TW: Violence
Hi there, it's been a little while! Sorry about that, I've been busy! I actually start college this term and spent most of this time trying to catch up on classwork and making sure I stay ahead so that my dumb self doesn't procrastinate! I hope everyone has been well, and of course welcome to any newcomers who've decided my story is something they wanna read! Thank you for the follows, favorites, and reviews. It always warms my heart to read them! I hope your new years was amazing and had no holes! Enjoy this chapter today!
Leinei leans on the wall outside the meeting room, arms crossed over her chest and eyes closed. The heel of her boot taps the ground as she focuses on the running emotions inside the room. Her skin is tingling from it, several of them running too high and leaving her breathless as her own heart races.
Twice-he's excited to see Keigo. I can also sense he's a little nervous…Wonder why.
Toga is level headed, which is scary enough on its own. No wait, she just got excited over something.
Compress is guilty. I guess seeing Keigo just reminds him that he helped Dabi kill Reina.
Spinner is indifferent, no there's some worry in there too. He must be concerned about Shigaraki. Ujiko's been quiet, so I guess I would be too.
Skeptic, ReDestro, and Geten are all excited. I guess something happened they liked.
Then there's Dabi. That damn passivity that terrifies me. Why can't I fucking get in his head like everyone else?
I'll figure it out eventually.
The door opens and she stands up off the wall, dropping her arms to her sides as Keigo steps out first. The door closes behind him as he rubs the back of his head, eyes closed. As soon as the tell-tale click of the door slipping into place sounds, Leinei hugs him tightly, gripping the back of his jacket just beneath his wings as he wraps his arms around her in turn.
"Missed you too, Lei Bay," he tells her gently, resting his chin on the top of her head as he closes his eyes. He squeezes her twice before holding her away from him with his hands on her upper arms. He looks her up and down twice, tilting his head. "You've grown some more since the last time I saw you. You need to stop. You're making me feel old," he teases her, ruffling her hair. She laughs and swipes his hand away, shaking her head.
"It's only been like three months since I saw you last, come on," she retorts, rolling her eyes as she fixes her hair. They start walking together towards her room, making idle chit chat about the holidays.
"That's some new jewelry you're sporting," he remarks, referring to the yin-yang necklace and star bracelet. "Christmas gifts?"
"Um, yeah. The bracelet is from Compress as a tribute to Reina, and the necklace is from Zori."
"Who the hell is Zori?" he asks, his voice a cross between teasing and concerned. "Don't tell me you're going soft already, when you were doing so good living up to the whole Lavender Devil thing."
"He's one of the friends I made. Just friends," she retorts, making sure to clarify it at the end so he doesn't get any ideas. "And I'm still the Lavender Devil, thank you. I've only made those three friends since being here since they're not scared of me."
"Sure," he snorts, folding his arms behind his head as they get closer to her room. "Anyway, how've you been holding up? With this being your first Christmas and New Years on your own and all that."
"I was fine. Alisa forced me to go to their Christmas party and I watched the fireworks on New Years on the roof. Honestly, it was terrifying since Twice and Toga were the ones handling them."
"And the villa is still standing. Wow, that's a damn miracle," he laughs. She shrugs and opens the door to her room, standing to the side so he can step in first. Following him in, she closes the door and makes sure it's locked before walking over to the bed. "Reina's letters?" he asks as she bends over to fish out the Christmas note with the doctor's information on them from between the mattress and box spring.
"Yeah. I figured you'd want the Christmas one since it's addressed to you too," she replies, standing up once she has it. "I've already made a mental note of it all so you can take it with you if you need to," she adds as he nods, unfolding the letter to skim the coded message on the back.
"I won't need to," he replies, shaking his head as he rubs his fingers over the dots and dashes. "Short and sweet was her thing usually, so it's easy to memorize. Thanks Lei," he adds, stepping to her to hug her again. He leans his head down by her ear. "Make sure to erase the marks after I leave," he whispers just audibly enough for her to hear. She nods and steps away, taking the letter from him and putting it back in its spot.
"So how's work going?" she asks, plopping on her bed after. He walks over to the door and undoes the lock, just so it doesn't seem suspicious should someone attempt to enter. "Getting anyone else to our side?"
"Oh I've been passing that manifest around like crazy," he laughs, rubbing the back of his head. "Hell, I even slid some to Endeavor and his new mentees."
"Oh? New mentees," she repeats, an eyebrow raised. "Who the hell is going to want to train under that asshole?"
"His youngest, that green haired kid that's always breaking his bones, and your ex."
She stiffens at the mention of Katsuki. She bites the inside of her cheek, hanging her head as she grips the comforter on her bed. Keigo crosses his arms over his chest, leaning on the wall by the door.
