT bad when compared to what Yaoyorozu went through, and…
"Michan, I'm begging you here." Jirou decides to stand ground less than thirty minutes after the meeting in the common room ended. "I can take a bath on my own. Unless you want to have sex with me in the bathtub, which I'm totally all for, except not today, please."
"Oh, errr." Mieko blinks at her a few times. "... I'm taking you up on that offer in a few days top, yeah, but…" She sighs. "Look, I just kind of…"
"... freaked out when you saw me injured and decapitated two villains with your quirk?" Jirou asks. Eclipse looks to the side. "Michan, come here."
Mieko does that. Jirou promptly kisses her. Mieko Eto didn't expect that, clearly enough.
"Ehhh?" Mieko lets out when Jirou pulls back a bit.
"That's for loving me so much that your reaction to seeing me injured was to annihilate my enemies." Jirou states dryly. "Just don't make it a normal thing from now on, alright? It was a fight, no one's blaming you, if you have problems with what happened, go to Ryo Inui. Alright?"
"Alright, I guess." Mieko decides. It's probably for the best that she didn't SEE their corpses, her own shield blocked her sight, she just heard it that she killed those two dead. "Are you… are we going to stay? I mean, I want to, I know that my quirk makes me a target and I think that working with the police is the best way for me to stay alive, but…"
"Yeah, I'm staying." Jirou replies. Her girlfriend looks reassured by that statement. "I'm… not as heroic as everyone else, I don't really have a grand goal of saving people to chase, but… it's a good job, at least when things don't go to hell. My quirk is super useful, I'm actually earning quite a decent amount of money and… I kind of… feel fulfilled?"
Which is at least partially because they are saving people and doing good things in general. Good feels good, clearly enough. Eclipse knows that it works that way for Jirou, Jirou's just being rather… herself with that subject and pretends to be materialistic motivated.
She totally is, but you can have more than one motivation.
"Ah yes, your big dream of having a big house, with a big dog and a big bedroom to play with your big girlfriend in." Michan instead decides to tease her a little. Jirou blushes maybe a tiny bit, in her own slightly angry way. "Or maybe not just in the bedroom?"
"Oh just shut up with your horniness, Michan." Jirou retorts. "I was trying to have a big moment here, something to match how goddamn badass Kirishima was earlier, and you just…"
"My horniness?!" Oh, Mieko will not let that slide. "Do you want me to remind you of how our relationship started? I finally decided to come forward that I have a quirk, expecting ridicule from my internet best friend that I totally wasn't crushing on…"
"Michan, don't…"
"Only for her to go 'holy shit, you too?!" Mieko is merciless. "Then I asked you for your street address and teleported into your bedroom. And the literal first thing that you looked at after my face when I arrived, were my, how did you call them, absolutely useless mounds of flesh?"
"Michan, I swear to…"
"I at least said that you look cute before we started making out." Mieko is really, really enjoying it. "And your hands immediately went for my breasts, because of course they…"
"I'M GOING TO TAKE A BATH RIGHT NOW!" Jirou interrupts her, suddenly very, very red. Then she runs into the bathroom and shuts the door after her.
Awww, so cute.
"Can I take a bath with you?" Mieko decides to ask, after all.
She had high hopes when the door opened, but Jirou did that just so she could flip her a bird. Then the door closed again.
Awww, damn.
Jokes aside, she's totally going to have to visit Counselor Inui after what happened today, wasn't she?
"Soooo…" Himiko asks once they are alone in their apartment. "... are we staying?"
"... is that really a choice for us?" Shinsou replies back. She gives it a thought before sighing loudly. Yeah, she realized.
"So it's totally not that you're clearly enjoying being a part of the Network with your friends, especially Midoriya and ESPECIALLY after Kirishima's speech?" Toga replies with a cheeky smile. Shinsou shivers visibly.
"He is not my fr… wait, did you do that because you hoped for me to mind-control you into not saying it again, due to you finding me mind-controlling you hot?" Shinsou realizes it.
"Yes." Toga replies, the smile still as cheeky as before.
"God save me from the horny subs, I can deal with villains myself." Shinsou says dryly. "Look, the whole thing has slightly lost its appeal for me temporarily over discovering what sort of fucked-up things my father was up to when I wasn't looking, alright?"
She karatechops him on the head. Lightly.
"Ouch." Shinsou announces expressionlessly AND dryly. "What was that for?"
"For being silly and not taking into account the fact that I'm absolutely, absolutely alright with everything you're doing and that due to me not being able to say no during the act we always have a talk on what's the plan for the day before we start doing it." Toga announces. "You're not your dad and aside from a few convenience store robberies that you're trying to earn a pardon for, you haven't done anything strictly illegal. Or, well, illegal but without the police knowing and giving you a thumbs-up for that."