"Good," she says, taking a breath. "Maybe they'll see reason. They'll understand what we're trying to do."
"They will in the long run," he assures her, leaning his head back. "This is for the betterment of our society after all."
A few days after that meeting, she gets her first solo field orders. Of course, Skeptic employs a tracking device attached to the inside of her mask. It's small and doesn't get in the way thankfully, but the lack of trust is very obvious to her. Dabi is hesitant to let her go out, but ReDestro just pats her shoulder with a smile and wishes her luck.
"I know you'll do amazing, Miss Leinei," he tells her gently, clasping his hands behind his back. "You will be a great source of pride for the Paranormal Liberation Front."
"If you say so," she says hesitantly, concerned by what he says, but heads out to the locale they specified in her mission dossier(Skeptic insisted on calling it this, saying it sounds more professional. It was a literal powerpoint presentation with confetti effects).
She recognizes the area, being just a few blocks away from Endeavor's agency building. She gets a little jittery, being too close to Katsuki for her liking, even if he may not be at the agency today, and looks over the side of the building she's perched on. She's waiting on some kind of signal, Skeptic wasn't too explicit on what she was looking for.
What the hell would they even do for a signal? No one else was listed in the powerpoint dossier thing. I never want to sit through one of those again.
She cringes at the memory of the previous meeting, making a mental note to herself to just ask someone to send her the cliffnotes of it after it was done rather than tell Skeptic she never wanted to see another one of his "fancy" powerpoints again. She shakes her head to push that thought to the side, instead trying to focus on the mission. Down the road to her left, there's a commotion, some people screaming as smoke rises up from the street.
"That would be your signal, Apathia," Skeptic's voice crackles through her mask. She flinches, not expecting it, but starts to run across the rooftops. "I didn't fully brief you on your mission today, figuring you'd say no if I did."
"Of course you didn't," she huffs, stopping on the edge of a roof overlooking the commotion. There's a rather buff villain at the center of it all, laughing and wreaking havoc on the roadway. He digs his massive fingers into the ground and pulls a boulder of asphalt, rebar, and part of the ground up with it, holding it above his head. He howls something about destroying society, which makes her stomach turn. "What am I doing, Skeptic?"
"What you're trained to do. Take down the villain. Preferably before Endeavor's lackeys show up."
"Need I remind you vigilantism is illegal?" she tells him, still jumping off the edge of the building and letting her body go limp for landing on the ground in a crouch before using the still moving momentum to launch herself into a roll as he throws the boulder at her. It slams into the building she was just standing on, sending rubble flying as more people scream.
"Just do your job, Apathia. You said it yourself that you wanted to see what we could do. We need your help to do so. Take down the villain."
"Whatever you say. Get out of my ear so I can focus then."
Skeptic doesn't respond, which gives her some relief. She grabs the ends of her capture scarf as he starts throwing smaller rocks at some of the retreating civilians, throwing them out to wrap them around the projectiles. Using their momentum again, she slings them backwards so that she's propelled forward, getting closer and closer to him. He howls again, incoherent gibberish this time as she dodges another mini boulder thrown at her.
"Look, this is a brand new scarf and boots," she yells at him. "My boss is gonna be pissed if you ruin them already!"
He responds by digging his hands into the ground again, pulling up another chunk of road before throwing it at her. She throws her scarf out again, catching the end of some rebar and jerking herself forward just as it crashes into where she was standing. In the not so far distance, she can hear the telltale voices of heroes, and grits her teeth, shaking her head.
If I get my scarf around his legs, I can use the neurotoxin in my scarf to knock him out. It'll take at least forty-five seconds for it to cycle through his body.
Quicker if I use my quirk.
He reaches for her, attempting to grab her by her arm. She retaliates by bringing out one of the knives Toga and Twice got her, stabbing it into his palm. He screeches in pain as he jerks his hand away, leaving the knife in hers as blood starts to gush out of the open wound that you could see clean through. As he staggers back, her scarf winds its way around and between his legs, cutting into the skin and muscle with the microneedles ReDestro had modified into the fabric.
A sharp tug sends him tumbling into the ground. He screams like a petulant child, attempting to grab the scarf with his bloodied hand and kicking his entangled legs as if that would do anything as she walks over to him. The sounds of explosions and crackling of ice let her know who was on their way.
"You killed too many people today, you bastard," she tells him, her voice chilling as he stops. "If I had more time, you'd be dead. But I'll settle for your suffering instead," she whispers, her eyes turning purple. His eyes roll into the back of his head, screaming coming from his mouth as drool dribbles down his chin. He starts seizing on the ground, wordless and soundless screams clawing their ways out of his throat.
Making sure her mask was still securely in place, she steps away from the behemoth that terrorized Endeavor's city streets just as the crackling of ice and explosions stop. She turns on her heel, seeing Shoto, Izuku, and Katsuki standing there. She adjusts her mask again, making sure to have her pinky brush the button to activate her voice modulator.
"I seem to have already done your job for you, heroes in training," she tells them, gesturing to the now unmoving man behind her. He's still breathing, very much alive minus the momentary reaction to her quirk. "He should be sedated enough for you to escort him to the hospital then Tartarus."
I can't take all three at once. I don't know what tricks they have in their arsenal now. I can't risk them finding out it's me.
"You should be able to extract yourself now, Apathia. You don't have to entertain Endeavor's trainees," Skeptic pipes up in her ear. She rolls her eyes behind her mask, making sure to put her bloodied knife back into its pouch with the others. Izuku's eyes follow the movement, before he lowers himself into a crouch. "Apathia. Need I remind you that you're following our orders. Extract yourself now."
"Fuck off," she hisses, shaking her head. "Look, hero wannabes, I don't want to fight you. I was trying to subdue the villain before it got any worse. You should be thanking me for getting here when I did. Be glad I did your jobs for you," she adds, getting more passionate than she expected to be. "We should be working together to make the world better, not dividing ourselves."
Shoto glances at Izuku, who hesitates, biting the inside of his cheek. Katsuki stares at her, his brow furrowed as if he recognized her. Panic sets in, and she sees someone to the side holding up a phone.
Fuck I'm being recorded.
"If you boys excuse me, I have to leave now. Make sure this dumbass gets some treatment and a cell."
She takes off down a barely intact alleyway, hearing Izuku delegate behind her. She ducks under some fallen rubble, barely coming out unscathed as there's explosions behind her. She curses under her breath, finding an unstable fire escape. Using her scarf, she rappels up and starts scaling to the roof. The explosions are getting closer and closer, meaning Katsuki is getting closer and closer.
Just as she gets onto the roof, she's shot forward by a blast from the back. She hits the ground hard, covering her head with her arms as she rolls away from where Katsuki is now standing. It takes her a moment to gain her bearings, making sure her mask was still secure before getting to her feet. He's standing where she was just coming up from, bracing his elbow with one hand while holding the other palm out towards her.
Relief floods her system, seeing he's okay. Following that is anger that he blasted her. She wants to yell at him that he broke their rules again, only to remember that at this moment they were enemies. Her a supposed vigilante who took justice into her hands, and him the licensed hero in training.
"Look I don't want to fight," she tells him, the modulator distorted. It was obviously busted when she hit the ground. Fuck. If this goes out, he'll know it's me. I need to get out of here. Please just let me leave, Katsu. Please. "You're outta my league."
"Damn right I am," he growls, his fingers twitching as she starts taking slow steps backwards. "Vigilantes are illegal, dumbass. You should've gotten a license like everyone else if you wanted to attempt playing hero."
Katsuki. I have one! I passed my test first try! Remember-?
"Sorry, I don't have the time for that. Not when our society is falling apart because everything is so fucking regulated it's ridiculous. We should be able to use our quirks freely and protect those who need it without a piece of laminated paper giving us permission to do so! Have you never read Destro's manifesto? It details everything, lays everything out that these regulations will be the end of our society as we know it! Heroes and those like you who enable this dying system are the reason people like Stain began their crusades."
I sound like a fucking fanatic. I want to throw up in my mouth.
"And people like you are what enables those psychopaths," he retorts. "Someone I love was almost killed by bastards like them, so maybe I do believe in this system because they saved her when I couldn't! I promised to become stronger so I would be able to save her next time, but I don't have that chance anymore, so I'm going to save everyone else!"
His voice breaks, and her heart follows. Tears build in her eyes seeing the pain in his eyes and it takes every ounce of willpower not to throw her mask off, to show him that she was okay. But that would jeopardize everything, and possibly get her and Keigo murdered.
Then he'd really be hurt.
"If you say so, Dynamight," she tells him, seeing the way he flinches with his eyes wide. "Maybe we'll meet again. Have fun."
With that, she steps on the ledge of the building and jumps backwards as he surges forward. He curses as he leans over, trying to find her and failing. He punches the ground and grumbles under his breath as he starts to head back to the others.
Only one person has ever called me that.
How the fuck would this new bitch know?
Leinei lets out a breath of relief as she hears his steps die away, hanging closely to a loose brick in the wall and pressing herself to the wall. She leans her head against it, closing her eyes.
I'm exhausted.