She's probably right, isn't she? Shinsou sighs loudly.
"Give me a day or two to internalize your words of wisdom, then we'll talk." He says and she nods ferociously.
For now he really, really wants to sleep.
(***)
"Kiri." Mina says right after slipping under the quilt.
"Yes?" He wants to sleep, he stated it openly earlier, but he was yet to fall asleep. He might have spoken a lot of fancy words, but he's as shaken as everyone else, and…
"If you ever say some variant of 'I don't have a way with words like you do, Mina' or 'charisma is my dump stat' again..." She replies while snuggling closer to him. "... I'm going to use my acid to make you significantly less manly. Got it?"
"Ehh?!"
(***)
"Wolfram, could you please elaborate on why the fuck did you lose half of your fucking soldiers?" Hisashi Shigaraki, the head of the Council of Twelve (it's more of a Council of Four at this point, really) stares at him over his desk.
Because of course he is doing that over his desk. They couldn't be doing this in a proper briefing room.
Not even because of some questionable drama queen tendencies of anyone involved, but because admitting certain things in front of their underlings would be… unwise.
Aiko Shigaraki in her ridiculous magical girl outfit is staring at them both quietly, her back leaning on the wall.
"I…" Wolfram stares back at Shigaraki. "... would like to know the answer to this question myself."
"What?" Hisashi's eyes narrow.
"Shigaraki, let me put it this way." He leans forward. He is… not very replaceable right now. That makes him brave. "Ten, no, five years ago we ruled the fucking world. My soldiers could walk through every elite formation in the world, if only because they knew shit about powers. Today I lost half of my unit to a local fucking police department and a bunch of superpowered vigilantes. Where the fuck even is Musutafu? I can barely find it on a fucking map!"
"Your point being?" Shigaraki isn't influenced by the outburst in the slightest.
"How long…" Wolfram says, this time calmly and dryly. "...do you think we can expect the people that we recruited when we were the world's top dogs to stay loyal to us if fuck-ups like this one keep happening? Nedzu fucked us up, then the Musutafu Police Department and the Metahuman Network fucked us up, and…"
"... we underestimated the scale of the threat the Network posed." Shigaraki admits. "They must have obtained the support of local police departments instead of going up. Something caused no doubt by the orphans after my brother…" Wolfram can barely imagine someone putting more venom in their voice than Hisashi does whenever Yoichi is mentioned. "...killing the Commissioner General and the entire National Police Agency collapsing in the aftermath. It'll be dealt with, Wolfram."
"You're planning to control them?" Wolfram asks. Shigaraki nods. Ambitious. Then again, Hisashi Shigaraki could be a textbook definition of ambitious. "Right, after Garaki's death, we can't exactly delay it anymore. Just be aware…" His eyes narrowed down on Shigaraki again. "... that we can't survive for much longer if we keep failing. Sooner or later, someone's going to defect, and when the Network realizes that we exist, things might get bad. Especially as we can't be sure that the Moderates' leftovers aren't in cahoots with them."
"Only the Metahuman Network and the Meta-Liberation Army are even potentially threats to our organization in Japan, Wolfram." Hisashi Shigaraki replied calmly. "Especially as I suspect that MLA was backing Nedzu in this clusterfuck, since he clearly wasn't doing that at Defiant's orders and we lack big groups with knowledge on the existence of powers in this country other than those two. Once we manage to locate and mind-control both Destro and Defiant, we'll be able to play their organization against each other while maintaining our grip over the government. This disaster…" He adds, drawing his words. "... will not repeat itself."
"I sure fucking hope you're right." Wolfram replies. "I'll give you a detailed report on what happened in a few hours, in the meantime… I have soldiers to reorganize." He stands from his chair and leaves the room.
"And why didn't you manage to destroy the rest of the complex before the enemy forces retreated?" Hisashi turns his head towards his daughter. "With a quirk like yours, I can scarcely imagine someone delaying you for so long."
"My enemy had a weird quirk." She replies calmly. "I think it was sapient to a degree. I couldn't control it, and he was trained well enough with it to actually fight me in melee. I destroyed the complex when he retreated, but he only did it once his friends were out of the blast zone." Shigaraki taps his desk with his finger a few times. "I'm fine, by the way, thanks for asking."
"I…" Hisashi replies. "... don't think that it's the time to be passive aggressive."
Aiko shakes her head and leaves the office.
(***)
Kirishima is seriously underselling himself, ngl. In canon as well, with the whole 'my quirk isn't as flashy as x', dude, your quirk makes you basically impervious to physical attacks and clearly stronger than you should be, stop that, sheesh.